Monday, September 29, 2008

Getting rid of marks before the expansion

I went and bought Alterac Rams on all of my level 70s. Nice quick way to get rid of 50 marks, and a Draenei on a ram looks hilarious.

Weekend Stuff

I had a pretty goos weekend as far as WoW goes. I did not run Kara this week as I think it is pretty much a huge waste of time. I leveled my Druid/Rogue combo from 18-28, and could have gotten more, but I felt like doing other things in game.

As I posted earlier, we went and killed two world leaders. It is actually alot of fun running thru Horde Capital cities then wiping out their leaders.

I finally got my fishing to 375 on Darraxus. It was about time. It wasnt really all that bad of a grind for the last 5 or so points. I did my fishing in Nagrand and should make a decent bit of money off of the fish that I caught.

I also finally got into the arena grove again. Me and Mura started the evening 15-4 before dropping the last 3 and finishing at 1648. We were all the way up to 1690, but the three losses dropped us back down. I anticipate climbing higher in the rankings once the new patch hits. I will be picking up my season 4 chest as soon as the points roll over.

I also got my GF to play a little bit of WoW. Not very much, and I am not very patient when she is playing. Every single time I say "left" she goes right and vice versa. We went and got her a Wolpertinger and picked some flowers for a bit. I told her that when she claps and cheers for her pet it makes him happy. So she did it a lot and it was very cute. I will have to post the screenshot that I took. She has one of the most worthless pets in the game (a crab), but she really does love OhnoUdidnt (thats what she named it lol).

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Killing World Leaders



Well, my guild has officially stopped raiding until the expansion. Alot of whinging and whining about how loot rules shouldnt be changed if we have to bring in pugs (which basically means pugs wont want to come). So last night we went and killed Cairne Bloodhoof and the two leaders of Silvermoon. Unfortunately I didnt get a screen shot of Cairne this time but still have a screenshot for the last time.

Caire is very easy. We 8 manned him the first time, and easily 15 manned him this time. He hits like a little girl, and summons some adds from time to time. The adds can be very easily AOED down.

The guys in Silvermoon are another story. We werent fully prepared the first time and wiped as one of them hit HARD. Like 3.5k a hit, and he hits fairly fast. The other guy mana burns. We went in the second time and wiped the floor with them and about 4-5 Horde who tried to stick their nose in there.

It was alot of fun, and there is supposed to be an achievement where you get a bear mount if you kill all of the world bosses.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Decisions, Decisions.

I think I many have chosen WoW over Warhammer. At least for now. I can run two copies of WoW at the same time and can use my refer a friend to get some quick 60s before the expanison. On the other hand, I have Warhammer. It is great fun, but I cant really handle the immense lag and graphical slowdowns I have experienced on my older rig. Hopefully I will be getting a new one before soon which will give me a choice. For now I think its WoW.

I have been preparing for WoW as best I can. I have about 7k gold saved up on my toons and they are all geared and ready to go. I am also going to try to level the above mentioned toons before Wrath hits. I still need to get my Warrior's fishing to 375 as well. May go do it in Nagrand as the Spell Damage food sells very well and the Agility food is a bonus.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Not enought time for everything.

I dont have enought time to do everything I want to do as far as games go. I want to play Warhammer, but I also kinda want to level my Druid/Rogue combo up to 70 (they are at 15 currently). I guess I could split what time I have between them, but I dont know if that is optimal. I think what I will probably do is just stop running karazhan altogether. I dont really need anything out of there, and it seems like a gigantic waste of 3-4 hours of gaming time at this point. I could be gaining 10 level in recruit a friend or PvPing my ass off in Warhammer.

The good thing about my Druid Rogue combo is that it is on my main server. Which means I have access to cash flow and friends who will run me thru instances (it seems a bit hokie to be running two toons thru a pug at the same time).

I have plenty of cash for the expansion, but I am just torn on what to do. If I level my Rogue and Druid to 60, I can use all the level grants on my Dwarf Hunter and then transfer the Rogue to my main account I suppose.

Is anyone else having these same issues?

Monday, September 22, 2008

Warhammer Online and other goings on.

I havent posted in a week due to the fact that I took a 5 day weekend (and I usually post from work). During that time I did quite a few things. I got my Horde toons to 43, but I am not sure that I want to continue leveling them. I did my minimum amount of arena games for the week and saw more Warrior/Druid combos in full season 3 shoulders/weapons with season 4 helmets.....in the 1500 bracket. I also healed Kara again and got some more badges.

The main thing I did this weekend was give Warhammer a try. Unfortunately, my computer is about 5 years old with a Geforce 5500 in it. Needless to say, the game was almost unplayable. So I went and got a new graphics card and came home. Open my computer.....no PCI slot...WTF? My computer only had an AGP slot. So I take it back, and downgrade to one that costed more (lol wut?). Bottom line is that I need to get a new computer. I has gotten to the point where I cant really buy and play the new games because my computer just cant support the load.

Anyways, back to Warhammer. I rolled a Chosen and played quite a bit. I did some quests, which were alright, then decided I would rather PVP. Unfortunately, it still runs somewhat slow on my computer and I get alot of lag when too much is happening at once. The Chosen I kinda like a tank. Except they can do alot of damage without having to respec. Just switch out the sword and board for a two hander and you are good to go.

I usually did finish that high in damage etc. due to the fact that I was lagging so bad that I couldnt really chase people around. The two times that I didnt lag terribly, I finished top 4 in damage and top in killing blows. The PVP is actually a lot of fun. You can do the open world R v R areas, or you can join what is basically a battleground (called a scenario). To join a scenario you just click on the icon next to you mini map and join. Pretty easy. When you are done, it plops you right back down where you were. The best part is that you get XP for doing PVP as well. I am rank 9 (basically level 9), and PVP Renown 8 (which is basically another set of levels that can get you new skills and the ability to purchase better items with each level of renown).

So far, there are two repeatable Scenario quests that I can do over and over again. One is to kill 10 enemy players, and the other one is the complete the scenario. Thats right. You dont have to win to complete the quest. The character models are amazing, and the armor is cool looking. My chosen has a big scar over one eye and a Mohawk. Perhaps Ill post a screen shot.

Another very fun part of the game are the public quests. You can join a group (or try it solo), to do repeatable objectives and possibly earn some cool new gear. It is a random roll for who gets gear, but you get a postitive modifer to your roll based on how much you contributed to the quest. You can do they quests over and over again. I mainly did them on the Dwarf toon that I rolled on another server when my main server was overpopulated.

The Tome of Knowledge is Awesome. I keeps track of pretty much everything you have done. Exploration, killing, quests, you name it. You also unlock a ton of titles. I am currently using the title "the Fearless", but you can also choose from more silly ones like "Ow my Eye", which is a title that you obtain by clicking on yourself 100 times.

Now for the negatives. You have to have a very good system to get the best of Warhammer Online. My buddy who has a fairly new rig with two video cards in it still experiences alot of choppy and laggy moments in the game. Then there are some weird bugs. I havent noticed any combat bugs, but I have noticed some terrain bugs. One of them is that it seems like at random points, you will end up in a high place you didnt mean to get to and the fall. I also fell throught the world and died on my first trip to the Capital Chaos City.

Another complaint I have are the servers. I rolled on an Oceanic server and for the first few days, there were times when you had to wait in an hour queue to get on. That is why I rolled my Dwarf Ironbreaker on another server.

Overall, I would highly recommend the game. It is not as polished as Warcraft, but it has the potential to be as good. It is at the very least a very good alternative until Wrath comes out.

Monday, September 15, 2008

Weekend Pew Pew

Did a few things over the weekend.

Went into Sunday at 1643, got up to 1680something and ended the day at 1585. Faced a Rogue with brutal shoulders and weapons in that bracket and barely lost. Also faced some Gladiators. GG blizzard.

On Saturday night I actually did a Kara run as there were several people who wanted to go. I brought along the pally for heals, and despite it taking about 4 hours we cleared the whole thing. We had no Pally tank and our druid offtank only had like 14K HP buffed. I am just trying to build up money before the expansion, so I used my badges on gems and put them on the AH.

The leveling of my Horde toons is going great. I downloaded Quest Helper which is a very big help. I now have my Warrior and Druid both up to 36. The biggest problem for me is I dont have hardy any damn money. I have about 15 gold between both toons and I can barely afford the training every other level let alone a mount. I have been ganked a few times, but the last one who did I got down to 50 percent before he killed me. He was ?? level to me. I think when Warhammer comes out, I may give it a try as it looks like alot of fun.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Never forget.......

Today is 9/11. Never forget the lives that were lost. Never forget. Never forgive.

On a less serious note, I did some arena yesterday with Ben and we actually won a few games on his horribly geared rogue. All blues+one green+no pvp trinket=fail?

I also gained another two levels on my Horde toons and they are now up to 29. I dont have near enough money to get their mounts. I finished up a few quests in the charred vale in Stonetalon (that place sucks), then I headed to Ashenvale where I completed a few other quests. I should hit 30 and beyond the next time I play. I am actually hoping that I will be able to hit 40 this weekend. I took me 1 day /played to get my toons to 29. Not a bad start I think. I started these toons a week ago.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

What makes a good.....(Part 1)

I mostly just rant about my days spent on the game, but I also want to provide a bit of information that may help people out as well. So, as for the dots, it can be anything you want. Make a suggestion in a comment or via email and I will see what I can do. The first one I am going to talk about is "What makes a good tank".

Tanking can be a thankless job, but it is also one of the most difficult, scrutinized, and important. You have to be REALLY bad to be bad at DPS, but it really doesn't take alot to be a bad tank. There are several things that you can do to make yourseld a better tank.

Knowledge is King: Knowing you class and its abilities inside and out are a great start. When I first started tanking I was a terribad tank. I didnt know what a sunder was. I learned how to tank on the job, and thanks to alot of encouraging support from friends I became a good tank. I even had an in-game friend tell me that I was probably the best tank on the server with all gear being equal. There are so many tanking tools on the interwebs that it is ridiculous. Being a warrior tank, there is http://www.tankingtips.com. For Paladins there is http://www.maintankadin.com (sorry if that is wrong, I am going from memory). For any kind of tank class, my favorite resource is http://www.tankspot.com. If you arent looking at outside sources, you really arent using your homework.

Confidence: Being a tank is alot about confidence. You have to know that you can grab those 4 mobs and tank them effectively so that they dont go and 1-shot your priest. You have to know that you can get that critical shield block up at just the right time to not get gibbed by that hard hitting boss. If you are confident in yourself, it will show in your playing ability as well as the way you are percieved. People will want to run with you, which builds confidence and makes you a better tank. Confidence often leads to.......

Leadership: If you have been tanking for any amount of time you have either embraced the leadership role or been thrust into it by force. Everyone has joined that pug where the first thing they do is pass you leader. Dont pass it back, embrace it. Being a tank, it is just as important to know the fights as it is to have the gear for the fights. When you lead, you learn. When you learn, leading becomes easier. Mark the mobs with the symbols and explain to them what each one means. For example: "Ok, Im going to tank the skull and X. The skull is the first dps target followed by the X. I am going to need (mage) to sheep the moon. Rogue, stealth in and sap the star and then I will pull. Hunter, bull the square back to you and trap it. We will be running arounf this corner so that the casters have to follow." Be a leader at all times.

Rotations: Every class has it's threat rotations. Learn them, use them. For example, a warrior usually likes to shield slam, then devastate until 5 sunders are up. Once the sunders are up, you will want to shield slam and revenge every chance you get. Dont forget to throw out devastates to refresh the sunders from time to time. When you are getting high on rage and the next hit will cause rage waste, use a heroic strike (or possibly a cleave if you are tanking multiple mobs). Thunderclap and any shouts should be renewed when shield slam is on cooldown. A good rotation is important to maximize threat. Using heroic strike all the time in a limited rage situation is bad. It is a good threat booster in high rage fights, but it eats thru rage at an alarming pace, and isnt as much bang for the buck as other abilities.

Dress to impress: This doesnt mean to have the best item possible in each slot. The random loot gods can be very unkind and we should never rely on them (thank god for badge gear). Because you may not have the optimal piece of gear doesnt mean that you dont have to enchant it and gem it. Use blue or epic quality gems in your gear. Period. When people inspect you and your gear is unenchanted and ungemmed, it makes them think that you are not serious about what you are doing. Do your research and gem accordingly. Once you are defense capped, you should generally gem for stamina. Use the best enchants for each piece. 2 percent threat on gloves is better than strength. Mongoose is the top enchantment if you want a nice combo of threat boost and avoidance (as agility raises your crit/attack power as well as your dodge).

For the most part, tanking is a little bit of preparation combined with a heaping does of common sense. You either have it or dont. If you can do all of these things, you will become a great and respected tank. If you cant, well there is always PVP and Fury.

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

The Joys of a PVP server

Yesterday I got a little bit of time and gained another level on my little hordies. And I got ganked twice by a Paladin that was prolly in his late 30s or early 40s.

The first time, I had just come into ashenvale and got an escort quest. I make my way to the Silversong area, and here comes this level ?? paladin and roflpwns both of my toons. A bit later, Im killing Silversong Outrunners when I get attacked by Sharpbeak, who is a Gryphon 5 levels higher that me. Im fighting an outrunner and the Gryphon when all of a sudden here comes Mr. Paladin again an smashes me.

So, I finally get my quests done and got back to the horde city, and who do I see? Mr. Paladin killing quest givers and such. He tries to run away with a pack of guards on him and about 35 percent health. So I charge him and hamstring him. Take that you SOB. Now dont go arounf ganking toons that are 10 levels plus lower than you. Douche.

That was the last I saw of him for the evening. PVP servers can be fun at times but sometimes you just want to finish your damn quests.

Monday, September 8, 2008

Weekend Progress

So, I did a number of things this weekend. Ill just break it down in categories I guess.

Arena:

I actually did arena on 3 of my 70s. I broke even on my Warlock with Mura, and then helped out one of my buddies get his 3 70s some points. The thing is that his characters are not nearly as geared. I ran my warrior with his holy paladin....who was wearing a cloth dress (the one from Zulaman) and like 1 piece of PVP gear. We actually one a few, but I kept commenting on how he should be using his star shards (since he looked like a priest lol).

Then I got on my Holy paladin and got his Rogue and Mage some games. His rogue is in all blues. Not a single epic. With two Ced's carvers. We did 3 games and went 1-2. Then he hopped onto his mage who actually had 3 or 4 pieces of pvp gear. We went 4-3 with that combo.

Karazhan:
I didnt run Kara for the 2nd or 3rd week in a row, but some friends needed a healer for the second half so I brought in my pally. There was only one other healer, who was also a paladin. We 1 shotted Aran, Illhoof, and Chess. Then we went to Prince and wiped twice on stupid stuff before taking him down. We then went and did one attempt on Spite, but retards wouldnt get in the green beam and let him get healed. At this point I told them I had to get some sleep (it was already 3 am lol). I got Gorehowl for my Ret set for when I start leveling again (if I level my Alliance toons) in Wrath.

Rollin with the Hordies:
So, recruit a friend is going very good. I got my Warrior/Druid combo to level 26 and Im still in Stonetalon. I liked much of the zone until I got to the charred vale. Why must the harpies travel in packs of 5. That area has way too many mobs. I am thinking of heading into Ashenvale to perhaps do some quests there. It is very nice to turn in a level 25 quest and get 6k XP for it. The only problem I am having is that my second toon lags and has a hard time following my warrior, so I annoyingly have to stop quite often and wait for him to catch up. I may try a mod to help with this. I even healed/tanked WFC at the same time. That run started interestingly. The original pally tank ninjaed a green cloth item then left the group. People are so weird. The guild name was Dirty Deeds, and I wonder if that is a rite of initiation for them.

Friday, September 5, 2008

WoW domestic disputes

These are the things you will hear as an avid WoW player with a significant other. I know alot of you out there have a wife, husband, boyfriend, or girlfriend who just does not get it.

"I wish you spent less time on that game and more time with me"

Translation: "I want you to do the shitty things I want to do all the time with me rather that you doing something you enjoy".

I find this one very laughable due to the fact that I usually only really play on Weds, Saturday, and Sunday.

"Why cant you snuggle me tonight instead of playing that stupid game"

Translation: "Why dont you come over here and be bored out of your mind for 4-5 hours while I sleep?"

Perhaps me being a man is what makes it so hard for me to understand this. I dont require someone to be all up on me while im sleeping......because IM SLEEPING!!!! Also, I snuggle with you every other day of the week....and you never once say "Why dont you go play WoW tonight". This is not a two way street.

"Just go and play your game"

Translation: "Im mad at you now, and I can use this as an excuse to be more mad at you later because you played your game instead of hnaging out with me. The fact that I told you to do it is irrelevant."

This is a lose-lose situation, so if you have to lose you might as well play WoW while you are at it.

"I dont want to leave my parents yet because I dont want it to seem like we are eating and running"

Translation: "I know you have your weekly raid planned, and we have been here for 4 hours, but I am going to make you sweat a bit and then throw a fit when we get home and you log on immediately instead of spending more time with me."

These sound harsh, but they are very true. I wouldnt trade my fiance for anything in the world, but I wish she would be more understanding about WoW. Like when I am understanding about her watching Dr. Phil, The Hills, America's next Top Model, One Tree Hill, and Gilmore Girls all in a fricking row.

What kind of experiences do you folks have with this kind of thing?

Thursday, September 4, 2008

PvP across Battlegroups

In my battlegroup (Reckoning), it seems like the Horde wins every BG except for AV. My win rates in AV are probably around 90 percent, and about 10-25 percent in the other ones. I have heard that Alliance actually win BGs in other Battlegroups?

Anyone care to share any examples?

I recently rolled some Horde toons due to the fact that
a) Horde racials are so much better than Alliance racials
b) I am tired of losing at PVP and playing with all the people who give up after 30 seconds.

Anyone else experience these same problems. It really is a pain to level new toon, but I will take any advantage I can get.

WoW rectruit a friend is AWESOME!

The chunks of level that the quests eat upa re quite insane. I now have a level 16 warrior and level 14 druid (who is almost 15). If i turn in like 3-4 quests it gives me an entire level basically. I hit level 14 in under 6 hours played with my Druid. Im hoping to get them alot of levels this weekend.

The one thing that is alot different is that I am not really used to the Horde areas. I am not really sure where to go after the Barrens, so I guess I will have to look it up online.

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Decided to give refer a friend a go

And I refered myself lol. Got a second trial account and ran both games at the same time. Ran suprisingly well actually. I created a Tauren warrior and druid. In less than an hour I got to level 7 and I am still in the very beginning starting area lol. The XP gains from quests are awesome I must say.

I just made to Druid follow the Warrior. The Druid does absolutely nothing besides the occasional heal and buffing his mark of the wild.

The bad thing about a trial account is that I cant trade with anyone or use the mailbox, so he has to generate his own cash.

Im going to go at it again tonight and see if I cant get to somewhere between level 20-30. I dont think it should be difficult as the quests just burn chunks of XP.

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Recruit-A-Friend

So, I started leveling a Tauren warrior on a PVP server, and leveling is soooooo slow. This gave me an idea.

I have a friend who want to get the refer a friend for the xp bonus as do I. I also want to level up some Hordies so I can see what it feels like to win at PVP. This is what I was thinking. Instead of both of us getting a new account and multi boxing, one of us could get the new account and one of us get the Zevra. The one who gets the new account buys the retail versions of the game, but the one who gets the Zevra pays for the two month subscription. Since the one getting the Zevra get two free months its like getting a free Zevra and 3x XP bonus.

I really want a Tauren Warrior and Tauren Druid.

Labor Day

I labored all damn weekend with PVP. I got my season 4 neck on my Warlock and proceeded to have one of the most annoying Arena weekends ever. We started out at about 1716 and were hoping to creep towards 1800. Instead, we ended up around 1530. Then we got back to 1698. Then back down to 1570. Then we finished after 100 plus matches at around 1650.

The problem I have is that we keep seeing teams with full season 3/4 (season 3 shoulders and weapon). We have also seen some teams that have their brutal weapons. We got mashed by a rogue with both of his Brutal Swords. I was glad to see that it wasnt just my team as well. Mura also went from 1820 to 1700 on his Shaman/Warrior team. I cant stand players getting carried to high ratings by super players. I want a chance to push my way to 1800 and beyond, but it is very difficult when 2000 rated players are starting back over and ruining my time in arena.

I also did some games on my warrior and had quite a bit of fun. I am going to save up for the season 2 sword to replace my season 1 axe (why the hell did I get the axe?). I am missing a few PVP pieces, so I am only at 269 resilience. I am running twos with a Holy Paladin atm, which can be somewhat difficult due to to the fact that pretty much all of his heals have a cast time and are easy to kick/pummel or put curse of tongues on.

Sometimes PVP makes me want to put my fist thru my monitor. Sometimes it is epic. I beat a Frost mage and a Druid on my Warlock after my Ret Pally arena partner died. That felt epic. Losing around 200 arena rating in a single day feels like epic fail and makes me want to kick puppies.