Saturday, January 31, 2009

The Irregular Update Strikes Again

And so here I am, struggling to ignore my laziness and blog about happenings in WoW. You know, it seems these updates are coming monthly. I might have to follow Zev's tactic and go for a weekly update. Ah well, I'll get to the post.

It should go without saying that there's been a fair bit going on that I haven't blogged about, so I'll catch up on it here.

Makolan's geared up a little more (now def-capped, 24k health, 25k armour, 38% avoidance) and has helped me see some more content. I've run maybe half of the heroics, and had some fill-in spots OTing Naxx-10 (the 4 wings), VoA 10 and 25, and Sarth 10 and 25. Tanking is another subject on which I'm not quite sure of my opinions. In theory, I should like it - I'm an altoholic, and love trying different classes and roles. I've done some heroics, gotten some lucky drops, some raid spots (thanks Borg!) and some advice. I won't say I performed well, but I've performed decently (I hope). But, unlike healing and dpsing, tanking just doesn't really click for me. Sure, it's fun - and I enjoy seeing fights from a different perspective - but, opposite to Adi and Elf, I don't seem to have found my niche. It probably also doesn't help that more than half of the Naxx bosses involve spawning adds, which has quickly become a pet peeve of mine when tanking. I could still get the swing of tanking; I know that it takes longer to learn than heals or dps. It's just that, for now, I haven't quite fit into the tanking scene yet. TL;DR version - I enjoy tanking, but don't perform as well in the role as I do with healing and dps'ing. Mikeymowse, the guild's resident abusable dwarf, is currently OTing Naxx, getting him even more geared for starting up Naxx G2 again, and giving me some time to kick back, and work on some alts.

Which brings me to the next part of the post.

After a long, low-dps quest-spree, Adi's made his way to 80.(:D)I bought a Titansteel Guardian from Trade, which, along with some quest/AH blues, got me nice and heroic-geared (thanks for the enchants, Moon!). I yesterday tried my luck in UK and Nexus heroics with guildies to start off, and am already finding it easier than tanking them. I added another two to the list today, with H VH and H GD (neither of which I had been able to do on Makolan so far). On the subject of the latter, I was able to complete the Elders of the Dungeons achievements - and, with it, got the Elder title!...which is probably the only achievement I'm ever going to bother with. Still, simultaneous achievement-ding is pretty fun. Below: Elder Adirix and Elder Tofuman.


I'm hoping to gear up Adi a little more, and spend some time reuniting myself with Elf. So far, Adi's sitting a little under 15k mana, and has 1560 SP/100 Mp5/ 21% crit. Elf is still 72, although at least I logged onto him the other day. I tried out Survival, which went quite well - 1400 test dummy dps (compared to the 900-ish of BM). Hopefully, I can - in addition to gearing Adi - convince myself to get on Elf, and level him to 80. If only for nostalgia's sake.

On a topic that less pleasant, though, I'll have to slow down my WoWing some more. School starts back tomorrow (/cry) and I have exams this year, so I'm hoping I'll still be able to fit in some decent WoW time in between sessions of 'study'. :P

Also, some shoutouts to the guild - grats to Liself, who received the mount from Strath while going for the elder. :D On the topic of lucky mounts, Moon's also managed to get the Green Proto-drake from her first Mysterious Egg.

The Ancients are now also going along at a quite good rate through WoTLK raiding, too - there's only Sapph/KT and Malygos to go until we've downed the 10-man raiding front.

And, to finish off, some screenshots of my - admittedly mismatched-looking - toons:

Elf:
Adi:
Mako:

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

To Make Zev Quiet...

...I'm writing this post. Happy now, Zev? :P And Borg, if you're reading this, update your own blog. Now. >.>

I suppose I should've posted a while ago anyway, and, no, I haven't forgotten about the blog - just been busy with stuff, in and outside of WoW.

Christmas is pretty much over, although I'm still on school holidays for another month. :D Got some Death Note soundtracks and manga, as well as cash. Cash is good.

And a belated Merry Christmas to whoever's still reading after this post-less month.

Anyway, I've gotten Makolan to 80, about a week ago. (Yay!) 517 defense so far, and I'm pretty much just waiting for 3.0.8's new runeforge-enchant-thing until I can take a peek at some heroics. Elf and Adi are still both at 72, and for some strange reason I can't convince myself that my time would be better spent on them than on the plethora of alts I'm bouncing between at the moment. As well as that, I've been spending my time on Mako PvPing for a trinket. If I haven't already mentioned that I hate PvP, then you're likely going to hear it a lot from me over the next few days.

Grats to my guild, who has downed the Spider Quarter, I think (I'm not sure, wasn't there) of Naxx 10, before moving onto Patchwerk, as well as then moving to kill Sartharion in the Obsidian Sanctum. Good job, guys! I'm looking forward to starting to raid.

And on a final note, I recommend both The Guild and Chronicles of the Annoying Quest for anyone who enjoys WoW movies. They're both different styles - The Guild being more of a sitcom, showing the lives of WoW players who meet in real life, whereas CoTAQ is a machinima I've been following for a while. If you're into either style, they're a good watch.

And, for if I don't post until then - have a happy new year!

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Memorable Quests

Okay, so I've been neglecting Elf a little lately. He's still at 72. And yeah, I still haven't logged onto Adi since I upgraded my account. Still, I've been playing just as much - on my DK Makolan. I just got level 70 on him earlier (yay :D), and have been in Howling Fjord since 68. I massively prefer this zone over Borean Tundra, which is simply plain, and kinda seems to be a mash-up of about five different terrain styles. Nonetheless, it has some good quests; that, and Howling Fjord, as well as re-experiencing past quests in OL through my Death Knight, gave me the idea for this post. This will hardly be a comprehensive list, just some of the things I found enjoyable. And that I can remember as I'm writing this.

Outland:
There's quite a bit I liked about BC and its quests, even if some zones made me feel like throwing my computer about the window (I'm looking at you, SMV). Contrary to what many other people say, Blade's Edge is actually one of my favourite areas, with the exception of a few quests. And since I've started playing, Toshley's Station is the only quest hub I've been to that has managed to have quests that simultaneously are interesting, enjoyable, memorable - and at the same time, extremely irritating. Here's a picture of Makolan on the Test Flight to Ruaan Weald, looking somewhat out-of-place spinning on top of a floating, electric orb.


Then there's ones that I remember from previous times; arriving in Outland, running past - and barely escaping - some of the Burning Legion's most powerful demons, and arriving at Honor Hold...only to be soon tasked with retrieving prayer beads from a dog. Hardly the most exciting of moments, but memorable in its own way, much like the dull repetitive task of hunting down half of Nagrand for Hemet Nesingwary. Luckily, though, there were some slightly more interesting quests to remember, such as the Jump-A-Tron 4000, the blood elf disguises in Netherstorm, seeing the crystals of Ogri'la for the first time, Medivh engulfing Arcanagos in flame to create the undead dragon Nightbane; as well as some of the more mundane tasks made more fun by mass participation, such as discovering the money-haven of Quel'danas, with the entire realm working towards unlocking more quests, more gear, and more jewels. I'm fairly happy with how BC worked out overall; and I'm interested to see how Wrath will play out at the later levels, and to see the full impact of the improvements it has made compared to Burning Crusade.

Northrend and Ebon Hold:
Although I've only seen a tiny fraction of what Northrend holds quest-wise, I already have a few opinions. As I mentioned before, I far prefer HF over BT. There was, though, one enjoyable quest from Borean that stuck in my mind. I won't explain it - I'm not sure if I could - but this picture should say enough:


Now, onto Ebon Hold, or whatever you call the DK starting area.

I can't say that there was a quest there that didn't seem well-made to me. I liked all of them except for one (the one where you need to get the info from the Scarlet; this was good in concept but took over half an hour). The last two quests were truly epic, and the rewards lasted well into Outland questing.

As for Howling Fjord, quite a few of the quests strike me as interesting and memorable. Personally, I liked the ones where you go back in time to find the Vrykul, as well as the chain involving a Forsaken plague and a gnome alchemist. Also, the Iron Rune quests, annoying as they were for Moon and I, were admittedly something that would be remembered.

Well, that pretty much sums it up now, apart from the fact that I've probably left out a thing or two. Next, I'll try to do a post on either gear upgrades or DK's, so I'll see how that goes.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

I'll Get There, Eventually...

Elf's going along with his levelling, albeit somewhat slowly. 72 now, and out of Borean Tundra for good. /cheer.

Just got Makolan to 63 as well. Kinda trying to split my time between the two, but the drawback's that, obviously, I'll get to 80 later than most of the guild's raiders.

Oh well, at least I'm having more fun this way. :P

Monday, November 17, 2008

He Returns!

Not much to say here, other than...Zev is back! In the form of his so-far level 63 DK, Zeltan :)

Sunday, November 16, 2008

New Layout

Well, mostly just a new heading. But I've modified some old info on the side as well.

Either way, I like the new title - any comments on it?

Wrath!! And other stuff.

Okay...a lot to talk about. But there's a long queue for Dath, so I'll be fine.

Firstly: The expansion, and everything that comes with it. I went to the midnight launch (thanks Moon)! Got home the next day, created a DK, Makolan. Now since I've got a lot to say, I'm going to try and summarise everything - so I'll just say that I love DK's. Especially the starter zones. And the gear looks great. The abilities are awesome, and more complex and interesting compared to spamming FoL/Steady depending on whichever character I'm logged onto. I'm Blood, at level 61, and the self-heals along with dps is pretty damn nice. 5-man runs of all DK's in Ramparts are fun. I'm not quite sure whether to level this guy or Elf, but I'm leaning towards huntering along to 80 before I spend too much time on Makolan.




And now for something completely different.

Northrend! Although I haven't done much here - neither toon's levelled yet and Adi still hasn't been touched - at least Elf's pretty close to 71. I'm hoping to get it tonight. Elf's replaced one of his rings, but no other gear's been touched yet. My skinning is 400-ish so far and my LW is somewhere around 390. Stampy the Gorilla is awesome for levelling - AoE-grinding with Thunderstomp, Volley, and 10+ mobs. I'm really looking forward to levelling through to 80 with Moon. I'm not sure about my overall feelings of Borean Tundra - I'm only about halfway through it, but there's already some things I like and some things I don't. The 'Kill X of Y' quests get a bit numerous, but it helps show off the zones you go to. I like the scourge-infected farm town and the mine, and the Mammoths are great for skinners and grinding, but a lot of the scenery seems to be a somewhat strange mix of Darkshore and Azshara. The mobs are all quite new, and the DEHTA quests are good. The mist effect from the titan-giant-thingies gets a bit annoying after a while. The Nexus is pretty cool, especially the last boss - the others are trivial for a well-geared group, but Keristrasza's stacking debuff, Intense Cold, adds some interesting things to the fight.

And now for something completely different.

This is a short one, but I love Devilsaurs. The shaking, the growing, all those other things melee people hate. My Devilsaur (named Cat) will likely be my DPS raiding pet for 80. I don't have any good screenshots of him in combat yet, but, just for good measure, here's a strange pic from when I was taming him.


And now for something completely different.

Another short one, but I may as well get the old news out of the way. We full-cleared ZA the week after 3.0, and Adirix got full-epic with his Dark Blessing mace from Zul'jin.

And now for something completely different.

Friends keep coming and going in WoW. Guildies join and leave. In the last month or so, I've had Obe and Red leave [:(], a Horde friend come and join the Alliance in the form of Doneath the Death Knight, Duskspeed rerolling a Death Knight also (with the name of Deathspeed. So creative). Zev's coming back in around a week, only to have the bad luck to have to leave for another 3 months again next April. (:P) Oh, and Obe and Red may or may not be coming back. If they are, none of us know whether it'll be tomorrow or in the next 5 years. Below - some screenshots of Obe's sendoff from me, Jondy, and Borg.






And now for something completely different.

The last thing for now...the queues! Dath'Remar isn't a low-pop realm in the first place, and is often full. But with WoTLK, the queues are insane (yes, I know all realms are probably like this, but testing each realm's queue length isn't exactly my idea of a good time). Just look at the picture...


All queues and no levelling makes Elf go crazy. 1531 queues are not good.

Anyway, that's what it was when I started writing this post...it's now at 715. And an estimated time of 141 minutes. /sigh.

Well, that's pretty much my summary of Wrath and all that's happened around the guild surrounding the release. I might add an extra pic or two later, and maybe another post if I've forgotten something, which I probably will have. And I'll try and post more frequently. I promise. =/

Bye for now,
Elf.

Monday, October 20, 2008

A Summary of 3.0

Here's my opinion of 3.0, and some of the things surrounding it.

1) The class mechanic/talent changes: For the most part, I like these changes. Elf is less about timing steady shots, and can now work in other things, as well as more micromanagement of the pet abilites. This is because most hunter shots have stopped resetting the Autoshot timer, which makes hunters more of a fast-paced dps class, instead of timing the same spammed attack. Steady's still the main shot by far, but glyphs now encourage us to work in stings and other shots. And also, pets and their talent trees are far better with the new system, as it allows us to decide more on what we want, as a matter of choice. Rabid and the new form of Kill Command are some nice things that add some more variation to our dps cycles.

Also, I might go MM soon to test out Chimaera Shot (or however it's spelt :P), and how that works with the stings. I have mixed feelings of AoTV - you regain mana far quicker, but lose damage in the meantime. Although it's far better for mana regain, and so only a short time with the dps recuction, I'm still not sure on this one. On a final hunter-mechanics note, the change to Volley is - obviously - very welcome. This allows us to do some nice AoE damage, just a nice new little element of the class. Overall, the new hunter mechanics are certainly a change for the better.

As for Paladins, the realm of healing has also become less boring. BoL, along with a glyph or two, increases our AoE healing capacity fairly nicely. Somewhere with the transition to spellpower coefficients, my heals have also been increased - FoL to an 1800 average, and HL to around 5-6k. I don't see why the complaints about Holy Light are so numerous, but then again, I haven't done much healing in 5-mans since the patch, so I can't be sure of everything. Holy Shock - while still not efficient - is now certainly a viable ability. With nearly a third of the previous cooldown, the mana cost lowered by a few hundred, a few talents that add synergy, and the healing amount/range increased (I've been able to crit-heal for well over 4000 a few times), being on the move doesn't hurt us as much as it used to. As I've already said, BoL helps with our raid healing (for those who don't know, Beacon of Light is a buff to put on the MT, and it means that whenever you heal someone within a generous range around the tank, the tank is healed for that same amount), but there's something that could change the usefulness of this - the controversial Glyph of Flash of Light. The question is - when Beacon is put on the MT, and you use the FoL so that your HoT is on 5 raid members at once - does the tank get healed for the combined sum of HoT's on all those 5 members? If so, this glyph could have some great situational uses. One last thing I'm glad about for Paladin changes is the Seal and Judgement rework. Judgement of Light in raids means I have a whole lot of ticks for around 150 on the melee, around 1 every 5 seconds for each melee - and in a raid with multiple tanks and a group of melee dps all on one target, this could surely help out with heals. As for the seals, I haven't tried Light yet, but Wisdom's mana regen is insanely good - although requiring me to swing away in melee, it allows me to keep a high mana pool - using this in some Kara fights, I had full mana at the end of the battle after being reduced to half at some point. And, for Prot and Ret - I don't know for sure, but Prot seems a lot of fun from what I've tried on PTR. And the ret changes are welcome, although I wish they'd stop requesting to be buffed more.


2) Instance changes: This is another topic on which I can't quite decide my feelings. The nerfs to raid boss health are great in that they allow everyone to get achievement points, instruct raiders for a brief few weeks to get ready for WoTLK, and see as much of the content as they can. The only problem I have with it, though, is that it's kinda an anticlimax. Blasting through things just doesn't mean as much as it used to, and it seems Blizz is just using this as another way to have us wanting WoTLK.
The thing is, it's working well for them. :P


3) Inscription: I don't have anything bad to say about this, really. I simply love this profession. Even though the insanely inflated price of herbs can get annoying while levelling the profession, and near-impossible for lower levels, there's nothing that can be done about that. It was expected, but couldn't be prevented. The actual profession, though, I enjoy very much. I'm not much of a crafter - it took me months after getting to 70 on Elf to raise my Leatherworking to maximum, and I didn't quite see the point in that, or enjoy it very much. Also, the general grind of getting different mats from all over the place, costing hundreds of gold to make a rare to even have a chance at getting one level, really isn't my thing. Inscription, though, is different. It's simple, basic. For the bulk of what you'll make - glyphs - all you need is herbs, and those thingies you buy from vendors. As usual, I forget what they're called for now. But anyway - as well as the simplicity of the mats, there's no long hours in instances or months of rep grinds required to get useful recipes. Everything you learn is - to my knowledge - from your Inscription trainer, or from minor glyphs you find via research. The last thing I like about this profession is that it doesn't need to be at maximum level to be useful. You can still make a living, if not a profit, from lower level inscription. There's rarely two glyphs for the same spell, meaning that if you like a certain spell, and it's a lower level glyph, then that lower-level glyph is what you'll use. Sure, things from 300+ are a fair chunk more useful, but the lower level glyphs aren't so obsolete that you'll never use them again.

I realise I'm rambling on, but - as I've probably said in about every sentence now, I've noticed - I really like this.


4) Hallow's End: Well, technically this isn't 3.0, but more a few days after. Either way though, it's a recent event that I thought I may as well post about, as the blog didn't exist this time last year.

I like the events - and especially the achievements centred around this. Although I think the one to gather 20 masks is pretty damn far-fetched. The Headless Horseman in SMGY is interesting, a way for people to get some quick epics - whether it be for saving them for the pre-WoTLK nostalgia that will come, trying to min/max every last bit for the final weeks of raiding, or simply because you want to ride around on a broom. All in all, a fairly good event, when compared to some of the others which are a fair disappointment. Maybe it's just because the achievements give a sense of - well, achievement - but I like this event, nonetheless.

5) THE LAG!: I don't think I can say much on this one. I probably don't need to, for anyone on Dath (or to a lesser extent, the other Oceanic servers) would know about this by know, unless theyve turned off all their chat channels, ignored everyone on their friend lists and sat in the middle of Silithus for the past week. And if I did say anything, I'd probably go for a hundred lines spamming about how annoying this can get while doing certain things (namely, collecting items from a mailbox) - so, for all our sakes, I think I'll stop here before I spam us all to death.


Wow, I've only just realised I've been writing for almost the last hour, and probably killed you all with my wall of text. My bad. :P