Mar 17, 2009

But I wanna ride the goat thing!

I hate you Blizzard! Every time I'm about to do something important, (i.e: ding lvl 58/68 and about to go try the expansion and start questing in Hellfire Penisula/Borean Tundra.) you do a maininence. And it's always on a week off or when I'm sick, so I'm not at work! Now I have to sit here, sniffling and drinking Buckleys untill 2:00PM, waiting for servers to get back online!

Well, I suppose it's not actually that bad. And this is a great time to put up a blog post. So never fear, this isn't going to become a useless rant. On the subject of the title; if you don't know what a 'goat thing' is, (Not many do.) well, it's a talbuk. Ever since I first saw them, I've wanted to have one of my very own. I mean, just like in real life, if you see someone riding a goat, you know they're cool.

So let's rewind, just to clarify all this. After I hit lvl 65, I went over to Nagrand. And like many people, I fell in love with it. It's awesome. I absolutly adore it. In fact, when I hit lvl 66, instead of running off to Blades Edge Mountains, I stayed there. Sadly, 4 bars from lvl 68, I ran out of quests, and I had to go to Shadowmoon Valley. And that sucks. Since once I start to quest in a zone, I start to slip into the flow of it, and now I've abruptly ripped myself away. I miss you SMV! You may not have been as pretty as Nagrand, you may be less cool than Hellfire Penisula, you may even have been worse in every possible way (lvling wise) than Borean Tundra, but you'll always have a place in my heart.

After I read Wulf's post on it, I tried out Questhelper. I used to think it made the game too easy, but I was wrong. I love it. I'm leveling like lightening.I lvled 65-68 in a week! W00T! So, now I'm in the last stretch until lvl 80, and I'm strting to think ahead a bit. Like, what kind of lvling do I want to do? The was I see it, there are 3 types in expansions:
1)Lvl solely in dungeons and barely do any quests. The upside to this is you're already pretty well geared when you hit lvl 80. Well, better than the average 'new' 80. The downside to this is, well, you're basically just PuGing instances for 10 looong lvls, and I don't belive that's how Blizzard wanted us to lvl.
2) Super fast, running thru zones, cheapo lvling. This way is basically as soon as is humanly possible, go into the next zone. Many people do this, and it means basically you'll hit 80 in Icecrown. The downside to this is you hardly get any cash from questing at lvl 80 out of it, since you've already finished big chunks of the quests you can do for cash. Probably best method for an alt who has a big awesome main to lend them cash.
3)The last method is the one I'll probably do. Doing every single quest in each zone, milking each area dry before moving on to the next. This method, I used to think was 'out there', and wierd. But now I see the wisdom in it. With this method, you'll probably ding 80 midway through Grizzly Hills. That gives you 4 1/2 whole zones purely for cash. That's pretty good in my books.

Another thing planned is when exactly I'm gonna get my goat thing. Im'm aiming for very, very soon after I ding 80. (I'm talking like within the 1st week.) To all the people who think I'm crazy for going out of my way to grind to exalted with a useless TBC faction instead of running instances and gearing up. (Other than getting an UBER GOAT THING!!!)
a) Out of all the TBC factions, (In my opinion) The Kurenai have the coolest tabard. I love it. It's cool.
b) Hey, it's another faction checked off towards my 25 factions achievement, so why not?
c) Out of the countless rep grinds in TBC, the Kurenai seems one of the easier ones. I'm not talking about grinding 24hr a day for a week people! I'm talking about 3hr of killing ogres. That's not that hard! It's basically 1 nights work. Compared to some grinds, like the Sha'Tari Skyguard, and Cenarion Expedition, that's ridiculous!

Well, that's all for now, I'm just going to sniffle and shuffle around my house until WoW pops back up. Maybe I could start my calligraphy again...

Mar 10, 2009

Kinda Busy...

I'm apologising in advance for the lack of posts, as I'm really busy right now and I probably won't have much time for posting this week. In fact, it's really hard even just to fit this in, but like I said, I've got a ton of important stuff that needs doing by the end of this week. Luckily, there's a server reset today, so I couldn't play WoW even if I wanted to. That's good because now I can get a good chunk of it done. Still, I'm pretty busy, so don't expect any more posts until Saturday.

By the way though. I am fixing things up around here today. I finally fixed BBB's blogroll link, I think it's been broken for at least 2 months. (Remember waay back when his feed broke? Yeah, I've been too lazy to fix it.) I've also added my Armoury links, which every blogger should do, but again, I've been putting it off. If you're wondering why I give a lvl range on all my characters, it's because I'm still actively lvling them, so knowing me I would keep forgetting to update every time I ding. This way I only have to update after I reach the cap on my lvl range. Also, I've added a Blog of the Week box, where I'll show a featured blog every week. Usually it won't be a big blog like BRK, BBB, or Blessing of Kings, since they really don't need more publicity. Plus, there's a goldmine of awesome writer out there, who many people sadly don't know about because they're too busy reading the big blogs. So too all you big, well established blogs, throw out some ole fashioned link love now and again. As you can see, the first featured blog is Wulf's Warcraft Weblog. (WWW perhaps?) WWW is a hunter blog, (One of the legion out there) and is a Marksman. (Yay! /w00t!) Actually, his post on Questhelper is the one that persuaded me to try it.

'Hunter with big gun. /approve'
Words of BRK in Wulf Warcraft Weblog.

Drazmor

Mar 5, 2009

Friday Fivehundred

As you may know, if you take a lok at my blogroll, I follow Anna over at Too Many Annas. I do try to do the Friday Five's, and the Friday Fivehundred's, but I usually don't have the time. And yes, I do know that one day before the new one comes out is a little late, but seeing as I've already got it written out, (In my magical WoWPad.) and I have the time, here goes!



Unlike the usuall prompt, the starter for this one is just five words that must be included in the story: fog, book, bread, sailor, and horse. Other than thatm the only other requirement is that it be at least around 500 words. My entry for this week is focused on Xhazmor's early life, of which is mostly unknown. (Xhazmor is my Death Knight by the way.) As a child, he was a herb gatherer on the coast of Westfall, collecting herbs for rich scribes to buy on the market...

Xhazmor sighed as he watched the sailors step off the boat, looking like a ghostly procession snaking towards Ratchet's sole inn. He held a loaf of bread in his hands,but he didn't feel hungry. He knew he should eat it, he needed to keep his strength up for the long journey back to Booty Bay. As soon as Maiden's Virtue had unloaded it's cargo, they would be off, back to the goblin city and the steaming jungles of Stranglethorn Vale.

Only six more months, and he would be free. He knew now Mr. Rabbleshnick had overcharged him for the room and the journey from Westfall. After the old man out on the lighthouse had told him of the bountiful herbs of the Barrens, Xhazmor had packed up and left everything to make his fortune.He said his farewells to his family and set out for Sentinel Hill.When he got there however, he was broke. He was begging on the street when Mr. Rabbleschnick found him and offered him a job aboard his ship.

Caught up in his memories, Xhazmor nearly didn't see the rider until it was too late. One moment he was staring at the black canvas of the fog, and the next the horse's jet black hooves shattered his daydream like fragile glass.

Xhazmor got behind the protective barricade of the ships side and grabbed his musket. A cheaply made thing, the musket had been given to him secondhand after one of the sailors fell out of the rigging crossing the southern arm of the Maelstrom.

"Halt! Who goes there?" Xhazmor's voice quavered out of the darkness. He tried to make himself taller, to try and look braver than he sounded.

The man hopped down easily off the magnificent horse and strode proudly up the gangplank.

"My name, is Terathos Nightblaze, and I need to see your captain." The man spoke with enthousiasm and aurthority, and Xhazmor instinctivly trusted him.

"My captain is off-ship currently, and so you will have to deal with me, the ship's officer currently." Terrified he may be, Xhazmor was always a smooth liar. It wasn't too much of a lie, anyway; as the only person on ship right now, he could be considered the ships officer. Terathos instantly saw through the young boy's lie, but decided to go along with it. The boy was probably an orphan, tricked into a life at sea by the heartless goblins. He pitied him.

"Well then officer, I suppose we should discuss this in your quarters, for 'tis a cold night for one like me born and raised in the heat of Stranglethorn." He said with a twinkle in his eye. Xhazmor was pleasantly surprised by the fact he had conned this man. obviously a noble, into thinking he was an officer!

Xhazmor and Terathos talked all through the night, and only left once the sounds of the crew returning were in the air.Xhazmor spilt his heart out, and told Terathos of his hard childhood in Westfall. Terathos told Xhazmor of his adventures in Kalimdor, and how the Ratchet Innkeeper ewas keeping a very special book, his sole faily heirloom, for ransom, and so Terathos was being forced to steal it back. And that was why Terathos so needed a boat out of Ratchet, to escape. He didn't care where it went, Theramore, Darnassus, it didn;t matter, He just needed to leave. And never, not once did they give up the pretense that Xhazmor wat the ships officer.

*

It was a bright sunny morning when the Maidens Virtue set off for Booty Bay. They sailed under a cloudless sky, and the sun sparkled like diamonds off calm waters. It was perfect. But Xhazmor was worried. Maidens Virtue was about to leave, and Terathos was still somewhere in Ratchet.

Suddenly there was a loud crash, and the distinctive 'pop' of a goblin blunderbuss. Terathos appeared, bursting out of the top window of the Ratchet inn, book in hand, an angry innkeeper on his heels. Just as the ship was about to sail out of reach, Terathos leapt, and landed in a heap on the ship's deck.

Xhazmor heard the captain storming up from his cabin. He remembered that the Maiden's Virtue's 'illustrious' captain was close friends with Ratchet's innkeeper. Terathos didn't have a chance. Suddenly, the captai stormed out on deck. He stank of ale. Even worse.

"What's the meaning of this!?(Sorry, my keyboard won't type interrobangs.) I get woken up with reports of passengers stealing from the respectable Ratchet inn?" Shouted the red-faced captain. "I should throw you overboard for this!"

"But sir!" Xhazmor jumped in. "The book wasn't his! The innkeeper stole it from Terathos!" To this day, Xhazmor never really knew why he intervened, but his heart told him to, and he leapt into action.

'Enough! I won't hear of it!" You're both obviously liars!" The captain was nearly screaming now. Then he turned around to face them,this time with an evil gleam in his eye. "If you're so quick to defend him, maybe you can join him! I'll dump you both off on the coast, and damn what Rableschnick says!"

And so Xhazmor found himself in the Barrens, but not the way he imagined in the slightest. Oh well.

Mar 3, 2009

3.1 PTR notes. (The important bits)

Yes as promised, it's here. My thoughts on the 3.1 PTR patch notes. I warn you now. As always I try to spin a new angle on an old topic. So this is NOT me rehashing opinions on class changes and how they will affect raiding. How would I know anyway? I don;t even have a lvl 80! So without any further ado, here goes! (All info and pictures can be found at MMOChampion's page here.)



First off, new Tier 8. It seems like Blizzard has learnt not to take things to the extreme. Yes, during TBC things were very, um... colourful. We looked like ugly ducklings. We hated it. But that didn't mean we wanted cold, dead, black and brown armor with the occasional tusk thrown in the pot for effect. We like colour, we just want it to match, that's all we ask.





-One thing I've noticed is that pally gear seems to look either like colourful, bright, happy clowns, or something out of Mortal Kombat. Thank god, this time it's leaning towards Mortal Kombat.





-As usual, DK gear looks totally badass.I think they're taking over warlocks as king of the Tier gear.





-Speaking of warlocks, their gear looks pretty cool, but kinda like Lost Ones. I really, really hate Lost Ones.





-OMG WTF IS THAT THING ON TOP OF ROGUE TIER 8?!?!?!?! /retch





-Blizzard: Making volcanic shammy shoulders since Tier 5.





-omg warriorz r vikingz! kewl uber leet dood! lolz (I for one feel ever blogger has to make a tasteless 'WoWChat' joke at least once in their blogging career.)



Obviously there's dual-specs. There's been a lot of controversy surrounding them, but I'm gonna say I'm on the side that's looking forward to them. This completely erases my antagonising over whether to stay Prot or go Holy at lvl 80, and that's sweet. There is the issue that most people will probably have absolutely no experience in their new spec role, but that's easily solve by running TBC raids. Most of them can easily be 5 manned, and Hyjal and BT can be 15 manned.


No more black/plagued proto drakes? WTF!! Sure Ulduar equipped people would have an easier time, but did they get rid of Amani War Bear after Black Temple came out? No! This is really cruel, giving us one of the coolest mounts in-game then taking them away in a matter of months. I totally agree with keeping it challenging, but pulling these mounts as soon as new content comes out is a bit much. Dammit I'm pissed. /QQ.



And some other details, carrying on from that small little QQ of mine...



Dungeon maps! Finally! People have been complaining about this since WoW first came out. This will rock, especially for some of my purist friends who can't/don't want to use addons. It remains to be seen how these rank up next to some of those very good dungeon map addon's out there.


30min cooldown on hearthstones? Lol wut? Why on earth did Blizzard cut hearthstone cooldown in half you ask? (Actually, I bet all of you already know this, but I'll carry on anyway.) In all honesty, it's because players QQed over the loss of ghetto hearthing. Either that or they're making up for that... thing on top of Rogue Tier 8. /shudder.



It seems Children's Week has gone to Northrend with the rest of you buggers. No, I'm not trying to be a Ratshag wannabe, I'm actually British, and so hold the right to say the word bugger, and any other British word, like rubbish, anytime I feel like it. So there's now Gorloc/Wolvar kiddies, so that means I can get 3 pets a year now! And of course, there's swimming mounts now to help you give you're tour of Northrend a little faster. ( Though I have to admit, 1/2 a ton of horse and steel (Pally charger) swimming daintily through the water does look a little weird.



And finally, there's the much rumoured, no one really knows anything about, (Drumroll please.) Argent Tournament! (Wooo! Yeah!! That's right!!!) Offering new, mounted combat, which Blizzard has been hinting about since TBC came out. Also Blizzard is taunting us with tabards for each city, which I feel have always been missing from this game. (If I'm a brave representative of Stormwind, how come I can't wear their tabard?) Anyway, the rewards. Stop getting me off track. Pets and mounts for each city, sweet new gear, (Ok, maybe not for the raiders, it basically equals out to Heroic gear) a new currency to fill our currency page up, buy all this stuff, and oh yeah, BUY THAT KICKASS ARGENT HIPPOGRYPH!!!(By the way, I've totally just realised that the Agrent Hippogryph is one of the really good Cenarion Hippogryph models thay never put in game. I've always wanted a hippogryph. Sadly, the only one that I know of that's currently in game is the Cenarion War Hippogrph, and although it does look really cool, (Especially when flying in Zangarmarsh) I really hate Cenarion, followers of Cenarion, and ALL factions that have the word Cenarion in their name. What a stupid name anyway. Sounds like Centurion. /humph

So there you have it, my angle on this much overused and wrung out blog topic. I'm sure you've heard the gist of this many, many times, even if you hadn't zoomed off to MMOChampion you would have known exactly what's on it. But hey, as a WoWBlogger, you can't exactly ignore the biggest thing to hit WoW since the announcement of WotLK. I have a few more post's lined up, I'm running out of time to do them! (In fact, the next post has to be out by Friday, so I'll have to churn it out by tomorrow.) Until tomorrow then,

Drazmor.