Easy... Almost TOO Easy...

As I've been playing my rogue, creeping ever so slowly to 70 (Dinged 69 this weekend yay!) I've been noticing a few things about questing, farming, and grinding in the World of Warcraft. Playing my level 35 Priest (shadow spec right now) is further cementing my thoughts on this as well.

Basically it all seems a heck of a lot EASIER than it was about 6 months ago when I was in a similar place with Tigersoul.

Tigersoul is my strongest character, one of the reasons he is my "Main Character".

Feral Druid if you were unaware... I kill very fast, I tank fairly well, soloing is a breeze and deaths are far and few between. But when I was questing in Netherstorm (where Katryona the rogue has been questing) at the same level as Kat - even as an early 70 - I died. A lot. Then flash back even further to questing in STV at 35, like Silverthorne my priest. I died. A LOT.

So here's my question. Has the game been made "Easier" in preparation for the new expansion? OR, have I just become a much better player. I think it is a bit of both, but unfortunately - probably more game changes than my own personal improvement.

It HAS been fun to get through areas faster with less deaths (not counting Horde gankings which are RIDICULOUSLY more common now than when Tiger was in the same spots... so I guess the actual death count is about the same. Probably not my rogue though... Subtlety spec is actually quite hard to kill - lots of avoidance and escape possibilities!), but is the game less of a game now with the "nerfing" of questing content?

I think I can appreciate how tough and strong I am now, since I went through a much tougher game a year ago. I sincerely hope that at least SOME of this toughness is because I've improved as a player...

BRK and Ratshag's Running of Da Bulls!

Fer Sharvan!!

Today was the Running of da Bulls on the Cenarion Circle RP server. The locals were quite confused. I REALLY wish I had been able to see what the alliance in Ironforge were saying... My very first character in WoW was a Tauren... so they have a special place in my heart.

"Tigersoubull" was my entrant into the race. But he died too much and did not win. I have NO idea how the winner made it there so fast! (I was almost to Hillsbrad)

I was lucky enough to see a few of the bloggers (Ratshag, BRK, Bellwether) Thanks for the fun!

And I got a purple shirt!!!

Here are LOTS of screenshots:

Just over 2 hours before the race:

BRK does it Disco-style in front of all his groupies (looks like Tigersoubull fainted)

Look at that fine piece of beef!!

Shut up and get to the starting line!!

Wow look it's Ratshag there... Orcs are kind of small!

How many bloggers can YOU find in this picture? (I think I can see five...)

Hey look! I'm running by Bellwether of 4Haelz! She has a great blog!

She also witnessed my first death of the race...

The official race is done - the Herd heads for Wetlands en route to Ironforge!

That is a LOT of Bulls. I wonder if this is a record?

Those mean dwarves picked off a few of the weak.

Good thing we have thick skins in this cold!

Storm the gates of Ironforge!!

Swarm the halls!

There were lots of ghosts present too...

The number of guards that spawned was ridiculous.

I'm sure the alliance will have nightmares caused by their cruelty.


Unfortunately shortly after spawning in Elwynn (I finally made it into the tram only to be killed by some heartless hunter who probably doesn't even like steak) I had to leave... so I missed out on the hogger fight. :(

It was a lot of fun and I thank those responsible for setting all of this up!

A Thought on PvF

Wow, two posts in one day after a dry spell of over a week?! What's going on?

I've been thinking about "PVF" (Player versus Faction) since The Big Bear Butt posted "I want /PvF!" Then today I read an answer to a different question about Group duels in my feed reader from MMO-Champion. Here's what the Blizzard staffer said (original here):

There are actually in-game locations where such events can be organized. The world arenas in Stranglethorn Vale, Nagrand and Blade's Edge Mountain come to mind as suitable locations for group "duelling" and combat practise. As for a group duel option (such as /groupduel), we have no current plans to add this."

So here's my idea for a possible solution to the problem where you are really ticked off at some jerk of your same faction who stole a node, stole a kill, or even just watched you die when they could have easily healed you with a very low cost spell. Have a big quest line that eventually leads you to discovering flaws within your own faction (i.e. not everybody you think is on your side is actually on your side, kind of like Lady Prestor) - with the reward being a trinket or usable item (like the Everlasting Underspore Frond that makes food for you every day) that will transport you and the targeted same-faction offender to one of the aforementioned Arenas with an invisible fence not allowing the other person to run away or leave. "Two players enter... one leaves..." that sort of thing. THAT would be nice.

Will this ever happen? No way. Too many variables, rules and conditions to consider and implement, not to mention jerks abusing the option just to kill others to show off their epeen.

Kind of like the 70 Gnome Rogue who flew up to Katryona (at the time 65) and challenged me to a duel in the middle of the Firewing Bloodelves. /inspect to find out she has 16 Epics and 1 Blue. For my level I'm fairly well geared - Epic Engo goggles (she also had these) a bunch of blues and a few greens. But still... really what's the point? It's pretty much impossible for a 65 to beat a fully-epicced 70 of the same class. I dueled her because it didn't hurt me any, then before she would duel the 70 rogue I was with (I was actually helping HIM get Firewing signets) she spammed in /say "How Much HP?" "How Much HP?" He ignored her so she went away. But it was interesting to me that she would land on her Netherdrake and immediately challenge me to a duel while I was in the middle of fighting some Bloodelves, but would NOT do that to a 70 Rogue... Sounded to me like she was only interested in dueling if she was sure she would win. Sorry, but that is stupid. Sorry for the sidetrack there - but that type of person would probably abuse the proposed trinket.

An Update

It's been a busy time what with a new baby and work and all. I've also been reading a lot, most recently the A Song of Ice and Fire books by George R. R. Martin. (I'm only on the 2nd book A Clash of Kings) Yes I actually found out about this through the blog of the webcomic Looking for Group. Usually I hear about good Fantasy series but somehow missed this one. I also read all the available books by Brandon Sanderson who is finishing the last book in Robert Jordan's amazing Wheel of Time series. I actually might like a lot of Brandon Sanderson's work more than Jordan's. It'll be interesting to see how the 12th book turns out. His downloadable book Warbreaker is really good too. So if you don't want to go to the library and like reading PDF books... go check it out!

Tigersoul has been on a bit of a hiatus - he really wants the Shattered Sun Pendant of Might but is seriously sick of dailies. He's getting low on cash for some reason and needs to get a group together for a Heroic Sethekk Halls run to finally get Swift Flight Form. He also needs to get back into the Arena scene. I think we need to start our teams over before the next patch fixes point buying. I haven't bough points and don't plan on it - our ratings just stink right now and so I think it'd be a good time to start over!

Katryona dinged 68 last night (which took me WAY too long but I got in a bit of tunnel vision there) and became honored with Aldor's too. Finally I can get the Aldor quests in SMV and start turning in Marks of Sargeras instead of the less available Marks of Kil'Jaeden. By the time she reaches 70 she will definitely have enough to buy the regular riding skill for flying and make a helicopter. Did I mention I think engineering is fun?

Silverthorne is finally 35 and is almost to my 275 Enchanting goal so I can disenchant all the otherwise worthless high level greens I find while farming/questing. While going from 33 to 35 I discovered the joy that is Shadow Priest (without shadowform yet) utilizing Vampiric Embrace, Power Word: Shield, Shadow Word: Pain, and Mind Flay = Pure Awesome! I was amazed at the quests I was easily completing. Oh yeah - Psychic Scream is handy too. Almost invulnerable and self healing while inflicting pain is awesome!

Soulsword is still at 46. It is hard to play him. My guild officers want me to get him up to 70 and spec Protection so we can have another Tank option other than our Feral Druids (one of which is also me). I like tanking all right... but do I want to be one of the ONLY tank options in the guild? Good thing I'm the guild leader...

The Druid Army isn't doing much lately. Too busy with other things (Mostly Rogue leveling and Shattered Sun dailies) - but they are building up some good mats for professions and Treesoul ALMOST has bear form. Yeah I know it's pretty sad. She's level 9 and it REALLY doesn't take that long.

On Fantasy

Nothing of real import here...

Like many I'm tired of the "Daily Quest" grind - but I love regular questing. So it's allowed me to get to almost 65. 5 more levels 'til I have my second 70! I'm excited.

I love books. One of the first fantasy series I read (after Lord of the Rings, which while in no way my favorite - got me hooked on Fantasy books and probably reading in general) was the Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander.

Good books - if you've never read them you should. Even if you have seen the old Black Cauldron movie! (or maybe ESPECIALLY if you have seen that!) They are "Young Adult" books and fairly easy reading... but don't let that stop you!

Anyway. Mr. Alexander wrote a short little treatise "On Fantasy" that I love. I linked it there for you. Go read it.

I'll write more about books later... pretty much entirely Fantasy books. But being as this is primarily a World of Warcraft Blog... That shouldn't be too far fetched.

On to Azeroth!

Kael'Thas and Friends

I finally finished the Sunwell quest to get Kael'thas' head.

There are some MEAN pulls in there! It is VERY easy to wipe without a good team setup. And this, my friends, is why quite often you will see requests for "LFM Magister CC preferably 2 mages" Keep two mobs Baa-ing away and it makes it a lot easier. Add in a rogue or Hunter if you can't find a mage and you should be good!

A Hunter in my guild REALLY wanted to get the Hauberk of the War Bringer chest that drops off Kael, and she's been trying for days. Most of the time I log on and she's in there again hoping to GET to Kael and down him so he will drop this for her. Over and over and over. That's dedication for ya!

It's amazing how many groups this instance can kill. We made it through the very first little bit with more than one death... because of a rogue. Seriously it is amazing what one bad member can do in these instances. The guy comes in with no flash powder and no bandages, and says he's a real good rogue, but this isn't his account, he's playing a friends. And boy oh boy he was NOT good.

Anyway. We kicked him out and got another Rogue and we went very smoothly all the way up to the Priestess when the Rogue DC'd and the mage had to leave. The Pally Healer decided she needed to leave as well, so my hunter was sad. Then she was mad and wouldn't let me leave, and proceeded to grab another pally healer, a warlock, and a rogue. We breezed through the 5 man PvP fight (kind of fun!).

We then downed Kael pretty easily, losing only the rogue. Sunrage Treads dropped, so my friend wasn't happy that she wouldn't get the chest - but she got them anyway because they were actually an upgrade from what she had! So epic boots for her!

I checked out her armory earlier today and noticed she got the drop. Good for her!

Determination. It can get you what you want! So keep at it.

At Last We Greet You, Karazhan...

Last night was so much fun that I was on for about 3 hours longer than I should have been.

Which then caused me to stumble into work MUCH too late. Lovely. Not good.

So here's what went down...

FIRST - I logged onto my rogue, got all the mats necessary - and made those wonderful Deathblow X11 Goggles that I wanted, then quested and farmed more mats getting my mining up to 367, and TRYING to get to 62 so I could "Show my pride" and actually WEAR the goggles. (Thanks for the comic reminder from an anonymous commenter - Scout Report is fun!)

Then my guildies logged on, and we have been planning on finally finishing up the now not totally required Kara attunement. We were expecting to take one or two of our members through Old Hillsbrad to get ready for Black Morass. We invited a 66 Ret Pally in the guild to come along to fill our group. Good that she came too, because there were some good blue upgrades for her!

Final setup was 70 Feral Druid tank, 70 Subtle Rogue, 70 Holy Pally, 70 BM Hunter and 66 Ret Pally. Durnholde is easy now. My guildmates do an amazing job as well... although we definitely need a bit more experience getting it perfect... I have to charge down mobs going after our hunter at times because we aren't focusing on the target I'm mainly tanking (Multiple mob pulls).

"Hey lets get Black Morass out of the way too!" I say

"I don't think we can handle it... Especially not with my heals" says our better-than-he-thinks-he-is healer. (He's awesome)

"Well let's go anyway!"

CHARGE!!! 18 waves later... Ba-da-bing that was EASY - but you know what? Probably the most fun I have ever had in an instance! I think we will continue getting others through the Kara Key process just because getting through the dungeons and BM is a great learning experience. And its FUN.

We only had one death on Temporus the 2nd boss - But that was only because the Hunter was a bit trigger happy and got a bunch of aggro before I'd even engaged him! The jerk didn't even drop the Hourglass of the Unraveller for us Other than that Chrono Lord Deja and the final boss Aeonus were pushovers.

My tactic on all the rifts and bosses was to position myself between the boss and Medivh, and when a new mob spawned and headed off towards Medivh (Stubborn bums have to be physically hit to stop them from bee-lining to Medivh - so no easy Ferocious Roars or Faerie Fires :( ) I would target and swipe him or lacerate just as he got close to where the Rift-boss was. That was usually good enough to keep them on me. Swipe was especially effective in getting the attention of those little whelps that spawn in 3s. Other than that we had our hunter and rogue picking up the runaways as well as burning down the Rift-bosses to close the rifts. We did a really good job.

It was also nice to laugh at the naysayers who said we couldn't do it!

After turning in the CoT quests I am almost Revered with KoT (hit honored on the way through), so I picked up the Heroic CoT key and the pattern for Drums of Panic. I have a feeling these will be fun in AV, AND even better it allowed me to finally cap my LW! 375 yay!

So of course we had to go into Kara to see what's up in there. Even just the front area is a lot cooler than many other instances - there's just a... Aura to the place that the developers really put some thought into this one. We died a couple times - but I turned in the first quest from the outside (and died) and now I have to find some diary.

Awesome night.
- Cool goggles for my rogue (and Tigersoul is jealous)
- Maxed Leatherworking
- Karazhan Master Key obtained for 4 of my guild officers so we can now organize runs
- Began discussing changes to guild structure to allow for some very laid-back Kara runs.

We'll see how it all works out.

Engineering Is Fun and Expensive

I finally made a marathon push leveling Engineering on Katryona up to 350 so I could make my first epics, the awesome DPS machines that are the Deathblow X11 Goggles - even more exciting is that when I get to 70, I can upgrade them to the even MORE Awesomer Quad Deathblow X44 Goggles!! (provided I can find the Schematic!)

Then I looked at the mats required...
Heavy Knothide Leather (6) - Skinning on my main - this is no problem.
Khorium Power Core - 3 Khorium Bars and 1 Primal Fire - I haven't even SEEN Khorium yet. AH maybe?
Hardened Adamantite Tube (2) - I need 6 Hardened Adamantite Bars - so 60 Adamantite Bars. Yikes.
Felsteel Stabilizer (4) - 8 Felsteel Bars (16 Eternium Bars & 24 Fel Iron Bars to make the Felsteel Bars) I can farm these, but it'll take a long time I think.
Primal Nether - No problem - Tigersoul has a couple of these.
Living Ruby (2) - At 50g a pop... these will be fun.

IF I were to buy all of these, the total cost would be about 500g according to my Server's current economy. Yikes! And since I powered my Engineering from 335 to 350 by making the ridiculously cheap White Smoke Flares, I didn't have to farm a lot ores... so I have a ways to go to max my Mining. And I can't even get Khorium until I'm maxed. Eternium will probably actually be the hardest mat for me to find.

These goggles rock. So I might just steal money from Tigersoul and get them made. Woohoo!

So to outline my "Marathon" from 330 to 350 (so not quite a marathon since I only went up 20 points, instead of 26.2) I made the following items:
Adamantite Grenade - 330 - 335
White Smoke Flare - 335 - 350

WOW pretty tough huh? Nice way to quickly level through those levels. Those flares can be kind of fun too. I would love to surround the flag with a bunch of those in a WSG match...

In the middle of this leveling Outland crashed on Dragonmaw and Lag spiked to 2800 in Stormwind. I wondered why I had only made 3 Fel Iron Bolts instead of the 10 I should have... Finally I was able to get to 350.

Hopefully tonight I will get those Deathblow goggles made!!

If you want to powerlevel your engineering from 1 - 375, Tentonhammer has a good guide. It's still an expensive undertaking. I have not followed this guide too much, because I've been having fun leveling as I go! Happy crafting!

Tigersoul's Addons

In my quest to figure out what was causing my freeze, I went through a lot of my mods and deleted, changed, reinstalled, and dug around. While doing so I thought I'd talk about my addons.

I ended up removing PitBull and am now using CT_Unit Frames from CTMod instead. I really miss the enemy castbar. Anybody know of any good low-resource mods that indicate what the enemy is casting?
I liked Pitbull, but CTMod is a bit simpler to use for now. Simple is good.

Here's a list of Mods I use and like:
Ace - Since I started using this I LOVE it. Especially the WoWAceupdater!!
AllPlayed - Fun tool for Altoholics and Moneytrackers
AtlasLoot - It's nice to see what rewards are available in instances, from reputation, and pvp
AutoProfitX - Not sure if it's even supported anymore - and there are other options - sells junk.
Cartographer - Too much good to say about this one. It rocks.
FuBar - FuBar is Fun! Just a fun little thing that'll display COUNTLESS little doodads (NO not THAT Doodad!) (Hee hee hee!) to play with or just get info from.
Omen - It's Omen! I just need my guildies to get it so I can Tank more effectively.
Parrot - The Ace description is the best. "Floating Combat Text of awesomeness. Caw. It'll eat your crackers." With the 2.4 combat log update, I'm still trying to get it back to its previous level of awesomeness.
ProfessionsBook - I love professions. I love alts. This helps me see what recipes/patterns/etc in my AH browsing can be learned by my alts, or if they are too low or already know it. It also lets me browse through and link their patterns when not on that char. Very handy.
SimpleMinimap - Allows scaling and mini map placement so your map is where you want it to be.
TankPoints - Helps you determine what gear might be better for tanking. You should still use your brain. Only evaluates gear.
Auctioneer - I love Auctioneer. It's too much fun. That's all I'll say or this post will go on forever. I would love it even more if it were Ace compatible... Only problem is that it can really eat your system resources when you scan a lot.
CTMod - My first mod ever, and it's been hard to get away from. Haven't used the raid interface much yet, but I really like the bar placement and import abilities. Usually it gets my other mod info as well, so it makes setup for alts QUITE nice. There are many many other functions I haven't looked into yet... and with my lazy "Simple is good" attitude, it'll be a while before I look into them!
Deadly Boss Mods - Haven't used the raid functions yet - but the BG helps are awesome.. although I'm still half-heartedly trying to figure out how to move the dang AV timers from the CENTER of the screen. Why do I have to be so lazy?? =p
ItemRack - It has been 6 months since the last update. Still - this mod is awesome. Easy to use, easy to set up, and awesome. I tried some of the others, but this one got me hooked. We'll see if I try another again later.

Sunwell Portal Problems Fixed

The problem was an infinite loop caused by a library used by a couple of good mods. Questhelper, Gatherer and a few other mods use the library Astrolabe. Update this library and it should fix the problem.

Unfortunately for the moment I have deleted Questhelper from my Addons. It definitely was helpful in leveling Katryona up to her current level, especially teamed up with Cartographer. I'll probably reinstall it with the astrolabe library found in Gatherer since it REALLY is a useful tool. I was just happy to not get sucked into that infinite loop!