I wonder if I'm doing something wrong.

The wife and I play a few characters. We have a Draenei couple, Blood Elf couple, Night Elf couple, and an Orc couple. Oh, yes, a Forsaken couple, and a Human couple. (See sidebar on the left.)

Anyway, we tend to get spread out in who we're playing. So I thought a bit of a schedule might help regulate us. Monday these people, Tuesday these, and so on. I especially wanted to get the new races through their new areas, and then Msaker and Droonda through the Outlands. This way we'd even get to see all the new content.

But I've found myself kind of leading a "charge" to level. Going to Falcon Watch I'm planning out a strategy to hit the Pools of Aggonar, then the Fissure, then those bird people, ... Who's got time to read the quest givers texts if you're in a rush to get the xp flowing? I actually had to force myself to stop, pause, and read the quest texts. Why was I killing those bird people for the Blood Elf guy, for instance. I've forgotten, or never really read the quest. That's a shame!

I want to see the content, and yet I find myself rushing through it.

And after Droonda retired for the evening I took a look at the open quests. Ah ha! There was a necklace I could replace my old PvP one, and the later Frostwolf one, with, gotten by doing a quest to collect demonic essences from Taskmaster demons in the ruins in southwest Hellfire Peninsula. So I was going to do a quest for the loot. And I'm not sure why I needed those essences. Something to do with the Draenei prisoner. (Who dies upon taking the potion he's later given, and then instantly returns to life as if nothing happened. Even that pickpocket target in the Inn in Orgrimmar stays down longer. And he's a Tauren.)

Anyway, I'm in the ruins. I kill the Taskmaster, but don't use any AoE attacks (like cleave) in order to save the Broken slaves. I'll be going Aldor Faction, because in my heart of hearts I think Thrall means well, the Mag'har aren't vicious nor evil, and the Orcs aren't murderous. (Misunderstood maybe, but we aren't evil. Now Trolls and gnome warlocks, they're other stories. ;)

So here in the ruins I go into a tent and find a Broken sitting there. I speak with him. It turns out this tribe of Broken has a few leaders left and there is a high leader I should visit. I do, there is a key to find, then I free the leaders (and therefore the tribe), I kill a demon overlord type, and then I learn the high leader of the Broken was the original traitor. My actions have undone, or stopped now rather, the harm he caused his people. Hey. Cool. I'm part of a story of discovery and redemption. That's a nice change of pace. No, I'm not level 62. But doing that quick little quest, and being a part of that vignette, I really enjoyed that. Yes, I'll return there with Droonda, and free yet more of them, but that's good too.

Now back to my rhetorical question from the title. Was/am I doing something wrong? I asked that myself when I saw a level 61 Draenei ride past as Droonda and I made our way back to Falcon Watch. "Sheeyet." I tell my wife. "Level 61 Draenei. ... Level 61. 61. 61. It's like we're standing still. We're 61." I've got 20+ some days played on Msaker and I'm level 61. This person has had, what, a month to reach this level? 31 calendar days. Let's say you power through to 61 in 10 days played. That's still 8 hours a day, every single golldanged day, day in, day out, to reach 61 when we're 61. I just want to scream.

Heck, it's his $14 a month. If he wants to burn out in two months, meh, whatever. Skip over all content, his loss. Less competition for spawns when he quits to go play Vanguard. Or whatever. Aw, man, I know the wife is absolutely going to be playing LOTRO too. And where she goes, I go. I'll never reach 70. :(

:)

Oh, I'm sure I will. I keep later hours than she does.

P.S. Hmm, I still haven't gotten to my point. Oh, yeah: I want to read the quest texts, I want to enjoy the story, and yet I still want to make progress. Keeping up with the Jones's I'm going to miss out on that. Not keeping up means I "fall behind" my guild. End-game/instance runs are pretty much out because of it. (No takers in my guild for Hellfire Citadle now that a lot of the guild, the players, are level 65+ now.) How many people balance this well? How many folks can experience all the content, and yet still make progress to their degree of satisfaction. I suppose I might be wanting to much.

P.P.s. Anyway, tomorrow night it's off to Portes du Soleil for skiing! For the snow!

Retesting Old Waters.

I am taking up Gitr's call to create a Blood Elf character over on the Burning Legion server. BL is a PvP server, and while I did level up Darkhoof (now Blackhoof) to 60, and Msaker and Darkhand, to their mid 40's on one, I was preferring to join my wife on nice, safe, RP servers for the built-in parties of 2 deal with over-the-shoulder vent action.

But I'll take the plunge again, and I've created Kaelstra, a Blood Elf Paladin. The most annoying enemy to run into for me, while PvPing, has been the Paladin. So I figured I'd better return the favor to the Alliance and join the Bubble Boy Team, albeit the dark, yet light, side.

Warlock's aren't annoying. They're just outright rabidly dangerous, steer clear, PLAGUE CARRIER! RUN!!, crazy annoying and dangerous. Paladins you just gave up on and let them go their own way.

Anyway, let's see how that goes. Doesn't help that I call it a night at 12-1am and that's just prime time for ... what time zone in Burning Legion anyway? It's all good. :)

Otherwise you'll see I've added some of my wifes characters over on the side-bar, the partners of my characters. Not each of them. When she saw I hadn't added Ombria, her level 20 Night Elf Rogue, or Winkydink, her level 20-something Gnome, or Zauberin, her level 36 or so Forsaken Mage, or Hialeah, her level 14 Tauren Hunter, ... I'm thinking "That's my girl!" She's got an alt for every alt I have! :)

Not your ordinary Flight Point.



We loved the skiing, Droonda and I. We had sunshine every afternoon, and every morning but one. The last days sky was the purest sky blue you'd ever imagine. (And no Moonkin to run from!)


This is the Austrian Alps south of Salzburg in a ski area called Alpendorf.


And next weekend Nachmahd and I do a "Boys Trip" to go on a Ski Safari. Ski Heil!

Going skiing for a week.

The wife and I are going to Austria for a week, so no posts till we get back.

So, do me a favor and think snow!

P.S.

Msaker reports: Ding. (My first level 61 character.)

How to get a Blood Elf Bandit Face Mask.

(In case you're googling for it, I'll go ahead and post it.)

Alright. I think every Blood Elf should be wearing one.

You need to be level 5 to wear it, it counts as miscellaneous armor, any class can wear it, and it's not soulbound. (It's not Rogue only like the red Defias Face Mask.)

And there's an Archmage (NPC) in Silvermoon City wearing it.

And you'll see what it looks like in the picture below on Sunstriker. Halcyon has one now too.

And you're wondering to yourself "GET ON WITH IT! HOW DO I GET ONE!?"

Well, head on over to Azuremyst Isle. This is the level 5-12 Draenei area. That's right. Right where the Exodar is located.

If you're thinking "This is a job for a high level toon." You might be right. Because it helped greatly to be able to ride around on a circuit looking for these. My Night Elf Hunter had no trouble getting around. Horde characters will have some difficulty in getting over there. But, it's easier to get onto Azuremyst Isle than into Darnassus. (I imagine, don't know 100%.)

BUT, but, that is not to say low level characters couldn't do it on their own. I saw a band of low (5-12) level Blood Elves (I kid you not!) running around Azuremyst Isle.

The face mask drops off a stealthed level 7 mob called Blood Elf Bandit. The mobs spawn site moves around as well. However, they tend to mostly be on the roads. On the west side on the road going south to north, and on the southern east to west road. And elsewhere. I encountered more bandits on these two roads than elsewhere.

The bandits are stealthed and hang out just off the road. Near a lamp post, or a tree, or something. I think I found about 10 different spawn points. I use Cartographer and just made a map note to indicate where. (Should I want to repeat the exercise.) (You can just search Thottbot to get a map of spawn points. And, for me, the western spawns were better. It might also have been the Horde Druid that was getting all the eastern hits.)

Oh yes, north of the Exodar, on the beach with the Murloc camps, each camp is a spawn point as well.

Mounted it took me over an hour to get two masks to drop. It's going to take a while. But, if you're into vanity wear, this one can't be beat.

And that's how you get one of the Blood Elf Bandit Face Masks.

Edit: Here's the link to Thottbot for the map.

No "70 woot! ding!!!". No ding. But not nothing. Suffering from altism perhaps? But lucky nonetheless.

Well, a week after installing The Burning Crusade, and two weeks after it's release, I'm pleased to say not one character has dinged 70.

Well, hell, not one character has dinged 61 even.

Have I been in a coma, stricken down in some bizarre keyboarding accident, the more concerned among you might ask? No. Thanks for asking though.

Have I stopped playing? Hardly. Four plus hours a night doesn't qualify as "stopped playing" by any stretch of the imagination.

Well, what the fruk have I been doing? And why aren't I 61 yet??!

Well, each of my 3 60's is currently holed up in Inns in Hellfire Peninsula. Arcarius over in Honor Hold, and Msaker and Blackhoof in Thrallmar.

Arcarius is furthest along. He's about 85% of the way to 61. Questing has been easy enough with him. The Unyielding Cavalry guys were the most annoying mobs. The cat would attack them, and they'd charge me (WTF! DO YOUR JOB CAT!) and they'd be too close to use my crossbow, and I'd back off, and they'd charge me again, all the while fighting the cat. So I learned there is a fine point where I can just stand out at firing range and they won't charge me. I was surprised to see how easy those Maghar Orcs were. I was worried about getting more than one at a time, but they go down very quickly. The Hunter types, with the Ravager pets, were harder than the pairs of guards. I've probably got the name of the Orcs wrong, but, questing later on the Horde side, I believe these Maghar Orcs are the "good guys" on Thrall's side. I've noticed it's become much tougher to level up skinning, even on an orange level job. Thanks, Blizzard, for artificially extending the game for me. What took one skinning to level up one point in skinning, now takes twenty. And I've got to get me a Warp Stalker (white dragon thingy) soon!

Msaker remains at the Inn. Droonda hasn't been around, so he's being the faithful hubby and waiting for her to return to action. Meanwhile he's drinking grog and playing solitaire in the inn's pub.

Blackhoof is getting into the game now too. Night before last, or so, he started in the Outlands and started working on some of the quests. Enhancement Shaman isn't too bad. Isn't too good, but isn't too bad. Last night he was joined by Nachmahd (who is more Resto, less Enhancement) and the duo shined. And being mostly Enhancement Blackhoof out DPS'd Nachmahd, but that's stands to reason. Blackhoof stands at 50% the way to 61, so Msaker must surely have gotten past that by now.

But none of these are 61 now. What else have I been doing? Feeding my altism problem.

If you take a gander at my characters list over to the left here, you'll see my problem.

I've played my Blood Elf Mage a bit, my Draenei Shaman a bit less, and created a new Draenei Huntress (my 2nd only female toon - she's another "concept" like Darbanville was.). I've also played by Blood Elf Paladin a little. And I've created a Blood Elf Hunter, and a Draenei Paladin.

And Freewind is 85% of the way to his mount. And Darkhand is nearly 50, and that's where leveling speed picks up again.

My problem is I'm enjoying playing this game at every level still. But maybe "problem" is the wrong word.

Perhaps I should better say "I'm lucky to enjoy playing this game at every level still."

Woot. No ding, but not nothing.

Le content est mort. Viva la content.

I'm still happy with all the new content. And I'm still enjoying it.

Halcyon absolutely loves Sunstrider Isle. The trees, their foliage, the manicured grass, the glory of Silvermoon City. She could live there. I can't place the real world location for this. Lower Northern California perhaps? Except the trees are fantastical. They're like Birch trees. The whole place is like a manicured garden. I say California because of the sunshine and the sense that the temperature is perfect. Sunstriker is level 12 now, and she's level 11. And we've done all the quests up in Sunstrider and are just about to enter the Ghostlands to aid a sickened Blood Elf being tended by a Forsaken woman.

Exilarch and Zimraphel are on a bit of a pause. We'll get back to them shortly though. The Azuremyst Isle reminds me a lot of upper Northern California. The gray granite and the pine trees, and the ocean as well. The sun just doesn't feel as bright as on Sunstrider, things are shadier and cooler, though the sunset/sunrise at the Murloc beach feels great.

So far all three 60's are in Hellfire Peninsula doing quests. Arcarius has picked up a nice crossbow. I now wish I'd not bought that last gun at the AH for 50g, and only bought so to avoid the hours and hours, and hours and hours, of honor grinding in the battlegrounds for the Grandmarshals gun. And here one of the first quest rewards was a better ranged weapon. Msaker has quested some with Droonda and Nachmahd. Arcarius, soloist, has probably done more quests alone and is 3/4 of the way to 61. Blackhoof, he's just putzing around. I think becoming familiar with some of the common quests as Arcarius, Msaker and Droonda, and Blackhoof, will have an easier go at things.

Our Dark Ministry Guild Master is level 69 now. And a few others in the guild. Me, I have too much fun just messing around.

And I really wish I had just one more slot to roll a Blood Elf Hunter on Kirin Tor as well. I need some soloing goodness on the Horde side in my stable of characters.

Blizzard: Give me an 11th slot!

I hope the buzz isn't lost too quickly when my level 20 Draenei and Blood Elf characters hit the same old grind outside of their new lands.

P.S. What's up with that massive wall in Tor'Watha? I've heard folks speculating about a low level instance possible in the future here? A few more low level instances would be cool. Give the Blood Elves their Wailing Caverns ("I am the Serpent King, I can do anything!") and give the Draenei their Dead Mines ("Van Cleef pay big for your heads!"). Sure, we could do those old instances, but how about some personalized love for the new races. An Amani Troll instance for the Blood Elves, and a Blood Elf instance for the Draenei. (Here's a thought: An instance, inside/under the Exodar, ala Rage Fire Chasm, where the Draenei must clear out Blood Elves intent on undermining/destroying/stealing it.)

P.P.S. That's a terrific idea no? Can I have an 11th slot for thinking of it? Please?

Update on the new kids in town.


Sunstriker, Mage, with his Blood Elf Bandit Face Mask (origin: Azuremyst Isle), and Halcyon v. 2.0, Paladin.



The wife thought the original Halcyon was too Paris Hilton with the headband, and too ... nice and wholesome looking. I agree. The new Halcyon is much edgier looking. More attitude. Would you mess with this woman?

The new kids in town.

Sunstriker, Mage, and Halcyon, Paladin.

Exilarch, Shaman, and Zimraphel, Priest.

Second impression of the Expansion. I love it.

Firstly, reports that the current level 58-60 end-game dungeons are dead is true. There is no need to run any of them. Blizzard, with one expansion, and no updates to these dungeons, effectively cut them from the game. Oh, sure, some level 70's will five-man Ragnaros someday, but as a furnace to be forged in, the Molten Core has done gone cold. The natural leveling progression will find level 58's bypassing Strat, Scholomance, Blackrock Spire, and going straight into the Outlands. I know I will.

Hellfire Peninsula is cool, but the mushroom swamps beyond it cooler, and Shattrath City and environs, cooler still.

I love it.

Msaker rode with Nachmahd to Shattrath from Thrallmar, checked into the Inn there with permanent rooms, and then hopped into a portal back to Orgrimmar. To support Sunstriker's jewelsmithing, he rode out and up the red sands of Durotar, through the brown plains of The Barrens, north into Ashenvale, through there and then north up Darkshore along the mountains, farming copper and rough stone the entire way. Hearthed back to Shattrath, found a forge, smelted the copper bars, and mailed it all to Sunstriker. Then he hopped a bat (Draenei windrider master!!!) back to Thrallmar where a slumbering Droonda awaited him.

My first impressions of the Burning Crusade.

Well, right off, let me say that I did not get out into the Outlands. See, I pre-ordered two copies of the game. One Collector's Edition for my lovely wife, so she could be the owner of the cutsie Black Netherwhelp. For me the standard edition. So, a week after release, what arrived in the mail? Other than packages all week for my wife? Just one copy, her Collector's Edition.

Oh, she saw me sad and said I should install it on my machine, and it didn't really matter. But, no, this was her copy, not mine, it wasn't going to be installed on any machine but hers. Three hours later it's getting installed on her machine.

So, I didn't take anyone into the Outlands.

While it installed I listened to the music CD and looked through the art book. It's a companion edition to the original Art of the World of Warcraft. That's worth the price difference right there. And it came on both DVD and CD-ROM, and I think the standard edition is only CD-ROM. (So I'll be able to install it off her DVD and use my key.)

Anyway, while my wife gave me a little time, I created my two characters. Okay, I created two characters that would only get deleted since they're on her machine.

First up was the Draenei Shaman.

They are top heavy. The men are at least. Their legs, though ending in hooves like a Tauren, are much thinner. Now when a Tauren sits, he's like a huge 3 year old. He just plops down on his butt and his feet are sticking straight up. Just jam a lollypop in that grass munching maw and you've completed a Norman Rockwell scene. But when a Draenei male sits, imagine the scene from some old Italian painting, the kind set in the woods where there's fauns and satyrs running around. When he sits his one heel is planted, and his leg is bent a bit, the other leg lies on it's side. This is like something out of Greek mythology. I didn't explore too much, since it was just a temporary character. But I know Shamans, and he'll be fun to play. The wife, later on, created a Draenei Priest. Very elegant looking.

Then came the Blood Elf Mage.

I don't think the Blood Elf men are gay, like many do. Sure they have nice hair and all. This is clearly more manga, anime-moe influenced, in my opinion, than not. If a Belf jokes around with you, and says he's better looking than your girlfriend, he's right if you aren't a Belf.

Yeah, the guys are haughty, but so are the women, they all are. You aren't transplanted into some Horde universe with skulls and corruption and mention of an Earth Mother. It's like candy cane land. It's very magical, and very Harry Potter. (Magically animated brooms, etc.) And it's very Elven. And it's the antithesis of the Night Elves. And that's really the lore. Well done. (Maybe a little bit too Harry Potter. The spinning bookcases and the dancing brooms? Why is it so damned dusty there!?!? There's clouds of dust being pushed around by brooms. What's all this dust? Pixie dust??!)

The first quests are all close by. I remember my first time as a Night Elf. I was running all over that Shadowglen area, out to the cave, all foresty. These quests seemed closer to get to. And one of the first quest rewards is a 4-slot bag. Nice. (Not that my Horde Tailor hasn't hooked up our new Blood Elves with 4 Runecloth Bags each.)

Not sure about the vendor trash sold in the Draenei beginning area, but the Blood Elves have got some seriously flashy stuff. I got a quest reward staff at level 3 or 4. Later I went to a vendor and checked out her gear. And then I saw what she had for sale. There was a staff, not as good as mine, but damn, it looked epic. It looked so good I spent the 1s and got it. The first shield you get from the quest reward is so very, very Blood Elf, I couldn't believe it. Everything about the place looks good.

I'll have my serious Blood Elf on Kirin Tor, a Mage, and I'll definitely be creating a Blood Elf Paladin over on Steamwheedle Cartle.

I believe this WILL find more playing the Horde side than otherwise. And that's a good thing. The more balanced the factions are, the better off everyone will be. (Not an issue on PvP servers since those tend to be close to 1:1 anyway.) But battleground queues will even out the more balanced the sides are.

Anyway, hopefully today my copy will arrive. It ought to since the realms are down for maintenance and not due back up until 8pm or so our time.

C'mon. What's the point?

You flag yourself for PvP on a PvE server. But you aren't in the Plaguelands trying to capture towers. And you aren't in Silithus collecting dust. You're in Desolace killing skeletons.

There you are, level 36, Paladin, and you've flagged yourself. I suppose it guarantees you won't heal anyone, or be asked to heal, or buff, them. Is that your goal? To be anti-social? "I've infected myself with a lethal virus. You want no part of me." All you want to do is grind and be left alone, so you flag yourself?

You play on a PvE server by choice. I know I do. I played to 60, and into the end-game, on a PvP server. But I couldn't bear my wife dying at the hands of some punk Night Elf, or worse, Gnome, Rogue. So we transferred. So you rolled on a PvE (RP) server. And then you flag yourself.

Okay, I see some folks doing it in order to show they have balls of steel, or they're Warlocks. Who's going to mess with a Warlock. In fact I've seen a few flagged Pally's in the higher level areas. Who's going to kill a high level Pally? How? They'll heal to full twice, and you'll be bored to tears before you even get close. Meh. Not worth it. And Pally's have gotten sponge-worthy with the patches lately.

Anyway, seeing this level 36 flagged Pally in Desolace got me to thinking. What a terrible waste of my time to log onto my 60 Warrior, bring him all the way to Desolace, just to make her turn that damn flag off. Or, how long will she choose to remain flagged once I show up? How soon after I show up would she unflag? Five minutes?

I suspect it's an anti-social thing.

Or a trap. Flag yourself. Cry "Heal me!" in Goldshire. Some noob gets flagged healing you. And your buddy, on his Horde Faction Rogue, goes to town on the noob.

What on earth, or Azeroth, are you thinking flagging yourself for PvP in Desolace? Or Elwynn. What is the point??!

Left Behind, part II.

My Alliance guild has decided to move to the greener pastures of a new server, Farstriders. We can't move with them because we'd lose the synergy with our Horde characters who are in a very competent guild and among some good people.

Will the two new Dragonhawk Hatchling pets, for Msaker and Droonda, sent by Nachtschatte, our friends new Blood Elf Rogue, make up for it?

It feels very odd to be guildless. It's good to be part of something. Otherwise you're just ... Kinless.

P.S. On the plus side, my wife's characters lose the "pasties" that have been part of the guild tabard. (I.e. see above. Amusing for the first time you notice, and then it's just a smile with Janet Jackson winking at you. I guess it's a crescent moon, on it's back, with stars. Hmm, very Hollywood I guess.)

Left behind.

What's my experience been since Tuesday, and the opening of the portal?

Hmmm. It's always pretty quiet. Playing European hours on a Central Time Zone server I never see crowds. I know the crowds exist because last week I was in Atlanta, and places got busy.

Last night Msaker farmed some Mageweave, for Darbanville's tailoring for disenchanting, off the Harpies in North Feralas. Got 5 stacks in under an hour, farming alongside a 49 Nelf Hunter which probably hurt the mageweave drop rate for me. Didn't see anyone else up there.

Afterwards, Darbanville, Zauber, and Nachweis did some questing in 1000 Needles. We were the only 3 there. Nachweis is our friend here in Germany, so our timezone.

Darbanville and Zauber went into the Shimmering Flats and ground on some basilisks and vultures and, you guessed it, we were the only ones there.

Later, in search of a tailoring pattern for Darbanville, Blackhoof flew up to Winterspring. He saw a Paladin in Everlook wearing the quest reward shield from the Outlands, and then later a 60 warrior who appeared not to have crossed over yet either.

Our guild was entirely in the Outlands except us, and the new Blood Elves in the Ghostlands. Nachweis does have the expansion already, Nachmahd sent some food from the Outlands to Msaker, but he's decided, other than reaching Shattrach City, to hold off until we can join him.

It's been quiet. Nice thing though is NOT having the Auction House in the Outlands. Players are forced back to Azeroth to do business. I suppose they could just employ bank-alts, but what a waste of a slot! :) So Msaker and Blackhoof visit the AH and dream of tomorrow.

Thank God for mageweave.

That's the last pre-order I'll ever do. A pet can't possibly be worth the week's delay getting into the Outlands.

All my guildies, Horde and Alliance side, are in Hellfire Peninsula. I got so tired of hearing their "Oh, wow, look at ..." and "Wasn't that hilarious, I'm laughing so hard ..." that I had to leave our guild chat.

Msaker's stuck farming mageweave for Darbanville, and Arcarius knows it's pointless to strive for PvP rewards anymore. (And who's there to PvP with anyway? Everyone is in the Outlands already.) Blackhoof is grazing somewhere, building up strength.

If it weren't for mageweave, I'd have no game at all.
Gloom, dispair, and no BC for me.

Looking for trouble, in all the right places.

Itarilde and Freewind, that's the wife and I, and the couple featured on the right in the graphic above, were looking to do a few quests. Not many left at this level (high 30's). Didn't want to visit the jungle. Planned to work on Ogres in Arathi Highlands. Saw we still had to get a Tome out of the Alterac Ruins. "They're Ogres, so let's go!"

Level 35-40 Elite Ogres. She, 39 Druid, and I, 38 Warrior. Woot. We took the Ogres one at a time and it was a piece of cake. And even if we got an add, we handled that too. Just root the melee type and we melt the 2nd, then kill the first. We'd finish fights with two with half her mana left, and all our health. She's quite the healer being Resto specced. The level 40 Elite guarding the bookcase with the tome, he fell easily as well.

I didn't think it'd be this easy. And it was fun. I love how I never get the chance to forget that with this game.

TBC, when it arrives in the mail from EB/Gamespot will hold 1) destinations for Arcarius, Blackhoof, Msaker, and Droonda to venture into, 2) Blood Elf Paladin (she) and Mage (me), 3) Draenei Priest (she) and Shaman (me), 4) dreams of Flight for Itarilde and Greenclaw, and 5) a Netherdragon Whelp for her.

Add-ons Extravaganza!

I put together a file list for my friend and decided this might be of use to others too.

This is what I've got in way of add-ons.

I mostly get them at:

http://www.wowace.com/files/ (Sort on timestamp to get newest on top)

http://www.wowinterface.com/index.php? (New and updated add-ons on the right side)

http://wow.curse-gaming.com/en/files/addons/ (This used to be my favorite, now WoW Interface is, but they still get stuff.)

(Some of these add-ons come with multiple parts in their own directories. (I.e. dependencies.) I'm not showing those. I'll just show the main directories. If you get all these you'll have more files in the add-on directory.)

Ace2
Backbone of the Ace add-on system. This is a support library that other "Ace based" add-ons use. Memory efficient. Get it because a great many of the below are based on Ace2.

AllPlayed
Tells me how long I've been playing. "How can you kill that which has no life?"

Atlas
Maps.

AtlasLoot
The loot to be found. Handy when you're asking yourself "Do I want to go raid Hello Kitty Fantasy Island? What's in it for me?"

AtlasQuest
Are you sure you got every quest there?

Auctioneer
This is working. Get it at http://auctioneeraddon.com/dl/AuctioneerComplete/

AutoBar
This provides a quick bar for drink, food, mounts, etc. That way I can keep my action bars free for spells.

Automaton
I primarily used this for auto-joining BG's. It'll also auto-repair your stuff when you visit a vendor that can do repairs. It'll auto-decline duel requests. It'll auto-accept raid and party invites and warlock summons. Etc. You can have it do what you want.

AutoProfit
This will automatically sell off your gray items (i.e. vendor trash) in your bag. (You can set stuff in a "save" list so it won't be sold.)

Bartender3
This is my action bar add-on. So I can have my bars where I want them.

CallOfElements
Shammy totem bars. This doesn't work as as the previous version yet. But it works.

Capping
I absolutely love the info you get in AB and AV with this.

Cartographer
This is like super-Gatherer+. (Get all the Cartographer add-ons as well. Mining, Herbalism, etc.) Very handy world map tool. And in AV you can see all your raid in little circles numbered by group. The class of the player is shown by color of the circle. And if the circle is flashing red you can see that they're in combat. Imagine knowing exactly where every fight is in AV. (Or AB.)

Clique
I keep this and Healbot so I can do more. (This is good for when you use Grid (below) and where the raid would otherwise overwhelm Healbot.)

cyCircled
"Skins" the Bartender bars and more.

DamageMeters
How much DPS am I doing? How much healing am I doing?

DemonTrainerFrame
This makes buying warlock pet spells easier.

DeuceCommander
This provides the setup options for other Ace add-ons in one place.

DruidBar
This will allow unit frames to show the Druids mana when he's in other shapes. (You'll recover mana after shifting to cat or bear form. Handy to know when you're full again.) Has it's own bar, or it'll provide the info for other unit frames (like X-Perl below.)

ElkBuffBar
I like the info on buffs and debuffs.

EQCompare
Is that robe really better?

Evpsets
Provides some idea what you're after in the battlegrounds. Relevant mostly for 60's with lots of time on their hands.

FuBar
FuBar_AnkhTimer
FuFubar_AtlasFu2
FuBar_BagFu
FuBar_BattlegroundFu
FuBar_ClockFu
Fubar_DamageMetersFu
FuBar_ExperienceFu
FuBar_FactionsFu
FuBar_FarmerFu
FuBar_FuXPFu
FuBar_GuildFu
FuBar_HonorFu
FuBar_MailFu
FuBar_MarkofHonorFu
FuBar_MicroMenuFu
FuBar_MoneyFu
FuBar_PetInfoFu
FuBar_PlayFu
FuBar_QuestsFu
FuBar_RecZone
FuBar_SkillsPlusFu
FuBar_SpeedFu
FuBar_TrainerFu
FuBar_VolumeFu

I like info. I used Titan Bar until I found that the Ace/Fubar collection was much better memory wise. And FuBar tends not to be. (Army acronym.)

GFW_AdSpace
Should tell you if that recipe/pattern/schematic you see for sale in the auction house is sold by a vendor somewhere. Should.

GFW_FeedOMatic
GFW_HuntersHelper
GFW_TrackMenu
If you're a hunter you can use these. If not, ignore.

Grid
I like this for raids. It'll do a compact 8x5 grid of everyone in AV. Then you can see their class, health, etc. This is where Clique comes in. I can shift-click on a person's box to heal them, for example.

HealBot
CastParty/ClickHeal add-on. This and Clique about covers it.

ICU
This is AV magic for hunters. Target the enemy off your radar like you're some spy hunter.

InFlight
Got time for that bio?

ItemLevel
How good is that item? No, really. "Level you can use at" is not equal to "level of how good it really is."

ItemRack
This is your weapon/outfit swapping add-on.

JIM_CooldownPulse
It loads with a heart beat. I think it works.

MetaHud
A very configurable Hud.

MikScrollingBattleText
This is a Scrolling Combat Text competitor.

MobHealth
This will tell you how much health that mob really has.

MrPlow
This arranges your bags. Handy.

OneBag
OneBank
OneRing
OneStorage
OneView
This is a nice set of inventory add-ons.

oRA2
I don't raid much, but when I did raid this fired up the Main Tank's targets. It's supposed to work with CT_Raid.

Prat
My chat channel has never been more organized.

RecipeBook
Hmm. This does something.

ReverseEngineering
This comes in handy for leatherworking, engineering, etc. Where one item is made of other items that are made of yet other items. Try it.

SimpleCombatLog
This really works. I love the info I get. I hate it when I'm crit for *1337* by a rogue. Punk.

simpleMinimap
Mini-map adjustments.

StitchUI
This is a crafting queue.

SuperInspect
For those that need to compare themselves with others, and compare those others with yet others. I got it a while back because it's how I tracked my own +Healing and +Resist info.

TrinketMenu
ItemRack will handle trinkets. This is better.

Warmath
This is similar to ItemLevel. However where ItemLevel looks at stats, this goes a step farther. This appears to be a realistic item level.

XLoot
Quick looting+.

XPerl
I used to use Classic Perl Bars. Now I use XPerl because I like the configuration possibilities better. And there's arcane bars for most units. And it looks good. I like it a lot.

ZHunterMod
This is a collection of hunter add-ons providing pet, aspect, tracking, trap pull-down action bars. Handy to free up your own action bars for /emotes. I keep the pet, aspect, and trap menus enabled. I use the GFW tracker add-on.

Anyway, that's what I play with.

GG, what now?

"Unable to validate game version. This may be caused by file corruption or the interferance of another program. Please visit www.blizzard.com/support/wow/ for more information and possible solutions to this issue."

Anyone else getting this? On the eve of the server restarts tomorrow, and the expansion's release Tuesday, we have this?

I'm trying to log the website, and no luck.

The page cannot be displayed

There is a problem with the page you are trying to reach and it cannot be displayed.

Background: The request cannot be processed at this time. The amount of traffic exceeds the Web site's configured capacity.

Go figure. Who'd imagine that?

And not just my machine but my wife's as well. (So it's not just me.)

Three raids.

Arcarius, after pvp'ing his butt off in the battlegrounds traded all that work in for a set of epic shoulders. Nice and glowy. Bought a Crystal Slugthrower in the Auction House and so will get a few more armor pieces before grinding his way to a High Warlord's bow. And both pets, Bluntobject and Nevius are level 60 now.

And since I was in Atlanta this last week I had the opportunity to raid with both guilds. Arcarius joined the Kirin Tor Alliance as a member of Nightsong Moon as they raided Zul'Gurub for two nights. Bat and Snake boss downed. And Blackhoof came out of his semi-retirement to heal in a Dark Ministry raid on UBRS. Through to the end we had two deaths, total, that raid. These are good players.

And the wife's Warlock, Zauber, got his gold thread robes so that was a mission accomplished as well.

And all 3 60's have the Tabard from the event at the Dark Portal.

Easy (if you're level 60 or so) Argent Dawn Tabard.

Check out the WoW Insider today.

Basically, head down to the Dark Portal, get a quest from the Argent Dawn, to kill, or be involved in the killing of, 6 Invading Felguards. Took the wife and I five minutes to do it and we each got an Argent Dawn Tabard for service, "heroic" at that!, fighting the invasion at the Dark Portal.

Basically the tabard adds a little fun in that you can "use" it and you'll /flex, without the emote, and an arcane explosion (harmless) blows up around you. Fun. And it's an Argent Dawn Tabard without having to reach Exalted (or whatever) with them.

I suppose you'll have some fun watching Warlock Felguards in the mix, and if you're on a PvP server, heh, enjoy that too. I'd say this will be a pretty busy place for a bit.

The slow road to the Grandmarshal's Bow, aka Bullseye. And it's not just 60's.

Arcarius has been getting some amount of attention lately.

Yes, I could sign up for the Battlegrounds with Msaker, Orc Warrior, and join guildmates, play connected via Ventrillo, and basically be a big green lure to lull folks into thinking it's just a dumb Orc (in full rare pvp gear, frostbite and the immoveable object in his hands, lots of +health and +stamina enchants) standing there guarding the flag at the lumbermill. That's not the case. There's a bald dead guy whose got you targeted with cold, freezing critical death. Otherwise, it's just little ol' me. Zug Zug! "Come, pink one. Join the party."

More often than not Arcarius waits 15 minutes to join an Arathi Basin game. Relmstein has already pointed out an idea that now that the horde have become sated with gear (instant access to BG's) they're queuing less and that means even longer waits for the alliance. Arcarius waits 20-30 minutes to join an Alterac Valley game. Msaker continues to have instant access.

Arathi Basin, from Horde p.o.v.: Defend everything with a few, constantly harrass the Alliance with the rest. Win.

Arathi Basin, from Alliance p.o.v.: "Oh Noes! If they take the Stables, they'll only have Trollbane Hall's cemetery to camp." If they don't take the Stables then it's just a HK farming fest around it for everyone. Are they choosing not to take the Stables to prolong the game and rack up HK's against an ever changing Alliance group? Maybe. That's how I'd play it. Honor is harder to come by than marks afterall.

I note a lot more coordination going on, occasionally, on the Horde side. I see very little on the Alliance side. One game, seconds before the gate opened, I call out "Group 1 to the mine, group 2 to the bs, group 3 to the lm. lol." I added the "lol" because we were 5 against 15 Horde and we all rode to the mine. Yay! Late comers took the stables. We held the stables. That we manage pretty well, being 15 of us and all. Taking other nodes, aside from the ill-fated ninja steal that hardly ever last a minute, are rare.

Msaker *is* geared up, as Relmstein suggests he should be. The High Warlord's Poleaxe looks incredible though. I must consider getting back in there.

But Arcarius is still running with the Guttbuster, a level 48 Auction House Blue, for crying out loud. It's a decent gun, still, but it's time for an upgrade. That's where the Bullseye comes in. Wait, let me get that right. Bullseye. Better.

I try to play a couple hours of BG's every single night on Arcarius. I manage, in 2 hours, to get, maybe, 1-2k honor. That's 10-20 days play to get that gun. Hmm, that's not too bad. And then I'll work on the rest of my armor set (helm, boots, then shoulders and chest.) The GM Bow is much faster than the GM Gun or Crossbow. Go figure. Same DPS, 1.8 speed vs. 2.8 speed. I like the feel of speed and am going that route. And they tell me the epic weapon will last me longest in the expansion, then the shoulders and helm. Hmm. If it's not too painful maybe the last two pieces will be the epic versions. (Shiney shoulders. 'nuff said.)

Arcarius' new pet, Bluntobject, a white bear recently tamed in Winterspring, and dinging 59 last night, is coming along. He's tough, resilient, and hits for much more DPS than my 58 cat did. I can't explain it. He occasionally out DPSes me! (Damn Guttbuster. But, then again, why do I want his aggro? He's got more health and armor than me!) While I wait for BG's to pop we kill Dragonkin in the Burning Steppes alongside the botters. I don't complain about the bots because I can kill kill-steal from them if I'm fast (their cat charges, but my bullet is faster, and they help me kill it), and I can definitely skin-steal from them (skin it after they've looted). So much black dragonscale now, from my kills and that from the bots, that I can now send 3 stacks of black scales to Droonda so she can craft herself some fighting gear.

But's it not all about the 60's.

Last night I brought Darbanville out, 33 Priest, and she was joined by my wife's Warlock Zauber, level 31. We added Nachweis, level 26 Warlock, and Negar, a Shaman in the guild, level 32, and we tore the demons of Fel Hill outside of Splintertree new ones all over. The Shaman alone, bubbled, takes out Infernals. Zauber, bubbled, can AoE a pack of Felhounds into charred ruin. Those 2 named Demons we've wound up killing 3 times each in two days. It's laughable how hard our little party was hitting stuff. And party health remained fine the whole while thankyouverymuch.

Five Things You Didn't Know About Me. Or, "Tag, you're it."

Tobold tagged Relmstein and he tagged me.

Five things you might not know about me:

1. I've lived and worked overseas a lot, and at least a year in Germany, Ukraine, Belgium, and Turkey. (All the while working for the same employer.) I'm currently living in Germany again. Oh, I almost forgot about the couple of years we lived in Okinawa, Japan, as a kid.

2. Before I was addicted to WoW I was into genealogical research. This was spurred by my grandmother telling us that we were related to Dr. Benjamin Rush, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. I traced my family back to the Immigrants in the 1600's, solidly, and then even further back following traditional lineages. And I learned a lot about history, from the Middle Ages clear back to the Ancient World as the lineages traced back to Alexander and beyond. And living in places like Turkey I was surrounded by the stuff.

3. My first car as an Audi NSU Prinz1000. A wankel rotary engined car that looked a lot like a BMW 2002. It was a horrible car, but my college dormies, this being University of Maryland's Munich Campus, Munich, Germany, loved getting rides to the area's monastery which featured some damn good beer. And when I first got that car, 12th grade at the time, I did the grown-up thing and tried to touch up some rust spots. I wound up using about six different shades of the same burnt orange, and it still had a couple rust spots on it.

4. I had failing math grades in elementary school and had to take summer school to make it up. I failed 10th grade geometery. Proofs made no sense, though I know they're supposed to. I failed english tests, but passed with C's because I could bluff them with my writing. Before I graduated from high school I was nominated into and entered the Talented and Gifted Program. The school's brightest kids. As I sat there, their last meeting of the year, graduation only a few weeks away, I thought to myself: "Cool. Hey, wait. Look at these guys. ... Wait a minute. Hey, she's cute." Then I grew up and became an engineer with the Government. A Professional Engineer to boot.

5. My collection of antique daggers from the Caucuses, Kindjals, it pretty much museum grade stuff. One piece, a small sword, was crafted for the son of an officer in the time of Csar Alexander III. I bought it when I heard a Ukrainian military officer was looking at it too. I figured better me than him.

And in the spirit of things, I'll tag the following to tell us Five Things We Don't Know About You on your blogs: Excaliber, S4dfish, and Samownall. Tag. You're it!

Winning the lottery in AV. Or, why Autoloot is important.

My Warrior's got new pants. He can't wear them yet because he's only level 38. [Cloudkeeper Leggings].

Not a shabby drop for looting an NPC at Frostwolf Graveyard.

Like eating veggies, loot everything. You never know what you'll find. And use auto-loot. Everyone else does.

Happy New Year, everyone.

What's that going to bring, this New Year?

The Burning Crusade, for starters. I look forward to seeing new content and both new races. Two years going and World of Warcraft still does it for me. (What's it take to get a Beta Key out of you guys?!) On the off chance of when I think to myself "Why do I bother?" I log onto my Warlock, level 12, and melt faces in Northshire. That's simply satisfying.

Two ski trips in February. One with my wife for a week so she can learn to ski. One with the guys at work doing a Ski Safari.

Mmm. A trip back to Seville, a week in a beachfront condo in Florida, and general roaming around.

And, oh, 43 more losses in the Arathi Basin. :)

So, what's the new year going to have in store for you? And here's hoping it's a good one.

Every game in AB is the same.

I sign up for the first available. 8 times out of 10 I join something in progress, and always, ALWAYS, Horde control 4 resources and Alliance is struggling to hold on to the stables. I can't tell you how often I join a game in that state.

It's amazing that 15 Horde can 1) manage to take and hold four resources, and 2) still mount a MASSIVE assault on the stables. It's even more amazing that Tauren Warriors and Orc and Forsaken 'locks and Rogues look so awesome and our Nelfs and Gnomes are ... where the hell is everyone? We're all dead. Looking pretty with our shiney armors and stuff.

It's massively sad.

And on games where I do start with a locked gate, Alliance will take the stables, head for the mines, a smattering will head for the lumbermill and nobody goes to the blacksmith.

Do I have such an incredible influence on events? I mean when I play my Horde, the Horde are the village idiots and the Alliance the rampaging heroes. Can I, little ol' me, make such a difference? It certainly seems to be so.

On the plus side I only have 7 more AB's to go, i.e 7 more AB Marks, and I'm done with the place. That'll get me the 70 Marks I need for all the armor pieces.

And I guess I'll keep my level 48 Guttbuster because I'd sooner gouge my eyes out with a spoon than suffer another 40 more losses in AB to get the High Warlord's gun.

Not every "Good grief, I just joined and we're already losing 1 to 4 and only minutes left to go" is beyond some saving grace. (Other than that Mark, of course.)

So I came, saw, took some names.

That's Arcarius on top there.

Me vs. the Haves.

But don't get me started.

I, Arcarius now, have gotten 30 WSG Marks, 37 AB, and 27 AV.

I have already traded in 20 AV Marks and 4k honor for the blue PvP gloves.

I'm working on getting 6k in honor so I can get the leggings for the WSG marks.

It is inconcievable to me how much some have played in order to get their epic PvP shoulders. And unlike Vizzini, I do know what that word means.

Or two High Warlord one-handers. Or the two-hander. I play too much already, and I'm not even in the same league, or sport even, as these people.

Oh, wait, ha ha, you must think I'm talking about folks in pre-mades. Well, no. Sure, the folks in pre-mades are earning 3 times the honor I am, and 3 times the marks, and hence 3 times the gear, or more! I'm talking about my pugmates. Jeeze, Louie, what's it take to keep up with you??? How many hours a day am I expected to play to compete?

Well, confession time here, maybe I'm a little spreadout here. A little diffused. See, while I'm working on Arcarius, I've also worked a bit on my Rogue this week. Taking Darkhand to level 48. And Greenclaw got some love, and a mount a little earlier. And I still play with my darling wife as we venture out with our Night Elves, the Warrior Freewind and Druid Itarilde. And once they get their mounts, then it'll be time for the Dead to come out and play, her Mage and my Priest. And we'll be joined by our friend Nachmahd and his undead Warlock.

So Arcarius isn't benefitting from my exclusive attention.

Blackhoof, the MC and BWL raider, he's got 55 days /played on him. And he's pretty much retired. He used to get a lot of my attention. But since I'm no longer raiding, more time for the rest.

So with three 60's, two in the 40's, 3 in their 30's, and 2 from the new races, and I've got a full house. And it's not bad. I have as well.

Bada Ding! Sixty. For the third time.

Took Arcarius to the Plaguelands and pushed from 58 to 60. Took two days with some Battlegrounds thrown in.

This was my first ever character. Kinless, on the Argent Dawn server. Suitably, he dinged 60 as Arcarius working on behalf of the Argent Dawn. 21 days /played. Since he was my first he dithered about a bit more than one might care too.

But he's not Kinless, not anymore, he's got family. Darkhand is level 46. Greenclaw just the other day hit 40, and joined the mounted ranks. Freewind is at 35 and pushing hard with Itarilde, my wife's druid who's at level 36, to both reach 40.

Then there's the new knock around characters on Steamwheedle Cartel server that are reaching level 10+ now.

And don't get me started about the expansion and new races *and* new content *and* more levels.

Arcarius dinged in an unlikely place. Saving the last 190 honor to do this turn-in for the Draenei guy in Southshore. Kind of fitting on the eve of venturing into the Outlands.

Droonda dings 60. 13 days /played. You've come a long way, baby.

First order of business was to put on some party clothes and journey down to Booty Bay to celebrate. She in her pirate outfit, Msaker in his ministry one.

Drinks.

And more drinks. The Booty Bay Rum packs a punch.

And a night of dancing.

Booty Bay shakes.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

Droonda and I want to wish all our friends, you Gnomes too, a very Merry Christmas.

We hope you have a pleasant holiday. Eating turkey, drinking eggnog, slaying dragons, and enjoying real life friends, family, and festivity.

From our Gnomes to yours,

Msaker & Droonda.

Goals I have for the Holidays. Orc needs a clue.

This Christmas I plan to help Droonda the Shaman Orc Princess reach level 60. Top of the list. We have most of the quests in the Eastern Plaguelands to do yet, so 60 should be just around the corner.

Show Droonda more of the world. We've seen Scholomance. We've mastered the Darkmaster. She needs to see the Reaver now and get her epic helm quest done. We've seen a lot of Black Rock Depths, but not the Emperor. We've seen a lot of Lower Black Rock Spire, got the pets, but not Wyrmthalek. We've not been to Upper Black Rock Spire. We've not been to Stratholme. ZG and AQ20 will follow. We've got a lot left to see together. (Blackhoof, on the other hand, being a raider in a previous life has seen it all, through half of BWL.)

Get Arcarius, Night Elf Hunter, to 60. Two levels to go. My first character and he's not even 60. I respecced to Marksmanship yesterday, to test out a high-damage build. Returned to the Steppes and after two Dragonkin decided "Meh." Not what I need: Aggro. Flew back to Stormwind City and spent half my gold on a respec back to Beast Mastery. I have Intimidation and Bestial Wrath back, and Spirit Bond, but did not take the 41 point talent. I put 5 points in Critical Hits in Marksmanship, and 3 points in Hawkeye (+6 yards range) in Survival. I put the last 5 points in Improved Concussive Shot for BG goodness. Since I'm soloing PvE, or doing BG's, I didn't get much use out of a high-damage build. That must be for raiding Hunters where the pet is secondary at best.

Get Greenclaw, Night Elf Druid, to 40. Two levels to go. (Because at level 68 he gets Flight Form. And Druids are the new Warriors, haven't you heard.)

Get Honorus, Human Paladin, to 40. Eight levels to go. Hmmm. That'll be tough. (And Pally's are the new Warriors, haven't you heard.) But tough because where's the time?

Since I also have one last goal and that's gearing up Msaker.

Now I've gotten the full Rare PvP armor set. I've got The Unstoppable Force and The Immoveable Object. And the Horde's Champion's Plate looks goood on an Orc. (Alliance Warrior looks like Alliance Pally in the their Champion's Gear. I can never tell them apart. Just when the Seal's start flowing.)

But is that enough for the Outlands? I can BG some more. I've got 47 AV Marks and 20 AB Marks now. And 2k Honor now.

Do I get the HWL 1-Handed Axe? (I have Polearm/Axe specialization, and I'm an Orc, and I have weapon specialization, so 309 Axe Skill and +5% crit when using them.) 22,500 Honor and 20 AB Marks.

And combine that with the HWL Shield Wall? (Is the HWL shield, with 500 more armor and more stamina, that much better than The Immovable Object? Is it worth the 22,500 Honor and 20 AB Marks I'll spend on it to get?

Or do I get the HWL Polearm, for the coolness factor, or the HWL 2-handed Axe, since I'm Orc I get +5 with it. Same stats, the Axe I'll have +5 skill with. Are they that much better than the TUF that it's worth 45,000 Honor and 40 AV Marks to get?

Now I've suffered through a lot of Alliance pre-made victories in AB lately. I'm doing so to accumulate the 40 AB Marks I need for the HWL Shield and 1-hand Axe. I'm doing this so I can absorb damage. Handy in the BG and invaluable in PvE. Or take the 20 AB marks I have and spend it on one of them. The Axe? The Shield?

But if the first 2 items I can get in the Outlands are a green shield and a green axe that surpass both HWL items, it's obviously not worth it.

Those HWL 2-handers look sweet, the polearm especially, but, again, are they worth it?

Now I'm thinking along a different tack. Maybe I should upgrade my Champion's armor to the Warlord's? I.e. my Blue set for a Purple Set? The Warlord's stuff is supposed to be BWL-like. That's going to take an awful lot of Honor and more Marks out of each BG still. That would get me 774 more armor, 28 more Strength, 49 more Stamina, 33 more Agility, and +3 to hit, and +5 to crit.

Or is all this, all of it, soon to be quickly rendered out-of-date by my first incursions into the Outlands?

Any Beta Testers, Warriors or anyone with an idea, out there want to give this Orc a clue about this?

The Bots are gone. They've been Terminated. ... Or?

Le Bot est mort. Vive le Bot!

I finally managed to break away from the PvP and questing to get back to the Burning Steppes with my level 58 Hunter. The new Beast Mastery talent tree wasn't so bad. I appeared to be able to kill Dragonkin a little more quickly than I remember. (I've now taken a PvP full Marksmen talent build. Stay tuned on damage output and pet degradation once I establish that against the Dragonkin.)

Anyway, I was going to the areas there in the Steppes where I know the caster type Dragonkin are, and lo and behold, XOIUDF and his cat Cat and Brannerf and his cat Cat were gone. And a few others too.

They were such regular features of the environment, as they circled on definite patrol paths, like hands marking time of a clock, like seasons. To be without them seemed odd.

From a selfish standpoint I miss them. Nothing like kill-stealing, and skinning-stealing, from a Bot and getting a stack of Black Dragonscales for an hour's effort. And the xp, albeit reduced since they're doing half the killing, wasn't too bad.

But they're gone. All of them.

Or? So I thought.

Later, I was in Tanaris with my level 46 Rogue. Killing those Wastewanderer Bandits and such. There I see a Dwarf Hunter, level 48. He's got some odd name: Hwyrazsfr, or some such. His cat is named Cat. (RP server mind you. But where's the ? GM Ticket button gone to?)

Anyway, I watched him kill a bandit. "Okay," I think, "He's got no imagination and he recently tamed the Cat and hasn't created an equally uncreative name for it yet." I watch him kill two bandits. "He must be on that quest," I thought.

And then the odd part. Rather than veer off to the next camp, full of bandits just waiting to be killed, the hunter instead appears to be moving in a large radius around the watertower. Ignoring all bandits that are obviously visible to me and instead going for them that are standing in a limited circular path around this tower.

The Bots are back. Stupid at the moment, but I guess clever programming will find a way around every limitation Blizzard implements in their macros and Lua language.

Northrend?

Is that the background of Blizzard's World of Warcraft page? A frozen, arctic, glacial like environment?

What's up with that?

Is Blizzard perhaps suggesting something? This close to the eve of the Expansion's release? Is there something we don't know about? And the Beta Testers themselves oblivious of?

Is this that we're seeing Northrend?

Getting in the holiday spirit.

Beating down Darkmaster Gandling and taking his dumb hat.

We rocked the place and Senthris got a green hat. Elsewhere some Paladin loot. Grrr. For Msaker some nice +Defense shoulders with more armor than the Champion's one (seen here) and the Phantasm Cloak off Jandice Barov (also seen here).

A view of my UI. Lots of ACE add-ons. I like info. (I am going to reduce the 3 bars on the side down to 1 using Autobar. I'm getting used to it and can do away with a lot of extra bars.)

And lovely Droonda, Orcish Shaman Princess, is level 59 1/2. She's almost made it. As they say "You've come a long way, Baby!" (She's #3 in the party, with the green helm. She did half the healing. And did it well.)

My research into Druid Feral Form.

Greenclaw needs a little attention and I know I should get busy with him again. Level 38 is very, very close to 40.

So I took a look around the web and found two solid Feral Druid strategy guides.

The first is one is by a guy named Alamo. He's got "street cred" given he plays a Bare Durid.


The second guide is from someone I'm shocked to learn plays WoW. We know Dave Chapelle, Vin Diesel, and Chuck Norris had toons. But this guy too?


First up is Alamo on Cat Form Druids:

And the second ... this guy is inspiring. If he can find the time to develop the theory of relativity, and level a Druid to 60 ... Wow. Just wow.

(He should have rolled a mage though since his +Int is probably real high.)




And that's about what I found worth sharing.

RAWR!

From "Hold up," to dinging level 10.

Got home yesterday. It's a cold, miserable evening out. Drizzle is falling, the sky is dark (sunset is at 4:30 pm now), and it's just a great time to be inside.

Wife is at her computer. I hear frostbolts. She's got a new character. A Troll Mage ("I didn't have a Troll" she explains) on Steamwheedle Cartle server (since she's got her ten already on Kirin Tor). This Mage, her 3rd, will be a Frost Mage. (Zauberin, Forsaken, is a Fire Mage, and Effilda, Human, is an Arcane Mage.) Katonga, her name, has purple hair, in that straight up pony tail style, purple skin, and a very pretty face. She's completed the beginning zone quests and has moved on to Sen'jin Village. She's level 6.

I can't let the challenge go unanswered. "Hold up. I'll join you." But what class? I didn't have any trolls either. Well, the one, over on the PvP server. Okay, Rogue. So I created him, gave him matching hair, matching skin, hair in the mohawk style of a rooster, and the sanest face I could find. I made him a Rogue. And named him Amani'jin. (Amani from the Forest Trolls Civilization, and 'jin seems to be common in Troll names.)

Troll Mage and Rogue. I quickly rush through the beginning zone quests, and she comes up from Sen'jin, greets me, and we head back down there.

Rogue/Mage combo. Obviously one of us a healing class would have helped. Mage does the damage, takes the damage, and the healer heals, and better still the priest shields. AoE grinding at it's fastest.

But I'm thinking this isn't bad synergy, this Mage/Rogue combo. FROST Mage and a Rogue. What we found working well was: I'd start moving towards the mob and by then she'd have hit it with a frostbolt so rather than aggroing on me, or even if it did: "I'm not a threat (Honest!)", it continues on past me to her, and slowly. I spin around and follow it, as she hits it with a fireball and I'm backstabbing the whole way. It's dead before it reaches her. Sometimes a mob will charge. Easy enough to stop in it's tracks with a gouge. Or the mob will cast. Again, gouge. If we have multiple mobs, we've got sheeping and sap/gouge as crowd control. And between a Mage and a Rogue, who's got better DPS? She's going herbalism/alchemy and that'll bring in pots. She makes rolls and biscuits and that and bandaids I think we're good.

We got level 10 quests (Zalazane) done while we were level 7. We otherwise completed all the Sen'jin quests, moved up to Razorhill and did those quests. And we ground a little on Harpies to ding level 10. She ran back to Sen'jin to get a Mage quest done. I picked up a cheap +AP dagger in the Auction House, and she got a robe.

That was fun. It was enjoyable to be in the newbie area again.

But since she's in the Barrens now with her Tauren Hunter character (Hialeah) she wants to skip that quest arc on these characters and go instead to Silverpine Forest. "Okay, mon. Tazdingo!"

How far we've gotten.


It's amazing. I'm not a power player, but my characters are slowly coming along.




Msaker in 5/6 of the PvP set. One piece left to go.


Wasn't that long ago, was it, that he'd gotten his level 30 Warrior quest armor??

... Yes, a year ago. 28 December of last year. Yowza.

So shall drinkers.

"I am a social drinker. When someone says 'I'll have a drink,' I say 'So shall I!'"

Two new characters of the wife and I over on Steamwheedle Cartle. Grethel and Caelik.

Got Crit by a leet Rogue.

I hate it when that happens.

(Screenshot taken when I was standing in the spgy wondering what happened.)

Capping. Other cool add-ons. Based on Ace, Orc approved.

I downloaded some new add-ons I found over at Metroblogging Azeroth. One of the contributors, J. Luster, has his own website and has put together a light-weight, small memory footprint, mostly ACE based, add-on compilation that he likes. It's the new stuff working with WoW 2.0. Advantage of using his site is he's got it available to download as well. Nice since Curse, WoW Interface, etc., still seem out of commission.

One of those new, for me, add-ons was Cartographer. This replaces MetaMap, AlphaMap, MozzFullWorldMap, Gatherer, MapNotes, and has some cool functionality in the BG's. The one that I like is that player dots on the map have group #'s on them. I.e. you can see where all of group #3 is for instance. For example, if group 1 should be taking the LM, group 2 the farm, and group 3 the mine, you watch it unfold on the map as the #'s move to their positions. I don't know, maybe that's meaningless info, but it's new for me and I like it.

Another new add-on is Capping. It's like AV Bars where you got bars showing the countdown of resource, tower, graveyard captures. What is new here is that you get nifty little icons at the front of the bar and it's got some nice eye dressing. What blew me away however was the AB output. It will calculate, on an ongoing basis, final score based on current scores and current resources held, and countdown to it. This is great because you know how much longer the game could last. Obviously losing resources is going to lengthen the time, but getting them back shortens that. That made being 1 of the 2 defending the LM (successfully thank you very much) bearable. (That and holding off a couple waves of stealth attacks. One was a druid with a VERY COOL looking staff that seemed to have glowing feathers on the top. Like an egyptian palm frond fan or something. I looted him before I got a closer look. Sue me, I'm Orc, something sparkles and I loot it. Was that a Staff of Ateish? (or whatever it's called.))

I'm using the Bartender3 buttons. They're nice. As easy to move around as the Bongos one, and are an ACE based add-on. And you can make them shiney. Orcs dig that.

And AFGUnit Frames, or something like that. Again, slick and shiney. Does what Perl Classic does, but spiffy and Ace based.

The cleansing Blizzard forced on us (breaking all our add-ons) is resulting in a newer, faster, sleeker, interface for me. Now I need to get smart on some Macros (like the Warlock's DOT+DOT+DOT+DOT
+DOT+DOT+DOT+DOT+DOT
+DEATHCOIL
+DOT
+/LAUGH+/NO
+DOT
+/DANCE
+/DRINK LEMONAID
+/BYE
+/CRY macro.)

From the front lines:

Five battles in the Valley, losses, and one battle in the Basin, a four cap win, and being a Warrior, 41/5/5 Arms based, 1 pt in Mace Spec (which actually procs) and a TUF (which procs too), I'm feeling pretty confident that we weren't nerfed. At my level, 60, and with my gear, 4 of the PVP set, 2 of the Valor set, 2 of the Imperial, I think it plays out the same. (To wit, horde loses AV and wins AB.)

Oh yes, PvP gear. Two nights in the Battlegrounds. Nine battles in AV (2 wins (shock and awe!) and 7 losses) and that one win in AB and I think I have enough honor accumulated to get my PvP Champion Shoulders. A definite improvement on my Imperial ones. Now what I'd done before the patch: saved up 20 AV marks, and 18 AB marks. Two nights in the BG, not too many hours, with my AB marks in-hand, and I've got a piece of the PVP set. 6,500 more honor, and my AV marks, and I'll get the Champion Helm. 6 piece PvP + 2 piece Valor.

I'm thinking a longer play session, for me, will net me 2,000 honor. 22,500 honor for a High Warlord weapon, and you'll easily get the marks you need getting there, is only 10-12 days playing time. DEFINITELY an improvement for those wanting this kind of gear.

Getting updated add-ons last night was like being a Gnome trying to join the Orgrimmar All-Star Basketball Team.

It wasn't going to happen. Not last night at least.

I did have some functioning add-ons though.

My Bongos bars worked with some hitches. (Sometimes it forgot to put my buttons from the current Stance on the action bar. So I had to switch stances to restore them.) I tried out Trinity Bars but did not care for the layout selections (Smiley Layout vs. Frown Layout. Hmmm.) and I couldn't figure out how to just hide a bar. Bongo's has got big, easy, configuration windows.

Got Fubar working but some of the add-ons kept hiccuping. Like HonorFu. TotalFu was exactly that.

ItemRack works fine.

Cartographer. Wow. That is a nice map replacement. Haven't tried it's "Gatherer" functionality yet, but with modules for Herbalism and Mining, I'm sure it's there.

Atlas and Atlas Loot are working. Atlas Quest I need to see updated. And Recommended Zone.

And I need a BG Bars mod. I tried Capping but didn't see anything while in the BG. I miss seeing AV bars ticking off captures and caps.

Warrior's weren't nerfed (too badly) from what I saw. I also noticed the talent tree was slightly different from what I saw on the PTR. I got my rage, and got some killing blows in, and isn't that what it's about? (And maybe Rage generation was an issue before. The other night in Winterspring, questing with my wife, I must have gotten a crit on a Furbolg since one hit filled my Rage bar. That seemed like a glitch.)

I haven't respecced anyone else yet since Msaker headed straight to the Battlegrounds. And we won half our AV matches. That was a nice change of pace.

Maybe Blackhoof will go dual-wielding Enhancement. That seemed to be great for PvE, and the upcoming get-to-70 grind fest.

But back to the add-ons. Some aren't working at 100% yet.

Like Clique. I can't get it to allow me to click on the name plate to target the unit. It just keeps wanting to cast heal spells when I click anywhere on the frame. It's got options where I can deselect parts of the frame but that didn't seem to be working.

I've heard about HealBot being functional so I might check that out.

And for those who think the clickheal mods are cheating: Go back into the shadows and gank something. Oh yeah, for you the clickheal button will remain broken. No heal for you! Come back one year! Next!

And so when I went to look for add-ons all three sites were down. Curse-gaming, WoW Interface, and WoW Ace was as well, off and on. Even their emergency files only site was iffy.

The Draenei are nigh.

What we found interesting was my wife got a brand new quest in Southshore ... from a Draenei guy in the Inn there. There appear to be some new quests added in the mid-ranges. (Some feared the expansion would be only including level 1-20 quests for the new races and the 60-70 ones in the Outlands.)

5PM PST is like 2AM CET. I'm not going to see the patch today.

Managed to score a bunch of updated addons while I waited. And waited.

My previously clever idea of downloading and testing addons on the Public Test Realm worked well, on one hand, and backfired on the other. I was getting add-ons, dropping them in the add-on subdirectory under WoWTest, and setting them up and seeing how they functioned.

Did you know Blizzard will, without asking you, put files on your machine? They will also, without asking you, remove files from your machine. They will remove files YOU YOURSELF have stored on your machine. If it was in the WoWTest directory it gets deleted at Blizzards whim. Not yours. Thanks for the heads-up on that one Blizz. Oh yeah, and thanks for keeping the server down all day with your patch, delivered on your schedule, at your descretion, and to your scope. Patch first, then figure out why you can't bring the servers back online.

Oh, boy o boy! Tuesday is Patch Day! Yay!

Tuesday = Replace ALL my add-ons day. They're all broken! Dag. I HATE WHEN THAT HAPPENS! Well, there was a period there when every patch broke things. Nothing new. And the sites were absolutely SLAMMED! SLAMMED silly and out of commission. So I've been stocking up on some favorites. I've got them in the add-on subdirectory of the WoWtest directory. So, tomorrow night after the patching is done, and when the healer's tears start flowing, I'll delete my WTF files (WTF indeed) and all my add-on files and drag the add-ons in the test directory over. I've played around with them on the PTR. It's like starting over as a noob again. (No Gatherer? No functional Clique as far as I can tell. CT_Raid and Emergency Monitor? I'd hate to think I couldn't heal anyone in AV unless I was clicking on them. Sucks being hurt, and being you, a non-healer, I guess.)

Tuesday = How Nerfed am I today? Day!

My 60 Warrior ... I'm told Warrior's got so nerfed rage-wise that they can't even PvP anymore. Maybe you can charge and stun a mage, but then you've been blinked, sheeped, POM'd, HELLSTORM FROM HELLed to death. Talk about rage! (Except you can't use it except to bang your keyboard like some German kid.) Wait, that scenario already happens. What was I thinking? Anyway, the thinking goes that rage generation is so slow that a pvp fight is over before enough rage can be spent to win.

My 60 Shaman ... I think I'm supposed to heal now. Except healer functionality support has been stripped from the add-ons. You're on your own, I'm going fishing.

My 58 Hunter ... Hunters are always good. And being Alliance I'm going to rake in the honor in AV. If I can get in. Two more levels and it's easy street.

Tuesday = 41 points into the Talent Trees. What level 50 isn't going to be putting all 41 points in their top talent in a tree of their choice? Warriors into Arms; Pally's into ... that Angel Wings talent; Druids into ... choices there actually. I think the gold sellers are going to have a mini-renaissance as people spec, and respec, and respec again. (After all, how many epic world drops actually drop to fund all that??)

Tuesdays. Tell me why?