Wednesday, November 24

Things to do after the Shattering

Now that the world has changed, there is certainly a fair number of things to work on before "Cattakissem", like getting pets, finishing up titles, etc.

Companion Pets

Warcraftpets.com has the latest on the pets they added with this patch, including one they squeeked in called Tiny Flamefly. Perks N Peeves has recent information on this pet. I will add that once I was done in the Thorium Bros area, I had to head to Flame Crest to pick up the rest of the chain. I didn't get a breadcrumb to go there, so it could easily be missed.

Somehow, this was a convincing disguise for the Blackrock folks.

Fans of Plants verses Zombies may already be prepared to get their Sunflower pet. Guildies who had never played the game before had a bit more of a learning curve for these quests, much to some frustration. Still, kinda neat and a chance to get "Zombies on your Lawn" song stuck in your head.

Fiona in Eastern Plaguelands has a few quests to offer as a set up to get her Lucky Charm buff from the Caravan. Your mileage may vary, as they say, but expect to take a bit of time to get Mr. Grubbs. Interesting sidenote: Slime covered bags from the grubs dropped a new plant: Dragon's Teeth. Well, really it's an old plant called Wintersbite. Not sure why the name change.

Finally, in Darkshore (which looks killer now!) there is a Forsaken in a cave which sells Withers. He shrinks then grows when near water. How cool is that?

Not just Stayin' Alive, but also causing havoc in Darkshore.

Fishing and Cooking

The dailies for these are open and so are the Cata cooking recipes bought with the daily rewards. What I didn't know before was that each daily also rewards skill ups on their corresponding profession. Very handy later.

Debated on working on Limnologist and Oceanographer. It's a lot of fish to catch, which could be be used toward the guild progress in Cata. However, I didn't want to be bogged down by having to back track to Northrend and Outlands. In addition, as a friend pointed out, I would kick myself for not getting Winter Squid now. Would be too easy to skip it until it is too late. Check out El's page for more information on where to catch your fish (link is on the right hand side of the page).

Quests and Loremaster

It is so much easier to see progress now. But oh my, I didn't realize how depressing it would be to see so many zones drop to zero. To start over seems like a drag but I was just too far away from completely finishing it before the patch.

Some of the quests are a bit of a pain to do at max level, like letting a level 6 hit you to poison you for example.

Other things

Don't forget to do take a Joy Ride in Azshera (it's recommended to go North to South) for an easy achievement.

You can't fly in Azeroth, but you can in Dalaran, now.

The new Trollish Cat forms look rather neat! I would seriously consider a race change if I wasn't broke.

The new tabards don't seem to be working properly, but you can get the new Goblin tabard in Org at the Darkspear area. Just look for Frizzo Villamar. (Sorry Alliance, not caught up on my info for you guys. It's exhausting enough to figure out the Horde!)

What are you working on as we head toward the 7th?

Tuesday, November 23

Maybe the roof won't fall on my head

With the Portals being removed today, I figured it was a good time to evacuate my characters out of Dalaran. I thought about taking Kir to Thunderbluff, but the stupid invasion was going on so I teleported to Moonglade.



I need to visit this place more often. Looks like even the tranquil houses by the lake are gearing up for bad juju.





This is more like it. Serene and pretty. It's a good place for a druid to contemplate the good times.

Thursday, November 18

Alamo is back!

For those who don't know who Alamo is he is a legend. Seriously.

Everything you need to know about Alamo


After some wonderfully funny posts, he dissapeared for a while. This morning, I found him again, just in time for Cattokissem!

ALAMO teech a CATTOKISSEM!

They even maek a new form just for this!!

ALAMO teech abowt the CATTOKISSEM!

HEY GUSY! So ALAMO is just hiburninatin and hafin sum dreem where him is all in sum green thing with floaty bits and elf and stuffs and then him is WAKE UP and heer they got a doragn gonna eat all the world! THIS is sum FANSY STUFF!

A Thing is all carzy now, so maybe alamo gonna rite a thing before hims brekfust, for babee durids and for peeple to understand what a DUIRD DO! So now, while hims all awake and stuffs, ALAMO gonna teech U about this whole stuff!

1) See, Kanye, him dont like a Bush, and Blizzard, they is dont liek a tree! So DURID aint got no more to be a tree. Alamo like a tree, but not when make a leef all over the carpet.

2) They make a new thing, with CAT and KISS! But mostly CAT dont kiss, just jump on a thing and KILL IT ALL DEAD!

4) But Crazed MOON DURID, is ok to make a kiss right on the ECLIPS!

5) But dont only kiss a cat, because u know: CAT IS 4 FITE!

6) So DURID gonna be so storng heer, maybe everbuddy gonna be a durid thees day!

7) We got a bare. Him is not nise bare because him is gonna eat a fase! Bares mostly like the taste of fase!

6) OK now a Bare, him like sum HEVY METAL! BARE GOTTA THRASH. Just liek a thing wares short and high top sneeker and shake long hare reeeely fast! But also, ware sum plug in an ear wen you make this THRASH, becawse it make a thing bleed!

7) Also, all bare make peeple go fast when him RORE!! This is good, because a bare is deseptively fast. A Fast BARE, this is danjerus BARE! Bare don't even allow in OLIMPIC, becawse wonse upon a time, a bare run a rase in OLIMPIC. Maybe he dosen't win, but everduddy win after, becawse a BARE EAT ALL OTHER RASE MEN! Don't rase a hungry bare, is what sumbuddy shuld tell peeple.

8) MOON DURID, O yes wow man! Moon Durid hang out with 70's rock band and now make a MUSH ROOM from a SECRET PLASE! Mushrooms make a thing ECPLOAD! Espeshully a brain, if u listen to a moon durid backwards, u hear some CARZY THING!

9) Everbuddy liek a LOLCAT, make a funny say with a cute picshure! But now, picshure is not so cute, becawse a DURID now haf a TROLLCAT! Troll is make a talk all liek YAH MON. Maybe when trollcat and moondurid make a party together, is nobuddy remember not nothin next day!

10) WOLF MAN can also make a durid. WOLF MAN DURID, O man Alamo dosen't even haf to wear hims hot topic tee shirt no more! Now got all WOLF and CAT and BARE and MUCHROOM and SEEL and stuff all in same plase!

11) MAYBE I MAEK TOO MANY NUMBER!


Again, Alamo, you are my hero.

Monday, November 8

10 things I've learned while pet hunting.

1) If you don't have a T.V. or are too paranoid to let your eyes leave the screen for very long, play some music (Pandora in the background worked for me). This pet hunting gig is very tedious.

2) Remember that certain raptors are only available through nests. Don't be a goober and get excited to see the Ravasaur Matriarch when you need to be looking at the ground instead.

3) Watch for wrist or hand pain. Set the looting to auto so you don't have to Shift-Click for hours.

4) Set the stopwatch timer to keep track. Hours one and two mean you still have hope. Hour three is when the paranoia sets in. /who to see who else is around. You start wishing for a Jeeves. During the hours of four and five is when mental fatigue sets in. You start to back track to make sure you actually looted. You've given up on actually seeing anything close to a pet and just kill to kill.

5) The elemental invasion sucks. More than once I told my screen "I will save you, little whelp!" *MOONFIRE* Recall that paranoia sets in. I started to wonder if elementals took my spawn.

6) Having friends to pass the time helps but don't bitch to them. Remember that this is a self-imposed torture.

7) Setting out a pet that similar to the one you are looking for won't convince your new pet to join you. More often than not, they aren't friends in the wild.

8) Remind yourself that this is a sickness. You can't help yourself. (This holds back the self loathing)

9) If your friends also collect pets, don't tell them what you are doing. Case in point: Friend in gchat says "I owe you an inappropriate misdirect for reminding me that I don't have [xyz pet] on [his main]." Opps! But grats on Dark Whelping!

10) And the last thing I have learned while pet hunting... They are so cute and I must have more!

Thursday, November 4

It's Orange and shiny!







This is Relg, the owner of the guild's first legendary! We have missed every legendary due to complications (merging guilds, owner of shards leaving the server, etc) and so it feels good to finally see one completed.

And to be honest, we would have stopped doing ICC a while ago if I had not been for this legendary. Hopefully, this didn't put too much pressure on the poor DK but it was something that needed to get done. (Note that I embarrassingly called it a sword. Obviously, it isn't but I am a dumb healer so forgive me)

Regardless, congratulations Relg! I must say, having a legendary makes your metrosexual Blood elf a little sexier :P Oh, and we will hunt you down if you leave. Some of us have known you for at least 10 years and know where to find you!

But wait... there's more!

Because this was our last night to do Icecrown on a regular basis, we also gave out prizes for those who participated in tonight's raid. The contest was this: What was the total vendor price for every item that dropped during the raid?

I don't quite recall the exact number but the winner had to come closest without going over.

Third place won a bear cub.
Second place won an Orb of Deception.
The winner won *drum roll*




This is a prize we have given out before but doesn't lessen the coolness factor.

Once again, I feel like we are just a little bit more awesome than some other guilds. We don't always get strats tight or maybe bring along some folks who aren't hardcore, but we do enjoy the company we keep. All this sentimentality just in time for the world to end!


Well done team and thanks for sticking it out.

Monday, November 1

What does Epic look like?

Given that a large portion of the player base didn't actually start the game until WOTLK and even some started half way through, it's not surprising that there should be a small bit of skeptism when you hear reports of things being difficult again in Cata.

There are many comments of praise when we read that heroics will actually be heroics and progression will run like this:

Below is the basic progression map. Obviously your mileage may vary, i.e. If you're Paragon or Premonition you will be able to skip some of the below and/or mix and match at your discretion.

*Normal Dungeons/Crafting/Questing to get full set of 85 blues (non-heroic) to do Heroic dungeons.
*Heroic dungeons to get full set of 85 Heroic blues to do Normal mode raids.
*Normal raids to get full set of 85 epics (non-heroic) to do Heroic mode raids.
*Heroic Raids to get full set of 85 Heroic epics, which will presumably help a bit on Sinestra and the next tier (when released with patch 4.1.0)

*Badge vendors to help fill in gaps at all tier levels.

*No real gating to speak of for ship.

*Sinestra opens after Cho'gall is defeated on HEROIC mode. No timers or attempt limits, but she will pound you relentlessly. She has better than Heroic epic level gear (half a tier better).


Heroic blues? Players these days are inclined toward purples because, well, purple was blue as we end this expansion. Vendor gear isn't even blue and very easy to get. My lock had T9 before even setting foot in ToC.

Then you hear of people on test wiping (oh my!) on heroic 5 mans until they figured out the strat. And some actually liked the abuse.

And think back to the transition from BC to Wrath and the travesty that was Naxx. One long, winged trek that upper end guilds destroyed and was left to twiddle their thumbs.

The arguement is not casual verses hardcores now. I see it as veterans verses cadets. Especially for those of us who have played in vanilla (I rolled a priest because I heard druids couldn't heal end game), things being challeging and with a learning curve actually harkened back to a different era of MMO's. Everquest was still a juggernaut with it's insane camping and farming, mass key quests, and progression locks. Gamers these days were barely in Junior High when I started my first MMO (Ultima Online, in case you were wondering), and those of us who grew up and got lives certainly don't have the time or energy for a game with so many time sinks.

But we don't have to go back that far for a sense of challenge and awe. Burning Crusade, for all the boring asthetics and uninspiring bosses (more on that later), had some meat to it. I would even argue that Ulduar gave us that, too. I still shudder when I think of Heroic Mimiron! Then it seemed the crew jumped ship to work on Cataclysm and things kinda went downhill.

I for one am hoping that things stay somewhat difficult. But I don't envy the devs in their job to keep things difficult but still acessible.



One of my favorite things about Northrend was the fact that the villian was everywhere. The first dungeon for most of us was UK and BAM, Arthas is giving out orders and displaying his power. He's telporting here and there and reminding us, goading us if you will, that we are in his domain.

Even side NPCs like the various dragonflight including Chromie, the only gnome I like, made regular appearances.

Burning Crusade was very "meh" for danger. Every boss was locked away somewhere and I never got a sense of urgency like I did for Wrath. Mag was step in the right direction but would have been better if, say, Lady Vashj used a hologram to speak to a Naga chief in Zangarmarsh. I am sure there were better examples, but if there are, they didn't last long enough to instill any sort of emotion.

For those who don't care about lore, I am sure it's all meaningless. Some of us still like that immersion (again, another era) and feeling like we are part of a storyline speaks to an emotion commitment to a game.

I was worried that without such an iconic foe such as the Lich King, would I get the feeling of a real villain in Cata? One movie and an achievement won't make me a believer yet, but I do have high hopes that Deathwing and his army will make me feel inspired!