Around Azeroth by pictures

Here's a wall of pictures to go with my previous walls of text!

These guys really do look like candy.



I felt sorry for these little guys. Sure, at times they have wanted to eat my face off but look at them! So sad.





From the files of "What did they feed these things?" Oh... right. Noobs







Lastly, Blizzard makes us use disguises quite a bit. From boxes to unconvincing masks, this is one of the better ones.


Psst, that's really Kir on the left!

Had a good time exploring while working on Loremaster. As we gear up for Tuesday, I wish you all Happy Hunting!

Some thoughts while working on Loremaster

Decided to work on Loremaster before Tuesday hits and I must say, I hope these lower level quests are indicative of how the rest of the expansion will be.

Phasing

Blizzard has taken the phase mechanic and ran with it, with fairly good results. For example, while questing in Stonard, I would pick up the quest from the quest giver, only to run around and find the place suddenly under attack. This was a slick move and was almost seamless.

Notice, I say almost. Phasing isn't a perfect system. Just ask one of my guildies who was unable to complete a quest during a phased portion. But there is ample use of it that I can see being of great use to transition the characters through phases of the quest lines.

Epic Battles

In almost all the zones, there is a culmination of the quests which lead to an epic-style battle of some kind. Be it a huge elemental or some dastardly villian, as I player, I feel like there is a sense of done-ness with these fights. As a level appropriate player, you may not actually wait to see how these stories are fleshed out, but there are often blue quality rewards attached to these fights which gives a little incentive to stay for the fight.

What I also enjoyed about these fights is the fact that the zones often have beginning, middles, and endings. This speaks to the RPG-er in me and keeps me invested in the world of the game. As with anything, the novelty of this can easily wear off by the end of the expansion, but I look forward to what kind of fights they present us as we head towards 85.

Cutscenes

Most people would agree that the Wrathgate cut scene is one of their favorite things about WOTLK. Blizzard recognized that and sprinkled a little of it in many of the revamped zones. Luckily, instead of the high drama, several minutes long scenes, they are really short but help move the quest story along.

What makes it work is that it's dynamic. You aren't just looking at the same pixels, but for a moment taken to a different level of the game.

Humor

Blizzard has a reputation to maintain for it's ability to not take itself too seriously. However, this expansion has a lot of dark undertones and following after Shakespear, Blizz made sure to add characters which offer a lighter side of things. Dwarven congo lines, bragging NPCs, a ghost who asks about Mankrik's wife and a Don Quixote-type are some examples. Some are pretty cool, some are cheesy as heck, but it is well needed when there is so much war and chaos going around.

Bombing runs

When they added bombing runs in BC, it was kind of cool, but often required more than one run though to complete. This time around, they made sure that you are in the air as long as it takes and offer a quick (usually painless) way of getting back to the start. It also seems like the cooldown for whatever explosive/plague/destruction of choice has lowered a bit, making it a quick and dirty method of blowing stuff up. Well needed and I enjoy those quests a lot more. Of course, I am also usually the only one doing them at the time, and my opinion may sour in a couple days.

Some bad news

You didn't think that beloved NPCs wouldn't go unscathed did you? Some grew darker. Some didn't make it through the shattering (which, I recommend visiting a certain grave in U Crator). There is a lot of sorrow, pain and tragedy in Azeroth these days.

The other bad news is there are a lot of changes to how rep is acquired. Some quests and zones which normally gave a certain rep have been replaced, leaving folks who are trying to catch up suddenly lost. If you are one of those who are trying to bring up some rep in the lower zones may have to do some research and digging.

I have lots of screenshots, but will publish them in a separate post. In the meantime...

See you around Azeroth!

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?

Guild Changes

Guild camaraderie

Some people care about achievements more than other people. Ever since Blizz implemented this arguably epeen waggling system, it has been a love/hate situation with our guild.

I admit some fascinate me more than most, like Insane in the Membrane. We have at least a couple folks with it and I am astounded at the level of dedication needed to complete it. I gave up on goblins long ago, I sure as hell am not leveling the other factions. Still sitting at 39/40... I figure with Cata, I will find new factions to work on.

There is a theory floating around that with the new guild perks guilds will want to come together more to get things done. I can certainly see potential for hardcores who complete progression and are left with craptastic down time. Even more so benefits for casual guilds who don't feel the need to keep up with the top 10s but still like to get together on nights and feel rewarded for getting something accomplished.

This is where I finally feel like there is some return for completing an achievement. It goes beyond a new tabard or title and becomes something that everyone in the guild can take part in.

Feels somewhat like what an old guild on the server did for raiding points. Even if you didn't get to go to raids often, if you contributed mats for potions, bandages, engineering supplies, etc you got points when went towards your dkp.


Speaking of cleaning up achivements



Why, yes, it took us forever to finish this off. We have always been a few steps behind Blizzard when it came to content. While we were closing out Ulduar, TOC came out and most folks lost interest in older content. It wasn't that we lacked skill or time, but we tend to have a butterfly/squirrel mentality for new things. I am sure we aren't the first or last guild to have this problem. Of course, when Lum was trying to congratulate the guild on completing Yogg, I could clearly be heard on vent saying "About ****ing time!" This was met with much vocal agreement. Damn his mic.


New UI

I look forward to the new guild UI. In particular the professions tab. To be able to see who has what profession and what recipes we have in the guild is extremely attractive. This would have been useful during Wrath as folks were gaining recipes in dungeons and trying to get their BiS items made but obviously a boon when the expansion arrives.

Not sure what to make of the LFGuild tool. I haven't seen screenshots of it yet, but I hope it works out well. The trade spam is getting old.

Now that my non patch day themed post is finished, it's time to pour over the survival guides for my characters. I have too many alts!

Happy patch day :)

Ya Mon!

I like trolls. Of course, I only have one character that is a troll but the poor guys sitting on the beach make the best of their situation.

I knew a while ago that the trolls were going to take back Echo Isles and would need the help of the players. So, I logged in this morning to do my part.

For complete guide to the questline, may I suggest starting with this.

They see me rollin'



Felt pretty bad ass to be riding down the trail with my band of recruits. Of course, whenever there is a picture to be taken, someone is always facing the wrong way.



Just when things were looking pretty good with the new guys, now you saddle up with the head troll himself!

Spoilers!

Ok, fun aside, here is some nitty gritty on the questlines themselves. I am sure you all have done your quests but here I go anyway.

First of all, there is a similar line done on the Alliance side which involves Gnomeregan. Both phase the area, which once again proves that this mechanic is one of the best ideas Blizz has come up with 6 years. Not only that, but it had a Taking of Undercity-style battle, which is why I was teamed up with Vol'jin. I suggest not doing this in Resto spec (which I did and it took forever) or at least hooking up with a buddy of some aoe specialty.

There is a gem of lore in the questlines that attempts to explain why we will soon have troll druids ("What? We've been here the whole time!"). Much like the An Injured Colleague quest, I feel it was pretty weak. I don't know if I saw any information on what trolls shapeshift into, but a tiger would be pretty sweet. I do hope they flesh things out as we get closer to Cata instead of a minor and easily overlooked questline and some NPC dialog.

Because Echo Isles will be the future home of the trolls after Mr. Grumpy- I mean Saurfang kicks them out of Org, this quest line will be a feat of strength and therefore a limited time only thing. The rewards are neat, which include a cloak with the Darkspear insignia (and no stats) and a bauble which allows you to change into a Darkspear warrior for 30 mins (4 hour cooldown). It fits nicely next to my haunted momento :)

And remember kids... stay away from the voodoo... or come get it.