One of the big new changes recently was the introduction of achievements. Something that has sent certain members of my guild to the very corners of the world discovering things.
At a personal level I've been going for the 50 pet achievement especially with the UI change that means they don't take up bag space. I'm currently sat on 34 on Crash but may be able to get hold of the rest of the Alliance racial pets which should get me a lot closer to 50 and the extra pet.
While it is generating a reasonable amount of spam whilst in cities and from guildies I'm very happy to see it in game for the extra things it allows you to do. There's also the added bonus of having things to work towards, and random things that you can pick up without realizing you were going for them.
A recent example I was fighting in Arathi Basin trying to get 50 HKs with the G.N.E.R.D buff up as part of the Hallowed End achievements. Whilst in there I took the chance to pick up the Make Love, Not Warcraft by hugging a fallen member of the Alliance before they released. Having been on a HK grinding spree I was quite surprised when it was announced I'd achieved Arathi Basin Assassin. For this reason I shan't be reading up on all possible achievements (not that I'm convinced you can possibly remember them all) for the extra surprise when you hit one of them.
Showing posts with label random. Show all posts
Showing posts with label random. Show all posts
Sunday, 19 October 2008
Sunday, 14 September 2008
I've been on a bit of a collecting mission recently, with the change to the pet UI coming in the next patch it's not going to be so much of a bag space problem keeping all those cute lil guys around and can randomly pick one to have by your side for a particular fight.
The whole collection has been augmented with Don Carlos' famous hat for the added bonus of appearing to have a tame shaman in tow. Killing the man himself was a lot of fun as we took Crash, our MT feral druid and a shadow priest to help with healing. Providing we didn't do anything daft like swipe a patrol or miss a need to taunt him off the priest he died fairly smoothly and provided the entire team with the aforementioned stylish headpiece.
After that the bear and I went to pay Baron Rivendare a visit which was a bit of a laugh. The only major problem we faced was when killing Baroness Anastari. Not fully understanding the mind control aspect of the fight I duely got posessed had all the useful abilities (Evasion, Adrenaline Rush) used and I took down the druid before he could damage me enough to release the posession. Other than that we had a clean run through and even managed to kill him before the hostage got sacrificed. Sadly the mount didn't drop but it was a trip which allowed for some lore based exploration and a map I'll need to learn for the new Caverns of Time instance.
Loads of people have suddenly found themselves with a beta invite, but I haven't but given my main aim was to try out some of the new talents and spells I'm going to have a go a getting onto the PTR for the patch which will include all that stuff. The client is downloaded and I'm just waiting for the copy queue to clear up so I can get Crash and Med across and have a play. If all goes to plan I'll put some stuff up about new talent spec's I've tried and how things work out.
The whole collection has been augmented with Don Carlos' famous hat for the added bonus of appearing to have a tame shaman in tow. Killing the man himself was a lot of fun as we took Crash, our MT feral druid and a shadow priest to help with healing. Providing we didn't do anything daft like swipe a patrol or miss a need to taunt him off the priest he died fairly smoothly and provided the entire team with the aforementioned stylish headpiece.
After that the bear and I went to pay Baron Rivendare a visit which was a bit of a laugh. The only major problem we faced was when killing Baroness Anastari. Not fully understanding the mind control aspect of the fight I duely got posessed had all the useful abilities (Evasion, Adrenaline Rush) used and I took down the druid before he could damage me enough to release the posession. Other than that we had a clean run through and even managed to kill him before the hostage got sacrificed. Sadly the mount didn't drop but it was a trip which allowed for some lore based exploration and a map I'll need to learn for the new Caverns of Time instance.
Loads of people have suddenly found themselves with a beta invite, but I haven't but given my main aim was to try out some of the new talents and spells I'm going to have a go a getting onto the PTR for the patch which will include all that stuff. The client is downloaded and I'm just waiting for the copy queue to clear up so I can get Crash and Med across and have a play. If all goes to plan I'll put some stuff up about new talent spec's I've tried and how things work out.
Saturday, 6 September 2008
Things I miss when playing the other character
We had another of our weekly Karazhan runs last night and due to a surplus of tanking specced classes Medrare got to go as dps. With no other feral druids in the party I had the extra challenge of keeping Mangle and Faerie Fire up on the mobs being focussed on. It was a lot of fun especially as I was acting as raid leader again so had to run tactics as well.
Given that running around in Cat form is a lot like playing a rogue it got me thinking about what I miss from one class whilst playing the other. So here is a non-definitive list for each of them:
Rogue
Heals - Relying on food, bandages and natural regen can be slow and expensive at time. Linked with this is Improved Leader of the Pack with it's improved crit chance and heal every so often when you do crit helps you to do the Duracell Bunny thing and keep on going.
Instant pulling - Whilst stun locking and getting the first blow in from stealth is the way of dispatching a mob 99% of the time. That other 1% requires you to pull 1 away from the group to dispatch away from his friends who might be slightly upset with you. Throw or Shoot take time to happen plus the travel time which means that the bad guy has the opportunity to wander. Something like faiere fire means that you use it you know you're only going to pull the mob you're interested in.
Variety - When raiding or instancing the rogues job is usually the same in every fight, do as much damage as you can whilst not causing the tank a headache, an occasionally preventing a spell cast. Whilst you can tweak and perfect your rotation to try and eek out those last 1 or 2 dps after a while it can become a bit samey. With a druid, even a feral one you've got all the tools to heal and provide ranged damage, it's not the best but whilst raiding I've provided a combination of tanking/dps and healing all in the same run.
Druid
Interrupts - There is nothing more annoying that seeing a mob casting something that would cause a lot of pain should it complete. Whilst Maim can be used it does rely on not just having spent all your combo points on Rip and having the energy to use it. Having something else in Cat Form such as Kick would be fantastic.
Vanish - Not only great for dumping threat should you need to during a fight but when things get a bit tricky due to running mobs or things wandering in during the middle of your fight being able to trick them all that you're not there can be a big life saver.
Now this isn't a wish list for either class, just trying to highlight some of the key things each class can bring by noticing them when they're missing when you play a different one.
Given that running around in Cat form is a lot like playing a rogue it got me thinking about what I miss from one class whilst playing the other. So here is a non-definitive list for each of them:
Rogue
Heals - Relying on food, bandages and natural regen can be slow and expensive at time. Linked with this is Improved Leader of the Pack with it's improved crit chance and heal every so often when you do crit helps you to do the Duracell Bunny thing and keep on going.
Instant pulling - Whilst stun locking and getting the first blow in from stealth is the way of dispatching a mob 99% of the time. That other 1% requires you to pull 1 away from the group to dispatch away from his friends who might be slightly upset with you. Throw or Shoot take time to happen plus the travel time which means that the bad guy has the opportunity to wander. Something like faiere fire means that you use it you know you're only going to pull the mob you're interested in.
Variety - When raiding or instancing the rogues job is usually the same in every fight, do as much damage as you can whilst not causing the tank a headache, an occasionally preventing a spell cast. Whilst you can tweak and perfect your rotation to try and eek out those last 1 or 2 dps after a while it can become a bit samey. With a druid, even a feral one you've got all the tools to heal and provide ranged damage, it's not the best but whilst raiding I've provided a combination of tanking/dps and healing all in the same run.
Druid
Interrupts - There is nothing more annoying that seeing a mob casting something that would cause a lot of pain should it complete. Whilst Maim can be used it does rely on not just having spent all your combo points on Rip and having the energy to use it. Having something else in Cat Form such as Kick would be fantastic.
Vanish - Not only great for dumping threat should you need to during a fight but when things get a bit tricky due to running mobs or things wandering in during the middle of your fight being able to trick them all that you're not there can be a big life saver.
Now this isn't a wish list for either class, just trying to highlight some of the key things each class can bring by noticing them when they're missing when you play a different one.
Wednesday, 3 September 2008
Now is the pre-expansion lull of our discontent
Unless you've been very cunning with what you've been reading on the interwebs you'll be aware that there's an expansion on the way, and before that a hefty content patch with some of the new stuff.
Will all this exciting stuff in the offing there are a couple of view points which are surfacing and being discussed.
The first is expansionitis which means people cut back on their playing because anything you might be able to gain in game now will soon be replaced by quest and dungeon rewards from the frozen north.
The second is what I shall call preparationitis, where people are trying to get everything they might need for the progression through the new levels, professions, dungeons. This can include but is not limited to crafting materials, armor/weapons and of course gold.
Either of these can suddenly make the game seem like a chore as you wait patiently for the new exciting stuff just peeking it's head above the horizon. So my advice is don't let it; if you've lost interest in raiding, why not go back and do some old quests around the place, check out Tranquillen if you've not rolled a Blood Elf, go kill Hogger (I might do this as I've only played Horde). If you're sick of all the dailies or flying around mining, herbing or skinning stuff, go look for fun stuff to pick up from in game. There's loads of things that are in the game for fun whether it's a non-combat pet or random trinket which should be very easy for a level 70 character to go and collect.
If you've still done all this and looking for something then why not roll an alt, not for any particular purpose, they don't need to hit 70, they don't need to be geared for whichever raid you're currently running, they can just be there for a laugh and something new to learn. If you're doing any kind of raid leading or boss tactics, nothing gives you a better insight into how a class works than to have played it, at least out of the starter zone and a spending a few talent points.
Personally I've got a troll hunter who's running through the Arugal quest line and searching for Mankirk's wife again. Come the expansion he'll probably be forgotten whilst Crash and Med and a yet to be named Death Knight head towards 80 but it's a bit of a laugh running through the old content and quite frankly ridiculously easy with my ickle cat keeping everything at bay.
So what are you doing in the pre-expansion lull, or are you not feeling any problems and WotLK can arrive when it arrives?
Will all this exciting stuff in the offing there are a couple of view points which are surfacing and being discussed.
The first is expansionitis which means people cut back on their playing because anything you might be able to gain in game now will soon be replaced by quest and dungeon rewards from the frozen north.
The second is what I shall call preparationitis, where people are trying to get everything they might need for the progression through the new levels, professions, dungeons. This can include but is not limited to crafting materials, armor/weapons and of course gold.
Either of these can suddenly make the game seem like a chore as you wait patiently for the new exciting stuff just peeking it's head above the horizon. So my advice is don't let it; if you've lost interest in raiding, why not go back and do some old quests around the place, check out Tranquillen if you've not rolled a Blood Elf, go kill Hogger (I might do this as I've only played Horde). If you're sick of all the dailies or flying around mining, herbing or skinning stuff, go look for fun stuff to pick up from in game. There's loads of things that are in the game for fun whether it's a non-combat pet or random trinket which should be very easy for a level 70 character to go and collect.
If you've still done all this and looking for something then why not roll an alt, not for any particular purpose, they don't need to hit 70, they don't need to be geared for whichever raid you're currently running, they can just be there for a laugh and something new to learn. If you're doing any kind of raid leading or boss tactics, nothing gives you a better insight into how a class works than to have played it, at least out of the starter zone and a spending a few talent points.
Personally I've got a troll hunter who's running through the Arugal quest line and searching for Mankirk's wife again. Come the expansion he'll probably be forgotten whilst Crash and Med and a yet to be named Death Knight head towards 80 but it's a bit of a laugh running through the old content and quite frankly ridiculously easy with my ickle cat keeping everything at bay.
So what are you doing in the pre-expansion lull, or are you not feeling any problems and WotLK can arrive when it arrives?
Saturday, 9 August 2008
Going back for fun prizes
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One of the disadvantages of having started to play after The Burning Crusade expansion came out is that I never did any of the higher level dungeons or the raids. Our guild has done a couple of retro runs to Molten Core and Black Wing Lair but that still leaves several dungeons, quests and loot I've never seen.
Well what's the point of having two level 70s with stealth if you can't go sneaking around things to get just what you need. Firstly I headed into Stratholme, a place I'd been only once to help a fellow guildie get their paladin epic mount, but with 3 other level 70s in the group it didn't really take long and a lot of things died before you got a chance to see what they were. Regardless I snuck my way in, killed a couple of groups and started sneaking around looking for Hearthsinger Forresten. He died the first time no problems (alongside the mobs I aggro'd) but only dropped some mail loot. No problems, run out, reset and repeat. Second time I had a better understanding of what I was doing and he could be taken out without aggroing anything else. A quick stunlock and Piccolo of the Flaming Fire was mine, which is going to be fun whilst we're hanging around in raids.
Next up were the pets awarded from the quests from Kibler which required going around Lower Blackrock Spire collecting spider eggs and a worg pup. The only problem was the sprawling nature of the instance and trying to find my way out once I'd completed the quests. A quick run back through the Burning Steppes to hand in and a Smolderweb Carrier and a Worg Carrier found their way into my bags.
Finally the giant cannon outside of the Aldor bank indicated that the Darkmoon Faire was back in town. So what should have been a quick run to Blackrock Depths to pick up some Dark Iron Ale in order to return Jubjub to his owner and get my own Jubling. If I thought LBRS was sprawling it was nothing compared to this. Fortunately lockpicking meant I could bypass a lot of things once I found my way round and as you can buy the ale in bulk it meant Medrare could also get a pet.
In other news the Spirit of Competition smiled on the little druid as a fantastic 5cap win in Arathi Basin rewarded him with a Gold Medallion.
Well what's the point of having two level 70s with stealth if you can't go sneaking around things to get just what you need. Firstly I headed into Stratholme, a place I'd been only once to help a fellow guildie get their paladin epic mount, but with 3 other level 70s in the group it didn't really take long and a lot of things died before you got a chance to see what they were. Regardless I snuck my way in, killed a couple of groups and started sneaking around looking for Hearthsinger Forresten. He died the first time no problems (alongside the mobs I aggro'd) but only dropped some mail loot. No problems, run out, reset and repeat. Second time I had a better understanding of what I was doing and he could be taken out without aggroing anything else. A quick stunlock and Piccolo of the Flaming Fire was mine, which is going to be fun whilst we're hanging around in raids.
Next up were the pets awarded from the quests from Kibler which required going around Lower Blackrock Spire collecting spider eggs and a worg pup. The only problem was the sprawling nature of the instance and trying to find my way out once I'd completed the quests. A quick run back through the Burning Steppes to hand in and a Smolderweb Carrier and a Worg Carrier found their way into my bags.
Finally the giant cannon outside of the Aldor bank indicated that the Darkmoon Faire was back in town. So what should have been a quick run to Blackrock Depths to pick up some Dark Iron Ale in order to return Jubjub to his owner and get my own Jubling. If I thought LBRS was sprawling it was nothing compared to this. Fortunately lockpicking meant I could bypass a lot of things once I found my way round and as you can buy the ale in bulk it meant Medrare could also get a pet.
In other news the Spirit of Competition smiled on the little druid as a fantastic 5cap win in Arathi Basin rewarded him with a Gold Medallion.
Wednesday, 23 July 2008
Who doesn't love vanity pets
I've not taken advantage of all the changes that the last patch introduced, but the new vanity pet introduced from Shatari Skyguard available at exalted was something that I had to pick up.
Non-combat pets are a part of the game that I really like and something I look out for when questing around the place. My guildies are often jealous of the Sinister Squashling I managed to pick up during the last All Hallows event and running around during Orphan's Week allowed me to pick up Egbert who's manic running around can be a bit of a cause for concern when in raids.
Whilst all these pets are great they do take up extra bag slots which can cause problems especially if you need to keep hold of crafting mats, raid consumables and the like so it's good news from the expansion where pets and mounts will be a new type of spell that you learn from the original item and then can use it at any time. Will also mean that there's a chance I might use a different mount rather than the two I carry around.
Finally, if you haven't seen the current spat between BBB and BRK I hereby encourage all rogues out there to join with our druid buddies in standing up against bloggers claiming parts of the blogosphere for themselves.
Non-combat pets are a part of the game that I really like and something I look out for when questing around the place. My guildies are often jealous of the Sinister Squashling I managed to pick up during the last All Hallows event and running around during Orphan's Week allowed me to pick up Egbert who's manic running around can be a bit of a cause for concern when in raids.
Whilst all these pets are great they do take up extra bag slots which can cause problems especially if you need to keep hold of crafting mats, raid consumables and the like so it's good news from the expansion where pets and mounts will be a new type of spell that you learn from the original item and then can use it at any time. Will also mean that there's a chance I might use a different mount rather than the two I carry around.
Finally, if you haven't seen the current spat between BBB and BRK I hereby encourage all rogues out there to join with our druid buddies in standing up against bloggers claiming parts of the blogosphere for themselves.
Wednesday, 9 July 2008
Hurrah for fun GM's
Now that the arena season 2 gear has been made available for honor, it means that it's time to grind honor and BG marks to pick up those pieces that clearly blow away loot from raiding or instances.
Crash has picked up both the swords and got them enchanted with Mongoose, which should see him out until the expansion in terms of weapons. Trying them out in Karazhan last night lead to some fun results especially when our shaman healer was kind enough to drop a windfury totem for me and the warrior tanks. I know I keep mentioning this buff but I truly love it for it's sheer awesomeness.
Medrare's needs are simpler, just attempting to get the shoulders (no Atal'ai Spaulders for him) which are ridiculously good given how straightforward they are to get.
However this does mean grinding the battlegrounds, which is ok providing you can cope with the pillocks that can hang around in there and you have a clue what to do when playing your character in PvP. For Crash it's easy (yes I'm admitting at times that playing a rogue is easy but this is probably the only time), you find the squishy cloth wearer and stunlock the heck out of them and then annoy the warlock by removing all his dots in one fell swoop. With Medrare it's a bit trickier, I don't know whether to stay cat and try and claw things to death, go bear and watch people get bored trying to kill me or switch between everything and do a bit of everything. Fortunately when doing Alterac Valley this problem doesn't arrive, tank everything as if it's PvE, wait for DPS to kill stuff whilst healers keep you alive and win the match.
Any way, getting back to the title of this post, today the daily quest was for Warsong Gulch, normally I'd avoid this like the plague, but the 'For Great Honor' quest was still available for gold and makes for an easy way to make up an honor shortfall quickly. So in I went, expecting the worse but hoping for a group that would make the best of it.
As we're riding towards the Alliance base we suddenly see that our flag has been picked up and a red blur streaking ahead of us captures it before any of us have had a chance to blink. Right so some alliance kiddie has decided to employ a speed hack, well done, /golfclap, hope you feel good about yourself.
As this clearly counts as harassment I wasted no time in raising a GM ticket in the hope of at least avoiding meeting him again and standing a chance of loosing in a fair fight. Here attached for posterity are the screenshots of our conversation.
Two things to take from this:
1) My grasp of English goes out the window when typing fast to a GM
2) There really are GM's out there with a sense of humour that will help and respond.
Needless to say the GM survey was glowing after this conversation and hopefully the little wossname that was employing the speed-hack will enjoy his ban.
Crash has picked up both the swords and got them enchanted with Mongoose, which should see him out until the expansion in terms of weapons. Trying them out in Karazhan last night lead to some fun results especially when our shaman healer was kind enough to drop a windfury totem for me and the warrior tanks. I know I keep mentioning this buff but I truly love it for it's sheer awesomeness.
Medrare's needs are simpler, just attempting to get the shoulders (no Atal'ai Spaulders for him) which are ridiculously good given how straightforward they are to get.
However this does mean grinding the battlegrounds, which is ok providing you can cope with the pillocks that can hang around in there and you have a clue what to do when playing your character in PvP. For Crash it's easy (yes I'm admitting at times that playing a rogue is easy but this is probably the only time), you find the squishy cloth wearer and stunlock the heck out of them and then annoy the warlock by removing all his dots in one fell swoop. With Medrare it's a bit trickier, I don't know whether to stay cat and try and claw things to death, go bear and watch people get bored trying to kill me or switch between everything and do a bit of everything. Fortunately when doing Alterac Valley this problem doesn't arrive, tank everything as if it's PvE, wait for DPS to kill stuff whilst healers keep you alive and win the match.
Any way, getting back to the title of this post, today the daily quest was for Warsong Gulch, normally I'd avoid this like the plague, but the 'For Great Honor' quest was still available for gold and makes for an easy way to make up an honor shortfall quickly. So in I went, expecting the worse but hoping for a group that would make the best of it.
As we're riding towards the Alliance base we suddenly see that our flag has been picked up and a red blur streaking ahead of us captures it before any of us have had a chance to blink. Right so some alliance kiddie has decided to employ a speed hack, well done, /golfclap, hope you feel good about yourself.
As this clearly counts as harassment I wasted no time in raising a GM ticket in the hope of at least avoiding meeting him again and standing a chance of loosing in a fair fight. Here attached for posterity are the screenshots of our conversation.
Two things to take from this:
1) My grasp of English goes out the window when typing fast to a GM
2) There really are GM's out there with a sense of humour that will help and respond.
Needless to say the GM survey was glowing after this conversation and hopefully the little wossname that was employing the speed-hack will enjoy his ban.
Saturday, 5 July 2008
Playing outside the box
Having spoken about our attempts in ZA and trying to beat the gauntlet, Cynra from Airee.net commented on the problem when people are only prepared to run certain instances with a Paladin tank (Shattered Halls) or a Warlock (Mechanar) or some other must have class.
At the same time however there are players out there that go out of their way to try things that go against conventional wisdom. These include the rogue who geared themselves unhittable and then went on to tank Illidan and the druid who soloed Onyxia (allowing for a backup to take care for respawning patrols) and best of all the 10 druids who took on Karazhan.
This got me thinking, what's the most unusual way you've beaten an encounter in game and do you get any extra sense of enjoyment from the challenge that comes from going up against an encounter in a way that differs from the accepted norm.
For mine I think I have to go back to the first time we killed Lord Ahune for the Midsummer Fire Festival quest. Accepted wisdom was to take a tank, 2 ranged dps and a good burst melee dps along with the healer, and if there was some AoE then live was good and free epics were yours. However our group was 3 tanks (2 feral druids, 1 prot paladin), a BM hunter and resto shaman.
I'm not going to claim it was an easy fight, and again accepted wisdom was that if you didn't get him down in 2-3 waves you weren't going to get him down. Well the one time we managed it was after 5 waves (which you really didn't want to see) and required nearly every cooldown every class had (possibly more than once).
Whilst we only managed to complete the event once out of the five summons from the group it made a great practice ground for learning what your class can do and trying/having to do different things from what would be considered a standard ability rotation.
So that's my little example, are there any others out there which show there's no one right way to play the game?
At the same time however there are players out there that go out of their way to try things that go against conventional wisdom. These include the rogue who geared themselves unhittable and then went on to tank Illidan and the druid who soloed Onyxia (allowing for a backup to take care for respawning patrols) and best of all the 10 druids who took on Karazhan.
This got me thinking, what's the most unusual way you've beaten an encounter in game and do you get any extra sense of enjoyment from the challenge that comes from going up against an encounter in a way that differs from the accepted norm.
For mine I think I have to go back to the first time we killed Lord Ahune for the Midsummer Fire Festival quest. Accepted wisdom was to take a tank, 2 ranged dps and a good burst melee dps along with the healer, and if there was some AoE then live was good and free epics were yours. However our group was 3 tanks (2 feral druids, 1 prot paladin), a BM hunter and resto shaman.
I'm not going to claim it was an easy fight, and again accepted wisdom was that if you didn't get him down in 2-3 waves you weren't going to get him down. Well the one time we managed it was after 5 waves (which you really didn't want to see) and required nearly every cooldown every class had (possibly more than once).
Whilst we only managed to complete the event once out of the five summons from the group it made a great practice ground for learning what your class can do and trying/having to do different things from what would be considered a standard ability rotation.
So that's my little example, are there any others out there which show there's no one right way to play the game?
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