Draenei on a Kodo

I finally managed to get one of my characters a Great Brewfest Kodo! Squiggle received this drop after having downed the boss about 50-80 times between both characters. The mount fits perfectly with Squiggle’s size and overall looks really good. I have included a picture without shadow form active because semi see through purple haze really doesn’t do it justice.

Sadly I had just swapped over to Squiggle so a guildie could have a go tanking it, so I didn’t get it on Ironarm. I guess I will just have to find Ironarm his own unique mount… perhaps a polar bear complete with murloc?

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Protection Warrior Talents in Wrath

when the happened before Burning Crusade I was caught by surprise (I was a noob back then) and wasted this great opportunity. I do not plan to let this happen again so I have been working on some nice talent specs for Ironarm (and to a lesser extent Squiggle). Now that I am reasonably confident no massive changes are on the way to the protection warrior talents I going to outline my choices so far.

I have looked at two specs, one to go with at level 70 and one to aim for at level 80. These specs are based on many assumptions, mostly I am assuming that with an increase in the damage output of protection warriors that generating rage will be less of an issue. In addition I do intend to take the Glyph of Heroic Strike which will also help with rage generation.

These talent specs are also based on the assumption that I will be running a lot of high level dungeons and raids. I have had to balance the need for AOE tanking and utility that is great in dungeons with the survivability and single target threat generation of raiding. I also do not intend to PvP with these builds even though it would be fun to try.

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The future of gaming interaction?

One of the major newspapers in my city reported on a very interesting new technology today. The Australian founded company Emotiv has designed and constructed a wireless neuroheadset.

Called the EPOC this headset will allow a computer to interpret your facial expressions and your emotions as well as you cognitive actions. Essential you will be able to interact with objects inside a virtual world without a keyboard or mouse and these worlds will be able to no only react to you interaction but also you moods, emotions and expressions. This is done by 16 sensors mounted in the sleek white headset which will apparently be available for sale to the public later in the year for the small price of $300.

Currently this technology works best with their in house game (untitled) but it does come with software that allows you to use the headset with other games. This could mean that in a few years instead of pressing “2” on your keyboard to cast a fireball you just have to imagine casting a fireball and your in game avatar will start casting. The concept can be quite hard to get your head around but it all comes down to controlling something that happens on your computer by thought. Without having tried the system I can’t speak for is quality, for example it might actually be quite slow to respond, however now new technology is perfect.

Implications for people with disabilities is huge, a device such as this could allow people who struggle to use a computer because of a physical disability complete free access to what is these days an essential part of life. In five years time will everyone be using a device like this to control their computers? I don’t know, but I would tip this a technology to watch if only because it would be really fun to try at least once.

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Inscription - Accessing good information

I am happy to see that the Inscription profession is finally taking shape. Just recently the skill levels and reagents for Inscription items/spells have been fixed so they fit with the levelling of other professions (for example every Glyph is no longer made with Moonglow Ink). Subsequently Inscription levelling guides are starting to come out giving an indication of how many herbs you should be farming/saving. Based on rough calculations you will need at least 50-60 stacks of herbs to take your inscription from 0 to 375. Although this seems like a lot, it is about what I expected it to be.

As Blizzard still have not seen fit to give me a beta key my information is based on what I can find from internet guides and wow head. During these investigations I have found one excellent website, El’s Inscription. This gives really good explanations of Inscription abilities, spells, items, glyphs etc. There are a lot of other guides out there but many are incomplete and inaccurate. I had hoped to put together a leveling guide for Inscription but unless information from reliable sources become complete I don’t think it would be worth the time. I will however be on the lookout for more excellent sources of information as I am planning on leveling up Inscription as soon as I possibly can and want to be prepared.

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Gruul's Lair - The Dragon Killer is Dead

Despite the new expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, being less than two months away The Children of Stormwind are still making some progress through content. Over the weekend we achieved another guild first by Downing Gruul the Dragonkiller. Despite lacking our raid leader Skyer, the run went off very well. Our only major hold up was replacing a couple of players who DCed just before Gruul and didn’t re-appear. The group wasn’t entirely from our guild, we did have a few ring in whom we are very grateful to for their assistance. The full list of participants is included below.


As the expansion approaches it seems that the Children of Stormwind is getting larger. It is a rocky time for many guilds, most are not making any progression and in many cases have completely given up on raiding. The focus for a lot of players is getting ready for the expansion. In line with this The Children of Stormwind are working on forming a progression raiding group. This team will be made up of players who consistently perform in raids. The idea is to form a core group who work well together to forge the way into Lich King ten man raids. It will also be something members can work towards if they are interested in raiding. Last week we had two great groups running side by side, this generated some amusing banter as comments were made back and forth in guild chat about their groups progress. This seemed to push people to work harder and subsequently my group got all the way to prince only skipping Nighbane, Illhoof and Netherspite.

I appologise for the quality of some of these screen shots, uploading them to Blogger seems to make them very dark and hard to see.

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Talk Like a Pirate Day

Have you seen a lot of pirates wandering around your capital city? Well it is International Talk Like a Pirate Day (TLPD) and to celebrate Blizzard have added NPCs to Shattrath as well as all the capital cities, who will turn you into a pirate.


They can be found in front of the portals in the center of Shattrath or out the front of the bank in a capital city. I understand there is also a party on in Booty Bay featuring Dread Captain DeMeza.


This discovery made my day; I only remembered it was TLPD when the announcer on radio mentioned it. Thankfully the radio is my alarm clock to I was reminded before the day was over. At first I thought the pirates I saw wandering around were just fans of the day with spare Hallows End wand or Deviate Delight. Then, thankfully, I was in Stormwind to do the daily fishing quest and for some reason wandered over to the bank. Seeing some pirate NPCs a small spark of hope flared, this bloomed into a raging fire of joy when I talked to them and got turned into a pirate.


International Talk Like a Pirate Day was invented by a couple of guys in a racket ball court in 1995. They explain the whole story on their website if you are interested. I have followed if for a few years now but I am still working on getting my co workers to answer their phones in pirate voices.

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Authenticator

So authenticators are now available to Australia, you too can protect your account from hackers for the low price of US$6.50. So I signed up to the Blizzard store, selected myself an authenticator and a second on for Alassiel put in the payment information and then just about fell off my chair. Shipping and handling for two tiny authenticators is US$77.81! How could two authenticators cost so much to send?


I mentioned Authenticators in a previous post. They are intended to provide an additional layer of defense against hackers by requiring you to enter an additional code generated by the Authenticator every time you log in.

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Achieveing Something

With the pre-content patch download at home while I work away and the release date for Wrath announced I think it is time to have an in depth look at a couple of things. Achievements were announced quite a while ago to mixed feeling from World of Warcraft players.

To a certain extent achievement keeps a record of things you have done. You can keep track of how many quests you have completed, how much of the world you have seen. This might encourage you to go back and visit somewhere you have never been before. When I looked at “The Keymaster” achievement I realised I had never been to Dire Maul and subsequently I don’t have the key obtained there. Completely bizarre things will also be tracked for example /loving critters and reading different books.

For some players this might be an additional time sink they don’t need, feeling they have to go back to Straglethorn Vale to complete the Nesingway quests might be something they really can’t be bothered doing. Well the great thing is they don’t have to. Achievements do not reward anything you “need” just things you might want. In fact at the moment rewards are limited to titles and a vanity (non combat) pets. Many players will enjoy the time sink aspect, achievements provides many goals that all players can reach, even if they can’t raid, compete in high level arenas or log in for large blocks of time.

One thing you may want is a title, Ironarm still clings to his old “Sergeant” title and Alassiel invested a lot of time getting her new title. Achievements is bringing several new and exciting ones. You could be “the Seeker”, “the Explorer” or the “Flame Warden”. With enough time and dedication any of these could be attained. Blizzard are introducing new ones too> Personally I would like to see “the Drunk” (rewarded from It’s Happy Hour Somewhere) or “the Coward” (for declining duels).

Some achievements will be easy, some hard but Warcraft is all about filling in time, making and reaching goals and having fun, achievements is just building on this and providing some new paths to take.

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The 13th of November 2008

What will you be doing on the 13th of November 2008? Well I will be popping over to EB Games to collect my copy of Wrath of the Litch King. Yes you got it the date has been announced! Well that or Wowhead are playing a really cruel joke on us all.


Will it be enough time? Will Priest still suck in November? Stay tuned to find out.

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Neglected no more

Poor Ironarm has been feeling neglected, all my efforts to get some nice (read decent) gear for Squiggle has resulted in Ironarm only emerging when desperately needed and even then pretty much only for raids. Well now that Squiggle has his epic flyer, setting him up for Wrath of the Litch King, I have switched my focus back to tanking.


I started off with a run though Heroic Magister’s Terrace; I really want that nice trinket. Not my best performance, but we did make it the whole way through. As per usual I was having trouble tanking the group pulls where I was holding three plus mobs. I noticed over the course of the run that if the crowd control was pulled off right at the very start of an encounter I was fine because I could take a few steps back use thunderclap and cleave without fear of breaking anyone’s spells. I didn’t always pull it off resulting in a few “you broke my polymorph” comments. The trinket didn't drop.


The following day off I went to Heroic Shattered Halls. I was concerned with how this would go because I had struggled with the multi mob fights the day before and I knew Shattered Halls would be harder. Sure we had a few wipes here but there were defiantly more successes than failures. Through some of the areas I was holding five or six mobs without too much difficulty. The highlight had to be the last boss, through both attempts we lost two of our DPSers very early on thanks to some unlucky cleaves (I think I should review placement for next time). This left Elfarol healing, Alassiel trying to Kill Bladefist and myself tanking both Bladefist and the adds as they streamed in the door. Sadly we failed the first time because I wasn’t able to pick up the ranged adds who would mana drain Elfarol and Alassiel but the second time we pulled it off. It was very satisfying to watch all those adds run back out the door after Bladefirst went down and think to myself “wow I was holding ALL of them”.

After our Karazhan group fell apart on Sunday evening, a tired and still sick Ironarm agreed to tank Heroic Blood Furnace. Certainly not a performance as stellar as Shattered Halls the previous evening, but another success. Credit has to go to Clinn whom on the second boss did some excellent blinding, kiting and stunning to help control the waves of angry orcs who precede Broggok (the eye of doom).

In summary I acquired 13 Badges of Justice, several shards and a pile of junk shoulder high. I am completely unsure what to do with the badges, there is defiantly more tanking gear I could get with them but it seems a waste with Wrath of the Litch King so close. Perhaps it would be better to turn them in for gems which I can sell on the auction house? Then again some new gear might help with Zul’Aman.

Images from Wowhead

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Inscrption - Pigments & Inks

Slowly but surely more Inscription Information is coming out. One of the core components of Inscription is the process of milling. This is where you take 5 herbs of the same type and crush them together to make two to three pigments. There are currently fifteen pigments on Wowhead with each coming from a different group of herbs. Each of these groups of herbs has a common and rare pigment that can be obtained by milling them.

Alabaster Pigment - Commonly obtained from Silverleaf, Peacebloom, Earthroot and Mageroyal
Dusky Pigment - Commonly obtained from Bruiseweed, Straglekelp, Swiftthistle and Briarthorn
Verdant Pigment - Occasionally obtained from Bruiseweed, Straglekelp, Swiftthistle and Briarthorn
Golden Pigment - Commonly obtained from Kingsblood, Wild Steelbloom, Grave Moss and Liferoot
Burnt Pigment - Occasionally obtained from Kingsblood, Wild Steelbloom, Grave Moss and Liferoot
Emerald Pigment - Commonly obtained from Goldthorn, Wintersbite, Khadgar's Wiskers and Fadeleaf
Indigo Pigment - Occasionally obtained from Goldthorn, Wintersbite, Khadgar's Wiskers and Fadeleaf
Violet Pigment - Commonly obtained from Ghost Mushroom, Groomsblood, Arthas' Tears, Blindweed, Purple Lotus, Sungrass and Firebloom
Ruby Pigment - Occasionally obtained from Ghost Mushroom, Groomsblood, Arthas' Tears, Blindweed, Purple Lotus, Sungrass and Firebloom
Silvery Pigment - Commonly obtained from Golden Sansam, Dreamfoil, Mountain Silversage and Plaguebloom
Sapphire Pigment - Occasionally obtained from Golden Sansam, Dreamfoil, Mountain Silversage and Plaguebloom
Nether Pigment - Commonly obtained from Outland herbs (not yet specified)
Ebon Pigment - Occasionally obtained from Felweed, Mana Thistle and Netherbloom
Azure Pigment - Commonly obtained from Northrend herbs (not yet specified)
Icy Pigment - Occasionally obtained from Northrend herbs (not yet specified)


At the moment Milling herbs will not give you skill points however these pigments are used to create inks and this process will give you skill points. Currently there are 17 inks which use a variety of these pigments.

Ivory Ink - Made from 1xPeacebloom
Silver Ink - Made from 1xSilverleaf
Moonglow Ink - Made from 1xAlabaster Pigment
Hunter's Ink - Made from 1xVerdant Pigment 2xDusky Pigment
Midnight Ink - Made from 1xDusky Pigment
Lion's Ink - Made from 1xGolden Pigment
Dawnstar Ink - Made from 1xBurnt Pigment 2xGolden Pigment
Jadefire Ink - Made from 1xEmerald Pigment
Royal Ink - Made from 1xIndigo Pigment 2xEmerald Pigment
Celestial Ink - Made from 1xViolet Pigment
Fiery Ink - Made from 1xRuby Pigment 2xViolet Pigment
Shimmering Ink - Made from 1xSilvery Pigment
Ink of the Sky - Made from 1xSapphire Pigment 2xShimmering Ink
Ethereal Ink - Made from 1xNether Pigment
Deathletter Ink - Made from 1xEbon Pigment 2xEthereal Ink
Ink of the Frozen Sea - Made from 1xAzure Pigment
Snowfall Ink - Made from 1xIcy Pigment 2xAzure Pigment

These inks are combined with Parchment to make Glyphs and Scrolls however all of the one listed at the moment use Moonglow Ink which I am assuming is an error. So the specifics of making the Glyphs remains a mystery.

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5200 Gold

You may have noticed a lull in articles over the last week. I apologise, I have been busy working on earning all the money to get Squiggle an epic flying mount. Well I finally made it! Despite offers from Alassiel and Elfarol (who are loaded with about 15,000 gold between them) I farmed all of the gold myself with the only assistance in the form of Quest help and exclusive skinning rights. Part of the process was completing as many of the Shattered Sun Daily quests on “The Isle” as I could fit in before I had o go to work. I could easily make 100 gold a day and also a good amount of reputation. Subsequently I am now revered and soon will be able to get the nice necklace rewarded at exalted.


I am however quite over the Shattered Sun Dailies so I might go old school and try out the Netherwing ones next. I hear that they are more profitable and well why would say no to flying around on a dragon.

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The Downside of Downunder

There is a definite downside to playing wow as an Australian. We get horrific latency which makes split second reactions a bit tricky. We get lag spikes that mean you stare at nothing moving for 5 minutes and then find your dead. But worst of all is we aren’t eligible for any competitions nor can we get those cool Figure Prints.

I can only see one way to compensate, release Wrath of the Litch King based on local time, that way we will be 10 hours into the game before the US players get to even buy it.

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