After many failed attempts at Malygos last week I wasn’t expecting great things when I joined a PUG Tuesday evening for 10 man Eye of Eternity. To say I was pleasantly surprised when we one shotted him would be an understatement. So I can finally say that I have downed all raid cont in Wrath of the Lich King. Unfortunately as I have yet to complete heroic Oculus (I really should get around to that) I do not quite have the meta achievement.
If anyone is interested as to how it was so much easier with the PUG it comes down to two things. Firstly a Death Knight that was pulling the sparks perfectly onto each other and a Mage that topped out at 8.5k DPS which is INSANE!
Showing posts with label Wrath of the Lich King. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wrath of the Lich King. Show all posts
Saturday, March 7, 2009
You what Malygos?
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
The Wrath of the Lich King
It was a dark and stormy night when our car charged into the lot of the local Westfield. We escaped the cold outside into cavernous concrete and glass megalith where Electronic Boutique is housed. A short discussion with the staff and we emerged with the numbers 34 and 35. The wait seemed an eternity barely relieved by a call from fellow guild mates in the same situation 1000km away. Then a line formed, watched over by the local store manager dual wielding foam short swords. We were to wait as such until the appointed time. Meer minutes before our turn to collect that which we had waited so long for a sodden rider enters and removes his helm revealing a manly Duke Nukem esk head with metal band drummer beard. Tek finally appeared and in the nick of time; risking the wrath of the noob hordies surrounding us we snuck (as much as you can sneak a 6 foot guy in wet leather). We entered together, diverged our recepts then raising our fists in victory as we emerged with our copies of Wrath of the Lich King. A brief hiatus ensued as we had a catch up with a guy I had only ever seen as a cute night elf female promising the next meeting would involved alcoholic beverages of some variety.
The journey home was framed with brilliant lightning strikes almost as if mother nature was providing a backdrop to our upcoming adventures. Installation was smooth and provided an opportunity to source drinks, snacks and read the art book. Then finally the we were in, starting on our long path to the destruction (or redemption?) of Arthas. 
First glimpses of Northrend revealed ice, penguins and the ominous spectre of Utguard Keep leering over Howling Fjord. Then as time passes, monsters and dragons are slain, Titans ridden, seeds pooped out, flags planted and levels dinged. Zones come and go and the trail of corpses lengthens. But from Utguard all the way to Icecrown the Arthas is ever present. Sometimes directly some times not and even once though a loop hole in time. The world changes around us as we participate in history. Assisting King Varian Wrynn take the Undercity, leading the spearhead for Highlord Tirion Fordring of the Argent Crusade and establishing a foothold in Icecrown for the Knights of the Ebon Blade.
Until at last in the heights of the Storm Peaks the final level is obtained eight has finally been reached. But still the end is not in sight, there are many more foes to vanquish, quest to complete and raids to clear. But soon Arthas, soon we will come for you.
Monday, November 17, 2008
Open Apology
Sorry I have not been posting, too caught up in Wrath. I have taken a lot of screen shots so expect some pretty posts to come.
Read Full ArticleWednesday, November 12, 2008
A time goes by
It seems that everyone, Blizzard blues included, are wishing away the time between now ans Wrath launch. Players are spamming trade chat, guilds chatting away about non nonsensical rubbish and Wow Insider is speed posting pictures and random mutterings. To help keep you entertained, please see the below picture of Ironarm posing in his Paladin Undead Killing plate armor of doom and such.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Arthas Attacks
Arthas has made his next move running up to the Release of Wrath of the Lich King.
FOOLS OF STOMWIND! HEAR ME, NAIVE CHILDREN OF THE ALLIANCE! TREMBLE AND KNOW YOUR DOOM, FOR THE LICH KING'S GAZE IS FIXED UPON YOU!
Attacks have landed in Stormwind Harbour for the alliance and the Valley of Honor for the horde. The event lasts about ten minutes during which you can fight frost wyrms and abomonations. Neither enemy is perticually hard to vanquish and currently there is no rewards.
It is disappointing there are no quests linked to this event. The idea of fighting off attacks for your boat ticket would be amusing to say the least.
What i found most interesting was the appearence of Broll Bearmantle and Valeera Sanguinar who fight along side the king in the arena. I would recomend reading the comic book to fill the background of where the King has been. Read Full Article
Monday, October 27, 2008
I can only hope...
Presently I have a very narky and slightly QQ post sitting in my blog post drafts. At the moment the Zombie Invasion world event is causing me a lot of frustration. But there is a reason that I haven’t posted my angry article. I am trusting Blizzard to take this event somewhere good and quickly. The concept is solid, plagued grain is a nice reflection of what happened in Stratholme and the undead slowly taking over the world. But from this we need a climatic conclusion.
Hints are coming that the Alliance (and I suppose the Horde too) are working to retaliate. Elfarol posted an interesting transmission from a Gnomish Wireless Unit and Wow Insider has a few hints from faction leaders. Hopefully Blizzard will pull this off and there will be an epic conclusion which kicks Wrath off with a bang and swamps out the frustrations insured by rampant ganking zombies.
EDIT: People are getting really annoyed now, apparently there have been a lot of complaints in guild chat. Perhaps I should post my QQ article anyway.
Friday, October 24, 2008
The Evil Dead!
Although I have not entered the world for a day or so, word is out that Arthas is making his move against the Alliance and Horde. Diseased creates of wheat have arrived around Azeroth those who catch the infection form them will, unless cured, turn into a zombie. Thankfully the Argent Dawn have healers in the major cities who can cure you of this horrific disease but it will only be a matter of time before even they are turned.
I plan to form a party of defenders to help contain this menace, concern remains that although Ironarm is tough and has a resistance to disease he will be turned by shear weight of numbers. We can only hope that a powerful force will appear and assist us as it appears that the zombies are getting stronger.
Roleplay aside, this could be an interesting and at the same time a very annoying event. I will need to investigate which NPCs can be infected and whether that will make them hostile. Hopefully the placement of Agent Dawn forces will help to mitigate this and ensure the game remains fun. Should the Auctioneers, Innkeepers and quest givers get turned life could get quite frustrating. The fact that people are complaining that paladins, priests and shaman are cleansing them surprises me. As far as I can see the main reason people want to be zombies is to attack others and cause havoc. Dispelling the disease seems like a great way to stop them from doing that.
Should you wish to join me, in the defense against the zombie infestation, then have a look at the guide on Wow Insider for some tips on staying alive. We will NEVER give up we will NEVER surrender! For the LIGHT!
Sunday, October 12, 2008
World of Warcraft Gameplay Panel
A star studded line up took on a barrage of player questions. Due to the huge variety of topics I have bulleted some of the most interesting points.
The panel did a good job answering the player questions, they also too some of the crap without breaking a sweat. One question which wasn't answered “why does it cost me $70 to have a tiny authenticator shipped to me?”, I guess I’ll have to ask that on the forums.
Jeff Kaplan Interview
This interview was more of a recap of some of the panel information and information released during the beta. He also discussed upcoming content patches, of which there will be plenty relating to Wrath of the Lich King and that we could expect siege weapons in PvE. They have also started planning work on the next expansion. He also gave a very clear indication of how fast the levelling from 60 to 70 would be, currently it takes about 5 zones to get to 70. When the level change is put in place on Tuesday it will take only 2-3 zones. For players still fighting through the last few level this will really help them make it before November 13th (14th for us). I have mentioned Jyade and Bhoni before, well they are in their mid 60s at the moment so this change is for you guys, you can make it!
Read Full ArticleSaturday, October 11, 2008
World of Warcraft World Design Interview - Alex Afrasiabi
Questing has evolved from Burning Crusade. In Northrend there is more involvement from the big bad (Arthas) so even if you never get to raid you should still be very aware of his presence. They have learnt from their mistakes in the Classic and Burning Crusade games. The use of phasing is also making a difference to the world and to quests. This is most visible in the Death Knight starting zone. Some things to do with changing the environment are now possible thanks to this revolutionary technology and we should start to see these in Northrend. However they have had to be very careful with this as bad use of phasing could really confuse players. For example if players on different steps of a group quest chain can't see each other they would be very annoyed.
An interesting note which arose from viewer question was that there are no world bosses in Northrend because of some of the player collision (PvP and Griefing) issues that have arisen with them in Azeroth and the Outlands.
Alex also revealed that there will be a world event attached the patch next Tuesday. In Alex's own words “All kinds of craziness is going to happen... your going to have a reason to go to Northrend”.
Class Discussion
The class discussion, conducted by Greg Street (Ghost Crawler) and Tom Chilton, for the World of Warcraft started with Death Knights. Some explanation about where the class has evolved from and touching upon runes and runic power. The starting zone for Death Knights will be a zone worth playing through just for the experience, even if you don't want to level all the way to 80. Something that was very interesting is that the talent trees are less task specific. Apparently you can use any tree for either DPS or tanking.
Greg then started to go through some changes to the classes. There were some excellent explanations about how and why they had made certain changes; i'm not going to detail everything as there was a lot of information. He touched upon shadow priest DPS, discipline healing ability in raids and the removal of racial talents for priests. Mind sear is apparently a popular new ability among Blizzard staff. Moonkin were covered, discussing mana and crowd control and DPS issues. This brought a smile to Alassiel's face. There was a huge reaction to Paladins by the audience; in fact they got their own slide in the presentation.
Warriors have been the main tank for a long time, they wanted to make sure that warriors were still desired, but not the exclusive tank, after the removal of crushing blows. They also wanted to make sure that there were “fun things” to take in the protection tree in addition to the mitigation abilities. A desire was expressed by the designed to maintain a very clear difference between the different tanking classes while ensuring they all have the tools they need.
In terms of groups, flexibility was addressed. Ensuring that more different class/talents were viable in raids, focusing on the idea that you were bringing the player not the class. They didn't want the game to be about buffs and potions but gear and skill. Player skill will be the most important reason to chose someone for a group. The implementation of spell power will make life easier for healers when soloing. The same goes for threat generation based more on damage, for tanks, as opposed to high threat abilities.
Yes, they are working on a dual spec system. They want you do be able to swap talent spec mid raid but they don't seem to have too many details yet. Obviously not a system where you can swap from arms to prot and back again I the middle of an arena battle but they don't want you to have to head into town every time you need to swap. On top of that they want to improve the UI to support different gear sets. Implementing something like outfitter or item rack where switching gear sets easily while still keeping these sets in your bags.
Mages, rogues and warlocks were the source of the most questions. Lots of points were mentioned, I started tuneing out sorry, making mages do more DPS isn't at the top of my priority list. Sadly no questions were asked about warriors or priests.
BlizzCon Begins
Time counts down, fifteen minutes to go. It is 4:45am and I haven't really slept all that well. The excitement builds as the coverage hosts banter back and forth about the upcoming day. It seems like this weekend should be a coffee drinking, sleep lacking, marathon.
Finally the opening ceremony begins, and a humble Mike Morhaime apologises about the ticket debacle, apparently they sold 15,000 tickets in 15 minutes, and welcomes the audience. Its a tough crowd and even getting a sentence out is tricky with repeated interjections of cheering. After his opening spiel there is a highlights reel from WWI earlier in the year in Paris. This is followed with a replay of the Wrath cinematic. Then some Diablo news, another class is announced for the third game, The Wizard.
Mike did a great job, gamers are a tough crowd and without a massive ground breaking announcement he was somewhat unarmed. Sure a new class for Diablo 3 is nice but that only satisfies a portion of the crowd. This is however only the introduction perhaps the panels later in the day will hold more Warcraft information.
Friday, October 3, 2008
Nothing to see here
My wow life has been pretty boring of late. I haven’t had a huge amount of time to play and what time I have had has been spent on getting my new computer running. Re-installing Warcraft from scratch and then getting all your addons macros and key binding right takes a surprisingly long time. When online I have been working on completing quests i’m aiming for the Seeker title) and getting my fishing up to scratch.
Sadly all my fishing time has been a bit of a waste. If I had waited until Wrath apparently I would have needed significantly less catches. However once Wrath hits the last thing I want to do is level fishing from 250.
Finally I put in my annual leave from for the 14th of November in today. Alassiel has moved around her shifts so we will both be able to get in there for at least day and work as leveling nice and fast.
Friday, September 26, 2008
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.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Inscription - Accessing good information
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.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
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.
Monday, September 15, 2008
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.
Friday, September 5, 2008
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.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
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.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Arena in WotLK
I was looking at Squiggle’s arena point the other night after we had finally got back into the swing of arena and realised that I have quite a few (over 2000) and was wondering what to do with them. At that time it occurred to me that I had no idea what would be happening to arena points once we got into Northrend. This morning my question was answered by Wryxian on the European forums, once you hit level 71 your points will be reset to zero. Therefore spend away because in a couple of months they will be gone!
In addition to this there will be skirmish brackets for 71 - 75 and 76 - 80 with Arena teams to be implemented at some stage post release for level 80 players. I hope we will be able to reforge Triptych at level 80, perhaps as a ret paladin, holy priest and mage team?
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