Mortigen at 70, yay!

Well behind the curve, and given that the level 80 Death Knights have been running amok for a week or so – the news that my Death Knight is level 70 is not huge for most. But for me its fantastic.

I’m now in Northrend, running quests, killing mobs, and learning how to scale them. I think they are better at 70 than the initial “whoa” you get at 55. The mobs are tougher and take some extra hits, and sometimes a miss or dodge will stuff my rotation; but I love it.

Deathgrip is fantastic for solo play, combine that with two Silence affects when you’re Unholy, and two anti-magic shields – casters are Toast.

Blue Vengence

I like a good rant as much as the next nut, and getting good and frothy-mouthed about an issue is a quick way to release frustration. However what I saw today in the WoW Forums makes me think that ranting in the General forums is where the real comedy is – far better than getting angry. Seeing a Blue do this was relaxing and fun.

A blue today totally trashed a whinger in spectacular fashion.

Q u o t e:
Blizzard, stop appealing to the casuals just to make a profit

That’s an over-simplification, I’d reckon. There are, and always will be, aspects of this game that appeal to very different gaming styles. That’s a good thing. Exposing more people to the MMO market is good for a business we believe is about providing people with entertainment that isn’t just passive, while providing a system for social networking.

Q u o t e:
make this game a game again.

I hope you don’t mean such things are measured solely based on difficulty. I would assume a game would primarily be something fun and engaging that exercises the body or mind. I’ve had a lot of fun in this expansion and met a couple of challenges along the way.

Q u o t e:
I can literally roll my face on the keyboard and take away epics.

“Literal” definitely doesn’t mean what you think it means.

Q u o t e:
I want to die, and not just from OP classes in PvP, but from PvE content… I want to wipe, I want to actually have a challenge like I did trying to progress through BWL so many years ago.

It looks like your highest level is 72, unless the armory hasn’t updated properly. Come back to me when you hit 80 and clear all the currently available raid content. If you say you never died due to player error, a challenge, or just dumb luck, I’ll hope there are logs for verifying this.

Q u o t e:
As it stands, a brainless chimpanzee could play this game and complete all the PvE content.

I’m quite sure you’d find a strong argument against you from the medical community. I can’t think of a mammal that exists that can function without such a vital organ. In case you were exaggerating and really meant to say an unintelligent chimpanzee could complete all PvE content, I want proof. The chimpanzee market could be HUGE.

Not half bad, and real linkage here. Kudos Zarhym.

Hunters, I love’em and hate’em

Begin Rant.

Honestly I don’t hate them. Jez from DPS We Deliver is a Hunter, and while I enjoy stirring her about how imba or irritating the class is, I really feel they have a niche spot in the game that is both valuable and enjoyable. Yesterday however was a swear jar day.

The context is over the weekend I spend a bit of time online and burned from 65 to 67 on my death Knight. So when Monday night came up, I thought “you beauty” time to ping level 68. However the universe has a sense of humour, and put a number of players in the environment to make the experience a tad more like a personal growth session.

The Good…

A Hunter last night helped be with a few quests in Nagrand. She and I had an unspoken agreement that our pets would dps and not pull aggro, we’d watch our threat, and I’d tank. For the 35 or so kills it worked a treat, we thanked each other and de-grouped. I saw her moments later at the hand in and we both /waved. Nice really, and a fast way to burn through the Nessangwary kill quests.

The Bad…

Not healing yourself between battles, not having any buffs applied (even the hunter ones), and starting the 2nd last stage of Nagrand Ring of Blood when you have 15% health, and the Druid healer has said he’s taking a bio break. We said wait, he kicked off anyway. We all died, he implied it was his pets fault. I had to ask if his pet accepted the quest, but I think it went over his head. Thankfully the healer didn’t drop group when he returned from the bathroom, and we got it done. Dumb arse, stupid player!

The Ugly…

Two Hunters and my DK doing some of the tough elite demons in Nagrand, all of us level 67. I tanked as best I could, and honnestly when the pets yanked aggro off me (growl?) I just let the stupid animal tank it for a while until its health went to zero. Given I was doing 45% of the damage, its shocking that they were able to, and I don’t know why it happened twice in a row. The second time I even taunted, only to have it taunted back off me. Yawn.

One also gave himself more room mid-fight by walking backwards into a set of mobs, and then later stood directly where the patrol walked, rather than where the other Hunter stood. I swear, these guys should tour the comedy circut.

In conclusion…

Its been said to me that there must be a truckload of bad players on our server, and while I can accept that statistically we may have a higher ass-hat ratio, I can’t really accept that the stats are skewed so far to allow this to continue to this degree for so long.

That, or I have some hell inspired curse that means that any odd, bad, or just plain strange players will gravitate toward the zone I’m in. Like the guy in the Douglas Adams book who was “blessed” to always be in rain. Some of the guys I meet are total wastes of oxygen.

Surely all the idiot players re-rolled Death Knights and are now lol-wat’ting their way through Northrend? I mean unless playing a Hunter is still easier, or creating new macros would bend their reality too much.

End rant.

btw – I’m not the only one to notice this recently.

Am I broke yet?

Power-grinding my Mining and Blacksmithing is a huge and expensive undertaking, especially as a lot of players are doing it. Price change over the last week has been huge. I’ve decided to pause this process until the market bloat slows down, which I hope starts shortly. Basically I’m blowing huge amounts of gold on trying to do this the quick and dirty way, without actually mining anything. Copper Ore are expensive and Silver Ore is just insane.

Here is the other solution: everyone just stop! Go play chess, go outside, whatever. I don’t care. Leave the AH alone, stop leveling your DKs. Leave the server and all the mobs to me.

Its all mine; mine! My precious…

When I thought I was out…

Two new wow commercials are out, and the Steve Van Sandt is my favourite of the entire series. Love the Sopranos. Project Lore has the recent two.

The Ozzie one is ok, but really the Oz has lost of his appeal to me since the reality TV shtick and seeing his daughter stumble through holywood.

The “I thought I was out” rings really true to me, as I’ve stopped twice but come back each time. Addicted? Maybe, but loving it. It is hard to quit something when you love it.

Mortigen’s fall and rise

Meet Mortigen, an Unholy spec Death Knight and one of his many minions.

For:

– Too much fun, flavour is perfect. Story is cool in a “whoa thats warped” way.

– The level boost from 60-70 has made the grind less of a grind.

– DPS is great, and you can survive a screw-up or bad pull. Having a pet really helps survive, and having AoE ability helps with farming when an area is overpopulated. I lay down the AoE when I think it will spawn, and often I get the mob tagged as it enters.

– Starting gear really gives you a jump start into leveling. Rakarth is right in that this may well change and we may notice a real problem with gear at later levels (a comment by phone). I’m not sure that matters as 71 greens will replace the 69 greens by a large degree. The first few levels in Northrend will be tough, but could not be impossible.

Against:

– …I got nothing bad to say.

And when I say they have good dps, this is an example of what a Ramparts zerg can produce. With a L70 Paladin and Healer, and x3 Death Knights – the dps was flowing like water. I really enjoyed both the Blood Furnace and Ramparts runs yesterday. At one point I pulled aggro from the Prot Paladin, and was almost killed, but thankfully the healer really knew his job and saved my silly red arse.

I see no reason not to try each spec, and gather gear for each spec. With each apparently being a viable tank role, the “oh shit” moments are not as terrible as with a more squishy toon.

From what I’ve seen Blood is the great dps, and Frost seems to have most of the best Tank talents. Which makes me wonder why I took Unholy? Answer is I like Warlock pets and AoE spells, which the Unholy gets in spades. And I love AoE tanking on the Paladin.

The best of both worlds? I think so.

Lastly the mod pictured in my screenshot above is called RuneWatch. Its an Ace2 mod that shows the diseases, runes and such that your DK has. The options are great (fade, hide blizz rune frame, rune ordering, sizing, plus many more), and while its the first I’ve used, I think its pretty darn good. In combination with Eclipse for timers this is a pretty powerful too.

Anyone know of a killer DK mod, because while I can not see anything wrong with RuneWatch, I’d like to have the best mods available. Something that makes the DK powers show/hide like the Curses for Warlocks in Necrosis would be handy. Likewise those abilities that you don’t use often like Deathgate, etc. No need for a spot on the action bar if they are folded out as part of a mod menu.

The Zen of Login Queues

I hate waiting. A lot. When something can happen in an automated and efficient manner involving a computer, I see only one reason why we would be waiting in queues. And that reason is money.

The realm queues on Nagrand are impressive, unless you’re on very early or very late you can expect a 20-45 minute pause in your schedule, and if you only plan on playing for 1 hour, that is a no deal. We’ve had 500s to 1100s in line to get on. And that is not the worst of it, other servers have the same or worse stats.

So why money? Well hardware = money, tech time = money, and skill = money. The demand from the player base is clearly huge. I can see why, Wrath of the Lich King is already starting out better than The Burning Crusade, and I loved tBC. Every old player and casual has stepped up to visit WoW again, and others may have taken the opportunity to switch Main toons or even servers. Demand is basically through the roof, and Blizzard should release a ramp up plan to the community to let us know they are aware and care.

The coming of the Death Knight

Be warned Azeroth, the new scourge does not consist of Undead. There are no wraiths, no giant spider-thangs, and certainly no giant blue spaceships. The Death Knight comes, and with them they bring the downfall of the dedicated players.

Soon all your raiders will be on alts, all your guilds full of red names, and the 58+ zones will tremble. I love the Death Knight. My warrior that I was mucking around with just got made totally redundant. My other 70s are trembling.

Tribute to the Old World

Just like most players in wow I am pondering the new content. A reasonably predictable set of questions and thoughts are pinging through my mind, from looking forward to the first instance runs, to getting disorientated all over again in new zones. As I scanned websites and read about the new areas I go to thinking about the original game (or old world) too.

What was the most powerful impression from the Old World?

The original game (if you can call it that with the xpac areas which are added) is full of fantastic scapes and geography. One of my favourites is pictured above – the entrance to Loch Modan.

A few Death Knight names

Many folk like to reserve names, and I’m one of those foolish types who has trouble making up names quickly. Its the roleplayer in me that feels that a name is something that should either be unique, or impart something of the character.

There were so many names, even odd names that were taken, and almost every combination of  Blood+blade, Doom+hammer, etc…was gone too. Kinda expected that given Nagrand has a reasonable population.

I’ve obviously been slow on the uptake. In no way will I have a character named Arthasz, Illadun, Thrallll type name. That stuff is (a) silly, (b) really unoriginal, and (c) been done to death, heated up, flogged, burnt, and burried permanently.

eg. The persons name might be Malecento (a made up name), or Dawnbringer, for what the person’s actions might have been.

In that vein I’ve taken on board all the “emo” thoughts of a hero who died in battle, and has been torn from death and conscripted into an unholy army (feel the emo yet?). You only get a few slots so it was hard to pick some.

Some name I’ve tagged on Nagrand:

– Decrepit, Devour, Defile, Vitiate, Raze, Mortigen, Frosthand, Pulverise (I know thats cheating due to the spelling, I’m an Australian).

Got yours yet?

Food for thought, salty goodness?

About a week to go till the 70+ run begins and the choice between 1st and 2nd is still hard. Pally and Druid both still rock, and even my hunches change from day to day. I’m torn and confused. Druid Cat dps output is not high, and I attribute that problem to the lump between the keyboard and chair (me). Pally multi-mob grinding seems awesome and even the *adjustment* in the patch will not totally diminish that role.

Not that it counts as much, but the 3rd and 4th spot of Warlock and Shadow Priest are affected by all sorts of rumour and hearsay,  and while they’re not in the real running, I like to watch them. Especially on the back of the 3.0.3 changes. My initial impression of Warlock and Priest changes from 3.0.3 is that Warlocks did not get as much love as Shadow Priests, and SPrs are getting very serious play at 80. I’m glad both got some love.

Count down to Wrath release

A cute link that tells me exactly how long till Wrath of the Lich King is released. I really wanted a timer to display in the post, but can’t wangle the WordPress voodoo or the coding voodoo to get that done. Good thing the free time and calculator websites have already expended the voodoo for me.

Picture a big shot clock, the letters all icy and gothic, with a draco-lich holding the panels in its glinting claws. We could even have a low moaning and hiss soundtrack, to add ambience. Hey – does MySpace off this type of time-wasting rubbish….?

Link will have to do. 😦

We have a week people. Start buying hotpockets and headache tablets now.

Patch notes 3.0.3

The 3.0.3 patch notes are out – and the best thing in there is “The war against spelling errors continues”. Hehe.

Highlights for me are:

-refund of Druid talent points, as I love a good free re-spec opportunity.

– Warlock/Druid/Paladin mount quest removed and now a trainable skill. Great for my warlock, as I’ve been lazy, and I feel good that I did the Druid quest a few days back.

– Bash now has an interrupt regardless of creature being stun immune.

– Paladin changes: I have no idea there are too many things switching to know the degree of change, or the severity of the impact. QQ aside, the future will tell.

– Priests have Devouring Plague’s coefficient increased which is good, and Vampiric Touch also increased and refreshed by Mind Blast. I see now a reason to apply VT at the start of a mid length fight. Short is still a waste, long is still mandatory. I love the linked synergy in VT+MB, and PW:P+MF, it makes sense and will help with mana and rotation (although I don’t have a real rotation yet). VT as pull happens, PW:P, DP, MF(?), MB, MF…nice.

– Warlocks appear to have had a slight buff overall, the affect remains to be seen. Destro looks like it is getting a significant part of the increase.

– Gathering professions no longer have a level requirement. Wow thats huge, now just the same for crafting professions too please (?).

This is Madness – woohoo!

A little late to be wonderful, but still something I wanted for a toon was another of the groovy Darkmoon Cards. This time Madness will be mine!

About 6 months of casual browsing the AH, and picking up the cards only when they’re a bargain.

Have to make a macro about Sparta now, and find the next Darkmoon Faire, which I think hits next week. Final cost was about 700-800g.

Invasion Farming

The invasion brang all sorts of opinions about what and how to have world events. Everyone had an opinion, and usally this leads to arguments.

However something that a heck of a lot of people seem to be taking advantage of is the invasion attacks, and the free purple loot you can get.

Pictured here is my Pally farming for Necrotic Runes.

You need about 10 runes to finish an intro quest, and then 15 runes for each of the purchasable Shoulder and Glove slot items. That is 40 runes for two epic items….awesome! I’ll be taking advantage of these on all my toons. If only the other Chest and Leg items were available for purchase!

Those you’ve got to get from a rare spawn, and given how rare they are, and how heavily farmed these are – good luck! I have only had two drop, and one I could not use (mail drop for a cloth squishy, see below).

As a prot pally I am used to him being able to aoe solo grind 5-7 of these at once, and I think the best I did was a staggered chain of pulls, totalling about 20 mobs before they all died. The runes have about a 20-25% drop rate from what I can tell. It took less that 2 hours to get 2 epic items, both which were cross-grades, but still worth it.

Similarly my Druid has new Gloves and Chest for healing, and my Priest has the Gloves and Shoulders. I’d love to get the Chest and Leg drops for the Priest, but the time is tough to spend, especially if I can’t get a group session going.

And that is a key for these areas, the guys who did the best went in with at least 3 in the group, and blasted their way through everything. I saw a pally x3 (2x prot, 1x ret), shaman (ele), mage combo totally domainate the area I was in last night; great to watch, horrid to complete against.

If you have a late 60s or level 70 toon who has not got epic gloves or shoulders you should do these events.

Judas Khemical Preview

In non-wow news, my brother has poped up art for a new comic he is writing, drawing, and bending his mind on. Given I kick the WoW addiction, something this creative would still be beyond my skills even though I’d have something to do with all he new free time.

Bravo brother, can’t wait for the full thing!

The blog of the work, and a high res image of the cover are available.

Druid Swift Flight Form

A few solo quests, a fair chunk of gold, and a guild run dragging me through a heroic that my gear was not up to but I have it – Druid swift flight form. Yes, it really is that good. I love it.