This morning I woke up earlier than usual and I found that I had enough time for a heroic, maybe even the new troll dungeons since they take us so long to complete. So I get into the cue as a dps, hoping to sit back and blast trolls into oblivion. I get up and go make coffee. As the time goes by, the time I spend in the cue is compare to the time it takes to get into a group. For example at one point it said I had been waiting for 6 minutes and time till group was 9 minutes... When 9 minutes came along it told me average time was 12 minutes. When 18 minutes had passed and 21 minutes till cue came up, the call to arms was issued. (I had been checking periodically to see when this would pop)
So at this point, I figured nobody in the world is awake yet and willing to tank, at least all the tankable tanks that is, so I change my armor, activate my offspec for feral tanking, exit the cue and re-cued as a tank/dps. Sure enough I got the dungeon, and the call to arms is available to me. If I completed the entire dungeon, then I'd get a special satchel that contains gold and possibly other rare items, especially the mounts I was looking forward to. Imagine getting Baron Rivendare's Deathcharger, the swift white hawkstrider, the raven lord mount. The possibilities of that are wonderful.
So naturally I cross my fingers and hope to god that the pugs I go with are not all newbs. I ended up in Zul'Aman, the instance in the northern parts of the Eastern Kingdoms. This used to be a raid in the Burning Crusade era and there was a timer to save folks who were about to become sacrificed. We couldn't beat it, but we did manage to clear the instance. To my surprise, we kept wiping on the trash mobs, but the bosses we KO'ed at one shot each. It seems to me that the issue was crowd control: the trash mob trolls tended to hurt us hard, and we had to come up with a way to manage them and keep then from overwhelming us. If a mob of three hits me, then I'll lose a lot of health, as will other players, and the healer runs out of mana and we wipe. If we froze an enemy via frost trap thanks to that hunter we had, and scared another one so he was stuck in place with fear, then only one monster came up and we could kill it without the group suffering too much damage, then the healer wouldn't panic and run out of mana or anything.
After about two hours, at the last two bosses I dropped the seafood feasts (the epic ones) we cleared it all. We didn't save anyone of course, but with the patch just come out and everyone learning and getting used to the fights I figured it was okay. Maybe next time, when I have more gear and everyone knows what to do, to really blaze through the instance like lawnmowers set to sizzle. FA-WHOOSH! That kind...
So in the long run, literally, I got a caster 1H mace, gloves that I don't really need because mine are better and have a set bonus, and a maelstrom crystal that nobody needed. I'm going to try and save those up for my enchanting alt so I can make the epic weapon enchants.
At the end of the instance, an excellent dungeon run where nobody died on the boss fights and we had occasional oops wipes on trash, I got the satchel of spoils.
It only had gold inside of it. No high level potions or scrolls, no epic pets or mounts, not even a fortune card. Just gold. After all that work of coordinating with 4 strangers, one of which was from my server and recognized me from the city, and after all this... all I got was extra gold...
The only good thing I got out of my first ever Call to Arms as a tank was free gold to cover my repair bill. Good job Blizzard. Excellent. You really look out for us tanks and healers so DPSers can pug an instance quicker. Nice! Lovely! Peachy... dandy... cool.... great.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
•AU• - Professor Owl - Topic: Tyrande's Favorite Doll, and Patch 4.1
About a week ago Owl got a night elf rare to proc on her archaeology projects, bringing her rare finds to 20 once it was completed. I only finished it a few days ago, which was after patch 4.1 was released, and it turns out that this object is an epic trinket. http://www.wowpedia.org/Tyrande's_Favorite_Doll has the full information, and based on what I can tell, this is more of a healing spec epic trinket rather than a dps caster trinket. The reason being is that while it does have intellect, it doesn't provide a solid dps gain whether on use or proc. What it does do however is that for each spellcast, the item store a portion of the mana, and when it accumulates enough of it, you can use it to cast an aoe effect that deals damage to anything near you. I think I'll be keeping my witching hourglass. It took provides intellect, not as much as the doll, but the hourglass also gives a little buff once in a while, increasing haste during spellcasting, something the doll doesn't do.
So yeah, the doll is going into the bank for the time being. As for my other trinket, it's the darkmoon faire card Volcano, and that is one item I am so not giving up anytime soon! =) Thanks go out to my friend Hammy for spending time making the cards to come up with the deck that would give the trinket as the reward.
Now that patch 4.1 has come out, Owl has had a chance to taste the two new heroic dungeons and roll on some major items. She also noticed some additions to archaeology which might make it more interesting and worthwhile to do. For one thing she already has the two raptors from the fossil book on archy, and the troll sword is very unlikely to drop anytime soon even with my skill at maximum. I wish you could buy a monocle and a glove enchant that would increase your skill by 15 and 10 points respectively, that way I can switch out my epic helm and gloves with the monocle and some low level item with the enchant when I go digging. Folks who use this are more likely to come across rares than without them. Idea for you Blizzard if you ever read this. Call the monocle "Owl's eye" if you want to refer it to me though, for crediting purposes. Either that or free WoW playtime, but all this is negotiable. At any rate, archaeology is hard when you want to find a dwarven or tol'vir rare artifact and all you ever find are fossils and troll entrails. Not very fun after a while, you know.
So, with the new patch out, they came up with a couple of goodies, not just what can be dug up of course! Firstly, they made it to where the frequency of dig sites depends on the rares you've found. For instance, I've already found all the Nerubian rares, and now they have a new rare item for the Vrykul. In northrend, I'm bound to come across much fewer Nerubian dig sites, and more of the Vrykul, but also probably some troll dig sites. I've found all the night elven rares, so those sites in Dragonblight might not appear at all, but even if they do it'll be rare... not as frequent as the Vrykul digs.
The second good thing about this patch is they finally came up with some new rares to find! I know, I know, I say "finally" as if it's been years between patches 4.0.3 and 4.1, but that's only because my total of artifacts found when 4.1 came out was 19. Now it's at 21, and there are a total of 33 rares to find.
Yep. They added 6 new items, most of which are fossils and troll. The Vrykul have one item that I'm kind of itching to get since the websites don't have too much information. I'm betting it's something you can use that you drink out of and it makes you either tipsy or smashed... hic!
The fossils are also interesting. Seems there is new pet in there, a pterrodax, which in WoW is like a pterodactyl, or exactly like one... I dunno, I never saw one in real life, I couldn't tell ya if Blizzard have then right down pat or are making it up. All we really have to go with are fossils... hmm. Anyway, judging by the image in the tooltip, I'm betting that this hatchling, for hatchling is what they are calling it, is not merely bones like the fossilized raptor mount/pet. I have a feeling that we'll find an actual egg shell fragment encased in amber with some DNA in it... similar to the Ancient Amber, which could very well be fragments of amber that you put together... somehow... %/ Probably the only notable thing to be found in the Fossil category will the the shield, which is probably going to look just like the turtle shell shield that dropped (or drops) from the turtle in Wailing Caverns, only with epic stats. Yep, a level 85 ilevel 359 epic shield, which will be useless to me as a tank since bears don't use shields.
So the three fossils (pet, amber, and turtle shell shield) are new, and then the Vrykul's drinking horn makes 4 new rares... the last two are troll. Yep, you read me, TROLL.
Now before patch 4.1, I used to think to myself, Man. With all these troll dig sites all over Azeroth, you'd think I'd have gotten a rare item by now. I'm getting sick to the teeth of all this bloodscalp dinnerware... I have enough of those to sell to Martha Stewart! Yeah, angry much? I hated Troll digsites because of the rarity of the epic sword that could proc as the next troll project, and the worse aspect before was even if I did get it, I'd still get a lot of troll dig sites. It was getting pretty depressing. I went to Outlands and Northrend to try and evade the trolls, but it turns out there are troll dig sites in Northrend too. ARGH!
Well now, they gave me two new reasons to get back into those Troll digs... and I already found one of them amazingly enough. I wish it was the pet, which seems to be a voodoo doll that has a big of mojo still in it. Can't wait till I get that one for my pet collection, which is getting closer and closer to the 125 achievement.
The other item I can comment about because I found it. It took 100 fragments to complete and 3 keystones (troll tablets), which narrows it down almost by 1/4 of the needed fragments. I mean 36 from the keys, the rest you have to farm, and this morning, with 4 digsites all in stranglethorn vale, I don't have to tell you that it took me forever. It was super easy and lucky for me I guess. Once it was completed I found that it has a 30 minute cooldown, which is not too different from a hearthstone without a guild perk.
The item in question? Haunted War Drum. I don't know how long it lasts, but once you set the drum down on the ground, you can click on it to use it, and it plays music like that you would hear when you go to any troll ruins or instances.
.... My god... Blizzard is brainwashing me with their Voodoo!!! *runs and hides!*
Yeah, basically jungle type sounds that made me think of Tomb Raider and drums beating that makes me think of Trolls flippin' out. Yeah, mon. It be good jibe rit ere i tell ya mon. Haha!
Well anyway, now my entire tray of archaeology projects are filled with grays. To escape the trolls for a while (since I'll be killing trolls and running through their ruins all the time getting epics from their freshly slaughtered corpses), I've decided to fly around Kalimdor for a while, dig up my remaining Night elven dig sites and see if more Tol'vir dig sites pop up for me. Since I've found the last Night Elven rare from Archaeology, I'm bound to find mostly fossil and Tol'vir stuff, with a couple of troll and at least one dwarven dig site along the way.
So yeah, Owlaf now has 21 rares completed in archaeology. "This should be in a museum!" *throws preserved lizard foot on the floor of a troll temple* "HONEST!!!"
So yeah, the doll is going into the bank for the time being. As for my other trinket, it's the darkmoon faire card Volcano, and that is one item I am so not giving up anytime soon! =) Thanks go out to my friend Hammy for spending time making the cards to come up with the deck that would give the trinket as the reward.
Now that patch 4.1 has come out, Owl has had a chance to taste the two new heroic dungeons and roll on some major items. She also noticed some additions to archaeology which might make it more interesting and worthwhile to do. For one thing she already has the two raptors from the fossil book on archy, and the troll sword is very unlikely to drop anytime soon even with my skill at maximum. I wish you could buy a monocle and a glove enchant that would increase your skill by 15 and 10 points respectively, that way I can switch out my epic helm and gloves with the monocle and some low level item with the enchant when I go digging. Folks who use this are more likely to come across rares than without them. Idea for you Blizzard if you ever read this. Call the monocle "Owl's eye" if you want to refer it to me though, for crediting purposes. Either that or free WoW playtime, but all this is negotiable. At any rate, archaeology is hard when you want to find a dwarven or tol'vir rare artifact and all you ever find are fossils and troll entrails. Not very fun after a while, you know.
So, with the new patch out, they came up with a couple of goodies, not just what can be dug up of course! Firstly, they made it to where the frequency of dig sites depends on the rares you've found. For instance, I've already found all the Nerubian rares, and now they have a new rare item for the Vrykul. In northrend, I'm bound to come across much fewer Nerubian dig sites, and more of the Vrykul, but also probably some troll dig sites. I've found all the night elven rares, so those sites in Dragonblight might not appear at all, but even if they do it'll be rare... not as frequent as the Vrykul digs.
The second good thing about this patch is they finally came up with some new rares to find! I know, I know, I say "finally" as if it's been years between patches 4.0.3 and 4.1, but that's only because my total of artifacts found when 4.1 came out was 19. Now it's at 21, and there are a total of 33 rares to find.
Yep. They added 6 new items, most of which are fossils and troll. The Vrykul have one item that I'm kind of itching to get since the websites don't have too much information. I'm betting it's something you can use that you drink out of and it makes you either tipsy or smashed... hic!
The fossils are also interesting. Seems there is new pet in there, a pterrodax, which in WoW is like a pterodactyl, or exactly like one... I dunno, I never saw one in real life, I couldn't tell ya if Blizzard have then right down pat or are making it up. All we really have to go with are fossils... hmm. Anyway, judging by the image in the tooltip, I'm betting that this hatchling, for hatchling is what they are calling it, is not merely bones like the fossilized raptor mount/pet. I have a feeling that we'll find an actual egg shell fragment encased in amber with some DNA in it... similar to the Ancient Amber, which could very well be fragments of amber that you put together... somehow... %/ Probably the only notable thing to be found in the Fossil category will the the shield, which is probably going to look just like the turtle shell shield that dropped (or drops) from the turtle in Wailing Caverns, only with epic stats. Yep, a level 85 ilevel 359 epic shield, which will be useless to me as a tank since bears don't use shields.
So the three fossils (pet, amber, and turtle shell shield) are new, and then the Vrykul's drinking horn makes 4 new rares... the last two are troll. Yep, you read me, TROLL.
Now before patch 4.1, I used to think to myself, Man. With all these troll dig sites all over Azeroth, you'd think I'd have gotten a rare item by now. I'm getting sick to the teeth of all this bloodscalp dinnerware... I have enough of those to sell to Martha Stewart! Yeah, angry much? I hated Troll digsites because of the rarity of the epic sword that could proc as the next troll project, and the worse aspect before was even if I did get it, I'd still get a lot of troll dig sites. It was getting pretty depressing. I went to Outlands and Northrend to try and evade the trolls, but it turns out there are troll dig sites in Northrend too. ARGH!
Well now, they gave me two new reasons to get back into those Troll digs... and I already found one of them amazingly enough. I wish it was the pet, which seems to be a voodoo doll that has a big of mojo still in it. Can't wait till I get that one for my pet collection, which is getting closer and closer to the 125 achievement.
The other item I can comment about because I found it. It took 100 fragments to complete and 3 keystones (troll tablets), which narrows it down almost by 1/4 of the needed fragments. I mean 36 from the keys, the rest you have to farm, and this morning, with 4 digsites all in stranglethorn vale, I don't have to tell you that it took me forever. It was super easy and lucky for me I guess. Once it was completed I found that it has a 30 minute cooldown, which is not too different from a hearthstone without a guild perk.
The item in question? Haunted War Drum. I don't know how long it lasts, but once you set the drum down on the ground, you can click on it to use it, and it plays music like that you would hear when you go to any troll ruins or instances.
.... My god... Blizzard is brainwashing me with their Voodoo!!! *runs and hides!*
Yeah, basically jungle type sounds that made me think of Tomb Raider and drums beating that makes me think of Trolls flippin' out. Yeah, mon. It be good jibe rit ere i tell ya mon. Haha!
Well anyway, now my entire tray of archaeology projects are filled with grays. To escape the trolls for a while (since I'll be killing trolls and running through their ruins all the time getting epics from their freshly slaughtered corpses), I've decided to fly around Kalimdor for a while, dig up my remaining Night elven dig sites and see if more Tol'vir dig sites pop up for me. Since I've found the last Night Elven rare from Archaeology, I'm bound to find mostly fossil and Tol'vir stuff, with a couple of troll and at least one dwarven dig site along the way.
So yeah, Owlaf now has 21 rares completed in archaeology. "This should be in a museum!" *throws preserved lizard foot on the floor of a troll temple* "HONEST!!!"
Friday, April 15, 2011
•AU• - Puzzle Box of Yogg-Saron
http://www.wowpedia.org/Puzzle_Box_of_Yogg-Saron
Well, Owlaf finally got it! The Puzzle Box of Yogg-Saron! This was completed with 140 fragments of nerubian Archaeology. I got curious as to why they would have such an artifact from this culture, being as the creatures are spidery and native to Northrend, so I did some research. This is what I found on Wowpedia:
At the ancient continent Kalimdor's center was a mysterious lake of incandescent energies, the Well of Eternity. It was the true heart of the world's magic and natural power. From this magical ether the silithid were born. As the fallen Old God C'Thun recognized their appearance, he attempted to sunder the world that it once held in its unmerciful grasp. The Old God created avatars from the silithid in its own image. These avatars were to be known as the qiraji.
The aqir ruled the lands of the far west. These clever insectoids were greatly expansionistic and incredibly evil. The aqir were obsessed with eradicating all non-Arthropod life from the fields of Kalimdor. So the two big troll empires of Gurubashi and Amani found their common enemy in the third empire — the nation[2] of Azj'Aqir.
The trolls fought them for many thousands of years, but never succeeded in winning a true victory over the Aqir. Eventually, due to the troll's persistence, Azj'Aqir split in half as its citizens fled to separate colonies in the far northern and southern regions of the continent.
Two aqir city-states emerged — Azjol-Nerub in the northern wastes and Ahn'Qiraj in the southern desert. So the new empire of Azjol-Nerub that stretched like a great web beneath the desolate glaciers of the land later known as Northrend was founded.[3]
The nerubian spiderlords commanded vast forces, and had an underground network that stretched nearly half the breadth of Northrend. Their hit-and-run tactics on the Lich King's strongholds stymied his efforts to root them out time after time. Ultimately, Ner'zhul's war against the nerubians was won by attrition. With the aid of the sinister dreadlords and innumerable undead warriors, the Lich King invaded Azjol-Nerub and brought its subterranean temples crashing down upon the spider lords' heads. The nerubian empire had now fallen for a second time.[4]
Though the nerubians were immune to his plague, Ner'zhul's growing necromantic powers allowed him to raise the spider-warriors' corpses and bend them to his will. As a testament to their tenacity and fearlessness, Ner'zhul adopted the nerubians' distinctive architectural style for his own fortresses and structures. Though there are few pockets of nerubian warriors left, they still seek to gain vengeance upon Ner’zhul and reclaim their subterranean kingdom.[5]
Mael Shelub, a living nerubian necromancer traveled south and worked with (but hated) the Forsaken Blarus Whitrick to defeat the Scourge in Silverpine Forest.[7]
• • • •
So, yesterday Owlaf managed to get the puzzle box completed. It has a use with a one minute cooldown, and each time you use it, nothing happens until after about five or ten seconds, when the puzzle box will whisper to the player that used it. Creepy!!!
Well, Owlaf finally got it! The Puzzle Box of Yogg-Saron! This was completed with 140 fragments of nerubian Archaeology. I got curious as to why they would have such an artifact from this culture, being as the creatures are spidery and native to Northrend, so I did some research. This is what I found on Wowpedia:
Early history
At the ancient continent Kalimdor's center was a mysterious lake of incandescent energies, the Well of Eternity. It was the true heart of the world's magic and natural power. From this magical ether the silithid were born. As the fallen Old God C'Thun recognized their appearance, he attempted to sunder the world that it once held in its unmerciful grasp. The Old God created avatars from the silithid in its own image. These avatars were to be known as the qiraji. 
The aqir ruled the lands of the far west. These clever insectoids were greatly expansionistic and incredibly evil. The aqir were obsessed with eradicating all non-Arthropod life from the fields of Kalimdor. So the two big troll empires of Gurubashi and Amani found their common enemy in the third empire — the nation[2] of Azj'Aqir.
The trolls fought them for many thousands of years, but never succeeded in winning a true victory over the Aqir. Eventually, due to the troll's persistence, Azj'Aqir split in half as its citizens fled to separate colonies in the far northern and southern regions of the continent.
Two aqir city-states emerged — Azjol-Nerub in the northern wastes and Ahn'Qiraj in the southern desert. So the new empire of Azjol-Nerub that stretched like a great web beneath the desolate glaciers of the land later known as Northrend was founded.[3]
War of the Spider
Thousands of years later when the Lich King extended his influence over Northrend, the shadowy empire stood against his power. The ancient subterranean kingdom of Azjol-Nerub sent their elite warrior-guard to attack Icecrown and end the Lich King's mad bid for dominance. Much to his frustration, Ner'zhul found that the evil nerubians were immune not only to the undead plague, but to his telepathic domination as well.The nerubian spiderlords commanded vast forces, and had an underground network that stretched nearly half the breadth of Northrend. Their hit-and-run tactics on the Lich King's strongholds stymied his efforts to root them out time after time. Ultimately, Ner'zhul's war against the nerubians was won by attrition. With the aid of the sinister dreadlords and innumerable undead warriors, the Lich King invaded Azjol-Nerub and brought its subterranean temples crashing down upon the spider lords' heads. The nerubian empire had now fallen for a second time.[4]
Though the nerubians were immune to his plague, Ner'zhul's growing necromantic powers allowed him to raise the spider-warriors' corpses and bend them to his will. As a testament to their tenacity and fearlessness, Ner'zhul adopted the nerubians' distinctive architectural style for his own fortresses and structures. Though there are few pockets of nerubian warriors left, they still seek to gain vengeance upon Ner’zhul and reclaim their subterranean kingdom.[5]
Recent history
Now, the nerubians are a depleted and embittered people. Most live in Northrend and shun all contact with outsiders — indeed, they attack intruders on sight, viewing all creatures not of their kind with suspicion. Understandably, they possess a vitriolic hatred of undead, especially crypt fiends and crypt lords. They realize that they are too weak to overthrow the Lich King, and must content themselves with their pathetic guerrilla war.[6]Mael Shelub, a living nerubian necromancer traveled south and worked with (but hated) the Forsaken Blarus Whitrick to defeat the Scourge in Silverpine Forest.[7]
• • • •
So, yesterday Owlaf managed to get the puzzle box completed. It has a use with a one minute cooldown, and each time you use it, nothing happens until after about five or ten seconds, when the puzzle box will whisper to the player that used it. Creepy!!!
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
•AU• - The Last Relic of Argus
(Just so you know, the •AU• in the blog entry title is short for Archaeology Update, and the name of the item I found will be displayed in the title as well. Future entries I'll make based on the items in particular as I find them or when the mood strikes me.)
Owlaf has maxed out her skill as an archaeologist, so she has the chance of getting a rare artifact at any time. Last night she managed to get started on one from the Draenei. Finishing it this morning, I find that it is an object that behaves similar to a Hearthstone, only this will teleport you to a random place. This morning I used it, and I went from the Outlands to Stranglethorn Vale. I was overlooking a large whirlpool, and I found out that I was at the sundering that split northern and southern parts of Stranglethorn Vale! Worse yet I was in a tree, so the only way down was to jump down into the swirling watery vortex...
Good thing I can also go up as a druid in flight form ^_^
Now Owl has finally finished with the Outlands as far as archaeology goes. Northrend will be a similar story, only it also has a few Night Elven and Troll dig sites. The Outlands however only offered two races which are not found anywhere else, and those are the Orcs and the Draenei.
Unfortunately, the only major artifact I could find that belonged to the Orcs was a headdress, which is ideal for a shaman, although it is only good for a few levels.
Meanwhile the Draenei have two items. One lets you view a visual recording of the arrival of the Naaru, which are beings of pure light and energy that came to help the Draenei to fight off the Burning Legion. The visual is 3D, showing a Naruu appearing and three draenei rushing up to it and bowing, and then it disappears.
And Owl finally got the second item yesterday, which is a crystal that can teleport you to a random place, though it can only be used once every twelve hours. The interesting thing is it only teleports you to a random location in the Eastern Kingdoms or Kalimdor on the world of Azeroth. At least this means I won't have to worry too much if I find myself in the Outlands.
At any rate, there are 23 known locations, and I hope to journey to all of them, maybe.
Here is what information is known in the game:
• Unsolved -
"This is a simple draenei crystal that appears to be thousands of years old. You are fairly certain that it is not of this world."
• Solved -
"Before they lived on Azeroth or Draenor, the draenei, who still called themselves the eredar at the time, lived on Argus. When Sargeras took notice of Argus, Prophet Velen fled with some of his people, who became the draenei. The remaining eredar were absorbed into the Burning Legion. This simple crystal was taking from Argus when Velen fled. The inscription on the bottom reads, 'I long for Mac'Aree.'"
Curiously, I didn't know what Mac'Aree was, so I decided to look it up. Here is what I found about it:
Mac'Aree was the most sacred of the cities on Argus according to Jessera of Mac'Aree. It supposedly held walkways which were lined with precious minerals and rivers which glittered even in complete darkness. Jessera thinks that this might have been as long as ten thousand years ago, although it may have been as much as twenty-five thousand years ago, indicating that he has lived at least that long and still appears to be of prime age.
It is unclear what has since happened to Mac'Aree. It may depend on what has happened to the planet as a whole.
Sounds nice =)
Here's the site for information on the relic in question: http://www.wowpedia.org/The_Last_Relic_of_Argus
This brings Owlaf's total relics from Archaeology found to 18, out of 26 (if you find 20, you get an achievement called "It Belongs In A Museum!" and awards you with the title "Professor"... so someday soon, Owlaf Might just be "Professor Owlaf"!). The majority of the ones she doesn't have are from the Tol'vir in Uldum, and that i think is one of the hardest ones to get digsites of. Hopefully I'll get the epic staff from them or from the Dwarves. Till then I think I'll try to get another rare project done in Northrend. All I have left is to find the puzzle box of Yogg-Saron. Apparently it's a box you construct that when completed you try to open it, and every time you do, the old god whispers to you. (more on the old gods later). The website doesn't say what the cooldown is to try to open the box, so I wanna get it so I can find out. =D
Owlaf has maxed out her skill as an archaeologist, so she has the chance of getting a rare artifact at any time. Last night she managed to get started on one from the Draenei. Finishing it this morning, I find that it is an object that behaves similar to a Hearthstone, only this will teleport you to a random place. This morning I used it, and I went from the Outlands to Stranglethorn Vale. I was overlooking a large whirlpool, and I found out that I was at the sundering that split northern and southern parts of Stranglethorn Vale! Worse yet I was in a tree, so the only way down was to jump down into the swirling watery vortex...
Good thing I can also go up as a druid in flight form ^_^
Now Owl has finally finished with the Outlands as far as archaeology goes. Northrend will be a similar story, only it also has a few Night Elven and Troll dig sites. The Outlands however only offered two races which are not found anywhere else, and those are the Orcs and the Draenei.
Unfortunately, the only major artifact I could find that belonged to the Orcs was a headdress, which is ideal for a shaman, although it is only good for a few levels.
Meanwhile the Draenei have two items. One lets you view a visual recording of the arrival of the Naaru, which are beings of pure light and energy that came to help the Draenei to fight off the Burning Legion. The visual is 3D, showing a Naruu appearing and three draenei rushing up to it and bowing, and then it disappears.
And Owl finally got the second item yesterday, which is a crystal that can teleport you to a random place, though it can only be used once every twelve hours. The interesting thing is it only teleports you to a random location in the Eastern Kingdoms or Kalimdor on the world of Azeroth. At least this means I won't have to worry too much if I find myself in the Outlands.
At any rate, there are 23 known locations, and I hope to journey to all of them, maybe.
Here is what information is known in the game:
• Unsolved -
"This is a simple draenei crystal that appears to be thousands of years old. You are fairly certain that it is not of this world."
• Solved -
"Before they lived on Azeroth or Draenor, the draenei, who still called themselves the eredar at the time, lived on Argus. When Sargeras took notice of Argus, Prophet Velen fled with some of his people, who became the draenei. The remaining eredar were absorbed into the Burning Legion. This simple crystal was taking from Argus when Velen fled. The inscription on the bottom reads, 'I long for Mac'Aree.'"
Curiously, I didn't know what Mac'Aree was, so I decided to look it up. Here is what I found about it:
Mac'Aree was the most sacred of the cities on Argus according to Jessera of Mac'Aree. It supposedly held walkways which were lined with precious minerals and rivers which glittered even in complete darkness. Jessera thinks that this might have been as long as ten thousand years ago, although it may have been as much as twenty-five thousand years ago, indicating that he has lived at least that long and still appears to be of prime age.
It is unclear what has since happened to Mac'Aree. It may depend on what has happened to the planet as a whole.
Sounds nice =)
Here's the site for information on the relic in question: http://www.wowpedia.org/The_Last_Relic_of_Argus
This brings Owlaf's total relics from Archaeology found to 18, out of 26 (if you find 20, you get an achievement called "It Belongs In A Museum!" and awards you with the title "Professor"... so someday soon, Owlaf Might just be "Professor Owlaf"!). The majority of the ones she doesn't have are from the Tol'vir in Uldum, and that i think is one of the hardest ones to get digsites of. Hopefully I'll get the epic staff from them or from the Dwarves. Till then I think I'll try to get another rare project done in Northrend. All I have left is to find the puzzle box of Yogg-Saron. Apparently it's a box you construct that when completed you try to open it, and every time you do, the old god whispers to you. (more on the old gods later). The website doesn't say what the cooldown is to try to open the box, so I wanna get it so I can find out. =D
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Friday, April 8, 2011
Doing Dailies, Dillies and Dallies.
No time to dillydally, it's time to do dailies!
 |
| The King of Stormwind wants apple cider, eh? I bet Tyrande of Darnassus would want Cenarion Spirits and the trio in Ironforge would want beer. :P Can't wait to see what those daily quests will be like in Patch 4.1 |
 | ||||
| Today's fishing quest involved fishing up a monkfish... which I thought ought to be fished from just outside the cathedral really, and fillet it to find a precious locket. Now fishing here I can understand, and Darnassus too... what about Ironforge? They have that little cavern to fish in, maybe the pools of lava all around the place... but where else? Do we have to fly down to Menethil harbor or go out to what's left of Loch Modan? Hmm... Future fishing dailies... we'll have to wait and see what will happen. By the way, that's Harrison Jones' hat. :P |
New Patch Notes: here it comes.... %)
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/2356431#blog
Well, Blizzard released some updated patch notes, the newest edits in red of course, Glancing over it I nod and murmur and think about how they might affect me. Lets look at one thing I noticed. It says that Enrage (bear ability) no longer increases physical damage taken. Enrage helps a feral bear druid generate extra rage, which is useful if you are in a fight and need some or you are just about to pull a mob and you don't have enough rage to swipe or thrash at them (great spells for crowd control btw). So yeah, it can be very useful, but at the moment it also increases physical damage taken by 10%, which might put a small strain on healers, I don't really know for sure. So being able to generate extra rage for a little bit in a fight without fear of taking harder hits.... yeah, I like this.
And now for a few dungeons notes (at least the ones that interest me a great deal):
• Halls of Origination
Question, Blizzard... the soul fragments in that last bit... they perform an emote when they merge with the Harbringer of Darkness (that purple phoenix during this phase of the boss fight)... what is the emotion like?
"Soul Fragment of (player) merges with the Harbringer of Darkness!"
or maybe, "A Soul Fragment has merged with the Harbringer!"
Or perhaps it should be, "Soul Fragment has now merged with the Darkness... thank you for choosing the Harbringer, the Lost City of the Tol'vir's favorite method of reincarnations since 1200BC." .... Nah, that's a bit much. But I imagine that it would be one of those... or maybe, "Am I merging alright? Call 555-LCTV."
But perhaps one thing I noticed has caught my eye for sure... It concerns the point system...
• Honor is now purchasable from the Justice Commodities Vendor at 250 Honor per 375 Justice.
WHOA!!! Hang on a minute! =)
So now when patch 4.1 comes out, we can finally trade our justice points for honor points? FINALLY! I remember being able to buy little honor commendations from Wintergrasp so I could boost the amount of honor I gained. I've been missing that.
The only thing I've noticed is that they're doing the same thing for the conquest stuff too. See, look. You can buy conquest points for that much too, only instead of Justice, it's Valor, and Valor points you only get when you kill the last boss of an instance in a heroic random via the dungeon finder. I wish it was more even though, like converting one to the other. Instead you have to lose 125 of one to convert it into the other. Maybe they'll change that though.
All the same, I have a lot of Justice Points that I haven't been using, not even to buy the trade goods with because they just seem so outrageous. 250 for one shard or 3500 for a bag of 20 random cataclysm herbs? Noooooo Waaaaaayyy...
I did buy an heirloom to make a warrior, but now I feel like maybe it was in vain... Nah. I don't feel like leveling something like that from scratch, even with heirlooms, but with this new conversion system coming out, from Justice to Honor, from Valor to Conquest... maybe it would be nice to get that. Maybe it would be worth it then.
Something else I came across int he patch notes:
Makes me wonder if there are new achievements for them. =) City cooker and city fisher. How about that. Might just see more players in those cities from now on. That might be the reason for those, but I just have to wonder do all the other capital cities also have portals to the cataclysm zones like Uldum and Twilight Highlands? Hmmm.
Well, thats about it. I look forward now to the enrage ability being better and cooking and fishing more often. I just have to wonder if you do a cooking daily in Stormwind, does that mean you can still do them in Ironforge and Darnassus, or is it only one cooking quest a day? I don't think so, because you can still do the cooking/fishing dailies in Outlands and Northrend. I just wish they'd make the rewards from the player capitals as good as the ones from abroad...
Well, Blizzard released some updated patch notes, the newest edits in red of course, Glancing over it I nod and murmur and think about how they might affect me. Lets look at one thing I noticed. It says that Enrage (bear ability) no longer increases physical damage taken. Enrage helps a feral bear druid generate extra rage, which is useful if you are in a fight and need some or you are just about to pull a mob and you don't have enough rage to swipe or thrash at them (great spells for crowd control btw). So yeah, it can be very useful, but at the moment it also increases physical damage taken by 10%, which might put a small strain on healers, I don't really know for sure. So being able to generate extra rage for a little bit in a fight without fear of taking harder hits.... yeah, I like this.
And now for a few dungeons notes (at least the ones that interest me a great deal):
• Halls of Origination
• Temple Gardian Anhuur should now properly go into his Shield Phase at 33% even if he was channeling his 66% shield phase.
• Lost City of Tol'vir
• Soul Fragments that spawn during the High Prophet Barim encounter should now perform an emote when they merge with the Harbinger of Darkness.
Question, Blizzard... the soul fragments in that last bit... they perform an emote when they merge with the Harbringer of Darkness (that purple phoenix during this phase of the boss fight)... what is the emotion like?
"Soul Fragment of (player) merges with the Harbringer of Darkness!"
or maybe, "A Soul Fragment has merged with the Harbringer!"
Or perhaps it should be, "Soul Fragment has now merged with the Darkness... thank you for choosing the Harbringer, the Lost City of the Tol'vir's favorite method of reincarnations since 1200BC." .... Nah, that's a bit much. But I imagine that it would be one of those... or maybe, "Am I merging alright? Call 555-LCTV."
But perhaps one thing I noticed has caught my eye for sure... It concerns the point system...
• Honor is now purchasable from the Justice Commodities Vendor at 250 Honor per 375 Justice.
• Justice is now purchasable from the Honor Commodities Vendor at 250 Justice per 375 Honor.
• Conquest is now purchasable from the Valor vendor at 250 Conquest per 250 Valor.
WHOA!!! Hang on a minute! =)
So now when patch 4.1 comes out, we can finally trade our justice points for honor points? FINALLY! I remember being able to buy little honor commendations from Wintergrasp so I could boost the amount of honor I gained. I've been missing that.
The only thing I've noticed is that they're doing the same thing for the conquest stuff too. See, look. You can buy conquest points for that much too, only instead of Justice, it's Valor, and Valor points you only get when you kill the last boss of an instance in a heroic random via the dungeon finder. I wish it was more even though, like converting one to the other. Instead you have to lose 125 of one to convert it into the other. Maybe they'll change that though.
All the same, I have a lot of Justice Points that I haven't been using, not even to buy the trade goods with because they just seem so outrageous. 250 for one shard or 3500 for a bag of 20 random cataclysm herbs? Noooooo Waaaaaayyy...
I did buy an heirloom to make a warrior, but now I feel like maybe it was in vain... Nah. I don't feel like leveling something like that from scratch, even with heirlooms, but with this new conversion system coming out, from Justice to Honor, from Valor to Conquest... maybe it would be nice to get that. Maybe it would be worth it then.
Something else I came across int he patch notes:
• New Cooking and Fishing Dailies have been added to Darnassus, Ironforge, Thunder Bluff, and Undercity.
Makes me wonder if there are new achievements for them. =) City cooker and city fisher. How about that. Might just see more players in those cities from now on. That might be the reason for those, but I just have to wonder do all the other capital cities also have portals to the cataclysm zones like Uldum and Twilight Highlands? Hmmm.
Well, thats about it. I look forward now to the enrage ability being better and cooking and fishing more often. I just have to wonder if you do a cooking daily in Stormwind, does that mean you can still do them in Ironforge and Darnassus, or is it only one cooking quest a day? I don't think so, because you can still do the cooking/fishing dailies in Outlands and Northrend. I just wish they'd make the rewards from the player capitals as good as the ones from abroad...
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Pre-Patch 4.1 Woes
Well, I just found out they're coming out with a "Call to Arms" for the dungeon finder. According to blizzard the Dungeon Finger will have a feature where it will automatically scan the dungeon ques to see how long it will take for the que. If there are too few tanks for example, it will offer an extra reward. This Call to Arms will give a tank an extra satchel that will reward the tank with an extra item, like flasks, potions, non-combat companions, even rare mounts. The rare mounts in question would be like Baron Rivendare's Dreadsteed, or the Reigns of the Raven Lord, or even the white Hawkstrider that I rarely see! I bet they might even include those holiday mounts like the Brewfest Kodo or the big Love Rocket. I wouldn't mind that.
My problem then? Well, how fair is this? Lets look at the dungeon makeup. You have one tank, one healer, and three DPS. The DPSers, for some reason, have to wait the longest, anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour maybe! So now Blizzard is trying to come up with an incentive to the tanks and healers to que in the dungeon finder so that the DPS players won't have to wait as long. Sounds like a good idea.
The bad part is that this totally excludes the pure DPS players, or more specifically it excluded the classes that are pure DPS. Namely the Mages, Warlocks, and Hunters. They can only pick DPS. Even if they had a pet that could take enough damage, they couldn't select the role of tank, and their healing spells if any are geared towards themselves and only work under certain circumstances. Mages, they use Evocation, which restores mana, and if glyphed it can restore health, so that's a healing spell they could cast on themselves, but has a long cooldown because of it. Hunters if they are Beast Mastery, they can have a talent the regenerates health as long as they have their pet out (pet and hunter health heals about 5% every X seconds) which can help the healer a little. And then the Warlocks. They can channel health from an enemy target to replenish their own health... so as a result they have to be in combat! ARGH! How annoying is that, having to kill something to heal yourself.
So other than that, these three classes have no choice but to DPS, and why not? It's what they were designed for. The problem here is that if there are not enough tanks or healers in the que, the dungeon finder will come up with a reward for those two to give them an incentive to pug. As a result, this will leave the DPS short, because the tank and the healer will get a bag as an extra reward, but the DPS will get nothing out of it. Sure it will result in a faster que so they can do heroics, but really, most of my alts that are DPS only have gotten all they can out of heroics.
Now my druid is my main character, and druids can do multiple roles, but only one at a time of course. I dps for the most part as a Boomkin for the fun of it, and when pugging for a random, it does take a while to get into a que, so I fly around and farm herbs or I do archaeology. With 30-40 minutes to wait, it gives me plenty of time. If I go afk when the que pops, then oh well! I should have kept an eye on the time.
And if the rewards from farming wasn't my incentive to wait that long for a que, then the lack of annoyance as a feral tank is. There were times when I pugged a random and I've had the DPS members charge ahead of me while I was eating to get a food buff, or a hunter putting misdirection on me and shoot at the mob while the healer was getting mana back up and wasn't ready. Then I've had times when the healer went oom and blamed me for being a bad tank, or the whole group wiping and blaming me for it for whatever reason. I ended up rage quitting a few times.
Even when I wasn't tanking I've been the victim of bad players. I was on my troll druid and the other players were picking on my addon that said things when I shapeshifted or cast spells. I kidded right back at them of course, picking on their picking on me, and for the most part the dungeon went okay. Not too many deaths, since it was a low level anyway (dire maul to be exact). Then we got to the boss, which was a beast-dog with blue skin and about a thousand eyes. Yep, a demon of some sort. We destroyed the guards so now the beast was loose. We kill it. I rolled need on the item that dropped so I could use it, and I won the roll and skinned the beast. Next thing I knew, a player said, "You bitch!", I typed "?", and the next thing I knew I was removed from the group. Now I have no idea if it was because I rolled need on the loot or skinned the beast, and now that I was removed from the group, I would never know. If it was the beast skinning I couldn't trade that so there might have been cause to be mad about, but if it was about the loot, that was tradeable, and if they had been mature enough to politely ask if I could trade it to them because they really needed it, then I might have traded it. Items won in dungeons have what, two hours till they become untradeable? I think so. So why the sudden boot? Probably because they were kids and they had no idea that the item in question would be useless in a few levels anyway. It's not like I was rolling on a 359 epic weapon that drops once in a blue moon, right? So yeah, some people can be douchebags in their own way.
There were times like that as an 85 too. I've seen a tank charge on into the mob while the healer was in another room drinking to restore mana. I've run back from dying only to reset the monster and we'd have to start all over again. Mistakes do happen. I've declined from tanking randoms by myself since it doesn't feel worth it to get into a group of dpsers who try to rush you when you or the healer isn't ready. I've wiped because I was in a group with a bad healer, or a polymorph going wrong and healing the mobs so we can't kill them. I've been blamed for bad tanking myself. So now, I just que as a boomkin, dig up herbs while I wait for the pop, and hang back and cast spells as a DPS... and if something goes wrong and everyone is about to die, I can step back and shadowmeld... and the teabag the ones who died if I didn't care for them. Good to be a night elf.
Anyway, if this new Call to Arms for the dungeon finder goes through, I might not use it as a tank at all anyway. The rare chance of the mounts or pets as a reward aren't worth it considering the fact that I can't get them to drop in a solo run of those dungeons. See Raven Lord... Yeah... As a druid I feel entitled to it... but now anyone can get it, and that pisses me off since I went through a lot of quests to get that object in the first place, and I still haven't gotten it.
Yeah... not looking forward to this patch at all.... not much anyway. :/
My problem then? Well, how fair is this? Lets look at the dungeon makeup. You have one tank, one healer, and three DPS. The DPSers, for some reason, have to wait the longest, anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour maybe! So now Blizzard is trying to come up with an incentive to the tanks and healers to que in the dungeon finder so that the DPS players won't have to wait as long. Sounds like a good idea.
The bad part is that this totally excludes the pure DPS players, or more specifically it excluded the classes that are pure DPS. Namely the Mages, Warlocks, and Hunters. They can only pick DPS. Even if they had a pet that could take enough damage, they couldn't select the role of tank, and their healing spells if any are geared towards themselves and only work under certain circumstances. Mages, they use Evocation, which restores mana, and if glyphed it can restore health, so that's a healing spell they could cast on themselves, but has a long cooldown because of it. Hunters if they are Beast Mastery, they can have a talent the regenerates health as long as they have their pet out (pet and hunter health heals about 5% every X seconds) which can help the healer a little. And then the Warlocks. They can channel health from an enemy target to replenish their own health... so as a result they have to be in combat! ARGH! How annoying is that, having to kill something to heal yourself.
So other than that, these three classes have no choice but to DPS, and why not? It's what they were designed for. The problem here is that if there are not enough tanks or healers in the que, the dungeon finder will come up with a reward for those two to give them an incentive to pug. As a result, this will leave the DPS short, because the tank and the healer will get a bag as an extra reward, but the DPS will get nothing out of it. Sure it will result in a faster que so they can do heroics, but really, most of my alts that are DPS only have gotten all they can out of heroics.
Now my druid is my main character, and druids can do multiple roles, but only one at a time of course. I dps for the most part as a Boomkin for the fun of it, and when pugging for a random, it does take a while to get into a que, so I fly around and farm herbs or I do archaeology. With 30-40 minutes to wait, it gives me plenty of time. If I go afk when the que pops, then oh well! I should have kept an eye on the time.
And if the rewards from farming wasn't my incentive to wait that long for a que, then the lack of annoyance as a feral tank is. There were times when I pugged a random and I've had the DPS members charge ahead of me while I was eating to get a food buff, or a hunter putting misdirection on me and shoot at the mob while the healer was getting mana back up and wasn't ready. Then I've had times when the healer went oom and blamed me for being a bad tank, or the whole group wiping and blaming me for it for whatever reason. I ended up rage quitting a few times.
Even when I wasn't tanking I've been the victim of bad players. I was on my troll druid and the other players were picking on my addon that said things when I shapeshifted or cast spells. I kidded right back at them of course, picking on their picking on me, and for the most part the dungeon went okay. Not too many deaths, since it was a low level anyway (dire maul to be exact). Then we got to the boss, which was a beast-dog with blue skin and about a thousand eyes. Yep, a demon of some sort. We destroyed the guards so now the beast was loose. We kill it. I rolled need on the item that dropped so I could use it, and I won the roll and skinned the beast. Next thing I knew, a player said, "You bitch!", I typed "?", and the next thing I knew I was removed from the group. Now I have no idea if it was because I rolled need on the loot or skinned the beast, and now that I was removed from the group, I would never know. If it was the beast skinning I couldn't trade that so there might have been cause to be mad about, but if it was about the loot, that was tradeable, and if they had been mature enough to politely ask if I could trade it to them because they really needed it, then I might have traded it. Items won in dungeons have what, two hours till they become untradeable? I think so. So why the sudden boot? Probably because they were kids and they had no idea that the item in question would be useless in a few levels anyway. It's not like I was rolling on a 359 epic weapon that drops once in a blue moon, right? So yeah, some people can be douchebags in their own way.
There were times like that as an 85 too. I've seen a tank charge on into the mob while the healer was in another room drinking to restore mana. I've run back from dying only to reset the monster and we'd have to start all over again. Mistakes do happen. I've declined from tanking randoms by myself since it doesn't feel worth it to get into a group of dpsers who try to rush you when you or the healer isn't ready. I've wiped because I was in a group with a bad healer, or a polymorph going wrong and healing the mobs so we can't kill them. I've been blamed for bad tanking myself. So now, I just que as a boomkin, dig up herbs while I wait for the pop, and hang back and cast spells as a DPS... and if something goes wrong and everyone is about to die, I can step back and shadowmeld... and the teabag the ones who died if I didn't care for them. Good to be a night elf.
Anyway, if this new Call to Arms for the dungeon finder goes through, I might not use it as a tank at all anyway. The rare chance of the mounts or pets as a reward aren't worth it considering the fact that I can't get them to drop in a solo run of those dungeons. See Raven Lord... Yeah... As a druid I feel entitled to it... but now anyone can get it, and that pisses me off since I went through a lot of quests to get that object in the first place, and I still haven't gotten it.
Yeah... not looking forward to this patch at all.... not much anyway. :/
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Let's Go Fishin'!
<°)))><
Yarp, we went fishing three days ago. It took us a week, but my guild, The Holy Crusade, has finally gotten the fishing achievement, which allows us to make the Cataclysm version of the fish feast.
Although I think I like the Dragon Feast better, because it sets down a cauldron that is supported by wooden poles over a fire (if I remember correctly), whereas the new fish feast is just a bucket of water with a live crawdad in it.
Well... that's World of Warcraft for ya. :P
So long, and thanks for all the fish! <°)))><
o
Yarp, we went fishing three days ago. It took us a week, but my guild, The Holy Crusade, has finally gotten the fishing achievement, which allows us to make the Cataclysm version of the fish feast.
Although I think I like the Dragon Feast better, because it sets down a cauldron that is supported by wooden poles over a fire (if I remember correctly), whereas the new fish feast is just a bucket of water with a live crawdad in it.
Well... that's World of Warcraft for ya. :P
So long, and thanks for all the fish! <°)))><
o
O
o
O
o
<°)))><
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