We killed the Kor’kon Dark Shaman as a guild for the first time yesterday! We extended last week’s lockout so we could start right on progression. I even managed to get a warforged mace off my bonus roll – Kardris’ Scepter.
See my post on the Carpe site for more details.
I decided to run Blackwing Lair tonight for an attempt at transmog gear. When I defeated Razorgore the Untamed, I got an Unscathed Egg containing this Untamed Hatchling. I’m guessing the drop rate is pretty decent, but I’m happy.
I’ve earned a few other random achievements lately. I did some achievements in Obsidian Sanctum, Onyxia’s Lair, and Naxxramas recently. This weekend I earned To All The Squirrels I’ve Loved Before, To All The Squirrels Who Shared My Life, To All the Squirrels Who Cared for Me, and To All the Squirrels I Once Caressed? That was a lot a critter /love’ing. Yesterday I also earned Thirty Tabards and, while flying over the Jade Forest, accidently earned Explore Jade Forest and Explore Pandaria. Pretty nice!
I forgot how much I enjoyed this dungeon until I ran it the other day. It’s fairly straight forward but has amazing atmosphere. Bronjahm, the Godfather of Souls, is an awesome boss, but even more awesome is his music.
Okay, his sounds are pretty entertaining too.
I ran it last week just for the achievements – Soul Power and Three Faced. I feel like I spend most of my time in WoW running things for progression, but I think I want to go do this again, and I just ran it a few days ago. It’s just too good.
I’ve been branching out in WoW a bit lately, finishing some things besides just doing my LFR or flex. First, I finished the dungeon achievements for the ICC heroic dungeons. Next, I got the mount from a OS 3D 25-man run, the Twilight Drake! I know it’s old content, but I do like the mount.
I also finished the last two achievements I needed for Glory of the Hero. First, there was Dehydration. This is for killing Ichoron in Violet Hold without allowing any of the globules to merge. It was fairly simple. My final one was Respect Your Elders. It’s funny, because I remember that requiring strategy. You have to defeat Elder Nadox in the Old Kingdom without killing his adds. The adds make him immune to damage when they’re near him, so you’d have to tank the adds away from him. Back in Wrath, I suppose that would mean two people need to be able to survive a lot of damage. Now it means you just start DPSing the boss, and a second later he dies. And then you get a Red Proto-Drake if it’s your last Glory of the Hero achievement!
On the same night I earned that, I did some achievements in the Lost City of the Tol’vir with the same friend who was helping me do these other things. She earned Headed South on Siamat, which gave her Glory of the Cataclysm Hero and the Volcanic Stone Drake! We’re on our new mounts in the above screenshot.
It’s funny how little I know about a lot of these instances. I have a couple alts (no alts are max), but I don’t really play them. I only saw most dungeons as I did them for gear while leveling and then never touched them again. I feel so lost in some instances and barely remember them. I must have coasted through Cataclysm on auto-pilot. I remember Wrath fairly well, but that was the expansion during which I first hit a level cap. In addition, I was out of school and didn’t have a job, so I spent a lot of time in game. Doing Wrath of the Lich King dungeons felt very nostalgic. Thanks for being a good expansion, Wrath.
I’ve been complaining a bit because I couldn’t manage to down Garrosh in flex. In fact, most groups couldn’t get past the first boss of Downfall. On Friday I listed myself for Downfall and got invited to a group just for Garrosh. It was super simple, and everything went extremely smoothly. It was a lot easier than most LFR groups even! Anyways, I’m happy to have completed flex.
It might not be guild progression, but I had some personal progression. Pepper asked me to join a PUG for Siege of Orgrimmar, so I decided to give it a go. It seemed like it was at least half of a guild run. We started at Galakras and made it through the Dark Shaman. It was my first time downing them!
It was actually a rather unpleasant experience. They were very rude to non-guildies. I stayed simply because I thought I had a chance at progression. Is that bad of me? Whatever.
I spent another three to four hours doing flex the other night. I’m attempting to get a Garrosh kill. On this particular night, I was never able to kill the first boss of flex 4. People wouldn’t know what to do, and that would cause other people to quit. We’d wipe and wipe and then fall apart. After four groups, I gave up for the evening.
It was very frustrating. I dislike LFR because it’s boring, but I dislike flex because if other people are bad, you’re just wasting your time completely. If I could just kill him once in flex, I’d leave him be!
Wednesday we had our one and only attempt on Iron Juggernaut, defeating him! It seemed like a strangely uneventful boss. I’d heard it was easy, but after a boss that had a group leaving to do their own thing in the towers on Galakras with comparatively complex mechanics, I don’t understand why Iron Juggernaut was even there! That said, he’s pretty cool looking, so I guess I get it.
You can watch our kill too. I forgot to start the video right at the beginning, but I remembered pretty early. Now that I’ve become the official kill poster on the Carpe Flux Capacitor guild website, I might as well link to our official kill announcement too.
WoW: Fiction Has a Horde Bias, Talarian, Gamer By Design, 11/18/13.
Talarian gives an interesting look at the favoritism in storytelling.
Wowhead adds zone music, character quest tracking, Adam Koebel, WoW Insider, 11/27/13.
Some pretty cool, new features were added to Wowhead!
Blizzard: Gearing in Warlords of Draenor, Sarah Pine, WoW Insider, 11/26/13.
Gearing will be a bit different in WoD, and this post explains the current mechanics.
Know Your Lore TFH: Sailing to Oshu’gun, Matthew Rossi, WoW Insider, 11/20/13.
Rossi provides some very interesting speculation about the draenei and their dimension ship.
What’s going on with Karazhan?, Anne Stickney, WoW Insider, 11/22/13.
It looks like Karazhan is getting restored. What could it mean?
Ghostcrawler to leave Blizzard, Olivia Grace, WoW Insider, 11/27/13.
Bye, Ghostcrawler!
Last week we finally killed Galakras! We were missing our main tanks and actually had to PUG a DPS as well. It was the first time we had raided in about a month due to attendance issues.
This was our 20th attempt when we finally defeated Galakras. I’m surprised it took so long, but I’m glad to see him die. Off to Iron Juggernaut this week I hope!
It took me a long time, but I finally got my 100,000th kill! You can now call me Devee of the Horde. It seems crazy how much I slowed down. I PVP’d a lot while leveling, spending much more time in battlegrounds that actually trying to level. After I hit 80, my first level cap, I began running heroics and old raids. When I applied to Carpe Flux Capacitor in December 2009, I had 37,787 honorable kills.
In February 2010, two months after joining Carpe Flux Capacitor, I had 50,000 HKs. After that, it took me close to four years to reach 100,000. Whoops. It always felt like there was something I needed to do to improve my gear for raids. I let myself down!
My 100,000th Honorable Kill was Elvion of Thorium Brotherhood. I’ve been playing a lot of Temple of Kotmogu recently. The small arena really lends itself to killing. I guess it’s as close to a 10v10 arena match as we’ll see. Now, do I set my sights on the 250,000 HK achievement? I’ll keep PVPing, but I’m definitely happy to have the “of the Horde” title!
Warlords of Draenor: The Story So Far, Matthew Rossi, WoW Insider, 11/10/13.
If you missed what the expansion is all about, this will tell you!
Warlords of Draenor Systems Panel: What We Learned, Booka, BlizzPro, 11/9/13.
Booka provides a quick overview of the features and changes coming in Warlords.
Warlords of Draenor Open Q&A: What We Learned, Booka, BlizzPro, 11/9/13.
More quick bulletpoints.
Know Your Lore, TFH: The Aspects of the Titans, Matthew Rossi, WoW Insider, 11/6/13.
Rossi has some very interesting theories about the Titans and time. He speculates that they’re from the future, and that they want to preserve the “true” timeline to ensure their own creation.
Know Your Lore TFH: The Big Lie, Matthew Rossi, WoW Insider, 11/13/13.
Just how do the timelines work, and what has Nozdormu been up to? Rossi speculates.
Know Your Lore: The warlords of Draenor, Anne Stickney, WoW Insider, 11/9/13.
Who are the Warlords of Draenor?
Know Your Lore: The History of Draenor, Anne Stickney, WoW Insider, 11/8/13.
A look at Draenor’s current history.
Bashiok on flying mount delay in World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor, Sarah Pine, WoW Insider, 11/14/13.
No flying until 6.1? In my opinion, it’s a great idea.
The cosplay of BlizzCon2013, Elizabeth Harper, WoW Insider, 11/9/13.
There’s some very cool cosplay in the gallery!
How does a 25 player guild handle Mythic raiding?, Matticus, World of Matticus, 11/13/13.
The leader of a 25-player heroic guild talks about what’s going to happen come Warlords of Draenor.
BlizzCon 2013: Updates on the level 90-100 questing experience, Adam Koebel, WoW Insider, 11/9/13.
Take a look at what’s changing.
Know Your Lore, TFH Edition: What are the Old Gods?, Anne Stickney, WoW Insider, 11/3/13.
What if the Old Gods aren’t what we think?
What We’ll Miss About Mists… And What We Won’t, Booka, BlizzPro, 11/7/13.
The best and worst aspects of Mists of Pandaria.
Warlords of Draenor sounds very cool and seems to be bringing a lot of great things. I don’t intend for this post to rehash all the news released at BlizzCon, but I still want to talk about my reaction.
The story
I love the direction of the story; Garrosh escapes and, with the help of the Timewalker Kairoz, travels back in time to Draenor. He stops the orcs from becoming corrupted by the Burning Legion and forms the Iron Horde. He then builds his own Dark Portal connecting that Draenor to our Azeroth. I know that anything relating to time travel can be confusing to people, but I kind of like that Blizzard basically told us not to worry about it and that there wouldn’t be any time paradoxes or consequences. I like it. It’s just an excuse for us to visit Draenor and interact with all the old orcs. Of course, this gives us a lot of potential. Seeing ruthless, old-fashioned orcs should be fun, and of course, experiencing Draenor will be great.
It could also be a vehicle for some interesting character development. What if Garrosh finds his father’s not what he expected? What if Grom thinks Garrosh is a failure? It’ll be fascinating. I also think Blizzard has a chance to do something great with Thrall. Thrall never had the chance to know his parents. We know Durotan is going to side with our Horde, but what if he’s different than Thrall imagined? Even if he’s a good guy, what if he’s still ruthless? What if he thinks the Horde is too soft? In addition, some characters could stick around after the end of the expansion. For example, Durotan could come through the Dark Portal to live on Azeroth.
I’m also fascinated by the idea of circumstance shaping a person, and I hope Warlords of Draenor examines this. I’d like to see some characters act very differently than they did in the original timeline due to the changed events in their lives.
Stats and itemization
Hit was always a boring stat to me. There was no strategy or choice. You just had to get hit-capped. I’m glad to see it and its fellow not-fun stats removed. Movement speed could be a fun stat on gear as well. Plus, being able to move quickly and get back to DPSing or healing means a DPS/HPS boost.
Having gear change to match the wearer’s current spec is very interesting. It means you can use more gear but that there’s more competition. Ultimately, I think it’ll make the game much more offspec-friendly.
Reforging seemed more needless than useful. On the other hand, it is nice to be able to change from a haste build to a crit build without changing gear. I almost feel like it would work better like changing specs. When you’re out of combat, you can could change builds. Oh well. We’ll have to see what it’s like for gems and enchants to be less common as well.
Garrisons
Garrisons are effectively the Sunsong Ranch farm crossed with the companion mission system of TOR (or other games) with a dash of Warcraft RTS. Sounds intriguing. I liked the farm even though it felt like a grind at times, so I’m optimistic about this. Honestly, it’s more of an evolution of the idea of keeps and followers from Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. It could be pretty fun.
Updated character models
Honestly, I don’t really care about this. I don’t understand it. My character is a pretty portion of my screen. When I play D&D, my representation is, at most, a small metal figure that isn’t even using an accurate weapon half the time. However, a lot of people do care, so I’m glad Blizzard’s doing it.
Boost to 90
I completely understand how some people are bothered by this, but I’m not at all. I’ve never had two characters at the level cap. With the character boost, I’m more likely to get a second to level 100. It’d be nice to check out some other styles of play, because I’ve only ever had my priest at endgame. In addition, being able to boost to 90 combined with updated character models mean that people who haven’t played WoW before can immediately begin playing what is effectively a new, modern game. That’s great.
Collections and quest items
These might be my favorite changes. Currently, mounts and pets are in collections rather than items. In Warlords of Draenor, toys, heirlooms, and possibly tabards will be in collections as well. That’s so much bag space I’ll be regaining. In addition, quest items won’t take up bag space. Finally. I’m pretty excited. The only downside is that I lost all those toys I earned previously. Maybe Blizzard could check that I did those quests and award me the toys. Please, Blizzard?
Raid changes
LFR is still LFR. Flex will be called Normal. Normal will be called Heroic. Heroic will be called Mythic. LFR, Normal, and Heroic will all be flexible (1o to 25 people) and cross-realm. Mythic will not be cross-realm and will be 20 people. As a normal-mode raider currently (so a heroic-mode raider next expansion) in a guild that struggles with attendance, this is great news. We recruit so we have 15-20 people, and then we take everyone every week. Awesome! I do feel bad for current 10-man heroic guilds, but it won’t be my problem at least.
Dailies and dynamic events
Dailies will not be widely used. Great. Dynamic events like those from the Timeless Isle will exist in the world. Also great if not overdone. In addition, they talked about wanting to combine the ideas behind the Isle of Thunder and the Timeless Isle. I think Blizzard is on to something, and I like to see them iterating on the way content is delivered. A combination of these two is exactly what I want.
Story quests
The map will tell you where the next story quest is, and it also indicates how many story chapters you’ve completed. This is awesome news. In Mists of Pandaria, I finished all the zones before I started raiding, and I only did a dungeon once I got to it in the story. It made for a nice, cohesive experience, but it also meant I took longer to get raid-ready. In Warlords of Draenor, I’ll skip all the non-story quests and come back to them. This should speed up the process significantly.
PVP interface updates
I don’t know how anyone could have a problem with being able to see capping progress on the map and on the flags themselves. This is a welcome change.
Warlords of Draenor
I’m pretty excited about all the aspects of the expansion. I’ll admit, things could go wrong. The quests could be boring, or the new content delivery mechanisms could be boring. I won’t know until I see the content. But I’m feeling hyped to experience it. Of course, I’d like to defeat Garrosh in normal-mode first!
BlizzCon was this weekend, and I found the announcements pretty exciting. Despite living just twenty to thirty minutes from the convention center, I didn’t go. I think it feels less special as a convention because it’s so close, but I do watch the stream. I’ll be posting about some of the announcements and my feelings about them later. I have something more important to mention first!
What would World of Warcraft be without people with whom to play? Some of my guildies came down, and got to hang out this weekend. I’m second from the right, in the red shirt. I stole the pic from my guild leader, so hopefully she doesn’t mind. I went to dinner with three out-of-towners and Mooglegem on Friday night, and Saturday night the group of us above went to dinner. That includes four people I met (in person) this weekend, which was great.
In the photo, you might notice a cookie jar between a glass of water and a beer. Moogle baked cookies and brought them with her in that jar. While we in line at a restaurant, she handed them out to us. A girl behind us got excited, asking where we got the cookies. Moogle explained that she baked them and brought them with her. She seemed sad, and Moogle offered her a cookie. She got really excited, accepted, tried it, and then told Moogle how good it was! Later, when we were seated, Moogle offered cookies to our waiter and waitress. The waiter took one fairly early and thought it was great. It was later in the meal when the waitress accepted, and she also told Moogle how good she thought it was. A few minutes later, a different waitress came over to us, telling us that she didn’t know who baked the cookies but that her coworker shared a piece with her and she thought they were amazing. Moogle gave one to her too. Everyone loves cookies!
As for the content from BlizzCon itself, I was pretty impressed. I think Warlords of Draenor sounds very exciting and the changes are, generally, good ones. I’m also pleased with what I saw of Reaper of Souls. I’ve never played a MOBA, but I’m optimistic about Heroes of the Storm (and the trailer was fantastic). I’d actually not played Hearthstone in a while, but the convention made me excited to play once more. Adventures sound particularly cool! And I guess StarCraft was there. I don’t play it. I’ll post more in-depth about the announcements in the future!
We’re almost two months into the patch, so I thought I’d talk about some of the content. When the Timeless Isle was released, I was pretty excited. It was largely free-form content. In many ways, it mirrored the feeling of World of Warcraft when it was first released. I didn’t have particular expectations. There were no grinds of dailies. I was just able to explore and find things to do. I talked to Wrathion and his friends, got sent around the island, and met the Emperor. I killed some random monsters and did some platforming to find some treasure chests. I even bested the Celestials in battle, earned by legendary cloak, and fought Ordos. I was excited and incredibly happy with the Timeless Isle. I loved platforming to reach chests, and I particularly enjoyed getting carried by a bird to the top of a mountain.
Soon I began working on it a bit more. I wanted to complete the weekly so I could see the vision. I wanted to kill Yaungol so I could earn reputation with Emperor Shaohao. I wanted to get more armor from the island so I could use Burdens of Eternity on them, even if they’d only provide a small upgrade.
Soon I realized that there wasn’t an abundance of fun to reach chests. Platforming was very limited. The second week on the Timeless Isle, I didn’t quite finish gathering enough Epoch Stones to complete my quest and earn a vision. The next week I still hadn’t finished it. Fast-forward until today, and I’ve still only turned in the quest once and currently have 27/50 Epoch Stones.
Looking at my quest log, I see that I’m supposed to kill Yaungol for Emperor Shaohao, kill Elite creatures for Emperor Shaohao, kill Rare or Rare Elite creatures for Kairoz, and kill everything for Epoch Stones for Kairoz. These don’t scream fun to me. In fact, they seem pretty terrible. At least the Isle of Giant was even looser. This just feels fake. I have a few different quests, but really I’m just so run around killing things haphazardly. I primarily play to experience the content, see the story, and challenge myself. Challenge doesn’t really apply to this type of content, so let’s disregard that. I’ve already experienced the content. The Timeless Isle is now asking me to experience the same content again and again. I’m missing some story, but I feel like I’d be better off watching the visions on YouTube than continuing.
I do like PVPing, and I purchased the Censer of Eternal Agony, but I’ve never even used it honestly. I don’t really want to screw with people who are trying to get things done. I’d rather go do some battlegrounds. The Burdens of Eternity could provide me with some minor upgrades, but they’re not enough to really motivate me.
It’s really too bad. I’m not trying to say that the Timeless Isle is bad. A lot of people enjoy it, and that’s great. Unfortunately, it’s just not for me I suppose. When I first explored the island, it reminded me of the way exploring World of Warcraft felt for the first time. In many ways, it mirrored the experience of the game. That exploration is much more limited than implied. I understand what it wants and requires, and it offers a lot less than I originally thought. Perspective changes.
For now, I’ll fly out to the Isle once per week to spam smite at Ordos and to tag a Celestial right before the kill.
A Counter-Intuitive Idea For Tanks in LFR, Rohan, Blessing of Kings, 10/16/13.
Rohan notes that there’s room for bad healers or DPS in LFR but not tanks. He speculates that increasing the number of tanks (while keeping encounters tuned for two) would make tanking more forgiving and possibly yield more people queuing as tanks. It’s a great idea.
An Alternate Explanation for Gender Bias in Healing and Tanking, Rohan, Blessing of Kings, 10/8/13.
Here’s another fantastic piece by Rohan. He provides an alternate explanation on gender bias in which he speculates that women prefer to stay at range while men prefer melee. It’s interesting.
Crowd Control & Diminishing Returns, Lore, World of Warcraft Forums, 10/11/13.
If you’ve wondered what CC shared diminishing returns, this great thread has you covered.
Know Your Lore: A brief summary of the Pandaria campaign, Matthew Rossi, WoW Insider, 10/9/13.
This is a fantastic summary of what’s happened in Pandaria.
Reputation in review: Pandaria, Anne Stickney, WoW Insider, 10/14/13.
A consideration of the different reputation experiments in Mists of Pandaria.
Know Your Lore: The fate of Garrosh Hellscream, Anne Stickney, WoW Insider, 10/13/13.
Nothing new, but interesting look at why things happened the way they did.
Spec and Talent design likely to remain unchanged in 6.0, Olivia Grace, WoW Insider, 10/15/13.
If you read the article title, you don’t really need to read the article.
WoW Archivist: Spells we’ve lost, Scott Andrews, WoW Insider, 10/11/13.
An examination of spells that have been removed. I’m ready to lose more.
Mooglegem: I like frost magering!
Mooglegem: It comes with a Squishy! I think I might have the only frost elemental in Azeroth with low self esteem.
Devee: Why does he have low self esteem?!
Mooglegem: I used to have a glyph that made him big! But then I took it away, and now he’s a little squishy.
Devee: Put it back then!
Gemma: Nope! I’m trying to show him that bigger is not always better!
Gemma: … He also has “performance” issues.
I like that LFR is included, and I think it’s a great feature. That said, the experience is usually infuriating. People are usually under-geared, which is to be expected, but they also don’t know what to do and don’t listen to instructions. Honestly, LFR is open to everyone, and many people have never raided outside of LFR. I understand that it can be daunting. What gets to me, however, is when we wipe so many times and fall apart so much that it takes 2 or 3 hours to complete a wing. This happens pretty frequently, and it’s especially bad now that we’re in a new tier. Everyone’s yelling at each other, we have four stacks of determination, half the group drops, and I just want to finish.
Tuesday night after our raid, I decided to do the Vale of Eternal Sorrows in LFR. I was great on Immerseus, and we completed it in one attempt with no problems. The Fallen Protectors also went very smoothly, but I was beginning to get tired. We had no problems on Norushen either, but I was incredibly sloppy. I didn’t switch to adds, and I didn’t do anything but spam Smite and occasionally cast Penance or Holy Fire on the boss. By the time we got to the Sha of Pride, I was falling asleep. Sometimes I cast Smite on the Sha. Most of the time I did nothing. Yes, I was stacked at the correct spot, but I didn’t move. I didn’t fight the add. I didn’t use my healing CDs. Pretty much, I just slept.
Whoops. I was the bad that got carried last night.
Tuesday we cancelled our raid due to low attendance. We tried recruiting and taking trial members, but the couple that was planning on running with us restarted their computers and never returned. However, on Wednesday we breezed through Immerseus and the Fallen Protectors and finally completed the Norushen encounter! I got a belt, too. I think it was only on our second attempt of the night, although we wiped a total of 24 times.
Then we moved on to the Sha of Pride. If flex was any indicator, I expected this to be easier than the Norushen encounter, and I was right. We did wipe four times, but we defeated the Sha of Pride on the fifth attempt. Take that Sha of Pride! Who’s the best now? Us! Wait…
Hopefully next week we’ll be able to push into Orgrimmar itself!
The bag space problem, Adam Koebel, WoW Insider, 10/2/13.
An examination of the problem with bag space with possible solutions.
A lack of triumph, Matthew Rossi, WoW Insider, 10/1/13.
The Siege of Orgrimmar lacks a triumphant feeling, and maybe that’s okay.
WoW’s Singing Sunflower sweetens the Lament of the Highborne, Lisa Poisso, WoW Insider, 7/29/13.
Whoops, I missed this one. Laura Shigihara, the voice of the Singing Sunflower pet (and the song from Plants vs. Zombies), sings Lament of the Highborne.
About a week ago, Mooglegem earned her legendary cloak, Xing-Ho, Breath of Yu’lon! I was looking forward to seeing her increased DPS, but we called raids off this past week. Hopefully next time we raid she’ll get to put her new legendary cloak to good use!
We may be in debt, but the chips on our shoulders are chocolate, Sarah Pine, WoW Insider, 9/18/13.
When Greg Street and Brian Holinka traded tweets about exciting changes to PVP, Olivia Grace replied to them, saying that she’d bake them each 1,000,000 cookies if the changes were cross-realm arenas. Well, they’re in patch 5.4 now, and in the Alliance PVP room in the Valley of the Four Winds, there’s an IOU note for “1,000,000 Chocolate Chip Cookies” signed “- O.D.G.” She better get on that.
WoW Trivial Pursuit now available, Sarah Pine, WoW Insider, 9/25/13.
Sweet.
Know Your Lore: This Was All Necessary, Matthew Rossi, WoW Insider, 9/25/13.
Pandaria grew stagnant under the Sha of Pride. Garrosh was right that “such power cannot be contained.”
Hearthstone account wipe is coming, Sarah Pine, WoW Insider, 9/26/13.
Good to know if you’re still playing Hearthstone. You’ll be reimbursed with gold for your purchases, and they don’t believe there will be any additional wipes.
Queue for all the LFRs at once in patch 5.4, Olivia Grace, WoW Insider, 9/24/13.
This is a welcome change.
WoW Archivist: A rolled-back history of realms, Scott Andrews, WoW Insider, 9/13/13.
I remember roll-backs. Dark days, they were.
Know Your Lore: The future of the Horde, Anne Stickney, WoW Insider, 9/15/13.
What will happen to the Horde after the Siege of Orgrimmar?
Know Your Lore: Delenda est Orgrimmar, Matthew Rossi, WoW Insider, 9/18/13.
This is a satirical piece from the Alliance perspective on why Orgrimmar should be destroyed.
Escape from Orgrimmar, Matthew Rossi, WoW Insider, 9/19/13.
And this is the follow-up Rossi wrote after realizing that people didn’t realize the first was satirical. It lists the reasons why Orgrimmar shouldn’t be destroyed.
When the big squish happens, you’ll still be able to kill the mobs, Adam Holisky, WoW Insider, 9/19/13.
Some clarification for people who are still confused.
A few weeks ago I became exalted with the Frenzyheart, my 45th exalted reputation. I would have posted about it at that time, but that wasn’t the end goal with the Frenzyheart. I wanted to become a Wolvar, and to do that, I needed to obtain Frenzyheart Brew.
Last week, I waited for my Disgusting Jar to ripen, opened by Ripe Disgusting Jar, and was rewarded with a Frenzyheart Brew, allowing me to transform into a Wolvar! I’m very excited, because the Wolvar are one of my favorite races in WoW. They’re so cute!
Now, sadly, I suppose it’s time to sever my ties with the Frenzyheart Tribe and begin to work for the Oracles. I’ll miss you, friends. (I’ll switch back later!)
Recently I’ve been finishing some reputation and profession grinds in Mists of Pandaria. You can see him chilling with Nat Pagle in his boat in my nice, new Nat’s Fishing Chair.
Of course, that’s because I’m best friends with him. No more fishing for his three rare fish every day.
Once I convinced Fish Fellreed to be best friends with me, I was best friends with all the inhabitants of Halfhill. Now that we’re best friends, I can say that I hate them all.
Speaking of Halfhill, I’ve mastered all of the Ways! I do still need to teach my own apprentice, but I’m putting that on hiatus. I’ve had enough with these grinds for now!
Either it was a slow week or I’ve been in an uninterested mood!
Should Ordos Be Available To Everybody?, Booka, BlizzPro, 9/13/13.
Personally, I think it’s fine to have restricted content. However, I think the general plot and assets should be available to everybody. That’s one reason that, while I don’t particularly enjoy running LFR regularly, I’m very thankful for it’s inclusion in the game.
Blizzard to shut down Diablo III auction house, Sarah Pine, WoW Insider, 9/17/13.
I didn’t enjoy the AH, and I’ve really enjoyed the PS3 version of Diablo III. I think this is a good move.
Last week, I earned my legendary cloak, Jina-Kang, Kindness of Chi-Ji. If you follow my blog and know that I play a discipline priest, you won’t be surprised that Jina-Kang is the healer legendary. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a chance to earn this before my raid nights, but this week I should be set!
I’m sure you can find hundreds of videos showing the cutscene, but I recorded mine as well. It starts with some quest text and dialog before Wrathion sends me to the Seat of Knowledge above Mogu’shan Palace in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms. Around 2:00 into the video is when the good part starts. Do you remember how Lorewalker Cho has shown you scenes from stories? Now he, with Wrathion’s help, tells my story. This is one of the coolest things I’ve seen in World of Warcraft. We’ve all done great things, and the cutscene that plays will show each player his legendary accomplishments. To someone who loves the lore and story as well as building a character, it was incredible.
After earning it, the player is displayed with his or her appropriate legendary proc outside the Seat of Knowledge. I’m sad that I didn’t wait for Mooglegem so we could be displayed together. Oh well. Now to complete this chapter of the legendary, I just need to stop Garrosh Hellscream!
The Fallen Protectors went down again! It took us seven attempts, which isn’t too bad at all. The fight itself wasn’t too interesting, but I definitely like the idea of fighting sha-corrupted, fallen heroes.
I’m sure you really wanted to see us do it, and now you can! We did some attempts on Norushen – 10 it looks like if each of these Fraps videos is a full attempt – but we weren’t able to finish it.
I also completed the first flex wing, Vale of Eternal Sorrows. It was interesting. Yes, it was easier than normal, but we still had to pay attention to mechanics. I think I liked the difficulty. What really sets it apart though is requiring it to be pre-formed. I bet people would do their jobs better in LFR if you had to form your own group as well! I was a little stressed out joining a PUG because you never know what you’ll get. I guess it was kind of silly. Regardless, it went well, and I particularly enjoyed seeing the Sha of Pride. That’s a really cool boss to include. Afterwards you get some dialog between Jaina Proudmoore and Lor’themar Theron that I enjoyed.
And So It Begins, Averry, The Warchief’s Command Board, 9/10/13.
Averry, the man behind Garrosh Hellscream at the Warchief’s Command Board, posts a little bit out of character. He brings up leading a raid of Warchief’s Command Board readers in Siege of Orgrimmar. Could be fun!
Timeless Isle Guide (WoW MoP 5.4), Damien, Icy Veins, 9/10/13.
This seems to be a great guide for the Timeless Isle.
Know Your Lore: The legacy you will leave behind, Matthew Rossi, WoW Insider, 9/11/13.
An examination of the major players of Mists of Pandaria.
Know Your Lore, TFH Edition: The haunting refrain of the Mists of Pandaria, Anne Stickney, WoW Insider, 9/8/13.
This is a sad tale of the Vale of Eternal Blossoms.
World of Warcraft Trivial Pursuit coming soon, Olivia Grace, WoW Insider, 9/6/13.
There isn’t too much to say about this, but I’m excited.
I won’t cry for you, Garrosh Hellscream, Sarah Pine, WoW Insider, 9/5/13.
It’s time for the story to end.
I recently decided to try some other characters. First, I wanted to see the Worgen starting zone. I created a Worgen hunter named Eadgar, and I thoroughly enjoyed his starting experience. I especially loved the building pictured above. After finishing the starting zone, I created a Forsaken warlock. He’s currently level 7 or so; the Forsaken starting experience is definitely not as cool as the Worgen’s!
My Death Knight was in the very low 70s, so I decided to try him again. I did a couple dungeons, and then decided to try my hand at tanking. I was extremely nervous, but it went well. I told the group I was new to tanking, and that I really only heal. They told me I was going a little slower than normal but that I was doing fine. Great!
I also wanted to check how I could mage, so I swapped characters and computers with Moogle for two boss fights in Throne of Thunder. Amazingly, it went really well. I’m confident I can DPS in a raid setting.
Following that, I decided to get a shadow spec for my priest. I created the spec and a set of offspec gear based on what I already had. Sadly, I went into LFR to test it and I was already in the top three or four on DPS. I would expect to be worse than that, but I forgot that you can never underestimate LFR.
Know Your Lore: Alea iacta est, Matthew Rossi, WoW Insider, 9/4/13.
The war against Hellscream is coming. The die has been cast. This is a fantastic piece of the importance of this event. It could be a big turning point for the Alliance as well as the Horde.
Blizzard reveals Siege of Orgrimmar raid schedule, Matthew Rossi, WoW Insider, 9/4/13.
Good information if you’re anxious to jump into Siege.
Know Your Lore: The mysterious disappearance of Varian Wrynn, Anne Stickney, WoW Insider, 9/1/13.
A look back at the lack of Varian in vanilla. I really wonder what stories were dropped by Blizzard.
Diablo III: Reaper of Souls loot designed to make auction house a ‘last resort’, Mike Foster, Massively, 8/29/13.
Good news!
Which race would you like to play in a future expansion? Would they be Alliance or Horde and why? What would be their racials? Do you have any ideas for their jokes and/or flirts? Blog about your answer and link to the post in the comments. Or if you don’t have a World of Warcraft related blog, leave your response in the comments below.
via Community Blog Topic: Which race would you like to become playable?, Robin Torres, WoW Insider, 8/30/13.
Ever since the April Fools’ Day that Blizzard made everybody Tuskarr on the Armory, I’ve wanted playable Tuskarr. They’re so cute and cuddly! I love that they seem laid back and relaxed, yet at the same time probably have a lot of power in them. Mists of Pandaria introduced Trawler Yotimo in the Krasarang Wilds at Anglers Wharf. When you talk to him, he says the following:
Call me crazy, but I love this warm weather! I always felt like an outcast back in Borean but I think this new climate is going to work out great for me!
And then you ask him, “What are you doing so far from home?”
Well, times were getting tough up north. While the scourge problem has been dealt with, we are constantly on the move and looking for food. I decided it was time to head out and find some new fishing grounds!
After almost a month at sea, I ended up here. Good thing I packed a few crates of pickled herring for the trip!
If there are other Tuskarr who feel like outcasts, and times are tough for them too, might it be time for them to go adventuring?
I realize we haven’t seen the Tuskarr have any affinity for magic, but there’s no reason they couldn’t discover some. They’d need seven classes to put them on par with gnomes. I’d give them hunter, rogue, and warrior easily. I think I’d really love to see Tuskarr shaman, so let’s give them that too. Fishing pole totems, perhaps? If they’re adventuring, it’s very easily conceivable that they’d begin to study the arcane, so I’ll add mage. Having a connection with Pandaria already, they could also learn to be monks. They’re already in Northrend, but I don’t really want to give them Death Knights. Warlocks also seem like a jump if they’re just learning the arcane. I’d love to see Tuskarr paladins, but that seems like quite the jump as well. Priest is a possibility, but I think Tuskarr druids would be really cool too! As for faction, both the Alliance and Horde have both had contact with them, and the Tuskarr haven’t shown an affinity to one over the other so far. They could be given a choice just like the Pandaren.
I absolutely love the Tuskarr and would jump at the chance to play as one. However, I think it’s unlikely that they’d be added any time soon. Blizzard could always find a way to give a lore explanation, but it just doesn’t tie into the narration that we have currently (unless we’re given a curveball and are heading back to Northrend).
My second choice would be the Ethereals. If and when we go back to Outland, deal with the Burning Legion, or travel to any other planet, it would be a perfect time to make them playable. I’d also allow them to join either faction and would give them mages, warlocks, priests, rogues, warriors, hunters, and monks.
Edit: Here’s the follow-up piece on WoW Insider: Community Blog Topic Results: Which race would you like to become playable?, Robin Torres, WoW Insider, 9/5/13.
As you’ve probably heard, Blizzard is cancelling the World of Warcraft: Trading Card Game. Most likely this stems from their focus on Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft. While I hadn’t played it in years, saying goodbye to a good game makes me a bit sad.
I’m not sure that I ever played a 1v1 match against another player; it was the raid decks that fascinated me. WoW: TCG features raid decks modelled after their World of Warcraft counterparts. In the photo above (taken years ago), one player is controlling the Onyxia raid deck. We had five players banded together to defeat Onyxia. It was a new concept (at least to me) in TCGs, and I enjoyed it immensely. Besides defeating Onyxia, I also defeated Molten Core in normal (it had different difficulties) with five other players.
There were seven raid decks released – Onyxia’s Lair, Molten Core, Magtheridon’s Lair, Black Temple, Naxxramas, Assault on Icecrown Citadel, and Battle of the Aspects. Maybe it’s a waste of money, but I suddenly have the strong urge to purchase every raid deck. They’re fun, and I can’t stand the idea of them going away! I’ll pick up Assault on Icecrown Citadel at the very least.
Last week, we sang Happy Birthday over Mumble. It was… terrible. But it was also pretty fun! As people tried to compensate for Mumble’s lag, it just got worse and worse. Now, who wants to sign a record deal with Carpe Flux Capacitor?
This weekend, I played a lot of Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft. My friend gave me a beta key, which was really nice of him. Hearthstone is a lot of fun. It’s very similar to other collectible card games, but at the same time, it’s a bit different. I feel like Blizzard must have put significant thought into what makes CCGs fun and makes them annoying. Having too much mana is annoying. Having too little mana in annoying. In Hearthstone, you use mana crystals, but they don’t come from cards. Like other games, your available mana is reset every turn. Your maximum is one on the first turn. On every subsequent turn, your maximum increases until it caps at ten.
In this video, I’m playing a practice round against Malfurion. Hearthstone has three modes that I see – Play, Practice, and Arena. The play mode pits you against a similarly skilled player online with one of your constructed decks. I only tried one match of this, and I beat my opponent.
Practice mode allows you to pick one of the classes for your hero and then pick your opponent. When you beat a class / character, you unlock it for your own use. I’ve unlocked all nine. As you play, you also gain experience and can level your heroes. When they level, you unlock additional basic cards. After unlocking all the heroes, you also unlock expert mode practice, but I haven’t tried it yet.
The arena mode is particularly interesting. It’s a sort of draf. First, you pick one of three heroes. After that, you get to choose one of three cards thirty times to build your deck. You then play online with the deck, but after three losses the deck is retired. It’s pretty cool!
I’m having a great time with Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft. I expect I’ll have more to say on it in the coming weeks as I keep playing.
What If Paladins Had Stayed Alliance-Only?, Rohan, Blessing of Kings, 8/19/13.
I love this. The Alliance story was the story of their paladins. What if paladins had stayed Alliance-only and shaman had stayed Horde-only? What if Death Knights had been given to the Horde, and monks to the Alliance? It’s an interesting article.
Thoughts on Garrosh Hellscream, Rohan, Blessing of Kings, 8/14/13.
Why do the orcs want to kill Garrosh? Why do players hate Garrosh but like Sylvanas? Rohan thinks that in lore, the orcs in general aren’t turning on Garrosh. As players, we like Sylvanas because she’s “all cool and calculating” while Garrosh “is a thug.” Players are more likely to identify with Sylvanas.
Window Shopper, Prinnie Powah, That Was an Accident!, 8/14/13.
Be careful with whom you /flirt.
Patch 5.4, flexible raids, dailies and more with Tom Chilton, Anne Stickney, WoW Insider, 8/16/13.
Chilton’s discussion of the Timeless Isle and Blizzard’s pull away from dailies are particularly interesting.
Patch 5.4 confirmed for release on September 10th, Adam Holisky, WoW Insider, 8/21/13.
I’m glad we have a little more time to Ahead of the Curve: Lei Shen for raid team members who missed our kill.
Know Your Lore, Tinfoil Hat Edition: The Dark Below, Anne Stickney, WoW Insider, 8/18/13.
Speculation on what The Dark Below could bring.
Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls Lore Speculation, Neinball, BlizzPro, 8/14/13.
Reaper of Souls Lore Speculation Part 2: The Usual Suspects, Neinball, BlizzPro, 8/16/13.
Reaper of Soul [sic] Lore Speculation Part Three: Eternities of Conflict, Neinball, BlizzPro, 8/19/13.
Reaper of Souls Lore Speculation Part Four: Oh, The Places We’ll Go, Neinball, BlizzPro, 8/20/13.
Reaper of Souls might have been unveiled, but I still think these speculation articles are great.
Diablo III Expansion Speculation, Rohan, Blessing of Kings, 8/15/13.
Rohan’s wish list includes paladins, necromancers (or maybe druids), a no-trade, no-AH mode, and the ability for hardcore characters to become normal characters upon death. I think the no-trade, no-AH mode would be nice, although Blizzard would never do it, and the hardcore change would be great.
What If: Cult of the Mechanical, Matthew Rossi, WoW Insider, 8/15/13.
Rossi explains how awesome it would be if we had an expansion focused on Gelbin Mekkatorque embracing technology and shunning the divine.
Old Enemies: OOC Epilogue, Anna, Too Many Annas, 8/15/13.
Even if you haven’t been reading this story, this is an interesting article about “assumed RP.” I didn’t really know anything about this, but it was a fascinating read.
Will we see an ability purge?, Matthew Rossi, WoW Insider, 8/14/13.
If we’re going to continue to get new abilities every expansion, an ability purge seems important to me.
This epic crafted Frostsaber has ridden off with our hearts, Elizabeth Harper, WoW Insider, 8/15/13.
This is so cute!
Diablo 3 to get new features, fore free, in pre-expansion patch, Adam Holisky, WoW Insider, 8/22/13.
No surprise here. Changes to the core mechanics will happen even if you don’t purchase Reaper of Souls.
WoW Archivist: WoW’s first legendary quest line, Scott Andrews, WoW Insider, 8/16/13.
A retrospective on the first legendary quest line, the series to obtain Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker.
Know Your Lore: A Precarious Position Part 1 – Horde, Matthew Rossi, WoW Insider, 8/14/13.
What will happen to the Horde after the Siege of Orgimmar?
Despite the fact that she’s a Blood Elf and I’m the troll, Mooglegem found a Primal Egg in her Shiny Pile of Refuse from Oondasta. We actually didn’t know anything about the egg and decided to look into it. After three days, it hatched. I was expecting a pet, but no, the egg contained the Reins of the Red Primal Raptor!
I looked into it on wowhead and found that the Primal Egg can drop from any Isle of Giants elite, Oondasta’s Shiny Pile of Refuse, LFR’s Treasures of the Thunder King (fail bags), and Spoils of the Thunder King (rewards for Throne of Thunder weekly quests). It’s has a low drop rate but guarantees one of three mounts.
The Red Primal Raptor looks very cool. You can tell how happy Moogle’s raptor is to bond with her. Just look at that big smile! Now I want to head to the Isle of Giants and get farming. I still need a lot of bones.
Congratulations, Mooglegem!
I recently hit exalted with the Order of the Cloud Serpent. My baby cloud serpent grew into the glorious Azure Cloud Serpent you see here! I was very excited to ride him, but honestly, it’s kind of an annoying mount. It’s huge, and while its movement looks fluid and pretty, it’s also distracting. This was the last true reputation grind for Mists of Pandaria (outside of two remaining friends) except for Huojin Pandaren.
I couldn’t have that! I decided to kill two birds with one stone. Because I wanted to run all the BC heroics that I never did, I threw on my Huojin tabard and got into those dungeons. It didn’t take long to hit exalted and earn Pandaren Ambassador.
For my trouble, I got this beautiful Pandaren Kite mount. It’s pretty nice! However, I still prefer my Disc of the Red Flying Cloud. It’s very small and can be used as both a land and flying mount. But the Pandaren Kite is very nice as well!
Now I just need to become best friends with Fish Fellreed and Nat Pagle.
Wow. I’m impressed with most patch trailers, but I loved this one. By talking about it, I’m spoiling it, so please watch the trailer before reading.
Okay?
Okay.
Taran Zhu’s back-and-forth with Hellscream was great. They seemed to take turns having the upper-hand. I liked when Taran Zhu brought up Grom Hellscream, although I’m not sure when he learned of Grom. I didn’t catch that he got impaled on Hellscream’s axe on my first watch. I also found it interesting that the trailer opened with butterflies and when the sha energies spread out from the heart of Y’shaarj, it corrupts a butterfly.
I’ve been wondering about something Hellscream said. Taran Zhu says “I have fought besides the tauren, trolls, and others. You are nothing like them.” Hellscream responds, “they are no longer part of my Horde!” Is Hellscream referring to those who are rebelling against him or to all tauren? Up to this point, it seemed like he was still accepting of tauren. He thought of them under orcs, but still felt they contributed. He seemed to consider them much higher than the other races of the horde. Hellscream tolerated the Blood Elves and goblins and largely ignored the pandaren and Forsaken. As far as I can tell, the Darkspear were no longer considered part of his Horde. By the release of patch 5.4, are we to assume that his Horde consists solely of orcs? It seems very plausible that he would have heard that Baine was working with the Darkspear Rebellion, so it wouldn’t be surprising.
The scene in which the navies arrive is also great. When was the last time we saw Horde (well, former Horde at this point) and Alliance forces so intermingled? I found the sails interesting. I see Horde sails, red with the black Horde symbol. The Forsaken are present with their purple sails. I assume both the blue and white sails belong to the Alliance, but I’m actually not positive. (Anyone who plays Alliance care to comment?) I wasn’t sure on black and red striped sails, but YouTube commenters pointed out that those ships belong to the Bloodsail Buccaneers. What are they doing attacking Orgrimmar too? Very interesting!
Blizzard does an amazing job with the story, and it’s in such an odd way as well. There’s really not that much story, and it’s usually not a huge deal in game. They’re excellent at creating background lore to hype people for playing. Escalation’s lore was also great in my opinion. There was a formal declaration of a Darkspear Rebellion led by my own racial leader – much deserved after Garrosh Hellscream declared martial law in the Echo Isles and rounded up the Darkspear in the Valley of Spirits. But in game, it just meant that I farmed Kor’kron in the Northern Barrens. That doesn’t change the fact that I was incredibly excited to be joining the Darkspear Rebellion just as I’m excited to come together with the other armies of Azeroth to bring judgement upon Hellscream.
I can’t wait for the Siege of Orgrimmar.
Is N’Zoth Being Built as the Main Antagonist in World of Warcraft?, Anthony Armenio, Adventures in Poor Taste!, 8/8/13.
Armenio makes a very compelling argument for why N’Zoth would make a great main antagonist in WoW.
Evidence and speculation for why “The Dark Below” will be the next WoW expansion pack, lazerfoxxx, reddit.com/r/wow/, 8/13/13.
This is a great comment on Blizzard Trademarks “The Dark Below.” I don’t agree that the Old Gods are different body parts of one creature, but there’s an interesting conversation here regardless.
Patch 5.4 release date confirmed for August 27th?, Olivia Grace, WoW Insider, 8/13/13.
Just under two weeks.
What we know about Ozumat, the Fiend of the Dark Below, Matthew Rossi, WoW Insider, 8/14/13.
If the next expansion is The Dark Below, then the fact that Ozumat’s title of Fiend of the Dark Below is pretty interesting.
The Timeless Isle-Take Your Time, Bashiok, World of Warcraft Blog, 8/14/13.
An introduction to the Timeless Isle for people who might not yet be familiar with it.
Stable PvE Strategies, Rohan, Blessing of Kings, 8/7/13.
An examination of PvE strategies and their relationship to the class role trinity.
Diablo III: Reaper of Souls?, Olivia Grace, WoW Insider, 8/14/13.
Could a new section of the D3 site teasing “Reaper of Souls” be a reference to a D3 expansion?
Know Your Lore: Garrosh Hellscream and the nature of villany [sic], Anne Stickney, WoW Insider, 8/11/13.
Why didn’t Garrosh work as an effective villain? We knew he was.
What If: Shadows of the Assassin, Anne Stickney, WoW Insider, 8/12/13.
Stickney considers Garona Halforcen as the main antagonist for an expansion.
The Velen Problem: Why the draenei need dissent, Matthew Rossi, WoW Insider, 8/7/13.
With no changes to their lore, Rossi feels the draenei need some dissent.
Know Your Lore, Tinfoil Hat Edition: Where do the Tauren come from?, Matthew Rossi, WoW Insider, 8/7/13.
What comes first, the Tauren of the egg?
This past weekend I decided to finish old content that I never ran. I started with Dire Maul. For whatever reason, I never completed Dire Maul. At some point I ran one wing but never the rest. It was actually an interesting instance. After completing it, I earned Classic Dungeonmaster, which was nice. I don’t know why I never got it earlier.
Next I moved into Burning Crusade raids. I completed Gruul’s Lair first, which was nice and short, then I did Serpentshrine Cavern. I really enjoyed Serpentshrine Cavern. Those two raids gave me Outland Raider. Why stop there? I ran Shattered Halls, The Mechanar, The Botanica, and The Arcatraz after that. I particularly liked Shattered Halls. The three Tempest Keep dungeons kind of blended together in my mind already, but they were fun too. I know running the same dungeons over and over can get old, but I think it says something about the quality that I can go back to do a dungeon from two expansions ago and have fun. No, I don’t want to run them over and over, but even being over-powered for them, they’re still entertaining. The layout, art assets, and bits of story all make for good entertainment. These dungeons allowed me to earn Outland Dungeonmaster.
With this, I’ve now seen all dungeons, scenarios, and raids in the game. Yes, I have some heroics to do, but it’s nice to have seen everything.
I decided to try solo’ing Ulduar. I wasn’t sure what to expect, because I don’t usually hear about healers solo’ing content. I wiped a few times on each boss, but it wasn’t actually that bad. I managed to down seven bosses, up to and including Auriaya. I couldn’t down Mimiron, and I didn’t try any other bosses yet.
Flame Leviathan should be easy in the future. The trick was placing extra demolishers into positions around the boss so I could switch when he destroys my vehicle. I had trouble with the adds overwhelming me on Razorscale on my first attempt, but one I made adds my priority, things went well. I struggled on Ignis the Furnace Master in my first pull as well, but that’s because I forgot how to deal with adds. The second pull was fine. Similarly, I wiped on the first pull of XT-002 Deconstructor but killed him on my second. I think I just needed a reminder on how each boss worked.
Next I did the Assembly of Iron. According to Wowpedia’s article, Fragment of Val’anyr, there’s a higher drop rate on the hard mode. I tried that, but it didn’t work for me. I also tried getting them all low before killing one, not realizing that they heal. Whoops! I got them down on my third attempt when I gave up on hard modes and actually understood how the fight worked.
Next up was Kologarn. There’s nothing special about him; he was very easy. Auriaya was next. Her cats killed me almost immediately on my first pull. On my second pull, I went right for the cats. It was dumb of me not to power through the first time. I killed them quickly and then took my time killed Auriaya.
I put in a few attempts on Mimiron but just couldn’t down him. I hit the enrage timer in the last phase. Maybe if I tried flasking and eating, but we’ll see. I didn’t try any of the other bosses yet either, but I did get three Fragments of Val’anyr, so I’m 10% of the way there!
We did it! Two weeks after first having killed the Twin Consorts, we attempted Lei Shen for the first time. After seventeen wipes, we managed to kill him! I’m very excited and extremely relieved. I still want to repeat it for the people who weren’t there, get more gear, and maybe push some heroic bosses for gear, but this was the big moment. Especially considering that there’s no way we’re going to finish heroic mode by the next patch, this was the big “end game” goal for us for this tier.
It’s also special for me. I’ve been raiding this tier with the guild, Carpe Flux Capacitor, since the beginning, and now it’s completed. During tier 14, we finished Mogu’shan Vaults, but we didn’t complete the other two raids. In tier 13, we raided Dragon Soul, but we stopped raiding long before the end. I did manage to complete the raid before Mists of Pandaria was released, but it wasn’t with the guild.
I was taking a break from WoW for much of tier 12. In my first time in the Firelands, I joined a PUG at the request of a guildie. They needed a healer for Ragnaros. I pointed out that not only had I never killed him, I had never entered the raid. They discussed it and let me join. I pulled him by accident before we were all ready. They didn’t kick me. We killed him, and I won loot. The next week, we finished Firelands as a guild. At the time, the guild hadn’t yet killed Ragnaros. When we killed the previous boss, my achievement suddenly popped for finishing the raid. While I completed the raid, I didn’t work for it all tier.
In tier 11 I was with a different guild, Playground Brigade, made of friends I knew from out of WoW just for that tier. We fell apart in the middle of the tier. We were 5/6 Blackwing Descent, 2/4 Bastion of Twilight, and 1/2 Throne of the Four Winds.
Tier 10 was my first current-tier raid. I had just hit level 80 and joined Carpe Flux Capacitor. I was an alternate, and my first boss was Deathbringer Saurfang. Maybe I wasn’t there from the absolute very beginning, but we pushed the entire tier, and yes, we finished the raid (as well as Ruby Sanctum).
I mention all this because it means this is only the second raid tier for which I worked the entire tier with my guild and still completed. Carpe, thanks for being a great guild (and taking me back after my one-tier stint with another guild). Here’s hoping next tier goes smoothly well. Let’s take back Orgrimmar!
Revisiting the Trinity, Rohan, Blessing of Kings, 8/6/13.
How can you break the role trinity while keeping fantasy tropes?
Your Warchief wants YOU, The Warchief’s Command Board, 8/5/13.
I love this poster. Check it out!
Patch 5.4 PTR: Hellscream’s weapon drops are 90-100 heirlooms, Olivia Grace, WoW Insider, 8/7/13.
That’s pretty cool!
WoW Archivist: When Blizzard “hated” the Horde, Scott Andrews, WoW Insider, 8/2/13.
Many people hold the belief that Blizzard loves the Horde and hates the Alliance, but there was a time when the opposite was considered true.
Pandaren levels 1 to 60 as a neutral, not picking sides in the Alliance and Horde conflict, Adam Holisky, WoW Insider, 8/5/13.
Screw the factions!
Know Your Lore: The future of the Alliance, Anne Stickney, WoW Insider, 8/4/13.
Where is the Alliance going?
Blizzard’s new vision for Titan: ‘unlikely’ a subscription-based MMO, Michael McWhertor, Polygon, 8/1/13.
Titan won’t be subscription-based? Titan won’t be an MMO?
Patch 5.4 pulls WoW Insider team members into Azeroth, Alex Ziebart, WoW Insider, 8/2/13.
WoW Insider’s Matthew Rossi, Anne Stickney, and Olivia Grace will have items named after them in patch 5.4.
WoW 6.0: A case for dual class dual spec, Scott Andrews, WoW Insider, 8/6/13.
What if you could adopt a spec from another class as your secondary spec? Personally, I hate this idea.
I finally completed the fourth chapter of Wrathion’s legendary quest line. I’m glad this one was short while still having a bit of challenge. The quest tasks you with receiving the blessings of the four Celestials. They give wisdom to Wrathion as well; Wrathion, in comparison to the Celestials, is actually pretty stupid, but he is just a child.
I completed Chi-Ji’s healer challenge. Unfortunately it took me a few tries, but I still got it, and now I have my nice, new cloak. I’m looking forward to putting it to use!
After collecting all those darn Titan Runestones, I’ve finally completed Wrathion’s Chapter III: Two Princes. Later this week, hopefully Monday night, I’ll complete Celestial Blessings and earn my delicious new cloak. I’m looking forward to it. The Wrathion questline has been one of the best in the game, and I love how it’s unlocking over the course of the patches. And boy, I love what happened when I turned in this quest. I won’t spoil it in case you haven’t done it!
By the end of tier 11, I was 5/6 BWD, 2/4 BoT, and 1/2 TotFW. I completed Bastion of Twilight later in the expansion, but I never completed Blackwing Descent or Throne of the Four Winds. I was recently in a strange PUG for BWD that I was sure would fail. The leader was advertising a 25-man, but 10 minutes later he gave up and decided to make it a 10-man. We started, and things went okay. One odd thing was that I was near the top of the DPS charts. (I’m a discipline priest.)
When we reached Nefarian, people started bickering. A few people dropped group after a wipe. I repeatedly interrupted the argument to ask “where do you guys want to stand at the start” and things of that nature. Eventually I got people to start talking about something I asked and to stop focusing on the argument. I just wanted to finish the raid. Luckily we made it through, and I finished Blackwing Descent for the first time.
Nefarian’s a rather fun fight. I like that after trying not to fall in the lava in vanilla, now you end up in lava during this fight. I imagine the fight was a little more interesting when you’re the correct level. Although, I’ll admit that Nefarian took a lot longer than any other fight in the raid. I didn’t win any gear, but at least I completed the raid (and earned a couple achievements on the way)!
I Just Want to Play With My Friends! (On WoW Leveling), Balkoth, Balkoth’s Word, 7/26/13.
Leveling is fine for some people. For other people, it becomes a huge barrier to playing with their friends. Balkoth examines some scenarios and discusses the leveling process.
Small Decisions, Rohan, Blessing of Kings, 7/29/13 and Small Decisions, Part II, Rohan, Blessing of Kings, 7/30/13.
These two articles discuss the small decisions (reagents, arrows, talents every level) that were removed from WoW and what that’s done to the game.
Know Your Lore: The tauren peoples of Azeroth, Matthew Rossi, WoW Insider, 7/31/13.
An examination of the three tauren peoples in World of Warcraft.
Know Your Lore: The color of magic, Anne Stickney, WoW Insider, 7/28/13.
There are a lot of flavors of magic in Azeroth.
New World of Warcraft class coming? Ghostcrawler drops a hint, Adam Holisky, WoW Insider, 7/25/13.
Could we be gaining a support class?
Ghostcrawler, potentially, details the future of WoW at Chinajoy, Sarah Pine, WoW Insider, 7/25/13.
GC sort of talks about some things that, honestly, we should probably just ignore for now.
I’ve been wondering lately how much LFR helps me. For a while there’s a decent amount of pieces that are upgrades, but how big of an advantage do I get over simply waiting until I get that upgrade from normal mode? The more important pieces are likely the tier pieces. Right now, if I obtain the LFR tier pants, I’d get a huge upgrade. That’s not simply because the legs are better than my current legs. In fact, I have normal mode legs right now, so they’d be lower iLVL. First, that would be my fourth piece, so I’d get my four-piece set bonus. More importantly is what else it would allow me to wear. What if I had a normal mode tier piece sitting in my bags that I wasn’t using because I didn’t have four-piece? Not only would obtaining a fourth piece let me wear that fourth piece, it would also allow me to wear the third piece.
Currently I’m running LFR if I have a chance at getting an upgrade, but I’m considering the idea of not running LFR anymore. I don’t mean this tier, but it’d be nice to run it once in a while next tier but stop doing it weekly. It would take some self convincing, but it would also give me more free time to do something I enjoy rather than trekking through a grind that I don’t enjoy. I’ll need to think more about it.
After getting three new bosses down the week before last, last week we defeated Iron Qon on Wednesday. We wiped thirteen times but got it on the fourteenth. I especially like the last minute or so of the video in which the guild decides to be mean!
One boss just wasn’t enough, so we defeated the Twin Consorts as well! It took us three attempts, but I swear, the first attempt didn’t count! We pulled by accident with people outside the fight.
Hopefully this week we can see Lei Shen.
On 7/9 we downed Durumu for the first time. Yes, we wiped fifteen times first, but those wipes aren’t important! What’s important is the kill! I also finally figured out why my videos have stuck frames. I don’t know how to solve it, but it only happens when I trim a clip down to a few seconds. I usually put the last couple seconds of each wipe at the beginning of my kill videos, and I make them short enough, that entire clip will be a single frame. I’ll figure it out.
Primordius went down the following night. It was after only five wipes, so that’s an improvement over Durumu.
Why settle for two bosses when we could complete an entire wing? After killing Primordius, we continued to Dark Animus. After seven wipes, we killed it on the eighth attempt!
You’ll have to wait until next week to learn how we did this week. (Uh, because I haven’t done the videos yet.)
Polygons & Pixels WebPageless
earthwormgem
Peter (Devee)
Kor'kron 501st 