3 Trees Freya

I remember several weeks ago when we first attempted Freya with three trees still up (hardmode). Ground Tremor damage, sunbeams, and f*ck tons of damage all around. Everyone was screaming at me “Uncle! Uncle! No more!” lol.

 

So we stopped and pushed on to the other hard modes in Ulduar. However, now that we’re all a helluva lot more geared I thought we might be able to give her and her damn trees another go.

 

It was a three part learning experience for the hardmode. My raid group sometimes takes a little bit of drilling to finally get into the right mode.

 

First part: Yells for ground tremor means stop casting. No really, STOP!

 

Second part: Fury and Sunbeam on you or people around you means GTFO!

 

Third part: Learn to kite the Detonating Lashers (timing how much dps would be enough to not blow them up but give us enough time to nova them, kite away, and finish them off before they moved)

 

The third was the hardest and the only part that stopped us from downing her in the first hour of the raid. It finally took us gauging how much damage would lower the lashers enough to not destroy them and then timing frost nova rotations perfectly so we could kite away from the lashers before they blew us all up. For us it was 35% HP on the lashers before frost novas and running away and finishing them off with mage aoe.

 

This would have been so much easier with our hunter but he just happened to be out of town this weekend. LOL.

 

Now we’re down to one more Sigil before we can unlock Algalon and finally fully clear Ulduar. Of course, the one thing standing in our way is Hardmode Mimiron which we have never attempted before! DOH! Guess it’s time to push that button!

Whose your Daddy?

Okay the title of the post has nothing to with the topic except it’s a lyric in the video music posted here. I thought it was a hilarious song…goes great with this video. Thanks to LoanzWow for posting it on youtube.

This video is a response to the question I asked myself about the Worgen race. I wanted to know what part of the worgen is customizable. Do you customize your human form or the worgen form. It looks from this video that it’s the worgen form that you tweak.

I was reading that they might end up using just a random human form or a generic human form for the transformation. I’m hoping that they allow human customization. I might have to rethink my desire to be worgen if I can’t make my static Alachia human form. That would be terribly disappointing.

Another kind of WoW play

Violet Eye Exalted
Originally uploaded by alachia

A few months ago, two of the peeps in Bindpoint started a tradition of running an instance every Saturday morning. It wasn't about XP or Quests so much as it was about just scheduling an activity to do together.

This past weekend we were fortunate enough to get enough people in the morning to run Karazhan for the fun of it. I just love this place and really enjoyed seeing it again. It was a well designed raid instance and my favorite to date. There has been nothing since as intriguing as Karazhan for me.

A part of me would love to see a restored version of Karazhan in the Cataclysm but another part me loves it too much in it's current decayed and dark state. I doubt they'll touch it but you never know.

You know, when we were in there we all tried to get the Worgen book to turn into worgens. Unfortunately, none of us had any luck. Guess we'll just have to wait till the expansion.

Return of Heroics

Return of Heroics
Originally uploaded by alachia

A month ago, you'd ask in guild or general chat, "anyone want to run the Daily Heroic?" and you'd get the reply "wtf for?!"

However, now that the Heroic Daily Dungeon quest yields you two [Emblem of Triumph]s everyone is once again hitting up 5-mans.

I think this is great as it once again motivates people to group up and gives people a reason to run more of the content (again). To be honest, I thought I was totally done running heroic 5-mans after running the list for [Glory of the Hero]. Oddly enough, I started missing the dynamics of running a 5-mans. They're super intimate and are usually very easy and require little to no concentration so you have a lot of time to goof around and just chatter unlike raiding.

Also on a PvP server, the return of heroics means more ganking. lol. Outside of every heroic daily instance portal you can pretty much expect to see a pile of corpses. If you're lucky, you outnumber the horde but more often than not on Boulderfist, we take a beating trying to make it inside the instance.

Dwarfageddon Achievement

Dwarfageddon Achievement
Originally uploaded by alachia

In case you ever wanted to know what 100 Steelforged Defenders dying in under 3 seconds looks like. Tharrrr it is!

We had both of our chopper guys gather all of them and we lined up the siege engines and demolishers up near the front without doing any damage. Once they brought the heard of dwarves back to us, we unloaded and WHAM, achievement achieved.

It was pretty impressive though just to see that many dwarves running at you. It's probably the only fun I've had during the Flame Leviathan encounter besides nuking pyrite at the boss and seeing 100,000+ damages going off.

I'm not a fan of vehicle fights... yet.

Human Shaman

Human Shaman
Originally uploaded by alachia

New racial/class combination? I wish.

Today's daily heroic was the Culling of Stratholme. Whenever you go into any of those Caverns of Time instances, your race is adjusted according to the history of the Lore.

In my case, there were no space ghosts in Azeroth at the time Arthas went medieval on this town. So, for just a short period of time, I get to my very much desired HUMAN SHAMAN!!!

WoW Magazine Lure

I am a pretty solid WoW player with interest in both the game, game mechanics, art work, slight interest in the lore, and vast investment in the WoW community. That being said, even being as hardcore WoW bent as I am, I’ve spent some time today thinking of what would compel me to subscribe to the upcoming World of Warcraft magazine. (thanks to @hanapa for the link: http://news.cnet.com/8301-10797_3-10312606-235.html?tag=TOCmoreStories.0)

They’ve definitely taken from the ideas of their own game subscription success and have opted to not feature or rely on any advertisement for revenue. This is definitely a plus. I usually gut my magazines that I get of the ads with an exacto blade so I’m left with just the content anyhow.

The cost is also extremely reasonable. US $40 annually, 35 Euros or 30 pounds. That’s about an additional $3.34 a month I’d be paying on top of my two WoW subscriptions. Reasonably priced but what am I really getting?

Future (the world of warcraft magazine) is promising “stunning artwork, behind-the-scenes looks at ongoing development, deep dives into the game's lore, and perhaps even occasional scoops about new features or other WoW elements". But what I want to know is how is this much different than being IN the game art and reading up on WoW websites and blogs?

Are they just banking on fandom to carry them through? I’m not enough of a fangurl to buy into the hype for sure. I love me some Warcraft but only enough to keep paying for actual crack and not the crack pamphlet. Also, you can not buy individual copies of the magazines, it’s subscription or nothing.

So what’s it going to take to get the average player on board with buying a subscription? I’ve thought a lot about it and I’m thinking I know what their ploy is going to be…..

My guess is that it’s going to involve pets or some in-game reward. That’s how they got the trading cards out there in the market of mainstream with NON-TCG players buying those things up by the boat load. Otherwise, I’m not seeing how they’re going to get us to pay an additional subscription for stuff we can get for free.

Obsidian Hatchling

Obsidian Hatchling
Originally uploaded by alachia

Woot, I often check the AH to see how much pets are going for and I noticed this Obsidian Hatchling for 150g. It was something I had never sen before so I thought...ooooh...so cheap for a rare pet, right?

Then I thought to myself...hmmm..when is a rare pet ever that cheap? It must be a new common pet that someone is trying to rake the AH for. Sure enough, a quick search on wowhead showed me I could go buy this cute new pet from Breanni in the Dalaran Pet shop for 40g!

His proportions are so cute..giant head..iddy bitty legs!

Second Skin Review

I got a chance to watch the Second Skin documentary this weekend. It is airing on http://www.hulu.com/second-skin until August 13th and I had a meta viewing of it with Bindpoint and twitter peeps via my wowcast livestream. The event was nice and I always find it’s way more fun to view stuff online with other people.

I can’t say any of us were all that pleased with the tone the documentary took on gam ers. I had this fear the first time I saw the trailer for the film when they showed the clip about the guy wanting to commit suicide. Our consensus is that negativity sells more than optimism.

I’m not sure but I have a strong feeling that the writers and producers of this film were not gamers. The stories they chose to cover had few spotlights of good and strong, strong undertones of serious negativity. The negative part is a given because of the stories they chose to focus on.

Most of the people I game with are successful, gifted, talented, smart, creative, and good natured people. They are not hopeless addicts who can’t distinguish “laziness” from “addiction.”

However, the part of the film that really bothered me was the serious missed opportunity the documentary made. Here was a chance to get inside the life of a gamer, to show the meta connections, the actual interactions that happen online. What did we get instead? We got 10 second blips of online characters doing emotes to each other. If a non gamer sees this documentary, they’re going to sum up our online interactions to a silly looking bear charging a silly looking monster and a couple of elf creatures riding horses.

How do you actualize the threads of connections that happen in a game? To document it, you have to really grasp what is happening beyond the computer screen but most of the documentary focuses instead on the imagery of the glazed over look of an obsessed addicted gamer staring at a monitor.

People are going to say I’m extremely defensive about gamer life because I’m one of those hopeless addicts who has no life and validates my existence through these “online experiences.”

But even if I push myself aside, I can’t help but be offended for the other people around me who don’t really deserve to be typecast into this hopeless negative light. I’m not sure why media outlets feel like they need to tell the “dangers of” stories.

I’m constantly fascinated with the stories I hear about other gamers around me and the lives they live both inside and outside of the meta…because it’s all REAL LIFE. Just look at the story of Starman and Renata. That would have been a very nice positive storyline to focus on regarding creativity and community. Instead they get 20 seconds of film time and then the film goes to 10 minutes of two people having a fight while moving in together which really has nothing to do with meta connections but rather the reality of relationships.

And if you go look at the comments on hulu.com about the movie, you’ll understand why threading these stereotypes about gamers is very harmful to our community. It’s easy for people to misunderstand the life of a gamer. The comments go on and on mirroring this notion that spending time playing an MMORPG is a social problem and gamers are referred to as “these types of people” like we’re lepers or something. I just wish there was some film out there that could help people who don’t game understand the reality of who we are.

The best line of the film came from the one real inspirational blip regarding a boy who has a disability that prevents him from speaking. I love this quote:

“Although they are virtual, they are still our lives nonetheless”-Andrew Monkelban

If somehow the rest of the documentary could have focused on that idea, I probably wouldn’t have come out feeling as down as I did. And the irony of it is that I was watching this hopeless idea of gamers unfold via live stream with about 12 other people online. There we were finding a way to virtually connect and experience an event together in the meta.

Oh and after the film was over, there were several requests to rewind to the Starman and Renata bit! It’s around the 42:28 minute marker incase you want to do the same :)

Meet Roo

Roo
Originally uploaded by alachia

Just adopted Roo today. He’s the cutest oracle you have ever met. I <3 him.

We spent all evening together. I took him to go see the biggest tree in Northrend, took him to play with other orphans, and we visited The Great One and the Dragon Queen. I didn’t even know about the portal from Scholozar to Ungoro. lol.

Roo likes to play with paper zepplins and eat flies…oh and he likes shinies…so we’ll get along quite nicely. :D

my 3.2 Highlights

New Dungeon Loot Feature

Players will now be able to trade soulbound items with other raid or group members that were eligible for the loot. This system will work like the Item Buy Back system and allow 2 hours for players to trade an item after it has been looted. Players who choose to enchant or add gems to the item will get one last confirmation before losing the ability to trade the item.

Damn, no more “accidentally rolling need”

Druid

New druid art for Cat Form and Bear Form has been added. There are now five unique color schemes for each form and faction. Changing hair color (night elves) or skin tone (tauren) via the barbershop will change the look of one's cat and bear forms.

Having a bear tank for so long, it’ll be nice to see some variation. I’m still jealous that druids get the best staves in the game and for the most part go unseen.

Mounts

• The cast time for summoning any ground mount is now 1.5 seconds, down from 3 seconds.
• Apprentice Riding (Skill 75): Can now be learned at level 20 for 4 gold. Mail will be sent to players who reach level 20 directing them to the riding trainer.

Yay! Rilletoo and my hunter can ride on!! Alt leveling to commence!

Dungeon and Raid ID Extensions

• In order to allow for parties and raids to progress through instances at their own pace, players can now extend an instance ID on an individual basis.

Finally, we can drag out raiding even more! hehe. This actually really, really great for 25man casual raids. I’m actually thinking it might be worth trying to get 25mans together again because of this new feature.

• Emblem System Changes
  • Both the 10 and 25-player instances of the Crusaders' Coliseum drop a new Emblem of Triumph.
  • Any dungeons that previously dropped Emblems of Heroism or Valor, such as Naxxramas or Heroic Halls of Stone, will now drop Emblems of Conquest instead. Emblems of Conquest can still be converted to Valor or Heroism.

I honestly can say, I’m actually very happy about the return of welfare epics. It gives people who are motivated a way to catch up to raiding level gear on their own time.

• 25-player raids will no longer be referred to as Heroic versions of a raid, as there is a new distinction between normal and Heroic modes for both 10 and 25 player versions of the Crusaders' Coliseum.

I’m glad I’m not the only one who saw this as confusing when referring to raiding 10man hardmode vs 25mans.

Shaman

Earth Shock: Redesigned. This spell no longer interrupts spell casting, but rather reduces melee attack speed by 10% for 8 seconds (exclusive with similar effects such as Thunder Clap).

• Restoration
  • Ancestral Healing: The buff from this ability now reduces the physical damage taken by the target by 3/7/10% instead of increasing the target's armor

I’m mostly just excited about the 1 gcd for my totem drops. the 4 seconds of gcd before my first heal cast was getting to be ridiculous!

User Interface

• The quest log is now double-paned for more easily viewing quest information. The list of all quests a player has will show in one pane, while the quest details of any highlighted quest will display in the next.

This is one of those small changes you always wondered why they didn’t fix in the first patch of the game. period.

World Environment

• Wolvar and Gorloc orphans have arrived in Dalaran and need your help! Players can find out more by visiting the Eventide District (completing the quests being offered for this event will not count toward any Children's Week achievements). Players have a limited amount of time to care for these orphans before they take their leave. They will then return again for the regularly-scheduled Children's Week next year.

I’m so there! Baby Gorloc FTW!!!! FTW!!!

Professions

Engineers can now learn to create a portable Wormhole Generator for Northrend. The Wormhole allows them to travel to different locations in Northrend, although the locations are sometimes in dangerous places.

Would be awesome if you could slip a few players into the wormhole with you but beggars can’t be choosers.

Significantly reduced the cooldown on MOLL-E.

Yea, cuz whippin’ out that mail box every 8 hours was seriously OP!! lol.

Gnomish Engineers and Goblin Engineers can now switch profession specializations for a fee.

My FAVORITE change of this patch!! seriously! Now I can finally go Gnomish Engineering and get my [Gnomish X-Ray Specs]!!! WOOT WOOT!