Aprillian

Training Engineering with Ally DK.  Bought stuff from the ally ah, only expensive thing was copper ore. Got her to 200 using a guide off the internet.  I made the other one a miner.

Tues morning got up at 6 to see that maintenance was starting 8, so decided to get some play time in before going back to bed.

Cooking Daily was Mustard dogs, easy as pie, got all four mustards up by the Landing.  My ally alt was completely out of pets except for a couple of dragonhawks and some cockroaches.

Got my Nelf DK to 238 mining, just by smelting ore.  Got my Gnome DK to 281 Engineering.  Finally had to send the Nelf out into the real world to mine.

Did Dailies on Epril, Auruk and Aprillian. Friday it was the wine glass one for cooking and the Valkri necklace for Jewel Crafting.  I’ve got the to get Aprillian to make cloths cooldowns.  Aprillian went to Dragonblight

Friday night I had both Koe and Epril in Silthius mining Thorium. Oh and Shadowmeld is OP.

Ashayo

- In-game virus email ; links to a “guild video” that installs keylogger.

- Oracles - 1 x tickbird

- 3.1 background downloader ; slow - seeding

- Guppers 25-man Naxx. Nice progress through Plague, Arachnid and Military quarters. Yet to do the safety dance without a death (which is an achievement)

- 25-man VoA : Both priest gloves and chest dropped -only one priest (should’ve brought Asheal!) Johnni from DwP Naxx group got both. Gratz!

- 10-man Naxx : Arachnid quarter - Loatheb (the “no healz” boss) - died with boss having 5000 health, tank was last one standing, took him down! - Instructor Razuvious ; with one Understudy dead! (much easier than I remember 40-man naxx being)

- Weekly achievements: [Bread Winner] - 10,000g from quest rewards [The Empire of Zul’Drak] - 100 Quests in Zul’Drak [Dehydration] - Ichoron’s Ichor Globules not merging in Violet Hold [Higher Learning] - Necromancy book spawned shortly after Naxx run finished. (Hint: /join bookclub) Receive item [The schools of Arcane Magic - Mastery] Allows you to teleport to the spire atop Violet Citadel Where you find Archmage Vargoth, and he gives you [Kirin Tor Familiar] - a NCP like a void walker.

- Attempts at Caverns of Time proto-drake 2 minutes short ; but first time for Tarqq to run it, let alone tank it.

- Joined BoE’s guild last week. You’ll need to listen to their podcast to find the guild and server. Completely gathering - mining and herbalism. Levelled to 450 Titansteel cooldown at 60! Interesting trying to run around Outlands Northrend at level 60 to level professions. Was killing level 64 mobs ok, but harder to kill level 65.

- Westley, Blackangel and Deadlyvyv all hit 80 this week (after playing for only a few months) Trying UK Heroic. Failed Tried Utgarde Pinnacle the next night, and had much more success. Though it did highlight undergeared for heroics. For example, hit rating is needed to ensure hunter traps are more reliable.

Glanthur

Talked to Jovam in-game, and asked what he’d like us to talk about more.  PvP it is.

Bladed Edge

Hey all, Blade here…

Things have been interesting this past week… and I’m a little uncertain as to where to go from here… See… I tried a few things this week… did a little pvp… only enough to remind myself how much I detest it… Also tried a little 10-man raiding… people have assured me that ‘Once you find a good group of people you know and like, it will be very different’… but ya see… here’s the Catch-22… how do you *find* these people if they’re all already in raid groups of their own? Kinda like ‘How do you get experience tanking a raid if all the raids only want raid-experienced tanks?’ So all in all… I haven’t done a lot on Skull for that reason. I’m already geared enough for Heroics and 10-Raids… I realize I’ll have to juggle gear around to push my hit-cap and expertise higher for 25-raids, but if I never get enough 10-raid drops, I won’t get to see the 25-raid stuff. I’ve been playing Wolf this week a little more… went to Howling Fjord and picked up that quest that has you don a worg disguise in order to talk to another questgiver for another two or three quests… but I kept the disguise… it fits with my ‘character’ so when I’m in the Fjord on Wolf, I pull out his Worg pet (Goremaw - the elite from Grizzly Hills) and the two of them run the hills of Howling Fjord as wolves across the snow-covered plains. Also… I got back on my Mage (Greymalkyn) and dps’d Utgarde Keep! Wow! You dps-types have it EASY!  All you have to do is point and click!

<evil orc laugh>

Nah… I know each role requires its own degree of skill specific to the situation… and we *did* have a 80 bear druid tanking it… so the entire run was super super easy… but still… dps sure beats the heck out of tanking in terms of worrying about threat and mob positioning and marking and healer aggro and… and… and… This week I’ll find a level-fair group of 70s and see about doing it again… that way I don’t get lazy.

Onward…

From the Dirty Little Tricks Department… In defense of the Frost Mage… yeah yeah… I know what you’re thinking… ‘But Blade… Arcane iz pewpew now… do not need Frost kk thx’. Ah… but how soon you all forget.  I’d bet even money that 75% or more of you leveled to where you are now as Frost… some of the more pvp-minded went the way of the Fire Mage… but the majority of you were Frost. Some of us *stayed* Frost. Back in the day… only Frost Mages had their really cool ‘damage mitigation’ tricks like Ice Block… then someone inevitably QQ’d and said ‘No fair why can’t fire mages turn into blocks of ice?’ (Let’s ignore the obvious lack of logic in that statement, shall we?) The end result was… all Mages can now turn into blocks of ice. Instead of a talent, it’s now a spell… The good thing is… this [Emergency Ice Block] macro still works…

#showtooltip Ice Block /stopcasting /cancelaura Ice Block /cast Ice Block

Basically… it stops whatever you were casting before… great as a ‘O-Crap!’ button… and freezes you solid… tap it again and it dismisses the ice Block… so this one isn’t one you’ll want to spam. Ah… but back to the cold-as-ice Frost Mages… our Water Elemental pet is one of the nicer talents… that and the super-huge crit potential we have against frozen targets… Try this [Water Elemental / Frost Nova Macro]:

#showtooltip Summon Water Elemental /cast [nopet] Summon Water Elemental /click PetActionButton5 /cast Frost Nova

What’s it do? Summons your Water Elemental if it’s down, casts your Water Elemental’s Frost Nova and if THAT is down, drops yours… Now add this [Point-and-Shoot Ice Lance] macro as well:

#showtooltip Ice Lance /cast [target=mouseover,harm] Ice Lance; Ice Lance

Now you’re in business… I’d put this macro on a button on your mouse… like Right-Click with the Ctrl key down or something… cause you’ll be using it a lot… and it will also free up a key on your hotbar that way.

Onward…

From Ol’ Blade’s Easter Egg Basket… I assume you’ve all been to Vengeance Landing at some point… if you didn’t stay very long, head on back and stop in at the inn… there’s a picture hanging on the wall that’s an obvious /nod to the painter Grant Wood and *his* rather-famous painting of 1930 entitled “American Gothic”… And… this ones for you comic-book fans… from Ol’ Blade to you in a sort-of ‘honor to the superhero-genre’ of movies that have come out of late… and are coming soon! Specifically, the Paladin spell Avenger’s Shield - the 41-point talent in the Protection tree. The TCG card has the flavor text “Those who oppose the shield must yield.”. Interesting, no?  This is a /nod to the Marvel superhero known as Captain America. From the action of the spell (one of Captain America’s trademark tricks was to hurl his shield at his enemies and have it ricochet off them before returning to him…), to the name of the spell itself (Cap was a member of fthe superhero team known as the Avengers…), to the card’s caption… Waaay back in the 1960s there was a short-lived (and rather poorly animated - even for the ’60s) animated Captain America show with the following verse as a theme: “When Captain America throws his mighty shield All those who chose to oppose his shield must yield If he’s led to a fight and a duel is due Then the red and the white and the blue’ll come through When Captain America throws his mighty shield!”

As always, an awesome podcast guys!

Loremaster Blade

Emails

Aprillian

Auruk did the Cooking Daily 2 days in a row and got the 5 daily acheivement and the  [Recipe: Delicious Chocolate Cake].  Took the Twins to Northrend to mine and pick herbs.

Then

Monday night Auruk did the wine tasting daily, running around Dalaran scavenging half glasses of wine.  Had some ninja’d.  Tuesday morning he ran around Crystalsomething forest picking carrots.  Good thing he had a bunch of chilled meat.

Tuesdayspent the entire day in Ruby Dragonshire, grinding ghouls.  Auruk got 4 bop recipes Haunted Herrings, Tasty Cupcakes,   [Recipe: Last Week’s Mammoth]. Got the twins to 68.

Wed morning Auruk dinged 68, did the Cooking Daily in Dalaran “Mustard Dogs”, had the rhino dogs and quickly got the mustard up on the Landing. He now has 7 Dalaran Cooking Awards. He had to figure out that they were in the Currency Tab and went to Howling Fjord by accident and ended up doing the Northern Cooking Quest and completing it right away because he had Chilled Meat.

Thur it was the wine and cheese platter cooking daily. Then the twins and Auruka went to Borean Tundra to go to the ocean and kill Valkiri. Epril did her JC daily but it was one she had gotten a couple of days ago.

I started thinking about the day Aprillian goes into an instance and that maybe she should have First Aid. So I spent Friday and Sat gettting her up to 391. She had to go to Arathi Highland for the Triage. The books I didn’t have on alts, I bought off the AH for 3 to 6g so it wasn’t bad. Acheivement in gchat

Sat Auruk got Mustard dogs daily again, love that one.  Epril got the Proto Dragonbone one, so they went to HF to try to find one. All of Aprillian NR cloth cd were available, she flew to Dragonblight.

Sun, Cheese platter Daily for Auruk and Epril got the Northrend Dwarves.  Primall got to 350 on DE’ing, I don’t think I need to do anything else on her.

Making it to the Dwarves in HF was easy.

Went to Nagrand with Twins, while finishing up the Death Knight Ally starting

Ashayo

Alliance Death Knight has been busy levelling herbalism and mining

Friday night Naxx run with Guppers Started with the Construct Quarter and one shot first three bosses. Wiped a few times on Thaddius, but got him down - so heroic construct quarter complete. (And got the achievement even though I disconnected about 20 seconds before end of the fight!) Rolled a 9 on tier pants

DwP 10 man Naxx had an impromptu weekend visit for some new boss attempts: 1 shot Instructor 1 shot Patchwerk ; which is pretty much a gear/dps check Gave Grobbulus a couple of tries, but people are still learning the fight.

Ran quite a few Heroics. Blackangel has hit 80 and is gearing up. Was enough to get Exalted with Kirin Tor (no upgrades) Heroic Gun’drak Heroic Drak’tharon Halls of Stone (managed Brann Spankin’ New again)

Then ran with Dills and Kiele on Heroic Oculus, who had completed it the day before. (Two dps, two healers, one tank)

Which completed all the heroics of Northrend - Achievement “Northrend Dungeon Master”

Heroic Culling of Stratholme to try to get drake mount - Only two rolling on the mount twice ; I got a 9 - Failed to meet the time a 3rd time.

Healed 10 man Vault of Archavon on Asheal

Glanthur

Working on continuing to gear up Arlaerus with healing epics with Emblems of Heroism.

Bladed Edge

Blade here…

Ashayo asked about the Loken fight in Halls of Lightning… yeah… you know that dance you have to do to avoid his incredibly-gross aoe explosive ‘gonna-kill-yer-tank-with-one-shot’ attack? <long dramatic pause> It’s hard to avoid - even harder when your tank is a noob to the instance and has no idea where to go… we wiped on him once before the switch of group members, twice afterward and decided to call it there… remember my 35 gold repair bill… that was with *nothing* damaged to the point on seeing it on the little paper doll that appears when your armor is getting close to broken. Someday I may force myself to spirit rez a bunch of times and wipe out the durability on my armor… just to see how much I’ll have to pay for the 100% repairs… but I’m gonna get my epic flight skill first. I guess I’ve crossed some sort of line… or managed to achieve some sort of hidden mark of quality or capability… as soon as I started tanking Heroics… I’ve been asked virtually non-stop to do them! Well… not so much… but I’ve done one each time I’ve been on long enough to run an instance… Once, it was commented that I was crazy… hehe they musta been talking to my Ol’ Uncle Throgg… because it was noted that my DPS was rather high for a tank… 1000 dps to be precise… Personally, I didn’t really put any mind to it… and after a quick check (read: slog through the comments from idiots to hopefully find what you’re looking for…) I found that 1000 dps is apparently right on par with where I am in instance-running… maybe even a little low… with raid-buffs and appropriate food buffs, an epically-geared warrior tank can expect to clear 1500 dps easily… Meh… if the rest of the party takes little to no damage through the entire fight, then I did my job… I could care less how much damage I did. Though I gotta say there is a little boost of ego when I’m #2 on the dps list when we check Recount.

Onward…

I’m now on ‘The Other Side’ in terms of tanking gear. I hit the Defense minimum of 540 (vaulted right past it, actually) and now I’ve been collecting various pieces of gear and mixing-and-matching them to get the best benefit for the situation… be it extra threat, pushing closer to the hit cap, more stamina or whatever… and so long as my Defense never drops below 540, I’m golden. There’s something to note, as well… I am wearing very little if any Instance-gained items… the majority of my gear is from solo-able or small-party quests and crafted gear. Not only is it possible to get to 540 Defense and 27000 health all by yourself, but it wasn’t all that difficult to do… just a little either time-consuming (if you farm your own materials) or costly (if you don’t). In either case… check the AH prices… sometimes the cost of materials is vastly out of proportion to the cost of the item…

From the Dirty Little Tricks Department… This one’s another one of those ’space saving’ macros multiplpe skills that don’t share a cooldown… Specifically for Concussion Blow… back in the day, if I recall, this didn’t do any damage… just a nice 5 second stun… but it lost its place on my toolbar because of Shockwave… being an aoe it became much more useful overall and Concussion Blow took a backseat and eventually lost its spot on my hotkey bar… Dunno if anyone else is in the same situation, but here’s a macro that brings it back… #showtooltip? Shield Slam /cast Shield Block /cast Concussion Blow /cast Shield Slam Obviously, it’s more recommended to use this when you have a few points of rage to spare… as using the two skills together is a nice, hefty 32 rage loss… but snapping your target for Concussive Blow damage and Shield Slam damage… plus a stun if your target *can* be stunned… Oh… if you used Charge or any other stun previous to this macro… be aware of diminishing returns… so Concussion Blow will only last for around 2.5 seconds… but that’s still a 2.5 second stun OFF the global cooldown… and even if you used Shockwave as well… that’s still a second or so where your opponent will be not attacking you and causing you damage… But… playing Devil’s Advocate… keep in mind that Concussion Blow is another 15 rage to have to spend… so you might save this macro for multiple targets, during fights where you have a fairly decent amount of rage coming in or as an additional spell interrupt to stop casters dead in their tracks.

From Ol’ Blade’s Easter Egg Basket… To Dalaran with you! In the Sisters Sorcerous shop, your proprietors are named Endora Moorehead and hagatha Moorehead… appropriately ‘witchy-shounding’ names… Well they ought to be… Endora was the mother of Samantha Stevens in the 1960s television show Bewitched… with Hagatha being Samantha’s seldom-seen aunt. There was another aunt… Enchantra… I wonder where she’s gotten off to…

For you Alliance types… this on’e s a kind of a two-parter… Admiral Odesyus is a level 60 questgiver located at Odesyus’ Landing in the Draenei stating zone of Azuremyst Isle. Firstly… his name… Odysseus (a character in Homer’s epic saga The Iliad and the title character of the following saga The Odyssey) was also a captain of a vessel with a penchant for shipwrecking on strange islands… but that’s not the only thing neat about him… During one of the quests, you have to return to him with the makings of a trap. His response to you is “I love it when a plan comes together.” which is a line spoken in almost every episode of the 1980s television show The A-Team by Hannibal Smith

He also shares a bit of a humerous dialogue with another NPC: Admiral Odesyus says: Hey, Cookie! What’s for dinner tonight? And don’t say chicken! “Cookie” McWeaksauce says: Yarr, Admiral. Let me think about it… Arrr… It be comin’ into focus. “Cookie” McWeaksauce says: It looks like it be succulent pork ribs basted with its own delectable juices and a side o’ Captain Sander’s Secret Sauce - fer dippin’. “Cookie” McWeaksauce says: And fer dessert we be havin’ cheesecake, flown in fresh from Stormwind on the wings o’ angels… Admiral Odesyus says: Wow! Really? “Cookie” McWeaksauce says: No. Not really… <”Cookie” shoots a chicken> “Cookie” McWeaksauce says: It be chicken… Admiral Odesyus says: I hate you so much, Cookie. And as Aprillian had been scouting about Netherstorm a little more of late… I thought I’d throw these extra ones in… After completing the Netherstorm quest A Little Extra Kick, the giver and receiver of this quest (B.O.O.M. Master Mixologist Boots) dies. A goblin paramedic rushes in to stimulate his heart. After a couple of shocks, the paramedic screams “Dammit Boots, I’m a doctor, not a priest!”… a nice little /nod to the original series of Star Trek and the ship’s doctor Leonard “Bones” McCoy and his often quoted and misquoted line “Dammit Jim, I’m a doctor, not a <insert random profession>”. Oh… another gem… the zone of Netherstorm has similar colors and chaotic theme as the Delphic Expanse (you Star Trek fans will know exactly what I’m talking about). Did you know that… prior to patch 2.4… warlocks were unable to summon into Netherstorm in a similar way that certain starship functions do not work in the Delphic Expanse of Star Trek.

As always, an awesome podcast guys!

Loremaster Blade

Emails

Aprillian

Spent Sun/Mon running Aprilian around Dragonblight to make cloth.  It’s very hard to find all these little places, maws and stuff.  Finally made them all and got back to the trainer only to find that I had to spend over a 150 in gold to train at level 420.  She did like being in Northrend though. Everytime the ally alt made enough, she would buy Frostweave and infinite dust to make Frostweave bags.

Epril and Elyte and Auruk ran around Blade’s Mountain doing all sorts of woodsy stuff and then when they all dinged 67, they headed to Netherstorm.

Wed morning ran around with Tiiaa getting pets from TB, UC and Ogrimmar and I had my alt in Everson send in some dragonhawks.  Doing a brisk business.

Thu discovered all I needed for Netherweave bags was rune thread.  Went crazy making Netherweave and Mooncloth bags.  Wanted Mooncloth bags for lower level bank toons.

Jumped and did it, took my quad to Northrend, had a blast. 3 67’s and Aprillian is doable.  Took the Twins back to Dalaran to train professions.  Epril got the JC daily and bought a pattern. She also made some necklaces using mats gotten from my ally and sent them to Primall. Elyte made a shoulder enchant in inscription.

Sat night at lunch , in Mightstone Quarry battling bugs and releasing victims to fight with me with the Twins.  Then ventured into BT, can’t get quests but can get good xp and herbs and mining nodes.

Primall got the jewelry from Epril and de’d getting some infinite dust and some small dream shards, cool. The Twins went all the way to Dragonblight, could fight mobs 5 levels over them.

Sun morning Aprillian did the Mana Cell Daily. Now her achievement log says 3 of 5 for the 5 daily quests in a row, it had been resetting.  Maybe she will get it on Monday. Now she’s off to Dragonblight to make mo7onshroud. I’m thinking of changing her cloth spec to whatever makes spellweave as the mats, eternal fire, seem much more expensive. So making 2 of them would be better.

Auruk is doing the cookie daily.

Ashayo

Asheal ran Vault of Archavon 10 man healing. No drops. Heroic Culling of Stratholme - The Culling of Time - Lanc won the drake. Won an epic ring which gave me the Superior achievement - Min level 187 item in every slot. Heroic Halls of Stone - The “Event” gave us grief, but we persisted.

Oracle eggs - Got the Proto-Drake Whelp

Sons of Hodir dailies - Revered. (Though pretty much a waste of time for an inscriptor) Quest “Feeding Arngrim” easiest of all the dailies!

Alchemy - Northrend Research failed to proc

Druid - Omen of Clarity is now passive

Hiide - AN, half of Old Kingdom Aspect of the dragonhawk at 74

Ashayo - 10-man Naxx - Arachnid quarter. Arachnid 1st boss - many wipes 2nd boss - one wipe 2nd night- Maexxna Heigan - safety dance! 1st night

Vault of Archavon - 10man on Ashayo with mostly Naxx group

Death Knight starting zone - on alliance!

Glanthur

Bladed Edge

Blade here…

It’s been a chaotic week… lots of time to play one day… no time at all to play the next… plus my power adapter crapping out didn’t help things any… But Ol’ Blade will struggle ever-onward!

Got some pretty spiffy news, though - and a shout out… see… I was playing a little later than usual the other night when a guildie sent a message over gchat saying ‘Anyone that wants Loque’nahak, I’m found him’. By the Beard of my old Uncle Throgg! That cursed Spirit Beast! The super-rare everyone-seems-to-want-him-

Emails

Email #1 from Jeff

Email #2 from Valathilia

Hello again it’s Valathilia So I was playing Wow the other night and I was looking at my priest talent trees, currently I am holy and I only need 3 more levels for 80 and it’s been hell, I am so close yet so far away I was thinking of respecing disc but I was afraid that I won’t be able to heal the same, because like the most common dps-ers and there joy for crits I also get that joy for healing, I know weird And btw how much spell power should the average priest healer have for heroics ATM I am at 1355sp and once I ding 80 I kinda just want to jump in and start getting geared for Naxx Ty guys for the awesome podcast I look foward to your next one And.. For the alliance… Jk I mean horde <3 Valathilia

Email #3 from Brian

Good morning, afternoon, or evening everyone as the case may be,

First off, I’d like to mention that this is the Bryan that won the second place prize of the Collector’s Ed. WotLK box.  I love having it and it looks perfect next to the BC Collector’s Ed. box amongst my many other Blizzard products on display in my office.  The prize was great and I wanted to say a long overdue thank you.

Aprillian, your show has continued to grow and has come along way since the days when you “solo’d” CtrlAltWoW.  It has become infinitely better since you decided to triple-box the podcast with Ashayo and Glanthur.

I thought I might share a tip or two that I have learned over the years playing WoW.  First, don’t underestimate the value of having a good keyboard and mouse.  Your input devices should be as least as responsive as your computer is.  I chose the Ideazon company’s Zboard and Reaper combination.  The keyboard places your directional keys and action bar keys in an easy to manage spot, off to the left hand side (sorry to all the left handed people out there).  I tried playing on a traditional keyboard again recently and it felt like I was a caveman banging on rocks.  A gaming keyboard makes a huge difference.  The Reaper mouse from the same company gives you three extra thumb buttons on the inside of the mouse (sorry again lefties) and an “on-the-fly” button that can change your DPI allowing for fast, normal, or slow scrolling of the mouse.  A laser mouse is a must regardless if it is meant for gaming or not.  Traditional mice are too heavy and slow for the quick movements needed in WoW and other games.  The three buttons on this particular mouse can be re-mapped to buttons such as “Home”, “End”, and “Insert” (on PC’s) and then you can map those buttons to actions in WoW.  I have the first button set to the “Send Pet” or “Pet Attack” ability.  There is no need to click on anything in game this way.  I can select Hunter’s mark on my action bar while sending my pet via the extra mouse button.  For my priest, I have the middle button set to “Focus Target” so I can easily focus on the tank while paying attention to the DPS that need healing separately.

Another mouse trick that I use is setting the scroll wheel button as the reverse camera angle  view.  This also can be done through WoW’s button mapping.  If I’m in PvP and heading somewhere, I can easily push down on the mouse’s scroll wheel to see behind me instantly without having to move my camera view around manually.  This is also great during close-quartered instances where trash mobs or patrols may be behind you.  I can continue to DPS or heal in front of me, click the mouse wheel to see who might be getting close by, then click it again to be right back into view of the fight.

In the add-on department, I offer MobMap.  I know everyone isn’t fond of QuestHelper or feel it is cheating so I suggest you try MobMap.  It is an external addon that allows players to collect information about EVERYTHING in game including where nodes have been found, where NPC’s are, where to farm mats and from whom.  In this way, if you’re having a hard time finding something or someone, you can look it up in-game without being led by an arrow like QuestHelper.  It can be found at mobmap.de  - this is a German website but the program is offered in both German and English.  I have been using it for about 2 years so I know it’s not going to steal your password or account information.  It is completely safe and an addon that I feel I couldn’t live without!

Lastly, I hear people on many podcasts write in time to time wondering how to get involved with Blizzard or work in the industry.  If you’re a business professional looking to get involved with them and wondering how to at least make the first step, I came across Blizzard’s profile on LinkedIn.  LinkedIn (linked in) is a networking site similar to Facebook but without the social aspect.  This site allows you to advertise yourself as a professional.  You may have to actually create a profile to search - I’m not sure on that point, but you can search for Blizzard as a company and you may be surprised to see who is listed there.  You can find the website at Linkedin.com

Keep up the great work.

For the Alliance.

-Bryan Email #4 from Keelhaul Like myself, I’m sure you have all played many different classes in WoW over the years. I have played the following:

Dwarf Hunter 78 Tauren Druid 77 Nelf Hunter 71 Troll Hunter 63 Gnome Mage 70 Human Pally 71 Nelf Rogue 60 Human Priest 55

It should be fairly obvious which class I enjoy the most I really enjoy the hunter class as I solo quest mostly. They seem to hold their own in the battlegrounds, I really havent messed around in the arena though I hear they could use some love there. I really enjoy getting to choose my own pets unlike warlocks who are stuck with the various demons they can summon. How about you all? Sorry if this has been asked before. -Keelhaul

Email #5 from Eranth

Part of that, I suppose, is I should have something worthwhile to say, rather than just drop you a line to get in your contest.   My trouble is, finding time to do something useful to send.  I want to send an audio section, but I haven’t had time to lay it down to send!  Oh, the slings and arrows of being a busy Tauren in this day and age!  (Well, mostly finding quiet time to be able to do it without interruption.)

And for those listening, don’t forget to pop over to iTunes and leave a review for our fine hosts!  (How’s that for a shameless, un-prompted plug, guys?)   It’s easy, it’s quick, it’s free, it helps our hosts out and makes them giddy to boot!

Email #6 From Josh

Hey guys,

I have some bad news.  Beastcaller is missing and therefor unavailable for comment.  I am sure he and fluffy are out on some adventure.  I did want to answer your question about Beastcaller’s audio clip.  Yes he did actually capture that from Northrend, and yes it was the Lich King.  Sorry that I cannot say that no gnomes were harmed in the recording of that clip.  The encounter with the Lich King was not part of the quest, but one cannot interact with him without the incense burner that Beastcaller mentioned in the last message.  In the normal world you cannot see him, but in the phased world you can walk right up to the Lich King, with deadly consequences. Glanther is the only one of you who could have witnessed it, do to the fact that I think it is an alliance only quest.

Thanks - Josh

‘Till next week, when hopefully Beastcaller will have been found. For the Alliance

P.S.

The actually name of the quest from which you receive the incense burner is “The Echo of Ymiron”.

Thanks Josh

Email #

Thank yous

From Ginsue Hi guys,

Nice roll Ashayo!!!!!

I looked on the cntrlatlwow.pobean.com site and I don’s see the mini’s. Am I looking in the wrong place?

Anyway an authenticator would be great and I don’t mind waiting.

When they become available please send one to… —

Thanks guys and keep up the good work!!!

/bow

Aprillian’s Response: It’s on our official site which is http://ctrlaltwow.com

Thank you, Aprillian

From Steve

~Steve

Latest iTunes Review, thanks Xandarr

Aprillian

RAF is OVER, so back to my old stuff.  Tues morning before the regular maintenance, I used Veyle, who had the Netherstorm FP, to get the DK’s to there.  I was going to finish quests in Nagrand, I wanted to have one area done, but I realized they weren’t getting good xp.  Then during break Tue night, I had the DK’s easily killing stuff in Netherstorm.  I could probably take them to Northrend now with no problem.  One of the things I’m itching to do is get an Engineer.  So I thought I should get those Alliance Dark Knights out of the DK starting area.  I forgot how much fun the DK starting area is. A dwarf and Nelf, boy that bouncing is irritating.

Finally went to Blade’s Edge with the DK’s and Auruk.  I had skipped over this area with Aprillian, I did parts of Nagrand then went to Netherstorm and hit 68 out there an went to Northrend.  So now I’m in Evergrove for the most part.  I love the variety in that zone.

Aprillian can make Ebonweave and stuff, but really doesn’t know where to go. She went to Og and took the Zeppelin to Borean Tundra and rode all the way to Dragonblight ran south through the snow and swam up the coast.  She had a quest to talk to someone in Moa’ki Harbor and then swam to Emerald Dragonshrine and made Moonshroud

At work with only two accounts, I ran Auruk with alternating DK’s.  I ran into a Scalewing Serpent that was bright red and Auruk had to have one.  After going back to the stable, she realzied she had duplicates.

Aurruk and Elyte got Medium Rare Acheivement

Ashayo

Stormwind raid

Ashayo and Aheal hit Honored with Sons of Hodir this week. Which opened up the daily “Thrusting Hodir’s Spear” quest. Flying around on a wild wyrm attacking it with a spear. Tough to start with, but fun when you figure out what the hell is going on! It can also be bugged from time to time (evident when the Wyrm is green - buttons won’t, no damage, no dodge, no grip - death. Relog seems to fix it.

Ran quite a few Heroics this week - Azjol Nerub (wipe on spiders before 1st boss even with strong group - is there a secret method here?), Violet Hold, and Old Kingdom. Killing your fellow players in heroic mode during insanity on the last boss is quite challenging for those of us with little PvP experience. Warlocks fear FTW!

Gretta the Arbiter in Brunnhildra Village offers dailies. Supposed to be two, but only getting one (bug). Chance of polar bear mount in the quest reward bag.

Also completed Storm Peaks quest Achievement: The Summit of Storm peaks In K3, after doing the quest chain to activate teleporter, go back through the teleporter and pickup a further quest. This leads to being able to do the daily landmine quest.

Ashayo OS 25-man pre-naxx. one shot it, yay! Plague quarter - Heigan the Unclean - safety dance! Finally figured out how stay alive. Construct Quarter - Grobbulus on 2nd attempt (124k on 1st)

Asheal 25 man Naxx - The Arachnid Quarter. Grand Widow Faerlina - Priests are needed here to mind control mobs and sacrifice them at the boss when she enrages. I rarely use mind control and was worried I’d stuff it up. Well, I did actually, because no-one told me I had to be standing right next to the boss when I sacrifice. So, after a wipe, we got her down on the 2nd attempt.

Plague Quarter Loatheb - can only heal for 3 second gaps during fight. Tough fight for healers!

Glanthur

Running more heroics - Healing is much easier with a good group - DPS/Tanks/Healers they all have a part to play…

Bladed Edge

Blade here.

I was up rather late Friday night, so late that I did my dailies for the Wyrmrest Accord when a call-to-arms, of sorts, came… a guildie (Mujitsu) needed help with the ‘big three’ in Dragonblight. For those of you not *quite* there yet, there are three quests from Agmar’s Hammer that involve an inevitable group as they want you to dispatch a trio of level 74 elites (each with around 100,000 health or so) across the zone. As I was on Skull (my tank) I rose to the occasion! Maybe I’m patting my own back a little much, but Muji and I two-manned the elites down easily… granted we were both level 76 (me a warrior tank and Mujitsu a feral druid)… but it seemed that I took very little, if any damage from them… does the level-comparison thing scale *that* much… was it my ‘mad tanking skillz’?  Or was it the fact that my health bar didn’t seem to go down all that fast due to my having 20,000 health unbuffed? Well *I* thought it was pretty impressive… I’m told reliably that 27,000 is a mark to achieve for heroics and raid tanking… I’m making it a personal goal to exceed 30,000 once I hit level 80.

I’ve been thinking about Aprillian’s little problem, too… no more Refer-A-Friend instant-summons… but what to do? How can you multi-box your toons from one area to the next?  Especially if one is on an epic mount, another on a normal mount and a third with no mount at all? I don’t know if this is a complete fix, or just a band-aid solution, and it’s a little pricy… but the benefit might overshadow the cost of: A Traveller’s Tundra Mammoth. Yeah… I know what you’re thinking… 19,000 gold?!?  Blade, are you as crazy as your old Uncle Throgg? Well yes, but that’s not the point. Lush leather exteriors… all-terrain movement… decent mileage… and lots of trunk space! Plus… the fuel cost is peanuts! And talk about ‘extra features’!… I’ve come across these mounts a couple of times when someone *else* was riding them… and discreetly availed myself of their portable-vendors. One on each side / saddlebag… you can repair and everything with them! Or… and here’s the benefit to you, and other multi-boxers, specifically… bump the NPC vendors out of the saddlebags and you have space for not one, but *two* extra characters (and plenty of legroom!)… so you can literally move all three multi-boxed toons around as one tightly-packed unit! Oops!  Need a vendor? Mount up! Your NPCs are right there waiting! Them bump the NPCs out again and you’re ready to pull your multi-boxed miniature-’you’s around to further adventures! Have Aprillian take ‘the twins’ out for a drag around Northrend when they hit 68! Ah… you say… ‘So what?  I can fly!’ Not in Northrend… at least not until level 77 and another thousand gold expenditure for the cold-weather flying skill… Plus… Northrend is so massive… epic flying is almost a *must-have*… so that’s another 5,000 per toon… Add it up… 18,000 for epic flying and cold-weather flying for all three toons WHEN you hit level 77… what will you do until then? The Mammoth might be the answer…

From the ‘Dirty Little Tricks’ Department… As I approach the end-level of 80, I’ve been thinking more and more about raiding and epic dungeons… and how it could be made a bit more efficient in terms of crowd control… I’m sure we’ve all encountered a scenario (as whatever class) of having multiple mobs attacking, with the tank fighting to control all the aggro, the healer fighting to keep the tank up… and the dps running about willy-nilly drawing aggro from additional mobs and then running away… (stand still, already! … but that’s a rant for another time…) Here’s a macro that might help sort things out… this one’s all about Crowd Control… (Dunno who wrote it, exactly, so props to wowwiki.com where I found it) /focus [target=focus, exists, nodead] focus; [btn:2] [] target /cast [target=focus] **insert crowd control spell here** When I think ‘crowd control’, I think ’sheep’… but Shackle Undead or any other ‘pull the mob out of the combat’ spell will work just fine. So put this macro where your crowd-control spell would be. Once the target is identified for control, another target can be selected for damage or to be healed, with the crowd-controlled target available to be controlled until it’s time to take it down properly. Wowwiki also states that it’s common for people to add a shout line to warn off would-be sheep-breakers: /y Controlling >>%t<<… You spank it, you tank it!

Here’s another utilitarian macro that more than one style of class might find use for: /cast [target=mouseover, exists] [] **Name of spell** Basically, this one lets you mouse over (but not click!) any enemy or group member or NPC and cast the chosen spell with a click of the macro button… this might make raid healing just a bit easier… mousever then hit the button saves you from clicking each raid member independently before you cast… and with some of those bosses hitting super-hard, a second might make all the difference between some nice epic drops and a wipe… Atternately, this could be used by dps with multiple-target spells… or by the tank to drop some threat onto a second mob without shaking up your button rotation to do so… or tabbing (which might cause you to tab something completely *not* in the combat at the time… a potentially hazardous situation… I’ve done it… it sucked…

<evil orc laugh>

From Ol’ Blade’s Easter Egg Basket… When in the Wetlands, either you’re Alliance and you have quests there, or you’re Horde and you have to do that thrice-cursed mind-numbing run from Hammerfall in the Arathi Highlands to Kargath in the Badlands… Yeah… we’ve all done it… Personally, I say we Horde should commandeer the elf-boats from Auberdine, and conquer Menethil Harbour!  Save ourselves a lot of needless running… Well… at least they put in a little something along the way… so to all of you who haven’t yet made the ‘epic journey’ from teenager to adulthood… I mean… Arathi to Badlands… this one’s for you. On the broken side of the bridge (from the south-side - you Alliance-types will need to come here anyway to find the body of a missing dwarf… you will have to go inside the bridge. In the room where the dwarf is found you will *also* find a mechanical arm in a glass container near the wall… look closely, the arm even twitches now and then… All in all, a pretty nifty /nod to the 1991 movie Terminator 2… but then that brings up a question… if the Dark Iron Dwarves blew up the bridge… does that make the Alliance gnomes agents of Skylab? I *knew* we had to cull their numbers for a reason!  Our very future is at stake! Speaking of robotics… let’s move all the way out to Area 52 in Netherstorm… through a quest series, you’re led to a goblin near town named Doctor Vomisa, Ph.T. <B.O.O.M. Experimentalist> who gives you a quest involving a robot… What’s so special about this guy? Reverse his name. The quest name “You, Robot” is also a big clue… This proud goblin’s name is an homage to who else but Isaac Asimov, one of the fore-fathers of science-fiction literature.

As always, an awesome podcast guys!

Loremaster Blade

Emails

Aprillian

In Felwood to get the elder coin.  Lost track of who had been where.  I can tell in game with the achievement screen

“Searching for the third segment to the Key to Time brings the Doctor and Romana to 1970’s Earth, where the travellers have to contend with stone circles, Druidic rituals, and a not-so-mythical goddess known as the Cailleach.”  Sounds like the group in Northrend.

Running Epril and Elyte to Darnassus and mining along the way.  I’m going to start an Engineer soon. Got to figure out who but probably one of my Alli DK’s and only after my RAF runs out.

Aprillian used 2 badges of Justice for shoulder enchant

Ran Aprillian and two DK’s to Auberdine, again, then they died under the boat, and took the boat to Darnassus, died inside and rezzed in Dolannar.  Got the coin there and in Darnassus. Time is going on my RAF.  It ends on 2/14 at 7pm.  And now this Love is in the Air stuff started.  Ran RFC with some.

Thur spending time getting FP for all lower level characters using the DK’s, and getting their hearths set to Dalaran.

Friday alternated between getting hearts and getting Loqu to 20. Figuring out who gets the Zhevra.

Saturday ran Loqu and others through SFK but ran out of time. Sat night did TM FP.  RAF ran out at 10pm server time, 7pm Blizz time.

Ashayo

Love is in the Air - No booze in UC - Social experiment - how lazy are people? eg Freshly baked pie - up to 10g each! - Insert rant on bag of candies - Love fool - finally on the 6th candy bag

Ashayo - Heroic Nexus - enough Emblems of Heroism to buy plagueheart gloves (Riversky on his Death Knight) - Heroic Azjol Nerub - Sash of the servant - Heroic Culling of Stratholme (but wiped, so ran out of time to get the drake mount) - Heroic Utgarde Pinacle (achievement for bringing down harpoon boss - Skadi the Ruthless - in one pass) (Thanks Dills!) - Naxx 25 man - Grobbulus is tough on 25-man!

Achievement - Got my mind on the money - loot 1000g ; harder for dual boxer

Jekle started spending jewelcrafting tokens. Bought several gems and made Titanium Spellshock Necklace for Ashayo

Dual-boxed Nexus with Jekle and Hiide. Tough on last boss, because you have to keep moving the entire fight.

AIE Guild parade for 2nd Anniversary - A march from Silvermoon to Undercity, Orgrimmar and Thunder Bluff.

3.0.9 patch - pretty much non-event. Did fix the jerky movement of nearby players.

Glanthur

- Been running more heroics on Arlaerus and Glanthur

Bladed Edge

Hey all… Blade here…

“News of your accomplishments has traveled far. The winds of turmoil howl through our lands. Those who stand to challenge evil are our only hope. Only those who listen to the winds understand the debts our fallen heroes have paid to protect our people. May a hero such as yourself live long to tell the tales of your adventures. For only then will we remember just how much we have to be thankful for. Our appreciation runs deep, Loremaster. For the Horde! - Cairne Bloodhoof”

First off, allow me a brief moment of ego to relish in the fact that I’m getting email questions! Yay!  Moar questions, kk thx! Now… Xandarr asked about a mysterious object in Sholazar Basin… the specific coordinates are 38,37… a hatch… The numbers it gives you are 5 9 16 17 24 43… and yes, indeed, this does seem to be a /nod to the television show Lost. The specific part of the show?  Ben’s safe!… but not quite… in the show, the actual combination is 4 8 15 16 23 42… Sorry for the spoiler…

<evil orc laugh>

Onward!

The question was asked as to what Ol’ Blade does… or more specifically… what it is that stops Ol’ Blade from contributing more to the podcast… along the lines of a regular vocal soundbyte or more-frequent appearances… Let me preface by saying how much I appreciate the email readings and the patience you all show in reading my rather-lengthy emails each and every time… you see… the emails are usually compiled in bits and pieces over the course of the week… Ol’ Blade’s a full-time student, and a part-time medical professional… so I don’t have a whole lot of ‘free time’… Ashayo once mentioned: “but Ol’ Blade seems to be online more than I am”… Yes and no. I’m logged in, yes… especially on weekends when the evening queue threatens to not allow you on for a while… I keep myself logged in if I have enough access to my computer… but I’d say at least half my time logged in lately has been me hovering on Bladetusk’s lolcopter in a safe area while I’m doing something else *not* in the world of Azeroth. So yeah… I’m in… and that’s probably why if you’ve whispered me I didn’t get back to you for five minutes or more… I was probably editing a term paper… It’s the same reason why I have yet to be able to jump into Heroic dungeons and start to truly experience the so-called ‘end-game’… I can’t guarantee the amount of time I’d need in Azeroth to be able to do so… I’d *like* to spend the time to contribute a soundbyte… and I hope to be able to find the time to do so… but for now, you’ll have to survive with mai emails…

Heh heh heh…

From the ‘Dirty Little Tricks’ Department… I’ve started back in on Skullblade finally… it seems like forever since I played him… and it shows… every three or four fights if I get into a bit of trouble, I’ll hit my ‘Vanish’ button - and my Battle Shout goes off… or I maneuver to set myself up for an attack and hit my Stealth button… and I end up Charging into the enemy… and Pickpocketing on a Warrior is completely out… don’t even try it, I can verify with 100% certainty that it won’t work… But I will persevere! I had a discussion with a guildmate the other day… and I realized that I haven’t given a lot of love to the other classes… all I’ve been talking about is *my* main three - Warrior, Rogue and Hunter… Would you like a macro suggestion for your class?  Would you like a nifty hint or trick to make your class that much more cool to play? Let me know! If it’s out there… I’ll find it! For now, though… I discovered that I made a serious error! Victory Rush and Defensive Stance won’t work together. That macro I gave will work just fine for Berserk Stance and Battle Stance… but there’s no love for that macro for tanks. Terribly sloppy of me… sorry ’bout that guys… To make up for it, here’s a macro just about anyone can use: It’s a simple one - /cast and /use is all it’s about… fill as many lines as you want with your various self-healing methods Rogues could also submit [/cast Evasion] here… Hunters might even use [/cast Feign Death]… [/use Major Healthstone] (or Super Healing Potion, or Fel Blossom, or Nightmare Seed, Lifebloom… et cetera… et cetera…) You *could*, if you are a caster with healing spells, toss a heal into this mix… but I’d advise against it… I’d keep your spells separate so that you can keep track of the mana expenditure… Warriors *could* place [/cast Last Stand] - but it might not be the best idea if you’re leveling or playing solo… See… here’s another discovery… this one I caught *before* I sent it in… Using Last Stand prohibits you from using a health potion in combat… Recall the recent change where you can only drink one potion per combat?  And where the 1 minute cooldown for potions starts the second you aren’t in combat anymore? Well… Last Stand counts as a ’self-heal’, so it counds against you if you use it… “No potion-soup for you!” So… for all you less-than-epic warrior tanks out there… the 30% health boost is awfully spiffy, but as it disappears on you (usually, in my experience, at a crucial moment), you’re better off using a health potion unless you have a healer watching your butt… Or make a separate macro and drag-and-drop it into the action bar (or set-up action bar #2 for when you’re grouped) so that it’s ready if/when you need it… or you could set up a protocol to have it go off when you hit Ctrl as well as your hotkey… So that line would look like: /cast [modifier:ctrl] Last Stand That should do it…

Oh… and here’s a quick freebie… remember that Charge/Taunt macro I use? I added /cast Bloodrage and /cast Shield Block to it… it seems they aren’t on the same cooldown, either… but they are on the global… so you’ll periodically have to hit the button to have one or more of them go off… but you’ll be hitting it *anyway* as you’ll be taunting every six seconds or so… As a quick-fix to let you know when Sheild Block or Bloodrage are up, simply put their buttons on the hotbar about your number bar… so you can instantly see when they’re ready to go…

From Ol’ Blade’s Easter Egg Basket… Following my recent warrior-theme, there comes a time in every warrior’s career (level 30) when you learn how to truly harness your rage into a palpable force… and gain the Berserker Stance. Who better, in Ol’ Blade’s opinion, to teach you the art of warfare than an Islander? (Highlander) The guy you all will have to speak to in order to get your Berserker stance is on Fray Island… his name… Klannoc Mcleod the Islander. I’d bet that if you could ask this guy where he was from, he’d probably say “Lots of different places”. One wonders if there are any more like him in the world… will there be a great epic battle if there are?  Or can there be only one?

Speaking of movies… here’s one for you Alliance types… Around Duskwood, there’s a fellow by the name of Antonio Perelli (he’s a Travelling Salesman)… he’s on the route from Goldshire to Sentinel Hill, Darkshire to Lakeshire (so far as I know) Be wary when you meet this guy… and watch out for maniacal barbers… You see… Signor Adolfo Pirelli is the Italian hair-tonic snake-oil salesman that Sweeny Todd kills at the beginning of the film…

As always, an awesome podcast, guys…

For Tha Horde!

Loremaster Blade

Audio Submission

Emails

Email #1 from John

Email #2 Berte LeDwarf

*waves hello*

Hi Everyone!  I’ve been listening to CtlAltWow since the first few episodes and I have successfully resisted Aprillian’s pleas and bribes to email, until now.

Email #3 from MO

Hello, yes another email from Mo

I was listening to wowarcast, yes I am a podcastholic as well, but its nice to get others perspectives. They mentioned that they had created new characters on Borean Tundra, a new normal realm, US side I believe. So I created a NE hunter of course and  a  NE druid. Yes yes I know that has been done so many times before, but I love hunters and also I want to try a healing druid spec.

So my idea was to have a CTRLALTWOWAlliance guild and also one on the horde side. People like myself, Aprillian, Ashayo, blade, the ones that are Horde heavy, we try out the Alliance.  I do believe that if you dont experience both factions you do miss many beautiful zones.

And the people out there that are Alliance heavy, you know who you are —-> Glanthur, and they would call the guild Ctrlalthorde

Or if people wish we can come up with a better name but it would be nice to use the podcast name and I would also like to ask for your permission to at least start the alliance side one as soon as i have the gold to do it. So my hunters name is a very clever name, Moblue, took me a long time to come up with that, and druid is kitcat,

Maybe you all and/or the listeners will have better ideas.

I actually had to delete some characters to create the new ones as I am character maxed out on my 2 accounts ;/

Oh and I have bee getting the itch to do the refer a friend again but trying not to do it yet, but it is SOOOOOOOOO fun.

Ok I will leave you be till next week and hope to see some people on Borean Tundra, the few times im on there,

thank you,

– Mo

Email #4 from Keelhaul

The grass tickles their underside

Aprillian

Veyle is so close to dinging that I logged off on her and logged in on Primall ungrouped with Auruk following.  I know I can go to a higher area and get better XP and I probably should.  Maybe Winterspring.  The only reason I was in Azhara was for the whelpling and I saw someone hawking in Trade Chat so the chances of me getting one has gone down. So after killing a couple of more for good luck, I hearthed and headed to WS.  Winterspring was good.  I also had Aprillian running around getting coins and when she ended up in Winterspring at the same time Primall and Auruk were there, I decided to do some summoning of lower level characters.

Primall ran around killing the Highbane spirit things and after Aprillian had summoned everyone she could, Primall dinged 58, I logged Veyle on and Primall gave her a level to get to 47 and then Primall killed a few more things and Veyle dinged 48.

Tuesday morning, no maintainence, just rolling restarts.  Ran Primall with Elyte in Hellfire.  Primall was getting RAF experience and she was 2/3 to 59 when I logged off.

Wed morning got on Shemain and Prillia and ran them around the orc/troll starting area while Aprillian did dailies.  I also had Aprillian run out to Auberdine to get the elder there and when I found it was so easy, I ran Epril out and then had her summon someone on the RAF account and the Aprillian created a portal and did some more summoning.

Thur I ran Shemain and Prillia to Crossroads and then Aprillian came out and we did some more summoning.  Then down to Camp T and then Camp and I had all the toons who hadn’t done it do the Ezra Wheathoof quest.

Thu evening I decided I wanted all of my level 1 characters to get to at least 6 if not 10.  Brought Theeapril out of Shat by creating a new undead and had her summon theeapril and then she summoned bankapril.  The sound in the undead starting area is like the sound when you are dead.  Figured another reason to get these low levels up and with coins, the stuff they buy at the vendors, pets, etc, are cheaper.  Sat morning running Delish <Anarchy> and AprilOfficer around.  Took Delish first to undead starting area. The warlock quest to get an imp is way easier there than any of the other two, Belf you have to get to level 5 first, and Orcs you have to get to at least 4 and go over to the cave.

Ashayo

Icecrown quests - chain to open up Crusaders’ Pinnacle as a quest hub - and finally the extra dailies from the airship

Heroics: Asheal - Healed Heroic Violet Hold Ashayo - Heroic Utgarde Keep ; epic ring

Oracles - another tickbird and cobra

Levelling tailoring by making frostweave bags for guildies Asheal finally got around to making magnificent flying carpet

Jekle & Hiide in UK with Ecu tanking. Still wiped on last boss ; but romped it in with a 5th Jekle and Hiide jumped straight to Dragon Blight and do the group “Wanted” quests. Jekle dings 72 ; Hiide not far behind Hiide - Azjol Nerub, Nexus

Went back to level Hiide’s herbalism, coz I couldn’t pick in Dragonblight. Ending up sneaking around Sholazar Basin to pick adder’s tongue (best for inscription). Oracle area is good - quite a few nodes, and no aggro. Can also venture into Frenzy Heart because you’re neutral with both until you’ve done the quest line.

Started questing in Storm Peaks at K3 trying to get Sons of Hodir dailies open there too. You get sent to Brunnhildar Village, inhabited by the blue female Frost Vrykul. You get transformed into one for the majority of the chain. These are quite a bit larger toons than players, which is most evident when I stand beside my now puny Felguard. The proto-drake mounts also shake their head from side to side. On a normal toon, this doesn’t move the player, but as a Vrykul, the whole rider shakes from side to side. The quest chain is very long and involves fighting on bears. Eventually get to a point where you use a harpoon to leap from dragon to dragon and fight the rider, while all the while circling the Temple of Storms. The harpoon has a chain attached, and it feels like your spider man, swinging from a web. Cool stuff! Asheal hit 2000 quests on the last in this quest chain.

Vault of Archavon 10 man - rogue and priest ; we had none. vault of Archavon 25 man - druid and rogue ; we had none.

Saturday - ISP probs right before Naxx raid But got in. Did Arachnid quarter. Got trinket off last boss - [Dying Curse] Then Plague Quarter - Heigan the Unclean ; horrible kiting between lava ; lag/latency is deadly

Glanthur

In yet another new guild - Sempiternal.  So far… so good.

Bladed Edge

The Bladed Edge

Hey all… Blade here… I have to say… it is SO nice to be back in Northrend again, gaining *real* experience and *real* quest gold now that I’ve successfully completed not only the Loremaster of Eastern Kingdoms, but that of Kalimdor and Outland as well! As of this email, I have less than 200 quests to go… then I’m going to give ol’ Blade a needed break and start tanking again with Skullblade. Oh… and level 80 completely snuck up on me, too… I wasn’t even paying attention until I went to change my reputation experience bar to the Kalu’ak again from Netherwing… and I noticed my *actual* xp bar was a solid blue streak… a quick mouse-over… and I had less than 30,000 xp to go! Whoa! So… yeah… Ol’ Blade’s officially at the proverbial end-game… meaning I can’t gain anymore official xp… But the gold gets better now… from my brief calculations, it looks like a bonus of probably 25% from what one *would* have gotten before level 80. So… from less than 500 gold yesterday… to just under 2000 gold today. Granted, I *have* been pickpocketing like a mad fiend… so it’s not *all* quest gold… but the majority of the Zul’Drak quests were netting me more than 12gold a pop… and I had quite a few left to do. Lots of gold… oh!  And a little surprise in the mail once you hit 80! (Not telling, though…)

Onwards!

From the ‘Dirty Little Tricks’ Department… More love for the Warriors… mainly ’cause I’ve been thinking a lot more about tanking once I finish the achievement thing with Bladetusk… That said… this one’s a no-brainer… /cast Revenge /cast Heroic Strike Basically, it’s a quick and dirty way to snag a bit more threat… if you’re like me, and have your keybindings already mapped… #2 is Devastate (plus Victory Rush, as I mentioned in a previous episode…), #3 is Shield Slam, and #4 is Revenge… there’s not a lot of room for extra stuff… especially if you add Charge, Thunderclap and any other tricks… or trinkets… or ‘Oh Crap’ health-recovery macros… So… slip Heroic Strike into the mix underneath the Revenge button… which means if your Revenge isn’t up, then Heroic Strike will go off… but here’s where you will have to pay a little attention… it’s not overly wise to use Heroic Strike with impunity unless you have more than… say… 50 Rage… doing so might throw off your ’shot rotation’ and leave you short on Rage when you need it for a bigger-threat skill like Shield Slam. So basically, don’t spam the button right away… Heroic Strike *replaces* your regular ‘white’ attack… and thus instead of gaining rage (as you would with a normal white attack), you actually *lose* rage. Doing that too often too quickly has the distinct possibility of shaving down your rage rather quickly… so… I wouldn’t spam the button until you’ve gone through your rotation completely at least once (you should have enough rage built up by then)… after that… remember where it (your Heroic Strike key) is… and also remember that if you have the Glyph of Revenge, your next Heroic Strike costs no rage… so you can ignore everything I just said…

<evil orc laugh>

From Ol’ Blade’s Easter Egg Basket… Deep into Northrend in the area of death and unliving voodoo called Zul’Drak lives a formidible individual… Wodin the Troll Servant… this guy’s working with Gurgthock at the Ampitheatre of Anguish (which is basically the Ring of Blood (from Outland) version 2.0) What’s so unusual about this Wodin fellow?  It is the fact that his goblin chum Gurgthock is riding on a really small mammoth calf? Actually, it’s Wodin’s pet-companion… none other than Zena, Warrior Kitten!

Now… this next one is a bit odd… In the northeast of the Hinterlands, there’s an area called Seradane - one of the four locations of the portals that connect Azeroth to the Emerald Dream. Like the other three, it is an area populated with dragons and dragonkin… but that isn’t the interesting part of this particular area. If you follow a path northeast into the mountains, you will come across what looks like a large dragon skull partially surrounded by a circle of rocks, accompanied by the ubiquitous humanoid skeletons and skulls littered around the area. Look at the rocks closely… do they have faces etched on them? Also… the tallest of the rocks seems to be radiating a blue aura around its base… We’ve seen this sort of rock configuration before… in Arathi Highlands at the various Circles of Binding… but what is the explanation for the circle of stones and bones where it is located at Seradane? I don’t know the answer to this one… but I *do* know that it’s been around since before either of the expansions… There’s plenty of places like this waiting to be discovered by the keen-eyed adventurer…

As always, an awesome podcast guys…

Until next week… For Tha Horde! Blade

Emails

Email #1 So, it’s Xandarr again.  (Pronounced Zan-Dur)

My wife and I have spoken… I  didn’t say that you mentioned her rant in the previous podcast, but before that we had a talk.  I read the email she sent you.  And it is true, I play excessively on the weekdays.  So now I am limiting myself to playing on the weekends and to a minimum.

It seems to be going well… it has only been a week  and a half, but it is going well.  Even to limiting myself to the weekend I am still lvl 35 with my hunter that i started only three weeks ago.

from Xandarr

Something for Blade

Email #2 from MO Hi, I enjoyed your 100th episode and I know its not an easy task to talk for 2 hours (even if you do love wow) but what an AWESOME podcast!!! and than you so much rolling my way!!! I told my girl friend who tolerates my wowing very patiently and now she expects me to win the lottery (i guess i better go play if i want to win that too).

I am truly great full for your work and winning.

With work and juggling everyday life stuff, wow time is very fun for me and believe it or not very relaxing, and listen to you all is fun as well.

It was nice to hear blade as well.

I cannot wait to see your wow video as I am too curious to see your wow dual boxing.

Well this week, you will not believe it, I am really speachlesss!!! I got a Reins of the Green proto drake!!!! YESSSS It is by far the coolest thing i have ever looted in wow.

As you can imagine I am very excited and I will try to send you a screen shot of it

Well take care all till the next email and podcast.

Bye

– Mo

Email #3 from Rick

Hey guys,

Thanks for reading my email it’s great to find out I’m breaking the terms of service through my favorite WoW podcast.. Both accounts are paid for by me but I’m sure it’s still against the rules. Hopefully I’ll be 60 soon then I can leave my friends account in the dust

Don’t think dual boxing is going to work for me at the moment, alt tabbing between my warlock and paladin in the Uldaman instance didn’t work out so well.

Anyway thanks for the advice and sorry I didn’t say hello to Blade last week or mention happy 100th episode, great show.

Cheers,

Rick

Aprillian

Decided to just tunnel through and spend the money and get Primall up in Enchanting, crazy I know.  Sent Epril to Thrallmar and then summoned Primall and now she is a Grandmaster Enchanter

On the train back to RI, brought Primall and Veyle into ZF for the elder.  After repeat running back from the graveyard for Veyle, I brought in Epril.  She can kill 3 with no problem and Veyle gets just about the same amount of xp.  Ran through ZF and when Veyle was killed, waited tilk Epril got to the Elder and summoned her.

Was all happy with my decision to level Primall to be the De’er and then Aprillian got a Khorium Lockbox while doing the Sunfury plans Daily.  So I thought I should level Veyle, especially since she’s on my RAF.  I brought her to ZF with my DK Epril.  While she’s not getting the RAF xp while with the DK because she’s 66, Veyle, now 41, can get it when she turns in the quests with Primall.  If I remember to put Veyle in stealth before a fight, she can pickpocket the Trolls while Epril kills them.

Took Ashayo’s advice and put some glyphs up on the AH and I’ll be darn, I’m making a little money and emptying out my inventory.

Everyone dead runs at the same speed.

Wed afternoon, spent time either in ZF or out in the desert running Veyle on stealth while Primall/Epril fights.  Veyle would pickpocket.  But then they realized they both has the pirate hat quest and that they

Thur morning after spending silly hours in Desolace trying to find waterlogged lockboxes, we went to Angor Fortress and found a bunch.  She started at 200 and got to 215 and now she needs another level to go further.

Thu afternoon, after doing the Broken Alliance Quest Veyle dinged 43. Grinding Whelplings while there.  I brought Auruk along ungrouped and he skinned them all.  Got some leather for Primall to use, which is good beacuse she came across the dragonscale trainer.  But I really wanted to bring Tiiaa my mage.  But she had to go Crossroad and get her skinning up.  She was at 35 and while they were in the badlands, she got up to 47

Elyte discovered  [Inscription: Glyph of Horn of Winter] and sold 2 already for 22g.

Bought a guild <Anarchy> with two gbank tabs from DeathHuman (Stormhuman) for 250g

6 purchasable tabs which have 98 item slots each; bags are not required for the slots. The price for the first tab is 100 , and increases for each successive tab, 250 , 500 , 1000 , 2500 , 5000 , for a grand total of 9350 .

Took Primall back to the Angor Fortress to level from 215 to 220 in LP.  Then realized I needed to be doing quest/mobs that gave Primall xp so went to Searing Gorge and up through Black Rock.  Ended up grinding mobs in Burning Steppes  While levelling Tiiaa’s Skinning in the Barrens.  I had Tiiaa grouped with Veyle and Primall for two reasons.  Sometimes soloing while in a group will increase  your chances of  getting greens, or is this an old orc’s tale?  And I can keep track of health on a character I’m not currently watching.  A Nelf just punkin headed Tiiaa, LOL. I think she’ll leave it on

Friday afternoon,Tiiaa ventured down to 1K needles to see if she can skin there, and she can.  Level 26-28, med/hvy mobs vs 21 -24 in the Barrens.  She also picked  up the Message to Freewind Post at the Great Lift.  She’s hoping to be 200 by the time she gets there.  Then she can catch a ride back to Camp T and train skinning.

Tiiaa got to 200 went to train and then headed to Shimmering Flats.  She ended up getting up 225, finishing the Vulture bone quest and getting a coin from the elder there, good job.  Elyte, DK Inscripter

Veyle dings 45 in Azhara and she and Primall went back to the Fortress in Desolace and she did 5 more lock boxes and got to 225 in Lock picking.  While grinding in Azhara Primall looted a Thorium Lockboxes and she had one from the WLtS gbank and there was another in the bank.  She started to open one of the ones in her bag, when she realized, if she waits until 46, she can open it and get a skill up.  So back to grinding Dragonkin in Azhara.  Keep in mind that Primall is now getting xp and is a little over 2 bubbles from dinging, and I think she can give Veyle a level.

Satureday Checked in on Epril, DK JC miner while Elyte was at the AH and used some of the money Elyte made selling Glyphs to buy some gems and now Epril can make a bunch of stuff to level JC.

But going back to Veyle and Primall, Primall dinged 57 earlier today but decided to wait until Veyle was closer to 46 before granting her a level.  Well Primall could not give a level, i guess she has to wait to 58.  After Veyle dinged 46, she opened 3 boxes and got to 228, then she and Primall headed to the Elder in Azhara.  Aprillian went to make Shadowcloth in Shadowmoon Valley.  It is so much easier when you can fly to the Altar.  She also

Sunday Morning Got the  [Make Love, Not Warcraft] Achievement in Ogrimmar on two toons for hugging dead Alliance after they hit AH and bank. Sunday evening back with Primall, Veyle and Auruk in Azhara.  We logged in and someone had killed a bunch of the blue Dragonkin so while Primall killed the few left, Auruk ran around skinning them for Rugged Leather and then by the time he was done, they had respawned.  Aprillian was doing a quest in Shadowmoon in the Training ground gettting sunfury signets for the Scryers.

Aprillian headed to Blade’s Edge for the Mana Cell Daily and then heading back to the fp in BE when she realized she could just fly to Netherstorm

Glanthur

Continued leveling Arlaerus.  He’s 76 now.  Only need 2500 more gold before I can get an epic flyer in Northrend.

Ashayo

Ashayo : Naxx - Four Horsemen - Charmed Cierge staff Gluth down - hard to keep adds away! Thaddius - jump to the boss, then positive/negative charge shuffle

Solo The Nexus coin - frogger! Dual box Halls of Stone (dps, heal) to get coin Stratholme - coin and finally got Key to the City And easy as that … Elder Ashayo.  Exalted with Org by collecting coins

Wintergrasp - FUN!

Heroic Drak’Tharon keep

Exalted with oracles - mana regen trinket

Healed Heroic Gun’Drak (but failed on snake boss)

Icecrown questing ; started opening up Knights of Ebon Blade dailies - good for dual-boxing

25-man Vault of Archavon - only warlock and tier-7 chest peice dropped! [Valorous Plagueheart Robe]

Oracle Egg - Tickbird and Cobra Hatchling!

Jekle and Hiide questing in Howling Fjord. Running back and forth between Giants run and Camp Winterhoof Both level 71 now. Hiide wasn’t Kara geared, so is getting upgrades already.

The Bladed Edge

The Bladed Edge

Not a lot to report this week… I haven’t yet had a good look at the changes that the “Great Hunter Nerf of 09″ has brought… but then… I haven’t been on my Hunter at all in the past few weeks… Stage 1 of my semi-secret ‘Little Project’ is complete… those who were present when I completed it (just a few days ago) can probably figure out what I’m trying to do… But for the rest of you, I’m gonna stay mysterious for *just* a bit longer… it adds to the suspense, doncha know… (Although… my increasingly frustrated rants in guild chat might have tipped a few of you off…)

Overall, the 3.0.8 patch has not yet affected me *at all*. As far as Rogues go… Cheap Shot and Fan of Knives?… I don’t really use them. An interesting bonus to Feint Rank 8… useless in solo play, good for raiding and dungeon-running… as often as I’m in dungeons (as in “not at all” lately…) So that one’s a null, too… The only change I can see *possibly* affecting me is the last one: Kidney Shot: This ability now has diminishing returns against all other stuns. What does this mean? Here’s a clarification for those who might be wondering the same thing - but did not want to appear ‘noobish’ by asking…

*Diminishing Returns* is a lessened effect on the mob if you use the skill or effect more than once on them… such that you have full (100%) effect the first time, then it drops to 50%, then 25% then it becomes immune. This diminishing return effect resets 15 seconds after the last effect was applied. Before the patch, Cheap Shot shared the diminishing returns (specifically the stun effect) with other skills like Deep Freeze, Intercept, Shockwave, Hand of Justice, etc… Now, it is Kidney Shot that shares those returns. What does *that* mean? If you are in a group - or deep into PVP - and your Warrior tank associate hits the enemy in front of you with his Shockwave attack… and you - a rogue - are still in Stealth and manage to Cheap Shot the target right after - you would have found that the length of time your attack lasted for was lower than you had expected it to be… or maybe you were too focussed on the thrill of combat that you didn’t even pay attention… Trust me… it was there… ever have your Hand of Justice last for only 2 seconds, Paladins? I bet dollars for donuts that someone *else* stunned the mob just before you did. That’s “shared diminishing returns”. How does this affect anything? Not a lot in solo play, that’s for sure… if you have to Vanish in order to try to start your stun-lock combinations of Cheap Shot and Kidney Shot again, the mob’s health resets to 100% once you’re out of combat (which is where Vanish takes you)… so you really won’t see much of this except possibly in dungeons and definitely in pvp. In dungeons… if you are repeatedly using Kidney Shot on *any* mob that the tank is focussed on (taking needed rage or threat potential away from the tank) I’m going to sneak up behind you some day and slap you with a fish. In PVP… the lack of diminishing returns on Cheap Shot now means that you can stealth and re-apply it to full effect. But… in Ol’ Blade’s opinion… If you really have to apply Kidney Shot more than once, you’re not doing it right…

<evil orc laugh>

From the ‘Dirty Little Tricks’ Department… Dunno about any of you, but Ol’ Blade has too many buttons on his display… every time a new skill was learned from the trainer or off the talent tree, I’d evaluate its usefulness and try to find a place for it on my button bar… Eventually… that makes for a really cluttered display… and, naturally, I forget to use some skills because they aren’t readily at my fingertips… but what to do? Use an addon that moves your buttonbars around? You *could*… but you’d end up just having buttons all over the place… Or an addon that changes the size of your button bars? Sure… but then what if you actually have a use for your buttons… squinting at your screen to find the skill you’re looking for isn’t very practical… Hence, Ol’ Blade’s attempts to clean up your button bars by having multiple skills in each button… My latest one - for Warriors - is Victory Rush. Not a bad skill… if you attack something within 20 seconds of defeating a target worth experience or honor, you get an Instant Attack (Victory Rush) that does a respectable amount of damage. Now that there is once again a reason to be grinding on mobs that give experience points… and now that protection spec warriors are all the rage (Hey! Another punny!) I figured I’d find a way to slip Victory Rush into your attack schedule without it disrupting the rest of your button bar… /cast Victory Rush /cast Devastate Simple, no?  Spamming this key attempts to cast Victory Rush, but once it does (or if you pass the 20 second mark) it will default to Devastate. Naturally, you warriors that are specc’d in a tree OTHER than protection can substitute your preferred attack in place of Devastate… so Bloodthirst or Mortal Strike… heck… you can use *any* skill, really… I just used the ‘Big Three’ as examples.

From Ol’ Blade’s Easter Egg Basket… Now… you all recall that Ol’ Blade’s been wandering back and forth across the worlds trying to accomplish what I’ve almost decided isn’t possible at all… more on that later… But in my travels, I stumbled across a great find! Accessible only by flying mount is a day care! Right in Nagrand! The mountain range just north of the Laughing Skull Ruins hosts this tranquil area… Orc, Human and Blood Elf children running and playing outside, while the matron of this day-care - a troll named Challe - keeps watch over the sleeping infants (of all races) within the tent behind her. A perfect place to drop off your little sproglet before heading down to go hunting with Nesingwary! … wait a second… where’s the dog that belongs in the doghouse beside the hut…? And… why are there only scraps of meat and bones in it…? And… why is there what seems to be a goblin explosive in the sandbox?!? And… what is kept in the cages behind the hut? And… is that a small humanoid skeleton in one of the huts?!? On second thought… maybe this might not be the best place to leave your little sproglets…

Hmm moving on… Oh… here’s a question: Just how much of a Trekkie *are* you? Remember the character ‘Jadzia Dax’ from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine? Recall that she was a Trill… and the symbiote was named Dax, while the host was named Jadzia? Ever wonder what happened to the previous hosts? Betcha you’d have never thought to search for them in the Draenei main city… Yup. in the Museum area of The Exodar, you can find Audrid, Tobin, Curzon, Torias and Emony… bonus points if you put them in order…

Until next time…

As always, an awesome podcast, guys! Blade

Emails

G’day Aprillian, Ashyao, and Glanthur,

I have been loving the podcast and the wealth of information that I have been able to glean. I have also been enjoying Blade’s letters.

I have been playing since patch 1.11 (Original Naxxramas ~ June 2006). Originally started as alliance and don’t regret it. You miss half the game if you play only one faction.

According to the addon, “Altoholic” I have 26 World of Warcraft characters on my single account spread across US, Oceanic and Latin America realms. My highest character is a level 70 Feral Druid, Melchizedec on the Oceanic server, Khaz’goroth. I have tried some multi-boxing, via a Refer-A-Friend account on my laptop, but I don’t think it was for me.

There are three things I find difficult being an altoholic: Choosing which character to play; keeping up with the friends/guilds on the different servers/factions; and finding time to do the seasonal events for all the alts. How do you guys cope?

Thank you all! Keep up the great work. — Machiavelly of Alea Iact Est: level 61Blood Elf Rogue from Earthen Ring - US. AKA (on ER): Sinfjotli, Xelandra, & Rahkwa

End of Emails

Winner from last week: Tracey

Hey guys, Thanks for reading my email and then rolling me for the prize. Yea, a free month would be great. I have a authenticator already. By the way, I am a female all my toons are too so no worries, just email me on the information you need for the prize. Again, thank you very much. I really appreciate you all. Tracey Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T