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