Ctrl Alt WoW - Virtual Reality Podcast

Ctrl Alt WoW Episode 79 - Harvest Festival Time Again

Aprillian and Ashayo discuss another week of playing World of Warcraft, Blizzard's great MMORPG.  
What We've Been Doing
AprillianSuyna and Primall ding 30 and head to Og for mounts. Stopped at the trainer for the warlock, good thing, got my dreadsteed, almost paid for training on Suyna, my warlock. I did buy her a wolf mount, for 9g it was a bargain.Suyna and Primall ding 30 and head to Og for mounts. Stopped at the trainer for the warlock, good thing, got my dreadsteed, almost paid for training on Suyna, my warlock. I did buy her a wolf mount, for 9g it was a bargain.Just realized I had not found a replacement for Primall as my main bank alt, and hence hadn't been playing the AH. I reassigned my bank alts and put stuff up and promptly began making money again.
Suyna and Primall ding 30 and head to Og for mounts. Stopped at the trainer for the warlock, good thing, got my dreadsteed, almost paid for training on Suyna, my warlock. I did buy her a wolf mount, for 9g it was a bargain.Just realized I had not found a replacement for Primall as my main bank alt, and hence hadn't been playing the AH. I reassigned my bank alts and put stuff up and promptly began making money again.Suyna and Primal went to BB to get the blades for the deadly blunderbuss quest, Iwari made 7 blunderbusses. Then they went back to Ashenvale to turn in the DB and head over to the Satyr camp and get the oil. There were so many people running around it was crazy. So I parked them there and went back to Vapril, level 10 priest I had used Suyna to get to 10. I paired her with a warlock in Deathnell named Thea (with the little degree mark over the a) and I had Theå summon her. Did a few of the starter quests and got Theå to 4 and then headed to Brill. I forgot how nice the Brill quest were.
So now Theå is about 8 and Vapril is 12. Then I realize I need to do a lower level alt on my original account so I can use all these extra grant a levels. But I should wait until I got them to say 20, since the 1-10 levels are a piece of cake. So I get yet another bank alt, Cii, she was my letter alt, I sent all the notes people had sent me to her. She is an Orc Warrior. I summon Theå to Durator and the two of them run around getting quest and levelling up. I found the perfect combo, W & W. I'm loving it. Cii charges in and I quickly switch over to Theå who dots and send her imp in. Great combo.
Wed I took The and Cii over to skull rock to do the Hidden enemy quest at work on my break. They died a lot, part of the reason was they were underdressed.
Thursday morning Aprillian had a spellcloth cd, so she went to Area 52 and when I logged on to Auntrillia and Rilfire, they were still in the inn there from the last Spell cloth. I hadn't really been on any of them.
Got out PIA my level 13 mage out to play with Cii and the and realized that's the one to fast forward, portals man, that's the ticket. Took the trio to UC so The can do her warlock quest, she couldn't do the one in Durator, said she was the wrong race when she turned it in at the guy in ogR. I decided to start a mage on my master account, so I had to delete gnobull, the gnome I made for the Running of the Beef 2. I made Tiiaa and I brought in Qub, who was a level 3 warlock belf I had summoned to BB to replace my Horde BB alt. I had him hearth back to the Belf starting zone and then ran the two together. He had rested xp so he leveled faster and every other level I would grant one level to Tiiaa. I didn't think it was a waste because I don't believe I'll get Qub up too high. But then I had to try a new strategy because once they started levelling even, Qub couldn't grant levels without being a level higher than than Tiiaa, so I would hold off on Tiiaa turning in a quest and have Qub turn in a bunch to ding and then grant a level and then have Tiiaa turn in quest.
But then Thursday night, which I took off from work, I made yet another mage, on the referred account, this time Weaa an undead
Friday, Run through RFC with Ardrion Tiiaa and Weaa, leavel 11 mages, then later WC with level 15 mage. It was so much fun. Brought my level 30 on the raf account
AshayoEmail 1Email 1Dear Aprillian and Ashayo,
Email 1Dear Aprillian and Ashayo,Since blizzard introduced the Recruit-A-Friend Scheme, I have been addicted to Dual-Boxing, maybe its the fact that I get triple exp, but I think its because it is a whole different take on the game which offers a new outlook on the game and the levelling process.
However, I have a few problems with the Dual-Boxing process, first is the fact that due to the fact that you are only in direct control of one character at a time, I feel I won't be able to play one of my characters in a competent manner at 70. However, as this doesn't matter at the moment due to the fact that I am dual-boxing two shamans, I am curious to dual-box two different classes when my current pair reaches 60, and I was wondering if you guys could offer advice on how to be sure to be able to use the characters I have at 70.
Secondly, I'm finding it hard to sustain my characters with money on their own rather than having to receive cash in the mail from my paladin, and again, I was wondering if you guys could help me with some advice.
Lastly, I was wondering what programs to use to mimic my keystrokes on one computer, I am aware that it is generally O.K if no automation is ok, but rather than risk it, I would like to know what you two use for this, as you haven't been banned, so you must be doing something right !
Thanks, sorry if this is a wall of text that you can't read.
Snuffy, 70 Dwarf Paladin
(At least its not a gnome or Night Elf)
Email 2 Hey guys, JG again (sorry I keep forgetting to sign my emails komish at the end, but JG is fine)
I just wanted to submit to you guys my Recruit a Friend Experience. I went ahead and did it on my attempt at a blog over at www.woahcraft.wordpress.com but I'll copy and paste it here if it'll help you out. It's a rather long wall of text, so If all else fails, it'll just be for your personal informative purposes! =)
Thanks again for a great show
The Podcast, Ctrl Alt WoW, is a great podcast hosted by Aprillian and Ashayo talking about alts, and people who love making alts. They have been having a few discussions about the Recruit a Friend system and it's benefits to dual boxers everywhere, and in the most recent episode, they asked for people to send in their opinions and thoughts on the system as well as their experience. Here is my submission.
I was an early adopter of the R-A-F system. I recruited myself within a week of the release of the system.
I am a person who finds fun in this game in learning class mechanics. However, as many people who play the game, my time is limited. I am rarely able to play my main to the extent that many people do, so alts are always kind of a shot in the dark as to whether or not I'll ever get them to the cap.
I am not a person who had a maxed out character Pre-BC. While I did play Pre-BC a considerable amount of time, I did not max out a character until the release of Burning Crusade.
Moving this back to the Recruit a Friend system, I was an early adopter, and I did it solely for the purpose of being able to play other classes to the extent that I wanted. The system is amazing, almost to the point where I feel I'm hacking
The experience gains are amazing of course. Triple Experience seems almost as if it is too much, but in my opinion, it is the perfect amount.
The Zhevra mount is… meh. I have it on my warlock because I love mounts in the game, but the Zebra just seems to be a bit out of place in the World of Warcraft. Maybe it is the fact that I am a warlock, but it just doesn't seem to click with the rest of the world. It would have fit better if they had given us a modified version of one of the mounts in the game, or say, maybe an option to have a tiger for the horde or a kodo for the alliance.
Now as to my experience, here is what I Did : I started off trying a few things. I try first, a combination of paladin and rogue, and shaman and rogue, both of which I did not like. I wanted a rogue, but I couldn't get the hang of questing as those combinations. The shaman would always die, or the rogue would die, or something would happen that would always slow me down. After those two trials, I decided to try something ranged, and came up with Mage and Paladin.
Now I started this combination with full intention of duo questing my way to 60 just like every other recruit a friend adopter plans on doing. However, out of the blue, I thought about instances. Instances give decent experience in groups, but if you add the 70, it nerfs the experience you get. Hence, "power-leveling" is impossible to do in this game. Well Recruit a Friend changed all of that.
When someone is getting a run through an instance by a 70, the experience gain is essentially a fraction of what one would get. So lets put it this way, if someone is running Scarlet Monastary with a group, lets say they are averaging about 300 Experience per kill.
Now lets say only two of those characters are running scarlet monastery, but this time with a level 70 running them through it quickly (3 people in the party, 2 lowbies, 1 70). Now this person is only getting 150 XP per kill. Half the experience for half the speed of a normal run.
Now lets say the same thing is happening, only this time, theres a RAF pair with the 70. Now, instead of getting 150 XP per kill, they are getting 450 XP per kill. So now, the pair are getting more XP in a shorter amount of time.
Now here's the kicker. You can do this all the way up to 60 if you wish. I normally stop around 45-50, but up to 60 is definitiely possible.
Here was my order :
Quest 1-8
Ragefire Chasm 8-16
Shadowfang Keep 16-25
Scarlet Monastery (Arms) 25-32
Scarlet Monastery (Cathedral) 32-40
Zul'Farrak 40-45 or 40-50
Sunken Temple 45-50
After that, you can move on to Dire Maul, the Black Rocks, things like that, but I normally quest from 50 on.
I did this pattern with my first grouping and it worked like a charm. Keep in mind, doing so gets a bit repetitive, but it is definitely an easy, easy, GAURENTEED way to get there.
Now for those of you who like dual boxing and follow questing and such, this system will be just as good without the instance runs. However, I would suggest you hit each instance at least once with all the quests for it. Why? That's about 1-2 levels free for having someone run you through the instance. Can't beat that.
Now the 30 free levels I gave to my Paladin… I know… you're probably thinking "wait a sec… didn't he say he leveled a paladin and mage duo??" and My answer is yes. I did. However, at about 37, I was really tired of instance runs (mind you… this was my first group… so yes it gets very boring) and tried to do some quests, but the paladin was so slow that I decided to grant 4 levels to my 33 hunter to catch him up to my mage, and then did my hunter/mage combination. The funny thing is, a day later, I went right back to instance grinding… go figure!
So anyways, my first grouping reached the cap, a Blood elf Paladin, a Troll Mage, and an Orc Hunter. Originally I was rather happy with the group and started working my hunter up to 70.
Well… in my semi-altalholic nature, I started getting really bored of my hunter and lost interest in my mage (female trolls… I don't like their appearance anymore) and my paladin. And I realized… "I dont' have an undead or a tauren"
Thus my rogue and my warrior were born. For this pair I did instances up till about 45, and since then I follow quested to about 50, and I have been questing with a friend since then (without my warrior following). The only reason I multibox for this group now is when I'm turning in quests for the 3x turn in boost.
I must say, I respect you, Aprillian and Ashayo, very much. After two pairs of characters being multiboxed (and often triple-boxing my friends mage to run myself through the instance), I can honestly say that I am so tired of triple boxing that I dont' want to do any major multiboxing anymore while I continue to play world of warcraft! For me it was really a draining experience! I really enjoy my classes, but I don't think I'd want to play them together anymore. For this reason, I am transfering my warrior off my second account to my first, leaving my mage on the second account ( I have… ZERO interest… in playing her at all) and letting my second account just run out of time. I plan on granting my last 24 or so levels to a possible twink, and that will be the end of my RAF experience.
I'm near that end soon. My rogue is 56, and my friend and I will be hitting 58 today and heading off into outlands in which case I am done with this system. Farewell Recruit a Friend, and thanks for all you have done.
Ctrl Alt Wow, I hope this helps you guys, and thanks for a great podcast.

Ctrl Alt WoW Episode 78 - Saving Frequently

Aprillian and Ashayo discuss another week of playing World of Warcraft, Blizzard's great MMORPG.
Episode 78 - Saving Frequently
What We've Been Doing
Aprillian
Crazy whacky mayhem trading off alts in Scarlet Monastery just to get to the dog keeper and get a blue drop. First Aprillian with Suyna, easy at level 64 she and her Felhunter take charge. Swapped out Iwari so Primall, on Aprillian account, could join and get the RAF bonus. Iwari couldn't hold aggro. Brought in Treshel, was a little better but even she died.
Note: Even if you don't click the accept button on the RAF summon, the timer resets.
On Wed, I took a bunch Suyna 22, Primal 22, Ishaq 20 and Lucerferus 12 into SFK. I'm loving the Priest. I'm loving grouping with me.
Changed some profession, made Primall an enchanter, made Ishaq a miner/engineer Then went back to Camp T area with Primall/Suyna and Ishaq, decided to make 30 my goal for the weekend.
Spending crazy time getting mats together to level tailioring and lw w/ suyna and Primall. I know I have spidersilk on someone. Where are those irridescent pearls? Getting enchanting up by de'ing everything from her and Suyna
Ran into the Outriders in the Barrens, totally forgot about them.
Discovered a big problem when triple boxing with RAF, 3rd toon lags behind. Ishaq is 21 and Primall and Suyna is about to ding 26. So I started another priest on Primall's account and gifted her 9 levels from Suyna. that was really sweet. Realized maybe I'd been wasting time levelling skills at this juncture and should just level them.
Headed to Ashenvale Saturday night with Primall and Suyna, dual boxing on the MBA. Ran back to get dye from Camp T and noticed a lot of people running around, could this be a side effect of the RAF? Hmmm
Fortunately Primall's pets are levelling with her.
Sunday morning back in Ashenvale. Brought in Veyle on the 3rd account, mainly because she's in the AIE Guild. Ended up in 1000 Needles it was like being home but all new again. Accidentally bumped into the Test of Strength guy
Ashayo - Extended Maintenance again ... Boo! - Gruuls on Asheal and Jekle this week. Both one-shot. - Levelling mage in Tanaris/Feralas/Hinterlands - Ding 50 - Ashayo fails at SSC - Leotheras the Blind at 1% - Tanked RFC on Warrior - need to get used to stances - Halaa PvP - good when a plan comes together - Ashayo catches Mr. Pinchey!!
Interview with Tzolekk (shadermn)
Email No. 1
Hey guys,
 
My apologies for not being overly clear last email...
No, I don't use my feet to play WoW (lol)... I was, however, at work most of the day before my injury, then proceeded to break the bone on the side of my foot (the 5th metatarsal) as well as incurring muscle damage and ligament sprain... and then was at the hospital (and away from my computer) for the remainder of the day.
All is now well, though, and the authenticator seems to work just fine!
But hey! A silver lining has come from all of this – I have a great deal more 'home time'... my kittens love it that 'daddy' is home more and I have gotten a great deal more accomplished in WoW.
 
Hey Aprillian and Ashayo!
First, please allow me to apologize to the fair Aprillian for seemingly excluding her from my last email and the possibility of catching Mr. Pinchy... t'was not my intent.
We're all cheering you on, dear Aprillian, in your quest to get to 70... and we'll erupt in a cheer and song and much revelry when you ding... BEFORE the Wrath of the Lich King.
Right?
Plus... in all fairness, Ashayo specifically asked for the Mr. Pinchy details... and ol' Blade delivers...
Speaking of delivery... I wasn't overly clear on a point I made last episode. When you use the last wish (that's wish #3) of Mr. Pinchy, he disappears. That's it. That's all. You'll have to catch him again if you want three more wishes.
That said, it IS possible (if you're terribly lucky) to have more than one Mr. Pinchy in your inventory at any given time (for SOME reason Mr. Pinchy isn't a unique item...) and each one is on the same 2 day timer. So you can only get one wish per two days, no matter how many Mr. Pinchys you happen to put into your inventory.
Onward.
 
Have you ever been a little jealous of your druid friends for their ability to shapeshift into other forms?
What if I told you that it was possible for ANYONE to become a fish?
It takes some luck... and not a small degree of skill... but it's possible.
Before you embark on this journey, you must have the following:
Fishing skill (minimum 130, preferably 225+)
Character level at least 10 (to get the fishing skill minimum), preferably lv35+ to defend yourself from the mobs that will be around the areas you will be...
Booty Bay and Stranglethorn... for the weekly Fishing Extravaganza!
This particular weekly event is also very popular with lower-level pvp toons for the extra gear (with boatloads of Stamina on it) that you can obtain...
 
In Stranglethorn Vale... at 2:00 PM server time, Riggle Bassbait (he's the little green goblin near the big hanging fish and the inn) will announce "Let the fishing tournament begin!" which will trigger a whole ream of Ally and Horde toons running full-bore out of Booty Bay towards their mutual destinations.
The pools along the shore.
For two hours (2:00 PM to 4:00 PM server time) ALL of the pools in Stranglethorn Vale will become 'Pools of Tastyfish' for the purposes of the contest.
All you have to do is fish 40 tastyfish from these pools – before anyone else – and get them to Riggle Bassbait – before anyone else.
Sound simple?
It is and it isn't.
It can be challenging if you don't quite know the ins and outs of your fishing skill... an don't have a few tricks up your sleeve beforehand.
Firstly... remember that the Tastyfish are in pools... and to FIND these pools, your job will be made infinitely easier if you have learned the ability to track pools on your minimap courtesy of the Weather Beaten Journal I discussed previously.
(You see? There's method to ol' Blade's madness...)
So off you go to find some pools along the beaches of Stranglethorn Vale... remember that most mobs along the beaches here are in the 35-40+ range (raptors, basilisks, pirates, etc.), so having the ability to defend yourself against attacks is crucial. Bring a friend with you if you don't think you'll be able to survive a crocolisk attack on your own... or if you're on a pvp server where the contest can become deadly in its competitiveness...
Now... as a lot of people will be trying to win this contest, having a few strategies set up beforehand can only help...
Equip your fishing gear before the contest even starts... that's pretty much a no-brainer...
I, personally, have my Fishing Skill (the button-click to cast a line) on a second hotbar... so that instead of clicking (or double clicking if you have an addon that allows it) the water, all I do is tap my hotkey... this helps when I'm trying to cast into a pool and miss it... one click and I'm tossing the line in again.
Also... it's probably advisable to have a straight fishing skill – that is... nothing that you have to put on your fishing line each and every time in order to increase your skill (like lures or aquadynamic fish attractors, for example) as these take TIME to put on... and in this contest, time is of the essence...
One more thing... knowing that you will be potentially runing up and down the beaches in Stranglethorn, it'd probably be a good idea to set your Hearthstone to Booty Bay... as it is there where you turn in your Tastyfish once you catch them...
All set? Get fishing!
Oh... a few more things...
Riggle (and his companion the Fishbot 5000) will spawn about an hour before the contest starts (around 1:00 PM) and despawn about an hour after the contest closes (around 5:00 PM)... which is good... as the Tastyfish you just caught have a 4 hour timer... they'll go bad!
As an added bonus, your Tastyfish (even if you didn't win the contest) can be turned in for gold!
The price scales as you level... up to something around 1g12s per batch of 5 fish at level 70.
Yep... the quest actually makes you money while you're competing! How much better can it be?
At the end of the contest, quite a few people continue to fish the Tastyfish pools for more Tastyfish as well as the rare spawn fish that can be caught and turned in to Fishbot 5000 for so EXTRA items!
Each of these rare fish has about a 1% chance of being caught at any one time and they aren't unique... so you can catch more than one! Plus, they won't 'go bad' like the Tastyfish will... so if you have to, you can keep them in your inventory for later!
Brownell's Blue Striped Racer can be turned in to receive Nat Pagle's Extreme Anglin' Boots (Cloth boots, 36 armor, +5 Fishing Skill, +12 Stamina)
Dezian Queenfish can be turned in to receive High Test Eternium Fishing Line which (so far as I know) is a permanent 'enchant' for your fishing rod to give it +5 skill bonus to Fishing
Keefer's Angelfish can be turned in to receive Lucky Fishing Hat (Cloth, 43 armor, +15 Stamina, +5 to Fishing Skill)
There is also a rare fish that Fishbot 5000 won't want... but YOU might... as it makes a rather formidable weapon! The Rockhide Strongfish is a level 40 bind on equip green, and acts as a one-handed mace, 46-87 damage, 2.5 speed (26.6 dps) with a +8 stamina bonus!
Imagine the look of incredulity on the faces of the Alliance in the battlegrounds when they get slapped in the face with a fish!
 
But... the main rewards... the rewards ONLY the winner of the contest may choose from are a selection of either...
Arcanite Fishing Pole (minimum Fishing Skill 300 to use, +35 to Fishing Skill – the highest bonus in the game thus far...)
or...
Hook of the Master Angler... a trinket which allows you to turn into a fish, allowing a slight speed increase and water breathing!
Of course, it's not as versatile as other shape changing... if you are struck in combat or cast a spell, you will revert back to normal... but it still beats swimming normally... plus it marks you as a previous winner of the Fishing Extravaganza!
 
Good luck!
 
Oh... here's an easter egg for you Alliance types:
Near the Alliance Auction House, ask one of the guards the location of the Alchemy Trainer.
One of his answers will be "Why, oh why didn't I take the blue potion?"
For those that didn't automatically get the reference, this line (or one very much like it) was uttered by the character Cypher in the movie The Matrix.
 
As always, cheers for an awesome podcast guys!
 
Blade
Email 2
I just wanted to send in an email to see if I can help you out with your Two Box problem.
The reason why it was giving you a wall of text was because of the relay specifically. If you have two characters relaying to each other, then the never ending wall will occur because once one relays to the other, he will relay right back, starting a chain.
For two box toolkit to work, you don't need it on and running on both characters. That is to say, my leading character (which is my friends mage that I'm using to run myself through instances) does not have it installed. My two alts do, and are setting my mage leader as their master.
Also, as a side note, you do not have to set a person as master for them to be able to control that character. So if my mage is my alts master, and someone comes to my alt and says "followme" my alt will tell my mage "Following nameoftoon" "follow is broken", and he will go off with this other person.
I use this extensively when I'm triple boxing. My mage is my leader for both alts, however I often control my second alt with my first alt. All the messages are relayed to my mage, but he isn't following my mage.
By the way, I'm also doing recruit a friend and you can see my posts in the instances forums regarding my first couple of characters to reach 57 (where I stopped). I'm now on my second, and due to moving/less-time/college life, It's taking longer than my first grouping (mage pally). I did instances up to 50 on my first grouping, however I plan on doing quests from 40+ on this second grouping (warrior Rogue). I will be follow questing on one until he gets low atwhich point I will try to switch to my follower and lead with him so I have a total of zero down time. We'll see how it goes.
Good luck and thanks for a great show.
JG
Email 3
Hey Aprillian and Ashayo. This week not only did I play on the dark side, I joined it a second time, and began the challenge and experience that is dual boxing. I created another mage, this one on the horde side. The reason I did this is because I found that my passion is the mage class. This leads me to the advice for others, find a class you really enjoy! You enjoy the game much more. I am currently dual boxing a Frost Mage / Feral Druid combo. I play the druid as the main class with my mage on follow. I have made many macros which greatly help with using the mage to deal some damage. The most basic of them is a assist macro, I will include and example code at the end of my email. I have found that the damage output is really great, and the 3x experience is better than I could have imagined. For those of you who have never tried dual boxing, I highly recommend it.
This week I chose an addon many people know about, but for those of you with gathering professions who do not have Gatherer installed, it will be life changing. The idea of gatherer is simple, it displays nodes on your map which you or your guildies, who also have gatherer installed, have gathered. Why is this good some may ask? The reason is because of the fact that it makes farming much faster and more efficient. If you already know the location of the herb or nodes you can easily find them when they respawn later on. You can find it as well as a database of locations for herbs and nodes on the gatherer website here: http://www.gathereraddon.com/
Here is an example of an assist macro I use on my mage: /assist vallk /cast frostbolt
what this will do is make the secondary character target the first character's target and the cast a frostbolt. You can substitute any spell or action permitted in for the /cast.
Lastly, I have a request for those who are dual boxers, I am looking to add more addons to my collection. -- Thayloo- 70 Mage Triaa- 70 Warlock Valrot- 30 Undead Mage Vallk- 29 Tauren Druid
If you have any questions or addons to recommend you can email me at wowwarlock2@gmail.com

Ctrl Alt WoW Episode 77 - Why Didn't I Think of That

Aprillian and Ashayo discuss another week of playing World of Warcraft, Blizzard's great MMORPG.
Episode 77 - Why didn't I think of that
Technical Difficulties
What We've Been Doing
Aprillian
So back in WSG with Primall when someone asks again, why I'm in there at level 14. "Why don't you go level to 19" and I thought well I do have unitl August 24th. Plus, I have the extra speed from the refer a friend. So I had Treshel take Primal, Pri level 20 Rogue, and Suyna level 13 Warlock into RFC and by the time we were done we were 16. Tonight I'll go to WC and get to 19. I only took Pri for the bag space.
Now that I have the gbank for my allie alts, I thought I would move my main bank alt to SW and pulled another alt to BB so Relaq can play more.
Got up early tuesday morning to see if there was no maintenance and ended up running part of the way into WC. BTW Refer A Friend, or RAF can summon into instances. Very nice. I knowI 've gotten overly obsessed with RAF. Cleared WC did all the quest except the bottle one. Had to summon Pri in to get stuff so I didn't have to destroy anything. Got tons on greens, it was amazing. Had to leave for work right after finishing the 3 quests and getting a white croc for Primall to tame. Dual boxed on my Macbook Air at work. Got Primall and Suyna to the quest givers in the cave a the top of the entrance to WC. Both Dinged 19.
Spent time with Pri to enchant Primall and plan to take Primall to WSG. But first I spent almost an hour getting her a cool 2h axe and enhancements. Pulled Iwari to UC to make the standard scope and after 3 matches, 2 losses and one W, Primall got her Gold Medallion.
Gold Medallion winners: Aprillian, of course, Ardrion, Primall, Trexrar(alli alt) and Auntrillia. I suppose that's enough for now.
I found Mor'shan Base Camp and the rings for level 18. I have 18 wsg marks on Primall so I guess it's back to the bg one more time and then I ended up buying her a necklace.
I wanted to get Iwari up so I took her to get her to 50 with Aprillian and realized she doesn't get any of the bonuses because Aprillian is over 60. So now I'm using Iwari with my level 20.
Took Suyna into Scarlet monas
Ashayo
Decided to get the Gold Medal on Ashayo. Hit EotS with Tarrq, Clayman and Johnni and got it after the second battle!
Ashield tanks Karazhan - 3 bosses in an hour first night, and another two the next night. Crazy stuff for a pally in quest greens/blues. Props to Tarqq and the gang!
Glaciuss - completes STV! Quest chain ending in "Saving Yenniku" gives nice staff - Nimboya's Mystical Staff - gets his Carrot-on-a-stick after a ZF run with Mata triple boxing - Runs Jintha'lor in Hinterlands with Mata's Shaman/Hunter - Finally ran Maraudon ; very long instance, and no clothie drops at all!
Sharman hits 30 and I get my first raptor mount - feels like a Kangaroo.
Started a warrior and levelled to 10 with another newbie!
Confirmed with GM - corpses get 'cleared' which causes rez at GY
Email
Email 1
Hel'o April and Ashayo,
This is Marrly (Pronounced Like Bob Marley) , level 58 Troll shaman from The Eonar realm. On Episode 76 you mentioned the Lunar sphere addon. Personally I am addicted to it. I have it set up on each of my characters. You asked if the boards that you found the addon on was the point of origin, then the answer is yes. http://moongazeaddons.proboards79.com/index.cgi?board=lunarsphere That is the point of origin....
And one to April: What Is the mod that creates the long bar below the bottom task bar that is shown on your pictures of the deserter Primall? Also Is the fact you can see the full gryphons on the side of the bottom taskbar due to the size of your screen (The HD TV?) or is it a mod. In general would you be kind enough to list of Most of your addons and where you got them?
Um.... Thanks In advance Oh... And
FOR THE BLOODY HORDE!
Marrly, (more dots...............)
Email 2
MO to me show details Aug 20 (4 days ago)   Reply both of you are very cool and appreciate your great work on teh podcast
thank you
-- Mohammad Ouranos

Ctrla Alt Wow Episode 75 - Blizzard wants us to Dual Box

What We've Been DoingAprillianEarly Tues morning, took Aprillian and Rilfire out to falcon watch, Aprillian had the quest to kill quillboars and didn't want to waste the leatherChecked my ally alt and got 15g, woot I was almost sold out.Tuesday night logged on to Rilfire to do some of the Cenarian Post stuff out at Falcon WatchWed morning spent most of the time running around getting non combat pets, Primal gets 12 prairie dog whistles in TB, Jajal gets 32 dragonhawk hatchlings from Eversong woods, Ardrion runs up to Ogrimmar and gets 32 snakes.  I'm almost embarressed when I log on and collect my 11 to 16 gold ever 4 or 5 hours.That evening took Rilfire back out and she did the ravager quest.  Used Scatter shot for the first time and found out where the Fel Scales I'd been buying on the AH come from.  After completing the quest, I spent the rest of the evening farming for knothide leather and fel scales. It was nice to be back on a hunter againThursday morning got in a fishing mood.  Got Rilfire to 275 and got Primal to 5 so she can train in fishing. She was a level 4, thanks to the midsummer festival, but I hadn't ever played her in "rl", she had no real armor and no weapon skills.  I ran her to Bloodhoof and she died several times trying to get those well stones.  But she got to 5 and got fishing, so now when RilfireThursday night I got on my level 1 undead warlock, since I want to use one with 2 of my 3 level 19's, 20's ish toons.  It was fun leveling in Deathknell.  And I had forgotten the Warlock got the imp at like level 3.  How cool is that.OMG!  took my level 19 priest into WG for the prizes Blizz set up to coincide with the Olympics.  It was so much fun.  At the same time, I noticed my horde pets were  no longer selling on the ally side.  I guess they are all going after the pet dragon.Funny, I checked my ally Friday night and I was practically sold out again. 16g!Saturday morning, hung out with Palanor on Relaq and Pri.  We even went into Bg, got a tabard but no pet.Found a slight flaw in Altaholic, if you have checked the box "has Mats", and then logged on to another alt, the other alt can only see the recipeSaturday, did refer a friend and Aprillian got a zhevra mount.  Spent a while leveling and summoning linked characters.  Quite neat and handy. Gave one character on old account a level up from new accountSaturday night I wanted my bank alt Primal to run with my new warlock, but I needed to get rid of some of the stuff she was holding.  I went to look for bags on the ah and there were hardly any non bop larger than 10AshayoAshield and Asheal persisted with SSO rep and hit exalted easily in under two weeks. Have enough to buy them epic flyers, but not sure I'm going to.Massive shield upgrade for Ashield - Sunward Crest (also a tanking shield)Great tanking neck piece - Shattered Sun Pendant of ResolveNice grinding neck piece - Shattered Sun Pendant of AcumenAshayo - Ran Heroic Black Morass for the first time. Fastest badges ever. Makes a huge difference with well geared people - lots of fun!Levelling Shaman with RL friends. Ran SFK "almost" in real mode - just had Jekle doing some overhealing.Levelled Leatherworking to 175. Should've planned ahead - make a whole bunch of white belts and just sold them then later realised they could be used to make green belts at higher skill level. Managed to buy some back.What to do with accumulated mats leading up to WotLK? I have many bags and banks full of ore, gems, shards, cloth, and assorted raw materials. Experience from release of Burning Crusades says the price will fall through the floor on many of the items. Sell? Hoard?Quote of the week "Dad! Help! My cat has turned into a person and it's scary!"Email and CommentsComment 1And I know it's no it's no it's no... Great episode ^_^ loved it... Dave from SacredEmail 1Hello to you, Aprillian and Ashayo!Blade here...Just listened to Episode 74 and decided to contribute again with some fishing tricks...Specifically... the Weather-Beaten Journal that will allow you to 'track' fishing pools on your minimap - much like the hunter's tracking ability or the tracking of minerals and herbs. You will need a Fishing skill of 100 to use it, and the journal binds on pick-up, so you will probably have to use the journal yourself... BUT... there IS a way to trade the journal to another character... I'll detail that in a moment. In order to find the journal, you will have to fish up a trunk or a crate, specifically Curious Crate, Heavy Crate, Heavy Supply Crate, Iron Bound Trunk, Mithril Bound Trunk, Watertight Trunk or Tightly Sealed Trunk. The best drop rate seems to be from Curious Crates - which are caught from any pool in Outland at around a 4% catch rate. There's no specific pool in Outland that drops Curious Crates more than any other, so the higher chance of having the journal is offset by a low drop rate. Personally, I found the greatest success in Stonetalon Mountains... in the Venture Company goblin area... there are pools of wreckage all along the river there... and it requires a fairly low skill level to fish them (55 if I recall, higher skill to prevent fish from 'getting away')... The drop rate for the journal in any crate or trunk in Azeroth is approximately 20%... so you have a 1 in 5 chance of getting the book when you fish up a trunk. Also, it didn't take me a great deal of time, as all the pools of wreckage are along the river... and it's a smaller stretch of land - there wasn't far to travel between pools... it's fairly easy to fish up quite a few trunks in a short amount of time... as the mobs are around level 16-18 (with 2 wandering shredders at around level 22), being high enough level to be able to handle those mobs easily makes for a quicker time fishing trunks. Oh... once you learn the skill to be able to Find Fish, you will no longer be able to see any new journals you might fish up in subsequent crates or trunks... so how will you know if the trunk has a journal in it or not? How do you send a journal to an alt if it's bind on pickup?Worry not!It is said that the trunk does not disappear when looted if it has the journal in it... you just won't be able to see it.I, personally, don't trust this feature and just send all of my newly-fished trunks to other toons as soon as I catch them... I don't even open them. The TRUNK isn't bind on pickup... only the Journal that might be inside is. There's a catch (haha pardon the pun)... in order to see the journal in the first place, the character that opens the trunk must be able to fish (ie. have the fishing skill at least level 1) and not have previously learned the Find Fish skill from the journal... so send the trunks to a level 5 alt that you know you won't be taking out fishing... learn the fishing skill and let THEM open all the trunks.As an aside, as it's a bind on pickup item, the journal is difficult (at best) to sell over tradechat (and nigh impossible to sell on the Auction House)... as most people interested in fishing will have already found it, and if not, they will not be willing to pay a great deal of money for it. You might be able to get a few gold for it, but I doubt it... My resounding lack of success selling the journals I found resulted in my saving the extra ones I did find (that I can't use, as all my alts have one) for guild distribution... maybe an in-guild contest or something... So there you have it... a fairly quick way of learning a skill that will invariably help you later in your fishing adventures... by pointing out on your minimap all the special pools that will make your fishing for that very specific kind of fish THAT much easier. Next week... finding Mr. Pinchy!Cheers for an awesome podcast guys!BladeEmail 2Hey Aprillian and Ashayo its Triaa again with another mod for you. The mod I choose this week is called Advanced Trade Skill Window. It is a complete replacement for your trade skill window. It shows you the number of a certain item that you can make. It allows you to set up a queue of which items to make next and all you have to do is hit continue queue to make more than one type of addon. And it also gives you many ways to sort the list of items you can make, such as by name, skill level, category, and it even gives you the function of being able to search for a recipe you have by name. If you leave a recipe in the queue it makes a list of them, it then brings this box up when you go to the auction house and allows you to click an item to search for that item in the AH. And if you go to a vendor who sells things such as thread a box pops up saying that the vendor has some reagents you require, and with the click of a button allows you to buy those reagents. It can be found here: http://wowui.worldofwar.net/?p=mod&m=2092 In a true altaholic fashion late this week I created another new alt, however this time this may make you happy, it is an undead rogue . He is currently level 12 and is a completely new experience this being my first undead character and my second rogue. For those of you counting, this is my 15th commonly played character, spanning across 3 realms. Now I guess at the end of all of my emails i am going to have to say this: For the Alliance!For the Horde!-- Thayloo- 70 MageTriaa- 70 WarlockIf you have any questions you can email me at wowwarlock2@gmail.com

Ctrl Alt WoW Episode 74 - When Life interrupts WoW

Aprillian and Ashayo discuss another week of playing World of Warcraft, Blizzard's great MMORPG.
The title comes from the fact that I have to go to a stupid family reunion .
What We've Been Doing:
Aprillian
I don't know what to do, if anything, with Ardrion. I have a certain fondness for him. He was originally named Ctrlaltwow when I started him on the server. He is now 43 and at 300 in LW, 300 skinning and 275 cooking. But to do anything else, he has to get to 50. Right now he's good for making armor kits for my lower level
Rilfire was fishing and not leveling, checked her skill window and she was 225/225. Did a quick search and found she had to go to Dustwallow Marsh and get a fishing quest. Surprised I hadn't done it sooner. She had to fly and ride to two different spots on both continents and fish until she got some speccial fish. Didn't take too long, just wish she had done it sooner and she would be levelling. Of course she got fish that she might be able to sell.
Monday night I got a little treat. Palanor, Glanthur's level 22 Belf Paladin, logged on. I tripled boxed with my 3 level 19's, Pri Orc Rogue, Relaq Orc Warrior, Ishaq Troll Priest, and the 4 of us went to southern barrens to do the egg collecting quest. We died a bit, but it was my first time triple boxing this treo and doing multi boxing without any pets. I'm loving the priest and the resurrection but I have to keep her alive. I'm thinking I might want to bring up a warlock and put a soulstone on the priest. Because Palanor was higher, he drew aggro off of Relaq but I can see as we get up higher, Relaq is going to be fun to play.
Wed morning took Rilfire. Pri and Relaq into Wailing Cavern. I wanted to level Rilfire's fishing from 225, but then realized Pri needed fishing too. I want to see if she can find a book without opening the crate
Rilfire left WC with Fishing at 252. Took her to Falcon watch where she killed and skinned boars. Trying to do more outland stuff, to get Outland greens for Auntrillia
Friday night and Saturday went to Family Reunion
Thread in Instance forum berating multiboxing
Rilfire went back to WC and got 17 pound catfish, sent to bank alt. 2Crazy level 10 belf hunter trying to tame level 11 serpent in WC Sunday night
Ashayo
EMA! (Extended Maintenance Again!) Decided to start the grind on Ashield and Asheal to get exalted with the Shattered Sun Offensive. Great way to grind for epic flying mount , plus the rewards are very nice for someone decked out in quest greens and some blues.
Ashayo's raiding group has pretty much Magtheridon on farm status. Wiped on 3% because a cube clicker died, but downed on next attempt easily.
Had the opportunity to play in the beta of WotLK. Completed the Death Knight starting zone. It's like an instanced area - can't just ride out. The mobs arn't static - there is a progression as the quests progress. Pretty much hit level 58 by the end, so straight to Outlands.
AIE's Guppers (Gruul and unusual punishment) downed Gruul for the first time this week. And one-shot to boot. Gratz all round!
Levelling shaman with RL friends. Run them through WC. Forgot to skill up on skinning, so was stuck at 75 the whole run. Ran out of time to do the escort at the end, so will be back! Fun to play with someone who has never played before.
The Great Mail Cleanout Hadn't done it for a while, and was reaching the point of mail being deleted. Decided to level cooking on Hiide (2nd account). Had rediculous amounts of meat and fish on an alt, was just a matter of getting all the recipes. Mage very useful for that - porting here and there. The Aldor rise has a brazier - which can be used for cooking! Also, can land near the Scyer fire and use that - and have a Scryer alt get spices from the nearby vendor. Got up to 365, and ran out of high level mats. But still have enough to level another toon!
Email:
Email 1 Hello to you, Aprillian and Ashayo!
Blade here...
To hear my email read aloud over the interweb was... I have to tell you... an awesome experience... To hear great celebrities such as yourselves endorse what I have been doing was even more so! Y'all brought a tear ta my eye... =*) but... to actually WIN your contest! Man... is THIS what celebrity feels like? It's AWESOME! I promise to only use my newfound powers of fame for good, rather than evil... hehe
On that note:
1) My address:
Screenshots! As per your request, I have enclosed a number of screenshots of Tahrzaan's (mis)adventures in Azeroth... I'll send more upon request... I mention a few scenarios on the blog I have set up detailing Tahrzaan's journey, but sadly I don't have any screenies of some (the Isha Awak kill in Barrens, for example)... and now it's too late to kill him...
As an aside, I was actually wondering if there was any tasks, hints, tricks or advice areas that you might feel could be an addition to your show. Oddball Stuff... or News of the Weird and Wacky... Or something like that... I will compile a list in the days to come and see if I can't come up with a whole host of cookies, "secrets" or other things to make peoples' experiences in Azeroth THAT much more fun...
Like... - the fishing book that allows you to see 'pools of fish' on your minimap, and where to fish it... - the new fishing quests (like fishing up Mr. Pinchy) - little 'easter eggs' in the game content (like while fighting your way through the Deadmines to get VanCleef's head you'll encounter a Goblin Shredder. Kill it (and the goblin that pops out of it, then look at the dashboard on the Shredder. Unless they changed it, you'll see a familiar face: Kerrigan, The Zerg Queen from Starcraft: Brood Wars. She appears to be the ruler of the goblins as well! Other goblin shredders can be found in Stranglethorn Vale, Ashenvale and Gadgetzan. - or other off-the-wall ways of making gold in Warcraft (or you might keep these tricks for yourselves... but since your count was at above 2000g as of the last podcast, I somehow doubt you're overly-concerned about in-game finances...)
If you think it'd make a good addition, let me know (or let's chat a bit so we can see whether personalities are compatible!)
Thanks again for the callout in the podcast! My co-workers were looking at me strangely when I suddenly heard my email being read over the podcast... as I listen over my iPod, all they saw was me cheering at the ceiling and yelling 'Woohoo!' =)
Thanks again for an awesome podcast!
Blade / Michael
thebladededge@gmail.com www.nakedmeleehunter.blogspot.com

Email 2
Hey mates,
Just listened to the podcast... As always a great episode, the link to mine is http://sacred.kkotd.com If you are looking for tons of them (quite a few from AIE ^_^) you can check out http://wowwiki.com/podcast They are trying to clean it up from all the inactive casts but it can take around 12 hours of your life to listen to them all.
I have to say you guys are one of my faves, so please please please keep it up!
Thanks, Dave aka Theranos (Fur an oes like in toes) Most people can't pronounce my name ^_^
BTW: Alt story, we took all of our bank alts out to Silithus one day, then as we hit Silithus we told everyone to hit the / key to walk. We said you could take any path but you had to keep walking! The first one to Southshore won 1000G for whatever they wanted... We started with around 20 people and ended with around 4 people two and a half hours later... O by the way we forgot to lay down the rule of no Flight Paths but as most of these alts had never left Ironforge, they only had 1 or 2 flight points so it still worked out. That has to be one of my most fun, alt related activity! I am looking for screenshots but I think most of the people have left the guild that took them so *_*... O well I will post screenshots for the Night Elf thing once we do it ^_^...
Also FOR THE ALLIANCE RARGH!
Email 3
Hey guys wats goin on been listing to ur podcast for about a month now and I thought you kno for being on the horde side u guys arent to bad lol jk. Ok so a lil background info im a Lvl 30 Draenei Mage on the Detheroc Server my name is Heon. Ok so my question is even tho im a mage and all mages main weapon is either a staff of a wand but if you go to a weaponsmaster i could either learn daggers or one handed swords would i benift or do more damge with the blades or shld i just stick wit the staff or wand. SO ya their it idk if yall cld help me out or you kno someone who cld ur help would help me alot. Thanks again and keep of the podcasts
Heon
Email 4
Hey again Aprillian and Ashayo, its Triaa again. This week I have a great addon for saving space and clearing clutter from around your minimap. Have you ever wondered why there is so many buttons around your minimap? Minimap Button Frame takes all of those buttons and then shows only one button around your minimap. When you click on this button it opens a frame showing all of the other buttons that were around your frame originally. One great advantage I have found is that it is supported both by titan panel and Fubar. Here is the link I recommend downloading it from: http://www.wowinterface.com/downloads/info7929-MinimapButtonFrame.html
On another note I finally bit the bullet and created the stereotype night elf hunter this past week. What I enjoy most about my hunter is probably my pet. My 22 hunter has a boar named porkchop :) The name was suggested by one of my friends in my guild. So if you are on the US Lothar Server and see a night elf hunter running around with their trusty companion porkchop don't hesitate to say hey. -------------------------- Thayloo- 70 Mage Triaa- 70 Warlock
If anyone has any questions about mods or anything pertaining to them you can email me at wowwarlock2@gmail.com

Ctrl Alt WoW Episode 73 - No Maintaince Tuesday is Okay

Aprillian and Ashayo discuss another week of playing World of Warcraft, Blizzard's great MMORPG.
Episode 73 - No Maintaince Tuesday is Okay
What We've Been Doing:
Aprillian
Aprillian Unlearned Primal Mooncloth, for 50g and learned Shadoweave for 20g and picked up 5 shadowweave recipes
Made macro/buttons to make twobox work for different character combinations
Spent Thursday morning getting pets over to the Alliance. They are selling like hotcakes. I wonder if it has anything to do with the latest info on pets in the Expansion.
Authenticator and 3 accounts are fun.
Aprillian made a Spellfire bag (28 slot enchanter) for Auntrillia and bought a 20 slot Enchanter's Satchel, from the vendor in Thrallmar for like 12g. She equipped the spellfire bag, and put the satchel in her bank, buying a new slot for 25g. So now Auntrillia can de to her heart's content
Saturday morning Triple boxed in Outland, completing some quests that Apriliian had and the other 2 had done, and then they did the pooh quest together and going into that mine
Aprillian dinged 63 and got to wear another piece of the Netherweave set, gloves. But then I noticed her shoulders were from 47 and so I got a new pair on ah. Saw her old gloves had 8+ stamina, so I ran Auntrillia around trying to find the enchant, until I realized it was from a knothide armor kit and Rilfire could make them.
Levelling Relaq, level 19 Warrior, in mining and bs. Easiest levelling ever I actually got from like 40 something to 178 without hitting a node, just smelting. And AI makes it a breeze because it tells me where mats are on each alt, on the account I'm on but if I link to other alts, it tells me their mats and also what's in the vault. I had been saving so much mats, that I felt rich. I only had to go to the ah for some silver and gold ore, but not much of that.
I was focused on the outlanders but I'm ambivalent.


Ashayo
Ashayo's Heroic night - Ramparts and Botanica
RFK - Server failure FTL. Lost blue necklace from rare bat spawn.
Levelling Shaman. But just duel-boxing with Jekle for heals.
Levelling Mage. Hit 40 last night. Tearing through SM
Mage quests - needed SM and Uldaman
Completed all of Dustwallow Marsh / Mudsprocket (including mage quest to kill level 40 elite demon - soloed :)
Intending to do every quest in STV!

Email:
1st email:
Hey guys I love the show. I just happened on it and am in the process of getting caught up on some of the podcasts. My question is do you have one or two episodes that explain how to multibox? I have two accounts and always wanted to give it a try but wasn’t quite sure where to start. What type of system req’s do you recommend? How do you control both characters using only one monitor and one keyboard/mouse? Any recommended mods and or macro? What types of classes work well together? How do you select quests on both characters?

Sorry for the assault of questions, but it sounds like you guys are the multibox masters and I want to glean anything I can. Thanks again.

-Keelhaul

2nd Email:

Hey Aprillian and Ashayo its Triaa again sorry I missed last week, got busy with raiding and such. So this week I decided to bring you two addons. The first is a modification to your cast bar, It is called quartz. The advantage to using quartz is that it takes into account latency for when you are chain-casting spells allowing for maximum DPS for casters. Here is a link to download this addon: http://www.wowinterface.com/downloads/info7158/. The second addon I decided to feature this week is the chat addon which Aprillian comments on two episodes ago. It is called Prat and allows you to customize your chat windows even more. It removes the scroll arrows on your chat panel and allows you to scroll through chat by simply mousing over the box and using your mouse scroll wheel. Here is the link: http://wowui.worldofwar.net/?p=mod&m=4413. hope ya guys enjoy these addons, I'll be sure to have another one next week.

Comment:

Comments from Ctrl Alt WoW:
Sender Info:
Name: Thera AKA Dave
Email: main@kkotd.com
Website:
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re: Re: Ctrl Alt WoW Episode 72 - It's a Learning Experience
Welcome from Sacred Podcast... Awesome episode great idea for running undead into Stormwind, now we must return the favor and run out lvl Night Elf alts to Ogri ^_^
Episode: http://ctrlaltwow.podcastspot.com/episodes/71B82A
Email- Contest!
Hey guys!
Blade here...
I stumbled across your podcast after doing a "warcraft" search in the iTunes store... and find CAW to be a refreshing change. You actually sound like you enjoy the game, but don't come across as exceptionally techno-obsessed (the extra sound effects some podcasts have can get rather annoying and distracting)
... nor do you come across as 'leet experts in all things WoW'... you sound like your enjoyment of the game stems not from T4/5 or Arena Season 4 and end-game content, but rather from the experience of 'getting there'- and growing as individuals along the way.
In truth, I came to be searching the iTunes store after being led there by a website dedicated to tanking, as one of my alts (my warrior) has recently respecc'd protection
... and it was one of the few sites I could find that helped tanks not specifically obsessed with 'bleeding-edge' content and gear... for THAT reason, I put credence into what they had to say...
... which leads me to my alts, your contest and my 'unique and crazy' situation.
Like most players in WoW, I have alts.
I consider not one, but two characters my 'mains' (allow me to explain).
Bladetusk, 70 Orc Rogue, could be considered my 'main main' as 'Blade' is the moniker that I am known by within my guild; my 'main alt' would then be the aforementioned respecc'd 70 protection warrior, Bladeskull.
Rounding the list, is my 70 Mage (Greymalkyn), 65 Hunter (Wolftusk) and numerous baby alts including a baby shaman and baby druid who are acting as my bank and AH alts respectively... and there is one other who I will mention in a moment.
Now... I don't have many alts (not even as many as Ashayo, admittedly) but I *have* been playing them for a while... and because I do not at present dual-box, I leveled each of them one by one to the levels they sit at now.
For reference, ZG, AQ20, AQ40 and Naxxramas were but a twinkle in the developers' collective eyes when I started playing and even MC, BWL and Onyxia were 'fresh' enough content... I recently (masochistically?) did a '/played' on Bladetusk... and the number (approximately 37 or 38 days if memory serves correctly) doesn't seem like a lot... but if you figure one or two hours per night... 365 'nights' per year and 24 hours in a given day, then ol' Blade's been around quite a long time...
During all of this time, I have had plenty of opportunity to test and play just about every conceivable race/class/talent combination I can think of... and plenty of opportunity to realize what I prefer as a player (For the Horde!)... which leads me finally to my last alt and my own personal craziness.
Both my rogue and my hunter are my gatherers, and between them they gather every conceivable farmable mat... cloth, ores, fish, herbs, skins and motes from the clouds in Outland.
I particularly enjoy the hunter as it is an 'easy' class to play... often times, while I am farming (he's parked in either zangarmarsh or terokkar forest at any given time and I farm the bog lords and trees for herbs... breaking up the monotony of the grind to grab skinnable beasts or spiders for their netherweb silk.
Don't get me wrong... to play a hunter 'well' requires a certain amount of skill (the same can be said for any class) but I find I can turn off my brain when I play him... a nice relaxing time free from threat of dying... with his tanking pet, I only get concerned and use a heal pot when he's got more than 2 or 3 mobs on him at the same time... otherwise, it's a relatively effortless grind on my part.
I COULD make a great deal of effort (and some day still may) and learn the class exceptionally well and become an 'exceptional' hunter... but at this point in time, I prefer to save my focus for the rogue and the warrior...
And my other hunter.
Tahrzaan.
I decided I wanted to test my skill as a player and stretch my knowledge of the hunter class 'tricks' at my disposal... but not in the traditional way.
So I rolled a Blood Elf Hunter... called him 'Tahrzaan' and stripped him naked.
No clothes.
Not even a weapon more powerful than the weenie starting dagger (the 0.9 dps one).
Interesting? Crazy?
Your first thought might be 'So what? With a pet tanking and the hunter at range, there's little danger of dying ANYway... so what's the big deal?'
Wait for it...
His ranged weapon is a throwing knife.
Yeah. A hunter with no ranged skills to rely upon... (dagger crit for 25 damage ftw!)
and when he leveled to 20, I got a huge boost in his melee dps with the addition of his skinning knife as an off-hand...
And that's how he's stayed up to the present day and level 31 (and counting).
Right now, he's been doing the tauren kindergarden quests to gain enough rep for his kodo mount (as Horde can't ride elephants... kodo's are the closest thing), tamed him a cat from the Blood Elf newbie area (named Numa) and ran him all the way to Darkshore and managed to tame one of the spectral cats from the cat figurine idols (the ones near the nagas). That one's named 'Sabor'.
(All names derived from the books by Edgar Rice Burroughs).
I log into this toon when I tire of the hum-drum of leveling/grinding or doing daily quests or farming on my litany of alts... and I must say that it is an eye-opening experience.
Mana is all-important... traps become almost a necessity, and aoe attacks are far more dangerous now than they would be normally... heck... more than one attacking mob can NOW mean death if I'm not careful.
I have been called a 'noob', been told to 'put on clothes', and 'lrn2play' more times than I can count... but some people are nicer about their curiosity... they simply wonder 'why'.
So I tell them.
Anyone can play a hunter. It takes skill to play a hunter well. *I* plan to play this hunter well WITH his handicap - both to challenge myself and to prove that it can be done.
So in closing - as this has become much longer than I anticipated - it'd be great if I were selected in your 'wierd and crazy' alt contest... but even if it is not, it would be great to be mentioned in your email segment so that your listeners might be encouraged to think a little more 'outside the box'.
Examples:
- Gutrot the lv70 naked troll
- a pacifist priest that refuses to kill for xp
- survival hunters (like mine, but with armor and decent weapons)
- a warlock with no pet
- adventuring in the beginning (pre-BC) zones but staying on only ONE continent
Cheers for an awesome podcast guys!
Blade
thebladededge@gmail.com
www.nakedmeleehunter.blogspot.com
-------------------
We announced the winner of the Authenticator, but you will have to listen to find out who.

Ctrl Alt WoW Episode 72 - It's a Learning Experience

Aprillian and Ashayo discuss another week of playing World of Warcraft, Blizzard's great MMORPG. Full Show Notes at http://ctrlaltwow.com What We've Been Doing: Aprillian Shadowmoon Valley - fp Altar of Shatar is Aldor friendly. Sanctum of the Stars Scryer, woohoo. Aprillian is Scryer, I thought becasue they attacked Auntrillia, that they were alliiance. There's a tailor at the Sanctum that slells Pattern Imbued Netherweave Robe, which Aprillian didn't know and almost bought off the aha Thursday morning got obsessed with levelling Auntrillia in enchanting and getting Treshel to the alchemy lab at work I took Aprillian back to the voidwalkers. Good xp, safe, for the most part. Rode out to Winterspring on Auntrillia and picked up 34 felcloth and almost a 100 groms Ashayo Got my authenticator (Thanks Aprillian!) Only protects game and account management website - not, for example, armory login or forums. No confirmation of serial number! Prompts you for code even if you get the password wrong - so it's sending the account name first. Good and bad side to that. 2.4.3 patch - First chicken mount! Yay! Cool new animation for Warlock soul well. Cro Threadstrong's yelling at the Fruit vendor is now a pale yellow, not red. Glaciuss (frost mage) is levelling much faster with Asheal tagging along. Hit 35 and stopped to level Enchanting. Vision Dust is hard to find! Ended up buying lots of silk to make cloaks to disenchant. Once past that hurdle, easily attained the goal of 275, and promptly disenchanted a whole swag of level 68 gear. Asheal did a *good* PUG! Botanica, and got a nice set of leggings for an upgrade. AIE Raid on Gruul's Lair on Jekle. High King Maulgar down! Gruul still picking us out from between his toes. Asheal and Ashield complete all the Shadowmoon Valley group quests with the assistance of helpful guildies. Woot! Gorefiends Armor - don't use the life steal too soon! New Video Card - Replaced ATI Radeon x1950 with Radeon HD 4870 with 512MB RAM. Yay, no more video tearing! Starting writing my first mod, based on ACE2. Looking to manage moderators in a custom chat channel. Comments:
jiraiya said...
yeah.if you need info for macro or want to submit your own macros, feel free to visit wow macros. make sure to include ur handle name and server.cheers!
July 8, 2008 4:08 AM
Albert said...
Hi. I use this Addon for my interface: Atlas, Atlas loot, Titan Panel, Damage Meters, Ghaterer, Omen, Proximo, Preform AV enabler ecc. What do you think? This is a package of my wow interface. It’s a file zip. Addons WoW
July 9, 2008 3:12 AM
Auho said...
Hello I would just like to say I love the new intro.
July 13, 2008 12:35 PM

Episode 64 - Altaholism Revisited

Since the show is about alts, I thought we'd get back to why we do the alt thing versus playing one character to 70  Etiquette on PvE servers 
What We've been doing: 
Aprillian 
Aprillian dinged 58! She's in Outland 
Before that I tried to triple box ST 
Netherweave cloth on horde side through the roof 6g for a stack vs 3g on the ally side 
Friday morning: 

Spent time moving stuff over to ally alt and picked up some more cheaper Netherweave cloth
 

Ctrl Alt WoW Episode 60 - Insert Title Here

iTunes and What's in a Name. I don't know why but Episode 58 that was entitled let's all grind was removed from iTunes. And Episode 59 was not showing up. I contacted iTunes and was eventually instructed to refresh my rss feed details and a few hours later they both appeared. Oh I did rename Episode 58 to Let's all Level.
What We've Been Doing:Aprillian:
Aprillian got to 50, yeah! in Felwood Kiling Furblogs. She flew to og to train Warlock and then she hearthed Shat. She wasn't sure if she had to run to Thrallmar, or if she could find someone who could summon her there.
Aprillian got Soul Link Aprillian bought Runecloth off of AH and went to Og, TB, UC and SM to donate 60 RC for 9550 Xp. She went from 65% to 89% just from that. She finished up and then flew from UC to Booty Bay, a little over 13 mins.
Friday I had to go to a funeral, took the day off thinking I could come home and wow
I made a major decision last week. I left AIE. Being an officer in a large guild is a big chore. I would like to give a shout out to AIE and all of its officers. You guys do a wonderful job.
Ashayo:Other Topics to discuss: Big Giant Scary thing from out of no where. Every zone just about has one. The most popular one is the Devilsaur in Un Goro Crater
Big Giant Scary thing from out of no where. Every zone just about has one. The most popular one is the Devilsaur in Un Goro CraterBottom Scanner has made me shy at the Neutral AH
I keep pressing r in AIM
Emails:
Hi Aprillian and Ashayo:
I just finished listening to episode 59 and it was great. Another fantastic episode! :) I was wondering what you and Ashayo thought about ideal combinations for dual boxing characters.
I have 3 dual boxing teams (Priest/Warlock, Druid/Warrior, and Rogue/Hunter) and am finding the Druid/Warrior combination to be my favorite so far. I'm planning to spec my Warrior Fury and my Druid Resto. I use KeyClone along with custom macros in order to dual box without having to switch between windows.
I rotate between the three teams to maximize the rested XP bonus. I'm tempted to start a fourth team after listening to you discuss Mages. ;)
My teams are currently level 10, and hope to get one team to 15 by next weekend. Thanks for the tips in episode 58 for my professions!
--Molsan
HI Aprillian:
Ashayo had some questions about how to effectively dual box with software that manages your commands and I would be happy to answer any questions he might have. I can send a more detailed email, or even an audio response if you would prefer. I'll also try and find him in-game and chat as well.
Let me know if there's anything I can do to help or contribute.
--Molsan
Talking about Multi boxing

Ctrl Alt WoW Episode 59 - The Power that is the Mage

Aprillian and Ashayo discuss another week of playing World of Warcraft, Blizzard's great MMORPG. Emails and a special interview with a confirmed Alta holic and Mage rounds it out. What We've Been Doing:
Aprillian
Working on getting Aprillian to 58, she's currently 48. After she dinged, she went to Og to train Had her soloing in Felwood, doing the Jaednar quest, but she kept dying so I brought in Auntrillia
Started a Mage named Pia
Thursday Morning Since Aprillian was running out of rested XP, I took her to Tanaris to do the Gahz'ridian Ornaments quest. She would get a little XP from killing mobs in the desert and complete that quest for xp. Plus she can level up her herbalism. She started at 292, Collecting ornaments went well. There was an ally at the Eastmoon Ruins killing the ogres, and ignoring the ornaments and herbs. It was easy pickings. I had Pia on at the same time. She was over halfway to 10 and dong Fairbreeze quests. Aprillian finished and turned in the ornament quest and ended up with her herbalism at 295. She checked her log and found she had a quest to go to the Hinterlands. She hearthed back to Shat and then took the portal to UC and flew to TM. She didn't have the fp to Hinterlands, so she rode from TM. What a difference a few levels can make. I remember running through the Hinterlands and dying on other alts at lower levels who didn't have mounts. As she was riding around, she saw a ! in a Troll Mob village, she picked up the Venom Bottle Quest, then the Undamaged venom sac quest in TM. Which leads to a ZF quest. Good times. She flew back to Hinterlands and I left her in the inn to get some rested xp.
Meanwhile Pia's gotten to level 10 out that tower with the corrupted soil quest, and she's bumping up her herbalism from all the bloodthistle out there. She dings 10 and heads to Silvermoon to train. Along the way she passes Farstrider Retreat and pickes up 3 quests and then heads to Silvermoon. She gets the start of one of my favorite quests, the one where the buildins are floating in the sky. She also pick
Guest Triaa - Mage Every class has it's give and take. I started with hunters because I like pets and believe they are the easy button.
Thayloo -http://armory.worldofwarcraft.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Lothar&n=Thayloo
It seems to me that the Mages get pretty powerful early on. Come on they make their own food.
Frost Nova and then fire. Spec fire until higher levels.
Happy Birthday to Matahorn April 16
Email:
Hello Aprillian and Ashayo This is Matahorn, a Dual boxer and a long time listener of the podcast. Also I am a fellow guildmember of Alea Iacta Est. I thought i would write to you and tell you how I Dual Box. I have 2 accounts but I play them together both on the 1 computer with 1 screen. I atl tab between the 2 characters. Matahorn is my level 70 Tauren Hunter and he is used to help my lower level characters through instances or hard any group quests. I am also an Altaholic. I will start on a server with a hunter because I find them easy to level and I really enjoy playing them. When he hits 70 I then use his great money making ability to help out my alts. Another reason I love alts is that they are great for having the different professions and not having to rely on the AH for my goods. Anyway I just thought I would write in. Keep up the great podcast and see you in the Game
Matahorn
P.s For the Horde
While setting up the podcast, I got an email from Glanthur. Always nice to hear from him. He writes:
Subject: Stalker's Chain Armour
My first complete set. The boots and the belt are not part of the set, but I wanted to match to look pretty. LOL. What do you think?
/Salute to you Glanthur, looks pretty spiffy!
http://armory.worldofwarcraft.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Earthen+Ring&n=Glanthur