Ctrl Alt WoW - Virtual Reality Podcast

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

Ctrl Alt WoW Episode 57 - Playing for Fun

What We've Been Doing Aprillian  Making Decisions: Felt a little pressure this week to level Aprillian and Ardrion, but at the same time, I'm getting antsy about money and all the money I could be making if I had a level 70. But I'm ambivalent, because I know even though I can push Auntrillia to 70, she doesn't have decent gear. And then it's HS all over again and I'm not in the right outfit. Some were silly, bought a 24 slot LW bag. Ardrion has two 20 slot leatherworking bags, one in bank one on him but always needs more room. Since they are boe and unique, when I upgrade I'll have to vendor one. 
I took Ardrion out to Tanaris to grind and farm turtles. It was a win win situation for him. He gets turtle meat, skin and turtle shell. Plus they are all neutral, he doesn't have to worry about aggroing other turtles. Although in a rare instance another turtle will join a fight, only happend twice the whole time he farmed/grinded turtles. 
I didn't spend as much time as I usually do playing. Did a lot maintenance. Clearing out stuff. Sending low level greens to Aunrillia to de.S Tay, my Ally Dranei AH alt is back to making money. I had some competition for a while, but it slacked off. I thought about this while I was transferring stuff in Booty Bay. It's a very tedious thing to do. You have to put each individual pet up for auction and then immediately bid on it on the other character right away. One time there was a bot there who snatched a cockroach away but I just overpriced it a bit and was okay. I imagine the average player doesn't have enough patience to do this on an ongoing basis. 
I spent Thursday morning getting Auntrillia Enchanting to 100. Friday morning, Aprillian, Treshel and Ardrion went to Gnomeran, just for fun. Of course we were overpowered for the instance, being 54, 46 and 41 respectively. I loved it. We all died when that Shortfuse chick set off that explosion. Aprilian used a soulstone and was stuck behind a wall of rocks and the other two spent 10 or 15 minutes running around Dun Morogh (whatever) until they found the 
Saturdy spent leveling up an alliance  Ashayo I haven't played as much as I normally do either. Monday I spent some time with Asheal and Ashield out in Hellfire peninsula doing the 1st few quests. Then Ashayo came and helped Asheal get some quests done so that Asheal was a level or so ahead. Asheal is now 60. 
Tuesday I was in Kara before shutdown to help finish clearing it. Got nightbane down with about 5 minutes to shutdown :) Wednesday we had massive storms that took out the power and internet, so I didn't get to play at all. 
Thursday was Jekle's turn for Kara with the "drunk with power" group. We have lots of fun and took our time downing the first three bosses. As you've seen Tarqq has an open invitation for you when you hit 70 - regardless of your gear! Jekle and Hiide have been doing the new dailies, but haven't had time for the Ogri'la. The new bombing run on the Isle of Quel'Danas got nerfed in Tuesday's patch. It now requires less hits to kill the pit boss and the sorcerers, which is good, because it was taking too many re-runs, and about 80% of the time is just waiting for the flight to take you to the bombing area. Something I meant to mention last week that I definitely DON'T like about 2.4. Hunter's got a big nerf in terms of their mana regeneration. Blizzard made the mana-per-5second formula the same across all classes. For a class like a hunter where mana is important, but we have previously not concentrated on maximising intellect, we're at a massive disadvantage. Estimates on the forums is that you need an intellect over 400 to get the same mana regeneration you were used to prior to 2.4. I'm having to change the way I do fights, and take alot more rests , which is a pain. On the flip side, Jekle as a resto druid is better off. And Ashayo's minions are regenerating mana faster, so I can mana tap them more regularly. 
One thing I want to do is to try dual-boxing two of the same class - probably mages. I want to try out the technique of both toons casting the same spells simultaneously. However the only software I can find to do this isn't free. I'm both hesistant about buying it just for a trial, and because it isn't open-source, I can't be sure that it doesn't contain a keylogger - since it's very nature is to replicate keystrokes (and mouse movements) Even though I've levelled my tailor past 300, I've been persisting with trying to get felcloth from the vendor in Winterspring. I was beginning to think that they'd taken it away in 2.4, as I spent hours there once and got nothing. Then one day I got 3 pieces in several hours, then another time I got 11 in about 2hrs. So the spawn rate seems very random. 
Show Close out. Great Mods I've been using. This one came from Renata of World of Warcast Podcast Quest History  http://www.curse.com/downloads/details/7388/download/42496/ 
and Pet emote  
 
http://www.curse.com/downloads/details/3538/

Ctrl Alt WoW Episode 54 - Hard vs Easy

Ashayo joins Aprillian in a discussion of their week of gameplay in Azeroth. The two talk about what they've been doing in World of Warcraft and alts as well as Dual Boxing. Aprillian admits to not liking some of the pressure in regularly run instances. They also discuss secondary sklls as they pertains to alts. Thanks Blizzard!
What we've Been doing
Aprillian
Went into Hellfire Citadel with Auntrilia (Level 63 Hunter) and Rilfire (Level 60 Hunter) with Ashoyo's Hilde and Jekle     Hard for me to do the organized shooting thing.   Setting up stuff, I kind of like to just fight.  Ashayo knows the best ways.  I felt a lot of pressure.
Went to Zul Farak with Aprillian (Level 43 Warlock), Treshel (Level 53 Hunter) and Auntrillia.  I was doing pretty fine, of course Auntrillia is overpowered.  I take my time make sure my 3 are in position
 I mentioned in gchat that I was doing this and someone offered to join me.  They needed some of the quests finished.
Practicing ignoring people in Trade - Cuts down for a small time.  A couple of times I hit invite instead of ignore and people accepted
Secondary Skills:
Email:
I'm Nîmrod. I play a level 70 hunter main the Eitrigg realm.
On my main account I have the level 70 hunter, a level 70 warrior, and a level 45 rogue I'm working on. On my secondary account I have a level 58 hunter, and a level 45 warrior.
I noticed you guys were talking about dual boxing and I thought I'd share something not many people know.
I play on a Macintosh. I am able to play two accounts simultaneously on the one machine!
My Mac is a fairly powerful one. It's an 8-Core machine. 8 3GHz intel Xeon cores and 8GB of RAM, with an ATI 1900 graphics card with 512MB on board.
I have two monitors attached, an Apple 30" display and an Apple 24" display.
On the Mac, you just have to create a copy of your WoW folder and poof, you can launch two separate WoW processes. WoW is very self contained, not spreading crap all over your hard disk, and we Mac folks don't have to worry about antiquated constructs like registry files.
I log into both accounts all the time using the one machine. My performance is still great.
I've even done this on my Mac laptop. I open two instances of WoW on the one screen in small windows, but it works. I wouldn't want to play long that way though. It's much nicer on the large flat screen monitors.
I like the podcast very much.
Keep it up!
Thanks,
Nîmrod.
The American Heritage Dictionary offers two distinct definitions of animrod -- either a hunter, or a person regarded as silly or foolish. The dictionary goes on to explain that the second meaning probably originated with the cartoon character Bugs Bunny. The wily Bugs used the term in its original sense to refer to dithering hunter Elmer Fudd, whom he called a "poor little Nimrod." Over time, however, the "hunter" meaning got dropped, and the "dithering" connotation stuck.
Hi Aprillian:
I just listened to my first episode of your podcast (#53) and wanted to let you know that I thought it was great. I've subscribed to it through iTunes and will definitely catch future episodes.
I met Ashayo last night for the first time. We ran Shattered Halls together and he mentioned the podcast. He was fun to group with and an excellent guest on your show.
Best of luck to you, Molsan

Ctrl Alt WoW Episode 51 - Hey You've got Valentine's Day in my Lunar Festival, Hey you've got Lunar

Aprillian and Glanthur talk about the latest events in Azeroth and how they affect their alts. We all know the main point of Lunar Festival, to get flight paths for lower level alts. And in the middle of it, I got Valentine's Day Fever.
What a crazy week.
Aprillian:
I spent the whole week running around Azeroth. I didn't get to do any quests. All of my alts have major exp.  We all know the main point of Lunar Festival, to get flight paths for lower level alts.  And in the middle of it, I got Valentine's Day Fever.
Emails

Hey Aprillian and Glanthur, its triaa again (70 lock) I don't know if you had this answer questioned yet, but in episode 48 the question of what the choice between infernal or felhound was raised. Waht the choice in these quests is the choice of one of the two different offhand items, if i remember correctly, the infernal is for increasing the damage of fire soells in the destruction tree, what the felhunter choice gives you is an increase in shadow damage, such as those in the affliction tree. However in my opinion what you get from outland easily outdoes these quickly, unless you really need the experience I recomend skipping them. They are a very long and almost now pointless chain. Well thanks guys keep up the good work on the podcast.
Triaa 2nd Email
Hey Aprillian and Glanthur, its Triaa again(70 lock). I had an experience this past week where I helped to explain the different talent trees to a 60 lock who did not really understand them. This showed me that no matter how long you have been playing your class you can always learn something new, so I thought I'd give a quick overview of how I personally level a warlock. However I do recommend you play your class however you want, these are just my personal opinions. I personally found for the ranges of 10-49 having an affliction lock is actually the easiest way to go. And then after 50, I respecced to demonology for the Felguard, best choice I ever made on my warlock. The Felguard provides an amazing tank, and some of the spells you get in the demonology tree improve your character's abilities incredibly. I thought I would include a spec that i used at 50 and one i am currently using to farm at 70. If you guys ever have any warlock questions don't be afraid to ask. Keep up the good work.
Here is the spec i used at level 50- http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/warlock/talents.html?0000000000000000000002052030131250102501251000000000000000000000
And the one I use at 70- http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/warlock/talents.html?0501220510000000000002052030131250103521351000000000000000000000
3rd Email
Welcome to Dual-Boxing Glanthur!
I agree with Aprillian ... FFA FTW, and get the follower to complete the quest first ... ALMOST.
Why "almost"? When doing grinding quests such as "go find me 30 human heads", and you kill 10 humans and only 2 of them turn out to have heads,  (go figure) I found that it's faster while both character have the quest. If one character completes the quest, the drop rates seems to drop. I guess it makes sense mathematically. So I get the follower up to 29 heads, then work on the followee, so they both finish about the same time.
Ash
Glanthur is leaving.  RL sucks sometimes.
Ashayo has graciously accepted

Ctrl Alt WoW Episode 45 - Play Your Way

Aprillian and Glanthur discuss the many play styles of WoW. Talk about what they've been doing, re-entry into WoW after taking a few days off, developments in the Guild Bank and going back to Basics to RTM!
What We've been doingAprillian

Glanthur:
Re-Entry
OK, It's that time of year again -- when everyone goes to the mall.  So, work has really picked up.  And, because of that I have very limited time for World of Warcraft.  Now, I know a lot of people think that there's ALWAYS time for WoW, and you're right.  However, last week also marked the release of Mass Effect, an Xbox 360 RPG that I had been waiting patiently for.  New always takes the place of old, but I find that WoW is like your comfort foods.  You may want to try snails, you may even like snails, but grilled cheese sandwiches will always be delicious.  But, going back into WoW after some time away can be disorienting.  Here are some things that I do to help get me back in the saddle again (which ever mount it happens to be):
- Challenge allies to duels outside a capital city.  This will help you refamiliarize yourself with your hot keys and keyboard layout.  The point is that it's OK to die.  Better than running to your corpse across STV.
- Look over your quest and remember "The Tubes" are a great resource.  Get your bearings and remember all those quest items and XP you were lusting after
- Go shopping.  Nothing gets you back in the mood than a little spending spree at the AH.  What good is fake gold if you don't spend it.  Splurge and get those blue leggings you have been craving.  If you're low on gold, then spend some cash on materials for professions.  Leveling your professions also helps get me back into the swing of things.
     Play your own way 
Working out Guild Bank issues
Back to Basics

Strength (STR)

   
Increases your Attack Power with melee and ranged weapons. Increases the amount of damage you can block with a shield.

Agility (AGI)

   
Increases your Attack Power with ranged weapons. Increases your Armor. Increases your chance to score a critical hit with a weapon. Increases your chance to dodge attacks. Increases your Attack Power with melee weapons (rogue, hunter, and druids in cat form only). 

Stamina (STA)

   
Increases Health. Increases your pet's Stamina.

Intellect (INT)

   
Increases Mana. Increases your chance to score a critical hit with spells. Increases the rate at which you learn weapon skills. Increase your pet's Intellect.  

 

Spirit (SPR)

   
Increases Health regeneration rates out of combat and Mana regeneration rates when not casting spells.

Next week
Dual Boxing reintroduction

Ctrl Alt WoW Episode 44 - Even Numbered Episode, Time to Train

Of course we talk about Patch 2.3, the mini-expansion
What We've been doing:Aprillian We decided to start over on a PvP server, as alliance.
Patch stuff Guild banks are cool.  Perfect for people with alts.  No longer do you have to remember who is holding what or use Rpgoutfitter.com.  You can store stuff in the guild bank.  Not too much room so you won't be storing silly stuff.  It's going to make all the difference for true altaholics.  If you have 3 accounts like I do and a bunch of different alts, it's worth it to invest in a guild and guild bank.
Tips: Eggs, start collecting small eggs for the Holiday season.  You'll need them to make cookies.  So will everyone else.  You can sell them on the AH right at the start for a few gold. 

Ctrl Alt WoW Episode 41 - Brewfest and Starting Over

Brewfest http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/events/brewfest/ Ram Racing     Lots of fun, takes some finesse. Barkers Wanted Mystery Hunts Aprillian: 
New Hunter Twink Orc Quea, now 7. Dual boxed with Rilfire, level 51 Tauren Hunter and Auntrillia along with Ashayo who had Jekle and Hiide.  We went to Jentha A'Lor for
[50+] Separation Anxiety - from Huntsman Markhor in Revantusk Village
[51+] Wanted: Vile Priestess Hexx and Her Minions - from wanted poster in Revantusk Village
[51+] Job Opening: Guard Captain of Revantusk Village - from wanted poster in Revantusk Village
Hearthstones - good to use in Starting areas.
Mac Video Recording - Having lots of fun with it. The quality is great
Glanthur:
Yeah Brewfest!  I had a lot of fun doing these activities with Arlaerus.  I also found a potentially cool new guild.  I won't name them until I'm sure they're up-and-running, but it things are looking up.  I got Palanor to level 13 and Arlaerus to lever 43.  One more level until the next skill buying spree for both of them.  I also started a new Undead, Warlock named Mortlente (slow death in French).  He's going to be the antithesis of Arlaerus, who is Mr. Goody-goody on the Alliance side.  I also finally got to go exploring in Uldaman.  I love the "Map Room".  What a great ode to Indiana Jones!  Oh, and the pink elekks...those reminded me of the scene from Dumbo when the mouse character (whatever his name is) got drunk and say pink elephants.
I you haven't already, install LightHeaded.  It's a great time saver when it comes to playing WoW full-screen.  No more alt-tabbing to a Web browser to check Thottbot.  All of the coords and quest discussions are right there.
Comments in Blog:
From Darrell "Also you dont need to say "we'll be right back" and have music cuz for us listeners, time does not pass when you hit the pause button. Just pretend you took a breath between sentences."
This done more for the chapters than really for the break.  If someone wanted to find something later, they can go back to a chapter and search from there.