Well, it feels like it’s taken forever but I’ve finally got my first alt to 80. Minivok, a Gnome Mage, was once Pancakeman, a Human Mage and my first 70. It was Pancakeman that first stepped foot into Karazhan as well as Gruul’s Lair.

Serevok was born out of desperation to be honest. I wanted to raid, but Magi were a dime a dozen and Shaman, particularly Resto Shaman, where in desperate need everywhere.  I leveled to 70, pugged Kara with Shenanigans and joined two days later. The rest, as they say, is history.

It’s been nice to return to the Mage but I’ve got to tell you I hate leveling, for the most part at least. I’m not sure why MMO’s do it, but they truly are two different games. The game to the level cap, and the game after it. In WoW, it’s after the level cap I’m interested. Now that the angry little Gnome has hit 80, I’m going to head back to Naxx and going to get me some PvP on. Everything leading up to now has been the preamble to the main event, 80.

I’ve got two other characters stuck at 72 – a Hunter and a Paladin – and a Rogue at 40 something. I’ve also just started a Druid and just cannot get the Priest to 20. I’ve finished the Death Knight starting zone five or six times now. I’d love to get them all to the level cap but the grind of the same quests over and over is too much for me. Read the rest of this entry »

Sometimes the random number generator doesn’t seem random.

Nazaniel was really lucky after she hit 80 – on her first Heroic Nexus run, she got War Mace of Unrequited Love. Unfortunately, since then, the luck has run out.

12 runs of Heroic TOC, and I’ve never once seen Mariel’s Sorrow.
On Sunday we downed Anub’arak, and no Argent Resolve for me either.
On Sunday we also downed Mimiron Hard Mode, and of course, no Pulse Baton for me.

Nope, not in that one either...

What does a pally have to do to get an upgrade around here? Read the rest of this entry »

I spend a lot of time surfing various blogs, forums and websites reading up on how various Shaman are healing these days. Gone are the days of spamming Chain Heal (well, mostly) and just gemming for Spell Power.  Wrath brought a number of changes that have been good for Shaman, but have made us a little more complicated to play at the same time.

One thing I find on a lot of these sites is absolutes. Thou shall gem for x stat. Thou shall use y spell above all others. Thou shall install z mod.

In the Unreal Realities forums there is a thread with someone asking for advice on what mods to use when healing. There are three responses from three very good healers (yes, I’m one of the replies, yes, I think I’m very good, yes, I know that’s a touch arrogant, but thanks for point it out) that all have a different approach – one of them doesn’t even use mods (Gasp!).

I use Healbot. Why? Because when I was a baby Shaman someone told me to use Healbot, I installed it and never looked back.  I always look at other mods people talk about or recommend, but Healbot works for me. I’ve earned the Hand of A’dal title, defeated The Betrayer, killed the God of Death and recently earned Firefighter with Healbot.

Is Healbot the reason I was able to do this? No. There are many other mods out there that could take it’s place and, like Reas, I’m sure I could raid with no healing mod if it came to it. The mod does not maketh the Shaman. Read the rest of this entry »

A Beginning, the human prologue detailed the Ranger Admir’s search to find a connexion between the Brigands and the Dark Riders, during which he saves a few Hobbit captives.  Funny enough, my latest journey starts with one of these hobbits…..

“A distressing letter speaks of troubles beyond the Shire, leading a Hobbit to take the long road to Archet, fraught with danger . . . “

Dear Celandine Brandybuck.  .  .  .  Its starts with this letter, which the Postmaster informs me cannot be delivered to Archet due to increasing tensions in the area, so I set off to Archet.  I travel by night which, in hindsight, may not have been the greatest idea a Hobbit ever had.  In fact, I’ve not travelled far when a sense of dread settles over me, I thought I saw another traveller – on horse – but surely am mistaken, a trick of the light, or dark.  I settle my nerves and carry on.  There!  Just around the corner I come upon a mysterious Rider harassing a Bounder who is insisting he knows of no Baggins’.

Realising there is no information to gain from the Bounty the exasperated Rider gallops into the dark.  The Bounter, quite terrified from the experience, leads me to Old Oldo’s farm where we plan to hide until the coast is clear (and what better place for two Hobbits to wait it out than a leaf farm!).  Of course, nothing goes to plan this night, and we can’t get into the farm.

We move toward Stock, and quickly, something seems amiss.  We come across another Rider, this time speaking with Brigands in the dark.  One of them leaves to deliver a message to Eogan (Eogan also features in the Human prologue, having plotted with the Riders to capture the ‘Baggins’ Hobbit from Archett).

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There is that moment of panic, just before the first person is given the Shadow of Death debuff.  Please, please, please don’t let me be the first.  Second, fine, third, no worries, just not the first.  Not when I have to kill the adds alone, where everyone will know if I fail, please not me!

“Shadow of Death on Vok.” Shit

Gorefiend was, for me, by far the most terrifying fight I’ve done thus far in WoW.  While we were progressing, getting Ghosted damn near became a phobia.  You can’t carry people through it and you can’t make sure everyone practices, you have to just keep plugging away at it until you get it right.

There were really only two mechanics of note in the Gorefiend fight – an AoE spell which increases in damage output over time, and the Shadow of Death debuff.

The AoE damage I loved, for me it was the first time Resto Shaman really started to shine.  Mashing chain heal had never been so fun, nor so useful and it was great to really be able to see what a Shaman could do. It’s one of those fights where you trying to hit the button harder, hoping it will make the heal go off quicker.

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There is nothing quite like getting a new computer. When you first get home, you rush to plug it in, load on all of your favorite games whilst reading random instruction manuals and rearranging your desk so that it’s “just right” to accomodate the new machine, just to pass the time. Immediately you open up that graphically intense game that never really worked properly, or that one game that you’ve been playing for the last few months, and turn the graphics up from “big square pixels” to “is that a CGI cut scene or not?”. Then you happily blast your way to happiness with high frame rates and detail you’ve never known before.

At least, that’s how it should be, and if it is, it can often be short lived.

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Because I’m still over-the-moon at the firefighter kill, here’s an awesome video guide I found to it. Might have been helpful to find before the we did it though >.<

Seems like a good idea to add this one too, seeing it’s our next headbanger

At work this week, I caved and added a heap of feeds to Google Reader. It’s a big admission — while the engineer in me loves that the content of web sites can be transformed, permuted, even transmuted, another part loathes the idea of reading something out of the context of its original presentation. However, I’m just finding too many interesting things people are saying about WoW to worry about the beautiful sites on which they’re being said. Sad panda.

Years ago, Tycho waylaid Raph Koster who wrote out a game design doc for Penny Arcade. I googled this out because I remember a paragraph of it.

Games are made out of smaller games — turtles all the way down, until you hit the game that is so trivial and stupid it isn’t deserving of the name. In an MMO, we nest games pretty deep, because some games are short-term and some are long-term. In something like WoW, the smallest games are things like “hit Heal on time.” Then you get ‘kill the foozle,” and above that “kill a hell of a lot of foozles” and above that “make yourself stronger by picking the right gear” and in some cases “make your guild stronger” and so on.

Consider this: WoW has gone from having one major game, to having many. The single, end-game of raiding used to dominate every little grind, which in turn were made to seem endless so we wouldn’t feel like we were being sold short. I realise now that the early fishing nerfs that mystified me so were to protect the economics of that end-game. Now, though…

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Finally got it last night. RAWR! Two to go. I’m not going to go into too much detail (I’ll save it for an Epic Encounter) but it was a one man (well, bear actually) standing win. Amazing stuff.

In other news, five years of WoW, 15 years of Warcraft. There is a “mini-site” up with all sorts of bits and pieces going up, but there is an excellent interview reel. I encourage you to check it out, very interesting.

So, we’re going to talk a little about our own best moments in WoW – join the discussion here

One of the most anticipated aspects of the Siege of Mirkwood expansion has been the introduction of Skirmishes.  Its definately something I’m looking forward to and has me even more motivated to get my Dwarf moving.   So what is this new toy we’re looking forward to?

In attempt to curtail the advances of the Dark Lord the free peoples have taken a stand to defend their lands.

Playable from level 30 in the varying fellowship sizes (3, 6, 9 and 12) as well as solo, Skirmishes are randomised instances taking place in pre-existing locations of Middle Earth.  The Defence of the Prancing Pony, for example sees the free people defending a snow covered Bree.  Control points in the instances see players defending areas or re-claiming control points from the enemy.   Encounters provide optional objectives for players to complete but are triggered during the instance – Developers aren’t giving much away on the subject suffice to say players should keep an eye out for the chance to participate.

As a weekend warrior, you will be provided the opportunity to train your own army.  Well a soldier or two anyway.  I’ve heard this is only available for solo play but I’m not entirely sure.  So, after completing a tutorial players will be given the option of how they would like their soldier to offer support, i.e. a tank may ask for aid in the form of pew pew or a medic.  Being untrained, and potentially undisciplined soldiers traits will provide you with the opportunity to whip your guys into shape – initially having minimal control over your NPC soldier.

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