Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Patch 2.4 - Enter the Twilight Zone

I went to Blackrock Spire last night to solo Mother Smolderweb. I've wanted to do this for a while and Burning Steppes/Searing Gorge is one of those locations I've never visited, so I was looking forward to the new scenery.

I entered Blackrock Spire, took down a few mobs, and stepped into the actual instance. Looking at the clock I realized I'd better logout and finish this another time, so I stepped back out of the instance and the game aborted sending me to my desktop.

I tried to log back in but it crashed on each and every attempt.

I tried my other characters and they worked just fine.

Only Keila is "lost" in the Twilight Zone.

I sent a request to the GM's and this was in my mailbox this morning.
I also noticed the main message on the WOW connect screen refers to the problem.

Oops, guess that beta test needed another week or two.

Well, I guess It's time to play the alts.

Note to self. NEVER play on the first day of a major patch.

Cya,

Forest Cat

Fishing in WOW

Well, this is my "big" hint. With patch 2.4 I guess it's not that great anymore. I suppose I should have posted it earlier.

Anyway, here it is.

You can (could) make major gold fishing in the Bay of Storms. Standing at Scalebeard's cave I made enough gold to buy my epic mount, and I made it fishing. Yes, I cleared over 350 gold in three short fishing trips. About 99 percent of what you catch in the Bay of Storms has an AH value of 45s or more. Most of the fish you catch are worth a gold piece each time you cast.

Why?

Because to level up cooking to 300 you had to have darkclaw lobster and the Bay of Storms is the only place to get it. That's no longer true with patch 2.4 so who knows if this still holds, but it's still a great place to fish.
And Scalebeard cruises by on occasion and drops cool loot.

The downside? Fishing is really boring.

Call me Keilakat, fishing addict.

Cya,

Forest Cat

Keila at 61

My favorite part of this blog is the ability to look back and see what Keila was wearing way back when. Here she is at 61. The "skirts" are sure a lot more colorful than the ones you get in the teens.
Cya,

Forest Cat

Monday, March 24, 2008

Noblegarden

Sunday was Noblegarden which is the WOW version of Easter. If you are sitting there wondering what I'm talking about, you're not alone, this is an easy holiday to miss.

There are no decorations or notices in the major cities, instead Noblegarden is limited to egg hunting in the starting zones.

In Teldrasil I found eggs near the trees in the area that you typically find the level 5-8 players questing.
Sometimes they put the eggs in areas that are pretty difficult for a level 7, not so tough for a 61.
Once you find an egg you loot it to find a prize inside.

The rewards are appropriate for the level, you get low level food items (chocolate and lollipops) with a +2 stamina buff. You also have a chance at finding a very rare Easter dress or a piece of the tuxedo set. The Easter dress is unique, but the tux is the same as you can craft.

I hunted long enough to round up about thirty eggs, finding the tuxedo pants but no dress. I tried the auction house since apparently the dress isn't soulbound, but no luck there.

The egg hunt was fun and a level 61 I certainly had no problem with the mobs, but I wish Blizzard would expand it a bit.

How about a chocolate rabbit that temporarily turns you into a giant bunny or maybe a bunny costume? Yeah that's silly, but no sillier than noggenfogger elixir.

Yes, this is Keila after drinking a batch of noggenfogger which turned her into a tiny skeleton. This picture gives you a nice view of the colorful eggs!
Cya,

Forest Cat

Saturday, March 22, 2008

Keila's Cat

While waiting for Keila to finish a long flight yesterday I went to the kitchen and left my Macbook on the couch.

When I returned, I noticed my cat had taken an avid interest in the bird that was flying on the computer screen.
Either she really wanted that bird, or she wants to play WOW?

In case you wondered, Keila is actually named after my cat.

Cya,

Forest Cat

Monday, March 17, 2008

Starwinkle!

This is Starwinkle. Many moons ago when I was a poor druid with almost no silver to my name, Star ran up to me in Stranglethorne and gave me money to buy a tabard.

That's how pathetically poor I was!
The picture is Star and her very cool Winterspring Kitty. You can only get this frostsaber by taming the elite quest mob Shy-Rotam, or by lucking up and taming her even more difficult to find mate.

Cya,

Forest Cat

Monday, March 10, 2008

More WOW Fashion

Saw this "armor" set in Darnassus. It's a plate set called Chief Brigadier.
Gives new meaning to the concept of plate don't ya think?

What would happen if you wore that to Winterspring?

Cya,

Forest Cat

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

The Scarlet Monastery Dog Whistle

Even though I've been to Outland I have to admit I spend most of my time in the original game at the moment. There are so many quests, and so many places I haven't visited, it just seemed silly to run off and leave all of this behind.
I've been having a good time in Winterspring, which is one of my favorite places thus far, but a quest from Everlook sent me to that godforsaken place they call Eastern Plaguelands. Since I was there I decided to roam around and open up the map. Before long I had visited all four towers, captured one, and had opened up the entire region.

Note: That damn spider in Terrordale, the Nerubian Overseer, is a lot tougher than you would think. Unlike the sixty elites in Winterspring, this stupid bug showed no mercy and I didn't stand a chance. He plowed through the Treants, broke roots, and killed me rather quickly. He has an attack that sends a group of scarabs after you, but there is no defense, you can't kill them. To make it worse he has a web/root effect that silences you. So, if he gets close, like he did with me, you are a goner. I found out afterward he has nearly 18,000 hit points. This guy is much closer to an instance boss than about anything you will find in the wild. Kind of strange since apparently he has terrible drops. Needless to say I wasn't prepared on my first attempt. I shall return.

With the Eastern half open, I wandered into the Western Plaguelands. Before long I was standing at the entrance to Scarlet Monastery. I guess it's because it's out of the way, but I had never been here. I went in, stealthed to the main boss in the library, and took him down. Then I decided to work my way back out, clearing everything back to the entrance. I learned pretty quick I didn't need to stealth in. I almost had to walk up and hit these guys to get them to attack. There were some pretty entertaining fights and I turned the Treants loose a few times to watch them mop up. Oddly enough it was a pretty profitable trip. I'll be back to run some friends through soon.

Picked up this fun pet via the hunter boss drop. It's called via the dog whistle. The pet's only a 35, so he's not much use in the areas I usually hang out in, but he's as entertaining as the mechanical yeti and the Greench, so good luck on getting him to drop! I wish I could send him to one of my alts.

Cya,

Forest Cat

Monday, March 3, 2008

Back to the Battlefield

I've run Warsong Gulch a lot more since that first time and I've made a few observations.

1) I'm still very aggressive, but I don't die nearly as much.

2) Some groups you find yourself in will never win.

3) Organized teams dominate in Warsong gulch. A basic offensive and defensive group works wonders. I've had a few battles come in under 15 minutes. Both were organized efforts. One of those was a team of eight players who entered the battle as a group.

4) Most people entering WG don't think strategy. If at the start of battle everyone takes off in a different direction, you are going to lose.

5) Rogues are deadly in WG. I get killed more by Rogues than any other class. When my rogue alt gets to 19 she's going to WG :)

6) Hunters make up half of all players in WOW. If you doubted that, you won't doubt it after a few rounds of WG. Cats are the number one pet followed by a wide mix of everything else. Boars do really well in WG.

7) Want to identify a twink? Look at the HP. The guys with the 2000 hp are your twinks. A fishing hat is a dead giveaway also.
I know why the level 10 and 11 players come to WG. They are curious and they want to see what it's like, but if you get more than one of those on your team it makes it tough, not impossible, but tough. That's my major complaint about battlegrounds. It is so heavily slanted toward twinks that it's almost pointless to enter WG unless you are a well geared 18 or 19. That seems pretty much opposite to the casual nature of WOW. I know Blizzard supposedly does something to balance the teams, but it doesn't do much for lower level players that want to try battlegrounds.

If you have never been annoyed by fear, you will hate it after you've run through WG a few times. There is nothing more annoying than running aimlessly out of control. Even being sheeped is much less aggravating.

I tend to play a 3/4 field game. I hang about between our flag and the entrance to their flag area. Hunters don't really make good flag carriers so that seems pointless. This puts me in a pseudo defensive position. It also puts me in a good spot when our flag carrier breaks free to escort them back to the base.

I almost wish I had spent more time with Keila in WG when she was a 19. It's a good way to test your abilities and even if you die a lot, and you will, the graveyard is only a few seconds from the action.

I still prefer PVE over PVP. Warsong Gulch is already getting stale after a couple of days, so after accumulating another couple of dozen honor marks I'm outta here.

One interesting note. A guy I played with last night announced he just went over 15,000 kills. I can't imagine playing a level 19 for that long. That's not a criticism, I think you ought to do what you enjoy, but personally I need a change of scenery after a while.

Here's a couple more of my battleground sessions. The first one was a great team effort, despite actually being shorthanded. The second one shows that kills don't equal wins.
Cya,

Forest Cat

Eastern Plaguelands Ghostly Flight

While visiting all of the towers in Eastern Plaguelands I noticed the Plaguewood Tower had a flight master. Not a regular flight path but one that sends you on a one way trip to any of the other three towers. Plaguewood is the tower just southwest of Stratholme.

I took a short movie of the ghostly bird you fly on. I think this should be the flying mount for the undead.
Cya,

Forest Cat

Saturday, March 1, 2008

Kaylakat does PVP

I'm not much of a PVP player. Keila's PVP stats are pretty much limited to defending Auberdine. It seems like everytime I fly through that little town, Auberdine is under attack. Of course since the Horde are usually 70's Keila also dies a lot, but she has managed to take a few down :)

Since Kaylakat is a 19 hunter I thought I'd try Warsong Gulch. Kayla has benefited from a run through Wailing Caverns, thanks to big sister Keila, so she has some decent, if not great gear, so I was hopeful I wouldn't be a complete washout. I spent the entire time on defense so I never got near the opponents flag, but I put a hurtin' on a number of them that came near ours.

Turns out except for a couple of major twinks she more than held her own.
Though I enjoy the RPG aspects much more than the video game part, I think I'll keep Kayla at 19 for a while and see how far she can progress. As always, if you are on Bladefist and you wanna hang out drop me a line. Maybe we can run through Warsong Gulch.

Cya,

Forest Cat