Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Addicted?

I was have my usual slow morning, an I was thinking about many of the addictive type things I've done in the past and was wanting to know if others have had similiar experiences. For instance, a decided to take the armorsmith role and was asked to aquire about 250 bars of mithril for the Mithril Order. It turned out that the best place I could think of was the Alterec Mountains which is always crowded. So I would frequently get up in the around 2am or 4am to go on mining runs. I also used this same method to acquire money for my mount. I'm not sure how I had the time to do instances, as my wife hates this games but I believe she thinks it takes away from our lives. Which in a normal work week, I doubt it but what can a man do. I have no brain of my own at this point. So what was your most addictive type habit?

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Memorial Day Weekend News

I recently packed up the car and drove 700 miles to visit my family. My own family didn't attend due to budget restrictions. We thought it would be a lot easier to travel with one/two people as oppose to 5. I consider my wife to be a medium matenance kind of girl so she requires a little bit more of myself. I also took my second computer that my son uses to play his hunter on. He has grown tired of the game which could be due to the pressure I put on him to be more active during instances. I felt slightly bad as relatives were talking to me while I was trying to get my PC hooked up and tweaks as I noticed the frame rate was a bit low. I finally got it to look smooth and had a little fun.

Morpheuz news:
Most of Morpheuz fun was done Friday night as he entered Shadowlabs for the first time. I found myself in another PUG group as it appears many of my guild mates have moved on. I may have to do the same but I feel so quilty knowing the torch has been passed on to me and it's a gift I would gladly give back. This calls for someone who wants to be a leader in all aspects of the word. I primarily would like to lead a group into battle and try to be the best tank I can be. Since the latest patch, this instance has become slightly better. everything is fairly easy but call on the group to be on their game. We cleared all chambers to get the extra rep reward. The first boss when down fairly easy as everyone appeared to be used to this fight. The second chamber has gotten better to the degree that now the mobs are more manageable. As long as everyone picked up there marks, we did well. We had trouble on the outer pulls. And a Palli went along for the ride but knew we would get smashed with every pull but it didnt happen. Once we cleared and engaged the second boss, everyone noticed that we where wailing on the guy for a while when we noticed his health did not move. After a lengthy fight, one man went down and we happened to down this guy after a little bit of work. The pally had to log and we found another person to replace this guy. I think the hunter left also. We replaced both and continued. The 3rd boss was new to me as most of the PUG groups I've been in quit at this point but it was an extremely easy fight. I haven't done the fight before but I mostly tried to avoid the Voidwalker as I assumed they were regular adds. Turns out everyone else was not on top of this and took to much damage. We died. We ran back. I moved this guy around and everyone else knew the plan. It was an easy deal once that was done.

The final boss was Murmur which is a huge air elemental. The leader attempted to informed the group of the fight that was about to take place. From my point of view, which was like looking at the base of a tornado, I was unable to escape the circle in time to avoid the blast as I heard this was all a timing issue. I wanted to get this boss down to get my first key fragment. We corpse ran it back and inside and we started the fight again. Same thing happens. At this point a few members decided to drop out and it was now maybe 3:oo am. I thought that I could go to the web and find a strategy guide to get this guy down. If tanks weren't dum enough, I had to be the dummiest. Anyway, I found out that the container was on the left hand side of the wall. I hugged the wall and came upon the container. What I didnt know was a fight was waiting for me and I was alone. I crotched down and out come a ghostly looking mob. I started to go to work on him, turns out one of the other guys noticed I was in a fight and came to my aid. He dropped a few heals and we finally got the first key frag. I was elated. I decided to end the fight because I had to go somewhere.

SaintNic:
I'm actually getting a little bit more use to SaintNic now. He is up to a cool 23. I took the time out to go to Deadmines. Turned out to be pretty good due to the level 26 pally the group was rolling with. Everything went fairly smooth until we engaged Van Cleef. He turned out to be a good fight. There were 2 guys left standing after all was said and done. We rez and went to turn in out conquest. I then went to Stockade to see how I would do with that. I was pretty low on the damage meters from DM and wanted to give it another try by using the arcane missiles more. Didnt know how it would hold up being I was an ice mage.

Niobey:
I pulled out Niobey as I have been working to get her Tailoring skills up. I spent more money than I would like to at this point. Somewhere I read you can get to Lvl300 with 35g. With mageweave going for 1.7 to 2g a stack. I doubt it. But I will do it anyway. The altism has caused me to want to create my own bags. I wasted quite a bit of time going to Theramore before I was ready. Which sucked. I hearth back to IF. I then took the time to roll to SM library to pick up the hypnotic knife that drops from the last boss. We only wiped once and that was mostly due to me not knowing my priest UI. Its been at least 6 months since she has been out and about. I also learn that I get an entirely new set of "keys" when I switched to shadowform. I hadnt set the spells up and the slate was clean. We let a pet tank the last boss and we all fought from a distance. The warrior rushed in after the pet had aggro to assist. It was on of the easiest fights for this level. I was at level 40 and the expience was cool as I received about 200 exp per kill. Seemed decent anyway. The warrior was our lowest at 28.

Morpheusalt:
Just traveled to homeland to obtain new jewelcrafting reciped. Which are a bit better than what I had. The recipes he had required diamongs to skill up. At 15g each and the lack of farming them on my own, I thought I should wait that one out. Picked up 2 new reciped that required large emerald. Im sure these will go alot cheaper but need to make this toon work for himself and not depend on gold from my main.


The weekend was busier than I thought. I will be attempting to find out more info on old hillsbrad and work on talking my wife into an instance night for myself. She currently requires that I go to be when she does or she couldn't sleep.

Upcoming goals for the week:
1.) Start Netherwing questline
2.) Complete quests in Shadowmoon Valley - Nice blue rewards
3.) Purchase riding skill for flying mount. I have already purchased the mount itself.
4.) Find questline to go to Old Hillsbrad and eventually Black Morass.
5.) Get skill level up in blacksmithing for some new pieces. (Felsteel helm, collecting dust in my bag).

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

What's happening now.

Hey everyone and anyone. I just wanted to drop a quick note to keep a note of where I am Warcraft wise.

Morpheus
Over the weekend, my wife has a couple of nights out with the girls and it turn out to be some decent gaming nights but nothing big from either night. I took the time out to complete a few quests that provided keys. One was the key to Alcatraz and the other was to a level 70 dungeon near Honor Hold. Its been so long that I forgot the main name of this place. The Alcatraz quest line was pretty long in my opinion but not to bad of a journey. The other thing I didn’t mind was the fact that I received over 100g after the night was done. I am 200g away from getting my riding skill for a flying mount. I have already purchased the mount and it sits in my bad for the time being. My bad are also pretty stuffed as I am afraid to sell stuff for fear that I may one day need it.

Somewhere along the way, I picked up blacksmithing plans for a felsteel helm. Which is listed as a good tanking helm for one of the guides I come across. Woot.

I plan to get started on the Netherwing quest line to get the rep started on that and to get a gauge for the amount of effort it will take to get the rep going on that.

On Saturday night, I took a trip to the section of Hellfire for which I was trying to obtain a key. Things we extremely well considering the number of 5 man mobs in this group. I recall a mage, warlock, palli maybe, shaman, and me. The other 4 were in the same guild and I was their puppet. I don’t think I won a roll and the boss drops sucked for me. I didn’t get a chance to finish as my wife hates this game.

SaintNic (Mage)
I managed to get this guy up to level 21. I like the low level just for the sake of dinging and learning new spells. I obtained blink which I love now just for being able to avoid damage. I also moved this guy from Redridge Mountain to Ashenvale. I know the quests very well on that side and since I also gain teleportation. I can easily go back to IF to obtain new skills. I also decided to become an ice mage in order to use the snare effects. I find it pretty cool and will try to get to 30 sometime during the week.

Legolax
Not sure if I introduced this guy but he just dinged 18 this morning. He is a hunter I created sometime this week who is a nightelf as well. I’m not to interested in the other content of the game due to the amount of time required. I can easily level up with what I know. Things are going pretty well and I swear the hunter class is the easiest to level up. I have put most of my points in aspect of the hawk and improve “Bullseye”.

Niobey
Nothing new. Still sitting in IF.
Morpheusalt (Shaman)
Still sitting in Tanaris. I should try to level this guy because the jewelcrafting will come in handy. I need to find a guide for that to determine how this things will help my other characters.

I was also promoted in my guild –Trinity. While I am happy with the promotion per se I noted thrilled as I was given the title with the hope of recruiting new members. I have never been big on this because it will primarily call for me to advertise or seek out members. The quild channel is dead. I saw maybe 1-3 people on at a given time.

RL, my wife is out of school for the time being and it is cutting into my WoW time. The kids and lack of evening activities, just leaves me with conversation about what we are not doing, finances, and the lack of. GREAT STUFF! ;-(

We’ll that it for now.

Monday, May 7, 2007

Weekend Fun.

SaintNic(Mage):
Not much here. Tried a few quests in Redridge that require that I gather pieces of meat for a food recipe reward. Combine that with dragonwelp scales. Questing in the area was difficult as I had to get off the first shot before the dragon in order to win the fight. Turning and running was impossible. Some success as my mage moved up one level to 19.

Morpheuz(Warrior):
As stated in a previous writeup, Morpheuz dinged 70 in shadowmoon valley. I picked up two quest from a tower in the center of the map that required me to take on a few orges in search of a couple of items. This was the start of a semi long line of quest that ended with me driving a fel reaver to destroy elementals. It was pretty cool. I had the assistance of a level 70 hunter. We tagged teamed in order to get it done. I died quite a few times as it took me a minute to warm up.

I'm at a place now that I'm not sure what I want to do next. I would like to be the best geared warrior around but my time is limited and that sucks. As I get ready to resume my old tanking duties. I am considering the whole respecc thing at the moment. I need to be able to get rid of the bad guys fairly easy to continue to quest and grind my way to 400 more gold for a flying mount. I will also farm the crusader recipe in the morning as this still goes for about 80g on the AH. Should take about 45 minutes for one to drop.

So as I type this I have come up with the following goals for the week.
1.) Farm crusader enchant for gold.
2.) Get Scryer rep up. Not sure if the other faction is better for tanks with the mixed info I have received.
3.) Find where Felsteel patterns are located.
4.) Get blacksmithing skills up to 375. (currently at 345)

Thanks for reading.

Warriors and Blacksmithing

I am always curious as to why a lot of professions prefere that you take a craft bases on you class. I'm beginning to hate the fact that a lot of information steers a warrior toward blacksmithing. Maybe it just me but I like to do things with very little interaction from other players. Not that I don't like groups, its just soliciting services that I dislike.

I dinged 70 yesterday and was extremely excited and deflated by my new accomplishment. What would be cool if their is a quest that require you to return to your home city and applauded by all the residents. The Dranai have a quest that ends this way but not related to any level.

With 400g, I am here and there about respeccing my warrior protection to prepare for the dungeon runs to come. I ran shadow labs this weekend at level 69. The first boss feared me out of the dungeon into an area that looked like sky and I died immediately. The group thought it was funny. No one ever knew such a thing could happen.. We proceeded to a room where their looked to be a sermon happening. /hunchshoulders. We all died on the first pull and I was blamed. I can't say I blamed them due to my tunnel vision during this time. A druid was our healer and I completely ignored the fact he was being attached until he was near death. I also forgot I still had on googles from Shadowmoon and the fact I had a healstone that went unused. I have not run a dungeon in a while so I was a bit rusty and nervous.

Back to the issue, enchanting or alchemy seems to be a better choice for a warrior. Why isnt this done more often. Blacksmithing used to be a big investment of time with the mithril order quests and thorium related quests from Gatzen. Honestly, they both require a large amount of ore which is best farmed in area you are two low to far. And we all know that crafted items sell for less than the materials to make them

With the BC expansion, I realize there is better items out there. I have constructed a new chestplate but did not socket any gems. The expansion armor is yet to be determined. I will continue to level this up and hopefully craft some decent items in the meantime.

Of the 2-4 readers I have..............What are your thoughts on this issue?

Friday, May 4, 2007

Scholo, Strath, UBRS, LBRS, BRD and BC

It is truly amazing how the expansion has change the warcraft world as we know it. In November of 2006, I lost my job (short story:accepted offer, quit job, offer withdrawn) and found myself playing warcraft half the day and looking for another job the other half. Most of my guild wsa able to put together decent 5-10 dungeon runs. This was cool for a minute but here is what is familiar. What happen to the days where you had to run UBRS 30 times for Drakk to drop the piece you were waiting on. I ran all of these dungeons to complete my set. I also attempt the 45 min Baron run. I found a druid that was up for the task. But being the only two who wanted or needed to do it makes this task impossible.

So what are the skellies doing now? I see no reason to go to these dungeons now that the expansion has arrived. Argent Dawn Rep? Why? What would be nice if these dungeons could be lowered by 2-3 levels to give you a decent dungeon in the 50+ range. BRD still is doable if you want to get attuned for Molten core and Onyx.

That's all I have to say about that.

Tuesday, May 1, 2007

In real life news, today is my daughter's birthday. She is a brand new 15 year old looking for a license to drive. Gotta hate that. As I know she want to drive my car for practice. Not sure if I advice it but what can I do. It's a part of life I guess.

Morpheuz completed to quests in Shadowmoon yesterday. Nothing bit. One involved spleens from the "lizards" roaming there. Bad thing on this is I started searching for spleens by killing the boars.

The next quest required me to travel to the burning legion camp and disguise myself as a box and overhear a conversation. It kind of funny as one of the legion characters says to his commander "What's up with the box?". I just thought it was cool that somehow I was included in the dialogue.

I awoke this Tuesday Morning with every intent on farming for thorium(for my 52 shaman) and the crusader enchant(for the gold). It appears that there are a few others out there who have the same idea as I do but the price continues to go down as more people get involved. Naturally. The recipe will easily sell for 80-90g. Pre BC, it would go for 120-150g.

Over the weekend, I got plenty of time in on Saintnic. I plan to go deep in the frost tree as I love the snare this guy has. The thing I hate most is getting use to the amount of hits this guy can take. I did countless times. I purchased a few green and use the extra I had on my priest to provide a few enchants to toughen him up and increase his intell. I'm a stud at this point. I would say I'm ready for van cleef but the LFG folks mostly want 19s. I will prob wait till 20 but will call for a little research to make sure I come in at the right level to take advantage of the blues.

I am pretty new to the human race and questing takes a little longer due to the new zones. I'm thinking of running to the other side(night elf side) to hurry things along.

I got a little off track about my intentions this morning, I happen to take a detour to head toward Kara to start the chain for my key. The mob there is undead and level 70. Not to bad. So I will finish the 2 pre-requisite quests there and hopefully complete as much as I can tonight using the XP toward reaching 70. Morpheuz is currently rested through this level so double XP on all kills. No need to log out in an inn anymore. I died at Kara a few time so I thought I would just spend the rest of the day there.