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Troll Druids2010-03-25 00:00:00Quote:I really hope the lore is good
I'm really hoping for this with a lot of the new class/race combos. Some of them, like the Troll Druid and the NE Mage, have the potential for interesting storylines. Hopefully some of the remaking of Azeroth includes weaving in some of the new combos in quests, NPCs, etc.
For some reason, when I read Troll Druid in the title, the first thing I thought about was forum trolls... but I can't remember the last time we had one in the druid forums...-NO. You wi...
My poor pig.2010-03-15 00:00:00I've all but abandoned questing for the time being and opted to do some grinding in the journey from level 33-40 (unless someone can recommend a really good place for questing at level 33... Desolace just isn't doing it for me).
More to the point, my poor little pig is in trouble. I tamed Bellygrub in Redridge Mountains for Gore 4 and Charge 3. With those two new abilities, I think Piggles has all the innate boar abilities he could possibly have for his level, but he's just not holding hate like he used to. I was in STV fighting Venture Co. Geologists (level 34-35); decent currency drops, silk, and a couple of greens to go with the exp. Piggles was losing hate all the time.
I got attacked by one of those mechanized things you find anywhere the Venture Co. is; it was level 37 and my standard procedure for unintended aggro is to put my pig on it and get to firing range. No luck. Two arrows and an Arcane Shot later and the buzzsaw beastie had turned on me. I dual wield axes for ok damage, but it's nowhere near on par with bow, and it ultimately cut...
Pet resistances at 702010-03-06 00:00:00I'm currently in the market to retrain my cat for more of a survivable position as a non-tank DPS; since pet tanking is rather silly for anything but emergencies with the 70+ Elites. What i'm concerned about is surviving indirect attacks, so I can either keep him in there longer to pound out the DPS, or survive long enough to be pulled back for a Mend Pet full heal.
I know Avoidance Rank 2 is a necessity, and I have that already, but i'm wondering specifically about what types of magic a pet would encounter the most, and how high a level the pet n...
WoW: Brewfest Arrives2010-02-23 00:00:00Imbibers rejoice at the arrival of the World of Warcraft Brewfest! The annual event will run from September 20th-October 4th. Grab the details below:
Celebrated by both the Horde and the Alliance, the Brewfest is a time to enjoy the fruits of the harvest: pretzels, cheese, and brew! The competing breweries Thunderbrew, Barleybrew, and the Ogres, all come together outside of all the major cities in a bid to outdo each other with their special ales, m...
What is WRONG with current MMORPG's?2009-11-09 00:00:00y Utok
Joined: 07 Dec 2002
Posts: 2
What is wrong with ORPG's?
With all of the recent talk about current and future games I decided to make a quick list of some of the current
ORPG design problems. I will not go into greater detail at this time, since readers that are familiar with my opinions
on game design know that I can write very long posts. However, feel free to ask for clarifications or make
additions.
1. Adventures in real time:
In paper RPG's days can seem like minutes and minutes can seem like days. Unfortunately, in an ORPG
everyone must be on the sam...
Former WoW Player Details His Game Addiction in New Blog2009-10-12 00:00:00A recovering WoWaholic recounts his descent into depression and game addiction in a new blog.
C Gibson explains that WoW Survivor is intended to offer a supportive place for those who found the MMO world a bit too compelling.
In an introductory post, Gibson candidly discusses his own experience:
I was going to school full time in NYC and working. Because of an issue with my family, I became depressed. I stopped going to class, quit a good job for a lamer one... and reinstalled WoW. Instead of...
5 Years of WoW2009-09-25 00:00:00Just as the new Onyxia encounter has reminded us, WoW has now been with us for five years. I was preparing the posts and patch information for 3.2.2, and I couldn't help but wax melancholy (as I am wont to do) about my time in WoW. Five years makes for a lot of memories. It's not unusual to get married after a five year relationship—and yet here we are spending all of that time with a video game. I even took some time to go back and look through how the World of Warcraft Official Site looked back in the day—does this look familiar to anyone? Dwarf mages, old fashioned troll and human models.../sigh. Those were the days. So in honor of WoW's 5th anniversary, I've been asking the staff about their oldest and fondest memories of WoW. I've included a number of them here, after the break. Come and see! [quote Malgayne]Back when I started, it was right before the Zul'Gurub patch, back when I used to /bow and /salute level 60s who walked by just because I was so impressed with them for being level 60. I remember meeting a troll rogue named Axethrower while I was still in the Valley of Trials—he was handing out (Item #2589) to the lowbies. He gave me some, and I was in awe. He wasn't even 60 yet, but man...he had a raptor—and he was deigning to come and spend time with us lowbies! I even joined his guild (The Sythegore Arm) for a while...it was my first guild. God bless you Axethrower, wherever you are.[quote Skosiris]My first character back in 2004 was an Alliance one, so what follows all happened during my early days as a Human. The first time I ran Deadmines is definitely one of my fondest memories. I was really into it and remember being willing to spend as long as was needed to go through it. It felt so epic and challenging. I didn't care about drops, I didn't care about my spec, I was just having a really good time. Other memorable challenges: Princess, Morgan the Collector (+ his 2 friends), and Hogger in Elwynn Forest. Entering Westfall at level 10-11 and fin...
awesome event ever in the whole entire world2009-09-21 00:00:00Let's Do the Time Warp Again!
Last time, the Mage They Call Jayne(z) bore witness to quite possibly the most awesome event ever in the whole entire world. Of Warcraft. Though some might consider it a bit unfair that the Horde gets this awesome-possum nifty-socks in-game cutscene, you guys had Onyxia and Bolvar Fordragon since launch-so think of this as sweet payback.
From what my guildies had told me, after hitting level 66 I had some new options available to me. Some new quests, and a particularly cool new instance to run. I'd run through Hellfire Citadel and the Slave Pens quite a bit, and couldn't find any Auchindoun groups... but this one was popular. This one was cool. So, I packed my Travelers' Backpacks and decided it was time to go back to Azeroth!
After spending a bit of time looking for a good group, I took a portal to Thunder Bluff and started flying down to Tanaris. Oh, Tanaris. Good times, good times.
By the way, there's been a subtle theme thus far in the entry. Can you guess what it is?
If you guessed "Time," you're wrong! It was actually "Italics," you silly nubcakes! That's right-I was headed to the Caverns of Slightly Slanted Letters!
Oh. Maybe it was Time after all. Sorry, my bad.
Yep, that's right! It's time for us to travel! Through, um... time! With the Caverns of... er, Time!
I think I could have said that better. Oh well, no turning back-I shall press on.
While the Thrall-in-Outland event was undoubtedly the coolest thing I've seen yet in the Burning Crusade (and remains so), the Caverns of Time come very, very close. The Bronze Dragonflight is just cool overall. It seems that they've also been the most involved with the story thus far in WoW. I mean, we've killed Onyxia and Neffy, and there is that whole OMG-Lady-Prestor-is-Onyxia story, but other than that (and the Dark Iron/Blackrock War) the Black Flight has had minimal story impact. The Green Flight... well, there's Eranikus and the four corrupted Dragons, as well as the Nightmare in the Emerald Dream, but that really hasn't reached full bore yet. Other than Azuregos, there's no real representation of the Blue Flight in-game, and the Red Flight is almost totally missing except for Vaelastrasz (poor Vael...).
Meanwhile, the Bronze Flight had the whole Ahn'Qiraj thing-granted, it was kinda all four of the flights who contributed, but the Brood of Nozdormu was the only one in the present day keeping watch over the Scarab Walls. They also give you EPIX, which is more than any of the other flights ever did.
So, yeah. Bronze Dragonflight is cool. Forgive my "Yay Lore!" rambling, por favor.
Er, I suppose I might as well preface this with a SPOILER WARNING. Last time, it was just the Thrall Event that was spoiler-riffic, but this entire article... well, there are some people who might want to experience it for themselves.
SPOILER ALERT: THE FOLLOWING SEGMENT CONTAINS MASSIVE SPOILERS AND HIGH LEVELS OF "TOTALLY AWESOME" THAT MAY BE UNHEALTHY FOR THE ELDERLY, SMALL CHILDREN, AND CANADIANS. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!
Arriving in Tanaris, I take a brief nostalgic sojourn through Gadgetzan, but sadly find no Alliance to gank. In general, Azeroth is pretty dead, though there are some Blood Elves and Draenei getting high in level (including a pair of 58+ Blood Elf Paladins that must be absolutely insane to have leveled so quickly). I make my way to the Caverns of Time, and feel, to be honest, pretty damn excited. Ever since I was a little nublet caster questing in Tanaris and saw this "Caverns of Time" place, I've always really wanted to go inside. And now I can-without any ghost-run exploiting or anything.
Pretty damn cool.
The three drakes that fly back and forth seem to be gone, though I find them over on the side (so people can, for whatever reason, finish the Horde Onyxia key quest chain).
Anachronos, Mr. It-is-not-my-time himself, is also on the side of the path, no longer standing watch in front of the entrance. The entrance itself is open, and there's a bronze Drake flying just inside, and speaking with him causes me to become Neutral with the "Keepers of Time" faction. That's right, the Bronze Flight is so awesome that they get two factions in-game!
He asks me if I want to be transported to the Master's Lair. This isn't the first time I've been to the Caverns of Time since they opened the door (though there weren't any working instances then)... there are some interesting things on the way, including a Tavern of Time (oh, Blizzard...), and several vendors including a male Orc who speaks with a female Orc voice.
Yeah, that was kinda weird. But it's a long run, so I accept the quest-and am whisked away by another bronze drake and flown to the central chamber, where the Timeless One keeps watch over the past, present, and future.
I can't target him, so you know he's serious business.
There are two Blood Elf children standing nearby, named Andormu and Nozari. I talk to them and they give me a quest to follow a Custodian of Time (in the form of a Blood Elf female) around, and listen to her explain what the deal is. This, I can do.
The Custodian takes me around the giant chamber, explaining to me Blizzard's concept of time in Azeroth, and how it's always changing and stuff. The Bronze Flight keeps close watch on the streams of time, making sure nobody messes around with anything (because if you read Ray Bradbury, watch The Simpsons, or have seen "The Butterfly Effect," you know that messing with the past = bad). Unless the flow of time continues as it should, the present would cease to exist as we know it. Vendors would sell epics! Trainers would pay us to respec! Drakkisath would realize "Hey, why am I following this stupid little Hunter when there are nine other squishies killing my bodyguards"!
Unfortunately, it seems as though there's a myst...
A Shadow Rose2009-09-14 00:00:00It's just a game. Or is it?
That's a question that has been churning in my mind over the last few days. I have looked at it from I think every angle, trying to perceive its hidden substance, a deeper meaning, or even an obvious answer.
Why do I, a thirty-seven year old man, play a computer game like World of Warcraft? What blatant justification could there possibly be for anyone to sit for hours in front of a computer screen and immerse themselves into a fantasy world of RP and, at least for a time, forget about his RL? I can give you one such answer: Bruce Galloway.
Bruce Galloway is my friend, and he passed away last week. He is one of the best examples I can name of the type of man you get when RP meets RL. He was firmly grounded in both, a fact that helped us become very good friends over a short seven months of gaming together. There were many other factors, of course, but it was our shared ability to RP together in game and talk to each other in RL that drew us in close. I wasn't aware of it as it was happening, and we never took the chance to speak fully about it, much to my sorrow, but I think we both knew what was. We were just two grown men brought together by a common interest, and found out we had so much more to share and learn from each other.
It's just a game. Or is it?
Bruce roleplayed a red headed female blood elf Shadow Priest named Milliway, and was one of the first RP contacts I met way back when our guild was still only a couple of weeks old. We grouped but a few times d...
Drop That Gold Guide2009-09-05 00:00:00I’ve been an avid World of Warcraft player since day one. I’m dedicated enough to the game to drive an hour and a half to a Gamestop in the middle of nowhere to get a copy of Wrath of the Lich King on launch day. Yes, it’s true; often enough preordering isn’t always going to guarantee a copy of the game in your hands on day one. I know a lot about the game but that doesn’t stop me from finding out more. So I’m always searching the Internet to find the latest news and discussions about WoW. There is one thing though that bothers me. Gold guides. Especially the interstitial ones or the ones that come up and block the whole page while you search for the tiny X. You’ve seen it, haven’t you? Browsing a WoW site and seeing a 120x600 skyscraper ad that details how you can make 100 to 500 gold an hour easily. Following the breadcrumbs to their site leads you on a magical journey to the discovery that for just fifty dollars you can become the owner of a brand new gold guide. This guide will have you earning 10,000 gold within a week! Why pay $250 for the gold from the evil gold sellers when you can farm it up with a guide that gives you all you need to know for $30-$50? Wait, there’s more! Over 200 bucks in other guides are thrown in for free! Exclamation point! Check mark list! Exclamation point! Well, I do hate gold sellers. They inflate our prices, spam our channels, and do other things that ner’do’wells do. Ten Ton Hammer even has an anti-gold seller policy to help stop the spread of gold selling nastiness. This doesn’t stop the gold guides themselves from being evil. That doesn’t stop gold guides from not only being stupid but nefarious as well. First of all, let’s look at what people pay for. When you buy the guide you’ll get a PDF that goes over how to make gold in WoW. Simply put, it’s a lot to do about nothing. You can find out the same thing in one run-on sentence! Are you ready? Here we go: You can farm gold in WoW by taking up herbalism or mining and then go pickup herbs or ores and then go to the auction house and sell them...
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