The Hunt for Red December

PVP and I go way back. We've had good times, we've had bad times. We've laughed, we've cried, we've flipped off our monitors in rage when we're disconnected.

Now I personally am not a big PvP person. I don't roll on PvP realms. I tend to avoid what I call 'real' battlegrounds (AKA Not Alterac Valley). The biggest exception was Wintergrasp. I loved Wintergrasp. I enjoyed the way it worked, the insanely large scale battles (especially early on in WotLK), everything. To me it felt more like some grand-scale PvE encounter with the Horde.

When I heard there was Tol Barad, I was interested. I was interested big time. Not only was it Wintergrasp 2.0, it had mounts.

Not just any mounts either. It had a sexy Cataclysm Wind Drake.

So of course, out of ALL the Cataclysm factions, I decided I would get Exalted with Baradin's Wardins. See Earthen Ring/Therezane/Hyjal: if you had offered me mounts, I would be helping you stop Deathwing/Cho'gall/Twilight's Hammer before serving my own needs.

So began my obsession with Tol Barad. I lived on Tol Barad. I drank Tol Barad. I went to Tol Barad so often, I would automatically click the Tol Barad portal before I even realized it....even when I actually meant to go to Uldum...

Soon, I realized some huge problems in regard to Tol Barad.

It's like 600x easier to defend then it is to actually attack. I thought it was just in my head, but then I realized... the Alliance on my realm held Tol Barad for the entire first 5 days of Cataclysm. Eventually the Horde got it, and then they held it for a week. It swaps maybe once every 3 days or so, but I realized, this is an issue.

I mean think about it. Sure Wintergrasp (near the end of WotLK) heavily favored one faction on occasion, but the fact remained that there was a handicap to ensure that *eventually* the other faction would get a hold of wintergrasp at least once a day.

Tol Barad doesn't.

When you defend Tol Barad, you basically just have to make sure the opposing team doesn't 3 cap. Which isn't really that hard considering the queue for Tol Barad won't let the sides get unbalanced. The towers are mostly a nuisance for defenders, but again, it doesn't pose much of a problem so long as you can defend at least one fortress. If you can just "turtle" one of the 3 fortresses until the time is up, defenders win!

Attackers absolutely need the towers. Maybe down the road they won't, but if you don't take down at least one of the 3 towers as an attacker, you probably won't have enough time to kick out your enemies and cap all the forces. Unless its a really small queue and you end up with maybe 4 people from each side duking it out.

It doesn't sound exceptionally hard, and theoretically it isn't. But that slight difference plus the fact that you may be dealing with a realm like mine AKA where one faction owns it for literally 4 days straight begins to annoy even the most patient players.

Suddenly those commendations are a lot more treasured...

And then you remember you need 200 of them.

/cry on the inside

As for me, I'm done with Tol Barad. I got my dragon and I am out of there. One day I may return for the pony, but seeing as I only need ground mounts for.. well... like that cave in deepholm and Tol Barad pretty much, I'm in no rush.

Good bye Tol Barad, and may Blizzard give the losing faction a handicap someday.

Indiana Jones and the Secondary Profession

Surely I'm not the only one who thinks of Indiana Jones when I hear the new profession, Archeology. Let's get real for a moment, if you don't like Indiana Jones (and I don't mean that 4th movie, I mean the 3 good ones), then Archeology just isn't going to be so fun for you. Heck, you might wanna stay out of Uldum too.

In any event, if you are a fan of Indy, I bet you're humming the Indiana Jones theme as you dig up fossils as we speak. Or you're enjoying the references to just about every Indiana Jones film with the Archeology achievements. However, be wary, Archeology is a dangerous profession in that it will suck your soul out and make you it's.....yeah.

With rewards such as minipets like the Fossilized Hatchling or the mounts like the Fossilized Raptor or Silithid tank, it's no wonder people are picking up this secondary profession and leveling it like mad. A few people I know *cough*guildies*cough* actually leveled up to 85 using Archeology.

No, they weren't that fast at it and now they're tripping out over finding a Canopic Jar. I'll be joining them soon enough... *pats Alchemy*

But I can see why he did choose to level Archeology. It's addictive. The second your little archeology book tells you your next set of 100 fossils will get you the Fossilized Raptor, guess what you're going to be doing for the next 2 hours.

It's just a shame I can't actually tame one of these bone raptors to be my pet. Seriously, they would rock.

No pun intended.

A/N: If you would like to learn more about Archeology, you should check out this WoWhead blog post, where TankSpot has made a video explaining just how to level archeology!

Cataclysm (No really, that's the title)

So if you're one of those people who managed to keep themselves away from any Cataclysm info and decided to not get the expansion yet (wha wha- why- how?), if you don't want any part spoiled, don't read further. I'm getting back into blogging and my stories will involve a lot of Cataclysm.

Alot.

So without any further warning I give you: Cataclysm in a Screenshot.

 

Yup. That pretty much sums up Cataclysm. Lots of dragons. Lots of elementals. Lots of people riding dragons.

So what's the first thing you should do?

Well first of all, learn to mount your flying mount in Azeroth. I dunno about you, but I *still* hit my ground mount hotkey when I could fly around the world (which made for some hilarious self-commentary in Tanaris). So first off train flying and just get flying. Literally. And then learn to hit the flying mount hotkey instead of the ground mounts.

Trust me, you won't like running through Tanaris on your Wintersaber for 3 minutes and then realize "Oh wait, I have 310 flying..."

Oh and another thing, make sure your hearth ISN'T still set to Dalaran. There's no more portals, so don't be that awkward guy sitting in Dalaran begging a mage to port you out!

So then it comes down to the big decision, Hyjal or Vash'jir? The lore-filled Hyjal, which is packed with significantly awesome characters like Ysera and Malfurion, or the beautifully done underwater zone Vash'jir, which is truly unlike any other zone ever created. Honestly, it can be a tough call (unless you're a mount collector like me, then obviously the choice is made for you to Vash'jir [free seahorse!]), but no matter which you choose, you're bound to have tons of fun.

Psst- seahorse! Vash'jir obviously! *wink wink*

So with that short little diddy, I am going to go back to leveling archeology (which is too big and needs to be its own epic blogpost) and make more Truegold. Have fun in Cataclysm kids!

Don't forget to feed the dog/cat/fish!!