The Death of Cho'gall

 I know, I'm bad. Didn't write a post, but it's been a rough couple of weeks for me, but here I am. Alive.

As someone who didn't raid in Wrath nor Burning Crusade due to school, I have forgotten just how fun (and yet, tedious) this game can get during raid progression. While my guild isn't moving blindingly fast through content, this week we down Cho'gall and I gotta admit. I am pretty damn stoked.The end of a first-time kill on a boss is pretty fun isn't it? I mean if you're on vent (or whats that other one, teamspeak?) it's always full of cursing for the last few seconds before massive cheering.

So this isn't a life changing blogpost, it's not going to change any viewpoints. Instead, it's merely a post for me to look back and be proud. This is the first time I felt I've actually helped the guild progress to this point since I've been to every boss in this raid just about every run. I honestly haven't really raided (seriously) since the days of BWL, MC, and ZG. It's great to actually be a part of an experience like this, and I look forward to when we kill Al'Akir and Nefarian.

Go go my guildies! Battle on!

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!!

Operation Re-Roll: All That Glitters is Gold

If there's one thing that WoW has taught us, it's time is money. Thankfully, unlike real life, WoW tosses gold at you out of every orifice. Dailies, Professions, Quests, even vendoring greys at level 80 are almost an assured 1-3 gold profit. However, if you're like me, then you make gold just about as fast as you spend it. Despite all the dailies I've done and all those quests for achievements, I am usually in the 2k range of gold. 2k doesn't buy you too much in Wrath and it's safe to assume that in Cataclysm prices will be drastically more. So what's a re-roller to do?

Save your money from you.

So here's a tip from the first hint of re-rolling for your future cataclysm Hunter (or other classes, but I'm just gonna cover Hunter). Everyday you can generally make money without trying. 400g a day isn't that hard to accomplish given just the bare minimum of dailies (and that's not counting what you vendor!) and let me share a little math with you.

Hey don't worry! I suck at math too, so I promise it's easy! ;)

Let's say that MMO-champion and other sites are right and Cataclysm releases in the Spring. Let's say March. That's 7 months from now. Now, since I never did memorize which month has 30 days and which has 31 days in the year, lets go with the 28 day (4 week) minimum. That's 196 days of saving up you can do! Now let's say you only want to save up 250g a day til Cataclysm comes out just for your re-rolled Hunter.

That's 49,000 gold you will have just for that re-rolled Hunter.

250g a day for 49k g?! That's insane, but it's also genius. Keep in mind when you re-roll, you'll need to pay for mount training all over again. Just training to epic flying alone costs a total of 5,844g (not counting the Cold Weather flying!). So by saving up now, you will have over 43k gold you can spend on your fresh new re-roll! Who doesn't like to roll around in style, right?

So start saving now! Even if you save 100g a day, that's 19k you'll have by that same date. Still a nice chunk of change to set to the side.

Quick List:
Total Mount Training Fee*: 6,844g
Total Mount Costs: 161g

Again, these are just rough numbers to show how much gold adds up if you set aside even a small amount everyday.

*Counting Cold Weather Flying at 1000g

Operation: Re-Roll Hunter

Wow...what an eventful 48 hours. It was so much stuff in that first day alone, I was almost too exhausted to even blog. Luckily for another browsers, there are many sites that did a great job blogging about Blizzcon and the announcement (of the year) Cataclysm. So what am I going to do? The same thing I always do, plot my next insane "Operation" as I call them.

If you're like me, coming Cataclysm, you're re-rolling a new race. Maybe you're like me and are switching from your Orc or Night Elf Hunter and trying out a Goblin, Worgen, Human, or Undead Hunter. Now, while we do have some time before the expansion even comes, there's lots you can do now to prepare for a smoother leveling experience in Cataclysm to get your new Hunter caught up and into those new Heroics to prepare you for the showdown with Deathwing.

So, I'm going to share my insane plan over the next few days with you guys so that way, perhaps you'll get some new ideas too or even decide to share your new ideas on it.

Now, I'm not doing this so I can get some Feat of Strength or something. Not at all. In fact, I like taking my time leveling. This is mainly to ensure a smooth leveling experience regardless of your actual "speed of leveling".

Preparing for Blizzcon and Ozzie

So today is the big "sendoff" day. Honestly, after that opening ceremony and preview panel, I don't know how Ozzie will close. Cataclysm is definitely the hot topic, and unlike what we've seen with other Blizzcon "trailers" of the past, there is alot of the game already done it seems. There was already a playable demo at Blizzcon!

Beta by winter? I wouldn't doubt it.

Well, at least we'll find out a bit more today about some changes incoming. I still got to find some sleep, but how can I re-watching that trailer of Cataclysm?