May 22nd, 2008
While are many people with level 70’s out there especially since the TBC expansion has been out for more than a year already, I’m sure there are lots of people who don’t or at least just did and don’t exactly know what to do. I was sitting around in Shattrath City earlier when someone asked the exact thing in trade chat, hinting that there might be a lot of people out there like this guy who don’t know what to do when you first hit 70. So what exactly do you do? After allocating your last remaining talent point an buying your level 70 skills, these are things you may want to do when you hit 70.
1. If you’ve got the gold to spend, it would be really helpful to buy your flying mount right away. This could help in your mining and herbalism while also giving you access to places like Skettis, Ogri’la, Elemental Plateau and the Tempest Keep dungeons.
2. If you don’t have the gold to spend or just want more of it, then it’s really helpful to do the Shattered Sun Offensive daily quests. Ogri’la and Skettis requires you to have a flying mount to reach while the SSO dailies don’t except for the quest Intercepting the Mana Cells, which you do in Blade’s Edge Mountains.
3. Group quests in Netherstorm and Shadowmoon Valley normally have great quest rewards that could add to your starting gear as a fresh 70.
4. If you’re a clothie class and a tailor, investing time to farm the mats to make your Spellfire/Frozen Shadoweave/Primal Mooncloth sets.
5. As you’re looking to gear up, PvP epics are generally a nice way to go to get yourself ready for higher content. BG and Arena gear are great at plugging those holes until you get a good PvE equivalent from Karazhan or Heroics.
6. I’m assuming that as you’ve leveled up to 70, you must have achieved honored rep with at least some of these factions: Thrallmar/Honored Hold, Cenarion Expedition, Keepers of Time, Sha’tar, and Lower City. These factions have a decent starter pvp set which could also be great for PvE.
Druid
Feral Dragonhide Battlegear
Resto Kodohide Battlegear
Balance Wyrmhide Battlegear
Hunter Stalker’s Chain Battlegear
Mage Evoker’s Silk Battlegear
Paladin
Holy Crusader’s Ornamented Battlegear
Ret/Shockadin Crusader’s Scaled Battlegear
Priest
Shadow Satin Battlegear
Holy Mooncloth Battlegear
Rogue Opportunist’s Battlegear
Shaman
Enhancement Seer’s Linked Battlegear
Restoration Seer’s Ringmail Battlegear
Elemental Seer’s Mail Battlegear
Warlock Dreadweave Battlegear
Warrior Savage Plate Battlegear
7. Of course you still have to do dungeons so that you can get nice blues to get you ready for Karazhan and heroics. Don’t forget that while it’s no longer required that every member of a Karazhan raid have the master’s key, it’s still nice to do the quests to get it. The quest chain brings you to some dungeons to get some gear and also the quest rewards afor the chain are pretty good too.
8. Rejoice and be glad that you have a level 70! To all of you guys who just got to 70, congratulations and have fun!
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By Angelo -- 0 comments
May 21st, 2008
I’m just a few hours fresh from a really looong Karazhan run my guild did and still a bit tired. You see we went all the way to Prince Malchezaar in one night, leaving just Illhoof, Netherspite and Nightbane standing. Everything was pretty smooth sailing until we got to Prince where we wiped about 4 or 5 times before finally killing him. We also had similar problems last week when we also wiped several times on him and it came to the point where I had to leave the raid. They found a replacement for me and killed him in two more attempts. But today I was there and I really was thinking that we weren’t going to get him since we were all tired. We thought that maybe it would have been best to go back the next day and try again when we’re all alert and at 100%. But we decided to give it one last go and say “what the heck”.
Back in my old guild the Thundercats where a lot of my current guild mates actually came from, we had some kind strange stroke of luck wherein we’d wipe several times on bosses and then just when we say it’s the last attempt for the night we down the boss. Call it culmination of a learning curve (for new bosses) or just plain luck wherein everything went our way but we’d get the job done somehow and many times it was by saying it was the last attempt.
So when I realized on our last attempt that we were getting Prince down to the last few percentages with just one person down, I knew we had the fight in the bag. When I saw Prince fall, I remembered the “last attempt” scenarios that the Thundercats used to have. I immediately gave a whisper to one of my closest guild mates who was a Thundercat himself, telling him that it was like the old days. All he said was “LOL” in agreement!
I know it’s crazy but if you’re guild is having a hard time downing a boss, maybe saying it’s the last attempt for the night would turn the tides just like for us.
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By Angelo -- 1 comment
May 20th, 2008
For all you altaholics out there who maxed out your character slots for your server, WoW-EU CM Vaneras brings bad news concerning Wrath of the Lich King and character slots.
We don’t plan to add another character slot with the introduction of the Death Knight, which means that you would have to either delete or transfer a character, if you wish to roll a Death Knight on a realm that already has 10 characters on it. source
Personally, I don’t have a problem with this but then again I only have 7 slots in my main server filled and I only really play 2-3 of these characters. I really won’t have a problem even if I do decide to play a DK seriously when the expansion comes out. Bit I’ve seen several of my friends who love making alts so much that they’re really pushing the limit of their character slots and they can’t bear to have even one of their toons deleted. I know quite a few people who play two accounts to make room for all their alts (and this gives them the advantage of playing two of their toons side by side, giving them a nice option to run the lowbie alts through dungeons). of course, not everyone has this option.
I understand that adding character slots would probably mean an upgrade in the hardware the servers use but it would really be sweet if Blizzard added even at least one extra slot for the altaholics out there. then again, maybe we all should just follow Vaneras’ suggestions.
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By Angelo -- 0 comments
May 19th, 2008
Now that it’s confirmed that Death Knights will be starting at level 55 upon creation, that puts that issue out of the way. but ever since it was announced that Death Knights would be starting at a higher level to give the class an epic feeling that comes with it being a hero class, I’ve always wondered exactly what would happen to Death Knights and their professions.
Obviously Death Knight would have professions too. But starting at a high level puts them in an awkward situation when it comes to professions. When jewel crafting was introduced at the release of TBC, some of the level 60 people decided to drop a profession or two to get it. So in that case, you have a high level player going back to the lowbie zones and the AH just to get the materials to level it up. But this is a totally voluntary thing and you have a choice to stick with your professions. Death Knights don’t have a choice since they get created at a high level without profs.
A solution to this would be for Death Knights to complete a quest or a chain of quests that would instantly bump up their two profs of choice to a higher level of say 225. While this would certainly make the Death Knights happy, I can imagine how other classes would complain especially if it has something to do with the inscription profession or some of the harder professions to level like enchanting, engineering or blacksmithing. Which scenario do you think is better and more fair, having them start from scratch or being able to complete a quest to bump up the professions to avoid the annoying farming of mats in lowbie zones?
Which scenario is more fair for Death Knights in WoTLK?
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By Angelo -- 2 comments
May 18th, 2008
When you’re excitedly looking for more and more news about the coming Wrath of the Lich King expansion, you’re probably going to take anything at all even if there’s a likelihood that it’s not all true or even entirely false. According to MMO Champion, some information has leaked out from the patch notes of the WoTLK Friends and Family alpha and the info is listed below. It’s not confirmed if this is indeed true but it does seem like it could very well be. None of the information seems to be unlikely at least.
Update: Both MMO Champion and World of Raids pulled out their posts about this due to problems with the Non Disclosure Agreement (NDA). Just to be safe I did too. Guess we’ll have to rely on the information that Blizzard releases as it should be. Hope we don’t have to wait too long to see the new spells and talents in store for all the classes.
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By Angelo -- 0 comments
May 16th, 2008
I know it’s a not a new issue anymore considering the news about it came out last week but I’ll talk about it anyway. I’m talking about the news that all raid dungeons in WoTLK will have their 10 man and 25 man versions. This move was praised because it opens up the option to still do some raids when you can’t put 25 men together for the night. This also opens up the possibility for smaller and/or more casual guilds to experience all the content. But this move was also lashed by the lore purists saying that being able to 10 man a strong and important figure of the game’s lore like Arthas is just absurd.
My thoughts below are my attempts to try to justify that the move to allow these 10 man raids could work and kinda add to what was said in this post in WoW Insider.
As long as it feels epic…
Just like Kil’jaeden is tucked away deep in TBC’s raid progression and a guild who attempts to down him aren’t just a bunch of dudes with much lower quality gear, a guy like Arthas won’t be downed by just any 10 men. These 10 men will have to have passed through the progression and get the right gear that would be enough to kill him. This kind of preparation and gearing up is a feat in itself, adding to epic-ness to what you might encounter. If the encounter means having the best gear available and the right kind of team work and group make up to do then it should feel epic enough. If the fight feels epic enough then it really shouldn’t matter how many people it takes.
You’re not just any 10 men
One thing I’ve wondered when I first started raiding in the original WoW game was that it seemed like even 40 men was not enough considering the vast numbers of man power you needed to win a battle in Warcraft 3. but then I realized that you’re not just a run off the mill warrior created from the barracks. You’re a hero! That’s why it only takes 5 of you to ransack whole dungeons and do what whole groups of people like the forces of Thrallmar or even the Shattered Sun Offensive couldn’t do without your help.
You’ll probably have help
One day, it bothered me that an epic battle like the CoT: Battle For Mount Hyjal raid dungeon was just a 25 man encounter considering the number of Warcraft 3 units it took to finish off Archimonde. but then I then found out that you have the help of a lot of npc’s, making the battle feel much more epic. In the case of Arthas, I’m sure the Ashbringer will come into play somehow making the fight much easier to just 10/25 men to do where they would surely fail without it.
So I’m not saying that it’s totally ok for 10 men to kill a such a strong figure of WoW lore but the reasons above surely makes it a bit easier to accept. In the end, I still praise the decision to allow it since I’m not such a lore purist and I’m really for having more and more people experience the content even if it’s toned down and with lower quality loot.
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By Angelo -- 0 comments
May 15th, 2008
I got tagged again, this time by Aiza Bautista, my colleague in the video games channel who blogs at Gamer Lite. I’m not really fond of these tags especially the part about tagging others. So I won’t. But I’ll gladly answer the survey anyway since it’s a Video Games channel camaraderie building exercise.
1. Name and Job/s (if you want to share it) - Khablooey, undead mage… err Angelo, World of Warcraft addict! hahaha
3. Favorite game genre/s - fantasy, adventure and NBA simulations (only played NBA LIVE so far)
4. Favorite game/s of all time - World of Warcraft, Diablo 2, the Quest for Glory series
5. Favorite game character/s I think Hero from the Heroes Quest/Quest for Glory series was really amusing!
6. Earliest and fondest memory of gaming? - Earliest would be playing Battlezone and a few other games on my Atari lol. my fondest would definitely be playing WoW since it’s fun and I got to meet a lot of friends while playing.
7. Most hated gaming moment/s? - getting far in a game on my Family Computer then the power went out.
8. Gaming gadgets/consoles you own/owned - Atari, Family Computer, PC for PC games. We have a Wii but that’s my brother’s and I don’t really play it.
9. If you had a “gamer’s shirt” what would the color and design be? (or if you have a favorite gamer shirt, what does it look like?) - probably a white shirt with a cute female WoW gnome with pink pigtails. I love gnomes even if I play Horde.
10. Gaming stuff on your wish list? - a PS3 so I can finally play the NBA 2k sries our channel editor mike has been trying to get me to play. Also a PC microphone so I can talk to my guild in WoW over the voice client server.
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By Angelo -- 4 comments
May 15th, 2008
Blizzard has been known to be really late in their release dates but hopefully it won’t be the case for the Wrath of the Lich King expansion. According to a press release on Vivendi’s statement of earnings, the Wrath of the Lich King expansion is scheduled for release at the second half of this year. What this means is that we now have a confirmed time frame to look forward to and even if the release gets deleyed by a bit at least we have an idea as early as now about when to expect it.
What this also means is that we won’t really have to wait too long to get to make our Death Knights and also bring our characters to Northrend. I was actually expecting that the expansion would at least as early as the first quarter of next year. This is why I’m quite surprised that the scheduled release date is late this year. I’m not complaining though especially since some of my WoW friends have pretty much retired until WoTLK comes out. This means I won’t have to wait too long to see them again.
I think having the WoTLK comes out late this year is just enough time to savor the latest content that has been patched into TBC and it’s also not too long a wait either. I’m excited for this and I hope to see everyone in the expansion later this year!
As an aside, the Vivendi earnings statement says that the number of subscriptions for World of Warcraft has increased to 10.7 million for the first quarter of 2008 from 10 million at the end of 2007. Again this is proof that the game is still growing and growing!
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By Angelo -- 0 comments
May 14th, 2008
My new guild decided this week that it was time to try raiding Karazhan again. A few weeks ago, we had probably the most disastrous Kara run I’ve ever been in with the whole time allotted for the run spent wiping on Attumen the Hunstman several times before downing him eventually. Of course this was due to the fact that we asked a life time DPS warrior who happened to have decent tanking gear collected in his bank to respec Protection. He had the gear but his tanking experience just wasn’t there. He did the best he could considering the circumstances.
Due to the lack of healers, my kinda under geared holy paladin was asked to be the raid’s third healer in Karazhan two days in a row. The first day was a Monday night (in the US) which is the day before Kara resets. We did a freshly reset Kara again the next day (which was earlier for me). I have to say that even if I was just the third healer in the raid I gained a lot of valuable experience aside from the several pieces of healing gear (some plate, some mail and even cloth) the group let me take in those two runs. Healing in raids is something I’ve never done before this week and now that I’ve done it and got a lot of praise for the healing I’ve done, it’s a real boost for my confidence as a healer.
Another thing I’ve taken from the runs is an increased respect for my guild mates (current and former) who healed me and my group in our raids before. Having seen some of the encounters I’ve done on my mage but this time from a healer’s perspective, I saw that there are certain encounters that you just take for granted as a DPS class that could be quite a pain in the behind as a healer. The Maiden of Virtue and the Curator boss encounters are two examples I’ve seen in these two days that show that.
These experiences are what pushes me more and more to bring my holy pally to these raids. The experience I get is very valuable and the idea that I could get more and more gear upgrades is sweet. My goal after these runs is to be good enough to be the Main Tank healer as a holy pally should be instead of just the third healer assigned to healing the rest of the raid.
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By Angelo -- 2 comments
May 13th, 2008
A recent message from lead designer Jeff Kaplan (Tigole) just made an announcement concerning the bear mount that drops in the 10 man raid dungeon Zul’Aman.
I wanted to give a very early head’s up to all of you Zul’Aman raiders out there:
Once Wrath of the Lich King goes live, you will no longer be able to obtain the Zul’Aman bear mount by saving all 4 prisoners in the timed run. The Bear Mount will be replaced by a very good, epic item that is level appropriate for people doing the zone. To be clear, the Zul’Aman bear mount is supposed to be an item of very high prestige. We want players who have earned it during the appropriate era (aka before the level cap gets raised) to be recognized for their accomplishment. We have absolutely no problem with higher level players (above level 70) going back and doing Zul’Aman after Wrath of the Lich King is live. We just want to preserve the accomplishment of having saved all 4 prisoners at the intended difficulty level.
We will most likely do something similar with the titles “Hand of A’dal” and “Champion of the Naaru” as well.
Please don’t panic! You still have plenty of time to complete these feats! Wrath of the Lich King is coming along great but is not ready yet! In fact, we’re not even in beta yet! So have fun adventuring for your bears and titles but please consider this your early warning. source
I guess everyone should start doing more Zul’Aman to up their chances of getting the bear mount before it stops dropping when the next expansion comes out. Perhaps they should also do the same with the Phoenix epic flying mount that drops from Kael’thas in the Tempest Keep: The Eye raid dungeon since it also seems to be an icon of high prestige.
Update: I just had a strange thought about the bear mount. Isn’t it kinda funny that druids get to ride these bear mounts and also turn into a bear themselves? Of course the bear mount looks way cooler.
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By Angelo -- 1 comment
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