Monday, February 2, 2009

Ctrl Alt WoW Episode 100 - The Century Mark

Ctrl Alt WoW Episode 100 -

Aprillian, Glanthur and Ashayo discuss another week of playing World of Warcraft, Blizzard's great MMORPG. Ashayo is back and Glanthur joins us at the end. Good Times. Write us at ctrlaltwow@gmail.com. With Blade Live and In Person!

What We've Been Doing:



Aprillian


Decided to just tunnel through and spend the money and get Primall up in Enchanting, crazy I know. Sent Epril to Thrallmar and then summoned Primall and now she is a Grandmaster Enchanter

On the train back to RI, brought Primall and Veyle into ZF for the elder. After repeat running back from the graveyard for Veyle, I brought in Epril. She can kill 3 with no problem and Veyle gets just about the same amount of xp. Ran through ZF and when Veyle was killed, waited tilk Epril got to the Elder and summoned her.

Was all happy with my decision to level Primall to be the De'er and then Aprillian got a Khorium Lockbox while doing the Sunfury plans Daily. So I thought I should level Veyle, especially since she's on my RAF. I brought her to ZF with my DK Epril. While she's not getting the RAF xp while with the DK because she's 66, Veyle, now 41, can get it when she turns in the quests with Primall. If I remember to put Veyle in stealth before a fight, she can pickpocket the Trolls while Epril kills them.

Took Ashayo's advice and put some glyphs up on the AH and I'll be darn, I'm making a little money and emptying out my inventory.

Everyone dead runs at the same speed.

Wed afternoon, spent time either in ZF or out in the desert running Veyle on stealth while Primall/Epril fights. Veyle would pickpocket. But then they realized they both has the pirate hat quest and that they

Thur morning after spending silly hours in Desolace trying to find waterlogged lockboxes, we went to Angor Fortress and found a bunch. She started at 200 and got to 215 and now she needs another level to go further.

Thu afternoon, after doing the Broken Alliance Quest Veyle dinged 43. Grinding Whelplings while there. I brought Auruk along ungrouped and he skinned them all. Got some leather for Primall to use, which is good beacuse she came across the dragonscale trainer. But I really wanted to bring Tiiaa my mage. But she had to go Crossroad and get her skinning up. She was at 35 and while they were in the badlands, she got up to 47

Elyte discovered [Inscription: Glyph of Horn of Winter] and sold 2 already for 22g.

Bought a guild with two gbank tabs from DeathHuman (Stormhuman) for 250g

6 purchasable tabs which have 98 item slots each; bags are not required for the slots. The price for the first tab is 100g , and increases for each successive tab, 250g , 500g , 1000g , 2500g , 5000g , for a grand total of 9350g .

Took Primall back to the Angor Fortress to level from 215 to 220 in LP. Then realized I needed to be doing quest/mobs that gave Primall xp so went to Searing Gorge and up through Black Rock. Ended up grinding mobs in Burning Steppes While levelling Tiiaa's Skinning in the Barrens. I had Tiiaa grouped with Veyle and Primall for two reasons. Sometimes soloing while in a group will increase your chances of getting greens, or is this an old orc's tale? And I can keep track of health on a character I'm not currently watching. A Nelf just punkin headed Tiiaa, LOL. I think she'll leave it on

Friday afternoon,Tiiaa ventured down to 1K needles to see if she can skin there, and she can. Level 26-28, med/hvy mobs vs 21 -24 in the Barrens. She also picked up the Message to Freewind Post at the Great Lift. She's hoping to be 200 by the time she gets there. Then she can catch a ride back to Camp T and train skinning.

Tiiaa got to 200 went to train and then headed to Shimmering Flats. She ended up getting up 225, finishing the Vulture bone quest and getting a coin from the elder there, good job. Elyte, DK Inscripter

Veyle dings 45 in Azhara and she and Primall went back to the Fortress in Desolace and she did 5 more lock boxes and got to 225 in Lock picking. While grinding in Azhara Primall looted a Thorium Lockboxes and she had one from the WLtS gbank and there was another in the bank. She started to open one of the ones in her bag, when she realized, if she waits until 46, she can open it and get a skill up. So back to grinding Dragonkin in Azhara. Keep in mind that Primall is now getting xp and is a little over 2 bubbles from dinging, and I think she can give Veyle a level.

Satureday Checked in on Epril, DK JC miner while Elyte was at the AH and used some of the money Elyte made selling Glyphs to buy some gems and now Epril can make a bunch of stuff to level JC.

But going back to Veyle and Primall, Primall dinged 57 earlier today but decided to wait until Veyle was closer to 46 before granting her a level. Well Primall could not give a level, i guess she has to wait to 58. After Veyle dinged 46, she opened 3 boxes and got to 228, then she and Primall headed to the Elder in Azhara. Aprillian went to make Shadowcloth in Shadowmoon Valley. It is so much easier when you can fly to the Altar. She also

Sunday Morning Got the [Make Love, Not Warcraft] Achievement in Ogrimmar on two toons for hugging dead Alliance after they hit AH and bank. Sunday evening back with Primall, Veyle and Auruk in Azhara. We logged in and someone had killed a bunch of the blue Dragonkin so while Primall killed the few left, Auruk ran around skinning them for Rugged Leather and then by the time he was done, they had respawned. Aprillian was doing a quest in Shadowmoon in the Training ground gettting sunfury signets for the Scryers.

Aprillian headed to Blade's Edge for the Mana Cell Daily and then heading back to the fp in BE when she realized she could just fly to Netherstorm

Glanthur

Continued leveling Arlaerus. He's 76 now. Only need 2500 more gold before I can get an epic flyer in Northrend.
Glanthur is basically just doing the cooking daily in Dalaran
Sangfroid - a human Death Knight - was created as Frost. I'm still trying to figure if I should dual-wield. He's going to be a tank
My goal is to have an 80 DPS, 80 Healer, and 80 Tank within the next 6 months. I think I can do it.

I can never play enough of the Death Knight starting area. I love it!

Ashayo


Ashayo : Naxx - Four Horsemen - Charmed Cierge staff
Gluth down - hard to keep adds away!
Thaddius - jump to the boss, then positive/negative charge shuffle

Solo The Nexus coin - frogger!
Dual box Halls of Stone (dps, heal) to get coin
Stratholme - coin and finally got Key to the City
And easy as that ... Elder Ashayo. Exalted with Org by collecting coins

Wintergrasp - FUN!

Heroic Drak'Tharon keep

Exalted with oracles - mana regen trinket

Healed Heroic Gun'Drak (but failed on snake boss)

Icecrown questing ; started opening up Knights of Ebon Blade dailies - good for dual-boxing

25-man Vault of Archavon - only warlock and tier-7 chest peice dropped!
[Valorous Plagueheart Robe]

Oracle Egg - Tickbird and Cobra Hatchling!

Jekle and Hiide questing in Howling Fjord. Running back and forth between Giants run and Camp Winterhoof
Both level 71 now. Hiide wasn't Kara geared, so is getting upgrades already.



The Bladed Edge


The Bladed Edge

Not a lot to report this week... I haven't yet had a good look at the changes that the "Great Hunter Nerf of 09" has brought... but then... I haven't been on my Hunter at all in the past few weeks...
Stage 1 of my semi-secret 'Little Project' is complete... those who were present when I completed it (just a few days ago) can probably figure out what I'm trying to do...
But for the rest of you, I'm gonna stay mysterious for *just* a bit longer... it adds to the suspense, doncha know...
(Although... my increasingly frustrated rants in guild chat might have tipped a few of you off...)

Overall, the 3.0.8 patch has not yet affected me *at all*.
As far as Rogues go...
Cheap Shot and Fan of Knives?... I don't really use them.
An interesting bonus to Feint Rank 8... useless in solo play, good for raiding and dungeon-running... as often as I'm in dungeons (as in "not at all" lately...) So that one's a null, too...
The only change I can see *possibly* affecting me is the last one:
Kidney Shot: This ability now has diminishing returns against all other stuns.
What does this mean?
Here's a clarification for those who might be wondering the same thing - but did not want to appear 'noobish' by asking...

*Diminishing Returns* is a lessened effect on the mob if you use the skill or effect more than once on them... such that you have full (100%) effect the first time, then it drops to 50%, then 25% then it becomes immune.
This diminishing return effect resets 15 seconds after the last effect was applied.
Before the patch, Cheap Shot shared the diminishing returns (specifically the stun effect) with other skills like Deep Freeze, Intercept, Shockwave, Hand of Justice, etc...
Now, it is Kidney Shot that shares those returns.
What does *that* mean?
If you are in a group - or deep into PVP - and your Warrior tank associate hits the enemy in front of you with his Shockwave attack... and you - a rogue - are still in Stealth and manage to Cheap Shot the target right after - you would have found that the length of time your attack lasted for was lower than you had expected it to be... or maybe you were too focussed on the thrill of combat that you didn't even pay attention...
Trust me... it was there... ever have your Hand of Justice last for only 2 seconds, Paladins? I bet dollars for donuts that someone *else* stunned the mob just before you did.
That's "shared diminishing returns".
How does this affect anything?
Not a lot in solo play, that's for sure... if you have to Vanish in order to try to start your stun-lock combinations of Cheap Shot and Kidney Shot again, the mob's health resets to 100% once you're out of combat (which is where Vanish takes you)... so you really won't see much of this except possibly in dungeons and definitely in pvp.
In dungeons... if you are repeatedly using Kidney Shot on *any* mob that the tank is focussed on (taking needed rage or threat potential away from the tank) I'm going to sneak up behind you some day and slap you with a fish.
In PVP... the lack of diminishing returns on Cheap Shot now means that you can stealth and re-apply it to full effect.
But... in Ol' Blade's opinion...
If you really have to apply Kidney Shot more than once, you're not doing it right...



From the 'Dirty Little Tricks' Department...
Dunno about any of you, but Ol' Blade has too many buttons on his display... every time a new skill was learned from the trainer or off the talent tree, I'd evaluate its usefulness and try to find a place for it on my button bar...
Eventually... that makes for a really cluttered display... and, naturally, I forget to use some skills because they aren't readily at my fingertips... but what to do?
Use an addon that moves your buttonbars around?
You *could*... but you'd end up just having buttons all over the place...
Or an addon that changes the size of your button bars?
Sure... but then what if you actually have a use for your buttons... squinting at your screen to find the skill you're looking for isn't very practical...
Hence, Ol' Blade's attempts to clean up your button bars by having multiple skills in each button...
My latest one - for Warriors - is Victory Rush.
Not a bad skill... if you attack something within 20 seconds of defeating a target worth experience or honor, you get an Instant Attack (Victory Rush) that does a respectable amount of damage.
Now that there is once again a reason to be grinding on mobs that give experience points... and now that protection spec warriors are all the rage (Hey! Another punny!) I figured I'd find a way to slip Victory Rush into your attack schedule without it disrupting the rest of your button bar...
/cast Victory Rush
/cast Devastate
Simple, no? Spamming this key attempts to cast Victory Rush, but once it does (or if you pass the 20 second mark) it will default to Devastate.
Naturally, you warriors that are specc'd in a tree OTHER than protection can substitute your preferred attack in place of Devastate... so Bloodthirst or Mortal Strike... heck... you can use *any* skill, really... I just used the 'Big Three' as examples.

From Ol' Blade's Easter Egg Basket...
Now... you all recall that Ol' Blade's been wandering back and forth across the worlds trying to accomplish what I've almost decided isn't possible at all... more on that later...
But in my travels, I stumbled across a great find!
Accessible only by flying mount is a day care! Right in Nagrand!
The mountain range just north of the Laughing Skull Ruins hosts this tranquil area... Orc, Human and Blood Elf children running and playing outside, while the matron of this day-care - a troll named Challe - keeps watch over the sleeping infants (of all races) within the tent behind her.
A perfect place to drop off your little sproglet before heading down to go hunting with Nesingwary!
... wait a second... where's the dog that belongs in the doghouse beside the hut...?
And... why are there only scraps of meat and bones in it...?
And... why is there what seems to be a goblin explosive in the sandbox?!?
And... what is kept in the cages behind the hut?
And... is that a small humanoid skeleton in one of the huts?!?
On second thought... maybe this might not be the best place to leave your little sproglets...

Hmm moving on...
Oh... here's a question:
Just how much of a Trekkie *are* you?
Remember the character 'Jadzia Dax' from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine?
Recall that she was a Trill... and the symbiote was named Dax, while the host was named Jadzia?
Ever wonder what happened to the previous hosts?
Betcha you'd have never thought to search for them in the Draenei main city...
Yup. in the Museum area of The Exodar, you can find Audrid, Tobin, Curzon, Torias and Emony... bonus points if you put them in order...

Until next time...

As always, an awesome podcast, guys!

Blade

Emails

Email #1 from Ryan

So. How do i play wow. Well im 16 so anytime i get to play im happy wither its 10 min or 2 hours. Juggling homework and games are hard but i also play golf and tennis so it makes my time to play even less. I have a 71 DK a 55 hunter which i HATE. The only reason he is 55 is because i wanted a DK. I never dual boxed before i heard this show. I am currently rynning a priest and a rogue. It makes it kinda hard because although the rogue can stealth the priest follos and pulls aggro. So i will rap this up before a hunormus wall of text overwell you. So how do i play well i just play when i can and try hard to level all of my alts. Thabks for providing a great show for us alt-a-holics every week. Thabks and kwep up the great work!
Ryan/sjostrom
Sauce-trom. Thats how to pronounce the toon name.
Sent from my iPod

Email #2 from Mo

Hello, Happy 100th podcast, 100 thanks and many more to Aprillian, Ashayo, and to all of your guests through the 100 podcasts.
You all truly make our wow playing time fun as we listen to you while we play.

For in game play, i actually have been having fun with the Lunar Festival and Elder achievements. On my warrior I have all of them but of course the northrend instance elders. (I hate pugs even more now as no one is interested in doing the elder achievements.)

Besides doing the daily quest grind to increase rep's, i have tried dual boxing again but it is more difficult for some reason. Before my xps laptop could handle having 2 wow screens open at one time but now I dont know if it is the new graphics since wrath came out or what but the screen and graphics flash and make playing not fun. Any input you can give i will greatly appreciate it: is it more difficult to play 2 accounts on one computer now? do i need to make some chnages to settings? or should i just try to use 2 computers?

I will keep it short as i know fans will be emailing you to wish you happy 100; so thank you as alwasy and FOR the CRLaltWOW!!!!

:0) and the Horde!

MO

Email #3 from Rick

Hey Aprillian, Ashayo and Glanthur,

I started playing the game about a month ago and began listening after hearing Aprillian on an old episode of How I WoW, since then your show has been top of my list.

I'm currently a level 40 warlock and usually play with a friend who started the game at the same time I did, when he's offline I usually run his account for trip exp.

I'm enjoying running the two accounts questing, with your help I set up follow macros. I've considered starting an alt to bring up to the warlocks level. Somebody in my guild advised against this telling me to level 2 (or 5!) shamans. I'm new to this so I'm not sure how easy it would be to control to different classes at a high level. What do you guys think do you level the same classes using 'keyclone' etc?

Cheers,

Rick from Belfast, Ireland
Ricadikuli, The Maelstrom eu server

ps I'm currently going through your back catalogue sorry if you've been asked this question a million times. :)


Email #4 from Karen

Just wanted to write in quickly (since I've been so busy I haven't been able to get an email in lately) and comment on some of the hunter topics.

I play a gorilladin hunter. She's my highest level toon right now and was the first toon I ever made. And I wish I had a sign that says, "I tamed my gorilla in Stranglethorn Vale more than two years ago and he's been with me ever since."

But I digress. As for the great hunter nerf of 3.0.8, I agree with the listener who wrote in to the last show, it really wasn't that bad. I have to admit that I felt a little over-powered with my gorilla taking on 5 or 6 yellow mobs. That just didn't seem right. Now we're down to 3 or 4 at a time and I do have to lay down the mend pets. But that's about right, I think.

A quick addendum to the tip Blade had about a macro to let you assist your focus. If you're a hunter and you are mostly leveling or grinding, you can make an assist pet macro:

/target pet
/assist

Put that on your bar and when you're pet is attacking a group, you can always be sure you're on the same mob that he is.

On a different note, grats on the 100th show!

Please do a video, my husband and I are looking into dual boxing a bit more as he has a lot of time to play (bad economy) and I have very little time to play. He was thinking of dragging an extra toon around when he plays, spreading the experience around a little.

Do you have two WoW folders on your Mac to let you play in two different windows?

Looking forward to another 100 shows,

Karen

Email #5 from Machiavelly

G'day Aprillian, Ashyao, and Glanthur,

I have been loving the podcast and the wealth of information that I have been able to glean. I have also been enjoying Blade's letters.

I have been playing since patch 1.11 (Original Naxxramas ~ June 2006). Originally started as alliance and don't regret it. You miss half the game if you play only one faction.

According to the addon, "Altoholic" I have 26 World of Warcraft characters on my single account spread across US, Oceanic and Latin America realms. My highest character is a level 70 Feral Druid, Melchizedec on the Oceanic server, Khaz'goroth. I have tried some multi-boxing, via a Refer-A-Friend account on my laptop, but I don't think it was for me.

There are three things I find difficult being an altoholic: Choosing which character to play; keeping up with the friends/guilds on the different servers/factions; and finding time to do the seasonal events for all the alts. How do you guys cope?

Thank you all! Keep up the great work.

--
Machiavelly of Alea Iact Est: level 61Blood Elf Rogue from Earthen Ring - US.
AKA (on ER):
Sinfjotli, Xelandra, & Rahkwa



End of Emails


Winner from last week: Tracey

Hey guys,
Thanks for reading my email and then rolling me for the prize. Yea, a free month would be great. I have a authenticator already.
By the way, I am a female all my toons are too so no worries, just email me on the information you need for the prize. Again, thank you very much. I really appreciate you all.
Tracey
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T


Thank you again- I just entered the code and it worked great.

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