Monday, March 2, 2009

Ctrl Alt WoW Episode 104 - Horde/Alliance

Contest Ongoing send an email to ctrlaltwow@gmail.com and being placed in a drawing for a month free of WoW or an authenticator.
Visit our Website at http://ctrlaltwow.com

What We've Been Doing:

Aprillian

Spent Sun/Mon running Aprilian around Dragonblight to make cloth. It's very hard to find all these little places, maws and stuff. Finally made them all and got back to the trainer only to find that I had to spend over a 150 in gold to train at level 420. She did like being in Northrend though. Everytime the ally alt made enough, she would buy Frostweave and infinite dust to make Frostweave bags.

Epril and Elyte and Auruk ran around Blade's Mountain doing all sorts of woodsy stuff and then when they all dinged 67, they headed to Netherstorm.

Wed morning ran around with Tiiaa getting pets from TB, UC and Ogrimmar and I had my alt in Everson send in some dragonhawks. Doing a brisk business.

Thu discovered all I needed for Netherweave bags was rune thread. Went crazy making Netherweave and Mooncloth bags. Wanted Mooncloth bags for lower level bank toons.

Jumped and did it, took my quad to Northrend, had a blast. 3 67's and Aprillian is doable. Took the Twins back to Dalaran to train professions. Epril got the JC daily and bought a pattern. She also made some necklaces using mats gotten from my ally and sent them to Primall. Elyte made a shoulder enchant in inscription.

Sat night at lunch , in Mightstone Quarry battling bugs and releasing victims to fight with me with the Twins. Then ventured into BT, can't get quests but can get good xp and herbs and mining nodes.

Primall got the jewelry from Epril and de'd getting some infinite dust and some small dream shards, cool. The Twins went all the way to Dragonblight, could fight mobs 5 levels over them.

Sun morning Aprillian did the Mana Cell Daily. Now her achievement log says 3 of 5 for the 5 daily quests in a row, it had been resetting. Maybe she will get it on Monday. Now she's off to Dragonblight to make mo7onshroud. I'm thinking of changing her cloth spec to whatever makes spellweave as the mats, eternal fire, seem much more expensive. So making 2 of them would be better.

Auruk is doing the cookie daily.

Ashayo


Asheal ran Vault of Archavon 10 man healing. No drops.
Heroic Culling of Stratholme - The Culling of Time - Lanc won the drake.
Won an epic ring which gave me the Superior achievement - Min level 187 item in every slot.
Heroic Halls of Stone - The "Event" gave us grief, but we persisted.

Oracle eggs - Got the Proto-Drake Whelp

Sons of Hodir dailies - Revered. (Though pretty much a waste of time for an inscriptor) Quest "Feeding Arngrim" easiest of all the dailies!

Alchemy - Northrend Research failed to proc

Druid - Omen of Clarity is now passive

Hiide - AN, half of Old Kingdom
Aspect of the dragonhawk at 74

Ashayo - 10-man Naxx - Arachnid quarter.
Arachnid
1st boss - many wipes
2nd boss - one wipe
2nd night- Maexxna
Heigan - safety dance! 1st night

Vault of Archavon - 10man on Ashayo with mostly Naxx group

Death Knight starting zone - on alliance!

Glanthur


Glanthur is almost exalted with all the factions of WotLK. Just 1000 more for Wyrmrest Accord.
Been doing heroics on Arlaerus as well. He's getting pretty well-geared. Once Glanthur is fully exalted then I'll focus more on Arlaerus.



Bladed Edge


Blade here...

It's been a chaotic week... lots of time to play one day... no time at all to play the next... plus my power adapter crapping out didn't help things any...
But Ol' Blade will struggle ever-onward!

Got some pretty spiffy news, though - and a shout out... see... I was playing a little later than usual the other night when a guildie sent a message over gchat saying 'Anyone that wants Loque'nahak, I'm found him'.
By the Beard of my old Uncle Throgg!
That cursed Spirit Beast!
The super-rare everyone-seems-to-want-him-
but-he-spawns-only-when-he-feels-like-it ultra-hunter pet!
It must have been foretold by the Earth Mother... I was in flight and almost at an inn when Karius announced his finding... I dropped out of Skullblade and onto Wolftusk... verbally cursing the speed of my computer... logged into Wolf and managed to have the forethought to dismiss my temporary gorilla pet before I mounted up and took off like a shot towards Karius's position...
My usual place of logging for Wolf was a semi-regular spawn point of the Spirit Beast... just like 95% of the hunters in Sholazar Basin... so when I logged in and grouped up with Karius... I took off towards him... and flew past at least four hunters on my way...
Thanking the Earth Mother that they didn't up and follow me... they probably thought I was being a noob for leaving my camping-spot...
I recall as well regretting not taking the hunter talent that increases mount speed... 300% flight speed seemed far... too... slow...
Finally land near Karius... and there he was...
Loque'nahak! in all his glory!
Of course... I'm super-hyped up at this point... I lost track of where my freeze trap was... found it... dropped it to set up the tame... pull Loque over, he hits the trap... oh... my... nerves... *I CAN'T FIND MY TAME BEAST SKILL* AHHHH!
Then Loque'nahak BREAKS the trap... I'm sweating bullets... he's pummelling me and I'm starting to feel like a scratching post... AHA! Found it!
Start taming him...
Holy heck this Tame Beast thing takes a long time... my health is falling faster than the economy...
... and managed to get him with like 3000 health to spare!
WOOT!
So yeah... after great grovelling thanks to Karius and giving him the most expensive thing I had in my inventory in appreciation (a stack of Adder's Tongue), I am now the proud companion of Loque'Nahak.
So there's my shout out... Karius rocks.
Only one problem now... I have *no* idea what to name Wolftusk's new companion!

Oh... Skullblade hit 80, too! And my goal to reach 30,000 health? I can do it... but I sacrifice Defense to get there... with any luck, the few missing pieces to my Beginning Raiding Defense Plate Armor collection will balance me out... as it stands now, 530 Defense and 26,900 health leave me *just a little* shy of Raiding calibre...
Oh... talking about achieving stuff... my very first delve into a Heroic dungeon happened the other day!
Halls of Lightning! I think I did ok as a tank in there... in my defense it was a 'trial by fire'... I had never been in the Halls of Lightning - Heroic or otherwise... so we wiped on a few trash encounters... one time we got extra adds... you know... the standard "WIpe on the trash, one-shot the bosses" kind of run...
We did ok, too, overall... until we got to the end-guy Loken... we had to swap out members mid-run for their sceduled Naxx raid - which had us at (if I recall correctly) an entire 5-man group in a Heroic dungeon with zero experience with Halls of Lightning other than wowwiki.
It hurt.
35 gold in repairs to be precise... ah well... "Welcome to Epic Level" I suppose...

Onward...
Last week you were talking a bit about Haunted Mementos... I have a bunch as well... personally, I'm looking forward to a year from now when very few people remember what the silent spectral things moving around the cities are and people start getting weirded out...



Ashayo asked about the 5-man follow up to the Dragonblight elite quests... Sarathstra, Scourge of the North.
Dictionary Definition: Cocky
~ arrogant; pertly self-assertive; conceited; see also: Skullblade
Yeah... that was me after those fights... so I'm thinking "Huh... she's *only* a 5-man... I wonder how hard she can be..."
PWNED.
In my defense, I managed to get her down to about 75% of her 265 thousand health before she handed me my butt...
So... yeah... Sarathstra solo? Not so much.
Later that day I did join a small group (me - 77 warrior, an 80 warlock (Shavonne) and a 74 tree-druid... whose name escapes me... feel free to lambaste me in gchat) and we went around Dragonblight hammering down all the elite quests we could find... including the Scourge of the North. In fact... our druid didn't have the quest series... so we ended up killing her twice!
What a rush! It's one thing to be in a 5-man... it's another thing to be in a group where there's only a ranged dps... if not for the warlock pet, it almost looked like I was standing toe-to-toe against a dragon! No wonder a lot of tanks have egos... we think we're unstoppable!
Having a healer is dangerous for me... I was rushing into groups of mobs with absolutely no fear... like 'Huh... there's another small group of three mobs... let's get them *too*... that makes what... six I'm tanking?... not worried! I haz a healzor!'

From the Dirty Little Tricks Department...
Here's a couple of macros swip-err... *copied* from various sites including, but not limited to tankspot and wowwiki... these ones are mainly for you 'fledgeling' warrior tanks (at least the tanks that haven't hit 80 yet and are still leveling)... but all warrior tanks I think will find these macros to be of use... I used the first one against the pre-bosses in Halls of Lightning... extra threat is always a good thing right out of the gate!
#show Retaliation
/cast [stance:2] Battle Stance; Retaliation
/cast Defensive Stance

Be aware that it's a bit of a button spam... you have to hit it more than once (unlike most of the macros I've detailed thus far)... Basically, this one jumps you into Battle stance if you weren't there already, pops Retaliation, then jumps you back into Defensive Stance (three taps).
I was great to use when I wanted to make sure I had more threat coming out of the gate... and automatically attacking each and every time I was hit seemed to work just fine... it's a 5-minute cooldown, though... but it doesn't share the cooldown with Shield Wall anymore... so if you need to use your uber-defense skill, it's there when you need it.
The alternative for the Fury-minded among you:
#show Recklessness
/cast [stance:3] Berserk Stance; Recklessness
/cast Defensive Stance

What's the deal with these two macros?
Extra dps. Retaliation has you attacking back every time you are attacked, and Recklessness has the next three special ability attacks you use have 100% chance to crit... but for the next 12 seconds, you take 20% extra damage.
They were taken off the timer with their counterparts (Recklessness, Retaliation and Shield Wall) and given a 5 minute cooldowns specifically (instead of the 30 minutes we had way back in the day). Be aware, though, they have a 10 second cooldown with respect to each other... so you can't spam them all at once... also... it was recommended that you insert a /cast Shield Block in the Recklessness macro to offset any incoming damage... but we've done that anyway with our uber-Charge macro.

From Ol' Blade's Easter Egg Basket...
Mrs. Blade's birthday has come and gone... and with Winter Veil passed us as well, I find myself surrounded by quite a few seasons of the Simpsons. Which got me thinking... maybe folks might not know about a few Simpsons-esque references in our beloved World of Warcraft... I'm sure there are more to be found... but here's some to whet your appetite
Groundskeeper Wyllithen in Eversong Woods (68,46)
Seymour in Lower City (63,66)
Speaking of high-profile celebrities... in Nagrand, at the arena, you have the distinct honor of being able to interract with one of the moguls of mayhem and sport violence himself... Don King!... err... I mean... "King" Dond. Yeah... that might have been a bit of a stretch... were it not for the nearby Ogre named 'Earbiter'...
Ooh... and one more for you tailors out there... there's apparently a Majestic Flying Carpet that can be crafted at Tailoring 425. This, by its very description, is a spiffier version of the 'normal' flying carpet... and is the epic flight speed version.
Nothing so specific about this one... but wait... read the buff you get when you hop on your carpet...
"Don't you dare close your eyes."
Ha. A not-so-subtle reference to the Walt Disney movie 'Aladdin'.

As always, an awesome podcast guys!

Loremaster Blade

Emails

Email #1 from Jeff

Hello Aprillian, Glanthur, Ashayo, and Blade,

I’ve enjoyed the Ctrl Alt WoW podcast for quite awhile now, and thought I would take a moment to send you all an email. First off, thank you for doing the show. You all are fun to listen too, and share a lot a great stories and tips for us fellow altoholics.

I’ve been playing since October of 2006, and until recently had not really made many alts, but instead mostly just played my night elf druid “Maestoso” on the Undermine server for most of my time in WoW.

A quick story of love found in the World of Warcraft:
In May of last year, just days after joining a new guild, I went to go help a fellow guild mate with some quests in Hellfire Penninsula. As it turned out, another fellow guildy came over to help as well....a female warlock with a fun and feisty personality she was.
Well, some kind of magic occurred that night, as after doing some quests and killing the fel reaver, subtle sparks began to fly. A bit of joking and flirting between her and I led to a continued and growing relationship night after night as the druid and the warlock explored the world of warcraft together. One very romantic night in Nagrand led to the exchange of phone numbers and again magic happened. It turned out we had many things in common and ...well..over the coming weeks...we fell in love! I lived in California and she in Montana. I traveled to see her in person, and the connection was simply amazing and perfect. We packed her things moved her down to California where we now live and love together. I found my soulmate in Hellfire Penninsula...lol. Life can be so very incredible!

Since that time, my love and I have made many alts together on both Horde and Alliance (mostly on Earthen Ring and Undermine realms). We have our own guilds on each realm, so that we can have our own guild bank with lots of space to store stuff for all our alts. Her mom and son also play and are in our guilds as well, and often play with us questing, running dungeons or a bit of PvP. Her mom lives in Wyoming and her son is at an Army base in Georgia, so it is really nice for all of us to stay connected via WoW. It is great fun having many alts and professions, and they all help each other out...it never gets boring or monotonous.

Ok, don’t want to be overly chatty here, but I’d like to share one little tip that my lady discovered while out leveling her herbalism. As it turns out, if you come across an herb node while running around with a friend or loved one, you can both get a level up point for your herbalism profession off that one herb. Just make sure you turn off auto-loot, and then one of you picks the herb but does not loot it, then the other person picks it, and can loot. You both get a tick on your herbalism skill. Pretty cool, and I think this works for mining too. My baby and I spent an entire day recently leveling our Death Knights herbalism from 1-300 by doing this. I was still a grind, but because the both of us received points off each herb, it went well I think.

So that’s it for now.....love can be found the World of Warcraft, as it I and my soulmate have been so lucky to find out. May others be as lucky as well.

Thanks again for creating and sharing Ctrl Alt WoW with all of us!

Jeff

Email #2 from Valathilia

Hello again it's Valathilia
So I was playing Wow the other night and I was looking at my priest talent trees, currently I am holy and I only need 3 more levels for 80 and it's been hell, I am so close yet so far away :( I was thinking of respecing disc but I was afraid that I won't be able to heal the same, because like the most common dps-ers and there joy for crits I also get that joy for healing, I know weird
And btw how much spell power should the average priest healer have for heroics :) ATM I am at 1355sp and once I ding 80 I kinda just want to jump in and start getting geared for Naxx
Ty guys for the awesome podcast I look foward to your next one :)
And..
For the alliance... Jk I mean horde
<3 Valathilia

Email #3 from Brian

Good morning, afternoon, or evening everyone as the case may be,

First off, I'd like to mention that this is the Bryan that won the second place prize of the Collector's Ed. WotLK box. I love having it and it looks perfect next to the BC Collector's Ed. box amongst my many other Blizzard products on display in my office. The prize was great and I wanted to say a long overdue thank you.

Aprillian, your show has continued to grow and has come along way since the days when you "solo'd" CtrlAltWoW. It has become infinitely better since you decided to triple-box the podcast with Ashayo and Glanthur.

I thought I might share a tip or two that I have learned over the years playing WoW. First, don't underestimate the value of having a good keyboard and mouse. Your input devices should be as least as responsive as your computer is. I chose the Ideazon company's Zboard and Reaper combination. The keyboard places your directional keys and action bar keys in an easy to manage spot, off to the left hand side (sorry to all the left handed people out there). I tried playing on a traditional keyboard again recently and it felt like I was a caveman banging on rocks. A gaming keyboard makes a huge difference. The Reaper mouse from the same company gives you three extra thumb buttons on the inside of the mouse (sorry again lefties) and an "on-the-fly" button that can change your DPI allowing for fast, normal, or slow scrolling of the mouse. A laser mouse is a must regardless if it is meant for gaming or not. Traditional mice are too heavy and slow for the quick movements needed in WoW and other games. The three buttons on this particular mouse can be re-mapped to buttons such as "Home", "End", and "Insert" (on PC's) and then you can map those buttons to actions in WoW. I have the first button set to the "Send Pet" or "Pet Attack" ability. There is no need to click on anything in game this way. I can select Hunter's mark on my action bar while sending my pet via the extra mouse button. For my priest, I have the middle button set to "Focus Target" so I can easily focus on the tank while paying attention to the DPS that need healing separately.

Another mouse trick that I use is setting the scroll wheel button as the reverse camera angle view. This also can be done through WoW's button mapping. If I'm in PvP and heading somewhere, I can easily push down on the mouse's scroll wheel to see behind me instantly without having to move my camera view around manually. This is also great during close-quartered instances where trash mobs or patrols may be behind you. I can continue to DPS or heal in front of me, click the mouse wheel to see who might be getting close by, then click it again to be right back into view of the fight.

In the add-on department, I offer MobMap. I know everyone isn't fond of QuestHelper or feel it is cheating so I suggest you try MobMap. It is an external addon that allows players to collect information about EVERYTHING in game including where nodes have been found, where NPC's are, where to farm mats and from whom. In this way, if you're having a hard time finding something or someone, you can look it up in-game without being led by an arrow like QuestHelper. It can be found at mobmap.de - this is a German website but the program is offered in both German and English. I have been using it for about 2 years so I know it's not going to steal your password or account information. It is completely safe and an addon that I feel I couldn't live without!

Lastly, I hear people on many podcasts write in time to time wondering how to get involved with Blizzard or work in the industry. If you're a business professional looking to get involved with them and wondering how to at least make the first step, I came across Blizzard's profile on LinkedIn. LinkedIn (linked in) is a networking site similar to Facebook but without the social aspect. This site allows you to advertise yourself as a professional. You may have to actually create a profile to search - I'm not sure on that point, but you can search for Blizzard as a company and you may be surprised to see who is listed there. You can find the website at Linkedin.com


Keep up the great work.

For the Alliance.

-Bryan

Email #4 from Keelhaul

Like myself, I'm sure you have all played many different classes in WoW over the years. I have played the following:

Dwarf Hunter 78
Tauren Druid 77
Nelf Hunter 71
Troll Hunter 63
Gnome Mage 70
Human Pally 71
Nelf Rogue 60
Human Priest 55

It should be fairly obvious which class I enjoy the most ;) I really enjoy the hunter class as I solo quest mostly. They seem to hold their own in the battlegrounds, I really havent messed around in the arena though I hear they could use some love there. I really enjoy getting to choose my own pets unlike warlocks who are stuck with the various demons they can summon. How about you all? Sorry if this has been asked before.
-Keelhaul

Email #5 from Eranth

Aprillian, Ashayo, & Glanthur!
I keep forgetting to send you guys email over and over and over, and then Monday comes, and there's a new podcast out and I think as we're about halfway through, "Well, drat! I forgot to send them an email this week!"
Part of that, I suppose, is I should have something worthwhile to say, rather than just drop you a line to get in your contest. ;-) My trouble is, finding time to do something useful to send. I want to send an audio section, but I haven't had time to lay it down to send! Oh, the slings and arrows of being a busy Tauren in this day and age! (Well, mostly finding quiet time to be able to do it without interruption.)
And for those listening, don't forget to pop over to iTunes and leave a review for our fine hosts! (How's that for a shameless, un-prompted plug, guys?) :-) It's easy, it's quick, it's free, it helps our hosts out and makes them giddy to boot!
Alright, that's about enough blathering for me. This was a good week for me, got to do my first Heroic runs for UK and UP, but after two wipes in Heroic VH, we broken up to do other things. Now, I just have to sort out what to do with the currency I'm starting collect. (Which, I suspect isn't much with only a handful, right?)
Keep up the good work, gang!
--Eranth
Beastmaster Hunter of AIE

Email #6 From Josh


Hey guys,

I have some bad news. Beastcaller is missing and therefor unavailable for comment. I am sure he and fluffy are out on some adventure. I did want to answer your question about Beastcaller's audio clip. Yes he did actually capture that from Northrend, and yes it was the Lich King. Sorry that I cannot say that no gnomes were harmed in the recording of that clip. The encounter with the Lich King was not part of the quest, but one cannot interact with him without the incense burner that Beastcaller mentioned in the last message. In the normal world you cannot see him, but in the phased world you can walk right up to the Lich King, with deadly consequences. Glanther is the only one of you who could have witnessed it, do to the fact that I think it is an alliance only quest.

Thanks - Josh

'Till next week, when hopefully Beastcaller will have been found.
For the Alliance

P.S.

The actually name of the quest from which you receive the incense burner is "The Echo of Ymiron".

Thanks Josh

Email #




Thank yous


From Ginsue
Hi guys,

Nice roll Ashayo!!!!!

I looked on the cntrlatlwow.pobean.com site and I don's see the mini's. Am I looking in the wrong place?

Anyway an authenticator would be great and I don't mind waiting.

When they become available please send one to...
---

Thanks guys and keep up the good work!!!

/bow

Aprillian's Response:
It's on our official site which is http://ctrlaltwow.com

Here's the direct link

http://ctrlaltwow.blogspot.com/2008/12/ctrl-alt-wow-is-giving-away-wow-minis.html

I'm checking the Blizzard site every day, so as soon as they are available it will be on its way to you.

Thank you,
Aprillian


From Steve

Thank you very much! (for the Tabard he won for submitting to the Collector's Edition Contest)

~Steve

Latest iTunes Review, thanks Xandarr

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