Monday, April 27, 2009

Ctrl Alt WoW Episode 112 - I'm Questing as Fast as I Can

Ctrl Alt WoW Episode 112 - I'm Questing as Fast as I Can

Aprillian, Glanthur and Ashayo discuss another week of playing World of Warcraft, Blizzard's great MMORPG. Contest Ongoing send an email to ctrlaltwow@gmail.com telling us how you play WoW, either as an altaholic or dealing with it in your family life to being placed in a drawing for a month free of WoW or a $10 iTunes Gift Card or an Authenticator, they are back in the store.

Special Guest Jeppy of http://tengnomes.blogspot.com/

What We've Been Doing:



Aprillian


Auruk is levelling fishing in Nagrand. He fished some crates, which I sent to a bank alt, who didn't have fishing, I ran the alt to the fishing trainer in Og, got him to level 10, he opened the crate and there's a Weather beaten Journal. He finally got the severed arm, but got crap out of the bag.

Epril got the dialy quest bug, couldn't get the JC dailyAuruk made some [Blackened Worg Steak] and gave it to Epril, so she had Humanoid tracking
Finally got the severed arm, this time got [Recipe: Captain Rumsey's Lager] some Deviate fish [Elixir of Water Walking] [Worthless Piece of White Glass] The rum makes you tipsy and increasing your fishing by 10 for 3 mins. While Auruk was fishing, Epril just killed random mobs in the area. And bank alts on other two accounts scanned AH.

Took The Twins and Auruk out to Borean Tundra. Really want to finish quests out there but "they keep pulling me back in", escorted some Alliance Desserters. While Tiiaa went from 1 to 280 in Engineering.

Got hearthed back to Dalaran from Scholomance when I logged in and by the time

Took Tiiaa to Badlands with the Twins and Auruk, the into Uldaman to complete the Mage quest there.

Auruk did the fishng daily on Thu morning and got [Weather-Beaten Fishing Hat]. Ended up taking Auruk and Elyte to

Friday Auruk and Elyte stayed in BT and grinded for Mammoth. Epril took Tiiaa the Belf Mage to ZF where she dinged 44.

Sat, same thing, got up did dailies, Went to BT on Auruk and Elyte. Ooh Both Epril and Auruk got the Achievement Simple Request

Sunday, Noblegarden started, got dailies out of the way. Auruk got the Sewer one, love that one.

Overheard in gchat, Anyone willing to lend me their egg spot? Got some eggs on Auruk and a level 21, including Tux pants and Elegant dress. But only want to do in bits in pieces, don't want to get burned out. Saw a Shadow Bunny, thought it was hilarious.

Current Dilemna, need Tiia, Mage to get to 50 to continue levelling Engineering, or I could kill off one of my Alliance DK's and start another Horde one? Hmmm. Also want my Rogue, currently 48 to level so she can open more boxes.


Ashayo


3.1.1. re-talent. again.
Hiide - survival
Forget to re-spec pet
Harder for pet to keep aggro

Argent Tournament
- Lance a lot
- Exalted with Horde Expedition.
- Defeat the champion, get Champion of Silvermoon City, Exalted Champion of Silvermoon City, Ashayo of Silvermoon
- Pet - Argent Gruntling ; looks like a child Shrek. Trumpets on summon.
- Get to choose to be a champion of another city - but only one.
- Opens more dailies - Kill 15 scourge, Boneguard Commander / Scout / Lieutenant ; MUCH easier in party
- Get to fight Black Knight. Pretty easy. Achievement - It's just a Flesh Wound
- Saily 3-man group quest
- Decided to do them on Asheal as well, as some is phased so she can't help
- Completed the 5 days of valiant for Thunder Bluff. [Champion of Thunderbluff]
- Quartermaster gear from Argent Tournament is awesome for people that don't raid. Another great equaliser.
- Bought 6 Commendation Badges with writs from daily quests and got Exalted with Thunder Bluff. Now Ashayo of Thunder Bluff

Other dailies
- Fishing on Ashayo and Asheal. - massive variation in value of rewards
when getting a choice of dailies, can do 2 days worth

Jekle & Hiide
- Dual box Nexus ; Hiide hits 76. Off to Scholozar Basin
- Completed Oracles chain to open dailies
- I love quest items that you pick up while in druid flight form. FTW!

Raiding
- 25-man naxx with DwP
- Seems tougher. Had to Mind Control spider adds
- Couldn't get down 1st boss in plague
- Shadow priest. Mana regen awesome!

Noblegarden
- spring rabbits foot pretty quickly
- chocolates stack in 20, so free up bags before you camp a spot
- Pick-up quests before starting egg collection
- Gather enough eggs to complete before moving on, then buy whatever you didn't get as drops
- /who doesn't show gender, and hard to tell with helms on. Orc and Dwarf hardest to find.
- Ashayo the Noble.

General
- New version of Altoholic warns of expiring mail on all toons. Nice!
- Childrens week - queue to pvp from anywhere - otherwise Dalaran would be death!

Gear check for Valathilia
- PvP kills - head enchant has resilience (Horde Expedition) Gems look PvP as well - run speed increase.
- Wrymrest Revered has a MP5 enchant.
- Chest needs an enchant - 8 mp5
- Wrist enchant - 18 spirit
- Gloves - spellpower
- Glyph of Guardian Spirit


Glanthur

Segment on the Argent Tournament and Marksman versus Survival Hunters

Bladed Edge


Blade here...

What a long strange trip it's been.
Well not really... but the sentiment is there... I haven't been on a lot in the past little while... and when I have, it's been interesting...
For example... I logged on with Blade last week and was almost immediately whispered by Tarqq asking if I wanted to have a spot in Naxx25!
Whoa!
Talk about a rogues' gallery... a lot of 'big names' were there... Ashayo (on Asheal) Tarqq, Maui, Allikat... the list goes on...


I tried to insist to Tarqq that I wouldn't be of much (if any use) in there... having only one level 80 epic piece of gear and all... he replied "Don't worry about it... I like your segment on Ctrl Alt WoW, you're in."
Whoo!
That kind of praise you can't *bribe* outta people... so not only was I slightly intimidated by the 'leet' crew of AIE types present (being surrounded by two dozen others bristling with super-powerful items makes one feel a little... inconsequential...)... but I was simultaneously humbled and honored that I would be singled out.
Props to that Raid crew for dragging me through... we downed two bosses but after about four or five wipes on Gluth, the raid was called there.
Another time, I tried a 10-man Vault of Archavon... and was way WAY too underpowered to take on the new boss... 1300 dps on a rogue sucks... so I've been trying to figure different angles and run a few heroics in the time I've been on in the last week to make some upward adjustments in gear quality.
And farming stuff for the AH so I can make some money to buy the mats I can use to craft the stuff I can't buy with badges.
Working on getting my leatherworker and tailor both up to 65 so I can start making the higher-end Northrend craftables as well... way too much stuff to do... not nearly enough time lately to fit it all in.
(Any likelihood on more instance runs, oh-Mistress of Quadboxing?)

Oh... and I've been doing fishing dailies... and trying to get the sea turtle mount you can only get from Northrend fishing schools... with zero luck, naturally...
Waiting on my first Oracle egg, too...
And then... there's always the Argent Tournament... but more on that in a second...

From the 'Dirty Little Tricks' Department...

I've been wondering a little something... have my 'edges' been a little less than 'edgy lately'?
Perhaps, perhaps not... they might have given you the proverbial 'edge', but they may have been less than 'dirty' so far as dirty tricks go.
Therefore, I dutifully submit the following... from me to you... Ol' Blade's got your back.
Let's go to the Argent Tournament.
Having done the dailies like everyone else and worked out a little pattern to the jousting fights (Glanthur is not wrong... it *is* very much like the Coldarra "Aces High!" daily)
Allow me to now share with you the secret of how I defeat the jousting valiants (and yes, now the champions) with relative ease.
4-2-3
Shields up, Shield Break, Charge
If you have enough distance between you and your opponent and they aren't closing the gap very quickly, then 4-4-2-3 for a second shield for yourself... 'cause you KNOW they will have put one up for themselves...
This works very well against Valiants...
But wait.
"Blade," I hear you say, "You said you were gonna share a secret! This is nothing but rolling your face across the keyboard!"
Ah... you caught on... for you see... the actual *secret* is dangerous... one *so* significant that I'm sure some of you may run in terror and hide in Northshire Abbey to escape the sheer magnitude of it:

Melee.
Specifically... find a friend... and have THEM dps your jousting opponent down.
Ol' Blade was feeling altruistic last week and decided to watch some of his fellow Hordies 'tilting at the lists' (that's a term for jousting). Every now and then one of the NPCs would stray across the path of my cursor and my cursor would change from the pointy-finger to the sword you see when you hover over a mob that you can attack.
So I tried attacking one.r
By the Beard of my Old Uncle Throgg!
I damaged him! So naturally... being a rogue and not letting such an opportunity go to waste, I busied myself with the wholesale slaughter of my newfound 'enemy'. It's nice when they don't fight back.
To my (and the Horde jouster's) amazement, they got the victory for defeating the NPC!
Aha!
So I tried it again... and again the Hordie got the credit!
Be wary, though... if you group up, this counts *against* you if you're trying for the [Lance A Lot] Achievement (where you must defeat one Valiant of every race - Horde and Alliance) as you will get credit as normal when in a group... so you will not be able to joust with each of the races until the hour is up, as you will have been credited for their defeat in the group with your partner... but as the Achievement says you have to joust them, and as you *didn't* defeat them while jousting, you won't get credit toward the Achievement if you melee them... but your partner will.
For this, I recommend marking your 'teammate' as your focus and *not* being in a group... it works just as well. Plus, you don't get the 'group credit' so you can then turn around and joust them yourself with your partner dps-ing them down.
I found that running around in wide circles keeps the NPC in the middle of the ring and allows your partner to reach the NPC jouster with less effort.
The final part to this dirty of dirty tricks?
You - as the jouster - are to make sure that your opponent has low or zero shields up... while keeping yours up enough that if your NPC manages to get to you, you take less damage... If your NPC opponent has *their* shields up, your partner might as well be beating on them with a post-patch-3.1 fishing pole. Watch the damage increase exponentially when the NPC's shields go down while you're dpsing them for a friend.
It's a treat.
Oh... one final thing... you *also* get weapon skill points when you're attacking these NPCs... so equip that two-handed mace or fist weapon you've been letting sit idle for a while and work on getting that [Armsman] Achievement while you're there!

From Ol' Blade's Easter Egg Basket...
Two little quick ones... both of them super heroic in origin...
In the Purple Parlor on top of the Violet Citadel is a butler named Alfred Copperworth who walks around and sells drinks. This is a reference to Alfred Pennyworth, the butler of billionaire playboy-turned costumed vigilante Bruce Wayne (aka Batman).
And in Felwood (in the cave-like hollow of Jadenar if memory serves me correctly) there is a female Night Elf named "Arko'narin" who is held captive in a cage. You must find a key to free her (it drops from the mobs in the cave) which will then allow you to take her escort quest to get her *out* of the cave. When freed and led deeper into the cave to retrieve her armor and weapons, she will spin in place a few times and will suddenly appear to be wearing her armor. She then says "All I need now is a golden lasso." This spinning move is classic to Linda Carter's portrayal of Wonder Woman in the 1970's television series.

Livin' on the Edge...
(As always, an awesome podcast guys!)

Loremaster Blade

Emails

Email #1 from MO
Hi,
Thank you as always to all of you for a great cast.
I missed writing for episode 111 but wanted to comment on the latest news, of course the patch!

I was one that was wondering why everyone was so excited for dual speccing but I shelled out the 1k for my warrior, and I have to say OH MY! it is nice!
I dont have tanking gear but i can switch from arms to prot spec is a shorter time than i can say OH MY!
I also did it on a Pally that I transferred to go play with Xandarr's clan on Trollbane, I will be working with prot and ret, that should be fun.
I have heard some people having issues with it but that will be fixed in the coming weeks.

Also, for my hunters, and I do have lot of them, OH MY! 1000 stackable ammo and no quiver!
what can i say, I will have a million arrows and bullets, maybe this is not a good thing :(

No of course it is.

As for other changes, no really anything else affects me yet.
I will not be raiding the new place any time soon so hope you raiders are enjoying the new raid of Ulduar, but I heard some one already cleared it!
I am sure they will be saying that wow is too easy for teh 97% noobers out there.

and yes i have been using the Aprillian coined term noober
I have been giving you credit when I can.

Thank you always and I am sure I will tweet you as I always to :)
and Ashayo please tell Wych that Van Halen encompasses all of its members including SAMMY HAGAR and Gary Cherone .

FOR THE VAN HALEN,
oopsi I mean Ctrl Alt Wow!

--
Mo


Email #2 from Inacan
Hello fine folks at Ctrlaltwow,

I wanted to comment on what struck me as funny in last weeks podcast.

I listened to Ashayo comment on how Bliz keeps watering down Wow. I agree that this is a downfall in the game and I do understand the economics of why Bliz does it. I don't know that most people know the extent of the watering down of the game. Those of us who have been playing the game for a long period of time (3 years or more)feel that the newer folks missed out on so much. When it was decided that all the elites were to be taken out of quest lines in vanilla Wow so what you used to have to be grouped for could now be solo'ed I thought it was a bit silly. When they came out with Burning Crusade and made all the level 60 end game instances irrelevant I thought that's just plain silly.

I often wonder what people think some of their abilities are for if they never had to raid vanilla content. In level 60 instances any high DPS toon could pull aggro from the tank and get one or two shotted by an elite in an instance and it did not have to be a boss. You would have to watch your threat and make sure you did not string 3 crits together or it was Buh Bye. You would have to sheep, sap and or do whatever crowd control was available because just pulling every mob in the area would get you a wipe every time.

Now it seems to me that a tank can tank 5 mobs with people DPS'ing 2 of them full tilt and not lose aggro and crowd control is no longer needed. I mean when was the last time you saw a mage sheep a mob or a rogue sap a mob? Maybe in BC and that didn't happen often.

I guess what struck me funny about this is the interview with Zandar and the Experienced noob.
I am not an elitist by any stretch but anyone who didn't play vanilla Wow when it was at its best is an experienced noob or maybe an inexperienced played by no fault of their own.

I thought I heard in Ashayo's tone these same feelings. The more they water down this game them more people that miss out on a lot of brilliant work done by some very talented people. It used to take a group of folks who had to split the work load by each doing their job in a sort of dance if you will, to make every pull work. Now it seems to be high easy threat by the tank followed by all the dps you can do as fast as you can do it. It still has its merit but the game is easier by far. The things you used to have to work for such as Druid epic flying in BC is now just given to you.

I still enjoy the game but found the to things brought together in your podcast an ironic event though unintentional. I don't know that vanilla Wow was better per say but I think a lot of real Wow enthusiast's who have never experienced it should try it in level appropriate gear. Its a ball.

I do dare say triple boxing it would take a lot of talent.

Sorry for the wall of text. I hope I don't sound like an old man who had to walk 14 miles to school up hill...both ways.

Happy Hunting.

Inacan ( the artist formerly known as Ginsue)

Email #3 from Brenry

Awhile back you did a Youtube video of just gameplay dualboxing. In another podcast episode you mentioned the idea of doing another, but hadn’t heard of anything since.

It would be really interesting to see a commentary video on your interface setup. Ashayo had mentioned before he was against using Keyclone and would be interested on his dual box strategies, especially since he does instancing.

I found using dual display and just mouse over with a prot paladin and priest combo easier to do without keyclone, but have been struggling with different dps classes.


Email #4 from Elsinne Starsong
This isn't my first email to you guys, so you know I love your program.

I am a recovering alt-aholic. It didn't start off that way. I started in Vanilla WoW back in early 2005. After trying and hating some different classes for a several weeks, I tried warlock. I put it off until the end because it seemed like the class I would least enjoy. I loved it every second from level 1 to level 60, the old cap. I was NEVER bored or wished that I picked another class. I played that warlock, and only that warlock, for a year and a half. No bank alts, no test alts, nothing. Just me and my human warlock. All of my in-game friends had lots of alts. Was I missing something? I tried some of the other classes prior to warlock but maybe I missed something. I eventually played a druid to 80, death knight to 80, and every other class in the game to at least 40, and some in the 50s. I enjoyed the alts and the versatility for a while. But I recently realized that I didn't LOVE any of them. I liked my druid, but I didn't love her. I liked my paladin, but I didn't love her. I REALLY, REALLY liked my death knight, but it was more lust than anything else. Before the end, before I sought help, I had alts scattered on servers all across the universe. But I only loved warlock. Rogue was fun in pvp and shamans ... well ... I always hated them. I did it all. Warlock called to me from the twisting nether.

Today, I started over. I decided to roll Horde since I've never been Horde before. I have no Horde friends, in game or out. I have no Horde characters to give my new character cash. I have nothing. I have been Alliance 4 Life. I also decided I would only have ONE character. No bank alt, no alt to sit by mailboxes to be my cash alt, no alts for buying mats, no nothing. Just ONE character. I know this is blasphemy for those of you who multi-box, but I had to bury my alt-aholism. So now I am playing with a blood elf warlock. This will be my only character, possibly for all eternity. I can never get enough of warlock. I will need to come up with a new Blood Elf last name for RP purposes. Starsong is clearly Kaldorei. I don't want to be rejected by Sindorei folk!

Elsinne


Email #4 Kyle

Hey all!
Have any of you changed the way you play with your alts now that patch 3.1 and dualspecs are out? Do you find yourself playing someone more and others less?
I ask because now that the patch is out my level 80 priest can finally dualspec into shadow, and I can finally do what I've been wanting to do for a while: continue questing in Northrend (haven't started Icecrown yet), maybe even start doing dailies other than the cooking quest, all the while inbetween raids and experiencing all that content. Questing and dailies are so much easier in Shadowform, and of course it's easier to get into raids as a healer.
However, now I find myself filled with guilt. I've fallen in love playing my shaman who is now in her mid 40's, whom I've been playing during my priest's "downtime" in which I really didn't want to pay to respec and stuck with holy. She was my first alt, and after those annoying totem quests playing with her has been a blast - especially since being on a pvp server I can finally defend myself and attack back. Also I get to explore all the other areas my main never ventured into and enjoy all the sights and things to do. Then I have my other favorite alt, the pally. She's ventured to the early 30's and it has been a blast. My mage I *want* to play, but sadly I haven't been able to enjoy playing her. Then there's my level 20 warlock who finally got his succubus, and a few other odd alts that I created to have on hand but have yet play. But now with dualspecs out and my priest finally able to be both a healer and a quester, I find myself with less time to give my alts the attention they so deserve and that I want to give them.
Perhaps I just need to win the lottery and retire from life.
Anyway thanks for a wonderful show!
For the Horde!
But because Glanthur is so likable, I'll give him a "yay alliance!" also.
--Kyle

Email # 5 from Vala

Hello CtrlAltWow
Vala here

So this week hasn't been the best week for vala. I enter 10m Naxx just a random Inv and we failed about 5times trying to get to the first boss in the military quater. And even though I knew it wasn't my fault I just felt like it was. Than 2locks and a rogue tried to gank me don't they know I am lover not a fighter LOL. But in the plus I got the reins of the white polar bear and started to work the AH :) well guys like always great podcast.
For the Horde


Email # 6 from LITE

Hi guys! this is my first email to a podcast.
I want you guys to know that I listen to about 5 podcasts and I think yours is the most informed one out there. With your diverse and many alts you can bring so many experiences in professions and classes to the table. I learn something every episode.

I wanted to tell you about a fun and challenging way my friend and I decided to level our characters. I have a level 64 prot pally and my friend has a 64 warlock. We decided to start 2-manning instances. It's pretty intimidating rushing a boss with 50k health and no healer.
We have completed Dire Maul and Scholomance so far and we plan on moving to Ramps next. It was the first time in Dire Maul and Scholomance for both of us so it was great to get the achievement along with the shards.

My challenge to you guys is to come up with a better 2-man combo. I don't think you can.
The prot pally brings: aoe tanking, self healing, bubble for me and partner while the lock brings healthstones, soulstones, a pet and face melting.

Love your show please keep it up.
FOR THE ALLIANCE!

LITE : RUNETOTEM SERVER





Thanks & Stuff


Thanks #1 from Groundbeaf

He guys just got back to work after a few days of vacation and imagine my surprise when i heard the roll and that Groundbeaf was the winner this week, I still cant believe my luck. I am taking everyones advice and going to try a Prot pally for a tank and dual box him with a elemental shammy & if i dont like that combo i might switch the shammy for a warlock. Thanks again for everything and keep up the good work, i'd also like to say thanks to blade for his input every week because i believe i left him out last week, so sorry blade. As far as my prize i'll go with a month of WOW time to feed my addiction lol. Wish you all the best and hope to talk to you again soon and let you know how the dualbox leveling is going.

For the Horde

Groundbeaf, AIE Earthen Ring Server

Thanks #2 from Keelhaul

Ashayo, your low rolls paid off for me ;D Thank you very much. I will take the free month of WoW time. I will continue to send in my updates, but please remove me from the weekly prize drawing since I won.

Okay noob time. When the patch hit I logged into my pally and speced him to tank and ran an instance and all was good. Then I logged into my hunter….

I ran heroic HoS and for the life of me couldn’t figure out why my DPS was so poor and my pet kept dying. We finished the run and decided to run heroic UK. More of the same, my damage was horrible and my cat kept getting his whiskers handed to him. We made it to the final boss and the rogue in our group gave me a quick inspection and informed me, and the group that I forgot spec….

So yeah I am on the Huntard list lol. I quickly speced myself and my cat and wouldn’t you know my damage shot up and my cat actually lived :D I was with a PuG but surprisingly they were pretty easy on me. After a few minutes of laughing we completed the instance and an epic crossbow dropped. Since I was the only hunter, it was mine.

Now for a tip:

I got the crossbow but my skill with it was 1…. As a dorf engineer I have always used guns. To quickly level up a distance weapon skill, just go to Netherstrom and look for Dr. Boom. He is located north of Area 51 and has a heap of hit points. He does not have a distance attack but does have little bomb mobs that run around him.

Look for the barrel near him, stand on it and click on your autoshot. You will be able to hit him without getting hit by him of the little bomb mobs. I was able to level from 1 – 400 pretty easy, just remember to buy cheap arrows before you go.

-Keelhaul

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