Ctrl Alt WoW Episode 123 - Ctrl Solo WoW

Ctrl Alt WoW Episode 123 - Ctrl Solo WoW

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 an Authenticator, they are back in the store.

/Salute to Leala, Salty Kat, Stardancer and Epic Dolls. We also have a special guest.

What We've Been Doing:

Aprillian

I got right on Ashayo's challenge from Episode 122 and Dinged 74 in Coldarra. Aprillian grinded mobs in Shcholazar basin and then went to Venomspite.
The lovely Tempeste looked over my gear and offered me some suggestion.

Got whisper by:

And decided to go back to Agmar's hammer to do the quest there. Got the group quest and spent hours either finding the first two, Deathtalon & Gigantaur and then hours dying trying to Quadbox Keldonus. But after 8 attempts, I got him.

Spent the rest of the week grinding Aprillian to 75. Made it out to Grizzley Hills.

Dinged 75 on Sat morning. Changed into outfit the lovely Tempeste helped me choose.

Ganked and corpse sat by Colossal Abomination in Kor'Koron Vanguard

Ashayo

Glanthur

Bladed Edge

Emails

Email #1 from hypknotoad

Hi Aprillian, Ashayo and Glanthur,

Hearing Aprillian say she hadn't taken advantage of the fire festival last week, I thought I'd share my commiserations. I too could have done so much more but unfortunately seeing I wasn't playing this time last year I didn't really know what was going on. The first week consisted of getting the burning blaze buff every half an hour and thinking, 'What the hell is that?' Then after some quick research I discovered the fires were all over Azeroth and the dailies where in the cities. By the end of the holiday my hunter (the prince fan) Purplevein gained maybe two levels going around the fires and doing the odd daily but my priest, who I really want to get to level 20 to continue his enchanting, was the biggest disappointment. I'm sure he could have leveled to 25 doing fires or even dailys ahh well maybe next year.

On the subject of raiding, please try to do it! I'm sure Jeppy could write you a spreadsheet that would get you there in no time! I can't wait to hear Aprillian gearing up with epics and who knows before long you could be multi-boxing Ulduar :P

Love the show guys,

Purplevein (hypknotoad)
Jubei'thos

Email #2 from Makiling

hello fellas, Makiling here

i write this with a heavy heart as i had just came back from a heroic naxx pug empty handed.. but then again, that is the risk of playing in pugs. i have been pining for the valorous chest piece, and lost to the roll, 100 vs 95. i was also hoping we would finish the whole thing, but failed at thadd, and the raid eventually gave up. better luck next lockout.

but the reason for my writing is that i want to cheer April on into getting to 77. you can do it girl! do not get discouraged by the things you hear from the whining 80's. getting to end game is another game in itself, so to speak. i started playing at the burning crusade expansion and i enjoyed the grind to 70 back in the day, but end game at that time was even better. i also feel that way now at level 80, and im sure you can tell that by the letters i send. so grind on! im sure you can get to 77 and even to 80 in 2 weeks ;-)

for the horde!

Email #3 from Anonymous

Hi Aprillian, Ashayo and Glanthur! I LOVE the show and listen to it religiously. You (Aprillian) mentioned a podcast that I wanted to check out, but I can’t remember what the name was. You said it was put on by pretty young guys but you also mentioned that they are very knowledgeable about WoW. Can you please email me the name of it? Thanks, I appreciate it.

I’d love to learn more about WOW. I’m a Horde at heart. My sister and her boyfriend got me started playing. I can’t keep up with them. They have several L80 characters while I have been working on my warrior for months and I’m only up to L36. Recently my coworker and her boyfriend (and a few of their friends) began playing Alliance characters so I created an Alliance one too. I sure miss the Horde but I’m very happy to be playing with friends. I always preferred playing solo but last week we did the Deadmines, The Stockade and Shadowfang Keep together and to my surprised I LOVED playing with them. We may attempt Razorfen Kraul tonight and I can’t wait. I always felt intimidated to do a dungeon with others but now that I have a group of people that I know and trust so I feel confident to get in there and make mistakes without upsetting anyone. I’m having so much fun with my friends that I am levelling up WAY quicker than I was levelling my warrior.

We are all around the same level and learning at the same pace. Everyone is so great that when one of us goofs up pretty badly the rest of the group makes fun of that person in a good-natured teasing way. Maybe it’s because we’re just a swell group of people lol, or maybe we’re like that because we are mature enough to make a serious effort but also support (or tease each other) through this learning process. We range from the ages 26-36.

You, Ashayo and Glanthur are so funny. I love the humour on your show. Keep the podcasts coming please. I appreciate all the time you guys put into getting them out regularly.
Ctrl-alt-Wow is #1 on my list of WOW podcasts.

P.S. I thought your appearance on BOE was great!!! I laughed so much.

Thanks Aprillian.

Email #4 from Bidkar

Aprillian's game play is great!

Greetings Fun Loving Aprillian, Sophisticated Glanthur and Urbane Ashayo,

Bidkar on the Auchindoun server here. I just dinged my first 80 a few weeks ago and am still feeling little lost, but I will find my way. I am seeking out dailies so I can purchase my epic flight and trying out the Argent Tournament.

I am writing in response to your call for opinions on Aprillian's style of play. I think her approach to playing is perfect for her. I share her style of game playing and regret much of the way I played in the beginning and wish I had went thru slower.

I look forward to hearing from the three of you every week, but especially thrill to hearing Aprillian's week. She is genuinely having a great time and it shows up in her infectious laughter and happy approach to the game.

I think Ashayo and Glanthur just want her to have fun in the end game like they are, so I don't mean to disparage what they have said, but I think she should have fun on the way to end game and then have fun at the end game.

The three of you have the best podcast!

For the Horde and for 1 Alliance! (I'm on a PVP server so I have a dislike for all Alliance except Glanthur)

Bidkar and his many alts

Email #5 from Patrick G.

Good afternoon

With Epic Dolls now falling by the way side (just listening to there last one now). What is your take on the state of the game ? What is your interpolation of all the changes that Blizzard has made and keeps making. Are we on easy mod and when will they make instance and dungeons soloable ?

My take/spin on the changes is Blizzard is in total defense mod with WOW. They are making it easier and easier to play with each patch, bending to the will of all the whiners out there. I believe Blizzard is doing this in order to hang on to as many subscribers as possible until there next MMO.

Why else would Blizz keep making the game easier with each patch?

And have you guys thought about how you guys are going to adapt with WOW’s decline?

Me personally, I am getting board to tears with WOW, they are making the game too easy. There is no more fear about running into that odd eliti that was walking around in almost every zone.

That’s all for now

Regards,

Patrick G

Email #A from Brandon

Subject: Earlier Podcast

Hello, I subscribed to your podcast and wanted to start listening to it, but I can't find any way to get to your very first podcasts. IS it possible to find all of your podcasts on iTunes?
http://ctrlaltwow.podbean.com

Email #B from Vala

Well hello ctrl alt wow
Valathilia here
So I love the Latin/Italian accent glanthur gave my last email, I didn't think it was possible but you proved me wrong. LOL. So my guild naxx was stolen again, we invited some pug and we down 5 bosses with him and finally we left off on KT. So I decided to call it a night a pick up in the morning, well the guy got his own raid together and stole our run and I got pretty upset but than I remember that this is just a game with a reset timer. And we made the best of it and just did VOA for the chance of t8. :) and I hate healing on my Druid and it's boring to me compared to vala so I decided I want to be a doomchicken. Well love the podcast
For the horde
-vala

Email #6 from Fayth

Hello, Aprillian, Glanthur, and Ashayo

I'm sorry this email is so long! I've been a steady listener of Ctrl Alt WoW for about a month now. Weeks ago I had a super long day at work and I loaded up my ipod with archived episodes of "How I WoW" - and episode 6 is where I first heard of Aprillian and her podcast.

Even though it bothers me to admit it, I have to tell you that the very first time I listened to Ctrl Alt WoW, I didn't like it! o_O Awful, I know, but hear me out!! You see, I'm a raider and I spend at least an hour ever week reading specialized blogs or haunting the class boards at EJ to keep my main character at the tip top of the game. I remember saying to myself as I listened, "How can you play wow and not strive to raid? Why on earth would you do the holiday quests and not be after the meta achievement?" Thinking this podcast is not for me, much to my shame, I hit the unsubscribe button and never gave it another thought.

Or did I?

To make a long story short, the small bit of Ctrl Alt WoW that I did listen to stuck with me for a couple weeks after I unsubscribed. After listening to a particularly depressing episode of a well-known wow podcast, I really needed something to lift my spirits. I turned back to you guys! This time I approached Ctrl Alt WoW with a totally different attitude. I ate up every word you three said about your week in WoW and what all of your mains and alts did. I couldn't WAIT to get home from work and log in - not to prep for a raid, but to simply have fun playing the game I love. I even dug into the archives so I could keep listening to Ctrl Alt WoW while waiting for the a new update.

I love listening to the friendly horde vs alliance banter between the three of you. One of my favorite elements of the show is how well you all compliment each other - you're not afraid to ask each other questions about game mechanics or classes that you're not familiar with. That sounds like a simple thing, but you will rarely hear other wow podcasters say things like, "I don't know" or "how did you do that?" This is one of the many aspects that makes Ctrl Alt WoW unique. I also adore the fact that Aprillian isn't afraid to mention other wow podcasts by name. She's directed me to at least two other wow podcasts, Bind on Equip and Outlandish. Aprillian, I'm not sure if I should thank you profusely or seek therapy. :P

And the relationship you have with those crazy characters from Bind On Equip is wonderful! Ctrl Alt WoW is the yin to Bind on Equip's yang! Excellent job pitch hitting for last week's BoE, Aprillian! I had that episode on my ipod at work and you and Temp had me laughing so much that my co-workers thought I was losing it.

I'd like to tell you about my characters and alts. My main is a discipline priest. She was my very first character even from my 10 day trial and she's the one that I take into end-game raiding as well. When I'm not raid healing, I'm probably on my lvl 80 ... ready, Glanthur ... dwarf hunter!! Any time I log on her I instantly feel very relaxed and sit back to play the game for fun. She's my farmer and fisher so I don't stress too much about the details of her spec or gear. My final higher level alt is a paladin. She's now 71 and I tanked for the very first time the other day. I played 2 ranged classes since vanilla wow, so actually running straight to the boss was very new to me!

I noticed that my personality actually changes depending on which character I'm logged in on. I tend to be very quiet, reserved, and down to business while I'm praying my priest. She will never be seen doing anything overly foolish and she will never, ever, do the Grizzly Hills poop quest. When I'm on my hunter, I tend to be more chatty and looking for ways to have fun and play around in game. She almost knocked the outhouse down doing the poop quest! And my pally ... I'm noticing that I'm more assertive and sometimes downright aggressive while I'm playing her. She tends to leap into any situation without planning or thought. I don't know if she'll do the poop quest or not ...

And just a quick note to Ashayo about your hunter not keeping aggro, here's a thought: that pesky "cower" bug is still in the game. More often than not, if my pet drops aggro it's because that stupid cower button is stuck on auto in the pet's spellbook, even though I made sure it was off last time I was logged in.

Again, I'm so sorry for the wall of text, but wanted my first email to you guys to be a good one.

Best wishes for the three of you,
Fayth ... this is for Glanthur ... For the Alliance!!

(P.S. - I thought about doing a webcomic for my warcraft characters, but I just don't have the time. The attached pic was going to be the cover image.)

Shout Outs & Thank You

Shoutouts

MoMoments

Hello,

Thank you for your great work as always and for reading my emails.

I also want to thank you very much for reading my emails and it is my pleasure to email to your fine podcast and help spread the CtrlAltWow word, which I think is altaholicism, right?

On my main, main! :) the first character I created, Motauren, 80 warrior who is the big daddy of the guild and all of my characters on the Balanzzarr server in Uptown Tavern guild (and I don't think I need to say he is a tauren but in case you did not already guess it from the name) he is a tauren

Well I was able to get the achievement for looting over 10,000 gold from quests! isn't that crazy! Well I pondered where all the gold went since I only have about 4k on him. Also I was able to get to exalted on The Sons of Hodir clan, FINALLY! But now I have started the Hodir rep grind on my priest Moheal and 80 hunter Mochi (oh don't tell Ashayo, they all have the green proto-drake from the oracles).

Aprillian, I vote NO if you don't want to get to 80, or at least not right now, don't do it. Take it at your own pace.
Don't worry, Mo has your back :)
And yes I am saying it and I have 3 level 80's and many other 70s, 60s and other many other characters of various sizes and levels.

Hope you get what you are setting out to do if it does end up being 77 or 80 or whatever you want to do.

Question for you and all the listeners (it is non-wow but still MMO related): what other MMO would you like to play, no restrictions, let your imagination loose and one that you would lose wow time to play?

Perhaps its the Star Wars one, or Star Trek, Hello Kitty, X-men, anything. I am curious what you 3 say and also what listeners may say.

I would love to see Harry Potter and on Twitter this week I did see a few updates from people that it may happen, but we will see.

Just wondering, you know, deep thought by Mo.

:)

Quick comments-
Trueblood is a good show, and season 2 started slow but when you do see it you will still be very sucked in!
As a wow/altaholic, I am also a podcastaholic and lately some of the other best podcasts and podcasters have said goodbye to wow and/or podcasting.
I would like to say goodbye to Elunes Grace once again and Epic Dolls podcasts; both are greats podcasts that will be greatly missed and the hosts as well.

Thank you to all podcasters and to our favorites Ashayo, Aprillian, and Glanthur.

Have another wonderful week.

--
Mo

Thanks #1 Prancelot

Hi guys and gal,

I never win anything, lol. Thanks so much but I'm going to pass on the prize and let you give it to someone else. I love the podcast and can't wait each week to hear you guys cut up and have a good time! Keep up the fun!

Thanks again,

Prancelot