Ctrl Alt WoW Episode 137 - With Iceflow & Caoboi

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 Segment:


Special Guest Iceflow and Caoboi

Hi Aprillian and Ashayo,

Iceflow here from Earthen Ring server, AIE guild! (Best guild in the world woot!) This is kinda long so you can give the shortened version if you talk about it on the podcast hehe.

I just got done listening to the episode where you wanted to hear about couples who play together. Well my fiance, Caoboi, and I play WoW together daily and I thought we could give some insight. First I'll give you some background, then my insight, and then his.

We met on WoW over two years ago (holy crap time flies!). I was on my troll rogue and he was on his tauren shaman. We became friends and then more. I lived in Kentucky and he was in Nebraska so WoW became a place where we really could spend time and it was awesome that way. Luckily, now, he is in Louisville with me and we play all the time together. We even got engaged in Nagrand and in person simultaneously. That's why WoW will always be special to us.

Iceflow's perspective:
I love playing WoW with Cao. One of my favorite things to do is to roll alts with him. There's something about starting out on those quests with him, doing the exact same things are awesome. We are both seasoned players so we always know what to do without asking. We seem to flow as one when we roll alts. That sense of oneness is probably what I like most. I laugh at him because he immediately sends bags and golds to his alts and he laughs at me because I tend to go hardcore on my toons and live off quest rewards and drops. I feel like playing WoW with him is spending true time with him which is why we play everyday. So for me, WoW is more than a game. It has strong sentimental meaning to me.

I also love to raid with him. Whether he's tanking the faces of mobs on his pally tank Kukui, or he's healing and pew pewing on Caoboi. He's so talented and it makes me smile. He also makes me feel good when I raid and that I'm worth it. Plus he doesn't roll on gear if I get a high roll. He's pretty awesome like that.

Caoboi's perspective:

WoW for me turned from an "escape" from life to a pass time that I enjoy playing with Iceflow. Beforehand WoW was an escape from issues that were going on in life until I met Iceflow on a new server where we both just happened to reroll after Burning Crusade came out. I love playing WoW with Ice and spending time with her. Many couples spend time doing other stuff and we choose to use our time playing WoW and doing other things outside of game. A lot of times people ask me how have I played the game so long, I promptly answer it's really easy when you are playing with someone that you love and they have the same interest.

It's awesome watching her tweak her badass Rogue, Iceflow, to max out her dps and having her healing me with her priest, Iceprayer, as I'm tanking on my pally. When we're rolling alts its funny when we gain a level we still say "gratz" to one another when we ding. Its these things that make playing wow so fun. If I didn't play with Ice, I don't know if I'd play as much as I do now...it's really hard to imagine playing WoW any other way.

Iceflow and Caoboi

What We've Been Doing:

Aprillian

Took Epril back to Silvermoon city to buy some low level mounts, she got the 10 mount achievement. Thought I took my Undead DKto brill but couldn't buy mounts.
Tried to do some argent Tournament on Aprillian, went to Silverpine Forest to do the beginning of the Black Knight quest.
Also did the kill 8 scourge quest. Got nervous that some were level 80.
Tried Learning Aid, and another Addon Control Panel (heard about it on the Instance)
http://gnomeaggedon.net/2009/05/28/gnomegoggles-learning-aid/)


Vrishna & Sebastian ran around Tanaris doing the Field testing. Didn't know if it would be something David could handle/enjoy. He surprised me.

Decided to venture into Sunken Temple. Found out there's a lot to it. Had to do some homework. We died a lot. Until I finally convinced David to let me bring Epril. Of course she was overkill.

Started doing the Nessingwary quest when Vrishna wasn't on. No xp for the most but wanted to get the achievement. Was able to buy the pages on AH.

Still trying to do the "homework" for Sunken Temple. Did the Screechers for the guy in Steemwheedle and then went into ZF to get the tablets. And then back to Steemwheedle and now to Hinterlands. We played while David had down time at work.

Hallow's End took me by suprise

Ashayo

10 man Raid
- Ashayo @ Onyxia - won warlock head peice. Took the opportunity to re-gem my gear. Added some more haste/crit
- Trial of the Crusader - cleared on Ashayo for first time

10 man raid
- Asheal @ Ulduar
- FL, XT hard mode. Kologarn - Disarmed - killed both arms, Mimiron, Hodir (won tier legs), Razorscale - A quick shave

25 man raid
- Asheal @ Ulduar. Had a couple of cracks at Mimiron, but early deaths (and lockouts) prevented downing.
- Asheal @ Onyxia
- Asheal @ ToC25, Got Faction Champs down for first time, couldn't do Twin valkyries - hard to dodge orbs
- Ashayo @ Ulduar - wipage on Kologarn. Can feel the frustration at a big backward step in progression.
- Ashayo @ Naxx - Trying for Naxx Immortal run with 20 people, but one person died on 4 horsemen. Missed the fast kill of Patchwerk by 1 second, after 2 people died. Still got quite a few achievements, including Subtraction on Thaddius, Safety Dance on Heigan, Arachnaphobia, The Hundred Club, The Dedicated Few, Just Can't Get Enough

Professions'n'stuff
- Ashariss dings 68 5 mins before shutdown - Now master transmuter
- Made decision to level JC on Pud. Oh man! The price gouging!
Drew the line at the prices being asked for thorium, so went farming. Cave tunnels in south winterspring don't dismount you anymore
Hit 350 - learnt close to 60 new cuts!!!!!
Hit 450 on Sunday, with very little gold left. Started auctioning stuff - ran out of money for deposits! Never been poorer.


Hallow's End
- Flying around for exp on Pud and gold on Shadowthrone. Dinged 74 on Pud from candy. Really not sure what toon, if any, to go for the achievement on.
- Did HH and got the sword (summons pumpkins) and helmet (laughs). SM was COVERED in skeletons

Pants on Head
- Shadowthrone - BWL
- Finished ZA. Was still reasonably tough.

Glanthur

"Who hath summoned forth Aman? Ah, I see you toil with relics of the past. Be warned that even your creators are fallible. Digging too deep into your past might bring an abrupt end to your future."
- The Titans and Aman'Thul

Emails

Email #1 from Craig


hello gang of ctal alt wow

Just wanted to say that I have been listening to your show for a wile now and yes i tried to duel box but sadly it did not work for me.....but maybe next time. I do however have 3 lvl 80's on kilrogg tannara my pally srpooptroop my mage and raldreion my dk I also have a few toons on eathen ring twotuntotems my lvl 30 orc shammy in the great guild of A.I.E and ashberry my poor lvl 67 unguilded DK and i have to say so far Earthen ring has been a great realm to play on and the people in A.I.E are great. As for you pod cast i have to say that i love it the way you can split shows and mend them together is great and
Glanthur's lore segment is great has not really being into the lore i find what he talks about interesting and the ausy (hope i spelt that right) side with Ashayo is great considering the time difference and i have to say that Australia is my favorite country and i hope that someday i can take a trip there, And then there is Aprillian every time you laugh it puts a smile on my face and with her duel boxing ways although i did see you log off from aie with Aprillian i thought wow there she goes, but when you mix all three of you together it makes for a GREAT podcast that helps my threw my grueling 8 hours of work

well until next time I have been twotuntotems....for the HOOORED!!

P.S. sorry for the wall of text maybe next time i will have something better to say.

signature craig

Email #2 from Illuminee

Hello CtrlAltWoW Crew,

I have been playing wow since launch and at first I thought wife agro was gonna get me in deep water. But I found a quick way around this A few months into my wow addiction I let my wife make a toon on my account. Not thinking that she would play it for more than an hour before logging out and deleting her toon. Well to my surprise she took to playing the game like a fish to water. At first this became a different kind of problem, Yes the wife agro was gone. But it was quickly replaced with a battle over playing time. She managed to get into the raiding aspect of wow really quickly and this was becoming a real problem. Since at that time we only had one computer and one account. Her raiding was interfering with me leveling toons which is probably my favorite part of the game.

We finally decided to fix the problem with play time by getting two accounts another computer and upgrading our internet connection so she could be on raiding and I could be on leveling. Now a days though we are leveling toons together in the same guild and we are just now starting to get back into the raiding aspect of the game. It is generally a nice thing to be able to look beside you and Yell "Heal me, Heal me...To Late I'm dead" You would think this might cause a problem but it really has become a running joke that if anyone is gonna die in a raid it will be me and she is trying to collect the life insurance. We hardly ever play without one another now so if you see a druid standing over a dead body laughing you know that is us.

Illuminee 80 Paladin Hellscream US
Nightuu 80 Druic Hellscream US





Email #A from Makling

hello fellas, makiling here

i loved the lore segment in your last show. i too would never have thought that the tiny dwarven base in the barrens had such a big part in the lore. i hope to hear more from glanthur in the coming weeks!

i had recently made a decision to devote my wow time to my alts. what it means is that i wont be doing dailies or raiding on my main. but i have to say, that i have been having fun! i used to wonder how people can level several toons concurrently, when you have the awesome raids in the endgame. but i guess im in that phase in my WoW life where leveling alts is more interesting than raiding. i had decided to use the bonus levels from my refer a friend on a druid. i plan on making her a tank, to complete my roster of having all the roles needed in a party (my mage for dps, my priest for healing). but i do have a question about bonus levels and the druid quests: is there a need for me to do them to learn my druid skills, or can i just get them from the trainor?

while leveling my priest in borean tundra, the general chat got in to a discussion on how to play a priest for endgame. they say that dual speccing discipline and holy would make for an awesome healer in any situation, and that you can just do discipline for doing dailies. i wonder if any of you have an opinion on this? im thinking of doing this so that i dont have to save up hit gear for shadow spec.

hope to hear from you guys soon

for the horde!

twitter.com/makiling_mage


Email #B from Keelhaul

Hey guys. Even though I haven’t wrote for some time, I am still listening. J

I really enjoyed the last show, especially Glanthur’s lore. That was so interesting. I had always wondered about the little dwarf outpost in the southern barrens and thanks to Glantur I have a lot more respect for an area I use to just run by on my way to 1,000 Needles or on the way to one of the Razorfin Instances. Please expand on this as you continue to discover more lore G.

Since I have last written, I have transferred my Tauren druid to another server to play with family and friends and I also had to transfer factions. I was a bit concerned but the transfer went perfect. Great job as always guys keep up the good work!

Now for the first time….

*ahem*

FOR THE ALLIANCE!!

J

-Keelhaul

Now Nelf Drooid

Gilneas Server

Clan of the Bear guild

PS. Have you guys ever wondered if the small crowded area everyone is jammed into before Eye of the Storm smells different to Gnomes? I never thought about it until I became a Nelf. *shrug*

;)

Email #3 from EvilElleon

Aprillian, Ashayo, & Glanthur,

In episode 136 of Ctrl Alt WoW, you asked for emails from couples who play WoW. Well, here's my response. :)

Hubby and I play WoW together. He had started playing several months before he met me back in 2006. I wasn't stranger to gaming, but I was more into spending an entire weekend playing games like Civilization or the Sims. I know, sounds a bit girly, but what do you expect, I'm female. I will say, I wasn't above luring a Sim into a swimming pool and taking away the ladder, to create Sims ghosts. It's my evil side. :)

Anyways. He kept saying he thought I'd like this game. I wasn't sure, because the idea of playing with other people rather annoyed me. I don't like to be told what to do. Well a few months into the relationship, I came down with Mono. I was too exhausted to do anything but sleep. Hubby stayed over to take care of me, so I let him install WoW on my computer to give him something to do while I was sleeping for hours on end. I watched him do several dungeons. (I think he was trying over and over to get his Pally helm from Scholomance.) It was interesting. So he brought his old computer to my house, set it up next to mine, and bought me my own copy of WoW to try. The idea was, a WoW subscription was cheaper than going to the movies a couple times a month, and besides, with Mono, I was too tired to do much else.

When we started, Hubby let me pick what toon I wanted to try. I picked a Night Elf Druid. Hubby's main is a Human Holy Palladin, so I wanted to stick with Alliance. Plus, I just can't play Horde, they're too unattractive. (Though I will agree with Aprillian, there is that one female Orc face that IS cute. Unfortunately, you stare at the toons' behinds when you play, not their faces.) Hubby rolled a Night Elf Warrior and he walked me through questing together. We played for awhile with these toons, exclusively together. But then I started getting bored. He'd go run a dungeon on his Pally, and what was I supposed to do? So I rolled a Night Elf Holy Priest, and that's who I stuck with.

Hubby and I have very different playing styles. He loves to raid and do dungeons and the occasional pvp. I can't stand pvp. I mean, come on. A holy priest pvping? That's pointless, I'm too squishy. I love questing and interacting with people in chat or vent. I'm not big on raiding, mostly because whenever I get into a raid group, people suddenly think they can tell me how to play my toon. I hate so I avoid raiding. I haven't been in a dungeon since taking a few stabs at Kara sometime last year. Hubby and I both have several alts, though I have seriously more than he does (I think I'm at 25 and he's at 10.)

Usually we only quest together if I have some quests I need help with. However, we often spend our evenings playing WoW seperately, but on our side-by-side His-and-Hers PCs. We have lots of fun. He laughs as I crab at whatever npc has squished me, and I make fun of his guildies in their raid vent. I call him my "Knight in Shining Pally Armor." When we were on our honeymoon in Walt Disney World, and Princess Aurora asked me "Did your handsome prince slay a dragon for you??" I was able to reply "Why yes he did!" How many girls can say that?

Keep up the fabulous podcast!

** EvilElleon

Email #C from Bidkar

Greetings Aprillian, Ashayo and Glanthur,

Bidkar, undead 80 mage here. The last few weeks my toons got a few things done. My mage got the "Leading the Calvary" achievement. He now rides occasionally on the albino protodrake. I still prefer the magic carpet, but the protodrake is a nice change of pace now and then.

My paladin is now at 80 and grinding out reputation. He's exalted with Silvermoon and Undercity so far. He also killed a rare mob, a first for me. He was mining in the Scholozar Basin and noticed an unusual mob. It was Loque'Nahak, mate of Har'koa. Of course, he killed it without a second thought. Picked up a nice blue cloak, 23g and a rare mob achievement. I never had the opportunity to kill a rare mob before so it was very exciting. The kill was made all the sweeter by finding out Loque'Nahk is highly desired by some hunters as a pet. Sorry Glanthur!

I haven't been able to write much, but I still look forward to your podcast every week. Keep up the good work!

For the Horde and for Glanthur!

Bidkar and his many alts

Email #4 from MCWild

hello ctrl alt wow. fellhand hear again or as ashayo calls me mcwild.

just listened to your latest podcast and yet again you entertain us alt aholics.

i have been leveling my alt named after grandchild number 2 isaac.but needed some druid time so started a tauren druid too. called milkee yep he looks like a dairy cow.

my wife sam.hidihi. as been leveling her horde priest too. yet agian in the the battle grounds. she enjoys pvp and now that you get xp she is on to a winner.

if you are in need of opinions from couples that play then no problem. we have both been playing for awhile. myself since the days of vanilla wow and sam about 6 months after.we both enjoy the game in different ways sam likes the social side of it and battlegrounds while i like the quests and story line.both of us have got 2 lvl 80s and lots of alts spread across many realms.

we group together when needed but a lot of the time we do different things sam may be pvping in a bg while i am rep grinding or doing dailies.but we both know that if needed we are only a portal away to help out.

love the show and if you need guests or got questions on how we play be sure to ask

by the way on twitter my name is orkinzi the name is to do with my job.

keep the shows coming and look forward to the next one

fellhand aka mcwild

Email #5 from Bobthehunter

Hello Aprillian, Glanthur, and Ashayo.

First let me start by saying thanks for such an enjoyable podcast. You help fill the hours of tedium at work.

In episode 136, you discussed the fact that there are guns in the World of Warcraft, and that they somewhat dont quite fit. One thing that history has taught us, is that any time there is war, there is an advancement in technology, unfortunatly the advancements are usually in how to kill the opposing side quicker with less casualties on your own side. With war and constant skirmishes being a day to day occourance in Azeroth, it makes sense that gunpowder and guns themselves have been invented.

On another note, my immediate family fits right in with your last 2 topics you've asked about on the show. My Wife and I both play WoW togeather on a regular basis, with my computer desk just across the room from hers. We have level 80s, enjoy raiding in our casual raiding guild, her on her mage, and me on my hunter, and are currently working on leveling up a bear tank and discipline priest combo.

We were also brought in Via the Refer a Friend program, both of us being referred by my mother. I first started just over a year ago, at about the beginning of last year's brewfest, with my wife starting soon afterwards. We grouped up all the way to level 60, and beyond, and my Ma got a level 60 mage out of the process.

Well, I've babbled on long enough. Thanks again for the podcast, and heres hoping for many more.

Bobthehunter{priest,pally,warlok,rogue,shaman,warrior,druid} on Muradin (US) in the guild First Assault Division.

Email #D from Eranth

Hail and well-met, Guildmates Aprillian and Ashayo!

Greetings Glanthar!

Here we are, on the first day of Hallow’s End. I’ve been busy with a great deal of Reality lately, but I’m sure you’re all well aware of how that sort of thing goes.

However, I have managed to finally finish daily quests for all the major factions at the Sunreaver’s Pavilion in both regular and exalted forms, as well as reaching Exalted status with the Sunreavers, opening those daily quests. It wasn’t that long ago that I was looking for ways for a casual player to pick up a title or two. Since then I’ve managed to pick up 8, which is pretty spiffy. Oh, and Revered with Knights of the Ebon Blade.

I’m seeing more and more purple drakes out and about, though not tons of them. I’m pleased to have the nether drake, which did take a while to achieve. So, Ashahyo, have you taken many folks ‘over the edge’ in your Hog yet? Or is it just too many to count anymore? :-)

I’ve managed to run a few ToC runs, including one heroic one where I think we kept having issues because I kept pulling Agro as a big DPS magnet. However, I have picked up a few purple items along the way with ToC. I still have some blue items I’m running with, but I’ve managed to get at least past having any green items.

I’m not sure what my next little ‘goal’ will be and I’m open to suggestions. http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Earthen+Ring&n=Eranth

Many thanks for your input and good luck in your endevors!

--Eranth

Beast Master Hunter of AIE

Earthen Ring

Shout Outs & Thank You

Momoment - Slow Mo Week

Hello all,

hope all is well.

It has been a slow wow week for myself because of work, Aion and playing some xbox.

I did want to say a follow up about last weeks email, when I wrote about my priest Moheals and holy healing and how I or other holy healers can be number one in healing.

Ashayo is very correct in saying that it is hard to rate one priest healer against a druid or a shamman or a pally healer. Also, I should have been clearer but when I said number 1 in healing, no I don't believe it is or should be my or anyones goal to just top the healing charts; the main goal as you mentioned is to make sure your tank or raid does not die and the raid is successful. In spirit of good competition and just personal improvement the only other way I know to see how I am stacking up is by checking the heals. I think another thing I forgot to mention was the overhealing stat. We (healers in our raid groups) try not to be #1 is that as overhealing is not good either. But again this only come up in our guild where we know each others playing style and can worry about improving little things and still be very successful.

Our guild has been a little slow too as many people are not playing for various personal reasons.

I have been trying to gear up my hunter on Feathermoon and also have a druid, at level 18, Xarantaur which I started a few months ago. I am farming cooking mats on him for my hunter but also want to work on leveling him. A little mo lore,

Xarantaur is in names after the NPC Xarantaur, he is in storm peaks, he is over 10000 years old. He was one of first taurens to be trained by Cenarius (he has a big lore history and perhaps Glanthur can dive into that later :)). Xarantaur was also immortalized by Norzdormu (a dragon with yet another long lore history...hint hint Glanthur :)).

Ok enough history for now, even though I love history, real or fantasy game even though I am really not much of a lore person.

Thank you always for your podcast and take care everyone,

--
Mo

iTunes Review