Aprillian, Ashayo and Jeppy 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 or a Lil KT
[Recipe: Stormchops] Out of cooking bag. Had to go to Vengeance Landing to do the Northern Stew quest.
Got Revered with Kirin Tor and got the head enchant that BOA, sent to level56 Mage.
Doing the Argent Tournament stuff including Winter's Edge. Didn't realize I could joust any horde. Tauren's are easier to joust.
Minimap now shows objectives when tracking that type of mob.
Prilly dinged 60. She is a throwaway though. Thinking of transferring her to JB.
Epril dinged 78 doing Grizzly Hills quests with Aprillian. Went to Ebon Hold to train. Didn't get much new stuff.
Wed/Thu Doing the Argent Tournament quests with Aprillian. Finally got the whole jousting thing down.
Starting preparing 2 RAF account for expiring. Stripped Prills of anything valuable. Didn't sell her gear yet.
Keep forgetting Epril can fly. Makes doing dailies so much easier.
Needed 2 more Variant seals, did the frog quest - a little tedious, but got the seals and then couldn't Squire Dan. Ended up getting in a Black Temple Raid which was amazing. Kaytis started the raid.
Went to various realms to get gifts. Visited Ardrion on Garosh. He had Ironfeather, Chimera, Thick Wolfhide & Long Tailfeathers, all grey. He was still wearing cologne.
Got Gearscore per super raider Hypknotoad. Weird to see the numbers on others.
Christmas Yeah! Went to Org to get my stuff. Had fun. Showed Vrishna my Lance on Aprilian. Hearthed back to Dal and someone pointed out that I had my lance on.
Finished some more Argent tournament stuff and got [Argent Gruntling]
What We've Been Doing:
Aprillian
[Recipe: Stormchops] Out of cooking bag. Had to go to Vengeance Landing to do the Northern Stew quest.
Got Revered with Kirin Tor and got the head enchant that BOA, sent to level56 Mage.
Doing the Argent Tournament stuff including Winter's Edge. Didn't realize I could joust any horde. Tauren's are easier to joust.
Minimap now shows objectives when tracking that type of mob.
Prilly dinged 60. She is a throwaway though. Thinking of transferring her to JB.
Epril dinged 78 doing Grizzly Hills quests with Aprillian. Went to Ebon Hold to train. Didn't get much new stuff.
Wed/Thu Doing the Argent Tournament quests with Aprillian. Finally got the whole jousting thing down.
Starting preparing 2 RAF account for expiring. Stripped Prills of anything valuable. Didn't sell her gear yet.
Keep forgetting Epril can fly. Makes doing dailies so much easier.
Needed 2 more Variant seals, did the frog quest - a little tedious, but got the seals and then couldn't Squire Dan. Ended up getting in a Black Temple Raid which was amazing. Kaytis started the raid.
Went to various realms to get gifts. Visited Ardrion on Garosh. He had Ironfeather, Chimera, Thick Wolfhide & Long Tailfeathers, all grey. He was still wearing cologne.
Got Gearscore per super raider Hypknotoad. Weird to see the numbers on others.
Christmas Yeah! Went to Org to get my stuff. Had fun. Showed Vrishna my Lance on Aprilian. Hearthed back to Dal and someone pointed out that I had my lance on.
Finished some more Argent tournament stuff and got [Argent Gruntling]
Aprillian & Vrishna
Spent 5 hours trying to do the Rogue Tower quest. Apparently it's bugged. But we did get our lockpicking skills to 150 & honed our rogue skills a bit. Figured out we'll be able to guy recipe.Did 1K Needles with Sebastian on follow. Had fun with the rogues. Then went to Charred Vale to get to Desolace. By Mon Rogues dinged 32.
Doing Christmas quests with seba & Vrinya. Got the preserved holly quest on Seb. Did the Metzen quest in Tanaris
Ashayo
Winter's Veil- Got the MerryMaker achievement on Pud. Cycling through all my alts, found that I still had mechanical yeti's and holiday wands from last year.
- Plenty of red & green helper box and jingling bell. Didn't get any mini snowmen. Yet to go use my BB Gun.
Tip: Warlock life tap in shot rotation can be rank 1 and still benefit from the full effect of the glyph. I've macro'ed it so that the default is rank 1, but if I'm low on mana, holding down ALT will give the highest rank. (With thanks to Chill from Pants on Head)
Mod - SpamThrottle : Filters out repeat messages in numbered channels. Particularly good for trade chat where people spam the same thing 3 time to try to get more visibility on their demands.
Pants on Head speed Karazahn run - Zerged in under an hour (despite wiping on Chess - lol) Listen to Bind On Equip #56 for the audio.
Gearing up!
- Pud spent 35 Emblem of Triumph on ring [Clutch of Fortification]. Defense is now at 567 (too high), so he needs to swap some defense gems for hit.
Crazy Train raiding
- Tried going into 10 man ToC, but we don't have anywhere near enough dps. Changed plans and split up into two 5-mans to race through Ice Crown Citadel instances ; didn't quite work because Vyv was saved to heroic Forge of Souls.
- Awesome "clear" of Naxxramas. Heigen Safety Dance - 16min, 44sec. Only Pud, Wemb, (ie two tanks) and two healers left for last few minutes of fight. One-shot Loatheb again with some awesome healing. Decided to try Sapphiron and KT on last raid night before Christmas. We got Sapphiron down to 15% on 1st attempt and killed on the second try. Similarly with KT - 15% on 1st attempt and down on the second. So Pud now has [Fall of Naxxramas] achievement. Woot!
Dwp 10 man - ICC
- Deathwhisper down in 2 shots. Dills on his mage doing 5k dps (as was Ostira)
- 3 attempts on Gunship battle - down! woot!
- Saurfang constant beast adds that have to be kited. need a bit more dps
Misc
- First fully random pug - heroic pit of saron. Good run and won crit trinket.
- Heroic Occulus is sooo much easier than it used to be, but people still just drop group if the random is Occulus.
- Heroic Halls of Reflection - there is a "hide and seek" method that will surely be patched very soon.
- Trying to get through Forge of Souls, Pit of Saron, Halls of Reflection on all my 80's so they can do any. Pugged some on Jekle as a healer, but couldn't quite heal HoR
- Did a great few runs with Hypnotoad, Tempeste, and some other PoH'ers. First random heroic was HoR. We tried, but gave up. Then tore through Violet Hold and Halls of Lighting, getting many of the speed achievements on the way.
- Badge fest with Pants on Head - did Noth as the weekly raid quest, then a bunch of random heroics for more badges and achievements - UP, AN, CoS - where we actually completed within the time limit (by less than a minute) and Wemb won the Bronze Drake. Very proud of ourselves!
Jeppy
Slow week in WoW - been a bit under the weather.Lots of fishing / Cooking / First Aid
Alachia accused me of looking to delay my move into Northrend - hmm?
From Blade
Ahem.
Three years.
Three years is quite a while, my friends... three years of the highlights and lowlights of Aprillian... her misadventures with dual, triple and even quad boxing (and if memory serves, her forced single-toon play while travelling on the train... haha)... and, of course, the final success of Aprillian dinging 80 only a year and a few months after everyone else... (/evil orc laugh)
... three years of the contrast of Ashayo and his instantaneous progression (well... 'instantaneous' as compared to SOME, at any rate...)
The Contra-spective of Glanthur and his EZ-Mode Alliance (just kidding, Ol' Dwarf... have a pint on me!)
The addition of El' Jeppy to bridge the gap between the Horde and the Alliance (oh sure... he SAYS he's "For the Alliance"... but we all know differently...)
The corruption... er... I mean INTRODUCTION of Vrishna to the game... well... we can't really say introduction, can we? He's only I'm sure been hearing about it since Aprillian started the game, such is her unbridled enthusiasm and zest for the game...
"If you can't beat 'em, join 'em" eh Vrishna?
Ol' Blade finally found himself after this semester of classes with a few minutes to play... and to try to send in a contribution to the podcast...
And found myself without a topic to write about after my long hiatus.
"What should I write about," said I...
"What could I possibly contribute to Ctrl Alt WoW's 3-year anniversary episode?"
Our good friend Lanctharus suggested mainstream pop culture and WoW... in that... how WoW has appeared in the mainstream (real life) media... an idea I really do like and one that I will address once I find enough time to give the subject the quality of research it deserves.
Then I logged on late one evening, while Ashayo in his role as a guild officer was 'cleaning house'... aka 'removing all the inactive members and promoting the active ones'... and he suggested going back to the beginning.
And so I shall.
Having logged on a number of times this winter break I have found myself repeatedly with a sense of disorientation. I have a number of level 80 characters... and a number of characters that could reach level 80 with a minimum of effort... and yet I'm uninspired.
There are many things that I COULD do... I could rep-grind (I hear it's a lot easier now)... I could run a series of Heroics and get my beloved namesake rogue geared up... I could farm
If anyone has suggestions on what Ol' Blade could do that would catch my attention, I'm all ears...
But. Back to the beginning, as I said.
Having no clear direction with my higher level toons, I decided (at Ashayo's advice) to go back to what brought me to Ctrl Alt WoW in the first place.
I decided to re-introduce myself to my original insanity.
Tahrzaan.
Level 38 now.
... Still fighting naked.
... Still dual-wielding only a [Sharp Dagger] and a [Skinning Knife].
... Zero talent points spent (I never DID re-spend them after they got reset a while back).
... Maximum melee crit of 53 damage...
... Still running on foot until he earns Exalted with Thunder Bluff (or makes enough Auction House money to buy an elephant).
... The whole shebang.
Here's a screenie or three to prove how 'bushranger' I still am with him.
And I shall continue to be so. And - in honor of a year's worth of contributions of The Bladed Edge to Ctrl Alt WoW, and three years of a podcast wthout peer, I will endeavor to reach level 40 by the end of the weekend.
If I have enough time during the holidays, I may even catch up to Aprillian! (/evil orc laugh)
Speaking of Aprillian... here's a funny factoid: I still have more 80s than she does... and I've been away for like 6 months. True story! LOL
Aww... we're just teasin' ya... truth is... none of us (including me) would be quite where we are if it weren't for podcasts like Ctrl Alt WoW.
Raise a glass, my friends.
To the past Three Years, and to many more besides.
As elusive as ever,
Loremaster Blade
Ahem.
Three years.
Three years is quite a while, my friends... three years of the highlights and lowlights of Aprillian... her misadventures with dual, triple and even quad boxing (and if memory serves, her forced single-toon play while travelling on the train... haha)... and, of course, the final success of Aprillian dinging 80 only a year and a few months after everyone else... (/evil orc laugh)
... three years of the contrast of Ashayo and his instantaneous progression (well... 'instantaneous' as compared to SOME, at any rate...)
The Contra-spective of Glanthur and his EZ-Mode Alliance (just kidding, Ol' Dwarf... have a pint on me!)
The addition of El' Jeppy to bridge the gap between the Horde and the Alliance (oh sure... he SAYS he's "For the Alliance"... but we all know differently...)
The corruption... er... I mean INTRODUCTION of Vrishna to the game... well... we can't really say introduction, can we? He's only I'm sure been hearing about it since Aprillian started the game, such is her unbridled enthusiasm and zest for the game...
"If you can't beat 'em, join 'em" eh Vrishna?
Ol' Blade finally found himself after this semester of classes with a few minutes to play... and to try to send in a contribution to the podcast...
And found myself without a topic to write about after my long hiatus.
"What should I write about," said I...
"What could I possibly contribute to Ctrl Alt WoW's 3-year anniversary episode?"
Our good friend Lanctharus suggested mainstream pop culture and WoW... in that... how WoW has appeared in the mainstream (real life) media... an idea I really do like and one that I will address once I find enough time to give the subject the quality of research it deserves.
Then I logged on late one evening, while Ashayo in his role as a guild officer was 'cleaning house'... aka 'removing all the inactive members and promoting the active ones'... and he suggested going back to the beginning.
And so I shall.
Having logged on a number of times this winter break I have found myself repeatedly with a sense of disorientation. I have a number of level 80 characters... and a number of characters that could reach level 80 with a minimum of effort... and yet I'm uninspired.
There are many things that I COULD do... I could rep-grind (I hear it's a lot easier now)... I could run a series of Heroics and get my beloved namesake rogue geared up... I could farm
If anyone has suggestions on what Ol' Blade could do that would catch my attention, I'm all ears...
But. Back to the beginning, as I said.
Having no clear direction with my higher level toons, I decided (at Ashayo's advice) to go back to what brought me to Ctrl Alt WoW in the first place.
I decided to re-introduce myself to my original insanity.
Tahrzaan.
Level 38 now.
... Still fighting naked.
... Still dual-wielding only a [Sharp Dagger] and a [Skinning Knife].
... Zero talent points spent (I never DID re-spend them after they got reset a while back).
... Maximum melee crit of 53 damage...
... Still running on foot until he earns Exalted with Thunder Bluff (or makes enough Auction House money to buy an elephant).
... The whole shebang.
Here's a screenie or three to prove how 'bushranger' I still am with him.
And I shall continue to be so. And - in honor of a year's worth of contributions of The Bladed Edge to Ctrl Alt WoW, and three years of a podcast wthout peer, I will endeavor to reach level 40 by the end of the weekend.
If I have enough time during the holidays, I may even catch up to Aprillian! (/evil orc laugh)
Speaking of Aprillian... here's a funny factoid: I still have more 80s than she does... and I've been away for like 6 months. True story! LOL
Aww... we're just teasin' ya... truth is... none of us (including me) would be quite where we are if it weren't for podcasts like Ctrl Alt WoW.
Raise a glass, my friends.
To the past Three Years, and to many more besides.
As elusive as ever,
Loremaster Blade
Emails
Email #1 from Makling
happy Christmas and anniversary to the ctrlaltwow crew!
i remember starting listening to your show after i heard aprillian being interviewed on the "how i wow" podcast. it was during a time in my life when i did not have anyone to talk about wow, because the only other person then who played wow was a co-worker who had moved to another job. the show had filled that niche of having people just talk about the game and their playing. i had long since listened to other wow podcasts, but this show will always have a special place in my heart for having hosts who are down to earth and have lovable personalities.
i had just listened to our last show and i really enjoyed listening to aprilian and her adventures in the land of the 80's. im glad that despite getting into the beginnings of fine tuning your toon you still have time to enjoy the lower levels with vrishna. i almost fell to the ground when ashayo said that there was no need to do the group quests for the ogres in ogrila! talk about giving away achievements.. but then again, i guess it means i can go get the achievement on my other toons if i wanted. but for now, im content with having Makiling the Merrymaker =)
has ashayo finished the halls of reflection in heroic mode? i've found that it is harder than i thought it was, because i have yet to finish another run into that instance with a pug. those mobs really hit hard!
i had just found out that in lower levels, the lfg will take you to the instances found near the other factions! i thought it would be an awesome way to get the achievements to those places, and if you do random groups long enough, you can give your lowbie alt "the Patient" title!
i hope everyone enjoyed your holiday gifts both in game and irl. cheers to another year of ctrlaltwow!
twitter.com/makiling_mage
Email #A from Kurly
Hey all!!
So the patch is live!! And all I can say is one thing....busy busy busy! If nothing else can be said about this patch, it has certainly opened a door for all as the cross realm LFG system has made it possible for any toon at any level to dungeon up!! Since I have been playing (it will be two years in February) this has been one of the best things Blizzard has ever done! Whats next?? Cross faction grouping?? Why not?!?!? It has been a wonderful and challenging experience. I have been in groups that have not stopped (which as a healer kind of sucked but was also kind of exciting), groups that we were all chatty and had a great time and groups that included new 80's and we were all willing to help....WOW ROCKS!! There have only been two instances where there was a jerk in the group.
So that's it for now....I hope you all had a great holiday and as always I look forward to your podcast. Welcome Jeppy (Aljeepy, Iljeeppy,....?)...and glad that he is back!
Love to you all!
Kurly!
Email #2 from Patrick
Good afternoon guys
Just plugging away on 12/24 and just happen to hear the weather talk. Well let me tell you about weather. I am from Western NY and I survived the great blizzard of 1977 were the entire region was buried in so much snow the entire area was closed for weeks. You have not seen a proper blizzard until you seen one blow off the great lakes
Ashayo, you mentioned that Australia has great weather, but I will say that may be true, however, none of our wildlife/insects here in New York State are so venoms that they can kill you with just one bite/sting ! OOhh yea and none of our beaches have great white sharks that will eat you either!! (although we do have the random used medical waste wash up on Lake Ontario beaches)
Best regards,
Email #B from Eranth
Aprillian, Ashayo, Jeppy & Vrishnag!
Hail and well met!
Happy Anniversary with the Control - Alt - WoW podcast!
I'm going to ask the burning question: Aprillian - If you're Ms. Macintosh, why is the show called 'Control-Alt-WoW'? ;-)
I've been working the new LFG system lately as I have time. I think the one thing that may be a 'downside' to it, is how long before people will just be logging in and doing the LFG content, and not actually doing quests in the world itself? Perhaps I'm wrong, and we'll just be working LFG until Cataclysm comes out, and then the game will change again.
I heard an interesting comment the other day, and it made me think. Someone commented about how well the new dungeons led one into another, how the story flowed. They hadn't seen that sort of thing since the Death Knight starting area and quests. That made me think: Wow, do you suppose they'll put out Cataclysm at that level of thought and content, quests and stories? Won't that be keen if they do?!
At any rate, back to grinding LFG for badges for T9 gear, and Gold to re-gem from +Crit/+Agility to +AP.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
--Eranth
Beastmaster Hunter of AIE
Earthen Ring Server
MoMomoments
Hello everyone,
Hope your December has been great and which ever holiday you all celebrate was/is wonderful.
Along with everyone I have been having fun within wow, today (Saturday) we completed ICC, the new raid, well kind of ;/
We could not down the last boss. I think it was a combination of not enough dps, heals, gear, just needing more gear and other things.
But it was fun and I was able to get my first gear from the frost badges. My healer is up to 2700 spell power, working my way slowly to 3000 soon hopefully.
I am trying to do the random Heroics everyday but that does not always happen.
Below I am sharing with you all part of a blog post that will be on The Experienced Noob blog http://theexperiencednoob.blogspot.com/
that I wanted to share with you all and get your opinion. I am cutting the original blog post a lot as it is really long and dont want to lose any listeners :)
In WOW the big news lately has been patch 3.3 and especially the LFG tool, looking for group tool.
Taking all of the different personalities and play styles, one needs to take into consideration that some people just do not know how to play WOW like others or they just have bad gear and are trying to gear up (and you need to remember that like it or not!). What I mean about that is that (before 3.3 and now as well) some people are good tanks some are not and same for dps and healers.
The first 2 weeks of 3.3 I really was enjoying the few times I or my guild had to use the LFG tool to pug the last dps spot or which ever spot. No issues, we are well geared and paired up with similarly geared players from other servers. Some people say hello and do not say a word after that until the last boss is down and say a goodbye. Other or chatty cathys or interact some in chat. In all the experience had been ok, I would even say to my surprise pleasant.
Until the last few days and a few pugs I was paired up with in LFG. One the tank started before I (as healer!) and one dps were loaded in to the instance; he/she was already at 50% downing the first pair of mobs and from there did not stop. I mean REALLY did not stop, for mana, food, buffs, coffee, for anything!
So to my self I was says: " REALLY!!!!" but I was willing to giving the tank the benefit of the doubt and go with the flow and after a few mobs, almost to the first boss I was able to buff the group as well as another person was able to throw their buffs and we of course sat to get our mana up at lest to 70%.
Personally with 70% as a priest healer I can pretty much heal a well geared group with no issues even on a boss. BUT....
There goes the tank onto the other group as we were not even up to 50% mana! REALLY!!!???
So from there please tell me what you would do, I really would like to know. Of course I could let the tank die and most likely wipe the group or just deal with it like I had been and heal him and try to get mana up some way.
Well I went with A, I did not heal him and just stood back, healed the dps a bit. Tank dies, and repeat it one more time just before the boss and the tank actually says: " heals?"
REALLY!?!?!?!
I usually keep myself in check but this time I could not, I say: "feel free to wait for us to get our mana up or let us know if you want to solo this place"
Was that harsh, I think not but let me know, Please.
So what happens, we all res come back mana up, buff up, and tank is waiting, waiting, we say we are ready and we are waiting.....ZZZzzzzz
REALLY!!!!
The tank asks: "ready?"
WOW! YES we are ready!
Than we continue and tank goes back rushing through the instance so I just had no choice to deal with it and left as soon as the instance was done and did not even care about the loot.
Just a few thoughts, I really would like to know what else I could have done and what you all would have done.
I could have left but in the beginning before i was locked in the instance but I don't think that is very productive; get into pug after pug and leave just because of some people basically being idiots in my opinion.
I could have just let the tank die and try to make him/her understand but that would be a waste of time as many things in life you cannot make everyone understand common sense (or at least to keep other group members in mind and not to be selfish).
So please let me know because I encountered other tanks like that and even dps in other groups that just would not wait a second for the tank. I am all for hurrying up but does it really hurt or kill you to wait a few seconds. Just like while we are all driving and I have been guilty, when we race drive, cut people off to than stop at the stop light.
I believe people are in a rush because they are trying to finish all the heroic instances to get all the badges they can each day. Also, in WOW, not just in pugs, I think game wide people just don't consider the other players in the game; many have the " me me me" mentality, just as in life. I say the people that are open minded and considerate do need to deal with it because we are not going to change peoples minds. I can not heal and let the tank or dps die but as I said that is not production and proves nothing. Perhaps for a few seconds it may satisfy you but I truly think that is not the way.
For my instances perhaps I could have said in the group chat to hold up, and I did not. I don't think that would have changed the tank or dps and how they played. But never know, I can try it the next time because I think it will get worse in some instances and I will also have more awesome LFG/pug experiences.
I hope your gaming is fun and please keep others in mind. We are all playing online with others and it is no different in real life; where you would keep a door open for a person you can also wait a few seconds for your group members or greed something that clearly should not be needed!!! oh wait that is another blog post.
Have a great week,
Happy Holidays,
Happy New Year!
--
Mo
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