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, they are back in the store.
What We've Been Doing:
Aprillian
Jousting
Looked at the Kirin Tor
Commendation -
Tome of coldweather
Aprillian & Vrishna
Rogues completed the Nessingwary quest. It was exciting and hard at the same time. We spent some time pickpocketing. We work well together.
Can now link items in custom chat channels. Only used to work in trade chat.
Crazy Train
- One shot Obsidium Sanctum
- Tried Malygos, but not enough dps, Nearly got through phase 2.
- Ulduar 10 man - FL, XT
Misc
- Weekly raid (OS - Sarth) on Jekle and Ashayo
- Bought heirloom shoulders and staff for Ashariss
- Exalted with Sons of Hodir on Pudendal (much to the horror of Tempeste)
DwP
- Back to ICC 10 man on Ashayo to try Saurfang - 27%, 7%. Sooo close.
- VoA
- Speed kill on Onyxia [More Dots!]
Random Heroics (I wonder if the random is choosing ones that people in the group have not done yet. Vyv hadn't done Occulus)
- Enough triumph emblems to buy level 245 head piece [Headplate of the Honorbound]
- UP - can't figure out Bane achievement
- Gundrak - Got [what the eck], [why'd it have to be snakes]
- PoS. Finally got a 2h weapon upgrade - [Tyrannical Beheader]
- CoS. Succeeded, but not within the timelimit
- Halls of Stone - Finally got through the "event" with Brann Bronzebeard
- Got through H ToC finally
- Old Kingdom
- Occulus.
happy new year guys!
ive had a great christmas with my wife and her side of the family where we've had some gift giving, and a cool Li'l KT would be an awesome gift from you guys!
the hospital doesnt close during the holidays so i still had to work on christmas day, but my WoW time for the past week has been awesome despite all the work we had to do.
first of all, my co-wroker who had recruited me into playing wow a year ago came back for his free week! he left wow to play wow minis, but decided to use the free week invite from blizzard. he played a warrior tank who was decked out in naxx 25 gear, and i got on my priest and ran some random heroics. he was really surprised at how easily it was to get geared, and found that his former leetness was now but a dwarf compared to the tier 9 the people were wearing. we tried the new dungeons with puggd dps, and were fortunate enough to group with people who were patient enough to allow me to explain the fights to my friend. well, the didnt really have a choice because if they vote out the tank, then im goin too =) we did heroic FoS and Normal PoS, but had some trouble with the last boss in heroic PoS dealing too much damage to him. we also tried normal HoR, but had some problems irl before we got the the last boss. but was really fun playing with a friend i havent seen in game in a long time. even the most mundane instances looked new and old sights looked fresh. ive yet to see him again past his free week, but im hoping the changes in 3.3 were enough to get him back in the game.
after listening to Ravanna's interview in The Instance, i was inspired to tank on my druid. my original plan was to make him tank spec once i gear him up at level 80, but i decided to tank with him as early as i can. so i speccd him feral tank, and got into the random dungeons. my first attempts were complete and utter failures. i could not hold aggro on the first trash mobs in utgarde keep! the pug members quickly dropped form the group and my bear walked away with his head bowed down. so i did some research, and made some macros for bear form, and tried to get into another random group. this time it was the nexus, and able to hold aggro for the first group, the next group, and before i knew it, we were downing the bosess! i was so happy to have successfully tank my first instance. i had some constructive criticism here and there, and i took in whatever i could in learning the ropes of being a tank. i looked up the gear i could get from quests and the bosses, and bought some armor kits and i had 18k health in bear form! i was doing instance after instance, and it just so happend that the friend i had referred had finally gotten the wrath expansion so now i was tanking instances for them! i tanked until i ran out of rested exp, and now my druid is level 74. i had started doing the grizzly hills dailies so i can buy the trinkets with the venture coins, but im keeping her in an inn to save up on rested exp.
so my holiday WoW time has been basically one spent with friends in game. it was a really awesome time that is a well deserved break before we go and start another year at work.
i hope everyone enjoyed their holiday, and i hope jeppy feels better soon.
for the horde!
twitter.com/makiling_mage
Email #B - Nevik
Email #1 from Nick
Hi guys
Just thought I drop a note to tell you how much I'm enjoying your show. I wasn't particularly taken in by the show at first because I guess I was too full of myself and thought you guys were lame talking about all the noobish stuff. But the more I listen to the podcast, the more it made me realise the reason why I started playing WoW in the first place. It's the enthusiasm you guys still have for the game and all the fun you are having even though you're not doing the cutting edge stuff. Anyway, the reason I'm writing in is something I discovered only a few days ago and it made my time on WoW that much better. I play on a west coast server in the US but am actually living in england, so my latency is something of my achilles heels as far as doing dps in raids is concerned. As an Elemental Shaman, having input lag will kill our dps as you really need to cast your spells continuously to get the best out of your dps. It frustrate me to no end knowing what is wrong but never had a chance to do something about it. Until my friend suggested a video on youtube that helps you reduce your lag in game. My latency has always been hovering around 400-500 ms at best of times, so you can imgaine the server lag I get as most people playing in the US gets around 50-100 ms. After following what the video showed me, I now run with only around 230-260ms and it's upped my DPS by 1.5k. Here's the link to the video, and I just thought this will help Ashayo and Jeppy with their lag since they're not in the US. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5fjysf-hUw Even if you do live the the US, this will help cut your latency too. Hope this tip will help you guys out for when you do get into actual raids and stuff.
p.s. I have you beat on alts Aprillian, I have 8 level 80s and I raid in ICC ;)
Keep up the good work guys, looking forward to your next episode of Ctrl Alt WoW
EDIT: Ashayo says: I said in the podcast I'd look up the manual instructions to replicate what the mod did that Jeppy used. Well, after looking at the video, I don't need to. The video shows the manual steps - it is not about the mod. The video is quite good and clear, but may not work for you in every case - for example if you have VMware installed, you will have multiple adapters listed with DHCP addresses. If you're having problems finding the right adapter or some other step in the process, drop us an email and I'll try to assist.
Email #2 from Mattdiox
Hey guys it's Mattdiox.
Looked at the Kirin Tor
Commendation -
Tome of coldweather
Aprillian & Vrishna
Rogues completed the Nessingwary quest. It was exciting and hard at the same time. We spent some time pickpocketing. We work well together.Ashayo
Shoutout to Sjostrom for the snowman kit non-combat pet.Can now link items in custom chat channels. Only used to work in trade chat.
Crazy Train
- One shot Obsidium Sanctum
- Tried Malygos, but not enough dps, Nearly got through phase 2.
- Ulduar 10 man - FL, XT
Misc
- Weekly raid (OS - Sarth) on Jekle and Ashayo
- Bought heirloom shoulders and staff for Ashariss
- Exalted with Sons of Hodir on Pudendal (much to the horror of Tempeste)
DwP
- Back to ICC 10 man on Ashayo to try Saurfang - 27%, 7%. Sooo close.
- VoA
- Speed kill on Onyxia [More Dots!]
Random Heroics (I wonder if the random is choosing ones that people in the group have not done yet. Vyv hadn't done Occulus)
- Enough triumph emblems to buy level 245 head piece [Headplate of the Honorbound]
- UP - can't figure out Bane achievement
- Gundrak - Got [what the eck], [why'd it have to be snakes]
- PoS. Finally got a 2h weapon upgrade - [Tyrannical Beheader]
- CoS. Succeeded, but not within the timelimit
- Halls of Stone - Finally got through the "event" with Brann Bronzebeard
- Got through H ToC finally
- Old Kingdom
- Occulus.
Jeppy
Pretty much nothing - how sad!Emails
Email #A from Maklinghappy new year guys!
ive had a great christmas with my wife and her side of the family where we've had some gift giving, and a cool Li'l KT would be an awesome gift from you guys!
the hospital doesnt close during the holidays so i still had to work on christmas day, but my WoW time for the past week has been awesome despite all the work we had to do.
first of all, my co-wroker who had recruited me into playing wow a year ago came back for his free week! he left wow to play wow minis, but decided to use the free week invite from blizzard. he played a warrior tank who was decked out in naxx 25 gear, and i got on my priest and ran some random heroics. he was really surprised at how easily it was to get geared, and found that his former leetness was now but a dwarf compared to the tier 9 the people were wearing. we tried the new dungeons with puggd dps, and were fortunate enough to group with people who were patient enough to allow me to explain the fights to my friend. well, the didnt really have a choice because if they vote out the tank, then im goin too =) we did heroic FoS and Normal PoS, but had some trouble with the last boss in heroic PoS dealing too much damage to him. we also tried normal HoR, but had some problems irl before we got the the last boss. but was really fun playing with a friend i havent seen in game in a long time. even the most mundane instances looked new and old sights looked fresh. ive yet to see him again past his free week, but im hoping the changes in 3.3 were enough to get him back in the game.
after listening to Ravanna's interview in The Instance, i was inspired to tank on my druid. my original plan was to make him tank spec once i gear him up at level 80, but i decided to tank with him as early as i can. so i speccd him feral tank, and got into the random dungeons. my first attempts were complete and utter failures. i could not hold aggro on the first trash mobs in utgarde keep! the pug members quickly dropped form the group and my bear walked away with his head bowed down. so i did some research, and made some macros for bear form, and tried to get into another random group. this time it was the nexus, and able to hold aggro for the first group, the next group, and before i knew it, we were downing the bosess! i was so happy to have successfully tank my first instance. i had some constructive criticism here and there, and i took in whatever i could in learning the ropes of being a tank. i looked up the gear i could get from quests and the bosses, and bought some armor kits and i had 18k health in bear form! i was doing instance after instance, and it just so happend that the friend i had referred had finally gotten the wrath expansion so now i was tanking instances for them! i tanked until i ran out of rested exp, and now my druid is level 74. i had started doing the grizzly hills dailies so i can buy the trinkets with the venture coins, but im keeping her in an inn to save up on rested exp.
so my holiday WoW time has been basically one spent with friends in game. it was a really awesome time that is a well deserved break before we go and start another year at work.
i hope everyone enjoyed their holiday, and i hope jeppy feels better soon.
for the horde!
twitter.com/makiling_mage
Email #B - Nevik
Happy New Year CAW crew!
Twenty-ten is now upon us ushering in a new year and decade; a fresh slate promising hope, good will towards man, and well, of course, lots of WoW-playing. Have you made any resolutions for the new year and/or decade?
Maybe Aprillian will roll a healer and love it? Maybe Ashayo will become a pvp-fiend? Perhaps Jeppy will forsake the Alliance and come to the good side? Maybe, just maybe Vrishna will be able to sneak enough time to join a hardcore raiding guild? So many possibilities, it's exciting.
As for me I've made a resolution to become a fully-fledged tank with my death knight and become a healer with my priest. No, this doesn't mean I'll be abandoning my rogue, quite the contrary. I hope to be able to fill any role needed and do so while upholding my high standards for performance.
Anyhoo, let's move along.
Between nearly cutting the tip of my pinky off, getting massively sick, and working on Christmas AND New Year's I've continued work on my death knight tank project. As you might recall, my DK had finally obtained enough defense rating to be uncrittable (540 for raids, 535 for heroics) but his gear was still lacking in avoidance and health.
Well, he's still lacking in avoidance and health, but patch 3.3 and the dungeon finder tool will help alleviate his shortcomings in gear. Skill, on the other hand, will come with experience as I've taken the trial-by-fire method to test my mettle. It's a challenge to be sure, especially with pugging, but I am finding that I am enjoying it, especially for the instantaneous groups.
One word of warning for those aspiring tanks out there trying their hand at the role possibly for the first time: take a healer friend with you. While you're still very green at this new role you're going to need a healer that you can trust and that is patient with you as you learn. These are virtues hard to come by with a pug'd in healer and you may find yourself having to find replacements for those healers who can't be bothered with a mild challenge.
Yet, I'd highly advise not jumping into the role of meat-shield writhout doing some homework first. There are many sites out there that can help you develop your tanking-prowess so be prepared to do a lot of reading. (My favorite is tankspot.com)
I'd also highly advise listening to the Talking Tank Round-table that the Rawrcast podcast did a few months ago (iTunes links will be included at the end of this email). There was a lot of useful advice given during the round-table but I'd like to highlight one piece of information I gleaned from the discussion: there is no defense cap.
The "540" cap is a misnomer and is merely a requirement if you're looking to tank raids. Overshooting 540 will still provide useful avoidance boosts so you shouldn't feel compelled to juggle equipment to stay near 540. By no means should you neglect other useful stats such as health, threat generation, and hit rating, but if you overshoot 540, you're not wasting those extra points in defense.
If you've fallen asleep with my rambling on about my fledgling tanking career, you can blame Ashayo. He mentioned overshooting the 540 defense rating and I just wanted to make sure he didn't feel like he was completely wasting those extra points.
Moving along ...
Other than my renewed focus on my death knight, (in large part due to my rogue gifting him a battered hilt for the Quel'delar) I have been finding myself more and more tempted to server transfer some of my toons from Cenarius to Jubei'thos.
At first I had planned on transferring my priest over once she hit 80 so I could transfer the cloth heirlooms off of her, but now I'm reconsidering. I'm accumulating so many emblems on my rogue, that I may just transfer her with heirlooms intact. Come Cataclysm I might just fancy leveling a goblin mage or warlock on Jubei'thos and having heirlooms would be an awesome benefit.
I am also giving serious consideration to moving my death knight over to Jubei'thos as well. There appears to be a surplus of healers in Pants on Head, and I've been itching to get more involved with the guild without being bothered to level my current death knight over there. Yes, this would mean p-p-p-purging my DK currently over there, but he's only level 61 so I'm not terribly attached to him.
If only Acti-Blizzard, *cough*Darth Kotex*cough* would offer a sizeable discount on transferring multiple toons across servers I would even consider moving my rogue over as well. Well, I can dream right?
Anyhoo, I've taken up enough of your time. Let's wrap this up.
I'm tickled that Aprillian & Vrishna are leveling rogues and should you two need any advice feel free to pester me on twitter.
I’ve been Nevik for the past 840 or so words (Sorry Wemb, it's a great sign-off, I had to steal it)
Rawrcast Talking Tank Roundtable
Part 1
Part 2
Email #C from David
Yes you can use the Dungeon finder to get into The Stockades. I was ported in twice when doing random classic dungeons.
Thank You
David
http://www.bigkidsatplay.com
Yes you can use the Dungeon finder to get into The Stockades. I was ported in twice when doing random classic dungeons.
Thank You
David
http://www.bigkidsatplay.com
Email #1 from Nick
Hi guys
Just thought I drop a note to tell you how much I'm enjoying your show. I wasn't particularly taken in by the show at first because I guess I was too full of myself and thought you guys were lame talking about all the noobish stuff. But the more I listen to the podcast, the more it made me realise the reason why I started playing WoW in the first place. It's the enthusiasm you guys still have for the game and all the fun you are having even though you're not doing the cutting edge stuff. Anyway, the reason I'm writing in is something I discovered only a few days ago and it made my time on WoW that much better. I play on a west coast server in the US but am actually living in england, so my latency is something of my achilles heels as far as doing dps in raids is concerned. As an Elemental Shaman, having input lag will kill our dps as you really need to cast your spells continuously to get the best out of your dps. It frustrate me to no end knowing what is wrong but never had a chance to do something about it. Until my friend suggested a video on youtube that helps you reduce your lag in game. My latency has always been hovering around 400-500 ms at best of times, so you can imgaine the server lag I get as most people playing in the US gets around 50-100 ms. After following what the video showed me, I now run with only around 230-260ms and it's upped my DPS by 1.5k. Here's the link to the video, and I just thought this will help Ashayo and Jeppy with their lag since they're not in the US. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5fjysf-hUw Even if you do live the the US, this will help cut your latency too. Hope this tip will help you guys out for when you do get into actual raids and stuff.
p.s. I have you beat on alts Aprillian, I have 8 level 80s and I raid in ICC ;)
Keep up the good work guys, looking forward to your next episode of Ctrl Alt WoW
EDIT: Ashayo says: I said in the podcast I'd look up the manual instructions to replicate what the mod did that Jeppy used. Well, after looking at the video, I don't need to. The video shows the manual steps - it is not about the mod. The video is quite good and clear, but may not work for you in every case - for example if you have VMware installed, you will have multiple adapters listed with DHCP addresses. If you're having problems finding the right adapter or some other step in the process, drop us an email and I'll try to assist.
Email #2 from Mattdiox
Hey guys it's Mattdiox.
And before you yell at me for not emailing you guys and telling me how much your listeners lust after me. I apologize.
But the reason I haven't is because I haven't been listening to any podcasts lately. Not just yours ANY!
I told you guys I left for Aion, but the sad thing is I stopped playing that too. I don't really know why, it was an awesome game and I really enjoyed it. But once dragon age origins came. I basically lost myself.
Anyway I shalt not tarry any longer and will get on with my question.
Should I come back to WoW?
I have been debating this for a while and I am not sure if I should. I left WoW because it became boring and I didn't want to stay on just for the social aspect. I could never get in dungeons and battle grounds just couldn't hold me for 3 - 4 hour playing sessions.
If I did go back, I would most likely do this. Drain all funds and gold out of my 80 paladin. And move it all to my low level priest. Forcing myself to level rather than sitting around on my paladin waiting for an instance to pop.
Now here comes the clincher of my plan. You guys' opinion. Should I come back at this period in time. Or wait till cataclysm which is what I plan to do either way?
As with every email sorry for the great wall of google mail text.
Lots of love, happiness, respect and potatoes.
Mattdiox, level 16 human nerd earth server.
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