Ctrl Alt WoW Episode 149 - Tempeste Listened

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

Went back to ogr Fri night with shattered necklace and got quest and immediate complete. Noticed new ! under tree.

On Vacation

Wed evening on Vacation! Finally got back on Aprillian to do some Tournament stuff. Did the chilli/ cit thing when I only had the Citi part. Finished the Black Knight's Fall, easier than expected. Finally got the Chilimaw quest.

Did some ICC with Gypsygirl, Ralff, Bovne and Tinyroot, and oh Secondaid came in to help when Ralff had to step out. I got some cool upgrades. Cold Sweat Grips for Gloves and Blood Boil Lancet for Staff. Got them enchanted.

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Aprillian & Vrishna

Loving the Rogue, up to 40 on Sun and Lockpicking at 188. Then went back to the dwarf place in Badlands and did lockboxes and pickpocketing.

Did the Sigil quest by pulling the dudes off the the Boss one at a time.

Went to DC and back on the train. Had the rogues in Badlands. First we went in to Uldaman alone stealthed so we could get the mushrooms and pickpocket. We have so much fun race pickpocketing.

Did the last boss in Ulduman & died. Ran back to the instance and was in another instance than Prills. It was really weird.

Spent Thur morning

Ashayo

Crazy Train
========
- Vault of Archavon - twice this week. Sadly, all PVP gear drops, no useful PVE gear
- Koralon - took a few attempts, but got him down using rotate-on-the-spot method rather than kite around room
- Emalon - one shot
- Archavon - too easy
- Tanked Onyxia for the first time. Got her down on 2nd go
- One-shot Obsidium Sanctum. Reckon we could do at least one drake left up.

Naxx 10
- Instructor - weekly quest
- Gothikk - all stood on "live side" and took the adds when the gates opened.
- 4 horseman ; 2 shot, with Elodarr on the back (first time he'd seen the fight)
- Sapphiron 1-shot
- KT - pulled a room by a pet, then killed. I tanked and died during the fight, but we recovered.


AIE 10 man Raiding
==============
- Sarth 3D - Great example of why Ravanna is a fantastic tank and raid leader
- EoE 8man - Champion of Frozen Waste title
- ICC 10 man. Healed it this week on Asheal. One shot Lord Marrowgar, Deathwhisper, Gunbattle. Two shot Saurfang - found it easier to two-heal it, as the extra DPS really helps tear down the adds.
- Won [Mag'hari Chieftain's Staff] - two sockets in it!
- Friendly with Ashen Verdict on Asheal - ring time!
- New Quarter of ICC that opened this week - The Plagueworks. Even the trash is tough. Stinky and Precious are two dogs like Gluth in Naxx that do the decimate, lowering everyones health.

AIE 25 man Raiding
==============
- VoA
- Noth as the weekly questzzzzzzzzzzzzz[
- ToC - won crusador orb for 4th tier peice set - gloves
- Working on Anub. Got him down on about 4th attempt 2nd night
- Working on 25 man ICC - Getting Marrowgar to about 40%


Druid Levelling
==========
- Levelling Ashariss then druid with flight form in Northrend. Even quest in quarry to destroy eggs can be done in flight form. Tried doing 69-70 without killing mobs. A couple I had to attack mobs (eg Boiling Point), but only to beat into submission, not kill. And one where I was supposed to help an NPC kill a mob, but just stayed in flight form. And "We Strike!" - I healed the NPC and didn't attack. Headed to Howling Fjord with 3 bubbles left. Down to 2 bubbles by the time I reached Kamagua. Dinged 70 doing a couple more non-killing quests.
- Ran UK and Nexus with the BoE guys. Wemb on his 70 priest, Wych on his 70 paladin, Temp down-geared on her mage (warlock coming), Chol down-geared on his Warrior(77)
- Pugged both UK and Nexus on Ashariss - boomkin pants. Got lucky with an 80 pally tank, and tore through it. You get 2x [Emblem of Triumph] even on normal mode at 70
- Issue with porting in - still need to fly there to hand in nearby quests.

Heroics
=====
- Nerfed many of them, but not the HoS "event"
- Pugged in a healer for Heroic Halls of Stone. Orrokk from Korgath server. Very good shaman healer. Got [Northrend Dungeon Hero] achievement.
- Ran a nice variety of heroics. DKT, Old Kingdom, Halls of Lightning, Halls of Stone (why isn't that one nerfed!)

Purchases
========
- Bought [Sigil of Insolence] : Tanking sigil for Pudendal
- [Koltira's Handguards of Conquest] - Tier 9 gloves for Pudendal

Misc
===
- I healed Noth for the weekly quest on Jekle, and hit DE on an epic that dropped without even looking. Turns out it was a BoE, and it got sharded.

Jeppy

Going to really try and level the NELF hunter duo (Sunday dead on 70)

Wolf poop quest

Emails

Email #1 from Bidkar

Greetings CtrlAltWow Crew!

Bidkar, undead Mage here. This is my second attempt at writing an email this week. My first one disappeared when I tried to send it.

My mage and paladin just ran their cooking and fishing dailies. I'm giving the Argent Tournament a rest this week.

My blood elf warlock is up to 71 now. I'm just running the cooking and jewelcrafting dailies on her. I do an occasional few quests if I happen to be in an area where some are available.

The undead priest leveled from 4 to 14. The priest is a bit tougher to level. Reminds me alot of leveling my mage. I still don't know what profession to put on him. I like to do new ones, but the only one I don't have on an alt is engineering. Time will tell I reckon.

The Tauren druid leveled from 40 to 61. I love playing the druid. He just received the flight form and having alot of fun with it. I also really like the people who play druids. They seem a little more fun loving than others. I can always find a druid who will dance with my druid or jump around in cat form acting silly with me. I know I waste time doing stuff like that, but it's fun!

My death knight is now 72. I leveled her up a bit to make picking herbs in Scholzar Basin a bit easier. It was kind of tough killing level 76 mobs with a level 70. I'm still not sure about her spec. I went Unholy after running the numbers through the spreadsheet that Aprillian recommended. I went thru the calculations and picked the spec that had the perma-pet.

That's all I remember from the first email. Love the show, keep on doing the great job! I look forward to the podcast every week.

For the Horde and For Glanthur!

Bidkar and his many alts

Email #A from Solador

Hey,

Just a few notes I have taken over the past few shows:

Quit treating Virishna as a red headed step child... I demand he get his own segment, and all rights forthwith! (que Braveheart soundtrack) FREEDOM! You also might want to start including his name in the beginning of the show notes. :) I feel he has come into his own.

Tip on Jousting Valiants: Charge and right as you are on them with the charge also hit the melee attack, then as you run past them jump, spin around (this reduces the turn around radius) and immediately shield break them....

Tip on Jousting Champions: Either get someone else to help you dps them down (if so, just keep shield breaking them so the other dps can get more damage), or if you do it "properly" do as follows: As they run away from you, shield break them and then charge, as you get in melee hit the melee swing. Make sure to keep your shields up at all times and if they get your shields down a bit just don't let them get out of melee range until you get them back up.

Ashayo! You missed an epic raid night on Tuesday when you were unable to attend. We ONE SHOT every boss in ICC. The only death we had was on some trash. I got 3 nice upgrades. We then went on to down first 2 bosses of ToGC! Missed you for I am sure there were phat lewtz for you to have that night!

Frog quest: There is a macro that you can make that automates the whole kissing frog part. It is as follows:

/cast Warts-B-Gone Lip Balm
/target Lake Frog
/kiss

Argent Gruntling: Don't give up on the Argent Tourney dailies until you at least get the reigns for your Argent Gruntling. This will allow you to use your gruntling as a bank/mailbox/reagent vendor once every 4 hours. (pretty sure it is 4 hour cooldown)

Halls of Reflections: I have raided all the high end content available to me, and what amazes me is that I find a 5 man heroic far more demanding than any ICC boss. I have played the roll of dps and tank for Halls of Reflection and find it very difficult. Dps'ing it is a bit easier than tanking. Tanking it makes you want to pull your hair out even with people who know what they are doing. It is a nightmare... I pray daily for the nerf bat to swing that instance's way! lol

That is all for now from the Virishna Liberation Front! Meet our demands or we will paint our blood with your face!

Bye,

Solador and Ostira!

Email #2 from Vern

Hey guys , Happy New Year!

This is Vern from Runetotem. I just listened too show 147, Grats on 3 years. I been listening for about 8 months I guess. I heard about CtrlAltWow from the BOE podcast.
Thanks for reading my last Email a few weeks back
.
Here are some reasons i like the show so much.

I love to hear about Aprillian's adventures. I like her innocents about the game and her excitement about discovering new things. It reminds me of myself and what I like about the game. I was also nervous to begin heroics and raids scared the crap out of me. I know someday you'll be dual boxing some DK's in Naxx.

Ashayo is always an inspiration. You have that fun loving attitude about the game and your doing end game raiding on multiple toons. I look forward to hearing about your raid progression and descriptions of the bosses I have not done yet.

I can't forget about Eljeppy, a fellow alliance,I was hearing about you being mentioned on the podcast but wasn't sure who your were. I hope you feel better and are well enough to do the show again.

Vrishna seems to have taken to the game like a fish to water.You and Aprillian make a nice team.

I like your drive to figure things out on your own. I leveled solo most of the time on my main, you really get to know a class.

Keep up the good work I'll be listnening .By the time I finished this email the next show was out but I am working on another.

Verneesha- Runetotem

Menasor / Mixmaster - Jub Jub

Email #3 from Itadraffe

hi there

I am looking for the mod that was mentioned on your show. the mod in question was one that reduced the lag. I cannot remember the name of it. any help from you would be greatly appreciated.

thanks

Itadraffe lvl 80 dwarf warrior misha us

Part B

hello all you at crtl alt wow.

I would like to tell you about a experience I have had with the dungeon finder.

It is was the pit of saron. we had just downed the last boss. The loot poops up . I don't see anyone roll.

I am waiting nothing happens for a minute then I kicked from the group before I can roll on it . Has anything like that happened to you .

The last show I listened to was way to funny. to have April doing the show drunk was high comedy. well that sounded funnier in my head. I did get some strange looks from co-worker about the amount of laughing I was doing. a couple of times I had to stop and sit because I was laughing so hard.

thanks for the show

Itadraffe dwarves warrior from misha US

Email #4 from Donna

Dear Aprillian and the Boys,

This is my first e-mail to a podcast so please be patient with me. I might ramble on!

I just want to say to Aprillian, "Don't let anyone tell you you're doing it wrong." I am completely with you there girl when it comes to just playing WOW for fun. I am a 49 year old mother of four who just likes to play for fun, explore the world, seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone...wait wrong universe. Sorry, off on a tangent! As I was saying, it does make the game a bit stressful if you have to conform to what everyone else is doing to compete. That might be the case if you are raiding but who needs raiding! There is plenty to do out there without it. Don't worry about missing the content either. When we hit level 100, we can always go back and sightsee all the raiding dungeons we could not do at level. Don't get me wrong, I have raided before. But I have experienced both sides of the coin, good and bad, and would just like to keep it low key as far as raiding is concerned.

A little background on me. I have been playing WOW for two years. My husband got me interested in playing as he is an avid MMO and computer gamer. I had never even heard of MMOs before diving in head first into WOW and it took quite some time to convince me that I would ever be able to understand all the intricacies of the game, which I still don't by the way. Gear score?? What is that? Way to much math for me! If the gear looks good, then that's good enough for me. Seriously, most of the good stuff looks ugly anyway. So, as I was saying, at the time I started, I was not married to my husband. We met each other on eharmony, both of us from previous marriages, to discover that we had so much more in common than we thought. I was a console gamer for years with my children. You know, Ratchet & Clank, Banjo Kazooie, etc. So it only seemed right to try out the MMO scene. I am not as addicted to the game as some, but I do enjoy taking a break to escape from the problems and worries of everyday life. We both started characters on Earthen Ring to join your guild, AIE, mine being a level 29ish Troll Rogue named Zingaya and my husband's a level 30ish Troll Hunter named Verdonna. We have characters on other realms, tons as a matter of fact. Both Horde and Alliance. Sorry! Have to experience all the world. So yes, we are altoholics. One of us! I transferred my one and only level 80 (Botswala - Orc Hunter) to the Earthen Ring realm as well so she can be our sugar momma although she is not in any guild right now. We play together almost everyday. My husband plays way more than I do, but we always try to play our characters we created together at least 3 times a week. As wonderful as it is having WOW in common with each other, there are times when you need to go off on your own to explore or do whatever to learn the game. I found myself just following my husband around blindly in the beginning and not really understanding what was going on or even taking the time to read or appreciate the lore. And it is so rich and worth reading. My husband had been playing for so long and had done all the quests so many times that he pretty much just directed me where to go and what to do. I cannot stress enough how important it is for the "newbie" to take the time to learn and play on their own every now and then. I know it is hard to slow down for the newbies out there, but just like the impatient raiders who have no compassion for us non-raiding, crappy-geared players, please be considerate of the learning process and let them learn to love and experience the game. My husband and I sometimes get in little tiffs about this because he is so experienced and knowledgeable in what to do with his characters, he tends to move ahead of me and I find myself playing catch-up half the time. He doesn't mind doing quests over again, but I like to do it together. It is definitely a great bonding experience and I am thrilled to be able to have this unique gaming experience to share with my loving husband.

Aprillian, I know you are a very popular and busy person in game and you have many friends to experience the game with, but if you are ever looking for someone to share some WOW time with as a fellow casual player who just loves to explore the world and experience the content, please feel free to send a whisper. I usually just play with my husband right now and tend to be a bit shy with other players, probably because of the prejudice issues in game as far as ability and gear, etc. I just cannot tolerate those who berate people or publicly point out their lack of skills or gear crappiness. Anyway, I am trying to say that I would love to hang out and play with a group like you guys who seem to really have fun no matter what their skill level is. As it has been said a million times, it is only a game and should be treated as such and used as a way to decompress and relax, not stress out and make it another chose in your already busy life.

Thank you again for letting me go on and on. I love you all and enjoy your podcast immensely, one of the few I still listen to. I used to listen to a ton of WOW podcasts, but have only kept listening to you and the Instance. Between the both of you, I get all the info I need and some laughter as well! Travel well out there and don't let the Murlocs bite.

Sincerely,

Donna aka Zingaya aka Botswala aka (too many to list....one of us...one of us)

Email #B from Makling

hey guys, makiling here

first of all i have to say your last episode was umm.. quite festive? it seemed to be in touch with the spirit of welcoming a new year and was most likely funnier in aprillians head =)

the new year welcomed new members to our team at work, and you could also say the same for my team in game. my druid hit 80 yesterday! before getting to 80, i had bought the ilvl 245 chest and bracers, and bought an ilvl 219 belt from the AH. i had been tanking instances on him on the way to 80, and as soon as i dinged the first random heroic he got into was.. Occulus! i was a lvl 80 tank with BoA shoulders, barely had gems or enchants and only the stuff i had bought. i had 25k health in bear form, completely undergeard, but had the heart to do my best in tanking. we got the first boss down, but then the healer dropped out. he probably saw how squishy i was, and we had around 4 more changes in healers before we got the last boss down. i was grouped with earl, my RaF buddy, and we had a huge repair bill after that instance. we got into another random heroic, and this time it was Old Kingdom. we decided we didnt want to get another huge repair bill, so we skipped out and waited for the debuff to wear off. the next heroic was DTK, and it went pretty smooth. i couldnt queue in for heroic TOC or any or the icc 5 mans, as i was still under geared for that, but im sure with enough heroics ill be able to get there.

so now i have my complete roster of a lvl 80 dps (my mage), healer (priest), and tank (druid), the wow trifecta =)

the tanking role gives a totally new perspective on the instances that i had been running as a healer or dps. i used to feel that it takes a different personality to play a healer or a tank, but now i have to recommend everyone to at least try them out and see the game in a new way.

thats it from me for now. i hope i can share more about the classes that im playing on the future.

keep up the good work with the show, and for the horde!

twitter.com/makiling_mage

ps. in my last email i said that you can get try and get "the Patient" title on your low level toons by doing random dungeons, but apparantly the count for getting grouped with random people only counts for when you do random heroics (BC or Northrend), not random normal dungeons

Shout Outs & Thank You

MoMoMoments

Hello all,

Let say along with everyone else, last weeks episode is a podcasting classic, and Im not just saying that in my head!

Hope you all and the listeners had a nice safe new year's so far.

In game I have been doing the daily random lfg Heroics on 3 80s, mainly my priest than hunter than warrior.

So far I have been able to do that with guildies so no worries about fast-tanks!

speaking of tanks, my warrior is arms and prot spec and I have been working to gear him up for heroics and he is above 540 defense now. Good right?

Well, no not unless the tanking skills are not there and for me, not there!

I have had a number of issues from keeping aggro, not being able to get mobs that go after squishy dps or healers and wipe the raid.

And let me tell you that is so frustrating! Does not matter if I am with guildies or with a pug, when you know your efforts are failing that is so frustratingly disheartening.

Thankfully I have some guildies that are patient and are willing to run instances with me so I can get practice and someone once said practice makes perfect.

It was brought to my attention that perhaps I need to respec my tanking spec, get some points within the arms spec so I can do a bit more dps that will generate more threat and in turn gain more aggro.

I wanted to ask you the hosts and also if the listeners have gone through this, if they are also trying to be great healers, tanks, dps, what ever you may want to do in this fun game and for a short time make it not fun.

In my frustration I was really have no fun playing the game and just wanted to log off never log back in!

Of course I know I was not going to do that but still, not a good feeling.

Oh also, this is not to be mentioned to anyone else as it is a major mo noob moment, you may call it a moob.

I have pretty much 232 gear on my priest, just 1 200 trinket that I just cant replace for some reason.

So I mentioned to a guildy that I have so much Triumph emblems and they are just wasting in my virtual bags. I was asked if I have the Tier 9 gear from the TOC vendor (out where the TOC is located) to which my answer was: huh!?

Whatchutalkinabout'?

So I find out there is a vendor by TOC that I had not even visited!!!

Yes I know I am not alone in having moob moments but still embracing.

I replaced 2 T8 with 2 T9 pieced for healing and still need to do lots of ICC 10/25 to become a nonmoobish player, dare I say elite!

Nah! MOLITE!

:)

Ok time for me to say thank you once again and have fun everyone.

--
Mo

Thank you #1 from Mattdioz

Hey guys it's me again. (Mattdiox) You guys want some and I'll send you some potatoes. Give me an address and I will send you a hole one if you like :D

Yes Yes Yes I would love some game time, cause that means I can play for 2 months is it? And then make my decision if I want to stay or not. I honestly would give Ap all my gold and more for letting me on your lovely show ^^ (Yes I still remember) But as you all know I am in the UK so if you know a way for me to transfer gold from EU to US I'll give it a go.

Thanks for the (Incredibly biased) answer. I do appreciate it, which is why the offer for potatoes is open.

You'll have to give me details on how I might receive your generous offer of game time though. As I am not bright.

Lots of love, respect, hatred towards alliance, lust, bacon and potatoes.

Mattdiox.

P.S Jeppy, you're a numpty! (I can't spell jeppy)

Because I don't play any MMOS I used my real life ... ness to end it with.

I am 16 (Level 16)

I'm obviously human ... I hope.

And I live on earth. Again I hope.

P.S.S

If any of you guys are interested in the new google wave. Lemmi know and I will send you an invite (It's the only way you can get in.) Or if you would rather not give me your actual emails. I'll send them to ctrl alt wows email adress and Aprill can dish out the invites from there.

P.S.S.S

I honestly will send any of you a potato if you want. :D

P.S.S.S.S

I don't think I have ever asked and if I have I'll ask again. Or at least say.

If any of you would like to come on 'Walk Alone Gaming' for a show or an interview we would be truly honored. We would treat you like kings! Or a queen if Aprill can pull herself away from the game for a different show than hers :D

P.S.S.S.S.S

Sorry for the huge wall of text. I hope the S' didn't give you too much trouble. They can be tricky little blighters if you let them out of the cage.