Ctrl Alt WoW Episode 82 - Brewfest Part 2 AA?

Aprillian and Ashayo discuss another week of playing World of Warcraft, Blizzard's great MMORPG. Full Show Notes at http://ctrlaltwow.com

Ctrl Alt WoW Episode 82 - Brewfest Part 2 AA?


What We've Been Doing?

Aprillian

I wanted a Shaman on my RAF accounts, so I deleted my newest ally bank alt, what a waste of RAF and started a troll Shaman. I almost started a Tauren, but I hate the Tauren starting zone and well moo. You can hear the brewfest noise all the way down in the starting area.

I leveled my Shaman to 5 and then brought my level 14 Warrior orc Cii over to help run her around in Durator, lots of fun. Doing quests I have skipped, Frizzle Claw and Need for a cure, Lost but not forgotten, Encroachment.

Logged on to Treshel, who has the Brewfest Ram and she got the vendor icon and was able to buy a level 60 Brewfest Ram for 100, even though she is level 56. And no ticket needed. So then I remembered I had gotten the Brewfest mount for Rilfire because I was tired of the Kodos, but then when she hit 60, she had to go get a kodos for the speed, well guess what, she went back and for 100g, she got a level 60 Brewfest mount, so cool!

By the end of Thu morning/afternoon, Trez, my new Orc Shaman was level 8. She and Cii are finally doing quests that both get exp and therefore RAF. Thursday I spent some silly time trying to do some quests in Durator. I got my Shaman to 10, but did some other stuff including brewfest in between.

Friday morning I did some more quest with the shaman but then it wasn't


Ashayo
Running the Brewfest dailies on all 5 70's. Have bought every item there is, including two beer of the month subscriptions. Awesome!

Killed Coren Direbrew, over and over again. Saw the mount drop twice in about 50 kills.
Even dual-boxed him a few times. Easier to dual box tank/dps than two dps or dps/heals

Ran ZA and killed the Lynx boss for the first time. Thanks DwP!

AIE's Guppers raid this week one shot Gruul, one shot Mags, and we did it so quick there was time to venture into SSC and have a try at Lurker.

Levelling Warrior/Shaman with friends ; ran RFK and thought we'd try SM ; decided Level 28 is a bit low :/

Glaciuss dings 60 in Winterspring! Headed to outlands, despite not having set foot in WPL, EPL or Silithus. Run Ramparts and got healing pants. I wonder what they'll be after 3.0.
Made 3g on portal within 1 minute of starting to quest in HFP!

Craft Faire - got enchanting up to 320.

Stumbled on RP in Winterspring cave?


Email


Email 1

Subject: Love that Sexy Voice of your Aprillian!

I am a long time listener and an avid fan of the Ctrl Alt Wow podcast and I wanted to say Thanks! I love to listen to the exploits of Aprillian on all 200 of her alts. And I really enjoy listening and playing with Ash. It's amazing how good he is on all the classes that he plays. I also have to say that Ctrl Alt Wow is the #1 premiere Multi-Boxing Podcast in the entire Podcasting world. And trust me, I've looked all over the place. So as a small token to you Aprillian, I would like to extend an offer from myself and the DwP crew and BiPpers, to help powerlevel your highest toon to 70 so that you can experience the wonderful content that you can see when you hit 70! I understand that you are going to take full advantage of the Refer a Friend, but after that time expires... You will be our project to get you to 70!!! We'll take you through instances, get you attuned to Kara, even though you don't have to, and then bring you into Kara. The final and most glorious part will be to have you join BiPpers and walk into Black Temple with your Greens a-glowing and join our wipe fest in 6 weeks.

Keep up the great work!

Tarqq

Ctrl Alt WoW Episode 81 - Brewfest Time, Drink Up

Aprillian and Ashayo discuss another week of playing World of Warcraft, Blizzard's great MMORPG.

Episode 81 - Brewfest Time, Drink Up

Game Stop showed up on my iPhone caller ID and even before I saw this thread I answered "Oh WotLK Collector's Edition is ready for preorder! I was at work and with a customer and needed to get on and off the phone really quick. The Game Stop guy was like how did you know. I just said, I'll be there in an hour. I work across the street from the mall. I didn't bother to say, why else would Game Stop be calling me, to see how I'm doing? Check on my kids?

Brewfest tickets can be converted into Brewfest coins, but you probably already know this.

What We've Been Doing

Aprillian

Trying to do as much of the class specific quests without asking where stuff is. Abandoning quests with wild abandon. Questhelper is great but if you have old quest, it gets distracting.

Finally got that one half of the necklast at Sludge Fen, had to bring in an upper level alt. Then for fun and relaxation played with Suyna and Primall and got them to 38 in STV.

Wed morning went to UC with Mages to do Investigate the Alchemist Shop. I've decided I want to get all my current pairs to 30 so they can ride before I go back to my 38's. So I took my Belf 20 and Undead 15 to SFK and stopped to do their robe quest with the Dalaran mages. Got to the end of SFK and realzed Ardrion had two SFK quest, shared them with the mages and they were able to get the book. I figured I might run them through again. I also decided to make them both enchanters for the time being to de the greens they bop and then discard

Thurs morning ran SFK again with the mages in Ardrion and got to then end and forgot to share the head quest with Weeaa who was now eligible. Friday decided to go to Blackfathom Deep. Found my cheat way to get to the back. I took severa diferent pairs, my mages and my druid 17 and warlock 18. I ran them with Treshel at first but then decided Ardrion would be okay.

Sat morning I was all set to run BFD a few times and Blizzard thwarted me. Traded in my brewfest tickets from last year for tokens this year.

Cute thing about WIM, it's persistent through alts log in and log out. WIM with Primall and Ashayo is in white but in same window as WIM with Ashayo and Aprillian, neat.



Ashayo

Jekle tried to PuG in Kara. Fail!
Decided to run SFK on my warrior, but server reset. Fail!
Gratz to BiP (Buffed and in Position) raid group for downing Mags two weeks running. Ventured into SSC afterward with them to practise killing the trash.
Spent most of the week getting my mage to 58. Did most of the Un'goro quests in one evening (I remember spending days there!), then ventured to Felwood. To head to Outlands at 58 or not...
Question: What decent quests / quest chains are there in Blasted Lands and Burning Steppes for Horde?

Brewfest!
Killed Coren Direbrew 8 times so far, and haven't seen mount drop
Jekle got a nice healing trinket, and Ashield got a nice stamina trinket (and it summons a brewmaiden that throws beer at enemies!)
Ashayo can still buy the ram mounts from Driz Tumblequick!


Email



Email 1

hey guys love the show, my names Groundbeaf level 60 tauren hunter in the great guild AIE, i've been double boxing for around a year now and just tried triple boxing instances when recruit a friend started. most of the time i stick to doubleboxing and have used the RAF feature to level alts on the horde side of things. before coming to AIE i had alliance toons of each class from the 60-70 range but fell in love with the horde and had to build my alt stable on earthen ring. since the RAF started i've doubleboxed a priest/warlock combo, & a druid/pally combo to 60 and working on a shammy/rogue which are 20 right now. when granting levels to my mage & hunter i noticed something some people might not have noticed. you want to make sure the alt you are granting levels on have a xp bar which is almost full and ready to level themselves, since granting levels does not effect this when you grant the level to this toon and make it 60 the toon will actually be a
couple bars to 61 which is like getting a free level considering the XP jump once you hit 60.

anyway hope this is something that might help some people, keep up the good work and hope to see you online sometime

Groundbeaf
HAIL AIE


PM on Extralife Forums:

Hi Asprillian,

I just watched your pod cast on Crtl Alt Wow Podcast - Dual boxing. I loved it, however the game sound kinda drowned out lots of your info.
I am really interested in dual boxing on my Macs but up till now have not been able to find enough sensible info on doing so. Your podcast seem to show me that your the best Person i have seen on the web to perhaps help me in my quest for dual-boxing.
I have 3 Macs:
1) iMac 2.66 Ghz Intel Core Duo (4g Ram)
2) iMac 2.4 Ghz Intel Core 2 duo (4g Ram)
3) 2x3 Ghz Dual-Core Intel Xeon (4g Ram) Its a Tower.
I currently use these machines to play 3 accounts in wow. However, using 3 keyboard 3 mice and 3 Nostromo n52te keypads, it gets a bit hectic and although I do a decent job i think what you are doing would be much more efficient for me than the method I am currently using. If you have the time I would love you to give me the knowledge you so obviously have ; ) , to enable me to do as you do, dual-boxing using multiple Macs in WoW. I heard you mention KVM in your podcast. I'm guessing this is hardware for controlling 2+ Macs.

Thanks in advance for any help given ; )

BB
Sent at: Sun Sep 21, 2008 12:16 pm

Ctrl Alt WoW Episode 80 - Warlock Quest Lotta Running Around

Aprillian and Ashayo discuss another week of playing World of Warcraft, Blizzard's great MMORPG. Full Show Notes at http://ctrlaltwow.com

What We've Been Doing

Aprillian

Suyna did both Warlock Quests dragging Primall around and dinging 3 levels in the process.

Tuesday ran down to Shimmering Flats with primal and suyna

And I made a druid, Drame the Druid a male Tauren. I brought in yet another bank alt, Mi a level 3 Belf Warlock male who was sitting in Undercity. Summoned him to Mulgore and got him to 6 and Drame to 5 and went to Silvermoon. A Tauren in Silvermoon is funny.

Wed Ran Drame and Mi around Eversong woods while on break and lunch at work and got them to 10.

Back there Thurs morn. Oh collected eggs while there, levelled up skinning on Mi. Since they were outmatched on these hawks, I had them use their "melee" weapon, sword on Mi and Staff on Drame. But then I realized Drame needed training he couldn't get from the Belf area, so he hearthed home, and trained and then I summoned him to TB using someone on the Master account. He did all the quests and got his Druid Bear form. It's so cute. Then I had to log off and go to work.


Friday morning decided I wanted some pairs on a pvp server, rolled two on Onyxia and realized there was no way I could do the RAF broke. Ask Ashayo about funds on a pvp server and rolled Aprillian, Dranei warrior and Dreem nelf druid on dunemaul. Summoned Dreem to the Dranei starting area. Dreem couldn't do the healing

Note: Some quest can't be shared if there is an item that has to be used.

Spent some time in Eversong Woods with Warlock and druid, brought them to RFC and then I sent Drame back to Moonglade with Quea to do some Druid quest. Man I thought Warlock quests were complicated.

Sunday night I took Suyna


Ashayo

Jekle - Heroic Sethekk Halls for Druid's epic flight form quest
Asheal - Gruul's Lair
(gratz to BiP on downing Magtheridon for the 1st time!)
Levelling Warrior (now 24) and Shaman in The Barrens, & Wailing Cavern
Ashayo - Gruul's Lair (Banana Hammock!) and Mags (wipefest!)
Ashield - Karazahn (actually live through the Prince fight!)
Levelling Rogue lockpicking in Durnholde Keep & poisons
Shaman in RFK
Mage in Sunken Temple (wiped without dying....?)

Ye olde price of twink blues!


Email 1

Evening,

Well to start off I figured might as well point out that a fel hunter IS the same thing as a fel hound. Now on to my topic and sorry if this letter turns into a very long TLDR post (that’s To Long Didn’t Read btw). So I can’t believe how much I’ve fallen for Aprillian. Considering when I first heard her it sounded like she always was eating a piece of candy while doing the show (which maybe that is the case) but at any rate I’ve come to enjoy hearing her lovely/weird accent. What really sealed the deal for me was the evil laugh on episode 78. It was soooooo cute and endearing it made me wish she wasn’t married.

On a quick side note: If y’all or anyone for that matter is wanting to get the most out of RAF and have multiple toons to 60 in the shortest time possible, then boosting in instances using a 70 that isn’t linked to any of the RAF accounts would be the fastest way to 60. I must stress the fact that none of the accounts can be linked to the 70 or it will not receive the xp bonus. I was able to get all 4 of my locks to 60 in a about 1 day 10 hours of /played time using my 70 rogue and most of that time was actually me setting up macros. Most multi-boxers from dual-boxing.com have done it in less than a day of /played time.

The basic gist of this method is simply to use a AoE style class such as a mage or pallie to pull the entire instance or must of it in 1-3 pulls (in which case it takes on avg 10-15 minutes to run the instance). A warrior can also pull this method off using whirlwind and cleave to burn the mobs. Of course any 70 can do this as my 70 rogue was able to run every old world zone without any problems. As you get high in zone it might become a bit more difficult to pull such a huge portion of the zone depending on your gear level if you don’t have a class that can kill multiple mobs at the same time (not sure if it’s a good point of ref. but my rogue has most of his T6 set minus 3 items). I won’t list the best order to do the instance to max the xp gain but I will give a hint. Once you are able to enter strat, scholo, etc skip over strat and use the first 3 rooms of scholo for the boosting. Don’t go any farther into the zone. So just kill the baddies on the bridge, the following 3 rooms then reset. Rinse and repeat.

Anyway I had more I was going to say but decided since I’m at work and all I might should try to get something productive done.

Team Dip n Dots

4 warlocks – level 62 (Twisting Nether – RPPVP)

Incredulity

Increduilty

Increduility

Incrediulty

Main

Nsidious – 70 undead rogue

Email 2

Hello Aprillian & Ashayo,

I have been playing WOW since April (no pun intended) and I love it. I have just discovered podcasts about WOW and I truly enjoy your show. It is obvious from listening that you both find the same entertainment that I do from World of Warcraft.

I have 3 alliance characters in the Norgannon PvE realm (sorry about the alliance thing, I didn't know any better). My main (Ultyr) is a human, level 45 warrior. I also have a level 27, night elf hunter, and a human, level 30 paladin. All are in the Holy Crusaders guild.

I have recently made more of an effort to try battlegrounds in the hopes of accumulating enough honor for the high level blue & purple gear from champions hall. My concern is that the honor points come so slowly. My question is this, is the champions hall gear so vastly superior to gear from questing and instances that it is worth the time investment?

I would greatly appreciate any incite you can provide.

p.s.

Someone pulled the battleground "AFK" trick on me too, but they did it during the battle so I knew it was bogus.

Game Well,

Ultyr

Ctrl Alt WoW Episode 79 - Harvest Festival Time AgainAprillian and Ashayo discuss another week of playing World of Warcraft, Blizzard's great MMORPG.

Aprillian and Ashayo discuss another week of playing World of Warcraft, Blizzard's great MMORPG.


What We've Been Doing

Aprillian

Suyna and Primall ding 30 and head to Og for mounts. Stopped at the trainer for the warlock, good thing, got my dreadsteed, almost paid for training on Suyna, my warlock. I did buy her a wolf mount, for 9g it was a bargain.

Just realized I had not found a replacement for Primall as my main bank alt, and hence hadn't been playing the AH. I reassigned my bank alts and put stuff up and promptly began making money again.

Suyna and Primal went to BB to get the blades for the deadly blunderbuss quest, Iwari made 7 blunderbusses. Then they went back to Ashenvale to turn in the DB and head over to the Satyr camp and get the oil. There were so many people running around it was crazy. So I parked them there and went back to Vapril, level 10 priest I had used Suyna to get to 10. I paired her with a warlock in Deathnell named Thea (with the little degree mark over the a) and I had Theå summon her. Did a few of the starter quests and got Theå to 4 and then headed to Brill. I forgot how nice the Brill quest were.

So now Theå is about 8 and Vapril is 12. Then I realize I need to do a lower level alt on my original account so I can use all these extra grant a levels. But I should wait until I got them to say 20, since the 1-10 levels are a piece of cake. So I get yet another bank alt, Cii, she was my letter alt, I sent all the notes people had sent me to her. She is an Orc Warrior. I summon Theå to Durator and the two of them run around getting quest and levelling up. I found the perfect combo, W & W. I'm loving it. Cii charges in and I quickly switch over to Theå who dots and send her imp in. Great combo.

Wed I took The and Cii over to skull rock to do the Hidden enemy quest at work on my break. They died a lot, part of the reason was they were underdressed.

Thursday morning Aprillian had a spellcloth cd, so she went to Area 52 and when I logged on to Auntrillia and Rilfire, they were still in the inn there from the last Spell cloth. I hadn't really been on any of them.

Got out PIA my level 13 mage out to play with Cii and the and realized that's the one to fast forward, portals man, that's the ticket. Took the trio to UC so The can do her warlock quest, she couldn't do the one in Durator, said she was the wrong race when she turned it in at the guy in ogR. I decided to start a mage on my master account, so I had to delete gnobull, the gnome I made for the Running of the Beef 2. I made Tiiaa and I brought in Qub, who was a level 3 warlock belf I had summoned to BB to replace my Horde BB alt. I had him hearth back to the Belf starting zone and then ran the two together. He had rested xp so he leveled faster and every other level I would grant one level to Tiiaa. I didn't think it was a waste because I don't believe I'll get Qub up too high. But then I had to try a new strategy because once they started levelling even, Qub couldn't grant levels without being a level higher than than Tiiaa, so I would hold off on Tiiaa turning in a quest and have Qub turn in a bunch to ding and then grant a level and then have Tiiaa turn in quest.

But then Thursday night, which I took off from work, I made yet another mage, on the referred account, this time Weaa an undead

Friday, Run through RFC with Ardrion Tiiaa and Weaa, leavel 11 mages, then later WC with level 15 mage. It was so much fun. Brought my level 30 on the raf account



Ashayo


Email 1

Dear Aprillian and Ashayo,

Since blizzard introduced the Recruit-A-Friend Scheme, I have been addicted to Dual-Boxing, maybe its the fact that I get triple exp, but I think its because it is a whole different take on the game which offers a new outlook on the game and the levelling process.

However, I have a few problems with the Dual-Boxing process, first is the fact that due to the fact that you are only in direct control of one character at a time, I feel I won't be able to play one of my characters in a competent manner at 70. However, as this doesn't matter at the moment due to the fact that I am dual-boxing two shamans, I am curious to dual-box two different classes when my current pair reaches 60, and I was wondering if you guys could offer advice on how to be sure to be able to use the characters I have at 70.

Secondly, I'm finding it hard to sustain my characters with money on their own rather than having to receive cash in the mail from my paladin, and again, I was wondering if you guys could help me with some advice.

Lastly, I was wondering what programs to use to mimic my keystrokes on one computer, I am aware that it is generally O.K if no automation is ok, but rather than risk it, I would like to know what you two use for this, as you haven't been banned, so you must be doing something right !

Thanks, sorry if this is a wall of text that you can't read.

Snuffy, 70 Dwarf Paladin


(At least its not a gnome or Night Elf)

Email 2
Hey guys, JG again (sorry I keep forgetting to sign my emails komish at the end, but JG is fine)

I just wanted to submit to you guys my Recruit a Friend Experience. I went ahead and did it on my attempt at a blog over at www.woahcraft.wordpress.com but I'll copy and paste it here if it'll help you out. It's a rather long wall of text, so If all else fails, it'll just be for your personal informative purposes! =)

Thanks again for a great show

The Podcast, Ctrl Alt WoW, is a great podcast hosted by Aprillian and Ashayo talking about alts, and people who love making alts. They have been having a few discussions about the Recruit a Friend system and it's benefits to dual boxers everywhere, and in the most recent episode, they asked for people to send in their opinions and thoughts on the system as well as their experience. Here is my submission.

I was an early adopter of the R-A-F system. I recruited myself within a week of the release of the system.

I am a person who finds fun in this game in learning class mechanics. However, as many people who play the game, my time is limited. I am rarely able to play my main to the extent that many people do, so alts are always kind of a shot in the dark as to whether or not I'll ever get them to the cap.

I am not a person who had a maxed out character Pre-BC. While I did play Pre-BC a considerable amount of time, I did not max out a character until the release of Burning Crusade.

Moving this back to the Recruit a Friend system, I was an early adopter, and I did it solely for the purpose of being able to play other classes to the extent that I wanted. The system is amazing, almost to the point where I feel I'm hacking

The experience gains are amazing of course. Triple Experience seems almost as if it is too much, but in my opinion, it is the perfect amount.

The Zhevra mount is… meh. I have it on my warlock because I love mounts in the game, but the Zebra just seems to be a bit out of place in the World of Warcraft. Maybe it is the fact that I am a warlock, but it just doesn't seem to click with the rest of the world. It would have fit better if they had given us a modified version of one of the mounts in the game, or say, maybe an option to have a tiger for the horde or a kodo for the alliance.

Now as to my experience, here is what I Did : I started off trying a few things. I try first, a combination of paladin and rogue, and shaman and rogue, both of which I did not like. I wanted a rogue, but I couldn't get the hang of questing as those combinations. The shaman would always die, or the rogue would die, or something would happen that would always slow me down. After those two trials, I decided to try something ranged, and came up with Mage and Paladin.

Now I started this combination with full intention of duo questing my way to 60 just like every other recruit a friend adopter plans on doing. However, out of the blue, I thought about instances. Instances give decent experience in groups, but if you add the 70, it nerfs the experience you get. Hence, "power-leveling" is impossible to do in this game. Well Recruit a Friend changed all of that.

When someone is getting a run through an instance by a 70, the experience gain is essentially a fraction of what one would get. So lets put it this way, if someone is running Scarlet Monastary with a group, lets say they are averaging about 300 Experience per kill.

Now lets say only two of those characters are running scarlet monastery, but this time with a level 70 running them through it quickly (3 people in the party, 2 lowbies, 1 70). Now this person is only getting 150 XP per kill. Half the experience for half the speed of a normal run.

Now lets say the same thing is happening, only this time, theres a RAF pair with the 70. Now, instead of getting 150 XP per kill, they are getting 450 XP per kill. So now, the pair are getting more XP in a shorter amount of time.

Now here's the kicker. You can do this all the way up to 60 if you wish. I normally stop around 45-50, but up to 60 is definitiely possible.

Here was my order :

Quest 1-8

Ragefire Chasm 8-16

Shadowfang Keep 16-25

Scarlet Monastery (Arms) 25-32

Scarlet Monastery (Cathedral) 32-40

Zul'Farrak 40-45 or 40-50

Sunken Temple 45-50

After that, you can move on to Dire Maul, the Black Rocks, things like that, but I normally quest from 50 on.

I did this pattern with my first grouping and it worked like a charm. Keep in mind, doing so gets a bit repetitive, but it is definitely an easy, easy, GAURENTEED way to get there.

Now for those of you who like dual boxing and follow questing and such, this system will be just as good without the instance runs. However, I would suggest you hit each instance at least once with all the quests for it. Why? That's about 1-2 levels free for having someone run you through the instance. Can't beat that.

Now the 30 free levels I gave to my Paladin… I know… you're probably thinking "wait a sec… didn't he say he leveled a paladin and mage duo??" and My answer is yes. I did. However, at about 37, I was really tired of instance runs (mind you… this was my first group… so yes it gets very boring) and tried to do some quests, but the paladin was so slow that I decided to grant 4 levels to my 33 hunter to catch him up to my mage, and then did my hunter/mage combination. The funny thing is, a day later, I went right back to instance grinding… go figure!

So anyways, my first grouping reached the cap, a Blood elf Paladin, a Troll Mage, and an Orc Hunter. Originally I was rather happy with the group and started working my hunter up to 70.

Well… in my semi-altalholic nature, I started getting really bored of my hunter and lost interest in my mage (female trolls… I don't like their appearance anymore) and my paladin. And I realized… "I dont' have an undead or a tauren"

Thus my rogue and my warrior were born. For this pair I did instances up till about 45, and since then I follow quested to about 50, and I have been questing with a friend since then (without my warrior following). The only reason I multibox for this group now is when I'm turning in quests for the 3x turn in boost.

I must say, I respect you, Aprillian and Ashayo, very much. After two pairs of characters being multiboxed (and often triple-boxing my friends mage to run myself through the instance), I can honestly say that I am so tired of triple boxing that I dont' want to do any major multiboxing anymore while I continue to play world of warcraft! For me it was really a draining experience! I really enjoy my classes, but I don't think I'd want to play them together anymore. For this reason, I am transfering my warrior off my second account to my first, leaving my mage on the second account ( I have… ZERO interest… in playing her at all) and letting my second account just run out of time. I plan on granting my last 24 or so levels to a possible twink, and that will be the end of my RAF experience.

I'm near that end soon. My rogue is 56, and my friend and I will be hitting 58 today and heading off into outlands in which case I am done with this system. Farewell Recruit a Friend, and thanks for all you have done.

Ctrl Alt Wow, I hope this helps you guys, and thanks for a great podcast.

Ctrl Alt WoW Episode 78 - Saving Frequently

Aprillian and Ashayo discuss another week of playing World
of Warcraft, Blizzard's great MMORPG.

Episode 78 - Saving Frequently


What We've Been Doing

Aprillian

Crazy whacky mayhem trading off alts in Scarlet Monastery just to get to the dog keeper and get a blue drop. First Aprillian with Suyna, easy at level 64 she and her Felhunter take charge. Swapped out Iwari so Primall, on Aprillian account, could join and get the RAF bonus. Iwari couldn't hold aggro. Brought in Treshel, was a little better but even she died.

Note: Even if you don't click the accept button on the RAF summon, the timer resets.

On Wed, I took a bunch Suyna 22, Primal 22, Ishaq 20 and Lucerferus 12 into SFK. I'm loving the Priest. I'm loving grouping with me.

Changed some profession, made Primall an enchanter, made Ishaq a miner/engineer Then went back to Camp T area with Primall/Suyna and Ishaq, decided to make 30 my goal for the weekend.

Spending crazy time getting mats together to level tailioring and lw w/ suyna and Primall. I know I have spidersilk on someone. Where are those irridescent pearls? Getting enchanting up by de'ing everything from her and Suyna

Ran into the Outriders in the Barrens, totally forgot about them.

Discovered a big problem when triple boxing with RAF, 3rd toon lags behind. Ishaq is 21 and Primall and Suyna is about to ding 26. So I started another priest on Primall's account and gifted her 9 levels from Suyna. that was really sweet. Realized maybe I'd been wasting time levelling skills at this juncture and should just level them.

Headed to Ashenvale Saturday night with Primall and Suyna, dual boxing on the MBA. Ran back to get dye from Camp T and noticed a lot of people running around, could this be a side effect of the RAF? Hmmm

Fortunately Primall's pets are levelling with her.

Sunday morning back in Ashenvale. Brought in Veyle on the 3rd account, mainly because she's in the AIE Guild. Ended up in 1000 Needles it was like being home but all new again. Accidentally bumped into the Test of Strength guy



Ashayo
- Extended Maintenance again ... Boo!
- Gruuls on Asheal and Jekle this week. Both one-shot.
- Levelling mage in Tanaris/Feralas/Hinterlands - Ding 50
- Ashayo fails at SSC - Leotheras the Blind at 1%
- Tanked RFC on Warrior - need to get used to stances
- Halaa PvP - good when a plan comes together
- Ashayo catches Mr. Pinchey!!




Interview with Tzolekk (shadermn)



Email No. 1

Hey guys,

My apologies for not being overly clear last email...

No, I don't use my feet to play WoW (lol)... I was, however, at work most of the day before my injury, then proceeded to break the bone on the side of my foot (the 5^th metatarsal) as well as incurring muscle damage and ligament sprain... and then was at the hospital (and away from my computer) for the remainder of the day.

All is now well, though, and the authenticator seems to work just fine!

But hey! A silver lining has come from all of this – I have a great deal more 'home time'... my kittens love it that 'daddy' is home more and I have gotten a great deal more accomplished in WoW.

Hey Aprillian and Ashayo!

First, please allow me to apologize to the fair Aprillian for seemingly excluding her from my last email and the possibility of catching Mr. Pinchy... t'was not my intent.

We're all cheering you on, dear Aprillian, in your quest to get to 70... and we'll erupt in a cheer and song and much revelry when you ding... BEFORE the Wrath of the Lich King.

Right?

Plus... in all fairness, Ashayo specifically asked for the Mr. Pinchy details... and ol' Blade delivers...

Speaking of delivery... I wasn't overly clear on a point I made last episode. When you use the last wish (that's wish #3) of Mr. Pinchy, he disappears. That's it. That's all. You'll have to catch him again if you want three more wishes.

That said, it IS possible (if you're terribly lucky) to have more than one Mr. Pinchy in your inventory at any given time (for SOME reason Mr. Pinchy isn't a unique item...) and each one is on the same 2 day timer. So you can only get one wish per two days, no matter how many Mr. Pinchys you happen to put into your inventory.

Onward.

Have you ever been a little jealous of your druid friends for their ability to shapeshift into other forms?

What if I told you that it was possible for ANYONE to become a fish?

It takes some luck... and not a small degree of skill... but it's possible.

Before you embark on this journey, you must have the following:

Fishing skill (minimum 130, preferably 225+)

Character level at least 10 (to get the fishing skill minimum), preferably lv35+ to defend yourself from the mobs that will be around the areas you will be...

Booty Bay and Stranglethorn... for the weekly Fishing Extravaganza!

This particular weekly event is also very popular with lower-level pvp toons for the extra gear (with boatloads of Stamina on it) that you can obtain...

In Stranglethorn Vale... at 2:00 PM server time, Riggle Bassbait (he's the little green goblin near the big hanging fish and the inn) will announce "Let the fishing tournament begin!" which will trigger a whole ream of Ally and Horde toons running full-bore out of Booty Bay towards their mutual destinations.

The pools along the shore.

For two hours (2:00 PM to 4:00 PM server time) ALL of the pools in Stranglethorn Vale will become 'Pools of Tastyfish' for the purposes of the contest.

All you have to do is fish 40 tastyfish from these pools – before anyone else – and get them to Riggle Bassbait – before anyone else.

Sound simple?

It is and it isn't.

It can be challenging if you don't quite know the ins and outs of your fishing skill... an don't have a few tricks up your sleeve beforehand.

Firstly... remember that the Tastyfish are in pools... and to FIND these pools, your job will be made infinitely easier if you have learned the ability to track pools on your minimap courtesy of the Weather Beaten Journal I discussed previously.

(You see? There's method to ol' Blade's madness...)

So off you go to find some pools along the beaches of Stranglethorn Vale... remember that most mobs along the beaches here are in the 35-40+ range (raptors, basilisks, pirates, etc.), so having the ability to defend yourself against attacks is crucial. Bring a friend with you if you don't think you'll be able to survive a crocolisk attack on your own... or if you're on a pvp server where the contest can become deadly in its competitiveness...

Now... as a lot of people will be trying to win this contest, having a few strategies set up beforehand can only help...

Equip your fishing gear before the contest even starts... that's pretty much a no-brainer...

I, personally, have my Fishing Skill (the button-click to cast a line) on a second hotbar... so that instead of clicking (or double clicking if you have an addon that allows it) the water, all I do is tap my hotkey... this helps when I'm trying to cast into a pool and miss it... one click and I'm tossing the line in again.

Also... it's probably advisable to have a straight fishing skill – that is... nothing that you have to put on your fishing line each and every time in order to increase your skill (like lures or aquadynamic fish attractors, for example) as these take TIME to put on... and in this contest, time is of the essence...

One more thing... knowing that you will be potentially runing up and down the beaches in Stranglethorn, it'd probably be a good idea to set your Hearthstone to Booty Bay... as it is there where you turn in your Tastyfish once you catch them...

All set? Get fishing!

Oh... a few more things...

Riggle (and his companion the Fishbot 5000) will spawn about an hour before the contest starts (around 1:00 PM) and despawn about an hour after the contest closes (around 5:00 PM)... which is good... as the Tastyfish you just caught have a 4 hour timer... they'll go bad!

As an added bonus, your Tastyfish (even if you didn't win the contest) can be turned in for gold!

The price scales as you level... up to something around 1g12s per batch of 5 fish at level 70.

Yep... the quest actually makes you money while you're competing! How much better can it be?

At the end of the contest, quite a few people continue to fish the Tastyfish pools for more Tastyfish as well as the rare spawn fish that can be caught and turned in to Fishbot 5000 for so EXTRA items!

Each of these rare fish has about a 1% chance of being caught at any one time and they aren't unique... so you can catch more than one! Plus, they won't 'go bad' like the Tastyfish will... so if you have to, you can keep them in your inventory for later!

Brownell's Blue Striped Racer can be turned in to receive Nat Pagle's Extreme Anglin' Boots (Cloth boots, 36 armor, +5 Fishing Skill, +12 Stamina)

Dezian Queenfish can be turned in to receive High Test Eternium Fishing Line which (so far as I know) is a permanent 'enchant' for your fishing rod to give it +5 skill bonus to Fishing

Keefer's Angelfish can be turned in to receive Lucky Fishing Hat (Cloth, 43 armor, +15 Stamina, +5 to Fishing Skill)

There is also a rare fish that Fishbot 5000 won't want... but YOU might... as it makes a rather formidable weapon! The Rockhide Strongfish is a level 40 bind on equip green, and acts as a one-handed mace, 46-87 damage, 2.5 speed (26.6 dps) with a +8 stamina bonus!

Imagine the look of incredulity on the faces of the Alliance in the battlegrounds when they get slapped in the face with a fish!

But... the main rewards... the rewards ONLY the winner of the contest may choose from are a selection of either...

Arcanite Fishing Pole (minimum Fishing Skill 300 to use, +35 to Fishing Skill – the highest bonus in the game thus far...)

or...

Hook of the Master Angler... a trinket which allows you to turn into a fish, allowing a slight speed increase and water breathing!

Of course, it's not as versatile as other shape changing... if you are struck in combat or cast a spell, you will revert back to normal... but it still beats swimming normally... plus it marks you as a previous winner of the Fishing Extravaganza!

Good luck!

Oh... here's an easter egg for you Alliance types:

Near the Alliance Auction House, ask one of the guards the location of the Alchemy Trainer.

One of his answers will be "Why, oh why didn't I take the blue potion?"

For those that didn't automatically get the reference, this line (or one very much like it) was uttered by the character Cypher in the movie The Matrix.

As always, cheers for an awesome podcast guys!

Blade

Email 2

I just wanted to send in an email to see if I can help you out with your Two Box problem.

The reason why it was giving you a wall of text was because of the relay specifically. If you have two characters relaying to each other, then the never ending wall will occur because once one relays to the other, he will relay right back, starting a chain.

For two box toolkit to work, you don't need it on and running on both characters. That is to say, my leading character (which is my friends mage that I'm using to run myself through instances) does not have it installed. My two alts do, and are setting my mage leader as their master.

Also, as a side note, you do not have to set a person as master for them to be able to control that character. So if my mage is my alts master, and someone comes to my alt and says "followme" my alt will tell my mage "Following nameoftoon" "follow is broken", and he will go off with this other person.

I use this extensively when I'm triple boxing. My mage is my leader for both alts, however I often control my second alt with my first alt. All the messages are relayed to my mage, but he isn't following my mage.

By the way, I'm also doing recruit a friend and you can see my posts in the instances forums regarding my first couple of characters to reach 57 (where I stopped). I'm now on my second, and due to moving/less-time/college life, It's taking longer than my first grouping (mage pally). I did instances up to 50 on my first grouping, however I plan on doing quests from 40+ on this second grouping (warrior Rogue). I will be follow questing on one until he gets low atwhich point I will try to switch to my follower and lead with him so I have a total of zero down time. We'll see how it goes.


Good luck and thanks for a great show.

JG



Email 3

Hey Aprillian and Ashayo. This week not only did I play on the dark side, I joined it a second time, and began the challenge and experience that is dual boxing. I created another mage, this one on the horde side. The reason I did this is because I found that my passion is the mage class. This leads me to the advice for others, find a class you really enjoy! You enjoy the game much more. I am currently dual boxing a Frost Mage / Feral Druid combo. I play the druid as the main class with my mage on follow. I have made many macros which greatly help with using the mage to deal some damage. The most basic of them is a assist macro, I will include and example code at the end of my email. I have found that the damage output is really great, and the 3x experience is better than I could have imagined. For those of you who have never tried dual boxing, I highly recommend it.

This week I chose an addon many people know about, but for those of you with gathering professions who do not have Gatherer installed, it will be life changing. The idea of gatherer is simple, it displays nodes on your map which you or your guildies, who also have gatherer installed, have gathered. Why is this good some may ask? The reason is because of the fact that it makes farming much faster and more efficient. If you already know the location of the herb or nodes you can easily find them when they respawn later on. You can find it as well as a database of locations for herbs and nodes on the gatherer website here: http://www.gathereraddon.com/

Here is an example of an assist macro I use on my mage:
/assist vallk
/cast frostbolt

what this will do is make the secondary character target the first character's target and the cast a frostbolt. You can substitute any spell or action permitted in for the /cast.


Lastly, I have a request for those who are dual boxers, I am looking to add more addons to my collection.
--
Thayloo- 70 Mage
Triaa- 70 Warlock
Valrot- 30 Undead Mage
Vallk- 29 Tauren Druid

If you have any questions or addons to recommend you can email me at wowwarlock2@gmail.com