Monday, September 1, 2008

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 5th 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

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