Ctrl Alt WoW Episode 99 - Oh Max!

Aprillian, Glanthur and Ashayo discuss another week of playing World of Warcraft, Blizzard's great MMORPG. Ashayo is back and Glanthur joins us at the end. Good Times. Write us at ctrlaltwow@gmail.com
Contest Email/WoW Minis and Episode 100

Lunar Festival until Feb 12th

What We've Been Doing:

Aprillian

Cabana Chat - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opM49V9Fa6Q



I feel like I blossomed in Nagrand

Mithril spurs helps Auruk keep up with the DK's, had the twins and Auruk in Nagrand doing a lot of quests. They got some good upgrades and both dinged 66

The servers were down on Friday morning but came back up a little after one. I was doing a disk repair on an external drive on the iMac so I was only on one computer. I felt bad leaving Auruk out, but I took the twins to do [Wanted: Zorbo the Advisor]. Of course the XP is better without Auruk. Ending up sticking around the Warmaul area grinding for powder and beads. The level 65 and 66 mobs were easy. I was mostly took on one each. Also found several mining nodes including Khorium. Finally got the iMac back up and brought in Auruk and she kept getting Warmaul skulls.

I brought in Aprillian to do Tusker and when they were done, they got the achievement White Elek Nesingwary completion. Aprillian continued on to do Dailies, while the twins and Auruk rode down into Terrakor to quest down there.

Realized I need a high level DE, I have a Veyle, my level 40 Rogue who can DE up to 300, she can do Outland greens right now, so that's cool. But I have Primall who is level 55 but is only 107. Do I try to power level Veyle to

Then I realized Aprillian was at 400 Tailoring, only 10 away from, so I spent money Friday night buying Frostweave Cloth

Saturday I wanted to do the Lunar Festival but got hung up levelling Primall in enchanting. She had a bunch of BOE stuff that she had gotten from Instances but wasn't high enough to DE. But finally after getting Enchanting to 130, she and Veyle went to Valley of Wisdom and starting the Lunar Festival. While in Moonglade Veyle ran up to
Nighthaven to get the Runed Arcanite Rod recipe
Locksmith? when asking for directions to Tailor. Veyle is donating mageweave and silk cloth to up her xp.

Guy begging in TB. Wanted 5g, I said I would give it to him in exchange for some leather. Elder Ezra replaced Elder Proudhorn

Back in TB with Veyle and Primall. Hopping around getting coins and in between stopping to level enchanting, and LW on Primall, the LW to get greens to DE. Aprillian in Blade's Edge doing the Mana cell one and netherstorm doing the fury plans and Shutting Down Manaforge B'naar ended up teaming up with a Warlock 72 from Demise with Felhunter

Sunday morning I took Epril, JC and Miner Level 66 to train, she hit 350 making an Adamanite ring, and she was able to train 59 recipes plus Grand master JC, 100g!

Then she found the Lunar Festival Exclamation mark in Dalaran. I logged on Elyte and the two of them did the initial quest. Then I see people doing the [Frenzied Firecracker] and the [The Rocket's Red Glare] achievements hard to do in laggy areas

Then took Primall and Veyle to TB to start coin collecting out that way but stopped in for the Un goro soil quest because Primall had it and there was some soil in the bank. Primall dinged 56. Then they headed to Camp T

Decided to take Primall and Veyle to RFD, yes I have ADD. We got into the instance and a couple of greens dropped but decided to go back to do some more coins. Veyle ported to Dalaran and summoned Primall, she still had Scryer for hearth. Then went to the Lunar festival in Dalaran, but they no longer had scrolls in their inventory. They were able to get more from the Lunar chick

After doing some research, I realized Primall could

Ashayo

Chef Ashayo at last!
3.0.8 added more cooking recipes so that the 45 version of The Northrend Gourmet was achievable.
Either I miscounted, or they changed the total recipes available down from 46 because I was sure I could leave one out.
The Fish Feast required 450 cooking to use, so I left it out. But it turned out I needed it.
Which meant levelling cooking from 420 to 450, and since there wasn't any fish in the AH, I had to fish up about 50 of two kinds of fish and 50 rhino meat. I chose the Small Feast, since the fish it requires are both available in schools, so are easier to ensure you catch.
Finally got enough mats and cooked up to 450... only to find the Fish Feast recipe required 5 Dalaran Cooking awards instead of the normal 3, and I only had 3 left.
Waited for daily change-over, and it was the damn wine/cheese quest that only gives one cooking award.
So I had to wait another 24 hours.
In the meantime, made damn sure I had enough fish to actually make a Fish Feast once I learnt it.
I was out when the dailies reset, and so finally and 2am this morning, I completed the cooking quest and got the Chef title. Phew!

Worked on getting my enchanter up to 350 so he could DE level 78 gear. Wasn't too hard ; I'd stockpiled quite a few mats and the vellum's help alot.

2nd egg from Oracles hatched on my holidays - unfortunately both were aged yolk. Waiting for 3rd to hatch.

3.0.8 changes
- Mining - don't have to loot to get skill up.
- Rain of Fire animation (looks a bit like DK death and decay now)
- Improved /follow while flying? (but toons look jerky)
- Fire Seed now just millable (apparently increasing spell damage never worked anyway)
- Pest Control
- To all the squirrels who shared my life
- Pygmy suckerfish more common (used by alchemists)
- Preserved Holly - changed graphic and gives 1hr buff - but doesn't work with Dreadsteed!
- Oracles - Appeasing the Great Rain Stone ; Shiny Treasures drop more often

Tailor is making ebonweave and spellweave - nice that imbued frostweave requirements are down (glad I left that until after 3.0.8)

Nagrand with DK - soloing level 68 group quests at 66. Camp Forge Fear chain. Did Durn the Hungerer with 1 DK and a healer.

Started Lunar Festival - do for rep!
Ashayo got 25 coins of ancestry and
10 Exalted Reputations (Undercity) at same time
The ancestry coin for Gundrak is only available in Heroic mode. After I was in a group that completed it, summoned a bunch of other guildies to complete in easy mode.

Glanthur

Did a raid in Naxx (10-man) and got through a lot of the dailies in Icecrown. I also respeced Arlaerus from Holy back to Protection. I just really missed my shield spells. Though, I need to get new gear now for him. Epic flying for Arlaerus is now only 3K gold away. I'd like to thank the guild Lost Chapter on Wyrmrest Accord for being an outstanding guild! Thanks for all the fun times.

Emails

Email #1 from Tracey

I just wanted to thank Aprillian for the advice on the Nagrand quest with the trampoline. I worked on that darn quest for over an hour - with your suggestion on how to make the jump it worked on my 2nd try. Another DK and I had to team up to kill the bird that worked well.

I really get alot out of your podcasts and even though you tend to be a bit Hordish I enjoy it anyway.

Have a great week - looking forward to the next podcast.

Thanks,

Tracey (Warhumpdy, Dkhumpdy) on Malygos

(Hey to Hand of Destiny guildies)

Email #2 from Patrick

Hello folks

Well I made another move from Garrosh to Wyrmrest Accord (now I am starting to sound like Aprillian). The reason why I moved again is my friend missed the free window from Earthen Ring to Garrosh and we really wanted to team up and level as a group.

The 2^nd reason is the same as what Glanthur had stated about RP servers. Like him, I just wanted to be on a RP server to watch role playing. I, like Glanthur, am not a role player but I found that many players on RP servers are friendlier and tend to help out more. Sure you always get the clowns, but in general, I find the attitude is far better.

That’s all for now.

Email #3 from Xandarr

Hello, it is Xandarr again. http://ctrlaltwow.podbean.com/2009/01/16/ctrl-alt-wow-episode-97-respec-just-a-little-bit (But now I have made two new toons on the Perenolde Server with the Epic Dolls Guild. You might know them as some of your fellow podcasters)

Anyway, I was shocked to hear you read my email on the air. I was so excited that when I got home that evening I let my wife listen to it. BOY DID SHE ROLL HER EYES AT ME. She said that not only was is more addicts trying to justiy my addiction with them, but that when she has our next baby in 8 months I have to give up the game entirely.

ACK!!! NO!!!

Anyway, such is life right? I am really not looking forwardto giving up WoW competely. She dosn't realize I FIND MY TIME TO PLAY and NEED that time... desperately. Even if it is an hour here or an hour there. I just gotta find better times to make time for WoW after I take care of the baby and stuff. I gotta find a way to make a deal with her. Any ideas?

I did write a review for you guys on I tunes under the name Jasper2112. Love your show, and I am glad it is on weekly.

FOR THE HORDE!

Chilie & Cornbread (Tauren Hunter and pet cat)

with

Portirhouse (Tauren Death Knight)

Dubbed "He-who-loves-food" by guildmates

Common Dolls with the Epic Dolls guild on Perenolde Server

Email #4 from Eranth

Aprillian, Ashayo, Glanther (&Blade!)

I thought I’d drop you a line for the next show and just make a few comments about the recent patch with the “Hunter Nerf” from the casual hunter’s perspective.

There had been a good deal of concern that this patch would really hose down the DPS of the Hunter. While I believe that the result that Blizzard has come up with does tone down the DPS of the Beastmaster and likely the Marksman some, we may see the Survival Hunter tuned up to be more viable. What I’ve noticed with my more casual play of my Beastmaster Hunter is that where my pets were pretty tough before, able to aggro, hold and grind down 4 or 5 mid-70’s to upper-70’s mobs, I’m having to throw down more Pet Mends to keep him up and going. While I feel like my DPS has come down some, it’s not nearly as drastic as I was imagining it would be.

While I haven’t crunched any numbers, my evidence is simply based on trying to pay attention to how encounters have gone, compared to how they felt they’d gone in the past. I’ve done a fair amount of grinding out leather in Scholazar Basin, trying to pull in 3 or 4 mobs at a time, multi-shot and AOE them down, then collect the skins. Again, the biggest difference I’ve noticed is having to throw down Mend Pet more often than before, because my pet isn’t as tough as he used to be.

I’d be interested to hear what others have experienced!

Keep up the good work with Control-Alt-WoW!

“Walk with the Earth Mother..”

--Eranth

AIE on Earthen Ring

iTunes Review

Ctrl Alt WoW Episode 98 - Patch 3.08

Aprillian, Glanthur and Ashayo discuss another week of playing World of Warcraft, Blizzard's great MMORPG. Actually no Ashayo this week. But he'll be back next week. Write us at ctrlaltwow@gmail.com

Contest for WoW Mini's

Contest for emails

What We've Been Doing:

Aprillian

Quad boxed in Nagrand, it was quite the experience. Epril, Elyte, Auruk and Aprillian. Finished the Crone quest and then hearthed to Dalaran and did some maintainance and prof training. Epril got her JC up over 325 and headed back to Nagrand where she ran into that chick with the many hides quest. Aprillian needed training, hadn't been to a Warlock Trainer in ages, spent over 50 g and finally figured out how to socket her boots. Sometimes you have to take the time to read. Elyte made some glyph, turned out she had some open spaces

Went to do the mana cell daily with Aprillian, fell off of the Landing, had to run around to get back to the town and find a Spirit Healer

Took Auruk and the twins back to Nagrand. Did the War on Warmual quest, freeing those guys out of the cage. Auruk had done the quests but he managed to ding 66, so that was cool. I have to remember to take him back to train. There was some tricky stuff, for instance Elyte needed Obsidian beads so she needed to do the looting but Epril needed the powder.

New transfers off of ER. I transfered the Death Knight that wasn't one of the twins, started a DK gnome, her blade goes through the ground. Then I panicked because Thejasper was my high level DE'er and now I didn't have any. So I decided to get out Veyle, my level 40 rogue enchanter BS and Tiiaa my mage enchanter skinner. Veyle has Enchanting maxed at 300 because she needs to get to 50. I brought my level 39 Mage along, she was 3 bubbles from 40. I want her to get portals. I took the 3 out to the Badlands where Tiiaa got those two gathering quests

Glanthur

Transferred from Earthen Ring on my Alliance alts (Glanthur and Arlaerus) to Wyrmrest Accord, a RPPvE realm. I was so new I actually got a realm first for 450 in cooking achievement. There were only 20-something 80s on the whole server the first day, so I joined a great guild called Lost Chapter (a raid guild) and we ran Obsidian Sanctum. Since we were the first, we got another Realm First, and I'm now officially Obsidian Slayer Glanthur. So cool!

Also been leveling Arlaerus, since the guild needs more healers. It's tough though finding good plate spell-casting gear.

Great Ventrillo client for Mac is Ventrilo (also has a PC and Linux client).

The Bladed Edge

Now... this week's been busy in real life, so Ol' Blade doesn't have a lot of news to report... my little project is coming along... hit a few snags here and there... but I hope by next week to be back in Northrend hammering my way up to 80... Got things to do, you know... gotta level my Engineering skill, too! That said, if you need any tinkering or sudden miraculous inventions to be made... Ol' Blade's not half-bad... but I *did* come across someone who totally bests me in the 'miraculous invention' department... McGoyver... Ya... seriously... he's in Howling Fjord... admittedly, it's a bit of a lunch-bag let-down that he's a Gnome... but regardless... he's on the beach at Volgarde... he's even got a tag under his name... very apt for one of the best inventors of miraculous stuff...

Moving on.

From the 'Dirty Little Tricks' Department:

For the Hunters... a two in one... 'cause... if you're like me on Wolftusk... not the *best* Hunter in the world... but not so clueless as to be called a 'Huntard' (those are the ones that let their pet Growl the aggro off the Tank... you know who you are...) The rest of us get tarred with a nasty brush every time one of you jokers goofs up in a dungeon... so hopefully this two-shot of macros will help that from happening a little less often... Two-shot... see what I did there? I made a punny!

Step one:

/Focus Target

Manually select your target (player, pet, or even a mob) you want as a focus, and hit the macro. They now have a shiny glow around their character picture, showing them as your focus... and yes, your focus can also be an enemy mob; you may be on CC (crowd control) duty and assigned to chain trap a particular mob. This macro does its part by making the mob your focus... making it easier to keep track of your enemy.

Now... step 2...

/Target Focus

/Assist Target

/Cast Auto Shot

(or whatever... some folks like to have an instant-cast shot like Arcane Shot in here... it's personal preference, really... some prefer a slower-acting shot like Serpent Sting to allow the tank to generate a little Threat before the damage starts...)

Assuming that you used the macro we just mentioned to choose the Tank as your Focus, this macro will allow you to /assist your focus (the tank) and let fly with one of your attacks. If you *remove* the third line and don't have an attack launched at the tank's target as soon as you hit this macro, then you select the tank's target as your own (that's what /assist does) and you wait... this might be a wise thing to do depending on the situation... it lets the tank generate the threat they need to keep the mobs from focussing on you! But then... there's something to be said about waiting a few seconds while the tank does their thing... Whatever you do... don't use Aimed Shot... if you do, I'll track you down and call you a Huntard myself...

From Ol' Blade's Easter Egg Basket:

As everyone knows by now, Ol' Blade's been doing some exploring... and some of the more out-of-the-reach places have hidden things to find if you look hard enough...

For example... when flying between Elwynn Forest and Burning Steppes, if you look down, you can see some campsites along the banks of a small river or stream that eventually feeds the waterfall in Northshire... you can't get to this place from Elwynn FZorest, but there's a path that leads right up the mountains to it from the Burning Steppes... I recommend being high enough level to not drawn aggro from the level 50+ monsters in this zone... From up here, there's some pretty spectacular views of Elwynn Forest... and another little curiosity... near the banks of the stream, there's a school of fish you can fish from... but you don't catch fish... you catch peaceblooms...

Also... if you swim south from Menethil Harbor in the Wetlands (or technically north from Stormwind Harbor) you will come to a spot on the coastline called 'Newman's Landing'. Now... I know what you're thinking... who goes THERE? Apparently not many people... it *does* seem to be a pun of the phrase "No Man's Land" after all... Not a friendly place... there's skeletons all over the place... it looks like the last time I pvp'd against the Alliance... there's even a signpost with a skull balanced on an axe embedded in the post. From what I hear, this place used to be completely abandoned... maybe a long-forgotten pirate treasure-burial site? Who knows? High Admiral "Shelly" Jorrik might. He's the goblin that - with a few guards - has recently come to the area... maybe to dig for pirate gold?

As always, an awesome podcast guys!

Blade

Emails

Email #1 From Patrick

Bye bye to Earthin Ring for me

Hello guys

For the past few weeks, when I have tried to sign onto the Earthin Ring, 95% of the time I am stuck in a queue.

Unfortunately I encountered the last straw a few days ago and that was it, I took the free character move and moved Bruurk, my lvl 35 hunter and my other alt, to the Garrosh server. Unfortunately this does mean I have left AIG which did disappoint me quit a bit, but the fact that there is no more queue time now means I can play for bloody change !!

So sorry Ashayo, as it was you who added me to AIE guild.

LOL, So Aprillian you no longer have to worry about my alt lurking in the AH to intercept your cross faction auctions. By the way, in listening to the last few pod casts, I think I figured out the name of your alliance toon that you use in your AH laundering scams. Not to worry you secret is safe since I am no long on Earthin Ring !!!!

Well that is all for now !!

Go Arsenal FC !!

Patrick

Email #2 from Brenry - Boulderfist

Name: Brenry - Boulderfist | Date: January 17, 2009

When he comments on his dread about Pinnacle gauntlet… there is a way to EASY mode it. Here’s how !

Party waits in room before gauntlet. Someone aggros boss so he’ll fly up starting event. That person runs back. He and all the mobs will despawn. Then the party runs all the way down the hall to the room at the other end. This will avoid ALL frost issues on ground. Just aoe the mob waves that spawn on top of you. Right before the 5th or 6th (i forget which) wave when the boss lands, everyone leave room so they avoid cleave of boss and tank picks it up. Enjoy free epics XD

Email #3 from Dreamweaver

I have just finished listening to Ctrlaltwow and was quite shocked to hear my e-mail on the show as looking back it was quite long, and was even more shocked to found out i won. Email #3a from Dreamweaver

Dreamweaver back again, after listening to the podcast and being suprised that i won the roll (see other e-mail) i would like to say sorry for missing out Glanthur from the very start, BUT i did say something about all three of you in the Itunes review i did before i wrote the e-mail to Ctrlaltwow

Also a little update from my fuzzball druid, after quite some time working on all the rep with the home cities i finaly got the Title reward of Ambassador :D i was so pleased with myself i was runing round all over the place showing off my title, and about 30 mins later i got a wisper from a friend asking to tank malygos 10 man, so ofc i went, i have been before so i knew what to do in phase one and two but i hadnt been able to down him as of then. untill i got into this group... the damage that all of these people were doing was amazing so getting malygos to 50% in quite a short time came the next phase, this is where mobs come flying down on hover disc's (think back to the future) so the ones that were on the ground i picked up while they were nuked down, then the ones in the air were taken down aswell. in this phase when one of the mobs die they drop the hover disc's and melee can jump onto them and dps down the ones flying in the air, once they are all dead the platform that you are on just crumbles away and all 10 of us just fall into space to our deaths...... but just when i think OOOOHHHH NNOOEEESSSS while falling 10 drakes from the dragonflight come sweeping up and we land on the backs of them, the drakes have abilitys all of there own so we use the drakes spells to kill malygos. 1% left on him and the second he dies KABOOM **Dreamweaver has earned Champion of the Frozen Wastes**

So now i am shown as 'Dreamweaver Champion of the Frozen Wastes'

I didnt even know i would get the title so was a bit shocked and getting it only an hour after getting the title of Ambassador.

My druid has a funny a in its name so will link his armory page http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Draenor&n=Dre%C3%A1mweaver

Ctrl Alt WoW Episode 97 - Respec Just A Little Bit

Aprillian, Glanthur and Ashayo discuss another week of playing World of Warcraft, Blizzard's great MMORPG. Actually no Ashayo this week. But he'll be back in a couple of weeks.

Write us at ctrlaltwow@gmail.com

Contest Reminder, iTunes Reviews

What We've Been Doing:

Aprillian

Levelling Enchanting on The Jasper [Large Radiant Shard] [Greater Nether Essence] [Lesser Eternal Essence]

Saw a level 11 in Stormwind yelling for 4g to buy him some boots.

Spent Friday morning transferring over pets to the alliance side. Aprillian went out on the Mana cells daily.

Thinking of transfering some toons to the new realm. Playing WoW while eating breakfast in Denny's.

Did the Bring me the Egg Quest in the Nagrand with the two DK's Epril and Elyte. It was hard getting the trampoline just right. But one egg worked for both, so that was cool.

On the train back, wasn't too sure about the signal. Took Epril to get the Tortured Stone quest. Try to do quest that require individual looting when I can only play one.

Also transferred over Pets for my alliance toon to sell. Doing a brisk business. My horde toon at the NAH in BB is a level 39 mage. Comes in handy. I set her hearth to BB, she can teleport to UC and TB for cockroaches and prairie dogs respectively and then hearth back to BB. I still have a toon on that account in Eversong Woods to buy dragonhawk hatchlings.

Sunday night queue queue on ER so went to Lethon. I had Belover in WC grinding leather. She was at 60 this pass week, I'm getting her to 150 in WC and then she'll move on. She summoned Aprillian, a level 13 Rogue and Aprillian is getting nice drops including the Gloves of Fang.



Monday night I was stuck in Chicago, I was put up in a room and played WoW. I took Aprillian out to do a daily.

Monday evening queues on ER, logged into Lethon and took my DK's there out skinning and herb picking in WC. Why are the herbs in WC 100 Kingsblood and 125 Bruiseweed

Logged into ER a little later on. Fought Bangar, one of the Nessinwary Elite with the two DK's, a piece of cake. Went over to the consortium and turned in some crystals and became friendly. Epril, the miner, bought some JC patterns she can't use yet. Nothing for inscripters, poor Elyte

Did some more Consortium quests, but then some horde were attacking Haala. I was going from DC to Providence and thought I had a good connection

One small problem, find herb and find minerals resetting at log in, a pain if I forget to turn it on.

Decided to check on my AH alt, almost sold out of everything. Also decided to

Glanthur

Respeced Arlaerus from Protection to Holy and leveled him from 70-73

Doing Heroics with Glanthur and collecting Badges of Heroism

Lots of Icecrown dailies

Dwarven Alliance is a good guild!

The Bladed Edge

So there I was... wandering through Grizzly Hills on my way to snapping up my Northrend Explorer achievement... while listening to Episode 96 (specifically the emails section)... when I came across some critters in the pvp area of Venture Bay.
As Forlornelf said... four deer and four mice!
So... to answer the question: yes, I did know about them (about fifteen minutes before I heard it mentioned in Episode 96)... but Ol' Blade's not so egotistical to not be able to admit when he doesn't know something about something...
WHY those critters are there, specifically... and why they're in the configuration they're in - four deer and four mice... and why they have multiple groups of them all climbing the hill every thirty seconds or so from 20,77 to 20,72 (I saw two distinct paths of them)...
I have NO idea.
But yeah... good find, Forlornelf... not many people travel out that way. I debated and debated as to whether I wanted to do the world pvp in the area... the quests being worth xp and all... and decided to continue my solo project... the results of which I hope to be able to provide soon...

As mentioned, Ol' Blade's been travelling hither and yon across the world of Azeroth (and Outland) striving towards a few achievements - partly because the best way to experience the game is by going there.
So I went.
To Stormwind.
And took the tram to Ironforge... but not before jumping off midway to catch a look at Nessy the Sea Serpent!
Also... what's the deal with the gnomes in the Deeprun Tram tunnel? One's named Haggle... he seems to be a /nod to the movie Labyrinth and the character 'Hoggle'... he was short and ugly too... but there's a second gnome... Monty... and he's got three boxes behind him... perhaps a 'Let's Make a Deal' Monty Haul reference... the problem is... each of those boxes is full of rats... and as this Monty fellow is a 'Rat Extermination Specialist'... I somehow doubt there's a wad of cash in Box Number Three.
Onward... to Ironforge... fished up my Fishing Diplomat achievement while I was there... and nearly ran afoul of some over-eager Alliance players that thought I would be easy-pickings as a PVP target.
Needless to say... I remained unscathed.
Took a few screenies of the Dwarf bankers I mentioned before... just so I can say I did it...
And by the time this episode airs, I'll have gone back at least once more to try to fish up Old Ironjaw one more time.
That is... unless the randomly wandering, stealth-detecting level 80elites in Stormwind and Ironforge don't catch me first.
('Cause you Alliance players don't seem to be able to... ZING!)
But yeah... I haven't moused over the patrolling NPCs in Orgrimmar or Thunder Bluff in a while... but last I knew WE didn't have level 80 goons all over OUR major cities...
For all I know, we do... but even if we do... somehow I doubt we have anywhere near as many.
Ah well... those super-elites are probably a good thing... they're probably the only thing stopping ol' Blade from setting up in Stormwind as my hometown... that and the lack of a friendly innkeeper.


Moving on.

From the 'Dirty Little Tricks' Department:
Back to Rogues again... this time we're being extra-especially sneaky.
As you may all suspect, Ol' Blade doesn't make ALL of his money by questing or even playing the Auction House Stock Market... a respectable chunk of Ol' Blade's finances are gotten via the "five-finger discount"... for those not already aware... I pickpocket every chance I get.
Some of the higher level mobs in Northrend are netting me upwards of 50-75 silver per pickpocket. Go through a couple dozen of them at a time... especially if you can find a host of (non-aggressive) Neutral ones.
Here's another macro fit for saving space on the hotbar:
/cast Sap
/cast Pick Pocket
The benefits of this little combo are obvious. If, for some reason your pick pocket was to fail, you pop out of stealth. Tapping this combo lets you at least have a sap on the mob allowing you a decent chunk of time to simply run out of aggro range long before the sap wears off.
Quick and dirty.

From Ol' Blade's Easter Egg Basket:
For all you Lore Buffs out there... it's fairly common knowledge that the Thandol Span Bridge (between Arathi and the Wetlands) was destroyed by the Dark Iron Dwarves. There is a corpse underwater beneath the bridge that starts a (so far as I know) Alliance-only quest called 'Sully Balloo's Letter' (You deliver the letter to Sara Balloo in Ironforge)
Now... here's where things get interesting... Sullivan Ballou was a soldier during the U.S. Civil War who sent a letter to his wife Sara on July 14, 1861. The in-game letter is a reference to the real-life letter written by Sully (Sullivan) to Sara. As another interesting parallel, the dwarves of Ironforge and the Dark Iron dwarves have been at each others throats since THEIR civil war... approximately 200 years ago, gametime.

And for something a little more light-hearted? A little-known quest in the Barrens. Just outside Crossroads along the road to Ratchet, there will be a hut on the north side of the road... outside you will find a Tauren vendor of bread (Tarban Hearthgrain) and a small Orc boy named Gruk. Inside, though, are two individuals - Duhng, a Cooking Trainer, Guard Taruc (feasting on a bench at the back) and Grub, who gives you a quest called "Dig Rat Stew". It's not a very difficult quest, but the fun part is Grub's comment at the end.
"You can't call yourself a seasoned adventurer until you've spent some time killing rats! Haw!"
Most MMOs (WoW included) are known to force starting players to kill trivial creatures like rats or insects during the first few levels of play. With this little tongue-in-cheek homage, Blizzard makes reference to this little factoid and also provides a recipe to COOK the rats!
Yum!

- Show quoted text -

Email #1

The Ruk said...

Wow, congrats to Aprillian hitting 70! I bumped into her a few days ago while dragging myself through the Outlands, Nagrand I think it was. We were both standing at a flight point. I was so stunned when I noticed the big 7-0 that by the time I came to my senses, she had flown away before I could offer my "grats" in person.

So a big /salute on your accomplishment!

As someone who has been listening to the podcast for quite some time, I know this has been a long time coming.

Keep up the great work everybody,
Rukgut

December 30, 2008 10:51 AM

Email #2

MO shares this link with us:
http://www.wired.com/gaming/gamingreviews/magazine/17-01/pl_games

and writes:

Hello again,
as always thank you for your work and we are patiently waiting for your first '09 podcast.

I finally shelled out the gold for my mains epic flyer, but now im sad that he is down to double digit gold now!:(

I wanted to ask you all about quest helper and see if it is operator error on me or it is what it is.
I have loved quest helper and yes it is a cheat button or easy mode whatever people may call it, it does make things a lot quicker, for questing that is of course.
But it has always used lots of mb, for me as much as 35 up to 50 mb!
My system can handle it but when I turn off QH the game does run smoother and my mb usage goes down to only 30 mb in total.
What do you suggest or recommend?

I have a laptop so I really cant get more ram but 2 gig's is enough, and if there is a setting i can change that will help that please let me know.

Thank you and hope everyone had a great new years.
And a shout out to all my friends on wow, and if I can plug my guild, Uptown Tavern, on the Balanzaar server, we have been around from the beginning and have always been a great leveling guild.
Please pst Mo for invite or any help; we have many old guildies we group up from time to time for fun events and gatherings.

Thank you

--
Mo

Email #3 from Ponfarr
Message subject: Ctl Alt WoW
From: Ponfarr
Sent: Thu Jan 08, 2009 4:41 pm
To: Aprillian
Message
Question 1 - You mentioned getting WiFi connectivity in the train station to play WoW, but how did you get stable connectivity while moving on the train and what was your latency then?

Question 2 - Could you cover how you and your cohosts came to know each other, and how you formed your podcast together?

and:
To your question about a dailies mod......I use this one quite successfully.
http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/dailies-quest-tracker.aspx


Another good one (different subject) that I recently started using is Factionizer.
It breaks down all the factions on your rep tab and gives you the quests or other events used to raise the faction, and tracks your progression.
http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/factionizer.aspx

--
Tyberiuss (BM Hunter) - Earthen Ring (AIE)
Bacchus (MM Hunter) - Runetotem (ToG)
http://tales-from-tyberiuss.blogspot.com/


Email #4 from Dreamweaver

I just wanted to start out by saying hi to you all.

I have been listening to your show for some months now and have been enjoying it very much, i love how mostly Aprillian and Ashayo are so different in there play styles and there thinking of the game and it brings so much back to us listeners. Its great lol.

Well myself, i'm from england so i'm on the EU, server draenor or also better known as Drama EU with the amount that goes on here lol. i have been playing this game on and off for quite some time now (almost from the begining but not quite) my main that i play is a fuzzy Druid tank called Dreamweaver and i am LOVING playing him, tonight i have just come out of Naxx 25 after clearing just over 3 wings of it.
One thing i wanted to say is about people saying how easy it is, yes i do agree it is easy (ish) but still its only an opening raid, and how many people have cleared it so far? ofc all the good guilds have cleared it, and why is that? because they are good.... a LOT of people are still having problems with it and cant finish it, have more guilds cleared it than would of before say Pre BC?, Yes.. and why is that? because that's what blizz wanted it to be like.
Just wait and see is all i will say about that.

Dreamweaver isnt my only toon i play on, infact he wasn't my first. as i have been on and off the game i have QUITE a few toons lol.
My first toon was a priest called Aramite and he was my 1st lvl 60 i ever had (if people can remember 60 being the max lvl) i had him and used to raid in the good ole days of Molten Core/BlackWing Lair, didn't get a chance to down Neffy before BC came :(. Just before BC came upon us i was lvling a hunter called Nightweaver and got him to lvl 60, i was having SOO much fun playing him that i decided that he would be my 1st lvl 70 when BC came about as it was comming out very soon, so thats what i did, he got to lvl 70 but i had to get back to my priest as i didn't feel right leaving him to gather dust Stood in a dark damp corner of Ironforge crying :( sooo i managed to get him up to lvl 70 as well and after a while went back to healing with him.
But being an altoholic i just had to have more as i loved playing around and being able to learn about an new toon and what they could do, i already had a Healer in epics and also a ranged damage dealer in very good gear so i went to pick out one of my low lvl toons that would be up there close to the action, so what better then a rogue to slice and dice with, being all dark and stabby stabby i had mine called Night (fitting in with my hunter) i enjoyed lvling with him but for some reason i didn't like it as much as my hunter or priest but i stook with him and got him to lvl 70 yet at lvl 70 i still didnt enjoy him as much :( SOOO with blizz bringing out Shamens and paladins to the oppisit factions i didn't jump on the bandwagon until now, i lvled a shammy, it took me quite a while to lvl so i swapped out now and again to lvl a warlock (called nightfall, see how after my 1st toon i started to tie all my toons names together) i got my shammy to 70 (yet another 70 i know) i left them alone and started to enjoy my priest and hunter.....


Until things started to look bleak in the guild, things got worse and worse so needed somewhere to get away seeing as all these toons were in the same guild.
I had a very low unlooked after mangy druid that i said to myself why not, so after some time he was the only one i was playing and joined up with a very nice guild called Angelic Knights, time passed by and he was lvl 70, even more time passed by and he was in raids passing all my other toons gear lvl. and then it came up to another expansion Wrath and yet another choice to make on who to get upto lvl 80? my priest who was my first toon? my hunter who i had so much fun with? another toon that i had got up? you guessed it, i went with my beloved fuzzball Dreamweaver my one and only cute ball of fur druid and to this day i knew i made a right choice.

I'm babbling on a bit here and didn't see the time, its 40 mins past midnight here and i need to be up at 6 :( but ohwell its friday and only half a day so thats not bad.

I just want to say thanks to all three of you and keep bringing out a smashing pod cast.

Hugs and kisses from a smelly druid that just wants some /hugs

(Sorry for this being a total mess, its quite late and i need sleep, hope you can read it ok >.< )

Email # 5 from Ginsue

Hey Guys,

Love the show. I have been listening now for about 6 weeks or so.

On a past episode you talked about your play style of leveling alts instead of playing end game. You questioned that fact that you may be missing something about Wow.

The truth is you are missing a large aspect of Wow that is very enjoyable for a large number of folks. This does not by any stretch mean that "you are doing it wrong." You missed some fun raiding in BC that I guess you could go back later and see but I don't think it would be the same.

From listening to your podcast I can tell that you enjoy the smaller parts of the game that a lot of the rest of us don't catch or ignore. So though you miss some things it sounds like you are having a hoot doing it your way.

I am guilty of running like a mad fool to the end to see the end game content instead of taking my time and seeing everything that there is to see. This play style has its ups and downs like anything else.

Have any of you noticed the gal you buy jewel patterns from in Dalaran is named Tiffany Cartier. I thought it was neat.

Keep up the good work!!

Ginsue
80 Blood Elf Rogue

iTunes Review from Ginsue, thanks!

Email #6 from Xandarr

Question for you that I would like to bring up: How can I get my wife to understand that my WoW play is not an addiction but a way to releive stress at the end of the day. I only play a couple hours a night while we watch TV together. Or on Friday nights I stay up late after my wife goes to bed or I wake up early on the weekends to play while she is still sleeping. How can I get her to think differently about the game? How could I show her the social aspect or the way I play? Does that make sense?

Xandarr the Ambassador
Protectorate Paladin of theTwiizted Blackened Roses
Trollbane Server

Email #7 from Mimdalf

I cant believe you guys picked me! Thank You so very much. I would like the free month, incidentally it will be my last month playing World of Warcraft as I am being deployed the first week of March with my Calvary unit. (Iraq).


aka Mimdalf
Blood Elf Hunter
Alea Iacta Est
Earthen Ring

Ctrl Alt WoW Episode 96 - Happy New Year!

Aprillian, Glanthur and Ashayo discuss another week of playing World of Warcraft, Blizzard's great MMORPG. Actually no Glanthur this week. But he'll be here next week.

If you get a chance, review us in iTunes and we'd be ever so grateful.

What We've been Doing

Aprillian

Doing a couple of dailies a day on Aprillian. Mostly trying to get my DK's up so they can play with her.

Friday Morning, grinding in Nagrand with theprimall. Didn't realize it was possible for a zombie to loot.

Theprimall dinged 63 at 7:11am on Friday and I've been playing her straight through on the train to Washington. She's grinding in the Spirit field, there are mobs galore. Got to 63.5 by BWI Airport at 12:30p

In the Train station grinding the Vir'Ani and killed an Arcanist, a Four of Lunacy dropped

In Chicago playing in the First Class Lounge, Theprimall dinged 64. She went to the Consortium's camp and turned in over a 100 [Oshu'gun Crystal Fragment]. Then I logged off and went to the website so I can change her name and appearance and I'm thinking of doing a Figure print with her. Then I pulled out Epril to do get her to 64. I'm doing it mostly because at 64 they can get the quests in Nagrand, especially the nessingwary, I love those

Renamed ThePrimall to Elyte. I was surprised that was available. I had them grinding in Oshu'Gun because once they hit 64, they can turn in the following quest:
Stealing from theives
A Head full of ivory

Epril dinged 64, then went to Garadand and picked up a mess of quests.

Then I decided I want to level a Priest with RAF. I made a Troll Priest and teamed her with my level 6 Orc Shaman who hadn't done the starting are quest there because I took her to Eversong Woods to farm eggs with a BE Hunter.

I do not want a way to start at a certain level on any race/class like the DK. This is a horrible idea and would make it impossible for new people to ever get into WoW.

Took the twins Epril and Elyte to Ebon Hold for Training. DK training is expensive. Good thing they made money grinding.

I don't know what the time limit is but I am sure glad that when you dc, you don't get put back in queue if you log back in right away

Lost internet for a while. But when it came back the queue was way too long, went to Lethon server.

Got back on later Sunday night, short queue, everybody must be going back to work/school tomorrow. Was actually on a 3G network for a while and able to Dual Box Epril and Elyte. Doing the Nessingwary quest, too bad I don't have a skinner. Got this [Crystalblade of the Draenei] in Nagrand.
Crystalblade of the Draenei
Binds when equipped

One-Hand	Sword

70 - 131 Damage	Speed 1.60

(62.8 damage per second)
195 Armor
+18 Stamina
Durability 90 / 90
Requires Level 66Equip: Increases defense rating by 13 (6.76 @ L66).

Elyte turned in the osh powder and got her first Halla token. I am thinking of trying the whole pvp aspect in Nagrand this week

Ashayo

Gobu invited to raid for Vault of Archavon - an instance you can run when you own Wintersgrasp
Very quick instance - about 10 minutes, and the boss drops tier 7 loot. Unfortunately you can only run once a week.
Tried to run the 25 man variant with 10 players ; cleared the trash fine, but not enough DPS for the boss.
Then headed to The Obsidium Sanctum underneath Wyrmrest.

Jekle and Hiide started questing in Howling Fjord. Probably only done a dozen or so thus far, but quite enjoyable!
Hiide even ran an instance! Dills tanked on his DK and Cairubel healed on her druid.
Jekle has healed Utgarde Keep - with Aprillian!

Asheal is now fully Holy
Tried healing oculus - failed on last boss (while mounted)
Heal Heroic Utgarge Keep
Try to heal Culling of Strat ; wipeage

NYE Alliance Boss raid - Ashayo now has a [Black War Bear]

Starting Knights of the Ebon Blade quest lines in Icecrown

Death Knight is levelling waaay fast - currently 65 just by running some instances.
Levelling Engineering to 300. Jumper Cables. Quest for mote extractor schematic

Achievement Day!

Heroic Halls of Lightning
Timely Death - kill in under 2 mins
Halls of Lightning
Northrend Dungeonmaster
Timear Foresees - 4 x daily dungeon quests
AQ40 achievement
Exalted with Wyrmrest Accord - Sandals of the Crimson Fury, Reins of the Red Drake

Cracked Egg - White Tickbird Hatchling, Cobra Hatchling

Chef disappointment
- Got Captain Rumsey's Lager from daily fishing
- Did the Dinner Impossible by presenting Great Feast in each Battleground
- Did "The Northrend Gourmet" to cook 30 Northrend recipes... and didn't get Chef.
- Chef says "The Northrend Gour..." - but it refers to the 45 version, and there arn't even that many in the game at 3.0.3 :(

Blade's Edge

Ugh... hey guys... Blade here...

With the Winter Veil festivities all week long in real life, ol' Blade hasn't spent a lot of time in Azeroth... so nothing's really changed...
I DO have a Dwarf Guardian character in Lord of the Rings Online, though... a result of someone's valiant effort to show ol' Blade that there are other games out there... other than WoW...
... but Ol' Blade wasn't fooled for a second...
What with presents-giving, nog-drinking and visiting of little-sprog relatives... Ol' Blade hasn't had a lot of extra time to throw together a long narrative-style email like I usually do...
So here's the nitty-gritty...

From the 'Dirty Little Tricks' Department:
Following the macro thread I started before... something for Warriors... specifically the Protection-specc'd tanks out there... with the Night of the Living Deathknights (aka Wrath of the Lich King) having spawned all kinds of new and OP tanks, plus Paladins have been spoon-fed their tanking greatness for a while now (wait for it... there's more coming for them in the 3.0.8 patch... a ranged taunt!)
Ridiculous, I say.
Warriors seem to be being left in the proverbial dust. We / they did get a little bit of a pat on the back with the Protection talent tree revamp in 3.0... quite a few warriors are now leveling as Protection-spec tanks now... but how to make it just THAT much more /awesome?
Ol' Blade's got your back, he does...
So here's some love for the First-Among-Tanks... the Original and (in Blade's not-so-humble opinion) Best... The Warriors.
It's a simple macro... more for saving space on your hot-key bar... and it's great now that Charge can be used in combat... no more stance dancing!
/Charge
/Taunt
Yep. That's it. Again... they're on different timers, so you end up Charging in guns a-blazing, and drop a taunt pretty much the moment you hit the mob. Nifty!
Spam it again in six seconds... you can't charge (cause you're too close) but Taunt works just fine!
Let's add to it... just to spice things up...
Toss in a /cast Thunder Clap as a third line... it won't cast it the first time (when you initiate combat), but any successive times you cast your Charge/Taunt macro, it will Thunder Clap all the nearby mobs... this one's a bit tricky... as TC is on a separate timer, it will Thunder Clap WHEN you hit the macro... if you're too low on Rage to have TC go off, it's fine... all other times, you'll look like you just got blasted away from your Thunder Clap... good for dropping a large chunk of threat on the mobs surrounding you as you speed off to intercept the aggro off the healer...
Voila. You're now a Paladin (get it? aoe attack spam?)... without all that mamby-pamby healing 'Oh noes! I'm getting attacked! /bubble /hearth' nonsense.

And from Ol' Blade's Easter Egg basket:
Ol' Blade and Mrs. Blade have been watching some older movies of late... and one sorta stuck in my head... because it reminded me of the Arcane Protectors in the starting lowbie-Blood Elf zone... it seems both they and Robocop have the same Prime Directives... "Serve the Public Trust"... "Protect the Innocent"... and "Uphold the Law"...

Also... the Alliance zone of Elwood Forest is home to many things... Hogger, the level 11elite Gnoll that is the bane of all Alliance players over level 10... as you will inevitably get at least one /tell asking you to 'Hlp kill Hoger plz' as you pass through the zone...
... but did you know there's a Lumberjack in Elwood Forest? One that 'is ok' and 'works all day'...?
As a Horde, I don't think I can get him to talk without sticking a shiv between his ribs... but I'm sure you Alliance types could get a few words out of him... he's at the Eastvale Logging Camp. He's named Terry Palin... after Terry Jones and Michael Palin, the Monty Python members and writers of the 'Lumberjack Song'...

That's all for this week... next week, I'll share some of my (mis) adventures in Ironforge!

As always, an awesome podcast guys...

Blade

Email

Email #1 from Mimdalf

Just a note from a fellow guildee, Mimdalf to say Hello, and your doing a great job. Such good chemistry on your show.

--
In Fraternitas

Email #2 from Mo

Hello all at Ctrl alt wow, and listerns, and i guess the Alliance, :)

I dinged 80 finally, on my main main, that is the first character i ever made, oh some 3+years ago; Motauren on Balanzzar, yes he is a tauren warrior if you did not guess from the name :)

I think you have covered dailies for northrend but would you please suggest any good pointers, possible addons as im an addonholic as well ;/,
I have just started doing dailies for some factions and even started the cooking.
I was sad that i can only do one perday, what is the deal with that?

well thank you as always and another quick point, following up an email from last week, about leveling your weapon skills;
depending on what level you are, i usually try to level weapons as i level, but if you are 80 and trying to get the achievements, i find low instances the best places to skill them up.
Especially if you need the instance achievements anyways.

As a warrior, i am also a weaponholic, i like using all weapons, well I would like to but only my axe is a real weapon for big boy land.

Hope you all have/had a great new year and enjoy wowing,


--
Mo


Email #3

First, wanted to let you know that the Collector's Edition arrived right on time and I gave Frosty to my husband for Christmas, so now he won't feel so left out when my daughter and I have our Frosty pets out :-)

Our two guilds of real life friends and family try to run instances, but since we're all pretty casual players and most of us are altoholics, it can be a little challenging. Getting 5 people together with the same 3 hour block of time to play is one thing (and I could write a whole other email about that), figuring out what instance to do and who to bring can take on a life of its own as well.

We wind up with a some memorable instance runs, like when we went through Deadmines with 4 draenai shaman and one crazy, gnome warlock. There were so many totems that you couldn't see the gnome at all, though you knew she was there, because all the mobs were attacking her. Thank goodness shaman can resurrect.

Or the all female, Night Elf Druid runs, punctuated with yells of 'Going Bear!' as the designated healer pulls aggro and then everyone else switches to their backup roll. We designate two teams of druids: the tank team (one would bear, one cat) and the healing team (one casting, one cat) and switch as needed either because of a terrible pull or when running out of mana.

Not to leave the horde out of it, our horde guild is named Hunters'R'Us, so you can guess what kind of groups we put together there. Five hunters and their pets rampaging through an instance makes for much chaotic fun.

We also have to be very flexible in our play styles. Depending on who else is on the run, I may be tanking with my gorilla or off-tanking or pulling out my core hound for dps. We also run lower level toons through with some high level help (makes it easier when we can only get three people together).

Those runs are fun for the high level toon, since you get to decimate an instance that probably killed you a few times before, and it's good practice for the low level toons: we use the time to try out different shot or spell rotations without worrying too much about wiping the party.

Our only problem is the lack of healers. We're working hard to level some paladins and priests to help with healing. So, any tips for leveling healers would be great.

Your podcast just keeps getting better. It's fun when Glanthur can join you (to bring a third viewpoint and a little Alliance love) and Blade's letters are awesome. I especially liked his tip about Aspect of the Beast.

Keep up the great work!

For the Horde and Glory to the Alliance!

Karen (I have too many alts and they are all so different, I'm going to stick with my RL identity)

Horde on Arathor

Alliance on Uther

Email #4 from Chad

Hi,

Long time follower of the show, first time player considering trying my hand at recruit-a-friend/dual boxing.

First of all I must say that I love my alts and and sorry that I didn't beat a certain someone to 70. I've been playing for a year and love to try as many characters and classes. I have many tunes near or at lvl 30. I only have one tune that I've stayed with past 30 (Thingoll lve 64 hunter on the Sentinal server) and only did so in order to be able to play a Death Knight.

I'm going to be taking part in the recruit a friend program this weekend and was wondering what do you think should be the classes that I should consider running first.

thanks,

Chad


Hi Aprillian,

I heard that I won again. I feel a little guilty, so I have decided to send my winnings to another guildie who could use it.

Please send an authenticator to:

Address Removed

He is a friend of mine and plays Asterien in the guild.

PS - please reply with all of your show email addresses.

Thanks

_________________

Email # 5 from Forlornelf

Subject: Hi From Forlornelf lv 80 DK on Khaz\'goroth

Message:
Congrats to Aprillian on 70 !
Question for Blade, have you seen the little pack of critters, four deer and four mice, that wander about together up by the Refurbished Shredders in the Venture Bay PVP area?