Friday, January 16, 2009

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


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


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