Sunday, January 31, 2010

Ctrl Alt WoW Episode 152 - I'm Sorry...TheWych

Aprillian, Ashayo and Jeppy discuss another week of playing World of Warcraft, Blizzard's great MMORPG. Contest Ongoing send an email to ctrlaltwow@gmail.com telling us how you play WoW, either as an altaholic or dealing with it in your family life to being placed in a drawing for a month free of WoW or a $10 iTunes Gift Card or an Authenticator, they are back in the store.

The Bladed Edge:

Greeting to one and all...

Blade here.

It seems that you folks are not content to allow Ol' Blade to simply fade into the shadows; nay... every now and then you must give me cause to unstealth and flash the edge of the blade... if only to provide a Horde presence to scare all the little Alliance children happily skipping around Stormwind. 'Cause for SOME silly reason you CAN'T attack them!

/grumble

Yes, El Jeppy, you are correct - and thank you for the mention in episode 150. Ol' Blade has indeed achieved the Loremaster achievement... and it isn't as intimidating as one might think at first glance... much like an Alliance when you first start warring in the battlegrounds. Possibly scary on the outside... on the inside, they're all soft and squishy... although... who in their right mind could REALLY find a Gnome scary?
Seriously.

Onwards. My Orc sister Batswala (Donna) is endeavoring to become a member of "The Inner Circle" (as I like to call it when I offer congrats to all who I witness having achieved a step in the Loremaster achievement. Why the inner circle? It's not so much a difficult achievement as it is time-consuming and labor-intensive.
If you (or anyone) still need the help finding those last few quests, then listen closely... it's dark here in the shadows and we rogues like to whisper...

The crew at Ctrl Alt Wow have not steered you wrong: there are indeed quite a few resources online to assist you (quest lists and the like) though I have heard better things from Wowhead than about thottbot. It is mostly to your individual preference, though.
And yes, your tracker will show you 'low-level quest givers' and this - coupled with Carbonite - will be a great help in finding some of the ones you missed.
Here's where I come in:

My take on finding the missing few or last quests you need:
1) Open your world map. Are there any zones in the old world you did not explore fully? That might be a first clue... if you didn't explore it, perhaps there's a quest in that zone that sends you to the unexplored part. It might be worth checking out;
2) Since the expansion, Blizzard has added new quests along with the new content to 'validate' the presence of previously-nonexistent places and things - like Mudsprocket in Dustwallow Marsh. The quests there all count towards the achievement, so if you are missing a few, look back and see what added content there might be that you might not have checked out (probably because you were too high level to want to go back to the zone at the time)
3) Speaking of places you never went back to, (linking back to point number one) perhaps there are places you never went? I can honestly say that - in my first time leveling Blade - I completely skipped Stonetalon Mountains; just bypassed them completely! My questing in the Barrens and then right up into Ashenvale left me completely outside the level requirement for Stonetalon... so I never went. If you're missing a sizable chunk of quests, maybe you missed an entire zone's worth - some places of note: Silithus, the aforementioned Stonetalon Mountains, Felwood, Winterspring, Azshara... and those are just in the Kalimdor zones!
4) There may have been quests for things you simply skipped due to their being part of dungeons (there's some in Tanaris desert (for Zul'Farrak) and Ferelas (for Dire maul) like that... the quests you skipped might have also been ones that inconveniently took you half-way across the world (like the one in Winterspring sending you to Western Plaguelands)... while you're IN WPL, though... head to EPL just across the river, head north and find not only an undead questgiver, but further along, a human questgiver. Why I remember that I have NO idea... there's a guy outside Razorfen Downs... the list goes on and on...
5) Don't forget about long quest chains. The 'test of Faith' questline is a nice one; and if you didn't do the one I affectionately refer to as 'the Paladin Ranged Weapon' questline... you're missing out on another... oh... say 13 or so quests... all counting towards the achievement. Be warned, though... they take you all over the world, but if you're a fan of the original Legend of Zelda game... it (the questline) is worth doing just for the trip down memory lane. Want details of how to go about starting the questline? Do a quick check through the Ctrl Alt Wow archives.

If you're a sucker for punishment (like Ol' Blade was when I did it) you can start in one zone and explore it fully, stopping at every known area with questgivers with your tracker set to find all the low-level quests... that way, not only will you get the Loremaster achievement (through your hard-work and diligence) but you will ALSO get the Explorer achievement! Sporting not one, but TWO new Tabards for your troubles!

Now onto the second of two things that drew my attention... the alarming bias that Ctrl Alt WoW seems to be developing towards the Alliance!
Now I'm not saying that one should not play Alliance... SOMEone has to... and one should always be encouraged to play whatever they want to in order to have fun playing... but...
Where has all the Horde love gone? The talk seems to gravitate towards gnomes and dranei and other blue pointy eared things that bounce.
This is disturbing... along with Aprillian's seeming loss of innocence (when she hit 80, it was lll news, now it's all about GearScore).
It's hard enough for Ol' Blade to pretend to be human in real life... why would I want to pretend to play one in my chosen game of distraction?
That said... the Alliance need to complete 2,843 quests for Loremaster, while the Horde need to 'only' complete 2705.
Seems to me that one side has easier quests... so they have to do MORE to compensate. I'm just sayin'...
So... I wish to put forth a challenge to the listeners of Ctrl Alt WoW:
Have you played both sides? And I mean HONESTLY played them - not just "I rolled an Orc, but didn't like how he looked so never played him"? Can you make a fair and unbiased comparison between the factions?
Show me. Show me what I seem to be missing (or rather what I left far far behind). Prove to me that the rumours of the Alliance being vastly overpopulated by squalling children are not true.
And keep in mind... Ol' Blade knows a lot more about the Alliance side than you might think.... I played Alliance quite extensively... played all the race/class combinations, and I even had two Night Elf bank toons called 'Kashe' and 'Kairie'!
So as an ULTIMATE CHALLENGE, if anyone can name Ol' Blade's VERY FIRST character that he rolled almost five years ago, (plus race and class)... there might just be a prize awaiting you!

One last thing: A shout-out to 'Lespa', level 80 tauren Druid healer on Earthen Ring server. Upon running with my tank one of my first nights back , I tried the LFG system... after finding a guild healer FIRST. Not only did Lespa heal effortlessly and incredibly, but took the time to walk Ol' Blade through an entire instance that I had NEVER been in... even to the point of marking the mobs! Kudos!

Until next time,

I remain:

Loremaster Blade



What We've Been Doing:


Aprillian

Amazed at how quickly I've been making money just by doing dailies.

Remembered to fly up while doing the Cult of the damn and accepting the log in for LFG.
I used my triumph to buy a trinket [Mark of Supremacy], my trinkets are the only things under 200.

I had my alliance toon send over 3 cats and got the acheivement
Died twice in Ahn Kahet. Should have SS myself instead of the priest.
Epril got [Jeweled Fishing Pole]
Gambling on JB?

Just realized Chilimaw and the surrounding scene is the intro

Moved my Elephant Logs to http://aprillianer.blogspot.com/

Aprillian & Vrishna

started 3 new alts on jubethos
sorrry geppy. Love refer a friend
Paladin quests in ragefire & shadowfang keep ... "there are dogs on either side"

Vrishna

blood elf paladin in durotar
warlock in durotar
loved finding ratchet thru the hidden pass.

Ashayo

Mod of the week - Tidy Plates / Threat Plates
http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/tidy-plates-threat-plates.aspx



Raiding 10 man
--------------
Crazy Train - did ICC rep runs. Tried Marrowgar a couple of times, and did a few percentage damage. Hit friendly and got [Ashen Band of Courage] ring 251
Guppers (Jekle) - ToC - won [Pauldrons of Glacial Winds] with a 1. Rocked Faction Champs!
Crazy Train - impromptu monday night naxx - weekly + Sapph + KT. Got the key for Malygos (EoE)
DwP - Doing ICC before maintenance is proving to be very laggy. Wiping on rotface. Reset for next night and cleared first wing again. Great night for loot - both [Sister's Handshrouds] and [Muradin's Spyglass].
Oneshot Saurfang despite more disconnect problems and got the the [I've Gone and Made a Mess] achievement - defeat him before 3 mark of the fallen champion cast. Ashayo now Honored with Ashen Verdict


Raiding 25 man
--------------
DwP (Ashayo) - ICC won [Frozen Bonespike] (dagger). Now need a decent offhand - suggestions? Got down Lady DeathWhisper for first time in 25man after a few wipes
DwP (Asheal) - ICC - reset and got down first three bosses (with me dead for most of the gunship battle). Getting Saurfang to 10% before he enrages and wipes us.
Guppers (Ashayo) - ToC - Beasts down

Heroics
-------
Pudendal
- Finally beat Paletress in H ToC and got the achievement.
- way over defense cap, so bought [Bloodshed Band] -dps ring for 35 emblems.
- Fully pug random heroic and got Oculus. Healer immediately drops. Get replacement, he immediately drops. A dps start running in trash without a healer, dies, and drops. Another dps drops. Finally get replacements, and not only completed, but got the [Make it Count] achievement - which means 4 emblems in under 20 mins. Bargain!
- Tried getting zombie achievement in CoS - 100 zombies in 1 minute. Requires kiting right through from the initial area into the last areas gauntlet. Seems problematic, as one dying starts a timer, rather than being 100 within any 1 minute period.
- PUG Pit of Saron for 50th emblem of frost and bought [Sentinel's Winter Cloak] for tanking. Pondered on getting dps cloak, since I'm over minimum defense value, but I figured more dodge is always good.
- Ran about 5 heroics and got the triumph tanking trinket. Might get the dps trinket as well, but [The Black Heart] from ToC is a nice trinket even though it's only i200

Misc
----
Ashariss - dinged 72 this week, and completed Wrathgate chain
- pugged UK, 68 tank that couldnt' hold aggro and 80 healer that was probably shadow spec. Tank dc'ed after 2nd boss and healer left. Surprisingly, pretty quickly replaced tank and healer and finished instance.
- bugged quest in HF, "Test at Sea". Opened two tickets and was told both times "bad luck"

Farmed for Rituals of the New Moon - offhand item made by inscriptionists. 3rd Kill from Silverbrook Hills mobs in Grizzley hills. Turns you into a wolf.

Pud got knuckle sandwich and master of arms ach doing JC dailies

Pud finished Violet Hold and on last boss, hit exalted with Wyrmrest Accord, which gave [Northrend Vanguard] (4 factions) and 5 exalted reps


Jeppy

El Jeppy is under the weather

Emails

Email #A from The KurlyQ

Hey folks.....'tis your faithful bud Kurly, although....I have not been that faithful with the emails for a while and I do apologize for that, as I am sure that you have missed my riveting tales.....or not....anywho.
So my dwarven female hunter (Dordanka) dinged 80 a few weeks back...and was doing more DPS on her third day as a hunter than either my Moonkin or My Shadow Priest, who have both been 80 for sometime now. This deeply distressed me until I realized that as a pure DPS class of course they are able to tear it up with high numbers (topping 2.1k at last recount) in both Survival and Beast Master. All the Beast Master hate bugs me. There are specialty pets and talents you can use to increase damage, but it does take some finesse, or the slip of a finger on the mouse key, but....whatever works!!
So I have rolled a toon on Jubbie bubbie, so keep an eye out for Sizzawakira. At last log out she was a level 8 Troll Priest...yes....a Priest. As soon as she hits level 10 its going to wsg after wsg and then healing instances starting at level 15....woot woot woot!
Also, I am looking at starting a podcast of my own for me and my little guild, Rabid Kittens on the Norgannon server, so any advice you have will be most welcome!
XOXOXO
Your bud...The KurlyQ


Email #1 from Vince


Non Spanish speakers on Latin Realm

good day Aprillian, Vrishna Ashayo Jeppy and any special guests u may happen to have on. I just wanted to let ya'll know that I really enjoy your show.
Well my story is short. A cousin of mine who I had grown apart from as the years have gone by plays WoW regularly and I had just found that out during our family Christmas party this past year. I play on the spanish/portuguese speaking QuelThalas server due to my wife, who I've managed to get to play WoW. My main language is english..but i do know some spanish...(I DID manage to get a Latin woman to marry me even though i can barely afford to play WoW....lol)
I have an 80 priest, rogue and 64 Paly all alliance..My wife has an 80 druid...allaince as well. We managed to get my cousin..to switch servers and play with us...along with his girlfriend and younger brother ..all alliance...heehee. They all speak a lil spanish...so we have to constantly translate for them from time to time...there are some emglish speaking guilds in there..but translation is still needed at times. Just wanted to say that WoW has managed to help me and my cousin keep in touch more often even if all we ever talk about is game related..Anyways...my 'short message' has managed to be all but that (maybe it was shorter in my head???). Thanks for your awesome show...


Email #B makiling


hey guys, makiling here

first of all i would like to say congratulations to jeppy for dinging 80! i am looking forward to hearing your adventures in northrend at the endgame. i can just imagine how you will be using the heirloom items for all your alts. and i am even more excited to hear how you will bring other toons to 80.

your last show was really fun to listen to. it was nice hearing your guests, and i hope we get to hear from them again.

here are some of the comments i wrote down while listening to your last show:
-if you do the puppy snatching quest in a druid in flight form, you wont have to kill their mothers and just snatch them up =)

-i noticed that Deepril doesnt have a BoA ranged weapon. you might want to buy that too

-and about talking in pugs, i too have noticed that there has been less and less of that. i used to say hi at the start of the instance, but as a tank i want to start as soon as i can. and as a healer or dps, i am catching up with the tank that is in a hurry to finish the dungeon.i just make it a point to say thank you at the end before the group disbands.

speaking of running random dungeons, my druid got into a pug for utgarde pinnacle yesterday. as we were going along, i noticed that time it took for our group to bring down the first 2 bosses was significantly lower (4-5 minutes versus less than 2 minutes according to Deadly boss mods). it was then that i saw that most of the dps were new 80s. the awesome moment came when we were at the gauntlet boss and all of the dps get wiped by his whirlwind! the healer and i slowly chipped off the bosses health until we finally got him down. we then went to the final boss where a few of the dps died again, but we finished the whole instances with no wipes. it has been a long time since a heroic felt as epic as that.

and finally, i would like to share that i rolled another alt: a death knight female orc! you see, i had recently maxed out jewelcrafting on my druid, so now i need someone to transmute gems for her to cut. since i need to be at least level 70 to learn the highest level transmutes and potions, i decided to make another alt =) i got him the BoA shoulders and 2 handed sword, and had just started the dk starting zone. i havent done all the quests because i want him to have maxed out rested exp, but i had just discovered that respeccing her talents was free. i dont know if it was because i did it once or because i was still at the starting area, but i thought it was a nice thing to share especially if you want to try out other specs early on.

thats it from me for now, for the horde!

twitter.com/makiling_mage

Email #2 from Chol


Hey Guys,

Listened to you reading my email out - thanks!.... but...

Choldar - Achievment 'Lady of the Night'? Erm, perhaps not.
Choldar - Achievment "rub your tummy, guv'nor?" ... OMG! (thanks Jeppy)... Oh yeah, I didn't know you did bird calls Aprillian... :D

While I think my arguments against me being called "Choldar .. has changed" have failed badly, I will continue to argue the case that there are necessary evils in the game where you do stuff you dislike in order to get completion (I mean that in a clean way, Jeppy!), or to do something you do like.

Perhaps Jeppy and I should have a conversation at some point to settle the matter ? LOL.

Keep up the good work, I thoroughly enjoy listening to the show.

FOR THE HORDE!
Chol etc on Jubei'Thos
Pantsonhead Guild

Email #3 From Donna

Dear Aprillian, Vrishna, Ashayo and Jeppy,

Since my last e-mail, so much as has happened! I have finally succeeded in completing Loremaster of Kalimdor and am now on my way to completing the few quests left in Outlands and Icecrown for my title "The Loremaster." I spent all last weekend on Botswala, my 80 Orc Hunter, researching and playing to find those last few quests I needed to get to 685 in Kalimdor. It was tough but well worth it. I feel so proud! And no, I have no life. Ha ha.

For those out there looking for some hard to find quests, here are a couple that might help.

In Un'Goro Crater, take a peek around a lake in the southeast of the crater to find a wrecked raft. This leads you to the pack under the water and from there....all over the place! You even have to die to complete this quest chain. Shhh...but don't tell anyone because it's a secret!

Desolace has quite a few unusual quests to find. How about the Gizelton Caravan that travels north and south along the road. The Gizeltons offer two quests that are only available for a few minutes while they are traveling. If you don't catch them during those times, you won't get the quests. They are escort quests and if you are at level, definitely be well geared or take some friends. Also, on the beach in the north lies a book on the shore next to a chest, click on it for a great quest, but learn to hold your breath for a long time!

If you are in Feralas, head over to the Gordunni Outpost where the ogres hang out. Search around carefully for a scroll lying on the ground. It won't have an exclamation point and it spawns in different locations, but if you find it, it will lead you to witness a very dark ceremony. Watch out for those pesky ogre mages!

Besides obsessing about achievements, I have been playing my other toons. My husband and I have been playing a few characters together. Our level 30 somethings are still questing it out somewhere in Azeroth but I honestly can't remember where. That 30-40 level span is tough for me. I tend to get distracted easily and lose interest. Once you get past 40 or even better, 50, I gain more interest and want to play the toon more. Anyway, we will keep up with them and get them up there sooner or later. But the real distraction besides achievements this week has been the transfer of my Level 57 Blood Elf priest, Sistajosepha, over to Earthen Ring. I love playing her and am happy I finally decided to bring her over. I think she was lonely on her other realm! Currently she is leveling as a shadow priest and having a blast. I have been playing her with my husband's hunter toon, Tigerbelle. I am hoping I will get up the nerve to actually use her for raiding one day. But the thought gives me the chills. I need to get past the raid phobia thing and not worry so much about what other players think.

I've said enough...have a great weekend...talk to you soon.

Donna

P.S. Thank you for a great podcast. We enjoy it immensely!


Email #c from Melvyl

Hey Guys!

I haven't written in a while but all the letters in this week's episode inspired me so here goes.

When last I wrote, back in October, I had just gotten my Shadow Priest, Sceadua, to level 59. She ended up spending 9 days in Outland and then another 2 1/2 weeks in Northrend getting to 80. So at that point I had 3 80s in my Alliance guild. That part was great. The only downside was that our guild had kind of collapsed over the summer.

Then came November. Apparently our guild thrives in cold weather. Participation really picked up with lots of new people participating - including several couples, which you guys can appreciate. None of our new guildies have 80s yet but many of them are getting close.

But for me, it still meant a lot of dailies and a lot of soloing. Getting a group for the Heroic Daily was possible but usually a pain and very time-consuming. And then 3.3 came. It changed everything.

These days, I try to run a random on each of my 80s at least once a day. I have both the title and the pug now on all 3 of them and they are all sporting the level 264 capes. I really didn't like healing pugs but once you get better gear it gets much much easier. Between drops in the new instances and badges, they all have a gearscore now that even Aprillian wouldn't look too far down on.

I don't know if my guild will be able to raid before Cataclysm but I am least hoping for a guild run of HoL and HoS like Karen's guild this week.

I haven't forgotten my PoH or AIE toons, either. I have some plans for them as soon as I have enough Triumph (not Frost) badges to get the right heirlooms for them.

I was going to tell the story of my misadventures in leveling a druid but I will save that for the next e-mail.

Melvyl, Holy Paladin, Libraries and Librarians Guild on Aerie Peak

Also on Earthern Ring

Sceadua, Shadow Priest
Encyclopedia, Death Knight

On Jubei'thos

Lyvlem, Death Knight

On Earthern Ring
Adversaria, Death Knight
Aversa, Protection Paladin

p.s. You can letter this one. I don't need the free month.




Sunday, January 24, 2010

Ctrl Alt WoW Episode 151 - What They've Been Doing

Aprillian, Ashayo and Jeppy discuss another week of playing World of Warcraft, Blizzard's great MMORPG. Contest Ongoing send an email to ctrlaltwow@gmail.com telling us how you play WoW, either as an altaholic or dealing with it in your family life to being placed in a drawing for a month free of WoW or a $10 iTunes Gift Card or an Authenticator, they are back in the store.

For Cypher and Hypknotoad

A great podcast called The Addicted at http://theaddictedcast.com/


Special Segment:

Hi all at ctrl alt wow!

My names Rille, or as others know me better, Jaminbee on twitter and the like. I was talking to jeppy and our friend celticlucas after listening to the-then latest episode. I was also running Dire Maul and talking about how much i loved the look and lore behind the instance, to which lucas commented that he knew very little about the lore behind the instance. After talking about the lore i made a joke about a lore podcast, to which jeppy suggested that i produce a segment for ctrl alt wow.

that leads us here, i have a short episode on the subject we talked about that night, dire maul, and wondered if you wanted to stick it in there somewhere, let me know what you think!

FOR GNOMEREGAN!
~Rille


What We've Been Doing:


Aprillian

After recording Episode 150, I got to hang out with Iceflow and Caoboi. I love running instances with them because they make me feel so safe and not stupid. We had fun! and I got to do Occulus. I also got two new pieces of gear:
Crown of Unbridled Magic and Boots of the Crackling Flame. Both required gems and re enchating. We did TOC, which is awesome. I learned a lot.

Weird thing. I was looking on WoW-Heroes for all new enchants and it suggests as a top chest enchant Enchant Chest Major Spirit.



And my gearscore went up!


Got some new enchants, changed my glyphs, got some new gems for the new gear I got. Also got my Hodir rep halfway to exalted thanks again to my Fairy Godparents, Iceflow and Coaboi.

Did a Random Heroic, you know to get those Frost emblems:

Logging started on 01/16/2010 at 08:15:17.
09:15:18 [Aprillian]: haiul
09:15:39 [Aprillian]: cookies?
09:16:19 [Trainwrek-Shadowmoon]: sec for mana
09:19:59 [Trainwrek-Shadowmoon]: dont have to clear the whole instance
09:27:26 [Trainwrek-Shadowmoon]: im gonna outdps the lock
09:28:40 [Aprillian]: wellyou're not
09:28:59 [Trainwrek-Shadowmoon]: Recount - DPS for Overall Data
09:28:59 [Trainwrek-Shadowmoon]: 1. Cassus 3439.1 (44.1%)
09:28:59 [Trainwrek-Shadowmoon]: 2. Msguillotine-Burning Blade 1850.2 (23.7%)
09:28:59 [Trainwrek-Shadowmoon]: 3. Niko 1180.8 (15.1%)
09:28:59 [Trainwrek-Shadowmoon]: 4. Aprillian-Earthen Ring 791.3 (10.1%)
09:28:59 [Trainwrek-Shadowmoon]: 5. Trainwrek 536.1 (6.8%)
09:29:50 [Aprillian]: do you want me to leave?
09:30:00 [Trainwrek-Shadowmoon]: nope
09:30:20 [Aprillian]: You're gearscore is over 5k
09:30:39 [Aprillian]: I'm a brand new 80
09:34:00 [Trainwrek-Shadowmoon]: allmost there
09:37:34 [Trainwrek-Shadowmoon]: thanks all
09:37:39 [Aprillian]: thank you


What was the point of critisizing me and I don't know where he got that, I got this:
09:41:46 [Aprillian]: Recount - DPS for Overall Data
09:41:46 [Aprillian]: 1. Cassus-Shadowmoon 3552.9 (40.6%)
09:41:46 [Aprillian]: 2. Msguillotine-Burning Blade 1789.4 (20.4%)
09:41:46 [Aprillian]: 3. Aprillian 1444 (16.5%)
09:41:46 [Aprillian]: 4. Niko-Shadowmoon 1207.8 (13.8%)
09:41:46 [Aprillian]: 5. Trainwrek-Shadowmoon 749.8 (8.5%)


Well I got my emblems, that's all that matters.

Respecced my off spec to Ashayo's current Spec, but I've tried to use it and have had awful results. Got killed fighting Chillimaw!

Logged out wearing my lance and my Wow heroes stats went down

Preparing Toons for transfer - Bought BOA head enchant from Kirin Tor, probably should have done some from Hodir- too late. Also sent Tomb of Cold Weather Flying, 300 g, some Titansteel bars, frostweave bags and Winter's Veil Pets. Then I transfered Deepril from the RAF account to my main account. She opened her mail box and got this:

And a few minutes later a letter to meet the Flying Trainer at Thrallmar.




Looked at Epril on Monday morning and got overwelmed. Her gear score was 1117, used Wow-heroes.com to see what gear would be upgrades. Found some Auruk could make then realized it was all mail after she equipped but her gearscore doubled.

Spent Thu morning running heroics and levelling up 2 toons on the RAF account. Really sick of people who don't loot their trash. I work hard to keep my bags empty, so it's hard. Accidentally hit record while in Occulus. Didn't realize until way after. wondered why I was having some movement issues. Still can't believe new toons get Shat FP right out of the b

Got exalted with Hodir & got the Glacial bag pattern & Wyrmrest & got the [Tailoring: Mysterious Bag]. Made one glacial bag. Had mats for the Enchanting bag but hesitated to make it.

Ran Random heroic - Forge of Souls with Sarossa and got [Very Fashionable Shoulders] upgrade.

Got the Chill enchant on Deepril BOA dagger, now she looks awesome:

Aprillian & Vrishna

Played with sis

Ran Stratholme with Virinya healing. It was awesome.

Rogues in Eastern Plagueland, new FP?


Virinya ..... Scholomance ... naked duel ...door locked from BOTH sides
Stratholme ... ate chicken .... healed and cleansed Epril & Elyte ... Aprillian gets her wish, a healer. I feel TRULY USED !!! LOL Until ... oooh, some sparkly stuff. CLANG, trap,
rats, Deepril on follow and we're both dead.

Ran Hellfire Ramparts with my healer, Epril & Deepril = Awesome.

Vrishna

Dokitza Turn in or kill ...... KILL

Ashayo

On Vacation STILL!

Caoboi & Iceflow

Iceflow: Went raiding with Not in the Face 25 man and got Rotface and Festergut down like we have been killing them for weeks! I did awesome on the raid mechanics and I managed to stay out of the stupid. I got my 95 frost emblems needed and got my first piece of Tier 10, my helm. Kinda makes me look weird but the damage cannot be denied.


Caoboi and I have been playing our mage and pally combos and we finally got to Northrend. We finally got to level 70 and we are on our way to 80. Our droods are 150% rested and they are ready for us to play.
Had a crazy random with Caoboi and Aprillian. Had to put some people on my ignore list for the first time from the crossrealm pugs.
Getting ready for the AIE meetup in March (shameless plug).
Got Windows 7 and WoW is still running great on it.
Compare to a year ago, I never thought Iceflow would be as geared as she is. Thanks to AIE.


Caoboi: I too went raiding with Not in the Face 25 man and 10 man as well, I happened to get subbed in for one of the healers/ranged DPSers I managed to get my 2nd Tier 10 piece. I now have my shoulders and my Helmet. The shoulders have a cool animation check them out: :)


Here's a pic of Ice and I hanging out in Dalaran:

Got my mage, Caobolt, up to level 70 with Iceflow's Paladin. Also been doing randoms daily to get more frost badges and had an Awesome COS run with Aprillian and Ice where I got to let someone that was rude die. Ice and Aprillian ended up dpsing/tanking the last two bosses including the Dragon at the end :) The guys friend that was rude was there also, he decided to ninja as much of the stuff he could but I had the satisfaction of him having to run all the way back from the graveyard.

I've also been working on my newly minted 60 druid, Caolei, herbalism. I'm trying to get herbalism up to level 300 so that I can herb the outland herbs when Ice and I go to the outlands. Got our tickets ordered for Nerdtacular and room booked we are super excited!



Jeppy

A fine week of focus focus focus.


The hunter twins kept up the pace through Northrend and apart from one follow related death by falling seem to have shaken of the bad luck which has dogged them thus far.


An update.


Karlaine and Farlaine shot through Outlands hitting 70 in Nagrand after some umming and ahhing about carrying on in the outland zones they finally gave that up as a bad idea and jumped the boat to

Borean Tundra.


Hit 72 whilst completing 'Nothing Boring About Borean' Not the best zone but a nice collection of quests. Liked all the dragon stuff over in Coldarra and was more disturbed by the poison wolf poop quest than by the so called 'torture' Hated the DEHTA people (bleeding tree huggers)


Hit 74 whilst completing 'I've Toured the Fjord' This is by far the superior of the two starting areas but glad I did both.


Hit 77 whilst completing 'Might of Dragonblight' I love snow so this area was great! The quest (Flight of the Wintergarde Defender) where you borrow a gryphon and rescue villagers from the scourge was super frustrating. Had to keep trying as it opens up all the Wintergarde facilities plus several group quests. Loved when I got to borrow a drake from the temple. I used it for as long as I could and kept trying to fly further than it would allow.


As soon as I hit 77 I shot over to Dalaran and gladly shelled out 2000 gold for both hunters to get cold weather flying. This made it an almost different game again. I love flying! Sadly Dalaran is often like a slide show on all my PCs.


Then it was onto Grizzly Hills (so far my favourite zone) Flying helped me to complete 'Fo' Grizzle My Shizzle' which is far and away the best quest achievement name.


After a long conversation with Alachia it became obvious I had missed a trick DAILIES! She showed me the cool Kalu'ak ones. I love bringing sea lions together. I was a wee bit concerned about the one when you capture the pups (Planning for the Future)


'Hey mister did you just kill my mummy'

'Nope now get in the bag!'


They say it is to save the Wolvar but I have noticed several 'Hot Pup Pita' stands in the Kalu'ak villages.


I also did all the PVP dailies in Grizzly Hills (think the rock star Wemb mentioned this many months ago) Super easy (especially at the times I play) and tons of gold and XP.


Hit 79 when I moved onto Zul'Drak. Before moving onto 80 Alachia suggested I flew around all of Northrend for the 'Explore Northrend' Achievement. Got about 11% of my needed XP and a rather bland tabard.


The (drum roll) I hit 80. I had planned to do this in an epic manner but instead prematurely dinged on a non achievement discover! Oh well.


So my second day as an 80 I once again talk to Guru Alachia and she suggest I look at the spec of one of her guilds top Hunters Blackfist which I did and even read some of Elitist Jerks!


Next thing I know I am in heroics with her and Flipmax who made my first time very very comfortable with uber healing and super DPS/


They helped me experience Utgarde Pinnacle, Drak'Tharon Keep and then The Culling of Stratholme. Where I got the Bronze Drake now I just need to save for epic flying!I also got my first emblems some cool trinkets and an appreciation for end game.


I am currently running with the Ebon Blade tabard so I can get the best shoulder enchant for my class.


So overall a damn fun run to 80. Next up a Paladin :)

Emails


Email #1 from Chol

Hey guys...

Listening to ep149 - Tempestes Listening... and listened to Ashayo mention that I'd been doing battlegrounds and also being an ach. whore.
I'd like to put my case forward before the title of "..... has changed" gets applied to me...

I was doing battlegrounds due to being on but knowing I needed better gear. While the bg won't provide that, it will provide honour to get gems. That's what I'm after. I still dislike doing battlegrounds - but this was very much in the nature of a "necessary evil".

As for the title of "Achievement Whore Choldar".... I wanted to do runs that I had never done. The fact that the way the game is currently done provides an Achievement ... well, there's a bonus for me... and that I got at least 1, and for the final boss - 3 - achievements... well... it happens.

I hope you will consider this before granting me another achievement of ".... has changed". :D

Take care guys
Choldar, Cholsdeath, Herewego, Plastichair
Pantsonhead
Jubei'Thos


Email #2 from Jeannine


Hi! I've been a fan of Ctrl Alt WoW for almost a year, and I never miss a show. I play with my husband, and we just celebrated our one-year WoW anniversary on January 1. I bought him a mekgineer's chopper for an anniversary present. It took me weeks of slaving away in the auction house to finally make enough to buy it. He loves the chopper, and now we quest together in style.

Several months ago, I gave you all a 5-star iTunes review. Aprillian read it aloud and then poked fun about literate Alliance players. So, /Vroom vroom /rasp.... Eat your heart out, Aprillian ;-)

We have toon pairs in each race on the Alliance side with levels ranging from 9 to 72. My favorite are our gnomes--Zooce and Herra, a warlock and mage. I think the game has brought us closer as a couple. We play WoW instead of watch TV. WoW is way more engaging than television.

We make a good team. He sets our questing agenda and is wonderful with mapping and directions. I stink with maps and directions, but I'm great at making gold, and I keep us all outfitted in the best gear and fun pets and toys. It feels good to know we've got each other's backs in the game, and that feeling extends to real life. WoW has definitely increased our sense of partnership.

Thanks for doing such a great job. Your podcast is always entertaining, and I learn something new every week. I enjoy your banter. I miss Glanther and hope that he will return, at least to visit once in a while. Thank the Alliance that Jeppy joined; he's a welcome addition to the Ctrl Alt WoW team. LONG LIVE THE ALLIANCE!

XOXOXO,
Jeannine, The Scryers

P.S., Poor Ashayo and Jeppy on New Year's. It really was funnier in your head! ;-)

Email #3 from Acaldra

Hello Ctrl Alt WoW crew, Acaldra here from Alea Iacta Est. Currently I am playing a 80 Blood Elf paladin as my "main" but always love the good alt! It all started when my friend recommend me to the game and unaware of how wrong it was, I rolled Alliance and stayed that way for the first 8 or so months of my WoWing career. First I rolled a rogue and got it to level 18 or so and decided nah, not for me at the moment. Then I rolled a druid and loved it but couldn't quite get from 10 to 20 without gouging my eyes out. Then I discovered the paladin... I made a Moon Cow holy warrior that I slowly leveled towards 80. From the moment I started the game I have always been listening to WoW podcasts in order to be more informed about what is going on in the game outside of my little bubble. While I was leveling my paladin, I thought that getting to 80 was the only thing that I wanted to do and that once I was there, the game would be awesome and so much better then the whole leveling "ordeal". With this in mind, I rolled a DK the moment I dinged 55, thinking that it would get me to 80 faster. Once I got to level 80 on my Death Knight, I realized that it was not the class for me and decided to level up my paladin. I leveled the whole way dual-specced Holy/Protection and loved every minute of it. I took my time and did my professions correctly and really just enjoyed the game. The moment faction transfers came into play, I grabbed the opportunity and hopped on over to AIE as quickly as I could. Since then I have been raiding on my Paladin once a week with the guild (currently in TOC 10) and have rolled alts a plenty.
Sorry for the wall of text, love the show and keep up the good work,
Acaldra
80 Belf Paladin of AIE and all of my Alts!


Email #4 from Melindria

G’Day Aprillian, Ashayo( in absentia), El Jeppy and Vrishna,

I’d suggest that

a) Ashayo read this, since I am an Aussie (pronounced Ozzie) as well, but

b) I am a female Wow player who games with her significant other beside her, so maybe Aprillian should; but then again

c) I mostly play Alliance, so maybe El Jeppy should; but yet again

d) my main toon is a hunter who does not get as much play time as I would like so maybe Vrishna should; or yet again

e) I believe you are having guests this week, and I’d hate for them to feel left out , so I’d be delighted if they read.

Well, that probably gives a brief overview of my wow play style and who I am, so on to the reason for this email.

I was listening to your wonderful episode 150 with Tempeste guesting while I sat and waited through a day of medical tests and scans. What could have been a stressful time probably made some people wonder if I was there for some kind of psysch testing instead, since I had a loopy grin on my face throughout much of the time , and burst out into uncontrollable guffaws at the point where El Jeppy described his unfortunate encounter while in Murloc guisewith the non dancing priest - that has to be one of my favourite quests in the entire zone. Love those tadpoles!

I wanted to thank you all for brightening that day in particular, but you should know how much I , and I am sure many others, look forward to the download hitting iTunes at the beginning of each week. Besides you all sounded so sad at the number of emails you get each week, so I bit the bullet and wrote this (during Tuesday maintenance of course!)

Donna’s email inspired me to resume my Loremastering questing, and with the changes to addons , several are now available that can help you in this achievement. Everyquest combined with Questhelper configured to show incomplete quests, has proven to be a real boon, but I am sure other listeners could advise on other ways to tweak your journey. I wanted to thank you , and Donna, for re inspiring me, since I have quested in Teldrassil with many alts, and hated those harpies SOoooo much that I had never discovered the Mist and Shimmering Frond quests there. If that’s what I find in a relatively well known zone, I can’t wait to see what is to come in the nooks and crannies of Azeroth . I’ll keep you posted on my progress, currently I have 125 quests to go in Kalimdor

For the Alliance!!!

Melindria Level 80 N-Elf Dalaran server US + many other toons (including ones you can’t read out since they belong to P.O.H. in Jubie’Thos)


Email # 5 from Noxiouss


Hello Aprillian, Glanthur, Ashayo, Vrishna and Jeppy!

I just wanted to open up this email by saying I've been listening to your show for about 2 1/2 years now and your podcast was the first one I started listening to. I listen to many podcasts, but yours has been on my itunes subscription list the longest. I also rarely write-in to podcasts. For this reason, I apologize, in advance, for how long this email is. I knew I would write in eventually and I have kept many things in mind for when I would eventually write in. As of right now, I have finally caught up with all of the podcasts I listen to, all of the wow news feeds I have set for myself, and can finally get to writing this email since wow is down for maintenance.

First off, congratulations on making it to level cap Aprillian! Yay!!! To be quite honest, I'm quite surprised that you eventually decided to try for and achieve level 80. I love your innocence of the game and always wondered what you would do at level cap if you were to get there.

I don't know if you have ever thought about this, but I think there is a third group of listeners you have out there that listen to your podcast. There are the alt-o-holics that the show is made for, those crazy single-toon rollers who like listening to and about said alt-o-holics, and people like me. I started listening to your show because I was new to the game and wanted to learn as much as possible about everything I could. I thought I could learn from people who know a little about everything, it would help me decide what I wanted to play. It's also nice to hear about other people's take of the game and adventures they go through.

Unlike what you think most people roll for their first toon Aprillian, I rolled a TROLL hunter (not night elf). Once I got bored with him and after listening to your podcast, I decided to roll a mage. [Funny side-story: My boss ran my hunter through Scarlet Monastery a couple of times with his then 70, and I thought it was so OP I wanted to level the class that he played. I thought it was a mage, but I found out later that he was a Warlock]. Most of my toons are Alliance, but only because I found out later that my cousins played on alliance. I am 26 years old (no, I don't consider myself a kid) and I am also horde at heart.

I'm not sure if you would want to break up this email over several shows, but I have compiled a list of things/helpful hints that I have kept track of when listening to your podcast. At one point, I believe Aprillian was having trouble getting help for finishing the quest in Hellfire to take down the Fel Reaver. When I played my mage, I was able to solo this by waiting for it to patrol next to Thrallmar. If you get it close enough or kite it over, the guards will take over and help you kill it. If you die, the graveyard is right there and you can help finish him off.

As for both your rogue and Vrishna's rogue and that tower out in Westfall, (this is when I leveled my alliance rogue. Not sure if it's for horde as well) the quest to get the poison for your weapon also helps you with leveling your lockpicking skill. If you try it at level 20 it's a bit challenging, but there are 2 of you, so you should be fine. Also, keep lock-picking that chest over and over, and it can get you up to level 170. Just realize that you can only skill-up your lock-picking equal to the level you currently are. So at level 20 your lock-picking won't let you skill up to 170. Let me know what level you are with your lock-picking and I can help you find locations to help you level it up. Admittedly, I should have done a lot more pick-pocketing when I played my rogue. I don't think I took advantage of that ability as much as I should have.

To Glanthur, if he's still listening, I have always played games with my friends in raids to see who can survive raid wipes. Depending one what class, you can use many different abilities to escape the repair cost. Other than Hunters using feign death, Mages can use invisibility, Rogues can vanish, Paladins can Divine Intervention, and I used to use Shadowmeld all the time when I was on my druid. :) Both of my cousins I would raid with would literally try to kill each other or myself. One was a hunter who would misdirect the rogue and the other was a rogue who would tricks of the trade the hunter, but they would feign or vanish to stay alive and I would Shadowmeld. Kind of funny to watch.

Speaking of playing my druid. I have one at level 80 that I've played and raided on all 4 specs. There was a listener not too long ago asking for a rotation for feral cat. If you would like, I could spare you the writing and maybe call in (voice app on the iPhone) to give advice on rotations and priorities for playing a feral cat. But for now, I will just attach a funny, but quite simple diagram for a kitty's rotation/priority list (Aprillian, don't know if your show notes are pg as well, so you might want to edit it if you put it on your website). Let me know what you'd like me to do.

Well, the realms are back up, so I'm going to get back to playing while I have the chance. Hope this wasn't too long. I'm sure I forgot something I was wanting to say. Keep up the good work. Love the show! For CtrlAltWow!!!


Noxiouss (80 undead mage)
Luunah (80 night elf druid)
Juggergnawt (80 human death knight)
Vathrows (80 draenei paladin)
Critzs (73 human rogue)
Berrymanalow (70 gnome mage)
Vathros (65 blood elf paladin)
Xuess (60 human death knight)
Cupcheck (55 undead death knight)
Jillaen (51 draenei shaman)
Snicklefritz (44 troll hunter)
etc. . .


Email #6 from Flynte


Needless to say I was very excited to hear my email being read on the podcast, but I wanted to clear a couple of things up. I am a father, not a mother. It's very coincidental though, just yesterday the WOW Armory was showing my character as a female human instead of a male human.....hhhmmmmmmm...

I also would like to say that I have not tried breast feeding, I believe the bottle of formula is doing a sufficient job :)

This past week I have been able to run several heroics through the Dungeon Finder, so hopefully it will become more common place.

Thanks again, and keep up the good work.


- Flynte Level 80 Ret Pally on the Fizzcrank Realm.
- Beware The Click-a-din!!!


Email #A from Karen


Hey Ctrl-Alt-Wow crew!

I finally caught up with all your podcasts, so feel like I can write in. Loved the New Year's Eve Episode, though I think that in general, a no drinking while podcasting rule is a good idea. The last episode with Tempe was also great. I agree, it does take two Americans to replace a single Aussie.

I just started a new full-time teaching job, so haven't had as much time in-game as I'd like, but my Alliance Guild ran Halls of Stone and Halls of Lightning for the first time last weekend. I know, we're kind of late to the party, but we're only a 6 person guild, so it was an accomplishment to get everyone together and make it through. They are beautiful instances, lots of fun to see.

Other than that, I've been leveling my gnome dk, doing the Argent Tournament Dailies when I can, and enjoying the time I have in WoW as a break from all the other stuff in my life.

Keep up the great work, I commute to school, so need my podcasts to listen to!

Karen

ps My husband, daughter and I will be at Macworld Expo this year, though this may be our last year. We debated about going this time, but the King Tut Exhibit is also in San Francisco, so we're going to do both. Are you going to be there, Aprillian?

Email # B from Makling the Mage


hey guys, makiling here,

i just listened to your show and it was nice hearing tempeste on the show.

my week in wow has been made up of two thigs: leveling jewelcrafting and doing random heroics.

jewelcrafting was quite expensive to level as a profession. i remember in a previous episode that ashayo leveld jewelcrafting on one of his toons, and he recommended having a miner. so i had my priest who had mining send the mats to my druid. i wanted the jewelcrafters stamina gems to help boost up her health as a tank. the hurdle to get over in jc is the one before getting to the northrend ores, and its smooth sailing after that. so now my druid has the jc gems and the jc trinket, woot!

i've been doing random heroics on all my toons to stock up on emblems, and buying emblem gear. my mage and my priest eventually got all of the pre raid gear, and i've been focusing mostly on my druid. and in one of my occulus runs, i won the blue drake! its a shame though because i only use the swift flight form...

an important lesson that ive learned is that if you want to ignore someone from another realm, you have to add them to your list before you drop group. i had learned that after i got into a group of immature individuals who cannot follow simple instructions. it was the first boss in pit of saron, and the last straw was when they started calling me profanities despite talking to them nicely the whole time.

has aprillian done the oracles quest? my toons have been having mostly aged yolks.. better luck next week i guess.

that's it from me for now,

i hope jeppy gets his lvl 80 hunters soon =)

for the horde!

Email #7 from Morphius

Hello, my name is Morphius and my main is a level 80 Druid in the Hearts of Fire guild on the Arygos server in the Hearts of Fire guild. I play wow as a mixture of an altoholic and a semi-hardcore gamer. I work nights so it's hard to find a good raiding guild that raids after midnight or in the morning or I would probably become a hardcore raider because I do love to raid. I do also have a level 80 Death Knight and Warlock. I tend to switch mains every month or so but haven't here recently because I started taning on my druid and love it plus it's really fast to find a group in the new LFG system. I'm currently working on getting a healing set for my druid so I will have at least one of each kind of toon: healing, tank, and dps. I really enjoy the show. I download it and listen to it while I'm at work and it's great entertainment and makes the night go by quicker. Keep up the great work!!
Morphius
Email # C from Bidkar

Greetings CtrlAltWow Crew!

Bidkar, undead Mage here. I had quite a bit of "character maintenance" to do for the last couple of weeks, so I didn't get a chance to quest much. I had been a bit lazy with my bank and mailbox. My mailboxes on the 9 toons I play regularly were full and so were their banks, so I have been playing auction house quite a bit. I've made about 5k in gold so far and they are only half empty! I'm quite the packrat so I save everything that isn't gray. I've found it to be handy to save everything because one of my alts probably can use it eventually.

I only did the cooking and fishing dailies on Bidkar and Jehi the paladin. I did finally finish Bidkar's enchanting and brought him up to 450. I was short 5 points for a long time, but I don't like to waste mats by just leveling willy nilly.

I dinged 73 on my blood elf warlock Allerea. She's still working on her jewelcrafting. I have the mats to take her to 450, but I'm waiting till I can use the items created.

Sagrado the priest is just sitting around waiting for his turn.

Joash the tauren druid leveled from 61 to 71. I love playing the druid so much I've decided to actually finish Outland on him instead of moving on to Northrend. He's in Netherstorm right now. His alchemy is up to 436. I farmed the mats for his alchemy on the death knight. It's very nice to have the Northrend flasks and elixirs. I picked transmutation as my specialization mainly because it did not require an instance run. Get ready to laugh at me, but I have only been on two official instance runs in all of my time in Wow. I've been run through a few times here and there by an 80 while leveling Bidkar. I've run a few of the Old World instances on my paladin after he hit 80 to help out some people, but that's it. I don't care for them and avoid them like the plague.

My troll death knight finished her Northrend inscription research. I should level her to 80, but I can't dig the death knight groove.

My poor hunter is still in Thousand Needles waiting for me to find time to play him.

That's it for right now. Hopefully I can avoid the auction house for awhile. It is fun to get the gold in the mail, but posting auctions on the auction house lacks the excitement of questing.

Glanthur, I hope you are having fun learning sign language. I really miss your lore segments.

As always, I love the podcast. Anytime you want to podcast twice a week, I'm ready to listen.

For the Horde and For Glanthur and El Jeppy!

Bidkar and his many alts



Shout Outs & Thank You

Momomomnt

Hello all,
hope you are doing well and having fun.
I have had a long work week (by the time you get this 2 weeks!) which has cut into my wow time,
yes crazy work getting in the way of wow!

I have been able to get some daily random Heroics done for badges on my priest and the weekly raid too with my guild even though we have had some guild drama which is another stupid part of the game but we persevere and find more people to play with us.
Oh and I need to tell you about another wonderful pug "lfg" me and guildy were able to get into. I was on my priest and she was on her mage. We had the lfg pop up as I was waiting for UK to load up, and once it loaded and I was zoning into the instance, everyones health was below 90% the tank was already onto the 2nd group of mobs.
Yes yes I know we have gone through this but one more time will not hurt.
So I say ok lets just make this tanky and dps happy and rush rush rush!!!

I heal him through as he gathers mob after mob, into the big room with the big fire...one dps gets aggro and I let him die because I just focus on the tank health getting lower and lower than another dps gets aggro and wipe!!
So we come back as the tank and dps are complaining and repeat that again (as the tank has 3 diff groups on him) than tank/dps drop out. We could not believe that we were killed in UK, not once but TWICE!!! comeon!!! Are we not eliete!! guess not! Thankfully we were able to get into lfg again and find a tank that moved on a fast pace without being all crazy like.
In exchanging tweets with @outlandishmatt he stated he does do something similar but I am willing to give him and other good tanks the credit that they do not cause wipes and are not ridiculous. I keep bring this up because as a healer it keeps happening and all we all need to do is take an extra seconds, literally seconds and we do not have to worry about wiping the group or leaving the group.
Another (not sure if it is new phenomenon or not) strategy is to skip bosses. This I do not understand at all ( I do know it makes completing the instance a bit faster) as skipping bosses means missing badges and loot to shard.
I know everyone is not going to be like mo (or be like Mike :)) and smell the roses or others like me but can we all just get along!?

In the raiding life we are progressing to the new ICC bosses and will be trying 10 and 25 groups this Friday and Sunday and hope it goes well. The new bosses are so pretty Aprillian I hope you can checkout some screenshots from someone, of rotface and whathisface oh and their precious little dogs. They are all so cute, they are giving Hello Kitty a run for her money!

To close out, Thank you to the Ctrl Alt Wow crew and all your podcasting colleagues as we do appreciate your work and make out weekly wow lives so much better. Have fun in game and out of game and sorry to hear the tweet this week Aprillian stay safe.

Take care all


--
Mo

DeWayne Willoughby (@Ahigabg)
1/19/10 12:06
@Aprillian OMG! U guys r killing me wth ep 149!! I am lol at work and people think I am crazy.

Aprillian (@Aprillian)
1/19/10 12:34
@Ahigabg That's my job, making people look crazy at work, on the subway and in the privacy of their homes!

Sunday, January 17, 2010

For Cypher and Hypknotoad

A great podcast called The Addicted at http://theaddictedcast.com/

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Ctrl Alt WoW Episode 150 - Not Only Did Tempeste Listen, She Came!

Aprillian, Ashayo and Jeppy discuss another week of playing World of Warcraft, Blizzard's great MMORPG. Contest Ongoing send an email to ctrlaltwow@gmail.com telling us how you play WoW, either as an altaholic or dealing with it in your family life to being placed in a drawing for a month free of WoW or a $10 iTunes Gift Card or an Authenticator, they are back in the store.

This episode of Ctrl Alt WoW is brought to you by Vern of Runtotem server. Thank you for your generous donation.


What We've Been Doing:


Aprillian



Went Dungeon hopping Sat morning. Scared because of my low gearscore.

Recent Achievements
10 ( 01-09-2010 ) The Kirin TorEarn exalted status with The Kirin Tor.
10 ( 01-09-2010 ) Somebody Likes MeRaise a reputation to Exalted.
10 ( 01-09-2010 ) Drak'Tharon KeepDefeat the bosses in Drak'Tharon Keep.
10 ( 01-09-2010 ) Heroic: Drak'Tharon KeepDefeat the Drak'Tharon Keep bosses on Heroic Difficulty.
10 ( 01-09-2010 ) Oh Novos!Defeat Novos the Summoner in Drak'Tharon Keep on Heroic Difficulty without allowing any undead minions to reach the floor.

Recent Achievements
10 ( 01-10-2010 ) Snakes. Why'd It Have To Be Snakes?Defeat Slad'ran in Gundrak on Heroic Difficulty without getting snake wrapped.
10 ( 01-10-2010 ) Heroic: The OculusDefeat The Oculus bosses on Heroic Difficulty.
10 ( 01-10-2010 ) Northrend Dungeonmaste rComplete the Northrend dungeon achievements listed below.
10 ( 01-10-2010 ) The OculusDefeat the bosses in The Oculus.
10 ( 01-10-2010 ) Heroic: Utgarde KeepDefeat the Utgarde Keep bosses on Heroic Difficulty.

Finished the Thunder Bluff Valiant and became Aprillian of Thunder Bluff!!
Bought some rep to also get Aprillian of Silvermoon. Jousting for the Orcs. Making it a habit to get on, do the dailies at least. Still can't fight the Valiants. Sorry Nevik.

Wed, levelling up my

Did a bunch of random heroics. Bought Leather & Shoulder BOA.

Sons of Hodir

Roleplayed in RFC

Aprillian & Vrishna


Go to email #1
Wow! Just wow. Alts galore. Started seeding "shudder" alliance toons.

Vrishna

warlocks are cool ! Lynea is another reason for Aprillian to get upset. I love it ! Sister loves wow! Night elf starting area is BEAUTIFUL !

Ashayo

On Vacation!

Jeppy

Finished up Borean Tundra (Nothing boring about Borean) - Hated all the DEHTA stuff. Half the fun of WoW is killing animals of all shapes and sizes.

Finished up Howling Fjord (I've toured the Fjord) - much better than Borean. Some excellent quests.

Been trying to do some dailies.

Hit 74 finished playing today about 40% from hitting level 75

A series of mishaps

Dancing in my murloc costume and got ganked http://www.livestream.com/jeppytv

Hearthstoned into middle of ocean, died of fatigue and ressurected in Westfall - Joy.

Fell of the bombing blimp.

Riding the harpoon - forgot Farlaine was on follow. He plummeted to earth and squish DEAD!


No helmet = mega noob

Emails


Email #1 from CelticLucas

Good day, Ctrl-Alt-WoW!

After listening to episode 149, I am excited to bring you a challenge that I have been thinking about for a couple of weeks. But first, a little background. I currently have 7 different toons between 30 and 80, and I am not ashamed to say that 5 of those are gnomes, and none of them are Horde. I am coming up on my own personal 5 year anniversary of playing WoW, and looking back, most of the toons I have ever had have all been gnomes. From the moment I first logged into vanilla WoW, I fell in love with those quirky, short, inquisitive characters, and I'm always the one to hold the Gnomeregan banner high as others around me chat about their utter dislike for gnomes. I have had a few Horde characters in the past, but none of them have continued very far.

On New Years Eve, I created a human priest with the idea that I would level him only through the new LFG tool. Currently, I am level 38, and will be 40 very soon. This is the fastest I've ever been able to level a toon, and I'm still quite surprised I can level a toon without ever having to leave a major city. Leveling is quite fun, and I'm slowly becoming addicted to healing! It's a huge change from my 80 mage, and I actually think its much more of a challenge to play.

As I mentioned earlier, I have a challenge for you all. In episode 149, Aprillian and Vrishna mentioned they would soon be rolling Alliance characters. My challenge is this - come to Boulderfist-US, and roll a gnome. I will provide full sets of frostweave bags, as well as some gold to get of you established. In return, I will come to Jubei'Thos or Earthen Ring and attempt to level my first Horde character to 80. Your gnomes can be any class you wish, even if you do choose to speed ahead with a death knight. I will let all of you decide which race/class of Horde I am to level.

Thank you all for bringing a little bit of brightness to the WoW community!

CelticLucas/Atreyoo

Email #2 from Zenator

Hello Control Alt WoW,


I was listening to ur New Years Eve show and one of you mentioned that Blizzard should make "bind on account" items into "bind on battlenet" items. Well, just a few days ago I opened an in-game ticket asking that I be allowed to transfer my two heirloom items between toons since I have two separate WoW account merged on Battlenet and the toon I wanted to transfer the items to was even on the same server as my other account. The GM's reply was that he would not be at all surprised if that feature will soon be allowed by Blizzard! But for now it's still not permitted and he couldn't transfer the items for me. So, the good news is that it seems like we might get the feature; I'm predicting at around the time of Catacylism's release.

Another suggestion I have for Blizzard to make leveling alts easier is to either modify how rested xp works, or even by allowing players to buy rested xp with in-game gold, emblems, or through some other means like griding daily quests or dungeons. Lord of the Rings Online gives players something called "Destiny Points" every time a toon gains a level. Then players can spend those points on several types of temporary game enhancements, like more rested xp. This would be a great addition to WoW and encourage even more alt leveling by veteran players.

Thanks again for the wonderful podcast.

Zenator
80 Draenei Hunter on Greymane

Email #3 Steadyhands

Good morning Aprillian, Ashayo, El Jeppy, Vrishna, and Glanthur,

I love the podcast, but, really loved the holiday podcast. Vrishna and Aprillian's laugh made me look like a weirdo on the Subway in NYC.

I am writing to you for the first time to speak up for all the adult Alliance players. I am a 38 year old father of two who loves to play my main, Waspsting, a newly dinged 80 Draenei Enhancement Shaman as well as a wide range of alts.

On the Boulderfist realm, the notable alts are:

67 Draenei Unholy DK-named Hellgrinder
54 Human Affliction Warlock-named Blacklite
46 NE Assasination Rogue (my first toon-aptly named Steadyhands)
32 Human Frost Mage-Brenneka
25 NE Feral Druid-Warstaff
22 Dwarf BM Hunter-Cloudpuncher (my favorite name)
14 Human Disc. Priest-Slowjinfizz

I have recently attempted to level Horde alts the highest of which is a level 14 Undead Warrior-Waspting (on Earthen Ring). Honestly, I like him and could see myself enjoying him further.

The reason I cannot get into playing horde is:

All RL (adult) friends play alliance
Horde races live in Shanty towns or in bile with the exception of Blood Elves.

I hope this dispels the myth that Alliance are all minors. As I twittered Aprillian, I extend an invite to anyone interested in rolling a Alliance toon in Boulderfist. I can show you what it feels like to have indoor plumbing in your towns. Keep up the fantastic work. If you ever need a guest to represent the kindness, humility, and just plain fun of Alliance, Im your guy.

Grab you sword and fight the horde,

Steadyhands aka Waspsting of the "Is Ganksta" guild, Boulderfist Realm

--
http://steadyhandimagery.com
http://daveortiz.net
http://www.flickr.com/photos/steadyhand/

Upcoming Projects:
internovel.com


Email #4 from Flynte

You wanted to hear how some of your listeners played WOW, so I thought I'd share my experience.
I have 3 children ages 5, 1 and 2 months old. I generally don't get to play until after 8:30 pm when the 2 older kids go to bed, and there aren't any other tasks around the house that need my attention. I also get to play when I am up feeding the baby in the middle of the night, which is usually around 3 or 4 am. The majority of my play is done with one hand while I am holding my fussy 2 month old son with my other arm. I am unable to join any Raids, and usually unable to PUG any instances. I cant use any voice comms because my SB Audigy sound card is temperamental, besides, who really wants to hear a screaming kid on their vent server?
I am very addicted to WOW, but much of the content is off limits for me because of my gear level and I am usually rolling solo. My game time is generally spent grinding quests or working on achievements.
Thanks for reading,
- Flynte Level 80 Ret Pally on the Fizzcrank Realm.


Email #5 from Donna

Dear Aprillian, Ashayo, El Jeppy and Vrishna,

I cannot tell you how pleased I was to hear my e-mail read on your podcast yesterday as I was driving down the road to my next pet sit. I was so sure that amongst the hundreds of e-mails you must receive every day, mine would never be picked to be read (wink)! Thank you and especially to Jeppy for enduring through the boring length of it! I will be more considerate this time. Oh, and please relate to Ashayo upon his return that my husband and I very much remember that we had joined AIE quite some ago with other characters but hang our heads in shame because we were kicked out of the guild due to lack of activity. "Toon ADD" is the direct result of our altoholism. We see a new realm open up and our eyes glaze over as we quickly establish our presence on it with new toons, hence sometimes neglecting our other toons. We apologize and it took us quite some time to get up the nerve again to join with new characters. We strive to do better this time.

Taking the cue from your other e-mailers, I guess I should tell you what I have been doing in game. Currently, my level 80 Orc Hunter, Botswala, is working on her Loremaster title. Botswala is my achievement toon. This particular achievement is turning out to be a lot more difficult than I anticipated. Especially the Loremaster of Kalimdor part. I thought that it would be pretty straight forward and believed that there would be an abundance of exclamation points just waiting for me to click on. How wrong I was. You actually have to do some research. And having an excess of toons makes it difficult to remember what quests you did on what toon. So often I feel like I've already completed some quest only to realize it was on my other toon! The Carbonite mod has been a huge help with this dilemma. They have this nifty little yellow button on the quest tracking list you press called "Questgivers" that puts little icons on your map showing the locations of all NPCs that hand out quests. Combine this with your quest history log to make it that much easier. This week I found an NPC in Thousand Needles that began the "Test of Faith" quest line. This is a Horde quest line only unfortunately. It runs from levels 26-30 and takes you all over the map. It is a great quest line that introduces a lot of the lore of the game. It would be quite difficult at level as you will be headed into dungeons and killing quite a few pretty difficult mobs, so bring along some friends. It is really fun and if you are struggling with finding quests to complete your Loremaster achievement, this quest line will boost your numbers by quite a few for Kalimdor. A little hint for the quest line, make sure to read the books. Anyway, maybe you already know it, but it was new and interesting to me and made me realize that just because I have my explorer title, that doesn't mean I have seen all the game. There are hidden nooks, caves and paths to explore that offer up all kinds of rewards. So now I am up to 618 quests out of 685 for Kalimdor. Quite a few more to go. Any tips from you or your listeners would be greatly appreciated.

Have a great week in game everyone. Travel well and don't let the Murlocs bite.

Donna (aka Botswala, Zingaya, etc.)


Friday, January 8, 2010

Ctrl Alt WoW Episode 149 - Tempeste Listened

Aprillian, Ashayo and Jeppy discuss another week of playing World of Warcraft, Blizzard's great MMORPG. Contest Ongoing send an email to ctrlaltwow@gmail.com telling us how you play WoW, either as an altaholic or dealing with it in your family life to being placed in a drawing for a month free of WoW or a $10 iTunes Gift Card or an Authenticator, they are back in the store.



What We've Been Doing:


Aprillian

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

On Vacation

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

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


Aprillian & Vrishna


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

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

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

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

Spent Thur morning

Ashayo


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

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


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

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


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

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

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

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

Jeppy

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

Wolf poop quest

Emails


Email #1 from Bidkar

Greetings CtrlAltWow Crew!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

For the Horde and For Glanthur!

Bidkar and his many alts

Email #A from Solador

Hey,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bye,
Solador and Ostira!


Email #2 from Vern

Hey guys , Happy New Year!

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

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

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

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

Vrishna seems to have taken to the game like a fish to water.You and Aprillian make a nice team.
I like your drive to figure things out on your own. I leveled solo most of the time on my main, you really get to know a class.
Keep up the good work I'll be listnening .By the time I finished this email the next show was out but I am working on another.
Verneesha- Runetotem
Menasor / Mixmaster - Jub Jub


Email #3 from Itadraffe

hi there
I am looking for the mod that was mentioned on your show. the mod in question was one that reduced the lag. I cannot remember the name of it. any help from you would be greatly appreciated.
thanks
Itadraffe lvl 80 dwarf warrior misha us

Part B
hello all you at crtl alt wow.
I would like to tell you about a experience I have had with the dungeon finder.
It is was the pit of saron. we had just downed the last boss. The loot poops up . I don't see anyone roll.
I am waiting nothing happens for a minute then I kicked from the group before I can roll on it . Has anything like that happened to you .
The last show I listened to was way to funny. to have April doing the show drunk was high comedy. well that sounded funnier in my head. I did get some strange looks from co-worker about the amount of laughing I was doing. a couple of times I had to stop and sit because I was laughing so hard.
thanks for the show
Itadraffe dwarves warrior from misha US



Email #4 from Donna

Dear Aprillian and the Boys,

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

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

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

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

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

Sincerely,

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




Email #B from Makling

hey guys, makiling here

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

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

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

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

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

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

twitter.com/makiling_mage

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



Shout Outs & Thank You

MoMoMoments

Hello all,
Let say along with everyone else, last weeks episode is a podcasting classic, and Im not just saying that in my head!
Hope you all and the listeners had a nice safe new year's so far.

In game I have been doing the daily random lfg Heroics on 3 80s, mainly my priest than hunter than warrior.
So far I have been able to do that with guildies so no worries about fast-tanks!
speaking of tanks, my warrior is arms and prot spec and I have been working to gear him up for heroics and he is above 540 defense now. Good right?
Well, no not unless the tanking skills are not there and for me, not there!
I have had a number of issues from keeping aggro, not being able to get mobs that go after squishy dps or healers and wipe the raid.
And let me tell you that is so frustrating! Does not matter if I am with guildies or with a pug, when you know your efforts are failing that is so frustratingly disheartening.
Thankfully I have some guildies that are patient and are willing to run instances with me so I can get practice and someone once said practice makes perfect.

It was brought to my attention that perhaps I need to respec my tanking spec, get some points within the arms spec so I can do a bit more dps that will generate more threat and in turn gain more aggro.
I wanted to ask you the hosts and also if the listeners have gone through this, if they are also trying to be great healers, tanks, dps, what ever you may want to do in this fun game and for a short time make it not fun.
In my frustration I was really have no fun playing the game and just wanted to log off never log back in!
Of course I know I was not going to do that but still, not a good feeling.

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

I have pretty much 232 gear on my priest, just 1 200 trinket that I just cant replace for some reason.
So I mentioned to a guildy that I have so much Triumph emblems and they are just wasting in my virtual bags. I was asked if I have the Tier 9 gear from the TOC vendor (out where the TOC is located) to which my answer was: huh!?
Whatchutalkinabout'?

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

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

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

:)

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


--
Mo

Thank you #1 from Mattdioz

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

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

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

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

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

P.S Jeppy, you're a numpty! (I can't spell jeppy)
Because I don't play any MMOS I used my real life ... ness to end it with.
I am 16 (Level 16)
I'm obviously human ... I hope.
And I live on earth. Again I hope.

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

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

P.S.S.S.S
I don't think I have ever asked and if I have I'll ask again. Or at least say.
If any of you would like to come on 'Walk Alone Gaming' for a show or an interview we would be truly honored. We would treat you like kings! Or a queen if Aprill can pull herself away from the game for a different show than hers :D

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