Wandering Through The Mists

I decided to get the Annual Pass. I really thought Diablo 3 was right around the corner. Two months later they announced another delay, in the form of a release date - May 15th. My two month game card has 3 days left and I have logged about 20 hours during that time. That was all more than a month ago. I have been playing lots of other games during that time: Bastion, Skyrim, SWTOR, Worms Reloaded, Mass Effect, and the demo for Kingdoms of Amular: Reckoning.

The short time that I was in Azeroth, I had decided to level up all of the classes that I had yet to play. This included the mage, warlock, priest, shaman, and warrior. I had this weird idea to level them simultaneously, leveling up each class a few levels at a time.

Since my mage and priest were about level 40, I had some catching up to do with the other classes. I play on the primarily horde side, but since the cataclysm changed so much of the 1-60 content, I think I am going to start my baby warrior over as an alliance race. WOWInsider had a great article listing the top 5 alliance questing zones to see before Mists launches. This really brought to my attention some of the great stuff I have yet to see.

By now even my grandmother has heard at least some of the recent news about Mists of Pandaria. Blizzard posted a really great blog about all of the things to do in Azeroth come Mists launch. I can't believe how much stuff there will be to do! One thing that caught my eye: the new Proving Grounds, "lored-up solo instances that make trying out rotations a lot more fun since you can chase achievements." I have not seen Proving Grounds mentioned anywhere else, so details are lacking; however, I have long thought solo instances would be a fun addition to Warcraft. These may just be themed training rooms with target dummies, but how do the achievements figure into all that?

All of the news about Mists of Pandaria has me really looking to jump back into Azeroth and see all of the content I have missed before the expansion launches. I have have done very little raiding this expansion and I aim to change that soon. I heard about a website called Openraid.us. This site allows you to sign up for raids using Real ID and eventually Battle Tags with players from across realms. Groups are going for many different raids and I think this is the solution I have been waiting for in regards to pugging. With a large pool of interested players from across all realms and only players signing up that can read, Openraid.us is already head and shoulders above the rejects in LFR.

Before Cataclysm launched I was all kinds of excited about the changes coming to the existing world. I even had a wicked dream of what it would be like when Deathwing was unleashed and terrorized the world. Now it looks as if Mists of Pandaria is set to change the world again, but in a different way, by adding so many different activities to do in game. I thought Kung Fu Panda was already cool, but now I see that Mists is so much more than fuzzy drunken pandas and Pokemon.

I will leave you with my final word on Mists of Pandaria: STAMPEDE!


P.S. MMO Champion's own Boubouille says the Beta starts this week or next.

Presenting: Gar UI

Garwulf over at the Huntsman's Lodge has put together an incredible custom Hunter UI addon pack complete with configuration script available from WoWinterface. Please take a gander at his blog post on the subject and try not to drool on the keyboard.

Gar's UI is built for a Hunter, but there is nothing keeping the lesser classes from taking advantage of his meticulous work.

After some slight modification, and tinkering with some of the addons which I have never used before, I present to you, my own in game UI based on Gar UI.

So pretty...

After watching KIN Raiders take on Deathwing, I took some tips from several of their UI's, which were altogether very messy, but functional. The main tip I got from KIN Raiders was a very large/wide cast bar. This makes the cast bar very easy to see out of your peripheral vision, meaning you do not have to focus in on the cast bar. This allows you to pay closer attention to the fire or the slime you are standing in.

One thing I noticed about the KIN Raiders that I did not assimilate into my own UI was an enormous DPS meter, showing nearly every player in the raid and scaled overly large for my taste. It is possible the players shown in the video were officers or raid leaders/assists and were in charge of supervising everyone else.

Skinning Guide - Spinning Leather Into Gold

It is commonly known to skinners that Tol Barad is a pretty great place to make some scratch while everyone is slaughtering crocolisks. But these days there is a great place to skin when Tol Barad isn't littered with the rotting carcasses of dismembered crocolisks, the Widow's Clutch at the Molten Front daily area.

The spiders in this area drop savage leather by the bucket load and have pretty swift respawns. These spiders regularly drop extra leather up to four extra on occasion. They also have a decent chance to drop a junk item called Lava Ruby that vendors for 5 gold. I got 10 of these rubies in about an hour. As with any high level mob, Pristine Hides are always a slim possiblity, I was lucky enough to get 3 during a two hour farming period the other day.

This area is not as easy as Tol Barad where all you have to do is skin everyone else's kills. If Tol Barad is still busy, that is probably still the place to be. However you will regularly have others come through the area working on their daily quests and get some free skins.

My skinner is a hunter so I take my shale spider out with the glyph of misdirect and chain pull every mob in range with misdirect active perpetually. If you are diligent with the mend pet your pet will easily survive and heal up while you stop to skin the spoils of spider genocide.

A word of caution concerning the neutral spiders on the ledges. When you attack these spiders they will lasso you up to them and you can continue firing on them even in melee range, but beware this will often cause your pet to glitch out and loose all aggro on the mobs he was previously tanking. After you jump back down your pet will be stuck up on the ledge momentarily or sometimes he will need to be dismissed and resummoned.

When posting your spoils, consider converting to Heavy Savage Leather if you have the means, it is commonly more profitable than just Savage Leather.

Arcturis

Arcturis, finally.

Found a post on Wowhead explaining that there are no more than 5 rare spawns in Northrend at a time. The other night I did some hunting and killed a few of the rare spawns. No Arcturis or Loque'nahak, but I did tame King Krush, who I had not seen since my first days in Northrend during Lich Kings launch.

I decided to park my Death Knight at the Amberpine Lodge and set my Hunter's hearthstone there as well. Today I logged the DK to check the spawn, and there he was... with a level 85 Hunter circling above on his drake. The hunter did not land, he flew away. I acted quickly, logging out and grabbing my hunter. I hearthed from Stormwind and ran out of the lodge. Arcturis was still there and that Hunter was no where to be seen.

Now I am the happy owner of my very own Arcturis spirit beast. I have camped this guy for a long time off and on, today is a good day.

P.S. I thanked that other Hunter for not killing Arcturis, it was the least I could do.

P.P.S. I just found Loque'nahak on my second pass through Sholazar. I had this beauty after some serious camping during Wrath, however I abandoned him before the expanded stable was introduced. As an added bonus, a group of people were camping several of Loq's spawn points and I was lucky enough to find him at one of the spawns they did not have occupied.

Deforestation

There is quite the dust up over the removal of the traditional talent trees in Mists of Pandaria. Many people are concerned with only getting 6 points to spend versus the 41 points we see today. Some argue that all the talents are PVP talents that they have no interest in acquiring.

I think the removal of talent trees is a good idea and I am going to illustrate why. But first, one of my favorite quotes from Civilization IV as narrated by Spock.

"Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."  --  Antoine de Saint-Exuper

Using the Retribution Paladin as an example, let's stroll over to Elitist Jerks and check out the current "cookie cutter" build. There we find a 7/2/31 build with one point left over. There are 3 talent points that are optional, the remaining point can be placed in any tree. So, the current 41 point talent system only allows for 3 choices when playing a Retribution Paladin.

Taking a closer look at the talents you can "choose" we see the talent Eye for an Eye is the proven mathematical dps talent to choose. Taking 2 points in Eye for an Eye leaves you with only 1 point remaining to be spent anywhere you please. After spending 40 talent points you are now left with only one decision. Of course that is not counting the choice you made to use the right talent build or the wrong one. So technically you made two choices. Good job! You're a Decider!

The problem with "cookie cutter" builds is they are mathematically the "right" build to be using. Choosing between the right or wrong talents is not interesting game design. This is the problem Blizzard is correcting in Mists of Pandaria by removing talent trees.

As far as the critics that see only PVP talents in Mists of Pandaria, just because a talent doesn't directly damage an enemy does not make it a PVP talent. My advice to you is to embrace the new talents, look for ways to use them, you will be surprised how useful all these PVP talents really are.

Transmogrificatizationizing

This feature has been a long time coming. I have long complained about character customization in the World of Warcraft. I wish I had saved some gear to transmog, but I usually clean out the bank every few months. Only my Deathknight has some decent sets to use. I saved the original green gear, the hood and robes, and also the replacement blues that you end up with by the end of the starting area. He also still has the gorgeous Quel'delar, the Battered Hilt two handed sword.

A quick Google search of transmog + class will yield plenty of suggestions for gear to go find for transmog purposes. Wowhead also has a great guide for the tier sets and re-colors.

There has been some confusion about Transmogrification and the use of Void Storage. These features were implemented at the same time however they are not linked in any way. You do not need to place an item in void storage in order to use it for transmog purposes. In fact if you do this, you will be getting charged to place the item in storage, charged to remove the item from storage, charged to use the item for transmogrification, and finally, charged to put the item back in storage. Don't do this.

I Beat The Game And I Liked It

I have beaten the World of Warcraft! OK, so I used the raid finder. But, I still killed Deathwing. I watched the cut scenes. I got the loot, Vishanka, Jaws of the Earth. I have the achievements.

I never intended to raid seriously before the raid finder was introduced. I don't like raid schedules and dealing with guild politics. I never had ambitions of defeating Deathwing. Blizzard gave me an early Christmas present with the implementation of the raid finder.

I spent all last week gearing up my Paladin tanking the Hour of Twilight Heroics, and then spent the weekend running them with my Hunter. I still do not have all the gear available, I am shy 2-3 pieces with my Hunter; however, I was able to get into the raid finder queue and not be the last guy on the Recount meters.

The group I was in wiped several times on Ultraxion before most of the group left and were replaced by some pretty competent players, who subsequently one shot Ultraxion.

One of Blizzards gimmicks in Dragon Soul is the new, creatively named, "extra action bar". This adds a single button in the middle of your screen for certain fights, like the Madness of Deathwing or Ultraxion. During these fights, the boss starts to cast an ability and you just have to hit your extra button. I was pretty surprised how difficult that is for so many players in the raid finder groups.

Even though the raid finder bosses are very easy, hardly a shadow of their normal or heroic versions, I had an absolute blast raiding. The fights still manage to feel epic and fun. As an individual player, the challenge in the raid finder is dealing with the unfortunate people you come into contact with. There are the Hunters rolling on strength gear and the Warriors rolling on agility gear. Another issue, is the players that are compelled to talk to the NPC's and start the encounters while the group is still explaining the fight and buffing. Let's not forget the tanks that don't even have taunt on their action bars.

As much as I love the new raid finder, after killing Deathwing I had a sudden and terrible realization: Do I have a reason to keep playing World of Warcraft until the next expansion?

Like I said, I never expected to raid let alone down Deathwing, so I have already accomplished more than I ever hoped to do during this patch. I am really sick of the new Heroics, which were very fun, the first couple times I ran them; I think I am pushing 40 now total. I have not made up my mind, but I am at least contemplating my goals for the remainder of the Cataclysm expansion.

I never expected to feel like I beat the game and I am sure I am not the only one having these thoughts. I wonder if Blizzard considered this or if this is something that is sneaking up on all of us.

I did completely miss Firelands. I might join one of the pugs that are still forming and see what all the fuss is about "the dance".

Quick Tip - Balloons

This little girl has misplaced her balloons. She offers daring (read: bored) adventures hanging around Stormwind a quest to find her scattered balloons throughout town. In return, she rewards you with a shiny new non-combat pet balloon.

Alliance Quest

Horde Quest

Quick Tip - Blizz Blues

Website - Blizz Blues on Gamebreaker TV

The hilarious adventures of a rogue named Darnell. I only recently discovered this series of machinima and I just had to watch every episode in a marathon session. Follow @DarnellSUP on twitter and please check out his videos on Gamebreaker.tv, you won't regret it.

She was like, "Darnell, you're too big, no way you gonna fit" and I was like, "girl.. just relax, I got this.."

Guide to Alizabal, Mistress of Hate

Paladin Season 11 Armor - Gets my vote for the best looking armor in game, thank Blizz for transmog!

Season 11 starts today after maintenance and that means a new boss is available in Baradin Hold, Alizabal, Mistress of Hate.

The Kirin Tor imprisoned Alizabal in their formidable Violet Hold not long after corrupt magi summoned the shivarra into Azeroth. Despite arcane wards restricting her powers, the demon's malicious influence alone caused her guards to murder one another in sudden fits of rage. Her transfer to Baradin Hold prior to the Cataclysm has only aggravated the ruined prison's increasingly dire conditions.

MMO Champion has a list of Alizabal's known abilities.

Skewer
Alizabal skewers and stuns her current target for 8 sec. Skewer also inflicts 10000 Physical damage every 2 sec. and increases the target's damage taken by 150%.

Seething Hate
Alizabal incites Seething Hate in a random player, inflicting 600000 total Fire damage to all players within 6 yards of the target. The damage is split amongst all of the nearby players.

Blade Dance
Alizabal enters a Blade Dance and inflicts 12500 Physical damage every sec. to every player within 13 yards. The Blade Dance also deflects all incoming attacks.


Based on these abilities, and barring any unknown abilities or environmental factors, I figure the fight strategy will look about like this:

When the current tank gets Skewered, and thus stunned for 8 seconds, the other tank should taunt Alizabal. Alizabal's most dangerous ability looks to be Seething Hat, which dictates that the group will need to be stacked up within 6 yards of each other, otherwise eating that 600k fire damage is going to result in a one way trip to the graveyard. Blade Dance looks to be the point in the fight where everyone runs away screaming in terror; likely running to the other side of the room and letting the tanks eat the damage. Of course, it may be possible for the healers to just heal through the damage and stay put. Also of note, during Blade Dance all damage is deflected, so there is no reason to worry about keeping up with your damage rotation, just focus on staying alive, using any potions, bandages, warlock boogers and self heals you may have at your disposal.

Disclaimer - Since this fight is not yet live and I have not seen this fight first hand on the PTR, any conclusions I have drawn could be wildly inaccurate and may result in bloody discharge, diarrhea, migraines, and anal leakage.

EDIT - Having seen the fight in person now, I can confirm the strategies listed above. As an added note, during Blade Dance, Alizabal randomly charges a member of the raid. Most groups scatter randomly in this phase as I predicted.