Archive for the ‘Misc’ Category

Hey everyone. No pictures this article, and it’s a little late, but I wanted to share this little story with everyone. Beta, my anti-WoW editor on e-AAGH.net, was in town for a while and finally relented to my constant nagging a few weeks ago and played WoW again. Unlike the last two times, we played together this time. We both rolled Draenei, I a hunter and she a warrior, and we set off of to level as many levels as possible. Actually she got a head start on me and had a two level lead on me before I got logged in.  I caught up to her eventually since the first few levels go so quick and we started questing together.

My Draenei had a horn on his head, so naturally he was named Hornitoad. My moth pet I named Imabug, since any Mothra references seemed trite. I don’t remember Beta’s avatar’s name, but that’s not important I guess.

I had fun questing with her, but I’m not sure if she enjoyed it or not… she didn’t say either way and other then a few stray positive and negative comments , she kept a damn good poker face the whole time.  Oh well. In the end, that’s likely the last I’ll see of her in the game for some time as she returned to Chicago a few weeks ago and lacks a PC that can run WoW there. I was so tempted to bring Gav up to Azuremyst Isle to harass her and show off. Maybe next time.

If there is a next time.

This is just a quick note on something that may only interest me. Anyway, for most of the past three years or so, since I started playing, if you searched “Gavelier” on the WoW Armory, you got me. Period. That was it, I was the world’s only Gavelier. Now, for the first time I can recall, there’s a new Gav on the block. Gavelier, a Tauren retribution paladin on another server has come to my attention. I would love to take credit for the name or being their inspiration (what with them being a ret pally as well) I don’t think that’s the case. In any event, the world’s big enough for way more then two Gaveliers. I welcome all namesakes.

As a side note, the new Gavelier is in my battlegroup (Emberstorm) so maybe we’ll meet in a battleground someday. Maybe.

I’ve been pondering the classes of WoW and I’ve come up with some interesting analogies. I was wondering what would happen if each of the classes was bound by the burdens and responsibilities befitting of their lore? What would playing them be like? Here, in summary, is my take.

• Paladins – You refuse to kill most mobs and bad guys because they’re not pure evil.
• Priests – No questing on Sunday morning for you! You’re needed at the Chapel of the Light.
• Hunters – Forget acquiring Phat Lewts, Orgrimmar is starving. Go kill level six Dire Mottled Boars for hours  to feed the masses.
• Warriors – Rent-a-cops. Your basically hired muscle so you spend your day guarding the auction house.
• Rogues – You get chased by the rent-a-cops for robbing the local auction house.
• Druids – Hippies. That’s all I have to say.
• Shamans – You spend all day filling in the holes you make planting your totems around town, because the rent-a-cop makes you
• Warlocks – The hell with the world. You spend all day playing Dungeons and Dragons in the basement of the Blue Recluse with your buddies.
• Death Knights – You kill all of the other classes, because that’s just what you do.

Suffice it to say, I think the Death Knight probably gets the best of the deal.  In any case, I’d love to hear some other thoughts on this. Any takers?

It may seem redundant to post this since I’ve not updated once this year, but I’ve not been playing World of Warcraft. The reasons are many but unimportant. I’m just here to say, officially, that Alazar is going into hiatus for a while. It will remain online, obviously, but I’m taking a official break from the site.

Why am I posting this now? Reverse psychology.

The last time I posted that I was leaving the game for a period of time and that I was suspending updates, I was back in the game and posting within about a week. We’ll see if that works this time, too.

That’s…. not a good thing, right? Yeah, I didn’t think so. Gav was in the middle of a two-hour archeology marathon and was on his way to Duskwood from the Western Plaguelands, where he hoped to ding 83 by digging up useless junk (just for the record, he did). I was just coming south out of the Searing Gorge when I espied a large wing in the skies above the Burning Steppes. I thought, stupidly enough, “Hey, maybe it’s a rare I can kill for kicks!” I got just a little closer and saw what you see above. Nope, can’t kill that.

Long story short, I Stood in the Fire.  Deathwing – 1, Gav – 0.

Dammit.

The above pic is obviously of the Plants vs. Zombies knockoff in Hillsbrad. I didn’t do so well so I quit for a while at the pumpkin bomb quest. Dammit.

More importantly, though, is that Cataclysm will hit the U.S. shores at 12:00 AM PST, and I’m going to be there. I’ve decided that my first goal (unless there’s some guild pressure to do otherwise) is to take Gav to Vashj’ir. Hyjal doesn’t intrigue me, lore-based or not. I’m also set on my new race classes: a worgen hunter and a goblin shaman. We’ll see how it goes from there.  I don’t have big plans for my goblin but there’s no way in blue blazes I’m skipping the chance to play through Kazan and the Lost Isles. They look like way too much fun.

I’m playing with worgen names, and coming up with stuff like Worgone, Worpt, Worrynot, and other stupid crap like that. If I could get Ernest I’d take it. Think about it: Ernest P. Worgen. Yeah! My goblin’s name is probably going to be a spur-of-the-moment thing combined with whatever the hell I can get. You just know there’s going to be an absolute overload of the little green freaks.

While I’m here, I’m going to rattle off some more stuff I’m excited about, and why.

• Flight Master’s License – Absolutely no explanation needed.
• Loot-a-Rang – C’mon, it’s a boomerang that loots. That alone is enough to keep me an engineer for life.
• Guild Leveling – I’m in a smallish guild but dammit, we’re going to level as much as we can!
• Guardian of the Ancient Kings – This is cool, kind of like a spec-modified Gargoyle.
• Level 85 – Just getting Gav back out and playing meaningfully will be a pleasure.
• Archeology – This is going to be flat-out awesome. I can’t wait!

13 hours. That’s all that stands between all of us and Cataclysm. I’m ready!

This was supposed to be a post where I discussed the changes to druids in patch 4.0.1. I was supposed to discuss the changes to balance and the addition of the new solar/lunar power bar. I was going to talk about how I liked the change of bear form to cat at level 10. But it’s not going to be. Old grudges have resurfaced, and old wounds reopened. I’m going to vent instead.

I hate druids. I always have. Now, I even hate my own druid, Wrain. Wrain is my level 16 night elf balance druid who I popped onto the PTR to test low-level druidic play. I specced him balance and came to enjoy the spell that came with it, Starsurge. I didn’t really understand the solar/lunar power bar, and I still don’t. It’s not explained to a low-level druid what the changes do, so I kinda ignored it. I also played with cat form, and found it to be a better aid at my level then bear form.

Here’s where it all went to hell. After an hour or so rampaging through Darkshore I wanted to hearthstone home. But what’s this? No hearthstone?! WTF?? I checked everything in my little bags, and no hearthstone. Now that doesn’t make sense. Oh well, I thought; I’ll teleport to Moonglade and fly home. I was grumpy to find that the druid flight point wasn’t working (or missing, one of the two – I’m not sure where it’s supposed to be but there wasn’t one anywhere to be seen) so I had to hike it to the Alliance flight point just like Gav did back years ago. Once there I found that I didn’t have the money to fly home. Dammit! It’s just one thing after another!! Grumbling all the way back to town about having to run around for nothing, I played with my graphics settings, resetting my interface in the process. I don’t know whether it happened from that or during the loading screen, but I saw that my hearthstone had returned once I got to town and tried to sell things. What the hell?! Now thoroughly irritated, I hearthed back to Auberdine and logged off.

What is it with me and druids? Why do I always run into trouble with them and their stupid Moonglade?

I think druids hate me.

I’ve decided that Alazar needed a touchup,so I redid the site completely. New art, new layout, new features, removed features, the whole nine yards. I wanted  amore professional look, and I think I got it. Plus, it’s more expandable then it was before. Take a look around and let me know what you think. I’d love to hear it!

For those not yet privy, the 4.0.1 PTR servers are up and active. This means that you can go try out the new Cataclysm powers, specs and interface (yay!) but not the new beta-centric world changes, races and zones (boo!). In short, it’s the WoW you’re playing now but with new powers and a modified interface. I popped Gavelier in (known on the PTR as ‘Gavalier’ due to a naming conflict) and trained his ret spec as I’d decided I would while toying with Wowhead’s talent calculator. Or, I tried. You see, this PTR makes use of the new streaming feature. That, combined with the 16 GB download time meant that I hopped in before everything was loaded (I ought to be done downloading sometime in October, by the way). This meant that I didn’t actually have all the data I should have and the game glitched. Restart.

Back in, I got my spec set and was ready to test my powers on some hapless mobs in Storm Peaks when I realized I was missing some of my key new abilities. Stuff like my new main damage seal for one (that’s kinda important) and the new Word of Glory heal. Off to Dalaran, and then to Stormwind. Once in Dal I stood for about three minutes waiting for the portal to show up. Once it did I popped through and hopped on my Albino Drake atop the Mage’s Tower… and promptly fell about forty feet straight down. Ok, so no flying in the old world yet (yes, I know there’s a new ability that needs trained, but it wasn’t at the Dalaran flight trainer). It’s actually funny to see folks running around on their flying mounts, hopping up and down with them, vainly trying to get airborne. Anyway I got my new abilities and ‘ported back to the Argent Tournament grounds. Or I tried to. The game froze and I was back at the character select screen. I reselected Gav and sat at the finished loading screen for a few minutes before giving up. Restart.

I finally loaded up at the Tournament grounds and took a few dailies to practice my pummeling on the Cult of the Damned dudes. My first thought was that the game does an awesome job letting you know when a proc’d ability is available. For example, with Art of War my exorcism spell glows so I know to hit it. Very nice. Also, the new holy power mechanic kept my eyes off the battle more then I would have liked, keeping an eye on my new bar so I could know when to hit Divine Storm, Word of Glory or Templar’s Verdict. In all though, I seemed to be doing more damage then before. Of course, without a DPS meter it’s hard to tell for sure.

I hearthed back to Dalaran and took the portal back to Stormwind. Here’s a few more random pics I took while  n Goldshire.

The new stat window is great at telling you what you need to know without you having to do on-the-fly math or looking things up online. It will tell if you’re hit-capped for your level (and levels above you) for example.

Here’s the talent spec window. Nothing fancy but very functional.

I’ll have more tidbits as I continue to play.

I was leveling my warlock, Crane yesterday in the Wetlands. He gained two levels (from 24 to 26) and I had a good time. One interesting event happened while Crane was still level 25 in the Excavation Site. He had his voidwalker, Kragnos tanking a raptor when he was set upon by Sarltooth. Now, as I wrote, he was level 25, and Sarltooth is level 29. I figured I was dead, but I managed to Fear him over and over again while helping Kragnos down his quarry. Once he did, we finally turned our full attention on Sarltooth.

We killed him and I lived! Yay! It was a productive evening.