Just check out the new RSS character achievement feeds. Blizzard implemented this feature to Armory recently along with a 3D model viewer, which is now integrated into bottom of the page!
Now I just need to get the layout right so that the 3d viewers are next to each other. That would be nice.
Cool stuff!
-edit- Got the layout right as well as a new background picture on the title. Looking good...
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Monday, January 11, 2010
Hmmm
To get some of the quest achievements for Northrend, you have to have completed a certain number of quests in each area. Now, I know that I left quite a few quests on the table when I moved to Dragonblight from Borean Tundra, but I figured I was finished with Howling Fjord when I moved away from there. Looking over the number of quests left to reach the achievement for Howling Fjord, however, I see that I must be wrong.
Where the heck are those extra 20+ quests anyway? Inquiring minds want to know.
Where the heck are those extra 20+ quests anyway? Inquiring minds want to know.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Wow
Earlier today -way earlier, don't ask- I finished the Wrathgate questline, which included the cutscene and it's subsequent follow-up.
Powerful stuff.
I like the complexity and depth of the characters portrayed -not necessarily in the cutscene, which is pretty standard, but in the events following the cutscene. I was already predisposed to like Thrall, but his pathos after the confrontation with Varian Wynn and Jaina's intervention is very cutting. His discussion with Saurfang about the dashing of his hopes and dreams for his people reveals more layers underneath him than what you'd expect, and you can see now why he rules from the Valley of Wisdom in Orgrimmar. By comparison, Sylvanas is motivated by hatred, grief, and the desire for vengeance. Those blind spots enabled her to be unwittingly manipulated by Varimathras, and instead of learning wisdom this experience seems to have fueled her desires further. Varian Wynn and Jaina are the most stereotypical of the four main characters (not counting Varimathras), with Varian's overt racism providing the kindling for the destruction of the tentative collaboration between Horde and Alliance in Northrend.
The push in Northrend now seems to take a more desperate tone, as Arthas proved in the cutscene he is still the master of all. Only the Blight is the potential game changer that the Alliance and Horde can use, and that has been taken from them by the betrayal of the Apothecaries.
I'm now really curious how the subsequent quests will play out, given all that has happened in the interim.
Powerful stuff.
I like the complexity and depth of the characters portrayed -not necessarily in the cutscene, which is pretty standard, but in the events following the cutscene. I was already predisposed to like Thrall, but his pathos after the confrontation with Varian Wynn and Jaina's intervention is very cutting. His discussion with Saurfang about the dashing of his hopes and dreams for his people reveals more layers underneath him than what you'd expect, and you can see now why he rules from the Valley of Wisdom in Orgrimmar. By comparison, Sylvanas is motivated by hatred, grief, and the desire for vengeance. Those blind spots enabled her to be unwittingly manipulated by Varimathras, and instead of learning wisdom this experience seems to have fueled her desires further. Varian Wynn and Jaina are the most stereotypical of the four main characters (not counting Varimathras), with Varian's overt racism providing the kindling for the destruction of the tentative collaboration between Horde and Alliance in Northrend.
The push in Northrend now seems to take a more desperate tone, as Arthas proved in the cutscene he is still the master of all. Only the Blight is the potential game changer that the Alliance and Horde can use, and that has been taken from them by the betrayal of the Apothecaries.
I'm now really curious how the subsequent quests will play out, given all that has happened in the interim.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Beacon Schmeacon
Ever since I've begun to pay attention to Beacon of Light in the Holy Spec bag of tricks, I've discovered an annoying side effect: spam healing.
Ideally, you slap Beacon of Light on a tank just before a big fight so that you can heal not only everybody else but the tank as well. It's great in theory, but when you're running through an instance without a clue as to what's up ahead, you end up healing the tank when it's not necessary. The trash mobs may or may not do a lot of damage, and unless you know the instance -and the tank- pretty well, odds are good you're going to misjudge when you need Beacon of Light.
Result: spam heals on the tank.
Side result: Healer looks like he's wasting mana.
Part of being a good healing Paladin is actually anticipating when someone is going to need healing so that you can start the Flash of Light/Holy Light spells just before they're going to get thwacked. If you don't know the instance, you run a greater chance of misjudging when to start the healing.
A short example: The first time we went through Drak'Tharon Keep, I was juggling everybody and keeping bodies up in the air. We survived pretty well all the way up until we reached King Dred, and then the debuffs he threw down simply overwhelmed my ability to keep up. Being too close to Dred when he unleashed Bellowing Roar didn't help either, and the party ended up wiping. The next time I ran through the Keep, I anticipated what was ahead and not only kept out of range but was ready and casting the healing spells slightly before Dred unleashed his attacks.
That kind of ties in with something that I've noticed about the new dungeon finder tool. If there's a drawback to the tool, it's that the random selector will throw the noob for a loop. For the noob, every instance is new, and with the instant gratification of the tool there's no time to strategize beforehand with your group before you're off and running.
Of course, that sort of issue will crop up in regular old pickup groups as well, but you can minimize that by getting a feel for the people and the instance you'll be going through beforehand.
While the Healadin's tools are great, there's no substitute for experience and advice.
Ideally, you slap Beacon of Light on a tank just before a big fight so that you can heal not only everybody else but the tank as well. It's great in theory, but when you're running through an instance without a clue as to what's up ahead, you end up healing the tank when it's not necessary. The trash mobs may or may not do a lot of damage, and unless you know the instance -and the tank- pretty well, odds are good you're going to misjudge when you need Beacon of Light.
Result: spam heals on the tank.
Side result: Healer looks like he's wasting mana.
Part of being a good healing Paladin is actually anticipating when someone is going to need healing so that you can start the Flash of Light/Holy Light spells just before they're going to get thwacked. If you don't know the instance, you run a greater chance of misjudging when to start the healing.
A short example: The first time we went through Drak'Tharon Keep, I was juggling everybody and keeping bodies up in the air. We survived pretty well all the way up until we reached King Dred, and then the debuffs he threw down simply overwhelmed my ability to keep up. Being too close to Dred when he unleashed Bellowing Roar didn't help either, and the party ended up wiping. The next time I ran through the Keep, I anticipated what was ahead and not only kept out of range but was ready and casting the healing spells slightly before Dred unleashed his attacks.
That kind of ties in with something that I've noticed about the new dungeon finder tool. If there's a drawback to the tool, it's that the random selector will throw the noob for a loop. For the noob, every instance is new, and with the instant gratification of the tool there's no time to strategize beforehand with your group before you're off and running.
Of course, that sort of issue will crop up in regular old pickup groups as well, but you can minimize that by getting a feel for the people and the instance you'll be going through beforehand.
While the Healadin's tools are great, there's no substitute for experience and advice.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Epic PUG
Setting: Halls of Lightning (normal verison)
Group: Tank - Me
3 DPS - Guildees
Healer - PUG Paladin
We zone in and the pugpally goes
"wow, an 80 tank! Whoa, three 80s (including me)! This is going to be a good run."
First couple trash pulls go fine, I don't think I even required healing. I was sitting at around 44,000 hp for that run and the death strikes were healing just about as much damage as the trash mobs were doing to me.
First boss pull
I'm thinking.... Hmm.. taking a lot of damage here wonder why? Health drops lower.... Activate Vampiric blood and a rune tap to give me a 40% heal and I'm still losing health. Fine.. Mark of blood. Ug. Just not enough. WTF? I died? How did I die?
DPS 1 dead
DPS 2 dead
DPS 3 dead
Pugpally immunity bubbled and ran like a bitch for the door.
Pugpally "Oh, sorry, was AFK"
At this point the fail is so epic I can't help but laugh - and hard.
We regroup and down the boss. At which point the pugpally suggesting killing more trash mobs for the "crzy good xp" [he really did type crzy. seriously, is one more letter that much harder to type?]
I don't realy care to spend more time in there than we have to so I plow ahead. Everything goes smoothly until the second boss. Fight proceeds as normal.
Golems are running around and off to the corner of my screen I see the pugpally getting awfuly close to the pack of trash mobs. I'm thinking hmm.. maybe he's just running from the golems. Pugpally throws a heal and scoots closer to the trash.
LO AND BEHOLD!!
aggro.
Dead pugpally.
Happy tank.
...little bastard was going to try to force his way into more xp.
Well you can't get xp when you're dead now, can ya? Jerk.
The rest of the run was him repeatedly asking to run another dungeon because "we have such a geared out tank."
As soon as lokken dropped I left the group shortly followed by the rest of the guildees. One, however, told me pugpally had written:
"... but where are you going?"
Did I feel a twinge on the old heart strings? Maybe a little. Do I regret it? No.... My repair bills for dying just ONCE is getting absurdly expensive with the plate epics I have. We're talking 15 gold just about every time I die.
Eesh...
Group: Tank - Me
3 DPS - Guildees
Healer - PUG Paladin
We zone in and the pugpally goes
"wow, an 80 tank! Whoa, three 80s (including me)! This is going to be a good run."
First couple trash pulls go fine, I don't think I even required healing. I was sitting at around 44,000 hp for that run and the death strikes were healing just about as much damage as the trash mobs were doing to me.
First boss pull
I'm thinking.... Hmm.. taking a lot of damage here wonder why? Health drops lower.... Activate Vampiric blood and a rune tap to give me a 40% heal and I'm still losing health. Fine.. Mark of blood. Ug. Just not enough. WTF? I died? How did I die?
DPS 1 dead
DPS 2 dead
DPS 3 dead
Pugpally immunity bubbled and ran like a bitch for the door.
Pugpally "Oh, sorry, was AFK"
At this point the fail is so epic I can't help but laugh - and hard.
We regroup and down the boss. At which point the pugpally suggesting killing more trash mobs for the "crzy good xp" [he really did type crzy. seriously, is one more letter that much harder to type?]
I don't realy care to spend more time in there than we have to so I plow ahead. Everything goes smoothly until the second boss. Fight proceeds as normal.
Golems are running around and off to the corner of my screen I see the pugpally getting awfuly close to the pack of trash mobs. I'm thinking hmm.. maybe he's just running from the golems. Pugpally throws a heal and scoots closer to the trash.
LO AND BEHOLD!!
aggro.
Dead pugpally.
Happy tank.
...little bastard was going to try to force his way into more xp.
Well you can't get xp when you're dead now, can ya? Jerk.
The rest of the run was him repeatedly asking to run another dungeon because "we have such a geared out tank."
As soon as lokken dropped I left the group shortly followed by the rest of the guildees. One, however, told me pugpally had written:
"... but where are you going?"
Did I feel a twinge on the old heart strings? Maybe a little. Do I regret it? No.... My repair bills for dying just ONCE is getting absurdly expensive with the plate epics I have. We're talking 15 gold just about every time I die.
Eesh...
Monday, December 28, 2009
Slogging it Through
When Quintalan hit 75 the other day, I took some gear out of storage that Murtaugh's Kriegtrommel had made for me ages ago. (Okay, I took out only half, as the other half was for level 76.) I spent some time equipping my Holy Spec with the gear, and then proceeded to start cleaning out the vault of some old equipment.
I kept a few items that had some special significance to me -the old Sindorei Warblade, Ravager, and some others- but I was in a house cleaning mode. Naturally, I need to do this with my part of the Guild bank, but I've already cursed myself a couple of times for having already burned some gems needed for the Jewelcrafting dailies from Dalaran and I had to spend extra time prospecting for them. Yeah, the old stuff -the Tigerseye and whatnot- that can go, but the oddball items I'm keeping hold of. In this game the oddest stuff shows up as an ingredient in some of these recipes, and I'm not going back to the Arathi Highlands just for an item or two. (Yeah, I know about the auction house, but I've already gone through that in my final Jewelcrafting push to get to 300, and I'm not inclined to spend a boatload of gold again. Painful, that was.)
Going through all of that stuff got me to thinking about where Quintalan has been in the journey, and what he did to get there.
I have a regular group night on Thursdays. It works out well for me as my wife is a big Survivor fan; she gets to watch her show while I spend some time online. That said, at least 85% -probably around 90%- of my leveling has been achieved by solo quests outside of the weekly session. With a few exceptions, I've even completed the non-dungeon group quests solo. Some of them (ol' Knucklerot and Luzran come to mind) I waited on until the quest was comfortably green to handle, but a lot of others I went in and just bashed it until I made it through. I could do this as a Paladin; doing it as a Priest is a bit dicier at the lower levels, I've discovered.
All of this solo questing has etched itself across the documents I've kept -the Horde Trauma Certificate is one example- as well as the occasional bonus item that was mailed to me a couple of days after. Sure, reputation is another indicator of how often you've been questing vs. instance hopping, but equally so is how it impacts your gear. With the exception of the gear that Murtaugh had made or gave to me (including sets of Fel Iron and Saronite gear as well as my current two-handed weapon), some items from a guy I ran into in Desolace, and a couple of items I bought at auction, everything else has been a pickup from somewhere.
Since my leveling has been solo heavy, my gear is a mix of green and blue. The Holy spec has the most blue right now, as the Saronite gear was made for a Holy Spec. The Retribution spec is still mainly green and in a constant state of flux as I pick up new drops and swap things out. I used to weigh whether the marginal increase in stats was better than the amount of gold I could get at auction, but once the vendor trash started being worth more than a gold coin I stopped worrying and would just equip as necessary. (You have to love Northrend for that.)
If you look closely at what I've got on, you can guess where I got a lot of the items. (Worg Slayer's Ring? Must be Grizzly Hills. Shoveltusk Pendant? You've been seen in the Borean Tundra having some beers with young Hellscream. Bladefists' Breath? Isn't that from Hellfire? Hmm... I need to replace that.) WoW doesn't have scars on the characters, but it does have this.
I can't say I've had a lot of players comment on my gear much. When I do get some comments, it's usually about the weapon attached to Quintalan's back. I received more comments about the Sindorei Warblade than anything else I've carried around, mostly along the lines of "Wow, what a kick ass blade! Where did you get that?"
Most of the rest of the comments I've gotten from other players I've encountered are more akin to wonderment that I've gotten so far with all of that green gear. "You should have at least only blue stuff by now," one Hunter told me when we were waiting for an 80th level Alliance character to evacuate the area we were farming. Another Hunter told me I need to get my gear up so I can go raiding and get the really sweet gear.
I just sort of shrug at those comments. I'm not concerned about the patchwork nature of the gear; it's Quintalan's story written there for everyone to see. Even after 75 levels, I'm enjoying the ride and how the quest chains pull together the overarching tale. If my gear isn't up to a raiding spec, that's fine with me; I don't raid anyway. If the luck goes my way in an instance, so be it; if not, well, there's always beers back at the inn later. Outside of the regular weekly session, I don't do instances either; I'm too wrapped up in the story. Since I don't do instances much, it follows that I don't have a lot of blue gear.
My job is simple: keep myself and anybody else alive in spite of best efforts otherwise. If it were possible to see, Quintalan's gear is probably covered in dried blood of both my enemies and my friends, and after a while that's all that matters, not whether its green, blue or purple. Just bring 'em back alive, baby.
I kept a few items that had some special significance to me -the old Sindorei Warblade, Ravager, and some others- but I was in a house cleaning mode. Naturally, I need to do this with my part of the Guild bank, but I've already cursed myself a couple of times for having already burned some gems needed for the Jewelcrafting dailies from Dalaran and I had to spend extra time prospecting for them. Yeah, the old stuff -the Tigerseye and whatnot- that can go, but the oddball items I'm keeping hold of. In this game the oddest stuff shows up as an ingredient in some of these recipes, and I'm not going back to the Arathi Highlands just for an item or two. (Yeah, I know about the auction house, but I've already gone through that in my final Jewelcrafting push to get to 300, and I'm not inclined to spend a boatload of gold again. Painful, that was.)
Going through all of that stuff got me to thinking about where Quintalan has been in the journey, and what he did to get there.
I have a regular group night on Thursdays. It works out well for me as my wife is a big Survivor fan; she gets to watch her show while I spend some time online. That said, at least 85% -probably around 90%- of my leveling has been achieved by solo quests outside of the weekly session. With a few exceptions, I've even completed the non-dungeon group quests solo. Some of them (ol' Knucklerot and Luzran come to mind) I waited on until the quest was comfortably green to handle, but a lot of others I went in and just bashed it until I made it through. I could do this as a Paladin; doing it as a Priest is a bit dicier at the lower levels, I've discovered.
All of this solo questing has etched itself across the documents I've kept -the Horde Trauma Certificate is one example- as well as the occasional bonus item that was mailed to me a couple of days after. Sure, reputation is another indicator of how often you've been questing vs. instance hopping, but equally so is how it impacts your gear. With the exception of the gear that Murtaugh had made or gave to me (including sets of Fel Iron and Saronite gear as well as my current two-handed weapon), some items from a guy I ran into in Desolace, and a couple of items I bought at auction, everything else has been a pickup from somewhere.
Since my leveling has been solo heavy, my gear is a mix of green and blue. The Holy spec has the most blue right now, as the Saronite gear was made for a Holy Spec. The Retribution spec is still mainly green and in a constant state of flux as I pick up new drops and swap things out. I used to weigh whether the marginal increase in stats was better than the amount of gold I could get at auction, but once the vendor trash started being worth more than a gold coin I stopped worrying and would just equip as necessary. (You have to love Northrend for that.)
If you look closely at what I've got on, you can guess where I got a lot of the items. (Worg Slayer's Ring? Must be Grizzly Hills. Shoveltusk Pendant? You've been seen in the Borean Tundra having some beers with young Hellscream. Bladefists' Breath? Isn't that from Hellfire? Hmm... I need to replace that.) WoW doesn't have scars on the characters, but it does have this.
I can't say I've had a lot of players comment on my gear much. When I do get some comments, it's usually about the weapon attached to Quintalan's back. I received more comments about the Sindorei Warblade than anything else I've carried around, mostly along the lines of "Wow, what a kick ass blade! Where did you get that?"
Most of the rest of the comments I've gotten from other players I've encountered are more akin to wonderment that I've gotten so far with all of that green gear. "You should have at least only blue stuff by now," one Hunter told me when we were waiting for an 80th level Alliance character to evacuate the area we were farming. Another Hunter told me I need to get my gear up so I can go raiding and get the really sweet gear.
I just sort of shrug at those comments. I'm not concerned about the patchwork nature of the gear; it's Quintalan's story written there for everyone to see. Even after 75 levels, I'm enjoying the ride and how the quest chains pull together the overarching tale. If my gear isn't up to a raiding spec, that's fine with me; I don't raid anyway. If the luck goes my way in an instance, so be it; if not, well, there's always beers back at the inn later. Outside of the regular weekly session, I don't do instances either; I'm too wrapped up in the story. Since I don't do instances much, it follows that I don't have a lot of blue gear.
My job is simple: keep myself and anybody else alive in spite of best efforts otherwise. If it were possible to see, Quintalan's gear is probably covered in dried blood of both my enemies and my friends, and after a while that's all that matters, not whether its green, blue or purple. Just bring 'em back alive, baby.
Friday, December 25, 2009
Not Again
Okay, I'm not an expert at PvP but I'm getting better. While gear is a significant determining factor in who wins a PvP fight, a decent amount of PvP is luck and who got the drop on whom.
That said, how the hell did that Priest get the drop on me, and what the hell is in his arsenal that kept me from whacking him before I could close?
I really need to get my own Priest out a bit more often and level him more if they can do THAT in Shadow spec in the 70s.
::grumble::
Oh, and Happy Holidays.
That said, how the hell did that Priest get the drop on me, and what the hell is in his arsenal that kept me from whacking him before I could close?
I really need to get my own Priest out a bit more often and level him more if they can do THAT in Shadow spec in the 70s.
::grumble::
Oh, and Happy Holidays.
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