Campgarden, who knew? April 28, 2009

It’s that time again to begin the craze for Achievements/Loot/Titles with another holiday, Noblegarden! I don’t know about the realms you play on, but the two I have 80′s that would like to get this title were..crazy to say the least. I started this event as soon as it came up on my priest, 12:01 a.m. Server time. For the first 30 to 40 minutes or so, I was running around Bloodhoof Village collecting Brightly Colored Eggs from various spawn points. After this time just about every spawn point in Bloodhoof had a “Camper” sitting at the egg looting it as soon as it came up. Now I figured this would be one of the least populated places, but I was wrong about that. My guess is that everyone had the same thought as me, “Bloodhoof Village is always empty, nobody will be there.” Little did we know, everyone was there. After I finally collected 100 to buy my Spring Rabbit, a friend and I paired up to fly out to Un’Goro and lay an egg, as well as have our pets erm..’Love’ each other in each of the collecting cities for the achievements, Spring Fling and Hard Boiled. Upon completing these two I went to Razor Hill to try my luck at finding eggs here. Now the spawns here were much more spread out and..hard to find compared to Bloodhoof so I decided to join the campers in their quest for egg domination! I personally hate that the WoW community turned this holiday into such a simple stare at your screen for hours event, but there were so many people on my priest’s realm that I had no choice but to camp a spawn. Overall, doing every achievement and gathering enough eggs to gain the title “the Noble“, took me 6 hours to complete.

Bunnies! :3

Now I’m usually not one to complain, but the amount of people sitting at spawn points was a little ridiculous in my opinion. I mean, the “hunt” for eggs was much more fun than sitting there staring at a certain point cramping my hand from clicking for so long only to gain a title and some frilly items. I know nobody forced me to do this, besides myself, but eh what can I say I like titles =). Anyway, all I’m trying to complain about is this holiday had a pretty decent design to be used, except of course it had a flaw. I’d prefer running around the towns to gain my eggs but with as heavy populated as they are on my realm(s) I’d have to say, camping seems more efficient at gathering chocolate/eggs.

I have been able to get the title now on both my Hunter as well as my Priest. I’m working to get some ears and dresses for my alts now just to have when I find the time. I’d like to share how I go about gaining this title now that I have some knowledge about it. So here it goes! First, I run to either Brill or Razor Hill. I’m not sure why but I prefer these places for egg hunting, unless Bloodhoof isn’t to crowded, I love the cows . Anyway, once at the towns I try to decide if there are way to many campers than I’ll have to find a spot and join them. If there isn’t so many and eggs are being left unlooted I shall begin my route around town attempting to get eggs. So, I start off by looting an egg to get I Found One! Afterwords I continue collecting eggs until I have gathered 20 Chocolates/Shells to complete the two quests The Great Egg  Hunt and A Tisket, A Tasket, A Noblegarden Basket. Once those are complete, I continue farming eggs up until I have 100. Once I have gotten 100 Noblegarden Chocolates I eat them all to get the Achievement Chocoholic. If by then I haven’t looted all the items I’d like to have such as the Rabbit pet or the Spring Circlet, I will continue to gather eggs until I have everything I want. Now all you need to finish the achievements to get your title is the Spring Rabbit, Spring Flowers, Spring Robes, White Tuxedo Shirt, Black Tuxedo Pants, Noblegarden Egg, and possibly Blossoming Branch. So if  you don’t have time to get everything else or aren’t lucky enough to get any of the items from eggs you don’t have to go for everything but in order to get the title if you don’t get any items from the eggs you will have to collect 355 Noblegarden Chocolates. Pretty simple just takes a lot of time. Good luck to you all! Happy Noblegarden — Can’t wait for Children’s Week.

Create Your Own Azeroth: The Southern Gate. April 22, 2009

If your just joining us, please refer to the Prelude written by Samodean of Hardcore Casual: Here.

For the last part, refer to this post by Fulguralis of Killing ‘em Slowly.

Corrigan stood there, staring blankly at Rondrey while thinking of the decision he had been presented with. Glancing toward the East as well as toward the South neither direction seemed to make this easier for him. How am i supposed to know the safest route? I do recall a camp of some sort south of here, although my mind is still a bit blurred. He then closes his eyes rubbing them to help clear his head. Without giving the issue much more thought Corrigan shouts out to his unit, “Quickly, we shall head South of here to make our escape!”

Being an experienced Commander Corrigan had hoped his knowledge would help pull them through this bump in the road. Of course not being literal, their path seemed to be clear for the most part. He hadn’t noticed anything out of the ordinary or a suitable place to set up an ambush. The only thing that concerned him was the lot he had to protect.

“So, where are you taking us?” Rondrey asks.

Corrigan shrugs, “Away from danger.”

“Of course, do you even know where you are leading us?” Rondrey asks in a harsh tone.

Just as Corrigan was about to answer one of the citizens they were escorting collapses to the ground. This takes everyone by surprise, the troops begin to scan the surrounding area frantically but nothing seems to be hostile near them, at least not to close anyway. A light fog closes in on the unit, “What’s wrong with her, Rondrey?” Corrigan asks hoping for a decent answer. “She seems to just be exhausted, perhaps one of the scouts could assist in making sure she makes it with us?” Rondrey looks at one of the men nearby and he quickly makes arrangements to carry her the rest of the way.

Their travels away from the main scourge attack is going as planned. The most dangerous thing so far has been nothing but forest critters causing the men to be paranoid by their movement. Corrigan holds his head trying to stay alert for his troops.

Suddenly out of the shadows skeletal warriors attack his unit from all directions.

“We’re under attack!” Corrigan shouts signaling his men to get into their defensive positions. The assault didn’t last long at all. These bone-made warriors were very fragile for how menacing they look. Just about a single hit could break apart their structural make up. This won’t be the last of ‘em..“Let’s keep moving, we don’t want to find more.” The citizens and soldiers began to follow their leader once more, everyone a bit shaken up by the attack made. Corrigan on the other hand seemed to not be phased by such a thing. Having had seen battle before he wasn’t there to get frightened. More skeletal soldiers seem to come from no where and attack them, defeated with hardly any effort just like the last batch.

Corrigan hears clapping not to far in the distance, “Well done my friends, well done,” a hoarse voice says in a quiet whisper.

The men lead by Corrigan station themselves around the citizens to prepare for a possibly upcoming attack. The figure who had just spoken reveals himself to the soldiers, “It’s a necromancer,” states Rondrey, “No wonder we had been getting attacked by skeletons!” The new enemy summons more soldiers and disappears within the fog. Not only were these skeletons attacking them but now..ghosts?

“For the Light!” Corrigan shouts before charging full force to lead the defense against these creatures. His attack seems to have no direct affect but they are at least holding them back. Bah how are we supposed to fend off ghosts. Rondrey casts a protective bubble around everyone, it won’t last long but shall serve it’s purpose.”Commander, we have to get out of here! These ghosts are Banshee’s, they don’t do much damage but can be very dangerous.” After speaking Rondrey’s protective bubble faded and they were vulnerable once more. Without needing to reply Corrigan knew what he had to do, get his men away from these creatures. Before he could act out any sort of plan suddenly these Banshee’s let out a sharp screech before lunging toward the center, at the citizens.

“Shit…” Corrigan mumbles as they fly right by him.

The remaining men and citizens back away from their fellow comrades when Rondrey interrupts the silence, “The Banshee are gone but they have possessed our people, defend yourselves!”

Not wanting to fail by killing the people he has vowed to protect, Corrigan as well as the others have hesitated their attacks. I have to give them an order, but which one?

YOU CONTROL THE FATE OF THE POSSESSED CITIZENS

If you choose to give the order to kill them, the story continues Here at Casual Wow.
If you choose to attempt to free them, the story continues Here at Wow Druid.

Thank you for reading,(Updated to include links to the next parts of the story…I was lazy with that…)

Interested in participating? Check out our message board. Always looking for more authors.

Conscience-Stricken April 21, 2009

I feel pretty bad. I’ve neglected my duties as a blogger to express my thoughts and opinions. but I suppose we all have dry spells every now and again. I don’t really have a valid excuse other than lack of interest and perhaps a lack of inspiration, but here I am.

                                 

Argent Tournament!

First things first, news about the Argent Tournament! Now, this whole idea was a mystery to me come patch day. I never had a chance to try it out on the PTR’s and I sort of just jumped into the dailies right away as to not miss a second of the new isle dailies. If you played during TBC, you know what I’m takling about. Anyways! These were actually quite fun for the first time. Uncovering the secrets of the Black Knight, becoming a Valiant, Champion, and eventually earning the title(s) “Of the Undercity / Orgimmar” as well as my own Argent Gruntling to order around. The mount combat is also pretty tactical as well. The “Champions” that I have to face off against every day start up with three shields, I usually start out with (2) Shield Break -> (2) Shield Break -> (3) Charge.

Once within melee range, spam (1) Thrust, and try to keep up at least 2 to 3 Shields using (4) Defend. Sometimes this doesn’t always work out the best way, but that’s why they give you a healing spell for when your finished. I’d have to say, my favorite Argent mount has to be the new Forsaken horse! Ever since I saw the ‘Four Horseman’ encounter within Naxxramas, their mounts look amazing compared to the available undead race mounts. I still can’t decide wether I want to save up for my pets first, or the mounts. Such a hard decision when champion marks aren’t easy to come by. Oh! I might as well ask here. If any of you happen to play Alliance on Spirestone, or Alliance on Moon Guard, and would be interested in trading the horde pets for alliance equivilents (Once I unlock them all, and have the horde ones myself) Feel free to contact me, I’d really appreciate it. Oh one more thing, when dealing with the “Commanders/Liutennants” for the dailies, be careful not to die. They hit players pretty hard.

Talents!

Now, on to the pressing issue of Dual-Specs! Being a priest, I don’t personally enjoy the dual spec system right now. I will always be a healer, I prefer that as this character. Now, my dual spec will be devoted to a pvp spec, be that shadow holy or discipline, I still don’t know yet. I haven’t found any information on what the spec to go is with this patch, if any of you know feel free to share the knowledge =). Anyways, this somewhat puts me out of my job. My realm was full of healers as is, and now that everyone is dual spec’d into it (not everyone, but some) it’s even harder to find groups. From what I can tell and have heard, I seem to be the only person with this problem. Perhaps im just unlucky when it comes to finding pugs? In any case, The 1000 gold probably wasn’t worth it for me right now, but who knows maybe I’ll have a change of heart for PvE shadow dps. On the other hand, I can’t wait to test this out on my hunter. I will be using the Dual-Spec system to have a Deep Beast Mastery ‘Pet Tank’ build as well as wanting to build up gear towards that. I’d be trying to stack stamina to allow him to live longer and take more damage as a tank. I’ve read about pets offtanking in Naxxramas as well as other places, I can’t wait to try this out myself! As for the pet line-up come this patch, I’ve decided on a Wolf for my PvE Dps, a Bat for PvP (Range stun!), A Bear for AoE Tanking, as well as a Turtle for Single Target tanking. This will take some time to level up as most are new pets, and as for the 5th slot, My good ol’ Spirit Beast. =) If I ever get to try out my pet tanking skills, I will be sure to post about it here.

What do I have to say about Ulduar…Hmm…

Lag-Fest!

My computer can’t really handle this instance. It is very frustrating for me. I have a constant 2-4 fps at all times within here on both 10 and 25 man. I feel like im hurting my guild more so than helping and really feel horrible about this. Anyways, the raid itself is rather intense. The first boss is all on Siege Vehicles, chaotic and fun to shoot / dps for a change, although I died when we did this boss on Heroic. We can’t seem to get passed ‘Razorscale’ on Heroic. The closest we have been is 2.7% I believe, but it’s just so spread out and takes getting used to the positioning / dps output needed. I’m sure we can have it down this week! This instance makes healing fun again, or perhaps its the regen nerf? Anyway, needing to Flask and prioritize my heals makes raiding / heroics feel a lot like Pre-TBC instance healing again. Somewhat puts good healers into a whole new league of healing compared to the bad ones. Anyways, I have so little to say about this place because I hate it right now with all my being. I feel useless within Ulduar and should just sit out -_- But I’ve been told otherwise, hopefully I can do something about the lag. I do hope we continue to progress. Oh and, Tomorrow is my turn to contribute to Create Your Own Azeroth, stay tuned for that, and wish me luck!

Murkimus is Mine! (: I hope. April 7, 2009

I have had no inspiration for a post today, sorry for the lack of updating..There will hopefully be something within this week for me to “Blog” about. Sorry to dissapoint.

210 games

I’m so happy to be done with the required games to get the Armored Murloc Non-Combat Pet aka Murkimus! Hopefully all you other pet hunters have accomplished this as well since if not you missed out on your chance ):