World of WarCraft *TAKE 2* (BlizzCon Coverage!)

[Nevlonniel]

On a completely unrelated note to WoW...

Today, August 11, 2005, shortly after the lunch hour, 1:04pm pacific time to be exact, my cell phone rang. I picked it up and flipped it open and noticed the caller ID was indicated that the number was "Uknown". Now, there are only a few "Uknown" numbers that my cell gets, and seeing as how I was waiting for a phone call from Blizzard Entertainment this week on the status of my job interview I had with them on July 29, my heart skipped a beat.

I pressed the talk button and placed the phone up to my ear.

"Hello?"

"Hi! May I speak with Anne Marie Belland?"

*remember to breathe*

"Speaking."

"Hello, Anne Marie. My name's Denise and I'm from the HR group here at Blizzard."

*REALLY remember to breathe*

"Ok."

"We'd like to congratulate you and offer you the position you applied and interviewed for two weeks ago. Are you still interested in accepting the job?"

*OMG! OMFG! OMGOMGOMG! BREATHE, DAMMIT!*

*a moment of silence*

"Of course!! Yes! Completely! When do I start??!"

From there it's history. If all goes well and there are no loose ends to tie up here at Raytheon that require me to stay longer than what I told Blizzard, I start work as a new Blizz employee on September 6 working for the CEO and President of Blizzard Entertainment and partially for the International Managing Director.

Needless to say, I'm very very VERY excited. My husband, Joe, made a funny article (http://fu-news.blogspot.com/2005/08/loud-shrill-shriek-disrupts-southland.html) on his blog concerning this momentous event which I think you'll enjoy reading.

And now, I'm going to try to calm myself, but unfortunately, I go through these sudden bursts of EEEEEs, not unlike an Alien bursting forth from a human's chest cavity.

Thank you ALL who prayed/thought happy thoughts/crossed appendages for my sake in getting this job! They were all appreciated and most definitely heard by the right ears!

Happy me!!! :D

UPDATE (9/14/05):

I’ve been a part of the Blizzard family now for only a week and all I can say is HOLY HECK THIS IS AWESOME! Joe was kind enough to do a funny mock “interview” (http://fu-news.blogspot.com/2005/09/aftershock-of-loud-shrill-shriek-felt.html) with me on his blog.

We now return you to our regularly scheduled WoW program.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Looks like our first thread (http://www.sw-fans.net/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=37318) was being a pain... er, I mean... a strain on the Data Base. But, we were given Mr. Net's blessing to start a new thread and he would be kind enough to do the linking with the old and new. :)

But, for convenience sake, and so as not to have to go back and forth between threads to see what servers people are playing on, I copied the first post from the old thread to the new, and I updated it. :D

So, without further adue...

EDIT: Thanks for linking the old and new, Ogies!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF WARCRAFT (http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/)

(Yes… I’m extremely crazy & horribly addicted…)



~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ NEW! ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~


The BlizzCon website has gone LIVE!
Click the icon below to check out what both days will entale!

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a57/Nevlonniel/WoW/blizzconlogo.jpg (http://www.blizzcon.com/)

The very first annual BlizzCon Gaming Festival to take place
October 28-29, 2005!


~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~


Wanna see some WoW movies? Well, look no further than WarCraft Movies (http://www.warcraftmovies.com)! If it's been captured ingame, it's more than likely here!

The best WoW movie I've seen yet! Presented by Dogs of WarCraft (http://www.dogsowarcraft.com/index.htm)!
Rise of the Living Dead: Part One (http://www.dogsowarcraft.com/rold.htm)
Rise of the Living Dead: Part Two (http://www.dogsowarcraft.com/rold2.htm)
Rise of the Living Dead: Part Three (OFFICIAL TRAILER) (http://www.dogsowarcraft.com/rold3.htm)Star Wars + WoW = Kil’jaeden Wars (http://files.filefront.com/KilJaeden_Wars;3870243;/fileinfo.html)! Someone who’s a fan of SW & WoW decided to smash both worlds together and create this movie idea.

A few good movies by those crazy, yet well organized, Sturmgenadierians (http://www.sghq.com/wow/)!
Gnome Vasion 2 (http://www.warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=417)
Dembones (http://www.warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=613)A WoW Music Video (http://www.grimmshadow.net/swf/zasz/WoWSkindredNobody.wmv) to wet your appetites!
(Thanks for sharing your findings with us, Zasz)

View the World of WarCraft Trailer (http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/trailer/)!

Here are some WoW comics to tickle yer funny bone:
Flintlocke's Guide to Azeroth (http://pc.gamespy.com/articles/578/578734p1.html)
Hereos of WoW (http://www.worldofwar.net/comics/heroesofwow/)
The Story of Trojand the Brave (http://www.actiontrip.com/comics/thestoryoftrojandthebrave.phtml?pic=1)
Angst Tchnology (http://www.inktank.com/): #1 (http://www.inktank.com/images/AT/cartoons/08-27-03.gif), #2 (http://www.inktank.com/images/AT/cartoons/03-31-04.gif), #3 (http://www.inktank.com/images/AT/cartoons/09-03-04.gif), #4 (http://www.inktank.com/images/AT/cartoons/10-18-04.gif), #5 (http://www.inktank.com/images/AT/cartoons/11-05-04.gif), #6 (http://www.inktank.com/images/AT/cartoons/11-12-04.gif), #7 (http://www.inktank.com/images/AT/cartoons/11-24-04.gif), #8 (http://www.inktank.com/images/AT/cartoons/11-26-04.gif), #9 (http://www.inktank.com/images/AT/cartoons/12-01-04.gif), #10 (http://www.inktank.com/images/AT/cartoons/02-04-05.gif), #11 (http://www.inktank.com/images/AT/cartoons/02-21-05.gif), #12 (http://www.inktank.com/images/AT/cartoons/02-22-05.gif), #13 (http://www.inktank.com/images/AT/cartoons/02-23-05.gif), #14 (http://www.inktank.com/images/AT/cartoons/02-24-05.gif), #15 (http://www.inktank.com/images/AT/cartoons/02-25-05.gif), #16 (http://www.inktank.com/images/AT/cartoons/03-02-05.gif), #17 (http://www.inktank.com/images/AT/cartoons/03-24-05.gif), #18 (http://www.inktank.com/images/AT/cartoons/06-06-05.gif)
VG Cats (http://www.vgcats.com): #1 (http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=134), #2 (http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=135)
GU Comics (http://www.gucomics.com/): #1 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20030331), #2 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20030402), #3 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20030404), #4 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20030411), #5 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20030429), #6 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20030508), #7 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20030513), #8 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20030612), #9 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20030624), #10 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20030814), #11 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20030828), #12 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20030923), #13 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20031016), #14 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20031120), #15 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20031209), #16 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20031225), #17 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20040108), #18 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20040127), #19 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20040128), #20 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20040217), #21 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20040304), #22 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20040322), #23 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20040325), #24 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20040331), #25 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20040402), #26 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20040406), #27 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20040409), #28 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20040415), #29 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20040419), #30 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20040423), #31 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20040426), #32 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20040429), #33 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20040430), #34 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20040503), #35 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20040507), #36 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20040519), #37 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20040525), #38 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20040608), #39 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20040615), #40 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20040624), #41 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20040625), #42 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20040630), #43 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20040708), #44 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20040714), #45 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20040716), #46 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20040726), #47 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20040816), #48 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20040819), #49 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20040824), #50 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20041018), #51 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20041027), #52 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20041029), #53 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20041110), #54 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20041118), #55 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20041124), #56 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20041125), #57 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20041201), #58 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20041203), #59 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20041206), #60 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20041213), #61 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20041223), #62 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20050105), #63 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20050111), #64 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20050113), #65 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20050118), #66 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20050126), #67 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20050131), #68 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20050208), #69 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20050221), #70 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20050228), #71 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20050304), #72 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20050309), #73 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20050420), #74 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20050426), #75 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20050502), #76 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20050503), #77 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20050512), #78 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20050601), #79 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20050602), #80 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20050608), #81 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20050616), #82 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20050627), #83 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20050630), #84 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20050706), #85 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20050726), #86 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20050801), #87 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20050803), #88 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20050809), #89 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20050815), #90 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20050822), #91 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20050823), #92 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20050830), #93 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20050831), #94 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20050905), #95 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20050914), #96 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20050921), #97 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20050923), #98 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20051027), #99 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20051028), #100 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20051031), #101 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20051103), #102 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20051107), #103 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20051129),
#104 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20051216), #105 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20051219), #106 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20051221), #107 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20060102), #108 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20060105), #109 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20060106), #110 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20060111), #111 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20060112), #112 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20060130), #113 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20060131)A funny live-action movie concerning Loot Lag (http://schnecke.bombcar.com/random/lootlag.gif).

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Now that the Open Beta (http://www.sw-fans.net/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=37213) is over, the Wolrd of WarCraft is ripe for the picking!

So far these are the people from the boards that have purchased the game and have handed their minds & souls over to WoW:

player name:
realm (type); name, sex race class


US SERVERS + Australia & New Zealand


Rie (me):
Aggramar (Normal); Brielle, female Dwarf Paladin
Bronzebeard (Normal); Tinuviel, female Night Elf Druid
Durotan (Normal); Azure, female Troll Hunter
Elune (Normal); Findra, female Night Elf Rogue
Elune (Normal); Nevlonniel, female Night Elf Hunter
Frostwolf (PvP); Melienne, female Night Elf Druid
Hyjal (Normal); Selarra, female Undead Warrior
Icecrown (Normal); Sonja, female Tauren Druid
Kel'Thuzal (PvP); Amariel, female Night Elf Hunter
Kilrogg (Normal); Lalaithe, female Night Elf Priest
Mal'Ganis (PvP); Morva, female Tauren Hunter
Shadowsong (Normal); Jancy, female Gnome Rogue
Terenas (Normal); Luthiane, female Human Warlock
Thunderhorn (Normal); Gorvana, female Orc ShamanJoe:
Aggramar (Normal); Groyn, male Dwarf Hunter
Bronzebeard (Normal); Gandelf, male Night Elf Druid
Bronzebeard (Normal); Loyn, male Dwarf Hunter
Durotan (Normal); Xyzzy, male Troll Priest
Elune (Normal); Legolamb, male Night Elf Rogue
Hyjal (Normal); Murray, male Undead Mage
Icecrown (Normal); Longhorn, male Tauren Shaman
Shadowsong (Normal); Lonn, male Gnome Warlock
Terenas (Normal); Beren, male Human Paladin
Thunderhorn (Normal); Grimmlok, male Orc WarriorViscera:
Elune (Normal): Azshalle, female Night Elf Druid
Kel'Thuzal (PvP); Baudihillie, female Human Paladin
Mal'Ganis (PvP); Elerogrond, male Undead MageTondry:
Archimonde (PvP); Banhammer, male Dwarf Paladin
Dethecus (PvP); Fellhoof, male Tauren Warrior
Elune (Normal); name, male Night Elf RogueKhendon:
Dalaran (Normal); Vargthia, Dwarf PaladinDyzm:
Bronzebeard (Normal); Xhan, male Human Paladin
Elune (Normal); Minimage, male Gnome Mage
Elune (Normal); Zakatiel, Human male Paladin
Hyjal (Normal); Vardlokkur, male Undead Warlock
Mal'Ganis (PvP); name, male Troll Warrior
Shadowsong (Normal); Hward, male Dwarf HunterZasz:
Azjol-Nerub (Normal); Ayresaelian, male Night Elf Warrior
Azjol-Nerub (Normal); Nuitari, male Human MageFigrin:
Doomhammer (Normal); Dergan, male Dwarf Paladin
Doomhammer (Normal); Ruhntar, male Tauren DruidSilus:
Kilrogg (Normal); Kaiya, sex Night Elf Druid
Kilrogg (Normal); Kirrah, sex Human PaladinFirebird1:
Malygos (Normal); Drik, sex race Paldadin
Malygos (Normal); Radghast, sex race MageYoghurt:
Earthen Ring (RP); Brisk, male Tauren ShamanCallista:
Elune (PvE); Ameena, female Night Elf Hunter
Elune (PvE); Lyras, female Night Elf Priest
Bloodscalp (PvP); Amari, female Troll Shaman
Mannoroth (PvP); Seria, female Undead WarriorYurza Magus:
Elune (PvE); Ostuj, male Dwarf Warrior
Stormreaver (PvP); Andazath, male Orc ShamanMorgan Evanar:
Elune (PvE); Arduna, sex Human Rouge
10 DAY FREE TRIAL (US servers)

Shawn:
{trial started on 3/13/2005; ends 3/23/2005}
Elune (Normal); Nupraptor, male Night Elf Druid
EU SERVERS + Great Britain

Peter McCoy:
Doomhammer (Normal); Bullveriser, male Tauren Warrior
Sunstrider (PvP); Evertonius, male Night Elf Hunter
Sunstrider (PvP); Sabbathius, male Human Paladin
Thunderhorn (Normal); Brennan, male Dwarf Priest
Thunderhorn (Normal); Hengist, male Dwarf Warrior
Thunderhorn (Normal); Paimei, male Gnome Mage
Thunderhorn (Normal); Thaleus, male Dwarven HunterDroo:
realm (type); Widgit, male Gnome Mage
(If anyone else is planning on buying the retail, please post here so that I may add you to the list. This will allow me to place a list of the players, their character names, and what server we will be playing on so that others may join us.)

WoW Realm Forums (http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/realmforums.shtml) & Realm Status (http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/serverstatus/).

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Helpful links:

World of WarCraft (http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/) - News items and updates for WoW can be found here at the Official Website.

WarCraft world map (http://www.blizzard.com/wow/townhall/worldmap.shtml) - This will aid you greatly in figuring out the layout of the land. Note: Only capitol cities and major towns are listed. Smaller hovels are not listed.

Unofficial WoW Database (http://www.thotbott.com/) - A collection of all sorts of information and tidbits, ranging from locating an item in-game to finding where a certain object is dropped, whether by a creep or quest.

Unofficial WoW Cartography Map (http://www.worldofwar.net/cartography/) - A collection of all regions and their respective roads, points of interests, etc.

Alliance & Horde Races (http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/races/) - The Alliance has 4 races and the Horde has 4 races. Each one has their pros and cons, but in the end, each faction is evened out nicely.

Classes (http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/) - Each race has four to six classes to choose from. Some races have different classes from other races.

Professions (http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/professions/) - Professions are in addition to your class. You can have up to two professions. They aid greatly in aquiring more money.

Money - 100c (copper) = 1s (silver); 100s = 1g (gold).

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And most importantly...

Lets have some fun! :D

[Zasz Grimm]

http://wow.allakhazam.com/profile.html?108369 My warrior currently.

DL back up.

[AmazonBabe]

Nice stats! Good job Zasz! :)

[Yog]

Brisk, level 45 something male tauren shaman. Earthen Ring (US)

[Figrin D'an]

My lvl 60 druid, Ruhntar, is one of the best druids, and one of the best healers, on the Doomhammer server. I've been in pretty high demand for instance runs. I'm close to having the full Wildheart armor set, along with some other rather nice items.

Still have yet to conquer all of Molten Core or Onyxia though.

[AmazonBabe]

Go Fig! Dude, it's still so hard for me to envision lvl 60. Hell, I have a hard time thinking I'll EVER be able to afford a mount even! :lol

[Pierce Tondry]

Originally posted by Figrin D'an
Still have yet to conquer all of Molten Core or Onyxia though.

My guild moved from Archimonde to Spirestone, and we attempted Onyxia last night. Got her down to a heartbreaking 10% before we wiped.

[Silus Xilarian]

Originally posted by AmazonBabe
Go Fig! Dude, it's still so hard for me to envision lvl 60. Hell, I have a hard time thinking I'll EVER be able to afford a mount even! :lol

Earning money from level 30 - 40 is pretty easy. Stay away from AH, and get rich off vendor trash. If you're having trouble doing that, spend an hour or so getting your skinning up and head to Stranglethorn Vale. That place is a gold mine.

As a skinner/packrat, i started saving my mount money at level 32, and had a mount sitting in my bank at level 37, and have bought every single available skill available each level.

[Yog]

I agree skinning is extremely useful, I am a skinner/miner myself. Also agree about Stranglethorn Vale. For example, there was this valley with gorillas near Booty Bay where I would level and make a crapload of gold. The gorillas drop coarse hair and various other stuff which goes for quite a bit at vendor, and they usually give medium or thick leather which sells well at AH, and sometimes they drop green items as well. In addition, iron and mithril spawns in that valley on occasion. Funny thing is, usually there are others running about in that valley who dont have skinning, and they will leave lots of gorilla corpses around which you can skin. I made on average 5G per hour doing this.

[AmazonBabe]

Thanks for the tips guys! I dinged at 30 last night! I've always viewed 30 as a milestone (probably cause it's the half-way point to 60 and only 10 away from riding a mount).

I've pretty much finished all the quests I can do in Ashenvale and Stonetalon. Next stop: Stranglethron and Desolace. (I love the names they thoguht up for the areas in WoW.)

So now, I start hording on the skinning and quests. I had to train last night, however, and I'm back down to 50s :x (and I didn't even learn everything). But I'm hopeful the goodies in Desolace and Stranglethorn will get me butt-loads of money so I can train AND afford a mount. :)


Funny thing is, usually there are others running about in that valley who dont have skinning, and they will leave lots of gorilla corpses around which you can skin. I made on average 5G per hour doing this.

Either that or they don't loot them all the way and you CAN'T skin them. :mad

[Callista]

AWWW!


I haven't been to this board in ages and here I come and look at all the WoW talk! *HUGS*

I love WoW...

I have a 50 Troll Shaman on Bloodscalp (don't play her anymore) and am working on my 40 undead Warrior on Monnorath....I have so many lvl 30s it's rediculous! so far I haven't hit 60 because of it.

[Zasz Grimm]

Originally posted by Figrin D'an
My lvl 60 druid, Ruhntar, is one of the best druids, and one of the best healers, on the Doomhammer server. I've been in pretty high demand for instance runs. I'm close to having the full Wildheart armor set, along with some other rather nice items.

Still have yet to conquer all of Molten Core or Onyxia though.

I know the feeling. As a viable and skilled tank I always get tells. But I'm going back to only core-guild things. We're relatively small (15 60's)...We all want Onyxia/MC- we're just not overly worried about getting there/being loot whores. But I've done MC with a Pickup (I know)..I was MT, I found it pretty easy. I left whenever we got right before Luci. Bad leadership and stupid people left a bad taste in my mouth.

And as far as my set goes? Current setup=better than Valor for tanking. I love my role. I'm content, for now, helping people get their key's, and quests done.

And for money? I was stupid and went the long and tedious profession that was enchanting. Money, and resource consuming, it has paid off. On alliance side, I am one of three people who can do lifestealing, which I sell at 150g each. And I also can do Crusader, which I also sell around 150+. Prices obviously change if some materials are provided. While I can get that much money, it's hard to hold on to. I spent about 500+ on random stuff. Materials, paying back people, giving some cash to the guild.

I'll get an epic sometime. That and whenever epics drop (I've seen two krol blades, a bloodrazor, and an axe of the deepwoods past 2 days)..I just give to someone else. Bah @ my kindness.

[Callista]

Originally posted by Silus Xilarian
Earning money from level 30 - 40 is pretty easy. Stay away from AH, and get rich off vendor trash. If you're having trouble doing that, spend an hour or so getting your skinning up and head to Stranglethorn Vale. That place is a gold mine.

As a skinner/packrat, i started saving my mount money at level 32, and had a mount sitting in my bank at level 37, and have bought every single available skill available each level.

The best way I made money is being a skinner and herbalist and selling on the AH. On one of the biggest servers, Mannorath herbs go for over 4 gold a stack! it's insane. At 38 I had twice the amount of gold I needed selling those and stacks of leather. I don't buy from the AH, I just sell. :) I also sell all the BoE green/blue items I receive.

[Silus Xilarian]

Btw, id just like to add. Level 30 isnt halfway by a long shot =p. Id say somewhere around level 45 is the real halfway point, but i dont have time to do the math. Once you hit 50, the grinding gets pretty steep, especially if you're like me, and dont have time for instances on weekdays.

[Lady Vader]

I kinda meant 30 as in the middle of 60. ^_^;

However I know what you mean about 45 being the true middle because of the steep climb to 60 from there on in. I hardly ever do instances only because I don't have the patience for them. :\

[Callista]

Lol LV...me neither...my b/f's like "lets do SM or Mauradon" and I'm like...ugh...that means I have to devote to putting the time into doing that unless a couple lvl 60s rush me.

[AmazonBabe]

Yeah, I think it's the time you have to dump into one instance. I'd rather do different quests in the same amount of time. Besides, I like the stories behind the quests. Makes it interesting. :)

[Silus Xilarian]

The stories for the instance quests are actually pretty good, and elaborate on the stories outside the instances. It's just hard to tell sometimes because instances are so fast paced

[Zasz Grimm]

On a related note, I got my epic mount.

Got it two days ago.

http://www.grimmshadow.net/gallidorn/epicmountgoodness.jpg

[Figrin D'an]

I still haven't gotten my epic mount, mainly because I've been too focused on instance runs and Battlegrounds/PvP of late than resource grinding.

I know what you mean about getting into instance groups with bad leadership and whiny people. I generally just take the chance on such things for pick-up groups though. There's a few people on the server that I absolutely will not group with because of past bad experiences, but for the most part, I have enough connections with people from other guilds that most groups I get into are at least tolerable. I wish our guild could do more runs together, but we are also fairly small (I think we have 14 lvl 60s, and maybe 7 more that are 55+). It would be nice to be able to run MC more frequently, but it isn't huge priority. I need to work more on my alts anyway. :)

[Tod Marr]

I feel so left out. I'm the only person here who plays on the European servers.

I'm terrible for creating alts. My highest character is lvl 26 because of it. I really need to cut down. I'll probably keep a handful and delete the rest once I've sent gold and items to the ones I'm keeping. I'll definitely keep my main Dwarf Warrior (lvl 26), my Dwarf Hunter and my Dwarf Priest (I like Dwarves). I also want to keep my Tauren Warrior (started him yesterday), do a Tauren Hunter, and do an Orc and Undead character. I'll draw the line there. I've currently got 25 characters on the go and its just not feasible to play them all.

[Zasz Grimm]

Originally posted by Figrin D'an
I still haven't gotten my epic mount, mainly because I've been too focused on instance runs and Battlegrounds/PvP of late than resource grinding.

I know what you mean about getting into instance groups with bad leadership and whiny people. I generally just take the chance on such things for pick-up groups though. There's a few people on the server that I absolutely will not group with because of past bad experiences, but for the most part, I have enough connections with people from other guilds that most groups I get into are at least tolerable. I wish our guild could do more runs together, but we are also fairly small (I think we have 14 lvl 60s, and maybe 7 more that are 55+). It would be nice to be able to run MC more frequently, but it isn't huge priority. I need to work more on my alts anyway. :)

Did Onyxia tonight with a pickup (yeah, I know)

But we got her to 61 % before wiping (people were being dumb; not handling the welps. Overnuking. ))

It was fun.

[AmazonBabe]

HOLY TAUREN!... er, I mean, COW! (http://www.blizzard.com/press/050614-2million.shtml)

[Tod Marr]

I deleted most of my characters. Rie, could you edit my entry in the first post please (thanks in advance):

Thunderhorn (Normal): Hengist, male Dwarven Warrior
Thunderhorn (Normal): Paimei, male Gnomish Mage
Thunderhorn (Normal): Brennan, male Dwarven Priest
Thunderhorn (Normal): Thaleus, male Dwarven Hunter

Sunstrider (PvP): Sabbathius, male Human Paladin
Sunstrider (PvP): Evertonius, male Elvish Hunter

Doomhammer (Normal): Bullveriser, male Tauren Warrior

I'm thinking about keeping one of my PvP characters (they're both lvl 12-ish) but I'm not sure which one. I love both classes so far, but I'd much prefer a Dwarf to an Elf.

Edit: Not that any of it matters - I'm the only bugger on the EU servers :p

[Nevlonniel]

All edited! :)

[Tod Marr]

Insolent fool!

Not really, but you did it wrong :p. Replace:

Thunderhorn (Normal); Calcazar, male Human Mage

...with:

Thunderhorn (Normal): Thaleus, male Dwarven Hunter

This guy's quickly turning into my main character :)

[Nevlonniel]

Fixed ^_^;

[Figrin D'an]

Quick update on my characters:

- Got my epic mount for my Tauren Druid. He looks awesome riding around on a Great White Kodo in full Wildheart set gear. Also got my Onyxia key (finally) and have done a couple more Molten Core raids (slowly but surely making progress). The guild I was in merged with another guild this past week, so we now have more than enough people to field full raids for MC, Onyxia and the upcoming Blackwing Lair.

- Started an Undead Priest, not in a real hurry to lvl him, he's more of a fun side project when I don't feel like raiding or PvP.

- Haven't played my Dwarf Paladin in ages. I'll probably delete him at some point, and create a warrior or a rogue in his place. Just depends upon if I decide I want to go for tanking or DPS.

[Dasquian Belargic]

I'm thinking about starting playing this in the summer, when I have a job. Is there any free demo available?

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Don't do it!!! *clings to Jenny's arm* ^_^;

If anyone has seen the Star Trek: TNG episode titled "The Game" then you would KNOW how dangerous this MMORPG is.

:cry

[Navaria Tarkin]

You know what's funny. I play online games and still have time to post :p

[Sasseeri Reeouurra]

Do you play WoW?

[Yog]

You know what's funny. I play online games and still have time to post

Yeah, me too, even though I am a bit of a WoW addict. It tends to settle down. It is possible playing it on a causal basis. However, the first month youre playing WoW, youre not likely to post much.

[Lady Vader]

It is possible to play and post. I just post during the day and play at night. But that's only during the week. The weekends are devoted to going outside, trying to get away from computer/TV screens, and having fun with friends and family. It all balances out. :)

Jen - The only "free" demo you get is when you buy the game. It comes with a free month. So you can consider that the demo, albiet you'd be playing the full blown game.

[Navaria Tarkin]

Nope. I don't play WoB... ;) Nickname my friend gave, world of boredom because he couldn't get into it :lol

I play Dark Age of Camelot- when I feel up to it, or City of Heroes

[Lilaena De'Ville]

I rest my case, Nav. ;)

[Lady Vader]

:rolleyes

[Marcus v4]

Don't roll your eyes at us, Nerdly.

[Lady Vader]

I'll roll them if I want to and you can't do squat about it. :p

It just amuses me how some assume I am playing WoW when I'm not posting.

[Cirrsseeto Quez]

What else would you be doing?

[Lady Vader]

Well, lesse... I watch TV, I go out to the movies, I go out to dinner, I go out with my friends and family, I get OUT of the house.

Yeah, that kind of stuff. :)

Speaking of going out, I have to leave work now and step out into the sun and bask in it's warmth. Yes, the outside is good for you. :p

[Lady Vader]

LOL (http://www.jinx.com/scripts/details.asp?affid=-1&productID=415)

LOLOL (http://www.jinx.com/scripts/details.asp?affid=-1&productID=452)

[Nevlonniel]

AAAAAAAAA!!! http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/ (BlizzCon news) I'M SO GOING!!!

(Dammit! This means I gotta get my elf costume started and finished QUICK!)

[Lady Vader]

BlizzCon website has gone LIVE! (http://www.blizzcon.com/)

OhboyOhboyOhboy!!!

:crack:crack:crack

[Daiquiri]

I hate asking this as I know its so detailed but...how do I get started playing this game? I havent the first clue, other than go to Battle.net.

it makes me feel like such a total noob (which I am!) but can someone please explain things in layman's terms?

[Tear]

Fun times incoming.

Step 1 -

Buy the game World of Warcraft. ( theres a few "Warcraft" titles out there so dont get confused. The game you want is called Specifally : " World Of Warcraft "

Step 2 -

Now what some people dont know when they buy mmo's is that most require an prescription, a monthly fee for your play time. For some this is a huge kick in the nuts for others it well worth the money.

Decide if you want to pay monthly for this game (maybe this should go before Step 1 but whatever :p )

Now one good thing is that you get 2 free months to try out the game. Your prescription will officially start after your 2 months pass. If you decide you dont want to keep playing you can cancel your subscription.

Step 3 -

Payment plan. There are several ways you can pay for World of warcraft. If you havent left the store yet a big one being pay cards. These are pre-paid play time cards. you buy one for around 40$ or something and you get like 2-3 months. I cant remember the details but i think theres a variety of them with different costs and time lengths. ( Basically they're like calling cards )

You can also use a credit card. Which is also an easy method. Just follow the instructions its all laid out on the world of warcraft website. Easy instructions to follow.


Step 4 -

Installing World of warcraft. There will be several discs for you to install most are labeled clearly and the steps are fairly straight forward e.g Insert disc 1. Insert Disc 2. The game will even tell you when to insert the disc so no worries.

The game will ask for a CD Key its somewhere on one of the disc packages i think. Dont get it confused with the serial number below the actual disc ;)

After the game is installed you will have to register your account and set up your payment method. Its very easy to follow. It will give you a number of choices: How many months do you want to subscribe to and such. Choose what you like best. Remember you can cancel at anytime.

Step 4-

After the website verifys your cd key and registration you'll create a user name and password that you will use to log into the actual game.

Enter your user name and password to log in. At this point you can choose a server or let the game choose one it thinks will suit you best. But youll probably want to play with your friends so go manual and choose one your friends play on.

Step 5-

The server selection screen will come up. Green letters and such its all clearly labeled and easy to understand. After that you create your character and enjoy.

If you have any more questions feel free to pm me.

:)

[Daiquiri]

Thanks, Tear! Your explanation was great!! :)


This goes way beyond noobish...I feel downright stupid - youve got to pay after buying the game??

[Lady Vader]

Tear - best to add after installing the game that you'll also have to install patches the boxed game may not be released with. Of course, all these patches are auto-run within the game.


Daiq - You pay $50 for the game (i.e. box, CDs, manual, etc etc). Then you pay monthly fees for a subscription to play the game (this is where the game cards or credit cards come in handy). From there, once the screen prompting you to subscribe comes on is when you choose your means of payment method and options.

Being a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG), this means you are playing on massive servers with millions of other ppl nation wide (or world wide, depending on whether other countries bought the US version of the game to play on US servers). The subscription is to maintain these massive servers, etc etc.


If you truely are interested in purchasing the game, and are still hesitant as to how to go about doing the whole subscribing thing, I would be more than happy to give you a call and walk you through the process of setting everything up. :)

[Naysheta]

Originally posted by Lady Vader
BlizzCon website has gone LIVE! (http://www.blizzcon.com/)

OhboyOhboyOhboy!!!

:crack:crack:crack

I will so be at that if I can help it.

[Lady Vader]

YES! JOIN ME! AND TOGETHER WE CAN TAKE OVER BLIZZCON!

:D

[Yurza Magus]

Lol...most definitely.

[Lady Vader]

[Mr. Burns]Exxxxxxxxxcellent![/Mr. Burns]

I can't wait to dress up and be all purple! :lol I can't believe it... for so long, everyone (including myself) has joked about LV wearing latex purple body-paint, and here I'll be slathering myself with purple body makeup for my NE costume! HAHAHAHA!

[Yurza Magus]

Just picked it up today, or I should say got a free ten day trail from my friend and if I like it I'll stick with it. I'll get back to you on the characters and servers when it is done installing.

Edit: Got Andazath(male Orc) on Stormreaver and Ostuj(male Dwarf) on Elune

[Lady Vader]

Sweet deal! I'll add ya to the list!! :)

See you on Elune some time!

[Grev Drasen]

I caught wind of a RP-PvP server going up next patch, and I think that's just enough to pull me back into the game.

I'll probably go with a human or Night Elf warrior, so if anyone wants to meet up in-game just let me know.

[Figrin D'an]

Some character recommendations for those of you just getting into the game:

- Take a look at the Alliance/Horde character ratio before you choose a side, and if possible, contribute to balancing the sides. On many servers, the Alliance outnumbers the Horde by as much as 3 or 4 to 1. (hooray for Night Elf uber-fandom... :x ) Only on a couple does the Horde outnumber the Alliance.

- If you want to be able to solo through a good potion of the game content, your best class choices are hunters, rogues, or druids. However, high-level hunters and rogues are a dime a dozen on many servers now because so many people choose them initially. Druids are, on most servers, still somewhat scarce, since they aren't as easy to play as many of the other classes (they are incredibly versatile though).

- If you want to be really valuable to a guild or raid group once you reach lvl. 60 (current level cap), go with a mage, a priest or depending upon the server, a warrior. Warriors specialized in defense are always in demand to be tanks for high level instances. Mages (along with rogues) are the ultimate damage-inflicting class. Spec as a fire mage for most of the game, then then respec as in frost or arcane magic for the endgame content. Priests are always needed because, without healing, raid groups die pretty quickly. As a priest, spec as in shadow early on so you can inflict decent damage, then respec to holy once you start going on high level raids so you can be a better healer.

- Decide what class you want to play before you choose your race. Whatever class you choose, you can then see which racial bonuses would be the best fit for that class.

- Try not to choose your primary professions based upon what you think will help you early on. Trust me, most of them will help very little. Professions come in handy later on in the game as ways to make money or help our your guild. The best overall money-making professions are the raw-materials based ones - skinning, mining and herbalism. It's fairly easy to increase your skill in these, and they will pay off in various stages of the game. Enchanting, alchemy and engineering end up being the most valuable professions, but don't count on making much money until you max out your skill and reach a high character level. As for the secondary professions, the most valuable one, by far, is First Aid. It's not difficult to increase your skill, and making bandages to sell in the auction house can be a quick way to make some money (or save your own butt in combat).


Guess that's it for now. Time to get ready to run Molten Core tonight.

[Lady Vader]

Good advice Figsters! I concur with all of it!

I play primarily a Hunter (Alliance), Druid (Horde), and Warlock (Alliance). My husband plays along with those a Rogue (Alliance), Shaman (Horde), and Paladin (Alliance) (respectively to mine).

So far, our pairings have proven to be quite fruitful as we quest along. And our professions of skinning/leatherowrking, mining/blacksmithing, and skinning/tailoring have also proven to be quite helpful. Down the line, I may switch over to herbalism/alchemy with my Warlock, though that remains to be seen. I do play another Druid which I do herbalism/alchemy, and I've been enjoying it quite a bit (not to metnion the money at the AH).


On a side note.....

Guess who got a call from Blizzard for a job interview? :D :D :D

I go in this Friday for an interview for the exact same position I hold at Raytheon, save it would be for Blizzard Entertainment. We'll see if they can offer me the same benefits and pay I get at Raytheon. If they can, then I may be switching jobs. :D



EDIT: Ok, I just nearly crapped my pants! When speaking with the HR guys about my interview and times, they were kind enough to give me the name of the guy I'd be supporting if I were hired.

So I googled his name to see if anything would come up. I nearly burst into tears.

It is non other than the co-founder, CEO, and President to Blizzard Entertainment!

Jeez... and I thought I was nervous before..... :uhoh

[Lilaena De'Ville]

good luck!!!!

[Lady Vader]

Thanks! I'm gonna need it. ^_^;

[Lady Vader]

Guh! In my excitment in mentioning the interview I had, I totally forgot to say I got tix to the BlizzCon hapening this October in Anaheim, CA.

My hubby, sis, and myself will be going. :)

[Zasz Grimm]

Good luck with MC, Fig! My guild, in collaberation with another took down Lucifron with 31 people. And myself as MT, it was absolutely exhilirating! Down near the last there was 12 people, constantly spam healing me, and decursing. Despite what people say and/or think, it was an epic battle. Lawbringer boots, Felheart gloves, and a tranq. shot tome.

We've also gotten Onyxia to 38% with 33 people. We're attempting her again this saturday. Our problem is understanding the tail end of phase 2 (lots of whelps)...and occasional deep breaths. Then the transition to phase 3.

It's either Onyxia, or another attempt at MC. If we go, we'll most likely down Luci again, and make attempts at Magmadar with two tranq. shots.

[Figrin D'an]

The best our guild has managed in MC thus far is killing Lucifron, Magmadar and Garr. Gehennas has been giving us problems. I've gotten one epic set piece thus far (Cenarion Boots), plus another non-set epic.

We've only taken one shot at Onyxia thus far... got her down to about 55%. We're in the process of getting more people keyed so we can hopefully have a more balanced group next time.

[Zasz Grimm]

The bad thing about my guild, is we have to collaborate with another to do things- we can't just go "Hay MC? GOGO"...which is kind've a bummer. But, it means whenever we do go, We're 100%.

[Lady Vader]

Well, got back from my interview and it went great!!!!!!!!!!!!! They are the most awesome ppl and everything they needed or wanted was exactly what I do at my present job. If hired, my transition would be seamless!

They were really happy with the way the interview went and they liked my energy! So, now I have to wait a couple of weeks while they decide which canidate gets the job.

I'm so excited, but also trying not to be excited. It's kinda hard to do though.

In either case, what they offered me would be much better than what I'm getting presently at Raytheon right now (surprisingly) and I do hope I get the job!

Please pray/cross appentiges/think happy thoughts for me in the next coming weeks that I get the job!

It's like a dream come true for me and I would so fit in! ^_^

[Pierce Tondry]

My guild has taken down Onyxia and all Molten Core regular bosses (meaning, Majordomo Executus and Ragnaros not included). It gets tedious once you understand the system.

Best of luck on the job seeking LV! It would be really cool to know someone in that position. ;)

[Callista]

Sooo...I didn't know Elune was a PVE...and I wanna have an alliance on PvE...therefore...I joined Elune :D

Not sure what exactly I want to make as of yet. I have a NE priest Lyras on there right now, but I think I might make a warlock.

Oh and for the update, my other characters are Amari (shaman troll bloodscalp) and Seria (undead warrior mannoroth)

When I figure out what I wanna play, I'll look you up! My b/f made one on that server as well :) I think he wants a hunter

[Lady Vader]

Sweet deal, Callista! I'll look for ya on Elune whenever I get online.

If you don't see me right away, drop me some mail. Name's Nevlonniel. :)

[Callista]

Okay...so with all the new upcoming stuff for hunters...we've decided to go for hunters! lol...name's Ameena :) if you *cough* have some bags...........


:)

[Silus Xilarian]

I just the final piece of Wildheart Rainment for my druid, so im good to go whenever the guild needs a healer. Next im gonna be working on fire resist, since we're pushing for onyxia and MC. And feral gear is always a nice priority.

I was saving for my epic mount, but i knocked a good chunk out of my savings to buy a warden staff. Im an AH addict =(

Good luck on the job Rie, and hook me up with free stuff =)

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Originally posted by Silus Xilarian
Good luck on the job Rie, and hook me up with free stuff =)

I asked first! :mneh

[Lady Vader]

Originally posted by Callista
Okay...so with all the new upcoming stuff for hunters...we've decided to go for hunters! lol...name's Ameena :) if you *cough* have some bags...........

:)


I dunno if I have any extra bags, but I do have cash to buy said bags with. :) I'll try to spot ya some. :)


:lol Hollie and Silus! Dun worry, buddies, you're both on my list for hookings up of freebie stuff. :D

[Zasz Grimm]

Originally posted by Silus Xilarian
I just the final piece of Wildheart Rainment for my druid, so im good to go whenever the guild needs a healer. Next im gonna be working on fire resist, since we're pushing for onyxia and MC. And feral gear is always a nice priority.

I was saving for my epic mount, but i knocked a good chunk out of my savings to buy a warden staff. Im an AH addict =(

Good luck on the job Rie, and hook me up with free stuff =)

I bought my stockade pauldrons and have been broke since. Luckily I already have my epic mount, so not having any money doesn't hurt. I'm sitting at 62 right now.

[Lady Vader]

OMGOMGOMGOMGOMG!!!!!!!!!!

OMG!!!

I GOT THE JOB! I GOT THE JOB AT BLIZZARD! THEY LIKE ME! :D

If all goes well, I start on September 6!

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! :D


Today, August 11, 2005, shortly after the lunch hour, 1:04pm pacific time to be exact, my cell phone rang. I picked it up and flipped it open and noticed the caller ID was indicated that the number was "Uknown". Now, there are only a few "Uknown" numbers that my cell gets, and seeing as how I was waiting for a phone call from Blizzard Entertainment this week on the status of my job interview I had with them on July 29, my heart skipped a beat.

I pressed the talk button and placed the phone up to my ear.

"Hello?"

"Hi! May I speak with Anne Marie Belland?"

*remember to breathe*

"Speaking."

"Hello, Anne Marie. My name's Denise and I'm from the HR group here at Blizzard."

*REALLY remember to breathe*

"Ok."

"We'd like to congratulate you and offer you the position you applied and interviewed for two weeks ago. Are you still interested in accepting the job?"

*OMG! OMFG! OMGOMGOMG! BREATHE, DAMMIT!*

*a moment of silence*

"Of course!! Yes! Completely! When do I start??!"

From there it's history. If all goes well and there are no loose ends to tie up here at Raytheon that require me to stay longer than what I told Blizzard, I start work as a new Blizz employee on September 6 working for the CEO and President of Blizzard Entertainment and partially for the International Managing Director.

Needless to say, I'm very very VERY excited. My husband, Joe, made a funny article (http://fu-news.blogspot.com/2005/08/loud-shrill-shriek-disrupts-southland.html) on his blog concerning this momentous event which I think you'll enjoy reading.

And now, I'm going to try to calm myself, but unfortunately, I go through these sudden bursts of EEEEEs, not unlike an Alien bursting forth from a human's chest cavity.

Thank you ALL who prayed/thought happy thoughts/crossed appendages for my sake in getting this job! They were all appreciated and most definitely heard by the right ears!

Happy me!!! :D

UPDATE (9/14/05):

I’ve been a part of the Blizzard family now for only a week and all I can say is HOLY HECK THIS IS AWESOME! Joe was kind enough to do a funny mock “interview” (http://fu-news.blogspot.com/2005/09/aftershock-of-loud-shrill-shriek-felt.html ) with me on his blog.

[Tear]

congratulations! :D Its not everyday you get a dream job.

What is it you do anyway? If i may ask

[Nevlonniel]

I'm an Executive Assistant at raytheon currently.

But in 3 weeks, I will be an Executive Assistant at Blizzard.

Same title, a bit more pay, same benefits, and supporting the Prez of Blizz. :)

[Callista]

Originally posted by Lady Vader
OMGOMGOMGOMGOMG!!!!!!!!!!

OMG!!!

I GOT THE JOB! I GOT THE JOB AT BLIZZARD! THEY LIKE ME! :D

If all goes well, I start on September 6!

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! :D


For full story, read here (http://www.swforums.net/forum/showthread.php?threadid=38278#post715487).



holy crap!!!!!! *HUGS!!!!* How freaking awesome is that! CONGRATS

[Lady Vader]

:rollin I'm so stoked! It's all I can do from telling the whole WoW community, but I don't wanna be mauled :uhoh, so I'm keeping the news to close friends and family. :D

[Callista]

Will you get to play WoW for free? lol

[Tear]

Thats awesome LD maybe one day I'll pump into you if i ever end up working there.

I do game art and animation.

[Liam Jinn]

Congrats LV. My mom is an Executive Assitant for Citigroup, and she loves it. Working for Blizzard is like icing on the cake :)

[Pierce Tondry]

Hey, that's great LV! Now I know two employees at Blizzard! (the other one is a GM who is in my guild)

[Yog]

Congrats with the new job LV :)

[Lady Vader]

Callista - Dunno if I'll be able to play WoW for free, or even get a discount. But hell, I don't care! I'll be working at Blizzard! That's good enough for me! *is all starry-eyed* :D

Tear - Not LD... LV :p And if you do get a job at Blizz, definitely look me up. :)

Liam - Yeah, working as an EA at Raytheon has been cool for the last 2 years, but it's tie to move on. And moving on to Blizz is HELLA GOOD. :D

Pierce - Hooray! now we can talk about you behind your back! :p ;)

Yog - Thanks a bucnhes! I'm so excited! :D

[Lilaena De'Ville]

:hug!!!

Congratulations! I knew you'd get it. :D

[Lady Vader]

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!! :D

:hug

You got me all excited again! :lol But then again, I'm easily exciteable. :p

Now we just need to get you a job (not neccessarily Blizzard as that would require moving out of state)! :)


And, as an after thought to that fopah made between the LD and LV... well, we have been known to be twins from behind, so i'll let it slide this time. :p

[Zasz Grimm]

Grats Rie.

Last saturday our guild took down luci/mag. Sure, not a big thing to most guilds, but we are going with a guild thats really close, and it's an accomplishment for us(at least, mag is; Luci is a pushover now). My roomie made the video, pardon the mis-spelling of special near the end.

Note: there's a bit of cussing when you can hear our ventrilo chat.

P.S. I'm the MT. KAKAKA.

http://www.grimmshadow.net/DWACMC.wmv

[Figrin D'an]

Good to hear you guys are making progress in MC, Zasz. It's not an easy thing to do, especially in a smaller guild (ie. lack of numbers and probably unbalanced raid parties). Even our guild has trouble with balanced groups sometimes, and we're pretty good sized.

Our guild finally got past a couple of trouble spots down there. We finally took down Gehennas, and have gotten more consistent beating Garr (Luci and Mag we have down to a science). We've managed to get Gedon down to about half of his health, so we hope to have him beaten within a few weeks (Living Bomb and Mana Burn suck so much... you'll find out when you get to him. :( )

We got 4 random epic drops on this past weekend's run as well, so combined with the loot from the 4 bosses we dropped, we came out with 15 epic items, our best MC haul yet.

We're taking another crack at Onyxia this coming weekend. I don't expect us to beat her, but hopefully we'll be better than last time and learn more about the fight.

[Pierce Tondry]

Fig or Zasz, if you guys want advice on how to handle your trouble spots let me know.

[Darth Viscera]

any of you other guys just start running out of decent level quests at level 35 or so?

[Zasz Grimm]

Originally posted by Pierce Tondry
Fig or Zasz, if you guys want advice on how to handle your trouble spots let me know.


Good news, on our second Gehennas attempt tonight (first night attempting him), we downed him. It was really sloppy though, but we managed it. Garr gave us craploads of trouble. We had 5 warlocks, but it seems that they just got pwned in the first second. Some banishes got off- I dunno, but I was wanna of the OT's this time (me and another guy switch out.)

But I was a bit frustrated. I got my guy, dragged him away, and had him there stuck on me. We divine shield pulled with a pally; perhaps it would've been better if we had the hunters pull with distracting shot. Blah. Either way, we made some progress tonight. Explored MC we, as guilds, never saw before. Took another boss down, and made several attempts at Garr. I can see him being a big problem for us, for a while. Any pointers there, would be nice.

And Visc: have you tried the beginnings of Tanaris, yet? Later STV ? Arathi ? There were times when I had to just say screw it and grind of monsters, then do quests. But if you haven't done any of the places I mentioned, I recommend doing them. And when you get a bit higher, badlands?

GL with Onyxia. I'd like us to make attempts at her more; especially if we had the turnout we did tonight at MC. We could definitely down her. Or, even with our mag attendence.

[Tear]

Originally posted by Lady Vader
And, as an after thought to that fopah made between the LD and LV... well, we have been known to be twins from behind, so i'll let it slide this time. :p

I think i'll let my imagination take that one..:rolleyes

At 35 I grinded mobs in Dustwallow Marsh. It can be dangerous but its very doable. Plus theres a few quests to play around with while your there.

[Yog]

Originally posted by Darth Viscera
any of you other guys just start running out of decent level quests at level 35 or so?

Stranglethorn Vale and Shimmering Flats are the places to be your level. Then after you gained a couple levels, you might look up Badlands.

[Darth Viscera]

I finished 90% of the Shimmering Flats quests in about 90 minutes, it took me from like level 33 to about 5% away from level 34. Right now I'm just finishing up the quests from Shimmering Flats where they make you travel to Booty Bay and Swamp of Sorrows and the Badlands.

In STV I've done all the quests up to level 40.

Haven't tried quests in Tanaris yet (that's a 40-50 zone)

I tried questing at Dustwallow Marsh for a while, but there aren't many quests there. Sheer desperation might drive me back there soon though.

In Hillsbrad/Arathi I've done all the non-Stromgarde quests, done Scarlet Monastery.

Might go back to Desolace, I've done all the quests there up to level 38.

Badlands has an alliance town?

[Pierce Tondry]

No Alliance town in Badlands, but there are various quest NPCs scattered around the zone.

[Dasquian Belargic]

Congrats on getting the job, LV. You will have to tell us all the inside trade secrets ;)

[Lady Vader]

:lol Yeah, on the condition they don't catch me and string me high. :x

;)

[Lilaena De'Ville]

They're probably reading this thread right now.

>_>

<_<

[Lady Vader]

:uhoh

[Tear]

Oh noes.. (http://www.blizzcon.com/swag.shtml)

I hate murlocs.:p

[Lady Vader]

OMG OMG OMG!!!!!!!!! I was so hoping they'd have a Murloc pet! OMG!!!!! EEEEEEEEE!!!

:crack

[Pierce Tondry]

Grrugrrlrlrlglglrurlrlglg!

[Shawn]

Hey, congrats on the job LV. I told you there wasn't anything to lose by giving it a shot. :D

[Lady Vader]

So, true Shawn. So true. :D

[Figrin D'an]

Our guild has made huge strides over the past week. It's kind of amazing how quickly everything has begun to gel for us. The turning point seemed to be fighting Baron Geddon. We got up to him last weekend, but couldn't kill him (best we did was down to about 30%). So, we decided to make an extra trip into MC this past Wednesday night specifically to try to take him down. We altered our strategy a little bit, and despite have a severely understaffed healing crew that night, we took him out on our second attempt.

We started with a fresh reset on Friday, and everyone was excited to see if we could match the previous effort, and maybe get a bit further. Needless to say, we had our best MC run to date. Friday evening, we took down the first 6 bosses, including Shazzrah, whom we have never attempted before. It took two attempts to get Geddon down again, but Lucifron, Magmadar, Gehennas, Garr and Shazzrah all dropped like flies. Saturday, we went back in to take on Golemagg and Sulfuron, again whom we had never fought before, and proceeded to mop the floor with them both on the first attempts. (Golemagg was a bit tough, lots of spam healing on the tanks, but despite that, the fight was ours from the very beginning.) We summoned Majordomo, and took a couple of cracks at him... we knew we wouldn't win that fight right away, but it was a valuable learning experience. It will take some time to beat him, but I'd much rather be stuck on him for a while than on any of previous 8 bosses. (It just means that, over the next several weeks, we'll be collecting lots of epic gear for everyone.)

[Pierce Tondry]

Have you ventured into Blackwing Lair at all Fig?

[Figrin D'an]

Originally posted by Pierce Tondry
Have you ventured into Blackwing Lair at all Fig?


Not extensively. Our guild has been pretty focused on Molten Core and Onyxia. A few times, just for kicks, but that's about it.

We have several people that want to run Zul'Gurub when it opens up as well, which will likely decrease the likely hood of BWL runs for a while. Considering that our MC progress has been great over the past two weeks, we'll probably keep hammering away at it for a while yet. Which is fine, 'cause I'm getting more than my fair share of epic loot (a perk of being one of the few really active druids in our guild).

[Pierce Tondry]

Well, Zul'gurub isn't going to be worth it loot-wise, but I think the encounters will be fun and good practice for BWL. The type of encounter is completely different in those instances. It's much more strategy-based, rather than the "dps the main tank's target" style prevalent in Molten Core.

How's your Onyxia progress? Her loot is really good.

[Callista]

!! Have you seen the new weapons for Zul'gurub? AND there's an epic tiger mount!

[Figrin D'an]

I think that some of the Zul'Gurub loot will be useful. The sets may not be as good as the MC sets (and are only 5 pieces instead of 8), but they will be a step up from the rare class sets. Considering it will be a lot easier to gather 20 people for a ZG run than the 40 needed for MC, BWL or Onyxia (or the outdoor raid bosses), it will be a good alternative for guilds which don't quite have the numbers for the other endgame instances yet.

Some of the non-set epic drops in ZG look pretty nice, too.

Some of my guildmates have been playing on the test server quite a bit, and already have strategies worked out for several of the bosses. This will certainly help once the patch goes live.

[Figrin D'an]

Another major step for our guild today. After several attempts, and strategy reworks, we forced Majordomo to submit. Not an easy fight by any means, but we got it done.

We summoned Ragnaros and made one "joking around" attempt at him. We actually got him down to 85% just screwing around. Once we improve our fire resistance, and actually learn how to fight him, I'm completely confident he will fall.

[Lady Vader]

GUESS WHERE I WAS TODAY!

:D:D:D:D:D

[Figrin D'an]

Tonight was interesting on my server (Doomhammer). One of the top guilds on the server, Juggernaut (Horde), summoned Prince Thunderaan in Silithus to complete the quest to get Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker (legendary sword). Apparently, it's only the second time on any of the servers that he's been summoned and defeated. I only bring it up because about 300 people from various Horde and Alliance guilds showed up for the event (including me), and assisted in taking this guy down. He's basically Ragnaros, except he's a wind elemental rather than fire.

It was rather amusing how quickly his HP bar dropped, considering he's a level 500 boss. :)

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Originally posted by Lady Vader
GUESS WHERE I WAS TODAY!

:D:D:D:D:D

Blizzard Entertainment at your new job?

[Lady Vader]

Originally posted by Lilaena De'Ville
Blizzard Entertainment at your new job?

DING DING DING!

And what do you get? A FREE T-SHIRT! :p

I can't believe it, but I'm actually sad tomorrow is not a work day. Something must be WRONG with me! O_o

[Lilaena De'Ville]

I get a free t-shirt?! O_o ossum!

[Zasz Grimm]

Originally posted by Pierce Tondry
Well, Zul'gurub isn't going to be worth it loot-wise, but I think the encounters will be fun and good practice for BWL. The type of encounter is completely different in those instances. It's much more strategy-based, rather than the "dps the main tank's target" style prevalent in Molten Core.

How's your Onyxia progress? Her loot is really good.

Not for MC geared people; which I should add, I recently acquired a Heavy Dark Iron Ring.

Nabbed it on a run I managed to get on during my vacation; hence why I've not postd. Since then my guild has done garr twice (maytbe 3, dun remember) and geddon once.

[Lady Vader]

Originally posted by Lilaena De'Ville
I get a free t-shirt?! O_o ossum!

Yes! It's called a surprise-prize! Now, what size t-shirt are you?


As for me, sorry I've been away for so long. Job taking over. But it's a good taking over! I'm having so much fun! *does NE jumpy clappy thing*

This job was TOTALLY made for me! And the stress... THERE IS NO STRESS! OMG! I won't die of a heart attack at an early age! What a concept!

And I get to know what the inside scoops are for new stuff at Blizzard and what's gonna be going down at BlizzCon and so freakin cool man!

Ok, I'll stop gushing now. I can't help it though. I'm still bubbling with excitment! Everytday is a new adrenaline rush and each day goes by so fast! And my work hours! I love them! 9am-6pm! I can freakin sleep in!

OK, ok. I'll really stop now. Anyhoo, yeah, so, that's what's happening with me. :)

[Tear]

boo nightelfs


/troll

[Zasz Grimm]

Nobody is perfect; even when you have seemingly easy bosses on farm status; you can get sloppy.

http://www.grimmshadow.net/gallidorn/LucyMistake.wmv

Myself and my room-mate put this together (he was actually playing my character; hence why he's dual wielding on my PROT. spec warrior.)

the GD is from our raid leader...yeah. ^_^

[Lady Vader]

Originally posted by Tear
boo nightelfs


/troll

Eh, they're not so bad.

Besides, I'm dressing up as one for BlizzCon. :D

[Tear]

Oh I know everyone has their preferences but I play on a PVP server so you tend to develop anger issues toward the other side.

Nightelfs in particular...and gnomes.

[Zasz Grimm]

Originally posted by Tear
Oh I know everyone has their preferences but I play on a PVP server so you tend to develop anger issues toward the other side.

Nightelfs in particular...and gnomes.

Filthy horde. Shaman are nasty creatures.

[Yog]

Originally posted by Zasz Grimm
Filthy horde. Shaman are nasty creatures.


<=== is level 60 shaman :D

[Callista]

I want the lowdown on when fee based character transfers are allowed!!! :P

[Figrin D'an]

Originally posted by Tear
Oh I know everyone has their preferences but I play on a PVP server so you tend to develop anger issues toward the other side.



Trust me, that's not exclusive to PvP servers.



Finally starting BWL next weekend. We'll get slapped around by it, I'm sure, but considering our guild has pwned everything else (besides ZG, but we're working on that... just not enough runs yet), it's time to at least try the next major challenge.

If you haven't already, go download some of the movie clips some guilds have made of the Nefarion fight. It's not hard to understand why nobody has managed to kill him yet once you see the fight.

Druids are FINALLY getting a talent tree revamp. I'm very happy about that, especially given how extensive it is. I'm probably going to end up spending 100g just on talent respecs until I find a build I like. :)

[Zasz Grimm]

Originally posted by Figrin D'an
Trust me, that's not exclusive to PvP servers.



Finally starting BWL next weekend. We'll get slapped around by it, I'm sure, but considering our guild has pwned everything else (besides ZG, but we're working on that... just not enough runs yet), it's time to at least try the next major challenge.

If you haven't already, go download some of the movie clips some guilds have made of the Nefarion fight. It's not hard to understand why nobody has managed to kill him yet once you see the fight.

Druids are FINALLY getting a talent tree revamp. I'm very happy about that, especially given how extensive it is. I'm probably going to end up spending 100g just on talent respecs until I find a build I like. :)

We've down sulfuron and golemagg in my guild. Onyxia still presents a problem; so we've decided to break from our attempts on her and just stick with MC for a while. ZG is a pain. But I'm looking forward to doing MC more and more.

I'm also looking forward to the druid changes. My alt is a level 32 druid and going fast; he's at the moment, full feral; and will definitely be so whenever the talent changes come (unless I become a healbot.)

[Nevlonniel]

So, out of curiousity... is anyone besides me going to BlizzCon?

Tickets actually sold out last week, but there are rumors going about that a small number will be released at the beginning of October.

Also, they announced the closing band for BlizzCon: The Offspring

Anyhoo, just wanted to know if anyone was going. If you do go, look for me... I'll look something like this:

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a57/Nevlonniel/WoW/BlizzCon_Costume/04-Nev-weapons.jpg

:)

[Figrin D'an]

Originally posted by Nevlonniel
So, out of curiousity... is anyone besides me going to BlizzCon?



Consindering I'm nowhere near southern Cali, and I'm too busy actually playing the game, I'm gonna say no. ;) Hope you enjoy it though, Rie. (Seriously though, besides my location, I'm just not one for big conventions.)


And... in case you haven't heard or seen the news on the WoW realm forums, an Alliance guild (Drama) on Shattered Hand defeated Nefarion earlier tonight, becoming the first group worldwide to kill him. There are some screen caps that have been posted, so if you have an opportunity, check them out.

[Nevlonniel]

I shall bombard you with pictures of the con when all is said and done. :)

[Zasz Grimm]

News- got into another guild. I didn't want to leave my old one, but for reasons I'd like to not go into...It was necessary I leave.

But, the one I recently got into, last night, we killed Razoregore; kill Onyxia regularly, do sunday clears of MC..
Yay!

[Silus Xilarian]

My guild has run into the problem of people leaving after getting attunements to Onyxia and MC. ZG is our big goal right now, since 20 man raid is pretty attainable for us. Molten Core and Onyxia are down the road still, but we've friendlied up with a few more small guilds and intermingle members for raids.

I personally need to start getting into MC stuff. Short of the epic armor quests a few straggling blues, i have all my healing and feral set items that im concerned with for my druid.

[Droo]

Level 21 Human Priestess - Rhianna - The Maelstrom (PVP)
Level 24 Gnome Mage - Widgit - Bloodfeather (PVP)

I love this game!

[Zasz Grimm]

Vaelastraz is a punk. Our best is stuck at 8%. We were hoping to kill him tonight, but our instance reset, and alot of us just said to hell with it, and we'd kill razore tomorrow.

[Zasz Grimm]

Add. We killed razoregore the next night. Yaya.

Then we went after Vael. On the fifth attempt we dropped him! Down to two pallies, and they got him. Screenies:

http://www.grimmshadow.net/gallidorn/vaelSS2.jpg
http://www.grimmshadow.net/gallidorn/vaelkillSS1.jpg

Guild shot (not mine)
http://www.grimmshadow.net/gallidorn/Guildshot.gif

[Yog]

Very impressive.. congrats! I have yet to visit Black Wing Lair, but had my share of MC and ZG. We are progressing fairly well with ZG, but no attempts on Hakkar yet.

[Zasz Grimm]

Originally posted by Master Yoghurt
Very impressive.. congrats! I have yet to visit Black Wing Lair, but had my share of MC and ZG. We are progressing fairly well with ZG, but no attempts on Hakkar yet.

Hakkar is a very unique and fun fight. Blizz knew what they were doing with it. I haven't been to ZG much, but I've attempted him. And thanks; Lashlayer dies this sunday, maybe firemaw !

[Sorsha Kasajian]

:: sits in corner :: =*(

[Lady Vader]

*sits in corner with Kitty and :hug her*

^_^

[Pierce Tondry]

*thefts the corner and everyone in it*

Nefarious purposes are afoot! :evil

[Zasz Grimm]

Yay. Broodlord down. The guild is progressing nicely. Pre-broodlord, we downed domo and rag to get that out of the way to farm some cores during the weekend.

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a56/ngoni/WoWScrnShot_102005_213308.jpg

I'm enjoying things immensely. ^_^

[Callista]

LV! I want to know all about the expansion!! so make sure you play it :D or at least get a good look at it! hehe

[Figrin D'an]

Looks like most of the rumors I heard about the expansion are true. I'm curious to see what the new Alliance race will be though.

There's gonna be a ton of people rolling Blood Elves now though.... >_<

[Yog]

Where are these wonderful rumours? :)

On the note of future content, check out this site. Plenty of stuff to drool about:
http://www.blizzplanet.com/modules.php?action=Content&pa=showpage&pid=144%22

[Figrin D'an]

A lot of 'em aren't rumors anymore Yog. Blizz released the first set of notes about the expansion today. Among the confirmed content:

- Outland will be accessable via the Dark Portal, and will have special flying mounts to allow players to navigate it's regions.

- Kharazhan, the Tower of Medivh, will be opened.

- The Caverns of Time will be opened, allowing players to experience famous battles in Warcraft history in a battlegrounds-like format.

- Level cap will be raised to 70.

- Two new races, Blood Elves (Horde) and an undetermined race (Alliance).

- New profession: Jewelcrafting, and socketed items will be available (think like the jewels and sockets from Diablo II).


And, of course, we still get Ahn'Quiraj in the 1.9 patch. So, lots of new content coming soon.

[Callista]

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/burningcrusade

there's the official stuff! I am so freaking excited! dunno if any of you guys saw the "exploration" videos where a guy on his own server showed everyone the GM islands, inside caverns of time and all the things - most of what was in the video are what they show us previews for now...kinda cool!

[Nevlonniel]

Blizzcon totally ROCKED!!!

I'll post more later, but in the meantime, here's a couple of pics of our costumes! :D

Pic 1 (http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a57/Nevlonniel/WoW/BlizzCon_Costume/Photos/Blizzcon01.jpg)

Pic 2 (http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a57/Nevlonniel/WoW/BlizzCon_Costume/Photos/Blizzcon02.jpg)

Not too shabby from my concept (http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a57/Nevlonniel/WoW/BlizzCon_Costume/03-Nev-pauldronscloak.jpg).

[Droo]

Those costumes turned out wonderful. And yes, do tell us all about Blizzcon! :)

And while you're at it, Rie, could you use your divine influence to get those buggers to tell us what the Alliance's new race will be? :D

[Lilaena De'Ville]

nice costume!

needs a better picture though.:)

[Nevlonniel]

Actually, the pictures are great. The scanner is crap.

I'll see if I can find a better scanner. :)

As for the new Alliance race... how much is it worth to ya? ;) :p

[Nevlonniel]

BlizzCon coverage complete with pictures! (http://fu-news.blogspot.com/2005/11/blizzcon.html)

(Curtesy of Joe)

:)

[Dasquian Belargic]

All of your costumes look great :)

[Callista]

Did you know Tine's picture was in the mix of Blizzard's on their homepage? I saw it and was like "I know her....I swear I do...." that's cool :D I love your outfits!!

[Nevlonniel]

Yup. Tine is there. I'm there, and Joe's there. We're actually in the set of pictures twice on the Blizzard website! :D

[Morgan Evanar]

Oh my, on this.
Elune : Arduna, Human Rouge

[Droo]

Behold! My amazing little guy: Widgit, the Level 44 mage in all his glory! :D

[Zasz Grimm]

Originally posted by Droo
Behold! My amazing little guy: Widgit, the Level 44 mage in all his glory! :D


Like the dressing room, eh?

Edit~ in BWL last night, my guild successfully trounced Ebonroc, Flamegor, and Chromaggus. Attempted nefarion to learn, then called it a night. (our first night at all of them)

with 2 days left of BWL... It's very possible he'll go down.

[Figrin D'an]

Originally posted by Zasz Grimm
Like the dressing room, eh?

Edit~ in BWL last night, my guild successfully trounced Ebonroc, Flamegor, and Chromaggus. Attempted nefarion to learn, then called it a night. (our first night at all of them)

with 2 days left of BWL... It's very possible he'll go down.


Don't be too disappointed if you don't take Nefarion down in your first weeks worth of attempts. He's a pretty major step up from even Chromaggus. We've been working on him for a while now... the combination of Draconid types you have to fight in Phase 1 can range from moderately difficult to freakin' impossible (red and black combination is just a recipe for disaster...), and it's all the luck of the draw as to which ones you get for a given week (they're save with the instance).

Phase 2, you just have to be careful that everyone is paying attention to which class "shout" debuff he uses at a given time. They can doom a raid really fast if you aren't ready to compensate for them.

Really long fight... he's the toughest encounter in the game right now for some very good reasons. It's a fun fight to learn though, just as long as you don't mind huge repair bills.

[Zasz Grimm]

Well, he's for sure not going down this isntance. Azjol-Nerub is locked out via login server.

Oh well. We'll get more learning attempts tomorrow, i guess.

[Nevlonniel]

Originally posted by Morgan Evanar
Oh my, on this.
Elune : Arduna, Human Rouge

Welcome aboard! :D

I'm gonna try to find you tonight! :)

[Droo]

Originally posted by Zasz Grimm
Like the dressing room, eh?

OMG! My evil plot has been foiled!

[Atreyu]

::steps out of shadows::

I don't have WOW and probably never will (dialup + little old laptop + lack of money + lack of time), however I just wanted to say that I've found this thread (plus the previous one) absolutely fascinating reading, so please keep us all up to date with your wanderings plus all the pretty pictures you can upload for us.

It really is quite a good read. :)

[Zasz Grimm]

Well, with tonight we got a few attempts on him. 2nd try we got him to phase 2. We're just plagued with the leftovers right as he lands. but challenging. But definitely fun. instance reset tomorrow, think we're waiting to do it on thursday from start.

ZG raid tomorrow though. Hakkar dies; maybe some bloodsoaked legplates / aegis of hte bloodgod.

[Figrin D'an]

We took Nefarion to 38% last night, and that was despite that he killed all 6 of our rogues about 2 minutes after he landed. We were also down another 3-4 people for a good portion of the fight too. We'll be trying again tonight.

His damage is so ridiculously spikey though. He'll hit our main tank for little to nothing on some attacks, then suddenly smack him for about 4000-5000 in one hit. Makes it harder on the healers, especially when one class is taken out of the fight because of a class shout.

[Figrin D'an]

:D


We did it!

After two close attempts, taking him to 27% and 8%, we tweaked a couple of small things for the third attempt tonight, and succeeded in killing the infamous Lord of Blackrock Spire. It was a long, long fight, but was well worth the time and effort. When we arrived back in Orgrimmar, Onyxia's head was already on display from another guild's kill, so it was a duel treat, getting to see both Onyxia's and Nefarion's heads on display at the same time. First Horde kill of Nefarion on our server.

I'll try to get a few pics up tomorrow.

[Atreyu]

Originally posted by Figrin D'an
I'll try to get a few pics up tomorrow.
Please do. :)

[Zasz Grimm]

Originally posted by Figrin D'an
:D


We did it!

After two close attempts, taking him to 27% and 8%, we tweaked a couple of small things for the third attempt tonight, and succeeded in killing the infamous Lord of Blackrock Spire. It was a long, long fight, but was well worth the time and effort. When we arrived back in Orgrimmar, Onyxia's head was already on display from another guild's kill, so it was a duel treat, getting to see both Onyxia's and Nefarion's heads on display at the same time. First Horde kill of Nefarion on our server.

I'll try to get a few pics up tomorrow.

Freaking nice man. We dropped him to 82% and that was our best tonight. Our instance reset tonight, anyway; so we didn't bother attempting anymore (it was an offnight, turned into a raid night)

So, afterwards 20 of us went and tore ZG up. We're doing really well, I imagine we'll down Nef in a week or so; definitely before AQ

[Figrin D'an]

A couple pics:

Right after the fight. (http://home.wi.rr.com/kroken/NefarionDead.jpg)

Celebration in Orgrimmar. (http://home.wi.rr.com/kroken/Nefarion&OnyxiaOnDisplay.jpg)


I can't really post screencaps of the fight itself. Our guild has a policy of not showing stuff outside the guild that can give away any of our strategies on fights like this (many guilds are the same).

The pic of the two heads on display at the same time is pretty cool, IMO. (For the unfamiliar, Onyxia's head is the smaller one on the right, Nefarion's is the larger one on the left.)

[Callista]

Whoo!!! grats!!!

[Figrin D'an]

Another server first tonight for us (this time a first for Alliance or Horde). We succeeded in killing Emeriss, one of the four green dragons guarding the portals to the Emerald Dream. He has some nasty abilities, and it took as a few tries to figure out a good stategy to use against him. Not as tough as Nefarion IMO, but still a challenge.

[Atreyu]

Nice pics Fig. :)

Quick question - was that stronghold your guild's (the 2nd one with the heads out the front)? Do guild's get granted keeps and such, and if so how does that all work (do you have to register)?

(as I said before I've never played the game so sorry for the dumb questions)

[Figrin D'an]

Originally posted by Atreyu, Champion of the Force
Nice pics Fig. :)

Quick question - was that stronghold your guild's (the 2nd one with the heads out the front)? Do guild's get granted keeps and such, and if so how does that all work (do you have to register)?

(as I said before I've never played the game so sorry for the dumb questions)


The stronghold in question is actually Orgimmar, which is the capitol city of the Horde. It's open to all Horde players on the server, and is pretty much the central hub of activity for the entire Horde faction.

Guilds need a minimum of 10 players to be formed, and are registered with Guild Registars in the major cities. There's no private territory or buildings for a guild, so guilds simply use areas of their choosing as meeting places. In most cases, it ends up being Orgrimmar for the Horde guilds and Stormwind for the Alliance guilds (their capitol city). The cities themselves are pretty big, with lots of activity and things to do.

The pic itself was taken from an angle that looks towards the front gate. It's inside the city proper, with the gate in the background leading outward to Durotar, the region in which Orgrimmar is located.

I actually took the screen cap before things got too crowded. After the head went up, the main drag filled up pretty quickly.

[Zasz Grimm]

Ugh, nice Fig. What kills me is tomorrow, my guilds gonna kill ebonroc-Nef (to him)...and I gotta work until 2 hours into the raid. They're gonna try and drop emeriss before, so I may only be waiting an hour (if it takes them that long)...

But, a sidenote, during one of our optional days (do whatever)..we did all of ZG, MC, and downed onyxia. I scored a helm of wrath (freaking finally...but it's not like might was bad). And Geddon dropped our first bindings. Our MT ante'd up the DKP for everything (in buying the bindings, he paid for the whole sword)...

Hopefully we'll get the left side soon. I'd like to go tomorrow, but I'll be on the waiting list; what can you do?

[Zasz Grimm]

Nefarian Down, pictures soon.

[Zasz Grimm]

Whats better than screenshots? A video of the kill. One of our priests (who was in vent) recorded it. It was our first time past 80 %, and we downed him. It was crazy. Can't wait to do it again.

http://files.filefront.com/nefarianwmv/;4384521;;/fileinfo.html

GG for server first!

[Figrin D'an]

Grats on the Nef kill Zasz. He's a tough encounter, no matter the strategy. Everyone in the raid has to play almost perfect the entire duration of the fight.

We've managed to beat him a couple times now with the infamous Red/Black draconid combo, and we were able to one-shot him Tuesday night. So, our guild essentially has BWL on farm status now, and we're gearing people up with loot from their and from the four green dragons in preparation for Ahn'Qiraj.

[Callista]

I wish we were in BWL :( I play on Mannoroth and we have one of the top guilds on the horde side - Twelve Prophets...they were the 3rd to down Nef? or 4th...they would have done it sooner but he was bugged for a week and our server had issues with lag since every guild was in those BR instances, lol....anyway, they down him everytime his timer is up now...lol...just about everytime I login to Org I get a buff for him...kinda nuts how he was so tough and now people are downing him left and right.

[Figrin D'an]

Originally posted by Callista
... kinda nuts how he was so tough and now people are downing him left and right.

This tends to occur with most raid instances/spawns... once one group kills the uber-baddie, others soon follow, and generally quickly. Nefarion does require more skill to defeat than Ragnaros, but his fight is more about solid teamwork, quick adaptation ability and battle management than anything else. Once a guild defeats him, they can usually get him to farm status relatively quickly. Other fights in BWL can still be nasty, though. For example, our guild takes out Nefarion first try every reset now, yet we can still sometimes wipe on Vaelastraez and Chrommagus (I HATE Time-Lapse...)

I'm almost inclined to believe that the toughest single mob in the game right now is Lethon. His shadowbolt AoE can annihilate even a prepared raid group awfully fast if your healers aren't on the ball. We're still the only guild on Doomhammer, of either faction, that has been able to kill all four of the Green Dragons. With luck, most all of our regular raiders will have the quest reward from them before AQ is opened.

Really looking forward to AQ. I've been pretty pleased with the content on the test server, and though a few things need to be adjusted, it still looks like a solid zone.

[Atreyu]

Originally posted by Figrin D'an
Really looking forward to AQ. I've been pretty pleased with the content on the test server, and though a few things need to be adjusted, it still looks like a solid zone.
What's AQ exactly Fig? Is it an add-on?

[Zasz Grimm]

Originally posted by Atreyu
What's AQ exactly Fig? Is it an add-on?


AQ is the newest upcoming instance. With content in a 40-man instance which will be the hardest around; to content which is in a 20 man instance, and on par with Zul'Gurub.

Some of the items and stuff are cool but I'm not impressed with the warrior drops. Woohoo DPS drops. I'm a tanking warrior. I'll still go, though- alot.

Anyway: I am so freaking happy with my warrior as of late.

http://wow.allakhazam.com/profile.html?108369

[Lady Vader]

:lol

I ran across this today while surfing one of the WoW forums I check from time to time. Ithought I'd share and hope you get a good laugh out of it:

(NOTE: Not sure if it's a tru story or not, but with the state of some players, you never know!)



(note, I'm a hunter)

Warrior: Can you heal for us in SM?
Me: I can't heal anything other than my pet.
Warrior: But I've seen hunters heal before
Me: Right, the spell is called "heal pet", we can only heal something if it is our pet
Warrior: oh, ok, thats fine.
(invites me)
Upon accepting the invitation, the group already had 2 shamans in it. more than enough to heal.
[Party] Warrior: OK, how do I become your pet?
[Party] Me: uh.. type /console reloadui pokute, dont worry if you get an error box afterwards
[Party] Warrior: OK, done, so you can heal me now?
Shaman whispers: wtf
You whisper to shaman: uhhh haha i dont think he knows shamans can heal

A while later the party is really rocking SM, we've killed herod without wiping and just finished whitemane..

[Party] Warrior: OK, how do i change it back so im not your pet anymore
[Party] Me: haha.. me and the shamans have been laughing about this for like an hour, dude - you never were my pet, they were healing you the whole time
[Party] Warrior: what do you mean, how did you give me orders if i wasnt your pet
[Party] Me: orders?
[Party] Warrior: i got this big red arrow over monsters sometimes, that was you telling me to attack it, right?
[Party] Me: yeah, but, uhh i can do that to anyone
[Party] Warrior: yeah, so how do i change it back so im not your pet anymore
[Party] Me: ...
[Party] Shaman: sucker, you're his pet forever now.. i cant believe you would fall for that noob
[Party] Warrior: WTF im reporting you
(warrior hearthstones)

Warrior whispers: why would u do that to someone and scam them like that just release me from being ur pet plz
You whisper to Warrior: Sorry, you're my pet forever now. nothing i can do about it
Warrior whispers: im going to report you to a gm
You whisper to Warrior: I order you not to, pet
Warrior whispers: /counsel reload Warriorname, right?
You whisper to Warrior: I order you to remain my pet, pet
Warrior whispers: f u
You whisper to Warrior: I order you to stop whispering me
Warrior is ignoring you.

Now, for a Warrior to do an SM run, he'd have to be fairly high leveled, so you'd think they'd have some idea of what other classes can do.

So, either he's a complete doof-head, or he bought the account off of eBay.

If this really did happen and that Warrior really did send a ticket to a GM about this... "wtf, this Hunter keeps following me around and commanding me to attack things with the big red arrow"... well, I only hope it sent the GMs ROFL!

I laughed. Hope it makes you laugh too. :)

[Yog]

^^ LOL! Thats so crazy, it must be true! :lol

[Lady Vader]

I read another story from a Warlock that was part of a group instance and the group leader kept harrassing her to stop ninja-looting all the soul shards. Yeaaaah. :rolleyes

[Pierce Tondry]

I read that story and was stunned FOR SIX SECONDS!!11

(Paladin in-joke)

[Lady Vader]

:lol

[Figrin D'an]

Info seems to indicate that Jan. 3rd will be patch day for 1.9. Then it'll probably be 2-3 weeks, on average, before most servers can complete the world event to open Ahn Quiraj. Hopefully all those epic Abyssal Scepters from Silithus are part of it... our guild has more than 70 of them stockpiled.

We're kind of bored otherwise... we just farm the other raid instances for gear while we wait for AQ.

[Zasz Grimm]

Originally posted by Figrin D'an
Info seems to indicate that Jan. 3rd will be patch day for 1.9. Then it'll probably be 2-3 weeks, on average, before most servers can complete the world event to open Ahn Quiraj. Hopefully all those epic Abyssal Scepters from Silithus are part of it... our guild has more than 70 of them stockpiled.

We're kind of bored otherwise... we just farm the other raid instances for gear while we wait for AQ.

our guild is on break for christmas; but before that we were raiding pretty hard.

I miss raiding. Can't wait for AQ

[Lady Vader]

AQ should be fun. Now if only 1.9 hadn't broken just about everything... |I

But that aside, I'm actually still working my mains up to 60. Main Alliance is at 53 and main Horde is at 50. So by the time AQ opens up, I should be set on my servers.

Of course, I have to work to get the COOL gear. I sooooo want the Dragonstalker gear for my hunter. *drools*

[Yog]

Our guild is nowhere as near as uber as Zasz's or Figrin's, partly because were a medium/small guild which have to rely on cooperation/partnership with other raiding guilds to arrange our MC and ZG trips. So I unfortunately cant tell you about farming mobs in Black Wing Lair etc. Nevertheless, I am happy to report we made some tremendous progress in MC. I think just about the only boss we have not downed is Ragnaros.

Yesterday, we cleared Lucifron, Magmadar, Gehennas and Garr. I thought it went really smooth. Only one wipe, otherwise the occasional death. The trash mobs in MC are now trash mobs in the true sense of the word for us. They go down real fast. On friday, were going to attempt clearing all the regular bosses.

Lucifron dropped this, and I won the roll :D
http://wow.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?witem=16837

And here is a screenshot:
http://img235.imageshack.us/img235/2547/mc18xi.jpg

[Figrin D'an]

Gratz on the loot Yog. :) The Earthfury set is one of the coolest-looking armor sets in the game IMO.


Our guild has been hard at work helping to get AQ opened as soon as possible on our server. By virtue of our dedicated members, we were the first guild on the server to successfully farm the necessary faction with the Bronze Dragon Flight for one of our members to get the questlines to reconstruct the Scepter. So, we've been chosen to be ones to complete it for the opening. I can say, it's very involved, and has required a lot of raiding to get through the different steps. As of now, we have the Scepter piece from Vaelastraez (via Nefarion), and we have summoned Eranikus and are working to defeat him for the second piece. The third piece we likely won't be able to get until this weekend because of a bug that messed up a drop we needed from Onyxia, otherwise we would have everything needed to summon the raid boss for that branch.

Of course, all of the server-wide farming for the war effort has to be done before the Scepter can be used, so it's not like we don't have some time to finish this stuff. Our server has been hovering around 4th-8th in the overall rankings in that respect, so with luck, we'll be able to get the gates opened in another week and a half.


And Rie... if you want Dragonstalker gear, a word of advice... get lots and lots of fire resistance gear for yourself. You're entire raid party will need it. Tanks need 300+, everyone else should have at least 150-200. Fights like Rag and Vael are completely made or broken by your group's FR stats.

[Zasz Grimm]

My guild is on a somewhat...retarded server. We're the top guild their; only guild who has killed nefarian for 2 months on the server. So, naturally one would think the opening of the gates was up to us? Wrong; another guild (technically ranked fourth on server, never killed TL chromaggus (bugged and non bugged)...Decides to take it upon themselves and do it, thus competing with us in silithus. Lies are spread we are denying all help. Server drama, yadda yadda...Their guild saying it won't involve nefarian.

Lol; yeah okay. We did the Eranikus event yesterday (as they failed it before we attempted it, thus messing is up till server rest.)..Remulos is bugged. (lame, can't get that piece till server restart)

So, we go to BWL. We know it's confirmed Nefarian in 5 hours. We plow through the instance, no wipes; I only died three times (When a death call was given due to colors on nef, TL chromo..requiring we reposition)..And of course, tanking vael. From Vael to Nef (dead) 3 hours 25 minutes. It was the most uplifting thing to accomplish for our guild, such a fast BWL clear.

Blue line was done another day (Maws was cool btw.)...So, we're just waiting on Remulos; and the rest of our effort is working towards the war supplies.

A great questline. I thought Nefarian's lines in BWL were cool. A guild member fraps'd eranikus; hopefully i'll be making a video soon, I'll post here. Also, Fig, how was your guys loot whenever you cleared BWL? We got alot of new drops; and pretty good ones...Dooms Edge, Ring Of Dark Dominion, Ring Of Blackrock, the staff the drakes drop..

And another Dragonstalker BP...(Which is the sixth to drop. Soon they will be DE'd). It was hella fun; I hated the competing guild pulling what they did. But still, while they lied about us, had a good amount of the server help them with the silithid farm, we still came back, got the blue line done before them; completed the green line where they failed it, and of course, killing Nef. And believe it or not, we had more Horde assistance than our own faction.

I wish alot of blizz quests were sooo intensive.

(P.S...Yogh; MC is very awesome. Grats on being their, and getting it done. And Rie; Fig is right. Ragnaros is beaten outside of MC; whereas most of BWL is beaten by having MC fire res gear.)

[Figrin D'an]

Update... the GMs actually did their jobs for once, and were able to recover the missing chapter piece from Ony that was bugged (long story), so we were able to kill Maws this evening to complete that branch. Now just Eranikus remains, but like Zasz mentioned, there is a bug with Remulos that prevents him from respawning promptly, so our attempts are severly limited.

Our BWL drops this week were pretty good. One of our warriors got Askandi from Nef, and had a Ring of Blackrock off one of the drakes. several very nice cloaks. It sounds like your guild gets a lot of Dragonstalker BPs, for us its Netherwind Robes. All of our active mages have them now, and we had to DE them when the dropped again this week. We have yet to see a Stormrage Chestguard... :(

Other than Maws, we started a new clear of Molten Core, then stopped once the Emerald Dragons poped up to go gank them. We managed to kill all four of them over a span of about 50 minutes, only waiting for a few minutes for another guild to wipe on Lethon before proceeding with our last kill.


We actually had a bit of drama regarding the Silithus farming on our server too Zasz. Another guild, on the Alliance side, had begun farming for rep a bit before us, and had more-or-less declared themselves (via the realm forum) to be the "chosen ones" to complete the scepter. They even claimed to have the support of the other top Alliance guilds, which wasn't exactly true, and some in-fighting began. So, we, being the top Horde guild, decided that because the Alliance seemed unable to move forward in a timely manner, that we would take it upon ourselves to build up rep for one of our officers to get the Scepter quests. When we posted our progress on the realm forum, many claimed we were flat-out lying about our rep, saying that there was no way we could have surpassed the top Alliance guilds in rep that quickly. Needless to say, everyone was shocked when we posted screenshots of our officers rep, and it was revealed that we were over 15,000 points closer to the goal than anyone else. At that point, some of the other Alliance guilds, whom had been waiting to see whom would win the race, threw their support to us, and actually helped us complete the farming faster. We had a lot of help from other Horde guilds too. Many sent groups to complement our own raid force. We had three full raids of players camping the Silithus hives for about a 48-hour period, which helped immensely.

[Figrin D'an]

As of this evening, we have completed the Scepter of the Shifting Sands. We summoned Eranikus in Moonglade, and with help from several other guilds, we were able to defeat the encounter. Now, we grind out the remaining war effort supplies turn-ins... hopefully, no more than another 7-10 days before we can open the gates.

[Zasz Grimm]

Remulos is still bugged for us on Azjol; or we would have said Scepter. Also, I'd have my NR ring from Malfurion for the Nightmare Engulfed Object.

Sigh. I hate you Blizzard. Anything to prolong the clearing of AQ.

[Nevlonniel]

ATTENTION:

For all those that play World of Warcraft (and could say without shame that they are maybe a wee bit adicted to the game... though this also applies to ppl that enjoy the game but really aren't addicted ^_^; ), please contact me at this name through PM. I have something to share with you. :)

[Figrin D'an]

So, yeah, I'm not going to farm anything for about 4 months once this war supplies crap is done. Sorry, but milllions of bandages is just ridiculous. :x

At least by the time it's done, I'll hit Exhaulted with Orgrimmar so I can finally get my new mount.

[Yog]

Time for some updates.

Last week, I won the . We have everything in MC on farm status, except majordomo who we have yet to master. Hopefully, we will get him this week. Basically, we have 2 runs each week, on tuesdays and fridays. On tuesday we clear the bosses up to Baron Geddon (or Shazzrah depending on how efficient we are). Then on fridays, we clear every boss up to Majordomo. Also, yesterday I won the <a href=http://wow.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?witem=18878>Sorcerous Dagger (http://wow.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?witem=16840>Earthfury) which had some decent stats I thought, good intellect and + stats to healing. On thursday, we will do a run to ZG, after a long break on that one. We are at the point of doing so many high end instances now, that I get like one epic item per week.

On monday, we downed Onyxia for the first time (this is only the second week we tried). Thats a achievment I felt particulary proud of, because I was one of the few who survived all the way to the end and it was real challenging. It was a tremendous battle of endurance. Here are some screenshots of that event:

<a href=http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/1986/onyxia28ij.jpg>Entering Onyxia's Chamber</a>

<a href=http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/9958/onyxia64cy.jpg>Mmmmm... look at all those snack foods that just entered my den.. tasty</a>

<a href=http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/9783/onyxia46vf.jpg>She has a really bad breath..</a>

<a href=http://img499.imageshack.us/img499/5457/onyxiadown8zl.jpg>We made it!</a>

<a href=http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/1453/onyxia81al.jpg>Victory Ceremony at Thrall's Chamber. For the Horde!</a>

<a href=http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/9214/onyxia91gj.jpg>We moved in procession to Ogrimmar's center square to celebrate</a>

<a href=http://img497.imageshack.us/img497/1058/onyxia107gr.jpg> Brisk quietly contemplating the events of the day. This was one evening he would not forget</a>

[Figrin D'an]

Grats on the Ony kill, Yog. She's never one to go down very easily, even for experienced guilds. Fighting her is a good lesson in aggro management.

From the pics, it looks like one of your warriors also was able to get his/her Quel'Serrar finished. Grats on that... it's one of the best tanking weapons in the game, even still.




The Doomhammer war effort stands at 90%. We're in 6th place overall. I'll be so glad once this is over and we can actually start AQ



(PS. Yog, if your guild can take Ony, you guys can handle Majordomo. I'm sure you'll get him soon. :) )

[Yog]

"He who was ancient when this world was young has been awoken..."

<img src=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v153/Iori73/rag02.jpg>

[Figrin D'an]

WTB stable server hardware, PST...

A year later, and we still don't have a server that is reliable. This is reaching the point of being unacceptable. 45 minute login queues, character list retrieval that takes another 10-15 minutes, lag spikes that make doing simple tasks (checking mail and AH, using profession skills, summoning a mount) almost impossible, zone-ins that take 5 mins at least...

And thats when the server is actually online.



Good news: Doomhammer (my server) finished the AQ war effort this evening.
Bad News: We lost a spot in the overall rankings to Alleria server because, in the last hour turn-ins, the server crashed twice, and was lagged to oblivion when it was online such that materials crafting and turn-ins took about 100 times longer than normal. We were ahead of them by almost 20,000 items when the problems started. We ended up losing to them by 4 minutes.

The actual gate opening is going to be a waste of time. There's no way the hardware can handle that many PCs and NPCs in the same zone, plus mob spawns, for that type of duration if it can't handle the average weekend PC account load.


Time to go see if my craptasitc server is back online yet. Apparently someone spilled beer on it or something, since it disappeared right as I was trying to check my mail.

[AmazonBabe]

I think Jenkins tripped over the wire: OOPS (http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a57/Nevlonniel/foxtrot_wow01.gif)

Seriously, though, I do agree the servers have been VERY laggy as of late, mostly due to tons of ppl subscribing during and after the holidays AND old accounts being reactivated since their inactivities as of 6 or more months ago.

The servers are hurting, and believe me, they know it. They're doing all they can right now to alleviate the more problimatic servers and working down the list.

It's just a matter of how to do it without hurting any of the data on them. Needless to say, it's a tedious and hellish task. :\


Ona bright note of AQ war effort stuff, my Horde server of Icecrown finished collecting the supplies in 5th place! The gates should be opening this Tuesday if all goes well.

Still waiting on my Alliance server Elune. It's in 15th place right now. It was at 14th place, but alas, I think the Horde on Elune are not as numerous as the Alliance as they are waining in their supply gathering. Mostly in herbs. I'm thinking of creating an alt for the sole purpose of gathering peacebloom. :rolleyes


As for the crashings and crowds when the gates open, any lowbies in the Cenarion Hold area will be magically transported out. They've done this to alleviate lag in the area. So if you're under lvl 30, don't bother going, as you won't be staying long when the gates prepare to open.

[Yog]

A level 30 has no business being in Silithus anyhow. Its bad enough for a level 40 with those snakes bouncing you around and scorpions agroing from 2423523 miles away. Its one of those regions where you can't travel safely, even if you stick to the road.

As for lag.. oh man, I sure noticed a lot of that lately. Horrendous and queues to get in. But it was worse in early january I thought. That was right after holiday season and they still had not anything to fix it. For the last week or so, there has been a notable improvement. For one thing, I dont get stuck on login anymore, and queues are getting uncomon again. They probably did some optimzations to the code and closing new character creations on our server must have really helped.

So if its any comfort Figrin, its probably going to improve rather than worsen for your server.

I am not paying that much attention to the war effort myself, as I am more than busy enough working on gettin myself fire resist gear. And thats something I need more of for facing Ragnaros again next week. The AQ gates are going to open at some point anyhow, and I dont see the point of racing to get there first. For 95% of the server population, there is more than enough challenging content in form of MC and BWL. Oh, and I hate grinding.. so no turning in 1 billion silk cloths for me.

If you had not guessed by the screenshot above, last friday, we finally beat Majordomo and summoned Rag. It was not even a serious attempt with no real strategy or tactics. We were all "haha, were going to die quickly". Much to our surprise he went down to 78% on our "what the heck, lets summon him and see what happens" attempt, even though it was a total chaos with people getting tossed in the lava left and right. But it sure was an awesome sight and exciting encounter.

[Figrin D'an]

If you want an idea of what's going on regarding Doomhammer, have a look here (http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-dungeons&t=344079&p=1&tmp=1#post344079).


The war effort is completely screwed. Everything is turned in, yet nothing is happening, because the NPCs, on both sides, don't recognize that the other faction is done turning in their supplies. Worse yet, there has been no acknowledgement that there is a problem with the world event from Blizzard. We've sent tickets to GMs in game asking about it, and gotten, as usual, the most canned response imaginable:

"The event is worked as intended."

-_-

Like hell it is.




Anyway... grat on beating Majordomo and getting to Rag, Yog. Rag usually takes some time for guilds to beat... he's a step up from Domo. Lots of fire resist gear is a big key of course, and getting it will also help to prepare you for some encounters in BWL. Good luck on him, you'll down him soon I'm sure. :)

[Figrin D'an]

The Gates of Ahn Quiraj finally opened today on Doomhammer. They should have opened this past Thursday, but Blizz screwing the pooch delayed it for us. The server crashed 4 times beforehand, then crashed hard right at noon when we were going to hit the gong, and was down for a good 40 minutes before we got back in to get the event rolling.

Despite all that, our guild is already on the 3rd boss in AQ40. Decent loot so far, nothing super extraordinary yet. We hope to at least get the third one dead before the instance resets on Tuesday.

[Figrin D'an]

AQ Update:

Prophet Skeram - DEAD
Lord Kri, Princess Yuaj, Vem - DEAD
Battleguard Sartura - DEAD

All server firsts


Currently working on Fankriss.


We also cleared AQ20 up to the final boss. I have to admit, AQ20 is a really, really fun zone. Well-designed boss fights, good overall size, decent loot. Way, way easier than ZG. Groups that have UBRS mastered will find this a good next step in testing their abilities.

[Pierce Tondry]

Heh, mind if I ninja your AQ strats Fig?

[Figrin D'an]

Killed Fankriss last night on our first attempt of the evening. We felt we were overcomplicating the encounter, so we completely changed our strategy, and it worked wonderfully. Now working on Princess Huhuran. We tried Viscodous as well (optional boss)... he's like the AQ version of the Vael fight, except completely based on nature resistance instead of fire resistance.

[Figrin D'an]

Killed Princess Huhuron the other night... she'll be a blocking point for many guilds.

Probably not as much as the Twin Emperors, though, whom we are working on now. Only a handful of guilds have been able to down the most recent version of these guys thus far. We've only been able to put in one night of solid work on them to this point, so with more time, we know we'll get a handle on how the fight works. Initial impressions though... pretty tough encounter. Will definitely take some repetition, and lots of wipes and high repair bills. Blizz indicated that AQ40 would start out easier than BWL and finish more difficult. I'd say we're definitely to the "more difficult" part now.

Overall, AQ is pretty fun. I'm not sure about some of the loot itemization, but I'll save judgement on that until we have a few more weeks worth of items from it.

[Pierce Tondry]

Haha, warlock tanking for the win.

Get more stamina!

[Yog]

AQ opens for us on saturday. Were gonna watch it all happen of course (barring server setbacks), and scheduled a raid for AQ20.

Were doing real good farming MC and Onyxia, however we struggle with Ragnaros (we really got to figure out positioning better, especially for conversion to Sons phase).

Question is.. when are we ready to go into BWL? I suppose not until we can farm Rag with ease. Some people also need better FR.

This is how my character looks btw. I will try to update it :)
http://wow.allakhazam.com/profile.html?854621

[Figrin D'an]

Originally posted by Master Yoghurt
Question is.. when are we ready to go into BWL? I suppose not until we can farm Rag with ease. Some people also need better FR.



You can attempt Razorgore (the BWL first encounter) at any point really. That fight will take time for your guild to figure out and execute properly... it's a big step up from anything in MC, and is there to really test a group's abilities. After that, you'll need high level fire resistance on everyone, since Vaelastraez is next (as much as possible on tanks, at least 180-200 on everyone else).

[Pierce Tondry]

Fire resistance on Vaelestraz The Corrupt (VTC) is definitely key. Another element in that fight found prevalently in BWL is managing tank transitions. The drakes post-Broodlord especially require this, but at least they can be taunted.

[Yog]

Thanks for the advice Figrin and Pierce :)

Talking about Black Wing Lair, anyone who has not seen it yet (even if youre not playing WoW, its fascinating), you MUST watch this. Its some extremely well done French fanmade videos of Black Wing Lair. The video editing, use of lighting and angles reminds me of Lord of the Rings. Its awesome, especially episode 3:

<a href=http://files.filefront.com/BWL_Episode_1rar/;4176913;;/fileinfo.html>BWL Episode 1</a>
<a href=http://files.filefront.com/BWL_Episode_2rar/;4312633;;/fileinfo.html>BWL Episode 2</a>
<a href=http://files.filefront.com/BWL_Episode_3rar/;4789872;;/fileinfo.html>BWL Episode 3</a>

[Lion El' Jonson]

Hey puppies, just thought that I'd drop in for a quick hello. The Free Time I was expecting to start popping up in December finally began manifesting itself, so hopefully I'll be a bit more active.

Anyways....

Since I'm still in Beijing, I get to play on the WoWChina servers. There are a ton of wonderfully devoted players here, and I'm having a blast...even if I can't figure out what they're saying half the time (I've got friends on to translate the trickier things ^^; ).

I play a (female) Lvl 60 Undead Warrior as my main, and have a Lvl 48 Alliance Priest. Our guild, The Return, is currently working our way through Blackwing Lair; we've breezed through it up to Chromaggus, and now we're bashing our heads against a wall trying to get a hang of Time Lapse and the Vulnerability Changes. We're hoping to have the server-first kill on Nefarian, but there're two Alliance guilds right behind us, so it's a bit chaotic.

Hope everybody's alright. Time to kill Onyxia again.:lol

~Lion~

[Kelt Simoson]

Well not posted here in a while, but thought id announce that i have recently taken up the reigns of a Night Elf Hunter in WoW, european Servers though :( Im level 28 and im a PVP Rank of sargeant.

Anyone else play on euro servers here at all?

[Figrin D'an]

Killed the Twin Emperors tonight.

Better have lots of dedicated people or you stand no chance against these guys. There's so many things to account for during the fight, everyone has to be on their toes the entire time. It's very easy to die if your concentration lapses for even a few seconds (and you still might end up a corpse anyway).


The trash mobs after the Twins are harder than any of the first 4 bosses in the zone.

As for C'Thun, I'm sure most everyone has seen pictures of him. Three words: PEW PEW PEW. ;)

[Figrin D'an]

Haven't posted in a while, hasn't been much to update until now.

Viscidus dead, 5th Horde kill worldwide, and we did it with a balanced raid group (so certain other guilds can take their 8 shaman/pallys and 10 mages and suck on that).

[Yog]

Anyone else play on euro servers here at all?

I think allmost everyone here, me included play on american servers.


As for C'Thun, I'm sure most everyone has seen pictures of him. Three words: PEW PEW PEW

Not only seen pictures of. That eye is mean. Check this out. Half the raid wiped out in 5 secs:

http://homepage.hispeed.ch/FusionGuildbank/AQ/cthunlol.wmv


Killed the Twin Emperors tonight

How do you like the loot in AQ40 so far? :)

Oh and tonight it is patch day for 1.10. Key features:

- revamped priest talents
- new class armor sets
- weather effects (yay!)
- quest experience to gold conversion at level 60
- new improved flight path UI
- scholo, DM, LBRS, Strat are now 5 man max, UBRS 10 man

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/test-realm-patchnotes.html

[Figrin D'an]

Originally posted by Master Yoghurt
How do you like the loot in AQ40 so far? :)



Some people are complaining non-stop about the AQ40 loot, mainly because a lot of it isn't a direct upgrade from BWL loot. While that is true in a lot of cases, it doesn't mean that the AQ40 loot is worthless either. A lot of the drops are nice complementary items to some of the BWL stuff. A lot of people seem to think that a lot of the drops are feral druid loot as well, which really isn't true. There's a decent amount of leather items, but there are just as many plate drops and some nice mail drops. Good cloth drops have been the only class of armor somewhat lacking (beyond the set gear).

I tend to like the loot for the most part, but that's because I see it for what it is... situational and supplimentary gear for BWL gear. It's not meant to be Tier 3... that'll be Naxxaramus. Those who want major upgrades probably aren't going to find them, unless they are replacing MC epics or blues.

[Yog]

Yeah, thats what I thought too. It looks like great complimentary gear to tier 1 and tier 2. I am actually amazed that people would complain about the loot there. But then again, Im not fully suited in tier 1 yet, so I may have different perspective.

Here is a list of the good stuff in AQ.. I am drooling about those weapons personally.
http://66.111.212.4/~kirana/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=81

.. also, here is how the tier 0.5 stuff looks like, for those interested:
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/items/armorsets/

Oh, and the patch is up and can be downloaded on login. For those raiding tonight (yeah, I am one of those unfortunate souls), you better update raid assist to 1.53:

http://www.ctmod.net/

[Droo]

Originally posted by Kelt Simoson

Anyone else play on euro servers here at all?

Widgit, 60 gnome mage, Bloodfeather.

Poe, 58 undead priest, Executus.

What server are you on?

[Lion El' Jonson]

A lot of the AQ40 gear is keyed towards the "other" specs rather than the bread-and-butter character builds; I'm happy with all of the DW Fury Warrior gear that's being put out now.

Our raid is currently getting murdered vs. Princess Huhuran. My gold weeps.

[Lady Vader]

Ya know... I just realized I haven't come by to boast to you guys that I FINALLY reached 60! (Ok, I reached it like a month or so ago.)

So, yeah, hi, I'm 60. :)

And now, on to the show of getting uber armor! Wheeee! :rollin

[Lilaena De'Ville]

You don't come by to tell us anything, anymore. :cry

[Yog]

Originally posted by Lady Vader
Ya know... I just realized I haven't come by to boast to you guys that I FINALLY reached 60!

Congrats! But which one of your characters is 60.. Nevlonniel?


You don't come by to tell us anything, anymore

So true.. please give us a life sign once in a while! I was wondering the other day, "where the heck is Rie??". I even made it to a level 20ish paladin on Elune the other week, but you were no where online to see :p

[Lady Vader]

I'm sorry I haven't been around much! My job has kept me very busy! (Which I am beginning to find very irritating as it takes me away from my other past times and leaves me very exhausted at the end of the day :( )

And as for which character that has reached 60, that would indeed be Nevlonniel. :) And I've been on Elune roughly in the evenings PST.

I do however promise to make it a point to come by and say hello from time to time. I realized today I need to update the first post to this thread to reflect new stuff for WoW and the like. So, yeah, I'll start working on that. :)

Glad to know you guys haven't forgotten about me! Luv yas! :hug

[Zasz Grimm]

Killed Huhuran about 5-6 times now; been attempting emps ever since (well, sometimes we didn't bother because we killed huhuran late in the id clear)

We have a good strat for emps, gonna think they're going down. And lion, i know the feeling. I'm the MT. at 2.8 G a death...yeah, I cry too.

[Lion El' Jonson]

We finally had our first Princess Huhuran kill a couple of days ago, when one of our shammies realized that dropping his grounding totem occasionally absorbed some of Huhu's stackable DoTs. After the wipe (yes, another one), we just marshalled four shamans into the MT's group and told them to sit around spamming grounding totems. Tank transition was no longer necessary.

I don't know whether or not to call it an exploit; I've heard that the Huhuran fight gets nerfed in 1.10 anyways, so it might not be necessary.

We started on Emperors today. The strategy is solid, but a few teleports into the fight somebody always manages to grab aggro and then runs away from the tank like a fool...so of course, the two twins start heal-nuking each other and we die. I do have a good laugh whenever bug-control loses their mutated bug and it starts running around and eating the squishies.

On the plus-side of things, we now have two Thunderfuries; other half of the bindings dropped from Geddon. Primary OT nearly wet himself with happiness, and our guild bank cried as Elementium Ore disappeared with a frightening rapidity. :lol

Final note: Prince Thunderaan is a wuss that delivers Mike Tyson quotes. Wow.

Oh, and gratz LV.

[Figrin D'an]

Originally posted by Lion El' Jonson
... and our guild bank cried as Elementium Ore disappeared with a frightening rapidity. :lol



It'll cry even more once you start handing the ore out to people for Ancient Qiraji weaponry. You just have to hope more of it drops in BWL. At least it's only 3 Ore per item, could be worse.

Twin Emps is a tough fight, no matter how many times you've done it. Everyone has to execute just about perfectly. There's just so little room for error, all it takes is one person to mess up the positioning and you might as well wipe and reset the encounter.

Also, dunno if anyone here has fought the bugged Chromaggus yet, but it's pretty lame. His Time Lapse is behaving like the Nulify ability the Obsidian mobs in AQ40 use. So, basically, when your MT gets stunned, his HP drops to 1%, then gets restored to about 50% when he comes out of it. The problem is, if the tank also has a DoT on him, like Ignite Flesh, it's instant death. We still managed to kill him, but it wasn't exactly easy. It amazes me how much content got bugged with this most recent patch. Chromaggus, Onyxia, Viscidus, the spawn times of the Green Dragons, Ossirian... there's other non-raid stuff that got messed up too.

[Morgan Evanar]

Semi-off topic, AND VERY MUCH LANGUAGE CONTENT WARNING OH MY. http://alliancemotorsport.org/temp/08_WoW.mp3 I think it's funny.

[Lady Vader]

:lol I love it!

[Figrin D'an]

Doomhammer finally got moved to new hardware. :)

Server has been down since early Tuesday morning though, we'll have to see how long the migration takes.

[Zasz Grimm]

other night, we took it back to the emps. no kill- but this time around we used consumables. (hello 10.2k health! )

51% 2nd try. They'll be going down soon.

[Lady Vader]

Originally posted by Figrin D'an
Doomhammer finally got moved to new hardware. :)

Server has been down since early Tuesday morning though, we'll have to see how long the migration takes.

I hope you saved your friends/ignore list! :eek

With each migration, the friends/ignore lists are getting wiped, and there's no way to get them back. And, there won't be any fixes made to keep them from getting wiped with each server that gets migrated (something about not being able to find a resolution).

So, for the love that is all good and holy, if you have a massive friends/ignore list and haven't already copied it into notepad/word/paper, and you wanna keep it, COPY IT!

[Lion El' Jonson]

Twin Emperors are still murdering us. Closest we've gotten was about 65%, with half of the raid having chugged Flasks. We had an alchemist quit the guild over that little fiasco. :lol

It's nice to hear about the new hardware in America, makes me really eager to hop onto the WoWUS servers for college. The Kalimdor server imploded during the Eranikus event, and then both continents literally died during the opening of the Gates. It was offline for the best part of two days. I hear that it has happened on every single Chinese server that has opened the gates so far, and there's apparently a petition going around to boycott the game. ^_^;

[Zasz Grimm]

huzzah, emps were down a couple nights ago. www.darkblight.com if you want to see the shots.

some of the guild quotes are NWS

[Figrin D'an]

As I'm sure everyone knows by now, Ouro and C'Thun were both finally fixed and tweaked so that the fights are reasonable. And, of course, they both have fallen within 24 hours of those fixes. There's already around 30 C'Thun kills worldwide, just since he was fixed on Tuesday, and Ouro was finally killed tonight by Retribution, so I'm sure more kills of him will be coming soon.


Lots of people whined and complained about both encouters intentially being made impossible by Blizzard in order to prolong the shelf-life of AQ while they worked on Naxxramus. I don't really buy that myself... I think it was more that the code was buggy as hell when AQ was first patched in and they just took this long to finally figure out all the errors. What's more annoying to me was the complete lack of communication to the players for months about what was being done to fix it. Some of the major bugs were reported in the first few days of February, and nothing was said by Blizzard about them until they finally got around to hotfixing it twice in the last 10 days.

My guild is close on C'Thun. We're hoping to get him down before the instance resets on Tuesday. We've have to recruit some more people and get them up to speed on how we operate, and help them learn the rest of AQ first, which has put us a little behind some of the other top guilds in polishing of the instance

[Figrin D'an]

Killed C'Thun last night. Challenging, but mostly from a standpoint of having everyone coordinated and understanding very specific jobs to do at a given time. A lot of his damage potential can be (and must be) avoided by positioning and quick dps bursts at critical times.

Fun fight really, now that the stupid bugs that made him impossible have been fixed. Just have to finish off Ouro, then it's back to farm mode until Naxx is released.

[Zasz Grimm]

Originally posted by Figrin D'an
Killed C'Thun last night. Challenging, but mostly from a standpoint of having everyone coordinated and understanding very specific jobs to do at a given time. A lot of his damage potential can be (and must be) avoided by positioning and quick dps bursts at critical times.

Fun fight really, now that the stupid bugs that made him impossible have been fixed. Just have to finish off Ouro, then it's back to farm mode until Naxx is released.

must be nice to be horde with visc and all! =P. Grats on the kill, we're working on him. 28% phase one.

[Figrin D'an]

Originally posted by Zasz Grimm
must be nice to be horde with visc and all! =P. Grats on the kill, we're working on him. 28% phase one.


Yeah, shaman pretty much dominate the Viscidus fight. Considering the advantage Alliance guilds had in BWL with Dwarven Priests and Fear Ward, I can't say I'm crying all that much for those having trouble with him though. :p

[Figrin D'an]

Well, our guild wins at AQ. We downed Ouro tonight to complete the instance clear. This fight is tougher than C'Thun IMO, because so much of the damage is unavoidable and in very high bursts. It's hell on healers, and in the end, it's basically impossible to keep everyone alive though the killing hit.

Anywho... I managed to get the Genesis Vest on our second C'Thun kill, which was a nice upgrade for me (considering it'll probably be another year before Nef drops another Stormrage Chestguard for us...).

Naxxramas is looking to be a lot of fun. I'm expecting it to be quite difficult, a definite step up from BWL and AQ.

[Droo]

Looks like a Warcraft movie might be on the cards. I have to admit, I didn't see this one coming; I'd fantasised about it before but certainly did not see it coming:

http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=23270

We'll see just how much truth to this there is in the near future, I'm sure.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Have you noticed how the 'roleplayers' who post in this thread never roleplay anymore?

CURSE YOU WoW!! :cry

[Pierce Tondry]

I don't play WoW currently. Thinking maybe I might pick it up again when I have money, or when the expansion comes out. Dunno really.

All things considered though, I kinda like my games to have an end to them.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Normally I'd say they just got a life, but since they're spending their free time with WoW....

;)

[Pierce Tondry]

Mm, well, it's one of the better MMOs I've seen, but top end is a pretty horrible grind and the Battlegrounds just aren't enough of a real competition to be enjoyable. The concept is excellent, but I think it needs more content for 5-20 man groups and a better PvP organization to give players a real goal to organize large groups towards.

Overall, the whole thing is suckingly addictive, and most people probably won't even realize they are addicted until they wake up one Monday and realize they spent all their waking hours in WoW and didn't accomplish anything, either in-game or outside of it.

[Figrin D'an]

Originally posted by Pierce Tondry
Overall, the whole thing is suckingly addictive, and most people probably won't even realize they are addicted until they wake up one Monday and realize they spent all their waking hours in WoW and didn't accomplish anything, either in-game or outside of it.


Very true. It is quite addictive, and I certainly was more than hooked for quite some period of time. Even though I'm in one of the better raiding guilds around, I actually feel less tied to game than I once did. I do spend a lot of time playing, to be sure, but I also don't have an issue with choosing to not play if I don't feel like it. (fortunately for my guild, those times don't occur very often). Really, the time that I would have normally spent playing other games is now just focused on one game instead. And yeah, I don't RP here on the boards anymore, which I suppose one can attribute somewhat to something like WoW. To be honest, though, my interest in RP was waning a lot well before I sucked into World of Warcraft. It mearly served as the last step to transition my freetime to something new.

I established before I started playing WoW that it was going to be the only MMO that I would ever truly play (originally, it was going to be Guild Wars, but alas, the changes in beta didn't agree with me). Once I'm done with WoW, I'm done with MMOs, because it is a lot of time to commit if you really want to experience everything the game has to offer. I just decided that I would take the 'hardcore' route to get the most out of the game.

[Lady Vader]

Movie!

Expansion!

E3!

*head explodes*

(And you can bet yer britches I'm gonna try and get my hands in doing something to help work in that movie, whether it be an extra, behind the scenes, or just plain hanging out at the set.)

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Didn't you get your degree in producing? Or something?

[Zasz Grimm]

Originally posted by Figrin D'an
Very true. It is quite addictive, and I certainly was more than hooked for quite some period of time. Even though I'm in one of the better raiding guilds around, I actually feel less tied to game than I once did. I do spend a lot of time playing, to be sure, but I also don't have an issue with choosing to not play if I don't feel like it. (fortunately for my guild, those times don't occur very often). Really, the time that I would have normally spent playing other games is now just focused on one game instead. And yeah, I don't RP here on the boards anymore, which I suppose one can attribute somewhat to something like WoW. To be honest, though, my interest in RP was waning a lot well before I sucked into World of Warcraft. It mearly served as the last step to transition my freetime to something new.

I established before I started playing WoW that it was going to be the only MMO that I would ever truly play (originally, it was going to be Guild Wars, but alas, the changes in beta didn't agree with me). Once I'm done with WoW, I'm done with MMOs, because it is a lot of time to commit if you really want to experience everything the game has to offer. I just decided that I would take the 'hardcore' route to get the most out of the game.

Word for word, describes me. Especially being my guilds MT.

[Lady Vader]

Originally posted by Lilaena De'Ville
Didn't you get your degree in producing? Or something?

I sure did! :D And the right ppl in the company know this... there's no doubt I'll be planting lil seeds here and there so they are sown in the right places.

I'll have a hand in it one way or another. I'm too stubborn (or would that be "ambitious") not to let an opportunity like this pass me by. :)


(Of course, prayers are always appreciated. ^_^; )