Cataclysm Overview Pt. 2

Continuing on from my last blog post, I'm going to hopefully fit the rest of the Cataclysm changes in on this post. I'll be going back and making some 1.5 posts to go over the dungeons/raids, and there will be some 2.5 posts as well, for the battlegrounds, since some people care about these things. I don't think there will be a Part 3 unless I can't cram all of this into one blog, but like I said.. I'm going to try.

• Major Cities: Should have had these in on the first part of this blog, but I missed them. Stormwind got a major overhaul with the destruction of the old park, the addition of a new park-like section, the Dwarven District received it's own bank and auction house, and the Keep was slightly altered. Ogrimmar, under new management, received an overhaul as well. The old tribe-like setup was cast out and the Northrend-style of Orc construction was brought in. Dark iron buildings with plenty of spikes included loom over the smaller lodgings of the Orc capital city. Trolls and Goblins were cast out into the "slums" of the city, while Tauren and Orc make up the defensive force of the inner-section of the city. Ironforge, Darnassus, Exodar, Undercity, Thunder Bluff, and Silvermoon City received some cosmetic updates and a few minor changes.
• Starting Areas: With the pre-Cataclysm events of Zalazane's Fall and Operation: Gnomeregan, both the Troll and Gnome starting areas were changed with the release of Cataclysm, instead of starting in the Valley of Trials with the Orcs and Anvilmar with the Dwarves, respectively. Trolls now begin on the Echo Isles and the Gnomes begin in Tinker Town, just outside of the tunnel down into Gnomeregan.
• New Zones: With the release of Cataclysm and the restructuring of the continents, new zones are added into the game for exploration and questing.
• Vashj'ir: A completely new zone based underwater. The first few quests give you a "passive" buff known as 'Sea Legs', that makes it so you can run on the bottom of the ocean and you never run out of breath. It's very long-winded. While I liked the zone itself, and the naga battle-maiden questline, it was just too.. over-extended.
• Mount Hyjal: The giant block of "unvisitable" space in Kalimdor is finally open. And it swallowed part of Winterspring with it; the Darkwhisper Gorge. Lorewise, one of the most expansive locations added in with Cataclysm. Malfurion Stormrage leads many of the questlines here, as well as working with some of the Ancients. If you've read the War of the Ancients trilogy, most of these guys will be familiar to you. There's a questline involving Fandral Staghelm that did not initially understand, but after reading Stormrage, I understood what he was doing there.
• Deepholm: Located beneath the Maelstrom between the three continents, Deepholm is the Elemental Plane of Earth. Deathwing recuperated here after his defeat at Grim Batol and the destruction of the Demon Soul. This is also where he broke through into Azeroth, splitting the world and shattering the World Pillar in Deepholm, name being literal. The questlines here are to repair to World Pillar, make Therazane see reason, and help the Earthen defend their lands from the troggs.
• Uldum: What was once nothing more than a door is revealed to be a sizable chunk of land invisible to the mortal eye. Located between Tanaris, Silithus, and Un'Goro Crater, the Cataclysm damaging the Titan-made cloaking device keeping it hidden away. Populated by the cat-like people known as the Tol'vir. Brann Bronzebeard and Harrison Jones rush to make discoveries for the Explorers' League, Belloc Brightblade for the Horde's Reliquary. Access to the Elemental Plane of Air, the Skywall, exists here. You can even take the fight to Al'Akir, the Elemental Lord of Air in the Throne of the Four Winds raid.
• Twilight Highlands: Once a part of the Wetlands known as Grim Batol, and an unlabeled section of the world map, Twilight Highlands takes Grim Batol away from the Wetlands and makes it part of its own new map as well as turning it into an instance. Twilight Highlands is mostly a Horde-Alliance struggle, while fending off the Twilight's Hammer and black dragonflights. The Bastion of Twilight, the raid where you take the fight to the leader of the Twilight's Hammer rests in this zone.
• Revamped 15-60 Dungeons: Most of the Vanilla dungeons have been revamped, some even with complete makeovers. Certain dungeons received cosmetic changes and minor changes, while others were split into separate sections, had sections removed, or had the level difficulty changed. Leveling a new toon is even more like a completely new experience with this added changes to the game.
• Battleground Additions: Along with the original battlegrounds from Vanilla; Warsong Gulch, Arathi Basin, and Alterac Valley, as well as the new one from The Burning Crusade; Eye of the Storm, and the continuing of the trend with Wrath of the Lich King; Strand of the Ancients, Isle of Conquest, as well as Wintergrasp, Cataclysm brings with it it's own set of new battlegrounds.
• Tol Barad: Tol Barad is the Wintergrasp of Cataclysm. It's a timed World-PvP event with an attached raid for "free" loot. I mentioned Baradin Hold in Pt. 1, and with a simple explanation, it really is a free loot raid. Tol Barad is set up as a seven location area. There are three towers, that if downed, increase the time limit for the event. There are three bases; Warden's Vigil, the Slagworks, and Ironclad Garrison. The attacking faction has to capture all three bases to be victorious, while the defending faction only has to hold one to win. It's flawed, but hopefully the scheduled changes will make the change of hands happen more often.
• The Battle for Gilneas: This is , for all intents and purposes, Arathi Basin v2.0. It's a resource race, where the most locations owned and held, the more resources you gather and the quicker you gather them. It's a 5v5 battleground, so it seems to carry more of a strategical element to it than the original Arathi Basin, since there are less people to go around, so placement is key. I have yet to participate in this battleground, but after looking over the information and videos for it, I might take a stab at it and see how it plays out.
• Twin Peaks: Like Battle for Gilneas being Arathi Basin v2.0, Twin Peaks would be Warsong Gulch v2.0. It is a 10v10 capture-the-flag style match-up. Two graveyards per team, a bridge choke-point mid-field, as well as enchantments in outposts on either side of the middle. It is pretty much setup just like Warsong Gulch is. Three captures win the match, or the most captures before time runs out. Each base is up off the ground, so a proper defense/offense can take the opposing side by surprise and use the edges to their advantage. Also like the Battle for Gilneas, I have not participated in this one yet either. I will get some game-time in, so I can give you a real in-depth explanation on it. Though what I have here will probably give you a good idea.
• Rated Battlegrounds: Much like Arenas, you put together a "pre-made" group for the battleground, queue as a team, and you go in together. Also like Arenas, this is the only other option to acquiring Conquest points, which is the higher-level of PvP-related currency. This feature is for level 85s only, much like most of the other added in features that came with Cataclysm. There is also related news that rated battlegrounds will be bringing back the old school PvP titles that were removed after Vanilla, but I cannot find any information that supports them currently being available in-game at the current time.
• Archaeology; New Secondary Profession: Archaeology is the new "time-wasting" profession. Even more so than ever was Fishing. You travel from randomly located dig sites around the continent you are currently on and use the Survey tool to find your fragments. Three fragment finds per dig site. up to skill 300, you are stuck to Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms collecting Dwarf, Fossil, Night Elf, and Troll. At 300, you get access to Outlands with Draenei and Orc sites. At 375, we move along to Northrend to start discovering Nerubian and Vrykul sites. At 450, you get a new dig site type on Kalimdor located only in Uldum, the Tol'vir. There are 26 rare artifacts that are cosmetic items or bind-to-account gear, 1 common item that could contain an Alchemy recipe mount, and all other items are nothing but vendor trash. With the recent patch changes, Archaeology can bring in some serious cash flow if you're lucky with your commons.
• Glyph Overhaul: While they removed the Path of the Titans glyph system between Cataclysm's announcement at Blizzcon and it's release, they used what they learned to overhaul the glyph system itself. There are now three separate types of glyphs; Prime, Major, and Minor. Prime glyphs effect actual combat, increasing either the healing or damage of a particular ability. Major glyphs feature spell changes that come with trade-offs, an example being an increase in damage but a decrease in spell range. Minor glyphs are convenience or cosmetic improvements. Glyphs, until used, are not bound and can be traded. Once learned, they are permanently added to your Glyph list and can be used at any time. [Vanishing Powder], levels 25-80, and [Dust of Disappearance], levels 81-85, are required to remove Glyphs to add new ones.
• New Races: Like with The Burning Crusade, the Cataclysm brings with it two new playable races. While most people were expecting a new Hero class, like Wrath of the Lich King's Death Knight, Blizzard said they wanted to hold off on adding another Hero class due to how much balancing went into creating a new class.
• Goblins are now available for the Horde. Don't worry, these Goblins are not part of everyone's favorite Steamwheedle Cartel, they belong to the Bilgewater Cartel run by Trade Prince Gallywix. The Lost Isles destroyed during the Cataclysm when the volcano destroyed their homeland and they shipped out to try and save themselves.
• Worgen are now available for the Alliance. Once the proud and arrogant population of Humans behind the Greymane Wall, they are now infected by the very curse that Arugal once released to protect the populace. The Curse of the Worgen has turned Gilneas against itself. The arrogant King Genn Greymane fought to protect his people, but eventually had no choice but to establish help with the Alliance for assistance.
• New Class Combinations: 
• Humans: Death Knight, Hunter, Mage, Paladin, Priest, Rogue, Warlock, Warrior.
• Dwarves: Death Knight, Hunter, Mage, Paladin, Priest, Rogue, Shaman, Warlock, Warrior.
• Night Elves: Death Knight, Druid, Hunter, Mage, Priest, Rogue, Warrior.
• Gnomes: Death Knight, Mage, Priest, Rogue, Warlock, Warrior.
• Orcs: Death Knight, Hunter, Mage, Rogue, Shaman, Warlock, Warrior.
• Tauren: Death Knight, Druid, Hunter, Paladin, Priest, Shaman, Warrior.
• Trolls: Death Knight, Druid, Hunter, Mage, Priest, Rogue, Shaman, Warlock, Warrior.
• Blood Elves: Death Knight, Hunter, Mage, Paladin, Priest, Rogue, Warlock, Warrior.
• Undead: Death Knight, Hunter, Mage, Priest, Rogue, Warlock, Warrior.
• Class Mechanic Changes: Hunters (and warriors and rogues) no longer need ammo, all bows, crossbows, and guns will create their own ammo. Warlocks no longer need to collect Soul Shards, they are more like Death Knight Runes now. Consolidation of totems and buffs. Paladins gain a new resource of Holy Power to work into their multiple rotations. Balance Druids gain an Eclipse mechanic to make their rotations less proc-based. Rage for Warriors and Feral (Bear) Druids has been normalized to give a set amount on white damage instead of giving more rage for harder hits. The Rune system for Death Knights was been reworked for less downtime. Hunters no longer use Mana and now use Focus, which works more like a Rogue's energy. Most Racial bonuses were reworked. Hunters and Warlocks now start off with a pet/minion at level 1 instead of needing to do a quest.
• Stat System Revamp: MP5 (Mana pre 5 seconds), Armor Penetration, and Defense Rating have all been removed from gear and reworked into the new talent trees or mastery stat.
• Mastery: Cataclysm brings with it a new stat called Mastery. The basic idea of Mastery is that it's a stat that makes what your class/spec combination does, do it better. It positively enhances certain abilities, both active and passive, depending on what class and talent specialization you pick.
• Overhauled Talent Trees: It was announced that Blizzard was only going to be adding five more levels to the game, so most online talent calculators added in five new points for people to play with. After sometime, Blizzard announced that their talent trees were going to be completely redone and new. They then showed us what they had in mind. At level 85 with a total of 41 points. They trimmed out most of the "mandatory" talents, making them more of passive bonuses for the class/specs, in almost all of the trees and made it so players had more of a choice between certain talents and others. So it made the game more customizable for the player. They also made it so you only gained a talent point every other level until you hit 80, then 81-85 would all give you a point to spend in your trees. They also made it so once you picked a tree, you had to spent at least 31 points in that tree to be able to spend points in either other tree. Once selected, you gained a major active skill as well as 2-3 passive skills to go along side of it. This also supported Blizzard's intent to make it feel like you were actually specializing in the spec you selected.
• Vengeance: Something I didn't mention was that all tanks gained a new passive skill called Vengeance. What this passive skill does is, as the tank gets hit, it stacks a damage buff on the tank. This was Blizzard's way of trying to fix the threat issue that tanks were having as the damage dealing classes were gaining higher stats aimed toward dishing out damage and the tanks were gaining higher stats aimed toward surviving, and less toward threat procurement. With a stacking buff that was passive to increase a tank's damage, threat would be less of an issue, but something still needing to be paid attention to.
• New PvE Currency: During Wrath of the Lich King, multiple currency systems were used for gear. We had the normal boss-drop token system used from The Burning Crusade, but there was also an Emblem system. You could purchase current, and old, tier gear with a certain amount of Emblems procured through dungeons and raids. Heroism, Valor, Conquest, Triumph, and Frost. With each new tier of raid content, a new set of Emblems was released. New gear would be purchased with the new emblems and all old tier would cost the deprecated emblems. With Cataclysm, all old emblems were converted into the new currency system known as Justice and Valor points. The way this new system will work is that old tier gear will be purchasable using Justice Points and current tier will be purchasable using Valor Points. If I understand correctly, when the next tier content comes out, all Valor points are converted into Justice Points (which has a 4k cap) and you start with a fresh set of no Valor, so you can't start off with a few pieces of the new gear from your Valor Points.
• New PvP Currency: Just like with the PvE currency, PvP also got a currency change. Before, you had your Marks of Honor from battlegrounds, which would be turned in for Honor Points. Doing Arenas earned you Arena Points and Arena Rating. With Cataclysm, all Honor points and battleground related items were converted into Honor Points, with a 4k cap. The new "arena points" are now called Conquest Points can only be earned through Arenas and Rated Battlegrounds. They'll work the exact same way the PvE currency works. Where all the old tier can be purchased with Honor Points, and all new tier will be purchased with Conquest, which will rollover into Honor when a new tier is released.

Alright, there we go. I got it all booked up into two blog posts. Now, remember. I will be going back and making some .5 posts over things I mentioned in part 1 and things mentioned in part 2. Plus, since it took me so long to get these overviews out, I also have to do a write up for the Lunar Festival in-game event as well as the Love is in the Air in-game event. I'll probably put those two together since the actual events overlap in-game.

Cataclysm Overview Pt. 1

I had originally started this post the other night, when I hadn't slept for almost 48 hours and was running on lots and lots of energy drinks. Mostly mixtures and concoctions in large 52 oz QuikTrip cups. After my computer restarted, I lost that original beginning and then put it off for another week before finally coming back to this and deciding that maybe today would be a good day to finally type up and finish this blog post.


Cataclysm has been out for almost two months, so I think I have enough of game-time experience to write up a blog about the things I feel about this particular expansion. The only information that I will be lacking on informing you of will be the raiding portion. My guild <Radiant Crusade> has enough folks ready to raid, but our schedules are jumbled and sporadic to where we don't have the people we need on at the correct times. We're working toward a solution and still recruiting. Though I know the few people that read this blog don't actually play, maybe you have friends who play. Give. Them. To. Me. >:O Moving on..


I'm going to use the multiple resources available on the internet to create a list of things to talk about for Cataclysm instead of trying to just spout everything off, off the top of my head, because I am almost positive I would forget something and then someone would yell at me. And then I would cry. (Not really.)

• New Level Cap of 85: Pretty small level gap. Blizzard said it was so more people could experience end-game at a quicker pace, but it just seems to be making more people bored of playing quicker than both previous expansions.
• Profession Skill Cap Increased to 525: Standard 75 point increase. Nothing new. The new skill system where certain crafts will give an increase of 3/5 points is very nice and extremely helpful. I've been power-leveling my alt's professions because of this particular profession change.
• Flying Capabilities in Azeroth: People have been complaining about this one since Burning Crusade was released. Blizzard kept telling the playerbase that they would need to do an entire re-haul of the original continents to make them fly accessible. Ala Cataclysm. Definitely a useful tool, but not entirely necessary due to the increased amount of flight paths added in to the game.
• Updated Eastern Kingdoms/Kalimdor: The "big" change of this expansion. While I enjoy some of the changed zones, others just bother me. For instance, the orcs pushing back the night elves in Ashenvale. Why would the orcs win, apparently the draenei, night elves, and the ancient protectors aren't enough to keep them at the region's boundaries? The flooding of the scars in Eastern Plaguelands. There's no nearby water source to overflow to complete that change, did it just rain for 40 days? At least the Thousand Needles flooding makes sense geologically.
• New Towns: With the destruction of the old, the new must begin. Though there are a LOT of new towns, while only a few of the original towns were destroyed.
• 3500+ New Quests: They HAD to add in more quests, because they got rid of all of the old, cool quests that made leveling fun. I've been looking through my inventories/banks and comparing them to the item databases on WoWHead just to see which items I'm carrying are now considered "unattainable." And I will never get rid of them, not even in the face of a pretty Cataclysm raid epic.
• Seven New Dungeons: I will make a later blog post going over the intricacies of these dungeons, because I feel like I owe you guys something more for being so freaking lazy.
• Blackrock Caverns: Located inside of Blackrock Mountain, this instance is one of the first instances all new Cataclysm players will encounter (both before and after the next patch's removal of the "discover dungeon entrance" requirement). It's very straightforward, none of the bosses are too hard. Finkle Einhorn returns from his debut in the stomach of the Beast in UBRS. He's the dungeon questline giver for this instance and will keep you company to the very end. You also come across the Beast's long lost love, Beauty. Get it?
• Throne of the Tides: If you don't quest in Vashj'ir, you won't find this dungeon's entrance. Luckily, as slightly mentioned above, they are removing the necessity to discover the entrances to dungeons before you can queue for them in the Dungeon Finder. This instance is probably the main reason for this change. The dungeon isn't linear, requiring much backtracking to the teleport, using an elevator, taking both paths at a junction. It also has some very annoying trash pulls. You assist Neptulon, the Elemental Lord of Water, here.
• The Stonecore: Located inside the very tower you are teleported into when you first enter Deepholm. This instance is probably one of the more difficult of the lot of seven, due to one of the boss' mechanics. If you've run this instance, you know exactly which boss I'm talking about. Ozruk.
• Vortex Pinnacle: This instance is floating in the air above Uldum's south-eastern coast. You traverse this particular instance by running along platforms and then leaping into vortexes that fling you from place to place. There are also mobs that act like Boo's from Mario, where if you stare at them, they go into hiding. Very fun, very simple.
• Lost City of Tol'Vir: Lost in the sense that it no longer belongs to the Ramkahen, the main faction of the Uldum area, and instead is under control by the Deathwing-aligned Neferset tol'vir. This instance is wrought with horrible pulls, odd boss mechanics, and a significant difficultly level.
• Halls of Origination: The "longest instance ever." You meet up with our good friend Brann Bronzebeard inside this one. You do a bit of exploring and carrying on. I'd recommend making sure you're playing with the sound on at least one time through here, just so you can hear what Brann has to say. Also, much like Lost City, this instance has horrible pulls and odd boss mechanics.
• Grim Batol: The finale. The lore behind this instance is enough to make me have a loregasm like the little loregeek that I am. Alas, none of that lore matters anymore. Twilight's Hammer controls Grim Batol now, for it's evil experiments. Also, troggs. Utilizing drakes to strafe through the majority of the dungeon to wreak havoc on later pulls is awesome. The first two bosses are easy, mostly just "Move away from this" fights. The last boss requires coordination and people that understand how to use their slows.
• "Four" New Raids: Like the dungeons section, I will make more blog posts on these. Like I also said earlier, I have little to no experience with these, so I lack the knowledge to inform you of anything other than the bosses.
• Baradin Hold: The new Vault of Archavon. Linked to Tol Barad, which is the new Wintergrasp, it's open to whichever faction currently owns Tol Barad island. There are three pulls before the boss. And I will explain Argaloth the way I comically explained it to my wife the other day. "Boss is in the middle. Tank with Group 1 on left. Tank with Group 2 on right. Taunt, taunt, taunt, taunt, taunt. FIRE! Run around like chickens' with your heads cut off. Back to spots. Taunt, taunt, taunt, taunt, taunt. FIRE! Run around like chickens' with your heads cut off. Back to spots. Taunt, taunt, taunt, taunt, dead." Free loot.
• Bastion of Twilight: You bring the fight directly to Cho'gall's sanctuary. The Upper Bastion, where you begin, holds the bosses Halfus Wyrmbreaker and the "twins" Valiona and Theralion. (On an aside, Theralion had a very fabulous voice during the Beta, but they took it away from him and gave him a generic voice. Sad days for all.) The Lower Bastion holds the Ascendant Council, a four boss encounter, and the nasty Cho'gall himself. If you're running on Heroic, after defeating Cho'gall, you gain access to the once mighty consort of Deathwing, Lady Sinestra, in her very own lair..
• Blackwing Descent: The portal for Blackwing Descent is where you fought Nefarian in Blackwing Lair, which seems only fitting, since you're going to be fighting him yet again. Heading in, you have a choice. Take on the fiery lava wyrm, Magmaw, or go after the quad-threat, Omnotron Defense System. After those are taken care, you leave the Broken Hall to gain entrance to the Vault of the Shadowflame. Down here we have Maloriak, the mad scientist dragonman who has a horrible success rate with experiments, Atramedes, the blind elementium dragon with an awesome fight mechanic (aka "the sound meter"), and Chimaeron, a nasty looking hydra. Once those three are dead, you impede upon Nefarian himself, who has a surprise. Not only did Deathwing bring his son back, but good old Onyxia as well. And you have to contend with both at the same time.
• Throne of the Four Winds: You head straight into the Elemental Plane of Air to bring the business end of your weapons against Al'Akir, the Elemental Lord of Air and his djinni. There are two fights here. One is against three of Al'Akir's djinni warlocks called the Conclave of Wind. These three bosses have to be killed within one minute of each other, as they will revive themselves within a minute of their death. After the Conclave is destroyed, you move on to Al'Akir himself. Al'Akir was actually the very last boss of the Heroic Tier 1 content to be downed, so it must be a testament to how difficult this fight is on Heroic.

And because we're beginning to get a little TOO lengthy here, I'm going to go ahead and cut this blog off. I will continue and finish out the rest of the Cataclysm information with my next blog. Which, since I already started and completed this one, I'm going to go ahead and quickly speed through the next one. Though it'll be tomorrow, after I get home from work.

I'll also have two more blogs up within the next few weeks, one containing information on the Lunar Festival that is currently going on in-game and the other over Love is in the Air, which begins right as the Lunar Festival ends. Here's hoping I get the Love Rocket this year.

Feast of Winter Veil

I figured I'd get this thrown out before the next holiday hits and I'm again behind. I'm okay with getting behind, but I know that there are some people that actually read these blogs and I don't want to leave them hanging simply because I'm slacking off at my job. Though no one actually "follows" the blog, people from my Facebook read it and enjoy the randomosity I throw into these little blogs I write up. Anyways..

Feast of Winter Veil!
When this holiday's achievements were first introduced, much QQing took place. It was the first achievement of many where players had to participate in both PvP and PvE content of the game to complete the Meta achievement for the entire holiday. Time to go through what needs to be done for this holiday for completion.

• He Knows If You've Been Naughty: From the 25th of December on for about a week or two, I'm not entirely sure, I usually get this one done on the 25th.. Grab a present from underneath the tree in Ironforge/Orgrimmar. That easy. Presents are available per level brackets, so the amount of presents available is different per player.

• On Metzen!: Pick up the quest from Ironforge/Orgrimmar to go save Metzen the Reindeer. The notes given to you during the quest say Tanaris or Searing Gorge. I think he's at both locations, but I've always just gone to Searing Gorge due to it being closer to Ironforge, as an Alliance. Sprinkle the dust on Metzen, he vanishes, return to Ironforge/Orgrimmar. That simple. Those of lower levels, there are adds all around his cage, so you might have to fight a bit to get to him. Usually higher levels will have destroyed everything around the area, so you -should- be safe.

• With a Little Helper from My Friends: PvP achievement! And one of the most annoying ones ever created. There are machines located in certain capital city, although I'm not positive if they are located in every capital city. These machines transform you into a gnome in a red or green costume. After that? Go into battlegrounds or world PvP or anything else to collect Honor Kills, and get 50. Without losing the form. Which breaks on death or shapeshifting. Quite fun.

• Scrooge: Here's a snowball! Chuck it at Muradin Bronzebeard in Ironforge as Alliance or Baine Bloodhoof in Thunderbluff as Horde. Snowballs can be collected from the AH, Alterac Mountains, Winterspring, I'm pretty sure any location where there is snow, you can collect snowballs from piles on the ground. People actually expected the faction leaders to be backwards, so more of a PvP-related achievement, due to the one before.

• Fa-la-la-la-Ogri'la: Head to Shattrath and pick up the questline from the ogre in the Lower City to head to Blade's Edge Mountains. Kill some gronns. Kill some more gronns. Kill an ogre, steal his book. Use the book to kill another gronn. Go to Ogri'la. Collect some shards, mix up some drinks, bomb some stuff up. Finished? Kay. Grab the bombing quest again as a Daily quest, bomb down the cannonball stacks again, make sure you use your Preserved Holly before you turn it in or before you accept the quest. Since the dismount has been removed by knockback during flight, this daily has become extremely easy and uncomplicated. Also, make sure to track the achievement under Outlands called Blade's Edge Bomber, get two achievements at once. =D /win

• 'Tis the Season: Collect the red/green clothing and winter boots from a tailor and a leatherworker with the patterns. Then, go defeat specific bosses with 100% chance to drop if they're wearing the hats, instead of farming random humanoid mobs hoping for the drop. Wear the hat with the cloths and boots, eat fruit cake. Anywhere, anytime. Achievement: Done.

• Simply Abominable: Just like with the On Metzen! achievement. Pick up the quest in Ironforge/Orgrimmar about the missing courier. Head up to Alterac Mountains, near the Growless Cave, you'll find a couple of trees with a snowman between them. That's your guy. Talk to him, he sends you after the Abominable Greench. He does a subzone wide yell emote when he spawns, he's just a large green yeti. Hard to miss, easy to watch die. Take him down, loot the stolen goods, return to where you started. Turning in the quest nets you the achievement.

• Let It Snow: You need to collect Handfuls of Snowflakes from /kiss'ing commoners underneath the mistoletoe in inns. (This is also a way to collect Holly if you don't have any preserved.) You have to use the Handfuls of Snowflakes on specific race/class combinations of both factions. Orc Death Knight, Human Warrior, Tauren Shaman, Night Elf Druid, Undead Rogue, Troll Hunter, Gnome Mage, Dwarf Paladin, Blood Elf Warlock, Draenei Priest.

• Bros. Before Ho-Ho-Ho's: Alliance technically has this one easier than the Horde. Alliance has to hit up five "Brother"s in Stormwind, one in Goldshire, one in Theramore, and one in Northern Stranglethorn Vale with Mistletoe. Horde has less Brothers, but they have to hit one on the ship flying over Icecrown, so they have a level restriction, or need a warlock.

• The Winter Veil Gourmet: Get your cooking skill high enough to cook a Gingerbread Cookie, Egg Nog, and Hot Apple Cider. Think you need 325 for the Cider, everything else is much lower.

• A Frosty Shake: I believe after completing the Greench questline, you'll recieve a mail 24 hours later holding a Winterveil Disguise Kit which turns you into a snowman. Go to Dalaran, have a snowball and this kit, use it and dance with someone else also using it.

• Crashin' & Thrashin': The present of '08 was a Chrashin' Thrashin' Racer. Up until they added a blue cart to the toy vendor in Dalaran, this achievement was unfinishable. Now it can be completed by anyway that never got the original cart. Destroy 25 other carts with your own. This is NOT part of the Meta!

• BB King: The present of '09 was a Red Rider Air Rifle with 100 charges. It has a cast time and aggro'd whatever you shot if it was an enemy. BB King's requirement? Shoot Baine Bloodhoof, Sylvanas Windrunner, Garrosh Hellscream, and Lor'themar Theron. Combine with For the Alliance for added awesome. Switch leaders and Alliance with Horde and you'll get the Horde achievement. This gun is now available to be purchased from the toy vendor in Dalaran. This is NOT part of the Meta!

And now the part that everyone cares about.. My own collection of achievement gatherers!

Warrior: Merrymaker of '08. I race-changed last year after the holiday and they removed my Red Rider Air Rifle from my bags. So until they recently added the gun to the toy vendor in Dalaran, I had no way to complete BB King. But I'm good now.

Paladin: Merrymaker of '09. BB King of '10. Completed 5 of the achievements in '08, finished off the rest in '09.

Druid: Merrymaker of '10. The 50 HKs was the hardest part, since my druid is balance and lack of moonkin form is a tough survival choice. Completed five achievements in '08, three achievements in '09, and knocked out the rest in '10. No BB King.

Death Knight: Merrymaker of '10. Completed four achievements in '08, six achievements in '09, and the 50 HKs and the Fa-la-la-la-Ogri'la during the '10 event. No BB King, but I only need Garrosh, and no Chrashin' & Thrashin'.

Mage: Not a Merrymaker. Completed five achievements in '08, one in '09. Did not participate this year. With Cataclysm hitting a week before, I was too focused on leveling my warrior and paladin to 85 and working on gear then worrying about this holiday meta on some of my other alts. I'll get it next year though, for sure.

Rogue: Not a Merrymaker. Not surprised. Completed three achievements in '08, one achievement in '09, and one achievement in '10. If I actually put the time into this guy to level him to, at least, 70, he'll be a Merrymaker next year when it rolls around. Unless Blizz changes it to some 85 stuff, then he's in the can again.

The Feast of Winter Veil is a great holiday. It represents the happiness of Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa and other religious holidays around the Winter time of year. About giving and receiving, helping those that can't help themselves, delicious Winter goodies, and spending time with those you love most. While the achievements are rather debatable on certain aspects of what this holiday really stands for, they fit for a game made up of a wide variety of people and keep the monotony to a minimum.

Lunar Festival starts within a week or so, but I still need to get out a blog on Cataclysm itself. If my podcast was up and running, I'd just make a blog post sending people over there to listen to it, but we're not ready yet. Which makes for a sad Paragon.

P.S. I kinda like the listing format for the achievements and talking about them. Instead of random comments on the achievements themselves with little to no information about them. I think I'll stick to this format from here on out. You learn things as you go along!

FFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUU Turkey

I am a horrible blogger. I will not stand the test of time with this, I can almost guarantee that as a fact.

I mentioned it in a prior post, but never actually posted anything about it. So I'm going to pretend that this is on time and type it up as quick as possible, despite having just written a novel over patch 4.0.3a. Here goes!

Pilgrim's Bounty is based off of the American holiday of Thanksgiving. The main idea behind this holiday is to get your Pilgrim gear and do certain things. It's also one of the best holidays in the game if you need to level up your cooking. You can level your cooking profession from level 1 all the way to level 355 with just the five recipes made available to you from the holiday and the ingredients are only available during the holiday, so it's kinda retarded to NOT do it if you're participating.

As per my norm..

Warrior: Pilgrim of '09. Completed 7/9on Day 1, 8/9 on Day 2, and 9/9 on Day 4.

Paladin: Pilgrim of '09. Completed 6/9 on Day 2 and 9/9 on Day 4.

Druid: Not a Pilgrim. Completed 5/9 on Day 3, 7/9 on Day 6, and 8/9 after th holiday ended. Did not complete the final achievement last year or this year, because I'm an incompetent retard and forget to check and make sure she had finished all of them. ><

Death Knight: Pilgrim of '09. Completed 2/9 on Day 1, 6/9 on Day 2, 8/9 on Day 4, and 9/9 on Day 7.

Mage: Pilgrim of '10, Completed 5/9 on Day 7 of '09, 6/9 on Day 0 of '10, and 9/9 on Day 6 of '10.

Rogue: Pilgrim of '09. Completed 5/9 on Day 3, 6/9 on Day 7, and 9/9 before resets removed the holiday.

Stupid Druid..

The Official Shattering: Cause A Retard Labeled The Wrong Patch As Such

So the Shattering finally hit the servers on the 23rd of November. A little too early for my tastes, but that's just due to my lack of poor time managing skills when it came to making sure I had everything finished before Cataclysm came out.

With this patch, of mighty 4.0.3a, the continents of Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms were torn asunder. Where once was wasteland, now there is life. Where once was desert, now there is water. Where once was Booty Bay, now there.. Is still Booty Bay. How did it survive a freakin' tidal wave? Moving on..

Patch 4.0.3a took all of the Cataclysm information that had been released with 4.0.1 and 4.0.3 and activated the landscape changes that will be the standard for all newcomers to WoW when it comes to Azeroth. Still some things are going to be packaged into Cataclysm's release, we only received a small portion of the goodies to come with this expansion.

All of the effects for Cataclysm itself have been added in.. Login screen change, the Cataclysm intro cinematic, the new loading screens for Kalimdor, Eastern Kingdoms, Outlands, and Northrend, and the new music.

Aside from the new races of Worgen and Goblins, all new class combinations are currently available to all players. Human Hunters, Tauren Paladins, Dwarf Shaman, the works. All ready and waiting to be used. Race changes are also available for all of these new classes as well, and will continue to be so even with the release of Cataclysm. So, yes, you're (possibly) favorite class will be able to be race/faction changed into a Worgen/Goblin on the 7th of December.

One of the biggest uproars with the patch hitting two weeks before the release of the game was the removal of the capital city portals from Shattrath and Dalaran, the quest hubs for Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King expansions respectively. Those portals were the lifeline for players to return to Azeroth as needed and now they are gone. Two weeks before they actually needed to be. Magi are going to be making a killing for awhile with their portal spells, probably for quite some time. The portals were replaced with class trainers, so people leveling through Outlands and Northrend will be able to train at their quest-hub central for the expansion content they are working on.

Gnomes and Trolls, with their pre-Cataclysm events, have been removed from their prior starting locations into their own little phased zones for beginning their long journey down the road of becoming a hero. With the pre-Cataclysm event of Operation: Gnomeregan; the gnomes now start in New Tinkertown, which is located right outside of the tunnel leading down into Gnomeregan proper. From what I've seen, the quests here are phased to be gnome only, because my fresh dwarf warrior and my level 80 human warrior were not able to communicate with any of the NPCs in a questing manner. For the Horde, the event of Zalazane's Fall moves trolls out of the Valley of Trials and over to the Echo Isles. I'm going to just go ahead and make the assumption that non-trolls will not be able to quest here just as non-gnomes can't quest in New Tinkertown. I haven't explored this opportunity on my Horde just yet.

Hunters get more pets to tame, bumping their pet-types from 32 to 37 with Cataclysm's release. I really don't have anything to say on this subject because my hunter is too low level to give a damn about new pets just yet. Though, I will say this.. With the release of these awesome new pets, I ventured over to www.wow-petopia.com and went through the pet possibilities that will be available to my huntard when she finally gets the ability to have 5 pets at once, and gets the Beast Mastery talent to tame Exotic pets.

Two more things to go with the patch changes before I stop talking..

With the coming of the Cataclysm, Blizzard took the "championing" tool that they used in Wrath of the Lich King for gaining rep with certain factions and gave this unique utility to the player-race factions. Stormwind, Darnassus, Ironforge, Gnomeregan, Exodar, Gilneas, Orgrimmar, Thunder Bluff, Darkspear, Undercity, Silvermoon City, and Bilgewater Cartel all have corresponding tabards with the ability to "champion." All dungeons now reward rep toward the currently worn tabard, sans the Outlands dungeons because of the unique way they were structured toward giving rep toward the faction involved in their questlines. I honestly find this new feature to be one of the best things that Blizzard has come up with in the way of reputation gains and wish that they would continue to use this method for further reputations. It would be neat to see them restructure the old factions from vanilla in the same way as well. I'd love a Hydraxian Waterlords tabard, even though I'm already exalted with them.

And my final note for this hellacious long blog post.. Experience necessary to level from 71 to 80 has been reduced. Casuals, get busy and hit 80 before Cataclysm is released. You're running out of time, but you have the means. Maybe this means I should level one of my alts too..

Again, Cataclysm comes out next week. I, hopefully, should be able to release another blog post over it within the first week of its release. And then I'll have another coming out soon after that since it's going to be Winter's Veil. I'll probably wait until Winter's Veil is over to post over it, since my usual holiday procedure is to post how much of it I actually got done. I honestly don't see many people trying to participate in this holiday as much as the others, since it's going to be opening up during the very beginning of Cataclysm's launch.

I'll Get Back To You

This just in, I'm behind on my random WoW bloggings..

I'll get around to blogging about The Shattering. Hopefully before Cataclysm comes out this Tuesday. We'll see how good I am with timeframes and stuff of that nature.

Oh, and I'll make a quick update for Cataclysm, before delving in and disappearing. And be back a week or so later to hit you with a Winter's Veil blog. See, I'm planning ahead now.

Phase 4 and the Elemental Invasion

The majority of the current subscribers to WoW probably remember, at least, the event precluding the arrival of Wrath of the Lich King (the third expansion to World of Warcraft), and how the zombie invasion was one of the most epic, yet annoyingly redundant events after created by a gaming company within its own gaming world.

While exciting, the event itself became nothing more than a giant gankfest for the majority of players on almost all of the realms that Blizzard currently had at the time of its manifestation. The idea of destroying the scourge while avoiding the plague itself was simple enough. The only problem with this design were players who purposely got corrupted and didn't get cleansed by the Argent Dawn. And then proceeded to go to lower level areas and infest the players who didn't know any better. Now, I'm sure some of you are thinking, "Well, it couldn't have been that bad, there are a lot of areas in the game." I wish it were so..

I was playing my rogue down in Duskwood. Running from Raven Hill back to Darkshire with some quests.. When out of nowhere, a mob of ghouls ransack the town. And chase me around the landscape. There was no chance, I eventually died and joined their ranks. At first, this event was intense and fun. Really fun. Defending the cities, fighting back the scourge, getting infected and finding an Argent Dawn member to cleanse you, rinse repeat. But once the event kept going for more than a week, it was a giant gankfest griefing match. Ugh..

With the event starting pre-Cataclysm, it's more of a giant waste of time then it is anything else. But, let's do a little background before we get into the final phase..

PHASE 1: Stop the Twilight Cultists from defecting innocent citizens of Stormwind/Orgrimmar. While also heading to random areas and taking down rifts in "space" where elementals are spawning from.
-- Cultist quests take about 5-10 minutes. It's really just a lot of running and talking to people, nothing fancy.
-- Rifts spawn once an hour. For.. 15-20 minutes. You have to down rifts of all four types to get a Feat of Strength called 'Tripping the Rifts'.

PHASE 2: Get the tablet from the dwarf/orc at the harbor/zeppelin and help Ironforge/Orgrimmar was some angry minor-elementals.
-- I will admit, the tablet fights are pretty cool. You use a crystal to gain elemental powers and then blast away elementals with their polar opposites.
-- Running around dropping a totem on mini-elementals is kinda dull. Especially since the CD is longer than it takes to come upon more of them.

PHASE 3: Go mess with the cultists again, who think you were captured, and then go to Outlands.
-- Screwing with the altars was pretty amusing, especially the things the cultists say.
-- Talk to Thrall on the Elemental Plateau. Only good part about this part is PvPing on the Plateau. Cause you have to avoid getting one-shotted by the elemental giants while you're at it. >.>

PHASE 4: Stop the Elemental Invasions of Stormwind and Ironforge/Orgrimmar and Thunder Bluff.
-- This is where the event gets retarded and boring. The invasion itself happens every 2-3 hours, woo wait time. After that, you have a 5 minute window prior to the event to start reinforcing the towns. I don't know about Horde-side, but in Stormwind you throw down sandbags and in Ironforge, you set up wall barricades. When the window is over, whether you've finished reinforcing or not, BOOM Rifts with Elementals. This is where it gets dumb. In Stormwind, the rifts are your primary problem, and they are definitely a problem. They're elites and they hurt. In Ironforge? Elementals are pansies. You also have to save citizens from crumbling rocks using a totem. I'm guessing since they added in that little extra feature, the mobs got to be weaker.

Here's the kicker. When that 5-minute window ends and the rifts finally do spawn. You have an hour. Whether you complete the event or not. You have an hour. You also have only what's left of that hour to fight the four elemental bosses you were protecting the cities to actually get to.

Not sure if Blizzard's intention was to piss people off with crappy timer events, but it needs to either be extended or be over with. Cause this stuff is retarded.

Oh, and before I forget.. Pilgrim's Bounty starts Sunday. Get your turkey.