Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Pink Spirals


Take Single's Awareness Day and extend it to an entire week and I'm sure the suicide rates around the world would skyrocket. What a macabre way to start off a holiday blog about love and happiness!

Love is in the Air is the in-game event based around Valentine's Day. In 2012, it started on February 5th and ended on February 19th. All of the previous years' items are still available, but they added in something new. All of the people who repeatedly went year after year without the Big Love Rocket now have a.. "Plan B" mount called the Swift Lovebird.

This holiday is comparatively simple in its related quests and structure, the main emphasis is collecting Lovely Charms to turn into Lovely Charm Bracelets and spam-completing the daily quests to gather up Love Tokens en mass . Do NOT forget to pick-up the Lovely Charm Collector's Kit or all of your farming will be for naught, cause you won't receive any charms.

To start off with, make sure you head to your main capital city to start your holiday "bread crumb" quest, so you can knock out the pleasantries early and really get into the spirit of things. Both faction's quest starts with a Snagglebolt goblin. Do his detective work for him and you'll end up chasing another goblin all around the capital, until eventually catching him and making him talk. You learn that the Crown Chemical Company is up to no good with their perfume and cologne distribution, so it's up to you to stop them! There's an 'additional' quest upon beating the Apothecary Trio that leads you back to the Snagglebolt, but it's an abrupt finish.

In addition to the detective work, there is also the completion of daily quests. There's a randomly selected daily quest that involves testing the Crown Chemical Company's products on the local denizens of the capital, whether it be NPC or PC doesn't matter to the completion of the quest, as long as they haven't already been tested on. Certain NPCs are excluded from being targets of these quests for reasons I'm not quite sure of. I also believe, if it's the same as the year before, shape shifted druids are unaffected by these products as well.

One of the other dailies is level-dependent on your objective. While still doing the same thing no matter where you're sent, your level selects your destination.
  • Level 05-13: Sends you to the Westbrook Garrison in Elwynn Forest/West of Orgimmar's Gates in Durotar.
  • Level 14-22: Sends you to the Grove of the Ancients in Darkshore/just outside of Ambermill in Silverpine Forest.
  • Level 23-31: Sends you to an abandoned southeastern farm in Duskwood/just outside of Hillsbrad Village in Hillsbrad Foothills.
  • Level 32-40: Sends you to just outside of Theramore in Dustwallow Marsh.
  • Level 41-50: Sends you to the east of Aerie Peak in Hinterlands.
  • Level 51-60: Sends you to the east of Everlook in Winterspring.
  • Level 61-70: Sends you to the east of Shattrath City in Terokkar Forest.
  • Level 71-80: Sends you to the Forlorn Woods in Crystalsong Forest.
  • Level 81-85: Sends you to the east of the Tomb of Khartut in Uldum.
And the final set of dailies consists of creating Lovely Charm Bracelets and turning them in to your faction's leaders. In the past, each turn counted toward a vote to establish who the favorite faction leader was. This polling system is no longer in place and is now just a regular daily turn-in. Each leader hands over a Lovely Card in return that grants a buff to a specific stat (they don't stack with each other) that is calculated into what level you are.
  • Agility - Darnassus/Orgrimmar
  • Intellect - Stormwind/Undercity
  • Stamina - Ironforge/Thunder Bluff
  • Spirit - Exodar/Silvermoon City
I'm going to go ahead and quote what I said last year about this holiday's boss. I will probably continue to add in the boss strategies year after year, especially if they change something about the boss, but mostly just as a refresher course so that no one screws up and dies on a holiday boss fight. Kind of embarrassing, don't you think?

It wasn't very difficult at all when it was first introduced last year, this year wasn't much more difficult, just you had to teach the new people that didn't know what to do. It was also harder to use the same tactics from last year, and much more difficult to DPS tank. Like we were doing last year, hehe. 
Apothecary Hummel is the "main" target of the fight, but he comes with two others; Apothecary Baxter and Apothecary Frye. There are items off to the side to negate certain effects used by the bosses during the fight. Hummel uses an Alluring Perfume, using the Perfume Neutralizer negates all but his melee attacks. Baxter uses  Irresistible Cologne and the Cologne Neutralizer takes care of him. Frye is simply and annoyance and uses both, but he can be completely ignored for the most part of the fight. Upon initiating the fight, you can only attack Hummel. After, I believe, 15 seconds, Baxter activates and you can attack him as well. About the same time after that, Frye activates as well. The easiest way to do this is for the tank to hold both Hummel and Baxter and wear the Neutralizer for whichever boss gets downed first and then switch to the other. Another possibly strategy is to just have a DPS hold Baxter until Hummel is downed. Frye has no aggro table, which is why I said to just ignore him.

Nothing new, in terms of items, was added to the boss' loot tables from last year, but they did make it so the once-a-day Heart-Shaped Box dropped Love Tokens as well. They also still drop the necklaces that you can continuously farm if you so desire.
  • Forever-Lovely Rose: A simple headpiece that makes your character have a rose in their mouth, if male, or a rose tucked behind an ear, if female. No required level, but since you have to be 84 to queue for the fight.. You get the idea.
  • Vile Fumigator's Mask: A headpiece that makes your character wear a gas mask. Also has the added effect of stunning your target for 30 secs. Completely worthless, honestly, at max level. Amusing for recreational and transmogrification purposes.
  • The Heartbreaker: I finally got my hands on one of these this year. It's only purpose is to make your target burst in to tears. It doesn't work on the opposite faction and if used with no target, you burst in to tears instead. It's off the GCD, so it could technically be worked into a rotation if you want a free debuff and to just cry your heart out.
  • Toxic Wasteling: Just about every holiday now has an acquirable companion pet. Except the mini-holidays that only last a day or two, but give them time.This one is just like the Disgusting Oozeling, but as this one travels past critters.. It eats it. And gets bigger. Also, no debuff!
  • Big Love Rocket: The crème de la crème of mounts. This is the money maker. It's a giant pink rocket with a zebra-striped seat cover. Plus.. the in-game icon for it is pink and phallic-shaped. Innuendos everywhere!
Before taking the last step into the realm of the achievement spam.. Remember all of those Lovely Charms, Lovely Charm Bracelets, and Love Tokens you collected? It's time to get serious. About purchases.

Quick side-note. The Swift Lovebird is, in fact, BoE. Meaning you can farm up multiples and sell them on the AH or hand them out to friends who didn't quite reach make it to the 270 Love Tokens. Though if you do all of the available dailies everyday of the holiday, defeat the boss daily, you should be able to meet the requirements without farming for a single extra Lovely Charm. If you don't, the conversion of Bracelet to Token on the vendor is going to be your lifesaver.

Second side-note, not only is the Swift Lovebird BoE, but so are the created Lovely Charm Bracelets. You can't sell your tokens, and you can't sell your charms, but you can sell the mount and the bracelets for profit.

On to the achievements, which is why everyone reads this! Woot.

  • Be Mine!: Purchase the Bags of Heart Candies from the vendor using Love Tokens and eat one of each of the eight Heart Candies. Each bag costs two Love Tokens and the Heart Candies aren't soulbound, so you can AH or trade them off to friends to assist others in getting their achievements.
  • Charming: Grab your Lovely Charm Bracelet Kit and get to destroying lots of mobs. You're going to need 120 Lovely Charms for this achievement, because you need to create twelve Lovely Bracelets. Lovely Charms are soulbound, so there is no avoiding this achievement. Though if you don't need those bracelets once you get the achievement, you can pass them on to someone else or try to sell them.
  • Dangerous Love: Being the Crown Chemical Co. questline in either capital city and run it through to its completion of crushing the crown and turning the daily back into the investigator in Stormwind City or Orgrimmar. You'll receive the achievement at that time.
  • Fistful Of Love: Since Cataclysm's release, this achievement got a little harder. Since we don't have Dalaran or Shattrah to hang around in anymore, finding the correct Horde race/class combinations are going to require people to actually head into battlegrounds. Or have a friend who has free open character creation slots who is willing to waste their time creating toons for you to throw rose petals on them. You get Handfuls of Rose Petals from the holiday vendors; two Love Tokens for five Handfuls. Since it's uneven, you'll have to over-purchase just to complete the achievement, but keep an extra on hand for another achievement. Handful of Rose Petals are also not soulbound, so you can give away your extras or sell them.
  • Flirt With Disaster/Flirt With Disaster: Head over to Ironforge/Undercity (according to your faction) and stop in at a bar. Pile up on the heavy drinks. For the Alliance, you're going to need to head over to the Great Forge and wait for that sexy pie vendor to make his rounds. When you see Sraaz, drink up and get hammered. Chuck a Handful of Rose Petals at that darling gnome face and "plant" a wet one on him. He sells pie, so he can't be all bad, right? For the Horde, you're going to have to stick around the central bank area. Drop down to the lower levels and find Jeremiah Payson playing with his cock.. roaches. Drink up and get hammered, slathering him with rose petals, and give him a little tongue action. I have no idea why I went there with that...
  • I Pitied The Fool: This one is going to take some time. You have to be at least level 80 to complete this achievement, since you need to be able to enter a level 80 raid instance. You're also going to need the time necessary to collect and acquire 50 Love Tokens so you can buy up five Love Fools. Or have a friend who has extra, since they're not soulbound. You have ten days of real time to throw these puppies down in Naxxramas, the Culling of Stratholme, the blacksmith in Arathi Basin, anywhere in Wintergrasp, or the Gurubashi Arena in Stranglethorn and give them the ol' pity stare. Simple in it's execution to say the least.
  • Lonely?: Throw down ten more Love Tokens to pick yourself up a Romantic Picnic Basket and then ten more Tokens for a Box of Chocolates and hope you get the chocolate treat you desire. You're going to need to head over to Dalaran, plop down your picnic basket, and wait for someone who is as lonely as you to plop down beside you.. So you can share a Buttermilk Delight with them. Warcraft isn't all rainbows and sunshine anymore. As usual, the chocolates from the Box of Chocolates aren't soulbound, but the box itself is.. As is the picnic basket.
  • Lovely Luck Is On Your Side: Head over to our lovely holiday vendors and use twenty of your Love Tokens to pick up a Lovely Dress Box. Open it up and if inside you find yourself a coveted Lovely Black Dress, you earn this achievement to go alongside your newest fashion statement. The Lovely Dress Box has an even 25% chance to drop one of four dress; Black, Purple, Blue, or Red. There is also a Dinner Suit Box with three dinner suits in it, but who cares about those. It's not a pretty black dress! None of these dresses, or even the suits, are soulbound. Share them with your lowbies or friends who need something for a date.
  • My Love Is Like A Red, Red Rose: Bouquet of Red Roses and Bouquet of Ebon Roses are your target items here. You do get to pick and choose where to go to find your bouquets though: Admiral Ripsnarl of the Deadmines, Lord Godfrey of Shadowfang Keep, Corla, Herald of the Twilight of Blackrock Caverns, Drahga Shadowburner of Grim Batol, and High Priestess Azil of Stonecore all offer 100% drop chances on Heroic/Normal (where applicable). With the addition of the latest dungeons, it seems that Queen Azshara of Well of Eternity, Asira Dawnslayer of Hour of Twilight, and the Echoes of Jaina and Sylvanas of End Time all also have a chance to drop them.
  • Nation Of Adoration/Nation Of Adoration: You know how you made those twelve Lovely Charm Bracelets awhile back for the Charming achievement? Hope you kept four of them to turn into the four faction leaders of whichever faction you are to gain this achievement. If not.. Get back to farming, you're going to need forty more Lovely Charms.
  • Perma-Peddle: Use forty of your Love Tokens to purchase a Truesilver Shafted Arrow to acquire this permanent companion version of the pet gained from the Silver Shafted Arrow you can purchase from the holiday vendor for a five for five deal.
  • The Rocket's Pink Glare: Love Rockets are currently on sale at your local holiday vendor for a five-for-five deal. You're going to need to pick up two sets, because you need ten for this achievement. Your goal is launch all ten of your rockets in twenty seconds or less. It's pretty simple, just don't dilly-dally if you're bad at placing your targeting area.
  • Shafted: Pick up some Silver Shafted Arrows from your local holiday vendor, turn around, and being your role as Cupid. The arrows are another five-for-five deal, so you're going to need to pick up double the initial purchase to finish off this achievement. And again, the arrows are not soulbound.
  • Sweet Tooth: Remember when I told you to buy Box of Chocolates for your romantic picnic alone in Dalaran? Well, this one is to eat one of each of the four chocolates that can come out of that box. The chocolates aren't soulbound, as usual.
  • Tough Love: Defeat the Apothecary Trio inside of Shadowfang Keep. You're going to need to be at least level 84 to even make an attempt on these guys. At least this isn't a part of the meta, so it's not required to get your "Love Fool" title.
  • Big Love Rocket: The Feat of Strength attached to this holiday through acquiring the Big Love Rocket mount from the Apothecary Trio.
For more information on this holiday, please follow this link here: Love is in the Air '12 to find all of this information and more over at Wowhead.
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Lunar Festival '12

The beginning of each year brings about the Lunar Festival in-game holiday. As always, it's based loosely on the Chinese New Years. All of the capital cities, as well as the regions of Nighthaven and Moonglade, decorate their towns with festival lanterns (much akin to the Chinese lanterns). For the year of 2012, the festival took place between January 22nd through February 12th. On the last day of the holiday, like all years prior, their a fantastic fireworks show in Moonglade over the Lake Elune'ara.


This holiday is one of the most simple in its design. The basic task is to go around the world and speak to the Elders of the Past. There are many located on Eastern Kingdoms, Kalimdor, and Northrend. With the release of Cataclysm, they added in a few more Elders to compensate for the new regions added into the game, as well as adjusting the locations of the previous elders due to the landscape changes that occurred due to the Shattering.


Before I put out the updated list of where all of the Elders are located, be sure that you collect the "bread crumb" quest that leads you into Moonglade. Shoot off some fireworks to get your Lunar Festival Invitation that'll port you straight there whenever you're standing in the large column of moonlight. The smaller beams created by the Elder's Moonstone will not work with the invitation. You can also get a new invitation if it expires by simply speaking to the Lunar Festival Harbinger located in or near almost all of the capital cities.

As always, the "bread crumb" quest really just gets you to Moonglade so you can get the quest to destroy Omen. It's not required to knock this particular part of the holiday out first, especially since you have quite a bit of time to get it done. Just make sure that you don't forget to do it before the holiday is over.

In short, Omen has to die. To spawn him, you need to kill his minions on the opposite end of the Lake Elune'ara and shoot off rocket clusters from the nearby cluster launchers. The general consensus is about 20 clusters, but if that doesn't work, just keep firing until he spawns in the lake. You don't have to be part of the killing party, which makes this quest tons easier for low level characters. Once Omen is defeated, his corpse will stick around for -roughly- 5 minutes and in the center of his body will be a beam of moonlight. Stepping into that beam will grant you the buff of Elune's Blessing, which is the completion of the quest.

Moving on to the other part of the holiday; world traveling and honoring your elders. Like all years previous, the Elders still hand out the Lucky Red Envelopes that always contain one of two things. You either receive an Elder's Moonstone or a Lucky Rocket Cluster. The Elder's Moonstone simply creates a beam of moonlight, which is helpful for marking targets or playing musical "chairs." And the Lucky Rocket Cluster simply boosts your maximum HP by a set amount. If these rockets scaled with level, they would be worth more to a max level character. As it stands, they give a constant buff of +250 maximum health. At 85, I would label this as absolutely nothing.

You also receive a Coin of Ancestry for each Elder you honor. These coins are not holiday-locked, so they have a turn-over value, if you didn't spend (or throw out) your entire stash from years prior. These coins are the real draw to the holiday as they are the vendor currency to purchase the holiday items. Tailors and Engineers are the still the cream-of-the-crop for this holiday, as they have the only patterns available for purchase. They're still BoP patterns, as usual, so keep your alts' coins away from them.

Aside from the patterns, there are a few other purchasable items from the holiday vendors. Dresses and pant suits, as well as a percentage based food and a "fireworks pack" are all purchasable with the Coins. This vendor also sells the Elune's Candle vanity item for a handful of silver. A separate vendor sells a glowing alcohol and individual fireworks for silver and copper.

The big "item of the year" for the 2012 Lunar Festival are the new companion pets. They are faction-specific, but as they are not BoP, they can be traded to the opposite faction. The Lunar Lantern is available to Alliance and the Festival Lantern is available to the Horde.

On to the achievements!
  • Lunar Festival Finery: Take five of those lovely little Ancestry Coins you've been tracking down from the Elders and use them to purchase a Festival Pant Suit or Festival Dress of any color. To note, the red festival dress/pant suit made by tailors does not count toward this achievement.
  • The Rocket's Red Glare: Spend a tiny little bit of your money on purchasing up 10 -red- rocket clusters. Make sure they're red or they won't count. After that, find yourself a cluster launcher and have at it. With 25 seconds on the timer, you really can't mess up unless you purposely screw it up or lag hates you.
  • Frenzied Firecracker: Just like the rockets, purchase firecrackers from the Lunar Festival vendors. You'll, again, need ten of these. Set them to a hotkey and toss 'em out on each cooldown. This one is easier to screw up, missing a single cooldown will make you fail. Grab some extra 'crackers if you don't think you'll get it in the first ten. Just keep going until you get it.
  • Elune's Blessing: Complete the pre-requisite quests to gain access to the Elune's Blessing quest to go after Omen. Whether you actually participated in besting the beast or if you showed up during the aftermath, you can still complete the quest. As long as the beam of moonlight is there to grant the Elune's Blessing buff, you're good to roll. Turn the quest in to complete this achievement.
  • Elders of the Eastern Kingdoms: Simply honor all of the Elders located on the Eastern Kingdoms. There are 24 total Elders on the Eastern Kingdoms that count toward the various Elder achievements. See the complete list after the break.
  • Elders of Kalimdor: Simply honor all of the Elders located on Kalimdor. There are 26 total Elders on Kalimdor that count toward the various Elder achievements. See the complete list after the break.
  • Elders of Northrend: Go around Northrend and honor the 25 total Elders there. Some count toward the Dungeon Elders count, but they all matter toward completing the Meta. See the complete list after the break.
  • Elders of the Cataclysm: Venture forth to the newest additions to the region with the Cataclysm expansion pack and find the 9 hidden Elders there. See the complete list after the break.
  • Elders of the Dungeons: Seek out the 13 Elders hiding away in instances on any of the three continents. These Elders might require some creativity, ingenuity, or friends. As always with instance achievements, doing this at level cap is significantly easier. See the complete list after the break.
  • Elders of the Horde: Saunter, or tip-toe, your way through the Horde capitals and honor their very own Elders. There are 3 total Elders for this achievement. See the complete list after the break.
  • Elders of the Alliance: Much like the Elders of the Horde, make your way through the Alliance capital cities and honor the Elders of the Alliance. There are 3 totals Elders for this achievement as well. See the complete list after the break.


EASTERN KINGDOMS
Snowcrown: Eastern Plaguelands, Light Hope's Chapel (75, 54)
Farwhisper: Stratholme, Live Side near The Unforgiven
Windrun: Eastern Plaguelands, Crown Guard Tower (35.6, 68.8)
Meadowrun: Western Plaguelands, Weeping Cave (63.5, 36.1)
Moonstrike: Western Plaguelands, Outside Scholomance (69.2, 73.5)
Graveborn: Tirisfal Glades, Brill (61.9, 53.9)
Darkcore: Undercity, Ruins of Lordaeron Throne Room (67, 38)
Obsidian: Silverpine Forest, The Sepulcher (45, 41.1)
Highpeak: The Hinterlands, Creeping Ruin (49, 47.9)
Darkfeather: Twilight Highlands, Thundermar Ruins (51, 33)
Firebeard: Twilight Highlands, Dunwald Ruins (50, 70)
Silvervein: Loch Modan, Thelsamar (33, 46)
Goldwell: Dun Morogh, Kharanos (53.9, 49.9)
Bronzebeard: Ironforge, Mystic Ward (29, 16)
Ironband: Searing Gorge, Blackchar Cave (21.3, 79.1)
Morndeep: Blackrock Depths, Ring of Law
Stonefort: Lower Blackrock Spire, Inner Bridgework
Dawnstrider: Burning Steppes, Flame Crest (53.6, 24.5)
Rumblerock: Burning Steppes, Dreadmaul Rock (70.1, 45.4)
Starsong: Sunken Temple, Dragonkin Ring
Bellowrage: Blasted Lands, Dark Portal (54.3, 49.5)
Starglade: Northern Stranglethorn, Zul'Gurub (71, 34.3)
Winterhoof: Cape of Stranglethorn, Booty Bay (39.9, 72.5)
Skychaser: Westfall, Sentinel Hill (56.6, 47)
Stormbrow: Elwynn Forest, Goldshire (39.8, 63.7)
Hammershout: Stormwind City, Stormwind Gates (34.2, 50.6)

KALIMDOR
Bladeswift: Darnassus, Cenarion Enclave (39.1, 31.9)
Bladeleaf: Teldrassil, Dolanaar (57, 53)
Starweave: Darkshore, Near Lor'danel (49.5, 19)
Nightwind: Felwood, Jaedenar (38.8, 52.9)
Riversong: Ashenvale, Astranaar (35.6, 48.9)
Windsong: Mount Hyjal, Sanctuary of Malorne (26, 62)
Evershade: Mount Hyjal, Nordrassil (62, 22)
Brightspear: Winterspring, Lake Kel'Theril (53.2, 56.8)
Stonespire: Winterspring, Everlook (60.1, 49.9)
Skygleam: Azshara, Ravencrest Monument (64.7, 79.3)
Darkhorn: Orgrimmar, Flight Master Tower (52.4, 60)
Runetotem: Durotar, Razor Hill (53.2, 43.6)
Windtotem: Northern Barrens, Ratchet (68.4, 70)
Moonwarden: Northern Barrens, Crossroads (48.5, 59.3)
High Mountain: Southern Barrens, Vendetta Point (41.5, 47.5)
Bloodhoof: Mulgore, Bloodhoof Village (48.3, 53.4)
Ezra Wheathoof: Thunder Bluff, Elder Rise (73, 23.3)
Splitrock: Maraudon, Rotgrip/Tinkerer Gizlock Area
Mistwalker: Feralas, The Maul (62, 31)
Grimtotem: Feralas, Lariss Pavillion (76.7, 37.9)
Primestone: Silithus, Crystal Vale (30.8, 13.3)
Bladesing: Silithus, Cenarion Hold (53, 35.5)
Thunderhorn: Un'goro Crater, Slithering Scar (50.4, 76.1)
Menkhaf: Uldum, Khartut's Tomb (65, 18)
Sekhemi: Uldum, Ruins of Ammon (32. 63)
Ragetotem: Tanaris, Ruins of Uldum (37.2, 79.1)
Dreamseer: Tanaris, Gadgetzan (51.3, 27.8)
Wildmane: Zul'Farrak, Gahz'rilla's Pool
Morningdew: Thousand Needles, Fizzle & Pozzik's Speedbarge (77.1, 75.6)
Skyseer: Thousand Needles, Freewind Post (46.4, 51)

NORTHREND
Sardis: Borean Tundra, Valiance Keep (59.1, 65.6)
Arp: Borean Tundra, D.E.H.T.A. (57.3, 43.7)
Pamuya: Borean Tundra, Warsong Hold (42.9, 49.6)
Northal: Borean Tundra, Transitus Shield (33.8, 34.4)
Igasho: The Nexus, Ormorok the Tree-Shaper Area
Sandrene: Sholozar Basin, River's Heart (49.8, 63)
Wanikaya: Sholozar Basin, Rainspeaker Rapids (63.8, 49)
Bluewolf: Wintergrasp Fortress (49, 13.9)
Morthie: Dragonblight, Star's Rest (29.7, 55.9)
Skywarden: Dragonblight, Agmar's Hammer (35.1, 48.3)
Nurgen: Azjol-Nerub, Post-Hadronox
Thoim: Dragonblight, Moa'ki Harbor (48.8, 78.2)
Jarten: Utgarde Keep, Post-Prince Keleseth
Chogan'gada: Utgarde Pinnacle, Under Skadi the Ruthless
Beldak: Grizzly Hills, Westfall Brigade Encampment (60.6, 27.7)
Lunaro: Grizzly Hills, Ruins of Tethys (80.5, 37.1)
Whurain: Grizzly Hills, Camp Oneqwah (64.2, 47)
Kilias: Drak'Tharon Keep, King Dred's Den
Tauros: Zul'Drak, Zim'Torga (58.9, 56)
Ohanzee: Gun'Drak, Drakkari Colossus Altar
Graymane: The Storm Peaks, K3 (41.2, 84.7)
Fargal: The Storm Peaks, Frosthold (28.9, 73.7)
Stonebeard: The Storm Peaks, Bouldercrag's Refuge (31.3, 37.6)
Muraco: The Storm Peaks, Camp Tunka'lo (64.6, 51.3)
Yurauk: Halls of Stone, Pre-Krystallus

CATACLYSM (Since the portals are located in either contintent depending on your faction, I'm not going to put them as part of any order. Get these at your leisure, just don't forget them.)
Moonlance: Vashj'ir, Shimmering Expanse (57, 86)
Stonebrand: Deepholm, Temple of Earth (49. 54)
Deepforge: Deepholm, Stonehearth (27, 69)


For more in-depth information on this holiday, follow the following link to Wowhead's article and guide: 2012 Lunar Festival Guide


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Failed Expectations

As you've probably noticed, those of you who follow this blog and those of you who gracious click the links on my Facebook and Twitter feeds as I post them there, that I have failed to make an update in quite some time.

I've been working more at my job as a general manager at a movie theatre, plus the reroll thing collapsed in upon itself, and my goal to hit each holiday as it came in 2012 flopped pretty hardcore. As it's five months in and I haven't made a single post yet.

I don't know how I should really feel about getting back into the swing of things, it's seems more and more like blogging just isn't something I'm ever going to be good at. I have a secret project I've been working on for sometime that requires very little actual effort on my part but I've been waiting on other people to get back with me with my requests before I can continue that venture. The links at the top of my blog still lead to "dead-ends" because I haven't finished compiling all of the information/pictures/anythings that are supposed to go there.

Rough calculations..
24 hours x 7 days = 168 hours in a week
168 hours - 52 work hours = 116 hours
116 hours - (generous estimate of 6 hours of sleep x 7 days) = 74 hours
74 hours of free time a week = roughly 3 days worth of free time. One of those days being maintenance day, like today.
My 'Mondays' start on Thursday and my 'Friday' is Monday, where I pull a 16.5+ hour shift. It seems like I'd have the time to actually get something done with that "much" free time on my hands, but it doesn't ever work out that way.

I have good news and bad news though, sorta.

The good news is that I recently purchased a new computer and am waiting on its delivery. With it's arrival, I can begin coupling my blogs with my gaming vlog project. I want to start creating gaming vlogs of me playing F2P, P2P, and other such games so that people can get a peek into games that they wouldn't normally play. It'll also make it so I have a two computer setup, so I can make accurate accounts of what I'm doing in-game while actually doing it. Which would have helped a helluva lot more when I was still doing the reroll journal on Kutira.

The bad news is that I recently started playing the new MMO TERA, which has been distracting me away from WoW a bit. My only issue with TERA right now is that it's not allowing me to create more than one character per server, much like the restrictions on the Beta. I've contacted their customer support and am just waiting on a response. Hopefully this gets corrected soon, either by some technical wizardry on their end or with my new computer, so I can start messing around with the other classes over there. While I adore the Warrior class in TERA, I don't want to be restricted to a single class.

The sorta good news that goes along with the bad news though, is that I can begin expanding this blog to go over more than just World of Warcraft. Which opens up the possibility of more blog topics and gives me more things to talk about than just the random holiday events and whatever other WoW topics I normally go over.
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Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Arms v Fury v Protection

This particular post was requested by a fellow member of <Reckless Minority>. The opinions posted here are my own and do not reflect those of Blizzard, who own the © to World of Warcraft, nor do these opinions reflect those of others in <Reckless Minority>.

I don't know why I mentioned that up top, but I felt it was necessary.

ARMS
The Arms Warrior tree is built around increased burst through slow two-handed weapons, increased by stacking heavy bleed increasing effects. Almost all the talents are built around increasing weapon damage, increased bleed duration/damage, and reducing CDs on spec-specific abilities for increased damage.

Pros
  • Sustainable Rage resource due to Anger Management and rage efficient abilities like Overpower.
  • Increased burst.
  • Mortal Strike: Spec specific debuff for healing reduction.
  • Bladestorm: Spec Tier ability for increased burst, as well as "invulnerability."
  • Optimal PvP DPS spec.
  • Optimal PvE solo DPS spec.
Cons
  • Poor viability for PvE raiding.
  • Sustainable DPS relies on consistent reapplication of bleeds.
  • High-movement fights effect DPS due to Slam's cast time.
  • Lower-end of PvE burst damage.
  • Has a higher reliance on Mastery than Critical/Haste, after Strength.
FURY
The Fury Warrior tree is built around increased damage through Enrage, "double" the damage through dual-wielding (increased burst with TG, or sustainable burst through SMF), with a more 'reckless' playstyle. The Fury talents are built around an increased risk-over-reward system, where you put yourself at a higher risk of death to receive reward. Death Wish or Recklessness, the two Fury-based CDs are built around increasing damage taken for damage dealt.

Pros
  • The more reckless playstyle creates many more fun opportunities to display the classes utility and functionality.
  • Regeneration through basic rotation.
  • Rampage: Fury raid-wide buff for 5% increased critical strike chance.
  • Titan's Grip/Single-Minded Fury: Bottom tier increases weapon choices.
  • Furious Attacks: Spec specific Mortal Strike styled talent.
  • Precision: Fury talent for 3% hit.
  • Berserker Stance: With the changes to Berserker not forcing you to take more damage to deal more damage, Fury gains more survivability AND increased damage.
  • Die by the Sword: Was more of a Pro before the 500% threat increase. Gave the Fury Warrior a chance to recuperate with 100% parry to survive an insta-death when stealing aggro.
  • Strongest DPS warrior spec for PvE. (According to current data, Arms is winning this race again, but I digress..)
  • Relies solely on Strength and Critical, Haste is worthless due to Flurry talent. Mastery is an abysmal DPS increase.
Cons
  • Poorly sustainable Rage resource until level capped, with high amounts of Hit(12%+) and Exp capped.
  • Titan's Grip/Single-Minded Fury: Rotation changes depending on spec due to the differences in weapon speed of 2H to 1H. Where certain abilities are more prevalent in TG, they are useless in SMF.
  • Berserker Stance: The Fury Stance is practically useless while leveling until you hit level 50, where you gain Intercept. Stance-dancing for Charge from 30 to 50 was obviously overlooked by Blizzard. Especially since you lack access to Stance Mastery from the Arms tree with the way Talent trees are setup, so you lose any and all rage in target catching.
  • Pre-500% threat increase, Fury had a serious threat generation issue.
  • Poor PvP utility due to lack of crowd control abilities.
  • (While true of all classes, Fury and Druids are mostly effected by this statement as a whole) Purely gear-based. No measure of skill will make you do more damage/DPS if you're simply lacking in gear.
PROTECTION
The Protection Warrior tree is, obviously, the tank tree. Built to generate substantial threat, take the hits with increased survivability, and dish the pain back out through Vengeance. The entire Protection tree is structured toward increased avoidance, accelerated and sustained threat generation, damage reduction, and protection of the group. While less so than Paladins on that last note.

Pros
  • Most survivability.
  • Moderate damage while leveling, tapers off at level cap when DPS start to "outgear" the Vengeance boost for Tanks.
  • Last Stand: Protection talent that boosts the tank's health two-fold for a short time to increase survivability.
  • Vigilance: Protection talent that is placed on a raid/party member that whenever the "Vigi'd" target is struck, your Taunt's CD is refreshed and your Vengeance stacks as if you were hit.
  • Concussive Blow and Shockwave: Protection based abilities built for stuns.
  • Blood and Thunder: Turns the warrior into a viable AoE tank as well as a single target tank.
  • Turns a shield into an offensive weapon as well as a defensive tool.
  • Best Flag Carrier class/spec in RBGs at current time. The removal of Vengeance in PvP might effect this, but Prot Warriors will still be strong FCs.
Cons
  • Lack of powerful DPS at level cap and end-game.
  • No longer able to dual-wield when a shield isn't optimal for increased tank damage.
  • Possibility of Rage starvation with too high avoidance.
  • Lack of healing debuff that Arms and Fury both offer.

In my own personal time playing Warriors, and I have played many..
Protection is a great way to level if you plan on booking it through dungeons. If you plan on questing, Protection can slow you down if you take that route. It'll be marginal, especially since the release of Vengeance.
Arms is a great way to level through quests and PvP, due to the increased survivability, sustainable rage, and Mortal Strike ability, and the fact that Arms is the most viable PvP spec a warrior has. The possibility of crowd control makes them an asset in dungeons, but almost all other classes have more options for CC.
Fury is a great way to level.. Period. This might be biased, but like I said, personal opinion. Fury has great burst damage, sustainable damage, self-regen abilities, and can swap to sword-and-board to temp tank in a clincher, better than an Arms could, due to high-threat and those self-regen abilities.

Since this reroll is about not hiding away in dungeons/battlegrounds, I'd honestly say rolling Arms and Fury are your best bets for fast leveling. By leveling as Arms/Fury, you're going to be in a position where you'll almost always have a queue time, so questing should be your number one priority for leveling. Queuing for dungeons adds in those scenarios to correct and improve your rotations in relation to others, while not being "hectic" like an end-game raid setting.

I believe I've said more than enough..

Kutira, out.
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Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Hardmode Reroll: The Story of Kutira (Day 4)

Name: Kutira
Race: Orc
Class: Warrior
Spec: Fury/Protection
Guild: <Reckless Minority>
Server: Alterac Mountains-US

Completed Questing Areas:
Durotar
Mulgore
Northern Barrens
Eversong Woods
Tirisfal Glades
Azshara (All three completed 'Glutton' achievements, plus 'Joy Ride')
Ghostlands
Silverpine Forest
Hillsbrad Foothills
Ashenvale
Stonetalon Mountains

Completed Dungeons [Weapon Hoarding]:
Ragefire Chasm [Oggleflint's Inspirer, Cursed Felblade, Bazzalan's Blade]
Deadmines [Smite's Reaver, Cookie's Tenderizer]
Wailing Caverns [Stinging Viper, Worn Turtle Shell Shield]
Shadowfang Keep [Baron's Scepter, Commander's Crest, Haunting Blade]
Stormwind Stockades [Cold Iron Pick]
Blackfathom Deeps [-]
Gnomeregan [Hydrocane]
Razorfen Kraul [Thornspike]
Maraudon [-]
Scarlet Monastery: Graveyard [-]
Scarlet Monastery: Library [-]
Scarlet Monastery: Armory [Ravager]
Scarlet Monastery: Cathedral [Aegis of the Scarlet Commander]

The day started off with me stealthily sneaking my way into Darnassus to get the Elder there, and then moving on to Dolanaar deep inside Teldrassil. Successfully acquiring that Elder as well, I explored Teldrassil's treetop landscape, before moving on to more important things..

I have crushed the three mighty beasts of Ashenvale; Sharptalon, Shadumbra, and Ursangous. Created and used the Goblin bombs on flyovers on Astranaar. Vanquished the enraged fire elementals at the behest of his other elemental brethren. Decimated the mighty furbolg villages and saved a captured Tauren. Cleared the Zoram Strand of naga, hydra, and the vicious Vorsha the Lasher. Delved into the caves of the Blackfathom Deeps for crystals and to spill naga-witch blood. Ashenvale.. Belongs to the Horde.

I mapped out the region of Ashenvale and then accessed the nooks and crannies of the region of Darkshore before heading down into the Stonetalon Mountains to work under Overlord Krom'gar. I quickly established myself among his recruits, slaying the Alliance and retrieving the battle plans for an attack on Krom'gar Fortress. I helped Clarissa rebuild her Large Daddy.. And then used his power to decimate the gnomish engineers and their robots down in the Windshear Valley. I assisted the idiot scouts down in the Deep Reaches at gathering materials, killing elementals, and saving peons. I refueled our bomb at the Sludgewerks and killed wyverns for a goblin; which probably wasn't a good idea in hindsight.

I met with General Grebo and High Chieftain Cliffwalker at Cliffwalker Post. I used a demolisher to.. ... Demolish the Alliance army and their glaive throwers. I learnt of deception and betrayal, and assisted in committing treason against the "new Horde." After becoming Krom'gar's new General after Grebo's death at my own hands, I watched the destruction of the druid's Thal'darah Grove at the insane hands of Overlord Krom'gar... Who then was 'dismissed' from duty by the Warchief himself. He also met face-to-ground shortly after his dismissal a little further down the cliff wall. Garrosh stripped my rank of General out from under me, but let me keep my head at the behest of High Chieftain Cliffwalker.

With nothing left for me in Stonetalon Mountain after the destruction of the Grove and the death of my commanding officer, I decided to move on over to the Arathi Highlands where the Banshee Queen had requested I go. Just because I'm an orc doesn't mean I work for Garrosh, y'know? I met with Dark Ranger Alina and the recently resurrected Galen Trollbane on a mission to destroy the Boulderfist ogres, rip the amulets from the gushing throats of the Syndicate, and reclaim the sword Trol'kalar. Proving successful in all these endeavors, especially the killing of humans, I was sent to Hammerfall, where I fell into a trap.

Called to a stone near the Eastern Binding, I was convinced that I would be helping a Goddess escape her prison. After retrieving the keys from the other three Circles and crushing the elementals present, I crushed a rock giant to retrieve the final piece of the puzzle. Using the three keys to unlock the obelisk, I inserted the Rod of Order to unlock Myzrael from her imprisonment. Convinced that this was no longer a wonderful idea, I conversed with Zaruk who told me to summon her early, crush her hopes and dreams, and re-shackle her back to her stone. She was a handful, she was, and quite angry at my turn-coating, but I did what needed to be done and removed that particular problem from the face of Azeroth.

After all that excitement, I was left with one task.. Kill the Witherbark Trolls and make sure they knew that the Horde wasn't going to put up with their crap. An orc killing trolls.. I feel like Garrosh and Vol'jin. *cough* Goutgut, one of Dark Ranger Alina's companions, wanted me to go to Faldir's Cove and see his friend Lolo.. So.. Uh.. I'm gonna go there now. Okay, bye.

Signing off for journal entry two, Kutira.
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Thursday, January 26, 2012

Hardmode Reroll: The Story of Kutira (Day 1*)

Name: Kutira
Race: Orc
Class: Warrior
Spec: Fury/Protection
Guild: <Reckless Minority>
Server: Alterac Mountains-US

I wish I had thought of this back at the beginning, so I could have kept track of story of Kutira from start-to-finish, but I'm still relatively low level, so starting this "late" shouldn't be a huge issue.

Completed Questing Areas:
Durotar
Mulgore
Northern Barrens
Eversong Woods
Tirisfal Glades
Azshara (All three completed 'Glutton' achievements, plus 'Joy Ride')
Ghostlands
Silverpine Forest
Hillsbrad Foothills

Completed Dungeons [Weapon Hoarding]:
Ragefire Chasm [Oggleflint's Inspirer, Cursed Felblade, Bazzalan's Blade]
Deadmines [Smite's Reaver, Cookie's Tenderizer]
Wailing Caverns [Stinging Viper, Worn Turtle Shell Shield]
Shadowfang Keep [Baron's Scepter, Commander's Crest, Haunting Blade]
Stormwind Stockades [Cold Iron Pick]
Blackfathom Deeps [-]
Gnomeregan [Hydrocane]
Razorfen Kraul [Thornspike]

My current questing area is Ashenvale. I have rode Brutusk the Kodo until his death, diverted the siege on Splintertree Post, performed genocide on the demons of Demon Fall Canyon; the dreadlords included, and learned just how sneaky I am not while doing anti-night elf espionage and assassinations. My current objectives are to relieve a orc warlock of his head, break the horns off of some dead satyr, and to head all the way across Ashenvale to meet up with the commander of another Horde outpost. But..

I put all of that on hold. Because the Lunar Festival started, and I'm a Holiday Whore, as my previous posts about HOLIDAYS could have probably told you. So I began my holiday routine on my main server and knocked out (4) of my (6) 85s and then came back.. And decided that Kutira needed the same level of dedication to achievements. I mean, damn.. There's free master flying involved in this. Plus, free exp and money. It's win/win/win for me.

Nabbed the Elder in Orgrimmar, then the one in Thunder Bluff, then scooted over to the Eastern Kingdoms and started lodging my complaints against the placement of Elders. Spent ~100 deaths attempting and succeeding to get the Ironforge and Stormwind Elders. Determination is key, and macros. Definitely macros. Pushed on and eventually had the insane idea to go after Uldum's Elders, after finishing Tanaris. I succeeded at getting the Uldum ones, too. As well as exploring the entire zone on a 60% riding ground mount. Without assistance from any level 80+s. Got the help of a warlock buddy [Awakened] and some priestly ladies [Effy and Illuminate] to Warlock summon me into Deepholm to get the Elder at the Temple of Earth, and then the one over at Stonehearth. Rather than have them summon me back to the Temple to leave, I ran. Levitated, mostly. They Life-Gripped me around the mobs and through them, as they escorted me all the way back to the Temple. I "awarded" them 1000 'Kutira Rep' a piece, and then went back to doing Eastern Kingdoms following that success.

Once I had finished off all of Eastern Kingdoms, I took a small break to do a little PvP. I was level 38 by this point; gaining (4) levels from exploring and Elder quests. I garnered up enough Honor to purchase most of the PvP awards from the quartermasters of the Warsong Outriders and the Defilers. After scraping myself off of the floor of many Alliance wins, I finally took the trek into Twilight Highlands to knock those Elders. Despite Twilight Highlands being a higher level than both Deepholm and Uldum, I had an easier time exploring and getting the Elders there than both of those combined. Wish I could fly, as the only way to complete the exploration of Twilight Highlands is to be able to fly up to the Vermillion Redoubt. Or be ported by a Warlock. ;D

As I finished that off, I moved on to Kalimdor Elders, since I was finished with the Eastern Kingdom Elders, as well as the Cataclysm Elders; sans the Elder in Vashj'ir. Which is what I'm currently doing as I'm typing out this blog post. Silithus was a horrible experience, which seemed pretty normal. I'll be putting off the Darnassus, Dolanaar, and the two Elders in Mount Hyjal for the next time, so that I can put lots of time and patience into corpse running. I'll more than likely end up exploring all of Hyjal after getting those Elders as well. It seems to work out pretty well.

All in all.. A pretty good and productive day. I ran Razorfen Kraul and Scarlet Monastery: Armory today as well, not that anything awesome really came out of those. Gained a total of (7) levels. Which I just gained my 7th level as of the end of this post.

Signing off for Journal Entry one, Kutira.
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Monday, January 23, 2012

Name Changes and Other Things

Paying attention to my character navigation bar on the side, you'll notice that Buttske and Zelgadiss are both gone and replaced with two new-comers.

Buttske was originally a human male created by my close friend Caleb "Buttske" Breske. After moving away from my hometown, I kept the character alive. After playing him to level cap and gearing him, I realized that he needed a change or I wasn't going to be able to keep playing him. Especially since Caleb himself stop going by "Buttske," I decided to do a re-character customization. He went from being a gremlin-mouthed, ginger, human male.. To a pixie-cut, lean, aesthetically-pleasing, female night elf; named Laviana.

Zelgadiss was my originally toon way back when I first started playing World of Warcraft, on my own account. My first true toon was Xardion the Paladin under Corie's account. I played him to level 18 in the week I stayed with her over a break, went back home, bought WoW, and started my own. Xardion eventually got deleted from her account and recreated on my own, and then deleted and recreated again when Death Knights emerged, but we're getting off-topic here.
Corie's computer was pretty crappy back then, so I didn't realize just how Zelgadiss looked until I started playing on a more updated machine. Holy shit, was I ever a horrible character designed. I kept with him until I reached 85, geared him a bit, and then realized.. I seriously couldn't look at his ugly mug anymore. Also, I hate helmets. So I gender-swapped him, because a simple re-customization just wasn't going to fit that gargantuan and ugly night elf male model. He became Sollexi, with a form to match the class.

Maybe if Blizzard ever implements body sizes, I'll change Sollexi back. If night elves could have the lean forms of blood elves, my original idea behind Zelgadiss would work, but until then.. He's a girl.

As of now, only Railene and Arcia haven't gone through some sort of change.
     - Paragon was originally a dwarf named Ilgrid.
     - Xardion was originally a paladin, then he died and became a death knight.
     - We just went over Laviana/Buttske.
     - We just went over Zelgadiss/Sollexi.

These are also all of my current level 85 toons. I have an up-and-coming Horde Paladin, as well as a Draenei Shaman, but to get them to 85.. I'd actually have to play them.

I'm also currently participating in what was originally called the "Hardmode Reroll." Reroll a character on the underdog side of an unbalanced PvP server and level it to 85 and become a progressively competitive guild in the raiding and PvP scene. That character is currently level 34. I should create progress blog-posts about her. I probably will, to keep my goal in mind as I play her.

So.. a revamp of new content, new ideas, and more information. Looks like this blog now has something for me to actually work with and toward. Hurray goals!
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