The title pretty much says it all. Check out this awesome list of WoW-inspired cakes over at Holy Taco!
25 World of Warcraft Cakes
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My Frustration with Cataclysm Dungeons
Today I spent way too much time playing WoW with my friend, Chris but hey- it’s the weekend so I don’t feel too bad. Nicole was out of town at a show choir and I didn’t have a lot to do save for either A)journey through Azeroth or B)clean out the laundry room. Ahem, it’s not hard to see what got priority.
Anyways, we were working on a heroic Blackrock Caverns run and kept getting randomly grouped with players that were less than optimal. It’s not that they were all bad players- in many instances they were quite good! However, if we wiped it wasn’t uncommon for someone to just drop out of the group rather than toughing it out.
In a way I understand that- wiping sucks and sometimes it’s not worth sticking around if a group looks like it’s under geared or inexperienced to waste your time (and gold in repairs) to see if it’ll pan out. Just the same it was more than a little discouraging.
However, after working through this inconvenience for an hour or so Chris and I began talking about the difference between a normal Cataclysm dungeon and a heroic one. Eventually we arrived at the conclusion that while not impossible, heroic is worthy of its namesake almost to a fault.
After a couple of runs of a Cataclysm dungeon on normal you’ve pretty much got the rhythm down and from unless someone makes a mind-boggling mistake you’re golden. Heroic on the other hand is like a gauntlet slap in the face. It’s fiendishly difficult in the beginning and even after you understand the mechanics each boss employs to defeat you it can be a struggle.
The problem isn’t the difficulty, but how violently you’re shoved into that difficulty. There’s just not much middle ground between the two difficulties. To quote Yahtzee* you’d have to be pants-on-head retarded to fail normal dungeons and heroic dungeons are like herding cats.
Don’t get me wrong- I LOVE the new content and all but do wish that there were some way to better prepare players for the deep end of Cataclysm pool.
Am I alone in this or have any of you also struggled with the leap to heroism?
Tips for Leveling Archeology in World of Warcraft
I treated the Archeology profession rather poorly I’m afraid. Even though it’s been out since the Cataclysm launch, I had no desire to indulge it, preferring to concentrate on my primary professions and getting better gear. That was, until I saw this-
Pictured: Awesomeness normally reserved only for unicorn tears
That, my friends, is the amazing Fossilized Raptor mount. It’s not just the raptor mount either, there are epic weapons, novelty items, trinkets and more you can unearth with this relatively simple profession. I question their use of the term ‘profession’ as there’s very little skill involved. In fact, the entire archeology process can be summed up like this.
1)Fly to circle on map
2)Click ‘Survey’
3)Follow direction of survey tool moving farther away if red, moderate distance if yellow, only a few steps if green, repeat and grab artifact fragment to create artifact
4)Be awesome
In all seriousness though, I will give you a couple of tips to make the (reportedly) 25-30 hour levelling max process go a little quicker.
Don’t Craft Any Artifacts…
yet. Wait until you’ve hit level 50 from gathering fragments to begin crafting things. The reason is that after you hit 50 you’ll no longer level your skill by just finding things but rather will gain 5 skillup for each artifact crafted. It’s better to hold onto your fragments until this point.
Not So Fast
After you survey and find a fragment, DO NOT LEAVE YET. Even after you’ve already looted the fragment, survey in that spot one more time. Oftentimes you’ll find that a new fragment spawns in the EXACT SAME PLACE. Whether this is an oversight on Blizzard’s part or them just throwing us a bone (heh) to make the process a little quicker I don’t know, but make sure you’re doing this.
Don’t Fear The Rea-er, Troll Tablet
Every now and then when picking up fragments you’ll find a green quality item such as a Troll Tablet or Dwarf Rune Stone. You can use these in ‘sockets’ for the current project/artifact you’re working on. They count as 12 fragments toward completing it. The good news is that using one of these doesn’t negate any fragments you’ve already collected- they’ll simply roll over to the next project you begin working on so always use these as there’s no downside unless you’d rather level slower and sack them in the Auction House for already plentiful gold.
Also, the only project that has no keystones are Fossils because, well, dinosaurs apparently didn’t leave any fancy relics behind for us save for their monstrous feces and mosquitos stuck in amber. No really.
Archeology Helper
Check out the addon Archeology Helper. It’s a great addon that gives you a HUD view to assist in navigating your surveying. It speeds things up quite a bit especially if you’re bad at judging distances or struggle with the act of walking.
If You Survey It They Will Come
Be patient. Eventually epic loot will show up. For me I got the Fossilized Hatchling just after hitting level 100 skill. There’s no rhyme or reason (that we know of ) to what determines if you get a crap gray artifact or an epic quality one. But, we do know that if you craft a rare/epic artifact you will never again get a repeat of that. It appears to be completely random so hang in there.
Why so WoW?
Much to Nicole’s chagrin our consoles have collected slightly more dust than usual as my foray into Cataclysm continues. I’m almost as baffled as Nicole when it comes to understanding my focus on WoW right now. In the past, I’d get enamored with WoW post-expansion for a couple months then drop out in favor of more console goodness. Even as I type this the GDC is going on and I’ve scarcely checked up on it.
Is it because I hate console games now? Did I make a pact with the Dark Lord to never stop journeying through Azeroth, forced to run Grim Batol (butthole?) heroics until my fingers can no longer spam Lifeblooms? Or maybe I’m being blackmailed by a mafia hitman to keep healing his son in raids lest I rest with the aquatic creatres?
No, none of these are true. The simple fact is that regardless of Cataclysm, WoW’s taken on a new appeal for me purely because of my decision to start healing. I’ve always DPS’d because it’s easier, but this time I wanted a challenge so naturally I chose to start healing when the game has made keeping people alive exponentially more difficult. That challenge is what’s kept me coming back night after night. There’s something hugely satisfying about downing a massive dragon and knowing were it not for you the confrontation’s victory wouldn’t have been assured.
If any of you have read us for a while you know too that I tend to have a pretty sharp focus on whatever I’m engaged in whether it’s Black Ops, WoW, or Magic the Gathering. Where Nicole will nimbly leap from one passion to the next with grace, I tend to hone in on something exclusively until I’m the best I can be at it and move on. The problem with WoW? *nasally whiny voice* It’s haaaaaard. Really hard in some cases, but I’m still learning and having an absolute blast doing it.
So take heart that no, I haven’t abandoned geek topic X, it’s just a bit back-burnered in light of my desire to bring those fat heals to your hard-tanking ass to the best of my ability. So there, still friends?
Expanded Observations on World of Warcraft: Cataclysm
So a couple of weeks ago I did a post about tips for healing as a (noob) druid. I’ve been playing a lot of WoW since Cataclysm made its debut. So much so that Nicole swears I don’t even know how to turn on the 360 anymore, much to my lament. But anyways, now that I’ve broken the 80 barrier I’ve some new observations to share with you if you were on the fence about the expansion.
1. Green is Again the New Purple
If you had aspirations of spending those justice points you’ve saved on epic gear from vendors at 80- don’t. Just don’t. Frankly when I first started questing in one of the opening zones for 80 (Vashj’ir) I wasn’t sure what to think. I was getting my ass handed to me by trash mobs and desperately switching out of Feral form to heal myself more often than I’d care to admit. However, my strife was short lived as after an hour of suffering or so I got my first green item. I should point out that the minimum item level for quest rewards at this point in the game is 272. If you don’t know what that means let me put it this way- it means tripe-digit stat increases in many cases and you make a monumental leap from “So this is the sharp end of the sword?” to “Come get some!” in a manner of hours. It’s dramatic, jarring, and most of all satisfying. I fought the urge to immediately go hunt horde in Outland that made my life so difficult in questing to 70. Of course, if you didn’t want to wait to see some quest text to get an idea, you could always buy your way to some new gold in the auction house what with all that…
5 Tips for Healing as a Druid in WoW
Not an actual druid, mind you as I don’t have any idea how to legitimately commune with nature short of taking advantage of its shrubbery for relief purposes. However, having spent an unhealthy amount of time leveling my Worgen Druid in World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, I feel confident enough to drop some knowledge on any of you other noobs out there that want to give healing a shot.
First, before we launch into the tips I’d like to say that there’s a reason this was my first true healer. In every other toon I’ve rolled straight DPS. Not necessarily because I hated the idea of healing, but hated the idea of being hated for healing incorrectly or poorly. It’s (mostly) a thankless job, but ultimately a fulfilling one that takes a bit more finesse than just doing raw damage.
Also, I should point out that I haven’t done any raid healing and this is just for keeping your Tank (See: meat shield) and party alive in standard dungeon runs.
Now, let’s get to the healing tip goodness.
I Play WoW
One of my guildmates passed this on to me and I thought it was pretty rad! I thought I noticed a quick reference to I’m on a Boat in there, but I could be mistaken. Anyone who plays will love this. Anyone who doesn’t play this will have their suspicions confirmed and eye-rolling/groaning will commence. Of course, those people don’t matter anyways.* So, check it out!
*Just kidding Mom- you matter a lot and know I love you. Thanks for putting with mine and Dad’s endless banter back and forth about overhauls to the Hunter class. Still friends?
We Hang Our Heads in Shame
It is with heavy hearts that Nicole and I would both like to offer the most sincere apology possible for the lack of updates. There’s no excuse for us and rest assured that our families, friends, and coworkers have railed us pretty hard for getting neglectful over the holiday season. However, because we love it so much, there’s no way we’d stop now. No, not at all! In fact, there are about five or six videos we never got around to posting that should be going up this week along with our thoughts on everything from Cataclysm to Kinect!
But, but wait. Aren’t we a podcast? Well, we were supposed to be of course, but with our hectic schedules regular recording became difficult. However, depending on if people really want to hear it, we’re toying with the idea of redoing the format for the podcast and coming back with a brand new episode. Of course, we were also thinking of making it video based, but it really depends on what you all want.
Now, even though I’ve already apologized, I’d like to list a few of the things responsible for the grievous error in judgment and leaving you all without an update for so long. In no discernible order:
- Cataclysm
- Christmas
- New Year’s
- Skiing
- Cataclysm
- Family Obligations
- Work
- Tron Legacy
- True Grit
- The Social Network
- School
- Dance Central
- Friends
- Cataclysm
- Rearranging the basement..again
- and finally, Cataclysm
Also, one of my coworkers is responsible for the elegantly detailed illustration of Nicole and I looking eerily similar and also shameful. He’s been hounding me fairly relentlessly so this one’s for you, buddy.
Blizzard Store Now Selling Mounts and Pets
This is new to me, but maybe some of you out there have already known about this. Apparently, the Blizzard Store doesn’t just sell cute and cuddly real world items, but is now selling virtual pets and mounts like the badass-looking celstial mount over there on the left. My WoW account’s been cancelled for a few months now as I anxiously await the release of Cataclysm, but new content like this makes me itch to come back. Even though that mount is $25.00-like, real world dollars, it still looks incredible and I wouldn’t mind having the bragging rights of flying one around Orgrimmar whenever full flight is enabled in the next expansion.
Would you be willing to pay real money for this?
The WoW Infographic
I have a special place in my heart for infographics and the below is no exception. Of course I knew that Blizzard was wildly popular and whatnot, but to the degree outlined below I had no idea. I also had a hard time believing that humans are the most popular race. I mean, if the data supports it fine, but I’ve always been partial to the undead myself (and maybe blood elves once in a while…) Check out the numbers!
