Hello everyone! Today I want to talk about the resources available to you to help improve your WOW experience. There are a lot of people who have spent a great deal of time creating websites and blogs about the World of Warcraft. Many of these sites provide valuable information. I want to talk about a few that I have found useful.
INFORMATION SITES
There are three sites that provide information about all aspects of WOW, from item descriptions to quest logs, these sites are the place to go for information. Also, reading the comment section on these pages can assist you in utilizing this information (i.e. under quests, the comments by users will give you advice about completing difficult quests, or location of quest objectives).
WOWWiki
Thottbot
WOWhead
GAME PLAY SITES
There are many game play sites out there, everything from class specific sites to sites that deal with vanity pets or achievements. Here are some I have found useful:
Elitist Jerks- This site is dedicated to high-end game play in WOW. If you want to get the most out of your character, read the forums they have. The information they have is designed for end-of-game raiding and maximizing your abilities, but the information can help you build your character as you level.
WOW-heroes- Want to know how your gear compares to everyone else, check here. Once again, this is designed for end-of-game players. You can look at your character’s gear and get suggestions for upgrades and the best enhancements for your stuff. Site also has game play information.
GOLD SITES
There is a sub-culture in WOW dedicated to making gold. The current gold cap on WOW is just under 1 million gold (999,999g 99s 99c). If you want to get rich, check out these sites:
The Undermine Journal- Primarily, this site lists auction house data for all realms and factions in WOW. However, the data is presented in a usable format. (For example, say you want to make and sell an item. It will list the current auction house price for that item plus the auction house cost for the materials to create that item. This allows you to determine how profitable the item is). There are also articles on the site about making gold.
Just My Two Copper (JMTC)- Is a site whose focus is on making gold.
ADD-ON SITES
There are many add-on sites on the internet that provide add-ons for WOW and other games. I have found it conviniet to use one site, Curse. Curse has a software package (Curse Client) that will download and install your add-ons. It also keeps track of updates to the add-ons you are using. Most, if not all the add-ons you need will be available on this site.
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Litch King down: We beat WOW
It has been a while since our last post. Things have changed quite a bit in the World of Warcraft and in this blogger wannabee’s life. Our raiding team successfully killed the Litch King, and on September 30th as originally planned no less.
We had to change things up a bit in order to get the kill. Our 25-man crew had dwindled to a reliable 20 or so, and with the 5 new-ish folks every week, we were really struggling to progress on the LK. So we canned the 25-man effort and instead went for the 10-man kill. After a few nights of practice we were victorious. It was pretty epic and really gave me a sense of great accomplishment.
Looking back on this past year with Wrath of the Litch King I can come up with some awesome memories and a whole ton of fun experiences, which is why I play video games of course. This was my first time living the “end-game” and being a legit (debatable) raider. Progressing through the end-game is an interesting way to spend one’s video game time. The pro is that one gets to work on challenging content with a group of friends (hopefully), and the con is that the game become very repeatable and often frustrating. It is this trade that the end-game raider has to balance in order to find enjoyment from the game after an extended period of time.
So what is next? Well, for me it’s time to take a break from WOW. When the pre-cata patch dropped two weeks ago and the talents, spells, etc… were completely re-worked, I found myself really struggling with the motivation to log in to re-learn how to play the game. So I decided that if I am not excited about playing, I shouldn’t play.
So this blogger is currently spending his video game time refreshing those once vaunted First Person Shooter skills in Halo: Reach. I’ll catch you after my WOW-break, but in the mean time get those last-minute WotLK achievements and enjoy Cataclysm!
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Guia Firelands Daily Quests
Neste guia mostraremos um panorama geral das daily quests de Firelands, de quanto tempo levaremos para concluir o evento e dos equipamentos, montarias, pets, etc., que estão disponíveis para quem se fizer as quests. Do ponto de vista da lore, nas daily quests de Firelands você ajudará os heróis da Aliança e da Horda a invadir Firelands e montar uma base por lá. Para fazer as quests, os jogadores devem ser nível 85 e devem ter concluído as quests de Mount Hyjal atá pelo menos a recuperação da área “The Regrowth”. No entanto, não é necessário fazer as quests para obter acesso à nova raid (Firelands), que está aberta a todos os jogadores de nível 85. O evento consiste basicamente de quests em que você coleta Marks of the World Tree, que são usadas para desbloquear novas quests e vendedores, que vendem itens épicos lvl 365, entre outras coisas. Todo o evento leva cerca de 30 dias para ser concluído.
O evento é dividido em várias fases, sendo que você muda de fase conforme coleta as Marks of the World Tree.
1ª fase: quests iniciais (requer 20 Marks para passar de fase)
2ª fase: recrutando a ajuda dos Shadow Wardens e dos Druids of the Talon (requer 150 Marks para cada grupo, 300 Marks no total)
3ª fase: obtendo mais ajuda (requer um total de 375 Marks)
Ajuda de Elderlimb: 125 Marks
Ajuda do armorer: 125 Marks
Ajuda da moonwell: 125 Marks
Para você entender melhor, a coisa funcionará assim: durante os primeiros três dias você fará as quests iniciais até obter 20 Marks e então entrar na 2ª fase. Nessa fase, você precisará obter a ajuda dos Shadow Wardens e dos Druids of the Talon. Cada um desses grupos requer 150 Marks e logo que você liberar o primeiro grupo, terá mais daily quests disponíveis, ou seja, você conseguirá liberar o segundo mais rápido do que o primeiro. Ao todo essa é a fase mais longa, pois serão precisos 10 dias de dailies para o primeiro grupo e mais 7 dias para o segundo. Liberando os dois grupos, você entra na última fase, onde terá que obter a ajuda de três NPCs, sendo que cada um deles requer 125 Marks. Durante essa última fase, você só poderá completar as quests de um dos grupos da segunda fase (Shadow Wardens ou Druids of the Talon) a cada dia, não dos dois no mesmo dia. Obtendo a ajuda dos três NPCs o evento é então concluído.
Achievements
Há um total de 15 achievements no evento, sendo que ao concluí-los você ganha uma mount e um título.
O evento é dividido em várias fases, sendo que você muda de fase conforme coleta as Marks of the World Tree.
1ª fase: quests iniciais (requer 20 Marks para passar de fase)
2ª fase: recrutando a ajuda dos Shadow Wardens e dos Druids of the Talon (requer 150 Marks para cada grupo, 300 Marks no total)
3ª fase: obtendo mais ajuda (requer um total de 375 Marks)
Ajuda de Elderlimb: 125 Marks
Ajuda do armorer: 125 Marks
Ajuda da moonwell: 125 Marks
Para você entender melhor, a coisa funcionará assim: durante os primeiros três dias você fará as quests iniciais até obter 20 Marks e então entrar na 2ª fase. Nessa fase, você precisará obter a ajuda dos Shadow Wardens e dos Druids of the Talon. Cada um desses grupos requer 150 Marks e logo que você liberar o primeiro grupo, terá mais daily quests disponíveis, ou seja, você conseguirá liberar o segundo mais rápido do que o primeiro. Ao todo essa é a fase mais longa, pois serão precisos 10 dias de dailies para o primeiro grupo e mais 7 dias para o segundo. Liberando os dois grupos, você entra na última fase, onde terá que obter a ajuda de três NPCs, sendo que cada um deles requer 125 Marks. Durante essa última fase, você só poderá completar as quests de um dos grupos da segunda fase (Shadow Wardens ou Druids of the Talon) a cada dia, não dos dois no mesmo dia. Obtendo a ajuda dos três NPCs o evento é então concluído.
Achievements
Há um total de 15 achievements no evento, sendo que ao concluí-los você ganha uma mount e um título.
- Ludicrous Speed
- And the Meek Shall Inherit Kalimdor
- King of the Spider-Hill
- Flawless Victory
- The Fiery Lords of Sethria’s Roost
- Gang War
- Infernal Ambassadors
- Master of the Molten Flow
- Fireside Chat
- Ready for Raiding II
- Legacy of Leyara (dá um Smoke-Stained Locket, que o transforma em um Druid of the Flame por 5 minutos)
- The Molten Front Offensive (dá Flameward Hippogryph)
- Death From Above
- Have… Have We Met?
- Veteran of the Molten Front (dá o título The Flamebreaker )
- Vendedores
- Ayla Shadowstorm é desbloqueada entregando 125 Marks of the World Tree para a construção de uma moonwell;
- Varlan Highbough é desbloqueado entregando 125 Marks of the World Tree para recrutar Elderlimb e os ancients;
- Damek Bloombeard é desbloqueado entregando 125 Marks of the World Tree para recrutar um armeiro (armorer).
Monday, September 26, 2011
Death Knight Tier 13 Set Bonuses
Death Knight Tier 13 bonuses, as published by WoW Joystick (or whatever that blog’s name is now):
The bonuses also seem somewhat different to some of the other class bonuses in the tier 13. Priests and Hunters specifically seem to have a direct damage increase here, and although I hate to be doing cross class comparison (as its often not at all valid), it does seem odd.
As a breakdown consider:
Tank 2P sounds useful. Being rune locked and at low health is a bitch sometimes, and it may also help for those DKs (like myself) that get out of sync in the rune usage. I am not sure if it will be a great enhancer for the endgame raiders who don’t make smaller mistakes, or if the use of a blood + other rune might cause the same type of switch-up in the rune cooldowns? It certainly sounds reasonable though to assist when health is sub 35% and you need that health bump while a large heal is being cast.
Tank 4P is it good enough to be worth it for the raid? I’m not not sure. Vampiric Blood reads as: “Temporarily grants the Death Knight 15% of maximum health and increases the amount of health received from healing spells and effects by 25% for 10 sec. After the effect expires, the health is lost.“
I don’t think of Vampiric Blood as a raid saver, and I see it to save my own skin, not that of the raid. Why have a set bonus, especially a 4pc bonus that has no direct additional benefit to the DK? Sure, the raid might live slightly longer in an AoE fight, but we’re using VB because we’re getting slammed rather than the raid this bonus means nothing. A direct boost, or some ability that was always on would be better.
Dps 2P bonus is useful. At a first glance it reads as if there will be additional free of our abilities that consume no resources, like getting Rime or Sudden Doom twice in a row. But I’m not sure if that is what is meant, as I find that “tooltip” description unclear. Resource free strikes are great. The affect on rotations should be easy to absorb, and it certainly sounds like Frost at least will become even more of a straight Obliterate spec.
Dps 4P will be dependand on the proc rate (how often it goes off). Mastery is very nice and useful for both Unholy and Frost playstyles, and having more for free is good. It may also change the stat weightings for us once we have the four piece bonus, as Mastery might become really darn useful. The EJ forums seem to indicate that the 2P + 4P bonuses might change the stat weighting a little away from Haste and toward Mastery, but this is yet to be math’ed out.
Personally I doubt I’ll see either of the 4p bonuses on my DK, so the 2P bonuses are probably more important to me. I do like the fact that the set bonuses can be tweaked and altered as time passes, so perhaps even if these are a little lackluster now, they can be buffed without smashing the rest of the game altogether.
Ps. I’d also like to see the cosmetic armor model too. It will not make a single sod of difference as far as the mechanics go, but I like to have two reasons to strive for the Tier sets; stats alone are enough – but a good armour set is such a wonderful motivator. I’m sick to death of the non-tier shoulders I have now in both Tank and Dps sets.
- Blood, 2P — When an attack drops your health below 35%, one of your Blood Runes will immediately activate and convert into a Death Rune for the next 20 sec. This effect cannot occur more than once every 45 sec.
- Blood, 4P — Your Vampiric Blood ability also affects all party and raid members for 50% of the effect it has on you.
- DPS, 2P — Sudden Doom has a 30% chance and Rime has a 60% chance to grant 2 charges when triggered instead of 1.
- DPS, 4P — Runic Empowerment has a 25% chance and Runic Corruption has a 40% chance to also grant 710 mastery rating for 12 sec when activated.
The bonuses also seem somewhat different to some of the other class bonuses in the tier 13. Priests and Hunters specifically seem to have a direct damage increase here, and although I hate to be doing cross class comparison (as its often not at all valid), it does seem odd.
As a breakdown consider:
Tank 2P sounds useful. Being rune locked and at low health is a bitch sometimes, and it may also help for those DKs (like myself) that get out of sync in the rune usage. I am not sure if it will be a great enhancer for the endgame raiders who don’t make smaller mistakes, or if the use of a blood + other rune might cause the same type of switch-up in the rune cooldowns? It certainly sounds reasonable though to assist when health is sub 35% and you need that health bump while a large heal is being cast.
Tank 4P is it good enough to be worth it for the raid? I’m not not sure. Vampiric Blood reads as: “Temporarily grants the Death Knight 15% of maximum health and increases the amount of health received from healing spells and effects by 25% for 10 sec. After the effect expires, the health is lost.“
I don’t think of Vampiric Blood as a raid saver, and I see it to save my own skin, not that of the raid. Why have a set bonus, especially a 4pc bonus that has no direct additional benefit to the DK? Sure, the raid might live slightly longer in an AoE fight, but we’re using VB because we’re getting slammed rather than the raid this bonus means nothing. A direct boost, or some ability that was always on would be better.
Dps 2P bonus is useful. At a first glance it reads as if there will be additional free of our abilities that consume no resources, like getting Rime or Sudden Doom twice in a row. But I’m not sure if that is what is meant, as I find that “tooltip” description unclear. Resource free strikes are great. The affect on rotations should be easy to absorb, and it certainly sounds like Frost at least will become even more of a straight Obliterate spec.
Dps 4P will be dependand on the proc rate (how often it goes off). Mastery is very nice and useful for both Unholy and Frost playstyles, and having more for free is good. It may also change the stat weightings for us once we have the four piece bonus, as Mastery might become really darn useful. The EJ forums seem to indicate that the 2P + 4P bonuses might change the stat weighting a little away from Haste and toward Mastery, but this is yet to be math’ed out.
Personally I doubt I’ll see either of the 4p bonuses on my DK, so the 2P bonuses are probably more important to me. I do like the fact that the set bonuses can be tweaked and altered as time passes, so perhaps even if these are a little lackluster now, they can be buffed without smashing the rest of the game altogether.
Ps. I’d also like to see the cosmetic armor model too. It will not make a single sod of difference as far as the mechanics go, but I like to have two reasons to strive for the Tier sets; stats alone are enough – but a good armour set is such a wonderful motivator. I’m sick to death of the non-tier shoulders I have now in both Tank and Dps sets.
Sunday, September 25, 2011
More of the online social
These spaces are admittedly very different. Real name spaces like Facebook, where I post an actual picture of my face and chat about things that happen to me and others tend to bring out and reinforce relationships I have offline, for the most part. When I comment or send a message to a friend there, I feel as though I’ve been keeping in touch with people, even if I haven’t seen them in person in literally decades. When I recently saw a few folks at a conference, I felt as though I had been continually connecting with the ones who are my active FB friends. I went to a kind of informal high school reunion a few weeks ago, and some people there were ones I hadn’t seen in a long time, but will feel all the more comfortable with because of exchanges on FB. Although I’m not a Twitter afficionado, in that space, too, I have feelings of connection that transfer readily offline.
But recently, it has become even clearer to me that there are special things about online interactions that make all kinds of social, well, better. Have you ever connected by voice chat and then coordinated watching a movie on Netflix with a dear one? You should, it’s a blast. Beyond IM exchanges or emails, connections we can build in cyberspace allow us to have a range of experiences and shared moments that aren’t standing in for social moments, but are themselves those social moments.
So yeah, online social interaction is most definitely “real” social interaction.
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