The Shattering - 11/23/10

It took some time to get logged in today between maintenance running over then the problems people had logging in but I finally got in. Of course there were the mandatory disconnects following that but after an hour or so it stabilized and I was able to take a look around.

The first thing I went to see was the Park in Stormwind. That was a total wash, gone. It looked like it got blown off the face of the world. I also noticed that Stormwind got a face lift. The cobblestones in the street were much more defined and had a pattern to them. The outsides of the buildings were crisper and cleaner. The colors were more vibrant. Then I got to the center of town, the Trade District. There were some more changes there too. The fountain outside the bank has water in it now. The auction house moved to a new location, across from the bank. It is now bigger and less crowded.

When I went outside Stormwind to the Valley of Hero's I saw where one of the statues got knocked down (into the water I assume) and now is on a sled to be brought back up. You can see the feet still standing on the pedestal where it once stood. Looking back at Stormwind from the main gates you can see damage to the towers. There is already scaffolding up so I assume they are already fixing it?

I didn't notice any real changes in Ironforge.

From there I headed to Westfall. I got a surprise when I got there. Sentinel Hill is now a fortress. It has walls around most of it and a lot more buildings. They moved the flight point up next to the original tower now. All of the original buildings are still there, they just added a lot more to it. There was really a lot of content in this patch even though the expansion is not out yet. I noticed a lot of homeless people around Westfall and other areas as I explored them, I guess some of the ones in Westfall used to live in the park in Stormwind as they are labeled as Stormwind refugees.

From Sentinel Hill I noticed a vortex of some kind throwing trees and rocks up into the air. I decided to go over and see what that was all about. What I found there was a glowing hole in the ground. It is called the Raging Chasm. I didn't spend too much more there and these were the only 2 things I found.

I headed to Blasted lands from there as I heard there were going to be some changes there too. I found Nethergarde Keep to be pretty much the same as it was although I ran into some mobs by the mine. I headed south east from Nethergarde Keep and eventually ran into Shattershore. This is all new territory in Blasted Lands. I headed west along the shore and found the Red Reaches. There I found the Bloodwatch Shrine. Continuing west I ended up in the Tainted Forest. As soon as you enter the Tainted Forest from the Red Reaches there is a tiny village called Surwich right on the shoreline. There is a dock there that looks like it is set up to receive a boat, another sailing point? Surwich had an Inn and a couple houses and is dark like Duskwood. From there I headed deeper into the Tainted Forest which eventually lead me back to the Blasted lands I knew. I headed back to the flight point and took a flight to Arathi Highlands.

When I got to Arathi Highlands everything seemed to be the same. My real destination was Southshore as I noticed there was no longer a flightpoint there. While heading to Southshore on the road I noticed a new road (31,54), right across from Stormgarde Keep, with a sign that said Hinterlands. I followed that and found they had put in a tunnel from Arathi Highlands to Hinterlands. I think this is a great idea. When I was leveling up my first toon, Gomorra, I looked all through Arathi Highlands to find a way into Hinterlands from there, there is none. I went through the tunnel to Hinterlands and found that there is a road right from the tunnel to Aerie Peak making that a lot easier to get to.

Continuing on my way to Southshore I noticed a lot of Horde (PvP) mobs everywhere. I even got flagged when I stopped to help out a Rogue that was fighting some. When I got to Southshore I found total devastation. The place was taken over by someone (Forsaken?) and was deserted of Alliance life. I went into the Inn and it was deserted. It looked like they had just packed up and left a few minutes before I got there. There were still fires going in all the fire places but there were no people or furniture. It reminded me of the abandoned Inns you find in places like Moonbrook in Westfall and Raven Hill in Duskwood except this place was still clean and not falling apart.

I headed up to Chillwind Point to catch a flight to the Wetlands to see if anything happened there.

When I got to Wetlands I couldn't believe it. Menethil Harbor was flooded, the docks were all warped and busted up and houses on one side of the keep were under water. The whole place had 1-3 feet of water in it. They had sandbagged to keep the water out of a lot of the buildings. I took a quick ride around outside of the keep but didn't notice anything straight off. It was getting late so I decided to call it a night. I will do some more exploring tomorrow and see what I find.

Core Hound Pup

I recently received a Core Hound Pup in the mail on all the characters on my account. The reason was, I recently purchased a Blizzard Authenticator for my account. The authenticator adds more security to your account by having to enter an authentication code every time you log in.

The Blizzard Authenticator is about the size of your average USB flash drive and has a ring to attach it to your key chain. It has a button on it that generates a code for you to use when you log in. It is really simple to go online and set it up for your account through Blizzards website. Once it is set up the extra step of authentication is automatically added to your account when you log in. The cost for the US Blizzard Authenticator is $6.50 and includes free shipping, shipped in the US. They also have a Blizzard Authenticator available for Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Latin America. Players from Europe or Korea can purchase a Blizzard Authenticator from the European and Korean Blizzard Stores.

The reason Blizzard gives the Core Hound Pup to all the characters on your account is to "guard the guild bank". More and more guilds are requiring you be able to show them a Core Hound Pup before they will give you access to the guild bank. The reason for that is simple, if you have the Core Hound Pup you have enhanced security on your account and are less likely to be hacked. If you are less likely to be hacked, then you are less likely to get the guild bank cleaned out.

My account was hacked last year through no fault of mine. Someone sent a script to the Blizzard password reset bot and it sent them a new password for my account. You can go on YouTube and get the script to do this, it is pretty simple. So much for Blizzards security. With this extra step that script is now worthless if they are trying to hack an account with an authenticator, you will not have the code that is generated by the authenticator and will not be able to log in.

I got everything except a little over 1500 gold back when my account was hacked. It was a real pain going through everything to make sure I got it back and the loss of the gold didn't help matters either. Now I feel more secure, I hope it is not a false warm fuzzy feeling.

It's Christmas in World of Warcraft

It's the Christmas season in World of Warcraft and that means Christmas quests. I took some time out from the battlegrounds on Wranngar tonight to do some of them. The more quests you complete the more gifts you get. The Christmas gifts can contain pets that are only available though the gifts, or the auction house after if people decide to sell them. I have gotten a few pets in the past, some I kept, some I gave away, but I have never sold any.

I started off with Treats for Greatfather Winter. Greatfather Winter is located outside the bank in Ironforge. For this one it helps to have cooking and the recipe for Gingerbread Cookie because Greatfather Winter likes his Gingerbread Cookies. I made up 25 total cookies and got 5 glasses of Milk from a vendor. I gave Greatfather Winter his 5 cookies and 1 glass of milk, then I sent some cookies and milk to 2 of my other characters and gave 2 sets away to lower level players. There were people selling 5 cookies and a glass of milk for 10 gold but I think that is taking advantage of the situation. I collected the Small Eggs I would need awhile ago in Westfall.

I did Metzen the Reindeer next. For this one you need to go to Searing Gorge and rescue Metzen the Reindeer. You do that by locating him (69,34) and sprinkling some dust on him. That teleports him back home. This one only takes a couple minutes and the majority of the time is spent waiting your turn as there is usually people there waiting to do it.

When I got back to Ironforge I picked up The Hero of the Day which had me going back to Searing Gorge to kill a Heavy War Golem which drops Deeprock Salt. I got lucky and got it on my first kill and was on my way back to Ironforge. I used the Deeprock Salt and 5 gold to create 5 Preserved Holly at a machine they have there. Preserved Holly is what turns your mount into a reindeer.

The next quest was a 2 part. The first one was The Reason for the Season where you have to go talk to Historian Karnik of the Explorers League and he gives you a book, that is part one and leads to The Feast of Winter Veil. For The Feast of Winter Veil you need to take the book and give it to King Magni Bronzebeard in Ironforge. That completes that set.

This next one was also a 2 part. The first part is Stolen Winter Veil Treats. For this you have to go to Southshore then head up into the Alterac Mountains to find the Smokey Pastures guy (35,72) who is disguised as a snowman. He is freezing to death up there and gives you another quest, You're a Mean One.... For this you have to go find the The Abominable Greench, kill him and get the stolen treats back. You hand this in back in Ironforge.

Then you get a couple quick quests to see Greatfather Winter which pay 9 gold and some silver each. You can make a nice piece of change from these quests and they pay off come Christmas day when you get your gifts. I recommend doing them if you have the time, and it doesn't really take much time.

3 Years Playing WoW 12/1/09

It's been 3 years, December 1st, since I started playing World of Warcraft. A lot has changed since then. I started out on a Warrior and got him to level 19. Then I saw a Warlock on a Felsteed and decided I had to have one of those and Gomorra was born. I level him up, got the Felsteed, it required level 40 back then, and eventually the Dreadsteed. I did a lot of battlegrounds on Gom but put him on the back burner when I created Wranngar. Wrann is the character I play most now, I do a lot of battlegrounds with him and have around 82,000 lifetime honorable kills on him.

I still do the daily cooking and fishing and, of course, the daily battleground pretty much every day. I do other daily's when I need the gold.

They are both level 80 now and I am looking forward to see what the future brings. So far I have seen Burning Crusades and Wrath of the Lich King arrive and am waiting to see what Cataclysm brings.

Nightelf Mohawk - "It's Time to Pity Some Fools"

Now you too can be a Nightelf Mohawk, just like Mr. T. This is something Mr. T and Blizzard cooked up I guess. You can get a Mohawk Grenade from outside any starting area. Just look for the Nightelf Mohawk standing there. When you talk to him you have to click on the 'link' that says "I believe in you" and he gives you a Mohawk Gernade that lasts 24 hours and has 5 charges to it. You use it on a group of people and it transforms them into Nightelf Mohawks whether they want it or not. You target then just like you target an AoE spell. You can remove the buff, just like any friendly buff, by right clicking on it. It is just one more interesting thing to do while it lasts. There is not time frame on how long this will be available.

Gift World Of Warcraft For Only $5

The celebration at World of Warcraft continues and in celebration of their 5 Year Anniversary Blizzard is giving you the chance to get the digital or boxed version of World of Warcraft for $5 this weekend only when you buy through the Blizzard Online Store. You can also get the World of Warcraft Battle Chest for $19.99. The World of Warcraft Battle Chest is available in the boxed version only. Get your holiday shopping done early and give the gift of Warcraft for only $5. Click here for more details. Don't miss out on the opportunity to save a bunch of money.

Exclusive Pandaren Brewmaster Figure

Now you can own a collectible action figure of Azeroth's most renowned pandaren wanderer. The Pandaren Brewmaster Deluxe Action Figure is a limited-edition, premium-sculpted piece that stands 8 inches high and features Chen's signature bamboo bo staff and brewmaster's keg. They can be ordered exclusively through the online Blizzard Store.

New Blog - WoW Broadcaster

Starting today I will be posting all my battleground experiences at my new blog, WoW Broadcaster. I decided to start a blog dealing strictly with battlegrounds to kind of separate things a little. I originally started out blogging about the battlegrounds on Wordpress with A WoW Battleground Weblog a couple years ago, but switched to Blogger and started A World of Warcraft Blog because Wordpress doesn't allow you to put Adsense on your blogs there. I will be updating the new blog every day with my battleground experiences. I will continue updating this blog every day with everything else World of Warcraft related.

New Mr. T World of Warcraft Commercial Launches

Mr. T continues his crusade to make the World of Warcraft look "goooood" in another new TV commercial which begins airing this week. See it first here: http://www.youtube.com/warcraft

New Look

I changed some of the colors and fonts on the blog today. I think it is easier to read the posts with the new text color and easier to identify the different sections with the new module header color.

There is a poll in the left hand column where you can vote your opinion, let me know what you think.

-Wranngar

Weekend 3/21 & 3/22

I am going to combine this weekend into one post. I did some questing on Gomorra and got him to level 72. I am continuing to do my daily's for The Kalu'ak and am now over half way through revered with them. I should have my Mastercraft Kalu'ak Fishing Pole by next Saturday. I am still questing mostly in Borean Tundra but also did some questing in Howling Fjord. I decided I want to finish up everything in Borean Tundra before I start questing in another place.

I did all my daily's as usual on Wranngar. The daily cooking the last couple days has been Cheese for Glowergold and Convention at the Legerdemain respectively. As usual these were no problem although it took me awhile to find all the Half Full Dalaran Wine Glasses for Cheese for Glowergold. I helped Salintu Friday night, she is working on her rep with The Kalu'ak, and knowing all the quests and daily's, I helped her out. We went and found all the quests and did them plus got her the 3 daily's. She ended up revered and it will take her about 10 more days to become exalted.

Quests and Stuff 3/18/09

I got on Wranngar tonight and jumped right into my daily's. Of course the first one I did was the daily cooking. Today it was Mustard Dogs! again. I went out in search of Wild Mustard and got the 4 I needed pretty quick. Once I had those I headed over to the bank and grabbed 4 pieces of Rhino Meat so I could make 4 Rhino Dogs. Once I had my Rhino Dogs I cooked them up with the Wild Mustard to get a Mustard Dog Basket!. With that in hand I headed over to deliver it to Archmage Pentarus at Krasus' Landing. He was so happy to see me, he gave me 2 Dalaran Cooking Awards, 9g93s, 3 Northern Spices and 4 Old Spices. I took my 2 awards and spent them on 20 more Northern Spices, which I put in the bank, giving me a total of 317.

I did my daily's next. I headed over to the Storm Peaks to do Overstock, a quick easy quest that pays around 13 gold. From there I headed over to Dun Niffelem to do my daily's for The Sons of Hodir. I did the 4 daily's I usually do. These usually take me about a half hour or so and I get about 52g92s for them. These are all pretty much full contact daily's so I do wrack up a bit of a repair bill but not too bad. The 4 I do for them are: Blowing Hodir's Horn, Hot and Cold, Polishing the Helm and Spy Hunter. I am a little over half way through honored with them now.

My daily's for the Knights of the Ebon Blade take me a little longer but there are 6 of them so I make a little more gold. The ones I usually do are: From Their Corpses, Rise!, No Fly Zone, Leave Our Mark, Shoot 'Em Up, Vile Like Fire! and every few days I turn in Intelligence Gathering. Intelligence Gathering takes too much time so I just get the documents when I find them while doing the other quests and turn it in when I finally have 5.

I got on Gomorra and did my 2 daily's for The Kalu'ak. Those don't take long and pay 550 reputation and 5 gold each. I am able to do some of the other quests for them so my reputation is growing. I will continue to work on those other quests tomorrow when I get on. I also worked on Gomorra's Tailoring and got that up to 411. I did end up making a Flying Carpet. The mats were so cheap it was unbelieveable. I took that to Shattrath, because I can't fly in North Rend until level 77, and tried it out. You stand upright while you are riding it and you are balancing the whole time to keep from falling off. I don't imagine it would be good on a long trip, you would be exhausted by the time you got there.

Northrend 3/17/09

I did a little questing on Gomorra tonight after I got done doing my daily's on Wranngar. I got Gomorra to level 71 so I went to Stormwind to get my training. I didn't think to check in Dalaran before I went to see if they have any class trainers there. They didn't in Outlands so I just assumed they wouldn't here either. I got my training done, a couple spell upgrades but very expensive. From there I headed back to North Rend and worked on my Tailoring a little. I got my tailoring up to 404 which is only 6 points away from being able to make a Flying Carpet and Frostweave Bags. That will be nice although I don't know if I will make a Flying Carpet because at 425 skill I will be able to make a Magnificent Flying Carpet. I guess it will depend on how long it takes me to get to 425 once I hit 410.

I did my daily for The Kalu'ak on Gomorra today and picked up another one when I hit 71. I did the one I have been doing, Preparing for the Worst, which is really easy. You run around and pick up these baskets laying around the area. You need to pick up 8 and then return them to the quest giver. This one is worth 550 reputation and pays 5 gold. I also picked up Planning for the Future. This is another easy one. You need to go a little north of the quest giver, up into the hills, and kidnap 12 little wolf-kid/pups. This one is pretty easy and goes quick as long as not too many people are trying to do it at once. This one is worth 550 reputation and 5 gold as well. I am really friendly with them now and I will be honored tomorrow. There are some other quests that give you good rep that I am too low to do. By building rep doing the daily's I might have enough so I will hit exalted when I can finally do all the other quests. The reason I want to be exalted with them is to buy the Mastercraft Kalu'ak Fishing Pole.

I did my daily's on Wranngar tonight. I did the dialy cooking first which was Mustard Dogs!. I ran around Dalaran picking Wild Mustard until I had the 4 I needed then I went to the bank and got 4 pieces of Rhino Meat so I could make Rhino Dogs. Once I had my Rhino Dogs cooked up I cooked them, with the Wild Mustard, in the pot provided and delivered it to Archmage Pentarus at Krasus' Landing. He gave me 9g93s, 2 Dalaran Cooking Awards and a Small Spice Bag with 2 Northern Spices in it. I wasn't even bummed out about only getting 2 Northern Spices because I got the 2 cooking awards :). With those burning a hole in my pocket I ran over to the cooking supply vendor and got 20 more Northern Spices. I put those in the bank and now I have 294, tomorrow I will have over 300. I have been stocking up on some fish and meat though so I will cook up a lot of stuff too.

I did my daily's for the Knights of the Ebon Blade after my daily cooking was done. I completed all the daily's for them with the exception of Intelligence Gathering. I still didn't have enough documents. Oh well, I will turn that one in when I have enough documents but I am not going out of my way to look for them. I wasted enough time in the past doing that. I did the other 5 though and got some gold from those. These quests pay 13g23s each so it adds up on a daily, weekly, monthly basis. Now if I could only stop spending it would really add up.

I did my daily's for The Sons of Hodir after that, but first I stopped off and did Overstock in the Storm Peaks. This is a fast easy quest that pays around 13 gold, I would be crazy to skip that one. After that I did my Son's of Hodir daily's. They are Blowing Hodir's Horn, Hot and Cold, Polishing the Helm and Spy Hunter. When I am exalted I can also get Feeding Arngrim. I forgot to check and see where I am as far as reputation goes but it is somewhere in honored on my way to revered. There is one more quest I could be doing but haven't been, it's Thrusting Hodir's Spear. This is a quest where you have to spear a flying wrym and then cling to it and kill it while it is flying around and trying to kill you. You have to maintain your grip on it or you will fall off and there are a couple other weapons you can use. Basically it is another Blizzard weapon/tool and I hate those, they always seem so hard to use/control. Anyway I may try it again.

Gomorra 3/16/09

I didn't get Gomorra to 71 today. I did drop enchanting though and took up skinning instead. I worked on my skinning for the rest of the day except when I was doing my daily's on Wranngar. I started skinning in Elwynn Forest and worked my way over to the Redridge Mountains. From there I headed over to Duskwood and worked my skill up there. Once I hit 200 I went back for more training for the second time then headed over to Refuge Point in the Arathi Highlands. I skinned there until I got one that didn't give me a point then I headed over to Swamp of Sorrows and killed stuff there until I stopped getting points. My last stop was Blasted Lands and that got me to 300.

I headed over to the Dark Portal and went through into the Outlands then caught a flight to Shattrath. I went and saw the skinning trainer and got training that would take me to 375. I headed back to Hellfire Peninsula to kill and skin Hell Boars. I worked my way from one end of Hellfire Peninsula to the other killing and skinning. Once I was done there I headed over to Nagrand and killed Clefthoofs and Talbuks. That took me to 375 so I headed back to Shattrath and took the portal to Stormwind so I could take the boat to North Rend.

When I got to North Rend I headed right over to the Grand Master Skinning Trainer and got my training. Now I can level my skill to 450. This is going to come in real handy leveling Wranngar's Leatherworking and will also make some nice money on the auction house. I can always drop it later if I want to for something else but I think I will keep it for awhile and see what kind of gold I can make with it.

I did my daily for The Kalu'ak today. It only took me a few minutes and gives 550 rep. It only pays 5 gold but I am not in it for the gold, I am in it for the reputation so I can buy the Mastercraft Kalu'ak Fishing Pole from them.

New look for - A World of Warcraft Blog 6/7/08

I'm sure you noticed the changes to the blog today. I added a left hand column and a header picture. I am not sure about the header picture and am looking for feedback. Any comments, positive or negative will be appreciated. I will be expanding more as time goes on so if there is anything you would like to see added just let me know and I will see what I can do. I would like to start a link exchange and will as soon as I can figure out how keep track of it.

Thanks,
Wrann