World of Warcraft Turns 5 and Warcraft Turns 15

Over the last 15 years a lot has changed in Azeroth. Heros have traveled the length and breadth of Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor, taken wing in Outlands to free the Black Temple from Illidan's clutches, and sailed off to Northrend to Battle the Lich King. World of Warcraft celebrated this anniversary by mailing everyone a new in game pet. Check out their just launched Warcraft anniversary website here.

The Battle for the Isle of Conquest 11/23/09

I decided to spend some time fighting in the Isle of Conquest tonight to get more familiar with it. I haven't done a lot of battles in there yet, I have previously only fought in there when it was my daily, and want to learn more about it. I went in on Wranngar and we won the first 2 battles I was in and lost the last one. As in any battleground there were a lot of AFK in there. That problem just isn't going to go away or get any better I guess.

We won the 2 battles by breaching the Horde keep and killing the Horde General. I don't even know his name off hand but I will get that along with some screen shots of him. I was in on both of those kills. In the battle we lost the Horde breached our keep and killed our General. I was manning one of the cannons at the top of one of the towers in our keep for awhile tonight, that was a lot of fun. You use the cannons to lay down a wall of fire and also launch rockets at the siege equipment the Horde are bringing in to breach our keep.

The Battle for Wintergrasp 11/23/09

I fought in 2 Wintergrasp battles tonight on Wranngar, one win and one loss. In the one we won I got in at the start, actually a few minutes before the start, so I was there when it all started. We barely won that one but in the end we did.

In the second battle I was in, the one we lost, I got there about 1 minute before it ended. I really didn't have time to do much besides run around the courtyard and kill a couple people before it was all over. I didn't bother to stay around and kill Horde afterwards, that is only fun when you win.

I am really not familiar enough with Wintergrasp yet to start giving any kind of opinion on it but I have been doing all of them I can so I can learn more about it.

Daily Cooking - Convention at the Legerdemain 11/23/09

The daily cooking today was Convention at the Legerdemain. This one has been coming up a lot lately and it is eating up my supply of Chilled Meat pretty quick. I will have to go hunting again soon.

I picked this up then ran over to the bank and grabbed 4 Chilled Meat to make my Northern Stew. Once I had that I ran over to One More Glass, the wine and cheese shop there in Dalaran, and got a Jug of Wine. Today I found it behind the counter when you come in. I took that over to Arille Azuregaze, the bartender at The Legerdemain and exchanged it for 9g93s, a Dalaran Cooking Award and a Small Spice Bag with 3 Northern Spices and another Dalaran Cooking Award in it. Not too bad a haul today I guess. I don't know what I will use the rewards for but they are piling up.

The Battle for Alterac Valley 11/22/09

The battle still rages on in Alterac Valley. I fought in 15 battles on Wranngar tonight, 9 wins and 6 losses. It is hard to believe the Alliance are still making the same mistakes after all this time but they are.

We had a couple losses because of someone taking SHGY which usually results in a turtle if they do it early in the battle. Another thing the Alliance does time and again is start a cap on something then walk away from it while it is clocking. Everything in Alterac Valley takes 4 minutes to cap. The main places they do this is Iceblood Graveyard, Snowfall Graveyard, and the East and West Frostwolf Towers. The Towers are the stupidest part, they will click on the flag, anyone can do that, then they jump down to stand on the hill. A single Rogue or Druid in stealth mode can go up into the Tower and back-cap it without any opposition and they do it time and time again. The Horde know this, it is about the only place a single Horde will go and back-cap something. This happens time and again and people still do it. On the average we usually cap those 2 Towers 3 or 4 times before they burn... Another mistake they make all the time is leaving 1, or at most 2, people to guard IBT and TP. The Horde always bring at least 3 if not 4 or 5 people to back-cap either of those towers but people still do it every battle...

In spite of all the problems and stupidity we did have some good battles tonight. We won a few more battles on reinforcements, I am wondering if this will end when the holiday weekend is over. The only reason I can think of is the Horde have their share of weekend warriors and AFK although the Alliance does seem to be playing better in some of the battles I have been in. We still have the stupidity of taking and holding SHGY and the problem with people leaving towers undefended/underdefended while they are capping, I don't think that will ever end.

I fought in a Wintergrasp battle tonight, the Horde really suck in there. We were defending again and we had no problem holding the Keep while destroying all their towers.

My daily battleground was WSG today. I wasn't going to do it but then decided to give it a shot and see how we were doing in there. To say we were doing poorly would be a gross understatement. Everyone was interested in fighting in the middle. There was no flag carrier support and there was no attempt made to get our flag back. I hate WSG and dropped the quest after that one loss. I may never go in there again. It was almost like they were farming HK's in there which is just stupid, if you are going to farm HK's you go to Alterac Valley.

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

Cheese for Glowergold and Dangerously Delicious 11/22/09

The daily cooking today was Cheese for Glowergold, my least favorite daily cooking, and the daily fishing was Dangerously Delicious which can be exciting.

I did the cooking first as usual. I got 2 of the Half Full Dalaran Wine Glasses at the Inn where I got the quest, 3 more at One More Glass, the wine and cheese shop, and the last one at The Legerdemain. I turned that in to Arille Azuregaze, the bartender at The Legerdemain in exchange for 9g93s, a Dalaran Cooking Award and a Small Spice Bag with 3 Northern Spices in it. Not a great haul today, but I have been burning through the Northern Spices lately cooking buff food for the battlegrounds so I can use all I can get.

I did the fishing after that. I took the flightpath to Wintergrasp and fished right there where you land. There were no Horde around today so it was pretty uneventful, unlike the last time I did this one. I got the 10 Terrorfish I needed in 37 casts, a few more than it usually takes me to get 10. I hearthed back and went to see Marcia Chase (53,65), by the fountain in Dalaran. She gave me a Bag of Fishing Treasures for my trouble. Today it had 10g57s40c, a Glow Worm, like I need more of those, and 2 Worthless Pieces of Green Glass. Not a great haul on this one either. There are some good rewards to still be had from this daily, I just wonder when the hell I'm going to get them lol.

The Battle for Alterac Valley 11/21/09

The battle for Alterac Valley rages on. It is still the Holiday weekend in Alterac Valley and there are a lot of battles being fought there. I fought in 31 battles on Wranngar today, 17 wins and 14 losses. It was also my daily battleground again today.

For the most part the Alliance were doing Ok in there. Both the Alliance and Horde were doing a lot of Blitzing. We did at least 6 today and the Horde probably did that many too in the battles I was in. The biggest problem the Alliance is still having is not being able to work together as a team, that is what causes most of our losses. A high percentage of the rest are people taking and holding SHGY. The rest are just poor playing and AFK. There were a lot of AFK in all the battles I was in. People are reporting them more now though, I think it is because they are removed after a minute of being flagged inactive. Now when I report to the team someone is AFK I also add, "lets get them out of here so we can get someone in here who will fight", that seems to motivate people to report them.

We had some really good battles that we won on resources. The Alliance have been winning more battles on resources than I have ever seen them win before. Usually we only win when we kill Drek. The Alliance has been playing a little better than usual lately too and that has a lot to do with it. I am almost going to be sorry to see this holiday weekend end, and that is not something you will hear me say often. I got a lot of kills this weekend and have passed the 70,000 lifetime honorable kills mark. I got a lot of honor too and upgraded a lot of my gear.

I fought in 2 Wintergrasp battles too, both of them wins. The first one I fought in the Horde were defending Winterguard Keep and we took it away from them. In the second battle I fought in we were defending the Keep and held onto it throughout the battle for another victory. I need 5 more marks to get another piece of gear I have my eye on, maybe I will get it tomorrow.

Infused Mushroom Meatloaf 11/21/09

The daily cooking today was Infused Mushroom Meatloaf, the daily fishing was The Ghostfish and I skipped it. I didn't feel like wasting the time to fly all the way out to Sholazar Basin to catch one. I already know the mystery anyway.

The daily cooking had me heading down into the sewers below Dalaran to pick some Infused Mushrooms, I needed 4 to make my meatloaf. I got them pretty quick, it seemed like no one was doing it. I ran back up and went to the bank to get a couple pieces of Chilled Meat, for the rest of the ingredients, and cooked my meatloaf. I took that over to Orton Bennet upstairs at Curiosities and Moore and exchanged it for 9g93s, a Dalaran Cooking Award and a Small Spice Bag with 3 Northern Spices in it. Not the best haul today but I have had worse.

Battle In Alterac Valley 11/20/09

The daily battleground today was Alterac Valley. I did it on Wranngar and we won the second one I was in. I ended up fighting in 20 AV's, 10 wins and 10 losses. The new big thing now seems to be The Alterac Blitz. The only problem with that is the people saying "STRAIGHT TO DREK, DON'T STOP FOR ANYTHING" aren't bothering to check and see if we have a tank that can tank Drek at 200% health plus 4 Warmasters and 2 Frostwolves, and healers that can keep him alive, so half the time we get there and can't do anything. That was the case a few times today. We didn't necessarily lose those battles, we just didn't Blitz.

We had the usual problems of fighting in a battleground on it's holiday weekend, the weekend warriors and twice the AFK. People are starting to take an interest in reporting the AFK again it seems, maybe it is because they are AFK'd right out of the battleground after a minute.

We did have a couple wins on reinforcements and those were nice. Those were long battles with a lot of fighting and a lot of kills :). We pushed the Horde back from SPGY to SHGY then took SHGY in one reinforcement battle. I don't usually recommend taking SHGY but in this battle it was Ok because we were winning on reinforcements anyway. I got a lot of kills in that battle and another one. In the reinforcement battles we had to pile 8-10 people into IBT and TP to keep them. The Horde never go to take a tower back with just a couple, they always group up so they figure they will have anyone there outnumbered by at least 2 to 1. We surprised them a few times :). They don't even go to take a mine back unless there are at least 3 of them because they figure it was taken by 1 Alliance. I only got about 700 kills tonight in the battles I was in but I had a lot of fun.

I fought in 2 Wintergrasp battles. I should say I was in 2 Wintergrasp battles, I was in the first one from the start, a win, and got into the second one seconds before we lost. A mark is a mark though.

Dangerously Delicious and Convention at the Legerdemain 11/20/09

When I got on and grabbed my daily's they were Convention at the Legerdemain, again, and Dangerously Delicious. Convention at the Legerdemain has really been eating up my supply of Chilled Meat, it has come up a lot lately.

I did the cooking first, it only takes a couple minutes to get this one out of the way. I ran over to the bank and grabbed 4 Chilled Meat so I could make the Northern Stew. Once I had that made I headed over to the wine and cheese shop to get a Jug of Wine. I found it right inside the door today. I headed over to see Arille Azuregaze, the bartender at The Legerdemain and exchange the wine and stew for 9g93s, a Dalaran Cooking Award and a Small Spice Bag with 4 Northern Spices, 3 Baby Spice and another Dalaran Cooking Award in it. Not a bad haul today but, like the Glow Worms, I have more Old Spices and Baby Spice than I know what to do with.

I headed out to do the daily fishing after that. I had to go to Wintergrasp to catch 10 Terrorfish. I got the first 8 Ok, then the Horde showed up. There were 2 of us fishing and 4 of them. Those are the odds the Horde like. They were able to kill us but then an Alliance Hunter showed up and we killed them. Now it was 4 Horde to 3 Alliance and they didn't like those odds so they took off and came back with 3 more making it 7 to 3, those are the kind of odds where the Horde can actually kill something. We fought them for awhile then I left to go turn in my Terrorfish and do some battlegrounds. I went and saw Marcia Chase (53,65), by the fountain in Dalaran and exchanged my 10 Terrorfish for a Bag of Fishing Treasures with 8g83s15c, 3 Elixirs of Water Walking, a Tower Key, which I sold to a vendor for 16g66s66c, 3 Deviate Fish and 2 Runic Mana Potions in it. Not a bad day of fishing at all but the Deviate Fish are useless to me.

The funny thing about fishing today was I saw the same Horde Hunter in Wintergrasp later and owned him one on one. Horde are nothing unless they are at least 2 on 1 and have a healer along too. I get a kick out of them in the battlegrounds when they are guarding something, if an equal number of Alliance ride up they mount up and run away.

Alterac Valley - Daily Battleground 11/19/09

The daily battleground today was Alterac Valley. It also happened to be Alterac Valley's Holiday weekend and you know what that means, all the weekend warriors and twice the AFK. Unbelievably we won the first one I was in. I ended up fighting in 31 battles on Wranngar, 16 wins and 15 losses so we were running about 50%, although we had a long losing streak followed by a winning streak.

We won most of the battles by killing Drek but also won a few on reinforcements. We had the usual problems, a lot of AFK, people taking SHGY and causing us to get wiped out at Frostwolf Keep and the Alliance not working together. Usually at the start of the battle people will come up with a plan. It seems like most people agree with it. Then the gate goes up and people are spitting out other plans. That is where it falls apart because people no longer know what we are doing..... If the Alliance could just pick a plan and stick to it, like I am sure the Horde do most times, we could win a lot more. I am beginning to believe the rumor that the Alliance is made up of mostly children.

We did a few The Alterac Blitz but that fell apart when the group changed too much. You get to pretty much stay with the same group of people for awhile if you re-queue right away but eventually it filters out. We did them right in a row but then the group got too thin, including people who said you can't do the Blitz in a pug group....

I fought in 2 Wintergrasp battles too, both of them wins. We were defending in both battles and did a fine job :). I needed 5 more Wintergrasp Mark of Honor to get my Titan-Forged Rune of Determination. That replaced my Medallion of the Alliance.

All in all I ended up getting 1,471 honorable kills and 51,200 honor so it was a pretty good day.

Convention at the Legerdemain and MonsterBelly Appetite 11/19/09

I grabbed the daily cooking and fishing when I got on today. They were Convention at the Legerdemain and Monsterbelly Appetite, a couple easy ones.

I did the cooking first as usual. I grabbed 4 pieces of Chilled Meat, from my restocked supply in the bank, and cooked up 4 Northern Stew. Then I was off to One More Glass, the wine and cheese shop, in search of a Jug of Wine. I found it upstairs again. I took that stuff over to Arille Azuregaze, the bartender at The Legerdemain and exchanged it for 9g93s, a Dalaran Cooking Award and a Small Spice Bag with 4 Northern Spices in it. Not my best day but not bad.

I took the flight path to Un'upe to do the daily fishing after that. The only thing I don't like about this one is the travel time although I hearthed back so it wasn't too bad. I flew out to the icebergs and found a school of Monsterbelly's. I got my Bloated Monsterbelly on the 3rd cast and opened it up to get the severed arm out. Like I said, I hearthed back to Dalaran then went to see Olisarra the Kind, (36,37) the Grand Master First Aid Trainer in the Magus Commerce Exchange in Dalaran. She is going to attempt to reunite the arm with the fisherman. That's not my problem, but she gave me a Bag of Fishing Treasures for my trouble. Today it had 8g90s16c, a Glow Worm, getting quite a collection of those, a Worthless Piece of Orange Glass and 3 Deviate Fish. Not a good day of fishing in my opinion.

I went fishing for Musselback Sculpin for awhile tonight too so I could stock up on some more Poached Northern Sculpin. I got a couple stacks and I now have over 80 in stock. I used a bunch today in the battlegrounds, but that's another post.