Dustwallow Marsh 8/30/09

I did some questing on my hunter Brieanna today and got her to level 37. I did a few quests in and around Dustwallow Marsh. I leveled when I handed a couple in.

I was running low on bullets so I went to buy some more. I couldn't find anyone on Theramore Island that sold bullets although I am sure you can buy them there somewhere. I headed back to Menethil Harbor to see if I could find some but all they had was the level 25 bullets I was using. I figured at level 37 I should be able to get something better. I looked on Thottbot, my one source for WoW information, and found that level 35 and up bullets are crafted and you need to buy them from someone who can make them or the auction house. I headed to the auction house in Iron Forge to see what I could find.

In Iron Forge I hit the auction house and found Hi-Impact Mithril Slugs which do almost twice the damage as the bullets I was using so that worked out well. They also stack in 1,000 instead of 200 so I can carry a lot more so that also worked out well :).

I am not sure where I will be questing next. I guess I can get my 100% speed mount at 40 now so I am only 3 levels away from that.

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm

World of Warcraft is getting set for a third expansion: Cataclysm. For the third expansion of the World of Warcraft series here is an excerpt from their site:

"Hidden away in his sanctuary within Deepholm, the corrupted Dragon Aspect Deathwing has waited, recovering from the wounds of his last battle against Azeroth and biding his time until he can reforge the world in molten fire. Soon, Deathwing the Destroyer will return to the surface, and his eruption from Deepholm will sunder the world, leaving a festering wound across the continents."

According to the press release they will be introducing two new races, Goblins for the Alliance and Worgen for the Horde. They will be opening up new, as yet unopened, parts of Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms for exploration and questing. This will also enable players to increase their level to 85. There will be challenging new dungeons and raids, players will have be able to increase their powers as well as experiencing the new changes that will change the face of Azeroth forever.

Players will now be able to fly in Azeroth, meaning they finally finished the maps. There will be a new secondary (Like fishing, cooking and first aid) profession: Archeology where you will be able to uncover artifacts and earn unique rewards.

Players will be able to take on PvP objectives and daily quests in on Tol Barad Island, a new Wintergrasp like zone, as well as fight in all new rated battlegrounds.

There will be new race and class combinations too, Bloodelf Warrior, Gnome Priest or one of the other never before available race and class combinations.

For the full press release click here: Cataclysm: Full Press Release

Theramore Isle 8/17/09

I played my hunter Brieanna a little tonight. It has been a long time since I played her and it took me awhile to get back into the swing of things. Who am I kidding, I'm not fully back into the swing of playing her yet.

I did some questing outside Theramore Isle, I had a few quests there to finish up and I got a few bars XP out of it. Needless to say I have a lot of rested XP on her as I haven't played her in months. I think I am going to spend some time leveling her up and maybe spend some time on my Deathknight, Wrangar, too. I am still not really into playing again yet since my account was hacked.

In the Beginning

My first character in World of Warcraft was a Warrior named Durgan. I wasn't very good at him and just didn't really get into the whole physical combat thing. I chose a Warrior because I had played a lot of Diablo and Diablo II and the Warrior, then Barbarian in Diablo II, was the easiest one to play. I got Durgan to level 19 and that was as far as he ever got although I hung on to him for over a year.

I think the thing I hate most about starting a new character in World of Warcraft is all the running around. I realize that the purpose of all the running around is to get you familiar with the area but it seems like you're spending a lot of time running and not getting anywhere. It goes on throughout the entire game and I guess that's good as I can tell you by the time you hit 80 you really know your way around.

When I first started playing, before Burning Crusades came out, you could get your first racial/class mount at level 40. It cost a lot of gold to learn how to ride it, I believe it was around 80 gold to learn how to ride it and then another 9 gold for the mount itself. 90 gold is a lot of gold to a level 40 on their first character. Of course it was a lot easier for my second character because I already had a level 70 character to feed him gold. A level 40 mount gives you 60% increased speed and that makes A LOT of difference.

I started a Warlock when I saw someone riding a Felsteed. I didn't even know what class character it was, I asked someone at work "Who rides the flaming horse?" and they told me it was a Warlock. I didn't know what a Warlock was, or did, but I knew I had to have one. More precisely I had to have a Felsteed.

I started a Warlock (Gomorra) that night. I got him to level 30 in a few days. It was kind of tough at times leveling a Warlock solo but I did it. I didn't like grouping with other people because they always seemed to have their own agenda or were always going AFK. When you're in the middle of a 2 person quest the last thing you want to hear is "I have to go eat supper, be back in a little while". I ended up leveling him to 70 solo and then from 70 to 80 when Wrath of the Lich King came out.

Your first mount, level 40 back then, as a Warlock is free but you certainly pay for the second, level 60 (back then), one. For the second mount I had to do some quests that involved going into instances, buy a lot of goods that ran me hundreds of gold, and finally finish up in Dire Maul to actually summon the mount, the Dreadsteed. That was rough at the time. I hated it and said I would never go back. Since that statement I have summoned about a dozen Dreadsteeds. Once you have the materials you can summon one for someone else that did all the quests but didn't buy the summoning materials. This saves them around 250 gold. The level 60 mount gives you 100% increased speed.

I had a lot of fun with Gomorra over the course of the next year or so, I really liked casting and did a lot of PvP on him. I had him geared out in some really nice PvP gear. Gomorra has a little over 24,800 lifetime kills on him. A little after I hit 70 I met up with someone who needed a little help leveling so I decided to help her 'powerlevel' her Warrior. Her Warriors name was Axeelina and we got her to 70 pretty fast. After that we decided to level a couple more characters together from scratch, that's when I started Wranngar.

I leveled Wranngar with Axeelina's alt, Yonezoe, a Shaman, and we got to level 70 pretty quick on those 2. Back then level 70 was the cap. It took me 49 days play time to get to level 70 on Gomorra but it only took me 23 days play time to get Wranngar to level 70. A lot of the difference in time was that I knew where everything was when I leveled Wranngar but with Gomorra I was running blind.

I have since started, and deleted, a few characters but have a level 36 Beast Master Hunter I like that I am going to keep on leveling. I also have a level 66 Deathknight that I will probably level to 80 but kind of lost interest in, the whole physical combat thing again. That's what it was like in the beginning for me :).

Don't Buy Gold From Scammers And Thieves

I logged onto Gomorra for a little bit today and started getting stuff out of the mail that was restored and putting it back. The losers even stole and sold the 7 soulbound 20 slot bags I had in the guild bank.... That is sad. I am sure one of these places that you see selling gold all the time in game were behind it, I think they are behind almost all of them. I got a request from one of the gold sellers to advertise on my blog right before my account was hacked. One more reason not to buy gold, if they have no demand then they have no reason to need gold, therefore no reason to steal gold. There will always be losers out there though that are either too lazy or too stupid to make there own gold so they will use them, they will always be in business and always be a problem. It is unfortunate. I will probably get on this weekend and get all my other characters straightened out. I did find out today that they didn't touch my level 36 hunter, Brieanna, they probably figured there was nothing to gain there. I really don't feel like playing anymore. Maybe when this card runs out that will be it.

Account Restored

It has been a while since I have played, still bummed out about my account getting breached and everything I had stolen. I got an e-mail from Blizzard stating my account was restored and I should have all my stuff back but I only logged in for a few minutes to see if that was true, it appears that I have a lot of items back but I doubt it is everything. Everything that was taken from the guild bank is a loss as well as the 1533 gold taken from there. I am going to contact Blizzard this week and see if I can have the option to reset/change my password online disabled, if not I am not sure if I will continue playing. What is the sense when someone can do this again? I will log on later in the week and see if I really have everything back although I am doubtful from reading the list Blizzard supplied me. I think a lot of the non-salable items were deleted to make room as I don't see them anywhere. I am really not happy with Blizzard right now.....

Account Hacked

My World of Warcraft account was recently hacked. Someone had my password reset online, which Blizzard was more than happy to blindly do, and then logged into all my characters, stealing everything out of my personal banks as well as my guild bank. While I was asleep, Blizzard sent me e-mails to let me know:

1. Someone had requested a password change for my account
2. The password was changed for my account
3. My account was accessed by an unauthorized user and was now suspended for 24 hours.

Blizzard suggested maybe I shared my personal information with someone. Or maybe I have a key logger on my system and that is how the person got access to my account. I have never shared my personal information with anyone and, if there was a key logger on my system, why did they have to have my password reset? Wouldn't they have had my password already? All the information they need to have my password reset is available from Blizzard. I find it kind of odd that this happened 2 days after the release of a major patch, 3.2.0, and right when Blizzard is stating they are starting to collect personal information. I also noticed when I logged on to Blizzards World of Warcraft site that I now have a WoW/Battlenet account. I did not sign up for a Battlenet account due to seeing so many people in game discussing how they were hacked right after signing up. They made off with over 1900 gold from my bank alt, 1355 gold I had in the guild bank plus all the gold they received from selling everything I had in all my personal banks.

As far as the key logger goes, I am not buying it. I have virus software that updates a couple times a day, have windows defender set and running every day, have a firewall up and run Adaware weekly. I ran through all of these after waking up and finding the e-mails and none of these reported finding any key loggers on my system. Also if there was a key logger they would have had my password to begin with and would not have had to have it reset. This is the first time ANY online account of mine has ever been breached. The password recovery system Blizzard has in place is so painfully inadequate it is a mystery why my account had not been hacked previously.

Depending on what Blizzard does to resolve this issue, it might be time to find something else to do for recreation.

How Many Leveling Guides Have You Tried?

It’s a simple question and one that I’ve heard a few times myself. I write about these things all the time and yet I don’t know that I’ve ever actually counted the number of leveling guides I’ve tried out. I would imagine the number is between 5 and 8 though I know for a fact I’ve only ever completed an alt with two of those guides – the other ones were not very good. Which brings me to the point – a new guide I’ve recently discovered that I thought my fellow players might be interested in – Extreme Leveling.

The New Kid on the Block

It’s a new guide for sure, but I’ve been hearing about Extreme Leveling for some time now. Whether it is the owners hyping their product or real buzz circulating the net, it’s always hard to tell, but I do know that it has been building and I had heard some very interesting things, especially from the guide’s creator, gamer Shawn Woods. Back a few weeks ago when I first talked to Shawn, I asked him what the guide would entail and he told me “a completely new method for leveling”. I thought it was just hype again because how many different ways can there actually be to level a character in World of Warcraft.

The Guide in Action

Fast forward a few weeks and the guide is now in my hands. Let me just say I’m incredibly shocked – Shawn actually managed to pull through with this promise and provide a completely new means of leveling and it works – it downright works.

First of all, this is a guide that tosses many of the conventions you’re used to in leveling guides. It starts from scratch, using Shawn’s own expertise and builds from there. It continues to grow and by the time you reach the end of the guide, I’d be shocked if you haven’t beat your own record for leveling time.

You’re going to get in-game mods, detailed maps, both factions, and unlimited updates for Extreme Leveling your guide, but that’s not really what this guide is all about. This guide is about you getting the best for your money and in terms of what Shawn provides in versus what other writers provide in their leveling guides, you are not going to get any better. I’m leveling my alts with this guide from here on out – you can count on that.

Get Extreme Leveling Here

Fishing in World of Warcraft

This picture reminds me of fishing in World of Warcraft, you never know what you are going to get or what is going to come out of the water and try to kill you. I think I have been attacked by just about everything that lives in the water while I was fishing at one time or another. Even the bobber looks like a WoW bobber.

Patch 3.2.0 8/4/09

They are installing the new patch today, I downloaded it, 397megs, but Blizzard is still working on their servers so I can't get on. It didn't take long to download at all, usually I get a message I am behind a firewall and it takes forever but not today, I guess I finally got that problem straightened out. They did a lot in this patch. Here are a couple things I copied right from Blizzards site:

Items: General

• Agility: The amount of agility required per percentage of dodge has been increased by 15%. This change required recalibrating the amount of dodge a player has with 0 agility by a slight amount as well, so all players will see their dodge percentage vary a small amount.
• Block Value: The amount of bonus block value on all items has been doubled. This does not affect the base block value on shields or block value derived from strength.
• On-Use Block Value Items: All items and set bonuses that trigger temporary increases to block value have been modified. Instead of increasing their block value amount by 100% like other items, they have all had their effect durations doubled. This applies to Glyph of Deflection, Gnomeregan Autoblocker, Coren's Lucky Coin, Lavanthor's Talisman, Libram of Obstruction, Tome of the Lightbringer, Libram of the Sacred Shield, the tier-8 paladin Shield of Righteousness bonus, the tier-5 paladin Holy Shield bonus, and the tier-5 warrior Shield Block bonus.
• Dodge Rating: The amount of dodge rating required per percentage of dodge has been increased by 15%. This is before diminishing returns. Combined with other changes, this makes dodge rating and parry rating equally potent before diminishing returns apply.
• Item Buy Back Feature Revised
  • The Item Buy Back time will now expire if the player enchants or sockets an item. Players will see a confirmation dialog box now when they attempt to enchant or add gems to an item giving them a last chance to reconsider.
• Items with Triggered Effects: These items generally have cooldowns on how often they can be triggered. Those cooldowns are now triggered each time the item is equipped (example: A trinket has a 45-second cooldown on an effect triggered by player attacks; when a player equips that item, the effect will be unable to be triggered for the first 45 seconds it is worn).
• Mounts
  • The cast time for summoning any ground mount is now 1.5 seconds, down from 3 seconds.
  • Apprentice Riding (Skill 75): Can now be learned at level 20 for 4 gold. Mail will be sent to players who reach level 20 directing them to the riding trainer.
  • Journeyman Riding (Skill 150): Can now be learned at level 40 for 50 gold. Mail will be sent to players who reach level 40 directing them back to the riding trainer.
  • Expert Riding (Skill 225): Can now be learned at level 60 for 600 gold from trainers in Honor Hold or Thrallmar. Faction discounts now apply (Honor Hold for Alliance; Thrallmar for Horde). Flight speed at this skill level has been increased to 150% of run speed, up from 60%.
  • Artisan Riding (Skill 300): Faction discounts now apply (Honor Hold or Valiance Expedition for Alliance; Thrallmar or Warsong Offensive for Horde).
  • In order to further equalize the number of purchasable mounts available to each race, a new 60% speed ground mount has been added for night elves, and a new 100% speed ground mount has been added for the undead.
  • Flying over Dalaran and Wintergrasp is now possible so long as players keep a healthy distance above the ground.
• Mana Regeneration: All items that provide "X mana per five seconds" have had the amount of mana they regenerate increased by approximately 25%.
• Parry Rating: The amount of parry rating required per percentage of parry has been reduced by 8%. This is before diminishing returns. Combined with other changes, this makes dodge rating and parry rating equally potent before diminishing returns apply. Parry still diminishes more quickly than dodge.
• Resilience: No longer reduces the amount of damage done by damage-over-time spells, but instead reduces the amount of all damage done by players by the same proportion. In addition, the amount of resilience needed to reduce critical strike chance, critical strike damage and overall damage has been increased by 15%.

Dungeons and Raids

• Dungeon and Raid ID Extensions
  • In order to allow for parties and raids to progress through instances at their own pace, players can now extend an instance ID on an individual basis.
  • Existing or recently expired IDs can be extended via the Social tab under Raid by clicking on Raid Info.
  • The ID of any instance to which a player is saved can be extended. Doing so will extend the instance lock period by the same amount of time as the original lock (i.e. extending an Ulduar instance ID will add 7 days, a Heroic: Halls of Lightning instance ID will add 24 hours, and a Zul'Gurub instance ID will add 3 days to the instance lock time).
  • An ID can be extended more than once.
  • An extension can be reversed on an individual basis provided the player does not do anything in the instance during the extended instance lock period that would save that player to the instance.
• Emblem System Changes
  • Both the 10 and 25-player instances of the Crusaders' Coliseum drop a new Emblem of Triumph.
  • Any dungeons that previously dropped Emblems of Heroism or Valor, such as Naxxramas or Heroic Halls of Stone, will now drop Emblems of Conquest instead. Emblems of Conquest can still be converted to Valor or Heroism.
  • The Heroic dungeon daily quest will now reward 2 Emblems of Triumph and the normal daily dungeon quest will reward 1 Emblem of Conquest.
  • New achievements have been added to collect various amounts of any combination of emblems.
• 25-player raids will no longer be referred to as Heroic versions of a raid, as there is a new distinction between normal and Heroic modes for both 10 and 25 player versions of the Crusaders' Coliseum.
• The Nexus: The Oculus & The Eye of Eternity
  • Drakes used by players in these instances will now scale in health and damage according to the rider's average item level.
• Ulduar
  • Players can now use Blink, Shadowstep, and Demonic Teleport while participating in the illusion events in the Yogg-Saron encounter.
  • Ominous Clouds in the Yogg-Saron encounter are now more vocal about touching players and should no longer sometimes appear to be in the wrong place for certain players.
  • An Immortal Guardian targeted for Empowering Shadows in the Yogg-Saron encounter will now become a 'Marked Immortal Guardian' while targeted.
  • Crusher Tentacles in the Yogg-Saron encounter spawn a little slower in 25-player mode allowing a bit more time for players to clear out the Illusion room.
  • Empowering Shadows in the Yogg-Saron encounter now targets a maximum of three Immortal Guardians in 25-player mode.
  • Yogg-Saron's health has been reduced by 20% in the final stage of his 25-player mode.
  • Winter Jormungars will no longer put everyone in the zone in combat when they emerge from a Snow Mound. Additionally, Snow Mounds will now disappear when all their jormungars have emerged.

You can get all the patch notes here Patch 3.2.0

What to Really Expect from Leveling Guide New Comer, Extreme Leveling

So, you’ve probably read a little bit about the newest leveling guide to hit the market, Extreme Leveling. It’s been popping up on forums and discussion groups everywhere and people want to know if it really works. After all, with more than a dozen other high profile leveling guides already out there, do we really need another one?

The answer is undoubtedly yes. Has any other guide ever done everything perfectly? Not yet and until they manage to do so, it’s going to be a one man race in the market because Extreme Leveling is about as close as it gets to perfect on many fronts.

The Guide

Let’s start with the guide content itself. Using a unique leveling structure that deviates from most paths used in other leveling guides to date, Shawn Woods, has created something entirely new and different that has actually managed to reshape the mold of what good leveling involves. To that end, he has built a new system that is highly effective in everything it tries to do, from creating a linear string of quests to actually linking them together in an effective manner to help players be successful.

The Bonuses

While they are not labeled as bonuses, you cannot help but call a fully featured in-game mod a bonus as well as the slew of maps that Shawn has prepared for his customers. These maps, featuring detailed instructions and directions to each NPC, quest, and quest completion point in each zone are the best I’ve yet seen and they make for one heck of an easy leveling experience, especially for those that are trying new factions or races for the first time (which many of us would like to do).

The Promises

There are a lot of promises made on the site and I can assure you, everything I’ve tested thus far has been fulfilled to the letter. Shawn’s free newsletter with the first 12 levels of each race is right there for you to read. His guide is the best I’ve seen yet and I don’t doubt he’ll be right there when the first live hour of WotLK goes down, writing his guide and sending out updates to anyone interested in the newest game content to date.

What you get in Extreme Leveling is a huge package of the best leveling system you’ll have ever seen and one of the best possible recommendations I can make.

Extreme Leveling

Convention at the Legerdemain 8/3/09

Gomorra got Convention at the Legerdemain from Katherine Lee (41,65), the Grand Master Cooking Trainer in the kitchen of A Hero's Welcome for his daily cooking today. This is a pretty easy one and you don't need to leave Dalaran to do it assuming you have some Chilled Meat in the bank like I believe everyone should.

I headed over to One More Glass, the wine and cheese shop in Dalaran, for the Jug of Wine. I found it as soon as I got there, right inside the door. One thing I did notice today was, along with that Jug of Wine sparkling right inside the door, there was another Jug of Wine sparkling at the top of the stairs. I had never seen 2 at once before. Maybe there can always be multiple occurrences of them and I had just never seen it before because so many people were trying to do it at once. Anyway I grabbed my Jug of Wine and headed over to the bank for some Chilled Meat. I cooked up 4 Northern Stew with that then headed over to see Arille Azuregaze, the bartender at The Legerdemain. He paid me 9g93s, a Dalaran Cooking Award and a Small Spice Bag with 3 Northern Spices and another Dalaran Cooking Award in it. Not a bad day for Gom today.

Gomorra 8/1/09

Gomorra rolled Convention at the Legerdemain and Monsterbelly Appetite for daily's today, a couple pretty easy ones.

I did the cooking first as usual. I headed over to One More Glass, the wine and cheese shop there in Dalaran, and found my Jug of Wine sitting right outside when I rode up, that was pretty easy. I grabbed that and headed over to the bank for some Chilled Meat so I could make up some Northern Stew. Once I had my Northern Stew cooked up I headed over to deliver it to Arille Azuregaze, the bartender at The Legerdemain. He gave me 9g93s, a Dalaran Cooking Award and a Small Spice Bag with 3 Northern Spices in it. Not the best haul but I have had worse believe it or not.

That done I was off to the flight path at Unu'pe to catch a Bloated Monsterbelly. That went pretty quick too, I got one on my 3rd cast. Most of the time spent today was travel to Unu'pe so I used my Hearthstone to hearth back to Dalaran to save a little time. When I got back there I delivered the Severed Arm to Olisarra the Kind, (36,37) the Grand Master First Aid Trainer in the Magus Commerce Exchange in Dalaran, who is going to try to reunite it with the fisherman who lost it. She gave me a Bag of Fishing Treasures for my trouble, and that had 6g62s17c, 3 Elixir of Water Walking, a Velociraptor Skull and 2 Deviate Fish in it. Not really anything to write home about there.