Daily's 8/12/08

The only daily I did today was the fishing. It was Crocolisks in the City and I did it on Wranngar. I took the portal from Shatt to Stormwind and went out to the canals. I tried a different spot today near where I usually fish. I got my Baby Crocolisk in 11 casts which was good as the fish I catch there are really low level and not worth keeping. My hearthstone was burned because I used it to go from Darnassus to Shatt so I did a few battlegrounds in Stormwind while I waited for it to cool down. Once it was cool I hearted back to Shatt then flew over to Old Man Barlo, (40,59) at Silmyr Lake in Terokkar Forest, and turned in for my Bag of Fishing Treasures. Usually the rewards aren't great but once in awhile they throw you something to keep you interested and today was one of those days. My Bag of Fishing Treasures had 6g98s19c, 4 Sharpened Fish Hooks, a Piece of Polished Driftwood and the reward that made it worthwhile, an Eye of the Sea. That goes for about 350 gold on the auction house if I decided to sell it but I am going to hang onto it for future use. I am still holding out for The 2 Ring but this was a nice reward just the same and reminds me why I keep doing this quest.

Battlegrounds 8/11/08

Another day of failure for the Alliance in the battlegrounds. Well in AV anyway. Eye of the Storm was today's daily and I got it done on my second battle. I was fighting on Wranngar as usual. I got the 11g99s and 419 extra honor for that. Then I went into AV to do some of those. We ended up winning 2 and losing 6. There were a lot of AFK in there as there always is but at least people are getting sick of it and reporting them. I list all the AFK every 5 minutes or so to make sure people know who to mark. Some people I list say they are not AFK but when they have been in there for 10-15 minutes and have 0 damage and 0 heals or only around 1,000 of either they are AFK. Usually the heals are from healing themselves. Blizzard really needs to change how they are dealing with AFK, assuming they are dealing with it at all. These people just go AFK for the whole battle then right at the end they run out and hit something to clear the AFK. They don't get the honor but they do get the marks. There was the usual stupidity going on in there, half or better of the offense going for Galv at the start, holding SHGY, the usual. We got both our wins by killing Drek but the Horde only got about half theirs by killing Vann, the rest they got on reinforcements due to the Alliance turtling. I went back into EoS after that because I didn't want to waste any more time in AV. We didn't do too bad in there, not great but not too bad either, 12 wins and 7 losses. This is a battleground we usually dominate in though. We had quite a few 4 caps and I got to run the flag a lot. We had some good groups and then we had some really bad ones. Some people were really poorly geared too, you can tell when someone dies jumping off the rock they are pretty poorly geared lol. Anyway I broke the 45,000 lifetime kill mark and got 581 kills today alone.

Battlegrounds 8/10/08

Another really bad day in the battlegrounds for the Alliance. I fought in 11 battles on Wranngar, 3 wins and 8 losses. Surprisingly two of the wins involved holding SHGY believe it or not, I couldn't. We held SHGY and moved forward to take IBGY, the towers, FWGY, FWRH and finally Drek in one and the other we won on reinforcements. We got Galv in both of them so there was some good honor involved. I have no need for honor at the moment but I can always store it up for later use. I am just in there these days for the kills and there were a lot of them, over 380 today alone, over 350 yesterday :). The other battles were total losses, no coordination, no teamwork, a lot of AFK, although I am happy to see people are taking an interest in reporting them and a couple people asked me where I got the mod I was using to report the leeches. I was more than happy to advertise it. Hopefully things will get better during the week, we will see. The daily battleground today was WSG but there was no way I was going to do it on their holiday weekend. Hopefully tomorrow's daily battleground will be Alterac Valley.

Daily's 8/9/08

I did one of my daily's on Wranngar today, the daily fishing. It was The One That Got Away and had me heading out to Nagrand in search of the World's Largest Mudfish. I headed over to my spot at Lake Sunspring (34,43) and did some fishing. It took me 17 casts to get one but I got some other nice fish in the process. When I finally had the World's Largest Mudfish I headed back to Old Man Barlo, (40,59) at Silmyr Lake in Terokkar Forest, to turn it in for my Bag of Fishing Treasures. That contained 7g30s39c, 4 Sharpened Fish Hooks and 3 pieces of Salvaged Scrap Metal. Nothing too exciting there but there are still some good rewards to be had from this quest so I will keep plugging away at it.

Battlegrounds 8/9/08

Today's daily was Arathi Basin, I got it done on Wranngar on the second try. In the first battle I got grouped with a really bad group and it was all we could do to hold one node. In the second battle we did better and held 3 nodes the whole time and 4 nodes for part of the time. We ended up winning by around 600. I got the 11g99s, 419 honor and 3 Arathi Basin Mark of Honor for completing it. Then I went and did some AV's. That was kind of a mistake. I was in 7 battles, 2 wins and 5 losses. Stupidity was running rampant in AV today between capping and holding SHGY and going for Galv first. I have given up on people learning that when half the offense goes for Galv at the start, and the Horde are guarding the choke point by IBGY, the rest of the offense falls apart. I guess they will never learn. For some reason they are willing to give up 600+ honor for a win to kill Galv and get his 63 honor, it boggles the mind. To give you an idea of the caliber of players in there today, there was a lot of calling to take down Drek when we had 3 and 4 towers still up. That should give you an idea of how much of a clue these people had. It is weird, this is WSG weekend but from the quality of people in AV you would swear it was AV weekend. We won both of our battle by killing Drek while the Horde won most of theirs on reinforcements due to the turtle that resulted from either going for Galv first or holding SHGY. As usual we were plagued by AFK in all the AV battlegrounds. Blizzard really needs to get on the ball and do something about this problem. On the plus side I got a Gold Medallion in my mailbox today. It is a pet based on Competition I guess. I have attached a screen shot of it.

Battlegrounds 8/8/08

I did a few battlegrounds today on Wranngar. It was not a good day for the Alliance in the battlegrounds. The daily today was Arathi Basin and we won the first one I was in so that worked out well, we had a 5 cap, it was over pretty quick. After that I decided to do a WSG and we won the first one of those I was in, 3/0. That's where the good stuff ends. I also fought in 10 AV's, 4 wins and 6 losses. I was in some pretty bad groups and one of the mistakes they kept making was going for Galv at the start which of course caused our offense to wipe and get sent back to Dun Baldar. We did win one where they went for Galv first but it was a lot harder than it should have been. I keep telling them if they think Galv's 63 honor is nice they should try skipping him and winning some time. We won 3 of our 4 by killing Drek and one on reinforcements. The Horde won about half of their's by killing Vann and the other half on reinforcements. We had a couple where the Alliance took and held SHGY, I can't believe people are still doing that and no matter what you say they won't let it go. Holding SHGY keeps the Horde in front of us and stops us from moving forward but you just can't get that through their heads... I guess they think they are doing something by taking a GY. I got something in the mail today too, a Competitor's Tabard. I guess it has something to do with the Olympics, it looks kind of like the Olympic logo. I have attached a picture of me wearing it. I still like my Stormpike Battle Tabard better but I will wear this while the Olympics are going on I guess. As usual there were a lot of AFK in all the battles I was in especially Alterac Valley. I guess they think they can get away with it better in there as it is 40x40, they must not think anyone will notice but I list them using the TuringTest AFK Reporter which gives everyone the chance to report them. School should be starting back up again soon and I think that is going to make a big difference.

Battlegrounds 8/7/08

I didn't have a lot of time to play today, I only got to do 7 AV's on Wranngar, 3 wins and 4 losses. I sent the battle plan I made a macro from into chat before each battle but of course a plan only works if everyone follows it. That is the problem, most of the Alliance don't seem to be able to follow a simple plan and I don't really know if half the people know which group they are in. 2 of our losses resulted from people taking SHGY, it seems people will never learn about taking SHGY, either that or they want to lose. In at least one more they went for Galv first which usually ends up in offense falling apart and everyone ending up back at Dun Baldar to start over. In the wins, while not exactly following the plan enough people did follow it to give us a win. We had one battle where we were on Drek at the same time the Horde were on Vann and they just took him down first, mostly because our people were scattered and we didn't quite have enough in Frostwolf Keep to take him down. We are also still having a lot of trouble with AFK.

Battlegrounds 8/6/08

I fought in 5 battles today on Wranngar, 1 WSG which was the daily I never completed and 4 AV, 3 wins and one loss. In WSG the group I was in was so bad I just gave up and stopped trying to run the flag. I picked it up 4 times and made it all the way back to our flag room twice but there was no support and the thing that finally made me give up was when I was hiding on our roof with the flag, the Horde had our flag in their base and no one was going after it. In AV we did really good in 3 of them, won quick and easy but the forth one someone took SHGY and then the Alliance held onto it for the long slow turtle to loss. The Alliance will never learn about SHGY it seems, just like they will never learn about going for Galv at the start. Anyway I am about 8,000 honor away from a new belt I want to get. After the battlegrounds I helped a level 15 druid get to 16 and start their water form quests.

Battlegrounds 8/5/08

Another really bad day for the Alliance in the battlegrounds today. I fought in a bunch of them on Wranngar, mostly AV. Eye of the Storm was my daily again today and we won the first one I was in. I went back in later and we won another one. I also fought in one AB which was a loss but it was a pretty close loss, they only beat us by a few hundred but it was a major battle the whole way. I think if people had listened a little better and worked together better we would have had it. I am not sure what the problem is as we usually don't do too bad in AB but lately we have been losing a lot in there. I fought in 2 WSG, one win and one loss. I got to run the flag a few times and got the winning cap in the battle we won. I fought in 11 AV's, 4 wins and 7 losses. I was using the Macro I made trying to give people a plan to follow but all I can say is most of the Alliance are not capable of following a simple plan... In the ones that we stuck close to the battle plan we won, in the others people were just going off doing their own thing. In a couple of our losses they held SHGY for the turtle and loss, when will people learn? That is another thing about the Alliance, the do not seem capable of learning from their mistakes as they make the same ones over and over... I can see that it will not be too much longer before I am burned out on battlegrounds again and go back to doing my daily's.

Alterac Valley Marco

Here is a battle plan someone was posting in AV using a Macro. I copied the text and created a Macro from it for my own use because it was working so well. Of course it only works if everyone follows it. Unfortunately the Alliance has a real problem following even the simplest plans for some reason, at least in my battle group they do, but if most people do it will work. The way I have it, due to size, it is a 2 part Macro but the second part is optional.

This is the first (Main) Macro, I named this one AV-1:

/bg 1. GRP 1-3 GO TO RH, NO STOPPING FOR ANYTHING!
/bg 2. GRP 4 CAP FrostWolf GraveYard and Defend!
/bg 3. GRP 5-6 Cap Tower Point
/bg 4. GRP 7-8 Cap IceBlood Tower and kill Galv if possible for extra honor!

Here is the second (Optional) Macro, I named this one AV-2:

/bg DO NOT DEF Stonehearth GY ...so they CAN NOT rez at RH
/bg Report AFK

If you are going to use both they are meant to be hit one after the other. If you don't know how to put this into a Macro it is easy following the steps below.

1. Type /macro in chat to open the Macro program.
2. Click on "New"
3. Select a icon for and name your Macro
4. Save it
5. Paste the above AV-1 text into the Macro (Everything starting with /bg)
6, Repeat for AV-2
7. It is automatically saved so just drag the icon into your tool bar.

You're done.

Battlegrounds 8/4/08

Today was another bad day for the Alliance in all the battlegrounds except, surprisingly, AV. I fought in battles in all battlegrounds on Wranngar. Eye of the Storm was my daily and I won the first one I was in, then went back for 4 losses. I don't know what the Alliances problem was today in a battleground we usually do very well in but we just couldn't get it together it seems. I only fought in 2 WSG battles, both losses but I did get to capture the flag a couple times. I only fought in one AB and it was so bad I decided not to go back. It wasn't a 5 cap on the Horde's part but it was one of the worst I have been in without the Horde 5 capping us. There was no teamwork, everyone was running around doing their own thing, no one was working together towards one goal. AV on the other hand we didn't do too bad in especially considering it was still their holiday weekend. I was in 9 battles, 4 wins and 5 losses. The strat that still seems to be working well is rushing FWGY and then moving back and forward and getting the towers from there. Of course, like any plan, that only works if everyone follows it and the Alliance seems to have a problem following even the simplest plan. Of course we were plagued by AFK in every battle I was in. My TuringTest AFK Reporter is working well and it would be great if at least 5 people in every battle had it installed as it takes 5 people to report someone before they are marked AFK. I think if 5 people in every battle had it, AFK would be a thing of the past. I advertise it once in every battle and hopefully people will catch on.

Battlegrounds 8/3/08

I did only battlegrounds again today. I fought in 28 battles total on Wranngar. The daily today was Warsong Gulch and I fought in 7 of those, 2 wins and 5 losses but I did get my quest done and got my 11g99s, 419 extra honor and of course my Warsong Gulch Marks of Honor. I also fought in 8 Alterac Valley, 4 wins and 4 losses which I thought was pretty good for holiday weekend. I fought in 11 Eye of the Storm, 7 wins and 4 losses and 2 Arathi Basin, both losses. I don't know why the Alliance is doing so bad in Arathi Basin lately, we used to do good in there. In one of my battles in AV I saw someone boxing/bridging. That is when you are controlling 4 or 5 characters all at once. This can be done with 4 or 5 computers using "bridging" or with one computer using "boxing", at least that is how it was explained to me. These characters all looked the same, all moved the same, moved at the same time, all casted the same, jumped the same, there was no doubt what they were doing. They were Shamans. Blizzard allows this, even in the battlegrounds. I, and a lot of other people, don't think this should be allowed but Blizzard is looking at it from a money point of view of course, this person is paying for, in this case, 4 accounts. Anyway I ran into them in AV and when all 4 of them hit me at once with chain lightning my health dropped by about 90%. The next shot and I was dead. I guess the only drawback to this is you can only attack one target at one time. We ran into them later in IBT and tore them apart, there was 3 of us and we owned them. I hope it took him an hour to set it back up again. I have attached a shot of them at FWGY. It is not a very good shot but look how the totems are placed. They were named: Earth, Wind, Fire & Water.

Battlegrounds 8/2/08

Today was not a great day for the Alliance in the battlegrounds. I fought in all of them on Wranngar. I was in 3 Arathi Basin, 1 win 2 losses, it was my daily today, 5 Alterac Valley, all losses, 7 Eye of the Strom, 5 wins and 2 losses and 7 Warsong Gulch, 2 wins and 5 losses.

In Arathi Basin we just couldn't seem to get it together and work together. It took 3 battles to get my win and that was enough for me. In our 2 losses we couldn't seem to get more than 2 nodes capped at one time. Of course everyone was running around doing their own thing instead of grouping up and working as a team. One person would go after the Farm while another single person would go after the LM and another after the BS. Finally in the last battle we worked together and had a 4 cap to win in not much time at all. I got my 11g99s, 419 extra honor and 3 Arathi Basin Mark of Honor for a total of 5 for the day.

Alterac Valley was a total wash, it is their holiday weekend and I usually try to stay away from battlegrounds on their holiday weekend but decided to go ahead and fight in there anyway. The only good thing I can say about it is I got a lot of kills. The weekend warriors and AFKers were out in full force, it was pretty sad. That is about all I am going to say about AV, we never got into a position to even think about taking down Drek but people were still calling to "go kill Drek, that's what we need to do to win". You can tell those are the weekend warriors that have no clue what they are doing in there because it takes a good group to take down Drek with even 2 towers up and there was no way these groups were going to do it with 4 towers up.

After AV I decided to go into Eye of the Storm to get the foul taste of defeat out of my mouth. We usually do good in EoS and today was no exception. We pretty much worked together as a group and had some good groups. The two we lost were because of bad grouping, possibly weekend warriors that strayed into the wrong battleground lol. We won the 5 battles with a wide margin on most but the last one I was in we won by less than 100. The Flag in EoS is there for the same reason Galv is in AV, to slow down the clueless and it works well. It is a much faster win to have a 4 or even 3 cap then it is to cap 2 and run the flag but people either can't or refuse to understand that.

I actually had a pretty good time in Warsong Gulch even though we did not win a lot of them, I like to run the flag and one battle I capped all 3 for the win. I run back to our flag room with the flag going up the very right hand side of the battleground, I stick right to the edge and get very little interference. I don't really need the marks for anything but I can use the honor to upgrade my gems.