Feralbynight

I have been playing a Resto Druid for a few months now and ever since there was the smallest mention of dual specs I have been collecting Kitty gear with the idea of using that as my second spec.  Actually when Ulduar was released and we needed our highest level gear for Flame Leviathan I was embarrassed to find out just how many pieces were better than my “main gear” hahaha. I did all my homework, read too many forums and blogs and when the time came I paid my gold and tah-dah I was a resto/kitty druid in one easy hit.  I then went out and changed my whole UI to make it easier to fight up close and in your face (actually, in your face isn’t too accurate because we fight from behind and the view is even worse).  And then the big day came ……………….

 

I pressed the buttons and changed my spec, I pressed another button and my gear changed to suit my spec, I pressed another button and flew to Storm Peaks where I could practice on some unsuspecting mobs.  Geez, I sure pushed a lot of buttons.  I picked my target, I pounced with a mighty roar and then pressed a button to get the message “you must be behind your target”, “you must be behind your target”, “you must be behind your target”, over and over and over and then I realised I had been playing resto so long I had absolutely no idea how to play Kitty.  But not to worry, I had hours before my DPS was needed for the hard modes of Heroic Ulduar (my Guild has asked for some healers to change to dps for some hard modes, specific bosses etc).

 

So there was my dilemma.  I had the gear, I had the spec but I had to get up to speed to be able to provide adequate DPS in a semi serious raid guild within hours. I was especially worried after reading so many posts about how hard it was to play Kitty, and how there are no set rotations etc.  When I discussed this with Razor and after he had finished laughing at me for an hour or so, he suggested I look at the  Feralbynight addon which is designed to suggest your next move/attack as a Kitty.  He suggested another addon too but I really wasn’t paying attention as he can be pretty annoying most of the time.  Mmm actually, that is all the time but that is whole different story.

 

I downloaded the Mod, and went straight to the training dummies in Ironforge and commenced to play “whack-a-mole” for kitties.  It really was that simple – in the middle of the addon it shows which talent you should use next, and to the right it shows the talent that is coming up after that one.  I personally play using the keypad for offensive spells/talents on all classes so it was simply a matter of changing the buttons to match the talents that Feralbynight was suggesting.  I think healing is really whack-a-mole on a grid raid screen, so using Feralbynight really was the same sort of thing for me.  I found within minutes that I was cranking out VERY reasonable DPS and even without raid buffs was already above some of our DPS’ers that I checked out on WWS reports.

 

And so the big night came and the request was made for me to stop healing for the next fight, change specs and show my DPS talents.  O! M! F! G! it was soooooooooooooooo hard.  I now look at kitty druids in a whole new light and truly hold them in reverence.  Doing DPS on a training dummy is absolutely nothing compared to the real thing with everything moving, you, the boss, the tank, adds, flamestrikes, spell effects, aggro to worry about, living to worry about, changing targets to worry about.  Did I Say OMFG?  I need a bigger font!  Holy Geez it was hard.

 

Since that raid I have spent more and more time in Kitty form so that I can learn to play it properly.  I still use Feralbynight but I don’t rely on it any more and am genuinely learning the talents and what I should be watching for.  I firmly believe that the addon is an absolutely fantastic tool to begin to learn how to play kitty.  However, I do think it would take the fun out of playing the class before very long and even more importantly I would think that a pro player HAS TO be better than an automated mod at the end of the day.

 

Either way .. Kitty is fun!   Roooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaar  (or “meow” as the case may be)

 

And now for a picture because Razor said the new forums need pictures in posts.  I was going to post some screenies but I am at work so I have stolen this one off the net …

 

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Paying for Boosting

Disclaimer:  The following is a hypothetical discussion following a great deal of joking between two mates to while away the hours while playing together.  Neither Razor or I would do anything against the TOS from Blizzard or do anything to jeopardise our accounts.

It all began on one of our many trips in SM.  As anyone following this blog would know, Razor and I have been levelling a Pally and Druid using the Recruit a Friend system, and Razor has been boosting us using his level 70 mage and druid.  Razor made some complaint in jest about doing all the work of killing the mobs to which I replied that I didn't mind as I was watching TV at the time.  (In reality I was just as busy doing all the looting, but I couldn't help having a dig at him).  From that point he joked about how I should be paying him for his efforts.

A day or two later I complained like a little kid that "I wanna be 70!  I wanna be 70!" and that Razor should take some days of work and help me level.  I am lucky enough to have my own business and can take time off when I choose to do so, as long as I get all my work done at other times.  Razor continued on from our previous jesting and asked "how much it was worth to me for him to take time off his job", and so the argument began.  In the end Razor decided that if, and I repeat IF we really were going to do it (and we never would!), then I should buy him epic flying mounts for his next 4 toons, or in other words 20,000g which somehow rose to 22,000g over the next few days.  I think maybe he wanted to include GST.  I stress again, that this was all in jest and we would never do such a thing in reality whether it is against the TOS or not.

But this got me thinking.  In the dream world, what would it really be worth to boost someone.  After much debate I have come up with the following, and would be interested in what you think.

In fairness to Razor, and to make it easy on me to do my maths, I propose the sum of 300g per level.  So therefore, to honour Razor's request, I owe Razor 21,000g for boosting me to 70.

Happy Razor?

Oh wait a sec.  Perhaps we should consider all the points.

Razor only boosted me to 60, and although we still play together at times, we no longer get the triple xp so he isn't helping me any more.

That means I only owe him 18,000g. (60 x 300g)

Uh oh, another problem.  Razor got the triple xp too from the Recruit a Friend system, and it was me that recruited him (I even have the Zhevra to prove it).  So, 2/3rds of his levels were boosted by ME from RAF, and logically that means that he is only responsible for 20 levels as we all know that 20 x 3 = 60. 

That means I only owe him 6,000g (20 x 300g)

But wait!  Paying for boosting is paying someone for their time. We got to level 60 in about 60 hours played or thereabouts.  Lol, actually it was shorter than that, but I need to keep it simple to help me with my maths.  Soooo if each level is 300g, then each hour is worth 300g.  During that 60 hours, I spent about 50 hours looting for the both of us.  That means that 25 hours of the looting was for Razor and 25 for me.  As such, if I am paying Razor, then it is only fair that he should pay me.

Ergo, Razor owes ME 1,500g (the 6,000g I owe him, minus the 25 x 300g = 7,500g he owes me).

Still more!

Add to that the time I did Auction House scanning and selling all the loot for both of us, I think we can easily add another 10 hours to that at 300g an hour of course.

So our final total is  ...    Razor owes me 4,500g for boosting me from 1 to 60.  Sound fair?

kk Razor, your terms are gratefully accepted.

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Poor Beld

I had a great idea for a post over the weekend, but thanks to Beld, that will have to wait now. I am not saying that's a bad thing. In this case it isn't. You see, Beld had a little.... Accident. I just have to share it with everyone.

Background.

Out R.A.F. characters are now level 61. We no longer get any bonus' for working together, but it's still fun. One of the advantages of Multi-Boxing is you always have a spare character available to help. With this in mind, I set up my Resto Druid, Razorbax, to follow my Pally around out of the party. I just had a couple of heal macro's set up and all was good.

Setting.

After questing in Hellfire for around an hour on Saturday Morning, Belf finally decided to log on to his Druid. He was a little in-front of me Quest-Wise, since I spent time doing the Mount Quest. Now that we are soloing a lot, Beld has specced Feral. Anyway, back to the setting. We had just finished one of the quests where you kill all the Orc's to collect the beads. This one was in the mountains just behind the temple. We had just been rounding up as many as we could. I would tank everything and Beld would just Focus Fire each one down. It is amazing how easy it is to tank when you have a 70 healer following you about:).

I Laughed for 20 Minutes!

I didn't plan this. It wasn't a prank, though I really wish I could take credit. We mounted up and started back towards the Temple to hand in our quests. I had my Druid on follow in Swift Flight Form. Now being new to the Pally, I love the bubble jump. Can you guess what happens here? I run towards the cliff and leap into the air. I land safely bubbled in the middle of a group of vultures, my Druid sweeps in with out a hitch. Then I see a flying Cat. Cats can Fly? Apparently not.

Splat.

Beld was paying a bit too much attention to his TV and was only vaguely following me. I swear I could not stop laughing for a good 15 to 20 minutes. Now you would think that one little mistake would be enough for the day, but apparently it really wasn't his day.

There's More!

So we go to hand in the Quest and pick a reward. We are chatting away in Vent when Beld curses. "I didn't pick that!". Hmmm. I did. He duplicated my quest item choice. This is odd. I assumed he mush have a Boxing Addon installed. There are a couple that automate the hand-in process by copying the Party Leaders item picks. He assures me there is nothing there. Poor Beld decides he had better wait until I hand in before he does. The only problem here is it does not seem to be Quest Specific. Within half an hour, he is handing a different quest to me and Boom! He picks the wrong item automatically.

Poor Beld, but thanks for entertaining me;)

Razorbax

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Fun in Ironforge with Recruit a Friend

Anybody that has been following this Blog would know that Razor and I decided to take advantage of the "new" Recruit a Friend system from Blizzard. I did it purely so I could get a Zehvra mount, and Razor did it so he could get a Pally Tank for his multi-boxing team and to finally get me to play a Druid. We have been levelling these Toons mostly by boosting with Razor's mage or druid and a little bit of questing/grinding outside of our normal raid times but last night we finally got to the magic level 60 mark.

HAXX!

For anyone that doesn't know the system, each Toon gets triple xp while grouped together, but only until level 60. But the other fun part, is that up until level 59, the "invited" friend can "gift" free levels to any Toon on the account of the person that invited them who is lower than them. Once you get to 60 you lose whatever you haven't given away (I think haha).
So last night came time to gift away the levels to one of my low level alt's before we dinged 60. Now we could have done it somewhere quiet and peaceful but Razor decided to entertain the crowds in Ironforge,or more accurately to let them entertain each other. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised, but sure enough, the "WoW Police of Ironforge" didn't let us down as you can see from these Screenshots haha .....

 

 

 Beld

P.S.  If my chest and back weren't so hairy, I would take offence at being called a bitch  :P

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Boosting and Looting

/e Beld stands up, wipes away a tear and loudly pronounces to the gathered audience "My name is Beld and I am an Auction House addict"

From that, you can understand why I was so horrified on beginning our current boosting endeavour to hear Razor say that when boosting he rarely bothered with looting as it was just too time consuming and hardly worth the effort.  Now in hindsight I am not absolutely sure whether he was serious or it was a cunning (and successful) ploy to get me to look after the looting.

But first let me explain my addiction. 
I have played the AH seriously in the past and know what you can do and still remember a "race" I had with a friend in the pre-BC days of the first to 10,000g with a starting purse of only 50g (I won by a few hours in just over 4 weeks and then gave it all away to level 5 toons haha).  /sigh  Remember when 10,000g was a lot of gold?

I am definitely not the most successful AH player in WoW and in all honesty, most serious AH users would be horrified at what I now do.  For some years now I have run the mod Auctioneer and kept it up to date with daily scans and this helps me to sell all my items.  I actually sell everything BELOW what it should be so that I can get the quick sales.  I guess you can best describe me as lazy rather than greedy hehe.

I just hate the idea of throwing easy gold away.

And so our boosting began in Deadmines, onto Stockades, SM and now we have just begun BRD.  Razor has been doing the killing on his undergeared 70 mage while I have been dividing my time between laughing at him dieing (closely followed by trying to run for my life) and looting.  With the information from Auctioneer I discard/delete items of almost zero value and then sort the other items as we go.  As the bags fill up, I trade all the vendor trash to Razor's baby Paladin and at the end of the runs I mail everything left over to my AH toon.  I then continue to scan each day and on Thursday of each week I put everything up for 48 hours at a little below average sell prices and generally try to be the cheapest there.  Yeh, yeh, I know, I am driving the market down but remember I am lazy not greedy.  I sell on these days because that is when prices are highest and it gives me a chance to try again with anything not sold by the Saturday.  I avoid selling on Monday to Thursday at all costs as a lot of things can be as little as half their usual prices.  Anything not sold after two attempts gets DE'd and I sell the shards/dust and yep you guessed it, below cost.

We are currently level 45 and I have looted on about 2/3rds of the runs as Razor is still too lazy to do it himself.  We have bought all the training we can, bought one mount at level 30 and currently have about 1000g in the bank.  So I think it is well and truly worth the effort, and could even be more lucrative if I really tried. 

Besides, it gives me something to do when Razor isn't entertaining me with his deaths. 


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It's Zhevra time !

When I first read about the new "Invite a Friend" offer from Blizzard I was absolutely amazed and had to double check to make sure it wasn't April Fools Day in America before telling Razor about it.  I had planned to post a blog entry here but Razor stole my idea and then proceeded to abuse me for not posting often enough.  Triple xp, non use of rested xp, gift levels for a lower level alt and a free Zhevra!  It just seemed too good to be true.  But I must admit I have been surprised at how this idea has upset so many people (if the forums and blogs are anything to go by) and I really don't understand it.

Let's do it !

I saw this as a fantastic opportunity to get a new toon of one of the few classes that I haven't played, and this is why I think it is such a good idea.  I really would like to experience a Druid but despite my attempts (as per the Purrfection thread) I just can't make myself go through that long hard slog again.  Surely after having done all the quests and instances from 1 to 60 over ten times nobody really thinks I would learn anything by doing it again?  Lol, I have not seen any complaints about Death Knights entering the game at lvl 55 so I find it hard to understand the argument against EXPERIENCED players having a faster method to get a new toon there.

Having decided to take advantage of this I needed to find a friend that I could invite.  Unfortunately all my friends already play WoW so I was stuck with using Razor to help me.  Naturally he jumped at the chance to get another toon and of course to practice his second favourite passtime of Boosting and away we went.  He has decided to level a Pally and spec it for aoe tanking and I finally have that druid that I have been trying to do for quite a while.

Straight after doing the necessary steps on the website, I got the link to say a Zhevra was mine to allocate to the toon that I wanted (you only get one) so I chose my current main who is Beldanna the Mage on Nagrand.  I logged on to find the following "cute" mail ...

And of course not long afterwards I was travelling through Azeroth on my new mount.  (After a few laps of Ironforge of course and only 2 or 3 mistimed jumps to land in the lava pit).

And so our new journey begins.  Razor as a Pally, Beld as a Druid (how the tables turn) and a chance to get to the point where we can enjoy the game much quicker than we would otherwise.  And it forces us to hang out together, so if anybody really thinks it is unfair that I got a "rare" mount so easily, then I challenge you to spend a few hours stuck in deadmines with Razor and you would realise that NOTHING in life is free !!

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Is Warhammer the WoW killer?

If anybody is crazy enough to read the World of Warcraft forums before long you will see posts from disgruntled players claiming they will be leaving for another game.  It is funny to note they are still subscribing to wow and posting on the forums while they do this of course.  Over the last couple of months everyone was saying that Age of Conan would be the WoW killer but now that has been launched and failed to meet expectations, the tide has turned to the next MMO to be launched and the claims are that Warhammer Online will break Blizzards monopoly in this field.  Will it?

I will unequivocally say no.  Not a chance in hell.  And furthermore, I say that there is nothing even on the horizon that will hurt World of Warcraft.

My opinion doesn't come from playing the beta of Warhammer, in fact I haven't even seen it.  My opinion comes from Age of Conan, but let me explain.

Age of Conan is a damn good game.  I played in the beta and on the launch and I think it has far more to offer than world of warcraft.  Most importantly I think it is a thousand times better than wow was at launch, but I fully concede that AoC is doomed to go the way of so many others and continue with a small customer base that pales into insignificance compared to WoW.  Why you might ask?  Go on, ask!  Ok, I will tell you.

First and foremost I noticed that almost everyone that played AoC had played WoW and compared them to each other.  But AoC had to compete with Warcraft after four years of ongoing development and upgrades rather than an equal comparison.  There is just no way in the world a new game can compete with that, but even more so, everyone who did the comparisons was a wow addict through and through.  They fed of each other in the game and the forums and the disappointment and dissatisfaction snow balled and got bigger and bigger until the players left in droves.

I honestly believe that this will happen regardless of which MMO is launched and how good it is.

The simple truth is that in my opinion people don't want a new game.  They want a better World of Warcraft, and only Blizzard can do that.

Secondly, despite all the whining, Blizzard really do continue to change World of Warcraft but also slowly answer the fans complaints and requests.  You want a way to make gold, tah dah now we have dailies.  You want to raid but can't form big raid groups, no prob we will make them smaller.  Can't find tanks for 5 mans, here ya go, lets create more and easier to play tank classes.  Siege warfare .. coming.  Lol, Blizzard are even trying to make the Oceanic players happy by doing rolling restarts outside of their prime time.

So in my opinion, as long as Blizzard keeps listening and changing the game to suit the majority of players, and as long as everyone continues to look for a better World of Warcraft instead of something different, I don't believe Warhammer Online or any other MMO has a chance of knocking WoW off it's throne.

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WotLK - When to stop PVE raiding?

As Razor has mentioned we are trying to start a Raiding Guild focusing on 10 man raids which seemed to be a good idea, particularly with all raid instances in WotLK to have both 10 man and 25 man versions. 

However, I have to admit that I have become very frustrated (mmm is "disgusted" too strong a word?) already with what appears to be a high level of apathy to even start raiding.  As I have asked myself why so many have demonstrated such a total lack of support and enthusiasm I couldn't help but think that perhaps the reason is that everyone is already giving up on raiding knowing that sooner or later WotLK will be out.  Meh maybe they are just inconsiderate too.

But that brings me to the question so many ask.  With a new expansion coming out when should all the PVE'ers stop raiding? (or fail to even start in our case)

I remember clearly the months leading up to the Burning Crusade expansion.  I was in a serious 40 man raiding Guild and I was very surprised that in the month to six weeks before expansion almost everyone stopped raiding and started chasing the easy epics from pvp which were introduced just before BC (AND were all useless within hours of BC being launched hehe).  While I stood night after night in Ironforge (I hate pvp) I couldn't help but wonder why so many lost their desire for raiding and I think I came up with the answer.  Lol or at least one answer.  I think that it all comes down to WHY people actually raid, and I think there are three (3) categories or types of raiders, and when they should stop raiding for WotLK depends very much on the class.  Those groups are as follows:

1.  The Pixel Hunters

Those that are just after the phat lootz.  I think these people should give up raiding right now and get ready for WotLK.  Getting gear from raiding is so slow in comparison to other matters now, and these people would be far more satisfied pvp'ing for those easy epics, or doing badge runs in heroics etc to get the badge gear.  Don't worry about their guildmates, don't worry about everybody else, but go and help themselves to easy loot, after all that is why they play.

2.  The Memory Hunters

These are the players that raid for the memories, or the challenges.  They play to face new challenges (when they are actually challenges) and to beat them.  To face difficult encounters and situations and to overcome them and to get that feeling (which of course grows with each story telling) of the time they did this, or the time they did that.  These players need like minded people who understanding and get just as much thrill out of each encounter.  These are the ones that should raid up until the very night of WotLK and try and get just one more boss down while they are still level 70.

3.  The Socialites

These are those that just want to have fun with other people in a MMO and don't really care what they do as long as they have someone to talk to and laugh with on Vent or TS etc.  I think that these PVE'ers should also give up raiding right now and go and hang with those that have stopped raiding for the easy pvp epics.  I say this, because I think that this is where the vast majority will go.

Those are my thoughts at least.  What do you think?

 

Beld

 

p.s  If you want to talk about this or many other topics, or hear the stories of the time I did this ......... then I am sure you will find me standing in IF for the month before WotLK.  Wait!  I might try Shat this time.

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Beld's Top WoW Moments - Part 2

After much thinking and reminiscing, I have some more of my memorable moments in Azeroth to share.

 

2.   5 Man Onyxia Runs (at Level 60)

This was back before Burning Crusade when Onyxia was supposed to be a 40 man raid.  For giggles we started doing speed runs and starting the counter with the first shot on the first mob after entering Onyxia's cave and the timer stopping when Onyxia herself died.  To add to the fun we added 30 seconds for any death and our record was about 8 1/2 minutes.

Once that got too easy we started taking less and less people until someone one day smugly said we should try and 5 man her.  So that is what we tried to do.

All level 60 of course and out of even more stupidity we took alts instead of mains so nobody could claim we only did it because of our gear.  It was soooo much fun.  The group consisted of a warrior, a mage, a priest, a hunter and warlock from memory.

We didn't quite succeed but got her down to 18% and I was pretty darn proud of how we went considering 40 man raids were still wiping on her at that time.  There is nothing quite like taking on impossible odds with friends and damn near beating those odds.

 

3.   Soloing Undercity

For the record I don't PVP.  Almost all of my toons have zero honourable kills (lol, I am not even sure if they are still called that) and I could count the times I have fought the horde on one hand.

However, I decided to follow the whole quest line to open the gates of AQ in Sillythus (my name for it) just so that I could say I did.

One part of the questline involves collecting pages for a book that are scattered around Azeroth.  One is in Stormwind and one is in Undercity and yes, either faction has to collect both.

I had the time of my life trying to sneak into Undercity as a Human Protection Warrior.  I had looked at maps etc and worked out where to get the page and the easiest way to get there, and had even thought of the best places to die that gave me the best chances to rez.  As I progressed through, more and more horde turned up to pounce on me each time I rezzed and mostly in good spirits as our Guild was well known.

But I was so clever !  I got in.  I found my way there.  I got the page !!! Damn I was good !!!!

(I really wished I had read up on how to get out of that damned place though haha)

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Beld's Top WoW Moments

After reading Razor's post about his top 10 WoW moments, it really got me thinking about the highlights and memories I have about my own adventures in Azeroth.  Lol, I would have trouble limiting them to ten and they would take pages and pages to write but I will share some of the special ones.

In absolutely no specific order the following times were special to me (only 1 in this post but I will make more posts).

 

1.  Solo'ing Nefarion at Level 60

I was playing Beldina, a Prot Warrior in a leading Aussie Guild called Azeroth Elites and we were one of the first Guild's on the server to get up to Nef in Blackwing Lair.

For those that don't know the fight, you meet Nefarion in human form in his chamber and to the side of the chamber are two tunnels where dragonkin spawn every few seconds.  My job was to hold the right hand tunnel and grab all the dragonkin as they came so that my "team" behind me could AOE them.  When a set number of dragonkin are dead they stop spawning and you can engage Nefarion himself. 

Until this night, we had not got past this point and I had died every time in my tunnel, so my whole view of the encounter had been limited to a screen full of dragonkin and nothing more.

We began the fight and as usual things were going well until the number started to get too high, however we seemed to be going better than ever.  I was really in the zone and playing to my absolute best, using every talent, skill and item I could.  I KNOW I could not have played better, and felt so good!  I could hear over vent that the Dragonkin from the other tunnel had got loose and my "team" was taking damage but the rest of the raid group were trying to help.

As the message came up that we had killed enough dragonkin and could engage Nef I was so excited, this was the best we had every done!  All we had to do now was kill the last of the mobs in the tunnels and then we could face the ultimate challenge!  Everything we had worked so hard for over weeks and weeks!  The time was ours!

I glanced at my raid screen and saw that the casualties were high, most of my team was down.  I used everything I had!  Every cooldown, every pot, healthstone, trinket and tuber.  My health was going down and down.  I even bandaged between hits to get that smallest fraction of health back.  I looked up and saw my health was down to only 32 !!  And the last Dragonkin fell at my feet!  I had done it!  I was so proud, so excited, my heart racing.

I turned and came out of my tunnel and looked at the raid screen to see the other 39 raiders all dead.  I was the only one left and had less than 50 health with everything on cooldown.

I looked for Nefarion and for the first time in my life saw him in Dragon form, just as he saw me.  O .... M .... F .... G !!!  Seeing him for the first time after what I had just done/been through will stay with me forever.

He came racing straight at me.

My screen filled with his gaping maw.

He roared out.

His right arm moved out to the side and swung for the kill.

And then my SCT scrolled up

.

.

.

.

<   DODGE  >

 

ROFL not even Nef could kill me I was so good. (well he did next swing, but that's not the point).

/sigh

What a night!

p.s. Next attempt we got him to 25% and that was the last time we wiped on him.

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New fun in Old WoW

If you have been following this Blog at all, you would clearly see that Razor has been trying everything to get my interest back in World of Warcraft.  Apart from an opportunity to give me a hard time even more often I really don't know why he bothers.

I looked at finally rolling a druid, but meh after levelling so many toons and seeing pretty much everything in the game, the interest soon wore off.  Besides it was really painful to see Razor's satisfaction in me playing his beloved class after I have bagged it for so many years.

I looked at multi-boxing, and did get genuinely excited by the idea but in the end I saw myself once more spending all my gaming time by myself (but this time even talking to myself between my own toons) to get to the endgame and once more doing nothing on a US server while everyone slept.

WoW is boring.  I really think Blizzard ruined the game with Burning Crusade and are making even more mistakes with their "class balance" changes and to be honest I am not very optimistic about any changes for the good with WotLK either.

So despite all of Razor's efforts I have been drifting away and even cancelled all of my accounts (but don't tell him that).  And I have been playing Age of Conan to check it out.

And then Razor in one more attempt to bend me to his will (he hates being proven wrong) suggested the idea of the Pox Arcanum Experiment.

I really think this might help me find new fun in old wow.  Why, you may ask?  Well go on .. ask.  Kk, I will tell you.  What excited me most about this idea to start with was the newness of it.  Actually boxing (I am playing 2 toons), but on a new server so our alts/friends couldn't help out, with a new faction (I have never played horde past 20), but actually doing it at the same time and with a mate.  I really reckon we will have a great time and find the "newness" in wow at the same time.

I can't wait!

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New Monitor

After Work on Friday I picked up my new Samsung 22" Monitor. It's one of the better(cheap) 22" monitors with the ability to Pivot vertically. I have connected this to my Slave PC and now have the two wow clients running in 1050*840, one above the other. This is a massive improvement for visibility and I am very happy with it. I also started to convert another Razorbax's UI to suite Multi Boxing. When I am done I should be able to play any combo of characters, either solo or in a group. This will be more important once I hit 70.

Beld is Slack.

I must admit I am rather un-impressed with Beld and his Multi Boxing Progression. He has not even managed to get his three Gnomes to level 10 yet. Hopefully this post may motivate him....;)

Zej isn't Slack.

Zej on the other hand is making great Progress. His Pally has hit 58 and is progressing well. Xerro is also doing well on his Tank/Healer combo, sitting on around level 65.

Razorbax

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I Need Bunny Rabbits !

It has begun!  The adventure of Beld and his 3 gnome friends is starting to take shape and I look forward to conquering all of Azeroth with a mixture of Pally tanking, Lock Uber DPS, death, slaughter, mayhem and a bunch of cuteness thrown in.

I have resisted the urge (mostly through lack of time) to level Beld past 60 and have decided that I will begin boosting with him at that level and when I need a break from the monotony of running instances over and over I will take him out solo and level him a bit, and of course gear up for making the multiple mob tanking easier and easier.

I have decided to run all three gnomes from the one computer and keep the tank and main toon Beldarion running alone on my home desktop machine.  The second machine I have got is a laptop so I can take it with me anywhere I want.  It is a Dual Core 2.4, 4GB ram, and 8400M dedicated video card and although I haven't run all three accounts just yet I think it will be up to the task.  I guess time will tell and if it doesn't work out then I will get a second desktop machine dedicated to the task.

I have followed Razor's advice (I really don't know why I do) and am levelling each gnome up to level 10 individually.  From my previous experience the mage Bedsnukes was easy, fun and quick.  But the locks are a completely different story.  Beldsdots was first to level 10 and after reading all the forums on how overpowered locks are I sort of assumed I could round up all the mobs in the whole zone at once, one shot the lot of them and ding 10 levels at once.  Locks are NOT overpowered below level 10 and I spent an awful lot of time running back from the graveyard.  They also kill a hell of lot slower than mages at the same level.

But I need bunny rabbits!  My level 70 gnome (which all the others are based on) has had her snowshoe rabbit with her wherever she has gone since level 5.  It is a sight to see a gnome warrior with bright pink pigtails tanking Netherspite or Tidewalker with the bunny rabbit hopping around behind.  Once I get three rabbits for Beldsdots, Beldsfears and Beldsnukes I think I will have a lot more success.  If not, I will still look pretty darn cute.

One by one the team is meeting up at Goldshire.  Azeroth, prepare thyself.......

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Ding 64/64/64

I have now finished the main area in Terokkar Forest and I am in the Bone Wastes. I Dinged 64 and finally have my Totem of Wrath. My Plan for tonight is to see if I can get the Ony chain finished, I really still need a Tank for this. I can take the groups in BRD but it is just a little to time consuming. I have the added bonus of a Friend who has just specced his Pally to Prot and needs practice;).

Zej.

Zej has been boosting his Pally through SM and has just dinged 39. Like me he can't wait to get out of SM, it becomes so tedious after 20 or so runs. When he hits 40 its of to ZF for 5 levels and then its BRD/Scholo/Strat until he hits 55. From 55 its Ramps time. At this point I will probably join him or he will get another guildy if I'm not around. He can probably 2-man most of it but its pushing it and will be a lot easier with at least one person to help.

Beld.

Over the last couple of day we have been working on his Boxing Setup. The closer we get the more exciting it is, for the both of us. It's nice to have a couple of apprentices;). Hopefully we will see him up and running very soon. Of course you can expect some posts based on his own experiences of setting up to box.

Medivh.

It seems like Medivh isn't that popular for Boxers. The three people I had met that were boxing seem to have hibernated. To my knowledge there are only the 4 of us, and all of us are in the Red Dragons.

Badges.

I have worked out that I will need 9 Primal Nethers for my Crafted Epics. I will more than likely use badges from my other two druids as I get them to build this up. That's 90 badges in total. Should not take too long;).

LW on Razorshocks.

Since I will be hitting Nagrand soon, I really want to catch up my LW on Razorshocks so they can both take advantage of all the Leather I will be getting from Nagrand. SO I think tonight I will blow a some gold and at least hit 300.
Razorbax

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Putting Razor to the Test

Like everyone else who reads this blog, I have followed Razor's posts about boosting and multi-boxing and have read how easy it is and how much fun it is.  So I have decided to put him to the test and join the multi-boxing community.  If he can turn a noob like me into a successful multi-boxer then anyone can do it!

After reading a link that he gave me about someone having a macro set up so their 3 gnomes argue with each other, my decision was made.   It has to be gnomes and cute ones at that!

Following the first bit of advice, I have chosen my lead toon as a Protection Specced Pally for rounding up the mobs, holding aggro and for the odd rez when needed.  Unfortunately he is only level 60 after being in retirement for a couple of years.  I was very tempted to speed level him to 70 before starting but I am just too impatient.  His name is Beldarion on the Medivh server and the girls following him shall henceforth be known as Beld's Biatches (I was even tempted to create a guild for them so they could have the tag haha).

The second bit of advice after discussing hardware was to run Beld on my main gaming PC all by himself, and to run 3 toons on a separate higher end laptop.  While I have been waiting for the laptop arrive I have activated 2 new accounts (I already ran 2) and designed my little gnomes.  The design was easy as I already have a level 70 gnome warrior and decided to make them all identical to her.  I don't think the warrior will be as good as a Pally for boosting but do plan for one day down the track for my new gnomes to meet up and group with their maker/inspiration.

I know it is very cliche but the gnomes are all identical, have pink pigtails and will always be dressed exactly the same.  Looks are the most important part!!!!   I have decided on 2 warlocks (and from the wow forums that means I should be able to solo Black Temple) and a Mage.  Their names are Beldsdots, Beldsfears and Beldsnukes but only because Beldswatercooler has too many letters.  This should allow me to round up all the mobs on Beld, just throw up dots and then sit back and chat with myself while all the mobs die.  Lol, although I can't wait for the chance for them to all AOE at once haha.

The final advice at this stage was to level them all solo until level 10 and then join them up for the first of many deadmines runs.  The first is already done and hopefully the second will get done tonight.

Wish me luck !   (with Razor's help, I just might need it)

 

Beld

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Three Druid Noobs Unite!

Ok, So we are united anyway but Zej, Beld and myself have set ourselves a goal. Before we go into that though, I will update you with a few things that are in the Works.

Beld.

Beld has decided to become a Multi-Boxer. We have been discussing it over the past couple of days and it looks like he will go with three cute little Gnomes. He will have two Warlocks and a Mage. He also has a 60 Pally that he will Spec Prot to boost em up. Once he hits 70, he will be Quad Boxing. Since he has a Healing Priest, which will be on the same account as his Pally Tank, he will have alot of options for group makeup for both PVE and PVP.

Zej.

What can I say. Zej loves to Tank. He has a Mage at 70 but lets not go there. Zej has decided to Dual Box. He is going to go with a Paladin. Now since he has his Warrior Tank, you would expect his Pally to be Holy or at least Ret, right? Wrong! His Pally will be a Tank as well.

The Goal.

You can probably guess where this is going. Boxing Karazan. We plan on "4" manning Karazan. This will be our Group Makeup.

MT: Zej, Warrior
OT: Zej, Paladin
DPS: Razorbax, Shammy
DPS: Razorbax, Shammy
DPS: Razorbax, Mage
DPS: Beld, Warlock
DPS: Beld, Warlock
DPS: Beld, Mage
Heal/CC: Beld, Holy Priest
Heal: Some Guild Healer

When?

As soon as we manage to get all of us to level 70 with some decent gear. I have a feeling we will be waiting on Beld for this one, since he has to start from scratch (Zej is transferring a low level Pally to his new account). I do not think this will be too much of an issue as it will give Zej more of a chance to gear up his Prot Pally.

SS or it didn't happen.

We will Fraps our Successes and Failures for your entertainment!
Razorbax

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Retraction?

I was part of a conversation I thought I would share.....

Zej says:Hey Beld?
Beld says:Hey there mate
Beld says:how are ya?
Zej says:Have you DONE the SSO dailies?
Zej says:SSO Dailies = 160 in an hour.
Zej says:160g
Beld says:I don't know what they are
Beld says:WTF
Beld says:on a slow flying mount?
Zej says:Its in Azeroth
Zej says:No flying mount allowed
Beld says:holy shit
Beld says:what is SSO?  where do I get them?
Zej says:Shattered Sun Offensive.
Zej says:there is an NPC that sends you to IF to fly out there
Beld says:oh the new zone?
Zej says:its basically Scryers+Aldor+Shattrath=SSO
Zej says:yes the new Isle of Quel'Danas
Beld says:and not horribly over crowded?  I would have assumed 90% of players would be there
Zej says:It is overcrowded, just means faster spawns
Zej says:some mobs even spawn seconds on top of the mob you just killed
Beld says:wow, so blizzard have thought about it
Zej says:yeah
Zej says:I mean look
Zej says:I spent like 300g this morning all together
Zej says:when i logged off my total spent money was 85g
Zej says:from playing from 10pm to 11pm I made 215g
Razorbax says:Time for an "I told you so" Post Zej ;)
Beld says:hahaha
Beld says:wow that is great
Zej says:maybe
Zej says:maybe Ill let beld retract his own words.
Razorbax says:more fun to prove him wrong:P
Beld says:lol, nah I just leave what I say until someone deletes it
Beld says::P
Zej says:EDIT YOURE @#$%^&@ POST
Zej says::P
Beld says:ROFLMAOPIMP
Razorbax says:Oh... Drama, a Retraction!
Zej says:Oh btw, Mana and Leather have a variable that the SSO dailies don't have.
Zej says:Players.
Razorbax says:?
Zej says:players create the market for em, if nobody needs em there isn't any more market and then you loose the 100-150g an hour.
Zej says:and it drops to say, 80g an hour at most because of deflation.
Beld says:very true
Razorbax says:ahh
Zej says:Where dailies basically pour money into the economy to stimulate it
Zej says:keep it going
Beld says:I have found over the months that leather sales go hot and cold, but mana has been pretty consistent
Zej says:Hmm, I wonder who could use that idea...
Zej says:mana is consistent, but its harder to farm than 9 mobs.
Zej says:9 mobs and bam, 250 rep+ 11g
Beld says:I will have to check them out
Beld says:they sound too good to be true
Zej says:Razor, your opinion?
Razorbax says:I agree with you Zejjypoo
Zej says:http://www.wowhead.com/?item=34671
Beld says:I have tried all the other dailies I can
Zej says:There is a new healing mace for you at revered.
Beld says:never been able to finish the group quests for the ogre ones
Zej says:http://www.wowhead.com/?item=34677
Beld says:oh I like that
Zej says:There is a new healing neck for you at exalted
Beld says:mmm kk, might be worth doing .. MIGHT be  :P
Zej says:well
Razorbax says:Screencapped!
Zej says:the effect is nice if you are exalted with either of the scryers or aldor
Beld says:I hate you Razor

And there we have it!

Razorbax

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Dailies or Hourlies?

Are Dailies actually worth doing if you don't yet have an epic flying mount?

 

Lol, firstly I would like to make it perfectly clear that I agree with Zej's post saying that epic flying amounts are easily achievable by every player that puts in a little bit of time and effort.  For the record, I am far too lazy to put in either, and despite four level 70's and another few toons over 60 I still haven't got an epic flying mount for any of them.

 

My dilemma is that I think the gold return per hour for doing dailies is just too low to make them worthwhile to do for any reason other than just killing time.  Am I doing something wrong?  The wrong dailies?  The wrong order?

 

Personally I find that when I actually farm (I do primal mana and leather in Netherstorm) I can easily make around 100 - 150g an hour.  If I am feeling lazier still I fish and easily make 80 - 100g an hour.  Yet when I do dailies I rarely get above 60g an hour, and that drops down even lower if the competition is too high.

 

Any thoughts or suggestions, or are my expectations too high?

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Purrfection - Chapter 2

Druids suck !!!!!!!!!!   (That was pretty gutsy to type in a druid blog wasn't it?  :P)

 

Now before you skip straight to the end and abuse me, I would like to point out that I really am enjoying the druid, but I can now see why so many people proudly claim that druids suck.  I am sure you have all heard from so many that say they rolled a druid, and hated it.  I think I have worked out why.

 

Level 1 to 10 was fun, but I couldn't wait until I got to level 10 and could shapeshift and be a real druid.  What a disappointment!  It took so long to kill a mob and was really really upsetting.  If it wasn't for the grief Razor would give me, I probably would have deleted the toon during level 11 or 12 like most other people do.   Now of course all the druids would be screaming out "you noob, bear is not for dps", but my point is that all us genuine noob druids don't even stop and think about that, and don't know any better.

 

I went back to levelling by casting and it took another level or 2 before I learnt to cast a couple of times and then to switch to bear form to play with the mob until it died, which sure made survivability much easier.  However, it still seems quite slow in killing compared to all the other classes I have played.  It really seems at this stage that I have the choice to spend half of each fight in bear form (with no dps) or drink after every fight and spend just as long with downtime.  I am expecting and certainly hoping to see a big difference once I get cat form.

 

I wonder why blizzard didn't give druids cat form before bear form, after all nobody really needs or uses a tank at this stage in the game.

 

Beld

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Purrfection - Chapter 1

A druid is born.

 

After the best part of three years listening to Razor's Druid Fetish, I have finally buckled and rolled my first druid so that I can continue to argue about druids with him but from first hand experience.  I have played most classes and have a Warrior, Priest, Mage and Shammy all at 70 so I think it will be fun to truly compare the druid to other classes.

 

I rolled a female (of course) night elf on Medivh and Razor helped with naming her Purrfection and over the last couple of days have levelled her from 1 to 10 (and still fully clothed), so the time has come to post.

 

I would never admit this to Razor, but I have actually had a lot of fun so far.  I think the starting zone is the best of all the alliance races with so little running around required for the quests, although the weigh off is having to go all the way up to the top of that damned tree over and over.  I did find it amusing that it only took me a couple of minutes to work out that spamming moonfire was not terribly effective or mana efficient, and it staggers me that so many high level pvp'ers still haven't worked that out.  :P

 

The second zone was mostly just as much fun.  Yet another tower/tree to keep going to the top of, but again the quests made levelling and exploring easy and fun.  However there was one exception.  There is a quest called Twisted Hatred that involves going into a cave just north of Dolanaar which was just incredibly frustrating.  The respawn rate of the mobs in there is absolutely ridiculous and took all of the enjoyment out of the day.

 

I continued my journey to level 10 and after getting lost and stuck in moonglade I completed the quest and got bear form.  Now I feel like a real druid!  From here, I really don't know what I will do.  I am very tempted to go to the Eastern Kingdoms where I know all the quests, but also tempted to stay on Kalimdor and see those quests for the first time (I have always avoided them).  I also don't know whether to continue levelling as normal and enjoy the druid or to dual box and use my mage to power level / boost Purrfection.

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