On hiatus

At this moment in time, I have not played WOW in many months, I had an active sub that I was not making use of so I cancelled it. Uni/child commitments are taking over my ability to play anything but a casual game which is not something I can really do with WOW!

On the Mist of the Panderan expansion: Wow. I dunno what to say. It looks awesome, but Im not sure its wise to blatantly rip off Kung Fu Panda ^.^

Still, it will be interesting to see what it is like when it is out, for sure enough Ill be along to bump my lil mage to 90 and play the new content as always! I may even blog about my journeys properly. :p I see a lot of people still hit the page for the Arcane Mage Shot rotation update post... eek. Maybe I should research and actually update it!

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Active!

The account is active. Woot!

I dont plan to play end game, I dont have the time... if I can wiggle something into my schedule I am willing, but for the time being I think Im gonna hit an RP server and be "one of those roleplaying types!"

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Mage gear in 4.2

Stumbled on an interesting article on my RSS feed. Basically: getting new gear in patch 4.2 for mages. Daily Quests, crafted epics and raid gear that is new to 4.2, certainly suits my palette! I want to play again! Gah to this busyness!

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WOW: Numbers drop, trial improves. :)

So, ActiBlizz announced that they have had a dip in subscribers recently (about 5% - but thats half a million active accounts!) thats bigger than most other MMORPG's even have.

Now - they have changed the trial - free to play... forever - with a level 20 cap. That gives a good chance for folks who want to play the game to try it out and get a feel for the game and the classes without a timeout. I likey this! I you aint played, go get the trial. Now! :) I see this bringing a chunk of new players in - a good move from ActiBlizz.

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So much to post about...

I may have been quiet lately, but I actually have an excess of post ideas and I just cant get organised to get them down on... keyboard.

There are many aspects of the forthcoming patch that interest me, I have been listening to past episodes of The Instance and have a lot to chat about there, my Instance Episode catalogue has more in but the back-episodes have dissapeared from the website so I dont see the point in continuing until I can get access to them to continue downloading and listening to the episodes.

Amongst all this there have been random topics to discuss, such as healing strategies, tanking, my screenshot library to share and more.

Watch this space, I might pick something and roll with it soon!

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Flintlock comics

If you have not caught these in your time, I suggest going over to here and having a damn good look... The flintlock comics is by far, at least in my opinion, the best wow comic around. Well, when I say around, I mean in existence - the actual story for it stopped being written a few years ago - but the archives are still well worth a read :)

There are clear references to this character in the game that have been put in - Hellfire Peninsula - you get his pants working for the goblins there, and in Cataclysm you get to actually work with the potentially homicidal Flintlock.

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A movie: "Are Wow graphics good"

Found this movie on Wow Insider and just had to link - makes me wanna roll a new char and just amble around on an RP server enjoying the scenery ^.^

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The Instance, ah - the joys :)

I have been listening to some old episodes of the instance as I go about my rounds, driving from site to site as part of the internship. I must say, it has been a good giggle. The news may be old - but the entertainment value is as good as ever. As is the nostalgia value. 

I have been putting together some notes from the shows as I go, as a while ago I decided that it would be awesome to get a list of episodes with nice short decriptions and bullet points of the main content that can be referenced, as well as other info like hosts, run time, and links to the episode blog and audio file.

I now have the latest 4 on my HTC, ready for my trip to Glasgae tomorrow. God help me, I been struggling coping with the drive to/from edinburgh... I better hit the sack!

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Buyable mount: The winged guardian

So, Blizzard have release a new epic mount that players can buy: The Winged Guardian... I must say, I think it rocks :D

When the celestial steed came out - I didnt even get a tingle of oooooh. This one though... this ones shiny... I want to tug his little KittyBeard... in a cute way, of course!

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WOW classes - My thoughts and experiences with them.

Bare in mind, the last time I played was January...

In oder of my experience:

Mage: I love this class. The utility, the flashiness, and how easy it is to get around. My mage was my first character I rolled, and is still the one I regularly return to. With the right technique for fighting the latency, and the right combo's you can do some awesome damage.

Rogue: My rogue was a "fun" character I made to play alongside my wife. He rapidly became my alternating main, and is just so silly. He is a Gnome with engineering... I built him from the word go to have a Gnomish World Enlarger, and it still makes me giggle having a rugby ball sized sprinting rogue running about... As for playability - I really liked the stealth aspect of the game. He must have spent 90% of his life in stealth unless I was needing to ride rapidly from A-B - not the most efficient way to play, but it was fun. I have levelld him through all 3 specs. Combat has been my favourite though, purely for the jump in the fray, burn cooldowns and watch everything die side of things. Oddly, it has proven my most effective PVP spec aswell.

Priest: After my Rogue, when I started raiding - I decided to pick up a priest and play. I found the levelling was fairly slow, but to date it has been my favourite support character. I really enjoy healing, and pulling the group out of near-death scenarios with some tactical healing. I levelled alongside my wifes mage, and it was a good duo - I would bubble and hot, and she would run on in and Arcane explosion big groups (usually of Murlocs. Were not racist, honest!) whilst I would hop in alongside and Holy Nova until she needed another bubble or nuke heal. It also allowed for multi-boxing as I could easily just hit the Arcane Explosion button with one keyboard, and focus on my priest keeping the mage up.

Hunter: I have not gotten a hunter to the end game yet, but I have had a multitude of hunters over the years - I preferred them a lot more when they were complex though. When you had to feed your pet, when unique pets actually had abilities over others (I tamed broken tooth at least three times...) and it took more focus to work them... Im not so keen on the way that they play now, although I am keen to get logged back in and have a play with a fresh one!

Warrior: My latest warrior was a Worgen - I got him into the 30s exclusively with random dungeons as a tank - I love(d) this guy - but alas, I stopped playing one day and started playing my Paladin again, and never went back... :(

Paladin: I have always liked Paladins, but they were always so common and kinda slow that I was never that interested - then I got into Retribution spec about christmas - and found myself playing a LOT - I dual specced as a healer, and found out I really like Pally healing (maybe moreso than the new priest discipline spec) - although mistime something and your likely to wipe the party.

Druid: I go on and off druids all the time. They can be like rogues but without as much utility - Im not too keen on the Boomkin since I have a mage, and I dont trust the HOT healing anywhere except in my wifes hands (Her main is a Resto druid...) I have seen Boomkins do impressive damage lately, but any time I go druid - I am feral. I really got into my druid once the custom forms came out - and I do enjoy them, but as I say - the want to play them comes and goes.

Warlock: I really want to like Warlocks and play one... but I just cant do it, as I always want my Warlock to be Horde - and can never get far as Horde as its usually a foray onto a friends server and they usually not around after a while and I stop playing... my highest was probably about level 40 - I pushed to get the mount then stopped playing. This was back in the day when the RPPVP servers came online and me and some friends started a hordie guild that I kinda stopped playing with.

Shaman: Shaman interest me, they are cool, they are tough, they have utility... they bore the shite outta me... I just have not got one out of the starter area yet... but Im going to do it! I am! I am intent on rolling a Dwarven Shammy and showing the world its ale-right. (See what I did?)...

Fiiine,
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Warcraft pen & paper rpg

Well bugger me, I never know of this...

A warhammer D20 game based on Dungeons and Dragons v 3.5 rulesets (well, it says revised 3rd edition rules... I think this is 3.5ed)

Linky to the wiki :)

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Guide to Patch 4.2, by WOW Insider

I been pinching a lot of news articles from WOW Insider lately - but check this link out and you will see why. They have some nicely organised coverage of various areas of the upcoming patch, if you aint found it on your lonesome - go check it out :)

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Wow patch 4.2 - patch note observations

Encounter Journal:

This is an interesting addition to the 4.2 Arsenal - a page of info about the in-world dungeons, the bosses within, their loot drops and the phases that they have... Im not 100% sure just how useful it will be - but I think it is a utility once again aimed at the casual gamer. It allows you to join a random dungeon, and have a quick browse through the expected encounters - pretty good if you dont want to go check the likes of Wowiki.

Lets see, what else is there... New Haircuts... The FireLands raid encounter - this could be interesting.  Raggy with his lava ding dong. (Also known as legs.)

Tier 12 set bonus changes:

It seems there has been some commotion in the masses regarding Tier 12 set bonus changes. Follow the link for Wow Insiders analysis.

I may be reactivating soon so I can come check out the joys of patch 4.1, and maybe hit the PTR to see these upcoming changes :)

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Patch 4.2: thoughts and opinions imbound...

Honestly... I just been out of the loop and need to go do some research, then hopefully I will have some insightful posts/rants on whats to come in 4.2 that I like/dislike :)

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Freedom! Exams over.

That is the final exam over and done with. Assuming nothing went drastically wrong, I am now the proud owner of a Bsc in Applied Computing on top of my BEng in Electronics & Electrical Engineering.

Woot!

It feels good to be free, but my agenda is no less busy. I have a meeting tomorrow for my summer work placement as an IT assistant at a local housing company. I will most likely be starting on Monday. In addition to this, I am going to be starting a web-design business to work on part time over the summer and after I start back at uni after the summer. I have a few projects to get on the go, and I am quite looking forward to getting started on them!

Anyway - we finally got around to tidying/unpacking from the move in 2 weeks ago. Lots still to be done, so I am off back to it!

Exams, Webless, Senile.

So I am onto exam 3 today: Internet programming. I still dont have internet at the new flat... And I appear to be losing my mind!

WHeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!

Transition Complete.

We are now finally out of the old place, and into the new. boxes EVERYWHERE, but it still feels tidier cleaner and more spacious than the old place... Plus the garden is awesome! Internet will be installed in about a week and a half, but for now: Study must be initiated - I have an exam on Monday...

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Noblegarden time :o

Egg poopin bunnies... #winning

Is it sad that this is actually my favourite WOW holiday? Well, perhaps after halloween.

Why? Im a kleptomaniac... the first year that noblegarden was out I got most of the achievements on 3 characters and enjoyed it on every one... I have two characters (Mage and Priest) with the Noble tag... and Im sitting here up to my pits in study materials wishing I could log in and do it all over...

I may need therapy...

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The instance on patch 4.1 - Souvenirs of your adventures.

A souvenir/reward: or pixels for your pixels?

Listening to The Instance podcast episode #223. Currently they are discussing the ability to buy in game items V "earning them" - I must say, I am actually not a fan of buying the items. I like earning the cool items you can find in games - they act as souvenirs of your adventures. For example: My mage has a NetherDrake. This reminds me quite strongly of that time in my life - when I was grinding the Netherwing rep, with a friend or two in game, and the things that were going on at that time in my life (redundancy - or at least the day after I got it I was made redundant - no correlation to the fact I was up 3 times a night from midnight to 6am to gather eggs in quiet time... honest!)

I actually tried through the whole of Wrath to get a Proto-Drake - it turns out it was in vein - but I did manage to get the Bronze Drake from Culling of Stratholm for my Priest, again, this reminds me of the time spent running that instance with friends to get it. As for the proto-drakes, I done the rep grind with my mage - who has the Netherdrake - with the Carebears in Sholazar Basin to buy an egg every 3 or 4 days. Over the months of me doing this religiously, I managed to gather a huge array of pets that I distributed amongst my characters and friends. Little memorabelia's but no Green Proto Drake.

I also ground Utgart Pinnacle to get the Blue Protodrake - but I seen it drop ONCE, and I lost the roll by about 1. DOH!

I also have the turtle mount on my mage from fishing. This proved useful in Vashj'ir - but other than that it is just a funky doodad that I picked up when fishing for mats to make fish feasts for raiding.

Put it this way: My baby blizzard bear is rarely out - but my vampiric bat from the Kharazhan halloween boss before Wrath came out is frequently out and about - I have memories of earning it and I enjoy its presence, like a happy memory flitting by.

Take a look through the mounts on your characters, or the pets: Which ones have the most meaning to you? Your sparklepony? Pretty, yes: it may even have some imbedded memory of sorts in your head. A present maybe? but I doubt it will mean as much to you as a hard-earned rep-mount or boss drop mount. The same goes with pets.

Funny WOW screenshot collection 1:

The screenshots folder. Often added to, rarely browsed. I must have about 5gb of screencaps from my adventures in Azeroth. And thats after using batchconverter on the 5mb a piece screenshots from vanilla wow so they are about 50kb each instead. Since I have so many, I will only include a handful here, but that does make-way for future posts with silly screen caps :D. Below are some of my Cataclysm screen-caps. Enjoy!

Click to embiggen!

I knew I should have gone before getting on that Griffon...

Yes, I really am 12 inside.

O Noes!

No caption required...