Wrath Weekend Warrior, Part 2

Sam has completed most of Borean Tundra, earning the Nothing Boring in Borean achievement.

I hope I don't look appetizing

SamTip: If there's several people all trying to do Springing the Trap, just come back later. Even if you win the flare-spam competition, you still may not complete the quest. If you land while someone else is still going through the closing scene, you will not trigger the event yourself, and will have to go back and try again.


Attack!


Oh **** me

Nothing makes an adventurer's heart sink like seeing a Gnome town come over the horizon. Sure, you'll get some fun quests, but there's sure to be some that will make you tear out your hair. These freeloaders don't even have a home any more, and yet they still send you on the most useless tasks.

That being said, Re-Cursive is cool. Love the name, and the Gnome lore is nifty. Sure, the freaking Gnomes don't believe that Gearmaster Mechazod was created by the Ancients, but I like to think he was. The Dwarves were forged from Stone and Iron, why can't the Gnomes be descendents of a mechanical race?


Gah!

Ugliest. Hat. Ever.
Thankfully, I replaced it shortly.


Requires Engineering 750


I've seen bigger

SamTip: Hah... You're Not So Big Now! is kinda bugged. The Blaster has a 3-second channeling time. However, the item actually takes 4 seconds to cast. So, even after the casting bar is done, don't break the channel until you see the debuff on the Magnataur.

Next week: Dragonblight!

November Musings

• As previously suggested, EVERYONE needs to create a Death Knugget. Even if you have no intention of leveling it, the questline is a must. Soak it in, live the lore, read some of the books that are around, slaughter some innocent civilians.
  
• Big shout-out to the Alliance on Azjol-Nerub. Everyone seemed very civil in the post-Wrath leveling rush. Very rarely did I have a mob ninjaed out from under me.
  
• My Death Knight guide is rapidly growing out of control. HALP.
  
• FailBlog is my new favorite website.
  
• As a retail worker, this scares the hell out of me.
  
• I may have gone a bit overboard on the Gurren Lagann love. Then again, maybe there's too much EPIC there for normal human minds.
  
• Tards are helpless without QuestHelper. Well, they're helpless with it, but they're just quieter.
  
• What a miserable day of Thanksgiving football.
  
• Fallout 3 is pure awesome.
  
• I like the New Xbox Experience. Hoping for new Avatar parts so I can look a little less generic.
  
• I'm addicted to Publix Sweet tea. For real, I drank like half a gallon last night.
  

See You Next Week

I'm taking Thanksgiving week off from the blog.

Posts will resume Sunday or Monday next week.

T's Death Knight Guide, Part 2: Spells

This is part 2 of an ongoing guide that will later be compiled into one large "uber-guide" for up-and-coming Death Knights.

Part 1 can be found here.

SPELLS

Basic, non-talented spells by level, leaving out utility spells and previously discussed Presences:

Blood Strike, 55: Rotation attack. Best used after Icy Touch and Plague Strike for maximum effect.
Icy Touch, 55: Rotation attack. Applies the Frost Fever disease.
Plague Strike, 55: Rotation attack. Applies the Blood Plague disease.
Death Coil, 55: Rotation attack. The first Runic Power skill Death Knights have access to. Will heal Ghouls, Gargoyles and Lichborne Frost Knights.
Death Grip, 55: The coolest ability in the game. Great for pulling, saving healers and full of Awesome in PVP.
Death Strike, 56: Rotation Attack. Will be replaced in the basic rotation with more powerful attacks. However, you will still want to mix this in to keep yourself alive when necessary.
Pestilence, 56: Useful for fighting multiple mobs. Very useful when combined with Blood Boil and other disease-based AOEs.
Raise Dead, 56: Fun spell. Awesome to raise your group members and have them play as Ghouls. Unholy Knights have a talent that will make the Ghoul a permanent pet.
Mind Freeze, 57: Spell interrupt.
Chains of Ice, 58: Short-term CC. Useful for PVP or giving the tank a few extra seconds to regain aggro on a squishie-rushing mob.
Blood Boil, 58: Good AOE spell, best used with Pestilence.
Strangulate, 59: Another, more effective spell interrupt.
Death and Decay, 60: Death knight Consecrate, for non-Frost AOE tanking.
Obliterate, 61: Rotation attack. Does it really matter what it does? How can you NOT use a spell called Obliterate. Seriously, though, this will replace Death Strike for the most part in the basic rotation. Frost Knights especially will blow things up with this.
Icebound Fortitude, 62: Strong tanking and PVP "Oh Crap!" button.
Blood Tap, 64: Not sure how useful this is. Each talent spec already has a way of creating plenty of Death Runes.
Dark Command, 65: Taunt.
Horn of Winter, 65: If you don't have a Shaman to drop Strength of Earth, this can make a nice buff.
Death Pact, 66: If you have a pet out, this will make a nice emergency heal. However, if you're keeping track of time, use this just before a non-telented Ghoul dies after its duration for free health, assuming you have the Runic Power.
Rune Strike, 67: This spell is OFF the Global Cooldown. If you have the Runic Power, there is no reason any good Death Knight should not be using this. Macro it in to other skills if you have to.
Anti-Magic Shell, 68: Only a 5 second duration, so watch your timing for maximum effect. Great way to piss off casters in PVP.
Empower Rune Weapon, 75: Properly used, this will enable Death Knights to pump out some serious damage every few minutes.
Army of the Dead, 80: For the record, I will continually refer to this spell as "Army of Darkness." This spell looks awesome and is very useful if you make a bad pull soloing. Should create beautiful chaos in PVP.

Part 3: Talents

T's Death Knight Guide, Part 1: The Basics

Updated 12/2/08, updated text in bold italics

This is part 1 of an ongoing guide that will later be compiled into one large "uber-guide" for up-and-coming Death Knights.

Tarmr is only level 58 at the moment, and still slowly completing his gathering profesions to 300 before venturing into Outland, so some specifics may be revised over the course of his adventures.

This guide is intended for starting Death Knights and will not cover advanced tactics, in-depth stat values or end-game min/maxing.

BASICS

I'll spare the backstory. I assume everyone knows that Death Knights are the game's first Hero Class, etc. Plate, 2-handers, dual-wield, blah blah blah.

Roles

Death Knights are capable of tanking, damage dealing and PVP, regardless of talent spec. Do not listen to anyone who tells you otherwise. This is a new design direction for Blizzard. Your spec will not determine your role, but rather HOW you perform it. Of course, some builds will be optimal in certain situations.

Here's the general breakdown.

Blood Knights will have very high, sustained damage against single targets, as well as increased survivability and group utility through healing mechanics.

Frost Knights offer the best mitigation against melee attacks, very high, bursty, crit-based damage potential, limited AOE and extra Crowd Control. Frost is probably the "best" tanking spec. Also, Death Knights looking to Dual-Wield will most likely want a Frost-heavy build.

Unholy Knights are best at AOE attacks, diseases and magical defense, as well as pet usage. Unholy Knights also gain speed increases that will pay off in PVP.

Resources

Death Knights use 2 different resources, Runes and Runic Power.

There are 3 basic types of Runes.

Blood
Frost
Unholy
There are also special Death Runes.

Runes are used up by various spells and then recharge after ten seconds. For example, Blood Strike will use 1 Blood Rune, while Death Strike will burn 1 Frost and 1 Unholy. This gives the Death Knight a playstyle similar to Rogue, with the ability to be at "full power" at the beginning of an encounter, then using skills and quickly recharging to fire them off again.

Death Runes are granted by certain talents and will take the place of the other Runes. Death Runes are "wild cards" and can be used in the place of any of the basic three.

Runic Power functions almost identically to a Warrior's Rage mechanic. Each skill that the Death Knight uses that consumes one Rune grants 10 Runic Power. Two Runes grants 15 and three Runes grants 20. This can be increased via talents. Runic Power can then be used for attacks. For example, Death Coil is a basic Death Knight ability that can only be used once the Death Knight has accumulated 40 Runic Power. Just like Rage, Runic Power degenerates over time outside of battle.

This is what makes the Death Knight a Hero Class. They are no more powerful than any other class, but rather, are more difficult to play and thus not suitable for beginners.

Presences

Presences are what allow Death Knights of all specs to excel at each situation they find themselves in. They function much like Warrior Stances or Druid Forms.

Blood Presence is for basic damage dealing and excellent for soloing thanks to the healing effect.

Frost Presence is the default tanking Presence.

Unholy Presence is geared more towards PVP. However, with the increased attack and casting speed, it may be able to outpace Blood Presence for damage over a short period of time. However, after blowing all your skills with reduced GCD, you will still have to wait for Rune cooldowns.

Part 2: Spells

What's the Hurry?

I swear, I will never understand the super-hardcore crowd.

Nymh of Drek'thar (EU) reaches level 80 in 27 hours.

Dessembre of Mazrigos (EU) levels a Death Knight to 80 in 41 hours.

TwentyFifthNovember of Magtheridon (EU) levels 25 (maybe more) players to 80 and clears all current raid content in the game in 68 1/2 hours.

What.

The.

Hell.

What sort of enjoyment do these people get out of playing a game non-stop just to say they were the first to do something that earns them absolutely nothing other than a sore ass?

Machinima Monday: Eternal Legend

Another old-school classic.

Wrath Weekend Warrior Part 1

Welcome to Wrath Weekend Warrior, a series of posts chronilcing my Warlock, Samodean's journey through Northrend.

Sam started off taking the boat from Stormwind to Valiance Keep in the Borean Tundra. The town is laid out nicely, very simple and compact, which I love. Borean Tundra is flat-out beautiful. THIS is the reason you're not allowed to fly yet. Stop complaining and enjoy the scenery that you just spent $40 (or more) on.

Hit up the Profession trainers, bought some new skills... and promptly ran out of money. Mind you, Sam never really did dailies. He had a small amount of gold leftover from his Inscription profits after sending most of it to alts. But ouch! 37G to train a new rank of Tailoring? 5G for each recipe? I'm not complaining, it's affordable, but PAY ATTENTION.

Speaking of Tailoring, get Northrend Cloth Scavenging ASAP. Cloth is VERY hard to come by out here.

Also Tailoring-related, the introductory Northrend set, Frostwoven, is almost as good as my now-nerfed FSW set. It appears to be similar with other professions. The starting greens are almost as good as the BC crafted epic sets.

Before leaving the Keep, one final Warlock tip, specifically Affliction specs. In the quest The Hunt is On, you are required to find and kill a Cultist spy in the prison. After talking to him, and before he aggroes, back out into the hallway. If you fight him in the prison, the other guards will help out. If they deal more damage than you do, you will not get credit for the kill. Since Affliction Warlocks take a few seconds to ramp up the damage, this is very hard to do.

Moving on to the rest of the Tundra, one quick request:

PLEASE UPDATE QUESTHELPER

Not for myself, but for all these other noob-tards who can't read a freaking quest to save their lives. Look at the quest Plug the Sinkholes. The quest text CLEARY states "Take these explosives and place them at the entrance to the sinkholes up on the ridge beyond the beach to the west." Look to the West, cross the sand, there's a ramp RIGHT THERE, climb it, Sinkholes! Apparently, this is entirely too complicated for the average idiot to comprehend. Every 2 minutes, someone was asking "Where are the sinkholes?" Can someone give coords for the sinkholes?" "I can't find the sinkholes, someone who knows where they are please invite." Of course, they were far less grammatically correct.

Anyway, moving into the Tundra, the mist effect in Riplash Strand is cool, and a nice example of Blizzard's new Phasing technology. Thos outside the mist can't see anything inside of it and vice-versa.

Don't walk into the DEHTA camp while covered in Animal Blood. An unlucky Hunter I know will attest to that.

Speaking of the DEHTA camp...



Burn you lazy freaking Dwarf! Go hunt the 500 animals on your own!

The Murloc quests are a must. The baby Murlocs are so sickeningly cute, they even warmed this Warlock's cold heart. It will also be the only chance most of us have to see the Murloc Dance.



Level 71 reached, and I will leave you with that image.

Wrath Day 1: Redemption

Death Knights rule.

Started a Dwarf Death Knight today, Tarmr. Completed the DK starting area and questlines. Very fun. Even if you have no intention of playing one, at least roll one to do these quests.

I'll be leveling him as Frost, more info on that once I hit Outland.

First, however, I need to work on Professions. He's a gatherer, with Skinning and Herbalism. Getting him to 70 will be a priority since he'll be supplying Sam's herbs for Inscription.

I thought I had some screenshots, but my computer ate them, apparently.

O pitiful shadow lost in darkness...
Demeaning and bringing harm to others...
A damned soul, wallowing in sin...
Care to give death a try?
-Ai, Hell Girl

Epic Nerdgasm

**BE WARNED, THIS POST CONTAINS MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF NON-WOW NERDNESS**

Last night marked the infale of one of the best animes I have seen in recent memory, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.



Loosely translated, that is Heavenly Piercing Gurren Lagann.

This show is so full of awesome, it's almost too much for fragile human minds. It manages to pay homage to the giant mecha shows of the past (everything from Gundam to Evangelion) while telling a fast-paced, modern story. It's a show that does not take itself too seriously. However, that silliness makes the dramatic moments that much more striking. Not all of our heroes will make it to the end.

*Manly tears*

Great comedy, good story, insane action, heartbreaking drama, there is nothing this show does not have. I dare any anime fan to watch this show and come away disappointed. Pick up the new;y-released DVDs or be a punk and find it on the internet for free.

After last night's finale on Sci Fi's Ani-Monday, this show has definitely found a home in my Top Ten. And that's after watching it in ENGLISH. It's even more epic dubbed.

JUST WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK I AM?

Machinima Monday: The Classics

Posting those couple videos last week gave me a great idea for a way to phone in one blog post a week.

Err... wait.

Nah, I'll just roll with that.

Anyway, I figured I'd start out the new weekly series with the Trinity of WoW Machinima for those who have not seen them.

YouTube embeds do not do these videos justice, so I will heavily recommend downloading them directly from the producers.

-Rise of the Living Dead Episodes One, Two and Three. This was my introduction to WoW Machinima, and still one of the best. Episode Two is the high-water mark. Unfortunately, due to some of the "actors" leaving the game, Episode Three stumbled a bit.

-Illegal Danish Super Snacks and Escape from Orgrimmar. Super Snack has got to be the funniest thing I have ever seen. Lots of Vanilla-WoW jokes that newcomers may not get.

-Tales of the Past. Simply epic. The third and final chapter clocks in at NINETY minutes. Well worth the viewing time.

More Machinima next Monday!

Pre-Wrath Blues

Perhaps a brutal work schedule had something to do with it, but I seem to be suffering from an extreme case of Pre-Expansion Apathy.

It occurred to me Saturday night, after a fantastic day of Shaman leveling. I brought in truckloads of experience in a short period of time, flying through the rest of Terokkar. At the end of the day, I was only halfway through 67. Mind you, I was only 64 two weeks ago. 3 1/2 levels in around 12 hours of playtime is pretty good by my standards.

But what did it mean? what sort of epiphany did it bring about? With my schedule, no matter how well I play, how much I'm on my game, Haddar and Ullic have no chance of reaching 70 before Wrath hits.

Hey, that's why I have other characters, though! Well, Sam the Warlock is "complete" for me until Thursday. And, well, I just don't feel like playing my Hunter. He's currently 4th on my list as far as enjoyment is concerned. Once the expansion launches, he'll probably be the last character to hit Northrend, even after my planned Death Nugget.

Blah.

Then again, perhaps this can be good for me. Taking a little time off will energize me. Thursday will be a day I can look forward to because I can "start playing again." It will be very refreshing to be able to do something new for the first time in 2 years.

Another Lazy Post

Work is still insane, so here's another video.

How does a lone Shaman single-handedly wipe an Alliance raid? Thunderstorm.



I promise, I have real posts planned once I have the time.

Election Time

Please note that this blog will never touch on politics. I just thought I'd share this funny video I found on Halolz.

We all know that tomorrow is the Presidential election. We've seen polls for Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania and every other swing state. However, one demographic goes missing.

Azeroth.