kodo
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Breakfast Topic: A kodo at last
Sometimes I don't have anything particularly deep or interesting to say. Sometimes, I just have a story. A story about a kodo that I didn't get. Several years back, when Coren Direbrew worked differently (he dropped mounts, you didn't get them in a keg after you killed him) a group of friends got together to run Direbrew over and over again to maximize people's chances to pick up the mount. With people rotating in alts, we managed a grand total of sixteen Direbrew kills. On the last kill of the night, I offered to rotate in my Death Knight - he was a new character, just recently arrived at level 80 and not particularly geared. But I really wanted the kodo, even if it would be on an alt and not my main. (This was before mounts were account bound.) I switched to said DK, we did the fight, and sure enough the kodo dropped. And then I realized my wife was in the group. She didn't have the kodo. She wanted the kodo. And she was a mount collector. So I did the only thing I could and passed - after all, I was on my alt, not my main. As soon as they made mounts account wide a tiny piece of my soul withered and died. I've watched friends get the mount over the years, but I never did. It just seemed to be out of my reach. Until tonight, when after years, after Wrath and Cataclysm and two years of Mists of Pandaria the bloody thing finally dropped. For my alt. So yes, my wife's finally off the hook. My draenei can finally ride around on a kodo, the one thing I desperately missed from playing Horde. Life is good. Now you tell your stories of long-awaited victory, I suppose. Or don't. I'll be busy tooling around on my kodo.
Back in my day, it was all about patch 1.2
Patch 5.2 this, patch 5.2 that! Back in my day, we had real patches. Or rather, we had the very first content patch for the game -- patch 1.2. Daily quest hubs? Dailies didn't even exist back then. No, you got a dungeon -- a single dungeon -- and you liked it. And there was none of this silly heroic nonsense, either. All we needed was someplace to run in and smash a few centaur and we were perfectly happy. But seriously, it's actually kind of odd to think about, because I remember that very first patch with utter clarity. It was still 2004, less than a month after the game itself had been released -- and I had just gotten the hang of playing a druid, more or less. Well, I figured out what talent points were for, anyway. Hint: It wasn't just the game congratulating me for leveling up. I was such a noob back then.
WoW Archivist: World of Warcraft patch 1.2
The WoW Archivist explores the secrets of World of Warcraft's past. What did the game look like years ago? What secrets does the game still hold? If you enjoyed Patches of Yesteryear, you're going to love this. Patch 1.2 was World of Warcraft's very first post-release content patch, way back in December of 2004. It was officially released on Dec. 18, less than a month after the release of the game. Patch 1.2's crown jewel was Maraudon, the first instance ever added to the game after its launch. You may all hate Maraudon now, but back in 2004, that twisty hellhole was the cat's pajamas. Patch 1.2 also included: Winter Veil The ability to turn off your helm and cloak A nerf to Daze The Great Kodo Nerf of '04 Let's dust off the patch 1.2 tome together, shall we?
WoW Archivist: World of Warcraft patch 1.1
The WoW Archivist explores the secrets of World of Warcraft's past. What did the game look like years ago? What secrets does the game still hold? If you enjoyed Patches of Yesteryear, you're going to love this. This week's Archivist will be tackling World of Warcraft patch 1.1. Up until this point, we'd been mired in alpha and beta patches, examining the game before the masses got its grubby mitts on it. Patch 1.1 is the first 1.x version of the game, making it the first version of the client made available for open release to the public. However, this patch was released prior to the official launch of the game -- those of you that participated in the open beta of World of Warcraft back in late 2004, it's this version of the game that you likely saw first. This patch included goodies such as: The implementation of kodo as the replacement for Plainsrunning Molten Core and Onyxia's Lair were opened up Removal of many in-combat resurrection spells Let's crack open the archives!
The OverAchiever: Combining The Ambassador and Mountain o' Mounts
Every Thursday, The Overachiever shows you how to work toward those sweet achievement points. This week, we contribute to Azeroth's obesity epidemic by refusing to walk. Mounts: They get your ass from point A to point B, and if you're lucky, they'll do it as stylishly as possible. They're the most immediately visible status symbol in WoW and often give you a one-glance note on the kind of player at whom you're looking. People astride Invincible can be counted upon to be hardcore raiders from the Wrath of the Lich King era, someone riding a Violet Proto-Drake is never new to the game, and players rocking a White Stallion are seriously old school. Players who have been around for any length of time almost inevitably accrue a stable's worth of beasties to cart them around, but some folks go the extra mile for the Leading the Cavalry and Mountain o' Mounts achievements. In Cataclysm, these are a lot easier than they once were, although you should still be prepared to dump a ton of gold and time into them no matter what. Fortunately, the first part of the Mountain o' Mounts trek should also net you The Ambassador achievement and title.
Breakfast Topic: Dude, where's my ram?
It's morning. You wake up in a groggy haze, your mouth tasting like coal and cheap beer. Staggering outside your hut, you rub your eyes in disbelief as you notice something missing. Something large, furry, covered in pieces of barrel and horned. Wait -- Dude, where's my ram? Another Brewfest has come and gone. Sadly, we'll all have to wait another year for endless rivers of cheap beer, luscious beer meats and hilarious hallucinations. Holidays are always a great chance to mix up your usual routine, so we ask: Were you lucky enough to pull a mount from the cold, dead clutches of Coren Direbrew? Did you get your Brewmaster title? Did you even care?
The Queue: Go lay down
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com's daily Q&A column where the WoW.com team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Mike Sacco will be your host today. Why do I always wait to do the easiest post of the day until four in the morning? I should do the easy one first, then do the several-thousand-word posts. Flaskamel asked... "Is it possible for 25 druids to kill a 25-man boss?"
Reminder: ICftB Epic Harvest Brewfestival Ride today
The Epic Harvest Brewfestival Ride is today! Those of us who are level 40 and above are going to dress up our Epic Mounts as Brewfest Kodos and ride to Honor a Hero in Ashenvale. When: 4:30pm EDT (1:30pm PDT, 2:30pm Server Time) Today Where: Meet in front of Orgrimmar on Zangarmarsh (U.S.) Who: Any Horde character with an Epic Mount How: Send a tell to Robinella or any It came from the Blog Lurker to join the guild We will be earning enough tokens in Brewfest to obtain the ability to transform our mounts and then riding to honor Grom Hellscream. We will then return to Javnir Nashak and complete the one Harvest Festival quest (there is no Achievement). If you have any questions about It came from the Blog, please read our FAQ. See you soon!
Brewfest 2009: Coren Direbrew's new level 80 loot revealed
With Brewfest now underway, I hope everyone's had a crack or two at seasonal boss Coren Direbrew -- I myself am going to try to get a group for him as soon I'm done writing here. If you have, there's probably two major things you've noticed: He's level 80 now, and he has some new loot.Let's take a look at his loot, both old and new.
Breakfast Topic: The last week of Brewfest
Yes, counting today, there are just five more chances for you to down Coren Direbrew during the Brewfest holiday, so if you haven't gotten lucky and gotten a mount yet, better keep trying. And if you haven't started collecting tickets coins, better get to it -- odds are that you're out of luck for getting the ~550 you need for everything, but you can probably still get at least 200 to join the Brew of the Month club.Don't know how to drop Coren or do a keg run? We've got you covered on both. Personally, I got everything I needed (picked up two epics from Coren and joined the BotM club) save for the mounts, but those are so rare (and finding a group as DPS is so tough on my server) that I'm probably not going to bother. Fortunately, I'm looking forward to that other popular holiday that is just around the corner...How you doing on Brewfest? Finished early or just now realizing that the holiday ends on Saturday? Downed Coren every single day with no mount to show for it, or went in there once and are now riding around on a kodo?
Coren Direbrew now drops cross-faction Brewfest mounts, teleportation device
Brewfest is underway today, and with it comes more news of the new boss, Coren Direbrew. You may remember the hubbub surrounding the decision on Brewfest mounts: A Brewfest Kodo would be implemented, but rather than allowing Alliance a chance at it, it would be Horde only, with the Rams becoming Alliance only. Now that Brewfest is live, that decision has been reversed, at least partially. Now, neither mount can be purchased with Brewfest tickets. However, instead, both drop from Coren Direbrew down in the Grim Guzzler. That means that the Alliance and the Horde can both go after the Ram and the Kodo, but only as a rare drop.
Is Leading the Cavalry possible?
I mentioned the Leading the Cavalry achievement earlier, the achievement that requires 75 mounts to... well, achieve. The big question is, is that actually possible? Let's find out!Let's use a Forsaken for our example, since they have no factors working against them like racial boundries on mounts. Keep in mind that some races will have a harder time, like Tauren can't use two of the five Horde mounts, and Gnomes don't allow anybody but Gnomes and Dwarves to use mechachickens.The Horde has Peacocks, Raptors, Wolves, Skeletal Horses, and Kodo. From a glance at Wowhead, there seems to be...
Breakfast Topic: What mounts should we get for Brewfest?
It's official. No Kodos for Alliance and no Rams for Horde this year at Brewfest. The decision has been made and there doesn't seem to be anything we can do about it for this year. But what should Blizzard have done? Kodos really aren't too exciting, in my opinion. They feel slow. I ditched mine for PvP mounts as soon as I possibly could. Rams aren't really very interesting either, but they are at least a novelty Horde-side.Should the mounts be faction neutral, brewfest only mounts, like a steampunk car or a wooden horse made of beer barrels? Or should this be an opportunity for the factions to see how the other half lives -- at least on mounts?What mount would you like to see for next year's Brewfest?
PTR Brewfest includes summoned barmaid pets, rams and kodos segregated by faction
You may remember that we announced that a Brewfest Kodo was hidden in the WoTLK Alpha files some time ago. With patch 2.4.3, the Kodo did in fact get into this year's Brewfest. The Brewfest is currently open for testing on the PTR, and you can see the Kodos for yourselves - but only on the Horde side. That's right. Blizzard has added the Kodo mount, but not in the way many of us had hoped. The Ram mount is now available for purchase only on the Alliance side, and the Kodo mount only on the Horde side. Kisirani has confirmed that this is intended. She says that they came to this decision only after much deliberation, but it's likely staying, although she'll listen to constructive criticism. As you can imagine, this has not been well received.
The Spore report: Murloc sightings
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/Murlocs_in_Spore'; It won't be long until you'll be able to hear the lilting sound of "mgrlllmgrlrrr" across the universe. Spore, the new game from The Sims' Will Wright, which involves creating a species from a single living cell and evolving it all the way through space colonization, is growing murlocs. The official release of Spore's Creature Creator isn't due until Tuesday, June 17, but somehow it broke free early, giving WoW players an early start in trying to create their favorite Azerothian creatures.We got a peek at some of these creations. The little guy to the right was created by a Spore user named Saphirus. If you check the Sporepedia, you'll find some more murloc attempts -- including one by WoW Radio's Duncor. There's even an odd attempt at a kodo (you wouldn't know it except from the description) and a strange looking crocolisk.[Thanks, Andrew.]
The best of WoW Insider: June 3-10, 2008
It's heating up outside, but the World of Warcraft is growing ever colder, as we get closer and closer to the Wrath of the Lich King expansion. And as usual, Joystiq's sister site WoW Insider is covering every temperature drop that goes down -- from interviews with world-first guilds to the latest rumors and updates on what we'll find in Northrend, WoW Insider is there. Here's our most popular posts from the last week in WoW. News WoW Insider interviews SK Gaming about downing Kil'jaeden, the Sunwell, and why to stack +hasteThe world first guild to down the last boss of the endgame talks with us about high-end raiding. Blizzard changes the description of the Death Knight treesBlizz clarifies (or makes more vague, depending on how you look at it) what the Death Knights will do in the expansion. No pure +damage gear in Wrath, claims KalganA fundamental change to the way caster gear improves spell damage and healing stats. The Brewfest Kodo and what it may mean for Wrath's release dateAn October holiday mount is hidden in the expansion's files, which means we may see a release before then. Ten Druids go on nom spree in KaraHalf of Karazhan is brought down by ten Druids all on their own. Features Guildwatch: Open your face jellyfishA wacky drama queen in our weekly look at guild drama spawns a new catchphrase. Illusionary Tactics: Orb of DeceptionOur new weekly column examines items and spells that can change your appearance. Know Your Lore: The Scarlet CrusadeKYL examines the enemy faction that's probably been killed the most in-game (well, except for the Alliance). Tank Talk: Do you feel lucky, punk?Our new column for raiding tanks covers everything from armor to threat control. The Art of War(craft): DotA-style battleground in WotLK?Think you've seen the last of Defense of the Ancients (a.k.a. "Dhota")? Think again.
The Brewfest Kodo and what it may mean for WotLK's release date
Tipster Graffias pointed out an exciting find in the latest leaked Alpha files for WoTLK: An Icon for a Brewfest Kodo. You may recall that last year's Brewfest included a Ram mount that was purchasable with tickets by both sides, allowing the Horde very easy access to an Alliance mount with a few days of grinding for Brewfest Prize Tickets. Many Alliance weren't happy with this, annoyed that the Horde got such easy access to an Alliance mount without having to kill Baron Rivendare or a Troll a couple hundred times. Bornakk decided that the best way to answer this criticism would be by promising the Alliance that the Horde would be getting access to yet another previously alliance-only mount skin in the Cenarion War Hippogryph. Of course, Kisirani, being as awesome as she is, later said that we should have patience and things would work out in the end. Listening to the words of the world designer seem to have paid off, as it looks like the Dwarves are going to turn the tables on the Goblins this year and steal some Kodos from them. I can finally fulfill my dream of owning my very own Kodo. My Night Elf Druid is from Kalimdor after all, and you would think there would be some Night Elves who decided to domesticate Kodos as beasts of burden too. But really, as much as I am looking forward to grabbing myself a Kodo (and seeing a tiny Gnome riding around on a huge beast of burden), what's really exciting is this thought: If the Brewfest is in late September to early October, does that mean Blizzard is planning to give us WoTLK by September, Brewfest Kodo and all?
The Lunar Festival's greatest prize: Rep!
If you're a human after a saber, troll after a kodo, or any other combination like that, don't let this opportunity pass you by!As most of you know, during the Lunar Festival there are 50 Elders scattered across Azeroth that hand out Coins of Ancestry which you can turn in for prizes in Moonglade. There is another prize, however: Reputation! For every elder you speak to, you earn 75 reputation toward your entire faction. Yes, all five races.If you put the time in to talk to every single elder, some of which might be a pain to reach, you'll net just shy of 4,000 reputation. 3,750 to be exact. For humans, this will come out to about 4,125 rep, give or take a bit. Nerf Diplomacy!This won't drastically lessen a rep grind, especially after the reputation gain changes they put in awhile back, but its certainly more interesting than tearing apart low level quests or farming endless amounts of Runecloth.
