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I spend most of my WoW time raiding and PvPing as a feral druid, and my interface is pretty complex (to say the least). Unlike Elizabeth, I often find patch day to be a complete nightmare! However, although I know I can make do without my truckload of addons, I find every one of them makes life a little easier. Here are some of my favourites:
Read MoreYesterday, I rolled a blood elf. I didn't exactly plan to, but what else is one supposed to do while waiting for high-level characters to transfer? And besides, they're so pretty.I found myself alone -- but for fifty paladins -- on Sunstrider Isle, armed with nothing but a dagger and some lurid green clothes. For the first time in months, I didn't know what to do next -- and I liked it.
Read MoreHot off the test realm forums comes a big change to mounts and the way we ride them:Mounts now require only one, shared riding skill (blue mounts require level 75, epic mounts, level 150). Also costs of learning this skill are now significally increased. Previously, cost of learning riding skill was 20 gold for each kind of mount, without any discount. Now it will be 90 gold for level 75 and 900 for level 150. Level 150 of riding skills is required for epic mounts and will most probably include PvP mounts and all mounts that drop in instances (Tiger, Raptor, Baron mount, bug mount and maybe paladin and warlock mount too). For now I can confirm that it is required to ride Stormpike Battle Charger, rest of mounts require confirmation. In addition to the change of riding skills, the costs of Blue and Epic faction mounts has been significally decreased. Now blue mounts costs 10 gold and epic mounts costs 100 gold. As you can see from this screenshot we took on the European PTR, you'll need exalted to buy a mount (as you do currently), but the items have become bind-on-pickup. We can't tell just by playing on the PTR exactly what will happen to our existing riding skills and mounts, so here's hoping we find out more about this change soon.
Read MoreThis week, I hit a new milestone on my main character -- I finally got Exalted with one of Azeroth's factions. By playing far too many games in Alterac Valley, I have somehow managed to convince the Stormpike Guard to like me (and I mean really like me). Anyone familiar with AV will know that you get a lot of reputation per game played, and thus getting to exalted is simply a matter of turning up, but it's still a great milestone for me.Achieving this got me to thinking about other factions I'm working on reputation for. Slowly but surely I'm building up Cenarion Circle, Zandalar Tribe and Brood of Nozdormu faction through raiding, while I'm working on Silverwing Sentinels and League of Arathor by PvPing. On top of that, I'm working towards Stormwind reputation so I can get a horse mount, and I'd love to get Timbermaw Hold and Thorium Brotherhood rep for the recipes they bring.It's all a bit much, really. Reaching Exalted with AV seemed to take long enough, and I'm staring despondently at my 'Neutral' and 'Friendly' bars -- not to mention the one or two 'Revered' bars which seem to stretch on forever. As I'm not a fan of grinding, reaching higher reputation levels with many factions is a case of farming instances equally repetitively -- for now, my tactic is to do these instances and let the rep come to me, rather than vice versa, but it will be many months before I reach higher levels if I continue this trend.
Read MoreFrom reader Luclan comes a very important question: what, in our experience, is the best or fastest way of levelling up quickly?First off, I believe levelling quickly in the "power-levelling" sense, and levelling well, are two different things. Getting a level 60 friend to run you through all the lower dungeons for loot won't help you learn how to play your class in groups; spending five levels grinding in one spot doesn't equip you to deal with a wide variety of situations. The journey through each level should, in my opinion, be savoured and learnt from -- after all, when you end up at level 60, knowing as much as possible about your class is a great start.
Read MoreIn WoW, as with real life, I'm a bit of a hoarder. Give me space and I will fill it with things that might be useful, or perhaps were useful (you never know when you'll need them again). After one or two ill-advised disenchantments, I've started keeping non-replaceable gear around in my bank, and as a druid I have multiple sets of equipment anyway.Of course, I'm also an enchanter and engineer, so I have to store materials and equipment for those professions -- not to mention a vast number of quest items that are collecting dust waiting for me to finish the quest. Non-combat pets, items useful in certain instances, items useful for PvP, Darkmoon Faire tickets... my bank just isn't big enough to hold it all.There are a couple of solutions. Firstly, I can try culling the trash and actually getting rid of some of my quest items, disenchanting equipment I haven't used in weeks, and choosing which of my non-combat pets is my favourite. Secondly, as I have multiple characters (including a bank-only character), I can send the majority of my non-soulbound items to an alt, who can hold on to them or return them in the mail for easier access. I always lose track of who has which items; I used to use the BankItems mod, but I haven't found one that tracks mailboxes yet.The final option is, of course, to get more bagspace. Not easy when all your bags are 16-slotters already; I've recently finished the grind for an Argent Dawn Supply Bag, and I'm also hoping I'll come across an Onyxia Hide Backpack or Panther Hide Sack at some point. The materials for Bottomless Bag are offputting, though -- twelve mooncloth for two bag slots? I think I'll have to manage.
Read MoreThe hunters in this video use a rather... inventive way of ganking low-level players. Consider the movie a public service announcement -- be careful what you attack, as it may bite back in nasty ways!
Read MoreVivendi is certainly raking in the cash from its subsidiary Blizzard -- the company has recorded a 12.1% boost in profit for Q2 2006, and attributes much of it to WoW's phenomenal success. This isn't exactly news -- Vivendi has been reporting continual increases on last year as WoW has grown -- but it's something to think about as a player.I frequently see comments on forums and in general channels along the lines of "Blizzard are making loads of money, why don't they fix our servers/add new content/pay attention to me?". It's certainly true that Blizzard and Vivendi are profiting from WoW, but how many corners are being cut in order to announce new profit highs? Even if Blizzard are doing all they can with the vast sums of money available, having players who think they are doing nothing with it is bad communication. These days, when Blizzard say they are aware of a problem and working to fix it, few of us believe it.
Read MoreWe all have our little quirks and habits; things we do without really thinking, routines we slip into every day. When you first log in, do you run to the mailbox even though you haven't any auctions up? Do you routinely jump on the Stormwind fountain or jump about the Undercity bank? Always repair at the same out-of-the-way vendor? Dance in bear form and wait for the tells to pile up?It's the little habits that make WoW special, so -- what are yours? (All of the above are mine!)Update: Sorry about the comments issue. Fixed-- comment away!
Read MoreI'm a serious alt-a-holic, with dozens of characters spread out across servers, factions, races and classes. After getting my first character to level 60 a few months ago, I've been exploring the endgame, but still spending time with my alts too -- and now my first real 'alt' character is about to reach 60. At the moment, I'm considering how to approach the 'main'/'alt' situation. There are many things I want to achieve with my main; the pvp and reputation grinds are nowhere near done, and there's plenty of bosses to fight and items to collect. However, I'm a little bored of the sameness of it all, and being able to experience these encounters from a different class's point of view is going to be refreshing -- and will involve a lot of relearning. Many of the raiding players I know tend to focus on their main character, only bringing out alts for special encounters or when the raidgroup feels generous enough to gear up the alt. Class balance being what it is, my main character (a druid) is more likely to be needed for raids and instances -- but I don't want my alt (a mage) to sit gathering dust in greens for the rest of time. For the time being, I think I will continue playing both characters, attempting to gear up my alt when I'm not raiding or PvPing with my main. Playing my alts is something that I do for a change of pace and scenery, and I'd like to keep it that way.
Read MorePlaying WoW as your day job is a pipe dream for most, but instead of fitting your WoW habit around your job, why not get a new job that accommodates WoW? It may sound impossible, but there are plenty of occupations which allow for a little MMO indulgence on the side: Student. Juggle the rigours of academic life with the endless PvP grind! Flexible (and optional) class schedules mean you will never have to miss a queue again. But be warned: student parties can interfere with your raiding! Monarch. Being the King or Queen of your own country is a sure-fire way to make sure your lackeys can do all the real work, leaving you plenty of time to level that alt. Milkman or postman. Sure, you have early hours, but think of all that time left in the day to raid! Blogger. The ultimate work-from-home occupation; blog in queues, on gryphons, even while raidhealing if you're a good multitasker. Millionaire. See Monarch. Professional gamer. If you're really good, your elite gaming skills can lead people to prostrate themselves at your feet with money. Good luck with that one, and don't forget to throw some our way when you're done with that glittering career. So there you have it. Whichever grind you want to fit into your life, there are ways and means -- enjoy your new life with WoW!
Read MoreThis Newsweek article -- yet another mainstream look at this strange concept called World of Warcraft -- unexpectedly asks a very interesting question. Is WoW a game? Sadly, the article devotes most of its time to explaining the concept of WoW to an outside audience, rather than getting stuck into a discussion of virtual worlds, their categorisation, and their future.It's often been said that WoW can be more like a job than a hobby; the regular hours, the repetitive tasks, the camaraderie, the rewards. The question asked by the Newsweek piece, however, has a different angle from the old "work vs play" debate. Instead, it asks -- is this the future? Are WoW's immersiveness, its ability to sneak into lives, its vast popularity all indicators of what virtual worlds in the future will hold? I think so.'Serious' virtual worlds could easily take lessons from WoW on how to be fun, but while WoW may be exemplary with regards to current MMO design, it's still very much rooted in the 'entertainment' sphere -- future developments away from gaming and towards everyday pervasive virtual worlds have to cater for the seven million WoW-heads, and will be more easily received as a result. The most important question of all, though, is: when we live and work in the Matrix, will there still be night elves called Légolass?[Thanks, Dave]
Read More"Because you're not hardcore unless you live hardcore" I've always considered myself a casual player; although at times I may live and breathe WoW, it's not all there is to life, and if something better comes up in RL I'm happy to pause PvP or say no to raiding. While epics are nice, I tend not to measure my worth in purples, nor do I min/max my spec to flatter damage meters. However, all this talk of Naxx recently led me to feel I was missing out. I'd been in the endgame a while, and although I knew some instances all too well, there were other parts of the level 60 experience that I had never seen. I'd never set foot into Blackwing Lair, never seen Onyxia up close, and certainly never had a point of DKP to my name. So, when I was invited by a friend to apply for a spot in her raiding group, I did.
Read MoreEver found yourself looking at your pitiful stash of gold and wondering where on earth it all went? Log in daily to find yourself spending more cash than you earn? Once you reach a 'comfortable' amount of money (for me, it's about 200g) it's easy to spend freely, but a gold here and there quickly add up, putting you on the fast track to Brokeville. Personally, I find almost all my cash goes on repairs and potions -- with a recent unlucky streak of multiple wipes due to lag, I've definitely been haemorrhaging money during raids. PvP is also costly, though at least I don't have to provide ammo or feed a pet. Thank goodness I have profitable tradeskills! Where does your cash go, and how do you juggle the demands on your pocket?
Read MoreWell, we all held our breath when they got him to 1% -- and now KT is down. Horde guild Nihilum, on the European server Magtheridon, have beaten Death and Taxes to the world first (just as they did with the similarly-bugged C'Thun). Congratulations Nihilum!As well as putting together an image showing the loot, Nihilum have also released a mp3 of the ventrilo conversation for the kill; you may want to cover your ears![Thanks, toolmonkey]
Read MoreWe all come to moments in our lives where we have to make big decisions. The consequences of these choices can change our lives completely, and often the agonising debate over a particular decision can stretch out for months.Similarly, the characters we shape and nurture in WoW can face tough choices. Which talent tree to specialise in? Which equipment to focus on? Should game time be spent levelling alts, progressing in the endgame or ranking up in PvP? Worlds apart, you may say. Working out whether to kill some imaginary elves or imaginary dragons is a completely different ball game from wondering whether that promotion is really worth the new commute. Yet recently, while concentrating on an important real life decision, I found myself retreading extremely familiar territory. In fact, when distilled to the pros and cons, it turned out identical to a recent choice I'd had to make in WoW.Putting aside any discussion of the complexity of WoW, and how one can become invested in the game, I found it fascinating to realise I had already tried and tested an important decision from my real life by making the same choice in Azeroth. So next time you're arguing over a point of raid leadership, or pondering PvPing, bear in mind you might find your thought processes useful later!
Read MoreAs usual, this Wednesday is maintenance day for European players, and it also marks the second in a batch of hardware upgrades for selected servers -- upgrades which have already caused an extended extended maintenance. These upgrades are long-overdue by many players' reckonings, with plenty of stories of fatal lagspikes during raids or other adventures flooding the forums.Reader Hammer writes in with a few other complaints of note (thanks!): The main wow-europe.com website is frequently down, with many parts of the site either bad links or inaccessible -- including the all-important Account Management section. Several servers are repeatedly experiencing problems and random downtime; poor Draenor is an example. Here's hoping the upgrades help with this. The new forums may look good, but they're often down -- for example, when the EU login server was broken for several hours yesterday, nobody could get on the forums to find out more. The forums, designed for European players, run on American time, adding extra confusion. We Europeans may have been sitting smugly through US players' tales of woe for the last few months, but it looks as if the game's popularity has caught up with itself on our continent as well as across the pond. So, it's not just the Americans and Australians who have material for complaint; Asian players haven't spoken up yet, but we'll give them time.
Read More"This PvP thing is quite fun," thought I, several weeks ago.Time passed. Lured on by cheap combat potions, armour and (of course) glory, I've been spending plenty of time attempting to kill Horde recently. I thoroughly enjoy the niche my druid has found in PvP, and have worked hard to become a better player. By slowly but steadily ranking up, the addictive microreward cycle has worked its magic on me, and what began as an experiment to see how far I could get PvPing when I had the time has become something more permanent.Of course, such idyllic stories end in tears; the Drums of War have arrived in Azeroth, bringing with them shortened battleground queues. Previously, it was a case of occasional PvP games (usually short losses to elite teams) fitting nicely in amongst work breaks -- a little light relief from a heavy burden. However, now the queues are almost eliminated, and the games are much longer, I can't multitask any more.All is not lost, however. Despite the joy of being a flag-carrying bear, sometimes it's fun to just get out there and burn faces. My mage alt is old enough to go into AV, and firing pyroblasts with reckless disregard for rank or reputation is a different -- and utterly refreshing -- kind of game.
Read MoreI've recently started spending much of my day in that eternal WoW timesink -- the battleground queue. Fed up of terrible random groups, I've joined a casual PvP team in search of honour, glory and extreme violence towards the Horde. With something of a druid shortage on my server, I'm often the only one in the group, and thus the chief flagrunner.Having partaken of the odd PvP game since I was in my mid-forties (not to mention playing games other than WoW which involve flags, teams and death) I'm no stranger to the concept of flag running, but I've found my ability as a flag carrier has vastly increased since getting into a good group. Not only have I become much faster at shifting between shapeshift forms in PvP, setting up easily-accessible keybinds for the various forms has helped me in PvE as well -- I'm developing a reflex for shifting into bearform when I start taking damage, which is useful in tricky aggro situations.However, there's one common theme to my flag carrying; one thing I spend most of my time doing, and I'm not ashamed of the fact. My chief activity is running away, and staying alive. I make a lot of mistakes -- I run away from healers, I hit Dash and sprint off into the middle of several cows with big pointy swords -- but I'm learning, and enjoying it. The druid class makes a perfect flag runner in my (extremely biased) opinion, and with the right support a match can be over in a few minutes. Here's to more victories, and losses that help me learn.
Read MoreI've had the quest for the 45-minute Stratholme run for a while now, but never managed to get a group together until yesterday. Having read about the run I was reluctant to try a pick-up group, so I jumped at the chance to join members of my raid group to rescue poor Ysida from the evil clutches of Baron Rivendare.Most of my usual Strat runs have been slow-paced, with careful pulling and crowd control, but this Strat 45 was very different. Our group composition was interesting; we had a mage tanking, a druid healing, with a paladin, feral druid and hunter as everything in between. It strikes me that an experienced and versatile group is really a must for the challenge, especially a group used to working together.
Read MoreA frustrating phenomenon which has plagued battleground groups for as long as I've been PvPing is the headless chicken syndrome. However, it seems a lot worse of late -- or maybe I've been playing more.The first indication of a headless-chicken battleground is when ten or fifteen players stand around at the start of a match yelling "inv", none of whom seem to want to do the work of inviting themselves. Fortunately this will stop in 1.12, though the sentiment won't. If one player is brave enough to step up as leader, chaos usually ensues despite his or her best efforts.The worst experiences in battlegrounds I've had occur when one player takes leadership but several others somehow think they are leader too, spamming raid warnings and contradicting the leader's orders. Disorganisation ensues, people spread all over the battlefield and a quick loss is on the cards. In some battleground matches, however, one player taking leadership early works wonders -- everyone listens, does what they're asked and a coherent team emerges. It's highly dependent on the individual players, and the leader in question, as to whether this happens or not; nine out of ten times, it doesn't. Have you noticed the headless chicken syndrome, or does your server manage the impossible and create organised battleground PuGs?
Read MoreBeing in charge of a 40-man raid group is undoubtedly a tricky business, and something I've yet to attempt in WoW. While I have a lot of respect for those who take on the mantle of leadership, who put hours into preparation and strategies and recruitment, sometimes the lofty raid leader can seem too distanced from the rank and file of the raid.As a new member of a large raid group, I'm starting to see endgame content I've been reading about for months, and it's an exciting time for me. However, this is the point at which leadership is crucial in order to turn players like me (full of enthusiasm but lacking in experience) into fully-fledged raiders. But how? The following observations may seem obvious, but I've seen leaders who ignore every single thing below.
Read MoreTeamwork! Discipline! Socialising! Fun! The world of hardcore raiding, for me, defies description by any of these words -- although a few months ago, before I'd ventured outside a five-man group, I would have imagined it to contain all of the above.A recent Molten Core raid was a fine example of why endgame raiding can be one of the most boring things to do in WoW. I was assigned a role at the start of the raid (one which I generally don't like, but the raid composition was such that I was needed for it). For the next few hours I then constantly played whack-a-mole with health bars, with the frightfully exciting diversions of the odd combat rez or innervate.Any outside observer would have been surprised to know I was playing with other people. The various raid chat channels were quiet, devoid of any backtalk to alleviate the monotony of healing. I felt like I was alone, and could have been surrounded by NPCs for the most part without noticing a difference.Despite the quiet efficiency with which this raid sliced through every monster in sight -- despite the epic items that dropped, and the promise of more to come -- I spent the whole time wishing I was with my regular raid group, who wipe hilariously then pick themselves up to laugh about it, than sit stern-faced for hours clicking like a maniac. I'll take the "casual" style of raiding any day, thanks.
Read MoreOne word, when uttered in the context of battlegrounds, has the ability to send shivers down a team's collective spine -- "premade". Of course, whether they're shivers of fear or joy depends on whether you're part of a premade team or not, and it seems to me that the differences between premade teams and pick-up groups in battlegrounds won't change much come 1.12.But how does one define a premade? In the seemingly interminable wait between battlegrounds, I've discussed this topic and it seems that everyone's got a different idea of quite when to apply the word. Premades are hardcore", "premades play 24/7", "premades have vent", "premades are a group queueing together". Some consider it a dirty word, others revel in the fact that they have a core team together before entering a battleground and have to rely less on random people filling up the side. What do you take the term "premade" to mean?
Read MoreOverheard in Orgrimmar: "Welcome to the endgame, noob."Not the warmest welcome a new level 60 might get, but perhaps an appropriate one. Upon hitting 60 (or perhaps even 55+), and encountering endgame content, one is in an interesting position. The content is new, but so many players are familiar with it that there's often little tolerance for those who are learning. This seems to be a particular problem within the PuGs I've encountered. Usually, the players within them assume you've done everything to death before -- that you understand the abbreviations and common tactics. This isn't always the case; from battlegrounds to instances, everyone's new at some point. If grouped with someone who doesn't know what they're doing, here's a plea on behalf of the anonymous noob: bear in mind it might be their first time.
Read MoreOnce upon a time, when I was young and over-confident, I said I'd never respec. My talent points were mine; a personal choice about the way I want to play. However, as you can probably deduce, I have respecced -- multiple times, too, on different characters.The respecs I've done have been for good reasons; a talent misclick at level 59, an optimisation of the messy talent build I had, the realisation that there are slightly better ways to do what I wanted. Fortunately, my guild has never made me respec, despite the fact I'm a hybrid/feral druid -- I don't want to be forced into a role that I don't choose. Having said that, I am considering respeccing balance for a short while -- mainly for laughs.Have you been made to respec, or changed your spec completely for fun?
Read MoreThe problem with becoming immersed in WoW is that it's hard to leave behind -- I'm at the Develop conference at the moment, and whenever there's an hour or so of downtime I'm tempted to just log in and.. you know, check auctions or something.I succumbed to the temptation when I discovered a convenient wireless access point.. on the beach. What's the oddest place you've taken WoW? Or do you have more self-control than I -- can you leave it behind happily?
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