World Wide Invitational '08

Hey guys! Just a small update with my thoughts on the upcoming WWI.

There has been a lot of speculation about what is coming in the WWI as to what Blizzard is doing in the coming months..

A few names being thrown around are:-

1 - Wrath of the Lich King

2 - Starcraft 2

3 - Diablo 3

4 - World of Starcraft(?) Or another MMO

Thinking about what I'd personally like to see is a release date for WotLK or at least the cinematic for the expansion.

While I'm excited about Starcraft 2, I think a Starcraft MMO would be really cool.

I also hope that they release another collectors edition of the Expansion. I have the CE of The Burning Crusade and its a lovely box with some awesome contents.

Whatever comes this weekend Blizzard are keeping everyone guessing. MMO-Champion and Wowinsider are both running with ideas and theories based on some splash screen pics and hidden files on Blizzards websites.

I was really upset to see that tickets for the WWI were sold out so fast and I couldn't get one in time. I was really hoping to go as Blizzcon is so far away in America. Unless I can plan some sort of holiday to go out there!!

So lets hope the week goes quick and we get to find out whats going on in Paris fast.

To anyone who is going, make sure you blog your findings and let us all know the low-down!

Summer Fire Festival

Hey guys! Hope you all had a good weekend!

Its that time again! Last year this event wasn't really much and I didnt really do very much for it to be honest. It was so boring in fact i barely bothered to do very much of it at all.

This year however, its all changed. And boy is it a good change!

There are 2 reasons its so damn good:

1 - If you take the time to do all the quests, and visit all the flames in the whole of Azeroth and Outland you can make a crap load of money at 70.

Each Alliance base you visit nets 5 Gold and 99 Silver.

Each Horde base you visit nets 11 Gold and 99 Silver.

Nearly all areas have 2 bases (horde and alliance) so it'll take you a good 3/4 hours to do all the zones. I'm going to break down the whole area as best as I can remember shortly.

All in all i made around 800 gold on each of my 70's doing the quests and visiting all the areas and doing the Ahune quest line.

2 - XP FTW! My mage was 56 (2 bars in) yesterday morning. I went around and did all the areas! I even managed to snag all the Horde fire from the major cities as well which i was really amazed i could do, even though Orgrimmar was a pain in the butt.

The Alliance bases net 4.2-5k XP.

The Horde bases net 7.5-9k XP.

In 3 and a half hours I was level 58 and a half. It then took a little doing but I managed to get the Outland ones done as well and She's now 59 (getting Into Shadowmoon Valley and doing both horde and alliance bases was a real pain!!!) and starting questing in Outland.

So basically I made over 350k XP **JUST** from doing the flame quests. This was a boon for me really as I was feeling like I couldnt be bothered to do the work required in the old world to get to 58/59 and into Outland.

So my 4th high level toon is well on her way to 70 now. The light at the end of the tunnel is there...what I'm going to do with a glass cannon is beyond me...but hey its a nice change!

Anyway here's a break down of all of the areas in Azeroth and Outland, and where to look for the bases:

Kalimdor

Azuremyst Isle: Azure Watch (A)
Teldrasil: Dolanaar (A)
Darkshore: Auberdine (A)
Moonglade: No Flame Here.
Felwood: No Flame Here.
Winterspring: 2 Here - Everlook - (Alliance & Horde both outside town near Flight Points)
Azshara: No Flame Here.
Ashenvale: 2 Here - Astranaar & Splintertree Post (A & H)
Stonetalon Mountains - Sunrock Retreat (H)
Durotar: Razor Hill (H)
The Barrens: Crossroads (H)
Mulgore: Bloodhoof Village(H)
Desolace: 2 Here - Nijels Point & Shadowprey Village (A & H)
Duskwallow Marsh - 2 Here - Brackenwall Village & Theramore Isle (A & H)
Feralas: 2 Here - Feathermoon Stronghold & Camp Mojache (A & H)
Thousand Needles - Freewind Post (H)
Tanaris: 2 Here - Gadgetzan - (Alliance & Horde both outside town near Flight Points)
Un'Goro Crater - No Flame Here.
Silithus: 2 Here - Twilight Base Camp - (A & H Outside the base on either side of the town)

Total: 22 bases (10 Alliance, 12 Horde)

Eastern Kingdoms

Quel'Thalas: Outside Ruins of Silvermoon (H)
Ghostlands: Tranquillian (H)
Eastern Plaguelands - No Flame Here.
Western Plaguelands - Chillwind Point (A)
Tirisfal Glades - Brill (H)
Silverpine Forest - The Sepulcher (H)
Alterac Mountains - No Flame Here.
Hillsbrad Foothils - 2 Here - Southshore (A) & Tarren Mill (H)
The Hinterlands - 2 Here - Aerie Peak (A) & Revantusk Village (H)
Arathi Highlands - 2 Here - Refuge Point (A) & Hammerfall (H)
Wetlands - Menethil (A)
Loch Modan - Thelsamar (A)
Dun Morogh - Kharanos (A)
The Badlands - Kargath (H)
Searing Gorge - No Flame Here.
Burning Steppes - Morgans Vigil (A)
Elwynn Forest - Goldshire (A)
Redridge Mountains - Lakeshire (A)
Westfall - Sentinel Hill (A)
Duskwood - Darkshire (A)
Deadwind Pass - No Flame Here.
Swamp of Sorrows - Stonard (H)
Blasted Lands - Nethergarde Keep (A)
Stranglethorn Vale - 2 Here - Booty Bay (A & H Both outside to the east by the pirates)

Total 25 Here - 14 Alliance - 11 Horde

Outland

Hellfire Peninsula - 2 here - Honor Hold & Thrallmar
Terrokar Forest - 2 Here - Allarian Stonghold & Stonebreaker Hold
Zangarmarsh - 2 Here - Telredor & Zabra'jin
Nagrand - 2 Here - Telaar & Garada
Blades Edge Mountains - 2 Here - Sylvanaar & Thunderlord Stronghold
Netherstorm - 2 Here - Area 52 - Both outside the village.
Shadowmoon Valley - 2 Here - Wildhammer Stronghold & Shadowmoon Village

Total 14 - 7 Alliance - 7 Horde

Total 61 - 31 Alliance - 30 Horde

As an Alliance - just doing the quests would net you the following gold:

Alliance Bases - 185 Gold 69 Silver
Horde Bases - 359 Gold 70 Silver

Total - 545 Gold 39 Silver

Total for a Hordie doing the quests is: 551 Gold 39 Silver

So either way its a fair bit of money and the quest are fun.

As for Ahune? Well make sure you have all your graphics turned down as some people have experienced some lag issues when fighting him (during the trasition from form to crystal) I love the look of the staff, but its not overly great for either of my casters, and I doubt i'll get edam into Slave pens to get it before the end of the event.

But a lot of fun getting to spend so much time in the old world again!

Well worth the effort!

Appologies if I missed any out - i wasnt taking notes and was only looking at a map of the area from the internet.

Teron Gorefiend Macro

Hey peeps!

I wanted to post this up here incase its ever lost somewhere and someone needs it!

These macro's are a real help for the TG fight.

This macro will cast a volley and then immediately a shackle.

/castsequence reset=15 Spirit Volley, Spirit Chains

the second will tab through and lance the constructs according to which is nearest to you
/script SetCVar("targetNearestDistance", 20)
/targetenemy
/cast Spirit Lance
/script SetCVar("targetNearestDistance", 41)

These macro's saved my skin this week i throughly recomend you get this if you're worried or having trouble with the fight these are a real life saver!

Trinkets....Yeeeeeesss......

Hey Dudes!

Well its been an interesting couple of weeks lately. Lots happening and a few new things to report on!

I got my Darkmoon Faire card: Crusade last week - which is just awesome! Loving that and I also finally managed to blag my way into a guild run into Heroic Magisters Terrace.

I got really lucky on the 3rd boss and the trinket I was hoping for dropped (Shard of Contempt)

That's a lovely lovely trinket and I'm very happy so far! my dps has been over 1k on all raids even with the lack of a shaman in the melee group! So I'm happy.

Our progression in Black Temple is going well so far we're ready for Mother Shiraz provided that we can clear Bloodboil and Reliquary tonight we may have a couple of goes on her.

It seems that time is a major factor - we're having issues with Hyjal in that the group cant seem to clear the whole place in one night. Problems arise with Archimonde and its causing friction in the raid.

Lieutenant! Get me that Blame-Thrower!!!

Melee are blaming Ranged and Ranged are blaming Melee.

"You're not moving out of the flames quick enough melee group!"

"You're not moving from the fire even if it goes right through your legs ranged groups!"

When we focus and stick our heads into it we get him down with ease. But this still doesn't stop the friction.

So as many of you know Season 4 is starting next week! Well my warlock is close to getting all the honor he needs for his full season 2 set so that's cool - I love the look of that set.

I have a theory about when Wrath of the Lich king may be out - Most of the seasons have been about 4-5 months long so my prediction is that WotLK will be released at the end of Season 4. So we're looking at October/November time for a release.

I imagine the date will be release at the Worldwide Invitational as well as Blizz releasing the cinematic for the expansion.

I'm eager to get into Wrath actually. VERY eager! Being in a very fast progressing guild if we stay together then our progress in Wrath will be the same and we may become one of the best guilds on the server! Also all the new talents and abilities we'll get - may Blizzard be kind with the nerf-stick and hit the rogues and warlocks first before the Paladins!! ;)

Mongoose Vs. Executioner...

Hey guys!

I'm having a real dilema at the moment and I wondered if anyone could offer some advice.

As you know I got a nice shiney new sword from Archimonde this week and following Cathmor's advise i loaded this baby up with Mongoose. Going against general consensus from my Raid Leader (Warrior) Ironclad. He said to go with executioner as this would be a big dps booster for me.

Personally i just cant decide if he's right or not. Cathmor is 100% saying that mongoose is better for paladins - probably due to the increase in attack speed and crit increase. But i keep thinking that the armour penetration is the way to go?

Currently I'm running at about 810 armor penetration in my gear. so with executioner this would be a nice 1650 armour pen.

BTW - Rawr says that the sword i have is better dps than the mace, by like 2 dps or something!

Torch of the Damned?

Hey Guys! Hows everyone doing on this fine wednesday?

Couple of updates for ya from this week.

Monday - Picked up my Darkmoon Card: Crusade which is just lovely in raids! all that extra AP and SP has picked up my DPS quite a bit - Definatly reccomend any ret-paladin get this trinket by any means necesssary! For me getting the ace meant finding a level 70 horde to buy it for me and put it up on the AH in Booty Bay for me to purchase! Very handy being on an RP Server some times!

Monday night Rage cleared Reliquary of Souls and my luck prooved to be total crap and the mace didnt drop :( Quite annoying. We moved onto Mother Shiraz but sadly we still dont have enough Hearts of Darkness required to craft the shadow res sets for enough guild members to actually be able to try her. Lets see how we get on with getting that gear in the next week. I have to start faming the mats required for my belt, bracers, and legs.

Last night however I got lucky! We went to Archimonde and after an hour or so of tries we got him down. This is the 3rd time that he's been taken down by the guild and he's not quite on farm just yet but we got him none-the-less. Lucky for me he dropped:

Cataclysm's Edge
Two-Hand Sword
138.0 Damage Per Second Speed: 3.5
+75 Strength
+49 Stamina
Equip: Your attacks ignore 335 of your opponents armor.

This is a lovely sword!! Cant decide if i still want the mace from Reliquary or not....

Meh....

Updates, Updates, Updates!

Well hello people!

Its been a short while since my last blog post so time for some updates!

Firelight

Fire has finally managed to get his grubby little hands on a darkmoon Deck that gives the Crusade trinket. How i've not seen this card before I'm not sure, but as soon as June 9th comes I'm straight down to Elwynn Forrest to get me my trinket!

Rage's progression is getting better as well, we can take out 4/5 in Hyjall in 1 evening and a couple of tries on Archi, with archi going down the next day. We're 5/9 in Black Temple and last night we got Reliquary of Souls well into the 2nd phase with the wrong group setup (setup was for bloodboil who we one shot- something we were not expecting!)

Starslayer

My warlock has been working his little butt off in the battle grounds and has 23,000 honor points and this morning purchased his first peice of season 2 arena gear (gloves)

My aim is to get all 5 peices of season 2 gear either with honor points or arena points mainly because the set looks awesome and I want this guy to become my new PvP b*tch! Locks are a lot of fun in BG's even in the lame gear he has at the moment.

ShamanJim

Well i've finally bitten the bullet and rolled a Horde toon! Shamanjim is level 26 Tauren Shaman, steadily leveling at weekends with the GM of Rage's 29 Undead Warlock. Its loads of fun mainly as its like playing the game for the first time, but better as i kinda know my way around most places already! Its like eating a new flavour of your fave brand of ice-cream.

This guy is going to go back and clear the star areas of the other factions so I can get a few of the other mounts from other factions if I can get him to exalted with these places!

Shaman are a lot of fun to play it seems - He's leveling enhancement spec which is pretty sweet. Cant wait till I get windfury!

So thats all for news updates! I've found a few more paladin resources that I've been reading and trying to fix things up for me so i can reach the dizzying heights of 1500+ dps.

We still only have 1 enhancement shaman in the raid-group at the moment which is bad. But I'm not sure how to suggest a 2nd shaman be recruited by the Raid leaders....I should suggest it to the GM and see what he says.