Over at the Twisted Nether Blogcast we just recorded and released our 100th Episode! It was quite the crazy night. We had a round table and later brought on a bunch of old guests to say hi, etc. 3 1/2 hours later.. We have a superbly epic podcast ready for your consumption. Head over to the website for more information about the show or just to download it.

Also, my other little podcast, Polygamerous, just recorded our 40th episode (this is getting a little crazy, I feel very old). which is really awesome too. It’s not up yet, but when it is, you can find it on the Poly website.

It’s going a bit slowly on the raiding front. We’ve been having trouble even filling the 10-man all of the sudden, but I’m sure we’ll get back into that soon. The new Gnome and Troll events have started so make sure you take a look at those before the opportunity passes.

That’s all I’ve got for you this week. If anyone wants to help me find a place for the TNB meetup at Blizzcon on Friday, Oct. 22 let me know! Later all…

Post from: Asleep at the WoW

Podcasterous

Well, no I didn’t go trying to tank instances or somesuch as a Moonkin. We were working on Hard Mode Princes in ICC (and failing) and the RL decided to make a change. Originally we were having a tank (him actually) tanking Keleseth and collecting the purple balls, etc. He decided that I (Fyra my Balance Druid) should give it a try. Having a ranged attack (he is a paladin), I could stay in one place more and still pick up the balls. Moonfire is excellent for that. Instant cast, etc. The other nice thing was that I can do damage to the Boss while he has the health. So anyway, this change wasn’t until we had wiped about 8,000 times, so I really only got to give it a shot 4 or 5 times. We still had issues with the Kinetic Bombs and such so we didn’t get them down ..

I was fun though. Almost like playing a little mini-game in the middle of WoW. So, tonight we go back, but I have no idea if we are planning on doing that again or just skipping the Hard Mode of it this week. I suppose we’ll see.

Post from: Asleep at the WoW

Panzerkinish

Hey there! What’s going on? I know things are generally in a bit of a slump around here while we all wait on Cataclysm. I’ve still been playing though and now that TNB is going to be recording on Saturdays I can actually show up for the Tuesday night raids. We raid usually tues-fri and we’re doing Hard Modes ICC right now as much as possible. Last night (We had to start Wednesday because of lack of ppl on Tuesday) we headed in and did the first wing in Hard Mode. Well, we skipped Lady Deathwhisper because we were trying to get the Achievement. We didn’t, unfortunately, but I think we have the basics for it down. We also tried to do the achievement for the “Loot Ship” on 10 man and we tried it while on Hard Mode. We had a good strategy and we are all pretty certain we pulled it off, but we didn’t get the achievement.

However, a good thing that came out of the Loot Ship attack was .. Yes.. Loot! I picked up Muradin’s Spyglass which I desperately needed. I have a lot of “low” level trinkets or non-optimal ones for a Boomkin. So, now I have what seems to be much better than the one I was using before.

Since Blizzcon is only 2 months away, I’ve had to get started planning the Twisted Nether Meetup. Trying to brainstorm ideas, etc. If anyone has any thoughts on where we might be able to do it and/or lives in/near the Anaheim Convention Center and would like to help, send us email: info at twistednether.net . We’re looking for a venue where we can eat, drink and be marry that will not charge TNB itself anything to have the event. Basically the place would make money on drinks and food only. We might be able to swing a SMALL amount but I’m really not sure. We’d love people to RSVP and let us know if they are coming so we can use that for leverage. Thanks!

Somehow I got myself back addicted to Heroes of Might and Magic V. I really don’t understand how it happened… Anyway, I’m playing that and now I learn that HOMM VI is in the works. Ok, that’s not WoW stuff but.. I’ll try to be back on a more regular basis. I enjoy writing in here but I’ve been very busy lately. Thanks everyone for sticking it all out with me. If nothing else, maybe I’ll start putting up a screenshot library post every week.

Post from: Asleep at the WoW

Lets All Play I Spy

I don’t know that I mentioned it yet, but we’ve started raiding “In Guild” again. Our 10man is almost exclusively guild members and the 25man run is about 1/2 (usually). Our GM/RL is running things on these (at least mostly on the 25man) and we’re doing pretty well. On the 10man side of things, we are working on the Hard Modes.. I have to say, some of them.. They really are hard. Additionally we’ve been doing achievements on the ones we aren’t doing as hard mode. We’ve gotten the first wing through on all Hard Modes without wiping once. We’ve gotten the 2 side bosses on Plague the same way. We’ve had issues with Blood Princes, but we got the Blood Queen down in Hard mode. That’s it so far.

I’ve been playing more of the Cataclysm beta also. I spent a little time in Darkshore looking around (trying to find a pet.. Had to run back to Darnassus to get one.. ugh). I did the new Troll starting area and it’s pretty fun. It’s also really well done in terms of the feeling of the place. However, it does seem that since you are only there until possibly level 6, you don’t really get to appreciate it for long. The quests are fun and it moves pretty fast. I tried out a Troll Warrior. I haven’t yet done the Goblin starting area (and might wait until release for that) but I am thinking of doing the Gnome one next.

Starcraft II. What can I say? I really loved the Single player part of this game. I finally finished it this weekend and had a great time. I ‘m thinking about re-doing the few missions I did in “casual” and try them in “normal”. The final battle I ended up just running in Casual to get through it, but I think I can handle it in Normal. Also, I was thinking about running through the whole thing again and making different decisions in terms of buying upgrades in the armory and also which ones I get in the lab. I just want More More More. I’m not unhappy with how the game ended and really look forward to the next “installment”. They really do sound more like expansions than full games though. I wonder if they are going to sell them that way (for an expansion price too) or just do em as stand-alone games.

I’m not so hot on the Multiplayer side. I actually did my first online “training” level game. I won, but only because the other team quit. He never really came at my base and I hit his a couple times. But in the end he was actually ahead of me in troops and such it seems. Ah well, I won anyway! Woo hoo!

That’s about it. I’m sorry, if you care, that I haven’t been writing much. I would like to but haven’t had much to talk about. I usually say anything I would here in my 2 weekly podcasts, Polygamerous and the Twisted Nether Blogcast, so it seems somewhat redundant sometimes. I’m trying to get better and as I have more stuff that isn’t just, “Hey, I got this loot from this boss I’ve killed 8,243 times”, I’ll try to blog more! Later!

Post from: Asleep at the WoW

Some Modes Are Hard

Post from: Asleep at the WoW

Cata Beta: Hyjal Screenies

I didn’t post it on here yet, but I got into the Cataclysm beta about a week ago on one of my accounts. I decided to spend time first with the Worgen. In addition, I wanted to play around with the new Hunter changes including the beginner experience.

So, I created a Worgen Hunter named Frikkin (why not?). It fits with my naming convention (all F’s) and goes well with the name I wanted to give my pet (and eventually did, you’ll notice if you see the screenshot), Frak. So, anyway.. I have now gotten through almost all of the initial Worgen starting experience, I believe, and I have to say that, any bugs aside, it was one of the most enjoyable experiences I have ever had starting a new character. I think this even trumps the Death Knight starting zone and set of quests. I have heard that the Goblin one is even better, but I am thinking I might save that one until Cata goes live (we’ll see).

The feel of the zone is really great. The new landscape phasing is put to good use here too pretty early on. They did an amazing job with the storytelling and I hear that all throughout Cata you will want to start reading the quest text and paying attention to what NPCs have to say (maybe turn on chat bubbles? ). I did have issues with the last (I think) “main” quest bugging out on me, but I’m sure that will be fixed. I especially liked the guy with the checkerboard-cube hat (yeah, I know that is pretty common in the beta.. I was in WotLK beta too).

So, what about the Hunter changes? I’m not all that positive so far about the change to use Focus. I DO like not having mana anymore but I think the regen is just not right yet on the focus side. Of course, I am playing low level so that feeling might change as I progress/login to a high level hunter. The part where you get a pet early on is great, although you can’t control him/her. It basically just attacks whatever you are attacking. The only thing I find odd is that it doesn’t seem to explain what all the abilities are that you get at level 10 once you can control your pet, etc. They are the normal Hunter pet skills, but there is really no tutorial (unless I missed it) to teach you how to use them all (like feed pet, etc).

So far, I have not visited any old zones or new zones to check them out. I have been sequestered in the Worgen area. Additionally, addons are not enabled yet, so I have been playing with the stock UI (HORROR!). Amazingly enough, I can actually play with this thing.. Odd..   Ok. That’s all I have so far. Nothing really exciting on the LIVE wow front, although I did join a group on Fimlys that killed Algalon which was cool. Of course, we were all decked out in our ICC shinies, so it kinda felt like cheating.. Too Bad!  

Have a good one!

Post from: Asleep at the WoW

Frikkin Frak do Beta

This is a follow-up from yesterday’s Ruby Sanctum post, of course. The run I had to bail on two nights ago didn’t get Halion down, so last night we got the band back together and tried again. And again.. And again.. And again (a few more times).. And.. KILLED HIM/HER/IT!!!!!

There was lots of gnashing of teeth and changes to some of the strategies and so on and so forth during our 5 or so wipes. But, in the end, we did it! It was not very difficult (although we lost a bunch of ppl in the Twilight realm to the beams when we were at about 2%) but it takes a LOT of coordination. Watching the % Twilight/Physical during Phase 3 is essential as is avoiding the beams in the Twilight realm during Phase 2 and 3. Handling the decursing and where you move (out of the raid!) when you get the curse is important too.

While I said it wasn’t difficult, realize that we are a 25man raid where most, if not all, of the people have been doing ICC over and over and over since it’s been out. We’ve got pretty good gear at this point. I’m not sure where RS is supposed to be on the difficulty scale compared to ICC. I think the coordination part was important and I actually enjoyed the mechanics of the fight there and if this is a taste of what we will see on the boss fights in Cataclysm, I’m excited!

Ok, just wanted to update you all on our success. I didn’t get any loot, but what I saw looked nice. A trinket dropped that had ArP and +AP on proc that my Hunter was crying over.. (Yes, I brought the Druid) I wonder if we are going to go do this in 10man tonight? If so, I’m gonna try to bring the hunter.. Just watch, boomkin loot will drop.. ;P

Post from: Asleep at the WoW

The Twilight Destroyer is…

I logged in for a bit last night prior to recording TNB and got invited to our 25man Raid. The Ruby Sanctum had opened and we wanted to head right in and kick some Dragonkin butt. So… We headed on in and promptly wiped to the first Trash Pack. No, it wasn’t because we weren’t doing CC (although that might have helped). Well, I guess off tanking them could be considered CC, eh? It was because we took that same nonchalant attitude we have been taking in ICC for a while. Just Kill Em All! Well, not single targeting doesn’t really work.

So, we came back in and starting single target taking down the groups and had much better luck that way. There are a few packs that have a mob called Charscale Commander. For these, they had one of the druids (me actually) Hibernate this guy while we killed the rest of the pack. Reason? He does a buff to the other mobs and that makes the fight much harder. So, you keep him on ice (or well, asleep) until done with the rest.

The 3 mini-bosses actually weren’t so bad. I have to say that Saviana Ragefire was probably what I would consider the most difficult. She does an AOE “curse” type thing that puts a bunch of the raid on fire and you have to be away from everyone else while this is going on or other will get hit by it. We still ended up one-shotting her with more than 1/2 the raid dead… Baltharus the Warborn and General Zarithrian aren’t too bad but require off-tanking to be on the ball.

For Baltharus, he splits off some copies of himself that need to be tanked and all the DPS need to make sure they stay on HIM and ignore the adds. Zarithrian also spawns adds, but he spawns Dragonkin. They all seemed to be spellcasters so just have an offtank try to tank them as best you can or have a few of the peeps in the raid try to CC them and get back to killing the boss. In general DPS should concentrate on Zarithrian and there shouldn’t be much of a problem even with a ton of adds milling about (Healers really have to be on the ball, though).

What about Halion… Well, we didn’t get it down, well, at least while I was on. I had to bug out after a couple tries. There are 3 phases here and all I know is the key to Phase 2 is staying away from the Freaking Balls with Freaking Laser Beams… All in all, if your raid is well geared for ICC ad maybe you are doing a few Heroic modes in 10man even then I think you will not have all that much of a problem with this Raid.

Don’t forget to VOTE on the sidebar about what you are doing about Blizzcon 2010!

Post from: Asleep at the WoW

Ruby Sanctum : Fire Fire Fire…

Look!! It’s the front of the Anaheim Convention Center.. Home of BLIZZCON!

Yeah, I’m just fooling around with the beta of Windows Live Writer.. But .. I think That’s pretty cool anyway.

Post from: Asleep at the WoW

View from Above

First off, I want to say that I KNOW that the ICC buff is up to 25%. Secondly, I also want to say that I am proud of our 25man group. Why? Because we are 11/12 as of last night! Yes, we are only doing regular modes, but this is an achievement for us. We even got Sindragosa down on the second try (again, I know… 25%).. That fight is not all about DPS, it’s also about where you stand when you get the ice block so as to not ice block the WHOLE RAID… Anyway. I was excited. I didn’t get anything for the run at all (booo) and all the tokens that dropped were the pally, priest, warlock variety. I did have fun though. It’s nice to kill stuff! Woot!

So anyway, tonight is 10man again. We’ve been doing the hard modes in 10man which is nice, but I’m still not needing most of the stuff that drops there. Really, I don’t need much at all for the hunter and druid except for a good trinket.. That would be nice.

I spent the time before the raid getting my addons working correctly with 3.3.5 and playing a little with the RealID system. One cool feature that I don’t remember being mentioned is the ability to have a multi-way conversation with your realid friends. And.. You can include friends that the people you are chatting with don’t have as friends.. You could use this to introduce someone to someone else so they can see if they want to friend them and also to just have as a communication device. I had a few issues with getting WIM to work right with RealID. Even the newer version told me there was no such person when I tried to talk with RealID friends. I’m going to try out Cellular which is supposedly a lighter-weight version of WIM. I like the functionality of WIM, so I hope I can get it to work..

Had some other issues with Prat. One of the features of prat (at least I thought it was) used to be moving the chat edit box to the TOP of the chatbox.. I cannot, for the life of me, figure out how to do that again.  Either it was removed, I am just blind, or it was never there to begin with.

Another BIG problem I had with 3.3.5 and addons was with Fubar. It was, for lack of a better term, completely “fubared”.. (yeah yeah). So, I picked up Fortress which is a Broker container and got that all setup with both my fubar plugins (via fubar2broker) and just other broker addons. If anyone knows of a Broker container they like better than Fortress, let me know. I don’t MIND fortress, but i’d like something that maybe could auto setup all of the addons in a fubar-like way at the top.. Anyway, I might move back to fubar if/when they get it all working right. I haven’t tried logging into another char, so I don’t know how they are doing with regards to addons.

So, that’s about it so far from 3.3.5. No Ruby Sanctum yet, so I can’t comment/put up tips for that yet. But I plan to when it’s up. Thanks for listening (well reading) to me blabber on..

Post from: Asleep at the WoW

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