Heroic Shadowfang Keep

No tips and tricks here, just a random thought. It's quite funny I remember my little druid at level 20 or so standing in front of Shadowfang Keep spamming the channel and the LFG channel (yes this was way before dungeon finder), trying to attract other newbies in our realm by spamming "LFM H SFK!" to which I received many funny replies.

This was way before the actual mention of the expansion, but look how things change.

SO ANYWAYS what's so great about H SFK you say? Well it is the ONLY heroic dungeon Truny has managed to queue in AND complete so far. I managed to ninja some awesome BLUE items from in there too! It's still kinda hard getting used to being in blues again isn't it? I wasn't alive during the time of vanilla WOW.

What's with people dropping out of groups when something just doesn't go exactly their way?

*You have entered Stonecore*

Healer /whine *Ugh tank why are you taking damage on the first pull*
Healer has left the group.
Tank has left the group.
Some random DPS has left the group.

WHAT THE HELL??

Ok let's requeue for 40 minutes, I only really have time to do this twice a day anyways.

*You have entered Lost City of Whatever'vir*

We make it all the way to the bomber egyptian thing boss (they all look the same)

Tank: "Ok guys stay out of the bombs". /pulls

The poor melee dpser and the healer stands in the bombs.

Healer has left the group.
DPS has left the group.

WHEN HE SAYS DON'T STEP ON THE BOMBS DON'T STEP ON THE BOMBS WHATS SO HARD ABOUT THAT THEY ARE RIGHT IN YOUR EFFING FACE??

(Also I belive they have a blast radius and can explode other bombs around them so I try to stand by the idle ones if possible)

By the way that boss is really funny he totally SLAMS you into the pillar! (And of course this tends to screw up the camera, obscuring land mines, hint hint Warlock Circle)

I forgot what happened but we never finished that place either.

From what I remember the smart mage and the smart warlock were the only ones left in that fight, at 95%+ health. That is before we got nommed by the boss.

Okay, requeue.

*You have entered Throne of Tides*

"Hey everyo-"

Tank has left the group
DPS has left the group
Healer has left the group
Your group has been disbanded

WHAT THE??

So from what I see at the moment, Cataclysm heroics are hard in the sense that it is difficult to find a good group if you are using the Pugger Tool, the actual encounters ... we've seen them all anyways just in different combinations. I don't know, we shall see I will report back soon!

Truny the Difficult

Next Warlock Slave

You know what I am talking about, ALTS! More specifically previously max level alts with max level useful professions which were levelled solely to fund your main character with their useful products!

Who should I level next? Of course I am lazy so there are only four to choose from.

Klupty: JC and Alchemist Slave. I logged onto him yesterday and realized HOLY CRAP he's rich! I had about 6,000 gold on Truny which is seriously not even enough to get a couple dozen points in her tailoring profession as materials and gear and everything is expensive up the hoo-ha on our server. Klupty on the other hand is LOADED as he still has control of my old guild vault and all its treasures, which got me thinking "I should level someone else with all this wealth and make some useless junk for Truny!"

Now to level Jewelcrafting I would have to play my hunter who is the only prospecter I have now. Alchemist is fine as Truny had gathered many a herb on her travels through the new Cataclysm zones.

Klupty is a DK, which means I will most likely be melee dpsing. He is already prepared to do Blackrock Caverns and WAS on the way to discover the Throne of Tides but that was when I saw his wallet and hearthed to hit up the auction house. Frost DPS is nice, good AOE, still kinda button spammy which is completely fine with me. The new spells from 81-85 don't seem THAT exciting, more because they all sound the same to me plague blah blah blah. But I like dual wielding so we shall see.

Turby: The hunter. This was my main remember? He is a fine candidate to level through the new zones next, as I predict that Puppy the what are those dinosaurs called again? Demosaur? No....ah Devilsaur, Puppy the Devilsaur will have 100K hp and can do all the work for him. Also he is a prospector and skinner, yes somehow my hunter became my materials gatherer slave near the end leg of ICC. This could be profitable and I have no gripes about playing my original character again, also the last time I played him in October I remember just having to spam Arcane Shot, which is instant, I like. Also, the new spells from 81-85 are interesting, a shot made for BMs, all traps become launchable, and camouflage! But I'm so used to the Felguard's Felstorm how shall I AOE DPS?

Turny: The durid. He's actually level 81 as I wowarmoried him. WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN? He is the LW and enchanter of the roster (that's why Turby became a skinner) and was intended to be my "very useful alt" as he is heal and tank specced. He can quest fine in bear spec but his preferred way to level is through healing/tanking, though he'll need to gear up a bit more first as his measly 50K HP is now HALF of what my warlock has and probably won't be able to withstand many hits without mass QQ by the party. Though I do have vague memories of tanking Throne of Tides ...hmm. So either its easy to get a group and level fast but I have to use my brain, or questing as a cat. Hmm, not so sure about that one.

Husbrus: My next highest ALT at 78 is Husbrus the priest. She is an enchanter and tailor? I do not remember but I liked the healing style of Discipline Priests. Shield, then spam Smite cause youd' have nothing else to do for a while, run around and holy nova and use your Angel Wings Thing. However I do not like Shadow Priesting at all, it's too....weird, dot dot blast shadow lasers, unless the animations have been revamped to give it more oomph. Still leaning towards the hunter. Though the priest has the benefit of the Healer Queue time, which is 15 min, the old DPS queue time. Also she won't be sad about gear replacement as she never stepped foot into ICC or heck any Wrath heroics, which means at 80 she'll most likely jump from ilvl 200s to ilvl 295s. Weird!

Truny's Comprehensive Cataclysm Demonology Warlock Comments in Non-Comprehensive Fashion!

Screw intros who reads those anyways?

Ok fine, uhhh Deathwing and blah blah earth change and planes water and fire and new spells and dungeons ummm something desert and Thrall is like totally solo-ing the freakin' ocean has anyone noticed that??? Ok STFU.

So since patch 4.0.1 nothing much has really changed, the revamp of skill trees and our demon pretty much remained the same. I say Demon because I mean Felguard.

The Felguard is BEAST .... BEAAST I say! He has his general cleave, which hits all mobs, an axe throw, which is super useful for stunning stray mobs or interrupting healing mobs (I'm talking about YOU Temple Adept!), BUT his/her (I guess the Felguard can be female too?) best skill in single target or AOE is Felstorm. FELSTROM! It's code for Maelstrom! Go look it up I'm too lazy to do the fancy coding and html linking but I'm sure you all know how freakin' awesome it is already! On a 45 second cooldown, the Felguard will spin around and do massive damage I believe it is 5-6 slashes to EVERYTHING around it, I've seen this crit for 11k which is GAAH BEAST! Using Felstorm along with a seed of corruption thrown in, then you using your hellfire = awesome AOE dps, you will then probably do 50% of an arm's warriors damage or 10% of any type of mage's damage. *Ahem* And with the expansion even our PETS have 8950353253 HP they make a pretty good temporary off-tank if maintained a bit.

Fel Flame

At level 81 we get this very interesting spell, an instant cast spell with no cooldown other than the global one. If you're ICC 25 geared this will hit for 1,500 critting for 3,000 I THINK as I've seen it do 4,400 with all the new trinkets and buffs and whatnot.

It's weakish but it's handy cause you can cast it on the fly, for those of us used to casting our DOTS on the move should have no problem getting used to this spell. It adds six seconds to our Immolate, which helps us extend Immolate in case we have to move or can't get Hand of Gul'dan off in time. It is also handy when there is an arm's warrior or mage in the group as things die SO DAMN FAST usually when a mob is at 150K HP or less there is ONLY enough time to spam one or 2 Fel Flames before it is dead *Ahem*

And it's green fire. Pew pew. Pew pew pew pew! (Actually I am lazy, so usually I send my felguard on a mob while questing and just spam Fel Flame...cause it's instant LMAO!)

Dark Intent

Hmmm our first useful "buff" thinger. You can apply this to your Felguard when questing just for the 3% haste. We all know by now what it does right? It first gives whoever has the spell on them and YOURSELF 3% haste, then when their DOTS or HOTS crit it increases the other person's DOT/HOT by 3% effectiveness up to three times so up to 9%.

In short, you gives this to teh heal durid or unholy DK. Or whoever the hell you want heck give it to the tank.

Demon Soul

So close so close we don't actually transform flesh-wise but...we glow with a bloody aura when merged with our felguard. It increases haste by 15% and damage by 10% or something like that, it could be 15% whatever. This has a 2 minute cooldown and when used with Metamorphosis gives you HUGE numbers. Not as huge as a mage though, but for normal people it's pretty good. Use it with bloodlust or mage rage and you'll probably be clipping the gcd!

Mage Rage

Time Warp or Time Wrap or Time Whatever shall henceforth be known as Mage Rage. I need to get used to the sound, it doesn't do the RARARARAARRR like bloodlust but I *think* it goes...*Ding!*

Archaeology

At first I thought "gimmick profession", but it is actually kinda fun in a boring weird obsessive compulsive way. It's so casual oriented. Sort of. I mean, they are infusing lore into the game. Say what? That's great! Truny's skill is only at 80 so I can't say much about it except for when I first started I was like "WTF do I do with these scopes how do I look through them???" Apparently they just point you in the general direction in which you are supposed to dig somewhere else, and the color of the light is a distance gauge. DURR.

New Dungeons

Wow, the queues for the new dungeons are FORTY minutes for DPS??? So in good Old Fashioned er fashion, all epic items are ACTUALLY epic so there will be no more Rain of Loots. As most of the action is taking place on Azeroth I believe this represents when the game was only capped at level 60. Purples only come from raids. Fair enough. But it feels kinda weird replacing Nibelung with some random boss dagger o_O!

To run certain dungeons one must have the appropriate "average gear level", I believe it is like 272 for the first two and yeah I don't remember I just remember heroic is 329.

Truny being the snob that she is had some trouble reaching that number as she refused to equip green items just to boost her average item level, whatever.

Ok I'm losing track of what this post is about now okay bye!

Where Do I Go??

So I *think* I downloaded Cataclysm? I log in and try to queue for the new dungeons as I am probably just going to play this game as per, grind grind grind to end level then max out gear then get bored BUT it said "You do not meet the requirements for this dungeon".

I have to PHYSICALLY WALK to the entrance? Where are these dungeons? How do I even GET from Dalaran back to the other cities? Will the other cities have a guaranteed spot to travel to these new spots?

You are now thinking "Goddamn it Truny go explore like the good old days!"

Oh right....they changed the maps and we can FLY on earth now!

But, this is just a massive Epeen stroke anyways, I am scared to go back to Orrigigirmmar (spelling) it'll just be thousands of people afk sitting on their shiny dragons (I am on the zeppelin back as we speak as I just remembered this archaic form of transportation). I will continue to type this as we go.

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So apparently to get into Throne of Tides I have to get to Vash'jr, how?? Where's the instructions? Is it a teleport do I have to unlock the teleport do I have to go to the teleport to unlock it or do I have to unlock it in a chain elsewhere?

--

Omg I can fly over Undercity now FINALLY now that it is no longer needed, bah!

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Ok I will try to get to Origigimmar and look for a starter quest of sorts, everyone who remained on my friend's list is already 85 how is that possible the game's been out for a week!?

--

Ok wait so is all this new dungeon stuff going to blow ICC 25 gears out of the water? One thing I don't like about coming back is that I still have the tendency to optimize everything, I shall write about my adventures in LOTRO perhaps later D:

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Yep OMG I am right I'm not sure what part of Org this is but its filled with AFK dragon mounts GAH! Alright now to find the Archaeology trainer??

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Ok wow this is exciting someone in an animated picture frame wants to talk to me, Krogar!

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Ok I saw a pretty cutscene....now what??

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Ok I trained archaeology and holy crap this is way too much info to read, I'll just figure it out later.

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Whoa wait a minute the daily cata dungeon gives 104K exp?? ....ok then...ok I'm on the boat to Vashjr now.

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Budd on the boat, he's a bucket of fabulous rainbows now isn't he?? o_O

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First quest of the expansion: Collect Starfish for me EFF YOU!!

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Bahaha why am I selling vendor trash I forgot we're rich in this game! Fish Oil -> EFF YOU!

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"What's it got in its pockets" ??? PRECIOUS?? OMG HAHAHA

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Ok nothing new and exciting for now I shall just post this LMAO!

Truny the Warlock

Anyone Playing FF14?

I remember trying out the Beta to FF14 a long long time ago and.....wow, really?

Where to begin where to begin? Ok let's start at character creation. That is nice, the variations can vary to a very wild degree. Either a normal looking human, or a short mustached lady with an affro. That's nice.

There were different starting towns and each of them had a little tutorial sceneamajig with lots of cutscenes with your character in them. Ok.

Then you are thrown into the world and you are now wondering: What do I do? I swear, even in FF12 NPCs with quests or something important to say would have some sort of notificiation on their heads? We're not expecting a yellow arrow, but how about a whisper or on screen yelling at us?

The main quest line to each area is interesting enough, I guess, but to progress you need to be at a certain level. So what do you do to level? You go and level.

It seemed the major way to level was either to do these sort of mission quests which have 36 hour cooldowns (wtf), and provide no significance to the story, or to the world really. It's more like "Hi, these goblins attacked my wife at her farm, go kill 6". Ok.

The mobs you see on THESE quests will be easy enough to kill. The map will have an arrow to point you in the direction to go. But on your way to these mobs, you will encounter the natural mobs of the environment, this is the funny part. You'll see various animals and creatures, some low level, and some able to kill you in one or two hits all packed together. Why?

After a while of playing it took me a while to figure out the "color coding" for mobs. It seemed that BLUE meant easy, GREEN meant equal to you, ORANGE meant difficult, and RED meant deadly?

But that sometimes was untrue, sometimes you can kill an Orange mob easily and quickly while a blue mob will kill you?? Whaat?

Oh and you can't jump in this game. Nor can your character "drop" from a 4" ledge in the ground, as any environmental structure with x and y axis at a 90 degree angle constitutes as a physical barrier in which you have to walk around. Lame.

Tabbing around to switch targets while you fight is irrelevant. The first selection is always yourself, what if I don't have heals or self buffs? Why? The next is the mob you are fighting, the next is the mob all the way out on a mountain, and it will circle around. If you are fighting 2 mobs, good luck. It is faster to click. Oh but the clicking is not very accurate, as the in-game mouse was very slow. I do believe they are correcting this or have corrected it for retail release.

A good thing is: You can be any class you want! When you make your toon you are told to choose a class, but in reality you can just switch. All you have to do to switch roles is to equip that role's weapon.

Oh here comes the next part: Equipment.

Say you found some really awesome pants while fighting, you want to see them right away? Oh no this game does not believe in instant gratification. You can not just push "I" to open up your bags, you must navigate the Main Menu > Inventory. To actually EQUIP these pants, you can not use the Inventory menu, you must use the Equip menu, where you must select your pants on your character panel which will open up another window showing everything in your bags, you must then (most likely) scroll down and find those pants you were wearing, then equip them.

See, this would make total sense if the game were played on a console. When you are limited to a dozen buttons, this pace is expected.

Can someone tell me if we can create a macro that goes directly to the Equipment menu? How do we set-up macros?

Ask a friend in game! Oh wait, to talk to a friend, you must type /tell (friend's first name) (friend's last name) every single effing time! So..

Apparently there is an in-game "cellphone" which you can use which expediates this mess? But then again you probably have to open up some main menu, and add your friend to that list and...yeah let's not go there.

Let's see what's next on the complaint list? Don't worry essentially every funciton you now take for granted in games are in this list.

Oh right, equipping items was a pain. Ok so you were a mage now you want to be a warrior, easy go buy a sword. NOT as easy as it seems. The NPCs have no indication of what type of wares they sell you must find the NPC which sells the type of items you need then just remember where they are each time you need that specific class/type of items.

So if you managed to find that sword, let's go and level! Each time you level you get stat points, and elemental points. Seems simple enough? There's Strength, Vitality, Agility, Dexterity, Int, Mind, and Charisma? Mind? What does that do?

Then the elemental points have no indication what they do, I believe they are the type of element you would like to have higher resistances in. At first I thought it was the type of element that I would do the most damage in. Who knows!

Along with the basic "levelling" classes you can also choose to work on "gathering" classes like mining, fishing, I forget, and something something.

I ran out of the day.5.ly quests and decided to do some fishing deeds. Buy a fishing rod, equip it. BAM my skill list now has fishing skills, and some fishing "attacks". (In cooking, there is an ability called "Flick Wrists" LMAO)

You can track for fish, then use your "fish" button. Then it gets really complicated, especially for those of us who over-think things.

"How far do you want to cast your line"....wait what? Wait I don't know, can you please tell me if this is a fresh water lake, how deep it is, what the fish count is and the type of fish so I can better tell if the fish tend to be near the shore, or near the middle? What what? Ok I don't know so stressful umm ...choose a random distance.

"How deep do you want your line to sink"...ok wait so again how deep is the WATER? or is this a percentage or a ratio of the total depth of the water? I quit the game after that.

Graphics: Very very nice, when you're walking along the plains you can see the grass move and the wind blowing dust across the field. Character and mob models were very nice and detailed as well, the movements to the characters had very good weight behind them.

Otherwise I didn't find the game to be able to be very immersive. Not that WOW was immersive, wow is more pew pew pew pew but, there's not much to do at the moment other than kill the same enemies for many many levels.

Wait two years and see. I had more to complain about but I am getting bored so goodbye.

Turby, Klupty's Dog