Wednesday (30 Aug) - Showdown at Shalandis Isle, Ghostlands
Note: Images of the Showdown, the before and after, are in the blog post directly below this one.
When the word reached EZ that she had not only missed rendezvousing with Jocey, she had also blundered into the direct path of Naithipe, she panicked. EZ fled Tranquillen with little thought to where she was going.
When Jocey finally reached Tranquillen with her small train of supplies, EZ was already long gone. Waiting for Jocey, however, was a packet from Naithipe which stated that she would be delayed getting to Tranquillen, and to proceed without her. Jocey now wished she'd never sent that missive to EZ, and fumed that EZ had left no clue as to how to find her. At least EZ would be safe, with Naithipe delayed, thought Jocey. Unbeknownst to Jocey, the packet from Naithipe had already been overtaken by the non-events of the stalled armada. Naithipe was, in fact, on her way to the Eastern Continents and Tranquillen.
EZ, meanwhile, had headed west along the inlet stream that led to the sea. She crossed the great scar, slipped past the Sanctum of the Moon, and made her way through a village of grimscale murlocs. She was mostly left alone as she passed through this depressing land. The only creature she feared was Naithipe. Why did I have to make those sketches? she cajoled herself. Foolish, foolish. Naithipe had no patience for foolish. What the blazes is with Naithipe, anyway? The change in her looks would fool no one, EZ thought. What did she think, that she was a teenager again? If anything, the new look was even more terrifying than the old, with that younger appearance plastered over her. It was creepy. Unfortunately, EZ had plastered that creepiness all over the place with those sketches.
EZ morbidly leafed through the set of sketches she still carried as she put more distance between her and Tranquillen.
EZ finally went to ground at a small island the locals called Shalandis Isle. The island was guarded, but after killing a couple of them the rest let her be. A young paladin came by on a quest. The paladin gave EZ a wide berth and EZ let him be. Once the paladin had done his business and departed, EZ had a good bath in the isle's sacred pool and rested in the tent a guard hurriedly abandoned when EZ approached. As the night grew deeper, EZ slept.
It may have been hours later, or it may have been just a few minutes. EZ thought she heard the rustle of wings. At first she thought she was dreaming. Then she thought it was just bats. The area was practically overrun with them. But then she came fully and alertly awake when she heard steel strike steel.
In the night a ship had arrived at the island. The garrison that guarded the isle seemed all to have run off. Well, not all of them. One lay dead at the foot of the gangway. EZ quickly counted several more bodies decorating the ship's deck. A movement caught EZ's eye. She slid quietly forward, drawing both of her maces. High up on the ship's forecastle she could see a shape. It was misty, and the moon was at a mere quarter of full. There was more movement, and a low murmur of voices. EZ backed into the shadow of a stand of trees, stepping up on a low branch to get a better view.
EZ heard someone say, "What have you done here?" It held an eerie tone, probably twisted by the shifting sounds of mist and sea and the creak of the ship.
There was apparently no answer, because the same voice spoke again. "The blood is still fresh on that axe. Was this your doing?" The voice had grown louder. The voice sounded familiar. EZ leaned forward, trying to see and hear what was going on.
A second voice muttered three words that froze EZ like the strike of a chains of ice attack. "Where is EZ?" demanded that second voice, a voice which EZ knew very well. Naithipe. EZ felt herself grow colder. She was under no spell but her own fear.
"You are to come back with me to Orgrimmar." This first voice EZ now recognized - Melasahnd. The mist was clearing, and EZ could now make out both Mel and Naithipe, along with Mel's ghoul. Mel and Naithipe were standing almost nose to nose. Naithipe said nothing, but something in Naithipe's eyes made Mel take a small, involuntary step back. Recovering quickly, she shook her head in disgust, tsk tsking at Naithipe and apparently deciding to wait her out.
The silence stretched. EZ figured Naithipe was doing her staring act. Mel wouldn't take the bait. After a moment more Naithipe responded. "This was business," Naithipe said matter-of-factly, with a wave of a hand toward the corpses. "A renegade ship from the armada. Now back under Horde control. A new captain and crew is already being assembled."
"Well, that does explain why you are out here," Mel said, although her tone was dubious. "Whether true or not," she said, making a decision, "I'm still taking you back to Orgrimmar."
Naithipe shook her head. "Go back to waiting tables at Booty Bay and playing package girl with that allie. What's her name? Ah, yes, Rakta." Naithipe raised her axe, which got just the slightest twitch from Mel's sword hand, and pointed at the parcel of mats for Happy that Mel had forgotten to drop off. Naithipe made a derogatory noise in Mel's direction. "I'll find her myself," Naithipe finished, turning to call her mount.
Mel figured that EZ probably deserved whatever punishment Naithipe had in mind for her, given that craziness with the sketches she'd heard about. Mel hadn't seen the sketches, but she didn't need to. The real thing was standing in front of her. Denied the pleasure of dragging Naithipe back to Org to face Wild and JB, Mel couldn't help getting a final dig in.
"How cute," Mel said with a evil smile, "I heard you had gotten fond of ponytails." Mel laughed out loud. "Are we feeling more girlish now, honey?"
Naithipe's axe whistled with displaced air. Mel's ghoul had a surprised look on it's face; then it toppled to the deck in two pieces, cut clean through at the waist.
Mel's longsword snaked out of it's sheath with lightning speed and met the backhand swipe of Naithipe's axe in a thunderous clash of blades.
Neither Mel or Naithipe had noticed EZ. The two surrounded themselves in a circle of whirling steel and clouds of disease, plagues and fevers of two accomplished death knights weaving the spells of their trade. This was no simple duel. Both knights felt wronged and there would be no quarter given until one or the other gave way.
Mel had a moment when time seemed to stand still, as if right now she could back off from the encounter. Mel knew she had provoked the stubborn, often bull headed Naithipe. But with blood still leaking from her ripped apart ghoul, and Naithipe pressing the attack, the moment was quickly gone. Mel bellowed challenge, and hit Naithipe with Lichborne, giving her breathing room to cast a death coil heal. Naithipe, in response, savaged Mel with death pact, drawing lifeblood directly out of Mel and healing herself. Mel tried to counter with her anti-magic shell, which Naithipe quickly broke and dispelled. Barely able to get an untainted breath, Mel managed to cast Conversion and began drawing health at the expense of a rapid drain of runic power. Throughout the flashing thunder of the spell casting, both longsword and axe never ceased attack and counter, cut and slash. But for Mel, she knew that in moments she would be powerless with no runic power to drive her spells. Naithipe could feel Mel flagging.
The night was now clear and the light from the quarter moon seemed to shine directly down on the two combatants ... on the two kindred souls who shared the trial of the Lich King ... on the sisters in arms as members of the death knight class ... as, simply, sisters.
Naithipe's axe and Mel's longsword tipped toward each other again. Here was another moment when one or both could slow the attack, pull back, gain a breath, say a word that would stop those blades.
Mel saw that moment, even as she felt her runic power tick down to zero. She saw Naithipe make the tiniest, nearly imperceptible hesitation.
Then Naithipe's eyes widened as Mel lunged.
Mel managed to get by Naithipe's axe, her blade striking deep into Naithipe's right shoulder between shoulder and chest guard. Naithipe stumbled, bleeding badly.
Mel pressed forward in another lunge. Naithipe turned and fiercely battered the second thrust away. She extended the turn into a full circle, switching the axe from her numb right hand to her left at the same moment. Mel was out of position and was forced to leap backward to avoid the axe blade that sheared the air where Mel's head had been an instant before, actually catching the edge of Mel's helm.
Naithipe did not hesitate again. Mel was desperately trying to cast plague leach to acquire a death rune. Naithipe was faster. She cast Asphixiate, pulling Mel off her feet and stunning her. The dark energy of the spell crushed in on Mel's throat.
Naithipe watched, unmoving, as Mel dangled in the air, her helm knocked aside and her face turning purple.
Naithipe watched as the spell expired and Mel crumpled to the deck.
Naithipe stared at the still form for many minutes.
Then Naithipe called for her mount ... and left.
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Wednesday (30 Aug) - Images of the Shalandis Isle Showdown
Wednesday (30 Aug) - Images of the Shalandis Isle Showdown
The Sketches of Naithipe
On The Road
The Showdown
The End . . .
The Sketches of Naithipe
 |
| Naithipe in the Barber Chair |
 |
| The "Before" Sketch |
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| The "After" Sketch |
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| EZ at Tranquillen |
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| Naithipe Heading to Silvermoon City |
The Showdown
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| Naithipe & Melasahnd Eye to Eye |
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| Staring Reach Other Down |
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| The First Flurry of Blows |
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| Red With Battle |
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| Mel Goes Down |
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| Naithipe Left Standing |
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| Death Gate |
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Tuesday (28 Aug) - Patch 5.04 First Impressions
Tuesday (28 Aug) - Patch 5.04 First Impressions
First off, there are a few things that probably don't come into play until MoP itself, but I am including them here as I continue to learn things.
Happyface aggressively pointed out that there is a new farming material that has the crafters choosing sides. The new mat will affect Happy's work on the Auction House. Whether that's a positive or a negative is still to be determined.
The new mat is called Spirit of Harmony (SoH). SoH is the new "elemental" crafting mat in MoP. Instead of the usual multiple mats (in Cata, it's volatile air, earth, fire, life, and water) we now have just one in MoP. SoH is gathered as a random drop - supposedly, just about anything and everything you can kill drops the stuff. You have to be level 85 for it to drop, however. It is also Bind on Pickup (BOP), meaning that it can't be sold or shared. Only the character that farms it can use it. There is quite a controversy over that, and Blizz has already admitted that they might change that to Bind on Account (BOA) so that the SoHs can be passed to other characters in the account - but it'll be BOP to start with.
What is Blizz's reason for making the mat BOP? They want to FORCE players out of the cities and into the world to farm mats. Seriously, that's their reasoning.
SoHs have a lesser type called Motes of Harmony. It takes ten motes to make one SoH. What are they used for? Here is a list (probably still incomplete) just to give you an idea:
59 recipes at present
Enchanting, Herbalism, Mining and Skinning can't use them at all.
They're needed to bypass daily cloth production (3)
They're needed to bypass daily JC research (3)
They're needed to bypass daily Living steel restrictions (alchemy, 3)
They're needed for all weekly inscription quests (1,4-6)
They're needed for all weapon manufacture (lvl 85: 1-2, lvl 90: 2 or 5)
They're needed for all lvl 90 non-cloth armor
They're needed for either engineering mount (12)
They're needed for the "Blingtron 4000" (4)
They're needed for the "Mist-Piercing Goggles" (2)
They're needed for the JC trinkets (3)
They're needed for making cards in inscription (10)
If you have no use for any of the above, the SoHs can be traded to a vendor for crafting mats and other non-crafting purposes. Whether it will be worth doing is still undetermined.
Now, what hasn't changed is that with MoP, as usual, all of the professions have gotten new mats to make the new MoP goodies. For Happy, the focus as always is on enchanting mats. An old to new cross reference follows:
Infinite Dust -> Spirit Dust
Celestial Essence -> Mysterious Essence
Heavenly Shards -> Ethereal Shards
Maelestrom Crystals -> Sha Crystals
Happy sees no real challenge to continuing to work the AH despite the new SoH mat. The older mats will also still be valuable, maybe even more so than before the expansion, as SoHs can't be used to buy them, and alt leveling will still need the older mats. Happy envisions that MoP will be a profitable endeavor.
Other news - Theremore's Fall (the battle of Theremore scenario) will be launched on 18 Sep. It is open to level 85s for only one week. After that you will have to be level 90 to participate in the scenario. Special feats of strength can be won for level 85s. Scenarios require a group of three.
Big Smile - Now that mounts are account bound, Wild's hard won Raven Lord Anzu mount can be enjoyed by the entire Wild family. Woo hoo!
Okay, no more lectures, it's 11am and I'm ready to login ...
Delay #1 - The 11am completion of the patch was extended to 1pm. It was nice to see the launcher state that Patch 5.04 was "ready to play." Not.
Delay #2 - Time extended to 2pm. Closing up shop for the day. I'm sure there will be more interesting things to report tomorrow. The report could be a bit curtailed, though, as I will be at a baseball game tonight and at the Del Mar racetrack on Wednesday. Gotta play them ponies ...
First off, there are a few things that probably don't come into play until MoP itself, but I am including them here as I continue to learn things.
Happyface aggressively pointed out that there is a new farming material that has the crafters choosing sides. The new mat will affect Happy's work on the Auction House. Whether that's a positive or a negative is still to be determined.
The new mat is called Spirit of Harmony (SoH). SoH is the new "elemental" crafting mat in MoP. Instead of the usual multiple mats (in Cata, it's volatile air, earth, fire, life, and water) we now have just one in MoP. SoH is gathered as a random drop - supposedly, just about anything and everything you can kill drops the stuff. You have to be level 85 for it to drop, however. It is also Bind on Pickup (BOP), meaning that it can't be sold or shared. Only the character that farms it can use it. There is quite a controversy over that, and Blizz has already admitted that they might change that to Bind on Account (BOA) so that the SoHs can be passed to other characters in the account - but it'll be BOP to start with.
What is Blizz's reason for making the mat BOP? They want to FORCE players out of the cities and into the world to farm mats. Seriously, that's their reasoning.
SoHs have a lesser type called Motes of Harmony. It takes ten motes to make one SoH. What are they used for? Here is a list (probably still incomplete) just to give you an idea:
59 recipes at present
Enchanting, Herbalism, Mining and Skinning can't use them at all.
They're needed to bypass daily cloth production (3)
They're needed to bypass daily JC research (3)
They're needed to bypass daily Living steel restrictions (alchemy, 3)
They're needed for all weekly inscription quests (1,4-6)
They're needed for all weapon manufacture (lvl 85: 1-2, lvl 90: 2 or 5)
They're needed for all lvl 90 non-cloth armor
They're needed for either engineering mount (12)
They're needed for the "Blingtron 4000" (4)
They're needed for the "Mist-Piercing Goggles" (2)
They're needed for the JC trinkets (3)
They're needed for making cards in inscription (10)
If you have no use for any of the above, the SoHs can be traded to a vendor for crafting mats and other non-crafting purposes. Whether it will be worth doing is still undetermined.
Now, what hasn't changed is that with MoP, as usual, all of the professions have gotten new mats to make the new MoP goodies. For Happy, the focus as always is on enchanting mats. An old to new cross reference follows:
Infinite Dust -> Spirit Dust
Celestial Essence -> Mysterious Essence
Heavenly Shards -> Ethereal Shards
Maelestrom Crystals -> Sha Crystals
Happy sees no real challenge to continuing to work the AH despite the new SoH mat. The older mats will also still be valuable, maybe even more so than before the expansion, as SoHs can't be used to buy them, and alt leveling will still need the older mats. Happy envisions that MoP will be a profitable endeavor.
Other news - Theremore's Fall (the battle of Theremore scenario) will be launched on 18 Sep. It is open to level 85s for only one week. After that you will have to be level 90 to participate in the scenario. Special feats of strength can be won for level 85s. Scenarios require a group of three.
Big Smile - Now that mounts are account bound, Wild's hard won Raven Lord Anzu mount can be enjoyed by the entire Wild family. Woo hoo!
Okay, no more lectures, it's 11am and I'm ready to login ...
Delay #1 - The 11am completion of the patch was extended to 1pm. It was nice to see the launcher state that Patch 5.04 was "ready to play." Not.
Delay #2 - Time extended to 2pm. Closing up shop for the day. I'm sure there will be more interesting things to report tomorrow. The report could be a bit curtailed, though, as I will be at a baseball game tonight and at the Del Mar racetrack on Wednesday. Gotta play them ponies ...
Monday, August 27, 2012
Monday (27 Aug) - Lighting the Fuse
Monday (27 Aug) - Lighting the Fuse
It was time to go. Jocey had carefully packed all of the items on Naithipe's list. Her poor mount would likely complain of the ungainly weight, but she would take it slow. As far as her own gear, everything she owned was either already equipped or in her backpack. If things went terribly wrong Jocey wanted to be able to cut and run on a moment's notice.
Getting to Tranquillen by ground mount would take some time. The journey beyond the town would take even longer. Word of mouth traveled a lot faster, though. Word had reached Silvermoon City that an orc shaman had come through Tranquillen looking for an undead death knight. Sketches of the death knight had been passed around. Jocey had found one such sketch, torn and smeared from recent rain, on the grounds near the flight master outside the City gates. There was little left of the sketch. It was enough, though, to turn Jocey's blood cold in fear. Jocey hoped that this was some other orc shaman. Some other undead death knight. Jocey knew, though, that the orc shaman had to be EZ. She must have bypassed Silvermoon City all together. EZ may not even have known that Jocey was in the City. A quick check with the flight master confirmed that an orc shaman had indeed taken a flight to Tranquillen.
As worried as she was, Jocey could not help thinking back on the last time she saw a shaman all the way out in this part of the world. A much younger JB had traveled all the way to Eversong Woods to provide gear and advice to a very young, inexperienced blood elf many, many seasons ago. That blood elf was Jocey.
Jocey shook off the memories. Now was not the time. She could only hope that she got to Tranquillen and to EZ before Naithipe did. Then she had a second thought. She turned over the smeared sketch and found a moderately clean spot. Jocey wrote, "N is coming. Get out of Tranquillen." Jocey folded it and sealed it with her initial, J, in a blood elf curl. Jocey handed the note and a few silver pieces to the flight master. "See that this gets to that orc shaman. She'll be in Tranquillen." She couldn't think of anything else she could do to help EZ, except get her own carcass on the road.
Naithipe did not head directly for Tranquillen after leaving Jocey in Silvermoon City. She made her own simple preparations. Naithipe never carried more than she planned to be buried with. Garrosh had his armada. Naithipe was on her way to join it. Although the armada would have one ship within it with orders not exactly those of the Warchief's. Naithipe pushed away her frets, angry at herself that she harbored second thoughts. Gamon had better not betray her.
Back in Org, Wild was roused from his nap by dumping him out the hammock he was snoring in. He staggered upright, glaring at JB, Philly, Mel, and Mery, all of which had surrounded him with accusing stares. Wild wished earnestly for the hundredth or thousandth time that his family had been made up of boys instead of all these witch women. Maybe he could drop into cat form and go stealth. There were plenty of other places he could find to nap.
"Naithipe has eluded us once again," Mel started.
"We have lost contact with Jocey, too," Philly pitched in.
"And no one has heard from EZ since she was sent to find Naithipe," added JB. JB judiciously didn't mention that it was she who had rushed off EZ.
Wild had to put down the wistful thought that, well, there would be three fewer women to contend with, anyway. Maybe he should send a few more off to far flung places.
Wild put on a suitable grimace. "Shouldn't at least you, Philly, and you, JB, be getting ready to sail with the armada?" Wild held up a hand for silence. "And Naithipe will do what she will. Leave her be!"
Wild thought a moment. "As for Jocey and EZ ... " Wild looked at Mel. "Looks like you get the short straw. Off to Silvermoon City with you. Find them. Find out what they are doing, and if necessary escort them back to safety."
Wild pulled at an ear as he considered further. "And Mel, if you do find Naithipe, well, try not to kill each other. I don't want to have to pick through the pile of bones you two would leave behind for me to have to put back together." Wild added those final words with a look that came awfully close to a brotherly smile (which totally grossed out Mel).
Wild turned away, intent on getting back to his nap. He was muttering as he walked off. "Undead death knights dying, what an oxymoron on so many levels. Don't know what oxen have to with morons, but both certainly apply to death knights."
What Wild didn't tell them was that he knew where Naithipe was going. Wild was a lot more engaged in the business of his family than it would appear on the surface. The thing with the sketches was worrisome, but the issue should be long past before it could turn ugly. Or so Wild expected. But there was a lot about what Naithipe was doing that Wild did not know.
Naithipe and Gamon sat at a table at the seaport inn in Ratchet. That would be in the Northern Barrens, south of Orgrimmar. They listened to the waves washing up on the shore and watched the ships come and go. They waited on word from the Warchief. Is the armada a go or not? Everything seemed ready, but no signal had been given.
Naithipe was beginning to think that the Warchief's assault would be delayed. If that turned out to be so, Naithipe could go back to the business in the Ghostlands.
It was time to go. Jocey had carefully packed all of the items on Naithipe's list. Her poor mount would likely complain of the ungainly weight, but she would take it slow. As far as her own gear, everything she owned was either already equipped or in her backpack. If things went terribly wrong Jocey wanted to be able to cut and run on a moment's notice.
Getting to Tranquillen by ground mount would take some time. The journey beyond the town would take even longer. Word of mouth traveled a lot faster, though. Word had reached Silvermoon City that an orc shaman had come through Tranquillen looking for an undead death knight. Sketches of the death knight had been passed around. Jocey had found one such sketch, torn and smeared from recent rain, on the grounds near the flight master outside the City gates. There was little left of the sketch. It was enough, though, to turn Jocey's blood cold in fear. Jocey hoped that this was some other orc shaman. Some other undead death knight. Jocey knew, though, that the orc shaman had to be EZ. She must have bypassed Silvermoon City all together. EZ may not even have known that Jocey was in the City. A quick check with the flight master confirmed that an orc shaman had indeed taken a flight to Tranquillen.
As worried as she was, Jocey could not help thinking back on the last time she saw a shaman all the way out in this part of the world. A much younger JB had traveled all the way to Eversong Woods to provide gear and advice to a very young, inexperienced blood elf many, many seasons ago. That blood elf was Jocey.
Jocey shook off the memories. Now was not the time. She could only hope that she got to Tranquillen and to EZ before Naithipe did. Then she had a second thought. She turned over the smeared sketch and found a moderately clean spot. Jocey wrote, "N is coming. Get out of Tranquillen." Jocey folded it and sealed it with her initial, J, in a blood elf curl. Jocey handed the note and a few silver pieces to the flight master. "See that this gets to that orc shaman. She'll be in Tranquillen." She couldn't think of anything else she could do to help EZ, except get her own carcass on the road.
Naithipe did not head directly for Tranquillen after leaving Jocey in Silvermoon City. She made her own simple preparations. Naithipe never carried more than she planned to be buried with. Garrosh had his armada. Naithipe was on her way to join it. Although the armada would have one ship within it with orders not exactly those of the Warchief's. Naithipe pushed away her frets, angry at herself that she harbored second thoughts. Gamon had better not betray her.
Back in Org, Wild was roused from his nap by dumping him out the hammock he was snoring in. He staggered upright, glaring at JB, Philly, Mel, and Mery, all of which had surrounded him with accusing stares. Wild wished earnestly for the hundredth or thousandth time that his family had been made up of boys instead of all these witch women. Maybe he could drop into cat form and go stealth. There were plenty of other places he could find to nap.
"Naithipe has eluded us once again," Mel started.
"We have lost contact with Jocey, too," Philly pitched in.
"And no one has heard from EZ since she was sent to find Naithipe," added JB. JB judiciously didn't mention that it was she who had rushed off EZ.
Wild had to put down the wistful thought that, well, there would be three fewer women to contend with, anyway. Maybe he should send a few more off to far flung places.
Wild put on a suitable grimace. "Shouldn't at least you, Philly, and you, JB, be getting ready to sail with the armada?" Wild held up a hand for silence. "And Naithipe will do what she will. Leave her be!"
Wild thought a moment. "As for Jocey and EZ ... " Wild looked at Mel. "Looks like you get the short straw. Off to Silvermoon City with you. Find them. Find out what they are doing, and if necessary escort them back to safety."
Wild pulled at an ear as he considered further. "And Mel, if you do find Naithipe, well, try not to kill each other. I don't want to have to pick through the pile of bones you two would leave behind for me to have to put back together." Wild added those final words with a look that came awfully close to a brotherly smile (which totally grossed out Mel).
Wild turned away, intent on getting back to his nap. He was muttering as he walked off. "Undead death knights dying, what an oxymoron on so many levels. Don't know what oxen have to with morons, but both certainly apply to death knights."
What Wild didn't tell them was that he knew where Naithipe was going. Wild was a lot more engaged in the business of his family than it would appear on the surface. The thing with the sketches was worrisome, but the issue should be long past before it could turn ugly. Or so Wild expected. But there was a lot about what Naithipe was doing that Wild did not know.
Naithipe and Gamon sat at a table at the seaport inn in Ratchet. That would be in the Northern Barrens, south of Orgrimmar. They listened to the waves washing up on the shore and watched the ships come and go. They waited on word from the Warchief. Is the armada a go or not? Everything seemed ready, but no signal had been given.
Naithipe was beginning to think that the Warchief's assault would be delayed. If that turned out to be so, Naithipe could go back to the business in the Ghostlands.
Sunday, August 26, 2012
Weekend (26 Aug) - Last Minute Details
Weekend (26 Aug) - Last Minute Details
Note: This is to give folks something to read on Monday morning - after reading the "In Her Own Head" post since it looks like you all took an early Friday last week. :-)
There will be another post before the 5.04 launch on Tuesday so that you are up to date. Below is the latest information about Patch 5.04.
Valor Point/Justice System Conversion
-------------------------------------
The Valor Point/Justice Point conversion has finally been announced. There is a three step process that will work just fine for the Wild Family.
Step 1 - When patch 5.04 goes live on 28 Aug, all VPs will be converted to JPs. If the total of VPs + JPs exceed the 4,000 max cap, players will be able to keep those over cap JPs for the first two weeks. VPs can no longer be earned. Anyone over the cap will not be able to earn any new JPs.
Step 2 - At the end of the second week of 5.04, any JPs still over the 4k cap will be converted to gold. All players can continue to earn JPs as long as it is below the cap.
Step 3 - When MoP goes live on 25 Sep, VPs can again be earned at a max rate of 1,000/week. Players can hold up to a max of 3,000 total VPs. VPs are used to buy i489 gear, which are sold by factions and require Revered reputation.
For the Wild Family there is both good and bad news. The good news, of course, is that Wild and JB will be able to make maximum use of the VPs and JPs they have to acquire additional heirloom gear.
The bad news is that Valor Point usage has been "adjusted" to the point I'm having trouble figuring out what's what. More on that at the bottom of the post.
Raid Finder Loot Rules
----------------------
Wow, get a load of this! We currently have the need, greed, and pass system to win gear that is randomly dropped from bosses. The new system coming into play (for raid finder and world bosses only) is 180 degrees out from the now old system. I like it, personally, but it has it's faults that I hope Blizzard gets around to fixing. Here it is:
Instead of the random number generator (RNG) blindly picking loot to drop for everyone (potentially) to roll on, there is an independent RNG roll "for each player" to determine if they won loot. Players that win loot are awarded a random item from a list of "spec appropriate items" that go directly to the player. There is no need, greed, pass system for the raid finder. Since there is a loot roll for every player, every player has an equal chance to received loot without affecting the chances of any other player. The items received are soulbound and cannot be traded to someone else. Note that you can still get drops that you already have.
The disadvantage of this system is pretty obvious. You cannot win off-spec gear in a raid finder raid.
You cannot loot non-mainspec gear for transmog, either. For that, it's back to dungeons, faction gear, normal gear and older content.
Oh, the new system applies to World Bosses. Now, that's pretty cool. Since every player gets their own chance at loot, world boss raids can be as large as you want without affecting the chance at loot. Of course, then they went and snarled that up by saying that "only the group that kills the boss" will get a chance at the loot. Guess you'd better be in the right group.
The Bonus Roll - This seems overly complicated, but with enough effort players can buy an extra loot roll in raids (any kind of raid). The way it works is that players must farm the Pandaren Elder faction for tokens. In addition to using elder tokens to by faction stuff, players can also buy Charms of Good Fortune (1 Charm for 25 tokens). No, I don't know how long it takes to accumulate 25 tokens. Anyway, after killing a raid boss and determining loot, there is an opportunity to buy another, independent loot roll with a Charm. This is a loot roll, not a guarantee of a gear drop. However, the roll will always reward something, even if it's only gold. You can use a Charm only once per boss kill. So - farm Pandaren Elder faction, earn tokens, buy Charms with tokens, use Charms to buy loot chances off dead bosses. Got it?
The Future of Valor Points
==========================
The discussion started out well. Blizzard admitted that VPs were becoming so important they were almost more important than boss kills as far as earning better gear was concerned. Well, first I had to find out how VPs could be used to see if their relative value had changed. I could not find any definitive information about how Tier pieces are acquired, so I first assumed that it's the same as Cata with a few boss drops and the rest bought with VPs. However, Blizz is still considering removing all valor gear from valor vendors (what would they be called, then? no-valor vendors?) and requiring that gear to be earned in only by boss kills. That would certainly lower the need for VPs to buy tier pieces, but now we are at the mercy of the RNG for tier drops from bosses. Not a fair trade, in my view.
That said, VPs are now required to buy faction gear, instead of the usual gold. Yes, not only must we grind faction rep (to at least Revered), we also have to grind VPs to buy the gear those factions offer. That also seems to fly in the face of reducing the importance of VPs.
Blizz says they want players spending more time killing bosses and less time grinding VPs. So, one way they want to do that is make us grind MORE VPs so that we can slightly increase our gear item level a little each week (up to a maximum 8 ilevel points - which, frankly, is not that much of an improvement). What stats the upgrades offer or how that would actually worked has not yet been finalized. Bottom line - you'll need VPs to buy the item level upgrades.
Finally, note that best and most efficient method for earning valor points in MoP is by doing dungeons and scenarios, not raids! So much for lowering the importance of VPs and increasing the importance of raids.
One poster put it best - earning VPs through raids, which most raiders prefer, has been changed to something more mandatory than ever for progression and earned primarily from trivial and uninteresting content that will be outdated a month into the expansion (ie, endless running of dungeons and scenarios to earn VPs).
The Patch 5.04 Survival Guide
=============================
* Download ahead of time all the latest releases of any addons used.
* All talents are reset, so be prepared to set them up.
* Glyphs have changed. Check them.
* Mana pools are capped. Wow, that I didn't know. Int for higher power spells, and spi for faster regen will be main focus.
* Buffs and debuffs have been redesigned. Learn it.
* The Battle of Theramore will not start on day 1 of 5.04.
There ya go. I'm launching this baby.
Note: This is to give folks something to read on Monday morning - after reading the "In Her Own Head" post since it looks like you all took an early Friday last week. :-)
There will be another post before the 5.04 launch on Tuesday so that you are up to date. Below is the latest information about Patch 5.04.
Valor Point/Justice System Conversion
-------------------------------------
The Valor Point/Justice Point conversion has finally been announced. There is a three step process that will work just fine for the Wild Family.
Step 1 - When patch 5.04 goes live on 28 Aug, all VPs will be converted to JPs. If the total of VPs + JPs exceed the 4,000 max cap, players will be able to keep those over cap JPs for the first two weeks. VPs can no longer be earned. Anyone over the cap will not be able to earn any new JPs.
Step 2 - At the end of the second week of 5.04, any JPs still over the 4k cap will be converted to gold. All players can continue to earn JPs as long as it is below the cap.
Step 3 - When MoP goes live on 25 Sep, VPs can again be earned at a max rate of 1,000/week. Players can hold up to a max of 3,000 total VPs. VPs are used to buy i489 gear, which are sold by factions and require Revered reputation.
For the Wild Family there is both good and bad news. The good news, of course, is that Wild and JB will be able to make maximum use of the VPs and JPs they have to acquire additional heirloom gear.
The bad news is that Valor Point usage has been "adjusted" to the point I'm having trouble figuring out what's what. More on that at the bottom of the post.
Raid Finder Loot Rules
----------------------
Wow, get a load of this! We currently have the need, greed, and pass system to win gear that is randomly dropped from bosses. The new system coming into play (for raid finder and world bosses only) is 180 degrees out from the now old system. I like it, personally, but it has it's faults that I hope Blizzard gets around to fixing. Here it is:
Instead of the random number generator (RNG) blindly picking loot to drop for everyone (potentially) to roll on, there is an independent RNG roll "for each player" to determine if they won loot. Players that win loot are awarded a random item from a list of "spec appropriate items" that go directly to the player. There is no need, greed, pass system for the raid finder. Since there is a loot roll for every player, every player has an equal chance to received loot without affecting the chances of any other player. The items received are soulbound and cannot be traded to someone else. Note that you can still get drops that you already have.
The disadvantage of this system is pretty obvious. You cannot win off-spec gear in a raid finder raid.
You cannot loot non-mainspec gear for transmog, either. For that, it's back to dungeons, faction gear, normal gear and older content.
Oh, the new system applies to World Bosses. Now, that's pretty cool. Since every player gets their own chance at loot, world boss raids can be as large as you want without affecting the chance at loot. Of course, then they went and snarled that up by saying that "only the group that kills the boss" will get a chance at the loot. Guess you'd better be in the right group.
The Bonus Roll - This seems overly complicated, but with enough effort players can buy an extra loot roll in raids (any kind of raid). The way it works is that players must farm the Pandaren Elder faction for tokens. In addition to using elder tokens to by faction stuff, players can also buy Charms of Good Fortune (1 Charm for 25 tokens). No, I don't know how long it takes to accumulate 25 tokens. Anyway, after killing a raid boss and determining loot, there is an opportunity to buy another, independent loot roll with a Charm. This is a loot roll, not a guarantee of a gear drop. However, the roll will always reward something, even if it's only gold. You can use a Charm only once per boss kill. So - farm Pandaren Elder faction, earn tokens, buy Charms with tokens, use Charms to buy loot chances off dead bosses. Got it?
The Future of Valor Points
==========================
The discussion started out well. Blizzard admitted that VPs were becoming so important they were almost more important than boss kills as far as earning better gear was concerned. Well, first I had to find out how VPs could be used to see if their relative value had changed. I could not find any definitive information about how Tier pieces are acquired, so I first assumed that it's the same as Cata with a few boss drops and the rest bought with VPs. However, Blizz is still considering removing all valor gear from valor vendors (what would they be called, then? no-valor vendors?) and requiring that gear to be earned in only by boss kills. That would certainly lower the need for VPs to buy tier pieces, but now we are at the mercy of the RNG for tier drops from bosses. Not a fair trade, in my view.
That said, VPs are now required to buy faction gear, instead of the usual gold. Yes, not only must we grind faction rep (to at least Revered), we also have to grind VPs to buy the gear those factions offer. That also seems to fly in the face of reducing the importance of VPs.
Blizz says they want players spending more time killing bosses and less time grinding VPs. So, one way they want to do that is make us grind MORE VPs so that we can slightly increase our gear item level a little each week (up to a maximum 8 ilevel points - which, frankly, is not that much of an improvement). What stats the upgrades offer or how that would actually worked has not yet been finalized. Bottom line - you'll need VPs to buy the item level upgrades.
Finally, note that best and most efficient method for earning valor points in MoP is by doing dungeons and scenarios, not raids! So much for lowering the importance of VPs and increasing the importance of raids.
One poster put it best - earning VPs through raids, which most raiders prefer, has been changed to something more mandatory than ever for progression and earned primarily from trivial and uninteresting content that will be outdated a month into the expansion (ie, endless running of dungeons and scenarios to earn VPs).
The Patch 5.04 Survival Guide
=============================
* Download ahead of time all the latest releases of any addons used.
* All talents are reset, so be prepared to set them up.
* Glyphs have changed. Check them.
* Mana pools are capped. Wow, that I didn't know. Int for higher power spells, and spi for faster regen will be main focus.
* Buffs and debuffs have been redesigned. Learn it.
* The Battle of Theramore will not start on day 1 of 5.04.
There ya go. I'm launching this baby.
Friday, August 24, 2012
Thursday (23 Aug) - In Her Own Head
Thursday (23 Aug) - In Her Own Head
Naithipe wanted to scream at the guard. All she'd asked for was directions, and the guard nearly fainted dead away. A part of her chuckled that she could terrorize with just a look. A part of her cringed. What part of that was the real her, she wondered? She had never wondered before.
Naithipe forced her thoughts to the meeting with Gamon, even as her mount flew her over to the new location of the city barbershop. Naithipe had been impressed into Garrosh's service, but she had other ideas that did not involve throwing away her own life for the Warchief's glory. She needed a disguise. Her anonymity was getting harder and harder to maintain. The longer she remained in Org, the more likely some relative was likely to see her and report back. She had heard that JB was hunting her. The whole clan was likely on the lookout for her by now. With things settled with Gamon, she need stay in Org no longer.
The female goblin barber brayed in mock horror when Naithipe entered the shop. "Honey, What have you done with that hair!" Naithipe stopped in her tracks, her icy eyes blinking in warning as she considered whether to kill the stumpy goblin now or after.
"Come in, come in!" The goblin grabbed Naithipe by the right arm, at the same time deftly securing the harness holding Naithipe's wicked looking axe, and guided Naithipe into an empty barber chair all in one continuous motion.
"I know that look," the barber said cheerfully as she rapidly filled a steel stand with the implements of her trade, most of them very sharp. "If you kill me now you'll regret it when Mr. Right comes along and you're still sporting those limp sprouts you're calling a hairdo." Naithipe felt a bit dazed. She scratched an eyebrow, wondering what she had let herself into, and picked at the flesh she had dislodged in the process. The barber snatched Naithipe's hand away. "Don't make this any harder than it has to be, missy."
The barber paused and gave Naithipe a long, hard look. "What's it to be, hun, something sexy for the boys?" Naithipe's eyes narrowed.
"Humph," sounded the barber. "How about a nice spiked do." She paused, then added encouragingly, "Keeps the birds out of your hair." Naithipe shook her head.
"Come on, doll, don't tell me you want the evil eye killer package? That's so pre-MoP, ya know?" Naithipe opened her mouth, but shut it again as the barber prattled on "... after the slug facial compact and the eel ointments I think ..." Naithipe shifted in the chair to bring her hand over to the shaft of her axe.
"... um." The barber swallowed. She gave Naithipe her best, alert smile. "I've got just the thing for you." The barber wagged a finger at Naithipe, leaned close, and whispered in her ear.
Naithipe was uncomfortable and fidgety on her way to Silvermoon City. She kept looking around out of the corner of her eyes as if trying to catch a glimpse of something just out of sight. She glared at those around her, daring comment, and felt strange at the occasional smiles she'd never noticed before. Nobody's going to recognize me, that's for sure, thought Naithipe. I guess it was best to let the barber live. Less ruckus. Naithipe sighed.
Once in the City, Naithipe delayed meeting up with Jocey, taken suddenly with worry. Her scattered thoughts tossed up an image of Jocey's Sunstrider sword, which Naithipe had sneered at as a weapon. It was a beautifully crafted blade, though, something Naithipe rarely considered worth thinking about. She could wait no longer, however wild her thoughts were becoming. They were to meet at the Inn.
Naithipe entered through the back entrance and came up on Jocey, already inside, from behind. The scrape of a chair turned Jocey around.
"Well met once again, Nai ... ?" Jocey's brave smile of welcome stumbled over the name, her eyes locked on Naithipe's head despite every instinct frantically telling her not to.
Naithipe was wearing a smile herself, a fierce smile half nobodies business and half something else Jocey could not begin to decipher.
"That's a, uh, stunning disguise," Jocey managed to say. Naithipe took a heartbeat to study Jocey's sincerity, who held her ground under that scrutiny. Both women took a slow breath.
Jocey took another chance. "I like it. I honestly do." Naithipe nodded minutely. The small sounds of an inn doing business grew around them, neither one of them noticing how many others in the place had been doing some breath holding of their own. Jocey pulled out a chair for Naithipe. "We're almost ready," she told Naithipe. Naithipe took the offered chair. "Let me see what you have," she asked, almost conversationally.
EZ was tired, dirty, and hating the Ghostlands already. It's so dark all the time out here, she grumbled to herself. There's not even a decent inn about in this hole in the wall town of Tranquillen. And it's all Naithipe's fault. Well, when Naithipe does turn up here, won't she be in for a bit of surprise.
EZ pulled a small sketchbook out of her tunic. She flipped through the pages and grinned. What a lucky break, to see Naithipe enter that barbershop while EZ was on her way out of town. The gold she paid that sketch artist to secretly draw the before and after was going to get EZ back into JB's good graces for sure. EZ was so proud of herself, she couldn't resist showing off the excellent artwork to anyone and everyone in town. What a kick! Let's see her try to sneak past me now, she thought contentedly.
Naithipe wanted to scream at the guard. All she'd asked for was directions, and the guard nearly fainted dead away. A part of her chuckled that she could terrorize with just a look. A part of her cringed. What part of that was the real her, she wondered? She had never wondered before.
Naithipe forced her thoughts to the meeting with Gamon, even as her mount flew her over to the new location of the city barbershop. Naithipe had been impressed into Garrosh's service, but she had other ideas that did not involve throwing away her own life for the Warchief's glory. She needed a disguise. Her anonymity was getting harder and harder to maintain. The longer she remained in Org, the more likely some relative was likely to see her and report back. She had heard that JB was hunting her. The whole clan was likely on the lookout for her by now. With things settled with Gamon, she need stay in Org no longer.
The female goblin barber brayed in mock horror when Naithipe entered the shop. "Honey, What have you done with that hair!" Naithipe stopped in her tracks, her icy eyes blinking in warning as she considered whether to kill the stumpy goblin now or after.
"Come in, come in!" The goblin grabbed Naithipe by the right arm, at the same time deftly securing the harness holding Naithipe's wicked looking axe, and guided Naithipe into an empty barber chair all in one continuous motion.
"I know that look," the barber said cheerfully as she rapidly filled a steel stand with the implements of her trade, most of them very sharp. "If you kill me now you'll regret it when Mr. Right comes along and you're still sporting those limp sprouts you're calling a hairdo." Naithipe felt a bit dazed. She scratched an eyebrow, wondering what she had let herself into, and picked at the flesh she had dislodged in the process. The barber snatched Naithipe's hand away. "Don't make this any harder than it has to be, missy."
The barber paused and gave Naithipe a long, hard look. "What's it to be, hun, something sexy for the boys?" Naithipe's eyes narrowed.
"Humph," sounded the barber. "How about a nice spiked do." She paused, then added encouragingly, "Keeps the birds out of your hair." Naithipe shook her head.
"Come on, doll, don't tell me you want the evil eye killer package? That's so pre-MoP, ya know?" Naithipe opened her mouth, but shut it again as the barber prattled on "... after the slug facial compact and the eel ointments I think ..." Naithipe shifted in the chair to bring her hand over to the shaft of her axe.
"... um." The barber swallowed. She gave Naithipe her best, alert smile. "I've got just the thing for you." The barber wagged a finger at Naithipe, leaned close, and whispered in her ear.
Naithipe was uncomfortable and fidgety on her way to Silvermoon City. She kept looking around out of the corner of her eyes as if trying to catch a glimpse of something just out of sight. She glared at those around her, daring comment, and felt strange at the occasional smiles she'd never noticed before. Nobody's going to recognize me, that's for sure, thought Naithipe. I guess it was best to let the barber live. Less ruckus. Naithipe sighed.
Once in the City, Naithipe delayed meeting up with Jocey, taken suddenly with worry. Her scattered thoughts tossed up an image of Jocey's Sunstrider sword, which Naithipe had sneered at as a weapon. It was a beautifully crafted blade, though, something Naithipe rarely considered worth thinking about. She could wait no longer, however wild her thoughts were becoming. They were to meet at the Inn.
Naithipe entered through the back entrance and came up on Jocey, already inside, from behind. The scrape of a chair turned Jocey around.
"Well met once again, Nai ... ?" Jocey's brave smile of welcome stumbled over the name, her eyes locked on Naithipe's head despite every instinct frantically telling her not to.
Naithipe was wearing a smile herself, a fierce smile half nobodies business and half something else Jocey could not begin to decipher.
"That's a, uh, stunning disguise," Jocey managed to say. Naithipe took a heartbeat to study Jocey's sincerity, who held her ground under that scrutiny. Both women took a slow breath.
Jocey took another chance. "I like it. I honestly do." Naithipe nodded minutely. The small sounds of an inn doing business grew around them, neither one of them noticing how many others in the place had been doing some breath holding of their own. Jocey pulled out a chair for Naithipe. "We're almost ready," she told Naithipe. Naithipe took the offered chair. "Let me see what you have," she asked, almost conversationally.
EZ was tired, dirty, and hating the Ghostlands already. It's so dark all the time out here, she grumbled to herself. There's not even a decent inn about in this hole in the wall town of Tranquillen. And it's all Naithipe's fault. Well, when Naithipe does turn up here, won't she be in for a bit of surprise.
EZ pulled a small sketchbook out of her tunic. She flipped through the pages and grinned. What a lucky break, to see Naithipe enter that barbershop while EZ was on her way out of town. The gold she paid that sketch artist to secretly draw the before and after was going to get EZ back into JB's good graces for sure. EZ was so proud of herself, she couldn't resist showing off the excellent artwork to anyone and everyone in town. What a kick! Let's see her try to sneak past me now, she thought contentedly.
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Wednesday (22 Aug) - The Conundrum of Naithipe
Wednesday (22 Aug) - The Conundrum of Naithipe
A conundrum is defined in a couple of ways. As a "confusing and difficult problem" and also as "a riddle whose answer is or involves a pun." Synonyms include words like puzzle, enigma, anagram, mystery.
At the Boar's Head Inn Naithipe stalked up to the very dangerous and volatile Gamon and settled onto a stool next to him with a rattle of bones. The two engaged in a low voiced conversation that one customer in particular observed with interest. The observer could not make out the words, but considered it damning enough that the conversation was held at all, and that after downing a draught of Gamon's favorite brew, Naithipe walked away with all her bones still intact. Gamon has no love of death knights. Very strange.
Leaving the Inn, Naithipe was observed coming up to a guard outside Grommash Hold. She spoke with the guard, who quailed in fear, looking around frantically for help. The observer wisely hid behind some shrubbery, although far out of range of hearing what was said. Naithipe finished her business, took flight and disappeared while the observer extricated himself from stinging cactus pears. Dratted quest!
JB was also on the move. Word finally reached JB from Silvermoon City. Jocey, worried about Naithipe, broke her word to Naithipe to keep her trip quiet. Jocey wrote to JB, telling her that Naithipe was acting strangely ... well, even more strangely than usual. Naithipe expects Jocey to travel to Tranquillen in the Ghostlands for purpose or purposes still unknown to Jocey. Strangest of all was that the menace that always seems to ooze from Naithipe was oddly muted. Jocey was confused about what she should do and wrote to ask for guidance from JB.
JB read over the letter a second time, gritting her teeth in frustration. Garrosh's war plans were ratcheting up into high gear, and neither she nor Wild had time for new shenanigans from Naithipe! JB considered sending Philly after Naithipe, but of course it was unlikely Naithipe could be found if she didn't want to be. She also didn't want to lose Philly to the war effort by sending her off to Silvermoon City on some wild goose chase of Naithipe's. But JB needed someone out there is aid Jocey. Who?
JB was standing on the porch outside the Inn. JB smiled grimly as who would be strolling past her but fellow shaman EZ. JB has always been hard on EZ, a fellow shaman who never seems quite able to live up to JB's standards. EZ, as easygoing as her name implied, jumped at JB's bellow to march over to where she stood. JB handed the letter from Jocey to the surprised EZ. "Read it," JB snapped, and waited impatiently for EZ to finish. EZ looked up. JB snatched the letter back.
"On your way, girl, I want you in Silvermoon City TODAY. Get any latest word from Jocey, and then hightail it to Tranquillen. Anything going on in the Ghostlands will likely center on Tranquillen." JB waited a beat as EZ continued to stand in front of her. "GO!" JB waved both arms like she was shooing off a flock of birds. EZ fled.
Naithipe had business still in Orgrimmar which would delay her journey to rejoin Jocey. She did not know about Jocey's letter. She would be very, very unhappy when she did learn of it. "Unhappy" doesn't come close to describing Naithipe when she finds out about EZ.
A conundrum is defined in a couple of ways. As a "confusing and difficult problem" and also as "a riddle whose answer is or involves a pun." Synonyms include words like puzzle, enigma, anagram, mystery.
At the Boar's Head Inn Naithipe stalked up to the very dangerous and volatile Gamon and settled onto a stool next to him with a rattle of bones. The two engaged in a low voiced conversation that one customer in particular observed with interest. The observer could not make out the words, but considered it damning enough that the conversation was held at all, and that after downing a draught of Gamon's favorite brew, Naithipe walked away with all her bones still intact. Gamon has no love of death knights. Very strange.
Leaving the Inn, Naithipe was observed coming up to a guard outside Grommash Hold. She spoke with the guard, who quailed in fear, looking around frantically for help. The observer wisely hid behind some shrubbery, although far out of range of hearing what was said. Naithipe finished her business, took flight and disappeared while the observer extricated himself from stinging cactus pears. Dratted quest!
JB was also on the move. Word finally reached JB from Silvermoon City. Jocey, worried about Naithipe, broke her word to Naithipe to keep her trip quiet. Jocey wrote to JB, telling her that Naithipe was acting strangely ... well, even more strangely than usual. Naithipe expects Jocey to travel to Tranquillen in the Ghostlands for purpose or purposes still unknown to Jocey. Strangest of all was that the menace that always seems to ooze from Naithipe was oddly muted. Jocey was confused about what she should do and wrote to ask for guidance from JB.
JB read over the letter a second time, gritting her teeth in frustration. Garrosh's war plans were ratcheting up into high gear, and neither she nor Wild had time for new shenanigans from Naithipe! JB considered sending Philly after Naithipe, but of course it was unlikely Naithipe could be found if she didn't want to be. She also didn't want to lose Philly to the war effort by sending her off to Silvermoon City on some wild goose chase of Naithipe's. But JB needed someone out there is aid Jocey. Who?
JB was standing on the porch outside the Inn. JB smiled grimly as who would be strolling past her but fellow shaman EZ. JB has always been hard on EZ, a fellow shaman who never seems quite able to live up to JB's standards. EZ, as easygoing as her name implied, jumped at JB's bellow to march over to where she stood. JB handed the letter from Jocey to the surprised EZ. "Read it," JB snapped, and waited impatiently for EZ to finish. EZ looked up. JB snatched the letter back.
"On your way, girl, I want you in Silvermoon City TODAY. Get any latest word from Jocey, and then hightail it to Tranquillen. Anything going on in the Ghostlands will likely center on Tranquillen." JB waited a beat as EZ continued to stand in front of her. "GO!" JB waved both arms like she was shooing off a flock of birds. EZ fled.
Naithipe had business still in Orgrimmar which would delay her journey to rejoin Jocey. She did not know about Jocey's letter. She would be very, very unhappy when she did learn of it. "Unhappy" doesn't come close to describing Naithipe when she finds out about EZ.
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Tuesday (21 Aug) - Pending Addons Disaster?
Tuesday (21 Aug) - Pending Addons Disaster?
Addons are to Wildshard what water is to a fish. Wild can't live without them. Whenever there is a new expansion, there are changes to the coding of the game that screw with third party addons, requiring addon authors to learn what has changed and upgrade their programs to run properly. Addon authors largely do this for free, creating helpful programs because they can and enjoy it. Many addons have dedicated authors that have maintained their addons for years. Other addons become orphans when the author stops maintaining it. Orphaned addons, if popular enough, will sometimes be adopted up by another addon author or authors who will provide support.
The changes seem to be pretty extensive this time around, as Blizzard has done a complete revision of the talent system and introduced many other changes. I expect many addons to have bugs or simply fail to work at all next Tuesday when patch 5.04 goes live, and further breakage when MoP is released.
So, as I do with each expansion, it's time to take a hard look at the list of addons I have in the WoW Interface/Addons folder and see what I can do to minimize the disruption while still holding on to those addons Wild feels are mandatory.
I'm summarizing the results first. That way folks can ignore the details, which I still need to keep track of to fix things and for referral the next time I go through this.
Here are final tallies:
Mandatory UI Addons: Dominos, XPerl, and Auctioneer are pretty much essential addons. Wild cannot live without the Dominos bar/button functions. Happy can't live without Auctioneer, the premier Auction House manager. Both look like they will have MoP developer (dev) support. XPerl is the only one I'm worried about. It's orphaned, with several volunteer devs trying to get it ready for MoP. If forced to, I could live without it. But it would be weird.
Raid Addons: These should all be supported by their authors, since they are widely used and regularly updated. I don't plan to add them in MoP until I decide to start running dungeons and raids again. They are: Deadly Boss Mods (DBM), Omen3, and ORA3.
Desired Helpful Addons: These addons improve my game play. Bazooka and Repair Broker track gear repairs. Decursive simplifies debuffing curses and stuff. Postal/Postman make Happy's life easier at the mailbox (although Postman is orphaned). TomTom is a navigation addon that is useful at times, although I don't use it as much with the improvements Blizz has made over time. Recount is useful for personal DPS and healing tracking, even when not in dungeons/raids.
General Use Addons: These are nice to have, although I can go without them if I had to. Gatherer locates and tracks anything having to do with finding stuff, such as mining nodes, herbs, etc. Monkeyspeed simply tracks how fast a character is going. Tekkompare is quite useful when comparing two pieces of gear. Fishing Buddy is one of my oldest addons and I wouldn't be able to fish without it. Opie is only used by Wild. It gives him one button access to all of his professions. SimpleAssist is not much used, but it does help in groups needing assist support.
Buffs, Debuffs, and Timers: I have tried many specialized addons that have specific purpose. Some of them I still use, but there are many others that I don't. Since they are so specialized, the addon may be specific to a particular race, particular class, or particular spec. That makes it challenging to figure out which ones are needed/used and which ones I can remove. Final list to keep: ClassTimer, TotemTimers, NeedToKnow, ShockandAwe, Maelstrom Maestro, Combo Points Redux.
Addons being removed: There were more than I thought I would have, but that's a good thing. Bye Bye DOTimer, Squakeandawe, Balance Power Tracker, POM Tracker, Ackis Recipe List, Addon Control Panel, Archy, Chatter, Fubar, GearScoreLite, Ninja Panel, Power Auras Classic, Quartz, Quest Helper, Ratings Buster, Titan Panel.
Healing Addons: Wild used to be addicted to healing addons, but they broke and died so often I finally decided to make my own via mouseover commands. The improvement to party and raid frames in Cata also helped. No addons required. I hope MoP will be the same.
Final Preparations:
Step 1 - Get Addons sorted out. Done.
Step 2 - Make backup of key WoW folders: Cache, Interface, WTF. Done.
Step 3 - Remove unused addons from Interface. Done.
Step 4 - Download 5.04/MoP addon upgrades. In progress.
That's it for the summary. I don't really recommend wading through the details below, but, hey, knock yourself out if you feel like it.
Down into the Weeds:
Addons are listed by category below.
Mandatory UI Addons
Dominos (7 Dec 2011 last update) - action buttons/bars, I'm lost without this. Fortunately, there is an active author who has an MoP beta version in work. Changes include removing shaman totem bars and adding support for pet battles and an improved vehicle interface. This will be the first addon I load and test in 5.04.
XPerl (15 Aug update available) - I hate the vanilla UI. I don't love XPerl but it's better visually for me than the others out there. It's an orphaned addon, though, with "beta support a collaborative effort of multiple devs" according to the site. The current update still does not support 5.04. Xperl was buggy even in Cata, and it will get worse in MoP. MoP could be it's death knell. I will survive without XPerl - but expect me to go looking for another third party UI.
Auctioneer/Enchantrix - Happyface will be one miserable goblin if this absolutely essential addon for managing the Auction House fails. The addon has not been updated since Dec 2011. The team of devs for this addon are working on an MoP upgrade. It appears that this is a rather large, difficult effort given the many changes Blizzard has made in the coding and the sheer size and scope of the addon. Happy is very worried.
Desired Helpful Addons
Bazooka - Fubar replacement, displays game data, Wowace alpha version appears to work. Requires ACE3.
Decursive - MoP version is available.
Postal/Postman - Used to make Happy's mailbox shine. Postman has been orphaned a long time but still works. Postal may be upgraded, keeping fingers crossed.
Repairbroker - used with Bazooka for gear repair tracking
TomTom - navigation help. Need to update to Aug 2012 version.
Buffs/Debuffs, and Timers - I have to reduce the number of these.
ClassTimer - still used? No visible dev support. NTK support?
# DoTimer - still used? Orphaned, use NTK instead.
Needtoknow (NTK) - my favorite buff/CD/totem addon. Has MoP version.
TotemTimers - shaman totems, of course. Another one I have to compare with others to determine which to use. MoP version is in progress.
Shockandawe - timers for shaman abilities, NTK may cover this. Dev hasn't been available since Nov 2011.
# Squakeandawe - another moonkin thing
Maelstrom Maestro - simple shaman gauge of this one weapon buff
Combo Points Redux - I use mainly for feral druids, but also shows buffs/debuffs of other classes. Will have MoP version.
Raid Required Addons - I'm not going to worry about these initially. These are supported addons that will be kept up to date.
Deadly Boss Mods (DBM)
Omen
ORA3
Recount
Nice if they Work Addons
# BalancePowerTracker - tracks druid lunar/solar energy. Will have MoP version.
Gatherer - for professions, will get an MoP update.
Monkeyspeed - simple tracker showing speed (running, mounted, etc)
Opie - only used by Wild, it keeps all his professions on one button.
# POMTracker - simple Prayer of mending tracker for priests
tekkompare - my favorite addon to compare two pieces of gear. Not sure if this will be updated.
Everything Else
Ace3 - wowace function that is required for many wowace addons
# AckisRecipeList - helps find recipes. MoP updated.
# ACP (Addon Control Panel) - control of addons in game. Dropping this one.
# Archy - for the architecture profession. Dropping this for now.
# Chatter - grab bag of stuff, I used only to help sizing the chat window, but that no longer works so I'm dropping this one.
# FuBar/FB (6 addons) - No longer need any of this.
# GearScoreLite - Ilevel has replaced gear score so it's gone.
# Ninjapanel - more for addon authors. Oddly, the latest comment on this one is 26 Oct 2010, a post by me. Gone, as I replaced it with Bazooka.
# PowerAurasClassic - way too visual for me, tried it, will drop it.
# Quartz - a casting bar with many features, if MoP fixed may consider it.
SimpleAssist - It's supposed to help me use the assist command for targeting. It does work, but it mostly just confuses me. Wild had it turned off.
# Questhelper - Abandoned in Cata, dev may attempt MoP, it basically presents help in completing quests. I would use Lightheaded if I wanted one of these, but generally quests are easy enough to figure out without the help. Dropping.
Repairbroker - used with Bazooka to display gear state of repair. Hopefully this will work in MoP, no update planned.
# Ratingbuster - not needed, use tekkompare instead.
# Titan Panel - outdated and dead
Wowhead Looter - used to collect data in game, I generally don't load it
Fishing Buddy - I dearly love this addon, makes fishing a lot easier, but it usually has problems during expansions. MoP upgrade planned.
Wild also has a long history of using healing addons. Healing addons seem to be the most fraught with problems with expansions, and his "favorite" healing addon always seemed to crash and burn each time. In Cata Wild stopped using healing addons. The default party and raid screens were improved enough to make healing without an addon possible. Given all of the simplification of spells and buffs coming with MoP, I plan to stick to using the defaults.
I plan to take a minimalist approach to addons with MoP. Addons with a pound (#) by it will be removed from the Addon folder. The plan for 5.04 is to make a backup of key folders (in case something goes terrible wrong). I will then delete those addons I've decided not to use prior to 5.04 and test to make sure everything else is still working properly. Every character will have to be checked. I will download all of the upgrades for the addons I am keeping, so that they can be installed once 5.04 is in place.
When 5.04 is live, Happy, as usual, will be the first to enter the game since the only non-default addons he uses is Auctioneer and Postal/Postman. If Happy is in business then that will be one big success.
The bigger test will be to fold in other addons. Wild will be the guinea pig for this test. Upgraded addons will be added one at a time and tested. The order in which addons will be added are:
Dominos
XPerl
Default party/raid frames
etc ...
Once I feel comfortable that they are working properly, I will start addressing all of the changes. Two of the biggest involve straightening out the look of the UI because my carefully designed look and feel will be turned on it's head. The second is that, because of all the talent and spell changes, the Dominos bar/button setup will be a shambles or even reset to it's default and I will have to get that all put back together as well.
All of that will have to be put in place for all characters before any real engagement in the new stuff in 5.04 and MoP.
Addons are to Wildshard what water is to a fish. Wild can't live without them. Whenever there is a new expansion, there are changes to the coding of the game that screw with third party addons, requiring addon authors to learn what has changed and upgrade their programs to run properly. Addon authors largely do this for free, creating helpful programs because they can and enjoy it. Many addons have dedicated authors that have maintained their addons for years. Other addons become orphans when the author stops maintaining it. Orphaned addons, if popular enough, will sometimes be adopted up by another addon author or authors who will provide support.
The changes seem to be pretty extensive this time around, as Blizzard has done a complete revision of the talent system and introduced many other changes. I expect many addons to have bugs or simply fail to work at all next Tuesday when patch 5.04 goes live, and further breakage when MoP is released.
So, as I do with each expansion, it's time to take a hard look at the list of addons I have in the WoW Interface/Addons folder and see what I can do to minimize the disruption while still holding on to those addons Wild feels are mandatory.
I'm summarizing the results first. That way folks can ignore the details, which I still need to keep track of to fix things and for referral the next time I go through this.
Here are final tallies:
Mandatory UI Addons: Dominos, XPerl, and Auctioneer are pretty much essential addons. Wild cannot live without the Dominos bar/button functions. Happy can't live without Auctioneer, the premier Auction House manager. Both look like they will have MoP developer (dev) support. XPerl is the only one I'm worried about. It's orphaned, with several volunteer devs trying to get it ready for MoP. If forced to, I could live without it. But it would be weird.
Raid Addons: These should all be supported by their authors, since they are widely used and regularly updated. I don't plan to add them in MoP until I decide to start running dungeons and raids again. They are: Deadly Boss Mods (DBM), Omen3, and ORA3.
Desired Helpful Addons: These addons improve my game play. Bazooka and Repair Broker track gear repairs. Decursive simplifies debuffing curses and stuff. Postal/Postman make Happy's life easier at the mailbox (although Postman is orphaned). TomTom is a navigation addon that is useful at times, although I don't use it as much with the improvements Blizz has made over time. Recount is useful for personal DPS and healing tracking, even when not in dungeons/raids.
General Use Addons: These are nice to have, although I can go without them if I had to. Gatherer locates and tracks anything having to do with finding stuff, such as mining nodes, herbs, etc. Monkeyspeed simply tracks how fast a character is going. Tekkompare is quite useful when comparing two pieces of gear. Fishing Buddy is one of my oldest addons and I wouldn't be able to fish without it. Opie is only used by Wild. It gives him one button access to all of his professions. SimpleAssist is not much used, but it does help in groups needing assist support.
Buffs, Debuffs, and Timers: I have tried many specialized addons that have specific purpose. Some of them I still use, but there are many others that I don't. Since they are so specialized, the addon may be specific to a particular race, particular class, or particular spec. That makes it challenging to figure out which ones are needed/used and which ones I can remove. Final list to keep: ClassTimer, TotemTimers, NeedToKnow, ShockandAwe, Maelstrom Maestro, Combo Points Redux.
Addons being removed: There were more than I thought I would have, but that's a good thing. Bye Bye DOTimer, Squakeandawe, Balance Power Tracker, POM Tracker, Ackis Recipe List, Addon Control Panel, Archy, Chatter, Fubar, GearScoreLite, Ninja Panel, Power Auras Classic, Quartz, Quest Helper, Ratings Buster, Titan Panel.
Healing Addons: Wild used to be addicted to healing addons, but they broke and died so often I finally decided to make my own via mouseover commands. The improvement to party and raid frames in Cata also helped. No addons required. I hope MoP will be the same.
Final Preparations:
Step 1 - Get Addons sorted out. Done.
Step 2 - Make backup of key WoW folders: Cache, Interface, WTF. Done.
Step 3 - Remove unused addons from Interface. Done.
Step 4 - Download 5.04/MoP addon upgrades. In progress.
That's it for the summary. I don't really recommend wading through the details below, but, hey, knock yourself out if you feel like it.
Down into the Weeds:
Addons are listed by category below.
Mandatory UI Addons
Dominos (7 Dec 2011 last update) - action buttons/bars, I'm lost without this. Fortunately, there is an active author who has an MoP beta version in work. Changes include removing shaman totem bars and adding support for pet battles and an improved vehicle interface. This will be the first addon I load and test in 5.04.
XPerl (15 Aug update available) - I hate the vanilla UI. I don't love XPerl but it's better visually for me than the others out there. It's an orphaned addon, though, with "beta support a collaborative effort of multiple devs" according to the site. The current update still does not support 5.04. Xperl was buggy even in Cata, and it will get worse in MoP. MoP could be it's death knell. I will survive without XPerl - but expect me to go looking for another third party UI.
Auctioneer/Enchantrix - Happyface will be one miserable goblin if this absolutely essential addon for managing the Auction House fails. The addon has not been updated since Dec 2011. The team of devs for this addon are working on an MoP upgrade. It appears that this is a rather large, difficult effort given the many changes Blizzard has made in the coding and the sheer size and scope of the addon. Happy is very worried.
Desired Helpful Addons
Bazooka - Fubar replacement, displays game data, Wowace alpha version appears to work. Requires ACE3.
Decursive - MoP version is available.
Postal/Postman - Used to make Happy's mailbox shine. Postman has been orphaned a long time but still works. Postal may be upgraded, keeping fingers crossed.
Repairbroker - used with Bazooka for gear repair tracking
TomTom - navigation help. Need to update to Aug 2012 version.
Buffs/Debuffs, and Timers - I have to reduce the number of these.
ClassTimer - still used? No visible dev support. NTK support?
# DoTimer - still used? Orphaned, use NTK instead.
Needtoknow (NTK) - my favorite buff/CD/totem addon. Has MoP version.
TotemTimers - shaman totems, of course. Another one I have to compare with others to determine which to use. MoP version is in progress.
Shockandawe - timers for shaman abilities, NTK may cover this. Dev hasn't been available since Nov 2011.
# Squakeandawe - another moonkin thing
Maelstrom Maestro - simple shaman gauge of this one weapon buff
Combo Points Redux - I use mainly for feral druids, but also shows buffs/debuffs of other classes. Will have MoP version.
Raid Required Addons - I'm not going to worry about these initially. These are supported addons that will be kept up to date.
Deadly Boss Mods (DBM)
Omen
ORA3
Recount
Nice if they Work Addons
# BalancePowerTracker - tracks druid lunar/solar energy. Will have MoP version.
Gatherer - for professions, will get an MoP update.
Monkeyspeed - simple tracker showing speed (running, mounted, etc)
Opie - only used by Wild, it keeps all his professions on one button.
# POMTracker - simple Prayer of mending tracker for priests
tekkompare - my favorite addon to compare two pieces of gear. Not sure if this will be updated.
Everything Else
Ace3 - wowace function that is required for many wowace addons
# AckisRecipeList - helps find recipes. MoP updated.
# ACP (Addon Control Panel) - control of addons in game. Dropping this one.
# Archy - for the architecture profession. Dropping this for now.
# Chatter - grab bag of stuff, I used only to help sizing the chat window, but that no longer works so I'm dropping this one.
# FuBar/FB (6 addons) - No longer need any of this.
# GearScoreLite - Ilevel has replaced gear score so it's gone.
# Ninjapanel - more for addon authors. Oddly, the latest comment on this one is 26 Oct 2010, a post by me. Gone, as I replaced it with Bazooka.
# PowerAurasClassic - way too visual for me, tried it, will drop it.
# Quartz - a casting bar with many features, if MoP fixed may consider it.
SimpleAssist - It's supposed to help me use the assist command for targeting. It does work, but it mostly just confuses me. Wild had it turned off.
# Questhelper - Abandoned in Cata, dev may attempt MoP, it basically presents help in completing quests. I would use Lightheaded if I wanted one of these, but generally quests are easy enough to figure out without the help. Dropping.
Repairbroker - used with Bazooka to display gear state of repair. Hopefully this will work in MoP, no update planned.
# Ratingbuster - not needed, use tekkompare instead.
# Titan Panel - outdated and dead
Wowhead Looter - used to collect data in game, I generally don't load it
Fishing Buddy - I dearly love this addon, makes fishing a lot easier, but it usually has problems during expansions. MoP upgrade planned.
Wild also has a long history of using healing addons. Healing addons seem to be the most fraught with problems with expansions, and his "favorite" healing addon always seemed to crash and burn each time. In Cata Wild stopped using healing addons. The default party and raid screens were improved enough to make healing without an addon possible. Given all of the simplification of spells and buffs coming with MoP, I plan to stick to using the defaults.
I plan to take a minimalist approach to addons with MoP. Addons with a pound (#) by it will be removed from the Addon folder. The plan for 5.04 is to make a backup of key folders (in case something goes terrible wrong). I will then delete those addons I've decided not to use prior to 5.04 and test to make sure everything else is still working properly. Every character will have to be checked. I will download all of the upgrades for the addons I am keeping, so that they can be installed once 5.04 is in place.
When 5.04 is live, Happy, as usual, will be the first to enter the game since the only non-default addons he uses is Auctioneer and Postal/Postman. If Happy is in business then that will be one big success.
The bigger test will be to fold in other addons. Wild will be the guinea pig for this test. Upgraded addons will be added one at a time and tested. The order in which addons will be added are:
Dominos
XPerl
Default party/raid frames
etc ...
Once I feel comfortable that they are working properly, I will start addressing all of the changes. Two of the biggest involve straightening out the look of the UI because my carefully designed look and feel will be turned on it's head. The second is that, because of all the talent and spell changes, the Dominos bar/button setup will be a shambles or even reset to it's default and I will have to get that all put back together as well.
All of that will have to be put in place for all characters before any real engagement in the new stuff in 5.04 and MoP.
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Monday (20 Aug) - Seasons Change for Azeroth
Monday (20 Aug) - Seasons Change for Azeroth
After hours and days of effort, Wild and JB wearily slumped in their chairs within the Wyvern's Tail Inn. Nothing was really decided, but at least most of the possibilities had been defined. Another season was fast approaching it's close. Battles were still being waged, but Wild and JB and had set their gear aside to prepare for the season to come.
The Seasons of Azeroth follow no common pattern, but twist with the moods of the gods. Orcs and humans have been at each others throats in Azeroth since the dawn of civilization, with the inevitable result of the plunge into world-wide conflict. For slightly more than two passes of the sun the great battles raged. Then came the season of the Burning Crusade, which held for just short of two passes. The season of Wrath of the Lich King stretched for almost three passes of the sun, as the great and terrible Lich King fought to make his reign permanent. The Lich King's season was ultimately banished in the upheaval of the world named Cataclysm. This transformation of the world has rocked Azeroth for another two seasons, but it's fate and fall is now all but sealed. The signs are there. A new season will soon be upon the world of Azeroth.
At the end of each great change, Wild and JB have worked to provide for the rest of the family, preparing them for what was to come. Some of that is the necessary housekeeping that is already in progress. A great portion of that work, which Wild and JB take direct charge of, is the delivery of heirloom gear for the family to share. A great deal of heirloom gear of every description is already stocked away for use. However, one of the shortcomings has been weapons. Wild and JB have been counting their coin in every which way they can to provide the best and the most, but any final decision still waits for the moneychangers to decide the exact exchange rates going into the new season. Wild is sitting on 1,674 justice points and 5,200 valor points. JB has 1,413 JPs and 950 VPs. Even Philly wanted to contribute. Philly's 191 JPs won't buy squat, and her 1,187 honor points come very short of buying a pvp weapon, but the gesture was appreciated. PVE Heirloom gear is paid for by JPs, but even though neither Wild nor JB have anything left they want to buy with VPs, there is no conversion available from VPs to JPs.
That is where the seasonal transition comes into play. The moneychangers refuse to say what will happen, which makes things very uncertain. In the past, what has usually been done is that at some point all VPs would be converted to JPs. That would work very well for Wild and JB, as they could then use all those combined JPs and VPs to purchase heirlooms. However, sometimes there is a cap on JPs (4,000 is the most quoted cap), so no matter how many VPs were converted, Wild and JP would be allowed JPs only up to the max cap. The leftovers would be converted to a small amount of gold.
Sometimes there is a two part conversion. This is Wild's and JB's greatest hope. As the season reaches it's close, all VPs would be converted to JPs with no cap (or not enforcing the cap). In the short period of time between the end of the old season and the beginning of the new, all those JPs could be put to good use. Once the new season begins, any excess JPs still above the cap would be converted to gold.
The moneychangers have strange language which they use for this seasonal process. All Wild can do is repeat it and hope the gods agree: The date of pre-expansion release 5.04 has been announced as 28 August, 2012. The MoP expansion will go live on 25 September, 2012. Maybe ... hopefully ... the cap will not come into play until the MoP release, and Wild/JB will be able to use the expanded pile of JPs to help their family in the days to come. On the pvp side there is more honor/conquest points information that might shed further light on pve. Conquest points with be converted to honor points with patch 5.04. Blue Post: "There will be no cap on Honor until Mists of Pandaria is released on September 25. At that time, any Honor accrued above the 4,000-point cap will be converted into gold at a rate of 35 silver per point." If the same process is applied to pve, then both Wild and JB will be happy!
Having done all they could do, Wild and JB were enjoying a congratulatory keg of something foul - but potent - when a small army of family members pushed Philly into the doorway of the inn. Glad to have all that work behind him, Wild waved Philly in. JB asked what they could do for Philly, glancing in bemusement at the others outside, who quickly darted out of sight.
Philly took a breath, reminding herself that while she was youngest among the family elders (even if she sometimes worried at her adopted status), she still ranked as an equal and a senior of the family. "There have been shouting and arguing between the two of you for days on end. It appears to be over, and as a senior of the family I want to know what that was all about?" She paused, but then added before the other two could respond, "And what the gods is going on with Naithipe?"
Wild and JB looked at each other in some confusion. "We have been working on end of season business. There was much to discuss, some of it hotly discussed, of which we will advise the family at a later time ... but, what is this about Naithipe? Has she been about?"
"Wha ..." Philly sputtered. "You don't know, you haven't ... this hasn't been about ... um." Philly shut her mouth and stared at the two. Philly knew without looking that the rest of the family had quickly made themselves scarce.
"Sit down, Philly." Wild waved at a chair and reached for the keg. "Naithipe, huh? Tell me everything."
After hours and days of effort, Wild and JB wearily slumped in their chairs within the Wyvern's Tail Inn. Nothing was really decided, but at least most of the possibilities had been defined. Another season was fast approaching it's close. Battles were still being waged, but Wild and JB and had set their gear aside to prepare for the season to come.
The Seasons of Azeroth follow no common pattern, but twist with the moods of the gods. Orcs and humans have been at each others throats in Azeroth since the dawn of civilization, with the inevitable result of the plunge into world-wide conflict. For slightly more than two passes of the sun the great battles raged. Then came the season of the Burning Crusade, which held for just short of two passes. The season of Wrath of the Lich King stretched for almost three passes of the sun, as the great and terrible Lich King fought to make his reign permanent. The Lich King's season was ultimately banished in the upheaval of the world named Cataclysm. This transformation of the world has rocked Azeroth for another two seasons, but it's fate and fall is now all but sealed. The signs are there. A new season will soon be upon the world of Azeroth.
At the end of each great change, Wild and JB have worked to provide for the rest of the family, preparing them for what was to come. Some of that is the necessary housekeeping that is already in progress. A great portion of that work, which Wild and JB take direct charge of, is the delivery of heirloom gear for the family to share. A great deal of heirloom gear of every description is already stocked away for use. However, one of the shortcomings has been weapons. Wild and JB have been counting their coin in every which way they can to provide the best and the most, but any final decision still waits for the moneychangers to decide the exact exchange rates going into the new season. Wild is sitting on 1,674 justice points and 5,200 valor points. JB has 1,413 JPs and 950 VPs. Even Philly wanted to contribute. Philly's 191 JPs won't buy squat, and her 1,187 honor points come very short of buying a pvp weapon, but the gesture was appreciated. PVE Heirloom gear is paid for by JPs, but even though neither Wild nor JB have anything left they want to buy with VPs, there is no conversion available from VPs to JPs.
That is where the seasonal transition comes into play. The moneychangers refuse to say what will happen, which makes things very uncertain. In the past, what has usually been done is that at some point all VPs would be converted to JPs. That would work very well for Wild and JB, as they could then use all those combined JPs and VPs to purchase heirlooms. However, sometimes there is a cap on JPs (4,000 is the most quoted cap), so no matter how many VPs were converted, Wild and JP would be allowed JPs only up to the max cap. The leftovers would be converted to a small amount of gold.
Sometimes there is a two part conversion. This is Wild's and JB's greatest hope. As the season reaches it's close, all VPs would be converted to JPs with no cap (or not enforcing the cap). In the short period of time between the end of the old season and the beginning of the new, all those JPs could be put to good use. Once the new season begins, any excess JPs still above the cap would be converted to gold.
The moneychangers have strange language which they use for this seasonal process. All Wild can do is repeat it and hope the gods agree: The date of pre-expansion release 5.04 has been announced as 28 August, 2012. The MoP expansion will go live on 25 September, 2012. Maybe ... hopefully ... the cap will not come into play until the MoP release, and Wild/JB will be able to use the expanded pile of JPs to help their family in the days to come. On the pvp side there is more honor/conquest points information that might shed further light on pve. Conquest points with be converted to honor points with patch 5.04. Blue Post: "There will be no cap on Honor until Mists of Pandaria is released on September 25. At that time, any Honor accrued above the 4,000-point cap will be converted into gold at a rate of 35 silver per point." If the same process is applied to pve, then both Wild and JB will be happy!
Having done all they could do, Wild and JB were enjoying a congratulatory keg of something foul - but potent - when a small army of family members pushed Philly into the doorway of the inn. Glad to have all that work behind him, Wild waved Philly in. JB asked what they could do for Philly, glancing in bemusement at the others outside, who quickly darted out of sight.
Philly took a breath, reminding herself that while she was youngest among the family elders (even if she sometimes worried at her adopted status), she still ranked as an equal and a senior of the family. "There have been shouting and arguing between the two of you for days on end. It appears to be over, and as a senior of the family I want to know what that was all about?" She paused, but then added before the other two could respond, "And what the gods is going on with Naithipe?"
Wild and JB looked at each other in some confusion. "We have been working on end of season business. There was much to discuss, some of it hotly discussed, of which we will advise the family at a later time ... but, what is this about Naithipe? Has she been about?"
"Wha ..." Philly sputtered. "You don't know, you haven't ... this hasn't been about ... um." Philly shut her mouth and stared at the two. Philly knew without looking that the rest of the family had quickly made themselves scarce.
"Sit down, Philly." Wild waved at a chair and reached for the keg. "Naithipe, huh? Tell me everything."
Monday, August 20, 2012
Weekend (19 Aug) - Only Temporarily Sane
Weekend (19 Aug) - Only Temporarily Sane
I had to take some time to talk game stuff in between whatever is going on with the Wild family. That insanity will likely return.
The big news is that the pre-expansion patch (officially patch 5.04) will hit on 28 August. That's a 6GB patch that clogged up my computer for several days of background downloading.
There is also some significant news for anyone who isn't planning to buy the MoP expansion. Blizzard announced that with the release of 5.04, all of the races will be available to be created and played, regardless of what version of the game you have. For example, those who never bought Cata will still be able to roll worgens and goblins. When MoP goes live, everyone will be able to roll the new Panda race - even if you did not buy MoP. However, only MoP owners will be able to use the monk class.
Here are the rest of the goodies that arrive with 5.04, none of which requires MoP.
* Most achievements completed by one character will automatically be shared with all other characters. If that is based on the battle.net account, I assume that would spread to both my accounts. But maybe not. The sharing includes pets and mounts as well. Note that is says "most." Some are not shared.
* Looting gets easier with AoE looting, allowing players to pick up the loot of all slain enemies in close proximity.
* There is a new, simplified talent system. Talents are learned automatically and instantly, without visiting a trainer. Wild gets a new spec: Guardian, which since it's the tank spec, I'll never use. Still it's kind of cool that druids have more specs than any other race.
Note: The talent system we're used to is not just changed - it is completely gone. New talents are available at specifically defined levels, and there are just six levels. Each level has a choice of three talents. I guess we pick one of them. The rest of the abilities are automatically added as you level. At least I think that's how it works. It seems much like the Diablo 3 system.
* For you pvpers out there, note that all characters take 30% LESS damage when attacked by other players. Also for pvpers, spell penetration is gone, replaced by PVP Power.
* All head enchants are gone. Also gone is the gear slot where ranged, relics and thrown items once went. All items that went there now must fit into the two weapon slots.
The user interface stuff I am copying from the PTR notes since there is a lot of good information, but little for me to comment on:
User Interface
There is a new user interface for your mounts and pets.
Character creation screens have been updated.
Buffs have been consolidated in the UI.
New roll results frame added. This new feature can be accessed by clicking the word "[Loot]" in chat, or by typing "/loot".
The PvE queue frames have been unified. You can now queue for dungeons, raids, and other queue-able content in one handy place.
Vendors now offer item filtering.
Spellbooks have been updated to reflect changes to core abilities, and now include a brief overview of specializations.
The Dungeon Journal has been expanded with information on all pre-Cataclysm encounters.
A new help system has been added to many frames. You can toggle this on and off by clicking the "i" button in the upper left corner of the frame.
Finally, if you haven't already pretended to be working by now, the 5.04 patch comes with some fireworks. Warchief Garrosh is going to war. We're all invited. On pain of death for desertion.
I had to take some time to talk game stuff in between whatever is going on with the Wild family. That insanity will likely return.
The big news is that the pre-expansion patch (officially patch 5.04) will hit on 28 August. That's a 6GB patch that clogged up my computer for several days of background downloading.
There is also some significant news for anyone who isn't planning to buy the MoP expansion. Blizzard announced that with the release of 5.04, all of the races will be available to be created and played, regardless of what version of the game you have. For example, those who never bought Cata will still be able to roll worgens and goblins. When MoP goes live, everyone will be able to roll the new Panda race - even if you did not buy MoP. However, only MoP owners will be able to use the monk class.
Here are the rest of the goodies that arrive with 5.04, none of which requires MoP.
* Most achievements completed by one character will automatically be shared with all other characters. If that is based on the battle.net account, I assume that would spread to both my accounts. But maybe not. The sharing includes pets and mounts as well. Note that is says "most." Some are not shared.
* Looting gets easier with AoE looting, allowing players to pick up the loot of all slain enemies in close proximity.
* There is a new, simplified talent system. Talents are learned automatically and instantly, without visiting a trainer. Wild gets a new spec: Guardian, which since it's the tank spec, I'll never use. Still it's kind of cool that druids have more specs than any other race.
Note: The talent system we're used to is not just changed - it is completely gone. New talents are available at specifically defined levels, and there are just six levels. Each level has a choice of three talents. I guess we pick one of them. The rest of the abilities are automatically added as you level. At least I think that's how it works. It seems much like the Diablo 3 system.
* For you pvpers out there, note that all characters take 30% LESS damage when attacked by other players. Also for pvpers, spell penetration is gone, replaced by PVP Power.
* All head enchants are gone. Also gone is the gear slot where ranged, relics and thrown items once went. All items that went there now must fit into the two weapon slots.
The user interface stuff I am copying from the PTR notes since there is a lot of good information, but little for me to comment on:
User Interface
There is a new user interface for your mounts and pets.
Character creation screens have been updated.
Buffs have been consolidated in the UI.
New roll results frame added. This new feature can be accessed by clicking the word "[Loot]" in chat, or by typing "/loot".
The PvE queue frames have been unified. You can now queue for dungeons, raids, and other queue-able content in one handy place.
Vendors now offer item filtering.
Spellbooks have been updated to reflect changes to core abilities, and now include a brief overview of specializations.
The Dungeon Journal has been expanded with information on all pre-Cataclysm encounters.
A new help system has been added to many frames. You can toggle this on and off by clicking the "i" button in the upper left corner of the frame.
Finally, if you haven't already pretended to be working by now, the 5.04 patch comes with some fireworks. Warchief Garrosh is going to war. We're all invited. On pain of death for desertion.
Friday, August 17, 2012
Friday (17 Aug) - A Sister Comes Home
Friday (17 Aug) - A Sister Comes Home
Java, Chaitee, and the rest of the Alliance family welcomed Sista back to the fold today. Sista has returned to the Silvermoon realm from her long sojourn on the pvp realm of Boulderfist, where she had resided with a local death knight, BB, since November 2011. Sista is a level 60 Worgen druid, the only "werewolf" class among all of Wild's far flung family.
On the Horde side, the news was met with guarded acceptance. The turmoil among the horde side family has not subsided. In fact, word is out that Naithipe may be looking for Melasahnd. Rumor is rampant that Mel has opened an old wound between them by speaking with her alliance friend, Lost, about the disappearance of a young warrior once in the employ of both Mel and Naithipe. The warrior was a family member named Slash who helped out with the neutral AH as late as August 2010. Slash not only left his post, he left the family, and never returned.
Now Sista returns to Silvermoon, for reasons not yet known. Sista's brother Java makes his home in Stormwind. Reporters are even now descending on Stormwind, anticipating that Sista will want to meet up with her brother.
Innkeeper Allison, reporting live from
The Trade Center, Stormwind City, Eowynn Forest, Eastern Kingdoms
Stormwind's Trade Center is a small, bustling area of commerce. The main Auction House, a Bank, and an Inn overlook the fountain at the center of a small oval courtyard.
The Trade Center courtyard is packed with reporters, looky-loos, hangers-on, pickpockets, and less savory characters spreading rumors and stories about Sista's arrival back in Silvermoon, and trying to get a peek at the long absent worgen. Reporters have been waiting for hours outside the Guilded Rose Inn, where "it's said" she has taken residence.
Wait! We are cutting live to the entrance of the Guilded Rose. A man has stepped out on the stairs, the Inn's security team holding the crowd back to give him room. Is it? Yes! The man is Java, a Draenei paladin strong man and brother to Sista. Innkeeper Allison bellows "Silence! Let him speak!"
Java blinks at the sudden hush and even takes a step backward, as if he had been leaning into the roar of the pressing crowd. Stylus and tablet are poised for his words. Java's thick, blunt tail swishes in pent up emotion. Anger? Nervousness? Java lifts his warhammer and slaps it smartly into his plated glove. Once. Twice. A third. The sound is like the telling of a bell as metal strikes metal. The crowd waits.
"I have a prepared remark," he began. The low groan of complaint among the reporters is over-ridden by more slaps of warhammer to glove. Java's helmed eyes are clear, taking in the crowd, his jaw set. "My sister has been called back from her duties at Boulderfist. She arrived here in Stormwind early this morning."
"Who called her back?" One of the reporter's at the back of the crowd yelled. Despite the distance and the many bodies between them, Java noted the speaker. The reporter, seeing he'd been seen, was torn between slinking away and boldness. He, probably foolishly, chose boldness. "What is her purpose here?"
"She is now resting from her long journey," Java continued as if the reporter had not spoken. "Since she was required to relinquish her guild affiliation at Boulderfist, she has been extended an invitation to the alliance guild, Tea Green, of which I am, of course, a member. She has graciously accepted the invitation and is a most welcome addition to our guild."
Java paused, and mouths started opening to pelt Java with questions. Java's voice penetrated the growing hubbub. "I would suggest not pestering or annoying Sista until such time as she indicates she is ready. I will remind you all" - and his eyes locked on the bold reporter - "that Sista is a worgen druid, capable of appearing in worgen, human, bear, and cat forms. Provoke her at your own peril."
The crowd started looking around nervously. Several druids in the crowd shifted into bear of cat forms, just for fun, and the crowd quickly began to disperse and return to their own business. Java gave a slight, approving nod to the planted druids, and disappeared into the Guilded Rose doorway.
Java, Chaitee, and the rest of the Alliance family welcomed Sista back to the fold today. Sista has returned to the Silvermoon realm from her long sojourn on the pvp realm of Boulderfist, where she had resided with a local death knight, BB, since November 2011. Sista is a level 60 Worgen druid, the only "werewolf" class among all of Wild's far flung family.
On the Horde side, the news was met with guarded acceptance. The turmoil among the horde side family has not subsided. In fact, word is out that Naithipe may be looking for Melasahnd. Rumor is rampant that Mel has opened an old wound between them by speaking with her alliance friend, Lost, about the disappearance of a young warrior once in the employ of both Mel and Naithipe. The warrior was a family member named Slash who helped out with the neutral AH as late as August 2010. Slash not only left his post, he left the family, and never returned.
Now Sista returns to Silvermoon, for reasons not yet known. Sista's brother Java makes his home in Stormwind. Reporters are even now descending on Stormwind, anticipating that Sista will want to meet up with her brother.
Innkeeper Allison, reporting live from
The Trade Center, Stormwind City, Eowynn Forest, Eastern Kingdoms
Stormwind's Trade Center is a small, bustling area of commerce. The main Auction House, a Bank, and an Inn overlook the fountain at the center of a small oval courtyard.
The Trade Center courtyard is packed with reporters, looky-loos, hangers-on, pickpockets, and less savory characters spreading rumors and stories about Sista's arrival back in Silvermoon, and trying to get a peek at the long absent worgen. Reporters have been waiting for hours outside the Guilded Rose Inn, where "it's said" she has taken residence.
Wait! We are cutting live to the entrance of the Guilded Rose. A man has stepped out on the stairs, the Inn's security team holding the crowd back to give him room. Is it? Yes! The man is Java, a Draenei paladin strong man and brother to Sista. Innkeeper Allison bellows "Silence! Let him speak!"
Java blinks at the sudden hush and even takes a step backward, as if he had been leaning into the roar of the pressing crowd. Stylus and tablet are poised for his words. Java's thick, blunt tail swishes in pent up emotion. Anger? Nervousness? Java lifts his warhammer and slaps it smartly into his plated glove. Once. Twice. A third. The sound is like the telling of a bell as metal strikes metal. The crowd waits.
"I have a prepared remark," he began. The low groan of complaint among the reporters is over-ridden by more slaps of warhammer to glove. Java's helmed eyes are clear, taking in the crowd, his jaw set. "My sister has been called back from her duties at Boulderfist. She arrived here in Stormwind early this morning."
"Who called her back?" One of the reporter's at the back of the crowd yelled. Despite the distance and the many bodies between them, Java noted the speaker. The reporter, seeing he'd been seen, was torn between slinking away and boldness. He, probably foolishly, chose boldness. "What is her purpose here?"
"She is now resting from her long journey," Java continued as if the reporter had not spoken. "Since she was required to relinquish her guild affiliation at Boulderfist, she has been extended an invitation to the alliance guild, Tea Green, of which I am, of course, a member. She has graciously accepted the invitation and is a most welcome addition to our guild."
Java paused, and mouths started opening to pelt Java with questions. Java's voice penetrated the growing hubbub. "I would suggest not pestering or annoying Sista until such time as she indicates she is ready. I will remind you all" - and his eyes locked on the bold reporter - "that Sista is a worgen druid, capable of appearing in worgen, human, bear, and cat forms. Provoke her at your own peril."
The crowd started looking around nervously. Several druids in the crowd shifted into bear of cat forms, just for fun, and the crowd quickly began to disperse and return to their own business. Java gave a slight, approving nod to the planted druids, and disappeared into the Guilded Rose doorway.
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Thursday (16 Aug) - The Walk of Elders
Thursday (16 Aug) - The Walk of Elders
Silvermoon City, Quel'Thalas, Eastern Kingdoms
Jocelyne was enjoying the band and a brew (ok, a few brews) at the outdoor party along the Walk of Elders. She'd been in Silvermoon City for days, now. Goods, gear, and other items kept showing up in her mailbox. Her bank space was getting a bit crowded, but she still had no word as to why she was there.
There was a touch on her shoulder. Jocey whirled, hand on her sword.
"That's a pretty piece," murmured the death knight behind her, eyeing Jocey's half drawn sword. "But even if you had cleared the scabbard, that eye candy would hardly scratch my bones, much less my plated armor."
Jocey tried to remain calm. The two-hander strapped to the DK's back had a lightning splashed blue glow. Enchanted. Stood up on the floor, Jocey figured the axe would come up to her chin. She let her decorative Sunstrider blade slip back into it's sheath with a snick. The DK had taken in her whole gear set at a glance. Jocey squirmed a little, knowing the DK had to recognize the chest and shoulder heirlooms she had "borrowed" from the pile of stuff that had been filling her mail.
"I hope you have more, hmm, practical gear. Tranquillen may be mostly tamed, but there are still dangers." It wasn't a question, Jocey knew, from the flat tone to the appraising eyes. Of course, Jocey knew the death knight, though names had not been exchanged. Jocey determined that was the way the DK wanted it.
"I'm bound for Tranquillen?" Jocey inquired. The DK said nothing for several heartbeats, seeming to listen to the lively music. Silvermoon City has never been a popular city, and it's citizens were few. A good many of those who did call Silvermoon City home, though, had showed up and were enjoying the music, dancing, and drinking. Jocey watched the dancers, her young heart anxious.
"Soon." Jocey almost missed hearing the single word over the beat of the music. Jocey turned back to the DK ... but Naithipe was gone.
In Orgrimmar, Wild and JB argued.
In The Undercity, Happy and Hapless continued emptying out storehouses of goods. Some of it actually found buyers. The rest went to the vendors. Happy worried about Lost, though. The alliance team had lost support and seemed to have reached a dead end. Happy was not being sentimental, though. There was gold to be made through the Neutral Auction House, but that flow had slowed to a thin stream. Happy raided the alliance bank for what was useful, and kept the link in place, but without an infusion of help the allies would eventually be broke.
Other members of the horde side family have begun to stir from their safe havens, although all continued to avoid the worsening storm at the Wyvern's Tail Inn.
Naithipe returned from Silvermoon City. The gaily dressed paladin she'd met with was flighty, but she would serve. Naithipe dismissed her from her thoughts. Naithipe's intent was to remain hidden in plain sight. Taking up residence at the Broken Tusk within Orgrimmar's Valley of Strength, Naithipe had a good view of the comings and goings of Grommash Hold, where Warchief Garrosh held court. His time is done, thought Naithipe. Not yet. But soon.
She honed her axe. Now, where was that shaman? She should have been here by now. Naithipe shrugged to herself. She was patient. But her patience came with a cost. The shaman ... well, Naithipe would see about that shaman.
Silvermoon City, Quel'Thalas, Eastern Kingdoms
Jocelyne was enjoying the band and a brew (ok, a few brews) at the outdoor party along the Walk of Elders. She'd been in Silvermoon City for days, now. Goods, gear, and other items kept showing up in her mailbox. Her bank space was getting a bit crowded, but she still had no word as to why she was there.
There was a touch on her shoulder. Jocey whirled, hand on her sword.
"That's a pretty piece," murmured the death knight behind her, eyeing Jocey's half drawn sword. "But even if you had cleared the scabbard, that eye candy would hardly scratch my bones, much less my plated armor."
Jocey tried to remain calm. The two-hander strapped to the DK's back had a lightning splashed blue glow. Enchanted. Stood up on the floor, Jocey figured the axe would come up to her chin. She let her decorative Sunstrider blade slip back into it's sheath with a snick. The DK had taken in her whole gear set at a glance. Jocey squirmed a little, knowing the DK had to recognize the chest and shoulder heirlooms she had "borrowed" from the pile of stuff that had been filling her mail.
"I hope you have more, hmm, practical gear. Tranquillen may be mostly tamed, but there are still dangers." It wasn't a question, Jocey knew, from the flat tone to the appraising eyes. Of course, Jocey knew the death knight, though names had not been exchanged. Jocey determined that was the way the DK wanted it.
"I'm bound for Tranquillen?" Jocey inquired. The DK said nothing for several heartbeats, seeming to listen to the lively music. Silvermoon City has never been a popular city, and it's citizens were few. A good many of those who did call Silvermoon City home, though, had showed up and were enjoying the music, dancing, and drinking. Jocey watched the dancers, her young heart anxious.
"Soon." Jocey almost missed hearing the single word over the beat of the music. Jocey turned back to the DK ... but Naithipe was gone.
In Orgrimmar, Wild and JB argued.
In The Undercity, Happy and Hapless continued emptying out storehouses of goods. Some of it actually found buyers. The rest went to the vendors. Happy worried about Lost, though. The alliance team had lost support and seemed to have reached a dead end. Happy was not being sentimental, though. There was gold to be made through the Neutral Auction House, but that flow had slowed to a thin stream. Happy raided the alliance bank for what was useful, and kept the link in place, but without an infusion of help the allies would eventually be broke.
Other members of the horde side family have begun to stir from their safe havens, although all continued to avoid the worsening storm at the Wyvern's Tail Inn.
Naithipe returned from Silvermoon City. The gaily dressed paladin she'd met with was flighty, but she would serve. Naithipe dismissed her from her thoughts. Naithipe's intent was to remain hidden in plain sight. Taking up residence at the Broken Tusk within Orgrimmar's Valley of Strength, Naithipe had a good view of the comings and goings of Grommash Hold, where Warchief Garrosh held court. His time is done, thought Naithipe. Not yet. But soon.
She honed her axe. Now, where was that shaman? She should have been here by now. Naithipe shrugged to herself. She was patient. But her patience came with a cost. The shaman ... well, Naithipe would see about that shaman.
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Wednesday (15 Aug) - A Shattered Family
Wednesday (15 Aug) - A Shattered Family
Jovia, reporting from Silvermoon City, Quel'Thalas, Eastern Kingdoms
The leadership of the Wild Family was apparently split asunder last night in a bold, dangerous move to unseat family Patriarch Wildshard. Stunned family members are still reeling and may be forced to take sides in the sudden and unexpected family schism.
Wildshard, who relinquished a prominent role as raid healer for his guild several weeks before, was spending what he called a "well deserved rest" at the Wyvern's Tail Inn in Orgrimmar's Valley of Honor. Located at the Inn, Wild refused to comment, but observers later noted that Wild and his eldest sister, JB, were seen together in deep, private conversation. JB, who also curtailed her raiding about the same time as Wild, met reporters questions with blades drawn. No reporters were killed, although a few were trampled in the sudden desire to get far away. Orgrimmar guards lamented that they did not get a chance to remove a few reporter's heads.
The reason for the family division is still unknown at this time. What is known, however, is that in the past week or so, family member Jocey had been dispatched to Silvermoon City on a very secretive mission. The young blood elf paladin has remained out of sight, but she is believed to be holed up in one of the Inns within the City.
While most of the family has retreated from the public eye, Auction House entrepreneur Happy was working the floor at his usual post at the Trade Center hub of The Undercity. Pressed for comment, Happy had nothing to say - until a few gold pieces surreptitiously changed hands. Happy paused, in between transactions. "All I know," he said, "is the Order of the Dragon guild Bank is being cleared out." Happy overrode the yelling reporters. "Of course, all of MY stock held in the Bank remains under my control, and will stay that way."
"Who ordered this?" yelled an undead reporter. Happy turned a large nose in the reporter's direction. Happy had a moment to wonder why so many reporters were undead. Must be because their stench matches their profession, he surmised.
"Are you doing the clearing out yourself?" demanded another. Happy sneered as only a goblin can. "What, you think I'm going to dirty my hands with anything other than bright, shiny gold? My assistant, Hapless, has that unsavory task."
"But who ordered this?! And why?" The clamor from the reporters grew louder, swelling to the point that even Happy's Singing Sunflower could not be heard. Even so, every reporter heard the soft clink of fine armor behind them. The yelling stopped as all of the reporters turned at once.
A soft, penetrating voice uttered two words. "I did."
Death Knight Naithipe has returned.
Jovia, reporting from Silvermoon City, Quel'Thalas, Eastern Kingdoms
The leadership of the Wild Family was apparently split asunder last night in a bold, dangerous move to unseat family Patriarch Wildshard. Stunned family members are still reeling and may be forced to take sides in the sudden and unexpected family schism.
Wildshard, who relinquished a prominent role as raid healer for his guild several weeks before, was spending what he called a "well deserved rest" at the Wyvern's Tail Inn in Orgrimmar's Valley of Honor. Located at the Inn, Wild refused to comment, but observers later noted that Wild and his eldest sister, JB, were seen together in deep, private conversation. JB, who also curtailed her raiding about the same time as Wild, met reporters questions with blades drawn. No reporters were killed, although a few were trampled in the sudden desire to get far away. Orgrimmar guards lamented that they did not get a chance to remove a few reporter's heads.
The reason for the family division is still unknown at this time. What is known, however, is that in the past week or so, family member Jocey had been dispatched to Silvermoon City on a very secretive mission. The young blood elf paladin has remained out of sight, but she is believed to be holed up in one of the Inns within the City.
While most of the family has retreated from the public eye, Auction House entrepreneur Happy was working the floor at his usual post at the Trade Center hub of The Undercity. Pressed for comment, Happy had nothing to say - until a few gold pieces surreptitiously changed hands. Happy paused, in between transactions. "All I know," he said, "is the Order of the Dragon guild Bank is being cleared out." Happy overrode the yelling reporters. "Of course, all of MY stock held in the Bank remains under my control, and will stay that way."
"Who ordered this?" yelled an undead reporter. Happy turned a large nose in the reporter's direction. Happy had a moment to wonder why so many reporters were undead. Must be because their stench matches their profession, he surmised.
"Are you doing the clearing out yourself?" demanded another. Happy sneered as only a goblin can. "What, you think I'm going to dirty my hands with anything other than bright, shiny gold? My assistant, Hapless, has that unsavory task."
"But who ordered this?! And why?" The clamor from the reporters grew louder, swelling to the point that even Happy's Singing Sunflower could not be heard. Even so, every reporter heard the soft clink of fine armor behind them. The yelling stopped as all of the reporters turned at once.
A soft, penetrating voice uttered two words. "I did."
Death Knight Naithipe has returned.
Monday, August 13, 2012
Weekend (Aug 13)- By the Seat of my Pants
Weekend (Aug 13)- By the Seat of my Pants
Happyface has one foot in heaven and one foot in hell. The Auction House has turned into the wild, wild, west - or maybe a roller coaster out of control with all of the safety measures broken.
Last week a low cost, modestly traded enchanting mat, Greater Magic Essence, was trading at under 2g each. Happy had a decent pile of them that he'd bought for well under 1g each and was contentedly selling them off at the 2g price. The AH ran out of them, so Happy raised the price to 3g each. They sold out. Happy raised the price again. And again. By the end of the day Happy was selling them for 11g each until he ran out of stock. The run ended, with the dregs from other sellers now languishing unsold on the AH. When they get discouraged and drop the prices back down Happy will scoop them up to be ready for the next run. I expect there to be many such runs on the AH on many enchanting mats as players try to get alts to level 85, get professions maxed out, and get prepared for MoP.
At another level, there are Maelstrom crystals and Heavenly shards. The crystals typically sold for 200-300g each. Enchanters can "break" crystals into two heavenly shards, which typically sold for 100-150g each. Happy's basic strategy was to sell shards when their price point was better than the crystals, because Wild could make more shards from the crystals. When the crystals became more expensive, Happy sold those instead of the shards. During the past week and a half the price of crystals plummeted to under 100g each, with shards bottoming out at 40g each. Both mats will always be needed, even after MoP launches, but just what the level of demand will be is more of a guess than anything else. As the prices fell, Happy wondered where the bottom would be, and what kind of rebound, if any, there would be.
Happy bought thousands of gold worth of crystals and shards on the speculation that the price would rebound as players realized they still needed the enchants and other uses of these mats. Based on current demand, apparently, Happy didn't buy enough. The price is still wildly fluctuating, but the "right now" price on the AH as of Saturday morning is 175g each for crystals and 73g each for shards. That's almost back to "normal." Given that this is the weekend, Happy will be watching closely to see whether sellers dump stock, dropping prices, or buyers drive the prices even higher. Happy, for all the uncertainty, is having a great time.
I bought MoP for both accounts on Friday. The nice thing about buying the digital version is that Blizz will download the expansion in the background prior to launch so that I don't end up in the mess of people trying to download the game on 25 Sep or install it from DVD. Blizzard also, quite cagily, is providing some additional help for level 85 players who enter MoP without raid level gear. Wildshard, in his Cata level raider gear, has a gear score of i393. That is more than capable of taking on the quest and faction grinds needed to start leveling to the new max level, level 90. JB is also pretty well situated from a leveling perspective with her ilevel gear score of i384 (in melee DPS spec). Philly, however, has a pve gear score of i321. Even in pvp gear (not optimal for leveling), her score is only i352.
In MoP, players who have lower than raid level Cata gear are going to get slaughtered even in the early questing. This is what apparently happened in the transition from Burning Crusade (level 70 max) to Wrath (max level 80). Level 70 players in green level gear had a tortured path to take as they were very under geared in Wrath. Blizzard has an answer to that issue this time. A search of the MoP database revealed ilevel 372 green gear for level 85 players. That gear will be available for purchase from an MoP vendor (or vendors; in Beta vendor availability has changed several times). So, is MoP i372 gear at the same level as i372 gear from Cata? In a word - No. Let's do a little comparison, shall we? The below compares a vendor purchasable, MoP i372 chest piece with Wild's i384 raid level chest piece.
MoP i372 green Chest piece (low green level MoP gear):
+1771 armor, +578 sta, +385 int, +265 crit, +244 haste
Cata i384 purple Chest piece (LFR raid level gear)
+1869 armor, +646 sta, +371 int, +254 spi, +252 haste
In other words, Wild's arduously acquired, end game Cata raid gear is just barely, and I mean just barely, better than the very worst gear available in MoP. It's the great equalizer. Now, to be fair, I don't know how many different pieces of gear are available, and I didn't see any weapons for sale. My guess is that not every gear slot or every spec will have vendor gear for sale. Still, it's possible that even Wild, and particularly JB, might find gear from a vendor better than what they currently have. Philly will need to get every piece she can lay her hands on.
Happyface has one foot in heaven and one foot in hell. The Auction House has turned into the wild, wild, west - or maybe a roller coaster out of control with all of the safety measures broken.
Last week a low cost, modestly traded enchanting mat, Greater Magic Essence, was trading at under 2g each. Happy had a decent pile of them that he'd bought for well under 1g each and was contentedly selling them off at the 2g price. The AH ran out of them, so Happy raised the price to 3g each. They sold out. Happy raised the price again. And again. By the end of the day Happy was selling them for 11g each until he ran out of stock. The run ended, with the dregs from other sellers now languishing unsold on the AH. When they get discouraged and drop the prices back down Happy will scoop them up to be ready for the next run. I expect there to be many such runs on the AH on many enchanting mats as players try to get alts to level 85, get professions maxed out, and get prepared for MoP.
At another level, there are Maelstrom crystals and Heavenly shards. The crystals typically sold for 200-300g each. Enchanters can "break" crystals into two heavenly shards, which typically sold for 100-150g each. Happy's basic strategy was to sell shards when their price point was better than the crystals, because Wild could make more shards from the crystals. When the crystals became more expensive, Happy sold those instead of the shards. During the past week and a half the price of crystals plummeted to under 100g each, with shards bottoming out at 40g each. Both mats will always be needed, even after MoP launches, but just what the level of demand will be is more of a guess than anything else. As the prices fell, Happy wondered where the bottom would be, and what kind of rebound, if any, there would be.
Happy bought thousands of gold worth of crystals and shards on the speculation that the price would rebound as players realized they still needed the enchants and other uses of these mats. Based on current demand, apparently, Happy didn't buy enough. The price is still wildly fluctuating, but the "right now" price on the AH as of Saturday morning is 175g each for crystals and 73g each for shards. That's almost back to "normal." Given that this is the weekend, Happy will be watching closely to see whether sellers dump stock, dropping prices, or buyers drive the prices even higher. Happy, for all the uncertainty, is having a great time.
I bought MoP for both accounts on Friday. The nice thing about buying the digital version is that Blizz will download the expansion in the background prior to launch so that I don't end up in the mess of people trying to download the game on 25 Sep or install it from DVD. Blizzard also, quite cagily, is providing some additional help for level 85 players who enter MoP without raid level gear. Wildshard, in his Cata level raider gear, has a gear score of i393. That is more than capable of taking on the quest and faction grinds needed to start leveling to the new max level, level 90. JB is also pretty well situated from a leveling perspective with her ilevel gear score of i384 (in melee DPS spec). Philly, however, has a pve gear score of i321. Even in pvp gear (not optimal for leveling), her score is only i352.
In MoP, players who have lower than raid level Cata gear are going to get slaughtered even in the early questing. This is what apparently happened in the transition from Burning Crusade (level 70 max) to Wrath (max level 80). Level 70 players in green level gear had a tortured path to take as they were very under geared in Wrath. Blizzard has an answer to that issue this time. A search of the MoP database revealed ilevel 372 green gear for level 85 players. That gear will be available for purchase from an MoP vendor (or vendors; in Beta vendor availability has changed several times). So, is MoP i372 gear at the same level as i372 gear from Cata? In a word - No. Let's do a little comparison, shall we? The below compares a vendor purchasable, MoP i372 chest piece with Wild's i384 raid level chest piece.
MoP i372 green Chest piece (low green level MoP gear):
+1771 armor, +578 sta, +385 int, +265 crit, +244 haste
Cata i384 purple Chest piece (LFR raid level gear)
+1869 armor, +646 sta, +371 int, +254 spi, +252 haste
In other words, Wild's arduously acquired, end game Cata raid gear is just barely, and I mean just barely, better than the very worst gear available in MoP. It's the great equalizer. Now, to be fair, I don't know how many different pieces of gear are available, and I didn't see any weapons for sale. My guess is that not every gear slot or every spec will have vendor gear for sale. Still, it's possible that even Wild, and particularly JB, might find gear from a vendor better than what they currently have. Philly will need to get every piece she can lay her hands on.
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Tuesday (7 Aug) - Browsing the MoP Beta Talk
Tuesday (7 Aug) - Browsing the MoP Beta Talk
While waiting for a contractor to arrive (late, of course) I did some random browsing for tidbits about MoP. The following are in no particular sequence or importance. I just thought they were interesting.
The Tillers are a new faction in MoP that is very different from the usual faction grind. To earn reputation with this faction, you must learn to farm. No, I'm not talking about the kind of farming for "stuff" you are thinking of. I'm talking about actual farming - tilling the soil and growing crops. There are a series of quests along the way as you work a small plot of land and, over time, expand and improve on it. As your friendship with the Tillers grow (pun intended) you gain access to additional farm friendly things such as chickens, sheep, pigs, and booze (I guess a farmer's life is just not complete without booze), not to mention a red cricket companion. If you are looking for the epic faction gear that is the goal of every faction grind - well, the Tillers don't have any. It sounds charming, and could be something to do when the usual killing gets to be a bit monotonous.
Another faction that has been previewed is the Golden Lotus. This is the kind of faction grind we are all used to, with one exception that caught my eye. Once you reach Revered, there is the usual collection of nice to have gear. However, unlike most faction grinds, where the gear can be purchased with gold, Revered and better gear has to be bought with Valor Points. So, in addition to grinding faction rep, I'll also have to grind VPs. Since I don't particularly like grinding valor points, this is not a development that I like.
Battle pets are all the rage, and everybody is getting ready for battle pet combat. I haven't really kept up with this; I just hope my jousting pet or other companions don't get arbitrarily attacked at random moments. I did think it was funny that the fact that players are still vulnerable to pvp while engaged in a pet battle "is intentional."
"Elite" raid guilds are complaining that the "casuals" clear content too fast and aren't ready to take on Heroic content. Hardcore raiders proposed that Blizzard force casual players to slow down and spend more time defeating raid dungeons so they'll be better fodder for elite guild needs. I liked the response from the Blue poster: "I'm quite sure that the "casuals" can handle themselves in what they want and how they want it, and they don't need parenting from "hardcore" players." 'Nuff said.
Several monk spells had bugs in beta that Blizz say have been fixed internally (fixed but not in beta, yet). This primarily affected the DPS Windwalker. The spells will be what they are; what I liked about the conversation is what they said about the Windwalker spec: "Their (windwalker) forte is intended to be their strong mobility and the fact that their damage is mostly upfront and instant, as they have very little to no periodic damage." If that means the monk DPS spec is a "strike hard and keep moving" kind of attack, that could be very fun to play.
Anyone planning to kill Coren Direbrew when Brewfest comes along will have to be level 89 first. There are just ten days from launch until the start of the new Brewfest.
A new type of group dungeon has been introduced with MoP. It's called "Scenarios." Scenarios are three-person adventures (Blizz's word) in an instanced dungeon that is a part of the lore. The storyline has to be completed into order to move the story forward. No mention was made on whether these were mandatory in order to continue to advance, or if they can be bypassed.
Here's a nice fix to signing up for a "finder" ( as in raid finder, dungeon finder, etc) - scenarios, dungeons, raids, and battlegrounds can all be queued up for at the same time. No more having to decide which single event to queue up for. Of course, I wonder how that will affect the overall availability of players. "Oh, my BG popped!" The player then leaves the dungeon he just got an invite to.
Ooh, I just saw that multi-seat mounts will become account bound! That means the whole Wild family can have their own Tundra Mammoth with it's extra seats.
While waiting for a contractor to arrive (late, of course) I did some random browsing for tidbits about MoP. The following are in no particular sequence or importance. I just thought they were interesting.
The Tillers are a new faction in MoP that is very different from the usual faction grind. To earn reputation with this faction, you must learn to farm. No, I'm not talking about the kind of farming for "stuff" you are thinking of. I'm talking about actual farming - tilling the soil and growing crops. There are a series of quests along the way as you work a small plot of land and, over time, expand and improve on it. As your friendship with the Tillers grow (pun intended) you gain access to additional farm friendly things such as chickens, sheep, pigs, and booze (I guess a farmer's life is just not complete without booze), not to mention a red cricket companion. If you are looking for the epic faction gear that is the goal of every faction grind - well, the Tillers don't have any. It sounds charming, and could be something to do when the usual killing gets to be a bit monotonous.
Another faction that has been previewed is the Golden Lotus. This is the kind of faction grind we are all used to, with one exception that caught my eye. Once you reach Revered, there is the usual collection of nice to have gear. However, unlike most faction grinds, where the gear can be purchased with gold, Revered and better gear has to be bought with Valor Points. So, in addition to grinding faction rep, I'll also have to grind VPs. Since I don't particularly like grinding valor points, this is not a development that I like.
Battle pets are all the rage, and everybody is getting ready for battle pet combat. I haven't really kept up with this; I just hope my jousting pet or other companions don't get arbitrarily attacked at random moments. I did think it was funny that the fact that players are still vulnerable to pvp while engaged in a pet battle "is intentional."
"Elite" raid guilds are complaining that the "casuals" clear content too fast and aren't ready to take on Heroic content. Hardcore raiders proposed that Blizzard force casual players to slow down and spend more time defeating raid dungeons so they'll be better fodder for elite guild needs. I liked the response from the Blue poster: "I'm quite sure that the "casuals" can handle themselves in what they want and how they want it, and they don't need parenting from "hardcore" players." 'Nuff said.
Several monk spells had bugs in beta that Blizz say have been fixed internally (fixed but not in beta, yet). This primarily affected the DPS Windwalker. The spells will be what they are; what I liked about the conversation is what they said about the Windwalker spec: "Their (windwalker) forte is intended to be their strong mobility and the fact that their damage is mostly upfront and instant, as they have very little to no periodic damage." If that means the monk DPS spec is a "strike hard and keep moving" kind of attack, that could be very fun to play.
Anyone planning to kill Coren Direbrew when Brewfest comes along will have to be level 89 first. There are just ten days from launch until the start of the new Brewfest.
A new type of group dungeon has been introduced with MoP. It's called "Scenarios." Scenarios are three-person adventures (Blizz's word) in an instanced dungeon that is a part of the lore. The storyline has to be completed into order to move the story forward. No mention was made on whether these were mandatory in order to continue to advance, or if they can be bypassed.
Here's a nice fix to signing up for a "finder" ( as in raid finder, dungeon finder, etc) - scenarios, dungeons, raids, and battlegrounds can all be queued up for at the same time. No more having to decide which single event to queue up for. Of course, I wonder how that will affect the overall availability of players. "Oh, my BG popped!" The player then leaves the dungeon he just got an invite to.
Ooh, I just saw that multi-seat mounts will become account bound! That means the whole Wild family can have their own Tundra Mammoth with it's extra seats.
Saturday, August 4, 2012
Thursday (2 Aug) - Withdrawal Symptoms
Thursday (2 Aug) - Withdrawal Symptoms
Note: I am back home as of 4 Aug.
I've been on vacation with relatives in Virginia for more than two weeks now. It has been a lot of fun and it's been great getting to spend time with family. World of Warcraft has been largely absent . . . yet . . . the other day I found myself checking on the status of the new expansion, Mists of Pandaria. MoP's release date has been finalized and announced - 25 September, 2012. Blizzard has the digital versions available for pre-release download. I will be back home in California late Friday night on 3 Aug. I have decided to buy MoP. Duh, like I really thought I might not.
Even before I learned the release date, I had already caught myself browsing websites for information about MoP. Specifically, I wanted to know more about the new Monk class. Monks are an interesting class. There are a lot of similarities between the monk class and the druid class. For example, both classes have specs for healing, DPS, and tanking. From a spec perspective, the main difference is with the DPS spec. Druids have both melee and ranged DPS specs, while monks have only a melee DPS spec. There is no monk equivalent to a druid's Balance/moonkin spec.
As anyone would expect, I'm most interested in the monk healing spec, which is called Mistweaver. It has been described as being most like a priest's discipline spec, but that is a generality. Mistweaver is a completely new healing spec with it's own strengths and weaknesses. The strength of the mistweaver spec seems to be in group healing, which is very powerful. Monk healers use mana, but also have another source of power called "chi" that is required to cast certain spells. Another interesting aspect of monks is that even as a healer, DPSing is important. Doing damage increases chi, which increases healing, so a monk healer will be both DPSing and healing, which is kind of cool. I plan to level as a Mistweaver, but will also build up a Windwalker spec (melee DPS) to see how that works.
I haven't caught the bug to return to raiding. The new expansion pressure that I have always felt - ie, rushing to level up Wildshard and prepare for the new raids - is non-existent this time. Blizzard has decided to delay the release of the first raid, Mogu'Shan Palace, by one week to give players a chance to level from 85 to 90 without having to death march their way to level 90 in order to raid. That won't affect Wild, as I will not be leveling him immediately.The guild will have to do without Wild and JB as far as raiding goes. Wild's guild shut down their scheduled raiding last week. They just don't have enough interest at present. I think that will change once MoP is out, but right now it's very much dullsville, with a lot of guildies doing little other than leveling up alts.
I've decided to try out the expansion by leveling up a new character in the monk class. No, I'm not going to make a Pandaren Monk. The Pandaren race was a silly idea back when it was no more than talk, and it's even sillier now that there actually is one. I already have relatively high level toons for most of the horde races (and yes, the monk character will be horde): Tauren Wildshard, Troll JB, and Undead Philly. Happyface, once an Orc but long ago morphed into a Goblin, wants no further competition in either of those races. That leaves only the Blood Elf race. Mel is a level 63 blood elf, but she's a death knight that started her leveling at 55. Jocey is also a blood elf at level 27, but has agreed to step aside for a new brother or sister. Another reason I like leveling a blood elf is that their starting zone is the very best laid out of all the races in my opinion. It's also out of the way and not much visited, so early leveling should go very quickly.
I have been considering names. I want to get a name saved before the release so that I'm not flailing about for a name at the last minute. I'm going to list my ideas below, but feel free to make suggestions:
Here are some choices in no particular order of importance:
Perpetua - a woman Martyr of 200 AD known for visions that included both saving lives (healing) and battling enemies (DPS).
Morgaine or CJMorgaine - Morgaine is the main character in the novel "Gate of Ivrel", the first novel written by one of my favorite authors, CJ Cherryh. I could also use some combination of Ivrel, Morgraine, CJ, etc ...
Mararooney or Rooneymara, Lisbeth, Salander or other variation, perhaps CJLisbeth - What, don't know where these come from? Really?
Googoogiapan - Shaolin monks have a long history, and there is a Simpsons episode called Goo Goo Gia Pan where they visit a Shaolin temple.
Plumflowerfist - a style of martial arts called Meihuazhuang that has many variations and can be adapted to many styles. It focuses on dynamic motion, light rapid footwork, and large flowing motions.
Hmm, it's looking like Jocey and Mel will be getting another sister.
The new blood elf monk will have every advantage the Wild family can provide her. Happy will cough up plenty of gold. There will be heirloom gear to speed leveling. I'll ask Wild's guild to invite her to get the advantages of a max level 25 guild. Wild's youngest will not lack for anything. The ultimate goal is for the monk to be my first level 90 character.
The State of the Auction House - I intentionally did not bring my Authenticator, and have not opened WoW even once during the vacation. Happy is anxious to get back into action. When I left, prices on key mats were in freefall and buying was way down as everyone anticipates the need for the new mats coming out of the expansion. Happy is betting that there will be a huge influx of new characters being leveled as Pandarens and/or the monk class, and that all of them will need the older mats Happy sells to get their enchants done. Happy has already built up his stock to accommodate that, but he won't know where the prices have gone until he gets in there and checks.
Note: I am back home as of 4 Aug.
I've been on vacation with relatives in Virginia for more than two weeks now. It has been a lot of fun and it's been great getting to spend time with family. World of Warcraft has been largely absent . . . yet . . . the other day I found myself checking on the status of the new expansion, Mists of Pandaria. MoP's release date has been finalized and announced - 25 September, 2012. Blizzard has the digital versions available for pre-release download. I will be back home in California late Friday night on 3 Aug. I have decided to buy MoP. Duh, like I really thought I might not.
Even before I learned the release date, I had already caught myself browsing websites for information about MoP. Specifically, I wanted to know more about the new Monk class. Monks are an interesting class. There are a lot of similarities between the monk class and the druid class. For example, both classes have specs for healing, DPS, and tanking. From a spec perspective, the main difference is with the DPS spec. Druids have both melee and ranged DPS specs, while monks have only a melee DPS spec. There is no monk equivalent to a druid's Balance/moonkin spec.
As anyone would expect, I'm most interested in the monk healing spec, which is called Mistweaver. It has been described as being most like a priest's discipline spec, but that is a generality. Mistweaver is a completely new healing spec with it's own strengths and weaknesses. The strength of the mistweaver spec seems to be in group healing, which is very powerful. Monk healers use mana, but also have another source of power called "chi" that is required to cast certain spells. Another interesting aspect of monks is that even as a healer, DPSing is important. Doing damage increases chi, which increases healing, so a monk healer will be both DPSing and healing, which is kind of cool. I plan to level as a Mistweaver, but will also build up a Windwalker spec (melee DPS) to see how that works.
I haven't caught the bug to return to raiding. The new expansion pressure that I have always felt - ie, rushing to level up Wildshard and prepare for the new raids - is non-existent this time. Blizzard has decided to delay the release of the first raid, Mogu'Shan Palace, by one week to give players a chance to level from 85 to 90 without having to death march their way to level 90 in order to raid. That won't affect Wild, as I will not be leveling him immediately.The guild will have to do without Wild and JB as far as raiding goes. Wild's guild shut down their scheduled raiding last week. They just don't have enough interest at present. I think that will change once MoP is out, but right now it's very much dullsville, with a lot of guildies doing little other than leveling up alts.
I've decided to try out the expansion by leveling up a new character in the monk class. No, I'm not going to make a Pandaren Monk. The Pandaren race was a silly idea back when it was no more than talk, and it's even sillier now that there actually is one. I already have relatively high level toons for most of the horde races (and yes, the monk character will be horde): Tauren Wildshard, Troll JB, and Undead Philly. Happyface, once an Orc but long ago morphed into a Goblin, wants no further competition in either of those races. That leaves only the Blood Elf race. Mel is a level 63 blood elf, but she's a death knight that started her leveling at 55. Jocey is also a blood elf at level 27, but has agreed to step aside for a new brother or sister. Another reason I like leveling a blood elf is that their starting zone is the very best laid out of all the races in my opinion. It's also out of the way and not much visited, so early leveling should go very quickly.
I have been considering names. I want to get a name saved before the release so that I'm not flailing about for a name at the last minute. I'm going to list my ideas below, but feel free to make suggestions:
Here are some choices in no particular order of importance:
Perpetua - a woman Martyr of 200 AD known for visions that included both saving lives (healing) and battling enemies (DPS).
Morgaine or CJMorgaine - Morgaine is the main character in the novel "Gate of Ivrel", the first novel written by one of my favorite authors, CJ Cherryh. I could also use some combination of Ivrel, Morgraine, CJ, etc ...
Mararooney or Rooneymara, Lisbeth, Salander or other variation, perhaps CJLisbeth - What, don't know where these come from? Really?
Googoogiapan - Shaolin monks have a long history, and there is a Simpsons episode called Goo Goo Gia Pan where they visit a Shaolin temple.
Plumflowerfist - a style of martial arts called Meihuazhuang that has many variations and can be adapted to many styles. It focuses on dynamic motion, light rapid footwork, and large flowing motions.
Hmm, it's looking like Jocey and Mel will be getting another sister.
The new blood elf monk will have every advantage the Wild family can provide her. Happy will cough up plenty of gold. There will be heirloom gear to speed leveling. I'll ask Wild's guild to invite her to get the advantages of a max level 25 guild. Wild's youngest will not lack for anything. The ultimate goal is for the monk to be my first level 90 character.
The State of the Auction House - I intentionally did not bring my Authenticator, and have not opened WoW even once during the vacation. Happy is anxious to get back into action. When I left, prices on key mats were in freefall and buying was way down as everyone anticipates the need for the new mats coming out of the expansion. Happy is betting that there will be a huge influx of new characters being leveled as Pandarens and/or the monk class, and that all of them will need the older mats Happy sells to get their enchants done. Happy has already built up his stock to accommodate that, but he won't know where the prices have gone until he gets in there and checks.
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