Shattering!

Today!
Cinematic!
Load Screen!

Oh man I hope servers are up when I get home from work :/

Instant Pets

So I'm sitting on my back alt, checking my mailbox, running some junk around... and all of the sudden my entire chat window fills with yellow text. A new character has just gotten all of their collector's edition pets. And then some. Achievements left and right.

I always love that feeling. You go to your first mailbox and there is a whole mess of little NCPs waiting for you. Instant achievement!

Which makes me kind of sad that Blizz has declared there will be no 6th anniversary pet. I love Feats of Strength like nobody's business, but not getting a pet makes me sad. Their past pets were really awesome! Baby Blizzard Bear, Onyxian Whelpling (especially if you're like me and don't have a zillion CE dragon pets). Oh well. I hear there is an Armadillo in Cata, and I love me my Xenathrans.

3 Weeks To Go

Well... less than three at this point. Twenty days? Nineteen? Phase four of the invasion has already begun and I have not updated this in so long wow.

I apologize in advance for how scattered this post will most likely be. I have a whole mess of game-related thoughts swimming around in my brain.

Final stuff to finish

I've been scrambling to finish a mess of things before cata hits. Most notably... those damned Dalaran fountain coins. I know they aren't going anywhere, and that I can finish that anytime... but with Dalaran losing its portals, how often will I really think about going there? Two bronze and two gold to go...

Class Decisions

Choices! I've had three mains in the course of my time with the game, the most recent (since July 2010) being a holy Paladin. But before that I was a Warlock... for like four years. That lock has all the cool pets, the weird reps and achievements, and honestly, making thing go boom with a messed up rotation is way better than tank healing. Granted, pallys are getting AoE heals, but I'm so torn. I remember how lame it was during the last two x-packs waiting on tanks and healers to level forever. Dungeons and raids will be much more accessible as a paladin... Hmm. I'll probably end up levelling both quickly. Go winter break!

New Alts

With new races coming, I'm sure everyone and their cat will be rolling a new char. Me? Worgen druid and gnome priest. 4.0.3a needs to drop soon though, all the crappy I've saved for the priest is piling up way too fast.

And Worgen druid forms are awesome.

Finally!

The release date is here. December 7th.
Now to just decide if I want to do a midnight launch.
Or get the collector's edition.
Ugh choices!

And rumor is that 4.0.1 hits next week. At least that'll be a solid 7 weeks to figure out how to play the "new" holy paladin.

That's One Freaked Out Elf

I've been questing on the rogue as of late (when not busy with the 9,000 other things that keep me from updating this more regularily) and while doing An End and a Beginning I stumbled upon this...

This screenshot just made my week. She is so freaked out by that lich!

Little Fawn

It is mine.

Currency Changes

Blizzard recently announced that changes would be made regarding the in-game currency. By currency, I don't mean gold or silver, but rather all the badges, emblems and marks that have been collected relating to both PvP and PvE. In short, Frost and Triumph emblems convert to Justice Points, all other PvE emblems (including BC ones) become gold, and PvP marks and honor are converting into solid Honor Points. MMO Champion has a nice guide and converter that you should really check out. The changes are also on the PTR now if you've transferred a character.

This has put me in a bit of a pickle because now I'm unsure what to do with the badges I have left. I spent all of my Conquest and lower emblems on Heirlooms for my new Cataclysm alts. I was planning to downrank a few Triumphs as well to finish off with some trinkets and offspec gear, but with Triumphs and Frost emblems being combined into snazzy new Justice Points, would I be better off saving and getting some more T10?

Hell, at this point is T10 really worth it? The 4.0.1 patch is already background downloading and the PTR has been running for a week. Cataclysm can't be that far off at this point. Is it worth it to spend these points on gear that will be replaced with much needed mastery in two months? Should I get more heirlooms to help my new little dudes out? Or should I just save the points, since it basically sounds like Justice Points will be the currency for 85 purchasable gear as well (though I'm sure the cost will be much much higher than the little pittance I still have left).

What are you doing? Choices?!

Authenticator

I finally caved and put the Authenticator service on my phone today. Not exactly sure why I waited so long to do it, since it's free. But now at least I can be a little less freaked about potential hackage, and have a cute little pet to boot.

It makes some really cute emotes

As a side note: My Warlock is now at 70/75 for Lil' Game Hunter. Just need the Walrus people penguin, the pug, and a few more tournament pets and the deer will be mine!

Anyway, this was supposed to be about Authenticators, not pets. There have been many a scary tale lately of accounts being hacked, and the hackers immediately putting Authenticators on the account, which adds a whole new level of pain-in-the-ass for retrieving all of your stuff. I think that's what really finally motivated me. I hate customer service over the phone. I hate sitting on hold. If I can spend 10 extra seconds each time I log on to ensure I won't be trying to get my things back, damnit I will.

I'm probably going to order an actual physical Authenticator in the next few days, only because I'm wary of losing my phone, or having it break, and then once again having to deal with customer service. The physical devices cost $6.50, but the mobile apps are completely free and available for iPhone, Android, and a few other phone platforms as well.

In an additional effort to promote Authenticators, it was recently announced that a new guild rank option will be available in Cata that require Authenticator ownership. The reasoning behind this, of course, is to make sure that compromised accounts can't clear out the guild bank. So between the guild rank, the pet, and the piece of mind that you're things are safe, there really isn't a reason not to have one anymore.. so do it!

PTR Initial Thoughts : Level 7 Warlock!

So I was able to play around for about an hour on the PTR this afternoon. Unfortunately, character transfers are still closed (as the queue is about 6 days long now) so I started afresh!

I made it to an impressive level 7, and have a few initial thoughts:

Newbie Help
The new tutorial information is awesome. Lots of people in general were complaining about it, but if I were an absolutely, brand new player, I would find the arrows, big pictures, and more thorough information to be fantastic. And if you're not new and cranky.. you can just turn it off.

You Feel Like A Lock
Previously, levelling seemed completely homogenous up to a point. Mage, Priest, Lock, Druid. Guess what you're gonna do for 10 whole levels? Shoot a spell. Warlocks (and hunters) now get their pets right off the bat. My imp was right there with me at level 1. I felt like a Warlock! Levels 1, 3, 4, 5, and 6 all provide new spells, and all of the Warlock spells really help to establish the experience you will have with that character all the way to max. You get Immolate and Corruption at 3 and 4. You learn the value of DoTs right there, 20 minutes after creation. You get the ability to vendor all water at level 5, when Lifetap becomes learnable. Lastly, Siphon Life is introduced at six. You are now a mean, survival machine. Many of these spells were previously available by level six, but they were included with some extraneous abilities as well. How many little baby locks really used Curse of Weakness? Trimming it down and spacing it out gives new Warlocks the essentials for their class and time to play with them without causing confusion.

But What About Shards?
Soul Shards are finally gone, and good riddance. The new system, which provides three in-combat shard uses, doesn't kick in until a level 10 spell is learned. I'll have more to say on that when I get there.

But Where is My Pet Bar?
I can't find it. Am I just blind? I wasn't able to move pet skills to my action bars, does this come in later? A few other people mentioned it in general, so if I'm just ignorant, at least I'm not alone.

Professions = Awesome
Granted, my entire experience with professions right now is First Aid and Cooking, but the new profession tab is great. All your spells in one place, all your skill levels are right there. It's really clean, I love it.

LEVEL 7
I've leveled more alts than I can count. And sometimes, I honestly don't even notice that I've leveled. The new interface has a gigantic, in your face message, not only telling you that you've dinged, but what spells are now available for training. The skill training message is also much appreciated because it means no more googling your spells to figure out if breaking your questing groove is worth it.

Other Interface Issues
I like that the map button has been moved up next to the zone name. I collect addons like a fiend and I run out of circle space constantly. The new character pane is nice, placing everything in one column rather that having to swap in and out what stats you want to see. (a minor inconvenience on my Paladin) I forgot that they had moved companion pets over to spells however, and it took me a moment to find the little penguin that Breanni now sends just about everyone's characters upon creation.

These are just my initial observations. I've only played on the Warlock so far, so I don't have much on any other class. I also haven't reached any talents or Soul Shard abilities, so I'll defiantly do a follow up when I reach that point.

In the mean time, play the PTR if you get a chance, it's a great little preshow to what is to come, AND you can help Blizz with bug reports, which is always fabulous.

PTR 4.0.1 Downloading....

The PTR version of Patch 4.0.1 was released just yesterday. Unfortunately... I'm still downloading it. It's 16 monstrous gigs and even with my obscenely fast internet connection I'm only 7 in so far. maybe by the time I get back from class tonight. Fingers crossed!

I have never actually done a PTR before. That's right. Almost six years and I have never tried a PTR. But I'm doing this one. Why? Because even though it doesn't have actual Cataclysm content, it does have the new skills and talent trees implemented, and I really want to play with them since I don't have beta access.

As of right now, characters cannot be copied over, so you can only play around with new characters, but I'm alright with that for now. It's better than just looking at screenshots!

I'll write up some more once it's actually downloaded and installed.

What A Wonderful Day For Fishing!

Yay for pets I didn't know existed!

After writing about my horrible gem luck yesterday, today I struck gold, twice, on the fishing daily.

Runed Stormjewel
Rigid Stormjewel
Fantasy Portrait (Yay vendor trash!)
and Strand Crawler, on my pet collector character no less. (10 more to go and that fawn will be mine!)

Now I'm feeling lucky. Giant Sewer Rat? Sea Turtle? Finishing off Dalaran coins? I should get back to fishing. Damn, Hearthstone down. Old Ironjaw perhaps?!

Random Frustrations

There is, statistically, a 20% chance to receive each type of green quality gem when prospecting Saronite. So why does it always seem like this game doesn't want me to have Sun or Shadow Crustals? I have two miners, my current 80 main and a 75. I collect absurd amounts of ore just questing and doing dailies. While selling off Cobalt in stacks has proved profitable, I typically prospect all of my Saronite. And despite getting loads of all the other four colors, yellow and purple constantly elude me.

What's worse is that Shadow Crystals are one of the three gems required to make an Icy Prism every day, which, for the non-JC's out there, takes a Frozen Orb, a Shadow Gem, a Chalcedony, and a Dark Jade, and combines it into a container that always contains blue quality gems, but has the chance to include Dragon's Eyes and Epic gems. I have stacks of those first three, and despite obsessive amounts of prospecting. Blizzard just doesn't want me to have Shadow Crystals.

Waiting on AFK's = Time to write rambling posts.

There are so many things in this game that are so completely up to chance. Like the gems, there are other completely mundane bad-luck failures that I experience often. Like the aforementioned frozen orbs. There is a 20% chance in every random dungeon to win one (provided no one passes). There have been entire weeks were I didn't even come close to winning. Making my Icy Prisms even more annoying.

Then there are the more frustrating examples. Horror stories of 250 failed runs keep me form even trying to get Baron Rivondare's mount. Then there are things like profession patterns that only drop in raid instances. Some you see every week... others, like in the case of the +30 Spellpower to Weapon from MC, dropped twice in the entire absurdly long period I was raiding in there. Luckily, of the entire 40 man... I was one of two enchanters.

The bad-luck randomness hits us all, unfortunately. And then of course.. right after I write this, I mine three nodes in a row that give me my much needed gems. Weird. That's just how it goes.

Save the Gnomes/Trolls Finally!

I feel so behind because this patch actually happened yesterday.. but hey, work all day, then night class, then ICC25... I was busy!

One of the rewards is an item that turns you
into a Gnome or Troll on a 4 hour CD

I'm not even going to attempt to write out all of the lore about why these homelands were lost in the first place. Lets just says troggs, radiation, and exile were all involved, and details can be found on WowWiki. Having played Alliance almost exclusively, I'm far more familiar with the Gnomish side of things, and I am going to be mostly referring to things from that event, but hey, I'm glad the Trolls are getting their stuff back as well.

Anyway, In order to assist with this world event, and receive the Feat of Strength and a few vanity items, you need to speak to individuals in Ironforge/Sen'Jin Village. This then begins a small series of quests that eventually lead to an event similar to the post-Wrathgate Undercity quest. It is on a timer, and a raid group is not required. Many of the early quests can be done at low levels, but full completion requires 75+.

I'm not going to lie, the event is short. I took maybe an hour all together to complete. But even still, I felt it was a nice little diversion to get players pumped for the changes to come, and it was nice to finally see these races rally to take back what was theres. ...And it was an excuse to fly my Gnomeregan title and ride and Mechanostrider everywhere feeling awesome.

For a full guide on all of the quests, check out Wowhead!

Zul'Gurub

There are going to be countless changes to the older areas of Azeroth come Cataclysm, and one of the most buzzed about is the complete removal of the 20-man level 60 raid zone Zul'Gurub. In it's place will be a new 30-35 leveling zone.

Another reason to go: Hakkar looks awesome.

What does the removal of ZG mean for the game? On the achievement side of things, you'll be missing out on:

1. A fishing achievement
2. A rep achievement
3. A handful of classic dungeon achievements
4. Two amazingly awesome looking mounts to be found as rare drops off of the Tiger and Raptor bosses, which also provide Feats of Strength.

And have I mentioned that the shoulder enchants given by the Zandalar Tribe are the only enchants available for Bind on Account heirloom shoulders?

Good thing we still have (probably) a few months to go before this dungeon leaves forever, so if you have any desire to complete the aforementioned achievements, get on out to STV!

'Twas a thrilling fight for me.

Though a word of warning... I went in tonight on my Warlock, accompanied by a Feral Druid. All the bosses were easy-cake, even though they didn't want to drop the mounts. However, due to Hakkar's mind control ability, both of us could not be alive for the fight. This was of course a mechanic we had completely forgotten about, which on our first pull bugged the hell out of the boss. But after dotting up on try #2, I did the old Lifetap-Hellfire suicide trick and ate some ice cream while the druid did his thing. Funny how it's easier to solo that guy than to two-man.

I can't say for sure that I'll be in there on every instance reset, but I hope to go back at least a few more times to try for the mounts and raise some more rep. Best of luck to everyone!

Night Elf Dance

While I'm waiting for my raid to fill...
An oldie but goodie, the inspiration for the female Night Elf dance. (3:23)



Damn that song is catchy.

Weapon Skill Be Gone!

Cataclysm is bringing about more changes than I can even wrap my head around, but one of my favorites is the abolishment of Weapon Skill.

I started out on WoW as a Rogue. There I am, slicing my way around Redridge with my little daggers and Oh! What's this?! A mace! Much to my dismay I had absolutely zero mace skill. Such situations were even worse on my Paladin and Warrior. One hander? Two hander? Multiple options!? Finding an amazing 2H Axe in Zangarmarsh when you'd handed used one since Wetlands was simply heartbreaking. I'm sure we've all had these problems, (along with, of course, the issue of not having the Weapon skill even trained) but soon it will be gone forever.

Which brings me to these guys...

Did Somebody Order a Knuckle Sandwich? and Master of Arms are two achievements related to Weapon Skill. What will happen in Cataclysm? Feats of Strength? Let's hope so, cause Feats of Strength are by definition awesome. My Paladin has finished both, time to start on the Warlock...

Yeah, this will be fun.

I guess I'll just box some Wolvar during my Kalu'ak dailies.

"World Explorer" and Why It Rocks

A Title and a Tabard!

I'm not an achievement junkie, but I do love titles. There are titles in Warcraft for all sorts of accomplishments; downing bosses, completing meta-acheivements, taking part in holiday events, and raising reputations, among others. Unfortunately, many of these can only be accomplished at level 80, due to dungeon requirements. There are however, a handful of awesome titles that are open and available to those below level cap, and one of these is "World Explorer."

I have recently set out to complete this achievement on a third character, and was met with comments of astonishment. "That takes so much time!" or "I just don't have the patience for that!" But you know what, compared to "Seeker" and "Loremaster," "World Explorer" is not only a piece of cake, but also a rewarding experience that can be handled at just about any level, (provided you have exceptional tenacity) and provides both a title for those collectors such as myself, as well as a pretty cool looking tabard for finishing the Northrend leg. And hey, if you're going for sheer numbers, you can't go wrong with the individual achievements granted for each and every zone.

So much world to see!

"World Explorer" is best done after level 60, when one achieves a flying mount. Obviously all Vanilla world zones require the exclusive use of ground mounts, but being able to fly across Outlands and Northrend saves not only time, but potential deaths and repair bills as well. It is even possible to complete this achievement sub-60, though it will require some awfully creative running! I've put together a list of some considerations to make while working your way through this epic journey, enjoy!

Don't forget the poultry!

1. The Plan. What zones are already complete? Is there a logical way to run from one unfinished place to another? Finding a good loop to make can minimize the time it takes. Make a strategy!
2. Opposing Factions. These zones can be troublesome, especially if you are doing your exploring at a lower level and will have to deal with higher-level guards. Figure out a good loop to make while keeping clear of potential dangers.
3. Hearthstones. Some zones are just plain annoying. My personal least favorite to explore is Azshara. While beautiful, it's crescent shaped, it has weird hills, it has water. Azshara is the one zone I always hearth out of upon completion. I'm sure everyone has their own least-favs, consider those routes in your plan!
4. Gathering. You can make a really amazing amount of money if you want to take extra time to complete "The Explorer." On my server, low level ore such as Mithril sells for huge amounts of money. Stopping at nodes while exploring is completely worth the extra time.
5. Flight Paths. Now is a really great time to pick up those paths you never bothered with before. Stonetalon Mountains? That goblin between EPL and WPL. Grab them all, you never know when you might need to use them with the world getting ripped apart in a few months.
6. Companion Pets and Mounts. You can knock off a few little achievements during your travels relating to both pets and mounts. These guys are sold not only outside of the major faction cities, but interesting off-the-path locations as well. Don't forget your Ancona Chicken from the Mirage Raceway in Thousand Needles!

So there you go, get exploring!

Aqual Quintessence

It took me a full two weeks of deliberation to come up with a name for this blog. I wanted something WoW related, I wanted something that sounded interesting. Yet most of all, I wanted a name that reflected my long history with the game. I’ve played since release in 2004, and felt that a term that honored the game’s past and reflected the raids and accomplishments I've witnessed would be most appropriate. I came up with Aqual Quintessence.

Far past the Eastern Edge of Aszhara lies a tiny island inhabited by a mysterious elemental. A lord, an emissary of a faction that has mysteriously broken free of Titanic control: Duke Hydraxis of the Hydraxian Waterlords. In the olden days of WoW, players ventured out to Duke Hydraxis,  working to complete a questline and earning the right to collect Aqual Quintessence. This item was required to douse the ruins of the Molten Core bosses, allowing progress to Majordomo Exedus. Seven bosses, seven raiders forced to make their way to the farthest reaches of Azshara each week. As of patch 1.11 (The introduction of Naxx40), those revered with the Waterlords could purchase the Eternal Quintessense, a water that lasted forever and carried a one hour cooldown.

These days (Since 3.0.8) neither Aqual Quintessence nor its Eternal counterpart are required to complete Molten Core. It is a questline and an item that no longer exists outside of sentimental bank collections. Completion of that line and possession of Quintessence also provides a Feat of Strength. So in the end, I found Aqual Quintessence to be an appropriate blog name because of that nod to the origins of the game, because I sometimes feel like one of those 40man old-timers, and because those links to Azshara and Molten Core will once again become relevant in the Cataclysm to come.

Coming Soon

From the creator of a blog about random animals comes.... another blog... about Warcraft.

Hey, I write about what I know!

I'm working on getting everything together, look for actual content soon.