Blizzard's Version...

Long time no post.

Since my last post Blizzard has implemented there own version of a character sharing site, The Armory. This allows others to search for you and check out what gear, buffs, talents, reputation etc that you have upon logging out. This basically renders all other attempts redundant, since you can imbed the information into another webpage as well as being able to look for gear upgrades that you can get, and where they come from. A good attempt by Blizzard that is getting updated regularly enough to come back to it time and time again.

P.S. my armory page is Zakharov

Awesome Character sharing site.

I discovered an awesome site for sharing what gear, stats, reputation you have with others.

http://ctprofiles.net/

It has a list of alot of items, including expansion, which you can equip to show you what your current stats are. You create an account, then simply select the spot you desire to add armour/gear to, select what you have in that slot (has a long list, clicking on one shows the stats).

I found this website and created an account straight away, took less than 15 mins. That included trying to remember what gear I had (thottbot helped alot with quest rewards), since I was away from a computer with WoW (argh, the perils of work.)

Here is what I have.

So many choices, so little rep...

After getting a mage to port me to Org (a quest also required me to go there, hence my choice) a shameful, overpriced yet worthwhile 2g, I get my first set of expansion skills. However, I could have got them earlier. A whole level earlier. It seems that from lvl 60 onwards, there are new skills every level, not every second (for everyone except Rogues, it seems they get nothing new at 63 or 65). Maybe this is a ploy by Blizzard to get us going back to Azeroth more often. Whatever the reason, the fact remains that either more trips are required, or just getting more skills when you do make that trek back. I got my first new expansion skill, Fel Armor (Armour, damn Americans), which gives increased healing from spells/effects and increased damage. The downside is that only one armour type can be active at one, meaning that Demon Armor cannot also be used. So, extra armour and health per 5 for PvP (Demon), with extra spell damage for PvE (Fel).

I finished all the quests in Hellfire Peninsula (PvP repeatable quest done numerous times), so I needed to decide where to go next. I went with Terokkar Forest to explore first (instead of Zangarmarsh), mainly since Shattrath City is located in that region. Shattrath is the main city in Outlands, the only one with a bank, as well as having portals (one way) to every major city in Azeroth. This seems like a good place to set my hearth to. Central enough that flying will never cost too much, while portals back to Azeroth has many gains (no more money for you, Mr. Mage).

An interesting feature of the new city is split factions. There is the main faction, for which doing any quest within the city will gain rep, while there is also the Aldor and Scryer factions. These two factions both love the city but detest each other. You must pick which faction to join with. Doing quests for this faction will increase your rep for them, but lower your rep with the other faction. The faction rewards are different, so it is worth checking out all options before deciding who to form an alliance with. WoWWiki has a good comparison guide showing the items side by side and helping you to choose which faction best suits your class/playing style. I went with the Scryer.

With the discovery of a new area comes new rep to gain, areas to explore and mobs to grind on. Until next time, brave adventurers, remember, the only good Hellboar is a dead Hellboar.

Ding!

Yay, all done. lvl 62. After much questing and mob killing (I think the hellboars are glad to be rid of me), I finally hit 62. Now the big question, how on Azeroth am I going to get back to a trainer without long travel times. Pay a mage for a port (average 2.5g on my server)? My hearth is already set to Thrallmar, so I believe the best plan is to try and get a port on the cheap, or fly back to the Dark Portal, go through it and fly there from Stonard, Swamp of Sorrows. Then, once I'm all done in Azeroth, hearth back to Outlands, to continue my never-ending desire to remove all hellboars from the face of the planet... or just if my quest log requires it.

One down, nine to go.

After much questing and, surprisingly, little grinding, I hit lvl 61. This happened some time on saturday, about 2 days ago. I have replaced many more of my blues with greens, while even managing to get myself an outland blue, yay. To me, there seems to be less grinding needed to complete quests, with only once thinking that a drop rate was too low (felblood from the terrorfiends in Pools of Aggonar). Discovered some new herbs with great buffs (30 health per 5 just for picking some Dreaming Glory).

The incentive to participate in world PvP is also good, with marks being given for the main towns upon completion of a repeatable quest. These marks are redeemed from reasonable rewards from the main town in Hellfire Peninsula. I had a brief look at the next area, Zangarmarsh, which also looks quite interesting and pretty. The unofficial true on my server also seems to be over, with PvP happening on a more regular basis away from the world PvP areas.

I have yet to try out the new battleground, I think I will wait for a few more levels before trying it out. Then there may be more people doing it, plus I will be more able to hold my own. Oh, be careful with quest items. One quest requires you to go to Cenarion Refuge in Zangarmarsh to get some wine to seduce a Blood Elf. I did that, but on the way back I accidentally drank the wine myself when trying to eat to regain health. That means a long trek back to get more. Bugger.

Still enjoying the quests, with enough variety to make the same old 'go here, kill x of that, collect y of these' quests seeming fresh. I'm sure that won't last, so I'm enjoying it while I can.

Another day, another 6 bars.

Also another few greens to replace some blues. Crazy, to think that it takes so long to level up. Nearly 500,000xp needed just for lvl 60-61. Imagine the experience needed for 69-70. Insane. By this time tomorrow (yay, the weekend) I should have hit lvl 61, hopefully I can reach lvl 62 by tomorrow evening, so I can see what new spells I can get. But having to back to Azeroth of spells and AH sucks. Nice way to keep Azeroth alive however, so, good job Blizzard.

And I'm off and racing.

There may already be a lvl 70, but I am 6 bars into lvl 60. The first three quest rewards (all green) replaced three of my blue items, including Soul Harvester, the lvl 50 Warlock quest reward. I cannot explain the feeling of walking through the dark portal to see the broken landscape of outland. Despite the overwhelming numbers of players in the one area, lag was playable for the most part, while the spawn rate on the mobs and quest items were surprisingly good. I only got attacked once (by a lvl 61 pallie, I won), despite the large number of allies around. Maybe everyone wanted to explore un-mollested, but I think it had to do with the shear number of players from both factions. No-one wanted to start an all out war that would last for days, since then no-one would be able to quest freely.

Just a few thoughts on my first encounter with The Burning Crusade, hope everyone is enjoying it as much as me.

Oh, and male Blood Elves are gay. Which I suppose fits well with them being pallies. I would know, I created one, now lvl 7.

It's here, now to play... almost.

It's 2:00pm, Wednesday 17th of January 2007. Not a big date in Australia, except for the legions of WoW fans. The first expansion, The Burning Crusade, was released at midnight. 14 hours I waited to get my copy (granted, alot was sleeping), since I didn't brave the midnight release. But Finally I have it, a copy glowing in the sun. I upgraded my account almost instantly... the only downside is that I'm still at work, will be until 5. So, after much waiting, I must wait more. But this is worse, I actually have a copy. It's only 3 hours, it's only 3 hour... still seems like an eternity.

Finally, a 60

Well, after much effort, more PvP and uncountable ganking, I am finally 60. A little under 19 days played (18d, 18h) and into my fourth 60 day gamecard. Was it worth it? Hell yeah. The fondest memories are of PvPing, WSG especially. The worst times were the 4 hour queues for pre-60 battlegrounds. Thank god (or maybe Blizzard) that they implemented the battlegroups. Now, just 3 days from The Burning Crusade, I can no longer be ganked, just engaged in PvP. For 3 days. Those three days will seem like forever.

World of Warcraft (WoW)

Here it is people, by not demand at all, popular or not, this is my adventures so far in WoW (already lvl 58 at this stage, so maybe a little hazy in the beginning).


I play a undead warlock on the Jubei'Thos Oceanic Realm. Despite what you may think, I didn't know about the ups or downs of any particular class before rolling a warlock, so I wasn't being cheap or anything, if i wanted to be cheap I'd have re-rolled a rogue. I chose a warlock because that seemed to be the class I would have the most fun playing. I have played Diablo 2 alot, got to level 77 as a necromancer (finished the game + expansion on all three difficulty levels), as well as finishing the game on normal difficulty on every other hero, but i enjoyed the necromancer the most. This is why i chose warlock, as it seemed the most similar to the necromancer.

If I hd the knowledge I have now, I would have an Orc warlock, simply for HammerTime. Best. Dance. Ever.

At time of posting we are 7 days from The Burning Cursade, so I am pushing to be level 60 before it arrives, which should happen.

More later, pst me if your on Jubei'Thos and want to chat or get help with lower level quests, especially warlock quests, more than happy to help, even if I can only point you in the right direction.