In Vermont there are at least a dozen small towns isolated due to flood waters, roads and bridges 100+ years old washed away in the torrents of the Otter, Deerfield, Ottaquechee, and White rivers. Three of the major “cities” in the southern end of the state are under several feet of water or totally inaccessible. Power lines are down, dams are under a lot of pressure and more water is on the way as the already saturated ground pours more water into the valleys of the Green Mountains where most people live. Towns on the southern end of the state are also issuing mandatory evacuations, boil water orders, and are expecting more trouble as Monday goes on.

Further north our State Capitol is currently being evacuated as the Marshfield Dam may have its flood gates open to alleviate the swelling reservoir behind it. If the dam fails it’ll be worse, emergency managers and the power company who owns the dam says, so we have to do what we can to save it. Dozens of schools are closed state wide, naturally though, the school I graduated from isn’t on the list.

I have a grandmother and two aunts and uncles down in Southern VT. Gramma is fine, not that she goes anywhere anyway, and still has power thankfully. Uncle D got trapped in the town of Willmington (which at 10am Sunday was isolated with all roads lading to it washed out) with the rest of the volunteer fire department and with Aunt L stuck at the hospital she works at. Uncle T and Aunt P had to be evacuated as the river rose and filled their town and outlying areas with 4+ feet of water, washing out bridges and roads. The water is still rising.

This spring we got hit, hard by floods and many roads and bridges are still not fully repaired. What worries me the most though is that all 4 routs to get to my parent’s house up in the mountains are all closed. I’m glad I went shopping with my mom, I know they have what they need. They still have power, more than can be said for 30,000+ other Vermonters. I work with my parents in our custom door business but if I can’t get there well I guess I get the day off.

Up here in Burlington there was a lot of wind, the rain turned main street’s big hill into a massive water slide but that was it. The worst is expected to happen today as the 90mi long Winooski river reaches and surpasses flood stage. Called the st police and they said stay out of my home town, half the roads are under water and most of the routs around those places are a mess… or the bridge is gone. All unnecessary travel is prohibited, the Governor asking people to ‘stay safe, stay dry, use common sense’ which surprisingly a lot of Vermonters have. So far only one fatality has been reported.

Irene may have spared most of us high winds and hurricane epicness but she left a f-ton of water and Vermont is trying hard to stay afloat. The long and short of it. We’re soggy, gunna get soggier and if you gotta go somewhere, you can’t get there from here.

So I promised I’d write more on the PVE aspects of 4.3 but we haven’t gotten a lot of info about it just yet. We have, however, seen two major posts about the other stuff… namely Transmogrification and Void Storage. It’s done some weird things on my server too…

You see a lot of people are stoked for the ability to make their gear look different and its prompted a massive rush to do old content for equipment. The theory is that you have to have the gear in order to change it. This was kind of confirmed by the post about the void storage, which implies it’s where you could store the items you’d use for the Transmogrification process. The Void storage itself is a set 80 slot storage space, which when items are stored at a price lose their enchants and gems as well as reset anything you’ve reforged.

You can take it back out again but it has a fee. The current charge they are thinking of putting down is like 300g per item. Bit steep in my opinion actually but in theory you won’t be pulling things back out. It serves as long time storage which could be useful. Not as awesome for roll players as previously thought but for gear sets you don’t use or things you wanna hang onto but don’t wanna have to abuse bank space for. I still think it will be worth it but it does point out strongly towards needing the equipment in order to change the look of things.

This has caused some slight insanity on a lot of servers. Namely the running of old content for drops. Now back on MG this happens all the time. Its an RP server, people want items to make costumes and such, so there’s a lot of pugging and gear grabbing. I never had too many positive experiences with gear pugs but it seems to be happening more and more even on a normal realm. A few folks, like the DKs in my guild, are frustrated with it mostly due to the fact that only in Wrath are their tier sets and cool looking armor. You can have any armor of the same class true but why look like a warrior or paladin when you’re a bad ass mo fo DK? Well I can think of reasons but that is besides the point.

We’ll see where this goes from here. Till then its back to argument for stuff that doesn’t matter in current content. Vanity apparently matters more than friends and being cool with one another.

Wandering around Wow Insider this morning just to catch up on all the offline info I’ve been half ignoring over the last… year? Been that long already? Huh… Anywho I found a post about patch 4.3. You can find the post here [link] and I wanted to take a moment to really have a think about the implications of it. Here’s the short of it:

• -Deathwing has a raid! Before most of us have even really cut our teeth on Firelands too…
• -New 5 man dungeons of about ZA/ZG difficulty
• -Cosmetic Armor Skins…bwa?
• -Armor Closet – store all your old armor to free up bank space.

The last patch included a few little things… like a few new hair styles, dailies, new raid all that fun stuff. What sorta bugs me a bit is there was a massive build up for Firelands, including a series of quests to kick it off, before we got started. I don’t know what the timeline is for 4.3 but it seems a little fast and we’ve not gotten a lot about it so far. There’s a little bit of a hint from the article Wow Insider sites for most of it’s info, about AQ (Ok so I just saw it briefly and it was a word I understood), which baring the two dungeons in Wrath and the raid no one got to see during current content we haven’t seen a lot of. We know its there and we might have dallied but nothing serious for the majority of players around these days.

So follow me behind the cut for further discussion on the quality of life stuff… I’ll save the PVE for another post over the weekend.

Still with me? Good.

Lets get started with the quality of life stuff first; namely the Armor Closet and the Armor Skins.

One day I’ll fit into those skinny jeans…

If you have been playing for a while, or like me hung out on an RP server, or heck found a piece of gear you had FOREVER and didn’t want to part with where does it all end up? In your bank of course, along with all your tabards, rare items, holiday junk, keys since the key ring is gone, BOA items and other things you can’t just mail off to a bank alt or pop in your bank tab. This could be very big for collectors, like the pet tab and mount tab was, and would be a great improvement for a lot of people.

So the plus sides include more bank space, you don’t have to delete or DE your old stuff just to make space for new things, you could store gear for alts that they can’t use just yet, all that stuff that doesn’t disenchant OR vend… yeah this is a good thing.

I’d like to know if things like badges for tier tokens would count as armor or if you had to actually go get it? I know a few of us might have some of those lying around collecting dust for that dungeon you never went back to. I also wonder if it is accessible remotely or if you have to go to the banker. With Guild Mobil banking getting things is very convenient. I know Goblins can access their bank on a whim, for a minute… every half hour… but that availability is still awesome and this feature could benefit from something similar. I’m sure it would cost and be limited but it would still be great.

A lot of great things happened when Blizz added the Outfitter-esque feature to the basic UI but a lot of us are still lugging around gear and don’t wanna get rid of all of it so this feature will be another vast improvement. I also wonder if weapons count or just armor. I have a bag and a half of weapons I do not want to part with that are sucking up space. Another question brought up is with all this space available now that our RP stuff or old armor sets are tucked away…what do we do with it? Things we’ll have to question when it goes live or is at least in the PTR.

Every girl’s crazy ‘bout a sharp dressed man

On the topic of armor… murglegurglergle… I mean armor re-skins. I don’t know about you guys out there… but our last few armor sets have, looks wise, left a bit to be desired. The ability to change the looks to say a dungeon set we liked better or maybe that tier of gear we never got could be very awesome. It could also just be a bit of a flop… if not as an actual component of the game but in the social sense. A lot of people recognize where you are in progression not to mention what class you are by the gear you are in. Case and point: Burning Crusade.

In BC back on Moon Guard you could walk through Shattrath (maybe other people could I slogged through lag for 20 minutes from Aldor inn to the FP) and just by looking in the vicinity of a mail box know where someone was progression wise by what they had. The warlock t4, the void walker face, was recognizable. The purple power ranger gear for Paladins was a cinch too. Mage t5 with its Tesla-coil head and shoulder set up, dead giveaway.

Now I know they said you can’t make plate gear look anything other than plate as an example but if you hate say the murlock gear but LOVED tier 8 with its gas mask… and you change it… well they might know you’re a hunter but people might be hella confused. The distinctive look of each gear set’s look really is a focal point for people. I’ve been ousted from pugs for a hodge-podge of gear before and no one bothered to inspect me… they knew by looking at me. Also don’t tell me you haven’t looked at a pugger, recognized something from forever ago and all the AH gear they slapped on to get into ZG queue, and had a light inner panic attack or rolled your eyes. It even happens in low level dungeons! Gear may not make the man but how you look tells a lot about you.

This does take a big step towards the cosmetic appeal of the game. In a lot of other MMOs, Rift and Star Trek Online for example, you can customize your equipment in a lot of ways. Rift allows you to purchase dyes and even craft your own to change the look of your gear. STO allows you to create entire new looks you can toggle through, from gear to makeup and hair. A lot of the appeal of games can be how individual you can make your characters look. And I may just be a bit of a girl to mention this but dress up is a lot of fun. If I can combine a look I like with a tier bonus that kicks ass… all the better.

Any thoughts from the peanut gallery?

-Ali

Coming up! 4.3 Raid and Dungeon talk.

Things like moving, new roommates, deaths in the family, new expansions, job troubles… you know life and such just tends to gum up the works.

I plan to post weekly on Wednesdays maybe a special feature on weekends if I have the time.

Things to expect are topics and posts about the following list of ideas:

So you call yourself a Dungeoneer? – Hunter tips for the Cata dungeons and how to survive them

The Daily Grind: Looks at the daily quests, easy ways to do them, and why you might want to care.

Running with the Pack: Updates and progress as well as observations about my raid team, Silver Pack, and where we’re going… and where we aren’t. Occasional camio and comparisons with the other raid team in my guild.

Shooting into the Darkness: The joys of being a hunter in cataclysm from Alihandra’s point of view.

Dude where is Dawnqui?: A look at things on the Horde side since I play mostly Alliance.

On the Prowl: Postcards and screen shots from a Druid’s point of view.

Fire and Ice: Lame title is lame… stories, anecdotes and tales from my little lock and project:Mage.

Powder Keg: Progress and shenanigans from my WHU Hunter Kaywinnet!

Power Word Project: Leveling a Priest, the squishy of squishy, and why a hunter ought to care.

I also plan to do some work with you folks out there *taps screen* Yeah you guys. From art and story features to stories, and maybe even a contest over the in game holidays.

Anyway that’s the plan and I am sticking to it… if I don’t I’ll end up going batty.

See you around!

-Ali

[Excerpts from a Worgen Adventurer’s Journal]

… I never thought that behind its diminutive Wall Verian Wrynn could see so little of his kingdom but the man must just be that blind. If the ills of Elwynn Forrest aren’t apparent to him then it comes as no shock to me what has befallen the once fertile lands of Westfall. Upon my arrival there I found a grizzly scene. A family and their horse murdered.  Investigators from Stormwind surrounded the area and I chose to offer my assistance in the matter.  If the changed landscape and the environmental upheaval are anything to show what has changed physically about the area it equally reflects the change in the inhabitants.

While interviewing some locals about the scene, and parting with some money, I gained some insight not only to the case but the problems facing the people of this last kingdom of humans.

A homeless woman, once a resident of Stormwind herself, had this to say.

“Listen, Pal. I don’t want any trouble, ok? I didn’t see who murdered ‘em, but I sure heard it! Lot of yelling, Human voices… you dig? Now get out of here before I change my mind about beating you up and takin’ your shoes.”

The next person I apparently bothered informed me he would tell nothing and attacked with a broken bottle. After beating him unconscious I felt I ought to have just dispatched the poor man. Children – swarming like a pack of street dogs – fell upon his body and stripped it of anything valuable before I could so much as get out of the way. These packs of ragamuffins are a lot tougher than they look. I will have to be wary as to where I sleep tonight.

… Got word from a Transient I spoke to this evening. Stopped at my camp and I shared a meal and got some further insight to the case. This is what he had to say:

“I didn’t see who killed ‘em, bub, but I got a Whiff. Smelled rich, kinda like you. Damn shame too. Furlbrows were a fixture around here. Nice people, always willing to share a meal or a patch of dirt.”

I don’t know how ‘rich’ a druid of the scythe smells to people but apparently my meager savings from Gilneas is a King’s random here. I’ll try again in the morning. It’s difficult to write in a tree.

Westfall Day 2

… and I’ll never sleep near Gnolles again. Just a bad idea. This morning’s investigation hasn’t gone any better. Apparently everyone else woke up with an arrow in the arse like I did. The first transient I came across not only disliked how close I was to his mine cart but had a lot to say about who might have truly killed the Furlbrows.

“Who killed the Furlbrows? I’ll tell you who killed the Furlbrows: King Verian Wrynn, that’s who! And he’s killin’ the rest of us too. One bum at a time. The only thing I can tell you is that I saw some gnolls leavin’ the place a few hours before the law arrived.”

A gent who identified himself as a ‘West Planes Drifter’ came up to me asking for a hand out before telling me his story…

“Between you, me, and the tree, murlocs killed the Furlbrows. Yep, saw ‘em with my own two eyes. Think they’d been casin’ the joint for days, maybe months. They left in a hurry once they got wind of “Johnny Law” and the idiot brigade over there…”

I don’t know how much credit I put in murlocs killing the family, and from personal experience Gnolls seem to be more looters but anyone else I’ve talked to is either tight lipped or being picked over by a pack of kids right about now. I’ll take my findings back to Investigator Lane shortly.

Westfall Day 4

… Traveled south towards Sentinel Hill this morning. Came across a sign ‘No transients’ was the short version of its notice along with a line of armed guards protecting the perimeter of the area from the homeless. These soldiers have recently returned from the expedition in Northrend to deal with the Scourge and it appears that the campaign has left them scared but also a bit more well off. The general consensus around the area is that unless you were a soldier or part of their support you spent all your coin and lost your land. The Hill is much more fortified than anywhere else in the area. Honestly if they just put the people begging at their gates to work this wouldn’t be a problem. There is a worgen – Ripsnarl – in stocks at the base of the tower. He apparently doesn’t want to talk very much even to one of his own kind.

A girl named Hope in the tower asked if I’d distribute some stew to the people at the gates. She’s a kind young woman and if I had the means to I most likely would have before I even arrived.

Westfall day 9

The investigation continues and is pointing disturbingly in the direction of a group of people once known as the Defias Brotherhood. Formerly the Stonemasons, they rebuilt Stormwind after the Orcs burnt it to the ground. They went rogue following a denial of payment by the Stormwind Nobles. They ran a large operation spanning from the fields of Northshire, the Raven Hill Cemetery and occupied the town of Moonbrook. From what I’ve managed to get out of some of the vendors who are permitted on the Hill they had a plot to send a ship to destroy Stormwind all over again. The area known as the Deadmines was their base of operation yet now it’s just full of homeless and small time crooks. I was sent in to look at some of the propaganda and see what information I could gain from Moonbrook. I prowled around and managed to go mostly unnoticed. Those who did notice me won’t be reporting to anyone to tell anyway.

[Found in the journal are pieces of paper: a pamphlet, a poster, and an article from a news paper sewn to the pages of the journal.]

-Mysterious Propaganda-

“The hour of our redemption draws ever closer, brothers and sisters! Tonight we shall shed the shell of our former lives and be reborn as heroes! –V”

-Informational Pamphlet-

“Give a man a tabard and he will pledge his undying loyalty to your cause. These men are now government sheep who care not for your hardships. They will wear the tabard of their leader and care only for what he desires. –V”

-Pages of the Moonbrook Times-

“Group of homeless Samaritans brutally murdered behind Furlbrow farm” [Note at side of page] In truth they were bandits who were talking about being hired by a mysterious woman and speaking of her cause. It was self defense.

“Witnesses state that the four men killed at the Furlbrow’s farm were on their way to delivering dirt piles to a shelter on the east coast when attacked. Jimb “Candles” McHannigan, an eyewitness on the scene, had this to say. “Yep, I saw the whole thing go down with my own two eyes. Was a male druid. He looked like he may have been on something [Note: sleep deprivation…bloody gnolls]. He slaughtered the poor bums in broad daylight [Note: it was midnight!] while shouting obscenities and proclaiming his love for Stormwind and King Verian Wrynn. [Note: I was in cat form…] Think he may have killed Lou immediately afterwards I was too [page too torn to read] see.”

As for Two Shoe Lou he was killed shortly after I dealt with the bandits before I returned, even if it was just around the corner. Besides if I killed him there’d be a lot more claw marks. Not a single stab wound.

-Page from a secret journal-

“I can hardly believe it. We’ve endured this torment for four long years but soon it will be over. The Brotherhood will be reborn and we will then wash across the land as a flood to cleanse it of its filth and corruption.”

Going to stay in town tonight, hidden of course, to see what happens. There are a lot of people gathering.

…woken from an impromptu cat nap by the sound of a crowd talking. I prowled outside and hid on a roof to listen to a hooded woman speak atop a hay cart.

“Gather brothers and sisters! Come, all, and listen! Brothers. Sisters. we are ABANDONED. The orphaned children of Stormwind. Our ‘king’ sits atop his throne of gold and shrugs at our plight! Meanwhile, our children die of starvation on these very streets! HIS war, not ours, cost us our livelihood. WE paid for the Alliance’s victories with our blood and the blood of our loved ones! The time has come, brothers and sisters, to stop this injustice! The government of Stormwind, of the ALLIANCE, must be made accountable for what it has done to us! Today, we are reborn! Today we take a stand as men and women, not nameless, faceless numbers!”

The woman held aloft a tattered bandit mask, like a flag, colored red with darker spots. I think it was blood.

I must report back…

[The rest… well you’ll have to just play through Westfall to learn the rest.]

If you really care to hear more, check the content after the cut. Otherwise here’s this week’s list that is well already almost done.

.

The reason over said guilt is that I might have to pass up a family event to make it to Blizzcon. While part of me feels super guilty and ought to be asking if he wants some A1 to go with that ankle part of me also is thinking that the side of the fam that I’ll be missing well… its too much to keep up with them. And I live near most of them… you know burn out.

Besides avoiding Canada saves me somewhere around $1500. A trip I can handle on a much smaller budget. Not to mention the whole going across boarders thing. This brings my trip down a lot and much shorter time. That’s ok though. I think I can live with it This could also be a great opportunity for me to learn more about what it takes to be part of the industry and from today’s emotional roller-coaster of emotions and plans well a good reality check for lil’ ol me.

While working on a Worgen Druid in the Beta I came across this random book… A Faded Journal. Now this is most certainly a lovely chunk of Lore and I thought I ought to share it with folks. It might change, it may go away… but it’s still rather cool.

Read the Journal after a visit from Inconspicuous Bear

Day 1

“A druid’s gift is his freedom to embrace and explore all facets of nature”

Malfurion so often spoke these words. I was once foolish enough to believe that he truly lived by them. Yet while my shan’do spouted this freedom, he disgraced me and my fellow druids of the pack by banning our form. I can still recall with great clarity his angry tirades whenever he discovered us practicing in secret.

“The pack form cannot be controlled it will consume you, and endanger us all.”

The ignorance with which Malfurion passed judgment on us is infuriating. Does he not realize that the spirit of the wolf ancient, Goldrinn, is by nature’s grace within me and my pack brethren? We did not choose it, it chose us. To shun it would be to turn our backs on nature itself.

It only pains me that at a time like this, when our race is threatened by war with the vile satyr, Malfurion rejects us – the very druids who could turn the tide of battle in his favor.

It matters little now. Today my brethren and I will depart from night elf society forever and begin life anew in the wild. We will show our shan’do’s beliefs to be wrong and prove that Goldrinn’s spirit can in fact be controlled.

Day 7

Six nights have come and gone since we carved out our new homes in the heart of the forest. Our pack leader, Renthel, has taken charge over the community, and under his wise leadership I have at last found true freedom.

Each night we practice our form at the roots of a fallen tree where we have placed Goldrinn’s Fang. A thing of beauty it is… merely being in its presence seems to empower me. At times I wonder if the wolf ancient left this remnant of himself on the world as a gift to those who pursue his form.

These nightly sessions have filled me with renewed confidence in my ability to harness Goldrenn’s spirit. Although Malfurion so often spoke of its dangers, even now we are proving him to be wrong.

Day 12

There was an argument tonight. A seasoned druid named Thaldrus laid claim to leadership of the pack over Renthel, and both druids settled the dispute in pack form. They circled one another for what seemed an eternity, mouths foaming and fangs bared, until Thaldrus lunged at Renthel and pinned him to the ground.

Renthel honorably accepted his defeat and relinquished his leadership with no further violence. If only Malfurion could have witnessed the dignity with which Thaldrus and Renthel acted on this eve.

Day 23

Something strange has been happening of late. My brothers spend more and more time in pack form throughout the day. Many of them claim that it is a necessity to mastering the form, yet I feel that is not the sole reason.

An urge, primal in origin, grows inside of me. It is a desire that I can only sufficiently sate when I take on the pack form. I fear the others feel it too.

Day 28

Tonight, under the two moons, we ventured through the wild in pack form and felled three stags. So famished were my brethren and I that we simply ripped into the creatures, clawing and biting at each other while we feasted. Euphoria washed over me as I sank my teeth into the stag’s raw flesh. Even if I had been without an appetite, gorging on the creature would have satisfied me.

Day 38

First time out of pack form in seven nights. Live as a wolf like the others from one night to the next. Pack leader Thaldrus says night elf bodies are weak. All trust him. All follow him. If he saw me now, he would kill me.

Goldrinn’s spirit consuming us. Fighting it feels as wrong as giving in

Day 42

Still takes pack leader Thaldrus’ blood in my mouth.

Cannot recall details. Only remember Thaldrus taking Goldrinn’s Fang from fallen tree. Caught him dragging it into his den and…

<This part of the page is illegible due to blood stains>

Took two nights for Thaldrus to come out. We were waiting. Fangs and claws and rage. Tore him apart. Fur and flesh everywhere. Only gnawed bones afterward.

No leader now.

Day 52

Much has come to pass of late and I feel that at last I have regained a portion of my sanity. Five nights ago I left my den to discover that the other pack members were gathered around something, or as I soon discovered, someone. A night elf whose scent I recognized as Ralaar Fangfire, a druid of Malfurion’s ilk.

As one we encircled him, yet the intruder held his ground. I smelled not a hint of fear on him despite the fact that he remained in night elf form. His arrogance was quite infuriating.

Three of my enraged brothers charged Ralaar, and the newcomer took on the pack form and bested the challengers with little effort… yet he did not kill them.

In that instant I became aware of a difference between him and us. We had become savages… scared, lean and disheveled. Ralaar, however, was powerful, majestic, and still rife with Goldrinn’s essence.

When no others dared challenge him, Ralaar took on his night elf form and spoke. In a tirade that reminded me of Malfurion, he berated s for becoming mindless animals and squandering what he referred to as the purity of Goldrinn’s essence. Yet unlike my former shan’do, Ralaar also promised to teach us the true path to harnessing the wolf ancient’s spirit. I sensed tremendous rage in his voice tempered by a self control that I had somehow lost in recent weeks.

One by one we all left our pack forms. I can only guess what my brethren, like I, felt a strange affinity to this newcomer, as if he were a messenger of Goldrinn himself.

Ralaar had since begun teaching us as he had promised, though he no longer answers to his given name.

Rather, he now refers to himself simply as Alpha Prime

-Gaedrin Moonfang, Druid of the Pack

Finally someone gets it!

Recently my guild, Wyrmfoe, got itself into the Cataclysm Beta. I’ve been in about a week and met up with a few interesting issues but it is Beta, if it isn’t broke it will be.

I wanted to start off with an overview of the new Cata starting zone Vas’jir. The area is for 80 to 83 and takes place almost entirely under water. At the center of the lore in the area are three major factions – The Earthen Ring, The Naga and the Minions of the Old Gods. The zone takes place fully under water and features some wonderful new quest designs, beautiful zones, more lore than you can fit in a tuna can, and for us hunters sweet new creatures to tame… or wish we could tame anyway.

So grab your diving helmet and take the plunge behind the cut.

Your adventure starts in Stormwind, in the new and improved Trade District at the Hero’s Board. Yep… there is a big ass board with potential jobs waiting for you to take a gander. A Hero’s Call: Vas’jir will send you down to the harbor and begin a rather unique experience – A fully scripted and voice acted cut scene that takes you to the new zone. The event is timed so you can walk up to the soldiers talking, them lining up… it feels very immersive and its rather awesome so I’d suggest giving it a shot when this goes live. The voices are varied and new, the scene is hilarious and awesome and well you just have to do it. It’s a lot better than your average ‘Hello Hero go talk to this guy further in the zone’ and start questing. You really feel a part of the action which is a great step forward.

You might wonder if you’ll be running for a bubbler or making breathing pots to take up space in your bags but this isn’t the case. The first quest you get is to gather reagents to earn a buff called ‘Sea Legs’. This allows you to breath under water and if you are walking along the ocean floor you move at 60% speed – Mount speed. You look like you’re running on the moon but it beats swimming to the surface.

If you have an issue swimming… don’t go here unless you need to find the dungeon. I’ll confess to playing Star Trek Online for a little while and well it’s a 3D environment so learning the WoW controls for such movement isn’t too bad. My depth perception sucks but if my shots light up to fire whatever made them do so is itching to be shot. I’d suggest practicing swimming or better yet practice on your flying mount in Northrend or Outland. The same mechanics you use there apply to movement in Vas’jir. I know this entire zone is going to have bones to pick with a lot of people. I’m already seeing it in game and on the forums but seriously it isn’t that bad. Just need to work on that spatial awareness and when in doubt stand on the ground.

The first chunk of quests involves acclimating to your new environment, finding fellow alliance NPCs and surviving in the briny depths with the Naga trying to kidnap you at every other backstroke. You also get a new vehicle quest down there at Shallow’s End which in the end gives you a sea mount – the Abyssal Sea Horse. This quest is easy if you can follow gigantic instructions in the middle of your screen. The mount only works in the zone and underwater but comes in very handy. Several quests actually let you do them while mounted on the beasty as well which is very nice. Other quests there involve battling to the death with Gnaws (the quest is even called Dun-nant Dun-nant given by everyone’s favorite ‘troll’ Budd ), riding sharks and sea turtles and of course fighting other players to kill some mobs that only spawn in one spot on the whole map. The last one isn’t as fun and believe me I’ve mentioned it several times in the suggestion tool when it works.

Each questing hub (read cave) has dry land to stand on and usually an underwater flight point. These flight points do not coincide with the two flight points on the surface. The shortest flight by the way is out of Ironforge as it is the closet city according to the flight paths to the area off the coast of the Eastern Kingdoms. Each of these hub caves have big yellow, purple and white tube worms around the mouth of the cave and further into the quests they have the Argent Tournament Big Ass Flags posted so you know which one is Alliance and Horde. There are also submarines to each of these later on caves and the Gnomish one screams Jules Vern. If that’s not enough… there are giant squid and monstrous tentacles all over the place later in the zone.

Quest Highlight: Attunement to the Battlemaiden

About mid way along the very directed quest lines is a discovery quest. You find on the ocean floor a broken trident and a Farseer of the Earthen Ring asks you to attune to it and the previous owner. This chain allows you to delve into the past of the Naga and their battle against the Kavdir in their very city. Each encounter allows you to access more abilities, learn more about the area and the current state of affairs for the Naga and the presence of some of Azeroth’s most gruesome creatures… and I don’t mean the Undersea Vikings. This chain was a lot of fun to do and reminds me of the quest chain in Icecrown where you get to be Arthas for a few of his most memorable battles on his way to becoming the Lich King… including fighting Illidan. (PST… go find it!  )

3am Fun: Return to the Surface

Along the way before you discover the last main quest hub (haven’t found a new one in beta yet the quest I need to finish is borked) you get a set of rocket boots to shoot you to the surface from the sea floor. Things to keep in mind…

-Look up first before you use it!

-Avoid potentially landing on anything (see #1)

-Set your view distance to max

-Que up Elton John’s Rocket Man

Case and Point… Rocket Elf

Quest Giver: Humphrey Digsong

This poor dwarf has buoyancy issues… and if you start talking to him BOY Howdy is he happy to share them with you. Feel free to pause the vid to read it all its entertaining. They certainly haven’t spared much on the depth of the zone. (yar har pun)

Sorry for the lower quality, Fraps doesn’t want to not lag and give me better fps

Impression:

This zone is beautiful, dynamic and very new. The breadcrumb quest to get there makes you feel a lot more of a part of things than the simple ‘go talk to this guy after getting on the boat/thru the portal’. From that point on its one thing after another with a great breadth of quests, lore, adventure and fun right to the end. I really can’t get over how beautiful this zone is… I can’t. So far my favorite little sub-zone is the Coldlight Chasm. It’s just gorgeous. The quests clearly point you along the way and phasing is done wonderfully every step of the way. All in all I look forward to questing here when it goes live, not just because I know everything now but because it was just a total blast. The only issue I have so far is the spawn rates of things and of course the stupid stupid Ophidiophobia quest. Also do make note that the quests are very linear… you start the first one and it points you everywhere you need to go. You can’t really skip many of them here or you won’t get pointed to the next destination. This might be an issue might not be; however, it will follow a great story and feels quite epic.

Also watch out for Whale Sharks… meet the new Fel Reavers of the sea. The Cynical Brit tried to take them out and well…

Yeah… not an easy basket of fish and chips…

I hope to have more up for you as soon as Beta stops crashing on me when I log in… rather annoying.

Have a good week!

Even in Nature there are PUGs

Howdy All,

Its been an interesting month or so in the life of me and while I don’t want to bore you too much with all of it I do have some nice pictures to share after the cut below. A quick run down of recent events that I may or may not elaborate on more in the future are as follows…

• Finally killed that jerk Arthas! It was a lot of fun, very frustrating and it really kind of ended a chapter in my WoW career. I finished an expansion, a part of the game, before the new one came out. And it was hard, challenging, and so totally worth it.
• On a similar note we went in and took out AQ 40 which knocked off my second to last dungeon achievement. All the classic dungeons are now done and the only one I am missing is Sun Well.
• In regards to Sun Well I had two chances to go out and knock it out but… well its the tail end of summer and I’m trying to get some of my summer fun in before I spend the next 10 months indoors. I live in New England when summer is over its just snow and rain until summer again. This included my annual trip to Maine to commune with nature and the bottle of several rum bottles.
• A big congrats to Wyrmfoe for winning 10 spots in beta thanks to a witty and smart entry written by Frostheim of the WHU. 10 members of the guild will be going in as a group to test out the Guild system and various other fun things… like raids and non pug dungeon groups. It will be a lot of fun I’m sure when we all get in there and start breaking things.
• Expect some more posts more frequently. Now that things have calmed down a bit on my end I expect to have more time to write. This includes stuff I’m doing in game, maybe some writing, screen shots and of course the care and feeding of Sea Horses…

Yeah… you heard me… Sea… Horses…

I think I shall name him Nemo

Beta here I come!

First though, those promised pictures.

I thought he'd be green...

A little shimmy n shake for good luck

No king rules forever

And now some non – wow related pictures. The area I go camping in could probably be compared to Grizzly Hills or the Hinterlands. Hope you enjoy.