Reins of the Riding Talbuk

Here's another tip post but this one is for my second favorite mount in the game (besides the Spectral Tiger): The Talbuk! First, you need to be exalted with Kurenai (Alliance) and Mag'har (Horde). You also need to be at least level 60. However, doing this at level 60 is almost impossible without some help. Ideally, you should wait until level 65.

There's three ways to gain rep with your faction. The first is to complete all the quests with that faction. Secondly, you need to grind out ogres... lots of ogres. My choice is the Warmaul clan's ogres. They have a 35% chance to drop Netherweave Cloth and a 33% chance to drop Obsidian Warbeads. These beads will be your life-saver! If you turn in 10 of these beads, you will get 500 rep.

There's four different colors to choose from: Cobalt, Tan, White and Silver. I picked the Cobalt one. There's also a black one you can get by doing the Halaa PVP. There's the normal 60% mount and the epic 100%. There is no difference in speed from your normal mounts back in Azeroth.

To be honest, it is the easiest faction grind in Outland and the reward is pretty cool. Just buy some food, some water, and spend a few days over in the beautiful zone, Nagrand.

Hunter Pets: Gotta Catch 'Em All?

[Many people have already beaten the topic of the Ghost Wolf Hotfix to death but when Hunters interrupt my Trade channel while I'm trying to post my enchanting job, then I have a problem.]

The recent Ghost Wolf hotfix has stirred up the WoW community for the last few weeks. Mostly, the Hunters have been complaining that now they've waisted their time leveling up, gearing up, etc, to get this one pet. I understand the bragging rights to show this pet off in towns is/was great but there's really no value other than that.

The Ghost Wolf is part of the Wolf family of pets. My understanding is that there's no difference other than appearance with that one particular wolf. Therefore, you don't gain anything other than bragging rights. With me, I'm very content with my polar bear pet [RP reasons] and soon to get a kitty.

When I see a Ghost Wolf in the world, I say to myself "Oh, that's nice" and move on with my day. If you hunters want me to spend 1 second of the day thinking about you and your "uberness", then I suggest you seek help. If you want people to awe over your uberness, then go pick up some other rare items: Bear Mount out of Zul'Aman, full Season 3 gear, or that beeping beep beep beep Azure Whelpling non-combat pet!

(Yeah, I'm still grinding that one out...)

Blizzard can do what they wish. Just because a Blue stated that it wasn't going to change, doesn't mean anything. If his/her boss says take away, they're going to save their job and take it away. What probably happened was, the Blue's boss said it's okay to tell them that they're not going to take it away. Then, the Blue's boss' boss might have a different opinion and tell them to take it away.

Look, I'm sorry that you've wasted your money on gear that you might not ever use anymore. However, to those people who have said that they've wasted their time leveling a hunter or to go as far as canceling their account, I have no remorse. In fact, go ahead and cancel your account because the other 9.99 million people who play the game will enjoy one less player flooding the forums and Trade Chat with complaints.

Rant: Quest Object Ninjas

I'm going to blow off some steam now from the last few days. I've played Alliance for the last 2 years and rarely do I ever experience ninjas stealing quest items. However, over the last few days, I've experienced at least 8 quest ninjas!

For those who do not know who quest ninjas are, they are players who run in and take your glowing piece of paper or plant while you're fighting right next to it or are eating by it.

Maybe it is a Horde thing. Maybe it's the people who play on the Blood Furnace server. I have no idea. I've rarely had this experience on Earthen Ring (a handful of times over the years) but I /spit on anyone who does this. It is just not fair (or ethical for that matter) to see someone fighting mob/mobs next to a quest object and you just run in and steal the item. I had this happen to me today in Ghostlands: I'm fighting the Night Elves trying to get three pieces of paper. This low level pulls 4-6 elves towards me (trying to run away maybe?) and dies. I now somehow gain aggro while trying to pick up the paper. Now, I die, and some other person watches me die then takes the quest item. I understand that if I'm dead then you can take the item but he could have helped and both of us wouldn't have died.

I've counted it up. 8 times in two days playing my Blood Elf Mage. All of them are different people. As I stated: It could just be the Blood Furnace server. It could just be PVP servers in general. I guess I'm just asking people to be more courteous to other players and stop being so selfish!

"Do onto others as you would yourself."

Hi. I'm Aticus and I'm a Switcher

Some friends of mine have decided to roll one Horde character on another server. Talk about being random. I was somehow dragged into this. I would rather be leveling my Priest but I figured that it can't hurt to try it out. We all rolled Blood Elves.

Wait wait wait. Hold on a moment. What?!

For those who don't know... I LOATH Blood Elves. To my core. For some reason, ever since they implemented BE's into the game, I've always been ghanked by them in Battlegrounds. Not just one but two or three at a time. I have all BE's on "Kill On Sight".

But in any case, I sucked it up and rolled a BE Mage cause I did not want to miss out on any of the new quests from BC. And so a Mage, Paladin, Priest and Rouge all set out on an adventure to a complete opposite world. I have to admit, it was different and a real shock. It is like I just purchased a new game. The quests are great, simple, and self-explanatory.

The true awe is the landscape. It is some of the most beautiful buildings and lands I have seen in the game. It doesn't beat Nagrand's beauty but it sure it special. Everything is very bright which sort of misdirects the true scenario concerning the BE's situation about their addiction to Magic. Murder's Row is more of the scene I thought Silvermoon would be like.

The true test will come once we experience contested zones (we rolled on a PVP server instead of our normal RP server Earthen Ring). I don't know how I will react to fighting the Alliance. Even General Chat is pretty rough about how everyone hates the Alliance. It's just weird to me. I have always been bipartison concerning the Horde. I will /wave as I run by them (Not BE's though ;-) ), and will only fight if attacked. Whenever an Alliance player is corpse camping a Horde, I will always ask that player to stop. Usually I get called a Horde lover and laughed at but a thanks for them Horde player always eases me.

It should be a fun experiment but I will still play Alliance at my home on Earthen Ring.

The Hunt for an Azure Whelpling

Of all the non-combat pets I decided to get, I had to pick the rarest one... /epic fail. Last week, I took my Paladin out to go and farm the Azure Whelpling (cause Earthen Ring's AH price is around 350-550g). Little did I know that it is a 1:1500 ratio (give or take a few hundred). Most have said that you are 99% guaranteed to get one if you kill 2000.

In any case, the mobs are level 50-54 elites. For you Paladin's out there, put on Cold Resistance aura! At level 70, you will rarely get hit with any frost attack. I never have to heal myself and if I do, it's a Flash. Next, make sure you have a good mana pool or bring a lot of water. I've run through over 100 purified dren drinks and that is trying to preserve mana. I can kill about 7-10 in between drinks. What I've done is set up a guy in any Outland inn to buy and mail out water if you run out.

If anyone wants to start enchanting from 150-300, this is the place to farm for greens. I've gained at least 70g in disenchanting materials. I am now set up from 225-275 (minimum). Also, each mob drops about 5-25s which adds up. I've farmed about 150g in just cash drops.

Without a real counter, I would guess I've killed over 1,000. Numerous greens, one blue, 150g but still no Azure Whelpling. I'm not giving up yet though! Once I get it, you'll know ;-)

Rave: Blizzard Downloads and Copytrans

As my previous post said, my laptop died on me. I did an overnight defrag, rebooted and a piece of my raid was deleted. In other words, I had to do a system recovery. I lost everything (band songs, videos, pictures, notes, etc) but I was able to get my music off my iPod thanks to the third party program Copytrans. Well worth the $20 price tag! I was able to one click my music back on my computer without losing a single file.

Now, back to World of Warcraft. I dug out my WoW CDs and ran the install. The problem I had though was that I downloaded the Burning Crusade from Blizzard instead of buying it. The worst part was the CD key was on the laptop [when it crashed] as a HTML file. My luck turned when I went onto Blizzard's site. I was able to download the client and install the Burning Crusade without any problems!

Props to you Blizzard for aiding your customers with an easy install.

I should return with more posts within the next few days. Once this all settles down and I start playing again.

Error Laptop Failure

My laptop died on me yesterday and thus, I will not be able to post until it is fixed. Hopefully I will get windows installed tomorrow. I'll post by the end of the weekend.

Fallen Gamers.

Usually, I'll post every 2-3 days, but WoW Insider had a post today which caught my attention. You can view it here first before reading on.

Whenever we know someone who has past away, it's very difficult to understand how we feel or what we should do. I too have lost a fellow gamer a very long time ago. She was killed by a drunk driver. The close group of us all came to Connecticut to the wake. It was bitter-sweet because she brought us all together for the first time even though it was somber event...

A suggestion I had was to place a memorial in Stormwind City and Orgrimmar. Make it a book, a stone slab, or a special room devoted to our fallen gamers. Put their character name, real name (if given permission), favorite zone, DoB/DoD, and maybe a little phrase they used to say or quote.

This may sound harsh but I don't think they should be putting in NPCs for our fallen gamers. There's 9 million players out there, maybe 50 of them pass away each year. It may not sound like much but that is a lot of NPCs to create...

This is why I believe that a memorial is a better idea. We don't make statues for every fallen soldier. We put their name on a wall and that, in my eyes, is honorable. Please Blizzard, I really want to see this memorial.

So You're Thinking About Getting A Flying Mount?

After a year of the Burning Crusade, I have finally gathered enough gold to get my Flying Mount! I was a little sceptical at first. 1,000 gold just to be able to fly around in Outland? And that is for the slow mount... My friends told me not to get it. Their argument was that gold could be used better for professions. To give them props, they are right; it could have been used on my Tailoring/Enchanting Priest. However, after my last Nagrand farm run... the Flying Mount was worth it!

First of all, with Crusader Aura, it makes it fly faster and I never realized it until I threw it on. The 20% helps. Also, I never realized how much easier it is running through the zone. You have so many obstacles (such as lakes, rivers, and mountains) that get in your way which takes time to get around. One more great thing which I never thought of before getting the mount was all the trash mobs which I just fly right over! I wanted to go to Warmaul hill to summon Gurok. Having already had enough skulls, I just flew right over the mountain and found the summoning circle; bypassing all the ogres.

Another way Flying Mounts help is when you're trying to get your Mining and Herbalism up from 300-375. You can just put on your track, drop down to the node/flower, remount and move on. The last thing I have experienced is PVPing with the Flying Mount. It's very fun to fly around, see someone flagged and ghank them. What can I say? I need to have a little fun :-).

Now, this is going to cost you. Around 800 gold for the riding skill and 200 for the mount. For the casual gamer, that is a lot of money. Some people farm for Primals and others farm for Netherweave Cloth (my personal choice) to be able to afford the mount. Good news is, it is looking like we'll be able to use Flying Mounts in the later portions of Northrend. We've heard stories of blue dragon mounts. My guess would be that once you hit 80, you can automatically use your mount.

Podcasts: A Way To Increase Your Knowledge Of The Game

I've been home sick with a cold for the last few days and I started getting caught up with my Podcasts. Podcasting is one of the ways where I get my information on World Of Warcraft. After a few months of playing World Of Warcraft, I started to listen to Podcasts (WoW, Football, Gaming, etc). However, most of the Podcasts I listened to were about World Of Warcraft. I found it great that I can play a game and listen to people talk about the game at the same time. After I started listening, my views and overall look about the game increase greatly. I knew nothing about the game beside my Paladin and the zones I have already leveled in.

I have a few websites listed on this blog to my favorite Podcasts. But, I will give you a little review about my top 3 favorites.

3. WoW Insider Show

This Podcast is hosted by numerous people from WoWInsider.com. This Podcast is going to be the most informative Podcast about World Of Warcraft. They cover all topics about the game. The only problem with this Podcast that there is too much variety. I never really know what I am going to listen to. However, what they do produced is great and it will surely keep you informed about the game; every aspect of the game. Check them out over at www.WCRadio.com.

2. World Of Warcast

World Of Warcast is hosted by Starman and Renata. This Podcasts covers endgame raiding, news, mods of the cast and more. This was my first Podcast. As a newbie, it was difficult to follow along at first but I quickly gained some knowledge of what they were talking about. They go in depth about news and their experiences. Well worth it if you know a bit about endgame WoW. They update about once every 2 weeks. Check them out at www.worldofwarcast.com

1. The Instance

The Instance is hosted by Scott Johnson and Randy Deluxe. This Podcast gives you a sense of two regular guys just talking about WoW. Personally, this is my all time favorite Podcast. They talk about all sorts of topics about WoW including mid-level content, new content, classes, news, PVP tips, mods, and much more! My favorite part is when they answer questions from the public. They are very precise in their answers. Their segments include: News Of The Week, Rumors & Skuttlebutt, Drop Of The Week, and Town Cryer. Also included are Mean Gene's PVP Tip and Patrick's Mod Of The Week. They have a new Podcast up just about every week (about every 8 days according to Scott). Go check them out at www.theinstance.net.

One last thing... WoWRadio host many shows about World Of Warcraft. If you have the time, check them out too.

Here is a short list of other WoW Podcasts I listen/listened to:

Taverncast (retired from WoW)
Titan (Returning soon. WC Radio)
Casually Hardcore
Analog Hole Gaming (Mature Audiences)

I use iTunes for my Podcasts and I recommend it for everyone!

(I am not doing this for these podcasters. I do this on my own accord.)

Battleground Gear & Tips To Get Season 1 Gear For Your 70

Since before the Burning Crusade, I have played countless numbers of Battlegrounds (BGs). Grinding out my Grand Marshal (GM) gear was a pain and took many weeks of endless grinding. However, that gear helped me all the way through level 67 and even at 70, I still had a handful of GM gear that I was still using. I heard that Blizzard was making Season 1 (S1) Arena Gear available for honor in the BGs. I then started to grind out more honor for that gear.

Remember: I never group. No raids, no instances, no group quests (unless I can solo it).

When Patch 2.3 hit the live realms, I already had enough marks and honor to get 4 out of 5 pieces of S1. Instantly, I noticed a huge difference! It almost doubled my health and mana, my healing skyrocketed and my spell damage increased slightly. I never knew how grand Resilience can help you in PVP. I played some more to finish the S1 set and also the Vindicator's Boots.

After all of that, I have three words to say: Well worth it!

Now, how should you go about grinding out your S1 gear? First and foremost, you should get some background of the BGs themselves. You're going to need to play all of the BGs to gain the marks cost. Here are some websites if you never entered into a BG before:

Alterac Valley
Warsong Gulch
Arathi Basin
Eye of the Storm

On a side note, WOWWiki is my number 1 resource for WOW Info. If I have any questions about an item, a mod, or zone, WOWWiki is where I go. Highly recommended!

So, now you know what you need to do to play these BGs. Figuring you're 70 (or late 60s), you should head over to your Champions' Hall (Alliance) or Hall Of Legends (Horde) and write down how much honor and marks you will need in total to purchase your gear. You might get shocked by the total but that's the fun of the PVP grind... Well, not really but try to stay happy about it.

The best way to get honor is to grind out in Alterac Valley (AV). You can gain an easy 300 honor per 20 minutes. If you win, it is about 450 honor. Also, a little trick I learned is to stay on defense when you play AV. You can easily get honor kills. As a Holy Paladin, my healing kept many other defenders alive. Sure, I died a lot but it is worth it.

Playing the other BGs, to me, is a horrible grind. AB can take 30 minutes a match for little honor. Playing for 30 minutes and getting 1 mark of honor is a knife in my heart. My way of handling this grind was to play 1 AV right when I log on, 2 BGs of your choice, then go back to AV for the rest of your playing session (I would say 1 session would be 2-4 hours for the average player). It spaced out the grind and helped not only gain marks but also a good 1200+ honor.

S1 gear is just like having Tier 4 gear (GM gear is equal to Tier 2). It has helped me a lot and should help all of you. If Wrath comes out next Christmas, those with S1 gear will be all set to get out there and quest to your heart's desire!

(To look at S1 gear for your class, visit WOW's website Here)