Brief Description Of A Few Phase 1 & 2 Daily Quests

After spending a few days playing around in Quel Danas, I have found a new liking to Daily Quests. These quests are easy, simple, and not very time consuming. You can get 8 of them done in less than 2 hours. I'll just go through a few now (excuse me for not remembering the quest names or monster names).

The first two are located by a building near the docks. You need to kill 5 of the big neutral electric things. You can't miss them. After you kill one, press the little item in your bag and that's it. 5 and you're done. The second is killing those power deprived blood elves. Collect 4 blue things from them and zap a red crystal near the docks with the 4. Done and done.

There's a third non-repeatable which will bring you to a big green portal. Tape the teleport scroll and you end up in Hellfire Peninsula. Two quests here. First, you get a non-combat pet. Kill the fire mobs until it becomes big, green, and unstable. You do not need to be in a group. All you need to do is be near someone killing one and you will get credit. Bring it back to the gate near the quest giver to explode it. The second is killing 4 demons, collecting their blood and then using that special stone to suck the power of the elite blood elves around the area. Then kill them without their power. Only 4 kills.

Back to the Sunwell, there's two new quests if you have entered into Phase 2. You will need to kill 6 of either the infernos, demon dread lords, or the 4 armed female demons. Then, next to a big green portal, kill the really big blue guy (described in the quest log) and stick a flag in him. The second quest should be done in a group of 5. It's a bombing quest but the monsters have a lot of HP. The best way is to all fly off at the same time. Bone the hell out of the place. A good group can complete it in one sweep.

There's other quests in Shatt which you can do as well. With all of these quests (and more), I can now see why we now have 25 daily quest slots available. So, get going! Your server needs you help to retake the Sunwell!

More info can be found on WoW Wiki.

Hello 2.4

First of all, I pity every business man who has to wear a suit everyday of the week to work. I hated it! Sure, I got a lot of complements on looking good but I was so uncomfortable. God, how do you do it? lol. Sorry about yesterday. I had meetings at the CT state capital (which only happens once every couple years).

On Tuesday, March 25th, patch 2.4 went live. On my server, I could not move without disconnecting. Not just on Aticus, but other characters in Outland as well. It wasn't just my server either. My Wednesday morning, everything was fixed. From Shatt, I took the portal to Ironforge where the fightmaster knows a direct route to the island. You can pick up some quests, do a few dailies and run the new 5man and 25man content. I only did 2 dailies and entered into MT.

Now, I thought I was an idiot or rusty because our PUG wiped 3 times. However, after what everyone has said, it seems like this 5man is really hard. So, I fell better :D. There's a lot of mages and they hit hard. CC is very important. We had a mage and a trapping hunter which helped a lot. A 1 minute freezing trap is great.

Now, I think everyone needs to go and get those dailies done because I want next phase and a mailbox! :D

Introducing Iron Dwarves!

Last week, Blizzard updated the Bestiary for Wrath. They added the Iron Dwarves to the icy mix. Here's the direct quote from the website:

"The Explorers' League has scoured the far corners of the world, seeking to uncover the truth behind the origins of the dwarves. Now it seems they may be one step closer to unlocking the secrets of the past.

The latest clues come from ancient dig sites within the Howling Fjord, where the iron dwarves were first encountered. Etched with runes of power - and with lightning pulsing beneath their thick, metallic skin - they may represent the missing link between the dwarves and the legendary titans of myth. Unfortunately the malevolent iron dwarves have openly defied the Explorers' League and seem intent on destroying any and all artifacts connecting them to the shadowed recesses of history."

Pretty cool in my opinion. I've always liked the dark iron dwarves but now we'll be dealing with 70+ dwarves. I bet all you Horde lovers out there are chomping at the bits to get your hands on some of these little pests ;-). As for me, even as an Alliance player, I still have fun slaying them. The legendary titans kinda gives me an uneasy feeling because now I don't know if they'll be really buffed or not. They are part of Howling Fjord though so maybe they're not as strong as I thought... Oh well. I'm still waiting for more news on the Wendigo and Darkfallen!

Vial Of The Sunwell

Reading WoW Insider yesterday, I came across a trinket which should help a lot of healers. It's call the "Vial of the Sunwell". This little toy collects 100 points from any holy spell you cast. It will build up to 2000. If you use the trinket's ability, it instantly heals your target for the total collected points. It also has 15mp5 which is pretty good. Because this trinket can crit, I would have liked to have seen +crit instead of the mp5. However, there are Paladins who are having problems with mana.

Here are some extra notes which Heavenfall mentioned on WoWHead:

- The amount of energy you have can be ascertained by the number of stacks the buff has. If you have 10 stacks, you have 1000 energy.
- The buff on yourself that stores the energy lasts 10 seconds
- Using the trinket does not produce a Global Cooldown effect
- The trinket has approximately 10 yards range
- The trinket can be used with 0 energy, and then it heals for 0
- It is not affected by +healing gear
- It can crit

So, with this and the boost to Holy Shock, we Holy Paladins will have some viable instant heals. Every 10 Flash of Lights will make for a 1000 instant heal. The 2 minute cooldown is a real drag... It's just too long and this will make a lot of people cringe at the item. The 10 yard range isn't too hot either. You'll have to run up to the tank to use it.

So, does the instant cast heal out weigh the negatives mentioned above? In my opinion, I would pick it up for Aticus. What about you?

An Alternative MMO: LOTRO

(actual in-game screenshot)

Happy Saint Patrick's Day to all!

This weekend, I went into the world of J.R.R. Tolkien and the Lord Of The Rings Online. At first, the game seems like it was going to fail. There are only 4 races to choose from: Human, Dwarf, Elf and our beloved Hobbit. Each has its own racial abilities and certain classes to choose from.

Champion - Dual wielding fighter.
Guardian - Tank
Captain - Buffer / Support
Burglar - Rouge / Stealthy Trickster
Hunter - Ranged DSP (no pets)
Minstrel - Singing Healing Class
Lore-Master - A hybrid spell caster and animal tamer.

The character creation is good but not great. It's just your typical creation screens. Entering the world will start a tutorial. You could skip it but it gives you some experience so it's worth it. It really helps newcomers and starts the story. In LOTRO, there are normal quests and story quests. The story quest is one long quest chain that (I believe) goes until you are at least level 50 (max level). In this game, grinding is just not worth it. You get little experience from it compared to just doing the quests. LOTRO gives you a nice supply of quests and you will rarely run out of them. Only once have I completely emptied my normal quest tab. There is one thing that shocked me was bag space. You start with 5 bags with 15 slots each!

One thing that LOTRO has is a fantastic title system. Right from the beginning of the game, you get a title. This is chosen in the character select screen in that you get to pick where you are from. I was Neflight of Gondor cause Gondor is epicly awesome :D. If you don't die before level 5 you get the title The Wary. If you kill enough Black-somethings human gang members, you get Watcher Of Roads.

Combat is simple with spell cool-downs and auto attacks. Death Penalty in this game is loss of health, attack power, and other things. This adds up if you keep dying. You don't run back to your body because you don't really "die" in LOTRO. You just get defeated and taken back to a nearby town.

Lastly, the best this game has to offer is the graphics and sounds. I can't stress this enough: the game is BEAUTIFUL! I have the graphics close to max and I'm in awe 100% of the time. The detail in the grass, the sky, fire, the bags under your enemy's eyes, and the most outstandingly done water effects are truly breath taking. The sounds cut out sometimes which is a major disturbance. If I'm fighting a wolf and the person next to me does a fire spell, the wolf's howl will cut out and all I'll hear is fire burning. That aside, the sounds, when they're full, are fantastic. Fire sounds like fires. When you're running through town, you will hear horses and donkeys walking around, cats meowing, and the town's folk chatting.

Now, if you going to transfer over, please be advised that people do not tolerate immaturity in LOTRO. This game is a Role Playing game. It is also advised that you are familiar with the J.R.R. Tolkien books and lore. I have yet to have seen anyone act out of character. There are advice and out of character channels which are friendly and helpful. If you have a question, just ask and someone will usually respond. There is no need to spam it nor type in all caps. This is really what makes LOTRO amazing. $15 a month fee to play.

As far as I can tell, I'll be suspending my WoW account for the next few months to play this game. However, I will still support the WoW community and report on any game/Paladin news.

Opps... My Bad

Yeah, I forgot I changed the updates to Monday and Thursday.

Two short things to talk about today. The first is that Blizzard has released 2.4 under the Blizzard download this past week. I recommend downloading the 200+mb file now so you save time on patch day. Expect to see even more downloads coming over the next few weeks because there will still be changes to 2.4.

The other subject is a new video podcast I discovered a few days ago. It's called The MMO Report. Now, some of you do not play other MMOs but for those who do, or even want to learn more about other MMOs, this short video podcast is just for you. It's produced through G4TV and thus, can be assured its production is good. The graphics are decent. They're plain but at least they have depth. The host is very clear in his speech but the humor will make you do many facepalms unless you're a teenager... Then maybe you will laugh. Download it through iTunes.

Over the weekend, I'll be expecting to play Lord Of The Rings Online. That should be monday's update.

An Alternative MMO: City Of Heroes

So, my adventures this weekend took me to places I have never been before. First, Nova Scotia (which, I have to say, was amazing! I love the oceanfront property and it is one of the places I would like to live someday) and second, City Of Heroes. Being very tired of WoW these last few weeks (burnout), I decided to try out the other MMO that I had in my hand (at my local GameStop) the day I decided to get into WoW. Every-so-often, usually between content patches, I'll take a few weeks off from WoW. I just get bored with doing the same dailies and alts don't help as much as people would think.

The first thing I've noticed with CoH is the character customization. You can make your hero look like your dream super hero. Some examples are: zombies, pirates, android, tights, Matrix-type, and ninja. There are even more choices than this! This is the BEST character creator I have ever seen! And, you can also have over hundreds of color customizations. It is just insane.

After 45 minutes of the character creation screen, you finally have your hero and enter the world. This is where things can go... blah. The movement is very stiff and your UI is big. Now, I'm guessing that there are ways to change this, but to someone who just entered the game, it is very distracting, confusing, and cluttered. Another function is that there's no auto-attack. I have to wait every 1.5 seconds to hit my "brawl" or attack button. Your other skills are used like WoW's skills with cooldowns and are easy to notice.

As you level up, you can put "Enchantments" on your spells. These can vary from more damage, less cooldown, more range, etc. It's like the new profession in Wrath: inscription. There are two ways to gain experience. You can wander around town beating up on gang members who are harassing citizens or you can complete quests that take you into an instance. For example: Go into the office building, arrest (kill) all Thugs and collect the stolen documents.

As for character classes, they are pretty basic.

Blaster = Mage / Ranged DPS
Controller = Crowd Control
Defender = Cleric / Paladin
Scrapper = Rouge with good survivability
Tanker = Your typical tank.

I made two characters so far: A Scrapper and a Tanker. I loved my Scrapper (named Aticus) but he wasn't a super hero. He looked like something from the Matrix. However... my Tanker... SO FUN! This is where the facepalm comes into play. Get ready... my super hero is... The Canadian Brawler! Hey, if the USA can have Captain America, Canada can have The Canadian Brawler :-D

The picture at the top of the post is what he looks like. A giant Maple Leaf on his chest with a red and white suit show his true Canadian pride. He also has a cigar in his mouth cause I like cigars and it makes him look cooler. Hehehe, I like to have fun with my characters. I almost fell out of my chair when my hero lifted his mighty battle axe over his head and yelled "Ohhh Canada!" before slaying the thug. You can choose your battle cry in the character creation screen but I never thought it would as hilarious as it was.

So, in conclusion, it is not the best MMO out there. Lord Of The Rings is better. WoW, LOTR, then CoH would be my top three. And just to let everyone know, I've only played a handful of hours. There could be many more adventures out there. I only took both characters to level 5 (the picture was from yesterday).

Legends May Fall But They'll Never Die If We Remember Them

Two legends fell yesterday, March 4th. One harder than the other. First, Brett Favre of the Green Bay Packers (National Football League) retired after 255 consecutive games and 17 years in the NFL. He is the definition of a man who loved his job, had fun, and gave inspiration to many quarterbacks and football players alike. All across America and Canada, fans knew how much Brett Favre meant to the game of football. One fan said,

"I've been a Cowboys fan since time began, but this is one sad day in NFL history. Brett Favre was one of the few players in the game that made it worth watching. Though I cringed when you played my 'Boys, you will be greatly missed for the competitive fervor you brought to this sport. Even here in the Lone Star state, we love ya Brett and the game won't be the same without you."


However, the real loss yesterday was of Gary Gygax. He past away yesterday morning. Not only was he one of the creators of Dungeons & Dragons, but he was one of the fathers of the Role Playing / RPG universe we know today. From leveling systems (experience gains for killing monsters) to grinding out better gear, it wouldn't be here if it wasn't for him and his friends.

It seems like God needed a Dungeon Master. Who could ever be better than Gary Gygax?

Rest in peace Gary and thank you.

Question To The Readers (1)

We all know that there's a little pleasure we get from playing WoW. But, if an MMO came around which was about your favorite thing, would you migrate? My question to the readers today is: What MMO, if they made one, would you quit WoW for?

I know that there are a few which would make me quit. I would quit for a Diablo MMO. Hands.Down. I think if they were to go back to EverQuest graphics and game mechanics, I would still play it.

Another guilty pleasure of mine is Pokemon. After replaying a newly made version of Red, I came to realize how great of an RPG it really is. You just don't get that feeling when you're 12 years old playing it. You are on an epic journey to catch, train, and raise YOUR Pokemon. It just feels like an MMO because you do have the freedom to go anywhere you please and train whatever you want to. There would be no gear to grind for, but the grind would be for money to purchase potions, pokeballs and other trinkets for your Pokemon.

So, what MMO would you quit WoW for?

Crawling Back For My Life

I'm finally feeling better and getting back to my old routines. Being away from WoW for the last week has been surprisingly fun. I've discovered the Nintendo DS. I've played it before but after actually buying one and playing it on the couch all week, I'm addicted. Mario Party, Animal Crossing and my all time favorite, Uno Skip-Bo & Uno Freefall are all amazing games. Being away also brightened my eyes about how much time and effort goes into this game. 15 hours a week may not seem like much but you really don't realize how long that is once you stop doing it.

But this is a WoW Blog. To be honest, there hasn't be any Holy Paladin news within the last week or so. The only interesting change was to Turn Undead. It is now called Turn Evil which will now effect both Undead and Demons. One rumor is that Alliance Paladins will now be able to get Seal Of Blood and Horde will get Seal Of Vengeance. However, this is just a rumor.

My newest task I set for myself is making a new hunter. I have a level 35 hunter but she has gotten old and I feel like Role Playing a old dwarven hunter named Neflight. I started him a week ago with the idea that he will travel into Wailing Caverns to tame one of the Serpent Pets. That should be fun. They look really cool too!

Unless something major pops up, Monday's post will be a question to the readers.