I Have a Cunning Plan…

Rogues Comments Off

Jul 292008

Actually, it’s a Cunning Blade and I’ll skip further Black Adder references.

[tag-tec]Rogues[/tag-tec] at level 10 can do a quest chain to get this Cunning Blade as a quest reward. This quest chain is entirely optional and if you browse the Auction House regularly you’re likely to find better weapons for not much gold. (And you twinks can stop laughing now.) 🙂

Still, it’s a fun little quest chain and it can be quite challenging for your average level 10 Rogue. Each race has a different quest, in its own area, but the quest rewards are the same.

Gwynne’s done a complete walk-thorugh of all of these level 10 quest chains. So if you have an up and coming Rogue, here you go:

Arathi Basin, Why Not Win?

PvP Comments Off

May 262008

I really don’t quite get it. [tag-tec]Arathi Basin[/tag-tec] Weekend is coming to a close and while I like the [tag-ice]battlegrounds[/tag-ice], some of the players are… annoying.

Why would anyone want to lose? A win doesn’t take much more time and you get the three marks, instead of one, and about 50% more honor. Now admittedly, my best use is probably to imitate a log and let people trip over me, but if you don’t play to win it doesn’t matter what your gear/skill level is.

So for 22 ABs over the weekend (playing Horde on Bloodscalp:)

8 wins, 24 marks, average honor = 343 (Plus 419 honor from the daily AB quest)
14 losses, 14 marks, 218 average honor

Seems to me that if you go in wanting to lose and working to lose you’ll send more time getting your marks and honor than by working to win.

How to lose AB (Applies to AV and WG, too):

Attack all five bases, preferably at the same time
Fight on the road, where possible, far from a flag.
Let the opposing player pull/kite you off the flag while the Rogue ninjas the flag (or backstabs you while the other Rogue ninjas the flag.)
Don’t communicate. See attackers coming to your base? Don’t say anything!
Sit down and don’t participate. (AFK playng)

How to Win AB:

Everyone follows the game plan, don’t wander off and do your own thing.
Grab your closest base and keep it.
Grab the next two closest bases and keep them.
I think it’s best to get three bases in a triangle, for example: Farm, MIll, Blacksmith. That way It’s easier for each base to support the others. Alliance, of course, should do stables and farm (wink.) Stables, Smith, Mill. I like the mill more than the mine for the view advantage.
Defend your bases. Don’t grab a flag, cap it, and then leave. Even if just one person stays then that one person can call out enemy assaults.
Communicate. Call out the incoming enemy and their numbers. Rogues can spy on bases and call out defending forces.
Coordinate. Agree to assault one or two bases at one time, rather than five.
It helps a lot if you want to win.

Of course, if the other side is fielding a well-geared, skilled pre-made, the winning is going to be rough. But then, why can’t that pre-made be on your side?

If the other side is all on the same Vent channel and no one on your side has heard of Ventrilo and none of them can type, then it’s going to be hard to win. 🙂

The Massive WoW Gold Blueprint Goes Live Tuesday

Get the Gold Comments Off

May 262008

The Massive WoW Gold Blueprint is scheduled to launch at 12 noon (PST) on Tuesday, the 27th. If you need to convert that to your time, anywhere in the world, then go here.

What you need to do if you want to get in on the launch is click through and join the notification list. That way you’ll get notice as soon as this puppy goes live. While you’re at it, watch the videos (links below.)

Why hop on the launch as early as possible?

You’ll get started building your gold stash before those who don’t
You’ll get a pile of bonuses for buying early, including
- Access to all the info for the Gold Speed Run 2 – this is where Jon builds new characters on a new server and earns at least 1000 gold in 30 days. No 70s to help out, no generous guilds, no sugar daddies.
- Four Q&A sessions, only available to people who buy in early, where Jon will answer any and all questions about WoW gold and the Blueprint.
- The logbook from Gold Speed Run #1 – with all the details on how he already did the speed run… what he bought, where he went, how he did it.
- And there’s more
You’ll save $30 over the final price. Yep, he’s going to increase the price after June 1.

So what’s in this thing? This Massive WoW Gold Blueprint?
For starters, it’s a series of modules designed to teach you how to set up your gold creation network of characters. The blueprint will walk you step by step, with videos and PDFs, through every step of setting up your gold machine.

He does recommend doing this on a non-PvP server, for the simple reason that you can have characters on both sides, Alliance and Horde. This makes it easier to do cross-faction buying and selling. If you’re on a PvP server, like all of my characters, then you can still work the blueprint, but you won’t be doing the cross-faction work unless you have two accounts.

In addition, everything is accessible to the brand new WoW player. Don’t know Stormwind from a hole in the ground? He’ll tell you everything you need to cash in on Stormwind, including how to get there from the starting area. (All the experienced Ally players now groan…)

Instead of giving advice like. “Use Auctioneer to play the Auction House…” he’ll give you a set of videos which will show you exactly, step by step, how to do that.

Never had more than a few gold to your character’s name? The Gold Blueprint will fix that. Brand new to the game and don’t know where to go? The Blueprint is for you.

No matter what level you are you’ll learn a path to getting all the gold that your characters will be able to use. The speed runs were all started with level 1 characters.

So check it out and get all the gold your characters will ever need.

The Massive WoW Gold Blueprint

Gotta Druid?

Druids Comments Off

May 242008

For those of you who may be new to Druids, there are a few quests that you’ll have to go through to get access to your various forms, lions, tigers, bears, oh my.

Well, bears and big cats, anyway.

Of course, like any decent Blizzard quest the Druid shapeshift quests will take you all over the place, hunting high and low for certain items. It’s even more interesting if you’re on a PvP server, since high level n00bs like to lurk in some of the quest area and kill any lowbie they see. (That’s what Guilds are for: Revenge.)

So if you want to check out a complete walkthrough of the first couple of Druid quests, the Bear and Aquatic forms, check out these links:

Druid Bear form, for Alliance and Horde
Druid Aquatic Form, for Horde
Druid Aquatic Form, for the Alliance

If you have any comments regarding those guides, or questions, or improvements, leave a comment on those pages.

Here’s a guide that provides you with a unique chance to learn how cutting-edge raid and PvP druids handle their character, plus tons of help on leveling, gold, and Druid specific abilities. Check it out, here: The Killer Druid Guide

Massive Wow Gold Blueprint – Cash from Prarie Dogs

Get the Gold Comments Off

May 172008

Well, actually it’s the whistles…

Video #3 from the Massive WoW Gold Blueprint gives you another technique to make a nice sum of cash, even if you’re level one. You do have to have access to the Horde though, so if you’re alliance on a PvP server you won’t be able to do this.

Check it out: The Praire Dog Trading Route

Battlegrounds, PVP, and Stuff Like That

PvP Comments Off

May 172008

Any Rogues out there use daggers? The well geared Rogues I see in the Battlegrounds all seem to be either swords or maces, but maybe I missed the dagger Rogues? Did the introduction or Resiliance really kill the dagger Rogue?

Anyway, on my quest for the purple gear (that’s to get epic gear in all slots) I’ve been collecting some numbers as I hack away (and mostly get hacked away) in the BGs. My impression from these is that the sides that can muster up the energy to actually communicate a plan (which the players can be bothered to participate in) will probably win. It’d be nice, too, if Bliz would/could come up with a way to discourage the AFK crowd.

Of course, the side that wins gets more honor and also gets three tokens as opposed to one.

Eye of the Storm. For those who might not know, this area combines controlling territory and capturing the flag. If one side can control three towers for long enough then they don’t need to concern themselves with the flag.

21 events
Horde won 10, lost 11, but the last 7 were all wins. That was fun.
Average honor per event was 190

Altarec Valley. Control territory and destroy the opponents reinforcements. Killing the head NPC of the opposing side will also result in a win.

22 events
10 wins, 12 losses
Average honor (Some from AV weekend) 366

Warsong Gulch. Strictly a Capture the Flag game. I’m not such a big fan of Capture the Flag (since I suck at it 🙂 .) Since the Horde doesn’t seem to like to plan much and since the honor isn’t great I think it’ll be awhile before I go back. I have my 30 marks for the Gladiator leggings, so I’m done with WG for now. Maybe at the end of the Purple Gear quest. Besides, I seem to get more kills in the other areas!

17 events
6 wins, 11 losses
Average honor = 123 (all of this was on WG weekend)

Arathi Basin. That’s next on the list and I’ll probably start putting my head under the Pally’s axe this evening. I’ll post numbers when I get them.

A Review of Joana’s Horde Leveling Guide

Leveling, Reviews Comments Off

May 162008

Joana’s 1-70 Horde Leveling Guide is a step-by-step guide that will take your Horde character, of any race or class, to level 70 very quickly. The entire leveling path is laid out in an easy to follow manner and is exactly the same path that Joana uses to set speed leveling records.

In a way you could call it a HUnter Leveling Guide since Joana always uses Hunters for those speed records and since the guide contains all the Hunter pet quests. I ran through the guide as a Rogue, from 1 to 70, and had few problems. Most classes should be able to get through the entire guide with little problem.

Some things to point out: There are some Elite quests. Go here, kill this elite mob. Well, as a Rogue (and pretty new to the game) I quickly learned that the Elites were better left to groups or for a time when I was a few levels higher. However, Joana solos them and so does my kid (with a Hunter,) so it can be done.

Some of the quests are group quests, especially once you hit Ouitlands. Like groups? No problem. Hate groups? Guess you’ll have to skip them or gain a few levels, get some uber gear, and try again.

I think you’ll find that Joana’s Guide will move you along that leveling path pretty quickly. My time to 70 was just over 15 days (using the /played command to check,) but this was my first character past level 5. On either side. My next one will be a lot faster. I’l post it when it happens (it’ll be awhile.)

You can check out Joana’s Guide directly, here, or you can check out a more in depth review:

Joana’s 1-70 Horde Leveling Guide Review

For the More Seasoned Druid

Druids, Quests Comments Off

May 162008

The next form that the up and coming Druid can get is the Aquatic Form. More so than the Bear Form, this quest has you running all over hither and yon to collect the bits to complete the quest. Some of these bits are a little hard to find. For a complete walk-through of this Druid quest check out this page:

Team iDemise Leveling Guide

Leveling, Reviews Comments Off

May 162008

Here’s a cool leveling guide by TeamiDemise. These guys are a professional (yeah, they make money from it) Counterstrike gaming group and they’ve brought their talents to WoW. I don’t think I’d want to be on the other side of these guys in a battleground or arena.

Anyway, they’ve put their talents into a leveling guide that’s pretty cool. What makes it really cool is that it’s entirely in-game. It’s built into the Map Notes addon so you never have to alt-tab to some website to see what’s next.

Load the guide, bring up your in-game map, and you’ll see step 1, step 2, etc for every zone. Follow their path, which includes plenty of notes and remarks, and you should hit 70 very quickly.

One hit, which probably only applies to new players, is that there’s no info on how to get from one zone to the other. Another is that there are a few typos. Proofreading was not a high priority. Still, the content is very accessible and very good.

The iDemise guide is available for both Horde and Alliance.

You can see a complete review here: The TeamiDemise Leveling Guide review, or you can go here and check it out directly.

Battlegrounds PvP with Green Gear

PvP Comments Off

May 162008

So how else goes one get that purple gear, short of raids or that 0.000001% chance world drop? Short answer: [tag-tec]Battlegrounds[/tag-tec] and Arenas, or spend the rest of your life grinding for that exalted rep with several factions or grinding Badges of Justice from the appropriate instances.

Dinged 70 not so long ago and I’ve been spending lots of time in the various battlegrounds, on the purple gear quest. My gear is mostly green with a couple of blues that dropped of the Auction House.

The picture of a green geared Rogue sneaking up and attacking that well geared Druid with the ungodly HP number is rather amusing, isn’t it? Do it all the time. When I get lucky there’s someone else around who’ll help out before he eats me.

And don’tcha just love the various fear spells? Not. At least, when it’s not me casting them!

I’m finally starting to feel a little less newbish, but let’s face it, going up against well geared players who’ve been doing this for a long time is … problematic. It usually results in a quick squishing. Fortunately, I’m playing a Rogue and stealth is wonderful. The well placed cheap shot is a big help. I get some kills, but the died number is usually the larger number.

I figure that my best use to this point is in being something for people to stumble over on their way to whatever goal is on the current battleground.

Is it fun? I’m having a blast. I’m on the Horde side and we win often enough when the “we must lose” crowd is elsewhere. I assume the alliance side is the same. It gets interesting when both sides want to win, though I’ll admit that a win in 10-15 min is better than one in 45. Any win is better than a loss, even though it might not be honor efficient.

Now I’m going to go and trip someone…

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