Project Lore

Image via York Blog

I'm a creature of habits in the morning.  I have a well defined morning routine consisting of a PvA (Person versus Alarm) battle that I always lose, a shower, getting dressed and breakfast.  In all fairness the alarm does get its opener in every morning.  Like many of you, I manage to fit World of Warcraft into the slice of time before noon.  It's not always productive, sometimes I just have time to check the AH - go go gadget Auctioneer! - other times I manage to steamroll a handful of dailes before the workday beckons. You can imagine how flustered I get on maintenance days.  I mean how dare Blizzard mess up my morning routine.  I have half a mind to run into Blizzard's office and slap coffee cups out of each and everyone on of their hands until I am satisfied.  I digress though.  To avoid this week's frustration, I arranged my PvA skirmish about an hour earlier, allowing me to get some play time in before the servers had to turn their head to the left and cough.  Yesterday was one of those productive days. I logged in only 14 minutes before the server was set to go down.  Once that first strip of yellow popped up, I knew it was on.  I snagged the Champion quests for Stormwind - only 2 factions to go! - and mounted up for the day's Valiant challenge.  I quickly moved to the main tent, picked up the four Champion dailies and returned to my Exodarian mount for some more challenging jousts.  With under five minutes remaining I flew out to Sindragosa's Fall to lay waste to some Scourge.  As I went in for my first kill Blizzard's script politely notified me that I had 3:30 remaining.  Fifteen kills in 3:30 for a rogue who wants to loot and pickpocket applicable mobs.  "It'll be close," I thought as the first baby frost wyrm struggled to fly away before collapsing.  I tore through the mobs, dropping them faster than Manny Pacquiao. With 10 seconds remaining on the clock I dropped the last mob, went down on one knee to collect my rewards, and was logged off. I missed that last batch of loot.   With my luck it was a guaranteed epic item, but I am happy with what I accomplished in that short time frame.  In 15 minutes - add a minute to return and hand in the quests - Solidsamm completed four quests, earned himself circa 75 gold, scored a few Writ's, some Seals, and a round of reputation.  Not bad for the morning routine.  If the 2004 Solidsam (originally had one s) heard about 300 gold an hour he'd explode. Does WoW play a part in your morning?  Just the general AH/mail stuff or do you take it a bit further?

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Earlier this week this video (thanks Kotaku) showing that someone had created a way to play World of Warcraft on the iPhone started circulating. TechCrunch called it the end of the world, and Gizmodo thought it had some potential. I just want it in my hands! The technology behind the program is a program called Vollee. Most of the processing is not actually done on the iPhone, but instead uses streaming video of the rendering done on another machine. The functionality was pretty basic, but it includes auction house access and also what would at least be a great way to get some dailies done without having to bring your computer on vacation. Unfortunately, the future of this and all WoW related iPhone Apps is up in the air. Blizzard just issued a Cease and Desist order to the makers of the popular apps, Armory Browser, Warcraft Characters, and Warcraft Arena Calculator. These apps used information that is freely available on the Armory, so why Blizzard would do such a thing is not quite clear at the moment. Perhaps Blizzard is making its own version of those Apps listed and doesn't want any other products out there to confuse users. Perhaps they're working closely with the creators of the Vollee application to give all of us addicts a way to get some WoW in while we're on the go. Whatever the reasoning, there is still a lot of potential in the iPhone and other smart phones for all of us. As a user of an iPhone and a couple of the apps that got Cease and Desists, Blizzard's decision to send out those C&Ds is a little frustrating to me. Hopefully Blizzard creates something amazing or gives up some control to the huge number of developers out there. I'd love a way to log in and chat with people while I wait for the bus and using the Auction House on the road would be amazing. What do you guys think? What kind of phone are you guys using? What World of Warcraft apps are you using on your phone? Would you play WoW on it if you could? What other WoW-related apps would you like to see?

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It has been nearly a week since the Argent Tournament launched alongside patch 3.1 and there remains much confusion about the new addition to solo gameplay.  Solidsamm started the festivities late last week, but Blizzard created the contest in such a way that progression through the various stages moves at a smooth pace.  You never feel that the next step is out of reach, just a few days away.  Damn them knowing how to dangle that carrot so perfectly! You're a bit behind if you haven't started your dailies by now, as the first Champions will be crowned today, but don't let that stop you.  To help you on your journey we have compiled all you need to know about the Argent Tournament's daily quests in a neat little post, rather than spread across the great reaches of WoWHead.  Since many of the new NPCs are still unknown to WoWHead, we will also present you with their locations where needed. Before we dive into the daily quests we need to get you situated and out to the tournament grounds.  The grounds are located in the northeastern part of Icecrown, directly above Sindragosa's Fall.  As you fly into the area you'll be greeted by the first two dailies that are sheerly for monetary gain, A Chip Off the Ulduar Block and Jack Me Some Lumber.  They have nothing to do with the tournament, outside the illusion that you will be helping the crusaders build the actual Coliseum.  At this point you should familiarize yourself with the new camp, as it is quite large.  Fly around and pick up all the quests you see, you should find the following four quests in addition to the previous pair: 1.  The Black Knight of Westfall/Silverpine - This begins the Black Knight quest chain that progresses throughout you tournament ambitions.  Just do the damn quest chain, it's a pop culture reference that shouldn't be missed. 2.  Mastery of Melee/The Charge/The Shield-Breaker - These three quests are designed to teach you the basics of horse combat.  Grab your steed and head to the dummy location noted on the above map.  They are a cakewalk.<br> 3. Up To The Challenge - Now that you've mastered the basic moves of jousting, you can begin your run to Champion.  This quest forces you to collect Aspirant's Seals, which are rewarded from the following quests.  You can complete this in three days time if you do all the dailies offered to you.  *NOTE* One of the last three quests will be assigned, not all of them. 4.  Aspirant's Challenge - When you turn in your 15 Aspirant's Seals for Up To The Challenge you will be given that challenge, defeating your first jouster.  Head over to Squire David by the training dummies to begin you battle.  Your first battle will be an easy one, use Shield-Breaker and then Melee for the easy win. 5.  A Valiant of Capital City - Yay, you won!  Now you can head to the next level of jousting, the Valiant rank.  Fly to your faction's tent, locate your race's tournament rep and begin your ascent as a Valiant.  The rest of your dailies will be given by this representative or the buddies surrounding him/her. 6.  The Valiant's Charge - Time to collect some newfangled Valiant's Seals. At a maximum of 5 seals per day, you'll need a full business week to finish off this rank.  Don't worry, there aren't many new quests to participate in, so it should mostly be on cruise control.  The three random dailies from the Up To The Challenge section return with no changes.  Training in the field is repeated, but bumped up to ten kills instead of just eight.

• The Grand Melee - I hope your original jousting match was incredibly easy, because if it wasn't than this may be difficult for you.  You're tasked with taking down three Valiants in this feat of strength.  Be aware that you Shield (hotkey 4) can stack up to three times.  Before you go into combat get it stacked and allow the cooldown to pass, then start the battle.  Shield Break your opponent until they come into melee range and then melee.  While in melee keep your shield active, as the attack and buff are on separate CDs.  If you can keep a shield up while you opponent's is down during the melee skirmish, then it'll be an easy victory.
• At the Enemy's Gates - Here's another easy traveling quest.  Head down to Corp'rethar in southern Icecrown - clearly marked on the map - and smash some Scourge skulls.  The combat is exceptionally easy, just make sure you are attacking the Lieutenants and not the Commanders.  The Commanders are far more difficult and not part of the quest criteria.

7.  The Valiant's Challenge - The same as step four, but a bit more difficult.  Chalk it up as another Grand Melee battle. 8.  A Champion Rises - At this juncture you as essentially done with the quest line.  From here on out it is just about grinding additional reputation, seals and coin to use for those delicious rewards.  Oh, and of course those achievements and titles, how could I forget those.  In association with that, the Valiant's Charge quest will re-open for all of the other races.  If you so chose, you can re-run them for added Achievements. 9.  Eadric the Pure/The Scourgebane - I haven't gotten to this point yet, so I don't know exactly why you do one and not the other of these.  Perhaps it is a simple choice or it has something to do with your reputation for Ebon Hold vs Argent Crusade?  They don't appear to be faction related at all.  Either way, both NPCs are on the tournament grounds themselves.

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So I felt like I was in a pretty good groove; I hit level 80 in stride, more than one achievement for finishing off zone quests, and my trade skills were leveling up nicely. I really felt I was closing in on the end-game and getting back to where I was before this whole expansion thing. Then it hit me. I’m not even close. I was just flying around Storm Peaks, questing away, when I came into a collision course with the Sons of Hordir quest line. On this surface it didn’t seem so bad, it was long (33 quests), but not altogether unenjoyable. I’ll try not to get into too many details, but at a certain point you realize that this is a reputation grind, and a big one. After a quick visit with their quartermaster, I realized these guys were the source of all my new shoulder enchants. These are definitely a must for raiding. So I pick up a few dailies, and look at my rep bar… I need exalted, and I am just barely friendly. There is no championing, just dailies, dailies, dailies. Yikes. This is going to be a BIG project. After coming to that harsh realization, I dove into raiding in hope of picking up some of these free loots I have been hearing so much about. No dice. In my experience raiding isn’t the walk in the park everyone made it out to be. Sure there are some easier encounters. The Vault of Archavon wasn’t very demanding, and The Obsidian Sanctum (with all the adds down) wasn’t too bad, but I found plenty of challenge in Naxx. It is clear that progression will be a bit slow and there will be lots of gearing that needs to be done. I haven’t forgotten all these dungeons have a heroic mode either. Just like at level 70, I am getting the feeling this game begins at 80… and there is a lot of game ahead of us.

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