Project Lore

When Patch v3.0.8 goes live, players everywhere will be graced with another ridiculous mount-race combination. The brave souls on the Player Test Realms can already witness the sight of a Raptor, one of the most vicious dinosaurs on our earth, crying as a hefty Tauren hops on his back. And yet, the sight pals in comparison to what I, and countless other gnomes, have pulled off in the last few weeks. Riding a giant.

A Gnome on a Kodo is hilarious in its own right, but imagine a Gnome guiding a giant through Zul'Drak. Actually, there is no need to imagine, just look at the screenshot. Not only is this Solidsamm's first ride on a leviathan (sorry Thrakki), but it is his first taste of the new phasing technology designed for Wrath. And what a taste.

It took me awhile to notice that as soon as I mounted the revenge-minded Storm Giant, most of the other players in the zone disappeared. After that fact crossed my synapses, a lightbulb went off telling me that I never saw the giants roaming the area while I was grinding. I emphasized most for a reason though. The fun begins when you mount Gymer and see the collection of other Gymer's roaming the land. You can even PvP with them - although a match would likely last forever, and not grant any honor – as evidenced by my Gymer punting the other one across the zone!

Although the quest is essentially another vehicle-oriented quest, it allows one to feel indestructible while you rampage the Scourge. An awesome feeling indeed. If you missed it while racing to level 80 or have yet to reach Zul'Drak, make sure you head over to Gymer in Thrym's End to begin his chain. The short chain allows you to quickly get to the point of topic.  You won't regret the time spent.

Sorry for always being a critic, but as cool as the chain is, it could have been a little better. There really isn't much lore behind Gymer, making the gameplay mechanics (and possibly the loot) the only reason to take up his reigns. Blizzard seems to have gone to great lengths to implement the Storm Giant, too bad the back story is left relatively bear.  How could a character of this magnitude, and sheer size, not have great stories about him?

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Many moons ago, Bastosa and I discussed how and who we planned on getting to 80. Back then I figured I would simply keep healing my way up to level 80, pushing my priest as my main toon. While things started out that way initially, Solidsamm has returned to the forefront. After Mutilate's “from behind” requirement was removed, I jumped at the chance to try the new dagger spec that would not force me to be behind my target at all times. The freshness that came with the conversion is exactly the reason I returned my angry Gnome to main status.

There are two reasons why I knew I was going to be hooked on World of Warcraft when it was released in late 2004. First off, I have loved the WarCraft universe since I first entered it via WarCraft II: Tides of Darkness. Secondly, and probably most important, was Blizzard's reputation. The company should just make their tagline “We don't make bad video games.” While a game can have the best story ever, it'll still suck if the gameplay isn't there to back it up, enter Wrath of the Lich King.

I had a pipedream that I would level mostly through instances, but without a close friend who's main is a healer, that is pretty hard to accomplish these days. Lucky for me the quests in Wrath of the Lich King have diverse goals, interesting lore, and an attachment to the zones that keeps me interested. While grinding via quests may not be the best XP/hour (that still goes to good old fashioned grinding), it is incredibly less mind-numbing. I will save that process for leveling my fishing.

Now that many of you are well on your way, or already 80, who and how did you get there? Did you roll that Death Knight and start from level 55 or abandon that idea and go with one of your level 70s? While I have done some instances, I generally haven't gone back to them after finishing their quests. How about you?

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Via Wikipedia

Some of you may have noticed a lack of a blog from me on Friday. No, I wasn't “Indisposed,” at least not in that sense. I decided to take a mini-vacation before the holidays for some early-season skiing in Westminster, MA. It was a wonderful time filled with friends, food, drink, falls and bruises. However, I went without a computer from Thursday evening until this morning, only checking my e-mail when I got home late last night. I am still recovering.

The freshly made and natural snow could not keep me from thinking about my favorite MMORPG. Some may call that addiction, but I call it “letting one's mind wander while on the chairlift.” Top on my mind was my lack of leveling, causing me to fall behind my guildmates a little further. Now that we have started doing Naxxramas, it actually means something to be behind. Lucky for me, I know those encounters from my Naxxramas 40-man days, so I am not completely clueless. Also, the instance is very easy.

After getting over my lack of dinging, I focused on more productive objectives, like faction grinding. I still haven't decided if I am gonna begin my faction grinds and Championing sessions right after I hit 80, or if I should switch off and focus on leveling my Priest. To continue contributing to my little guild I will probably begin Heroics, with raiding as they need me, and only play my healer during off hours or when needed by other members.

As I sat in the cold, I tried remember which factions I would need to work on the most. I came up with a rough idea of which factions I should do. The Alliance Vanguard will be my initial focus for the sexy dagger.  Although they don't have the best collection of items to offer, the design of Northrend has led me to quest for them substantially, thus it should not require much grinding. Due to my incessant need to prove my worth to factions, I already have gained enough reputation for the Kalu'ak's chest piece (just not the level requirement), but I will definitely come back to them for the epic fishing pole, and the vanity pet modeled after my favorite animal IRL.

While fighting off the blistering winds I couldn't recall who I should Champion for after I complete AV rep, Kirin Tor or the Frenzyheart Tribe. While the Frenzyheart Tribe have three pieces for a rogue, none of them are offered before revered, and the pants are not as beneficial as the item from the Kirin Tor. To top it off, the dagger from the wizard sect is acquired at honored, and is a great main hand for a Mutilate Rogue, making the decision easy once I looked into the specifics a second time.

It is hard to guess past that though. I expect to be doing Naxxramas before the holidays, and much of the Tier 7 gear will not be replaced by faction items. In the end, the stuff offered by the Argent Crusade, Wyrmrest Accord, Knights of Ebon Hold and Sons of Hodir will be used to fill in a few slots, or only for their enchantments.  Hopefully my Priest will get more use out of these other factions.

Anyone else have their Championing schedule mapped out?  Did you do it out of sheer boredom as well?

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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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Blizzard Entertainment gets their audience. This is one of the main reasons that their titles – all of them – are so incredibly popular. From clicking on mobs in their RTSs for the funny one-liners, exploding critters, or the Cow Level in Diablo II, the developer has created or honored pop culture for years. Their latest release, Wrath of the Lich King is no different.

All those level 80s out there who grinded their way up via quests have surely come across a few different pop references as rewards, NPCs, events, titles or achievements. You have Predator, Zelda, and even a somewhat subtle nod to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I could go on and on, especially when if we count achievements, as there are a ton of references hidden in those goals.

The thing is, we have known Blizzard to be a witty bunch of nerds for a few years now. What I have enjoyed the most so far is the fascination the quest developers had with making us pick up crap. Most of us probably came across a poo-based quest back in The Burning Crusade, but in the first two territories in Wrath, I came across a pair of them.  My initial experience with the substance was for Iggy “Tailspin” Cogtoggle (another pop reference). Just an FYI.  Wolves howl when they drop the kids off at the pool, not at the moon. Second time was more “fun,” as the goal was to literally scare the shit out of Darkclaw Bats using firecrackers.  Pyrotechnics and cowpies, awesome.

I would like to believe that there is a reference in that quest too, as I learned the definition of Guano from one of the greatest movies of all time. That is probably a stretch, but please, do not call me a looooooooooooooooooo-seeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeer. I had to.

To top things off, whoever designed these quests is sitting at their desk snickering to themselves, "I am totally getting millions of people to play with animal droppings."

Unlike some of my ProjectLore cohorts, I have not dinged 80 yet. So let me know if I get to play with brown clay later on!

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I don't know about you guys, but I have enough turkey left in the fridge to make open-face turkey sammies for a week. Coincidentally, that is the perfect meal to eat while you are slaving away at those XP bubbles or taking down your next heroic. Quick and easy to prepare, with little need to devour it in a timely manner. Damn, I am hungry now.

I knew it was going to be fairly difficult for me to get a lot of play time in during the holiday, so I came up with a different kind of Warcraft-based goal. Rather than do a mad push to level 80 (which, I did my best at anyways) or get trampled at Walmart, I decided to try and sign up that 11,000,001st subscriber to World of Warcraft.

My brother was my first target, seeing as he is a retired hardcore raider. The numerous Priest changes, a demonstration of the differences between vanilla WoW and Wrath with my Holy alt, and general curiosity drew him towards the dark side. After playing for a bit, and seemingly having fun, he put the laptop down and walked away muttering something like “QQ in the channels and guild drama is why I left in the first place.” Damn you new Barrens Chat!

My younger cousin (who can now out bench press me...) was my secondary target. He took up gaming during the GoldenEye days, and has played most big titles since then. The little punk is by no means a hardcore gamer, but he is certainly not casual either. One would think that World of Warcraft would be on his PC gaming rig, and it was! It turns out that he had joined an Azerothian race without consulting me. Sad fact is that his friends set him up, having him roll the opposing faction so they could corpse camp him for hours as he tried to level. He didn't make it past level 20 before his experience was ruined, and has sworn off the genre entirely. I'll have to work on him further.

At this point, my hopes were dashed and the family get togethers had all past. With no more targets I sat down with little old SolidSamm to work his way towards level 80 and noticed that I had caught the attention from one of the last people I would expect, my girlfriend. “Your guy is so little” she said. “Yes,” I replied, “but he can do big things.” I quickly ran off to find the biggest mob in Dragonblight and showed her how rogues like to do it.

Perhaps, just maybe, I can suck her in? Tips, tricks, strategies and secret potions are appreciated. How many of you managed to ding level 80 over the holiday break? Or did you have alternative goals like I did?

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So we have all had Wrath in our hands for a little over a week now. That was enough time for a few dedicated people to “beat the game” but I suspect many of us are a little behind the curve in that regard. I, myself, am on the verge of hitting level 80… and will likely have done so by the end of the day today. So I feel like I have seen a fair bit of the new content. Originally I had intended to grind instances all the way to 80, but quickly learned that was not the way to go. The XP per hour is simply much larger if you are questing. So ultimately I ended up questing for the majority of the leveling process. And, man, I am glad I did! I have found questing in wrath to be absolutely awesome! The new phasing mechanics really add a while new element to the game. While I have always enjoyed questing, there was never much tangible result other than a quest reward and unlocking the next link in the chain. Now you get to see the world change as the result of your actions. You get to witness time move on and realize things will never be the same as they were. It is great. I am not going to give out any spoilers here, but the epic quests that take advantage of it in Dragonblight, Icecrown, and even the DK starting area had me cheering at my computer monitor. Beyond the phasing mechanic, it seems to me the quests are all together better. You don’t see nearly the amount of kill X mobs for Y drops. They are more creative, more exciting, and all together larger feeling. The new vehicle mechanics play a big part in this, making lots of things possible that you were not able to do before. From time to time you get to step out of your character and control something of absolutely epic proportions. For me, so far, Wrath has been all I wanted and more. Now with hopes of seeing some end game next week I am anxious to see what the rest of the game has in store! What do you guys think so far?

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Photograph by L. Simon.

Like many of you, I am taking my time in getting to level 80. I did not create an elaborate flowchart of areas to tackle, research the best grinding spots or enlist a friendly Priest, Paladin, Shaman and Warrior for their buffs. Last night I got a few of my guildmates to slow down and enjoy some of the content they have skipped over, bringing two level 75 players into Utgarde Keep with my newly-found old friend.

This weekend, well that was an entirely different story. With my girlfriend busy with visiting friends, I had Friday night, Saturday and most of Sunday to do with what I pleased. Naturally, I took the extra free time to tear into Northrend, although not as focused as some people. As of launch, I was still uncertain who I was going to level, my Rogue or my Priest. In the end I surprised myself and rolled a Death Knight. An enjoyable experience thus far, but it wasn't long before I jumped back to my Rogue to see Northrend.

By mid-Saturday, General Chat was full of people looking for healers for various things. Being the good samaritan that I am, I logged in and began SolidSagart's journey into Northrend. After performing the first few quests outside Valiance Keep, I realized that my professions were woefully under skilled. Not wanting to pass up dozens of skinning opportunities or trot by numerous herb nodes, I had to head back to Stormwind and went about the tedious task of skinning low level mobs and picking pointless flowers. Say what you will about my choice in professions, she is simply my gathering girl.

After logging a reasonable 20+ hours across the three characters, I feel I got a bit done. The DK is now up to level 68, SolidSamm is a bubble shy of 71 (he was the most neglected character) and SolidSagart has her professions up to snuff and is a hair shy of finally hitting 70. She started the weekend out as 67, with little rested. If only her professions were leveled beforehand, I would have been able to get her past 70, possibly even jumping ahead of the rogue.

While my WoW avatars progressed a decent amount, other parts of my life were pushed aside. As you can see in the image above, my kitchen is an absolute mess of dishes, plates and glasses. I even saved numerous articles of kitchenware from washing by abandoning them, opting to eat right out of pots and pans like any good college student would – just over my computer instead of the sink. On the brighter side of things, my ferrets, fish, snails, crayfish, and plants all made it through the weekend. They would like to thank boat rides, flights and queues for their continued existence.

What'd you accomplish?  Perhaps more importantly, what didn't you accomplish?

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Trade Chat and General Chat are certainly odd beasts. I consider Trade Chat to be one of the most mistreated features in World of Warcraft, as it is hardly ever used for its purpose, facilitating the buying and selling of goods. More often than not I simply ignore the channel all together in an attempt to save my intelligence and sanity.

General Chat, well, that can be forgiven for its missteps into the immature comments or pointless rants. As I roam around Azeroth grinding away at one thing, or the other, I tend to watch General Chat very closely. My eyes will tune into that block of text in the lower left of my screen out of sheer boredom, hoping that a fun or exciting discussion is going on. General Chat's conversation, nine times out of ten, will be a LFG message, a looking for this or that question, or someone begging to be saved from a camper. Yet, like Pavlov's dog, I always come back for more.

While conversing in general, I try to be as helpful as possible. That can get me in trouble though. Help one newbie and you run the risk of them chatting you up for small facts or discoveries till the end of time. Worse still, other newbies bugging you. But, when you are bored, you are bored and I don't mind the distraction.

While on my Priest the other night I found that needle in the haystack gem. I was joking around in GC in Terokkar Forest when I noticed a name I recognized – although slightly modified with an accent - from my former hardcore raiding guild. After feeling each other out to see if they were who we thought they were, we each found a new addition to our 5-man instancing group for Wrath. Score! The only drawback, it seems that they decided which character I will be leveling first for me, the Priest.

What role do you play in General Chat? The helper? Wiseass? Know it all? Annoying person with tons of questions?  Player with numerous ASCII macros? Ever get anything positive out of it?

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What a weekend. I told myself that I would have to get to level 67 on my Priest, if I wanted to make sure that she was ready for Wrath. I informed my girlfriend of my goal, and although she doesn't know too much about the game (“Worlds of Warcrafts”), or exactly how it works (read, time consuming), she said it was fine. So there I was, a level 66 Priest with solid healing gear, Holy specced, itching to instance and grind, with nothing to hold me back from garnering tens of thousands of experience. Then it hit me, an Ambush from a decked out level 70 Rogue. Queue Spirit of Redemption (haven't respecced yet).

Let me lay it out for you, I absolutely suck at PvP on my Priest. My inability to defend my squishy self is mostly due to inexperience, but I doubt a Holy spec would be a good defender anyways; Discipline would seem like the better candidate. While questing in Terokkar Forest, the zone PvP objective, Spirits of Auchindoun, popped, and I jumped at the chance for some PvP, while getting another quest done. After struggling to capture towers, I spirit resurrected and attempted to ninja one that had been left alone since the start of the contests. I failed, and the Horde won the towers shortly thereafter.

I figured that I was safe from additional PvP due to my sickness, however I was wrong. As I hung out at the Refugee Camp, kiting Bonelashers into the defenders for the kill, I meet the business end of a dagger, while still under the sickness...Why the hell would he kill me? He didn't gain anything. Was it a friend on a horde account just screwing with me? Perhaps a reader who didn't agree with a blog post?

It didn't end there. The Rogue in question continued to kill me a few more times, once more while I was still sick. Being the stubborn person that I am, I simply kept going about my business, killing the Bonelashers. The Rogue must have realized my objective, because he stopped killing me and focused on the buzzards. Once they were all dead, he went back to his old habit.

Obviously, this “Champion of Naaru,” was screwing with me. I am all for a good prank and good fun, but I was supposed to be leveling! Time is becoming scarce and this backstabbing Undead Rogue halted my progress for a solid hour. I swear, this guy must have had an Alliance account, because no matter where I went in Terokkar Forest to grind, he appeared shortly after to kill me, my target mobs, or both.

Cheers to you Silith, I had a chuckle and congratulate you on your dedication to one-shotting. But please, next time have the common decency to ask if it is okay to tea bag me.

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