Project Lore

Band-Aid Fix For Lag Kills PvP Zone For all intents and purposes, Patch v3.1.2 was designed as a clean-up to Secrets of Ulduar.  The minor content patch added a few features that were meant for Ulduar's patch, including the swanky Equipment Manager, further "fixes" for Wintergrasp and general tweaks to the massive amount of changes v3.1 brought us.  Unfortunately the Band-Aid (TM) patch tore the wound open. It took Blizzard a little while to admit it, but v3.1.2 completely broke Wintergrasp on many servers.  If you don't happen to be on one of the affected servers then you missed out on some serious Honor.  The issue is that the Wintergrasp timer is royally screwed, which caused the battle to restart ~5-10 minutes after it had completed.  I managed to score a few Wintergrasp Achievements during my struggle to complete my daily fishing quest. I was also rewarded with a handful of marks and a token amount of Honor for my anglin' expedition.  It's unknown what caused the error, but Blizzard has disabled the PvP zone until it can be rectified. Thankfully, the Wintergrasp bug seems to be the only lingering issue, but it wasn't the only one for Magtheridon (US).  As with most patch days, my ancient server struggled to re-open in a timely fashion.  It was then plagued by login and world server issues, a problem that delayed last night's raid for more than an hour.  During the wait I tried to busy myself with Terminator Salvation.  It just wasn't my night, the action title fails to install from the DVD.  Sigh.  In the end my night of gaming was worth the wait.  By the evening's culmination I had scored a shiny new dagger to replace my dull Maexxna's Fang redux.  Score. How were your servers?  Any login problems?  Did you get a chance to soak up Wintergrasp wins, honor and tokens?  Exactly how bad is Terminator Salvation?

Click to read more ...

I have shared a few different ways for players to make money in World of Warcraft over the months.  From getting top dollar for your TBC loot, maximizing your quest reward income, to abusing the transmutation of cloth to bandages.  By following my own suggestions, I managed to stockpile a few thousand gold with a relatively small amount of playtime invested.  Aside from the need to purchase Cold Weather Training and a new epic flying mount, I knew the gold would come in handy one of these day.  I went Katia Verber on my bank yesterday.

With Solidsamm in desperate need of upgrades for several slots, I bit the bullet and began spending where applicable.  My first purchase was to replace my aging pair of daggers, Merciless Gladiator's Shiv and Fang of the Desolate Soul.  The Shiv served me well through TBC, but it was in definite need of an upgrade.  The Fang's speed is simply not suited for a Mutilate-specced Rogue. Out with the old and in with the new, a pair of Librarian's Paper Cutters.  Not only does their model remind me of Death's Sting, but they just so happen to be the best Mutilate daggers available outside of Naxxramas.  With no weapon upgrades coming in the immediate future, the 650 gold dropped on them (bidding not buyout) should be well spent.  Following that same logic, I knew I had to get some enchants applied ASAP.  The offhand cutter picked up a Greater Potency due to the fact that I already had the materials.  The mainhand will get a little more love - and burn additional funds - thanks to an upcoming application of Mongoose that will further increase the pair's sick attack speed.  A lot of TBC enchanting mats remain quite expensive, causing me to farm the required 40xArcane Dust unless I see the price drop. The purchase and enhancement of the new weapons ran me about 700-750 gold in the end, not all that expensive in Wrath's terms.  What really did me in was going for a new head item.  Currently I am sporting the lower version of TBC's engineering goggles, the Deathblow X11 and they simply won't do for...doesn't matter, I should have gotten rid of them awhile ago.  While on my high from my shiny new daggers I decided to go for broke and level my engineering from 372 to 440 for the new headdress.  Now I can no longer swim in my reserves. Being the forward thinker that I am, I saw this coming and stopped selling my stacks of Cobalt and Saronite as soon as the Wrath market crashed.  The stockpile that I had accumulated on my bank alt managed to push me through 415, at which point I hit a wall.  I simply did not have enough Saronite in reserve to finish out the last 25 skill points.  After picking up a handful of stacks - and dropping another few hundred gold - 437 was mine.  Three freaking points away. A few relogs later, I had everything I needed and then some.  My spree scored me 440 Engineering, some new on use effects for my gloves (breaks stealth), boots (doesn't break stealth) and cloak, a Gnomish Army Knife, Moll-E, Scrapbots, crap to sell and all the mats for Weakness Spectralizers.  It took me just over half of my gold reserves, but I replaced three slots I desperately needed to with some of the best non-raiding pieces available. Solidsamm is still a far cry from the needed 214 expertise rating, but he is slowly getting there.  Thanks to all the new gear, the 315 poison hit cap isn't far off.  Hopefully these changes help out my pitiful DPS from the other night.  Now to get rid of this god awful belt... As I type this my Weakness Spectralizers are currently being hammered out.  Crap, now I need some gems.../me heads off to the Auction House, good thing I still have over 2,000 gold left!  Yesterday wasn't the biggest drain on my account ever, but it certainly was the most time consuming series of purchases.  What's the most you've ever spent in one day?

Click to read more ...