Project Lore

Way back when I started here at ProjectLore.com I was all giddy over a new engineering pattern that showed up on the Wrath of the Lich King Beta. The Mechano-hog (Horde) or Mekineer's Chopper (Alliance) infatuated me with its ridiculous clunkiness , gnomish features and lifelong dream to be part of a biker gang.  We should also factor in the hilarious Predator reference that comes via the accompanying achievement, Get to the Choppa!

I had been waiting to get on this bike since Wrath launched, but its insanely steep price and my incredibly slow grind to level 80 have delayed me severely. I am underselling the price when I say steep though. The bike is on the Auction House for downright ludicrous prices, well over 10,000 gold the last few times I have checked.  I am not poor but in this economy I find it difficult to even spend virtual money.

Being an engie, Solidsamm has an alternate route, making it himself. This would require a crapload of money spent to level the profession (see link above), then a boatload of time spent getting the required materials. Lastly, a small purse full of money and time spent rep-grinding to pick up the pattern itself. All of this to ride around in a spiffy hog, that can't fly.  At the moment my time is better spent on other things, causing me to go with option three, the passenger's seat. Shotgun!

While participating in yesterday's Heroic Daily, I noticed my tank had pulled out his shiny new Hog, complete with PWN license plate. As I ran up to him to get a free ride click the green arrow, a party member dove in before me. Being the little knee biter that I am, I harassed the paladin until he got out of the sidecar and allowed me to navigate. After all, I did call shotgun.

To my surprise, Blizzard actually intended the person in the sidecar to navigate. Once belted in, I noticed a scroll of parchment placed in front of my character. On it was a map of Kalimdor. The map wouldn't help in Stratholme (Lordaeron is part of the Eastern Kingdoms) but I loved the small detail nonetheless. It is the little things Blizzard adds that make their titles more enjoyable.

Although we didn't succeed in completing the timed event (I blame Arthas and his snail pace), I did score some loot. Sadly, it was two new pairs of gloves, but they may both be used. Until I can get my hit rating up to something respectable, the Handwraps of Preserved History are my new gloves. Bile-Cured Gloves should make an appearance when I begin to approach the the hit cap. This is all assuming both pairs aren't replaced by then.

I would say that Solidsamm had quite a productive weekend. Scored a few pieces of new loot, got more than a dozen Emblems of Heroism, over twenty Stone Keeper's Shards, a good amount of reputation and his first ride in Wrath's version of the ROFLCopter.  He also got a sad reminder of his sister's lack of playtime. According to the returned mail he received from Solidsagart, I haven't paid much attention to her in 30 days!

The irony of the whole situation was that as I oogled that glorious chopper, my buddy went on to explain that he wanted my Mechanostrider...Anyone else manage to have a productive weekend in Azeroth?

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Ugg, maintenance day. What a waste of perfectly good play time Tuesday mornings are. Doesn't Blizzard know that the morning is when I do my Auction House browsing and such. Anyways, since there isn't much going on in the game right now I figured I could hit you guys with an update on Wrath of the Lich King and the load of mounts that are being added with its launch. MMO-Champion has a screenshot for all but one of the mounts, so its best you head to their post if you want to see more. At the moment there are 32 new mounts by my count, a few of which we have known about for some time. However, 32 is a bit of an inflated number since many of the mounts are simply different colors of each other. Currently, there are actually only eight drastically different models split up into seven categories. Category and model breakdown:

• Others – Windrider and Gryphon
• Bears – Four Assorted Bears
• Mammoths – Eight Assorted Mammoths
• Proto-Drakes – Seven Assorted Proto-Drakes
• Drakes – Seven Assorted Drakes
• Tailoring – Two Magnificent Flying Carpets
• Engineering – Two Hogs

I am less than thrilled about the Alliance version of The Hog, the motorcycle that I raved about before. My second choice would be the BlizzCon Polar Bear (aka Big Blizzard Bear), but we all know how that went. So now I am on to my third choice for a ground mount it seems. I guess I will just have to settle for ridiculousness and put my Gnome Rogue atop one of the many Mammoths. Why is it ridiculous? Because my character is smaller than what he would poo.

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Late last week, news started coming out about the new mounts that would be introduced with the launch of Wrath of the Lich King. I, for one, am not a mount collector, so I simply read the news and moved on with my life. That is, until last night when I caught a glimpse of one of those mounts, The Hog. The Hog is an upcoming rideable mount that, according to reports, is a permanent mount (not a temporary quest reward) which can be summoned like all other Wrath mounts. To top it off, it is even in the current build of the beta! There is other information about The Hog that has been gathered through datamining of the game files. First off, the mount currently isn't flagged for Engineers, but due to its look it will likely be restricted when it goes live. So be sure to take it for a spin in the beta. Next, it appears that the bike's speed might be tied to its rider's level, much like the Winged Steed of the Ebon Blade. Therefore, the higher the toon, the faster the bike will go. As of now, I haven't spoken with anyone who actually owns the sweet ride, so this information is simply rumors based on the aforementioned mined data. That hasn't stopped me from getting incredibly excited though. I have always fancied the engineering mounts over the animals since The Burning Crusade. Not only do I think the engineering mounts look better, but they are just far less common due to the restriction. But wow, does The Hog look awesome or what? The screenshots even make it look like The Hog may allow for an extra passenger! Sadly, The Hog does have a knock against it. It seems that the developers have seen fit to put some restrictions on the bike - possibly for noise pollution. The Hog can only take you around in style in Northrend and Outland. Shucks, can't tear down the shores of Westfall. Oh and in response to one of my earlier blogs, is that close enough to a car for you?

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