Baron run #19...  still no mount.  I now am a proud level 80 Death Knight and really think that I would look like a much cooler Death Knight on Baron's steed.  I have to be perfectly honest: nothing bothers me more in the game now than seeing a random rogue in greens with Baron's mount.  The 1/1000 drop rate doesn't deter me though as I move into Baron run #20.  The random drop of epic items is what makes the PvE portion of WoW so entertaining. 

Wrath has introduced a phenomenal selection of new loot to drool over.  Emblems at 80, which replaced badges at 70, now offer tier 7 for sale.  Naxx has some revamped weapons and armor with models from the original level 60 Naxx dungeon.  Need a new weapon?  Heroic Halls of Lightning offers a sweet 2 handed axe with warrior-ish stats.  Heroic Utgarde Pinnacle offers a very nice 1 handed tank sword.  The sword, for the record, looks beast on my Death Knight.   

Of all the MMO's that I've played, WoW has the widest variety of item art.  The variety amongst all the weapons is fantastic (most of the armor...the Wrath armor is starting to get stale for me though I am hoping Bliz updates the look of a few pieces).  I still have Quel Serrar sitting in my warrior's bank.  But, what is great about the game is that Blizzard continues to develop and add items.   

I know a few raid groups on my server have already bested all the top raid instances.  I feel kind of bad that they have to wait for new loot to be introduced into the game for something to look forward to!  I have a feeling that I won't be the only person farming Baron's mount in the very near future. 

What is your favorite piece so far in Wrath?  How about in WoW?  My top favorite item in WoW has recently become the baby blizzard bear...so cute!  But, my favorite item as far as looks continues to be Ashkandi from Blackwing Lair.  I just really loved the look and the sword has kind of stuck with me as the best!

I have to say that one of my favourite aspects of the WotLK expansion has been exploring the new instances in Northend.  Although Utgarde Keep had its moments, it pales in comparison to the Nexus on levels of both look and gameplay.  I personally found tanking Utgarde Keep ridiculously easy.  Without any new challenges presented and the somewhat predictable room-by-room encounter of giant Viking-men thundering towards me, it didn't hold my attention nearly as well as the Nexus.

 

The Nexus is a series of underground ice caves and tunnels.  Unlike most instances in WoW, you're given some allowance in what bosses you pursue first and what order you explore each section of the dungeon in.  You can go into different wings of the dungeon, although the final boss Keristrasza - a red female dragon you'll want to cut the tongue off of by the end of the fight - can only be released from her prison after you've killed the other three bosses in the instance.  You can then summon her by clicking on all three orbs. 

 

Anomalus was a fairly easy boss to take down.  He reminded me a lot of the Curator from Karazhan.  Like the Curator, you must kill his adds whenever they come out before continuing to attack him.  Ormorok the Tree-Shaper was pretty much a tank-and-spank for my group.  Just make sure you make your way to him quickly otherwise you'll be overcome by annoying little flower adds.  Grand Magus Telestra is an annoying blood elf boss that does this wacky cloning thing in phase two of your fight with her.  She'll also volley your team around, which you can ultimately do nothing to stop, so enjoy the bouncey ride for as long as it lasts.

 

I must say, there isn't much about the Nexus that one wouldn't like.  You get to enter a world of ice, bursting with colours and fantastical dragons.  This in itself, at least for me, brought a sort of out-of-this-world epic adventure into being.  In fact, some of the caves even have fascinating magical properties.  In one section my guildmates and I noticed that our health and mana regenerated ridiculously fast.  Overall, I found it just challenging enough to require some strategizing without being too difficult, and I was wholeheartedly entertained by the inside appearance of the entire dungeon.  It will be interesting to see how these instances transform on heroic mode once I've reached level 80. 

Nope.  Not 80.  What kind of WoW player am I?  Real WoW players have already hit 80 and finished all the raid content.  Except, not really.  Sure, a few have.  But, a majority of players are still leveling and enjoying all that the new Wrath content has to offer.  So, what else is there to enjoy other than grinding quickly to 80 and the new raid instances? 

Well, for starters, the music.  I'm not sure if anyone keeps their sound controls up anymore while playing, but Northrend has some of the best game music I have ever heard.  Yes, I am grouping Wrath with all of the Final Fantasy games as far as music now.  It is just that good.  So far, my favorite music is in Howling Fjord though I do love the soft piano in Dragonblight. 

Okay, so you listen to heavy metal in your mom's basement while playing WoW and couldn't care less about the music.  How about the quests?  I was a huge fan of Warcraft pre WoW and love to see the story line continue.  The Dragonblight quests give you a wonderful look at the events in Warcraft 3 with Arthas flash backs, but also a nice in game cut scene that pushes the story forward.  If that isn't great enough, the world literally changes after you finish the quest (think how Guild Wars did it). 

What's that?  You don't like the music and you aoe grind without questing?  Seriously?  Okay, what about everyone riding around on those new armored bears?  The turkey killing achievement?  The beautiful landscape?  Death Knights!?!  Surely, some of this is enough to enjoy even if you aren't quite 80 like the rest of the world already.

On a small side note, my Death Knight is now level 76.  I have tanked every instance up to my level so far and also tried dps.  I am managing around 1200 dps with a cookie cutter spec, which I know a lot of people hate.  However, tanking does seem very viable.  I really am hoping that Blizzard implements the dual spec option that they keep mentioning on the WoW forums. 

Oh, and if anyone at Blizzard reads this: please, oh please, make achievements account wide so I feel there is a reason to level my alts up to 80 too.  Thank you!

The day we have all been waiting for has come and passed.  Millions of Blizzard fans slammed into unkempt lines around the country to pick up their copy of the new WoW expansion.   I would imagine that most succeeded, though I can tell you that the line I waited in was 2 city blocks long (yours truly was 3rd in line and had nothing to worry about).
On Thursday morning at 12:16 AM, I installed Wrath on my computer and updated my account to Wrath play ability.  I started my Death Knight, whom is a Night Elf, and played through the intro levels until the wee hours of the morning.   I now know that they call early hours the wee hours because you start to go delirious from lack of sleep, but you still have fun… weeee!
Anyhow, I leveled my Death Knight through the opening levels on Wednesday night and continued the next day.  A day later, I am 67 with some change.  I hope to make it into Northrend by tonight or tomorrow morning without neglecting my family too much.  Wrath has definitely been an exciting voyage so far!  It is very interesting to see who chooses what class to level within my guild and who has rerolled a new class entirely.
I’ve seen achievements scroll across guild chat for new Grand Master professions and exploration of Northrend, which I will not see for awhile given my new class.  Everyone is starting to explore the Nexus and Utgarde Keep.  I am still back in Outlands leveling my Death Knight.  I did get an honorable kill achievement.  A level 70 hunter without the Wrath expansion thought he should try to kill me.  
The one pitfall to Wrath so far is that all of the people that I play with are easily surpassing me into Northrend.  I am glad that Blizzard made it easier to level from 60-70 in the last patch, but it is still a long road to catch up to my guild mates so that I can stop playing alone.  I keep hearing about giants and penguins and neat areas, but am not quite ready to adventure there.  On the other hand, I was the one that rerolled to Death Knight so this pitfall was my own choice.
So far, this expansion has completely knocked out all of the server disappointments that I have had in the past week.  This expansion has surpassed my expectations, even after I played beta.  What choices have you made since Wrath came out?  Has the expansion experience been as good or better than the Burning Crusade?

It's here.

The long-anticipated expansion has finally hit stores and I, like most WoW addicts, am gearing up for questing my way through another ten levels.  I'm not so sure I'm looking forward to saying goodbye to my beautiful purple epic gear or being placed back on the unequal footing of battling higher levels and being subjected to a repetitive gank fest.  But I am excited about having new terrain to explore, raiding new instances, and finding some wicked looking gear for my little pink pigtailed gnome warrior chick after she reaches level 80.

I think with WotLK, players are going to experience both enthusiasm and stress.  There are new goals to be set, more fun to be had, and for those of us who were hitting a ceiling with our geared-out 70s, we will now have room to advance and grow again.  Unlike the Burning Crusade, which felt more like a mere extension of the original game, I think WotLK is truly bringing a new, epic quality to gameplay and world adventure for gamers.  I mean, how cool is it going to be to see a Death Knight in frosted armor stalking around?

In the same token, for those of us who got too comfortable strutting around on our 70s and three-shotting players a couple levels below us, I expect there will be a feverish rush to level to 80 - players are afraid that the slower they are with the leveling process, the more they are going to get their butts kicked by others that are leveling quicker than them...especially considering experience points are now given even for PVP kills. 

I've noticed a lot of my guild members have been concerned about saving up hordes of gold for the expansion as well, assuming that they will be able to level faster if they have a bunch of gold in reserves.  The impatience to get to 80 and find better gear is being felt by most players.  But where many players had topped-out on gear previously - making it easier for those newer to raiding to deck themselves out in purples - I foresee the competitive spirit for getting new armor making it twice as difficult for players to get geared after the expansion.

Yet in the end, I don't doubt WotLK will be a success.  Blizzard has millions of subscribers for a reason.  The expansions keep the game fresh, new, and exciting.  Despite the stress and struggle of dealing with the unfamiliar content and updates made to the game, I'll admit...I can't wait to download my copy of WotLK and get started. 

 

We are now 2 days away from the second World ofWarcraft Expansion and I personally couldn't be more excited.  Hey everyone, before I get started I just wanted to introduce myself briefly. I have been playing World Of Warcraft for about four years and I play a hunter as my main.  I have killed every boss there is to kill and have PVPed my way to a 2300 rating in season 2.  I have a Protadin and a Resto Shaman as well, but my passion lies with my hunter.

My guild was stuck on M'uru when 3.0.2 hit, andthat night we cleared the whole zone without a wipe.  Some say that wedidn't deserve the kill because of the content nerf, but I don't care.  I finished B.C. (Burning Crusade) and totally feel I deserve it.  I struggled through every boss as it was cutting edge and didn't get carried through it.  I paid my dues and my repair bills with the rest of them.

Now as we approach Wrath, just as my colleague below mentions, we are all trying to sure up some cash, achievements, and our specs before the zerg fest that will be the first few days.  

This is where I get to my point...

Will it be exciting, fun and amazing? Or will it be laggy, annoying and excruciating?

For me, the opening days of B.C. were the mostfun I have ever had in game.  I play on a PVP server and it was glorious. Ganking was happening for sure, but camping/griefing wasn’t.  I am for world PVP as much as the nextguy, no matter how annoying it may be, but nothing gets my blood boiled (punintended) more than the repetitive killing of a helpless player.

I’m talking about when the group of five hangsout on the Isle of Quel’danas and repeatedly kill the poor solo player just trying to get his mana remnants.  When the previous expansion hit, this didn’t happen.  People were too excited about leveling. There were some epic world encounters don’t get me wrong, but that’s where they ended.

In addition, the game servers for the most partwere very smooth.  I didn’t experience any server lockups or shutdowns as well as a very limited number of hiccups.  No one thought that it would run as smoothly as it did, and B.C. went out without a hitch.

The question is, will Wrath be as smooth?  Will there be enough mobs for everyone?  Will there be too much griefing on PVP servers?  Will there be server shutdowns?  No one will know until November 13^th, but I personally have faith that we will have some fun times in Northrend this weekend, and I can’t wait.

This is an exciting time for most WOW players, but to some it will be nothing but headaches.

It has been a little over a week since my last entry regarding World of Warcraft.  I have been very busy!  No, no, not with real life.  I’ve found myself sucked into WoW trying to clear through all of those nice achievements that Blizzard conveniently put in a month before Wotlk comes out.

I have a level 70 druid that I respec between balance and feral every other day.   I’ve found that it was super easy to get all my balance badge gear since the instances were nerfed a month ago, so I’ve run Kara and ZA weekly with pugs.  I’ve cleared through Serpent Shrine Cavern, Tempest Keep, and Black Temple.  Getting pugs for Hyjal and Sunwell has been much harder, though I did go on a guild run through Sunwell last week (go Dirt Dogs!).  

I’ve cleared through every classic instance except AQ40 and am only missing one heroic.  The twin emps gave our guild’s 15 man group a little trouble when they glitched out at 5% health.  Also, everyone seems to hate heroic Shadow Labs.  Can’t anyone give a druid some love?

I ran through Eye of the Storm about 70 times to pick up 2 pieces of feral pvp gear this past weekend.  I am now sporting almost a complete set up S2 and hope to pick up the final piece, the chest, this week before Thursday morning’s pick up of my new expansion.  Oh, and yes, I picked up almost all of the Eye’s achievements (still missing the blasted ‘Perfect Storm’).  

I’ve picked up 46 of the 50 pets required to get a skunk carrier.  The robot chicken quests were probably the most annoying of any that I’ve gathered, but totally worth it in the end.  The whelplings still evade me, but I think it has something to do with the other pet farmers in the area with me stealing my kills.

I have farmed close to 1000g running dailies, which allowed me to clear the “A Simple Request” along with a few fishing achievements.   This money will be perfect to use with (que trumpets) my Death Knight.  What?  Why am I doing all these achievements for my druid if I am changing toons in less than a week?  The answer is simple: Blizzard’s achievement system is brilliant.  It makes me want to play my druid even knowing that he will remain level 70 for months at least.

I am not even upset that I have to do all these achievements a second time because I have had so much fun running through them on druid.  However, Wrath comes out in less than 4 days.  What is everyone else doing during their last 4 days?  I will be spending most of Wednesday afternoon sleeping in preparation for my long night.  Wednesday I will get to sleep, Midnight release, installation and starting my death knight.  I can’t wait!

More to come!  Later this week: post wrath info!

The last few weeks of the Burning Crusade are upon us and many guilds are trying to plow through all of the raid content they haven’t yet seen.  In the last week, I have seen PUGs (pick up groups) for everything from Karazhan to Sunwell.  These PUGs do seem to only take geared individuals, but the fact that these once impossible 25-man dungeons can be penetrated and destroyed by PUGs allows everyone playing WoW to really see all of the raid dungeons and progress just before the entry of WotLK.

I guess the real question: why Blizzard didn’t make this change sooner?   I’ve played Warcraft since Dire Maul was introduced into the game.  I remember that when BC came out, guilds were struggling to go through BWL and AQ40, let alone get into Naxx to see that content before the expansion.   In fact, there are quite a few people playing WoW who still never went back into Naxx at 70 and probably won’t know anything about the spider wing until level 80.  With WotLK upon us, the raid bosses saw a huge nerf due to a change in game mechanics.  Does that mean that Blizzard never intended for all paying clients to see all of the content in the game?

MMOs have been popular for sometime with the success of games like Everquest and Final Fantasy XI. Blizzard is an innovative company that really stepped outside of the MMO box to make a completely new and fascinating game.  However, some of the culture of older MMOs did sneak into WoW.  I really do not believe that Blizzard intended for every paying customer to see every raid dungeon.  The elite hardcore raiders were meant to see Naxx.  The elite raiders were meant to complete Sunwell.  And now, every raider is finally intended to see the new content of the developed game.

What made Blizzard change their tune on raids?  Blizzard spends a lot of time creating dungeons and content.  Why wouldn’t they want to show off all of their hard work? WotLK introduces 10-man raids that allow for progression.  You can keep going with your steady guild 10-man group or you may be able to pick up a random 9 other players standing in Dalaran with you.  

Pre-BC, everyone loved 40 man raids.  When BC was introduced with 10 and 25 man raids, the community of players complained because people would be left out of the raids.  Post-BC, we are seeing the introduction of 10-man progression and 25-man progression separate.  Maybe the PUGs that we are seeing form in Shattrath today will continue to be a part of the World of Warcraft and perhaps everyone will get a chance to see all of the new content Blizzard throws our way.

Like many of my fellow adventurers, I was very excited to enter the World of Warcraft last week to try all of the great and new things added to the game before the release of Wrath of the Lich King.  However, just like everyone else, my excitement crashed as quickly as the servers night after night.

Let me pre-empt my disappointment a little by saying that I was one of the few people that forgot to turn on their background downloader and ended up having to download the entire 1.2 gigs of patch in one night.  After 3 long hours, I log into WoW to find many wonderful things:  achievements, new talents, easy raid mobs, oh my!  Obviously, there are many new features that make WoW seem like a whole new game. 

I found myself fishing for the first time in 3 years to unlock achievements for my guild and the entire world around me to see!  I have fished up Old Ironjaw for the disbelievers that think he just doesn’t exist (and yes, it took me 4 hours and 370 fish).  But, despite all of the great new fishing achievements, the server restarts and shut downs over the past week have really put a damper on what could have been the most exciting WoW patch yet. 

Here we are, 1 week since the patch release and instances are still shutting down sporadically and server lag is still a problem.  It is hard to enjoy my classic raid of BWL if the server crashes while we fight Chromaggus because I know the pug will not be able to start back up that same night to finish the achievement.  It is hard to get a group together for the Headless Horseman when the Scarlet Monastery’s server has gone offline.  It is hard to get excited about Wrath when the state of the game is so spotty due to this patch.

I have played the Wrath beta.  I know that there are a lot of great things coming.  Despite Wrath’s possible greatness (and it is great from what I’ve played), the game won’t be any fun if we can’t see all the cool new parts of the game.  The stability of the servers after patches needs a major boost if Blizzard expects people to stick with WoW going into the next expansion.   Arthas invading our servers is great…so long as the game still works.