Tag Archives: World of Warcraft

Braid Your Pitts

I haven’t posted in nearly 4 months. Shameful, I know. I have been gaming a bit though, for sure. In fact one of the main reasons for my lack of updates in the last 6 or 7 months was climbing back onto the vile World of Warcraft bandwagon. I haven’t mentioned it much on here because I’ve been about ready to quit again, once I completed the last of several goals I’d been working on. After that I planned on writing an entry all about my return and what I had accomplished with my time. Unfortunately that last goal has turned out to be a total pain in my ass – expect that post if I finally do meet my goal but I’ve all but stopped again as it is so that seems unlikely.

“Braid is goddamn pretty.”

I got around to playing Braid on XBLA. I actually played through the demo at around the time of its launch and honestly most of my critical analysis of the awesome, creative puzzle mechanics is probably back there somewhere since I was pretty blown away by them originally. Even blasting past that topic, I loved the art style and absolutely adored the music. Despite how mind-bendingly difficult some of the puzzles might seem to some players (personally, most came to me easily, though I did definitely struggle hard with a few of them) it’s still very worth checking out. Notice how I skipped talking about the narrative? 😉 Seriously though, I actually enjoyed it at first and like what they’re were going for though the end came out of nowhere and didn’t really do much for me. In the end though, it didn’t seem crucial to the experience – how much did the story in any of the Super Mario games (and the comparison here is appropriate given all of the obviously influence and callbacks) ever matter?

I finally finished my run through of Fallout 3 + all of the DLC. I got pretty much all of the achievements I could get in one play through and had a blast. My insanely sporadic playtimes made me come to some odd conclusions about my gaming habits as of late: I’m getting too old for this shit. Seriously, I seem to only want to jump into most games (basically anything I’m either not insanely addicted to, or anything that isn’t extremely “pick up and play” friendly) when I have a couple of hours or more free in one sitting, and even then I have to be “in the mood” which I’m often not after a long day at work or whatever. If it is going to take me a year to finish a decent sized RPG for now on I suppose I’m going to have to stop spending as much time and money on this hobby as right now it’s just a little out of whack.

“We’re going vault hopping tonight, baby!”

Back to the game though. Obviously I loved Fallout 3 – I mentioned that in my last update about it. How could I not? I loved the original Fallout games and I love the Elder Scrolls series so… yeah? I’m not going to get into a big, detailed review of it or anything but I did want to mention one unexpected surprise: The Pitt DLC campaign. Whaaa? Although I know it often gets praise as being one of the better DLC add-ons for Fallout 3 I don’t remember hearing anything about the whole moral dilemma you’re faced with in it. Hell, maybe I did and simply forgot all about it since then, but in any case… spoilers in the next two paragraphs!

So, the basic setup for The Pitt (I’ll try to keep it fairly general) is that you’re contacted by a runaway slave who wants you to infiltrate the city which is overrun by an oppressive, ruthless group of slavers who force their slaves into working in their factories while they reap the benefits. They also all have some horrible radiation sickness and the leader of the slavers is apparently hording the cure for his very own. Seems straight forward enough and when you arrive as sure enough, sick slaves everywhere and the people in power are stacking the bad karma deck without question. Once you finally infiltrate the slavers and confront the leader, however, you learn that all isn’t as it appeared – the cure is actually a baby and the ex-slave who talked you into the whole thing in the first place is actually an ex-slaver who was forced out after a failed coup attempt looking for revenge. Seems like the situation is getting greyer. Still, why would I want to leave the baby in the hands of these assholes? Plus, who cares if the other guy is an ex-slaver himself, he clearly wasn’t lying about this place being packed with slaves and this sickness killing everyone. I stole the baby and vaporized the leader of the slavers, and most of the rest of them while I was at it.

“Fireworks are always better when they’re made out of your enemies.”

The plot thickens. Audiotapes reveal that the leader of the slavers was an Paladin of the Brotherhood of Steel who got stranded there after cleansing the ruins of the city long ago. Hm, well that still doesn’t mean he wasn’t an asshole, I suppose. Left there alone, he built up his gang and the settlement himself including bringing the factories back online. He regretted the slave labor but viewed it as a necessary evil and even planned to eventually set them all free. Hmm. He was also the father of the baby in question and, it’s revealed, seemed to genuinely care for the kid. He also viewed his research into the cure in a philanthropic way – he didn’t seem to be hording the cure at all, it simply wasn’t finished. *gulp* I might have made a bad decision but… well, at least the slaves are free, right? So then I get back to the people I was working for to discover the guy acting like a total fascist asshole himself and implying that the baby was now in much worse hands. It also only took me about 2 seconds to notice that the slave labor still appeared to be in full effect around the settlement – maybe the people in the chains had changed, but still… what exactly have I done here?!

This is one of the most interesting moral dilemmas I’ve run into in a game in recent memory. Most fascinating was probably the fact that I really wasn’t ever asked to make any clear cut, black and white choice on the matter. Sure, I was forced to pick a side but it was before I had all of the intel. Even after all of the cards were on the table it was still a pretty nebulous situation with no obvious right choice… and the fact of the matter is, not unlike after the big reveal in Bioshock, I felt totally played after it was over. Nice!

“These guys, yet again…”

What else? Oh yes, I bought and played Halo 4. I’ve talked about the Halo series on here a lot in the past so I’ll skip the background and the in-depth analysis and just say that 343 Studios did a fine job. It still feels very much like a proper Halo game yet makes necessarily measured steps into new directions. I enjoyed the new multiplayer advancement (for example) though so far I prefer Firefight over Spartan Ops. Most of all, I just enjoyed returning to a universe that I’ve always really enjoyed. As far as that goes though, I might have enjoyed watching Forward Unto Dawn more than playing the actual Halo 4 campaign. *shrug*

Next up is a play through of the original Saints Row, if I can manage to slog through the grind. Oh, and I also started a new blog which I’ve been filling full of random non game related stuff – mostly related to music and just general expressive bullshit. I’ll link to it eventually when I have more content. Hell, maybe I’ll even merge it into this one and make it a little less gaming focused. Stay tuned!

Dragon Hunting

Seriously, who doesn’t want to ride around on the back of a dragon? They’re also waaaay cooler than your standard wyverns and gryphons even as the young drakes we get stuck with as mounts. While most of the cooler dragon mounts in the game come as rare drops and/or rewards associated with running heroic instances and raids, there are a few that are relatively easy to obtain on your own if you’re more of a solo player as I tend to be.

“Killing Vyragosa 50 fucking times is an unofficial but all too important part of acquiring a TLPD.”

First off we have a couple of proto-drakes. I really dig the way proto-drakes look – very vicious and rugged and their clumsy, primitive walking and flying animations are quite cool as well. You tend to see a lot less people on proto-drakes than normal drakes – I don’t know if this is rarity, a mattered of popularity, or that the rarer normal drakes and other flying mounts are a bit more difficult to acquire and therefore have an elitist appeal to them, but I like that about them as well.

To start us out what should, in theory, be the easiest of them is the “Time-lost Proto Drake”. A yellow and brown proto-drake with a cyan mouth. To get this mount all you have to do is track down and kill the level 80 rare spawn version of the same creature that flies around The Storm Peaks. The mount has a 100% chance to drop. Easy money? Not so much. The Time-lost Proto Drake is infamously difficult to track down due to its incredibly low spawn rates. Thankfully lot of research has been conducted relating to the TLPD’s flight paths, spawn rates, and the like but even armed with this information expect to spend weeks or even months camping out in the frigid mountains of The Storm Peaks for your chance to own this mount.

“Time lost indeed.”

My own personal quest to acquire this mount took me well over a month, although relatively little of that time was dedicated to 24 hour camping until towards the end. The Time-lost Proto Drake is essentially a rare spawn of a rare spawn – it’s more common variation being the rare blue dragon Vyragosa which I personally killed dozens of times before ever seeing even a hint of the TLPD’s existence. Because of all of the competition on my particular server (your mileage may vary) I found that sticking to one of the 4 confirmed spawn points was the best way to guarantee your chance to see and get first dibs on the creature. You’ll want to use an add-on such as “NPCScan” as well as do some reading at Ponderance’s TLPD Resource site.

The other proto-drake worth mentioning here is the Green Proto-Drake. The Green Proto-Drake has an attractive green and purple coloration with a fiery orange mouth – it’s quite striking, really. Additionally it is much easier to acquire than the TLPD though it can still be a bit painful. Make your way to the Sholazar Basin and visit the Oracles to kick off a fairly painless 8 day reputation grind to get to Revered and then purchase a Mysterious Egg from the Oracles Quartermaster for a few gold. The egg will hatch in your inventory after 3 days (recently lowered from a much more annoying 7 day timer) which will then produce a number of random prizes. Many of these prizes are companions, including the cool and potentially valuable Proto-Drake Whelp, and one, the rarest one of all, of course, is our mount.

“An… eggquisite… purchase.”

You’ll need a little luck to get the Green Proto-drake without purchasing more than a few eggs though if your luck isn’t so great you might end up with a veritable zoo worth of companions before ever getting the mount, but at least it doesn’t take much gold or work even if it does sometimes require a bit of patience. I believe my Green Proto-drake reins dropped after around 5 eggs though I’ve heard stories of it taking people months. My opinion? Worth it!

Finally we have an actual dragon as opposed to a proto-dragon, and an attractive one at that. The Red Drake mount can be acquired for a hefty sum of 1600gp by those who reach Exalted with the Wyrmrest Accord faction. Reaching Exalted reputation will require almost a month’s worth of running a few daily quests though if you don’t mind running dungeons you can also purchase a tabard once you reach Friendly that will give you Wyrmrest reputation gains in level 80 Northrend dungeons, speeding the process along fairly dramatically. Maybe it’s just me but I consider red dragons to be fairly iconic *flashbacks of the old Basic Dungeons & Dragons box set* and despite being relatively easy to obtain this is probably one of the better looking of the available drake mount colorations in my opinion – I prefer this one to the more commonly seen Bronze Drake mount. Normal drakes are also impressively large with massive wingspans compared to proto-drakes and other flying mounts. Everyone should definitely have at least one in their collections.

“I need a Wyrm Rest after grinding for this thing. *rimshot*”

Even though this is the “Northrend Edition” more or less I should give an honorable mention to Outland’s Nether Drake mounts. These bad boys can be obtained by reaching Exalted with Netherwing faction. This takes just over two weeks of running a fairly intense course of dailies and other quests but, time aside, should be a breeze at 80 or 85. You do require epic flight to complete this grind, however, making it fairly costly and unappealing for casual players who might not want to make the investment. I’ve never actually completed this reputation climb myself though it is a near future goal of mine.

Other honorable mentions:

The Bronze Drake is a 100% drop from beating a relatively easy boss in a heroic level 80 instance within a certain time frame. Although it was originally fairly challenging, these days not so much, particularly after Cataclysm. I’d think a group of 85s could farm this mount out very easily. The awesome looking Violet Proto-drake only requires you to complete every holiday achievement, most of which are soloable and quite easy to boot. “Only” however, doesn’t really take into account that we’re talking about taking an entire year to acquire. Still, if you’re patient enough…

That’s it for now. I may make another post in the future regarding the awesome new Elemental variety of drake mounts added to Cataclysm, of which some do indeed fall into the category of being relatively easy to obtain.

Shattered Memories

I started writing this on the eve of the release of Cataclysm, not too long after “The Shattering” has given Azeroth’s zones a face-lift. Some of these “classic” WoW zones have seen more drastic changes than others but all of them have at least seen minor changes and quest line overhauls. I planned on doing a few different articles about pre-shattered Azeroth but I procrastinated a bit too long and none of them really panned out. Instead of focusing in detail about any specific zone or change, inspired by two excellent podcasts I’ve been listening to recently (Postcards from the Old World and Warcraft Less Traveled) I thought it might be fun to briefly give my impressions about ALL of the old world zones my first character, still my main today, leveled through. Some of these early zones I also ran in beta, just to clear up some potential discrepancies.

“The logon screen from beta, advertising a place you can’t go until you buy the first expansion!”

Durotar was where my young Orc started his adventure and I’ve started here many other times on various other servers since. I always enjoyed ransacking Tiragarde Keep as slaughtering Alliance humans in a building straight out of Warcraft 3 after almost nothing but wildlife save a few trolls and centaurs always felt like a welcome progression to me. Cleaning out the cultists in Skull Rock, leading up to the eventual visit to Ragefire Chasm was a staple as well. Going after Fizzle Darkstorm in Thunder Ridge always felt like a challenging mini-adventure each time I leveled through the zone – I don’t recall having too much trouble with him as a Rogue but other classes I leveled here with had to come up with more inventive techniques without the benefit of stealth.

When I finally got to The Barrens it felt like the world finally opened up. This quickly turned from a positive to a negative as I ran all over the place questing. The Barrens has an infamous reputation for that so no need to dwell on that topic. That said I always enjoy the Crossroads and Ratchet and the zone had some decent quests as well. The Wailing Caverns was the first REAL dungeon I ran and I’ve still got a slight but undeniable soft spot for it. So called “Barrens Chat” wasn’t quite as out of hand in the beginning as it eventually ended up being but I feel like it deserves a mention as well. Quest wise, raiding Northwatch Hold and Bael Modan were some of my favorites, along with the Sludge Fens area.

I eventually ran through Mulgore to get to Thunderbluff, as quests demanded, and I always thought it was a beautiful zone. I didn’t have a Tauren for quite a while later so I never really leveled there back then but now I can say that it almost felt like a mini-Barrens to me – lots of open space, and running around therein to complete quests. Not a huge fan, but not bad. Thankfully the post-Shattering revamp has streamlined these quests a little bit and overall the zone retains its feel without being quite as painful – it feels like you’re out quicker to boot.

I ended up in Tirisfall Glades to visit the Undercity at some point as well. The main attraction here was eventually the Scarlet Monastery and much later, the entrance into the Western Plaguelands of course. I ran into Silverpine Forest a few times as well to help a few friends and the like. I always hated the long, narrow feel of the zone despite its cool aesthetic. I recall bumping into a Son of Arugal once when I was much higher level and being surprised when it started kicking my ass. I remember running Shadowfang Keep a couple of times back then with guildies and being intimidated by the fact that it felt like a real dungeon, even more so than the Wailing Caverns, and being a bit worried that I’d screw something up since I hadn’t done many instances or grouped much period.

Back to Kalimdor, I went from The Barrens to Stone Talon Mountains around the same time as other guildmates. Stone Talon had a fairly deserted feeling, much as it does today, with few people questing there. I really dug Windshear Crag at the time. I also remember helping a buddy complete the grindy feeling kill quests in the Charred Vale. Each time I’ve visited it since it has felt just the same – maybe a bit easier than before, but still very, very similar to the early days of classic. I’m quite curious about how much this place has been changed but I haven’t made it back here yet.

After that I distinctly remember heading directly into Desolace and spending a good amount of time there. I think a lot of my guildies must have headed elsewhere, because at first I was pretty much alone in the zone. Soon, as I began to wrap up in the southern Centaur areas (AKA “noob’s first rep grind”) they began to join me, and I had my first PVP experience. I did mention I was on a PVP server, didn’t I? During the centaur rep grind we started to see red names talking to some of the NPCs. It was only a matter of time before someone attacked – I don’t recall if it was them or us, but that doesn’t really matter in the end. This was, of course, only the first of hundreds of such PVP sessions but it was memorable and fun. World PVP really makes you appreciate being a rogue, I must say. Some of my favorite Desolace memories include the Naga quests on and around Ranazjar Isle as well as exploring the well hidden Shadowbreak Ravine back before it was populated with mobs or even had a name assigned to it.

I’m sure I visited Hillsbrand Foothills and the Alterac Mountains a few times around this time, speaking of PVP. I didn’t do much leveling here but the area around Tarren Mill was always such a hot bed for world PVP (AKA “ganking”) it was always an interesting place to visit. I also have fond memories of sloshing through the river, searching for and stealthing into Ravenholdt, and yeti hunting in the mountains. I would occasionally revisit Tarren Mill when exceedingly bored to PVP – even though I was a rogue I rarely ganked people without provocation but once you were on my hit list I would be fairly merciless. I’d fly in and stand just outside the town limits waiting for the almost inevitable Alliance player to come along and gank some seemingly innocent quester as they entered or left the town. I liked to play Sheriff and Tarren Mill definitely felt like a frontier town.

Back west, Ashenvale was a zone I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with. It’s a beautiful zone and is probably about the best place to experience Night Elf flavor as a member of the Horde. That said, on the Horde side the long, boring run (or flight) from West the East and vice versa and the long travel times involved in some of the quests made this place one I wasn’t too eager to return to. Now that this area has been “shattered” and lives up to its name a bit better, this may be vastly improved now.

“The Kodo Graveyard in Desolace.”

I ran back down south to Thousand Needles, a zone I had eagerly wanted to visit, tantalized by The Great Lift in the south of the Barrens. Not one of my favorite zones to quest in, but definitely unique and beautiful in its own way. The Shimmering Flats was a cool subzone despite its boring “kill x mobs” “collect x items” quests. It should be noted that I totally skipped Dustwallow Marsh though there wasn’t a whole lot of content there for the Horde at the time anyway. That was a zone that was vastly improved even before the Shattering.

I did run through the Deadwind Pass and visited the Swamp of Sorrows, however. I went there initially to grind for whelplings at Itharius’s Cave. I never did get a whelpling pet to drop but I grinded out an entire level or two here, and when I later came back to quest I already knew much of the zone rather well – definitely one that I have a soft spot for. I can’t wait to come back here to see how it has changed. While I’m in the area, I never did quest in The Blasted Lands. It was an intimidating area with few quests for the Horde… and I was very intimidated by the Dark Portal. It was sort of the icon of high level content – hell, it was our log in screen back then. In fact I never REALLY explored the zone until after Burning Crusade launched!

As most people did in classic, I spent way too long in Stranglethorne Vale. It felt like you could spend 10 levels or more questing in STV. It was also an insane hotbed for world PVP action. I recall being ganked there many, many times, as well as occasionally returning the favor. Naturally, Booty Bay was always an fun town to hang around because of this. My favorite areas of old STV were probably the northern Troll ruins and the southern Pirate camps.

Speaking of places with neutral cities and a ton of PVP, Tanaris was one of the most important zones in my main’s classic leveling career. I remember hitting what I perceived to be a lull in content at around the time I was questing in Tanaris and ended up spending several levels grinding pirates in and around Lost Rigger Cove. I claimed much of the main camp there and would chase off any Alliance who came to do more than their few quests, or who tried to interrupt me. There was a chest spawn that I became a master of tracking which eventually became the source of my first blue world drop. I also visited Feralas at some point but I don’t have much to say about it. I remember doing the robot chicken escort quest here 50 times, and I remember grinding for Golden Pearls in the naga cave on the Isle of Dread, but nothing too major stands out. The whole Isle of Dread no longer exists post-Shattering, interestingly enough.

I went on a brief visit to the Badlands, from one desert to another. There wasn’t a ton of quests here but it was worth the visit in my leveling treadmill. The main memory that sticks out in my mind is scanning the horizons for red names – it seemed like you could see enemy players for miles in a lot of the areas here, which means as a rogue I could make myself scarce rather easily… whether to avoid conflict or to setup my own ambush. I only briefly visited Searing Gorge and didn’t quest in Burning Steppes at all. Both zones seemed extremely uninviting and with only small quest hubs, didn’t seem worth the risk. It definitely did seem like a risk too… flying over the Burning Steppes and watching Volchan, an elite giant stomping around, was one of my first glimpses at the zone. It wasn’t until I later visited Blackrock Mountain that I came back to the area. I never really ran any of the Blackrock instances in classic, though I recall a failed expedition to infiltrate Blackrock Depths with 4 other rogues at some point to look for a specific drop for a guildmate of mine.

I also stopped back up north briefly, questing in The Hinterlands. Just as it is today, it was fairly empty back then, and just as it is today, Skulk Rock was a great place to farm for Ghost Mushrooms. (Yes, my main is a herbalist/alchemist.)

Un’Gore Crater was a zone I spent a fair amount of time in. I’m sure everyone remembers their first few encounters with the Devilsaur. I loved all of the wacky references here and I think I still have Linken’s Boomerang in my bank somewhere. There was a fair amount of ganking here at and around quest areas but I seem to recall being more worried about all of the dinosaurs and the damn Silithid in the area than other players. Speaking of Silithids, I never did, and even to this day still haven’t ever quested in Silithus. Back in the day it was rather barren, and I simply didn’t want to visit another damn desert zone. It was eventually improved more and more and I’d guess is now a worthwhile destination these days, provided you don’t have any kind of insect phobias of course.

Azshara was next, I believe. Cool zone. It was pretty empty at the time. Another guildy was here with me and I recall showing him the stranded crew of the Horizon Scout and their quests. The southern forest around the Ruined Reaches was one of my favorite wooded zones in the game for atmosphere alone. I was also always fascinated by Azshara Tower. A wizard tower high on a mountain that you can only get to via teleportation? Sign me up! This zone got radically, and I mean RADICALLY overhauled with Catacylsm and is intended to be the Goblin equivalent to the Barrens, level wise now.

Moving into Felwood and running through to Winterspring was a bit of an adventure at the time, and Winterspring was a zone that I hung around in for quite a while, grinding on Highborne spirits around Lake Kel Theril as well as in the various caves is a distinct memory that I retain from my main’s 50s. I’d probably rank Winterspring up there as one of my favorite classic zones at the time.

Finally, I headed over to the Western Plaguelands. Running around in the farms and the Ruins of Andorhal was a lot of fun. This was another time in which I both hooked up with some other guildies as well as spent a lot of time ducking and/or starting PVP. When I finally headed over to the Eastern Plaguelands PVP seemed even more encouraged thanks to the towers system and questing at/around the shared camp of Light’s Hope Chapel. Corin’s Crossing was real creepy and stuck with me and the northern area, Plaguewood, filled with its Ziggurats, was straight out of Warcraft 3. I eventually hit 60 by grinding on High Elves at the Quel’Lithien lodge of all things.

That’s my brief tour of the old world. Hope it brought up some memories for some of you who were there and raised a few questions from the (many) World of Warcraft players who joined well after classic.