I managed to finally hit 75 with Rissa a couple days ago and finally got a new rank of a balance spell. (Just one though). Most of the new ranks seem to be feral and restoration, with very few balance updates so far. I'm hoping in the next 5 levels we'll see some more.
Unfortunately, since I hit 75, I haven't been back to the beta servers. I have however, spent the last two days getting that last level on my rogue and I'm pleased to announce that not only is Keri 70, she has some nice Kara level epics waiting for her. (hooray for alt runs).
I plan to go back to the beta tonight and it's a long weekend and one in which I hope to wrap up Grizzly Hills and head off to either Sholazar Basin or Zul'Drak. I'll keep you guys posted. I'm trying to share my time between live side and beta, so I can get all the alts I had planned on leveling to 70, as well as their mounts, skills, etc, plus continue setting aside money for those money sinks we know are coming in Wrath.
I will give one parting word of advice to those who like flying though. This is considered a Public Service Announcement. It is considered wise to fly low, as when you enter one of the many no-fly zones you are dismounted and dropped (apparently on the spot from what I hear). Welcome to the new rules of flying mounts!
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Monday, August 25, 2008
Beta Testing 8/24
Yesterday was my big push to hit 75. Unfortunately, for those who are familiar with the stability of the Beta Servers, this was not meant to be. After several crashes in a row of Northrend, I finally gave up and went to the Death Knight, where I was finally able to complete the final quest in the starter zone and head out to hit level 58. The final quest, while annoying, in that you have to wait for the battle to finish if you got there in the middle, and you have to wait for it to start, (anywhere from 5-20 minutes total) is without a doubt one of the most well done quests I've seen from Blizzard. It's a great finale to what I proclaim as the absolute best starting zone in WoW.
And, I did finally hit 58 so now my deathknight can go to Outlands.
Back to Rissa, I was out and about wandering around Grizzly Hills yesterday when I came across Bambina, Mother of Bambina, Flora the skunk and Thudder the rabbit. They were so cute, I took several screenshots and posted them. They were wandering around together near the the Westfall Brigade. And of course, who better to head up the Westfall Brigade outpost than our friend Gryan Stoutmantle. You might remember him from Westfall.
Of all the quests I did on Rissa yesterday, I have to say I enjoyed the capturing of wild horses the best. The next one was the get away from the worgs of Silverpine Camp. You ride duo with an npc, and while he steers the horse you get to stun, and throw fire upon the worgs that are chasing you. I died once (and they can kill you) before I really got the hang of it and made it back to camp. I enjoy this new caliber of quest where you get to "take over" other items and use them and their abilites. It's a nice game dynamic that adds something unique to the game play.
I plan to finish my quest for 75 tonight, and hopefully I'll make it. For anyone that's reading this that got in the beta, I'm on the Northrend server, in the guild Beta Brigade (we have over 500 members, lol), and you can find me either under Rissa or Itriona. Send me a note, let me know your toon name, and if it's not obvious, how I know you. Hopefully we'll at least get to say hi!
And, I did finally hit 58 so now my deathknight can go to Outlands.
Back to Rissa, I was out and about wandering around Grizzly Hills yesterday when I came across Bambina, Mother of Bambina, Flora the skunk and Thudder the rabbit. They were so cute, I took several screenshots and posted them. They were wandering around together near the the Westfall Brigade. And of course, who better to head up the Westfall Brigade outpost than our friend Gryan Stoutmantle. You might remember him from Westfall.
Of all the quests I did on Rissa yesterday, I have to say I enjoyed the capturing of wild horses the best. The next one was the get away from the worgs of Silverpine Camp. You ride duo with an npc, and while he steers the horse you get to stun, and throw fire upon the worgs that are chasing you. I died once (and they can kill you) before I really got the hang of it and made it back to camp. I enjoy this new caliber of quest where you get to "take over" other items and use them and their abilites. It's a nice game dynamic that adds something unique to the game play.
I plan to finish my quest for 75 tonight, and hopefully I'll make it. For anyone that's reading this that got in the beta, I'm on the Northrend server, in the guild Beta Brigade (we have over 500 members, lol), and you can find me either under Rissa or Itriona. Send me a note, let me know your toon name, and if it's not obvious, how I know you. Hopefully we'll at least get to say hi!
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Beta Testing 8/21 - 8/23
We can pretty much skip 8/21 and 8/22 as I didn't log in at all during that time. Sorry guys, I spent time live side doing ZA and Kara with friends. I kind of missed them, since I don't see much of them lately.
Yesterday, however, the continent of Northrend seemed as unstable as ever, not letting me even log in for the first 15 minutes online. I finally gave up, and decided to test out my Death Knight. The opening shots and story are pretty amazing, and you start in Ebon Hold, right next to the Lich King. You take your very first quests from Mograine, Baron Rivendare and Instructor Razuvious. Yep, that's right, you get to interact with several bosses in the game now, including several from Naxx.
The first quest you do gets your the very first weapon you own, teaching you how to Runeforge a weapon. This, and all other items you receive are blue in quality and pretty nice to boot. You get one item to fill every slot , trinkets included before you head out into the world to start questing. You also get to steal a horse and make him your Death Charger, allowing you to get an epic speed mount before you ever hit level 56.
The new Runic power system seems a little clumsy at first, as it takes a bit of getting used to. However, after a while, it starts to make more sense. You start out with a handful of abilities and no talent points, and doing the quests teaches you more spells, as well as awarding talent points to catch you up to the same amount a non-DK of the same level would have. This does require you to have a bit of knowledge about the talent trees, as well as an idea in mind about which direction you want to go.
I'm heading down the Unholy tree first, although I have a feeling I'll be respeccing to try the other trees out as well. Here's a link to my first build http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?talent=jbZhZfMh0xfoxcq0ssh.
The quests follow a distinct story line, and you move from instance to instance in the timeline with a diffinitive change in how Death's Watch looks each time you change instances. Keep in mind that you may not go back in the time line, so it is very important to finish ALL quests given before going back to Ebon Hold each time you are told to.
I am enjoying the flavor and the distinct difference of the death knight as compared to all the other alts that I have and while I gave some negative feedback for a couple of quests that were much more difficult than they really needed to be, the opening quest chains are so unique in all of the starter zones I've done, that I really recommend that even if you don't plan on having a death knight, you at least do the opening quests so you can see and interact with the lore yourself.
Yesterday, however, the continent of Northrend seemed as unstable as ever, not letting me even log in for the first 15 minutes online. I finally gave up, and decided to test out my Death Knight. The opening shots and story are pretty amazing, and you start in Ebon Hold, right next to the Lich King. You take your very first quests from Mograine, Baron Rivendare and Instructor Razuvious. Yep, that's right, you get to interact with several bosses in the game now, including several from Naxx.
The first quest you do gets your the very first weapon you own, teaching you how to Runeforge a weapon. This, and all other items you receive are blue in quality and pretty nice to boot. You get one item to fill every slot , trinkets included before you head out into the world to start questing. You also get to steal a horse and make him your Death Charger, allowing you to get an epic speed mount before you ever hit level 56.
The new Runic power system seems a little clumsy at first, as it takes a bit of getting used to. However, after a while, it starts to make more sense. You start out with a handful of abilities and no talent points, and doing the quests teaches you more spells, as well as awarding talent points to catch you up to the same amount a non-DK of the same level would have. This does require you to have a bit of knowledge about the talent trees, as well as an idea in mind about which direction you want to go.
I'm heading down the Unholy tree first, although I have a feeling I'll be respeccing to try the other trees out as well. Here's a link to my first build http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?talent=jbZhZfMh0xfoxcq0ssh.
The quests follow a distinct story line, and you move from instance to instance in the timeline with a diffinitive change in how Death's Watch looks each time you change instances. Keep in mind that you may not go back in the time line, so it is very important to finish ALL quests given before going back to Ebon Hold each time you are told to.
I am enjoying the flavor and the distinct difference of the death knight as compared to all the other alts that I have and while I gave some negative feedback for a couple of quests that were much more difficult than they really needed to be, the opening quest chains are so unique in all of the starter zones I've done, that I really recommend that even if you don't plan on having a death knight, you at least do the opening quests so you can see and interact with the lore yourself.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Beta Testing 8/17/08 - 8/20/08
As you might have noticed, I went from tracking days in the beta to actual dates. I'm having some trouble remembering how many days I've played and I don't want to have to keep recounting. Also, thanks to everyone who's mentioned they like hearing about the beta and are pushing for me to keep blogging.
The past few days have been a little busy. To start, last night I didn't log in at all to the beta, instead choosing to split my time between the Olympics and Live-side, doing ZA. It was nice to see my friends, and spend some time with my hubby. Well worth the time not spent in beta.
Two days ago, the 19th I worked on a few quests in Grizzly Hills and did a lot of exploring of that zone. It really reminds me of the California Redwoods. I saw lots of Grizzly bears, a few imperial eagles and quite a bit of stag. Most of the zone seems like it would have just a slight breeze, and be around 60 degrees, except where it butts up against the Howling Fjord. There, you will find snow covered trees, ground and mountains.
I found the dwarven city in the Grizzly Hills. It's very dwarven looking, standard stone buildings, but the shapes of the buildings, with the stone columns and the glowing runes on the front of the city make this one of the most unique settlements I've seen. It seems to be defended by runic dwarves, from the attacking runic golems.
I also found a troll city, with the coolest skull torches lining the path up to the city. It's near one of the stair cases up to Zul'Drak, and as you get closer to the stair, there seem to be hundreds of trolls running around the stairs. The main town, Amber Lodge, sends you to an outpost near there to deal with their threat, although I haven't done the quests yet.
I also did a quest chain that took me to a very nordic looking settlement. I was ordered to kill many of the fighters, and obtain some of the flame-binders proto-drake talismans. Once I had enough proto-drake talismans, I was ordered to use them on the leaders favorite proto-drake to take over his mount, and slay the leader. Once again, Blizz makes clever use of the "taking over" of an item to be able to use it's abilities. The thing I found funny here was that I stealthed to the dragon, so when I took it over I was in cat form, and I ended up in cat form on its back. It looked most hilarious to see a cat riding a proto-drake. One of the benefits to these types of quests is that you are then able to solo elite mobs. This makes you feel a little more powerful, but adds a very interesting dynamic to the game.
I also found an entire settlement full of daily quests. I have yet to try any of them, but the first time you do them they award cash, and decent xp, so I'll probably give them a try at the very least. Cash seems to be no problem, as just with the quests I've done, I've made about 1200g. Unfortunately, everything on a beta server is 100 times as expensive as it should be, so for now, I'm just waiting to hit 80 and sink my money into a Dalaran teleport ring.
This weekend, as I was wrapping up quests in Dragonblight, I decided to have a go at Azjol-Nerub. It was one of the most well done instances I've encountered. Very short and sweet. The whole instance is ~9 pulls long and a well organized group can do this instance in about 15-20 minutes. I've heard tales that a group experienced with the instance can do it in less than 15. Should make this one a highly sought after heroic, even with only 3 bosses. It is nerubian based, and the packs you fight are quite large, meant to test your endurance. The boss fights are intriguing and the instance has a very "Journey to the Center of the Earth" feel, complete with a jump down a very deep hole. The mushrooms are rainbow colored, and overly large, and you run on both the ground, and spider webs, which makes things even more interesting.
After Azjol-Nerub, we traveled over to Zul'Drak and visited Drak-Thol. This 5 man tooks us roughly an hour to complete. One of the boss fights is very Vashj like in that when you engage the boss, he goes immune under 4 crystals and starts spawning mobs. As you kill mobs, the crystals break, and when all 4 break, you can dps the boss. The last boss of this instance, a dragon, turns you into a skeleton for about 30-ish seconds, every 30-ish seconds. Transformed, your main action bar changes much like it does when you take over a piece on the chessboard of Kara, or turn into a ghost at gorefiend. You then use the skellies abilities to kill the boss.
During both of these instances, I was specced Resto. (I know, unheard of for me). While I wouldn't want to spec resto permanently, I certainly didn't mind it and found it a new type of challenge. Flourish seems like a good spell for the mana cost and talent point. And trees got a little boost, being able to keep up with the main party speed wise, and being able to cast all their healing spells in tree form, including the previoulsy excluded Healing Touch. I would say trees are no longer gimped in their use, but will probably be a little more widely used, with a wider range in spells.
I do plan on logging in to the beta tonight, I'll update you tomorrow on what new things I find in Grizzly Hills.
The past few days have been a little busy. To start, last night I didn't log in at all to the beta, instead choosing to split my time between the Olympics and Live-side, doing ZA. It was nice to see my friends, and spend some time with my hubby. Well worth the time not spent in beta.
Two days ago, the 19th I worked on a few quests in Grizzly Hills and did a lot of exploring of that zone. It really reminds me of the California Redwoods. I saw lots of Grizzly bears, a few imperial eagles and quite a bit of stag. Most of the zone seems like it would have just a slight breeze, and be around 60 degrees, except where it butts up against the Howling Fjord. There, you will find snow covered trees, ground and mountains.
I found the dwarven city in the Grizzly Hills. It's very dwarven looking, standard stone buildings, but the shapes of the buildings, with the stone columns and the glowing runes on the front of the city make this one of the most unique settlements I've seen. It seems to be defended by runic dwarves, from the attacking runic golems.
I also found a troll city, with the coolest skull torches lining the path up to the city. It's near one of the stair cases up to Zul'Drak, and as you get closer to the stair, there seem to be hundreds of trolls running around the stairs. The main town, Amber Lodge, sends you to an outpost near there to deal with their threat, although I haven't done the quests yet.
I also did a quest chain that took me to a very nordic looking settlement. I was ordered to kill many of the fighters, and obtain some of the flame-binders proto-drake talismans. Once I had enough proto-drake talismans, I was ordered to use them on the leaders favorite proto-drake to take over his mount, and slay the leader. Once again, Blizz makes clever use of the "taking over" of an item to be able to use it's abilities. The thing I found funny here was that I stealthed to the dragon, so when I took it over I was in cat form, and I ended up in cat form on its back. It looked most hilarious to see a cat riding a proto-drake. One of the benefits to these types of quests is that you are then able to solo elite mobs. This makes you feel a little more powerful, but adds a very interesting dynamic to the game.
I also found an entire settlement full of daily quests. I have yet to try any of them, but the first time you do them they award cash, and decent xp, so I'll probably give them a try at the very least. Cash seems to be no problem, as just with the quests I've done, I've made about 1200g. Unfortunately, everything on a beta server is 100 times as expensive as it should be, so for now, I'm just waiting to hit 80 and sink my money into a Dalaran teleport ring.
This weekend, as I was wrapping up quests in Dragonblight, I decided to have a go at Azjol-Nerub. It was one of the most well done instances I've encountered. Very short and sweet. The whole instance is ~9 pulls long and a well organized group can do this instance in about 15-20 minutes. I've heard tales that a group experienced with the instance can do it in less than 15. Should make this one a highly sought after heroic, even with only 3 bosses. It is nerubian based, and the packs you fight are quite large, meant to test your endurance. The boss fights are intriguing and the instance has a very "Journey to the Center of the Earth" feel, complete with a jump down a very deep hole. The mushrooms are rainbow colored, and overly large, and you run on both the ground, and spider webs, which makes things even more interesting.
After Azjol-Nerub, we traveled over to Zul'Drak and visited Drak-Thol. This 5 man tooks us roughly an hour to complete. One of the boss fights is very Vashj like in that when you engage the boss, he goes immune under 4 crystals and starts spawning mobs. As you kill mobs, the crystals break, and when all 4 break, you can dps the boss. The last boss of this instance, a dragon, turns you into a skeleton for about 30-ish seconds, every 30-ish seconds. Transformed, your main action bar changes much like it does when you take over a piece on the chessboard of Kara, or turn into a ghost at gorefiend. You then use the skellies abilities to kill the boss.
During both of these instances, I was specced Resto. (I know, unheard of for me). While I wouldn't want to spec resto permanently, I certainly didn't mind it and found it a new type of challenge. Flourish seems like a good spell for the mana cost and talent point. And trees got a little boost, being able to keep up with the main party speed wise, and being able to cast all their healing spells in tree form, including the previoulsy excluded Healing Touch. I would say trees are no longer gimped in their use, but will probably be a little more widely used, with a wider range in spells.
I do plan on logging in to the beta tonight, I'll update you tomorrow on what new things I find in Grizzly Hills.
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Beta Testing Days Seven -Nine
Well, I had an extremely busy week and apparently the blog lost the post I wrote on Thursday morning. Tuesday, the beta server was up and down, and I eventually gave up trying to log in. After it crashed the first two times, there were no mobs on the world anywhere, and I gave up and went live side.
Wednesday, I had an appt in the evening and so by the time I got home it was after 8:30. I spent the time watching the Olympics and simply getting myself back to a resting place. Thursday, raid was called live-side, so the hubby and I went to dinner and a movie.
So...we get around to Friday night. I have to admit that I'm still rather distracted by the Olympics, but I do manage to quest out most of Wintergarde Keep. I then get to ride double behind an NPC on a gryphon out to Thorson's Post, near the Carrion Fields, which was cool in itself, and then I was ordered to take an alliance siege engine over and go destroy some plague wagons. I have to say out of all the quests I've done so far in the beta, this is by and far my favorite. The siege engine allows you to freeze and blast the mobs, while when you get near a siege engine you deploy a gnome mechanic to dismantle it, then blast away, keeping them safe. Blizz seems to be doing a lot of these types of quests where you use actions of an item, or a gryphon, etc in order to complete quest objectives. I find this a unique approach to completing quests, so we'll have to see if they keep it similar in the future zones.
Once I completed that quest, I was ordered to rescue some munitions, which was relatively easy, and then as I was getting ready to move on to a quest to rescue some alliance guys using a cannon, my computer crashed. And sadly, I realized that the cord had come unplugged and I was unable to keep playing as the battery was dead.
Among the screen shots from yesterday, you'll find some of the death knight flying mount. I have to say that I thought the death knight epic ground mount was sick, but really, the flying mount is even better. You'll have to peruse through the screenshots to see it. I also found a camp on a snowed in hill, but with a boat, and that was also a little strange.
I did find that with them changing the xp required between levels, I went from 4 bubbles from 74, to less than halfway through 73. That was a little bit of a bummer. Also, with the changed mechanics of spell costs, I'm finding the need to sit and drink a little bit more often than before. It'll be interesting to see what the final level 80 costs of the spells end up being.
Today I won't be playing a whole lot, mainly just getting myself back to an inn, as I have D&D in about an hour.
Wednesday, I had an appt in the evening and so by the time I got home it was after 8:30. I spent the time watching the Olympics and simply getting myself back to a resting place. Thursday, raid was called live-side, so the hubby and I went to dinner and a movie.
So...we get around to Friday night. I have to admit that I'm still rather distracted by the Olympics, but I do manage to quest out most of Wintergarde Keep. I then get to ride double behind an NPC on a gryphon out to Thorson's Post, near the Carrion Fields, which was cool in itself, and then I was ordered to take an alliance siege engine over and go destroy some plague wagons. I have to say out of all the quests I've done so far in the beta, this is by and far my favorite. The siege engine allows you to freeze and blast the mobs, while when you get near a siege engine you deploy a gnome mechanic to dismantle it, then blast away, keeping them safe. Blizz seems to be doing a lot of these types of quests where you use actions of an item, or a gryphon, etc in order to complete quest objectives. I find this a unique approach to completing quests, so we'll have to see if they keep it similar in the future zones.
Once I completed that quest, I was ordered to rescue some munitions, which was relatively easy, and then as I was getting ready to move on to a quest to rescue some alliance guys using a cannon, my computer crashed. And sadly, I realized that the cord had come unplugged and I was unable to keep playing as the battery was dead.
Among the screen shots from yesterday, you'll find some of the death knight flying mount. I have to say that I thought the death knight epic ground mount was sick, but really, the flying mount is even better. You'll have to peruse through the screenshots to see it. I also found a camp on a snowed in hill, but with a boat, and that was also a little strange.
I did find that with them changing the xp required between levels, I went from 4 bubbles from 74, to less than halfway through 73. That was a little bit of a bummer. Also, with the changed mechanics of spell costs, I'm finding the need to sit and drink a little bit more often than before. It'll be interesting to see what the final level 80 costs of the spells end up being.
Today I won't be playing a whole lot, mainly just getting myself back to an inn, as I have D&D in about an hour.
Monday, August 11, 2008
Beta Testing Day 6
I finished questing out of Wyrmrest Temple. I have to say that I like the lore and quest chains from there, and you get to help with each of the Dragonshrines in some manner.
Unfortunately tonight, I spent more time distracted by the Olympics than actually completing quests. However, I can confirm that Blizz has not fixed the bug of mounting in the capital cities of Azeroth, although you may ride in on your mount and stay that way.
I also went exploring around Wintergarde Keep and came across a rather interesting campsite at the top of a mountain. It was abandoned, but besides just a cabin, there was also a boat. A little intriguing.
For the greatest of graphical glitches I have found so far, I had to go no further than the Dragonblight Waterway that separates Dragonblight from Grizzly Hills. This river is filled with random squares of water, huge splotches of land on which there is no water, but you still get a breath timer and get dismounted and the mini map looks hideous, with a brown & blue diamond striped visual of the water.
We'll see how far I get tonight. I discovered several more quest hubs in Dragonblight so I'm a long way from done. And maybe soon I'll get to see Azjol-Nerub. I'm anxious to see this instance as I've heard it's pretty cool.
Unfortunately tonight, I spent more time distracted by the Olympics than actually completing quests. However, I can confirm that Blizz has not fixed the bug of mounting in the capital cities of Azeroth, although you may ride in on your mount and stay that way.
I also went exploring around Wintergarde Keep and came across a rather interesting campsite at the top of a mountain. It was abandoned, but besides just a cabin, there was also a boat. A little intriguing.
For the greatest of graphical glitches I have found so far, I had to go no further than the Dragonblight Waterway that separates Dragonblight from Grizzly Hills. This river is filled with random squares of water, huge splotches of land on which there is no water, but you still get a breath timer and get dismounted and the mini map looks hideous, with a brown & blue diamond striped visual of the water.
We'll see how far I get tonight. I discovered several more quest hubs in Dragonblight so I'm a long way from done. And maybe soon I'll get to see Azjol-Nerub. I'm anxious to see this instance as I've heard it's pretty cool.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Beta Testing Day Five
I had a blast today and got to finally head into Dragonblight. The last chain in Tundra that I finished up was out of the Airstrip and I couldn't finish it last night because I couldn't find a Hair Trigger that wasn't 2k gold. Engineers can craft them, but per my note yesterday everything is far more expensive.
Upon arrival in Dragonblight, my first stop was Star's Rest, a druidic encampment. The inn for this alliance town is just a tiny tent that one person can't even truly fit in, which I find a little funny. I was nearly immediately sent over to Wintergarde where my actual first quest was fun and aggravating all in one. You are ordered to rescue villagers that are stuck in this town the scourge has taken over. So you use your whistle and call down a gryphon and climb on. This changes your main action bar into something entirely different and off you head into town to find these villagers. The biggest challenge on this one was that you can only rescue villagers that are actively running from scourge, so over half of them are bugged out (not moving), then you have to be in front of these running villagers on the gryphon that moves a little slower then they do, and to cast the "spell" that throws them on the back of the gryphon you actually have to stop. So this quest took me nearly a half hour. I submitted my issues with this quest and hopefully we'll see some changes come the xpac.
I did get to explore the Dragonshrine's today as well, visiting Ruby, Emerald, Azure and Bronze. One of the quests at Ruby has you "helping" one of the front fighting line captains, so essentially I just dotted up a bunch of incoming mobs and then the forces took them out and I got credit. It was super easy and nice to have some interaction with the npc's.
I also noticed some changes in a few quests that require you to interact with dead mobs. Currently, if you have to kill a mob, then interact with it (burn it, skin it, put a flag in it, etc) you need to have killed it, but all of the quests I've done along this line in Wrath, it lets you perform your task on mobs you didn't kill yourself. This comes in handy when someone else is either randomly killing mobs or trying to grief you.
I noticed a huge lore discrepancy with Alexstrasza. In the Tundra, there's an entire quest chain involving Alexstrasza, culminating in her death in the Nexus. (She's a boss in there). But then you proceed to the Dragonblight and low and behold at the top of Wrymrest Temple is "Queen" Alexstrasza and Krosus her consort. I filed this one under the quest survey as well, but to me it doesn't make sense that you kill her, then she's giving you quests in the next zone over.
I got to see some new epic items day. They were both plate, and one shield. The plate were tank items, and screen shots of the item stats can be found on the photobucket site. They had incredible amounts of stam (like 120) and the shield was really cool looking. The shield is named something like Naxx 10 Badge Tank Shield and there's a healer one named similarly. Currently they are available in Dalaran for somewhere around 54g. If I used shields, I'd go and pick one up, but I can't.
Lastly, I did hit 73 today. I went to do training and the only druid training available at 73 was entirely feral talents, so I was really disappointed. I respecced to a more resto tree build, to include Master Shapeshifter and Omen of Clarity. I turned on the Blizz floating combat text and I'm trying to keep track of Clearcasting procs, but so far I'm not sure I'm impressed. It'll require closer watching, but I think I was hoping it would proc more. One of the OOC changes I do like is that it is no longer a spell you cast every half hour, but a passive talent.
Anyway, I'm enjoying my time in the Beta even if I do continue to miss my friends. I am starting to make some new ones, one being a Death Knight who's actually looking for a new server live side. Who knows if she'll come to join us, but she plays a good death knight so far.
Upon arrival in Dragonblight, my first stop was Star's Rest, a druidic encampment. The inn for this alliance town is just a tiny tent that one person can't even truly fit in, which I find a little funny. I was nearly immediately sent over to Wintergarde where my actual first quest was fun and aggravating all in one. You are ordered to rescue villagers that are stuck in this town the scourge has taken over. So you use your whistle and call down a gryphon and climb on. This changes your main action bar into something entirely different and off you head into town to find these villagers. The biggest challenge on this one was that you can only rescue villagers that are actively running from scourge, so over half of them are bugged out (not moving), then you have to be in front of these running villagers on the gryphon that moves a little slower then they do, and to cast the "spell" that throws them on the back of the gryphon you actually have to stop. So this quest took me nearly a half hour. I submitted my issues with this quest and hopefully we'll see some changes come the xpac.
I did get to explore the Dragonshrine's today as well, visiting Ruby, Emerald, Azure and Bronze. One of the quests at Ruby has you "helping" one of the front fighting line captains, so essentially I just dotted up a bunch of incoming mobs and then the forces took them out and I got credit. It was super easy and nice to have some interaction with the npc's.
I also noticed some changes in a few quests that require you to interact with dead mobs. Currently, if you have to kill a mob, then interact with it (burn it, skin it, put a flag in it, etc) you need to have killed it, but all of the quests I've done along this line in Wrath, it lets you perform your task on mobs you didn't kill yourself. This comes in handy when someone else is either randomly killing mobs or trying to grief you.
I noticed a huge lore discrepancy with Alexstrasza. In the Tundra, there's an entire quest chain involving Alexstrasza, culminating in her death in the Nexus. (She's a boss in there). But then you proceed to the Dragonblight and low and behold at the top of Wrymrest Temple is "Queen" Alexstrasza and Krosus her consort. I filed this one under the quest survey as well, but to me it doesn't make sense that you kill her, then she's giving you quests in the next zone over.
I got to see some new epic items day. They were both plate, and one shield. The plate were tank items, and screen shots of the item stats can be found on the photobucket site. They had incredible amounts of stam (like 120) and the shield was really cool looking. The shield is named something like Naxx 10 Badge Tank Shield and there's a healer one named similarly. Currently they are available in Dalaran for somewhere around 54g. If I used shields, I'd go and pick one up, but I can't.
Lastly, I did hit 73 today. I went to do training and the only druid training available at 73 was entirely feral talents, so I was really disappointed. I respecced to a more resto tree build, to include Master Shapeshifter and Omen of Clarity. I turned on the Blizz floating combat text and I'm trying to keep track of Clearcasting procs, but so far I'm not sure I'm impressed. It'll require closer watching, but I think I was hoping it would proc more. One of the OOC changes I do like is that it is no longer a spell you cast every half hour, but a passive talent.
Anyway, I'm enjoying my time in the Beta even if I do continue to miss my friends. I am starting to make some new ones, one being a Death Knight who's actually looking for a new server live side. Who knows if she'll come to join us, but she plays a good death knight so far.
Diary of a Beta Tester - Day Four
So today was day four of being in the beta's. The not being able to mount in cities bug is getting a little old as it makes it take far longer to navigate through the capitals. And the cost of items on the AH are insane, which makes it difficult to complete quests that require crafted items.
Today I finished up the DEHTA quests, and earned the quest achievement "DEHTA's Little PITA". The whole DEHTA encampment quests were all pretty fun. There was some really great stuff in there and the quests, as a whole, I found to be of the snarky Blizzard kind.
I finally was able to finish the quest chain at the En'likh capital after finding that missing priest in the Spire of Blood. The end of the chain is a 3 person group quest as you take on a couple elites, although 2 of us did it ok (Feral and myself).
There seems to be an extraordinary amount of longer (5+ quests) chains in this expansion, but I like that because you get time to get the story behind the quests and aren't just completing random tasks.
As promised, I got some pictures of the new Woolly Mammoth skin. It's pretty cool, but there are still some mammoths that look like Elekks and I'm hoping they fix that.
I've got one more quest to complete in the Tundra and then it's off to Dragonblight for me. I was talking to a Death Knight yesterday and she's level 76, she said she did it only through the Fjord and Grizzly Hills, which is a little nuts. Hell, I'm almost 73 and that's only with the Tundra. It seems like when we hit 80, we'll have lots of quests to do for cash.
I am looking forward to hitting 74 so I can set my hearth to Dalaran instead of Shatt. It's so empty in the Outlands it's not even funny.
I'll get the screenshots uploaded from yesterday although I don't think I took that many. If you guys have questions, let me know and I'll try to get them answered. =)
Today I finished up the DEHTA quests, and earned the quest achievement "DEHTA's Little PITA". The whole DEHTA encampment quests were all pretty fun. There was some really great stuff in there and the quests, as a whole, I found to be of the snarky Blizzard kind.
I finally was able to finish the quest chain at the En'likh capital after finding that missing priest in the Spire of Blood. The end of the chain is a 3 person group quest as you take on a couple elites, although 2 of us did it ok (Feral and myself).
There seems to be an extraordinary amount of longer (5+ quests) chains in this expansion, but I like that because you get time to get the story behind the quests and aren't just completing random tasks.
As promised, I got some pictures of the new Woolly Mammoth skin. It's pretty cool, but there are still some mammoths that look like Elekks and I'm hoping they fix that.
I've got one more quest to complete in the Tundra and then it's off to Dragonblight for me. I was talking to a Death Knight yesterday and she's level 76, she said she did it only through the Fjord and Grizzly Hills, which is a little nuts. Hell, I'm almost 73 and that's only with the Tundra. It seems like when we hit 80, we'll have lots of quests to do for cash.
I am looking forward to hitting 74 so I can set my hearth to Dalaran instead of Shatt. It's so empty in the Outlands it's not even funny.
I'll get the screenshots uploaded from yesterday although I don't think I took that many. If you guys have questions, let me know and I'll try to get them answered. =)
Friday, August 8, 2008
Diary of a Beta Tester - Day Three
I think I spent more time last night submitting feedback, filing
tickets and reporting bugs than actual play time. The first thing upon
logging in, I discovered that you can no longer mount in an capital
city (except Dalaran according to guild mates). Travel form doesn't
work either, so that was rather annoying. However, you can mount on
boats. I'm assuming when they patched yesterday that someone changed a
couple lines of coding on accident.
Then, all the quests in my log that I hadn't done, came up for
wanting feedback, so I had to take a few minutes to go through and
"skip" those survey.
Once I got out there, I went back to the Tuskarr village where I had
been questing near and continued on my quest line. It was starting to
be pretty cool, but I found lots of graphical errors. Hanging off the
side of these hills were "ponds" that were just in the air, but if you
went near them, they dismounted you and brought up the breath timer.
And all of the oil covered wolves I interacted with were just gliding
about 4 feet off the ponds they were located on. And I finally had to
file a ticket because after waiting near 40 minutes and trying several
varieties of mobs alive and/or dead, the named quest mob I needed to
kill just simply never spawned.
They changed the woolly mammoth skin so now it looks like a woolly
mammoth instead of an elekk. I'll screenshot it today and post it up,
as it's rather a cool looking animal. They also changed the rune
graphics for death knights and how some of the abilities work. I also
hear they "fixed" haunt so that it's working, but it's still bugged.
Silver said when he used haunt, his dots were ticking for ~4k / tick,
so warlocks are now soloing elite level mobs. Alas, I did hear they
fixed the Corruption/SB/T5 issue.
I did hear Blizz opened up all but one zone last night, but I didn't
hear if they raised the level cap above 77. I'll try to find that out
today. It's really hard to know what they did and/or did not fix, as
they don't seem to write patch notes when patching the beta. I
submitted a suggestion advising they at least put together rough patch
notes so we know what to look for. It's rather annoying to have to go
through and test all your spells and look at all your talents just to
see if they made changes. And it's hard to know what to see if it's
still broken, etc without knowing what they tried to fix.
Lastly, I had some nice level 77 give me a level 74 BoE blue leather
pants. 55 stam, 46 int, 41 haste, 49 spell power. I have crit on right
now, but I figured I'd give them a try in a couple levels and see what
I think.
Anyways, that was last night. I finally logged out as I was falling
asleep at the keyboard. I'll keep you updated on how the beta is
shaping up. I think I'm near getting out of the tundra, and then it's
a new zone for me. Dragonblight here I COME!!
tickets and reporting bugs than actual play time. The first thing upon
logging in, I discovered that you can no longer mount in an capital
city (except Dalaran according to guild mates). Travel form doesn't
work either, so that was rather annoying. However, you can mount on
boats. I'm assuming when they patched yesterday that someone changed a
couple lines of coding on accident.
Then, all the quests in my log that I hadn't done, came up for
wanting feedback, so I had to take a few minutes to go through and
"skip" those survey.
Once I got out there, I went back to the Tuskarr village where I had
been questing near and continued on my quest line. It was starting to
be pretty cool, but I found lots of graphical errors. Hanging off the
side of these hills were "ponds" that were just in the air, but if you
went near them, they dismounted you and brought up the breath timer.
And all of the oil covered wolves I interacted with were just gliding
about 4 feet off the ponds they were located on. And I finally had to
file a ticket because after waiting near 40 minutes and trying several
varieties of mobs alive and/or dead, the named quest mob I needed to
kill just simply never spawned.
They changed the woolly mammoth skin so now it looks like a woolly
mammoth instead of an elekk. I'll screenshot it today and post it up,
as it's rather a cool looking animal. They also changed the rune
graphics for death knights and how some of the abilities work. I also
hear they "fixed" haunt so that it's working, but it's still bugged.
Silver said when he used haunt, his dots were ticking for ~4k / tick,
so warlocks are now soloing elite level mobs. Alas, I did hear they
fixed the Corruption/SB/T5 issue.
I did hear Blizz opened up all but one zone last night, but I didn't
hear if they raised the level cap above 77. I'll try to find that out
today. It's really hard to know what they did and/or did not fix, as
they don't seem to write patch notes when patching the beta. I
submitted a suggestion advising they at least put together rough patch
notes so we know what to look for. It's rather annoying to have to go
through and test all your spells and look at all your talents just to
see if they made changes. And it's hard to know what to see if it's
still broken, etc without knowing what they tried to fix.
Lastly, I had some nice level 77 give me a level 74 BoE blue leather
pants. 55 stam, 46 int, 41 haste, 49 spell power. I have crit on right
now, but I figured I'd give them a try in a couple levels and see what
I think.
Anyways, that was last night. I finally logged out as I was falling
asleep at the keyboard. I'll keep you updated on how the beta is
shaping up. I think I'm near getting out of the tundra, and then it's
a new zone for me. Dragonblight here I COME!!
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Diary of a Beta Tester - Day Two
Ok, so note to self: If you don't train every level it gets expensive.
I hit 72 just before logging out. You can train at every level. The
total cost for training 2 levels at a time was 80g.
I found some nice eggs in the game today. The flight master at the
airstrip is named Kara Thricestar. Dehta stands for Druids for the
Ethical and Humane Treatment of Animals. However, if you drag an
unfriendly animal to their camp, they kill it. One of the quests I did
today, I got to lay fake furs on these caribou traps, and then the
traps would kill Nesingwary lackey, complete with death screams. That
was a blast. I also got to take control of a Mammoth Bull and ride it,
and use it to kill an Elite. That was a little strange.
I ran Nexus again, and it was much easier with a Warrior Tank. The
quests are fairly easy to complete, however they are all chains. And
one of the quests doesn't drop nearly enough items in one run for all
5 group members.
I'm not sure how far I am from questing out Borean Tundra. There's so
many little quest hubs. I do know that once I'm done, I'll be ready to
head to Dragonblight and I haven't even touched Howling Fjord. I may
do the Fjord with Caali so I can get a feel for the quests. I'm bummed
that Vengeance Landing is Horde.
And keep your stone set for Shatt. You have to go mainland side for
everything from gbanks, to barbershops, to training until you hit 74.
You have to do a quest in the Howling Fjord in order to get to Dalaran
the first time and you have to be 74 to get that quest.
There is a lot of XP between levels, but the quests are rewarding ~5g
per and 20k xp. The mobs are anywhere from 1000 - 3000, mob dependent.
I got 11k off a boss mob from Utgarde Keep (UK) my first time in, that
was nuts.
The server seems to be reasonably stable, but I've found several
graphical glitches (elevator not showing up, but actually working) or
there being an imaginary wall you have to jump over. Over all, I'm
thoroughly enjoying my time though. There are LOTS of bear mounts and
I grouped with a mage in FULL T6 today. I came in close behind him in
DPS, so I was pretty proud. =) Some mods are working and if anyone can
find the list on the wow beta forums, I'd love you forever.
Lastly, Silverstorm says hello to everyone. He's got a level 77
warlock. And apparently he plays a mage as his main on Cenarius with a
friend. He knows where we all ended up and what happened with Excel.
I updated the screenshot gallery with pics from today, including some
item descriptions and other misc. things.
I'll keep everyone updated with my journey through Northrend (unless
you guys don't want the spoilers). Let me know.
I do miss seeing you guys (<3 you Kiran & Myra), but I should be live
side for ZA tomorrow night.
I hit 72 just before logging out. You can train at every level. The
total cost for training 2 levels at a time was 80g.
I found some nice eggs in the game today. The flight master at the
airstrip is named Kara Thricestar. Dehta stands for Druids for the
Ethical and Humane Treatment of Animals. However, if you drag an
unfriendly animal to their camp, they kill it. One of the quests I did
today, I got to lay fake furs on these caribou traps, and then the
traps would kill Nesingwary lackey, complete with death screams. That
was a blast. I also got to take control of a Mammoth Bull and ride it,
and use it to kill an Elite. That was a little strange.
I ran Nexus again, and it was much easier with a Warrior Tank. The
quests are fairly easy to complete, however they are all chains. And
one of the quests doesn't drop nearly enough items in one run for all
5 group members.
I'm not sure how far I am from questing out Borean Tundra. There's so
many little quest hubs. I do know that once I'm done, I'll be ready to
head to Dragonblight and I haven't even touched Howling Fjord. I may
do the Fjord with Caali so I can get a feel for the quests. I'm bummed
that Vengeance Landing is Horde.
And keep your stone set for Shatt. You have to go mainland side for
everything from gbanks, to barbershops, to training until you hit 74.
You have to do a quest in the Howling Fjord in order to get to Dalaran
the first time and you have to be 74 to get that quest.
There is a lot of XP between levels, but the quests are rewarding ~5g
per and 20k xp. The mobs are anywhere from 1000 - 3000, mob dependent.
I got 11k off a boss mob from Utgarde Keep (UK) my first time in, that
was nuts.
The server seems to be reasonably stable, but I've found several
graphical glitches (elevator not showing up, but actually working) or
there being an imaginary wall you have to jump over. Over all, I'm
thoroughly enjoying my time though. There are LOTS of bear mounts and
I grouped with a mage in FULL T6 today. I came in close behind him in
DPS, so I was pretty proud. =) Some mods are working and if anyone can
find the list on the wow beta forums, I'd love you forever.
Lastly, Silverstorm says hello to everyone. He's got a level 77
warlock. And apparently he plays a mage as his main on Cenarius with a
friend. He knows where we all ended up and what happened with Excel.
I updated the screenshot gallery with pics from today, including some
item descriptions and other misc. things.
I'll keep everyone updated with my journey through Northrend (unless
you guys don't want the spoilers). Let me know.
I do miss seeing you guys (<3 you Kiran & Myra), but I should be live
side for ZA tomorrow night.
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Diary of a Beta Tester - Day One
For those of you who haven't heard, Conor got a beta key two nights
ago and was kind enough to pass it to me (I <3 my hubby), since I'm
stuck in my chair most of the time. I've transferred Caalli and
Rissah, and will be transferring Bella soon.
Throw me any specs you'd like to see tested and I'll do what I can. I
plan to take screenshots and post them to my photobucket account. I'll
share the link with the group when I get the album made and start
posting them up.
Conor and I visited Northrend this morning for the first time. I felt
a little lost just in town, but it looks pretty amazing. I'm looking
forward to learning the zones and starting to quest.
For anyone else who's wondering, all gear has been converted to spell
power. I looked at the T4 vendor this morning and the tiered gear sets
remain, balance and restoration (and feral). They have different stat
allocations, but include "spell power" now instead of healing/damage.
This is also a note to say that you probably won't see a whole lot of
me in the normal game. I'll try to stay on vent and I still want in on
those ZA runs =). And you all will be the first to hear my impressions.
So far I've found 2 bugs. The first is that the portal graphic in the
stormwind mage tower is gone. It looks like a solid wall, but you walk
right through it. The second was that I couldn't "learn" to cast
Eggbert as it tells me the spell is unavailable. When you obtain a new
achievement, it shows up like when an alchemist discovers a new recipe.
I'll keep you guys posted. Let me know if you have any questions. =)
Chat with everyone soon.
ago and was kind enough to pass it to me (I <3 my hubby), since I'm
stuck in my chair most of the time. I've transferred Caalli and
Rissah, and will be transferring Bella soon.
Throw me any specs you'd like to see tested and I'll do what I can. I
plan to take screenshots and post them to my photobucket account. I'll
share the link with the group when I get the album made and start
posting them up.
Conor and I visited Northrend this morning for the first time. I felt
a little lost just in town, but it looks pretty amazing. I'm looking
forward to learning the zones and starting to quest.
For anyone else who's wondering, all gear has been converted to spell
power. I looked at the T4 vendor this morning and the tiered gear sets
remain, balance and restoration (and feral). They have different stat
allocations, but include "spell power" now instead of healing/damage.
This is also a note to say that you probably won't see a whole lot of
me in the normal game. I'll try to stay on vent and I still want in on
those ZA runs =). And you all will be the first to hear my impressions.
So far I've found 2 bugs. The first is that the portal graphic in the
stormwind mage tower is gone. It looks like a solid wall, but you walk
right through it. The second was that I couldn't "learn" to cast
Eggbert as it tells me the spell is unavailable. When you obtain a new
achievement, it shows up like when an alchemist discovers a new recipe.
I'll keep you guys posted. Let me know if you have any questions. =)
Chat with everyone soon.
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