新年本来是该好好休息的时候，然而，休息也是在忙啊，忙着去拜年，忙着见亲戚朋友----一年到头，难得相聚，过年了，没有人还有其他理由啊
呵呵，今年过年其实也没见多少朋友，在外的时间还没睡觉的时间多，汗
今天才上blog来，祝大家新年快乐，心想事成！
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Friday, February 9, 2007
The Outland Experience
As I wrote earlier. Here are my first opinions on The Burning Crusade. Blizz has create a wonderfull game, full of excellent soloable content, mixed with very fun group quests. Thoradin dinged 63 last weekend and has become pretty powerfull, if compared to the pre-expansion equivalent. In a few days my gear has more + Spell Damage Leather then was even possible before the expansion. cheap wow gold Equipped in a mixture of Epic ([Cenarion Helm]), Blue ([Crystalfire Staff]) and Greens ([Nature-Stitched Kilt] I’m now wondering the forests of Terrokar, after finshing Hellfire and Zangarmarsh.
I also got a good taste of 2 of the new instance the are in Outland.
Hellfire Ramparts and Blood Furnace are 2 very nice instances. Lasting no more then 1.5 hours maximum they are very nice to do. cheap wow gold And they have good encounters and very nice drops. The end-boss of Hellfire Ramparts is a very, very nasty boss. Nazan burns down a party within 10 seconds if you are not prepared. I did this with a Paladin as Tank, 2 Rogues and a Mage. Another time we failed. We were a Hunter- 2 Druids, Warlock and a Warrior-party. If your warrior isnt geared that well, with Outlands Items or at least Tier 2, he can’t get aggro off a Warlock. cheap wow gold They really need to be good-geared or the Lock has to fear to survive.
I also got a good taste of 2 of the new instance the are in Outland.
Hellfire Ramparts and Blood Furnace are 2 very nice instances. Lasting no more then 1.5 hours maximum they are very nice to do. cheap wow gold And they have good encounters and very nice drops. The end-boss of Hellfire Ramparts is a very, very nasty boss. Nazan burns down a party within 10 seconds if you are not prepared. I did this with a Paladin as Tank, 2 Rogues and a Mage. Another time we failed. We were a Hunter- 2 Druids, Warlock and a Warrior-party. If your warrior isnt geared that well, with Outlands Items or at least Tier 2, he can’t get aggro off a Warlock. cheap wow gold They really need to be good-geared or the Lock has to fear to survive.
Wednesday, February 7, 2007
C'mon. What's the point?
You flag yourself for PvP on a PvE server. But you aren't in the Plaguelands trying to capture towers. And you aren't in Silithus collecting dust. You're in Desolace killing skeletons.
There you are, level 36, Paladin, and you've flagged yourself. I suppose it guarantees you won't heal anyone, or be asked to heal, Eve isk or buff, them. Is that your goal? To be anti-social? "I've infected myself with a lethal virus. You want no part of me." All you want to do is grind and be left alone, so you flag yourself?
You play on a PvE server by choice. I know I do. I played to 60, and into the end-game, on a PvP server. But I couldn't bear my wife dying at the hands of some punk Night Elf,Eve isk or worse, Gnome, Rogue. So we transferred. So you rolled on a PvE (RP) server. And then you flag yourself.
Okay, I see some folks doing it in order to show they have balls of steel, or they're Warlocks. Who's going to mess with a Warlock. In fact I've seen a few flagged Pally's in the higher level areas. Who's going to kill a high level Pally?Eve isk How? They'll heal to full twice, and you'll be bored to tears before you even get close. Meh. Not worth it. And Pally's have gotten sponge-worthy with the patches lately.
Anyway, seeing this level 36 flagged Pally in Desolace got me to thinking. What a terrible waste of my time to log onto my 60 Warrior, bring him all the way to Desolace, just to make her turn that damn flag off. Or, how long will she choose to remain flagged once I show up? Eve iskHow soon after I show up would she unflag? Five minutes?
I suspect it's an anti-social thing.
Or a trap. Flag yourself. Cry "Heal me!" in Goldshire. Some noob gets flagged healing you. And your buddy, Eve iskon his Horde Faction Rogue, goes to town on the noob.
What on earth, or Azeroth, are you thinking flagging yourself for PvP in Desolace? Or Elwynn. What is the point?
There you are, level 36, Paladin, and you've flagged yourself. I suppose it guarantees you won't heal anyone, or be asked to heal, Eve isk or buff, them. Is that your goal? To be anti-social? "I've infected myself with a lethal virus. You want no part of me." All you want to do is grind and be left alone, so you flag yourself?
You play on a PvE server by choice. I know I do. I played to 60, and into the end-game, on a PvP server. But I couldn't bear my wife dying at the hands of some punk Night Elf,Eve isk or worse, Gnome, Rogue. So we transferred. So you rolled on a PvE (RP) server. And then you flag yourself.
Okay, I see some folks doing it in order to show they have balls of steel, or they're Warlocks. Who's going to mess with a Warlock. In fact I've seen a few flagged Pally's in the higher level areas. Who's going to kill a high level Pally?Eve isk How? They'll heal to full twice, and you'll be bored to tears before you even get close. Meh. Not worth it. And Pally's have gotten sponge-worthy with the patches lately.
Anyway, seeing this level 36 flagged Pally in Desolace got me to thinking. What a terrible waste of my time to log onto my 60 Warrior, bring him all the way to Desolace, just to make her turn that damn flag off. Or, how long will she choose to remain flagged once I show up? Eve iskHow soon after I show up would she unflag? Five minutes?
I suspect it's an anti-social thing.
Or a trap. Flag yourself. Cry "Heal me!" in Goldshire. Some noob gets flagged healing you. And your buddy, Eve iskon his Horde Faction Rogue, goes to town on the noob.
What on earth, or Azeroth, are you thinking flagging yourself for PvP in Desolace? Or Elwynn. What is the point?
Tuesday, February 6, 2007
How to get a Blood Elf Bandit Face Mask
Alright. I think every Blood Elf should be wearing one.
You need to be level 5 to wear it, it counts as miscellaneous armor, any class can wear it, rs gold and
it's not soulbound. (It's not Rogue only like the red Defias Face Mask.)
And there's an Archmage (NPC) in Silvermoon City wearing it.
And you'll see what it looks like in the picture below on Sunstriker. rs gold Halcyon has one now too.
And you're wondering to yourself "GET ON WITH IT! HOW DO I GET ONE!?"
Well, head on over to Azuremyst Isle. This is the level 5-12 Draenei area. That's right. Right
where the Exodar is located.
If you're thinking "This is a job for a high level toon." You might be right. Because it helped
greatly to be able to ride around on a circuit looking for these. My Night Elf Hunter had no
trouble getting around. Horde characters will have some difficulty in getting over there. But,
it's easier to get onto Azuremyst Isle than into Darnassus. (I imagine, don't know 100%.)
BUT, but, that is not to say low level characters couldn't do it on their own. rs gold I saw a band of
low (5-12) level Blood Elves (I kid you not!) running around Azuremyst Isle.
The face mask drops off a stealthed level 7 mob called Blood Elf Bandit. The mobs spawn site
moves around as well. However, they tend to mostly be on the roads. On the west side on the road
going south to north, and on the southern east to west road. And elsewhere. I encountered more
bandits on these two roads than elsewhere.
The bandits are stealthed and hang out just off the road. Near a lamp post, rs gold or a tree, or
something. I think I found about 10 different spawn points. I use Cartographer and just made a
map note to indicate where. (Should I want to repeat the exercise.) (You can just search Thottbot
to get a map of spawn points. And, for me, the western spawns were better. It might also have
been the Horde Druid that was getting all the eastern hits.)
Oh yes, north of the Exodar, on the beach with the Murloc camps, each camp is a spawn point as
well.
Mounted it took me over an hour to get two masks to drop. rs gold It's going to take a while. But, if
you're into vanity wear, this one can't be beat.
And that's how you get one of the Blood Elf Bandit Face Masks.
You need to be level 5 to wear it, it counts as miscellaneous armor, any class can wear it, rs gold and
it's not soulbound. (It's not Rogue only like the red Defias Face Mask.)
And there's an Archmage (NPC) in Silvermoon City wearing it.
And you'll see what it looks like in the picture below on Sunstriker. rs gold Halcyon has one now too.
And you're wondering to yourself "GET ON WITH IT! HOW DO I GET ONE!?"
Well, head on over to Azuremyst Isle. This is the level 5-12 Draenei area. That's right. Right
where the Exodar is located.
If you're thinking "This is a job for a high level toon." You might be right. Because it helped
greatly to be able to ride around on a circuit looking for these. My Night Elf Hunter had no
trouble getting around. Horde characters will have some difficulty in getting over there. But,
it's easier to get onto Azuremyst Isle than into Darnassus. (I imagine, don't know 100%.)
BUT, but, that is not to say low level characters couldn't do it on their own. rs gold I saw a band of
low (5-12) level Blood Elves (I kid you not!) running around Azuremyst Isle.
The face mask drops off a stealthed level 7 mob called Blood Elf Bandit. The mobs spawn site
moves around as well. However, they tend to mostly be on the roads. On the west side on the road
going south to north, and on the southern east to west road. And elsewhere. I encountered more
bandits on these two roads than elsewhere.
The bandits are stealthed and hang out just off the road. Near a lamp post, rs gold or a tree, or
something. I think I found about 10 different spawn points. I use Cartographer and just made a
map note to indicate where. (Should I want to repeat the exercise.) (You can just search Thottbot
to get a map of spawn points. And, for me, the western spawns were better. It might also have
been the Horde Druid that was getting all the eastern hits.)
Oh yes, north of the Exodar, on the beach with the Murloc camps, each camp is a spawn point as
well.
Mounted it took me over an hour to get two masks to drop. rs gold It's going to take a while. But, if
you're into vanity wear, this one can't be beat.
And that's how you get one of the Blood Elf Bandit Face Masks.
Saturday, February 3, 2007
The rush to raid slots
Famously the first guy to hit level 70 in the Burning Crusade after release just took 28 hours to do so. But now, two weeks after release, seeing a level 70 character isn’t something exotic any more. But the progression towards level 70 isn’t even; you can see every level from 60 to 70 in Outland. wow power leveling And the distribution isn’t depending on player skill but on available time, as always in level-based MMORPG. I wonder how much of this rush is motivated by people trying to reserve a permanent spot in a guild's raids for them.
Raiding guilds might have some problems, because it is likely that many of them are actually too big now. Raiding guilds tended to invite enough players so that with the average participation rate to raids (which varies from guild to guild) wow power leveling on any given evening enough people show up to fill a 40-man raid. But in the Burning Crusade two effects come into play: the participation rate goes up, as people are more interested in the new content, and the level 70 raid size shrinks from 40 to 25.
In the coming weeks the typical raiding guild will for the first time have 25 level 70 players with a reasonable class mix online, and start their first raids. In that case the selection of who gets to raid is easy, because there are just enough people around to fill a raid. But as time progresses, more and more guild members reach level 70, and then the problems of raid slot attribution will start. Even if there are 50 players online, wow power leveling it is more likely that the guild forms one raid with perfect class distribution and the other 25 people don’t get to raid, instead of trying to form two sub-optimal raids. Predictably there will be some hard choices to make, and a lot of potential for guild drama.
What I am afraid of is that the speed to level 70 will have some effect on the distribution of raid slots. The most extreme example would be a guild’s main tank, who is often selected based on gear. The first batch of tanks reaching level 70, and getting a head start in raiding and endgame solo grinding will always have better gear than tanks arriving at level 70 later. So the temptation is there to invite the better-geared tank more often, or even exclusively when available. Of course that leads to a vicious spiral, where the better-geared people get to raid more often, improve their gear even further, wow power leveling and the gap between them and the less-well geared is continually growing. Similar considerations could be true for other classes, where gear also has some effect on things like mana pool or dps.
Ideally raid slots would be distributed as fairly as possible between people reaching level 70 earlier and later, to keep a large number of people well-geared. The reason for distributing raid slots, and therefore raid gear, evenly over the guild is to minimize the effect of people leaving the guild. In the weeks and months after the first raid the excitement will cool down, and some people will most probably burn out. If you favor the “first to 70” group of people when handing out raid slots, tempting as it is, chances are that it is exactly these people who burn out first, because they go raiding most often. The best equipped tank leaving and having to be replaced by somebody who rarely was allowed to participate in raids sets back the whole guild raid progress significantly.
But chances are that guilds will confuse fast leveling either with skill or dedication, wow power leveling neither of which is really true. In the short term inviting always the same 25 people to all raids of course speeds up raid progress. But in that case the people coming late to the party find that they never get invited. They might leave the guild, but even if they stay they aren’t really good replacements in case any member of the original hard core burns out, because they lack the gear and experience. Distributing raid slots among a larger number of people is the better long-term strategy. Sooner or later raiding guilds will shrink, by splitting or people stopping to play, until they are of the right size to regularly support 25-man raids. But the process to get there could be more or less painful, depending on how much value the guild puts on fast leveling progress.
Raiding guilds might have some problems, because it is likely that many of them are actually too big now. Raiding guilds tended to invite enough players so that with the average participation rate to raids (which varies from guild to guild) wow power leveling on any given evening enough people show up to fill a 40-man raid. But in the Burning Crusade two effects come into play: the participation rate goes up, as people are more interested in the new content, and the level 70 raid size shrinks from 40 to 25.
In the coming weeks the typical raiding guild will for the first time have 25 level 70 players with a reasonable class mix online, and start their first raids. In that case the selection of who gets to raid is easy, because there are just enough people around to fill a raid. But as time progresses, more and more guild members reach level 70, and then the problems of raid slot attribution will start. Even if there are 50 players online, wow power leveling it is more likely that the guild forms one raid with perfect class distribution and the other 25 people don’t get to raid, instead of trying to form two sub-optimal raids. Predictably there will be some hard choices to make, and a lot of potential for guild drama.
What I am afraid of is that the speed to level 70 will have some effect on the distribution of raid slots. The most extreme example would be a guild’s main tank, who is often selected based on gear. The first batch of tanks reaching level 70, and getting a head start in raiding and endgame solo grinding will always have better gear than tanks arriving at level 70 later. So the temptation is there to invite the better-geared tank more often, or even exclusively when available. Of course that leads to a vicious spiral, where the better-geared people get to raid more often, improve their gear even further, wow power leveling and the gap between them and the less-well geared is continually growing. Similar considerations could be true for other classes, where gear also has some effect on things like mana pool or dps.
Ideally raid slots would be distributed as fairly as possible between people reaching level 70 earlier and later, to keep a large number of people well-geared. The reason for distributing raid slots, and therefore raid gear, evenly over the guild is to minimize the effect of people leaving the guild. In the weeks and months after the first raid the excitement will cool down, and some people will most probably burn out. If you favor the “first to 70” group of people when handing out raid slots, tempting as it is, chances are that it is exactly these people who burn out first, because they go raiding most often. The best equipped tank leaving and having to be replaced by somebody who rarely was allowed to participate in raids sets back the whole guild raid progress significantly.
But chances are that guilds will confuse fast leveling either with skill or dedication, wow power leveling neither of which is really true. In the short term inviting always the same 25 people to all raids of course speeds up raid progress. But in that case the people coming late to the party find that they never get invited. They might leave the guild, but even if they stay they aren’t really good replacements in case any member of the original hard core burns out, because they lack the gear and experience. Distributing raid slots among a larger number of people is the better long-term strategy. Sooner or later raiding guilds will shrink, by splitting or people stopping to play, until they are of the right size to regularly support 25-man raids. But the process to get there could be more or less painful, depending on how much value the guild puts on fast leveling progress.
Thursday, February 1, 2007
The Instances of the Burning Crusade
The new instances in the Burning Crusade have kept me so entertain that I have found a couple of my last posts basically turn into walkthroughs for them. To get this out of my system so I can talk about other topics and perhaps even a MMO besides World of Warcraft I've decided to post the basic order of all the new instances in World of Warcraft. buy wow gold I am going to structure it on recommended level from WoWwiki starting with the five man instances. I've also done the Slave Pens and Underbog a couple of times since hitting 65 so don't be too suprised to see walkthroughs appear for them also.
Hellfire Citadel: Hellfire Ramparts.com (60-62 mobs, 5 player groups)Bosses: Watchkeeper Gargolmar - Vazruden & Nazan - Omor the Unscarred
Hellfire Citadel: Blood Furnace (61-63 mobs, 5 player groups)Bosses: The Maker - Broggok - Keli'dan the Breaker
Coilfang Reservoir: The Slave Pens buy wow gold (62-64 mobs, 5 player groups)Bosses: Mennu the Betrayer - Rokmar the Crackler - Quagmirran
Coilfang Reservoir: The Underbog (63-65 mobs, 5 player groups)Bosses: Hungarfen - Ghaz'an - Swamplord Musel'ek - The Black Stalker
Auchindoun: Mana Tombs (64-66 mobs, 5 player groups)Bosses: Pandemonius - Tavarok - Nexus-Prince Shaffar
Auchindoun: Auchenai Crypts (65-67 mobs, 5 player groups)Bosses: Shirrak the Dead Watcher - Exarch Maladaar
Caverns of Time: Escape from Durnholde buy wow gold (66–68 mobs, 5 player groups)Bosses: Lieutenant Drake - Captain Skarloc - The Epoch Hunter
Auchindoun: Sethekk Halls (67-69 mobs, 5 player groups)Bosses: Darkweaver Syth - Talon King Ikiss
Caverns of Time: Opening the Dark Portal - (70 mobs, 5 player groups)Bosses: Chrono Lord Deja - Temporus - Aeonus
Tempest Keep: The Mechanar (69-72 mobs, 5 player groups)Bosses: First Layer: Gatewatcher Gyro-Kill - Gatewatcher Iron-Hand - Mechano-Lord Capacitus - Nethermancer Sepethrea - Pathaleon the Calculator
Hellfire Citadel: The Shattered Halls (70-72 mobs, 5 player groups)Bosses: Grand Warlock Nethekurse - Warbringer O'mrogg - Kargath Bladefist
Coilfang Reservoir: The Steamvault (70-72 mobs, 5 player groups)Bosses: Hydromacer Thespia - Mekgineer Steamrigger - Warlord Kalithresh
Auchindoun: Shadow Labyrinth buy wow gold (70-72 mobs, 5 player groups)Bosses: Ambassador Hellmaw - Blackheart the Inciter - Grandmaster Vorpil - Murmur
Tempest Keep: The Botanica (70-72 mobs, 5 player groups)Bosses: Commander Sarannis - High Botanist Freywinn - Thorngrin the Tender - Laj - Warp Splinter
Tempest Keep: The Arcatraz (70-72 mobs, 5 player groups)Bosses: Zereketh the Unbound - Wrath-Scryer Soccothrates - Dalliah the Doomsayer - Warden Mellichar Event
Karazhan: (Key Quest Requires Shadow Labyrinth/Steamvault/Arcatraz, 10 player raid)Final Bosses: Nightbane
Zul'Aman: (TBA, 10 player raid)
Gruul's Lair (No Key, 25 player raid)Bosses: buy wow gold High King Maulgar - Kiggler the Crazed - Blindeye the Seer - Olm the Summoner - Krosh Firehand - Gruul
Magtheridon's Lair (No Key, 25 player raid)Final Boss: Magtheridon
Serpentshrine Cavern (Key Quest, 25 player raid)Final Boss: Lady Vashj
Tempest Keep: The Eye (Key Quest Chain, 25 player raid)Final Boss: Prince Kael'thas Sunstrider
Caverns of Time: Battle on Mount Hyjal (Long Quest Chain, 25 player raid)
The Black Temple: (TBA, Full 25 player raid zone)
Hellfire Citadel: Hellfire Ramparts.com (60-62 mobs, 5 player groups)Bosses: Watchkeeper Gargolmar - Vazruden & Nazan - Omor the Unscarred
Hellfire Citadel: Blood Furnace (61-63 mobs, 5 player groups)Bosses: The Maker - Broggok - Keli'dan the Breaker
Coilfang Reservoir: The Slave Pens buy wow gold (62-64 mobs, 5 player groups)Bosses: Mennu the Betrayer - Rokmar the Crackler - Quagmirran
Coilfang Reservoir: The Underbog (63-65 mobs, 5 player groups)Bosses: Hungarfen - Ghaz'an - Swamplord Musel'ek - The Black Stalker
Auchindoun: Mana Tombs (64-66 mobs, 5 player groups)Bosses: Pandemonius - Tavarok - Nexus-Prince Shaffar
Auchindoun: Auchenai Crypts (65-67 mobs, 5 player groups)Bosses: Shirrak the Dead Watcher - Exarch Maladaar
Caverns of Time: Escape from Durnholde buy wow gold (66–68 mobs, 5 player groups)Bosses: Lieutenant Drake - Captain Skarloc - The Epoch Hunter
Auchindoun: Sethekk Halls (67-69 mobs, 5 player groups)Bosses: Darkweaver Syth - Talon King Ikiss
Caverns of Time: Opening the Dark Portal - (70 mobs, 5 player groups)Bosses: Chrono Lord Deja - Temporus - Aeonus
Tempest Keep: The Mechanar (69-72 mobs, 5 player groups)Bosses: First Layer: Gatewatcher Gyro-Kill - Gatewatcher Iron-Hand - Mechano-Lord Capacitus - Nethermancer Sepethrea - Pathaleon the Calculator
Hellfire Citadel: The Shattered Halls (70-72 mobs, 5 player groups)Bosses: Grand Warlock Nethekurse - Warbringer O'mrogg - Kargath Bladefist
Coilfang Reservoir: The Steamvault (70-72 mobs, 5 player groups)Bosses: Hydromacer Thespia - Mekgineer Steamrigger - Warlord Kalithresh
Auchindoun: Shadow Labyrinth buy wow gold (70-72 mobs, 5 player groups)Bosses: Ambassador Hellmaw - Blackheart the Inciter - Grandmaster Vorpil - Murmur
Tempest Keep: The Botanica (70-72 mobs, 5 player groups)Bosses: Commander Sarannis - High Botanist Freywinn - Thorngrin the Tender - Laj - Warp Splinter
Tempest Keep: The Arcatraz (70-72 mobs, 5 player groups)Bosses: Zereketh the Unbound - Wrath-Scryer Soccothrates - Dalliah the Doomsayer - Warden Mellichar Event
Karazhan: (Key Quest Requires Shadow Labyrinth/Steamvault/Arcatraz, 10 player raid)Final Bosses: Nightbane
Zul'Aman: (TBA, 10 player raid)
Gruul's Lair (No Key, 25 player raid)Bosses: buy wow gold High King Maulgar - Kiggler the Crazed - Blindeye the Seer - Olm the Summoner - Krosh Firehand - Gruul
Magtheridon's Lair (No Key, 25 player raid)Final Boss: Magtheridon
Serpentshrine Cavern (Key Quest, 25 player raid)Final Boss: Lady Vashj
Tempest Keep: The Eye (Key Quest Chain, 25 player raid)Final Boss: Prince Kael'thas Sunstrider
Caverns of Time: Battle on Mount Hyjal (Long Quest Chain, 25 player raid)
The Black Temple: (TBA, Full 25 player raid zone)
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