Kodokodokodkodkodokodokodkodkodokodokodkodkodokodokodkodkodokodokodkodkodokodokodo!

Oh and… Kodo!

Ain’t he purdy?

A huuuuuggeee thank you needs to be said to several people who, without which, I would likely not have gotten my much sought-after new mount.  Indigo and Pen for logging, between them, around 14 characters, Mineria and Indi for running with me almost very single day of Brewfest (even though Min pretty much got what he wanted on day two!), Bob, our pally tank, for staying up past his bedtime and the others who I’ve run with all this week for being encouraging in the face of somewhat despairing odds (I lost 6 mounts to the RNG!).

I’ve done well over 100 attempts at the boss in an effort to get my  Draenei a mount  for a couple of reasons:

• It’s very, very cool
• Avarix is one of the few chars I have who still used his racial mount
• I got a ram last year on my hordie and wanted to go full circle with a kodo on my alliance toon
• It’s a little ‘tie back’ to my horde days
• Kodos are cute

Now to help Indigo get hers! *cackle*

Also, because I am possibly the luckiest shaman in the best guild ever (I love you guys!) I also appear to have gotten some other shinies this week!

The healer version of the “I has been to Black Temple” cloak, [Shroud of the Final Stand] and the [Illidari Runeshield].

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I love Azerothian holidays, especially those with associated festivities.  It’s been a little while since the last big event and my associated jaunt down into the familiar territory of replayability - the one aspect of the game which particularly intrigues me.

Wow is an addictive game, it’s also one which is intended to be played for more than a few months and then tossed aside.  How do they keep things interesting and fresh for those who’ve leveled their 8th alt to max level and are looking for a bit of fun?  How are they appealing to the new players and getting them roped into the world?

This year’s Brewfest, as predicted, has gone one (or two) better than last year.  Last year, to be frank, Brewfest had a lot of problems.  However, it also was a lot of fun and so I was looking forward to it immensely.

Brewfest this year consists of the usual quest hub featuring two dailies, one twice-per-day quest for tokens and a new boss in Blackrock Depths.  There is also a twice daily tapping of the keg and, don’t forget, the chance to have an excuse to get drunken and have a laugh with your friends.

Looking at the  ‘list’ I made when comparing the events at Midsummer there’s been some additions:

• Quests
• Daily Quests
• Non-Combat Pet
• Consumables
• Outfits
• ‘Fun’ Items
• Mounts
• High Level Items
• Dungeon Boss

These bring it up to ’standard’ with the Midsummer event - though I had forgotten to add mounts to the list before, shame on me.  Given that they are both long festivals (two weeks) I was expecting them to up the ante with Brewfest this year and was not disappointed.

Invasion!

One of the biggest issues Brewfest had last year was with the dark iron invasion event.  It was a wonderful idea but the amount of traffic it generated was horrible!  Each person could request a mob throw them a drink (by waving at them), then they would drink it and throw it at a dark iron dwarf and, if they hit, would create tickets.  This encouraged people to be at every invasion for the chance at more tickets and thus bad lag around the event - not to mention the /wave spamming macros which ended up in the servers falling over.

This year they were a bit smarter about it - the npcs automatically throw you a drink when you’ve used yours up and you do not get tokens from hitting Dark Irons (someone mentioned this is a bug but I cannot find a blue post to confirm) - rather you get them from a ‘cog’ which is left behind if you manage to save the barrels.  There are up and down sides to this, though.

Pros

• Less people at each event
• Guaranteed tickets - no need to spend too much time at the event
• Much less lag

Cons

• Less tickets
• Fewer people around at the event
• Sometimes the event ‘fails’

In all, I think the changes are for the better - the Dark Iron invasions are an integral part of the Brewfest ’story’ and not having them would be a bit sad.

The one thing they did remove, however, was the Wolpertinger quest from last year.  I was a shame as this was a pretty fun quest and it feels somewhat ‘boring’ to just be able to walk up to a vendor and purchase it.  Of course this may be an attempt to streamline the activities and keep them closer to Ironforge / Orgrimmar.  Brewfest, in fact, feels a lot more insular than the Midsummer Fire Festival - which encourages you to roam all over the world.

Coren Direbrew

Of great interest, for a lot of people, is the new boss in Blackrock Depths.  Coren drops an array of shiny trinkets, the likes of which would normally set you back around 41 badges and some stamina ones which also summon a Brewfest Maiden to fight or heal you.  For those with a lot of alts (like myself) it’s a way to get them a little gear boost without much effort - for those who simply don’t have the time or resources for lots of heroics / Kara it’s a way to get a piece of gear which might otherwise be inaccessible to them.

The addition of [Direbrew's Shanker] is a nice tribute to the old, acclaimed [Barman Shanker] - both are broken bottle ‘daggers’ which look rather cool.  In general it’s also brought people back to Blackrock Mountain who’ve not been there in quite some time.  A few of my guildies mention not having been there since their Molten Core days!  Luckily, they need not get lost in the labyrinth of the Depths as this event also features ‘mole machines’ which transport you directly to the boss from just inside the entrance.

The use of the bar room is one I approve of greatly - an old space being put to new use is an excellent idea and it brings back memories to those who have spent a lot of time running these old instances and introduces the place to those who’ve joined later and never had the opportunity.

The fight itself is a lot easier than the Ahune fight but still a little challenging - akin to the end boss of a harder level 70 normal instance.  As long as someone keeps the adds off the healer you can generally be guaranteed a good outcome and some shiny loot.  Or perhaps grubby loot, looking at the state of most of the npcs around that area…

Mounts

Of course, the most talked about part of Brewfest, at the moment, is the mounts that Coren can drop.  There are awide variety of opinions surrounding this aspect of the festival the most common ones being:

• They should be for tokens
• Alliance should not have gotten kodos
• Only level 70’s can get them
• The drop rate is too low

  

I have mixed feelings.  It would be nice to get the mounts for tokens but I like the fact I can spend my tokens on silly things (outfits, goggles, etc.) which I would not be able to do if the mount were token-based (ok, so I would have the choice but to be honest, I want that damn kodo!).

I was happy to hear they’d added the kodo for the Alliance and ram for the Horde and surprised it got as far as going live before they did.  When Brewfest was on the ptr people pointed out that they didn’t like the split but nothing was done about it until after the event started.  Blizzard could, in my opinion, have seen this one coming a mile away.

The inability of low levels to get one, though, is sort of a shame.  It would have been interesting if they had added some sort of low-level event for a non-epic mount or even a free 30-day version (like the Hallow’s End brooms).  I can understand why Blizzard cater more to the max-level crowd but I can also sympathise with those who are not - I always have a few low level alts around whom I like to get fun stuff for.

Newbie Friendly?

On the subject of low levels I have been wondering how effective the ‘tutorial’ quests are for new players.  When I first started WoW the Midsummer Fire Festival was on - I vaguely noticed it but I couldn’t do most of the quests because I was too low level and I didn’t really understand what was going on…  Now, in both the Midsummer and Brewfest events,  there have been ‘tutorial’ quests which teach you how the mechanics of a quest work before giving you the daily version.

Though these quests are nice I have found that the other quests don’t really flow very well - there are a lot of people standing around asking how to do the various quests.  I know a lot of those could be ‘fixed’ by simply reading the quest text but some of them just aren’t noticing the barrels or understanding their effect.  Should they maybe add a “and use a barrel of apples” to the first ram quest which shows you how to change speeds?

Dailies

The dailies are a welcome break from the usual dailies that are available - they involve no killing or collecting and involve either racing rams or getting very drunk - the essentials of Brewfest! However, it can be a liiiitttllle frustrating to have one which can be messed up by lag - during the ram racing (twice per) daily quest the apple barrels will sometimes not take away exhaustion if you pass by them at max speed whilst you have a little lag.  It also takes a reasonable amount of time and concentration to do the quest effectively and I find I have to ignore guild chat or lose out on tokens due to making mistakes.

Problems

Of course, it wouldn’t be Brewfest without a few hitches… Currently not everyone is able to do the ram-racing delivery quest every twelve hours - I’m one of them, which is why I’m aware there is a problem.  It seems to  be fairly isolated as the forums are quiet on the subject - though I suspect a lot of people just aren’t noticing.  So far it’s meant I’ve lost around 80 tickets…

I asked a GM about the issue and, although he wasn’t able to give me a ‘fix’ for my problem, he did give me a hug, so that’s ok! Silly GM’s and their ‘goodbye’ flavour text, hehe.

A quick poke into the general forums and I found out that they were ‘working’ on a fix and, come maintenance it did seem to be fixed… for a while.  Currently it seems a bit of a lottery for me - sometimes I will be able to do the quests once per twelve hours and sometimes only once per twenty-four hours.

Where Next?

All in all I’m enjoying the festival again and, despite the few hitches, I find that Bliz have upped the ante once again and made yet another more polished event.  I am wondering now if they will ’scale’ them for max level next year or will leave them as level 65-75 type events.  Only time can tell, I guess.

Enjoy the rest of your Brewfest!

Further Readin’

• Big Bear Butt - Tips for Coren
• Abbey to Outlands - Tips for Coren
  
• Banana Shoulders - Achievements Guide

Ye ken that silly gear all them Brewfest lot are wearin’ fer the tourists?  Seems they’re sellin’ it as souvenirs noo, too! Haha! An’ even worse, thon shaman has gone and got himself some.  Never laughed so much in mah life!

My guild lead knows me far too well…

Well, everyone’s got tae have a wee sideline in sellin’ somethin’ or other tae make them money, aye?  Or, if no that, then maybe a wee hobby that they happen tae use fer enhancin’ their gear or makin’ fun wee gadgets wi’?  Seems a lot o’ us spend the time perfectin’ these arts and dreamin’ up weird and wonderful new ways tae use our skills and, well, ah thought ah would put some o’ mine doon oan paper afore someone else claims ‘em!

I’m a huge fan of professions - in fact I enjoy them as much as any other aspect of the game and would probably find WoW a little less fun if the crafting aspect were removed.   Given I’m an altaholic with a love of professions you could guess I’ve tried them all and you’d be right - even if I did give up on blacksmithing before maxing it out… /guilt.

My favourite professions are leatherworking, jewelcrafting, alchemy and enchanting - the first because I like to make my own gear and all of my level 70 toons are leather-wearers and the other three because I like having professions from which others can benefit greatly besides myself.  So, what do I wish my favoured professions could do?

Leatherworking

I’d love to see more of the silly stuff in leatherworking - [Heavy Leather Ball]’s and [Gordok Ogre Suit]’s for example.  It wouldn’t be a huge stretch, for example, to add other costumes which change your appearance by using bits of the creatures you skin (or that others skin, if you’re a double profession-er) - dragonscales and leather for a dragon outfit, wolf or bear fur for costumes of the respective creatures - just fun recipes used to level on or as a silly pattern dropped in an instance, the results of which you could pull out in a raid or whilst standing at the mailbox.

I’ve also always felt it was unfair that tailors get the majority of ’shirt’ slot items and rp style outfits.  Give us leather [Tuxedo Pants]!

Jewelcrafting

Jewelcrafting already has a lot of nice things but, to be honest, I was actually disappointed to see that it would be blacksmiths and not jewelcrafters who could add an extra gem slot to items (though I do feel blacksmiths need something like this so I don’t begrudge them it!).  Still, it would be nice if they added this ability for jewelcrafters for necklaces and rings only, even as a jewelcrafting only thing.  Although the epic gems in TBC were nice I couldn’t use any of them on my rogue and the craftable necks / rings weren’t all that great for most classes and far more replaceable than any other profession’s crafted items.  This, of course, doesn’t include the Sunwell craftables which were pretty much inaccessible to most people.

The trinkets were nice but I upgraded my blue one before the end of Kara and the upgraded one wasn’t available until the last few months of TBC.  A wider range of melee trinkets focussing on different stats or even more with non-combat usage would be nice - as would a basic set of pvp trinkets for those what like that sort of thing.

Other than that I have to say there’s not much else I could ask of jewelcrafting - it’s a pretty nifty profession and much more well rounded than the ‘traditional’ crafting professions of pre-TBC.

Alchemy

Oils for weapons were mostly concentrated in the hands of the enchanters in The Burning Crusade so I’d like to see more added back for alchemists - perhaps special ‘resistance’ oils which would allow you to give up weapon-based dps (from poisons, WF, etc.) instead of one piece of gear in a resist set?  Maybe some which ar temporary versions of full enchants (along with the glows) such as beastslayer, demonslaying, etc. which wouldn’t overlap too much with enchanter’s mana / spellpower oils or blacksmith’s stones.

I would also love it if alchemy could create more potion versions of most of the non combat spells some classes have - i.e. a potion of levitate to go alongside the current water-walking, detect invisibility and underwater breathing potions.

Enchanting

As with jewelcrafting, the main thing I wanted for enchanting was given to another profession - scrolls that can be ‘enchanted’ and then sold but the ability to make such scrolls was given to inscribers.  I can undertsand why they’d give this to inscribers but, at the same time, is it fair for enchanters to have to rely on another profession so much if they want to be able to sell their wares?  Maybe it is, given that enchanting is a gathering and crafting profession in one.

Anyway… The thing most people love about enchants is that they can be shiny or cool.  It might be interesting if, for example, cloak enchants could add a glow to cloaks - maybe make them fiery or icy.  Boot enchants could make a person leave ‘footprints’ dependant on their enchant - a little trail of grass / flowers for Vitality, cat pawprints if you have Cat’s Swiftness.

Herbalism

I know most people wouldn’t care for this but… wouldn’t it be cool if herbalists could make some of the posies and bouquets that the flower-sellers have?  Perhaps even ones with on-use effects like the [Bouquet of Red Roses]?  Just a random thought as I realise herbalism is a gathering rather than crafting profession, hehe.

Fun + Epix = Win

I know these are mostly cosmetic things but, to be honest, the fun of a profession is often in the silly and fun looking things it can create in my opinion.   I believe that Blizzard been trying quite hard to make professions valuable and worthwhile for more than just ‘epix crafted lewts’ since Burning Crusade and hope to see the trend continued in Wrath.

This /hug post brought to you by the Blog Azeroth Shared Topic of the Week!

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I know, late to the finish line for the BA topic as usual but better late than never, eh?

I’ve played a variety of classes - some to 70 and some not - and have experienced a wide range of play-styles amongst them.   There are two classes, though, which draw me in completely: Druid and Shaman.  I’ve always been a bit of a nature-lovin’ hippy at heart - I don’t kill critters and I’ve hugged lots of trees.  I like the ‘nature’ of the classes (harhar) and how they play but for very different reasons.

Druids

Versatile, Graceful, Strong, Fast

Druids are the jack-of-all-trades - even unspecced they can fulfil any role in a pinch and fully specialised are a force to  be reckoned with.

Doing anything as a druid has always felt slightly graceful to me, in that I feel there is a nice flow to my actions - one leads to the next which brings you to the next.  There are so many buttons and so many ways to do things that one has a plethora of choice and can turn any situation around like some sort of choreographed dance.

Druids are also strong -  when the goin’ gets tough they hunker down and can outlast a flurry of blows under a thick fur hide or protected by barkskin.  In leather gear they’re no pushovers and even our caster form has a big, feathery shell to protect them!

The nature of hots and other instant abilities makes this class feel very ‘fast’ paced for me - though I guess that might just be lack of practice!

Shamans

Solid, Strong, Powerful, Flexible

Whilst I think of druids as versatile - able to take on another role in a pinch - I think of shamans as flexible.  Why? Well, I’ve spent a lot of my time as a resto shaman in any other group except the healer group - I buff the melee or casters most often and, although I may not have the buffed totems that enhance or elemental do, I am still able to provide some measure of benefit to almost any group I join.  I can tweak my totem set-up and tailor it to the needs of my party - flexibility within my chosen role.

Shamans are healers in mail.  Not as tough as paladins maybe but they have a shield and can take a few bumps and bruises in a dire situation - they also tend to have reasonably high health pools and generally survive better than their squishier leather and cloth counterparts.  I’m a big fan of survivability so this aspect of shamans is greatly appealing to me.  The fact I can add an Earth Shield to that and make a warrior get so bored of lesser healing wave spam that he walks away has always tickled me.

Resto is my chosen spec and, despite being a little focussed on one particular spell, I do feel it is a powerful one - not only in terms of ‘efficiency, hps, etc.’ but when my chain heal connects it hits reaonably big.  As much as I do like being a resto druid from time to time I admit that it can be a little disconcerting having to wait for all the little numbers to add up…

But what about rogues, etc.?

As much as I do love my rogue and enjoy playing him, and although his ‘personality’ is more in line with my own, I don’t feel I am, deep inside, a roguey type.  Maybe the hugging sorta gives that away?  I like happy, cheerful and strong - which is why of all races I chose a dwarf for my rogue.  I can be happier playing a dwarf rogue than any other race but as much as I loved my big swords I’d hang them up in a moment for a good sturdy staff or hefty, healy mace.

Overall

I think that both druids and shamans are the best fit classes for me - playing both gives me the ability to help others and be a strong solo player - druid gives me the ability to play a complex, graceful class with many twists and turns to it and shaman gives me a nice, earthy, solid and dependable healer to help my teammates with.

Ye cannae get past the beauty o’ the Alliance’s capitals.  Ironforge, o’ course, is the best lookin’ but Stormwind has its charms and Darnassus is sorta pretty if ye like that sort o’ thing. I really need tae take a wee jaunt oot tae the Exodar one o’  these days.  If ye can call that a capital…

I was trying to take ‘iconic’ pictures of the capitals - that is, ones which I could use to represent them in future blog posts.  I quite like how they turned out so I thought I’d put the full un-bannerified versions up!

I logged on to the beta this morning just to pootle about and play with what my hunter could do and check out some of the new pets.  I found a few little things which  I wanted to share.  If you don’t want to hear about beta stuff, look away now (obligatory image spacer for feed readers)! *ahem*

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Ah love takin’ pictures and posin’ fer some too but y’see it takes a wee bit o’ pokin’ aboot tae get the results ye want.

What we have here is a rare creature on this blog:  a post about blogging itself.  Not going too far, of course, it’s about something in particular I like to use on my blog (as do many others), namely images.

Images, pictures, portraits, doodles, sketches or representations - whichever type or flavour you pick it will generally enhance your posts.  I have always been a very image-centric person - I like art, animation and video as well as creating websites and ‘graphics’.  It was only natural for me, then, to add a lot of art and imagery to my blog when I began it, though it took a little while to get the kind of pictures I wanted.

Why use images?

Although bolding some of your sentences, adding headings, italics and using various ·lists as well as plenty of  s p a c e s can give structure to your posts I find that it is images which can make me stop and really look at a post.  I could insert a cheesy line about a picture saying a thousand words but, to be honest, I believe that the way I (and perhaps blogs in general) use them is more in line with adding pepper to soup - it enhances the ‘flavour’ of the surrounding text and makes it tastier to eat.  Read.  Devour?

Images can also be used as visual clues - when I write a post about my shaman I usually include a picture of him - same for my druid, rogue and hunter.  A lot of people use this method if they have multiple authors so it’s no big leap to utilise it if you’re a frequent, chronic sufferer of the dreaded altitis.  Using Aurik as a model I hope I can illustrate reasonably simply how I make shiny images for my blog assuming basic knowledge of image editing.

Before I begin I will note that this isnae a ‘how to make shiny images of awesome dhoom’, a guide on how to upload / capture pictures and it also definitely isnae the only way to do things.  It’s  simple few tips / short guide about how to make some half-decent, quick images for your blog - in my opinion, unless your blog is centred around the images you use then making them should not take longer than writing the post. *grin*

There are two types of images I will cover: Screenshots and WoWModelViewer based images.  I don’t really like non-game images in my WoW blog so I’m afraid that’s all yer getting from me.

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Bloody great big dragons! Ah mean, it’s all well knowin’ what’s goin’ on in Stormwind, but it’s a whole bloody other thing tae find a big flamin’ dragon when yer just mindin’ yer own business…

In an effort to stave off boredom I’ve been pottering about trying to do the Onyxia quests.  Finally got them done after a few hours of running back and forth and, for the first time, I walked through Stormwind and got to see Onyxia spawn! Sadly there were no curious lowbies around. *ahem* Now I only need a trip to UBRS!

Ah likes mah swords and ye cannae part me from them - solid, reliable, big, pointy swords.  But it seems there’s others aboot here that likes usin’ other types o’ weaponry…

As much as I have always been a lover of big-ass swords on my rogue I am also a huge fan of unusual weaponry - your bog standard staves, swords and maces are all good and well but who can really say they wouldn’t enjoy beating some murlocs with a rolling pin?

I know there are a lot of funky and unusual offhands in the game (fish, torches, wrenches, dynamite and flowers) but what I’m really looking at here are the really odd things that they allow you to beat mobs about the head with - things you might not have thought were really epic-fantasy style weaponry candidates.

Do you know how awesome it is, in fact, to run lowbies through Shadow Fang Keep with a two-handed spade, beating Worgen up with a satisfying CLANG?!

Most of my joy from this came from levelling my first paladin, a much loved but now abandoned Belfadin on  Sporeggar (EU RP-PVP).  He’s only level 49 but it was whilst levelling him that I became acquainted with my favourite weapon to date - [Silver Spade].  This, and others like it, add a little bit of fun to the usual grind and appeal to my collectors nature.  I was very excited to find that, as of a recent patch, [The Shoveler] is no longer warrior only and I hope to pick it up for my new Paladin as he levels.

In DnD I always was amused by the farmers implements which could be used as weapons and so it is with WoW.  Picks, shovels, skinning knives to start and then the more silly ones such as rolling pins and bones.  I’ve had a quick look through wowhead and wowmodelviewer in search of such interesting items but I’m afraid that I may have missed a few.  Still, this list is a good primer, at least, if you’re looking to start collecting or using some unusual weaponry of your own…

• Spade Model
• Pick Model
• Bone Model
  
• Rolling Pin
• Steins
• Scythes
• Pitchforks
• Broken Wine Bottle
• Plank with Nail
• Fish
• Mutton

(Excuse the radio silence of the last few days - I was off enjoying myself in London!)