Ctrl Alt WoW Episode 98 - Patch 3.08

Aprillian, Glanthur and Ashayo discuss another week of playing World of Warcraft, Blizzard's great MMORPG. Actually no Ashayo this week. But he'll be back next week. Write us at ctrlaltwow@gmail.com Contest for WoW Mini's Contest for emails What We've Been Doing:

Aprillian Quad boxed in Nagrand, it was quite the experience.  Epril, Elyte, Auruk and Aprillian.  Finished the Crone quest and then hearthed to Dalaran and did some maintainance and prof training.  Epril got her JC up over 325 and headed back to Nagrand where she ran into that chick with the many hides quest.  Aprillian needed training, hadn't been to a Warlock Trainer in ages, spent over 50 g and finally figured out how to socket her boots. Sometimes you have to take the time to read.  Elyte made some glyph, turned out she had some open spaces Went to do the mana cell daily with Aprillian, fell off of the Landing, had to run around to get back to the town and find a Spirit Healer Took Auruk and the twins back to Nagrand.  Did the War on Warmual quest, freeing those guys out of the cage.  Auruk had done the quests but he managed to ding 66, so that was cool.  I have to remember to take him back to train.  There was some tricky stuff, for instance Elyte needed Obsidian beads so she needed to do the looting but Epril needed the powder. New transfers off of ER.  I transfered the Death Knight that wasn't one of the twins, started a DK gnome, her blade goes through the ground.  Then I panicked because Thejasper was my high level DE'er and now I didn't have any.  So I decided to get out Veyle, my level 40 rogue enchanter BS and Tiiaa my mage enchanter skinner.  Veyle has Enchanting maxed at 300 because she needs to get to 50.  I brought my level 39 Mage along, she was 3 bubbles from 40.  I want her to get portals.  I took the 3 out to the Badlands where Tiiaa got those two gathering quests Glanthur Transferred from Earthen Ring on my Alliance alts (Glanthur and Arlaerus) to Wyrmrest Accord, a RPPvE realm.  I was so new I actually got a realm first for 450 in cooking achievement.  There were only 20-something 80s on the whole server the first day, so I joined a great guild called Lost Chapter (a raid guild) and we ran Obsidian Sanctum.  Since we were the first, we got another Realm First, and I'm now officially Obsidian Slayer Glanthur.  So cool!

Also been leveling Arlaerus, since the guild needs more healers.  It's tough though finding good plate spell-casting gear.

Great Ventrillo client for Mac is Ventrilo (also has a PC and Linux client). The Bladed Edge Now... this week's been busy in real life, so Ol' Blade doesn't have a lot of news to report... my little project is coming along... hit a few snags here and there... but I hope by next week to be back in Northrend hammering my way up to 80... Got things to do, you know... gotta level my Engineering skill, too! That said, if you need any tinkering or sudden miraculous inventions to be made... Ol' Blade's not half-bad... but I *did* come across someone who totally bests me in the 'miraculous invention' department... McGoyver... Ya... seriously... he's in Howling Fjord... admittedly, it's a bit of a lunch-bag let-down that he's a Gnome... but regardless... he's on the beach at Volgarde... he's even got a tag under his name... very apt for one of the best inventors of miraculous stuff... Moving on.

From the 'Dirty Little Tricks' Department:

For the Hunters... a two in one... 'cause... if you're like me on Wolftusk... not the *best* Hunter in the world... but not so clueless as to be called a 'Huntard' (those are the ones that let their pet Growl the aggro off the Tank... you know who you are...) The rest of us get tarred with a nasty brush every time one of you jokers goofs up in a dungeon... so hopefully this two-shot of macros will help that from happening a little less often... Two-shot... see what I did there?  I made a punny! Step one:

/Focus Target

Manually select your target (player, pet, or even a mob) you want as a focus, and hit the macro.  They now have a shiny glow around their character picture, showing them as your focus... and yes, your focus can also be an enemy mob; you may be on CC (crowd control) duty and assigned to chain trap a particular mob. This macro does its part by making the mob your focus... making it easier to keep track of your enemy. Now... step 2...

/Target Focus

/Assist Target

/Cast Auto Shot

(or whatever... some folks like to have an instant-cast shot like Arcane Shot in here... it's personal preference, really... some prefer a slower-acting shot like Serpent Sting to allow the tank to generate a little Threat before the damage starts...)

Assuming that you used the macro we just mentioned to choose the Tank as your Focus, this macro will allow you to /assist your focus (the tank) and let fly with one of your attacks. If you *remove* the third line and don't have an attack launched at the tank's target as soon as you hit this macro, then you select the tank's target as your own (that's what /assist does) and you wait... this might be a wise thing to do depending on the situation... it lets the tank generate the threat they need to keep the mobs from focussing on you! But then... there's something to be said about waiting a few seconds while the tank does their thing... Whatever you do... don't use Aimed Shot... if you do, I'll track you down and call you a Huntard myself...

From Ol' Blade's Easter Egg Basket:

As everyone knows by now, Ol' Blade's been doing some exploring... and some of the more out-of-the-reach places have hidden things to find if you look hard enough... For example... when flying between Elwynn Forest and Burning Steppes, if you look down, you can see some campsites along the banks of a small river or stream that eventually feeds the waterfall in Northshire... you can't get to this place from Elwynn FZorest, but there's a path that leads right up the mountains to it from the Burning Steppes... I recommend being high enough level to not drawn aggro from the level 50+ monsters in this zone... From up here, there's some pretty spectacular views of Elwynn Forest... and another little curiosity... near the banks of the stream, there's a school of fish you can fish from... but you don't catch fish... you catch peaceblooms... Also... if you swim south from Menethil Harbor in the Wetlands (or technically north from Stormwind Harbor) you will come to a spot on the coastline called 'Newman's Landing'. Now... I know what you're thinking... who goes THERE? Apparently not many people... it *does* seem to be a pun of the phrase "No Man's Land" after all... Not a friendly place... there's skeletons all over the place... it looks like the last time I pvp'd against the Alliance... there's even a signpost with a skull balanced on an axe embedded in the post. From what I hear, this place used to be completely abandoned... maybe a long-forgotten pirate treasure-burial site?  Who knows? High Admiral "Shelly" Jorrik might. He's the goblin that - with a few guards - has recently come to the area... maybe to dig for pirate gold? As always, an awesome podcast guys!

Blade Emails

Email #1 From Patrick Bye bye to Earthin Ring for me Hello guys For the past few weeks, when I have tried to sign onto the Earthin Ring, 95% of the time I am stuck in a queue. Unfortunately I encountered the last straw a few days ago and that was it, I took the free character move and moved Bruurk, my lvl 35 hunter and my other alt, to the Garrosh server.  Unfortunately this does mean I have left AIG which did disappoint me quit a bit, but the fact that there is no more queue time now means I can play for bloody change !! So sorry Ashayo, as it was you who added me to AIE guild. LOL, So Aprillian you no longer have to worry about my alt lurking in the AH to intercept your cross faction auctions.  By the way, in listening to the last few pod casts, I think I figured out the name of your alliance toon that you use in your AH laundering scams.  Not to worry you secret is safe since I am no long on Earthin Ring !!!! Well that is all for now !! Go Arsenal FC !! Patrick

Email #2 from Brenry - Boulderfist Name: Brenry - Boulderfist | Date: January 17, 2009 When he comments on his dread about Pinnacle gauntlet… there is a way to EASY mode it. Here’s how ! Party waits in room before gauntlet. Someone aggros boss so he’ll fly up starting event. That person runs back. He and all the mobs will despawn. Then the party runs all the way down the hall to the room at the other end. This will avoid ALL frost issues on ground. Just aoe the mob waves that spawn on top of you. Right before the 5th or 6th (i forget which) wave when the boss lands, everyone leave room so they avoid cleave of boss and tank picks it up. Enjoy free epics XD Email #3 from Dreamweaver I have just finished listening to Ctrlaltwow and was quite shocked to hear my e-mail on the show as looking back it was quite long, and was even more shocked to found out i won. Email #3a from Dreamweaver Dreamweaver back again, after listening to the podcast and being suprised that i won the roll (see other e-mail) i would like to say sorry for missing out Glanthur from the very start, BUT i did say something about all three of you in the Itunes review i did before i wrote the e-mail to Ctrlaltwow Also a little update from my fuzzball druid, after quite some time working on all the rep with the home cities i finaly got the Title reward of Ambassador :D i was so pleased with myself i was runing round all over the place showing off my title, and about 30 mins later i got a wisper from a friend asking to tank malygos 10 man, so ofc i went, i have been before so i knew what to do in phase one and two but i hadnt been able to down him as of then. untill i got into this group... the damage that all of these people were doing was amazing so getting malygos to 50% in quite a short time came the next phase, this is where mobs come flying down on hover disc's (think back to the future) so the ones that were on the ground i picked up while they were nuked down, then the ones in the air were taken down aswell. in this phase when one of the mobs die they drop the hover disc's and melee can jump onto them and dps down the ones flying in the air, once they are all dead the platform that you are on just crumbles away and all 10 of us just fall into space to our deaths...... but just when i think OOOOHHHH NNOOEEESSSS while falling 10 drakes from the dragonflight come sweeping up and we land on the backs of them, the drakes have abilitys all of there own so we use the drakes spells to kill malygos. 1% left on him and the second he dies KABOOM  **Dreamweaver has earned Champion of the Frozen Wastes** So now i am shown as 'Dreamweaver Champion of the Frozen Wastes' I didnt even know i would get the title so was a bit shocked and getting it only an hour after getting the title of Ambassador. My druid has a funny a in its name so will link his armory page http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Draenor&n=Dre%C3%A1mweaver