Well, there goes the neighborhood!

It’s said that you can find almost everything on Craigslist: now, for a mere $738/mo, you can “unravel the continuing story of the South of Market…face the mighty orcs of Sixth Street; cleanse the Fortress of Power from the roach scourge and much, much more.”

That’s right! It’s the World of Housecraft. If you’re in the San Francisco area and looking for a new pad, this could be the place for you. Feel secure in the fact that they’ll never, ever make fun of you for spending more time in Outland than drinking in the Mission. Although, the ESRB rating does warn of “Blood, Suggestive Themes, Use of Alcohol and Mild Sexual Content.” As the dwarves would say, “I’ll drink to that!”

So, raise your hand if members of your guild were racing to be the first to 70. If you were the first one to 70, go stand in the corner, because you missed a hell of a great game. Just kidding…seriously, how have you approached it? Did you want to get to the new end-game instances, flying mounts, and Heroic Mode as soon as you could? Or were you not really bothered by how long it took, within reason? Did you level more than one character? Or did you focus on a brand new Draenei or Blood Elf?

I am in the middle ground. I don’t want to be left behind and lose a place in future raids, but I am so thoroughly enjoying the content that I’m absolutely not going to race through it. We have quite a few 69-70s in the guild now, but it doesn’t bother me. My hunter is almost 65, and my warlock main is half-way to 64. I did get some rather pointed questions about was I switching my main to the hunter, but the hunter is both more fun and easier to level, so she goes first. Ravven will come second, and level faster with a knowledge of where everything is. My Draenei? Unfortunately abandoned for the moment at level 17, since I simply can’t do three.

My main ambition right now? A cobalt talbuk mount. :)

Dancing in the nest

Originally uploaded by tbridge.

I love good whimsy in my games, and the quest line that features the Jump-a-tron 4000 is quite possibly one of my favorite “Silly” quests in WoW. Well done, Blizz, this one has kept me laughing all day. Challenging, fun, and good rewards, to boot.

It was late afternoon on the plains of Nagrand as I stood before Hemet Nesingwary. I held in my hands the heart of a giant elekk queen, and we were discussing my reward when the drums of a thousand war kodos came up over our conversation and smothered it. The thunderous sound of all those war drums, lead by the howls of the Frostwolves of Orgrimmar, was one I felt deep in my chest as they ran by.

Much to my surprise, I recognized their livery, that of Thrall’s own honor guard! Was the warchief truly here in the Outland? He was. He, and Drek’Thar, ran by on their wolves, headed for Garadar. Finishing up with Nesingwary, I mounted my war raptor and headed into Garadar to see the warchief’s arrival. As he approached the city limits, his honor guard lined the road, the wolves howling their salute to the chief as he paced in on his mount. Dismounting at the gate, and carrying his fabled Doomhammer, he walked to the center of Garadar to see Garrosh Hellscream, chief of the Mag’har, as well as the Greatmother herself, now dying in the hospice in Garadar.

Their reunion was one I shall never forget. The joy of reunion, the sadness of the Greatmother’s condition, the relief and pride of Garrosh Hellscream at learning the true fate of his father. Without question, one of the finest moments in the Outland, thus far.

There are many quests in the Outlands that are vast improvements on their terrestial counterparts. The dialogue is snappier. The show is flashier. The bombing runs are . . . well, there are bombing runs. One of the funniest quests yet is “Digging Through Bones” and can be found at the Sha’Tari Outpost in Terokkar Forest. A group of Dwarven archaeologists led by Chief Archaelogist Letoll need escorting and protection on their way to a dig site.

Yes, it’s an escort quest. But the dwarves are badass and dont really need much protection. The quest is listed as Group, but it is very easy to solo.

You escort them across the wastes, past two scorpions, and to the dig site. They begin digging and then they begin talking, and that is when things get interesting:

Chief Archaeologist Letoll says: We’re here! Start diggin’!

Chief Archaeologist Letoll says: I think there’s somethin’ buried here, beneath the sand!

Chief Archaeologist Letoll says: By Brann’s brittle bananas! What is it!? It.. It looks like a drum.

Explorers’ League Researcher says: Wow… a drum.

Explorers’ League Researcher says: This discovery will surely rock the foundation of modern archaeology.

Explorers’ League Researcher says: Yeah, great. can we leave now? this desert is giving me hives.

Chief Archaeologist Letoll says: Have ye gone mad? you expect me to leave behind a drum without first beatin’ on it? not this son of ironforge! No sir!

Explorers’ League Researcher says: This reminds me of that one time where you made us search silithus for evidence of sand gnomes.

Explorers’ League Researcher says: Or that time when you told us that you’d discovered the cure for the plague of the 20th century. What is that even? 20th century?

Explorers’ League Researcher says: I don’t think it can top the one time where he told us that he’d heard that Arthas’s “cousin’s” skeleton was frozen beneath a glacier in Winterspring. I’ll never forgive you for that one, Letoll. I mean honestly… Arthas’s Cousin?

Explorers’ League Researcher says: I dunno. It can’t possibly beat the time he tried to convince us all that we’re actually a figment of some being’s imagination and that they only use us for their own personal amusement. That went over well during dinner with the family.

Chief Archaeologist Letoll says: Shut yer yaps! I’m gonna bang on this drum and that’s that!

Explorers’ League Researcher says: Say, do you guys hear that?

Chief Archaeologist Letoll says: IN YOUR FACE! I told you there was somethin’ here!

And then . . . well, I won’t spoil that, too.

Pre-patch, anytime I had an extra half hour or so I’d jump in and run AB or AV. I was saving up honor points for items I ended up replacing seconds after jumping through the portal but after spending a few days back in the XP grind I was itching for more PvP. I play horde, so no idea what the Alliance counterpart to this is, but I quickly found that redoable quest, Hellfire Fortifications where you are charged with taking control of the Overlook, Stadium, and Broken Hill. There always seems to be a group of 3-4 people doing this and in an hour yesterday I’d racked up over 30 Marks of Thrallmar for the caps and kills. Now I’m kind of obsessed and jumping in any chance I get. Anyone else taking advantage of the new world PvP options?

I recently heard someone (I’ve forgotten who – sorry!) on The Instance mention the Draenei in the context of the other Alliance races – what is their deep, dark secret? Every other Alliance race has a tarnish, from the gnomes’ senseless forays into uncontrollable technology to the elves’ storied flirtations with dark forces. But the Draenei seem to lack a shadow; they come across as big, blue, hammer-wielding teddy bears.

As a kind of answer to that question, I offer two narrative points: that the Draenei don’t need a dark history and that they probably shouldn’t have one.
(more…)

I’m a crappy gatherer. My ‘lock is a tailor/enchanter and does pretty well at each. My priest on the other hand a lvl 300 Alchemist but only 120-something in Herbalism. Previously I’ve also attempted and dropped mining and skinning. I just kind of hate the running around. Now, since I’ve gotten a few socketed items, Jewelcrafting is sparking my interest. Plus this gem guide I found on wowinsider has already helped me with a wish list. I think I’m going to bail on the herbalism on move on to the gem stones and see how that works. I make most of my cash playing the Auction House so it’s not really going to change my income. Anyone else picked up jewelcrafting, have any advice or experience to share?

Turns out it’s about 80 square miles. To put that into perspective, the island of Manhattan is about 20 square miles. How do I know that? Tobold figured it out. He went through the trouble of figuring out how big a mile would be in game based on how fast a toon could run across it, and then measured the whole damn continent of Kalimdor, then doubled that to account for the Eastern Kingdoms. It’s pretty small for a “world” but as Tobold notes, maybe landmass isn’t the correct way to measure virtual worlds:

“But in the end measuring the size of a virtual world in square miles doesn’t make much sense anyway. If you made a parallel World of Warcraft with exactly the same number of quests and mobs, and the same geography, but just doubled all distances, Azeroth would be 4 times as big. But that wouldn’t add anything to the game. So counting the size of Azeroth in number of quests is a better indicator of game “size”. And in that respect World of Warcraft is easily beating other games that just have more land mass.”

[via BoingBoing]