Just hit level 80 on my Paladin, now it's time for bigger and better things with him. Healing Naxx, and Ulduar. Winning Wintergrasp battles, etc. I'm extremely excited about adding this chapter to Unholy Hands. Now I'm able to bring even more to you readers. Thank you all for keeping this blog alive!
~Aenorn
Yes, folks. The in game item for Blizzcon 2009 has been announced. It was put up on MMO-Champion yesterday afternoon, as well as WoW Insider. Later that night Blizzard released the official announcement of the non-combat pet. First and foremost I'd just like to state that this pet is made of pure win.
Now I'd like to get into my thoughts on all of this. I think this was a bit unprofessional of both WoW Insider and MMO-Champion. I love both sites, and they have the right to publicize what they find, but Blizzard has stated (and I quote) on the official Blizzcon forums:
"We will likely talk about a goodie bag in-game item in the future (though there are no guarantees of course), but based on the past we don't do this until after the ticket sales and we are much closer to the con happening. Tickets first. :)"
Yup, Ensidia took yet another world first! Congrats to these guys!
On a side note, Fusion just got the US first for Hard Mode General Vezax! Go go US! :D
This is one of the funniest WoW videos I've ever seen, so I thought I'd share it with you all. Enjoy!
Guild drama, and lots of it! I was listening to the archive of Blue Plz last night, and an interesting topic came up on the show that I can relate with. TotalBiscuit, who will be appearing on The Rawrcast Show on the 30th, brought up the topic of choosing between easy modes, hard modes, or 'medium modes' in Ulduar.
Now, this is interesting because I've heard a lot of guilds say that they want linear progression. Straight forward, you know what you have to do next. I know that one of the top end guilds lost a lot of world firsts because they tried to start on hard modes. I mean think about it, we've come from having to progress straight through an instance, knowing which boss to kill next, to picking and choosing which bosses we want to do, and now we're all the way to not only picking and choosing bosses, but the difficulty of those bosses as well.
TotalBiscuit noted that his guild was having a large amount of arguments as to how they should do Flame Leviathan. Whether they should leave 1 tower up, 2 towers up, or just blow through him to get to the rest of the instance. This is a perfect example of one reason linear raid instances should be brought back into play. There shouldn't be fighting in the raid over what boss they should do next, and how they should do it.
The way I'd like to see instances mapped out is this: The first time you kill a boss you can only kill the regular mode. Once you kill the regular mode of that boss the hard mode becomes available the next raid reset. Add to all of this a straight instance progression from boss to boss and you have a better style of instance. Of course there's issues that arrive with this, but nothing that can't be easily handled.
Having expressed how I feel about how you progress through instances, I'd like to note that I love raiding no matter the size or shape of it. Now, difficulty is another matter all together. I'll be happy with whatever Blizzard implements as long as it poses a challenge. Ulduar was on a higher difficulty level than Naxxramas, not much higher, but they're getting there. Hopefully Blizzard is learning from all this, and maybe eventually we'll see some Sunwell level raids that actually pose a threat. Until then, I'll be sitting in Ulduar deciding if we should try hard mode on the next boss.
~Aenorn
Aha, finally something useful on this blog other than a bunch of rants and rambles right? Yes, folks! It's time for the Unholy Hands raid checklist! Helping you look prepared in front of your GM! Let's jump right in!
Potions/Flasks - A very important aspect to the raiding experience! One health or mana potion can make the difference between life and death, and the same goes for healing/tanking/DPS enhancement flasks.
Food - Don't blow off buying/making food because you think you have a mage or cook coming. Better safe than sorry, plus if you grab the right stuff you can get a nice boost to your stats, and when your mage backs out at the last second you get to be the always prepared hero that saves the day with his amazingly tasteful food of awesomeness!
Reagents - There's nothing more annoying than having a druid not be able to Battle Res because he doesn't have any seeds. Consider this situation: You just wiped on Algalon at 1% and you have enough time for one more try that week if you (in this example you're a shaman) can self-res fast enough, and res the rest of the raid. You're out of reagents. Your guild leader breaks his headset and kicks everyone from vent. The guild falls apart never to be heard from again and everyone quits the game. You'll never forget your reagents again will you?
Your Gear - Gear? Why would I forget my gear? Well, if you're dual specced you likely have 2 sets of gear, and could easily leave one in the bank. There's nothing more embarrassing than being asked to heal for a fight then having to admit you forgot your healing set.
Entertainment - Very important! Whether it be Papa Hummel's Old Fashioned Pet Biscuits or a toy train. They're incredibly useful during bathroom breaks, and at points where some raid members have to head back into town because they forgot their reagents or their gear!
Know the strategies - You have a general idea of who you're going to be trying to down before the raid starts, and if you don't then ask your GM. Read up on the strategies and make sure you know what your doing, random movement doesn't play out well.
Being prepared not only impresses your guild leader, but it makes your fellow members want to do the same so they don't look like morons. Overall, it's obvious that it's best to be ready for every instance. Who knows, maybe you'll end up an officer? No point in playing if ya aint gonna play right.. right?
Good luck!
~Aenorn
Well, if you have a lot of free time on your hands and tend to sit in Dalaran waiting for something to do then you've read the right post! If you don't have time to raid, or have too much time and there aren't any raids going on I figure I might as well give you a few things to do. We don't want anyone getting bored now do we?
Farm mounts - The Deathcharger Reins from Baron Rivendare, The Swift Zulian TIger or Swift Razzashi Raptor from Zul'Gurub. Grab a few people and throw in a Druid and try to get the Reins of the Raven Lord from Heroic Sethekk Halls. Maybe grind some rep with your favorite faction or just do the Argent Tournament dailies. There are plenty of things you can do to get some shiny mounts!
Go Fishing - Not one of my personal favorites, but it can be fun! You can also get some nice rewards from it too. Sea Turtle, for example.
Battlegrounds - I'm not a big PvPer but every now and again I'll hop into the battlegrounds. It's pretty fun when you don't have an arena rating on the line and you aren't really trying to get gear.
Achievements - You knew it was coming. You can always find an achievement to do. Theres probably some title or tabard that you haven't gotten yet.
Non-Combat Pets - I'm a large collector of these. I now have over 70, my favorite being the Hippogryph Hatchling. Theres a lot of pets out there that are just too cute not to collect! Hop on the AH, or grind some rep. Heck, you could even kill some Whelps! If you want to get more into the hobby of collecting these pets head on over to Warcraft Pets! They're incredibly friendly and helpful over there.
Role Play - Yes, it's generally hard to find any role play on non-RP servers, and even tough to find it on some RP servers, but it can be pretty darn fun!
Run heroics - Even if you don't need to. Maybe help a guildie get some badges or an extra piece of gear, or just join a PuG to kill some time till the raid.
Level Alts - I personally HATE leveling alts, even though I've done it 4 times now >_> But it's fun to some people and can be rewarding having characters of all different classes.
Enjoy the scenery - I've mentioned this before. Stop and enjoy some of the views and take a screenshot or 2.
Be Raid Ready - Stock up on Potions, Flasks, Bandages, Arrows, Bullets, Shards, Spell Regeants, Food, Water. Whatever you need to have for the raid be sure you got it!
It's nice to have things to do during raid downtime, and don't forget that raiding isn't the only fun thing to do!
.. Just the MOST fun thing to do ~_^
~Aenorn
