Look Who I Found!

/Dodgy RP Mode On

Catrinna edged into the Ramparts. The smell of orc sweat and blood filled her nostrils. She quickly took out the guards at the bridge. They came too close to let any arrows fly; she hacked away at them with the heavy sword she carried on her back. Her lithe frame could hardly lift the thing, but it still had the same effect when she swung it into their faces.

Across the bridge, she spotted her reason for being there. Lumbering alongside one of the Bonechewer orcs was a very familiar-looking wolf.

I'd know that face of fur and fangs anywhere.

Uneasy on her feet with the huge sword weighing her down, the wolf's master heard her coming.

"Get her!" he roared, and the wolf bolted forwards, its cyan eyes gleaming with bloodlust.

Catrinna threw down a trap, catching the wolf as it leapt for her throat.

She took out her bow and sent arrows into some choice locations in the wolfmaster's torso.

The trap had started to give way by the time the body had hit the floor. The wolf, disoriented from the ice, stared up at her. She thought for a moment he might have known who she was. But in this new body, she couldn't have expected it. Ears pinned back, teeth bared, the wolf growled.


Amidst the angry snarls and snapping jaws, she cried out: "Bigwig, it's me! It's Catrinna!"

The snarls became low growls. She edged forwards, offering her hand. "Remember me?"

The wolf sniffed at the air around her, eyes still aglow. Ears pricking back up, the huge mound of fur at his rear wagged. He licked her fingers before falling in alongside her, ready and waiting for their next challenge.


/Dodgy RP Mode Off

So that was a very long way of saying I got a Bigwig for my blood elf hunter. I never did explain her, did I? Well, briefly, she was my first main character, originally Catriná on the Aggramar server. She was my first 70. She has been passed from Aggramar to Darkspear (transferred her over initially when WotLK hit, because back then you needed a character of at least level 55 on the server you wanted to roll a DK on, and I wanted to roll a DK), and now she's come over to Hellfire, because - let's face it - I love my hunters. I haven't used her yet, other than for the aforementioned Venomhide Ravasaur quest chain (of which I'm 17/20 on the baby teeth now, go me). She's waiting.

A collection of screenshots from the past few days.

A few of us raiding Crossraids dressed .. strangely.

Yes, that IS a wedding dress..




Us flagging dreanie after casting Tricks of the Trade and pulling Ignis onto him, while he was AFK. He wasn't impressed, and proceded to walk -extremely- slowly back after a corpse run. :(



Our Iron Council kill.

My week on the dark side

Hi Guildlings!

Well, I've had an interesting week. I said I'd be spending a hell of a lot of time on the horde side and it turns out I spent more time at work! However I did manage to sprinkle a bit of the Riande magic while I was there.

First off, I tried my hand at a shammy called Scrabblor. (For any Russel Howard fans, the name has meaning). And I managed to get up to lvl 13 - woohoo! I thought as a shammy I would be able at a higher lvl to heal and/or dps. But as I have found with the majority of my alts that they must all get better above lvl 20. I have tried a priest, a rogue, and a shammy and failed to get them above 20 so for those of you thinking about rolling another alt all I can suggest is struggling through the teens and then deciding after 20 whether or not to keep on going.

It seems Cat has had more success with this as all her alts seem to be in the thirties so I guess she can give a greater account of the pros and cons of different classes.

So for this week I shall back with my Alliance buddies and may even attempt to drag my druid Athenaide through that last half a lvl to 80. What then? Well, Vuhdu awaits as I've been too chicken to use it so far I can't imagine how utterly useless my healing ability will be.

Big gratz on Continues for pwning their way through Ulduar. It shows you what a 'casual' raiding guild can do with some pretty skilled members! For those of you that have dinged 80 and want to join in some end game content, send Aiv a whisper or a mail, as you'll most likely have to switch guilds and with lose the Alliance priviledges you have gained. (though there will be some good stuff in Continues to make up for it) I have, for my part, not been able to raid with the leet 80s for a while, this week being a hordie and before that being summoned to slavery which some also call a job :( Alas also why I haven't blogged or posted as much as recently.

Now with Zandathor/Holycrepe back to help Cat run the hordie side and get more leet peeps over there I'm returning to Riande and all my other alts in the hope I can raid a bit more and maybe even pick an alt I can stick with over here.

Any suggestions for classes I might try? I'm sure I will have attempted them at some point but stick a response in the forums about how uber leet your char is, and I'll give it a whirl.

For now, I bid you pip pip.

How Funky Is Your Chicken Now?

Not very. Hit 40, hit exalted with Undercity, and will never be seeing that thing again. Score.

Oh Dear.

7/14 Ulduar.

A simple guide to recruiting new members. Click image for legible version.

Another day, another retarded decision by Blizzard.

Greetings,

We are writing to inform you that we have, unfortunately,
had to cancel your World of Warcraft account:

Account Name:  
Type of Violation: Involvement in online trading activities
Investigation Concluded: 04/09/2009
Consequences for Account: Account Cancellation

It is with regret that we take this type of action, however,
it is in the best interest of the World of Warcraft community as a whole,
and for the integrity of the game, that your access to the
World of Warcraft servers be cancelled.

Online trading refers to the exchange of in-game content for real world money,
and includes, but is not limited to, the sale or purchase of gold, the sale or
purchase of experience in the form of powerlevelling, and the
sale or purchase of honor points, reputation or items.

Account access is the responsibility of the account owner and
account sharing is against our Terms of Use
(http://www.wow-europe.com/en/legal/termsofuse.html).

Therefore, should you believe someone other than yourself
(the account owner) has committed this violation of the
Terms of Use with your account, these sanctions would still
apply, as our action is taken against the account, not the individual.

If you wish to review our current Rules and Polices,
they can be found at:
http://www.wow-europe.com/en/policy/

Regards,

Account Administration Team
Blizzard Entertainment Europe

They unbanned me.

Aiv : 1
Blizzard : 0

Progression update.

Oh yeah. She loved it.

Ulduar10 = 6/14

Back on track.

Hi guys.

-So-, with all the hoo-haaa over the last few days with my account getting rickrolled and losing all my stuff / removing everyone from guild, we decided last night that a small band of Hardcore Elite Awesomesauce© members decided that we would go into that old instance "Ulduar" and shoot some stuff.

Well, shoot we did ladies and gentlemen. Shoot we did.

We jumped into our vehicles, and rolled out in a formation so amazing, that I had steven spielberg phoning me up this morning asking if he could use it for one of his films.. Oh yeah.

So, in true NuGen fashion we're lined up at Flame Leviathan shooting down barrels while I explain tactics to the new players in the raid. Then we notice we're in Combat! Oh damn .. He's bugged, and angry. :( So I have everyone retreat. There's no sense losing good men for a lost cause, so I saddled up alone and strode into the arena to face that yellow Behemoth.

I died.
-10% Durability.
He reset.
Job done.


So, again we're lined up - shooting pyrite. No bug this time, joy! So we all charge. Completely disregarding or remembering that we have to run away. More of a "Oh, what the hell?" kind of thing. Buuut, with 10 stacks of pyrite, his HP was going down quicker than Haris Pilton.

Bang.
Thwack!

Flame Leviathan down. Ok, dish out the phat loot and move onto XT-002. Who has been "Fixed". Oh god, I though. This is going to end in true NuGen Stylez© but we again lined up while I explained to our new members (One of who would be tanking for us) and we cleared the initial trash. [Which is like a bloody boss fight itself. Stupid shields.)

"More toys, for me!" bellowed out across the area and I quickly shifted into my sexy tree form. That fight is a bit monononononotonous after the first few tries.

Heal.
Heal Light bomb person.
Heal Gravity bomb person.
Heal raid.

Needless to say, we came through the other end unscathed. Another robot was dead. I'm dreading fighting anymore because I've heard if you keep killing robots, eventually robocop comes for you. :(

So we went to the dragon.

[ RP on ]

Razorscale soared high above the ground, her dark eyes fixed on an unknown target.. She was once a proud dragon by the name of Veranus. Her master, the frost lord Thorim was captured making his assault on his power-hungry brother, Loken. They were enslaved and brought to Ulduar where Ignis used his terrible knowledge of blacksmithing to forge her, torture her, change her.

What was once a powerful broodmother of the proto-dragons of Storm Peaks, was now a twisted reflection of her former glory. Her metal-infused skin glistening like the pools of the Sunwell itself. A magnificent drake of un-fathomable power, whose mind was now enslaved and warped by the unwavering corruption of Yogg-Saron.

The young band of adventurer's gathered at the entrance to her pit. She had been prewarned of such an incursion however she knew that these puny mortals would be fodder. She flew, knowing this would incense them, luring them further into her domain where she could then strike with relentless fury.

A Night Elf female stood at the forefront of the pack, giving orders to the others. Razorscale's eyes lingered for a moment on this druid of the grove. She had encountered very little of their kind, but knew enough to be wary. Druids were a formidible opponent - if they had enough sense. Then her obsidian eyes sighted something else. Harpoons!

She had not noticed these previously. "Curse those gnomes", she thought bitterly. They had to be using some sort of cloaking device. "Futile" she whispered.. and with that, she reared her head and inhaled. Two bolts of jet-blue flame thundered out of the sky; hitting the harpoons directly and rendering them un-usable. She snorted, they would not be using such methods to ground her.

The band of adventurer's moved swiftly as one. "My group, stay to the left" yelled Aiv. The druid was cunning. Splitting her forces into two made it harder to target them. "The rest of you move over to the right", she motioned to her second in command. A tall Draenei nodded his acknowledgement. A Paladin of the Naaru. Aptly named "Dreanie" as a ploy on his race.

"My group with me!" bellowed Dreanie.

Aiv motioned to the commander of the Allied troops. "Fix those damn harpoons, and do it fast!" she called out. He nodded and turned to his troops - A rag-tag band of poorly-armed soldiers. The group of Dwarven Engineers at the back raced forward and began tinkering with the contraptions. Aiv smiled and nodded her approval, the smile lingered for only a few second, however.

The floor began to rumble and shake. "What's happening?" yelled Mercurius, another Paladin. The ground beneath his feet was splitting, a pointed metal surface was boring out from underneath us.. "Move out of the way!" ordered Aiv, however the young Paladin was a shade too slow and was almost knocked clear from the ledge. Regaining his footing, Mercurius charged back into formation and stood with anticipation - waiting.. for now three of these tunnelers stood before them. No movement.

It was excellently co-ordinated, Aiv thought. A perfect strategy. She knew the dragon was wise - but she never expected this. Iron Dwarves charged out of the tunnelers.

"Stay in formation! Control your fire, focus!" rang out across the newly-created battlefield. Dreanie's voice was commanding, unwavering. His orders heard by everyone. Aiv moved quickly, shifting herself into an elemental tree. her eyes gazed over to the second group and she was happy to see her fellow druid, Cookie, mirroring her actions. Another gifted druid, she was proud to serve by him.

As her mind drifted, Razorscale noticed the lack of movement from the druid. She snorted, and blew a bolt of the same jet-blue fire towards her. Aiv looked upwards, she wasn't sure why but it seemed like the thing to do. She faltered. She had lapsed.. and now she had paid the price. The flames were bearing down on her, too quickly for her to fully avoid. An unfortunate loss.

She was pushed roughly to the side, falling hard. Her face twisted to see where she was standing, watching the molten ball hit the ground with a dull thud she looked up and laughed. "Stay out of the fire" winked Spybabe and with that he sprinted back to the fray to resume his assault on the Dwarves. She would thank the rogue later, when it was over.

"Harpoons are ready, missy!" rang out across the plain. A stout dwarf stood proudly, waving his hands as though he was guided a gnomish flying-machine into docking.

"Gnomeaeth! Fire those harpoons!" she ordered, however, the young magi was distracted as an Iron Dwarf threw his hand-axe at him. Should the gnome have stood but a foot higher, his head would have been cleaved in two. "I've got it!" shouted Nerdrage, their group's second Magi. And he raced towards the harpoons, using his knowledge of the arcane to phase through the air and appear right beside them. With a cheeky grin, he casually flipped the lever and the spear embedded within shot out with immense speed. It arced gracefully through the air, before impaling itself in the great Drake. She roared her anger but it was no use..

The second spear flew through the air as gracefully and fast as the first - and slammed into Razorscale's thick hide.


[[ To be continued! ]]

Guide: How to Get the Venomhide Ravasaur Mount

A long time ago, back before I played WoW, there was a thing about this mount and the trainer Mor'vek in the game. Alliance players might know about the mount considered this one's equal, the Winterspring Frostsabre, which to get players used to need to do an obscene amount of farming to get their hands on. This has been nerfed (or is it buffed?) numerous times since its inception, making the grind slightly more bearable, and so they've been popping up here and there. With patch 3.2, Blizzard re-introduced Mor'vek in Un'Goro Crater, and his quest to let horde players get their grubby mitts on a Venomhide Ravasaur. Some people - mostly Alliance, I assume - have already complained that these quests do not compare to the grindfest they have to endure to get themselves their version of this mount. But if you think about it, the Frostsabre has been available since Vanilla WoW, so the hordies have been waiting quite a long time already!

Anyhoo, I started this quest chain on my hunter (Huh? I'll explain in another post...) three days ago. Just FYI, you can pick up this quest from level 48, but it's recommended mid 50's because of some of the high level places you need to go for the dailies.

1/ Travel to Un'goro and find Mor'vek, who gives you the quest Toxic Tolerance. The basic idea behind this story is that the Venomhides have...well...venomous hides. If you tried to ride one, the poison would sink through your skin and kill you! Gasp! So he says you have to go and get splashed by their poison 20 times to build up a resistance. Considering that venomhides are pretty rare spawns, that may seem unfair, but since in the PTR for 3.2 they were suggesting that you got splashed 2,000 times, it's doesn't seem so bad. So head out around the raptor areas looking for venomhides. Get splashed 20 times and go hand in for the next quest.
Hints: For high levels, you can't just stand there and take a beating and hope to get the 20 you need. You need to do damage to the raptor for it to poison you. For this reason, take off all your armour, and put on a very low damage weapon (I used my [Skinning Knife]), so you can give and take the most beats before it dies. Extra hint for hunters/warlocks: You obviously need to have more aggro than you pet to get poisoned, so if you're doing it at the right level, watch your health. Extra extra hint for hunters: If you're doing it as a high level hunter, the easiest way by far is to dismiss your pet, equip some kind of low level stabbing stick, poke the raptor a few times, then once it's almost dead, feign death. The mob will reset, allowing you to run back and poke it some more. And who says hunters don't get it easy?

2/ Mor'vek then gives you Venomhide Eggs, where basically you go to pick up your baby raptor, ready for raising as a fierce...mount. They're found around the same places you should have spotted the raptors. The eggs in question are light coloured, where the normal ones are purplish. So you bring him three. You get to keep one. I'm not sure what he's going to do with the other two, but anyway... (I like mine fried or poached.)

3/ Mor'vek gives you the quest The Grow Up So Fast, whereby you need to take care of your little bundle of scales and claws until it's big enough to become a mount. This consists of 20 days worth of dailies, given at random by the baby Venomhide (If you're a high level, it will not show the ! unless you turn on "Low Level Quests" from the minimap search, but of course you can still take the quest off it). For each quest to turn in, the raptor will give you one of its baby teeth. Ew.

4/ Each day, you will get given one of four possible dailies to trade in for one tooth:

Searing Roc Feathers - Your Ravasaur wants to decorate itself with tribal feathers. Go kill some birds and rip out the plumage so your little one can be happy!
TIP: There are Rocs all over Tanaris, but it's only the Searing Rocs found in the south that drop the feathers.

The others, Gorishi Grub, Hungry, Hungry Hatchling, and Poached,Scrambled or Raw? are all basically "Feed my Fat Face" quests, scattered in Tanaris, Un'goro and Sithilus. It's no wonder it grows into a full-sized beast in 20 days if it keeps eating like that!

5/ While I haven't got this far myself yet (only had 2 dailies, both the feathers one), after 20 days of toiling, you will have your 20 baby teeth, and you can go back to Mor'vek with a big smile to get your mount. Oh, you'll also need the following:

20 x Rugged Leather (for your saddle)
20 x Runecloth (for your saddle)
80g (because Mor'vek charges an extortionate amount to make you the saddle)

Et voila! A shiny new mount for joo! Don't forget you can pick this quest up from level 48 (though you may have issues getting poisoned without simultaneously getting squished), so pick it up while levelling and you'll have an awesome cool mount to shimmy off Outland with!

Here's the Venomhide as it looks to me on Day 2:
Awwwwwwwwwww.

Leet Monkeys VS V.I.P

Apparently Leet Monkeys isnt a cool enough rank name over on the horde side so Cat picked the much better name of....V.I.P....yes I know. If we ever wondered who had the coolest guild, she just totally forfeited her place with that lame ass title.

So News this week?

Quite a bit actually, though whether you'll ifnd it interesting remains to be seen.

I've been playing on the horde side for a few levels with some of the deserters and I have a few point that that I've just noticed while switching between the two. For one thing, Hellfire is a newer server but it just seems so much quieter than Dramaspear. Not just the guild, though obviously they all rejoice when I log onto provide them with much needed entertainment. Wther it's just that I've settled into my bank character in exodar or what, but my bank (Riande) (yes i know a pally, but I'll never never never level her) in silvermoon is totally alone! at least I see a few people running around in exodar but I see NO ONE on the hordie side. Another point is that their trade chat is almost normal (dare I say it) with people actually wanting things and to TRADE?? stuff, but then there's still not a lot of trade action going on anyway. Though there was a nice incident of anal spamming the other day that made everyone feel right at home.

I know I was keeping the hordies up to date with my creation of an empire over there so less interesting and hard work than I thought. I sent my bank char some linen/wool cloth and other random bits o' crap my huntard had picked up and was delighted to find my very first gold in my mailbox the other day. So slowly does it, and much to my utter delight and dismay when I logged in this morning I was up to 39g. So, it seems, an empire over there is easy to build as much of the lower level items and mats are beautifully expensive.

Some of you might have noticed my severly antisocial behaviour of the last few days when I just have not had the will to log onto vent and strike up conversations. This is mainly due to my being lazy at the moment and it takes time and energy being witty and hilarious and an all round amazing person! Also due to some speaker issues so I've had to choose between vent and music (sorry guys, cranking up the music won) and obviously I'm bearing towards the end of my Taverncast saga, only a few episodes to go til I'm uptodate.

In other news;

Twix is gone! Time for the man to buckle down and take a break from WoW. Good plan, thought you had only just starting speaking Silent Bob.

Aiv is back! For those who hadn't heard. (nice farewell post for Twix ;) )

So to sum up; Making money is easy. Hellfire freaks me out and will continue to do so until we all move over eventually. Cat is crap at picking names. Taverncast rules. I'm totally rad and awesome and uber cool and you all love me. Aiv is back. Twix is gone.

All of this can be boiled down to one tiny but hugely significant point.

NuGen Rocks. True story.