NuGen - With added Tentacles.

Glory to the Sindorei!

On this fateful day, 10 brave souls entered the Titan complex of Ulduar, not knowing the horrors they would face in its bowels. But face it they did. And conquer, they did.

The NuGen Way.

(Click to Enlarge)

Line-Up

Aiv,
Cookie,
Modhesh
Sparkus,
Nerdrage
Nympho,
Krytain
Vannova
Algumby
Alkazarus

Big Congratulations to the guild as a whole - We've come so far, but done it together!

Once More into the Instance!

To Instance or not to instance that is the question? In the last couple of years I have noted the decline of the popularity in people doing instances. This is especially true of the original (and the Burning Crusade) content. Even finding people who want to run level appropriate content in Northrend is a task only for the patient. Based on what people actually run Blizzard would be forgiven for just creating new instances for the first couple of levels and end game. This is certainly a shame as well as being a cause of many a frustrating wipe-fest as people are simply unprepared for the mechanics that the instances in-between teach.

Now I have to confess that I haven’t run many instances in the last year. A couple of years ago I could join LFG for Wailing Caverns (WC) and have a group in 15-30 mins, often in 5-10 mins. Compare that with more recently where when eventually I got a group. Six times I tried to run WC and six times the group fell apart after the first encounter, not the first boss but the trash mobs! There was no drama just people insta-leaving leaving me into the all too familiar situation of being left with one other person discussing the difficulty in getting a group of people willing to take the time to learn this aspect of the game.

When I started playing WoW I learned the hard way how to defeat each of the instances and each time I learned a new aspect to successful instancing. Unfortunately the culture now is rush to end level and then think you are prepared for end level instances. This hasn’t been helped by Blizzard to be honest as they have made the need to instance increasing irrelevant. Whereas maybe 3% of players were able to raid before WotLK, I would guess that only a small percentage of players now run instances (other than RFC/DM, Hellfire Citadel, Utgarde Keep and L80 instances).

Some of the things that have made instanced content irrelevant;
• Quicker levelling 1-70 – why try to get better items in instances that you will discard quickly?
• Boosting – Welfare blues plz, just count the number of requests for boosts, enough for people to make a group and actually ‘earn’ those BoP items
• Heirloom Items - Alts no longer need to run instances provided you have a L80 and no need to teach people how to run instances successfully
• Instances are perceived as a chore to get through rather than a fun way to spend an hour or so

That said I have decided to venture back into instancing, even to the point of doing Pick-up Groups (PuGs). Even within a guild it is very difficult to make planned runs for ‘level appropriate’ content. To be honest I have done 90% of my instance runs with PuGs and have few bad experiences. Maybe this is because I enjoy running the content and see the item rewards as a bonus.

An improved LFG scheme is planned for patch 3.3 and this will probably be make or break for instances. Here is a breakdown of the new features;

I have taken this information from
http://projectlore.com/blog/patch-33-lfg-overhaul-detailed/
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/underdev/3p3/newdungeonsystem.xml

• Join as a group - if you have a few friends you can join together
• Cross-Realm Instances/Grouping – A big feature which should make getting a group for the less popular instances a lot easier, there are some concerns that people will take advantage to ‘ninja’ items
• Daily Random Dungeons – replaces the Daily Dungeon quest, instead there will be a Weekly Raid Quest. Also applies topre-The system even applies to pre- WotLK dungeons, handing out level appropriate rewards for levelling runs
• Repeat Random Dungeons – though the rewards for doing so will be less after the first successful run
• Choose Multiple Dungeons – more than the current 3?
• Vote Kick system – The loot option is fixed to the updated Need Before Greed option (and unalterable by any member) and players can vote to remove another party member from the group. It will take four votes in order to remove someone, however, so consider this newfound power carefully.
• Lovin’ the PUG Bonuses - Players who take part in groups with one or more members who have been matched with them randomly from within the dungeon system will receive extra rewards
• Need Before Greed Updated - class must be able to equip the item, pure melee will be unable to roll on spellpower items, and classes are limited to their dominant armor type, although if no one needs the normal roll procedure applies.
• Group Disenchanting – provided you have an enchanter in the group it just automates the process

The changes seem to have addressed most of my concerns about instances, but only time will tell if instancing will survive into Cataclysm

Obsidian Sanctum now in 3D!

Yes, that's right.

The NuGen has notched another "Elite" kill on our bedposts. Err .. or our belts. Whichever way makes it sound less gay.

It took about 15 attempts, spanning over 2 days to kill Sartharion with the aid of his 3 Drakes. 100's of gold in repairs, but a chance at obtaining a rare mount was worth it.. wasn't it?

Oh, and not to mention .. yesterday we get our 10. This time, deciding to take only 2 healers for the trash. It's not that hard, right?

We set off, clearing. But something's amiss. People are taking a lot of damage and I'm actually being forced to heal..shocking. I dismiss it as laziness on my part and we continue. We travel round the Sanctum in a circle, slaying dragons left and right until our goal stands ahead of us. After steeling our nerves and readying ourselves, we engage.

95%

90%

85%

80%

Then something horrific and unimaginable happens .. we all start to die one by three.

"What is this madness?!" one asked. We were baffled. Bemused. How had we dented so little of the health, when on previous days we'd surpassed that in seconds..

It wasn't until one lone voice rang out did it dawn on us ..

"Guys.. this is set to 25-man.."

Oh how we cried. Yes, we had attempted to zerg Sartharion+3D on 25man. With 10 people. After we laughed it off as the best wipe some of us had ever done, I sheepishly set the raid to 10-man, and we entered once again.

The ever elusive Black Drake awaited.. but for 9 people, the title alone would have to suffice, as the conniving, dastardly, most devious member of our group rolled the highest for the Black Drake.

....Aiv of the Nightfall.

(Click to Enlarge)

That's what I'm talking about.


Edit : Here's the youtube video (Strong Language)

The Casual Altaholic – a different approach

There are many definitions of what a casual player in WoW is, over the last year this has become even more fragmented. Casual is even used in the same way as the word ‘noob’ is and according to some the root of all the ‘bad’ changes to the game. Am I a casual? I play around 25-30 hours in a week but often for less than 2 hours a session.

The urban dictionary (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=altaholic) defines an altaholic as; someone who cannot focus on just one character in an online game, usually known as their main. These people have many "alt"ernate characters.

Because of my ‘free-time’ schedule I often find myself online during the quieter times and so I’ve had to define different in-game goals for myself. When I moved to the NuGen Horde I set myself the goals of levelling a couple of classes I hadn’t really played much before (< level 20) a Paladin and a Shaman. I wanted to level them without dying too often and also to get the Loremaster and Seeker titles. In addition I wanted to make gold without farming. Both of these goals were new for me and ones that fit well with a casual approach. Not only that but pursuing the titles mentioned above actually helped with the, ‘trying not to die too often’ goal.

The suggested approach to the game is to level as quickly as possible to level 80, usually by using some kind of questhelper add on. However there are some quests that are very challenging depending on your class and level. Instead I decided to put my priority on completing as many quests as possible first. To do this I visited all the starting zones until the quests turned ‘grey’ on my main as a result as was probably a level or two higher than would normally be the case when I moved to the next higher level zones. I’m taking this to the next level on my alt by trying to do all the starting zone quests first, which means doing all quests that are grey first, obviously this means slower levelling which is fine because I’m not trying to get to level 80 quickly.

At the same time I have been ‘playing’ the Auction House with crafting low level items (Tailoring & Leatherworking skill level 150) without farming too many of that mats, but that is for another blogpost.

So how to increase my survival chances, well from the start I picked a class that had a reputation for being difficult to kill, the Paladin, by the time I reached L48 I had only died twice and both of those were due to forgetting to use an ability that would have restored all my health. However any character can improve their chances by taking full advantage of profession and food bonuses. Gear is also important, especially early on.
• Mining; gives a bonus to your health, especially important for classes with poor armor
• Herbalism; gives a free heal which is more useful for melee classes as a form of damage mitigation
• Food buffs; even at low levels you can get a +2 to +4 bonus to Stamina (i.e. +20 to +40 health)
• Gear; doesn’t need to be best in slot but initially try to max out armour and stamina so you have time to get away when outnumbered or attacked by high level mobs. Crafted low level items can serve you well early on.
• Avoiding indoor encounters; these have a much higher chance of getting you killed. For example Tiragarde Keep in Durotar is best avoided until you can handle 2-3 mobs at once.
• Buffing other players; if they get flagged for PvP so do you
• Groups; people in groups do strange (e.g. stupid) things especially when they are in a group, it’s another variable that you have no control over.
• Always be aware of what is around you; when I enter fight I constantly check my six (look behind me). Mobs have a nasty habit of re-spawning in blind spots
• Avoid overconfidence; remember mobs can have a run of good luck and it can coincide with you having a run of bad luck.

Only experience can tell you what quests to avoid, but either looking at a site like WoWhead http://www.wowhead.com/ or using the equivalent add on http://www.wowinterface.com/downloads/info7017-LightHeaded.html will help with this.

So back to my altaholicism, I have a main, 3 bank characters and one alt at the moment on Hellfire. It might seem like less than expected but I do expect to add another bank and 3 more alts in the coming weeks. My Shaman just hit level 15 and came close to dying a couple of times (once when I got too close to a mob +6 levels) swimming away and a minor healing potion helped me survive.

The route I’ve got planned for Cowherd (Shaman) is doing quests in Mulgore (which is pretty much completed), I moved on to Durotar and did all the grey and green quests there and have recently arrived in Tirisfal Glades only taking a detour to do the Call of Fire quest chain to get my fire totem at level 12-14 (did a couple of quests in the Barrens at the same time). Why am I doing grey and greens first? Mainly to maximise on the xp earned to be honest, though by the time I reach Eversong Woods I would imagine all the quests will be grey. From there I’ll probably move on to Ghostlands/Silverpine Forest/the Barrens which should take me into the 25-30 bracket.

Time is Money, Friend

So we've got a bit of a conversation striking up on our forum, as well as the buzz around the rest of the wow community at the mo, about these new vanity pets Blizzard have released, where you pay real money for a virtual item.

Surely we're only an epic handout and gold-buying feature away from totally throwing this game into the bin with all the other games that have sold out, right?

Well, no, not really.

Much in the same way that the achievement system was introduced, offering "non-combat rewards" for putting in the extra time/effort to certain things, the new bells and whistles that have appeared in the game (the character customisation, faction and race change options, and more recently the new Pet Store) provide the player with no benefit other than to their own gaming experience.

I, for example, am a total sucker for all things shiny. A good example is how at the minute I'm levelling Tailoring on Cattrina, my DK bank/mule character on Hellfire. Surely Tailoring is a crappy profession to have on a DK? You're right. So why am I doing it? Because I want to be able to make the Tuxedo and the Haliscan outfit. I've spent about 500g so far in levelling it alongside enchanting. Just so I can make myself a tux. True story.

This is just the kind of person I am, which is the really good thing about MMOs, especially one as versatile as World of Warcraft. If I want to spend eight hours repeatedly killing pirates to farm Mageweave cloth, to turn into a snazzy jacket to match my Diamon-Tipped cane and Battered Jungle Hat, then damn it, that's what I'll do! Same that if I want to spend WEEKS repeatedly powerhousing through Stratholme so get a fucking skeleton horse, then I will!

This is who I am in life. I see something I want, and I have to have it. I have a pile of shoes and clothes in my wardrobe that I saw because they looked pretty, only to find out that they don't fit. Do I return them? No. No, I keep them, look at them occasionally and admire their unattainable beauty.

And it's the same with WoW.

Let me put into perspective how much money I have spent on WoW since I started playing.

The average person who has played like I have since opening their account will have spent the following:

£10 Vanilla WoW (Prices may vary dependant on time of purchase)
£10 Burning Crusade (Prices may vary dependant on time of purchase)
£25 WotLK (Prices may vary dependant on time of purchase)
£200 Game Time (See Below)
TOTAL £245

Sound like a lot? Read on.

My Version

The game I ended up buying two copies of, the original name and then the battle chest as well. I don't remember exactly why; I think I wanted the guides that came in the battle chest. So take £10 for the game, add another £15 for the battle chest.

Running Total = £25

Subscription from January 2008 - November 2009 @ £8.99 per month, which I kept even over the summer of '08 when I wasn't really playing. Forgot I had it. That's £197.98. Let's go nuts and round that up to £200.

Running Total = £225

Add to that the second account I got when they introduced the recruit-a-friend concept and became interested in dual-boxing. I had to buy the game again, so let's say £10. I also had to buy the Keyclone software (well, didn't HAVE to, but it made it easier, and after all, I'm all about the easy) for another £10. That lasted about 3 months, with 1 month free, so add say £16 to that. I transferred one of my characters (40 warlock) from my old account to the new one, so that's another £15. I then closed this account.

Running Total = £276

I then got another second account for about another 2 months (with 1 free), which is where my Rasco & Disotto duo came about. So another game £10, plus I wanted to dual box two dranei, so stick the expansion in there, as well, another £10. Once I had a new level 60, I stopped that account, as well. So just say £9 there for subscription.

Running Total = £305

When WotLK was released (£25), and Riande and I rerolled on Darkspear, I transferred my belf hunter from Aggramar to Darkspear just so that I could roll a Death Knight. Add £15. I don't even like Death Knights! I also transferred my Draenei hunter (the other Catrinna) from Aggramar (£15).

Running Total = £360

I moved Disotto from the 2nd account back to the original account so I could keep her. £15. I recustomised a character I don't even use now, Maestermin, from a female to male Draenei. £15. I changed the name of my hunter from Catriná to Catrinaa (£15), later to Catrinna during the aforementioned server transfer to Darkspear (included in transfer). I moved Reggina (most of you won't even remember that character) to my other other account, before it exired. I don't remember why I moved her (£15).

Running Total = £420

When rolling out the NuGen Horde, I transferred level 30 Tauren Druid from Aggramar into Hellfire in order for us to have some gold to buy guild tabs straight away (£15). Since then, I've also transferred Disotto over to the Horde (£20).

Running Total = £455

Then there's the pets. I bought the BlizzCon virtual ticket, let's face it, just for the pet. £25. And, of course, I've bought the two new controversial pets from the Pet Store, totalling £20.

Running Total = £500

Nice even number to round up with there.

So, let's take off the original game prices (£45), and average it out over the 22 months I've been paying/playing, I'm paying about £20.68 a month to play this game. That's £11 more than your average player. If I was still smoking, I'd have spent about £1,650 within the same space of time on cigarettes (22 months on 10 a day, £2.50 for 10, which is how much they were once).

It's all relative.

Twitter and other crap...(I mean...)

Good Morning All!

As I sit here eating my eggs benedict and looking out over the wonderful view of the grey rainy city, I felt compelled to stay inside for some reason. I imagine many of the boys will be now playing COD: Modern Warfare if the vent conversations from last night are anything to go by (though good luck finding a copy) but raid wise the Continues are finally on the last boss of Ulduar! For some previous nights now Yoggie has proved to be a proverbial pain in the arse. The RLeaders decided to take pretty well geared ppl on the progression run and it's still proving difficult so something for us all to bear in mind when we start approaching the alst Ulduar bosses.

That being said, those of you in Continues should note we are now trying to get TWO Ulduar groups going. We have MORE THAN ENOUGH ppl (according to Wowheroes.com) that are ready for Ulduar, the last boss notwithstanding. So have a look on wowheroes and check your instance lvl, if you're Ulduar geared then sign up and show up! We can only do raids if you guys take part in them!

The Naxx 25 semi pugs are going well for the last two weeks we've gotten a little farther each time and we can't always have 25 of you online we've teamed up with the guilds and , and will prob be seeing more of those guys but don't worry, guildies get first pick of the places :)

We will also be having a new dkp system in place so I suggest you raiders sign up to the forums so you can follow the news as we post it. The forums are a great source of information from your guildies and about what's happening in the guilds.

For the Alliance guild we have finally purchased our 6th and final bank tab and will be entitling this one Quest/Rep. And as the title suggests you will most likely find it full of OL rep gear as well as lost of STV pages.

For my part I will be attempting to focus on my new shammy Jaego, (the name may be familiar to some of you...) for however long it lasts. I'll be lvling elemental til 40 then most likely switch to enhancement for those I mercilessly questioned the other day. I cant seem to find an alt I like lvling at the moment but as luck would have it Riande grinds enough hcs to get plenty of emblems for heirloom gear, that should ease the process a bit.

Rightyho, eggs benedict over but the rain still pouring down I shall most likely get cracking on the Shammington :)

Rx