Patch Day 4.3

It’s patch day! Oh boy it’s a big one too. The death of Deathwing is finally here, and it’s a big one. Transmogrification, void storage, new 5 mans, new raid, new gear, raid finder, and all kinds of goodies, and issues, arrive today.

4.3 was the reason I returned to WoW. The new raid looks awesome, and I love the look for the new tier armor sets.
I am hoping to get more time to hop on to the game, but with the holidays here, and eBay picking up, time is short. But, meh we’ll see, anything is possible.

On a lighter note thou, I’ll finally be able to redeem my throwing star fish, and puffer fish pet finally. Had to wait for 4.3 for them to pit them in the game.

Speaking of pets, the new Darkmoon Faire is coming out too. That means new pets and mounts! That’s right 2 new mounts and 5 new pets. The new mounts and the all but one of the new pets are bought using Faire tokens, while the new seahorse pet, you have to fish up from the Faire island.

So have fun with all the new stuff that comes out today, play safe, and enjoy the new PuGs. So until next time don’t forget to reload, so you don’t run out of ammo.

Island Times

So 1.6 hit last week, and I’ve been spending time on EI, getting all kinds of goodies, and getting killed…a lot. Trion seems to have tuned the zone more towards players who have done raiding, as opposed to those who haven’t. They say that it’s for levels 48-50, but I pity anyone below 50 who goes there.
First off, the zone is huge, no I mean it’s freaking gigantic. I’ve found 5 different portal stones on the island so far, and my god does it help getting around. The map shows you roads, but good luck trying to find them in game, at mist they’re a small series of clearings covered with mobs.
Speaking of mobs, did I mention that they are all level 52, and are a royal pain in the butt kill? High HP, and they hit hard. In Stillmoore, me and Fluffy could easily handle 2 or 3 mobs at once, and invasion groups without any problems. Not on EI though, 2 or more means a dead pet and usually a dead, or almost dead, me. I really think they tuned the zone a little on the high side, I know they didn’t want anything too easy, but a fresh 50 without any epics, or raid gear, or token gear is in for a world of hurt.

Fighting Back The Onslaught
Onslaughts are a new feature on EI also. Beautiful, fast paced, lotsa fun, a great way to gain AA experience, and planarite. I ran one over the weekend, and I had a blast doing it. Onslaughts are a daily quest, and I know of 2 so far. The great thing about them is they form impromptu raids. Yep, you don’t have to start the event or even have the quest to run em. You just show up, join up, and let the fun begin. Not only will you get all kinds of goodies from the invaders, but if you have the daily you’ll get a bag of items that can include an item that you can use to gain a crap ton of AA experience. Speaking of AAs, between the higher level mobs, invaders, and XP items you will be getting AAs fast. After about 2 hours of play I had gotten 3 AA points faster and easier than doing anything else so far.
So if you haven’t tried EI yet, I highly recommend it, the island is a beautiful, dangerous place with lots of great rewards.

Special New Friends
I’ve started running the Firelands dailies again this weekend also. I’m slowly working my way through the first set of dailies, and I should be on to the next set within the week, if all go right.
Now while I’ve been back in Mt. Hyjal, I’ve run across 2 of the new ghost animal rare hunter pets. The cat that eats you if you have armor on, and the damn bird that you have to stand on top of the tree for. I ended not getting either, for different reasons. The cat wasn’t that hard, but there was another hunter there, who showed up after I did, and he ended up taming him before I did.
Now for that bird, that annoying bird. That evil green glowy owl. I have to stand on the very top of a tree that I have to dismount above before I can even try to tame it. WTF. Seriously after several tries and falling to my death, and being rezzed up there I died again. The other hunter who already had him, and was trying to help me forgot to tell me I needed to set a freeze trap for it, so it couldn’t spam fire me to death in 5 seconds. So after spending 30 minutes, at least, I gave up.
The owl will be there again, and so will the cat. I’m not in a rush to get them, and if I do, I do. If I don’t, then I don’t.

Lil Wolfie
After running the FL dailies and dying trying to get the pets, I decided to take a break and work on Fuzz the Worgen warrior. I have to admit, playing a fury warrior werewolf is a blast, things die faster than I can pull them. I can take on 3 or more mobs, AoE them down and heal myself back to almost full by the end of the fight.

Wonderful World Events Abound
Right now you have your pick of world events in WoW and Rift. Both have started the holiday blitz of events. WoW just finished up the Pilgram’s Bounty event, which got halfway through but didn’t get a chance to finish…again. They’re going to be starting Winter Veil in a few weeks also. Now I’m kinda meh about WV this year. I have all the achievements, and pets they’ve pit out so far. So the only thing that I’m looking forward to, is seeing what’s going to be in the boxes under the tree this year.
On the other hand, Rift is having it’s first ever holiday based event. The Fae Yule has begun! I like it so far, there seems to be a good mix of your standard close rifts, kill elemental mobs, gather x items, and special holiday quests. And there is a boat load of rewards for this holiday too. Everything from augments, to pets, to mounts, to vanity items. You can pick and choose what you want to get, because it’s a looong event. It’s running from the end of November to the beginning of January, so even I should be able to get all that I want.

Oh, and before I go, I hope you’ve all seen the new WoW commercial that aired last week. Once again Blizzard has proven that hunters are the greatest class in WoW. Why do you ask? Simple. We found out that the man, the myth, the legend Chuck Norris is a hunter.

So until next time don’t forget to reload, so you don’t run out of ammo.

Welcome to the Isle

So I went to lunch today, and hopped on the computer to check the Rift forums. Lo and behold, what do I see on the Rift homepage, but the banner for 1.6 doesn’t say coming soon any more. Intrigued I schlepped on over to forums and saw that 1.6 went live today.

Yep, we’re off to the islands, and I didn’t finish getting everything I wanted from the world event, Doh! Who knows though, I might have enough quests that can’t be completed anymore that will autocomplete so I can at least get one more thing from it.

So I’m hoping when I get home I’ll have enough time to hop on and take a tour of the new zone tonight, but we’ll see.

So until next time don’t forget to reload, so you don’t run out of ammo.

The End of the End

Lots of things are happening in both WoW and Rift right now. Both are gearing up for major content updates very soon. I actually had some free time this week, and I finally got my Ash Strider lizard-bird mount! As much as I like my green turtle, I really like graphics for the thunder chicken better lol.
on the WoW side of things, I’ve been kinda slacking. I’m short on time, so I’m limited to what I can do. Not enough time to run heroics, or to do archeology. I barely have time to run the Firelands dailies, so I haven’t done much really.

1.6 Time To Go To the Isles
The world event from 1.5 is almost over. We’ve been on phase 3 for almost two weeks now, and I doubt that I’ll get everything done that I want to. I need 1500 tokens to get the pet, aura thingy, and the 24 slot bag. Right now I have 265. Heh, I should be able to get one or two of the three by the end of the event, but I doubt I’ll get all three.
However, the new zone is about to open. I can’t wait for it to get here. Ember Isle is gonna be huge, about twice the size of Stillmoore. Rift Junkies has some good maps, videos, and articles about Ember Isle. New gear, new raids, and a ginormous new dungeon with 11, yes 11, bosses await us for when we get there.

Winter Is Coming
Trion is also going to be hopping on the in game holiday event train too. That’s right, we are going to be getting our first ever holiday world event, the Fae Yule. Christmas is coming to Telara. I know that some people hate it when they put events in games that coincide with the real world, but not me. These events are a fun distraction and a good time killer, that can provide us with all kinds of fun little things. From mounts, to pets, to cosmetic items, it’s all in the name of fun.

An End to the End
It looks like Deathwing’s fun time is coming to an end soon. Patch 4.3 is coming soon, very soon. I’ve seen the videos of the Deathwing fight, and it looks intense. I haven’t raided since WotLK, and this fight has me wanting to start raiding again. But, I doubt I’ll get the chance, I don’t have the time to gear up as it is lol.
Besides that, the other big release for 4.3 is the Darkmoon Faire is getting its’ own zone. Yep they have finally settled down, and have expanded. New games, rewards, gear, mounts, and pets, the DMF is going to be worth going to again. Between the the achievements, two new mounts, and three new pets, I have a reason to actually go there now.

It’s A Stampede!
The other news that caught my eye in WoW related news was the talk of a new hunter ability in the works called Stampede. What it would do is allow us to summon all 5 pets in our at once to attack our target for a short period of time, with a long cool down (about 5 minutes). If it makes it in to MoP that would rock. If it makes it in so it would show all 5 of our own pets, and not a generic pack of 5, that would rock also. Now if it makes it in, with our 5 pets, and it’s not a watered down gimped version with 5 random pet types, where it would actually be useful, that would be unbelievably awesome in whole new huntering ways. So much potential, let’s hope it doesn’t end up as weak as camo turned out to be.

So until next time don’t forget to reload, so you don’t run out of ammo.

Working On It

Happy Day of the Dead, Halloween, Hallow’s End and other things. So I’ve been busy in game and in real life this past month. I got all the pets from Hallow’s End in WoW, and I also finished off the 24 masks achievement. I’ve been kinda slacking in doing my Firelands dailies, but meh I’ll get it done eventually.
I picked up a pack of the Throne of Tides TCG over the weekend, and surprise I got an interesting loot card. The Throwing Starfish. It’s 2/3, so it’s not the common pet one, so I was excited to find it. So off I went to visit good ol Landro to get my shiny new toy. I get there and to my surprise, ToT isn’t listed, so I do what any gamer would do. I opened a ticket. After speaking to an awesome GM, I found out that ToT cards can’t be redeemed until 4.3 comes out. Doh!
Meanwhile back in Telara, I’ve almost finished getting my raptor mount. I think I only need less than 10 now, so I should have it by the end of the week. After that I need 1000 more magma opals to get the pet and the thing that makes you all glowy.
I just found out that Trion is going to release a new semi kinda solo group type thing. It looks kinda cool, and I can’t wait to try it.
So I’m slowly getting things done in both games, and it’s just a matter of time till I get everything done. So until next time don’t forget to reload, so you don’t run out of ammo.