Patch 4.2: Rage of the Firelands

According to speculations, Patch 4.2 will become live on June 28th 2011.


So, what will this mean to me? Quite a lot actually.

When Blizzard implemented Patch 4.1, one of the changes that came along with it was that Honor points can now be traded for Justice points at the rate of 375 Honor = 250 Justice (you can also trade Justice for Honor but I'm not interested in discussing that today). What this means is that I can now do PvP for Honor, trade them in for Justice and then use those Justice points to buy better PvE gear from vendors! Which is wonderful news for me, since I'm unable to get Justice through standard means (instances and raids) ever since Cata hits... well, except for the one or two times doing normal Cata instances with guildies.

So now, outside of dailies I find myself doing a substantial amount of PvP-ing... and most of that is done in Tol Barad. On a good day Horde would OMGWTFBBQROFLSTOMP the Alliance and I'll be bringing home about 600-700 Honor... or usually Horde would get crushed by the Alliance and I'll only net about 300 Honor. Since doing this, I have accumulated enough Honor to buy the Bloodthirsty Gladiator's Vindication on Aenur and am now working to stockpile Justice points.

Why stockpile Justice, you may ask.

Well, this brings us to Patch 4.2. Blizzard has stated that the new patch will open up the next tier for everyone - new raids, new epics, more dailies... but most importantly to me: The current tier gear, Tier 11, will be purchasable with Justice points. Currently Tier 11 gear is only purchasable with Valor points, which everyone can get either by running heroics or Cata raids.

With Tier 11 being available for purchase with Justice points, and if the value for the pieces does not change, I should be able to get all three pieces of them with a full stock of Justice and Honor (4k Justice and 4k Honor). Which means that I'll finally be able to get my first epic Cata tier gear (sounds weird, no? Epic Cata tier gear...).

Here's to hoping for more Horde wins in Tol Barad - Fight better you lemmings! FOR TEH HORDE!!

The Return of BD

It's been about seven months after my last post - and that is mind-boggling. It's like having a seven-months gap in your diary, or memory... or in this case, your adventures. All those excitement, the highlights and achievements missing. Sigh... that'll teach you not to slack off, BD.

Anyways, I'm back (in blogging, at least). To be honest, I didn't stop playing WoW all this time - on the contrary, Aenur, Aelyra and Aerhandor has dinged 85 with Aergor, Aedruyn and Aerdread following not far behind. My toon priority's been shifted around, but currently it looks like all the mains will remain as mains. Only the question of which alts deserve a better position and attention remains.

To be honest, Cata is a bit of a let down for me, and maybe for a lot of casual players out there. With instances being an intensive time-consuming activity with random strangers who may or may not be friendly and helpful, and with barriers all around epic gears and achievements, we are reduced to spectators and minor participants of the so-called "hardcore" and "elites". Do I mind? Not so much. It rankles a bit at times, though.

That did not stop me from trying though. I've reluctantly entered PvP with Aenur, trying to get better gear through honor and PvP instead of instances and PvE. It's working, but the stress of all those matches is horrible - like trying to eat a whole, unopened durian. Thankfully, once patch 4.2 hits I should be able to get some nice T11 gear due to Blizzard's new honor-to-Justice arrangement and due to T11 now available with Justice points instead of Valor points. Which then would mean the same grind with Aelyra... =(

As for the alts... I've been spending a lot of time with Aedruyn, making him go through the Argent Tournament so he can get his Argent Charger and Hippogryph - it's easier now that he's level 81 and armed with Cata greens, gems and enchants (he 3-shots most mobs now). Aergor is now level 82 and is doing the Org's Cooking dailies as well as daily Truegold/Living Elements transmutes. And Aerdread is level 82, doing the Org's Fishing and JC dailies. I will push Aedruyn out to 85 once he finishes the Argent Tourney objectives... if the others doesn't ding 85 first.

The rest of my alts are the level 37 Shadow Priest Aerjin, who I recently become fond of, and the level 20 deleted-then-rerolled Combat Rogue Aerlyn (previously known as Aeyrin). Not doing much with them other than the Org's Cooking dailies, which is a slow but steady way of leveling them.

So, that is in short my progress in WoW. With this post, I hope to kickstart my weekly updates as well as putting my thoughts and opinions of my adventures back into the blog. With a few bloggers already deciding not to continue their blogging forth, I feel compelled to at least light up my own candle against the night.

SQUEE!!

... I haz mai Tauren Paladin! No one touchie - all mine!!

Imma name him Aedruyn, imma dress him all up in nice shiny armor and shoulder-cover, and imma give him the shiniest pointiest stick, and imma make him go kill some poor defenseless critter...

(I'd link the Polished Breastplate of Valor, Polished Shoulder-armor of Valor and the Reforged Truesilver Champion, but WoWHead is down for some reason, so no linkie atm... maybe later)

Squee!!!

EDIT: Link is up!

Impending Cataclysm

First off, I would like to apologize for the long delay in getting a post up since my last update. A combination of several factors plus my own laziness has conspired to prevent this post (or any other post for that matter) from materielizing, and for that I believe an apology is in order.

Usually, whenever I had some spare time to play games I'd fire up WoW and get busy with alts or tend to my mains' pet projects. But early last month, I got a copy of Civilization V and since then has been lost in border disputes and resource wars - dang you, Gandhi and Bismarck! >=( And I've also been a victim of Facebook's Bejeweled Blitz, which almost everyone in my family being attracted to it. So, having to divert my time to these games have impacted my WoW time a bit.

Aside from that, the humongous Patch 4.0 also took almost three days to download thank to lousy local 'Net. And even after I managed to log in, the lag is still there occasionally and I still need to re-talent, re-gem, re-learn and re-evaluate all my toons... which costs me an additional two days. By the time I'm settling in, it's time to go off chasing achieves as Hallow's End dawns.

On RL, my baby boy Adam is fast learning to talk, explore and ask for stuffs he finds interesting - usually food and plastic bottles, though he's moving on to handphones and laptops quickly. Keeping up with him is becoming a full-time job, so I can only sneak in a couple hours of WoW when he's fast asleep during his afternoon nap. Also, a major reshuffling is in order where I'm working so I need to focus on jobs at hand for now.

As far as WoW is concerned though, I guess I'm almost at the maximum limit of pre-expac preparedness - both my mains are doing well, with about 95% of their main objectives completed, and the alts are nearing theirs. I'll detail them as follows:-

Aenur - Has almost completed her T10 set, with only the legguards remaining. I plan to run heroics for the points and also do VoA and see if I can get it from the pinata boss. Also, she's saving some gold for the Dal bear mount - I wanted the mount and the achieve before Cata hits. Aside from that, she has nothing else to work for - any further upgrades she obtains from now onwards will pretty much become obsolete in a month.

Aelyra - Is currently doing nothing except Fishing and Cooking dailies, which she started prior to Hallow's End. If she can get enough gold, I'll buy her the Dal bear mount for the achieves too.

Aerhandor - Is almost at the 150 Champion's Seal mark, at which point he'll be able to buy that Argent Pony and be done with WotLK. I've thought about trying to get the epic staff from Devourer of Souls in normal FoS, but so far no luck (it dropped once, but I lost the roll). Also, like Aenur and Aelyra, he's saving for the bear mount.

Aerdread - I originally planned for him to bear the title of Ambassador, but starting the Argent Tourney dailies so late in the expac he hasn't managed to get even a single Exalted home faction at the moment (only Revered with TB and Org, and the rest at Honored). To top it off, he's only got 3 out of the 5 pieces of DK's T9 and will have to work like mad if he wants the rest of the pieces. I'm pretty sure both would not be possible before Cata =( But I'm making him do it anyway - the gold and the rep may help come the expac.

Aergor - Stuck at level 75 in Borean Tundra, because I need to give more attention to Aerdread. I don't mind, since he's already established (with a complete Swiftarrow set waiting for him plus some nice weapon). I'll probably continue leveling him after the others have made it to 85.

Aeyrin - Is now level 51, and is waiting for Cata at SMC. Unlike Aergor, she'll be able to experience the new Azeroth's level 50-60 quests. I'm just not sure what to do after I hit Outland, though.

Aerander & Aezurin - Both bank alts will probably be stationed at their current location - Aerander in SMC and Aezurin in TB. I've read Tam's post the other day about getting his bank alt a mount to facilitate travel between AH and banks, and may just level Aerander to 20 to get his Charger and Blood Knight tabard.

Without access to the Cata beta like some WoW players, I cannot make any future plans for my toons. I'll be stepping into new Azeroth in the dark, like I did when WotLK arrives and I took my first few steps into Northrend. I don't have any worries about Cata though, but I do have one regret - I will regret not having the time, opportunity and skill to get the Paladin's T2 Judgement armor and Sulfuras, Hand of Ragnaros.

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm

So, the new WoW expansion has caught everyone by surprise - not to say that people are not expecting it, but the content has definitely blindsided everyone. And that includes me.

In my opinion, Blizzard once again has done a marvelous job. New races, new classes combination, new professions, and most of all the cataclysmic disaster that changed the face of Azeroth as we know it forever. No more empty Old World, no more deserted Azshara/Barrens/Desolace jokes, no more peaceful and tranquil old starter zones. It does bring out the nostalgic part in me. But the opportunity to explore contents that was once familiar does bring forth an excitement - what will we find? How has the land changed?

On one part though, I'm deeply saddened from a lore point of view. Previously, when Neltharion went missing after his defeat at the hand of the combined Dragon Aspects, speculations were abound about what he was up to, where is he and such. A part of me was secretly hoping that, like the Saronite Mine Slaves, he was merely tormented by the ancient whispers of the Old Gods and now that he has failed, they will discard him and move on to the next victim (like Loken). Freed from the grips of the Old Gods, he would be ashamed of what he has done and would seek redemption by returning to offer assistance to the war against the Lich King.

Sad to see that Neltharion has indeed return - but not as a redeemer, but as a destroyer inflamed by thoughts of vengeance.

More thoughts on the expansion later - I wasn't at Blizzcon, and so had to formulate my opinions based on information obtained from Wow.com, the Ten Ton Hammer forums and other bloggers.

Oh, and just for the record - Yes, my toons are active this past weekend, and yes, Aenur did get some good drops. No, I'm not posting anything about them, because I need to go through mountainful of stuff about the new expansion. Maybe in a couple of days I'll post something new. =)