Achievement Hunting Vol. 4: Merrymaker

It's the most wonderful time...of the year. There are gnome costumes battling and snowballs for throwing and lots of good cheer. It's the most wonderful time...it's the most wonderful time...it's the most wonderful time of the year!

Yes that's right, we're back for another installment of how to get a Violet Proto Drake, also known as holiday achievement hunting. The in-game Christmas holiday Winter's Veil is a good opportunity to have some fun, see some parts of the world you normally do not visit, and of course, OPEN PRESENTS! This year it appears our gift will be a BB gun of some sort, as that's a Christmas classic (see The Christmas Story movie if you do not understand) and already has an achievement attached. It looks like we achievement hunters will be shooting some opposite-faction leaders for fun and profit.

But since we cannot do that until we have said BB Gun, let's get the rest of the holiday done in the meantime, shall we? While Ekaterinae has her holiday done and looks snazzy in all that Christmas ho-ho-ho gear as I call it, this holiday marks the beginning of the journey for Navarionae towards his proto drake. So I'll be right there with everyone else again this year. Here's the eleven achievements you need to track, in order from easiest to toughest, from a priest perspective of course.

1. Scrooge - All you need to do is toss a snowball at the faction leader where all the holiday fun is going on (Ironforge or Orgrimmar). Snowballs are easy to get, so this is no problem.

2. He Knows If You've Been Naughty - All you need to do is be patient on this one. On December 25, gather around the big tree and open the presents you find underneath. There will certainly be a BB Gun by all indications in 2009, but other little gifts will be there for you too. Open one and this one is done.

3. Bros. Before Ho Ho Ho's - Basically one of the things you must do during the holiday is kiss winter revelers in every major city. You can do this once per hour and you will get snowflakes and mistletoe and possibly holly which changes your mount into a reindeer. So do that for a few times until you get some mistletoe, then all you need to do is travel around to a bunch of "brother" NPC's. Most of them are in major cities.

4. Simply Abominable - This is one of the questlines of the holiday, and it starts with a quest called Stolen Winter Veil Treats. Basically this will only require a trip to Alterac Mountains and a probable wait for the Greench to respawn. Once you have the treats, return them to IF/ORG and you'll get the achievement and a disguise kit.

5. A Frosty Shake - This only ranks up this high because you need the disguise kit from Simply Abominable to become a snowman in Dalaran. Obviously it helps if your character is in Northrend, but your lower level toons can get a portal there and do the snowman dance with someone else doing the same thing.

6. On Metzen! - Another short and fun questline here. You essentially save Metzen the reindeer from a terrible fate, either in Tanaris or Searing Gorge. Obviously these zones are a little rough on low levels, so this is probably a limiting factor for those characters in completing the holiday. Nevertheless, other than a quick trip, this is simple.

7. The Winter Veil Gourmet - Well all you need to do is cook up some holiday fare to get this one. The hardest two parts are getting some Small Eggs, which are easily farmed in low level zones, and then have enough cooking skill for the recipes. If you leveled cooking in getting Pilgrim, this is not an issue. If not, then get cooking as you need 325 skill.

8. Let It Snow - Many of the holidays have something you need to do to 10 unique race/class combinations. This is Winter's Veil version. The snow flakes you need come from the winter revelers, so that part is easy. Although most of the listed combinations are fairly common, you may need some help with Blood Elf Warlock and Troll Hunter. But still, much better than hunting dwarf rogues.

9. Fa-la-la-la-Ogri'la - In the back side of Blade's Edge Mountains, you will find the Ogri'la and some nasty forge camps. In the past you needed to do a couple day's worth of dailies with the Ogri'la to open up the daily you need, which is Bomb Them Again. However, now you can just run right up and do the daily. You need a flying mount and other than that, it's just a matter of learning how to bomb the forge camps without being killed. It's really not too hard, but if you have epic flight, this will be a joke.

10. With A Little Helper From My Friends - in every city there is a machine that will turn you into a sexy gnome in hohoho costume. You need to acquire 50 honorable kills in this getup, but the hitch is that you have to leave a BG to get a new costume as it drops off when you die. Thus, you will want to target places like Wintergrasp and AB rather than WSG and AV to rack up the most kills per BG. From a priest's perspective, just follow a group and heal like crazy. Hopefully people will rack up kills for you, as you are not a great PvP solo class even on shadow.

11. Tis the Season - This achievement is simple on its face. Put on some clothes and eat a fruitcake which comes from one of the quests you did earlier. The clothes come from tailors, the boots from leatherworkers. As for the hats, well you will need to kill one of three bosses in northrend dungeons who carry the hat. Assuming all you want is the hat, Grand Magus Telestra in Nexus is your easiest bet by far. She may even be soloable on normal for many classes, but not for most priests. So just find a group and grind her on normal mode until everyone looks snazzy.

Then you will have the Merrymaker title and another link in the chain to the Long Strange Journey. Nobody will be able to open a present until December 25, so there's no rush. However, you might as well knock out the harder achievements early while you've got time, as the holidays make the last 1.5 weeks of this holiday fly by for most players. We'll see you next time, which will probably be for Lunar Festival!

The PPI "Best of 2009"

Well Larisa over there at Pink Pigtail Inn has yet again inspired a post! Like last year, Larisa is putting together a "best of" list of things in WoW for the year 2009, and this year she's taking nominations and suggestions. I'll be interested to see what she comes up with as she has far more input from a ton of readers. Nevertheless, it's a good idea and I'll put my answers up with explanation for all my readers. Feel free to share your own answers and let me know where I've gone terribly wrong /smile

1. Best raid instance - Ulduar by a mile. Ulduar was visually stunning (have you ever been caught getting background screenshots while your guild was moving onto the next mob? I have in Ulduar), challenging, long, and had a great storyline for some bosses. The bosses are memorable too, as Kologarn with his big arms and Mimiron with the 4 phases of hell, and the vehicle combat that was actually well done. When placed against Naxxramas and Trial of the Champion, this is a no brainer, but Ulduar was almost as good as Karazhan.

2. Least successful raid instance - Trial of the Champion. I'm going against Naxx as a player who never saw the level 60 version, so it was new to me. Trial of the Champion is a nice way to gear up, but it does not feel very epic like a raid should. It's more like a 5-man heroic with more people. Kudos to Blizzard on the faction champions fight though, as that was an amazing change of pace I'd like to see in PvE more often. But that one fight cannot save a mediocre raid.

3. Silliest gold sink - Although it's been out there before 2009, is there a sillier gold sink now than Haris Pilton's Gigantique bag? For 1200 gold, I can get a 22 slot bag. Oh wait, I can buy glacial bags (22-slots) off the auction house from tailors for 400-500 gold. Special mention to the mechanohog drivers out there who pony up like 15,000 gold for a mount that doesn't really fit in with the fantasy world. But at least that looks cool, as nobody will ever see your Gigantique bag.

4. Most longed for instance - No doubt about it, Icecrown Citadel. One of the absolute primary storylines in the Warcraft universe is the rise and fall of Arthas, and this will be the presumable end of that epic storyline that spawned the entire expansion. People wanted Ulduar badly, but not like they've looked forward to this, especially after ToC was such a disappointment.

5. Most juicy guild drama - I don't really know much world-scale drama other than what we see on Guildwatch every week, and that's most loot ninjas. My own Horde guild AIE ran into some problems with their vent server as some alliance member got the vent info and spammed it in trade on our server, thereby leading a bunch of people to cram into AIE's vent and shut it down. Lots of drama ensued.

6. Biggest addition to the game - This is a tough choice between the new LFG interface and dual spec. I'm going to say the new LFG interface because no longer will you have to wait very long to run a random instance, and that's how this system should work. The interface is smooth, has great rewards, and works just like battlegrounds, the most successful PvP aspect of the game. LFG affects every level too, while dual spec is not really useful until Outland level. So LFG gets it by a hair over dual spec.

7. Best quest - Since not many quests were added this year, I will say the jousting quest to defeat the Black Knight. Although many hated jousting, I thought it was an interesting sidebar for the ToC stuff and downing the Black Knight was very satisfying after hearing all about him through all the Valiant quests.

8. Ugliest tabard - Wrymrest on females looks so stupid. Try it.

9. Favorite non combat pet - The demon penguin. Not only is he cool, he represents the Kaluak, which are the coolest walrus Wilford Brimleys you've ever seen. If I had Grunty I might say that as I loved Halo back in the day but for me, it's the demon penguin.

10. Most charming Blizzard employee - Ghostcrawler for eternity. Is there anyone else even in the same ballpark?

11. Best podcast - Might be a little homecooking, but the only podcasts I repeatedly go back to are those run by my Horde guild. The Instance is the best podcast in all the podcasting world right now, and the more private AIE die has been podcast for our guildies is actually decent for outsiders as well. The Instance, all the way.

12. Biggest blog facelift - Righteous Orbs, the joining of Inmysissyrobe and Ideathtard. While Tamarind is more acitve than chastity, both are high quality and their new blog looks much better than their old ones.

13. Most memorable blog post - "I'm coming out" by Arkslaw. I have never seen such a mixture of true confessions meets wow insight. It doesn't hurt that I got cited in that blog entry alongside real bloggers like Larisa, but nevertheless, this is the best piece I read all year.

14. Most noticed blogger breakthrough - Gevlon at Greedy Goblin. He might turn your screws a bit, but he does keep bringing in readers for the politics, the challenges, and the gold making skills. He is the breakthrough of 2009.

15. Most solid content provider - Honestly this would go to Worl dof Matticus, but that site has had some breaks and such which is understandable considering Matt's other responsibilities. So I think it has to go to Pink Pigtail Inn in a close battle with Greedy Goblin. Both provide very regular entries, but PPI is always substantive and always beat me and others to the blogging punch about cool issues.

16. Most hugged blogger - Well it's certainly not Gevlon. I'm going to go with Phaelia over at Resto4Life. While she stepped out of blogging near the beginning of 2009, she went out on a high note and had lots of virtual hugs on her way to becoming a mom. She also got a hug from blizzard in naming a piece of gear after her.

So that's the list. A good year I'd say, and much to look forward to in 2010 with Cataclysm dropping and the end 3 parts of Icecrown Citadel.

Achievement Hunting Vol. 3 - Pilgrim

New in 2009, a Thanksgiving themed holiday was added to the seasonal holiday festivals in Azeroth. While earning the title Pilgrim and that snazzy plump turkey shown above are not currently required for the Long Strange Journey achievement, it likely will be added in the next couple of years. As is the custom, we list the nine achievements you need to get the title and run them down from easiest to hardest. My apologies on the timing here, as this will not help you until 2010. Thankfully, this one is pretty simple overall as the holiday only lasts 7 days.

1. FOOD FIGHT - Basically half of this holiday centers around a bunch of Thanksgiving feasting tables outside every major city. So what you do is sit down at one of five seats and hopefully you'll have some other people at the table with you. You can pass the dish in front of you by clicking on the appropriate icon in your action bar, and if you target the person you get this achievement.

2. Sharing is Caring - After throwing food at your mates, switch seats and pass every dish around the table. It's the spirit of caring! Very easy.

3. Pilgrim's Paunch - To get the Spirit of Sharing, you must eat five servings of each of the five dishes at a table. You can get the dishes passed to you by others or you can get up and move around the table if nobody is around. The hardest part of this challenge is doing this in every city, which involves travel and some creative hearthing. Meanwhile...

4. Now We're Cooking - There are 5 dishes you learn how to cook as part of this season. As a sidenote, you can get your cooking up to 350 from 1 on this holiday alone, and you will get cooking up past 300 if you want to do all the holiday. Good time to catch up the skill on alts. Each of your main cities sells one or two types of raw materials and the autumnal seasoning and honey you will need. It's all pretty cheap and the food you cook will be useful for a bunch of regular and daily quests. With two day's worth of dailies, you can get everything you need for the achievements below (A hat, a robe/dress, and 8 turkey shooters).

5. Pilgrim's Progress - As just mentioned, you will need to cook up all the dishes for the various dailies. The hardest part is managing your inventory of goods as you don't want to make multiple trips to each city to get the job done. Stock up ont he raw materials and have what you need when you get there! Again, two day's worth of dailies need to be done, but they are incredibly easy.

6. Pilgrim's Peril - Now we get to the active stuff. In addition to visiting all your own faction's cities over and over, you must pay pilgrimage to the opposing capitals and sit at each table as well. For each side, two will flag you for PVP and will likely get you killed, while two others will not. You will be flagged as Alliance in Thunder Bluff and Undercity. Undercity is the worse of the two as you have to enter the tight passages of the ruins above UC. For Horde, the only problem is Darnassus and it is by far the worst of the lot because you have to deal with the guards in Darkshore and then travel through the center of Darnassus to get to the other side where the tables are. Sorry Hordies, you drew the short end of the stick.

7. Terrorkar Turkey Time - Now we get to the three more difficult achievements. Talon King Ikiss is the final boss of Auchenai Crypts, which is a relatively easy Outland dungeon at level 80. You still probably need 2 people to do this and 3-4 to make it comfortable. You also need to have the Hat along with the Dress, Robe, or Attire on when you kill the King. Not terribly hard but you do need a group in all likelihood.

8. The Turkinator - It's very likely this will irritate you more than most holiday achievements. However, if you know what to do, it's not too bad. Turkeys spawn all over Tirisfal and Elwynn, and you need to kill a string of 40 in a row, killing each in the string within 30 seconds of your last kill. Easier said than done, and pretty much impossible if others are also trying to do the same thing at the same time. Elwynn is much more crowded, so do it around Tirisfal and do it during offpeak hours, maybe even 2-3 days into the festival to avoid others. The other trick is to set up a macro which says /target Wild Turkey. That's all it does, and you run around and click that macro like crazy to find more turkeys during your run. I had the pleasure of losing two streaks in the 30's, but don't lose faith. You'll get it eventually.

9. Turkey Lurkey - And while this is much easier than The Turkinator in reality, it's very much based on finding very low populations of people. You must shoot the 8 types of rogues there are in the game, and Dwarf and Troll rogues are two of the least played 5 race/class combinations in the game. You may need to convince guildies to roll new ones and let you shoot them in the starting areas, as some rogues don't take kindly to this holiday. I stalked a couple kinds of rogues in starting zones and got lucky in Dalaran on the rest. But this could be what stops you from getting the plump turkey and the Pilgrim title.

And that's it! A new title, 100 achievement points, and a cool little pet will be yours. Take your turkey next to a fire and see what happens. Destiny will call. So another holiday in the can and next we turn to Winter's Veil or Christmas. All in all this holiday is pretty well designed and has a lot of upside in the cooking skill ups for alts without hassle. This is one of the better holidays in wow and will be a good addition to Long Strange Journey in the future.

So who is the most hardcore raider?

Last night I logged in on the desktop and fell in love with the game of WoW again. Now it's funny that such a thing as graphics and computer capabilities could make a difference, but I really am not a fan of this game on my laptop due to issues in Dalaran and feeling less useful in groups on the laptop. The game is so much prettier on my desktop and there's no limits on raiding and such. Well Monday nights is a big PUG night on my server and every server, so I logged in with a couple hours to play and immediately got plugged into a ToC 10 man raid PUG. I was the only clothie in the group, which bodes well for gear. Sure enough, I would come away with a huge upgrade to my wand, which is something I have not upgraded since Naxx. Probably should have picked up a second upgrade to pants as well, but I was slow on the rolls and did not want to give up my tier 7 benefits. Probably a mistake in retrospect, but oh well.

The group one-shot every boss in the instance except for faction champions, which we really struggled to get past. Our struggles against faction champions and other things made me question...just who is the hardcore raider now? The Illuminati has switched to 25 man only raiding now and all I've ever done in ToC is 25 man. Now I've also done Naxx and Ulduar on 10 and 25, but not as quickly in succession as my last two ToC runs. It seemed like a done deal that 25 man raiding was harder because you get higher level gear and you have to manage higher health pools and more people. However, now I'm not so sure.

In a 10 man raid, the "bad things" that happen during boss fights to individuals seem to happen a lot more to you because there's less people to bother. I was really struggling to stay in a healing rhythm thanks to all the distractions and such. Furthermore, your margin for error is much more slim when you have 2-3 sets of healer eyes and ranges on one tank rather than 5-6 sets. If I fall out of range, that's one of the major cooldowns we may need at a critical juncture. Even if these are just balance issues in my head, the faction champs absolutely positively has to be harder on 10 man. You see, it's simple statistics. Six bosses versus 10 means there's over a 50% chance you will be harassed constantly by a boss. 10 versus 25 means less than 40% chance of being harassed (discounting healers on the other team to an extent). For me as the token clothie, the Horde rogue was on me all the time because we were low on CC classes ourselves to take care of the mage and the rogue. There's only so much you can do as a priest against a rogue in PVP style combat. So even if my theory is wrong on other boss fights, it seems like 10 man raiding is way more hardcore for sure on the faction champions. Perhaps it is the 10 man raids who should get the higher ilvl gear for that one.

We did get the speed kill Salt and Pepper achievement as well as the achievement for downing ToC 10, so another 20 points in Ekat's irrelevant total. It might be irrelevant but oh it feels so good. The bag business is back again as my friend Mike sent me a bunch of netherweave cloth from his Outland rep grinding and it reinvigorated the business. So we're grinding a bit of gold up again and I'm ready for the next alt after the DK for epic flight and such. No real news on the leveling front otherwise, but more to come later.

Microtransactions Yay or Nay

Well the big hullabaloo has been passed and here I sit, still thinking about the in game pets on sale for $10 by Blizzard. After seeing some other blog entries and comments, a couple points stand out.

1. This is really no different than offering Blizzcon TV coverage and a murloc Halo pet for $35. You still are paying money for an in game pet, no matter that you are also paying for television coverage of an event so well covered by the internet already. If you are OK with that pet in the game, there's really not a huge difference now.

2. Blizzard is pumping out as much money as they can get from the game. Players demand cool status symbol pets, Blizzard delivers (for a fee). Players demand faction changes, Blizzard delivers (for a fee). Players demand haircuts, Blizzard delivers (for fee in gold). Players demand race changes, Blizzard delivers (for a fee). Players demand server transfers, Blizzard delivers (for a fee). Blizzard is giving you all the play options and customization you want, but if you do not get it right in the beginning character selection page, you will pay for it. This is just more customization in my opinion.

3. Pets are a far cry from gear. Maybe I'm completely wrong and someday Blizzard will be so desperate that they will offer epics or even legendaries for real cold hard cash, but I just don't see it right now. They want more people accessing endgame content and have made the game very easy for a casual like me to at least see the endgame when we want to. This probably is not so good for hardcores, but it is a change that has not made the masses demand epics for real cash. With little or no demand, Blizzard will not be jumping on the bandwagon of risking subscriptions to sell gear.

So yeah it looks like a slippery slope to the end of WoW, but we've heard this all before. Then Patch 3.3 will drop and nobody will remember the fight as we all turn our attention to game content again. Then Cataclysm will drop and we will squeal like fanboys and fangirls, at least for a little while.

Oh and one quick fire...Patch 3.3 notes updated tonight and Oculus is being heavily nerfed to cater to the fact that there's rewards for doing a random heroic dungeon daily each day. Oculus was by far the hardest of the heroics, even probably topping ToC. So while it's not a huge deal, I'm kind of sad that things like Glory of the Hero will be much much easier considering about 1/3 of the really difficult achievements were in Oculus.

Appearances May Be Deceiving

(note that I did write a full-fledged WoW entry below this one, so if you have no interest in personal rumblings then pass on through to the other side and we'll all move on together)



So back in July I went on vacation, and during vacation I discovered that my wife and my grandmother were emailing each other in not such a nice way. Now there's a long bit of history which is not worth going into here, but let's just sum it up by saying my mother and my wife do not get along. They each have made their mistakes and while it sucks for me personally, I've just learned to live with it because some things time may not be able to heal. But anyways, my grandmother started butting in and sending nasty emails to Kelley about the failed relationship. So once Kelley told me about the emails, I confronted my grandmother about it. Obviously not a good phone call to make.

Well I make the phone call and we start off with pleasantries. She told me my grandfather, who was a big father figure in my early life before my mother remarried because my Dad was always 12 hours away, was doing better and was getting in the best shape of his life according to his doctors thanks to bike riding and other activities. She also caught me up on the goings about in my old hometown, and I told her about her great granddaughter. Then I finally had to plunge into the topic at hand. It was at that point that I realized that appearances may be very deceiving. While we were exchanging pleasantries, it was all just a cover on a deep-seeded level of hurt feelings.

You see, my grandparents were upset because I did not call them very often. Now I admit I'm bad at calling family, including my parents who have gotten on me about it over the years of law school especially. Grandparents...hardly ever get contact and that includes both sets of grandparents. Yet the grandparents in Iowa always show unconditional love when I do finally get a chance to catch them up. Maybe it's the distance, I don't know. But anyways, apparently my lack of lots of contact ruined my relationship with my grandparents, as my grandmother tells me "we have no relationship." So while I wanted to just make sure the emails stopped, she plays on her own terms and says if I cannot contact your wife I will not contact you. And she hangs up on me...huge pet peeve. Anyways, I bounced these problems off my best friend and just let it go. What can you do? When appearances are so deceiving even in the same phone call, it's hard to overcome the problem.

Well one month later I'm being Knighted in our one-year anniversary event for The Illuminati and I get a few frantic phone calls from my mother. My grandfather was in the hospital with breathing problems. After 3 weeks of tests and a couple hospital visits on my part, we found out it was pancreatic cancer. This is inoperable but you can always try chemo. So they tried what they could, but 2 months later it was clear his body could not handle the chemo. Last night the struggle ended and my grandfather went on to heaven or whatever you believe is waiting for us in the afterlife. I got another call from my mother last night on my way home from work, telling me that he had a blood clot and that his leg was slowly turning purple, which is a sure sign that the last hours are upon you.

She then asked if I could speak with my grandmother to try and lift her spirits a bit. So I agreed although the wounds from the summer never had healed. On comes my grandmother and she tears into me for not being there with the family in the last hours. She tells me I'm not welcome at the funeral if I don't think he's important enough for a visit now. I simply respond by telling her to be with her husband and that this is not the time to fight. I also tell her I will come if I choose to. Not three hours later, he was gone. As it turns out, I wouldn't have made it in time if I tried. But this nasty conversation with my grandmother brought me back to the summer conversation.

You see, that conversation started as I laid out above, with her reporting that my grandfather was in the best shape of his life according to his doctors. Riding his bike and doing all kinds of activities, my grandfather was in peak health for his age. But just like the emotional relationship with my grandparents, appearances were deceiving on that day as the cancer was already wreaking havoc with his body. However there was just no way it could be detected. So appearances were deceiving on every level of that fateful phone call.

Now while I believe you show your true character at your weakest moment, I do understand that the stress of losing a parent/child/spouse is something that is unimaginable for those of us who have not gone through it. So I'm torn on this latest incident. It really makes me wonder how it will be at the funeral, as I don't know which side of my two-faced grandmother I will see. I do not believe the relationship is salvagable, and for that I am sad because it did not seem anything like this was possible 4 months ago. I want to be there to support my family, but I also don't want to just hang my head and take a beating that I don't deserve.

So I will go to the funeral in a few days and we'll just see how it goes. While I feel bad that my beloved grandfather will not have a meaningful relationship with Paige, I realize that maybe that was not meant to be anyways. It's a sobering thought knowing that some kind of cancer has claimed two of my grandparents on opposite sides of the family, but perhaps that will simply make me more vigilant in checking on my health now and beyond. Who knows where medicine will be in 30-40-50 years but I just hope when my time comes, it doesn't end up like this was. My mother was wrecked for 3 months basically living with her parents and knowing the inevitable was coming, only a few weeks from "the best health of his life." So disappointing and so sad, but I guess that's the way things go.

So I bring you this story partially to vent it all out, but also partially so that maybe you learn something. don't assume everything is OK, as appearances can definitely be deceiving. Cherish every moment you have with your loved ones. I was able to spend some hours with my grandfather in the hospital and we talked about the law (he was a voracious reader and knew more law than probably even me), painting in my new house (he painted as a career for many years), and I showed him pictures of the new house and Paige, knowing he would probably never see them again. I think I brightened his days in that hospital and I know he changed my life for the better as a young child.

We did have the foresight to grab 5-generations pictures last fall when Paige was born with Kelley's great-grandparents (who both passed shortly thereafter) and with my grandfather and his mother. So I do have a picture of my last remaining great-grandmother, my now passed grandfather, my mother, myself, and my daughter all together last year. It's not often you get to have 5 generations together, and it is a picture I will keep close to my heart especially now that there will be no more pictures of 5 generations unless I'm the great-grandparent or great-great grandparent. Take those opportunities when they come as you never know when life will get busy and someone will disappear from your life forever.

The Updated LFG System and a New Passion

Well I believe the ranks of the AE Team may have to add an honorary new member. He is not technically a "healer," but he does have some wicked good self-healing via a little ability called Death Strike (+10% health every few seconds). He is also not a female toon, which is probably a plus as far as my metrosexuality goes. But nevertheless, he is a member of The Illuminati and he proudly wears the pink regalia of the AE Team. His name is Navarionae, my night elf death knight. There were a few factors that contributed to his shelving a few months ago. First, the Outland grind and being so overpowered bored me. Second, the tanking experience did not go well for me on a first try. Third, the new focus on the healer-based AE Team set my sights on goals that did not involve him.

Well a few factors also led to his revival in my sphere of interest. First, in the glow of hitting my long-term goal and getting the Violet Proto Drake on Ekaterinae, I decided it was useless for me to have over 12k gold on the team and nothing to spend it on. My DK was dual specced already, so I took the quick plunge and trained his flying. Yes I mean expert and artisan (epic). Second, I started trick or treating with the epic flight in Outland and was racking up the free experience. Then after dinging 72 on candy, I went back to the Tundra and started questing. Questing in Northrend with epic flight is absolutely amazing. So long story short, I ended up dinging 73 in short order...like 1 day after dinging 72. Now I'm committed financially and emotionally in this character again, and it's nice to have an ongoing concern higher than level 31. So welcome Navarionae to the team.

Between Navarionae becoming a new leveling concern and the heirlooms going BoA across factions down the road (covered a coupe entries ago), Biancae and Navarionae need heirlooms anyways. So I've started doing Champion's dailies again. I must say now that you can get 10 seals per day with all the new quests, the process is a lot more enjoyable than when it was citadel, jousting, and chillmaw all the time. So kudos to Blizzard for making that process easier for those of us who really hated it after a while.

So to the main topic of the day: The Patch 3.3 LFG system. The long-awaited cross realm Looking For Group is going into effect in a few weeks. You can earn extra gold just by utilizing the system, and hopefully the LFG will become like battlegrounds in that you will spend less time waiting to do what you want to do in the game. Here's the basics: you can join LFG with 1-4 people, but the more people you have grouped with you going in (the less random the group as a whole will be), the less bonus money you will get. So there's clearly some incentive to use the system. Furthermore, grouping via LFG will allow you to automatically teleport group members from anywhere in the world to the instance and back to where they left off afterwards. Therefore you can quest while you wait for a group and not miss a beat due to travel times. But if this is designed to lessen the time it takes to find a group for something, why do we need paid to use it? Well that's because there is a downside.

First downside is the grouping function. Now it will supposedly try to group you with other people around your gear level, which is fair. But the system will also put people more experienced with this particular dungeon with others who have less experience. Now while this is a good way to spread knowledge, it also prevents quick zerg runs of the daily where everyone knows what they are doing without any explanation. You also will have the opportunity to vote someone off the group if necessary. Sadly given the ninja possibilities, you may not have to vote the real problems out of the group before they cause the problems. Hopefully people will respect other players from other realms, but I'll believe it when I see it. So this improved risk of bad group experiences and less zerg possibilities will make the system less desirable than it could be. Hence paying us off.

On the whole, I like the new LFG system. Everything that goes cross-realm seems to be a decent idea, as it cleaned up the wait for battlegrounds and also cleared up the instance servers cannot be loaded problem. So perhaps good player conduct will be the rule of the day and everyone will profit from this system. One can hope. If nothing else, you should be waiting less to find people doing what you want to do. Less wasted time in game means more time for what you want to do in and out of game.