Shattered Sun: What Does it Mean?

My next few posts are going to be focused on a recurring theme: the upcoming expansion. Personally, I don’t think we’re going to see a release until the end of the year, possibly even January next year. That’s because they just recently went to Alpha, so I would estimate Beta starting in Aug/Sept and release following 3-5 months after that. Nonetheless, I find myself thinking about Lich King quite a bit because it’s looming on the horizon. It doesn’t help that they released a slew of new tidbits this past week and I’m sure we’ll see more as we get closer to the Beta.

Craptop City, Party of One

Tonight as I write, I’m using my infamous craptop (infamous to friends and guildmates at least). On Saturday night my regular PC blew it’s second power supply in three months. I was actually talking on Vent to my buddy Squorg about my computer woes when a burning smell drifted to my nostrils. Thinking someone was mercilessly torching some unsuspecting food item in the kitchen, I continued my conversation with no thoughts of investigating. A few minutes later my screen went black as the burning smell started to take on a decidedly plastic-infused odor. Needless to say, this story does not have a happy ending.

Crafting Goodies in 2.4.2

New patch notes have been posted recently from the PTR and I’ve just copied my own characters to the Test Realm to analyze them more fully. Some are pretty obvious, so I thought I’d share my thoughts on these in the interim:

• All 23-hour profession cooldowns are now 20-hour cooldowns.
• All 4-day cooldowns are now 3 days, 20 hours.

On Selecting a Tradeskill

As the next expansion approaches, I find myself thinking more and more about the crafting choices I’ve made and the new profession we’ll be gaining with Wrath of the Lich King. Obviously as a commentator, I’m obligated to try Inscription and post my findings, that’s a given. However, I currently have 4 level 70 characters and they are spread pretty thin (Skinning/LW) (Engie/Chanter) (Smith/Herber) (JC/Miner). I also have a 62 who’s my Alchemist and could potentially be a Tailor if I decide to actually play him.

For the Love of the Alts

I’ve been wrestling with this problem since 2.4 went live, but I guess really we deal with it all the time. My Jewelcrafter needs Exalted rep with SSO to purchase all the new gemcutting recipes. My Enchanter needs to be Honored with SSO to get the two new Enchanting recipes. I haven’t even touched on gear needs yet, but my Enchanter could also benefit from a couple of the blue items at Revered and the epic shield at Exalted. And I’m sure any toon could potentially gain from the new necklaces at Exalted if they aren’t already decked out in T5/T6, which none of mine are. Given all the new goodies, how do you decide which of your toons to grind faction with?

Evil Crocs, Dock Buddies and Naked Duels

Not too long ago I was commenting on the dwindling community atmosphere in WoW, but that sense of camaraderie appears to be alive and well among the fisherfolk. We know we’re the weirdos of the WoW world… we accept this. But it wasn’t until yesterday that I saw how fishing actually brings folks together. Yes, it seems strange that this solitary activity would create bonding moments, but where there’s a will and some booze, there’s sure to be a way!

First Badge Vendor Unlocked and other ramblings

In case some of you didn’t hear about it yet, yesterday the very first badge vendor was unlocked on the Proudmoore server.  Chaos ensued, rofl.  On my server the anvil is still around 50% so I’m assuming we have another 2-3 days to go.  Frankly I didn’t expect it to take this long, I think the PTR progress inadvertently set the bar a bit high for the live servers.

Lolcats

Normally I don’t repost information that is available on other sites, but today I’m making an exception.  In case you haven’t had your daily dose of WoW reading, make sure you visit the main page of the official site for two new articles:

The Molten Core

and

Bard Hero Class

There’s also something weird afoot on the forums…

Bard??

Feel free to share your comments if you find any other suspicious activities.

More Fishing Goodies in 2.4

As far as I knew, the only new thing coming to fisherfolk everywhere was the daily fishing quest in Terokkar. Yesterday, Mamabear was telling me how she was looking forward to exploring the new zone and asked me if there were any new fish there. Now why didn’t I think of this?? I must be slacking on my reporting duties, thankfully Mamabear has my back

More 2.4 Updates for Jewelcrafters & Gatherers

I have some bad news for Jewelcrafters. The new Brilliant Glass item has already been nerfed. Today I logged in and tried making a few more, and it now has a 23 hour cooldown. While I understand the reasons behind this, likely an attempt to avoid a flood of blue gems on the market, I’m still a bit sad. It was nice to think that I would clear my bags of all the green tribbles and make something useful from them. Ah well, at least the gem economy won’t go down the crapper 24 hours after the patch, right?