Brewfest!

It's another year, and another Brewfest! Jon and I were discussing trying to take on Coren Direbrew at some point. Anyone who can, and wants to, should please let us know! Word of warning: He is level 80. Either way, Drink up!

World of ...what?

How's the summer vacation going for everyone?

I know we haven't been able to synchronize schedules much, but I was just thinking that we do have this level 72 Warlock in our guild now that we might be able to put to work if it's ever just one of us who is out for the week. He's DPS right now, and I'm not sure if he's up for having his voidwalker tank (depends on his spec), but if we need a tank, then maybe somebody's death knight could step up. Or maybe Jon would be willing to respec now that he's at the same level as us.

The bottom line is that I think we have enough options now to run instances even if all 6 of us aren't present. I can understand not wanting to run the new instances so people don't miss out on the new content, but we could probably run through some older ones, maybe on Heroic mode, or for reputation or something. What are other people's thoughts on this?

Go North, Young Man, Go North.

Both Dot and Ryan can't make it next Sunday so everyone is left to their own devices. For those who haven't I would suggest taking the boat from Menethil Harbor (from the dock where the ship to Darkshire used to leave). It will take you straight to the Howling Fjord and the quests nearby will quickly lead you to the Utgarde Keep quests. In particular, if you pick up Fresh Legs from the scout to the left after leaving the keep and crossing the small stream that will lead you toa little dwarf just outside Utgarde that has two quests for the dungeoun. This is also a great thing to do just to get a look at the area, which is pretty fantastic.

Have a good week all.

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!

First: another free re-spec! All talent points have been refunded again with the 3.1.1 patch.

Second: who's on for our very last BC instance, Magister's Terrace? Wooooo! (Okay, I suppose we could come back at level 80 and try out Kara. So MaT is our last BC 5-man. Fine.)

Looks like there's just one quest to pick up. If you're Aldor, see Adyen the Lightwarden on Aldor Rise in Shattrath and pick up Crisis at the Sunwell. Scryers see Dathris Sunstriker on Scryer's Tier for Duty Calls.

You too could be in the News!

Or at least a Newsletter. I recently started getting Azeroth Advisor and thought I'd link it for those who wanted to check it out. It sends out personalized newsletters for the characters you play based on an info grabbing app you download. I still haven't fully decided whether I'm going to stick with it or not but it's definitely cool enough to take a look at.

Important Note: They do not give out your email but they do email you a bunch with "new" newsletters so you might want to give them an email that's not your main or make a rule to put them in a specific folder.

This Sunday: Shattered Halls

Today, in fact.  Actually in 2 minutes, as of the time I'm writing this.  The plan is to go through Shattered Halls.  Looks like most of the quest pickups are in Honor Hold, with one being in Area 52 in the Netherstorm.

See you there!

Sunday Instance: Out to Lunch

No instance run next Sunday as neither Ryan or Dot will be available. Have a good Easter everyone!

The Sunday Instance: How to do Morass.

So this Sunday is "Opening the Dark Portal" in the Black Morass. If everything goes well it should actually be pretty short I'd guess a 30 minutes to get us set up and to the instance and about 30-45 minutes to run it. If we don't wipe. To that end here's the Strategy guide. This sounds like a pretty intense instance as it's just one big fight with wave after wave of enemies.

Millhouse helped us squish this giant bug!

The Angels root out trouble in the Botanica...

We (don't) fear change!

I've just added another new person to the guild. Jon Paul's girlfriend, Allison, has joined us. If you get online and notice someone new just take a gander at the notes page (it will tell you who it is) and say "Hi!" to one of the new people. I know that Ryan and Dot already know Allison, Jon Paul and Will and I know that BK has met Jon Paul. These are all wonderful people though so don't be afraid to chat them up.

For everyone who's new I will be sending out some invites to the blog shortly. If you ever feel like it you'll be able to post of respond here. We use this in place of our former guild website both because it fits our casual style more and allowing everyone to post to the front page helps keep the site active.

So, welcome everyone and hope to see you online,
Nate

Congratulations, your mind has been expended.

So Blizzard has put out some details about the next patch (thanks for the tip BK). There's a lot to see including a new equipment manager and Dual Speccing. For those interested in the ultra 1337 dual spec option it will cost 1000g and it looks like you'll need a second set of Glyphs for the new spec.


Also of note is lots of class changes and (both BK and I are betting) talent point refunds for everyone*. So if you were looking to try out a new spec or two (see what I did there?) then this might be the time to do it.

*Don't quote me on that.

Crafting the Stone/Jewels with some Style

So Chivalry just made it to 300 Jewelcrafting and while it's still not to Wrath levels (or even BC max) it's far enough to make Gems to
socket into equipment. As soon as I'm able to do some more mining I'll be adding them to the Guild Bank (check back on Sunday, they should be in by then) and as you level up your gear talk to me and I should be able to socket the new stuff. You can also just in game mail me with what color gems you need and I'll send some back that are class appropriate (stats may depend on what materials I have on hand but you can request specific stats as well).

Four to go

Only 4 more instances in Outland to go!  They are:

• Hellfire Citadel: Shattered Halls
  
• Black Morass
  
• Tempest Keep: The Arcatraz
  
• Magisters' Terrace
  

That's the order they're listed in the WowWiki in terms of difficulty, but at this point, I think we can pretty much do them in any order.  We should probably save Magisters' Terrace for the "big finale," though, as that's the fight against Kael'thas, and is apparently almost "Heroic" in difficulty.

Also, I will be in San Francisco next Sunday, so I won't be able to run with you guys.

Steamvaults

I believe the next instance up in the queue is the Steamvault branch of Coilfang Reservoir.  These are the associated quests:

•  [70] The Warlord's Hideout Given by Watcher Jhang at the entrance to Coilfang Reservoir.
•  [70] Orders from Lady Vashj Starts with a random drop of the same name inside the instance.
•  [70] Underworld Loam Given by David Wayne within Terokkar Forest.
•  [70] The Second and Third Fragments Given by Khadgar at the Terrace of Light in Shattrath City, this is step 6 in a quest chain to obtain the Master's Key that starts with Archmage Alturus at the entrance to Karazhan in Deadwind Pass. The Second Key Fragment is found in this instance. It can be located in the water just in front of the first boss Hydromancer Thespia.

So it looks like Underworld Loam and The Second and Third Fragments are the only quests that can't be picked up in or near the entrance to the instance.

World of Warcraft

Hey, so there's this cool game called "World of Warcraft" that I think we should try out this Sunday!  Let me know if anyone is interested. Maybe we can meet in-game at around 1pm. The "Mechanar" area sounds like it might be fun.  Let me know what you think!

Ta Da!!!!

Mechanar in two weeks?

I believe Nate suggested Coilfang next--the Steamvault wing we haven't done yet--but I just noticed that there's one Steamvault quest that is dependent on having done Mechanar first. Questgiver David Wayne won't give you the Underworld Loam quest for Steamvault until you've completed Fresh from the Mechanar.

The complication is that you need a flying mount to get into Mechanar. Now, something that Ryan had mentioned is wanting to take a Sunday to do some group quests, either instead of or in addition to a short instance. Maybe next Sunday we could do some group questing with an eye to giving our 69s that last extra nudge to the magic 70? We could also whip right through the first part of SLabs to steal Dot's codex and get her back on the Wayne chain :-)

What does everyone think?

Edit: Mechanar has only two quests. One is the aforementioned quest from Mr. Wayne. The other is How to Break Into the Arcatraz, the next-to-last quest in a long chain that leads to the Arcatraz key, which we're going to need anyway. Might be good to take care of this quest chain on Sunday.

Celebrating the Moon!

The Lunar Festival is upon us! I considered several photos for this and decided I was best with a picture actually made in WoW (fyi that's Felnar, my priest,). Here's a guide to the festival. Enjoy!

The Master's Key: Entry Into Karazhan

Here's the stat guide for the Entry into Karazhan quest chain. Several of us are already on the quest chain but I thought a post was in order.

You... and Your Shaaaadow.

Shadow Labryrinth instance guide is here. Entry in to Karazhan is a quest chain that will be illuminated in the following post on The Master's Key. The Soul Devices can be acquired off of the Spy mistress at Shattrath (that doesn't abreviate well) or probably shared. I believe the other two can be picked up outside the instance but don't quote me on that. Everyone should have a key to the Shadow Labrynth door, it was in the chest at the end of the previous instance we ran.

The Sunday Instance: Murmur's Dance.

This Sunday the target is Shadow Labrynth. It'll be the first instance in the Master's key line that keys people for Karazhan. If we wish to enter only one person needs to be keyed so it's not a must. I'll put up a master's key guide for any who haven't done the quest line and a guide for Shadow Labrynth as well. The plan is Sunday at 1 as usual. I hope everyone can make it, we can try to reschedule if anyone needs us to.

The Guild Vault

The Guild Vault is constantly pushing capacity, which is great, but I've been throwing crafted goods in there from time to time that seem to go unnoticed.  There is a reasonable selection of high-level food items that provide additional spell power, spirit, stamina, or strength, depending on your class' needs.  Also, I've been adding Heavy Knothide Leather patch kits that provide a +10 Stamina enchantment to most clothing.  I'm bringing this up because if this stuff isn't consumed in the near future, it will all be useless for our mains, and will just end up clogging the vault.

On a related note, if anyone has any requests for materials or other items, please let us all know.  For example, if anyone comes across any Motes of Earth, Fire, or Air (or any other kind, really), I could use them for leveling my leatherworking.  Thanks!

Fighting Blind

This is a particularly nice WoW machinima so I thought I'd embed it for people. Unlike most Percula (the maker) uses the character models from WoW but reanimates them entirely.


The Craft of War: BLIND from percula on Vimeo.

My First 70!

This was going to be a Sethekk halls pic but apparently Dot and I forgot to snap one. So it goes. Here, at least, is a screen snapped during the run and one I very much like. :)

What's Lore got to do with it?

Project Lore is about as geeky as it gets but I thought it was worth a link. It's a WoW strategy site that features videos of instance run throughs. It's actually surprisingly good quality filming and occasionally pretty funny.

File Photo: Eye Lose!

Us at Auchenai Crypts. Woot!

How to improve your Sethekk hauls!

Here's the strategy guide for Sethekk Halls. Both lited quests are available outside the instance. I haven't really looked at the bosses but this should actually be slightly easier then Durnehold.

How to be a Steam roller!

Here's your weekly dose of Strategy goodness. That will run down the quests. There are two in or near the instance, one in Terrokar Forest and one that is actually a long chain that I'm not familiar with but will take a look at before we go. I'm also going to link this one for a quick view of the bosses. That should be more then enough strategy guide goodness.

The Sunday Instance: Who's at Vault?

*UPDATE*
So after consulting with Ryan it looks like it would behoove us to do Sethekk Halls then Shadow Labyrinth before doing Steam Vaults. This would allow The Master's Key to be aquired which allows entrance into Karazhan. While it's not positive we'll need the key it seems if we're already going to do these instances we might as well do them in an order that allows this quest to be completed.

To sum up. We'll be running Sethekk halls Sunday. Whew. I'll put up a guide soon

Original Post...



So the next instance by difficulty is apparently Steamvault. This is actually in Zangermarsh at Coilfang Reservoir. I hope everyone can make it. :)

File Photo: A More Human Solution

Latest instance photo! I like Apostate's disguise the best.

An Escapist Strategy Guide

Here's the strat guide for Durnholde. It's a simple one that pretty much just runs through the mobs and bosses we'll meet. You can find a longer one at WoWWiki but it seemed rather scattered and I thought this would be perfect reference if we end up wiping in the instance.

The Sunday Instance: Everything Old Is New Again

Hello to everyone! Dot and I are back and ready to instance like it 2-0-0-9! The next instance on my little list (sorted by level) is Escape From Durnehold.


This one is a little different then the past ones, it's in "The Caverns Of Time" and will take us back to a 'historic moment' in Warcraft. I'll post a guide in a few minutes.