Of all instances I had to this point, the lvl 20 - 28 instance Blackfathom Deeps was the greates in my opinion. I also happened to have the greatest group so far when I first did Deeps. Everybody was really cool, funny and totally not greedy when it came to drops, just like it’s supposed to be. If I don’t need something but another group member does then I pass and don’t choose greed or even need! Pretty long video but it’s definately worth it :-). Enjoy!
I mentioned already that it’s possible (and pretty important) to have professions in WoW. As a tank I thought it wise to choose mining and blacksmithing as my main professions due to the fact that I then can create my own armor. Just to give you a very short glimpse of how mining looks like, I recorded myslef while hard working :-). I even found the perfect song for the video but see for yourselves :-)!
I didn’t just use Christmas time for celebrating and spending time with my family… nope, I used it to spend some quality time with my favorite game as well :D.
The video shows me in the lvl 21-29 instance Stormwind Stockades. It was fun… even though I died twice because of some internal “misunderstandings” in my group :-). It’s not my favorite instance so far but it had some cool drops. Have fun and keep visiting my blog (there are more videos to come soon… just didn’t have the time to edit them yet) ;-)!
I talked about this before and now I actually wanna show all the great emotions WoW has to offer. In L2 you just had the basic emotions to choose from (perhaps six or seven) but in WoW you’ve got about 25 or so. Some of them are rather simple and some are really funny. My favorites are cheer, flirt, silly and train :-)! I didn’t record ever single one of them but I’d say the best and most distinguished ones. Have fun!
A good friend of mine, he’s the one responsible for my latest addiction ;-), just posted a new entry on his webpage about tanking masses of mobs in WoW. I just show you the screenshot here, if you wanna read more about this, visit his webpage and read the whole story “Entirely about weird pulls” at:
I finally did it, my first instance in WoW :-)!
Actually all happended totally by accident. I was just doing some quest somewhere in Ashenvale when someone whispered me whether I’d like to join their group for the instance SK. Well, I had no idea what SK meant, but I was really looking forward to finally do my first instance ;-). I just ask about the lvl to avoid bearding the lion in his den and off I went. Once I was there I learned that SK stood for Shadowfang Keep, a lvl 17-25 instance in Silverpine Forest in the Eastern Kingdoms… so it couldn’t be any further from my current position in Ashenvale :-). Luckily WoW also thought about this. Once you got at least two group members at an instance, they have the option to summon you directly there, no matter where you are. Really cool feature in my opinion!
In the video you can see me struggling to keep my threat lvl higher than everone else’s (thank god for Omen’s Threat Meter)… remember, it’s my first instance ;-). But without sounding too cocky, I think I managed rather well *proud*. What I liked most about this instance, apart of the XP of course, was its drops. I got a Baron’s Scepter, Laced Mail Shoulderpads as well as a Defender Cloak of Defensive :P! So enough talk, now it’s time for the video… enjoy!
=== UPDATED 15.04.2008 ===
Another great way of improving your gaming experience with WoW is to install one of hundreds of free available addons. There’re plenty of sites, and even more addons, out there where you can get more information about all kinds of different functionalities those addons have to offer. Curse.com has probably the biggest selection to offer, even though not all of them are usable on an European version of WoW. Here I just wanna give you my favorite addons so far and also explain very shortly what they’re good for. Of course I’d be more than happy to receive further good suggestions from one of you :-)! This list will most likely change a bit in the future as I discover new, cool addons etc.
AceUpdater (Ace2): this is actually no addon but a little program which allows you to easily check whether there are any updates available for all your Ace2-addons. Download
Bartender3 (Ace2): this one lets you adjust the actionbar on the bottom of your screen. You can either add many more actionbars, show them vertically instead of horizontally or change the number of available slots. It also gives you the possibiliy to adjust the size of the bars, thus saving some precious space on your screen ;-). Download
Cartographer (Ace2): the reason I chose Cartographer was for its feature to make notes on your world map. This way you’ll never forget the position of an important NPC, item, quest or whatever. You could also disable the “Fog” and see the entire map with a single click if you choose to do so. There are many plugins available for Cartographer as well. Download
FuBar (Ace2): with this addon you get a status/control panel on top and/or bottom of your screen. There you can see useful information, e.g. how many slots you got left in your bag(s), how much XP you gained in this session and level, the coordinates of your current position or the durability of your equipment. FuBar is adjustable in pretty much every possible way and also offers the possibility to include other addons. Download
GatherMate (Ace2): very similiar to Gatherer, just written in Ace2 and with some more cool features. This addon allows you to save the location of already visited mining nodes throughout the world. With GaterMate Data (Download) you can further import the data from other players, thus making it very easy to farm minerals. Download
MiniChat (Ace2): small addon which allows you to minimize your chat window or adjust its size as you see fit. Download
Mirror (Ace2): compares your current equipment with the one you hover your mouse pointer over… pretty useful in an instance ;-). Download
Omen Threat Meter (Ace2): very important for every tank and/or dmg dealer. This little addon shows the amount of threat everyone in a group is generating. This way a tank can adjust his tactic to the current situtation. Download
SimpleMiniMap (Ace2): allows you to show your mini map in the upper right corner in a square- instead of a circle-form. Furthermore you can decide to hide some buttons or adjust it in many other ways. Download
FlightMap: pretty useful once you lost track of all flight paths you already discovered. This addon saves all known flight paths and as well as flight points. It also shows you the duration of your flight while air-borne. Download
Perl Classic Unit Frames: actually this addon doesn’t really help you much BUT it makes the look & feel of your WoW interface much more beautiful! With Perl you’ll see an animated, great looking image of yourself as well as your group/guild members or your targets. Furthermore you can modify your health-, mana/rage- and xp-bars… really great addon! Download
WHDB: very helpful when doing quests! After a while you just have too many, complicated quests at various destinations to keep track of all of them. With WHDB you get the exact coordinates of all quest-important NPC’s, mobs and items as well as user comments. Download
After you saved your fellow Draenei from the blood elven threat you get their thanks (apart of your quest reward of course) and gratitude. Pretty cool sight when you’re done with your quest and return to Blood Watch to get your reward, but see for yourself. You also receive a tabard which I don’t really understand to be honest. It doesn’t improve any skill or attribute. I guess it’s just a sign to prove that you completed all quests in your starting area or something like.
Now that I’m all done I wonder where to go next. Of course I got already one quest that points me in a specific direction but there are other areas for players between lvl 20-25 too. I wonder whether I should first travel to some/all low-level areas to take a look at them before I’m too high level. On the other hand, this might prove to be pretty expensive and very time consuming! It’s just that I don’t wanna miss out on all those great places with all its strange creatures in WoW. I wanna see and explore as much as possible. I guess it’s not really worth it to visit a level 10 area once you’re 50+. Meditate on this I will :D…
Yesterday I had the by far most difficult quest in WoW. Well it’d better be because it’s the last one in the starting area of the Draenei. My final obstacle before I’m “allowed” to move on to different regions so to speak. Like the Razormaw quest “Ending their World” is actually supposed to be done by two players. Your mission (should you choose to accept it :P) is to eleminate the blood elf threat in your area once and for all in helping the Draenei demolition expert to blow their Sungate into pieces of junk. Pretty tough job due to all those elven elite warriors, which prefer guarding the area in groups of two and sometimes even more. Of course this quest is a lot easier when you got a second player (preferable a healer) along your side but I tried it on my own first… and failed again :-). After the third try I decided to get help… no matter how. Fortunately for me I found a healer who was willing to join my quest even though he already completed it. For this reason you might notice in the video that I’m first all by myself (apart of the demolition expert) and later on in a group of two. Because this quest marks the final chapter of a bloody beginner (I’m ascending… I’m ascending… yeeeehaaa) I chose my favorite classical battle song for the video. Enjoy!
In WoW you can have two main professions (I chose blacksmith and miner) and several secondary professions (in my case fishing and cooking) to earn some extra money or to create your own stuff, e.g. armor, weapons, potions, rations etc. Like every other skill you gotta excercise these skills in order to improve them. In the following video I’m gonna give you a quick look on how fishing is done. Actually it’s totally easy… and boring to be honest.
