Re-rolling Arithon

Arithon, an Undead Rogue, was one of my first characters, back when I first had my trial and didn’t have a clue.  I tried out a few different characters to get an idea about what I would like to do, and I ended up playing mostly with Kirria.

Consequently, I had an upper 20s rogue which I had no idea how to play, and who had spent the last few months sitting at an Innkeeper’s feet in Thousand Needles.  So I re-rolled him, and he was joined by Erinthor, a friend’s Paladin.  We started out in Deathknell, and so far it’s been a hell of a lot more fun than the previous early levelling.

In part, I think it’s because I know a lot more about how to play an MMO, what gear I should be picking up, all the basic stuff that just seemed so confusing when I first started out.  Also, as our Recruit A Friend XP bonus is no longer in effect, there’s not the same insane push to get to the next area as we out-level the quests.. and then.. there’s the new quests, which are awesome! 🙂

Some are just fun.. such as capturing a Murloc for a lonely guy.. while others have a hell of a lot more plot and character motivation in them.

Lillian Voss has cropped up a few times, firstly as a newly undead character who wasn’t adapting to her new situation, then as she tried to find her father, only to discover that he wanted her dead.  Harsh.

I’ve loved the quests involving the Worgen so far.. there has been rather a lot of phasing as events unfold.

One quest had us head to Fenris Isle to turn the humans into Forsaken, but we were beaten there by the Worgen.. who gave the humans a choice: become Worgen, or be turned by the Plague.  The humans chose to drink blood and become Worgen, and our Val’kyr escorts told us to run, then unceremoniously picked us up and flew.

Elsewhere when we’ve encountered the Worgen we’ve had plenty of fighting, and Stealth-Shadowstep-Ambush is starting to feel quite good! 🙂

This even extended to the Deadmines run just before bed last night, which was far easier to handle than I expected, despite not being completely confident with the Rogue.

Peacebloom vs Ghouls, and Quest Giver Kirria!

I spent many, many hours playing Plants vs Zombies, so WoW’s version, Peacebloom vs Ghouls, was always going to be on the cards..  I had temporarily forgotten about it though, until I found myself surrounded in Orgrimmar by a number of players with little Sunflower pets, singing away!

The game appears as a small quest chain in the Hillsbrad Foothills, roughly on the spot where the Lordamere Internment camps were..  I remember killing mobs here a while back for cloth. 🙂

Anyways, Brazie the Botanist has a problem.. he’s got zombies on his lawn!

The first few levels were really easy, providing a new plant each time and small waves of zombies to kill off.  Later levels meant faster and harder zombies though.. with the final boss, Warden Stillwater, requiring a lot of firepower to taken down.

I loved this version of the game.. it’s a shame that you can’t actually play anymore once the quest chain is complete.  I still have Plants vs Zombies, of course, but I’d like both versions 😉

After completing the chain, I got my very own Singing Sunflower..

Still going strong on the pet collecting. 🙂

While out that way, I was sent in the direction of a brilliant set of quests which really mock certain player types..  I was given the task of handing out orders to the “lowly scrubs” who turned up.

First came “Dumass”.. a wonderful parody of a noob, all caps and not really listening.  The second was “Kingslayer Orkus”, representing the elitist jerk, and the third “Jonny Awesome”, sitting astride a sparkly horse and being condescending about the quest..

I then headed off to check up on my “players”..

Dumass had gotten all tied up down the mine and needed rescuing..
While here, I also did another low level quest to capture some humans.  More pets!   Though sadly not ones for keeping..

I returned Dumass to safety, and was relieved of my Captured Hillsbrad Humans, before heading to the Ruins of Southshore to check up on Kingslayer Orkus.

I found Orkus “drowning”..

He was standing in shallow water.. priceless!
Orkus had more quests, and I stuck with him despite the low level as they were fairly engaging.. the newer quests really have been improved..

We went off to Purgation Isle.. I’d only ever been here before while getting the Explorer title, but we came to track down the Human mage and Dwarf warrior who had thrown Orkus in the water where I first found him.

At the top, Orkus told me he would take out the guard, and that I should grab the plans and get out of there, while he fought with the Human and Dwarf.  I was expecting more parody, and had also forgotten that this was supposed to be a low level quest.. so I was suprised by what actually happened.
I ended up riding Kasha, Orkus’ mount, while he yelled for her to get me out of there.  She didn’t listen though, and went back to save him, which I thought was pretty cool 🙂

I was just starting to wonder what was next when Orkus died.. for a character who started off as a bit of a joke, I ended up feeling rather sorry for him.

The third “player”, Johnny Awesome, brought things back with some comic relief..

Having gone to the Sludge Fields, Johnny’s sparkly horse, Twinkles, had been killed by one of the hideous mutations, and he was sobbing on the floor.  To add insult to injury, Warden Stillwater had mistaken him for a girl, the love of his life, in fact, and has asked me to go and find him!

If these quests are representative of the new content, I think I’m going to have problems getting off WoW for a while..

Elementals and the last day

This is the last night before the patch that destroys WoW as I’ve known it since starting playing.
This is both good and bad.. good because it brings loads of awesome new stuff.. bad because it’s going to remove stuff I’ve not really played to death yet.

Over the last few days, we’ve been dealing with Elemental Invasions every few hours, where elementals attack the cities.

Eventwise, step one is preparing the area, or evacuating if you were a low-level player.
In Thunder Bluff, preparation involved placing enormous windbreaks around the city, while in Orgrimmar we had large spiky barricades.

Stage two involves freeing trapped villagers and fighting off the elementals.. killing enough allows the rifts to be closed and the invasion to end.. temporarily.  The elementals were harder to kill than I expected, and we turned out to not be quite so immune to being trapped ourselves.

As well as elementals, there were also a series of four bosses to deal with.

Grand Ambassador Flamelash was one of the harder bosses for me, as he kept spawning rather nasty fires which dealt a lot of damage.  Don’t stand in fire!

Representing Earth: Crown Princess Theredras.

I had a few line of sight issues at first, along with the fear of being thrown too far away from the group, but after a few repeats she wasn’t too difficult.. we hit her over and over tonight, until she dropped me some very nice gear: the Earth Bride’s Gown 🙂

I found Kai’ju Gahz’rilla the easiest boss to deal with although there was more damage being taken by the group.  Ice spikes were easily avoidable, and I could still heal on the move.

Fighting here reminded me of levelling a long while ago, when I was frustrated by the enemies polymorphing us into frogs.

Prince Sarusan was the last of the four bosses and well.. “ouch, cyclones” sums things up nicely!  Getting thrown into the air meant lots of damage on landing, and levitate made no difference.. it wasn’t always easy to avoid, either.

So.. the server just shut down, logging us out on the roof of Orgrimmar’s bank.  What will I see tomorrow.. and will I like it?

Argent Tournament Pets

I now have all the Argent Tournament Pets.. and all thanks to friends 🙂

A friend gave me the Enchanted Broom quite some time back, a little while after we got our chars up to 80 and he started on the Argent Tournament dailies.  Yesterday, another friend gave me the Tirisfal Batling..

Today, I was given the Durotar Scorpion, the Mulgore Hatchling, and the Shimmering Wyrmling!

I can’t learn the summon for the Shimmering Wyrmling until I’m exalted with The Sunreavers, but I wasted no time at all taking a look at the others..

I was shocked and amused to find that he stings!  I wasn’t sure what to expect from the Mulgore Hatchling, as neither the Broom or the Batling had attacked me, but I kept an eye on him too.

He randomly scarpers.. off round the corner, to do who knows what before running back.

I don’t know what the Shimmering Wyrmling does..
I assume he shimmers, of course, but otherwise I don’t have a clue.  I’m not going to check the net either.. just leave it till I’m able to summon him 😀

Boris and the Batling

Meet Boris, the Razzashi Hatchling..
Apparently this is what you get when an Orc gets his tentacle stick on.  Ahem. :3

He has a tiny roar!  Also discovered tonight that others’ pets will make a sound when you click on them.

Another friend sent me a Tirisfal Batling!
This one was less lazy than Boris at keeping up with me when we went flying off 🙂

Not quite sure what I’ve done to deserve these friends. <3

While wandering around Dire Maul the other day, I missed the opportunity to grab a screen of Vorlak’s Guardian Thornling.
I got one today though!

He grows from a Thornling Seed and attracts nearby enemies, or is supposed to.. he didn’t seem to during our Dire Maul run, and we were glad he didn’t tonight, as the naga were bitey 😉

Classic Dungeonmaster

Chasing achievements before Cata.. tonight I finished off Classic Dungeonmaster with the help of a friend 🙂

Stormwind Stockade requires running through a bunch of enemy guards to get to.. normally.  However we have the Touring Rocket, so Vorlak ran us through while I waited to see if a lucky strike would dismount me from the comfy passenger seat.  For now we can’t actually fly out here in the old world, but the rocket can be used on the ground. 🙂

Stockade was rather an easy dungeon, and over very quickly.  Leaving this time included a trip through the park, and I was told about a certain Dwarf RP player nipping in there to urinate!

Vorlak had to die to let us get into Scholomance, as neither of us had the key.  Easy dungeon, and we rather stomped all over it.
I managed to pull something, though no big deal as they were much lower level.. but they kept on coming..

Apparently there were a few things in the previous room which were summoning these.. I was made to wait till there were a suitable number, then Mind Sear! 🙂

Dire Maul was the last dungeon I needed.  Right in the entrance we met Pusillin, who decided to run away from me!

I wanted him as a pet.  Well, the small, cute version of him anyway.. 🙂

After killing the King, the silly Ogres made me their King instead.  Rather amusingly, this then allows you to collect tribute from the various bosses.. so long as you left them alive earlier of course.

There was also a drunk ogre with a selection of alcohol for sale.  Lalalala :3

More Pre-Cata and More Pets!

Three more pets have been added, bringing my total to 56!  Last weekend, a friend added the very cute Leaping Hatchling to my pet collection!
He does actually do what it says on his nameplate too.. 🙂

Aside from the pre-cata events, we’re really not taking the game too seriously at the moment.. instead trying to explore areas of the map rather more unpopulated than most.  I think this post might end up a little image-heavy 😉

On top of the world.. and then back down again.  Coming down was harder than I thought, and as I cancelled Levitate to avoid being floated out too far, I ended up not putting it back on before crashing into the side of the mountain.  Fairly thankful for Erilas 😉

This weekend was a mixture of rep-grinding and chasing pets and mounts; I picked up the Phoenix Hatchling from Kael’thas Sunstrider’s dead body on one run 🙂

Auchindoun also received rather a lot of attention, for rep and to try and get the Reins of the Ravenlord.  I mentioned that we weren’t taking things too seriously..

Later a party member decided to run out of Line of Sight a few too many times, and instead of chasing after him I hit /dance.  I then realised the Inner Focus affect looked rather like pom-poms, so decided to stick with it, and leave Vorlak to play with his new friends a little longer 🙂

We were a bit more well behaved during the next bit.. arresting cultists in and around Orgrimmar.  Like with the trolls all the way back in the earliest pre-Cata events, I rather liked having a group of NPCs following me around.

After taking my five arrested cultists to where they needed to be, I realised I still had the shackles, and there was a nearby Cultist.. Pet Cultist!  Sadly he was crushed by Vorlak’s mean kodo, Rufus, on our way out of Orgrimmar.*

*He despawned 🙁

We also went for a run around Karazhan to pick up loot, including random stuff such as the ‘tentacle staff’.  Why an Orc Warrior would want one of those.. corrupt much!

As a friend hadn’t done Shattered Halls, we took a little detour round there too.  I thought this throne was rather cool 🙂

Last night we did the Elemental Invasions in Thunder Bluff and Orgrimmar.  Placing massive windbreaks around Thunder Bluff was easy, but fighting the elementals was surprisingly hard as they just would not die.  Dealing with the Fire elementals in Orgrimmar was easier as there were plenty more people to kill them more quickly.

Then after all this, my friend gave me another pet – the Winter Reindeer! <3

So very tiny, and so cute 🙂

Dawn of War II – Co-operation!

I’ve had two attempts at completing the single player in this game.. the first when I originally got the game early last year, and the second very abortive attempt just before the release of Chaos Rising this year.  Tim has completed the game though, and wanted to play co-op..

At first, I found it a little harder to play with Tim as he talks a lot less on mumble than I’m used to these days.

As usual, the defense missions were the easiest, as I’m fairly defensive anyway, though it was strange not having control of all four units.

Eldar are tougher than they look 😉

Idranel was particularly tough.. more so when we encountered her the second time.  During that fight, we needed to revive each other a few times 😉

I’m betting this will be the next game I complete, as I’ve got a little extra push..

The Ball

The Ball is an indie action-adventure puzzle game using the Unreal engine, featuring an archaelogist who gets stuck in a cave and finds a mysterious artifact.. The Ball.  This game started off as a mod for Unreal Tournament.. shows what hard work can do!  Two friends have been playing this game, and both have come back with nothing but praise for it, so I thought I should try it out 🙂

The demo allows the first few puzzles to be played out in campaign mode, as well as trying out Survival mode, where you have to stay alive as long as possible against floods of enemies.

I started with the campaign and very quickly became twitchy, expecting bad things to come shooting out of every corner, or for something to come down from the ceiling and crush me.  I only felt a little better once I found the Ball..

The first few rooms are all about teaching you how to play.. pressure plates for you to stand on, how to use the Hammer, and how to handle the Ball.  There are several jokes in here, but I’m not touching them! 😉

As mentioned, I was rather twitchy while playing this, and the rather ugly monkeys in some of the first few rooms gave me the creeps..
I was being mocked by a friend for this, but I think it’s just as well I was twitchy, because when the first zombies appeared I was quick to fire the Ball at them.

I’d be tempted to get the game, as it’s easy to play, looks fantastic and solving the later puzzles in the demo was very satisfying.. but with all puzzle games, there comes a point where I find myself stuck, leaving it for a while, and then not completing it.. I have enough uncompleted games 😉

League of Legends

My boss at work actually suggested League of Legends last week.. I took no notice the first time he mentioned it because I thought he was talking about one of the many Facebook games he’s suggested in the past.  Then I saw a screenshot..

Back at i39, I played Heroes of Newerth.. under beta, which is why it didn’t appear in the blog despite the many, many hours played following lan.  At a first glance, I thought LoL looked very like HoN.

Like HoN, there are two opposing teams headed by up to five player-controlled champions, bases at opposite sides of the map, and paths linking the two bases.  Minions for each team are spawned at intervals, and spend their lives pushing their way towards the enemy base, fighting the enemy minions and destroying turrets along the way.
At the end of each lane there is an inhibitor; if your minions destroy the enemy inhibitor, you get super minions..

Unlike HoN, the inhibitors respawn after a little while, which means you can still make a comeback..
Of course, the game’s all over if you destroy the enemy Nexus 🙂

Another difference is that you can choose any Champion regardless of team.. with HoN, you were restricted to Legion or Hellbourne heroes, though there were a lot more to choose from.  Different Champions are available for free each week, though you can unlock more with Riot Points, which you buy with real money, or Influence Points, earned simply through playing.. we dubbed these ‘Internet Points’. 🙂

The Champion I’ve been using for these last few games is the assassin Akali.  I really like her abilities, and tend to use second ability Twilight Shroud, which slows any enemies within it, then Crescent Slash to damage anyone within range, then Shadow Dance to jump straight on an enemy Champion, escpecially if they’re trying to run away.

I’m finding the range of items in-game a bit easier than I did with HoN, though whether it’s down to it being simpler or just because I’ve learned a lot more about stats from playing WoW, I’m not sure.

League of Legends is free to play.. go and try it out! 😉