VRYKERION

  • Let’s Hope They Don’t Learn to Open Doors

    Location: The Secret Lab, Azshara

    Greetings, my friend. We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives. And remember my friend, future events such as these will affect you in the future. You are interested in the unknown… the mysterious. The unexplainable. That is why you are here. And now, for the first time, we are bringing to you, the full story of what happened on that fateful day in Azshara and the creature only known as…   Subject Nine.

    For those who are not familiar with Subject Nine, here’s the low down.  Subject Nine is a raptor that was given a hat and made into a super genius by the goblin scientist Hobart Grapplehammer (Who belongs to the ‘Oh Why the Hell Not’ school of scientific thinking).  You encounter her in the secret lab and assist her in rounding up some of her younglings and shooting them off into space on Nine’s spaceship that she designed: The Velocistar.  It’s a quick chain of quests that gives its share of nods, in the usual tone of goblin quirkiness, to pop culture references (Nine’s Plan to Outer Space.)

    So what exactly is so odd about this?  Well, first of all, I’m fairly curious where the heck Subject Nine came from originally.  There’s one point in Kezan where we see her, which means she originally comes from the South Seas.  Were raptors a normal thing on pre-volcano’d Kezan?  Did they roam the alleys of the Undermine?  I know we get to see raptors on the Lost Isles, but there’s no way of telling how close or far the Lost Isles are to Kezan (Okay, there is an in game map that shows them being fairly close together, but that map also puts them within spitting distance of the Maelstrom, so I’m not exactly inclined to believe that it’s a very realistic map). Further more the raptors on the Lost Isles look like Outland Raptors (Well…  that kills any theory of them being two species that developed on separate worlds.  Now Blizz, explain to me why there FRICKIN’ RAPTORS IN OUTLAND?!  Cause you’ve killed my last theory now.) and Subject Nine has the appearance of a Barrens raptor (More notable, a Sunscale raptor).

    I’m not opposed to thinking that goblins, the top dogs when it comes to intercontinental travel in Azeroth, would have shipped in some raptors for experimentation.  In fact they mention it in one of the quests at the Secret Lab that they DID get them from the Barrens (Her mate – Subject Four – appears to be a Bloodtalon raptor from Durotar).  So apparently they got a bunch of raptor eggs and dragged them all the way back to Kezan and then amidst their island being blown up, being sold off to slavery and then crash landing on another island before coming to Kalimdor, Hobart Grapplehammer dragged around a baby raptor (That we NEVER see on the Lost Isles).  I’m sorry but this whole thing just reeks of ‘plot hole’.  Maybe I shouldn’t be taking anything the goblins do this seriously, but Subject Nine creates some of the most blaring plot holes while leveling from 1-20 as a goblin than any other sole character in Warcraft (with the possible exception of Ronin).

    The other issue I had with this whole thing is why choose a raptor to make into a super genius?  Raptors are the smartest beasts in WoW already!  Don’t believe me?  Do some questing in the Northern Barrens – They systematically attack and rob a caravan!  They steal the silver from it and run off into the wild.  So not only can they outwit and tactically best an armed horde wagon, but also know that silver is apparently worth something as it’s the only thing they took, and then hauled it back off to their encampment. Yes, I said encampment.  The raptors in the barrens have set up their own little camps and have started to forge their own little societies.  Why are we now deciding to give them the means to build and construct super weapons and send themselves to other worlds?  This is just so unethical… so terrifying… and as sad as I am to say it, so very, very goblin.

    Still wouldn’t scientific curiosity insist on more of a challenge of taking something smart and making it smarter?  How about more of a challenge?  Like maybe a crab or a tauren?  When you give a species that prides itself of cunning, tactical murder and then give it the means to out think its creator (As Subject Nine actually fixes several errors with the original goblin design for the space craft), one can only hope that it sees us as worthy to be kept as pet.  Just perhaps, on your way to the Crossroads, something will pass you in the dark, and you will never know it… for it may be a raptor from outer space.

  • Revenge is Best Served Cataclysmal

    For those with the sheer patience and willpower to endure last night’s launch of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, I’m sure you were bustling about and grabbing new professions, hoofing it to Hyjal or to Vashj’ir or rushing your way to realm first something or other.  Seriously, no sooner than I was able to finally log in during the Great Login Server Door Squeeze of 2010 that I was seeing Realm First Herbalism and I know for certain someone must have hit cooking before that.  Cooking was the first to go for everyone I think.  But while everyone rushed off to see the new stuff, I decided to take the opportunity of old world flight to visit an old foe.

    Someone who has mocked me since I first starting playing this game in October of 2006.  Someone whose constant ravaging of my dwarven brothers has been a constant source of anger boiling deep within my black heart…   So with Old World Flying trained, I set forth on a mission of revenge:

  • Seussian Sillyness

    In the middle of nowhere, in the backwaters of Winterspring,

    Down in a gorge, I found the strangest thing.

    Back in a corner, trying not to freeze,

    I found the Lorax! He who speaks for the trees!

    He is a bit taller than in that book that I read,

    But despite his demonic appearance he did not want me dead.

    He simply stood around glaring while his imp friend sold treats,

    I felt sorry for him getting covered in sleet.

    Thus I picked up my bow and fought through waves of elementals,

    who respawned quite fast and it began to drive me mental.

    But I finally reached the old Lorax and his little imp friend,

    And paused but for a moment to think of how this conversation should begin.

    I decided to ask how he came to be here,

    and he just looked at me with a satyrical sneer.

    He opened his mouth, out came fearful words of doom:

    “Amir gul xi azrathud, karkun.”

    After that I simply nodded and left the gorge,

    Swearing not to come back, even if I was bored.

    But on the way back to town, a quest giver gave me a goal,

    To kill some named elemental back in that damned hole!

  • Can I Get Blue Response Plz?

    Do you ever get the feeling that Blizzard reads your blog and has decided to respond to it?

    I’m starting to…

  • Ice Ice Baby: Tips & Tricks for Glutton for Icy Punishment

    As an avid achievement junkie, I loved the fact that Blizzard added additional quest based achievements to the old world in Cataclysm.  While riding the Rocket Rail from the North Terminus to the South Terminus isn’t exactly the most daunting task, it’s nice to see little things like that make it into the game (Besides, the view and erratic behavior of the rockets can’t be beat.) However, in Azshara there’s a trio of achievements that are tied into the three trials that you must complete for the…  um… “eccentric” Archmage Xylem.  Essentially the quests require you to obtain a certain amount of stacks of a buff by doing certain things: standing in safe areas, trapping ghosts, or collecting orbs. If you take damage, you lose a stack.  However, the achievements require you to do this without taking any damage.  Which ramps up the difficulty a little bit.

    When I say a ‘little bit’ I mean a little bit. The Trials of Fire and Shadow are exceptionally easy to do the achievements for.  The tasks are easy to see and not standing in the bad is pretty easy to follow, so not getting hit isn’t a grueling task.  However, if you’ve attempted the achievement for the Trial of Ice, you may have been pulling out your hair out how tediously painful that achievement can be.  The waves of ice routinely will hit you when you are no where near them, the orbs aren’t always picked up regardless of how close or how long you touch them, and the runes seem to trigger whenever they want at different ranges.  I spent about 30 minutes trying to figure out exactly how this achievement works and I’m here to happily share some of my tips with you if you are also struggling with this.

    TIP #1: DON’T WATCH THE STACKS: To complete the quest, you are required to gain 20 stacks of a buff given by the Icy Orbs that float around.  These stacks will wear off after a minute of not gaining another stack.  This puts a strict time limit on how long you have to navigate the ice to grab your next orb, and can put a lot of stress on you if you’re attempting to not take any damage. The biggest turn in doing this achievement is realizing that the stacking buff has no bearing whatsoever on the achievement.  Go ahead! Track the achievement.  You can grab an orb, sit outside the ice as long as you want, let the buff wear off and you’ll still have 1/20 toward the achievement.  You can take as long as you want to get these just as long as the ice beams don’t hit you!

    TIP #2: STAND BEHIND THE BEAMS: The Ice Beams are very tricky.  They will routinely hit you far ahead of where they actually appear to be, and I can only imagine it’s worse if you have sub-optimal latency.  The trick to avoiding being hit is to not attempt to out run the beams, but to walk behind them.  This is easier to do on a mount or with some speed boost (Travel Form, Ghost Wolf, or Aspect of the Cheetah) because the beams move much faster than your characters walk speed, especially when you’re moving around trying to nab the orbs.  Sometimes the beams will catch up to you while you’re grabbing the orbs (because they take a bit to register being picked up sometimes), which brings me to Tip #3…

    TIP #3: KNOW THE SAFE ZONES: There are several places around the plateau where the beams will either not reach or just not hit for some reason.  These ‘Safe Zones’ are the best places to hide when a beams heading your way and you’re running about.  I’ve made the following map to show the couple that I used:

    The important things to note about these spots, other than the one at the portal, is that they are very temperamental.  In order to avoid being hit, you need to make sure you are either a place where the ground has turned to rock or becomes darker in color.  In terms of the bottom safe zone on the map, it’s actually a small ledge that puts you below the height of the beams. So duck down there to avoid being hit.  I am sure that there are probably a couple more around the island that you can use, these are just the few I figured out while doing the achievement. Using these safe spots, I was able to run around the entire area and gather orbs and still manage to avoid the beams.

    TIP #4: AVOID THE RUNES: While Xylem will be quick to inform you that the runes on the ground can either help or hinder you, my experience would suggest that the chance of hindering you far outweighs the chance to help you.  Technically, you could use them to launch yourself up in the air to avoid the beams, but the beams and runes are fickle enough that you land just as likely a chance to fall down right into the beam, or the rune won’t trigger immediately and you’ll get hit by the beam.  It’s best to just avoid the things entirely that deal with the possible headaches they can create.

    TIP #5: STAY AWAY FROM THE ICY GROUND: This one really is the simplest and most obvious tip of them all.  The icy ground around the giant beam-emitting balls will slow you down if you step into it.  Just avoid it.  At all costs.  If an orb spawns in the icy ground, just ignore it.  Resist that temptation at all costs.  I was screwed over more than once by grabbing that orb because I figured the beam was no where close, and I only needed two more or something.  BAM! Back to 0/20 on the counter. Regardless of where the beam is, the icy ground is just going to screw you up in the long run.

    THE STRATEGY

    There’s really two strategies currently available, but I’m sure that a third will emerge once you can fly in Azeroth.  The first is simply find a good safe spot, run in and grab one or two orbs, then go back to the safe spot and wait for the orbs to respawn.  It’s certainly a valid strategy, probably the easiest one as well, but a bit on the time consuming side (Hey, if you’re bothering with these achievements, you don’t mind time consuming, do you?)

    The other strategy is the one I used, simply make your way around the island counter-clockwise (all the beams go counter-clockwise, so you can follow behind them this way) and duck into the safe zones when you reach them.  You’ll get the achievement done quicker, but you risk resetting the counter by getting hit a bit more than say standing by the portal and running out to grab one orb over and over.

    Hopefully, this will help all of you achievement hunters out there have a bit less of a hair-pulling experience attempting to be a glutton for icy punishment!

  • Hail to the Warchief

    Well, it was an interesting election, I’ll say that much.  We had almost 100 votes at the end of the night, and what a night of surprises and twists it was!  Not really.  Despite the outspoken support for Thrall over Garrosh amongst the fans or the lavish love of fans for the bodacious banshee, Sylvanas Windrunner, every single time one candidate pushed ahead, every other candidate scaled  with them.  After a month of the polls being open, the standings were surprisingly roughly the same as when they where at the end of day one.  I don’t think the percentages ultimately changed that much, if at all. Though I was shocked, down right amazed, that Garrosh did manage to squeeze out a whole 8 votes. I was expecting Knaak to even beat him out.  Who knew?

    So who came out on top?  Is it really that hard to guess?  Well, ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce your new warchief:

    <Thank you!  Thank you all.  I am proud and honored to be called upon by the people to accept such a task.  What stands in front of us is a momentous challenge and it will not be easy.  The elemental invasion has left us trembling where we once stood our strongest: at home.  Deathwing has turned this home sweet home into a desperate brew of sour, and when it comes to living out our lives in this new shattered world, no blend of sweet and sour shall satiate our palettes!  Sadly, our children, mere nuggets of future potential,may have to go without the luxury of sauce for the moment.>

    <However, through these trials and tribulations: we shall not boil over, we shall not dry out and wither, and despite what the Aspect of Death may wish to see – We shall not burn! Our crust may crack, but we have the strength to mend it.  The fruits of our past labors may have been spoiled, but we have the discipline to grow more.  We are the Horde, ladies and gentlemen.  We do not cry in our milk, we do not fall like a bad souffle, we have the guts to take this humble pie and turn it into a cake worthy of a king!

    <Speaking of kings, you should know that I have already begun works to assemble a cabinet to work with King Wrynn and the members of the Alliance to mix together the beginnings of a stew of peace.  But whatever the fate of that stew, whether it becomes strong and flavorful or left alone to sour in our ice boxes – we shall make the effort again and again.  Politics, like cooking, requires time and the patience to try over and over until you obtain success.  Now I ask you, citizens of the Horde, CAN WE COOK IT?>

    Well, thank you Warchief Campfire.  That was a very motivational speech.  We look forward to seeing what you do with all your endeavors!  And there you have it, readers at home.  The new warchief – Basic Campfire – as voted by you.  Will he succeed?  Will he fail?  Will Garrosh just push him off the throne and take it himself because hey, it’s not like basic campfire has any means to fight back other burning him if touched.  But honestly, how likely is that last one to happen?  Ha ha ha…

    EDITORS NOTE: Following the writing of this report after last night’s inauguration speech, Garrosh Hellscream stormed into the throne, threw Basic Campfire off the throne, murmured something about ‘Over his dead body’ and then something about Grom Hellscream, and then proceeded to sit on the throne himself.  While technically it should be noted that there was a heavy scent of various liquors on Garrosh’s breath, he did successfully defeat the Warchief in combat, thus making him the new Warchief via a small loophole in the Horde’s charter called ‘The Metzen Clause’ which states that Horde politics are “subject to change on the spot regardless of how some idiot with a blog says they should work.”

    When questioned about Garrosh’s drinking habits at the Orgrimmar Bar, local Gamon stated: “Dudes, it totally was NOT my idea.  I would never suggest assassinating the warchief and taking the throne for yourself. I would never tell Garrosh about the Metzen Clause because of resentment over players who sit around killing me all day and night choosing the elect a bunch of logs as warchief. And I had no clue he was going to take me seriously about it.”

    Well, I guess this mystery won’t be solved any time soon.

  • Fire in the Twilight: an Elemental Invasion Retrospective

    The final phase has hit us, the invasion has begun.  The thunder cracks over Stormwind, and the flames engulf Orgrimmar. But in the end, after all is said and done, how will we be looking back at this event?  How will it be remembered by those of us who were there to witness it?  Will you be grasping on to those precious pieces of gear you pried from the dead hands of the elemental lieutenants?  Are you going to be telling all the new players that come in during the Cataclysm era about the valiant battles that were fought against the forces of Twilight’s Hammer? Well, I can only speak for myself, but the overall feeling was mixed for me.  Allow me to explain.

    The Build Up Was Fascinating

    The first few phases honestly were very intriguing to me.  The plot line surrounding the Twilight’s Hammer cult and their infiltration of the cities was probably the best part of the whole event honestly.  There was a sense of intrigue and instability.  I did the quests first on my horde alts, and I was honestly concerned that by the end of the whole thing, Garrosh was going to pull out martial law on the city.  He didn’t.  Why?  ‘Cause Garrosh is my boy!  But honestly, it was a fascinating trial that played out with much less intrigue on the Alliance side I’m sad to say.  It was the same thing but with none of the risk.  I mean, while there are people who don’t like Varian for one reason or another, but it’s nothing compared to the sheer animosity that people have for Garrosh (So much that I was shocked to find that I was not the only one who voted for him in the Warchief Election.)  So how this whole thing shook down on the Horde side could very well color a good deal of the Horde’s feelings in Cataclysm.  I mean, not everyone is going to forgive Garrosh.  Probably not ever.  Mostly because he is not real, and because, well, haters gonna hate.

    The lead up quests did a magnificent job of setting the tone of both the fear and concern of the people of the Horde and Alliance.  When facing dire times, there will be those who panic, those who become outraged and those who search for solutions…  regardless of where they come from.  The people who joined the doomsday cults were not bad people.  They saw a way out and they took it.  The Twilight’s Hammer is no longer a faceless, nameless enemy.  They are us.  Well, most of us.  Try as I could, I didn’t find any gnomes wandering about in Doom & Gloom chic.

    The quests also set a tone of inevitability.  You tried to stop the devices, they still got in.  You tried to stop the cultists at the gate, they still infiltrated the city walls.  You tried to stop the rituals, and the invasion still came.  Ultimately, try as you might, the Shattering is going to happen.  The world is going to be changed forever.  Deathwing IS coming.  These quests were a perfect summary of that kind of mentality.

    The Invasion Was Epic

    I remember noticing a sudden change in the weather while walking the streets of Stormwind.  Like a shadow cast across the cobblestone and yet there was an otherworldly brightness to this engulfing darkness.  It was followed by a crack of thunder and a peel of lightning and as the rain started to fall, panic engulfed the city.  The guards began to pile up sandbags and fortifications, the heroes of Azeroth gathered in the Trade District knowing that the very thing they had tried to stop had come to pass.  The Elemental Invasion had begun.  It was really exciting to see it all come together.  There was a real chill down the spine moment as you saw people rushing to evacuate the city and seeing dozens of players rushing about the city to repel the invaders is a pretty awesome sight and it really reminded me of the demon attacks that lead up to the Burning Crusade expansion, minus the piles and piles of dead low level players at the feet of Highlord Kruul.

    There was a real sense of suspense in the invasion, especially after the first day when no one was sure exactly how often the invasion would occur.  A sense of unpredictability fell upon many players that didn’t know when the next attack would come.  However, this unpredictability fell quickly to the side as the pattern was figured out.  Which brings me to a big issue I had with the entire event.

    Following The Script

    I’ve long thought of the elements themselves as a strange duality of balance and chaos.  They make up everything and anything, and at the same time they are foreign, unknown and unpredictable. And if there is one word to describe this entire event, it certainly was not unpredictable.  Everything happened on a script.  The elementals spawned in zones on a set routine, almost on the hour every hour.  The invasion of the cities ran on its own clock and showed up every couple of hours reliably.  The quests were naturally scripted as all quests were, there was no random spawns or surprises beyond the initial introduction of a new phase.  The entire thing was the epitome of ‘see it once, don’t need to see it again.’

    The reason for this is easy to guess.  Seriously.  Try it.  No, it’s not “Blizzard is lazy.” Try again.  That’s right.  The Zombie Apocalypse.  There was serious outrage at the whole thing.  People couldn’t use the cities for days, Shattrath was covered in nothing but zombies on my realm, and for a short period the dead ruled everything – the majority of people HATED it.  I know plenty of people who actually enjoyed it, but it seemed that at least at the time, the majority was against us in that regard.  I think a lot more have come around to thinking of the whole thing fondly, but its hard to say how much of that is hindsight and how much of that is nostalgia.  All I know is that the entire thing at the time was hated by a lot of people, and I loved it.  Not the people hating it, the actual event.  It was dynamic, it was unpredictable and it was player controlled.  The players could battle it, give in to it, and choose to die alone and zombified or carry out the call of the grave and spread the plague.  There were countermeasures, the Argent Healers for one, and the Necropolis attacks that followed were less dynamic and more farming, but for a glorious moment (to me) the players had full power of the course of the world.

    That’s what I always wanted to see in the game.  Player choices and player actions deciding what was to happen. It doesn’t happen enough in my opinion.  Maybe that’s just because I don’t play on a RP realm where such things occur on a regular basis (maybe someone can suggest one.  I’ve seen so much back and forth on the matter of which RP realm is good or bad I’ve, thus far, washed my hands of the matter.  Though I do have an un-played character on Shadow Council) but it’s one of the reasons I’ve been looking forward to the use of phasing in Cataclysm.  At least then our actions, albeit scripted and defined by quests, will have a noticeable impact on the world around us.  It was one of the subtle and yet most enjoyable additions in Wrath and I look forward to see it’s expanded use in the expansion.

    The Afterword Was a Big Let Down

    So the invasion is over, and the elementals beaten back from the city gates.  Now what?  Well, now we go and a few packs of trash and a boss.  Does the boss drop anything unique and interesting?  Eh, some raid quality epic gear that uses models from the ICC 5-mans.  And?  And nothing. That’s it.  It’s over. Here’s some loot pinatas with a dash of nostalgia, and we’re done.  If you weren’t still raiding and needed an upgrade or two, the entire thing was pointless except for a couple of points and some gold.  In my opinion, the entire post-invasion activity was a huge let down and I have a slight inkling that I’m not alone in thinking that this was the weakest part of the whole event.  There were no special drops, nothing to collect or farm, and just nothing to do once it had been done.  The Burning Crusade event had a tabard, the Wrath event had some meh gear but some really amazing flavor items (A Castlevania item, a tabard, an epic-in-more-than-just-color axe, and many other weird flavor bits) and this event had some good gear that will be useful for a few weeks.

    Conclusion

    After all is said in done, the event was fun and epic, the first time I went through it all.  But the fact is that the second verse is the same as the first, and watching the same reruns over and over can only be done so many times before it becomes tedious.  I got my feat of strength, I saw everything I needed to see, now I just want the world to blow up and the real fun to begin.  Am I alone on this?  I can’t imagine I am.  Maybe the minority, but surely not alone.  When a Warcraft-fan but not WoW-player friend asked me how the event was, the best I could offer was, “It was neat. Really neat.”  I think that sums up my experience with the whole thing pretty well.  Epic but repetitive, good build up but disappointing ending.  Still I can happily say that with minimal play time I experienced everything, and had my fun, and go forward without regret.  Maybe that is the point all along.  But even without regret, I was still wanting more.  Oh well.  See you all after the world ends.

  • Arrr You Ready? (for Partial Insanity?!)

    Well, my little pet project of grinding out the Bloodsail Buccaneers rep to Honored this weekend took less time than expected.  The whole thing actually took me only about four to four and a half hours to get it all done.  Which to be honest, was much shorter than I was expecting based on the last time I did the grind (which was with a level 70 Death Knight, back when the guards were level 67.)  I suppose it may have had something to do with actually having tier 10 dps gear on as I mowed down guard after guard, but the point is it was a pretty easy grind and a welcome one after grinding Outland dungeon rep for weeks.  So in the end I got one of the most coveted prizes in all of Warcraft: A hat!

    Honestly, I think that has more to do with this being associated with the Insane in the Membrane achievement than anything else.  Because if you were to explain to someone, not just someone who doesn’t play World of Warcraft, but someone who hasn’t heard of the Bloodsail Buccaneers grind (They exist.  There are a lot of them.  No, seriously, I’ve met these people) that you are killing any chances of stepping into any goblin city on Azeroth and spent hours upon hours killing guards just so you can get a hat, they’d think that you were completely nuts.  Granted, nowadays there’s a title to go along with it, but when it comes down to it what do you want more – the title or the hat?  That’s right.  The hat.

    I suppose it would be worth it to toot my own horn and say I did make this grind a bit harder than it needed to be. You see there are two ways to get Booty Bay Bruisers to spawn, one is to just walk around until they show up and the other is to kill the other NPCs around the city have the guards spawn in response to stopping the innocent bloodshed.  The latter is the route most people (at least on my server) choose to go, they plot through Booty Bay killing everyone and everything they can to gather up guards to slaughter en masse.  As someone who has just finished grinding a bunch of alts and leveled quite a bit in Stranglethorn Vale, this method sucks for people who just want to turn in their quests.  I’ve seen upwards of 5-6 people sitting around in a room just waiting for a single quest giver to spawn so they can turn it in and get their XP and a couple of silver pieces. So as a policy, I refused to kill Quest NPCs for this achievement.  None.  At all.  Once I reached hostile with Booty Bay and the guard would spawn simply as a response to me being there, I also stopped killing any non-guard NPCs in the city.  I would just walk around and kill the guards, and no one else.  This meant restrictive use of AoE attacks, or cleaves (one of the reasons I switched to Frost DPS over my Blood Tank spec after the first hour.)

    In general, people seemed quite happy with this technique.  Amongst the questions of “Why are you killing the guards?”  I had some people who sat and watched me, seemed to take notice that I was avoiding the other NPCs and then offered up buffs and even heals in some situations (Low level versions, but the gesture was very much appreciated).  Over the four hours, I got buffs from paladins, druids, and priests, and I’d like to think that I was making a good impression by not just wholesale slaughtering the entire city (I want to see that in a political campaign someday: “Vote Jim Horferson. At least he didn’t wholesale slaughter the city.”)  But the grind was not without incident, I give you exhibit A:

    Honestly, I couldn’t figure out why they were so ticked off. They saw me standing in a corner and killing the guards that spawned.  I didn’t even glance at the 5 or so other NPCs that were next to me, only the guards.  They watched me do this for about 5 minutes.  Then they got mad about it.  To be fair my response could be construed as a bit rude, but I was trying to explain that unlike the 2 other people that were currently killing everything in sight at the other end of town (poor poor tavern) I was just killing the guards, and was promptly given the cold shoulder via automated message.  Can’t please everyone I guess, and while I must confess that for a moment I harbored bitterness about this, since I took such care to do it, that I even wavered on the thought of showing the young paladin what I COULD have been doing instead and followed her around killing any NPC she interacted with.  This would have been mean.  Very mean.  I refused to let myself sink to the level of a common troll (not the darkspear kind, I like them. The trade chat kind.) and resisted the urge and continued with my plan.

    But I suppose after reading all of that, you’re rolling your eyes and saying “Get on with it Vrykerion.  What about the experiment?” Ah yes, I did mention wanting to test that little question about whether you still needed to have Honored with the Bloodsail and Exalted with the goblins at the same time, didn’t I?  Well, I did continue with my experiment.  I grabbed a couple of stacks of silk cloth, grabbed a sack of red dye and hitched it down to outside of booty bay to pay a visit to the Bloodsail Traitor and after a couple of trade ins, I can see with upmost certainty, that NO. YOU DO NOT NEED TO MEET BOTH REQUIREMENTS AT THE SAME TIME. Full stop.  After hitting Friendly with the Bloodsail, the requirement to be honored with them did not reappear in its place on my tracker. I can only assume that this has been changed at some point, and going into Cataclysm especially (since I heard somewhere that Knot may also be disappearing from the Dire Maul) that you don’t need to satisfy all the requirements at the same time.

    Despite the fact that this achievement has been this way for some unknown amount of time (anecdotally at least), I’m sure this will continue the out pour of anger about how “completely trivial and easy” this achievement has become.  I’m just going to state my opinion on this once, and then let it rest, unless you are completing this achievement at level 60 (via stopped XP or not installing Burning Crusade), then it is easy.  Granted, it is also time consuming and potentially exceptionally expensive, but it’s not Alone in the Darkness or A Tribute to Immortality.  I personally do not subscribe to the idea of taking more time means an in increase in difficulty.  As for trivial?  The entire achievement is based around getting exalted with a bunch of groups that there is no point in being exalted with.  It is and always has been the definition of trivial! (As for it becoming commonplace, no I don’t think that even with these changes you’re going to see every Jefferson, Nixon and Truman with this achievement. It’s still a big time and money sink, and I think that will put off a number of people from doing this even without the bloody Shendralar or freeing knot.)

    So what now? Well, I’m not going to get my goblin rep back yet for one.  I won’t be able to finish Ravenholdt or the Darkmoon Fair nearly in time for Cataclysm, and if they so happen to just change the Bloodsail rep requirement to exalted instead of honored, I want a bit of a head start (I don’t they will, but fortune favors the prepared).  Besides, I have no need to deal with goblins.  I have my robo chicken already, I have alts that can still peruse the neutral auction house, I’m a fully trained gnomish engineer.  What could I possibly need to be in good graces with the goblins for yet?

    …OH TITANS! MY TRANSPORTER!  %#@&!!!!!

  • Blizzard Cures Insanity (Partially)

    WARNING: This post contains potential spoilers to the achievements and possibly some minor hints to content in Cataclysm.  You have been warned.

    So a few weeks ago there was a cry that ripped through the forums, blogs and twitters of many an Achievement Hunter.  While not as loud as the cry over RealID some months before, there was a very vocal minority to the changes to one very particular achievement in the game: Insane in the Membrane.  While those who had already claimed this ridiculously time consuming achievement would be able to keep theirs, it came to light that due to certain changes in the Dire Maul (something about the levels changing, and certain things not dropping, like the books… I think? Maybe.  I’m not clear on the details, as anyone who reads this regularly will note – I don’t read plot spoilers for Cataclysm) thus locking out anyone from obtaining exalted with the Shendralar and more or less killing the achievement. While I wasn’t extremely angry about it, as I was waiting to see what was going to pan out with the achievement because of Cataclysm before thinking of attempting it (for this exact reason), a lot of other people were extremely angry about this change. Prompting my favorite joke out of the entire experience, that this is the only time you’ll ever hear about people being ticked off because someone “cured insanity.”

    The problem was made even worse when the blues on the forums were trying to explain through some strange attempts at legalese to weasel the way out of the explanation that they had given that it WOULD be doable even in Cataclysm, so there was no need to rush and now a mere month and a half before the expansion arrives, they’re going back on it.  This made the already mad people, even madder. They were going insane over not being able to go insane.  Normally, I try to give the blues to benefit of the doubt – but this was pretty far fetched.  The general argument was that it was still going to be in the game, as in it wouldn’t be removed for people who already had it, but you wouldn’t be able to get it anymore, that it was a Wrath of the Lich King only kind of thing.  That was what they meant when they said it wasn’t going away… oooooh…  So then why didn’t we not have to rush to get it done before Cataclysm?

    Yea, it was a pretty sketchy situation, but I was happy to see that in the latest Beta build that they’ve actually altered the achievement.  Insane in the Membrane no longer requires being exalted with the Shendralar.  Now granted, it’s still beta (Still…) and can change at the zero hour, but that means that if you only have the Shendralar left, then you will have the achievement come Catalcysm.  If not, it means that the achievement should technically still be obtainable.  While I do hear that Ravenholdt is going to be harder in Cataclysm, but I can’t confirm that. Sadly, I can only see the onslaught of complaints this will generate from those who already got Shendralar to exalted.  I mean, that’s no easy or cheap task.  Between carting all the books around and of course the other materials to use said books, there’s a hefty amount of work that will probably be seen as “unnecessary” in the eyes of those who already spent their time on it.

    The only thing I can possibly say to alleviate the building rage in people’s hearts is that it’s not like there was much choice.  It was either remove Shendralar, or remove the achievement (from being obtainable at least).  Which I suppose that someone will undoubtedly say that others shouldn’t be able to get it anymore because they already have it.  Someone always says that.  Same with mounts, pets, weapons, etc. /sigh.  But really I think this news is great.

    Finally, if Dire Maul is changing as much as they say that leaves the question of what to do about the grind of getting Honored with Bloodsail and Exalted with the goblins at the same time, since you might not be able to free the little goblin and get the ogre suits anymore.  There’s still substantial talk that this isn’t a requirement anymore and you can do one and then the other without worrying about losing the requirements.  The problem is there’s no consensus and the mileage seems to vary depending on person to person, mostly due to the fact that the achievement, being a feat of strength, is not trackable.  So I’ve taken it upon myself to test this (since I have time to kill…  and plenty of goblins to kill) using the tracking macro: “/script AddTrackedAchievement(2336)” which I was able to find on the forums.  I’ll be getting back on here on whether or not the cloth turn ins remove my Bloodsail rep requirement from Insane on the Membrane here soon.  Till then, rest easy about scarfing down every Pristine Black Diamond that pop ups on the auction house, save your gold for some Darkmoon cards, and I’ll post again on this when I have more news.

  • Hallow’s Nonsensical Beginning

    As I opened my last loot sack from the Horseman, and watched tearfully as nothing came out but a flimsy orc mask and a couple dozen points, I began to ponder the holiday in a much grander scheme.  Hallow’s End is supposed to be the Azerothian equivalent of Halloween right? But it is a bit different now isn’t it – especially in its origins. While, yes, historically before the rise of the scourge and the Third War, Hallow’s End was a popular holiday in Lordaeron.  Typically used to celebrate the end of the harvest season, then when the Forsaken declared their independence from the greater whole of the Scourge, they used the holiday (as much of them I imagine were from Lordaeron) to celebrate that instead.  Sort of a Forsaken 4th of July or something.  So it makes sense for the Forsaken to observe the holiday every year.  However, I don’t understand why everyone else is Azeroth also celebrates it.

    Did the Alliance decide to still celebrate it as a form of celebration of the harvest?  Then what exactly is the Harvest Festival that happens in September? Is that not there to celebrate the Harvest?  It’s not, you say? It’s for celebrating the fallen soldiers in battle?  Then why the heck is it called a “Harvest Festival” if it has absolutely nothing to do the actual harvest?  Well, what about Pilgrim’s Bounty?  Don’t try to explain to me that somehow it’s to celebrate the first Alliance to settle on Kalimdor and make peace with the natives by lying about how well it went to make it seem a bit more pleasant for the children.  If you’re shaking your head at this, and you should be, it’s because the official lore behind the Pilgrim’s Bounty is zilch. Nada. Non-existent. The only purpose of the holiday is to eat and eat all the lovely food and is roughly modeled around the United States holiday of Thanksgiving (and to level cooking.) Which surprisingly enough is celebrated in the fashion of, and partly is meant to be, A HARVEST FESTIVAL.

    So the Alliance have a Harvest Festival that has nothing to do with the harvest, an actual harvest festival called ‘Pilgrim’s Bounty’ (Still waiting to figure out where and when the heck that either the Alliance OR Horde had pilgrims that just happened to wear puritan pilgrim clothing like in our world) and yet somehow we’re expected to believe that the humans, dwarves, night elves and even the otherworldly draenei have all taken up the tradition of celebrating the Lordaeron Harvest Festival at the same time as the Forsaken.  In order to “take it back” perhaps?  Because your people obviously are hurting for Holidays involving the harvest season.

    The Horde celebrating it makes a bit more sense.  The Forsaken are all over the place, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the holiday had spread out a bit because of it.  Still, seems odd for the Tauren to get behind a Forsaken holiday, doesn’t it?  I would think they’d be the first to slap down a full out ban on Hallow’s End treats in their territories and rally protests and complaints (I always picture a Tauren sitting on a bench eyeing a Forsaken from afar and muttering to his friend, “Sometimes dead is better.”)  They are usually not very fond of the Forsaken and their “habits.”  Which brings to mind another question, do you think the Church of Light has an issue with Hallow’s End?  Would they still consider it a “devil holiday” like some denominations of the Christian faith do in our world?  Can’t see how they could really.  After all, the “devils” or demons of Azeroth are all very real, and people know what they look like, heck they’ve probably stabbed quite a few over the years.  It’s pretty obvious that the entire holiday is more of a “Scourge” thing than a “Burning Legion” thing (Loremasters: I am completely aware of how the two are related historically, but this a strictly post-Lich King quitting the Legion’s plan thing.)  Now that I think about it, that might explain why all the masks and costumes are just other races in Azeroth.  If I was constantly assaulted by demons and dragons all day, I’d dress up as something a bit more pleasant, like your neighbors.  It helps that your neighbors happen to be gnomes, aliens, and orcs as well I suppose.

    Still I can’t imagine that the Church of the Light would be okay with the participation of a holiday which is mainly observed by the undead.  Even if they’re willing to over look it a little because it once was a holiday observed in old Lordaeron, it’s frickin Zombie 4th of July now!  I suppose it’s a bit odd that I actually want the Church of the Light to negatively respond to the holiday, but I think it would be so much fun.  They could create a Hell House for it and everything that shows Alliance children the horrible and frightening “truth” to being undead.  They could even hold in the abandoned Argent Dawn office across the plaza from the Cathedral! (What? It’s not like they’re using it. They formed the Argent Crusade now, and besides, those heathens even let undead into their organization!) Can’t you imagine the fun it would be as they explain how doing things like “hanging out with orcs” or “abusing Blood Elf magics” could be unwillingly steering them down the path to undeath?  Come on, we can all think of cheesy anti-Horde or anti-Alliance propaganda and Hallow’s End seems like a great time to express it since it’s our Azerothian flip side to the “Devil’s Holiday” here on Earth!

    So those are just some of my thoughts on the past holiday we’ve had. I apologize for not being more frequent with my updates but October has been slamming me with a ton of extra things I’ve had to do in my personal life.  I’ve got myself on a bit more of a rigid guideline for November though: at least 1 post per week and a new Video Oddity.  So look forward to a bit less sparse posting here at OddCraft, and expect a lot more when Cataclysm comes in December. After all, the Tales of Vrykerion are about to begin…