Elkagorasa the Casual

As I mentioned, a co-worker/friend was down in Burbank during Blizzcon. While there he hit the showroom floor and grabbed a few picks from Blizzcon. Some pics from the Panda starting area, Diablo III and the showroom floor.

Reading through some of the release notes on Mists of Panderia , I think Blizzard is really pushing to involve the Casual players. The main evidence I see is their work on expanding the end-game content that is available to players. Scenarios: These scenarios are ranging from 3 people (i.e. close friends) to 25 people (nice pug size). Raid fail anyone? The timing fits nicely with new parents, 10 - 30 minutes, short enough in case the kids wake-up. The immediate-ness of them, i.e. defend Goldshire, makes them sound more 'important' than a simply group quest. I think this will have the advantage of not feeling like a 'daily', but still provide something for those that want the extra credit/points.  Note, I personally hate doing dailies. Challenge-dungeons: Now, this one has an interesting twist. Complete a dungeon in a certain way and be rewarded things like gear, pets, mounts and achievements.  Ok, but the cool twist is it will change in complexity as your avera...

I am not a fan of ad-sponsored anything. If I could spend just a few bucks more (/nudge  Amazon ), I would rather purchase the ad-free version, instead of having to deal with something inappropriately asking me to buy something. In the long run, I don't want my kids grabbing said device and clicking one of those links. I've almost got full copies of games on my mobile phone one afternoon. "Daddy, I don't know what they want here.." Why would I want to create income from you? Are you going to click on links simply because they came up in the word-association algorithm created by Google? I don't think so. In addition, I don't want to have any association to gold sellers, pawn shops, etc. that might come up. I'd want control. I tried the Amazon Associates thing and well, it didn't spawn anything. Honestly, my account has $0.10 in it. I wasn't hurt when Amazon pulled the whole thing due to our current Governor's failed sales tax policy. ...

I know this may seem obvious to the seasoned PVP vet, but I have only recently gotten back into PVP. Loving demo in the battlegrounds, but lately the horde hasn't been on a winning streak  anything. Maybe 1 lucky run in 10; making for frustratingly slow Honor point accumulation. So, I was wanting to grab a shiny Season 9 weapon, namly replace my 346 wand or PVE weapon with something new and fresh ( Vicious Gladiator Spellblade ?). Unfortunately, such shinies come with a hidden price tag. "Requires earning a total of 7250 Honor Points for the season." I hadn't been keeping track. No achievement tracked it. Not on the PVP interface. There must be a place to find this value. Finally, the other day I was fumbling around at the vendor, when I came up with the popup. Floating over the icon on the corner, I see that ... Ugh, 2100 more points to go. Well, if I don't buy anything else, at least I'll have the points to buy the weapon when I meet the pre-req....

Of the two red Xs, one has an invalid reforge (hit to stam) on it. I was testing to see if it would remove them as well. (Elk pats imp, "Slow down Volham, we haven't even written the post yet".   Revert to Draft ) We are both a little excited about a 'new' addon, Reforgerade . This simple little addon takes reforge priorities and presents them in a nice little interface when you visit that reforge guy. "Reforge Priorities??" you ask. "Where do I get those?" I don't know, go AskMrRobot ?  :) Click the EXPORT button, then the Export Reforges button. I know, go figure. Copy the contents. When you visit Enchanter Faradine, the Reforgerade window will popup, paste the AskMrRobot content and hit the Reforge button. Now you don't have to think to blindly follow our robot overlords. Love ya Mr Robot (and  legowxelab2z8  the addon PM)

Right before Cataclysm, Blizzard did a server refresh. Yank out that old computer hardware on domains doing sub-optimal and toss it. Businesses do this all the time. My office, we replace the old hardware probably every two to three years. These old pieces of equipment are either recycled (like into website servers) or returned to the vendor to lease to smaller companies. Blizzard has donated the hardware to St Jude's Children's Hospital, so that they can auction it off as a fund raiser. On their eBay store , you can place bids (starting $100) on a domain server. IMHO, could be really cool mounted on the back wall of my cubical, but.. well.. their $100 starting bid and $300 shipping kills it for me. (plus I haven't found Malfurion yet). Is it usable? Maybe? If you have a blade cabinet that is capable of housing this type of server (looks like HP or Compaq). It has memory installed, but (looks like) the CPUs removed. Bidding ends tomorrow (noon 10-24-2011). Go check...

Coming soon to Azeroth.  Co-worker just texted me that coming in the next expansion, Mists of Panderia, we'll be able to play a panda monk. I had hoped that they'd bring out a new class that would be cross spec, like a druid. You can be a tank, you can dps, and you can heal. I can't help, watching this video, pulling comparisons to Dreamworks Kung Fu Panda series. Especially with this list of racial perks: Bouncy: reduces fall damage by half. Inner peace: double rested XP. Gourmond: +15 to cooking. Epicurean: double stats to food buffs. One element that has me thinking. Panderans will be both factions. At 10, you chose Alliance or Horde. So, this will be the first time we will fight in PVP against the same class. You could potentially have 30 people in a BG, all playing pandas. How will you tell them apart??  Annual Pass: In addition, they are creating an 'annual pass'. Starting today, you can signup for a 1 year contract for WoW. This comm...

Last night I picked up a strange little pet, Creepy Crate . This guy hides in his crate peeks out, then snacks on nearby critters. He was rewarded after a quick little, 6 step quest chain; mostly completed in and around Orgrimmar. Culminating in a zep ride to Undercity to kill a level 84 npc. Goblin boat, not Vashjir Missing Heirlooms  - Go to the Inn near the entrance, there's an undead in there complaining about his missing heirlooms. (Wasn't there someone in UC complaining about this?) If you haven't been to Vash'jir, but have the quest in your logs, you may only see the Vash'jir boat. I had to drop the quest with my alts to see the goblin ship. Fencing the Goods   - Go to the AH, one of the goblins will chat with you. Shopping Around    - Go see Droffer and Son's in the Drag. Taking Precautions  - All items available in town. From around the Tauren AH, I found all 5 Blood Nettle, Crystial Vials sold by Isashi  (opposite the AH), Arcane Pow...

If you have a lower level alt, now is the time to start running them around Azeroth. Find yourself a friendly guildie with a 2-man rocket and start flying around to all those Inns. Grab the flight paths and (based on last year) a nice bit of XP. It's a quest, so wear your BOA gear (and guild tabards) to get an extra bonus. This year, Blizzard ( reference ) has removed some of the randomness in getting the achievement , by making the Sinister pet a vendor item (instead of solely a random drop). I like, now if I could just BUY my warlock mount .. Still a little angry about that. Day 1: Tuesday 10-18-2011 - Got on at 1AM, Tricky Treats and a mask. Day 1.5: 10-18-2011 PM - Hallowed Helm (that I couldn't loot because I have one in the bank). Day 2: 10-19-2011: Sinister Squashling Day 3: 10-20-2011: Sinister Saber (now I can summon pumpkin men in BGs, reforge off the agility and it MIGHT be viable??). Day ?: I now have 5 Squash, thinking about making pies.

Elk has been patiently stationed out in Shattrath for the last two weeks. Each day, he works with Rokk to provide the Lower City denizens a bit of food prepared to order. Elk's primary goal is a bit of accidental luck, the recipe for Stormchops . (Why a recipe would be left in a barrel of meat is beyond me??) This got me thinking. Guildies have the recipe. I have a few recipes they don't have. How about we meet in town somewhere and trade recipes? Sit next to guild member with recipe, open guild-professions interface, click new button "Learn". Probably have to give something in return, so that it's not a 'free' exchange, but it's guild sharing. (Note: It reminds me of what I envisioned Inscription could be, before it was introduced in Wrath. Inscribe documents from other sources to create tomes of important knowledge. Translate documents from other languages (NE -> BE?) so that they could be used by opposing forces.) It would sure make some ...

The 4.3 PTR was up last night, so I spent about 15 minutes looking around.  Funny because you can run a pre-made (ungemmed, unenchanted) in fully decked out tier (balespider) gear. No more Troll only option. 150 for all Heroics. Does have separate option for Bastion series. Queueing up for a raid could be interesting... shadow bolt. no, I didn't see any other spell changes for locks.