Two 51 Point Talents I Love: Berserk and Haunt

I was going over the future talents of my druid and warlock when I realized just how much I'm looking forward to the respec when WotLK comes out.

Sighrez: The 51 point talent in the Feral Combat tree is Berserk. I'm really excited about this. Since my druid hasn't been 70 for long I haven't had any time to go to the Battlegrounds with him and get his Insignia of the Alliance, so I'm always very aggravated when I'm stunned or feared while trying to tank. Berserk will make my life a lot easier, even if it is on a five minute cooldown. As an added bonus, if someone accidentally pops a CC'd target and the mobs start ravaging my group, there's the three-target Mangle ability that comes with Berserk as well.



Hibbee: The 51 point talent in the Affliction tree is Haunt. This spell is awesome. It does direct damage, so it can crit, which means the potential for big damage. Add along the talent Death's Embrace and we could have some pretty large crits 'o shadow damage. Add on top of that the healing of the spell. From what I can tell, it is not DoT based. So in theory I could DoT the hell out of a target, throw on Haunt, then spam Shadow Bolt (hopefully getting a few crits in there), and it appears possible to be healed for a pretty insane amount. I can't wait to get Hibbee out there to test out the functionality of this talent.



I can test these talents and more, all I need is that congratulatory email from Blizzard saying that I've been invited to the Beta. One can only hope!

So tell me, loyal reader, what 51 point talent(s) are you looking forward to?



Links for Sighrez and Hibbee can be found to the right. -------------->

New Gold Sink: 8,000g for Dalaran Teleport Ring

Just in this morning over on WoW Insider they've published a story on something that I find both exciting and useful.



Available to us at level 80 are Rings of the Kirin Tor in caster and melee flavors. They are sold in Dalaran from the vendor Tiffany Cartier. So for those of us who don't mind the grind, it appears we'll have our very own portal to Dalaran, hopefully on a different cooldown.

Lastly, WoW Insider reports that Tiffany appears to belong to the Kirin Tor faction, so for those that can't or won't pay the 8,000g have the option to grind out Exalted and pay a paltry 6,400g.

Pictures courtesy of WoW Insider.

Siege Vehicles: LUA Information

I just read a little bit of information on the Siege Vehicles for WotLK. I won't bother typing out another long post though.

Head on over to WoW Insider to get the latest info on it. You can either click here, or click the picture below.





I'm actually quite excited to see how these work. I got to play with siege vehicles a little bit back a few years ago when I was still playing Dark Age of Camelot. They seemed cumbersome and slow, but were very destructive from what I remember.

I'm sure the developers at Blizzard have quite a treat in store for us when it comes to PvPing in Lake Wintergrasp.

Dalaran: A Bird's Eye View

I was browsing the WotLK Beta Forums this morning and found a link for this picture. Apparently the in-game map of Dalaran is not functional, so a beta tester took it upon herself to create one and point a few things out for us.

NOTE: The Alliance purportedly has an extra inn somewhere in there that the artist didn't have on the drawing.

Even More Bag Space?

Well today sure has been a busy day for Boyd of Shadowsong. Not one, but two posts!

While browsing the WotLK Beta Achievements Forum I saw a little snippet from Tigole himself. I recently informed you of the changes to Mounts and Vanity Pets, and it appears now that "Heroic Badges, BG Tokens are all getting storage space." Does this mean that all of our tabards and tokens from these completed achievements will get the same treatment? For all of us with full bags we can only continue to hope so.

It appears the story broke out a little earlier over at our friends WoW Insider. I'm sure they can provide a better look into it than I can, with their resources being much greater than my own.

Three cheers for more bag space! Huzzah! Huzzah! Huzzah!

How do you ding?

If you're reading this blog of mine, you've either got at least one level 70 character or you will have one soon. Today's question is this: Once you hit Outland, how do you ding 70?

For some people, they ding 70 the only way they know how. They run around Hellfire Peninsula doing every quest they can find, eventually moving on to Zangarmarsh. After that they'll either head to Terokkar Forest or to Nagrand. Lastly, they'll finish off those last few levels in either Blade's Edge Mountains, Shadowmoon Valley, or Netherstorm. Their leveling progress may seem random to some, but as a player's only level 70 character, it just seems awesome!

Then you'll find others like me. I've leveled two characters to 70 so far, and my third is 69. I've figured out my process and what I like. I know what works best for me, which quests/zones I hate, and which ones I must hit before that final ding.

Also, you've got the niche group of players that cannot stand to quest. These are the players that grind mobs, and only grind mobs. I don't think it's a road I'll ever take a walk on, but it works great for some.

Lastly, you've got the group of people that are similar to my wife. They have 4+ level 70 characters. She knows the ins and outs of about every quest in Outland, has a very set pattern for questing, and generally zoom through those last 10 levels. This type of player rarely veers off course to hit a dungeon or spend time helping others out, focusing particularly on having that experience bar vanish.



Personally, I've found my groove. I will complete Hellfire Peninsula and Zangarmarsh in their entirety. On my second character to 70 I actually skipped lots of quests, moving between zones as I got bored. On my most recent, my druid, I completed all quests in HFP, Zangarmarsh, Terokkar, and Nagrand. I skip BEM because I really dislike the zone. At this point I'm between 68 and 69. I head straight to Netherstorm and bust out the quests there until the final flash of gold.

So, fellow Azerothian... How do you ding? What are some of the advantages and disadvantages to any certain leveling style? You be the judge.

WotLK: Mounts & Vanity Pets

It seems that, contrary to popular belief, the developers for the World of Warcraft that we know and love have hooked us up once again. CM Wyrixian of the WoW-Europe forums just informed the world that we won't have to worry about bag space or bank space when it comes to vanity pets and our mounts, be they land or flying.

What Blizzard has decided to do is pretty neat, and a simple fix for what seemed like a complex issue. Now when you purchase your mount or get a new vanity pet you won't have to worry about what you're going to take out of your bags to put in your bank. The item in your bags will work like recipes do: you simply right-click that new Cenarion War Hippogryph and learn the mount spell. They'll be added to a new Pet tab in the character sheet interface. The icon will be deleted from your bag space and you'll be good to go.

Then, I'm assuming all it takes is dragging the new spell to your action bars and carrying on as usual.

I know this is great news for all you vanity pet collectors out there, as well as you engineers with mounts galore from crafting/reputation.

The WotLK Beta

It's official. The Wrath of the Lich King beta forum is now open to the public.

I read a few posts, but it's still so new and early in the day that I don't think many people are awake and online yet. I did learn that you can't actually post there unless you have a Beta account, which is unfortunate. Seemingly the people that are posting and testing as we speak are the ones who already had Beta keys from previous events.

So the question still remains: Has Blizzard started emailing keys to people that entered into the Beta Opt-In?

I really do hope that I am selected, or my wife. I really want to just get in there and explore and see everything for myself, but more importantly I actually want to test the place out. What could be cooler than exploring the new content, examining every facet of an expansion that they've worked so long and hard on, than to critique everything that seems wrong or out of place knowing that it will only improve the quality of the game for the millions of users that will be playing in the future?

So here are my questions to you, new reader:

1.) Will you read the Beta forums often to learn as much as you can?
2.) Why do you want to be selected to participate in the WotLK Beta?



Here are some links of interest:

WotLK beta patch notes
WotLK beta General Forum

Keep in mind, you cannot post here unless you have received a beta key (and in turn, a temporary beta account). There is not a Non-Disclosure Agreement for the beta, so feel free to frequent the forums and learn as much as you can.

If I am by chance selected to test the beta, you can rest assured that I'll be blogging here about it non-stop. Only time will tell.

I thought there was a tank shortage...?

Okay, I know that people are almost always looking for a tank for a level 70 instance. Hell, there are a lot of people in between 60 and 70 that need a tank for the pre-70 instances, too.

Then why the hell can't my Bear Tank get a group for Mana Tombs or Auchenai Crypts? I know that people don't like the Auchindoun instances too much, but am I the only person who knows that the bosses in there still drop loot that can be very beneficial? I'd like to have the Idol of the Claw from Mana Tombs while finishing off my last few levels.

There are no alts in my guild, Order of the Oak, that are near my level save one paladin. Plus, PUGing is shoddy in the summer time with all the kids out of school. Will I be relegated to leveling up the rest of the way without hitting some of these instances? Will I have to struggle even harder to tank instances at 70 since no one wanted me to tank instances at 6X? Only time will tell.