WotLK: A screenshot and some musings

Greetings again all. I took one screenshot last night. Like a fool, I was so immersed in testing that I failed to take any more.

Fret not, loyal reader. After I complete the Death Knight Experience you can expect me to delete my Dwarven DK and start anew. I'll take plenty of screenshots for you then.

In the screenshot you can see the back of my DK, to include that beautiful runeblade on his back. The Val'kyr Battle-Maiden before me is one of two standing flying beside the Lich King himself. Also, if you peer into the background, none other than Baron Rivendare is also present in Ebon Hold.

Make sure you scroll down past the screenshot, as I'll let you know about the integrated threat meter, or at least what I saw of it.



As for the threat meter, I'll have to get a picture taken and post it later. It is pretty sleek, but I think it is a little hard to see if you're not used to it. In between your character portrait and health/runic power bars, there is just enough space for a diamond to appear. This diamond turns yellow when you are targeting an enemy in which you appear on its threat table. It gradually becomes more red the higher you get.

I apologize now for not having more details about that. I will pay a little more attention to it the next time I hop on.

WotLK: My first glimpse into the Beta

Last night I got my first glimpse at the Wrath of the Lich King Beta. I won't go into the details, but know that even though I cannot copy any characters of my own over (for the obvious reason) I was still able to create a Death Knight and do a little testing of my own.

I spent about two and a half hours playing last night, but only accomplished approximately 30 minutes of actual play time. I was busy filling out my opinions on the quests I completed, suggestions for a few environmental things, and reporting a couple bugs (like a soon-to-be killed Tauren Death Knight Initiate having neon green hair).

If you haven't read any articles about the beta thus far, let me tell you that there has been a lot of hype about how much effort has been put into creating the Death Knight Experience." Oh, and that's what it's called, leveling up a DK. From 55 to 57ish you are completing the Death Knight Experience. Now, in regards to all the hype, I'll agree to an extent.

First, I'm a Blizzard fan. I've been playing since Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, as well as Diablo and StarCraft. I love their style, their universe, and especially the way they do business. I am not however a fanboi like some people. I don't think every new development is "zomgbbqwtf 1337 c00l!!!!". Don't get me wrong, I enjoy experiencing all the new content, I just don't want you to think my opinions are random and the product of nothing logical, only irrational thoughts spawned from excitement.

So... what do I think of it so far? I think the hype is right. As you watch the class cinematic for your Death Knight you are immediately immersed into the story line. You aren't left guessing and confused (that is, if you've paid attention while playing the game in the past). The Death Knight Experience truly has that epic feel you would expect from the first Hero Class. There's not much more I can say besides describing each quest to you. The story, and graphics and abilities and environment along with it, is amazing.

"But Boyd? I don't care about that crap. How 1337 is the DK as a class?"
--To be frank, it's pretty pimp. If you're the kind of player that has never found your place in WoW because you have been wanting the perfect mixture of melee hacking and slashing mixed with a plethora of spells and abilities that a Paladin cannot provide, then the Death Knight is for you. I chose to put the first talent points I've received, about 18, in the Unholy tree. I will also be leveling Unholy when WotLK goes live. The rune system is very cool.

So, you have six runes. Two each of Blood, Unholy, and Frost. Attacking people with your abilities and using those runes to do so generates Runic Power. Runic Power is used for other magical abilities. Add on top of this using your Runeforging ability to create your very first Runed Soulblade and you feel empowered by the Lich, armed and ready to attack the Light with all due haste.

Okay, this post is getting long. If you have any questions about what I've seen so far, please post them in a comment and I'll answer them ASAP.

Thanks for reading yet another wall of text. Your comments are appreciated, and reading my blog is appreciated even more.

Professional Picker: Wild Growth

If you have been keeping up with all the WotLK Beta information on the web, then I'm sure you're familiar that Blizzard has been throwing in some upgrades for players with a gathering profession. So far, Blizzard had hooked up miners and skinners. Miners were given the Toughness ability, which I'm sure will have lots of Protection Warriors and Protection Paladins changing to this profession if they don't have it already. Skinners were given the Master of Anatomy ability, which any Hunter or Rogue would just love to have. On the other hand, I know some of our cloth-wearing friends that have either of these will also enjoy the benefits to be had.

I just found out this morning that Blizzard has seen fit to hook up the flower pickers in the World of Warcraft: Wild Growth. As you can see from the tool tip your local, neighborhood Herbalist will be able to heal himself, over time, once every five minutes.


Obviously, it's hard to tell at this point if it scales with anything like spell damage and healing, or if it is on the same cooldown as anything else. Luckily for me, Druids can use it while shapeshifted. It will definitely be an extra boost to help the healers out when trudging through the early instances. My only concern would be that once our HP pools start rising, how effective will this ability be?

As we're still in the beta phase, we would be fools to think that all of these new and cool changes are permanent. I like what Blizzard has going with this, and hopefully they'll develop a way for it to scale or have the amount healed boosted a bit.

Now, if only I could get a beta key to test it out...

OMG LAWL @ WoW Insider

Greetings! I'd like to announce that I've had my very first submission to WoW Insider posted on their site!

I won't spoil it here, so click the arrow below to see my submission!

Achievements - The Silver Dragon

Earlier this morning, while waiting for some rather large documents to print, I was checking out the Wrath Beta forums. I read an interesting little tidbit from Tigole that I kind of hope gets implemented.

A beta poster simply asked if there would be an achievement in regards to killing Rare Mobs in-game. Tigole responded with what seems to be an answer in the affirmative.

I know I always enjoy encounters with Rare Mobs in the world of Azeroth and Outland. My wife does, too. My perfect encounter is when the mob and I are both of the same level. I'll work extra hard to get the area clear of any adds that my be threatening, and then I'll formulate how in the world I'm going to beat this mob.

More often than not, I take them out. However, there have been some circumstances (like being a lower level character and not having my full gauntlet of abilities) where instead of vanquishing my foe, I end up as its lunch.

I'm interested to see if they make separate achievements for this by continent, or if they'll simply put in one achievement that reads "Killed all Rare Spawns in the world." The latter would be awful hard to do, and the former seems more reasonable.

So tell me, what do you think?

Recruit-A-Friend = Zhevra Mount

Well, it looks like Blizzard has implemented another system to not only award current players with a new mount and another character speedily on its way to 60, but also will gain Blizzard more subscribers.

I'm about to leave my office, so I can't elaborate any more. Check out the details here: Recruit-A-Friend Support

You can also view the announcement on WoW's main page.