Happy New Year!
I am probably not alone around here in that I read a lot of blogs. I have over 80 blogs in my GReader and almost all of them are related to WoW, and since reading blogs and listening to Twisted Nether Blogcast helped convinced me to try this whole blogging thing, I thought it was probably time to update my blogroll.
When I first started to read blogs it was with the old masters like BRK, Phaelia, Ratshag and Big Bear Butt (who of course is still around and always awesome). Now it takes me a good hour or more each day to get through all the new posts!
For Resto Druid advice, Bellwether at 4 Haelz is always a great source of information as is Unbearably HoT. For moonkins I recommend reading Graylo's blog at Grey Matter - useful information, well presented. There's also Angela at Restoration Druid, another with great raiding info and a beautiful site - no we're not the same person! ;)
Of course, for general WoW news how can you go past wow.com?
General healing and priesty blogs like World of Matticus and Miss Medicina helped me to learn to heal and are also generally awesome reads.
I'm a fangirl for RP stories so I love to read Too Many Annas, Through the Eyes of Death and Sideshow & Syrana. Awesome stuff - I have a baby hunter kicking around Feathermoon RP server but haven't really encountered any real RP yet - one of these days I will write some background for her and get in there...
I also love webcomics, so my reader also shows me Dark Legacy, WoW Eh? and Ctrl+Alt+Del.
Wow, reading back on that list it seems there's a lot of awesome out there in the blogosphere. Thanks to all these blogs for entertaining and teaching me in 2009 :)
If you're a blogger feel free to link your blog in a comment - I love to hear about new blogs to add to my list and it's free advertising!
Saturday, 2 January 2010
Tuesday, 29 December 2009
Progress Post: Level 30
It's time for another update on progress! This time we've reached Level 30 after about 19 hours /played. Most of that time was spent running in circles around Ashenvale and Southern Barrens looking for rare mobs - gief SilverDragon! It's not worth just skipping those ones because they give really good xp and sometimes also nice rewards.
It's really quiet out there in the world... I miss not being part of a guild at the moment. I notice this especially when we go into one of the cities and the trade channel suddendly springs to life - Oh, there ARE people out there.
I'm finding I have mana troubles again at times, especially when I need to heal when there are a few mobs or an elite on us. It's not really a problem, I just need to drink a bit more often. My problem is that [Regrowth] (161 mana, 2 sec cast, 318-360 + hot) doesn't seem very mana efficient and [Healing Touch] (183 mana, 3 sec cast, 502-606) takes juuust too long to cast. I'm considering using [Glyph of Healing Touch] which reduces cast time to 1.5 sec but only heals for 250-300 then, and would cost just short of 140 mana. It's a shame we don't get Nourish until level 80 though.
Does anyone have suggestions for healy spells at low level? Apart from respeccing resto for levelling that is :)
Anyway the levelling goes on!
It's really quiet out there in the world... I miss not being part of a guild at the moment. I notice this especially when we go into one of the cities and the trade channel suddendly springs to life - Oh, there ARE people out there.
I'm finding I have mana troubles again at times, especially when I need to heal when there are a few mobs or an elite on us. It's not really a problem, I just need to drink a bit more often. My problem is that [Regrowth] (161 mana, 2 sec cast, 318-360 + hot) doesn't seem very mana efficient and [Healing Touch] (183 mana, 3 sec cast, 502-606) takes juuust too long to cast. I'm considering using [Glyph of Healing Touch] which reduces cast time to 1.5 sec but only heals for 250-300 then, and would cost just short of 140 mana. It's a shame we don't get Nourish until level 80 though.
Does anyone have suggestions for healy spells at low level? Apart from respeccing resto for levelling that is :)
Anyway the levelling goes on!
Monday, 28 December 2009
Useful Addons for Levelling
The User Interface is arguably the most important tool you have as a player.
While the default UI worked for me for the first few months I played, when I first found out that I could make my WoW user interface look however I wanted, I was so excited. That was shortly followed by a lot of frustration, mucking around with different mods and creating a constantly changing style. I know what I like now, but it takes a while to get it right.
Addons used for levelling are pretty different from those used for end-game content, so I have just installed those that I am using during levelling for now, and listed a few of those I find most useful here. I hope you find something useful in this list too! I've added links to curse.com but you can also download them from a variety of other sources such as wowinterface.com.
1. FuBar 3.6
Fubar puts a thin bar across the top and/or bottom of your screen. A huge variety of plug-ins allow fubar to display useful information. The ones I'm currently using include MoneyFu, PerformanceFu, ProfessionsFu, DurabilityFu, GarbageFu, ClockFu and BagFu. They're fairly self-explanatory, and you can find plenty more by searching for 'fubar_' A lot of people recommend using databroker addons as a successor to FuBar but I've never managed to get broker addons working properly so I'm sticking with FuBar for now.
2. Tourguide + Tomtom
Tourguide is a questing addon designed to provide a streamlined series of quests to do in the most efficient order. Combine this with Tomtom, which produces an arrow to tell you which direction to run in, and levelling is a snap. Equally as useful is the version of Tourguide for Refer-a-Friend we have been using that was linked from dual-boxing.com. The files to use are hosted here. I'd also recommend using the addon SilverDragon if you're doing the RaF version - we spent ages trying to find rare mobs and SilverDragon can help you to locate them.
3. Bagnon
Puts all your bags into one window. There are quite a few different mods that will do the same thing, but what I especially like about Bagnon is that it has a search function - you can search by name for items in your bags. Of course, Leesah still only has two small bags so it's not super-useful yet but it will be, ohh it will be.
4. Cartographer
Awesome for showing areas on the map where you haven't been and dungeon maps. I also pair this with Gatherer, which records where you find herbs, mining nodes etc for future gathering trips. Note: There is another version called Cartographer 3.0, which is an "experimental" version looking a lot like Google Maps. It completely replaces the Blizzard map, it doesn't work with the Blizzard quest indicators and it doesn't green-out areas you haven't explored. Looks nice though.
5. Prat 3
Prat is a great addon for your chat window. It colours channels, colours people's names according to their class, allows scrolling with the mouse wheel, makes channels sticky so you don't have to keep typing /g all the time... and that's just for starters! There are a bunch of different addons altering the chat window but this one is the first one I found that does all the things I'd like it to. (Bit of a retro screenie here)
6. QBar
The last addon I'd like to mention is QBar. All it does is add an extra action bar that contains quest items if you have any, so that you don't have to go searching through your bag for them. Really, really useful.
If you download the addon manually, you need to locate where on your hard drive your World of Warcraft folder is. In that folder should be an Interface\AddOns folder. Open the zip file you downloaded for the addon, and unzip into that AddOns directory. You don't need to create any new folders. Voila, start up your game and the addon should load! You can also download clients such as the curse client, that will help you to locate and install addons, and also update them when new versions are available.
Are there any addons that you can't level without? Leave a comment and let me know :)
While the default UI worked for me for the first few months I played, when I first found out that I could make my WoW user interface look however I wanted, I was so excited. That was shortly followed by a lot of frustration, mucking around with different mods and creating a constantly changing style. I know what I like now, but it takes a while to get it right.
Addons used for levelling are pretty different from those used for end-game content, so I have just installed those that I am using during levelling for now, and listed a few of those I find most useful here. I hope you find something useful in this list too! I've added links to curse.com but you can also download them from a variety of other sources such as wowinterface.com.
1. FuBar 3.6
Fubar puts a thin bar across the top and/or bottom of your screen. A huge variety of plug-ins allow fubar to display useful information. The ones I'm currently using include MoneyFu, PerformanceFu, ProfessionsFu, DurabilityFu, GarbageFu, ClockFu and BagFu. They're fairly self-explanatory, and you can find plenty more by searching for 'fubar_' A lot of people recommend using databroker addons as a successor to FuBar but I've never managed to get broker addons working properly so I'm sticking with FuBar for now.
2. Tourguide + Tomtom
Tourguide is a questing addon designed to provide a streamlined series of quests to do in the most efficient order. Combine this with Tomtom, which produces an arrow to tell you which direction to run in, and levelling is a snap. Equally as useful is the version of Tourguide for Refer-a-Friend we have been using that was linked from dual-boxing.com. The files to use are hosted here. I'd also recommend using the addon SilverDragon if you're doing the RaF version - we spent ages trying to find rare mobs and SilverDragon can help you to locate them.
3. Bagnon
Puts all your bags into one window. There are quite a few different mods that will do the same thing, but what I especially like about Bagnon is that it has a search function - you can search by name for items in your bags. Of course, Leesah still only has two small bags so it's not super-useful yet but it will be, ohh it will be.
4. Cartographer
Awesome for showing areas on the map where you haven't been and dungeon maps. I also pair this with Gatherer, which records where you find herbs, mining nodes etc for future gathering trips. Note: There is another version called Cartographer 3.0, which is an "experimental" version looking a lot like Google Maps. It completely replaces the Blizzard map, it doesn't work with the Blizzard quest indicators and it doesn't green-out areas you haven't explored. Looks nice though.
5. Prat 3
Prat is a great addon for your chat window. It colours channels, colours people's names according to their class, allows scrolling with the mouse wheel, makes channels sticky so you don't have to keep typing /g all the time... and that's just for starters! There are a bunch of different addons altering the chat window but this one is the first one I found that does all the things I'd like it to. (Bit of a retro screenie here)
6. QBar
The last addon I'd like to mention is QBar. All it does is add an extra action bar that contains quest items if you have any, so that you don't have to go searching through your bag for them. Really, really useful.
If you download the addon manually, you need to locate where on your hard drive your World of Warcraft folder is. In that folder should be an Interface\AddOns folder. Open the zip file you downloaded for the addon, and unzip into that AddOns directory. You don't need to create any new folders. Voila, start up your game and the addon should load! You can also download clients such as the curse client, that will help you to locate and install addons, and also update them when new versions are available.
Are there any addons that you can't level without? Leave a comment and let me know :)
Sunday, 27 December 2009
Progress Post: Level 20
'Tis the season to visit each branch of the family tree and generally stuff yourself silly. We've done plenty of that this week, but also, some levelling.
We are using the version of the addon Tourguide specially designed for refer-a-friend, so we followed instructions and hopped from Mulgore, via Orgrimmar (making sure to visit Grandfater Winter on route) and Undercity to Silvermoon City, then south to Ghostlands. It's a bit of a journey but the quests in Ghostlands are laid out really well and the rewards are pretty good for the level bracket.
As there were two of us we also managed to do the group quests, and so ended up with a nice bit of kit, the [Staff of the Sun]. Most awesome looking low-level staff...
So after about 8.5 hours /played we were at level 20:
Money-making ventures are going moderately well. We're herbing everything that grows and selling on the auction house, plus any greenies that drop, even ones that we might think of wearing. We'll be outgrowing them pretty soon so we might as well try to get a few gold for them. I also discovered that people are willing to pay 10g to have their guild charter signed so I've had a bit of income that way!
Until next time, enjoy the holidays ;)
We are using the version of the addon Tourguide specially designed for refer-a-friend, so we followed instructions and hopped from Mulgore, via Orgrimmar (making sure to visit Grandfater Winter on route) and Undercity to Silvermoon City, then south to Ghostlands. It's a bit of a journey but the quests in Ghostlands are laid out really well and the rewards are pretty good for the level bracket.
As there were two of us we also managed to do the group quests, and so ended up with a nice bit of kit, the [Staff of the Sun]. Most awesome looking low-level staff...
So after about 8.5 hours /played we were at level 20:
Back to Thunder Bluff we went to have a bit of a moan about how easy the game has become these days but not much because really, letting us have mounts at level 20 is just made of awesome.
I'm heading more or less up the balance tree so I decided my first five talent points would go to [Starlight Wrath]. I was struggling with mana and had a bit of a drinking problem so the next three went into [Moonglow], then the last two into [Nature's Majesty].
Money-making ventures are going moderately well. We're herbing everything that grows and selling on the auction house, plus any greenies that drop, even ones that we might think of wearing. We'll be outgrowing them pretty soon so we might as well try to get a few gold for them. I also discovered that people are willing to pay 10g to have their guild charter signed so I've had a bit of income that way!
Until next time, enjoy the holidays ;)
Thursday, 24 December 2009
Happy Winter Veil to All
Just a quick note to say that I hope you are all enjoying the Winter Veil activities both in game and in that strange place they call "RL". May Greatfather Winter drop you some purples!
Wednesday, 23 December 2009
Pop Culture Gone Wrong
As I was wandering the glades of Tirisfal today I discovered a strange being...
This image will haunt my dreams tonight /shudder
This image will haunt my dreams tonight /shudder
If he's really a night elf, at least let me attack him...
Tuesday, 22 December 2009
Progress Post: Level 10
First 10 levels are down in record time, thanks to refer a friend...
After setting up our accounts, including mucking about with refer a friend, we only managed to play for about 1.5 hours last night. The battle.net site is a bit flaky so it took awhile to get organised. Imagine if we were new people to the game - we would have given up early on after the 10th failure to log into the site. Bad one Blizzard. /facepalm
So it began - Leesah and Melof set out to relieve the wildlife of Mulgore of their paws, feathers and claws.
Our night involved quite a rapid series of these:
and eventually led to:
Much to my delight, since I have had a battle.net account for a little while and also an authenticator, I had not only the gorgeous [Core Hound Pup], but also an [Unhatched Mr. Chilly] waiting in Leesah's mailbox!
The only trouble with the refer a friend so far is that we can't afford to train. Better get started on that auction house!
After setting up our accounts, including mucking about with refer a friend, we only managed to play for about 1.5 hours last night. The battle.net site is a bit flaky so it took awhile to get organised. Imagine if we were new people to the game - we would have given up early on after the 10th failure to log into the site. Bad one Blizzard. /facepalm
So it began - Leesah and Melof set out to relieve the wildlife of Mulgore of their paws, feathers and claws.
Our night involved quite a rapid series of these:
and eventually led to:
Much to my delight, since I have had a battle.net account for a little while and also an authenticator, I had not only the gorgeous [Core Hound Pup], but also an [Unhatched Mr. Chilly] waiting in Leesah's mailbox!
The only trouble with the refer a friend so far is that we can't afford to train. Better get started on that auction house!
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