Elkagorasa the Casual

It wasn't that long ago, that Blizzard had this Brilliant money making scheme idea, to sell a pretty pony. This was a great idea. The pony is a free in-game, epic flying, and land mount for all my toons! $25 up front, saved my bank alt, death knight and future Goblin ( lilelk ?) from having to make an estimated 10,000gold (is it really that much?) Blizzard, why always human models? Show some Horde <3 So, now a co-worker is thinking of playing warcraft. It came pre-installed on his new PC and he jokingly said he was going to create a toon. He's a FPS console guy, so who knows how long he'll last. That'd be cool! I told him, hey use my name and I'll get this cool flying mount?! (pointing at desktop background ) He cringes, seeing himself as the brunette, to my manly alliance toon.  "Hey, let me show you what this button does!" OK, outside of bribing a friend to sign-up, how else could one casual warlock get ahold of one of these fine rockets? Well,

Unofficial source, Amazon, has just updated me on my pre-order of a Cataclysm related book. It will arrive October 21st. Can the game be far behind?? Hello from Amazon.com. We're writing about the order you placed on May 18 2010 (Order# _____). Unfortunately, the release date for the item(s) listed below has changed, and we need to provide you with a new delivery estimate based on the new release date:  Christie Golden " World of Warcraft: The Shattering: Prelude to Cataclysm "    Estimated arrival date: October 21 2010

"Save the critters" starts at 3min. Driving home yesterday I was hit by how much media has influenced my life. I was commenting to my wife about the large number of squished critters on the freeway. OK, yes, it's not a WoW reference, but one of those other sources... Sorry, brain is wired that way.. You gotta a friend in me, you gotta a friend in me! Darn you Randy Newman ... Anyway, so I started wondering if I use WoW references in my daily life.I could just imagine coming back from the store saying "I couldn't find the cake mix so I asked the NPC" or "I vendored all the kids toys ." I think today, I'll make it mission to use at least one WoW reference in my RL speak..

I just got out of a fairly intense Arathi Basin battlegrounds and was thinking about Dave's comment earlier. PVP when I first started playing was intimidating. I was actually so afraid of dying, that I wouldn't play. Go figure. At least Wintergrasp has vehicles, helps you feel protected when someone drives you around in a tank. After some time playing various battlegrounds, you think that if you could only last 2 seconds longer, or if you only cast that fear a little faster, how much better PVP life would be.. It's not about how quickly you die, but how quickly your attackers die. PVP Pajamas The trouble with it is, you can't PVP without PVP gear. It's pointless. Think about playing professional football, against a fully dressed team, and you're going in there wearing your pajamas. So, you need to upgrade those PJs as quickly and cheaply as possible. My suggestion, as it was for Children's week , play Wintergrasp. With Triumph badges (quit spending them

Chatting with a guildie the other day, he pointed me to a great resource site. Wow-Professions.com , it is a simple guide to level your current professions from 0 to max skill. The simplicity of the site is that it provides materials lists to get you max'd out and when you need to train up. One side point of this list, is that it reminded me of a Cataclysm change to professions . I remembered that I wanted to post about these changes, back in May. As an elixir spec'd alchemist, herbalist, with max level first aide and fishing, I found a few changes interesting. Alchemy [Blizzard doesn't like] specializations, so they have been removed for all three [blacksmithing, tailoring and leatherworking] of these professions Guess they like how the specialization is working for Alchemy? Hmm, maybe they don't really want you to proc more boots when you make them? sliding xp scale on crafted items - the more difficult the items to craft (tailoring sited), the more xp you&

  ecclesiasticaldisk asked over at BA, when is valid for a healer to let you die As he she mentioned, this is a very loaded question. As a clothy DPS warlock, I am a fragile member of your 5-man crew. Not mage/priesty fragile, but still wearing comfy, non-binding cloth clothes. Sure, I have 2300 armor and  20k (unbuffed) health, so I should last a little longer than your freshly-grown 80. If that boss decided I am tastier than the tank, they can usually one-shot me by simply looking my direction. Of course Healie , I am also usually your last defense to that same boss heading your way. I am probably standing right next to you. Scenarios that I can think of that a healer should let me die: You are already dead . You were probably standing in the fire/black smoke or had threat issues with the boss. The tank is dead and we are all about to wipe. I'll keep madly DPSing, but if you like spending money on repair bills? I vote we kick that lousy tank and re-queue. (I'll be swi

Looking through sites like LootRank and GearWishlist , I have come to the realization that I don't need frost badges any more. There just isn't anything that I can purchase as an upgrade to what I already have. Sure, raiding ICC has upgrades, but that's a group thing. I have plans tonight to join the guild 10-man ICC raid. Hopefully I win the trinket off Gunship . It's dropped twice (in the last 5 ICC runs), once when my Internet was down (until after the raid started) and the second time I lost the roll.. Here's to hoping that the new Arena gear drops soon, and I can spend some of my frost badges on the Wrathful Warlock set. Well, back to questing in Zul'Drak . Still trying to finish each of these Wrath zone quests. (17 in Storm Peaks, 46 in ZD).

I am seriously considering rolling a goblin when Cataclysm comes out. Here's a race that's been an actively participating in Elk's growth from 0-80, but never beyond that flight master/ vendor/ minor annoyance throughout. Maybe by playing the class, I'll learn some insight into their background and their troubled past. This is my main reason that I started playing a rogue (aka warlock's nemesis) and got that character up to level 29. (thinking of trying my luck at pvp). As a character that I'd like to keep on my 10 list, I want the name to have meaning, heart and even play into some of the lore or standards that Blizzard has already defined. I would LOVE for it to be original and not something you find on every goram realm. For example, I was searching up Goblin names in existence, and one of the popular ones is Filius (aka Filius Flitwick from Harry Potter ) is on almost 70 different domains. So eliminate names already existing in media of any form. Theref

If you are not a frequent PVP player, and looking for a quick easy guide, check out the maps Cynwise has put together. These maps simplify the common routes between the destinations. Not until I review these maps, did I realize the simplicity of the battleground maps. Instead of seeing the mountains and hills, think about the quickest way to get somewhere.. I especially like the Strand map as it helps layout the various gates to be attacked. Still had to check my in-game map to find the purple gate, now I just run this map concurrently. Thanks Cynwise .

Over at Wow.com , they mentioned that Blizzard has scrapped the Path of Titans progression and has focused it's energies onto expanding Inscription and the glyph system. New "Medium" level glyphs will join the Major and Minor glyphs that will provide alterations to game play. In addition, they mention that glyphs will be trainable, so you only need to purchase the glyph once. For non-inscriptionist, buy your glyphs EARLY to avoid having to compete on the AH, or at least find and provide (mats) to your guildie.. From comments: Female Demo Demon form Thinking about this, these 'fun' glyphs might be a great way to get some of the 'fun' changes us locks have been wanting for Soul burn , but probably won't see. Sure, green fire, yadda yadda (not going to happen IMHO), but that's not a 'fun' mechanic, it's cosmetic. Fun!? How about instead of Glyph of Unending Breath as a minor, it pops to a medium glyph and adds water walking? How abou

Just got a message in my mailbox from some random acccount, saying I won a Beta Account. Excitedly I follow the link posted in the email ('cuz Blizzard doesn't really use that Battle.net thingy) So, open the site, oh look that familiar WoWArmory logon page.. For kicks I click on the languages at the bottom, see if the site changes languages...Blizzard is a worldwide company, they should do languages right...  Unfortunately after I click, the only thing that changes is the URL. Hmm, something Phishy about this site. So, I go visit the official WowArmory page and click on Russian(?)? OK, so Blizzard translated the page, the other one did not. Guess, it's time to put in a bunch of garbage in the first URL! :) Long of it, spammers aren't in it to fool everyone, only the gullible few. If you like the clothes your toons are wearing, make sure the site you are visiting is legit. Heck, at least see if they took the time to implement the language filter and not just scra

According to Wowhead's Cataclysm Guide : Weapon Skill Gone completely! You no longer need to learn or train weapons in order to use them. That means the following 2 achievements will soon be a feat of strength: Master of Arms Did Somebody order a knuckle sandwich?  Personally, I am proud that my warlock has both of these achievements . A clothy with an unarmed fighting skill at 400 is rare (I believe). wonder if there's a way to look that up?

And now for something I think you'll really like... a short video detailing both alliance and Horde retake the city events!

I was reading through the notes on Cynwise Battlefield Manual about his interview on TNB. During this interview, he brought up a useful site called " Time Until Wintergrasp ". This site has a couple of interesting features: The time of the next Wintergrasp fight across a number of US servers. The outcome of the fights earlier today/this month. A running average of all fights for this month. I hadn't done any calculations, but the site explains a lot on Malfurion. The Horde it seemed is almost always in control of Wintergrasp. According to TUW, we are in control 67% of the time. Trending for June, it appears that Alliance takes control during the day, then Horde resumes control after "work" hours. (IMHO, this feeds the running stereotype on our server that most Alliance are teenage boys.) So, if you want to do VOA, and your Alliance toon is on Malfurion, you better be playing between 4AM and 5PM.

Not sure if it's a secret, but it appears that the 3.3.5 patch will be dropping on us June 15th. How do I know you ask? Well, I thought I'd sign up for the Beta and while on the Battle.net page, I saw the new Battle.net terms of service page.. :) Those new terms take into affect June 15th. Have you ever read the terms completely? Did you know that: 1) No add-ons [Blizzard forbids] use cheats, automation software (bots), hacks, mods or any other unauthorized third-party software designed to modify the Service, any Game or any Game experience; 2) No cyborgs You may establish an Account only if you are a "natural person"  3) No blogs You agree that you will not create any work based on the Games or the Service 4) No Wowhead/Curse Addon client use any third-party software to collect information from or through a Game client or the Service, including without limitation information about your character  5) In game advertising sponsored by Blizzard [Blizz

For the last two weeks, I've been fighting with my ISP, to troubleshoot connectivity issues. Seems that when ever I was putting on a high-bandwidth situation, say dialing in for work, or in the middle of a 25-man fight my DSL would drop. Considering the age of my house, I didn't think it was line-noise (CAT-5e to my desk), didn't think it was my ISP, I blamed it on rats. I just new it was rats climbing into my telco box and gnawed their way into my DSL connection. When the DSL signal through the wires increased, it caused an extra special tingly sensation the rats loved enjoyed. Come to find out my ISP, after 2 house calls and 3 new pieces of hardware said, oh yeah, it's that alarm system with the unfiltered connection causing echos. Yes, I was but wasn't happy it was all green. So here I am, back playing again, nice fat connection (& dsl filter on my alarm), strand of ancients is yet again in trouble and blam-oh, my WoW crashes,  I just KNOW it's the

Jumped into a pug the other day to go do the weekly raid (Flame Leviathon FTW!) and one of the members has the 2-man rocket. It's odd to have someone else flying you around. One thing to keep in mind, they have a ejector seat button on their vehicle bar. Just to show it off, he kicked me out about 3ft of the ground outside of Ulduar . BTW, High, did you do a faction change?  Wowhead lists you as a Human Rogue. WowArmory has you as  BE Priest.

I try to do the fishing daily on a regular basis, at least when it's one of the items in the immediate vicinity of Dalaran. I've mentioned it before, I hate the Ghostfish daily.. Anyways, Marcia , is she a tramp? Always implying something more that what is immediately for sale.When you chat with her, it seems my lonely orc is always asking to " check out her goods ". Just saying...