Elkagorasa the Casual

Fantasy Apps! What Smartphone apps would your character have on their ‘fantasy phones’ Azeroth? ( source ) So, the goblins have just finished developing their wireless communication network, GobNet, and is now marketing phones. Elk is quite the bleeding edge kind of guy and has already bought one. It weighs 4 kilos, takes up 2 bag slots and has a smoke stack.  Here's his top apps: WhereToBoss? This lovely little app is simply GobNet's GPS app. You put in the coordinates for your destination, which can be pulled from the 392 page un-indexed, unsearchable, online manual. You can download the manual, but you'll need to purchase the additional storage to do so. It will also point out all the goblin vendors along the way to your destination, make suggestions for hotels and inns ran by goblin caretakers. BattleNet This wonderous app is a side-load from the Alliance platform, but still works on GobNet phones. It provides up to date stats on arena and...

I am not an altoholic. I don't have a stable of toons providing me all my professions. Personally raising another to max level is a dreadful task and one to be avoided at all costs. Unfortunately with the veteran bonus in the new instant-90, I have seriously started leveling a druid alt. With my leveling anxiety, I am taking advantage of every single shortcut possible. From using heirloom gear so that I can max out my possible XP bonuses and jumping into my guild to get their favor, to making sure I always park in an Inn or major city to get my rested bonus. Twink it up : I have equipped every piece of heirloom gear that I can locate: Head Urban Assualt Ninja Druid (@Level 38) Back Chest Main hand  (healer model from priest) Trinket 1 Trinket 2 Once I get more Justice points, I'd still like to get the: Shoulders  or the upgraded model DPS Main hand  or the upgraded model Also, (just found) that I need to run to my Guild vendor in Orgrimmar and...

Ambermist proposed an interesting shared topic idea. Since I haven't wrote on a shared topic in probably a year, this looks a good re-start. What about WoW just doesn't work for you? Maybe it's something you aren't good at, maybe it's something you just don't understand, maybe it's something people like that you really never got into and don't understand the appeal. ( Source )  I just don't get it. I have been playing WoW since the Vanilla and I just don't get the desire to level up a army of alts. I have/had a number of guildies that have leveled up enough alts to cover every possible profession. No, not just DKs because of their jump start at level 57, but druids for the herbalism and mining while in flight form or goblins for the alchemy bonus and blood elf for the enchanting bonus. I can't do it! The grind up all those levels over and over again sounds dreadful. I already spend 4 hours a week trying to get Elk into LFR raids (working...

OK, so this orc went into the dental office the other day for his cleaning. It is nice to finally get that fish feast taste out of my mouth from Northren. Yuck! After the goblin hygienist finished grinding off 2 years of plaque and buildup, threatened punishment if I didn't floss more, I realized that this little goblin, probably stacks a lot of strength and agility on her gloves to deal with DPSing down my tooth bugs.  In my job, I DPS down computer bugs. They are nefarious beasts to kill sometimes, they have a ton of evasive abilities, and even cause fear when attacking executive management. If I was given the opportunity, I'd love to apply these enchants to make my DPS higher. head = +Int so that I can think a little clearer without the need of massive amounts of espresso .   gloves = +agility so that I can type with less errors.  shoulders = +haste to get the work done faster. More free time for personal hobbies. chest = +resilience so that I can deal wi...

November is the time of the year to reflect. Look back at those people that have made a substantial impact, providing support, and My Mentor Warlock Bloggers - When I started blogging about WoW some 2+ years ago , there were only a few people out there. These bloggers actively posted new content on their sites; helping others play the game and improve their blogging. As I started blogging, I wanted to find a niche that these bloggers didn't currently fill. I never saw raiding in my future. I hadn't realized how much fun PVP was going to be. I wanted to communicate about my warlockery, but as a dad of 2 who needed a place to place links. Nibuca , Fulgaris , I couldn't have lasted this long, without your blogs, comments and linkage. Even without posting anything for months, Nibs you are my still #2. Elkagorasa.info all-time highest traffic source. Other bloggers that I liked to bounce ideas off - These bloggers have been around at least as long as myself...

StringTheory posted a topic on BA that I thought I should discuss: While there are some quests that specifically call for grouping, most don't... but do you group anyway? How many of you pick up a friend or guildie to quest with and how many grind the lonely roads alone? Warlocks are solitary by nature. We're brooding, we're loners, we despise awkward social situations, we'd rather set you aflame than to talk to you. When out in the world, we tend to stick to those that follow us, not want to talk to us. "what you talking to me?" /dismiss While out questing, typically late at night, I avoid the crowds. I have my minions to do my work for me. I can call on body guards for short term work. If they can't handle it, I don't want it. Problim? No problem. Troll dungeons? Yeah, those trolls stink, let them rot in there. Have I tried being social? Sure, I tried. Two years ago when Wrath dropped, a couple guildies took some time off work and pla...

This isn't an official Shared Topic, but a question posted to the Blizzard Forums. I thought it would be fun to answer in the form of a song! haiku blog post. What if one day, your character magically became an NPC? What do you think he/she'd do? Would you be a quest giver? Would you make armor for the army? Would you be like Topper McNab, begging on the streets of Stormwind?   I think if I became an NPC, I'd be a flight master :p ( source ) When my friends first described the game of Warcraft to me, they talked about the ability to create things and then sell them to other players. As I mentioned before, this functionality intrigued me. I was coming from a FPS background, so having a player 'craft' something seemed surprising, and unusual. In that frame of thought, all players could act like NPCs; buying and selling items to anyone else in the game. This is the type of NPC I'd like to become, an eccentric vendor. My NPC would be a little different. Fi...

Sharden asked How do you think dying in an MMO should affect the characters? In WoW we have a relatively insignificant repair cost from durability for a PVE death and no consequence for dying to another player. Do you think this is enough, too much, or needing improvement?  1UP I had thought a bit about dying in our MMO. As a fairly avid video game player since the 90's, I've had my fair share of virtual deaths. In many of those games, dying meant returning to a save-point; be it one manually triggered when I thought I was doing good, or the milestone-type rebirth you get in a Wii game, dying seldom meant an actual death. Usually the death was fairly painless. Sure, you may have to replay a portion of content over again, or lose one of those precious "lives" you have gathered in the game, but you went on. In Warcraft, the world does not stop; the game does not go back in time upon your death. Despite all my best efforts, The World of Warcraft does not revolve...

There's an interesting topic posted up on Twisted Nether for this week: What do you do when a normally good guild mate performs poorly or behaves badly? Your rock solid tank comes to raid ungemmed, your master mage dips down into pre-cata dps numbers several nights in a row or your best healer can't seem to keep from going OOM 2 minutes into any fight. What do you do? WoW is about the players. The people behind the keyboards, tapping the keys, and screaming into vent. When a player shows up for a raid unprepared, I see a few potential issues: /cry no more gold for enchants. Player is (financially) broke. The player knows they need gems, enchants and upgrades, but simply cannot afford to purchase them. New players are often the biggest culprit. They've misspent their quest gold on pets, or buying an upgrade something that may drop better in the raid or an even better tailored item (/wave). Training the guild members to ask for help is often necessary. They don...

With most guilds putting raiding on the back-burner until Cataclysm drops, ambitious individuals are trying to pug ICC. This leads to interesting creation process, as these ambitious raid leaders are forced to pick between several competent players. Often the deciding factor on who is asked to come along, is based simply on what they bring to the table (as a class). So, I bring for your raiding consideration, Warlocks . Healing Yes, Warlocks can heal. I've mentioned it before, but I've ranked #2 on recount in numerous VOA runs due to my epic healing abilities. A generous lock will even donate a glyph spot to provide 30% improved healing. Sure, if you get into a bind, a lock heals are going to help, but not carry you through. and mana replenishment Destruction locks have a fourth tier talent called Soul Leech . Blizzard has already implied that mana will be an issue as we move into Cataclysm raiding. Sure, 1% of 10 people isn't a lot, but it will definitely help o...

When Elk was a young Orc, a hearthstone was this cool thing. Fighting his way, deep into a damp, dark tunnel, grab the final quest item, and then hearth to safety. As he leveled, this safe spot changed throughout, always to the safety and comfort of a Inn. This was continued all the way until Elk learned to fly. Orgrim Doomhammer Flying meant that Elk was no longer tied to a specific location. He didn't need to hearth home, he could fly back home or to at least to a local taxi stand. This meant the hearthstone could now be homed on a more permanent residence; one that included useful vendors, trainers and possibly portals. Shatrath was an excellent choice for quite sometime.When the scourge brought the plague, Elk moved to Dalaran (eventually). Despite all Elk's travels, none of these has ever felt quite like Home . Sure he could get around both Shat and Dalaran, but they never met all those needs, requirements. As Elk's burgeoning raw gem empire was taking off, he ...

The idea of this shared topic is to discuss what I loved best, my absolute favorite, in Wrath of the Lich King. What comes to mind, over and over, is song from Mary Poppins (specifically the 30s from here). Dungeons were cool, Vehicles neat. Phasing was awesome, Questing, a treat. But the one thing, I really loved was raiding with friends. OK, not quite a great rhyme, but you get the point. Wrath is the first dungeon, where the planets have aligned and I have been able to raid, reliably for 3 hours a week. For two months, each Monday from 9PM local to almost midnight, we attack ICC. It was slow at first, but we are now down to the final 3 bosses.

RestoDude asked how I , a Warlock , would help my healer. It's not until I played my Priest alt, that I realized just how intensive some fights can be on healers. Even when I am not directly being attacked or standing in the fire, I am still taking a bit of splash damage, heck, Life Tap is glyphed , so always on my spell rotation. They may have the niftier tools for healing, but still have to juggle their own cooldowns, and spell cycles. Ok, as we all know warlocks are not that versatile of a class. We have the DPS build (lots of dots), and that other, um DPS (tanking) build and one more DPS (pyromaniac) build. Healing isn't on that list. We're actually quite flagrant with the usage of health, stealing another's then using it to create our own home-brewed mana. Tasty! Does this personal addiction to organic mana help our healers? Heck no. I've had 5-man healers get mad at me for tapping (and some "enablers" that say go for it, but they're probably a...

I was sitting there in the Ledgermain, enjoying some ale, when in stumbles the human Strumwulf . He's go on and on about his Blazing Hippogryph . Of course, it was all in human, so heck if I know what he was saying: blah blah blah ( points excitedly at mount) blah blah blah (walks over and hugs his hippogryph) ... Sure, it's a beautiful mount, it flies, it has flaming feet, but personally it cannot compete with my dreadsteed . This is the original, epic, flaming mount. As you all know only warlocks, the masters over the demons, can ever acquire this mount. In the old days, it wasn't simply acquired for a few gold from the local trainer. When I got him, you had to actually pull them from their home planet of Xoroth , and beat them into submission, simply to earn their trust. The whole incident in the Lounge reminded me of a dream that I had soon after I had tamed and was linked with my steed. By Sandara on DeviantArt   I am running on a foreign planet. The la...

  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 sw...

Coming soon to Azeroth near you, the world is going to dramatically change. Terrain changes, class changes, even opening up new locations and progression. How can one prepare for this? How am I preparing for this? Quests / Zone changes - The most pressing issue I have at the moment is trying to capture quests and zones that I missed while leveling my main. I would absolutely love to get the Loremaster title before Cataclysm drops, but I am not pressing it hard. I have turned off my Find Herbs, and running with Find Low Level quests, when I fly taxis through Classic. I found I have about 6 incomplete quests in Kargath when I ran up to Gnomeregan . Clearing stock - With a number of the recent changes, the economy on my server is slowly dropping. Raw gems that used to see for 300% profit are now down to 150% - 200% profit. People are finishing off the end-world content, Lich King is now on farm and they're just not getting the massive gear drops. Those that aren't raiding,...

Welcome to our Tour of Azeroth : Lost series. As part of this mini-series, I, Elkagorasa, will take you on a short visit of a couple of sites that resemble or come directly from the TV show Lost . First stop, The Statue . The Statue can be found at the end of the land mass in Azshara .  Azeroth's version is a bit different as both feet are plainly visible, and it is destroyed at the thigh, not the shin. Since the flight that crashed into the original statue was not an aircraft, but a zeppelin, it did a lot less damage. Speaking of zeppelins, lets all head back to Orgrimmar and fly on over to Northrend, hop on the zeppelin over to Borean Tundra. Now head north into Sholazar Basin, off to one side of Bittertide Lake ( map ). There you shall find a hatch very similar to the one built by the Dharma Initiative, but one off. Probably what they get for using Goblin help to build the bunker?? Locke (blade vendor) (Desmond) David Hume Yo...