Yes, it's back to the World of Warcraft-themed blog entries!
Well, yesterday and today I went to Varsity and played some WoW. And, rather than playing a really low levelled character, I decided to give my Main (Dellenar, 70 Human Mage) a bit of screen time. So, upon logging in, I collected the four new Daily Quests from Shattrath city, which were introduced with the 2.3 Patch.
Essentially, Daily Quests are quests which are repeatable, but which can be done only once each day. Each character can do up to 10 daily quests each day. And these new ones are brilliant!
There are four of them: Daily Battleground, Daily Dungeon, Daily Heroic Dungeon, and Daily Cooking.
The Daily Battleground quest is simple. It targets a random Battleground Each day (out of Eye of the Storm, Warsong Gulch, Alterac Valley and Arathi Basin). If your team wins the battle, you complete the quest. You then get some bonus honor (around 400, I think). Both yesterday and today the battleground quest was for Warsong Gulch, which, if you don't know it, is a "capture the flag" type battleground, where the first team to 3 captures wins. Between the two days' quests, I've managed to get around 1500 honor just in the last two days! I might even take up PvPing more often!
The Daily Dungeon and Daily Heroic quests target a random outland instance each day. The daily dungeon targets the level 70 wing of a random dungeon, and the heroic targets any outland dungeon on heroic mode. The dungeon quest was the Mechanar both days, but I couldn't get a group for it. Essentially, you complete the dungeon, and you get some bonus gold, bonus reputation, and an Etherium Prison Key, which is involved in a repeatable consortium quest.
The heroic quest was Blood Furnace yesterday, and Steamvaults today. I completed both without a hitch. The heroic quest is great! 350 reputation (plus 10% for being human!) for both the Consortium and the dungeon's related faction; 24 gold, and 2 Badges of Justice.
Badges of Justice are a BoP drop from bosses in Heroic Mode dungeons and Raid instances. You can use them to purchase epic loot from Shattrath city. Most heroics give 3-4 badges per run, so 2 extra is great!
The daily cooking quest is really cool. Again, it was the same quest yesterday and today, but I think it varies sometimes. I had to go to netherstorm, to the eco-domes, and pick up 15 berries. Easy. Plus I got a bunch of raptor ribs from the raptors patrolling the bushes. Then I get a choice between a crate of meat or a crate of fish. I chose the meat, both times. In yesterday's box, I got a random junk item, about 7 warp flesh, and 6 talbuk steaks. I also got a new recipe! In today's box I just got the junk item, 8 basilisk meat and 7 serpent flesh.
I'll note at this point that before tuesday, my cooking skill was at 371/375, and the only yellow & orange recipes available are for fish (my fishing skill is really low). The only other recipes that give skill points are the serpent flesh recipe and the raptor meat recipe, which are both green.
The new recipe I got was for talbuk steaks, and was already grey. The bonus it gave was hit rating, so I'll probably never make any! The raptor ribs I collected, and the serpent flesh I got, however, gave me skill points! I'm now at 373 cooking! Plus, the serpent flesh and basilisk meat I got from the quests cooks to give +23 spell damage as the buff! Woohoo!
All in all, the daily quests are fantastic! I can easily see myself doing all 4 of them every day, when I get home. It's a great way of making the game at level 70 much less stagnant. Not only do I get free food every day, as well as free gold and extra Badges of Justice, I also get bonus reputation, and it's REALLY easy to get a group for that day's heroic. The best thing, however, is the consortium reputation. It's a faction which is really hard to get reputation for, and I need to get exalted, as I'm a jewelcrafter.
Woohoo. Anyway, that's all for now.
Wednesday, 28 November 2007
Thursday, 22 November 2007
Death Metal
Today's post is on the subject most dear to my heart: Music.
More specifically, it's about the worrying trend of stereotypes against my taste in music. Put quite simply, literally every person I know has this wierd impression that the only music I listen to is Death Metal.
Now, I do of course listen to death metal. It's a fantastic genre. But it's far from my favourite genre of music, and I only have one t-shirt by a death metal band; and the majority of people who saw it wouldn't recognise it as death metal.
I'm a big fan of pretty much every kind of metal there is. NWOBHM, thrash metal, speed metal, death metal, black metal, viking metal, technical death metal, progressive metal, doom metal, power metal and just bog-standard heavy metal. Also, I listen to a huge variety of rock music as well. I'm into everything from the beatles to the stones; from pink floyd to rush; from alice cooper to bon jovi!
So why does everybody get this strange idea that all I listen to is death metal?
I have a few theories.
Firstly, and most obviously - nobody who doesn't listen to metal even understands what metal music is all about. The majority of non-metal fans seem to be under the impression that "metal" music is all guttural vocals, with fast, repeated power chords underneath it. I used to hate guttural vocals, and I'd been listening to metal for a good 4-5 years before I could tolerate it, and only then learned to love it. People don't seem to understand at all the massive diversity in metal. For example - let's take a band like Iron Maiden. Very mainstream. Most people will have heard of them, and like them. Characteristic power metal vocals. Classic NWOBHM sound. That's all very well. Then take a band like Kreator. German thrash metal band. Almost no similarity in style to maiden's music. MUCH faster than maiden's music, with the vocals much gruffer. That's just two examples. But each of the genres I listed above has a totally different style of music.
Secondly, non-metal fans seem to be of the belief that most metal songs are about satanism and cutting people up. This is an issue that is a pet hate of mine. Why are people so blind?
Most artists who DO have such themes in their vocals are doing it purely as an act. The classic examples are the american death metal bands of the late 80s and the scandinavian black metal scene of the early 90s. The basic goal there for competing bands was to be "more evil" than the other bands. It's all an act. In fact, most metal artists sing about political issues, love, fantasy ideas, and pretty much everything. The majority of pop songs these days are blatantly about drugs, paedophilia and sex. The majority of "indie" songs these days are just incredibly boring (lyrically) songs about love. So why do people scorn an entire genre of music based solely on lyrics? Lyrics which are, in actuality, far more in depth and interesting to listen to than that of most mainstream music.
The third theory I have is specific to one band, whose t-shirts I wear quite a lot. Megadeth. I have a feeling that people interpret the syllable "deth" in the name of the band to mean "death metal". They couldn't be more wrong. Firstly, the band chose the spelling "deth", omitting the 'a', because they didn't want to be associated with death metal. Secondly, the word "megadeath" is a word that means a million deaths caused by a nuclear bomb. The band's name is meant solely as an anti-nuclear thing. Thirdly, the band don't play anything close to death metal. Their early albums were thrash metal, sometimes bordering on speed metal. And their newer albums are more of a straight heavy metal sound.
In conclusion. Why do people have this ridiculous idea that I only listen to death metal? Is it due to their ignorance of the genre of metal music? Is it because of their stereotypical ideas about the lyrical content of metal music? Is it because they misinterpret something as simple as the name of one of the bands I'm a fan of? Is it something else I haven't even thought of?
I know very few people I know have heard much of the music I like. I realise that most people don't like metal music, which is why I don't force my taste in music on them. But where to they get these ideas about my musical taste from?
Does anybody have any ideas?
More specifically, it's about the worrying trend of stereotypes against my taste in music. Put quite simply, literally every person I know has this wierd impression that the only music I listen to is Death Metal.
Now, I do of course listen to death metal. It's a fantastic genre. But it's far from my favourite genre of music, and I only have one t-shirt by a death metal band; and the majority of people who saw it wouldn't recognise it as death metal.
I'm a big fan of pretty much every kind of metal there is. NWOBHM, thrash metal, speed metal, death metal, black metal, viking metal, technical death metal, progressive metal, doom metal, power metal and just bog-standard heavy metal. Also, I listen to a huge variety of rock music as well. I'm into everything from the beatles to the stones; from pink floyd to rush; from alice cooper to bon jovi!
So why does everybody get this strange idea that all I listen to is death metal?
I have a few theories.
Firstly, and most obviously - nobody who doesn't listen to metal even understands what metal music is all about. The majority of non-metal fans seem to be under the impression that "metal" music is all guttural vocals, with fast, repeated power chords underneath it. I used to hate guttural vocals, and I'd been listening to metal for a good 4-5 years before I could tolerate it, and only then learned to love it. People don't seem to understand at all the massive diversity in metal. For example - let's take a band like Iron Maiden. Very mainstream. Most people will have heard of them, and like them. Characteristic power metal vocals. Classic NWOBHM sound. That's all very well. Then take a band like Kreator. German thrash metal band. Almost no similarity in style to maiden's music. MUCH faster than maiden's music, with the vocals much gruffer. That's just two examples. But each of the genres I listed above has a totally different style of music.
Secondly, non-metal fans seem to be of the belief that most metal songs are about satanism and cutting people up. This is an issue that is a pet hate of mine. Why are people so blind?
Most artists who DO have such themes in their vocals are doing it purely as an act. The classic examples are the american death metal bands of the late 80s and the scandinavian black metal scene of the early 90s. The basic goal there for competing bands was to be "more evil" than the other bands. It's all an act. In fact, most metal artists sing about political issues, love, fantasy ideas, and pretty much everything. The majority of pop songs these days are blatantly about drugs, paedophilia and sex. The majority of "indie" songs these days are just incredibly boring (lyrically) songs about love. So why do people scorn an entire genre of music based solely on lyrics? Lyrics which are, in actuality, far more in depth and interesting to listen to than that of most mainstream music.
The third theory I have is specific to one band, whose t-shirts I wear quite a lot. Megadeth. I have a feeling that people interpret the syllable "deth" in the name of the band to mean "death metal". They couldn't be more wrong. Firstly, the band chose the spelling "deth", omitting the 'a', because they didn't want to be associated with death metal. Secondly, the word "megadeath" is a word that means a million deaths caused by a nuclear bomb. The band's name is meant solely as an anti-nuclear thing. Thirdly, the band don't play anything close to death metal. Their early albums were thrash metal, sometimes bordering on speed metal. And their newer albums are more of a straight heavy metal sound.
In conclusion. Why do people have this ridiculous idea that I only listen to death metal? Is it due to their ignorance of the genre of metal music? Is it because of their stereotypical ideas about the lyrical content of metal music? Is it because they misinterpret something as simple as the name of one of the bands I'm a fan of? Is it something else I haven't even thought of?
I know very few people I know have heard much of the music I like. I realise that most people don't like metal music, which is why I don't force my taste in music on them. But where to they get these ideas about my musical taste from?
Does anybody have any ideas?
Tuesday, 20 November 2007
World of Warcraft: The Short Person Crusade!
Before I get on to a blog about my "new" character, and current exploits, I thought I'd post a screenshot I came across from a while ago. It's of me, among a group, at the last boss of Shattered Halls. It's just a really cool shot, I think. And I remember that's why I took it. It's a great shot of a group, sitting right before a boss, planning strategy. In this case, judging from the chat log, we're deciding that the two hunters should take out the "adds", and that we should take him down quite quickly, because the healer only has limited mana. Good times.
But anyway, on to current affairs!
So, as always happens during the months I'm away from my beloved WoW, I've been trawling all the forums and fansites, and planning what to do when I can play again. I decided to play a healer. And I opted for a dwarven priest. But luckily, I already had a level 13 Dwarven priest. So when I went to Varsity for a few hours to hijack their internet. Here's how my character started:
So, as you can see, I'm a level 13 dwarven priest, called Beerdy. Quite a witty name, I thought. I also have all my weapon skills, including wands maxed out, and defense doing quite well. I'm a fairly well accomplished tailor, with mining skill. Nice. And I have a nice, healthy, 27 gold. I also have cooking and first aid, at low levels, but no fishing. Shouldn't take long to get them up to the level they should be. But not until I'm at home, since at 3 hours or so per week, I can't afford to waste them fishing!
Looking at my character screen, I have some pretty good greens for my level. But... no spell damage, no spell crit, and a pretty poor arsenal of spells. Going from left to right on the bottom row of my spellbar, I have:
Wand, Smite, Mind Blast, Shadow Word: Pain, Power Word: Shield.
On the next row up, I have: Melee weapon, Lesser Heal, Renew, Desperate Prayer (dwarf racial), Bandages, Resurrection, Fade. Then Power Word: Fortitude, and Inner Fire.
Talent-wise, I have 4/5 in spirit tap. But I'm only a few kills away from levelling up, and have a ton of rested XP. So the situation is good!
This shot shows a couple of things. Firstly, I dinged 14, after killing a few low level mobs around ironforge. I then went to ironforge and trained my skills. You can see a couple of new ones on the button bar, but I'll tell you what I got.
Smite, rank 3. More damage, more mana, more casting time. Only really useful as a puller, to start fights.
Renew, rank 2. from 45 heal over 15 seconds up to 100 heal over 15 seconds. VERY useful. Not many mobs of this level can outdamage renew by much.
Cure disease. Does what it says on the tin, really. Cures one disease. Good for this level, since a bunch of the creatures in loch modan and westfall are pretty disease-ridden!
Lastly, Psychic Scream. This is a pretty cool panic button, but very situational. What it does is, it sends 2 nearby mobs running in fear for 8 seconds. This gives plenty of time to get off a smite or two, or a mind blast.
The shot also shows a bug I found with the boots I made from tailoring. Notice how it says "Use: Increases damage and healing..." instead of "Equip:". Bugged!
Also, you can see a new feature of the minimap: Quest givers can now be seen on the minimap! In this case, it's just a silly repeatable quest which is impossible to do, since it's from back in the AQ opening event. But it still illustrates the point nicely, I think.
This last screenshot for today shows me playing with Scott's latest character, Scooter, the gnomish warrior. He's just hit level 10, and is picking up his new skills. What does the future hold for this intrepid duo? Only time will tell!
But anyway, on to current affairs!
So, as always happens during the months I'm away from my beloved WoW, I've been trawling all the forums and fansites, and planning what to do when I can play again. I decided to play a healer. And I opted for a dwarven priest. But luckily, I already had a level 13 Dwarven priest. So when I went to Varsity for a few hours to hijack their internet. Here's how my character started:
So, as you can see, I'm a level 13 dwarven priest, called Beerdy. Quite a witty name, I thought. I also have all my weapon skills, including wands maxed out, and defense doing quite well. I'm a fairly well accomplished tailor, with mining skill. Nice. And I have a nice, healthy, 27 gold. I also have cooking and first aid, at low levels, but no fishing. Shouldn't take long to get them up to the level they should be. But not until I'm at home, since at 3 hours or so per week, I can't afford to waste them fishing!
Looking at my character screen, I have some pretty good greens for my level. But... no spell damage, no spell crit, and a pretty poor arsenal of spells. Going from left to right on the bottom row of my spellbar, I have:
Wand, Smite, Mind Blast, Shadow Word: Pain, Power Word: Shield.
On the next row up, I have: Melee weapon, Lesser Heal, Renew, Desperate Prayer (dwarf racial), Bandages, Resurrection, Fade. Then Power Word: Fortitude, and Inner Fire.
Talent-wise, I have 4/5 in spirit tap. But I'm only a few kills away from levelling up, and have a ton of rested XP. So the situation is good!
This shot shows a couple of things. Firstly, I dinged 14, after killing a few low level mobs around ironforge. I then went to ironforge and trained my skills. You can see a couple of new ones on the button bar, but I'll tell you what I got.
Smite, rank 3. More damage, more mana, more casting time. Only really useful as a puller, to start fights.
Renew, rank 2. from 45 heal over 15 seconds up to 100 heal over 15 seconds. VERY useful. Not many mobs of this level can outdamage renew by much.
Cure disease. Does what it says on the tin, really. Cures one disease. Good for this level, since a bunch of the creatures in loch modan and westfall are pretty disease-ridden!
Lastly, Psychic Scream. This is a pretty cool panic button, but very situational. What it does is, it sends 2 nearby mobs running in fear for 8 seconds. This gives plenty of time to get off a smite or two, or a mind blast.
The shot also shows a bug I found with the boots I made from tailoring. Notice how it says "Use: Increases damage and healing..." instead of "Equip:". Bugged!
Also, you can see a new feature of the minimap: Quest givers can now be seen on the minimap! In this case, it's just a silly repeatable quest which is impossible to do, since it's from back in the AQ opening event. But it still illustrates the point nicely, I think.
This last screenshot for today shows me playing with Scott's latest character, Scooter, the gnomish warrior. He's just hit level 10, and is picking up his new skills. What does the future hold for this intrepid duo? Only time will tell!
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