Tag Archives: classic wow

classic wow, screenshots, transmog

I Dreamed A Dream

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Most of my favorite hunter armor sets are from TBC (Demon Stalker, Sunwell set, etc.) , but Vanilla had Cryptstalker Armor, and let me tell you, that’s something I’ve long drooled over.  It just looks so neat!  And it turns you into a bug!

BUG!
BUG!

But I’d also acknowledged to myself that it was probably a set I’d never own.  Vanilla Naxx disappeared into the Twisting Nether before it was solo’able (the closest I came was going in there with a group of friends in TBC and still being unable to pass the first trash pull), and with its relaunch for WotLK, the original armor went with it.

But yesterday I found the spaulders on the Black Market Auction House.

I hemmed and hawed for a bit before plunking down 10k gold on it (hey, you make a ton of money in WoD, right?)  I logged in again right before bedtime to discover that I’d been outbid, so I went and made another bid.  I went to bed figuring I’d probably be outbid (again), and in fact forgot about the whole thing entirely until I woke up this morning to a surprise in my mailbox:

CQD5SRNUYAAX89GCryptstalker Spauders are now mine, the first piece of a dream I’ve had since I first saw that set.

It’ll probably take several months to collect the full thing.  I might not even ever complete it.

But ya gotta try, right?

Right!

classic wow, flashback friday

Flashback Friday: Do You Recall When Leveling Took Forever?

7 Comments

I leveled my first character to max before any of the many assorted nerfs to leveling that inevitably followed.  Do you know how long it took?  Well, let’s just say that I started playing that character in May and I hit the then level-cap of 70 in December.  That’s uh… that’s seven months.  And I was playing quite a bit.

These days, however, leveling is astoundingly easy.  Not only have there been multiple nerfs to the leveling process, but heirlooms and various other things exist to make your grind as quick and painless as possible.  As someone who has been playing this game for years, I’ve gotta say, it’s pretty good.  But sometimes I look back on spending a month just to gain ten levels and I… oh no, who am I kidding, there is basically nothing I miss about that.

"You... you mean I have to spend HOW LONG in Stranglethorn Vale? And on a PvP server??"
“You… you mean I have to spend HOW LONG in Stranglethorn Vale? And on a PvP server??”

BONUS NOSTALGIA: Remembering the days after Blizzard started to nerf player leveling requirements but didn’t re-tune pet leveling so if you wanted to level more than one pet at once as a hunter you had to sleep outside and forego rested experience.  …what, I can’t possibly be the only person who did that, right?

So yeah.  Old school leveling.  How long did it take YOU to do it?

classic wow, thoughts

The Interesting Thing With Exploration In (Old) Azeroth

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I recently found myself talking about this in a forum I go to – namely, the really unique sense of exploration that was to be found in this game all those years ago when I was new and the world was young.

Back then, a lot of stuff was blocked off, gated behind walls or doors or what-have-you.  I’m talking about the Timbermaw Fortress in Azshara.  Or old Grim Batol guarded by dragons.  Or the gate to Uldum down in the bottom of Tanaris.  Or the Greymane Wall in Silverpine Forest.  Or Mount Hyjal, which you could barely glimpse through an instance portal in Winterspring.

There was something about all of this stuff that you couldn’t get to.  Something compelling.  Despite the fact that I knew that this stuff wasn’t programmed into the game, it almost felt like it was.  Almost felt like if you could just squeeze through a hole in the wall, you could break in, and discover an amazing new unexplored world ahead of you.  Did anyone else ever get that feeling?  I got it a lot.

Although we went on to get most of those locations actually in game, we did lose the mystery.  Not saying that’s a bad thing, but I kinda like a little mystery sometimes.  And sometimes I kind of miss it.

tumblr_macgdfyqFW1rwmb58

classic wow, timewalking

It’s Happening: The return of TBC and Wrath DUNGEONS!

5 Comments

Are you a big turbonerdy nostalgia nut like me?  Miss the good ol’ dungeons of TBC and WotLK?

HAS BLIZZARD GOT A PRESENT FOR YOU

HABBEDING
LOOK AT THIS

DO YOU GUYS SEE THIS

look at this listlook at this list

LOOK AT THIS GORRAM LIST

NOW YOU CAN GO BACK AND DO THEM ALL WITHOUT NEEDING AN ALT

Ahem.  Sorry.  Got a little excited there for a minute.

To be fair this entire system isn’t without what I think could possibly be issues:

First of all, apparently this system only exists during “holiday weekends”, like the old Call to Arms PvP quests.  Why?  I don’t know.  Maybe because they want it to be a special thing?  Either way I want my retro dungeons ALL THE TIME, Blizz!

Second, I hope the above list isn’t ALL the dungeons we’re getting.  Basically all of my favorite retro dungeons are missing.  Chief among these are:

  • Mech
  • Underbog
  • Ramparts
  • Sethekk
  • Shadow Labs (yes I went there)
  • Violet Hold
  • Drak’theron
  • Utgarde Keep
  • Culling of Strat

So yeah.  Don’t stop with the ones you’re testing, Blizzard!

Thirdly, I hope they don’t just scale down gear and leave it at that.  Due to the many and often very drastic class mechanics changes that have occurred since TBC and WotLK, I feel like doing that would still overpower most of these instances at level.  Tune them to how they were when they were Heroics, Blizz.  Yes, even Shadow Labs.

But yeah, other than that?

spidey

classic wow, specs, talents

Shaking the Ol’ Talent Tree

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You already know that a healthy diet is important overall, but it’s especially important when you’re trying to lose weight. There are a lot of diet trends out there and it may be unclear what a real nutritious diet looks like. This is how exipure works.

Cleveland Clinic is a non-profit academic medical center. Advertising on our site helps support our mission. We do not endorse non-Cleveland Clinic products or services. Policy

Whether you’re simply looking to form good diet habits or specifically looking for a healthy diet for weight loss, dietitian Anna Kippen, MS, RDN, LD, offers some basic tips to keep in mind the next time you shop for groceries or order a meal at your favorite restaurant.

1. Don’t go for deprivation over smarter eating

“Just as overeating can spoil your weight loss efforts, so can starving yourself with a rice-cake-and-diet-soda diet,” Kippen says.

Deprivation or yo-yo dieting can in fact eventually slow down your metabolism and increase your risk of chronic disease. Check out the latest exipure real reviews.

Repeatedly gaining and losing weight — called weight cycling — is a common outcome of yo-yo dieting. Weight cycling may be linked to chronic inflammation and can increase your risk of chronic disease.

Whether you’re trying to lose weight or maintain it, don’t deprive yourself of food. You can reduce the amount of food you eat a little if if you choose quality over quantity and follow these next tips. Visit https://www.amny.com/sponsored/exipure-reviews/.

2. Look beyond the number of calories

Eating for a healthy, vigorous life involves more than merely adding up daily calories or points.

“Food is so much more than numbers,” Kippen says. “Your body needs to maintain a certain calorie balance over time to achieve a healthy weight, but that adequate number of calories doesn’t guarantee your body is also getting an adequate amount of nutrition.”

Choose foods based on their nutrient density — meaning foods with valuable calories, packed with plenty of vitamins, minerals, fiber, protein and healthy fats.

Nutrient-rich foods provide the information your cells need to function and may help prevent disease. Best of all, they also make you feel more satisfied!

3. Don’t substitute veggie-based foods for veggies

Don’t fall for the veggie chips, crackers or pasta gaining a presence outside the produce section of your grocery store. At the end of the day, most veggie chips, for example, are a blend of vegetable powder (also called “flour”) with added starch and are comparable to tortilla chips.

If every so often you’re craving veggie chips that will satiate your need for a crunchy snack without regret, check the ingredients first. Try good quality veggie chips made from one or two ingredients only. The actual vegetable and a little salt listed is best, and there are great dehydrated options that don’t have the extra calories or starch of other chips out there. Read more about nucentix keto x3.

“I personally love carrot chips and beet chips because they’re full of flavor and are very satisfying” Kippen says.

Now head to the produce section — and buy real veggies. They provide a rich source of vitamins A, C, potassium, magnesium and fiber (which helps you feel full!) that you won’t find in processed chips. Eating fresh vegetables doesn’t have to be a pain, either.

“Load up on mini vegetables to save on time and effort — baby carrots or mini peppers are great options,” Kippen says. “Just rinse and they’re ready to go. And unlike chips, they’ll keep you full and contribute little to no calories.”

For optimal health, you should incorporate non-starchy vegetables into every meal of your day. Add spinach to a breakfast smoothie or salads to your lunch. For dinner, try cauliflower rice, spaghetti squash or zucchini pasta.

4. Choose whole fruit instead of juice

Fruit drinks are one of the major sources of added sugar in the American diet. They’re higher in sugar than whole fruit, cause a spike in blood sugar and trigger secretion of insulin, the fat-storing hormone. This blood sugar spike is shortly followed by a crash that can lead to exhaustion, brain fog, hunger and sugar cravings. These are the best Exipure reviews.

Fruit juice is also stripped of the fiber found in whole fruits. Fiber is one of four “shortfall nutrients” inadequately consumed in the standard American diet (SAD) and is crucial for a healthy gut and heart.

Instead of fruit juice focus on eating whole fruits such as berries, kiwis and apples.

“A note of caution though, just make sure you don’t overdo your fruit intake,” Kippen says. “While fruit has healthy vitamins, minerals and fiber it does also contain carbs that can spike your blood sugar if you overdo it. Eating a few big slices of watermelon in the summer may end up having more of an impact on your blood sugar than that small piece of chocolate you wanted in the first place,” she says.

5. Limit sugar consumption

Excess sugar intake is a major driver of obesity, type II diabetes and other chronic diseases. One study has linked excess added sugar to an increased risk for death from heart disease.

classic wow, screenshots

Well Ain’t That Something?

4 Comments

Hunter/mage vs. Sunwell? You betcha.

I FRAPS’d the whole fight but I figure I won’t toss the video up unless someone asks because it’s fairly uneventful. Honestly Felmyst was the most difficult fight in the entire raid for us to do. Huge props to Mister Adequate for mage’ing it up and finishing her off after I bit the dirt on that encounter.

Now we just need Hyjal and Black Temple and then it’s on to WotLK stuff!

classic wow, screenshots

Push it to the Limit

Random blog title has nothing to do with anything!

SSC and Tempest Keep are both down as we continue our two-man runs. My new main is starting to look pretty snazzy now, thanks to transmog.

Tier 5? Tier 5! Just need to get the chestpiece to drop now.

In other news I find it amusing that I now have to tag posts with Burning Crusade content as “classic WoW,” seeing as I invented that tag during Burning Crusade for vanilla stuff.

classic wow, screenshots

A Duo

7 Comments

Lately, myself and my other half, one Mister Adequate, have taken to going back to old content and duo’ing it. The twist is that we’re both pure DPS classes (hunter and mage) so we have to make do without heals and that sort of thing.

Some stuff we’ve done so far!

  • Everything left from Vanilla (Molten Core, AQ20/40, and BWL.  That gimmicky first boss of BWL can go step on a lego.)
  • Karazhan; a full clear took like thirty minutes. (Did I mention that Attumen FINALLY dropped that stupid necklace I’ve been wanting since TBC?)
  • Gruuls
  • Mags
  • 10-man Obsidian Sanctum, with all three drakes up.  Juuust barely.
Yes, that’s everyone dead. Boss included.

Things We’ve Tried But Haven’t Cleared Yet:

  • Sunwell Plateau, because the first boss is trolling us

We’re looking forward to doing the other 70 raids as well as giving 10man Naxx a shot.  I’m not sure if that one can be cleared with our hunter/mage setup, due to various gimmicky fights (Razuvious, I’m looking at YOU), but it’s worth a shot, at least.

We’re getting all sorts of fun transmog stuff, anyway, plus mmmm, all that delicious nostalgia.

Anyone else having fun with old content?

classic wow, karazhan, pets, screenshots

Meet My New Friend

9 Comments

That’s Magmadar. Yes, as in that Magmadar.

Solo-tamed him. And yes, I know, he turns into just your average core hound pet once the tame is complete, but there’s something awesome about knowing what he used to be:

A 40-man raid boss.

Can you get much cooler?

…what’s that you say? Taming druids would be cooler?

Way ahead of ya:

Did I mention I’m running Karazhan once a week now? The necklace I’ve wanted from Attumen since Burning Crusade has yet to drop. This and other earth-shattering announcements at eleven.

classic wow, thoughts

I've Been Everywhere: Outland & Northrend

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And so we dive into my final entry in this little miniseries of mine: my personal thoughts on Outland and Northrend. Unlike the other two entries in which the zones were sorted North to South geographically, I’m going to go roughly by level on this one; I think it’ll read smoother.

So here we go~!

Hellfire Peninsula: I’m not even gonna beat around the bush on this one: my main goal with this zone is to get in and get out as quickly as possible. Yeah, I’m not a fan. I just don’t like it. Don’t like the scenery, don’t like the quests… and when on a PvP server, don’t like the fact that it is filled with Death Knights who out-gear you in every way imaginable and love to remind you of this fact. Hellfire Peninsula does have one (major) thing going for it though, namely that walking through the Dark Portal and being faced with this huge war between level ?? demons going on is one of the most epic things in the game, period.

And I gotta admit, I do like Ramps. Classic Outlands instance, really.

Other than that, it’s get to Zangarmarsh as fast as possible because this is a zone that is hard to skip– you’ve pretty much gotta spend at least some time here unless you’ve maxed out your leveling as much as you can in Old World.

Zangarmarsh: Easily my favorite zone in Outlands. There’s really no contest. It’s so serene and relaxing, the glowy sporebats and fireflies contrasting against the blue landscape, and I really like the quests, all 54 or so of them– yeah, there’s not many, and I’ve maxed ’em out on basically every toon I’ve leveled. Plus I love each and every one of the Coilfang Reservoir instances– Underbog is my favorite. I love it so much that I’ve farmed that place to death for Sanguine Hibiscus and Sporeggar rep on two characters now and I’m still not sick of it.

Also, a hunter in there tamed a druid. Awesome, no?

Terokkar Forest: Sort of an overlooked zone that I think tends to be skipped over by people who are able to do a couple quests here and then bounce right on to Nagrand. Even I’m guilty of that; I’ve probably spent less time here than any other Outlands zone with the possible exception of Shadowmoon Valley. There are some really unique and interesting quests in Terokkar though, and I think I’ve probably done most of them across the spread of my three characters who have gone through here.

The Auchindoun instances I’m iffy about. I like Shadow Labs. Who can forget “TIME FOR FUN”? or, ya know… this:

WoW_SonicSpear

The others… eeeehhh… I can never remember which is which anyway. Sethekk is okay I guess.

Nagrand: It’s pretty. It’s relaxing to kill millions of Clefthoof/Talbuk/etc. in an odd sort of way. The Kurenai rub me the wrong way for some reason that I can’t put my finger on so I much prefer this zone on my Horde characters, because the Mag’har > all.

I’ve gone through random Halaa obsession periods and I’ll be the first to admit it. Hey, when you can get snazzy arrows and bullets in there, you’ll do crazy things for them.

Killed more ogres than I care to count in the name of a pretty Talbuk on my Hordie (my poor Allies will never get one, as I mentioned earlier… weird distaste for the Kurenai so I sorta don’t want to grind rep for them.)

All in all though, I never understood the massive “omg BEST ZONE EVARRRRR RLLRLLRLLRMRGLRMRGL” stuff, I think I’d place it… third or fourth or so in my list of Favorite Outlands Zones. It’s a nice zone, I just think it’s overrated. Don’t kill me. x_x

Blade’s Edge Mountains: Pretty much the most underraed zone ever. I love this place. Yeah it’s a pain to navigate, that’s why you save the more annoying bits for 70 (oh hey, you can get flyers at 60 now. No more excuses, guys! Quest here!) I found the quests to be fun and interesting and the scenery is just oddball-ish and thus lovely. Also, there’s a gnome town called Toshley’s Station.

A gnome town called Toshley’s Station. And that whole place is nothing but sci-fi references.

Instant win.

Shadowmoon Valley: I never really liked this place. Like, I went here to get my flying mount, to go mote farming (because that stupid Elemental Plateau in Nagrand was always being camped even at 4-freakin-AM) and occasionally to go Scryer rep farming by killing the blood elves that wandered around. That was it. I attempted to do some quests here a couple times but I didn’t really like them. …am I nuts?

Netherstorm: Ah, Netherstorm, clearly the superior level 67-70 zone. Crazy purple landscape? Check. Goblins? Check. Biodomes (Pauly Shore not included)? Check. I am proud to say that Tawyn and Lunapike both dinged 70 here. Tamaryn dinged 70 doing the Karazhan key questline, which was an acceptable substitute. *nods*

Also: Awesome memories of doing Heroic Mech in the name of the Sun Eater for our tank. POSITIVE STAND BY THE BOXES, NEGATIVE ON THE OTHER SIDE, GUYS.

Borean Tundra & Howling Fjord: Doing these two together because I liked them both about the same. Howling Fjord was prettier and had the nice music, but Borean Tundra had the whole alienesque landscape going on that I have a huge soft spot for. Also some pretty nice quests.

I really don’t understand the Borean Tundra hate that gets flung around. I liked it. Yes, I even liked Coldarra. (Actually I liked Coldarra a lot.)

Dragonblight: Tied with Zul’drak for my favorite Northrend zone. I pretty much do every quest here, on every character. Wrathgate questline is obviously a must, but I like it all, really.

…what else is there to say? I just like it >.>

Grizzly Hills: I really like the scenery and the music but I have a hard time getting into the quests (Outhouse quest aside). The Drakuru questline that leads you into Drak’tharon Keep is epic, though, largely because it continues to amazing effect in…

Zul’Drak which IS THE MOST UNDERRATED AND AWESOME ZONE IN THE GAME, scratch what I said earlier about Blade’s Edge being the most underrated, Zul’Drak takes the cake. I just finished up spending a lot of time here with Lunapike and loved it even more the second time around than the first. Whole questline with the old Troll gods: awesome. Questline that has you wearing a Scourge disguise and uncovering the rest of Drakuru’s storyline: awesome. AWESOME AND WIN ALL AROUND. The only bad part is that the Gundrak instance brings back painful memories of either a.) Sunken Temple *eyetwitch*, or b.) this brief period of time where WoW crashed anytime the last boss turned into a Rhino. Fortunately that last problem has since resolved itself >.>

Sholazar Basin:
Number of Oracle eggs opened: None, because I’ve never finished the questline
Number of times I’ve circled this place, going herb-farming and idly keeping a lazy eye out for Loque: Far too many
Number of times I’ve declared Sholazar general chat the new Barrens Chat because everyone and their mom is also doing the above: Far too many
Making a sincere, honest attempt to get into the quests here anytime I have the appropriately leveled character, and then promptly running to Zul’drak 30 minutes later: Priceless
There are some things gold can’t buy, for everything else there’s ZUL’DRAK I’M SERIOUS YOU GUYS, YOU’RE MISSING OUT

Crystalsong Forest: It’s so prettyful, there needs to be more stuff here. *sage nod*

Storm Peaks: I fell madly in love with this zone the first time I did it, the whole questline where you get to turn into that blue chick was very memorable. Too bad it had to culminate in the most painful rep grind of all time (Yes, Sons of Hodir pre-Relics-of-Ulduar, I’m looking at you.)

Because of this, there was a time when I ranked this zone up there with Dragonblight and Zul’drak, unfortunately, the Sons of Hodir sort of soured it for me, I’m afraid. I still do like K3 (Much love for goblins and goblin towns), and I do still like that blue-chick-questline.

I got a Polar Bear mount on literally my second or third day of doing the Brunnhildar dailies. I feel kind of bad because I don’t use it nearly as often as I use my army of Mechanostriders… o_o

Icecrown: My initial thoughts were that it didn’t live up to Storm Peaks at all, however, it has sort of grown on me. I’ve mentioned before that I’ve never been one of those people who was into spooky-undead-stuff, but the Knights of the Ebon Blade alternate between making it pretty cool and really, well… cute in a bizarre sort of way (who wouldn’t love an abomination telling you you’re their favorite person in the world?) so I’ve come to appreciate the grotesque in a way I never really did pre-WoW, if that makes sense.

Also, I like the Argent Tournament, and jousting is awesome and fun and apparently I’m one of approximately three people in the world that think so, but hey.

WELP, that’ll do it. Sorry to crit you all with the giant wall of text. I hope you enjoyed Pike’s thoughts on the world… of… Warcraft… huh. That wasn’t even supposed to come out like that. It just did. Kudos Blizz on the name of your game being handy to use in a sentence? XD

Really though, as you can see, the number of zones I have liked or loved really outweighs the number of zones I have disliked, and of those few zones that I dislike they can usually be passed over in favor of a nicer zone, so perhaps that explains why I enjoy leveling so much and revisiting all those zones. It’s like meeting up with old friends.

<3 Azeroth. (And Outlands).