If you want to be left alone by everyone and not just a particular person use this:
/dnd
which will do the following (pasted from WoWWiki):
Your status in the guild pane will be shown as <DND> instead of Online
<DND> will also appear next to your name above your character.
Whispers sent to your character will trigger an auto-response “<name> does not wish to be disturbed.”.
If you are already DND, this will remove your DND status.
Opened the launcher this morning to see if the patch is ready, and it started downloading. It’s showing up as a 1.1 GB download, so hopefully it won’t be as painful as the last one.
The latest invasion was a lot more fun for me. Logged in while it was in progress in Ironforge, and helped with the cleanup. Queued in the dungeon finder, then took the tram to Stormwind. Found that SW was still pretty overrun, I ended up in a sparsly populated Dwarven District. Tried to fight my way through to safety in the next district as part of a small group, but couldn’t quite make it, and died. Think one player made it through. Felt like much more of a world event as a result, instead of a distraction. Unfortunately, I’d forgotten about the dungeon finder. Accepted on reflex, and then realised I couldn’t join as I was dead. Had to quit as I was still a long way from my corpse and didn’t want to hold the group up too much. As a result, I got “deserter”, and had little time to farm the bosses. I really wanted the cloak, have I missed my last chance now?
And if you’re feeling comprehensively anti-social (or really really really want to escape importuning and begging), /dnd turns on your “Do not disturb” flag. Impartially*. Messages and invites from anyone will bounce.
*by “Impartially”, I mean in contrast to “/ignore”, because if you’re ignoring someone they’ll know it’s them specifically. If you are OK with the implicit insult of ignoring someone by name, there you go.
EDIT: Looks like martu beat me to this punch. But my point about pointedly ignoring someone by name, and its unintended (or intended, in some cases) effect stands.
I’m not sure where you’re going with that “younger set” crack. I’m nearly 50. My main has all the mechanical mounts (including the motorcycle) and all the mechanical pets. He’s a 450-skill Gnomish Engineer. He’s a hunter who prefers gunpowder firearms.
Now, if the objection is just “it’s not high fantasy”, ok. But fantasy steampunk is an established and respected genre. That’s what this is. And the in-game lore is structured that way: one of the first races created by the Titans were… mecha-gnomes. Sentient mechanical/magical constructs which, through the “curse of flesh”, became flesh-and-blood gnomes over time.
Technology has been part of the Warcraft universe since Warcraft 2: Tides of Darkness (the 2nd top-view real-time strategy game in the milieu). Oil wells, gunpowder-armed battleships, and gnomish flying machines.
You can avoid technology in the game if you want. But if you want some game free of technology, WoW isn’t it.
My Gnome mage disputes that account. He thinks it’s a dirty lie spread by warlocks, Goblins, Hordies, and other disreputable types. He is not a Cylon, dammit. Well, at least until he finds a Gnomish Caprica 6, in which case he may be willing to reconsider…
I agree with this post in it’s entirety yet still the bikes seem out of place to me. I really have no idea why they stand out compared to other mechanical objects in the game but they do.
Crap. Even after editing repeatedly, that came out looking like scolding. Sorry. Not my intention.
My point is just this: WoW has an established lore. Many players (including me) have played games based in this lore since the first game in the franchise (Warcraft: Orcs and Humans). That’s over 15 years. And fantasy steampunk has been in there pretty much from the beginning.
That long-term association with the franchise certainly makes me oversensitive to criticism of the lore. Furthermore, I’ve gotten roughed up in SF discussions by fantasy purist elitists attacking the blending of technology and fantasy, so my hackles raise rather easily.
Nonetheless, if you’re looking for pure high fantasy, <jedi mind wave> this is not the game you’re looking for.
But different strokes for different folks.
Your gnome mage needs to get into an Ulduar run. The truth is in there, man.
Mysterious are the ways of the Titans.
And from what I’ve seen of Kezan and Azshara, the presence of technology, at least where goblins are concerned, is getting ramped up to 11.
I think motorcycles stand out because they’re the most mundane technological artifacts in the game. Even firearms in-game look radically weird and exotic. The Mechano-hog or Mekgineer’s Chopper are, at a glance, almost completely indistinguishable from any real-world chopper bike. So yeah, of all the tech in the game, it’s the least fantastic.
This could be it indeed, maybe a more fabulous chopper would make all the difference. It’s not the idea but the implementation. I use the gnome’s mechanical chicken as a mount on my human paladin all the time in BGs.
The next phase of the Elemental Invasion is on. The capitals are under intermittent attack from elementals spawning in every few hours. When the invasion event starts, civilians (e.g., auctioneers) evacuate as player characters flood the cities to set up defenses, rescue NPCs being attacked, and fight off the elemental invaders.
Life and business in the capitals are being disrupted. I’ll give Blizz credit, it’s not as disruptive as the Zombie Apocalypse thing at the release of WotLK. But the disruption is noticeable. Without auctioneers, obviously, auctions don’t proceed. And the lag is all of the PCs hanging around waiting for the next outbreak, or fighting it. Especially since it’s not just them hanging around, but at least part of the time actually fighting. More fighting in a concentrated area than the average old-time (40-player) raid. It’s gotten so intense that I know players are disconnecting just from being in the vicinity of an elemental rift under attack.
FWIW, if your low-level is in one of the affected cities (SW, IF) when an attack is starting, leave until the fight is over. The elementals will aggro on you if you wander too close, and they’re 80? elites with a quarter million health, so flee!
Exodar and Darn wouldn’t be affected. You’ll be safe (and bored) there.
So pretty much just like normal, then?
I think it’s the noise. If they were clanky steampunk things, they wouldn’t take me out of the world so much, but they sound like a regular motorcycle.
Yeah, Horde definitely came out ahead on this one, since we still have a top-two capital available for business purposes. (Though my bank alt is parked in Thunder Bluff, which is annoying.)
That’s why my bank alt is in Silvermoon. Nothing interesting goes on there.
Well, that was also why my bank alt was at Thunder Bluff. Who knew?
What’s weird about the attack on Thunder Bluff is that, as far as I’m aware, Mulgore is possibly the zone that will be affected least by Cataclysm, with the possible exception of Eversong Woods. TB isn’t scheduled for major changes like Org and Undercity, Mulgore will still maintain its gentle green haven status, and the only thing I recall is they’re adding a great big gate to the exit to the Barrens, since Camp Taurajo will be overrun by the Alliance.
!!! This aggression cannot stand!
I did the elemental invasion event in SW last night.
1.) They really need something to give you a better idea of where to put the damned sandbags. I picked one up, couldn’t find anywhere to stick it, and finally said “fuck it” and just tanked mobs.
2.) The waves of elementals get pretty boring and repetitious. More variety would be nice. By the time you’re closing your third, fifth, eight rift, it gets a bit old. The attack on the SW Harbor last year, by contrast, was much more exciting (at least as far as I recall).
The new minibosses are pretty faceroll, at least with my gear. Glad I queued with my pocket healer, though, even though he was DPSing–a number of times, he saved my ass by throwing on heals while the “healer” of the group was doing who-knows-what (700 DPS, in one case, according to Recount 
).
There are legitimate reasons to use mammoths in cities, especially when it’s the multi-passenger and/or vendor-carrying version.
Go to the area between the Bank and the Auction House in Ironforge, and the area in front of the Bank in Stormwind. You’ll see a couple of NPCs there with quests for you.
Some more details on how to deal with pests…
DigitalC’s explanation of **/ignore playername **will let you completely block the person. I think you may also be able to do it by right-clicking their name in chat and selecting the appropriate option. When you put someone on ignore, they can’t contact you at all. If they try to whisper you, they’ll get the message back “Wolkenlaufre is ignoring you.”
gnoitall’s suggestion of **/dnd **is something that doesn’t actually block anybody–it just tells them that you’re busy. They can still contact you, but every time they whisper you, they get a message back (sent by the system, not by you) that says you’re busy. That way, you can let the message speak for you. If you want, you can even add a specific message that will be sent to them by typing it after the DND when you turn it on. So, for example, typing **/dnd I want to play by myself for a while **means that when someone whispers you, they get the message back that’s something like: “Wolkenlaufre is Busy: I want to play by myself for a while.”
Actually, if you want to keep leveling those professions in Cata, you’re going to need to get to 80. Everything I’ve been hearing points to the new zones being restricted by level–you can’t even get into them before 80 now, unlike in Wrath, where anybody with the expansion (even a level 1) could hop on a boat or a zep.
I can’t imagine that a lot of people are happy about this–I know I’m pissed–so there’s no guarantee that it will stay this way. But that’s my understanding of the way it’s working now.
I roffled.
Yes, this is really the best option for Double L, I think. The Exodar, while it will take you a bit longer to get there, has a slightly more convenient layout than Darnassus (in terms of Bank/AH proximity), so that’s what I’d suggest. Here’s how to get there:
1.) Get to Stormwind if you’re not there already. (I can’t remember where Wollkie’s parked now–if he’s already in SW, good. If he’s in IF, take the tram from Tinkertown or fly from the FP in the middle of the city if he’s got the path learned.)
2.) In Stormwind, go to the Harbor.
3.) In the Harbor, go to the dock all the way to the left. It will be decorated “Night Elf” style.
3.) Take the boat that arrives to Auberdine in Darkshore.
4.) At the dock in Auberdine, find the boat to Azuremyst/The Exodar. There will be a signpost where the docks split off (and maybe an NPC you can talk to). IIRC, the one that’s to your left as you come off the boat from Stormwind is the one you want to take. (The one straight across from the SW boat is Darnassus, I think.)
5.) Once you get off the boat at Azuremyst, run north along the path until you reach The Exodar.
6.) Go down the big tunnel into the city. If you went in the main entrance, you’ll emerge on a landing with the entrance to the inn. Run down the ramp or jump down and you’ll find yourself on the main level. The central circle where you just came down has the AH set into the ground on one side and the Bank set into the ground on the other. They look the same, but they each have a sign out front that you can mouseover to read what they are. They both have a mailbox out front, too.