Battlegrounds are now officially the most fun I can have in front of my PC. Last night I spent the whole evening either in or queuing for Arathi Basin, my thoughts from my first attempt:
Tactics? Pah we don’t need no stinkin’ tactics. That seemed to be the opinion of most others anyway. First run out I kept quiet as I was a noob and wanted to experience it but after that tried to talk about staying in groups of 7 and 7 or split into 3s and was ignored. A pity.
Rogues – arrrggghhhhhhh! Especially rogues who camp stealthed outside graveyards, evil buggers.
Warlocks – arrrggghhhhhhh again! As my alt is a warlock I thought I might have a chance but every time I was close I was running away in Fear with CoA DOTing me to death. Does Turn Evil work on minions? I didn’t think about using it until this morning.
All my key bindings disappeared from my head! In PvE I have it down perfectly but the need for faster reflexes or something made me panic a lot and resort to clicking. Which lead to death.
Being flagged PvP when the Festival on is a pain – we are questing in The Hinterlands at the moment and we kept getting ganked by high level Hordies on their way to snuff out the flame at Aerie Peak or whatever it was they are supposed to do.
Okay! Got the Org flame last night and turned it in. Didn’t take a pic of my halo, though. Also bought the Midsummer outfit with my remaining fire blossoms (and still had about 150 left over!) and did the maypole dance to get the red hot pole (or something like that) achievement.
I’m wondering if you can solo Ahune? (Which may be a moot point, since I can’t catch the torches to save my deathly life.)
The torches are infuriating. If you’re not already doing this, I found an excellent tip is to watch the shadow on the ground, not the torch. Even then, it still took me several tries, since the fire in Orgrimmar was surrounded by a mob.
Flame Festival complete. 6 more achivements to finish out the mount, how long until Brewfest again? Ahune may be soloable, it’s certainly duoable with a dps and a healer. My wife did something like 45 Ahune kills, and got no pet drops. Hope they get the hotfix for old fires in soon, I’d like to be able to get the buyable pet. If you’re having issues with the torch dailies, go to an underpopulated city. For the Horde, SMC is great, bright area with now shadows like TB, but very few people trying to do it all at once. I did abuse a game mechanic yesterday, I bought my summer shoulders and did my Burning Hot Pole Dance, and then sold them back to the vendor so I can get the pet with just dailies if they don’t fix the fires.
Interestingly, I got to complete the quest to steal the [del]scum[/del] Alliance capital city flames without having to go into the cities again.
We did a SwP run last night. Much drama ensued when the bow dropped, and an alt rouge took it over giving it to either of our main hunters (who were on the raid on their mains).
I did get my pally’s unarmed up to 400 by beating on the belf mobs outside of Sunwell while waiting for the raid to get going.
Congratulations on all the achievements! Yes, Battlegrounds are a whole lot of fun!
I had just taken my newest alt into Arathi Basin as well (a druid) and the awesomeness of being able to stealth is not to be missed!
In my case though she’s her late twenties and I may level her more and try again in her late thirties. The late twenties battleground is the only time I’ve had death threats whispered to me (as well as being called ahem a woman of dubious virtue)…
This has happened to me on my fury warrior, and I occasionally take them up on it. I’ve even done this on my enhancement shaman (pray to the RNG gods for lots of crits and no misses).
It isn’t pretty, it isn’t “textbook”, but somehow, it works. I insist they understand that I will be struggling to hold the mobs, and they all must be attacking them in the order I marked - skull, X, circle (moon for CC). I also insist they allow me to use “line of sight” pulls and get the mobs where I want them before they start attacking. They also have to accept the fact that there may be a wipe here and there.
If they listen, if they accept the “conditions”, we end up with a successful run.
Obviously this is for nonheroic instances and raids. For heroics, I tell them they really do need a “specialist”.
Side note: Another toon (my rogue) got the LEEROY achievement yesterday
Those guys ARE tough, and that is where as a little newby mage, I first fell in love with frost. When I tossed a frostbolt and the mob slowed to a crawl and couldn’t get close enough to hit me, I became a true believer. I’ve been deep deep DEEP frost ever since
Great fun. I’ve done it on a rogue and two druids (stealth/prowl). The most fun was with the boomkin, who is also an engineer. I’d go shadowmeld near a node, with a set of cats eye goggles on. I’d see other stealthers before they saw me, and then the fun starts - root moonfire wrath wrath wrath dance
Here’s a tip … when you get your “knockback” spell (typhoon), you can blow people off the lumbermill
I have reached the conclusion that, unless/until I have PvP gear, there is absolutely no point in attempting to “defend” a capital city against opposing-faction invaders. Last night I was in Darnassus with my level 80 ret paladin when I spotted a level 80 horde DK galloping through the city with his PvP flag on. I gave chase and finally caught up to him on the dock in Rut’theran Village. It wasn’t pretty. He completely annihilated me in about three seconds! It was … embarrassing
I don’t even attempt world PVP. I usually actively ignore city attacks and try not to accidentally set my flag on, because I basically suck at PvP.
The worst part of extinguishing the Horde fires yesterday was that doing so flags you. Even at that, though, I wasn’t attacked at all by player toons until I tried to steal the Orgrimmar flame.
**Guess who won the STV fishing tournament this weekend! ** I’m almost never able to be online during it, too, since Sunday is the day I do videos ‘n’ dinner with my mom.
I was one of those affected by the quest-not-resetting bug, so I couldn’t do my old-world fires or about half of the Outland ones. But I was able to get the rest of Outland, all of Northrend, and the four Horde fires. That rewarded me with the crown and gave me enough Burning Blossoms to buy my shoulders, and one more torch-tossing daily this morning before work gave me the last five I needed to buy the shoes, so I picked up my meta achievement and title! I already have the pet from last year, too, so now I just need the brazier.
Yup!
1.) People’s definition of “dressing like a slut” varies by age, culture, etc.
2.) “No” means “no,” regardless of how someone is dressed.
I appreciate the attempt as peace-making, Bosstone, but IIRC *no one *ever claimed to be annoyed at just being asked if they could do something their class could potentially spec for.
It can *result *in rude suggestive comments, but it doesn’t *invite *them.
Agreed. Also, I hilarously read this as “irrelevant slut-ramming.”
I wear a tabard constantly because otherwise my midriff hangs out. How the hell am I supposed to tank anything with my belly button showing? :mad:
See also: why the hell do my eyebrows stick through every helm I wear? If they can bust through plate, why do I need armor at all? I should be able to tank with my face.
IIRC, Blanchy actually appears *three *times in the game, including where you first meet him in Westfall.
There are three types of “fuel” for abilities:
1.) **Mana **is used by caster classes. This is a dark blue bar, it starts out full, and the character can increase their maximum Mana.
2.) **Energy *is used by rogues. This is a yellow bar, it starts out full, and it is capped at 100.
3.) **Runic Power *is used by Death Knights. This is a light blue bar, it starts out empty, and it is capped at 100.
4.) **Rage **is used by Warriors. This is a red bar, it starts out empty, and it is capped at 100.
As a Warrior, you gain rage both by **doing **damage and by **taking **damage. So, if your bar is empty, just start hackin’ away, and you’ll soon build up some rage that you can use for your special abilities!
As you gain levels, you will get more abilities or talents that help you generate Rage. For example, Bloodrage is an ability that lets you sacrifice HP in exchange for Rage; Charge is an ability you can use out of combat to rush up to an enemy at the start of a fight and generate Rage (there’s a talent in Arms and one in Protection that will let you Charge in combat).
*Death Knights can take a talent to increase their maximum Runic Power; I think Rogues might have a similar talent.
You can travel to Northrend at any level, as long as you have the xpac. There’s even a bird you can tame as a low-level Hunter, if you have an escort to keep the other mobs off you.
How to Do the Torch-Catching Quest and Daily
Giant letters for attention-catching in the middle of my big honkin’ post!
1.) Zoom your camera out to the max.
2.) Tilt it so that you’re looking straight down at your character.
3.) Stand with your back to the fire and your face toward an open area, preferably with no other people around.
4.) Throw the torch. As soon as it’s in the air, start running, and keep your character underneath it.
5.) If you’re more-or-less underneath the torch when it comes down, you’ll catch it, and automatically toss it again.
6.) The auto-toss usually goes somewhere behind you, so be prepared to do an about-face.
7.) Lather, rinse, repeat!
Torch-Throwing Quest and Daily
1.) Accept the quest. Place the item in your action bar. Abandon the quest.
2.) Position yourself so that you’re close to the fire and to the quest-giver, facing the braziers.
3.) Accept the quest again.
4.) Spam the button the torch is bound to. This will light up the targeting reticule-thing as soon as it’s available.
5.) As soon as a brazier is marked (looks just like Hunter’s Mark), position your green target on its base and click.
6.) Lather, rinse, repeat!
Torch-Catching Achievement
This can be done with no more than 10 torches, because they **are not consumed **when you toss/catch them. You may even want to attempt it with five, to save yourself the Burning Blossoms. Also note that the torches do not soulbind and can be mailed, so you might be able to get the torches from a guildie or other friend who has already done the achievement.
1.) Find a quiet spot in Dalaran.
2.) Put the torches on your action bar.
3.) Scroll your camera out and point it straight down at your character.
4.) Spam the button you have the torches bound to while spam-clicking on yourself.
He’s not soloable on Heroic on anyone but a hybrid. You need someone who can soak damage *and *heal during phase 1 ***and ***do heavy damage during the burn phase. Dunno about on regular–I didn’t want to waste a summon to attempt it.
Even in a PUG, this should never happen, at least if the characters in question were 70s. Whoever was Master Looter screwed up baaaaaaaaad.
If this was just a fun-run for 80s, though… Meh. Then I don’t care as much. Sunwell gear is outdated enough that it isn’t going to be an upgrade for anyone at max level, so it’s not like anyone’s actually going to do anything with the item but let it rot in the bank.
Congratulations! I need to try that sometime, now that I have Fishing over 225 and the epic mount + Charger Aura.
You’re quite right, and Damuri’s argument was essentially a strawman when it was originally brought up. But it should be recognized as such and treated on its own terms. Responding to it as though it’s a direct counterpoint to your own point isn’t going to get either of you anywhere, since you’re talking about different things.
But hey, I tend to make things worse when I try to mediate, so I’ll step out of it.
I guess that yesterday, everybody was too busy running around trying to hit all the flames themselves to be bothered with defending. Most of the Horde flames I extinguished had no Horde players anywhere near them, and where there were Horde players present, none of them attacked (I didn’t look at their levels; they may have just been too low to bother trying to stop me). The only time I was attacked was in Brill, and that was an NPC deathguard. Though while I was fighting him, there was a lvl 4 undead standing right next to me doing the /shoo emote
My only gripes about the whole thing were, a) how few people could be bothered to relight their own faction’s extinguished fires (I relit every one I saw; and actually, nearly every Horde fire that I “extinguished” was already extinguished when I got there) and b) knuckleheads whose time is apparently so valuable that they can’t be bothered to dismount from their size XXXL epic flying mounts when talking to the Flame Wardens. At least three times in Outland I ran up to a Flame Warden only to have another player drop right on top of both me and the NPC with a big dragon, making it completely impossible for me to click on the NPC until they flew off again.
I could also do without the buff animation that comes every time somebody lights a fire. It was absolutely maddening during the STV fishing contest - I’d have my line in the water and I’m concentrating, watching my bobber and listening for the “fish on” splash sound, and that damned buff animation is repeatedly going FWASH! FWASH! FWASH!, causing me to reflexively click on my bobber when there was no fish on, or the animation itself blocked my intentional clicks. I would implicate that animation in my not winning the competition (since I came so close at 36 fish), were it not for the fact that everybody else was dealing with the same thing.
ETA: Oh, and c) the almost non-stop stream of “Where are the fires here?” in every zone’s General chat. Good grief, it took me like one fire to figure out that the fires are all located right next to each faction’s primary settlement — usually close to the FP — in each zone :rolleyes:
That does sound like fun! You are giving me yet more reasons to only play the druid - they really are so versatile…
I’ve mind controlled people off the lumber mill with my priest, so I think I know the joy that you feel with typhoon - ah, good times.
Stealthers (well, rogues really) can be such a nuisance if you can’t see them with your handy engineer goggles. They tend to hover around a flag just stunning a person. They stun and stun and stun but don’t turn the flag just to be annoying.
Since it’s a zone buff, it also happens when you change zones. It was really entertaining yesterday flying around running errands and do the FWOOSH thing on the gryphon over the Ironforge mountains.
The buffs have been insanely helpful to me, though, especially while playing my newbie Orc. 30 Stamina is a minor buff to level 60 and up, but when you’re level 5, that triples your health. It made a lot of Durotar quests really easy.
Mostly, yeah, but it’s not QUITE that easy. Some zones have multiple villages/camps/outposts for each faction (Ashenvale) and some zone didn’t have a fire for one faction while it did have one for the other (Stonetalon).
Not to mention that WoWWiki has a page for each faction’s bonfires, listing every single one in Old World, Outland and Northrend. Those two pages were my constant Firefox companions yesterday.
1.) There’s currently a bug where people can’t re-do the quests they already did last year, so for those of us who were around and participated then, Burning Blossoms are in short supply until the bug gets fixed. I know I’m not wasting any of mine on relighting fires until I get all the vendor goodies I want.
2.) Why should I bother to dismount? It’s a waste of time, and an extra three seconds per fire *does *add up. Now, people who sit *right on top of *the quest-giver (or don’t land, so their big flappy wings are in the way), that’s another story.
By the time I got to 30 fish, the adrenaline was pumping so hard that I jumped about a foot out of my chair at every FWOOSH–I use FishingAce, which cranks my SFX to max when I have a fishing pole equipped, so it was *very *loud. I’m sure the constant buffing contributed to the fact that when I went to turn the fish in, I was shaking so hard I had a hard time clicking on the guy. (P.S. NEVER IN MY LIFE has a Hearthstone cast seemed so… effing… slow.)
I think the problem in STV is that the two faction’s fires are practically right next to each other on the beach near Booty Bay, which made it incredibly easy for every player to honor their own flame and then run right over to extinguish the other flame. So the fires were being constantly extinguished and relit. The result was the buff being re-applied over and over and over almost non-stop. That wasn’t happening in other zones.
Yeah, you just need to know which one is the primary settlement. Since I play both factions, that was pretty easy to remember while doing EK (and when I’m finishing up Kalimdor today). I only really had a problem finding Horde fires in Outland, since I don’t yet have a Horde toon high-level enough to travel there so I’m less familiar with where the Horde settlements are. And, I suppose, the Horde settlements in any old-world zones higher than about lvl 50. For example, I had some difficulty locating the Horde settlement in Burning Steppes.
Yes, Battlegrounds are a whole lot of fun!
