WoW urban mysteries - Today: Cuergo's Gold

A few months ago I had some business with an Elf at Flame Crest concerning some librams. While standing and haggling with him about the insane amount of money he asked, I hear a parrot croaking.
What was that? This parrot, Opus his name, had an interesting request: He was longing for something called "Cuergo's Gold with Worm". Hmm.. what could that be? I made a mental note and went on my travels. Days later while in Tanaris, I hear some pirates mumbling about a treasure a guy named Cuergo burried. After some "soft" interrogation they handed me a treasure map!!

The map asked me search for some kind of landmark. Being the curious explorer I am, it did not take me long to find the place marked in the map. It was at a beach far away from civilization, if you can call Gadgetzan that.




After approaching the mark i found, immediately i got attacked by some pirates who obvious were after the same treasure i was. A short but intense fight occured.

Sadly I did not find the thing Opus was after. I found a drink that tasted after tequila called "Cuergo's Gold". But after drinking it, i could confirm... no worm in it. But i did not gave up, were interrogating pirates and haggling with shady dealers to get more pieces of this map. It was a long and tedious quest i set myself on. I think in the meantime i lifted around 30 treasures, but no success. Then just yesterday the change: I got it!

With shaking hands i was holding it like a holy grail. About to uncover one of the urban mysteries you hear ol' folks talking about in some battered tavern... Immediately I took a gryphon to find the waiting bird. To make a long story short: There is no secret quest. The attitude of the damn parrot does not change towards you, absolutely nothing is happening. Well done Blizzard. :(

Crossing out one mystery from my list, i already headed out to hunt the next one down. Stay tuned for more urban legends time will reveal. I'm on it. *wink*

Paladin Army joining the Dark Side

Recently there are reports piling up about a large group of paladins joining the dark side. Riding on black Kodos and burning down your friendly neighbourhood in Elwyn Forest. *shock*
Apparently on the Testrealms running the new patch 1.9 there is a bug. If a paladin speccs for Improved SoR and uses Rank 6, *bing* he sits on a black Kodo and can ride around. *laughs*

With every new patch on the Testservers there is tons of information piling up. Looks like we'll be in for some very nice treats together with the content. Beside Warlocks getting Soulshard bags (20,24 and 28 slot), in the new Ahn'Qiraj there will be books to find that will improve skills... for the warrior this will be Heroic Strike (Rank 9), Battle Shout (Rank 7) and Revenge (Rank 6). Below you can see the new transmute for us Alchemists, i hear it will use the global cooldown for transmutes, but cooldown is only 10 minutes.

If you want to have a sneak peak at more patch 1.9 loot, follow these links:
Loot Patch 1.9 - Page 1
Loot Patch 1.9 - Page 2
Loot Patch 1.9 - Page 3
Loot Patch 1.9 - Page 4
Loot Patch 1.9 - Page 5
Loot Patch 1.9 - Page 6

On a sidenote, I got my Onyxia Scale Cloak yesterday and have to say the look goes nicely together with the Dark Iron Armor parts... the additional "scaley" look and the small glowing dots make it look somewhat special. Beside the scale from Onyxia you need for it, its dirt cheap to craft and might prove useful in BWL later. *wink*

Thulf is the Master Angler!

So finally i won the fishing contest in Stranglethorn Vale. Yay! It is always a very short race. Despite the fact that i have my High Test Eternium Fishing Line laying in my bank and waiting for an Arcanite Fishing Pole, I spontaneously decided to take this Hook of the Master Angler as a reward. It is just too much fun... the trinket turns you into a frenzy fish like the one to the left. The duration is infinite, you gain water breathing and plus 25% swim speed (a druid in aquatic form will still be faster), the cooldown to use the trinket again is just a few seconds. Of course i tried it out while swimming to the Hydraxian Waterlords - yeah, finally this trip is some fun. You can still keep on swimming if you get attacked, the effect does not break until you come out of the water or do something else then swimming. And yes, it does work in lava - of course i had to try that out... hehe.

New Tier 2 Models

Just had a look at the new tier 2 models, showed at the WoW website, that will be introduced with the next patch. The Wrath set looks better then the scribbles implemented. Maybe then I'll finally wear my Helm of Wrath, as i really hate it that there are so few good looking helmets.

The new weapon models for Ahn'Qiraj you can see at wow-europe.com, the 2H Axe with the eye in the middle looks really crazy. As rumours indicate, the patch 1.9 will be made public on the test servers soon. So prepare yourself for some desert fun... ask a mage for some crystal water maybe. =)

Gaining Acceptance

So finally I'm honored with the Thorium Brotherhood. To hand in the Dark Iron Residue to get from friendly to honored took me 15:29 minutes, one "tennis elbow" and 960 mouseclicks. If that's Blizzard's understanding of "memorable" moments, I can't quite agree. They should introduce a checkbox you can choose to hand in all possible material for repeatable quests or something. This way with such low amounts per hand-in, that's just plain stupid and a waste of time.

On a rant, I'm getting really annoyed about players who "block" NPCs you want to interact with by standing right "inside" of them, so you have a 50% chance of clicking the player, depending on the idle animation state. Also people that block the mailbox with their mount should think about it more. In these situation you wish for a kick emote which would kick the player in the butt and move him some steps, don't you?

Slag Pit bye-bye

Hah! This morning i managed to find the cave with the Incendosaurs all deserted and could farm all the scales i need. Slag Pit bye-bye... Been there, seen that, never going back! So now it's just a small amount of Kingsblood or Iron Bars left and I'm done with my TB reputation grind.

Yesterday we payed Ragnaros another visit, not much news here. But after seriously testing my fire resist gear, i can say that with 363 FR (buffed) I absorb 70% of his fire damage while tanking him... not bad at all.

Back to the Murloc topic, I visited the Save the Murlocs campaign. Great stuff! Head over and watch the trailer and reports from the Blizzcon... For a fast download for the movies better use the mirror from wowguru.
On an interesting note, the murloc campaign has started an art contest where you can win your own murloc pet, "...an actual orphan, unlike the ones farmed by blizzard for blizzcon." like they say.

Shady Scale Dealers

Grinding up my reputation with the Thorium Brotherhood is going rather fast. I did not spend that much time for it yet and am already at 50% of my target rep. To reach friendly I'll have spend approx. 480x Kingsblood, 240x Incendosaur Scales and 120x Coal. A little bit less, as the quests from Thorium Point give some reputation as well, but being lvl 60 its not much. Annoying part with the scales is that the cave in the Searing Gorge is nearly the whole day camped by some shady dealers who try to sell the scales at the AH for outrageous amounts of money. Funny tho, that many seem not to see the two Incendosaurs which spawn in the lava.

On a sidenote, after trying it out for two days, I switched my shortcut back to the WoW.exe instead of that new Launcher - does not work properly with Opera anyway and is a mouse-click more.

I'm still trying to find the error that causes InternetExplorer not showing my item-links correctly (if you use IE, you'll have to reload the page again to make them work). My guess is its a conflict with the blogger php and overlib. But hey, it's working correct on all other good browsers. :P

"No CareBears in Outland"

"...the designers are delighted to also point out that the relative “truce” between them all will have no place on Outland."

I was just reading an article about the Burning Crusade at Computer Gaming. Beside some nice descriptions about the upcoming Dungeons, you can also read again about the Outlands being PvP on ALL servers. I'm still waiting on more info if there will be new hardcore group o'five dungeons (hope so) and how they will implement the specialization of some tradeskills like Alchemy. Right now, the tradeskills are quite boring as everybody can nearly make everything very easy. There is not much possibility to "stick out" from the crowd of crafters. I can brew all potions (beside MC and Zul'Gurub) since a looong time... what's next? Where is the tricky tradeskill part in this jump'n'run called WOW? Maybe WOW is just too "mainstream"... the expansion will show us the way.

The Dark Dwarves are not that "darksome"...

Yesterday we payed the scaley beast Onyxia a quick visit. Tanking her is always a lot of fun, as she is quite demanding when it comes to attention from the MT. Even tho i did not won one of her nice Onyxia Hide Backpacks, i got myself a new head piece: Helm of Wrath
Although I'm not sure how it will look after the patch 1.9 with upgraded models (yes, i saw the concept drawing about wrath), but can it get uglier them the Might one? :P

Talking about bags, I startet to gather the needed material to get myself some Bottomless Bags crafted. Fortunately i still have some core leather in my bank i could buy more or less cheap when noone used it for crafting and it was sold regularly at the AH.

On a sidenote I heard rumours about alchemists being able to buy a new transmute recipe from the Thorium Brotherhood with patch 1.9 - so i started to grind my reputation up with them, as its quite easy... you only have to fight the nightmares about Kingsblood, after collecting tons of it to help some guild mates getting their reputation up. While solving some quests for my new friends at Thorium Point, i discovered why the Dark Iron Dwarves mindless follow their leaders: It's these magic pink googles they wear. One starts to wonder, what mighty enchant affects the bearer? Lightness of Being +20? If you know the answer, tell me...

Murloc Baby

Hmm... somehow these Murloc babies are cute entertainment. Let's hope Blizzard will organize an event where also the EU players can obtain one. :)

Dreamless Sleep

Yesterdays MC run was a success item wise. I managed to upgrade from Ring of Protection to the far better Heavy Dark Iron Ring. I was waiting for this ring to drop for quite a while, 30 minutes after we found the one i won, it dropped again... bummer, it's unique. =)

I'll try to find someone to test the dwarven poker with. Apparently the addon uses its own channel, so you can play it over distance. If it's working like i hope it does, i might upload a translated version.

On a sidenote i discovered today, that the first potion you can learn from the Zandalar tribe (at friendly) is not so bad. The Greater Dreamless Sleep Potion is quite cheap to brew if you compare it with the Major Rejuvenation Potion. Of course only good in longer boss fights (like Onyxia, Garr, etc.), 'cause of the 12 sec sleep.

I added two new Addons to my list. Ani's Helm'n'Cloak Toggle provides a small icon next to your helm & cloak slot, so you can toggle visibility. I also installed the new CT_ExpenseHistory to keep track of my repair costs. I decided I'll post monthly statistics about them. This will be interesting to see, as during a MC raid i usually pay between 8g-20g on repairs, depending on the time and deaths.

Andromasch - The Dwarven Poker Game

Haha.. just saw this great addon created by Thorn from the german guild Sonnenlegion. It lets you play (dwarven) poker (and maybe other kind of card games)... I had not time to test it yet, but looks fun - would be perfect to shorten time while you wait for the rest of a raid to show up.


You can have a look at the addon here (although description is only in german):
sonnenlegion.de
curse-gaming.com

Hello?

Don't you just hate it, if people only whipser you "hi" or "hello"... forcing you to ask them what's going on or how you can help them? Same goes for people asking in chat channels "Thulf?" instead of just asking their question and attaching your name, if it's aimed at you.
/rant off

Above you can see how my character looks like right now, I'll update it if there are significant visual upgrades. *grins*

Useless WOW fact of the day: Did you know that apparently Finkle's Lava Dredger does not start to glow if you enchant it?

Presence of Might

Currently I try to get my hands on a Punctured Voodoo Doll (two would be better tho), as I'm trying to assemble the Zul'Gurub enchants for my warrior. I hear other classes complain about the new enchants, but for a tank, its great: Presence of Might. If i can obtain two of them, that would give me beside the +20 stamina (already have it through the "ordinary" librams) additional +14 defense and +30 Shield Block value. Not bad at all, especially after the defense nerf. I had a hard time climbing above 400 defense again after that, especially as the might set has not that much defense anymore. *sigh* I have all the needed ingredients, just miss a voodoo doll. Luckily I was adventuring with great people in Zul'Gurub, who realized the Primal Hakkari Aegis is needed for their revered quest with the Zandalar Tribe, which can take a while to reach, and i can turn it in already, being friendly with them. Thanks again guys!
So while I'm searching in the Trade channel in IF, the only whipsers i get are people asking me what the doll does, where to obtain it, etc. Seems like at least some secrets the trolls in Zul'Gurub are trying hard to keep.

Be purged by Fire!

So recently we approached Ragnaros for the first time. Weow, what a sight! Fighting Ragnaros, you realize very fast that you need fire resist gear - the whole raid. My own FR gear is already pretty high (unbuffed over 300), not much room for improvements left. But recently i find myself solo farming Lord Incendius (BRD) again. The reason is simple: For one i search for an Ace of Elements and also the Emberplate Armguards of Fire Resistance could not hurt. I currently use of Stamina, which is ok as well, but bracers with 25 FR on them, should be sweet.

To be able to farm him solo, you already need some good FR gear. You enter BRD and go through the door to the left (requires Shadowforge Key or lockpicking higher then 250). Then go around the Fireguard or better kill him. Now you face a large group of dwarves with dogs to the left and right. This is the perfect time to drink a Lesser Invisibility Potion and run past the group on the right side. If you wait for the right moment, you don't even have to fight the dog. If he attacks you, make sure you fight him close to the wall to avoid attracting roaming patrols.

Your next target is the small edge above the group of dwarves across the path. You can run up without aggroing them. Perfect position to watch the large square in front of you. There are some groups that move quite fast. So better watch out. ;)

 

Make your way through the large dark gate. But BEWARE: There is a patrol behind the doors, every now and then they'll march through the gate. Running into their arms would be tough luck.

 

 

On the bridge, hug to the right. You can go around the group on the right side of the bridge and switch back to the middle (to bypass the Fireguards) behind them. Of course we're talking about a char being lvl 60 that is.

 

 

In the corridor to Incendius, you only need to fight the last two guards. The others you can just bypass if you stay in the middle.

 

Now the final fight awaits you... Depending on your gear, you have to help yourself with potions. If your FR gear is not good enough, you most probably have to drink a Greater Fire Protection Potion. Fighting him in FR gear around 300 is quite easy tho. No one said soloing a boss is supposed to be easy... but i think the costs for those potions are quite ok. Time for the whole trip: From entering the instance until dead Incendius is approx. nine minutes. Have fun!

Reactivating Totally Blootered

While Blizzard has again some serious server problems i decided to activate my blog again. Wanted to work on it since quite a while but never really had the time. So hopefully I'll manage to maintain it on a more or less regular basis.