Exalted with Zandalar

Finally Thulf is exalted with the Zandalar Tribe. Due to my lack of time to join many ZG raids, i decided to buy a few bijous to make the last jump. The click-fest was worse then getting to honored with TB, but well worth it. Beside a new shoulder enchant, Zandalar Signet of Might (where is the version for real tanks?), the most important purchase was the recipe for the Living Action Potion. This was the last alchemy recipe Thulf did not know. This results in a state of boredom for my trade, as there is nothing more to accomplish to improve my alchemy. I still think there should be some epic quest you can take after you learned all available recipes for your trade.

Some honorable mentions from the comic contest were posted by Blizzard. Those were my favorites:
Rules of the Rogue
Role-Players learn2play

Do you like poker? Especially Texas Hold'em? Then this addon is for you: Anzac Holdem. I posted about the Zwergenpoker mod a while ago, but that was quite beta. This one looks very promising. Still a few things to iron out, but definately something I'll try out. Perfect to drag some others into a game while you have to wait for the guy with hearthstone on cooldown to arrive at the dungeon. And if your ranged DPS goes down in the raids, it's because they just use auto-attack and try to steal the pot. ;)

Spice Melange in Silithius?

The next patch 1.12 is up on the horizont. Beside world pvp making the entrance to WoW, cross-server battlegrounds, etc. etc. it looks quite ok. Although no really exciting news for me personally. One interesting thing players report from the PTRs is tho, that in Silithius lvl 63 elite sandworms were sighted from time to time (see picture), which show up on the minimap as well. Anyone else thinks about Dune here?

Did you ever thought there are emotes lacking in WoW? Now is your chance to bring your idea forward to Blizzard in this thread: /GiveEmote

Blizzard is trying to make even more money with the WoW merchandise & franchise and is serious about it. Dataminers found new spells named after Upper Deck Entertainment in the new test patch. It was confirmed the WoW TradinCard game will have rare loot-cards whith a code on them so you can get items, that will "modify your online character in some cosmetic way". The first pic of a turtle mount showed up on the net as well. hum... no thanks.

The latest "shock" about the expansion got published. Blizzard confirmed, there will be a faction-class crossover, meaning Bloodelf Paladins and Draenei Shamans. WTF? I think it's a bit lame to make this change, but most likely it will attract even more people to buy the expansion and play a new race. We'll see how it turns out concerning high-end raiding.

On a funny sidenote concerning raiding, did you realize that the Naxx boss Loatheb is an anagram of Healbot? ;)

Savage Guard

With the rapidly dropping libram prices, it's an affordable possibility to get Savage Guard enchants from Zul'Gurub for your NR gear. I went in today to get one for my helmet. If you're lvl 60 and can survive a few hits, it's possible to get your enchants solo. With this enchant I'm up to 198 NR while still having a few options to improve it without loot from the green dragons or AQ40. Slowly getting there... ;)

You like WoW and you like Podcasts? Then maybe this website is for you:
The Battlegrounds: World of Warcraft

If you use SuperInspect like i do, and you get annoyed about the models not displaying correctly, you can hotfix it yourself until a new version is made available: Open up SuperInspect_UI.xml, search for DressUpModel twice and change both to PlayerModel.

Having a bad day and want to behave like an asshole? Well, Franky sure does have some tips for you: You are now HATED by the Argent Dawn. I thought it was a funny read although IMO that's griefing, so don't try it at home.

Onyxia PUG

Today i was invited to a PUG (or PUR more precise) to Onyxia. A friend asked me if i did not want to join, said it was a bunch of twinks/alts from experienced raiders plus a few real pick ups. They needed a tank. Alright, thought it could be fun to go. Once you join a PUR the raid chat is always a mess, people using caps or asking for a promote so they can invite friends (why can't they just tell the names to the raid for an invite?!?), etc. etc. Being a warrior at Onyxia if you're not tanking her is a bit boring if you have been there numerous times before. So i ask if i shall tank her, raid leaders ask if i did it before (*nods* several times, can't count them anymore). Ok, none objects... I'm supposed to tank her. I travel to her cave. While the new patch causes a few disconnects and people move into the lair, another warrior joins. Apparently the raid leaders know him better... in a matter of seconds hes being MT. Hmm.. should at least have been polite to talk with me first. Either to inquire how much experience i really have or if it's ok if he takes over as they "know him better". I consider this behaviour extremely rude. There have been enough people in the raid who know me and who could have second my "tale". I don't expect others to stand up and say "Hey, why shouldn't he tank anymore?", as i know during these raids people frankly don't really care. They want the show on the road and let the raid leaders handle it. Fine by me, but i got annoyed and needless to say i wished them luck but left the raid. Raiding surely brings out the best values in players! :)
/rant off

On a related note, it's always funny when you see non-warriors discussing what gear the tank should wear at Onyxia. Sometimes i wonder how much time people spend - or if they do at all - to analyze the fights. I don't want to go too much into numbers here, but Onyxia does more physical damage then fire damage. She does around three times more swings with physical damage (more chance for crits). If i wear my full tank gear, i avoid approx. 40% of her swing completely (miss, dodge, parry) and block another 44% of her attacks. Of course i prefer to fight her in tanking gear as it makes far more sense. Critical hits are around 0.2% that way and I'll avoid more damage as if i would fight her in FR gear. I always tanked her that way and we never had a problem with it. Nontheless amusing if someone says she has to be tanked in FR gear (which means all important stats are lower, beside FR).

Todays patch broke GetInventory in the API. What does that mean? Mods like SuperInspect etc. that had a longer range do not work properly anymore. While inspect range will get doubled in 1.12 it's really annoying now that inspect is so short, after half of the involved functions got "stealth nurfed". Really too bad.. being a fashion interested, it's always great to check out nice combinations others wear. bummer.

Small Blog Update

Took the time to update my addon list and eg. added Natur EnemyCastBar. In addition i did finally set up my profile at ctprofiles.net. It takes a moment, as you have to add all your items, etc. by hand but the search function is very good and limits the time to find them in the dropdown menues. In the end it's less time involved for me updating it, as most character logger save everything and i don't want to transmit all the character data and delete it from the code. I did set up my tanking gear, fire, nature and shadow... maybe that will prevent some of the gear related questions i get. ;) As I don't really PvP, I'm not afraid of handing out this info. And yes, the Might boots are my personal crusade, eluding me since a looong time.
Thulf @ CTProfiles

Gem Galore

Blizzard released some more official info about the jewelcrafting profession. Looks like in the expansion everyone will want to be one. ;) The socketed items remind me so much of D2, but it was fun back then as well. Although i still think all WoW crafting profession are far too easy to master. Hope they'll add some more things so you'll be able to be more distinguishable from other crafters. Talking about mastering professions, I dropped herbalsim and took enchanting for around two minutes to clean out my bank, as i really needed the space to fit all my resist gear in. With storing fire, nature and shadow resist gear in my bank, that takes away a lot of space. So if you see me riding around and collecting herbs to re-train herbalsim, give me a friendly greeting... probably I'm very bored already. *grins*

Sneak Attack on Naxxramas

Well yeah, i teached those critters around the portal a lesson! :) Felt like spoiling myself today and got Thulf attuned to Naxxramas. As I'm revered with Argent Dawn, it did still cost me 1 Nexus Shard, 2 Arcanite Crystal and 30 gold... but whos counting. Atmosphere seems great... spooky creatures running around. I used a Dreamvision Elixir to take some screenshots, will post more over the coming days. Upon using the teleporter to enter, you meet Mr. Bigglesworth - a mysterious cat - in the entrance area, as well as a wounded high-elf who tells you about the legendary staff he once had. *hint hint* I shall go back if the opportunity arises and look deeper into it. There is also a second teleporter above the one when you enter, most likely some kind of shortcut to Frostwyrm or something like that. On a funny sidenote: It's true when they tell you "no one ever came back from there", the teleporter entrance is a one-way portal. Hehe...

Tomorrow the PTRs will go up again to test a bugfix patch (11.2). Nothing spectacular new, just bug fixes. Tigole talked in the forum about possible upcoming changes to improve bag space. I cleaned out my bank today to make more space for resist gear and that always hurts. So many things you bind a story to... *sniff*

The Scourge is back

So i leave for a few weeks and when i come back the scourge invaded Azeroth. It's too less Dwarves around these days to prevent the evil to happen. ;)
Unfortunately i missed the fire festival, but at least managed to grab my Battlegear of Undead Slaying before the invasion was over. Glad I played during breakfast a bit, might prove useful for "normal" Scholo/Strat runs, as it will pump up the DPS against the undead a bit.

Blizzard started the Paid Character Transfer. Did you read the restrictions? I had to laugh hard. Characters are only allowed a certain amount of gold?!? IMO Blizzard should use this feature to try to balance the horde/alliance ratio on some servers and only open transfers that aid this goal. Maybe The Great Kodo will watch that all will be good in the end.

Concerning all being good in the end: Tseric mentioned in the warrior forum that the devs might review the warrior talents again, especially the rage generation. The hope dies last... =)

Recently saw a new video about the flying mounts in the expansion:
Flying Mounts Gnews Report at IGN

Did you know that beside the new polymorph pig quest for mages there is also a Tome of Polymorph: Turtle? You'll need to summon Gahz'ranka in Zul'Gurub to get a shot at it. Did you see the new loading-screen tips yet? What is your best tip?