Howling Fjord

HOWLING FJORD

Howling Fjord is a fun area from a lore perspective, as this is where Arthas first landed in his pursuit of Mal'Ganis. He then burned his boats so they could not leave, stranding his soldiers and we all know what happened to Arthas! Those humans and dwarf descendants have been there ever since fortifying Valgarde.

It's a great area for skinners or those harvesting meat as there are many herds of shoveltusk roaming around (borean leather, scraps, artic fur and meat all sell well on most servers).

The quest Let's Go Surfing Now on a blazing arrow was a quick way back down to Valgarde from the vrykul town of Nifflevar up top.

The dialog between the vrykul is worth reading in this quest - The Echo of Ymiron. Interesting bits of lore sprinkled through the area. Don't forget while you're in the spirit form, make sure to visit the Lich King for his dialog.

Twinks and Patch 3.2

Patch 3.2 is going to have some interesting changes for Twinks.

• Battleground experience has arrived!
• Players will now be awarded experience for completing objectives and actions that yield honor in Battlegrounds (honorable kills not included).
• Players who do not wish to gain experience through PvP can visit Behsten in Stormwind or Slahtz in Orgrimmar - both located near the Battlemasters in either city - and turn off all experience accumulation for the cost of 10 gold.
• Disabling experience gains will prevent a player from gaining experience through any means available in the game.
• Players with experience gains turned off who compete in Battlegrounds will face off only against other players with experience gains turned off.
• Behsten and Slahtz can reinstate experience gains for players, for a 10 gold fee of course. Any experience that would've been accumulated if experience gains were enabled cannot be recovered.

Twinks are finally accepted! Kudos Blizzard finally! The whole XP on/off will allow those (like me) that like to pvp to do so against other twinks (no xp) or against anyone in the xp side. I'm very glad that Blizz 'borrowed' this from Warhammer as the XP while pvping in scenarios was a favorite of mine in that gam.

WHAT WILL TWINKS DO?

1. Will this cause longer queue's for twinks?
   
2. Do twinks need to consider relocating to more populated battlegroups?
   
3. Join twink guilds?
   
4. Band together for fun?
5. Quit?
6. Play on xp enabled new toons?

It would be considerate with these changes for Blizzard to allow twinks free server transfers as nothing will be worse than finally having battlegrounds that can be twink v twink only to queue for an hour or more as there just isn't that many twinks available!

Add to that the new change that WSG (Warsong Gulch) will now have a 20 minute cap - good for the XP in BG's group, for the twinks it will be too short. A battle that is 40-60 minutes would make more sense. How lame would it be to queue for 15 minutes or more only to be in for 20 minutes? The timing needs to be re-thought especially for the no xp gain group!

Those are not the only changes - there is also the mount availability starting at level 20 - that will change the 20-29 bracket I imagine. The 10-19's will be different with hunters, shamans and druids getting their speed boost now at 16! That will be fun to try to get that FC, although much discussion centers around the fact that premade or twink heavy BGs are played differently than PUGs. More midfield activity, less starting heavily defending an more coordination of team effort.

WHY I LOVE PUGs in BGs
At any level, a PUG group that can pull it together and win is fun to me. Can we mount a good offense and defense from 10+ unaligned people?
No vent and work together to win.

Getting people to communicate is the hardest part, but one I really push for. I'm a tad chatty in BG's in that I give positions, tell incoming - not three inc tun. But two hunters and a lock inc tun! Druid taking farm! It helps decide what to do - imho - based on the class and also the incoming players. Six DK's incoming stables is more helpful than inc stables help!

MY TWINKS

As for my own growing band of twinkies - I'm not sure what to do. I've been fairly resistant to joining a twink guild. Mostly because of some of the twinks I play against and their need to exploit/hack the game. What's the point? When you have 1500-2K HP already, do you really need to hack the game? I guess if that's all that is left to accomplish. I fully understand trying to craft the best twink out there, but if hacking/exploits is the way to go - no thanks! The ones that have the dedication to get the fishing gear, run an instance umpteen times or get an AGM - I congratulate your efforts.

Combine that with my imagined view that a twink guild is going to be like a raid guild with mandatory attendance, etc., and I'm not sure I'm up for that. Better gear would be sweet (dreams of AGM's), along with a fairly equal footing regarding player levels/abilities/gear, the chance to try arenas in the lower brackets, etc..

Need to mull it over. Maybe if I found a twink guild that played fairly (no cheats, exploits, hacks), were competitive without losing their minds over it - fun is what I'm looking for - I need a casual twink guild. Is there such a beast?

Since I have the two alliance casual twinks (lock and hunter), I'm now working on the horde side - again a lock and two hunters one for 19's/29's (really considering a pally though!).

After that I'm really going to stretch myself and work on a warrior (level 2 now). My level 19 acciental warrior (RaF while you're tired is not a good idea - thought I was leveling a pally but leveled a warrior!). Yeah, I know lame! I have major suckage as a warrior I will admit. Heck I have trouble in bear form on my druid! But then again those are such low played alts I'm really guessing as to what to do!

Anyway I did go through one WSG and it was dismal on the warrior! I managed to gain three achievements but it was a real L2P experience! The whole rage generation I'm still getting the hang of against live people. It's not hard against NPC's I've found. So, I'm not sure how successful this will be! More practice before I work on the lvl 2!

I had thought to roll a healer, and may still or maybe dust of the mage that's been on ice for a couple of years - lol.

I did level my very un-twinked Priest under a variety of specs in BGs (holy, disc, sp, blend). She actually capped out honor I think 2 or 3 times and was fully geared before she was level 70. So, I know I can tolerate healing - I just don't love it like some do! My former guild constantly harangued me to ‘go level’ but battlegrounds called and I was off! May have to throw her back into the mix too!

There are also a few higher level characters I'm working slowly on for the 29's, 39's and 49's. I'd love to do the 59's as you get such a good variety of BG's, but Death Knights have made it, well not a whole lotta fun, so I'm not sure I want to at this point.

Now that Blizzard has made so many new BG’s for the level 80’s though I may just want to get a couple of the gang there to try them out – especially before 3.2 and the new one!


TWINK INFO
If you're interested in twinking two resources - PwnDepot and TwinkInfo as well as the WoW Forums (specifically the battlegroup forums) have loads of information. Most of the 'true' twink community is very knowledgable and willing to share information - not hand it to you, but help. The /wrist noob comment group - well they're everywhere and need to be /ignored!

Dalaran at last!!!

Sithi's finally in Dalaran. It's been a long six months waiting to go, but I wasn't going to have this new city adventure ruined! I've been avoiding all things Northrend, as I wanted the surprise and fun exploring a new area without commentary!

Shattrath was so anti-climatic after having my hearth there for 40+ levels. But I didn't know any better, the guild were helping me - a total nooblet. Now as irritating and as slooow as it can be, all characters take the boats/zeps/birds around until they can go through the portal at level 58!

None with hearth in Dalaran until they do the quest either. I know weird, but that's the way it will be!

Travel will be a moot point soon since patch 3.2 there will be a direct route to the dark portal from Org/SW with a direct flight to Shattrath on the other side.

Personally, I've enjoyed that heart-thumping ride though Outlands as a new level 58. I would have loved to go through the portal for the first time when Outlands was fresh and new - it would have been fantastic! Now it's a maniac ride -

• Hoping the flying gankers don't notice me.
• Hoping I don't aggro ever beastie on the way and get dismounted.
• Hoping not to get stepped on so many times by the Fel Reaver this time

It's such a relief to finally reach Shattrath - but oh so fun!

The downside to Dalaran - lag and d/c time! My PC froze every time Sithi took a step. Four freezes later, I went to the forums. Delete your cache, move the WTF and Interface files. Try again. No joy! I finally deleted off all the games I'm not playing (backed up to external HD), did a disk cleanup and defragged and that seemed to work.

Tried it on low settings, with the standard UI - all works. Relog with normal - a bit choppy down to 22-25fps at times, but at least I have my UI!!!!

As for Dalaran! Wowzers! I really like the city. Pretty, easy to get around and the layout is great. It's all there but some things are hidden so you're forced to explore. If Bliz can get it to be a bit more stable it will be perfect.

So Sithi is at home in Dalaran. She's already working the daily cooking & fishing quests. She's closing the gap to cold weather flying (short on cash at the moment so being industrious!! Level 77 will bring artisan and cold weather flying along with the albino drake! I'm so excited for that!

Busy Day

MIDSUMMER FESTIVAL
Sithi finally bought the sandels to complete the outfit - just to do a pole dance achievement! She did the King of the Fire Festival last summer solo at level 40-50. Playing both sides helps to know the different city's layout and had honored/desecrated most of the fires too. It was sweet when Bliz reset to get to do them again! Definitely enjoy the XP and $$!

The achievement that I'm sure will be /fail for Sithi - throwing torches. I haven't tried it yet, but going to. I'm sure it will be a frustrating and irritating experience!

BATTLE BOT PET

Sithi's Battle-bot pet seems to have taken some growth hormones! I don't know why it was so large, do they grow? I couldn't find a 'normal' size one to compare or fight!

KARAZHAN
While questing through Borean Tundra I got a whisper to do a Kara run. As I was getting ready to take a break from Wow-ing, I declined and wished them well.

Breaks over. I really need to get the current flavor-of-the-month raid pet a wolf as I keep getting whispers for instances and the gorilla isn't the ideal pet.

Petopia time as I'm not overly thrilled with the Northrend wolves at least what I've seen! Level appropriate but a bit on the ooglie side for me. The one in Hinterlands, the rare spawn Old Cliff Jumper - that's the ticket! It won't look like every other wolf, if I have to have a wolf.

Off to The Hinterlands!

Stop in Aerie Peak at the Stable Master with the Gorilla. Storage problem - two cats and a wasp. The next slot 150g and I'm saving for flying. The cats (I don't really need two, but....), boot the wasp! Store the gorilla, grab the wasp and off we go to find the Jumper!

Note to self: You are on a PvP server at a time when lots of the opposition are running around. Not a good idea to stand around reading wowhead notes on new pet while out in the open with pet on PASSIVE!!!! Death by warrior - argh! My fault - hunters can see them coming so know excuses except stupid!

Regroup.

What? The Jumper is on a 10-16 hour span timer? Back to Petopia. Ah Ironjaw! I always did like the look of that one in Terrokar Forest, the same model at Halycon in Black Rock Depths - the gianormous one - and it's a rare model too.

A lovely trip later - Dalaran-Shat-Terrokar off on my bird to get Ironjaw! Find him, dismiss the wasp, trap 'n tame. New wolf pet. Now I need a good wolfish name. Feed him - we need to level him 5 levels as he's only level 70. Hearth is not up, so Shadowmoon is just a hop over the mountains. Off we go.

As I'm landing in Shadowmoon, I get a whisper. Can you come to Kara now? (same group) We need DPS. Hmmm, I've never been. How bad can it be? If it is I can leave! So, I agree. I wanted to get back to town to restock arrows, food - no come now! What pet do you want? We don't care. Oh joy! Well the wolf can go then. That's why I got him, right?

Off to Kara! They're right befor Curator. This is a PUG, level 70-80 DKs, pallys, locks, one mage and me. Okay! The pally that was tanking is no healing as one healer left. The RL says he'll tank (70 DK). Do you need any CC? No just DPS. So away we go. Wipe one on all the adds with Curator. Back up. Adds down, Curator down.

Free rolls on gear - w00t! I win the gloves. If I'd known my PvP set were better I would have passed, but hey I'm a noob raider and totally ignorant on gear! : P

We take down Terestian Illhoof and again win!!! Girdle of the Prowler Nice! Time to start passing on stuff!

We're going along well until we meet Shade of Aron who nicely kicked us to the curb. The raid basically fell apart then as they'd been at it for quite a long time.

So, for a first raid and a pug at that - not bad! No screaming or whining which is a rarity - lol!!! Especially as we were not in vent.


Still need to name the wolf though!

Quest humor

I'm a quester.

I love reading the quest dialog as some of it is quite funny. This one on Azuremyst Isle I finally took a screenie of -

It's at Odesyus Landing between Admiral Odesyus and "Cookie" McWeaksauce.

Just the names crack me up :-P

Frothe

I thoroughly enjoy Battlegrounds (BGs) in World of Warcraft as I’ve mentioned before. It’s one part of WoW that keeps me playing.

Sass played so many I maxed honor 2x and that was with a full set of PvP gear, mounts and other 'stuff'. Keg is a blast to play, even in the 10-19’s dominated by rogues and hunters, as a hunter, I’m still enjoying him.

As, I wanted to try another class, I looked through the cast of characters and decided to level my warlock -

Enter Frothe!

Cute as a button, pink pigtailed gnome warlock that I made back in 2007. She was created during Brewfest on my second attempt at WoW, (the first way back in 2004/5 I hated the game!)

Why a pink haired gnome warlock? To annoy my "Horde onto death" daughter that crosses continents to kill gnomes. What better way to have lively family debate then to roll a gnome?

Frothe did Brewfest (dinged level six and has her wolpertinger), I ended up rolling another Horde character (a mage), so Frothe had a long nap!

Until two months ago.

I started researching what was involved with a warlock (seriously no clue on how you got soul stones at that point or what was this drain mana/life thing), but I figured she was sitting around – how many hunters could I play anyway? No comment - I'll incriminate myself!

Soooo, we redid her professions to engineeringfor the goggles and minor recombobulator and herbalism for the lifeblood buff. She's ran instances (DM, WC and BFD) and 'discovered' areas she'd need prior to level 19. She's still in need of a different weapon, but the staff is not dropping and the enchants she needs are not readily available (may have to level an enchanter just to do them!).

After playing Horde primarily, I'm really get a kick out of playing a gnome - a true PvP magnet! I'm learning how to play a warlock and I’m sure by warlock standards I’m pretty laughable, but she’s doing okay in BG’s so far, as well as out in the world!


Unfortunately, Frothe, like Keggard, is doomed to be an unfinished twink for a few reasons.

Mostly, I'm not sure I'm that dedicated to twinking - are there casual twinkers? I view the twinking a bit like raiding from some of the things I read. While I admire the dedication of raiders and twinkers, I'm not sure that interests me! I’m just not that hardcore.

There are also, obstacles to overcome.

• No level 80 to get the BoA (bind on account) gear
• Enchants she needs are hard to come by as in unavailable or outrageously priced.
• AGM (Arena Grand Master) trinket is now an achievement, so Gurubashi is populated with many level 80’s
• Sunday is not a day I play much WoW, takes the fishing tourney out(no hat/no boots!) let alone compete in it!

We’ll keep plugging away at getting her enchants, and staff, but the rest may not ever happen!

Frothe, like Keg, is holding her own – minimal deaths and high up on the dps/kills scoreboard. I even forced her/me to carry the flag once. LOL! I have no talent in that direction nor desire, but she did it.