Back From the Dead

Hello there!

A little over thee years have passed since I last posted anything. Unfortunately the last thing I posted was that I was sick, so hopefully none of you thought I died (I am alive!). Just today I was strolling down memory lane and wanted to check out the blog again, after all of these years, to even see if it's still around. And to my surprise it is! With a decent amount of total views on it! Rereading the posts made me feel nostalgic of course, but it also made me feel extremely bad. While I may not have had a ton of consistent readers, I did have them, and I abandoned you guys with no warning, no farewell, just left. I apologize for this, as you all deserve better than that.

The point of this post is pretty straight forward: what am I doing now? And what am I going to be doing?

I have a lot of questions:

• Do people care what I think still?
• Is Blogger still a good platform for blogging?
• Should I return to posting (to be honest I've always missed it, and I always felt I was somewhat decent at it)
• What the hell is going on in WoW!?!? (I've been away for some time)

I think I will try to get back into writing, I will give it a shot. I will not promise anything though. I have missed writing that is a 100% fact. If it ends up not working out (I lose interest again) I promise I will spend the time to write a final post saying goodbye.

Now another question you may be asking: What have I been up to this whole time? Let me answer that! 3 years have gone by and in that time I failed college twice (don't worry I'm doing well in the job department, promise!), waned interest in WoW (now returning), picked up League of Legends as my main game these days, and gone on many real life "Asilventures" that I could probably have a good amount of stories to tell.

I will say I am doing well in life, and I hope you are all doing equally well.

Follow me on Twitter @asilventures for daily updates on what I'm up to, as well as for when new posts go up.

 Now, let's have some fun, shall we?

Asilwen Is Ill

So that is why there was no post yesterday. Sorry to let you down this week, I have a virus (if it were a disease I would just cleanse it but I cannot rid viruses!) I will have a post for you Tuesday, promise! Now I'm gonna go back to resting/sniffling.

So to make up for no post this week, please enjoy this picture of what happens if you use a Potion of Illusion
on someone who is in the form of the Alchemy Dragon... then ride that person AS an Alchemy Dragon. (I'm the one on top!)

Enjoy:

Loot Card Giveaway: Landro's Lil' XT

Ever wanted to get your hands on one of those cute voiced robots that are bent on destroying trains and constantly remind you that they're ready to play? Now is your chance! Here's how you can win one!

The contest is a joke contest. I want you to e-mail me your BEST and most ORIGINAL WoW-Themed joke. This contest will be judged by me. The deadline to enter is Monday at midnight (EST). Winner will be announced sometime Tuesday. I will post all the jokes entered as well as the winner!

Just to reiterate: To enter you must e-mail me your joke. PLEASE PUT "JOKE CONTEST" IN YOUR SUBJECT. Not in the comments, or twitter, or anything. E-mail it to me. With the joke please include a name you'd like to be referred to as, for example your WoW character or even a fake name, whatever.

Please e-mail me at asilwensadventures@gmail.com

One entry per e-mail.

The winner will receive the code via e-mail after I have announced said winner. The most original and funny joke will win.

Have a question? Let me know in the comments below. Good luck!

Let's Talk About Portals!

I want to bring back up the discussion about portals in Cataclysm (and I promise I will make NO Portal references in this post! /pinky swear). Remember when Blizzard announced the removal of city portals and everyone lost it? People started complaining and got out their sandwich boards and started screaming the sky is falling. Those were fun times. Then Cataclysm hit and we were introduced to our new portals that would take us to each of the new zones once we got through a certain point of questing in that zone. I haven't really seen anyone bring up these portals in comparison to the old ones. What do I think of the new portals? I love them more than the old ones.

I guess I can see a problem with alts and them not being able to travel as easily, but why is that necessary? The game doesn't require you to travel across the continents, especially with the new questing and zone design. I'm trying to stay as unbiased as I can be on this topic (because I hate alts and don't play them) but I really don't see how this hinders playing alts that much.

Compared to the city portals, these new zone portals seem way more important. I mean really, when's the last time you went to the Exodar (if you're Alliance). If anything you only went there to get closer to one part of the world. Which is now done easier with the convenient and much better decorated portals we have today.

Let's compare:

As you can tell by the map, before Cataclysm we didn't have that much of a range of where we could go with the old ports. Now we could pretty much take a portal that will put us close to anywhere we need to go. And if you REALLY need to go to Darnassus, just find a mage. I'm sure you'll find one easily. And if you can't find a mage, roll one.

And to all the people who freaked out: I hope you feel silly. These newer portals are way better. I love them. If I could I would marry them and have little portal children with them. That's how much I like them.

And with that we've reached the end of the post, and there were no Portal references. I'm proud of myself, really. I guess you could say this was a triumph.

Guest Post: Vulpixie's Cheap Shot

This is a guest post by my friend Vulpixie (formerly Galfrid). He has been wanting to contribute a sort of a weekly rant post for my blog to fill the void that is my anger and frustration, seeing as I am reasonably calm a majority of time when it comes to everything. A lot of things easily enrage him: wiping on Maexxna, miniature golf, skateboarding video games, and this week feral druids. Please leave some feedback in the comments, as if people like his posts he shall continue them! Enjoy!

I started playing WoW 5 years ago around patch 1.1. I’ve raided during every expansion at least a little bit. Played a hunter in Vanilla and BC, and a druid all through Wrath. Currently I’m playing an Assassination rogue and loving it. I’ve mainly been focusing on pvp, due to our guild and the condition of heroics (40 minute queues just to fail). I’ve been in quite a few guilds and done enough in the game that I believe I can make an honest intellectual opinion about this game.

However, there are many things in this game that I can’t stand, and my guild mates will be the first to say that I love to rage about things. This week my rage cannon is pointed at the state of feral druids in pvp right now. In my opinion, as a rogue, THEY SUCK. Now, I have no idea how they fare against other classes, I can imagine mages could do quite well against them. So this is all from my perspective.

 First off: Me being assassination I do not have nearly as much mobility as I could as, say, a subtlety rogue. And because of this, I cannot stand toe-to-toe to a feral druid. Them being able to shift out of crippling effects, and the fact that they run faster than me just makes them so hard to hit. But the mobility is the lowest on the totem pole of suck that they have.

Second: 8k Ticking Bleed effects. This is what really gets me to my breaking point. Let’s just say I’m trying to kill someone in Tol Barad. Like a shaman, I love tearing into them these days. I open up and start wailing away, then BAM! Mangle, rake, rip and I’m screwed for like 15+ seconds. They hit like a truck, and those being bleed effects I cannot do crap against them!
Even if I get the druid low, he can pop bear form, get rage and get health. If it gets to this and I still have vanish I will gtfo. I will avoid a fight with a feral if I have to, but if I tell it’s a baddie, I’ll tear him a new one and enjoy the crap out of it.
 
Now maybe I’m just really bad and need to l2play. Either way, feral druids will continue to piss me off.

I Despise Dungeons

I'll go ahead and say it: I'm not impressed at all with Cataclysm dungeons. There are only two things I feel like Blizzard did right with Cataclysm dungeons:

1. They made interesting/challenging boss fights.
2. The overall difficulty of heroics.

Everything else I feel like is just either wrong or not new. Allow me to elaborate on my loathing.

I've done my fair share of heroics in my days, but I've only done a few Cataclysm heroics. However, I have done enough. Someone asked me last night if I wanted to do a heroic and I hesitantly accepted. I had planned on doing some BGs instead but I wanted to help and play with my friends (since he's DPS and I'm heals so we'd get exponentially faster queues). After we waited about six minutes or so and we all accepted the loading screen appeared; informing us of our fate. Last night it was the Stonecore. I can tolerate that dungeon because it's a known fact that I'm the last boss of the Stonecore. It's like my second home.

What I can't tolerate though is the length of dungeons. It's not the difficulty that gets me about heroics, it's not that at all. Not to toot my own horn or anything but I think I'm a pretty good healer and haven't really faced a heroic boss that pushed me past my skill limits (gear limits maybe). I do not like the fact that it takes my groups an average of an hour and a half to do heroics! That's way too long for a dungeon in my opinion. Here's a list of things I could do in an hour and a half that would be way more fun:

• Archaeology
• PvP: In an hour and a half (assuming all BGs I'd do last for twenty-five minutes which is the longest BG I've been in recently) I could get at least three battlegrounds done!
• Not do heroics
• Read Asilventures
• Dailies
• AFK in *insert major city here*
• Watching virtual paint dry
• Anything.

This is my major complaint about heroics. They're too long. Heroics are like going mini-golfing with your friends. It sounds like a great idea at first than by the time it's over everyone walks away frustrated and angry at the person who suggested it. Meanwhile the people who got holes-in-one try to validate the lost two hours of time by celebrating their arbitrary triumph (holes-in-one = gear upgrades in this simile).

However I don't complain with no reason. If I ever complain (like I am right now) I provide a solution. As I discussed with my guild mates about my hatred towards heroics they brought up a point that goes as followed: 

"Wrath heroics were short and easy. Cataclysm heroics are hard which makes them long. And most people would rather have harder and longer dungeons than short and easy."

True, Wrath heroics were short and easy for the most part. But what I don't understand is why we can't have hard instances but short in length! Why don't they design dungeons that are only like at max three or four bosses and have like two or three trash pulls in between? Everything in the dungeon can still be as challenging as it is today, but in half the time. This would give us the best of both worlds, essentially making the Hannah Montana of dungeons.

Take for example the last four bosses of Halls of Origination, or the top floor if you will. This is how dungeons could be designed and would make them not last forever. Four easily accessible yet difficult bosses with two challenging trash pulls in between. The top floor of Halls of Origination would be the perfect instance if that's all it was. Another great example would be Trial of the Champion. It had interesting boss fights and a perfect length. If they made it harder it would be perfect.

Now am I suggesting we get rid of trash all together? No, not at all. It would make no sense from a logical or lore stand point if there was no trash anywhere. I'm just saying to reduce the amount of it. Less trash means less wasted time. Time is money, friend.

Manataurs and You: A Discussion About Cut Scenes In Cataclysm

 

Back in the day, when Magister's Terrace finally came out, it was a big deal. Not really because it was new, but mostly because once you killed the second boss something happened that we hadn't really experienced yet: an in game cut scene appeared. Nowadays if you've quested in Uldum, you'll notice very quickly this zone is littered with cut-scenes. Like I think there's like two or three cut scenes per quest you turn in. There are cut scenes within cut scenes. It is crazy.

Now today I will ask you this question: is it a good addition to the game? Or is it an annoyance? What do you think?

Personally, I enjoy it. I watch every cinematic that I can. I think it's fun that they use your character as well. My favourite thus far is the manataur movie at the beginning of Uldum; it actually made me laugh out loud. This is something not many things accomplish.

On the other hand, I know my friends skip the cut scenes. Not because they don't care, it's just they see it as a hindrance to their leveling style. They don't read the quest text, they just want to get to max level. There's nothing wrong with this. I do however feel like these people miss out on awesome moments.

So what do you think? Do you like the in game movies? Let me know! Tell me what you think in the comments!

First Impressions: Throne of the Tides - "Asilwen Vs. Godzilla Vs. Giant Octopus" Edition

Today I wanted to cover my first impressions on (as the title suggests) Throne of the Tides, the instance located in Vashj'ir. I guess it could be considered technically the second of the new dungeons. Keep in mind as you read this: I did not read up on anything in this dungeon (nor did my guild group I did this with). So we went into this dungeon in the cold. No information at all. What did we find? Well, do you like the ocean? Giant tentacles/jellyfish? Illogical architecture? Than this is the instance for you, I guess.

As of writing this, I have not quested in Vashj'ir. So I do not know what's going on down in that ocean. My sea turtle carried me to the dungeon discovery. My lack of knowledge made me excited for the dungeon quest for this instance. So think of my disappointment when I zoned in to find no quest. That seemed to be the theme of this dungeon. There was almost no structure. There was no guide. Sure there was only one way to go, but once we killed the trash it took our jellyfish elevator about five minutes to start working. And when it finally went up, I missed it. Just my luck.

The whole design of the instance is unique. After the first two bosses you must back track to finish the instance; interesting idea. Not sure if I like it. It kind of ruins the flow. Sure it's different and different is refreshing but that doesn't change the fact there is like no flow to this dungeon. No quest line to sum up what's going on. All of these elements added up to a confused Asil. "So we ride a giant jellyfish up to kill the first boss then another boss crashes through the ceiling? Than we have to kill random goblins who decided to join the party which lead to a mind controlling squid? Then we're gonna help generically named water guy purify water? This makes sense."

Yes, I know, the quests in Vashj'ir probably explain what happens.

The bosses in the instance are different to say the least. Okay well maybe some of them are unique. Lady Naz'jar (the first boss) has a cool geyser mechanic that we've seen before in different adaptations, but watching your friends fail at standing in the fire then plummet as a consequence never gets old. If you're a fan of this blog, you'll know already I'm a huge fan of any kind of plummeting. Ceiling boss aka Commander Ulthok (the second boss) is a simple "Don't stand in the bad stuff while tanking fight" or as I like to call it "Put Asil to sleep fight". Erunak Stonespeaker is technically the third boss and his fight is mildly interesting. Sure it might be at it's roots a standard 'turn and burn the MC'd person' fight, but that doesn't change the fact if you get MC'd you get a giant octopus on your face. Screenshot opportunities abound.

The last boss/event gets it's own paragraph because of how hilarious it was the first time I ever did it (by hilarious I mean you probably had to have been there). Basically the event at the end of the instance (for those of you who haven't done it yet) has you protecting Neptulon as he attempts something my Brita filter has already accomplished: purifying water. The first two phases are fairly simple, just kill trash. It's the final phase that makes it a winner. See, apparently in World of Warcraft purified water makes you turn into a giant super powerful being. Once phase three hits you become incredibly powerful and start taking damage from the AoE that is on every part of the ground. There's two ways you could do this boss (Guess which way the first group I ran this with did it!):

The correct way: Everyone turns and burns the giant octopus on the ceiling.

The incorrect way: Everyone runs around like a fool going "zomg look we're hugeeee" as I struggle to keep everyone alive as the ground begins to kill us exponentially faster. Then it was decided that maybe we are supposed to die. It was only after I was the only person alive did we look up to see the octopus we were supposed to kill. Needless to say, if you're a healer, phase three can be solo'd. So feel free to neglect your group!

In conclusion: It has some interesting ideas, but a lack of flow really makes me not a huge fan. It's not a terrible instance, but it's not something I look forward to doing. And I'm not just being biased because I hate water! Maybe I'm wrong though, what do you think?

Vendor Trash Lore: Topper McNabb and the Slimy Rings

No one can argue with the fact that this game has a ton of lore. Sad thing is, it has a ton of lore about powerful things. Powerful weapons. Important people. And everyone focuses on this lore and forgets about how important some of the other stories are in this game. The untold stories that are often looked over. It is now my goal to tell these stories. Today I shall tell the story of Topper McNabb and the Slimy Rings.

Long ago, long before any player set foot in Azeroth, Jerry Denman decided it was time he opened up a Jewelry shop of his own. He had been working as an apprentice in Ironforge and soon found he had become better than his teacher and felt he was holding him back. He was thankful, but Jerry had dreams of becoming a world famous jewelcrafter. So he thanked his mentor for his effort, than made his way to Stormwind to start up his business.

Business was fantastic right from the start. Maybe even too good, because soon Jerry became overwhelmed with the amount of business he was getting. And the news that he was the most skilled jeweler in Azeroth spread like wildfire, thus insuring he would remain busy. He realized he needed to hire an assistant to help him out. Quickly.

Mr. Denman spread flyers around Stormwind advertising the position and over one hundred citizens answered the call to craft. Jerry had to sort through all of these people. After hundreds of thousands of smashed gems, bent rings, and shattered necklaces he phased out almost all of his hopefuls. Only two people remained: Thomas Miller and (to every one's surprise) Topper McNabb.

Thomas Miller was as skilled as any newcomer could be. He had the grace of a swan when he cut gems. The finesse of a rogue when he etched designs. The greatness of a- You get the point. Thomas Miller was a fantastic option for an assistant. His only flaw was his attitude. He was good, and he knew it. His ego was bigger than a certain dragon's chin, and that's saying something. Jerry hated this. There's nothing more he hated than a giant ego.

 Topper McNabb on the other hand was not skilled at anything. He crushed jewels, destroyed tiaras, and somehow set the building on fire seven times. The only reason he still remained a hopeful was Jerry loved his spirit. His sense of wanting to be the best, regardless of the fact he was a klutz. Mr. Denman saw promise.

There's three things Jerry knew about Topper McNabb. He's clumsy. He's gullible. And he loves squirrels. Mr. Denman figured he could live with all three of these things, and offered Topper McNabb the job. This infuriated Thomas Miller.

Business was booming as always (despite Toppers constant struggles) and soon the two of them became the richest people in Azeroth. Customers came from far away to get some of their jewelry. Life couldn't get better for either of them, especially Topper. Before he had this job he had nothing, and now he had everything. He was living large. If only he could stop dropping things, then his life would be perfect.

Thomas Miller on the other hand (after being denied his dream job) was forced to find another means of living: becoming a bread vendor. As he endlessly walked around the middle of Stormwind he constantly swore he'd get revenge on Topper. Thomas kept making plans in his head on how he would do it too. None of them seemed effective, until one day the most brilliant plan of all got concocted and set into motion as soon as he finished with his bread rounds for the day.

Back at the shop Jerry got mail regarding some rings that were made in Searing Gorge by the Thorium Brotherhood that they wanted to sell him. These rings weren't just any rings. These rings were the basis to Golden Rings of Power, Jerry's signature design. It was great timing too, because he desperately needed some. He was almost out of stock and people were getting restless. If he didn't get these rings soon it would be bad news. Seeing as Jerry had a bum leg, he couldn't make the journey himself, he needed Topper to go.

Jerry was nervous at first to ask this of him. When the time came, Jerry sat Topper down and told him that he needed him to travel to the Searing Gorge and retrieve the sack of rings. Mr. Denman emphasized greatly on how important these rings are and how they will make or break his business. Topper, not wanting to let him down, promised he would be more careful on this trip and would get them no problem.

A smile appeared on the eavesdropping Thomas Miller, it was time.

After making the preparations needed for the trip Topper set off. It was a rather uneventful journey there, and after a couple days of walking he made it safely. He was greeted kindly by the Brotherhood and Topper gave them the money in exchange for the rings. Topper found it odd they put the rings in a giant bag instead of a safer alternative, but nonetheless he was happy he hadn't messed up yet.

He thanked the Thorium Brotherhood for their hospitality and was off again back to Stormwind. After quickly realizing he forgot to set his hearthstone there, he sadly began his walk back. After (surprisingly) another uneventful journey Topper found himself proud as ever. There he was, staring at the gates of Stormwind with the bag of rings on his back. He did it! He didn't mess up.

Topper pranced over to the squirrel gleefully. It didn't run away when he neared. Topper was in heaven... until he realized it wasn't a real squirrel. Topper than looked up just in time to see a shadowy figure shove him and his rings into the watery descent below. The last thing Topper remembered before hitting the water was a faint smell of bread.

After swimming around the waters for some time trying to find the rings Topper gave up. Topper knew these waters were filled with Royal Monkfish, and those creatures love eating shiny things. Searching was futile since they probably had all gotten eaten. He headed back to Jerry's and hoped he was in a forgiving mood. He was wrong. This was the final straw for Jerry. Without hesitation he fired Topper. He didn't believe Topper's story. "A shadowy figure?" he said, "Right... I think you were just trying to balance on the side of the bridge and fell in." Soon after the firing of Topper the business went under and Jerry retired for good and decided to start a family instead of rebuilding his empire.

No one knows for sure who pushed Topper into the water. Ever since that day though, Thomas Miller always does his rounds with a spring in his step, and a crooked smile whenever he sees Topper at his street-side corner begging for gold.

Ask Asil: Mystery Elf Edition

Surprisingly to me, I've actually gotten a couple e-mails with questions. So I wanted to take a moment to answer them in a new segment called "Ask Asil" (I'm so clever).

Anonymous asks, "I love hearing about people's weird statistics, what are some cool/weird/awesome statistics you have on your priest?"

This question reminded me that the statistics tab exists. I always forget about it, but it's always fun to look around and see all of the statistics of my journeys... Well I do have some interesting ones. Here's a list of stats I've deemed noteworthy:

• 35,673 Auctions posted
• 122 Mounts
• 128 Vanity Pets
• 5,778 Greed Rolls
• 6,217 Fish Caught (9,894 if you include non fish)
• 7,309 Deaths
• 385,776 Creatures Killed
• 1,111 Times I've used my Hearthstone (Make a wish!)

Evvia asks, "What's the first thing you did after The Shattering happened?"

Do you mean like the moment it happened? I cried inside. Or do you mean in game activity. If you mean the latter, the first thing I did was run all the way to Hillsbrad and did the "Peacebloom Vs. Ghouls" quest chain for that adorable Singing Sunflower pet. Everyone should do this quest. It. Is. Awesome.

Anonymous asks, "In your opinion what's the fastest way to level now?"

With the new revamped world, quests are fun and more intuitive and aren't just "Go kill X of Y". However, if you are a class that can heal or tank I strongly suggest that (if you're going for speed) you spec tank or heals and use the Random Dungeon finder to dungeon grind your way through the levels. With redesigned old world dungeons and quest chains already inside the instances, it hardly feels like a grind. In fact I'm in the process of doing this exact method on my Warrior. It is fun. You won't regret it. Oh and to add to it, you'll maintain having good gear throughout your leveling... unless you have terrible luck with drops.

However, this is a game after all, you really should play the way you have fun. It doesn't matter if you get to max level the fastest in the world if you're not having fun doing it.


Galfrida asks, "Why is it in some of your screenshots there's a blood elf priest then in other pictures you're a draenei? Do you have two priests or something? And on that note, why do you use so many screenshots in posts when not many other blogs do?"

To answer your first question: I played Horde for like three years or something along those lines. Any pictures you see of a Blood Elf priestess is Asilwen back in the day. When I look for screenshots for posts I forage through my screenshots folder and see if I can reuse any pictures I've taken previously because I take a ton of pictures in game. I am Alliance now, and any pictures of a Draenei priestess you see are newer ones.

To answer your second question: I am a visual person. I also try to write blog entries that I would read if I found this blog randomly. That includes pictures. I love pictures and screenshots, even if they're dumb. Throw a wall of text at me and I probably won't read it. Throw some text in between some shiny pictures and I become more intrigued to read. I won't overdo it with the pictures, but I feel they add a bit of flair and make it more visually pleasing.

Drama says, "I liked your last entry. It was different and more blog like. Can we expect more of that in the future?"

Thanks! I'm glad you liked it. Yes it was kind of different than previous posts, it was more of a blog format you are correct. I started typing on the subject and I just couldn't stop. Yes you can expect more of that, more than likely that will become the norm for Tuesday Posts.


Asilwen asks, "Hey you're pretty much the most awesome person ever, how can I get more of your insight?!"

You could follow me on twitter here!

Those are all my questions for today, if you have any questions for me send them my way through e-mail at asilwensadventures@gmail.com or leave a comment!

Patch Notes Simplified: Patch 4.0.3

The patch that just came out Tuesday brought a few changes. Here are the patch notes, simplified, for those of you who don't like words! (Read along with the real patch notes here)

General

• Hey guys Cataclysm is coming December 7th, if you haven't heard yet!
• The leader of Wintergrasp raids can no longer kick players from the raid. We secretly endorse griefing so we took our time.
• If your group wipes while using the Looking For Dungeon tool, we now have made it easier for your fail self to find your way back, since we're assuming if you wipe in any of the current dungeons, you need all the help you can get.
• Honorable Kills are no longer awarded for killing players below level 5... GG Botters.

Patch notes continue after the jump!