It’s the same o’story, you’re about to hit that milestone that is 40, 50 or 60, you can’t wait, you’ll be getting a new mount, better equ and new skills. You work for days grinding and finding those quest you’ve missed and it finally happens, DING! you’re there.. You fly back to town, get your mount or what ever new toy is at that level, find the trainer and see if you get a new skill not just an upgrade to your old ones, hit AH and find those new purples you’ve been eyeing and then… You realize, you’re back at zero.

   These are the times that I start to slow down a bit, you realize you now have to do it all over again, move to a new area, grab 20 yellow !’s and start questing. Seeing those new areas does keep it new and exciting but also not knowing the area and where all the baddies that will kill you are hiding makes for a little slower progression also. BUT, you do have that new gear you just picked up at the AH and need to build your skill in what ever weapon you have. By looking at smaller goals to overcome and not the 10 levels you see still ahead (before you do it again) it will be no time untill you’re at 49, 59 or even looking 70 in the eye

   Being able to look into Outland was great and all but walking around can get a bet hazardous to my health, so it was back to the pre-BC world for 2 more levels. For the last 2 nights I’ve slowly moved closer and closer to level 60. Finishing off a couple quest in Winterspring that gave me over 11K of XP each helped and then some random killing have taken me to level 59 with 33% to go.

   One thing I need to sit down and do is clear out any old quest i’ve done and get rid of any old quest materials I have in my bag. I’ve wondered why I feel like I can’t carry very much, So checking my bag I see I have about 20 slots taken but quest objects, So time for spring cleaning.

   Using ArkInventory Found here you can split your bag into different sections, then with a quick glance of your bag, you know exactly what you have. I’ve split my bags into sections that show just food, soulbound objects, items for trade skills, mounts and then a large open section for what’s left, usually things to sell on AH. With this system, I no longer search each square finding what i’m looking for, I usually know which section to look into and find things fairly easy.

   I know this just became a addon post and not about me hitting 60 but I’m starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.. oh wait.. doesn’t everyone say “don’t go toward the light!”

   If you ever think you’re going to be close to death for a week, make sure your toon is sitting in an Inn. The last 2 weeks have been tough, usually if I’m sick, I can still sit a couple hours in front of the PC and get some leveling or blogging done, but not this time, spending days at a time on the couch and watching BAD TV is what I’ve been doing. Finally Saturday I was able to login to WoW and was happy to see I had parked my toon in an Inn and now had 61K of bonus XP (Woohoo). Saturday I was able to hit level 56 and 57, then Sunday I hit 58.. Woohoo Outland! I couldn’t wait, I took a small tour of Outland or at least Hellfire Peninsula and then before bed last night a few guildies ran me through Hellfire Ramparts and The Blood Furnace. I now am about 80% into level 58, slowly climbing to 60

   When running through Hellfire Ramparts and Blood Furnace, it seemed all the drops were for hunters and not my Rogue, but the XP was great! This being one of the first instances that I actually helped and wasn’t just run through, I learned alot. I learned of some of the skills I need to work on for my rogue, like lock picking to my level (we had to skip a check because I couldn’t open it). Before heading into an instance, if I have time, read a little on what to expect, I didn’t expect the techs to be dropping mines and also that I could disarm them. This led me to dieing a couple times and almost one complete wipe (mines, me being low pulled 2 mobs, it wasn’t pretty). Other things this run helped on was learning how the group works together, from the symbols of who to attack first to just watching what others are doing instead of just yourself (this is huge and a hard thing to learn, it took probably 3/4 of the night till a couple light bulbs came on and I started watching who and what the leader was doing, where others are standing and really keeping an eye on my health and aggro.)

   All in all the run was great, yes at times I looked like a noob (and am!) I did have the group laughing at my noobness but I learned alot with that first grouping, I’m just glad that I’m with a guild that will run you through things like that, help you with your mistakes, explain things to you but still laugh at you. Thanks Guys..

Check out the screen shots over at Daostrasz’s Realm and while you’re at it, can anyone let me know what lightbox plugin he’s using, mine only shows smaller pic, but it could be because their hosted on flickr.

Check them out

   As soon as I get home, I’ll add an image of me on the turtle mount, Yes I finally got it. All it took was disabling all my addons, which I cheated in doing. I have all my addons setup just how I want them and I have many in the directory that are not enabled, so I would have had to make a list of all the addons I had and then disable all, get the mount and then go down the list and enable just the ones I was using or I could have made backup copies of the Interface and WTF directories and deleted the originals, got my mount and then copied the directories back over, But I chose door number 3. A laptop that I use for traveling has a copy of Wow on it with no addons installed (since it doesn’t have enough memory to run them) Boot up the laptop, get my mount and I’m all set. I now have my Turtle Mount! yeh for me! All is good in my world, or so I think.

   While walking around in IronForge with my turtle, showing it off, someone walks up to me and ask if I can unlock a box for him. Being a Rogue I have this ability but have never done it for someone else, but I’m a nice guy so I say ok. Correct me if I’m wrong but I figured he trades the box to me, I unlock and then he opens it, Correct? Well he starts the trade, I see our trade windows and his lockbox, it turns green, I accept and nothing happens (just like with the turtle). Thinking it was because I was mounted, I dismount and try again, still doesn’t work. Ok, Houston, We have a problem.. It seems that one of my addons is stopping trades, I can buy, sale and buy back from vendors but I can’t trade. The loot vendor in BB must trade the item to you instead of “sell” it to you.

   I love addons, they bring so much to the game, but I understand why many don’t use them or only use a couple, because when things go bad it can be a pain to figure out. When something like this isn’t working, how do you know which of your 20 addons is causing the problem? When a new patch comes out and suddenly only part of the addons work, you have to find all the updates, many devs stop working on their addon and you have to find a replacement and many times there are just objects sitting on your screen that you have no idea what they are, what addon created them or even how to move them. Do you feel addons are worth the troubles? I must because I keep debugging them.

   Now on to my problem, how do I test each addon? I can’t ask someone to stand there while I disable 1 addon, logon, try a trade with them, it doesn’t work, logout, reenable the last one, disable another addon, logon, test again… 20 times. I wouldn’t even do that.

   Some like it some are totally against it, but the WoW Trading Card Game has the special loot cards. Get one of these cards and you end up with something special ingame that others can only dream of.. ok that’s a bit of a stretch but there are a couple nice things. Most are just toys, a dragon kite or a fishing chair but the one everyone wants is the Spectral Tiger Mount. With the odds of getting one of these loot cards so high, it’s probably better off buying one off of ebay, but I’m a lucky person so why not try.

   A month ago I’m at a mall and see the cards, so I buy 5 packs, sit down in the mall getting ready for my winnings, open them and find nothing.. blah.. Like I said the odds of getting one of these cards is completely crazy, so I tell myself, next time I’ll buy 5 more and that’s it. (I’m not a gambler at all) So this week I’m Christmas shopping and see the cards once more, buy 5 packs and to my suprise, I’m a winner. I may be lucky but I’m not lucky enough to get the tiger mount, I won the Turtle Mount, yes the turtle mount, the one that when ridden it only has walking speed, anyone can ride it, you don’t need to be level 40, but it’s something.

   Running off to Booty Bay to claim my prize Turtle, first you go to the card games site and put in the secret number you scratch off the card, they then send you to Blizzard who gives you an in game secret number, just for your server (if you put the wrong server, you’re screwed and might as well make a toon there now). So armed with my in game secret number I find the NPC in BB, click on him, choose riding turtle, input the the # and nothing happens No wrong number, No here ya go, nothing. So what do I do? Do I contact the card game makers? Blizzard? I found an email address on the card makers site and sent a brief rundown of what happened and asked what my course of action should be to resolve this. I haven’t received an answer yet (it was just last night) But as I was standing at the NPC after sending the email a level 1 walked up to the NPC and stood there for maybe 20 minutes, it had to be a GM because one they were level1 in BB but also when I tried to inspect them, I didn’t have the choice, I could point at her but when I tried to whisper, the whisper said there is noone logged in with that name. After her 20 minutes of standing there, she just vanished. So still no idea what I need to do, or what I can do.

Edit: Come to find out, I bought the wrong pack of cards to try to win the Tiger mount, but if this works itself out, I have Speedy the Turtle!

Edit2: The company just got back with me, they say I should try disabling my addons for everything to work, I can then reenable them. Have you seen how many addons I have?

   From time to time I’ll let everyone know just how much of a noob I am, in hopes it makes others feel better.

   Example #1 always check maps and other resources online before heading to somewhere you’ve never been before. Last night I needed to go to MoonGlade to turn in a quest that I had, had help with, yes it was way beyond my level but I figured now since it’s just a “goto” to finish it, I might as well do it. A quick look at the map, well MoonGlade is next to Darkshore, so I fly to Darkshore. Looking at the map once more, it looks like I can get to Moonglade by going north in DarkShore. Wrong.. But I’ve come all this way, maybe I can go off roading and swim to MoonGlade, it’s right next door.. After 2 hours of swimming, checking every break in the mountains and refusing to turn back, because I’ve come to far already, I find out there is only one way into MoonGlade and it’s protected buy many over my level. So My body lays in the tunnel connecting to MoonGlade but with maybe 1 or 2 more respawns I should make it Check out the map for the longest route to MoonGlade. (What a noob!)

EDIT: A friend just sent this to me.. those mobs inside the cave are faction based.. you can do the quests in lower felwood (lvl 47-50) to gain rep with the furbolgs and they wont attack you in the cave.. Thanks! lol

   As a World of Warcraft Noobie, one of the things I need to get use to is the different styles of play, I’m not talking among others in your group or guild but the different styles you use depending on what you are doing in WoW.

Some of the Wow playing styles I’ve noticed:

   Soloing - When soloing, you usually have control of your situation. Making sure you’re only fighting one or two beast at a time and being out in the open there is usually an easy escape route no matter which way you run. There usually isn’t a mob hiding around the corner that you can’t see and you don’t have to worry about anyone but yourself to do something stupid (which still happens). With Soloing, your style is mainly hack and slash, run if there is a problem and if something big happens, you have the time to use an emergency skill (like vanish)

   Groups - In a group each person has their own job, this is where your style will change, with others to look out for, not just if they die but are they pulling other mobs or just have no idea what they’re doing, but also when it comes to attacking and exit strategies. Now instead of, it’s just your job to kill, it may now be your job to heal, or to stun while others do the damage. Working as a team is always different, but also completely different when things go wrong. When out soloing a mob may hit you for a couple hundred or less health points, but in an instance or dungeon, you may pull a mob that was hiding around the corner that is hitting you for a thousand health points, suddenly you don’t have the time to think about what’s happening, start to run, decide to use your emergency escape, it’s now do or die. This is where some of those skills your trainer taught you, that you wondered if you should even buy them come into play, these skills you’d hardly ever use when soloing now are life savers.

   Battlegrounds - I’ve gone over some of the battleground styles and game play on the linked post.

   Alts - This is where things can start to get confusing. When I first started my Alt Hunter, My first thought is how do I walk anywhere without Stealth (Rogue Main). But I finally got into the swing of using my pet, attacking with it and once it had Agrro, I could start to attack. Then I’d go back to my Rogue and wonder where my pet is. Even though this can, like I said be a bit confusing, it’s always good to play other classes, how else will you know what the other player in your group is trying to do or should be doing if you’ve never played that class before.

What are some of the different styles you’ve used? What was the main do or die difference for you that you “had” to learn?

   As I’m getting higher in levels, I’m starting to realize just how important quest are. At the lower levels, you notice, wow that quest gave me a boost, but you’re new to the game and killing is sooo much more fun than running around taking water or gems to another NPC. Then you hit level 20ish and things start to slow down. I probably grinded lvl25-32, I knew that quest would give me the needed XP but my problem was, finding the quest. Oh yeh you can look online and find quest you need but usually first you need to know the area that you are in, and since I had no idea where to head for my upper 20s and lower 30’s I roamed around in the lower areas, grinding and wondering if I like this game!

   To get to the new area that your level should be at Blizzard adds quest they call breadcrumbs, they lead you to where you need to go, but what if you don’t find this quest or you want to go to another area? Well Blizzard to the rescue, they’ve added an atlas of all the World of Warcraft and by going to customize you can choose region levels, this will list every area and the level of beast that roam that area. Another good tool is the addon for Fubar called Fubar-LocationFu, this addon will not only tell you info on the zone that you are in but will also recommended zones/instances you should go to based on level and friendliness of the area.

   After grinding so many levels, I never want to go back to that, I’ve now learned that you can sometimes easily level twice in one sitting with just doing quest, This isn’t to say you won’t be grinding to get that drop for the quest, but it gets rid of useless grinding.

   One thing that is a must know when in a group are the rules for Need, Greed or passing. While these seem to be straight forward, there can be slight changes when in a guild group.

Usually these are the rules..

Pass - I don’t want this item to use and I also don’t want it to sell.
Greed - I intend to sell or auction this item.
Need - I will USE this item. You WILL NOT SELL IT. (Some groups may wish you to equip it there and then, some groups will just trust that you will make use of it after the instance.)

Just one last point on “Need”, your character really should be able to use it there and then, also “needing it for the money” is not need, that is the greed option.

   The one difference I’ve found when in a guild group and something you may want to ask or get straight up front before heading into an instance is Blue Items.. Mostly those that bind on pickup (BOP). The groups i’ve been in usually hit pass, so they can discuss it and not have to worry about the need/greed timer. Believe me, you don’t want to be the ninja that hits greed and everyone else hits pass, you get it and 2 others could have used it.. oops! yes it happened to me (Noob!). It makes sense, because since it’s BOP and you can’t use it, then you would only be able to sell it for small small amounts to the NPC’s, so usually someone can enchant it and the group shares what comes from it.

   While i’m talking about looting I might as well add what the different loot options are for groups, since many don’t know.

Round Robin - Everyone takes turns in looting. It is your turn to loot again when everyone has taken their turn in that “round.” This setting is recommended for most situations. If a player bends down to loot a monster under Round Robin looting, then if they leave items on the corpse that they haven’t looted, anyone in the party can loot them. Keep in mind that more than one person will be able to loot a corpse if the person currently looting already has enough of the quest items that that specific monster dropped.

Free-For-All - This setting allows anyone in the party to loot any corpse. You might find this option useful if no one cares who gets what, or how often any one person gets to loot.

Master Looter - This setting allows the group leader to loot everything and allows the leader to decide if other members in the party are to get items, and what items they should get. This becomes useful when very powerful items are dropping and people can’t be trusted to pass them out fairly. Any time an item is distributed using the Master Looter system and the item is quality epic or above there will be a confirmation dialogue to confirm that the item is going to the correct person.

Group Loot (default) - When an item equal to or above the threshold (details on threshold below) is on a monster that is killed, everyone gets a pop-up box on their screen with the item and pass or roll options and a timer. Anyone who rolls, displays a number between 1 and 100, the highest roller of all those who choose to roll automatically gets the item. Anyone who waits until the timer expires automatically passes. Items below the threshold are taken care of by normal round robin rules. If more than one player ties a loot roll, a random player will receive the loot. An interface option, “Detailed Loot Information” is defaulted to ‘on.’ If you turn it off you will only see the roll and Need/Greed option of the player who won the item rather than information for every player.

Need Before Greed - Same as group loot, except players who cannot use the item automatically pass.