Big List of WoW Links is Online

My Big List of WoW Links is now online.

I originally created this list to put up some information for casual gamers, and the occasional humor or opinion post. However, the lens format doesn't allow for projects such as a big list of WoW links to be easily indexed. So, I've created a Squidoo lens with a nice fat list of WoW links for anyone to bookmark, so that they have a good resource to check when searching for information.

The links found on the List are all vetted by me for minimal quality standards. I have linked sites which have further links within them, in order to avoid clutter. This is especially notable on the Warrior and Paladin sections, which point to a couple of very nice link compilations from the official WoW forums. So, get in there, dig around, and if you like it, bookmark it. (That's my ulterior motive: a big back up for my WoW bookmarks.)

The List will be a constant work in progress, so if you don't see a link there that you think should be, you should click the contact link on that page to send me an email, so I can check it out.

The Alt Bug is Nibbling at My Toes

Is it time for me to break out Joana's Guide again, or perhaps Brian Kopp's?

I've already lamented the fact that in order to pimp out my PVE toons, I'll need to collect hundreds of Badges of Justice. Gearing up the Warrior for PVP is yet another time consuming grind, though I'm going about it very casually.

I've decided to retire my Hunter and Druid, for the most part. I'll likely finish off my Hunter's epic leatherworking pieces, but that's about it, perhaps use him to farm daily quests.

So, do I need another alt? Is the grass really greener? I dunno, but I'm getting that itch again, even as I'm preparing for two toons to shuffle off into retirement.

My candidates are Memories, a brand new (rotting) Undead Rogue on my PVP server, and Howard, my level 34 PVE server Warlock. I was working on Sango, as the sidebar shows, for PVP, but after crushing better-geared 'locks with my Warrior, and being constantly annoyed by Rogues on all my characters, decided to roll Rogue. My 2v2 partner for my Druid is currently a Rogue, and I think Rogue/Rogue may give better control options. The Warlock, I just want finished so I can collect the Season 2 Warlock Set to wear around town. It just looks that cool. (It'll also give me a fifth 70 to do dailies and farm with on my PVE server.)

Although I won't be able to play them much, as I'm devoting most of my playtime to my Warrior, Mage and Paladin, I think I'm going to do a weekly play session with each of my new alts. I'll do a series of posts with each, to review the guides, and put it up somewhere on the web, with linkage.

I'll be using the Blood Elf starting area (starting at level 5) for the Rogue, so I can check out that section of the guide, and my Warlock may prove some insight into using one of these guides with an already existing character.

Pimping My Mage in 2.4

I've been taking a long, hard look at what's out there for my mage since patch 2.4 came out. I've been playing with the same crafted epics and PVP rewards, with a few raid drops (because there aren't that many raid drops that are upgrades when you're just starting into SSC and TK) for several months.

Stepping into TK, I realized, hey, lack of stats sucks!

Now, I hadn't partaken of any of the badge loot in lieu of my crafted stuff simply due to the fact that none of it was really a DPS upgrade for me at the time. Patch 2.4 changes that somewhat.

Here's a link to my mage's wish list from Warcrafter.net:

Wishlist

This list is my non-hit capped set. All I have to do to hit cap it is swap out four pieces of gear, three of which I already have in my inventory. If I do so, I don't really lose too much spell damage or crit, just a little haste.

What's cool about this set is that I gain some spell damage, lose a tiny bit of crit, but go up to a whopping 157 Haste rating from my current 25. Getting this setup, all of which is attainable outside of raids, should give me a significant DPS upgrade, along with a nice stat boost. Which should help me from folding like a cheap tent if I get a random charge from a trash mob.

Of course, gathering all of this stuff should keep me busy for a while. I'll need a ton of cash for leveling Engineering for the goggles, and for buying the Mantle of Nimble Thought pattern the next time it pops up on the Auction House, plus about 655 Badges of Justice.

Oh, that Timbal's Focusing Crystal should be a Darkmoon Card: Crusade, but you know, I already have Timbal's and the Crusade Card is pretty darn spendy. So...

So, patch 2.4 a time sink? You betcha. Worth it? Heck yeah.

I hereby pronounce patch 2.4 A Good Thing. At least for Mages.

I don't need no stinking badges!

Well, I tallied up all of the 2.4 badge loot I'd like to get for my characters.

My Warrior (as of now) and my Druid are strictly PVP characters, so I don't need much for them, just the PVP cloaks for 60 badges each.

My Mage is my main raiding character. If I decked him out in the new badge gear, he'd gain some INT and STA but lose actual DPS stats, so it's a wash for him, 0 badges.

My Paladin is my backup raiding character, at my guild's disposal should we end up short on healers for a raid. I like to keep her gear up to date because of this. I want to build a set for each spec for her. It's much faster to do dailies or kill quests (for leveling) as Ret, and I'd like to tank the new dungeons in Wrath of the Lich King. My Holy set is pretty decent, including several raid drops. Still, when you add it all up, she weighs in at a hefty 1141 badges! I've got seven saved up on her at the moment...

My Hunter is sort of my red-headed step child. I'd still like to get him a Blood Lust Brooch, as it's a nice trinket. Most of his other slots will be LWing, PVP and Kara epics. So, only 41 badges for him.

Grand total: 1302 Badges of Justice.

That should keep me busy for a while.

WoW 2.4 Patch Thoughts

Patch 2.4 is here, so it's probably time for me to ramble on with my latest WoW thoughts. I'm going to try to get back to this blog a bit more, but I'm also working on another project to organize WoW information for the casual players out there, so it may be hit or miss.

Guess I'll start with Patch 2.4, or as I like to call it patch carrot.stick.

This patch has a LOT of goodies in it. My loot whoring heart swells with ardor at all of the new, and old, gear that has become available for my small army (more a squad, technically) of alts. Not to mention Sunwell's new five man, Magister's Terrace, and a bunch of easier daily quests. All this adds up to a nice fat carrot hanging from a stick juuuust out of reach to keep us playing until Wrath of the Lich King comes out.

Out of reach, I say? Well, let's just call it a time sink.

New Instance : New loot to grind for, including the Phoenix Hatchling pet, which I really want for my fire mage.

New Dailies + Daily Quest Limit : Oh, well, may as well grind gold for that epic flying mount now. With 5 seventies, I can now do 125 dailies per day. Joy.

New Badge Loot: The newest badge loot (the vendor for which is unlocked as your server takes over the island of Quel'Thalas via daily questing) is VERY good. It's somewhere between Tier 5 and Tier 6 good. It's also expensive. My Badge gear shopping list for my alts anywhere from 400-700 badges per alt. Yeah, that'll keep me busy.

Blue PVP sets are now available from reputation vendors at Honored: Actually, a time SAVER here, but it lets you boost your resilience nicely if you're more of a PVE player who wants to get some of the upcoming Season 2 arena gear when it rolls down to honor purchases in Season 4. So, it's really an enabler for honor grinding.

Battleground Token Turn In for Honor: A new quest (actually same name as an older, similar quest, if I recall correctly), Concerted Efforts, rewards 314 honor for turning in one of each Battleground Mark. Yet another honor grind enabler, along with honor being instantly available, it's really pretty nice for boosting you up enough to buy an item you need, provided you don't need the badges. It also eases the pain of being perpetually on the losing side in certain battle grounds.

Of course, the new 25 man raid is pretty cool news for raiders, and should keep them busy a while. But this blog isn't for those guys. =P (Not that I don't raid, I'm just casual about it, still puttering through SSC and TK at the moment.)

Anyway, nice carrots, long stick. It should be more than enough to keep an altoholic or even a one character player busy for a while, perhaps until the release of WOTLK.