Peacebloom versus Ghouls

Today as I was exploring the newly done areas of Azeroth, I came across a quaint little farm up in Hillsbrad. Stopping by I met up with a goblin botanist named Brazie.

On Brazie's farm.

Now apparently Brazie has been having a bit of trobule with a undead guy named Warden Stillwater, and every now and then he sends a horde of zombies to attack Brazie's farm. So in good old quest giver fashion he asks me if I can help a goblin out and defend his farm against the undead.

When you accept the the quest your in for a delight as WoW turns into a little mini game of Plants vs Zombies which is a very popular take on tower defence games by developer PopCap games.

The quest is broken up into five parts with the first two being pretty much a little tutorial on how to play. It's not the steepest of learning curves, but if you haven't played the original Plants Vs Zombies then you might take a little bit of trial and error to find a wining combination of plants to smash zombies. But if you have played the original than there's plenty of smiles as you'll feel right at home, flower-powering zombies back into the dirt.

Peacebloom versus Ghouls

As you progress through the levels (quests) the types of zombies coming at you start to get harder and they also come in bigger numbers. But to help you along, new plants are added to your floral arsenal which range from exploding pumpkins to plants that freeze and slow the undead attackers down.

I wont lie to ya, it took me a few tries to take out the Warden during the last quest (Aptly titled Lawn of the Dead) , and because the game is a sort of instance where Omega's level didn't matter, this quest can be played at any level and will still be a challenge.

At level 80 the quest gave me something like 13 gold per chain bit, with a 29gold reward for the last part.


But more so than the gold the most valuable thing you get out of this quest is Brazie's Sunflower Seeds which teaches you how to summon a singing Sunflower, which to me is cutest non combat pet available in the game (not counting things you can buy outside the game), especially when it starts to sing. The Sunflower's singing voice is that of Laura Shigihara who sang the original Plants Vs Zombies theme song, as well as composed the games music.

You gotta love Blizzard for not just adding such a cool and fun mini-game to break up the questing, but also for teaming up with the smaller developer and giving them some much deserved exposure.

The only thing bad about this whole thing is that whenever the Sunflower sings it makes Omega feel all soft and gooey inside, which can't be good for his blackened soul.

Goblin Rep Farming

So today I saw a guy on a Goblin Turbo Trike, which is meant to be the Goblin faction mount. So I did a little bit of asking and a little bit of digging around online and it turns out that you can start farming rep with the new Goblin Faction right now.

All you need to do is pick up a Bilgewater Champions Tabard from Frizzo Vallamar who's chillin on a Trike near the flight master in New Orgrimmar.


The tabard sells for like 1g at friendly (which is what the rest of the Horde Factions start at) and looks pretty cool in a bomber-man sort of way.

Once you grab your self the tabard you can start hitting up instances and gaining rep. The home city tabards you pick from the quartermasters in Azeroth only provide rep for level 60 dungeons and below, unlike their Argent counterparts.

The rep given is also the same no matter what level instance it is you're hitting up. So you don't have to step into a 80 heroic to farm rep, going to a place that has a shizz load of mobs that drop like flies might be easier. (BRD recommended but most)

Rep gained can vary but in most cases its like this:

1 Rep for non-elite trash
3 Rep for Elite trash
15 Rep for minor bosses
60 Rep for Major bosses

I even got a tabard for my undead-hunter because he doesn't want a dead horse mount. It's also handy to remember that you can gain rep doing the Goblin starting are quests up in Azshara.

Happy farming.

EDIT: The city tabards have been hot-fixed to now grant rep in 80 heroics too.

New World Of Warcraft

Yesterday Omegavondoom stepped into a new Orgrimmar... rebuilt in the wake of the chaotic shattering.

Initially as I logged on I was regretting not being on the night before to take screen grabs of the world as it was before the patch, but as Omegavondoom rode his hog through the cavernous rises of twisted metal and jagged rock that was to be my factions new capital, the only thought that burned in mind was "For the Horde!"

Welcome to Orgrimmar

This is the Horde as it exists in my head... Monstrous and chaotic. Like an 'un-tuned' machine built for serving Death.

As I entered Azeroth 5 years ago... I knew I would align my self with the Horde. But lets be honest, for all his coolness in WC3, Thrall was always more of a Diplomat than a Warchief.

I think with the new look and leadership of Org under Garrosh Hellscream, Blizz is finally getting to shape things more in-line with what the original conception of the Horde was. I hope as the game plays out we hear less and less of this 'uneasy' peace with the Alliance and focus more on Horde domination. Don't get me wrong, I liked the story arc that rode through the series thus far, but I'm hoping it evolves into something with emphasis on the need for one side to take power.

And as someone who has been around for so long... I think Cataclysm is going to be the first expansion that truly feels like a new experience for me. Venturing into Outland and Northrend were awesome adventures, but As I rode from Durator down to Silithus yesterday, seeing familiar places transformed and redone was a head trip.

Desolace

Not to mention all the new classes that were running around last night.

I must admit I didn't take kindly to the idea of Horde gaining Pallies and lending out Shamans and the previous Expansion, but I understood the idea behind it in terms of allowing Blizz to develop these classes without the other side calling foul whenever they saw one of the classes get something they perceived as "OP."

But I can't understand the idea of the new class/race combos beyond it 'being cool.'

If it lasts beyond a fad... The horde is going to be swarmed with Undead hunters and Troll Druids. Although I have to admit the Troll cat-form is kick ass and I was a little jealous of the level 80 Troll Warlocks (race change) I saw running around. I have always been fasinated more with the idea of Trolls.

The whole culture and reference the game has given them is very cool. Plus outside of WoW I am just a huge fan of Cajun folk law and the whole voodoo thing. So the idea of Trolls focusing so much on the dark arts that they manage to actually summon and control demons is pretty kick ass.

I did muck-around a bit with an Undead hunter my self last night. Named him Trigamortis, which is worth playing just for the name. But soon Omega started incinerating the back of my mind ... so I had to log him back in so he could go PVP.

In fact that's one thing I really want to focus on with the expansion, rated BGs and Arena.

With my digital copy of Cataclysm already purchased (thanks Toy Boy), I can honestly say I am really looking forward to the new expansion more than any of the other ones.

Now if you'd excuse me, Omegavondoom has to go stand in the fire.

Riding Dirty

Ever since I laid my eyes on the Mechano-Hog I knew that my lock had to have it. Well over the weekend I finally got one, but it was no easy task.

Omegavondoom on his sweet Mechano Hog

Just the idea of riding a freaking motorcycle through WoW makes my imp hard. But the sad thing for me was that these hogs cost nothing less than a small fortune.

Omegavondoom has always had the money his needed, there was nothing that he needed to get that he could not afford. But these hogs were going for up to 15k gold on my server and there was no way Omega could ever make that kind of money.

I even went as far as begging real life friends for gold, but come on... who the heck is going to part with 15k gold?

Well last week I was going through the Auction house when I came across a Tiny Crimson Whelping selling for 6k gold.

Yes I know... that's farking ridiculous.

But this gave my little fiery heart a bit of a jolt... I was gonna farm me some whelps.

So I set out to the Wetlands and with in 10mins I had my first pet. This shocked the crap out of me because I was ready for a hard grind here. Soon I had found another whelp and with in an hour I had three :D

I then hearthed back to Dal and began spamming trade to sell these suckers off. When the first pst came in asking for a price I said 5k!I was immediately ridiculed for this, being told that there was no way these whelps would sell for 5k.

Stuff I put up with.

Despite this I put the whelps into the AH and waited anxiously.

There were a few more of these whelps in the AH going for about 6 to 7k. But after a night of waiting I could wait no longer for these things to sell.

I began spamming trade again when this one pally asked me if I had any Tiny Emerald Whelplings. I told him all I had were crimson ones and he said that was a shame cause he would have paid 5k for an emerald one.

That was all I needed to hear.

I immediately took off to the Swamp of Sorrows and began burning down Emerald Whelps. I took time before this to read about these little guys online, and found that these things had a very tiny drop rate, this was mainly due to the lack of mobs to farm em off of and the spawn time on the mobs after death.

So needless to say I went in there with a heavy heart.

But low and behold on my 10th whelp I nab my self a pet drop!

I could not believe my freaking luck. I shot off back to Dal and pst the guy who said he was interested in an emerald whelp and he was still keen on buying. So we met up, swapped goods and gold, and now i was 10k away from my hog.

With 5k down I decided to farm a few more Crimson whelps, and if I could get just two more of em, I could sell em all for 2k each and get my Hog.

What happened then was a good days worth of farming, but I eventually got my hands on a total of 5 crimson whelpsl.

This was followed by an afternoon of spamming in trade.

WTS [Tiny Crimson Whelp] 2k

This was then accompanied with a little bit of sweet talking but within the hour I had sold all the whelps and was sitting around with enough gold to grab me a hog.

So I checked out the AH and saw a whole lot of Hogs on auction for more than 15k. Some were even as high as 17k. But I got the name of one of the sellers and pst the guy, asking if he'd sell me one for 15k. He was more than happy to, and even ported out of ICC where he was raiding to give me my sweet ride.

Now Omegavondoom is complete.

Waiting on whelps at Swamp of Sorrows

After I got the ride I did try to farm a few more whelps, hoping to sell em and buy my Master Rider skill, but over the last three days I haven't gotten a single drop. I think I used up all my good karma on the hog.

But if anything deserves it, it is that hog.

/love

Spooky Godshire kids

So I was mucking around online today when I came across an interesting article about a certain house in Goldshire.

It seems that on the upper floor of the house, you'll find a group of kids that are always standing in a particular pattern. What makes this interesting is the noticeable change in the games music as you approach these kids in their little room, which to me hints at something sinister going on.

Omegavondoom decided to pay these little children of the corn a visit, check out the video and be sure to turn up the volume.



Love that change in the music... very spooky. I did a little more digging around online, but it seems no one knows exactly what these kids are meant to be doing, or in what they are in reference to.

Some posts even mentioned that in vanilla WoW these kids used to stand in a pattern that suggested a pentagram :O

Read the article that led me to it here.

Omegavondoom the Kingslayer

So the other day one of my friends links me his "King Slayer" achievement.

Having tried ICC and failing at 11/12, I had dedicated my self to a life of pvping and Alliance killing. Telling myself that raiding is not for me and that I should just forget about it.

But lets face it... right now ICC is sort of like WoW's last level, and the Lich King is Bowser. How could I be satisfied knowing that I have not rescued the princess?


Eventually I found a raid looking for DPS that day and before I knew it I was back in the frozen halls of ICC.

Sadly though this was also the day that my account was meant to be expiring. I had decided earlier to let it slip and then renew it after I had bought my self Cataclysm. But it was 3pm and my account wasn't going down till like 7:56pm or something, so I was happy thinking that when it does close, it will close with Omega being a King Slayer.

All went well in the raid, though we weren't the most organised group, there were a lot of jokes and wise-cracks going around, and everyone was having a lot of fun.

As incinerates flew and loot rolls passed, soon I was looking up the stairs at the Lick King.

Here was... my hero.

Yes... I've been a massive Arthas fan since WC3. He is the epitome of the anti-hero to me. Just pure bad ass wrapped in cool.


So we all took out places, raid checks were done and soon the LK was engaged.

It was ten that I came to realise that

Holy fucken shit this is a hard fight!

We must have wiped on the guy like 20 times man. Soon my account was about to expire and I even alt-tabed to renew it cause after being in there for 5 hours I wanted to kill this son of a bitch.

This fight was just so straight forward and incredibly precise that if anyone makes even the slightest mistake, it all goes to hell.

And it had gone to hell many times, but I can honestly say that was less due to players mucking up, and more down to just pure old fashioned bad luck.

Eventually we were at a point that the only thing messing us up were a combination of Valkyries and badly timed Defiles.

Just as we'd spread for a defile and try to reform, *bang* a healer gets picked and dropped cause he was too close to the ledge. These series of mishaps plagued us for the whole night and eventually we just decided to call it.

The cool thing was though that no one bitched about anything. Through all the wipes and what not... everyone was still jolly and making the most of each others company.

I even made a cool new friend.

I'm not gonna drop a name, but lets say I could tell he was a massive Voltron fan. Through out the night we just kept joking around and making fun of all that was happening around us. At one point we flipped to our "the patient" titles cause we realised we were in there for like 6 hours.

As the raid parted ways I was sad that I had come so close to the LK... but could not beat him.

The next day I logged on and started doing my dailys when my Voltron friend psts me, saying that the raid from last night had reformed, but because I wasn't on they had gotten another DPS.

I was kinda sad at this news, but after the frustrating 6 hours I had spent in there the previous night, I could live with it.

But then he psts me again and tells me that the new DPS left and that the raid leader was going to invite me.

So soon there I was again, staring at the Lich King.

As we all assembled the Raid leader drops a joke about how we should just get the first wipe out of the way and then mess up the LK in the 2nd attempt.

We lawled...

But when the first fight started we hammered the LK into phase two with farking ease. Soon we were all stepping defiles and farking up Valkyries with no problem. We beat the LK down to like 35% before a lack of handling of vile spirits messed us up.

But the raid was hard-out now to bring the LK down. Our dozens of failed attempts from the previous night has made us LK pros... and when the 2nd pull started... we fought like champions!

Phase one rushed into phase 2 ... and phase 2 gave way quickly to phase 3. We were jumping out of defiles like crazy and when the vile spirits hit... we just spread out and healed through it.

At 35% the off tank went down... then a rouge, but we hammered on.

"Just burn him!" cried out the raid warning.

Omegavondoom DPSed like he had never DPSed before. Numbers flew off the LK... big numbers that counted down to his doom. And then ... as the sweet promise of victory was at hand... we all dropped dead.

For a split second I forgot that it was part of the event... then Tirion Fordring did his thing and brought us all back to life.

The rest of the fight was basically a free kill as we beat down Arthas knowing Fordring had our backs. Soon the Lich King was finished and the event video started.

Now I had seen this video for the first time months ago, watching it now in context was pure awesome. I even called my girlfriend, screaming into her face "I'm a KING SLAYER!"


Sadly though when the video had ended, I was back in ICC with the rest of the raid gone. I also found out that I had missed out on the roll for this epic staff. Apparently the others had skipped the video, rolled on the loot and split.

But my Voltron friend was there taking screen shots :D

He said I had pwnd on the DPS meters and then he linked me the recount for it, with me at the top. I didn't really care much for the loot anyway so it was cool.

"See ya online king slayer" said my Voltron friend.

"Right back at ya bud" said Omega as I logged off.

Omega the PVPer

I've always been an avid PVPer.

I remember spending hours upon hours on my old druid, endlessly shredding Allies as I carved my way a bloody path the Champion back in Vanilla WoW.

Though I had dabbled a bit in PVP with Omega, gear was always an issue for me in battle grounds. Everyone know's that waltzing in there in you PVE gear means you're going to be someone's bitch for the duration of the round.

But thankfully, because of some saved honour points and a little bit of extra justice points... soon Omega was rolling in his furious Gladiator set.

I burn things and they die

I initially went in as Affliction since that has always been my solo spec, but found that the slow and painful death that I enjoyed bringing was a little gimped in BGs. I needed to kill shit fast, and so I decided to flip things over the destruction.

I farking love Destruction for raiding, and having it as my off spec too was going to be interesting.

It certainly required me to be a lot more 'on my toes'

Forgoing the "cast and forget" play style of Affliction, Destruction almost plays like a side-scrolling shooter. You're constantly moving and setting up nukes, and because I'm more of a 'key bind guy' and not a 'clicker' ... the action got pretty frantic.

Soon I had gathered enough points to deck my self out in the Wrathful pvp set, and now it was all just a matter of tweaking stats here and there to get what I wanted out of my build.

I also prefer the look of my PVP set over my PVE set >_< A lot of guides I read say to stack Destruction up with as much haste as possible, about 944 haste I believe is what we should aim for. At this number our immolates start to tick at every second and the accumulative damage over time means a bigger Conflagrate.

I always believe that classes should be played to their strength and I think the Destruction locks strength is his ability to burst damage. So all the off pieces my lock is wearing is geared towards haste, while my set gear has been reforged to add more haste. I've kind of unintentionally stumbled across a magic balance at the moment, as I find I am able to do big damage rather fast, so BGs is a lot of fun.

I found an awesome guide over at The Warlocks Den that taught me a few things I didn't know, And I also spent hours just watching Drakedog videos for play style tweaks and such.

So now I hardly ever do anything else aside from logging in and PVPing. When Cataclysm hits I'm really hoping to get in on some ranked Battle-grounds action, and with a bit more practice maybe even some arena.

The return and ICC

So I got back into wow last October after leaving in November last year, and it was interesting to see just how "casual friendly" the game has become.

I had all but given up on raiding when my lock was finding it hard to find a proper raiding guild to run along with. I had cleared out Naxx and such running with pugs, but when I tried to get into a guild that would guaranty me weekly runs, it just wasn't happening.

I had grinded heroics and the occasional VOA25 to get my lock his tier 9, but he was ultimatly just left all dressed-up with no where to go.

When I got back in November I decided to give raiding another chance, especially since I really wanted to check out ICC and throw a few immolates onto Arthas.

So I started spamming with something like: Destruction Lock LF Guild. New to ICC but am a fast learner.


I got a pst and soon I was the proud member of a ICC raiding guild. The only condition of my entry was that I be in full tier 10 by the end of the week. Me being the over achiever that I am, decided to have at it.

Hitting up 10 randoms (at the very least) a day, sure enough I was decked out my T10 by that Friday. Then the time came to hit up ICC.

I spent the day reading up on the fights and watching as many videos as I could... when the time came to "zone in" to ICC I was super excited.

The run went good too as the guild officers were on Vent and they were cool in that they explained all the fights to me. We one shot all the bosses
up to Sindragosa but sadly we suffered our first wipe of the night at the hands of her frost bombs. We then decided to finish the rest of the raid the next night. Since it was the big Lich King fight which followed this, I didn't mind not rushing into it.

Sadly though when I guzzled my beer the next night to head home in time for the raid, I found that it had been pushed to the following Monday.

So I spent the extra time watching carious videos across the net, detailing the Lich King fight.

When the night came... I was super ready for it.

As we engaged the Sindragosa fight though... I noticed that I was lagging a little bit. At some point I missed hiding behind an Ice Block by a little bit (not enough for me to get killed) and the guild leader went berserk.

"If you want to be in this guild you gotta pay farking attention!"

The fight went on and we managed to down the boss, so there was no mess-ups. But then I get this pst saying that I need to sit the Lick King fight out and that they're going to be replacing me.

Interesting enough I didn't bother asking why, and simply left... then I left the guild too.

It would not be for a another few weeks before Omega gets his 'King Slayer"