Cute Fuzzy Meow

April 17, 2010

The Kvn Report

Filed under: Personal — K'vn @ 4:15 pm

Hello everyone! I’m swamped with homework this week, so unless I get a break there won’t be a guide up. I do plan to post the Children’s Week guide early, however. I had a few requests that people would like to plan their holiday, so I thought I’d aim to please and get it out a few days ahead of time. For those looking to plan now, you can purchase the ice cream from the race tracks, though you often find vendors in major cities during the holiday. The really hard one for this holiday is School of Hard Knocks, giving you obnoxious pvp objectives to do with your orphan out. Also, you need to go into Utgarde Pinnacle again for Hail to the King, Baby. Level ahead of time if you’re after the Matron/Patron titles.

I’m not quite sure why, but people often ask if I read so-and-so web comic or watch so-and-so web show. I’m notorious for not following links people send me via instant messenger. However, lately I’ve found a few video places I do tend to watch for. Nostalgia Critic is one of a few shows done by “That Guy With the Glasses,” and while some of his others are okay this one is comedy gold. He mostly reviews older works that have that special place in our childhood, and we get to see how they stand up years later. Also hosted at his site is the Nostalgia Chick, who has the same basic mode of operating but has a different feel. Finally, Linkara of Atop the Fourth Wall reviews comics. The only comic book I read as a child was Venom, but Linkara does a good enough job that he’s managed to slip into my usual “check for updates” list. Finally, The Spoony Experiment reviews movies and games along the same lines, but Spoony reminds me of my best friend when he really starts ranting about some of these things. You can even watch all of them except the Nostalgia Chick together in their Alone in the Dark review.

You may have noticed that they’re all basically movie/game reviews with a comedy twist. Let me tear away the World of Warcraft a moment from this guide journal, and give you a glimpse at one of my hidden weaknesses: bad sci fi movies. Give me a B-class creature feature and I’m a happy camper. You would think I had grown up with Mystery Science Theater 3000, RiffTrax, and similar the way I go after these movies. I used to watch them while I studied late Saturday night and a few of them found their way into my movie collection. The Hollywood Videos around here all went out of business, but not before I picked up a pile of movies at $1-2 per DVD! Eventually my old college room mate and one of our friends got in on watching the movies while studying on Saturday nights, and we founded the Phillip J. Roth fan club, after the genius behind Boa, Python, Python 2: Pythons, and Boa Vs Python. His movies often star Billy Zabka or Dean Cain. He’s probably an acquired taste, but check it out if you ever get bored and need a creature movie to watch while studying. Of course, if you want an A-list movie to watch, The Spanish Prisoner by David Mamet is by far my favorite movie ever made.

And so, while I’m ranting about things I like, let’s talk about video games for a moment. While Warcraft III being one of my favorite games ever made probably surprises no one, I think a big part of World of Warcraft (for me) is remembering how much I enjoyed Warcraft III. Beyond that, I grew up with a Nintendo Entertainment System. My cousin Nancy taught me how to play Super Mario Bros., Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Bubble Bobble. Bubble Bobble is probably my favorite video game of all time, I still love those two bubble-blowing dinosaurs today. I look forward finding time to buy Bubble Bobble on the Wii Virtual Console. I also like Super Bomberman with a group of people. Nowadays, however, I try to play Tactics games. Ogre Battle 64, Tactics Ogre, Final Fantasy Tactics, Final Fantasy Tactics Advanced, and Disgaea (1-3) are all some of my favorites. I’m currently keeping my PSP near me for those few times I’m waiting somewhere so I can play Jeanne D’arc. Soon as I find more time, I’ll be picking up Ogre Battle 64 on the virtual console — that’s one of my top 5 games of all time. My only real problem is that I just don’t know anyone else who loves these games the same way I do. Ogre Battle fans, where are you?

Okay, that’s the end of my filler post. As always, just leave me a comment or send me a mail if you have something you would like to see a guide of. I’ve had a few people asking questions about the new Death Knight Rune system, if enough people want to see it I can easily post one of my patented Kitten Drawing guides to the new Death Knight system. Who doesn’t want to see kitten-style runes?

April 11, 2010

Blue Dragonhawk Blues Part Two: The Hard Part

Filed under: Achievements,Mounts,Reputation — K'vn @ 11:39 am

Alright, coming in from last week you have 60 mounts (and also your very own Reins of the Albino Drake from the Leading the Cavalry achievement). While I previously told you that there were no reputations left with a good selection of mounts to look forward to, I may have mislead you a little. While there is no reputation, the Argent Tournament is ready and waiting for you with its selection of 14 mounts! While some of them will take over a week worth of daily quests, you have at least five available for 500g and only 5 champion seals when you become an exalted champion of each city. Yep, prepare to empty out your pocketbook as we look into the next round of acquirable mounts.

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April 6, 2010

Blue Dragonhawk Blues Part One: The First Sixty

Filed under: Achievements,Mounts — Tags: , , , — K'vn @ 8:30 am

Ah yes, the ultimate mount: the Blue Dragonhawk. This mount is the reward for Mountain o’ Mounts, the achievement awarded at 100 mounts. This is a huge achievement, so I’ll be breaking it up into parts. Also, ever since the introduction of the argent tournament this became much, much easier. There is no need to pick up Engineering or Tailoring unless you want to, though I will include class and profession-specific mounts in a later article.

For the first fifty mounts, you have it pretty easy. On a side note, if you are only after the Reins of the Albino Drake, this guide is enough to get you there. The first fifty mounts are pretty easy, it’s only once you start going after the last fifty that things get difficult. Your first step is to raise your reputation with the Alliance factions (Horde guide coming later): Stormwind, Gnomeregan Exiles, The Exodar, Darnassus, and Ironforge. This will pick you up the achievement Ambassador of the Alliance, making you Ambassador Kvn. Unless you’re not me, then you will become Ambassador [Your Name Here]. This first round of “Alliance” mounts will run you about 2,745g. While this is very pricey, most of the cost is from the Snowy Armored Gryphon mount. If you’re only going for the Reins of the Albino Drake, skip out on that one.

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April 5, 2010

Noblegarden 2010

Filed under: Achievements,Holiday,Mounts — Tags: , , — K'vn @ 12:25 am

Ah yes, Noblegarden. A quick glance at the in-game calendar shows flowers and leaves decorationg April 4th to April 11th, denoting a holiday that just recently became a full-fledged event. Looking back two years shows you nothing but a few hours of egg-searching early Easter morning. Last year, however, the event was completely revamped including all sorts of fun items and yet another meta-achievement required for the Violet Proto-drake. Ready to dive in? I know I am!
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April 1, 2010

Kittenlord Advice Column

Filed under: General,Newblett — Tags: , , , , , , , , , — K'vn @ 4:42 am

Okay, here’s a few tips for you new players and new 80′s. First, let’s start with the lowbie tips!

Click Alt+Z to hide your interface when taking screen shots. Just don’t forget to turn it back on again when you start playing afterward. You can also hide or add in your nameplate, pet nameplates, and player nameplates to customize what people seen in your screen shots.

Cycle through nameplates with the ‘V’ and ‘Ctrl+V’ keys. ‘V’ toggles the life bars above the mobs on and off. This can be useful for seeing who is going down fast or who has enough health to survive your diseases plus pestilence! ‘Ctrl+V’ includes friendly health bars, too, which is useful for seeing how your allies are doing. While I don’t usually keep this on, there are some specific cases where it really shines.

When questing solo or with friends, don’t forget about the /follow and autorun commands! When my fiancée, her favorite command was /follow. She even went so far as to bind her ‘B’ key to follow. When trying out refer-a-friend, my little brother made a macro with two lines, “/target Kvn” and “/follow”. Then he’d go get a drink or take a nap while I’d run us around. Well, you know, when he wasn’t riding in my motorcycle’s sidecar. /follow isn’t perfect, though, so be careful or you will get stuck on objects or be run off of cliffs. And for you solo folks, don’t forget Autorun! This command revolutionized my time as a little beta druid on Test 19 in Ashenvale Forest. I’d say the only real downside is if you forget you’re autorunning and go away from the computer. This happened to me a lot when I purchased a gryphon mount, since I’d forget it wasn’t a taxi. Oops!

Preview Talent Changes allows you to preview your talents without them being immediately spent. Some people just want to spend the points, but I know as I level I forget until I get several points and I want to see where they go. This is also handy when respeccing. You can turn this feature on by going to Game Menu (ESC) -> Interface -> Features -> Check “Preview Talent Changes.” Easy, right? Just don’t forget to commit them once you’re sure you like where they are!

And now, for the Big Kid tips.

Don’t forget about dual spec. You don’t really need to wait until 80 for this now that the new Dungeon Finder system allows you to level as a tank or healer, but I still think of this as a Big Kid thing in my mind. For the cost of 1,000g you can have two talent specs, each with their own set of glyphs. While the usefulness of this for hybrid classes is fairly apparent (instant queues for tanks and sometimes healers, having a dps spec for soloing and another for instancing), don’t write this off for other classes. A few common uses for this are to have a PvE and PvP spec, a strong solo spec (like Beast Mastery) and a strong group spec (Marksmanship), a spec with Replenishment (Destruction) and a spec for bosses (Affliction), or even a dps spec for trash (AoE-Strong) and a dps spec for bosses (single-target-strong). There are a lot of options, be creative! At one point I had a dps spec solely for the Lich King and one for everything else. Oh yeah, I’m hardcore like that.

Equipment Manager really makes dual specs a lot easier. Game Menu (ESC) -> Interface -> Features -> Check Use Equipment Manager. Considering that Equipment Manager and Preview Talent Changes are the only “Features” in the Interface Menu, you’re probably already familiar with this. While there are mods that do the same thing, I’m a big fan of using the in-game interface when it does everything I want.

Ever needed your bank or a mailbox while in the middle of nowhere? Argent Squire can help! This tip is a bit more involved. The Argent Tournament is large enough that it really deserves its own article, but one big item from there that new 80′s have no clue about is the Pony Bridle. In a nutshell, as you progress through the tournament you go from Aspirant to Valiant to Champion to Crusader. When you become a Champion, you receive the Argent Squire, a little kid who runs behind you (small pet) and will hold up the banner of the various cities you can champion. Fun, but fairly useless, right? Once you become a Crusader another quartermaster opens up and sells you a Pony Bridle using the tournament tokens which upgrades your squire, which people jokingly refer to as the “Super Squire Upgrade.” What the Pony Bridle does is gives you several new options when you talk to your squire. You can choose to repair, use him as a mailbox, or access your bank. Once you make your selection you have a few minutes where the squire will do that for you, then he runs away and is on cooldown for a few hours. While the long cooldown prohibits you from using him all the time, he can be a real life-saver. The only time you may not want to worry about him is if you’re an engineering. Jeeves the robot butler can repair/bank for you, MOLL-E is a portable mailbox, and Wormhole Generator: Northrend can teleport you to most sections of Northrend. Oh, did I forget to mention? That same Crusader Quartermaster also sells the Argent Crusader’s Tabard which teleports you to the Argent Tournament grounds once per 30 minutes. Considering the long cooldown on the Wormhole Generator, Crusaders may trump Engineers there. Of course, these aren’t mutually exclusive — there’s nothing stopping you from having all the Engineering toys and all of the Crusader Quartermaster fun items.

Get all of your level 68 or higher alts a Tome of Cold Weather Flight! I cannot stress this enough. Earlier we talked about both heirlooms and what enchants to put on them, but don’t miss that Hira Snowdawn at Krasus Landing in Dalaran will sell you a Bind on Account version of Cold Weather Flight that you can mail to your level 68 or higher alts. You only have to walk through Northrend once, friend. Cold Weather Flight works with both 225 and 300 flying, and if you learn it at 225 and upgrade to 300 you do not have to learn it again.

Create your own Vanity Guild! My soon-to-be-wife and I are always sending items back and forth. She is exceptionally good at selling items on the auction house, and so I try to send her anything I can find that I think she can sell. After awhile of doing this, mailboxes get flooded and it’s just messy. Characters are stuck with those BoP Brewfest Mugs you just can’t bring yourself to get rid of, but what do you do with those million glyphs you skilled up on that you’re sure will sell “someday?” Well, the answer to all of these questions is: create a vanity guild. If you’ve never run a guild you may not be familiar with the concept of a guild bank. For ten gold and nine signatures you can create your own guild (be sure to kick out the people who don’t belong after forming it). Then, go to the bank and you’ll notice that near the bankers in a major city will be a guild vault. For a small sum (that grows larger each time you pay it…) you can purchase a guild bank tab. A guild bank tab contains 98 slots. In general, you can get maybe four tabs without paying too much money, and then put all of your banker alts in that guild and they all have access to this pool of items. You can do this with friends or loved ones if you trust them enough, too. Hey, there’s also nothing stopping you from having a few of these — each of my bankers has his own guild bank that he shares with one of Rathakk’s bankers.