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Philippe — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 11:19:55 +0000

"Hi guys. I’ve had members send me messages here on Allakhazam over the last few months about different subjects and it’s always nice to talk w/ people with similar interests (i.e., WoW!). Several of these folks have asked about my avatar. I’ve told them the story behind that little photo and one very nice lady (and I’m ASHAMED to say that I can’t remember her screen name ) recommended that I make a quick post about it. So, here goes.... The photo is of Aron (pronounced ""ay-rahn""). I am a police officer in real life and I was a K9 handler for nearly 6 years. world of warcraft buy gold Aron was my partner for those years as well as my best friend. We patrolled some very mean streets and I could ALWAYS count on Aron having my back. With Aron beside me, I felt that I could take on anything that came my way and, more importantly, I knew that he would do everything in his power to make sure I went home every night up to and including sacrificing his own life if it came to that. Back in the spring of last year, I had to retire Aron because he had developed a freak case of arthritis in his lower back. The vets tried to give him pain meds and we even considered surgery. gold kaufen wow Unfortunately, after all was said and done, it was just too painful for him to participate in the strenuous training required to do his job. Even with the surgery, Aron would be in constant pain and I couldn’t put him through that. Needless to say, I was bummed. The silver lining, however, was that after he was retired (as per my department’s policy) I got to keep him as a pet. wow gold The first few times I went to work without Aron was hard (for both of us!) but after a while, Aron learned to enjoy his life of leisure (chasing squirrels, eating too much, etc...). A few months after his retirement, I came home late one night from work and I noticed that Aron was sluggish and his stomach was swollen. I took him to the vet early the next morning and after an exam, we learned that Aron had a blockage in his GI (gastro-intestinal) track. The blockage was removed and it turned out to be a tumor. " "The tumor was sent off for biopsy but I was staying optimistic that the mass would come back as ""benign"" and Aron could go back to his well-earned retirement. buying gold world of warcraft As fate would have it, this was not to be. Aron was not bouncing back from the surgery to remove the mass, so I had to take him to a trauma vet. While there, the results of the biopsy came back; it was cancer. Not only cancer, but an extremely rare form of intestinal cancer. world of warcraft gold Even with painful chemo, Aron only had a 20% chance of living for a month. Needless to say, I was devastated. After many tears and soul-searching with my wife, I decided to forgo the treatment and bring Aron home. I tried to keep him as comfortable as possible and to be there for him. On October 2nd, 2007, just over a week after I originally took Aron to the vet, I called our family vet over to the house. I cradled Aron’s head while he was put to sleep on his favorite patch of clover next to the deck in the back yard. It was probably the hardest thing I’ve EVER had to do in my life. Aron was only 8 years old.

"Starting Your Criminal Career

Philippe — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 11:18:44 +0000

"Night Elves begin their journey on Teldrassil, an enormous tree located northeast of Kalimdor (press ""M"" to see the map). Teldrassil houses the Night Elf capital of Darnassus, but you will start out in Shadowglen, where all young Night Elves start their training. Here you will find many quests to help familiarize you with the game. Make sure to pay attention to the ""tips"" icon to learn more about common aspects of the game. world of warcraft buy gold When you land in Teldrassil, you will first see Conservator Ilthalaine with a yellow exclamation point above his head. This means that he has a quest available for you to take on. Walk up to the conservator and right click on his character. Conservator Ilthalaine gives you the Balance of Nature quest, and asks you to kill 7 young nightsabers and four young thistle boars to help thin their population. Accept the quest and you will begin your first step toward becoming a powerful hero in World of Warcraft. gold kaufen wow To find the nightsabers and thistle boars, search the nearby green fields. As you travel further out, you will find more and more dangerous creatures, so stay close to where you first started. To check your progress in a quest, press the quest log button (default key ""L"") and click on the quest you want to review. " "The thing is, a Mage and Warlock are usually played quite differently, depending on their spec (Destruction may be played, if you like, much like a Fire Mage, if your Imp is phase shifted.) The major factors I know about Warlock: -Juggle your mana and health pools. wow gold -Drain Mana and Health from enemies. -Pets, at varrying levels of usage (spec). -DoT spells or Nukes. -May have incredible longevity depending on spec. -Affliction focuses on DoT, Demonology on Demons, and Destruction on nukes. buying gold world of warcraft -Good CC, increases depending on pet. The major factors I know about Mages: -""Glass Cannon."" -Fire blows enemies apart as fast as possible, Frost keeps them at range. Arcane is mostly a utility spec. -Much more kiting than a Warlock. world of warcraft gold -Excellent CC with any spec, even better with Frost. -Tend to see bigger numbers as a Fire Mage than any other class. Both classes are incredibly fun, and (as far as I know) neither change TOO much as the player levels. They gain more tools, but most strategies for handling mobs/players seem to be established by level 35. Try em both. If you don’t like the class, don’t play it further. And, if you like both of them, play both! Eventually, you will start to play the one you like most more and more. One piece of advice. Don’t think about the levels. Don’t play Your Warlock to 40 and abandon your mage at 33 just because one is higher. If you want to play the Mage, play it! Don’t feel bad because you are neglecting your ""main."" I have found the number one cause of altitis is forcing yourself to ignore alts, thus increasing your desire to play them. Play for fun, not to get to level 70 ASAP. Leveling should always be just as fun as your endgame experience." .

"Gnome Engineering

Philippe — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 11:10:03 +0000

"Objectives: If you wish to learn more about Gnome Engineering, take the Manual of Engineering Disciplines to Oglethorpe Obnoticus in Booty Bay. Description: Engineering at the expert level breaks into two disciplines: gnome and goblin. While I think it is a waste, you should be aware of gnome specialization. They make items and gadgets that claim to change the world, but rarely work. , read this manual. If you wish to learn how to make metal paper weights, then take the manual to Oglethorpe Obnoticus in Booty Bay. Remember - membership is permanent and prevents joining the other discipline, so make sure you are sure before finishing his task. Quest isn’t bugged. Just do this.. Initial Questgiver: Tinkerwiz He is in Ratchet, which is in The Barrens. world of warcraft buy gold He is in the north house under the stairs. he’ll guide you to booty bay to visit the trainer, whom is in the top row of houses just above the two riding mount Turtles bring mats for the follow up quest: You need to give the gnomish engineering trainer this: - 1 Accurate scope - 6 Mithril Tubes - 2 Advanced Target Dummy And for that you’ll need this: - 1 Jade - 1 Citrine - 6 Bronze Bar - 6 Iron Bar - 2 Gold Bar - 18 Mithril Bar - 1 Weak Flux - 8 Heavy Leather - 2 Medium Leather - 2 Wool Cloth that’s assuming you don’t have gyrocronatom or iron strut and so on,, the mats are for making everything you’ll need from scratch. PS, If you’ve abandoned this quest before or taken the wrong side (gnome/goblin), then do this: Go to tanaris, go east to steemwheedle port and then north to the dude with the turban in the little house. Read the book on the table. " "After nearly three years of marriage I have finally joined the new dad’s club. gold kaufen wow My wife is only a few months along and we have talked babyville for sometime now. But until you actually hear those three loving and memorable words, ""honey we’re pregnant"", that’s all it is: Talk. Then it just hits you. ""I’m going to be a Dad!"" But now what. What do you do after you have spread the good news and are unable to wipe the smile off your face. In my case it came down to two things: watching and learning. wow gold After growing up the youngest of eleven children one would think I would be totally equipped to have a baby. I have twenty-some-odd nieces and nephews for crying out loud! I ought to be ready for babies. But like so many other things in life, until you actually experience it you will never quite know what to expect. The ""it"" in this case is fatherhood. And while I anticpate the arrival of my first bambino, I know that life lessons, family memories, support from friends and loved ones (and a lot of praying) will provide that foundation for fatherhood. buying gold world of warcraft But even this isn’t enough for new dads. We must go back to school, hit the books, and begin preparing the life of a proud poppa. Days after my wife and I remained giddy from the excitement of expecting, I started doing a little research on being a first time dad. This just in: there seems to be a misconceived notion that men are on the outside looking inward during your wife’s pregnancy. But that myth stops here. world of warcraft gold It comes down to knowing as much of what is going with the pregnancy as your wife does (if not more). That means doing the research: books, helpful websites, blogs, or what ever you need to educate yourself on something that will last the rest of your life, is the perfect way to get involved early and often in being a new dad. As one book delicately puts it, ""The husband is pregnant too"". Wow! They never covered that one in school. Here are a couple of books, websites (complete with magazine selections), and even a blog to lend insight on new dad essentials to your little one, your wife, and you: ""She’s Having A Baby-and I’m Having a Breakdown"", by James Douglas Barron " .

Ever-enlarging WoW realms spell continued success

Philippe — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 02:24:19 +0000

"In a forum post about the ultimate downfall of WoW, Drysc pops in to explain that WoW still has a long lifespan ahead of it. People who say that the lack of new servers proves there are fewer and fewer new players in the game are missing the big picture. cheap wow gold Back before The Burning Crusade was launched, Blizzard did a series of server upgrades that left each realm down for a few days. At the time, they said this was to make things ready for the expansion, but little did we know it would be to such an extent. wow power level Apparently these upgrades allowed Blizzard to keep pushing the maximum realm population up all this time, as more and more players joined the game. There are some relatively ""low"" population realms, of course, but only in comparison to the new much-increased maximum limit. As Drysc says, ""aside from literally a handful of realms (I could count them on one hand). wow gold every other realm has a population that would have been considered high to overpopulated before the launch of Burning Crusade. "" Only recently have certain realms become truly crowded enough to merit free transfers to other realms. People always like to talk about the eventual downfall of the strongest player in any arena. but the steady growth Drysc is talking about continues. really cheap wow gold it looks like WoW will be the biggest 800-pound gorilla in the MMO jungle for a good long time to come. "

Curse launches oddly familiar WoW database

Philippe — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 02:21:20 +0000

"There are quite a few WoW database sites out there. Thottbot was the first big one that I was aware of; other big sites include Allakhazam, the Goblin Workshop, and of course Wowhead. cheap wow gold Then there are some lesser-known contenders (at least to me; it took me a bit to come up with them), like WoWd.org, WarCry (I use their news constantly, but never saw the database), GameAmp, WoW Guru, WoWDigger, and TenTonHammer (again, I know TTH for news, but didn’t know they had a DB). And now Curse, long one of the big names in Add-On and news sites, is throwing their hat into the ring with the very capitalized WOWDB, which appears to be in beta right now. It seems like a pretty complete database; it’s got all the items, quests, NPCs, and so on that you would expect from a serious act like Curse. wow power level But hold on a minute, doesn’t it looks a bit similar to a certain other WoW database site of which Curse doesn’t seem to be too fond. (Update: Curse has contacted us to say that the linked article wasn’t written by anyone on their staff– instead, it was posted by a user of their site, and that they have no ill will towards Affinity Media or Wowhead). Ignore the Wrath of the Lich King-esque blues for a second, and...oh. wow gold Oh dear. Well, at least it’s a good design they’re copying from, I suppose. See the gallery below for more comparison screenshots. really cheap wow gold What do you guys think — is this within the bounds of inspiration and homage, or a blatant rip-off. Update: Someone named Kody, who claims to be a representative of Curse, has appeared in our comments, and claims that Curse has obtained an ""exclusive content contract"" with WoWWiki for the use of their information. An interesting claim, especially since most of the content on WoWWiki (written by users) should be covered under Wikia’s terms of use and the GNU Free Documentation License, and thus available for use to anyone who credits and sources it. fast wow gold We’ve sent requests to both Kody and WoWWiki for more information. Read more here :
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The trouble with happiness

Philippe — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 02:17:50 +0000

"In certain ways, playing a hunter is about depletion. You have to worry about running out of ammo, running out of mana (although not as much since Aspect of the Viper was introduced), running out of range to fire your weapon (though thankfully there’s no longer a dead zone), and of course you have to worry about your pet running out of happiness. cheap wow gold Which means we have to carry around stacks of food in our bag space, which let’s not forget is one bag smaller because every hunter needs an ammo bag, and often some extra ammo on top of that. For some reason, I’ve never thought about this before: why do we need happiness at all. wow power level Sure, it’s a nice mechanic at first, adds flavor to the class, but I really like this suggestion by Killernuts (*cough*) of Arthas-H: remove happiness once your pet reaches the top loyalty level. After a while it just becomes a pain; at best I click an AddOn button every once in a while when the alert pops up, and at worst I have to take a break from what I’m doing to scrounge up some food. Or instead of removing it based on pet level, how about based on player level. wow gold Make a trainable skill at, say, 30 that keeps pets happy. You can use food to boost their happiness faster (useful with a newly-trained pet), but you don’t have to. At least one nice change is already slated for the pet feeding department: pets will be able to be fed in combat ""at some point in a future patch"" (Nethaera). really cheap wow gold So I guess that’s nice, since indeed it does suck to lose what can be a significant portion of your damage just because you haven’t been obsessively monitoring that little smiley face. Prior to 2.3 it was possible to feign death and then feed one’s pet, but this has been ""fixed"". "

Newbie Guides - Humble Beginnings: First Few Levels

Philippe — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 03:41:50 +0000

"Ready to conquer Azeroth, but not quite sure were to start. Checking out these few points is probably a good idea. Learn the Controls You should first familiarize yourself with the interface. Be sure to look up the controls and read about tips for better controlling your character. wow honor Studies have shown that being able to move around is quite vital in MMORPG’s, and WoW is no exception, though the controls are streamlined and shouldn’t pose much of an obstacle for most players. Get a job! Now it’s time to start working, which in WoW means going on quests. NPC’s with available quests have exclamation marks over their heads. Go talk to the NPC’s by right-clicking on them. wow profession leveling You should go around to every NPC with a ""!"" above their head and see what they want you to do, then decide if it’s worth your while or if you’d rather just chill out with a beer in the nearest pub. Find your class trainer or go fight! You might want to go find your class trainer, located in the town/area near where your character started in the land. Feel free to do some quests first though, as these offer no real benefits just yet. How to target Left-Click selects a target and Right-Click interacts with them. Be careful when you right click monsters though, as this initiates combat! Health You can eat some food to regain your health faster. wow gold Click on the food icon in the action panel across the bottom left of your screen and your character will sit down to eat. Food will not work in combat, however, and standing up or moving will remove the increased health regeneration effect. You will regain health faster when you’re sitting down. Mana You can drink water to regain your mana faster. wow lvl service Click on the drink icon in the action panel across the bottom left of your screen. The mana regeneration will stop if you use any other ability or get in combat. As with food, remember to keep drinks in your inventory or this wont work. Combat You can cast spells and use special abilities on the enemy by clicking on the buttons along the lower left portion of the screen. Attacking You can attack a hostile target by Right-Clicking on them. "

Newbie Guides - Character Customization

Philippe — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 03:40:15 +0000

"Customization at character creation When you first create your character. you get to choose how your character will look in Azeroth. these features doesn’t affect gameplay in any way. and will only alter your outer appearence. -Skin Color -Face -Hair Style -Hair Color -Facial Hair - Many Females have facial features that change when the Facial Hair buttons are pressed Attributes Changing your attributes doesnt affect your outer appearance. but they do alter the gameplay. wow honor naturally you cant max out every single attribute. so spend your points wisely. Strength - Improved chance to block. improved chance to critical hit Agility - Improved chance to dodge. (Rogues: increase chance to critical hit) Stamina - Increases health points Intellect - Increases mana points Spirit - Increases health and mana regeneration. Spirit affects all characters’ mana and hit point regeneration rates in and out of combat. Attack - Attack Rating Power - Attack Power Attack Power helps determine melee damage dealt. wow profession leveling This value is based on class. level and ability scores. Most classes use Strength. but Rogues and Hunters use a combination of Strength and Agility. The main purpose of Attack Power is to provide a more consistent effect from buffs. regardless of weapon speed. wow gold Slow weapons will receive a larger bonus from your Attack Power than faster weapons which will ultimately balance slow and fast weapons. It is important to note that most attack bonuses in the game add to your Attack Power. Damage - Weapon Damage Defense - Defense Rating Armor - Physical Damage Reduction Notes Strength increases physical damage for Paladins, Warriors, Mages, Priests, Warlocks, Druids, and Shamans. Agility increases physical damage for Hunters and Rogues. Fighting with two weapons/off-hand: Your total damage output when fighting with two weapons should be higher than fighting with one weapon and a shield, but roughly equal to fighting with a two-handed weapon. Off-hand attacks deal ½ of the weapon’s designated damage. wow lvl service Experience As players become higher level. they will be able to receive experience from a large range of monsters. At low levels. you may get experience from monsters 5 levels lower than you. while at level 60 you will gain experience from monsters 12 levels lower. learn more here:http://wow.stratics.com/content/newbie/" .

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Druid Guide by Eleanoid

Philippe — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 09:15:04 +0000

"I thought that I would wait until I hit the level cap before I did my write up on druids. But, since I’m bored at work, I figured I’d do a write up in a similar fashion to Eleanoid’s Rogue Review. I mentioned in my rogue review that it would take one hell of a class to pull my interest away from the rogue. Well, the druid may well have done it. This class is FUN AS HELL. I really appreciate the way Blizzard has implemented the druid. They fit the game very well. wow honor They can do pretty much anything, but, as you would expect, not as well as the ‘parent’ class that their abilities are mimicking. For example, druids have a few healing spells (Healing Hands, Regrowth and Rejuvenation). Their healing ability is probably not far off the priest, but they are missing some of the Priest’s key abiltiies: namely, Resurrect and Shield. They can take the form of a bear, which is a warrior complete with a rage meter, but again, watered down. They still make an effective tank with taunts (Growl), stuns (Maul), and AE debuffs (Demoralizing Roar), but they lack a few key elements that the warrior gets: massive hit points, great armor, Charge, and stances. I have not made it to ‘panther’ form yet, but I understand that they are similar to a rogue in that they acquire opening moves to build up combo points and finishing moves to discharge them. wow profession leveling I am sure they could not match the damage output of a rogue, but it gives the druid the flexibility to hop into combat with a little more damage potential if there is already a tank in the group. That is how Blizzard chose to implement the class, and I think they have done a bang up job. The druid seems to be able to fit any role that the party needs, and that utility is the druid’s major selling point. While another class may fill the role better, the druid can adapt and fill ANY role. So, although they don’t have some of the key class abilities of the other classes, they make a great second choice. I think it takes a certain kind of person to play a druid. wow gold You need to acknowledge that you will never be the ‘best’ in a given situation, but you can fit well into ANY situation. Some people enjoy being the best at what they do, some people enjoy variety. In addition to being able to play whatever role is needed in a party, druids gain even more utility with the ability to shapechange into an aquatic form at level 16, and a cheetah at level 30. Let me tell you, swimming at the bottom of the ocean as an angry looking seal-monster is a blast. I have been questing in Darkshore for the last couple levels, and my standard choice for travel is to run down the beach and dive in the water and swim in aquatic form. wow lvl service In addition to traveling faster than on land, you don’t need to really be worried about creeps jumping on you. A great way to travel! I can only imagine how the cheetah will travel, but I’m expecting it will be speedy! There is a great list of druid spells on WoW Vault, so I won’t describe the spell effects in great detail here, but I’ll provide a summary of abilities, and also my experiences as I leveled. " .

A melody is worth a thousand words?

Philippe — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 07:08:47 +0000

“A melody is worth a thousand words?/i>

Acoustically, there抯 not much to say about World of Warcraft. There are many tracks that are remixes from the RTS games and a few original pieces; all of which are quite good. There are the requisite epic orchestrated pieces, filled with horns and brass. There is a large selection of more ambient pieces with periodic vocal effects, such as the background music in Ashenvale forest. These tracks are some of the most enjoyable, but they are very short. Unless the player chooses to loop them in the options, the silence is deafening.

Sadly, many melodies are repeated elsewhere in the game; for example, the haunting siren song first heard in Blackfathom Deeps is also the music for the Tanaris desert. Another large faux-pas lies in the fact that there are entire dungeons with no background music at all, such as the Temple of Atal’Hakkar. With so much obvious effort placed upon the artwork and settings, it seems a gross oversight to have put the music on the back burner. No matter how dramatic the artistic visual presentation, a lack of music lends to a bland experience ?a lesson every developer should have learned by now.

Thankfully, the character voices present in World of Warcraft are not only superbly acted, but lines aren抰 reused. Unfortunately, this caveat is extremely limited in scope. Players who enjoyed repeatedly badgering NPCs in the Warcraft RTS games to hear their silly quips will enjoy the fact that they can continue to harass poor peons in WoW. Outside of this, each player race has a collection of vocal emotes ranging from social to “”suggestive.”” Avatars will grunt when hit, scream when killed, having a rather small range of combat speech limited to sound effects. Thankfully, almost every boss encounter in the game has some vocalization such as a taunt, and is quite menacing: the challenge issued by Hakkar, blood god of the Gurubashi Empire, is simply bone-chilling. Sadly, the buck stops there ?outside of the opening cut scene for each of the eight races, there is a lack of speech of any length.

Even though the scope and range of the score in World of Warcraft is very limited, for a game in the MMORPG genre, the performance is commendable. Most adventurers tire of the stock soundtrack within a month, no matter how commendable the orchestration. The voice-overs again, while limited, are impeccably performed. However, the blatant recycling of music in several different regions of the game is inexcusable. Hopefully Blizzard will consider patching new music in these duplicate areas, or adding tunes to liven up the bland soundless dungeons.

“