UPDATE: New home

I have decided to move my blog to a new home:

http://theshadowtroll.wordpress.com


I realized the name 'Brattgaming' was too general and didn't suit my blog's focus. I also prefer wordpress.com as it seems to offer more functionality.

Please check the new blog for any future updates.

Thanks

Chris

Why I love to Mind Flay

- We can literally fire lazer beams from the palm of our hands. What else do you want from a spell?!

- This spell reduces the movement speed of your target by 50% whilst pumping out some heavy damage. People often undervalue how useful this can be. In PvP you can use this spell in so many different ways and the fact that you are dealing damage can often be just an added bonus. Mind Flay can save your healer friend from being killed by that Arms Warrior or it can slow an enemy down as he tries to approach you whilst your DoTs tick away at his HP. Mind Flay is amazing in PvP!

- Refreshing Shadow Word: Pain whilst dealing damage = profit

- It is actually one of the cheapest spells to use in terms of mana compared to how much damage it can deal.

- Melting of faces

Some of you may notice that you are accidentally recasting mind flay before the previous mind flay had finished. This means you are missing out on the last 'tick' of damage and therefore wasting time and mana. This macro can help:

#showtooltip Mind Flay
/cast [nochanneling:Mind Flay] Mind Flay

This allows you to spam your mind flay spell without allowing yourself to cast until the previous spell has finished channeling.

Quick update

I've now completely finished with Hellfire Peninsula and actually covered 5 levels in that one zone with a few dungeons runs in between. I'm now level 63 and heading to Zangarmarsh to look at giant mushrooms, slay countless naga and chase those annoying broken space goats.

I'm actually also starting to work on a guest post for the Pugnacious Priest and I am excited to see how that works out. I also need to do some work on the layout of this blog and make it look a little bit snazzy, because at the moment it looks fairly bland.

If you want to find out anymore information about the Undergeared project, Gevlon has uploaded a post regarding a few dungeon runs some of our level 80s have now completed. Check it out here.

Level 60 means Dispersion and Wings!

Reaching level 60 means I now have access to two very important things, both of which make my life a hell of a lot easier:

Flying Mount

Being able to use a flying mount at level 60 instead of 70 is so great when leveling through Outland. Anyone who has leveled trough Outland will understand how frustrating it can be to have to fight your way through packs of mobs to reach a quest item instead of flying over them and collecting it. Unfortunately I can't afford to use an Epic flying mount just yet because I have put very little thought into gold making. To be honest I am far too used to making gold using maxed out professions such as Enchanting or Inscription. I am selling everything I find whilst leveling but apart from that I am not really worrying about gold too much.

Dispersion

Dispersion is one of the spells I have been looking forward to since I started this character and I have now gained it via the Shadow talent tree. It solves two problems shadow priests may find whilst leveling: Survivability and Mana regen. Combine this spell with the Glyph of Dispersion and you will see a huge change in your leveling experience. I no longer have to worry about mana after every fight and I o longer have to worry about getting squashed when I pull too many enemies or have to face an elite mob. As I mentioned on Friday this spell no longer looks quite as awesome but I am willing to forgive Blizzard simply because it makes my leveling process so much easier.

Through the Dark Portal!

I finally hit level 58 and forced myself not to cheer when I realized I could leave the old world quests behind. I made my way to Undercity and cleared my bags, leaving a few essential items: My trusty Mining Pick, a few potions and my hearthstone. Then I happily cleared out my quest log leaving a blank page ready for Outland. Finally I made sure all my professions were ready (300+) and wasted too much gold getting the last few points for my Jewelcrafting. I was now ready to head through the Dark Portal!

Outland awaits! A magical world of strange looking quest reward gear, demons and flying mounts.

Extra note: Don't forget you can now use a portal from any major city to teleport directly to the Dark Portal. You don't need to actually travel to the Blasted Lands anymore.

25 things I hope get Cataclysmed!

I'm currently level 56 and quickly coming to the end of my Azeroth leveling (I intend to hit Outland the moment I ding 58). Although I will always remember Azeroth with fond memories I am happy to reach some TBC content and leave behind several very annoying parts of the 'Classic' WoW. So as the title of this post suggests here are twenty-five things I have noticed whilst leveling in Azeroth that I really hope get changed in Cataclysm:

1. Weird gear with very random stats

2. The "Find every page of this book" quests

3. Long and confusing dungeon designs (BRD anyone?)

4. The "Travel to the other continent and give this letter to my friend" quests

5. Scenic flight path routes

6. Horrid profession related quests

7. Horrid class related quests

8. Horrid quests

9. Weapon Masters

10. Gnomeregan

11. Confusing quest descriptions

12. Awkward dungeon quests that your party won't help you with (Try explaining that Sunken Temple quest to a random PuG!)

13. Overpriced old world items on the Auction House

14. Quests that require overpriced old world items

15. Wishing you could start at level 58 like those pesky Death Knights

16. Spending so much time traveling before you get your first mount

17. Horrible escort quests (I'm thinking about that turtle in Tanaris who only moves at walking speed and expects you to take him to the opposite corner of the zone. Damn turtles)

18. Having little to no mana regen as a Shadowpriest and then watching a ret paladin solo the entire zone.

19. The Plaguelands

20. Vendors in the middle of nowhere selling the recipe you need

21. Pointless factions (Ravenholdt?)

22. Barrens chat

23. Quests mobs with awful drop/respawn rates

24. Some of the more outdated graphics

25. Thrall's armor (How can he lead the Horde in level 30 greens?!!?)

If I am completely honest all the points I have mentioned are what make old world content so classic and when the Cataclysm hits Azeroth it will be a very exciting time to play but thinking about it makes me all nostalgic.

So what things do you want to get Cataclysmed? I've focused on things that I noticed whilst leveling but feel free to mention anything you want to see Deathwing's arrival change!

Forum Post Friday

Each Friday I will pick a forum post from the World of Warcraft EU forums and discuss it. I will pick the post from anywhere within these forums depending on what I find interesting, funny or just rather annoying.

Please click here to read today's forum post.

Summary

This post is one of many that you find in the 'General Discussion' section of the forums. It is just a fun forum post that is trying to engage the community with a topic that doesn't involve hate towards the Blizzard devs or other players. This post asks you to name your favourite spell animation, nice and simple.

My opinion

If you had asked me this before patch 3.3 I would have said Dispersion without a doubt. What can be more cool than a dark cloud of shadowy awesome? Well

apparently it was too cool for WoW and it has now been changed so that you can still see the player model within the dispersion.

So instead I will pick Shadowform just because it makes everything it touches look awesome. When mounted you will notice that both yourself and your mount will now be covered by Shadowform and if you have a passenger then he/she will also be in Shadowform (no matter what race/class).

Interesting Replies

Rhecksa writes:

"Death Grip.

Who doesn't like shooting Unholy Lightning at enemies and yoink them towards you."

Burden writes:

"The person on the other end."

Vaneras (Blizzard Poster) writes:

"Hmm... Hard to pick one out of so many really cool ones :-)

I really like those spells that strike enemies from the sky, like if they were shot by an orbital defence satellite or something... Holy Fire, Moonfire and Starfire are great examples of such spells, but if I am forced to pick only one of them I would probably go for Holy Fire :-)"

Dairyfresh writes:

"I vote for Moonfire.

ION CANNON!"

What is your favourite spell animation? Leave a comment explaining why!