Posts with tag It came from the Blog

In all my time in Azeroth, I've seen some pretty strange things. The above "Priest's" mace that has a bonus to Nature damage was pointed out by Obron from the ICftB guild. (And we all had a pretty good laugh about it.) Some -- like the above item -- happen to have truly unfortunate item names, while the item itself still isn't that bad. Other items like the Triumphant Shield of Shadow Wrath and several other shields with random enchants that have the option of adding shadow damage struck me as just really poor planning. After all, what Class really needs a shield with a bonus to shadow damage? Worse still, the drop percentages of the +shadow damage versions are often better than the +shadow resist ones...

Have you found any items with random enchants that made you stop and say "what?" Or how about items with oddball names that really don't fit the stats, or the point of the weapon? Somewhat related, how about weapons with graphics that just make you stop and stare wondering where the design for that came from!? (My current favorite for weird graphics is definitely the Squid on a Stick.)

The Midsummer Fire Festival has come and gone -- but a group of enthusiastic readers in our It Came from the Blog guild got together celebrate the last night of the festival by running the Eastern Kingdoms festival quest. Our trip to the Eastern Plaguelands, the Hinterlands, Searing Gorge, and Blasted Lands was an absolute deathfest at our levels (ranging from 7 to the 30s) -- but I think everyone had fun, learned a bit about Azeroth's geography, and netted some swanky looking shoulders in the end. And, hey, even if you missed out, you can enjoy our adventure vicariously, through screenshots!

Our journey, for those of you who wish to re-create it for your own amusement, started in the Undercity. From there we went through Western Plaguelands and into Eastern Plaguelands to pick up the first flame. (Most of us travelled on to pick up the flight path at Light's Hope Chapel.) Then we went back through Western Plaguelands and cut down to the Hinterlands (yes, there's a path near the bridge to Scholomance that sends you out right near Aerie Peak.) After picking up the Hinterlands flame, we continued on to the Horde flight path at Revantusk Village and then jumped into the water and swam south, down to the Wetlands. From there we ran through Loch Modan (meeting a friendly Gnome near the Thelsamar graveyard), through the Badlands (picking up the flight path at Kargath), and into Searing Gorge for the third flame. From here, we ran through Blackrock Mountain, into Redridge, through Duskwood, Deadwind Pass, and Swamp of Sorrows, finally winding up in the Blasted Lands for the forth flame. Finally, success!

There are only a few days remaining for Blizzard's Midsummer Fire Festival, so over in our It Came from the Blog guild on Zangarmarsh, we're going to take full advantage of the final days of the festival with a last minute run through high-level areas to collect our quest reward shoulders. You'll have to be at least level 7 to pick the quest up, and while the quest is going to be dangerous for the level of most of our players, we're going to make the run to the Blasted Lands, the Plaguelands, the Hinterlands, and Searing Gorge as a group. My advice: come expecting a few deaths and leave your armor in the bank.

If this sounds like fun to you (or if those shoulders just look too cool to turn down), meet up with us in the throne room above Undercity at 6:00 PM server time (that's 8:00 PM EST) on this Wednesday, July 4th. Look forward to seeing you all there!

I'm sure you've all been dying with curiosity while waiting to hear the winners of last week's tabard design contest -- and to find out which tabard would become the official guild tabard of WoW Insider's It Came from the Blog guild on Zangarmarsh. so, fortunately, I'm here to announce the winners! In first place, and showing off the tabard you see to the right, is Hellbena, whose eyes tabard snagged first place. Yep, this is the tabard you will soon see on ICftB members all over Zangarmarsh!

In second place, we had Zungaba with this lovely bunny tabard and in third place we have Sylvina's excellent octopus design. (To see the rest of our entries, check out our tabard gallery!) All of our winners are taking home an I'm Only Here Because My Server Is Down t-shirt from J!NX (think of them as a RL version of your tabard), so if you meet any of them in-game, be sure to congratulate them!

Welcome to another episode of Adventures in Azeroth, where I document my misadventures as a new Hunter on a new server. (Want to check up on my progress? You're welcome to join me and a whole group of readers in the It Came from the Blog guild on Zangarmarsh!) But this week I'm not really talking about playing (I haven't leveled much since the last episode of Adventures in Azeroth) -- instead, I'm talking about the crazy lure of hard to find Hunter pets, and my new-found pokemon-esque desire to catch-em-all.

However, practical concerns have limited my collecting. After all, one pet is quite enough work to keep leveled on its own -- much less if I had a pair. But, after noticing that every last Blood Elf hunter with an Eversong Woods cat identical to my pet Mittens, I decided I had to do something about it. I didn't want to be just-another-Blood-Elf-Hunter -- I wanted to be... well... unique! So I went searching for a new pet, one that every run-of-the-mill Hunter wouldn't have.

First off, I'd like to thank everyone who participated in our tabard design contest! We have some excellent entries, which the WoW Insider staff has combed through for the best of the best -- and now it's your turn! I know we had a tough time narrowing things down to ten finalists -- every entry would have made a lovely tabard. (If you don't believe me, check out our gallery of entries, including commentary from some of the designers.)Take a look at our finalists and pick the one you'd like to see as the official It came from the Blog tabard! Polls will be open for 48 hours, so you have until Monday at 9:00 AM EST to get your vote in. And remember, the top three winners get to take home a "I'm Only Here Because My Server Is Down" t-shirt! Voting, after the jump!

Interested in designing a tabard for the fine players in WoW Insider's It came from the Blog guild? If so, today's your last day to send in your entry! To have a chance at your design immortalized as the It Came from the Blog official tabard, all you have to do is:

• Visit the tabard designer (near the guild master in any major city) and play with the tabard designs until you find one you like. (You can also use IGN's tabard designer, though in-game screenshots are much prettier!)
• Take a screenshot of your work
• E-mail it to us at icftb@wow.com before 11:59 PM EST tonight!

Tomorrow we'll be voting on our finalists, with the top three winners taking home a "I'm Only Here Because My Server Is Down" t-shirt from J!NX!

This last Saturday, the Undercity on the Zangarmarsh server saw an odd assortment of people running wildly amok. And no, it wasn't because of the Fire Festival or Apothecary Faranell's red light special on body parts. The onslaught of rampaging Hordies was purely made up of members of the Wow Insider guild, <It came from the Blog>, all out to hide and seek as best they could!

For the first round, Roark and Charcuterie agreed kindly to help me hunt down members of the guild. I'll tell you this much: there are some serious nooks and crannies in the Undercity. However... there are a few places you don't ever want to try to hide. Those hanging out under the elevators, in coffins, and most of the folks in the slime in the sewers were largely the first caught in the initial sweep. However, after a good half-hour of searching, there were five folks who were still nowhere to be found...

If you aren't familiar with WoW Insider's own guild, It came from the Blog on Zangarmarsh, let this be your introduction. We're a relatively new guild -- only a few weeks old -- and what that means is that we don't have a tabard yet! And I know everyone in the guild is eager to have one, but in order to get the coolest looking tabard possible, we're asking you to design them for us.

Here's what you've got to do:

• Visit the tabard designer (near the guild master in any major city) and play with the tabard designs until you find one you like. (You can also use IGN's tabard designer)
• Take a screenshot of your work
• E-mail it to us at icftb@wow.com before 11:59 PM EST on Thursday, June 28th.

Over the weekend, we'll vote on the finalists to determine the winners, with the top three each taking home a "I'm Only Here Because My Server is Down" t-shirt from J!NX! (You know, your out of game tabard.) Of course, the top tabard will be immortalized forever as the official tabard of It came from the Blog. Be sure to check out the contest's official rules, but if you've already done that, what are you waiting for? Get designing!

Update: Sorry, everyone -- but as of 11:59 PM EST Thursday, the entry period is closed. Check back on Saturday to vote for winners!

By now I'm sure you've read about last week's instance runs in the It came from the Blog guild on Zangarmarsh. And, maybe, if you looked through the galleries, you noticed that my newbie Hunter, Lizzie, was there in RFC. I've got to say, I've run quite a few instances in my day, but never as a Hunter, and it was an interesting learning experience as Mittens and I tried to do the best we could in a group setting.

Now, I've got to say -- I have high expectations for Hunters in an instance setting. My main is a Priest, and my favorite instancing partner is always a good Hunter. Why? Because a Hunter stays back from the action, usually near where I am. And if an add runs after me, a tank, who's busy tangling with the main target of the group, might not even notice. But a good Hunter will always notice. They'll send in their pet with Growl, Intimidation, or Bestial Wrath and have that thing off of me in a flash. (Trust me, I heal very little while being smacked around by a mob -- and by saving me, an open-eyed Hunter can easily save the entire group.) So, despite being rather low level, I tried to emulate all the best Hunters I'd played with in the past.

And what did I learn from all of this? Playing a good Hunter isn't as easy those Hunters make it look!

If you missed last week's guild instance-stravaganza in It came from the Blog on Zangarmarsh, you missed out on some real fun. Most of us are pretty low level still and many of us are playing unfamiliar classes -- but I have to say we had a blast storming Ragefire Chasm and the Deadmines in all-guild groups. (And when things broke up, some of us took the party into Warsong Gulch.) But even if you missed out, you can experience some of the fun vicariously through our event screenshots. (I know looking through them brings back memories of many a nostalgic Deadmines run for me!)

And even if you haven't yet joined us on Zangarmarsh, you're still welcome to hop on for some good times -- there's no level requirements and no class restrictions and whatever you want to play, we'd be happy to have you. Our next event is coming up this Saturday, at 10:00 AM server time, when we're going to be playing hide and seek in the Undercity. (And after that? Who knows!)

Last time we talked about my adventures as a newbie hunter running around Zangarmarsh with my pals in WoW Insider's It came from the Blog guild, I was a newly minted level ten trying to figure out what pet to tame. And knowing little of what I was doing, I asked for your advice on what I ought to tame. From the image above and the title of the post, I'm pretty sure you can guess what the results are, but I'll break it down for you anyway. Out of a total of 762 votes, cat won out with a total of 198 votes. However, boar was very close behind with 190 votes. And in third place, the noble owl, with 82 votes. (If you want to see the full results, check here.)

So, as you can see, I went out and tamed a cat in Eversong Woods -- and I have to say, it's a completely different game after getting a pet! With a pet doing the tanking, I didn't have problems with monsters rushing up into melee range, where I can't use my bow, and beating on me. (Really, I'm hopeless once something gets into melee range!) And if something does get into melee range? I can just call my faithful cat in to pull it away. Oh yes, it seemed like the game was going to be eeaassssy sailing from here out. But of course nothing's ever easy...