Posts with tag yak

I hate the Timeless Isle.

I hate the lack of clear objectives. I hate the pseudo-platformer elements. I hate the pouncing tigers, stomping rock monsters, and the shield bearing Ordon yaungol (all of which have abilities I'd be perfectly happy to deal with in a dungeon but am inconvenienced by when I just want 50 Lesser Charms of Good Fortune for the week). There's also the unconventional grummle mailbox that requires two clicks instead of one, and the apocalyptic typhoon of random consumable items wrecking my bag space. But above all of those there is one thing I hate more than anything about the Timeless Isle ... The yaks.

It was an evening in early December when I logged in and heard the news. I hadn't taken two steps across the Valley of Strength when a whisper popped up in my chat window.

"There is a Ruthers exploit!"

A rush of excitement shot through me. What kind of exploit could have existed for my beloved yak companion?

"What? How? Explain!" I typed back.

When the answer didn't come immediately I began tugging at my brain for possible explanations. Was there some sort of raid boss mechanic that could be negated with Ruthers? Could Ruthers kill raid bosses?! I became giddy at the thought.

After minutes of trying to work out how Ruthers might tank Sha of Fear, a reply finally came.

"Ruthers isn't on the GCD. You can make a macro with '/cast Ruthers' Harness' a billion times and spam it. Raine just summoned like a thousand of them."

I booked it out to the Barrens straight away, assembling the macro as my Mimiron's Head carried me to a secluded little spot -- If this exploit did what he said it would, I couldn't go spamming it in the middle of Orgrimmar.

After a mere 11 lines I hit the 255 character limit.

"This will have to do," I thought as I landed on the grassy mountain side. Dragging the macro to my action bars, I took a deep breath, then pressed the key.

There's no other way to put it - I was not having fun in World of Warcraft the past couple of months.

A big chunk of that was my personal health woes, which are what they are and have nothing to do with the game. Since those have eased up, it's not surprising that I'd enjoy the game more than I was before. But what's come to my attention is how much of that "not having fun" had nothing to do with the game itself, nor my personal situation, but one person. One person in my guild made the game not fun for me. What's really amazing is, I only figured this out once that person wasn't around to ruin my good time.

Daily quests? I've been doing them like gangbusters this week - to the point where, on some days I actually had to go back to Cataclysm content because I ran out of dailies to do. Heroic dungeons? Yup. Scenarios? Double yup. Raids? Been in the thick of 'em, and even increased my performance. Leveling alts? Yes I have. The only thing I haven't done is LFR, and that's because I don't need anything from it. I even hit up Sha of Anger, and I haven't looked at that guy in 2013.

Holy punchable turnips, Batman! Mists of Pandaria is packed with an extraordinary number of vanity items to amuse us (while simultaneously stealing away our bag space). There are flippable tables, Botticelli clam shells, puppy hordes, and lovable (albeit misunderstood) yaks. Anne wrote up a nice guide to getting some of them earlier this month, but I'm certain there are still more out there.

So here's a question: which one is your favorite? Obviously my favorite is Ruthers' Harness ... Nothing beats a yak by your side, gently nuzzling you with love and affection so you don't have to be scared of the dark (and rogues). But I also like Mr. Smite's Brass Compass, since I suffer from height envy whenever I play my tiny blood elf.

What about bag space? How are you managing it all, given that the Royal Satchel is so expensive to make? Have you had to delete anything to make space for a new vanity item, and which items were worthy of that space? I myself deleted the Magic Banana and Puntable Marmot (I've never been impressed with the Prairie Dog model) but kept the Turnip Punching Bag and Covered Basket. You know, so I could go on picnics with a turnip ... And Ruthers.

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Honestly, mounts are my favorite thing in World of Warcraft. It pains me every day of my life that I will never get those damn Naxx meta-drakes. Whatever. I'll learn to deal with this pain one day. In the meantime, check out this video from WazVids showing off the new mounts coming in Mists of Pandaria.

You'll immediately notice that the Dragon Turtle mounts have a much-expected kodo feel to them, mixed in with some raised-platform, elekk-style riding. There is even a keg on top and pandaren emblems on the turtle knee pads, signifying that these will more than likely be the racial mount of the pandaren.

Yak mounts? In my Asia-inspired continent? It's more likely than you think, according to Blizzard community rep Bashiok. Today, he confirmed on Twitter that the shaggy beasts of burden we saw in Mists of Pandaria preview screenshots will be available as mounts when the expansion hits. What wasn't indicated was whether or not the yaks are the official pandaren mounts; I'm leaning toward no, but we'll see.

We were actually just discussing what the pandaren mount might be when this news came out. Blizzard joked about it at BlizzCon, with its mockup of a pandaren mount as a huge bouncy ball with a seat on top. Mat McCurley's personal opinion is (verbatim) "probably, like, a big frog maybe?" I feel it'll probably be something a little more dignified. Like a rickshaw.

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World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria is the next expansion, raising the level cap to 90, introducing a brand new talent system, and bringing forth the long-lost pandaren race to both Horde and Alliance. Check out the trailer and follow us for all the latest MoP news!

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