Wabbage’s Warblings has moved!

You can now find all my latest news, posts and rambles over on www.wabbage.com!

As massive thanks to @Vitae for all his help in porting my blog over and providing some top quality hosting! ❤

Looking For Raid, it’s good… honest!

Of late there seems to be a massive influx of people whining about the Looking For Raid (LFR) tool that Blizzard implemented in 4.3. It may well just be the people who I’ve had the pleasure misfortune of being grouped with when I’ve dived in to Dragon Soul via LFR on a weekly basis. Then again, it may well be that I’m spending too much time on twitter or reading blogs…I’m love “Looking For Raid” and I’ll explain why below.

During Classic and The Burning Crusade I was a student, and like many students I had a hell of a lot of spare time. During my first year I found that I split my time pretty much into four different sections; College, Girlfriend, Warcraft, Drinking with friends. As I went into 2nd year my class timetable stayed pretty much the same, however both my girlfriend’s and friend’s had a hell of a lot more work to do and as I result I had the free time to become one of these so-called “Hardcore Raiders”. As time went on I discovered that I loved raiding, I loved the thrill and feeling of achievement when we killed Ragnaros, Onxyia, Nefarian and then started battling our way through the Temple of Ahn’Qiraj and Naxxramas. With the arrival of The Burning Crusade in 2007 I again found myself hooked with end game raiding and to this day I still love Karazhan.Then everything changed…

College got serious – Wrath of the Lich King was launched – I got married.

I found that I just didn’t have the to dedicate to raiding 4-5 nights, and as a result found myself in a situation where I was no longer needed by raiding guilds. I had become one of the unclean… a casual.

I don’t really have many fond memories from Wrath of the Lich King sadly. The 5-mans (normal and heroic) become an AoE speed test and after having been tarred by the casual brush I really struggled to find a guild where I felt like I could enjoy my gaming and experience the content I so wanted to see. I spent a ton of time trying to get in to so many pick up groups that failed terribly, where people either didn’t know the tactics or just weren’t willing to listen. Reasonable conversation was replaced by GOGOGOGO. As a result I pretty much quit playing World of Warcraft, by taking a well needed break as I dabbled with the awesomely disappointing game, Rift.When Cataclysm launched I found myself drawn back in to the World of Warcraft even though I knew I would never get to experience all the content that I really wanted to be part of. I felt like a crack addict going cold turkey… okay maybe it wasn’t that bad, but I knew I wanted something I wouldn’t be able to commit the time to achieve. Again I attempted to find a guild or pugs that I could get my raiding fix from, but sadly the majority of guilds weren’t interested in someone without current raiding experience and pugs all wanted you to link a full achievement which was neigh on impossible for someone like me.

I’m now in a guild that I really love, everyone is really friendly, there is a very large player base so nine times out of ten there is always at least one person online who wants to run a heroic or mess around in the old content. However as everyone is pretty much on an extremely casual level we don’t raid on a regular basis. The addition of LFR has allowed me and many others to stay in a guild that they love, without being either forced into moving guilds or missing out on content.

I’ve read so many discussions/arguments from people about how bad LFR has been for Warcraft for oh so many “great” reasons, but personally I feel that the majority of people doing the complaining are very blinkered in their views. Yes it allows people to gear up a lot easier – as long as the RNG Gods are smiling in your favour on drops and rolls, and yes it allows people to kill an end game boss without the same amount of effort or time as a full blooded raider. But what some of these people need to remember is that without the casual gamer, World of Warcraft probably wouldn’t still be alive.Blizzard have taken a fantastic step to cater for all spectrum’s of their customer base by allowing casual gamers to see and experience raids more easily, and with the normal and heroic versions of the raid being that bit harder have created something which should provide a bit of a challenge for what is the minority of subscribers.

Without LFR I really don’t know if I would still be playing Warcraft. There’s only so many times that you can run the current crop of 5-mans and still find them enjoyable. Plus it’s given people with alts something to aim for upon hitting 85 other than yet another 5man running toon.

Of late there seems to be a massive influx of people whining about the Looking For Raid (LFR) tool that Blizzard implemented in 4.3. It may well just be the people who I’ve had the pleasure misfortune of being grouped with when I’ve dived in to Dragon Soul via LFR on a weekly basis. Then again, it may well be that I’m spending too much time on twitter or reading blogs…

The TORrific Podcast is back!

After a long a dark December for both Casey and myself, we are delighted to announce that The TORrific Podcast is back!

Episode #9: A Proper Moo!

In Episode 9 we chew the fat about the hosting situation, customer services, the “dancing bug”, crafting, our impressions of the game and a whole ton of random jazz with apperances from my good friend Reliq and Chris from gamebynight.com

The show is available from our site or from iTunes… so you have no excuse not to listen! ;D

Feedback…

It would be awesome to get some feedback from you guys on the show, good or bad!

If your interested in getting any questions, comments, concerns or ideas drop us an email to torrificshow@gmail.com. You can find everything you need to know about the show at thetorrific.com, find us on facebook at facebook.com/torrificshow or follow the show on twitter, @TORrificShow!

Soooo I’ve started to dabble a little with League of Legends…

Before some of you start, I know I’ve slated League of Legends (also known as LoL) for quite a while now, mainly as it somehow stole a ton of my Warcraft buddies away from me during the dark days of WotLK, but after a night down at Basky’s house I somehow found myself going straight home to kick off the download.

Having watched a fair bit of it being played in the past I always thought it looked incredibly boring and dated. However I’m really starting to miss the fun PvP aspect of my current MMOs (Warcraft PvP is just BS and Star Wars War zones are a bit meh), so this just might be what I need in my life!

So far I’ve played a whopping two games – the first which my team won and the other being a massive flame fest that I ended up leaving out of sheer frustration. It has been strangely enjoyable though. I wouldn’t go as far saying I’m hooked, but I am really interested in finding out what the fuss is all about.

If anyone has any Champion recommendations and tips for a new player I would be grateful for them!

Hour of Twilight, my thoughts so far…

Well Patch 4.3 landed on the EU server on Wednesday of this week and even though it’s awesome having some new heroics to run I can’t help but feel that this patch has been a bit of a let down.

For anyone who has been living under a rock recently, here’s the Patch Trailer – which is also a little lack lustre compared to previous patches.

New Dungeon/Raiding Content!
For the casual gamer there has been three new 5man heroic dungeons added (End of Time, Well of Eternity and Hour of Twilight) which all play really nicely and for once really set the scene for the newest raid content, Dragon Soul. Yes I know that Blizzard did something very similar with extra heroics in WotLK, but really only Halls of Reflection was a main part of the story line. As a few people have pointed out I may have gone a bit farming crazy on the new 5mans, but what else is there to do when off work for three days and new content coming out?

I had capped my JP/VP prior to 4.3 hitting the live servers so I was nicely placed to buy a few new items straight away and after doing a few of the new heroics I was able to give the Looking For Raid tool a go. I decided that even though I had been running as Prot that I would give my beloved Holy spec as I’ve always loved healing in raid encounters. I expected the worst, children bickering, nobody knowing (or willing to listen to) tactics, rage quits and more emo wrist cutting that backstage at a Paramore gig… however this wasn’t the case at all. Our Raid Leader was one of our groups tanks, a chirpy little dwarf from the Outlands realm who took the group by the proverbial balls and dragged us through the first four bosses with the greatest of ease. No wipes. No childish whining. No rage quits. It was a surprisingly pleasant expericne and a delight to try out some of the new raid content. the only down side for me was how easy it seemed to be, with all the bosses going down within 30minutes of us having started.

What do you guys think of the latest content so far? I’ve heard many a raider grumbling about how easy the latest  “end game” content has been. Is it enough to last until MoP arrives some time next year?

New Gear!
For once I’m really pleased with how the new gear available from the new batch of heroics looks especially the plate! It actually looks like armour and I’m not left looking like I’m rocking out in Joseph’s Technicolor Dream Coat! Some of the models have been really nicely put together and it’s a welcome change form the troll duplicates that the majority of people have been rocking for a wee while now.

Which I guess brings me on to Transmogrification. So far I’ve not bothered to transmog anything, I really liked the look of the Paladin tier12 and even though I’ve loved some of the pervious sets I’m more than happy to stick with my current look. I’ve seen some really creative transmog attempts – Reliq‘s Stormwind Guard springs to mind – maybe I’ll need to do a little research in the near future for some novelty styled outfits!

The Holy Paladin Blues…
I’m also really feeling the Holy Paladin blues at the moment. Prior to 4.3 coming out I was Holy through and through, usually running with two different Hot Specs, however with the Holy changes I feel more like a rubbish version of a Druid which makes me really sad. So much so that I’ve taken up Prot as my primary spec again.

The buffs to Light of Dawn and Holy Radiance are welcome additions and were needed to an extent, especially with the amount of AoE damage that the bosses and trash in the new content are throwing out. But somethign just feels really wrong with Holy for me at the moment. In my LFR experience I ended up being a raid healer (sitting top of the healing tree on recount for each encounter) compared to my usual tank healing role which I did and didn’t enjoy. Holy Light seems to feel really lacklustre now which makes me a sad panda.

I’m finding it a little strange not to be Judging every CD – instead just doing it every minute to keep the “Judgement of the Pure” buff up, as long as it’s up and running there is no need to judge – I even had to remove my key bind as by Judging every cooldown now results in less mana overall.

Here’s my armoury link for anyone interested in my Spec/Gear.

What do my fellow Paladins think of Holy now? Love it or hate it? Let me know your thoughts.

Pilgrim’s Bounty, time to level cooking!

Pilgrim’s Bounty is a festival of food and sharing (and the sharing of food) which can be celebrated outside of each of the major cities. There, players will find feasting tables full of wonderful seasonal cuisine which they can help themselves to as well as pass to share with others. This holiday is an in-game version of the harvest festival of Thanksgiving, though it should not be confused with the Harvest Festival which takes place in September.

As this holiday involves a lot of feasting, it requires lots of food! A number of special, event-only cooking recipes are available from special trainers, which must be crafted for various daily quests. These recipes are a great way to level cooking up to 300+ as all of the recipes use ingredients that can be purchased from the event vendors. Large, bountiful tables have been set up outside of the major cities where players can sit and eat or pass various types of food to gain special buffs. Players can also complete quests in order to obtain a rustic pilgrim’s outfit, or hunt turkeys to become  The Turkinator!

Completion of the nine holiday achievements specified will grant a player title – Pilgrim

Pilgrim’s Bounty has always been my favourite World of Warcraft holiday for one reason and one reason alone – levelling cooking!

There’s a ton of cooking levelling guides around online, however I thought I would pop down a quick step by step for anyone whose unsure as to the best way to go about getting cooking form 1-330 in roughly 2hours tops.

This is an Alliance based guide as that’s the faction I play. Simples.

• Go to Stormwind, buy the [Bountiful Cookbook] from the Pilgrim’s Bounty Vendors, open it up and pick up the 5 recipes.
• Learn the first recipe called [Spice Bread Stuffing].
• “Phase 1”, this phase will get you from 1-100.
  Make around 60 x [Spice Bread], then buy 60 x [Automnal Herbs] from Pilgrim vendors and make 60 x [Spice Bread Stuffing]. Don’t forget to visit your trainer when you reach 75!
• “Phase 2”, this phase will get you from 100-160.
  Buy 70 x [Ripe Elwynn Pumpkin] and 70 x[Honey]. Learn the recipe [Pumpkin Pie] and make it 70 times. Don’t forget to visit your trainer at 125!
• “Phase 3”, this phase will get you from 160-220.
  Go to Ironforge, buy 70 x [Tangy Wetland Cranberries] and 70 x [Honey]. Make 70 x [Cranberry Chutney].
• “Phase 4”, this phase will get you from 220-280.
  Go to Darnassus, visit your trainer and learn the next rank of Cooking. Buy 70 x [Teldrasil Sweet Potato] and 70 x[Honey]. Make 70 x [Candied Sweet Potato].
• “Phase 5”, this phase will get you from 280-330.
  Go back to Stormwind, visit your trainer, learn the next rank of Cooking then go outside and hunt Wild Turkeys. They drop [Wild Turkey] and fortunately it has 100% drop chance. You will need 50 of them. Buy 100 x [Honey] and 50 x [Automnal Herbs]. Make 50 x [SlowRoasted Turkeys].

The Looking For Dungeon levelling Challenge!

After a brief discussion with my good friend (and fellow Flea) Reliq we’ve decided to undertake a small levelling challenge.

THE LOOKING FOR DUNGEON LEVELLING CHALLENGE… It’s an awesome title I know.

The rules are simple:

1. Level to 15 only wearing items looted, quest rewards or self crafted – no Auction House purchases.
2. No heirloom items.
3. The Guild Experience Perk is allowed – as nobody wants to miss out on guild chat lulz right?
4. Upon hitting level 15, all experience gained should only be through running random dungeons.
5. Upon hitting level 15, all new gear must only come from within dungeons.

Watch out for the Tache!

This year I’ve decided to take part in Movember and grow a beautiful tache… or at least try too!

About Movember…

During November each year, Movember is responsible for the sprouting of moustaches on thousands of men’s faces in the UK and around the world. The aim of which is to raise vital funds and awareness for men’s health, specifically prostate cancer and other cancers that affect men.

On Movember 1st, guys register at Movember.com with a clean-shaven face and then for the rest of the month, these selfless and generous men, known as Mo Bros, groom, trim and wax their way into the annals of fine moustachery. Supported by the women in their lives, Mo Sistas, Movember Mo Bros raise funds by seeking out sponsorship for their Mo-growing efforts.

Mo Bros effectively become walking, talking billboards for the 30 days of November and through their actions and words raise awareness by prompting private and public conversation around the often ignored issue of men’s health.

At the end of the month, Mo Bros and Mo Sistas celebrate their gallantry and valor by either throwing their own Movember party or attending one of the infamous Gala Partés held around the world by Movember, for Movember.

I know it’s getting near to Christmas and people are pretty tight on cash – I blame MW3, BF3 and Skyrim! – but if you could spare a few pennies and sponsor me I would be greatful as it’s for a really good cause… plus you’ll get to see my with a terrible tache!

Here’s the link you need: http://uk.movember.com/mospace/2209896/