January 2014

AddOns Galore #WoW

stargrace January 15, 2014 No Comments

There was a post over on google plus today by Robert Anderson that inspired me to take a look at the AddOns I currently use for World of Warcraft. I tend to keep my UI very minimalistic, and I want the least amount of addons running as possible to keep everything running properly, especially after a game update thus my list isn’t that long. I use a complete UI replacement that’s recommended on Icy-veins called ElvUI and it takes care of so many things for me I don’t really need that many others. It changes the font of the UI, all my windows, hotbars, map, etc. and I just copy a profile over for each character. You can also set it up depending on the role your character plays. Highly recommend this addon. It’s very easy to install and it is constantly being updated.

My other addons include:

1. Auctionator – AH replacement stuff
2. Collect Me – For battle pets and mounts
3. DBM – Complete collection, this is of course deadly boss mods. Used for raid warnings and the like.
4. Oqueue – for joining flex raids since the Blizzard format is not exactly intuitive.
5. PetBattle Teams – More pet battle stuff
6. Pet Tracker – Even more pet battle stuff
7. Recount – Because I like parses
8. Zygor – An amazing guide addon that will tell you how to do anything in game from leveling to working factions and collecting mounts.

That’s it. If I didn’t use ElvUI as a complete UI replacement I would probably have a lot more on that list, but like I said, I prefer to keep things simple. It makes updates much easier, and when something breaks I don’t have to worry about being unable to play. What are some of your favorite addons? Let me know in comments!

Battle Pet of the Week: Snowy Owl #WoW

stargrace January 13, 2014 2 Comments

In my attempts to get at least one pet battle team to 25, I’ve been collecting a lot of pets. I always considered myself a collector even before pet battles came out, but of course now that there are over 600 different pets in game things have gotten a bit more extreme. I wanted to show off some of the pets I’ve gotten and while there may not be anything exceptional about them, each battle is an exciting attempt to further my collection (and experience) so I’m hoping to make this a weekly feature. We’ll just have to see. First up? The Snowy Owl!

The Snowy Owl is a seasonal pet that can only be found during the Northern hemisphere real-world seasons. That means you can start seeing this pet around from December 21st, and it lives in Winterspring. There are a lot of great technical details posted about the pet over at Warcraftpets, a site that I’m constantly using to keep my collection up to date. It is of course categorized as a flying pet, and if you click on it you’ll hear typical owl sounds.

Winterspring was full of neat critters to try to capture. The one issue I had was that I kept accidently killing the ones that I wanted to add to my collection. It can take a bit of patience to get a rare quality of the pet you’re after, but it’s certainly worth it in the end.

Thanks to my adventures in Winterspring and then a bit of time in Hellfire Peninsula, I was able to raise my team to level 21 and I’m currently working my way to level 22. It has slowed down quite a bit, but it’s incredibly relaxing and I’m in no rush.

Sometimes the Loot Gods Smile #WoW

stargrace January 10, 2014 No Comments

Every so often the loot gods smile down on me and I win something I can actually use. It’s rare, there’s no way I should let that one piece of gear entice me to thinking that I will constantly get something I want and can use, but it’s just enough of a tease that I keep coming back for more.

Yesterday I was headed off to the Timeless Isle in order to do my daily and as chance would have it there was a flex raid going on for the celestials. I’ve talked about them before, four giant creatures that roam around a center arena. You get an achievement for defeating all four but you only qualify for loot from one kill per week. Not per encounter either, just one total. It makes sense really. The loot that drops also comes from regular raids (there’s also PvP gear) and if players could attempt it every week on multiple encounters what would be the point in raiding.

I try to defeat at least one celestial a week but it doesn’t always work out that way as I’m spending less and less time on the island. Yesterday when I arrived I saw that a celestial was almost dead, and as luck would have it the group stuck around to take down a second one. I stayed outside of the raid but still contributed and decided on a whim to use my seal for an extra loot roll.

That’s when the loot gods smiled at me for a brief moment, and I won a pair of ilevel 553 pve gloves. Sure, they’re for my DPS priest spec and I spend most of my time healing unless I’m out and about on my own (I keep forgetting that I can designate loot to go towards any of my specs) but they were still an enormous upgrade and I’m really glad I won them. They’re my 2nd BiS (best in slot) and I couldn’t be more pleased.

I may spend an enormous amount of time working on pet battles, collecting silly mounts, and working on pointless factions, but I also enjoy being good at my class and one of the measures of being ‘good’ in world of warcraft, is gear. That doesn’t mean you can’t still be good without, but the game IS very gear driven (after all, you can’t even queue for some LFR without having a specific ilevel first, no matter how good a player you are). Is it the only qualification? Of course not, you can have the best ilevel ever and still be a really shoddy player. It just happens to be one more thing in an ever growing list of things that I enjoy working on while I play.

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!