Security Programs, or "When You're in Danger, What Do You Do?"

A month or two ago, my guild's forums had a keylogger in the advertisements. It downloaded through an exploit in Adobe Reader and everyone who went to our forums was in danger.

We have some serious computer guys -- men who work with computers for a living (and one who grew up a hacker, himself, though not of WoW) -- and this is what we were told to do.

1. Stop using Internet Explorer.
2. Download AVG Free.
3. Download Malwarebytes.
4. Download I-Hate-Keyloggers.
5. Don't run .exe files.
6. Replace Adobe Reader with Foxit.

Perceptions, or "Is The Enemy Always The Enemy?"

I have a slight problem.

I view the alliance as people.

It's a problem because many of my horde guildmates don't.

More Mounts, or "Seriously?! I Should Just Put in an RSS Feed for WarcraftMounts.com"

I feel almost beleaguered by the additions to mounts in the 3.3.3 patch notes.

First, for all of you who wanted a spectral tiger, you get a see-through horsey called "Celestial Steed." (No photos, but the "Celestial" pet is see-through and sparkly. Yes, I'm too sleepy to actually post the image.) I don't know how or where you'll get this horsey mount, but it'll probably be somewhere fancy and difficult, like killing Arthas's mom in 25-man hardmode where if you stand in her Guilt Ray, you die instantly of shame.

Next news, there's a rocket mount that seats two people, so we do have multi-player flying mounts coming soon.

Down side, it's not pink. I know this breaks a lot of hearts, but we have to keep our chins up until they realize how much pink rules.

Grudges, or "How Far Do You Take It?"

There's this guy. And his tiny guild, Akatsukí. Five of them camped my brother mercilessly one day in Icecrown as he was soloing the group Argent daily. Later, my brother killed one of them in Wintergrasp because one-on-one (even two-on-one) he had infinitely superior gear and skill.

I've had a certain rule since I was a kid. Maybe less a "rule" and more an attitude -- you mess with my brother, you earn my eternal hatred and contempt. Forget the "protective big brother" role -- I was the rabid little sister. I would stop being friends with anyone who didn't like him, or thought he was "weird." My dad was my hero, but my brother was my role model. The most impressive thing my husband said when we first met was that he knew my brother and liked him.

So, about a month or two ago, the vile treacherous gankers of Akatsukí transferred to horde, and I saw one of these losers in my Wintergrasp today.

I decided not to heal him.

Someone else healed him. I debated asking them to stop but didn't think they'd be quite as sympathetic to my grudge as a guildmate or friend. I was rather miserable that he lived.

My revenge is pretty passive. I won't actively harm others, but I won't help them, either. Sometimes, with guys like this, I wish I were more vocal and crafty and mean, but the part of me that belongs on a PVE server just doesn't have the heart to retaliate properly.

So my question is, how long do you hold a grudge and how far will you go to seek revenge? What can prompt a grudge from you?

New Holiday Boss Mechanics, or "I Approve of This Message"

No one on the WoW Insider comments I saw, or even me on this blog, could decide how the holiday bosses could be turned to our favor while still maintaining the rarity of mount drops.

But Blizzard knew.

Zarhym gives us the extra information I needed in order to decide if I liked the "Get your holiday bosses through LFG!" change. And I do. I like it, because I don't have to roll against crappy people anymore or nag friends into bringing 100 alts.

You now get mounts from loot "troves" that are available per player per day when you kill the boss. You can queue as many times as you like, but you only get the trove for the first kill per day.

Overclock for Overcloaks, or "I Don't Even Know What Overclocking Does"

Except that if I make one of my Sims a hacker, it can overclock any computer and that's supposed to improve performance or something.

But yeah, somehow we're going to get "Overcloaks" which are COSMETIC cloaks that you can put over your normal cloak. So you're still powerful, but you're stylish too.

I approve of this most heartily.

MMO Champion mentions the shown cloaks are rewards for retaking the gnome and troll cities, specifically, but Blizz might have more plans for the mechanism. (Loosely paraphrased.)

RNG Holiday Mounts, or "Do You Agree With This Guy?"

I'm reading through comments on the "Did you finish your holiday stuff this year?" WoW Insider post and one guy (at the top) got the rocket. He's called a "Lucky Bastard/Filthy Liar."

Another commenter said:

holiday mounts should be purchased with that holiday's currency.

Which made me think. I'm not sure that I 100% agree, but I'm drawn toward the idea of a reachable goal.

New 3.3.3 Novelties, or "They Certainly Keep Us Hopping"

This isn't everything from 3.3.3, but there's some interesting things. First off is three new mounts. Second, the child prince is getting a grown up look (either for future use or he's actually growing up). Third, new pets.

Gear & Spec, or "So You Want to Know What You're Doing?"

Or at least look like you do?

If you're anything like me, you don't care about gear or stats. You hear someone talking about their dps number or their health total and you're like "Is that impressive? I really don't know. Please tell me."

If you're like me, you just want to be told what to do. No muss, no fuss, just "Wear this, hit these keys, and don't stand in fire."

And you do it and the administration pats you on the head for being a good little follower.

Trouble is, not everyone has someone willing to sit down and take you through what you should do. If your guild has class leads, that's usually their job, but more often than not you need someone you feel comfortable with.

So let's see what I can whip up.

No More BG Marks, or "Oh, Thank God"

Zarhym goes "Blah blah blah changes blah blah marks blah honor" -- that's how I read technical posts. The part that caught me was:

say goodbye to Battleground Marks of Honor. We feel this currency system is a bit outdated and are getting rid of it. Any items which require these marks as currency will have their costs adjusted appropriately to remove this requirement. The quest NPCs will still be available to award players Honor for turning in leftover marks, but this is only to help players clear this expired currency.

Everything is turning to honor.

Which means, oh God, I can farm Wintergrasp for honor instead of battlegrounds for marks and get my PVP mounts that way. Except Wintergrasp honor is being cut in half, so max your honor while you still can. Since I live on an "Alliance never wins" server, I'll be doing the kill and gathering quest once a week.

/sigh

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Edit: Oooo! Wintergrasp Commendations are BoA and can thus be sent cross-faction. Use Plum to get Birdy some nice honor! Woo!

Overkill, or "Do We Have Too Many 'Rare' Mounts?"

I popped onto MMO-Champion and saw that a guild has the Bloodbathed Frostbrood Vanquisher. First off, I'll offer my congrats. Next, I'll whine like a little girl.

I'm not really against hard-to-get mounts like I used to be (back when I wanted a Zul'Aman teddy-bear), but this news made me wonder.

Is Blizz getting in the habit of giving out too many rare mounts?

Lunar Woe, or "Finishing On A Sour Note"

So I go into Utgarde Pinnacle for my very last elder. Until this point, I have never ever abandoned a group after getting an elder. That's just rude. (I did have a group abandon me after getting it, but I was glad I didn't have to finish Halls of Stone.)

On Skadi, the guy you have to shoot with harpoons, the death knight dps starts ordering the harpoons around and I'm like "Okay okay, fine" but someone didn't pick up a third one that I wanted to grab, so when I got to the harpoon launchers, I was too late to actually hit anything. So the DK rags on me for "wasting" them, tells me to do it right next time, except on the next pass I had no harpoons so he yells at me AGAIN for failing to use the harpoons I didn't have. (Please note that I have been a harpooneer many times without missing, but I become useless when flustered.) So I wait for a harpoon to drop, decide to ignore the DK and do my job and I do it right because I don't have anyone backseat harpooning, and the boss lands.

Except by the time the boss is dead, I'm mad.

Deathcharger Farm, or "Easier Than It Looks"

Drop Rate: 1% (1 in 100)
Boss Availability: 5 Times an Hour

Any mount collector worth his or her salt has this on farm, but for people like me (lazy people), we need a little extra push in the right direction. (Punny emphasis on direction.)

Tip: Avoid Mangled Cadavers unless you can remove diseases. They have a 10 min disease that stops natural health regen (including eating; doesn't include certain healing spells, bandages, or pots). Dying removes it. Or you can buy a bunch of Restorative Potions (alchemy) or learn to make them from Badlands Reagent Run chain (A/H).

Tip: This instance is also a goldmine for runecloth, so you should always loot your corpses.

Optional Extra-Farm: Look for rare spawn Hearthsinger Forresten for a 20% chance at the Piccolo of Flaming Fire -- a permanent item that makes everyone around you dance if standing still. He has different spawn points (map in progress). I suggest making a macro to "/tar Hearth" and start spamming it at the main gate until you get to the boss.

Lunar Festival 2010, or "Yes, I'm Posting on Valentines Day"

Ahhh, holidays. ^_^ Full of eggs and toast and tea and Disney movies. The only thing that could make it more romantic? Office supplies.

But now we have Lunar Festival, and there's not much new from last year (or 2008 or 2007), though again I implore you to take a minute today or tomorrow to get Omen done. Just head to Moonglade, find his corpse (or a raid killing him), stand in the light shining on corpse, and you will get the quest complete whether you killed him or not.

If you wait too long in the week, you won't find anyone killing him.

Next, you need to focus on getting all the elders. Some will be difficult or impossible if you're low level. This is mainly a time sink with all the traveling. Picking up a mage traveling buddy could help a great deal.

Your best list of elders is on Wowwiki.

Multiplayer, or "Is WoW REALLY Optimized for Group Play?"

WoW is a multiplayer game, and that's what Blizzard wants it to be.

Faction transfers (i.e. alliance to horde) were supposed to help reduce solo play. The service allows friends to congregate on the same server and faction so they can play together.

This is evidence that Blizzard thinks and cares about promoting multiplayer gaming within WoW.

The problem, and it's not something they can really "fix" without changing rules tied to the very fabric of the game, is that if you want to be a certain race because you LOVE that race or that character design... sometimes you can't.

Not and play with your friends.

Plushies & Petses, or "Cute But No Thanks"

If you buy the plushie, you get the corresponding pet. For me, spending real money for pets my characters wouldn't use and toys I'd throw in my Goodwill pile... not worth it.

I'm pretty "meh" about these pets, but I congratulate anyone who likes (and can use) both the plushies and the pets. And I'm sure if anyone just wants the pet, they'll have adorable animations and your enjoyment will be worth the price.

Also, there are plenty of kids in the world to give the plushies to. My sister-in-law is percolating one as we speak, so if I really want any of the plushie/pet combos in the future, I can pawn the real world toy off on the baby. Since its parents both play WoW, I'm sure they won't mind. :D

(source)

Account Sharing, or "Care to Join the Banwagon?"

Account Sharing is when two or more people use the same account. This includes even occasional sharing, such as allowing a friend to have your account information for profession emergencies or neutral AH deals. This is against the game's rules.

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First and foremost, it's never okay with Blizzard. Your account will be perma-banned if they find out. If you're okay with that, keep reading.

The only situation I've seen that really works: I had a friend who rolled a character on her boyfriend's account while they leveled to 80. They had different work hours, so they could play while the other was out, and they only logged onto their own characters when they played.

Once they hit 80, they wanted to do endgame stuff together and she got her own account and transferred her character to it. (I advised her to do it and told her how, but they made the decision.)

Je t'adore, or "Happy Valentines 2010!"

Tons of changes to how things work this year, so let's get right to it and nobody comment on how I didn't notice it'd started already (I overplayed yesterday and took today off until Family Time).

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Changes:

• You can now buy all (most? not seeing bouquets) of the holiday items from vendors, including the Peddlefeet pet.
• Ridable LOVE BOATS in the cities with serious waterways. Woo!
• Third time's the charm -- if you haven't heard of the new mount, look at the image at the top of the post. You can get that pretty pink rocket off the new holiday boss.
• You can get 1 [Love Token], which is currency for all the items, for 1 [Lovely Charm Bracelet], which is 10 [Lovely Charms] that you get from killing mobs that are at least green to you. So you can actually grind currency after doing all the dailies.

Pay-to-Do-Stuff Features, or "The Future of Character Tweaking?"

If you haven't been reading WoW blogs regularly (or closely), you may not have noticed that Blizz is working on a Guild Transfer Service. A practical service meant to support the changes to guilds in Cataclysm, it is presumed to be a way to move a guild bank and members from one server to another without loss.

The next logical step, in my thinking, is a service to move one account from server to server. If you (like most) have more than one character on a server, it seems only sensible that we'll eventually be able to pay a lump sum to move all characters on an account to a new server home -- or even to pick and choose characters from across servers to end up at one single location.

I'm confident that we'll be able to move plural characters around for a flat fee at some point.

100 Mounts, or "Solo Collection Guide"

This is a guide to 100 mounts pre-Cataclysm. With new races and factions coming out in the expansion, we will get new mounts to make this more attainable, but logic suggests we'll also get a new achievement, because collector achievements need to stay difficult to be worthwhile. Right?

So there's no point neglecting your collection now if you want to stay on top of things in future expansions.

I'll give you a simplified list. It'll be up to you to research details, though I may eventually post some guides for harder grinds. This is just to point you to the mounts that are guaranteed to be yours if you put the time/money/effort in.

Outfit of the Month, or "My WoW Model Viewer is Broked"

This month I'm going with something a bit hoochy, but it's the only image I had pre-prepared. Next month, I trust things will be back to normal and I'll find something for cloth-wearers. (I know I've been neglecting y'all. Sorries!)

I'm a big fan of the thigh-plates on the legs and the overall color scheme, though I suggest a green-gold cloak to cover the bare back and... um... scantily clad rear on the females. Somehow the shoulders and shield make the front look more covered than it is, but the back just seems nekkid.

It's also easy to put together, since the items are uncommons and will show up on the Auction House every now and then.

Valentines Boss, or "Apothecary of LOVE!"

The Valentines holiday starts in two days and I know most of you are (or should be) as excited as I am. I'm particularly anxious because of the new boss, the fact that Birdy doesn't have any level 80 friends yet, and how much I want her (and another alt) to get that pretty new PINK mount.

The mount definitely drops off the Valentines boss, according to Wowhead's data-mined feat of strength "Big Love Rocket."

Jerk Babies, or "Little Jerks Growing Up to Be Big and Dumb Just Like Daddy"

Because I have nothing better to post about, and because it was so awful it was funny.

I decided to learn how to tank on my little level 27 warrior. My husband has a 25 warlock, so we grouped up and got immediately into an instance.

First minute in, the mage rolls Need on some Moss Agate and the healer goes nuts. Says we aren't continuing if the guy does it again.

Husband makes verbal calming motions toward the party, suggests the mage might not roll Need on Moss Agate, to which the mage replies "But I'm a jewelcrafter."

Cheerful, or "Tales of Pleasant"

After "Tales of Annoying," I figured I needed to mention something nice that happened in a pug.

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Last week I ran one of the new heroics, the fancy one with the multi-faced end boss (Forge of Whatever).

The druid tank (Furyhawk-Thrall) and I rolled on Frayed Scoundrel's Cap.

He won.

He said "Oh crap, I didn't realize you needed. Here." And handed it to me.

I blinked. "Oh, no, if you need it keep it."

"No, I'm wearing T9."

I said "You're so sweet!" and thanked and /hugged him, and Magiabianca-Thrall promptly told me to back off.

They tossed /love at each other, and I grinned to myself at the cuteness of them and popped the new helm on instead of my measly old Headguard of Retaliation.

I was pretty happy after that. Not just getting a massive upgrade or them being nice but also running into another couple that pugs together.

So if you run into those two, definitely let out a "Woo!" of happy, because they're nice people.

Blowhard, or "Tales of Annoying"

This one didn't have a crappy ending and there's not much else for me to post these days but PUG stories, so I'm sorry if I sound like a broken record with all the "Oh, look how bad this PUG was!"

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I hop in this heroic, one of the undead troll ones from Zul'Drak (does anyone really care what they're called?), and the tank asks us to hold up while she makes bolts of cloth for bag space.

The mage is like "Why? No epics drop in here." Like the tank doesn't need bag space because the instance is crap.

The tank ignores him and, once she's done, pulls whole rooms. We wipe in the third(ish) room because a mob found the healer.

Evolution of Pets, or "Tail Wagging and Other Fine Motions"

I'm trying to decide if Blizzard is giving us fewer but overall more complex vanity pets, or if the vanity pets we've received recently (Perky Pug, Core Hound Pup, Pandaren Monk) are just special treats.

If you look at one of the early pets, such as Mr. Wiggles the pig, his special motion was pretty unique: he ate grass while idling.

We were all "Oooh, look at that grass eating!!"