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Will the real XT Please stand up!

March 9, 2010 - 6:58 pm No Comments

Well as some of you may have noticed thanks to the great folks over at MMO-Champion.com, there is another “Lil” guy in town, KT will have a friend for all those collectors out there. This time it’s in the form of “Lil XT” a miniature of XT-002 Deconstructor. Check the picture out to the right or click HERE to see more views over at mmo-champion.com

Nothing else is known about the little guy like where he drops or how to obtain it. We don’t know but can assume that he’ll have some type of animation like Lil KT does since that seems to be all the rage right now at Blizzard as shown below

When I hear something I’ll post it up right away.

Valaar

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Celestial Steed – A mount to die for?

March 4, 2010 - 6:51 pm No Comments

So as you can see from the picture on the right (thanks to mmo-champion.com for pic) a new mount is being added, (soon) and it’s a variant of “Invincible”, Arthas’ steed. This Horse is a ground and air mount, but, it doesn’t fly like the Headless Horsemen’s mount. This horse has wings. Click here for a YouTube video of it in action.

A lot of questions are flying around as to where this mount is going to drop… judging by it’s appereance it would appear that it has ties to Algalon, the extra final boss of Ulduar. Some may pass this off as bogus since that boss is part of an past dungeon.

But I say nay, for two reasons.

1.) As we can see with ICC, Blizzard wants us to see the Lich King battle for ourselves, so, slowly they are going to give us a buff that will make that chance easier albiet slowly. So why not bring a boss that most people haven’t/won’t get a chance to see or participate in into a dungeon that we CAN get that chance.

2.) Enter VoA (Vault of Archavon), as we all know there is one spot left for a boss. So what if once the whole place is cleared the final wall is opened and we have a chance to take on Algalon…and then he may (like .01% or something dumb) drop this amazing mount.

Still say no way….?

Click the link below and view for yourself. Before you do, look to the right and at the final boss of the instance….I’ll wait.

CLICK ME!!

OMG you say, yes I heard you, as you just saw this is from the “OFFICIAL” Blizzard WoW Europe site. Now as long as they don’t go and change this all of a sudden. You’ll see (if you didn’t click the link yet) Algalon is listed as the final boss of VoA.

Do you think this will remain true? It’s a possibility but only possibility right now.

Still the fact remains that it’s listed that way and is very interesting.

Anyway, what do you all think?

Till next time,

Mike aka Valaar

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In the Beta!

February 17, 2010 - 8:18 pm No Comments

So I got invited into the Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty beta today. As I write this I’m currently downloading the beta itself. I haven’t seen anything referring to an NDA or anything, YET. When I actually start the game that could change. But as of right now I think I may be safe.

I’m going to play by Blizzards rules here so if they say I can’t talk about it or post images I won’t. But till I see something that is my full intention.

Right now I noticed it’s only available for PC so I’m booting up Windows on my MacBook Pro so I can play it. If and when the Mac version is available I’ll be downloading it. I plan to give my full impressions on the game on both platforms.

I’ll open up a topic for FAQ’s if enough of you are curious.

I also find it funny that here I’m asking you all for an alternative to WoW for a little break and I make a statement on that today and BAM! I get a beta invite. Got to love it!!

Anyway, till next time,

-Mike

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Looking good and the problems with Gearscore!

February 17, 2010 - 10:48 am No Comments

Have you ever noticed how getting new loot has the ability to make you want to play more? I’m not talking about getting a new sword and being excited because it has better stats then the mace you had before. I’m talking about getting an item that looks cool and you love the way it looks on you so you go sporting it all over Dalaran or any capital city of your choice. You want to be seen. This happens quite often with mounts as people will go to specific places (Krasus’ Landing in Dalaran) if you have flying mounts just so people see you on them. I say this because I just got my new shield NeverEnding Winter from ICC the other night. I love this shield, it looks sweet. I love the way the it looks so much that even if I queue up in LFG as DPS I won’t change my armor from my tanking set till I get into the instance.

I bring this up as a topic because I just ask you all if you could recommend another MMO for me to play cause I’m getting burned out on WoW and I don’t want to get completely burned out and not even pick up Cataclysm. But here I am a week or so later, feeling slightly refreshed. I still need my mace off Marrowgar which I’m hoping drops this week.

This all comes down to a one thing that I blogged about a long time ago, that WoW really is a popularity / looks contest. It’s all about bragging rights. He/she who looks the coolest, wins! You can deny it all you want but when it comes down to it you know that I’m right.

Example: Just the other night I was in one of my guilds and someone said and I quote “Is it wrong that I picked up an item that really isn’t that much of an upgrade for me but makes me look cooler and matches my set. I could have gotten a nice upgrade with my frost badges but I wanted my new chest piece instead.” I said not at all…of all my gear my cloak is the lowest piece I have sitting at ilvl 219. I said I have more then enough badges to get one that’s 264 but I’m saving for my legs piece instead. While the legs will be an upgrade from 232 to 251, the cloak would be a much more dramatic increase, ilvl anyway.

That being said it also peaks another question… What’s more important to people, looking good or having a higher “Gearscore”? You can see my dilemma, on one hand I’m upgrading my pants for cooler pants that will also give me a set bonus and a very small GS increase. On the other hand I have a cloak that will up my gear score a lot more while the stats are only slightly better. This has become a new issue as Gear Score has somehow become the benchmark for many guilds and players to tell if your good enough to hang with them in a raid or instance. While it certainly shows that a player has nice gear on what it doesn’t show is the persons skill at using all that gear. Here’s another example, I’ll use myself for this one. I’m a tank pure and simple. I do have a DPS spec and nice gear almost over the 5K mark on the forementioned gearscore. I enjoy the DPS spec and put out some decent numbers to boot. But my knowledge of how to play one is less than that of my tanking spec or another player who’s pure DPS. I have that high of a gearscore because in a ICC raid 3 pieces of DPS gear dropped and I rolled off-spec against no one. So here I’m sitting pretty with a nice gearscore that will only climb higher and yet my knowledge stays about the same unless I really put more effort into my DPS spec. So does gearscore really matter? To make matters worse I was in a Violet hold with my Paladin in DPS spec with my gearscore being 4975 and in my group was a DK at 5200…I out DPSed him by thirty something. While that’s not a whole lot more it does proves that gearscore really does mean jack shit.

I know this rant sort of took a turn from talking about looking good to the whole issue of gearscore but I had to get that out. I do want to say that I do use the gearscore addon, I like it for seeing what other players have. I’m not saying that ALL people with high scores suck and can’t play because I know a majority of them can play well. I just don’t think it needs to be a cut and dry benchmark for letting people raid or group.

Anyway, I just wanted to let you all know I’m refreshed a little and hoping my mace drops this week and I might even be a little more excited.

Till next time,

Mike aka Valaar

P.S. I noticed recently there a few more Valaar’s popping up on the Armory. I was the first but I guess the name is bound to be copied. I can’t fix that. But if your looking for the real Valaar aka me, then come to Kargath (US).

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So you wanted snow… here is snow!!

February 10, 2010 - 1:26 pm No Comments

Ok, I had a few people email me and say “I’m jealous” of the snow. I moved from Florida back to Maryland after 11 years down there. I was very excited about the snow. In December we had a record snowfall of 22 inches. Then we had some small snow come then last Friday another record breaker of 24+ inches. Now here we are mid week and we have another Blizzard (30mph winds, if not more) and another 20inches.

I just finished shoveling my car and my fiancee’s car out the other day and now I’m going to have to do it all over again.

Some of you wanted to see pictures. So here ya go…

This is out in my front yard. The wind is whipping good and it feels like 2 degree’s outside.

This is a picture from inside out my dinette window to my back porch. The snow is above the windows. I’m not sure you can tell but the snow is about 3 feet high. Enjoy!

Anyway, I’ll be back some more…keep those other MMO suggestions coming in please…

Mike

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Rant – Need New Shiny Toy!!

February 9, 2010 - 2:59 pm No Comments

So we are a few months away from Cataclysm (we all know it will be out in November or December) and I have to say for the first time in my WoW life cycle I’m getting bored. I log in every night and I barely do anything. If I don’t run ICC I only run the daily Heroic for my frost badges and that’s about it. I stand around not talking to people cause I’m overwhelmed half the time and just put on .

So the question is what do I do now? Do I look for another MMO? While I enjoyed the new Star Trek movie, I’m not a trekkie in the least bit. I don’t really find it all that interesting. If you would have asked me 4 months ago would I see myself leaving WoW for KoToR, I would have laughed at you and said no way, look at the graphics on that crap. Fast forward to now, and I’m going to have to say I’m really itching to try it, mainly cause I’m in need of something new. Not because the game looks any better then it did four months ago.

I’m a really hard person to keep interested. Before the iPhone I was buying and selling phones on ebay all the time just to get something new. Then I got the iPhone then the 3G, I passed on the 3GS but I’ve had the same interface, the same concept of the phone, same icons and I’ve LOVED this phone but when I saw the Google Nexus One I was like wow, a nice new phone, live wallpapers……T-Mobile, yuck, no thanks, then I saw it was going to Verizon….mmmm, I’m interested. But I’m quieted my thoughts and didn’t something I didn’t think I’d do… I jail broke my iPhone. Now I have new themes, new icons and hell I just got an app for it that makes it look identical to the iPad. It’s great, it will keep me interested a while longer till the 4th generation iPhone.

Getting back to WoW, I think I need something like what I did to the iPhone for WoW (NO, I’m not recommending I jailbrake WoW) just that I need a new look, I need a new feel. I’m sure Cataclysm will change all that for me and give me a new race and refresh my need to play. So I can safely say I’m not going to leave WoW, but I do think I need to play something else till Cataclysm (while still playing WoW).

I need that shiny new toy. Problem is I’m just not sure what that toy is right now…

If you all have some suggestions please let me know I’d love to hear them. Either post them here or email me at admin @ valaar dot com (preventing spammers, sorry, just type it out).

Thanks,

Mike aka Valaar

P.S. As I mentioned, I’m not leaving WoW and I’ll still post updates and news right here on Valaar.com

Posted in Rants, WoW

Random Observation – Rant…Sorry but I gotta…

February 9, 2010 - 10:45 am 1 Comment

With the Lich King finally here and falling what happens to “Frostmourne”? If you already watched the spoiler video on WoW.com or youtube you’d know what happens after the Lich King (Arthas) falls. The only thing made mention of was the Helm of the Lich King.

Spoiler:

When Arthas is slain and falls, the helm comes off and Tirion Fordring picks it up and says he must bare the burden only to be stopped by Bolvar Fordragon who takes the Helm and becomes the new LICH KING.

End Spoiler

I didn’t see any mention of Frostmourne. So I’m wondering why wouldn’t players be able to loot such a legendary, dare I even say the first “Artifact”, weapon in the game? We’ve looted or made the Hand of Ragnaros, we’ve looted the Warglaive’s of Azzinoth from Illidan why not give us Frostmourne. The closest we come is Shadowmourne. With that being said why not give us some cool Lich King Armor, remember the Armor was Arthas’ armor give me those boots or shoulderpads…plate armor is always nice.

I dunno, I guess as a tank I feel left out or just depressed with what we’ve been given with weapons and armor. I really don’t enjoy tanking with a mace or an axe. I want a sword and one that looks good. The Crusader’s sword from ToC is nice but can be replaced by getting the axe (much easier to get too) from Hall of Reflection. Then you go into ICC and Marrowgar gives us yet another mace and then Arthas gives us another mace on 10 man and a 1h axe on 25man…..mmmyuck. How about the days of when a Sword AND shield both go on our backs? Those were the days.

I’m feeling just let down with the loot tables and the reuse of graphics….the tanking Mace off Arthas looks just like the tanking mace off Marrowgar just blue instead of red….COME ON,
players are tired of this crap already Blizz…we want something new. I don’t want to raid for hours and hours to get my upgrade and have it be a colored variant of the weapon I already have…does that make sense to anyone?

Give us Frostmourne…give us something special for a drop off one of the most infamous characters in the game and lore….

…yyyuck..

I’m done.

Posted in Uncategorized

Update – 02.08.10

February 8, 2010 - 12:53 pm No Comments

Hey Folks, hey folks sorry for the lack of updates. As some of you may know (I mentioned in December when we had a nice snow storm then) that I live near Baltimore. So if you’ve been following the news we just got dumped with 24 plus inches of snow and 4.5feet of snowdrifts this past weekend since Friday. Needless to say I’ve been a little pre-occupied with things.

That’s not to say I should neglect things here. So I’m going to have two new things to post up here today or should I say this evening. (Full-time job comes first, gotta pay those server bills) and I hope you’ll enjoy and keep coming back.

Anyways, you can stop sending emails of “where are the updates” now and I’ll give you something to chew on later today.

Thanks,

Mike aka Valaar

Posted in Uncategorized

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