Duke Togo

I've level 14, and I'm running with 2 teams currently. Vaan/Balthier/Ashe are Team 1, while Basch/Fran/Penelo are Team 2. I alternate between the two of them for leveling purposes. I have the characters split up along the lines of tanks/support/casters. Vaan and Basch are my tanks, and I load them up with offensive, defensive, and HP Licenses. Balthier and Fran are given White Magick Licenses for the purpose of dispelling status effects. I'll eventually give them some Green Magick Licenses for buffing. Otherwise they are ranged attackers. And, of course, we have Ashe and Penelo as my casters. Right now they are mostly White Magick with some Green, but eventually they will branch out to cover all Magicks (to add in offensive casting). Currently, they are all about the healing, while whacking stuff with their staffs now and then. Right now each character has 1 Mist Charge. Eventually, I see the License Board being filled out for everyone. I have fond memories of maxing out my guys in FFX, and watching Yuna do 99,999 damage with every hit. Ah, I do love overkill.

Yeah, I've been stealing from every mob I have faced since level 1. Gil flows like water in this game. I had something like 20,000 Gil at level 7.

Well, i'm just about 10 levels in now, and not really liking the License Board. I spend way too much time staring at it instead of playing the game. The only clear choice I've made at this point is not to put points into any weapons or armor until I have them or can buy them. I haven't put a single point into magic yet, and I haven't needed it. Between Fran's Cure, Balth's First Aid, and the never ending stream of Potions, I've done just fine. I end up sitting on chunks of LP for long stretches of time because I just don't know what to do with it. I really miss well defined characters.

The Orge/Tactics/Vagrant team is gold. My copy arrived this morning, and I've played an hour or so, and its everything I would want it to be.

Great news. It seems like I've been waiting for this release forever.

Roy shoots first, and has bigger hands.

The quality may be superior, but that's not saying much. Its still pretty bad. And the music makes me cringe

www.newegg.com Price through them, buy through them. Go with a single video card, double your RAM. OCZ and Corsair are the names you want to start looking at for RAM. Your power supply (I use Enermax, myself) is good for 2 video cards, but is overkill if you went go a single. As much as it pains me to say this, go with an Intel Core 2 Duo over the Athlon. Oh, and stay away from that case. Stay away from any case that is heavy on style, comes with lights, and doesn't have front and back 120mm fans. Chances are your tastes will change, the lights will get annoying, and the smaller fans are just too loud. And you really don't need that many of them. I'm not saying to go out and drop $200 on a Lian Li case (but they are SO worth it). The quality of a case is far more important that how it looks. I'm about ready to start planning a new build for next year. As things stand right now, this loyal AMD user will be moving no to an Intel Core 2 Duo.

I pulled a Keith, and watched it all in one sitting for the first time (as opposed to piece by piece stretched out over who knows how long). I like it, but don't love it. I like it better than I did on first impression. The animation is generally poor, the story does not flow, and it repeats too many of the same ideas over and over. Episode 4 is as good as episode 1 is bad. Episode 4 redeems the entire series for me. Overall, it was an average anime experience for me. Oh, by the way, I never before realized that it wasn't actually the cat talking to Lark in the first episode.

It was somewhat funny in parts, but they missed the real meat of the craziness and attitude that surrounds WoW. I didn't hear the whining, the lrn2play, and the cross faction bashing. The episode was fairly average, but I was surprised as to how much WoW lingo was in there. In other news, patch 5965 for the Burning Crusade Alpha popped up today, and the Hunter Talents are finally in it. There is some stuff I really like, but I can't say I am sold on it yet.

BAH! You can't quit before the Burning Crusade comes out.

eBay. The buyer won't be able to change the user information, though, so keep that in mind. Nor can any characters be transfered to another account. Chances are any attempted sale will get nixed on the respectable auction sites, and if Blizzard finds out your account will be banned, meaning your toon(s) will be gone, and if you sold it, you'll most likely need to refund the sale. What it all comes down to is don't do it. Just close the account. If you ever decide to come back, it will all be there waiting.

Oh wait! Rogue Squadron! How could I forget!? God know show many hours I sunk into that thing getting all Gold Medals. Loved that game.

Ocarina of Time was one of the best games I've ever played. Mario 64 was a blast, too.

I think Top2's biggest weakness was that it went back to the same well too many times. You can't make a homage piece of a homage piece, it just comes off as un-original and contrived. I got all the pep talks in the original, I've seen all the big bad Buster attacks, and I've seen the shirt being ripped open deal. Could they not come up with anything different?

Oh yes, almost forgot... Cam Clark is the voice for male Blood Elves. He plays it with a bit of a arrogant British accent.

Undead Rogue, never seen one of those before. Nice though, very nice. BTW, my Hunter also has a Macross name.

The problem with the Expansion is that the new races look so much better than the original. The current models really do look out-dated in comparison. The Blood Elf lands look better than anything in the game. You will be absolutely shocked when you see the new racial starting zones and the Outlands in person. Clearly a step above what is in game so far.

Mount changes in Patch 1.12.1, currently on the PTR: There will be effectively two riding skill levels, apprentice and journeyman. The cost for the riding skill will be significantly higher than it previously was, however this is offset by a drastically lower cost for the actual mount. For current players with mounts there will be a seamless transition to the new system. You will continue to have your mount; you will continue to be able to use it, etc. What this change does for players who don't yet have a mount or an epic mount is take the emphasis off of the mount itself, and put it on the riding skill. This helps give players access to more variety without requiring a large monetary investment if they, for instance, just want to pick a different coloured horse. This change was implemented after the latest revision of the patch notes was made available for inclusion into the 1.12.1 patch binary. It will be documented in a future revision however. Rank 11 and higher players will no longer need Exalted reputation to be able to ride cross-racial Rank 11 Mounts. Having 4 Epic Mounts won't be such a big deal anymore.

Just for kicks

Maybe its just me, but I thought this looked really bad. As in horrid. A step up from the "made for cable" junk you see on the Sci-Fi channel. Oh, you mean like Robocop 2 & 3? Or like Sin City, which did OK, but certainly wasn't a blockbuster by any means.

It does, plus its the only way to drop out of combat and place a trap. In certain cases, Flop and Shadowmeld for a Nelf Hunter can be a life saver.

Its easier to travel that way, as having a pet out adds their aggro radius to yours. Also, Flop Death drops the Hunter out of combat, not the pet. Then their is that annoying thing about having to feed them constantly. Really, a Warrior should never be afraid of Hunters. You can charge us from range, Hamstring keeps us from dropping out of combat (and thus laying traps) when we Flop Death, and our mail and low hit points make us easy kills. A decently geared Warrior at this stage of the game has too much armor and health for a Hunter to solo. As far as Hunter pets go, well, they scale horribly with level. At level 60, they cannot hold aggro against even auto-shots. Even if they do, their health and armor is too low to really last out a decent fight. Also, since the pet speed nerf in 1.9, they have alot of trouble doing anything against a moving mob/player. Pets have to be standing still to execute an attack, and they have a seriously hard time doing this if they can't keep up with the target. What can pets do as of 1.12? Well, they give you a break to do some damage before you have to start kiting a mob. They can add upwards of 100 DPS in raids, if you know what you are doing and how to handle your pet. They can (sometimes) pull a mob off a healer and give a tank the chance to pick it up. They can still piss off casters in PvP, and they are pretty good at picking up stealthed Rogues when put on Aggressive. Personally, I have two pets: one for PvE and one for PvP. This comes down to attack speed and their skill build, and I really couldn't swap one with the other.

I have a level 60 Night Elf Hunter, geared with a mix of Tier 1 & 2. I ran in (and lead for a stretch) a PvP group, but retired at Commander. Took alot of fun out of the game for me, it became like a job. Our 7th Grand Marshal graduates on Tuesday, and our 8th the week after. I am in what I definitely would call a "casual guild", but we are currently running Blackwing Lair. We have some real talent in the guild, but I don't think any of us want to get trapped in what you see going on with most of the "hard core" guilds. Very friendly and laid back, we would like to think we have a family friendly atmosphere, and we frown upon general vuglarity in the guild. I had actually left the game last December for about 5 months. I hit that "level 60, where do I go from here?" place, and flat out dropped the game. After 5 months and alot of badgering, I came back with my level 60 totally naked, with not a single item in his inventory, and 26 silver to his name. The lesson learned? If you are going to leave WoW, don't sell off everything you own, give the money away, and then delete your character. Just close the account, it will all be waiting for you when you return.

Figured it was about time someone threw up a topic on the game, its only the biggest MMO on the planet. Anyone else play? Anyone tinkering around with The Burning Crusade expansion? It will be one year tomorrow since I first joined World of Warcraft, my first and only online game. The only game I play at all these days, actually.