Saturday, January 31, 2009

Mount Gunbad: The Boiling Cauldron

I went back to mess around in Mount Gunbad alone today. Did some exploring, played around with the cauldron quests, soloed a few mobs and learned some stuff.

The Boiling Cauldron
The three quests for this provide no exp or items, they simply provide you with a 30min buff that lasts only while you are in Gunbad. Each quest requires that you collect 5 mushrooms (a different type for each quest). Once you collect them, return to the cauldron to receive the 30 min buff. There should be cauldrons located somewhere before boss battles if you look around for them (but not all of em).

Here are the 3 quests and the buffs that they provide (most provide 2 buffs and are color coated):



Bloodfang Brew: Collect 5 bloodfang mushrooms; increase Weapon Skill & Ballistic skill by 50

Green Ooze Brew: Collect 5 Green Ooze mushrooms; increases Intelligence & Willpower by 50

Spikespore Brew: Collect 5 Spikespore mushrooms; increases Armor by 450 & Toughness by 50

On a final note, you can not solo things and get inf. *tear* In actuality, I really like that idea.

Tome Unlocking Fun

One of the things about this game that really caught my attention was the Tome of Knowledge or ToK as I will refer to it. It not only has some interesting stories to read, but some really wacky stuff as well. Just what I expected from the Old World!

You might have heard that their are a good amount of tome unlocks that are attainable via running around naked killing things, letting things kill you, clicking on things, getting clicked on, and then clicking on some more. Yes, all of those give you tome unlocks. So here is myself, and my old guild from Averheim, Bash and Brew, going at it in the Marshes of Madness... naked.



Oh look! It's Brimmstone (AKA Bashstone) the only one whoes not drinking... he gets naked in the marshes on a regular basis, the rest of us needed a few drinks. Weee!




Needless to say I've found ToK unlock hunting to be one of my favorite passtimes in WAR. Currently im using the following addons to assist my search for knowledge:

TomeTitan
http://war.curse.com/downloads/war-addons/details/ttitan.aspx
TomeTracker
http://war.curse.com/downloads/war-addons/details/tometracker.aspx

Friday, January 30, 2009

Mt. Gunbad Chapter 1

Tales of Mount Gunbad have been heard from the depths of the dwarven caves to the highest points of Altdorf. A large connection of caverns filled with unimaginable demons, giant squigs, and thousands of highly trained (if there is such a thing) goblins. Our story begins with the great Starbreaker and a glorious idea.

After a few pints of bugmans finest, Starbreaker pondered what might lie in the depths of Mount Gunbad. He had traveled through the Badlands, over came trolls and goblins in Black Fire Pass, and had even made his way through the winter passes of Kadrin Valley to where he currently sat on a stool in the Hungry Troll pub.

“Far too few green skins have died on this day - there is debt to be settled,” Starbreaker mumbled to him self and anyone willing to listen. “Gunbad, I’ve heard there’er many o’ goblins lurkin’ in those twisted caverns.”


Many times had he heard that name throughout his travel towards the great Dwarven city. It was in this moment of recollection that sparked an interest in him to explore this lost world. So he set out to, back through the black fire pass and into the Badlands, where Mount Gunbad toil. Of course he was alone, for what dwarf would travel in a pack if not due to fear. No, there was no fear here, only confidence (perhaps too much confidence). Upon entering the cavern Starbreaker grunted and growled, in an attempt to not only boast his own strength to whatever may be lurking in the dark, but also to invigorate his senses. After a steady glance around the area, he was faced with three paths. Without hesitation he stormed off to his right, towards a decrepit old bridge. The stench of goblin was thick in the air and with less than a foot onto the first plank he could see the goblins festering in the distance. He stepped closer, more cautious than before now and fully aware of his surroundings. At the other end of the bridge now stood two goblins, they were not there but moments ago. Unsure of how the goblins arrived, he charged into battle. His great axe of Kadrin lifted high into the air was swiftly brought down upon his first foe. The goblin seemed unphased by the blow. Starbreaker swung again, this time hitting the goblin hard and cutting him deep. A few more swings, yet once again, had little effect to the goblin. At this point his life bar was at about 50% and he’d just noticed a goblin shaman around the corner healing his primary target. With a quick jolt (for a dwarf that is) he rushed the Shaman and immobilized him. Only moments later the shaman burst to his feet with another round of heals. Starbreaker knew he was doomed, but running in fear is not the path of an Ironbreaker. It is caves that he originally trained to be part of this elite class. Starting out in the lower ranks by wandering the caves, tunnel after tunnel, fending off any goblin scouts encountered on the way. But this was no goblin scout that he faced. These goblins obviously knew what they were doing, and they had seen visitors of his stature before, noting the dead dwarven skeletons lying in the dirt a head of him.


The night goblin’s bright red eyes grew as he made his final blow, bashing in Starbreakers head and knocking him completely unconscious. His lifeless Dwarven body clanged as his platemail splashed into the damp floor below. After kicking him a few times, the two goblins examined his eyes and gave a good yank on his beard before returning to their patrol. As the goblins left Starbreaker for dead a rune priest from the camp at the cave entrance revived him and escorted him to the camp. After a few hours of rest Starbreaker was ready to go at it again. This time with an axe and shield in hand - for the great weapon seemed to provide little defense – he set forth. Before he had another chance to charge into battle he was confronted with some old friends, Bashstone of Averheim and Apacalipsio Truman made their way into the cave. Now with a rune priest and a witch hunter by his side, Starbreaker felt that any task could be done. Nothing quite filled the young dwarfs ego like a few well placed heals from Bashstone.


The three of them set off again, this time into the left wing of the caves. With only a few hundred feet into the cave, more friends arrived. Halomander, an Elven arch mage, and a warrior priest of whose name he could not even begin to pronounce. With the party of five in full function the group made their way, cutting down giant squig after plague maggots and even some nasty trolls lurked in the depths of Gunbad. After only an hour or two of dungeoneering it seemed that the party had only grazed the surface of this seemingly never ending labyrinth of vile creatures.

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Solo ORvR - UI testing


Tonight destro locked up the elf area. My warband had already made it to the fort and I was one of the few stragglers. A straggler who came across a black orc named, Stonetusk. After I made a quick retreate across the river and then back, the two of us locked metal. I was very excited to test my new UI set up (diablo-esque) as the ORvR earlyer left me dieing before I knew what hit me. This was my first chance to really test out my keybindings and button layout.

Aside from our initial charge, Stonetusk seemed to be a bit imoble. Throughout the battle I had compleate positional controll leaving Stontusk's shield to be of little use. I made sure that I was on his flank or rear as often as possible. I was expecting a long battle and after hitting him with Binding Grudge, I proceeded to buff myself with Guarded Attack (armor buff) and Vengfull Strike (toughness buff), and went for positional controll. My lvl 1 moral poped fast, and after casting Inspiring Attack (str buff) and stone breaker i used it. This is where i did the most damage (pic taken a bit after I used my moral 1). Continualy keeping my binding grudge and cave in up, it didn't take long to finish him off. I was supprised to walk away with more than 50% health.

I was somewhat dissapointed, as he had a two lvl advantage, and I was expecting more of a challenge. Nevertheless I finished with a bow and about 10 sec later was rampaged by 6 of his closest friend. haha

All in all I'm really enjoying my new UI config. I still have a few tweeks, but other than that it's great. I'll talk more about my UI next time.


















This is a pic from ORvR in Eataine at the Sanctuary of Dreams. Order was doing well, and then another destro warband showe up. ouch!