Aiming for the Crane

This is exciting, my material efficiency (ME) research jobs are getting closer to completion, which means two things. First, I get a bunch of researched blueprints delivered to my hangar, a whole lot of new toys all at once! Second, my research slots will be freed for more jobs. I already have some more BPOs lined up for ME research to make use of those slots.

I could simply do what I did before and install the BPOs in a convenient station with research facilities that isn't too expensive and tolerate the month-long delay before the job even starts. But in my previous search there was an oasis in the desert of delays, a beacon of hope for those with low attention spans: a research station with significantly shorter waiting periods! How can so many people be ignoring this station when it even offers much shorter queues and cheaper hourly research rates? Surely my industry skills aren't quite that elite yet to find a resource so many others apparently ignore.

Predictably, my skills turn out not to be quite so über and the station is a Siren, luring unwary industrialists in to low-sec to meet their inevitable doom shipwrecked and podded on a jagged gate-camp. If only there were some way to take advantage of that station my costs and times would be reduced significantly, with the time factor being more important. Lost ISK can be relatively easy to recover, but time is far more valuable a resource in New Eden. I just need to be able to get in to and out of low-sec safely. I have a little experience of moving between high- and low-sec, from my short stint in a PvP corporation, but I am now an industrialist. Sadly, I don't think many pirates respect trade routes, preferring to keep the benefits of low-sec to themselves and happy to sift through wreckage to get system upgrades, so flying unaccompanied in a Badger will only end in the wrong kind of explosions.

The solution could be to use a cloaking device, where the prevailing recommendation is to get a blockade runner instead of a covert ops ship. That sounds like a good idea. Being Caldari that means I am looking to get in to the pod of a Crane transport ship. It should be easy enough, a few days of training to improve my piloting skills and I'll be ready. However, it turns out that I am looking at my first piece of Tech II hardware, which requires a bit more experience than I generally have.

I first need to get my Industry up to level V, part of my overall plan anyway in becoming an industrialist. I also need to get Caldari Industrial ships up to V, because this is a Tech II industrial ship, which isn't much of a deviation as I had already got it up to III recently so that I could get in to a Badger Mark II for the extra cargo capacity. From there I have to train in Transport Ships and although training a skill to its first level is rarely an enduring task being a Tech II skill the book is relatively expensive. The high cost of the skill book wouldn't be an issue if I didn't then have to buy and equip the ship whilst still having enough left over to pay for the ME research and maintain an active production line. As it stands I need to boost my wallet a bit.

Having an excuse to get back in to deadspace pockets converting rats in to ISK bounties with the help of missiles is rarely a problem and I have a collection of salvaged parts that I could sell to make ISK fast. I suspect I won't be turning that pile of junk in to spaceships too soon, but you never know. I have a reasonable amount of time to gain the needed ISK, as both my current ME jobs and my skill training plan need to complete, so I can see how profitable I can make mission running before deciding to sell the salvage.

I suspect that my skill training will take longer to complete than the research jobs but even an extra fortnight of skill training to let me use the low-sec station may well end up saving time, particularly in the long run. The best part of all this is I have a new plan with a short-term goal! There is no better incentive to visit New Eden more regularly than to have a solid short-term goal. Do Caldari say 'huzzah'?

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Tags: crane, eve online, industry, mmorpg, penny ibramovic

The Netherwing grind is better than Northrend questing

I recently made enough gold to buy artisan riding for Sapphire, with a little left over for more auction house speculation, and I have started the reputation grind for the Netherwing Drake flying mount. With my protestation over the heavy restrictions and limitations in Northrend questing it is fair to ask why I am enjoying being back in Outlands running sabotage quests against the Dragonmaw orcs and not making the same complaints. It is a good point to make, as getting a Netherwing Drake requires a minimum of 70th level and artisan level riding, and the quests are only unlocked after certain reputation levels are reached. However, there are crucial differences to the way the information about the restrictions is given to the player.

After completing the quest chain the ends with defeating Zuluhed the Whacked the player is then told that she must master the art of flying when subsequently talking to the NPC dragon, an in-game and in-character pointer to needing the artisan riding skill. This is in contrast to getting underneath Dalaran in Crystalsong Forest and having none of the NPCs give any clue as to how to enter the city or what restrictions are in place.

There is an initial quest chain to unlock the Netherwing daily quests, but this consists of talking to an orc in the camp you've been sent to, which then opens up the rest of the available quests some twenty in-game feet away. This is not unlocking content as much as pointing you in the right direction, as the quest is designed to get you to Netherwing Ledge where everything takes place.

When the reputation grind begins you have a limited number of quests to complete and it is only when you attain a new level of reputation with the Netherwing that more quests become available, a superficial parallel to the level restrictions in Northrend. Whereas the level restrictions prevent you from doing anything meaningful in a zone you are already busy questing in Netherwing Ledge as soon as you get your first daily quest. And each level of reputation makes new quests available that you can see in the immediate area or are guided to, no travelling to a new zone with only a hope of new content available. Each level of reputation is also better defined than experience levels and gives reasonable expectation of change.

All the relevant information is freely presented to the player. There are no leaps of faith to be made, no fruitless return trips in case a minor character change has made a difference. The player understands what is available and what can be expected, from previous experience with game mechanics, in a way that encourages progression. The Netherwing quests let you know when you will be ready and offer clear enticements to continue. What puzzles me is how this design philosophy has been lost for the early Northrend content.

Posted in Gaming | 6 Comments »
Tags: mmorpg, northrend, outlands, world of warcraft

No rush to 80

Having installed the Wrath of the Lich King expansion within a couple of days of its release and loaded it almost daily since then I think it is fair to say that with only two 74th level characters I am in no rush to reach the new level cap. I would like to say that it is not the destination that is important but the journey, the myriad sights and experiences in which to indulge that carry us through the world and shape our characters. Rather than perceive a blur of rapidly changing colours as I race through zones I instead take time to realise how each zone is now broken down in to distinct regions with their own colours and geography, marvelling at how much different scenery can be packed in to a single area. I read the quests given to me, bringing the world to life as more than a collection of pixels. I savour the new continent. Well, I used to.

I was enjoying my journey and not concerned about reaching the destination up until I realised the game was telling me something I never expected from a supposed RPG: the destination is more important than the journey. Or, perhaps, the journey doesn't start until you reach the level cap, levelling no longer being the journey but the sleepy-eyed walk from the manor to the stables, and treated with about as much respect.

Whether it is the stupidly high level restriction on getting in to Dalaran, having to unlock quest content in every zone for every character, or simply not being able to pick up quests a couple of levels higher than me Wrath of the Lich King seems intent on keeping me away from the new content. Once I am at 80th level I get the impression these problems will either not exist or be greatly diminished, but until then levelling seems more like a chore than the very nature of the game.

Of course it is possible to get a mage to open a portal to Dalaran for you before 74th level, or a warlock could summon you to the city, after which you have continued access, but if these loopholes are in place to begin with and are going to be exploited why is there a level restriction in the first place? If players are going to find ways to get to the major hub of all characters and gateway to all cities because of its immense convenience why put an unreasonable restriction on its access? Getting in to Dalaran seems to me to be inflicted with a kind of MMORPG DRM, an unnecessary inconvenience that is easy to bypass.

The level restrictions and unlocking of quest content is rather more frustrating, as there is no way to bypass it. You cannot get access to the majority of quests in the quest hub until you have completed a small initial quest chain. When you get to a new settlement you will only see a single quest available—the quests to be unlocked aren't even shown as grey exclamation marks—and it would be reasonable to assume, from previous content, that there is only this one quest available, encouraging you to move on to other settlements. It is after you complete this one quest that a whole slew of yellow exclamation marks light up the mini-map, and it is only then that you can tell you have more to do. Indeed, such is the nature of this problem that you may end up doing a small quest chain for an NPC with the expectation of unlocking significant content only to discover that there is nothing left to do afterwards and realise your time could have been more productive elsewhere.

Having to unlock content also slows down progression considerably. Rather than picking up a handful of quests and running around the zone completing them in an arbitrary order the nature of the intial chain slows you down to linear quest completion, and this seems to be the case for each settlement in each zone. If this weren't frustrating enough, it all has to be done for every character the player brings in to the zone. I didn't mind playing through the chains to get a better sense of story with my first character, but my second just wants to gain some XP and having to unlock quest content becomes a significant impediment to that.

There also seem to be harsher level restrictions placed on quests and their respective zones. Whilst unlocking quests is irritating I find the level restrictions to be more serious, as it kills my explorer spirit. I have occasionally gone out for a ride on my mount to see what other wondrous sights exist in Northrend and the hideous monsters that are determined to keep me out of their habitats. Although I expect to have to turn around and return to safer areas for the most part I would like my spirit to be rewarded every now and again. But when I venture in to Sholazar Basin at 74th level only to have to turn around without even being able to pick up the flight point I get seriously frustrated, particularly as the zone is mostly full of mobs that I can fight without too much of a challenge.

Rather than letting me decide whether I want the challenge of slightly higher-level mobs or not the game resoundly rejects me from Sholazar Basin. It doesn't matter if I get bored with the zone I am in or just want a change of scenery my path has already been chosen independent of my desires. As already noted, my quest to find Dalaran was equally disappointing. If there is no extrinsic benefit to exploring the corners of the world then I am effectively discouraged from doing so and a part of the appeal of having a world to discover is lost, which becomes significant to someone who likes to uncover the map for more than simple achievements.

This is not to say that World of Warcraft or Burning Crusade didn't have the same issues, as there have always been quest chains and level restrictions, but never before have they seemed so harsh. I remember wanting to avoid repeating most of Hellfire Peninsula with my death knight, so I skipped across to Zangarmarsh and got right in to the quests at 60th level, even though the peninsula can boost you to 63rd, which opens the expansion up nicely to repeated playing. But being stuck in Borean Tundra or Howling Fjord until you can start getting quests in Dragonblight at 72nd level is far from appealing when considering runing an alt to Northrend.

Perhaps all the players racing to get to the level cap in the previous expansion, with the focus on raiding, have influenced what World of Warcraft is meant to be. I am not trying to blame anyone, simply wondering why levelling is no longer as unconstrained as it used to be. It's not as if there is more of a challenge, the MMORPG taken out of easy mode, the player is just thrown against arbitrary game mechanic obstacles that impede being a hero.

I was wondering if a general malaise had settled over me when I was logging in and becoming more occupied with fluffy world events than questing, but with the events over I still have a lack of desire to head back to Northrend to quest. Instead, I have run Stratholme and The Scholomance solo with my death knight, gone in to Lower Blackrock Spire to get some pets, run Auchindoun instances to help a druid gain Lower City reputation, and taken both my warrior and death knight in to battlegrounds. Apart from PvP it has all been old content, old content that is polished to a shiny finish indeed. Maybe soon I can push past what hopefully is the equivalent of 5th level in third edition D&D and rekindle the flame of Northrend levelling.

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Tags: mmorpg, oops this turned in to a long rant, world of warcraft, wrath of the lich king

Music of 2008: all the rest

In my final look back at the music I bought and listened to in 2008 I review everything left over after considering new bands and established acts.

In the case of Best of... albums it rarely makes a difference what year they are bought, as they are essentially nuggets of nostalgia that collect the most notable works of bands in to a handy package that means you don't need to buy several back-catalogue albums just to hear your favourite tunes. Such as it was that when I was in a music shop and Sunday Girl by Blondie was playing I was reminded that I like a lot of their singles but had never got around to buying a collection, which I rectified then and there. As can only be expected from a Best of... album there are plenty of excellent songs to enjoy, including Heart of Glass, Atomic and Denis, but it is a curious artefact of singles collections that the album seems to get weaker by the end. It could be that this type of album is generally twice as long as normal albums and it is too much to process in one sitting, or it could be that bands tend not to burn out but fade away, leaving a trail of lesser-known songs in the wake of their career. Even so, there is generally enough good material, or downright pop classics, to make singles collections worthwhile purchases, as certainly is the case with Blondie.

Much the same commentary can be made about All Over the World: The Very Best of Electric Light Orchestra. My mum played ELO quite a lot when I was growing up and despite it not appealing to me back then the music I heard during that time clearly has ingrained itself in to me, which also explains why I have some Neil Diamond in my collection and get an occasional urge to buy some Boney M. As with Blondie, the most recognisable tracks for me are the earliest singles and as the album is presented in a chronological order this again means that I enjoy the first half of the album before it trails off in to unfamiliar territory. It's still great to listen to Mr. Blue Sky, Don't Bring Me Down and Livin' Thing, to name a few.

It isn't just compilations that I bought belatedly last year. More often than I care to consider I find that I simply end up failing to buy an album of an artist I like when it is released, somehow seeing my faith in the band's talent spiralling in to a state of uncertainty, just not being able to convince myself to buy the album. Sometimes this means I never get the album, other times I buy it a year or fifteen later. I thought De La Soul were incredible with their first few releases but for some reason didn't manage to gel with 3 Feet High and Rising. It was only years later that I found an appreciation for its interstitial skits and informal recording style. And even though I also bought their second album it was only last year when I finally got around to getting the third, Buhloone Mind State, and I am glad I did. De La Soul do not let their musical taste stand still, instead allowing it to morph with themselves and the times, whilst still managing escape easy genrefication. There are quintessential De La Soul songs present in Buhloone Mind State, whilst a jazz motif draws the listener from start to finish, holding the album together to form a more coherent whole without coming across as repetitive. It's a work of art.

Losing Something Good for Something Better by I Was a King was released back in 2007 but my order was delayed and I had all but forgotten about it until the album turned up six months later, which put it nicely in to 2008 for me. I am glad to report that it was definitely worth the wait. The vocals have a quality reminiscent of the sixties that combine with the overdriven guitars to create a wonderful, if brief, album of alternative pop music.

Looking in to 2009, I already have the delightfully all-French EP by White Hinterland, some screeching but interesting noise to get used to by Rolo Tomassi, Slow Club may turn out to be my new favourite band, the excellent A-Punk by Vampire Weekend convinced me to buy their debut album, and despite not being a big fan of Elbow the resurgence of the gloriously uplifting One Day Like This is pushing me towards getting their current album. I may also convince myself to get the follow-up albums by both I Am Kloot and Cold War Kids, both bands where I have enjoyed their previous works immensely but have failed to buy their latest offerings for reasons I cannot fathom.

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Tags: blondie, cd, cold war kids, de la soul, elbow, elo, i am kloot, i was a king, rolo tomassi, slow club, vampire weekend, white hinterland

Protection warrior versus death knight tanks

Spinks brings up an interesting point about different tanks in World of Warcraft, where a protection warrior will output less damage per second (DPS) than, for example, a death knight when both classes are in a tanking rôle. If a different class does more DPS whilst tanking there is a perceived advantage to choosing one class of tank over another. As someone with both a protection warrior and frosty death knight I find it interesting to note what difference could be made in bringing one or the other to an instance group. I will base my numbers on my own experience, with both characters being 73rd level, although I expect it to scale appropriately.

When tanking, my protection warrior outputs about 650 DPS and my death knight 1,000 DPS. That's an astonishing 54% increase in damage that my death knight achieves when tanking, which seems like an excellent reason to bring the death knight along instead of the warrior. However, it's not as simple as considering the tank in isolation.

The archetypical five-man group composition has one tank, one healer and three DPS. When in a DPS rôle my death knight can generate around 1,300 DPS, which I will consider to be reasonable for 73rd level DPS. For our five-man group that gives us three characters outputting a combined 3,900 DPS. Assuming the healer is only healing and not contributing to damage we get a total group DPS output of 4,550 DPS with the warrior tank and 4,900 DPS with the death knight tank. That is only around an 8% difference in damage output, which isn't quite as dramatic.

An 8% increase in DPS is still an advantage, though. It will mean combat finishes more quickly and the amount of healing required will be less. To counter this it can be noted that a warrior in defensive stance gets an automatic 10% reduction applied to all damage taken, which must make a healer's life easier. A warrior's damage reduction can be increased further in two ways. First, demoralising shout reduces the attack power of all enemies in range. Second, the warrior carries a shield. Although a death knight in frost presence gets a boost to armour similar to carrying a shield, granting both classes an equivalent overall armour value, the warrior gets the ability to block attacks, another damage reduction effect.

There are other abilities that both classes bring to the group. Warriors and death knights both can debuff the targets' attack speeds, with thunder clap or icy touch, and both get to buff the party, with battle or commanding shout for the warrior and horn of winter for the death knight. It is interesting to note that the death knight's horn of winter is a better buff for a warrior and vice versa. Horn of winter buffs strength, increasing not just attack power but also the amount of damage blocked with a shield, whereas the warrior's battle shout grants extra attack power only, which is just dandy for the death knight.

Of course, this analysis does not apply for raid encounters that are considered 'DPS races', where the boss needs to be defeated as quickly as possible before special abilities become overwhelming and impossible to overcome. Total DPS then becomes more important than party resilience. But simple five-man encounters don't seem to be unbalanced towards the choice of warrior or death knight tank. Although a group with a tanking death knight will have slightly increased DPS the warrior's group has a more resilient tank.

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Tags: death knight, mmorpg, world of warcraft

The value of labour

Heading in to New Eden I say hello to a couple of new corporation colleagues and pick up my newly completed production run of missiles to put on the market. Jumping in to my Badger's pod I take the missiles to the system and station that has proved lucrative for me only to find that someone else has undercut the normally inflated local prices for them to be comparable with other systems. Rather than undercutting the lower price and perhaps forcing depressed prices in the future I keep my price quite high and simply decide to let those cheap missiles sell out, which won't take long at that bargain price. It means my missiles will take a few more days to start selling but the extra ISK I stand to make will be worth it.

With my missiles up for sale I set a course for my home station to pick up the stockpile of minerals I found serendipitously that had been accumulated months ago and left unused. Rather than having to buy more minerals from the market to start my next production run I can instead use this dusty stockpile. It is tempting to discount the cost of the minerals from my calculations in working out the unit price of the finished product. After all, I haven't spent any ISK in getting them so it is all profit, the reasoning can be made. However, this is a false economy, just as it is when mining your own ore.

The idea that you can ignore the cost of minerals when selling goods if you don't buy the minerals can easily be shown to be wrong by considering how to maximise profits. If a mineral is selling for a certain amount of ISK per unit and you decide that, perhaps because you mined the ore, you can discount that cost from the produced item you may be able to undercut competition drastically, but if you are selling the finished item for less than the cost of the minerals on the market then you could have made more profit simply by selling the mineral itself. There is little sense in spending time and ISK running a production line if you can make more money more quickly by dumping the raw minerals on the market.

It should be clear that factoring the cost of minerals in to the price of the product is necessary in maximising profit. What strikes me about this is how functional the economic system is. There are no 'vendor trash' goods as such—effectively useless items added to the game solely to give a source of income to players—because just about everything has a purpose, even if this purpose is just to be broken down in to its constituent minerals to be used to make something more useful. Not only that, even labour has value.

In World of Warcraft it is common for labour to reduce the value of an item, probably to prevent rapid accumulation of wealth. For example, buying flour from a vendor and using the cookery skill to make bread ends up with a product that is sold to the vendor at less than the cost of the flour itself. This appears to be true for most crafting items in the game, the finished product being worth less than the constituent materials, and it makes the crafting system a tedious time-sink at worst. You end up spending time in order to reduce the value of items for the chance of increasing your skill, which tragically advances you to be able to continue the process of destroying value with more expensive materials. The only time value is seen in goods in World of Warcraft is when they are sold to players, not NPCs.

With EVE Online, it is important to note that, with only a few exceptions, any goods on the market are generally sold by a player and bought by a player. When a player buys the materials from the market and spends ISK on producing a finished item he can factor in the cost of that labour, add a profit margin and sell the goods for an overall gain. Because you are not buying from and selling to an NPC vendor ISK cannot be generated from nothing, which is how the contribution of labour can be valued. That is not to say the economic system is closed. ISK made from running missions, including loot and salvage, and gained from bounties is external to the system, but this too requires a form of labour.

Time spent creating goods is never time wasted, and it is always possible to sell looted or gathered items, or the minerals therein, for a reasonable price. Rather than spending time making essentially worthless items being an industrialist is to know that you are a necessary cog in the system, meeting demand with supplies and seeing the intrinsic value in time and materials.

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Tags: eve online, industry, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, professions, world of warcraft

Corporation application and thoughts on covert ops ships

The missiles I'm manufacturing for New Eden capsuleers continue to fly off the market as quickly as I can make them. Meanwhile, Kename Fin stops by to point me towards an excellent resource for BPO research figures, before casually throwing in an invitation to join her industrial corporation. What a splendid offer.

It isn't long after a station-to-station communication relay is opened that I am encouraged to leave dock and set my autopilot for the corporation's HQ to apply to join. A first glance at my strategic maps makes the journey look to be an arduous venture but my autopilot, knowing the galaxy somewhat better than I do, has different ideas. Taking a two-jump shortcut through a nearby region cuts the flight down considerably, to only thirteen jumps in total, clever computer.

The flight to apply to the corporation is far from a chore, as Kename and I keep chatting a little, about skills, goals and previous corporations. At one point the subject of covert ops ships crops up, which reminds me that I had previously steered my training towards getting in to a covert ops ship, although I can't remember how far I got. A quick check shows that I don't have the piloting skills learnt but that I am ready to pick them up at any point.

When I was looking to get in to PvP I thought that a covert ops ship may be a good idea, now that I am moving in to industry it is not one of my higher priorities compared to, for example, learning production efficiency. However, if a covert ops ship lets me get in to and out of low-sec space with some measure of safety it could be possible to take advantage of research stations in low-sec, such as the one I found recently that had much lower costs and waiting times. Being able to use similar research stations, over their more expensive high-sec counterparts with huge queues, would be a boon.

Before I buy the covert ops skill book rashly from the market I think to check my assets to see if it is sitting in a warehouse somewhere, particularly as I had designs on training it in the past. I don't find the skill book but what I do find is a whole stack of minerals back at my home base gathering dust. These minerals must be the result of refining modules looted from mission running many months ago that I couldn't sell at the time. Despite refining the modules back when I was unskilled I can't change that lack of efficiency now and I am still left with a stockpile of unused minerals, unsold in case I could eventually put them to use. It turns out that I now can put them to use, so what else is there to do but turn them in to profitable merchandise.

I plan a trip from my mission base to home base for the near future to pick up the minerals. Back to the present and I am in an Amarr station half-way across the galaxy and applying to join a new corporation. I send my EVE Online character limited API key with the application, creating a new one to protect my New Eden privacy at least a little. It's unfortunate that EVE Ambulation isn't active yet as otherwise I could have shaken hands with Kename Fin first. With the application surrendered I jump back in to my shuttle and head back to my mission base.

I wake myself up the next day to pick up my next batch of missiles rolling off the production line, the previous batch sold out already, and find that I have been accepted in to the corporation. Blimey! I have a promising new start in my industrial career.

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Tags: corporation, eve online, industry, mmorpg, penny ibramovic

Finding Dalaran

I find myself in Northrend with no particular agenda, so I indulge the explorer in me for a while. Travelling northerly through Dragonblight eventually has me crossing in to Crystalsong Forest, where I spy some interesting ruins to investigate. My exploration pays off, as I reach the city of Dalaran at last! Except I am a few hundred feet below the city standing next to some Kirin Tor mages. The only way I can see to travel to Dalaran is a teleportation crystal hanging before the mages, but trying to use this only tells me that I must use the one in Dalaran first, which is as far from helpful as basing the Hydraxian Waterlords in the remotest corner of Azshara. The Kirin Tor around the crystal remain silent, refusing any enquiry about reaching the city.

There must be same way to get in to Dalaran. I don't want to ask my guild or search for an answer, because I believe it should be obvious enough that it can be deduced without external help, yet here I am standing below the city with no indication of how to get in to it. The crystal is cryptic and the NPCs uncommunicative. I assume that access is granted based on either character level or reputation with the Kirin Tor, perhaps both. It is more likely to be level- rather than reputation-based because players can enter Northrend via Howling Fjord and miss the Coldarra content completely. My death knight is 73rd level, close to 74th, so with no obvious entrance to Dalaran presented I head back to adventure some more, planning to return upon gaining my next level.

This is frustrating. Ever since reaching Northrend I have either had to camp locally, eschewing the conveniences of access to a bank and auction house, or return to a city using my hearthstone and subsequently have to make the journey back to Northrend to continue my adventures. Travelling to Northrend wouldn't be so tiresome if it were as simple as getting on a gryphon, as I could pay for a flight and do something else for a few minutes. But as it involves passage by sea I need to be attentive to when the ship docks and physically get myself on and off the deck at the right time. And after a few trips to Northrend I face a gryphon flight once I get there anyway, to send me to my progressing quests, which cannot be made a continuous flight because of the section spent at sea.

Having to make a tedious journey simply to get back in to some action takes me back many levels, to before Outlands in fact. With Burning Crusade came Shattrath City, a sanctuary easily accessible as soon as you step through the Dark Portal, with inns where you can set your hearthstone, portals to every capital city in Azeroth and a flight point to get back to Outlands quest zones. Shattrath is a huge increase in convenience because once you set your hearthstone there you have effective hearthstone access to every city in the world and a simple return path to adventuring. All the hassle of transcontinental travelling is removed.

Shattrath's immense convenience is what makes a lack of similar city so frustrating in the early stages of Wrath of the Lich King. It's not like having your flying mount taken away, which is irritating but hardly stops you exploring or travelling, having to travel to and fro between Azeroth and Northrend is stealing time away from you. Stepping in to the new expansion and having to physically put your character on journeys backwards and forwards for simple housekeeping is a serious interruption and quite a regression in gameplay.

A few more quests later and I reach 74th level. With a sense of expectation at exploring the new city and having access to all the portals from the middle of the new continent once more I ride back to Crystalsong Forest to beneath Dalaran, whereupon I am in the same position as before. The crystal still won't work for me, because I haven't used the one in Dalaran, and the Kirin Tor won't tell me what I have to do. And what frustrates me the most about finding Dalaran is this lack of communication.

It doesn't take long—although it does happen by accident—for me to discover that there is a Kirin Tor representative in most settlements ready to transport me to Dalaran once I reach 74th level, which I verify when my warrior also reaches 74th level, but before that I am left completely in the dark. The Kirin Tor in the settlements may hint at Dalaran's existence and the requirement for getting there but as they provide no quests and are miles away from the city there is little reason to suspect as much and talk to them to find out. Under Dalaran itself, the logical place to seek wisdom about the city, there is no one telling me that I am refused entry until I meet some artbitrary requirement.

It's possible that Blizzard inadvertently made Shattrath too accessible for players, with only a simple run needed to reach the sanctuary, and have tried to correct this for Dalaran. I can understand that, we shouldn't have everything handed to us. However, with its more central location and higher-level surrounding mobs I would suggest that anyone who makes the journey to Crystalsong Forest deserves entry to Dalaran and the conveniences it offers, with those not wanting to face the gauntlet waiting safely until their time comes. At the very least, there should at least be representative of the Kirin Tor below Dalaran willing to explain the requirements and points of entry. Being able to get so close to the city with no explanation of how to enter or why it is not possible is poor design.

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Tags: mmorpg, world of warcraft, wrath of the lich king

Music of 2008: the established

In looking back at the music I bought in 2008 I consider established bands to be those with at least a couple of previous albums both released and in my library.

Modey Lemon have been gradually moving away from their loud and vigorous blues-backed rock to a more subdued and musical style, relying more on song structure than energy, and fourth album Season of Sweets continues this trend. It is not a bad direction to take. Although some exuberance from earlier albums is missing there is a more mature and collected sound that still feels vibrant. Despite failing to see Modey Lemon live I still manage to see the band in action as they perform during the video for the single It Made You Dumb, which somehow makes me appreciate the song a whole lot more and draws me further in to the album in a way that a live performance also would have.

Armani and Me, third album for Icelander Emiliana Torrini, again concentrates on the folk songs that were successful in the second album. Whilst there are occasional escapades to pop and ska within the rhythms the songs remain centred around the beautiful vocals of Torrini. With lyrics ranging from playful to tearful the songs delight and mesmerise and even when Torrini isn't singing she can often be heard sustaining a harmonic note so soft it could tickle a kitten's tummy. Armani and Me is a wondrous album indeed and is only enhanced when Emilian Torrini's singing is experienced live.

It was unfortunate that I only got to buy Furr immediately before seeing Blitzen Trapper perform live, being sold their fourth album by the band's drummer. Blitzen Trapper played another great gig that was wonderfully entertaining, but I've never found music to be at its best on first hearing. I find I appreciate live music more when I can get drawn in to the expectation of what is to come. Never the less, it was an entertaining gig and being able to listen to Furr afterwards has cemented my positive impressions of the new music. Blitzen Trapper have produced another pleasant and musical collection of alternative folk that adds to their building repertoire.

I have been a fan of Mary Timony for a while, enjoying her three-and-a-half albums with Helium before Timony struck out as a solo artist, with The Shapes We Make being her fourth solo venture. Maybe I have been dazzled by the shiny new music but there is not much that stands out about this album. It is far from bad and it certainly sounds just as I would expect a Mary Timony album to sound, it simply doesn't contain anything that stands out or sinks its hooks in to me.

Such as it seems with Stereolab too. I won't dare try to count how many albums Stereolab have released before latest addition Chemical Chords, but they all have had their own character and appeal. Maybe it is because I have not had the same motivation to listen to my newly bought music as usual during the year that has caused me not to gain an appreciation for some albums, or maybe it is because they are lacking some of the passion shown previously. The sounds of Chemical Chords are unmistakably Stereolab in origin, yet underneath the twee synths and bubbling rhythms there seems to be little substance. Some of this lack of depth was remedied when seeing Stereolab live in London, where their performance brought a fuller sound to the music. Yet the album remains somewhat shallow in many places when played back. Again, it is not a bad album but I would rather listen to something earlier from Stereolab's amazing catalogue given the choice.

Is Earth to the Dandy Warhols really their sixth album? Even though The Dandy Warhols have been around for years it seems easy to lose track of the last couple of releases, either because Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia was such an amazingly strong release or as the result of the strikingly different direction the band went for their following album, perhaps in reaction to their huge success. I think it is good that Thirteen Tales... was so successful as it allowed the band to explore different sounds and instruments. The result is an accumulation of all the experimentation and performance of the past few years almost distilled in to an umistakable Dandy Warhols sound. There are catchy rhythms, heavy beats and reflective vocals, mixed in with less conventional sounds that will be familiar to fans. The Dandy Warhols may never reach the same peak of mass appeal they once achieved but if Earth to the Dandy Warhols is any guide I am confident they will continue to produce amazing music.

Neptune may be only the second studio album by The Duke Spirit but I also have their mini-LP Roll, Spirit, Roll in my collection, as well as the extra disc of b-sides and rarities from their first album Cuts Across the Land, so they seem to me to have been around a lot longer than only two albums. It is curious, then, that I delayed buying Neptune, being somewhat unsure of my enthusiasm for the band. This happens occasionally with me and luckily I was able to realise that whenever The Duke Spirit surfaced in my collection I found it to be invigorating and provocative. With this assurance I bought their second album and have greatly enjoyed listening to it, as well as seeing The Duke Spirit live. There is uplifting pop, strong guitars and heartfelt vocals on Neptune and it will definitely continue to be enjoyed.

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Tags: blitzen trapper, cd, dandy warhols, emiliana torrini, mary timony, modey lemon, stereolab, the duke spirit

Supressing The Nexus with low DPS

The guild run in to The Nexus goes ahead as planned. I take my warrior, Sapphire, as the tank and the mage is replaced by a death knight alt, otherwise the group remains the same, with a hunter and another warrior as DPS and a priest to heal. Unlike our previous adventure in to the instance a couple of months back this time we are more prepared. For a start, I have been in two successful pick-up groups, one with Sapphire and one with Gnomesblight, my death knight, giving me some good experience for the mobs and bosses. We also all have gained a level or two since our last visit. With Utgarde Keep conquered The Nexus should be fairly straightforward.

There is little trouble posed by the trash mobs on the way to the bosses. The first hiccup in the run is when the priest dies near the end of the fight with second boss Anomalus, guarding the rift. Whilst we defeat Anomalus we have no way of reviving our priest so she has to run back. Rather than have her run all the way back to us we make our way to the entrance and take a different route to Ormorok the Tree-Shaper, whose spikes don't end up causing any problems. Onwards to Keristrasza!

Getting to the dragon provokes a reaction from our hunter, incredulous that a 73rd level elite mob should have 248,000 health. Even after being reminded that this is not just any 73rd level elite but also a boss he was still agitated by the fight ahead. To be honest, I would be a bit agitated by that boss if I were an 80th level hunter putting out less than 600 DPS. I was doing around 650 DPS myself, as a 73rd level protection warrior. In the end I simply told him to 'file a petition' if he thought the boss had too much health and got on with the fight.

The constant debuff in the Keristrasza fight caught people unawares the first time, even with a warning, but a quick readjustment helped us defeat the dragon on the second attempt. It was awfully close, though. I actually thought I had been killed near the end, with my health bar showing solid black, and was a little nonplussed by still being alive when the dragon dropped. The priest had used her Guardian Spirit at just the right moment, keeping me alive for the final seconds of the fight. Our battle through The Nexus is victorious!

To be honest, our damage output is the guild's weakness at the moment. Without the DPS behind the tank the mobs take longer to defeat and that puts an unnecessary burden on our priest to maintain healing for greater durations. With Gnomesblight managing 1,300 DPS on instance runs I would hope that my companions could better Sapphire's tanking 650 DPS, but that isn't the case at the moment. If we don't improve, later instances will prove immensely difficult.

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Tags: mmorpg, northrend, sapphire, the nexus, world of warcraft