Tera – Free to Play and Fun to Play

Tera is an MMO that has recently gone Free to Play.

TERA-logo

Castani Berzerker
Castani Berzerker

In many ways Tera is World of Warcraft done right. Or at least, updated to take advantage of new graphics. Due to it’s long history, Wow is beginning to look dated and cartoonish. Tera looks much better, and I don’t just mean the sexy characters and armor. Yes, this is my sexy plate armor. I’m a level 15 Berzerker – Axe wielding damage dealer. It is surprising that the armor begins to look so good at a low level. Wow makes you wait until level 70 before the armor begins to look unified and reasonable, but Tera armor looks good from the start and for all the classes begins to look really good at level 11, when you fly off to Velika – the capital city to join the Federation, and get your mount. From the start of our journey, the compass, mini-map and quest lines lead you on your missions and never leave you stuck for the next task. No need for an add-on or guide to lead you on your way.

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Wow – Zen Masters in Professions

Hemomage closeup
Hemomage closeup

We have all become Zen Masters – 500 – in our professions now. And we have all worked together to make some high level cloth and mail armor. Cloth armor is the most important since those of us who wear cloth depend on it to keep us safe from attacks. When we go to Pandaria soon, this will be very important for our safety.

Margrog, our Zen Master blacksmith, has made powerful plate armor and weapons for himself and Adamithus, our paladin brother.

Cloth and Mail armor was time consuming to build since it requires some exotic materials. Stormvein had to train in tailoring to level 525, and the patterns cost 10 Embersilk cloth bolts each. Each bolt is 5 Embersilk cloth. To there are many hours of farming in Deepholm to get the cloth to purchase the patterns and make the armor for two of us. Stormvein has the most powerful demon helper, so he will be the last to get his armor.

Candravia had to train to high levels and we provided her with Savage Leather and Blackened Dragonscale for mail armor for Kweezlix. She already has powerful armor from her quests in Pandaria. Continue reading “Wow – Zen Masters in Professions”

Wow – Industrial Crafting – Frostweave Bags

On the Square in Dalaran
On the Square in Dalaran

Here I am in Dalaran. Here is a larger view.

Now that I’ve reached level 350 in Enchanting, I thought I’d summarize how are are all going to work together to make 20 slot Frostweave Bags for everyone. This is a pretty big deal. Bags are very important to store our equipment and loot, and each of us needs as much storage as possible to store our junk. When we all started, our Tailor, Stormvein, leveled first and was able to make us 16 slot Netherweave bags. Netherweave bags are easy to make and Netherweave is quite plentiful for characters at level 60-70, so the first ones of us who leveled that far supplied Netherweave for the rest of us to have bags. For 10 of us, at 11 bags each, we need a total of 110 bags. Quite a lot.

Now that Stormvein is a more accomplished tailor, we would all like 20 slot Frostweave bags. But we all have to work together to make them.

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Wow – So you want to be an Enchanter?

Learning Enchanting in Dalaran
Learning Enchanting in Dalaran

So you want to be an Enchanter?

Enchanters place magical properties on armor and weapons to enhance them. But learning the skill is unlike any of the other professions in Wow. Other professions fall into two categories: Gathering, Creating. Gathering professions are like skinning, mining or herb gathering in that you progress through the world doing your skill and as you do, you achieve more proficiency at that skill – you level up your profession.

Creating professions like Leatherworking, or Tailoring or Blacksmithing use the products of gathering professions and then make things. As you progress in skill you make more complicated things using higher level materials. Creation professions each come with their own Gathering profession, except for Tailoring, since the cloth is just dropped by creatures killed in the world.

But Enchanting is different in several ways, some of them frustrating.

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Wow – Happy Feast of Winter Veil

Thalmatos with Ramkahen tabard
Thalmatos with Ramkahen tabard

Greetings from Azeroth and happy Feast of Winter Veil, which is our winter holiday celebrations. Many things have happened to me and my siblings since the last time I wrote you. As the elder Death Knight brother, I often break ground in new areas ahead of other members of our family. Several of us have progressed to level 85, or are almost at that level. It has been a long hard struggle against challenging foes, but we have helped each other with equipment, crafted materials and funds. One of us has even visited the new continent of Pandaria, although she finds it very challenging, but more on that from Candravia later in our note.

There have been minor accomplishments too, such as Thalmatos and Candravia helping some of the others with farming for materials to increase their First Aid crafting skills. At higher levels, first aid can be a real benefit for many classes since it allows quick recovery from battle damage.

Currently I’m working in the desert of Uldum helping the cause of the Ramkahen. Not only do they have nice gear as rewards for my efforts, but they sell a camel mount which I will get when I reach Exalted with their faction.

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New TV – Sanyo 55 inch LCD

42″ Plasma TV

The Old TV

For about 10 years I’ve had a Fujitsu 42″ Plasma TV and it has been great. I understand that Fujitsu invented plasma technology and back when I bought this TV it was very expensive. The Best. $6000 plus $1400 for a three year extended warranty. The warranty was well spent since the TV died in about 6 months and again at 3 years when it was replaced by a refurbished unit.The plasma TV finally died. On the morning of 31 August the TV would no longer boot. It had worked fine the night before. When it last worked the plasma screen was still bright, showing none of the darkening that plasmas were rumored to show after 10 years. But oh how TVs have changed. Continue reading “New TV – Sanyo 55 inch LCD”

Wow Mists Public Test Realm – New Interest and Goals

Level 85 Dwarven Priest

I recently signed up for the Mists of Pandaria Public Test Realm. This is a test area for the new expansion that should be out in a couple of months. I had signed up for the Beta, but never got an invite. They filled their quota from folks who bought the annual pass apparently. The PTR is a test area for the update, but without MoP, so I couldn’t visit the new Mists area or make a Panda or Monk, but I could see many areas I’ve not seen before. I don’t yet have a level 85 character and the PTR has the ability to create template characters at level 85.

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ZBox Audio with Linux Mint – Tutorial

ZBox ID80

As I mentioned in my previous post, I just got a ZBox ID80, installed Linux Mint 12 and had some trouble with the sound. Turns out the problems were user error, but setting up sound was a little confusing.

So here’s what you might like to know to make sure your audio is working, at least for this hardware and Linux Mint 12. Continue reading “ZBox Audio with Linux Mint – Tutorial”