Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Stealthing Elders in Northrend Dungeons

I know i said my next post would be about recovering hacked accounts, but i saw an interesting thread on stealthing to the Elders in Northrend Dungeons. I thought i should get this info up sooner rather than later, since Lunar festival is only on for a short amount of time, and people are working through their achievements.

It seems a bunch of Druids are stealthing to the Elders in the Northrend Dungeons, I'm sure if Druids can do this Rogues should be able to as well.

I'm too lazy to do achievements, so i probably won't be attempting this, but there is a forum topic about this on the official WoW forums.

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=14637453802&sid=1

Here's a summary, as we all know how forum threads can be eaten by the internet.

Drak'Tharon Keep
From all reports, it looks easily stealthable to the Elder

Halls of Stone
Reports say this is also an easily stealthable instance to the Elder

Nexus
Some people say you must kill the first mob as he see's through stealth, however it has been reported you can just throw out a trusty Sooth Animal and be able to stealth past.

Utgarde Keep
2 sets of mobs near the flame walls must be cleared, each set is a group of 3, when these mobs are cleared, you can stealth on to the Elder.

Azjol Nerub
The first boss must be killed in order to get to the Elder. Some people have claimed to solo this, but you may want to do this in a group.

Utgarde Pinnacle
Reports say a full group is needed for this instance.

Gundrak
Must be compeleted in Heroic Mode in order to get to the Elder. Moorabi the Mammoth boss must be killed, if Moorabi is dead you can stealth your way past the Gorlok mobs to the Elder


Just remember, if someone has cleaned out these instances in heroic, you can borrow that empty instance and get to the Elders fairly easily, just remember, you'll get yourself locked into that instance.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Nitro Boosts nerfed in 3.0.8

Hi All

Well it's been a little while since i've written, being able to travel away for Christmas and New Years is a nice thing, although it has cut into my WoW time.

Well the topic i have been thinking of writing about for the last while is how the WoTLK expansion has affected stealth runs, well not just stealth runs but gameplay as well due to the way current content has changed.

However, shortly after returning home from my holidays my account was hacked, so i've been on a short hiatus, and my next article will be about what to do in that horrible situation you wouldn't wish against your worst WoW ganker (well you probably would)

In the meantime i just wanted to say 3.0.8 was released last Tuesday, and the Engineering tinker Nitro Boosts has been stealth nerfed!

To be honest i'm not sure why people say it was "stealth" nerfed, nerfed yes, stealth nerfed well it depends on your definition of the term.

People say there was no mention in the patch notes that this item was nerfed, however i've known about this before the patch as it has been reported on other sites and forums.

The nitro boosts tinker before the patch gave you 150% speed for 5 seconds, with a cooldown of 5 minutes. With a possible backfire of throwing you high up into the air, and possibly falling to your death.

The nerf has reduced the 150% speed boost to 2 seconds, however the cooldown has been reported to have been lowered 3 minutes (even though the tooltip still says 5 minutes.) People that have used this extensively after the patch have said that they may have removed the backfire, as noone has been shot up like a rocket yet.

I must admit the first time i played with these, i was pleasantly surprised at the distance that could be attained in 5 seconds, however after playing with these after the 3.0.8 patch, i feel the reduction in boost time is a pretty big nerf. I think 3 seconds would of been a lot fairer.

As it is now a 2 second 150% speed boost with a 3 min cd, i think this tinker is still useable, Druids/Rogues, chaining a sprint/dash after using this item for a quick flag escape or for chasing down prey down could mean the different in a PvP battle. Being the first to tag that NPC for farming or questing can also be useful.

It's also been reported that the use of this item no longer breaks stealth. I haven't had the chance to test this myself, but it may be helpful for a Rogue/Druid sneaking up on their opponents trying to avoid that aoe blast, or just getting yourself through a stealth run quicker.