LoTRO Copies WoW Font

This is kind of amusing.  Check out the font used on a Lord of the Rings Online advertisement.

Look familiar?

World of StarCraft: Part 1

I’m sure by now most of you have heard about Blizzard’s rumored StarCraft MMO project.  I’ve had a few days to digest the idea, and I want to talk a little bit about what I think.

I think it’s a great move by Blizzard to start working on their next MMO, and StarCraft is a perfect choice.  If they went ahead with a Diablo MMO, it would seem like a rehash of the tired (albeit cool) fantasy setting that we have in WoW.  StarCraft is in a different setting entirely.  This is obvious; it’s sci-fi and not fantasy.  I’ll get into specifics later, but the science fiction setting allows Blizzard to go in a different direction in everything from technology to setting.  It can open up whole new worlds. 

/afk

I must apologize, I’ve been a bit lax on the updating side of things here at The Barracks.  It’s partly because I haven’t had a chance to play a lot of WoW lately, and also because I’ve been pretty busy (hence the not being able to play much WoW).  I’m also trying to think of more interesting blog posts than “yay I have a new item” or whatever, and more in depth material takes longer to think about and write.

I noticed that my daily hits has started to dwindle, and that’s probably because of the lack of new stuff.  But fear not, faithful readers, I’ve not abandoned ye. 

I might as well take some time to give you the obligatory character update.  On the Thodin front, not much new to speak of.  There is much going on in Natasya’s life, however.  She dinged 22 on Sunday and, after waiting around for someone to come help her get her new pet.  Thanks go to Dodin, level 70 hunter and good IRL friend, for coming all the way back to the “old country” from Outland to keep the naga at bay while I ran around hunting for kitty statues in Darkshore.

For those of you not in the know, there are ruins in the north of Darkshore where you can open cat statues that have the chance of spawning a Ghost Saber.  This is a pretty cool looking cat; it’s basically a snow leopard that is perpetually stealthed.  I’ve not seen many in my travels (I actually can’t remember ever seeing a hunter with one of these, but I might just not have been paying much attention) so I thought it would be cool to have a pretty rare pet.  I haven’t thought of a good name for the kitty yet, it needs to be something awesome.  I have screenshots but I haven’t formatted them for the blog yet.

So now Natasya has left Kalimdor and is now questing in the Wetlands.  Leveling with a hunter is freakin’ amazing, I must say.  I haven’t needed to group with anyone yet, even to beat elite and group quests.  I had a bear whilst questing in draenei lands, so he could survive more than the new cat, I’m sure.  But I was able to survive a battle with five murlocs, so we’ll see.

Search-WoW.com

I just got an email informing me that The Barracks has been added to a site called Search-WoW.

At first glance, it seems like this is a kind of search engine/website repository for all things World of Warcraft related.  From what I can tell, websites are manually added to the search database and you can use the engine to search through all the WoW websites.  A pretty cool idea.  Plus, it gives a nice list of WoW related links (some blogs I’ve yet to check out, and will soon).

Go check it out!

TGIF!

Ain’t that the friggin’ truth?

Another week passes, another weekend begins.  Thus, the cycle continues.  A year ago this day I would have started drinking by 3pmat the latest, in order to get ready for senior’s last night out.  The rest of the weekend would have been a blur.  And it would have been great.  This year, however, I’m no longer a senior in college, so I have to find other ways to pass the time on the weekend.  Luckily, I have WoW (Note:  I also still have beer, but I can’t start drinking until at least 5pm).

So plans for this weekend… 

On Thodin I need to finish quests in SMV so I can get Grom’tor’s Charge.  That’ll take a good while.  I also plan on running Shadow Labs until I can beat the damn place.  I will have firey vengeance for all the pain and frustration Blackheart the Inciter has caused me and my friends.

I want to try to get Natasya to level 20 and above if I can.  She needs a new pet, too.  I trained a bear (named him Baloo) because… I wanted a bear.  But I think she really needs a cat.  A bear is good for tanking and all, but when I’m leveling I want to be able to tear through things in seconds, which is what cats are for.  The only cats around her at the moment are on Azuremyst Isle, which kinda sucks because she’s level 15 and they’re level 9 at most, so they’d be trailing a bit behind.  Mayhaps I’ll keep the bear until I’m done with the noob lands and grab a kitty when I head to the mainland.  Who knows.  But getting to level 20+, that is a necessity.

I haven’t spent much time at all over on Velen with Gitr and Co., and I feel bad about it.  I’ll probably head back over there for a wee bit as well.

In other news, I’ve been toying around with a new UI lately, and I finally got it set up pretty decent. 

I switched to FuBar instead of Titan, and I haven’t quite yet decided whether or not it’s better than Titan.  Sometimes I think that all the extra UI changes I make are unnecessary.  I moved the map down to the lower right corner instead of top right corner; I don’t know why.  I tried moving the character panels down to the middle of my screen right above my buttons (on the bottom), and I changed the party layout so it went across the top of my screen; again, I have no idea why I would do such things.  It ended up being a horrible idea anyway, and I went back to the default layout (though I still use Xperl unit frames ftw!).

The only two UI changes that actually help/affect the way I play the game (instead of being convenient changes that make things faster, more accessible, etc) are Bartender and MetaHud.  I’m kind of disappointed that I’ve come to rely so much on MetaHud, because I like the fact that most of my addons are things I could live without, but MetaHud makes my “info at a glance” life so much easier, it sucks playing without it.  Bartender I could technically live without, but the way I have my main attack buttons is just so convenient and makes stuff so much easier to click on.  Two rows of six bars is a lot more compact than one long row of 12.  I don’t have to move my mouse around as much.

I’ll post some screenshots of my new UI soon, and if everything sticks I’ll make the necessary changes to the Addons/UI page.

So what about you people out there in Intarweb land?  What are your plans for the weekend?  Have any specific goals in mind?

Gnomeregan E-Z Level-o-matic

I loved leveling 60-70.  I don’t love leveling 1-60.  To solve this, I need to get my hands on one of these…

The Gnomeregan E-Z Level-o-matic.

Yeah, I’m bored.

Hooligany!

I’m sure you’ve already seen this on WoW Insider, but I just had to post it here.  For two reasons:

1. I seriously see stuff this bad on a daily basis so I find it hilarious (it sucks being an editor in the IT field).
2. The word “hooligany” needs to be introduced into common usage ASAP.

I give to you, Top Ten Winning Momets for Hoard Paladins, by Cless.

i will always like to start where i usually start in point s

1:make them so the focus is centered and the axe is strong in hand, either left or both its right but doesnt seem make sense t me… maybe blizzard thinks about thisbefore next time

2)
as long as the entrance is open the exit has a natural advantage, always be able to lose sometimes

3)as a paladin it is our duty to protect

4)after doing this it is best to not focus on selfish tides and mindless hooligany, paladins are serious dedication have funnever back down

dont need to eat food
paladin can team with warlocks

9:once you mount running backwards isnt the best but sometimes necessary if you dont farm enough, ALWAYS FOCUS ON CORRECTIONS WHICH CAN BE IMPROVED

never let yourself be fooled by paladin jeers. people are jealous even on alliance in levels , u will be the best someday and no one lets u stop if u let them defeat ur

10: duskwood

That’s comedy.

Blog Maintenance

If you’re coming here for the first time and you notice that the everything looks a bit funky, it’s because I’m stil trying to finalize the layout and features and stuff.  I was trying to add a feature called MyBlogLog to the sidebar, but it seems to cause the entire sidebar to move all the way down the page, under the posts.  Which is less than desireable.

This is what I’m talking about:

Recent Readers

View Entire Community
Provided by MyBlogLog

It’s a pretty cool thing, but it doesn’t seem to want to work 😦 .  Oh well.

New Kid on the Block

Behold!  Another World of Warcraft blog has joined the ranks. 

I’m a big fan of blogging.  I have a personal blog that I update (semi) regularly even though I don’t seem to have many readers other than friends and family.  I read a bunch of other World of Warcraft blogs, and I was inspired to created my own WoW-themed blog for two main reasons (neither of which include becoming famous).

1. There are no dedicated warrior class blogs as far as I can tell.
2. I wanted a place to “collect” information about WoW so that I have one central point of reference for everything that I need.  Whether it be a leveling guide, a warrior talent spec, or a list of weapons I want to acquire.

It is an added bonus that anyone who comes to this blog will also have access to all this WoW goodness.  Win, win, as I see it.

I’m not going to make any claims about what this blog will be.  Because to me, blogs can be anything, everything, and they should always evolve and change to fit the needs of the blogger and the readers.  I’m not going to pigeonhole myself into “The Barracks is a blog for warriors only, other WoW players need not come here” because that 1. limits my readership, and 2. limits my creativity.  Besides, I know that I enjoy reading about other people’s WoW adventures, so I’ll probably do a good bit of “journal keeping” for my characters here as well.

Ergo, at this point you can think of The Barracks as a warrior’s insight into World of Warcraft.

And speaking of warriors, allow me to introduce my main (who is level 67 at this point and almost ready to leave Terrokar forest). 

Ladies and gentlemen, I present, Thodin!  Dwarven defender of the Alliance! 

I hope you enjoy what you find here.  If you have any suggestions for new content or you have any tidbits of information you want to share with me, you’re more than welcome to get in touch with me.  Feel free to take a look around and let me know what you think of my little piece of WoW pie.

Captain Placeholder

This is a test post.

So I’m putting test stuff here.

There will be better things here eventually.

• like… stuff
• and more stuff…

QUOTES!

Following the success of Heroes of Azeroth, the initial set for the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game (TCG), players have eagerly awaited the first expansion. On March 31 and April 1, Through the Dark Portal Sneak Preview tournaments will give players their first glimpse of the new set almost two weeks before the official release.

Definitely links.

Enjoy.

Ooo look, a picture!