WoW add-on review Carbonite

While I love to get surprises and discover new zones, I also like to not waste time running to the wrong zone or fighting the wrong mob for a drop that I'll never get. About a few months ago I started to use a popular quest mod called Quest Helper. I mentioned this a few times here and it's in most cases a great help, in fact I would say that Quest Helper is one of my "must have" add-ons for WoW.

How help Quest Helper is I did noticed some problems. One issue was the "ant trails" paths that tell you were to go next. Usually this is helpful as it tells you a fast route to get your quests done then turn them in. Sometimes this can be a pain because the amount of ant trails starts to cover up your higher priority quests and adds to the confusion. You can adjust this in the configurations but it's a important note. Also many people have commented that Quest Helper takes up too much performance on the WoW client and your computer. Personally I haven't noticed a huge drop in performance but I only use Quest Helper and very few additional add-ons.

From reading forums I found another highly recommended add-on called Carbonite. Carbonite is actually similar to Quest Helper but has some nice features which I'll go into detail. First, Carbonite is not free, it's a add-on that has a subscription fee with will add additional features to Carbonite. It's important to know that Carbonite Quest is the free version, while I'm reviewing the subscription version Cabonite. The subscription fee is a reasonable $3 to $1 per month depending on the length of subscription.

The install process is very easy, you simply add this just like any any add-on, copy to the "add-on" folder and start WoW. You should also disable Quest Helper as this might cause problems for Carbonite. Once started I noticed that Carbonite changed my minimap from the default to a new larger square with added functions below. This was nice but I prefer to leave the map default, it's not a big deal. So I did a test to see how this compares to Quest Helper by running in the same zone I did with Quest Helper but this time with Carbonite.

One of the first things that I noticed was different is the more exact location of mobs and quest items. In Quest Helper the mobs locations are defined by a green fog, in Carbonite they are listed as more precise green or red blocks on the main map. Carbonite takes this a step further by showing the mob locations in detail on the minimap as well. I tested this by looking for mobs and crystals in Un'Goro Crater, surprised just how precise the map was to the loot items.

Tonight and this weekend I'll continue to quest further with Carbonite and also have Quest Helper running on the other account to see the difference.

50 to 52 and moving

Last night I install Wrath of the Lich King and logged in. For my PvE server there was a wait time so I went to the PvP server which had no queue. I ventured out to the new zone and got some of the quests. I like the design of the starting zone, it's pretty fun, there wasn't too many people in the area but you did have to be quick to get the quest items. Playing a warlock I have a few instant cast curses which I used to grab mobs faster than the other players. After two bubbles of xp I logged out and switched to my priest/mage team.

After I waited 15 minutes to log in I had a problem with the Keyclone software I use to dual box. So I logged out than back in again, luckily there was no waiting upon reentry. While questing I finished off a few quests in Tanaris then moved to Un'Goro Crater. After doing some of the easy quests I got to level 52 on both toons.

This weekend I think I should finish Un'Goro and then move to Eastern Plague Lands, closing with Western Plague Lands.

So far I'm at 52 with 10 hours played. Doing much faster than my last time to 60.

After I got to 60 I'm considering if I should still multibox or just play one account. I've been having Internet slowness and disconnection which makes it twice as hard since I got to set everything up so I might just level one at a time.

48 to 50 with some problems

Last night I got home feeling a bit tired from work but happy to finally have some game time to unwind. I got the priest and mage to level 50 but was dealing with very high lag issues. Normally I would see ping times of 100~250 but last night the ping times jumped to 1200 then 2400, playing meant a 2 second delay between key presses. At this point it was being harder and harder to dual box but I cut my losses and just logged out at the inn.

I was planning to hit 60 before the expansion came out but after some delays looks like I’ll be getting to 60 by this weekend. After thinking about it I think it will be better since I can missing the rush of Death Knights invading Hellfire.

Today I’m also picking up my copy of Wrath of the Lich King, I pre-ordered a copy from Game Stop but found a collectors edition at Best Buy. Since I have two accounts, I might as well get both.

Helpful World of Warcraft links and add-ons

I'm not a good WoW player so I have a few favorite web sites to help me out. Some of these are really basic but some of them have more advance information.

WoWWiki - I really like this website. It's not as indepth for item details like WoWHead but their articles about classes, instances and zones are done well. If you're just starting out, I recommend to read over this site including the excellent WoWWiki Newbie Guide.

WoWHead - There are a few database web sites but I really like WoWHead. If you need to look up any spell or some item you found, this is a great resource. They also have a handy talent calculator, which I highly recommend you use before doing it live. lol

Curse WoW Add-ons - Curse is a great site for WoW add-on's to customize your WoW client UI. While there are hundreds of add-ons you can install I only recommend a few to keep things simple.

Helpful add-ons


DMiniCoords - This is a simple, X Y position add-on for WoW. When questing people will post the location in X Y format, such as 35,72 instead of "go near the big brown rock".

Quest Helper - Quest Helper is a favorite add-on of mine. This will keep track of your quests, then show where you should go, and add a helpful tooltip over mobs you need to kill. I don't recommend you use this if it's your first time playing WoW as you will spoil some of the quest surprises and fun of exploring. It's great if you just want to level ASAP.

Cartographer - This is another map mod but this will unhide the areas of the map hidden without exploring the area. It's handy for questing and leveling, also added more functionality into Quest Helper by adding a GPS style directional arrow.


Auctioneer - Just by choosing a gathering profession you can make some income by carefully selling the items on the auction house. The trick is pricing your items correctly which is what Auctioneer does for you. It's really nice but in the most recent version some of the functions have been changed. I'm not sure but things like automatic pricing is no longer by default (I can't find it) which is one of my favorite features.

X-Perl UnitFrames - This isn't something that's needed but I personally like having a smaller neater UI interface so this works well for me. Also it's very easy to customize.

Realm down and stuck at 48

Last night I got home to find the realm was still down from Tuesday patching, this was about 7:30pm PST. This wasn't one or two realms but all realms in general. So I ended up playing Left 4 Dead demo. The game is actually nicely done, good speed and still has a creepy feel to it. The zombies are a mix of really fast zombies with some slower zombies, including some exploding. The demo is short but still was a good 20 minutes of zombie shooting fun.

After the demo was completed my roommate and I played Rock Band 2 for a while then I came back to check on the realms. A few realms came up but for the most part, the main realm I was working on didn't come up till 11:30pm PST. Well I couldn't stay up late so I just ran the two toons to Tanaris to get the flight path and log out in the inn.

Tonight if everything works right I'll start the leveling from 48 in Un'Goro Crater. Last time I quested here I did pretty well with the xp because everything is easy to find. There's a few elite mobs you have to watch out for mostly it's not too hard. Hoping to hit at least 50 by tonight.

30 to 48, almost there

This past weekend I leveled from 30 to 45 by running SM and then Maraudon. From running SM so many times, I have more than enough silk for leveling first aid plus more to give for rep turn in. I’m taking the same steps as I did before but this time I’m really trying to keep the time I played to a minimum and keeping the leveling time the most efficient. At 45 I went to Maraudon twice to finish up the quests there and then to Ferals to complete some quick quests. To make things go faster I’m skipping most collection quests and since I done this same route before I have a idea which quests took too long.

Last night I’m wanted to get to 50 but ended up at 48. After some questing I’m hoping to hit my target of 60 end of this week. This should be easy since I’m getting about 3 levels per night.

Something I noticed when grinding dungeons from level 8 to 46, they loose efficiency as you gain levels with a level 70 character. The time spent gaining xp is slower and slower vs the time spent completing quests. Thinking about this I was wondering if dungeon grinding is really the best method to power level?

Each run I use the 70, I take about 15 gold in repairs, plus I pick up large amounts of cloth (depending upon mobs) plus lots of green and blue loot. Considering questing the normal method, I would also gain some greens here and there but also I could level my tradeskills as well. For example, I could gather a stack of Peacebloom herbs very easily while at level 10, this sells for a few gold on my realm. By keeping this pace of leveling collection tradeskills this would be a nice additional income.

Right now I’m running short of gold and without changing I will not have enough for an epic mount any time soon. Once I get to 60, I’m going to quickly level my gathering skills in the old world then head to the outlands.

Done with SFK and moving on

Last night got the priest and mage to level 24, 10 levels in about 10 runs plus two quest completed. I also helped level with my friend's rogue who got from 19 to 22 pretty quickly. My next task is going to SM and starting the long grind from 24 to near 40. This usually takes a few sessions, but hoping to get at least 30 by tonight.

Right now I'm really making this a fast run to 60 with little to no wasted time. Last time to 60 I did allot of collection quests and think I can skip all of these to save even more time.

But I need to remember that while I'm saving time leveling to 60, I'm not getting any of the important rep from factions. At least doing these over again at 70 or 80 will be much easier than at their correct levels.

Running from RFC to SFK

Tonight I did a short run but got the priest and mage leveled to 14, and parked them near SFK. From here, I'm going to run them to 20 pretty fast then SM, then Mara. Each dungeon should take about a session of playing, so I'm estimating to hit 50 on Sunday.

After Sunday, it's going to be regular questing from 50 to 59 but last time I did this it was pretty fast, maybe a few days.

Rolling Alliance

My first character in World of Warcraft was a night elf rogue. I had no idea about the classes and just picked him almost at random. In fact I still have him on the realm, play the rogue sometimes but I never really had much interest in the character. After that first character I lost interest in the Alliance side but always wanted to explore the quests and visit the cities that I couldn’t see as a Horde.

Since I'm still within my time limit for RAF, I created two dreaenei shamans on a role playing realm in the PST time zone. Before I choose a realm I did some searching and created a level 1 character to get an idea of the ping and also the general population. Some realms I checked were really full, and while this means more people to group with, it also means more people to battle for quest items with longer login queues. Also I usually run Auctioneer and scan the current auction house market prices to get an idea of the economy.

After running a scan I found the prices were close to my home realm and felt it was a good choice to create a new character. It seems funny but once you create a new character you will spend time on the realm leveling and dealing with the guilds there. If you choose a bad realm you can always transfer but at $25 per character transfer cost, it adds up quickly.

While leveling on the realm I found it’s not too bad. Usually you can get a feel of the realm after a few hours of play and visiting a major city. It was a few hours before I got an invite to a small guild. The people in the guild were friendly, and after checking the World of Warcraft official forums, I found there are many other guilds on the realm. The trade and general channels were not full of spam but good amounts of actual trade!

Leveling the two shamans with no 70 for help is somewhat harder than I expected. Normally while doing the grind and questing you can almost equal your income to pay for your skill ups. But I quickly ran out of money even by level 6. I then took up the professions to help make more money and choose mining/herblism for my main shaman, and skinning/leatherworking for the second shaman. My idea is that by having these collecting professions I can pick up any item I find and even skill most of the animals for extra loot.

I did this method while leveling up to 23, and also created a bank alt in Iron Forge who is only selling and scanning the auction house. By level 23, I had over 30 gold and still more items to put on the auction house. It does not sound like much but I spent very little time collecting any herbs or copper, just what I saw while questing. My plan is to make more trips in the newbie zones to at least max out my professions then they will be more useful later in leveling.

So far I think starting from scratch has been fun and a good experience how to level a low toon without any help from a higher toon. We’ll see how this goes, right now using the RAF bonus I can level faster than normal and this makes the trip more fun.

The only problem is it’s hard to get used to running into an Alliance city and I know I’ll run into a Horde town by accident. :)

59 and done with one team

I got the first blood elf mage and priest at 59 last week and with 2 days 20 hours played wasn't bad. So I had a rogue at level 20 I wanted to level to 60 with the gift levels, since the level 59 priest only had 29 levels to gift I figured I needed 10 more gift levels. I them created two shamans, and leveled them to 20, in 4 hours.

From my calculations I should have 39 levels to gift, just enough to level the rogue from 20 to 60. I started the level gifting and I ran out when the rogue reached 49. The problem I didn't know about is each toon can only gift 29 levels, even if more earned on lower toons you can't gift those.

Now I was a little upset because I could have leveled the rogue much easier from 20 to 30, then 50 to 60. I'm not disappointed since I still got the rogue to level 49. :)

Honestly it's not a big problem, I really wanted an undead priest and mage, so now it's just easier with a reason now. lol

55, now I can make a Death Knight

Last night I had a shorter session, first I needed gold so I used my 70 to run the Isle daily quests for some gold. Sent this to the guild bank and then got a few last quests done, to hit 56 on the mage and 55 on the priest. A big time was spent in Un'Goro just finishing up a collection quest, but the end result was a good boost to the mid 50's. I'm now in Undercity and after some gold from my 70, got both toons trained up. For the last few levels, I would train every 4~6 levels and the cost was very expensive, about 30g each time I visited the trainer. Overall, I haven't leveled my tradeskills for gathering but once I get to 60, I'm going to go back and do this really fast. As for gear, the only items I bought were wands for both characters and bags, since you're leveling so fast, buying expensive gear just gets outdated very quickly.

My goal is getting to 60 this week and looks like I'll make it, maybe by Friday. Since I now have a character at 55, I can also create a Death Knight when the new expansion is released but not really sure if I want to level one with the rush of people creating Death Knights. Also I'm still thinking of switching my main from a warlock to a priest, so I'll need to get her up to 70 first.

Since I'm close to 58, considering hitting the Outlands early but I'm not sure. Last time I stayed in the old world until I was 60 but now, I'm thinking of trying out the new world earlier since I'm dual boxing.

Another big upcoming cost is the epic riding mounts for two characters. I think this is 700 gold per each character, yikes!

Best Buy Music Store

A somewhat quiet store opening was the Best Buy Music Store in selected Best Buy locations. My friend and I just visited the location here in Dublin, CA and have to say this is a full music store, not a isle filled with guitar starter kits. On the walls was a large selection of Fender, Gibson, Epiphone and other guitars from the $150 Squire to the $1000 American Strat. A good selection of amps and keyboards, plus a large area of guitar pedals to play with.

There is also a nice closed acoustic guitar room with Martins, Ovations, Yamahas, Fenders and Epiphones from 6 to 12 strings. Then another room for the large guitar amps, full stacks with Marshall, Line 6. There is also a smaller area with pro audio gear, dj lighting, digital workstation and software, plus the usual strings, picks behind the counter.

Overall, I think this is a great start. The prices are the same at the local Guitar Center but I'm not sure on their pricing policy. I know at local Guitar Centers you can somewhat bargain with the sales associates but I doubt you can get a guitar discounted at Best Buy. It's still a good place to take your lunch break or just check out the new gear.

54, and finishing up old world

It's been tough but I got to 54 last night (2 days played), after some casual playing while waiting for dinner and in between downloading songs for Rock Band 2. While running in a linked Recruit a Friend mode, you get huge amounts of XP bonus, a quest in Azshara I almost skipped gave me 30,000xp (with RAF bonus). Took just a minute to fly in, run to the npc, turn in and fly out.

Tonight my plan is to finish up the Un'Goro Crater zone, which I can do pretty fast as the quests are some completed. Then I'll fly over to UnderCity, and start on the Eastern Plague Lands. I skipped over Winterspring, a zone which I like since it's all snowy but with the XP increase I'm skipping zones as they are too low.

Honestly, it's not bad considering how casual I'm playing. I know people who can level to 70 with less time, but I really can't spent hours and hours in front of the computer. I'll take a break, play while watching a movie or clean up while flying to a new zone.

So I expect to hit 60 this Friday or Saturday depending upon how things go, and get to the Outlands. Now to be more precise, I'm only leveling the priest to 59, so I can use the granted levels to a new character. Then I'll start up a new team. Another team? Yes, and here's the reason why.

When multiboxing, the easiest classes are casters. Melee classes are a pain because if you want to level two melee classes you need to be within melee range, something that using the /follow command will not get close enough. So instead of trying to power level a melee class, you can power level two casters to about level 40, then play them from 40 to 60, and now you have another 29 levels to grant.

In the end, you'll have 4 level 60 characters and 59 levels to grant, which can be any class as you like.

It sounds a bit excessive but the total amount of work done is about the same amount of leveling one character to 60. So for the work you do, you get 5.

Now to be honest, the work isn't done. You still need to get from 60-70 and now 80 with the upcoming release but at least you have a good head start. I leveled normally from 1-70 on a warlock, then 1-40 on a druid, and 1-45 on a paladin. Honestly all three felt much much slower than this method. Also it just wasn't as fun as the challenge of running two characters at once. :)

Leveling 52 to 60

I got the mage and priest to level 52 on Sunday. It's coming to the long sprint to 60, which I'm going to first start in Un'Goro and maybe Winterspring, then the Plaguelands. I personally dislike the Plaguelands, but it's been over a year since I list visited. Just didn't like so many bugs and undead, plus the constant de-buffs from some of the mobs were annoying.

Really planning to get to 60 by this weekend, and then head to the outlands. So far I haven't spent much time playing but we'll really see once I get past 60 the recruit a friend bonus will run out. Will I make it to 70 then 80? Not sure, but so far it's been fun playing two toons at once. :)

42 to higher

On my recruit a friend team, I'm now at level 42 with the mage and priest. Grinding in the dungeon Maraudon. I honestly didn't like this place much the first time but now I'm getting used to the map. The dungeon is very complex and hard time get through if it's your first time. This is not like Scarlet Monastery where the path to the boss is very short and clear.

So far at level 42, I'm still too low for all but one quest in Maraudon. Hopefully this weekend I will hit 50 and get near the limit for a 70 to solo an instance.

After this I'm not sure what else I want to do. I do have a 20 rogue that I would like to level higher but might make a warrior to team up for fun. If I do, I'm going to not do any questing and just push them up to the mid 50's as fast as possible.

WoW and 3.0.2

Recently there has been a big patch to the World of Warcraft game. Patch 3.0.2 has everyone prepared for the new expansion pack Wrath of the Lynch King due next month. While this is not the new game there is a large amount of new items and changes to the classes. Just playing on a druid I noticed that armor is down but total DPS is higher.

I haven't gotten a chance to play other classes as much but this weekend I'll login and continue spec out my talents for the warlock. Some classes I'm actually changing from what I played, for example the paladin, which is going from protection to retribution for more dps.

Will report shortly with my finding but I hope there's improvement on the paladin. just grinding with him is tough and takes so long to kill anything.

Powerleveling with World of Warcraft Recruit a Friend

For anyone that has done the trip to max level in a video game knows how difficult it can be, not to mention somewhat repeated feeling. With the recent release of World of Warcraft's Recruit a Friend bonus XP system, playing with two characters will level much faster than one. Also you get two toons, plus some extra free levels to hand out to another toon.

So, how much faster is this leveling compared to the solo method?

As an example, I leveled a two team mage and priest Blood Elf to level 11 within 1 hour. Then I leveled a Draenei mage to level 11 and took 4 hours. Now the zones are not the same but I think 4 times longer is a large increase of time. Basically you are getting a bonus XP for everything, from killing mobs to quest turn in's. During the low 20's, expect about 200xp per mob.

Now how does this compare at higher levels?

Well, I just got to level 24 on the mage and priest, but took about 13 hours of played time. They just finished the quests in the Blood Elf starting zones and I could have cut even more time by skipping most of the quests. As you level using the Request a Friend, you will notice quests going gray while you are doing them. On my other team, 51 druid and paladin, when I did quest turn in's they were usually 10,000xp to a 30,000xp for some dungeon quests.

Keep in mind that when I played the mage and priest, I still did the collection quests which many people say to drop since you need to collect 2x as many items (and take twice as long). I think I could have skipped these quests and gotten the leveling done even faster.

What's next?

Since the mage and priest are heading to Undercity, I'll pick up the SFK quest and grind that instance for a bit with a 70 to help out. I've been getting about 4~5 levels per night, playing maybe 2 hours per night.

Problems?

Playing two toons, or multiboxing is not as hard as it sounds but does take some setup. Right now I'm just using a software called Keyclone which passes any key I press to both clients of WoW on my computer. Then I have some macro's to help out with the rest. It's best to choose two casters, as it's easier then trying to chase down mobs with a melee classes.

Here's my basic setup.

Main - Mage (frost spec)
Secondary - Priest (wands, shadow spec)

I mostly play from the Mage, so I need to match up the spells from the mage with similar cast time spells from the priest. This makes it hard since the casting times need to be close or else I'll have the mobs on me before both toons can finish casting.

So here's a walk through of how I attack a mob.

1)From the main, I right click the mob.
2)From the main, I press the "1" key, this passes a "/assist Main" to the secondary. Now both toons are targeting and ready to cast.
3)From the main, I press the "2" key, mage casts frost bolt, priest casts smite. The smite is slightly faster cast time.
4)From the main, I press the "3" key, mage casts fireball, priest casts smite. This time the cast times are the same.
5)From the main, I press the "5" key, mage and priest start to attack with wands. This saves mana for the mage. :)

Now, I casted two items but really hit the mob for 4 plus wands. Also this makes a mana heavy class like the mage last much longer in battle.

I also have extra macros for buffing each toon, one for the priest to heal the mage (which I use allot), and another for inviting the priest to the party.

This week I'll post a video of how I attack a mob. It sounds complicated but it's really simple, and I like things simple. :)

Next posting, I'll report how things are going from 24 to 30.

To level up on a PvP server

I took a long break from playing World of Warcraft, almost a few months then decided I was spending way too much on games and wanted something I could play casually. Started my old account and rolled a tauren druid on a PvP server. There's a large guild on this server I knew from the forums and figured it would be a nice change of pace.

For those who do not know what a PvP server means, it is a server where they allow Player vs Player combat in the open gaming world. This basically means you can attack any opposing faction character in most areas of the world. This also means that as a level 20 character you can be killed almost instantly from a roaming level 70 character, with no chance to fight back.

Normally I really don't like PvP servers. It's not that I don't like PvP action but I just don't like having to watch my back all of the time while playing. Usually I play very casually, maybe watching tv or talking to a friend on the phone while playing. I'm not out scanning every red icon, expecting to get ganked around every corner, I just want to run around and finish the quests.

Guess it's why I like the idea of PvP battle grounds. It's an area where I know I'll be in PvP combat but only for 20 minutes. It's fun and it's isolated, after I'm out of there I can get back to playing casually. There's nothing really more annoying that getting ganked over and over while trying to finish a quest.

That being said, while it's annoying, it's also somewhat balancing. You take little to no damage from PvP combat, also there's no reward for killing someone well below you're level. Still, it's a personal choice if you want to play on a PvP server. It's not easy, and there's sometimes players who simply want to give you a hard time. They might gank you over and over, kill a NPC who you need to talk with for a quest turn in.

Just personally, I like playing on a PvE more than a PvP but I do see the added realism. When I play on the PvP server, I feel like I'm a weak level 49 druid, hiding and dodging the Alliance. When I'm playing on a PvE server, it feels like I'm playing by myself, even if I see the Alliance, they don't matter since they can't do anything to me.

Some updates

I haven't been updating this blog in a while. Will start to post up some gaming videos I've been making.

Catching up

I've haven't update my blog in a long time. I've think it's partly work and some other things in life that are more important. Just recently I starting playing World of Warcraft again, got a Tauren Druid up to level 40 but I haven't played in a few weeks due to other obligations.