Happy Mother's Day!

Hello everyone.

I hope you are having a great Mother's Day today.
I'd be out with my mom today rather than blogging but both of us are sick! Really bites.  I will have to make it up to her next weekend for sure.  So I'm going to just keep it light today and just discuss a few things I found interesting in the world of Blizznews.

First...
Hours after my last post, Alpha servers were shut down for a new build release.  I can only imagine those that work for popular datamine/news based sites, like Wowhead for example, had their work cut out for them a little later than usual.  They normally have builds released earlier in the day, but someone must have found something that needed emergency fine tuning before release.
I have not yet checked out the new updates, because when I'm sick, everything in me just shuts down, I am super cranky and don't like to be bothered.  And its very difficult to find peace and quiet to recover when I am currently at my sister's house.  She is not a very nice or considerate person, lets just leave it at that.  And a 6 year old nephew... kinda similar to her, but more friendly.
Anyway... crankiness aside... the build included the new Memorial Park in Stormwind. And if you are avoiding any spoilers, I don't suggest watching anything related to the park.

Overwatch... I'd love to say I am excited for it, but I'm not as hyped as I used to be.  I don't own a PS4 or an XBox...one? Is it? Whatever, don't care.  My computer is a little... old? I can't enjoy high graphics anymore.  Overwatch reminded me how old my computer is getting... but just not loading anything.  I mean, I can play, but I have to randomly click around to see the characters, and I don't know what anyone else in the team has picked... I wish this would still load even on the lowest settings... but Blizzard clearly wants me to invest in a new machine...

Now, this first photo here... this was during the first open Beta Weekend. Back then, I could see the list options. The second photo is from the open Beta event, and now I can no longer see anything.

This is my loading screen... I can hear everything going on just fine... and I can only imagine what it looks like based on whatever memory I have left from watching so many YouTube videos.

I can at least find Mei with no problem.  Was super excited I had the chance to actually try her out. I need some practice, but I'm not too shabby.  As for choosing another character, I just have to hover over and hope I can read the name or just randomly click.

Whatever graphics that I CAN see are still nice, and I can only imagine how nice it will look on an a newer machine... that unfortunately will have to wait until the end of the year for me...

Overwatch is in open Beta until May 9th, and officially released on May 24th.
I must say, there is a lot of potential to have a HUGE following with this particular title.  My nephew even loves the animated shorts.  He is too hyper and young to really sit down and play any games though.  He actually made it a point to get me to take him to Taco Bell once I told them they have cups there.  If you a super fan, go collect all 4, but they are flismy standard plastic cups.  I was a bit disappointed...
My nephew thinks D.Va is pretty, recognized Mei from a drawing I did, and has a habit of filling in the blanks with the most smart ass of comments while abusing Tracer's famos line...
"Cheers, love. -insert smart ass comment-". He even uses an accent...
Yep, so they have a great thing going on for them. This was even brought up to Mike Morhaime, he was flattered, but stated "The game was designed for the purpose of ESports." (Not exact quote)
There is a lot of things you can check out like the digital comics:
McCree in Train Hopper
Reinhardt in Dragon Slayer
Junkrat and Roadhog in Going Legit

Also, the amazing collection of official animated shorts that are breath taking. You'll also find a large amount of other videos that have amazing details and looks into the world of Overwatch:

The hype train continues to pull it load through with the release of the highly awaited movie title: Warcraft! We have roughly a month left in our countdown to the Warcraft movie release.  Along with tickets, there are going to be codes for ALL of the expansions up to Warlords of Draenor, for free, with the purchase of Legion. I think this is still a rumored thing or I might have a detail or two wrong, but that is the rumor. We just have to wait for the dates closer to release for the real hype lust to begin.
That being said, there is going to be a rush of new players that will join the game. As a long time player, I have noticed the realm name trends.  The majority of them are faction heavy based on the name of the realm. I currently reside on Lothar, for example, and its relatively D E A D..... but in its lively days, it was most populated by the Alliance.  Needless to say because he himself fought for the Alliance and is a human. *DUH* My server is going to thrive soon just based on the name a lot of newblets will be familiar with from the movie. Even though I don't play on Alliance, I am sure there is going to be a curious bunch that will still roll Horde.  I still welcome them all! And I'm kind of excited to have a little life on the server again. Or at least I hope it turns out that way.
I can be hopeful.
I can't wait for the movie, its been a long time coming.

Jinx has a new line up of licensed clothes! Looking forward to what they do with the Legion theme.

Be sure to check out the Legion Developer Update on May 10th.
It will be live starting at 9:00am PST / 12:00pm EST / 5:00pm UK running on twitch.tv/warcraft. Hosted by a very popular figure of the community, Jesse Cox, (@JesseCox) and World of Warcraft Assistant Game Director, Ion Hazzikostas (@watcherdev).

And wrapping things up cause this is longer than I cared to have made this...
Quarter 1 report for Activision Blizzard is out. Earlier in February, they bought out King Digital Entertainment. They are the creators of Candy Crush Saga and Pet Rescue and a few other titles. The price tag was $5.9 billion to take ownership. Quite a nice purchase if you look at how successful Candy Crush has been for sometime now. As far as everything else goes, this is a good start of the year for Blizzard. Which is ultimately great news for me as I do plan to work for them in the near future.
You can check out the full quarterly results from the investor's meeting recently. Lots of interesting information.


I think that sums it all up for now.
I am going to take a nap!
Ciao ciao!

I know... I know...

Welp, tax season was officially over for me on April 20th.
"That should have meant you'd have more time to put in blog posts."
Welp, be that as it may... happy Cinco de Mayo.

     I actually have the remaining Dalaran posts somewhat complete, however, we are still in Alpha. It feels like Beta, but its not. I keep forgetting that fact. I've seen many YouTubers make videos stating "Every time I make a new video, a day or two later, all my information is completely wrong."
I thought to myself with a very cocky grin, "Whatever, I am taking pictures of Dalaran, nothing about the rest of Legion yet."

WRONG.

     Lots of things have changed around Dalaran and I believe things are still changing to this day. There are some NPCs that are new while others have been relocated or removed. And before I go and post more about the changes from LIVE to ALPHA, I want to recheck my research, take new photos if necessary, and make sure my posts and drafts are all caught up with the current Alpha build.

     As far as my game play goes...
I currently have a level 106 elemental shaman, Feifei. By now, I should have had a level 110, that is if I could still work on my druids. However, they fell through holes in the world, so I no longer have access to them. I reported it before tax season was over and they were still falling through after tax season. Recently, I really haven't checked due to all the activity focused on shaman these last couple of weeks.
     I've quested all the base-line quests in Azsuna, working on Val'sharah now. In between I have been mining and skinning to try them out. Last time I tried to send myself some mail, it didn't work, so I will have to check if its enabled so I can work on leather and blacksmith on another character. Prolly should have just stuck to skin/leather or mine/blacksmith, but I'm rather backwards sometimes. Also fishing and cooking are on the list of WIP.
     Still waiting for the Legion opening scenario on Horde to be added. Really excited about it. I've seen videos about the Alliance opening, but when I tried to take a peak to see for myself, we'd get kicked out of the scenario with a forced disconnect by the server. It would not let anyone progress. This was a week or two ago, so I should maybe check it out now.
     Suramar is the last and final zone that was added to the Alpha recently. Its absolutely GORGEOUS and very unique from the NE and BE cultures. Very few parts of the city are accessible to me at this time, however, I think there is a quest line at 110, that brings you there and you'll be able to mingle freely without having to aggro everything. That's right, the majority of the city is not at all friendly. I plan on doing a little more research on that.
     In the mean time, take a look at the Wowhead walk through. Its the best video out there that shows what it looks like currently without having to watch someone do quests, jump around, or handle the camera views like a spaz.

Anyway, thats it for me for now. I have to start working on the Dalaran posts again.
By the way... Overwatch is out on public Beta until the 9th. Check to make sure you got your codes in so you can run around and pew pew and such. I'd like to play it, but I'll cry about that issue at a later time.

Be safe this Cinco de Mayo!
Ciao!

LIVE Dalaran vs. ALPHA Dalaran: The Magus Commerce Exchange

Peace friend!

     I recently watched a video that ran through the live and alpha versions of Dalaran and I thought... wow.  My mind was blown.  What a lovely difference between the old and the new!  I was hyped up to see them, but then I was surprisingly invited to alpha.  Naturally, I thought nothing more about Dalaran's face lift (even though we start off there), because every reason possible related to hype forced me to forget.  There is still a ton of hype, but I think I can focus clearly now because there is a lot in development, so we are not allowed certain areas... Yeah, I have tried about a dozen times, but there is the mean ole buff thing that pops up... eye of the arch mage.  The description says you are where you should not be and *poof*... back to Dalaran you go.  *shakes fist*
     The video was a run through of the alpha Dal on the large screen and had a smaller screen in the bottom corner that mirrored the run through the live version.  I wanted to really see everything and compare the two myself, so I went on a screenshot spree!  This is very time consuming, but I would like to share it cause I am having fun with this process.  If you happen across my blog, you are curious enough to see it as well, so I hope you enjoy this as much as its taking me to make it! ^__^
     Please feel free to make requests of anything you want to see, like close up of clutter, a certain nook you hid in, or whatever.  I am going to make a number of posts starting with the northern part of the map of "live" Dalaran first, then the southern part of the map, and lastly, the Underbelly.  This is time consuming to load all these comparison pics, so bare with me!
Feel free to befriend me as well, Ekingpin#1480.
     Also, if you want to see the video, you'll find it here: Dalaran Update | New VS Old made by TradeChat.

Reader be warned!!!
This post may have contents that some view as SPOILERS!!!  
Please do not continue if spoilers are not your thing.  
ALSO KEEP IN MIND that the game is currently still in ALPHA, so contents may change rather quickly without my noticing. 
If you catch anything old, please me know and I can edit it or update in a later post.

NOT SURE HOW BLIZZARD WILL HANDLE THE PORTAL TO DALARAN.
Dalaran has not yet left Crystalsong Forest in the Lich King storyline.  I personally have not looked for any details on this either.  Will update later if I find whether "Old Dal" will still look the same for Lich King or if the Legion changes will occur to both Dalarans at release.

   


Let us begin with the current LIVE map of Azeroth as we know it today:

Map of Azeroth (LIVE Version March 2016)

My marker on the map is positioned in Northrend, where we currently are experiencing the wonders of Dalaran.  Before the turn of events that lead us to battle the great Lich King, this was once a city located west of Tarren Mill in Hillsbrad Foothills.  Dalaran first appears in the Warcraft strategy games and we only see the aftermath of that once World of Warcraft released.  If you are a lore-nerd like myself, I do highly recommend playing the Warcraft games prior to World of Warcraft.  This will explain why Dalaran shielded itself off from the world.  If you haven't been playing World of Warcraft for very long, please see the image below to see what Dalaran looked like before it became a floating sky city and left the giant hole in Hillsbrad we are familiar with today.

That out of the way... Here is a map of Dalaran in the current LIVE version.  Its good to have reference to the rest of the post.  We currently do not have a map in Alpha, so yeah...

Dalaran (LIVE)

Map of Azeroth (ALPHA March 2016)

Dalaran placeholder (ALPHA March 2016)
This has changed to a green screen, so there may be an updated map soon.

The Magus Commerce Exchange

     The Magus Commerce Exchange is mostly made of shops full of various crafts.  The majority of the shops here keep the same names we see in the LIVE version, but there are a few noted changes to some shops.  Most of them being minor NPC changes.
***Update: As of March 12, the signs in the ALPHA version have been removed for a possible revamp. Will repost new store fronts once they are live for us if that is the case.  

The Agronomical Apothecary
The alchemy building looks relatively the same on the outside.  The shop is still being run by Linzy Blackbolt with Patricia Egan selling supplies, but in the Alpha version, we also have a new face; Deucus Valdera.  Linzy plans on retiring and letting Deucus take over.

LIVE version:

ALPHA version:

Cartier & Co. Fine Jewelry
This shop has a nice renovation.  The interior in the LIVE version is rather... dull and depressing.  In Legion, we can expect it to be much brighter and full of color. Timothy Jones is still our favorite jewelcraft trainer dressed like a pimp.  Tiffany Cartier is the supply vendor, but Harold Winston is now replaced by Sminx Glasseye as the new jewelry vendor.

LIVE version:

ALPHA version:

First to Your Aid
This clinic doesn't change too much.  We still learn great ways to stay alive with bandages.  These come in handy from time to time.  Olisarra the Kind happily trains us while Angelique Butler sells the supply.  Josie Birch no longer assists them with the wounded in Alpha, and its refreshing to know the old patients aren't milking their injuries and let new patients in.

LIVE version:

ALPHA version:

Talismanic Textiles
The tailor shop has big change in staff, and its for the better.  Charles Worth has been replaced by Tanithria as a trainer.  Dominique Stefano no longer sells supply either.  Ainderu Summerleaf used to specialize in Mooncloth, but now is a trainer.  Lalla Brightweave used to work with Spellfire cloth, but was either promoted... or demoted... to a supply vendor.  And because there is no need for the special cloth types anymore, Linna Bruder is no longer in shop with her Shadoweave cloth.

LIVE version:

ALPHA version:

Legendary Leathers
This workshop is still shared by both skinning and leatherworking trainers.  Diane Cannings has gone from trainer to "Leather Armor Expert" and had the trainer, Namha Moonwater, come down from upstairs. Andellion's and Manfred Staller's training services are no longer needed. Derik Marks is no longer there and Kondal Huntsworn is the new skinning trainer.  Ranid Glowergold still sells supply and had his brother, Thanid Glowergold, come in as the "Mail Armor Expert."  Just outside the Legendary Leathers shop, there used to be a dwarf named Braeg Stoutbeard, but he no longer seems to be there trading furs and leathers.  Instead, he is currently just near the well entrance of the blacksmith building.  His goods still require LK furs/leathers, so not quite sure what will happen with him later on.

LIVE version:

ALPHA version:

Like Clockwork
This workshop is where the grease monkeys hang out.  Timofey Oshenko still acts as the trainer.  Reginald Arcfire, the steam powered auctioneer is no longer present.  Bryan Landers has been replaced with Hobart Grapplehammer as a supply vendor.  Didi the Wrench still grants us knowledge of goblin engineering, however, Findle Whistlesteam is not currently active with gnomish engineering.  Not sure if Findle was moved, or removed... or if gnomish engineering was removed... I haven't done much with crafts, and I may cover them in a later post.

LIVE version:

ALPHA version:

**The NPC, Fonzo the Renowned, used to be just outside Like Clockwork.  He was a trader of frozen orbs.  There are also Whirt the All-Knowing and Mona Eversping, the city guides, that still loiter in the area.


All That Glitters Prospecting Co.
Things of the Past
This shop harbors a new business within its walls.  All That Glitters Prospecting Co. no longer offers training for mining.  Jedidiah Handers, the trainer, and Dorian Fines, the supply vendor, have moved on (new miners are next door though).  Dariness the Learned used to hang out at the bar in the Legerdmaid Lounge, but she quickly took up the precious opportunity to set up her archeology establishment.  Kudos, Dariness!

LIVE version: All That Glitters Prospecting Co.

 **Oops... It appears I am missing a photo - - Will update at later time.

ALPHA version: Things of the Past

Forge of Fate
The forge was a colorful place where everyone would go to smelt and hammer out various metals.  I believe its currently being worked on in ALPHA because its just a little pit now... we'll see in time!

LIVE version:

ALPHA version:

**Yes, that is a floating hammer... as of March 12, the back chamber door is not there and its just a black abyss that does nothing and goes no where.  Looking forward to seeing what is done with the area, if anything at all.

Tanks for Everything

This used to be a hot little spot to buy all sorts plate armor and shields.  The blacksmith trainer Orland Schaeffer is gone and replaced by Arcanomancer Vridiel and Alard Schmied remains.  Imindril Spearson no longer trains and is instead, the supply vendor, taking place of Palja Amboss.  The plate armor vendors, Dubin Clay, Griselda Hunderland, and Horace Hunderland have all been removed from shop as well as the shield vendor, Anthony Durian.  And upstairs has been converted into the new quarters for the new miners, Mama Diggs the trainer and Mongar the supplier.

LIVE version:

Entrance by the well.

Entrance by the forge.

ALPHA version:

Entrance by the well.

Entrance by the forge.

Simply Enchanting
As opposed to other shops becoming more bright, this little place gets a little darker.  What better way to view the glowing shards and enchantments.  Simply Enchanting has the same staff as before; Enchanter Nalthanis is the trainer, Ildine Sorrowspear is the supplier, and Venessa Sellers was the shard trader, but is now titled with "Wild Enchantments."  I haven't touched crafts yet, so not sure if this is something new or not.

LIVE version:

ALPHA version:

The Scribe's Sacellum
This place was a little interesting because in all the years it has been live, there is a detail that I never really noticed or it just wasn't significant enough to keep in memory... but there is a vertical tunnel in the ceiling that is lined with shelves of books.  Just have to look up!  Professor Pallin is still the trainer, Jessica Sellers is the ink trader, and Theresa Wolf is the loremaster.  Supply vendor Larana Drome is replaced by a PANDAREN named Jang Quillpaw.  The Lexicon of Power still floats around too.

LIVE version:

ALPHA version:

Herbalism Greenhouse (I can't find a name for it...)

This was once just a glassed in little garden that had flowers grow just before our eyes in a huge patch, then fade away, two by two.  Dorothy Egan still trains and Edward Egan still supplies.  A Tauren now acts as a trainer, Kuhuine Tenderstride. 

LIVE version:

ALPHA version:

That covers The Magus Commerce Exchange.  Phew!
There are so many details added to the new Dalaran.  These changes are quite appealing to the eye and really makes use of space.  Just at a quick glimpse of the crafting area already shows much promise.  My computer is a custom build, give or take 4 to 5 years old with a pop-up reminder that my graphic card or video driver is out of date, but I have no lag issues or anything with all this added clutter.  That may be good news for some of you running on older machines or limited laptops.

Things are being added pretty frequently, so I'll revisit and revise this post with any changes.  As for the next post, I'll go around the north bank, through the street shops, and the Horde area.  If there are not too many pictures, I'll show Krasus Landing as well.

Thanks for stopping by and let me know if there is anymore details of this area that you'd like to see.

~BRB~AFK~