Comic Con (and holidays)

Arbitrary and I are off to San Diego Comic Con next week, which means posting is going to be on the quiet side until we get back (this does depend a bit on wifi accessibility and if my Eee holds up.)

On the one hand, this gives you all a chance for a break!

On the other, we’re hoping to get some good gaming (and geeking) in to write about when we get back, including a first hand look at both SWTOR and GW2. Bioware and Arenanet are both going to be running demos at the con, as well as panels during the convention.

Since I don’t go to California often (read: this will be the first time I’ve been there other than changing planes at LAX), is there anything else we should do or try while we’re out there if we have time?

Also, the schedule is here and we’re open to suggestions if anyone is desperate for a writeup on any specific panel.  (Confusingly, their ‘gaming track’ seems to be all about playing card games, with no mention of any other sorts of  games at all.)

5 Reasons I love Brewfest (and some tips)

This picture is a wreath that’s currently on the front gates of Stormwind. You have to love a wreath made up of pretzels, pinecones and frothing (bubbling?) beer steins.

In game festivals are often based on real life holidays but I think that using Oktoberfest as the basis for some WoW-style entertainment was absolutely inspired. It’s good fun, no religious symbolism, and the (beer related) achievements pretty much write themselves. And yes, people really do wear those costumes. Only thing is, it isn’t October yet.

Birdfall has a comprehensive description of Brewfest with notes on all the achievements, pets, and quests. She also links to maps showing routes around the cities for the barking quest (to non-WoW players, yes I know how dumb that sounds ).

I love Brewfest because:

1. Trolls in Lederhosen. Vol’jin looks particularly cool when he comes out to tap the keg.
2. You can blame your typos on the beer.
3. Oompah music.
4. Trade chat is always more amusing when characters are drunk in game. (The game slurs your speech automatically.)
5. Boss fight IN THE PUB. I love that they smartly put the holiday boss in the single most appropriate place in the entire game, the only instance which has its own pub. (One could wish that it was a little easier to get from Ogrimmar to BRD though.)

Some tips for Brewfest

1. While doing the ram riding quests, you get your ram to move faster by using the reins. Your ram gets exhausted more quickly the faster it is moving. You will see icons on the top right of your screen (that’s with no buff display addons) showing: what pace your ram is travelling at – green is trot, yellow is canter, pink is gallop, how exhausted your ram is (if exhaustion reaches 100 it switches to a slow walk), and how much time you have left on the quest timer.
2. To make the timer in the barking quest, don’t go slower than a trot or faster than a canter and keep an eye on your exhaustion.
3. The key to doing the barking quest in Ogrimmar is to use the back route between the Valley of Wisdom and the Valley of Spirit. And after you’ve passed the Spirit banners, turn round and jump off the ledge to get back to the entrance. If you’re not sure, try to follow someone else who knows the route.
4. Alliance has easy mode, as usual. Just ride round Ironforge in a circle.
5. In BRD, you can get a fast teleport to the pub by taking a swift right from the instance entrance, killing the adds, and using the items next to them (bales of hay?)
6. Coren Direbrew spawns lots of adds. None of us know what they actually do, we were all too drunk to pay attention. But be prepared to use whatever AE tanking abilities you have.