Aux's Top 5 Favourite Flying Mounts!

Flying Mounts were introduced in Burning Crusade, these days Ground Mounts are almost non-existent, flying mounts are faster, in most cases look cooler and are a lot more convenient. The only places they can't be used is in Battlegrounds, dungeons and a few zones.

1. Reins of the Onyxian Drake: The Reins of the Onyxian Drake is an extremely rare flying mount that drops from Onyxia, despite what others think I believe this is the rarest mount in the game. It is relatively unknown and I'd say most people don't even know it exists.
Sadly it does share the same model as the other Drakes but does have some defining features. But seriously whats more awesome than riding a mini-Onyxia around WoW?

2. Reins of the Phosphorescent Stone Drake drop from Aeonaxx in Deepholm. Aeonaxx is like the Time-Lost Protodrake an extremely rare spawn that circles an area. Aeonaxx can be found flying around the central area of Deepholm but can be easy to miss, if you manage to find him you must kite him to the ground and then once he gets weak enough there will be an option to ride him. This is identical to when you tame the Seahorse in Vashjir, it stands out from the other Stone Drakes and is pretty god dam awesome. Definitely a mount that will get you a bit of attention!

3. Ashes of Al'ar is a flying mount from Burning Crusade. It drops from Kael Thas Sunstrider in the Eye. This mount is a golden/red phoenix and is EXTREMELY bright, it leaves a trail of ribbons behind it whenever you fly and is guaranteed to get you a lot of /whispers in game. Due to its flashy appearance it is quite well known and not as rare as the two more subtle mounts I have previously listed. This mount has an interesting story behind it actually, There was a young boy called Ezra Chatterton who through the Make-A-Wish foundation got to visit the Blizzard HQ in 2007, the WoW Dev.'s created the mount and he was the first one to ever obtain it. 

4. Mimiron's Head is a drop from Yogg-Saron in the 25-man Ulduar (ONLY if none of the watchers are helping). It was a guaranteed drop but I believe now its at 1% drop chance, and even then you'll have to roll with 25 other players. Regardless its very unique and unlike anything else in the game. It also gives you an excuse for running the most awesome raid in the game (Ulduar!)

5. Reins of the Plague Proto-Drake is a reward for completing "Glory of the Raider (10 player). All Proto-Drakes are awesome and for some reason I really like this guy, especially his neon-purple mouth. It was introduced in WoTLK and removed in 2009 as getting it became too easy for players.

So there you go, there are my top 5 favorite flying mounts and if you see my previous post you'll find out my top 5 favorite ground mounts too!
Sadly I don't have all of them and in some cases I never will be able to, but I'm working on it!

Aux's Top 5 Favourite Ground Mounts

Mounts are essential to World of Warcraft, without them you can't go anywhere (quickly at least). There are literally hundreds of mounts in World of Warcraft but here are my favorites!

1. Grand Ice Mammoth: Yes, I chose the Grand Ice Mammoth as my favorite mount in the game! I have a thing for Mammoths and I have many great memories riding this thing around Northrend and around Dalaran, its a huge mount and gets you lots of attention, has a gorgeous character model and an awesome running animation.
Its quite a common mount and is often confused with its smaller War Mammoth cousin but this is the real deal.

2. Riding Turtle: I choose the Riding Turtle just for its rarity, in all of my years of playing World of Warcraft I have only seen a handful of these, at least from my experience they are the rarest mount in WoW. You get the Riding Turtle from Fishing it has an extremely low drop rate. It actually has a 0% speed increase which defeats the point of it being a mount but its awesome and a real great one to brag about!

3. The Kon'Kron Annihilator is a reward for when you hit Exalted with your level 25 guild. It was released in Cataclysm and is basically a huge scorpion you get to ride and it even comes with enough room for 2 players, need I say more?

4. Is it a bird? Is it a raptor? No.. its the Reins of the Raven Lord, its a 1% drop from Heroic: Sethekk Halls in Terrokar Forest. Sethekk Halls is a level 70 dungeon and at level 85 even the Heroic mode is easily solo able. Once you get Honored rep you can go to Shattrath and get a key that will unlock the Heroic version, from there you just keep farming until you get the mount which as I said only has a 1% drop rate from the second last boss.

5. The Fossilized Raptor was introduced in Cataclysm as a high-end reward from the profession Archeology. It allows Alliance players to ride a raptor. But not just your run of the mill raptor, this raptor is a skeleton held together by .. something, it doesn't look very safe to ride but its so god dam awesome you want to anyway. The Fossilized Raptor is again quite a rare drop so don't expect to get it anything soon, but that's the thing, if it wasn't rare everyone would have it and then it wouldn't be so special!

Aux's Top 3 Favourite Races

When you create your character you choose a race and a class, obviously what class you pick will have the most effect on the game however what race you choose will matter too - that will be the character your playing for all those hours.

My Shaman is a Tauren, my Rogue is an Undead and just about every other class Ive played has been a Night Elf.

1. Undead: I wont lie, Undead are my favourite class in all of the World of Warcraft, they're just badass. My Rogue is an Undead and if Undead could be Shamans, so would my Shaman.
They're one of the vanilla models which has probably aged the best and the 1H and casting animations are my favourite in the game, not to mention Undead racials are amazing and among the best in the game too.

 

2. Tauren: When I made my first character I liked the Tauren the most, Ive never been a fan of orcs in any fantasy games I've played before and Trolls are just .. eh, its a shame Undead cant be Shamans or I would of race changed years ago, but it does make sense lore wise.

Kodos are also pretty cool and the Tauren starting area zone is still my favourite in all of WoW. 

Mulgore and The Barrens were the two first zones I ever did and I'll always remember staring at my giant cowman running through the desert, good memories.

Night Elf: After I reached max level on my Tauren Shaman and Undead Rogue, I decided to give Alliance a go. Humans were too boring, Gnomes too small, Dwarves would of been my second choice but I wasn't too keen on them either, Draenei had newer character models and looked decent but there just wasnt that x-factor about them and even in Cataclysm I hate werewolves (Worgen).

Teldrassil is another amazing starting zone, I mean its a massive tree!

Darkshore is one of the most depressing zones in the game which made me avoid levelling my Night Elf up, but once I got to Ashenvale I was back in a forest of Night-Elfy goodness.

To this day I have a Night Elf Priest, Warrior and Hunter all of various levels, the rest of my characters - namely Night Elves have all been deleted over the years, but I like to mix it up and play as the faction I'm killing all the time, its quite refreshing.

Aux's Top 5 Favourite Classes In WoW

Today I decided to write about my top 5 favourite classes/specs in World of Warcraft and what I like about them as well as my experience with each of them.

1. Enhancement Shaman: I enjoy playing an Enhancement Shaman for a number of reasons, we have fantastic burst and can do significant damage from a distance too as well as providing heals. Totems are invaluable as they are for all Shaman specs. Stormstrike and Lava Lash are awesome and Spirit Wolves are one of the funnest things in the game. The Enhancement Shaman was also my first class in WoW, before I even knew about specs I would run around hitting monsters on the head with my staff, oblivious to the fact that in my gear I should be playing an Elemental/Restoration Shaman.

2. Subtlety Rogue: I had way too much fun back in Wrath on my Rogue, subtlety was pretty poor PVE wise but in Warsong Gulch and Alterac Valley it was an entirely different story.
I picked up a Rogue as my second character and fell in love with stealth, I learnt I needed to be a little more careful when I was playing my rogue compared to my Enhancement Shaman who could take a bit more of a beating. I mainly PvP'd on my Rogue I leveled him almost entirely through BG's believe it or not.
But seriously full heirlooms + One shot ambushing people = way too much fun

3. Combat Rogue: Yes.. despite having a Shaman I adore as my main - my second favourite class in WoW easily goes to the Rogue. As I previously mentioned Subtlety is absolutely way too much fun in PvP, however I enjoyed Combat a lot too.
As soon as I got dual talent specialization I branched out and went Combat, I never really tried Assassination, I know Mutilate has a quite easy rotation PvE wise and Assassination has always been a very competitive spec but I just love Combat, Killing Spree.. Blade Furry.. Improved This .. Improved That .. its amazing and behind Enhancement my second favourite DPS class in the game, whether to play or play alongside.
^Which really .. Enhancement Shamans are quite similar to Rogues.. coincidence I think not..

4. Restoration Shaman: Restoration Shamans and Druids share one thing in common, the most awesome healing spec - Restoration!
I remember hitting level 80 and only realizing then that the Shaman had two other talent specs, Elemental and Restoration. I never really got into Elemental apart from Earthquaking people off rocks in Arathi Basin and Eye of the Storm however I did pick up Restoration as my 2nd talent spec when I took dual-talent specialization.
Shaman healing is very different compared to Druids, Priests and Paladins, in fact we're the opposite of Holy Paladins, with strong group heals our job is usually to keep DPS up, not tanks. I mainly PvE'd in Restoration gear, mainly for the fact that in Wrath it meant that by healing I could get into a dungeon in 5 minutes as opposed to 30 minutes. Playing from a healers perspective instead of a DPS's perspective also made me a better Enhancement player I think too.

5. My Enhancement/Restoration Hybrid: Towards the end of Wrath when I was doing a lot of BG's I kept switching between my two favourite specs at the time, Enhancement and Restoration.
In Cataclysm when the new talent tree was launched I made what I dubbed an "Enhancement/Restoration Hrybrid".


It was a 0/31/10 build, so obviously Enhancement based, I was wearing my same Enhancement gear that I was using for my Enhancement-DPS-Focused spec but I was able to heal quite well too.
In this spec I was a defensive player, healing my teammates and then when the enemies went to me or I was out of mana I would pop Spirit Wolves and the rest of the Enhancement cooldowns and kick ass.
Even though I wasnt a "pure" per-say I always did quite well, I'm not the kinda guy that stands around in the middle farming HK's in Warsong Gulch or Arathi Basin I went for the objectives and played the BG's the way they were meant to be played.
Despite my unique talent choice, play style and at the time, mediocre gear. I would almost always come in the top 3 for Damage Done and Healing Done.
I was frequently out DPSing and Healing guys that were in "proper" DPS and Healing specs.
I cleared all 6/6 of Blackwing Descent in Cataclysm launch in my Enhancement set and pulled around 15k DPS, shortly after 4.2 released my guild decided to do a fun-run of BWD as most of the raiders couldn't make the Firelands raid, I was available at the time and thought it would be a bit of fun so I slipped on my Hybrid spec, we finished the whole dungeon, I helped out the 2 healers a ton and managed to do 12K DPS.
^The moral of that little story is play how you want to play, not how others want you too,

Mists of Pandaria - Part 2

I have previously gave my opinions and a brief overview of Blizzards newest expansion for World of Warcraft, Mists of Pandaria.
In this post Ill be going over some of the finer details and go in-depth about the new features that will be available in the upcoming expansion.

Pandaren:
The Pandaren are the new race available in World of Warcraft, Blizzard has wrote some lore to help implement them into the World of Warcraft.
As I'm sure many of you know, the Pandaren will be available as both Alliance and Horde, they have stated that players will choose who to side with in the starting area.
The Pandaren have very interesting Racial Traits, they have +15 cooking, take 50% less falling damage, have rested experience last twice as long and a 3 second CC. All very powerful compared to the Vanilla and BC races Racial Traits.
The Monk (Pandaren exclusive), Mage, Hunter, Priest, Rogue, Shaman and Warrior are all available to the Pandaren as classes.

The Monk:
The Pandaren have access to a race exclusive class, the Monk. From what it sounds like the Monk is a hybrid (Tank, DPS and Heal) with instant cast abilities that uses "Chi" as energy.
The Monk will use Cloth or Leather armor and all 1H weapons, Polearms and Staves.

Challenge Modes:
Challenge Modes are basically a time-trial added to 5-man dungeons that will reward you and your group with rewards depending on how fast you completed the instance.
Depending on how fast you finish you will either get a: Gold, Silver, Bronze .. or if you really bad maybe nothing medal.
The rewards for completing Challenge Modes include: armor sets, mounts, titles etc.

Pet Battle System:
Basically to sum it up, Pokemon in WoW.
In Mists of Pandaria, your vanity non-combat pets which you have collected over the years can be used to battle other players non-combat pets.
It looks like more of a time-killing casual thing, but I really dont see the point in this feature and it seems to be fairly unpopular with the WoW community.


Talent Calculator:
Mists of Pandaria will bring yet again, another talent system to WoW. The new talent system looks to be somewhat simplified, with 6 main talents you will choose 1-90. Obviously the simplification of something like the talent system causes quite a bit of QQing, particularly from the "Hardcore" community but I guess Blizzard knows what they're doing?

Scenarios:
(No information released yet)

New Zones:
Mists of Pandaria will have 6 new zones for us players to explore.
The Wandering Isle, The Jade Forest, Valley of The Four Winds, Kun-Lai Summit, Townlong Steppes and the Vale of Eternal Blossums.


Obviously the whole Monk/Pandas theme is all very Chinese/Oriental themed. The Monk which is essentially a Kung Fu fighter, Pandas which = China and the new zones in particular which represent China's landscape.
It will be interesting to see how Mists of Pandaria is released in China, I believe Wrath of The Lich King was only released last year - but obviously Mists of Pandaria looks to be full of Asia stereotypes.

Regardless of what I think, Mists of Pandaria seems to be adding quite a bit of new content to WoW, one thing I am worried about is the lack of discussion regarding raids and PVP, which has led some to dub this the "casual expansion".

Mists of Pandaria - Part 1

As I'm sure all of you know, Blizzards upcoming World of Warcraft expansion, Mists of Pandaria should be released sometime mid-late next year.

In the last few months, as many know WoW's player base has been shrinking. Some blame Rift and Bioware's newly released SWTOR, others blame Cataclysm being a "failure" and that we saw significant number drop offs towards the end of Wrath and that its nothing to worry about.

I don't care either way, World of Warcraft is the most popular online MMORPG and will stay that way for quite some time, however I do believe WoW could do with a bit of a shake up, I for one wasn't a huge fan of Cataclysm.

For those who don't know (how could you not??) Mists of Pandaria will take place in a new continent, like Northrend did for example.

Mists of Pandaria will feature the Pandaren. The Pandaren are .. fittingly named, Pandas.
That's right, Panda bears in World of Warcraft!

Most notably Mists of Pandaren will see the level cap raised to 90 and the introduction of the Pandaren as playable races, available to both the Alliance and the Horde. Monks will also be a new class exclusive to the Pandaren.

Mists of Pandaria was meant to be an April Fools joke by Blizzard - so many fans were shocked when Mists of Pandaria was actually announced as a legit expansion to World of Warcraft.
The Pandaren race have existed back in the Warcraft series so Blizzard aren't pulling this new race out of nowhere.

However I do think Pandas really dont fit in with Azeroth as much as Humans, Dwarfs, Orcs and Elves do, but that's just me, I'm a bit of a skeptic on the upcoming expansion and I really want it to deliver like Blizzard promises it will, with more competition like Guild Wars 2 being released later this year, World of Warcraft needs a new expansion to bring old and new players into the world of Azeroth and shake things up.

Intro

Hey!

My names Aux and Ive been playing World of Warcraft since just before the launch of Wrath.
I made a Shaman as my first ever character and have loved it ever since, Enhancement and Elemental specs are very entertaining and never leave me bored. Ive played every class until level 40 but none match the enjoyment I get out of playing a Shaman.
Im a PVP player and enjoy World PVP/BGs and occasional Arena, Ive never been much of a raider although I have cleared everything up to Firelands.

I live in whats meant to be sunny Australia and am currently studying at school, I decided to make this Blog to practice my writing and give others tips and help by sharing my knowledge of the game with them.

I plan on covering the latest news, rumors and miscellaneous topics regarding WoW but who knows where Ill go, if you have any suggestions just contact me (see right).

Thanks, Aux.