ACHIEVEMENTS: Draenor Gold, Rare Missions, and Two Steps Closer to Flying

Perah is two steps closer to unlocking the ability to fly in Draenor.

Over the last couple of days, I've focused on really trying to get those achievements finished in order to get the final meta achievement: Draenor Pathfinder. Yesterday and today saw the completion of two of the sub-achievements, which leaves only one left.

Yesterday, I completed the final Bonus Event that finalized Securing Draenor. It was Assault on Skettis, and I have to be honest, of all the Bonus Events available to do, this one is by far my favorite, and naturally it would bet the last one I chose to do. I had never gotten it as a quest from the table, as far as I'm aware (I often take those quests, and then abandon them, so who knows). Bottom line, freeing slaves and fighting back was fun, and I could complete it really, really fast. I wish all of the bonus events were completed that quickly. I was also working on the treasure-finding one, and happened to get "Got My Mind On My Draenor Money" while diving for a treasure off the coast of Pinchwhistle Point in Spires of Arak.

Tonight, I got my 100th treasure. I had bought all of the treasure maps to make life easier, and had been periodically going on treasure-hunting outings to get this one done as quickly as possible. I got my 100th treasure in Gorgrond. I also fell to my death once, since those holes in Gorgrond sometimes go pretty deep... Ah, well. It's okay. This is done, and now I can focus on the last achievement left.

Naturally, it's the most time-consuming one: Tanaan Diplomat. I'm not revered with ANY of the three groups that are required. I'm closest with Vol'jin's Headhunters, where I'm most of the way through Honored. I'm only on Friendly terms with Saberstalkers and the Order of the Awakened. Grinding dailies is the least fun sounding thing ever, and I don't particularly love Tanaan Jungle, if I'm being honest.

Still, seems a small price to pay to fly again. While I wasn't up in arms about no flying in WoW, when they toyed with that idea, I also wasn't playing at the time, and so didn't think it really effected me. Taking flying out altogether, like Blizzard thought about for a short time, was never going to work. Once you put it in, you cannot remove it, or you'll lose your playerbase. The grind to unlock flying is a decent compromise.

And I'm nearly there.

Long Time No See, Part Two

So. This is going to be a really, really long post. I'll try to TL;DR at the bottom, if you want to scroll...

It's been an age. My last post here was about my anticipation for Cataclysm, my excitement about the game and how amazing it was going to be. I can say (with the rose-tinted glasses of nostalgia) that the game lived up to the hype for me, personally. But my goodness, that was a long, long time ago...

Seona the Retribution Paladin
Seona remained my Main and I leveled her to cap in Cataclysm. The Molten Front was a place I spent a lot of time. Seona was there daily, working on unlocking everything available and getting the very cool Fire Hippogryph mount. I also spent a lot of time in the Caverns of Time dungeons that were introduced. End Time, Well of Eternity, and Hour of Twilight were amazing instances, and I love the Bronze flight as a rule, anyway. Once Transmogrification was introduced, I spent hours playing with it, and the MogIt addon, making outfits and enjoying Void Storage. The Darkmoon Faire was given an overhaul as well, making it something I actually wanted to participate in again. When Raid Finder was introduced, I began raiding for the first time in my life and seeing current end-game content. It was something I never imagined I'd see or participate in, and I loved every minute. And, as time moved forward, as it inevitably does, things changed in game. Cataclysm was fun, I leveled several alts, things were great.

Mists of Pandaria
Kung-Fu Pandas?
Really, Blizzard?
Turns out, yeah, really for real, and wow it's actually really fun! Seona was still my main and I enjoyed almost all of the content offered with her. During Mists, though, I turned my attention more and more towards Perah, my Death Knight. I had gotten over my weirdness with the Frost spec, and starting leveling him up and realizing that I really, really enjoyed the combat and playstyle he offered. When he got an invitation to the Brawler's Guild, I really started focusing on him, and slowly came to the realization that Perah was becoming my Main, and Seona was being gradually demoted to Alt status.

Hiatus
All that said, right around patch 5.2, I sort of took a break from WoW. This was during the release of The Isle of Thunder, which is something I never really visited that much, even when I did come back, which was around patch 5.4 and the release of the Timeless Isle.

Perah Sinn'Zaram, Frost Death Knight of the Ebon Blade (Sisters of Elune, US)
Perah was firmly my main at this point, and I had come back into the fold with the Horde. Seona and Loem were left behind a bit as I got Perah to the Isle and started spending a lot of time improving his gear, running Raid Finder, and in general working towards the legendary cloak (which I never actually got on any of my toons; Perah was closest, in the end). With connected realms, I found more people questing when I did spend a bit of time leveling my army of alts, and the game felt more alive again.

That said, Patch 5.4 lasted FOREVER. Mists of Pandaria dragged on for a long, long time. Long enough for me to level several characters to the level 90 cap. Well before the end of Mists, I had 4 level-capped toons: Seona, Loem (my worgen rogue), Yrovi (human warrior), and Perah all made it to cap. I continued playing (somewhat half-heartedly the longer it drew on), and waited with bated breath for news of the next expansion.

Then, finally, Warlords of Draenor was announced. Oh, joy and exhultation! Garrisons looked amazing, and it was a lot of orcs, but the story was interesting and I loved the novel by Christie Golden that was released as the lead into the next chapter of this game. Plus: Level 90 Boost!

I bit the bullet, bought the expansion, and boosted a class I enjoyed but couldn't seem to ever take time to level up: Warlock. Cobb the Affliction Warlock was power-leveled up to 60, learned alchemy and tailoring, and boosted straight to the Vale of Eternal Blossoms within a few days. A whirlwind of getting back into the game, for me, and got me the achievement for 5 level 90s.

Warlords!
The Iron Tide hit the shores of Azeroth hard. And many people returned, heeding the call of battle, and suddenly there were lots and lots of people playing WoW again. My wonderful RP guild that Seona had been in for what felt like an age, however, did not seem to be able to bounce back. Hinik and Krystal were no longer willing to lead the guild, and could not find anyone willing/worthy to take over. Within a month of WoD going live, KoE died. Rather than leaving the guild in less than capable hands, they disbanded, and Seona found herself without a home. I couldn't blame them. I had already more or less moved back to Horde and had all but left my old server behind.

Perah had many adventures. I managed to level to 100 fairly quickly, and worked on my garrison, getting it up to Level 3. Garrisons ended up being a bit of a love/hate thing, though. Warcraft became Chorecraft, as I felt more and more obligated to log in constantly to check on my Followers and send them out on missions. Truth be told, as time went on, the shiny "newness" of WoD wore off very quickly, and I was seeing more flaws in the game, then benefits. I began really disliking the garrison, the way that professions in general appeared to have been completely gutted and made trivial, and how I seemed to spend all my time isolated, rather than doing things out in the world. I decided another break was in order, and this time it was a long one.

Hiatus
I was gone. For longer than ever before, and for a time, I thought it was a very serious possibility that I would not ever be returning to the World of Warcraft.

Who am I kidding?

Triumphant Return! Because LEGION
About one month ago, I returned to WoW after many, many weeks of being away. I was out of the game during the flying fiasco, and the introduction of the Shipyard and the Tanaan Jungle. I decided to come back because, of course, a new expansion was announced. Legion is coming. I can tell from the information released so far, that Blizzard has learned a lot from the current expansion. Garrisons were an interesting experiment, and I think the Class Halls will be a much better iteration of the idea. Artifact weapons look fascinating, and they are improving the transmog system significantly. But most importantly of all:

ILLIDAN!!!

I think Illidan is my favorite character in the Warcraft Universe. He's the guy that tries so very, very hard to do the right thing, and manages to screw up every. single. time. Even better than Illidan, are the friends he's bringing to the party: Demon Hunters. The new class looks great. I will have two for sure, one for each faction. I have very strong opinions of certain genders of elves in WoW, so my characters are somewhat pre-determined, when it is time to roll them.

And that's that, I guess. A very long, very drawn out "summary" of what happened. I guess I never updated this blog because I got so very into WoW in the beginning of Cataclysm, that I forgot to do so, and then became so NOT into WoW, that I forgot this page even existed. (haha oops!)

But I'll try to update things again. I like keeping a log of what happens in WoW, from my perspective, and the perspective of my characters. I will probably also be trying to update and write more fan fiction about my characters on my other blog: ink-and-blood.blogspot.com

Okay! TL;DR time:

Seona was my main from Cataclysm through most of Mists of Pandaria.

Mists of Pandaria dropped and it was amazing, but it also lasted forever, and I ended up switching mains and also leveling 4 total characters to 90.

I used my free boost with Warlords to level Cobb, my warlock, to 90, getting the achievement for 5 level-capped toons.

Perah, my Frost DK, became my main and is my main currently (Warlords of Draenor; patch 6.2).

Warlords of Draenor was fun, but it had its issues, and it has not been my favorite expansion ever (that would be Wrath)

I had some time away from the game

LEGION IS COMING. So now I'm back in the game and loving it again. A break was good. Class Halls, Artifact Weapons, and ILLIDAN WITH DEMON HUNTERS.

DID I MENTION ILLIDAN? I LOVE ILLIDAN!! I EVEN BOUGHT A VIRTUAL TICKET FOR BLIZZCON SO I COULD GET MURKIDAN! BECAUSE HE LOOKS LIKE ILLIDAN!

I'm currently working on getting flying with Perah and I'm leveling Cobb with an IRL friend. Cobb just got his garrison a few nights ago. You can find Perah and Cobb on Sisters of Elune US, and Yrovi is also leveling up on the linked server, Cenarion Circle. Seona and Loem are, for now, retired.

Here's to more adventures to come in the World of Warcraft!

"It is time, friends, for the world to shatter."

A quote from Zarhym on the official forums.

The shattering is happening now, as I write this. The servers are down for maintenance, the elemental invasion has finally wound down, and MMO-Champ had called it at least a week ago. Finally, FINALLY, the world of Azeroth as we know it is coming to an end.

I, for one, am stoked. I mean, really excited. The only reason why I will be able to sit still at work today is because I know for a fact that the maintenance is going on till at least 3 pm my time, and I'm even somewhat expecting extended maintenance so the servers may not even come up 'till I get off work anyway at five.

I didn't have any real goals or things I wanted to do before the world fractured. I did get Tripping the Rifts on my main, which was the really important thing. I sort of wish I had been more diligent in getting the event quests and such done on all my 80s, but maybe this is the start of a new, less-altoholic me. Which would be nice, considering that I really want to focus on Seona for the upcoming expansion and treat alts as ALTS, not secondary mains or major time-sinks.

I didn't do any of the boss fights, unfortunately. Unlike right before Wrath, where my then-main, Yrovi, got the full set of purple gear from the Argent Dawn for a boost into the expansion, Seona will be moving forward in the same gear she's wearing currently. Not that it's a real issue. The PvP gear I'm in will be easily replaced and won't make me *sadface* when I exchange epics for greens and blues. Besides, it's entirely possible I'll be moving forward with a much larger emphasis on healing, instead of DPS, and may attempt some of my leveling as Holy rather than Retribution to get a feel for the other spec.

As for my other 80s, I fear they'll just have to go up on the shelf and gather a bit of dust for awhile. I can honestly say that, for the first time since playing this game, I have a character that I want to really stick with, not just so that she levels to 85 quickly, but because the people I play with, the server in general, and the play-style are just awesome and interesting. It's these things that make someone stick with a character, not the character itself, and I'm sad to admit that it's taken me this long to come to that realization.

As much as I hate for Yrovi and Purah to do nothing, Seona and the Emerald Dream server will be coming first in this next xpac. I want to level, I want to gear up, and I want to eventually see some of the content I always think I'll never see: Endgame. I re-rolled in the middle of Wrath, creating Seona and discovering the amazing joy that is roleplay, slowly realizing that this was the game experience that I had been craving all along. Now is the time to really enjoy it.

So, as Seona would say: May the Light keep you safe and bless you in these troubled times.

It's Alive and Well

After a new, clean install of the game client and subsequent patch, World of Warcraft was alive again on my computer. I've been eagerly logging into my characters to redo their talent points and glyphs, and see what's missing and what's needed.

Seona was the first to get looked at. With the talent trees the way they are, now, I'm heavily debating whether my second spec should still be Retribution. Before 4.0, I had one Ret spec that emphasized PvE and another Ret spec that emphasized PvP. It seems a little silly now to do the same thing. For the time being, until I decide if I'd rather be able to tank or heal, or really min-max (which I've never been any good at) for the two environments, my second spec will remain blank. She is, naturally, still mainly Retribution.

In fact, just last night, the Kingship of the East and her allies stormed Orgrimmar and had an epic battle in the streets, all the way through the Drag to Thrall's chamber. It was both awesome and amazing. I'm honestly surprised we didn't crash the server, because it was already on it's knees just with that many players in one spot. Too many abilities going off, too much server lag. In fact, even with the settings turned to Low, all of them, my fps hovered just around 10 or so. Still, most fun I've had in ages. The only unfortunate thing? We were more than one raid, and mine didn't tag Thrall, so I STILL don't have that damn bear. *QQ*

Purah is now a Blood/Frost Death Knight, although since Blood is now a tanking tree and I've never, ever played Frost, I'm feeling a little lost. What little research I've do for various rotations and such just has me more confused, because there's no telling how dated the information is most of the time. With Blood, there are some who say it is effective to run disease-less, but that is so out of the norm... wouldn't the diseases aid in generating threat? Maybe threat generation is easy enough with out them. I'm also still getting used to the idea of dual-wielding for Frost (hello Tankard 'o' Terror and Eternally Folded Blade! What? *shifty-eyes* They were the only one-handed weapons I had... *blush*). He'll need the most work in the upcoming days, because if I thought I had to relearn Retribution, it's nothing compared to learning not one, but TWO new specs.

A bright note is that the Cradle of Filth guild is coming back to life. I have several alts in the guild, and as a (nearly) founding member, it's fun to see some old, friendly faces. Speaking of alts, my troll priest, Eruza, who I haven't touched in ages, is actually up to level 20 now. I specced her as Discipline and couldn't be happier. I might have to seriously look at leveling a healer now, because Disc priest is actually fun.

As for Yrovi, I haven't had a great deal of time to play with her, yet, although I have at least set her Protection spec back in place. Next up will be fury, as I'll remain a dual-wielding, whirl-winding, unstoppable DPS machine (haha, yeah, right... in my gear? ;-p ) for the expansion.

With Hallow's End up and running as well, there is plenty to do each day in between figuring out my toons. I may even have to take a few other alts off the shelf to check them out, dust them off, and see if leveling is less painful now that the talent trees and abilities are good to go.

See you in the world... of warcraft.

Change Has Come... and It Hurts

So.

Patch 4.0.1 destroyed my WoW. I was very excited (like the rest of the world) and was prepared to begin the patching process on Tuesday (like the rest of the world) and started up my launcher and watched the downloader check my patch part 1-3 and download the last bit, and the updater launched and all was good and right with the world... of warcraft.

Well, only 16% was good and right with the world. At 16% of the update for the patch, the updater stopped and asked me for the Cataclysm disc. As much as I wish I have the disc to give you, Mr. Updater, sir, we're SOL on that. So, Cancel that order, please. That conversation ended with Mr. Updater crashing and telling me that it couldn't read some Northrend something-or-other.

Long story short, after trial and error, and redownloading the patch (yes, all 5 GB of it), and still no luck, I gave up, deleted WoW and started fresh. Yes. As I'm writing this, Mr. Updater is going happy at 84%, and I imagine I'll finally get to log in to WoW in another half-hour or so.

That said, I have heard many rumors on the Mac Technical Help forums that the new version of the game does not play nice in terms of graphics, and I may have to turn a whole bunch of settings low in order to play, as well as turning the new water and sunlight graphics off. That's a bit of a shame, but at this point, I'll be glad to just have a working WoW client again.

So, with fingers crossed, I will hope and pray that the Updater continues as normal and finally gives me the deliciousness that is World of Warcraft 4.0.

See you in the World... of Warcraft.

Maybe.

Deathwing is Looming and Change is Coming!

I recently downloaded the PTR client and copied over my three 80's in order to see just what all the fuss was about. It was a good thing I did so, because I discovered a few things, the least of which is having to essentially relearn how to play my Paladin. I mean, I've been trying to get ready for what's coming, even telling myself to be very thrifty so that I can save up for a new computer (not just for Cataclysm, I need one anyway, and now that Cataclysm is coming out in early December, I'll just consider my comp an early X-Mas present to myself). I've been reading blogs like bigredkitty.net, Wow Insider, MMO-Champion, and watching beta videos, mostly from TotalBuiscuit, because he's an angry, ranty, in-the-beta-when-I'm-not, British guy, and, clearly, you can't have too much angry-British-guy. So, on to my revelations from the PTR...

First Thing I Learned From the PTR: I am very dependent on my AddOns. This isn't really that big of a surprise to me, especially since I recently did a complete UI overhaul on Live to get a more organized and visually interesting setup for myself. Why I decided to do this a few months before an expansion is going to essentially break everything, I don't know. I guess I'm a masochist like that. Also, it's been so long since I've used the default UI from Blizzard, that it looks alien to me and made me want to cry in frustration, so I haven't actually really gotten a great deal of practice with any of my level 80's on the PTR just yet.

Second Thing I Learned From the PTR: I am not a fan of the new streaming downloader. I find that I would rather spend the hour or two just downloading the whole thing and then have pretty, faster-loading stuff in game, than to get started right away with a game that looks... glitchy with really bad graphics, and missing NPCs. I swear, it took forever for the important NPCs in Orgrimmar to show up on copy!Purah when I took him there to mess around with the even quests. Basically, I'll do as I've always done and install the whole thing right away, most likely. We'll see how impatient I am once it truly hits. Also, did I mention that the little spinning wheel that turns colors and stuff to indicate what is downloading... it's ugly. I don't like it, and it's right in the center of my screen, like, hardcore. *angry-pouty face*

Third Thing I Learned From the PTR: I will essentially have to relearn how to play my characters. People have been saying this for some time now, and I don't really know why it seemed to have caught me by surprise. Maybe it's because it's one thing to say "Oh, hey, yeah, you'll totally have to relearn how to play your class, because Deathwing is doing more than just giving Azeroth a new facelift in a bad way..." and actually seeing the changes and trying to figure out what the hell abilities you're supposed to use on a regular rotation now. I am actually glad that we aren't GCD locked anymore, although the first-come-first-served mentality wasn't too hard to work with for me. It made playing PvE simple. PvP... well, we won't talk about that.

Fourth Thing I Learned From the PTR: I am going to like the opening event! This isn't really a surprise, I loved the Wrath opening event (unlike all those QQ'ers out there who bitched and moaned about it) and it looks like they've pulled out all the stops on the Cataclysm one. I didn't do a great deal with it, yet, but it looks like fun. Part of me wants to save some stuff for Live, especially since Seona is on an RP server, but the part of the event that is running on the PTR now is exciting and full of action. I think that the only part that may get slightly annoying are the semi-regular earthquakes... but then, earthquakes aren't really meant to be comfortable, right?

Fifth Thing I Learned From the PTR: I have not spent enough time on the PTR. Seriously. I've really only logged into it a couple of times and could really use more time in there getting used to the new abilities, talent builds, glyphs (a few are gone for good, as I noticed some "Charred Glyphs" in copy!Purah's bag... they are vendor trash now), UI enhancements, etc.

Cataclysm is coming, folks. If you haven't been getting ready for the upcoming changes then all I can say is: "YOU ARE NOT PREPARED." Because that joke never gets old, right?

Ding! Level 80

Purah is level 80!

I've been hard at work getting him better gear and enjoying having a third 80 (although his server isn't my favorite... I'm not sure what I'm going to do about that, though). I've run some dungeons at 80 and have managed to get a couple of lucky drops and some quick upgrades via the Auction House and faction vendors.

First and formost, I was most excited to join a random group into the Coliseum at the Argent Tourney grounds. As the only Plate-wearing-DPS on the run, when the Helm of the Violent Fray dropped, I had no competition. Bingo, one meta-socket helm for Purah. This spurred me on to get a few more upgrades, namely so I could buy, socket, and activate a Chaotic Skyflare Diamond into that pretty, winged helmet. I visited the Auction house to buy some strength + hit gems (I'm still woefully under the hit cap, unfortunately...) and a belt buckle, and then traveled around to some vendors that had shiny things to buy.

First stop: The Argent Tourney, and the Silvermoon vendor. As much as I really, REALLY want the Silvermoon two-hander for 25 seals, I can wait a little longer, and instead used up half of my Champion's Seals to buy the Clinch of Savage Fury. I considered buying the necklace that's available there, too, but I think I'll wait just a little longer. I mean, I REALLY want that sword, and it'll take a few more days to get it, the way I get seals (i.e. slowly).

Second stop (after a few more quests): The Shadow Vault. As a Death Knight, I had a slight head start to my reputation, and finishing up the quest lines for Darkrider Arly at the Fleshworks, along with a couple for the Bone Witch, and I was Revered with Purah's true faction. I immediately visited in order to get a Runeblade of Demonstrable Power (to tide me over till I get the Argent Tourney sword of awesome) and the Arcanum of Torment to put on my helm.

It's a start. I still need more hit. A lot more hit, and I'm really sad that I can't put a Titanium Weapon Chain on my sword along with my runeforging. I love the weapon chain. *Pouts* I got a couple other items while I was running errands for the Ebon Blade, and it's possible I can pop a few more +Hit gems onto my gear. I keep thinking that I just need to run some more of the Level 80 dungeons, though. I don't want to even try Heroics until I'm at hit cap. I don't feel it's fair to other players to come under-geared and expect to be carried through the content (plus expect to be allowed to loot), much less have some healer blow mana on trying to keep me alive in content I'm not technically ready for (and yes, I know that Blizzard has a gear check for Heroics, but, seriously, I'm nicer to other players than that).

Oh, and by some luck of the draw, Je'Tze's Bell dropped for me as well during my questing for the EB. I'll pop it up on the Auction House soon enough and see if I can't get some gold to cover all my upgrade expenses.

Long Time, No See 3

So, almost seven months have passed since my last post. That's a long time. Thankfully I'm still happily employed, living a pretty sweet life, and overall having a good time.

World of Warcraft definitely took a back seat for about two months during that time, where I essentially didn't play at all. Some characters got deleted, for example, though none that I've mentioned on the blog, I don't think, and I've moved my focus away from Seona for awhile.

In fact, since I had a Warrior at 80, and a Paladin at 80, I thought to myself, why not just round out the set and get one of your Death Knights to 80 as well? That way, we'd have one of each of the Plate-wearing classes, and you'll really be able to say that you're a fan of the heavy-armor-wearers. So I did.

Well, almost. Purah, my Blood Elf Death Knight, is level 79.5 and getting closer and closer to 80. The Brewfest holiday helped a little, and the Argent Crusade's tournament, along with the ever-wonderful random instance tool. While questing is great and all, I've done most of the Icecrown quests twice now and am getting tired of doing them again. So Purah is getting his Blood-DPS out of his system while he still can.

I'm not 100% sure what I'll do in Cataclysm. In those many months since I last posted, more information had come out about the next expansion, including the change for Death Knights to have defined trees like all the other classes. It means that if Purah is going to stay a Blood Death Knight, he'll need to be a tank. I'm not sure how I feel about that, honestly. He's been Blood DPS since I created his first incarnation in the Wrath Beta testing, and I've never tanked on a Death Knight before.

The main reason I stopped tanking with Yrovi is because it wasn't fun. It was stressful, because I wasn't terribly good at it, and you're expected to run the group as the tank. You're expected to know the fights, and the route to take in the dungeon, and to set the pace. It's a lot of responsibility. On top of all that, I don't consider myself to be the best tank ever, which just makes me nervous.

However, that said, I think that Blizzard has made it easier than ever to allow someone to learn to tank. The anonymity of the random group generation makes it so that if I screw up on one run, it isn't the end of the world. So maybe, just maybe, I'll tank again in Cataclysm... and this time on both Yrovi and Purah. I'll miss Blood DPS, though, that's for sure. I mean, how can you not love a DPS machine that ends every single fight at over 85% health, no problem?

But after such a long hiatus, I think I'm ready to get back in the game. I'll see you in the world... of Warcraft.

Footnote: I've never really had just -great- luck in-game, but today as a total exception, I think. Not only did I get Purah to level 79 with a 5-man group that was just freaking awesome (thank you so much Bléaksoul of Kirin Tor and Jovencita of Dethecus, in particular!!), but Purah went ahead and did a quick random group-up for Coren Direbrew, the Brewfest holiday boss, and got the Brewfest Ram AND the Remote! The first time I've done the fight on this character, and he gets one of the rare, epic mounts. Couldn't believe my eyes. After learning it, I felt really obligated to get the achievement and the title as well, since it was silly for him to get the mount in the first place (unlike Yrovi and Seona, who have small collections, I've kept Purah pretty sparse in terms of extra little goodies, not even teaching him the Celestial Mount that I bought). So I managed to earn enough tokens to get the Brew of the Month club and now Brewmaster Purah can run around on his ram whenever he likes.

Long Time, No See 2

The new year has started fairly well, as I'm finally re-employed and enjoying my new job. Unfortunately, I have far less time to play WoW (not that less time stops me from playing anyway, I just get a bit less accomplished...). As it is, my alt-oholism is still going strong, and I've even created new characters that I actually play on a regular basis.

Kiaandra is a female, Draenei mage on my main server, Emerald Dream. I decided to level as a fire mage, and it's been a blast (LOL Seewhatididthere?). Unfortunately, she's had trouble in the guild she initially joined/bad RP experience and I lost a bit of interest in her. The cloth heirloom shoulders I bought for her, got sent to a Horde character I made on the server instead, and she's officially gone on hold, for now.

Eivor is a female, Orc shaman on my main server, and is the second recipient of the leveling shoulders, once I realized Blizz had finally fixed one mistake to their heirloom gear and allowed you to at least mail them to opposite faction characters on the same server. Unfortunately, I'm quickly discovering that the Shaman class just isn't really for me, I think. I've tried before with shamans and never stick to them much past level 20 or so... I might try again after Cataclysm, when other races can become shaman. Luckily those shoulders won't go to waste, as any character can use them (In fact, they've been handed off again, though I'll say to whom later...).

Bracc is a male, Blood Elf rogue on a normal RP server (wanted to get away from PvP for awhile, though it's weird to not have to worry about being ganked all the time), as I wanted to experience Horde-side roleplay. He's in a guild there which seems to be pretty decent (though no in-guild RP to speak of, yet), and I'm still feeling out whether or not he'll ever be successful in RP, although I should think events happen on the server all the time... I just have to find them. He's nearly level 30, and I'm loving him, as I went Subtlety, rather than Combat as I've done with every other rogue I've made. Honestly, I think that is the main reason I lost interest with other rogues... I followed the cookie-cutter spec and leveling guide rather than just doing what I wanted.

My RL friend and I have continued leveling characters together, and I think she's even figuring out just what character she wants to have as her main to somewhat focus on (she's as bad of an alt-oholic as I am), though it seems to currently be a toss up between her priest and her warrior. I'm leaning towards my hunter (Auryonn) and my death knight (Saronite) on our server, but that can always change. Her favorite part of the game is leveling her professions, and she's a bit frustrated that Blizzard has put in level restrictions on learning the higher ranks.

Her Nelf priest is a Tailor/Enchanter and her Human warrior is a Miner/Blacksmith. She loves tailoring (and the fact that she can make bags is a huge plus) but she has to be level 50 to continue her professions and she's currently only at level 43. Those seven levels are going to come far too slow for her taste, I think. I'll use my DK to run her through some dungeons, like Maraudon, maybe, to speed up the process. Bet she's wishing we had focused more on these characters back when we still had the 3x XP buff from Recruit-a-Friend...

Oh, and, now that I'm employed again and getting paid money on a regular basis (or will be, once I get my first paycheck), I decided to celebrate by paying for a character transfer. My very first main, my beloved hunter, who has gone through so much, has been moved over to my main server. Polomah, as she's now known (formerly Baress, then Poloma) is making her permanent home on Emerald Dream. My plans with her are fairly simple: get her to 80 and figure out some kind of professions for her, as right now she only has skinning.

She's currently hanging out in the Outlands, in Hellfire Peninsula, at level 60. Her gear is more or less fixed, thanks to all the quest drops there, and her pets are being leveled up as she goes about her business (she has a bear, a raptor, and a wolf). I really need to get her into some dungeons, but not until I get used to being a hunter again... man, Blizzard, please condense hunter abilities! This is overwhelming, seriously! The biggest problem I have with her is the fact that she has practically NO gold to speak of. I think she has around 35 gold total, which just isn't enough to get anything done. I think I'll go on a skinning spree one day and just farm like crazy, but now you can see why she needs the professions.

Skinning is great, but there is really only one profession it is paired with, and that's leatherworking. I don't want her to be a leatherworker. My eventual worgen rogue, Loem, is going skinning/LW, so I don't want a second (Oh, yeah, did I mention that I'd love to change Polomah's faction when Cataclysm hits? I'd really like her to go human, I think. If I don't faction change her, then it's a different story...). I could just do some gathering professions for quick gold. Tauren have an herbalism racial and those 10 points at least get her to earthroot almost immediately. If Seona weren't an engineer, I'd do that, but I'm not power-leveling that again.

Regardless, I've been busy, even if I haven't posted here. Hopefully I'll find more time to do this more often. :)

Happy New Year!!!

It's 2010!!

I celebrated with family, with German food, music, and wine. I laughed and talked about the previous year, and made my resolutions. As much as I probably should have, no, I didn't make a resolution to spend less time playing WoW.

Well, not directly, anyway. I suppose my other resolutions of walking my two dogs (twice a day, every day), learning how to play my guitar (that's been gathering dust for about a year), and finding a job might actually take away premium play time.

I hope your new years celebrations went well, and I wish everyone the best of luck and lots of joy in the new year!

Long Time, No See

I haven't posted in ages... mostly because I'm unemployed.

Being unemployed sucks. Seriously.

That said, I'm still playing WoW, just not like I used to. Eventually money will get too tight to play, but right now I still feel that $15 a month is totally worth it. Unlimited entertainment for that price is hard to come by anywhere else.

My main has been on a short hiatus, though, as I've been playing with a RL friend of mine through the recruit-a-friend program (hooray for a free month AND a sweet zhevra mount). We didn't get any of our characters to level 60, but we got two pairs to level 40 and another pair to level 20. She's also sufficiently addicted to the game, so we'll play together even after the RaF super experience is done. Hopefully she still enjoys the game, even without leveling every couple of hours. ;)

PTR: Interesting Patch for Newbies

I was reading the patch notes for the current PTR build (thanks to wow.com) and have to totally agree that new characters are getting it easy. Not that I mind, of course, as a dedicated altoholic, these changes make me very happy. What really caught my eye, though, was the change to new rogues, as I'm definitely planning on rolling a Worgen rogue when the option finally comes around.

While Blizzard is definitely making it easier in general for new toons, like standardizing stats, handing out basic weaponry (in this case mostly 2-handers, aside from shamans, who get a 1-hander and a shield), and reducing the chance for a newbie to get dazed (From level 1-5, you'll never get dazed; levels 6-10 it's a greatly reduced chance.), there was a change specific to rogues that I totally agree with and love: twin daggers.

New rogues, once this patch goes live, will log in, at level 1, already knowing how to dual wield and will have two daggers equipped. All I can say is: "It's about freaking time, Blizz." The whole point of a rogue, in my opinion, is dual wielding daggers. I mean, it's the class's signature! Yet every rogue I see is dual wielding swords for the most part, until much higher levels. I hope that they also do more to make leveling with daggers more interesting/possible. Early quests nearly never have good daggers as rewards, and most of the early dungeons don't drop them readily. There is the one from the rogue quest, but it's unique eqipped so you can't have two.

If Blizzard developers can make those improvements with Cataclysm/the next patch then I'll be a very happy camper. It might even make me take another look at one of my rogues, like Untainted, while I wait for the next expansion.

Hooray 80!

Seona just dinged 80!

It's exciting. I have a screenshot for momento, kept Ronin's letter in Gryphonheart Items, and am totally ready to become a true retribution paladin. That means gear.

Unfortunately, I haven't found a gear guide for fresh level 80 retribution paladins. When Yrovi dinged 80, there were tons of places I could go to see a list of crafted/easy to get gear to get to the defense minimum. For dps, though, it appears the only criteria is get hit capped. :/

So, I guess I'll be doing some research and figuring out just what kind of gear I need and can get easily for a Retribution paladin with a focus on PvE.

----------

Okay, info goes here:

According to this post by Svirve on the Wowhead forums...

Retribution specific "caps"
Hit: 8% or 263 hit rating
Hit(PVP): 5% or 164 hit rating
32.79 hit rating per 1%

Spell hit: 17% or 446 hit rating
Spell hit (PVP): 4% or 105 hit rating
26.23 hit rating per 1%

Spell Penetration: 0%

Armor Penetration: 100% or 1340 armor penetration rating
13.99 armor penetration rating per 1%

Expertise(PARRY): 60 expertise skill or 492 expertise rating
Expertise(DODGE): 26 expertise skill or 214 expertise rating
32.79 expertise rating per 1% | 8.2 expertise rating per expertise skill | 1 expertise skill per 0.25%

That's a decent start. I absolutely must have my hit at 8% so I can perhaps find some gear that has sockets and gem for it.

One To Go and Plus One

Seona is at level 79. I'm actually really excited because this will be my second toon to level cap, and this time I know for a fact I won't get burned out. Seona's guild is big enough to keep me busy regardless of what I'm doing. On top of that, the roleplay opportunities abound, always, so each time I log in it's something fresh and new.

For example, a member of the guild did a very moving and interesting "sermon" for the guild on Sunday, followed by a pilgrimage to Uther's Tomb. I was actually touched, emotionally, by the words, especially since other members of the guild also got up and spoke (from their character's point of view, of course) which gave the whole thing a very "kumbaya" feeling. Seona listened intently, and so did I, as the whole thing gave me just one more way to understand the other characters in the group, along with the people behind the characters.

Real life has been interesting as well, with a new addition to my little family: Conner. He's a border collie mix I adopted today from a city pound. He had been running around my neighborhood for a couple days and was crashing for the night on front doorsteps; he's a real vagabond. When he crashed on my doorstep, though, we brought him inside, but ended up taking him to the city shelter in the hopes that any worried family that might be looking for him would finally be able to get him back.

Unfortunately, his family didn't come looking for him, or, if they did, they weren't really trying that hard, because he stayed in the pound for a week. I had checked in on him occasionally, as I didn't want him put to sleep, and decided that I'd adopt him. Yesterday was the initial visit, and the time when I told them I was interested in adopting. They got him ready for me by getting him to a vet for vaccinations, altering, and a heartworm test, and I was able to pick him up today.

He'll still need to go see my veterinarian, especially since my other dog is up for a vet visit as well, for a checkup, but all-in-all he's a sweet dog. I'm glad I got him out of the shelter before they euthanized him.

Remember to spay and neuter your pets to help keep pet population down so fewer animals have to be put to sleep in your city shelters and Adopt, Don't Shop! Buying puppies from pet stores only keeps puppy mills in business!

Dalaran

Seona, finally level 74, has made it to Dalaran. On Yrovi, it was this amazing, beautiful city that was entirely new and shiny and convenient. On Seona, however, it's laggy, crowded, and slow, though still pretty convenient, thanks to all those portals. The reason? I don't play on my parent's iMac anymore, just my 3-year-old MacBook Pro. On top of that, I recently upgraded to Mac OS 10.6, aka Snow Leopard, and I'm now getting some nasty graphics issues.

At first I thought my graphics problems were due to the upgrade, of course, since before installing Snow Leopard I was fine. Did a search on the official forums, in the Mac Troubleshooting area and found out that my problem was probably heat/hardware related. Totally true story, since my MacBook Pro runs crazy hot, always has. The small strip of metal right above the keyboard on my laptop gets hot enough to burn my fingers sometimes. So, after reading a few blue replies I downloaded some free software to control the fans inside my machine. It made an immediate difference of about 20 degrees and I can literally feel the difference. If my graphics issues were truly due only to heat, then this may have fixed it.

Obviously I won't know until later today, as it's Tuesday, and we all know that Tuesday means maintenance day. I'm glad for the break, actually, as I feel like I need to resort out my priorities and get some stuff done in RL, like updating my resume, doing some laundry, etc. On top of that, a couple of days ago, while visiting my parents, we were sort of "chosen" by a stray dog in the neighborhood. My mom is a total animal lover, so she brought him in the house and let him hang out with our dogs. We couldn't keep him at the time, plus his owners might be looking for him, so I took him to the shelter down the street. I checked their website and today is the day he becomes "available", I'm assuming for adoption, so I need to find out how long the city keeps a dog up for adoption before euthanizing. He was too sweet to allow something like that to happen, and I have plenty of room here, though my dog may get a bit jealous.

If nothing else, I'll get him into a non-kill shelter. Hooray for my good deed of the day, right?

Long Time, No Update

Wow. It's been awhile. You'd think I would have plenty of time to update this thing, but I end up spending all my extra time in WoW or doing chores... imagine that. In any case, I've been playing. Seona is in her low 70s and I've been messing around with a couple of my alts for fun, namely Leodry of Lordaeron and Brother Fandren.

Leodry of Lordaeron (Human Warrior - Emerald Dream RP-PvP) is at level 21 and is currently hanging out in the Wetlands, happy to be of some service to the dwarves of Ironforge. Eventually his (and his brother's) story will be up on my other blog, Ink & Blood. Still, I'm hoping to get him to level 80 before Cataclysm hits store shelves next year. It should be doable, provided I get Seona to 80 and running heroics/earning champion's badges/tokens/etc. for that lovely heirloom gear. With 20% extra experience, it should be cake.

Brother Fandren is, you guessed it a priest (Human - also Emerald Dream). He's slowly leveling himself up, currently at level 16, and is the second time I've considered leveling a priest (the first was the lovely Eruza, a troll on Gul'dan that, while still in existence, definitely doesn't hold my interest). I'm leveling him as shadow, naturally, as any other way borders on severe masochism. So far, so good, but it's slow going. I'm so used to plate-wearers that leveling a squishy clothie is more than different... it's actually quite difficult.

Seriously. The highest-leveled characters I have are a Warrior and a Paladin (not to mention a couple Death Knights). Notice that they all wear the heaviest armor class in the game and my warrior was even a tank, complete with 540+ defense. Being able to take a few hits before worrying about my hit points has been a typical aspect of my playstyle for a long, long time. Every time I try to level up a class that wears cloth, I get terribly frustrated due to the flimsy nature of the toon. I've had a Mage - got bored by the time she hit level 15. I've had a Warlock - never managed to break level 20. I'm finally retrying a Priest, but he's definitely more of a "hey, I have free time and don't feel like smashing faces in with Seona so let's go do some leveling in Westfall" kind of character.

Still, now that I've figured out some tactics and have a decent wand from enchanting, I think I might be able to stick with this guy. At least till level 20. ;)

P.S. I also finally managed to Recruit-a-Friend with an actual friend of mine who lives far away. It's both a great way to spend some time together (talking over Skype) and getting her addicted to this wonderful game we all love. She's running a Shaman and I've rolled a Druid for the flexibility (hooray healing/tanking/dps'ing!). She's only got the trial and we've already managed to get to level 16 with just a few hours of messing around. That 3x experience is crazy-insane good. I couldn't have imagined just how fast you eat through the levels this way, and while she isn't sure she'll be buying the game, I'm temped to get at least vanilla for her to expand our playing for a month. $20 for a great way to spend time with her doing something I really love? Yes, please.

Faction Change Now Available

Wow. Didn't see this coming this fast.

Faction Changes are now here and ready to go. FAQ can be found here. Very cool, as I've been thinking about moving Poloma, my tauren hunter, over to ED and changing her to a draenei. Blizzard has made the service pretty simple and straightforward, it looks like. The biggest drawback, though, is the cost.

Good gracious-bodacious, $30? And it doesn't include the server transfer. That's hefty. $55 for a full transfer and faction change is too much, especially for me right now due to RL woes. I mean, that's crazy-expensive. Of course, plenty of people will use the service regardless, so the price probably won't come down anytime soon. I guess that means Poloma will be staying dormant for awhile longer.

Otherwise, though, my World of Warcraft life is peachy-keen. Seona is rolling right along in Northrend. The story is fantastic, the quests are fun, and the gear is good. Her 2H Sword skill is up over 320 so she's not missing every single time, although I've got to see what I can do about getting her a decent 2H Mace for the racial bonus.

On top of that, Ziir has about 20 mails full of Outland greens and leather from Seona's swift romp through those zones. I'm going to take the time tomorrow to get it all sorted out and put up on the AH in order to make some more gold. Hopefully the greens will be bought up by enchanters or something (One day I'll have an enchanter so I can shard all this stuff, but damn, it takes forever to level that profession...).

I popped over to Leodry this morning to check on him (the beginning of his story is up on my other blog...) and he's doing okay. His mining and blacksmithing are at the same level (around 120) and all the gear he's making is at his current level. I'd love to be able to continue that all the way to 80, though that might become difficult if/when he gets the heirloom gear. Right now he's in all "rough bronze" stuff, very dashing, very nice to look at since it matches. I've got him as arms right now, but I'm wondering if that's the best route to take.

I've heard that the best way to go as arms is with Poleaxe specialization, adding damage to axes and polearms. Human's get an expertise bonus with maces and swords, though, and I'd rather go a more RP route with him than min/max. The current plan (once he gets that far along) is to go sword specialization and have him always carry a giant 2H Sword of Doom.

I've also considered leveling him through PvP, but the experience gains in Warsong Gulch are terrible and his survivability right now is pretty poor. I was hoping to do this at least until Seona hit 80 and could get that badge gear. I might try again with Arathi Basin in about 10 levels, as the experience gain there is much, much better. I was planning to do this with my hunter, but discovered a huge flaw in that plan... the pet doesn't level with you, just you. So, hunters are actually screwed a bit by pure PvP leveling.

Still, it'll be fun. I want Leodry's story to really come out over the next year as he slowly levels from 18 (where he's at now) to 80 in time for the Cataclysm. Seona will be 80 in a couple weeks, at the current rate, so she'll be busy with endgame stuff, earning badges and, hopefully, finally seeing the raids.

Northrend, At Last

Seona has finally made her way into Northrend.

The best part: she ding'd level 68 on the quest from Toshley's station that flings you over the terrain. It was both fun and productive! As soon as she hit 68 I hearthed to Shattrath, then took the portal to Stormwind. Seona emptied her bags and her quest log, ready for a totally new start in the cold North.

It's funny, how excited I was, even though I've seen Northrend before on Yrovi. I've even taken a quick jump up there on Seona for profession training. The Alliance quest-lines are totally different from the Horde ones, and on top of that, I did Howling Fjord the first time around on Yrovi, so Seona did well landing in the Borean Tundra. She's already uncovered the work of the Cult of the Damned, is helping a woman find her brother, and feels like a total hero. I mean, the people here know my name! It's exciting!

As great as it is, though, I've got to set aside some time to level up my professions. My skinning is fine, as it has to be the easiest gathering profession to level, but my mining, cooking and fishing are all in desperate need of an update. I managed to get First Aid leveled up as well, and used up the rest of my Netherweave to create heavy bandages to sell for the little bit of extra gold. It'll take a great deal of time to level these professions, though, so I better look for some guides.

Mining will take the longest, unfortunately, but there are tons of guides out there for it, complete with maps. It really just requires tons of patience and the willingness to run around the same zone a few times ad nauseam. Much as that sucks, it has to be done. I went through all of Outlands without being able to mine, and that's just stupid.

Cooking and Fishing go hand in hand, and El's Anglin' has a great guide to level them both together. Plus, fishing is much less terrible to level now than it used to be. It's still not what I'd call "fun" but I have some lures stashed somewhere that'll help. Cooking is just a good skill to have, for the buff food more than anything else. I remember leveling it up on Yrovi, and it's doable.

Still, leveling mining, cooking and fishing will take hours, and some of it may have to wait until she's 80. Mining takes priority, for the gold-making aspect. I mean, I eventually want her to have epic flying and she'll need to buy cold-weather flying when she hits level 77. Doable, but the more gold I have, the better it is.

Oh, one other thing... Seona got a brand new weapon from one of the first quests she did. The only problem? It's a sword. Great! You're probably saying. Sword's are cool. Yes, they are, but I hadn't had Seona use a two-handed sword since her 20's. Her skill was so low, it was embarrassing. Lucky for me, paladins are so damn hard to kill and powerful against the undead, because for a while she was straight up missing her target. I think she'll be okay now, since I finally stuck with it and got her 2H Sword skill up over 300 points, but, man that sucked.

I hope Blizzard looks at the way we level up our weapon skills after they finish messing with fishing. It needs something to make it suck less. Maybe let us level our skill up on a training dummy... that would make logical sense, right? *sigh*

Extended Maintenance

Emerald Dream (RP-PvP), Seona's server, has extended maintenance today. Supposedly, it will help with the "Additional instances cannot be launched" issue that I know plagues us, as the Kingship has actually had characters RP'ing the fact they can't get into dungeons. I realized that I've had this issue only once, for Shadowfang Keep.

It was back when Seona was working on getting Verigan's Fist. Part of that is going into various old-world dungeons for materials. Shadowfang Keep was one of these and I ran Seona all the way there. This was months ago, mind, and I was ready to go in there and kick butt solo to get to the stables, and sure enough I jumped into the instance only to get that error. It was the first time I had ever seen it, I was in enemy territory, and I was only about level 27 or something. Maybe level 30. It wasn't a huge deal, though, because one or two jumps later and I was in and I didn't give it another thought.

I can't imagine what people are doing now. I guess it's just as well that I don't bother to run older instances for gear since I level fast anyway and the greens are perfectly acceptable for what I do. Questing is serious business, amirite? Exactly. Northrend Greens will blow what I've got on right now out of the water anyway. I intend to slow down just a bit in Northrend, but not by much. Part of it will be sightseeing, but the other part will be for the story. I haven't seen the Alliance side of it, yet, and supposedly we get to witness Arthas's change in all its glory. It's something I want to savor.

And, in true altoholic form, as soon as Seona is level 80, I'll be working on another toon: Leodry. If you check my other blog (Ink & Blood, my fanfic site) soon, you'll see the beginning of his story, along with another toon that will premier after Cataclysm goes live. I revamped his history, changed it up a bit, making Leodry the younger of two brothers whose story starts during the Second War.

I figure I have just over a year to get Leo to 80. Should be cake, especially with Seona eventually at 80 and getting badges for heirloom gear. Hopefully I'll be able to deck Leo out in both the shoulders and the chest. Each part (for PvE) is 40 emblems or 60 champion seals. That's interesting. It means that I could just deck them out without having to begrudge Seona her own badge gear. She'll definitely be jousting for seals, so there shouldn't be any problems.

Look at me, all excited again. God, I love this game.

One More Season to Northrend

Seona hit level 67 yesterday, plus a couple bubbles more. At this rate, I'll get to Northrend early this week. Although the leveling is still going quickly, I've definitely felt the steeper slope to get to the next level. I was blazing through levels while in Zangarmarsh and Terrokar Forest. I thought for sure Nagrand would take me to level 68, or at least very close, but it only just got me to level 67 on quests I could solo.

Seona did manage to finish the Nesingwary quests, including the Ultimate Bloodsport, earning the Hills Like White Elekk achievement. Hopefully all those skins and leather will sell for a pretty penny... uh... copper, I mean. While I had to burn some cooldowns, as a ret paladin I was able to take out all the elite beasts required solo. Some good luck happened, too, as I got a Sheath of Light proc on a Lay on Hands, healing me for tons afterwards on the Elekk. I'm pretty sure that alone let me solo her. Still, managed okay, and got my first libram. While not terribly helpful for me as retribution, if I ever have to do some quick healing it'll come in handy. I'll replace it quickly enough in Grizzly Hills with the Venture Coin reward.

She also did the Ogre quests that deal with that half Draenei, half orc Blademaster. Thanks to that quest chain, she got a new polearm. And, believe it or not, Seona's racial made finding the armaments and such things really easy. I know people scoff at that dwarf racial, but I wonder just how many people bother to use it? Probably no one, since it's so obviously terrible. I mean, it's not amazing, but it's helped me several times now. In Zangarmarsh, in Nagrand, and now in Blade's Edge. Great all the time? No. Situationally helpful. Definitely. Hopefully it'll come into bigger play with Catatclysm and the new Archeology secondary profession. It makes sense to do so, but Blizz sometimes doesn't make sense. Plus, I found some chests for extra silver and food. There are a couple scattered thinly in Nagrand.

So, new loot, new achievements, new area, and less than a level to go till 68. While I really should be worrying about some real life issues, this is fun. And, honestly, fun is good.