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.

"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.

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.

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 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.

Renewed Vigor

Although I've been feeling under the weather (yuck, Bronchitis), I've still managed to spend some time in game (sick days ftw?). Seona has finally scraped together enough gold to purchase flight training, and has bought a beautiful golden gryphon to carry her all over Outlands. She's named him Zephyr. Caliburn is a little jealous, I think. She also hit level 64, which means only four levels to go until Northrend.

Having a flying mount at level 60+ instead of 70 has completely changed the leveling dynamic in Outlands. Several of the quests can be easily completed just by flying to the point, especially if it is a quest that requires you to go find an item and bring it back to the quest-giver. What? You need me to go get the eyes of the Skettis? Sure, no problem, let me just fly on over and pick those up for you... It makes it almost too easy, and I begin to see what some of the purists complain about. Still, I find it nice, seeing as my only goal at this point is to reach level cap and begin joining the guild in even more events.

She's also firmly out of Hellfire Peninsula. Most of her current quests are located in Zangarmarsh, which is fine by me, as it's got to be one of my favorite zones in the game. It's calm, and beautiful, and serene. The music (when I have it playing) is also quite nice. The little Spore people are also adorable and I don't mind helping them in the least. It's just a great place to level and explore in general for me. Nagrand is next and it's my second favorite in Outlands. The sky is what makes Nagrand so pretty. All-in-all, I think what makes leveling through Outlands so terrible for people - and why they complain about it so loudly - is Hellfire Peninsula. if you can just get through that Orange place, you'll be fine. The rest just... flows.

With the increased speed to leveling, a flying mount, and rested experience, Seona should make level 68 in no time. Northrend is waiting, and since I did it once already, albeit with a Horde character, I think I'll be fine.

3 Down 1 To Go

Last night, after deciding that I'd only get on for about an hour or so do do a bit of questing before going to bed, I somehow ended up with several new achievements. And they're achievements I never thought I'd get on Seona at this point in her existence. The Kingship decided to retaliate against the terrible Horde last night, and made a run on their leaders.

Seona was able to tag along (and trust me, at only level 62, that's all I was able to do) and the group (more or less full raid of 40) managed to get three of the four bosses down. Lady Sylvanas fell first in Undercity, then Lor'themar was taken out, and finally Cairne was downed. By this time, however, the Horde was able to regroup and it made killing Thrall impossible. To be fair, we did leave the hardest boss for last, and it showed. Naturally they carried me all the way, but I did what I could to help, stomping totems for example and helping summon people. Of the three achievements, I got two of them while dead. Still, it was a great fight and a ton of fun. Even better, I upped my Honorable Kill count, earning the achievement for 100 HKs.

What I love about the Kingship is their honor and compassion. We were unwilling to leave anyone behind after the wipe. I felt real kinship and strength with them. What's even more exciting is the fact that I know we'll go after Thrall again in the near future. There's always an excuse to get retribution on the Horde, and killing Thrall is a great way to do so. Hopefully next time they go for him, I won't be a level 62 just along for the ride. I mean, I hope to at least be level 70. ;)

Midsummer: Alliance Flames

Yrovi finished Outlands this morning for the Midsummer festival and immediately headed back to the old world to extinguish a few more fires. The Alliance fires in the Blasted Lands, Duskwood, and Westfall were soon put out. She then headed into Elwynn forest. She was there, you know? She figured a quick jump into the Alliance city of Stormwind wouldn't be an issue. She just wanted to steal their flame.

Yrovi rode straight through the front gates of the city, past some rather bewildered-looking guards, through the trade district to the canals, and made a beeline for the fire. Thanks to being uncrittable (hooray defense!) she was never dazed or dismounted. That was so easy, she decided to take care of a couple more while she had time.

No mount now, due to being in combat, she ran on foot to the docks and took the boat to Auberdine. The guards were pretty pissed at her at this point, but she just let them hit her a few times. She figured they had some personal issues and just needed an outlet. Once the boat docked in Kalimdor, she hopped over to the Auberdine fire, then back to the docks to take the boat to Teldrassil. Boom, another fire done, and she was able to get back to the boat before it left her on the giant Nelf tree-island.

Back in Auberdine, she boarded the boat to Azuremyst and ran down into the bowels of the Exodar. This early in the morning - aw, hell, anytime really - the Exodar was deserted. Aside from the guards (who were little more than an annoyance, even when about 6 or 7 were beating on her), she didn't see a soul and was able to steal the flame without issue. At this point, she ran out of the city and hearthed to Dalaran. As simple as all that was, she'll hit Ironforge tomorrow morning, probably. All four flames, and they'll be done in less than an hour total, if all goes well.

I love being uncrittable. :D

Midsummer: Flying Around Outlands

I decided to log onto Yrovi for a few quick minutes this morning before work. Turns out she has a great deal less accomplished for Midsummer than I thought. The only achievement she's completed from last year was Honoring the Flames of the Eastern Kingdoms. Frankly, that sucks. I have less than a week to complete the meta or I'll have to wait till this time next year to get the purple proto-drake. That's just unfortunate, to be honest.

She was hanging out with the fel-orcs in Shadowmoon Valley, still in the process of getting that Netherdrake, so I decided to take a quick spin around Outland to take care of that part of the achievement right away. Turns out it's not so bad on an epic flyer. I was able to get Shadowmoon, Terrokar, Nagrand, and Zangarmarsh in about 20 minutes, both honoring and the extinguishing the flames in those zones. I had to stop on my way to blade's edge, but I'll get there again after I do some packing tonight.

That's right, I'm moving into my house this weekend, more specifically Friday. I feel stressed, though, because I haven't packed nearly enough. Well, at least the furniture will be there and the empty house will start feeling like a real home again. 'Till then, though, I'll have to squeeze playtime in when I can. Thankfully Yrovi has plenty of fast mounts to get her where she's going.

Kalimdor and Northrend are still on the list, as well as taking out Ahune and buying all the clothes... which actually means I'll have to do all the flames to have enough blossoms... Plus she needs to steal the fires of the Alliance cities... Oh, man, I thought I had more done than this. I'll really have to hurry up if I want to take care of this meta this year. D:

That's just all kinds of unfortunate.

Midsummer: Time to Play With Fire

The Midsummer Fire Festival has arrived yet again in Azeroth. Fires blaze up all over the world, each faction paying homage to the fire spirits. The Horde and Alliance each visit their own faction's fires... and desecrate the fires of the opposite faction. One of the longer holidays of the year, this will run through July 5th, giving both my mains plenty to do.

In fact, Yrovi will finally get dusted off again after about two weeks of inactivity. Her motivations are purely for the achievement. She still needs all the Outland fires and Northrend ones, of course, along with several other items she wasn't able to get to last year due to being under-level. When she completes them all, she'll be one Meta-achievement closer to the mega-meta.

Seona, on the other hand, will no doubt approach this holiday very differently. For one, this is a major holiday, so no doubt there will be truckloads of roleplay to participate in. Secondly, this holiday is pretty much run exclusively through quests. Quests = experience, so that makes me a happy panda. In fact, the pacifist has already said that he's gained about four levels already and he hasn't completed everything, yet. He's in his mid-fifties. With Seona only in the Forties, this means she might make level 50+ with this holiday alone. That would make me jump for all kinds of joy, especially since leveling has been slower lately. As an added bonus, I can dance at the ribbon pole for the Ribbon Dance buff, giving me 10% extra experience!

I'm trying to keep to certain areas, mainly the Eastern Kingdoms, and plan to take Seona to the plaguelands ASAP, since the Argent Dawn is there, and it's a leveling Paladin's paradise. It's been difficult getting there, though, due to a sudden lack of quests (well, aside from Booty Bay... ugh.) I had hoped the Hinterlands would offer more, but no luck there. It seems I've run through quite a lot of the quests there, maybe all of the ones Alliance-only (I know there is a robot chicken escort quest out there, but I can't find the stupid chicken...).

If the holiday delivers, though, I'll be able to blaze past the next few levels. Seona is currently at level 44. With only six levels to go until 50, I think I can actually make it to Outland by the end of the holiday. That would be amazing. The next major patch will bring lots of increased leveling tricks with it as well. At this rate, Seona will be in Northrend in no time at all.

The Noble, Children's Week, and Arthas

Last night, Yrovi officially became "Yrovi the Noble" when she managed to find a lovely female dwarf sitting outside Dalaran. Naturally, she had been waiting ever so patiently outside the Alliance area for quite some time (dressed up all pretty, with a cozy fire, and egg basket, and flowers) before giving up and running to Ironforge to attempt to find one in it's natural habitat. The guards were rather upset with this idea, naturally, and alerted several other Alliance members. She did meet a rather cute gnome outside, though. I warned her not to play with her food, but she was in a good mood, and still sated from eating all those chocolates from the day before, so he survived the encounter, even when flagged for combat. She gave up when even the great home of the dwarven race had no females and hearthed back to Dalaran after exploring the area. Right outside the bank, pretty as you please, calmly sitting on her ram, was a lady dwarf. I laughed heartily, for at least a few minutes. So, that took care of Shake Your Bunny-Maker.

A short trip to Brill and a flurry of egg finding produced the 100 chocolates needed to purchase a bunny from the nice belf there, which then resulted in Yrovi taking the quick trips needed to the various starting areas. They all had plenty of others with bunnies, waiting patiently, and within no time Spring Fling was taken care of as well, which was the last thing needed. Thus, Yrovi became Noble, and is one step closer to a lovely purple drake, something she desperately wants as she'll be unable to get such a magnificent, speedy, flying beast any other way (yeah, never going to do arena).

Of course, "finishing" Noblegarden only draws attention to next week's event: Children's Week. Children's Week happens to be one of my favorite world events, as the little kids are so very adorable. Last year at this time, I wasn't a high enough level to go to Outland (I think I was around level 40, only just on a mount), so I was only able to participate in the original version, with a little orc child. I'm not complaining, though, as I loved every minute of it. Of course, it means I'm 3x more excited this year as I can do the original, the one in Outland, and the new one for Northrend. :D I'll be getting the little pig, and the baby hawkstrider, and whatever pet that ends up being the reward for the Northrend orphans.

Of course, I'll need to prepare for it as best I can. Bad Example requires several sweets for the achievement. I've managed to purchase several already, specifically the ones you can get in Dalaran. I need to still find the ice cream (I think it's sold on the zepplins, so that's nice), the chocolate cake (although our resident paladin has one already, so maybe they'll share? *puppydog eyes*) and a tasty cupcake. I have two of the emotion food recipies, but not this one, naturally.

Hail to the King can most probably be completed on regular, so that won't be an issue for me. I'll try to do it at least once before the event, though, so I'm not going in blind. The last one that isn't "easy" is School of Hard Knocks... and it will be very "not easy." I enjoy some PvP, but I'm not a guru or anything. Two of the requirements seem relatively straight forward: Assaulting a flag in Arathi Basin, and Assaulting a Tower in Alterac Valley. It's possible that, like the quest you get around level 35 or so for Arathi Basin, you just have to be in the area when someone assaults the flag to get credit. The other two, though... oh, man. Capture the flag in Eye of the Storm: at least I'm a tank, so I could theoretically be a good candidate for this, though it means I'll need to be much more pushy and aggressive than normal. I have no experience running flags. Finally, return a fallen flag in Warsong Gulch: this is going to be the hardest part of the entire thing, in my mind. I can only imagine the sheer number of people attempting to do this at the same time in a normal WG match, and compound it with the need for doing this achievement. It's not going to be pretty, that's for certain.

Noblegarden may have been easily completed in a couple of days, but Children's Week will be a beast. A beast that cannot be fed or sated. I suppose I should look into getting some PvP gear, like the Savage Saronite set. I'm still going to run as Prot, I think... maybe. I'll lose a lot of defense with that set, although the resiliance will help make up for it, and maybe the extra stamina and increased crit will help. I've also been an avid Wintergrasp participant, so maybe I have some marks of honor that are gathering dust. If so, I can purchase a nice epic PvP piece, one that will have a socket, even. Maybe I'll start doing what I can to run it when it's up to get a few more marks before next week. The best part about all that is that I can use the gear from then on, making PvP even more fun. :D

As a footnote: I bought Arthas, Rise of the Lich King by Christie Golden this weekend. I haven't finished it, yet, but I have to admit I'm pleasantly surprised. I expected it to be a little over-the-top, maybe even cheesy, but it's really pretty good. It helps that I actually really like Arthas as a character and that I have played Warcraft III and thus know what's going on. Still, I'm finding it a good read and would recommend it to any WoW players out there looking for something to read. It gives an insight into the guy we all love to hate, and who wouldn't enjoy that? I won't give anything away here, of course, but if you've even slightly considered getting it, go do so. Or, if you're still not sure, borrow it from a friend. I have to admit that the $25 price tag is a little hefty, though, so maybe you'll wait for it to come out in paperback. Regardless, read it. :)

Split Personality and the Tourney

Although 3.1 has caused some problems, seeing as the realms were down again this morning when I woke up at about 6 am, I was able to get on a play for a couple hours last night. Nearly all my addons that I manually updated (RIP WowMatrix) don't work with 3.1. Don't know why. GoGoMount, for example is claiming it's out of date. Frustrating, because I don't want to deal with Swatter constantly giving me error messages, so I just leave all the "out of date" ones turned off. Still, I feel a little crippled without all my shiny addons.

Anyway, I logged onto Yrovi and headed straight back to Dalaran by way of my hearthstone (Yay 30 minute cooldown!). I started by going to my trainer in Undercity, stopping by the mailbox on the way to pick up some gold I sent to push me over the 1000 gold mark. I set my options to allow me to preview my talents before permanently learning them and went to town fixing up my main spec, which is still a Protection build. Once that was taken care of, I paid my trainer to "expand my mind" (goodbye 1000G) and recieved the dual spec ability.

My second spec is a Fury build, one I'll probably have to change later on down the road. I've never specced fury, having leveled protection the whole way. I have no idea what I'm doing. It's... interesting to say the least and definitely feels like a newly-discovered split personality. I do at least have a full set of DPS gear and it even contains a good amount of blue items. I switched out my gear, got into Beserker stance (very strange for me lol) and took the zeppelin to Howling Fjord.

My two weapons I have are a 2H Sword and a 2H Mace. My 2H Sword skill was much higher, seeing as I was still occasionally carrying around the Hellboar Carver for a bit back before patch 3.0. I hadn't touched a 2H Mace, though, since about level 30. My skill was way below 200, so the poor wargs and Shoveltusks outside the Horde base got a beating. At least I got some chilled meat and Shoveltusk flanks out of the deal, allowing me to finally make some Great Feasts. Not sure when I'll get to use them, though. Maybe Thursday when the guild does those heroic runs, for fun and lolz.

Even with that little detour, though, my weapon skills are still too low. Figured that out when I decided to do some dailies for gold since I was now broke. It took me far too long to kill the Captured Vrykul in the mine in Brunhildar village. Still no Polar bear. She hates me. D:

After playing around a little more, I switched back to my more comfortable Prot spec and gear and made for the northern part of Icecrown. There, right where it was supposed to be, was the Argent Tournament, already in full swing, full of people. I made my way to the Argent Pavillion, picked up the starter quest and got to work. I started earning my Aspirant tokens on my way to becoming a Valiant. I did all the dailies available to me, picking up some nice gold and my daily allotment of 5 tokens. I also honed my mounted combat skills, working on the various training dummies. I must say, they improved the Tourney a great deal from when I messed with it on the PTR.

They moved the mount you need to complete the various mounted quests to a spot right outside your faction's main tent. There are also various Argent Champions you can ask to explain how to fight against various training dummies. This is pure win in my mind. Trying to just figure it out on the PTR was frustrating. With all that, I managed to snag both Argent Aspiration and Tilted! already, so I imagine getting all the others won't take too long. ;-)

I'm already exalted with all of the Horde racial factions, so that part of the tournament is more or less unimportant. Of course, it also means that I don't have to worry about grinding that rep or wasting my Champion's Seals on faction commendations. It also means that certain high-level achievements will automatically happen when I get the lower level ones. I forsee many titles in my future and I don't even have to be Timear.

The only drawback? I'll probably get so focused on the darn tourney that I'll forget about everything else. There's so much to do now that there is no way I'll get it all done. I haven't even mentioned the new fishing dailies, or even the sweeping changes to cooking and fishing, or the fact that I'm totally behind on my other rep grinds, like the Oracles and Sons of Hodir. Gah! I want to do everything!

3.1 Has Arrived! Icecrown, Here I Come!

Today is Tuesday. Today is the day that we have extended maintenance for Patch 3.1, and, boy, has it been long in coming. Ulduar, dual specs, the Argent Tournament, tons of new items including armor, weapons, pets, and mounts, and plenty of class changes are all included in this patch. Also, everyone gets a free respec! Hooray for free respecs. It's a chance to clean up that spec if you made a minor mistake and couldn't be bothered to spend the 50G to fix it.

As evidenced by earlier posts I've made, my focus will be on the Argent Tourney, at least at first. I'm no raider, not yet ayway, and there are plenty of rewards I want from the Tournament, like the tanking axe from the trolls, a little squire gruntling, and the ever-so-beautiful white skeletal warhorse from the Forsaken, not to mention all the various non-combat pets available from each racial faction.

Since I haven't even stepped foot in the Vault, Naxx, or the Obsidian Sanctum, Ulduar seems a million years away, although all of the lore associated with it has my interest. Check out the trailer if you haven't already, just for kicks if nothing else. Varian is being a total ass again, as is Garrosh (not that this is unusual behavior for either one of them); Thrall and Jaina still have that total vibe going (I still haven't decided if it's adorable or creepy as hell); and the Kirin Tor are all pretty much just sitting there going "WTF? Get your sh!t together, morons, or we're all gonna die." It's fun. I giggled a bit. I also have a pretty sick sense of humor.

Becuase I'm so very behind the curve, even when it comes to casual players in general since the consensus is that you can PuG the entry-level raids, I'll be taking Yrovi to Icecrown to participate in the tournament. She recently (while helping prepare the way for Mål's eventual move up in the Blood Knight ranks) achieved exalted status with the Argent Dawn. One of my first goals with the new patch is to do dailies for the Argent Crusade. Once Yrovi is exalted with them as well, she'll get a nifty new title: "The Argent Champion" Nice, huh? I find it amusing, seeing as she was theoretically once a member of the Scourge. It's appropriate, though, since the Forsaken hate the Scourge and Arthas so thoroughly.

The tournament holds lots of rewards. Most of them are more vanity items than anything else, like shirts, tabards, banners, minipets, and mounts. There are, however, both rare and epic-level weapons available provided you have enough Champion's Seals. Now, as much as I love me some minipets and mounts, I feel a touch obligated to do all I can to upgrade my gear, especially if it is easy. All it takes is a small rep grind over maybe 10 days or so to get enough seals for a very nice tanking axe that actually looks pretty sweet. It is better than my current weapon in just about every way, and will help me on my way to preparing for raiding or even just running more heroics, since I'm woefully behind in that department as well (*cries* I only have 6 heroic badges so far, how sad is that? The resident Holy Pally just got the achievement for 500! *cries again*). Of course, that's entirely my fault for not wanting to PuG Heroics due to being nervous and not being familiar with instances. It's all a catch 22, though, so I'll stop there. I've qq'd about all this before anyway.

So, I guess my goals are as follows for 3.1:

1. Begin the Argent Tournament and work my way up the ranks, earning Seals.

Results in more reputation as well as opening up more rewards, like mounts.

2. Do Argent Crusade daily quests to reach exalted as quickly as possible.

Results in gold and a very nice title: Yrovi The Argent Champion

3. Purchase my Second Spec from my warrior trainer.

Results in a chance to play as DPS instead of the more intense tanking role.

3. Earn enough Champion Seals to purchase a sweet axe.

Results in a better weapon to aid in tanking, thus preparing me for harder content.

4. Run more heroics... for real, this time.

Results in badges to purchase gear upgrades, thus preparing me for harder content.

5. Eventually become a champion of all of the Horde factions in the Tourney.

Results in cool achievements, rewards, and another cool title: Crusader Yrovi

So, provided everything goes well, I'll see some nice upgrades soon as well as an entirely new way to play the game. I've been really lax in running heroics. I need to quit talking and start doing, but I really do feel uncomfortable running heroics when I haven't been in an instance before. There are days when I wish that I hadn't rolled a tank because playing as DPS is so much more fun, hence all the time I've spent on Mål. Thankfully, dual specs can help with that. It'll be interesting to run instances as dps, if I can manage to find a group. Notice I said "instances" not "heroics." I've been saving up all the plate gear I get from quests and such that is geared toward a warrior dps build, but they aren't heroics standard stuff. I've been in enough bad PuGs to know better than to think I can just switch specs and jump right into heroics.

I'm wanting to go Fury, of course, dual-wielding Two-Handers with Titan's Grip. It looks like a ton of fun. The only real drawback at the moment is that I'm going to have to level up all my two-handed weapon skills, seeing as I haven't touched any since around level 62 or so. I think I played around with the Hellboar Carver in Zangermarsh a bit, but once 3.1 hit and prot could actually do some damage, all my two handed weapons got vendored.

As for heroics, more and more members of the guild are hitting 80 and gearing up. That's good news for me, because it means I can tank for them. In fact, one of our mages who hit 80 about two weeks ago, is ready to start running heroics and I think he's tired of all the PuGs, too. He set up an event on the guild's calendar to run heroic Utgarde Keep later this week. He has the unfortunate circumstance of being unable to play weekends easily due to work. That means he can really only run stuff through the week. Fine by me, as long as we don't play too terribly late. I'll run heroics with my guild anytime, because they have to love me, even if I screw up. lol ;-)

And hey, over the next few weeks, maybe I'll just run all the instances on normal, to get a feel for them. It's a normal thing to do, and I feel that it's sort of my job to at least have a basic idea of each of the Northrend instances. In the end, I eventually want to be able to say, "Hi, my name is Yrovi and I'm one of the Main Tanks of Cradle of Filth." I think that would be really cool. :)

The Terrace Two-Man and Level 35

I had a great deal of fun tonight, running a two-manned Magister's Terrace with our resident holy paladin, Tyra. That's right, just the two of us. I had never gotten a chance to see it before, so it was a unique experience. I have to admit, I've become just a bit burned out on end-game type stuff, so running something just for fun, without any reward other than seeing something I hadn't seen before and being able to take part in some lore (i.e. seeing Kael'thas, even in the poor shape he's in within the Terrace). Too bad the little pet didn't drop, but that's probably asking too much anyway. Regardless, I learned a thing or two, enjoyed myself, and earned two achievements tonight: Magister's Terrace and Got My Mind on My Money.

Speaking of old content, I've also been running Scholomance for Dark Runes and Argent Dawn rep (and jumping over to Stratholme for a chance at the mount) with Yrovi and that has it's own brand of fun. Pwning these instances is easy at level 80, but I had never done Scholomance before, so it was totally new to me. I've also figured out how to get to the Baron in Stratholme, but it still bugs out so that I can't get out of the instance. I have to port. My runs for the mount will be limited to one, or maybe two a day due to this if I ever get serious about it. I probably won't, though, seeing as I'm a Forsaken and our mounts look just like his already. Still, it's a cool instance and I need to be as familiar with it as possible. For later, when I have to run through on my Pally.

I'm farming those Dark Runes for a reason, you know. ;-) When Mål, my little ret pally, is level 60, I plan to go ahead and do the epic mount questline, rather than try to buy the summon Charger spell from the trainer. I have my reasons, the least of which is that it should be cheaper overall that way, plus you earn your Blood Knight tabard with the quest and it is the only way to get that particular tabard. Mål must have it! He just ding'd level 35 this evening, so there is still a great deal of time left before I need all these things, but better to have it sitting in the bank, ready to go, than to have to put him on hold at level 59 or so. I get about a level a day when I log on to him at the moment, so he's well on his way to starting that questline.

The questline requires various items of different qualities, and most of it is farmable, so Yrovi has been hard at work preparing. The added bonus of Argent Dawn rep is just icing on the cake, seeing as there is a title involved if you get exalted with both Argent factions. Yrovi must have it! Too bad the Argent Tournament in 3.1 will essentially make the cloth turn-in quests for city reputation obsolete, because farming Scholomance for runecloth is so easy. Just running the first three rooms a few times yielded over ten full stacks of runecloth. Tailors, if you're in need of runecloth, get a high-level run through part of Scholo and you'll have all you could want. I kept about half of them for my tailoring alt and dumped the rest.

Speaking of tailoring alt, I really need to look at the professions I have. All of my toons have their professions slots filled. I think I've covered everything, aside from Blacksmithing. I've been wondering about some of my less-played alts, and while the main reason I don't log on to them often is because of time constraints, I think their professions may have a bit to do with it as well. My priest, for example, was the second character I rolled on my main server after Yrovi. I intended to level her so that our guild would have a healing priest for end-game. Yeah, that never happened. I want to make her viable again, though, so I've thought about dropping her professions (tailoring/enchanting; my mage happens to have the exact same professions and she's much more fun to play) and replacing them with something a little more fun: Engineering. The profession has plenty of issues. I personally agree with many other engineers out there, and have to say that at end-game, engineering is lacking. Still, while leveling, this predominantly PvP-slanted profession could be a real boon for a priest, with bombs for dps, target dummies to hold aggro for a few seconds, and gadgets and gear to improve stats. Heck, I have engineering on my main, I know how to level it, and I know how to use it to my advantage. It just may make my priest playable. I'll keep tailoring and enchanting on my mage, which makes more sense, lore-wise, anyway, and get my priest rocking the Engineering.

The only thing is, what do I pair with it? I already have two miners, ore won't be an issue. I have an herbalist and a skinner, but I may still go with one of those. Several engineering recipies require leather. I could go with another crafting profession, but what would it be? Alchemy? Or maybe I keep enchanting? This is going to take some thought, I think. I'll let you know. ;-)

Netherwing, MacBook Pro, and the Cavalry

I finally got around to pulling out my WotLK disk and updating WoW on my laptop. I'll have to try out all those new add-ons I mentioned in the last post to see if they really take up less space/are lighter in general. I'm also looking at a different action bar called LunarSphere. It looks like HolyHope or Necrosis, but for everybody. It comes with either a blank template or a class template (or one where you can completely start from scratch) but I haven't gotten around to setting it up yet, aside from telling it to use the Warrior template on Yrovi. Messing with it on my laptop first will mean that I'll know exactly how I'll want it on my main computer when 3.1 hits. I still need to figure out how to tell it to hide the Blizzard bars.

I've been working for the Netherwing faction a great deal, and I'm friendly with them now. Hopefully I'll be exalted with them in two weeks. No one else is working on that rep right now on Gul'dan, it seems, so I pretty much have the whole floating island to myself. No competition is great for finding those eggs as well, for extra rep. So far, it looks like I'll average about 2 eggs a day. I need to do the Booterang quest still, to open up that daily. Looks like it will be lots of fun.

Needless to say, I'm doing this quest for the mounts. I love the way they look, even if they do remind me of BC rather than WotLK. Still, I wasn't able to do the grind when you're supposed to, at level 70. I have to admit, I can't imagine trying to do it at the correct level. All the mobs are level 70 and some of them hit pretty hard. The mobs that can see through your disguise would have been instant death at 70 (I'm able to kill them, but not without using a health pot and enraged regen, thanks to their huge health pool). I'm in no danger of dieing, of course, but I can just imagine how much of a pain the opening questline and these dailies were for those who did it at level 70. Props have to go to them, for sure.

I've filled the barn so now I'm trying to lead the cavalry. I'm doing pretty well, too. Gold is no object to me. I don't stockpile it. It's fake currency in a game and I only get it in order to buy up vanity items and other things I want. I'm no in-game millionare, nor do I wish to be. Eventually I'll use it for enchants and raid-related items, although buff foods I can make on my own at this point. I want that albino drake, though, so right now I'm working on getting lots of mounts. I currently have 29 mounts. Once I bought my epic flight training and my first mount, I took a look at how much gold I earned the next day and decided to buy a few more. I farmed and purchased the mats needed to craft my new roflcopter and outright bought two more wind riders. The yellow one is far less interesting, so I'll probably wait on that one. Once I get the Netherwing rep, I'll probably buy one of each of those as well, but my favorite will be the one I earn, just as my favorite wind rider was the one I first purchased and experienced epic flight with. :)

Finally, yet another guild-mate ding'd 80 yesterday (Grats War!) so raiding is coming ever closer on the horizon. I think the guild will probably start with something simple, like the Vault of Archavon or the Obsidian Sanctum. Obviously the Vault is the simplest level 80 raid instance in the game at the moment and might be a good way to get to know our members, how we work together, and our raid composition. Right now I think we have a few too many tanks, so we'll have to see how that will work, although that might just be a moot point with 3.1 and dual specs. The loot from there is all PvP gear, though, so it would really only be useful (in terms of progression) for us to practice together. Still, that's useful in it's own right, especially for me, who has never raided except as a joke. And as much as I hate to say it, I wouldn't want to have to be the one who switches to dps... I leveled prot. I haven't been in any stance other than defensive for about 8 months or so... maybe longer. Hopefully one of the other tank-spec'd folk are willing to switch to dps.

Needless to say, things are looking up. Stuff is about to get interesting. :D

The Time Came!

I was giggling like a little schoolgirl last night as I finally hit my goal of 5200 Gold for my epic flying and mount. I had done some farming, specifically for ore and crystallized elements. My zapthrottle mote extractor is one of the best inventions ever. I emptied my bank, vowed to stop being such a pack rat, and dumped all my valuables on the AH over the weekend. Just about everything sold and I was a very happy panda.

I got the last mails from the Auction House as I was exploring Outlands for the achievement (which I got) and promptly flew to Shadowmoon Valley to train up and buy my new Green Windrider. He's gorgeous, and so much faster than my old flying mounts that it's absolutely no contest. While I'll no doubt start missing my roflcopter in a few weeks, right now the speed increase more than makes up for it. I started the Netherwing faction grind up to Neutral on Friday evening, so I'll start going to outlands each day to continue that grind. Zoya will be mine!

I'll be able to recoup my gold fairly quickly as well. Faster speed means faster dailies, faster farming, and faster quests. Doing all my dailies used to take hours. Hopefully I can cut that time in half now, especially since I'll be doing some Outlands stuff as well.

And speaking of dailies: I was able to get my cooking and fishing up to Grand Master level this weekend so I'm eligible for the cooking dailies in Dalaran (and theoretically the new Fishing dailies that are coming in 3.1). That opened up a whole slew of new achievements as well. I think the one I never thought I'd get this quickly was "Skills to Pay the Bills." My fishing is up to Northrend standards, but only barely. I'll have to use lots of lures at first until I get it higher or just wait for 3.1 where leveling fishing will be easier than ever. According to the patch notes, you'll be able to fish anywhere,  you just may fish up junk rather than a fish. Still, every catch (even junk) will count towards skill-ups. Regardless, I'm excited. More and more of the "endgame" is open to me as I continue playing, and only good can come from that. ;)

And as a last little note: we're a stone's throw away from raiding as a group. Several guildmates leveled up to 80 last week and this weekend, and we have another about to hit 80. This is awesome just because I've been having a really hard time with the heroic instances. I'm discovering (unfortunately) that my tanking skills are maybe a little sub-par. With more guildies hitting 80, though, I imagine the need to run heroics to gear up will be increased, giving me more opportunities to practice and improve. That said, I ran Halls of Lightning again on regular with one of our new 80s and finally got my coveted Seal. It's about freaking time, I'm telling you. I'll use it mostly to stay uncrittable at this point, but it's nice to have. I'm starting to stack more stamina now... maybe I'll actually see 30k raid buffed which would be nice. Also thanks to that run, I got Revered with the Wyrmrest Accord so I bought the boots and breastplate I've been wanting. Needless to say, I've upgraded. And it's a nice feeling.

Epic Purples

Yrovi got two new purples yesterday and this morning, plus a new companion pet.

She's now exalted with the Kalu'ak (finally!) and was able to purchase the epic fishing rod and a new friend, Pengu the penguin. He's very cute and evil looking with those red eyes. The rod is nice, with a +30 to fishing skill as well as underwater breathing while equipped. Plus, you know, it's a purple. Hopefully I'll get my fishing and cooking skill leveled up to Northrend levels soon enough. It takes time, though. Right now, it takes something like 10 fish to get one skill point. That's a lot of fish, and a lot of time to take. I'll do it, though, for the gold. Fishing can be very lucrative. Right now I'm fishing in the Barrens, for example, for Deviate fish. It's a pity I don't have the recipe to cook them, as they are worth even more that way, but I sell a stack of 20 deviate fish for about 17-20 Gold on my server right now, so it's not bad. I figure I have to level the skill anyway, why not make some gold while I'm at it?

The other purple came from completing the exploration achievement for Northrend. I was mailed a very brown tabard as soon as I finished it. Pity it isn't more interesting looking, as I'd love to have an epic tabard on all the time, but it doesn't really match my armor. ;)

UI and 1000 Fish

I have, over the course of the last few weeks, been working on gearing up for Heroics and Raiding. Everything is going quite well, and I'm steadily working my way to some of the best gear I can get (and the best I've ever done with any toon, period). It's all very exciting and very rewarding.

I am, however, woefully behind when it comes to upgrading my UI. I stand before you and very shamefully admit that I don't have any of the core add-ons that so very many other players (especially tanks) have. I'm probably the only level 80 tank in the world that doesn't have Omen. I mean, what tank doesn't have a threat meter?!? It's awful. So, since I'm so focused now on getting geared up, I've decided it's time to gear up my UI as well. Today I'll be downloading Omen Threat Meter, Deadly Boss Mod, Mik's Scrolling Battle Text, Quartz, and something to make my (eventual) raid UI look nice, like X-Perl or PitBull. I haven't decided on one of those yet. Grid is also on my mind, because, really, how much do I, as the tank, need to see?

I already use Bartender for my action bars and I like it a great deal. I use Outfitter for my gear-swapping needs. I'm still searching for a good bag mod (I might try Bagnon). I use SexyMap for my Mini-map modding needs. As a fan of Project Marmot and Ciderhelm's UI, I'm going to get CBH Viewport to see if I can't clean up my screen a little by adding some space above and below. We'll see. It may interfere with how TitanBar works.

I'm also going to have to really sit down and look at my action bar set up and my keybindings. I need to be able to spam Heroic Strike easily as Rage is no issue with most fights now. The way I have it now, I usually click-spam it and this should really be a no-no.

Regardless, I'm really looking forward to all these changes, as it means I'm finally seeing end-game content I never thought I'd see. :)

Oh, and as for 1000 fish... I got the achievement last night while fishing in Feralas to level up fishing and cooking together. I'm using El's Guide, and slowly trudging onward to get these professions skilled to max. Currently, Yrovi is hanging out in the Wailing Caverns catching Deviate Fish until I reach 350 or so. Unfortunately I don't have the recipie to do anything with them, but I should be able to sell the fish alone for a pretty penny. I hope, anyway. :)

Elders of the Horde and Alliance

Today I stayed home instead of going to work again thanks to mother nature (ice, ice, go away, I need to work instead of play), but I managed to ding 78 and complete several more achievements, mostly for the Lunar Festival. I decided shortly after getting to level 78 that I'd run back to the old world and attempt to find a few more Elders, especially since I already needed to run back for training. I started by going to Thunder Bluff through the Dalaran portal, since I never go there normally, then to Orgrimmar to finish up Elders of the Horde. I decided to take care of the Elders of the Alliance as well, since it would be faster than the other Elder achievements.

I started by teleporting to Moonglade to purchase the ever so pretty green dress you see in the photo for the Lunar Festival Finery achievement... and just because I like fun, RP clothing. I also used the other 5 coins I had to get a few engineering recipes for rockets. Unfortunately you can't use your invitation to get to the cities of the opposite faction (yeah, I tried), so I ran out through the Timbermaw hold all the way to Auberdine in Darkshore, picking up any Elders I saw on the way. Even wearing the dress and only items that had no durability on them to lose should I die, the Auberdine Sentinels were no issue. I ignored them and jumped on the boat to Stormwind...

Stormwind was a fast run from the dock to the Park for the Elder there. I managed to get through the whole ordeal without dieing until I ran for the Tram. I managed to run into some level 80 guard of some sort and he one-shot me since I had no life left from the other guards smacking me. After a long run from the Logging Camp back to the city, I made it on the tram unscathed. I even ran across some other Hordies on their way to Ironforge.

Ironforge was a fast run from the Tram, through the Hall of Explorers, to the Elder in the Mystic area, then back to the Tram. I managed all that without dieing (ha! Those little dwarves had no chance keeping up with me on my Raptor). Back to the Tram, through the human city to the dock, back to Auberdine... and then wait for the darn boat to Teldrassil... which I fell off of as we neared the dock. Fatigue set in, but I managed to swim out of it fast enough to climb up onto shore at the base of the huge tree. Mount up and run, straight to the cenarion circle's area of the city to the Elder stationed there... and DING I have the achievement. Naturally I get killed just then by two level 80 members of the Cenarion Circle and find my spirit at Dolanaar. I run back to the city only to get killed again, so I took the rez sickness to grab the Elder in the little town and mount up to explore the area for the achievement.

I'm still working on getting to level 80, but this was a fun way to spend an hour, running more or less unseen through enemy territory. I'm also starting to seriously put together a second set of armor for Fury, constantly checking my quest greens that I'm picking up against what I have in the bank for a full set. So far so good, I even have a few blues mixed in as well, all just from questing. We'll just have to see what the guild ends up needing.

Lunar Festival and a Gear Update

So it's been awhile... I've actually had less and less time to play, it seems, although I managed to get on for a bit yesterday evening to begin working on the lunar festival holiday and it's corresponding achievements. Wowhead has an excellent guide to the festival this year. I know for a fact that I'll be unable to get all of the achievements for the meta achievement this year, as I don't think I can get to level 80 by the end of the holiday, and at least one of the elders are only in a level 80 dungeon (Heroic something or other... I'm not sure. It's in the guide at wowhead if you're wondering). I'm currently about 4 bubbles away from level 77, and I know that those last three levels are going to take me what will feel like forever. Maybe I can get some play time in today, thanks to the weather.

Yep, there's ice here in Texas and most of the area's universities have closed, which I often use as a guideline to whether or not I go to work. I'm only a contract laborer right now, after all, and I just don't feel that the risk is equal to the reward at the moment. Plus, all the weathermen are saying tomorrow will be good again.

As for a gear update, I've managed to do a few group quests and ran Drak'Tharon keep for three upgrades. I did the Ursoc, the bear god quest in the Grizzly Hills for a new shield and tanking pants. And there is a quest that rewards a decent tanking ring in Drak'Tharon, although don't expect any other tanking gear to drop from that instance. I would have walked away empty-handed, except for the experience, although it is a pretty cool instance with interesting boss fights. Also, thanks to the level 80 rogue who was kind enough to explain the fights to me as I had never been in DTK before (don't stand in the black shit), and to the wonderful priest healer we had for the run. Tanks should always thank their healers, especially the good ones. :)

Provided the maintenance doesn't get extended again today, I'll do more lunar festival running around and probably quest in Sholozar basin. I really need to find the opening quest line for the oracles as I want my mini-pets. I'm crazy for vanity pets. And mounts. The frenzyheart are interesting, I suppose, but from what I've seen of them so far in Northrend, I'm not really looking to be friends. Were-bear-racoons aren't that cool to me. Maybe later on I'll switch over for the achievement. We'll see.