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.

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. :)

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.

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.

Speculation... New Races?

So, I wrote about this some time ago, right when MMO-Champion first talked about it. Boubouille, a member of the MMO-Champion team, did some crazy data-mining and found some interesting halloween masks of Goblins and what looked like Worgen. Based on his findings, he determined that these would be the new races in the next expansion, which people are now calling Cataclysm, a name Blizzard patented recently. Most of the WoW sites are now more or less saying this is true and stating it as almost-fact.

Also, as I mentioned before, all those who are following this train of thought agree at this point that the Goblins will be aligned with the Horde and the Worgen will be aligned with the Alliance. It makes sense. Goblins have always leaned a little towards the Horde side of things, giving them more support with Zeppelins and shredders for tearing down Ashenvale forest and things. Well, I say give, but I guess what I mean is that they have a long-standing business relationship with the Horde, and those Zeppelin Goblins sure don't like the Alliance. Ever get on a Horde zeppelin as an Alliance..? Yeah. Those little green bastards are mean.

I imagine, if I were one of the writers for Blizzard, that the playable Goblins would be from a different merchant group than the current goblins. The Steamwheedle Cartel and the Venture Co. are already in game, one neutral and one hostile. So these playable Goblins would just be another Trading Prince's faction that chooses to join the Horde, perhaps as mercenaries. I would also guess that the classes available to the Goblins would be similar to the ones open to the Gnomes... things like rogue, warrior, warlock... but no healing class. Something tells me they're specifically meant to be the Horde equivalent of the "tiny" race.

I'm actually more excited about the Worgen. My guess is that Blizzard will finally open up the Greymane wall and reveal a totally Worgified Gilneas. While I realize that Arugal was in the vicinity of the wall for a long time, I don't think these Worgen will be of his making. Perhaps the Night Elf who first received the Scythe of Elune entered Gilneas and used it there... maybe they went there on their own... who knows. Regardless, it will be interesting how the writers tie them into the overarching storyline of the World... of Warcraft.

I'd guess they'd have similar classes to humans, though perhaps not a healing class... except maybe shaman. Warrior, rogue, mage... those sound good for Worgen. I doubt they'll be warlocks, as they despise the "Emerald Flame," essentially the Burning Legion. They are well attuned to magics as well. The Worgen from the other dimension are known to be very vicious and territorial, though, so it's still unclear how they tie to the Alliance, aside from Gilneas. Like I said, I'm interested in how Blizz will work them into the story in a believable way.

Regardless, I'll roll at least one of each. Who doesn't want a goblin? "I'VE GOT WHAT YOU NEED!" The worgen are just oozing "cool factor"... maybe I should make place-holder toons to get the names I want. While I'm not totally sure what I'd name a goblin, if I rolled a Worgen on ED, I'd probably name it something like... Aconitum or Vulparia. Or maybe Usiaslau. The first two names come from the plant known colloquially as "monkshood" or "wolfsbane" and the third was the name of a Belarusian prince who lived during the 11th century that was thought to turn into a wolf. Obviously the first and third are male names, while I'd make Vulparia a female. Goblin names tend to be like: Rizzo, Vark, or Guido. They're meant to be funny, seriously. :D

God, I can't wait for Cataclysm. The only drawback? All the new Worgen that will be called:

Xxjacobxblackxx, jacobblack, jaccob, and Lupin. Maybe throw in a Cujo and Lucian for good measure.

*sigh*

Hunter is Overpowered

Last night included further experimentation with the Battlegrounds, again on a hunter, but this time on my Nelf Hunter, Berryl. I think I played five or six Warsong Gulch games, and two Arathi Basin games. She was about half-way through her level, fully rested experience, and managed to get to level 26 by the end of the night. I haven't had that much fun in a battleground in a long time.

I stuck with Warsong Gulch for the first two tries, just to get a feel for the character again. Unlike Gruun (level 12), Berryl has quite a few more tricks up her sleeve (level 25, now 26). I'm even proud to say that on one of the games, I was the top damage-dealer for the Alliance. I've never been the top of the damage list. It gave me giggles. :D

Luckily for me, talent points had been reset for hunters, so I made her Marksman. I'm liking her current build so far, and I'm loving the Spider pet's special ability. I'm sure it pisses the other players off to no end to be suddenly rooted in place by a hunter's pet while I'm whaling on them from way over here, where they can't get me. Plus, her little 8-legged beastie can do some decent damage by himself.

That's not to say I don't die. I die plenty. Usually to some class that can bubble or to those damn rogues. Many of them are over my level and can one shot me if they catch me at below full health. Their crippling poison is a real pain, too. Still, I do really well, especially on defense. Set a freezing trap at the flag, leave Obsidian (her spider) on aggressive in the center of the flag room and go to the corner to Shadowmeld. Perfect.

I even did the Battleground daily for Arathi Basin last night, which got me some extra honor. It's too bad I can't get her any heirloom gear. I see plenty of players in the heirloom shoulders and I'm green with envy. Not only are they probably getting an increase in experience, but the gear itself is a nice boost. And gear is going to become a main concern here, soon.

See, you can't get gear just from fighting in a BG. You have to earn enough honor to buy stuff, and it seems like most of it isn't available to use until much later. I'll have to do some research because otherwise it looks like the AH and I are going to be best friends. Or, rather, my gold and the AH will be... :(

The Perfect Gun and BG Experience

Blizzard has once again honored one of the elite, one of the great players of their game, with an in-game item. In this case, it is a gun, specifically tailored for Hunters, and it's a drop in the tribute chest in the new Argent Tournament Coliseum. That's right, everyone's favorite Beast Mastery Hunter, BigRedKitty, aka BRK, has a new weapon named after him.

The BRK-1000. Isn't it pretty? *sigh* We miss you Daniel and it looks like Blizzard misses you, too! This is a pretty nice way to remember him, I think. Good on you, Blizzard, this was a long time coming for the guy that taught me more about playing a Hunter than anyone else.

And speaking of hunters, I recently dug up an old alt of mine to test the Battleground experience change, since ED was locked out with a 400+ server queue to get in. His name is Gruun (troll males FTW!) and is located on the Underbog server. At level 12, I knew I'd probably get stomped into the dirt in Warsong Gulch, but hunters are good for PvP, so I gave it a shot. I set him up with his 3 talent points in Improved Tracking (+3% damage against whatever I'm currently tracking, obviously humanoids for the BG) and queued up.

He actually did okay. No twinks, although there were a few level 19 and even a handful of 20's in the bracket that could one-shot him (he only has just over 300 health). He got several of the PvP achievements that night and I actually had fun for once. It definitely makes me want to take another toon out to the BG's and tear up the place for fun.

I like hunters for PvP, with their kiting abilities and decent damage, plus pet. I'm fairly certain hunters have gotten a talent reset (I definitely didn't pay for his talent change last night) and I think Berryl might make a good candidate for BG leveling. She's higher up and will soon have more access to Arathi Basin. Warsong Gulch is fun and all, but the experience gain vs. time spent is pretty awful. The developers are definitely watching this, they've said as much on the official forums, so hopefully they'll bump the experience gain for WG soon.

Gear is still a factor, but not having to worry about twinks makes life easier. And, it may have just been my good luck, but there appeared to be a great deal less QQ in the BG chat last night. If a happier, friendlier Battleground is what awaits, then I'm all for a great deal more Battleground excitement.

Overflowing Inventory

The Auction House is a treasure trove. Just about anything you need can be bought and sold there. The prices take getting used to, which is why I use Auctioneer, but I can generally make a great deal more selling materials and such there than vendoring stuff. And, really, that's the way it should be.

I have bank alts to take care of my finances. The best bank alt I've got is a Death Knight, Ziir, on ED (which I've talked about before). He takes care of all the day-to-day business for Seona so that she is free to work for the Argent Dawn, or whomever is needing her most right now. Unfortunately, she picks up a great deal of stuff, especially greens and cloth, and Ziir has run out of room.

Three possible solutions:

1. Buy him bigger bags. I feel like this is a temporary fix. His bags are all 12-slot, aside from one 16-slot. That's quite a bit of space, and I would hate to just get rid of all his soulbound 12-slotters. The investment is doable however, as most 16-slot bags are affordable on Emerald Dream.
2. Buy more bank slots. This is a pretty big investment. I've already purchased the "cheap" slots, so all the rest cost 25 G each. My current cashflow is pretty minimal. If I did this, though, his extra bags wouldn't go to waste, and I'd still have to do number 1, above.
3. Clean out my banks. Both Ziir's and Seona's, preferably. This is the "best" solution, because it doesn't cost any gold, instead it would actually make me some gold. However, this fix is even more temporary than number 1, because what keeps me from just filling them up again?

It all comes down to whether I want to invest Gold right now, or save it for 3.2 so Seona can get better riding. Truthfully, the money is in crafting professions, if you know what to make. I had always planned on Seona dropping skinning at some point for a crafting profession, like blacksmithing, jewelcrafting, or engineering (which is much better now with the new changes coming, and probably the most interesting profession). I can use the 300 Gold I currently have to get her epic ground riding training and invest in a crafting profession OR I can invest it all right now to hopefully get more inventory space.

I'm not sure what I'll do. Power leveling a crafting profession is tough work. It requires a ton of time and, especially with the professions I listed above, a ton of Gold. Time I've got (to a degree) but I don't have much gold. Ziir has herbalism and mining. I might actually have him drop mining and take up skinning. It's much faster to level up (Seona is already over 300), but the profit isn't as high. Getting her epic ground riding training is important, though, as is flying later on. *sigh*

I guess I'll start with Number 3 and go from there. Clean out those banks, getting rid of everything I don't absolutely have to have. Maybe I'll check the patch notes for potential profits. Hopefully I'll find some high-demand items in my banks that will turn me a nice profit.

Wanting a Rogue

Today I woke up and really wanted to play a rogue. I'm certain it's just a minor issue with my altoholism, it will pass, but I find it funny. I have a warrior at 80, a Paladin well on her way to 80 (especially once I get my nice internet this weekend... I'm excited!) and a slew of alts. Far more alts than I'll ever be able to play, or want to play. The new Armory app for my iPhone has made that exceptionally clear.

I have two rogues, though, that I've created and actually played in the last 6 months or so: Loem, a male human rogue on ED, and Untainted, a female Belf on Gul'dan. Loem is only just over level 10 or so and is Leodry's brother (RPlol). Untainted is sitting pretty at level 39 and I've run a few battlegrounds with her, but I'm not sure how I want to work her. Patch 3.2 will bring battleground leveling, but something tells me it won't be nearly as efficient as regular leveling. Honorable kills don't count towards the experience, for example, so it makes me wonder just what does.

I'd love to level at least one of them in the battlegrounds, just to see how it would be done. Instead of dungeon drop blues, I'd get some nice PvP rewards. Instead of questing, which requires tons of travel, I could just stick in a major city at all times (thanks to queuing from anywhere now). That would mean lots of rested experience. If I could get some BoA shoulders, too, it would help. I hope this battleground experience thing works out. It would be a really interesting way to level up a toon and I'd be able to focus entirely on PvP for once.

Rumor: New Races

Apparently MMO Champion is claiming/strongly suggesting that Goblins and Worgen will be the new races in the next expansion.

As if it hasn't been posted a million times before... still, I find it interesting.

I know that Pandaren will never become a playable race, so that really only leaves a few races that are already in the game as options. The other thing that Blizzard could do is introduce something else entirely, although that didn't go as smoothly as they liked when they crash landed the Draenei on Azuremyst the last time.

MMO is making the claim based on four Hallow's Eve masks they discovered: male and female versions of Goblin and what looks like new Worgen faces. This is significant (according to them) because all of the current masks are playable races. They make a good argument, honestly. I'm one of those that believe that, if this is actually true, Goblins will be aligned with the Horde and the Worgen with the Alliance. Goblins already appear to be more buddy-buddy with the Horde anyway, and the Worgen were once the Human nation of Gilneas, so it makes sense. Also, less important, but should be taken into account, it would give a small race to the Horde and a bigger/furry race to the Alliance.

What remains to be seen, of course, is whether or not Blizzard will confirm this information at Blizzcon. I'm actually hoping they do. I have one level 80, and another toon on the way towards 80. One is of the Horde, the other of the Alliance. Rerolling doesn't bother me much. I'm a dedicated altaholic. Expect to see me roll at least one of each of these to play around with them if they come true.

Poloma: The Spare Time Toon

After talking about the faction switch change and bringing up my old hunter, I decided to log on to Quel'Thalas and check on Poloma. She was still in Winterspring with a quest log full of green quests, some of which were completed, nearly all of which required extensive travel.

Man, I had forgotten how slow Tauren seem to run thanks to their size. It's like watching her wade through molasses, I swear, especially after spending so much time on a dwarf. One of the quest lines she's on is a Hunter-only questline that takes her into Sunken Temple. I probably won't get her in there. Finding a group of old quests is impossible and I've never been in Sunken Temple before. Like, ever. On any toon. So that's probably out.

Really, I think I'll be taking her to Un'Goro and then Silithus. Honestly never really gone that route so it would be new and refreshing. She's still in really bad shape, though. She has no glyphs, some of her gear does indeed still have some strength stats on them (really embarassing, seriously), her mining is only around 110... it hurts my soul, really. At least the gear with strength has agility, too. I guess I had kept a bunch of quest chainmail thinking that armor was more important than having good stats. Obvisouly I've learned the true path, now.

It's interesting, though, to have a way to look back in time to see how I used to play. I've come a long way since I first decided that my tauren hunter would be my main. I like to say that Poloma taught me how to play World of Warcraft. That doesn't mean she taught me how to play a Hunter... but I understood the game through her point of view.

So, she's sitting around level 56, hopefully in my spare time I can get her to level 58, thus outlands, and fix her gear. Quest greens from there are huge upgrades and maybe, just maybe, she'll eventually become worth the $25 fee to transfer her to one of my main servers.

P.S. Her name, "Poloma," is a Choctaw name meaning "bow." Fitting, no? Well, except for the fact that she uses a gun. But that'll change, no doubt, as soon as I get to Outlands. :)

A New Recruit

Seona Lightstone is officially a Recruit of the Kingship of the East. Pledged to her new king, she will do all she can to uphold the honor of her new guild in all matters, great and small.

It's quite exciting. I never thought roleplay would be this much fun. I mean, I doubt I'll be grabbing up the new D&D handbook anytime soon, but "acting" my character is fun. Seona was able to speak with the queen and king of the Kingship over a wonderful picnic by Crystal Lake in Elwynn forest surrounded by other members of the guild. While it was a touch overwhelming, especially since it was a very large group, nearly all at level 80, and all of them experienced roleplayers, it gave me a real taste of what this group is all about.

I definitely got the impression that there was a larger storyarc going on underneath everything, which is just cool. I mean, here you have a group of people (the guild has over 200 toons, to give perspective),creating a story within the larger story of the game. WoW will neverget old for them, because they write their own adventures, act out their own stories within the larger world. It's really quite amazing.

There's still a ton I have to learn, though. They use emotes in a really unique way, for example, nearly all of them custom (not hard, but not something I'm used to). They understand the lore far better than I do, I believe, and they really do have some major story arc going on that I'm not yet fully aware of, not to mention too low of a level to participate in. Thankfully, they definitely have various events that occur often, like the picnic I was able to witness and participate in (I even got some fishing in!), so I'll get a chance to hone my RP skills before I hit level cap.

This is going to be a whole new ballgame... and I'm oh, so ready to play. :D

This Will Bring Me Back

Holy. Crap. o.O

Huge change posted by the floating skull of doom on the general forums. This is what I get for stepping away for a bit and not paying attention to the forums.

So, mounts are going to be revamped yet again to allow quicker travel at lower levels. Exciting stuff here, for sure. This means I actually have several alts that could get mounts when this goes live instead of much later. That could make a huge difference in how fast I level these toons. A very tiny part of me is crying, outraged that they'd make it so easy for the newcomers and super-causuals (conviently fogetting that I'm one of them) and demanding a refund, but I beat it back into its dark corner and go back to cheering for all my alts.

Regular land mounts are to be trained at level 20 and even cheaper. Epic land mounts are trainable at 40. Now wait, now wait! 40? Really? Jeebus, that's huge. Does this mean my epic Paladin mount for Seona is a quick learn at 40 for about 60 gold? This is mind-boggling. Flight is now learned at 60, and epic at 70, as usual. Crazy, truly crazy.

I definitely didn't expect this change, especially out of nowhere like this. It feels like something in from left field, but I'm not about to look a gift horse in the mouth. Of course, this doesn't come around until the next major content patch (3.2), so there's still time before it goes into effect, but this is a really big change.

With that patch, many of my toons will be eligible for mounts:

Purah, my death knight, will be able to get flying. I might even get him the skele-chicken all DKs can get. Untainted and Mål are a stone's throw away from 40, meaning they'd be able to get epic ground mounts. I have at least 5-6 toons in the mid-20's and they'd all be eligible for regular training... the gold I'm going to need!!! Oh, man!

What I've just noticed, though, is that this means no low-level toons will be getting exalted with a second faction before hitting the appropriate level for training. You're stuck with your faction's mounts. Interesting. I know quite a few Belfs, for example, that despise the "cocks colored like rainbows," to quote Nyhm. Still, I'm not going to complain. This is huge.

Yrovi will be farming a bit to earn extra gold. Most of those 20-somethings are on Gul'dan and might actually get me to play those toons. I haven't played my warlock in awhile... and now I'll have a whole new reason to push to 40 on Seona. Wow. There's work to do.

Good Thoughts for a Fellow Blogger, and More Druid

First, because this is far more important than any WoW stuff, I want to extend good thoughts to Daniel, aka BRK, the greatest Hunter blogger ever to grace the WoW blogging scene. He retired from WoW some time ago to focus on family, but unfortunately is getting a divorce. Daniel, my thoughts are with you and your son. I read your blog, though I never posted (being a dedicated lurker), and I wish you all the best in the upcoming months. I am so sorry that things didn't work out, but I hope that, in time, you'll find your footing again. You'll love Star Trek, by the way.

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/WoW speak

Okay, so since I didn't really love Xyno when I logged on her, I was a touch worried that Opal would be in similar shape. She's actually much better, thank goodness. She was sitting at just into level 29, in Astraanar, not Lakeshire, with everything trained up, and had an empty talent tree. I actually considered going Balance instead of Feral, but her gear was actually decent and it was fully Feral gear (nearly all Agi and Stam) so I went with the Feral after all. While she takes a good amount of damage in cat form, she's no tissue paper kitty. She can easily tear through 3-4 mobs before needing to pop Lifebloom or bandage (or any other heal she can do), so it's not nearly so bad. She was fully rested, of course, so getting her to level 30 only took about 1.5 hours or so, and then she was able to get the travel form and riding training plus mount and such. Having the gold she had was nice, didn't even know she was that well off. :)

She's got gathering professions, so she's nicely set up. I might end up transferring her over to ED afterall, if for no other reason than her skinning is pretty high up, and she has herbalism fairly highly trained. Or, at least, she's where she needs to be to pick/skin anything she kills in the area she's questing in. I'm not sure how to RP a Nelf Druid, but I'll come up with a backstory for her if she moves to ED. I might keep her on Gilneas till she's at least ready for outland or northrend, though, simply because it's a PvE server, which is nice and "carebear" for her. Gilneas if pretty low-pop, I think, since I haven't run into any horde at all, and I've forgotten what it's like not to have to worry about getting ganked from behind when in a contested zone. While its nice at at times, it's almost too quiet. ;p

You notice I said that it took me about 1.5 hours to level her. I think I only played for about 2 hours last night total. Much less than I used to. My time seems taken up by other things lately, and that's probably a very good thing. The fact that I don't come home from work, deal with the dogs right away, then plop down in front of the computer till 10 or 11 pm is a nice change. Alts are nice that way.

/WoW speak

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Oh, and one last little IRL thing: my Wii just crapped out last night. It absolutely refuses to read disks, so it's going to need repairs. That means I'll have to ship it to Nintendo, pay $75.00 for them to figure out what's wrong, and have them send it back to me. I'm sad. :( I'm not going to do it right away. The downloaded games I just bought, literally two days ago, still work fine, and I need me some Ocarina of Time, a game I've never played before (I know, blasphemy!!). The very first Zelda game I completely finished was Twilight Princess, and now I know what I've missed all my gaming years. I decided to download the other two in the Twilight Princess timeline, which is Ocarina and Majora's Mask, and play through them as well. Hopefully all goes well.

New Bears!

Yeah, so, wow!

Blizzard has finally shown a preview of the new druid skins/art they've been working on. This first installment is for Tauren druids, which might actually bring my druids out of retirement.

I have one of each, you know. Opalandra, my very first character I ever created for WoW, is a Nelf Druid on the Gilneas server. I'm tempted to move her to one of my other servers, like ED, but not yet. I mean, she's only around level 25 at the moment, it doesn't seem worth it to spend the $25. Xyno is my tauren druid on Gul'dan. She's awesome as well, and these current skins they've shown apply to her. Xyno is all black, of course, so she'd look like the one in the picture, I think.

They've mentioned that they'd love to be able to change the bear's image as you level up/get better gear (maybe through an average iLevel?) which would be very cool. Still, these are a huge improvement to the forms, since that old bear looked terribad. They should be showing the new Nelf skins later this week/next week, and then the cat forms for each after that. I've loving the changes, even if some of the die-hard druid community still isn't sure. I think a few of them were expecting something a little better, although I look at this as a nice start.

So, now I have two new alts to think about. Great! lol I'll never get anything done. ;-)

EDIT (5/28): They've updated the page to include the Nelf bears now. They look good as well. I'm excited for all those druids out there that they're finally getting some love from Blizzard. Opalandra has been resting for so long, I don't remember what her hair color is, but I think it's white, so she may be a polar bear! :D

Unfocused Play

Since closing on the house, I've been less and less focused on WoW, for obvious reasons. I'm not going to stop playing, of course, as I'm firmly addicted, but I haven't logged onto my main in quite some time. I bet my friends in CoF are wondering what the heck happened to me. Come to think of it, I really should jump over there just to let them know I'm still alive...

That doesn't mean I haven't been playing, it's just that I've been playing my alts and second main. Seona is now level 36 (nearly 37) and that means I'm just that much closer to getting her into her guild. Leveling is so much easier with rested experience, but managing to stay off of a toon for a day or so to earn it is hard, especially when they've been leveling so fast. Still, the double points are worth the trouble, and it gives me a chance to look at my other toons. Really I should go to Yrovi again while Seona rests, as there's so much I still haven't done that I want to do, but I haven't been.

I haven't finished my rep grind with the Netherwing, yet. The tournament is still ongoing and I've slacked there. I need rep with the Oracles so I can start buying eggs. I still want to gear up some with heroics. There's tons to do, and yet I have no real drive to log onto Yrovi and do any of these things. It's strange.

Perhaps it's that I actually like the leveling aspect of the game more than the endgame. Or maybe I'm just burned out, now, a little, when it comes to dailies and rep. Not running instances, obviously, as I don't do nearly enough of that, but the rest... yes. It is quite repetitive. Leveling, though, has a nice guage at the bottom of the screen, you know exactly how far along you are, you can measure your progress, there are numbers. It's a special kind of satisfying. Plus, the environment changes as you level further, moving on to new places. Yrovi is stuck in Northrend, and the only guage she gets is the rep bar, which moves far too slowly for my tastes. :(

Now, I've run Alliance toons before, up to about level 25 (aside from Liir who started at 55, which I'm not going to count) and the unique starting areas for them are interesting enough. I'm starting to get into zones that are "contested", though, and I'm already familiar with them, but it seems new, now, with the other side's quests.

Hillsbrad, for example. I've run two blood elves, not to mention Yrovi, through this area. I'm intimately familiar with Tarren Mill and the surrounding countryside. I've killed farmers, yeti, lions, bears, and Alliance in those hills, and I've had fun doing so. Now, though, the farmers are friendly, Tarren Mill is something to avoid, and the yeti are still in my way, just for different reasons. It's bizzare and altogether interesting to see a different role and side to the story.

I also like to switch it up a bit with my toons, especially on this RP server. As in, none of them seem to want to do the starting quests for their area. Seona, a dwarf, went to live in the human lands; Leodry, a human, feels more at home amongst the dwarves (where he can drown his considerable sorrows in ale); Loem, another human, found his way to Teldrassil and hangs with the elves there. I'm familiar with the game. I know what I'm doing and I'm comfortable going to other areas to level up new toons. Loem is especially fun, as I've got a special backstory set for him.

I also like my characters on a server to all be connected somehow. I like strange, sometimes convoluted social webs. They don't have to center around my main, though they do on Gul'dan (not that it matters, as it's not an RP realm). On ED, though, it actually might make a difference on how my characters act. So, my character web as I see it right now, though it can change:

Seona (Dwarf Pally, Main) is friends with Fandren (Human Priest), as they studied together in the priesthood. Fandren, as a young man, met Leodry (Human Warrior, primary alt), a jaded, former soldier of Lordaeron who believes everything he cared about is dead and gone. He convinced Fandren to become a priest, and Fan convinced Leo to not give up, but move on... which sort of worked, as Leo moved on to the dwarven lands to live. Unknown to Leo, not all is lost, as his brother still lives amongst the elves. His brother, Loem (Human Rogue), was a squire who followed his knight into battle in Kalimdor all the way to the Night Elf kingdom. When his lord died in the war, he stayed behind, learning some rather interesting tactics from the Elves, like striking from cover and then fading away again into the shadows. He befriended Berryl (Nelf Hunter), who used to live on the Kalimdor mainland. She's become fast friends with the Draenei, but has helped Loem find a place amongst her people as well. She also tries to keep an eye out for any of her friend's family, like a brother, for example...

Now, from that, you can see that Senkka (Gnome Warlock) and Liir (Human DK) are still left out, and perhaps that's okay. Liir is just a farming/banking toon after all, though I've thought about having him have ties to the Church, thus knowing Fandren and Seona. Senkka is by far the oddest one out, although the path that Fandren is planning on walking down (Shadow Priest) means he might end up meeting some rather darker members of the Alliance, such as a warlock, another class that uses shadow magics. I can tie them in, it'll just take time.

So I'm not focused. I think maybe it's time to buckle down, figure out what I want from the game and start making some decisions based on that. Perhaps I need a schedule to keep me on target, like, say play certain toons only on certain days. Maybe I need to take a formal, complete break from the Horde side of things for a while, you know, make it official in some way, and just focus on powerleveling Seona and Co. for a bit. Maybe I'm still overthinking the whole thing and need to worry a whole lot less about it. It's probably going to be a moot point when I have to move into the new house in a month or two anyway.

Gold in Game, and How I View It

You may notice in my "What I Read" column on the side, I have a link to one Greedy Goblin called Gevlon. He's someone who enjoys making Gold in World of Warcraft, through the AH (which is by far the best way to do so), and has a certain philosophy about the game itself and the players in it. He's reached the gold cap before, though he's recently transferred to a new server to start again, and the transfer cap is 20,000 Gold, so he's back down again.

While I don't always agree with his views, I always enjoy reading his posts, both for his gold-making theories and ideas that he shares and for his thoughts on the game in general. In fact, he's recently joind a raiding guild, something I thought he'd never do, on his terms, as a raider and "banker," and it's gotten me thinking about how I make my own gold in game.

Unlike Gevlon, I thoroughly enjoy the vanity items in the game, especially mounts (he believes, and perhaps rightfully so, that they're not only a waste of gold, but of time and such, too). I know they don't add to my tanking abilities, or dps, or any other gameplay mechanic, but they're fun to collect. They also cost gold, and quite a bit of it once you get higher up the skill ladder. My very first toon I ever had was terrible, because I didn't understand the game mechanics as a newbie, and because I didn't know how to make gold or keep it on hand for things that were important, like repairs, training, and respeccing, as I spent it all on shiny things I saw.

I've learned that the AH is your friend, although it can also be a terrible temptation. I bought many of my upgrades when I hit 80, which is a good thing, even though at the time I didn't have epic flying, which I also wanted very badly. In fact, the flying skill was what drove me to discover better ways to make gold in game (thus finding the Goblin to start with). His views, though, have certainly made me stop and think about what I spend gold on and why I do so in the first place.

Yrovi spends gold on gear (when it's appropriate), gems and enchants, mounts and pets, and very occasionally on something for an achievement, if possible. I've recently rerolled on a new server, wanting to start over again to experience the game and story from the Alliance point of view. From what I've learned, both from experience and the Goblin, I knew I'd need a banking toon, an initial investment, and a certain mindset to keep myself from spending any gold I get on frivolus things (which has been the hardest of the three, to be honest). It's one thing to buy ten mounts in one day when you're at level cap with nothing better to do than dailies and working the AH. It's another thing entirely to "waste" gold while leveling, especially if the new toon is going to be a second "Main".

Seona, as a paladin, has certain perks. Her first mount, for example, was a trained ability, and it came with the initial riding skill free of charge. That's a huge boost right there, as the faster I move around, the better off I'll be (faster leveling/farming for mats/etc.). Even better, though, is my Death Knight banker. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned all the great reasons why a DK is one of the best banking toons ever in a previous post, so I won't do it again. I also mentioned that my DK, Ziir, will become a "farmer" going after plants and minerals/ores for my other toons. I'll take some time this week to level Seona further and begin his farming and skill-ups in the hopes that I can make some gold. Seona is going to become a jewelcrafter after all, now, so she'll need ore and gems.

Thanks to her mining and affinity for finding and getting to treasure chests, she has a small stockpile of low-level gems already. I'll follow a powerleveling guide to jewelcrafting to get her started as most of the low-level goods aren't worth keeping around. She'll drop Skinning, of course, as I have a hunter and a rogue with the same skill, and the hunter isn't that far behind on skinning. Once I have my two farmers ready to go (DK and Hunter), I'll spend a bit of time each day stockpiling goods for Seona.

I've even thought about having her get two crafting professions (blacksmithing and jewelcrafting), but that's probably too much strain this early in the game, though not if I can manage to find a niche market and stick with it. Of course, I don't even have 100G all together on this server, and I really need to start somewhere. Maybe I'll read over Gevlon's posts again to see what he did when he was challenged to start on a new server as a young toon for inspiration.

Leveling Gap?

So I've hit a leveling gap on Seona. She's sitting at 32, and I'm actually having a hard time finding quests that aren't red or orange. It's not that critical, I guess, but it's still unfortunate. Questing is by far the most efficient way for me to level up and I'm still desperately trying to hit level 40 so that I may finally interview with the members of the Kingship.

Of course, that's not to say that my quest log isn't full of quests. I have quite a few in there that are green. They're for the Stockades, and a few for Gnomeregan. Both of these are very Alliance-centric instances. In fact, I've only seen Stockades once, on Yrovi, on a wool cloth run. I don't know how difficult it is to find a group for these instances at their level, although I'd be willing to go as DPS or as a healer. I imagine it can't take long to do the instances, especially the Stockades. From what I witnessed on Yrovi, it's a short instance.

I'll need to go in with a very empty bag, though, since I have quests to gather up body parts from various inmates (mostly heads) and other items from the Defias inside. As I understand it, little good gear drops in Stocks, which is just one more reason why I think it might be very hard getting a group together to run it. Maybe I'll try this evening anyway. If it's anything like horde-side on my other server, though, I'll have no luck whatsoever.

I have been smart enough to at least have a few "healing" pieces of gear, mostly stuff with lots of Intellect and Spirit and such on it. Nearly all of it comes from quest rewards, but it's not bad. Verigan's Fist is a nice overall Paladin weapon, so I'll probably keep that on.

I feel a little guilty now about completely shelving Yrovi till I hit 40. Maybe I'll log on this weekend and at least run an instance or do some dailies, like maybe for the Argent Tournament, or for Netherwing. I plan to play them 50/50, but is it possible? Will I lose interest in one or the other? I'm hoping not.

I'm hoping that the roleplay aspect of the Kingship will keep me coming back for more and that being level 40 or 50 or 60 won't be an issue, provided I'm active in the various events and roleplay in general. I'll level quickly, I think, because it's all new. I've never played an alliance character this high before, not once, not even when I rolled my first character.

That's right. This self-proclaimed, die-hard Hordie's first character EVER in the World of Warcraft... was Alliance. A Night Elf, no less (No, not a hunter...). Her name isOpalandra, she's on a normal server, and she's a druid. I can't delete her, even though I long ago stopped playing her. The nostalgia is too great to do that. Still, it's sad that she just sits there, gathering dust. I only have so much time for them all, though, so what do I do. It's every altoholic's difficulty: balancig playtime amongst all your toons. Impossible to do, so many of them fall by the wayside, but I'll try anyway.

I may actually have to get a booklet where I log my playtime anyway. I've noticed that I spend far too much time playing and I think it's going to be an issue when I move into my new place. A house requires time and effort, from basic maintenence, like yard work and daily cleaning, to weekend projects (like modernizing the bathroom/kitchens). Bad time-management FTL.

Ah, well, that's for a whole other post on a whole other day.

P.S. It turns out I should have been in Southshore. Thanks to this lovely page on Wowwiki, I've realized that I've ignored Hillsbrad because when I was there 2-3 levels ago, I was too low, thus getting no quests. Now I'm just at the right level, so I should head back there. Who'd have thunk it.