Treasures Untold

So in preperation for my move into my new house, I've obviously been packing up all my stuff. I had no idea I owned all this junk, but I do and I've got to pack it all up. While packing, though, I discovered a box in my garage with lots of old software and manuals, including Heroes of Might and Magic I, II, and III along with some of their paperwork, like the quick-guides and such. Heroes of Might and Magic was the first series that I became truly obsessed with, starting with Heroes I and every installment since then (that was Mac compatible, of course). These turn-based strategy games were my first serious foray into computer gaming and I'd stay up for hours late at night playing, trying to beat the computer.

Now, the old disks obviously don't play on any new Mac, ever since they switched over to OS X. But, because I'm a crazy Mac lover, along with my parents, I still have my ancient iMac. You remember those? The ones that were all bubble-shaped and colorful? Well, mine wasn't exactly colorful since it's "graphite" or grey, but, hey, it's old and it still works. I dusted it off and plugged it in and heard that glorious startup sound. Ah, memories. :D

I'm pretty sure the internal battery is shot, though, because it thought it was December 30, 1969 and the hard drive was named some strange string of numbers and symbols or something, but I fixed it all up, popped in the disk and fired up the game. Ah, to hear the midi music and see the crappy animations and sprites gave me a little bubble of joy! For a game from 1995 (I can't believe it's over 10 years old now!), it's addicting. I decided to run the campaign and started as the Knight, since they have the cheapest units. "Lord Ironfist" built up his castle and took the central town on the map, earning victory! /cheer

I started the second map of the campaign, but since it was getting late, I saved and shut down. While it's certainly no WoW, it is tons of fun. I have Heroes II and Heroes III as well, and I think I still have Heroes IV on my shelf in my room. Freeverse semi-recently released Heroes V for Mac, but it's plagued a bit by bugs in the software, which is a real shame. I bought it anyway, of course, as a download on my laptop. :D

I think as a side thing, especially until I get internet installed in my place, I'll be running through the campaigns of the games, especially Heroes III. I personally think that III was the absolute best of the entire series, the most polished. Pity I don't have the expansions for it (and checking amazon.com, the mac version of Heroes III complete is about $150!!! Geeze!!). Well, probably a good thing, otherwise I'd probably hardly ever play WoW again. lol

To Exalted: the Rep Grind

Yrovi is working her way towards a Netherwing drake. They're quite striking and beautiful, I think, and it's something I didn't do when Burning Crusade was the current content. There are days when I wish I had started playing earlier, or had rerolled earlier, or started playing during beta when I really wanted to... well. Hindsight is 20/20, right?

There are several reasons why we choose to grind reputation in WoW, though it's usually for some kind of reward, like a new mount, or special enchants (Sons of Hodir, anyone?), or for achievements. Regardless, nearly all rep grinds start at Neutral and you move your way through the ranks to Exalted. To get fully Exalted with a faction, you have to accumulate points of reputation (Neutral to Exalted). Neutral is 3,000 points and can often be done in a single day, maybe two; Friendly is 6,000 points; Honored is 12,000 points; Revered is 21,000 points; and Exalted is 999 points. You're considered Exalted by the game the moment you get that 42,001 point, but to do it "properly" you go ahead and the the rest of those points. I mean, since you just grinded out over 42,001 points, what's another 998, right?

For me, the hardest bit is getting through Revered. Neutral and Friendly takes very little time, and Honored just twice as long as that, generally. If I'm really focused on gaining rep with a certain faction, getting through Honored goes fast. It's when I get to Revered that I always plateu. It takes forever! Perhaps it's because the daily quests (or, gods forbid, the total killing grind) are stale by this point and 21,000 points are obviously going to take longer to accrue than the 18,000 I had just gotten. Getting to Revered with some factions is all it takes, depending on their rewards, especially in Northrend, but there are some great vanity items at Exalted that I want at some point.

Like the Netherwing Drakes. In fact, there are no other rewards from this faction, just the drake, at Exalted. It's otherwise a completely pointless grind. It's interesting, though, from a lore perspective. Outland is unique in that it is a seperate planet, completely removed from the Old World of Azeroth. It's a little forgotten, to be honest, especially its lore, except by the countless Death Knights that level through there, not that any of them care about the lore. There are other factions in Outland that give rewards, though they are all outdated at this point, aside from the vanity items, like pets (sporebat baby?) and mounts (Cenarion Hippogryph, something I'll get eventually).

I haven't been playing like I used to, haven't had time to spend hours doing daily quests. Still, I much prefer those to simply a kill grind. Getting a nice chunk of rep all at once is nice, and is more satisfying for me, although the constant, slow increase that a kill grind gains is also easily measured. I think the only drawback is, of course, that it's terribly boring and certain classes with nice damage and AoE capabilities have a distint advantage. Pre patch 3.0, my prot warrior would have been the worst possible toon for a kill grind, although it's much better now with shockwave and thunderstomp and cleave. Having a Fury build as my secondary talent tree is nice, too, with whirlwind. But kill grinds are terrible for me, personally, so I'll stick to daily quests.

According to WoWJuJu.com, a lovely reputation calculator site, I have about 5 days left to get to exalted with the Netherwing. That's only if I do all the dailies each day. Probably not going to happen, just because those dailies are actually quite time-consuming. They require a bit of travel and three of them are underground, where I can't use a mount, so they take quite a bit longer to complete. The rest are just generally time-consuming, requiring travel.

Regardless, I'll be done soon enough, and won't ever have to go back there. I'll get my free drake, buy the rest, and put Outlands behind me again for awhile. At some point, I'll go back for Sporregar and Cenarion Circle reputation, but I'm not ready for those, yet. Those involve kill grinds/instance grinds and I just don't want to do it, not right now. I have rep to gain in Northrend.

Like the Oracles, which I still haven't done, and Argent Crusade, Wyrmrest, Kirin Tor, etc. I've been taking my sweet time with everything, and it's time I either stepped up or shut up, especially when it comes to heroics and badges. I say to myself, "Hey! I want to raid!" but I don't put forth any of the effort to actually prepare for it, like gearing up. Supposedly, I could run it now. I'm defense-capped, after all, and I've been told that 10-man regular Naxx is easy mode. Still, I know for a fact I could still use work, and I hardly have the best entry-level raiding gear available. I don't even have my gun, yet, and that's a major upgrade seeing as it's a BiS item for a tanking warrior who hasn't raided, yet. Heck, maybe it's BiS until Ulduar. I don't know. I haven't raided! :/

Whatever. Like I said, it's time I either put up or shut up. Either I start running 5-mans again, or I don't mention it anymore and rely on reputation gear and other such things. Hell, there's still plenty to do if I don't end up raiding. There's my offset to complete. There's rep to grind, which is what this little post is more or less about, and there's still tons of achievements to get. I won't be bored, I won't be quitting, and I won't get tired. But, really, if I'm going to get stuff done, I need to prioritize. Drake? Or PuGing another Heroic run? Oracles Rep, or farming mats for the tanking gun? Decisions to make, and time to make them while I go poison a few more grunts. I mean, really, with only 5 days worth of dailies left, I might as well do them. ;-)

Yrovi Says Hi

Managed to jump on WoW this weekend for a few hours, including my recently ignored main. Yrovi worked on some Argent Tourney stuff, then tried to hop over to Outlands to fly to Shadowmoon valley and see those Netherwing dragons. Unfortunately, she didn't actually get that far. I was interrupted on the way, having to stop in Terrokar, so that was a little unfortunate.

Still, she's on her way, so when I log on her again, I'll head to Shadowmoon to do more undercover work. I figure I have a week's worth of dailies to still do to get exalted. I may try to do the cannon questline in order to speed it up a touch, but the mats needed are a pain the behind to get, I think. We'll see. I need those dragons for the 50 mount achievement (bought the white skeletal warhorse from the Argent Tourney, so I think I still need 19 more... it's sexy). I need to speed it up anyway, seeing as patch 3.2 is going to expand the tourney again. I'm always falling behind with this stuff.

Forgot just how much gold I have thanks to dailies on Yrovi. I've been playing on ED, which has more or less been a complete re-roll for me, trying to figure out the market and such, and it's shocking to realize I have around 2k gold available, suddenly. I've also been trying to get enough materials to craft a sweet tanking gun using my neutered profession, as it's something I could really use for stats and such. Too bad the mats are crazy expensive or I'd farm more in order to sell the guns for profit. It'll require a farming run in Wintergrasp for eternals, though, soon. I need water and air (15 of each, damn) for the gun. I have the titanium (10 bars needed) thanks to a good price on the AH, as well as the saronite (easy to farm, had tons of that, needed 20 bars), and just need to snag a frozen orb (either from a heroic run or from the AH). The final part is a vendor item, so that'll be that.

I'll get a nice, big Stamina gem for the gun once it's done (would love a Stormjewel, but too expensive and I'm not that lucky). I've got to increase my health pool somehow, as I'm still terribly lacking in that department. I'm also tempted to buy the Troll axe from the tournament as an upgrade to my current one. The Red Sword is obviously better, but that relies on a drop and one from a Heroic I don't think I'm ready for, seeing as I haven't run any 5-man content in awhile. I practically need to start over again and run the basic heroics for badges and such before I do anything else. Something like Utgarde Keep and the Nexus, easy stuff to get back in the groove, with nice, easy badges. There are still plenty of upgrades in these instances, too, when it comes to drops, especially if I want to flesh out my off-set, as it's comprised of mostly quest stuff atm. At least the Sen'jin axe would look freaking sweet. ;-)

I think I even have the tokens for it, even with my mount purchase. If I don't I will in a couple days of work, no problem. One day, if I manage to get a group for the [Threat From Above] quest. The one good thing about taking a long break from Yrovi is that the Tourney quests are still interesting and fun. They were getting stale earlier.

Seona also leveled and is sitting at 37, nearly 38, in Theramore. Keeping her rested, I think I'll make 40 by the weekend. Hopefully then I can take an hour or so to speak with the recruiter and make my way into my dream guild. :) All my other toons are taking a break till this happens, I think, aside from Opalandra. She also leveled this weekend. I think bouncing between these toons will keep the two leveling ones rested well enough to make their journey short and sweet. Also, short quests I can complete in the morning before work? Yes, please, give more.