Friday, April 24, 2009

Twinking Post 3.1

This past week, I had the pleasure and pain of taking my bank alt, Rowena, into her first Warsong Gulch in a very long time. Apparently, it had been so long, that when I was transported into the Horde Flag room, I discovered it. It took me until today to realize that I had taken her after I put the finishing touches on her gear, because how else would I have had the scout's medallion around her pretty little neck?

Back to the story. It was purely out of rage that I took her in, as most times are, because she is my frustration release. Not getting my way? Rowena comes out to play. This time, I was at home as my husband was out picking up his kids for the weekend. First of seven was home to watch Seventh of seven so that I could nap. I desperately needed a nap. So, hubby pulls out of the drive, and I prepare to log out by logging in Rowena to post auctions. Just as Rowena pulls through the nether and finds herself inside the Orgrimmar Bank, First of Seven's boyfriend walks through the door. He is a nice enough kid, very careful of respecting my wishes when I am within earshot, even to the point of steering my daughter away from stubbornly doing the opposite of what makes me happy. Now, as many parents of teenagers, I have been accused of "not trusting" my offspring, "not being fair", and been called many names. I don't nap when anyone else's kid is spending time under my roof and I am the only adult present. It isn't kosher. She tried to get me to take a nap, I told her my point, she got huffy, Rowena steered away from the auction house. She had just made an impulse buy of 14 explosive sheep, and she had found a perfect reason to use them. Rowena's operator, crankier than all, is more than into this foray into the battleground.

Rowena tells the battlemaster she is ready, and waits her summons. Less than a minute passes, and she is whisked into a battle that is almost won, with only one more flag needing to be run. She runs out to the middle, thinking they don't need a guard in the flag room at this point, and looks for an easy mark. Remember, friends, this is after the patch, and Rowena has taken a little ding. I say little, because even though this patch took away 500 health, 12 agility, and 10 haste rating, it did not take away enough to make me want to kill Rowena and redo her. Rowena got out there and did what she has always done best, making them run screaming after one sinister strike, then following them and finishing them off. Nothing wrong with this part of the game, she all of a sudden is mobbed by most of the other force, and sprints away with just a hair left on her health bar. Finally dropping combat, she stealths and sneaks into the flag room to bandage. No bandages, bad rogue, so she will have to report on whether she is still able to use heavy runecloth bandages another day. At that point, with half her health back, she runs back out to kill a few more, and someone gets past and gets the flag. Somehow, she catches up, and kills him.

Rowena is a great flag room guard. She likes to place a guard sheep near the flag and stealth near him, poised ready to sap and start ripping the enemy to shreds. So, sheep placed, she waits impatiently for the next flag runner. He shows up, and the sheep ignores him. WHAT? Rowena misses the sap she is so upset about the stupid sheep, and starts whaling on the carrier. She follows that sucker all the way to the gates of their flag area before she dies from lack of healing support. The flag is capped, and the flags are returned. If she could have gotten in just a couple more swings...crusader would have procced, and he would have been down. She shuffled back to her self assigned guard post, pulled out another sheep, and waited. Someone leaves the battle, and a new one arrives, pats the sheep on the head, and goes off to farm honor. Rowena skulks along the wall, waiting for another. The same person this time, the sheep continues to ignore them, but someone had been hiding upstairs watching, and jumped down to help. He got out to the first bit of green before she landed the killing blow, and returned the flag. The call from the rest of the players was to grab the flag and end this battle, so they did. Rowena didn't check her damage, she had done well for herself, and she knew it.

My thoughts? I could care less about the lost leg armor kit, the lost head arcanum, and the lost chest enchant. I may replace the chest enchant with the lesser absorption enchant, just because it is level appropriate and I have always wanted to play around with it. I can even deal with the fact that those nifty pair of boots in my bank from Nat Pagle she will never be able to wear. But the sheep?


WHY?!?!?!??!

On a side note, I have searched, mostly in vain, for this problem. A few people have had the same problem. It may not be a priority. PLEASE MAKE IT ONE! /batlashes

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Have Fun.

Back to work this week. It was inevitable. Someone has to feed these kids, right? That means I am busy catching up on all the pod casts I have been missing since Spring Break hit our household. Why didn't I listen during break? Let me draw you a diagram...
The size of the room? Just barely big enough to fit all those people. I tried shooing them outside, but they kept coming back. Why? Rock Band, Burnout Paradise, Super Mario Galaxy, and Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Boy on chair is attached to game boy when not in control of PS3, or illicitly using two of seven's psp. One of seven, and sometimes two of seven are usually involved with a psp, a cell phone, or a combination of these devices. Seventh of seven is busy making everyone else miserable by taking unused controllers and pushing all the buttons (She is three, it's what she does. She knows how to start her movies on the PS3, how to turn on the surround sound, and is learning how to run my laptop.). That leaves fourth, fifth, and sixth to fight over the gaming systems. And fight they do, until the settle on a title, crank the volume to an unacceptable level, and proceed to complain that so and so is cheating/is not sharing/is pushing all the buttons/sucks and shouldn't be playing. I could play the my-sound-system-is-louder-than-yours game, but I'm supposed to be the mature one. We leave that one up to the husband. I tried headphones, but seventh of seven decided to launch them across the room at me when she had her fill of Veggie Radio a couple of weeks ago, breaking a small bit of key plastic on each side of the headphones. They are now held together with binder clips, mostly because I don't want to take them to Best Buy and admit that, once again, I had to use the product replacement plan on them. Headphones are a problem with me. I want to keep these just a little longer, so it looks better on me (o.k. only I and my husband notice this, but still, I notice!).

Anyhow, that is my reason for not listening to many, if any, pod casts these past few weeks. My point is, I got to listen to Epic Dolls today, and Leala was talking about having fun in game. Having fun? I looked back at the past 3 weeks, and really, that is all I have been doing. Too sick to put up with the recent batch of departures in my main guild, I had rolled up Halinka and Minya on Shadowsong, playing with the Warcraft Outsiders guild (which, by the way, is also a fabulous podcast, and if you aren't listening, you should be!). I have been plotting ways to get achievements at crazily low levels, somehow making big enough amounts of cash to fund a couple of silly achievements (Stable Keeper and Plethora of Pets being the biggest ones), and chatting in guild chat when there were people to listen to me blather. I have logged into my Horde server, mostly to let them know I was still alive, and to do the daily cooking and fishing quests. I haven't had the time or the energy to do any long questing sessions, or run many instances, so it has been fun. But all fun must come to an end, and I think Halinka and Minya will not be seeing a whole lot of action in the next few weeks, as I concentrate on getting Delgada her Kalu'ak reputation for the fishing pole, keep up with cooking and fishing dailies in hopes of hats and mini pets and recipes, and maybe hit the Argent Tournament a week after the patch that put it in. Because, it's all about having fun, and let's face it, Delgada has all the fun. World Traveler, chef, master fisherwoman, zookeeper, and sometimes face melter, she too deserves to get out in the sun and have some fun.

Thanks, Leala, for putting it into words so I could understand it. And here I thought I was just pulling a classic bit of escaping!

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Cough Medicine

Minya uncurled herself carefully from around the sleeping form of her companion and set her hooves carefully so as not to disturb her cat. They had been hunting the elusive bargains at the auction house for weeks, setting traps carefully to lure people in to buy odds and ends Halinka had collected in her travels. It was boring. Minya's normally robust earthy tone had lost a few shades. The crystal dust still in the ventilation systems of the Exodar caused both of them to have a nagging cough that most remedies barely touched. Noone was meant to stay at the Exodar this long. It was a place to visit, understand, and get out of as quickly as possible.

She reached the small table she was using as kitchenette and pharmacy, and started to heat a pot of water. From one of the packages sent from Halinka, Minya pulled a few Silverleaf and a Peacebloom. She took her mortar and pestle and ground them into dust, which she put into the water, adding a bit of some dwarven stout and some honey. It was an awful concoction, but it helped somewhat. She poured a bit into a flask, took a swig, and tucked it into her hip pack for later, then quietly made her way to the mail box to see what treasures awaited her trading that day. A cough escaped as she emptied a couple large crates into her carisak, ducking her head into her shoulder to keep from offending anyone.

At the auction house, she put her wares up for sale, and collected sales made while she had been away. Bundling up the coin with a small exotic pet, she sent them on their way to Halinka, with the unspoken, "Get me out of here!" that always accompanied these payments. Halinka knew she was doing poorly, but didn't have much choice. Her travels kept her far from the Exodar, as they should, meeting all the peoples of the Alliance with hopes they would accept her self appointed status as ambassador of the Draenei. The humans and the night elves had been easy, but the gnomes were proving difficult. The dwarves would be alright, so long as Halinka conditioned herself to the ale they drank. Minya knew that was a problem, as that small bit of stout in her syrup was enough to make her happy, even in this dying spaceship.

Minya bundled up her carisak and shoved it into her hip pack, taking out the flask in the same move. Another tot of the sauce, and she was walking, if not as steadily, a little more spritely than before. She vowed to poke her head outside with her cat for a little hunting later that day. Maybe she'd even start fishing....

Sorry I haven't been posting lately. Spring break was not as fun as I remember it being! I have had the worst cold, followed by my husband changing laundry soaps on me while I wasn't shopping, left me miserable for my return to work. So miserable, in fact, that I missed the first half of the week, went back on Thursday, tried to go back Friday, and went home an hour later in fits of coughing with a fever. Hopefully, the fact that I am sitting here writing is a sign that I'm getting out of this, though my chest is heavy still, I am at least almost rested and not running a temperature.

Monday, April 13, 2009

Be Good At ONE Thing.

Today, while chatting with some of my new guild mates in the Illuminati Order on Shadowsong, one of them asked for help. "How can I make 60 gold fast?" One of the more seasoned crew spoke up, offering up the dailies on Quel'danas, or really questing in general. Then the question was asked,"Do you have any professions?". Go ahead, friends, guess the answer.

You guessed he said no? You were right. The necessity of having at least one highly skilled profession at 80 was extolled upon. Quests don't last forever, daily quests get monotonous, you don't have the attention span for the intricacies of certain dailies, whatever the reason, you need something to fall back on. Pick flowers, reel in fish, skin the dead animals left behind by someone. You have to do something. I thought about this for some time as I mindlessly cast spells at mountain lions, directed children in needed chores, slathered on calamine lotion, and cried during the end bits of "Beauty and the Beast". You don't necessarily have to be good at any profession that is tracked on your character sheet. You could make some seed money questing, send it to a bank alt of your choice, and make your money buying low and selling high on the auction house, stashing away good deals for opportune moments (small eggs at Christmas, snowballs for year round pet and costum use). You could become the expert wheedler, able to get money out of anyone and make them feel you were doing them the favor. You could charge for your healing or tanking skills (sorry DPS, you are expendable, a dime a dozen, and worth about that to any group) . You could charge lowbies for instance runs. You could run dungeons alone and grab twink level bind on equip gear to sell. You could even run a travel service, complete with in flight meals (yes, mages, that was a poke in your direction). Whatever the case, in order to get into any decent end game, you have to be good at SOMETHING!

So, what are you good at?

Thursday, April 9, 2009

HORSEY!


4 ponies into the 10 mount achievement, Halinka ponders shipping out for Darnassus to get exalted there, and buy all the kitties. Stay tuned...

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Looking Back At The Reputation Grind.

Yesterday, I posted a list of steps to take to level reputation with a faction. Today, Halinka left the inn, put on her running shoes, stopped by the mailbox to clean out her bags, and looked to her "GPS" device to guide her to her next area. She then snorted, stomped her hoof, and said, "Forget that!", and promptly set her goal to sailing to Auberdine instead of the intended Wetlands. Why did she do that? Well, I think she secretly wants all the mounts, and Auberdine did offer a little Stormwind reputation, but it also offered some Darnassus reputation, which she was almost out of honored with. So, Halinka has about finished with Auberdine, and, though she should probably be gaining some experience points as well, may just sail over to Darnassus and spend some time finishing off the Night Elf starter area first. So, she shall once again be following that short, easy to use list, using her GPS to make her questing more efficient, and sending the detritus to Minya. She is gaining a lot of rested bonus as she puts up the auctions and sends the cash back(with the occasional non-combat pet) to Halinka.

If you didn't get a chance to read yesterday's post, I think it was short, sweet, and to the point, and a decent guide to getting the job done. If you did, forgive my rambling, as I have already nudged my guide to leveling reputation on Twitter (twice-once earlier today and once coming along here again quickly!) and on my signature image at the end of my horde guild forum posts.

Oh, and Halinka's progress on Stormwind Reputation? At 10:30 pacific standard time, she had only a smidge more than 1000 to go. Auberdine turned out to be a great idea after all!

Steps to Leveling Reputation



I figured I'd do my homework assignment for the 31 Days to a Better Blog today on Reputation. Since Halinka is working desperately to reach exalted with the Stormwind faction near her 30th birthday so they will sell her a Black Stallion, this seemed like a good time to break my plan of attack down into a list.

  1. Research. I started off by visiting WoWhead and browsing for factions. I found Stormwind, and there it was, my list of quests that give reputation. I prioritized them by level, and left it up in my browser for reference.
  2. Prepare. Stop by the auction house and purchase as many needed items as you can for the area you are traveling to. This could be pig snouts, cloth, a bronze tube, whatever. This will cut down on time grinding for drops, which will speed you along. If you don't have one already, set up a character you can send items to so you don't have to take unnecessarily long breaks. If you haven't thought of it already, get a good helper add-on such as Carbonite or Quest Helper to guide you to quests you aren't familiar with, to save time.
  3. Travel. Start walking, riding, or flying if you are so fortunate, to the quest area. If you are flying, take the opportunity during this down time to gather real world supplies, such as snacks, drinks, or any child laborer who might be helping with this project.
  4. Turn in. If you have the items to complete a few quests on arrival, do it!
  5. Quest. Make sure your bags are empty, and with the guide as your plan of attack (I use Carbonite), hit up as many quests as your bags will allow. When your bags are full, go back to step 3 and repeat through 5.
That's all there is to it. Today, Halinka is waiting for me to log in and finish out Redridge Mountains, then return to Darkshire to finish up a few quests that were out of her reach. Then she is off to Wetlands, to work on the Missing Diplomat quest chain. She hit 30 last night, roughly 8000 reputation short of her goal. I doubt she will have the needed reputation before level 32, but I don't mind "hoofing" it just a little longer (ha ha I know Draenei humour, make sure to tip your waitress, I'm here all night!), if that means that she gets a horse instead of an elekk.

I shouldn't keep Halinka waiting. Though her name means calm, I think she was named rather hastily...

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

31 Days...

I have decided to go ahead and try and make this blog better, and have enlisted the help of Problogger and his 31 days to a Better Blog series. My first assignment is to create an "Elevator Pitch", or rather, a quick something to make someone want to look further into what my site is about.

I've never really "pinned down" what I write about here. So, here is what I think I have here in this mess of a blog.

  • Altitis. A very bad case of altitis has me switching characters every once in a while. Lately, my focus has been on priests. That could change, since I also have a rogue, warrior, shaman, mage, warlock, and paladin all within a few steady weeks of hitting 80.
  • Exploration. Not just in the sense of, "Look I've seen all the land masses, and I've visited the dancing troll village!". But in the sense that I explore other things. Fashion, travel, relationships, role play... There is a little of everything in here.
  • Family and how they affect and effect my game play. They effect it by allowing it. They affect it by what interrupts it :)
  • Random real life and internet fun. Because we all need a real life!
So, I guess my elevator pitch could be:

Escapist Scrawl is an altaholic's view of the World of Warcraft, interrupted by children, husband, and the ever present Stumble Upon button!

Maybe? We'll see. I may need to think more on this.

So, You Don't Want Your Racial Mount...

When I play Alliance side, I usually play a Draenei. I like the look, that they don't look too human. Which is why I normally play Horde characters. Every Draenei I have that I intend to get past the age of riding, decides early what factional mount she must have. Why? Because, I hate the Elekk mount. It's way too big, it's ugly, and it just doesn't fit through all the doors. Esoterique, my first Draenei to get a mount, finished exalted with Darnassus just a few points into level 30. For a Draenei, Darnassus may be the next easiest to grind, as that is the next logical area for them to quest.

For my newest Draenei, Halinka, we are working on Stormwind reputation. She wants a black stallion. So, she must find the best way to level in that reputation. As I did with Esoterique, I have done with Halinka. The minute she was "done" with Bloodmyst Island (there are a few group quests she will go back for later) she started her journey to the appropriate starter zone. For Halinka, this was Ellwyn Forest. She made her way to the abbey and did all the quests there. From there, she got her two pointer quests to go to Goldshire, travelled there, grabbed quests, and worked her way to finishing all of them(most, anyhow. she still hasn't got the deed to drop yet, but got the gold schedule!). At level 20 doing all these quests, they were knocked out pretty quickly. She received her pointer quests to Westfall and skipped merrily there. In Westfall, the quests started giving almost normal experience again, as they were closer to her level. Since she was already high enough level to go to Redridge, she already had her pointer quest to it, and she worked her way around Westfall eventually finishing everything but the escort quest and the treasure map (have I mentioned that, although I love my plushie, I hate murlocs?). On to Lakeshire in Redridge Mountains, where we were high enough, again, to pick up a boatload of quests. One of them had us on a trip to a few places to pick up booze for the inn, so we started off in Stormwind, and set our tracker to low level quests. We finished off those, picked up the wine from Gallina's, then walked to Goldshire to deliver a few items and pick up some more licquor. Then it was back to Stormwind, where I bought the wool for the cloth turn in, emptied my bags (sent all the low level cloth and meat to my hunter to help her level her professions), and flew to Westfall to start walking to Darkshire. Since I had already done the quest for the brew in Wesfall, I didn't have to do it for this quest. I grabbed the shine and the flightpoint, and flew back to Lakeshire.

In Lakeshire, we did as many quests as we could reasonably do at our level, then moved to Darkshire. As I write this, Halinka has finished all but one Stockade quest, has finished the Deadmines, and is back in Lakeshire to do some of the quests that she left behind, since everything in Darkshire is now orange or red. She was fortunate to find a paladin soloing Mor'Ladim, and was able to get an invite as he went down. Finishing that quest off early is a wonderful thing, as it is so hard to find a group for anything at this low level anymore. Her reputation bar, at level 28, sits at halfway through revered. With any luck, she'll hit exalted not too long after 30! Black Stallion, here we come! Maybe at 60, she'll want a cat....

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Vacationing in Shadowsong

I'm on spring break. My body figured this out the minute I closed my kitchen on Friday. I swear my nose was runny and my throat had that "you're getting a sore throat ha ha" feeling as Idrove out of the staff parking lot. Even though Delgada has the horrendous Hodir reputation grind ahead of her, not to mention finishing out Kirin Tor and Argent Dawn for the spell threads, I just haven't felt like playing alone. So, I joined the Illuminati Order on Shadowsong with my priest, Kalinka. She's 21 now, and doing pretty well. I even started a hunter, named Minya, and got my daughter started on hubby's account with her own hunter, who shall remain nameless, mostly because she has been happy to have the same name on each server she rolls on, and I don't want to spoil it! We also made Death Knights, mostly so we can do dungeon drags for the lower levels. I won't broadcast our names, as, again, they are belonging only to us. Daughter has the corner on her name, with one result (her other has been off for too long to show), and mine with two. You find a good name, and you stick with it!

That is why I haven't posted much. Been busy leveling, coughing, nursing a teenager, chasing a toddler, and dog sitting. All 21 levels I have had an old-fat-cat-hating dachsund, a hyperactive aging chihuahua, and a very old small mixed breed sitting at or on my feet, in my lap, or on my shoulders. My poor kitty has been locked in my back room for over a week, until the dogs go back home with my father in law, and then she gratefully comes out, eats and does the little things she needs to do, and perches on the back of a couch. I feel so bad for her. I'm sure she doesn't mind in the slightest. A quiet room with a view, no kids or animals to bother her, and unlimited napping time? Maybe I don't feel sorry for her, but I am a little jealous now!


This coming week, my plans are to work on my second raised bed garden, catch up on my favorite podcasts, and get Kalinka and my daughter to at least 40. I also plan to kick my cough syrup habit, introduce my kids to manual labor by making them clean up the yards, and find new blogs to add to my reading list. Maybe I'll squeeze in some Rock Band, if I stop breaking into coughing fits. So, if you have any suggestions for blogs I should be reading, leave me a comment!