What I've Been Doing: March Edition.

Look, he's smiling!

Delgada has been a busy bee these past few weeks.  You'd think that me having a spring break of two long weeks would mean I would write something on this musty old blog. I meant to, but I just couldn't find the time, what with DMV appointments and swim meets.  I wanted more play time, and I threw this old book aside to do it.  Sorry about that.  I'll try not to let it happen again.

So, back to Del.  She achieved many things recently!  This morning she gave the Klaxxi their last shipment of pumpkins, got the Wakener title and is exalted with those icky bugs.  The only reason she has to go back there is that achievement you get for running 5 quests with every buff (she still needs 4). She reached exalted with the August Celestials yesterday.  She has been running and running, and flying, and throwing shadow spells all over the place.  She has been working on about every faction she should be working on.  Since she has knocked two of them off her list, that leaves Dominance Offensive, the Sunreaver Onslaught, Shado Pan and Shado Pan Assault.  Since vacation is over, Del is lucky to get The mainland Pandaren factions done, farm, and make a bit of silk before I'm done for the night.  During vacation, she ran them all, and the ones that she wasn't exalted with yet, and joined LFR, and did some scenarios, and did some pet battling...phew! Near wore me out, that undead girl did.

Fireworks and Dancing and Drinking, Whee!

Delgada got some really nice gear upgrades, including a Sha-Touched mace.  She promptly had me look up what Mr Robot thought about her gear, and about 4,000 gold worth of gem changes and reforges and enchants later, she was almost ready for current content.  Then my friend made her a red fan to replace her umbrella, and everything needs to be changed again.  Since she is saving up for two faction mounts, she decided she was fine as is and that I could wait to fix her problems, since they will probably need changing again after this weekend is through.

Del and her Sha-touched mana fiend.

A bi-product of having run all these daily quests for everyone and their plumber is that Delgada has piled up enough cloth to do her daily silk spinning for many days to come.  She has enough enchanting materials for about any enchant she needs to place (save for the weapon enchant, that bugger is pricey!) on new gear.  She was even kind enough to place veggies and meats and fishes she found in her bags in the bank to make huge feasts for guild runs.  She has piled up about about a quarter of the currency needed to get the rodent crate for another pet (yay for pets!).  Sadly, enchanting her weapon cost her all the silk she was saving up for when she learned this pattern, and now she has to wait a while to be able to make it without spending her pile of harmony.

Still, though Delgada has been a busy little gal lately, there is much yet to be done.  My guild is looking toward running our first almost current content raid tomorrow night!  As excited as I am, real life has busted in, and I am sure I won't be able to join them, because I have family all over the place this weekend (silly me, it's Easter weekend, what should a girl expect anyhow?)  Thankfully, my sporadic raid attendance won't lose me a spot in the guild, so thanks guys, and hope you all have fun without me! Next week will be better, I promise (crossing fingers). If I have time, I promise to go do that fishing in Northrend I said I'd do to make up for not being around.  Deal?

That's all I have for now. It is about two hours past my normal bed time, and I still have things left undone that cannot wait until tomorrow.  Have the time of your life on Azeroth and Earth, and Del will join you in searching for eggs next week!

Stomping Compys Stinks, But Exploring Is Fun!

Why would anyone want to kill those cute little baby raptors anyway?  Still, Zul'Jin is a might busy server to try and do this daily on at any time of the day.  I found a way to do it while running with my friend, another shadow priest.  We sat at two spawn points and targeted each other, then spammed Mind Sear.  This way, when they spawned, we had them.  Of course, that means your partner has to be on that casting bar and refreshing it constantly, or you lose your compys to some moonfire spamming chicken moose or hellfire spamming warlock.  GRRR.

The edge of conquered territory.

Anyhow, while trying to find my way up a wall/mountain to grab a piece of a statue's hair, I approached the edge of conquered territory, and I found a cave.

Killing bad Mogu Slavers.

So I went in.  And I killed bad Mogu who were enslaving sad looking lizard people.  When I freed them, they went off and helped me kill more Mogu.  Not complaining, because the Black Prince likes me killing Mogu, I went along with it, explored the cave until I found an exit.

Exploring unvisited territory.

And then I found this cool looking door I could open.  So, I had to open it.

Open Sesame!

 You can't just open a door and not go in, right?

The Thunder Forge!?

I then decided, since something so cool must certainly have something more than just this inside, to look at my map and see where I was.

Oops.

I was exploring in forbidden territory. How exciting!  I poked around a little more, just because what else was there to do after doing the Isle of Thunder dailies?  I'm in no hurry with anything else.  I have no raid to run, no gear score to meet, no professions left to cap.  I'm free to explore!  And so, I did.

Cool looking Mogu Bad Guy just waiting for someone to kill him.

Another cool looking Mogu in the way of a pet battle waiting to happen.

Just outside the cave.  Neat stuff!

So, I feel like a really bad person now, which is kind of exciting.  I didn't exploit anything to get here, just was using my familiar levitate spell on the water going around the coast looking for a climbable rock face to get somewhere else and ended up here. Outside the cave were a few summoning stones to use with those Shan'ze Stones.  Maybe that is why this area was accessible.  Anyhow, my bad girl days are over and I won't go back there again until we open it up for real.  In the mean time, I will be focusing on Domination Point and heading over to the dino island because I haven't been there yet.  That should keep me out of trouble!

PWI: Still Beautiful.

Level 48 is where I left off in this game.  I felt under-powered.  I was tired of dying.  I ran out of mana every third mob.  Still, I planned on coming back, because I love the artwork of the game.  I love the clothes! I like the music, too, but have to turn it off if I plan to play more than an hour, because it makes me sleepy!  That said, if I need something to make me sleepy, all I have to do is put up a cat shop and leave the game running in the background for some great music!

Things haven't changed much in this game.  I was given a spirit and guardian charm when I returned, and life is so much easier with these!  They last for 24 hours, and what they do is replenish your health and mana when they hit 50%, as often as every 10 seconds.  They have a maximum amount they replenish, so it is possible to just stand and grind out monsters for hours and run it out quickly.  The time runs while you are offline, so when I logged in this time they were gone.  I did get close to level 50 with a combination of those and some fruit that granted experience and spirit points.  Progress, no matter how small, is good for me!  Oh, and those charms?  I guess characters under a certain level receive a quest daily called Fortune's Bounty that gives the charms to help catch up.  I just found that out while typing this. Yay for freebies!  The same items sell for about a dollar apiece on the cash shop.

As for combat, either my skills have improved or the mobs aren't as hard to kill.  My guess are that my skills are improving.  As a cleric, my main attack is Plume Shot.  I keep that on cool down and when my health starts dipping I use Ironheart Blessing for a heal over time.  I have many other skills, but why waste my spirit points on them?  I'll probably have to invest them in healing skills eventually, but I need a more powerful Plume Shot, especially not being in a guild and needing to solo a lot.

Storage is a tight situation in this game.  You get a limited bank, limited bag space, and more is available through the cash shop by purchasing storage stones to turn in to unlock them.  There is, however, additional bank storage to be had by collecting low level items from mobs (or buying them from cat shops).  The list is long, and without a large amount of coins or some luck grinding level 20-27 monsters, this could take a while.  I am still trying for this, because a storage stone is 3 bucks for 8 slots, or twelve to max it out at 80 slots.  A wardrobe stone, which I will be investing in, is 3 dollars for 4 complete outfits stored, and a pretty good deal.  Just doing that frees up about 8 slots in my cramped bags.  Good choice?

Another thing I hear that frees up inventory space is getting killed by a player.  Did you know you can loot players?  In Perfect World, items drop when you kill a monster and sometimes, depending on how notorious they are, from a player.  Here explains the PK system.  There are items that can bind important pieces to you, making them safe from PK.  I would suggest if you get something that is really good to bind it right away (mounts, gear, expensive wardrobe items).  Or, put them in the bank.  I won't be flagging myself for PvP anytime soon, so I feel pretty safe on my PvE server, Raging Tide.  Still, I have to expand my bank soon.  I don't want to lose my new coat!

I haven't abandoned WoW.  There is still so much to do!  Sometimes I need to change vacation spots for a few days to lose the blahs that go with doing a lot of the same things every day.  So, from Eromee in her Perfect World, here's to a great wardrobe day every day.  Make sure to stop and smell the flowers!

How To Dig.

Ugh.  Cymre encountered the same fun dig site Delgada found last night, in the Feeding Pits.  It is difficult to dig for artifact fragments when there are baby kunchong nipping at your ears, hands, ankles, and pretty much any tasty looking part of your body.  I think Del found the best way to dig at this site, as a priest.  The first part involves digging at an area where you have cleared the mantid away on the outer edges of the ring.  It will tell you to go into the ring to dig.  Mount up and fly to the approximate dig location and let the bug de-buff knock you off your mount.  If you timed it right, the kunchong babies will be milling around the outer edge of the pit. Dig quickly, get your prize or coordinates, dig again.  By this time the kunchong are starting to nibble your elbows.  Fear them away. Follow your dig directions or collect your prize, then bubble and run out to where you cleared  and keep running until you drop combat.  Rinse and repeat.  This works best if you have the talent that adds speed to your bubble.  Don't wait too long to cast that fear or bubble.  These guys stun!

I know this sounds sloppy, but darn it all, that dig site will be there until you clear it, and what if, what if, it has all sorts of fun extra special archaeology amber bits hiding in there?  It must be thoroughly searched and cleared!  Her next dig site was right next to the pits.  I am pretty sure someone in Blizzard Headquarters has a camera trained on this dig site to watch us kill ourselves getting our little pieces, and they are laughing their heads off watching us flail about.

Under the category of if it was hard to get it must be worth having, Del managed to dig up the pieces to this bad boy last night.

Del can't use it, and my hunter is about 20 levels shy of being able to use it herself.  If you hop over to Cymre's post she describes it in detail.  Time to level the hunter earnestly!  Del dug up the sword as well, which finishes out the rare items available in Mantid archaeology (hoping that is only a "for now" statement).  She did manage to get a pristine Kypari Sap Container, at least I think that is what it was.  When Delgada threw away the garbage and dusted off the shelf of honor, she put it down and it glowed like a lamp.  Del was a little frazzled from that dig site still, so it could be a lamp.  Heck, it could be anything.  I think she may be done with Mantid archaeology for a while.

Take some time and sit under the sap trees in Townlong Steppes today.  The pollen that falls from the branches is fragrant, and there is a cool breeze blowing today. Consider it my prescription for a much needed mana recharge. Delgada will be at the tree behind Niuzao Temple, ankle deep in the pond, fishing. She'll save a spot for you on her blanket next to the water.  Stop by and say hi!

Transmog Gear On The Isle Of Thunder

There are three cloth sets that just grabbed me when I started looting them on the Isle of Thunder. I love them so much that I mogged my PvP gear into one of the sets.  Here is Delgada in most of the Faded Spirit-Wrencher set.

Apparently it's a re-run of a set from Zul-Aman, except the shoulders seem to be a re-run from old Zul-Gurub.  The shoulders and the belt shown in this picture are vendor gear and not part of the set.

The other sets available are a re-color of the one above called the Forlorn Spirit-Wrencher set and a totally different design called the Exiled Dabbler's set.  Historically, the items that pre-date these were never part of a "set", as they dropped at different levels between 60 and 85.  I am glad they made these all drop in the same area, so as to make them easier to farm.  It is a great look, though one I haven't gathered any of, yet.  Seems that others like the look as well as I do, because they are out of my price range on the auction house!

I tried to load up this set on WoW Model Viewer but could not find the set in the files.  Then I had this fabulous idea of loading it up with the old set items, only to have the model viewer tell me it doesn't support my version of World of Warcraft.  I guess I will have to be a little more on top of updating my add-ons and model viewer when we get new patches!

I have to admit I haven't looked at the other types of armor available on the island yet.  Do I care?  A little.  I have an up and coming hunter and a rogue that may need a new look soon.  They're just a little too far off to be looking at gear from the Island of Thunder.  So, until then, I leave you abruptly having only covered the cloth gear.  Have a great day exploring Azeroth!

Something Different.

I have a human priest in a mash-up of different green items, in protest of the sameness of all that is the leveling and dungeon sets. My favorite piece that she has equipped is the Sanguine Armor. There is a set that goes with this, and I love the coloring of it, so much so that I decided this may be Delgada's next look.  Here is a screenshot of Sim-Del running on a beach in Pandaria with this set equipped, and a few accessories.

Sim-Del is wearing the Sanguine Regalia with the chest piece instead of the robe and has the Anzac Dagger in her right hand and a Consortium Crystal in her left hand. She is wearing an Amber Filigreed Shirt under it all to help tie in the shoulders and cloak.  Her head piece is hidden, but she did try on a few, just for kicks, and here are her favorites.  She may never get either one, but they are still great options!

The Firehawk Hood is only available to mages.  Does this mean Delgada cannot use it for transmogrification?  No clue.  If you are a mage, it's a great match, if not a bit fancy to go with the rest of the outfit.

The Spellpower Goggles Xtreme are a great match, if you are an engineer.  Guess Del will be going hatless, as usual.

How can you get these fabulous items?  Sanguine armor pieces drop from level 21-30 mobs in Kalimdor.  The dagger drops from level 61-71 mobs in Outland.  The offhand drops from the same mobs as the dagger.  The Firehawk Hood is sold by the Justice Quartermaster in your faction's main city.  The goggles can be made by an engineer that has a skill of at least 225.

Of course, all but the mage headpiece could possibly be found on the auction house.  Here is to a little luck and a big enough coin purse.  Have a great day in Azeroth and on Earth.  See you in game!

Early Crops Don't Count.

See those scallions?

Those scallions are a place holder for some more leeks.  I'm not sure if I harvested those leeks before or after I picked up the follow up work order to harvest and deliver them, so I could be wrong.  The leeks already in my bag count toward the final crop count, though.  Stinking farm work.  Do you know how hard it is to clean Pandarian mud out of Del's finger joints?  You probably don't want to know.  Edit:  Bursting crops really don't count if you pick them right then and there, even with the harvest and collect quest accepted.

On another topic, do you know how many Redbelly Mandarin fish you need to fish up before you anger Krakkanon?  

That many...

...and one Flying Tiger Gourami, and about 6 crates.  Then, you get killed because you are alone, and practically naked in your fishing hat and carrying a fishing pole.  Unsuspecting, innocent Delgada, dies yet again, is raised and is triumphant over a giant fish.  Hoorah!  For her trouble she gets a fishing journal and...more fish! Fantastic.  Of course, she forgot to take a picture, but isn't the journal and the fish enough proof?  I guess Delgada will be telling her fish story for many, many years to come to audiences who will believe her as much as you do.  Even WoWhead has no link for Krakkanon  I swear it exists!  

It was THIS BIG!

Other Platforms.

I own a PS3 and a Wii.  The Wii gets a workout with Just Dance, Lego games, and Sims Castaway.  The PS3 was recently resurrected after the video card came unseated.  Since hubby isn't really good at the more delicate fixes, I gave it to my brother for a project and bought a new one.  Sounds a little irresponsible, but since both controllers have vanished and I got a new game in the process, there really wasn't much more spent than would have been spent fixing it.

So, after a swim meet and Panda Express last night, we decided to renew our Gamestop reward card.  We need new games!  Of course, you cannot just go into Gamestop and not buy a game!  So, I shopped the used wall and found Little Big Planet 2.  The day before the kids were playing the stuffing out of poor Sock Boy, so I figured we needed it.  I found it later in the store for 2 dollars more brand new, so I swapped it out.  I know the kids will play it into the ground, so I really needed to make sure it had as fresh a start as possible.

It's Tricky! 

Another game I found  was SSX, and knew the kids would love it.  Back when hubby and I were first married, his PS2 had the original SSX and it was a rare weekend when the music wasn't blaring over the TV speakers.  This version isn't much different in that the music is fun to listen to and the game play is much the same.

With our new system we got Uncharted 3.  I love games with a story to follow, and this one has a two player mode, which helps with the "entertain all the children" attitude I have.  We haven't gone too far into the story yet, but if it is as good as the other two, I'm sure it will get played.

I am hoping to get Rock Band set up this weekend for a jam session.  I really have missed my Playstation!  Any suggestions on games to pick up? Even two year old titles are new to me.  No, I didn't buy the Move equipment, so no gymnastics games, please!