Draw Something Too!

I have been a little addicted to Draw Something 2 lately, as I am limited to how much time I can spend upright.  Warning, I am not the artist that some people playing this game are, but I can generally get my point across, which is the point of the game, right?  Here, because I like to post lots of pictures in my posts, is some of my art work (the term art is thrown in there for fun, because I draw like a 3rd grade kid with dull crayons).

Before I had a lot of colors.

Puppy!

They didn't guess this one.  

Maybe the arrow wasn't necessary.

Pretty elementary, huh?  So, do you want to play with me?  My user name is plastered all over those screenshots, but in case it is too small to see, I play as ShawndraKai (just like my Twitter handle).  Come Draw Something with me!  I swear I'm getting better at this.  See?

I drew this last night.

Low Pop Transmog and Pest Control.

My daughter has a gnome priest on a server where the Alliance population is very sparse.  I really hate her outfit, and I think my daughter does, too. Well, here, you take a look and tell me if you would want your character running around in this.

Yeselda playing exterminator in Felwood.

The outfit was too busy for such a short, uh, I mean diminutive person such as Yeselda.  She needed more color, less pattern, and at least a little help matching. I know what my daughter was going for with those shoulders (every shoulder in game is way too big for her!) but they don't match, and the turban doesn't match, and the robe is ugly.  Still, nabbing a minfernal was job number one, so fashion would have to wait.

Rat kill number three hundred and seventy bajillion.

About this time I had added Ironsally to my friends list, since Yeselda is a resident of the Drak'tharon server, just to see if she was around.  She was, out helping someone nab a Qiraji Guardling prior to the great spawn increase of Tuesday, June 25th.  I cried as I told her of my awful luck, that even alone in a zone full of critters I could not get even one minfernal to spawn.  She said this was a magic server, so it should be just another extermination away.  Yeselda believed her, even if I didn't, and continued to dutifully rid Felwood of tainted rats, and a few slimes, and a couple fire elementals, just for good measure.

I'm waiting.  Hurry up with those dishes!

I had been hanging out with Yeselda for at good 3 hours or more, having started around 10:30 PST, when I started to lose interest.  About 2:30, I gave up to go wash dishes, leaving Yeselda sitting in the middle of Shatter Scar Vale with nothing to entertain her but the slow bubble pop noise of the fetid pools and the antics of the tainted rats.  She reached out and turned off the game on her end while I was in the kitchen, and I had to log her back in around 3:30.  Apparently, neglect is the key in getting a minfernal to spawn, because Yeselda only had to kill a few rats and walk a few feet before she ran into one.  He was a poor quality pet, but since she really only wanted him around for company, she was happy.

Better dressed, and out in the shrine with a new friend!

No pet biscuit needed.  That minfernal is bigger than Yeselda all by himself!  I had taken the time before she went traipsing through the goo in Felwood to buy one of the two robes and hats that were on the auction house.  Gloves were easier to find, with four choices available, but shoulders were a problem.  Thankfully, the guild vault had something that would be a decent stand in until something closer in color to the robe should show up somewhere on Drak'tharon.  I like that I can see her face now, and the simpler pattern of the robe makes her look less like a wadded up dish rag and more like the stylish little gnome I knew she was.

In summary, be prepared to kill more than 10 rats waiting for an minfernal to spawn. If you are on a high population server, do it off peak for the best chance of grabbing it when it pops!  Also, if you live on a low pop realm, you might want to do your planning for transmog on WoWhead, then plan to farm, because even though I was lucky enough to find something that matched pretty well, the odds are that there will be nothing in the auction house except for a few stacks of low level crafting materials and a level 15 grey quality set of bracers.

That's all I can stand to post right now.  Sorry I haven't been more regular.  I can't make any promises, mostly because I am sure I will break them if they are anything in the near future.  I can say I have a ticket to Blizzcon, and am reasonably sure that my plumbing and annoying relative problem will be taken care of by then, so count on that at least.  Until then, get some sand between your toes, in Azeroth or on Earth in celebration of summer, and maybe I'll bump into you soon!

Breaking Promises

I promised myself I would update this blog more this summer. I promised the kids that I would take them to the beach this summer. I promised my daughter that we would go to the library this summer. I promised myself that I would catch up on all the cleaning I put off during the school year this summer. I promised my family I would prepare meals more often this summer. I promised.....

I cannot remember how long ago I posted about an unwelcome aunt who wouldn't go home and plumbing work that was waiting to be done. These issues resurfaced just before summer vacation started, requiring me to call off for the rest of the school year( a whole day and a half early!). They also caused me to cancel a Princess House party (sorry if anyone was looking forward to it). Now, these problems are causing me to cancel in game plans in favor of jury-rigging the plumbing and railing at Flo for overstaying her welcome.

I'm so tired of waiting. Curse you, plumbers who have waiting lists months long!  Curse you, Flo, who should at least go home and take care of your cats and own house for a week to give me a break. Curse summer, for never letting me really have that vacation that you were the reason for. Curse you, tiny house, exploding with laundry, dishes, and edgy, hormonal teenagers. I must be cursed, or how else would I explain not being able to keep all these easy to keep promises?

Awesome People Deserve Props!

Three Mounts - One Night

He'll probably never read this, but Worgenlock, you're awesome.  He's been letting me tag along while he collects his dinosaur bones to get pets and I got an egg a few days back.  It hatched into a red primal raptor,  which is way cool!  Then, after the hatching was over, he persuaded me to try Sartharion (25) 3D, and we did it, and I got the Twilight Drake!  Before that, we did the timed Zul'Aman run and I got the war bear he is riding in this picture.  Three mounts!  He was up for trying for a blue drake, or even smacking Onyxia around, but I am really tired.  So, goodnight Azeroth and Earth.  Catch you tomorrow.

Shadow Priest Kills Viscidus!

Got an ice pick?

I have this thing where I don't like asking for help, especially if it is remotely possible that I can do it myself.  I had to ask for help with the Twin Emperors, because I still haven't figured out how to manage the both of them.  I have, however, found a way past Mr. "1 HP and Not Dying".  That's right, I have killed Viscidus not once, but now twice, on two different shadow priests with different gear but slightly similar tactics.

The strategy seems simple enough.  Freeze him with frost attacks, take his health down with regular attacks until he is at 1 HP, then freeze him one last time and shatter him with fast attacks.  The getting him down to 1 health point was easy, as well as freezing him thanks to Mind Spike.  My problem was being able to attack him fast enough to shatter him.  I tried to use my spell dagger and my shadow fiend.  That didn't work.  I knew I would need faster and more attackers.  So, I headed back to my farm, after freezing him down so I could hearth, to think about what I could do do take this problem out.  Delgada had a dagger stashed away she found hidden in bushes and a guardian she put together with the help of Brann Bronzebeard.  Surely these would be enough!  She headed back to An Qiraj (40) and tried her luck.  It worked!  Apparently, her camera was not working, so Halinka, having heard of her success, decided to venture forth with her auction house special(of the Marksman), her Timberling and her Mechanical Yeti.  It was a little tougher to take him down, since her gear level is so much lower, but the strategy Delgada employed worked for her up until the last.  Would it work with what she had?  She froze him one last time and unleashed her small army on him, stabbing him with vigor (and venom).  Would she shatter the gooey blob?  Would she be victorious?

...and then...

Dance Party!

Halinka and her rag tag party of misfits took that snotty monster down!  He even left behind a baby snot monster for her to sell (since Delgada already had one).  Success!  I now return you to your regular news cast already in progress...

Random Screenshots with Dialogue.

Storm brewing over Stormstout Brewery.

I guess the popular description for what I have been doing in WoW is faffing.  From reading it in other posts and looking it up on the internet, I get the meaning of faffing to be basically doing a lot but not really getting anywhere doing it.  I have a relative or friend somewhere I heard call it fiddle farting around, which is pretty much exactly what I have been doing in game.  There is just so much to do in game right now, and I am still working until Wednesday this coming week, so my time in game, though not severely limited, is really broken up by kids needing taxi service, maid service, cook service, and psychotherapy. They are already out of school for the summer, and my seven year old is already bored out of her mind.  My teenagers are like that storm above, ready to break but waiting for just the right time.  My guess is that Thursday will be the day I throw them all out to the curb and lock the door to save my sanity.  Let it rain outside.  I'm on vacation!

Don't let the peaceful look fool you.

Cross realm Darkmoon Faire is very festive and busy.  I love it!  Say what you will about kill stealing and resource hogs, cross realm zones are alive and take me back to when I first started playing.  I'm not so much into leveling new characters anymore *cough* saved Pandalones on a server yesterday, don't judge me *cough*, so when I do I like having other players around in the world, moving in unpredictable ways and doing things that aren't governed by a program.  It makes me feel less alone when I am off on my own, faffing.

Because owls are cool.

While flying to Silithus to go finish farming for my Vestments of the Oracle, I stopped to dig up artifacts in the Ruins of Eldre'thar.  Such a neat area full of lore, if you just hang out and read the conversations happening all around you.  The ruins are full of ghostly high elves (in night elf form) talking about and enacting events that happened in the time when Azshara was courting demons from the Burning Legion.  It is a pretty regular dig site for me, and I always eavesdrop when I dig there.

Carlatta of Cenarius in her new gear.

I have the shoulders and belt for this transmog set, but I decided I liked the dragons from the crafted PvP set better, so they stay.  She finally hit 90 (I guess that means not all my time was frittered away doing nothing), and she is working on gear.  I love that the increased reputation gain crossed over servers, as I thought that was only for the server you originally purchased it on.  Hoorah for not having to work so hard at leveling a reputation on more time!  She got to revered with the Klaxxi in one day of questing.  If I hadn't cut her off, she would still be down there with the bugs, dancing and wearing the crown of shame for hitting Exalted with a race that, frankly, really only tolerates her for her very limited skill set.

That is not all I have been doing, but I have another post coming really quickly on the heels of this one.  I just couldn't bear to let those screenshots sit and grow stale in their folder on my computer.  Hope your time in Azeroth has been more productive, or at least as fun, as mine.  Here's hoping I run into some of you in the world!

Crawling Through Celestia

My favorite spell.

Rowan and I have been slowly, painfully working our way through Celestia.  I don't level at the pace most do, and any friends I have on my friends list, excluding real life friends, have forgotten who I am by the time I log in next.  So, this means a lot of solo work.  The mobs in Celestia are pretty tough, and until I started stacking my deck with damage and weeding out a bunch of superfluous healing spells (Rebirth, I'm talking about you, and Unicorn, you too), my time was spent running back from the base camp gathering health and mana blobs.

So, I threw out my fire spells.  What?!  Rowan is a life wizard with fire as a secondary, and doesn't have that fantastic neck piece that allows her to use her power pips for fire spells.  So, when I have 4 power pips, I really don't enjoy using a fire spell and wasting the potential for a second spell.  Instead, I stacked her with blades and traps, the max amount of each of her heavier hitting damage spells (yay for Centaur and Seraph), and cut my heal spells down to two of each that were most efficient (Satyr, Sprite and Regenerate), and pretty much said goodbye to the rest.  I still know them, they're just not in my rotation. Those finny baddies started falling really fast!  Well, the first quest went by quickly due to a mass port to my location by a group of people who were probably just trying to figure out who I was, and it was painful for one in that I had no healing spells when he expired during the first few hits of a fight.  They ported away shortly after I had closed in on the last few teeth needed for a quest, but by then my strategy was set and the rest of the quests were much easier.

Bad Dog...s?

You can almost make out the boss I am working on under Orthrus chin.  Here is a better picture of him.

Unimatus

He was a fun fight full of large, colorful spells.  I made it through pretty easily, and moved through the quests to kill Selwyn Skywatcher, a weird alien looking creature, after that. After a few more quests, none harder than a puzzle or a fetch and carry, Rowan was sent to the surface.  Ahh, fresh air!

What next?

There is where I left Rowan, standing perplexed in front of totems that looked like platypus people.  She is supposed to gather something from some water elementals.  We'll get back to that soon.  Right now, I think she has earned a little rest from the rigors of underwater fighting.  Nothing better than the tropical clime to warm up cold, brine soaked bones!

Have you been travelling the Spiral?  Leave me a note below and tell me about it!  I'd love to hear of some other far away worlds!

Fun With A Draenei.

Halinka fighting against bad snow trolls with her new besties.

This week I have been working on getting Halinka geared up so she can hang out cross realm with some of my meetup friends.  I knew there was a quest chain that gave item level 502 boots, since I had just completed it with Delgada, so Halinka headed for Lorewalker Cho's favorite hangout, the top of Mogushan Palace. She started the quest chain by running the Blood in the Snow scenario, then it was off to do a heroic dungeon with Justsuckit and Spaminacan.

Doesn't matter the faction, I will never get the hang of this fight.

Directly after this instance, Halinka ran the next scenario, as a goblin.

I swear this dress looks good on any female character.

Another easy victory, Halinka then checked back in with Cho, who told her to meet up with someone in the Shrine of Seven Stars to gain passage to Ratchet.  Because she is naive and does anything anyone tells her to do, she met the gnome and took a transporter to Ratchet. From there she had to meet up with some SI:7 agents near Orgrimmar.  This is the closest she has ever been to Horde territory.  Thankfully, I remembered I was controlling an Alliance toon and did not take her for the scenic and rather bloody tour.  She met up with Sully "the Pickle" and some random human female, scouted around with a mechano-stealth kitty, and reported her findings.  They sent her to the outskirts of Razor Hill to speak with a troll (!!) who decided to trust her long enough to chat with Zul'jin.

She made enough of an impression on Zul'jin that he let her gather some supplies for his army, and then Chen Stormstout sent her back to Pandaria to talk to an old wise man.  She hauled his old, half crippled butt up to a shrine on Neverest where he revealed his true form, then gave her her new boots.  Hurrah!

She is still under the item level needed for the raid finder, but she has three purple quality items, which makes me feel a little better.  Hanging out in the Barrens seems like a good idea in case she gets a drop she can use, all the while using the heroic dungeons to their fullest.  I'm hoping when summer finally happens for me that she will be ready to play with my friends!