Sunday, September 22, 2013

So Much To Do...

...so little time to do it all!  My seven days of heaven (in WoW) are done, and I find that I accomplished very little.  I managed to upgrade Delgada and Halinka's gear.  Shawndra finally got to 90 and equipped what Del sent her, then made her way to the Isle to gain a few pieces on her own.  After that, I fixed her talent choices and her rotations, gemmed and enchanted as much of her gear as possible, and moved some stats around with the ethereals in the Shrine.  Then, having read a few blogs about what was available with this patch aside from the Isle of Endless Loot, I hit my wall.  There was too much to do and not enough time to do anything about it. So what did I do? I stopped playing and started doing housework.

Eating someone else's noodles, because finishing the quest would be smart.

I might get to come back in November, just before the convention.  By then, I should have a nice to do list, which will help with that overwhelmed feeling. I hope you all are enjoying your time in Azeroth, and I look forward to reading all about your exploits, here in the comments or on your blogs.  TTFN!

Monday, September 16, 2013

Seven Days!



Thanks, Blizzard!

I've been missing Azeroth, and no amount of playing Star Wars Galaxies EMU dulled it.  As much as I love housing and complex crafting and depending heavily on other players, I love my characters and friends in Azeroth.  I was thrilled to see that ad for a free 7 days on Facebook.  I could play the new patch before everyone is bored with it!

I signed up yesterday for my week of fun and left my computer to grab the patch while I sat in church.  When I got home, as usual, I logged in before I remembered that I had to update my add-ons, so I logged back out, took 5 minutes to update them, and logged back in to Delgada in the ugliest transmog I've ever cooked up. So, I shuffled around in her bags and came up with this.





 Chief Architect's Monocle
Tenderheart Shoulders
Malevolent Gladiator's Drape of Prowess
Robe of the Void
Gloves of Prophecy
Zandalar Confessor's Bindings
Boots of Transcendence
Valius, Gavel of the Lightbringer
Eerie Stable Lantern








Dressed for business, she flew to Chromie's aid and used her trinket to transport her to the Timeless Isle.  Zul'jin is crowded at the best of times, and was pretty unmanageable at 2 on a Sunday afternoon.  Still, Del managed to upgrade several pieces and gather a lot of extra bits for Shawndra and the rest of her alt army. She finished the riddle quest after much fuming around that little pond waiting for a taxi.  The server responses started to get slower and slower.  I left Delgada up near the end of the riddle quest in hopes that she might kill the rare up there later, and logged in Halinka.  She got right to work, skinning and herbing and gathering lots of coins (and gambling a few away on chancy treasure trove keys).  Borean Tundra is a much more hospitable place to do anything, and she managed to upgrade 75%  of her wardrobe and gather several achievements. Halinka may be almost even with Delgada in gear score very soon!

I logged in today to Halinka and started to farm for pets.  I heard somewhere that the Azure Crane Chick came from the crane nests, so she spent a very short bit of time killing cranes and looting nests.  While she was doing that, she managed to finish the quest lines to a point where she can't go any further on one and gaining rep with Shao-hao on the other.  Oh, and she bought some ridiculous things for her pug to wear.

Pug gets a cute hat while Halinka breaks her transmog with new gloves.

The guy behind her is probably familiar to everyone who reads this. He sells pug head gear for 500 Timeless Coins (5 uses per item) and a class specific vanity glyph pattern, which is also on the loot tables for something on the island, because somehow Hal already had it.  I bought the big bow, too, and I could swear I took pictures while giggling over the silliness of it, but I can't find one.  Instead, I give you Halinka the pink skeleton ghost, complete with her crow animation.

Halinka and her parrot, err, shadowfiend.


Did I tell you Hal loves to pick things up?  If it can be clicked on and looted, she has probably had one.  She found some fun claws Sunday, and today she found this lovely hat.

Transmog completely ruined.  
I guess they are part of an achievement for finding lost heirlooms or something.  All I know is this hat is pure trouble, unless you like grabbing every mob on the whole island and trying to live through it.  OK, so I exaggerate, but Halinka is a fragile, under-geared, un-enchanted and un-gemmed beauty.  This hat about killed her, because like picking things up, she also like to push shiny buttons, like this one.

Push Me!

Some time after this, I grew tired of Halinka and wanted to log in Carlatta, my hunter on the Cenarius server.  There are no pictures, there are no words except one; Damn.  I logged in to the server to Carlatta standing in an empty Shrine.  I ran her to the door to make sure I was in the right one, and the game caught up with her and dragged her back to the Innkeeper's podium where she was given Chromie's quest.  She ran out to the flight deck, pulled out a random flying mount (was it a nether ray?) and flew to his aid.  By the way, all you NPCs that keep calling Chromie a girl, he's messing with your mind.  Chromie is a boy!  But, I had Carlatta try and help, really I did.  She turned in the feeder quest, and waited.  Then she clicked on Chromie more, and waited longer.  Then the server caught up and quickly dumped the quest on her as she was clicking Chromie again in frustration.  So, she took some of it out on that hourglass thingy and transported herself to the Isle.  She arrived to an Empty Huojin Camp on an Empty Timeless Isle.  Having had so much fun already, Carlatta decided to plop down on the beach and log out.  But the server wouldn't let go.  In my ears, my friends were complaining about Zul'jin crashing.  In general chat, there was a mac versus pc debate happening.  The logout timer had long since disappeared.  I shut off my headset, logged out of Ventrilo, and dragged myself to my room for a nap while Carlatta sat waiting for Cenarius to let her take a nap, too.

So, two days of fun down, 5 more to go!  Thanks again, Blizzard, for letting me in for a week.  I look forward to saying hi to many of you in game soon.  Until then, make sure to grab a piece of that yummy barbecue from the Yaungol fire pits while you slaughter them in Shao-hao's name.  You'll be missing out if you don't!


Wednesday, September 11, 2013

A Little Jealous.

Money is tight, and though I have managed to keep my internet going (It's actually necessary for one member of my household who does his school at home), World of Warcraft is a luxury I cannot afford.  I tried playing the trial version for a bit. but I was annoyed by pet tamers showing me quests I couldn't do and wild pets showing on my map that I couldn't battle.  Funny thing is, my trial account is linked to my main account, so I have all the titles, all the pets, and all the mounts.  I can build a pet battle team but can't use it.  I can see the choice to make a death knight, but I'm pretty sure that I can't really play one. I've started at least three different characters, all to be dumped in the first inn available for boredom's sake.  I'm sure if I could get to 15, I might enjoy random dungeons for a while.  I might even have fun in battlegrounds if I could hit level 10.  Why does that seem like work to me?  10 used to be easy to hit in a couple of hours for me, and now I drag my feet and complain.   It's not like I am given to leaning on heirlooms or guild perks for leveling alts usually.  Maybe it's having to set up my UI all over again every time my game crashes or I leave my toon standing in the middle of (place closest capitol city here) and the game dumps me due to inactivity.  

Oh well.  My point is I'm a little jealous (see title).  The latest patch is upon us, and I'm on the outside looking in.  Thanks to the many great writers I follow, I have been getting little glimpses of the fun stuff I'm missing.  Don't think I am ungrateful!  I just wish I was steering Delgada into the wilds, experiencing the same things I read about, taking screenshots and chatting with all those that have me on their RealID lists.  I want to post stuff on my blog about all the great stuff that is happening, too!

Sy Snootles with Max Rebo and his band pretending to play instruments.

That's enough complaining out of me.  I'm still playing Star Wars Galaxies EMU on the Basilisk server.  I have 5 characters (6 if you count my daughters lizard) now, as the new guild I am in keeps razzing me about making a chef.  Why are they poking at me to do it? Because many of them have maxed out their allotted characters and I already have a bio engineer to provide the extra bonus tissues for it, so why not?  The game is still fun, and I am out hunting (krayt) dragons, harvesting resources, making pretty clothes, and now leveling a baby Sullustan who will eventually be a master chef and master swordsman with a smattering of scout for the creature harvesting and mask scent (so she can milk sharnaffs) and a smidge more in the artisan tree to give her a vendor. Want to see the beautiful and talented Julmo?  OK, OK stop!  I'll go fetch a picture of her.

In Sullust she is considered a goddess!

An interesting read if you are curious about the Sullustan race can be found in the Wookieepedia (not making this up, I swear!).  Apparently Julmo is not Ready yet, or else she would be busy; REALLY busy.  Until she is, I'll fill her time making Pikatta Pie and Synthsteak.  Oh, and I read in that article that the females grow cranial hair.  I'll have to take her to visit Karin in the Image Designer tent in Coronet to see about that.  I think a long, flowing ponytail would make her look simply stunning!  In the meantime, I'll be browsing the bazaar looking for some headgear or a veil or something.  No amount of customization made her something I want to look at head on for any amount of time.  Poor girl.

That's all I have for now.  I'll sit here next to my comment box and hope to get some postcards from all of you basking in the fun of whatever vacation spot you're enjoying!