Raiding?

Waiting...

Delgada has a raid tonight. For most that read this blog, this is old hat. Del started Wing 1 of
Siege of Orgrimmar last week on Monday. Our group, then called the West Coast Pears, didn't have enough bodies available for a regular 10 man, which was the goal, so it was opened to the guild and we ran it on Flex. Flex is still harder for me than "looking for raid", and I had only run it once on Flex and once in LFR before then. This time, I was going in as *gulp* a discipline priest with a gear score of 531 and not a whole lot of real practice in before that.

Waiting...

We finally went in a few ringers and did pretty well. I didn't get to finish the wing, but they went on without me. I guess that is the beauty of flex, but it was kind of disappointing. Of the 5 original team members that went in, only one finished the raid wing that night.

Later in the week, not really sure how flex worked (I knew that I could run it as many times as I wanted, but not how loot rolls worked), another group had a lot of absences and threw their raid open to flex on the same wing. The same five from our group joined this raid.

Stand Right Here.

We wiped. I tanked the floor. We wiped some more. The repair bills were astronomical. We never got past Immerseus. At about the fifth wipe, when I understood that I would not be getting much for the kill, I bowed out, partly because it was an hour past the time I had promised to hubby I would leave at, and partly because I had found out there was not a whole lot in it for me. Thankfully, everyone else was willing to stop trying, too. We left with orders to gear up. I felt like a failure, though I was assured that it was not my gear or enhancements or skill that was the issue.

Dreaming of epic loot.

Monday of this week found us in Wing two of Siege of Orgrimmar. I made sure to get pictures with all the notable Horde celebrities inside. I was sad to find that they seemed to have taken Archmage Aethas Sunreaver in his house slippers.

Bring me some cloth and a needle, stat!

For someone so powerful, his outfit is about as powerfully ugly. Has he been wearing this since he was a student? Anyhow, if you can tell in the picture, Delgada is running as shadow again. We had enough healers, and the guild master was in the raid and told me to do it. Discipline stats do not do well for Shadow damage. Still, there were some below me even, and I was assured that I could stay shadow. We'll see how that pans out tonight, as I have a raid in 30 minutes.  We didn't get past Galakras Monday, so he'll be waiting for us when we get there tonight. Wish me luck!

Hearthstoned!

Yay!

Of course, it's a practically free mount, so I had to get it, and I did!  If you haven't got one yet, there are a few things you can do to make winning a little easier.

1) Capture a hero you understand. Jaina Proudmoore is an awesome character to start with, but unless you can stack you deck to do massive damage ASAP, you should try something else.  All the heroes can be captured in practice mode, if you don't feel comfortable throwing yourself to the wolves, uh, I mean other players. Do you normally heal? Grab a priest. Do you like buffing others to do your job for you? Nab a paladin or a shaman. Do you like pulling out all the pets and standing back and watching the fun? Play with a hunter. Oh, and if you like bashing things and putting a little armor up, try a warrior. Sneaky types should try the rogue. Do you like doing all the things? Play a druid. Do you enjoy pain? You must try the warlock.

Many murlocs. Handle it!

Building a deck.

2) Build your own deck. Nothing says you have to play the cards they start you with. I'm having an obnoxiously good time with a shaman murloc deck. A friend of mine built a taunt deck for his wife to ease her way to gaining her steed.  Pick the cards that suit you best and try playing your own deck! In your collection is where you build your custom deck, and there is a search feature so you can turn the ocean of cards into the puddle you are looking for. I did a search for murloc to get my murloc deck, and taunt for all cards that taunt.  You can search for about anything, and there are tabs at the top of the collection screen to show only class based cards or general cards.

Gelbin and ETC playing nice.  Who knew?

3) Make it fun. Do you have a couple of dollars to spend? Buy a couple packs from the store.You don't have to spend anything to get cards, as you gain coins that can purchase packs as you play. I have yet to open a pack that had less than one rare in it. I bought a couple decks during beta for a few bucks and got a golden Gelbin Mekkatorque card, which is only sometimes useful, but always fun!  Did you go to Blizzcon 2013? Pull out your ETC card and rock out!

My attitude is expressed well with this emote.

4) Emote. There are several emotes you can use during a match. All can be helpful, some are polite, but can have other meanings. If someone is being annoying, you can squelch them by right clicking their hero's portrait. Say hello or remind someone they are playing by using the "Greetings" emote. Apologize for taking too long or before dealing a vicious blow by saying "Sorry". "Oops" can be said when you flub a move, or when someone does something silly on their side. "Well Played" is a good emote to use near the end, but beware of the almost dead warlock who brings out two Molten Giants and eats them with his Void Terror. If you don't have him dead in your next move chances are good you're a goner! Oh, and don't forget to threaten them, even if it's an empty threat.

5) Use Hearthhead. I didn't know much about this site when I started playing, and I am still really getting into it. If you already use WoWhead, you know how useful the site can be. You can build decks there, search for cards, and read what other players are doing, even look at decks they have built. There is great opportunity for learning at this site!

6) Watch a pro. I can't say it better than this article here, but I can add to it. WowCrendor is great for so many other reasons, and his Hearthstone videos are the same. He is funny and watching him play helps me understand the way cards play together. TotalBiscuit is also pretty fun to watch, even if his cards are a little out of a beginners league.

I hope this helps those of you still without this mount to get in a few winning matches soon! This is a must have mount, if only for the fact that it makes one more toward your next level mount collecting achievement.
Is the Hearthsteed my favorite mount? No, but it is high on the list. I'm still partial to my Cenarion Hippogryph and my Swift Zhevra. Still, this one won't be on the stabled list when they release the newest random mount calling spell soon™.

A mount to match her transmog!

Real World Jewelcrafting.

I like to wear my geek on my sleeve. I have been disappointed by the sizing on Jinx clothing, when even a 2X won't fit me, but fits my daughter who wears a small/medium just right. So, I tend to wear my geek around my neck, dangling from my ears, and in my hair.

My favorite necklace.

I bought that from an Etsy store a few years ago, and I wear it almost all of the time.  If I could remember which shop I bought it from, I'd link it, because they had a lot of beautiful glass tile necklaces and the price was great!

Earrings my wonderful hubby made me.

My hubby is pretty talented. The green is more of a sage green than the picture shows, and it is my favorite color. Can you see the tiny gears at the bottom?  I love about everything steampunk!

Well, today I decided I was going to splurge and have Andrew Jackson treat me to something pretty.  Here is what I found on Etsy!

A little asian, a little steam, a little medieval. Gorgeous!

An homage to Delgada in my real life?

I have a bag with this embroidered on it, from the watermarked shop. LOVE IT!

I'm still shopping, and probably will end up with one of the two items above the dragon embroidery, since I already have a bag I love from this shop. I really highly suggest you take a few dollars and support an Etsy shop that you find interesting. I've spent too much time writing this and I haven't bought anything yet, so I will leave you to your shopping as I finish mine. Tell me if you find anything interesting in the comments!

It Is Finished. Next Project?

I dropped him and he dropped my pants!

Sounds so bad, but Halinka was happy enough to dance!  I had just enough time to summon Terokk twice this morning, and it was all I needed.  So, I spent the rest of the morning steering Halinka through the ethereals near Manaforge Ultris, gathering ethereum prison keys so that I could change them in for ethereum stasis chamber keys so that I could hopefully some day loot the shoulders and be done.

From the back...

Ready for anything!

I didn't get the happy dance shot because, after using only 3 of the stasis chamber keys, I was dancing in my seat and making Halinka hearth to the Shrine to fix her transmog. Doesn't she look great?

I did do other things today. After Halinka fixed her outfit, I did my normal farming duties on my horde characters, then played on the Timeless Isle with Shawndra for a bit. After that, Carlatta came out to play to grind reputation points for the Emperor with hubby's best friend, his wife, and my friend Jen (another Jen, I know, I can't help it I attract them!).

Two Orcs, One Forsaken. (and later a blood elf but that ruins the pun)

We killed all those, and I pulled most of them, and killed each of us so many times, that I feel I should send them gold for hanging out with me. I was laughing loudly, annoying the whole family, pulling bigger and more painful yaungol into our bloody pile.  In my defense, if you don't pull them fast and furious, you're stuck looting boxes wishing you could get some reputation for any kill. I think we got about 1000 reputation in about an hour. I would have stayed longer, but I had to go, it was dinner time and In-n-Out was on the menu! That, and World Boss Wednesday was about to start, so the others had to get ready for that.

So, yay, the transmog is done and it's time to pull another project from the unfinished pile.  Halinka needs gear to run raids, and so does Carlatta.  Shawndra needs another new weapon (she bought the Timeless polearm today) and gear, too. I guess I should end this post and get to work!  Make sure you sample the Yaungol BBQ while you are busy killing the party-goers!

Dancin'.

The Arrakoa are dying to get in.

Best dance club this side of the Dark Portal.  Make sure you bring friends and libations, because the dance floor is empty and the bartender is ... dead.

Pantsless.

Is this like jell-o wrestling?

Halinka, in her quest to gather the pieces of the perfect outfit, has found that some of her questing requires less clothing. To get some Consortium reputation and to get to the point in the quest chain where you can combine the ethereum prison keys, some slimes had to be split with electricity and then their little bits vaporized.  Problem being, with the one hit kill, the electrical charge never went off.  So, she took it all off, even her staff, and smacked those blobs around. Once the electrical charge hit, she could use mind sear to kill all the minor blobs easily.

She's thankful she isn't saddle training these!

Roping nether rays was difficult in gear, so she stripped down to make her mind flay less damaging.  Two ticks was enough to subdue them long enough to rope them.  I would have had her smack them around like the blobs, but one hit was more often less than needed but two would kill them, and some of them weren't in melee range. Everything, even rings and necklaces were ditched this time. Why is she doing this? Because she needed apexis shards to summon larger mobs to get apexis crystals to buy a geode that would have gloves in them, and later, if she must have it, the rock that has her hat. Good thing she doesn't care about stats on these items.  Can you imagine the horrific grind to get them just right?

Transmog this!

She managed to get gloves and boots and belt yesterday, which leaves the long slog for the shoulders, and more time in the Skethyl Mountains gathering Time-Lost Scrolls, killing lesser bosses to gather their magic to make Time-Lost Offerings to summon Terokk, so he can, once again, not drop the pants Halinka wants.

Need any cloth?

 This is what all that gathering resulted in, plus about 60 or more random greens, a couple of blues, a lot of depleted items that need crystal charges, and a few patterns. Halinka still has a while to go.  I think I had better equip another alt with bags for storage, because there is no way I'm going to be able to sell all of this in a week!

If you couldn't tell, I'm on Spring Break!  How do you handle time off from work when the kids still have school and you really can't go anywhere?  I have Star Wars Galaxies EMU reloaded on my new computer along with a few Steam titles hubby has been wanting me to play, so I think I have enough to keep me occupied, but I would welcome you ideas.  Two weeks is an awful lot of free time to fill!

But...I Want It Now!

Queen of da Ogres.

Halinka got a new robe early last week, and is already tired of it. There was nobody on in her guild to do anything with, so she went shopping, and found a great shirt.  Of course, you can't buy a shirt and not try and get matching everything to go with it. So, she sent me off to WoWhead to find out if it was part of a set and it is.  There is always a catch, though, isn't there? This set is looted from, with a lot of luck, from a few rares in Outland with a few pieces available from vendors.  In order to get this set completely, Halinka is going to have to get in good with Ogres, Ethereals, and Flyboys.  Here's a comment I pulled off of WoWhead that really explains the amount of work involved in getting this set:

Ugh.  Still, Halinka was on a mission, and decided to pal around with the Ogres. I think I remember her saying something about lots of beer and great parties.  She would know, they were neighbors once, right? So, she pulled together something that will do until she gets the right pieces and headed out to Blade's Edge.

How she move like dat?

She looks alright.  It's no Windchanneler's Regalia, but what do you want for less than 500 gold? Here's what she put together.

• Shoulderpads of Absolution - there was nothing great on the auction house, and she had these in her storage. If something else presents itself before the long road to the shoulders is complete, I'll edit this post.
• Windchanneler's Tunic - The shirt of dreams! The reason we are on this trip in the first place.
• Regal Cuffs - the colors match the shirt perfectly.  With the gloves listed below, the bracers really needed to match.
• Regal Gloves - Again, colors are almost a perfect match, so much so that if I never get the set items, I won't complain.
• Silver-Thread Sash - the lines on this belt match the lines on the pants that follow.  If only the shirt had silver accents instead of gold!  From the waist down it's almost like half of another transmog. 
• Exiled Dabbler's Leggings - Such a shame to cover up some of the pants in the game! But these are not the star of this outfit. 
• Voldrune Slippers - these were the least expensive of about 5 different options available on the auction house.
• Ethereum Life-Staff - another place holder from Halinka's closet. She doesn't remember who she was with when she got this. My friend from work or the OLRG (I really need to hang out with those people more. They are having way too much fun without me!) had some role in her having the shoulders mentioned first and this staff. If the non-glowy part of this weapon wasn't more purple than gold, it would be a shoe-in.

While she was starting out her paths to unlocking this set, she did some more window shopping in Area 52, and decided that she will have to put her carefully manicured hooves into the battlegrounds to earn a few of the outfits she saw there. I guess there could be worse ways to interest a girl in fighting for her faction. 

Where do you draw the line when you are trying to get the perfect transmog piece?  Mine seems to lie about the same place as most anything in the game for me.  If my attention can drift away and not cause a huge obstacle to getting the item, then I'm in.  So, no flex, regular or heroic raiding, no arenas, and no soloing old content unless it's around the same difficulty as the Timeless Isle. Tell me about your transmog threshold in the comments!