Pinata Party, Blindfold Not Included.

Trial of the Champion, a new instance at the Argent Tournament grounds, is quite fun. You walk in, grab a stick, and start beating the loot pinata. Seriously. Well, in the first groups I had been fortunate to be in, it was easy. Let's describe my horde party. We had two tanks, a paladin and a death knight. For damage, we had a shadow priest (not me) and a 79 moonkin. Delgada was in her holy form, being generous and healing. We beat down the instance a couple of times on regular mode. Easy Peasy. Now, we are all pretty well geared, with some Naxxramas gear, and a stray piece of Ulduar gear in the mix. I think the reason it was so easy was the two tank set up, and the aoe healing holy specialty provides. I was also fortunate to be in a group with mostly Ulduar geared raiders when Halinka got to go a few times. Much fun, and many upgrades were added to her closet.

Now, last night, Delgada agreed to heal, yet again, as the boys got ready to do their heroic beatdown of the night. Our group for regular Trial of the Champion? Death Knight tank from the evening before, an enhancement shaman, a level 79 death knight, and an arcane mage. This group was painful. The other death knight was not a tank. We got the job done, but we died a few times. Semi satisfied that we were doing alright, we changed out the dps death knight for that same guy's hunter, and we started off. Oh, the pain. We had such a time trying to stay alive. I let the mage and the hunter die off, and kept the shaman and the death knight up to finish round one. Resurecctions were performed, loot was handed out, and round two commenced. It was the paladin, and I showed off my healing prowess by standing backwards to heal the whole fight. Go me! That boss gave us less problems, and we handed out loot, refreshed buffs, and went for round three, the Black Knight. Well, Delgada was not being smart this fight, and stood too close when he exploded his minion. Thanks to my glyph of "you fail so you can have this healer for a little longer", I was able to stay in Spirit form long enough to see phase three of this fight, but it was a losing battle. As soon as he popped into spirit form, he pretty much two shot everyone. So, back into the instance, buff up, and start from square one. The details from here get foggy, it was late, and it was frustrating. I seem to remember it taking at least one more wipe before we decided enough was enough and pounded him into the ground. He dropped a nice healing trinket and pair of pants for Delgada, though. Yay. Just what Delgada wanted. More healing gear.

So, to examine what went wrong on the second time around. In the first part, jousting happens. We were all facing up with different targets. This, just like a regular fight, should have a kill order. Mark them up if you can when they come out the gate. Healer goes down first, the rogue second, then deal with the caster or hunter third. When jousting, keep this kill order just for convenience. It will help everyone stay focused. Keep your shields up. I alternated throwing shield breaks and refreshing my shield ( I had a mob chasing me throughout one joust). Charge if you can and whack them with the melee hit when your charge brings you into range, then ride away, refresh shield, and throw shield breaks again. If you see your mount getting low on health and you aren't being pursued, ride to to the edge, dismount, and grab a new mount. This should help you get through phase one of this fight.

The second phase of this fight knocks you off your mount. Make sure you have replaced your lance with your main or two hand weapon. Our paladin tank forgot to, and although he is the best tank ever, he felt the difference. The tank, or tanks, should round up the three mobs and the group dps should proceed to kill the targets in order. The healer goes down first, then the rogue (those nasty poison vials really suck the life out of you if you aren't paying attention), then the ranged mob. This should go down easily, so long as a kill order is followed and the tank(s) can hold aggro on the mobs.

Fight number two is different all the time. At the beginning, you have a paladin or a priest. After taking down the trash mobs (make sure to take down healers first,who also mind control, and to kill lightwells), the tank will pick up the boss and dps will take it down. Somewhere between 25 and 35%, the boss will force everyone to wait while it summons another boss, this time a "nightmare" from a past experience. If you have a way to break fear, do it, and be ready to kill as quickly as possible, as this mob is healed by the other boss(a renew which can be dispelled), and fears frequently. Once that boss is done, the other will need to be taken down. This is where the fights start to differ. If you have the paladin, he does a holy attack that does a bit of damage that can be avoided if you turn around when it is announced(hence, the healing backwards) and does a hefty hit called Hammer of the Righteous to a player causing 14000 damage. If your dispeller is quick and can get Hammer of Justice off that player, the next hefty attack can be caught and thrown at the boss. I was not able to do this yet, so I will be trying again. With the priest, I don't remember any special attacks, though during the heroic I believe I was being mind controlled (kept getting the message, "Target is friendly" when trying to dps down the nightmare).

Third fight is the Black Knight. He will kill the master of ceremonies, and resurrect him as his ghoul. In the first phase of the fight, stay out of his desecration, and watch out for his exploding ghoul. This phase is pretty simple. Second phase, he will summon an army. Kill his adds one at a time, as they explode at low health. I have heard Area of Effect spells are a no go on this phase, probably because you would have many exploding ghouls at the same time. Take down the boss, and you'll be on the next phase. Phase three, he turns into a ghost. This part is very healing intensive, as he throws shadow damage all over. Use all your cool downs and trinkets and kill him quick, and you will have your prize!

Once you have this down, you are on your way to gearing up yourself and friends. Here is a link to the gear that drops from the dungeon, on both modes (second comment on the page). They gave you a stick, now go beat your pinata!

Lookit! Delgada Has Wings!

They invited me over to play with Loatheb tonight, and they even let me roll! Heroes' Mantle of Faith and Handbook of Obscure Remedies are my upgrades for tonight. How exciting! I even hit second place on our final attempt in damage done. No screen shot, sorry everyone, my UI is skunky and I don't wanna share it!

Another day, another 500 gold...

I found that if I spend a good hour to hour and a half doing all the quests I have missed, I can grab a significant amount of gold. I know, this is not surprising in the slightest to anyone but me. I am actually enjoying the quests I have done. Yesterday, I was questing in the corner of Storm Peaks and the adjacent corner of Icecrown. I really enjoyed unlocking the Argent Crusade area, and made some nice cash and got a new trinket, too!

Toward the beginning of my time out there, as I was depending on the aid of some death knight or another, I found that, if I clicked on their portal as they left, they returned me to the quest hub. It was quite by accident that I stumbled upon this. Maybe not entirely by accident.

"Look, a gear, I wonder what will happen if I right click on that", says Delgada's operator.

Delgada shakes her head and just waits for her inevitable demise.

It was especially encouraging later on, as I got lost looking for Tirion Fordring, who was not in the place I left him, hearing the cheering below me as I flew to the Pinnacle to get my reward. I had (almost) single handedly pushed back the Scourge onslaught. Go me!

So, after flitting between K3, the Argent Vanguard, and Crusader's Pinnacle, I had amassed a small fortune. I decided at around 540 gold, that I would go to the auction house and see if anyone had dropped some inexpensive green 75+ gear on the auction block. I spent quite a bit, then realized I probably had the means to buy the materials needed for my Moonshroud Robe. I purchased enough cloth and eternal life to finish the project, emptied my mailbox and disenchanted all my armor purchases, and transferred a couple enchants onto vellum for easy sale. I milled all my cloth into bolts, turned the regular bolts into imbued bolts, and organized my materials for the next day.

After begging a few friends for their Moonshroud cooldowns, I was asked by a few guild mates to run Utgarde Pinnacle on heroic. Most anyone outside my guild would not know that I did not instance my way to 80, even though I was specced mostly into Holy and Discipline from 70 to 80. So, I discovered the Pinnacle tonight. I took the two quests available, was given the daily quest for the instance, and we went on our merry way. We died a few times, mostly because we were trying to do some of the achievements as well. We weren't able to finish the first one, but we did get the second after a few wipes (healer lagging, healer out of mana, healer dead and reset, darn that priest anyway!). I replaced my robe from the Kalu'ak with the quest reward after one wipe, and all the bosses persisted in dropping leather, even though none of us used it. Even Ymiron dropped an epic pair of leather gloves. Well, instance finished, we all went off on our own. I caught a bat to the Emerald Dragonshrine, and made my last bit of Moonshroud cloth. One more upgrade for Delgada!

One day left of Winter's Veil!

I've had my Honeycomb (or reasonable facsimile), have my orange juice beside me, and 3 of the 7 are still sleeping, at 11 AM! I have to try and get the last two achievements done today. So, wish me luck as I get 2 kill credit per battleground as a gnome....

I may not be merry now, but I will be a Merrymaker by the end of today!

Something old, and something new...

I'll start with the new first. A few of my guild mates wanted to run heroics last night and couldn't find a healer, so I offered myself up. I had not run a heroic, so I figured they'd be nice and start with something easy. Well, they decided to do the daily regular and heroic dungeons, both of which were Halls of Lightning. Never having been inside, I figured, how bad could this be? I had the flight point, courtesy of a run through that other dungeon over there (something about stone with an event featuring one of the Alliance's favorite bumbling explorers). So I grabbed some candles and accepted a summon. The first bit was ok. I only killed them all once in the area with the forges as they ran through. For some reason, I lived, revived them all, and we trudged on. Well, we got to the end, and we met Loken. By then we had wiped completely maybe twice, and I'm willing to be it was the healer's fault (snicker) both times. I was given some pretty simple instructions. Fight close, and when I say run, run straight away on this line of lightning in the floor. Well, let's just end this saying the healer is great if she can stand still...They decided when things started respawning to call it and run Naxxramas instead. I, feeling like a shmuck, stayed out. If I can't handle a silly heroic, why should I go to Naxx?

As I was moping in the Crystalsong forest picking the carrots for my stew and hoping the stag and wolves out there would supply my last piece of chilled meat, someone asked if I would heal a heroic. I pleaded, " I just healed my first heroic and found I suck @.&. Please allow me more practice on my guildies, as I hate being a bad pug." They replied favorably, so I continued looking for one piece of chilled meat. None turning up, I decided my next bet would be to respec. I batted my eyelashes across the desktop at my hubby, and begged 100 gold for respec and a couple pieces of gear off him, and the set to fixing my problems. I hadn't specced into Circle of Healing, why I can't remember, so I did that, still keeping my Divine Spirit buff. As I was respeccing, someone whispered, "Heal Kara 100g" at the same time people were breaking off from a particularly bad run on Naxxramas. I had already promised to help my hubby with the Greench quest, so I excused myself from subbing in to help him. We finished up, and I traveled back to Undercity. As I landed I got another whisper, "Heal Kara, 150g". Alright, it couldn't take that long, so I said invite me.

Well, we had in our numbers a couple of relatively new 70's, some in their early and mid 70's and 3 80's. The trash went down quickly, and so did Attumen. Every encounter was a run in sloppily and kill them all sort of thing. Shackle? Forget about it..I'm a death knight and I'm gonna lay my aoe circle on top of your shackle. Heal through it, %*#@^! Then it was Maiden. I wasn't able to keep the tank up, and then after the tank went down they moved her off the platform, causing all sorts of line of sight problems for me. Most everyone died, but so did she, so revives all around and on to the opera. Wizard of Oz...no fear (what? 2 priests and a hunter are fear enough!)..it was a mess but it was probably the one we died the least on. up the steps and through the trash like a steamroller, we met up with the Curator. Again, tank down, messy as hell, did I mention that one of the group had been disconnected since before Moroes? Eh, I handed over the shards I had made, and maybe that was the reason the mage disconnected and never "really" came back. I had been toying with the notion most of the time. When someone thinks they have to tell me to heal them or buff them or resurrect them, it really irks me. I got on my soapbox, and said,"Please allow me to anticipate your needs. I know my job well." Well, that got completely ignored, as I was still getting "Healz plx" and "Buff me" and so I countered with a "I have an order to things. Dead healers get first priority, then healing, then buffing." Again, ignored, asI was still getting the same requests from the same one person. SO I responded with, "Bite Me", and stated that "If you ask for me to heal you again, I'm leaving". Which was promptly responded to by one of the other 80's by, "Chill out, let's keep this fun, we're halfway there, noone needs to leave." I reminded the raid that I, at 99/100 exalted with the Violet Eye, did not need this run. So, I stuck it out, finished Illhoof, finished Shade, killed Llane with my pawn, and proceeded on to Prince. Now, I asked if anyone needed to know the fight, and tried to explain it. They ignored it, discussing loot options instead. They wiped. I dusted off my robe, rezzed everyone, and the fight was explained again. They wiped again. So I resorted to something I have NEVER done. I feigned a disconnect. Any of you from my server reading this that was with me on that run, I apologize, but I cannot abide by groups that will not listen to boss fights and follow the rules. There are some fights that you cannot steamroll through.

So there you have it. I kept no shards, got no loot except enough cloth for one netherweave bag out of the deal, and my gold count went from zero to about 43 (after numerous repairs). I'll consider that payment in full.

Maybe someone will ask me to heal Serpentshrine next. I haven't been there yet...

Toying with healing builds.

Delgada started out as a 39 twink holy priest. She didn't get much play time, but when I did pull her out, she was fun! A few rounds of Arathi Basin playing her was a blast. But, at heart, I was an arms warrior, wielding a huge Halberd of Smiting, and wearing a good amount of the Zul'Gurub plate wear for fashionable warriors. Burning Crusade came along, and Shawndra didn't get much play. She wasn't a tank, and she was undergeared. While everyone else was starting to run the level 70 instances, Shawndra was sitting it out, while I leveled a hunter. Carlotta was fun, but our healers wanted to play their alts, so I dusted Delgada off, respecced her to shadow, and started leveling. At level 70, the guild discouraged her from healing, instead begging her to become a mana battery. She was a mana battery until the doldrums before the Wrath of the Lich King expansion. Then, healers and tanks started dropping left and right. Delgada was needed for healing. With her off set gear she had put in the bank for "just in case", she started to learn. The guild trembled in fear as I changed her spec, wishing someone else would step up to the plate. I hope they were happy with the results. They must have been since they have been begging me to hurry up to 80 because they need a healer. So, I have figured out a build, I think, that will allow me to be a good healer with some decent mana regeneration/conservation. I'd really love to be able to grab the 51 point talent in Holy and still be able to spec into the spirit buff. I figure, until we get more people at 80, I'll have to live with this as it is, because I will be one of the few they have to heal, and that spirit buff is essential, in my opinion. Here it is, my take on a holy priests talent tree. Comments would be appreciated, as I did no research, but chose the talents I thought would work best. Now, that is very heavy in the holy tree. I remember reading and hearing this around, that the discipline tree is no longer a spare parts tree, and can be a very viable PvE healing spec, if the right talents are chosen. Can these be the right set of talents for a discipline priest? Well, comment or no, Delgada will be monkeying around with both specs to see how they play out. Any suggestions on spells I should have chosen and some I could have skipped will definitely enter my "play around with healing specs" period. :)

Finally...the Sholazar Basin and Nesingwary!

I cannot tell you how I have looked forward to moving to this zone. I had hoped to be welcomed by Hemet himself, telling me his bud had lost their favorite book of campfire ghouls stories, and I had to find all 40 pages, and would I please kill 2,000 of every species available in the whole continent of Northrend?

No. You don't get your way! I want you to go fetch me an airplane engine part, find my wedding ring, and kill Venture Company lackeys, say his expedition help. Blah, I hope he gives me a mindless kill quest soon.

Delgada is about a quest and the experience from kills away from 77. Guess I'll log in and give the boys a thrill.

Broke...time for the farmers to hit the scene!

I have many characters ready for Northrend. Their chosen professions are at max level, or really close, they have gear that will last them at the very least the first 5 levels, and their bag space has been emptied in preparation. Quests from the old worlds? Dumped.

So, what to do? Delgada has been my focus, being that the guild needs a healer. I am such a pushover. We have our main tank already at 80 running heroics for gear. DPS, well, worth a dime a dozen. So my tank, Shawndra, and her DPS sisters, Carlotta and Maura, sit in the wings, waiting to go in. I think now may be the time to do it.

You see, Delgada is broke. And Rowena is broke. I have siphoned as much as I dare from every one of my 10 alts, and Delgada still has 8 recipes to train from the tailor trainer, and 3 from the enchanting trainer. Expensive...Delgada needs a sugar daddy, or momma, as it may be. I logged Delgada out near a trainer, and brought Maura out of the Undercity to hop the blimp to the Howling Fjord. I'm hoping that the skinning she has, and her pick pocketing, might net a nice stock of cloth and an income Delgada can rely on. She's less than half a level from cold weather flying! There's another 1000 gold she'll need.

I know that if I had just waited until Delgada had some levels under her belt to start her profession leveling, that I wouldn't be in this predicament. But I couldn't wait..the guild needs an enchanter! And a healer! YESTERDAY!! Though, they have asked if I could shoot for Tuesday. I don't think I am that good.

So, here is the plan. Delgada goes out, makes level 77, and logs out after using what cloth and enchanting materials she has to level with. Then, Maura comes out, and starts her questing, spending all sorts of fun time in the starter area, skinning everything with a skin, and sending all her greens, cloth, and gold to Delgada. With any luck, by the time Maura is 73, Delgada will be healthy, still not flying, but at least able to get her professions trained.

The flying carpet will just have to wait.

I finally found..the worst quest EVAR!

I won't spoil it for those who are behind me, but there is this giant, and you have to find this other giant, and kill his buddies.....


He can go find him all by himself. I'm tired of getting there when 20 other people are trying to kill him.
And, if you really, really wanted me to kill him? You'd make it so I could group with all yourselves that are running around.

Bah. I'm gonna go find something bad to eat.

Twiddling away my time...

I really didn't feel like questing. I didn't feel like doing much of anything in game at all. I had frittered away my day playing Rock Band, Fallout 3, reading blogs, and napping. But, I just had to see my friends. So Rowena, my bank alt, comes out to sell and buy. But nothing sold, so there was no money to buy more Frostweave Cloth for Delgada to spin into magical garb that she would seconds later turn into a bit of Infinite Dust or Greater Cosmic Essence. Rowena danced with a guildmate, then was asked if she would let Delgada come out to enchant a pair of gloves. Rowena vanished, and Delgada came onto the scene, hopping a bat to Dalaran.

There is no better place in Azeroth, or anywhere else, to spend tonnes of time doing nothing than Dalaran. After Manji's gloves were imbued with exceptional spellpower, Delgada started wandering. She quite accidentally ran into the pet shop and spent a few silver there on fetch toys and pet treats. Then, while looking into a well, fell into it, ending up in the underbelly of Dalaran. There, she saw a meeting of turtles headed by a rat, a sewer croc, a few questionable vendors, and a few riff raff. One of the vendors sold her a pet skull. Not far from the vendors someone had left a flask. Being undead, Delgada drank it down with gusto; What was there to lose? She turned into a Tuskarr. Already in a place with water, Delgada the Tuskarr put a hook on her line and started fishing. She pulled some sewer carp and some magic eaters out of the sludge, as well as an empty vial. Thrilled, she tried to dance, but found that the Tuskarr don't dance, so, transformation undone, she found another vial. This time, the city of mages was full of...only mages! She decided to look at the other shops, but the mage in every store got old very quick, so she put out her romantic picnic basket, sat down and logged out.

2 hours down the tubes! Those magic eaters better sell well!

Leftovers...

There are no leftovers quite so sought after as Thanksgiving dinner leftovers. Yum! They are not very eat-while-questing friendly though. Green bean Casserole and turkey wrapped in a whole wheat tortilla with cranberry sauce? Perhaps mashed potato latkes with reheated gravy to dip in, or my personal favorite, cold turkey with mayonnaise and a salt shaker. No, no, I had to go for the green bean casserole, turkey, a roll, and a soda. Thankfully, my questing buddy, Laeola, is overpowered. Didn't need my help much. Sorry I held you up! I know, I blamed it on my laptop overheating, which it did. But I fell behind more times trying to grab a bite off my plate then I did going afk to grab my three year old out of whatever she was not supposed to be getting into.

As much as BRK complains about them cockroach-like paladin, I was very very thankful to have one around these past two days.

Now, I know I have some smart readers. Tell me how to eat my leftovers and quest effectively at the same time. Use that comment button!

Playing hooky from my horde server...

Delgada is squishy. And her spec stinks. And her professions stink. And noone likes her. Well, maybe not the last part, healers always have friends. My husband is catching his death knight, Brigadoom, up to her so that I will have someone to level with, now that the guild has blown past me. So, having tired of working up skill points in leatherworking on Maura, and having finished skilling up skinning on Shawndra, and having parked Carlotta out in the Borean Tundra ready to pick and brew potions, I decided to take a break. I logged in to Shu'halo and brought out Anselma. Anselma? Not the wondrous fire mage, Esoterique? Well, my husband hates leveling before 55, with a passion, and he really wants to play with me on my alliance server. So, the scheming begins. He keeps asking, "When you going to give me Anselma?", or, "Is Anselma 55 yet?". She was 53, so I finally gave in and got her to 54, with only 1400 experience points until the level, and did a character transfer. I'm sure if I had transferred her to his account after she hit 55 it still would have worked, but I figured this way we were assured success.

The account transfer was so fast! I am sure it only took 15 minutes. It took husband about an hour more to log her in, whack a few mobs, and hit 55. Then, it was mothballs for Anselma once again, as he made his death knight, Hacksoor. Have you ever had a name that, when you armoried it, came up with 2 results, and they were both yours? My husband is very proud to have that on two of his characters. Me? Well, I'm not so creative. Oh well...

So, with my obligation to my husband complete, I brought out Esoterique. For some reason, the differences between this cloth wearer and my undead priestess are so vast that it means the process of questing and killing are laughable on Eso, where they are a chore worth avoiding with Del. I would go and change Del back to shadow once the servers are up, but frankly, I've been itching to see Dalaran, and Eso, being a mage, is just the right level to do her attunement. She blew through quite a few of the quests at the gnome airport, and dinged 71 quite without expecting to.

Well, it's 10 am. I would like to get a chore or two done before the servers come up, so I am off to work on my real life quest log. Ta-ta!

Behind again...

It seems that I trail behind everyone when there is leveling to be done. Well, everyone but my husband. Delgada sits at 71.5, and I HAD to make a death knight. She sits in Silithus at a happy 58, gaining rested experience until I decide if I want to continue with her. I do have 3 other 70's to level, after all. No plans on who is next, really, though the alchemist would probably be the obvious choice. The rest of the guild has passed me by, at level 74 and higher. 3 levels seems so far away! Guess I'd better get back to work, or the next expansion will find me somewhere between 72 and 77....

5:33...5:34...5:35...agh!

I know I still have to wait until Thursday for my copy, but I am still antsy to get out and into line over at Gamestop for my hubby's copy. Is that silly?

It's coming tomorrow...err...Thursday..YAY!

I don't know that I have all that many readers, but I figure that there have to be at least a dozen of us wacky enough to be standing inside Gamestop in Moreno Valley (you know the one, by the new Wal-Mart and O-No Hawaiian BBQ?) on Wednesday night. No, I refuse to dress up. No costume contest for me! But the hubby and I will be waiting impatiently for 12:01 to hit so we can jet out of there and get our machines to patching. Well, at least his will be. Hubby was kind and wonderful, as usual, and ordered the collector's edition for me. The catch is that it may be sitting on my desk on THURSDAY when I get home from work. Oh well, small price to pay for all the fun that goes into that edition :)

Who knows, maybe some of us will get lucky and meet some new gaming buddies. See you there!

Wrath of the Lich King - Day One

Dechion of Be Nameless suggested this topic on Blog Azeroth on the first of this month. I'm a little late getting to it, but it was more than worthy of the three suggested posts, so here is my first one.

It is a cool misty morning in Shattrath City. It is early, and yet, everyone in town seems to be packing things up, fixing armor, sharpening weapons, and stocking up on supplies. Some are taking a last minute flit above town on their beloved winged mounts. I shiver, cold even under layers of robes and cloaks I was wearing, partly to save precious pack space, and partly to shield me from the cold of the long blimp ride.

My wyvern purrs as I scratch behind his ears. I toss the lead to his harness to the stable master, assured that he will be exercised and fed while I am away. I slip a few gold to the handler, just to be safe. The handler walks my zhevra to me, pats its rump, and walks off to tend to another mount.

We descend to the city, and make our way to the center. My packs carrying only the necessary supplies, I lead my mount through the portal to Undercity. Stepping out on the other side, the dank air makes me sneeze. I mount up and leave the Magic Quarter, narrowly missing a collision with a blood elf on a Kodo. I will never understand the draw of a larger mount. Past the throne room, my mount wends its way through the exodus and up to the steps of the blimp tower. I check my mount with the baggage, and walk up to the platform. Horde of every race lean on the rails, sit dangling their legs off the edge, cluster in groups chatting in hushed tones. I see a guild mate and wave, not wanting to interrupt their conversation. I stand next to the goblin engineer, tapping my foot, not from impatience, but to the tune of a flute someone is playing.

The blimp pulls up, and the land crew grab ropes thrown out by the flight crew, pulling it in to the platform. Securing the ropes, the engineer gives the call to board. I wait for the mad rush of the impatient to pass me by, then board as the engineer starts to unbind the moorings. The only space left to stand was near the entrance. I take it, knowing I will be bowled over by some over enthusiastic troll as I exit. Fishing a pencil from my shoulder bag, I open my travel log.

Day 1 - Travel to Northrend. Find a hostel. Send unnecessary items to Rowena. Find someone to work for. Take lots of pictures.

Day 2 -

Tucking the pencil into the travel log, I throw it over my shoulder and out of the blimp. You can't plan adventure. Sometimes you just have to go out and let it find you.

Wrath is coming! Who gets to 80 first?

I currently have three Horde characters at 70, all in a mix of Karazhan/Gruul loot and badge rewards. In my eyes they are equally geared, and two of the three have their professions maxed as well, the odd one out being the priest, who has yet to hit the 375 mark in enchanting. So, do I power to 80 on Carlotta, my support character, so that I am ready with her herbalism/master elixir achemy skills? Or do I slog away with Shawndra, who is currently protection specialty, switching to dual wield fury build and her dps set and beating my head against the wall through every level? I could put Delgada back to shadow and level her, a necessary class for raiding. Who doesn't need a priest? It's all so confusing! I almost don't want to think about it.

As if I didn't have enough confusion with 3, now with the characters my husband and I have been leveling, I now have 2 at 60 needing to hit 70. Maiera, a blood elf warlock, and Maura, an undead rogue. Both are interesting to me, as I have never played either before (19 twink battlegrounds on Rowena don't count!). I can even start thinking about Gwenna, my fire mage, as she will no doubt be the happy recipient of the level gifting from my husband's account. So many to choose from! I should probably count in there my draenei magess, Esoterique. She is worthy of levelling, too!

Another option is to level slower than my guildmates, using only rested experience all the way. I'm sure I have enough characters available to me to do that. Is it obvious I have a severe case of Altitis? It is a running joke in my guild that noone knows all my alts. Therefore, when a low level person starts up in guild chat with a semi knowledgeable statement, they automatically accuse me of having another alt. Who else would it be?

Maybe you all can help me. Vote on who you think should level first by leaving a comment.