Favorite Mount

Dog House Systems is having a contest, in which they will pick someone out of the masses who respond with a picture of their character on their favorite mount to receive either a sparkle pony or a winged guardian and a companion pet.  Now, how could anyone pick just one favorite mount?  Delgada has at least tfour.  Here they are in no particular order.

Zhevra from the old Recruit a Friend Program

Cenarion Hippogryph from Outland Cenarion reputation

Ochre Skeletal Warhorse from Brill

Albino Drake from 50 Mount Achievement

If I had to pick just one mount, it would have to be the Cenariion Hippogryph.  So, I will be sending the link to that  in.  What are your favorite mounts?  I'd love to see pictures, even if you don't enter the contest!

What I've Been Doing - October 2011 Edition

Hi!  It's been a while, hasn't it?  Still hanging around this old dump? Well, I cannot promise that the view will change much here, or that the furniture will get moved any, but I can tell you what has been up.  Pull up a chair!

World of Warcraft has not lost its shine, yet.  I will admit to letting my subscription lapse for a week or more at a time, just because I really don't have time for this time hog of a game.  Still, I have friends and I enjoy tooling around on a new alt or three.  It's the way I am.  I had to delete a few neglected alts that weren't being played to make a new one on Proudmoore to play with one of my guildmates on the Alliance side of things.   Another draenei hunter named Minya joined my full stable of alts.  She is at level 20, and I keep forgetting to get her mount.  Oh well, I am enjoying the story through Westfall and Redridge without it, so what is the rush?

On the Horde side of things, I had transferred Delgada, who I consider my main, to the Eredar server a while back to play with a real life friend.  Well, he never promised to stick around, and Delgada has been all alone in this huge guild for a while.  Back when he was still playing and I had a little time to raid, I had allowed the guild to use KNR's server temporarily, until they found one of their own.  Well, here it is the middle of October, and hubby went shopping for a new Ventrilo server.  We let the other lapse, because a)we were broke and it was coming of our bank account, and 2) noone from that guild had even offered to contribute.  A few from KNR pony up on a regular basis, so when the coffer runs out and I need to add in a month or so, it just evens things out, you know?  I wonder if they have found a new host to leech off of.  If any of you on that server read this, well, there it is.  I cannot support two guilds.  We shrunk our server from a 50 to a 25 and moved it to Typefrag.

Hallow's Eve has started, right on the heels of Brewfest.  Delgada already had the achievements for both, so she entered the queue for Direbrew and got her trinket, then gave up on the holiday.  I don't like where it moved to. It's too far from the town.  But I love the holiday.  Maybe if I am around for Brewfest number 5 (is it that many already?) I'll celebrate with the Dwarves.  They know how to do it right.  As for Hallow's Eve, Delgada has her ring, and now she just queues in hope of getting a firey pony. I have her trick or treating, but the innkeepers won't speak to her, they just point at the big pumpkin full of goodies and go back to standing there doing nothing.  Trick or treating and the new dailies are a must, so that Delgada can get her new pets, the Feline Familiar and the Little Wickerman.  There was also a quest chain to get a Creepy Crate, which Delgada happily did.  This puts her just a little closer to the Littlest Pet Shop achievement.  She really wants that Celestial Dragon.  As for other in game things, I am leveling a few alts, and when I do drag Delgada out, it is for holiday stuff or to mindlessly fly over the face of Azeroth, looking for dig sites.

Wizard 101 has been on a side burner. I did recently, at the request of the game and because I would have anyway if I had known about it, vote for it to win the audience award for an online games award thingy.  Well, they won, and as a result I got a new pet, which as of last night was still in its shell. It's a yellow elf pet with a pedigree of 30.  When I have logged into the game, I have spent my time on my garden, which is full of pink dandelions, with a few king parsley, fickle pickle, bell peppers, snap dragons, baby carrots, and laugh o dils.  Rowan Trollstalker is currently questing in Dragonspyre.  I think she is about halfway through it.  When she has the energy, she likes to run her sea dragon through the hedge maze, but usually her garden takes most of the energy, so the poor dragon sits at teen.

Real life has taken the bulk of my time lately.  My father in law was in town a lot longer than expected, which meant a lot of running around.  He bought me a season pass for Disneyland, with parking, so I have been working toward getting each of my kids there with me, one a month.  So far, I have taken my oldest my youngest, and one of the middle ones, with plans to take two of the others close to their birthdays in November.  I keep telling myself I am going to run away and go just once by myself, but really, who am I kidding?  I barely have time to play my games at home.  What makes me think I can drive an hour away to spend a day on my own?  I think this will happen, just not really soon.  Maybe during Christmas break.

One of my step daughters wanted to audition for a musical, and I drove her there.  Next thing I know, I am being pushed on stage to audition as well.  She got the part of Zaneeta, the mayor's teen daughter, while I got the part of Ethel Toffelmeier, the pianola girl.  Bonus points if you can tell me what musical they are from, without Google's help!  We are waiting impatiently for our next practice session, as our leader said she would email us when we would start up again, after the start date had changed from "omg not the end of this month!" to "phew January sounds lots better".

My eldest daughter is sitting on her nest, and will have her little chick near the end of December.  I have to start finding silly baby shower games and start planning the party really soon.  I'm just having a hard time fitting all that in and trying to make myself a steampunk costume to wear at whatever convention I find myself at.  The only convention I have been to besides my one time at Blizzcon was a school food service convention, and as much fun as that was, the cosplay was limited to a few booth fruits (hehe). There is a new convention happening in November in Los Angeles that I am hoping to get to, just to see what one is like.  It looks to have a lot of neat personalities booked, and the price is right at about 12 bucks presale per day.  Hopefully my costume is ready by then!

Well, as for screenshots, I have been bad and not taken any recently.  So, this post will have no pretty picture at the top :(  If you are looking for pretty pictures, I invite you to go look at The Ancient Gaming Noob's site, as he is having a travel poster contest.  Maybe you can even make one of your own!  Thanks for stopping by.  Try not to let the dust bunnies out when you leave...

Oops! Was That A Heroic?

Delgada in her Tabard of the Achiever

 I played a long time yesterday.  I finished Deepholm, which also finished the Cataclysm Loremaster achievement.  I did my first round of Twilight Highlands dailies, and found the only two dailies in Uldum. I fiddled around getting the 25 tabard achievement.  I logged in my bank alt and sent 1300 gold to Delgada so she could get the ultimate riding achievement.  I even managed to kill C'thun (with some help!) and got my AQ40 achievement.   I figured, I can do all that, I might as well try one of these super hard instances everyone is talking about.

The End of C'thun

So I loaded up the looking for group tool, making sure I had selected only DPS, and pulled out my fishing pole.  I fished for about 30 minutes, and was whisked away into the Stonecore.  I'm guessing I was a replacement, because there were some dead mobs where I zoned in.  Not having run the instance before, I kinda guessed that we weren't at the entrance, because there were no npc types handing out quests.  So, I buffed up and followed the pack, carefully doing my job of dps and nothing else (well, I did dispel a couple things off the tank, but you won't tell?  Good.). 

Pre-Dungeon Attire.

The first boss I encountered was a dragon, I think.  This is a little fuzzy because it was at night yesterday, and I may get things out of order.    Anyhow, seems this guy does this aoe thing, you can see his cast bar ramping up to spin it off, of crystal shards.  Before he does that, he does this aoe where stalagmites drop from the ceiling.  This actually come in handy for the second aoe, as you can use them to hide behind.  Not too bad a fight, and we were off to the second boss.  Now, I'm pretty sure this was the second boss I saw, even though it may be further in, because I was a pinch hitter.  This rock guy does that shatter thing we all love from back in Burning Crusade days, but he has this other aoe I couldn't see.  So, after the shatter was about done, I sat there spamming my shield, or dissipate if it was up, to avoid as much damage from that attack as possible.  We got through that fight, then it was on to the next. Trash fights in between seemed rather straight forward, stay out of bad stuff, don't aggro, don't aoe, follow the tanks lead for kill order.  Well, I did aoe in the room before this next boss, to get rid of a bunch of non elites in the middle, then we turned the corner and saw our last boss.  This lady was fun.  She threw rocks at you, which you could totally avoid by getting out of the dust forming around your feet.  She also put up void circles, which were also easily avoided because of their obvious targeting ring before they appear.  The boss called non elites out, usually when she ran away to her stage, which were aoe'd down rather easily.  Oh, and if you grabbed enough aggro, she had this choke hold thing, I think it was even called Force Choke. So, we didn't get her down on the first try. Or the second.  Then, the tank, healer, and one dps just up and quit, leaving me and another hanging around.  We decided to wait for replacements.  She (might have been a guy, but was in female form, so you know, you are what you wear in this game to me) told me this was her first heroic, and that is when it hit me.  This is a heroic?  Here I just thought that the instances were that hard, and I was lucky to be able to perform at all in them..  Replacements arrived, and my partner in crime ate the dust, but we finished the boss, getting me a heroic and regular run of Stonecore all at once.

So, the heroics are hard?  The instances are hard, too?  Well, it's just more of the same we already learned...stay out of stuff, don't let stuff fall on you, and for gosh sakes pay attention! Now, to start planning my next several runs...

WoW Weekend Review.

I almost woke up everyone in the house when I saw this...

I GOT HIM!!

 Here is the rest of my weekend, in screen shots because I want to go to bed.  I'll write a better post tomorrow, I promise!

New Mount

Number 2 of 4.

Fishing for a rare fish, or a turtle.

500 down, no telling how many more to go!

I'm gonna love him, and hug him, and squeeze him, and call him George!

Adventuring In The Jungle

Finally!

Yesterday, Delgada did her normal rounds of Northrend dailies, making Sewer Stew for the innkeeper in the Underbelly and fishing up a severed arm from the water in front of the Violet Hold. She dug up shinies with her friend Lafoo, sang a cleansing song over the waters of Sholazar, and cleared out some invading puppy men with the help of Sooholu.  Then, she traveled among the Kalu'ak, and earned the achievement Tuskarmageddon.  Happily, she turned to the quartermaster and bought her fishing pole and Pengu. Her daily reward for cooking and fishing were not exciting.  Better luck next time!

 

There wasn't enough time to go do the Argent Tournament, or to travel to the old world and do the raptor daily, or to go fishing in Outland or work for the Skyguard, because she had plans to loot and pillage in Zul'Gurub.  Delgada grabbed her Mudskunk lure and pole, emptied her bags, and made her way to Stranglethorn Vale, calling her friends to join her as she traveled.

 

At the summoning stone, with the help of Sinnerman, Delgada summoned Mootree to join the venture. We were overpowering, slaughtering everything in our path, taking very few scratches.  We did need a few heals and resurrections, mostly due to curious fingers poking around in hexed voodoo piles. The leaders within Zul'Gurub fell with minimal effort, and Delgada won pieces to turn in to craft gear for her next adventures in the jungle.  Stumbling upon Nat Pagle's favorite fishing spot, and partaking of some of the ale he left behind, Delgada threw out her lure and summoned up Gahzranka.  He sent eveyone flying, and was a fun fight, but his end had been foretold. Shortly afterward, Delgada and her team met with Hakkar, and sent him to his grave.  During their trip, Delgada collected a massive amount of old Amani empire coins and bijous, and was rewarded with good will from the Zandalar trolls, as well as with a nice pair of bracers. She hopes to go and take care of whatever still lives in there tonight, possibly even into the Edge of Madness.

 

Yay! 75 reputation!

 After the party had said their goodbyes, Delgada took the flight from Grom'gol to Booty Bay, checked the auction house for recipes she didn't have (there were none), and took the boat to Ratchet. From Ratchet she hopped on her trusty random mount and headed for Razorfen Downs, which was rumored to have a chef with knowledge of a special drink to restore mana.  He taught her that recipe, gaining the achievement, Chef de Cuisine. After helping a wizard nearby to put out the unearthly fire on a monument inside the Downs, she hearthed to Dalaran, cleaned out her bags, and set to trying to catch that one last gold coin to get her Coinmaster and There's Gold in That There Fountain achievements. Sadly, it would not be caught before I was told to return to the real world.

 

Only need my chef's hat now!

 So, many achievements were made, which cuts down on some of Delgada's daily rounds. No more Kalu'ak dailies are needed.  These will no doubt be replaced by Argent Tournament dailies.  Delgada will continue working for the Skyguard, to get her mounts from them, and tonight she will down Terrokk with Sinnerman's help.  Hopefully, he'll drop that nifty trinket!

Pain In the Neck.

The last two days I have been playing on a 42" monitor, using the pc I had 2 laptops ago.   Yesterday I was able to play WoW on it, thanks to my husband's brilliant thought of maintaining an updated copy of it on a portable drive. I cranked the resolution as high as it would go, scaled my ui down, and played without add ons (oh!), lagging through Dalaran, but only encountering minor lag in other zones.

 

I feel crippled without some addons. I absolutely need my Onebag, Onebank, MrPlow, Smart Debuff,  and Gbot. I can live with the standard ui., so long as I have Smart Debuff to bind my heals and debuffers with. I can live without a damage meter, and a threat meter.  I can even live without Mik's Scrolling Battle Text.  Without my bag addons I lose things, end up with full bags a lot faster from not cleaning them out as well without Gbot.  So, when I get home tonight to my computer that has absolutely nothing wrong with it (thanks Best Buy), I'm doing some add on folder cleaning.  Rowena needs an updated auction posting add on and Postal in addition to the add-ons I already listed.  That should make for a nice clean, easy to use installation.

 

As I did the dailies I could do last night, I grew to really appreciate the new Blizzard quest interface.  The number on the map is so much easier than an arrow on my screen for me, as I can see hills and other things that I need to avoid as I make my way to the quest area. I logged in standing in the middle of a pack of Ravasaurs in Un'Goro crater.  I pulled out my baby and did his daily, then killed a tonne of slimes before hearthing to Dalaran.  From there I grabbed the cooking and fishing dailies and set out. The fishing daily was difficult, with a bunch of Alliance hanging around killing everyone that landed at River's Heart.  I took advantage of my undead extended breath and resurrected underwater, then swam to the opposite shore and got my item and left.  From there I went to the Oracles and did their quests, and then I did all my Kalu'ak quests.  Then I turned in my dailies in Dalaran, getting the poison vial from the fishing daily and an extra badge from the cooking daily.  From there I took a portal to Shattrath, where I got the fishing daily, Crocolisks in the City.  I portaled to Orgrimmar to finish it up, and went out to Best Buy to pick up my laptop, which had nothing at all wrong with it.

 

Before I left for Best Buy, somewhere in the middle of leaving Shattrath to go see Old Man Barlo, the tech that worked on my computer called to let me know it was ready.  He berated me for not having virus software (I have Windows Essentials, so I do), and tried to explain to me that my browser was crashing because of virus attacks.  I didn't take it in for browser crashes, and I was a bit annoyed with him, and I think he could tell.  When I went in to pick it up, I was miffed for being treated like a girl who knew nothing about computers.  The tech that helped me when I was picking it up was very on the ball, and though we could find no problem, he advised me to go to the Asus website and see if there were any reported issues, and maybe call them.  So, as I was registering for their site and tipping my laptop upside down to read the serial number, the plug to my extra monitor dropped off.  Before that, I was randomly disconnecting from WoW, Ventrilo, and having problems loading pages.  After that, don't you know the damned thing didn't drop once?  I have no idea what connection my extra screen had with my wifi connection, but I guess I will have to buy a new screen next tax season.  I'll miss the extra screen space (no more blogging while fighting), but I'll get by, and I won't be raging at the computer ready to heave it discus style at the door.

 

So, while they were hooking my laptop up, I finished my Shattrath fishing daily, and turned it in to get Toothy's Bucket!  That is one of the four I was wanting.  Tick one item off the list.  I flew to Skettis and knocked off the daily escort and bombing, then farmed up enough pages to summon the last two bosses I needed before killing Terrok.  I tried to kill him, and would have had him if I had been a little more conscious of my health bar.  Tonight, hubby said he would help (after finding out about the trinket Terrok drops).  I am halfway through honored with the Skyguard.

 

Because of the challenges of playing on my television monitor and switching to my laptop midstream, I forgot to do the Argent Tournament.  I will do them today. If time, I may also put some time into trying for that last gold coin Delgada needs, as well.

 

Progress made?  One pet, one more day until done with Kalu'ak, another day closer to being done with the Oracles, and a lot more reputation under my belt for Skyguard.  I got 3 badges for the cooking quest, getting me that much closer to a hat.  Oh, and having heard that Zul'Gurub will be gone come Cataclysm, Hubby and I plan to be hitting that one on reset, every reset, trying for the mounts and raising reputation, as well as the planned fishing for Gazrahnka.  Maybe we will have time tonight?

 

 

Look! It's Shiny!

 Today's stab at my list was made easier in part by sparkly objects.  Thank you Blizzard!

Today, I logged in after filling a pot with cut up veggies, chili flakes, garlic, salt and a bay leaf.  I started with the Dalaran dailies, which were the same as yesterday. Then, I did the Oracle Dailies, which were different,except for my walk around with Lafoo looking for shinies.  Lafoo said I could be Soo Dryskin.  I like that name!  I used an empowered gem to kill off some more puppy men, then played music over mounds of earth.  Done with the Oracles, I headed for Storm Peaks to do my job for the ladies of Brunhildar village.  No mount today, but they gave me a nice stack of goat cheese (ick). After that, I sped to Unupe, collected supplies and returned them, went to the next stop and picked up baby puppies, then off to the last to lure male sea lions into doing their duty. Two more days of the Kalu'ak and I won't have to drudge for them anymore!

I returned to Dalaran, turned in the two dailies there (got a couple of badges and more junk), and headed for The tournament grounds to offer my aid.  I was made to kill more scourge, retrieve a famous blade, and practice my jousting skills.  Completely bored, I headed from there back to Dalaran to use the portal to Shattrath.  Old Man Barlo gave me the same quest as yesterday, but this time it took a while to finish.  After that, I flew to Skettis to do the dailies for the Skyguard, and did two turn ins of shadow dust as well. Then it was bak to Shattrath to use the portal to Orgrimmar, where I bought the Savory Deviate Delight recipe for Delgada, leaving her one recipe shy of the Chef de Cuisine achievement.  From there, I flew to Un'Goro Crater, where my baby raptor was craving slithid eggs from Tanaris. A dozen eggs later, I wandered around the spawning area for the Ravasaur Matriarch.  She wasn't there, and none of the oozes I killed dropped the
Oozing Bag, which helped me decide to pack it up for the night.  that and the random disconnect.  Yes, I am taking the laptop in to Best Buy tomorrow. I hope they notice the problem and can diagnose it.

Small steps were made tonight.  No achievements were had, but I believe we'll start seeing them soon.  Tonight I add to my list two items:

Finish the Argent Tournament.
Fish up a turtle mount.

Dailies and Dinosaurs..

Cleaning out the bank.

Today I fought with my connection as I worked on getting cooking badges for a chef's hat, bought recipes I didn't have off the auction house for Chef de Cuisine, fished for fishing poles and crocolisk pets, hunted for raptor egg nests, killed oozes, and fed my baby raptor.

My day in WoW started out in Dalaran, as it usually does. I picked up the daily cooking quest for Mustard Dogs and the daily fishing quest Dangerously Delicious, as well as the weekly raid quest, which was Flame Leviathan Must Die!. I flew to Wintergrasp for the fishing, then took my flying mount to Sholazar Basin for the rhino meat I needed for the cooking quest. I forgot to stop by the Oracles base afterward. I fully intended to do those dailies and grab an egg. I'll do that once my hearth is off cool down, since I used it to get back to Dalaran quickly turn in the dailies. I got 3 badges from the cooking quest (2 for the quest and one in my bag) and a bunch of nothing from the fishing quest.  I then took the portal to Shattrath.  I flew out of Shattrath and to Old Man Barlo, who gave me the quest to fish up the World's Largest Mudfish. I caught it in the first cast!  I took my mount back to Barlo and turned it in for some fishing hooks and change.   

From Shattrath, I took the portal to Orgrimmar. I spent all Delgada's gold on 5 recipes, 3 cooking and two enchanting, that Delgada didn't have.  Then, I flew her to Un'Goro to do her daily for her venomhide raptor mount. My little guy wanted dinosaur meat, and mixed in with the dinosaurs were oozes that might drop the oozeling pet.  So, in between slabs of meat, I turned oozes into puddles.  No pet, but the baby got fed, and coughed up another baby tooth.

I kept getting disconnected while I was out there, so I took a break to make dinner, and logged back in after that I think I was on for maybe 2 minutes, killed 4 oozes, and was taking on King Mosh when I got dumped off the server again! I logged in dead after two tries,but couldn't leave my body to resurrect, so I closed it back up and restarted my computer.  Once I was able to relog, I disabled a few add-ons (haven't updated in forever!) and got stuck in ghost form with an accept button that wouldn't work.

Disconnected...again!

I am so frustrated I could scream. No, it is not okay that I was disconnected. If I have to click another okay button tonight I am going to do something rash.  So, instead of blowing my top, I am starting up another game and seeing how long I stay connected. While I do that, I will recount the progress this day has made toward completing my overly long bucket list.

I have made progress toward my total count of dailies done, 4 more quests done.  I have added 3 recipes to my cooking, leaving me with 2 more to get the achievement.  Delgada is one day closer to a new mount. I guess I didn't get that much done. Oh well, off to Sholazar to do my Oracle dailies and buy an egg.  More tomorrow!

For the curious...

I logged into Wizard 101 and stayed connected close to half an hour.  That sure beats the less than five minute stints in WoW I was working with. I'm thinking there is something wrong with my computer, which is less than a year old, so should still be under a manufacturer's care. My router is kind of old, too, so I'm not ruling that out, either.  I'm borrowing hubby's computer for my Oracle and Kalu'ak dailies. *crossing fingers*

Bucket List

Before Cataclysm hits, I would like to, in no particular order, complete these items. I will choose whatever hits my fancy as my quest for that day, or several days, depending on the complexity of the item.This list may change, mostly to add things, not to subtract. Here is my preliminary list.  I will notate when I complete something by scoring through it and adding a date. If I add something new I will put an asterisk after it with the date added. For items with multiple parts. I will date each part as it is completed, or note what part was completed and date it if there was no description (ie Northrend Glory of the Hero or Bloody Rare).  I will post daily about what I worked on, what add-ons or guides I found useful in completing them, and anything I did that I think would be helpful.

1. Set aside enough cloth to level first aid on one goblin.(netherweave,runecloth,mageweave, silk, wool, linen)
   
2. Finish leveling jewelcrafting on Sinnerman.Account off. If time I will on Gwenna.
3. Set aside enough material to level blacksmithing on one goblin.
4. Finish Delgada's An'Qiraj set.  She is missing the Shroud of Infinite Wisdom. 9/13/10
5. Prophecy set and Oracle set for Delgada, but first....
6. Change a Devout set into a Virtuous set, bur first..
7.  Farm for Devout set.
8. Farm for at least one more whelpling.  I have the blue one. I want a green one!
9. Farm for the oozeling.  He eludes our grasp.9/6/10
10. Finish Northrend so Delgada can have the Loremaster title and colors. (only 11 quests to go!)
11. 100 mount achievement? Give it a huge try by...
12. Get a pvp mount (or several, but that means battlegrounds...)
13. Get an Argent Tournament mount (or several?)White Skeletal Horse 9/4/10
14. Finish my old school Naxxramas quest chain
15. Get the pieces to do the Balance of Light and Shadow quest and build Benediction
16. Clean out bank to make room for old school goodies 9/6/10 it's hopeless a post on this 9/7/10
17. Finish old world raids for achievement (need BWL and AQ40)
18. BC raids? not high on the list but I am missing most of them( I know I finished Gruul and Mag- I was cheated!)
19. Finish BC dungeons on heroic to knock out both achievements
20. Become a Savior of the Oracles, and start buying eggs again. (only missing one quest)9/20/10
21. Work on the Bloody Rare achievement for Outland (have 3 of the 21)
22. Work on the Frostbitten achievement for Northrend (have 1 of the 23)
23. Duel someone enough to get the Duel-icious achievement 9/7/10 (with the argent tourney duel achieve)
24. Kill Malygos to finish Champion of the Frozen Wastes
25. Finish Glory of the Hero (have 11 to go)
26. Find the 5 recipes Delgada is missing for Chef De Cuisine 9/2/10
    
27. Buy a chef's hat..which means doing dailies again!
28. Catch a rare fish
29. Catch Old Ironjaw
30. Fish up Gahz'ranka in ZG and The Lurker Below in SC9/2/10(ZG)
31. Fish up Tirion Fordring's gold coin and get Coin Master/There's Gold in That There Fountain
32. Win a fishing tourney (who am I kidding?)
33. Turn as many pieces of frostweave as possible into bandages (500, to be exact).
34. Jump off a precipice and bandage for Ultimate Triage./9/22/10 with Drunken Stupor
35. Make 3 more factions love me for 25 exalted (ad infinitum)(30, 35, 40)(Kalu'ak 9/2/10)9/18/10
36. Zandalar Tribe(9/23/10), Hydraxian Waterlords and Brood of Nozdormu must love me.
37. Thrallmar, Lower City, the Sha'tar and Keepers of Time must also love me.
38. Get exalted with Skyguard(9/18/10) and Netherwing (for mounts!)
39. Kalu'ak don't love me yet. I must have their fishing pole! (more dailies)9/2/10
40. Exalted Ashen Verdict? Shouldn't be too hard.
41. Buy ridiculously expensive mounts. Ice Mammoth Grand Ice Mammoth, Wooly Mammoth, Traveler's Tundra Mammoth, a Choppa...
42. Make the Oracles love me, then forsake them and flirt with some Frenzyhearts.
43. Get the Brewmaster title9/24/10
44. Get the Pilgrim title and turkey pet on Delgada 
45. Collect tabards. You can never have too many tabards.
46. Farm for impossible to get mounts.
47. Pick pocket as many lockboxes as possible on Maura.
48. Back to the goblin. Set aside enough frostweave bags, and a few non binding 16 slotters, (in case I kill of the first one) to equip and for bank.
49. Do the dailies in Storm Peaks for the Brunhildar Village, in hopes of the polar bear mount.
50. Since I am doing so many dailies, I should at least aim for the 500 dailies done achievement...9/6/10
51. As much as I think heirloom gear is a cheat, buy a whole set of clothy gear, just for kicks.
52. Work on the baby raptor, because Delgada really wants the mount (ugh, more dailies).
53. Find those snake gowns and get one of every color. I thought there were red and orange ones, too? 
54. Get the baby croc pets. More Dailies!Toothy 9/2/10 Snarly 9/4/10
55. Buy the last bank tab for my guild.
56. Try to get the epic fishing poles from the fishing dailies (at least I like fishing?)
57. Delgada wants a firefly pet.
58. Delgada wants all the baby raptor pets. She still needs Gundrak, Ravasaur, and Razzashi hatchlings.
59. Finish the Argent Tournament.Champion of the Undercity
60. Fish up a turtle mount.

Titles, Achievements, and Sight Seeing.

This past week has been a fun one.  I have been putzing around with Maura, putting my husband in fear of beating out Hacksoor to 80.  She is a lot of fun, stabbing people and picking their pockets.  I don't know why I never thought to stick with a rogue before this.  I love pick pocketing things.  I got a very pretty rock yesterday, but I forgot to turn off my grey seller.  Out of all the other things I have lifted silently out of pockets and purses, you'd think that I'd have a more valuable favorite.  Other fun things I have been finding are Exotic Cookbooks and Steamy Romance Novels. I must remember to stash away at least one copy of each book I find before the expansion. I can't wait to see what new books are coming!

I want this outfit!

Aside from pick pocketing as many Dark Iron dwarves and Twilight cultists as possible, I have been working on factions with Delgada. Noticing she had about 4,000 reputation until she was exalted with the Maghar, I took her out to kill ogres in Nagrand one session.In holy specialty, I'd run around casting Shadow Word: Pain, then when I had a sizable mob, I'd Holy Nova them down.  I don't think it took me all that long to finish. I didn't manage to capture the moment, but I managed to capture a happy extra achievement reward...

Who needs a sparkle pony, anyhow?

...an albino drake. If you too are interested in Leading the Cavalry, you'll need to gather 50 mounts.  Maghar, or Kurenai for Alliance, is a great reputation to grind for this, as they sell all the talbuk mounts (except the dark ones, which are sold by the vendor in Halaa), a nice chunk of the amount needed to complete the achievement.

The other reputation I found I was close to completing was Cenarion Expedition out in Zangarmarsh.  I needed a little more than 4,000 reputation points,so I decided I would try to solo the Steamvault.  Switching to shadow for a bit more protection, Delgada gulped down a Flask of the Frost Wyrm and stepped through the portal.  For all taht I have been fearful of taking Delgada into level 70 instance alone, she mowed that place down!  It took one full run and a couple short runs (Delgada was kind enough to help someone get the achievement The Lurker Above while she was farming) to hit exalted. This got her yet another achievement...

Seems almost wrong...

...Delgada, Guardian of Cenarius. This is probably one of those titles that just shouldn't be on an undead.  I only wanted the reputation so I could have the privelege to shell out 2000 gold to the Expedition quartermaster for the Cenarion War Hippogryph.  That, too, is an achievement, but I'd do it even if it wasn't.  Since I don't have one yet, I'm borrowing an image from WoWhead.   Why would anyone not want this mount?

 submitted by WoWhead user wolfmusic, this is the special mount action.

Delgada hasn't made any more progress with Loremaster of Kalimdor, which is sad, with all this news of Cataclysm, you'd think I would be in a hurry to finish that.  Instead, Maura is at level 76, doing her own exploring.  Here are some things I never noticed the first time or even the twentieth time I went through Shattered Halls.

Orc statues are everywhere in this instance!

Grand Warlock Nethecurse's room, too.

That's all I have been doing in WoW this week. In Wizard 101, Rowan managed to get a myth pixie and an ice serpent pet, and I brought out Esmee Wyrmblossom to fiddle with a fire wizard for a bit after I got the code for a Galvanic Hammer out of Beckett's Massive Online Gamer magazine.  It is so much easier to level with one of these items, as the 75 damage zero pip spell takes out low level mob sin one or two hits. This is especially handy with a fire wizard, where her first damage spell fizzles 25% of the time.  If you haven't picked up the magazine, it is well worth reading.  The interview with Steve and Leesha from Ravenwood Radio was good, and there are some interesting articles on some upcoming mmos and a sneak peak of the 3rd installment in the World of Warcraft graphic novel series. It would seem that they are in the market for handing out free codes, too, so if you are into AdventureQuest: Worlds, Dragons VS. Robots, or Wonderking, grab yourself a copy for some fun in game items!

Esmee Wyrmblosson, with her 1 day black stallion. Lucky!

Lastly, I bring up Perfect World.  I have been trying, Oh, have I been trying, but I cannot break out of level 21!  The price of death is a loss of a chunk of experience, and it seems right when I am making progress with Delgada the Cleric, I die and lose a good bit of it.  I'm thinking that I may start grinding on low level mobs to possibly get out of this hole I seem to be digging.  Other than that, Delgada has been picking up every low level material she can find and selling them.  We first tried the cat store, which is fine if you don't mind staying logged in to do it.  I find I am still a big fan of the auction house, and I am making money slowly.  Hopefully I will have enough to start doing some gold trading soon.  When that happens, I will be able to play the market, get some gold, and buy some clothing without having to use real money to do it! It is great that this system was instituted for players who have more time than cash.  Once I get started, I may do some research and post on how to work the gold market.

21 forever might be good in real life...

That's all I have for now.  I am looking around for another title to start toward the end of this month.  Sure, I don't have tonnes of time, but I need various forms of escape, and I aim to find a fun vacation home for my summer break!  If you know of any free to play games that I should poke my nose into, comment below!

Heavy Junkboxes? We Have Them!

Roughly a month ago my husband was given a down payment on another persons bid for insanity.  I don't know what the final payment will be, but I do know this has given me some blog fodder.  That, in itself, is payment enough, since I have been in a dry place lately game wise.  So, without further ado, I present to you my guide for grabbing as many heavy junk boxes as you can in a small amount of space and time.

Some of you might be asking yourselves, "Why do I need heavy junk boxes?"  The only reason I can think of that anyone would need these is to gain positive reputation with the Ravenholdt faction, by doing the repeatable quest Junkboxes Needed. Ideally, you should kill as many Syndicate as possible before starting this quest.  If you aren't a rogue already, you either will have to beg a friend or use an alt, because you can only pickpocket these boxes.

For starters, you will need a rogue.  These come in many different flavors.  My favorite is undead.  Your rogue will want to be at least level 60, and the higher above that the better, as it decreases the chance your rogue will be caught with his/her hand in a pocket. Make sure your rogue has the barest minimum of items in his/her bag.  I recommend a stack of bandages, some food, and your thieves tools.  If your rogue is an engineer, bring Jeeves along as well to sell of the garbage. Maura is not, so we will just be littering.  Drop your rogue off in Kargath, or Thorium Point if you have the flight point, and head on over to Blackrock Depths.

 Once inside, hang a left, and pick lock that gate. Don't bother with the mobs that are directly in front of you as you enter.  They only drop Sturdy Lockboxes, which look just like the heavy ones, but don't work for the quest turn in. Once you have passed the gate, stealth past the flame mobs and get out on the highway.

You could stay here, pickpocketing up and down the highway with great success, but I hate those dogs! They see through stealth, and though Maura is a healthy level 71, she still gets a tad too close once in while. After that happens, she usually ends up killing precious humanoid mobs, and we cannot have that. Since pocket loot will respawn after several minutes, you want to keep as many mobs alive on your route as possible.


Got auto loot on? You should have several boxes by now.  I didn't mean for you to think that I don't pick these guys pockets at all.  I do pick them on the way to my preferred farming area. Through the monstrous gate...

across the bridge...

through the covered walkway and past Lord Incendius.

Through the Hall of Crafting and past the contstructs.

Pick the craftsmen's pockets, you might get something! Even Fineous Darkvire sometimes has a little something in his pockets.

In Shadowforge City, on this ledge, go out the door and turn left, and go into the last door on the ledge. Pickpocket all these guys, too.

 In the Domicile, pick pocket as many as you dare. Up the ramp, through the first room and into the second, go past that fireguard on the right.

Another bridge...

Pickpocket this whole hall, including Pyromance Loregrain at the end.

You  have entered the farming zone! Halfway down the hall is our entrance to the Ring of Law, in the audience section.

Pick all their pockets, starting from the left or right, and ending when you have made a full circuit.  I usually then go to the opposite entrance...

and pick pocket over there...

...then come back and do the ring, then pickpocket the original hallway again.  You can keep this up indefinitely.

I hope this was helpful. Below I have made a nice red line on the map approximately where my path takes me.  Personally, I use landmarks much better, so that is why there are so many pictures! Any suggestions you all have would be welcome, because I am sure going INSANE picking all these pockets! :)

Farming For Old School Glory

I remember years ago, before Burning Crusade was launched, a guildie used to farm the templars and lords out in Silithus for gear.  I think I went with him on Shawndra a couple of times, just for kicks.  In our casual, raid when we feel like it guild, he seemed an overachiever of immense proportions.  He doesn't play anymore, sad to say, but I still remember the fun out in Silithus, mowing down cultists to farm for outfits (he already had farmed endless hours alone for the signets and scepters).

With that memory of group fun, I set to my task of farming for quests in Silithus. The cultists fell faster than they respawned for me, filling my bags with cloth and robes, but seldom yielding the mantle or cowl needed to use the lesser wind stones.  Still, I slogged away, Delgada  tossing Shadow Word: Pain around like confetti.

It took 4 long sessions for her.  Abyssal crests turned into medallions of station, abyssal signets turned into a scepter, and more robes were funneled along with mountains of cloth and other random bits to Rowena to hopefully sell. I am still working on getting the third piece of the An'Qiraj quest set, because the set bonus rocks!  I may never use them again, but I can say I earned them, and that is all that matters, right?

Del still has roughly 40 quests left to finish out Kalimdor. I have lost interest in the grind to Loremaster, but I'm still working on it, in between gearing up Carlotta and twiddling with any of my gazillion alts.I want to finish the achievement, more because she is the character I play the most, and she feels incomplete.  Would I have been trying for this if achievements had never come to be?  I would probably never know what I was missing, but would want to try and find as many quests as I could find on my own.

I haven't been playing as much lately, due to a cold that is threatening to become the annual bout of walking pneumonia.  Wizard 101 has been commanding a little more attention, trying to get Rowan Trollstalker out of Krokotopia so she can bribe her way into Marleybone.  I am fast running out of crowns to open up new areas.  I think I have run out of areas to unlock in Krokotopia, though, so my meager stash of crowns might get me through the portal to Marleybone.  Might.  Darn 7-11 is out of game cards.

Loremaster?

I have been busy trying to get Loremaster on Delgada. I could use that as my excuse for not posting, but to be honest, real life has been keeping me busy. My kids and step-kids are home for spring break, my father-in-law is in town, my cat is pregnant (again!), and the laundry is trying to take over more than the laundry room.

Last night, I twiddled around Blade's Edge, roping a few guildies in on my quest to summon a guardian of Simon (I love the mini game there!) while I hared off to do the bombing quest (which is my least favorite quest...skyguards and bombing...). I'm wondering if I can summon the guardian alone. It was rather easy with the four of us, smart and paying attention, hitting the buttons, and the kill was faster. I let them out of helping me with my other quests. I was having one of those nights where, even with a goal, "Oh, look, a shiny!" would throw me off for minutes. Even so badly impaired, Delgada managed to get her Loremaster of Outland achievement, finally finishing most of the quests in Blades Edge Mountains and getting the achievement for that, too.

Wednesday Delgada brought Thrall to Nagrand to visit his grandmother,and finished her list of quests out there.   Before that, we had another case of the shinies, tracking down books for the Well Read achievement.  I think we only have these to track down:

• *The Betrayer Ascendant - 66.76 Darnassus City
• *The Lich King Triumphant - Only found within Scholomance and Stratholme
• *Old Hatreds - The Colonization of Kalimdor - 51.29 Tanaris and within Scholomance
• *The Invasion of Draenor - Only found within Scholomance
• *The Seven Kingdoms - Only found within Scholomance and Stratholme

Oh, if you're trying to track these down as well, the link to the achievement on WoWhead above has a list with locations in the comment section.

After finishing Outland last night, Delgada is left with the rest of Icecrown and 50 quests in Azeroth to become Loremaster.  She also wants that silly knuckle sandwich achievement and the other one with the weapon skills.  Who knows how long that will take? That last point in daggers and staves is just hanging there, taunting me.

I know a lot of you out there have ground out the Loremaster achievements.  If you have any suggestions for tracking down those last quests, I'd love to hear them.  I dreamt last night that I kept getting quest drop items.  If only!

3.3 .... WOW!

The little things. They are what keep me coming back for more in this game. Logging in to find a core hound pup in the mailbox was great! Remembering that Breanni was supposed to have a few new pets to buy, I ran to the pet shop and picked up a new snake and kitty. They'll have to make a 100 pet achievement soon, with all the pets they keep coming up with. I made sure to give them all play time, running a lap or more of Dalaran looking for the last three books for the Schools of Arcane Magic achievement.

Core pup in tow, I decided to try out the new looking for group tool. I made allowances for patch day newness by not getting angry over glitches that I knew would be fixed soon. Other than a 15 minutes of disgrace at having to leave an instance group that noone got summoned into, the grouping was rather smooth. Delgada was chosen to dps the first instance, then heal the second. The second was everyone's favorite instance, the Oculus. One of the group said," They didn't hit this with a (nerf) bat, they hit it with a sledgehammer." No truer words were spoken. The first boss was a pushover, the mage boss in the center died without me noticing any of his signature frosty floor patches. The end boss was very forgiving of movement impaired people, or I was just getting better at getting out of the way when the boss threw out his bubbles of pain. Loot was rolled on, mstly to be disenchanted, and that was all I did in LFG that night. I really enjoy the new system. I'm not sure if everyone is on their best behaviour, or if I am just getting very lucky. those two runs were the most fun I have had in a while.

After the LFG fun, I ran regular ToC with some friends, and that was a blast and a half. Graham, my favorite pally tank ever (he reads this, I know, so I can say stuff like that. I'm sure he's not modest or anything. He's probably saying, "That's right, I am that good." to himself as he reads this. Makes up for how bad he rogues. -.^ ) tanked, I healed, and his two roomies (Hi Mar! Hi Ben!) were the reason for the group. Each walked away with three pretty purples last night, despite our lack of luck in getting leather or plate wearing dps to join our foursome. It was fun running ToC with people who were new to the instance, learning how to joust right there instead of through the tournament quests. I highly recommend it!

Tonight, kinda figuring I wouldn't get much play time in, I logged into Bladefist and my poor, neglected mage, Dinnaeh. She picked up her mail and set off to turn in some completed quests. She joined the heroic instance queue and waited. I thought for sure that being dps, it would be the same old thing, too many damage dealers and not enough tanks and healers. Dinnaeh had a group in less than five minutes. First instance she hit was Utgarde Pinnacle. She had never been there, so she picked up the instance quests, set out a table, threw intellect on the mostly melee group, and was second to last on the dps meter. Noone said anything (perhaps all their mods were still broken?Mine weren't, though they need organizing), and the run went smoothly in spite of my ineptitude (or lack of gear). I got three achievements in there, finished two quests, and ended up back in Zul'drak where I started. You know that fight with the guy on the dragon in Utgarde Pinnacle? Nerfed. I don't think that dragon breathed frost on the floor even once, and this was heroic! I'm all for making things accessible, but this was way too easy. This is where I have to say, why not just have people walk through an instance portal and give them a random iLevel 200 item, rare or epic, that is useful to the class. The instances I ran the last two days, with the exception of ToC, are close to doing that already.

I am mostly happy with what I have seen of 3.3. I haven't messed around with Delgada's shadow glyphs or spec yet, but she did pick up a mace that replaced both her damage and healing weapons. I enchanted it with Black Magic, so the mace has haste and now has a proc for more haste. I'll probably stick with the way she is for now, because if she starts running as many random instances as I know she plans, she'll be replacing gear pretty quickly.

You Are Invited!

Everyone is welcome to join Shawndra at her bountiful table. There will be stuffing, cranberry chutney, sweet potatoes, pumpkin pie, and, of course, turkey! Shawndra is so proud, she even cooked the turkey. Here she is in her very first cooking show.



Join her in Orgrimmar for her special feast. The food is out of this world, and she'd love the company!