So, You Don't Want Your Racial Mount...

When I play Alliance side, I usually play a Draenei. I like the look, that they don't look too human. Which is why I normally play Horde characters. Every Draenei I have that I intend to get past the age of riding, decides early what factional mount she must have. Why? Because, I hate the Elekk mount. It's way too big, it's ugly, and it just doesn't fit through all the doors. Esoterique, my first Draenei to get a mount, finished exalted with Darnassus just a few points into level 30. For a Draenei, Darnassus may be the next easiest to grind, as that is the next logical area for them to quest.

For my newest Draenei, Halinka, we are working on Stormwind reputation. She wants a black stallion. So, she must find the best way to level in that reputation. As I did with Esoterique, I have done with Halinka. The minute she was "done" with Bloodmyst Island (there are a few group quests she will go back for later) she started her journey to the appropriate starter zone. For Halinka, this was Ellwyn Forest. She made her way to the abbey and did all the quests there. From there, she got her two pointer quests to go to Goldshire, travelled there, grabbed quests, and worked her way to finishing all of them(most, anyhow. she still hasn't got the deed to drop yet, but got the gold schedule!). At level 20 doing all these quests, they were knocked out pretty quickly. She received her pointer quests to Westfall and skipped merrily there. In Westfall, the quests started giving almost normal experience again, as they were closer to her level. Since she was already high enough level to go to Redridge, she already had her pointer quest to it, and she worked her way around Westfall eventually finishing everything but the escort quest and the treasure map (have I mentioned that, although I love my plushie, I hate murlocs?). On to Lakeshire in Redridge Mountains, where we were high enough, again, to pick up a boatload of quests. One of them had us on a trip to a few places to pick up booze for the inn, so we started off in Stormwind, and set our tracker to low level quests. We finished off those, picked up the wine from Gallina's, then walked to Goldshire to deliver a few items and pick up some more licquor. Then it was back to Stormwind, where I bought the wool for the cloth turn in, emptied my bags (sent all the low level cloth and meat to my hunter to help her level her professions), and flew to Westfall to start walking to Darkshire. Since I had already done the quest for the brew in Wesfall, I didn't have to do it for this quest. I grabbed the shine and the flightpoint, and flew back to Lakeshire.

In Lakeshire, we did as many quests as we could reasonably do at our level, then moved to Darkshire. As I write this, Halinka has finished all but one Stockade quest, has finished the Deadmines, and is back in Lakeshire to do some of the quests that she left behind, since everything in Darkshire is now orange or red. She was fortunate to find a paladin soloing Mor'Ladim, and was able to get an invite as he went down. Finishing that quest off early is a wonderful thing, as it is so hard to find a group for anything at this low level anymore. Her reputation bar, at level 28, sits at halfway through revered. With any luck, she'll hit exalted not too long after 30! Black Stallion, here we come! Maybe at 60, she'll want a cat....

Vacationing in Shadowsong

I'm on spring break. My body figured this out the minute I closed my kitchen on Friday. I swear my nose was runny and my throat had that "you're getting a sore throat ha ha" feeling as Idrove out of the staff parking lot. Even though Delgada has the horrendous Hodir reputation grind ahead of her, not to mention finishing out Kirin Tor and Argent Dawn for the spell threads, I just haven't felt like playing alone. So, I joined the Illuminati Order on Shadowsong with my priest, Kalinka. She's 21 now, and doing pretty well. I even started a hunter, named Minya, and got my daughter started on hubby's account with her own hunter, who shall remain nameless, mostly because she has been happy to have the same name on each server she rolls on, and I don't want to spoil it! We also made Death Knights, mostly so we can do dungeon drags for the lower levels. I won't broadcast our names, as, again, they are belonging only to us. Daughter has the corner on her name, with one result (her other has been off for too long to show), and mine with two. You find a good name, and you stick with it!

That is why I haven't posted much. Been busy leveling, coughing, nursing a teenager, chasing a toddler, and dog sitting. All 21 levels I have had an old-fat-cat-hating dachsund, a hyperactive aging chihuahua, and a very old small mixed breed sitting at or on my feet, in my lap, or on my shoulders. My poor kitty has been locked in my back room for over a week, until the dogs go back home with my father in law, and then she gratefully comes out, eats and does the little things she needs to do, and perches on the back of a couch. I feel so bad for her. I'm sure she doesn't mind in the slightest. A quiet room with a view, no kids or animals to bother her, and unlimited napping time? Maybe I don't feel sorry for her, but I am a little jealous now!


This coming week, my plans are to work on my second raised bed garden, catch up on my favorite podcasts, and get Kalinka and my daughter to at least 40. I also plan to kick my cough syrup habit, introduce my kids to manual labor by making them clean up the yards, and find new blogs to add to my reading list. Maybe I'll squeeze in some Rock Band, if I stop breaking into coughing fits. So, if you have any suggestions for blogs I should be reading, leave me a comment!

Long Distance Relationships Stink.

My story isn't new. It's so old, it will drive you from my blog looking for fresher posts. I just have to write about it. Why? Because it's bothering me, and this is my outlet, my place to work things out, my escape. So here goes.

I live on the west coast. 95% of my guild lives in the middle of the country and on the east coast. So, it makes sense that raid times and events are centered around them and not me. Raids fall right when I am frantically plating up dinner for the kids and hubby. If I decide to raid with them, I have to serve dinner by 4:45, so that I have 5 minutes to repair and send myself consumables and purge my bags of the garbage I've collected the day before. This doesn't work, and I have demonstrated how well this doesn't work on a few occasions to my guild, by showing up late, with a fish as an offhand and a fishing hat on, and not changing either out for the entire raid. So, because it isn't fair for them to expect me to be on time and prepared when I clearly can't, I don't sign up for raids. Now, it's also not fair to my family to get a half fast attempt at dinner out of me, just to watch me drag my plate to my desk so I can grab bites between boss fights. So, I have also started logging in later at night, closer to my eight in the evening then theirs. This has me logging in when they are well into their raid, sometimes after they have even finished. There are sometimes other people online for me to chit chat with, but more often, it's the raid group, me, and a few off in their own PvP world. When guild chat is quiet, I often type a "shhh" to try and get some response, but even that has lately been ignored. It's not their fault. It's not my fault either. We just live in different time zones. But I have been feeling less and less a part of my guild that I have been in since before hubby and I were married and playing Star Wars Galaxies. I even thought, for about a nanosecond, about finding another server with people that lived closer to me. Then I shook myself, slapped myself for thinking such horrible thoughts, and went on with whatever inanity I was doing in game that day.

So, it's almost April Fools Day, and my joke is set to be sprung on my somewhat oblivious audience. I know it will be seen. I look forward to the mayhem it should cause. For a while I will feel useful and like I'm a part of things. Then, April 3rd will show itself, and the site will go back to somewhat normality, and I will slowly get back into my funk. I just wish I had some idea of what to do about it.

There's a chocolate muffin calling to me from the kitchen. It's telling me I need to take it and a glass of milk and log in Rowena and check my auctions. I may just do some of that. Rowena will be disappointed. I think I'll just grab a book instead. Any good ones out there on long distance relationships?

Slacker. That's Me!

I've been not playing much. I've been addicted to that silly Stumble Upon button. My tabs on my browser are full of recipes for things I may never make. Here, I'll even share them with you!

From Blogchef.net, we have General Tso's Chicken. It looks just as yummy as the dish I had recently at a local fancy schmancy chinese restaurant. Thinking about trying to make it myself, of course, but will the kids eat it?

From Hungry-girl.com, a couple of pages on how to make lighter and still yummy versions of Starbucks favorites. Cafe Vanilla Frapuccino and Tazo Green Tea Frapuccino. There was another page open on what ingredients to buy to make about any flavor frapuccino your little heart desired, but I have since closed it. Try looking around that site. There are all sorts of calorie saving stuff to om-nom-nom on! Bonus, this gal has a cook book out, of sorts. Heard her on the Bill Handel show on KFI, so this isn't a stumble so much as it was a fact finding search.

From SmittenKitchen.com, a recipe for some really delicious looking orange peel treats. Chocolate and orange go so well together. And this way, I can eat the orange while I wait. Yeah, like I need one of those before I pack on all the pounds from that candy. I should really stop stumbling when I am hungry!

I was just thinking the other day that I have changed the way I shop for groceries. I used to be so careful about keeping a coupon file and finding the absolute best deals I could. I had stockpiles of shampoo, deodorant, and soap, all got for free or nearly free with double coupons. I guess I just gave up once stores stopped doubling. I stumbled upon A Full Cup a few days ago and I'm sure I'll be getting back to my old habits soon. I cannot afford, and neither can you, to pass up saving money on things we use every day.

Do your friends stop by to watch sports regularly? Or do you have hungry teenagers? I have the latter, as sports was never on the television when I was growing up, and I married a guy who enjoys the same kind of sports I do (the "e" kind). These pizza bites look easy to make and the writer at Chaos in the Kitchen says they freeze well.

Cookies. These won the Pillsbury Million Dollar Bake Off. The Noble Pig posts and in depth how to on just how to make these yummy looking double peanut butter cookies. All they need some Ice Cold Milk!

This isn't a yummy looking cake. In fact, I would say if someone put this on my table, it would go directly in the garbage bin. My guild is full of cat lovers, and when I stumbled on this one, I had to share it. Maybe this one will end up on one of my kids birthday party tables. Grave Addiction has my thanks for putting up a definitely different cake.

Well, it's the first day of Spring Break for me, and it seems my day has been planned out for me. Off I go to clean the living room, feed the toddler, and assemble something that is sitting in a large box on my porch. If it adjusts short enough, I may get another set to assemble, whatever it is. I'm such a lucky girl!

Shadow Priest Kindergarten - Cast Sequence

Hello again, class. Today we will be looking at our spells and deciding what sequence to cast them in. First, I will try to explain why I have chosen to cast spells in the order I do, then I will take you on a field trip of sorts, linking to other websites that have crunched numbers and melted training dummies working out what they think is the ultimate cast sequence.

As a shadow priest, not only am I looking to put out some decent damage, but to help the rest of the mana users in my group or raid with their mana regeneration. At least, that is how I look at things. If you regularly run with a group with a retribution paladin, a frost mage, or a survival hunter, maybe you don't need to worry about it so much,and can concentrate on damage alone. Here is my idea on what order spells should be cast. I present to you, Delgada's cast bar.


I use my cast bar to prioritize my casting sequence, mostly because it is easy to see, and if I have to hand my keys over to a kid, it is easy to give directions like, "Just push the buttons from left to right as they light up!" as I am extracting the toddler from the top of my linen cabinet. When I use the bar, I start at Vampiric Touch. I use Inner Focus only during boss fights, and keep it as next in line to Mind Blast because, well, no mana and more critical is good for this spell. If my health bar is not having problems, I use Shadow Word: Death as often as it is up, because the damage is minimal compared to the damage it does. I then cast Devouring Plague and Shadow Word: Pain. By then, Vampiric Touch needs a refresh, and Mind Blast is back up, as well as Shadow Word: Death. So the idea is, if while you are moving down the line, one of your items that has a cooldown becomes available, you go back to it. That doesn't mean I never get to Mind Flay. I do get to Mind Flay quite regularly, because I am talented for it to refresh Shadow Word: Pain, so that is effectively removed from my rotation after the first cast, so long as I don't fool around.

When soloing, the rotation is a bit different. I start out with a Mind Blast, Shadow Word: Pain, Mind Flay until it is almost dead, then Shadow Word: Death. Since I have noone to speak to except myself for mana or health, there is almost no need for the other spells. I'll pull out the fiend for some mana regen, and out of combat I'll toss myself a Flash Heal or Renew and move right along.

Buttons 8 and beyond are not in my rotation, but they are there for other reasons. Mind Sear is an Area of Effect spell, and I use it while clearing trash. If my tank has a good lead on aggro, I will use Vampiric Embrace to help with healing. Dispersion is there in case I get in a rough spot and have the time for it to help me out. Fade I do use quite a bit, as the last two times I raided I found I was riding the tanks tail in aggro. Shadowform just needed a spot to put it in. My Shadow Fiend(though you don't see a button for it, I use AutoBar) I use whenever it is available for the teensy bit of dps it provides, and the mana it helps me regenerate.

So, there you have it. My spell rotation, if you can call it that. I did a search for spell rotations on the internet, and, I guess I have the right idea. Seems everyone is saying it is a priority sort of thing, and not necessarily a rotation. Go ahead, test me, do a search. I dare you. :)

Congratulations! You have finished with kindergarten. I'll leave you to go to other, more experienced shadow priests for the nitty gritty down and dirty of being a raiding 0r pvp shadow priest. I'm going to lay out a mat and take a nap!