Moo.

Danger To All Who Pass These Signs!

My time has been pretty much filled with kids who need stuff, parents who need stuff, trips to exotic locations, and family trips to fun places like Knott's Berry Farm and the movies.  So, Lulubelle is all I have really had time for.  Well, her and a few shots at Ahune on Delgada (trip #2 got the Ice Chip), and several hours, afk and not, in  Minecraft.  I thought I would have more time for some end game raiding over the summer, but it looks as if that is a thing of the past for me.  As much as I would love to, and hubby would let me, it just takes too much time.  So, here is Lulubelle, fresh from Outlands in matching (shockingly!) armor, ready to take on Northrend.

Goodbye Nagrand!

Lulubelle has been running around Northrend for a while now, and is just into her 78th level.  I got a fishing bug, and decided she needed to level her secondary skills a little, so today all she did were the  three fishing dailies and one cooking daily. She's been a good little dungeon healer, healing all the regular dungeons she can, and got to run a few with her guild master's alt death knight tank, who helped knock out most of 77 with his fast queues.

At Home In Dalaran.

As for Minecraft, I know someone latched onto that and wants to know what I am up to.  KNR has a server, and I have managed to dig in pretty deep, found a big bit of redstone, a small amount of iron, gold, lapis, and diamond, and enough cobblestone to build skyscrapers. Here are some recent (I opened up the game to grab them just now!) screenshots of my corner of the KNR Minecraft Server.  The other guys are far more talented than I, and have huge greenhouses and above ground pleasure palaces.  I'll settle for my little Barbie Dream Bunker.

Kitchen And Den.

Mining Operation AKA Back Yard.

Chateau Shawndra.

Shawndra's Greenhouse.

That's all I have for now, as I am being whisked away to Sizzler.  More later, hopefully sooner than later!

Sorry!

I have been gone far too long.  I'm still playing games, just not as seriously.  Delgada got out to finally finish School of Hard Knocks, which resulted in finally finishing What a Long Strange Trip It's Been.  (digging through screenshots) Sorry, didn't even think to catch her on her pretty new violet protodrake. You'll just have to trust me on that one.

I do, however, have pictures of the gal who has stolen me away from playing Delgada.  Meet Lulubelle, seer of An'she.

Bunny Ears?

Alright, so the ears don't quite convey how seriously she takes herself.  Here is a better picture.

Bad Dog!

So now we know who really burnt Stratholme down.  She really isn't as bad as that, though.  Here's another picture.

Consorting with goblins...

Kind of a necessary means to the end of getting the skills to pay bills, though.  Tell me you haven't done something for a goblin at one time or another, go ahead, I'm waiting.  While we wait, here is another picture of the highly photogenic Lulu.

She even heals hunter pets!

She is so very kind!  Right after that, she traveled to Silithus, killed a few large worms and Twilight Cultists, and stepped through the handy portal to the Blasted Lands, to report for duty past the Dark Portal into Outlands first horde installation, Thrallmar.  There may be fewer pictures for a while as she is rather keen on looking her best and the clothes that can be had there are well, outlandish.  See, I made a joke...haha!

Lulu is being leveled from scratch with no heirlooms or big sister characters on a new server to me. She is a discipline priest, which I haven't ever tried before, and I am really enjoying it.  I grabbed dual specializations to have a shadow spec, but haven't needed to use it yet, and doubt I'll even change over save to add points every several levels or so.  She is a tailor and enchanter, leveled well past where she should be thanks to the generosity of her guild mates in Integrity. Her leveling has been easy, as the healer queue is rather short.  A few quests here, a few dungeons there, and she is out of a zone not too long after barely wetting her hooves in the shallow end of it.  She is now in Zangarmarsh, looking forward to hitting Terokkar before the week is up. 

Sorry I have been rather absent.  I am thinking about changing the name of the blog here soon, as when I started it I had no idea there was a large site called the Escapist.  that, and some people, seeing my URL, think it is Escapists Crawl.  No, I'm not crawling like a baby, I am scrawling like a teenager who is late for turning in their homework.  Barely legible, but hopefully good enough for a passing grade.  I'll keep the URL until it expires, which is next year, but I may find another to direct here, or just move over to my other blog that I'm not using yet, Seven Kids - One Bathroom, which is much more like me right now.  Either way, I'll post something here when the change is made.  Thanks for stopping by!

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...

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.

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.

Facerolling

Yesterday, I logged into Shadowsong and found the guild was raiding Trial of the Crusader. So, knowing noone else was on to do dungeon runs, I logged in to Bladefist. I asked if anyone was interested in running anything, got the standard no reply, so went off on my own to find things to do. I got into a 10 man Vault of Archavon, only dying once (glass area in the fire guy's room is bad!), got the achievement but no gear. So, I was invited to a 25 man Vault of Archavon run that was slow filling up. I asked in guild if anyone wanted to go, got no response. By then I decided I would get into ventrilo to see if anyone was in there and chatting. There were two guys in there talking about jobs that involve unions and parking cars. I didn't want to interrupt, so I left the server. I found out later, when I asked a second time, that the guild was saving themselves for a run some night later in the week, at around 10 server. I'm glad someone piped in. I wish someone had said something earlier.

Back to the point. Since noone wanted to run anything (I asked again not long after finding out about the raid times), I logged in to Delgada, logging in to the KNR ventrilo at the same time, and joined lfg. I chatted with two of my guildmates who were playing Aion while I skipped around Dalaran. I got invited to the heroic daily, picked up the quests, and got summoned to the instance. I stepped through the portal then opened my bags. I had in my bags 1 epic drake mount, a hearthstone, a duplicate robot pet key, and a piece of level 75 meat. No candles, no water, no buff food, no potions, nada. I healed all of Old Kingdom, on heroic, with nothing! I even died once, got rezzed, and the tank went off without a care in the world. Healed up a little, got a very small bit of mana, and kept healing.

After that instance, I hearthed back to Dalaran, bought some water and a couple of mana potions, and raided my bank for some food. See, I had emptied my bags so I could cart all the stuff that got sent back by Blizzard from the time our guild bank was cleared out, and I forgot to restock. What a dummy! Now, with part of the items I needed, I went off with the same tank to do heroic Culling of Stratholme. I let one of the rogues die (I think I was being attacked by a kitten), so we just missed the timed event. Quest complete, we hearthed out, and I logged out after that.

So, I guess Delgada is at the point where she could pretty much faceroll through heroics now. Too bad the guild is off doing their own thing. I miss them!

The Cast Sequence Is A Lie!

I think I mentioned it before, but I'm going to mention it again, mostly for my own benefit. There really is no cast sequence for a shadow priest. Sure there is the start up phase where you throw up all the dots you have and then hit mind blast and mind flay, then refresh the dots so they gain the benefit of your shadow weaving buff. But, after that, it is really just making sure your dots are up, and that you use your nukes when they are off cool down, filling in with mind flay where needed.

Why do I mention this again? Because I have been having a horrible time with my dps lately. Halinka, with almost 1600 extra spell power, was doing 12-13k dps, with buffs. Why was she failing so miserably? Well, part of it might have been spec, which was very mana conservative. If you click her link now you will see her updated spec, which is pretty fabulous, in my opinion. The other thing hampering her dps was a silly idea that she could find a macro to make her spell rotation easier. Phooey. Anyone that says they have a magic macro that can solve all your dps problems will only be helping if your previous attempts at shadow dps were the equivalent of wanding things to death. I should smack myself for even trying it.

Spec squared away, and gear all set right, buttons reordered and nasty macros tossed aside, I screenshot the results after leaving the dummies in Ironforge (not the players, the practice dummies!).
1761. That's unbuffed, folks. I think I will now go back to Delgada and fix her, and play with the dummies in Silvermoon.

Not the blood elf guys. The Training Dummies. Geez. I'm sure none of them want to date my avatar. Besides, it's a known fact that they are happiest when preening in front of a mirror. I'll try not to get in their way.

Catch Up Gear For Shadow Priests

So, you are behind your guild by leaps and bounds. Your gear is pre-heroic, and theirs is post Ulduar. You feel left behind, but you don't want to burden them by asking for runs in Naxxramas when they really don't even care to dance another round with Heigen. What can you do?

Well, with the new Trial of the Champion instance, you can bag some i-level 200 epic pieces to help flesh out a good heroic ready set of gear. Everyone is running it, and if you are lucky, you'll find a group that is running it multiple times. Once you're in, stick with it. Here is a list of the gear that a shadow priest can use in this instance.

Belt of the Churning Blaze
Bindings of the Wicked
Handwraps of Surrendered Hope -yes it's a healer piece, but we like the spirit, and the red socket!
Leggings of the Haggard Apprentice -another healer piece, gemmed with a hit gem if you need hit, and a spirit gem, why not?
Mantle of Inconsolable Fear -this piece works well for healing as well.
The Confessor's Binding -this is a healing belt. If you get this one and not the other, it's not so bad, is it?
Signet of Purity -a nice ring for healing and dps
Brilliant Hailstone Amulet
Abyssal Rune
Tears of the Vanquished -I know it isn't a dps trinket, but if the healer doesn't want it, who would laugh at you for wanting all that intellect?(I believe that all my spells are helpful. I boycott the exception of my spells from Blizzard's idea of helpful. Phooey!)

These items don't cover all your gear slots. That's okay though. This is where you use the best item from Shadowpriest.com's beginning raid gear list. Let me throw up an example here. HolyNova, who is kicking herself for her bad choice in naming right now, has been building her shadow set, in hopes that one day she can be as dangerous and beautiful as that fire mage over there (we'll call him Larry). She was able to get the wrists, hit belt, hit neck, and the dps trinket from a few runs in Trial of the Champion. She is thrilled. She gems the hit neck with hit, enchants her bracers with more spellpower, adds a socket to her belt to put another hit gem in it, and puts on only these items. She has 107 hit rating now, and some other nice stats. Right now, we need to make sure her hit rating gets closer to cap. I have found for heroics, cap is not necessarily the same as it is for raiding. Still, we should aim for as close to that magic 289 as possible (assuming you have all points spent in misery and shadow focus). She found The Argent Skullcap kicking around in her bank, getting her to 168 hit rating. She healed a heroic Violet Hold and was lucky enough to get Mark of the War Prisoner, which boosted her hit rating to 241. At this point, some people might just run off without a robe and happily be able to complete Utgarde Keep on heroic mode, but we like well dressed priests. It's cold in Northrend! Speaking of cold, Nova has been working with the Ebon Blade (probably where she got her affinity for the dark side), and they liked her enough to sell her a Dark Soldier Cape. Her hit rating, now at 270, is looking more worthy of heroics. Now, our gal has been cooking and fishing and doing her regular daily dungeon quests without fail, and the Kirin Tor love her. They let her buy Robes of Crackling Flame, which make her think of Larry. Another item the Ebon Blade let her buy are Sterile Flesh-Handling Gloves. Her boots and pants have been hard to replace. She's just using her healing rings now, nothing special about them. They have haste and intellect and critical strike chance and stuff like that.

Now, we were talking about farming heroics for gear to catch up with, weren't we? With the set we have assembled, Nova should be able to hold her own any about any heroic. This is where the fun begins. You see, everyone, and I mean everyone, is farming heroics for the new badges right now. How does this impact Nova? As a healer or as a damage dealer, she will find more groups as she is flexible. More groups = more badges, and more chances at upgrades. Should she still run regular instances? Probably not, unless she is uncomfortable walking into a heroic not having done the regular version. Badges are the key, because the items that can be purchased are i-level 213 and 226, which is fine to jump into Ulduar with. Here is a list of items a priest can use, purchased with Badges of Conquest. Pair that with items you can get from heroics (here are some nice i-level 219's from ToC), and Nova can dazzle Larry with her new role as a damage dealer. Fireball? That is so yesterday. Eat a few of these dots and tell me how you feel in the morning. :)

I hope this is helpful for people, like me, who are trying hard to catch up as a new level 80 to people much further progressed. Comment if you found something fun that I missed. I love shopping for new gear!

Heroics, Heroics, And More Heroics!

Halinka got to run a few heroics yesterday and today. Today, after dinner, Delgada got to run some heroics, too. Seems both my horde guild and my alliance guild have gone heroic crazy. Why? Those damned tokens. Now, don't get me wrong, Halinka was happy to add that i-level 226 neckpiece to her hodgepodge of i-level 200 blues and purples (many of which were upgraded tonight. Thanks everyone!). She just feels a little out of her league yet. Who can blame her? She is so new to 80 that she hasn't sold off some of her green hit gear.

Delgada, on the other hand, was asked to heal tonight. Delgada hates healing. She'd rather try to dig through the glacier surrounding Arthas heart with her bare hands than be anything but a shadow priest. But, if you want the gear, sometimes you have to make allowances. Delgada found some gear that had a bit more mana regeneration on it and healed heroic Oculus, Nexus, Culling of Stratholme, Gundrak, and Drak'Tharon. She got herself a nice pair of bracers, several achievements, and a bronze drake. That's right, a bronze drake, that she can't ride yet. Delgada is a slacker. So, after the runs were through, she dug out every item in her bank that she could bear to part with, turned many bolts of netherweave into bags, churned out a few frostweave bags , cooked up all the raw meat she had iwth spices to make raiding food, and sent it all to Rowena to sell. Rowena is sitting on about 2500 gold, and had a mailbox full of teenage greens. She listed everything, and we're hoping for some nice profits.

Earlier today, Halinka got in on a Wintergrasp raid, and was invited to a 10 man Vault of Archavon run. She ran 25 man of the same instance yesterday, and with all the raid buffs,, her critical strike food, and her flask of the frost wyrm, she was pushing out about 2200 dps. In this run, she ran out of flasks, so she was using that pink elixir that boosts all stats, and an elixir of mighty spirit. Three wipes later, out of food, gear wrecked, and out of elixirs, Halinka's dps had been an abysmal 1350. I thought I had been doing everything right. I guess I wasn't. After complaining about mt shoddy performance in guild chat, one person suggested checking my rotation. I thought, you know, what has worked for me before this patch, may not work now. So I googled "Shadow priest spell rotation 3.2". It landed me on a forum post on shadowpriest.com's forums. No surprise there. If it is relevant to Shadow Priests, it has been discussed on their boards. They had macros! Here is the link, so I don't hog it all to myself. I tested it out on a dummy, doing one rotation of the start and then switching to main. I got my dps to 1750 at one point. Sounds like my problem is solved! Now, if only I could get Halinka a drake...

Ding!

Now comes the REAL grind :)

Where's The Cake?

Been busy the last few days, and today is just one in that same run. Yesterday our family drove out to spend time with some guild mates and their family who live close by. Who would have thought, on an East Coast realm, you would find West Coast friends? We had a barbecue, the kids played with the Wii and the several computers in the house, and we chatted about everything, with a little WoW splashed in. I got drowsy around 5, so we left, grudgingly. When we got home, we loaded up WoW and headed out to kill Archavon, then tried out Ulduar for giggles.

Today, I am rushing out a post to say I have posts waiting on the back burner, but it's my birthday, and we are going out for dinner, then maybe dessert! Sorry to the pug Nexus run Halinka ducked out of prematurely. She explained first! After all, I didn't know I was going out until I told them. I hope you were able to find another healer.

I'll be back tomorrow with something fun. Working title? "I'm Not That Kind Of Hunter!"

Hurry Hurry!

In the interest of getting to Northrend more quickly, Halinka has set aside her reputation grinding until she reaches 80. She can't have everything she wants. As the server was being shut down today to increase instance capacity, Halinka hearthed to the Sewers, just a smidge into 67. She has changed her plans of sticking it out in Outland in favor of starting Northrend at 68. Her gear is less than fabulous, but her trade skills are up there where they should be. Gear is pretty much a non-issue, as we all know the starter quests pretty much gear you out for your start in the area.

Tomorrow, Halinka should be on a boat to the frozen North, in a leotard and ripped linen slacks. She'll be so cold she will be questing like a mad woman to get a warm robe!

What To Do, What To Do?

I took the normal road while leveling my first characters to maximum level. No sidetracking to build reputation, no stopping in one place to farm for a certain item, no trying to finish out an area after the quests became less than yellow in difficulty.

Then came the Burning Crusade. Shawndra got to 70 behind most everyone else, for no other reason than she was just slow to level. Carlotta was second to 70, but she hit that mark in Zangarmarsh, killing fireflies for the Captured Firefly. It wasn't for her, she was just the person dedicated to the task. Shawndra wanted it, so Carlotta spent a long time in Zangarmarsh.

Northrend hit, and normal paths to normal leveling happened. Delgada was first to 80 this time, followed by Carlotta. Noone has pursued unusual farming practices, but experiments have been launched on the other side of the conflict, on a non PvP realm.

Is it because, having been playing for so long, that I finally know what I want out of a character? Is that why I have been leveling Halinka this way? She finished out her Gnomeregan Exiles reputation grind today, hitting Gnomeregan for a few easy quests, then doing 17 runecloth turn ins. This amount of turn in did not happen for the other reputations. Why did she stoop to do this? Impatience. I had in my mind that she would have all the Alliance factions in Vanilla WoW at exalted before she hit 60. Today, at 62, Halinka was able to purchase her mechanostriders. She is still happy about it, but I had hoped to have had this finished already.


I logged Halinka out in her favorite inn-by-the-sewer with a drink in her hand. It was a rough day for her, mostly spent in Gnomeregan trying to find her way around. She didn't find Mekgineer Thermaplugg, but she was able to find a radioactive slime sample, save Techbot's brain, and gather some essential artifacts. Not as helpful as she wanted to be, but she was in enemy territory without a guide, and found the entrance more frequently than she found anything else. So, sitting on the edge of the dock with her hooves in the strangely refreshing magical waters of the sewer, she sips a fruity cocktail while she waits for her next adventure.

I started the Wintersaber Trainers reputation grind with her, and she is just into friendly with them. She had also been working on Timbermaw reputation, as they work well hand in hand. I had thought to finish out those reputations with her before she crossed through the portal into Outland, but a guild mate is urging me to hasten my leveling to 80.

So, I sit here trying to figure out how to get what I want and still be able to give what they want. In Winterspring, it is pretty solitary. I run into the rare person as I make my trips back and forth between Winterfall Village and Frostaber Rock. My quests are done rather easily, and I am able to harvest a large amount of herbs and high level skins while I am questing, not to mention the cloth and gear I loot. When I was working out there, I was making about 250 gold a day. Now that I am in Outland, it seems that every Tom, Dick, and DKFluffy is skinning and herbalizing too. The prices I get for the Outland herbs are roughly a third what I was getting for Icecap and Mountain Silversage. Same with the leathers. The gear that drops? I have relisted the same few items now twice. I sure hope they don't come back tomorrow. I haven't tried selling the cloth yet, as Halinka is stll leveling her first aid. On the economic side, Outland is not looking very bright.

On the experience side, it looks far brighter. The only experience I was getting on my reputation grind in Winterspring was from the kills. After the first turn in, the quests only give reputation. The amount of time I was traveling between quest mobs and turn in in Winterspring made my time spent seem wasteful. If only they would allow the collection of the items needed (the meats) to be done much like the beads and feathers for Timbermaw rep, the grind would be more inviting. In Hellfire, at least all my questing is giving me experience for both kills and completing the quests. And, I am cashing in most of the gear rewards, so I get a few gold from them. It's not nearly enough to make up for the loss of income from the items I was picking up in Winterspring, but it helps. After purchasing all her epic mounts, Halinka sits on about 100g (down from about 1700 she had at 60), and still needs to purchase the last epic mount from Steelgrill's Depot. This means that she needs to save roughly 2100g to buy her flying training, all three flying mounts, and her dual specialty by 70. She will then need to start saving roughly 6800 gold for her epic flying skill and cold weather flying. This is not even counting any reputations she fancies grinding out in Outlands (She will be trying for Netherwing and Skyguard reputation, and possibly Cenarion Expedition for their flying mounts, and Sporeggar for their pet). Staying in Outlands really doesn't make sense financially, but it does on a leveling perspective.

In the end, I guess I have made my mind up to stick it out in Outland. I have rolled a new character on Shadowsong, Ellence, a rogue. She will accompany my husband when he decides to play on the server with me. He is taking my normal go to combination of herbalism and skinning, so I will be taking mining and the freebies of fishing, cooking, and first aid. I would welcome any suggestions for a second profession. I'd love the skinning on the rogue for the extra critical chance, but trying to grab a target to skin before the hubby does will be quite difficult! I would prefer an easy money maker, so that I can regain some of the sales I lost moving on in the world.

As always, comments are encouraged!

Additional Instances Cannot Be Launched...

This evening was an exercise in frustration for me and 4 others, as we beat ourselves silly on the invisible barrier barring us from entering Scholomance. We tried all sorts of things. We tried disbanding and regrouping with a different leader. We tried disbanding and trying to get one person in. We tried sitting around and randomly taking runs at the portal. Noone contacted a game master, that I am aware of. Finally, as they were deciding to run Ramparts instead, I burst through the impenetrable shield and stood looking at skeletal guards and fantastic candelabra. I was in Scholomance at last.

I love this instance. The look inside is my absolute favorite. The candles, the oriental rugs, the wrought iron gates, the stonework, the books...all the things I'd love to have surrounding me. The skeletons and creepy spellcasters can vacate my palace anytime.

Once inside, our group, consisting of a paladin, a druid, a death knight, and my priest, Halinka, proceeded to decimate the place. I got a little to close a few times (forgot how low level she is), and died. Thank goodness we had 2 other people who could resurrect. Having to wait over half an hour to get in was well worth it, as we were able to get down all the normal bosses. We didn't get all the way downstairs, and we didn't summon the messenger, and we didn't aggro the entire student body. But, our friend near the alchemy lab was about ready to visit a lady conjurer, it seems, because he had this in his pocket:


Isn't it lovely? I also got a new hat that doesn't quite match, so I won't bother you with the details. This robe should help Halinka grind out her Wintersaber Trainers reputation in style.

Back to the point of this post. I'm reading a thread on this issue. Blizzard says this is happening only during peak periods, and I have noticed this happening only in Azeroth. I have never had a problem getting into an Outland instance or a Northrend instance. Are they hosted on different servers? I don't know. The thread I am currently browsing through is pretty heated, with a few posting helpful information for the game masters to pass on, and many just getting angry and not helping to solve the situation. I posted our problem on page 79.

Have you had any problems getting into instances lately? Let Blizzard know, or just post your thoughts below!

Hormones and Healing Naxx

I got a phone call from our illustrious guild master last night. Seems they were going to try Ulduar and needed me and my hubby, and the raid leader had lost my number. This was right about dinner time, and I had already proclaimed it free for all night, so I logged in and was promptly invited. I then logged into Ventrilo, slipped on my happy new headphones (thanks hubby for my early birthday present, they're awesome!), and started getting together the flasks and money I needed to raid. I don't raid often, so I don't usually have everything together. Sometimes I have the flasks, sometimes I have the food, sometimes my bags are full of rotting animal parts and discarded low quality weapons. Provisioned, I fly to Storm Peaks and manage to locate the stairway to Ulduar and enter the instance. Figuring I am the first one there, I afk to grab a snack, completely forgetting that, on my husbands urging, I had installed a new raid unit frames mod and I hadn't set it up yet. I get back to my desk, and hubby is in the instance with me, and everyone is saying we're missing. What? I told them I was waiting in Ulduar, and they said they decided we weren't geared enough, so we were doing Naxxramas. Snarf Snarf Snarf, I hike up Delgada's robes and run her out of the instance portal, only to get beaten into the ground by some Alliance that were waiting for someone easy and squishy to kill. My Spirit of Redemption pops up, and I growl, try to right click it away, and growl more as it doesn't work. The buff runs out, and I make the corpse run, growling, and click accept as I run past my body, back into Ulduar, where I accept a summon to Naxxramas.

Now, notice my mood has quickly soured. I forgot to mention that it started dipping below excited once I saw three priests and, when I asked who was healing, they said me. I have dual specializations, shadow as my main and holy as an off specialty. Specialty is really not the right word for it. I can keep people up, sometimes. I overheal, a lot. My gear is ok, not spectacular, just good enough for the odd heroic that I want to run where I have to heal, and in 5 man instances, I don't mind, because it usually is pretty easy, but in raids, I'd rather dps. I'm a fairly good shadow priestess. I am a teh suck holy priestess. Yeah, my guild tells me I am fine, but really, if you don't like it, you won't do your best at it.

Back to the raid. We entered, buffed, and started on the Construct quarter. We flew through the trash on the way to Patchwerk, and Patchwerk died shortly after I managed to kill off both the tanks. Yeah, I killed them. If any of the rest of the guild tell you differently, they are wrong. I was cranky already, and I killed them. Just leave it. It gets better. Frogger boss, failed. I was directly between the slimes. I always am. But for some reason I always die. Whatever. I am resurrected, and we head over to the trash before Grobbulous. Trash is cleared quickly, fight is explained, and we get started. It was a messy fight, farts dropped in bad places, but most everyone lived through it, and loot is distributed and we head for Gluth. The first attempt is bad, and the people in charge of kiting the chow let a lot through, Gluth heals to full, and I manage to be one of the last 3 standing after he enraged. I also manage to be the last into the instance, due to not being able to click off my debuff. Frogger boss, I wipe out on the first row, get resurrected, and wipe out on the last row. My resurrection timer is now at 45 seconds, so I go to the bedroom to change for my date with the hubby that is closing in fast. I get back to Gluth, we try again, and though there is better control on the chow, we lose our chow herders and then I lose it and kill the tank, again. Another wipe, and I fly back up to the instance, run into a couple more slimes on Frogger, and go to my room to finish changing.

As I return, I see a friend log in, a holy priest. YES! This is my chance to replace my cranky, useless self and get out of the raid. I whisper him my plight, he asks how long, I say now, and I tell the raid leader to invite him, as I am hormonal and apologize as I log out. Hubby followed shortly after, and we finished getting ready and left the children in the care of the oldest so we could go eat a late dinner.

Sizzler was delicious. Sorry I was so horrible. Please don't invite me to another raid as holy for the next 4 days. You won't live, and you'll have to listen to my growling in ventrilo. Now, pass teh Crunch n Munch and a can of Mountain Dew. I'm going to level Lulubelle some more.

The Thrill Of The Ding

I can't help it. I love leveling new characters. Hitting max level is almost a let down for me, because it means I can't watch the experience bar fill up. Sure, there is always reputation leveling, and I may try that soon on Delgada. But the thrill of the ding, the excitement of getting to spend a new talent point, the glee at putting on that piece of gear that was too high level to wear is what I love. I'm sorry I haven't been raiding, everyone. I would rather run Scarlet Monastery for the millionth time!

Who have I been working on? Halinka has just hit 46, and I got to run Deadmines with a few guild members on Minya today, which sparked a renewed interest in leveling her as well. She was on the brink of 15 when I logged her in today, and now she sits halfway between 19 and 20, newly kitted out in almost twink gear. Do I take her in to Warsong Gulch for the fun of it, or do I grab that last level so she can use her polearm? I couldn't decide, so I flew her to Exodar so she could take care of some auctions.

That's all I have for now. I just felt like explaining myself. I'm sure my guild knows. This probably only makes sense to me, but I just have to escape my escape sometimes.

She's Real Shadow Priestess!

Halinka reached 40 yesterday while healing a group that was running thr0ugh Scarlet Monastery's Cathedral. She got the Hand of Righteousness and Whitemane's Chapeau, and spent her point in the Shadow tree to get Shadowform. Feeling like a real shadow priestess, she let me run out the door and get frozen yogurt.

Well, since then she has managed to hit 41 and is waiting patiently to hit 42 (one bubble and a smidge of another left). She managed to hit exalted with Ironforge and Exodar, which leaves only Gnomeregan Exiles to work on. She has about 7500 reputation to grind out for them. Knowing she would need help, as she has outlevelled Gnomeregan and doesn't have any willing victims (who is really willing to run Gnomeregan without having first drunk themselves silly or having been paid an exhorbitant amount of gold to do it?), I begged hubby to get a death knight out of the starter zone to help me finish out a gazillion quests. That should account for roughly 3000 reputation. Then we will go find all the wonderful quests out in the far corners of the world to garner the rest of the needed faction points. I say we, but it will really be just I. He is only doing this after being promised, well, we won't go there. Is it sad that I have to bribe my hubby to play with me? Yes, I know, that was a silly question to ask. I already know it is sad!

I leave you with a picture of the lovely Halinka, bathed in shadow and astride her favorite mount (until she gets a mechanostrider).

HORSEY!

4 ponies into the 10 mount achievement, Halinka ponders shipping out for Darnassus to get exalted there, and buy all the kitties. Stay tuned...

Looking Back At The Reputation Grind.

Yesterday, I posted a list of steps to take to level reputation with a faction. Today, Halinka left the inn, put on her running shoes, stopped by the mailbox to clean out her bags, and looked to her "GPS" device to guide her to her next area. She then snorted, stomped her hoof, and said, "Forget that!", and promptly set her goal to sailing to Auberdine instead of the intended Wetlands. Why did she do that? Well, I think she secretly wants all the mounts, and Auberdine did offer a little Stormwind reputation, but it also offered some Darnassus reputation, which she was almost out of honored with. So, Halinka has about finished with Auberdine, and, though she should probably be gaining some experience points as well, may just sail over to Darnassus and spend some time finishing off the Night Elf starter area first. So, she shall once again be following that short, easy to use list, using her GPS to make her questing more efficient, and sending the detritus to Minya. She is gaining a lot of rested bonus as she puts up the auctions and sends the cash back(with the occasional non-combat pet) to Halinka.

If you didn't get a chance to read yesterday's post, I think it was short, sweet, and to the point, and a decent guide to getting the job done. If you did, forgive my rambling, as I have already nudged my guide to leveling reputation on Twitter (twice-once earlier today and once coming along here again quickly!) and on my signature image at the end of my horde guild forum posts.

Oh, and Halinka's progress on Stormwind Reputation? At 10:30 pacific standard time, she had only a smidge more than 1000 to go. Auberdine turned out to be a great idea after all!

Steps to Leveling Reputation

I figured I'd do my homework assignment for the 31 Days to a Better Blog today on Reputation. Since Halinka is working desperately to reach exalted with the Stormwind faction near her 30th birthday so they will sell her a Black Stallion, this seemed like a good time to break my plan of attack down into a list.

1. Research. I started off by visiting WoWhead and browsing for factions. I found Stormwind, and there it was, my list of quests that give reputation. I prioritized them by level, and left it up in my browser for reference.
2. Prepare. Stop by the auction house and purchase as many needed items as you can for the area you are traveling to. This could be pig snouts, cloth, a bronze tube, whatever. This will cut down on time grinding for drops, which will speed you along. If you don't have one already, set up a character you can send items to so you don't have to take unnecessarily long breaks. If you haven't thought of it already, get a good helper add-on such as Carbonite or Quest Helper to guide you to quests you aren't familiar with, to save time.
3. Travel. Start walking, riding, or flying if you are so fortunate, to the quest area. If you are flying, take the opportunity during this down time to gather real world supplies, such as snacks, drinks, or any child laborer who might be helping with this project.
4. Turn in. If you have the items to complete a few quests on arrival, do it!
5. Quest. Make sure your bags are empty, and with the guide as your plan of attack (I use Carbonite), hit up as many quests as your bags will allow. When your bags are full, go back to step 3 and repeat through 5.

That's all there is to it. Today, Halinka is waiting for me to log in and finish out Redridge Mountains, then return to Darkshire to finish up a few quests that were out of her reach. Then she is off to Wetlands, to work on the Missing Diplomat quest chain. She hit 30 last night, roughly 8000 reputation short of her goal. I doubt she will have the needed reputation before level 32, but I don't mind "hoofing" it just a little longer (ha ha I know Draenei humour, make sure to tip your waitress, I'm here all night!), if that means that she gets a horse instead of an elekk.

I shouldn't keep Halinka waiting. Though her name means calm, I think she was named rather hastily...