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!

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!

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.

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!

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...

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....