As the World...of Warcraft...Turns

What's good for the solo-er in Patch 4.1

2011-04-26T09:49:00.003-05:00

Making notes on the patch notes(and undocumented changes) for today and wanted to let other solo-ers know about some of the interesting changes taking place today.

CLASS CHANGES

Hunter: Pet happiness is going away. This change to may or may not be a welcome change. It basically means one or two extra bag slots for my hunters. With talents and glyphs, I rarely had to feed my pets, but I kept food around just in case(and several types, depending on which pets I would switch between). The glyph that formerly increased pet happiness will now change the size of your pet to smaller-which is fine by me, I hate huge pets, they are just obnoxious.

Also, all tamed pets will now automatically be the same level as your hunter. I didn't have a chance to test this, but I am hoping this applies to all pets already in your stable as well. Also meaning that they would level up when you do, same as Warlock pets. Very nice if so.

Rogue: Stealth cooldown reduced to 4 seconds. FOUR SECONDS! And with the Nightstalker talent on level one of Subtlety, it is reduced to ZERO SECONDS! Yowza I can't believe how happy this makes my many rogues! Now, Blizzard, please reduce the cooldown for Druids!

NEW MINI-PETS

Wintersaber Cub: Purchased from a vendor in Winterspring

Panther Cub: Quest reward from level 85 questline regarding the new Troll dungeon in Stranglethorn. Does not require entering the dungeon or any groups or any pre-quests other than the questline you start from either Orgrimmar or Stormwind.

Voodoo Figurine and Pterrordax Hatchling: Archaeology projects from Troll and Fossil projects.

It also appears that there are going to be new choices in the Children's Week events which arrive the first week of May(next week!). For Azeroth there will be a snail named Scooter and in Outland, a fenstrider named Legs.

DAILY QUESTS:

NEW! fishing and cooking quests are available in the Alliance cities of Ironforge and Darnassus, and Horde cities of Thunder Bluff and Undercity. Not certain if there is an achievement related to them, but at least I can break up the monotony of the dailies by putting alts in other cities. NOTE: You canNOT do all 3 sets each day; one daily of each kind per day. I suppose you could research daily to see if one of the three is one that rewards more than one skill point or award token and do that one, but not sure if the time needed would be worth it(unless you are a mage!).

GUILD INFO:

For those who are in guilds and for those who aren't.

GUILD FINDER
One thing I hate about looking for a guild on alts that aren't in my personal family guilds is doing the research or interacting with so many jerks to find the diamond in the rough. I am hoping that some of my higher level players can find a guild that fits their playstyle. If not, no skin off of my nose. I have one alt in a level 25 guild that is so huge that there is rarely talking, noone says "grats" and I can be fairly anonymous. The only other guild I have a character in is basically a family type guild where I know most of the higher ups are stay-at-home moms like me. If I can find others on other realms like these, fine. If not, no biggie.

GUILD REP TABARDS:
For those characters of mine in my family-only guilds, there are bind to account tabards are available to effectively double the amount of rep gained within the guild. Not that our level 6 guild has many perks or items unlocked, but being revered or exalted with them would still be nice! And for the alts in the big guilds, well then I can get to the cool stuff even faster(not sure I would ever buy that Scorpion mount though, just too ugly and scary!).

BATTLE.NET ACCOUNT BOUND

All items that were previously "account bound"(and are still realm bound) can now be sent to characters you have on other accounts under your Battle.net account. So I can send any heirlooms over to my daughter's account, or presumably also the Baby Blizzard Bear(which my level 85 Paladin is missing, but I am pretty sure my kid has!) or any Archaeology items I dig up!

WINTERSABER

Aside from the adorable little Wintersaber cub that can be purchased in Winterspring, it is now much easier to get the Wintersaber mount for my Alliance alts! My human mage did this grind about a year ago, and even though the rep had been upped by then, the grind was still a PAIN! It has now been changed to be more inline with the Venomhide Ravasaur questline for Horde. You get a baby Wintersaber, and feed it, train it, and raise it until you can ride it! It takes 20 days if you don't skip a day and then you have one of the best looking ground mounts in the game!

There are a few other minor things that are interesting such as Old Ironforge finally being open to visit, Honor gained being doubled, trading Justice Points for Honor Points(I only get Justice Points when I do Holiday bosses, never enough to buy anything), all cities having all trainers available, and targeted mobs or npcs showing as a dot on your minimap. It's the little things that make me happy!

The state of a small guild

2011-02-28T08:29:00.003-06:00

I hear people talk about being in "small guilds", and then they talk about what raid they are doing that week. That isn't a "small guild". Our guild is small, three -3- active people: myself, my husband and my kid(who isn't all that active). And this past week we hit level 5.

I know I b*tched and moaned previously about how unfair it is for us small guilds-and I still think it is-but I think we've done alright. Yes, I really think we should be much higher at this point-and I wouldn't give two hoots if every other guild were already level 25. Five levels in three months, so maybe, just maybe we will hit level 10 by May or June. That is of course as long as we keep doing dailies, because we are running out of characters to level up to 85.

So a three person guild has hit level 5. It really makes me think twice when I see any guild at a lower level attempting to invite me on realms where my characters are guildless. And I have joined a couple of guilds on other realms. One on my Dwarf Shaman, which is the same guild my old Dwarf Paladin was in many moons ago. That guild is around level 13 right now and they have many 85s, and they attempt to raid. My Undead Death Knight(level 83) just joined a mega guild, level 18 I think, just for the hell of it. There are so many people on usually, I never need to even acknowledge them.

Not only has our little guild managed to make it to level 5, but we also went around and knocked out all of the Classic Dungeon Master achievements last week. Requirements were changed to only need 3 out of 5 people for the achievement, so we lucked out in that one. We might eventually attempt to do the Outland Heroic achievements, though I still don't even know where all of the dungeons are in Outland. Shame there isn't a "regular Outland dungeon" guild achievement-those would probably be easy.

The biggest news of all though-we actually managed to kill Zul'jin in Zul'Aman! We went in just to farm Hex Sticks so my kid could get the Mojo pet(success!), and we just kept attempting each boss and succeeding! Of course, there was no guild achievement, we would need 8 people in the group-but we got the individual achievements, which will be nice if they happen to take old Zul'Aman away. But still...we killed Zul'jin! Us crappy little players in our less than 333 gear! (I'm sure many are laughing at how they soloed it during Wrath, but hey it was pretty exciting for us!)

So little guilds can accomplish, we will just be years behind every one else(which sucks). Now if we could just find a Human Hunter and Night Elf Mage in battlegrounds to get that Alliance Slayer achievement and have that little Guild Page minipet!

Loremaster at last!

2011-02-27T10:42:00.003-06:00

I finally finished up Loremaster on my Druid last week. I already had all of Eastern Kingdom and Kalimdor done(and nearly complete when achievements were introduced way back when), all of Burning Crusade, and all of Northrend except for Icecrown. Finishing all of the Cataclysm zones were easy. Finishing the last 20 or so quests in Icecrown was the hurdle.

Since I rarely group outside of family members, the 5man quests in Icecrown had been a sore spot in my Loremaster trip. Being 85 and having more hit points than most of the NPCs you have to fight now made it trivial. That didn't mean I didn't have fun in the process. My daughter and I took an hour or so hunting down the leftover quests and knocking them out.

And viola! I had my title and silly looking tabard(well, silly looking on a Tauren female). I think I will be using this title and only this title for a long time to come. This feels like quite an accomplishment for me, an unabashed altoholic who spends time playing on at least 6 or 7 characters a day-doing dailies and an hour of questing here, hour of questing with someone else there. I have one other character who is somewhat close to getting the title, but none of my others is even in the ballpark.

But it feels nice to have it done. Now to wait and see if they ever add an addition to "the Seeker"(3000 quests completed), seeing as how my stats say I have around 4800 quests complete with her! A new title at 5k quests would be a cinch since I have barely touched any quests in the new and improved low level zones! Bring on "the Quester"! (or whatever might sound much cooler than that!)

Still solo after all these years

2011-02-08T09:45:00.003-06:00

Despite my distaste for Cataclysm when it first came out, I'm still rolling along just fine. As can be seen here-I'm playing so much I don't find the time to post! (but today is patch day, so...and the death of power shifting for my beloved Druids, /cry)

So far to this point I've...

Have 4 characters at level 85
Most of the rest of my 80s are at least level 83(only 2 of them haven't really been touched)
Troll Druid is level 74, Dwarf Shaman is level 65
Goblin Rogue is level 40
Worgens are still lagging behind, just not thrilled with them
Doing as many of the Holiday achievements as possible with as many characters as possible(only the easy ones and any that give mini-pets)
All four 85s have their Tol Barad weapons, working on the Ghost Wolf mount with my Druid
Main Druid is at 14 archaeology rares, ready to make the push to "Professor" after the patch hits and makes it somewhat easier
Still NO dungeons done except for holiday bosses and any that can be soloed at a higher level

Of course, we've had mass amounts of snow and bad weather, and our car doesn't run well, so there's no going anywhere anyway.

Another note, our little guild of 3 is level 4. It isn't much compared to most, and it is disappointing still that it is taking so long to get higher, but it's getting there. We might fill up a 1/5 of a bar per day, depending on how many dailies I feel like doing(and whether I'm playing on another realm altogether). The perks we have so far #1 faster leveling(haven't really noticed), #2 faster mount speed(haven't really noticed-except that my Swift Flight Form is slower than everyone else-at least that changes with the patch today), and #3 Increased rep(this one helps since quests and dailies are our only way of gaining rep).

I'm still not as thrilled with this expansion, but that can always change. The Argent Tournament didn't come in until well into Wrath, so there is still hope for more fun and dailies in the future. And at least they made the one "group" quest in Tol Barad available without joining the group. If only they would do that with the named mobs on the other island. I am so sick of the fighting over the named mobs, my ignore list is filling up by leaps and bounds. >.<

Oh and "Boo" to the Packers. Just "boo". Bleh, the Puppy Bowl was more interesting.

The newest mini-pets

2010-12-28T11:14:00.003-06:00

First of all, I'd like to apologize for the lack of images with posts lately. New computer, no photoshop, old computer isn't hooked up to a monitor yet. Man it sucks.

Anyway, this morning I logged into my Druid and FINALLY the elusive Jadefang was there for me! I've been sitting in that nook for 4 days, logging in and out, hoping beyond hope. Jadefang drops the Tiny Shale Spider pet. Cute little thing. I'd thought I'd list the new mini-pets and how hard they are for someone like me to get them. I won't go into great details, Warcraftpets.com is great for that!

From the Shattering and before Cataclysm:

Withers-fairly easy, For Alliance, do quest line from the starting town in Darkshore up to fighting the boss in the Troll Village; for Horde simply make your way to the cave above the huge whirlpool in Darkshore and buy it from the Undead vendor in the bottom of the cave.
Brazie's Sunflower-quest reward in Hillsbrad from doing the Peaceblooms vs Ghouls mini game thing. Somewhat easy once you get the hang of it.
Mr Grubbs-Doing the first few quests in Eastern Plaguelands can get you a "Lucky" buff that will make some mobs drop and extra loot bag. It can contain this little guy. My druid got it on the 5th bag, my Shaman grinded a whole level out, dozens of bags, no Grub.
Tiny Flamefly-quest reward in Burning Steppes. Fairly easy, though lengthy, level 50-55ish.

There are of course the 2 from the Blizz store, I got the Moonkin Hatchling, but not Ragnaros.

With Cataclysm:

Tiny Shale Spider-drops from spider, Jadefang, a rare in Deepholm. She spawns on a special ledge that isn't easy to get to. There are guides on Warcraftpets and Wowhead.
Rustberg Seagull-Somewhat easy. Honored from the Tol Barad faction, plus 50 tokens. Doing the dailies, no pvp required. If your faction controls TB, you get quite a few more dailies(though some are challenging due to mega instant repops). Level 85 only. I've been slacking, but I'm fairly close to getting this one.
Personalized World Destroyer/De-Weaponized Mechanical Companion-Buy from Auction House or have an engineer-one if for Goblin, one is for Gnomish. Engineering 475(mine isn't that high yet).
Enchanted Lantern/Magic Lamp-Buy from Auction House or Enchanters made. I've yet to see one on the AH, and my enchanter isn't high enough. One is Alliance, one is Horde.
Blue/Gold Mini-Jouster-quest reward from Mt Hyjal. Annoying quest, but still fairly easy. Near the end of longish quest line. Can only get one color on each character.
Elementium Geode-Rare drop from an Elementium Node, can be bought on AH. I need to mine more...
Fox Kit-Rare drop from Foxes on Tol Barad upper island. BoP, and no luck for me here yet either.
Pebble-Cute little rock guy, achievement reward for finishing the daily quest to rescue him 10 times. I'm at 2.

Fossilized Raptor-Archaeology reward. Two of my characters got it early on, two others have yet to see it(grr)
Clockwork Gnome-Archaeology Reward. Dwarf Rare, higher level than Fossil. I have it on my Druid, but not on my others. A bit rarer than the Fossil.
Crawling Claw-Archaeology Reward. Tol'Vir rare. At least level 425 Arch, and Tol'Vir sites are quite rare themselves.

Armadillo Pup-Guild achievement reward, kill 50,000 critters. Ugh. I'm at 5,000 so far, and this is so boring. Maybe someday I will dedicate a few hours to finishing it off. ***UPDATE-You have to be exalted with the guild in order to buy it. At the rate my Druid is going, that might happen in the year 2015. Lovely.
Dark Phoenix Hatchling-Guild achievement reward, United Nations(55 exalteds). Yeah, not gonna happen with us.
Guild Pages/Heralds-More guild achievements. I'm not sure what they are, but I am pretty sure someone in such a small guild as myself doesn't stand a chance at these.

So there we go. Most of them are somewhat easy, though at the very least time consuming. And that I don't mind, as long as they ARE obtainable by someone like me. Right now my Druid is at 114 companions. I love them. :)

So many new alts

2010-12-26T10:58:00.000-06:00

And I don't know who to play!

Aside from the 14 level 80+ that I have(only 1 to 85 so far), I have started a new army of alts, thanks to the new races and race/class combos. At this point, I have:

63 Troll Druid(got to 62 before Cataclysm came out, stuck there)
50 Dwarf Shaman
25 Undead Hunter
23 Goblin Rogue
12 Tauren Paladin
11 Gnome Priest
14 Worgen Rogue
13 Worgen Druid
17 Worgen Warlock
13 Worgen Druid(yes, another one, different realm)
16 Human Hunter
12 Goblin Hunter(mainly just a bank alt)

Sometimes I log in and just work to get one level or hit the rest pin and then log out. Right now I am determined to get my Goblin Rogue to exalted with Orgrimmar(5k to go)-I haaaaate the Goblin Trike(I don't have a Chopper on any of my characters either, don't want to spend the money and I just hate how it looks and sounds).

Part of me wants to level the Troll Druid, but Outlands is just so...ugh. I also have a 49 Human Rogue and 43 Undead Rogue that I have had forever and would like to level also. But when I play these, I feel guilty for not leveling my 80s up to 85. And then I just get this urge to log in with someone and do Archaeology!

And to top it all off, Santa brought my kid a Wii for Christmas and I'm either playing Wii Sports(tennis ftw, at least I'm getting some exercise now!) or she wants to me to play some other game with her.

So much to do, so little time.

Archaeology 315

2010-12-26T10:50:00.002-06:00

...and still no Baby Raptor. /sad

My now level 50 Dwarf Shaman has managed to find one rare, the Chalice of the Mountain Kings, so I do have the title of Assistant Professor.

Headed to Un'Goro and Kalimdor in hopes of opening up some more fossil sites. Getting lots of duplicate common fossils. Getting very, very frustrated. Grrrr.

Archaeology thoughts

2010-12-23T12:54:00.002-06:00

Archaeology is the one thing I was looking forward to in this expansion. It is fairly interesting. It satisfies my love of travel and exploring. But it is extremely frustrating-as it is in real life, of course. But in real life, I wouldn't go looking for raptor fossils in the Valley of the Kings, nor would I look for mummies in Utah. But I'll get to that in a moment.

My main, my Druid, is level 85, and most of those levels were gotten from Archaeology. At 525, with 10 rares solved, I am burnt out on it with her. No level 85 epics, but I don't really care about those. Got the Raptor and Gnome mini-pets, Raptor mount-those are what I wanted.

Then I started up with my Dwarf Paladin, level 80. Got to level 81, somewhere around 200 in archaeology. Got the raptor mini-pet. And I'm done there for now because I am really into my Dwarf Shaman right now...

My Dwarf Shaman is level 42. I named him for famed archaeologist Dr Zahi Hawass. I have leveled him from about 30 almost exclusively on Archaeology. I don't mind all the travel. What is driving me crazy is the number of Troll digsites I keep getting! He is at 255 and hasn't seen a single rare project pop yet. From the numbers and the levels of zones that dig sites are in, the Eastern Kingdoms should have Dwarf and Fossil about 50/50 with Troll(there might be more fossil on Kalimdor, but they are in Un'Goro and higher than my current level). There are 7 Dwarf sites, 9 fossil sites, and 19 Troll sites. But 95% of the sites I get at any time, for hours, are Troll. It is a rare thing to actually get a dig site that ISN'T Troll. I've solved 13 common Troll things and I've decided to just stop solving them. I've got 6 Dwarf and 8 Fossil solved. Oh if only the stupid Troll ones would stop showing!

The same goes on my Druid, who is at 525. I'm looking for Troll now, and all I get are fossil! I have solved everything possible for fossil, but those are the only sites that keep popping! Argh!

At least the "outside the boundaries" bug has sort of been fixed. I went back to the Orc area in Shadowmoon Valley 3 times and finally the placing changed to a completely random other place so I could get that site finished.

As for just storming into Aerie Peak on my Horde character to get those digs-I just don't do that. I've been playing for over 5 years and I have never, ever, not once killed an opposing faction NPC(outside of battlegrounds). Never done it, not going to start now. But at least the placements do change, so if it is in town, I can always come back later.

Now if I could just get that "Assistant Professor" title for my Shaman-I would be much happier! Hey it's almost Christmas, C'mon!!!

Cataclysmic mess

2010-12-14T08:12:00.004-06:00

Cataclysm is a week old now. I'm sure most people are already 85 and decked out in their epics and whatnot. And I'm not sure I want to play much more.

I knew, from reading about beta, that the game was going to be very different. For a soloer, it is.

First of all, the mobs are tough, really really tough. I wasn't having too much trouble with my Druid, but some of my others are barely getting through most fights. We went from fighting level 80s in Northrend with 12k HP, to level 80s with 30k+ HP. And obviously they hit much harder-and the many instant respawns are horrible. But I'm sure these mobs are tuned to someone in their ICC epix, and not to some noob with barely iLvl 200 gear.

My Druid is level 84. And the only quests I've done have been finishing Mount Hyjal. The rest has been from mining and Archaeology.

Archaeology can be fun, but it is extremely annoying at times. Running in circles while the green light points in a different direction 5 different times is ridiculous. And yes, I know all about triangulation. I spend quite a lot of time with a GPS and I study maps as one of my main hobbies-like USGS maps, not just street maps. This profession is right up my alley. The only other problem is the bugs. Right now, at level 42o, I have 2 sites I can't finish which means I'm down to looking for 14 sites at a time rather than 16. One in Dragonmaw Village in Shadowmoon points to a spot outside the zone, so you get "you can't use that here" when you try to step closer to where the green light is pointing. The second is smack dab in the middle of Aerie Peak-and I'm Horde. I'm not going INTO an Alliance town to get an artifact. Screw that. Otherwise, it's sort of fun-I have the Raptor and Gnome pets, and the Raptor mount-they are pretty cool.

My biggest beef is with the guild leveling nerf that hit yesterday. My main realm has the guild with most of my 80s, my husband and kid's characters. The first few days we never got near the cap, but we were making progress. I thought we might actually hit level 2 next weekend. Then the cut back to 25% of XP and the progress has grinded to a halt. I don't want to hit level 25 in a month like most guilds, I'm not asking for the SAME THINGS AS HUGE GUILDS, I was just hoping that maybe we could actually hit freaking level 2!! in a few weeks! Is that REALLY too much to ask?? I suppose it is, judging by comments made by so many in the forums. It's either "join a huge guild or GTFO or STFU".

Don't get me wrong-I really honestly don't give two shits about the guild perks. I have 80s on 3 other realms that are guildless and I don't really care if they ever join a guild. I don't need the "perks" and I don't need other people. But I was really hoping our little family could at least make a LITTLE progress. At this rate, we probably won't hit level 3 until the next expansion hits-if we are still playing by then.

At least with Wrath I had something to look forward to when I hit the max level-there were tons of dailies with lots if interesting rewards. I worked towards the Hodirs to get the Mammoth(that I never rode). I even did those 3 measly dailies for Wyrmrest to get exalted and the Red Drake-it took me months and months, but it was worth it! What dailies are there now? I'm not 85 yet and haven't opened any, so I don't know for sure, but I think it's just Therazane(with no reward worth bothering for) and Tol Barad(which will require your realm to have control if you want to get the extra dailies). Oh and one little daily for Tolvir, for 150 rep-it's not like I really wanted that camel anyway. There might be a few in Twilight Highlands(haven't been there yet), but no interesting rewards there either. No dailies for Earthen Ring or Gaurdians of Hyjal-disappointing. I crave another Argent Tournament!!

I know, it's stupid of me to want to get exalted with a faction just for a mount or something cosmetic-even if it's something I'll never use(Mammoth and Red Drake)-but I have no real use for the end-game gear. Even the little achievement for being exalted is a nice thing to strive for. I see now that they are trying to reinforce that the BIG GUILDS and RAID/HEROICS/ARENA or GTFO. I guess it is time for me to move back to the Sims or some other shit like that. Can't really kill anyone to get your frustration out in the Sims-unless you place them in a building with no doors and no food. They will die eventually. It's torture and just not as satisfying as bashing in some big ugly Ogre skulls.

Worgens/Goblins-I just can't get into them. Haven't gotten one past level 13. The Goblin areas-ugh. I'm sure I'm the only person playing the game who drove their little hot rod around as carefully as possible, never using the speed boost, looking for the talk radio station, and avoiding the people like crazy. I drove it like I drive my real car. Can't help it. And then I get to Lost Isles, and the leader guy yells out every few minutes how EVERYTHING IS YOUR FAULT! Naming YOU by name! Great, for someone with self-esteem issues, who has thought everything was my fault ever since I was a kid, it makes me want to take my character to the water and drown it, just get it over with and end it all. Thanks game.

The Worgen I just find boring so far. The architecture is AMAZING. I could run around Gilneas all day. But I can do that with any of my 80s, without the annoying mobs. I'm not sure why I just don't really like the actual characters so far. It could also be the absolute massive amount of others in the zones that turns me off. Perhaps if I was running around alone, I'd be more into it. Right now I'm either AFKing or rushing through to avoid the random jerk who wants to spam duels or group invites or just talk about stupid shit. Go away!

So a week in and I'm not having fun. Not to mention I get absolutely hounded and ridiculed on the one message board that I used to frequent. So this will be my only vent portal. If ANYTHING positive happens for soloers, I'll post about it. If not, well I might just not be playing much longer. Doesn't seem like they want my kind around here anymore.

Lost my password again....

2010-09-05T16:47:00.002-05:00

Yeah, things have not been great in my life the past 6 months or so. Culminating with mouth surgery a week ago. I'm not in a good mood and I have to eat soup and pudding. I won't go into all the problems we have had, but let's just say that the only thing I've really been able to do lately is play WoW.

I suppose I'm still having fun, but updating this blog hasn't been a priority. Frankly I didn't figure anybody would miss it. I mean, I'm not in beta, I don't have awesome info on how to make money or strategy on how to fight anything. I'm just on here whining about how much I suck at this game. Heh.

I suck so much that I now have 14 level 80s. Yes, FOURTEEN. Eleven of them have the "Crusader" title from the Argent Tournament. My 2nd Death Knight will have it soon, just working on that old world reputation(not easy for Undead like it is for Humans). Two more are a few weeks off. Twelve of my 80s have epic flying, 11 of those have Netherwing drakes. Working on getting the "Chef" title for a few of them, but some recipes just refuse to drop for me(damn you Stormchops!).

And still no heroics and no heirlooms and no refer-a-friend.

Anyhoo...

I have been spending a lot of time reading and watching videos on beta. And it is really starting to look like they are pushing people away from soloing, so I am really considering being "done" soon. From mobs being almost quite difficult for players in Tier gear, to all the new perks being only for those who join huge guilds and raid(or join pvp guilds and only do pre-mades with them). I really haven't seen anything for the "soloer" in all of the news coming out. Maybe archaeology(which I am really looking forward too), but if that's it, well that's not much.

Sure the guild perks are just that, perks-meant to be extras. We get by just fine now without the XP bonus and gathering bonus. It is frustrating to see the things like mounts and pets only available to those who put in tons of time in a large guild. It isn't enough incentive to get me to change though. I can't speak for all soloers, but shutting this one out of so much in the expansion is just going to make me quit-not change my evil ways.

I know it's beta, but they have also talked about making the mobs tougher to fight. I've watched the videos from Jesse Cox and the mobs go from being pushovers(expected from someone in his gear) to being so tough that he heals up after every fight. If he is getting to half health after each mob in his gear, what is someone fresh from Northrend going to do? Go raid Icecrown whatever before you can head to Hyjal?

I'll level a Goblin, and a Worgen(and maybe more than one or two of each-I have lots of names saved). But it's possible that once they finish Azeroth, they(and I) will be done with the game. I just haven't seen anything that makes me excited about Cataclysm.

And maybe that's their idea. I keep hearing that I shouldn't be playing this game because it isn't meant for soloers. It was just fine for a soloer for 5 years, but it's starting to look like it's going to change. And I'm sure 99% of the WoW population just look down their noses at me and say "good riddance".

Gah, my mouth hurts. :(

What have I been up to?

2010-06-16T09:01:00.003-05:00

Well, I have been attempting to play WoW, through all of the computer problems. And some of the things I've accomplished over the last month:

Finally finished the Wintersaber training with my human mage. Beautiful cat, though I could never go through that grind again
10th character to level 80. And one more at 79, knocking on the doorstep
6th level 80 to Crusader with Argent Tournament, and another that will be in a couple more days
Netherwing Drakes for most of my characters on my main realm.
STILL NO Heroic dungeons done, ever
STILL NO heirloom items on any character
Lots of Wintergrasp, since Horde seem to own it on our server, so lots of shiny purple(like I give a crap) gear on several of my 80s

That's mostly been it. Leveling, Argent dailies, Wintergrasp.

As for my characters, this is the breakdown of them:

2 80 Mages
2 80 Death Knights
2 80 Paladins
80 Druid
80 Hunter
80 Rogue
80 Shaman
79 Hunter
75 Hunter
75 Rogue
74 Warrior
72 Druid
72 Paladin
70 Warlock
63 Priest
58 Paladin

...and the rest are not really played right now. Whew, that's a lot of playing. At least I'm still having fun. :)

Computers, ugh.

2010-06-16T08:52:00.002-05:00

I haven't posted in awhile-computer problems. First my old computer got to the point where it just didn't want to play WoW anymore. At least not while it was somewhat warm in our computer room. To the point where I was being disconnected every few minutes. So, though we can't really afford it right now, we get me a new computer. And then the REAL fun starts.

The new computer freezes up every so often. Just freezes everything. No matter if it's in WoW or a screensaver. Had it for a week and was ready to tear my hair out. Finally took it back to the store and said "FIX IT!" They ended up giving me a new computer, something about the hard drive being screwed up.

So I've had this computer for about a month now. Here's the thing. While I was having problems, I began using my kid's computer. And I took my password helper to her desk. And I lost it. So for the last month I've been guessing at passwords in hopes of getting in to even my own e-mail and all the places I frequent. It's frustrating. Since I try to use really sort of random things for passwords so that aren't easy to crack(and change them often), I hardly remember most myself. So getting back into my fave places has been a trial. Not to mention that I am terrified of downloading anything to this computer for fear of it crashing on me like the last one and losing it all again.

So I'm taking my time. Just playing WoW and staying inside away from the heat. And praying.

Children's Week

2010-05-04T12:58:00.002-05:00

There's something very wrong with this photo. Doing the Daily Chores achievement, my Gnome Rogue is turning in the quest Planning For the Future. "Here ya go, Mr Walrus, and I've got one extra for ya!"

Hah.

Anyway, I love this week-lots of free pets for all of my multitudes of alts! Yay!

And I said I hated PvP...

2010-04-13T07:45:00.004-05:00

and I still do. Really. But I have been doing a LOT of PvPing lately. Especially in Wintergrasp. Well, it helps when your faction has had control of Wintergrasp about 95% of the time for the past 2 weeks. Winning every two and a half hours really piles up those marks and the honor.
(for a good read-up for someone new to WG, check out this blog post!)

And it's funny because we actually finally lost two in a row last night and you wouldn't believe the amount of name-calling and accusing. Right...we've won about 30 straight and suddenly when we lose all of those awesome players are noobs and idiots who should delete their accounts. Amazing.

But I don't do this to find friends. I'm just trying to get a different look on my characters since a few of my 80s have been in the same crafted gear for over a year now. My Rogue went from Trollwoven Spaulders, shown here:

to the Furious Gladiator's Leather Spaulders, shown here:

As someone who refuses to do dungeons, raids and arenas, even a small upgrade such as this is HUGE in how you feel about your character. The shoulders are one of the cheapest items to get, and I'm pretty sure it's because they want you to upgrade those so you can SEE a difference in your character when first starting out. I may still be a noob on the inside, but I sort of feel like I am not seen as such by others at first glance. Not that I care one iota what others think, but it can help your self esteem, even just a little to not feel like you LOOK like a noob.

My Druid also upgraded to the Druid version of those shoulders, and also got the gloves and pants. For the first time in 4 1/2 years of playing WoW, I actually have a character that is wearing ALL EPICS!! ZOMG!!!1! Shocker! Sure some of them are still iLevel 200 crafteds, but who really cares. Hmmm, maybe it's time to finally put aside my Master Builder's Shirt and get one of those Rich Purple Silk Shirts that I see so many of the elites wearing. Nah.

I also managed to get enough honor for my human mage to get him the Furious Glad's Silk Cowl, cos it looks just too cool to pass up. Of course, I wasn't going to get them in Wintergrasp while the Alliance was sucking so bad. I waited until Strand of the Ancients weekend and spent some time in there. Not as easy as WG, but still sort of the same principal. And I found it quite funny in one where a guy on our boat at the beginning said this(basically) "it sucks that there are people in here who arent even geared for Naxx trying to pvp". I figured he meant me, sitting there in my Frost Savage gear and Hat of Wintry Doom. And then I was the one who managed to get in and grab the relic for the win. Noob indeed.

Eighty number Eight

2010-03-30T09:41:00.002-05:00

And number 8 character reaches level 80. Yes, it's another Death Knight, which really isn't an accomplishment in my eyes, but no biggie. And he will now sit, maybe do some Tournament dailies, and wait for the next expansion. That's what my 80s do, and that's okay by me.

I've also gotten my little Gnome Rogue to level 74, and to Dalaran. Now he can sit and do Cooking, Fishing and Jewelcrafting dailies every day. And be able to do the Dalaran Children's Week quests when it comes back in May. Yay!

My Warrior is up to level 66, and my Priest is now 60. No dungeons at all.

So I now have at least one of every class to at least level 60. Whoopee. I'm okay with them, but don't have as much fun with them as I do with my Rogue. But that's me, I just like being invisible. I think I might talk about that in another post. Why playing a Rogue is exactly how my life is, i.e. I am completely invisible wherever I go. It's been that way my whole life. I am not an attention getter, and frankly I don't like attention getters. Like the guy on Family Feud yesterday, who had to make a show of every single answer he gave. I was so glad that they lost. People like that can get off of my TV NOW! Anyway, where was I? Don't know, don't care. Another Tuesday. Ugh.

First egg!

2010-03-06T11:34:00.002-06:00

That's right, first egg from those lovely little Oracles nabs my Paladin the sweet Reins of the Green Proto-Drake. And I was just hoping for four new minipets! Hee. :)

And it came just one day before getting exalted with Netherwing. They must have known.

So what I've been up to soloing? Well, *when* I've been playing, I've mostly been playing my 80 Dwarf Paladin. Lately I've...

Soloed the Zuluhed the Whacked quest in order to start the Netherwing dailies. I think it took about 2 weeks total to get exalted, but I wasn't doing all of the quests(because I didn't feel like going all the way to Nagrand every day)
Soloed the Battle of Crimson Watch quest in order to get the awesome Illidari tabard
Soloed the quest A Hero's Burden in Scholozar Basin in order to get started on those Oracles dailies(and get that sweet mount up there!)
Just a couple of days from my Paladin becoming my fifth "Crusader" from the Argent Tournament

I know these things may not seem like much to those running around in their itemLevel 264 gear and whatnot, but my Paladin doesn't even have the Superior achievement yet! Anyhow, just saying that there is still plenty to do for a soloer who hits 80 besides just leveling another alt.

I'll be heading to Nagrand to get those Talbuk mounts next.

Love stinks!

2010-02-21T13:16:00.002-06:00

I'm so glad that holiday is over. I was really getting tired of being peppered with bonbons and perfume every time I wandered through any major city. And now onto Lunar Festival-a holiday that I only use to gain reputation points with any of my characters who might still need it. I absolutely refuse to do the achievements that require fighting my way through enemy towns. I've never, in 4 years, killed an opposing NPC outside of a battleground, and I don't intend to ever do so.

...and so I won't be getting the fancy schmancy purple dragon flying mount. Whoopee. I'm NOT going to change my ways just to get something like that.

And I've STILL NEVER ENTERED A HEROIC DUNGEON! Yep, with 7 level 80s, and 9 more over level 70, and never been in a heroic. I nominate myself for worst WoW player ever. Whatever.

I have gotten my Undead Warrior to level 61, and Draenei Priest to level 53. And NO dungeon groups joined on them at all. I have always been solo, I will remain always solo.

I really wish I wasn't playing as much WoW right now, and I may soon have to give it up. My husband has been out of work since mid-January due to a neck injury. And I had a bit of a medical scare recently myself. Things like WoW don't look all that fun or important when you are staring at something like that.

So I may be "outdated" because I refuse to use the new dungeon crap thing, but sometimes you have to stick to what you are comfortable with, especially when life around you isn't very comfortable.

Love is in the Air-NOT!

2010-02-06T05:09:00.000-06:00

And they had to go and ruin another holiday. I know, it hasn't even started yet(where I am), but I've read up on how it has changed on all the sites, MMO-Champion, WoW.com and Wowhead. The big change:

A new level 80 'gimmick' boss. And of course, he drops a mini-pet that you can only get there. Which means another mini-pet that I will never get.

Yes, he drops an epic flying mount that looks like only 12 year old girls should want(but people seem to be having fits wanting it-must be that 'I gotta stand out somehow' gene that I don't have). I wouldn't ride that thing if you paid me.

And he drops high level necklaces. Whoopie for someone who doesn't 'need' the high end gear(remember, if you aren't going to be doing dungeons and raids, you don't need the gear for dungeons and raids-well that's what people keep telling me!).

I'm not going to get into the details of all the other changes. It's hard to say whether or not getting some of the achievements will be easier or harder that they were before. My druid has the "Love Fool" title from last year, I don't really care if any of my other characters get it.

-----------

As to my lack of posts lately, well I haven't really had much to say. I've gotten my Draenei Priest to level 46, and my Undead Warrior to level 50. My level 80 Paladin dropped skinning and has leveled up blacksmithing(up to 370), without buying a single item from the auction house. I've been working on getting "the Seeker"(3000 quests completed) title for my 80 Rogue-he's about 450 quests short right now, and I got bored with it.

And then my big mistake, I screwed up with my "Rogue Demon Hunter". While fighting the demons on the west side of Desolace, I aggroed a warlock with imp, twice, and before it dawned on me I had killed the two-and then realized I had killed 2 humans. And now I'm not sure whether or not to continue with him or scrap it now. So bummed.

On the plus side-I love those little Raptor pets in their little nests! Thanks to how they are acquired now-by finding the raptor nests and getting the egg with the baby raptor minipet, now I have gotten many of those pets for tons of my characters! I seriously wish they were bind-on-pickup, but even though they aren't, they have got to be some of the easiest mini-pets to get out there. Love them!

Self portrait

2010-01-10T13:55:00.000-06:00

Lol. I made this. I hate those stupid lolcats things normally, but I took this photo at the zoo a few months ago and this saying just stuck in my head when I looked at it.

End game

2010-01-09T08:24:00.003-06:00

That's my hunter. He's sleeping. That is what "end game" is for my level 80s. Reaching the pinnacle for me, as a completely solo player, means "the end". When I climb a mountain, I don't stay up there to throw parties, I look for another mountain to climb. So my version of "end game" is clearly different than most World of Wacraft players. I might actually climb the same mountain again, but I'll be looking for another trail to get there. No two trips are ever the same. And I don't need anyone to help me climb that mountain.

That's what my level 80s achievements look like for the Northrend group stuff. And I'm sort of proud of that actually. It's not so much a "badge of honor" as it is a "badge of 'look how much I really suck'" kinda thing. That's sorta how I feel about it anyway.

With that said, I think I'm gonna let this lie like my hunter now. End game. Until those darn earthquakes wake me up.

I'd like you to like me

2010-01-09T07:28:00.002-06:00

I am stuck in a conundrum. I don't like people, but I want them to like me. I know, I'm weird. It's the same way in-game.
I hate seeing 'yellow names'. 'Yellow names' mean one of two things:

These NPCs don't hate me, but they don't really like me yet
An opposing player who is flagged for PvP and I am not.

The first thing, NPCs. I just hate seeing the yellow names. I usually do what I can to get 'Friendly' with factions as soon as possible when it can be done. Seeing 'yellow' in Dalaran inns until I can get to the Argent Tournament at level 77 in order to gain their favor drives me up a wall. I have so many characters that have come through Shat since Wrath came out, that it is literally a sea of yellow when I go there for some reason. I just have to do something about it.

The second thing, players. It's no secret that I can't stand PvP. And when I see a 'yellow name' on a player it usually means one thing-that player is probably killing NPCs that I need to use. Wasting MY time. I don't care if you think this is fun, because ruining someone else's game time should not be "fun". That is sadistic. To get pleasure from someone else's pain. And I just don't get it. And there is NO chance of turning that 'yellow name' to red to do something about it-those players almost always outlevel my character by too many to count. Although seeing that Dwarf Hunter get pwned by Sergra Darkthorn recently was quite amusing, I still had to sit and wait to turn in a quest for quite awhile because the idiot just stood there and killed them as soon as they spawned.

So to the conundrum. I generally, as a rule, hate all people. I've been overtly shy since I was a kid. I also grew up being blamed for everything. I actually had a tshirt as a 12 year old that said "Go ahead, blame it on me, everyone else does". Now mind you, I was an extremely good kid. I never once, ever got sent to the Principals Office. I made straight A's throughout school. I was always "Teacher's Pet". The thought of doing something "wrong" was abhorrent to me. I aimed to please. And still got blamed for so many things.

And then, once I got to High School, I became the "Invisible Girl". I had no friends, never talked to anyone, but I STILL did not lose sight of "always doing the right thing". I did make one friend. And when we were 17, we were walking across the street and she was hit by a car and killed. It could have been me, so easily. I've never made a friend since then. And that was 25 years ago. Oh I had 'acquaintances', so-called 'friends', roommates. When I moved out of state 12 years ago, guess who never once bothered to keep in contact with me? Of course not, I always knew they hated me. I do thank God every day for my husband, I still don't know how I managed that one!

But I am really a really, really nice person! I always let others go ahead of me, I smile a LOT at other people, I hold doors open, I always say "please" and "thank you" and "yes sir" and "no ma'am". I obey all rules(including road rules, I come to a complete stop and use turn signals in an empty parking lot!). I'm not like "House"(on the tv show), in that he is a misanthrope who hates people AND enjoys making their lives miserable. I hate people because I know they will not really like me and will disappoint me at some point. Because they always have.

I see 'yellow names' all around me, every day. The idiot on the road who wants to tailgate me because I won't drive over the speed limit is just like the PvP jerk. The people at the store are like the people in Shattrath. I want people to like me, but I'm just not sure why I should bother most of the time. In my mind, I am doing everyone in WoW a FAVOR by remaining solo, because I am giving them one less person to blame everything on or one less person to ruin their game time. Just the thought of someone yelling at me or being mad at me for any reason makes me sick to my stomach. Really, I'm getting ill right now just thinking about it. I'm no philosopher though, but there is an excellent blog out there about WoW and philosophy. I wonder what they'd think of me? Never mind, I don't want to know.

So maybe I have a gene that makes me too sensitive. I cry at everything from country music songs to Hallmark commercials. Everything reminds me of my only friend and that is making me tear up now just thinking about that. I take everything said as an personal insult even if it isn't directly said to or about me. When nobody bothers to comment on the photos I post to Flickr, I take that as "my photos suck, everyone hates them". And then I talk to myself. I have 4 blogs: this one, a photo blog, a travel blog and a cemetery blog. And I rarely get comments. And I've gotten used to that. I've said it before, this isn't more of a "I've got something important to say so I hope millions of people read it", it's more of a 'travel journal'. Something that's fun to look back on and see where I've been and what I've done. Maybe others won't mind reading it, because maybe sometimes I do have something important to say. Or maybe it's just a cry for help. And yes, I said "cemetery blog", because I like to photograph cemeteries(notice the one in my header?). At least the dead people won't judge me.

So, to sum up, WoW is a lot like life. Well, my life anyway. And maybe I'm just a weirdo loner with far too much to say and yet always saying nothing. Geez Louis, when is Diablo 3 gonna get here?????

Wyndampryce turns 36

2010-01-09T06:44:00.004-06:00

It's been awhile since I posted about my Rogue Demon Hunter, Wyndampryce, since it's been awhile since I actually played him. In the last week I've gotten him to level 35 and then 36. Still fighting only Demons! The last few levels have taken him to Desolace and the Satyrs there. At 36, the ones near Nijel's Point are all green to him so I will be moving across Desolace to the Mannoroc Coven. The demons there range from 37 to 40, so I'll need to watch my path. Almost died on first test there yesterday by aggroing a level 40 Warlock and his imp pet while fighting two Succubi! Thank goodness for Vanish and Sprint!

I'd like to do some more exploring with him to gain a few XP from that, but most of the areas I have left to explore are going to be difficult at his level. I think I will wait 4 more levels and that epic mount!

What to do when bored

2010-01-08T08:59:00.002-06:00

Run around all of Azeroth finishing off your To All the Squirrels I've Loved Before, To All the Squirrels that Shared My Life, and Pest Control achievements. Easy cheap achievement points. May be done while working on Explorer achievements.

Yeah. I'm bored. I'd write up a guide on the easiest way to get these 3 achievements done-but I'm even too bored to do that. Sorry.

If you are bored, you could look through my photo blog. That's what I do when I'm not playing WoW.

I admit...

2010-01-06T16:19:00.001-06:00

I still have a can of Horde Mt Dew sitting in the back of the fridge. Can't bear to drink the last one!

Maybe I'm a cheapskate...

2010-01-05T07:52:00.003-06:00

But I would never pay this much for a green level 26 item!After my recent trip through Scarlet Monastery, I had a few things left over to sell. My little Priest is an enchanter, and even when being run through, it was a nice addition to be able to just hit "Disenchant" on most items and skip the whole open the bags and figure out what to disenchant. I do know there are some things that will sell on the Auction House. I just didn't realize for how much!
This item was the Emblazoned Hat. There was already one on the AH for 250g, which made me nearly spit out my soda. I figured what the heck and posted mine for 150g and it sold within an hour! Another leather helm, Insignia Cap, sold for 15g, probably because it is level 30, just above the "twink" level.
I suppose "twinks" haven't gone away, or the economy has gotten really, really out of whack because people have so much money these days. While this is good for lower level players to MAKE money, if you are in serious need of an upgrade and all the items are 50g, well it's just ridiculous.
While I am not bad at making money, it may be because I am a cheapskate and refuse to spend this kind of money on items at the Auction House. In fact, I recently leveled up Jewelcrafting from 1 to 350 and didn't spend a dime on the Auction House, I farmed every single item I needed. And then sold the items I made and extra mats on the AH for gobs of money. Of course, I had the time to do that. I suppose some people just don't have the time-and I'm there for them, supplying them with what they need, and netting the profits!
Time is indeed money, my friend. :)

New Year's Resolutions

2010-01-04T08:05:00.002-06:00

It's that time of the year again, time to set the big goals. I have all the personal ones of course, including making a friend. I'm not sure how I'll be able to afford the parts for it, but I'm working on that. As for WoW, my resolution is pretty much the same as it was last year...play less. That was my resolution last year, but I didn't really meet that one. I think-at least for awhile-I may be able to meet this one. At least until Cataclysm comes out.

Another resolution is to continue to play MY way. That is only solo-completely solo. No group quests, no dungeons. I still duo a few characters with my husband, and trio a few with husband and kid, but the majority of my characters are 'me' only. And I like it that way. Truly solo. Completely alone. It's no accident that I have characters on several realms named Eremit, which means "hermit". It's how I live, it's how I play.

When I do 'play less', what will I do with my time? I've thought about going back to my Lord of the Rings Online character. I need to work more on my personal photographs website. I can clean house more often(HA!not!). Maybe read some books-I do miss the library.

Will I be quitting? Oh no, of course not. Like I said, I still have characters that my husband wants to play alongside with me. And there are always holidays that can be fun to log in and see how much you can get done. And besides, I got a 20" widescreen monitor for my birthday, and WoW looks AWESOME on it!

When is it too much WoW?

2010-01-02T07:39:00.002-06:00

I've been wanting to start answering WoW.com's "Breakfast Topic" on here lately, but lately most of the questions have been in regards to the new dungeon system and frankly I don't really care about that.

But today I will start. The question is "When is it too much WoW?" And I think I may be at that point. They really want to know how much time you take off when you've had too much. My answer in the past would have been maybe a few days at most. But things are different right now.

I woke up early this morning and couldn't find a character that I really wanted to play. My 80s are done until the next expansion. I don't care if they get any better gear than the iLevel 187ish gear that they have now. If that puts me way behind the curve, then so be it. I don't really care how my characters look or how they perform, as long as I'm having fun with them. Right now I'm not having fun. Part of me feels forced into a section of the game that I can't stand(grouping) and I hate that I avoid logging into characters if I feel like I'm going to be harassed into doing that.

And I think a big part is just burn out. I recently got my 16th character to at least level 70. That's a LOT of levels and quests. And while the ones who are leveling are the only ones I want to play, right now I just don't want to play them. Or maybe it's just the Winter "Blues", because really, I don't want to do much of anything else either.

I don't mind logging in and playing alongside my husband and daughter, but other than that I just can't figure out what to do. I think I'll go back to working on my photography website. Or I'll read some books that I've been meaning to read. I miss the library. And the treadmill is just screaming my name now that it's January again. We'll see.

Year in Review 2009

2009-12-31T06:45:00.002-06:00

The end of the decade. The end of the year. And my birthday tomorrow. Whoopee. This is a look back at the past year. Nothing too insighful, but probably more rants.

The year started out with some major drama. I had a 'friend'(actually friend of my husband) pretty much just stop talking to us because he left for a "raiding guild" and evidently we just weren't good enough for him anymore. It hit the fan in February during the Lunar Festival when they(friend and son) flat out refused to help my daughter with an achievement when all times previous we would jump at the chance to help them with whatever they need. They went on to our ignore list and things have been very quiet in the game ever since. No big loss I guess.

Around March I started a 'Rogue Demon Hunter' named Wyndampryce who would only level by grinding on Demons. If you've seen the tv show Angel you'd get the joke. If not, well there have been plenty of people who have leveled with various restrictions and I thought I'd try one just to do something different. And here at the end of the year he is still only level 34. Grinding is not an easy way to level.

April brought Patch 3.1 which brought the Argent Tournament, a real boon for solo players. And a great source of minipets and mounts. As of the end of the year, I have gotten 4 characters to the 'Crusader' title(exalted with all 5 home factions and Argent Crusade), and have done some work with others on it. Frankly at this point though I am quite sick of jousting.

July was a tough month. I almost flat out quit thanks to some real jerks who thought that only their happiness was important in a game full of millions. I don't know if I can ever really quit though. I'm not sure what it will really take. And I lost a hero in a tragic way. And that's all I really wanna say about that.

August brought Patch 3.2. The biggest thing about that was lowering the level at which everyone gets mounts-20 for regular, 40 for epic, 60 for flying. I can't tell you how awesome this has been for someone like me who spends most of my time on alts. Incredible. Also was the news of Cataclysm, the next expansion. And the coming of Worgen and Goblin races, and other new race/class combinations. Again, for someone who loves alts, this looks to be a great expansion.

In September I took my new little Dwarf Paladin and joined a real guild. And then got to run some old raid dungeons with them(Molten Core, Zul'Gurub, Onyxia). There was tons of adrenaline rush going on, and then I realized later that I had given myself an ulcer from worrying so much about how I was going to do. It made me realize that raiding, even low level, is not for me and my old self.

November brought my 7th level 80. And I recently brought up my 16th character to at least level 70. That means I have 9 more to get to max(which are currently at 76, 76, 76, 75, 71, 71, 70, 70 and 70). And maybe I'm getting burned out.

December brought Patch 3.3 and probably the biggest change in WoW since the beginning: the new Looking For Group mechanic. It's simple, choose your job(tank, healer, dps) and hit the "Find Group" button and voila, you are in the dungeon and getting your new awesome loots. But I can't/won't do it. I won't be a solo player anymore if I'm getting "phat lewt" from dungeons. I like being a solo player. I don't like grouping-no, I flat out refuse to group unless it's with my husband or daughter. And then there's the family member who decided to roll on our server and I'm now hiding from by not logging in to any of my characters on my main server anymore. This may finally be the straw that breaks the camels back.

It's been a very roller coaster year for me. And I'm in a real slump right now. I even loaded up my old Lord of the Rings Online character yesterday. Maybe I'll feel better Monday when I post some New Year's Resolutions.

And that makes level 70 or higher #16

2009-12-30T07:50:00.003-06:00

Yep, that's right. My Gnome Rogue hit 70 and that makes Number 16 for me. And all without the aid of heirlooms or 'refer-a-friend'. Uh yep, I have a lot of time on my hands.

Who will be next? Well, I am working on a Warrior who is level 33, and a Priest, who is level 34. I just can't really get into playing them though. Knowing that at max level(and even now) they are EXPECTED to be THE tank and THE healer is annoying I suppose. Probably what holds me back most as a soloer. Since I have no interest in grouping at any time, these two classes hold the least amount of interest to me. And they are still really difficult to level at this point. But then I suppose neither were meant to be leveled solo which is why it is so tough.

My next highest characters, as mentioned before, are hunters and rogues-which are also the last two classes I got to level 70. Maybe it's time to go back to my leveling my Nelf Moonkin who is 71.

One other note: my rogue dropped skinning and took up Jewelcrafting. I farmed every single bit of my mats, and by selling the items plus the extra mats, I've made over 1500g this week. I've been limiting how much I actually put on the AH at a time so as to not flood and still have loads extra to sell. And after finding some that don't sell, I send those to an alt to disenchant. So his jewelcrafting is currently at level 342 with only a few points to go before starting Northrend materials.

Leveling a Rogue now

2009-12-21T08:34:00.003-06:00

I am leveling my second rogue, but my first truly solo rogue. My rogue that is 80 now actually trio'd with hubby and daughter's characters. So my first real "rogue".

I admit to getting help on a few group quests, as rogues aren't really built to take massive damage. My other true solo characters that are level 80 have been Druid, Mage, Hunter and Paladin. All of them have a fairly easy time with multiple mobs or harder than average quests(though not always with the Mage). The Rogue, however, is more about being sneaky and picking your fights. Making liberal use of Stealth and Vanish. Avoiding most mobs and only fighting who you need to fight and moving on.

And I love pickpocket!

Right now my Rogue is level 66, nearly to 67 and hopefully just a couple of hours away from heading to Northrend. I think the look of the gear in Northrend fits the style of Rogue more than almost anything in Outland. Get me away from the bright colors!

Also, as of now, my rogue has mining and skinning. I'm considering dropping skinning to pick up Jewelcrafting. I like JC, and leveling it just to get the trinkets Emerald Boar, Monarch Crab, and Ruby Hare make it absolutely worth it. I'll probably do that once I hit level 68. And Dense Stone Statues will help for at least a little while(I really wish they would make a newer version of this one).

After my rogue, I have a Moonkin at 71, hunter at 70, and Death Knight at 76. Any of them could be my next 80, I just haven't decided yet. And the next highest characters are another rogue and hunter, each at level 46. Maybe I will just wait for Cataclysm after this.

What I will do for mini-pets

2009-12-18T06:01:00.002-06:00

Level up another character to at least level 20. The Paladin that I started back in June wants more mini-pets. She has 60 right now. And she wasn't around last Winter's Veil so she has none of those pets.

There are four mini-pets available when you open the Winter's Veil presents on December 25th, the Green Helper Box, Red Helper Box, Jingling Bell and Snowman Kit. You can obviously only open it once per character. And, most importantly, you have to be level 20 to open it. So I have my Pally and a Death Knight, that gets me 2 pets. And my hubby and kid have Death Knights(if I can talk them into giving me the pet they get-I'm sure they will!). And now I am leveling a Druid so that I have one more shot at getting all four of them.

Ain't it purty?

2009-12-17T05:55:00.000-06:00

I logged in on my main realm only long enough to do a few Crusader dailies so that I would have enough Champion's Seals to get my human mage a Silver Covenant Hippogryph. I love the new Hippogryph animations! This (in its various colors) is probably my favorite flying mount.

And doesn't my guy look pretty sitting on it? :D Heh.

Not a happy camper

2009-12-16T11:54:00.002-06:00

So I bought my very first dual spec today. And I'm not really thrilled about it. Let me explain...

A few weeks ago, a relative and his wife decided to reroll(a paladin and a death knight) on our server and join up with our happy little trio. They had previously raided on a pvp server. They had tried to tempt us to the pvp server, but that did NOT work. So in a few weeks, they level to 80 and jump right into dungeons to gear up. They tried to get us into a few dungeons. The low level ones were a breeze, as they rightly should have been. The one level 80 we did, the Trial one, went horribly.

So in the past week, Relative and his protection paladin are gearing up-telling us that once he has gear, all will be better. Better for whom? I don't WANT to do dungeons now! It's a matter of principal almost, I LIKE not having those achievements.

And I don't give a flip about gear! They keep linking items that I could get. Please-you could take me into a jewelry store and all I would see are expensive rocks. They don't excite me. Same with the high level gear. I don't freaking care about it! "Well, you could go back and do dailies faster with it". I do dailies just fine now, thank you, big whoop if I can do it 5 minutes faster.

But they keep at it. So do I suck it up and do it "for them" or what? I won't be happy. But when you have relatives standing around saying "oh come on!" what do you do?

I try to relay that I have zero confidence and zero skill. Wearing mostly epics and can't do over 1300dps. Oh, but that's because it's mostly PvP gear-you need "+hit" gear. Sure. I'll just snap my fingers and make that appear. Especially since my druid is only a few quests from Loremaster and nearly every quest reward has been disenchanted. So there's nothing to go back to, and the only way to get more gear aside from PvP gear would be dungeons-which I will not do on my own(and don't even want to do at all).

So I got mad today(was having a bad day anyway). I took off all of my PvP gear, flew around picking up items from the different factions, bought a bunch of crap from the auction house, and bought the dual spec. And then specced into Moonkin.

At least I can say I have really REALLY bad gear, that isn't gemmed or enchanted, nowhere near the hit cap, but at least it isn't PvP gear. And I will sit there as my big fat ugly chicken and mope.

And I don't even feel like playing anymore now. Not inspired to do any of the Winter's Veil achievements or quests. Not in the mood to farm or level up an alt. I just feel bored now. I hate this.

Feeling Safer

2009-12-14T13:36:00.003-06:00

With the last patch, Blizzard introduced the Corehound Pup. This pet is available to anyone who has a Blizzard Authenticator attached to the account. I had been meaning to order one for the longest time, but had procrastinated. The addition of this cute little minipet as an incentive got me off my duff! I also feel much safer knowing that I have this extra level of security on my account. I am a pretty careful person, and have never been too concerned about being hacked, but anything to add to that is all the better. Better safe than sorry I say.

The Corehound is a mini version of the ones from Molten Core(not like I'd really know that, but I read Wowhead, etc!). This little guy sits up and begs, rolls over, and will dig up a bone and fight the other head for it. I have to say that Blizzard is really outdoing themselves lately when it comes to the quality of the non-combat pets!

About the Authenticator-it was fairly easy to set up, I only need one to cover all 3 accounts I have under one Battle.net account, all characters under each account get the pet, and it is super easy to use once you get it set up. This is one minipet that everyone should have!

*** I forgot to mention, and wanted to just as a reminder to myself, that this pet makes #101 for my Druid! I suppose now I'd like to see that 100 pet achievement!

My Army of Alts...some notes

2009-12-13T13:52:00.000-06:00

I made a post a few days ago listing all of the characters I have over level 60. There are 16 of them, 15 are over 70(Gnome Rogue is almost 65 and moving up quickly). But I read another blog post and wanted to make a point of noting something about my army of alts...

I have NOT used Recruit-A-Friend system. It takes more accounts(or a friend-which I don't have), and I can't really afford to have more accounts than I already have.

And I have NOT used any heirloom items. Not a single one. First I didn't really have access to them, but that changed with the ability to buy them with Champion's Seals. The only characters with access to them, don't really have anyone to send them to! All of my alts on that realm are over level 70 and most of them duo with my hubby, so I wouldn't want to get ahead of him. The alts that I might not mind having them, don't have Big Brothers to go out and get them. But that's okay, because I obviously love leveling characters!

And yes, I already have about a dozen names saved across several realms for future Worgen, Goblins, and other new class/race combinations. And none of them will have any heirlooms either.

Oldest Screenshot!

2009-12-12T07:19:00.003-06:00

I thought I'd do something a little fun today. I wanted to see what was the oldest screenshot I had on my computer. I started playing WoW in October of 2005, and this screenshot is from April 18, 2006-I guess that's when I got my new computer(the one I'm still playing on!).
I'll explain the shot a bit. This is my Druid, at level 57, and my hubby's hunter(and his kitty, Shasta), in Winterspring. We had been hunting for Ursius when this moonkin and bear attacked us. And the bear dropped Destiny! I realize it isn't a hunter's weapon-and we sat on it for a day-until we finally decided to let hubby's hunter equip it. At that time, having an *epic*-especially for us- was realllllly something!
I love going back through old screenshots, the same way I love going back through old photos I've taken on vacations. It's so interesting to see how far things have come since then.

Solo gear on my druid

2009-12-11T12:55:00.004-06:00

This isn't a comprehensive guide to getting gear for a soloing Feral Druid, but this is a list of what I've managed to put together for my Druid, almost completely solo. It does include some PvP gear, but it was gotten mainly from Wintergrasp where it is quite easy to just join, do your thing, and never have to deal with talking to anyone else, and reap the rewards.

HEAD: Titan-Forged Leather Helm of Triumph is sold in Wintergrasp for 40 Wintergrasp Marks of Honor. Besides looking like Hannibal Lector, this is about the only helm available that I could find that has a meta-socket in it(aside from engineering goggles). Mine is socketed with the Relentless Earthsiege Diamond and a +16 agility gem. Also a must is the Arcanum of Torment, sold by the Knights of Ebon Blade quartermaster at revered.

NECK: Hateful Gladiator's Pendant of Triumph, which was easily obtained while doing Wintergrasp, as the quests and just participating give you tons of honor. There are other versions(as well as newer versions I think by now) that give different stats-I honestly can't say why I chose this one. I could have had my jewelcrafter make me a Titanium Impact Choker, but I had the extra honor, so why not.

SHOULDERS: Trollwoven Spaulders, made by my friendly neighborhood leatherworker(my husband!). I have the lesser enchant from Sons of Hodir right now, I forgot to buy the higher one when I got exalted and haven't bothered to go back up there since then.

CHEST: Polar Vest, also made by a leatherworker. This one is more of a tanking chest, but right now it's either this or the Eviscerator's. I am working towards the Darkheart Chestguard, available at exalted with Knights of Ebon Blade, but I need at least another week of dailies to get it. Enchantment is Super Stats, which could be better, but I don't want to do anything until I get the Ebon Blade chest.

CLOAK: Ice Striker's Cloak, made by leatherworker. Enchanted with Major Agility.

WRIST: Hateful Gladiator's Wristguard of Triumph, another item I snagged while doing Wintergrasp for a minimal amount of honor. I have them enchanted with Striking.

HANDS: Eviscerator's Gauntlets, made by leatherworker. Enchanted with Assault. I've thought about doing more Wintergrasp to get better gloves and legs, but I get burnt out on it rather quickly, and I just haven't found better gloves right now.

WAIST: Trollwoven Girdle, made by leatherworker. And shame on me, I haven't gotten around to socketing it yet. Soon.

LEGS: Chain Gang Legguards, which I got by fishing up the Rusty Prison Key and opening the lockbox under the water in front of Violet Hold. Right now I only have a Jormungar Leg Armor on them. I'm sure if I ever manage some epic legs, I'll get an epic armor kit for them.

FEET: Boots of the Neverending Path, which are obtained from Argent Crusade at exalted. These are really nice, I have them on my rogue also. I have them enchanted with Superior Agility.

RINGS: Etched Band of the Kirin Tor, which I just upgraded to this morning. Not bad for the cost(once you get over the cost of the first one!).
Titanium Impact Band, with a +16 agility gem. And since I'm an enchanter, I have enchanted both of my rings with Assault.

TRINKETS: Oracle Talisman of Ablution, from exalted with the Oracles in Scholazar Basin. The only hard part in getting exalted is getting past the group quest in which you choose who you want to do quests for-and I did that with my husband and daughter, so it wasn't too bad. You do have to stay exalted with them to use it, so I haven't bothered to switch sides and work on Frenzyheart rep, even though I already got my Green Proto Drake.
Coren's Chromium Coaster, which came from the Brewfest boss-which admittedly took a 5man group to do, but it was truly painful as we(husband, daughter and I) ended up with a couple of jerks in our group.
I suppose I could buy some of those Darkmoon Decks from the Auction House, or PvP for some more trinkets, but I'll deal with these for now.

IDOL: Deadly Gladiator's Idol of Resolve. I only got this recently when the items in that slot for Druids, Paladins, Shaman and Death Knights finally became available for only honor points. Previously you had to upgrade your old quested Idols with Arena points or through dungeon emblems. I was quite happy with this little upgrade.

WEAPON: Titansteel Destroyer, made by a blacksmith(for me it was another of hubby's alts). Very nice item if you can get your hands on it. There is a staff available with Champion's Seals at the Argent Tournament, but if you already have this, that one isn't an upgrade. I have it enchanted with Greater Savagery.

Even with all of that purple, my gear score on Wow-heroes is only 2013(which wouldn't even get me into an Onyxia run with my guild on a different server) and my dps(per recount) sits at around 1400. I'm sure there is something I'm not doing right, but as long as it works while I solo my way through Azeroth, I'm happy with it.

Looking For Guts

2009-12-10T13:43:00.002-06:00

is what I call the LFG system now. Even faced with most certain anonymity, I still cannot bring myself to go into dungeons.

To preface, the new LFG (Looking For Group) system will match you up with 4 others(from yours or other realms in your battlegroup) who want to run a random(or specific) dungeon, teleport you to that dungeon, teleport you back when done, and give you gold and stuff for doing this while using this system.

And I still cannot do it.

Why? Because I am absolutely certain in my head that one of three things will happen:

A. I will suck, and everyone there will tell me that I suck, and they will use the "tribe has spoken" feature to vote me off of the island.

B. They will all hate me, even if I don't suck, just because everyone hates me. And they will all go back and post on every message board about this horrible player that they grouped with, and it will be me.

C. I will hate them. Probably because they talk like this "dood ur so bad n im so l33t!" or their names will be XximthebestxX or Ursodedhaha or some crap like that.

Or D. All of the above.

Whatever. I'm making lots of money selling gems and other things. Not boatloads mind you, I'm not ready to buy a Chopper or anything, but I'm doing okay.

So will I ever make the leap? I can't say really. I've opened the feature and perused it a dozen times or so on different characters. I just cannot bring myself to click the "Find Group" button at the bottom.

But hey, I soloed the last few parts of my Dwarf Pally's Charger questline today to get the Feat of Strength! Yeah, it really doesn't mean much to most, but at least I was able to do it alone.

More Patch 3.3

2009-12-04T10:35:00.002-06:00

I actually forgot about the things I am really looking forward to in the next patch in my last post. To my defense, they aren't listed in the patch notes, which is what I was going by, but I will add them here now.

New pets from Breanni!

That's right, for the low low price of 40g(or lower depending on your Kirin Tor rep), you can get a Calico Cat and an Albino Snake. Remember to buy them from Breanni and NOT from the scammers who will buy them and mark them up to 150g on the Auction House! I hate that, hate hate hate. I personally can't wait for the Calico Cat, since I have my own little Calico kitty. She's been my baby for nearly 15 years now. It will be so cool to have my little baby following me around in game. :)

Titanium transmutation cooldown removed

At least I hope this is still coming, since as I mentioned it is not in the patch notes. And this will be so very nice for my transmute master alchemist. I've already stocked up on about 200 Saronite bars. I'll either make lots of Titanium bars for the purpose of making new gear for my and my hubby's alts(or for disenchanting), or for selling by the stack if the price of Saronite bars skyrockets. This goes along with word that Titanium ore nodes are actually going to have their spawn rate up significantly. So whether I go mining to get the Titanium, or transmute it, it's a nice change. And if it makes more sense to sell all of the Saronite I've got stocked up, then I will do that as well.

Patch 3.3 coming

2009-12-02T11:50:00.002-06:00

Ok, so I was a little ranty earlier. I've eaten lunch now. Let's talk about what the new patch will mean to a soloer like me...

Squat!

Ok, not really, I might be able to find a few good things in it for me. Let's see if we can find them.

Tuskarr Fishing Tournament!

Ok, on top of the list is probably this. Or at least it was. It was originally scheduled for Wednesday evening at 8pm. That was fine by me-I might miss a bit of Ghosthunters, but I'm okay with that. But I suppose too many raiders complained that this was RIGHT at prime raiding time, so they moved it to Saturday afternoon. So, like the Sunday one, I either won't be home or will be spending time with my family and probably won't find much time to do this one either. Not that I need boots that teleport me to Booty Bay or an heirloom ring(none of my characters use any heirlooms, why start now?). It sounded fun, now not so much.

Advanced quest tracking

This one sounds pretty cool. This will be great for my hubby who barely remembers the names of town much less where to go for any quest-even one we've done dozens of times. Me-I was born with a GPS in my head, I probably remember just about every quest I've done, where to go and the easiest way to get there(not that anyone ever listens to my advice-but that's a whole other rant...). Now I won't have to access my memory banks for that info, I can just look at the map and it will tell me where to go. Although I'm pretty sure that at my age, accessing memory banks often is supposed to help stave off Alzheimer's. Hmmm.

Meeting stones no longer have upper level requirement

I suppose if I did dungeons more this would matter. But it WILL help all those times when I want hubby to run me through a dungeon and he is taking forever to get there(or can't remember where it is).

PvP Daily quests now reward 25 arena points

Yeah, but don't you need an arena rating to spend the points on anything? So what am I supposed to do with these points?

Looking For Group new feature with Cross Realm Dungeons

Yeah, uhmmmm, no. Not even for an ugly little dog minipet. And I'll do almost anything for a minipet. But not this.

Ignore List increased to 50 names

YaY! I knew I'd find one I really liked!

So what am I doing leading up to the Patch? And what will I be doing after it hits? Same as usual-farm up and cook food for raiders; transmute and cut gems to sell to raiders; gather tons of herbs and make lots of flasks to sell to the raiders. Hey, if I can't beat them or join them, I might as well make money off of them!

It's just a game!

2009-12-02T10:43:00.003-06:00

And wheeeee, just as I finish my rant, I check WoW.com and see their newest post is titled It's Just A Game. And now I just want to rant more rather than logging back in to the game(or doing some laundry or something).

It IS JUST A GAME! I got a bit peeved over a post somewhere else about this a few weeks ago. And NO, I do not play every game that I play to "be the best you can be at that game and ALWAYS win!!1". When you play checkers with your kid, are you a cutthroat ass who absolutely HAS to win or else you'll take your checkers and go home? Certainly my sister was a sore loser when we were kids. Any time that she lost a game, she threw the board in the air and stormed off to her room to cry. And that happened a LOT...just saying.

I know all about wanting to win, about competition. I'm a football and hockey fan. It SUCKS to lose-but then I'm just watching those games, not really playing. Back when I played sports myself, from roller hockey most recently to softball back in high school, it honestly didn't matter if we won or lost, as long as we had FUN. Remember that old saying, "it isn't whether you win or lose, it's how you play the game" It's a metaphor for life, certainly. As long as you play your best and have fun, you are the winner in the end.

If I am having more fun with only my family, driving the back roads in our 10 year old car and stopping to eat at McDonald's, that doesn't make me a lesser human being than the snob in the Lexus doing 80 down the interstate headed to Ruth's Chris. I'm sure that snob thinks they are better than me, and if I don't have the time or effort to put in to have a job that makes 100k a year then I don't deserve the nice car or nice restaurant food. (sound familiar?) But I sit down here not caring if you have an expensive car or spend more on food in one meal than I spend in one month at the grocery store. I just don't care!

Back to the sports analogy. I've never played sports for money. I can understand that when you play for a big prize, like lots more money, that people want to win at all costs. Whether you are golfing or playing soccer, professionals, I suppose, should want to be their best. I know of a certain cornerback that I think sucks rocks and I really wish my team would replace him. But playing WoW is NOT a professional sport! There is no way I'm going to spend time outside the game to make sure I have every little teeny tiny stat detailed down so that I know to the umpeenth % how much I should gem or enchant for to get this or that. Good gravy, as long as I know NOT to wear spellpower on my hunter and crap like that, that should be good enough!

So chill people. HAVE FUN. But don't look down your nose at those who are having fun in their own way! Remember that kid in the movie "Parenthood" who was butting things with his head with the bucket on? And how snooty Rick Moranis has to say "How proud you must be". Hey at least that kid is having FUN and it isn't interfering with your ability to have fun-so bugger off!

It's raining today. I guess I'm just in a ranting mood.

Nah.

Am I casual?

2009-12-02T10:03:00.002-06:00

What is your definition of a casual?

For me, a casual is someone like my husband. He is lucky if he gets to log in at all during the week. Waking up at 4am for work, getting home at around 6pm, eating dinner and chilling with the tv before hitting the hay at 8pm will do that for ya. Sure, we spend some weekends playing nearly all day. But due to his job, he is 'on call' all weekend and at any time he can be called to head out the door. There really is no time for him to do dungeons or raid. He is happy to spend the few hours he gets playing alongside my characters.

But they say people who don't raid or arena are casuals-like it is some sort of bad thing. With most people you are either "hardcore" or "casual". With that choice, I am definitely "casual" because I don't raid or dungeon or mass pvp. But look at that list of my characters in the post below...sometimes I play from the time my kid gets on the bus in the morning until about 5pm when it's time to cook dinner. Some say that would make me "hardcore" due to the time I've put into the game. So which is it?

I've already made myself quite clear how much I prefer soloing, and actually loathe grouping with other people(other than hubby of course). I could spend all day, all of those hours, doing dungeon after dungeon-but I don't want to do that. I've already listed my reasons why I don't raid, and they somewhat apply to doing dungeons as well. Mainly, I just don't want to waste 4 other people's time if I (a) suck or (b) have to leave during the run to get something done. And I will (a) suck, because most assuredly there will be someone in the group who will tell me that I do. Yeah, thanks, I know that and I don't really want to deal with someone else that I don't know telling me that I do.

I guess I'm just confused because I get so angry at all the "hardcore" "elitists" who think the game is being "dumbed down for the stupid horrible casuals". If that were the case then my hubby would be in full epics, right? But that wouldn't make him a better healer, by getting better gear-because it's about the player having skill, NOT the gear. I mean, my druid is in all epics(except for 2 blues) and that obviously doesn't make me a better player. It doesn't even mean that a relative who JUST leveled up to 80 last week and was already going to Naxx in quest greens(on a new server with people he doesn't know) won't even consider asking if I want to hit up some dungeons. It's obviously because I SUCK.

But you see, I'm ok with that. I don't CARE ABOUT THE STUPID PURPLE GEAR! I don't care that 99% of the other players have an average item level of 265 or whatever and I haven't even cracked 200. But does that make me "casual" or just "indifferent"? Well, I suppose it really is both because if you check "indifferent" in the thesaraus, you find "casual" in the list of synonyms. You also find "loner" and "unsociable" as well. That's me.

And please don't tell me to find a different game...obviously I LIKE playing this one-or I wouldn't have so many characters with so much /played time.

Just for the record

2009-11-30T11:28:00.001-06:00

My characters at this point, just for the record:

80 Tauren Druid
80 Blood Elf Rogue
80 Human Mage
80 Dwarf Paladin
80 Tauren Shaman
80 Blood Elf Death Knight
80 Blood Elf Hunter
76 Undead Mage
76 Undead Death Knight
75 Blood Elf Paladin
72 Dwarf Hunter
71 Blood Elf Paladin
71 Night Elf Druid
70 Undead Warlock
70 Orc Hunter
61 Gnome Rogue
and the rest are lower than level 46. Not sure who will be leveled next, or if I will be waiting until Cataclysm comes out to level another alt from low.

Oh, and my daughter broke her wrist. Again(she also broke it back in April). On our trip to the Smokies 2 weeks ago. Ugh.

Another 80...to play or not to play

2009-11-30T10:57:00.002-06:00

So yeah, in the last month I've gotten another character to 80, my 7th to 80. It was my Tauren Shaman. And I've gotten my second hunter to 70. And my second rogue to 60.

Hallow's End took up a lot of time. Logging in every hour to trick or treat with about 30 or so characters can be time consuming. And trying to get the other achievements that go along with the event were also time consuming. I think I managed to get my druid and rogue(the 80s) the title of "the Hallowed". My 80 Paladin missed out only by not ever getting the Sinister Squashling pet.

And then last week was Pilgrim's Bounty. I had not considered doing much with this one, only some of my 80s. Then I found out about the ease at getting your cooking to 300 or higher and I jumped at it. I only managed finished all the events on my main 3, but I did get cooking up to 300 on many a toon(even a level 11 Tauren Druid that I have hanging around another realm!). It was a fun event to do with characters with my husband and daughter.

And I've also gotten 2 more characters to the Crusader title(exalted with Argent Crusade and all 5 home cities). And would love to save up enough Champions Seals to get my rogue the Argent Horse and my mage the Silver Covenant Hippogryph. To be honest though-I'm sick of that place now.

But the biggest news of the week-we attempted some Northrend dungeons! And let me say this now...I am not impressed. Some relatives leveled up characters(Pally tank and Death Knight) and we now have a group of 5. Joy. Hubby respecced his Pally to heal and we put together a crafted set for him. And we started small so he can learn...

We went to UK(something Keep?) first. Level 70s, pretty easy-I could probably solo this place with my druid. And there it was, first Northrend dungeon finished. A level 70 dungeon finished by a group of 80s. Boring. Then we went to Gundrak(?). Also fairly boring, and over before I really knew it. And lucky me, I have to disenchant all the gear(I hate being an enchanter). For our third attempt, we headed to Violet Hold in Dalaran. It also went fairly smooth until I got disconnected right before the last boss. Luckily I got back in with the boss at about half health and we finished no problem. Three dungeons down, and I'm wishing I was watching Ghosthunters.

And then we decide to go big. We head to Trial of Champions(? whatever the 5man is). And of course, this relative and tank is going on and on about the "purples" that we will see dropping here. Whoopie, so what? Gear color doesn't excite me in the slightest. And on to the actual fighting: the jousting goes fine. I've had plenty of experience in that, easy stuff. Then we have to fight the Gnomes and Dwarves and Draenei. Not so easy. We wipe the first time. Second try and we get them down. Leather spellpower belt drops. Lucky me, I get it(like I'm really putting together a healing set, har har). And then out comes the female Argent chick. And we just could not get past the first extra boss thing that she brings out. We must have wiped 4 or 5 times before I said "ENOUGH!" And a 22g repair bill tells me I've seen just about enough of dungeons. Gag. I think I'll slink back to my solo-ness, thank you very much.

And that brings me to now...being bored I guess. It happens every now and then. Oh I WANT to play! I want to level my Gnome rogue(now 61). I want to finish getting those Tournament goodies I mentioned above. And the Christmas holiday event will be coming soon. But I need a break for a few weeks I think. Besides, I need to do some Christmas shopping!

I've never...(updated)

2009-10-27T19:21:00.002-05:00

I thought it was about time that I updated my I've never... post that I made back in May. Honestly I'd forgotten about it, but my kid was reading old posts the other day and reminded me that some of them are no longer true.

So here are the updates(in bold)

Stepped foot into Molten Core or Zul'Gurub and I don't even know where Blackwing Lair is

The guild I joined did some old raids a month or so ago. I got the achievements for killing Ragnaros and Hakkar. I still have no clue where Blackwing Lair is(aside from somewhere in Blackrock Mtn)

Done Scholo or Strat with an appropriate level group

Nope.

Been in a raid instance, ever, anywhere(that one in WG I did once, but I wouldn't count that-and I'll never go back)

As mentioned above, I've gone back and done a few old ones. And lately have attempted to farm the raptor minipet in Zul'Gurub

Raided an opposing factions city

Nope

Completed any Northrend instance

Nope, still haven't. Six level 80s, absolutely NO Northrend instances done.

Gotten the title "Jenkins" on any character-I don't even know where the place is that you can get it

Nope. Still thinks its silly.

Been equipped in all epic gear

Well, my druid is 2 spots from being fully epicced-thanks to some Wintergrasp and crafted epics.

Won the fishing contest-though I have certainly tried

Nope. But there is a new one coming in the new patch-so who knows!

Killed an opposing factions NPC, anywhere(BGs do not count)

Nope. Still never, it just seems wrong to me.

Gotten a single Honorable Kill with my hunter, Wyl. Level 80 with 0 HKs

Still not a single one.

Advertised anything in /trade chat

Nope.

Made any friends in game-oh sure I add people to my friends list every now and then, but they never speak to me again usually after that day so I just delete them later

I'd have to say still 'nope'. I talk to people in the new guild every now and then, but I don't spend a lot of time doing anything with them.

Killed Onyxia

Well, like I mentioned above, this new guild did a few old raids, so I did get to kill Onyxia before she was revamped to level 80. Sort of anticlimatic I think.

Fished up Mr Pinchy-thousands of lobsters later. Grrrrr

Well, I didn't do it-my kid snuck in and did it for me!

Joined the Looking For Group thing, I don't even know how it works

Nope. Shame too, there is a new achievement coming to reward you for doing this and you get a "Perky Pug" pet(get it, pug??). No pet for me.

Been in any heroic dungeon, Outland or Northrend, not even stepped foot in one

Nope. Still never have. I don't even know how to make a dungeon 'heroic'.

Leveled past 33 on a PvP server-I just don't get the fun there

Nope, my druid there is still 33.

Been in a guild with more than about 10 people in it(my old PvP character is in a huge guild, but since I haven't logged in with him since about last November[and don't plan ever to again] I wouldn't really count him)

Well, like I mentioned below in other posts, I did join a large guild. Thing is, I only play that character in the morning-and most of them play in the evening. So I rarely see anyone. And that's okay with me, really.

So you see,I think most things haven't changed. And the ones that did are sort of underwhelming for me(except Mr Pinchy-that's awesome!).

Just going to go crawl back in my cave now.

What now?

2009-10-06T07:40:00.002-05:00

I had leveled a Paladin on a new server, with the thoughts that I would try to get into a guild and actually do stuff that most normal players do.

I got to level 80. I had joined a guild. But I still can't bring myself to do the normal stuff.

I haven't logged in with her in 4 days.

So what am I doing now? Leveling of course! It's what I do best.

My hunter/bank alt was level 53 last week. She dinged 60 yesterday. And I had to shelve my pretty kitty Stranglethorn tiger in favor of an Ironfur bear from Feralas. I've never used a bear before with all my hunters. I LOVE him! The AoE from tenacity pets is such a bonus for leveling, I just can't imagine going back to FuzzyBoots.

I am also leveling a warrior. Undead female, she is level 19 now. For half of level 18 and now half of 19, I leveled up in Warsong Gulch. It wasn't too bad I suppose. No twinks anymore, which is nice. I could actually beat many players on my own, which I could never do before. We won a few, we lost a few. When people started complaining, I left. Oh and "Amazing Race" came on-had to go watch that.

Those are my next I suppose. And maybe my level 71 Moonkin Nelf. I believe I am destined to be a 'leveler', I will never be an 'end-gamer'. And that's okay with me.

I'm still anxiously awaiting leveling a Tauren Paladin, Human Hunter, Dwarf Shaman, Troll Druid, Goblin Priest and Worgen Rogue! And I already have names reserved for them all.

Ding 80 #6...and I've chickened out..oh and Brewfest

2009-10-06T07:11:00.002-05:00

Yes, I got my little Pally to 80, well, a couple of weeks ago. Still haven't gone into a heroic or raid, not on her or any of my characters. Oh my little Pally's been invited, but I always have an excuse. I'm just chicken I guess. Still afraid of getting yelled at for screwing up or something. Still afraid that I can't hack it.

Besides, the new fall season of tv shows has started back up and I'm not going to miss House, CSI or the Amazing Race just for some silly game!

At least Brewfest is over. Yes, it is one of my favorite holidays, but after a week or so it just gets annoying. Maybe it's the 'oompa' music. And I'm German so that's saying a lot.

I did manage to get 5 of my 6 80s the "Brewmaster" title this year. Even sweeter when some of them are in a guild called "daBeers". Perfect! The runs I made on Direbrew left me realizing why I don't run dungeons, ever. This is how they went...

Hunter, Blood Elf: joined a group on one of the first days. Five different trinkets dropped, tank Paladin won 2, I got none. At least it went fairly smoothly and quick and I was done with it.

Mage, Human: joined a group on 4th day. Five trinkets, but not the spellpower one. Again, I get nothing.

Paladin, Dwarf: I manage to get into a guild group, who apparently wiped on their first and second tries. I get there and find a level 68, SIXTYEIGHT!!! hunter in the group. We manage to kill the boss 3 times. I get NOTHING, hunter ends up with 3 items, including the remote. Grr.

Druid, Tauren: this group included my daughter's 80 mage and husband's 80 Death Knight. I love them dearly, but they aren't the greatest players. And we also get a 76(ugh) Death Knight and 80 (excellent) Priest. The first 4 attempts go, well, okay. They are tough but we manage. On the first attempt, the DPS trinket and Shanker drops. I 'greed' both, and somehow manage to win both. There is nobody who can USE the dagger, so what the heck. The Priest kaveches a bit about me getting both. I offer to trade to whoever wants it, nobody wants it. I WILL use the DPS trinket. On the 4th try the tank trinket drops and I win that too. We had been told the 76 didn't have his summon, but apparently he did. But he starts the 5th attempt before anyone is ready and we wipe. Oh well. The BoE Tankard had dropped too-I passed on it, I think the 76 DK won it-I don't really care. I was so glad that was over. I was ill all night after that.

Rogue, Blood Elf: Finally on the Monday after the first weekend, I manage to find a group for my rogue. The attempts all went so fast, it was insane-the guys I found myself with were just awesome. I came away with the DPS trinket and a HUGE monkey off of my back.

I ran the Brewfest boss once only with each character-enough to get the achievement and title. I had no reason to run it anymore. I never saw a mount drop. And I really don't care. I'm just glad it is over.

And now it's almost time for Hallow's End, and the whole boss thing will start over. At least I don't have to worry about getting titles for that season-I won't do the PvP related achievements so I will never get that title. Oh well. I still love Trick-or-treating!

So how did the raids go?

2009-09-22T07:53:00.008-05:00

As mentioned in a previous post, I joined a guild. In the past week, while I was leveling my Dwarf Paladin from level 72 to 80, we ran 3 old raid instances for the achievements. The 3 were Onyxia, Molten Core and Zul'Gurub.

First was Onyxia(apparently just in time). There were 5 of us, level 80 Paladin tank, 80 Shaman healer, 80 hunter, 73ish Paladin(me), and a level 60 Warlock. It went really so much easier than I had expected. And frankly, after seeing that one video that has made the rounds for years, I was terrified! The fight didn't even seem to take very long and before I knew it there my first ever raid achievement!

I wasn't too concerned about getting any loot, since it's all level 60 items(the 18 slot bag would have been nice!). I did come away with one item, Eskhandar's Collar. It'll go in the bank as a reminder of this occasion!

And then there was Molten Core. And this time I was REALLY scared. C'mon it's frickin Molten Core!

I'm not sure how it normally works, but the 80 Paladin had been clearing trash in the days leading up, so I'm guessing we skipped other bosses. We did have to fight a few elementals on our way back. And had to fight the big ugly Naga guy, General something or other, in order to summon Ragnaros. And Rag is just as terrifying as I had imagined! He's HUGE!

This time there were only 4 of us at the start, 80 Paladin, 80 Warlock, 78 Paladin(me) and a 66 hunter. And our first attempt was a wipe. I have to admit, I understood the strats, but just couldn't figure out how to land IN the lava. When the small fire guys came out, they came right for me and I couldn't heal myself through it and we wiped.
So they invited a level 80 Shadow Priest and 80 Shaman healer and we tried again. This time it went smooth! I stood right beside the tank and figured out where to land when getting tossed up in the air and down he went!

This time my souvenir was Dragon's Blood Cape (though he isn't a dragon, so...I dunno!). And another cool classic raid achievement down.

Finally, last Friday, just after I dinged level 80(my 6th level 80!), we decided to run Zul'Gurub. This time we actually spent 2 hours in there, having to clear all trash and all the other bosses. Our group was 80 Paladin tank, 80 Paladin(me), 67 hunter and 70 Death Knight. The bosses prior to Hakkar were all fairly easy, though we lost the DK or hunter a couple of times. And no, no mounts dropped for us on the Tiger or Raptor bosses.
Eventually we got to Hakkar. Problem with Hakkar is the mind control. Our first attempt went wonky when the hunter died right away and I couldn't keep control of the tank when he kept getting mind-controlled. Our second attempt was to all out DPS, forget about the Sons of Hakkar thing. This time I managed to control the tank each time he was controlled-or at the very least I would take over tanking and kite Hakkar away from him. And before we knew it Hakkar was down too! I think I came away with the plate gloves he drops, but I really can't remember now. And I went from just starting rep with Zandalar to 800/6k Friendly with them from all of the coins and things that the trash mobs drop. It was mostly fun!

So yes, I'm 3 years too late on getting excited over fighting these bosses. I do feel fortunate that I've finally gotten to see them in person. But the worry I've had over these fights has given me an ulcer! I'm really not sure I was cut out for raiding(not to mention the whole hearing problem I have which prevents me from using Vent). The guild wants to help me get geared up for level 80 raids. They are so nice and helpful but I'm just not sure I can do this. And I just don't have the time to play WoW in the evenings when most people are on. I know, excuses, excuses, but I really think I was just meant to be a soloer.

Kickingbird's 25 Exalted reputations

2009-09-22T07:40:00.003-05:00

I know it isn't much compared to the 40 that you need for the "Exalted" title, but it's a huge deal for me. My druid recently hit the 25 exalted reputations by finishing up her Sons of Hodir rep.

Now let's see if I can remember all 25 without checking the Armory!

Horde factions:
1. Thunder Bluff
2. Orgrimmar
3. Undercity
4. Darkspear Trolls
5. Silvermoon City

Other Horde:
6. Frostwolf
7. Tranquillien

Azeroth:
8. Argent Dawn
9. Cenarion Circle
10. Timbermaw Hold

Outland:
11. Sporeggar
12. Cenarion Expedition
13. Mag'har
14. Scryers
15. Ogri'la
16. Sha'tari Skyguard
17. Netherwing
18. Shattered Sun Offensive

Northrend:
19. Kalu'ak
20. Kirin Tor
21. Argent Crusade
22. Oracles
23. Horde Expedition
24. Sunreavers
25. Sons of Hodir

As for getting to 40 for the title, even though it is only 15 more to get, would require either some very hard grinds or lots of raids. And those just aren't going to happen! But this is a nice little achievement to have that none of my other characters will likely ever get.

Don't faint-I joined a guild

2009-09-10T15:11:00.002-05:00

My main realm has 9 Horde characters all in one guild-my families guild-just the 3 of us. The 10th character on that realm is an Alliance level 80 with his own personal guild.

On a second realm I have a level 71 Dwarf hunter-also in our 3 person family only guild. And a level 75 Death Knight who remains un-guilded.

On a third realm I have a level 71 Blood Elf Paladin that I duo with my husband, also a level 71 Blood Elf Paladin-and they, too, are un-guilded.

Then there is my 4th realm. I have a level 75 Dwarf Paladin here now. And a few days ago I actually joined a guild. Yes, a real one, with real other people. Yeah, the people I've been avoiding for four years now. And I'm a little nervous.

Obviously I'm not high enough level to raid-yet. But I've mentioned before here one of the big reasons why I've never attempted to raid-my hearing. Simply put, when I try to listen to people talking on vent it sounds like one big mumbly garbled mess. But it's almost the same way when I watch television, so we always keep the captions on. It sucks when you are constantly telling your loved ones "what was that? could you repeat that?" It's not that I don't listen, I just can't understand what is being said.

And so this Saturday the guild is having a "Farewell to Onyxia" raid. Sure, with a dozen 80s and a bunch more 70ish's in there, the fight will probably be trivial. But that's not the point. I've NEVER raided before, AND I can't use Vent. So we shall see whether or not this works or is a flat out disaster for me.

And then there's the fact that most of the guild is on late in the evening and weekends. And those are my family times-whether it's watching television or playing characters we have together-that is the time I spend with them, not on my solo characters. I'd feel awfully guilty if I told them I didn't want to play with them because I want to play with other people. Doesn't work like that for me. Family is #1.

And so we shall see how this guild thing goes. It's weird being in a guild, already. I feel like I have all of these other eyes on me at all times. Should I continue to do what I feel like doing, what I enjoy-or do I have to feel obligated to stop what I am doing to do whatever with them. It's weird.

More reports to come on how this works out!

Guardian of Cenarius

2009-09-08T08:07:00.005-05:00

Finally my druid has become a Guardian of Cenarius! I know it took me awhile, but seeing as how I don't run dungeons, I was barely honored after the time of Burning Crusade. I've spent time over the last few months doing the repeatable quest in Borean Tundra of Nesingwary ears. I hadn't done it too often though, because it was just too repetitive and not very fun or challenging.

So this past weekend I made the final 10k push with help from my husband and daughter. We ran Steamvaults 3 times and I turned in close to 50 Coilfang Armaments in order to hit exalted. And of course we picked up the Steamvault dungeon achievement in the process.

And the best part was finally being able to buy the beautiful Cenarion War Hippogryph. I might not use another of my flying mounts ever again!

This is a shot of Kick after getting her beautiful bird!

And upon buying the Cenarion tabard, I also picked up in the mail the Tabard of the Achiever that you recieve from the achievement for getting Twenty-five tabards! It was a very productive holiday weekend for me!

Maintenance-thoughts on Cataclysm

2009-08-25T07:07:00.002-05:00

So it's Tuesday and realms are down. I'm more anxious than normal for realms to come up-my Death Knight will be getting his new Ravasaur mount today! But I also feel like crap with a cold that kept me up half the night-so a nap is forthcoming. So yay for maintenance!

I thought I'd take some time to talk about the things that I learned from watching the different fansites regarding Blizzcon's announcement of the new expansion to come, Cataclysm. It's not like it was a HUGE surprise, since much of the information was leaked awhile back. Hearing everything confirmed-and seeing the trailer- was MASSIVE. I don't remember being quite this surprised during the announcements for Burning Crusade and Wrath. Then again, they weren't tearing the world where I've spent so much time in the past 4 years completely asunder.

The overall face of Azeroth changes...

The bad first: I will miss this place. My favorite zone of Azshara is going a complete change to become the 5-15 zone for the new playable race of Goblins. The Barrens will be, well, it just won't be the Barrens anymore. I think I will spend some time taking lots of screenshots as momentos. I mean, if the local park where you spent years playing was being torn down for a Wal-Mart, you'd probably go take pictures, just to help with the memories.

The good: Well, it means a complete overhaul of the leveling process from 1-58. As a certified altoholic, this really seems like it will be almost a whole new game to play! I can't wait to see the new quests and rewards!

New races:
Goblin: yeah, not so interested in them really, even though I am Horde to the core. I have a reserved name for a female Goblin rogue, and that will probably be the only one I ever roll.

Worgen: Oh I know they are going to be EVERYWHERE, but I just have to roll one or three. I am sort of a wolf fan. Not werewolves so much, just wolves. And the darkness of their zone, reminds me of late 1800s London, which is also really right up my alley. Must try Worgen druid, rogue and one other(not sure yet what).

Old race/new class combos:
As mentioned above, I am a certified altoholic. Let's just say it wasn't really easy finding old alts to delete in order to reserve names for my planned new characters and get in under that 50 character limit. Unfortunately my main realm has no character lower than 53(and that's one, the rest are all over 70), so unless they give us at least 1 new slot, all new characters will be on other realms(which just sucks for me, but oh well).
I will be rolling(and have already reserved names for!):

Tauren Paladin-oh how could I not? I love Tauren, and I love Paladins!
Troll Druid-I have never rolled a Troll(that sounds weird...), but this is the best reason to start! Especially if they get some really excellent looking form art
Human hunter-Aw, I love hunters. He may not make it higher than levl 20, but still seems like it will be a fun character to play
Dwarf Shaman-I've been wanting to play another Shaman(I have a 72 Tauren shaman), but I just don't want to play Draenei or Trolls and my Orc Shaman hasn't gotten past level 20. I really like playing female Dwarves(have 71 hunter and 70 paladin), so this seems like an excellent combination!
Undead Hunter-maybe not myself, but my kid is rolling an Undead hunter and I get the feeling that I will play it more than she does!

Not interested in Gnome or Tauren Priest(just can't seem to play this class for very long), Blood Elf Warrior(I have too many BElves and don't really like Warrior), Orc and Dwarf and Night Elf Mage(I have 2 high level mages, not really interested in more).

New secondary profession:
Archaeology! I am so glad that this is secondary so that everyone can take it without giving up a main profession. I am really STOKED about this one! I can't wait to learn more about it and honestly, at this point, this sounds like something I will spend the MOST amount of my time doing! I'm sure I will talk more about it later, but this one probably has me the most excited!

New guild leveling:
Not really interested in this. My main realm has all of my characters in the same guild-the ones that my family is in. That means there are a total of 27 characters from 3 accounts. There are 7 level 80s-and 4 of them are mine. I'm not sure our guild will ever level up! Not that it matters I guess(although who wouldn't want more money from all kills, c'mon that helps everybody!). And any high levels I have on other realms are unguilded, though I suppose this will sort of force me into joining one just for the heck of it(or be bugged endlessly to join guilds everytime I log in). Oh well.

Everything else:
I haven't even read the info on the new dungeons or raids or pvp-I just don't do those things so they don't really affect me. Although the news that the new daily hub will be in a PvP zone(even on PvE realms) REALLY ticks me off. At least I will have alts to level rather than having to worry about dailies.

More detailed info about each point will be coming as soon as I learn more about them! To sum it up though-I am VERY excited about the news!

SilverDragon

2009-08-25T06:58:00.002-05:00

I just wanted to reiterate from a post I made a few weeks ago how much I LOVE this new add-on, SilverDragon. The photo above shows how you can get the raid warning when a rare is spotted, as well as a warning noise and the pop-up. I've found SO many rares since I installed this. It even stopped me once from logging out on an alt that I had parked in Dustwallow waiting for Dart, as he popped just as I was watching that 20 seconds countdown-I probably would not have noticed him normally! A guaranteed green quality item(or something even rarer, like the new raptor pets) is always a bonus.

SilverDragon-highly recommended!

I love my daughter :)

2009-08-23T06:47:00.000-05:00

I couldn't believe it. I have spent so many hours fishing the Highland pools of Terrokar, thousands of crawdads caught. And no Mr Pinchy.

A few weeks ago, my kid says "hey I think I'm gonna try to fish up Mr Pinchy"-pretty much the first time she has ever bothered trying. Five minutes later..."I got him!!" Let's just say I was a little peeved.

So what does she do? Over the next week, when I go to fix dinner or watch the afternoon news, she sneaks onto my druid and goes fishing. And I'll be a monkey's uncle if she didn't catch the blasted thing! And got the Magical Crawdad pet on the first wish!(so did she on hers) This is my druid with her new little Magical Crawdad, thanks to my wonderful daughter!

Note: I've since tried to fish it up with my level 80 human mage(who is in need of pets as well) and have no luck with him. Guess I need to get her to work her magic for me again! :)

Some luck FINALLY!

2009-08-18T13:52:00.002-05:00

Finally...FINALLY!! I still almost can't believe it really happened today! Finally the blue lady gave in and gave me the Polar Bear mount!! I kid you not...this is how it happened:

Blue Lady: Quest today is Back to the Pit
Me: Lovely. At least it isn't Abberations again. Hate that one.
Blue Lady: Just go do it. :/
Me: Fine.
Me runs off to fight bears. For some reason I was really getting ganged-up on by lots of bears. Had to jump off twice to heal myself!

Me, finish quest. Rather than jumping off bear and flying back to Blue Lady, I rode bear over to her. I stood there. I said...
Me: LOOK!! Look how cool I look on this cool Polar Bear! This bear LOOOOOOVES me! You really, REALLY need to give me this bear to ride. Seriously.
Blue Lady: Just shutup and turn the quest in and open the bag already.
Me: (opens bag) AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Smoochies, Blue Lady! Sorry about throwing all those snowballs at you before! :D

Working on rep, solo

2009-08-18T13:20:00.003-05:00

In addition to leveling up lots of new characters(my latest Paladin is now 68 and in Northrend!), I've decided to go back and work on as many reputations as possible with my main Druid. She is currently sitting at 22 exalted, the latest being Cenarion Circle(I'll be happy to not see Silithus ever again!). I will never be able to raise certain reps to exalted, such as the ones that require numerous dungeon runs, or the ones that are flat out crazy(Steamwheedle or Shen'dralar!). These are the ones I've worked on or will work on solo:

AZEROTH/CLASSIC:

Timbermaw- I had this to exalted well before Wrath. The only bonus at exalted is a cute trinket that summons a Timbermaw to fight with you, but he really doesn't do much except look cute!
Argent Dawn- Got this to exalted by running Stratholme over and over at level 80. Also finishing every single quest I could find in both Plaguelands. Only good thing about being exalted is a title IF you are also exalted with the Wrath version, Argent Crusade.
Cenarion Circle- Just got this today. Basically finishing as many quests as possible in Silithus, and then grinding the Twilight Cultists. They give 10 rep per kill. They also drop Twilight Texts which turn in 10 for 500 rep-this is your best bet for rep here. You can also collect the three piece Twilight outfit and fight the elementals at the windstones. They drop an Abyssal Crest, 3 of those give 150 rep. I'd guess that going from just honored to exalted took me about 4-5 hours total, and I bought no texts from the AH though this is an option.

BURNING CRUSADE:

Shat'ari Skyguard- I got this exalted not long after the quests opened up for me. It's a matter of just dailies(in Terrokar, and Ogrila, Blades Edge once you open the Ogrila dailies) or grinding the Skettis for rep per kill and shadow dust to turn in.
Shattered Sun- daillies, dailies, dailies. I did this with 5 characters-not sure I could do it ever again though!
Scryers/Aldor- I am still only revered with Scryers(12k/21k). This one will simply takes either buying the Sunfury Signets or Arcane Tomes from the AH or farming them in Netherstorm or Shadowmoon Valley.
Ogrila- It took a group to open these dailies. It wasn't fun(especially being bossed around by a 12 year old), but it did take a 5man group back at level 70 to kill the 3 elites needed. I'm not certain if these can be soloed at level 80. And then again, it just took daily after daily to finally hit exalted.
Netherwing- another Awesome rep grind, but also took a group to open at level 70(possibly soloable at 80, not sure). Well worth it if you can get past the big group quest, and have epic flying(required for starting the dailies).
Sporeggar- Pretty much only done for the mini-pet. Two different ways to gain exalted-repeatable quest to kill a number of Naga that are nearby, or turn in Sanguine Hibiscus. I went the turn in route, and I had a rogue stealth farm these back at 70(and farmed enough for himself, my druid, and my kid's mage-that is A LOT of hibiscus!!)
Mag'har/Kurenai -Simply a matter of doing all quests in Nagrand and then farming Ogres in Nagrand for rep per kill and beads to turn in. At exalted you can buy the very cool Talbuk mounts!
Consortium- Quests in Nagrand and Netherstorm, farming Zaxxis Insignias in Netherstorm or Ogre beads in Nagrand(the same from the other rep grind there). There are no mobs with rep per kill. I am still just over Revered with these guys, it will be one of my next grinds.
Cenarion Expedition- Quests in Zangarmarsh and Blades Edge, a turn in up until honored. This is one isn't easy. Luckily they added a few more quests in Borean Tundra with Wrath, and a repeatable quest to turn in ears from the Nesingwary lackies running around the zone. I'm just over revered (5k/21k) and this is my next grind. There is another repeatable quest back in Zangarmarsh, but it requires dungeon runs or buying from the AH. The ear quest gives much more rep per time than that one. It is 15 ears per turn in for 150 rep. The best place I found to grind them is the Minions of Kaw. They respawn fast and have a good drop rate. The bonus at exalted, the Cenarion Hypogryph mount and title if exalted with both Cenarion reps!

Wrath reputations in another post coming soon!

Another new add-on

2009-08-11T10:06:00.004-05:00

Ok, so the patch broke most of my add-ons, especially the ones I REALLY sort of rely on.

#1 Fubar -I like having certain things known at a glance rather than having to hunt around for them, such as gold amount, number of quests in log, and XP time to level. And not having QuestFu, not having that "Job's done" voice when I complete a quest, geez I almost don't know when to stop now!

#2 Xperl -The default settings aren't horrible, but they are TINY compared to how you can set them with Xperl. It's just the character XP/mana bars that I need to change. My eyes are terrible and I like those bars to be sort of big and easy to read. The default ones are so small, and with the numbers covering most of the bar(just can't play without those numbers there), it's hard to tell when you are getting low on health or mana. That can be bad! I'm trying out a different one until I know Xperl is bug-free, but I just don't like it's flexibility.

That being said, I did manage to find a new add-on that I wish I would have had ALL THE TIME for the past 4 years...

It's called SilverDragon. It is a rare mob spotter. Yes, it will probably help grab those rare raptors(and I hesitated in writing this, the thought of my competition having this add-on scares me!), but I love ALL rares! I actually made a notebook listing rare mobs about 3 years ago, well before Burning Crusade came out. I listed mobs by zone, with coords and descriptions, and I used to spend hours running around with my druid killing every single one I could find. And not just for the fact that they always drop at least a green quality item(sometimes something unique to that mob), but it was the hunter in me I guess.

Of course, Burning Crusade came out and to my delight(and dismay), the rares out there were even rarer and ALWAYS dropped a BLUE quality item! Very nice, but it made them much harder to find. On my server, Alliance side, it seemed like one person had them all covered and were the only ones who would find them-because you could find dozens of the blue items on the AH, all being sold by the same person. It's the same now with Wrath. The blue items are even better, and this same person seems to be able to have them all, all the time.

And with the addition of Wrath came the achievements for killing rare mobs(but only in Outland and Northrend). Now even more people are hunting these mobs that I spent hours on so long ago.

So to this new add-on, SilverDragon. It scans the area you are in for rare mobs, scanning your mouseovers or nearby nameplates, and alerts you when a rare is found. Without messing too much with the setttings, currently what happens when I find a rare is I get a screen flash(similiar to a low health flash), a loud sound(sort of a whammy sound), and a box pops up noting the name of the rare. The box can be clicked to auto-target the mob. You still will have to look around and figure out where they are though. It isn't much different than using a /target macro, except that it checks that for you!

On the surface, it almost seems like cheating. Almost. However, I'm not a raider, and from reading forum posts every now and then from people who raid, it seems to me that there are add-ons that let them know when someone is low on health or needs a disease/curse removed. That sort of sounds similar to what this add-on does. It still doesn't point me to the mob and won't automatically cast a spell on it, but it does let me know one is in the area.

After downloading this, I took a trip around Outland and found 3 rares that I was missing for the Bloody Rare achievement! I only have 3 left to find there.

Just a note, there is another add-on that is supposed to do something similar to this, called Bloody Rare. I downloaded that one first and it won't work for me. It is supposed to create a zone-specific macro that can be used to find the rares, however mine won't update itself at all, so I got rid of it. And SilverDragon is MUCH MUCH better!

So for you rare mob hunters out there, this add-on is a MUST!

Let's see how that's gone after one week

2009-08-11T07:03:00.002-05:00

Looking back at last week's post for patch 3.2 and how things have gone for my characters...

Mounts: this has been incredible! I LOVE the new Undead horse. My druid finished buying up enough mounts to get the Albino Drake(reward for 50 mounts achievement). Flying around Outland on several characters have made some quests so it's easy that were previously a pain in the neck. And my few characters that can now fly around Northrend at lower levels, it is amazing. And of course, the non-epic flyer going so much faster, really makes it not as painful if you don't have epic.
Children's Week: This was so much fun! I had a blast carting the two orphans around on all of my characters. I had around 10 characters doing this quest, and I probably split with half getting the Curious Oracle and half getting the Curious Wolvar. They are both adorable!
Baby Raptors: Yes, they are adorable. But these have just given me a GIANT headache. It took 35 runs with my druid to get the one from Wailing Caverns(at around 30 raptors per run, well over 1000 raptors). After 7 runs, my mage still hasn't gotten one. And the rare raptors are massively camped-but they are showing up on the auction house for upwards of 8k gold. STUPID money grubbers, let the REAL pet collectors get these mobs!! (insert extreme mad face here)
Ravasaur Trainer: This has been fun! I didn't go out the first day because I knew it would be crazy. So my druid started on day #2 and my DK on day #3. I love the DK horse, but frankly I'm a little sick of that scream when you summon him. My UD DK bought the new Ochre Undead horse. But my level 80 DK is a Blood Elf and I refuse to ride the chicken things, so he will be getting a Ravasaur. :)
Potions stacking to 20: This is cool, saves some room here and there but I guess I didn't have as much of them in my banks as I thought I had. Heh.
Epic Gems: Yes, I bought some recipes and made some gems. I've sold maybe 4 gems at around 400g each. Not a huge amount really. It seems that MOST people are either getting their gems from some other means and simply asking in trade for a JC to cut them. I bought some of the more maybe 'un-standard' recipes as well as a couple of the more popular(Solid blue and the agility red one). The ones I sold were the ones with good stats(The Regal with +10 defense and +15 stamina) and no competition for on the AH. I also transmuted enough to finish the quest on my mage for the transmute:red gem. I know I can look and SEE what is on the AH, but it's really hard to say what will SELL on the AH. I made a yellow gem right off the bat and placed it on the AH for several days, thinking all the engineers wanting to make Jeeves would need them. Either there aren't many engineers, or they got their gems somewhere else. I ended up cutting the yellow one and giving it to my kid for her new PvP shoulders.
Argent Tournament: This has gone well. I love the new quests-they are incredibly easy and fun! I got the Argent Tabard right off the bat, and the time it saves me is unbelievable! If you plan on doing these dailies, this tabard is a MUST! And I am now 30 tokens closer to the Argent Warhorse. The new dailies include 2 from the Argent folks and 3 from the Sunreavers. (the Sunreaver tabard is HOT! I'll be going for that after the horse!) The dailies usually rotate each day, so there are more available than there are given. One of the Sunreavers(the Alliance version is Silver Covenant-not sure if they get the same dailies each day or not) dailies will involve doing something for the new dungeon mobs-gather followers at K3 for one or hunt Jormunger eggs to feed another. They take you to Storm Peaks, and while I'm there I can knock out the Blue Lady daily in fervent hopes of getting a cute polar bear mount. When done, I use the Argent tabard to teleport back and I'm done! Oh and the old Argent quest to kill 15 Scourge is changed to one that has you kill the same mobs you need to kill for one of the Sunreavers quests-works out quite nice!

All in all I do love this patch. It's only the massive over-camping of the rare spawns by money grubbers that is ticking me off. I really don't think my luck is going to be on my side for quite some time in this one. My luck sucks anyway, so it certainly isn't going to be any better there.

In the meantime, I've leveled two paladins last week. Both were level 60 when the patch hit. My Dwarf is now almost 64 and my Blood Elf is 65. Yay! So much fun!

Hope the patch was good for you!

Back from vacation just in time!

2009-08-04T12:46:00.003-05:00

Spent a few weeks over in the Smoky Mountains with family. Was nice, but boy did I miss WoW!

What is in Patch 3.2 for a soloer like me? I'll start with things that aren't class-related.

Mounts at lower levels and prices! Ode to Joy! I have at least 6 characters between 40 and 60 that will benefit from this, and many more that I bumped to 20 just in time for them to get their first mount. I also have a few characters that will benefit from the new book available for alts that gives Cold Weather Flying as low as 68.
Children's Week!! I'm so stoked about this! Getting a new little minipet(probably the little Oracle for most of my characters) is awesome, they are both so cute. Children's Week, I think, is my favorite in-game holiday. Maybe it is because I am a mom. :)
EIGHT new Baby Raptor pets! Buy one easy from Breanni in Dalaran. The rest either come from rare raptor mobs or raptors in instances(I think I will farm the Deviate one from Wailing Caverns first).
Ravasaur Trainer in Un'Goro! Finally my Horde characters can get their own unique Raptor mounts! Oh well, I've started the Wintersaber quests with my 80 mage, but I got bored with them halfway through Friendly(hopefully I'll get back to him someday!)
Potions stacking to 20! I know it isn't a huge change, but boy is this going to create bag space for some characters and tons of space in my personal guild banks!
Epic Gems! Well, yeah, I have no interest in using any of them, but with a 450 Alchemist and 450 Jewelcrafter, I hope to make a little money off of them. I don't have a ton of Titanium saved up, but I've got quite a few blue gems that my alch can transmute(and hope for those transmute procs!)
Argent Tournament daily quests and items. While I've only gotten one character, my druid, to Crusader, she's the only one I want all the cool stuff on anyway. Five new dailies for Seals. New mounts and tabards and pets to save for! I think I will get the Argent Tabard(free teleport to Argent grounds!), then the Argent Warhorse, and then work on the other faction tabards. Only need 6 more for the Tabard achievement. Oh and the Sunreaver tabard looks awesome too!

Of course, my main is a druid and I am STOKED to see the new forms! And to match up the right fur color with the kitty color I want. But of course, realms are down at least until 5pm *my time*, so all I can do is wait and anticipate!

Keeping track of the jerks

2009-07-10T07:25:00.002-05:00

So since I really can't stop playing this game, I've tried to come up with a way to keep track of the jerks I come across. I used to use DiggKarma which allowed you to rate players and keep notes on them. On a simple mouseover, I could tell if this was the idiot who begged me for runs through Scarlet Monastery or was a kill-stealer. But Wrath broke DiggKarma and that made me very sad.

I finally just HAD to find something similar. And it is Vanas KOS. Yes, it is primarily meant for PvP servers, but it works wonders for someone like me who just wants to play alone AND keep track of jerks. Some of the features of this add-on:

Add players, or even guilds, to a "Hate List" or "Nice List"

Allow messages to come through a raid-type warning and in the chat log and in a warning box whenever someone is in the area doing anything

Mouseover shows info on player that you may have added

I am LOVING this add-on. It tells me in bright red when there is someone around I want to avoid(I am pretty sure it gathers data from the combat log as well as mouseovers). I don't play on PvP servers(not anymore anyway), but this is an excellent add-on for someone like me who wants to avoid trouble(as well as most other people).

If you are looking for an add-on of this type, I highly recommend this one.

Yeah, I can't quit

2009-07-10T06:52:00.002-05:00

To be honest, I've been very numb this past week due to losing someone who felt almost like a friend. Someone who has basically been in my life week in and week out for the last 15 years. After watching the memorial service on television last night, I was uplifted. And I remembered one thing-Steve was never a quitter. No injury kept him from playing, never a complaint.

Yes, I might be one of the few, geek and sports fan, but I was a sports fan first. And yes, I am a girl, but my first Christmas present was a football. Blame my dad, but I am pretty obsessed with sports. If you saw my den and thought the tons of Nascar or rows of hockey sticks or shelf after shelf of sports books belonged to my husband, you'd be very wrong. Heck, we named our daughter after my favorite hockey player!

Like I said, I've been numb since last Saturday. I mean, I was very sad when Dale Earnhardt died-but I couldn't STAND him as a driver. Steve was someone I watched every week for 13 years. Someone I had met and photographed. The one player I always had to have on my fantasy football team, no matter what.

I can't say that I lived my life in any certain way because of him. But I've never really been a complainer myself. Oh sure, I come on my blogs and cry about pains that are emotional(like anyone cares), but I've never been one to complain about physical ailments to the people around me. When I played sports, I played through pain. Heck, I don't even like taking aspirin for a headache. And maybe that's why I was so drawn to Steve over the years.

The memorial service, shown on television, from Mt Zion Baptist Church, was amazing. All the speakers knew just what to say. And I suppose that's really what eulogies are supposed to do. To comfort those who are hurting. And to make it look at your own life and reflect.

So how this relates to World of Warcraft. I thank those who posted in response to what I wrote last Saturday. I was so down at that time. It's good to know that others feel the way I do. In LIFE it is always good to find out there are others that share your feelings. Yes, there are so many jerks in this game, and in life, who think THEY are the only ones that matter. And it just seems that the best thing, sometimes the only thing, you can do is to ignore them. I can't let these morons stop me from playing my favorite game or even from driving to the mall.

And, who am I kidding, this new patch coming out looks AWESOME for my alts! But that's for another post(as well as an interesting new addon I found).

Thank you for those who are reading, if you read this whole thing. I really never get any human contact outside of my family. I reach out through my computer. And to be honest, I've been members of message boards across a wide spectrum-but I get the most responses from the good guys I have found through WoW. Thanks guys!

Remembering a Titan

2009-07-05T07:14:00.003-05:00

No, I'm not talking about some boss in some dungeon. There are times when life is shown to be bigger than this 'game'. Yesterday was one of those days.

I live near Nashville. I moved to Tennessee the same year that the Oilers moved from Houston to Tennessee. If I'd gotten a dollar for every time someone asked me "are you following the Oilers?", well it probably would have paid for the U-haul truck. But no, I was following my mom and just starting over in my life. But the Oilers had recently given me a reason to be happy that I was moving to the same place that they were. It was Steve McNair. He really hadn't played very much by the time I left late in 1996(he was drafted in 1995), but we knew he was going to be good.

And good he was. Even great at times. He was everything I loved about football and he was what I expect out of people. He loved life. He gave back. He never complained. He never wanted the credit for the good but always took credit for the bad. He played no matter what. His heart was as big as Nashville and his smile was as wide as Tennessee. Yes, I cursed him when he defected to our hated rivals in his final years, but I still loved him.

Yes, I met him once. We went to one training camp practice day back in 1999. It was a very hot August day, but Steve, out of all of those that came over to the fans, stayed and signed for everyone that was there. I still have that card. And the two jerseys(Oilers and Titans), the bobblehead, the action figures. And I was excited to know that after retiring, he was coming back to Nashville to live. And I am shocked that it is over so soon.

So many people I find lately who think it is all about them at all times. I mean, the jerks who obviously don't care about anyone but themself and continue to shoot fireworks until late in the night-do they think everyone else in the neighborhood cannot hear them? But they don't care about anyone else. And the people in game who think their fun is more important than MY fun. Really? Would you block off all of the other checkout lanes in the grocery store so everyone else can't check out because you think it's funny? No, whether it is the internet or being in a vehicle, people just think they can get away with whatever they want to do, regardless of the consequences-because usually there are no consequences. And for some reason, so many people in this world have gotten in their heads that it really doesn't matter how what they are doing affects other people, so they will just do what they want. It's all me, me, me. Sometimes I feel like I am the only person left with a conscience.

Sorry for that ramble, but Steve was not one of those people. And with all of the celebrity deaths in the past week, I am saddened by this one the most. Because Steve wasn't really a "celebrity", regardless of how many people knew who he was and the stage he played on. Steve was Superman and Clark Kent at the same time. Steve was a true hero when most sports figures really should not be.

I'm going to miss you Steve. I still can't believe this has happened. I had hoped to wake up this morning to find it all a bad dream. But it wasn't. And I will be sad for a long time.

Photos from the memorial for Steve at LP field on July 9.

God is great

2009-07-03T22:05:00.003-05:00

beer is good, and people are crazy.

To quote Billy Currington.

Yep. I think I've just about had enough of the jerks in this game. Sarah Palin quit being Governor of Alaska today, and I think I'm quitting Warcraft. The straw finally broke the camels back and I've had enough of dealing with assholes who think it's funny and cool to completely ruin someone else's game time.

So way to go assholes of the World of Warcraft. You win. I hope you die in a fire.

And Ding 80 #5

2009-06-26T07:17:00.002-05:00

Yes, Daneck, my human mage, hit level 80 yesterday. And then I started the Wintersaber grind with him. Not sure why, just something to do. Inspired by seeing the Venomhide Ravasaur quest on the Public Test Realms(which looks insanely easy, even though it takes 20 days worth of dailies).

The Midsummer Fire Festival has helped quite a few of my alts level up. I've done nearly all of my 'under 60' characters, and just about all of them got at least one level. A few of my 'over 60' characters got quite a chunk of xp as well. Though I really don't do the "desecrating" of the other factions flames(except in one case, which I will discuss in a moment), so I really only get about 1/3 of the possible XP available. Fine with me.

I DID do a little bit of desecrating with my mage, Daneck, as he is working towards the 75 pet achievement, and the Spirit of Summer makes #61 for him. My druid and rogue had gotten this back way back when it was a quest to obtain him. They also got their Fire Festival Crown for stealing the opposing factions cities flames 2 years ago-before achievements. And even though I still have the crowns, I did not get credit for that achievement, and I am not interested in making that run again. So none of my characters will have the Flame Keeper/Warden title, and that is fine with me.

And then there's Ahune. A boss I never thought I'd see, but they left him at level 70ish this year. So my hubby's Paladin, kid's mage, and my druid have been 3 manning him. And after 14 kills we haven't even seen the pet drop yet. Sad panda. There was that one run where we wiped...because our power went out when we had him at 10%. I'm certain he would have dropped the pet that one time. Grrrr. So all cloaks and LOTS of them, 1 staff(my kid wanted it badly) and 1 enchant(for my druid) so far. And lots of those stupid cloaks. Grrrrr.

Ding 80 #4!

2009-06-20T06:06:00.002-05:00

Yes, last night my Death Knight finally hit level 80, making him my fourth at max level. Druid, Hunter, Rogue and now Death Knight. And my human mage is one bar from 79.

Next up is my Blood Elf Paladin, who duos with my husband's Undead Priest.

Also, still leveling my new baby Dwarf Paladin. She hit level 46 yesterday!

I love Death Knights!

2009-06-16T06:20:00.002-05:00

I know most people hate them, but I have to say that they have really been a boon to solo-ers like me. I also consider my time duoing with my husband as soloing as well, because we never group with anyone else and basically I do all the work. And this is where Death Knights come in!

Before Death Knights:

On all but my main realm, where I have high level characters- and some of those characters were duoing Scarlet Monastery at level 40 just to avoid groups- my little alts would flounder around in the worst gear, with no guild, avoiding everyone like the plague. Ok, most are still unguilded and I always avoid other people like the plague. But dealing with no money and worse gear made leveling those alts a pain. Until some of those alts got high enough to run new alts through instances for gear(like my hunter on Draenor).

After Death Knights:

But only after the change to allow DKs on any realm as long as you have a level 55 on any realm.

I started a Paladin, mentioned in the post below, on a new realm a few weeks ago. Except this time, different than those days previously, I was able to do this after rolling a Death Knight with my husband on the same realm:

Send my new Paladin a little money for bags and to get started
Run out and farm certain items or check certain vendors for items
Sit in Stormwind and act as a bank alt

And the most important thing-my husband's Death Knight, even though they are still only level 59, is able to run me through Deadmines, Shadowfang Keep, Razorfen Keep, and Scarlet Monastery. And my Death Knight will be running any alts he might start through instances down the road.

I realize this will only take me so far, but once you get close to heading to Outland, the ball starts rolling downhill and gear becomes less important. Outland quest rewards are good enough to get you through solo to Northrend. And of course, soloing to 80 once you hit Northrend is also easy as pie. Seeing as how I have completely soloed 2 and almost a third to the top.

So my baby Paladin, at level 39, is looking good in her Scarlet Gear, thanks to Death Knights. And my other baby Paladin(Blood Elf) on a different realm, is rocking some good stuff at level 42. And my level 30 baby rogue on Moonguard will soon look a little better than the peasant I play him as-at least when it comes time to quest!

Thank you Death Knights! Thank you!

Deadman's Hand...woot!

2009-06-15T12:18:00.004-05:00

I started a new Paladin recently. After just a few weeks, she is already at level 37(and just got exalted with Stormwind today!). Over the weekend, I had my hubby's Death Knight run me through Scarlet Monastery and much to my surprise, Doan dropped Deadman's Hand! I could not believe it-in one run! And to further my luck, in the first run of Herod, I got the Scarlet Tabard! I'm still in shock!

This is actually my 2nd Deadman's Hand, my first was gotten by my Warlock, many moons ago. He was still wearing it until his mid-60s! Makes me wonder if I will ever take this one off of my new Pally.

And speaking of my Pally, have you ever started a character and felt so comfortable playing them that it seems like you should have been playing this character all along? Yep, this little Dwarf Paladin is doing that for me. I actually have a level 12 or so Dwarf Paladin on another realm that I abandoned ages ago. Sort of wishing I had stuck with them. But this one, the name I like, the look, everything. And I am having so much fun playing her that I've played nearly all of her 37 levels on unrested time, which is something I just never do. No matter! Plus, I've always wanted to ride an Alliance Paladin mount, it was one of the only ones I'd never ridden on any character-and now I have(still like the Blood Elf version better though!).

Way to go Penguins!!

2009-06-13T07:35:00.001-05:00

Just wanted to show my Penguin love(Stanley Cup Champions, by the way-that's hockey) this morning!

Mounts at 20?!?!

2009-06-11T07:00:00.002-05:00

Holy cow! In the next patch, there will be some big mount changes. Namely: regular mounts at level 20, epic mounts at level 40(!), flying mounts at level 60-and being increased from 60% speed to 150% speed. Holy Guacamole! Epic flying will still be 5k gold, but at least you can get some sort of faction discount on it now. All other prices are changed accordingly(level 20 mount for 4g riding, 1g mount! What?!).

WoW. Just wow.

What that means for an altoholic? Well, it means I have I don't even know how many level 20-29 alts around that will be running to get a mount(even though I don't play them much, maybe I will now!). I have at least 4, almost 5, characters that are 40+ that will be looking at getting epics when the patch hits. But I wonder about Paladin mounts. You obviously can't do the epic quest at level 40! Will we get our Chargers free if we pay for riding? Or do we have to wait until level 61 like now? That means getting my Blood Elf to exalted with Undercity or Orgrimmar as quickly as possible(I refuse to ride that chicken). My Dwarf wouldn't have a problem riding the ram, but I'm close to exalted with Stormwind, so that won't matter soon.

WoW. Just wow. What a change! New druid forms and lower mount levels...BRING ME PATCH 3.2!!

I've never...

2009-05-28T14:47:00.000-05:00

I thought it might be fun to make a post stating things that I've never done in World of Warcraft. I'm always talking about the things I do, this post is about the things I have never done.

I'VE NEVER...

Stepped foot into Molten Core or Zul'Gurub and I don't even know where Blackwing Lair is
Done Scholo or Strat with an appropriate level group
Been in a raid instance, ever, anywhere(that one in WG I did once, but I wouldn't count that-and I'll never go back)
Raided an opposing factions city
Completed any Northrend instance
Gotten the title "Jenkins" on any character-I don't even know where the place is that you can get it
Been equipped in all epic gear
Won the fishing contest-though I have certainly tried
Killed an opposing factions NPC, anywhere(BGs do not count)
Gotten a single Honorable Kill with my hunter, Wyl. Level 80 with 0 HKs
Advertised anything in /trade chat
Made any friends in game-oh sure I add people to my friends list every now and then, but they never speak to me again usually after that day so I just delete them later
Killed Onyxia
Fished up Mr Pinchy-thousands of lobsters later. Grrrrr
Joined the Looking For Group thing, I don't even know how it works
Been in any heroic dungeon, Outland or Northrend, not even stepped foot in one
Leveled past 33 on a PvP server-I just don't get the fun there
Been in a guild with more than about 10 people in it(my old PvP character is in a huge guild, but since I haven't logged in with him since about last November[and don't plan ever to again] I wouldn't really count him)

If I think of any more I will add them later.

Pathetic huh, why am I even bothering. :(

Isn't she cute?

2009-05-26T15:38:00.002-05:00

Got my Chef's Hat yesterday! And I've added the tux outift that I got a million of during Noblegarden to complete my fishing/cooking outfit! Oh sure, I put on my Weathered Fishing hat when I need to, but I think she looks pretty stylin' when she runs around Dalaran hunting down half-empty wine glasses. I've donned the old Chef title for now as well-I really like "Crusader", but "Chef" just fits my mood at the moment.

Another fawn!

2009-05-20T05:55:00.002-05:00

Yes, that's right. One week after my druid got her 75th pet and little fawn, I bought the Azure Whelpling off the AH with Rayak for 740g to make his 75th pet! I had been hoping not to spend money on it, but the fishing lady just won't give up a Crawler and I haven't had the time to do the Argent dailies with him to get his Sen'Jin Fetish.

No biggie, he now has the red and blue whelps and the little fawn!

Now to get Daneck up there-he has 57 pets!

Crusader Kickingbird

2009-05-14T13:35:00.004-05:00

I was kind of hoping all 5 achievements would show up at the same time-blotting out my character! No dice, just got the 2 showing. But you can see all 5 listed to the left. Just managed another 40 Seals, will be buying a pet for my kid's character when she gets home from school!

Rayak-still 4 Seals from his first pet and stuck on his 3rd Valiant. Haven't played him much, was waiting for hubby and kid's characters to trio with and they haven't really been into it.

Wyl-Almost done with his 4th Valiant, only Thunder Bluff left after this. His first 40 Seals bought a pet for Kickingbird. He has 6 now, will be buying the Staff of Feral Furies for him when he gets to 25(which could be a week, could be longer, I'm kinda burned out on these dailies!)

Wyndampryce, level 30 Demon Hunter

2009-05-14T13:32:00.004-05:00

Level 30 and mounted! Sweet. This will make exploring and herbing so much easier now. Still waiting for full levels of rest before continuing.

Little Fawn pet

2009-05-12T10:30:00.002-05:00

On May 1, I got the last 2 pets I needed for the 75 pet achievement. The Mulgore Hatchling from the Argent Tournament was #73. The third Outland pet from Children's Week was #74. And then my hunter got the Durotar Scorpion with his Champion's Seals and sent it over to Kick for #75.

The fawn is very cute, and I do run around with the little guy out a lot, ya know just to say "hey I'm weird and I have a LOT of minipets!". I love the Mulgore Hatchling though. It is so cute and I love his running around.

I'm only a few tokens from 40 again, but I promised my daughter I would buy her a pet with my next purchase. She is at 69 pets with her mage. And in a few days, my druid will be known as Crusader Kickingbird(I'm behind a few days thanks to broken computers and a broken arm-my daughters-and laziness!).

Oh, and my rogue, Rayak, is 6 seals from getting his first AT pet-which will be #75 for him!

Wyndampryce, level 29 Demon Hunter

2009-05-08T06:57:00.004-05:00

And he reaches 29th level, still having only killed demons!

It really hasn't been as bad as I had thought grinding might have been. For the last few levels I've been fighting the demons in Ashenvale. First were the Lesser Felguards and Felslayers(23-24) in Fire Scar Shrine in the southwest area. Then I fought the Felmusk Felsworn, Rogue, Satyr and Shadowstalkers(25-27) in the Nights Run area. The last level was fighting the Bleakheart Satyr, Shadowstalkers and Tricksters(26-28) in Satyrnaar. I will probably continue to fight those demons and the ones in Xavian(28-30) for the next few levels. I also have the option of fighting the Mannoroc Lashers, Roaming Felguard and Searing Infernals(29-30) in Felfire Hill and Demon Fall Canyon. After that he will move on to Desolace for awhile.

At this point, he has accumulated nearly 300g mainly by selling Glyphs, mostly the Minor ones. Stacks of linen and wool also sell well. He has had 2 blue drops so far, Skeletal Club from a Lesser Felguard, and Amy's Blanket from a Solid Chest in Nights Run(this one hasn't sold yet). So buying his mount at the next level will be no problem. And I look forward to moving up with him. Although, of course, he is only gaining roughly one level per week, so 30 more weeks until he hits level 60! And I don't look forward to figuring out how to get gear once he hits Outland without doing quests. And he will be stuck in Outland until he can't get any more Xp from those mobs, as there aren't many demons in Northrend. I'm not sure what I will do then!

One more note, I have allowed him the "luxury" of doing Holiday quests-as long as they don't involve killing anything. I did Children's Week, got the pet rat, "Whiskers". I gathered a few eggs during Noblegarden-but only enough to get the Spring Rabbit and the Bunny Ears. So far the only pets he has are from Holidays-Sinister Squashling, Peddlefeet, Spring Rabbit and Whiskers! The next holiday up is Midsummer Fire Festival-not sure he will be getting the Spirit of Summer-that's a LOT of torches to toss! And then to get Wolpertinger at Brewfest.

Got my Sea Turtle!

2009-04-21T06:15:00.003-05:00

Yeah! I finally went out to attempt to fish up the Sea Turtle mount. I went to the lake just south of Camp Winterhoof in Howling Fjord. One trip around the lake, 29 catches later, and there he was! I could not believe it! What's more shocking is that I got it so easily with Kick-she NEVER has luck with fishing! She still doesn't have any Crocs or the Fishing Hat and has only gotten worthless glass from the new fishing quests(and I can't count the MILLIONS of stupid lobsters I've caught so far without Mr Pinchy coming up)! I wonder if my luckier fellas, Rayak(has 2 Crocs, the hat, etc) and Daneck(got the Bone Fishing Pole in his first fishing daily bag, and has Chuck!) will fair just as well if I take them out??

Explorer #5

2009-04-16T05:55:00.002-05:00

That's right, I took an hour or so to finish running Daneck through Storm Peaks and Ice Crown to finish off his exploring, getting the tabard and title! He is one bar from level 74 now. Exploring XP just from the last few zones in Northrend filled up almost 2 bars. This makes him my 5th character with the Explorer title and tabard, and the 2nd one to get it before level 77(when you get flying in Northrend).

In other news, I got the Sprite Darter pet with Kick after about 2 hours and 10 minutes of farming. And then I went and got the Westfall Chicken putting her number of minipets at 70! Of course, the fishing quest in Shat was crocs but that mean old man just won't give Kick a baby croc. :(

Also, took my engineer on Kael'Thas, Tohopka, to Gnomer to get the recipe for Lil Smoky. Took about 6 or 7 Nullifiers to get the recipe and then back to Dalaran where I had all of the mats already. I never realized he was so small! And smoky! My engineer on Draenor couldn't get in to Gnomer for some reason, kept getting "Instance Not Found", so will have to wait on that one. And my third engineer will probably wait until next week as well.

And it goes down...of course

2009-04-15T07:15:00.002-05:00

So the realms FINALLY came back up last night around 7pm my time. With HORRIBLE lag(due to either everyone and their dog logging on at the same time or hubby watching some tv show on hulu at the same time on his computer-not sure). I did get the following things accomplished before hitting the hay(and checking in again this morning to see the realms going down for another 2 hours!):

Rogue, Rayak:

Talent points done
Logged out in Grizzly Hills, took about 20 kills to get the book Technique: Rituals of the New Moon; made 4 books(1 black wolf, 2 red, 1 grey-black for me, red for my kid's mage, other 2 for AH)-put one on AH for 275g
Fishing daily-Ghostfish, rewards-vile of poison which starts another quest to turn in to someone in sewers, awarded another 13g and 250 more Kirin Tor rep
Put lots of glyphs that have been gathering dust in our guild bank on the AH-logged in long enough this morning to see 2 full pages of money from AH!!
Bought black wolf mount in Orgrimmar

Hunter, Wyl:

Talent points put in for him and pet(Briarsting is my boar from level 10, got in Westfall-look forward to doing some AoE Thunderstomp farming with him!)
Put 20 slot bag in place of quiver! Stacked up ammo and I have so much bag space now! YAY!
Bought black wolf mount in Orgrimmar

Hunter, Windextor:

Talent points put in
Bought black wolf mount!
Equipped Travellers Backpack and have so much bag space!

Druid, Kickingbird

Talent points put in(no dual for her, still kitty feral only)
Fishing daily-Ghostfish, rewards-worthless piece of orange glass :( btw, my kid also did the quest and she got the porcelain bell which sells for 100g!
Learned new cooking recipe, Black Jelly
Did cooking daily-Convention
Headed to Feralas to farm Sprite Darter. Lots of people on Warcraftpets.com said they had gotten it quickly. After an hour I hadn't gotten one, so my luck just sucks

Rogue, Wyndampryce

Just put several glyphs I had extra on the AH

And that's about all I had time to do. I went to bed at 11pm last night(which is at the least an hour past my bedtime, hehe, I'm tired this morning). And I log in this morning to see that realms are going down for another 2 hours. Sigh.

Need to...get started on Argent Tournament! I tried the Sprite Darter farming for an hour, I think more of that will have to wait now. And since it is Bind on Pickup, there won't be any need to shell out loads of G on the AH for it-which is sort of good(eek, just spent 1450g on Dark Whelpling last week-somewhere around 1500 kills and no drop makes someone very needy).

Should...log in with everyone and at the very least replace talent points.

Oh and addons...XPerl-had to update; TomTom-probably not going to worry about it being gone right now; LeaveMeAlone-WANT UPDATE OR EQUIVALENT NOW!; Altoholic-update is said to be coming, will live without for now; Ackis recipe List-updated; AmmoFu-completely broken, don't really need it now though. Everything else seems to be working okay, especially AuctionLite and GatherMate and Cartographer. Excellent.

Patch 3.1 is here

2009-04-14T06:53:00.002-05:00

So much to do, so much time to wait for realms to come back up.

Mini-pet news:

Westfall Chicken available in Brill(my rogue has it, will be getting it now on all other toons)
Engineering pets available from dropped recipes in Gnomer(I have 3 engineers)
Crab pet available from new fishing dailies
Sprite Darter drops from Darters in Feralas(YaY! another to farm)
Many new pets from Argent tournament, 5 for own faction, 1 new "Squire" kid to follow you around, and finding the other factions pets in the AH(for tons of G I'm sure)(note to self: MUST level human mage SOON!)

New Recipes:

Alchemy: low level +hit elixir
Engineering: both pets available from drops in Gnomer
Inscription: dropped recipe in Grizzly Hills for book that transforms you into a wolf
Inscription: new glyphs from randomly dropped books(ick, I hate this)
Jewelcrafting: a few new ring recipes
Enchanting: some new ones, didn't really pay attention, my enchanting probably isn't high enough anyway
Cooking: 2 new recipes, also need to save up 100 tokens for chef's hat!
Fishing: new dailies in Dalaran! Chance for crab pet! Fish up turtle mount in pools! So much!

Re-doing ALL talent points!
Argent Tournament!
Three new low level Horde mounts!

Now I need to do some busy work so the day will go by faster!

Another Explorer

2009-04-12T07:26:00.002-05:00

Not yet, but I plan on working on it this week. I was playing Geocacher and realized he didn't have a title. I thought "Ambassador" would probably be pretty easy, since he already has Darnassus and Stormwind to exalted. Then I thought, nope, how could a GEOCACHER NOT be an explorer!! I mean, the very nature of a geocacher is to be an explorer! And if you don't know what geocaching is, you can read about it here on wikipedia. I generally feel that playing WoW is like "virtual geocaching" for me. :) So...from levels 65 to 68 I will be working on exploring Azeroth and Outland. Once Geo hits 68, he gets flight form so I can finish any places in Outland that were unattainable. And then it is time for the death romp through Northrend. But I want this badly now that I've thought about it!

And Wormtongue has turned level 74. Learned the Dalaran portal. One hand good-I can port my kid's characters there now. Other hand bad-prepared to be bugged constanstly any time he is back in Old World. He may never see Undercity again(hey they have Mage trainers in Dalaran!).

Kickingbird, as of now

2009-04-08T18:09:00.002-05:00

This is my main, Kickingbird, level 80 Druid. I just wanted to show a screenshot of how she looks now. I only log in with her these days to do the cooking daily(gotta have that cooking hat when the next patch hits! Only 60 more tokens to go). And she will do the fishing daily when it comes in the next patch. Sometimes I go out and mine with her, but I try to use other characters that are still leveling up mining to do that.

And that is probably how she will look one year from now. That's cool. I like the look. She spends most of her time in some other form anyway, so it doesn't make much difference! Well, I do ride around on that Green Proto Drake that I got from the Oracles at times. Just because it's so freakin' cool!

But I love her. I love playing her. She is me. Yep.

It's "Lost" night

2009-04-08T17:33:00.003-05:00

Another reason why I don't raid! Yeah, I like tv shows. And no, I don't have tivo(and don't intend to get it anytime soon).

So here's the schedule...

Monday-Big Bang Theory, 2nd half of House, Monday Night Football in season
Tuesday-American Idol, The Mentalist
Wednesday-American Idol, Lost
Thursday-Bones, CSI,
Friday-this is family movie/pizza night
Saturday-nothing on tv, play WoW with family members
Sunday-Amazing Race

Any time not taken up when I'm not playing is usually spent watching something on The History Channel or Discovery Channel. And I usually go to bed at 9pm central.

There is no leeway in that schedule. The only nights there isn't something "concrete" planned is Friday and Saturday-and those are times I spend playing my characters with my husband and my kid. I could never agree to any guild's 'raid schedule' because I have my own more important schedule. :)

I ganked someone....SHOCK!!!

2009-04-08T16:41:00.004-05:00

Yes. I did. I only play on PvE servers, but I have to say that this guy deserved it.

Realm: Norgannon
His name: no clue, started with a "G", Dwarf hunter, level 36ish

It started out early in the day, husband and I were playing our level 25 Blood Elf Paladins. We were finishing up some quests in Silverpine Forest and were heading to the Greymane Wall to get that guy's hand. We see Son of Arugal and decide to extract some revenge on him. About halfway through, while we are using the AoE Consecrate because I hadalso aggroed a worg in the area, both Arugal and the wolf die quickly as I THINK another wolf has run in. Turns out the "new" wolf had the name "Shadow" and I thought "that's not right?!" Well, yeah, it was this flagged numbnut Dwarf who must have thought either he'd flag us by running through our Consecrate or that we would accidently attack his flagged wolf and then he could kill 2 lowbies without them knowing what hit them.

I HATE JERKS LIKE THIS!!! (insert extremely mad face here)

It just so happens that a few hours later I am running around the Barrens on my level 60 Death Knight looking for copper and tin mines. I see the call on Local Defense that "Southern Gold Road is under attack!" Since I am near there, I thought I'd take a peek at who it was that killed poor Gann. And I get to him just before he gets to the Great Lift. And guess who? Yep, that same little Dwarf. He had been ?? to our Paladins, but I now see he is only level 36. I stop my DK in front of him before he gets to the Lift and give him a "/no" but this little sh*t goes right past me and sends his wolf on the first Horde guard at the Lift. And so I couldn't help myself-I ran over and with a couple of strokes he was dead. YOU DON'T ATTACK MY NPCs THAT YOU DON"T NEED TO!

Sidenote: I have taken at least 5 Alliance characters through this area. It is pretty much the only way to get to the flight path that Alliance have in western Thousand Needles. And NOT ONCE did I have to kill those guards! In fact, in four years of playing I have never killed a opposing factions NPC. Never.

Yeah, I'm a coward. I didn't know if this guy had a rogue running with him(most people don't run around flagged on PvE servers for no reason). So since I was now flagged I took off into the instance portal of RFK, which is pretty close. It automatically un-flags you. I came right back out only to find that poor guard at the Lift was now dead. So I took the Lift down into Thousand Needles. Me: Death Knight with the Unholy talent of "On a Pale Horse" vs a level 30 mount. Yeah, I caught up to him pretty quick. Death Grip, Icy Touch, Chains of Ice and another death for this SCHMO! I didn't stick around this time. I was sick to my stomach over this but I was PMSing and PISSED that people have NO REGARDS for other players and NO HONOR!

If it hadn't been the same JERK from the morning, I probably would have let him be, but he pushed a button and I was able to get some revenge on an IDIOT. It felt like Karma did its job. And I hated myself for having to teach some numbnut a lesson(not that it did, I'm sure he doesn't give a flying CRAP about anyone but HIMSELF). It just goes to prove the reason why I prefer to solo that to associate with what seems to me to be MOST of the wads that play this game.

Grrrrrrrr.

Geocacher turns 65

2009-04-07T14:39:00.001-05:00

Had enough time to log in and get Geocacher, my moonkin, to level 65. Three more levels to flight form and Northrend!

Also working on getting my baby Priest, Deschanel, rep with Darnassus. Finished Teldrassil, one bar from level 23 and hit revered on last quest. Now need to go back and finish the Draenei areas(took her to Stormwind early) and then Darkshore. Hoping to ride a kitty at level 30!

Rolling restarts today

2009-04-07T06:10:00.000-05:00

So it looks like I might get to play a bit today. I am still trying to spend more time working on my photo website, but at least when I need a "fix" I can get on today.

Yesterday, leveled Wyndampryce to 25. Wonder if there are different demons I can find other than those in southwest Ashenvale? Those guys suck-they barely drop anything and those felguards have a knockdown and ticks me off. The satyrs in eastern Ashenvale are still too high level I think-need to check.

Also, Wyl opened his 2nd Oracles egg and got a Tickbird Hatchling. Cool, he didn't have that. Bought a new egg and took Rayak down and bought him a new egg too(he only needs the mount I think).

Hubby sold a Savory Deviate Delight recipe that dropped for us on Sunday for 400g!! That was on our baby Paladins on Norgannon that were broker than broke at level 25 so what a bonus! YaY!

I love titles!

2009-04-06T14:25:00.003-05:00

I recently went out and got the "Explorer" title for my level 71 Death Knight(he's 74 now). It got me to thinking exactly how many titles do I have across all of my characters? So here is what I have(in order of character creation per realm):

KICKINGBIRD, 80

Senior Sergeant
Ambassador
the Diplomat
Argent Champion
Chef
the Love Fool
the Explorer
the Seeker

WORMTONGUE, 73

Grunt
Ambassador

TOHOPKA, 72

Sergeant

EREMIT, 71

Ambassador

RAYAK, 80

Ambassador
the Explorer
of the Shattered Sun

DANECK, 73

Sergeant
Ambassador

WYL, 78

Ambassador
the Explorer

HEKUBUS, 43

Ambassador

BOREANAZ, 74

the Explorer

I think that's it for now. I'm working on others of course. I will try to list them when I get them.

Update after vacation!

2009-04-06T14:07:00.002-05:00

My goodness how fast a week can go by! And the week after that....grumble, grumble. So 2 weeks ago we had vacation time-kiddo off from school and hubby gets the week off from work. We did spend a few days on the road in East Tennessee, and a day at the zoo-but the rest of the time, we were leveling fiends!

You see, I get all day, every day to play alone. Notice why I have so many characters listed over there---->
Hubby and kid don't get as much time. Kiddo has 1 level 80 and 2 level 70s(one is a Death Knight), the rest of her characters are no higher than about 30 with most being 10 or lower. Hubby tries to play but he works a lot. He has 1 level 80, and then a 74, 73, 72, a couple at 70 and a 60 and the rest are 20s or lower. So they wanted to spend their week off playing!

It went by so fast it really seemed a blur, (and I should have blogged about it sooner-other things on my mind) but I will try to recall who all we played...(the numbers tell whether the characters are a trio, duo or my solo)

3 Death Knights on Kael'Thas: level 65 to 70!
3 Hunters on Draenor: level 69 to 71
2 My mage/his hunter: level 72 to 73
2 Death Knights on Draenor: level 72 to 74
and when I had time alone I got...
Hunter on KT: level 76 to 78
Druid on KT: level 62 to 64

I think that's about it. It was a great week! And then last week was back to normal and it just flew by too. It wil be summer before we know it. Sigh...

Also of note...my Rogue Demon Hunter, Wyndampryce is now level 24!

Wyndampryce, level 22 Demon Hunter

2009-03-17T09:58:00.005-05:00

Yes, that's right, I've gotten my 'Demon Hunter' to level 22, strictly by grinding on Demons!

Wyndampryce on the Armory

This screenshot was taken after leveling to 22 and heading back to Stormwind to train.
That's 1094 mobs killed, 1094 Demons! (and 1 Deep Run Rat!)

To update on Wesley(his first name), he is a human rogue. At level 1 I ran him to Teldrassil and leveled to 6 on the demons in the Night Elf newb area. Then to level 10 on the demons in the cave at Dolonar in Teldrassil. Much of level 11 was exploring XP. Then I moved him to the demons on Bloodmyst Isle, the ones that are level 12-15, southwest of the main town. At around level 15, I moved him to the higher level demons in the north of the island. Between this and XP from exploring has gotten him to 22. The next demons are in Ashenvale starting around levels 23-24.

He has fully explored most of the zones his level and lower(with the exception of the Blood Elf areas). His herbalism is 154 and inscription is 142. He has lucked out and managed to get both the Sinister Squashling from Hallow's End and the Peddlefeet from Love is in the Air!

I generally let him rest in an Inn for a week to build up rested experience until at least the end of the current level. So far each level then has taken about an hour to gain. I know this will take longer and longer as the levels get higher. And will also change depending on the difference in level of the character and the mobs. The first few levels at the 16-18 Satyrs in Bloodmyst took an hour, with stops every so often to bandage or eat. The last few levels there went very quickly to the point where I had almost cleaned out the whole camp and had to wait for respawns as all mobs were green levels. The next group in Ashenvale will go slowly again due needing to stealth more and stop between fights, but the higher xp/mob makes up the difference, so all in all it comes out about the same in time spent/xp gained.

Also, he has gained quite a lot of money for a character his level simply by getting money dropped by mobs, selling every gray/white item they drop to vendors, and selling stack after stack of linen and wool on the auction house. A few glyphs have sold decently as well. He already has the money for his mount when he hits level 30-as well as plenty left over for snapping up a few bargains on the AH for gear when I can find them.

This has been an interesting expirement so far, and I look forward to leveling him up higher-though there aren't many demons in Northrend should I get him that high. Things may have to change at that point. But I will cross that bridge if I ever get to it!

To Play or not to Play?

2009-03-17T09:22:00.003-05:00

Yes. I am still playing. Yeah, playing so much that I don't have time to update this page. Recently I've...

My Warlock is level 70, making my 9th character to at least level 70
My Dwarf hunter is 1 bar from level 70-that will make #10
My BE DK is level 67. 5, at 68 he will be in Northrend and then he will be #11 at 70

I've also done some **shocking!!** PeeVeePee with Kick! It's only Wintergrasp and while I can't say I'm having fun(yeah, I am certain I really suck at it), at least I've gotten some gear that makes her look a little better and slice through those boring old dailies like warm butter. I'd link the gear, but if you are reading this then you know what I am talking about. The leather headgear for WG tokens-the one that looks like the mask Anthony Hopkins wore in "Silence of the Lambs", heh. And in the time it took to get those 40 tokens I got enough honor to buy the Hateful Gladiator wristguards and necklace. And I've helped level hubby's characters who are leatherworking and blacksmithing, so I am also now sporting the Ice Striker's Cloak and Titansteel Destroyer.

What does all that mean? It means that for the first time EVER my main character is wearing more purple than any other color. Yep, not counting my tabard(which is also epic-Explorer ftw), I have 10 out of 16 slots in epics. And only 2 of the others are green-1 is a trinket, which will be the next thing I upgrade from WG making epic #11; and my Idol-which I have no way of upgrading, there really isn't much to choose from and no way for me to get any of the better ones. :/ Oh well.

I've also gotten a few new titles on my druid...Chef, Ambassador, the Seeker(3k quests completed), and Argent Champion(AD and AC exalted).

Again I say, what does all this mean? It means my character looks a little better while running around Dalaran gathering items for the cooking quest. I guess I don't get laughed at as much. But it still hasn't brought my friends back-they still won't talk to me-too busy running off to Naxx to even stop and wave or anything. And it just makes me feel like I have to do more somehow...and I don't want to! But I can't stop.

Seriously, I just stumbled across a website this morning that made me ACHE for the times before WoW when we would take road trips every other weekend to so many random places around our state and the neighboring ones. Taking so many photos I didn't know what to do with them. From having thousands of photos to look at back from 2001-2005, each year after that the number decreases. Yeah sure, the gas problem was to blame too. And exploring Azeroth seemed an almost reasonable sidegrade to exploring Tennessee. But I'd much rather be posting photos I took than "screenshots" I took. My personal website is up for renewal next month. I was seriously considering letting it go, letting it drop and giving that up. After spending 3 hours looking through photos on this other website this morning, I've realized I can't do that-I want to get mine back and going again.

If only I can stop playing all day, every day. Ya know-the old, "ah only 3 more days of these dailies until I can buy such-and-such" and "a few more hours questing here with this character to level up again" and "I gotta farm for a few hours so all of our characters can afford to buy our flying mounts when we hit level 70". I've got to stop.

Maybe today is the day. Maybe.

Still plodding along

2009-02-10T08:30:00.004-06:00

I don't know why, but I still play.

Recently got the following achievements with Kick-500 daily quests, Loot 1000 gold, Receive 10000 gold from quest rewards. Exalted with Argent Dawn(8kish to go with Argent Crusade). Only 5 points from 450 cooking(and then suffering through 5 pvp games to get that achievement) and getting the "Chef" title.

And on the other hand...I have officially put our 'former' friends on /ignore. Yeah, the one I talked about before. I thought maybe things weren't as bad as I was making them out to be. They are. ASIDE from the fact that I know he didn't level his own character all the way to 80. And then one day later is being taken to Naxxramas. ASIDE FROM THIS....my kid wants to get all of the Holiday achievements(at the end of the year you get a special mount for finishing all of them). She had the first 2 done. The one for Lunar Festival, these past 2 weeks, involves entering some Northrend instances. It just so happened that he was IN the hardest one to get last week. She whispered him and asked nicely if she could hop in there after they were done to get to the Elder. At first he said 'ok'. He and his JERK of a son invited her to the group after they left the instance. Then they proceeded to (1) Not provide any hint of how to get to the instance entrance-they just left it, how do they not know HOW to get there???? (2) Provide no help whatsoever in explaining how to get to the Elder-though I could see later from their achievements in the Armory that they did in fact GET this Elder, (3) then his son tells her basically to 'hurry the hell up and get out of their group because they were waiting for her to get OUT so they could go into their next instance'!!!

WELL EXCUSE THE F***K OUTA ME FOR ASKING FOR ONE MEASLY FAVOR! Oh no, for the past 3 years we have JUMPED at the chance to help YOU with anything you asked our help with...but ONE TIME we ask for a favor and we are treated like this! If I had a huge red mean face I'd post it right here. I had my kid place the two on /ignore. I then logged into most of my characters and also put them on /ignore. It wasn't until the next day, when I was on my mage(who hadn't ignored them yet), and I saw them standing around Dalaran that I get this whisper "hey kid hows it going I'm headed to Naxx 10" I didn't even answer, I /ignored him right to his face. WAY TO ACT LIKE NOTHING EVER HAPPENED! And way to be HANDED free epix that you didn't even work for. JERK.

So....since we only had the ONE friend in our whole world before, we OFFICIALLY(in my book anyway) now have NONE. And I hate this game even more. But I just can't stop playing it.

/cry

I just can't do it

2009-01-13T11:26:00.002-06:00

Play well with others, that is. Okay, it's not the 'play well' part, just the 'play'.

I don't want to raid. Really, I don't. I've already stated many times that purple gear doesn't excite me at all. But that really isn't the reason. Let me list them for you...

I can't use vent. Not that I don't want to, really. I really have a hard time hearing. I watch tv with the closed captioning on. I would need closed captioning for vent...guess what that is...CHAT LOG. But all guilds that I know of require you to use vent.
Raids happen at night. I spend time with my family at night. We are either watching tv shows, playing other games or playing WoW together...but any way I look at it, family>WoW.
I don't do well with other people telling me what to do. Especially if that person is 12 and continues to call me a loser. I'm not interested in putting up with that crap just for some GAME that I want to play for FUN.
I just don't like crowds. I don't like them at big events, even such as football games, I don't like them at the mall, like right before Christmas, and I don't like them in a GAME.

Those are the main reasons, really. I think they are pretty good reasons. I can't really see anyone beating those in order to convince me TO raid. Nope.

I'll just keep to my little BoE blues, solo quests and daily rep grinding. Now please leave me alone.

New Year's Resolutions

2009-01-06T06:53:00.003-06:00

What do I want to do with my characters this year? To be honest...play them less. Yes, it's true. I'm just not cut out for this game. I kept hoping that I would get better. But noone likes me, and the people who used to be my friends don't talk to me anymore unless THEY want something from me. It really seems like such a waste of time.

Yeah, it's fun. Sometimes. When we do some things. But doing the same stupid quests that I HATE, every day, in hopes of getting a cool reward makes me feel like a mouse who is running in a maze looking for cheese and just not finding it. I just keep hitting dead ends, I am not getting better gear playing the way I play, which means I am not getting better as a player, which means I am basically logging in every day only to just bang my head on a wall for hours. Seems pointless. So no, maybe it really isn't fun anymore.

To be honest, though, I don't WANT to be in a 'raid' guild. Because 'raiding' is too much like having a job. Look this way(spec), be here at THIS time, do exactly what we tell you, spend off time ONLY gathering items you need in order to do the job, and if you don't then you don't get the paycheck. Screw that. I will not have 12year olds ordering me around. Hell, I won't have 25 year olds ordering me around...I will not have ANYONE ordering me around! Not to play a G A M E that is supposed to be fun. Nah, they can keep that crap. I just want to go back to my life before WoW. :(

Oh yeah...resolutions...uhmmmm...get at least a few other characters to 80. That's about it. I don't really care if they get anything else. Not interested in getting the 'phat lewt', not interested in the 20k gold mount, not interested in the also expensive motorcycle mount, not interested in much anymore.

Playing Lord of the Rings today...

2008-12-23T08:59:00.002-06:00

Because of extra long maintenance again. Not that I care. My rogue turned 76 last night. One of my Death Knights is 68. My druid is bored and doesn't want to do anything except for the cooking daily. What difference does it make? She doesn't do instances or pvp so I don't really need better gear, do I? No of course not, I mean that is what all the 'raiders' and 'pvpers' say anyway-losers like me don't deserve good gear because we don't do anything with it. Fine, so I will just sit in Dalaran and look like a loser while running around doing my cooking daily because I don't get better gear so NOONE wants anything to do with me. Thanks for making me not want to play this game at all. It's a vicious circle(and not just because that is the name of my human mage's guild). Can't get better gear because I have crap gear, but can't get better gear because I can't GET BETTER GEAR! WHAT??!!?? And I will not lower myself to pvp or arena just to have purples. I hate it and it won't happen. Man I hate this game.

Just messing around with something

2008-12-12T12:02:00.007-06:00

I want to see if this updates at any point. I have tried adding it to the top but for some reason it won't accept the web address for the picture, so I have to save it. But then it doesn't update, soo...I'm just trying it here. Just to see. (because the one up there, Rayak, is now level 75-that is a saved version from when I was 70, joy).

edit...well, I tried to link my armory to it, but apparently I can only link to the sight that gives the signature picture. So I will try to log out in bear form later and see if it updates.

edited to remove the picture and link because it either doesn't update or I'm just not seeing it. Oh well, who really gives a flip.

Bored? Maybe, maybe not

2008-12-09T14:01:00.002-06:00

Tuesday, maintenance. But wait, NO, not today! Hooray! Only rolling restarts. Which means I log in with my rogue and get him situated to grab the last 2 books for the Kirin Tor achievement/minipet. Except when the realm says it is up, all I get is "Logging in to game server". For an hour. Urgh.

Finally I log in on Draenor with my Death Knight. I get his skinning from 253 to 320 in Feralas and Winterspring on yetis. Then head to Zangarmarsh to finish off quests there. Then to Terrokar for a few more. Get to a few bars from 65. Almost ready for Nagrand.

And then I get bored and attempt to get back on Kael'Thas. Yep, it is actually up now. Who knows how long, really. I don't even bother with my rogue looking for the books. I take Kick to Stormpeaks for the dailies there. Blue chicks-more snowballs and cheese. woot. And then Sons of Hodir. Found an extra ice crystal thing today and am at 10200/12k. Maybe tomorrow, most likely Thursday, I will have my Wooly Mammoth mount. And then I won't go near there for quite awhile. I'd still like a Polar Bear mount from the Blue Chicks, but with my luck it ain't gonna happen. I will be happy with the Mammoth that I can flat out buy. Not that I use my mounts that often. If I am somewhere flyable, I am in bird form, and around Dalaran I prefer cheetah because the streets are busy enough as it is.

So then I rambled on up to Icecrown, where I hadn't even gone yet except to explore. Got started on a few of the Knights of the Ebon Blade quests, just enough to get friendly and open up the quartermaster so I could buy a tabard. It's dark, it looks cool. Look forward to getting my Death Knights there(yeah, sometime in the year 2010>.<). Then hopped over to do the first few for Argent Crusade, enough to get a blue trinket which frankly sucks for a feral druid as far as I can tell.

And then I got bored and logged out. And don't really know who to log in with now. Finish more quests with my druid, make lots of money, farm mats for all of the other characters? Or get another character leveled up? And if so, which one? My Blood Elf hunter or my Human mage or my Death Knight?

Bored. Hmmmm. Work on my website? Maybe...

More achievements...

2008-12-04T12:39:00.002-06:00

See that blue up there? That is the Giant Sewer Rat! I finally fished him up! That also nabs an achievement! It also puts my druid at 61 mini pets. And yes, I was transformed into a cockroach at the time-I was just being disgusted at having eaten a Magicfish and turned into this, and BOOM blue catch and the pop-up box! I was not bummed about being a roach anymore. :)

But it was only the last of 9 achievements I managed to grab today.

In order that I got them...

1. To All the Squirrels I've Loved Before -I still needed ewe, sheep, cat, cow, fawn, gazelle, ram; so I went through the portal to Shat, got ewe, went through portal to Silvermoon and got cat; took transporter to Undercity, flew to Arathi, rode to Wetlands tunnels, got ram; rode to Badlands, flew to Grom'gal, rode north(did some other things here, shown later), got cow, sheep and fawn in Elwynn Forest. Later I went to Orgrimmar, flew to Crossroads and found a gazelle to finish the achievement.

2. Deadmines -while in Westfall, I stopped and stealthed quickly through Deadmines to kill Van Cleef and get this one.

3. Fishing Diplomat -had already fished in Orgrimmar many times, so now I needed Stormwind. After Deadmines and loving some animals in Elwynn, I swam up the coast to the Stormwind Harbor; as soon as I hit the zone, I popped a water walking potion and fished up one fish to get this achievement

4. Stormwind Stockade -since I was already here, I though what the heck. So I stealthed on up the harbor and into Stormwind. The only Alliance I saw was a Night Elf rogue(level 70+, I didn't check), on a War Ram(zoiks!) in some sort of Arena gear. He ran past me and obviously caught the stealth sound-YIKES! I quickly jumped into the water, still stealthed(and wearing my Kalu'ak fishing pole-underwater breathing ftw!), and LUCKILY he moved on! Whew! I then made it all the way to the Stockades with no trouble and went in and smacked down this Bazil dude!

5. Scavenger -I still needed the floating wreckage, so after hearthing out of Stockades, I went through the portal to Orgrimmar and flew up to Aszhara. Found a pool I needed right away, fished up one box, got that and headed on.

6. Critter Gitter -It was actually after the Scavenger that I went to Crossroads and loved the gazelle. Then I went back to Org and caught the zeppelin to Borean Tundra. Flew over to one of the nearby icebergs, found a huge group of penguins, and started throwing my Critter Bites to them until I had 10 quickly and got that achievement!

Since my hearthstone was still on cooldown, I took this time to log in to my rogue and gather a few things. I needed Mageroyal and Small Eggs for the Chocolate Cake, and one Zangarian Sporefish. So I went around to get those, mailed them and logged back into Kick, whose hearthstone was now up.

7. Outland Gourmet and the Cake Is Not A Lie -After hearthing to Dalaran, I grabbed the mats from the mailbox, cooked up the Blackened Sporefish(one of last 2 needed), and then ending with the Delicious Chocolate Cake which gave me both achievements at the same time!

Once I was done with all that, I was tired. So I thought I'd fish. Spent five minutes at the coin pool only to get goldfish on every cast. Bah. So I ran down to the sewers for the last 5 minutes on that lure. Started eating the magic fish I was catching, just for the heck of it. Started up a second lure after 5 minutes, ate more magic fish, turned into a roach and just then there was my Giant Sewer Rat!

What a day!

I also did some dailies this morning...

I am honored 9600/12k with Oracles. I love these guys so much, they are so sweet and cute! They tell me how strong I am and how I protect them. And their dailies are not annoying at all, they are actually pretty easy and fun.

Sons of Hodir on the other hand...I hate their dailies, but I am at around 3k/12k and I'd really like that Mammoth at revered. I won't be going higher than that any time soon though.

And those blue chicks with no affiliation-I hate their quests too, but I want that damn polar bear mount! As soon as I get it they can kiss me goodbye.

I've stopped doing the 2 Wyrmrest and Troll Patrol for Argent Crusade, frankly because I don't have the patience lately and I cannot stand that damn alchemist quest for AC. I don't really care if I get rep with them anyway. I am slowly but surely working on Kirin Tor the only way I can, from the daily cooking quest. I like that one at least.

Ding 80...so what

2008-12-02T11:49:00.002-06:00

So what now? Yeah, my Druid turned 80 last Wednesday. And I've been doing dailies for rep and money...
Argent Crusade...loads more quests in Icecrown that I have not even touched

Kirin Tor...well I get 250 per day from the cooking quest-the staff at revered may be mine in a few months

Wyrmrest...2 dailies, 500 rep, so yeah, I might have that dragon mount in about 6 months

Oracles...finally managed to get a group for this and to start their dailies-at least this is easy and I only need revered to be able to sit and wait each week for the egg to hatch and hope I get something good(though with my druid's luck, not likely)

Yeah, they have this thing called "Championing" now-put on a tabard and do a level 80 dungeon and you get whatever rep you want. Only I don't do dungeons because I suck, so all the other 80s are running around in epics already(yeah, the game has been out, what 2 weeks?) and are exalted with all of the factions already and I sit in Dalaran and fish-and I even suck at that.

So I log in and play other characters. Yeah, my hunter is 71.5; my human mage is 71; my rogue is 2 bars from 73; my Undead mage is 70.5ish; and 2 Death Knights at 61 and 62. But I am tired. And I don't feel like playing. But I just can't stop. :(

Some of what I've done

2008-11-25T08:27:00.003-06:00

Kick, posing next to a K3 Bruiser in Stormpeaks. I like his helm and shoulders. We sorta match. :)

Some of the things Kick has done so far...

Solo:
The Jig Is Up -Howling Fjord, fighting a bear with 28k hp at 72. He wasn't labeled as elite the day I did him. I noticed after a server restart and the next day he was suddenly elite and the quest was labeled group. It was most certainly NOT labeled group when I did it or I may not have attempted!
Harold Lane -Borean Tundra, went back and did this at 74, not too difficult being able to shift out of his traps and charge back at him. Completely forgot to use the Horn they give you.

Wrathgate series -I know this isn't meant to be group at all(except for one in BT), but the end of this chain was amazing!
Drak'uru -ended up at the top just after a NE hunter was starting the fight, I helped a little and got to see Arthas and loot the quest item. Anti-climatic, yes, but the whole series in Zul'Drak, being a Ghoul, was incredible.
Harrison Jones -escorting(or being escorted!) in the quest wasn't difficult(or a group quest), but it was one of the BEST things I've done in this game! Yes, I adore Harrison Ford. :)

Sucked it up and grouped for:
Breaking Through -Borean Tundra, final quest in Taunka village, duo'd with a warrior who asked for help in general. I really wanted it finished and took the chance.
Hour of the Worg -Grizzly Hills; fighting Arugal again was amazing! And a tough fight for someone who doesn't spend time doing tough fights in instances. Duo'd with a shaman who asked in general. Again, a tough fight for two but we managed and it was FUN!
Wanted: Ragemane's Flipper: I had thought about waiting to solo this, glad I didn't. I really, really wanted that staff and when a group was asking I jumped. 3 Death Knights, me and a rogue who showed up right at the end(Ragemane respawned quickly right on top of me). It was tough and I had to pop out and heal myself and a few others, but soo happy to get it done and get that staff!

MOST FRUSTRATING QUEST:
Storm King's Vengeance-Oh my gawd. It started out fine. You ride on top of a Storm Giant's head and control him. Fighting the dragon was easy. Having a hard time finding Scourge to kill(you need 100). Second boss spawns the third. You heal by finding these green clouds(which are few and far between). If you can't get away, well your giant is GIANT and running around and getting caught on trees and other crap was beyond frustrating.

And as soon as you kill the 2nd guy the third spawns. And the first time I wasn't ready. I ran away and he despawned. And then I got stuck on a branch and couldn't control my giant anymore. And I got surrounded by Scourge and he died. No problem, go back and restart him.

But now, for some reason, I had what seemed like MILLIONS of Scourge constantly around me! I make it back to fight boss #2 again, get it done but someone else takes the healing clouds before I can and there is no way I can fight the boss #3-other guy steals my spawn. I run away. There always seemed to be hundreds of Scourge around me, killing them did no good, more just came from everywhere! I can't remember how many times it took killing boss #2 before I finally managed to tag boss #3 with enough health and healing clouds nearby to FINALLY kill this guy.

I swear this one quest took me an hour to do. I was screaming at the screen. But damn that helmet was worth it!

The first two weeks...WoW...

2008-11-25T07:06:00.002-06:00

So it's been almost 2 weeks since Wrath came out. And yeah, I've been busy. Maybe too busy. Maybe I need to take a break. No, no, I didn't play my druid non-stop in some sort of marathon. She still isn't even 80(just dinged 79 yesterday afternoon). But I have been doing a LOT.

Druid, Kickingbird

Leveled to 79
Mining 450, enchanting 390ish
Kalu'ak-will be exalted today for epic fishing pole and penguin pet
have done some tough quests and getting over my fear of grouping for some quests-will discuss later

Rogue, Rayak

Leveled to almost 73(only grouping with hubby and kid)
Herbalism 450, Inscription 370 or something-I don't even care

Death Knight, Krevsun

Leveled to 60
Mining 224

Death Knight, Boreanaz

Leveled to 61, nearly 62
Mining 156, skinning 151

Mage, Wormtongue

Leveled to nearly 71
Alchemy 406, discovered Elixir of Major Mageblood

So yeah, I've been playing a lot. Maybe I should take a break.

Well, some interesting observations, quests I soloed, and screenshots coming later.

As the World...of Warcraft...Turns

What's good for the solo-er in Patch 4.1

The state of a small guild

Loremaster at last!

Still solo after all these years

The newest mini-pets

So many new alts

Archaeology 315

Archaeology thoughts

Cataclysmic mess

Lost my password again....

What have I been up to?

Computers, ugh.

Children's Week

And I said I hated PvP...

Eighty number Eight

First egg!

Love stinks!

Love is in the Air-NOT!

Self portrait

End game

I'd like you to like me

Wyndampryce turns 36

What to do when bored

I admit...

Maybe I'm a cheapskate...

New Year's Resolutions

When is it too much WoW?

Year in Review 2009

And that makes level 70 or higher #16

Leveling a Rogue now

What I *will* do for mini-pets

Ain't it purty?

Not a happy camper

Feeling Safer

My Army of Alts...some notes

Oldest Screenshot!

Solo gear on my druid

Looking For Guts

More Patch 3.3

Patch 3.3 coming

It's just a game!

Am I casual?

Just for the record

Another 80...to play or not to play

I've never...(updated)

What now?

Ding 80 #6...and I've chickened out..oh and Brewfest

So how did the raids go?

Kickingbird's 25 Exalted reputations

Don't faint-I joined a guild

Guardian of Cenarius

Maintenance-thoughts on Cataclysm

SilverDragon

I love my daughter :)

Some luck FINALLY!

Working on rep, solo

Another new add-on

Let's see how that's gone after one week

Back from vacation just in time!

Keeping track of the jerks

Yeah, I can't quit

Remembering a Titan

God is great

And Ding 80 #5

Ding 80 #4!

I love Death Knights!

Deadman's Hand...woot!

Way to go Penguins!!

Mounts at 20?!?!

I've never...

Isn't she cute?

Another fawn!

Crusader Kickingbird

Wyndampryce, level 30 Demon Hunter

Little Fawn pet

Wyndampryce, level 29 Demon Hunter

Got my Sea Turtle!

Explorer #5

And it goes down...of course

What I will do for mini-pets