Stop Calling Me Commander!

  I killed Deathwing for the first time *last week*. I killed Arthas for the first time a few weeks before that. I am NOT that "Hero" that all the NPCs keep referring to. It is driving me a little crazy with every person I pass speaking about me as if I'm something special. Guess what, guys, I'm not. And it really cracks me up that a character that barely hit 90 before we ventured to Draenor, has never seen the inside of a dungeon, is talked about in Ashran's main cities as if they are a "rock star".

  How on Azeroth do these people know this character? How would they have heard of some random adventurer who stumbles into town? I have come to ignore it. Maybe I'm wearing a name tag(over my head?!?) so that is how they know who I am. But why do they care?

  And the garrisons. I get that I'm am sort of "in charge" and telling all these folks hanging around what to do and where to go. I've been sending them out to do things even *I* wouldn't do. They craft things I can't, they gather things I can't. I feel more like a manager at Wal-mart, and not one of the ones that wear nice shirts and ties to work, just one of the guys who gets yelled at when things go wrong.

  I have lots and lots of characters. I have never killed a raid boss when it was relevant. I have never even killed a DUNGEON (end)boss when it was at the correct level! For 9 years I have been running dungeons and raids only when I vastly out-level them. Those don't count!

  I don't have many complaints about this expansion(yet), but this is just one minor facet that gets under my skin a little.

One Week Into Warlords...

  This place is beautiful. Overall I am having a really good time. I am however feeling a little overwhelmed at times. Logging in each morning to deal with garrisons on 16(at this point in time) characters can be taxing. I'm already kind of tired of seeing that mine. I will probably figure out some sort of system, but right now I feel like I need to do everything!

  One week in and I have 1 level 100. A level 94, 8 more at 92 and 6 still at 91. And another 20whatever that haven't made it through the Jungle. And today begins the Anniversary event. My level 100, my main if you will, still hasn't really done any quests in Nagrand and has an ilvl of 601. And you need 615 to get into the Molten Core LFR. Oh I will probably hit that with crafted gear and rare drops/quest upgrades and maybe some pvp gear. But do I really want to attempt the LFR? Still not sure yet.

  So what have I managed to accomplish in one week outside of leveling?

• PROFESSIONS: Aside from mining, they aren't really going anywhere. A few points here and there, but nowhere near 700. Fishing and cooking(as a byproduct of fishing) are high 600s, but regular professions, forget it. I can't wait for Darkmoon Faire. 
• BATTLE PETS: Yep, went out and gathered up all the battle pets available for that achievement. Frostwolf Ghostpup was my 2nd archaeology find. Crafted the Elekk Plushie and Lifelike Mechanical Frostboar. And I have most of the pets found out and about from rares and treasures. And hit that 600 mark on the last captured battle pet to get that achievement for the Stormwing. Doing good in this catagory. And can I say, that level 2 of the menagerie with all your little fave pets running around the garrison makes me smile to no end!
• MOUNTS: I chickened out and bought Garn Nighthowl off the auction house. It wasn't too expensive though, I've definitely spent waaaay more on other mounts. Working on the Garrison Stables mounts, looking forward to those. Have not managed to find any of the rare drops yet. Ain't got time for camping, haven't been lucky to be right place right time.
• GARRISONS: Got the achievement for level 3 mines easily. Halfway to herb garden achievement, pretty close on lumberyard. The rest are going to take a very long time. 
• ANYTHING ELSE? I pretty much haven't seen any place other than Draenor for the first week. And I found out that 12 hours a day really is my limit to playing. I used to stop around 5pm to make dinner, watch tv with family. Now I play 5am to 5pm and hit a wall, even if I'm not spending loads of time on dinners(lots of pre-made meals still available). And lots of server maintenance(like today) helps with getting up and getting other things done around the house! So I'm not complaining. 

  Overall impressions? I love the quests, I won't get sick of that while leveling many characters. The random upgrades are really exciting, though frustrating when it comes on from a rare that drops something you can't use. The garrisons are fun though still overwhelming, but I'll figure that out eventually. The landscape is beautiful, though Gorgrond still scares the hell out of me. Lack of flying? Not too bad, though I sure wouldn't mind having it in Spire of Arak, that place is confusing! 

  One other note, I have yet to set my hearthstone on any character in the Ashran cities. I just can't bring myself to do it and I don't really know why yet. Maybe it's a protest because of the adjacent pvp zone. I'd just rather go back to the shrine or Orgrimmar/Stormwind than spend any more time than necessary in those new towns. 

Yes, Illidan, I will be prepared!

  As we wait to join the masses headed into the 'new' Dark Portal, we should take the time to make sure we are ready. Really ready. I mean prepared in-game, in body, in spirit, in mind. In refrigerator. What garrison buildings will I make? What will I drink to keep me awake? What snacks won't stain my keyboard? So I made checklists...

In Game

• Bags: Made sure I had the biggest possible without breaking the bank. That means "free" bags from Onyxia(22 slot), Mannoroth(20), Forge of Souls 1st boss(20 or 22), Grummie Pack(24). And cleaning them out. Get rid of Timeless Isle buff things, old food(still had Northrend food on a few characters!)  And being consistent among characters-hearthstone always in same place, etc. Opening up a good 70 or so bag spaces means less time spent using vendor or bank. Done.
• Banks: Clean out as much as possible in bank, make use of reagent bank and void storage. Not all my characters have loads of bank space, but with the toy box and extra void storage, it is certainly better than it was!
• Action Bars: Consistency is the key. Making sure things are set just the way I want them, favorite mounts chosen, any macros set, similar spells on the same keybind, etc. The great spell purge made room on the bars for things like toys and more mounts/pets!
• Glyphs: Many glyphs changed in patch 6.0.2. Make sure you have all the ones you want and have them installed. Some glyphs even changed to be "exclusive" with others(such as no 'Glyph of Mend Pet' and 'Glyph of Mending' at the same time). Time to find new ones to use. My 4 scribes(1 for each of my main realms I use) were able to use the new research method to learn all those hard to find glyphs(Unbound Elemental for example) and made glyphs for all of my alts. 
• Transmog set: I know this seems trivial, but gotta look good while crushing the Iron Horde. Oh and I still need to go buy that yak for transmog on the go!
• Buffs: On the last day of Hallows End, I made sure all of my characters got the bonfire buff that last 2 hours( Unburdened for Alliance/Grim Visage for Horde) for a 10%experience boost, as well as the Darkmoon Faire xp buff available this week. I'm not really sure how much these will increase the leveling in the first couple of hours but any little bit helps I suppose. 

Preparing my mind

  Everything should be just right when you plan to play for extended periods of time. The Dark Portal will open(or however we get there) for me at 2am. That means going to bed early, setting the alarm, and attempting to wake up and be ready at that time. Not to mention I will have to take the kiddo to school at 7am. Preparing my mind means making sure that I can be in the right state of mind for the first few days. As I write this, it is T-minus 12 days until launch. I won't be playing much in the next 12 days. Some pet battles with lower level alts and that's about it. For someone with 44 level 90s, I probably don't get 'burnt out' like others do. But I do get that need to get away when I spend too much time in-game. And with the amount of game time incoming, I want to clear my mind before launch day.

  This also means preparing my work zone. In the next week and a half, I will do lots of cleaning. All laundry possible(so nobody asks for ANYTHING while I'm trying to play!), completely cleaning off and disinfecting my desk, and then making sure the kiddo and hubby prepare their work zones! Any yard work or house work or anything that might need to be done, I'll be doing it double this week just to be sure I'm not interrupted.
 
Preparing my body

   One of the best things you can do on a gaming binge is to attempt to snack healthy and take the time to get UP from the desk and move around. I'm not really the healthiest eater, but I'm making a checklist for groceries with better choices and easy make-ahead meals for at least a week.

• Drinks: Gatorade, water(flavored), some soda(but not excessive), ice coffee drink things(I'm not a huge coffee drinker), frozen smoothies. I don't do energy drinks, but if that's your choice what can I say?
• Healthier snacks: pre-packaged apple slices w/caramel, carrot sticks w/ranch, granola/power bars, popcorn, hard boiled eggs, nuts like peanuts or almonds. And gum.
• Easy and make-ahead meals: Sure, there will be hot pockets and frozen pizzas, but I also intend to pre-cook some of ground pork, keilbasa and chicken; maybe do a slow cooker pulled pork shoulder; get tortillas and whole grain bread; and my all-time go-to mac&cheese. 

  I am lucky in that my hubby and kiddo also play, so we will all be in this together. Kiddo of course has to go to school during the week. And hubby works nights so he won't even be home when the launch happens.

  Another habit I have is to browse the internet when on flight paths. And constantly checking Twitter. Those will be put on hold of course, though I might just keep one Twitter page open just for updates and to keep track of notices from BlizzardCS. During flight paths: GET UP AND MOVE! I've never been one to update this blog daily, but I will try to keep anyone who still reads this at least once a week(Tuesdays during maintenance?) how things are going with my many, many alts.

Last but not least

  I will be spending the time I am not playing these next 12 days doing research. I was in beta, but things changed so much from day to day. I will research garrisons, new stats, rares, toys, minipets, and more. And then make write what I need to know in a notebook so I don't have to alt-tab out to Wowhead all the time. And then make more cheatsheets for hubby so he doesn't ask me every 5 minutes "what extra stat do hunters need again?".


  And hopefully then I will be prepared for Warlords of Draenor on November 13, 2014!

Turning Off the New Models

  Egads, thank goodness for masks that cover the face. And my "Defias Mage" wears the Outlander's Facewrap to cover this yap. Even so, I had to turn new models off. I really hate that I did though because this is the big thing for the expansion. Everyone wants new models and when they FINALLY get them everybody says "ewwwww!" I wouldn't want to be a game designer. Can't please everyone.

  But perhaps the real reason is because I am apparently playing World of Warcraft on a potato. The log in page always says "your device is out of date, blah blah blah". I go to device driver in computer thingee and hit "update driver" and voila, it says "your device is up to date!". Except WoW continues to tell me it is out of date. So apparently the video driver is so God awful that it just isn't good enough anymore. My fps is never over 25, and I'm pretty sure that's not good. And that is with all settings as low as I can figure out how to set them.

  I mean I can still play just fine. I'm not seeing weird glitches and the lag is only really bad when I try to watch youtube videos and run through one of the shrines at the same time. So I guess I can just keep on keeping on? I am so clueless when it comes to the "innards" of computers, the whole thing you see on the forums when people print out a massive length of gibberish and someone else goes "well there's your problem!" Wha? If I needed a new video card I would have no way of knowing WHAT to get(or if I can afford it) and how to place it inside the innards of this here magic box thing.

  So you see the exasperation on my mage's face? Yeah, not too different to mine right now.

Transmog Tuesday: Blood Elf Hunter

  Since the Orb of the Sin'dorei became account bound in the new toy box, I've decided that nearly every transmog I've done on my character looks FABULOUS on male Blood Elves. I do love them dearly. Anyway, this is one of my many Blood Elves and his mog.

Brittle Flamereaver Mask
Equilibrium Epaulets
Shamblehide Chestguard
Bloodstained Ravager Gauntlets
Scale Leggings of the Skirmisher
Landfall Chain Boots
Restrung Voodoo Bow
Tabard of Summer Flames


And yes, I do only use red pets and red mounts and his hair is red underneath that mask!

If you have any questions you can ask here or find me on Twitter!

In Memoriam Citizens of Orgrimmar

Found this in the Cleft of Shadow, just off the Drag(okay, actually my kiddo found it).

In this dark cleft, the true shadows of
madness and vengeance took hold, and
many faithful Orgrimmar citizens lost
their lives.

Let us never forget the lessons that
were learned in the siege of Orgrimmar.

Apart, we will fall. Together, we are
Horde.


I've never done Siege of Orgrimmar, I've never even watched any videos of it, so I don't really know anything about it. But I thought this was a really nice tribute to those who were lost.

First Impressions are Everything

Gonna talk about the first *barely* 24 hours of the patch. Disappointed in some things, very happy about others.

• New Character Models-I wasn't real thrilled with them, I knew that pretty much going in. And though my computer handled beta just fine, I had massive lag during the first bit of logging in so I turned new models off. Maybe the lag was just server stress, or it could be me, but I like my old models for now.
• Class Changes-I haven't played all 11 classes yet, and there are good and bad for the ones I have played. Druid:hate hate hate the travel form change, hate it. Really can't say that enough. And my glyph that made stealth faster is gone. Boo. Mage: So squishy, so so squishy, ugh. Rogue, Paladin, Death Knight: so far so good.  Haven't played the other classes yet.
• Guild Levels Gone-Haven't really noticed. Is anything missing? Not sure yet.
• Blasted Lands Quests- Fairly easy. I was only going to do once, because all is account wide. However I think they hotfixed in some gear rewards so a ring, necklace, cape and trinket that are for the most part better than all my characters are wearing(Ilvl 515), yeah, I'll take those. They only take about 20 minutes, plus the chance at finding a Bronze Whelpling pet(none yet). And the Iron Starlette pet comes in different breeds(if you know anything about pet battles), AND they are cage-able, which means after the quests are gone I will have 40 EXTRA to sell!
• Stat Squish-Barely noticeable, really. That whole "lower level dungeons/raid will be a cakewalk" thing, so far for me, is AWESOME! I've only gone to Zul'Gurub to farm those two mounts, but what was taking me and the kid a real effort to kill those bosses, I can now kill alone in about 5 seconds! Incredible! Black Temple, you are next!
• Toy Box- This is excellent of course, I think I'm over 80some toys right now, still trying to find them all(so many alts!). I see much typing of DELETE in my future when I really get to cleaning out bags. 
• Reagent Bank-helpful some now, but holy cow it will come in handy when Warlords hits. 
• Void Storage extra page-Not gonna lie, this has really come in handy for a couple of my characters! So much room!

 I haven't looked at the auction house, and so many add-ons are borked that it's going to take me awhile to adjust. And of course there are bugs and crashes. Not to mention BEING LIED TO ABOUT BEING ABLE TO FIGHT ORDOS WITHOUT A CLOAK. Whatever, I hear even the elite cloakies can't beat him right now. Nope, I don't NEED raid gear if I don't raid, but there is MORE in the world than raiding, like those War bosses that drop the mounts, the dinos that drop Primal Eggs-it would be nice to have better gear to fight those without having to raid. Celestials was a nice addition that I did for awhile, and got a few things, but whatever, I won't complain anymore about that(or try not to anyway).

Overall Grade so far: C+

Transmog Tuesday: Dwarf Shaman

 Today's transmog outfit is on my Elemental Dwarf Shaman, another one of my very favorite outfits.

Stalker's Helm of Second Sight
Drakesfire Epaulets
Raiders Chestpiece
Ironforge Tabard
Raiders Gauntlets
Rotberry Waistband
Raiders Legguards
Engraved Boots
Dragonstrike Reborn(not actually transmogged, that's the weapon he is using)
Royal Treasury Couriers Shield


Much of this set is based on the Raiders/Marshcreeper sets, and there lots of alternatives to go with them-and requires a lot of patience waiting for the pieces to show up on the auction house. There are also a number of different options for shoulders, but I found these cheap on the auction house and like how the spikes work with the rest of the outfit.

 If you have any questions you can ask here or find me on Twitter!

Patch Tomorrow! What's in it for Soloers?

  Patch 6.0.2, the advance patch for Warlords of Draenor, arrives on our computers tomorrow, Tuesday the 14th. (I don't expect to play until Wednesday of course, isn't that typical?) So what is in it for soloers and altoholics? Quite a lot!

• New Character Models-this change is purely subjective. I'm not wild about the changes and might revert mine to the old models for awhile. It might also be better for my computer to be on the old, lower pixel, models. I was in beta and honestly wasn't really thrilled with the new look or movements. But they might grow on me.
• Class Changes- so many things here. As an altoholic, and as someone with at least 2 of each class at level 90(one each Horde and Alliance), it's going to take time to get used to all of the changed. There is a lot of ability pruning, which in some cases is a good thing. There is one change that really grinds my gears at this point-taking away my Druid cheetah form when I choose to use it! What that means it "travel form" is one button-aquatic, land and flight. So that means if I am in an area with flight enabled such as anywhere on Azeroth, I can't just run around in cheetah(I HATE stag form), can't run back and forth from mailbox to auction house, can't do archaeology in cheetah, can't just run around where ever I want in my beautiful, beloved little cheetah! My first main was a Druid, and I ran that little cheetah until nearly level 60 because I couldn't afford a mount way back then. I LOVE MY CHEETAH! DON'T TAKE IT AWAY! (sorry for the rant)
• Guild Levels Gone- as a soloer, this one doesn't affect me as much, or it doesn't matter as much-and it's ultimately a good thing. Yes on my 4 main realms, 3 have personal guilds. One has managed to get to 25, the other two are at around 15. This change means all guilded characters get all of the benefits that level 25 guilds used to have. And all of my unguilded characters? The perks aren't worth it for me to attempt to find some place with strangers to hang around. 
• Blasted Lands Quests- the new expansion event, sending us to the Dark Portal to fight off the Iron Horde invasion. Looks rather easy to do. At this point I am pretty sure that the achievement title, ...the Iron Vanguard, is account wide, so I won't have to do the quests 43 times! I hope that is the case. However, the mini pet that comes with it apparently comes in different breeds-and if you are into pet battles, that could mean doing the quests numerous times in order to get the "right ones". Plus, there is a Bronze Whelpling that drops from the mobs in the area, so I am expecting much farming in the weeks to come.
• Stat Squish-this might be one that throws the casual player off if they haven't bothered to read anything at all in the last few months. On beta I barely noticed the number difference. BONUS thing here is there will be a new mechanic added to older raids/dungeons(lower than 85-?-)that will make them basically a steam roll for those at level 90 or higher. I really hope that means I can send all alts to Zul'Gurub to farm those mounts each day!
• Stat Changes- reforging is gone. For someone who didn't raid, I never bothered with reforging, so I really don't care. The stats "hit, expertise, dodge and parry" are gone. Since I never bothered to do the whole min/max thing, these don't mean much. But this means the annoying part of mobs dodging you hits is gone! Excellent!
• Auction House Merger- Horde and Alliance auction houses as one, dogs and cats living together. Not really sure how this will be. Glut of resources to compete with though more buyers. But no more sneaky selling things to your cross faction alts. Hoping for cross faction mail in the future. 
• Justice and Valor Points gone- never gathered many of these, so just send me the money from all the valor I gained doing dailies in Pandaria!
• Toy Box -might be biggest change of all! All those fun items taking up valuable bank and bag space moved to toy box! Account wide so ALL my characters can use the Orb of Deception or other fun things! I can't wait for this!
• Reagent Bank -a whole other bank page JUST for reagents. Costs 100g, which is pittance. Auto-upload all mats to that page, goodbye inscription, engineering, mining bags. For characters without access to a personal guild bank, this is very helpful. Not to mention most mats changing from 20 per stack to 200 per stack. Oh yes.
• Void Storage- a whole 'nother page for Void Storage. Hoarders and transmog collectors rejoice!

  So those are the main changes. There are other minor UI changes, such as adding a number to cooldowns(goodbye OmniCC), more info on Mount page plus a "favorite mount" option with button, quest log and map merger, change to some older dungeons-RFC, RFK and BFD, and all those nasty Kor'Kron guards are gone from Orgrimmar and Undercity. There are quite a few other changes to current raids and a new level 90 dungeon, but as a soloer those do not affect me.

  Now let's see how soon we actually get to play!

Solo Mount Farming While Waiting for 6.0

    One of the things I've been doing for the last however many months, in addition to leveling alts, is to farm mounts. At this moment, as I write this, I am at 198 mounts. Most are from reputations or grinds such as the Argent Tournament. Some require incredible luck out in the world(such as the Time Lost Proto Drake or Aeonaxx, neither of which I have).But I like the kind you farm on your own inside a dungeon or raid, without anyone else to compete against.

  I'm going to list all the ones that drop in those instances or raids, and whether or not I actually farm them(and how easy they are at lvl 90)

Vanilla Instance Mounts

• Deathcharger Reins-Rivendare in Stratholme(lvl 51): easy though time consuming. I finally got this one after instance timers went up to 10 per hour and I could run more often. 
• Resonating Crystals(4 colors)-trash in Temple of Ahn'Qiraj(lvl 60): easy, and if you kill all the trash just before the first boss, you will probably have 3 of them in the first few runs. The red one takes longer because it's a much rarer drop.

Burning Crusade Instance Mounts

• Raven Lord-Anzu in heroic Sethekk Halls(lvl 70): easy, but it is only one run per day, so having many alts helps here. 
• White Hawkstrider-Kael'thas in heroic Magisters' Terrace(lvl70): easy, but again, heroic, so many alts help here
• Fiery Warhorse-Attumen in Karazhan, raid(lvl70): easy, boss is at very front of raid, but once per week, alts are the key
• Ashes of Al'ar-Kael'thas in Tempest Keep, raid(lvl70): middle. Time consuming since you have to kill other bosses first, and KT adds are so annoying with stuns. I don't have this one and I rarely attempt it because it's so annoying.

Wrath of the Lich King Instance Mounts

• Blue Proto Drake-Skadi in heroic Utgarde Pinnacle(lvl 80): easy, second boss in instance-but you can skip the first one; heroic means once per day, alts mean many more attempts.
• Bronze Drake-Infinite Corrupter in heroic Culling of Stratholme(lvl 80): easy but time consuming, waiting for Arthas. This is 100% drop if you get to certain part of dungeon in a certain amount of time.
• Grand Black War Mammoth-4 bosses in raid Vault of Archavon(lvl 80): middle. I could typically fight 2 or 3 of the bosses depending on character. The main issue here is your faction must control Wintergrasp to do the raid. I'm not much of a pvper, and it seemed like my faction rarely has WG. Finally got this one to drop this very morning!!
• Azure Drake-Malygos in raid Eye of Eternity(10 or 25man)(lvl 80): easy. Once I figured out the right tactic, it seemed really easy. 
• Blue Drake-Malygos in raid Eye of Eternity(10 or 25man)(lvl 80): easy, same as Azure. I got both mounts in one attempt each by two different alts. Not sure if it's a high drop rate or I got really lucky!
• Black Drake-Sartharion in Obsidium Sanctum(10 man)(lvl 80): tough. It is a guaranteed drop if you kill Sartharion while leaving the three other main drakes alive. Didn't actually solo, duo'd with my kiddo.
• Twilight Drake-Sartharium in Obsidium Sanctum(25 man)(lvl 80): tough. Another guaranteed drop with the 3 drakes up, finally trio'd TODAY with kiddo and hubby
• Onyxian Drake-Onyxia in Onyxia's Lair raid(lvl 80): middle. Depends on the character, some classes were much easier than others. I was able to solo with about 15 or my characters a week; finally dropped for one of my Rogue's.
• Mimiron's Head and Invincible-both are 25man lvl 80 raids, and I've yet to even set foot in them to attempt.

Cataclysm Instance Mounts

• Drake of the North Wind-Altairus in Vortex Pinnacle(lvl 84): easy with rogue. Second boss in, on normal with Combat Rogue, these are really easy. Tip: if you don't get the drop you can jump off side and be teleported back to entrance, step out, reset and repeat. 
• Vitreous Stone Drake-Slabhide in Stonecore(lvl 84): easy with rogue, same as above. Also with quick portal back to front. 
• Zulian Panther and Razzashi Raptor-bosses in heroic Zul'Gurub(lvl 85): tough. I can't solo them, but I have started to duo them with my kiddo and out stealthy characters on the weekends. No luck here yet.
• Pretty much every other mount from level 85 raids and anything else, I don't even bother with. 

  As I mentioned above, I'm currently at 198 mounts, with a Primal Egg due to hatch in 2 days. I finally figured out that I can farm the small dinosaurs on Isle of Giants with my hunter *and* the bones they drop are becoming non-bound with patch 6.0 so I can send the ones I gather with my hunter to my main druid who already had a large stack going.  I will have another post with the other sort of mounts that can be farmed while solo such as those that come from the Primal Egg.

Thanks for reading!


Updated to add:  Thanks to Joar for reminding me about the mount you get when you complete Zul'Aman in a certain time. Will need to read up on that and *hopefully* after tomorrow it will be much easier to complete!
Also, my Primal Egg turned into a green raptor-which I already had!! Nooooo!
And thanks to help from kiddo and hubby, we managed the hardest of the achievements for the Northrend Heroic Dungeon and added the Red Proto Drake to my mounts. Now I am stuck at 199!

Transmog Tuesday

This is my Moon Guard rogue. Transmog is:
Bloodfang Mask
Spaulders of Black Betrayal
Gladiator's Leather Tunic
Hellscream's Reach Tabard
Dog Training Gloves
Nightslayer Belt
Bloodfang Pants
Worn Running Boots
Gutgore Ripper x2 on daggers

If you have any questions, you can ask here or on Twitter!

Tip of the Day-Tol Barad tabard

  Looking for something to do while waiting for Warlords of Draenor? One of the items I've been spending the last few weeks acquiring is the Tol Barad tabard( Horde:  http://www.wowhead.com/item=63378 , Alliance: http://www.wowhead.com/item=63379) . It is basically an extra hearth back to Orgrimmar/Stormwind. If you are placing your hearthstone at the Ashran capitals, you have a hearthstone for your garrison, there are times when you just need to get back to your faction's main city for whatever reason. Not all of my characters are in a guild, so hearthstones are on 30 minute cooldown and no option for the guild cloaks. So Tol Barad tabard it is.

 These tabards are available to Honored and cost 40 Tol Barad Commendations. If your faction has control of the lower island with the extra dailies, then you could get your tabard is as few as 4-5 days. And being level 90, the quests are easy to plow through and yet the mobs are green level and gathering ears for the Darkmoon strength quest is easy. Not to mention selling all embersilk cloth, and savage leather if you are a skinner, on the auction house.

  I know most people reading won't need this extra route to your faction capital, like I said, with 15 minute hearth, guild cloaks, etc. But in my opinion you can't go wrong having yet another way back when you need it. Plus the tabards are rather stylish with the Horde being mostly black with red trim and Horde symbol on the front, Alliance being a brown with eagle face on front.


Coming later...after maintenance...Transmog Tuesday!

Why I Still Solo World of Warcraft

  Today was going to be a post about collecting mounts as a soloist, but I'm having Comcast issues and can't seem to stay online for more than 30 minutes at a time. Playing WoW has been right out the window today. Which stinks for me really, because what else am I going to do with my time? Stare at Twitter waiting for new tweets to come through. Welcome to my world.

  So I thought I would talk about the reason why I still solo-and only solo-in WoW.  When I started this blog, there were a number of other blogs by people who soloed in WoW. And then LFG came to the game and it seems that the definition of "soloing" went out the window. In my opinion, if you are joining dungeon and raid groups, you are no longer "solo", even if you never converse with others you are still grouping with them. I have absolutely no want to ever group with other players in this game. Nothing personal, I'm sure there are some really nice players out there, I talk to a few through my blog here or on Twitter. But the thought of grouping in game sends me into a panic attack. And that's just the first reason.


  Availability
       When you join a group, whether it is dungeon or raid, you are committing yourself for an undetermined set of time. You are agreeing to help the other 4/9/24whatever number of people to accomplish the task at hand. You will not suddenly bail out for no reason. But I can't do that. My kid comes first, and if she calls and says she needs me for whatever reason, I want to be able to drop what I'm doing and go. I've only got a few more years where this might happen because before long she just flat out won't need me anymore. I'm there for her no matter what and I refuse to bail on a group if something comes up, so I won't join any groups in the first place.

Bad Player
     For those reading who do LFR and LFG, I've read the stories-there's always the really awful players who do horrible dps, die all the time, etc. Nobody wants to be "that guy". I especially don't want to be "that guy/gal". But if I joined a group, I can guarantee with 100% certainty that I would be. Not interested in attempting to soar with eagles because I don't want to be the turkey.

Panic Attacks/Social Anxiety Disorder
   Is it a mental illness or just an excuse? I had a panic attack this weekend in a huge crowd at a high school function. They aren't fun. I can't control them. When someone I don't know talks to me or gets too close, I freak out. I prefer to use self-checkout lanes and if there aren't any, I probably seem rude because I don't make eye contact or answer questions in complete sentences. In the game, if someone whispers me out of the blue, I generally get really defensive, apologize profusely or just log out and play another character-and it doesn't even matter what the whisper was about! I've had people whisper telling me to go "straight to hell" because I helped kill a rare mob on Timeless Isle that this guy was "trying to tame", and people whisper me asking if I want to group up to farm for rep. I treat them both the same-panic, log out, move on. It's just how I am. The only people I talk to-not just on a daily basis, but EVER-are my husband and daughter. That's it! My mom lives out of town and I have no friends at all. That's my life, sitting at the computer, playing WoW or watching youtube.


There Is No Main, Only Alts
   As I mentioned the other day, I have 43 level 90s. I love the gratification of leveling up. Getting new gear does not excite me(unless it's transmog gear, my characters have to look good, even if they are just farming!). Plus I have this weird thing where I almost absolutely can not level a character that doesn't have rested xp. Must have blue line, no purple! So I level many characters at once. And when they hit max level, I don't care what their item level is, I move on to the next character to level. None of my characters got the legendary cloak, but I did manage enough reputations at exalted to get "the Beloved" title.

  So you see, I do love this game, there is plenty to do as a soloer, but I don't need anyone else to make my experience better. If it requires outside help, then it isn't something I need to have. Pet battles, farming transmog, farming mats, crafting for alts, farming old mounts and leveling alts-plenty to take up all my time in Azeroth and beyond.

Quick post

  Short post this morning, since I'm headed to a band competition that will take all day. I wanted to post my Twitter handle here so if anyone wants to follow @scoutalt. I should probably put that over --------------------> there somewhere. Will work on that tomorrow.

 Post coming tomorrow will be about farming mounts!

Hi Joar!

Holy Crap, I'm Back!

   HEY! HI!! Yes, it's been over a year since my last post. I could say that I lost my password or make up some other excuse. There are many reasons I haven't written in so long. One is that I've been too focused on playing World of Warcraft. Yeah, I have 43 level 90s. Yes you read that right, FORTY-THREE. And another at 86 that I want to get to 90 before patch 6.0 comes out. It seems like all I ever do is play WoW. I also wasn't sure anyone really cared about this blog. There don't seem to be too many 100% soloers out there anymore, especially with LFR and whatnot. I'm still nearly 100%. I don't really count grouping with my kiddo or hubby as "grouping" since they are sitting right beside me-they count as "me", just "more me". Does that make sense?

  Getting ready for Warlords of Draenor. The more I read, the more I hate, to be honest. I think garrisons are going to take up so much time that I won't have enough time to level alts. I also do not like that it seems so many of the perks from the different buildings require drops from dungeons. I'll never get the "inn" complete, because that is basically for dungeon dailies and requires them all being done to upgrade to level 3. Not ever going to happen for me. And that goes for all the mounts and pets that come from those quests. I won't be getting them. But I will deal with that.

  I've been on beta, leveled to 98 through many changes. I HATE the change to Druid travel form. I want to be my little cheetah whenever I want, not when they decide I can be a cheetah. I am not going to have fun with my Druids anymore, I can already feel it. The rest of the classes-and I do have at least 2 of every class at 90, one each on Horde and Alliance-have changed, but I haven't really tried them out too much on beta. The like/hate for them remains to be seen.

  Another thing pushing me farther into my shell...Twitter. I joined and found lots of other WoW players. But it seems like anywhere else you go, there are cliques. I was hoping Twitter would be the place I could go and ask any question and get some sort of answer if I couldn't find the answer elsewhere. But I get nothing but crickets. Maybe I'm not asking right. Maybe people follow me out of pity and then immediately put me on mute. I'm not really sure the answer to THAT question either. Ask a simple question "what should I do with extra justice points before they go away? Convert to honor or just wait for the money conversion?" Crickets. Yeah maybe I thought I might find some sort of friend by blogging or using Twitter, someone out there who has a similar interest to mine, but I am thinking I am the only lonely old woman who has nothing else but her cats and WoW to keep her company and nobody wants to be friends with someone like THAT.

  So back into my hole I will crawl. Well, not completely. I figured out my password, and the new expansion is coming. And there are solo things to talk about. Even if nobody cares what the shut-in has to say, I'm gonna say it.

"Demon Hunter" reaches level 85

   If you have read this blog for several years(haha doubt that), you might know about my "Rogue Demon Hunter" that I started back in 2008(Wyndampryce). In short, I love the tv show "Angel" and thought the idea of the character of Wesley Wyndam-Pryce calling himself a "Rogue Demon Hunter" got me wanting to have one of my own. We may someday have an actual class of "Demon Hunter", but until then I decided I would make a "Rogue" who was strictly a "Demon Hunter". For his first forty some-odd levels, I only leveled him by grinding on Demon "creatures" in the world. As he got higher, finding Demons to fight has become more difficult. So I started in on quests.
 
  The only quests I allowed him to complete were those that did not include killing anything, or killing Demons. Holiday quests have been a huge boon to his leveling all these years. As have cooking and fishing dailies that came along later.
  Up until level 60, the only mobs he had killed were Demons-except for 2 humans who happened to be Warlocks(in Desolace). I figured they controlled the Demons, so it didn't hurt my count too bad.
  Outland was fairly easy to get through. There are Demons all over the place. But Northrend proved a challenge. He got stuck in his 70s for quite a long time until I decided to adapt. I decided that the real enemy there, and maybe just as bad as Demons, were the Scourge. So killing Undead/Scourge became an okay thing to add to his list of ways to level.
  Cataclysm and the 80s have taken quite awhile too. I finally got through it by simply gathering herbs, exploring and archaeology. I actually hit Zen Master Archaeologist at the exact same time I hit level 85. Nice Karma there.

  And now to Pandaria. I am going to have to adapt again. I did the intro quest only up to flying the helicopter around and getting the first weapon reward. Since I wasn't physically killing the Horde with my hands, I deemed it passable. After that though I refuse to kill any Horde at all. Leveling up will include herbalism, archaeology, exploring and the wonderful addition of the treasures of Pandaria that give quite a bit of XP. But as to quests and killing...I've decided on what should be okay to kill and what is off-limits. Sha, Mogu and Sprites are okay; Horde, other humanoids(including Hozen), any beasts, are not okay.

 Should be interesting to see if I can get him to level 90 before the next expansion comes out!

Soloist Guide to Patch 5.0.4

  Today is the big day-the release of Patch 5.0.4, the pre-release patch to Mists of Pandaria. As a soloist, this patch is looking pretty good for me. I am going to go over the most relevant changes first and then take a look at other changes.

•   ACCOUNT WIDE ACHIEVEMENTS, MOUNTS and PETS- this one is HUGE! As a soloist, that also makes me an altoholic. Having at times 20 chances to run holiday bosses or solo old dungeons or get lucky with rare drops while leveling means I have quite a few rare items spread across quite a few characters. My Blood Elf Rogue has the Hyacinth Macaw and Disgusting Oozeling, a Death Knight I rarely play has the Headless Horseman's Mount. Not to mention that buying one Horde and one Alliance Traveler's Tundra Mount means all of my many, many characters now have access to a vendor whenever and wherever they are at. And I am that much closer to the honorable kill achievement(thanks to my kid who loves to PvP on an associated account!).
• AOE LOOTING- As a soloist, I love to spend time going back and seeing which older dungeons and raids I can solo. I also spend quite a bit of time using characters on second account running lower level characters through old dungeons. This is going to cut down A) looting time as I attempt to pull as many of the mobs as possible at a time and B) make deciding what to pick up and when easier (ie, run through Wailing Caverns, pull all of raptors in front area, kill, loot one bag with 'auto loot' turned off and then only loot the greens and hopefully the Deviate Hatchling. Score!).
• CLASS & TALENT POINT CHANGES- For the most part, things are simplified. While some might look at this as the 'dumbing down' of the game, I just look at is as getting a microwave to cook your food instead of the old slow oven. Making life easier isn't necessarily 'dumbing' anything down. And as an altoholic, with so many characters, this will make choosing talents a much quicker deal. Not to mention getting all of your skills for FREE while you are out leveling up! No more visiting the trainer! My current baby Paladin hasn't learned anything for about 10 levels because I just didn't want to pay them knowing this was coming!
• DAILY QUEST LIMIT REMOVED- Okay, now I will admit, with so many characters, I don't usually do that many dailies on any one at a time. But there have been times when my main, my Druid, hit that 25 quest cap in Molten Front without even realizing I was close. And with all of the dailies coming at level 90, it is going to be non-stop questing for me for the next 2 years, heh, and I love it!
• RELICS, RANGED, WANDS, OTHER WEAPON CHANGES- Not that it makes a really big difference, it is really just one item slot less to worry about on every character. Time saver. Not to mention head enchants being removed-another item not to worry about building reputation to obtain.
• MICRO-DUNGEON MAPS- This isn't in the patch notes, but it should be in the patch. And while I am not spatially-challenged(you can't get me lost in the real world-hence the nickname Scout/Skaut!), for some reason at times those caves you come across in Azeroth can be really challenging to negotiate! They have added maps to even the smallest spaces, such as the Caverns of Time area, mines in Elwynn Forest and even more detailed maps for each 1-5 starter zone!

 Those are the changes I am most looking forward to today. And now for the changes I am NOT looking forward to:

• CROSS-REALM ZONES- After my first and main realm was chosen by the friend who got us into the game, I began choosing my new realms by searching for the realms with the least population. I just prefer to not have to compete with other players for mobs and resources. I prefer to play alone and in peace. That's why I shop very early in the morning, I can't stand crowds. Too many idiots out there. That's why I solo! Not looking forward to this.
• SOME CLASS CHANGES- While not necessarily a solo thing, some of the changes are not really welcome. Such as taking away Stampede from my Druids! No more free Ravage after charging. I will miss you Stampede. /sadface
• I WANT MY CHEETAH! Okay, this isn't really solo related either, and it will be resolved over time, but I HATE HATE HATE the new Druid travel form. I have four Druids at max level plus one at 62 and one at 55. I love Druid. But I do not want to be a big ugly deer! Yes, I have scribes that will eventually be making Glyph of Cheetah so I can have my precious little cheetah back, but from what I can tell it will not be available until learned from the new Mists of Pandaria level Inscription-and then not until it is discovered by each of my scribes. That could be a long way away. And with Druid as my main, it's not going to be an easy month for me. 

 Well, that is about it really. Most of the other changes don't affect me as a soloist at all. Those include Valor/Conquest point changes, BattleTag support(I don't have any friends), and PvE queue frames changed.

Overall this looks to be a very fun patch for a soloist and altoholic like me!

More Transmog

  I have decided to just flat out post screenshots of the rest of my characters in their transmogrification outfits. If you have any questions about any of the gear you can ask in the comments or find me on Twitter @graveskaut
  In no particular order, these are most of my level 85 characters. Not all of my 85s have transmog sets, and some are not quite complete, so I did not post them. Some of these, I admit, probably could use a better shot to show the outfit. I might do another showing the outfits using the Mog-it panel. 

Dwarf Hunter with Skoll

Undead Death Knight

Blood Elf Paladin

Undead Warlock

Gnome Rogue

Dwarf Paladin

Blood Elf Death Knight

Blood Elf Rogue

Worgen Druid

Troll Druid

Undead Warrior

Gnome Goblin

Tauren Shaman

Orc Hunter

Blood Elf Hunter

Dwarf Shaman

Preparing for Leveling a Monk

  With the coming of Mists of Pandaria are the new class Monk as well as the new race Pandaren. Nearly all races can be Monks(with the exception of Goblin and Worgen), and Pandaren can be Hunter, Mage, Priest, Rogue, Shaman, Warrior and of course, Monk. I intend to level several of each, though I haven't quite decided for sure which!

  What I do know is that as soon as the expansion starts up on the morning of the 25th, I will be leveling an Undead Monk on my main realm(yeah for 11th slot!). I know that it will be impossible to get realm first, seeing as how they are allowing "raf"-"refer a friends" to level to 80 instantly to be eligible for the achievement. I didn't expect to be able to even compete with anyone else, as I have things to do like take my kid to and from school and ya know, sleep. I am going to level mine as quickly as possible though, well, just because. My Monk will not be my first level 90, but I will probably get him to at least 80-something before I start on my main Druid.

  And boy have I prepared for my Monk. I went by several lists made for those who intend to race to realm first(or where going to before "raf"), and did a bit of studying different professions and items to see what else I could do for him. I am also going to be really using heirlooms for the first time. Well, I had tons of Darkmoon Faire tokens laying around and figured why the heck not-now that I have 90 levels to get through! I do not have access to the helm as my main guild is only level 12(still not bad for only 3 people!).

What follows is a rough list of the things I have gathered with some more notes at the end.

Consumables:
elixirs of agility, 1 stack of each level available(in all different versions)
elixirs of trolls blood or fort(or whichever guardian are available at each level)
healing potions(though I don't think I'll need them much)
heavy knothide armor kits
enchant minor run speed, stack
speed potions
adventurers journals(for level 75-85)
weightstones, stack for each level available
delicate bloodstones, several just in case there are any sockets along the way

Other:
Gnomish Army Knife(for +10 to gathering)
Herbalists Gloves with Gatherer enchant(my Monk will be leveling with mining/herbalism)

Heirlooms:
Venerable Mass of McGowan -mace x2 w/agility enchant
Swift Hand of Justice -trinket x2
Stained Shadowcraft Spaulders
Stained Shadowcraft Tunic -w/stats enchant
Inherited Cape of the Black Baron -cloak w/stealth enchant

I have also collected a massive collection of BoE gear, mostly rare, to be sure my Monk has basically the best available gear at each level. Farming chests in every zone from Hillsbrad to Northrend as well as the rare mobs in Blasted Lands. As you can imagine, farming them means I have several hundred extras items that don't work for my Monk that are sitting waiting for others to come back when Mists is released and buy for their new Pandas of other classes! I also used my husband's leatherworker to craft some of the better items in each level such as the Helm of Fire, Barbaric Bracers and more.

Rings and necklaces-my jewelcrafter has made any best in slot items for leveling

Niffelvar Bearded Axe x2 with Mongoose enchants-these are by far better from levels 71-80.

I've managed to find a few of the items that are available to lower levels in each expansion(ie level 57-60 gear from Burning Crusade is much better than any items of those same level from Classic). They just aren't easy to farm and our realm never had any on the auction house for less than 500g(and I will NOT pay that!). The easiest ones to actually farm were from Blackrock Caverns by sending my Paladin to farm the trash in the first room over and over.


   At this time, one week from the pre-patch and about one month from the expansion, I hope I've been able to get anything I might want/need for my new Monk. I will be leveling at least one Pandaren Monk, and at least one Gnome Monk and possibly several other Pandaren, all on other realms-but I have not prepared for them at all! Not a single thing. But that's okay because I do love leveling and after the rush on the first one, I will be quietly, slowly enjoying leveling the rest of them!

Level 85 #22

A few days ago I got my 22nd character to level 85. A Worgen Druid. This will probably be my last 85 before the expansion comes out. I have a level 80(my "demon hunter"-but demons are just not found in Cata zones, so it will be dailies the rest of the way for him); and 4 more in their 70s; and another 9 in their 60s. As much as I would love to level them all(and might eventually), it is time to buckle down and get ready for Mists of Pandaria. I will be going over what I have prepared for my new monk-to-be in another post.

  So here is what I have at level 85:

• At least one of each race
• At least one of each class
• One Druid of each of the 4 races available

The break down at max level:
Per Class:
Death Knight x2: male Blood Elf, male Undead
Druid x4: female Tauren, male Troll, male Night Elf, male Worgen
Hunter x3: male Blood Elf, female Orc, female Dwarf
Mage x3: male Undead, male Human, male Dwarf
Paladin x2 male Blood Elf, female Dwarf
Priest x1: female Draenei
Rogue x3: male Blood Elf, male Gnome, female Goblin
Shaman x2: female Tauren, male Dwarf
Warlock x1: male Undead

Warrior x1: female Undead

Per Race:
Horde:
1 Orc-female hunter
2 Tauren-female druid, female shaman
1 Troll-male druid
4 Undead-male death knight, male mage, male warlock, female warrior
4 Blood Elf -male death knight, hunter, paladin, rogue
1 Goblin-female rogue

Alliance:
1 Human-male mage
4 Dwarf-female hunter, female paladin, male mage, male shaman
1 Gnome-male rogue
1 Night Elf-male druid
1 Draenei-female priest
1 Worgen-male druid

  There you have it, the break down of all of my level 85 characters. I will be leveling an Undead Monk on Day 1 of Mists of Pandaria(post about that coming soon)-though he will not be my first level 90. That honor goes to my Tauren Druid. She is always my number 1!