Year in Review 2009

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

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

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

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?

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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!

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?

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

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

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)

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?

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

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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 :)

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!

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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!