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. 

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!

Little Fawn pet

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

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

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

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