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. 

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!

Wyndampryce, level 30 Demon Hunter

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