Sunday, November 30, 2008

Stop It *twitch*

*twitch*

Just stop it now.

*twitch*

I see guildies do it. Friends do it. and I KNOW some of you are doing it.

*twitch*

Stop putting up greens and craftables up on the auction house for less then there disenchant value.

*twitch twitch*

Stop putting up Eternals for less then the ten Crystallize mats are worth.

*twitch*

I went on a buying spree. Aurum received a you don't have enough gold to buy that item message. So I sent more gold. Again with the message.

Just stop it.

*twitch twitch*

What have I been buying cheap this weekend? Frost Lotus for flasks. Items that DE into Greater Cosmic Essence. Eternal Fire. Eternal Water. And lots and lots of other stuff.

*twitch twitch*

I don't feal bad at all that I am making a profit off your ... well... stupidity... comes to mind. I am twitching because I NEED more gold to buy your stuff.

*twitch twitch twitch*

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Lock Food (Shaking Down Mages for their Gold)

Cooking and fishing… Two of my favorite professions to level and use. In my endeavor to be self sufficient and capitalize on the laziness raiders time constraints, I plan on leveling my fishing with farming in mind.

If you don’t recall my farming method is easy.
1. Cast a 30 minute buff (Fel Armor).
2. After 30 minute see if I am still enjoying what I am doing.
3. Repeat as needed.

New farming, I do have a different approach.
1. Check WoWhead.com (or your preferred site) to see where item drops.
2. Cast 30 minute buff.
3. After 10 minutes I assess if drop rate matches my gold expectations.
4. If it does continue. If not adjust location, mob, or what I am farming.
5. After 30 minutes. STOP. Else I might never want to go back.

As we grow older out food choices change too. Where we use to have a lot of spell power foods available, apparently we have narrowed our tastes down to a few items. Currently casters have two spell power buff foods available to them. Both items provide an increase of 46 Spell Power and 40 Stamina for 1 hour.

Firecracker Salmon - Glacial Salmon plus Northern Spices.
Tender Shoveltusk Steak - 2X Shoveltusk Flank plus Northern Spices

Hit rating is also a priority for the level 80 instances. Casters didn’t have a hit rating food prior to 3.0. With the 3.0 hit rating change we had Spicy Hot Talbuk. The improved Wrath version is 40 Hit Rating and 40 Stamina for 1 hour

Snapper Extreme - 3X Bonescale Snapper plus Northern Spices

I am going to use my fishing leveling time to capitalize on my own raid consumables AND make some money off some raiders. Glacial Salmon and Bonescale Snapper both come from Grizzly Hills. That is a beautiful place to do some fishing and enjoy the shadows.

Dar be gold in dim dar hills.

Friday, November 28, 2008

Dalaran Cooking Dailies

There is a cooking daily in Northrend. It can be one of five different quests.

Cheese for Glowergold
Convention at the Legerdemain
Infused Mushroom Meatloaf
Mustard Dogs!
Sewer Stew

To level your cooking you MUST do the dailies.

Three of the Dalaran Cooking Awards will allow you to buy recipes beyond 400 cooking. After three days you are guaranteed to be able to buy at least one recipe. Not all the recipes are relevant to your class so don’t get daunted by the number of cooking rewards you need to get them all.

You need to complete the cooking dailies to obtain Dalaran Cooking Awards. You receive at least one Dalaran Cooking Award plus a Small Spice Bag when you turn in the daily.

The Small Spice Bag also gives you Northern Spices. They also have a chance to contain a cooking award, but not likely. Ten Northern Spices can also be bought with one Dalaran Cooking Award. If you have a second toon that can cook have them do the cooking daily occasionally also. They can provide the spices you will need. I have yet to see the need to buy Northern Spices with Dalaran Cooking Awards.

For Mustard Dogs!, Rhino Meat can be pre-farmed. I have also been placing up on auction house stacks of four Rhino Meat and/or Rhino Dog. Rhino meat, leather, green drops, and grays make for a very profitable farming session.

For Sewer Stew, Crystalsong Carrots look like Golden Sansam. They are located in Crystalsong Forest right outside where the portal takes you down. To gain access to Crystalsong Forest from Dalaran, at 70 you complete the quest Learning to Leave and Return: the Magical Way. Which is picked up from Archmage Celindra in Dalaran.

My cooking would be maxed out if I was not finding it so profitable. *grin*

Also see: Wrath cooking world drops for your mood.

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Shhhhhhh

Food comma has set in.

No loud or sudden movements.

Hope your day was fun.

...back to my eight person game of Uno.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Turkey Brain

I have turkey on the brain. Then once I can get it in my tummy I will need two days to sleep it off.

How do I cook my turkey? I brine it. I saw it on Alton Brown’s Good Eats on the Food Network many years ago. He is the only chef that I have signed cookbooks. Yes, I went to the mall and stood in line and told him “Good Eats is the only show we don’t argue about on TV.” Well that and M.A.S.H.

I will never make my turkey any other way. Husband raves about it. Thank goodness it is really easy to do. I use a variation of this Orange Turkey Brine. What I mean by variation... it is whatever I feel like putting in at the time.

Back to the 23.25 pound turkey and the 15 people to feed.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Mammoth Gains Weight

Hummm. For some reason this doesn’t look quite right. I must have a tired horse.


… I was going to say I was double mounted…. Which is appropriate but I know a few of my readers have dirty minds.

Monday, November 24, 2008

Shadows

One of the new features in Wrath are improved shadows. I did not notice a change. A guildie mentioned that it was in your settings and can be adjusted.

1. Options
2. Video
3. Effects
4. Shadow Quality
5. Adjust to desired level.

The shadows are default to low (as it should be). My video card is two years old. I am on a low/medium population server. I am trying my shadows out at 50%.

This small change completely changes the game.

The shadows curve on walls...slant on ramps... cast through transparent items.
The detail at 50% is phenomenal. Well compared to the gray dot we have been use to for years.
If you have a video card that can handle the load, play with increasing the shadows. I think mine could handle more. I start to notice a lag in the cities any higher. I do not wish to have to change settings back and forth.

Do something. Find a little corner in Azeroth. A place with trees, hills, rocks, or buildings. Where there is less, or no people, and enjoy the full effect.

Enjoy the darker sharper shadowy side of Azeroth.

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Nov 23 Log In for Baby Bear

Log in today, November 23, 2008! You will be able to pick up a Baby Blizzard Bear for WoWs 4th anniversary.
Baby Bear is a too cute MUST have.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Farming Walking Gold

The Borean Tundra has walking gold. I here they make fun Hunter pets. But what I see is gold waiting to be collected.Rhinos drop meat to sell on the auction house. Rhino Meat is used for one of the cooking dailys. They will need 4 pieces to make Rhino Dogs for the quest. It is also used in a few different recipes for those leveling their cooking.

Skinning gave me Borean Leather to sell. Much to my surprise I ended up with three Arctic Furs. The Arctic Furs are used by leather workers to make items and buy new patterns. More gold!

Rhinos don’t it for you? There are Mammoths out there too. Or Shoveltusks. Seriously find something to spend 20 minutes to farm. Take advantage of the WoW market right now. I am using a few things to skill up only a little. I am selling the rest.

General tip for the next two months through the holidays... Sell everything form Northrend. If it can be disenchanted, do it. Enchanting and raw crafting materials are at a premium right now. This is cloth, ore, leather, eternals, meat… everything. This will change but now ... go for the gold!

Friday, November 21, 2008

Leading Edge Turns 80

Congratulation to War Machine’s leading edge reaching 80, Camlach and Resirix! Kashoda would be 80 also if he would stop playing with the Horde in BGs and get it done.

I did laugh when Camlach (who took a week off from work to play) ran over and did his cooking daily for the first time. It really shows that if you left your professions and exploring till last, you too can level fast. Maybe not as fast as a week off of work but faster then currently. It is about what you find fun. I find the … little of this and little of that to be the most fun.

I hit level 75 while discovering a new area in Zul’Drak. The last two levels I have been pushing. I have completed all of the Howling Fjord and Dragonblight. I kept the I've Toured the Fjord and Might of Dragonblight tracker up so I can see about where I am at in the zone.

I read all the quests in Dragonblight. I enjoyed them immensely.

One problem I did have in Dragonblight was self induced. While questing in Fjord I didn’t skip around, I turned in quests in the natural order to a new area. Except in Dragonblight, while running around getting flight paths from Dalaran to the Fjord, some natural progression quests got turned in. At three different points I had to recall from the hundreds of quests I did this last week where I was suppose to go next and where they were on my map.

As always... it’s good to be a warlock. What a joy it has been to solo!

Recommended player…2…3…4…5. Pfft. Who needs questing partners when you are a warlock?

It is really funny that I am the one with a Mammoth Caravan. I enjoy questing solo. I have on occasion tracked down friends who needed a repair. That feature alone is faboo. I can group up and see they are on the way to one of my quests and stop on by. (This can be confused with what is considered “nice”. But didn’t you just read this? They were on my way to another quest. Just to set things straight.)

As I say that …I do group. I was helping a friend with the Really Big Worm quest and since we were there we knocked out mine too. I did have help getting the Wanted posters and My Old Enemy completed, we did as a group for pure speed reasons.

The only quest I HAD to ask for help on was Wanton Warlord. Grom'thar has a knock back that really messed me up. I just couldn’t get enough dps on him. After two attempts a guildie in the area helped me out.

Oh. Did I tell you I was really disliking the expansion? A part of me that doesn’t like change was annoyed. I had a list of things I wanted to get done prior to the expansion and it was not done. From leveling a hunter… to twinking a 19 priest… to amassing my fortune… to complete control of the world. Bahahaha.

*clears throat* Where was I…

Reassessing my list, I realized they are just things I will get to do later. I am still suspicious of what is lurking in those new shadows. So maybe I will love Wrath later.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Prince of Darkness TV Ad

Ozzy Osbourne World of Warcraft Commercial TV Ad



That is all win. Thank you Grumble n Autumnn for the giggle.

Edit: Apparently it vanished off YouTube. If there is another link I will repost.

Critter Gitter and Friend or Fowl?

Deeprun Rats. Remember that quest? You can now get an achievement off them. With so many playing Death Nights and out in Northrend you should not have that many people actually doing the level 10 quest.

So get yourself a stack of Critter Bites.

Head over to Deeprun Tram.

And tame yourself some critters.

I actually freaked out a bit for my tenth one, but with the high pop rate for the quested rats, there was not a problem.

Thank you to a great guidie (even if he is a mage) who provided the Bites and the location. To quote a dwarf… It’s Brilliant!
As for Friend or Fowl? there are also quested turkeys. The Fjord Turkeys at the crossroads near Explorers’ League Outpost in Howling Fjord are perfect for this achievement. Make sure your minion is on passive so that you get the killing blow and kill yourself some turkeys. I was able to complete it in the first try.

Tip for achievements you are currently working on. In the achievement pane there is a “Track” button. You can toggle that on and off. You can track one achievement at a time. Any achievement that has a timer on it, a timer will automatically pop up for you. I have found it to be a very nice feature.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

My Demon Rights

Hello my name is Hydrargyrum and I am a Demonologist.

*hack*
*cough*
*pant*
*spew*

Apparently to be a well rounded Warlock I really should know my Felguard’s name. I have been thinking about leveling under each talent tree. My favorite spec has always been Affliction. For farming I include Improved Howl of Terror, Siphon Life, and maybe Dark Pact.

I have done hybrid specs. I welcomed the SL/SL PvP spec because it matched so much to my preferred farming spec. So I was always ready to kill for primals… or a few Horde.

I have gone Destruction, primarily for raiding. It was a pain for farming and pretty much made me respec to PvP before and after every raid.

So at level 72 I am going to try out Demonology. From chatting with guild warlocks and Nibuca I headed off to a lock trainer and fixed myself up.

I have never met my Felguard.

Everyone say “Hi” to Neelshril.

I discussed his name with some of my fellow warlocks. I concluded that his name is based off the sound a mage makes as they are cleaved by Neelshril’s heavy ax… or a rogue... hunter… druid… pally… you get the idea.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Paper Cut

I got one... off a thick envelope. It hurt a lot.

First thought…

Good it is on my on my right ring finger. That will not impede my game play.

Second thought…

NOW I have an opportunity to level my first aid.

Monday, November 17, 2008

A Stable Keeper and her Professions

Like everyone I am leveling. I am NOT leveling fast at all. Pretty much I am dragging my feet, putzing around, and in general taking in the scenery. A large portion of my raider friends have passed me. I was placed myself in Loserville when our leveling Death Night PASSED me. Yea… I did it… I called him a “Bitch”.

No worries, I will get to leveling. Just not fast. I have been reading the quest text. I love it. There is great fun there. But that is not all... what I have been doing is what you are not suppose to be doing if you want to level fast. Messing with my professions…

Tailoring: Leveling using the Mycah's Botanical Bag for skill ups has been great. My only problem is I am lacking Primal Mooncloth. I made six bags and the pattern is still orange for me. I planned on having stacks and stacks of Primal Mooncloth. I got distracted with RL and other things. Even still I have been really happy with how easy they are made and the skill ups.

Herbs: Level to 400 prior to getting to Northrend. My Mining and Skinning compatriots have told me they have not had a problem at all. Few others had those first few levels on their herbing and left higher level plans behind. THAT IS NOT OK.

It took me one round in Netherstorm to level up to 400. With no one farming in Outland, more than 50% of the nodes were up for me to herb. I didn’t realize I maxed out my herbalism until doing this post. No problems in Northrend now. THE HERBS ARE MINE ALL MINE *diabolical laughter*

First-aid: Level to 400 ASAP. The pattern for Heavy Frostweave Bandage is an uncommon drop from mobs. You need a minimal level of 390 to see the drop if you are in a group to roll for it. Anyone in your group with a higher than 390 first-aid will get to roll. You will have to have 400 first-aid to learn the manual so just aim for 400.

Cooking: I saved some Enormous Barbed Gill Trout. I skilled up on making the Hot Buttered Trout. Now everything is green or gray. So I have been doing to cooking daily for the Dalaran Cooking Award to buy new recipes. Start this ASAP. Every three days you will be able to buy a new cooking recipe.

Fishing: I have been fishing. I will tell you this about fishing… it doesn’t give you experience points… very few skill ups too. But fun!

Back to leveling…
To be a Stable Keeper I need one more mount.
Really I needed something to motivate myself. *look in gold sack*
What should I get? *weights the over 20K burning a hole in sack*
I kept getting distracted by silly things
… like repairing and vendoring items.
How should I solve this little problem? *thinks and thinks*
I mean it is soooOOOoooo distracting.
SoooOOOoooo time comsuming.
SoooOOOoooo… I know!

GO BIG OR GO HOME!!!!


My tenth ride is the Traveler's Tundra Mammoth. Only if it had a mailbox I would never need to hearth again.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

BC Close: Husband’s Rogue

Our success had come together. I call it success because almost all of our goals were met in the BC. One of Husband’s goals was to get as many of the enchanting patterns as he could. To date he is missing only four of the BC and a total of twelve enchants in the game.

I still find that shadowpanther.net is one of simplest rogue gear guides. Everything is laid out simply and updated seamlessly.

I will miss his talons for the sheer cool eye catching look. *sigh*

/played
Total time played: 112 days, 19 hours, 34 minutes, 55 seconds
Time played this level: 67 days, 22 hours, 59 minutes, 54 seconds

Raiding Gear:
[Netherblade Facemask]
[Shattered Sun Pendant of Might]
[Shoulderpads of the Stranger]
[Drape of the Dark Reavers]
[Nether Shadow Tunic]
[Guardian's Dragonhide Bracers]
[Gloves of the Searing Grip]
[Belt of the Silent Path]
[Trousers of the Scryers' Retainer]
[Nyn'jah's Tabi Boots]
[Angelista's Revenge]
[Signet of Primal Wrath]
[Berserker's Call]
[Shard of Contempt]
[Serpentshrine Shuriken]/Brutal gladiator’s War Edge
[Talon of the Phoenix]
[Claw of the Phoenix]/Vanir's Left Fist of Savagery

PvP Gear:
[Merciless Gladiator's Leather Helm]
[Guardian's Pendant of Triumph]
[Merciless Gladiator's Leather Spaulders]
[Dory's Embrace]
[Vengeful Gladiator's Leather Tunic]
[Guardian's Dragonhide Bracers]
[Vengeful Gladiator's Leather Gloves]
[Guardian's Leather Belt]
[Brutal Gladiator's Leather Legguards]
[Vindicator's Leather Boots]
[Angelista's Revenge]
[Vindicator's Band of Triumph]
[Assassin's Alchemist Stone]
[Medallion of the Alliance]
[Brutal Gladiator's War Edge]
[Merciless Gladiator's Pummeler]
[Merciless Gladiator's Bonecracker]

Edit: Weapons change and stat picture added.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

BC Close: Iuncusia - Bear

After three runs of Kara and four runs of ZA I got me some purples. Not one run was I carried. I off-tanked and then eventually main tanked some of the bosses. Ok. Maybe I was not supposed to tank Hex Lord Malacrass ... But he was looking at my Tree funny. So I called him some really bad things. Then he stuck to me like Velcro. So there was a tank swap.

Prior to Wrath I had a party. One to go get me my swift flight form. I am in total agreement on the new armor look. I look gooood. But the jesses? Unless you are the size of Gruul I am not landing on anyone’s hand.I have picked up EVERYthing I could. So listed all the fun stuff I have collected. Not a lot of Badge of Justice gear here because I just didn’t have any to spend. I didn’t do any questing out side Terokkar Forest. If it didn’t drop in a 5-man, the Scourge Invasion, Kara, or ZA I didn’t get it.

/played
Total time played: 11 days, 8 hours, 5 minutes, 46 seconds
Time played this level: 2 days, 0 hours, 12 minutes, 3 seconds

Random Druid Gear: (A bear has to have choices.)
[Stag-Helm of Malorne]
[Cowl of Defiance]
[Mark of the Ravenguard]
[Mithril Chain of Heroism]
[Worgen Claw Necklace]
[Saberclaw Talisman]
[Shoulderpads of Dancing Blades]
[Blessed Shoulderpads of Undead Slaying]
[Gilded Thorium Cloak]
[Royal Cloak of Arathi Kings]
[Dark Cloak of the Marsh]
[Shadowtooth Trollskin Cuirass]
[Blessed Tunic of Undead Slaying]
[Spymistress's Wristguards]
[Gauntlets of Malorne]
[Grips of Deftness]
[Blessed Grips of Undead Slaying]
[Girdle of Treachery]
[Blessed Leggings of Undead Slaying]
[Skulker's Greaves]
[Veteran's Leather Boots]
[Violet Signet]
[Ring of Ghoulish Delight]
[Ring of a Thousand Marks]
[Adamantine Figurine]
[Regal Protectorate]

[Staff of Primal Fury] (much love that I got this on my second ZA run.)
[Idol of Terror]

Friday, November 14, 2008

BC Close: Hydra – Warlock

Get ready for some boring end of BC posts. I wanted to have a record of where I stopped so here they come...

I think if we kept raiding we could have completed Black Temple. But I had a feeling at our final 25 man that it was our last till after expansion. Where other guilds revived and pursued big boss kills after the gift of the boss nerf, my guild overall focused on Alts and gearing them for easy leveling. This gave people the opportunity to raid in Kara, Gruuls, Mags, and ZA with other characters then their main. With Wrath raiding I am sure many people will choose to change their raiding main.

No worries. I am a Warlock to the core.

It is very odd to me to see my gear. My crafted head and leggings are the same that I started raiding in. I have more Badge of Justice gear then I thought I did. But an upgrade is an upgrade. Truly what else was I going to do with all those badges? Right now I think I still have over 250. I really should just buy the upgraded pants.

Thanks to Nibuca for linking me Lootrank.com. (Check out her Wrath warlock ZOMGASM.)I have also used Maxdps.com. You can select only easily available items. Not perfect but you can see if there are any quest items that maybe upgrades and peruse those.

I like where I was at on my 70 gear. When I earned my first rated item for PvP I was in shock. I could have picked up the 1575 item but passed to save the honor. I was saddened that I was off a couple hundred arena points to get my 1600 rated chest piece.

I had a GREAT time getting everything listed. I had 215 hit rating last raid. Not sure what happened and not going to care. Also lost some spell in the damage to power conversion of 3.0. Again not going to worry about it. Something I am oddly proud of, I can also say there was not one loot drama item. That is an accomplishment for a year of raiding.

For leveling to 80 I am taking a blend of all the gear I have, raiding, PvP, and banked. Reducing the focus of hit rating and increasing spell power and stamina. I will adjust as needed.

/played
Total time played: 119 days, 1 hour, 44 minutes, 45 seconds
Time played this level (70): 77 days, 3 hours, 57 minutes, 50 seconds

Raiding Gear:
[Spellstrike Hood]
[Brooch of Unquenchable Fury]
[Mantle of the Corruptor]
[Shadowcaster's Drape]
[Voidheart Robe]
[Runed Spell-cuffs]
[Enslaved Doomguard Soulgrips]
[Belt of Blasting]
[Spellstrike Pants]
[Boots of the Shifting Nightmare]
[Ashyen's Gift]
[Fused Nethergon Band]
[Darkmoon Card: Crusade]
[Icon of the Silver Crescent]
[Scryer's Blade of Focus]
[Fetish of the Primal Gods]
[Carved Witch Doctor's Stick]

PvP Gear:
[Merciless Gladiator's Dreadweave Hood]
[Guardian's Pendant of Dominance]
[Merciless Gladiator's Felweave Amice]
[Sergeant's Heavy Cape]
[Vengeful Gladiator's Dreadweave Robe]
[Vindicator's Dreadweave Cuffs]
[Brutal Gladiator's Felweave Handguards]
[Guardian's Dreadweave Belt]
[Brutal Gladiator's Dreadweave Leggings]
[Boots of the Shifting Nightmare]
[The Seal of Danzalar]
[Fused Nethergon Band]
[Medallion of the Alliance]
[Icon of the Silver Crescent]
[Scryer's Blade of Focus]
[Fetish of the Primal Gods]
[Brutal Gladiator's Touch of Defeat]

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Surprise It's Wrath

I have been keeping a secret. I really wanted to tell you, but Husband blew it. He told me a few weeks ago that he found my blog entertaining and was proud. (Together now...Awww. Isn’t that sweet.)

But here is the thing. I couldn’t tell you this secret before ‘cause that just might blow the surprise. But he is on his way from work now.

Here was the thing about Wrath… I REFUSED to pre-order the game. If it was not the Collectors Edition I was not going to do it. I also refuse to stand in line at midnight or wait outside a store to get a copy. ZOMG GIMMIE. HERZ MONY.

There was a midnight event just a few miles away with artists, more copies, and everything. It took me all of “No” for that decision to be made.

My plan was to wait a week and then pick it up. Husband has been giving me the puppy dog eyes (which he knows after 18 years of, I am immune) every few days since that plan was made.

Last night he noted. “There are not that many people logged in guild right now.” But at 2 AM central time people started logging in. That gave those in the east coast and central time enough time to load up the expansion. Zoom off the Northrend.

What he has not known. About a week or so ago while in Blog Azeroth chat, Matticus posted that the Wrath CE is up for sale at Amazon.com.

I broke down. I picked us each a copy of the Wrath CE. I even paid for release day delivery. ME! You can say that in RL I am one of those frugal people. I paid the extra not just for the CE but for shipping. Trust me that is huge.

Husband still doesn’t know. So again today I got the “I don’t know if I can wait” talk. Which goes something like this…

[Husband] I don’t know if I can wait.
[Hydra] Wait for what?
[Husband] Wait for what? … Did you pick up a copy?
[Hydra] Copy of what?
[Husband] Copy of what? …Did you go pick up a copy of Wrath?
[Hydra] No, I didn’t pick you up a copy of Wrath. (Totally not a lie!! It was delivered by UPS.)
[Hydra] We will talk more about it when you get home.
[Husband] *fake sniffles* Fine be that way.
[Hydra] I will. *grins*

Evil right??!! Well at least I didn’t have to go with my cover story if he found the boxes before me. It was going to be socks…lots and lots of socks. Why? *shrug* cause it is funny. *grin*

One computer down and another to start…
Hydra is off to 80 one week earlier then I planned.

Do you WoW?

Just as good a question is “Do they WoW?” Have you ever wondered if the person next to you plays WoW? I have.

The lady at the bus stop.
The teenager taking his drivers test.
The man in the BMW at the stop light.
The mom at the grocery store.
The valet at the mall.
The pharmacist at the Walgreens.
The retired gentleman playing golf.
The mechanic checking your tire pressure.
The people laying out on the beach.
The couple walking their dogs.
The woman at the bookstore.
The lab teacher for elementary kids.

They may all be WoW players.

The next few days you get a rare opportunity to see all these people come out and pick up the expansion. If they were not picking up the expansion would they admit playing? Would they say “I play wow?” Would you think to ask?

I bet that man playing golf is the asshat calling everyone a noob in BG chat. That woman at the bookstore was running raids on four timed chests in ZA.

Think about it.

‘Cause I got shocking news…
My Mother-in-law is a level 70 Night Elf Hunter with a ghost saber.

She wanted to figure out how to play some on her own. I am so glad she told me prior to expansion. Because the first two things we did was to get her the 20 slot bag from ZA from my raid ID and get her the Argent Dawn Tabard. The first will be harder to complete post expansion and the other has already disappeared.

Then I sent her to BRK’s videos, Pike’s Hunter Kindergarten, and Petopia. Those have been the three best hunter resources that I have used.

Happy Expansion Release day everyone! May your computer not cry and your game load fast.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Is that a Murloc on a Broom??!!

Broom
…I shall miss you.Yeppers. That is me in a murloc costume on a broom in Shattrath City. Oh and I totally exercised my right to ignore you all.

It is now a bind on account item. So now I can mail it between all my Alliance toons on Farstriders. So if I am on lock, drood, or a twink I can have it me. Good times.

Why ever did they nerf Brooms insta-mount feature? It didn't have the 3 second cast time like other mounts prior to 3.0.3. *Remembers charging to battle in AV and mounting after fights* Oh yea. lol. Good times.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

PvP lock Name

I see hunters do this a lot. Naming their pet the same as themselves. This throws off targeting addons like Proximo and DBM Battlegrounds. Most of my hunters have gone into battlegrounds with a pet named after themselves. And now with inscription you can change an existing Hunter’s pet name.

This was the first time ever I had seen a warlock change their name to match their minion’s name. He went all out with even a guild name!
I went fangirl on him and told him he was brilliant. I didn’t care if he was ranked 1300 or 2000 in arenas. He got an A+ in my book.

Monday, November 10, 2008

Attack of the Frost Tuna!

Stormwind Harbor
Orgrimmar
I asked what the names of the dragons are ...
I think bumblebee tuna is incorrect.

Edit: Here is some videos. Posted by Leafy and /hug. Did anyone else notice how hot the King of Stormwind one shotting those attackers. Ok. Maybe it was just me.

Sunday, November 9, 2008

First Aid Skillup Nerf

Don’t know if you noticed that First Aid was nerfed in this last patch. You cannot get a skill up on Heavy Netherweave Bandages in Wrath. For some reason it was grayed out. Not even green. They are completely grayed out from skill ups.

There were also changes in the other professions. You may want to check if the material you were holding onto is still useful for what you were planning to get those first few points.

I still plan on making some Mycah's Botanical Bag for some of my Scribes. They agreed waiting a few weeks was a good deal on getting a bag. So I am excited to help them out. This weekend I plan on buying some more Primal Mooncloth cooldowns. I think I will make about 10 bags. That should be enough to go around.

Frozen Shade *hugs*

It is my favorite non-combat pet EVER. Look at all the lovely things the Frozen Shade whispers too me.

Ah, there you are...
There is no honor fighting us when the end has already been written. Azeroth... will... die.
If you struggle, then before your death you will face pain and horror and the loss of all you love.
Greetings...
The stench of that holy trinket you carry disgusts me...
There. I found you...
Your kingdoms will fall, gnome!
Your mighty castles will crumble and your loved ones will join the Lich King's ranks!
Greetings...
My master has a message for you...
]It is this: Welcome.
Welcome to a cold death.
I see you...
Join us, Hydrargyrum. Swear liegance to the Lich King. Give yourself to him and know peace... the peace you have been denied since your wailing, terrified birth.
Ah, there you are...
Say goodbye to those you love, warlock...

Isn’t that just precious!

All Evil

I don’t disagree. But I figure I did a good deed sometime… somewhere… somewhen… to compensate.

Friday, November 7, 2008

The Argent Dawn Likes Me

...but only one at a time.

I did a lot of this…
Then did a lot of this…Will someone tell me why I cannot just hand the whole stack to the person? I feel like I have just gone to the store and they only want to be paid in small single bills. It is not so bad if you are only buying a soda. But a couple of dozen bills later is a bit much.

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Ding! to Midnight Tank in 1.5 hours

Ding! *whew*Hu wht? Tank Kara? *looks at questing gear* I got nothing to go to Kara with. No time for major fixes. Gear! Pots! Flask!

Luckily I was farming the scourge invasion the night before. For gloves and shoulders I picked up the items from the Necrotic Runes.

From all of the instance tanking I had enough reputation to pick up the Dragonhide Helm from lower city and Dragonhide Robe from Honor Hold. That gave me some extra armor. Because I am Bear the resilience helps. As PvP gear it had high stamina. All perfect and quick!

For my legs and boots I had made the Heavy Clefthoof Leggings and Heavy Clefthoof Boots.

I didn’t have enough time for enchants. But I refused to off-tank without a leg kit or gems. I had the leatherworker make me a Clefthide Leg Armor for my pants.

In such short notice I would never be able to fill all the gems from AH and/or get them cut. Also green gems are going for 15G, people are insane. So I picked up gems from a gem merchant. All slots filled!

Wait… meta for my head slot. Spirit shards! I had some from tanking the Auchindoun instances. I had more then enough to pick up Swift Windfire Diamond.

I sure felt scrubby going to Kara. But that is all I had time for. That is all I could get done. At least I knew we had a real main tank.

It was not even planned. Not even close. I knew things got nerfed but not to the point that you would take an under-geared tank. Granted there was not that much off-tanking needed. I picked up stragglers after healers and tried to lighten the load off the warrior in pack pulls. I helped keep the pace as fast as I could.I stayed second treat on Moroes.
I cat dps Maiden.
I took the Hateful Bolts on Curator.
I tanked Kil’rek.
I cat killed Aran. (Which I learned quickly you don’t get sucked in prior to Arcane Explosion when in melee range.)
I danced in and out of the red beam and took the green beam on Netherspite.
I failed my first EVER Chess! WTB heals on King.
I survived melee enfeebles on Prince!

[10:37] DING!
[12:03] Attumen the Hutsman engaged.

[14:32] Prince Malchezaar has been defeated.Then I got to do it all over again two days later when Kara reset!!

I picked up so much new gear my head is spinning. I picked up two pieces of T4, the gloves and helm. I beat the rouge out of the Girdle of Treachery which replaced a green quest item. I know there is more but I am still a bit fuddled by it all.

Then… I finished my Kara keying in Black More-ass. *grin* Which let me run around finishing off my quest inside a cleared Kara. But now I have to kill Aran and Prince!!?? Don't they know I did that already.

I HAZ ALT!

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

BRK Ninja'd Squashling

I just finished listened to BRK and BBB on the WoW Insider podcast.

I have a toon on Drenden. Curie is a 30 something lock who I mess around on. She is on my list of toons to someday level to max. Currently it is just another auction house for me to manipulate.

I included her in my rounds of trick or treating on toons becasue I really wanted another squashling.
A few times I would run into this...
Now I know I can blame BRK. BRK made me not get a squashling. You hear that... MADE me. The Ninja.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Patch 3.0.3 (AKA the Nerf Pally Patch)

Patch 3.0.3 landed today. Here is what is relevant to me. I can sum up... pallies got nerfed. ta da. **

General

* Removed "A Mask for All Occassions" as criteria for the "Hallowed Be thy Name" meta achievement. //This gives both Hydra and Drood this title. Well. Once Drood finishes G.N.E.R.D. Rage.
* Resilience: The damage reduction component of resilience has been increased from 2 times the critical strike chance reduction to 2.2 times the critical strike chance reduction. In addition, the maximum damage reduction to a critical strike from resilience has been increased from 30% to 33%.

Racial

//nerf pallies

Druids

* Druid talents points have been refunded. Players will need to visit a class trainer to relearn spells and abilities. //ugg. I just respec two days ago. Oh well. It was only 15g but still.
* The Swift Flight Form is now available on the trainer at level 71, requiring 300 riding skill, and Flight Form learned. //I still need to finish my quest before my broom disappears.
* Bash: The interrupt from this ability will now work on targets who are immune to the stun.
* Growl: Cooldown changed to 8 sec.
* Survival Instincts will no longer be on the Global Cooldown.
* Tiger's Fury: Ranks 5 and 6 have had their damage bonus decreased. //hiss

Hunters

//Mania already put up her post.

Mages

//nerf pallies

Paladins

//Pallies got nerfed.

Priests

//nerf pallies so they respec holy again.

Rogues

//nerf pallies so we can gank them again.

Shaman

//nerf pallies. And have you seen this?

Warlocks

* The epic ground mount is now available on the trainer at level 61, requiring 150 riding skill, and the non-epic mount learned. //*sigh* the end of an era.
* Demonic Sacrifice: The buffs from this ability will now be retained properly when logging out or zoning.
* Demonic Empowerment: This talent no longer gives excessive threat to the Warlock's Voidwalker. //VW actually retained threat and now they don't. Something is wrong with this picture.
* Demonic Tactics: Increased the critical strike bonus for both the Warlock and pet.
* Destructive Reach: Now properly reduces threat on Chaos Bolt and Shadowflame.
* Drain Soul: Rank 6 now properly deals additional damage to targets below 25% health.
* Emberstorm: Increased the fire damage bonus.
* Haunt: The cooldown has been changed to 8 sec down from 10 seconds, and refreshing the Haunt will trigger the heal from the existing Haunt. This ability will no longer heal for incorrect amounts or fail to heal when the Haunt damage was the killing blow. //I am really enjoying this for pve. But for pvp the 1.5 cast time makes it worthless.
* Inferno: The Infernal is now useable indoors and the tooltip has been updated. //I still dont think I have ever summoned one of these. It looks like I will have to change that.
* Master Demonologist (Felhunter) will now also reduce damage taken by Holy. //nerf pallies!!!
* Ritual of Doom: Now works correctly even when the Warlock already has a pet (dismissed the existing pet.) //How do these things that have always worked get broken.
* Shadowflame: Damaged increased approx. 75%. Coefficients unchanged.
* Shadow Embrace: Now works on ranks 1-4 and stacks properly with multiple applications.
* Shadow Mastery: Increased the shadow damage bonus
* Soul Link (Demonology): Increased from 15% to 20%. //Heck yea!! Looks like I maybe off to pvp again.

Warriors

//nerf pallies so they go back to healing warriors.

Professions

* The level requirements required to train gathering skills have been removed. //I would love to see a level 30 collecting Fel Iron.

Alchemy

* Reduced the effect of [Elixir of the Mongoose] and [Elixir of Major Agility].

Inscription

* [Glyph of Sinister Strike]: Chance increased to 50%. //This is what Aurum is sporting right now. Maybe this will make me like it more.
* [Glyph of Souls] no longer removes soul shard cost. It instead reduces the mana cost of your Ritual of Souls spell by 70%. //What??!! So they made an kind of neat glyph for progression raid nights into a useless one. So this glyph replaced a few lifetaps and sitting down to eat some mage food.

User Interface

* For additional notes on Lua and XML changes please visit the UI & Macros forum. //Which means "We made changes and they are a surprise when you log in." So the probability is high my xperl will be broken. *crosses fingers*

Items

* The war against spelling errors continues: many items have had typos removed or their functionality clarified. //pwn
* Some one-hand spell power weapons are now main hand only.
* [The Horseman's Reins] should again function in Dalaran. //*whew* good they fixed that. I was really worried. O.o
* A tootip error in the [Glyph of Sprint] has been corrected. //wait. this doesn't do damage but might be fun for Aurum to play with in WSG. Hmmm.
* Held in hand books created by Inscription are now Bind on Equip rather than Bind on Pickup.

Bug Fixes

* Fixed an issue that was affecting terrain rendering on GeForce 3 and 4 Ti cards. Those that added the command Set fixedfunction 1 to their config.wtf file should remove it to avoid a decrease in performance. //left this in for the off case you reader were having this issue.
* [Glyph of Rupture]: The tooltip has been corrected. //I left this in because I thought it was funny that there was a whole inscription section, but this one was special to be placed here. It was obviously put here to nerf pallies.

**Oh you know I love my pallies.

Monday, November 3, 2008

Empty Auction House

I thought it… for a moment. I know an evil thought when it happens. … most of the time…but this one was clear. Four offers of Primal Earths in under two minutes. You don’t take advantage of your minions guildies. I will save that for later. Instead I suggested some of them put some up on the auction house.
If you have something laying around and none are in the auction house it is always good to put up some. I typically put up seven of the same item. Remember your stuff in your bank doesn’t make you any gold, your stuff in the auction house does make you gold.

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Whatca doing? Huntering

I am frantically leveling my Horde hunter. After just leveling my drood you would think I would be done with leveling for a while. But not I.

Why...

Tabard of the Argent Dawn

That is right. I got it in my head that I MUST own one of these on a Horde also. So my highest Horde a level 39 Hunter, Moly, was picked. As of last night Moly dinged 47.

I am looking to get her in her 50s quickly. Some of the end quests for the Scourge Invasion start at 45 and some at 50. So that I don't have any problems I am aiming for beyond that. Primarily so that my friend will have less to worry about me aggroing the wildlife around me while he kills.

I highly recommend tourguide.

Saturday, November 1, 2008

Random Things & NaBloPoMo Year 2

So I did NaBloPoMo last year. It has been a whole year!

Well I am still blogging and I still have stuff to say. I only post a tiny bit of my thoughts because... well... some of it I just not okay for the general public. I'm a warlock. Some things should not be written about.

Some random things for today...

Two twinks I know leveled because of the vile experience from the candy buckets.

In 3 farming runs for void crystals husband and my two other main enchanters have 90 voids. That is EACH. That is over 270 void crystals.

Aurum ran some WSG games with some old friends. There was three to five us in a group. We won every game. We beat the 7 minute game marker twice in a row. There is a difference between players who know how to play and who know how to WIN.

Blizzard fixed the achievement where you do the fishing daily five days in a row and you get the 5 Daily Quests achievement. Since this is the only daily Hydra does I know it got fixed. *grin*

Aurum and my warlock alt Curie had to dress up as Ratter. Primarily because Hydra's Orc mask vanished before the screanshots could be taken. opps.

Drood went to Kara. I tanked. More to be posted on that.

I don't think I will reach my goal of 25K gold prior to expansion. A drood needed her epic flying skill. I still have to run the heroic.

I want my zombies back. /pout