Big News

First this one just amused me. Beware the Boo!



Greetings from Borean Tundra



THE BIG 70! In 4.5 hours. And I still have rested XP. Trust me, hit Borean as early as you can, the XP is much better than Outlands.

A Tale of 3 Dungeon Runs

In the last 2 days, I've run 3 dungeons on two toons.

First, Adowa. She needed a gem from Blackfathom for her pally weapon. So I hit lfg, and eventually I had a group. One lvl 17 rogue, one priest (around my level), and a feral druid. I tanked, the priest healed, and the other two did DPS. See any problems?
Runners. As a pally I have almost no ranged attack, making it very difficult for me to catch a fleeing mob. So the rogue and the feral ran down the runners when they saw them, and the priest hit them when he could, but it led to quite a few wipes. I did manage to hold aggro, which made me happy. And when I admitted I'd never tanked before, they were all quite helpful. I found it to be more stressful than healing, but still quite enjoyable. I'm still leveling ret, but I will be willing to tank from now on.

Then right after I finished BFD, someone in Adowa's guild wanted to run Strat. I've never run Strat (except for an elder run), so I switched over to Garetia. We ended up with one lvl 64 dk (who was a great tank), a lvl 57 pally (my guidlie), and Garetia (lvl 68 mm). It was great. We cleared almost the entire thing, downed the Baron, and then the pally had to go. Fi (my priest friend) was nice enough to come in to help us down the archivist and the live boss, and it was so much fun! I made 50 g off the blue bop and silver drops alone.

Then today, the pally wanted to finish up Strat. We got another hunter (lvl 60) and we got fairly far in, but were wiping frequently. The pally couldn't hold aggro (not that I would expect him to hold off me), and with so many mobs, that's a recipe for death. We called it, and will try again later. I did get a boot upgrade (I've had the worst luck with boot drops), so that made me happy. All I really want out of the next run is the mount and the key, but I would happily settle for the key. Hit 75 or so, respec BM, grab and level a gorilla and go to town in there.

Alt Project update coming soonish...

Holy Wall of Text, Batman!

So, my hands no longer hurt much, but they are randomly trembling (tired muscle sort of thing). Sadly, this means I've not gotten much done. All alts are at level 5 or above, and they're all parked at inns. Garetia is 73% through level 68, with enough rested XP to get her halfway through 69, but I just can't play her for long. Trembling hands are not good when you're trying to keep up precise shot rotations.

I did take down Gutripper by myself (okay, with Boo the tanking warp stalker), and I am insanely proud of that. (Gutripper is one of the Nesingwary elites in Nagrand, and the last time I took one on (with a warrior partner), we both got squished. I think it's the new gun and the level I've gained since then).

But I've been doing a lot of reading (I really don't idle well, and have to be doing something), and I started thinking about this new dual spec thing. First, the cost. 1k. I'll be over here laughing my arse off. I have 4oo gold spread out over 10 characters. I've been saving up for flying training (and a griffon, but not the elite kind). I could start selling herbs rather than using them to level alchemy, but I don't really want to do that again. I don't buy things in the auction house (okay, so there were those two stacks of iron bars a week ago, but I just finished mithril on Llonya and I couldn't face going back for more iron ore, again). Perhaps I should rephrase to I generally don't buy things on the AH, with occasional profession leveling related exceptions.

Now, I've been told by a friend that if you save all the gold you get from quest rewards, equipment drops, and dungeon running from 60-70, you'll have enough for flying. That's 900 gold total, or 800 if you're just buying the skill Now, I'm thinking she did this before they sped up the leveling, but I could be wrong. I'm hopeful I'll have the gold by 70, but if not, no loss. I can't use flying till 77 now anyway. But that's the drawback to the increase in leveling speed (not that I'm complaining about it). Less quests per level means less quest rewards and less gold. Yes, I could go run dailies, but I need to level. Gold is secondary to the leveling thing. But if I hit 77 and can't buy the cold weather flying, I may be doing a ton of dailies. And do I have to buy the Outlands training before I buy cold weather? Cause if not, I'll just be putting the Outlands one off for a bit.

So 1k is just out of my reach right now. And then there's the second thing...

What good is a dual spec to a hunter? When am I likely to use this?
I thought about it for a little while, and this is what I came up with.
If you can't find a tank for an instance, respecing BM, and respecing your pet (probably a gorilla) to tank. Now, Boo is already speced to tank, but the lack of BM talents means that he's nowhere near strong enough to survive against a boss. I had enough trouble keeping him up against Gutripper. And yes, I pull threat off him on occasion. I should probably figure out what my DPS is.

Respeccing for crowd control or maximum damage. You could also respec for PVP, but I am massive levels of suck at PVP, and thus have no knowledge of the subject. (I have never seen the Alliance win in any battleground I've been in, ever. I'm not sure if it's my battlegroup, just when I go into them, or if I am just massive bad luck)

Now, when I get the shammy and the pally to 40 (if I do), I will be seriously looking at the dualspecs on them. I'm thinking ret/holy for the pally and elemental/resto for the shaman. But that's a long way off and by then I'll have Garetia all the way to 80, running dailies and gathering herbs for cash. Hopefully Llonya (dk) will also be at 80, and I'll also be using her as a cash cow.

My own fake achievement

I did this recently, on what was a kickass run through Underbog and Slave Pens. 5 characters, all in the middle 60s, and only one wipe (a wandering mob wandered into us while we were taking down a boss).
Sadly, I got no new gear out of it (it was all shaman and pally stuff), but it was still fun. I need to run Underbog again, because brilliant me forgot to click on the plant thing for one of my Spore quests.
On the plus side, I remembered to turn Growl off after the first pull.

And here's another moment of my brilliance...


So what fake achievements would you award yourselves? You can make them here.

A slight problem

Okay, we have hit a bit of an iceberg.

I have tendonitis (I may not be spelling that right) in both wrists. I am having a flare-up. Typing hurts. WoW is sadly, right out.

Combine this with grad school apps (and nothing makes you feel more like a worthless waste of oxygen than applying to school) and the possible need to retake the GREs (NOOOOOOOOOOO!) and there may not be much WoW for a while. Especially if I need to retake the GREs. I hate the GREs. They're so slanted towards the English majors it's not even funny. I can do multi-variable calculus, so why exactly am I being tested on prealgebra? Sigh.

Wish me luck, and I promise to update as I can!

The Alt Project

I have given myself a challenge. One of each class (except the DK) to at least level 20, but mount level prefered. I am calling it the Alt Project, since well, it's a project involving alts.

Now, not only must I get these baby alts to 20/30, but I must also do a dungeon run where they play a proper role (instead of just getting run through by a high-level character). Extra points if I manage to get to perform more than one role (healing one run, tanking the next, for example).

And one more thing...
I must get their professions (not counting fishing, cooking, and first aid) also up to at least 150.

So where do I stand so far?
Pally's lvl 24 and has healed a Shadowfang run.
Mage is 21. I don't want to level her, so I may save her for last. Stupid fragile glass cannons.
Rogue is 11 (I leveled her some this weekend), and I got a rogue past 10! Go me! She's wandering around Teldrassil, and having fun.
Shaman is 11 as well, and I am slowly pulling her off bank toon duty.
Warrior is 0 (I kinda need to roll one)
Warlock's 21? 22? Somewhere in there.
Priest is 10 or 3, depending on which priest.
Druid is level 2.


I've got lots to go, but I think it's not a bad start. Hopefully doing this will give me a sense of how each class plays, as well as how all the various professions work. Plus, if I ever get tired of my hunter, I'll have a bunch of baby toons to choose from.

A little Pally love

My main's basically been running around Ironforge trying to get the pet and dress and picnic basket, so I've been showing the alts a little love, especially my pally (and the DKs, but for them it's just craft leveling). I've used up all her rested xp, got her to 24, and started the pally weapon quest. Now I have to find people to run Shadowfang Keep, Blackfathoms, and Deadmines with.

It's a nice change from the hit it, run away method of the hunter, and if I don't run oom, I don't die. Ideally I'd like to have her as a main tank healer, but I'm currently spec'ed in a weird combo of holy (so I can heal myself easier), prot (for blessing of the kings), and ret (for dps).

I have the following comments..

I LOVE consecrate. Best spell ever.
Once I got used to the seal change it was lovely.
I still want ranged attacks. Stupid gnolls keep fleeing.

And a bit of eye candy, because I can...

My Belf DK (Linaev) in her purple dress. Why the dresses look so much better on the elves I dunno, but they do.

And yes, I got the pet. Now back to leveling, I guess. At least she's got more rested xp now.

Why do we love the alts we love?

I started thinking (always a dangerous thing) about why I play the alts I play. I have two baby hunters, and I haven't touched either one in a month. I love my main hunter, so why no baby hunter love?

One, I'm mostly playing my main. When I play an alt, I want a break, and the same playstyle isn't really a break.

Two, I miss the feeling of power I have with my main.

Three, I don't like looking at the troll. This is sad, since I went to all that time and trouble to get her a moth. It would be really silly to turn her into a blood elf just so she'd be pretty.

On the other hand, looks aren't everything. I adore the way my mage looks, but she's languishing at 21, and has been since November. I find the gameplay annoying (apparently there is a trick to playing a mage, and I don't know it. A friend's offered to watch me play and give tips, so we'll see what I think after that)

I think the most important thing is the break. Combine a different way of playing with the power and the pretty and that may be why I am starting to fall in love with my DKs, especially Linaev. Unholy spec is INSANE. INSANE! I took down all the servants of Omen and ended the fight at FULL HEALTH. I'm still trying to figure out how I managed that. Plus my minion, though not attractive, does make funny noises. Now if I could just get the mining to Outland levels so I can start leveling her...
On that note, This is a DK tutorial, covering all 3 specs. Well-worth the read.

And the bugs in Love is in the Air continue... so far I am aware of..
1. DO NOT TRY THE STORMWIND HARBOR GUARDS. You get nothing.
2. The achievement for getting the 3 cities things doesn't work Alliance-side. No clue on Horde.
3. The ice thing is still repeating randomly.

Here's hoping Blizz fixes them soon, and hey, why do you guys play your alts?

Love is in the air

Well, so far I'm having fun with this one, much more fun than I did with Winter's Veil or Lunar Festival. Of course, it might have something to do with the outfit...


It's just so pretty and um, other toons keep double-taking. And the most amusing thing to me is that the dress has no back, and her hair hangs down and it makes me happy.
Hysterical fun.

Or maybe it's the frantic run around capital cities looking for the hearts. And if you need to remove the debuff, stand in the square in front of the AC in Stormwind, and someone will fix it. Trust me.

Or maybe it's the lore, which I am also enjoying. I dunno, but I'm having fun.

The Ice Stone has melted

And Blizzard appears to be having a few issues with the Love is in the Air event. That ice stone bit being repeated every 5-6 minutes for one, plus some of the achievements aren't being recorded.

So far I've not run into any problems, other than I wants the pet, I WANTS IT!

Multiboxing and 10 coins on a level 10

So I've been considering multiboxing (once I have a job so I can pay for two accounts). I've been looking for info on and off, and I found these posts over at Amara Knows Aggro.
Part 1, the basics (or having your own pet healer
Part 2->Using a high level toon to boost lowbies
Part 3-> actually playing two toons at once

She's got an interesting blog, and I'd recommend checking out some of her other posts.

In other news, I'm pushing to get Linaev all the Lunar Festival patterns. I need 30 coins (35 if I want to get her a dress), and I'm at 19. It's giving me a chance to see the Horde areas in places like Ashenvale, where Garetia spent her early 20s.

And in a last little bit of Lunar Festival stuff, I figured since I did the ten coins on level ten toons for both the Horde and the Alliance, I'd list what I think are the easiest to get.
Alliance...
1. Darnassus
2. Dolonnar (just go inland from Darnassus)
3. Darkshore
4. Astraanar
5. Ratchett, the Barrens (you will die getting here, but you'll want the fp later),
6. Booty Bay
7. Stormwind
8. Goldshire
9. Ironforge
10. Kharanos
If you don't want to do the Barrens and Booty Bay, try Westfall and Loch Modan.

Horde
1. Undercity
2. Brill
3. Thunderbluff
4. Bloodhoof Village
5. Camp Taurajo, Barrens
6. Crossroads, Barrens
7. Org
8. Razor Hill
9. Ratchett
10. Astranaar (you'll die, but it's an easy run from the Barrens. Just swim around the city and you'll see the elder. Nicely water-accessible)
another option is Booty Bay if you're not comfortable with Ashenvale.

I managed to do possibly the oddest route possible on my horde, involving running from Grom'grol to Booty Bay. As you may have noticed, I occasionally fail on the thinking things through bit. But I think this should be pretty easy for any level 10. For my alliance toon, it was a piece of cake, and my only deaths were on the trip from Astranaar to the Barrens. And let's face it, you'll want the flight points later, so you might as well get them now.

Fishing

Well, in the hurry of leveling, I kinda forgot about fishing. My herbalism's at 379 (possibly because I hit 340 before I hit Outlands), my alchemy is at 340ish, and cooking is also at 340. Fishing, well, that was sitting at 301. And that's a problem when the zone you're almost done with (got the achievement and everything) has a minimum 335.

So it's fishing with a passion, cursing Blizzard for making me catch on average 10 fish per point, cursing because bright baubles don't raise my fishing score enough (+ 75 at this point takes me to 395, and I still lose a third of my fish), and cursing when I lose fish even after using the fish attractor. Honestly, if I'm sitting at over 400 (with the attractor), and the min is 335, I don't think I should be losing fish!

Needless to say, this is going to take a while. A long while. Like 20 minutes got me from 309 to 313 a while. On the plus side I got scavenger and caught 1000 fish last night.

Looks like this will be my view for a while to come.

BM vs MM

Now that I've had a while to play as MM, I figured I'd talk about what I think of both MM and BM.

First, both specs are fun. Just in different ways.

To play a BM properly (especially in raids) I would need to pay attention to what my pet was doing. I would need to manage both the pet and myself. I don't want to do that, quite frankly. I'd rather leave the pet on AI, trust that it won't do anything horribly stupid too often, and have fun with shot rotations. I also don't care that much about exotic pets. And it makes me happy to do massive amounts of damage on my own, without help.

Now MM has its own set of issues. Mana. I run out fast, and there really doesn't seem to be any alternative to Vipering every other fight. I must have a tenacity pet. You guys remember my ranting about the gorilla? Well, I had to get one, and man I did not like it. It holds aggro like a champ, is a great tank, but I don't like the look and it breaks my crowd control. I got really sick of yelling "I JUST FREEZE TRAPPED THAT MOB YOU STUPID MONKEY!" at it. And we're not going to talk about the butt-scratching and chest-beating while I was trying to fish.

Plus, I have this macro (cast hunter's mark, command pet to attack) and I added the line "Go for the eyes Boo!" to it. Unless you're played Baldur's Gate 2, that will make no sense to you, but it makes me giggle. But it does tend to confuse people when your pet is named Galifor. So, I got me a boo. And he is an awesome Boo and teleports to the enemy and generally only manages to lose aggro when the enemy is almost dead.




And that's Boo. I heart my warp stalker. And and he doesn't break crowd control. Finally a tencity pet that makes me as happy as my dragonhawk. So there isn't a vanity pet that matches... Blizz get on that please? Oh and can I have a baby sporeling as a pet while you're at it. SO CUTE!

Omen

I've been haphazardly gathering elders, and I plan to do a full run at some ungodly hour of the morning (since I want to get Elders of the Horde). My guild did a short get coins run, starting in Booty Bay and culminating in Strat and an Omen fight. Now I was pretty useless in the fight (which was EPIC), but I did take screenshots. And I learned some stuff...

Omen's area attack will not be aimed at you if you are not hitting him. So if you're trying to watch the fight, stay away from the damage-dealers.

It is possible for one tank, one healer, one druid (dps) and a few lower-level dpsers to take down Omen. It took like 45 minutes but it is possible. Now I don't think it would have worked as well without an awesome tank and an awesome healer, but it most certainly can be done. It might have been slightly shorter if I'd remembered to turn trueshot back on after I died, but oh well, no one's perfect.



You can see our awesome holy priest Fi in this one, and the pally tank Pere.




That's one of the area-affect attack, and there's Fi and Pere again.




As you can see, I just stood around and watched. The area-affect was enough to one-shot me (which it did once) and I wasn't doing much damage. Now, in a real raid, I wouldn't sit out, but with being 15 levels lower than the rest of the party and god knows how many levels lower than the boss, well, my contribution would be outweighed by the trouble I would cause.

Fantasy Housing

Now, there's a ton of stuff I would like to see Blizzard add to WoW. Better mana conserv and regen for MM, for one, but there is one thing I really really want to see.
Player and Guild Housing
I've been in games where this was available, and I thought it was great. It's an extra gold-sink for players, and it gives you some options and it's fun.

How about if you're exalted with a faction, you can purchase living space in their home base/city? I'd be grinding up to exalted with Sporeggan so fast it'd make your head spin. A lovely cottage in the middle of nowhere, close to fishing? Garetia would love it, it'd be the perfect vacation home. It wouldn't exactly be convenient, but most vacation homes aren't.

You could have bosses drop trophy heads that could be placed on the wall, weapon and armor racks to show off that now outdated tier stuff you spent so much time trying to get, and for the hunters (please?) a place for all your pets to live, with a stable-master to take care of them. And one for non-combat pets as well.

Professions could have a random recipe drop that allows them to make crafting zones in their homes, and maybe there could be a rare drop that allows you to cultivate an herb garden in home (for the herbalists). It'd be easy to put a timer on it so you can only gather it once a week or something. When you gather an herb, maybe you have a 1 in 1000 chance of getting a seed, and your herb garden can hold 5 seeds.

Oh, and another hearthstone for house-owners, that takes you back there.

There are a few caveats to this...
1. No player stealing. I'm on a carebear RP server for a reason. I don't want to come home and discover that all my hard work has been swiped by someone else.

2. No decay.

3. I'd like to be able to show my house off, but only to those I invite. Maybe a house key? I don't want random people wandering around it.

Obviously costs should scale. A small apartment in Dalaran should cost more than my cottage out in Zangarmarsh because, let's face it, Dalaran is where everyone is.

So what do you guys think? Where would your characters live, and how? Would their place be decorated in early bloodbath, in metal, or not at all?