Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding!

12/29/08

Since the Feast of Winter Veil began, it’s given me the kick in the butt needed to level up some of my toons, so I could do the “You’re a mean one, Mr. Greench” and “Save Metzen the Reindeer” quests before the event ends. On Daggerspine, I leveled up a bunch of my toons by doing the Greench quest in Alterac mountains, along with all the other quests from Southshore. Ryo went from 37 to 39, Gwidd got to 39 as well, Aos got to 43, Kishi got to 44, and Panzer finally dinged 40 (woot, plate mail time!).

Hangfire is level 35 though, so it’ll be interesting to see if he can take down the Greench. But, with a Mechanical Dragonling and Shrink Ray to help, along with a Big One bomb and a Target Dummy, not to mention the Lifebloom buff from Herbalism, I think he’ll be able to get it done.

I’m doing the same thing on Demon Soul too, having my toons get all the quests from Tarren Mill before heading up to Alterac. For most of the toons that can do the quests, they’re level 40+ already, so it’s not that hard for them, but the Metzen quest might be a bit tough, since he’s surrounded by level 40 something pirates, and they keep on adding to the fight, since they run and get help. Granted, this was my experience with my level 55 hunter, and I wasn’t really worried about pulling in singles, I just wanted to nuke everything as fast as possible.

Oooh, oooooh! Tsuris finally hit level 30 last night. For some reason, my Shaman/leatherworkers, Druid/herbalists, and Priests don’t get a lot of play from me. I’ve never gotten a leatherworker above 225, because all 3 of them are still in their 20’s. Well, until last night. I decided to clear out some of Tsuris’s quests, one thing led to another, I laid a trail of slaughter all the way through Duskwood….y’know, the usual. I was doing the Wolves on our Heels/8-legged Menaces/Lean wolf flank quests in the northwest part of Duskwood, and I got bored waiting for the meat to drop, so I was starting to see how many wolves I could collect before AOE’ing them with Solid Dynamite, then cutting them down with my shiny axe buffed with Windfury. Granted, those were only level 20ish wolves, and I’m level 30, but enough low level enemies can still hurt.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, I took engineering to its low level limits. At level 29, I picked up the quest to kill 12 Darkrunner Worgen. There’s a group of them directly west of Darkshire, near the mountain in the middle of Duskwood. I had been picking off a few Darkrunners here and there, but when I saw the village, I decided to do a full-on attack, and wipe it all out. I buffed up with a scroll of stamina, cooking for +8 stamina and spirit, got my electrical orbs spinning, and used my Mechanical Dragonling as I was running to attack. I quickly swapped it out for the Cloaking Device, since I hadn’t entered combat yet, and wanted the option to bug out if it looked like I was going to lose. I jumped into the village, tossed down a Stoneskin totem, started swinging at the nearest Worgen, and quickly let off a Big One bomb (400-500 damage). Following that, I threw down a Target dummy, to hopefully distract them for a second or two. At level 10, they’d keep hitting the Target dummy until it blew up, but at level 25+, you put out too much aggro, and the monsters see you as more of a threat than some paper figurine waving back and forth. It was a bit iffy for a second, but I got through through the fight with some judicious use of my Flame Shock spell and Magma? totem for additional damage, not too mention my dragonling chewing on them from the side. After the fight is done, I’m at 10% health, but still alive, and he runs off and starts attacking another Worgen! I used a Mageweave bandage, and went to help the dragonling, since I knew he’d be despawning soon anyway. But hey, at least he bought me some time to bandage…..which I would have had anyway, if he wasn’t such a bloodthirsty little beast…..ehh, whaddya gonna do.

Ryoushigishi is planning ahead

2/27/08
Ding! Thrillkiller hit level 40 while in the spider cave in Dustwallow Marsh, after camping enough to get 2.5 stacks of Iron Ore and 1.5 stacks of Mithril Ore. Usually 2 Iron Veins, 1 Mithril Vein, a treasure chest in the middle, and occasionally a level 38 rare spider would spawn when I’d log in every couple of hours. I’d spend 3 minutes killing and mining the veins, then log back out and go back to Daggerspine. I ended up at 233 mining, which was enough to allow me to learn to smelt Truesilver Ore, but smelting it doesn’t give you any free mining points. It’s grey when you learn it. The next one, Thorium Ore, isn’t until 250.

Ryoushigishi is about halfway powerleveled right now, I just had to get enough mats to allow him to powerlevel comfortably. Since he’s my highest hunter on Daggerspine, I wanted to have him get the Sniper Scope recipe, since he’d be using it the most. Unfortunately, I also want him to make 9 Mithril Mechanical Dragonlings, and they (and Sniper Scopes) share Star Rubies as a mat, so I have to juggle my available supply. Star Rubies on Daggerspine usually can be gotten for 1 to 1.5 gold, but right now it’s about 3-5 gold, so I have to hoard what I’ve saved up. The mats required for 9 Mithril Dragonlings are pretty intensive. 9x2=18 Goblin Rocket Fuel, 9x2=18 Star Rubies, 9x14=126 Mithril Bar, 9x4=36 Heart of Fire, 9x2=18 Inlaid Mithril Cylinder (IMC).

Luckily, I have all professions, so Panzergishi is able to make IMC’s, but that’s 5 Mithril Bar, 1 Truesilver Bar, and 1 Golden Bar each. 18x5=90 Mithril Bar, 18 Truesilver Bar, and 18 Golden Bar.
Total cost = 216 Mithril Bar, 18 Truesilver Bar, 18 Golden Bar, 18 Goblin Rocket Fuel, 18 Star Rubies, 36 Heart of Fire.
And, I have to make another 9 Mithril Dragonlings with another character later on, in preparation for when I can use them to make Arcanite Dragonlings. Such is the life of an Altoholic….

Ryo also needs to leave some powerleveling skill points open for making Truesilver Transformers for Kishi, since she’ll use them to make Goblin Jumper Cables XL.
It sucks that I’m basically draining my toons dry of all my mithril and Truesilver, but I can send Kishi over to the Drywhisker Gorge in Arathi Highlands, and she can level up her mining skill with the Mithril/Iron/Gold and Lesser Bloodstone Ore that spawns in there, since I’ll need the Bloodstone for my toons to turn in to Krazek in Booty Bay for the broken Crockpot quest.

A Plethora of updates

1/8/08
Ryoushigishi hit level 30!! I can now get the specialization quest for gnomish engineering, and go to Booty Bay to talk to the trainer there. Only 5 character levels before I can increase my engineering max level to 300. I did this last level in the Wetlands, killing raptors and Red Whelplings for their hides, and hoping for Red Whelp scales to drop. I also did Dark Iron War in Bael Modan, which involves killing about 20-25 lvl 29 Dark Iron Dwarves. Pretty easy with a lvl 29 Hunter, and I discovered a friendly vendor Dark Iron Entrepreneur in the upper left building, where I found the last 3 Dark Iron Demolitionists hiding out.

After that, it was time to check auctions. Daggerspine must have a limited amount of Blacksmiths, because my Silver Rods and Golden Rods will sell for 2-3 gold and 4-6 gold, respectively. My Blacksmith warrior Panzergishi currently has about 250 gold, and he’s only level 24. Though, as usual, it’s hard as heckfire to sell any armor or weapons that are crafted, unless it’s the Shining Silver Breastplate or Green Iron Hauberk.

I did decide to drop Blacksmithing on Thrillkiller, over on my Horde server. He’s my highest miner, and I’d be kicking myself every time I passed metal veins that I could be picking up. Bullkathos will be fine being my only blacksmith, since they can respec for a measly 100g a pop. That’s nothing compared with the arduous and expensive process that leveling blacksmithing takes. I know I’m wasting all the 1-225 recipes I picked up, but like when I dumped Leatherworking and Skinning on Bullkathos, it was something that had to be done.

At least my Ally account was planned out properly, I only dumped level 125 leatherworking on Aosdanasaoi when I became convinced that Engineering for all characters was the way to go. It still is, in my opinion. The armor/weapons you can make for yourself can easily be duplicated by stuff you buy off the Auction House instead, but the sheer joy of blasting 4-6 enemies at once with about 350 damage for a total of 1400 to 2100 damage, then dumping most of that aggro with a nicely timed Target Dummy…..it’s fun squared.

I also got rid of my n00b hunter weapons on Bloodshrike. I had a sword and axe that had a total of about 10 stamina and 5 agility, with Fiery on both of them, so I replaced them with a 2-handed sword with 12 stamina and agility, and had Banesidhe put +3 intellect on it. It’s not much, but it’s better than nothing, and I only have melee and spirit enchants to put on at this point, since I haven’t gotten any kind of faction recipes.

Who dropped the Maytag in Gnomeregan?

1/7/08
Happy New Year! I turned 30 on Friday, so I spent the weekend enjoying my presents. I got a XBOX 360, Halo 3, Lost Planet, and James Bond Volume 4 movie pack. Not a bad haul. I was also off on vacation during this first week of 2008, so I was able to make money on the AH (of course), as well as level a few characters. My BE paladin Clockworknyt was able to solo Shadowfang Keep as far as the stables at level 26, so she could pick up the last item for her polearm quest. This prompted me to start leveling my Human paladin, and she ended up soloing it at lvl 29. Now I have to do a PUG for Deadmines, or have a guildie run me through, since the paladin hasn’t done that instance at all.

Thrillkiller still hasn’t been able to sell the Barbaric Iron recipes on the Neutral AH, even though my price has dropped. I started at 25-50 gold, and now it’s down to 10-20 gold. If I was a Ally blacksmith, I’d jump at the chance for Horde recipes. They’re about the only items that use Sharp Tooth's as a mat, because nobody seems to want to use Rage Potions since it puts a cooldown on Healing Potions.

Ryoushigishi is now level 29 as well, making my Ally account mostly 25-30’s. They’re fast approaching the level of my Horde account, and have about the same amount of gold. Alliance seems to buy everything on the AH, as long as you know what you’re doing. I think if I make another account, I’d just make my money from mining and skinning, and avoid the hassle of rebreaking enchanting mats and constantly posting them. It’s lucrative, but time-consuming. I’d only do it for the Vision dust/Lesser Nether Essence/Small Radiant Shard level mats or higher.

I just discovered that Shadoweave items are not listed as recipes from your regular tailoring trainers. They have their own trainers, which are Josephine Lister in the Magic Quarter of Undercity, and some trainer in the Slaughtered Lamb of Stormwind. Makes sense to place them near the Warlock trainers, since the items give + Shadow damage, but why not have the regular trainers list the recipes, especially since you can now learn up to 300 tailoring in the capitol cities? I made a couple of the gloves, and put them on the AH. I think there’s a good chance that they’ll sell, since both warlocks and Shadow Priests can use them.

I had Bloodshrike go to Booty Bay and teleport over to Gnomeregan. There’s only one Horde quest that he could do, but I wanted to take a look. I was able to do the neutral Blastmaster quest, where you help the Alliance gnome inspect the tunnels, then fight off waves of troggs. Annoying, but would probably be doable at level 30 for my other toons. It’s amazing how much I’ve learned from BRK’s blog on how to play hunters. I remember when I first started, and had never done an instance before, and wandered into Ragefire Chasm by mistake. I got slaughtered, and vowed to come back at a higher level. I got a PUG for it (I think) and cleared it, but I also came back at level 22 confident that I’d be able to take them down. They’re only level 13 Elites, right rite? I got slaughtered by the troggs again. In comparison, my level 26 Paladin was able to get to the stables in SFK, and would probably be able to go all the way through the instance if I had enough time, and those are level 20-22 Elites, attacking in groups quite often.

Anyways, back to Bloodshrike. I’m wandering around Gnomer, trying to figure it out, and I find the Alliance rest station in the middle of it. They get a mailbox, vendors to sell off junk, and …. a washing machine to do laundry? The Sparkle-o-matic isn’t really worth doing. I washed about 20 Grime encrusted objects, and got about 7 rough stones, 1 heavy stone, 1 copper ore, 2 tin ore, 4 Tigerseye, 4 Malachite, and assorted junk. This was for 3 silver a pop, so 3 silver x 20 = 60 silver. Not bad, not good either. While I was there, I was playing around with my macro’s, and put Concussive Shot and Scorpid Sting on the same button, with a cast sequence. This frees up my F button for Multi-shot, and I usually let my Auto shot/Arcane shot do most of the work, popping off a concussive/scorpid only occasionally.

Walk softly and carry a big boomstick!

12/3/07
Lessee, what did I do this weekend? I got Tsuris (shaman) from 170 fishing up to level 200 fishing, just off of the 3 pools off the pier at Southshore in Hillsbrad. During that time, I had collected about 43 Oily Blackmouth, 30 Firefin Snappers, 18 bolts of wool cloth, 7 bolts of silk cloth, 7 Heavy leather, and about 13 Medium leather. I think I’ll have all my characters end up there for some fishing time when they’re doing the flight point run from the Wetlands to Arathi Highlands to Southshore. I also powerleveled Hangfire to about 210 Engineering while in Stormwind. I just need to finish getting him to 225, so he can use the Parachute Cloak and the Spellpower Xtreme goggles. It’s much, much easier than having to run all the way from Tinkertown to the Great Forge and back in Ironforge, every 10 levels or so.
I also got my last miner alt Kishigishi (paladin) to Thelgen Rock, so she can level up her mining to 155, be able to powerlevel to 175 with gold ore, and then she’ll be able to mine and smelt Mithril ore. I also traveled to Ironforge first, to pick up the level 20 paladin quest Tome of Redemption? This has you getting items from BRD, SFK, VC, and the northern ogres of Dun Modr, to make a really nice weapon. I’m glad I got it now, so I can knock it out when I finally get around to getting a pickup group for VC.
I decided to do the traveling quests Kiera Longears and The Corruption Abroad for Ryoushigishi (hunter), since he needed to go to Darkshore to get the Ghost Sabre I’ve been wanting. Find Treasure does make finding the Cat Figurines SO much easier. I think I’ll come back here with Ryo when Doomslinger (my NE hunter twink hits 19, so she can tame a level 19 Ghost Sabre to use in Battlegrounds. I figure it’ll be a lot easier to clear the area around the cat figurines with Ryo, then quickly log out and log back in with Doom. I’d just have to buff up a lot, because the lvl 20 Ghost Sabre I was taming hurt me plenty. Well, that was my fault, I thought I had gotten rid of my trash pet, but I just dismissed it. I didn’t find that out until the tame was complete, which kinda sux. So, I had to freeze trap the Sabre, and work on healing myself a little bit.
I decided to name the cat DarkGhostnss, because it actually is a longer phrase then just one word. Since the Ghost is in the middle of the word, it’s actually “Ghost in the Darkness.” You could do the same with DeepURwater. The U R (you are) is in the middle, so “You are in deep water.” Water, trouble……make up whatever suits you. I’ve seen the screenshots on Petopia when you put the pet on Prowl, and the cat really does become translucent. That’ll be cool with the NE hunter twink, because her racial talent is Shadowmeld, so she can stay invisible if she stays in the same place. Maybe I’ll make a macro to cast both Shadowmeld and prowl, and my hunter and pet will disappear from anyone looking for her. Then, come out of invisibility to attack!
While Ryo was in Ashenvale, I picked up the 2 traveling quests to Forest Soul (the other ally town in Ashenvale), and used Aspect of the Cheetah to speed over there. When I was passing Splintertree Post, a Horde NPC guard came out to attack my pet, since it was trailing me. I figured once I got far enough away, the pet would auto-dismiss itself, and I could just whistle to get it back by me. That didn’t happen. Instead, I was attacked by a level 29 Tauren Warrior (Ryo is level 25) who was running along the path. I would have been content to live and let live, but he didn’t believe in that idea. I started meleeing him, since he had closed to the dead zone, then I used a Big Iron bomb to stun him and used Aspect of the Cheetah to run away. I was going to continue running, when I noticed he had resurrection sickness. I was like “Y’know what? You brought this on yourself!” So I ran back to the warrior, and 3 shotted him to death. I continued on to Forest Song, turned in the 2 quests, got the traveling quest to the Warsong Ally camp (Report from the Front is the name of the quest I think), and headed back towards the entrance from the Barrens. As I was passing Splintertree post, I found a level 27 Warlock coming towards me. I decided to not take chances, and quickly burned him down.
Oh, while Ryo was in Ashenvale, he did the First Mate Threshwackonator quest, since I figured my pet could distract the elite lvl 20 robot that you have to lead back to his master, and suddenly decides to attack you. Well, they changed it in the patch, and it’s now only a level 20 normal mob now. He didn’t stand a chance.

Still More of Ryo

11/08/07
I am poised to max out my Engineering at 240 on Gwiddonyn (lvl 22 Warlock). I made some unstable triggers to level from 225 to 232 Engineering, since I’ll need them to make the Parachute Cloaks. Luckily, I had found one on the AH the day before, so I only need to make 6. Clockwrkmage doesn’t need it, Preyonyou is a priest (and non-engineer), and Doomslinger is going to be my level 19 Twink for a while, so there’s no need to clutter up her inventory. I’ll make another cloak for Doom when I hit 35 on Gwiddonyn, and am ready to powerlevel to 315 Engineering.
I also played Ryoushigishi in Redridge for a while, killing Dire Condors for Tough Condor meat. Not the funnest grind, but I figured I might as well have my skinner do it, since you get the Black Dragon Whelpling adds all the time, because their flight paths bring them by the Dire Condors. Might as well get the leather, because that sells for a good amount on Daggerspine. 25-35 silver for a 20 stack of Ruined Leather Scraps, 75-99 silver for a 20 stack of Light Leather…..Skinners must be in short supply here. On Demonsoul those kind of mats are cheap as heck. I also wandered further southeast, and killed the Outrunner Orcs for the 10 Battleworn Axes. That was a challenge once, as I had 4 20-22 Outrunner & Warlock Orcs beating on me, a level 22 Hunter. I had to pull out a Land Mine, and that took out most of the problem.

Fun with Ryoushigishi

11/5/2007
Booyaka! I am finally level 20+ on all of my characters on my Ally account, except for my future twink. I got my paladin Kishigishi to level 20, got the remaining 2/5 of the quests for VC (Deadmines), and got 2 level 20 quests (Onward to Ashenvale & the start of the Rethban Ore quest chain) in Stormwind. I’m getting the quest thing down to a science now. :p
I also decided to play my non-twink hunter Ryoushigishi, because I wanted to get over to Redridge and kill Goretusk Boars and Dire Condors to get enough of the items for the quest Redridge Goulash for all of my characters. Condor meat has a terrible drop rate, by the way. Well, I didn’t get over there, because I was doing the Murloc clearing quest in Westfall (Trouble on the Coast? Can’t remember). That part was easy enough. I’m level 21, and I’m taking on 6 level 18 murlocs at a time. I probably annoyed a level 18 Warlock I saw on the coast, because by the time he had turned around from killing a lvl 15 murloc warrior, I had cleared the beach of all the rest of them. The reason I didn’t get over to Redridge was because I was hoping for Captain Sander’s Treasure Map to drop from one of the murlocs, since it has a fun quest chain, and some decent exp and rewards. Nothing, for probably 2 hours of killing. I fished in every Oily Blackmouth pool I came across, and I had 45 Oily Blackmouth by the time I gave up. It’s supposed to drop from Tidehunters the most, but I killed everything I came across, including Brack, Slark, and Murk-Eye (about 4x), with no luck. I’ll try it again, after I’ve powerleveled Ryo’s Engineering to level 225. Like my Warlock, I had 4 Target dummies, and 13 Big Bronze Bombs when I went down to the coast. I used about 2 of each in the whole 2 hours…that’s just funny. With my paladin, I didn’t have a choice. When I was in the Gold Coast Quarry, or on the coast, and I got swarmed, I needed the stun effect from the bombs to be able to throw up a Target dummy, quickly heal, and start killing the adds.
I have at least 5 characters that are level 200+ in Engineering. Clockwrkmage, Aosdanasaoi, Panzergishi, Kishigishi, and Gwiddonyn. I need to get them all to level 225, so I can have Gwiddonyn make 8 Parachute Cloaks (my priest isn’t an engineer, and the mage of course has slowfall). I think I’ll have a high level enchant put on them, so I can use it for a long, long time. My mage topped out at 225 Enchanting, and the best she can do is +50 armor to cloaks, so I’ll have to tip someone to do it for me. I wonder if its item level is 35+, so I can get a 300+ level enchant on it. (Edit: The item level is 45, so I could get the +12 Agility Enchant. It’s gonna be expensive though.)
At level 195, you can learn the drop recipe Goblin Land Mine, which does an astounding 394-506 damage to a 5 yard area. At level 20, having that kind of damage available every 1 minute is pretty freakin’ cool. I should practice my frost trapping, like BRK says to do, but also toss the land mine into the rotation. You might as well hurt the mob, so you’ll have less to do once you deal with the rest of the enemies. I think it would be cool to lay down a land mine, lay down a frost trap right behind it, send your pet to attack a group of enemies, then put it on passive and bring it back over to you. Hopefully all the enemies would be massively hurt in the blast zone, and one would be taken out of the fight for 10 seconds.
I also need to test if the Spellpower Goggles Xtreme (Equippable at lvl 215 engineering, it increases damage and healing done by spells and effects up to 21) does indeed boost hunter shots. If it’s just Arcane shots, it would be a waste. But if not…..that would be a huge advantage, especially since non engineer hunters STILL wouldn’t have a green helm at level 20. I just need to suck it up, and buy a bunch of mithril bars off the AH to powerlevel the characters to 225. It’s just annoying because I’m used to the high population of Demon Soul, and Daggerspine seems to be low pop, with higher prices in the AH. Ahh well, can’t complain, since they also seem to gobble up the recipes that I’ve camped for. I just sold the Blue Dragonscale recipe that you can buy for 2 gold at the Lighthouse in Azshara (the vendors also have Chimeric Gloves at 1.2 gold, and the Deepdive Helmet recipe for 30 silver) for a whopping 25 gold buyout. Auctioneer had never seen it on the Ally account, so I figured I’d go for a high price. I’ve had to shuffle around my gold on the characters, but most of them now have at least 30-50 gold, with Gwiddonyn having 70 gold. Not bad for level 20 characters!