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.

The Addiction multiplies!!

4/29/08

It’s been a while, but I haven’t had a lot of time to write. The last week before I came out to training in Phoenix, I was out in the field, so I didn’t have a lot of time to post like I did while I was at the office. Once I got to Phoenix, it was either classtime, or WOWtime. A classmate/buddy of mine lets me use his account, so I made some toons on Darrowmere, Daggerspine, and Demonsoul, of the opposite faction.

Now I can finally get most/all of the faction specific recipes for each server I play on, rounding out my collections. On Demonsoul and Darrowmere, I’ve already gotten the Red Whelp gloves and Herbalist glove recipes, as well as doing the leatherworking quest at level 8 to get the Moonglow vest recipe. I also ran my level 8 Night Elf toons up to Arathi, to get the Raptor Hide belt recipe. All of these have been safely transferred over to Horde side.
I only need to do the Blacksmithing recipe quests in Ironforge, then go out to Redridge to turn in the Gearing Redridge quest and get my Ironforge Breastplate recipes, as well as buying the Black Whelp Tunic recipe in town, and getting the Black Whelp Cloak recipe up in the hills. Finally, down to Duskwood, to get the Bright Yellow shirt pattern, and I’m done.

On Daggerspine, I’ve already gotten the Savory Deviate Delight recipe on Gwiddonyn, since she’s my alchemist, and I’ll be getting the Elixir of Giant growth recipe from the Horde Auction house. I’m also getting the benefits of 3 Auction House scans, being able to find good deals on Horde/Neutral/and Alliance, and then transferring/keeping the results to the side I actually play on.

A few observations: If you’re going to do this, do it in a few stages. You don’t want to have a lot of time running around, so make a few alts. Send the first one to Booty Bay immediately, so you can sell your shirt/item to your main account for some startup capital. I’d usually transfer over some recipes at that time too, so I can sell faction specific recipes on the opposite sides AH, and eliminate the middleman buying them off me in the neutral AH. For example, I can get Elixir of Giant Growth for 1-2 on a Horde Auction House, since it’s a Barrens only drop, and there’s a lot of questing for level 10-20 toons in the Barrens, so it drops quite often. On Demon Soul, I put 2 of them up for 50-60 gold in the Alliance AH, and sold them out almost immediately. Yet, on the Neutral Auction house, I was lucky if I could sell them for 8-9 gold each. I’ve gotten 300+ gold on the Darrowmere recipe account, and 130+ on the Demon soul recipe account, just by selling faction specific recipes.

On actually leveling, I’ve gotten Aosdanasaoi on Daggerspine to level 40, and gotten my first Nightsaber mount. She spent a bit of time in the Dustwallow Marsh spider cave, but since I had gotten so much Mithril Ore when Kishigishi was in there, I didn’t have to spend much time there to get to level 230 mining, where I could smelt and mine Truesilver Ore. I sent her back to Darnassus to get the Nightsaber and her skills, then did some mining around the Charred Vale while I was killing harpies for the Reclaiming the Charred Vale quest, then went on to Nijel’s Point. She had run out of well rested by that time, so it was time to have her chill in the Inn.

On Demonsoul, I’ve been leveling Clockworknyt, since she’ll be my Goblin Engineer. On the forums, it says that if you read the book Soothsaying for Dummies BEFORE you drop engineering, you won’t run in to the problems I have with Kishigishi, I.E. not being able to renew my G.E.E.K. card, and not being able to get the pet Bombling schematic. So I’ve renewed it at 2g per pop about 5 times with no luck, but I renewed about 12x yesterday, so we’ll see if I get the Lil’ Smoky schematic.
Edit 5/12/08: Still couldn’t read the Soothsaying for Dummies book before dropping engineering, so I made the same mistake as Kishigishi, and read the book once I got up to 200 engineering again. I think my last Paladin on Darrowmere will drop engineering, read the book, THEN take up engineering again.

Oooh, shiny quest!!!

4/3/08

Well, Aos didn’t get out to the Shimmering Flats, since I started her on the Defias in Dustwallow quests. After I powerleveled her to 299 Engineering (I ran out of Thorium bars), I brought her to Dustwallow, and intended on running her up to Ratchett, so she could hop on a boat to Booty Bay, and get her level 34 + 36 skills from the trainer.

I got distracted with questing, and logged out after talking to Renn (the diver) after giving him the Defias Orders. I need to get Gouge added to my hotkey lineup, so I can practice stunlocking monsters to be prepared for doing the same to players. Though, with engineering, I don’t have to worry as much about perfecting my attack sequences, since it gives such a big edge with the amount of damage options I have to choose from.

Attack of the 50-foot Gnome

4/2/08
I didn’t get much done last night, just checked my auctions and leveled Aosdanasaoi in engineering, up to level 262. I ran out of Elemental Earth for making Truesilver transformers, so I had Clockwrkmage bid on about 4 10 stacks of them. After I make about 10 Truesilver transformers, I’ll make a bunch of Lifelike Mechanical Toads, and power level up to 280-290 that way.
Clockwrkmage on Darrowmere was successful in selling a Green Dragoncale Armor recipe for 19 gold, bringing her to about 150 gold. Not bad for a level 4 toon! :)

I really need to run out of crafting materials for my toons. It brings me money, but I need to go out and level, so I can get to level 35, and unlock the next portion of the profession. I have yet to get a Leatherworker above the 225 level, and I’d like to see what items they can make that will benefit my higher level toons.

I sent Aosdanasaoi a Gnomish World Enlarger, and it really is very funny. I used it while I was powerleveling engineering in Tanaris, and I shrank to Barbie Doll size. She’s a Night Elf, which are pretty tall, but she shrank to being tinier than a gnome. I’m going to challenge the next one I see to a duel, and see what happens when I use the Gnomish shrink ray on them. Hopefully it’ll backfire, and cause them to grow to enormous size. Then I can run from them screaming “Help! Help! Gnomezilla is going to stomp on me!!”

After Aos powerlevels engineering, I’m going to have her do the Shimmering flats goblin quests, then do the Fishing quest for Nat Pagle. Ryo needs to do the Shimmering flats quests too, because I want him to have the quest “Dream Dust in the Swamp” where you have to kill the green whelplings in Swamp of Sorrows. I think they drop Green Whelp scales, and it would definitely make killing those things worthwhile, since they have a lousy drop rate on the Dream Dust. Then he can camp the Draenai vendor for the Green Dragonscale breastplate recipe, and kill the stealthed panthers for Shadowcat hide, which Tsuris can use to make Shadowskin gloves from.

April Fools post

4/1/08
I’m giving up engineering, it sux, and doesn’t make any money. Matter of fact, I’m giving up WOW altogether…….April Fools!

Aosdanasaoi hit level 35 finally, so I leveled her engineering in Ironforge by making 8 Catseye goggles to give to every engineer alt except Doomslinger. I figure she’ll make her own once I start leveling her. These will be useful to keep in my bags for leveling in Stranglethorn Vale, Hillsbrad, and Ashenvale, since that’s where most of the ganking happens. I’m also going to make sure that all my toons have the Mind Control cap, as it would be a fun way to kill an enemy, by making them attack multiple mobs, or leading them into one of my cities, telling them to stay, and waiting for them to come out of “pet” status and getting beat down by the NPC’s.
After I got Aos up to 240 engineering, and bought the Death Ray and Battle Chicken recipes, I went over to Tanaris, since it’s so much easier to level engineering there. I figure I’ll powerlevel her by making Truesilver transformers and the Lifelike Mechanical Toad, since I had picked up that recipe the other day for only 3 gold. Kishigishi can use the transformers to finish up leveling to 300 engineering, since she’s at 295 right now, and the Goblin Jumper Cables XL are still green at that level.

What happened this weekend? I bought the Thorium Shield Spike plans for 12 gold for Bullkathos, and that allowed me to powerlevel from 285 to 300 BS, and the recipe is still orange to me. Even if the spikes don’t sell on the AH, my toons can use them, and it made powerleveling a heck of a lot cheaper. I was also able to learn all the 300 level recipes I had stashed in my bank, which freed up at least 10 spaces. I also got the Purple Smoke Flare for 5 g on Darrowmere, which will help me powerlevel engineering in about 2 years, once I get a toon up that far.
I also picked up the Robes of Arcana recipe for Banesidhe for 50 silver, when it normally is 50-60 gold. So, those were the highlights of my weekend. Lifelike Mechanical Toad, Thorium Shield spike, Robes of Arcana, and Purple Smoke Flare, all purchased for low low prices.

I also found out that I better level Kishigishi pretty fast, as once my Goblin Engineering membership expires in 14 days of play time, I’m SOL for getting the special Goblin schematics. Blizzard still hasn’t fixed that bug, even in the new patch. The same will go for Clockworknyt, once I get her to level 35.
[Edit 12/23/08] You can still get the spec specific recipes, even after you respec from Gnomish to Goblin. The only thing you can't do is get the Goblin Pet Bombling recipe, since you have to renew your membership card to get it.

For paladins, I’m going to set up a macro that will activate the bubble shield and cast the Death Ray at the same time, since those 2 actions work well together. Using the Goblin Flamethrower is better coupled with the Gnomish Harm prevention belt, since it gives you a set amount of damage that it will absorb (400), instead of the few seconds that the bubble shield gives you. Otherwise, enemies will start hitting you when the bubble shield gives out, reducing the amount of casts from the Flamethrower.

WTF?? Aww, heck no.

3/27/08

WTF???? Blizzard said to delete the WTF folder in the Warcraft directory, since it might cause complications while traveling to the new areas like Quel’Danas. Well, it turns out that the Auctioneer scan data and the CT Map notes are stored in that folder. While I didn’t mind losing my scan data, since it was about 80% full, and would lag while entering the Auction House, I DID mind losing my map mods. That had all my Ore, Herb, and location notes I’ve entered over the past year. It’s extremely useful to keep track of which toons have picked up which quests, and I didn’t want to lose it. So, I went to the Recycle Bin, picked out those 2 files, and put them in the new WTF folder.

Aosdanasaoi is coming along quite nicely right now. I flew her back to Darkshire after doing the Legend of Stalvan quest chain around Stormwind. I dinged Revered while doing it, so it was useful, then flew to Darkshire when I got the quest to talk to the innkeeper there. I had about 6 completed quests to turn in, and that bumped me up to level 32. I now have to kill Mor’Ladim and Stalvan, but they shouldn’t be a problem. Mor’Ladim attacked me while I was in the cemetery, killing the skeletons, and while I wasn’t prepared for a fight with him, I still managed to kill him, and I was only level 30. He’s a level 33-34 Elite, but Engineering helped me kill him, of course. I think I used the Gnomish Shrink Ray, then used a bomb to help speed up the killing.