Out of Phaze

So, Bloodshrike, and ONLY Bloodshrike, will be going for the Loremaster achievement. I'm not going to put myself through the misery of slavishly trying to complete all those quests again on another character. I'll do the rep grind for certain factions if they have recipes that that toon needs for their profession(s), but I'm done with being a perfectionist.

I guess this whole thing kind of spun off from me doing the Icecrown quests. I'm currently about 104/140 on them, and I grouped with a BE rogue for a few of the group quests. One in particular was kind of funny. See, I only really got into Northrend at about level 76. I did all of the Sholazar Basin quests by level 77, then came back to Northrend for the Storm Peaks, and I know I got 80 before finishing the quests there.

When I finally started in Icecrown, I went straight to the Argent Crusade, did the intro quests, then became an Aspirant. I did those quests for 25 days, becoming "Champion of ..." and "Exalted Champion of .." at the same moment, since I was already exalted with all the home cities. It wasn't until about halfway thru Revered that I realized that the OTHER quests in Icecrown probably would help boost my Argent Crusade rep, so I wouldn't only rely on the dailies for the rep grind. Doh!

Needless to say, when I finally hit Exalted with the AC, I had over 180 tokens to spend. The first 50 went for the teleport Tabard, and another 120 went for my clothies to level up in style.
I also spent about 10kg for another teleport, though this one actually helps me kill stuff faster.
So, between the tabard, ring, 3 engineering teleport devices, and my hearthstone....I'm almost a mage!

Anyways, back to the original story. The BE rogue and I were about to kill the dogs and the casters for the Guardians quest, but when he came to join up with me, I couldn't see him. We could both see the monsters, but since we were in different phase stages of quest chains, we couldn't see each other. It was quite interesting to coordinate attacks on the monsters, especially since I'm a suspicious basterd, and don't trust that people are pulling their weight unless I actually see them fighting. But, we got it done with only 2 people, so it was a lot better than trying to solo it. I had tried before, and died twice while only killing one of the mobs. But, since we had also done Basic Chemistry and Coprous the Defiled, that finished my list of group quests that I need, except maybe the Banshee's Revenge. Ahh, I'll be happy to get this zone over with.

"Jump, jump, jump around!"

What's your favorite quest in WoW? There's some quests you loathe, and breathe a sigh of relief when you complete them, and others that you always enjoy, even after the 20th time. My favorite is this one. I don't know why, it's just fun to see how fast I can jump up the mountain, with as little time spent on the ground as possible.

And conversely, I really came to dislike the hunt for shiny baubles that I completed, ad nauseum, after I got exalted with the Frenzyheart, and rashly decided to go for both reps. Luckily, I did get the transformation item from the Frenzyheart on my first Ripe Jar, but then I had to start over again on the rep grind with the Oracles. The shiny treasure quest just bugs me for some reason. I don't mind killing Frenzyheart, it actually is kinda fun to send my gorilla and Jaloot into the middle of the flat rock on the north side of Kartak's hold, gather 22 of the warriors, then annihilate them with 1-2 volleys. The other quests where I have to fly around to the tops of mountains don't bother me either, as it gives me a chance to search for Loque.

This <- ^ -> way to Achievements

12/08/09

Since I'm waiting for the patch to download, I might as well post!

Well, thanks to the advice and comments of Joar and Kring, I finally got 2 achievements that have been bugging me for a while.
On the Blade's Edge
Check here for tips on how to get this. I had picked up the Orb of Grishna at one point, but I must have thrown it away, because the Ravens Wood Stonebark were still hostile to me. This achievement is very dependent on you doing 2 things.
1) Kill ALL the sons of Gruul.
2) Get all the Pick-up quests - i.e., all the items that drop that say "this item starts a quest." This item from the Bladespire Ogres is good for quite a long quest line.

I also got Nagrand Slam after deciding to run through Auchenai Crypts for Auchindoun, which is 8th in a 14 step chain quest.

Now I just need do about 78 Hellfire quests for the Achievement, and after getting Exalted with the Netherwing (sweet, sweet dragon mounts), I will never, EVER go back to Outlands with Bloodshrike if I can help it.

Woot! Download finished, time to play.

I level......Daily

11/24/09

Well, Pilgrim's Bounty is now upon us, a new title and pet available from it (though you don't need it for the World Event achievement, it's always fun to get a new title, now that I've recently started getting them.

I'm not going to delve into the specifics of the achievements much, since Darth already has an excellent write-up on them, which adds to the guides already out there.

Instead, I'll add my viewpoints from the altoholic standpoint. Before, when world events came along, I'd do some of them, then give up, because I knew I couldn't finish all of the achievements needed for the title. I figured I'd get back to them later, when I finally hit 80 with one or some of my toons. However, I had been ignoring something very, very nice that happens during these times.

Daily Quests

Normally only available to level 70's and above (unless you're a cook, which allows you to do the Dalaran cooking daily at 65), World Event Daily Quests are usually easy to complete quests that offer a decent amount of gold, sometimes rep, and most importantly, usually a bubbles worth of experience for a few minutes work. With the Midsummer fire festival, I'd log in to do Torch Tossing and Torch Catching, and gain an easy 2 bubbles of experience a day for each of my alts. That's huge for me, since months or even years can go by for a toon before they get out of a city. Banesidhe (my first mage) stayed at level 40 for at least a year, before getting up to level 46 recently with the Hallows End and I believe the Midsummer Fire Festival earlier this year. If I can get to level 48, I'll be ready to zerg out to level 50 with grinding Timbermaw rep, same as I did with Clockwrkmage on my Ally server.

So, my tips on getting some easy gold and xp for your alts, without pulling out your hair in frustration over the lore cooking quests that you think you might have to do. Don't worry about the quests that aren't Dailies, do them as you come to them, but the reward? you get from doing the "Lore" related quests isn't something you will want to rush towards.

Tip #1:
Stock up! Clear out as much of your bags as you can, and stock up to 80-100-120 of each area specific item (Cranberries, Sweet Potatoes...). You never know when someone will offer gold for you to cook food that costs copper to buy. Plus, it really, really, really sucks to run out of Cranberries when you're in UC, and you only have to cook 5 more to turn in a quest. Trust me.

Tip #2:
If you can stand it, try to get as many Wild Turkey stocked up as you can. It's not a problem to replenish your stocks of pumpkins, but it's annoying to have to go out of the city to kill another 20 turkeys each day. Just try to get 60+ the first time, while you're going for the Turkinator achievement, and see if you need more after that.

Tip #3:
Try to do all 5 dailies with all your alts. It only takes a few minutes to run from a portal to where the dailies are, cook up the mats, and turn them in. Then hearth back to Dalaran, portal to the next city, turn in or pick up a daily there, and log out. Rinse and repeat with the next toon. By the time you've done this with your 10th alt, your first one will definitely have their hearth up, and will be ready to go to the next city.

Tip #4:
If you're going to visit the enemy capitals, you might as well explore the zone around there, since I doubt you'll want to come back again when doing all your exploration for the Explorer title. Darnassus and the Exodar are annoying zones to get to as a Horde, so you might as well kill 2 achievements with one trip.

Loremaster or Bust!

11/9/09
I’ve been trying to get around to having Bloodshrike on Demon Soul get the Loremaster title, since he’s the closest in terms of quests completed in Kalimdor/Eastern Kingdoms, missing only about a 100ish on Kalimdor and a little more in the Eastern Kingdoms. That’s fine and dandy, but what I’ve noticed is that it’s kinda impossible to do the Outland Loremaster without going into Auchindoun, since you stall out at 77 out of 87 quests in Nagrand at that point. I really don’t like being forced to go into dungeons, especially ones that would take me forever to solo. I’m sure I could probably get a group together for running it, since they’d appreciate having an 80 along, but I hate getting into PUG’s.

I guess this is just whining, because it’s really not that hard to get the quests needed for the Outland Loremaster achievement. Heck, I’ve still got a bunch of Consortium quests I could do in Netherstorm, including the quest line that leads up to the X-52 rocket helmet. It’s just that my philosophy has been “If I can’t solo it, I don’t want to do it.” I hate waiting around in Trade, spamming “LFG for whatever,” when I could be out completing other quests, or on an alt, finally getting around to leveling them.

One thing’s for sure, I’m not going to even attempt Loremaster on any other toon. It’s even worse on Alliance side, requiring 700 quests each for Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms. And, correct me if I’m wrong, but they aren’t all this easy. – Ding!

I’m also going to need to do a lot of quest catchup in Northrend too, since I mainly leveled to 80 while still in Outlands, doing all the dailies I could there. I’ve really only touched Sholazar Basin and a little bit of Borean Tundra. I guess it’s a good thing that Pallormortis, my DK, is almost to 70. It would be fun do the quests in Northred around their level, and actually get good amounts of XP for completing them, plus the quest rewards would be around my level. I’m really, really tired of doing quests that are gray to me, just to tick off 1 more number on quests completed.

Edit: Due to completing the Shadowmoon Valley quest achievement, I got some more quests to take back to Nagrand, to visit Altruis the Demon Hunter. So, I'm about 84/87 for Nagrand, and the Auchindoun quests should be filled this week, since I'm going to knock out the Thanksgiving holiday achievement on Bloodshrike at least.

And, after being 80 a few weeks, I finally remembered to visit a hunter trainer and get my level 80 spells, as well as retraining my gorilladin to be more of a tank. Doh! That allowed me to solo the quest in Netherstorm, where you have to defend Area 52 against a Fel Reaver, using a weak version that dies after a little while, leaving you to try to solo it, since there's nobody else out there. I couldn't do it at 79, but finally got it done at 80.

The Start of an Era

11/2/09
Thanks to Kring and Darth’s advice, I decided to try late night dailies of the Headless Horseman, and I was able to get the Hallowed Helm on my 2nd try. It was a good thing too, because I did it once halfway thru the week to get “Bring me the Head of….oh wait,” and didn’t get around to doing it again until the Friday before the event ended. Since I had gotten the Sinister Squashling pet as a drop from trick or treating the innkeepers, that got me all the achievements I needed for “The Hallowed” title.

Funnily enough, on Darrowmere, my other hunter Bloodshrike was able to get a title just yesterday. She finally nabbed the last 18+ female she needed for the “Shake your Bunnymaker” achievement to get “the Noble” title. Yeah, I’m a little behind the times, I know. It’s just hard to find females in Dalaran, since a lot of the high level armor makes it impossible to see faces. You have to basically inspect every toon of that race that you need, in the hopes of seeing bumps on their chests.
However, in addition to Bloodshrike #1 getting the title, I was able to get about 2-4 levels on each of my toons between the Hallow’s End Dailies and some of them going to get the candy bucket achievements.

Bloodshrike on Demonsoul actually leveled to 80 doing the daily in Brill, funnily enough. I was also able to get several toons on each server either the Squashling or the Hallowed Helm, which will make it easier on me next year, when I will hopefully have a lot more 80’s that I can kill the Headless Horseman with. At this point, I’m not worried about getting the mount from the HH, but it would be nice to have it SOMEWHERE on my account, even if it’s not on my main. And if I get 10-20-or 30 toons up to 80 by next year, that’ll give me tons more chances for it to drop each day.

Here’s the list of who got what from Hallow’s End.
Demon Soul:
Bloodshrike – Squashling and Helm (and Title)

Daggerspine:
Clockwrkmage-

Darrowmere:
Bloodshrike -

Still need to fill this in…….

The easiest way to win the Lotto.....is by having won it already

So, I dragged all my toons back from the far corners of the world, to concentrate on the Hallows End achievements.

My Alliance server Daggerspine has all the toons in Goldshire, even though it's a 2 building fire, Allies do it often enough to park all my toons there, and reap the rewards from one succesful fire quenching. Kharanos in Dun Morogh is a ghost town (heh, a pun), and though I've heard that Azure Watch in the Draenai starting area is easy, I haven't gone out there yet.

Darrowmere, my baby Horde account, has all the toons in Brill. Why not Razor Hill, since it's close by Orgrimmar? Because Brill only has the right side of the town hall set ablaze by the Headless Horseman, whereas Razor Hill has 3 buildings to quench. Needless to say, that quenching doesn't happen very often. Why not Falconwing Square by Silvermoon City? Yes, it only has one building front set on fire, but there's nobody there! It could be different on other servers, but I've noticed a tendency for nobody to go to the BC Expansion areas anymore.

A side note: If you do have a lot of toons, and don't want to have to worry about doing the town dailies more than during one login loop, do some preparation. I usually log in with my first toon, accept the "Let the Fires come" quest, then dump it and get "Put out the Fires" immediately. Go back inside the inn, and have all the other toons accept the "Put out the Fires" quest as well. Now, when you're logging in to trick or treat the innkeepers, and hear "My fires have died, left not a spark....." immediately run outside and loot the pumpkin, and this will also give you a completed status on the "Put out the Fires" quest.

However, this doesn't mean you need to turn in the quests immediately. In Brill, since the pumpkin and Matron are so close together, go ahead and turn it in and get your rewards, then dash back in the inn for the next toon.

In Goldshire though, you'll want to loot the pumpkin, then run back to the inn to get your next toon. With a lot of toons, seconds can count, and it's better to get the dailies over as soon as you can, because more and more people won't care to do them as the festival winds on. This philosphy would also apply to Razor Hill in Durotar, since the pumpkin lands straight out from the inn, and the Matron is a good distance away.

Now, as to the title of the post. The Sinister Squashling pet and the Hallowed Helm are needed for the Sinister Calling Achievement, which is part of the Hallowed Be Thy name Achievement, which rewards the Hallowed title after your name. If you don't feel like dealing with PUG groups to kill the Headless Horseman, you can also get them as drops from Trick or Treating the innkeepers every hour (usually 3-4 times a day for me, as I'd really rather be out questing).

Here's my luck so far:
Sinister Squashling
Clockwrkmage on Daggerspine
Doomslinger on Daggerspine
Aosdanasaoi on Daggerspine
Tsuris on Daggerspine

Hallowed Helm
Gwiddonyn on Daggerspine
Aosdanasaoi on Daggerspine (giving her the Achievement)
Bonescourge on Demon Soul x 2
Kukoshakaku on Demon Soul x 2

So, if you want something, get it, and you'll be sure to get it again.
I've also noticed a tendency to be repeat tricked - as in, if I'm a snake, and login an hour later, I'll most likely be transformed again, instead of getting a treat.

I know, I know, it's just numbers and statistics, but it feels weird to get your third Flimsy Male Troll Mask on one toon, without having any other masks received. The Random Number Generator (RNG) doesn't seem so random at that point, more like vindictive.

Ah crap, not another holiday event!

It's time for Halloween.....strike that, it's Hallow's End in WoW. Despite the title of the post, I actually don't have a problem with any of the quests/achievements in this holiday.

Visiting candy buckets in Azeroth and Outlands, and getting XP for each one? Check, gotta love it. This allows me to give some levels to some of my alts that I haven't played in a long time (clothies and druids, mainly), as well as perhaps getting some exploring and flight points unlocked.

So, I'll have all my toons parked at either Razor Hill or Goldshire, be able to Trick or Treat the Innkeepers every hour on the hour if I remembered to do it, and be able to cash in on one of the toons helping out with the daily, then having all the rest come in to pick up the pumpkin head.

This holiday, like the Midsummer Fire Festival, actually rewards altoholics with XP for trying to complete the achievements. Brewfest......not so much. Spending 2-4 hours ram riding, with no "Ding" of leveling, kinda made me not want to log on. With the candy bucket achievements, I've already gotten some toons to their next level, just by flying around. Much, much more fun.

Also, the pet available during this event isn't something I have to save up tickets for, it's completely random, and I can probably get it by just doing trick or treating enough. Sinister Squashling

Wish me luck, and have fun with Hallow's End.

About Last Night.....

Well, since Blizzard decided to extend the Brewfest deadline by 2 days, I decided to see how many toons could save up 350 tokens by Monday night. Here's my progress up to now.

Demon Soul

Friday


Saturday








Daggerspine

Friday


Saturday








Darrowmere

Friday


Saturday








Most of the toons on Demon Soul, ALL of the toons on Daggerspine, and Bloodshrike and Psilentkill on Darrowmere will have the 350 tokens necessary for the Brewfest garb, then they'll return it for the refund, buy the Brew of the Month Membership if they don't have it already, and maybe buy the Beer Goggles with the rest.

Hindsight is always 20/20

To Kring, HokieJayBee, and David....

I'm kicking myself right now for not investigating the event more thoroughly. I should have looked up a strategy guide for the event, or even posted sooner, and all this would have been avoided. I originally wanted just the Elekk, and only after a couple of days had passed (and I had already gotten the Elekk on all toons on Demon Soul) did I start thinking about getting the achievement.

But, as has been pointed out, it's not necessary to drink each Brew of the Month to get the achievement, you just have to join. So, if I only get my toons enough tokens to join this year, I'll just wait for next year to see if my toons are high enough to warrant getting the other 350 tokens for the clothes, as well as killing Coren, thus getting the title at that time. Or, I could just hang on to the tokens that I get this year, wait til next year to get to 350, and follow the advice of buying the clothes, wearing them in Dalaran, returning them, and THEN buying the membership. I dunno, I'll make up my mind at the end of the week.

Wish me luck on getting some of my toons enough tokens this year that they won't have to repeat the hell of running kegs ad nauseum next year!

What Price Sanity?

9/28/09
I've been meaning to post, I just haven't had the time. Why? Brewfest. More specifically, getting the pre-requisites done for Brewfest NEXT year. Bloodshrike on Demon Soul is the only toon even close enough to being able to get the Brewmaster title this year, but, since he didn't join the Brew of the month club LAST year, he still wouldn't able to get the title until next year anyway. So, I decided to take all of my toons and camp them in the brewfest grounds, all to get the Pint-sized Pink Elekk and the Brew of the Month Club done in the 2 weeks that Brewfest lasts.

Let's break down what that entails. 100 tokens for the pet, 200 tokens for the membership. Not too hard to do with one toon, although a bit tedious. Times 30 = mind-numbing insanity.

One-time quests:
There and Back Again = 10 tokens.
Chug and Chuck = 10 tokens
Catch the Wild Wolpertinger = 0 tokens, but gives you the Wolpertinger pet and achievement.
Pink Elekks on Parade = 40 tokens.
= 60 tokens so far.

Daily Quests
Bark for the beer vendors = 15 tokens, 4 minutes or less completion time.
This One Time, When I was Drunk = 10 tokens, 10 second completion time, and you can have all your alts complete it since the gear sticks around for 10 minutes after you've defeated the Dark Iron Dwarf attack on the camp.

Semi-Daily Quests
Remember the guy that had you pick up 3 kegs? Talk to him again, and he'll offer a semi-daily that you can do every 18 hours, to get as many kegs as you can with a diminishing timer. I can usually get 14-16 tokens from Horde side, but up to 30 tokens on my Ally server. Horde side is almost a straight shot, whereas Ally side takes you thru trees, but I guess the apple barrels are placed more strategically, because I hardly ever have my ram get exhausted.

So, as it stands, all my toons have the Elekk, and are working on the 200 tokens for the membership. Bloodshrike already got it, so he's going to see what pieces of the Brewfest regalia he can buy before the fair ends.

P.S. I got all the toons on Demon Soul the Elekk on the first day, with about 30 minutes needed for each toon to get 100 tokens. After that, it slows down, with only the 3 dailies to give you tokens. 10 + 15+ 16(or 30 for allies) = 42-50 average per day (and about 15 minutes needed), if I was able to do all toons every day. I've just been mostly doing the This One Time, When I was Drunk turnin, then seeing what toons are lowest, and focusing on them.

Questing in Northrend

9/18/09

From the last post until now, I've changed my mind a little bit. I took a simple travel quest Where in the World is Hemet Nesingwary to the middle of Sholozar Basin, to just meet the legendary Hemet Nesingwary and to do the Ghostfish Daily fishing quest for Dalaran. At least, that was my intention. So, I introduce myself to Hemet AGAIN, even though I've already done bucketloads of his quests in Stranglethorn Vale and Outlands (that dwarf has a memory as bad as my own), and run on down to the River's Heart to catch the elusive Ghostfish.

After I catch the fish, I look around, and I notice a ! over Tamara Wobblesprocket's head that I hadn't seen on the other few times I had done the Ghostfish daily. So, I accepted her Part-Time Hunter, since it seemed like it would be close, and I should be easily able to solo whatever mob I needed to. That led me to the Frenzyheart questline, and then I started doing the Nesingwary questline, since I now had 2 (two) tanks ready to soak up and deal out damage. As long as you keep Hoofing It, you've got a pocket tank with Zepik the Gorloc Hunter. As a hunter, I already had a tank, so this made questing SUPER easy. I got thru 39 out of the 75? quests in Sholozar before I stopped. And, I stopped because I dinged 77, and could learn Cold Weather Flying. :)

So, there is a bonus from spending time past 68 in Outlands, at least on your first toon on the server. I only really spent about 1 level stuck on a ground mount in Northrend, before I could fly again. With only 2.5 levels to go to 80, I'll probably ding 80 before Pallormortis, who is currently 67 and doing Netherstorm quests, will need or want to start to start flying in Northrend, so I'll be able to provide the Bind on Account Book of Cold Weather Flying.

My First Title

9/16/09
Last night, Bloodshrike on Demon Soul got his first title. At Exalted with the Shattered Sun Offensive, you can buy the “of the Shattered Sun” title from the NPC in the high tower on Quel’Danas. After probably a month of dailies on the Isle of QD, as well as the Sunfury Attack plans in Netherstorm and the Spectro-graphic disturbances in Nagrand, I finally got to Exalted. And while the Alchemy trinket plans are useless compared to the highest level alchemy trinkets, the necklace I bought (Shattered Sun Pendant of Might) was actually a small upgrade compared to what I had. Couple that with being exalted with scryers, and having it proc because of that, and it becomes really nice (though I haven’t noticed it doing that). I haven’t been finding much on the AH for upgrades at level 76, maybe because people have found that quest rewards are better in Northrend than what drops? Dunno.

Speaking of Northrend, I’m level 76, Honored with the Kirin Tor because of the fishing and cooking dailies, and yet I’ve barely done any quests there. I did all the D.E.H.T.A. Little P.I.T.A. quests, and a few around Warsong Hold, but I haven’t really done much else there. I want to get exalted with whatever factions in Outlands that give me Alchemy/Engineering recipes before really moving on to Northrend.

How many Professions have you gone through?

At level 72, I finally decided to level Bloodshrike the rest of the way from 420ish Alchemy all the way to 450. One of the easiest and cheapest professions to max, I only had to do some Earthsiege and Skyflare transmutes, and badda-boom, I'm 450. Along the way I noticed some very nice bonuses that Alchemists have - Flask of the North, Endless Mana Potion, and Endless Health Potion are 3 potions that an Alchemist can use, and will not be consumed on use. Think about that, people! While the health from the potion isn't much for someone with 10k health already, it's nice to top off after a fight. Same with the mana potion. Before, I would have to switch to Aspect of the Viper after every 5 mobs or so, to regen my 5k mana. Now, I make it a game to see how low I can get my mana before chugging the mana pot. With only a 1 minute cooldown, I literally would never have to switch to AotV again while questing.

And with a proper macro, it can be made to be easily used.

#showtooltip
/cast [nomodifier] superduper high level healing potion, for use in combat
/cast [modifier:alt] Endless Mana Potion
/cast [modifier:ctrl] Endless Healing Potion

Demon Soul is my first server, and as such, I made some mistakes or choices that I rethought with my other 2 servers. On Daggerspine, I have a warlock as my alchemist, and on Darrowmere, my priest is my alchemist/inscriptionist. But, it's nice to know that it's not a wasted profession slot that one of my other toons could have done for me.

I even had my Rogue on Demon Soul going for Weaponsmithing for a while, before I made him into a miner, and then when my DK blew past him in Mining/Skinning, had him take up Skinning for when the DK would drop Skinning for Engineering at level 60.

Anyone else have any stories about changing professions midgame?

Just having fun with the game

Hey all, I haven't fallen off the face of the planet. I tend to write posts when I have nothing to do at work, and since I've been busy, I haven't been writing.
But, since WoW is down for urgent maintenance, it was time to try to remember my password to Blogger, since I've gotten a new computer and the password wasn't saved. :)

I could write them at home, but.....I'm having too much fun with Burning Crusade content!
(Dude, BC came out like 2 years ago, what's so special about it?)
Well, I'm just getting into playing those areas. I've always been one to play a game to explore all areas of it, not just get to the end. I put 300 hours on Final Fantasy 7,8, and X each, and by the time I beat X, my levels were so high from doing the monster arena over and over, it would have been a 1-hit kill except there was a damage cap of 99,999.

(All areas of the game, that means character classes and professions, right?)
Yup, I'm on 3 servers, 2 Horde, 1 Alliance. Demon Soul is my only one with a Death Knight, but all the other classes are represented at least once on each of the servers.

(All Professions? What about dropped recipes for those professions?)
Each server has all professions covered, and I've bought/found most of the recipes I could. I'm not stressing on dungeon drop BOP recipes, as I don't like tying myself down to a toon for that long of a time. I like being able to hop around. Once I get high enough to solo the dungeons, maybe I'll go for the recipes then.

So, playing 30 toons at once tends to slow your leveling rate way down. Not to mention the time spent in the AH, looking for recipes that I want for the future.
But, I came to the realization that I.....pretty much got them all. I haven't learned a lot of the recipes, but I've collected most of the high level recipes for each profession, on each server, and am just waiting to get to the level caps to be able to powerlevel to the next cap of the profession. For example, Bullkathos finally hit level 50, and was able to advance to 375 blacksmithing. I leveled him to 372, and was able to learn all these recipes. 2-4k gold spent in a few minutes, and probably would have been worth 20k gold a few years ago.
Fel-Edged Battleaxe
Runic Hammer
Hammer of Righteous Might
Dirge
Khorium Champion
Steelgrip Gauntlets
Blessed Bracers
Felfury Gauntlets
Felsteel Reaper
Eternium Runed Blade
Fel Hardened Maul
Storm Helm
Oathkeeper's Helm
Black Felsteel Bracers

These are the recipes I've collected over the years, and after Bloodshrike stepped onto the shores of Northrend, I've learned they're useless. Same with all the level 300 plans that Burning Crusade greens put to shame. I kinda wish they'd revamp them so they'd have slightly better stats then the low level greens you get when you first get into Hellfire. They did modify some existing recipes, like the Radiant set, to give it Hit rating and resilience, instead of whatever idiotic stats that it had before. Here's hoping.

But, on the plus side, I am enjoying how well quests are strung together in Outlands. No more go here, kill these mobs, come back to the quest giver, get given a quest for a zone across the ocean, and get a quest to come back to the original mobs for a different thing that they can drop! Instead, if you collect all the quests in a zone, you will only get a few travel quests, and those are usually just to introduce you to the next zone.

I've also decided to not attack players unless they're my level or above. A hunter combat engineer is just too overpowered for most players I come across, who usually have a few thousand health less then me, even if they're only 3 levels below.
I was killing ogres in the Burning Blade ruins in northern Nagrand, when I saw a level 68 warrior (I was 70, I believe). I'm at about 10k health, he's at maybe 7k. I had picked up the daily PvP quest to kill 10 enemy players in Halaa, and thought that this would be a start on that total. Well, you don't get credit unless the kill is in Halaa, I found out. But, I found out that I can utterly annihilate any player around my level. Between my gnomish lightning generator bolts, the rockets from my gloves, and my bullets, he was downed quickly.

I continued killing ogres, and he respawned, and must have asked for help, because the next thing I knew I was being attacked by him, with a level 64 boomkin helping/healing him. I went down after a fight, almost taking the druid with me.
I ran back up from the Spirit Healer, and after rezzing and flying off to heal and buff up a bit, I came back. My gorilladin took on the warrior, with occasional Concussive shots and Immolation traps help from me, while I kept up Serpent Sting on the druid and kept bringing down his health thru his constant self-healing. Booya! 2 down. After that, I got almost 1-shotted by a level 80 hunter that they asked for help. :)

Bringing the Lightning, bringing the Pain

8/4/09

Patch 3.2 hit today, while I'm at work....cough cough. Hmmm, maybe I should go home? :)

Well, since I can't talk about the new patch yet, I'll talk about powerleveling engineering. Being a gnome rox for engineering, recipes give skillups longer, and your crafting max limit is +15 of the normal cap, allowing you a taste of the level above you.

I made 9 Arcanite Dragonlings while skilling up, as Clockwrkmage was the first toon on Daggerspine to hit 50, and able to advance engineering past 300. I never make an item without getting a skillpoint for it, if I can help it, and this recipe got me from 330ish to about 340 (I think).

Remember that warrior that attacked me in Felwood? I think he had around 2500 health, way over my 1900 health. Well, I'd do a heck of a lot better in a fight against him now, being able to have my Stamina Trinket, 4K bubble shield, and my new stamina/crit/SP goggles. From 1900 HP to 3k HP, in three easy steps!!!! (and a few hundred hard steps, and a few K gold, but who's counting?)

I could have made this for my goggles, but I don't care about the spirit that much, and I had already made my goggles of choice for right now.

Oooh, I wants! Rocket Boots Xtreme Lite. And, requiring 420 engineering to make, but only 390 to use......Noise Machine. 375 engineering + 15 racial max skill cap = 390 engineering. Gnomes get the coolest toys.

Well, since I don't have my two favorite burst damage items (Gnomish Lightning Generator and Hand-Pyro Mounted Pyro Rockets, I shall have to make do with an old favorite of mine. Gnomish Death Ray. One of the main reasons I took up engineering, and my favorite trinket for any newly minted level 35ish alt. Cloth wearers don't get to use the Harm Prevention belt, but they can use the Nigh-Invulnerability Belt.

However, if you open up the comments on the Death Ray, the consensus is that you actually DO want to take damage while charging it. I usually would use the Harm Prevention Belt to absorb the damage, but I noticed I wasn't getting more than 900 damage or so when doing so, so I had stopped using the Death Ray. I think my new strategy will be to use the Death Ray, THEN pop the Nigh-Invulnerability belt to deal with the incoming damage from the mob/player I'm fighting.

"They Love me in That Tunnel" - Or, the quest for Twink Enchants

8/3/09

Clockwrkmage was on a mission this weekend. The mission was to commit xenocide on a whole bunch of furbolgs in Felwood, all in the name of cleansing the land and allowing another tribe to lay claim to valuable mineral rights, yadda yadda. I didn't care, all I knew was that at level 50, I'm allowed to bump my 2 professions (enchanting & engineering) up to 375, and I figured on making use of the 15 agility 1h and 25 agility 2h weapon enchants (From Timbermaw Hold)as a profitable way of leveling enchanting.

Twinks pay big for those to be put on their weapons, and they're actually really good enchants for any class that uses agility (rogues, hunters, feral druids). Instead of putting enchants that proc (and often don't), why not use an enchant that boosts dps, crit, and I believe dodge rating, all at once, all of the time?

My former twink Doomslinger is using it on her Twisted Chanter's Staff, and I haven't had the urge to upgrade her weapon because of it.

But, I digress. Using the level 48-51 southern furbolg's to level was good, because I got rep and good xp at the same time. I only intended to go to Honored, since that would allow me to turn in feathers and quests as I built them up, not waiting until Revered like the guides tell you to do. Bullkathos is doing that on Demon Soul, and it's a long, agonizing process, knowing you could turn in 100+ feathers at 300 rep per 5 feathers, giving you an instant 6000+ rep, but holding off until Revered, because that's when mobs stop giving rep for killing them.

Killing the those mobs was fun, but also dangerous. Since Felwood is so close to Orgrimmar, and Deadwood Village has a Horde quest to kill Overlord Ror, it's natural to assume that I'd be seeing Hordes pop up occasionally. Two encounters stick out in my mind. The first, being attacked by a level 51 warrior while I was level 48 still. He charged in and attacked me while I was finishing off 1 mob, so round 1 went to him.

Round 2 went to me, with my Gnomish Shrink Ray cutting him down to gnome size, and my Mechanical Dragonling getting in his face and landing some good hits. He made the mistake of focusing on the dragonling, which made me think he hadn't ganked many hunters.....Ignore the pet, go for the master, the pet disappears when your enemy dies!

Round 3 went to me again, though he ignored the negligible damage from my Gnomish Battle Chicken and went for me, a Frostbolt followed by Firebolt followed by Fire Blast took off a chunk of his life, then Frost Nova to hold him in place for Arcane Torrent, and a Fire Blast and a few Arcane Explosions took him down. Didn't even have to use my Gnomish Cloaking Device to buy myself some breathing room.

Final round 4 went to him, as I had tired of spamming /target player name to try to find him when he rezzed, and wanted to get back to grinding. Even popping my Mithril Mechanical Dragonling didn't help this time, as he got too close and just kept hitting me too fast.

After that, he rode off, probably figuring this was a waste of his valuable ganking time, since it wasn't an easy kill for him.

The flip side of that was meeting a level 48 Tauren Hunter, who ran along the hills behind all the Deadwood, obviously coming just to kill Overlord Ror. I had actually just overpulled or something, as I remember having to drop a target dummy, drop a Fel Iron Bomb for its daze effect, Frost Nova, and I think I even Blinked to be able to bandage a little. I ended up having to wand the final mob to death, as I was totally out of mana. Ahh, I remember, I had pulled a mob over, killed it, and immediately was attacked by a mob that spawned right there. We had a running firefight, and ended up by ANOTHER mob spawn.....Whew! Anyway, the hunter applauded my being able to pull that off, so I /bowed and /thanked her. I then /pointed to Overlord Ror, who had just spawned, and /pointed to her, then back at Ror. She got the hint that I would help her, so she sent her pet in, and I rained some firebolts and arcane torrents into him to help out. After that, she did the same /point thing, so I said /no, and went back to killing deadwood.

It's always nice to be able to connect with someone, even if you don't speak the same language, and be able to realize there are nice people everywhere, even on PvP servers.

WWGD – What Would Gevlon Do?

7/31/09

I’ve been reading Gevlon’s blog for a bit now, and I’m wondering what Gevlon would have to comment on about getting recipes for professions other than Inscription. Would it be worthwhile to a goblin to pay gold for recipes, instead of farming them themselves? Also, would it be worth getting all recipes for that profession, no matter if they were moneymakers?

From a goblinish standpoint, the trick is to get rare, midlevel recipes that few other people on the server have, or make trainer taught items that require quite a few different mats. For example, the Helm of Fire will cost me about 15-20 gold in mats, but can be sold for 60-65 gold easily. It’s a great helm for its level, and even though it’s leather, I’m using it on a few of my paladins and warriors around that level, just because of the high agility (crit) and awesome fire burst damage every five minutes (great for a PvP server). Add to that all the rogues, hunters, druids, and enhancement shamans, and you have a wide market base. You just have to market it effectively, and don’t flood the auction house. Post one at a time.

Farm World Dragons, if you can. The recipes they drop are very rare, like the Lifelike Mechanical Toad and the Radiant Belt.

I also am a sucker for recipes. All of them. If it’s a dropped recipe, it’s a decent price, and I don’t have it…….sold. That means less time that I would have to spend bored out of my mind, mindlessly killing the same mobs over and over again, cursing Blizzard for making recipes have such a low drop rate. Case in point: Pattern: Stormshroud Armor. When I finally got Tsuris to level 35, and powerleveled LW to 300, I noticed this high crit/dodge armor set, perfect for feral druids or rogues. The pants recipe is vendor bought, and the gloves and shoulders are usually readily available on the AH, but the armor…….the armor……
I ground the Arkkoran Oracles in Azshara for 3+ hours on Daggerspine to get the recipe, and then decided to do the same on Demon Soul. Another 4 hours of grinding, an almost infinite amount of zesty clam meat from the clams they drop, and Kukoshakaku had his own recipe. And on Darrowmere, it dropped for me on the AH, for a mere 10 gold. Aaaarrrrggggh!!!

Since I've gotten to Outlands, and have started to replace my 50's blues and epics with Outland greens, I've come to this conclusion: Don't kill yourself. Unless the recipe is for stuff below level 59 that a twink could wear, don't spend a lot of time or gold trying to get the recipes (this applies to Blacksmithing/Tailoring/Leatherworking recipes). If it drops, or if it's cheap on the AH, get the recipe. But after having the Arcanite Champion recipe learned for for months, and finally getting my warrior Bullkathos high enough to use it, and spending 150+ gold on mats even after I had Bloodshrike make the Arcanite Bars..... then replacing it with Fel Iron Hatchets at level 61 with Fel Iron Greatsword right around the corner.....Priceless. Granted, I'll still use it when I'm just doing some grinding for quests, but as soon as I hit 63, that's going in the bank.

Finish – I’m not trolling for comments from Gevlon, or flaming him, or anything like that. I just came up with the headline, and had to write something to match it.

Holla!!!! Holler? Hola…. Halaa!

7/7/09

Well, I only ended up with Bonescourge and Pallormortis getting the Spirit of Summer pet on Demon Soul, and I think Clockwrkmage got it on Daggerspine. But, I didn’t care too much about the pet, I appreciated the 2 bubbles of EZ XP per character, per day.

So, once the Fire Festival ended on Sunday morning (4 am server time), I decided it was time to start leveling some professions. Annihilus on Darrowmere needed to level her JC skillz to 225, Thrillkiller on Demon Soul needed to get to 375 engineering, and Doomslinger my former hunter twink was in need of 225 Inscription and Engineering.

Annihilus didn’t take too long to level, and I loved making the mithril settings, as I was able to go from 150-190 JC with just one recipe.

Thrillkiller, on the other hand….. It takes me a while to level each stage of engineering. The guides that are on the interwebs are designed for people who want to level up their professions as fast and cheaply as possible. They usually don’t have dropped recipes included in them, and really, nobody will ever be rich or even break even using just trainer bought recipes. Looking back on it though….I didn’t really make anything special to sell, it just took me a while to get all the mats together. I know I made a bunch of Elemental Blasting Powder, then Fel Iron Bombs until 330+. Then I switched to Adamantite Frames, and 5 Adamantite Scopes, and got to 350 with a Cogspinner Goggles of the Bandit (31 Agility, 46 Stamina, 62 AP). After that, it was smooth sailing to 375, making Volatile Blasting Triggers, with 1 point coming from the Gnomish Poultryizer.

I didn’t make the Nigh-Invulnerability Belt yet, as Khorium Bars/Ore couldn’t be found on my Auction house, and I hate asking in trade for items, since buyers know they have you over a barrel at that point. When they have metal in the AH, they paid a deposit for that, so they want to sell it. When in trade, they’ll jack up the price or simply refuse to talk to you because your initial offer didn’t match some price they had in their head, and they punish you for not being able to read their minds. I’m somewhat used to haggling, or at least offering low, being countered high, and usually settling in the middle. With some WoW players, you only have one shot to give them a price, and if you offer low, they laugh at you and /ignore you. Idiots…..

So, because of the need for Khorium Power Cores, Bloodshrike went on a field trip! I had intended to wait to adventure in Outlands until the new patch, when I’d be able to get my flying training at 60, training and mount prices would be reduced, and I could finally get mounts for all my level 20+’s on Darrowmere. But, needs must, I suppose.

So, Bloodshrike set off from Falcon Watch, ran thru Zangarmarsh (getting the FP on the way), thru Blades Edge Mountains (getting the FP from Mok’Nathal Village), and on to Area 52 in Netherstorm. I was freaking on the way, especially in Blade’s Edge, since I was running thru a cave with a bunch of higher level spiders, and I was expecting to be automatically dismounted or knocked off by a spider at any second. I’m used to ghost-running, or even corpse-hopping exploring, but being able to explore high level areas without getting killed repeatedly is still a new one to me. Of course, having 7.5k health at level 63 does help a lot. :)

I left Bloodhrike at Area 52 for a day, checking in occasionally to what I could buy from Qiff. I got 1 Khorium Power Core for 4.8 gold, a few Fel Iron Bolts for 60 silver each, a few Adamantite Frames, and some smoke flares just because.

After a while, I realized I was only a half bubble away from leveling to 64, so I decided to go out and explore, and maybe pick up some Alchemy recipes for Bloodshrike. I also realized that I could get the Gnomish Toshley’s Station transporter recipe, since I had 450 engineering, and you only need 350 to learn it. After I picked it up from Smiles O’Byron, I headed west to the other Horde town, Thunderlord Stronghold. Got the flightpoint there, and flew back to Zangarmarsh. I picked up the alchemy recipes Recipe: Elixir of Major Frost Power and Recipe: Sneaking Potion from Seer Janidi, then decided to go get the fp for Nagrand. After looking at ProfessionsBook, it showed that a vendor in Halaa sold a couple of alchemy recipes as well, so I headed over.

Along the way, I got waylaid by a quest. The quest giver for the Cenarion expedition had a simple exploring quest, which got compounded by me running into Fahssn on the way over. So, I got sucked into grinding the Bog Lords and picking up spore sacs, but it was actually pretty fun! With the burst damage from Hand-Mounted Pyro Rocket and Gnomish Lightning Generator, using each one every 30 seconds really, really speeds up grinding those bog lords. I got to almost friendly with the Sporeggar, then decided it was time to call it a night, and just made a run to Garadar in Nagrand. That’s some really beautiful scenery to run through! The funny part is, even though I’m 64, and the monsters are higher than me, I have way more health than them, and me and my gorilla didn’t have a problem dealing with a few pesky 67’s that attacked.

Midsummer Madness

6/29/09

I freakin’ love the Fire Festival! Not just because I’ll be getting some of my toons the Spirit of Summer pet, but because of the daily quests that all my toons can do. I’m running 30 toons on 3 servers, and I’m trying to level all of them. With the ability to log into each of them for 5 minutes, and get 2 bubbles of experience a day, it’s going to make leveling them a whole lot easier.

Preyonyou, my Draenai priestess, has been stuck at level 26 for……probably 6 months or more. I specced to Discipline on one of these Talent rollbacks, but she still doesn’t seem to do a lot of damage. But, she dinged 27 last night after I had her do the dailies in Darnassus! I can’t wait to get to 30, and after 2+ years of playing, finally get to (Levitate)! --- Edit, I looked at the training, and it's actually 34.

Bonescourge, my Demon Soul Undead Warlock, went from 44-47 over the weekend, just by exploring, honoring flames, and desecrating Ally flames. Well, he maybe have done a quest or two, but I’m not making it a habit, I swear! :P
I snuck over to the Draenai starting area, and desecrated both flames there. Bloodmyst Isle has WAY too many little areas to discover, and it’s annoying, because they aren’t listed on the map, and the fog of war on the map isn’t always helpful in finding what you haven’t discovered yet. Vindicator’s Rest, anyone?

I think this will also prompt me to take Bloodshrike and Pallormortis to Outlands, since there’s more fires to honor and desecrate out there, as well as some vendor-sold recipes and pets that I’ve been looking for.