All This and World War Three :: Spoilers for 3.3

I will admit this now. There was squeeing here. Actual Fangirl squees of joy as I made my way through this questline. The spoilers are ENORMOUS. You have, as always, been warned.

So I bought this from the Glyph Sellers in Dalaran, placed in game so the premade L80's can glyph once they are copied. We still don't know where it drops, and I assume because of the importance of this quest Blizzard aren't going to make that kill or location anything difficult to do. All of the steps in this are soloable until you hit the new 5 man content.

Once you have the hilt you need to pop down to the new guys at Quel'delar's Rest:

When you get there you'll notice the weather has gotten a LOT colder at the Tournament: a blizzard rages and thunder frequently rends the sky. It's a nice touch and gives a real sense that the winter is setting in and it's not just the bad guys you're fighting against. Caladis Brightspear suggests you may wish to talk to the Bronze Dragonflight about what the hilt's significance could be: after all, the Bronze Flight have been here a LONG time. On your arrival at Wyrmrest it becomes apparent that an ancient tome exists on what we discover are named the Prismatic Swords, of which your hilt is a part. Even more concerning is the fact that someone else has taken the book before you, a member of the Sunreavers. As you're pondering your next move, a totally unexpected guest arrives to question the Bronze's involvement in this entire affair:

Yes that's Kalecgos! You may remember him from such instances as Magister's Terrace and the Sunwell, where he tried to thwart Kil'jaeden's plans but was ultimately posessed by by the dreadlord Sathrovarr the Corruptor. Clearly he has some concerns about our suitability... well, considering I've only ever redeemed his ass once, post BC expansion, he may have a point :P

Anyway, we need to get the book back, so it's time fo a bit of running around in Dalaran, at the bidding of the New NPC in the Silver Covenant area:

Always something to do, always a ? to click...

You'll have a few tasks to do before the book is in safe hands again: you'll need to kill a courier in the Underbelly (be careful, watch for reprisal attacks, which is a nice touch by Blizzard) and then you'll need to find a disguse to enter the Sunreaver's area. Fortunately there's a Laundry service in Dalaran at the Threads of Fate (let's hope Mrs Meers is nothing to do with it) which will happily let you 'borrow' you a tabard to use, but only if you help with the laundry first!

If you are familiar with the Kungaloosh quest line, this is almost identical to the Still At It quest, substituting clothing for fruit. Don't worry if you're queuing for this either: once it's done the Laundry Bag is clickable by all! Once armed with your Tabard, and looking rather natty as a Blood Elf, you're off to the Sunreavers' area. I think they got the better deal in terms of pub decor...

The Horde also get dancing girls... why were we not informed of this???? Trying not to be distracted, we have our book, and so it's off back to the Tournament grounds, where it becomes apparent this sword is of some significance. It was forged at the same time as Quel'serrar, no less... and it's most recent owner is not best pleased we're trying to reforge it:

Say hello to Queen Lana'thel, who you'll be seeing again in Icecrown Citadel. She leads the San'layn, whom include Prince Keleseth in UK and Prince Valanar who you defeated back in the Tundra during the Last Rites quest. It transpires Lana'thel took the sword from Thalorien's dead hands and headed to Northrend in an attempt to avenge her compatriots' demise at the Sunwell, and was transformed by Arthas. The sword was broken... until now.

Here ends the first portion of solo questing! Coming up later, we go to the Pit of Saron and encounter new ?'s, buggy mobs and the continuation of this Epic Questline. Stay Tuned!

It's On!

New PTR Push. New Weekly Fishing Competition in Northrend \o/

• Quel’Delar Quest Chain: The Battered Hilt, the item needed to start this quest line, can now be purchased from all glyph vendors on the public test realms

 Well, you know where I'll be then...

Decisions, Decisions

This may be news to some of you so I'm repeating it here: as of 3.3 there will be a Raid Quest available from the guys who currently give out the Dailies. The reward is a rather nice 33+ glods and... TEN Emblems of Frost. All you need is to take down a raid boss. The current datamined list (thanks to MMO) on the PTR is as follows:

• Lord Marrowgar Must Die!
• Lord Jaraxxus Must Die!
• XT-002 Deconstructor Must Die!
• Ignis the Furnace Master Must Die!
• Razorscale Must Die!
• Flame Leviathan Must Die!
• Malygos Must Die!
• Patchwerk Must Die!
• Instructor Razuvious Must Die!
• Noth the Plaguebringer Must Die!
• Anub'Rekhan Must Die!
• Sartharion Must Die!
  

It's an interesting selection, considering it can be completed in either 10 or 25 man 'flavours'. That's the easiest parts of Ulduar, the first 4 bosses in each wing of Naxx, what I assume will be the first boss in Icecrown (Marrowgar), OS  and... er... Malygos. I suspect as a Guild when that one pops up it will be a good opportunity to get a load of people their Achievement and the Champion of the Frozen Wastes title, and for the better geared to try the six minute achievement. Needless to say ten elbows is going to be a pretty big incentive to go do the bosses in question...

This of course answers the question 'what happens to Emblems of Conquest in 3.3?' They will be useless, in effect. Everything moves up a slot: Triumph becomes the emblem that drops in Heroics, Frost replaces Triumph. Much QQ'ing results as people realise that you can again gear quickly without ever stepping into a 10 man.

I look forward to seeing the rewards when they pop up on the PTR.

Ogres have Layers!

So this weekend I have mostly been in Dire Maul.

After a VERY long discussion with a Guildie and what was for me pretty extensive research, including travel across two continents and the mindless slaughter of pirates, Venture Company workers and Giants, there is no doubt that Free Knot (350 rep all 4 Steamweedle factions) and The Gordok Ogre Suit (75 Rep all 4 Steamweedle factions) is really the only way to go if you want to get to Exalted with the Cartel before the next decade begins. I've done 10k in 2 days and I'm SICK! It's a horrible grind and it's as boring as hell and however hard I try and jazz it up to be cool or fun (or that I could write interesting blog posts on it) it's just NOT HAPPENING! The ironic thing about this of course is that at my peak on Saturday there were four other people in the Guild doing exactly the same thing. I came out of the instance on several occasions to find another individual's 16k trader mammoth outside and was forced to vend stuff just because I could. I killed 3 silver spawns, and looted seven blue BoE items. I got all three of the epic LW patterns and sold them all for 100g a throw.

I haven't finished yet, and I think I'm going to kill myself.

As you can see above, Dwarves in Ogre Suits can't ride Tournament mounts properly. Go figure.

I did have other interesting things to report but as I have lost the will to live due to grinding, they will have to wait.

Priorities

So, it would be fair to say that at present Azeroth is not particuarly high on my list of priorities. I'm not one to sit here and contemplate my own navel, so you'll be pleased to know there's gonna be no deep and insightful commentary as a result. However, even if I'm not playing as much I still need to keep myself up to date.

I used WoWMatrix before the big fallout with Curse et al and it's only this morning when I manually spent an hour going through my addons and updating them that I realised just how simpler the all-in-one downloader made that process. I have read a lot about what happened there and how priorities for one party came in to direct conflict with another, and it occurs to me that sometimes contemplating one's navel (metaphorically) does have it's benefits. Certainly if peeople had talked to each other a lot sooner I suspect I'd still be using WoWMatrix without all the blocked addons. Odd that when all these people are doing the same thing there's so much trouble finding a path that everyone enjoys. I reckon that's a metaphor for life if ever you needed one.


The measured walk to The Exalted continues, with Timbermaw Rep FINALLY dealt with forever (I don't care if they made it easier, it still sucks) giving me 34/40. The Silver Covenant will roll over to Exalted tomorrow if I have the opportunity to do dailies today, after which it's Oracles. After that it's instance rep or 21,000 pirates. Okay so it's not THAT bad but it's still not an easy job with the time available. Ho hum. We will get there, just not very fast.

However it's likely today I'll end up with this achievement. That's commitment, that is.

DTSOSDMF: TGE

Yes the title sucks. What else is new?

Making Money by Doing Not a Lot

No 2 in an Occasional Series of Several

I have been experimenting over the last few weeks with the optimum route to take if I want to streamline the completion of the current crop of Dailies of Choice. Lots of people have guides up, I'm not trying to pretend I'm writing something new and imba here, I'm just looking for a decent and reasonably efficient plan to take which includes the dailies I'd like to do (cookery, fishing) and gives me a route which cuts down on those annoying faff moments. I love to faff like the next person, I really do, but if I'm doing Dailies, it helps if I can minimise the downtime. So with this in mind I am proud to present:

Doing Tournament and Some Other Selected Dailies with Minimum Faffage, The Girly Edition!

We are going to assume the following before we begin:

1. You start your trip in Dalaran with a cooled HS.
2. You are a member of the Alliance. Horde (being clearly more intelligent and intellectual) won't need a Guide in the first place. You can work it out from both sides regardless, I hope.
   
3. You have sufficient free spaces in your Quest Log to pick everything up on the list below.
4. You have a gathering skill of some kind (in this case it's going to be skinning) so you'll have sufficient bagspace for any item you can pick up.
5. You are already a Champion with your home Tournament faction and working on Champion status with another home faction. In my case, I'm on Stormwind at the moment, having already ticked off the Gmomes. They just love me in that underground city :D
   
6. You are a nublet. This is quite important. I still take AGES to do all the Pure Jousting quests at the Tournament and therefore don't include them on my list of things to do in this circuit (Among the Champions and The Grand Melee count as Pure Jousting) I do them as an ABSOLUTE last resort. Really, I'm still that bad.

So, if you're ready, let's start our little jaunt around the environs of Northrend!

Dalaran, Icecrown and How I Stopped Hating General and Embraced the 5 minute PuG.

Click for a Larger version and to see how crap I am at doing diagrams...

A. If like me your HS is set to A Hero's Welcome in Dalaran, the first thing to do once you're ready is pop out back and pick up the Cookery Daily. Once I have that (and if it's Cheese for Glowergold I swear quietly to myself and forget about it until about 12 midnight server) it's out, turn right and over to the Bohemian Marcia Chase for the Fishing Daily (how does she find the time to paint when she's always standing by the fountain?) Depending on what this happens to be can add or remove things to your route, but as this guide includes ALL the possible fishing options we'll not worry too much about what it is and head for the Flight Point.

Oh, and if your Fishing or Cookery daily is one of the ones within Dalaran (and does NOT involve cheese, wine or old shields) feel free to knock that off before you start.

When you're done, head for the flight point. Our next stop is the Argent Tournament!

B. Ok, so here is the bulk of our workload. In no particular order we have the following:

• A Chip off the Ulduar Block
• Jack Me Some Lumber
• One or more of the three available Weapon quests (A Worthy Weapon, The Edge of Winter, and that one with the frogs ^^)
  
• Scourge biffage on a horse (A Valiant's Field Training, Battle Before the Citadel)
  
• Scourge biffage NOT on a horse (At the Enemy's Gates, Taking Battle to the Enemy)
  
• Threat from Above

Oh and don't forget to chuck Squire Artie 10g in the AC Tent for 100 rep (Contributin' To the Cause). Yes we know you're supposed to be making money but 100 rep is better than nothing.

By the time you've left the tent someone will already have asked in General LFG Chillmaw/Threat from Above so there's your cue to make a quick random PuG and get started. On your way to Point C it's a good idea to go via the floating Alliance bomber ship thingy and pick up the quest Blood of the Chosen, which requires you to kill 20 mobs in Ymirheim. Why's that? you ask? Just a sec, we gotta go PuG quickly.

C. Right then. Not all of us are shammies who can one shot Chillmaw (sadly), so find yourself some buddies, hope you tag all the Bombadiers first go (and the Horde/random gomers/all of the preceding don't get there first) and get Threat from Above done, then ask your group to accompany you to point D to help out doing A Valiant's Field Training and Battle Before the Citadel in double quick time. Anyone who says 'that's soloable, just needs a bit of skill' remind them you're a nublet and need all the help you can get. Most will take pity on you as a result. Trust me.

D. Arrive at Argent Biffage HQ (Southern Division), do your 2 quests and remember to thank your PuG. Then run away as fast as possible. There's only so much Hot PuG Action you can take per hour, after all. Now it's time to zoom off North again and knock off three quests in one hit! Think about the money!

E. So, remember the quest to kill the Ymirheim from the Flying Boat 'o' Doom? Assuming you're inside their city they will also count for the two Scourge biffing quests as well (At the Enemy's Gates, Taking Battle to the Enemy) Bear in mind that the Ymirheim that spawn OUTSIDE don't count. Don't say I didn't warn you, nublet here found that out the hard way... So, kill 20 giants (male or female) and it's THREE lots of Completed in the Quest Log!. We love it when a plan comes together! On your way to Part 2 of this Guide (and Point F) you may wish to drop off Blood of the Chosen if the Airship is close. If not, fly yourself down to Crystalsong Forest for the next bit of brief and entertaining faffage. Ooh, we need a new map!

Crystalsong, The Storm Peaks and You Have to Love the Blue Laydeez coz they're... Blue!

Maps! We need more maps! And explosions... oh never mind...

F. Right then. We're heading south from Icecrown and we fly over the Iceflow Dam, so time to pick up Winter Hyacinths (* on the map) if you need that particular sword quest today. Remember also if you have the Crystalsong Carrot Cookery quest this will be a great time to get those ticked off (** on map) as you pass the Violet Stand and grab your 12 bits of wood for Jack Me Some Lumber (and dodge the branches of the angry Treants... sorry I have a hard time thinking trees can ever get anything other than mildly irritated, but I digress.) If you need to kill Lord Everblaze pick him up to the south (marked with a *** on your map) and then fly to the Windrunner's Overlook (G on the Map). If at this point you need to sell stuff and/or repair, there's a vendor near the FP. After that, grab a scheduled Hippogryff (yes I'm saving 100 Champions Marks for one of these babies) and off you go to H.

Yes you could just flap there on yer epic flyer of choice but I use FP's as a way to break up my time at the screen and to provision for drinks, cuddles from children, huge afk's to clean, cook and tidy generally. It's all up to your personal preference.

So, have I utterly confused you with letters and lines yet? Have I???

H. You either love them or hate them, but the Sons of Oh Dear (yes I know it's Holdir ^^) are a necessary part of most raiders' lives because of the shoulder enchant at Exalted. Feel free to work your Sons' Dailies into your routine at this point, otherwise head to the Brunnhildar Village (*) for a quick daily and your 1% chance of the Reins of the White Polar Bear.

There's a rather useful reason we come here, because the Foot Steppes above the village (**) is by far THE quietest place to find blocks to blow up for the A Chip off the Ulduar Block quest. It's also a great place to pick up Rhino Meat for the Rhino Dogs Cookery quest, and is a fantastic skinning point (rhinos AND frostwyrms!). Really, if the wind's in the right direction and there's people doing the kill the frostwyrm quest from Frosthold I can be here for ages. Try, unlike me, not to get carried away. You can fly back either to Dun Niffelem or Frosthold for the next part of the trip, the choice is yours. Depending on which fishing daily you have, this is where your route should change.

They Fish it Here, They Fish it There, the Fishing Quests are Everywhere! (and annoyingly far away from each other...)

By now, our author had run out of witty things to place under her diagrams...

I. So, depending on where you need to go, we have a lot of options at this point :D

1. If you have the PvP Fishing Daily (Dangerously Delicious) it will largely depend on a) who has WG b) how confident you feel fishing if your faction doesn't hold the zone and c) whether you fancy doing any of the other dailies in the zone. As a rule I'll go do my fishing with 30 mins to go to a battle, pick up the 'farm 10 of item X from the elemental quest and combine the two before picking up an invite to a PvP raid in the hope of a victory and some more cash.
2. If you have The Ghostfish quest you can fly from Storm Peaks to the Basin and then return to the Guide.
3. If you have the Blood is Thicker quest (kill a mob in the Tundra, jump in the water and fish the pool of blood) then I'd suggest going from the Peaks to the Fizzlecrank Airstrip, doing the quest and then taking a detour across the southern coast to do the 3 Kal'uak Dailies for a bit of extra cash (plus if you're not exalted this gives you a chance to work towards the fishing pole)
4. If you have the Monsterbelly Appetite quest (severed hand) I'd go from Storm Peaks to Moa'ki Harbor, fly out to sea and then come back to Wintergarde Keep and pick up the trail from there.

J. Wherever you go to you need to aim to return to Wintergarde, if you have a floral tribute to make for the Blade of Drak'mar. The lake you need is a quick hop from the Keep's FP. If you don't need this quest you can skip this flight altogether of course and head straight for

K. which is the Flight Point at the Westfall Brigade Encampment and closest to the Frog Kissing or if you don't have this quest to do today it's

L. the Flight Point at Fort Wildevar which is the closest FP for the Maiden of the Lake and Winter's Edge.

To save lots of faffing it's best to work logically from east to west, I find. Whatever happens, leave the sword quests until last as they involve the furthest travel. You will then have a cooled HS and can simply rub and return to Dalaran (for cookery/fishing handin) before you hop back on the public transport system back to the Tournament for a mass handin session. Job Dun!

On a good day this takes me a couple of hours and nets me over 200g. This is quite apart from the fish, elemental bits, cloth, weapons, epic mounts (see an upcoming post) and various other bits I pick up along the way. It's hard enough on one character but if (like me) you're running 3 through the same sequence, it really does help to have a system.

You gotta have a system :D

The Thing is...

I really like 3.1. REALLY Love the Argent Tournament, the new Fishing Dailies and the changes most people won't be raving about. The new content does seem to have been more considered than previously. Things that make me happy include:

• The FP to Winterspring, and the Summoning Stone inside the Keep. That wasn't always there, right? With the new fishing daily in there it makes life so much easier, though I suspect this will become a camp point for the opposition over time. Fishing rods at the ready!

• Chilled meats now have a chance to drop from ANY mob. I've been getting them from worms, mammoths and rhinos. Very useful for alts when doing the Cookery/Holdir/Tournament dailies.

• The quest tracking I discovered on the PTR really is fantastic. It's not perfect by any stretch of the imagination (certain quest items don't show even when required for a quest if they are part of a chain of actions you need to complete) but the difference it makes to questing is significant. It's also fabulous that quests now automatically appear when picked up.

• The amount of money I make simply by doing the Argent Tournament stuff. I've already paid back M's Dual Spec, and am well on the way to providing one for someone else. The jousting is a bit of a faff for Idiot Girl on some days, and I've not yet been able to defeat anyone in the Grand Melee quest :( Never mind, I can kiss frogs until the cows come home...

• The stuff in the Fishing Daily bags. I specifically point at the grey items (like the Battered Jungle Hat) which Blizz have clearly included for Bank Alt Pimpage. My vanity banker and the Guild banker both have one now, and very smart they look too. I really don't care how many New Age Paintings I get either: at 25g a throw, it's still a good living. Plus it's also good levelling: Druid's up to 200 and Lock's close to 225 now, just on the Dailies. It does take a while though, and considering the chaos offshore yesterday for the Severed hand quest I think I'll stick to fishing inland with those two until I get their skills up a bit.

• The new Books of Glyph Mastery. Lots of people on my server are not best pleased about this change: books are being sold for what people consider profiteering amounts... well they're right, of course. People all make money in their own way. However, the drop rate is pretty good if you're in 80 territory. A bit of patience... I've had two drop as a result of my work in Storm Peaks and Icecrown (plus one from a mate). As a result as of yesterday I was still the only person who was selling Glyph of Nourish on my server. I've done a very steady trade as a result: I refuse to sell them at the three figure prices most people seem to favour. As a result I finally have Inscription paying for itself.

• The new Raid Boss in Wintergrasp. No turning up without a brain in 10 man any more. Hooray!

Talking of which, M has the 10 man achievement. I'm guessing it's gonna be a few weeks before anyone's PuGGing him successfully in 25 man...

W got her first piece of badge gear last night, the very useful Ward of the Violet Citadel, which means I only need to upgrade three more items to be in all 80 gear. The Hat of Wintry Doom was my last crafted item which means it's boots, wand and trinket that remain to be replaced. It's a slow process, but we'll get there eventually!

Now if you'll excuse me it's off to get one step closer to P of Ironforge...

World of the Straaaange

So, I decide yesterday to go do some mining for M's Blacksmithing Odyssey with M my gatherer. Best bet has always been Winterspring for me, especially in the morning as it's deserted. First call was the cave at Mazthoril which has 2 spawn points, one buried deep inside the cave. I was then rather surprised when I was mining away happily and then teleported suddenly to the entrance of Drywhisper Gorge... A quick look at my chat window and it appears, albeit briefly, I was mining in Hyjal :o


Looking at the action log it appears I managed to pick up the No Man's Land debuff by accident. I was probably in Hyjal for less than a second. It's the first naughty thing I've ever done in the game almost four years, and it was completely accidental. Gutted.


Monday Night's Naxx 10 was something rather special. Having finally knocked off the 4 Horsemen we went and 2-shotted Sapph. The achievement was deliberately planned, and we coped with 2 and a bit healers with reassuring ease. The second achievement was the most fun I have had in a boss fight in a VERY long time. The healing was beyond awesome and we killed a ridiculous number of Abominations in the last 20 seconds before Big K attacked. It was CHAOS, pure and simple, but I am proud to be GM of a Guild where people can do that, first time, and work so well together as a team. /respect


Last week in IF it was a guy with 20 Huge Feasts, all laid out in front of the IF Bank (screenie failure, I was gutted). This week, American Politics 101. Next week I predict a re-enactment of 'Watchmen' with Dr Manhattan played by a Night Elf...


Oh yeah and I finally did Triage. Second try ^^. \o/

[PTR] What a Difference a Day Makes

So, it's all change on the PTR. At least today I can see where I am, even if it's impossible to fly there (despite the now newly-coloured flight master and being able to fly out):

Yesterday this wasn't even ON the map, but today...

Things are pretty fluid, even down to complete changes in looks. To be honest, I preferred yesterday's version of the monument, but I can see why they changed it...

In the fast paced world of monument construction, Rome CAN be built in a day...

PvP has been deactivated on the entire server (wonder how many people complained) and there's been some swift changes, most important of which is the sequence for the Tournament. There's some basic gathering dailies, and a registration process. You need to learn how to control your new shiny mount and it's abilities (Block, Charge, Attack, Fall Off Ungraciously and Land in a Heap)[*], and you're going to need a weapon too if you want to fight for glory. In a Arthurian Legend meets Fairy Story fashion, you'll need to get your Chap Stick on and go kiss some frogs to find it...

Questing made Easy, Goblin Edition.

Once you're doing these Tournament Quests it's Silver Covenant rep you'll be stacking. You'll also need to complete a fair number them before you have enough items try your hand at some serious combats... oh and then there's the Black Knight. No, it's not Christian Bale (he's the Dark Knight). Nor is it John Cleese (Monty Python references notwithstanding). You'll have to go to Westfall (no I'm not kidding) to find out for yourself...

There's a lot here, which P is slowly working her way through. Some brief observations:

• Multi Shot has a new noise!!! It's... multiple shots!
• Pet talents still borked :( Wondering if this is actually deliberate.
  
• Westfall is the Trailer Park of Azeroth. All the dodgy characters are there: Van Cleef, Stalvan, and now my mysterious new Nemesis...
  

Plus it appears to be the middle of the night on the Server: reset the clock you nubs!

M's also materialised on the PTR this morning, so I've nipped off to Moonglade already, spent my 1000g and thrown together a rough healer build that looks promising (though the temptation to steal a Guildies was very, very strong) It's unlikely I'll get to do any real testing with her but I will go have a play with the dummies just to see how abilities work.

[*] One of these is not a genuine ability.

Weekend Roundup

So, it was a pretty packed weekend.

In Shock News we had sufficient people sign on Friday night to be able to take a realistic crack at 25 man Naxx. The Spider Wing fell with surprisingly little hassle, and we did the Safety Dance and cleared the Plague Wing with similar ease. We hit a wall with the Military Quarter, and even after a change of MC personnel on Sunday when we went back the Instructor remained stubbonly alive. So, we went and aced Patchwerk and had Grobbulus at 5% before time ran away with us. So, with twelve people aready signed for this Friday I'm pretty confident we'll see more progress. This is very satisfying considering Ulduar cannot be too far away.

There was even a decent 10 Man run on Saturday which I got a chance to participate in, though sadly rien de lewts. Am hoping tonight may actually yield summat, if we can get the Rookie Tank we have past the 4 Horseman...

As you see by the ? above I finally managed to grab sufficient Brood rep to get to Neutral and start the Scepter of the Shifting Sands questline proper. The AQ40 we did in the week got me 40 rep short of going from Hated to Hostile. I had to grind Carapace Fragments to get through Hostile and Unfriendly (just how much can someone not like you?) which was 6000 rep and a whole evening of mind-numbing torture with nothing to show from it apart from the fragments and 2 Thorium Lockboxes. Fortunately I had help (ty D) but now of course I have the task of downing all four of the Green World Dragons, plus the series of quests to get me to Neptulon. Methinks this may take some time...

I now have enough Wintergrasp marks for M's Epic Hat. I also have 55k honor, and mindful of the fact I can't have more than 75k thanks to Blizz' cap I may actually have to go look for an Arena partner. I think perhaps it is time to invest in some proper PvP gears. The craftable L78 stuff is really not gonna cut it after all...

This week's looking quite packed (RL and In game) and with That Valentines Festival looming am wondering which of the Alts I'm gonna get a title for this time...

Old Skool Adventures!

So, P has the Loremaster title, gained before Blizz nerfed the requirements. It was a horrible slog, especially wandering around Kalimdor, looking for the ! on the map. Lord knows how hard it would have been without sparkling quest items and the Low Level Finder, but in the end it was SO worth it for the swirly graphic and the ding! and the little window in Guild that told one and all that yes, I'm a saddo, and I like questing.

I LOVE questing.

So, I had for a while had half an eye on the Only One May Rise quest, mostly because I knew just how much content sat behind that starting sequence. We don't schedule Old Skool runs as part of the main Guild Calender, because the majority of the membership have no interest in going back. I can understand that, and I still don't have my Classic Dungeonmaster and Classic Raider Achievements as a result. This quest however called to me. It made me want to go to BWL to kill the Broodlord.

Last week I finally made it.


I require Neutral to open up the questline proper. In the old days this would mean collecting 200 Silithid Carapace Fragments at a time, plus doing 40 man AQ40. I worked out that if I was going to solo this on the fragments alone I'd need 14,400 to reach Neutral. I can see why this was a proper challenge back in the old days. However now I have friends at 80, who can 5 man the trash up to the first boss in AQ40 and pull out 1100 rep per hit. They're happy because yesterday three of them completed the Why? Because It's Red Achievement. So much for Rare mounts...

On that same night last week we went and blitzed MC as well (start to finish 50 minutes). The Thorium Brotherhood has been on the Rep To Do list, and with all the MC blue drops giving decent handins now it was worth a look. Then, at Majordomo, the Ancient Petrified Leaf dropped.

I never got the leaf at 60. I did have a chance to roll on it, but it would have cost me DKP, and I hesitated because... well, I wasn't very good back then. I know I wouldn't have managed it solo, I would have gotten frustrated and given up, and so I used the DKP on more useful things. So, for old times sake, I rolled and won, and it took me an hour to go find all the Demons yesterday. The hardest thing was tracking them down in the end, none of them lasted for longer than 30 seconds. Part of me now really wishes I'd been more confident back in the day and given it a go...



LFG Onyxia (yes that's the Blue Sinew there as well, 20g on the AH) Oh how easy it now is...