...and there it was!

I had planned a spectacular action shot in AV to celebrate the Shammy hitting L80 but the best laid plans... ah well.

Take this shoddy list of statistical increases as a poor alternative ^^

Gear Wise, things are not looking too shabby either. Thanks to a friends generousity (I've not forgotten your armour either :D) I have Zom's Crackling Bulwark and the Titansteel Guardian to act as my healing weapons of choice. I got the PvP Gloves and Shoulders and am nearly 20,000 honor into the next step (probably the legs, possibly a ring or a trinket depending on where I stand) Everything else is blue, with the sad exception of my Relic, which will be my first purchase with Elbows. It almost looks like I did some planning, doesn't it? :p

In Hunter News, last night was scheduled as a Naxx 10 Achievements Run, and all in all it was exactly as advertised.

That's the one I'm particuarly proud of at the top there, but there were loads of others: Patchwerk in WELL under 3 minutes, 10 people alive at Heigan, 18 Abominations at KT. The only two we missed were Shocking and The Undying, and I would confidently perdict both of those to be on notice for the next time we go. And before you say it, yes I KNOW this is old news and all you imba people have already done this like, two patches ago, but it's new to me.

So :p to you!

Oh yeah, and Occulus done, Quests complete, nuff said.

Next step is a bit of long term planning. More to follow.

Compare and Contrast

Draenai on Stormpike Battle Charger = Cool

Big Blue Laydee on Stormpike Battle Charger = Stupid.

I've officially entered the home stretch. My Shammy's run the last few levels to 79 thanks to the wonders of AV (PLEASE stop whining Alliance 80's, if you really don't want L71's in BG's go turn your XP gain off, otherwise just let them enjoy the brief moment of glory when they win) and is not capped at 75,000 Honor in anticipation of hitting the big Eight-oh. As you can see I'm already well into the Holdir questline, and as the nice letter in my Inbox informed me 77 is time to start work at the Tournament. I have a TON of stuff to do, and 80 may only be a day away.

It's not just simply fun times in levelling land either, oh no:

So, the Big Giant Head is no more :D It's only one more boss and Yoggy is there, ready for us to bitchslap him into the next patch. Soon I will be able to say I've seen most, if not all of the available game content. In over four years I've never been this current. It's scary.

Hang on, if I'm writing this I've stopped levelling!!! NOOOO!!! Back to the Grind!

Hit it and Hope

So I have finally done some experimentation with the merits of levelling in BG's.

Here's my Shaman's achievement list from yesterday. I managed Damage Control after three AV's, the Grim Reaper and Class kills came from the first. It took me several weeks of play to pick Stormpike Perfection up on my Hunter: that came from the second AV of the day. I was getting invites roughly every 5 minutes: each tower destruction or enemy target awarded 18.5k XP with Rested. Yesterday I did pretty much a level in an afternoon (Rested bonus plus two +10% XP items). In the group there would be 2 or 3 L80's, the rest were 71+, and it was INSANE, but in the best of ways. At one point I was one of fifteen people in Iceblood Tower trying to beat off a particuarly insane L80 Pally. Healing spec really paid off, my regen was pretty good and clearly I could do the big numbers over a reasonable battle. Only when the German server group turned up did I see anything like an epic fight, and that only lasted 35 minutes. The rest of the time it was quick, clean, and pretty much the fastest levelling experience I've seen.

Suffice to say I'd bet this XP level will be nerfed by Blizzard at some point, because I reckon it's giving an advantage to people levelling via this method. If you want to advance using PvP, make the most of it!


So, I've done Koralon in both modes with the Hunter, and even with 25 it's hardly difficult (though saying that I would not want to heal the fight, the potential for stupidity really is very high) We had the dreaded 1% wipe with only my second PuG, and he died next pull. It took a LOT longer to grab the achievement with Emalon. I've seen Rogue loot drop from 10 and 25 man a LOT, and yet again last night there were no rogues around to sweep it up. Where have they all gone? :( Happy though, 226 hunter gloves are now MINE, 3/5 tier also dun. IoC was yesterday's BG daily as well (though still need to complete it) but this did give me a chance to do some Achievement sweepage. Back Door Job ftw! (fnar fnar)

This week I will look at the other BG's with the Shammy, but I'm betting that none will do the job as well as AV for instance XP. Plus, there's the small matter of the 25,000 HK achievement on the Hunter...

Good Things Come...

... to those who are patient. Apologies for absence, but now the kids are back at school I may have more than thirty seconds each day to think about something else for longer than five minutes. I can but hope. Start of the Summer seems a LONG way away... but there has been much fun in the house with the World of Azeroth. My 8 year old now has a L10 with a higher Cookery skill than the vast majority of my alts (400 and rising ^^) while I... well, I went to BWL in a Pirate Hat. Oh yeah, there was other stuff as well...

M the Shaman may not be old enough to play WG but she's there, mining and fishing like there's no tomorrow. She hit 72 last night and is well on her way to 73, thanks to heirlooms and judicious use of Rested Bonus. I hope to get to mid 70 mediocrity by the weekend as there's a shedload of upgrades waiting for her when she does, including a much needed new shield. Early PuG healing indications show I may not be as rubbish as I first thought. There may yet be hope for Shamankind...

In Fishing News, I finally snagged the Tiffany Cartier Original Fishing Rod, just not on the character I'd hoped. This does at least give the Druid the incentive to keep levelling the skill to max. Those of you paying attention will notice the lovely Conquest Elbows Chestpiece... but that's only a part of the awesomeness that the Trial of the Crusader has given. I'll do a gear update at some point, but that's not why I'm here. This is why.

See that? 40 Exalted Reputations. FINALLY. Dinged on Golemagg. NEVER EVER want to see MC EVER again. Well, at least not until they make it 10 man and upgrade the loot, which at this rate could be weeks... Now all I need to do is resist the temptation to convert myself from Dwarf to Tauren... nah, I'll stay as a Dwarf. But I will be having a bit of a rest, and possibly a drink.

Thunderbrew Lager, anyone?

Don't Panic!

Ooooh look, I was wrong. 3.1 is tomorrow. Who'd have thought it?

MMO have the new cinematic for Ulduar, and it marks something of a departure from previous events. The Horde and the Alliance (thanks to the King in the main, whut a nublet) really are at each other's throats after the Wrathgate incident, and so it really is up to us, the humble Adventurers, to get into the instance and kick butt. The fate of Azeroth moves out of the hands of the Horde and Alliance radicals and into the hands of the people. We are truly the masters of our own destiny.

I'm not sure I'm ready for all this responsibility, you know.

I just need to make copies of all my Talents, across the family, then I am prepared. I'll spend an hour today making a list of all the new stuff I need to be on top of tomorrow as well.

Chaos is but a day away...

Calm Before the Storm

It is palpable, right across the Server. People are waiting.

Whether it's the fact I can get a PuG for my Lock in 5 minutes of joining LFG (L78 and a bit now) and it's not full of people on Easter Holidays (though I did have an 11 year old tank earlier in the week ^^) or it's the fact that even the Azerothian crafting mats sell within one 48 hour window, the signs are there. The IMBA 25 Man Guilds are dressed in their PvP gears at the Mailbox. WG has 5-6 groups per evening assault. There's more than 49 people in Molten Core.

People are waiting for 3.1.

There was an amended set of patch notes yesterday, which normally means we're less than a week away. I'm still sticking to my assertion it's gonna drop 21/22nd but part of me is gearing for this Wednesday because... well, I'm wrong more times than I'm right, let's be honest. While I wait, first up, more from Ghostcrawler on 10 man raiding.

There are groups of players who just prefer to run smaller raids. I don't know off the top of my head how many, if any, exist on your server. They do exist. You can't always assume they are small guilds. Sometimes they are large guilds of more casual players with only a few raiders. It varies. What happened in LK is a lot of these players (who remember prefered to do 10-player content) just gave up and joined 25-player pugs because those were easier and provided better loot. For Ulduar, we predict they will have more motivation to do the 10-player version because the 25-player version is going to be more challenging. They might join a pug, wipe a lot, and remember why they prefer to run smaller raids with friends.

I know a LOT of Guilds like this. I would suspect it counts as a lot of the populations on a lot of servers as well, the 25 man people just don't notice because... well, they're running 25 man ^^ We do 1 x 25 man a week and 1 x 10 man a week and this fits most people into a raid schedule without any issues at all. As it happens this week we had trouble getting 10 people together. Normally we have 30 online on a Saturday evening, last night it was 13. Suspect that won't last long after 3.1 hits, I'd be expecting login queues and lag and...

W should be Locking at 80 in the next few days. She has rested up to 79, and is well into the Sons of Oh Dear dailies. I am grinding Emblems as well in various places across the Storm Peaks, and as soon as someone else turns up to quest I move on. Honored at 78 is not beyond the realms of possibility as a result, so at least I don't have to worry about getting Scryer marks for shoulder enchants any more. Shatt is even more of a Ghost Town than it normally is right now. I was the only Alliance person there for at least an hour earlier this week :(

M the Shaman is 61, and accumulating Rested. I suspect if 3.1 does hit she's gonna be there for a bit, if not we will probably badger Mr Godfather for some boostage. I've decided once I hit 70 she's gonna run through as many PuG's as I can find, partly as an exercise to see just how good/bad the PuGging experience has become. I know at least one priest in the Guild who learnt their trade this way, and now instances are by design shorter and MEANT to be easier it shouldn't be too much of a stretch. I am going to pick up some really cheap 70 epics for a bit of a healing boost. The results will, of course, be reported here.

The Golden Age

When I started this Blog, one of the things I wanted to avoid was what I politely refer to in Guild as willy-waving. This may seem odd as a) I do not HAVE a willy and b) I wouldn't feel like waving it even if I did own one (in a jar perhaps) and at this point I should probably stop right there and properly explain the metaphor. I am not a big fan of people who like to exhibit their superiority. I do not like those who feel that they are better than everyone else because they have Item X or have Achievement Y. Life is all about what you want, not what others say you need. Except in a Game, where normally it's about maths and random numbers.

However, my numbers look pretty good right now, and I wanted to share. So I'm going to.


Via the wonder that is Be Imba, my gear scores are frankly as good as they are ever likely to be. I've worked hard to get here, and frankly I'm pretty bloody pleased. No showing off, not waving ANYTHING at ANYBODY.

This makes me happy. So I decided to share.

M the Shammy has arrived and passed L60 with some speed. I would predict at this rate she's gonna zoom towards 70 and then grind to a halt, so I think the next project is likely to be the Warlock to 80, possibly before Ulduar hits. First of all I need to FINALLY finish the Starting area quests...

Bleurgh

<--- has clod. Has Honey and Lemon. Has 2 kids on Easter Holidays (or Spring Break as I believe some schools are now calling it.) Those pesky Americans, they get everywhere.

First today, it's time for Ghostcrawler's Corner...

"What's the point of 10-Man Hard Mode? Almost all the serious raiders are in 25-Man"

We actually don't know if this is true or not. Or more specifically, there were 40 player guilds in vanilla because that's all we offered. Then there were 25 player guilds for BC because that's all we offered. We had a lot of data and feedback that there are a lot of players who would prefer to run with a smaller group of friends even if the content was very challenging. As I said, we will see if 10 player guilds are more casual or if there are a lot of 10 player guilds who are up to hardcore challenges.

I'm all for 10 Man Hard Mode. I think there's gonna be HUGE numbers of people who will be doing the 10 man stuff, a great many via PuG. I also think anyone who doesn't grasp how far the game is diversifying at the more casual level is missing out on an entire new focus to the game. We have people now in Guild who have pretty much stopped raiding and focus solely on Achievements. I assumed initially this was due to time constraints but having read about it does occur to me that this may not be the case. As this is clearly happening across the entire game it does demonstrate that more people are being very specific in what they choose to do with their time. Getting 25 people together isn't nearly as hard as it was for 40 but it still takes some doing. If there's an alternative that's quicker, easier and less hassle... seriously, you think people aren't going to take it?

As I see a new date has been provisioned for Noblegarden I'm gonna stick my neck out and say we'll see 3.1 being deployed on the 21/22nd. If that's the case we don't have long to wait to see if 10 man Hard Mode is gonna be the Goût de choix. Does mean I need to start sorting a few things too...

In Character News: M has 375 Blacksmithing!!! It was a peculiar situation yesterday, as I was actually turning a very healthy profit for the last 15 points. Eternium sells currently for copper on the AH and Eternium Rod sells for 4g to the vendor, so I made close to 60g by buying bars, converting them and then vending them straight back in IF. Such are the idiosynchracies of this game sometimes: M's not got to wait 12 levels before she can start again, but the hard work is done. I can at least gather a shedload of mats and store them in anticipation, and anything M gathers as she levels can be AH'd. Win/Win, ftw ^^

Not a Lot

As previously stated, it's been a quiet week.

• M is L53. BRD is pretty much done (Emp quest left) and I have the ST Quest in my log. There's been a fair bit of faffing, BS is at 355 and I suspect will sit there until I can mine in Outland, though I am tempted to run someone around the Isle of Dailies for a bit for the Adamantite spawns. This weekend I hope to clear out some of the Quest Log.

• M (the Druid) picked up some useful odds and ends on our 25 man run. Stuff for DS is almost ready (am gonna do a seperate post on this at the weekend) There's been grinding in Zul'drak for cash as well. You know, actual questage.

• P has *finally* picked up the Classic Dungeonmaster Achievement. I broke Zul'Farrak in the process. Note to self: if you don't let the NPC's on the Jailbreak event attack any mobs in a wave the entire thing bugs. Horribly. There's not been time for anything else except some light faffage beyond that, though a trip to Scholo and I will have the Well Read achievement done as well. Next I may be forced to do the Squirrels...

Nothing else to report, at least for now...

It's the Great Big Post of Everything

[I suspect that I watch too much kids television. It's good for the obscure post titles though...]

So, gonna have a bit of a roundup here as a) I can't get onto the PTR AGAIN :( and b) I've been doing a bit of faffage around the rest of the family. Really, you cannot faff enough.

P [Ironforge, Hunter] Update:

So, I ran around and fished and farmed and finally did the cookery stuff, and then discover that they're gonna make the trip to 450 a lot easier.

*headdesk*

P is enjoying her semi-retired status by farming leathers, defending (and attacking) Wintergrasp and doing the odd 25 man PuG at the weekends. Next up on the Agenda will be fishing achievements and some prep for a foray into some light PvP-ing. There is a good chance I will DS her into traps and work on a proper PvP build as her second string.

M [Darnassus, Druid] Update:


I've not done much instancing of late (most of my time's been on the Shammy, see below) but that night in HoL was class. We also did Lightning Struck, so all the achievements in 1 hit = WIN. I've been doing quests as a gold supplement, now the Basin is done we're beating up Trolls and Scourge... there's also been a lot of preparation for DS (I am thinking about writing a seperate post on this) I've invested with my badge pool in the Druid Healing chest, and the Handbook of Obscure Remedies, and after last night's Naxx 10 I have enough badgers to go grab the Egg of Mortal Essence which means I have a decent spread of healer-specific items. I've picked up odds and ends from heroics and swept up in 10 man (picked up a nice healing neck last night) and have been focussing on replacing the items I have with hit for things more appropriate for a tree.

Lesser-Levelled Update:

W the Lock (74) got an outing yesterday to AN, and K the Mage (70) has been working hard on her tailoring (443/450) . She even got to do Nexus and UK but has yet to update any gears. N the Priest (72) is one point away from maxxing Enchanting \o/ by the time-honored tradition of DE-ing greens from everyone else and selling the enchants via scrolls on the AH. Haste on Cloak does very well, I have discovered, and does not break the bank in terms of mattage.

The big moves however come over in Azeroth.

M [Exodar, Shaman] Update:

So, we are at L49. Yesterday I did Searing Gorge. Normally that quest hub at the Thorium Brotherhood would be a couple of days work but yesterday I completed it in three and a half hours, thus proving beyond a doubt they've nerfed the content pre-60 (to the ground, baby!) Even the Elite who guards the Firey Flux recipe is no longer, and has only one nonleet mate to biff. Shammy + Totems + Chain Lightning = owned. The only thing they have not nerfed is the bloody ridiculous Incendosaur + reagent + coal hand in you need to do the TB rep. GAH! Never mind, I still need to find a bazillion iron and mithril bars for all the Armoursmith quests (yes I know I'm a weaponsmith but I'm also a competist.)

One of the things I've noticed is just how utterly useless BS is pre 300. There are NO spell power items of any note, it's all crit and AP and strength and hit. Clearly Blizzard have noticed this as well as there is apparently a re-asessment of all the BS items coming in 3.1, which I hope will be too late for me as by that time I hope to be rolling into Northrend. However, it would be nice to be able to make lower level stuff that sells that's not Spurs or shield spikes.

So today I WILL do the Triage quest. I sent M out early to round up some more Thorium to hit out a few more points in the BS-ing and then I suspect I will spend an hour or so riding around the Charred Vale in Stonetalon picking up Mithril (or possibly Badlands depending on traffic) After that, I can hear the Sunken Temple calling me...

All This and World War Three

So, it was my daughter's 4th birthday on Thursday. If I said it had taken me this long to recover, it would not be too far from the truth.

So, I've not been to PTR Land since the latest Build (which I finally managed to download this afternoon) but the changes look very interesting. I also see that there are some new Fishing Quests in Dalaran, so that needs some investigation. The last couple of days however have been about clearing up loose ends.

• M finally got Exalted with the Sons of OhDear and has her shoulder enchant. This involved a long and entertaining grind session in the Blue Laydeez Mine area where, for the first time since at least before TBC, I found a Bot. How did I know? Well, I spent an awfully long time (back in the day) farming black scales from the dragons in Burning Steppes for crafting. That used to be the Farmers Base, the BM hunters who never slept, never took a break and who would have a manner about them that made them unmistakeably not human. You get a Spider Sense, after a while... and so I reported it to a GM who agreed that the behaviour needed further investigation. Let's hope it's quicker to ban someone now than it was back then.

• M the Shaman is now very close to 48. When I've typed this she's likely to ding, as it happens, which gives her a ton of stuff to grow into. I still need to do Alliance TRAUMA which still gives me bloody sleepless nights. I HATE that quest. It's gonna be another clear of the current quest log and then it is back to Searing Gorge to start on the Thorium Brotherhood quests. I may even get the rep for the patterns, because I can. I've finished everything up to Sunken Temple... and then it's BRD... :O

• There has been what, I suspect in business circles, would be referred to as cost containment amongst the alts. A couple are likely to be *gasp!* deleted as well, as I try and sort out who has use and who I want to play with in the future.

So, let's go get the Shammy up another level then...

New Kid on the Block

Not much now, but we all have to start somewhere...

So, I have a new project.

I have wanted to level a Shaman since they appeared in TBC on the Alliance side, but every attempt at doing so stalled (most in the late 20's/early 30's) It was a combination of having RL as a priority, being a GM when I was in-game and raiding, and simple inability to make it over the awkward hump when I did have the time. When Wrath hit I quietly resolved it would be something I would do, to see if being self-sufficient wearing mail was as much fun as being self-sufficient in leather has been as a Druid.

So far, it's been far more fun than I thought was possible.

It could be that I'm in a lull pre-Ulduar, that I like the simpler stuff right now (as opposed to the Elbow of Justice/Valor Farming, which does have it's moments but can get a bit wearing) or just that I have realised that what I enjoy in the game above everything else is to be useful. Hunters (as a good friend said to me only this morning) bring dps, dps and... dps to a party. They don't bring offspec healing or the ability to rez or a lot of other useful items... they are not a helpful class. To be honest, Hunters can be selfish. Not all of them, this is not a blanket criticism, but there are still many who think that they are all there is. Ironically I did a Heroic VoA on P this morning and hunters were 3 of the top 5 DPS lots. All of course were Survival.

Blizz should be shot for all they've done (and continue to do) to the class which once was fun to play but now really does seem to be a one dimensional raid tool. If you can't max the meters, you're no good, coz you can't bring anything else to the table other than damage and a bit of mana regeneration.

Hang on, when did this become a rant?

Anyway, back to the latest project.

M is L45, has Blacksmithing at 275 (Weaponsmith seemed the best bet as I can already make her epic armour at 80 via P) and has spent the last few days whizzing around Badlands, Desolace, ZF and Maraudon (top loots from both, thanks to Hubby and D for doing the runs) before spending most of yesterday zooming around getting FP's so I can dive into Searing Gorge and Felwood once I've done with the new quest hub at Duskwallow. She will, I hope, have 1000g to dual spec as Resto + dps once the time comes. I suspect Healing will be primary not simply because the Guild needs Shammies, but because I am increasingly enjoying the healing role in the end game.

I will keep you up to date with progress.

Weekend Update

• Half Term is over. We survived, not totally unscathed but fairly ok. Parents kindly took the kids on Saturday lunchtime, so there was some faffing. Who am I kidding, there was LOADS of faffing...

• 25 Man progress continues unabated. Two and three-quarter wings are now conquered. Last night we one-shotted Grobbulus (impressively it must be said) and 2-shotted Gluth. We will ignore the loot-drama ahead of a very good night's progress and a lot of laughter on TS. M walked away with 2 upgrades. All in all, decent night.

• Even more decent was the one-night clearance of Naxx 10. Despite the fact all I got to show for that was two greens and some spider silk, it is a significant step that we can now knock off the 10 man in an evening. I am guessing this post had a lot to do with it.

• PTR hysteria continues unabated. Despite having zero raiding stuffs on both M and P, both got coped as soon as I could actually access the PTR page. By then the wait time to copy was 14 days. Cuttently it's up to 25 days... I'd like to go see how the Dual Specs stuffs works more than anything else...

• I did a shedload of herb and eternal/crystallized farming. It seems the best bet is Wintergrasp between battles, doing a circuit around the edge of the Zone. This gives decent returns for ore as well (especially Titanium) I've got stock now for a couple of week's cloth manufacture. I am going to make Ebomweave Gloves on K the Tailor for levelling, and shard them to give to N the Enchanter for subsequent levelling. Selling them has proved problemmatic thus far. AH has gone into something of a freefall on all the Northrend stuffs. Old Skool items are where it's at, baby!

• Talking of Old Skool, the new project is L38, and was speed pulled through SM and Uldaman. Too low for the final quest inside I need to gather all the subsidiary quests now and badger somene to drag me through again at 40. BS stands at 220 and is gonna need some work on the mining front, but I have nearly everything I need for the Weaponsmith quest. I would expect this week to see some major levellage on this front...

And Now, the Headlines...

• P woke up on Wednesday and assumed it was maintenance but instead it was rolling restarts. By 11am she'd done OS 25 and 10 man, plus a 25 man Vault. She also got saved to a 10 man by accident, but let's not talk about that. Net loot = zilch. The day before, while one child slept and the other one watched, she cleared 2.75 wings of Naxx in a 25 man PuG. She kited Zombie Chow (successfully) and came away with 2 upgrades. Half Term has, all told, not been a total loss.

• M has a 25 man OS and a 25 man Naxx to look forward to tomorrow night as well. Blimey.

• I may have ressurected my Shaman (excuse the pun) who is currently at 35 and scraping together the mats required to complete the Armorsmith Quest at 40. I sense there may be much levellage inc.

• Husband's Search for Bindings of the Windseeker has now become a weekly stop on Wednesdays. Last night I got P in to grab another item in the AQ Quest Behemoth then took M into heal. I'm getting quite a pile of fiery and lava cores...
  
  

Coming up... more on the Shock Shaman levelling plus some possible actual questage on one of my 70's...