Achievements Ahoy

Weeks 6 & 7: The Fortnight Of Busy Times

2012-02-25T06:10:00.000-08:00

Ok, I know, this is the second time I've run two weeks together. Taking over for my boss while she's on maternity leave before cover for my job has been organised means I've had a lot less time for blogging stuff. At nearly two months in to this challenge, I've not got nearly as far as I thought I would have done. There's a blood elf hunter and an undead mage that have a lot to answer for! My desire to make new alts hasn't diminished since I made the bucket list and they've probably stolen about 10 hours between them.

Despite that I've still made some really good progress and I'm so close to another level 85 alt that I can taste it. So to update, in the last couple of weeks:

Aralosseien broke 8k achievement points!
Morríghan went from 82 to 84
Shiden went from 50 to 56
Wildlight went from 28 to 30
Swiftfeather went from 6 to 8
Sugarstorm went from 7 to 8
Skinning is up from 338 to 357
Leatherworking is up from 246 to 265

We ran Ulduar as a guild last night when we'd finished clearing Dragon Soul and Ara picked up 260 a/p from that alone! I've never seen further than the first 3 or so bosses and I was blown away by the scale and beauty of that raid instance. It's so refreshing to be in different rooms/environments for different bosses - I really hope that Mists brings us some large-scale epic raid instances along those lines. I didn't manage to pick up any mogging gear (everything that dropped was perfect for my absent paladin, QQ) but I had an absolute whale of a time and I'm only 3 achievements away from Glory of the Ulduar Raider and a Rusted Proto-Drake. Oh, and I picked up my Starcaller title :)
Speaking of proto-drakes, a couple of guildies were kind enough to come along for Abuse the Ooze so I finally picked up my Red-Proto Drake to round off the evening in style.

Morríghan has been running some more normal dungeons and has done the quests for all of them except Throne of Tides - seriously, you can't do the quests without completing the entire zone? - and level 85 is so very close now. Her rested bonus should run right the way up to that so I'll be begging a couple of dungeon boosts and questing the rest of the way through Uldum until I get there. Frost DPS is becoming a lot of fun but I still panic quite a bit in dungeons!

Shiden has got a lot of levelling love in the last fortnight and is really close to level 57 now. Elemental shamaning is SO MUCH FUN. The great thing about levelling post-transmogrification is not missing out on awesome-looking gear and that's making questing for the rewards even more fun than it was. For example, I'd normally sigh when the reward was a helm, shoulders, cloak or chest because I'm using heirlooms I can't replace, but now I can save the good-looking pieces for a reason! I've been trying to level leatherworking as I go but I just don't skin enough leather to do so :( it's a massive problem, really. What's the point of having low-level gear recipes that I can't make for myself? Luckily I should be able to use it for crafting rogue and hunter gear once I've got Shiden to 85 and can farm whatever leathers I would need to max it, but I still get really grumpy about this.

I pushed Wildlight up to 30 so that I could grab my dual-spec and then promptly couldn't decide which one I wanted. I guess if I don't plan on healing anything it doesn't matter yet though. Getting Shadowform was awesome and she feels like a proper shadowpriest now rather than a lowbie priest alt so I think she's about to get some serious playtime in.

Lastly, I was hoping to get all my sub-10 alts up to 10 and choose their specs but it hasn't happened just yet. One more week and they'll all be proper characters, I promise!

Meme the Sixth

2012-02-15T10:41:00.000-08:00

Navimie over at The Daily Frostwolf has tagged me for Gnomeageddon's Meme the Sixth challenge. This caused an odd mix of "yay!" and "oh god subfolders I don't have those it's all one giant folder of images ordered only by date". Let's not panic though! I just cheated instead.

The Rules.

- Go into your image folder
- Open the sixth sub-folder and choose the sixth image.
- Publish the image! (and a few words wouldn’t hurt, though I dare say I couldn’t stop a blogger from adding a few words of their own).
- Challenge six new bloggers.
- Link to them.

I figured instead that I would pick the sixth row of thumbnails, sixth along and show you that instead!

This is my fledgling warlock, Nefarna, as she finds Lieutenant Walden dead at the start of the Gilneas starting zone. I loved the crows, the bleak surroundings and the general feeling of doom - everything that could go right seems to go wrong and this is just the beginning.

It's going to be hard to find 6 more bloggers to tag, but here's my best attempt!

If any of you are already tagged, I'm sorry! :D

Week 5: Everything Happened At Once

2012-02-13T11:46:00.000-08:00

I am not lying when I say the last week has been absolutely full of happenings! I logged on last Tuesday to find an Orc Death Knight and finish Love is in the Air, finally snagging one in Dalaran after a guildie spotted one and summoned me (he was trying to taunt Alliance by staying just inside the Horde area, but I got LoS from a rooftop). That triggered the holiday achievement and then the whole What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been meta achievement! FINALLY. A whole year later and I have my Violet Proto-Drake, free Master Riding and a bit of a break when the holidays roll around again!

That wasn't the end of my day though - we'd scheduled an extra raid night to get Madness down as we were so close...Discombobulated downed Madness (10-man normal) last Tuesday after a lot of hard work from more than the 10 people in the group that evening. Hitting 8/8 normal mode was a fantastic feeling (we one-shotted it yesterday evening too, for a true farm kill). To top it all off, Maw of the Dragonlord dropped - twice! - and I was lucky enough to pick one of those up too. What a week!

After all that excitement it was hard to think about the bucket list but I rolled up my sleeves and this is what I got done:

Morríghan is level 82
Nefarna is level 13
Skinning is now 338
Leatherworking is now 246
Inscription is 176
Engineering is now 140
Aralosseien has 7815 a/p

My pocket tank and other guildies were kind enough to run me through some normal Cataclysm dungeons, once I'd bought a couple of items to boost my ilvl (because of my heirloom head and cloak). I felt a bit bad cheating my way into them but after I discovered I was keeping up with other at-level DPSers I figured it was fine. Morríghan has gone from ilvl 188 to ilvl 245 in the last week - thanks mostly to crafted Redsteel armor - so she's genuinely qualified for two normals and can pull her weight in the other two. Huzzah! The chunks of exp I'm getting (with rested bonus) for these are far more appealing than questing alone so I'll be running dungeons here and there until I hit 85.

We finished running the worgen through their starting zone so Nefarna is waiting in Darnassus at level 13, soon to be sent to Darkshore. I've run that zone twice already though, and I have two other night elf characters waiting in the wings so I might get her summoned somewhere new like Redridge Mountains and see those quests now they've been revamped. I've gone for Destruction as my spec because I like the idea of raining fiery doom down on my enemies later on (I have no idea if this is efficient for levelling or not)!

The Darkmoon Faire took up a whole evening - ferrying all the professioned alts there to do the monthly quests takes time! With +5 to professions they're silly to miss though.

Finally, Ara got a buttload of a/p this week. We ran through 10-man normal ICC on Friday, as we were lacking some crucial people for a Madness kill. Our fantastic guildies who were raiding back in the day ran us through every achievement they could and we almost got them all! Getting LST and killing Deathwing didn't hurt, either. I'm hoping to write my LST thoughts up at some point soon :)

So, I'm not sure what to work on this week! The dungeon-only resolution for Morríghan puts her out of the running, so it comes down to shaman vs. low-level alts. I might just see what takes my fancy as I go.

What have you been up to this last week in Azeroth?

Week 4: Lunar Lunacy

2012-02-05T12:55:00.000-08:00

I've not got a lot of Bucket List progress under my belt this week because I had Lunar Festival to finish up. The good news is that it's done, so only one part of Love is in the Air to go and I'll get my Violet Proto-Drake!

What's changed:

Morríghan went from 80 to 81, finally!
Wildlight went from 26 to 28 with a little boosting, also getting Enchanting to 225
Luíseach finally maxed out Blacksmithing!
Aralosseien got to 7495 achievement points

I actually finished level 80 by mining ore for raid gear gems. I don't really enjoy questing on Morríghan but she's darn efficient with a sword and it could be a lot worse.

Wildlight is stuck at 225 Enchanting now (until she hits level 35) so I'll probably send Morríghan off to mine some low-level ores and work on Engineering until it's at 225 as well.

The Darkmoon Faire is an absolute lifesaver if you're levelling professions. You can do the profession quests once per month and you get 5 skillups for very little effort. At the higher levels of professions, you're saving a lot of materials to do it this way (it would have taken 60 Elementium Bars otherwise to finish Blacksmithing) so all my professioned alts will be visiting the fair sometime next week.

Not a big week, and finding the five Horde race/class combos I need for Fistful of Love will take up some more time, but hopefully I can crack on with the levelling once that's finished!

It's OK To Love Plate Dresses

2012-02-04T06:39:00.000-08:00

Some people dislike the idea of plate dresses. That's fine for them, but what about those of us who prefer a dress silhouette for our characters? I won't lie - there aren't a lot of options but I've rounded them up below for your delectation. Also, Warriors and Death Knights rejoice! There is the potential for you to aspire to our elegance and style. I know this is the news you've been waiting for while you clunk around in your plate trousers.

As an aside, this is mostly a paladin issue - we are the only plate-wearing class with some skirted tier sets. I do wonder if this is because we have a healing spec and healing is perceived as 'what girls like to do' but that's rampant speculation and I'm not qualified to figure that one out. Gender, dress and perception is one hell of a minefield, y'know. If one of you is more of the arts-educated, thinking persuasion feel free to ponder on this and let me know!

Immolation Battleplate/Breastplate/Chestguard

The chest piece of the paladin Tier 12 armor. This is the only chest slot model that comes with a skirt attached! Items for each spec are named differently but are completely identical in appearance.

All pieces are from Firelands or other sources of the same item level.

Head: token from Ragnaros / Casque of Flame from Baleroc
Shoulders: token from Majordomo Staghelm / Spaulders of Manifold Eyes from Beth'tilac
Chest: 2200 JPs (SW/Org vendor) / Clutch of the Firemother from Alysrazor
Gloves: 1650 JPs (SW/Org vendor) / drop from Occu'thar, Baradin Hold / Grips of the Raging Giant from Rhyolith / Holy Flame Gauntlets from Blacksmithing
Belt: Belt of the Seven Seals from Avengers of Hyjal (at Honored)
Feet: Emberforged Elementium Boots from Blacksmithing / Treads of the Penitent Man from Majordomo Staghelm
Legs/Bracers: can't be seen

Tier set is paladin only, off-set pieces could be obtained by any plate-wearing class.

I really love this set and fully plan to drag my guild into Firelands at some point to get me the head and shoulders!

Valorous Aegis Greaves/Legguards/Legplates (paladin only)

The leg piece of the paladin Tier 8 armor. Items for each spec are named differently but are completely identical in appearance.

Head: token from VX-001, Ulduar
Shoulders: token from Thorim, Ulduar
Chest: token from Yogg-Saron, Ulduar
Gloves: token from Freya, Ulduar / drop from Emalon, Vault of Archavon
Legs: token from Hodir, Ulduar / drop from Emalon, Vault of Archavon
Tokens should be taken to plate merchants in Dalaran.

Here are a couple (of many) options for the other slots:
Belt: Blinding Girdle of Truth for 1650 VPs / Girdle of Valorous Deeds from Aeonus, Black Morass
Feet: Silver Sabatons of Fury for 1650 VPs
Bracers: can't be seen

The good news is that you can get the legs from two different places, so if you wanted to build a mogging set around them you don't have to be raiding Ulduar. The older tier sets are a pain to acquire because every slot was token-bought but don't give up! Speak to your friends and guildmates - this tier had some good gear for all classes and more of them might be willing than you think. There are two recolors of this set but they have legs rather than a skirt, which is a shame.

Judgement Legplates (paladin only)

The leg piece of the paladin Tier 2 armor.

Head: drop from Nefarian, Blackwing Lair / drop from Onyxia, Onyxia's Lair (level 80 version)
Shoulders: drop from Chromaggus, Blackwing Lair
Chest: drop from Nefarian, Blackwing Lair
Bracers: drop from Razorgore, Blackwing Lair
Gloves: drop from Flamegor/Ebonroc/Firemaw, Blackwing Lair
Belt: drop from Vaelastrasz, Blackwing Lair
Legs: drop from Ragnaros, Molten Core
Feet: drop from Broodlord Lashlayer, Blackwing Lair

This is one of the most popular paladin sets in the game and is easy to farm nowadays. As well as being very intricate, every piece of armor contributes to the look so you'll need all 8 pieces to nail it.

Cassock of the Loyal (Judgement Recolor, any plate-wearing class)

This is the leg piece of the Judgement Recolor, a dungeon set obtained at level 68-70 in Burning Crusade dungeons.

Head: Mask of Penance from Mekgineer Steamrigger, The Steamvault
Shoulders: Justice Bearer's Pauldrons from Omor, heroic Hellfire Ramparts
Chest: Breastplate of Many Graces from Grandmaster Vorpil, Shadow Labyrinth
Bracers: Virtue Bearer's Vambraces from Broggok, heroic Blood Furnace
Gloves: Life Bearer's Gauntlets from Nazan & Vazruden, heroic Hellfire Ramparts
Belt: Girdle of Many Blessings from Rokmar, heroic Slave Pens
Legs: Cassock of the Loyal from Hungarfen, heroic Underbog
Feet: Boots of the Watchful Heart from Captain Skarloc, heroic Escape from Durnholde Keep

A popular recolor of a popular tier set! Easily farmable nowadays. As with the Judgement Armor, you'll need all 8 pieces to complete the look.

Lightsworn Greaves/Legguards/Legplates

The leg piece of the paladin Tier 10 (lower) armor. Items for each spec are named differently but are completely identical in appearance.

Head: 1100 JPs (Dalaran/Argent Tournament vendors)
Shoulders: 695 JPs (Dalaran/Argent Tournament vendors) / Emerald Saint's Spaulders from Cache of the Dreamwalker, ICC
Chest: 1100 JPs (Dalaran/Argent Tournament vendors) / Chestplate of Septic Stitches from Professor Putricide, ICC
Gloves: 695 JPs (Dalaran/Argent Tournament vendors) / Festergut's Gaseous Gloves from Festergut, ICC
Legs: 1100 JPs (Dalaran/Argent Tournament vendors) / Corrupted Silverplate Leggings from Lord Marrowgar, ICC
Waist: Tightening Waistband from Blood Queen Lana'thel, ICC / Surrogate Belt from Halion, Ruby Sanctum
Feet: Ancient Skeletal Boots from Lord Marrowgar, ICC / Foreshadow Steps from Halion, Ruby Sanctum
Bracers: can't be seen

Tier set is paladin only, off-set pieces could be obtained by any plate-wearing class.

I was really excited about being able to pick this set up (head and shoulders included!) for Justice Points. There are loads of belt models that would blend in with this set and any dark boots would look fine.

Acherus Knight's Legplates (Death Knights only)

The leg piece of the Death Knight starter gear.

The full set can only be bought by Death Knights as it's sold by Quartermaster Ozorg in Acherus. It would be easy to change any of the slots to jazz this up a bit - plate with grey colour schemes isn't rare at all.

Well, that's it - all the dress silhouette avenues you could explore. I know that I'll be farming Justice Points for the Lightsworn set and picking up one or both of the Judgement sets. What about you? Are you a fan of plate dresses or do you skip over them in favour of legs (or do you not care in the slightest as long as it looks good)? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Weeks 2 & 3: Slowly But Surely

2012-01-26T02:18:00.000-08:00

So...there was no Bucket List update last week. I didn't get much alting time and I didn't feel like working on Loremaster. I was lazy, frankly, but it's my list so I can procrastinate if I want!

This week I'm enjoying having a big list to choose activities from and it's definitely making my in-game time more fun. Don't feel like end-game content for another night? Level one of my lowbies a bit. Don't have the energy to quest? Work on a profession. When all else fails, my flower-picking Death Knight gets sent to uproot those herbs and hack bits of ore out of rocks, mailing countless stacks of materials through the ether and into the hands of my professioning alts who store it in rapidly-overflowing banks for later on.

Before the list those alts were there, in the back of my mind, but didn't seem worth the effort despite the fact that I'd like a stable of level 85 characters covering all professions before Mists hits. Now I have the will to work on them and it's making me happier out of game too - days without a clear purpose really drag my mood downwards.

What I've achieved in the last two weeks:

Aralosseien now has 7385 a/p
Shiden hit level 50!
Wildlight went from level 22 to 26, and got Engineering up from 100 to 135

Getting Shiden, my draenei shaman to 50 is long overdue. She's still wearing a few pieces of leather +int gear so I have my fingers crossed that some questing will replace those as the AH is bereft of level 50-60 +int mail.

Wildlight hit 26 so quickly I barely saw it happening. The OH did boost me through Blackfathom Deeps after a disastrous attempt via LFD but I think that 4 heirlooms and the perks of a level 25 guild are going to zoom me through content at a furious rate. I did toy with the idea of taking them off to see more of the zones but if I'm going to go for Loremaster on Ara I'm happy to save the lore surprises for her.

More importantly, Wildlight made her first pair of goggles - a snazzy pink pair!

I think I might have sparked a goggles addiction.

A gift from Navimie!

2012-01-19T11:35:00.000-08:00

Not so long ago, Navimie of The Daily Frostwolf had her second blogoversary! I read the post before my coffee one morning and left her a comment to say congratulations. What I'd missed was her offer to create a little something for everyone who left a comment! Imagine my surprise when she tweeted me to say there was an email waiting, patiently, in my inbox (and that she was going to bed, silly time differences). I'd like to share it with you, as others have theirs :) here is the brilliant poem she wrote me!

Thank you Navi, for such a wonderful gift. <3

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ahoy to Aralosseien

I met Ara in November

When we both IntPiPoMo'd

I went to look every day

To see what shots she showed

And now I often come to see

What new achieves she has to boast

So I was delighted when she left a note

On my Blog's Birthday post.

Ara made a Warrior,

Whose hair was pink as floss

Her name was Sugarstorm the gnome,

And she was made because

Ara's made a Bucket List,

A Cynwise inspired feat

The list just really blows my mind,

I really hope she does complete!

Ara loves achievements,

Which I totally can relate

She's listed what she's working on -

Boy she's got heaps on her plate!

She just put up a guide for

Lunar Festival this year

When she finally Honor One's Elders,

I'll give a little cheer!

Ara's main's a druid,

Which makes me like her so

She also plays a paladin

So healing she must know!

She made me laugh because she griped

About the Worgen female form

If they do that to Pandarians

I'm sure there'll be a raging storm!

So thank you Ara, for wishing me

A happy Blog birthday.

I look forward to another year

Of reading stuff you say.

I hope you like this little poem

I wrote it just for you

And I wish you all the best of luck

For your achievements this year too!

From Navimie :)

Lunar Festival Guide 2012

2012-01-13T09:43:00.000-08:00

Another year, another chance to finish those big achievements you didn't manage last year. Lunar Festival 2011 was pre-blog (so pre-motivation for me) but it's been taunting me ever since. Damn my laziness.

Lunar Festival is a celebration of our (virtual) ancestors, held by the druids in Moonglade. This year it will be running from 22nd January - 11th February. You can collect Coins of Ancestry by visiting the 84 Elders scattered throughout the lands of Azeroth, then use these to buy festive outfits, engineering schematics, tailoring patterns and two new companion pets (thanks to commenters Shoryl and Esdala for the correction!) - Lunar Lantern for Alliance and Festival Lantern for Horde. The coins don't disappear when the festival ends so check your banks for stragglers that you might have held onto from last year, and keep any spares for next year if you don't get everything you want!

If you're looking to complete this meta, it would be a lot easier at level 80 or above as there are 9 Elders within the Cataclysm 80-85 zones and some of the dungeon Elders are hidden away in Northrend dungeons. Those with friends and guildmates happy to summon/help them will be able to complete these at a lower level though!

Currency earned: Coins of Ancestry
Maximum possible this year: 84
Number required to complete meta: 5

Achievements needed for the meta:

50 Coins of Ancestry
Frenzied Firecracker
The Rocket's Red Glare
Lunar Festival Finery
Elune's Blessing
Elders of the Alliance
Elders of the Horde
Elders of Eastern Kingdoms
Elders of Kalimdor
Elders of Northrend
Elders of Cataclysm
Elders of the Dungeons

Total achievement points up for grabs: 160

So, let's get onto the good bit - snagging a title, 160 a/p, some snappy clothes and a new pet!

50 Coins of Ancestry

The only way to get the coins is to honour those ancestors! You'll get this whilst visiting Elders for the other achievements.

Frenzied Firecracker

Set off 10 Festival Firecrackers in 30 seconds or less! You can buy these for 3 silver each from Lunar Festival Vendors. Bind them to a hotkey, find a place for your server that's low/no lag and face your camera downwards. Firing each one sets off the GCD, which is why it's best to go to a low lag area. An easy way to make sure you're doing it right is to track the achievement in your Objectives list - find it in the achievements interface under World Events, click the box marked 'Track' and boom. Literally.

The Rocket's Red Glare

Very similar to Frenzied Firecracker, set off 10 Red Rocket Clusters in 25 seconds or less. You can buy these for 1 silver each from Lunar Festival Vendors. Bind them to a hotkey but this time, you'll have to be in the festival area of a major city to find the cluster launchers for firing them. You can track this in the same way as the Firecrackers, so just stand next to a launcher and play with pyrotechnics until you get it.

Lunar Festival Finery

Buy yourself a lovely Festive Dress or Pant Suit to wear for 5 Coins of Ancestry. Job done (and looking snappy, I must say)!

Elune's Blessing

Pick up the quest Elune's Blessing from Valadar Starsong in Nighthaven, Moonglade. You must summon Omen, defeat him and receive Elune's Blessing to complete this quest.

Summoning Omen is simple. Throw some cluster rockets into the launchers near the Stormrage Barrow Dens at the southeast edge of Lake Elune'Ara. A giant, two-headed dog appears!

There were many reports of level 85s soloing him last year but if you're going as a group, taking a 'tank' and healing capable class along is probably helpful. He cleaves and does a regular Starfall AoE but shouldn't present any more of a challenge than holiday bosses like Frost Lord Ahune do.
If you don't fancy soloing Omen, it's quiet in Moonglade when you have time at 4am or you just can't get a group, don't panic! Actually engaging him in combat is unnecessary, if you catch him upto 5 minutes after defeat. This is because Elune's Blessing is received by walking into the pool of moonlight falling on his corpse, so if he's there and already defeated, just hop under the moonlight and go hand the quest in.

Elders

I'm going to split all the Elders into blocks based on location - Eastern Kingdoms, Kalimdor, Northrend, and new Cataclysm locations. Dungeon Elders are in the list for the continent they're on - so you don't miss an Elder in a zone and have to go back for it - as are Elders of the Alliance/Horde.

Some of the dungeon Elders can be hard to find. If you're struggling to find them, you're more than welcome to tweet or email me and I will help as much as I can. You can also try their Wowhead comments for help - as the holiday progresses people are likely to put their tips and tricks up for others!

Eastern Kingdoms

Morndeep	Blackrock Mountain, Blackrock Depths, Ring of Law
Stonefort	Blackrock Mountain, Blackrock Spire, near Hordemar City
Bellowrage	Blasted Lands, Dark Portal
Rumblerock	Burning Steppes, Dreadmaul Rock
Dawnstrider	Burning Steppes, Flame Crest
Goldwell	Dun Morogh, Kharanos
Windrun	Eastern Plaguelands, Crown Guard Tower
Snowcrown	Eastern Plaguelands, Light’s Hope Chapel
Farwhisper	Eastern Plaguelands, Stratholme, enter through main gate, in Festival Lane
Stormbrow	Elwynn Forest, Goldshire, behind Blacksmith shop
Highpeak	Hinterlands, Creeping Ruins, north of Altar of Zul
Bronzebeard	Ironforge, Mystic Ward
Silvervein	Loch Modan, Thelsamar
Starglade	Northern Stranglethorn, Zul’Gurub entrance
Ironband	Searing Gorge, far SW corner, outside Blackchar Cave
Obsidian	Silverpine Forest, The Sepulcher
Hammershout	Stormwind, outside the front gates
Starsong	Swamp of Sorrows, Sunken Temple, inside entrance to the left
Graveborn	Tirisfal Glades, Brill
Darkcore	Undercity/Ruins of Lordaeron, old throne room
Winterhoof	Vale of Stranglethorn, Booty Bay, on top of the bank/AH
Meadowrun	Western Plaguelands, off road into EPL, inside Weeping Cave
Moonstrike	Western Plaguelands, Scholomance buildings
Skychaser	Westfall, Sentinel Hill, top of tower

Kalimdor

Riversong	Ashenvale, Astranaar
Skygleam	Azshara, Ravencrest Monument
Starweave	Darkshore, Lor’danel
Bladeswift	Darnassus, Cenarion Enclave
Splitrock	Desolace, Maraudon, Zaetar’s Grave area
Runetotem	Durotar, Razor Hill
Nightwind	Felwood, pillars east of Bloodvenom Post
Mistwalker	Feralas, Dire Maul, in arena area
Grimtotem	Feralas, Lariss Pavillion, north of Camp Mojache
Bloodhoof	Mulgore, Bloodhoof Village
Windtotem	Northern Barrens, Ratchet
Moonwarden	Northern Barrens, The Crossroads
Darkhorn	Orgrimmar, near zeppelin docks
Bladesing	Silithus, Cenarion Hold
Primestone	Silithus, The Crystal Vale
High Mountain	Southern Barrens, Vendetta Point
Dreamseer	Tanaris, Gadgetzan
Wildmane	Tanaris, inside Zul’Farrak by Gahz’rilla pool
Ragetotem	Tanaris, Valley of the Watchers
Bladeleaf	Teldrassil, Dolanaar
Morningdew	Thousand Needles, F & P Speedbarge
Skyseer	Thousand Needles, Freewind Post
Wheathoof	Thunder Bluff, Elder Rise
Thunderhorn	Un’Goro Crater, middle of the Slithering Scar
Stonespire	Winterspring, Everlook
Brightspear	Winterspring, Lake Kel’theril

Northrend

Pamuya	Borean Tundra, cliff north of Warsong Hold
Arp	Borean Tundra, D.E.H.T.A
Igasho	Borean Tundra, The Nexus, in Singing Grove before Ormorok
Northal	Borean Tundra, Transitus Shield, Coldarra
Sardis	Borean Tundra, Valiance Keep
Skywarden	Dragonblight, Agmar’s Hammer
Nurgen	Dragonblight, Azjol-Nerub, down long drop after Hadronox
Thoim	Dragonblight, Moa’ki Harbor
Morthie	Dragonblight, Star’s Rest
Whurain	Grizzly Hills, Camp Oneqwah
Kilias	Grizzly Hills, Drak’Tharon Keep, near King Dred
Lunaro	Grizzly Hills, Ruins of Tethys
Beldak	Grizzly Hills, Westfall Brigade Encampment
Jarten	Howling Fjord, Utgarde Keep, near Njorn Stair
Chogan’gada	Howling Fjord, Utgarde Pinnacle, under stairs after Skadi
Sandrene	Sholazar Basin, Lakeside Landing
Wanikaya	Sholazar Basin, Rainspeaker Rapids
Stonebeard	Storm Peaks, Bouldercrag’s Refuge, base of hills north of Snowdrift Plains
Muraco	Storm Peaks, Camp Tunka’lo
Fargal	Storm Peaks, Frosthold
Yurauk	Storm Peaks, Halls of Stone, in Crystalline Quarry before Krystallus
Graymane	Storm Peaks, K3
Bluewolf	Wintergrasp, in the Keep
Ohanzee	Zul’Drak, Gundrak, by Drakkari Colossus at Tomb of the Ancients
Tauros	Zul’Drak, Zim’Torga

Cataclysm

Deepforge	Deepholm, Stonehearth
Stonebrand	Deepholm, The Temple of Earth
Evershade	Mount Hyjal, Nordrassil, by the Stormwind portal
Windsong	Mount Hyjal, Sanctuary of Malorne
Darkfeather	Twilight Highlands, between Thundermar and the river
Firebeard	Twilight Highlands, Dunwald Ruins
Sekhemi	Uldum, The Ruins of Ammon, in front of west statue
Menkhaf	Uldum, Khartut's Tomb, to the east of the statue
Moonlance	Vashj’ir, Biel'Aran Ridge

I'll be taking pictures and making notes as I run through it for myself and will share anything useful I find on my travels. Are you going for it this year as well? Let me know how you're getting on in the comments!

Thanks to Anne Stickney over at WoW Insider for linking this guide! I hope new readers found something useful in there - feel free to leave any feedback/comments below!

Week 1: The Very Light Sabre

2012-01-12T15:29:00.000-08:00

Armed with good intentions, unbending resolve and invaluable support from you, my lovely readers, we come to the first Bucket List update. Thank you for all the comments and encouragement you left on the original post!

I'll try to keep these posts short and sweet:

Sugarstorm the gnome warrior rocked my world and got to level 7
I levelled inscription from 147 to 171
My rogue became my new bank alt
I picked up Arcurion Legguards for my paladin offspec
Neferne the human warlock became Nefarna the worgen warlock and got to level 9

Oh, Sugarstorm, with your pink pigtails and your Very Light Sabre. You've captured my heart. Who knew that the way to enjoy a warrior alt was to roll a non-serious one?

Doing a little bit of inscription was a nice change of pace - it's been a while since I was working on a profession at that level. Instead of buying the materials on the AH I took my flower-picking death knight to Stranglethorn Vale, which is a great zone for herbs that mill into Golden (common) or Burnt (rarer) Pigments.

I left the warlock race decision to my other half by telling him he had no choice but to roll an alt with me and that it was worgen or dwarf. Turns out he hadn't done the worgen starting zone yet, so worgen it was. I enjoyed it a lot more as a pair than I did running through it solo, perhaps because it alleviated the feeling of being stuck there alone. It was satisfying to see his reactions as things fell apart and were flooded during the earthquakes too!

While I'm here though (because this is my blog and I can grump if I want to), something that still bugs me is the way they designed female worgen bodies. If you ignore the head, hands and feet, it looks like a normal human body to me. Is that really the best Blizzard could come up with? In my opinion it's lazy design. They are capable of better - there's a pair of fingers crossed here that female Pandaren don't end up the same way.

Cataclysm Bucket List

2012-01-06T12:04:00.000-08:00

Cynwise wrote a great post on CFN yesterday - a bucket list of things he wants to do during the rest of the Cataclysm expansion. I'm a bit resistant to January-inspired resolutions as if New Year grants you some mystical power to hold true to your course, but this was less grandiose, more practical and just generally motivating to read. So. There are things I've been wanting to do since I started playing WoW and other goals that are a little younger. Just for fun, here's my Cataclysm/2012 bucket list! (It's been copied to a permanent page for posterity and kept up-to-date there!)

General:

Level one of each character to 85

Druid - 85
Paladin - 85
Death Knight - 80
Shaman - 49
Mage - 25 and 13
Priest - 22
Rogue -7
Hunter - 6
Warlock - 6
Warrior - need to roll one

Level each profession up to 525

Alchemy - 525
Tailoring - 525
Jewelcrafting - 525
Mining - 525
Herbalism - 525
Blacksmithing - 520
Skinning - 333
Leatherworking - 241
Enchanting - 220
Inscription - 147
Engineering - 100

Make one character an actual bank alt with a guild bank to use
Try healing on all four healing classes (and in both healing priest specs!)

I've wanted one of each character since I opened the character creation screen for the first time. Sure, there are some that don't appeal as much. I'm a ranged girl at heart because melee confuses and scares me (how on earth do you know what's going on in the middle of all that kerfuffle?!) and lots of ranged DPS classes have a healing tree too. There's also a reason I've played enough melee to reach this conclusion - paladins need a ranged dps spec!

Having one of each profession at 525 is partly a completionest tendency shining through and partly my compulsion to needlessly update gear that will be replaced in 3 levels. Plus, engineering sounds like fun. Half of the difficulty will be deciding which professions suit which classes the best for those that aren't already maxed. I might swap some around and start afresh.

Specific character goals (click images to see in giganto size!):

Aralosseien (druid)

Reach 8k achievement points (7365 right now)
Complete Loremaster

Luíseach (paladin)

Finish putting together a 378+ Ret gear set
Design + collect a mogging outfit for holy spec
Max Blacksmithing

Morríghan (death knight)

Level to 85
Put together a 378+ set of DPS gear

Shiden (shaman)

Level to 85
Max leatherworking
Max skinning
Put together 378+ sets of Elemental & Resto gear
Heal each Cataclysm heroic at least once

Lóthwen (mage)

Level to 85
Max Inscription
Design + collect a mogging set
Get to Honored with guild to finish Classy Night Elves achievement

Wildlight (priest)

Level to 85
Max Enchanting
Max Engineering
Design + collect a mogging set
Heal each Cataclysm heroic at least once

Swiftfeather (hunter)

Level to 85

Sinuosity (rogue)

Level to 85

Neferne (warlock)

Reroll (probably rename) as worgen/dwarf
Level to 85
Get to Honored with guild to contribute to Classy Worgen/Classy Dwarf achievement

To be rolled!

Warrior - female gnome - spec Fury, become dual-wielding bundle of death

It looks like a really, really big list. It is! 2012 is a year where I'd like to work more on non-gaming hobbies too, but I'm hopeful that I can get a lot of these goals ticked off before Mists throws me back into the rush of a new expansion.

How about you? What will you try and achieve in-game?

IntPiPoMo: Differences

2011-11-24T05:27:00.000-08:00

I've always loved the small details that help me feel immersed when I'm travelling around. Cities feel different and I think it's the effort that designers have put into details that make this happen.

L-R: Exodar, Darnassus, Ironforge (Tinker Town), Ironforge, Stormwind

I think the most obvious difference is the mailboxes - you use them so often you can't fail to notice. They're all influenced by the architecture and attitude of the races they belong to. Oddly, the more 'prominent' races have flag devices on theirs, with gnomes and draenei using more nondescript mailboxes.

Stormwind, Ironforge (The Great Forge) and the Exodar

Forges differ from city to city as well, but not as much. The squat, solid stone forge is used in both Stormwind and Darnassus - I've always wondered why the older night elf race don't have their own style of forge. It's possible that the humans copied theirs but I feel like the night elves' forges would have looked more decorative and ornate. The Great Forge in Ironforge is actually two giant pools of magma, one each side of the central bridge and an impressive sight when you visit for the first time! Exodar forges have typically draenic purple crystals - are these decorative or heat-generating?

Exodar, Darnassus, Ironforge and Stormwind

Finally the lights in each city, noticed less now people can fly straight overhead. I think they reflect the races they belong to well - the Exodar and Darnassus lights are magical whilst those of Ironforge and Stormwind seem to generate more of an earthly light.

Gladly at The Ready Check has done a great Horde roundup of differences! Check it out!

4.3 Holy Paladin Gear List

2011-11-22T14:23:00.000-08:00

If you've ever taken a look at my 'About' page, you'll know that I sometimes moonlight as a holy paladin. The heals are just so sparkly! With 4.3 and the Raid Finder coming up I've decided to gear my paladin up as a viable raid healer, in case a druid healer is not what my guild needs on a boss. I really enjoy being a healadin too! Possibly more than druid healing but that's a post for another day.

Luíseach is quite poorly geared so I'll be after VP gear and drops from the three news 5-mans - two 378 weapons and a shield? Hell yes! - before I move onto LFR and hopefully guild 10-mans. I will be following a Intellect > Haste => Spirit > Crit/Mastery priority system which means I'll reforge from crit/mastery to spirit on any gear that doesn't have spirit already and reforge from crit/mastery to haste on any gear without haste. I thought I'd share the pre-Heroic gear that's out there waiting for us in case it's a helpful resource for other healadins :)

Items are in rough order of item level but aren't ranked in any other way and all drops are from bosses in Dragon Soul unless otherwise specified. I've also included the two Blacksmithing craftables you could acquire although the recipes are raid drops so you may need to hunt for someone who can create these for you!

If you're looking for more information after this, Kurn's Corner has some in-depth commentary on the 397 items which will also apply to LFR 384 items and Healbot also has a purely 397 list. Over at WoW Insider there's a good discussion of which upgrades to aim for and on the MMO-Champion forums is a handy list of suitable gear ordered from 384 to 416.

This list has been updated with live 4.3 details now but as always, if I've missed anything or you have any suggestions please drop me a comment! Thanks to WoW Insider for the link! <3

Helm

Helm of Power - Minor Cache of the Aspects, Well of Eternity

Headguard of Radiant Glory -T13 token (LFR), Warmaster Blackhorn

Glowing Wings of Hope - 2200 VP

Headguard of Radiant Glory - T13 token, Warmaster Blackthorn

Neck

Petrified Fungal Heart - Morchok (LFR)

Threadlinked Chain - 1250 VP

Petrified Fungal Heart - Morchok

Shoulders

Pauldrons of Conviction - Archbishop Benedictus, Hour of Twilight

Mantle of Radiant Glory - T13 token (LFR), Hagara the Stormbinder

Mantle of Radiant Glory - T13 token, Hagara the Stormbinder

Cloaks

Cloak of Subtle Light - Asira Dawnslayer, Hour of Twilight

Drapes of the Dragonshrine - BoE trash drop, Hour of Twilight

Woundlicker Cover - 1250 VP

Chest

Breastplate of Despair - BoE trash drop, End Time

Breastplate of Radiant Glory - T13 token (LFR), Ultraxion

Shining Carapace of Glory - 2200 VP

Breastplate of Radiant Glory - T13 token, Ultraxion

Wrists

Heartblood Wristplates - Yor'sahj the Unsleeping (LFR)

Flashing Bracers of Warmth - 1250 VP (BoE)

Heartblood Wristplates - Yor'sahj the Unsleeping

Soul Redeemer Bracers - Blacksmithing (BoE)

Hands

Gloves of Radiant Glory - T13 token (LFR), Warlord Zon'ozz

Gauntlets of the Golden Thorn - Spine of Deathwing (LFR)

Gleaming Grips of Mending - 1650 VP

Gloves of Radiant Glory - T13 token, Warlord Zon'ozz

Gauntlets of the Golden Thorn - Spine of Deathwing

Waist

Waistguard of Lost Time - Echo of Baine/Jaina/Sylvanas/Tyrande, End Time

Dragonfracture Belt - Ultraxion (LFR)
Girdle of Soulful Mending - BoE trash drop, normal mode Dragon Soul

Blinding Girdle of Truth - 1650 VP

Dragonfracture Belt - Ultraxion

Legs

Time Altered Legguards - Murozond's Temporal Cache, End Time

Greaves of Radiant Glory - T13 token (LFR), Yor'sahj the Unsleeping

Pyrium Legplates of Purified Evil - Blacksmithing (BoE)

Greaves of Radiant Glory - T13 token, Yor'sahj the Unsleeping

Feet

Boots of the Treacherous Path - Quest: The Path to the Dragon Soul, Well of Eternity

Pillarfoot Greaves - Morchok (LFR)
Silver Sabatons of Fury - 1650 VP (BoE)

Pillarfoot Greaves - Morchok

Rings

Horned Band - Peroth'arn, Well of Eternity

Signet of the Twilight Prophet - Quest: The Twilight Prophet, Hour of Twilight

Ring of the Riven - Hagara the Stormbinder (LFR)

Signet of Suturing - All Bosses Except Deathwing (LFR)

Band of Reconstruction - 1250 VP

Ring of the Riven - Hagara the Stormbinder

Signet of Suturing - All Bosses Except Deathwing

Trinkets

Foul Gift of the Demon Lord - Minor Cache of the Aspects, Well of Eternity

Seal of the Seven Signs - Warlord Zon'ozz (LFR)

Windward Heart - All Bosses Except Deathwing (LFR)

Heart of Unliving - Spine of Deathwing (LFR)

Bottled Wishes - 1650 VP

Reflection of the Light - 1650 VP

Seal of the Seven Signs - Warlord Zon'ozz

Windward Heart - All Bosses Except Deathwing

Heart of Unliving - Spine of Deathwing

Weapons

Crescent Moon - Echo of Tyrande, End Time

Scepter of Azshara - Royal Cache, Well of Eternity

Vagaries of Time - Morchok (LFR)

Maw of the Dragonlord - Madness of Deathwing (LFR)

Vagaries of Time - Morchok

Maw of the Dragonlord - Madness of Deathwing

Shields

Ward of Incantations - Echo of Jaina, End Time

Timepiece of the Bronze Flight - Warmaster Blackhorn (LFR)

Timepiece of the Bronze Flight - Warmaster Blackhorn
NB: Timepiece of the Bronze Flight has been hotfixed and now has one red socket with a +10 Int bonus. Change is not showing on in-game tooltips yet.

Off-Hands

Demonic Skull - Quest: The Path to the Dragon Soul, Well of Eternity

Ledger of Revolting Rituals - Ultraxion (LFR)
Dragonfire Orb - BoP trash drop, normal mode Dragon Soul

Ledger of Revolting Rituals - Ultraxion

Relics

Lightning Spirit in a Bottle - 700 VP

Mindbender Lens - 700 VP

Pilgrim's Bounty 2011

2011-11-18T17:16:00.000-08:00

Autumn is here! In theory, that would mean vibrant colours on the trees, crisp blue skies and switching my drinks preference from refrigerated coke to hot chocolates. In Leeds, it's meant lots of slippery leaves on the dark walk home, constant grey skies for weeks and consequently not enough sunlight to keep my half-plant system running. Pilgrim's Bounty starts on Sunday 20th November though and I need 4 more achievements to get my <Pilgrim> title. Not to mention the adorable turkey pet I missed out on last year.

There are 9 achievements per faction for this holiday and all 9 will be required to get the meta achievement and glory. There's no holiday boss but this festival has long been the perfect chance to level your cooking skills! Two of the achievements require you to cook all 5 of the Pilgrim's Bounty dishes so your first priority should be getting cooking to 280 on any character you want these achievements for.

Achievements:

FOOD FIGHT!

It's as simple as it sounds. Sit yourself at a Bountiful Table, found outside any of the faction capitals. There must be another player sat at the same table. Target them (this bit is important) and then 'pass' any of the foodstuffs to them. Do this a few times and you'll get your achievement.

Now We're Cookin'

You'll need to cook each of the following dishes (requirement in brackets):

All ingredients can be bought from Pilgrim's Bounty Vendors near the feast areas but some can only be bought in one city (see Pilgrim's Progress for locations). You'll be cooking these dishes for the daily quests so consider it a bonus!

Pilgrim's Progress

For this achievement you need to complete each of the Pilgrim's Bounty dailies at least once. You see? Two achievements for the price of one, my friends. The dailies are:

The main ingredient for 4 dishes can only be bought/hunted in one zone:

Pumpkins (Stormwind/Tirisfal Glades)
Cranberries (Ironforge/Orgrimmar)
Potatoes (Darnassus/Thunder Bluff)
Turkeys (hunted in Elwynn Forest/Tirisfal Glades)

Possible Alliance order: Buy pumpkins in SW. Take to DS, hand in quest. Buy sweet potatoes there. Take back to SW, hand in potatoes then hunt turkeys. Take these to Ironforge, hand in turkeys and stuffing, buy cranberries. Take these to SW, hand in and finish.

Possible Horde order: Hunt turkeys and buy pumpkins in TG. Take to OG, hand in turkey quest and buy cranberries, also do stuffings quest. Take pumpkins to TB, hand in pumpkin quest and buy sweet potatoes. Go back to TG (via OG if easier), hand in the cranberry and sweet potato quests.

Pilgrim's Paunch

Simply acquire the Spirit of Sharing buff from each of your 4 faction capitals. This means you stuff your virtual face with each of the 5 foods at a table and are rewarded with a 10% reputation gain buff for 1 hour. Make sure you do FOOD FIGHT! while you're sat at one of the tables. I would space completion out to give yourself a full 4 hours worth of the buff - I'll pick mine up just prior to raids and other reputation-granting activities throughout the holiday!

Pilgrim's Peril

I know what you're thinking. Peril? Peril?! They've all been very peaceful so far but true to form, you're getting sent into enemy territory. Not to bring back crucial information or assassinate a key leader - to sit at their feast tables in your finest attire. That'll learn 'em.

The daily quests (which you have to complete for Pilgrim's Progress anyway) each reward a choice of items. Make sure that you take at least one of the following:

Pilgrim's Dress
Pilgrim's Robe
Pilgrim's Attire

Put your chosen finery on and visit each of the 4 enemy faction capitals. You only have to sit in a chair to meet the achievement criteria so it's ok if you die immediately afterwards.

Sharing is Caring

Rest easy, fellow feasters. After the stress of taunting the enemy at their own feast tables we're back to something easier. Simply pass one of each dish at one of your Bountiful Tables to pick this one up.

Terokkar Turkey Time

You're likely feeling a little full right now. Let's walk (or fly) it off with a journey to Outland! Head for Sethekk Halls, the dungeon in the east side of Auchindoun, Terokkar Forest. It's a 69-72 dungeon on normal so take the necessary amount of friends for your level. You must defeat Talon King Ikiss, the last boss of the dungeon, whilst wearing two items of festival clothing:

Pilgrim's Hat
Pilgrim's Dress/Robe/Attire

Since you already needed the second part for Pilgrim's Peril this isn't a big ask. If you can, run this dungeon in heroic mode so you also get a chance to farm Anzu (a heroic-only boss) for the much-coveted Reins of the Raven Lord.

The Turkinator

For this one, you must kill 40 Wild Turkeys without dropping your stacks of the buff this gives you. This achievement is a little bit of an RNG-game but there are a few things you can do to improve your chances. Alliance routes that seem to work well are to run a circle around Eastvale Logging Camp or Westbrook Garrison, both in Elwynn Forest. For the Horde it seems that the area south of the Scarlet Monastery in Tirisfal Glades is a good spot. (NB: Elwynn Forest/Tirisfal Glades are the spawn areas for the Wild Turkeys. Turkeys elsewhere like Fjord Turkey or Highlands Turkey don't count for this achievement).
Instead of killing the turkeys as soon as you spot them, spend a few seconds locating the next one, and kill the one you're at just before the stacks drop. There is nothing worse than killing all the turkeys you can find and then failing while you futilely search for others - trust me on this, it's the reason I don't have it yet! Lastly, I've seen a quite a few people recommending Tracker Snacks and I'll be trying those out this year myself.

Turkey Lurkey

Lastly, the old favourite - finding race/class combinations to prank. For this festival the prank is turning them into turkeys using Turkey Shooters and it's happening to everyone's favourite class. Rogues! Here are the ones to look out for:

Human Rogue
Dwarf Rogue
Night Elf Rogue
Gnome Rogue
Troll Rogue
Orc Rogue
Undead Rogue
Blood Elf Rogue

I'm hoping to get this by hovering around Stormwind and Orgrimmar as I do for other festivals but if pickings are slim I'll head into some battlegrounds and check out the opposition. The downside to this achievement is that the Turkey Shooters are rewards from the dailies and each is single-use so you'll need 8 of them. A neutral faction capital was also a big help in the past. I'm interested to know which way people find this easiest so drop your stories into the comments if you'd like to!
Tips so far: Rades suggests checking out the Molten Front daily quest hubs or the Firelands raid entrance as safer places for finding enemy rogues.

Summary

Level cooking to 280 or you won't be able to complete this meta. Now is a cheap and easy time to do it.
You'll need to do a minimum of 10 daily quests (and at least one of each) in order to complete all the achievements as you need 10 items from them: 8 Turkey Shooters, 1 Pilgrim's Hat and 1 Pilgrim's Dress/Robe/Attire.
Make sure you put your festival clothes on before starting any achievement runs or visiting any enemy tables!
Run Sethekk Halls on heroic if you can for a chance at Anzu's mount.

Cooking Guide

Follow this mini-guide for easy cooking success! Thrill even your enemies with the power of your tasty dishes!

Spice Bread Stuffing - make from 1-100
Pumpkin Pie - make from 100-160
Cranberry Chutney - make from 160-220
Candied Sweet Potato - make from 220-280
Slow-Roasted Turkey - make from 280 until it goes grey at 355.

From 0-355 in one festival. That's time worth putting in. Pro tip: Tracker Snacks requires cooking 400 so you aren't far off that with this guide. If you can cook them it might be worth putting some on the AH in the early days but demand will drop off quite quickly.

That's Pilgrim's Bounty! Let me know how you get on or if I can help you in any way. I'm Hellfire-EU (A) and can indeed cook Tracker Snacks if you need some ;)

Good luck!

Ara

There will be pictures here, I promise! Just waiting for the festival to start...*taps feet*

IntPiPoMo: Glitchness

2011-11-15T11:28:00.000-08:00

Angelya of Revive & Rejuvenate has proposed International Picture Posting Month (IntPiPoMo). The goal is to post 50 pictures during November - a picture is worth a thousand words, you know - which can include game screenshots or real-world pictures. Click here to see my other IntPiPoMo posts!

I have an idea I need screenshots for and a buttload of chores to do this week. Disappointed in my flat for needing so much attention but it can't be helped. So today I present you with my favourite glitch shots! You might have noticed that my screenshots so far aren't carefully posed and edited. I hope you don't mind that - I'm enjoying sharing these archive shots while I collect some themed ones for later on.

Campfires can use water-walking potions too, you know.

Lagging a little as I flew into Grizzly Hills, there was about 10 seconds where there were shadows cast by no trees. I think it looks kind of beautiful and open regardless.

All pictures hosted at scrntag.com

IntPiPoMo: Light

2011-11-14T10:59:00.000-08:00

Green sky during flight, Feralas

Worgen in front of stained glass window, Gilneas

Therazane's Throne, Deepholm

IntPiPoMo: My guild is all grown-up!

2011-11-12T07:32:00.000-08:00

Angelya of Revive & Rejuvenate has proposed International Picture Posting Month (IntPiPoMo). The goal is to post 50 pictures during November - a picture is worth a thousand words, you know - which can include game screenshots or real-world pictures. Click here to see my other IntPiPoMo posts!

This week got away from me, a little. Hectic evening schedules and no screenshots folder at work means that I've fallen behind! Four pictures posted when I should be on fourteen - have some extras today as an apology, if you will. This is the story of how my lovely guild has gone from a startup of 7 to the triple-figure guild with 10-man raiding roster that it is today :)

We started Discombobulated not long after Cataclysm was released. All of the original 7 members were in the same guild previously and today 6 of those members still have active characters in the guild. This screenshot was taken after we finished the last heroic for our Cataclysm Dungeon Hero achievements on 24/03/11 after nights of learning, wiping and improving. Setesh, we still hate you!

About a month later we found ourselves in Blackwing Descent, raiding for the very first time. It took us three nights to down Magmaw but I'll always remember how great it felt when he collapsed, vanquished, at our feet. Magmaw taught us a lot; the importance of placement (and what happened if you stood too far out!), how to watch the boss and stay ready for another event, switching targets, effective AoE usage, timing cooldowns, watching our feet for fire/bad stuff, clicking the Lightwell (seriously, just click the darn thing)...we've been building on the things we learnt during those first nights ever since.

It took us about 3 months to take down all of the Tier 11 bosses and get our <Defender of the Shattered World> titles. By that point, we'd started Firelands and had been doing trash runs for upgrades, not to mention there had been huge T11 nerfs. That didn't take anything from it though - we had become the guild that could and we loved it!

We downed 4 bosses in Firelands pre-nerf and 2 post-nerf. Majordomo Staghelm was a one-shot, something we were totally unprepared for! That aside, we were suddenly 6/7 while it was current content and it felt good. All that was between us and our first ever full tier clear was Ragnaros...and he's still there. It's the hardest, most demanding fight we've ever tackled together, as it should be. We've started to hit Phase 3 though and it's only a matter of time before we get that elusive kill. Keep an eye open for my victory post! ;)

We'll get you yet, Firelord...

IntPiPoMo: Passing on a story

2011-11-07T13:03:00.000-08:00

Angelya of Revive & Rejuvenate has proposed International Picture Posting Month (IntPiPoMo). The goal is to post 50 pictures during November - a picture is worth a thousand words, you know - which can include game screenshots or real-world pictures. Click here to see my other IntPiPoMo posts!

I've got some plans to travel Azeroth and show you pictures of my favourite places. There will be sweeping vistas, stunning views, scintillating sights! For now I'd like to show you all some treasured, unedited shots from my screenshots folder, both old and new.

An Ogre caught dancing in Feralas! Would you believe it?

Passing on the tale, a year later, to a new friend.

Click to embiggen! See you tomorrow for two more.

IntPiPoMo!

2011-11-06T11:29:00.000-08:00

With National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) upon us, a huge amount of people seem to have taken up the challenge. 50,000 words in a month! It's a crazy, brave thing to take on. You can find out more about it here.

Now, I don't deal in words so when Angelya proposed International Picture Posting Month (IntPiPoMo) I confess to a certain amount of relief! This is a challenge that I can tackle. The goal is to post 50 pictures during November - a picture is worth a thousand words, you know - which can include game screenshots or real-world pictures.

Other IntPiPoMo participants so far:

My pictures will likely be from WoW only and will be hosted on scrntag.com. 25 days left, 50 pictures. I make that two per day so let's get started, shall we?

Sunset flight over Wetlands

Deathwing returns to Orsis

Aralosseien, Blessed Defender of Nordrassil

2011-10-12T16:35:00.000-07:00

We did it! My lovely guild spent the night charging foci and doing special fights with me, and now I have the [Branch of Nordrassil]. I wish the title was permanent! There's a little leaf that pulses at the neck too, clearly showing that this is meant for druids first and foremost (no bias, honest).


Click to embiggen!

I'll be writing up my legendary journey so far on Sunday, so that'll be up by next week!

Oh My, Kurenai

2011-10-03T12:04:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, I pick my next achievement grind purely for vanity reasons. I know, I know...you're shocked, right? When I saw Melyanna of The Dreamy Druid on her new White War Talbuk, I was instantly smitten with that mount.

I have killed so many goshdarned ogres. If I never see another ogre, I'll be happy! It was all worth it though, because today I reached Exalted with the Kurenai.

Of course, motivation was easy to find when the Kurenai provide eight new mounts (taking me to 74/100 mounts for Mountain O' Mounts) and another tabard. My completionist tendencies are showing again, aren't they?

If you're looking to reach Exalted with this faction, you'll want to do all quests that grant Kurenai reputation, which total ~15,000 and will save you a few hours of grinding later. There's a handy list of quests here. Pro tip: both the quests and the mobs will give rep right up to Exalted, so don't worry if you already have some Kurenai rep built up.

Start at Orebor Harborage in Zangarmarsh, home to a small group of Kurenai that are strengthening ties with the draenei at Telredor. You start at unfriendly with this faction but they will allow you chances to prove your worth, as part of the Alliance the draenei belong to. Take all the quests that Ikuti gives you, as well as the 'Wanted' poster quest. When you reach neutral, Puluu and Maktu will also have quests for you.

Once you've completed the quests at Orebor Harborage, head to Nagrand and the Kurenai settlement of Telaar. Most of the quests you need to do start here but there are two exceptions. The first starts with a frustrating Kurenai child named Corki who's trapped in a cage at the Burning Blade Ruins. Apparently he doesn't learn anything from this incident - you have to rescue him three times and I guarantee that you'll be tempted to leave him in the cage by the third! The second is an escort quest starting at Sunspring Post. It appears when you reach Honoured and all you have to do is escort the captive to the main road, fending off the usual ambushes.

As you travel around killing ogres and such, you'll be getting small amounts of rep per mob (10-11 depending on your guild perks) and picking up Obsidium Warbeads. There is a repeatable quest to turn in 10 of these warbeads for 500-550 rep! Thank goodness for that. I gave myself a break from ogre-killing by heading back to Telaar every 50 or so to hand them in and see how much closer I got. Mostly I killed ogres at Northwind or Southwind Cleft, doing a loop round the outside ones and then clearing the caves. They'd respawned by the time I finished the circuit and I never had to travel elsewhere to find mobs.

So another reputation at exalted and one step closer to getting 'the Diplomat' as a title. I'm already 2/21k Revered with Sporeggar and 1/12k Honoured with Timbermaw, so I think I'll finish grinding Sporeggar rep soon. It would net me a Tiny Sporebat, another tabard and another alchemy recipe, after all...

Edit: A massive thanks to WoW Insider for linking me! As I don't play Horde*, I completely neglected to mention the Horde equivalent, The Mag'har. A list of their rep-granting quests can be found here. You'd slay ogres for rep and warbeads in the same way (granting the same rep) and they will reward you with exactly the same talbuks! Happy hunting!

*Except the odd blood elf alt. What? They're the prettiest!

Patch 4.3 Achievements (Or, The Darkmoon Timesink)

2011-09-28T11:00:00.000-07:00

Just a quick roundup of the new achievements datamined from the PTR:

Darkmoon Faire
Blastenheimer Bullseye
Come One, Come All!
Darkmoon Defender
Darkmoon Despoiler
Darkmoon Dominator
Darkmoon Duelist
Darkmoon Dungeoneer
Faire Favors
Fairgoer's Feast
I Was Promised a Pony
Quick Shot
Step Right Up
Taking the Show on the Road
The Darkmoon ~~Faire~~ Timesink arrives in patch 4.3 - I wouldn't rule out a meta achievement at this early stage. Call it a hunch but I also think that the cannon achievement will require more skill than luck. Darn it.

Dragon Soul/New 5-mans
Minutes to Midnight
Moon Guard
That's Not Canon!
It's hard to know much about getting these until the NPCs and their abilities get datamined out, or people report from the PTR. I'm hoping to get some PTR time in next week so in the name of SCIENCE I will investigate!

Lunar Festival
Elders of Cataclysm
That's 9 more elders to find! I have my work cut out finishing this meta when January arrives.

Midsummer Fire Festival
Extinguishing the Cataclysm
Extinguishing Northrend
Flame Warden of Cataclysm
Flame Warden of Northrend
All the bonfires could already be found in game (see here for co-ordinates), but didn't have any related achievements this year. Looks like next year I'll be doing them again for the points!

Winter Veil
A-Caroling We Will Go
We get to go caroling? I'm kind of excited, even if my thanks comes in the form of certain death. It looks like the sweater will be our under-the-tree present for 2011 but don't panic, carolers! Winter Veil will run from 15th December right through till 2nd January. Plenty of time to go regale the Horde (or Alliance, if you're so inclined) with our melodious tunes.

Feats of Strength
Gaudy Winter Veil Sweater (2011 Winter Veil Present)
MiniZep Controller (2010 Winter Veil Present)
Red Rider Air Rifle (2009 Winter Veil Present)
Vicious Gladiator (Season 9 Arena Title)
Vicious Gladiator's Twilight Drake (Season 9 Mount)

So there are 215 new achievement points up for grabs. This is just the start of datamining efforts and I expect we'll see a lot more uncovered as the PTR goes on. I'll be keeping this list updated and current as they appear so let me know if I've missed a new one at any point and I'll send you virtual cookies. They're absolutely 100% as tasty as real ones, if not better!

Brewfest Update

2011-09-20T14:33:00.000-07:00

Due to the arduous few weeks spent moving flats (we're done now, thankfully!), work commitments and the arrival of my new nephew, I haven't had time to write a Brewfest guide.

Look at him! There's no way I could get a guide written!

I'm a bit sad that it hasn't happened this year, but there are some great guides out there if you're looking for help:

Brewfest Guide at Wowhead
The Overachiever: Guide to Brewfest at WoW Insider
Brewfest Guide at Icy Veins

Do you know of any other great guides? Drop me a comment below, or catch me via email/Twitter and let me know. If I'm not going to write my own, I can at least round up all the fantastic guides out there for you to read! As always I'm happy to answer any questions I can :)

Frostcake the Death Knight

2011-09-17T11:13:00.000-07:00

I made a Forsaken Death Knight called Frostcake on EU-Draenor (it's a PvE realm) as chosen by Twitter polls a few days ago. Thanks to all of you who voted! She'll be taking up mining and engineering (goggles are awesome) and I'll be asking Twitter to make some levelling decisions for me (potentially risky but more fun). It's about time I stopped making Alliance alts with full heirlooms and ready supplies of gold!

Ready to go!

The Nerfbat Is Not My Biggest Worry

2011-09-14T12:03:00.000-07:00

This week, Blizzard announced that they would be nerfing Tier 12 content soon:

With the final showdown against Deathwing approaching, we’ve been keeping a close eye on players’ progress through the current Firelands raid content. Before patch 4.3 is released, we want groups who are working on Heroic-difficulty content to be able to get as close to Ragnaros as possible, and we want players who are tackling normal progression to be able to experience as many of the encounters as they can. To achieve these goals, we’ll be toning down the difficulty of both normal and Heroic raids through hotfixes in the coming weeks. In general, we plan to reduce health and damage of all raid bosses in both normal and Heroic Firelands by around the same percentage we brought difficulty down for the original Cataclysm raids when Rage of the Firelands (patch 4.2) was released.
We’re looking forward to seeing more groups of players face off against the firelord in the weeks ahead. However, before we make these changes, we want to give everyone a final shot at the bosses at their current difficulty level — so this is a heads up that we’re planning to apply the difficulty hotfixes beginning the week of September 19.
Stay tuned to the Patch 4.2 Hotfixes blog for these and other live updates to the game as they happen.

Surprisingly (to me as well) this really got my back up. So humour me while I try to get my thoughts out in a coherent way.

My guild started raiding during this expansion. We've always been late to start - Tier 11 in May, Tier 12 in July - but we've not regretted that for a moment. Raid nights are a social thing, a chance to do our best and down some bosses in the hopes of seeing all the content. We finished Tier 11 while progression guilds were starting Firelands but for each of the 5 bosses we downed post-nerf, we felt we could have cleared them without nerfs if we'd started sooner and had more time.

For Tier 12 we started late again as we were still finishing Tier 11, trying to get people head and shoulder tokens to gear up for Firelands. Our guild is 4/7 now, our last kill being Baleroc. That fight was beyond us the week before but we chained Zulroics, got whatever extra gear we could, fiddled with reforging and even made the leap to getting potions for everyone to pre-pot. Lower those eyebrows, progression raiders! Pre-potting was never necessary before! The next time we went to Baleroc we got him down. It took all of us to collectively push the limits of our gear and skill to get it but I honestly believe it was the best kill we've ever made. As a raid team we're starting to believe that we have what it takes to clear full, current raids and it's a great feeling.

None of us had foreseen nerfs while the content was still current though. We were sure that we could get to Ragnaros and kick his ass before Tier 13 hit. We have the dedication, skill, and patience but we just need a few more weeks of gear upgrades. Unless we get Alysrazor this week, we're left with the knowledge that those last three bosses will be post-nerf. I'm 100% sure that we could do it pre-nerf, if we had the rest of this tier to do it. Now we may never know.

Only Blizzard know how these hotfixes will be implemented. There's no clear statement to go on, only small clues:

"through hotfixes in the coming weeks"

which suggest a gradual change.

There's another option, in that case - one that doesn't involve nerfing bosses. Jasyla's post over at Cannot Be Tamed was a timely reminder that a previous method of making the raid content more accessible was introduced for Tier 10, the Icecrown Citadel raid. A 5% buff to player health, healing done and damage done was applied on March 2nd 2010, ramping up in 5% increments, with the final 30% buff coming into force on July 20th 2010. Admittedly, it's not likely that we have 5 months before 4.3 in which to mimic that idea but I honestly feel that this is a better solution than nerfing the bosses themselves. As Kurn says:

"...in a buff situation like the ICC buff, the onus is on the players to step it up"

I would prefer that. To kill the same boss as everyone else but to do it with a slight boost? Nothing wrong with that at all. It still requires you to have the skill and put the effort in. The element I like most about this method is that it would be optional. If you wanted to do the raid at full difficulty, you would simply turn it off. This solution seems perfect to me - a buff for players who were struggling (or had been too daunted to get started) and an option to do it a harder way for those who wanted to.

The biggest part of the nerf issue this expansion (in my humble opinion) is the lack of options. There's no way to do it un-nerfed if you wish to. You're forced to take those nerfs that you might not need and finish current content without knowing how far you could have got unaided. I don't understand why they opted for boss nerfs instead of players buffs during Cataclysm but it's highly likely I'm missing something, as I wasn't raiding back in Wrath. I do think that the lack of choice is really, really frustrating to a large group of the playerbase though, in a time when many of them have been playing for a number of years. At a time when other MMOs (I'm looking at you, Rift) are on the market and WoW isn't the only option of its genre anymore.

I understand accessibility, and I think it's great that people get to see content. At the same time I don't feel that this should come at the expense of those people who are already capable of seeing content as it is. Is it right to make it more fun for one group but less fun for another? I don't think it is. If Blizzard's goal is to get more people to Ragnaros is it really so crucial that this is done before the new raid even arrives? I don't think it is.

I'm a newer player, and no changes or nerfs to the game have ever made me think of quitting. The nerfs are not my main worry, although you'd be forgiven for thinking that if you've got this far. I read a lot of blogs, and the frustration, bewilderment and resentment radiates from posts by people who care a lot about this game. It seems that Blizzard is making unpopular decisions lately and it's hard to keep believing that they're for any other reason than keeping those subscriber numbers high.

I worry, because many of these recent decisions meant to increase accessibility are pushing away long-term players who bring a lot to the game and its community. These are the people I want to play this game with. This is the community I am happy to be making myself known in. As Oestrus said recently:

"We are losing people... We’re saying goodbye to friendships and memories and ties that we have formed with one another. It’s more than just lost revenue and subscription numbers... These people have names and they have made contributions to the game and to the community."

If change after change drives these people away, people that write guides, theorycraft, share their advice and speak out for their class, the whole game will be poorer for it. Blizzard needs to find a way to improve the accessibility of content without taking some of the fun away for others and it needs to think about this sooner rather than later.

Brewfest Guide in the works!

2011-09-14T05:16:00.000-07:00

Just a quick snippet of an update. I am planning to put together a Brewfest Guide for this year! It'll probably be this weekend once I've finished moving house. If you want a run-through of how to complete this meta (interspersed with my inner monologue) then check back in a few days!

Hunt for Tier Gear: Week 3

2011-09-12T10:58:00.000-07:00

Ok, so doing a post per tier, per week? A silly idea. One of you could have said something...honestly! *tuts* idea scrapped! I think a weekly ramble about what I've looted is quite enough.

This afternoon I went with two guildies, shaman and priest, to vanquish bosses in Blackwing Lair & Molten Core. Not a single drop for me! I won a couple of nice-looking cloaks though, and there was also a quest to hand Nefarian's head in to Varian Wrynn. He seemed happy to take it, but the cleaning bill for my bag will be ridiculous.

Interesting note. That yell that goes out across Stormwind all the time, about mighty allies and defeating Nefarian? Turns out it's for that old quest in Blackwing Lair...not for defeating heroic mode T11 Nefarian like I thought...

Yep, I'm a noobcake.

We popped over to Outland too and ran Gruul & Magtheridon's Lairs. Karma was on my side after the lack of druid drops earlier, because I won a shoulder token. Which means...

Tier 4, baby! I like it even more now I've seen it in the flesh. There's a good chance I'll be transmogrifying to this set and some matching items when 4.3 hits.

Hunt for Tier Gear: Tier 4, Week 1

2011-09-05T02:19:00.000-07:00

Tier 4 tokens drop from three different raids:
Head: Prince Malchezaar, Karazhan
Shoulders: Maulgar, Gruul's Lair
Chest: Magtheridon, Magtheridon's Lair
Hands: The Curator, Karazhan
Legs: Gruul, Gruul's Lair

The Tier 4 druid set for balance is the Malorne Regalia:

Courtesy of Wowpedia

I like the pale colours of this set, and the blue on the shoulders. It's a little unusual as druid tier sets go!

Last week one of my guildies put out a call in gchat for people to run Karazhan and for once, I wasn't busy. A chance at two Tier 4 tokens? Sign me up! I've also wanted to see inside Karazhan for ages because everyone who played in TBC times (no exceptions) absolutely raves about that raid. We did it with three of us - balance druid, blood DK and resto shaman. The chess event was an education for a first-timer like me! It's a beautiful place and I can imagine some fights were great fun back in the day.

Tier 4 tokens drop from three different raids:
Head: Prince Malchezaar, Karazhan
Shoulders: Maulgar, Gruul's Lair
Chest: Magtheridon, Magtheridon's Lair
Hands: The Curator, Karazhan
Legs: Gruul, Gruul's Lair

I was lucky enough to get both the tier tokens from Karazhan, as there's no Tier 4 for Death Knights! I figured that since we were on a roll, we'd go and do Gruul's Lair too. For that we had four of us - balance druid, resto shaman, unholy DK and shadow priest. I missed out on the shoulder token but won the leg token there. At that point, 3 pieces out of 5 felt pretty good! I persuaded the DK and priest to join me in Magtheridon's Lair, where I proceeded to pull a complete Leeroy and trap our priest outside the room...

/facepalm

Watching a DK solo Magtheridon slowly down through 3M HP was a hilarious experience, but I'll be waiting until we're all ready next time! Our priest scored a really pretty staff and passed the chest token to me in return, so that was 4 pieces out of 5 in a couple of hours. I'll be heading back to Gruul's Lair this week to try and pick up that shoulder token - it would be my first complete Tier set from the days of yore :D

Guys, go hunting for this older gear if you like the look of it. It's not hard to get your hands on and there are plenty of laughs to be had if you take some friends! Have you been back to any of the Tier 4 raids yet?

Hunt for Tier Gear: Tier 1, Week 2

2011-08-29T14:55:00.000-07:00

We frolicked through Molten Core again this week and I was lucky enough to pick up the Tier 1 hands and legs for my druid! 2 pieces down, 6 to go. I also managed to keep my pocket warrior happy with another two pieces of his Tier 1 set. Clicky on this link to see the full list of what dropped for us this week. We've decided to stockpile the materials that we're looting in an alt bank so that we can craft older epics for ourselves or guildmates once 4.3 hits - there is some great-looking craftable gear which still needs these older components.

Have you been running Molten Core at all, or any of the older raid content? Have you had any luck with drops yet? Let me know below!

Leeeeeeeeeeeeeroy! Or, How I Handled Many Whelps

2011-08-25T12:17:00.000-07:00

I was frolicking through UBRS the other day, attuning myself to the Orb of Command so I could get into Blackwing Lair quicker to farm my Tier 2 pieces. (Pro tip: attuning yourself and then trying to get friends in via Have Group, Will Travel does not work. It looks like you all have to be attuned to use the Orb. Can anyone confirm/deny this?)

Of course, I found myself in The Rookery and just couldn't resist the lure of a new title! My memory is clouded by the haze of recklessness that descended, but I believe it went roughly like this:

Kill patrols. Go Bear Form, trample all the eggs. Realise that there are many, many whelps. Panic slightly. Shift into Moonkin form, hit Barkskin, Starfall + Hurricane. Flail wildly at the many whelps that aren't dead. Drink a health potion, Hurricane and cross fingers. Get achievement! Breathe large sigh of relief.

Did you pick up this title on purpose, or did you stumble into doing it accidentally like I did?

Hunt for Tier Gear: Tier 1

2011-08-20T12:33:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the first installment of 'Hunt for Tier Gear'! I had this idea a few days before the patch 4.3 announcements, after picking up T11 shoulders for my druid (finally!) and the T11 helm for my paladin. Getting these highly visible bits of tier gear was immensely satisfying - I felt like I had something to show for my efforts that couldn't be bought with VPs. I started looking up old druid tier sets and put together a plan of action to farm them, from Tier 1 right through to Tier 10. Such a big list, with so many notes - heaven!

The patch 4.3 news and the announcement of Transmogrification, accompanied by 80 slots of Void Storage, put an end to any restraining concerns of space and also gave me a good kick up the behind to get started.

Each 'Hunt' I start will be updated when I run the relevant content but there will links on the 'Gear Hunt' page at the top of the blog. I'd like to give other gear-hunters an idea of how long it might take because this is new ground for me, and doubtless will be for other people who started playing in WotLK or Cataclysm. I'll list the tier items that dropped each week and there'll also be a running total of materials which dropped for me - you could either hoard these for crafting professions (as I will) or sell them to fund your fashion needs!

Let's begin the Hunt for Tier 1! The Cenarion Raiment isn't widely adored by players, but I really like it. All the pieces drop in Molten Core - the belt and bracers as BoE from any mob, the rest from bosses. Ragnaros drops Tier 2 legs, but no Tier 1 pieces. Whilst running Molten Core, you gain Hydraxian Waterlords reputation (trash rep from Neutral to Revered, boss rep from Neutral to Exalted).

There are also two (yes, two!) legendary weapons connected to Molten Core:

[Sulfuras, Hand of Ragnaros]
[Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker]

I'll be writing mini guides on how to obtain these soon.

Week 1 rundown:

Molten Core is ridiculously easy to clear. I think any class is capable of soloing it now but for fun I got my partner to bring his warrior. If you've never been to Molten Core, Ragnaros is still pretty imposing! He managed to kill my meatshield warrior with a huge knockback and the resulting fall damage, so if you eat a Hand of Ragnaros you might have a corpse run on your hands.
No druid tier gear dropped this week, but the warrior tier pieces have bought me company for future runs!

Materials looted in Molten Core after 2 weeks:

[Elemental Fire] x 56
[Elemental Earth] x3
[Heart of Fire] x 37
[Core of Earth] x 16
[Essence of Fire] x 36
[Essence of Earth] x 12
[Blood of the Mountain] x 1
[Lava Core] x 19
[Fiery Core] x 14

Week 1 drops:

Hunter - wrists, gloves, legs, feet
Mage - shoulders
Paladin - head, chest, wrists
Priest - chest, hands
Rogue - legs, legs (Tier 2)
Shaman - legs (Tier 2)
Warrior - shoulders, hands

Week 2 drops:

Druid - hands, legs
Mage - shoulders
Paladin - hands
Priest - shoulders, chest, bracers, feet
Rogue - legs
Shaman - feet
Warlock - legs (Tier 2)
Warrior - chest, legs

Plans!

2011-08-18T13:45:00.000-07:00

By now, you've all heard about patch 4.3 and the new features it's adding to the game. A raid with Deathwing in and some new 5-mans - no more trollroics? YES! - is definitely exciting. Personally, the thing I'm most excited about is Transmogrification - the ability to give your existing gear the outward appearance of other gear you own, as long as it's the same armor class or weapon type. This heralds an end to uniform appearance at certain levels and will allow those of us who like the look of older/lower-level gear to customise our outfits! The addition of Void Storage, 80 slots of extra non-bank space for your armor and weapons, is the icing on the cake.

You might think I'd be quite bitter about this, as I spend most of my active time in giant laser chicken form. I won't deny that it took a little of the sparkle out of the news, but I spend all my downtime out of form. Seriously, the moment my UI reloads after a hearth? POOF, night elf again. So you won't find me kvetching about the change.

What you will find soon is the first post in my 'Hunt for Tier Gear' series. I'm planning to make my way through old content, starting right back in Molten Core and collecting as many of the old druid tier sets as I can. I'll be detailing which pieces make up each tier along with where they drop or where to buy them from. For those of you who multi-task on everything in WoW (we are many, and I salute you) I'll also note if there is a reputation you can grind at the same time, any achievements you could pick up and details of the legendaries you could obtain!

First up will be Tier 1, which drops from bosses in Molten Core. It's certainly a quicker way to see Ragnaros nowadays!

Midsummer Fire Festival 2011

2011-06-19T08:51:00.000-07:00

A fiery halo! That makes the whole festival worth it, in my book.

There hasn’t been a post on this blog for a while now. I will apologise for the break – I’ve been powerlevelling a holy paladin for my guild and after some drama we’re back into raiding, so time has been shorter lately. The good news is that the paladin is 85 & gearing up, and we’re 7/12 in three weeks!

So the sun is out, the shops are full of summer goods and I’m drinking way too much lemonade. More importantly, the Midsummer Fire Festival is starting on 21^st June and I’m getting fired up for the bonfire bonanza! In case it’ll help you get one meta closer to What a Long, Strange Trip It’s Been, here’s my guide. I’ll be updating everything as I do it, although I’m going to Glastonbury this year so I’ll have to work super hard to complete this when I get back!

Achievements needed for the meta:

[Burning Blossoms needed for achievements: 405-435 (see below)]

The Fires of Azeroth and Desecration of the Alliance/Horde

Update: I used the 2011 Wowhead guide co-ordinates to get me started, so the location credit goes to them. However, ~6 were wrong where updates are still being made to their data, so these co-ordinates are ones I've visited and double-checked myself! My route is from an Alliance perspective so may not be as convenient for Horde players - sorry!

Eastern Kingdoms:

Zone	A/H/N	Location	Co-ordinates
The Cape of Stranglethorn	A	East of Booty Bay	51, 67
The Cape of Stranglethorn	H	East of Booty Bay	50, 70
Northern Stranglethorn	A	Fort Livingston	51, 63
Northern Stranglethorn	H	Grom’gol Base Camp	40, 51
Westfall	A	Moonbrook	45, 62
Duskwood	A	Darkshire	73, 55
Blasted Lands	A	Nethergarde Keep	55, 15
Blasted Lands	H	Dreadmaul Hold	46, 14
Swamp of Sorrows	A	Bogpaddle	70, 14
Swamp of Sorrows	H	Bogpaddle	76, 14
Redridge Mountains	A	Lakeshire	24, 53
Burning Steppes	A	Morgan’s Vigil	68, 60
Burning Steppes	H	Flame Crest	51, 29
Badlands	A	Dragon’s Mouth	19, 56
Badlands	H	New Kargath	24, 37
Loch Modan	A	Thelsamar	32, 40
Dun Morogh	A	Kharanos	54, 45
Wetlands	A	Menethil Harbor	13, 47
Twilight Highlands	A	Thundermar	47, 28
Twilight Highlands	H	Bloodgulch	53, 46
Arathi Highlands	A	Refuge Pointe	44, 46
Arathi Highlands	H	Hammerfall	69, 42
Hinterlands	H	Revantusk Village	76, 74
Hinterlands	A	Aerie Peak	14, 50
Hillsbrad Foothills	H	Tarren Mill	55, 50
The Sepulcher	H	Silverpine Forest	50, 39
Tirisfal Glades	H	The Undercity	68, 9
Tirisfal Glades	H	Brill	57, 52
Western Plaguelands	A	Chillwind Camp	43, 82
Ghostlands	H	Tranquilien	46, 26
Eversong Woods	H	North Sanctum	46, 50
Eversong Woods	H	Silvermoon City (Court of the Sun)	70, 43

Kalimdor:

Zone	A/H/N	Location	Co-ordinates
Bloodmyst Isle	A	Blood Watch	55, 69
Azuremyst Isle	A	Azure Watch	44, 53
Teldrassil	A	Dolanaar	55, 53
Darkshore	A	Lor’danel	49, 23
Winterspring	A	Everlook	61, 47
Winterspring	H	Everlook	58, 47
Mount Hyjal	N	Nordrassil	63, 23
Azshara	H	Bilgewater Harbor	60, 53
Durotar	H	Orgrimmar (Valley of Wisdom)	47, 38
Durotar	H	Razor Hill	52, 47
Northern Barrens	H	The Crossroads	50, 55
Ashenvale	H	Silverwind Refuge	51, 66
Ashenvale	A	Forest Song	87, 42
Stonetalon Mountains	A	Mirkfallon Lake	49, 51
Stonetalon Mountains	H	Sun Rock Retreat	53, 62
Desolace	A	Nijel’s Point	65, 17
Desolace	H	Shadowprey Village	26, 76
Mulgore	H	Thunder Bluff (Spirit Rise)	21, 26
Mulgore	H	Bloodhoof Village	52, 59
Feralas	H	Camp Mojache	72, 47
Feralas	A	Feathermoon Stronghold	47, 44
Southern Barrens	A	Fort Triumph	48, 72
Southern Barrens	H	Desolation Hold	41, 68
Dustwallow Marsh	H	Brackenwell Village	33, 30
Dustwallow Marsh	A	Theramore Isle	62, 40
Tanaris	A	Gadgetzan	52, 29
Tanaris	H	Gadgetzan	49, 27
Un’Goro Crater	A	Marshal’s Stand	60, 63
Un’Goro Crater	H	Marshal’s Stand	56, 66
Silithus	A	Cenarion Hold	60, 33
Silithus	H	Cenarion Hold	51, 41

Outland:

Zone	A/H/N	Location	Co-ordinates
Hellfire Peninsula	H	Thrallmar	57, 41
Hellfire Peninsula	A	Honor Hold	62, 58
Shadowmoon Valley	A	Wildhammer Stronghold	40, 55
Shadowmoon Valley	H	Shadowmoon Village	33, 30
Terokkar Forest	A	Allerian Stronghold	55, 55
Terokkar Forest	H	Stonebreaker Hold	52, 43
Nagrand	A	Telaar	50, 70
Nagrand	H	Garadar	51, 34
Zangarmarsh	H	Zabra’jin	36, 52
Zangarmarsh	A	Telredor	69, 52
Blade’s Edge Mountains	A	Sylvanaar	42, 66
Blade’s Edge Mountains	H	Thunderlord Stronghold	50, 59
Netherstorm	A	Area 52	31, 63
Netherstorm	H	Area 52	32, 68

There are 3 new Earthen Ring bonfires which are neutral and award 15 Burning Blossoms. One is in Mount Hyjal and is part of the Eastern Kingdoms route above. The other two are in:
Vashj'ir, Silver Tide Hollow (49, 42)
Deepholm, Temple of Earth (49, 51)

I've found some bonfires in my travels that aren't part of the achievements but will still give the same rewards. These were in:
Elwynn Forest, Goldshire
Tirisfal Glades, The Bulwark
Uldum, Ramkahen (one for each faction)

There may be others! Let me know if you find any.

Northrend: These aren’t part of any achievements but will get you extra experience/gold/blossoms.

Zone	A/H/N	Location	Co-ordinates
Borean Tundra	A	Fizzcrank Airstrip	55, 20
Borean Tundra	H	Bor'gorok Outpost	51, 12
Sholazar Basin	A	River's Heart	47, 66
Sholazar Basin	H	River's Heart	47, 62
Dragonblight	H	Agmar's Hammer	39, 48
Dragonblight	A	Wintergarde Keep	75, 44
Crystalsong Forest	A	Windrunner's Overlook	78, 75
Crystalsong Forest	H	Sunreaver's Command	80, 53
The Storm Peaks	A	K3	42, 87
The Storm Peaks	H	K3	40, 86
Zul'Drak	A	The Argent Stand	41, 61
Zul'Drak	H	The Argent Stand	43, 71
Grizzly Hills	A	Amberpine Lodge	34, 61
Grizzly Hills	H	Conquest Hold	19, 61
Howling Fjord	A	Fort Wildervar	58, 16
Howling Fjord	H	Camp Winterhoof	48, 13

Ice the Frost Lord

You will need to be 84+ to queue for this holiday boss via the LFD finder. The first time you defeat Ahune each day you will get a Satchel of Chilled Goods, which will reward a guaranteed 24 justice points and a chance at:

Frostscythe of Lord Ahune

Ice Chip (gives you Frigid Frostling)
Some Burning Blossoms

There are 5 cloaks that could also drop. These have been upgraded to ilvl 353 (equivalent to epics from Zul’Aman/Zul’Gurub):

Cloak of the Frigid Winds

Icebound Cloak

Shroud of Winter’s Chill

The Frost Lord’s Battle Shroud

The Frost Lord’s War Cloak

Currently there’s nothing to suggest that these couldn’t drop too:

Formula: Enchant Weapon – Deathfrost

Lord of Frost’s Private Label

The first time you defeat this boss you should receive Shard of Ahune, which starts a quest rewarding one of two tabards. It seems that players who completed this quest before 2009 will not see this item drop, but you can restore the tabard at a tabard vendor if you’ve deleted it (these can be found in the Visitor’s Centre of most cities).
CONFIRMED: It is possible to choose one tabard, equip it, delete it and then restore the other option at the tabard NPC. Once you have equipped that, both will count towards the 25 Tabards achievement! I have just done this successfully :D so delete with an easy mind!

King of the Fire Festival

You get this achievement by completing the quest A Thief’s Reward. This involves (you already guessed this was coming, I’m sure) going into each of the 4 enemy capitals and stealing their flames. I know you’re too awesome to be put off by that though. Old World Flying will make this much easier than in previous years so find their fire, fly straight down and steal the flames.

You might die, it's true, but as long as you take their precious flames, it matters not! If you do I'd advise taking the rez sickness, going to find yourself some pie to eat and doing the next one later. I’ll probably do mine early in the morning (6-7am) before work. Pie is a valid breakfast food too, you know.

Burning Hot Pole Dance [requires 400 Burning Blossoms]

For this achievement you need the completed Midsummer Set. This will set you back 400 Burning Blossoms, so get honouring/desecrating those fires! Luckily you’ll be doing that anyway if you want the holiday meta. The good news is that you can collect ~800 blossoms during the holiday so it’ll definitely be possible to buy all 3 parts. Equip them and dance round a ribbon pole for 60 seconds. Voila!

Torch Juggler [requires 5-35 Burning Blossoms]

Juggle 40 torches in Dalaran. Sounds simple…but you have to complete the Torch Tossing and Torch Catching quests first.

The most sensible-sounding tip I’ve found is to set your camera distance to maximum (type /console cameraDistanceMax 50 into your chat window) and point it downwards in ‘never adjust’ mode. Follow the shadow and be underneath it when it lands. This is really hard, and took me a lot of tries (plus some generous cussing). The first torch will always go straight behind you and quite a few yards, but torches 2-4 won't go far - the trick is spotting which way they go and getting there in time!

If you're stuck on this, I'd recommend Rades' awesome guide to catching torches!

So, you've done the quests and you’re ready to go! A little bit of research on the interwebs has turned up the following strategy for this achievement:

Find a minimal-lag spot in Dalaran. Point the camera straight down, zoomed out. Bind the torches to a hotkey and target the ground under your feet. You should be able to alternate hotkey-click-hotkey-click, catching each torch as it lands.

UPDATE: Use the Purple Parlor! I never got below 11 torches out of 20 in my bags, so try everything with 10 first. This is down to lag, ultimately. I found that consciously alternating key-click-key-click made the process too slow. In the end, I just hit hotkey and clicked at the same time, as fast as possible! So try that first, ok? Because you don't want the air at your desk to be as blue as mine was before I thought of doing that...
They reappear in your bags when caught so many report doing this with as few as 10 torches and I think that would be possible. You earn 5 by doing the Torch Catching quest and stacks of 5 torches can be bought for 5 Burning Blossoms. ~~Don't forget that you should have 20 from the Shards of Ahune quest too!~~ (These didn't drop for me - let me know if they did for you). Alternatively you can buy them on the AH as they don’t become soulbound. Let me know how many you needed to do it! ~~I suspect I'll need the full 40 ^.^~~ (thankfully not!)

That's it! Hopefully you found something helpful in here if you were working towards any of this meta. As always, corrections/suggestions/general comments are welcome and will be edited in as soon as I can!

Good luck!

Ara

WoW Blogging Challenge Day 07 - The reason behind your blog's name

2011-06-12T06:27:00.000-07:00

This post is part of the WoW Blogging Challenge! Originally inspired by Saga at Spellbound. Reposted after the great Blogger post-swallowing event.

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While I do wish there was a thrilling tale behind the name of my blog...there isn't. I know, I heard the /gasps from here!

I decided the word 'achievements' had to be in there somewhere, mainly so that people didn't get lost/confused and mistake me for a genuine class-related source of information.*

Then it was a choice: 'Achievements (insert word)' or '(insert word) achievements'? Yep, that's the limit of my creativity when it comes to names. It seemed snappier to keep it to two words in my defence!

I tend to append 'ahoy!' to words as a statement of fact or intent when I'm in a good mood...so that solved the problem really. I'm never in a bad mood when I'm hunting achievements (note that 'bad' is completely different from 'frustrated' in this context) and so it was decided:

Achievements Ahoy!

Happily I've not thought of changing it once - I think it's a keeper. Was yours a spur of the moment choice or a carefully brainstormed process?

*Never expect that from this blog! Try the ones on my blogroll ;)

Last challenge - Your workplace/desk
Next challenge - 10 things we don't know about you

WoW Blogging Challenge Day 06 - Your workplace/desk

2011-05-09T11:49:00.000-07:00

This post is part of the WoW Blogging Challenge! Originally inspired by Saga at Spellbound.

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My desk is where I spend nearly all of my spare time at home. It's the first time I've had a proper office room with a desk in it! Although I have to share the room, the desk is MINE. A few weeks ago it was transformed - there was a shaft of golden light and the faint sound of choirs singing - by the addition of a new widescreen monitor. No more too-close-to-the-laptop-screen headaches for me!

I bought the fan when I went to Japan a couple of years back, and Kitty is the closest I'll ever get to having a cat (allergies, bah). There's actually a whiteboard behind the screen and it normally has a tally of WoW currencies or an important reminder of some kind on it. It's also magnetic!

My laptop won't get replaced with a desktop setup for a year or so but the monitor, keyboard and mouse provide a close substitute and it really has stopped the aforementioned headaches. I'd be lying if I said I got the monitor just for health reasons alone though - I can finally have both a functional UI and screen space when playing WoW!

Eagle-eyed readers may have spotted which molecule I have featured up top there. A clue: it's closely linked to that can of beverage lurking near my mousepad (other brands available but not preferred). It's unusual not to see a mug of coffee here too! It seems I'm by no means alone in my caffeine-loving ways in this community, so I hope you won't judge me too harshly for that ;)

Last Challenge post - Your favourite items in game
Next Challenge post - The reason behind your blog's name

Children's Week 2011

2011-05-02T12:56:00.000-07:00

I haven't written a guide for this as I didn't attempt any of this meta last year. Instead I'd like to link you to some resources I found helpful:

WoW Insider - The Overachiever: Guide to Children's Week 2011 has all you need to know about where to obtain the items you'll need and how to complete each achievement.

Cynwise's Battlefield Manual - Cynwise has posted an excellent guide and tips regarding the School of Hard Knocks achievement. I rapidly discovered why this achievement is so widely loathed and this was a very useful resource!

I started working on this meta at 8pm yesterday and I finished it at 8pm today. Check out the above resources if you're stuck on anything and keep trying! It'll require a hefty amount of perseverance and a thick skin in battlegrounds (if you're in the Vindication (EU) battlegroup, you have my sympathy).

Good luck and remember: we're doing it for the kids.

P.S. I got myself two pets out of this holiday: Sleepy Willy and Scooter the Snail. Bonus! That takes my pet count up to 64/75. Getting there!

Noblegarden 2011

2011-04-24T12:00:00.000-07:00

Noblegarden is upon us so I'd like to offer up some tips and advice from my experiences so far! If you know nothing about Noblegarden yet, read this fantastic guide over at WoW Insider first, which is how I got started.

Azure Watch is the quietest place to work on this (on my server at least). As it's a circular settlement on a hill it seems that eggs will spawn no further out than the back of the buildings, which makes your hunting easier.
Do not camp the egg spawn locations! I promise that it will be much slower this way - I've tried both camping and constant movement today and if you keep moving you will find more eggs.
Vary your route. This is especially important if there's a quiet patch with few people hunting as the eggs must be collected before they can respawn in new locations.
The speed boost from the Egg Basket is not always your friend. I watched people whizz around like bunnies on speed, missing eggs that were right in front of them.
Empty your bags beforehand! Keep an eye on free slots too. It's extremely annoying to run out of bag slots and watch someone else grab that egg.
Lastly, don't take 'egg thieving' seriously. It's every rabbit for themselves and there are plenty of eggs to go round.

If you haven't hunted for eggs in Azure Watch before, here are some visual clues to where you might find them (click to see larger):

There are 10 achievements to get during Noblegarden, but you only need to complete 8 to get the Noble Gardener meta and title. Completing those 8 will require items that can be bought from the Noblegarden vendors in each town, but you shouldn't run off and buy them as soon as you can.

Here's a list of the items you need to acquire:
Noblegarden Egg (5 chocolates)
Blossoming Branch (10 chocolates)
White Tuxedo Shirt and Black Tuxedo Pants (25 chocolates each)
Spring Robes (50 chocolates)
Spring Flowers (50 chocolates)
Spring Rabbit's Foot (100 chocolates)
Sounds pretty daunting - if you bought all of them, you'd need to gather a total of 265 chocolates plus another 100 chocolates for the Chocoholic achievement. 365 chocolates!

Here's what dropped for me while I was working towards that total:
5 Blossoming Branches
3 White Tuxedo Shirts
Black Tuxedo Pants
Spring Robes
2 Spring Flowers
3 Spring Rabbit's Feet
The first thing I bought was the Spring Rabbit's Foot, for 100 chocolates, which dropped about 10 eggs later. 100 chocolates could have been used for the Chocoholic achievement so I then had to gather 100 more. Once I'd learnt that lesson, I only had to spend 5 chocolates on a Noblegarden Egg to hide in Stormwind.

My advice is to keep a running total of how many chocolates you need. Some of the items will drop while you hunt, at which point you can subtract their price from the total you still need.

Lastly, here are some tips for completing the various achievements:

You'll have to team up with a friend to complete the Hard Boiled achievement, as it requires someone else turning you into a rabbit using a Blossoming Branch, preferably near the Golakka Hot Springs in Un'Goro Crater or it's a long hop there! If none of your friends or guildies can help there will likely be some other people there that could if you ask.
If you're feeling especially nice yourself, travel around in the Elegant Dress (drops from the eggs or can be bought for 50 chocolates). This will allow people with the shirt and pants to get their Blushing Bride achievement with a minimum of hassle - a lovely way to spread some Noblegarden spirit. Of course, you'll end up covered in kisses...
The dress, shirt and pants all remain tradeable when equipped. Try and find a friend or guildmate who has the dress and/or suit, and borrow them. You can swap outfits to get the achievement for both of you! I'm a big fan of how this makes the achievement easier whilst still allowing you to keep the snazzy clothes for a bank alt or just chilling out-of-combat.
Try and combine Spring Fling with Shake Your Bunny-Maker. The 5-minute cooldown on Spring Flowers should wear off as your travel between towns, and you should be able to complete most races in your faction this way.
Speaking of Shake Your Bunny-Maker, finding females of the other faction can be hard. When I was looking the advice from various quarters was to lurk over/outside the other faction capital, their Tol Barad camp, raid portals and busy quest hubs. In the end, I dive-bombed into Orgrimmar to catch two, found two at Razor Hill, and two outside Orgrimmar gates. (Hordies, I'd recommend trying Stormwind and Goldshire). This is the hardest part of the meta in my opinion and if you have any great ideas I'd love to hear them!

That's all the information I have for you :D please drop anything I've missed, got wrong, or could add in the comments - I'll edit it in with full credit/linkage. Happy Noblegarden!

WoW Blogging Challenge Day 05 - Favourite item(s) in game

2011-04-22T16:14:00.000-07:00

This post is part of the WoW Blogging Challenge! Originally inspired by Saga at Spellbound.

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Today is the first day of 11.5 days off work for me, which means I have a lot more time for blogging. I won't lie - there won't be a sudden influx of posts (scheduled posting is not how I roll) but I will endeavour to get on with this challenge.

By nature I'm a hoarder. Naturally it extends into WoW as well, leaving me with bags full of items I don't need/use but refuse to delete. That doesn't automatically grant them 'favourite items' status though, so in the name of honest and transparent blogging I've logged on and had a good hard look at what my favourite items really are:

Bone Fishing Pole and Weather-Beaten Fishing Hat
I'd been doing the fishing dailies for so long that I'd given up on getting these items. After a few weeks not doing them, I decided that sulking about it was a silly reason to lose my guild that exp. The first day I went back to them I got the fishing pole and the very next day I got the hat. Chance is a fickle mistress.

Titanium Seal of Dalaran
My fondest memory of wasting time within the game is fishing in the Dalaran fountain for coins. If the lore (at times sad, at time hilarious) on the coins wasn't enough, there were three achievements to get and this nifty coin. Granted it does nothing but trigger an emote, but that's not why I chase these things! It's a good reminder that perseverance will get me far in this game.

Sea Turtle
Fishing for Glacial Salmon in Northrend, minding my own business...BAM. Fished up the Sea Turtle. I squealed and did a little dance, guildmates were jealous and I got whispers in Dalaran about it. My first ever 'look at me' item and I'd be telling a big fat lie if I said I wasn't chuffed to bits with it. The noise and animation when you jump whilst mounted are adorable too.

Fossilized Hatchling
Proof that Archaeology would drop nice things for me! The noise it makes when you click on it is beyond cute. Now, if only I had the Fossilized Raptor to match...

Singing Sunflower
Those quests were hard, ok?! It took me quite a few tries to get the lovely sunflower and it's a very fitting pet for Aralosseien.

Tranquil Mechanical Yeti
Just because it's a yeti. And yetis are awesome.

Now, if you'll excuse me, me and my Sea Turtle are off on a tour of Stormwind.

Last Challenge post - Your best WoW memory
Next Challenge post - Your workplace/desk

Leading the Cavalry

2011-04-20T06:21:00.000-07:00

This post is brought to you by sunshine and delicious cheesecake.

A few of you may have read my recent posts on deciding which achievement to aim for next, and the decision I made. Well, I have some good news:

I hit that 50 mount total last night and finally got Leading the Cavalry, complete with Reins of the Albino Drake! Not one to do things inefficiently the 50th mount I acquired was the Armored Brown Bear...which comes with its own achievement.

The next achievement I'm going to pick up is a small 10-pointer called Well Read. I'm having a bit of a bookworm phase at the moment so it strikes a chord! Despite not being a flashy achievement it'll take a fair bit of travel and searching to find and read them all, so I'll be posting a guide to their locations (with tips on reaching them if needed) once I've completed it.

What are you working towards lately?

Ambassador Aralosseien

2011-04-15T09:18:00.000-07:00

Although it's not a hard achievement to get now that Blizzard have added city faction tabards, I'm still proud to say that I got Ambassador of the Alliance mid-heroic last night and the title 'Ambassador'. There was no sudden urge to spoil anyone with Ferrero Rocher, much to my tank's dismay :D

Lately I've been working my way through the new city tabards while we run heroics. I seriously recommend you do the same for any city factions you haven't hit exalted with yet, especially if you only need to get from revered to exalted. Collect the tabards you need from the city quartermasters located next to/near the flight points. They also sell cloaks which incorporate the city colours and coat of arms - these look great as part of a non-combat/RP outfit.

It goes without saying that you should always have a tabard equipped if you're running dungeons as you level!

As an added bonus for those efficient achievement hunters, each reputation will count towards achievements like 25 Exalted Reputations (my next milestone) or maybe 50 Exalted Reputations (a lot of respect to anyone who's aiming for that one).

Happy tabarding!

WoW Blogging Challenge, Day 04 - Your best WoW memory

2011-04-14T10:53:00.000-07:00

This post is part of the WoW Blogging Challenge! Originally inspired by Saga at Spellbound.

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I think it's pretty traditional to list more than one favourite here, but I don't want to ramble on about everything I've ever enjoyed in the game. Short and sweet, here they are:

My first raiding attempt
Last week Discombobulated paid a visit to Magmaw for the first time. It was also the first time that most of us had ever been in a 10-man group that was having a go at current content and we LOVED IT! He got the better of us many times, but we're heading back for another go tomorrow. I hadn't thought I was missing out on much except gear by not raiding once I hit 80 but now I've tried it at 85 I've realised that there's a whole other facet of the game waiting for me (and I am really excited about that).
The formation of our guild
The core of Discombobulated was formed from people who were together in our old guild but not entirely at home there. A chance whisper to my pocket tank one day changed all that - it turns out we all felt the same, had the same issues and wanted something new. We made our apologies and created the guild I'm in today. It's been an absolute blast starting our own guild and I can't imagine I'd still be enjoying the game as much if we hadn't done so. I owe my success in Cataclysm to my guildmates <3 you all!
The first time I flew, back in Outland
It might sound rubbish but I remember being shocked at how different the world was from above when you could control where you went. Every time I fly over a new place I have to make a circling detour to check it out. When they allowed flight in/over cities after the Cataclysm I must have spent a good 15 minutes flying about over Stormwind and landing on all the high towers to check out the views ^.^ of course, I levelled a druid...Flight Form had a big influence on my love of being airborne!

So there you have it, three of my favourite memories from my time playing WoW. They aren't epic tales of 40-man vanilla raiding or downing the Lich King for the first time but they're things that I will always remember fondly.

Last Challenge post - Your first day playing WoW
Next Challenge post - Favourite item(s) in game

Trying, failing and trying again

2011-04-12T11:37:00.000-07:00

For the last week, I've been wrestling with a dilemma.

What do I do if I don't enjoy healing as a druid at the moment?

It makes me sad just to type it out. When I started playing and I rolled my first character, I picked a druid because I wanted a hybrid class - one that could fulfil multiple roles, be of assistance to friends and enable me to try different aspects of group play - and because it sounded like a lot of fun to play.

When I hit 80 and started chaining Wrath heroics, my old guild never had any healers online - plenty of hybrid classes but none that wanted to heal. Aralosseien was doing so well in heroics as a moonkin that I decided to pay the gold for dual-spec and take the resto spec for a spin.

It was great, honestly. I panicked a bit sometimes, but I always managed to pull it together overall. In general they stayed topped off, I had mana, we all got emblems of triumph and I eventually had so many I bought the T9 set for each spec.

When the Cataclysm came I put my resto spec on the backburner and levelled to 85 as a moonkin. Who wouldn't? Sure, you could level feral...but I like a little headstart on my enemy if I need to flee. By the time I'd ground out various reputations, dailies and dungeons, I didn't feel like dusting off the resto spec so I went through heroics as a moonkin too. The sheer difference in difficulty between the Wrath heroics as I'd known them and the new Cataclysm heroics was amazing - and I loved that. They taught me how to play my class better, which is one of the reasons the incoming nerfs make me a bit sad. It was the first time I'd needed to know my spec so well and I think I've risen to the challenge.

The trouble is...all my healing experience was in easily-obtainable tier gear that was probably way above what was intended for heroics, with a party of 4 other people who were similarly overgeared the majority of the time. Back then, you could keep people's health topped up, and mana was rarely an issue. I read about the changes to healing, the triage ethic and the mana woes, but I didn't worry too much.

Naivety. In gear appropriate to the current heroic content, trying to contend with mana woes and having to resist the urge to keep everyone at 100% health, I couldn't manage. I panicked too much and people died needlessly. Pixelated people, but still people with a finite amount of time to spend on the encounter. I got sad that I couldn't do it and then grumpy that other people I knew had hybrid classes but weren't bothering to even TRY healing (I always felt guilty afterwards for expecting them to, as well). Every time I tried it I ended up feeling worse, until one evening I called a halt to the whole idea of healing on the druid.

I haven't tried since.

Not healing at all makes me sad though. I've always wanted to have a character that could heal. If I'm not good enough at druid healing, there are plenty of talented players who are, so maybe it's time to make my peace with it and re-roll a new character. I have altitis (I don't think that ought to be a surprise) so I currently have an ele shaman with a resto off-spec and a new holy priest with planned disco offspec.

Here's the dilemma - do I push aside my fear that I'll be bad at healing whatever class I play and just GO FOR IT, knowing that I might find a new character that I can enjoy just as much, which would also mean my guild pugging less healers for raids? Or do I stop feeling guilty that my guild doesn't have enough healers to raid without pugging and stick to my current character? Here's the confusing factor in what was an easy decision for me: some of my friends think I'm worrying too much and have told me I'm useful enough as a balance druid already and that it'd be a shame if I stopped playing Aralosseien as much.

Personally I want to keep trying. I've tried once, failed and need to try again, or I could lose the courage to do it permanently and I don't want that to happen. I might have to give up my chubby moonkin form for a while but if I could find a class I enjoy healing as I'll see the same content with the same great people and that's what matters, ultimately. Do I follow my instinct on this, or stick with what I know?

If you've got to the end of this massive, unedited, unnecessary out-loud worry, thank you. Your opinions, scoldings, butt-kickings (I could probably do with a kick in the behind about this) or general /waves would be massively welcome on the subject. Did you ever have a similar dilemma?

A mixed bag of achievements!

2011-04-08T09:06:00.000-07:00

A blog called Achievements Ahoy should probably have a little content on achievements, right? Right? So here is a round-up of the achievements I have earnt in the last 3 weeks:

King of Dire Maul - obtained while going after Runn Tum Tuber Surprise for the Iron Chef achievement, which I can't get until more recipes are released. Curse my late introduction to the game/the 25k cost of recipes that aren't available anymore.
Got My Mind On My Money - raid trash runs are useful if you're not far short of the 5,000g mark.
The Guardians of Hyjal
Ramkahen
One Hump Or Two? - two more mounts towards Leading the Cavalry! For those who don't know, this is my current goal ^.^
Heroic: Blackrock Caverns
Heroic: Deadmines
Bullet Time - I really contributed nothing to this, apart from my normal role in dungeons. We stood in a cheeky place while the melee took care of it - I'll try and get a screenshot of it next time I'm there.
Ready for Raiding - an immensely fun achievement that's easy to get. Stay on the outside and run just behind the Fire Wall. Sophisticated directional diagram ahoy:

Really, it's ridiculously simple. This diagram is completely unnecessary!

Cataclysm Dungeon Hero
Pit Lord Argaloth - the first big guild thing we've done together and one we enjoyed a lot. No PvE loot but the achievement made up for it!

They're a mixed bag, to be sure. I haven't been chasing any of these with intent, as I'm still focused on Leading the Cavalry at the moment. After becoming exalted with Ironforge, the dwarves of that grand city have granted me the right to ride their rams and 6 more mounts are now happily stabled in a secret location...

What achievements have you added to your list lately?

WoW Blogging Challenge, Day 03 – Your first day playing WoW

2011-04-06T09:55:00.000-07:00

This post is part of the WoW Blogging Challenge! Originally inspired by Saga at Spellbound.

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When I started playing WoW, I'd never played another MMO. The reason I signed up for a 2-week trial is lost in the mists of time...it might have been a TV or web advert. Maybe the fates planted a seed of thought in my mind, having deemed that I needed a new procrastination tool.

As the launcher downloaded game data I agonised over races, classes and professions. Eventually, as the last few megabytes filtered through, I settled on a night elf druid. My inner chemist demanded that she be an alchemist so I picked herbalism to complement it.

While I don't roleplay more than the occasional /salute at a questgiver, my druid is both an alter ego and an extension of myself. I cared about her path through Azeroth from the very beginning and accepted the first quest with a sense of adventure I still remember today.

Tasked with the balance of nature, I ran towards a boar, hit Wrath, and rejoiced that I could shoot spells from my hands. I think my love for WoW was cemented at that very moment :D My favourite characters in stories are magic users and (geek alert) I've never stopped wishing that magic could be real. Here I was in the beautiful environment of Teldrassil, marvelling at the landscape and the atmosphere of the place, with a night elf druid who could shoot nature magic from her hands and call arcane energy from the sky. How could I not love this game?

Of course, I had to kill more boars and nightsabers that evening. The map was slowly getting uncovered and I was starting to realise the scale of the task ahead - 80 levels worth of quests, dungeons and adventures. I scurried around Teldrassil doing quests wherever I could find them, the levels flew past and I believe I logged off at level 10, pleased as punch and wishing that it wasn't past midnight!

Last Challenge post - Why you decided to start a blog
Next Challenge post - Your best WoW memory

WoW Blogging Challenge, Day 02 – Why you decided to start a blog

2011-04-05T10:35:00.000-07:00

This post is part of the WoW Blogging Challenge! Originally inspired by Saga at Spellbound.

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Following on from yesterday's discussion, I'm meant to tell you why I decided to start a blog.

Hmm. This might get a wee bit waffly.

I guess there's no thrilling, bolt-out-of-the-blue reason I decided to start this blog. The idea had been floating around at the back of my mind for a few weeks, while I was looking for some purpose to my spare time. I'm notoriously bad at just enjoying spare time, and always feel I need to be achieving something. Occasionally that gets things done, but mostly I'm burdened with senseless guilt that all I do is play games and enjoy myself. Yep, I'm that silly.

The day I created this, I remember reading some really good blog posts (both WoW and non-WoW) and thinking that while I could only dream of writing as well as they did, or of making as good an observation, I wanted to take the plunge and give it my best shot.

If I'm totally honest, part of me was drawn to the sense of community that WoW bloggers seem to share. This game is my favourite hobby and getting to know other people in the community is a big incentive :)

One thing I can say without waffling is that having started, I intend to carry on - people have been kind enough to comment on a few of my posts and it's really heartening to see that people have dropped by.

Carrying on with the challenge, tomorrow's post will be about my first day in WoW. It might even be in story form, so if you're feeling like you have spare brain cells to lose...

First Challenge post - Introduce Yourself
Next Challenge post - Your first day playing WoW

WoW Blogging Challenge, Day 01 – Introduce Yourself

2011-04-04T09:29:00.000-07:00

Having missed the start of Saga's 20-day WoW blogging challenge, I was happy to see that Gina at Healbot has decided to set the challenge again. Grab a cuppa and I'll get started...

My character's name is Aralosseien and my real name is Charlotte. I'm 24 and I live in Leeds, UK with my partner, who plays my pocket tank (protection warrior). We've both been hooked on WoW since January 2010 - a Sunday whim to sign up for a 2-week trial got us lured right into Azeroth and we haven't wanted to leave since. I should confess; I did try Rift the other day, to form my own educated opinion. The winner with flying colours is WoW, even accounting for time spent and lack of familiarity with Rift.

I'm a slight altoholic but I only have Aralosseien at 85. My shaman is at 45 now, which is the most I've ever levelled an alt, so you might hear more about her in the future. The last two months have been a lot of fun, as for the first time I feel I'm really playing the balance spec well, and my guild, Discombobulated, has started to raid, which is a new side of the endgame for many of us. I'm a bit hermit-like, in and out of the game, so I don't tend to PuG much, but I do love my guildies - we're very close knit because there are couples and real life friends woven into the social fabric.

While I have loads more to say I'll stop there, as looking ahead at the schedule anything else I may have added has its own separate day allocated already. Thanks for reading all the way down to here! Hopefully I can keep up with the pace over the next few weeks. I'm hoping to follow other people as they do this, so please leave a link to your blog for me if you're taking part and you don't mind me trundling over to say hello ^.^

Next Challenge post - Why you decided to start a blog

Decision: made!

2011-03-29T12:41:00.000-07:00

A decision has been reached! After friendly input from many sources (big thanks to all of you), the next big achievement I'll be working towards is Leading the Cavalry. This little challenge will require 50 different mounts, and as a reward I'll get Reins of the Albino Drake.

Once I'd decided I got a notebook, some good pens and coffee. Half an hour and a hefty dose of Wowhead research later I had accumulated a few pages full of scribbles, with headings and extra notes in other colours. On a whim that made sense at the time, I also added up how much gold/currency was needed to buy each group of mounts. A word of warning: what seems methodical and organised when an idea is new could be a little daunting later on!

It's been a relief to decide, which might sound strange to most people. Most people don't take a whole week to be sure of which in-game achievement they want to go after next. I don't get to play as much as I'd like to (who does?) and I am always conscious of my long in-game wishlist. Titles and mounts and pets, oh my! Making a proper decision stops me logging on, checking my mail, selling a few things on the auction house and then just standing there, paralysed by choices*, not knowing what to do.

I'd love to know whether you struggle to make that decision, or if you just set your mind to something and start on it right that moment!

*not nearly as bad as being paralysed by a mind-controlling squid, admittedly, but still...

Decisions, decisions

2011-03-22T06:01:00.000-07:00

I'm in a pickle. My favourite achievements are the big ones, the ones where I can write a list, sort by zone/faction/etc, and work my way through. But there are so many! Do I go for Leading the Cavalry? Or maybe Lil' Game Hunter? What about The Limnologist or The Oceanographer? Don't even get me started on rep grinds, and the achievements for those.

Of course, friends tell me that I have better things to do, and ask when I'm going to get Archaeology levelled for the guild achievement? I like to point to their untrained Archaeology skills and raise an eyebrow silently, but that's normally ruined by my night elf bouncing comically...

How do you decide which achievement to work towards next? Do you just flit between things, and let them complete in due course?

Straw That Broke the Camel's Back

2011-03-19T04:12:00.000-07:00

Running heroic Halls of Origination last night, we hopped on some camels and got Straw That Broke the Camel's Back crossed off the heroic achievements list. Very easy to do, just stay out of the Earth Spikes and the Quicksand - all five of us got it when he died.
I don't dare to dream that we'll get the drake, but it's nice to pick up another achievement regardless!

Shop Smart, Shop Pet...Smart

2011-03-17T06:35:00.000-07:00

Two days ago, I finally hit 50 companion pets and got the Shop Smart, Shop Pet...Smart achievement.
Take a look after the jump to see the full list of pets I currently have:

Albino Snake
Ancona Chicken
Argent Squire
Black Kingsnake
Blue Dragonhawk Hatchling
Blue Mini Jouster
Blue Moth
Bombay Cat
Brown Prairie Dog
Brown Rabbit
Brown Snake
Calico Cat
Cockatiel
Cockroach
Core Hound Pup
Cornish Rex Cat
Crimson Snake
De-Weaponised Mechanical Companion
Fossilized Hatchling
Golden Dragonhawk Hatchling
Great Horned Owl
Hawk Owl
Lifelike Toad
Lil' Smoky
Mana Wyrmling
Obsidian Hatchling
Orange Tabby Cat
Peddlefeet
Perky Pug
Pet Bombling
Razormaw Hatchling
Red Dragonhawk Hatchling
Red Moth
Senegal
Siamese Cat
Silver Dragonhawk Hatchling
Silver Tabby Cat
Singing Sunflower
Sinister Squashling
Snowshoe Rabbit
Stinker
Strand Crawler
Tickbird Hatchling
Tiny Snowman
Toxic Wasteling
Tranquil Mechanical Yeti
Tree Frog
White Kitten
White Moth
White Tickbird Hatchling
Wolpertinger
Wood Frog
Yellow Moth

Phew! That's 53 companion pets, so only 22 more needed to get Lil' Game Hunter...I have a few in mind, but I really need to get planning if I want to avoid spending a lot of gold on the auction house. Which I do, as I'm not one of these players who has 20k lying around and nothing to spend it on...

Aralosseien of Darnassus

2011-03-16T15:36:00.000-07:00

As a quick starter post, about three days ago I finally got Champion of Darnassus in the Argent Tournament, triggering Exalted Champion of Darnassus and A Silver Confidant at the same time. Of course, I couldn't resist the temptation to rush off and earn one of the best-named achievements in the game, It's Just a Flesh Wound. As an added bonus, I also got the Argent Squire. Not a bad evening's work at all!

Starting Out

2011-03-16T15:35:00.000-07:00

I finally took the plunge and spent a whole chunk of spare time sorting out this blog. That's less time spent playing WoW, but I guess it's an achievement in its own way so I can excuse that. I hope to get some more content up over the next few weeks, so if you've discovered me in the meantime, please excuse the tumbleweed...