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Came out of a Warsong Gulch that Sithi had been mounted before we entered, to have Ender beside her! w00t! Took a few screenies of them roaming through Ashenvale and decided to update the header with one.

15 Exalted

Sithi did get her 15th exalted reputation last night in a quick Drek Theron heroic. Another achievement so yeah happy for that! But I don't find Wrath reputations as worthy or that they hold as much meaning since wearing a tabard can earn rep. It's just too easy. I was happy to get Hodir done, pre-tabard. Like earning the albino drake before the Argent pet availability - it was work!!!

It's not the horrid grindy stuff of the past!

Since I'm going back and working on the BC reps, I still get the daily grind that makes me scream, but will be so much more satisfying when that Exalted is achieved!!!

Dual playing

Right now I'm dividing my time between my Horde server, Blackwing Lair, and Alliance server, Darrowmere.

I'm not sure I'm happy with this and I'm trying to seek a balance.

My absence while not key to anything has not been popular, especially with my Horde friends. But then again I went AWOL for close to 8 months while I took a walk on the Alliance side!

So, now I'm achievement chasing and gearing for raids on the Alliance main, playing catch up on the Horde main (lvl 80, no epic flying, no money and PvP geared), and thinking which side to level the next one on.

The Alliance guild has been keeping me busier, so chances are more time will be spent there.

It's so hard when both groups are fun to play with and very enjoyable.

A twitter friend, Arrens mentioned guilds=guilt. To true right now, as that's what I feel.....

Day of the Dead

Another achievement chase - Day of the Dead. What can I say I'm a hamster on the WoW achievement wheel.
I do like the costumes we were transformed into (and the 12 hour through death ability!! w00t!!), kind of the Undead meets Latino Day of the Dead. Even our pet for the event with his sombero and maracas!

To get the achievement was quick, go dance with Catrina. To get the pet - Macabre Marionette - buy a recipe make bread, light candle and hold flowers for the dead - in your start city! Not very difficult.

A bit more background would have been nice for this holiday and the pet's so darn cute let it be permanent!!!

A month later . . .

I've been playing WoW more than thinking about writing about it!

So quick update -

Sithi -

Received a wonderful gift from GM - Black Tabby Cat that I've been lusting after but too cheap to buy as it's Horde only. He also happened to locate and help me tame Gondria (now named Ender for Ender's Game).

Passed the 10k pvp kill and have been trying to hit as man WG's as possible and have enough for another PvP piece or two. I did get the Black War Mammoth yesterday (300 stone shards ... gulp!)
Finally did part of 10 man Ulduar - Flame Leviathan and XT-002 Deconstructor (love his exercise regime!!. Seven Ulduar newbies in the group, including yours truly!! We'd been playing most of the day, and did heroics, a 10 man OS, etc., so quit at Auriaya as we were all TIRED! It was fun though.


Lots more achievements down - including Argent Crusader - w00t finally! Now doing the dailies for the pony. I want the squire mobile and running errands!!! Plus the tabard and all the pets and . . . keep the carrots coming Bliz!

Sithi's also working on Loremaster and the fishing/cooking achievements and very very slowly the Netherwing, just shy of Revered right now. I hate going out there, but lust for those mounts! They've been on my list since the first time I saw them. Much nicer than the proto drakes IMHO!


Sassrani - working on her achievements/rep grind. Currently Hodir quest chain and Argent Tournament. She's far behind Sithi, and doesn't have a good revenue stream yet, but working on the girlie!

Greaf's been herbing and glyphing but not much else as of late. The rest have been on a bit of a vacation other than the Hollows End stuff. Achievement chasing takes time!

Taming Ender

Right before I went on vacation, my wonderful GM, tells me in vent that he'd found Gondria

I've been lusting for this pet, in typical hunter fashion for months (especially after taming Skoll) and had almost tamed him a couple of weeks ago. I was interrupted by a viciously cruel horde rogue that popped out and killed me right after I'd changed talents (no mana/no pet). By the time I rezzed and returned - no Gondria. I was so heartbroken, and was swearing loud enough that sailors around the world were appalled and blushing!

Everyone in my guild had to listen to me complain and moan about this, especially when I'd see someone with Gondria in Dalaran.

So when the GM, told me he'd found Gondria and to hurry. I did! Honestly thought he was teasing me, but no! Gondria was there!!

Now flustered, dismissing the crab (I had just caught for bgs) and changing specs - I'm zero mana, but not paying attention so start to tame... then can't! Pop a pot, but that barely helps. No traps, nothing.

My GM pulls aggro off me and is walking around getting beat to death while I'm in full panic. Finally he dies, Gondria turns on me, I concuss hit him in viper (oh duh - I get mana back - definitely a huntard moment!), and tame Gondria. I almost felt bad about my GM dying, except one of his favorite things to do is kill us in interesting way when we least expect it. So Gondria tamed and him dead for a change was a true two-fer!

ENDER and black tabby companion pet

As my GM and I are both fans of Orson Scott Card's book - Ender's Game - Gondria is now Ender. LOVE HIM!!! He's the constant hunting companion except when the wolf comes out for heroics/raiding.

A great GM is worth his weight in gold and this one is one of the best I've had! The funny part a senior officer ask me when I tell him this story . He's a druid, why didn't he innervate you? GM still hasn't answer that!!!! I think my hysteria rubbed off!!!

But Ender is mine, I'm happy.

Three down two to go!

Slowly getting closer to Crusader title. Fighting on the Elekks ... argh! Next up the dwarves, then the gnomes.

Alterac Valley

Alterac Valley battleground (AV BG) is a love or hate bg. Personally I love it and have been in so many with different alts/servers, I lost track a long time ago. Right now its regained popularity as its a great way to grind xp if your sick of kill 10 more whatever quests in Outlands or Northrend.

In fact, Sassi did her last three/four levels to 80 in battlegrounds, mostly AV. (An AV weekend was sweet with the extra honor!) Nice to pick up a few achievements (Loyal Defender - 50 kills in your base) on the way too!

The DK's have been stagnating in the mid 60's (Death Knight), but with the xp in bgs I'm slowly leveling them. Honestly I haven't any interest in most of the Outlands quests so until they're Northrend ready its AV time! Also there are no real plans for either as far as endgame raiding, daily grinding, achievements chasing, etc., goes either. They're both just for fun (horde 63 and alliance 65).

Since AV gives the best xp at this level, that's what they're doing! It doesn't hurt that I enjoy AV, and still queue both the hunter and shadow priest. I mean, where else can 40 people queue up and overcoming all the diverse opinions and personalities, the afkers, the 'all Offense' or 'all Defense' proponents, or the people that just scream in chat that we're all losers even before we leave the cave?

When it comes together its great, when its a fail... its a horrid fail!

This is what I love to see -

This is one of the 'shouldn't have happened BGs. The alliance was ahead by 150+ points but the 'all in for Drek' crowd won the day (who needs defense=/fail). So the contiued run in/out dying/rezzing and the Horde beat us by 5 points!!! The Horde so deserved that win! 5-0 I'd say unbelievable but I've been on the winning side at 4-0 so I know it can happen.

This screenie is from a week ago, when I was on Sassi. Defending the base I was wondering what was firing on me - when I looked up and saw this gryphon! Apparently some industrious alliance in the AV had summoned him - his attacks are pretty hard hitting for the non-bubble wearing crowd. I hadn't seen this before so found it interesting!



Makes me wish for the days of vanilla wow with the epic 3 hour to 3 day battles that actually requirred strategy and teamwork. The zergfest that it is now is what so many of us know and are comfortable with now, unfortunately.

What I've been experiencing alot of lately

My DSL line has apparently become a tasty treat for squirrels, or so I'm told by the AT&T line repairman.

The big BUT, I don't always lose my signal doing other things, so I'm suspecting we need to re-evaluate the Add-ons and see if we maybe have a contributor to the problem there too.

It's very frustrating needless to say!

Hillsbrad Tourism

Biya (Horde DK) is leveling her herbalism to supply her scribing needs. She hasn't started making $$ like Greaf (Alliance DK), so she's been out working away on herbing. Her choices were Hillsbrad, STV or Wetlands. Hmm two gangtastic places or a predominately Alliance area (Wetlands is the fastest imho). **Added note if you aren't using Gatherer or some sort of marking add on you should!

Oh what the heck Hillsbrad - fond memories getting attacked by a guy hiding in the bushes dressed like a pirate when I was a wet behind the ears noob and at least you can see the 'red' guys most of the time!

Hillsbrad is the first place most people experience world pvp and ganking on PvP servers with the never-ending back and forth fight between Southshore and Tarren Mills. Having done my share of wiping the towns, being killed at all levels and in different parts of this zone (both sides) - it is definitely not for the faint of heart! Hmm maybe all the trees in STV would have been a better hiding spot. Like a glowing footed horse that screams every time you mount can be hidden!

Anyway, Biya, being a DK and not having leveled there is herbing, and doing her explorer achievement. While she's been making her tour she visited a couple of places that are a bit interesting -

The big pink hole that use to be Dalaran - I wish I could have seen that take off. All my Horde characters when in the vicinity of the former Dalaran location must make a few grind loops trying to get the black kitty as I'm way to cheap to pay hundreds of gold for it!

The normal places are visited (Sassi is actually finishing missed quests from this area for Exalted status with Under City and the Loremaster title so more screenies to come!)

One of the places that was finally visited, the mysterious island off the coast - Purgation Isle A 'must visit' for the Hillsbad exploration.
Seemingly innocent its full of spectral elite mobs, and once you're on it it becomes gloomy, depressing colored.
This is what is up top - nothing. More elite mobs, but no secret 'ah ha!' I found it anything. So why is it there? Why level 60 elites in a 20-30 zone?

Next stop to pay respects to Mr. Stark.

Had to run by and see George Candarte - UC leatherworking supplies guy tucked back in the hills near the wall and Kris Legace - freewheeling tradeswoman on the backside of Durnhold.

Hillsbrad is a fun area to level with interesting questing. A great place for mining, herbing and skinners (the yeti cave skin and coin ftw!). Its full of lore and for more awesome times - post level 68ish - the Caverns of Time - seeing all the movers and shakers back before they were important NPC's in the game. Love it!

Raene's Cleansing or I'm a Furbolg

Raene's Cleansing is a long quest line, with an interesting reward... if you don't complete it! At about Step 7, you will have completed a 'rod of transformation' which will turn you into a furbolg. It isn't a difficult quest - just lots of running about

You can continue to about Step 10 (for the xp), but past that you will lose the rod. Otherwise you can keep it and become one of these -

All my Alliance characters are going to get this before the Cataclysm and Ashenvale is Hordi-fied!

The 'lock is leveling

I'm still toying with which of the Alliance gang to work on to max level, but had decided to move Frothe out of the semi-twink state she's been in. The 10-19's were fun, but with the xp in BGs, the need to twink or not is gone for me.

So, she dinged 20 and has her new mount - 'locks are so cool - who needs a saddle or bridle for a fire-filled demonic horse!
And new demonic fiendy - Domanda - the succubus the boys love to have out!
New spells, questing and of course more PvP time - if you like PvP, playing a gnome is a must as they're PvP magnets! Frothe originally was created to annoy my 'gnome-hating-red-is-dead' PvP oriented daughter! Just playing Alliance makes her grind her teeth - a gnome is pure torture!

Otherwise, Frothe will likely do a bit of leveling in BG's as well as instance runs for gear. There are certain quest lines/areas, I enjoy so I won't miss those.

Acheivement-wise, I doubt I'll go full out like I've been doing with Sithi - too much time to get them all! But, I am debating changing her professions, as she has been herbalism/engineering for the benefits at 19. I'm thinking she'll drop herbalism in favor of tailoring. I have enough others that do gathering professions and tailoring may be beneficial for her.

Frothe is coming up on her 2 year birthday during Brewfest, being the second character I created when I first started on WoW, she's one of the two that have the Wolpertinger (didn't play during Brewfest last year - deep in Warhammer lust!), so she'll have to do something special at the end of the month!

Quest torture?

The quest line from Librarian Normantis ending with The Art of Persuasion has been a bit controversial in the online press. From a gaming perspective I didn't have the problem or issue with it so many do (ex. should we have the right to say no, I won't torture for you?) and have completed it on both the Alliance and Horde side.
It does seem though there is a mild slam on the US governments policies with 'prisoners' and the use of Rendition by the CIA. I'm not a political blogger, but seeing Americans lose our freedom almost daily is disturbing in itself - so not going to rant here or it would be long!!!
Should we have a 'right' to make a political stand in-game? It could be interesting, but unless its going to shape your future or change the outcome somehow I don't know that it's necessary. There are quests I skip for various reasons (I hate killing the pretty blue butterflies on Bloodmyst Island for one), so don't do a quest if you don't want! There are plenty of other things to do in WoW!

If you 'choose' not to do this one, all you're losing is a bit of xp and rep with the Kirin Tor. It's not like a game breaker.
Personally, I hate kidnapping and killing for the Kula'uk more in that rep grind than this quest! Besides it's war - we kill, maim, beat, stab, burn, dismember daily this quest didn't seem any more horrific than most of the quests.

Weekend fun

It was Alteric Valley weekend. Sooo - lots of AV's played, to the point Sas leveled from 75.5 to 77 with no problem. As I love BGs (win/lose/tie) I'm still thrilled about the leveling xp available now. The only down side - the level 80's want quick for the marks to requeue, the 'levelers' want a drawn out game as the xp for taking objectives in the mid-70's is 18-20K.

As Sassi reached the magic flying number, she can no get around Northrend much easier, although she's having the same issue - artisan is not paid for, just cold-weather. Still, it's better than ground transport!Here's how she exited Dalaran - out the sewer drain - levitate ftw!!
Right now she's parked in Dragonblight when not out working her Kalu'ak rep grind. As I didn't do Dragonblight on Sithi, I'm going to do both the Horde and Alliance side pretty much at the same time.

Sithi leveled so fast she has all of Dragonblight, Grizzly Hills, Sholazar, Zul'Drak, and Storm Peaks. I'm going to hop back/forth Alliance/Horde in those areas.

The two DK's, Greaf (Alliance) and Biya (Horde) are going to be the next to level at least to 70. I'm not sure I have any great plans on max level with them, but they're both herbing/inscription so I want them high enough to be able to harvest their own herbs in Northrend.

Biya bought her pretty flying mount (lvl 60 flying is fantastic!)
After those two, I'm going to work on the Horde hunter and for Alliance - narrowed to pally, shammy, lock or druid - is that narrowed? lol

Everyone over lvl 20 has mounts now, although I tend to forget that they do at times. The flying, I swear it's the best part of WoW at times.

Stormwind

I love finding the fun off the wall things in games. I'm not sure they're classed quite as an Easter egg, but I'm always tickled when I find them!

Example this seemingly innocent house in Stormwind leads to ...
Cut Throat Alley! Why is it there? I've never leveled a rogue that was the only thing I could think of, but according the the wiki - its just an unpopulated place. Why?


Scenic harbor tours?

Speak to Thargold Ironwing for a gryphon flight around the harbor. I discovered this last month, but honestly don't recollect how long it's been in game!
What's behind the giant 'Gate' in the harbor? It looks like the one in Stranglethorn Vale that the Defias have their cave/harbor behind.

Hello Dalaran - Horde side!

Sassi dinged 74, and received the invite quest to head to Dalaran. (I know I'm weird, but no early ports - they have to earn in the hard way!)

So, off she went.

I was very intrigued to see the 'Horde' digs, as the Alliance side are a but austere and boring. Well the Horde's seem much larger and grander - even the bone strewn main hall with the African themed music.

The inn keeper even titled 'The Beast' was very Horde! I don't think I'd try to get past her - since when did Orc's come in Super-size?

Sas, took the tour picking up her first cooking and fishing daily (both in Dalaran ftw!) - Infused Mushroom Meatloaf and Jewel of the Sewers, so knocked those out quickly. Earning a couple more Achievements with Jewel being her 1000th quest completed. Considering she's NOT exalted with any races there are a whole bunch of quests to still do!

Off to Silvermoon for training her new skills, and a few Battlegrounds before heading back to Warsong Hold in preparation for the next leveling session.

I'm not sure if I mentioned this in a past post or not, but I'm following Jame's Horde Leveling Guide over at Wow-pro.com. I've used parts of his leveling guides before and one day I'm going to role a new character on a new server and follow the whole thing completely through. Jame does a great job of combining quest circuits to maximize xp and minimize travel back and forth.

Check it out, lots of useful guides for leveling and instances.

Sons of Hodir

Started The Sons of Hodir rep grind - well I'm on the quest chain - let me clarify that!

It's another dress up chain, reminding me very much of Netherwing where you're an Orc, in this one so far you're a one of those valkyrie type woman. So do the guys turn into strapping woman warriors too? I've got to see a gnome in this getup!

One part you're on your flying mount, which wasn't to bad on the drake, but on the smaller gryphon, this looks like animal abuse!!!

The 16 part chain that I did up to getting my harness went very quickly at level 80. So, now on to the next section to get to neutral. Then the long grind to Exalted!

The work we do for a specific item or access to more stuff! Lol!

I'm still working on the darn Kalu'ak - getting sick of stealing puppies (killing their mom's too!), picking up supplies and being a dating service for sealife - but lust for that sweet fishing pole!

At least Knights of the Ebon Blade and Alliance Vanguard are whacking the bad guys!

Must run - the hamster wheel grind is calling!

UI Adventures

I've never been quite satisfied with my User Interface (UI), and constantly tweak it. Cosmos was the first one I tried. I remember when I guildie told me about Bongos and Quartz - then I found nirvana at Curse.com and later WowInterface. Not good places for UI junkies like me!

WoW UI - Basic Mode

I've always tweaked or tried to at least in the MMO's I play - EQII it was ProfitUI, but I'd bounce to Fetish and back. Definitely had to have the EQ2Map! Warhammer has a wonderful UI, that is very user friendly for placement on the screen, but not nearly as many addon's as WoW!

Leveling UI (most common one I use)

I guess I wouldn't mod so much if there weren't so many wonderful AddOns for World of Warcraft or if it wasn't so easy to add/change/delete them! Okay I would still try, but not tweak so much. If I was a bit more techie I'd love to perfect my own, but I know that isn't going to happen!

On my search, I've been looking for the most usable UI, while having the least amount of stuff on my screen. If it's a class I'm highly familiar with (hunters/shadow priests, death knight), I can really minimize things as they keys are bound and memorized, etc. Playing a druid or pally or warlock, there is a lot of 'where did I put that spell', so I tend to keep everything dead center.

The WoW Forum for UI/macros is worth digging through. Lots of useful info and the 'post your UI' threads always have some awesome ones. Some awfully pretty UI's too. So minimal, yet beautifully done. It's fantastic.

To get all those great addons, there are a variety of places to download addons/mods, but the two main sites are:

Curse.com - probably the most well known and with a current count of 3,645 different addons for WoW, you can modify WoW to your hearts content!

Curse listed addons are free to download manually or via Curse client program (it will update for you). There is also a premium service, for$29.40 a year (or paid monthly/quarterly/six months in varied amounts). Part of the fees go to the addon authors.

Curse also hosts addons for Age of Conan, Warhammer and Runes of Magic. I had heard Everquest II was going to be added, but I haven't seen it yet.

WowInterface - Many WoW interfaces are listed here not at Curse or updated at one over the other, so I check both after a major patch.

There are others such as:
WoWUi @IncGamers - I don't have any experience with this site, but looks intriguing.

WoWMatrix - This will download and update for you automatically. (I've heard people swear by it, but didn't have much success with it, plus some addons weren't available.)


Blogs:
No Stock UI blog is really probably far in the lead on UI use/set up if you haven't done this before. There are also great suggestions as to why to set it up in a specific way.

There are a number of other blogs that touch on UI set up or favorite AddOns, but NoStock covers everything in depth, up to leveling, or for a specific need - the Chef's Hat one is intriguing (closing in on that achievement!!).

No Stock has a great thread on a leveling UI, including the screen set up, key binding placement, etc.

For my personal use (which drives everyone else nuts), as I'm a left handed mouse and split keyboard user, for example, I have the whole right side of my keyboard unbound from the 'normal' key binds and remapped to the left side, including the number pad. Spells and macros are placed there in a somewhat logical ordera as I tend to stick the same 'type' of things in the same place.

Ex - Healing spells or mounts or attacks are all on or near the same key set up for all classes.

I'm still working on using all the buttons on my mouse - that would help free up more screen real estate, and double or triple use the keys!

As to my personal favorite addons -

• Bartender Action Bar replacement. It allows for vertical/horizontal placement with up to 10 action bars. Easy to modify, keymap, etc. (I've tried others and come back to this one)
  
• Sexy Map
  
• FuBar (There are three pages listed on Curse of FuBar addons - favorites are PetinfoFu, PerformanceFu, MoneyFu, BagFu, )
• LightHeaded - quest helper type program with comments from wowhead.com
• Omen - good for the DPS to learn to control their threat
• RatingBuster - a tool for comparing gear upgrades
  
• Grid - a raid/group frames that is stripped down and lightweight. I use it instead of most raid frames to keep the screen less cluttered. I started using Squared (which is eve easier than Grid) in Warhammer for healing. Makes life so easy once its set up.
• AckisRecipeList - a must if you're a recipe collecting nut!
• Altoholic - fantastic if you have alt-itis, have multiple accounts or play on different servers.
• Chatter (modifies chat with lots of flexiblity without being weighty)
• Capping Battlegrounds Timer (for battlegrounds)
• Recount - damage meter. One of most overused mods in the game (asking for recount in Dead Mines? wtf??)
• Kharthus's Hunter Timers - great timer for hunters
• Quartz - casting bar timer
• Xperl - I do actually like Pitbull's customization, but haven't spent the time on it, so use xperl
• Buff Enough

There are others I use for specific purposes such as the auction house or a specific class. There are really good ones for crafting, healing, etc.

I will say I admire those that play with the stock UI. It seems so limiting, but would save me lots of time if I could do that!

Trial of Champions

WoW on this instance!

(views of the attendees from the tournament floor)



Trial of Champions, the new 5 man is fun. I'm sure hardcore raiders and people that only want the hardest mode possible will hate it, but from a perspective of a novice raider and someone that really has avoided PUGs and dungeons in general - I like this one!

(I'm not going to write up the whole thing - wowhead.com comments has a complete write up of the whole event, etc., from the PTR with loot table info, etc.)


Phase One - The Grand Champions

It starts with mounted jousting along the lines of the tournament, all set inside an arena with the Horde represented on one side (Thrall and Hellscream) and Alliance represented on the other (Varian and Jaina) with crowds cheering on the various factions. It felt very much like being at the Medieval Times restaurant without the food!

After the three bosses are unhorsed (keep one person trampling the downed boss so he doesn't remount), it goes into 5 man dungeon mode. It's fairly straightforward as you face the three bosses that you just unmounted. Each has a specific attack based on class and need to be prioritized based on that.


Phase Two - The Argent Crusade Representative

Depending on which you face this can go quickly or be a wipe. Eadric the Pure (pally attacks) is easy - turn your back on his radiance, and watch for his hammer toss. It's about 15k damage on a random group member. Argent Confessor Paletress (priest) is harder. As you start with her, once she reaches 25% health, she summons a 'memory' boss and she is then immune until after that boss is downed. She does heal the boss, which is a pain.

I've read that the bosses all have the same attacks, but we didn't experience that. The murloc from Wailing Caverns, Mutanous, and the dragon (didn't get the name but fears alot!) seemed to do excessive damage and down players from full health. We weren't sure if it was a bug or just a special attack none of us saw. The other bosses she summoned were killable quite quickly in comparision.


Phase Three - Return of The Black Knight

The Black Knight swoops in and the fun begins. There are three parts to his fight, none are particularly hard.

The first its him and one ghoul (he kills the npc and raises him/her as a ghoul) - this is easy. The second he rises as a skeleton with a ghoul army (AoE's take care of that - volley shot, DK army, mage AoEs, etc.). The third he's a specter and needs to be burned down quickly as he has a stacking debuff and AoE's causing magic damage.


Overall a fun instance and quick! The plus sides it's close to a repair and food vendor outside. If you die its a short distance to return.

Our guild ran this quite a bit yesterday on regular mode - the drops were great - gearing up a number of newer level 80's.

BGs and PvP are back

All battlegrounds are fun imho, but thoroughly enjoying the newest to join the Wrath battlegrounds (Strand of the Ancients & Wintergrasp) - Isle of Conquest.

Isle of Conquest

I love Isle of Conquest. It's fun, fast paced and has a bit of everything and you get to pvp!

• Capture the flag
• Defend your keep/leader
• Take and defend resources
• Man siege machines
• Carry bombs to break down gates
• Flying machines that you jump/parachute into the opponents base

What more could you ask for?


Warsong Gulch

Warsong Gulch has the new 20 minute timer which I'm trying to view in a positive light. I definitely approved the time limit in Warhammer scenarios, so good to see Blizzard adopt this for what can often be a turtle-fest in Warsong Gulch. I like this bg, but having been in ones that have gone on literally for a couple of hours - it can be a huge time sink.

The downside, one quick flag cap and excellent defense/turtle will win. I'm hoping that won't be the case, but it could very well be.

I did one Warsong on a mid 20 hunter. The xp gain was between 500-600xp. I don't remember what quest xp goes for at that level, but for 20 minutes and gaining honor/marks it's full of win for me! It was a typical PUG, good/bad/whiners/complainers - but fun.


Arathi Basin and Eye of the Storm

The lower resource points needed to win from 2000 to 1600 - I'm not sure I get the need for that. Neither of those two bg's are very long, but I did notice in the couple I did yesterday, alot more running to cap and alot less defending. The map constantly changed in AB. It will be interesting to see how much of a difference that makes. I haven't tried EoTS yet. AB xp gain for around 16K on a lower lever 40's player.


Alteric Valley

The only change here - more people likely to queue for the huge xp gains. Playing this at different levels it's a completely different game. The 50's and 60's can be a slog/back and forth more destroy and defend along the way with a split offense/defense. While the 71-80 seems to be constant zerg to kill the leader. I haven't tried AV at level 80, but level 62 DK the xp gain was close to 57k.


Wintergrasp

I'm admittedly still lost in Wintergrasp, so do alot of random running, killing and dying. But then I've only been in a few so far! Supposedly the lag issue has been fixed. That would be great, but I'm not holding my breath - Dalaran, Wintergrasp and the Tournament Grounds are horrific at times.

It's good to have the change of being able to fly over WG as long as you stay up high as I've been unmounted a couple of times not paying attentin flying about.


Battleground XP

I've not read anywhere online how the xp is being calculated, but I'm glad they've added it! The complaints in the lower brackets of the OP twinks dominating will be gone as the majority of twinks will turn the xp off (10g cost) and will only be facing other xp off opponents. I'm hoping this won't kill the twink brackets (I've only made casual twinks, but it's still fun). I'm assuming many twinks will migrate to a few of the more active battlegroups. Hint, hint - it would be great to offer free transfers for them Bliz!

I'm curious to see though if some will 'twink' a toon for world pvp. As they can turn off xp, gear up and have lots of fun! I can see the level 19 twinks ganking the 20-30 level people - I'm sure the GM's will hear lots of complaints. But it may bring back more world pvp on the pvp servers - yeah!

I can definitely see more people that like pvp leveling in battlegrounds. Maybe not at all times, but a nice way to level in addition to dungeon crawls and questing. As an avid lover of pvp, I'm sure I'll spend time in the different level bgs.

New Spirit Beast ftw

Patch 3.2 was out yesterday.

Everything laggy as can be, so couldn't spend time in Dalaran or the Tournament Grounds - went pet hunting for the rumored new Spirit Beast - Skoll.

Found him.

Tamed him.

LOVE him!

Blue, with crackling lightening, and in Beastial Wrath what a sight - damn gorgeous!

Tada! She's back!

I've finally started playing my Shadow Priest after parking her last June (2008) over Shattrath on her flying mount. I did pull her out and manage to go 1% into level 70 over the past year, but just didn't have any interest in playing her. Now that Sithi is 80, in a raiding guild and is going to try the whole raiding scene, I thought it was time to get Sas out and start leveling her.

She's far far behind on the achievement list, her guild is full of the alts of the people she played with as they've progressed on AND I had to relearn how to play a Shadow Priest after a year.

Having not played her in so long it took about two hours of looking at her talents - trying to remember what and why - setting up keybindings, then finding a rotation that worked but didn't drain mana. We've settled on SW:P, Mind blast, Mind Flay for most single targets, bubble/wand if needed. Rarely using the other DoTs on single target as they're dead much to quickly.

She also needed glyphs, enchants too, so drained what money she had saved! So, lots of catch up!

Fortunately she doesn't have any difficult professions to level (mining/herbing were both maxed, fishing still low, but doable), the worst has been getting her cooking caught up. This dictated a side trip out to Silithus and Felwood to grind out those last levels killing and cooking worms and bears until the Outland recipes came up. Fishing/hunting in Outlands was short and sweet, so she's caught up to Northrend cooking already - yeah!


As this was one of my favorite PvP characters (maxed honor two and half times before level 70), I'm looking forward to diving back into that once she's hit 80. (I tried Winter Grasp and Strand of the Ancients - those are fun!) I've always enjoyed the battlegrounds in WoW - actually glad they keep adding them.


I'm actually trying a new leveling process - following Jame's leveling guide over at Wow-pro.com . So far it's working fantastic! The directions are clear, the circuits may seem odd, but saves lots of back and forth running and the xp has been rolling along. He's really got the kinks out of the process. I've read many of his instance guides (and other contibutors on wow-pro), it really helps make sure you have all the quests and don't miss out on xp/loot. I know some people are against guides, but you still have to do the work, it's not automatic, just simplifies the routes.

In three sessions (this includes the run to Silithus and Outlands recipe chasing) we knocked out Howling Fjord, started our Kal'uak rep dailies (I have a lust for their Mastercrafted Kal'uak Fishing Pole!) and have made our way to Warsong Hold in Borean Tundra.

Fighting the Scourge, and seeing Kel'Thuzad (he's that freaky model I've run into in Northrend - just creeps me out!) while flying on a magic carpet - full of win!

It seems to me that Shadow Priests are either much easier to play than I remember or else playing all the other characters has made me a tad more confident and - dare I say it - a better player, as we're having no trouble in chain pulling or handling multiple mobs (3-4 same level), something I never tried in the past.

Lil' Game Hunter Achievement will be easier

The upcoming addition of more companion pets with patch 3.2 will make getting the Lil'Game Hunter (75 pets) achievement easier. I'm not overly thrilled with Little Fawn - definitely not on my 'oh gotta get it list' but I'm sure I'll work at getting that achievement too!

The complete list of all pets - wowvault.ign.com

These 3.2 world drop mobs (taken from wowvault list) all seem appealing, and will have the rest of the 'gotta get that pet' crowd running around Azeroth. Heads up PvP servers!

• Darting Hatchling from Dart, Rare spawn in Dustwallow Marsh.
• Leaping Hatchling from Tak the Leaper, Rare spawn in the Barrens
• Razormaw Hatchling from Razormaw Matriarch, Rare spawn in the Wetlands
• Ravasaur Hatchling from Ravasaur Matriarch, Rare spawn in Un'goro Crater
• Razzashi Hatchling from Razzashi Raptors in Zul'Gurub
• Deviate Hatchling from Raptors in Wailing Caverns
• Gundrak Hatchling from Raptors in Zul'Drak near Gundrak

While checking out the Vault list, I found a few vendor purchasable ones, that I've overlooked while waiting for the next patch.

Plus a few quest ones that I need to grab -
I never have had the Outland daily fishing quest drop a pet and the darn OOX mechanical chicken has been borked for me as well. I know I've done at least one part of that, but after an hour or so killing low level guys I can't get the other two parts to drop. Maybe try it again.

Also need to get an engineer make a mechanical yeti and . . . I'm wondering if I'm a bit OCD about pets and mounts!

Track your collection - WarcraftPets.com

Age of Conan

I did go back and try AoC.

After the hideously long patch process, I finally left it for overnight download.

I logged onto the characters I'd made two years ago (I'd actually forgot what I had until I did!). Unfortunately I had no sense of nostalgia. I had logged the Barbarian out on the side of a hill! Definitely not my usual 'log out in town' in any game way, especially on a PvP server!

So ran the two highest level ones (Barbarian 32, Priest of Mitra28) around a bit trying to get a feel for playing. I still like the more involved fighting with the shield indicators on npcs - more than continued key spamming at least!

Realized the Priest (or Priestess) of Mitra was as easy as I remember to play, but I didn't have a great feel for all the spells nor any oh joy I want to play you feelings.

Logged out and rerolled a new toon, a Necromancer, dinged level 5 before leaving the jungle and logged out.

Pretty game, interesting fighting style, very scenic ... so why doesn't this game hold my interest?
I really don't know.

There has been rumors of this going to a Free to Play game. If it does I would likely keep it updated and pop in on occasion, but not up for the monthly fees on what would be very random play.

Hunter Changes 3.2

click for PTR 3.2 Patch Notes

Hunters

• Aspect of the Cheetah: Can now be learned at level 16. Good for 10-19BGs
  
• Deterrence: This ability now allows the hunter to parry spells and attacks from behind as well as in front. Now has a new visual spell effect. Cool. I know I don't use this enough, but likely will now.
  
• The time that traps will exist in the world after being put down has been reduced to 30 seconds, down from 1 minute.
• Frost Trap: Will no longer "fizzle" on targets immune to snare effects, however Lock and Load will not succeed when using Frost Trap if the target is immune to snare effects.
• Snake Trap: The Mind-numbing Poison effect has been reduced to a 30% increase in casting time, down from 50% to match similar effects.
• Traps now have separate 30-second cooldown categories: Fire (Immolation Trap, Explosive Trap and Black Arrow), Frost (Freezing Trap, Frost Trap) and Nature (Snake Trap). A hunter can have one trap of each category placed at one time. Trapping should prove interesting as they don't last as long but we can put different ones down at one time. So not quite a chain but kind of? The problem is trap duration time. So you won't be able to freeze trap in a chain, but damage, snake then freeze? Hmm.
  
• Talents
• Beast Mastery
• Catlike Reflexes now also reduces the cooldown of your Kill Command ability by 10/20/30 seconds. Using Kill Command more - yeah!
  
• Survival
• Entrapment: This talent no longer works with Immolation Trap or Explosive Trap.
• Lock and Load: Now has a 22-second cooldown. The Lock and Load effect cannot be obtained on targets immune to snare effects when Frost Trap is used.
• Pets
• Roar of Sacrifice: Redesigned. This ability can now be used on any friendly target to make that target immune to critical strikes, but the hunter pet takes 20% of all damage taken by that friendly target. Cooldown is now 1 minute, up from 30 seconds. Keep the healers (or others) up in groups/raids by taking 20% damage that's a nice ability.
  

Classes: General

• All pets now receive 40% of their master's resilience and 100% of their master's spell penetration. In addition, if a player is at their appropriate spell hit chance or hit chance maximum, their pet will be at the maximum for spell hit chance, hit chance, and expertise. If they are below the maximum, their pet will be proportionately below those maximums. Not really sure how/if this affects hunters?
  
• Replenishment: This buff now grants 1% of the target's maximum mana over 5 seconds instead of 0.25% per second. This applies to all 5 sources of Replenishment (Vampiric Touch, Judgements of the Wise, Hunting Party, Enduring Winter Frostbolts and Soul Leech).
• Silence, Strangulate, Silencing Shot, and Arcane Torrent: These abilities will also apply a 3-second Interrupt effect against non-player controlled targets, making them more versatile against creatures immune to silencing effects. Great for MM hunters on NPCs.

Bug Fixes

• Hunters
• All ranks of Sonic Blast now properly have an 80 Focus cost.
• Black Arrow Ranks 5 and 6 training costs have been lowered significantly.
• Furious Howl: Ranks 1-5 will no longer give slightly more attack power than is listed in their tooltips.
• Lock and Load: The tooltip for this talent has been updated to indicate that it also works with Explosive Trap.
• Roar of Sacrifice: Damage transferred to pet is now considered Nature damage.
• The tooltip for Improved Tracking has been slightly re-written to indicate that it only works on the hunter, and works on melee damage as well.
• T.N.T. (Rank 3): Now indicates that the talent works with Black Arrow

Items: General

• Agility: The amount of agility required per percentage of dodge has been increased by 15%. This change required recalibrating the amount of dodge a player has with 0 agility by a slight amount as well, so all players will see their dodge percentage vary a small amount.
  
• Block Value: The amount of bonus block value on all items has been doubled. This does not affect the base block value on shields or block value derived from strength.
• On-Use Block Value Items: All items and set bonuses that trigger temporary increases to block value have been modified. Instead of increasing their block value amount by 100% like other items, they have all had their effect durations doubled. This applies to Glyph of Deflection, Gnomeregan Autoblocker, Coren's Lucky Coin, Lavanthor's Talisman, Libram of Obstruction, Tome of the Lightbringer, Libram of the Sacred Shield, the tier-8 paladin Shield of Righteousness bonus, the tier-5 paladin Holy Shield bonus, and the tier-5 warrior Shield Block bonus.
• Dodge Rating: The amount of dodge rating required per percentage of dodge has been increased by 15%. This is before diminishing returns. Combined with other changes, this makes dodge rating and parry rating equally potent before diminishing returns apply.
• Item Buy Back Feature Revised
• The Item Buy Back time will now expire if the player enchants or sockets an item. Players will see a confirmation dialog box now when they attempt to enchant or add gems to an item giving them a last chance to reconsider.
• Items with Triggered Effects: These items generally have cooldowns on how often they can be triggered. Those cooldowns are now triggered each time the item is equipped (example: A trinket has a 45-second cooldown on an effect triggered by player attacks; when a player equips that item, the effect will be unable to be triggered for the first 45 seconds it is worn).
• Mounts
• The cast time for summoning any ground mount is now 1.5 seconds, down from 3 seconds.
• Apprentice Riding (Skill 75): Can now be learned at level 20 for 4 gold. Mail will be sent to players who reach level 20 directing them to the riding trainer.
• Journeyman Riding (Skill 150): Can now be learned at level 40 for 50 gold. Mail will be sent to players who reach level 40 directing them back to the riding trainer.
• Expert Riding (Skill 225): Can now be learned at level 60 for 600 gold from trainers in Honor Hold or Thrallmar. Faction discounts now apply (Honor Hold for Alliance; Thrallmar for Horde). Flight speed at this skill level has been increased to 150% of run speed, up from 60%.
• Artisan Riding (Skill 300): Faction discounts now apply (Honor Hold or Valiance Expedition for Alliance; Thrallmar or Warsong Offensive for Horde).
• In order to further equalize the number of purchasable mounts available to each race, a new 60% speed ground mount has been added for night elves, and a new 100% speed ground mount has been added for the undead.
• Flying over Dalaran and Wintergrasp is now possible so long as players keep a healthy distance above the ground.
• Mana Regeneration: All items that provide "X mana per five seconds" have had the amount of mana they regenerate increased by approximately 25%.
• Parry Rating: The amount of parry rating required per percentage of parry has been reduced by 8%. This is before diminishing returns. Combined with other changes, this makes dodge rating and parry rating equally potent before diminishing returns apply. Parry still diminishes more quickly than dodge.
• Resilience: No longer reduces the amount of damage done by damage-over-time spells, but instead reduces the amount of all damage done by players by the same proportion. In addition, the amount of resilience needed to reduce critical strike chance, critical strike damage and overall damage has been increased by 15%.

Tome of Cold Weather Flight: New heirloom item. Players who have reached level 80 can now purchase this book for 1,000 gold from Hira Snowdawn, the Cold Weather Flying Trainer in Dalaran. Similar to other heirloom items, this item can be mailed to other characters of the same realm, account and faction. The book is consumed when read training the character in Cold Weather Flying. Requires level 68 While not hunter specific, this is going to be nice for those with alts heading to Northrend.


click for Hunter Q&A with Ghostcrawler -

I'm not sure I buy the complete difficulty of endless arrows from Bliz! Even if the vendor available ones were endless - like thrown weapons. The vendored ones do have levels attached so ? Add more rep grind ones along with new recipes for alchemists/enchanters/engineers/blacksmith to 'buff up' arrows with frost, fire, poison, armor penetration, mana regeneration. Heck include as random world drops from chests, mobs, etc. Make it that you can't 'switch' arrows during combat if that would make it to op. There are ways to do this!

Seriously grinds me to spend 30g+ for Saronite Razerheads arrows per stack of 1000 AND have repair bills from group/raid wipes. Lowering the cost to make it doesn't mean the sellers will lower their cost just as easily or quickly!

Current arrow selection by type/level.


Why do hunters use mana? We don't benefit from +spell power, mail gear post level 40 with +intelligence is hard to come by, so why do we use mana?

We have Aspect of Mana - love it/hate it. Love it that we have it. Hate being in it so much as leveling on a PvP server it is - imho - safer to kill slowly and have mana while leveling than run out and get killed by another player because I'm a 'caster' that is oom and going to die!

How about some new armor patch/spell thread/enchants for intelligence would be a quick fix and give all the crafters new things to make.


Pet slots, being greedy about pets of course I want more, but really think 5 is pretty decent unless they start to add new tameable ones! I mean if you have a tenacity, cunning, ferocity, the last two are usually sentimental or the 'I tamed it' types. Especially now that we do not have to train pets by taming others to learn the skills. (Although I admit I did like that aspect of the game and thought the difficulty added to the fun of being a hunter.)


BM - I do hope they'll make it viable for raiding without making it OP. Can't theorycraft worth a darn, but do believe BM pets should provide more buff to the hunter/group/raid than not and definitely bring something that MM/SV do not. Not necessarily more damage, but choosing BM should really bring something to the table for raiding. I think this is truly hard to balance as what you want viable for raids would be op for pvp.

Fishing the Daily Quests

Today, while doing the daily fishing quest (The Ghostfish), I arrived with much trepidation at Sholazar Basin, as I've never been through Sholazar without being killed - generally by paladins usually waiting at the flight path at River's Heart. (What's with the blood elf angst against night elves? Still pissed from getting /kicked from the night elf community many milennia ago?)

So...I land on the public bird - five Horde fishing and milling about. Great. The lone Alliance is a druid and he's playing duke-nukem with a Horde druid in all their varied forms - it's a bird! It's a bear! It's a cat! No a tree!

Definitely time to fly away! Pull out the slow mount and away I go! Hovering just out of sight of River's Heart, I looked on Wowhead.com, hoping there were other options as far as fishing up this Ghostfish -

Yes!

I can fish at water leading into the River's Hearth! Found a quiet spot (50,57 approx.) and within 10 casts fished up Mr. Ghostfish and hearthed out!


Daily Fishing Quests in Dalaran are from Marcia Chase and include:

1. The Ghostfish
2. Dangerously Delicious (I've never had this one come up yet)
3. Jewel of the Sewers
4. Monsterbelly Appetite
5. Blood is Thicker

Complete all five quests for the achievement Chasing Marcia.


Daily Fishing Quests in Outlands are from Old Man Barlow:

1. Crocolisk in the City
2. Bait Bandits
3. The One That Got Away
4. Felblood Filet
5. Shrimpin' Aint Easy

Complete all five quests for the achievment Old Man Barlowned

Finally - Drake time!

We finally have the Albino Drake!!!! The acheivement reward for Leading the Cavalry. 50 mounts isn't impossible to achieve, and is definitely easier for those that are collecting now with the Tournament mounts available and more dungeon drops that have been added, but it's not a cake walk!


Next stop Mountain of Mounts - 100 mount achievement!

** List of all currently available mounts and Patch 3.2 changes - Wowwiki/mounts or warcraftmounts.com

Finally the big Ding!

Finally in a very un-climactic way Sithi dinged level 80 turning in a daily quest. I had planned to take a 'good' ding photo, but not paying attention resulted in another typical butt shot with the glowing 'you win' colors! This was such a déjà vu of Sassi dinging 70 last year – killing ogres, yakking in vent and missed the whole photo op!

Oh well at least Sith’s 80 and can start running with the big boys! Which she did with her level 75 wolf, no respec, no level 80 spells and in my crap PvP-I’m still leveling-gear! The guild wanted to run Obsidian Sanctum – which by the way they had a hilarious roar about afterwards when I asked where we had just been! No clue what instance we were in, I was just following along! (Hey I was confusing the name with the Sanctum of the Scaleborn from EQ2!)

Now that Sithi is no longer a raiding virgin even though she was pretty much carried by everyone else as my low dps was /cring worthy. The good points from the first time - the wolf only died twice, I didn’t personally overtax the healers, stayed out out of the flames and avoided spining circles! When the Recount was posted - I did out DPS the healers - lol!!!

It was a bit mortifying knowing the two ‘non-guildies’ were inspecting me and I’m sure whispering some of the guildies why is the nooblet in quest blues-greens/pvp gear here? But they’re “stand strong” on guild support over pick-up people which I like!

They kept telling me, it’s the only way you’re going to learn, you're part of the guild, etc. I told them well if you're going to laugh, do it in whispers to each other or when I'm not in Vent! Not to feel good at someone else's expense, but it was a bit of a relief to listen in Vent to our guild healer questioning his performance against the pick-up healer that out healed him. I know topping DPS isn’t going to happen for me anytime soon, but please oh please let me always beat the healers – lol!

After that, Sithi did blow some savings on dual-specing MM (can't let go of BM), picked up a few gear enchants, glyph upgrades, gems, so hopefully tonight she’ll do a bit better.

The hardest part with the new spec - learning to play MM. The killing is quick - which is great - but pulling aggro off my gorilla, argh! We died so many times last night trying to solo as MM, Omen threat meters screaming at me (me screaming to myself waaa what do I do!!!), something we've never experienced in almost 50 levels! Last night was seriously pathetic.

So, lots of MM practice in the future. I finally switched back to BM to complete the solo quests. It was so nice and familiar, like putting on comfy shoes after wearing the not quite broken in ones!

The experiment in MM spec resulted in an 18g repair bill, almost a stack of Frostweave bandages used, a stack of the gorilla's favorite fruit, all the 'extra' food I had gone. So not having an actual account, we had to have died 5-15 times. That would be more than the last 10 levels combined.

How embarrassing - LOL

Colecting Keys

The other day the GM & Co-GM of our guild were discussing getting the Karazhan and Arcatraz keys so more guildies would have them, and they were also completing the Key Master Achievement. Lusting after achievements and keys myself, I waiting for an opportunity to see if others could get in on this too, without whining or begging!

As they were already through most everything short of the Caverns of Time instances, I assumed I would be out of luck, but then mentioned they wanted to take any of the guild this week to get keys too! W00t!! Me! Me! Me!

The GM said as long as I did all the pre-quests up to the first instances they’d include me! Oh yeah! Now mind you, this is 2 a.m. and I really need to go to bed...but I want this DONE! So, off I go to bang through those quests. Shat-SW-Kara-Dalaran-Shat, Netherstorm and all the prequesting accomplished! Love my gorilladin tank!

Last night I log in, the guild is in a funk. Bad Nax 10 raid, that is on the verge of breaking up. I sit quietly in vent, going about my dailies (working for $$ still). The raid finally is called. Moods are not very good and a few people log off. (I found out later one of the raiders was having more fun with Peggle then raiding! : O) Not good!!

The guys are discussing what they're going to do - ah ha opportunity - I mention “I got the pre-quests done whenever you guys go this week.” Now hold breathe.

Not a terribly enthusiastic response. The Co-GM who's normally very jovial in a M-rated way is dead silent, but the GM said we’ll run you through the instances and then continue on the CoT. Yeah! I do make the token, we can do it another time, if you'd like while crossing fingers they'll still want to go!

The GM says no, we'll go! Yippee! They invite another guildie that will get xp (lvl 70) so he can practice healing. Off we go to burn through those instances, two shaman, a druid and my hunter.

Shadow Labs is first up. Fairly smooth - I get turned into a frog by Blackheart the Inciter which was better than when he turned the tank against the dps and healer - lol!

Fortunately he's down fast and we’re breezing through it, except for the healer (lvl 70) that keeps pulling aggro as he’s jumping around. Finally I asked him,

“Do you have ADD?”

“No! But I can’t just stand here, nothing to heal.”

I’m thinking I don’t care if you jump but jump AWAY from the mobs that are so attracted to your level 70 goodness! Fortunately I'm watching him and keep the wolf pulling mobs off him.

We had one wipe, when he uses one of his AoE spells. I feigned, but accidently ‘moved’ (I need to practice when feigned hands OFF mouse and keyboard!) so died.

We ran back, killed Murmur and on to Steam Vaults and then to Netherstorm to Arcatraz. We blew through those too. A couple of remarks by me to the two draenei shammy's on the welcome home /sigh - they didn't get it! We were in out of there so quickly, it literally took longer to get there than the time spent in each instance!

Now to Caverns of Time.

Segue here –I must admit CoT is one of my favorite places to go. I’m a bit of a WoW lore junkie! The more I learn about the ‘whys’ of what we’re doing the more I enjoy questing, visiting areas and listening/reading NPC dialog. I particularly love going to Southshore in Old Hillsbrad just to watch the NPC’s interact. Freeing Thrall from Durnholde is fun for me. The whole story of Thrall, the slave, and Taretha, his only friend, bridging the human/orc hatred. It make questing alive to me and explains more of the whole Thrall/Jaine relationship - although I've wondered at times about those two ... I mean, Horde players go to Tarren Mills and do the Durnholde quests, but I doubt many realize why it’s rubble, and why you’re collecting Taretha’s necklace. Interesting stuff!

Back to our adventure - so, the Co-GM’s brother joins our group for more firepower, so the group is Druid tank, two Shaman dps, Shaman heals and my Hunter/wolf. Needless to say this went very quickly, as the ‘new shaman’ is 22K health unbuffed – scary hits! Everything died so fast and there were so many totems strewn around it looked like a party! The druid tank couldn’t build rage effectively it went that fast! But it was fun. The healer had no healing to do so more jumping and totem tossing was his role.

Off to Black Morass. At first I thought we were in the Swamp of Sorrows as I’ve never been in the Black Morass instance, so didn’t know exactly what to expect. Surprise, we get to meet Medivh at the Dark Portal and found out this was the Blasted Lands before they were blasted, dried out and ugly!

From a strictly lore basis, you have to question why we’d want to help Medivh open the Portal, but the Keepers of Time hint at it being the lesser of two evils. The orcs wouldn’t have arrived on Azeroth, but would the Burning Legion have arrived anyway? Hmmmm…

Good times! Kara key in hand, Arcatraz key later this week!

GM has his KeyMaster achievement, so he’s happy too. They want to see how fast we can run through Kara this week too. I’m willing, as I’m still new to this guild, they’re fun in a casual/relaxed way so it makes WoW so much more enjoyable.

I may actually enjoy raiding – won’t that be a kick?