The Exodar

No one goes to The Exodar on purpose, right?   It looks like an explosion in a cotton candy factory or a Barbie meets Hello Kitty nightmare.

I'm late to the game (literally and figuratively lol), but I have a growing appreciate of The Exodar.

Did you know the Hall of Lights was a hologram museum?  Complete with a tour!  Keg running ot the bank saw a group of Draenai wandering around, so curiousity demanded he follow them.  They stopped at one of the holograms, and all of sudden a description of what we were looking at popped on the screen!

 How cool is that?  

Keg and Widget  joined the tour.  

I love the details like this in WoW.  I honestly think so many people zoom through the game and miss so much of the rich lore, design, cities, etc., that make up Azeroth.

Kudos to the designers/developers on this one.

Sithi is 70!

Did it!  Sithi dinged 70 out in Nagrand while farming knothide and clefthoof.



But as soon as she dinged it was off to Shadowmoon for that flying mount! She chose the snowy gryphon , for some reason she has a strong preference for white pets!

Now that she can fly - she's hovering over Shattarath while I work on some of the other characters.

She's still 15 mounts away from her albino drake. 48 more AB's, 22 WG for her to obtain the last two Battleground mounts. Kurenai rep for all the Talbuks (only honored now). A couple other non-epic flying mounts will get her closer. Then its the big $$ save for epic flying mount, artisan skills . . .

Duel Boxing or Multi-Boxing

I've been playing with duel-boxing and find it to be alot of fun.  I dabbled in this is EQ2, and while it can be a bit harder, is definitely lots of fun!

I took one of my Death Knights and spent the weekend running instances to gear up a few of the gang.  They ran Dead Mines, Wailing Caverns, Blackfathom Deep and Stocks - a couple a few times. It's actually quite fun, and only one death on the last boss in WC as I wasn't paying attention to his aggro. So all the quest greens are being replaced by blues and we're getting lots of items for the Enchanter to d/e and cloth, ore's, etc.

As I have enjoyed this on a desktop/laptop combo - in a jury-rigged fashion (two keyboards, etc.) I knew there had to be better ways to duel-box. I googled duel boxing and found Duel-Boxing.com, so I've been studying that and have been working on trying to set up three-boxing. I've downloaded KeyClone and the addon Jamba. I've started 3 lvl 1 Mages to test the setup out tonight. I think it will take some work to get things running right. I also searched YouTube - lots of good videos there as well!

I know if I'm going to I want to play different classes, not 3 of a kind.  I don't have any goal of arena's, etc., it would be purely for my own entertainment!

I'm so tempted to try the 5 box, although I'm not sure my rig will take it - and I'm not sure how much I want to invest in another aspect of my addiction - lol!!!  But it's tempting.

We'll see . . .

Warsong Gulch 10-19

Keggard dipped his toe in the 10-19 bracket as a semi-twink! Didn't do to bad at level 18.  I'm not sure I have the desire for complete twinkage as I don't want to 2v2, or feel the need to one-shot level 10's.  It is nice though to not die quite so easily  - lol!!  

The big BUT - I need to learn to NOT argue with the @#$#^ twinks that hate everyone but themselves. Most seem to be okay but there always has to be one in almost every BG - the guy that constantly types negative things about eveyone else, and how unfortunate the are to be in this BG, etc.  The one the other day, OMG!!!  Irritating beyond.  No one but him knew how to play, no one but him could play, no one but him was worthy of being in that BG.  We were all (all 9 of us) eight year old nubs that couldn't follow direction.  So, I had to point out to him that as I was an eight year old nub (he couldn't spell well either), I most definitely could NOT follow direction as I was too in awe of his 1337 abilities!  It degraded from there - lol!  I finally apologized to the rest of my team for the wall of text argument and /ignored that jerk for the rest of the game.

I'm practicing a new mantra - of ignore them, ignore them, ignore them - so I won't feel the need to get down to their level of stupid. They always win. /sigh

Here he is with new pet spider - Widget.  Both Widget and Jack (hyena) are making appearances in Warsong Gulch.

test post

Test post. Having major issues getting the Wowhead tooltips to show up regularly so this is just a test.

Tusker this one is not wanting to link, attempt 4,365 . . .

Mana potion

Throat piercers

Pet taming day . . .

Found this post from last month . . .

I was flying over the Barrens on an alt and caught sight of Humar, lolling under a tree! Yeah!!! Quickly decided which hunter could get there fastest - the benefit of so many LOL!

Sithi being in Shattarath was the best choice. So she said grabbed Kelethin - her former favorite white cat (that grew black stripes in the major patch and I’ve detested since) hurried to The Barrens and tamed Humar.

Happily flying back to Theramore, I was reading Petopia (ZOMG what a fantastic resource!!) and was reading about the gorillas and thought maybe I should try one of those. They are suppose to be good tanks, and I've never tried one. Hmmm. Well if I'm getting one, it has to be the rare white, Uhk’loc in Un’Goro Crater.

Off we go! Stable our new kitty - the 'new' Kelethin (Kelethin is from the EQII elf area), grab a temporary pet and into the gorilla cave. I figured reading Thottbot that it would be hours if at all and was going to be a shot in the dark - surprise within 15 minutes I had Holiday eating grapes and killing her former buddies as we left.

I have to say the gorillas really can tank and hold aggro. We completed all the Nessingwary quests in Nagrand solo at lvl 65-6 and even took down Tusker (32,000 health!), although Holiday died halfway through and I ended up kiting Tusker to Talaar! We still gave it a good go!

Love that butt scratching ape!

89% to Level 70

Yes I'm at 89% to level 70 - use to be an achievement dinging 70, but now its just another level on the road to endgame . . . or so I'm told! I've been slowly leveling as there have been other things to do.

• Farming low level leather for alts gear (SFK for leather and greens works well)
• Running instances for the enchanter to have stuff to d/e (Why am I leveling an Enchanter I keep asking myself!!!)
• Exploration - Eastern Kingdom almost done (STV left)
• Farming mats for a few leather upgrades for Sithi (knothide/clefthide . . . argh)
• Battlegrounds - they're definitely more fun when you're in the '9th level of a bracket! Even with the overabundance of Death Knights - which have really imbalanced BGs - I'm grinding AB/WG! Yes I said grinding (I normally enjoy BG's, but lately . . . argh), as I want the last two mounts for yet another achievement! I need 45 more AB marks and 24 more WG ones for those two. I repeat albino drake, albino drake while I play/die/play/die! Sitting at 35 mounts right now, with the flying ones to come!

I also had a lucrative pet selling business, until last week, with Kreliss, my horde shopper/bank as he went to toon heaven.  Having Krel buy and put on the neutral AH, buy and resell on the Alliance side started not to make money but to get the darn pets for the Pet Achievement (43 companions and counting!), but when I found out how much I could make and how easy . . . well its turned into a nice money-maker this past month on a second account! 

It also has been nice to access both sides AH - Darrowmere the low pop server I transferred to - is NOT Wildhammer by any means! But that's another long QQ post!  Between WoW's laggy performance and my fitful DSL line, there have been many #$%#$% moments!!!

Krel's other parting gift to my Alliance hunters - I ran all three over to tame Echaykee as I do think it's a pretty kitty and as it's a Horde only quest line to summon him, I tamed him on ALL three just in case!!!!

So here I sit at 89% to level 70.  I've been collecting gear and enchants for the day I ding.  Money's in the bank for flying skills and mounts.  But I want to finish the Explorer portion of Azeroth before dinging - flying will make Outlands easy to finish.

Then the decision - do all the Outlands quests or off to Northrend and save Outlands for later . . . decisions, decisions.

More Exploration

I've almost completed Eastern Kingdom - STV left! Apparently with all the questing you do in STV, I still managed to miss 4 places! So back I go. I'm really enjoying the Exploration Achievement. As you progress though, I've seen places I hadn't before - and seen alot of potential for future expansions (free content please!!) in WoW's future!

Dream Bough, Feralas

There are all these 'dragonkin' locations with portals to the Emerald Dream.  I do hope it will be a fun expansion if/when it comes - not just end game raiding zones.

I forgot to screen shot my glorious death off the Twin Colossals in Feralas - truth be told I didn't know you could go ontop and parachute off - visit Night Elf, Marli Wishrunner.

Using the parachute at the right time is the trick - lol! It was fun watching my gorilla race me to the bottom though.  They've added a closer graveyard which saves the long run it use to be from the Alliance from Feathermoon Stronghold!

Altar of Storms, Blasted Lands

This is tucked back out of the way!  But I must admit my questing Blasted Lands has been fairly limited.

I must admit though, I'm a bit odd in that I won't go to Outlands unless my characters have 'earned the right' - LOL!  So, if they can't make it through the Portal they're doomed to zep/boat/flights without the quick hop up and down from Shat!  

Grim Batol, Wetlands

Dragonkin guarding the entrance, then this huge - begging-to-be-made-into-something place!!  Wetlands has a few off the beaten path places that I've had fun questing and exploring as Alliance.  

Plus I remember my first Horde run to Ulduman - crazy trying to get there with a map that didn't show how (my first characters did the fogged out map!).  The tunnels between the Wetlands and Loch Modan - that was fun - dodging guards, trying to figure out where they went - lol!  I was so glad when I finally had that flightpath completed.

First pet . . .

 Way back (or it seems a long time ago . . .) when I made my first hunter, I mostly definitely fell under the name 'huntard' as I was totally clueless as to what a good hunter did. 

1. I didn't really like the class, having just max leveled a Shadow Priest I thought hunter was easy mode!
   
2. The class was overplayed - you tripped over hunters - most really badly played 
   
3. How hard could it be - you have a pet and shoot things
   
4. Kiting, chain trapping, jump shots - huh???

So, I muddled through my first 10 levels to get to tame a pet that was the goal - tame that pet!  I did the taming training, and ended up (as a Blood Elf) with the start area cat.  Boring!  I love cats, but in the Belf area - a dime a dozen.  I want exotic!  Interesting!  Unusual!  Where do they hide those ones?

Google for the win!  Up pops the site name Petopia!  Must have good information, right?  Wrong!!!  It has fantastic information!  It is one of the best resources for hunters out there IMHO!  So, wanting a cool pet (at level 11), I searched PETOPIA and a whole world opened up!  (Blogs and links on how to be a hunter too - that's a whole 'nother eye opener for this noob-hunter!  People actually studied to be hunters!!!   Oh my naive days!)  

Back to taming - So I'm thrilled with all this pet information. and have narrowed the 'new and unique' pets a level 11 can tame and settle on an owl and a ravager.  Both deep in the Alliance start areas - I figured those are it!  Definitely don't see those every day in Orgrimmar!  

At this point in my WoW playing, I had not played on the Alliance side past level 4 (things have changed - lol!), but then I was Horde all the way!  The only time I saw alliance was when I was fighting - battlegrounds, world pvp, etc., I didn't even know how the Alliance travelled around at that time - by boat?  Who knew?  So getting to Darnassus or The Exodar was going to be an interesting adventure!  

I decide to get an Owl first.  It was lower level and would need additional training (this was back in the you need to level and train skills by taming other beasts pre-Wrath era, no auto five levels below you, etc.), so I'd have to tame other beasts for the additional skills - a bird for dive, something for bite, etc.   As the Strigid owls on Darnassus (now classes in the Birds of Prey family in WoW), were the only low level Owl family.  The next group were available at level 48!  Definitely have to get one of these!   How cool to have for many, many levels!!!

So, I have my quarry's name and location -the Night Elf island of  Darnassus – more specifically in Taldrassil the start area.  We can do this!

I asked around and was told that at my level 11 could get to Darnassus via The Barrens to Ashenvale to Darkshore to Auberdine. 

Once there, I was suppose to swim out under the dock avoiding people, guards, mobs in the water and drown myself under the boat on the dock (frankly I was lucky on the boat pick as I didn’t know there were three boats!).  Then ghost run back onto the dock and rez on the ship, hoping they're wouldn't be any Alliance taking the boat ride to Darnassus.  This was on a PvP server and before guards were on boats/zeps, so easy peazy, right?

Off I go (definitely a huntard at that point!), level 11, crap gear, no idea where I’m going but off to get an owl!   Armed with a general idea of where the Alliance docks are in Darkshore.  I confess I swam half the way as I figured I wouldn't miss the dock then!  Oh yea - no one told me about the temporary pet idea - which would have helped immensely with the Loch Ness Monsters guys in the water near the docks!   

The long, long, long trip resulted in many deaths - a wolf in Ashenvale; three deaths on the road from high level Alliance one shotting me (love PvP servers); a few by guards on and around the dock in Abuerdine.  But I was rezzed on the ship with no Alliance - almost home!

Oh yea, they forgot to mention that gorgeous glowing pink gate into Darnassus!  Try getting off the dock and sneaking up to look for an entrance, aggro guards, dead again - back in Auberdine sneak on the boat again . . . well you get the picture!  By the time I made it through the gate to die inside Darnassus which rezzes you in Taldarassil, my armor and weapon were completely red and I got killed by a level 7 with a bow!!  Thank goodness he didn't camp me, as all I could do was punch him.  When I rezzed I just ran and hid - LOL!!

I did get my owl though!   Zamir (he unfortunatel has been on ice as I've been loving the Alliance lately) was my experiment in Hunters.  He tamed, Elsa the Owl, Fluffy the ravager, and Honor, his boar (Bellygrub) along with a series of temporary pets that taught the others their skills.  The run through Duskwood for a higher level bite on a Worg was another funny story.   

That experience though made me try other hunter classes - and started that love affair with the hunter class! 

Since that time I’ve learned the tricks to taming and traveling without too many deaths, and have tamed most pet families since then.  I'm working my way through the Exotics with a second account spec'd 51 for Beast Mastery for the exotics).  

I'm purposely dragging my feet on the Wrath Expansion, and don't plan to spend time there until Spring.   I rushed through content the first two times - no more!  So, whenever I get around to exploring Northrend the devilisaur, King Krush is on the list to tame!  Can't trap him, he has fears - ahhh it shall be an exciting one!

The Guild

Love the show -  The Guild - OMG!  

Anyone that plays MMORPG games can related to most if not all the characters of The Guild.  It is so funny.