It’s jumpin’, there’s a buzz in the air, people are feelin’ stirrin’s deep doon and its like some sort o’ adrenaline rush goin’ aroon.  Old friends are poppin’ up, people are goin’ back to their roots… Everyone’s heard that there’s somethin’ brewin’ up north and they’re sortin’ their afairs.  It’s excitin’ but ah’m no half feelin’ that ah could be doin’ wi’ a quiet corner and a wee pint an’ a hauf.

Pets, mounts, achievements, inscriptions, new pets, new talent trees, new spells, new addons, new layouts, new everything!

On top of that, every five minutes someone asks “what’s a lexicon of power” followed shortly by “and where do  I find that?”.  Inscriptions are making stupid amounts of gold on my server (especially the few minors available) and people are asking a million questions about the who, where what and why of them. Oh and people complaining about the spam caused by people getting achievements.  Especially when you take 10 people to do the Leeeerroooyyy! one and everyone’s achievement hits the guild at once…

Things have been utterly crazy.  I know it’s all a little ‘old news’ now but, personally, I’m only just coming off of the new-content high!

And then they decided to hit us with Hallows End, too.  Evil buggers! More on that in another post.  On that note - expect a little pick-up in posting from now on.  Despite a rash of unfortunate circumstances and busyness combined with a little bit of writers ‘doubt’ I am slowly working myself back into the writing saddle (and dear god how many metaphors did I murder there?).

Coherency, right.  Well, this post is a quick roundup of the smaller things which won’t get a post of their own in the coming few days or so.

Patch went pretty nicely for us Europeans - most of our realms were only an hour late coming up and, although we’ve had a few outages, and a little experience of the mount and pet bug (where they ‘disappeared’) things have been otherwise relatively less failurefull than the usual major patch.

Oh, except the ding every two minutes as everyone completes an achievement.

Haircut Stuff

Matt challenged people to post their changed ‘do’s’ so here are the three I changed (I can’t bear to change Aurik - there’s no hairstyle which I think looks better on him).

Avarix

Went for a very similar look here but I wanted a floofier ponytail as I was sick of the current one I had ’sticking’ to my back.

Jhai

Jhai’s let her hair out and grown it out a bit.  Was getting a bit tired of her ’schoolgirl’ look - something I hadn’t anticipated when I made her (the look, not the geting tired of, ahem)

Dryn

At first I was going to leave Dryn as-is but I decided, screw it, he needed a change and, to be honest, I’m glad I did. Of course, 7gold+ seems a bit steep for getting someone to tie your hair back!

Achievements Stuff

Whilst I will write an extended post on my thoughts on later, I was quite pleased to have achieved one particular goal not long after the patch:

• Ambassador of the Alliance

Of course, I’m equally saddened that I didn’t quite get:

• Shop Smart, Shop Pet Smart

48 pets… and probably hours of grinding red whelps in the vain hope one would drop for me.  Of course, I was delighted to have grabbed a Firefly (something I’ve wanted for ages).  I’m hoping to grab myself a [Sinister Squashling] and a [Magical Crawdad Box] (another pet I utterly adore) to make up the last two.  Of course the latter requires several other achievements to come first, such as Master Fishing!

Hunter Stuff

Talking of pets, Dryn spent a whole lot of time hanging around the Barrens after the patch. I had been checking over my usual pet-lover-haunt to pick which of the nice, shiny new pets I wanted.  I picked out a nice Netherskate and went off to tame it.  When I was browsing, though, a familiar face cropped up.  Takk.

Now, Takk and my hunters (yes, multiple, I keep starting them and abandoning them around level 20-30…) have a long history.  My first ever WoW char, even before Aurik, was a Moo Hunter called Ouranosin.  He made it to his 21st level before I rerolled to play with my other half on the alliance side.  I had seen the raptors the game had and thought ‘hey those are funky, I wants one!’ and saw that Takk, a lovely, black skinned raptor, would make a perfect companion to my pure white bull Tauren.   It took me a looong time - Takk was a rare, hit hard and fast and I was, to put it bluntly, a noob.  The kind of noob hunter who is up there alongside their pet hitting with their weapons! /sigh

The next few hunters also aimed for Takk but all ended up getting something else (Ghost Cat, Tallstrider, Wolf) as they bypassed the level to get Takk.  Dryn has had a Tallstrider (Aoi) and then a Carrion Bird (Horizon) as his main pets as well as, briefly, his ZG tiger (Monsoon).  Sadly I had to let Monsoon go but I just wasn’t feeling close to him as a pet - cats aren’t really my thing.   I took him to STV and let him go before continuing on to Ratchet.

Cue spawn point camping, ala BRK. 3 days later and Dryn got himself a new companion and I’m glad I did.

The auto-level was the factor that spurred me to go after him now - I couldn’t have levelled him enough before with how little I play my hunter- but level 65 is a fine level of pet for a marks hunter who pretty much only grinds and I now have a companion who I’m truly happy with - and in a small homage to the kitty I’d had to let go I’ve named my new raptor Typhoon.

I also have to say that since the patch I’ve been enjoying my hunter immensely… He’d always been my ‘gather bot’ character whom I didn’t bother to gear beyond lucky drops (*coughspear*cough)  and I hadn’t really ‘enjoyed’ the hunter class so much but now I’m really feeling the love - I have a tonne of new toys and, I must say, misdirect, readiness, misdirect, is just insanely nice when you have a slightly lesser equipped tank and some t6 dps!

Look ma, I’ma big hunter now! *ahem* ( big thanks to those in BA chat who helped me spec him on patch day!).

Epic Stuff

No, not the wearing kind, the skill kind!  I’d been dithering for a while about getting Avarix an epic mount.  My shammy is my main now but he’s still fluttering about on a slow flyer.  He has no gathering skills, though, and rarely ‘goes anywhere’ as he’s done questing etc.  However, the last few days have shown how annoying it is to be stuck back on a slow flyer for questing and so, when I went to pick up the trick-or-treat candy in Shadowmoon Valley I couldn’t resist and spent the windfall I’d made from inscription to pick Avarix up a shiny new mount.

All I can say is wheee~~

I’m sure I’ve forgotten something I meant to add here but I’m too eager to begin a few other posts I have in mind to work on this one too long *ahem*.

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It’s rainin’ cats and.. cats. Hehe. See what ah did there? … don’t look at me like that… No even a wee laugh? Bah.

Ugh, I’m always soooo late about posting stuff. Ergh, oh well. So, I was reading Bre’s post on the competition and noticed a name left by Fikkle. Monsoon. Monsoon… Totally fell in love with the name and, handily, Bre decided to go for something else so I just damn well pickpocketed it right from her comments! So, Dryn’s new kitty-cat is now named Monsoon. Thanks to everyone else who suggested names!

And she’s level 63! What a pretty kitty - look at those eyes (and yay for transporter Malfunctions). Also, I’ve found a very fun place to level her - I need Fel Armaments / Marks and I can fight the mobs for them without my kitty having to get squished! It’s a nice spot in SMV at Legion Hold and normally a good grinding area because of the fast respawns and 8 out of the 12 mobs (around the three pillars) can be killed by a hunter from the ramparts around them - more if you have the range boost talent. Just remember to take lots of bandages!

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Bloody dragged me intae the jungle. The Jungle! Wi’ trolls and snakes and all that sorta thing. Tae get… a tiger. A big, bloody, toothy tiger. If ah had known whit it wis he was ‘wanting a hand with’ before he dragged me tae Stranglethorn Vale I’d have told him tae go jump off a waterfall! He says it’s fer a competition wi’ the rather tasty dwarfette, Breana. Big skinny git has nae chance against a good dwarf woman!

Bre paraphrased the conversation she and I had rather well here. Basically we both wanted new kitty pets for our hunters (Without gettin’ the black-with-silver-stripes one from Terrokkar that everyone and their aunt has) and decided on Zul’Gurub ones. Ick! levelling them through to 70 is boring but not… if you’re competing! Arharhar! Starting today (Monday 2nd Jun) we’re going to see who can get their kitty to max level fastest.

Now, I went to get my kitty on Friday knowing I’d be out all weekend and that often Monday is a quiet guild day (hard to grab someone to form a raid). I told Bre and she conceded she’d trust me not to cheat but I likes to have my proof so this morning I asked the following in the BA chat:

So, Noobie and Softi are my witnesses! As you can see in the screenie there be no xp and no loyalty gain. I fed the kitty enough to make her hapyness go green so she’d not run away if something odd happened. Yay for goldseller spam. *Ahem*.  Yes, I do use grid on my hunter. And I have no macros. I am a huntard! What more do you expect from a grind-bot!?

Naming

I also have the usual problem of needing a name for my beauty! Any suggestions are appreciated - I’ve decided my kitty is a ’she’ so female names or, rather, no majorly masculine ones. Like Bob. I would like something jungle-ey or troll-ey or exotic-ey. She’s a tiger, for goodness sakes! Of course she needs an exotic name. I was vaguely thinking of Suma but it doesn’t quite come off the tongue ‘right’.

Anyways, Bre, you better get levelling fast! *wink*

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Thon over-tall elfy git told me he wis gettin’ tae the peak o’ his game. I told him he still was a long way off of that, no matter whether he had finished his trainin’ or not!

“Bah…. no motivation to level my hunter… he’s 10% into 69 and it’s taken months to get here from 60…”

“I’ll give you ten gold if you beat me to 70!”

“How far into 69 are you?”

“60%”

“… … …”

*LEVELS*

It honestly was so much fun! I never did beat him (there wasn’t much chance) but I did only have three bubbles left to go by the time he got to 70! A few hours later and my little baby hunter became a little grown-up hunter. Yipes.

Good Intentions

Dryn has had a bit of an odd ‘life’. I started him with the sole intention of being a gatherbot for me - I needed a herber and figured I’d take skinning too, to make some gold. His journey to 70, though, taught me a few things about what I like and dislike in WoW - specifically regarding levelling.

1-58 I levelled Dryn as I had levelled most other characters - running quickly through quests with a vague eye on Jaime’s levelling guide (I prefer to deviate as my play sessions are often shorter or I don’t like a quest hub etc. etc.) However, I knew once I got to 58 I could, theoretically, be a reasonable gatherbot already!

Grinding vs. Questing

I had decided to only level through quests in Hellfire and then level via grinding to maximise gold from quests, later, and to maximise the time spent herbing / etc. on the character. I spent a long time grinding bog lords - reading whilst auto-shotting, herbing, retarget, send pet, auto-shot etc. and got utterly, utterly bored. I cracked and blasted a level or two via quests. I think Iwas about 65 - I decided to go to Nagrand and grind there for shadow motes. Same thing. Bored.

Now, I can happily grind when I know the outcome will benefit me mats wise etc. but it seemed that adding the element of levelling made it seem more painful - I figure, possibly, this had something to do with the fact that XP gain through levelling is so damn slow at that level.

Anyways, I had been doing this on and off, long phases of grinding interspersed with small bunches of quests until the above conversation. I had not enjoyed my hunter in a long time but, in those few hours, I really did.

I prefer questing. I prefer blasting through goals in smaller chunks which make me move around a bit and keep me from being bored whilst watching the XP creep up. Stacking quests - doing a number which coincide goals-wise with each other - and then handing them in all at once is a real pleasure and works well with WoW’s usual habit of rewards for time spent.

Gathering vs. Crafting

The one thing I had done different to usual as I levelled to 58 was take dual gathering. Never again. Half of what I love in WoW is the crafting side of it! I dropped skinning before I hit Outlands and power-levelled Engineering. Again. Ugh. But! It brought about the benefits of healing + mana potion injectors (I’m woefully low on bagspace) and got me Goggles + Zapthrottle Mote Extractor. i.e. > Another farming tool with a crafting profession. Win-win, in my opinion.

I know a lot of people prefer to grind or instance than to quest but personally I love it when I’m in the groove and blasting through quests - only stopping to get some recipe or craft some upgrade or maybe to grind enough rep for a non-combat pet!

In General

Blizzard seem to be trying to make some more quests which are deviations on the norm - unusual mechanics or npc interactions have been sprinkled quite frequently through new quest areas (including those added to Dustwallow). I’m thinking I might do a few posts looking at interesting / unusual quests and quest lines.

Still, some quests just seem a waste of time, boring or badly designed (I have to be hit by mobs to gain electrical charges for this quest? As a BM hunter!? Wut?). Even so, I find them more interesting, on the whole, than grinding. Going to stop rambling now at it’s 7am and I’ve not slept yet!

p.s Shortly before hitting 70 Dryn ’switched sides’ in more ways than one due to his first transporter malfunction! <3 Engineering!

/sandwich

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Some things ye just don’t see comin’…

I had totally never noticed that male night elves and female dwarves shared a very similar ‘directed’ spell animation. Just struck me as amusing. Yes, I’m easily amused.

Modelling this fact is my hunter and a certain person’s new Dwarf rogue! We’ve gone through both Deadmines and Wailing Caverns for a laugh and some quick XP and I have to say it’s been quite fun for me. I love running through and one-shotting the denizens of each place - though I’m a bit of an evil host - “Stand there and don’t even think about moving or, goodness forbid, hitting something!”.

I used to love boosting my friends through various places on my druid but rogues are not good at boosting and resto shammies are only slightly better. Hunters are a nice middle ground - I can’t AoE taunt or pick up as many mobs as my druid could but I can pick them off without having to get up close and personal.

I miss having a tank…

/me Sneaks onto his new druid.

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Do ye remember thon’ we hunter? Aye the Night Elf lad. Well, dae y’ken he’s in Outlands now? I know, who’d have thought! Seem’s hes doin’ well for himself, too.

Every time I update anything about Dryn he seems to have leapt a great deal forward - He’s now level 65 and has been out getting himself a new pet:

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