Ok, so, this post is terribly late as usual but the madness of levelling and new content and whatnot has distracted me even further.

I hit level 80 around 2am last Friday, deliberately making it a discovery-ding (the best kind!)  Looks kind of awesome getting that ding spell effect in the air, too!

I skipped Howling Fjord and Sholazar so I have something new for my alts to go through - I was rather glad I spent my last level and a half in Storm Peaks as it has some awesome quests and some pretty interesting utilisations of the new quest mechanics and vehicle technology which I might otherwise have left until ‘later’ to do (much like I find it hard to be motivated to do Icecrown after the mammoth levelling session I’ve just completed…).

Also, if I hadn’t levelled in Storm Peaks I might not have nabbed this pretty yet:

If you’re thinking that the [Reins of the White Polar Bear] (really, did they have to specify white?) looks a little small you’d be right - here’s a comparison versus the brown armored mount you can buy in Dalaran (thanks to Grav for modelling with his bear!):

Of course, only  a few days after that we’re all given a baby polar bear!  Khi was as delighted as I was and promptly took a rather nice screenie!

I’m a little overloaded at the moment and now that I’m 80 I’m trying not to overdo it too much - we’ve got long road ahead of us and I see no point in running to the end just to wait and get bored - some might see the road as ending at 80 but not me, nosir.  I’ve done my running, I’ve tired myself out and now is the time to go at a slow and steady pace.  Ok, I think I’ve probably worked that metaphor to death now…

Like many others I also started a Death Knight.  Despite plans to start a little dwarfette, I played around on the beta and came to the decision to roll a draenei.  I know, I know, I love my dwarves but sadly the dwarven animations look rather old compared to the shiny new draenei ones and I really, really, can’t stand the female dwarf casting animations.  I deleted my poor, forgotten, level 11 mage and brought her back as an undead killing machine.  They share looks and names so, in my mind, my mage ‘became’ a Death Knight and I’m levelling her with that in mind.  When I say levelling, though, I mean leaving her to build up rest-xp in Hellfire.  *ahem*

Azmoo also rolled a female draenei death knight and I ran over to meet him to see how closely they resembled one another.   Could almost be sisters, it seems, hehe…

My girl is the one in the middle - she shares a look with the progenitor of the name I also gave her - a female toll warrior I have on Sporeggar - Yjin (silent j!).  I’ll be updating the blog with her profile soon and updating my outdated character page.  I might also add something to th sidebar as I feel having Aurik at the top of the page and doing posts about healing has confused people as to what class I play (I’ve seen a few references to myself as a paladin, hehe).

I’m really in the mood to draw one of my chars doing something cool in Northrend but I’m not sure what yet! Any ideas on the back of a comment and posted below, please! *ahem*

Other than that I’ve been trying to motivate myself to finish off some quests for rep, poke about herbing on my hunter, and do every heroic I can.  I’ve respecced to resto (I was just getting to enjoy elemental, dual specs can’t come fast enough, goddamnit!) but I’m actually gathering off-spec enhance gear again - I’d really like to try it out as it now looks a lot more interesting than I felt it was before.

Enough of the rambling from me - back to playing!

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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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Well, ah huv tae admit.. ah’m fond o’ havin’ a wee critter or two aroon’ the hoose.  Especially mah wee dragon - it’s like a part o’ the family, ken?  Still, seems some types are goin’  a wee bit overboard - the headquarters here is overflowin’ wi’ a’ sorts o’ critters!

Things have been a bit quiet around here, I apologise.  Between a bad cold and some in-game activities (like running all over the world in search of pets) I’ve not had time to post.  Hopefully things should return to normal some time next week when my cold will hopefully subsided and I’ll have oh-so-much I want to talk about!

So - pets! I’m a bit mad about them - maybe not so much as some but I likes to hoard and napture any I can get my paws on.  Each of my characters has a signature pet or one which means something particular to them, or is special to them even if only by virtue of being ‘first’.  Mharai had her [Magical Crawdad Box],  Avarix has his [Scorched Stone], Jhai has her [Captured Flame] and Aurik has his [Sprite Darter Egg].

Overachieving

Any others who are pet mad will know of the new achievement in Wrath which requires you to collect 50 pets.  But what about those who like pets and maybe have a few stashed here or there and maybe want to quickly make up the difference, or those over-achieving completionists who must have every achievement available but have never really been into pets before?

I just thought I’d post some quick resources and tips for those who don’t already have vast collections, much as I did not before last week.

Two of the best places to get pet information are, undoubtedly, warcraftpets and the wowwiki page on small pets.  Both have comprehensive lists of the available pets and their relative rarity.

You best ’starter set’ will come from getting all faction starter pets - they require no rep, only the time to go and grab them from whichever hermit, crazy lady, random vendor or emo undead guy happens to ‘breed’ them.  A trip to your own or the neutral auction house means you may also be able to grab some cross-faction pets and if you have no luck with this then you might consider a post on your realm forum asking some people from the other faction to list them.

Most of the rest of the pets available, though, require rep, grinding, or quests.  Some simple ones would be the chicken quest in Westfall (available to horde with some alliance help), and going to The Deadmines for a green wing macaw.  Harder quests include the Lower Blackrock Spire Worg pup / Spiderling quests (soloable as a stealth class or those classes with some form of survivability - I did it as a resto shaman, aggroing only three groups and each time using an elemental to save my rear) and rep grinds such as Sha’tari Skyguard (which has very few dailies and only small increments from mob kills.  Getting a firefly, hyacinth macaw or any of the dragons will take some considerable grinding unless you’re lucky.

Reputation / Skills

Now is a good time to do some dual purpose grinding - Exalted with Sporeggar and Sha’tari Skyguard both give access to pets (plus tabards) and hunting whelps has such a wide level range that you can almost always be skilling up skinning.  Want that white kitten from Lil’ Timmy?  Get your fishing pole out and get some skill points whilst you wait for him to spawn!

Gaining fishing skill means you can have a shot, eventually, at catching Mr. Pinchy and you might as well do the Crocolisks in the City fishing daily if it pops up as that gives you yet another chance at a pet which you cannot get from any other source.

I’ve gained almost 200 skill points in skinning, 50-60 in fishing and gotten a faction exalted just whilst going for this achievement and I expect to get another faction soon - I’ve also seen bits of the world I’ve not seen for ages.

Cross Faction Sales

This is the time for many enterprising individuals to make a pretty penny by grabbing some pets and travelling to their local cross-faction Auction House.  Even better if you are able to get a hold of them and sell them at an even higher price on your faction auction houses to avid collecters!

Critter Collections

I know a lot of people recently have been posting their various hoards of ore or herbs and the like so here I offer my hoard: pets! I have two sets - pets for my druid and pets for my shaman - and this screenshot is now a few days old so I’ve added some engineering pets to it as well as a white kitten carrier.  This of course does not include the around 12 or so pets each character has in their bags / banks so both characters are well on their way to the achievement come patch day.  You don’t even want to see our guild bank after three of us decided to put some ’spares’ in for other guild members, hehehe.

Only a few days left until the patch, though, so you better be fast if you haven’t started your collection!  Wrath should make it a lot easier to meet the 50 pets needed, though, so if you don’t want to run all over the world doing silly quests and sillier grinds then you might want to hold off.  Happy hunting!

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Sometimes ye know ye have the right tool fer the job - and ye know that cos ye kept it away in a corner when ye really shoulda thrown it oot! (and so the missus told ye five times).  Some things ah cannae bear tae part with - even if it means bein’ creative aboot findin’ a place for it.

Siha, over at Banana Shoulders, has asked us what we have kicking about our inventories which we don’t want to delete or vendor.  I didn’t think I could keep it to a sensible length for a comment so I figured I’d make a post about it.  This may be the first of several nostalgia-esque posts that seem to have crept into my mind in the last few weeks.

First off, I am a ‘mid-level’ hoarder.  I keep a lot of things - especially on the classes on which I enjoy more than one spec - but I am prone to ‘clear outs’ where I delete a pile of things which I no longer need.  I was never fortunate enough to gain tier armour from Pre-Burning Crusade so I don’t have that big a bag-space commitment for old gear but there are a few things that are taking up space which I can’t bring myself to give up.

Gear:

[Bloodrazor] + Letter
This sword was given to me by my other half who found it whilst grinding in Western Plaguelands.  The sword, plus the letter it came with, have their own special spot in my bank.

[Wolfshead Helm]
Given to me by the awesome Az, this helm became a staple of mine for grinding all the way from when I could first equip it until I hit Outlands.  Having this helm, with outfitter set to auto-switch it out after going into form, meant lots of energy and rage right at the start of combat.

Idols / Totems

I never throw any of these out, ever.  It’s one of those… things.  They seem connected to my characters in a way other equipment is not.

[Sang'thraze the Deflector]
I have this on my druid in the odd, odd hope that one day I will get [Jang'thraze the Protector] whilst boosting someone and can make them into [Sul'thraze the Lasher] … so that it can continue to sit in my bank and do nothing!

5 ‘Slow’ Mounts

I can never bear to get rid of my old mounts even if I never use them - I think I’ve only ever deleted one and it was an Alterac Valley Ram which I had only bought to get rid of some tokens… and even then I felt bad about doing it.  It’s a little silly but I wish they’d term it something different to ‘delete’ when it concerns pets / mounts.

Pets

Those of the non-combat variety.  I find it hard to delete any of these, even if I know that they’re only going to sit and gather dust.  I try to keep one or two in each characters bags to pull out when bored.  There’s a list of the ones I have squirreled away here.

Other Random Stuff…

Nagrand Cherries, Voodoo Skull, Mirren’s Drinking Hat, Red Rose and Simple Wildflowers.  I just can’t bring myself to delete any of these because I might just ‘want’ or ‘need’ them for something.

Wow is a paradise for collectors items - they throw them at you with every event and make numerous things avaiable whose only use is, for the most part, to sit in your inventory.  After looking at all of these I feel little like I should be taking the time to mabe utilise some of the random things I have in my bank rather than just leaving them to rust but I bet that in a years time most, if not all, of them will still be there…

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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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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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Good fortune and may the elements embrace you. I hope you will not mind a small amount of reminiscing on my part… But as the wind likes to carry with it tales from other places so do I and I hope, somewhere, someone is listening as I do to that sweet susurrus. My journey is new but, I hope, not short.

These posts will happen from time to time - I love my alts and each and every one has presented new aspects of the game to me which I want to record and share for all.My usual answer to most “wtb healer for heroic x” in guild is “Would love too but Ava’s healing is still too weak”. That is, not just his gear but my experience too. Most of the guild had reccomended getting 1.4-1.5k +healing before hitting a heroic and I only had 1.3k-ish and 167 mana regen with water shield up and some rather dubious ‘healing‘ gear. I’ve only healed five or six instances and all but one of those was a guild run.

My little resto-shammie Avarix is, in my mind, still a ‘baby’ character who needs geared up before doing such scary things. I have this problem with all of my characters - the ‘fear’ of underperforming really eats at me to the point where I don’t like to join groups for things I’d really like to do due to feeling under-geared or skilled.

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