memory lane

In a recent guild forum post, Zal reminded me of when she ran me through WC, back when I was but a wee lad. I actually don't remember that run specifically, but I do remember the night we went through RFK. I was...mid-20's, I think. Zal was working on her hunter alt who was quite a bit further advanced, maybe into her late 30's by then. We and a few other guildies tore through the keep and, as I recall, I did pretty good dps in cat form, maybe even as high as second among the group. Oh, but then she was like, "Hey! Let's go into RFD!"

Wara hits for 0. Miss. Miss. Crit for 2. Block. Dodge. Miss. Hit for 1. And so on, through the rest of the night. Heh...I was a little bit underpowered for that dungeon. I did get a sweet dagger, though, one of my first-ever blues, [Coldrage Dagger]. It took me a few weeks until I was able to actually use it, of course, but it was freaking sweet.

wasting money

Remember the other day, when I was rambling on about having too much money? Yeah...I figured out a good way to spend it all. Drop alchemy and level leatherworking. Yeah, baby! Way to make rash, poorly-thought-out decisions, Wara! Okay, okay, so it's somewhat thought out, and I have a plan. Wara himself is going to maintain alchemy and level up leatherworking, mostly so I can continue making super mana/health pots for myself and friends, and so I can make myself the Windhawk Armor. At the same time, I'm going to take advantage of the XP nerf and start working on my next toon who will be both an herbalist and a skinner. Since that will take some time (and I'm impatient), most of my leather feedstock is going to come from the AH. Not cheap.

I did find a nice leatherworking guide, though, which should help me move efficiently up through the ranks.

I blew some more money at the AH on my gear, too. I bought [The Dreamer's Shoulderpads] which are a nice improvement over what I had before. Not epic, but nice. Since I'm primarily using my one-handed mace now, I also picked up an [Archmage Orb of the Invoker] for a little more +int and spell crit than the fish was giving me. Not that I dislike the fish, mind you, but this seems a little more...helpful.

Okay, enough spending. Time to go make this money back and make myself even more hawesome than I already am. Well, after I'm done with work. And TA-ing that biochem exam. Fine. Laters.

I just don't know what to do with myself

One day as a level 70 and I just don't know what to do! Rather, I don't know where to begin. There's so much that I want to do (raid Kara, fight the trolls in Zul'Aman, battle my way through SSC and TK, then help take down the Black Temple) but I need to make sure my foundation is solid before I start trying to build on top of it. But there's so much to do, where should I begin?

I started last night in Thunder Bluff, having completed my available training the night before. So, I hit the auction house and treated myself to a few goodies. I bought [The Essence Focuser], which seems like a nice melee/casting weapon, especially if I put a +22 int enchantment on it; [Idol of the Moon], which I realize isn't the best idol around, but it'll do more for me and my playstyle than [Idol of the Wild], considering I don't even *have* Mangle; and the [Ace of Lunacy], which was a total splurge but it was on sale for a lower price than I've ever seen an ace (only about 120 g). I now have the Ace, Two, and Four, so I'm on my way to [Darkmoon Card: Madness]. Woot!

Other than that, I spent the rest of the night dicking around, chatting, and killing a few mobs. I turned in the remainder of my completed quests, so I can someday make back that gold I just spent, and did the daily cooking quest. I chose the [Barrel of Fish], but didn't get a recipe. Maybe because I'm not maxed out on my cooking? I did get an [Enormous Barbed Gill Trout] for my off-hand, though. Heh.

So now what? Gear and my Kara key, I guess. I've been debating with myself about my balance spec, but I think I'm going to keep it the same for now. I like being able to kill most things on my own and do some damage in instances, yet still be able to pop into caster form for an emergency heal when needed. The other option I'm considering is going fully resto, which seems like it would be more useful for the rest of the guild but probably not quite as much fun for me individually.

I'm researching which gear I should go for now. There's not a balance dungeon set, but I was reading yesterday about a Stormrage Raiment look-alike set that looks pretty hot. I'll probably start trying to collect the Moonglade Raiment at the same time, for its +heal bonuses. With either of those sets I should be geared appropriately for heroics and will then start thinking seriously about Kara. I can work on my key at the same time as I work on my gear so that when I'm ready, I'll be ready.

the ultimate ding

antepenultimate ding

I hit 68 last night and, after today's playing, am only a few bars away from 69. Can I tell you how much I love the druid flight form? It makes life *so* much easier.

Going to bed now. More tomorrow, probably.

getting close now

Ding 67! Hurray! I've spent the past couple of days clearing most of the solo-able quests in both Nagrand and Terokkar Forest which has brought me lots of experience, money, and vend-/auction-ables (more moneys, really). The gold differential is really just stupid. Stupid-crazy, not stupid-not smart, that is. Not ten levels ago it was a significant achievement to make 10 gold in a day. Now, give me an hour -- maybe -- and I'll have that for you. Training is more expensive, too, but it hardly even matters, the gold is so plentiful. Earlier this week I went back and trained all of the available animal-form spells that I have been neglecting since, oh, two months ago, and still have almost 200 gold in the bank. Not that I'm complaining, of course, just observing. I should be saving for my next riding training, but instead I'm giving it away. There's a younger member of our guild (someone's young-teen brother) who just hit 40 and I'm going to give him at least half of his first mount, depending on how much I've saved. How nice is it to be able to do that? I remember how cool it was when Zal did the same thing for me, so it's really gratifying to be able to pass that along.

Since I'm down to the elite quests for my current zones (and because I'm too lazy to scare up a group to go finish them), I'm pressing onwards towards Shadowmoon Valley and Blade's Edge Mountains. I had breadcrumb quests leading me both places, but have found myself in SMV more. What a serious change in atmosphere that is, after spending a lot of time in Nagrand! Holy crap, man. Or perhaps unholy. Evil Things are Afoot in that zone. The loots are nice, though. I've picked up four or five greens worth six gold as well as [Recipe: Fel Strength Elixir]. Yay!

ding 65 (and 64)

Too much playing, too little blogging. Okay, so I'm not actually too upset about that trade. I dinged 65 last night and apparently missed posting when I hit 64. So be it. I've been playing in bite-sized chunks this week, so I haven't had the chance to run any more instances. I think that's going to be my goal for the weekend, to run a couple of instances. Underbog and Slave Pens, maybe? Or maybe Mana Tombs again. That was pretty sweet the last time.

After a couple weeks of saving money, I've spent almost all of it again. This weekend I finally made enough to get my epic riding mount training (woot!) and am now cruising around on my [Swift Brewfest Ram]. Totally cool. Also, I blew a decent chunk of change buying [Braxxis' Staff of Slumber], a bitchin' tank weapon. Eventually I plan to get [Earthwarden], but for now it's very nice.

My questing has been alternating between Terokkar Forest and Nagrand...a couple hours in one place, a couple hours in the other. Very cool. For a few relatively easy quests last night, I picked up [Melia's Lustrous Crown] and [Eighty Silver Links], decent upgrades to what I had previously.

I'm building up a nice reputation among the Outlanders. As of last night, I'm at least friendly with most of the major factions I've encountered (Thrallmar, Sporeggar, The Consortium, The Scryers, and now The Mag'har, as well as honored with the Cenarion Expdition). The Aldor aren't big fans, but screw them.

Oh, hell! I just realized that I can get the key for heroic Coilfang Reservoir instances now! Hells, yeah! I'm going to die so many times this weekend!

Mana Tombs Run #1

I ran Mana Tombs yesterday for the first time with some guildies in hopes of getting better gear. The run was really a bonus for my day...I had been spending some of my holiday morning playing and was getting ready to log out when a guild member noted that there were two 64's and a 66 online, so "let's run them through something." Nice. It was a moderately successful run...the loot didn't drop and I died about fifteen thousand times, but I always enjoy seeing a new dungeon for the first time. I did get some nice pieces of gear from the quests. Plus, next time I won't be so clueless (and will have found some shadow-resistance gear!).

Our starting group consisted of a 70 shaman (mainly healing), a 70 warrior, two other druids (66 feral and 64 feral/balance), and me (64 boomkin). Not an ideal group -- having three druids hurt all of our chances to get each drop -- but good enough. Off we went, plowing through the initial trash and making our way to Pandemonius without much trouble. The 66 feral druid was acting as our tank and held him against the wall nicely while the rest of us pounded away. I was a little slow to recognize that when he goes all ghostly he's going to reflect my spells back at me, but figured it out in time to not hurt myself too badly. He dropped [Creepjacker] which nobody really needed, but that's the fun of random drops, right?

Onward we pressed to Tavarok, wiping one time when we pulled too many trash mobs at once. Fun. At some point on our way to Tavarok, our warrior swapped to his mage toon which helped with the rest of the instance. We pushed through the rest of the trash (dropping some boots which would have been lovely, except that I already had [Grim Boots of the Invoker]) and spanked Tavarok without *too* much trouble. I honestly don't remember what he dropped, but again it wasn't anything useful for me.

The rest of the trash didn't pose a great deal of difficulty, although I did die a few times when we pulled too many, but we managed to avoid complete wipes. Apparently I can pull quite a bit of aggro if I'm not careful. I'm decently armored against physical damage but have about no shadow resistance, resulting in many of my deaths. I staved off a few with timely self-heals or pots, but most of the times I died so fast I honestly wasn't sure what hit me. Phooey.

Nexus-Prince Shaffar was a pretty easy kill. I think I did a decent job dropping the Ethereal Beacons as they appeared and put a decent hurt on Shaffar myself. Yet again, the loot he dropped wasn't useful, but there you go. We burned through the escort quest at the end with relative ease and were done after about two hours.

I turned in the two Consortium quests and picked up [Haramad's Leggings of the Third Coin] and the [Cryo-mitts], as well as almost enough rep to bring me to friendly. I need to learn about sockets, now that I have pants that accept jewels. Fun!

ding 63

I hit 63 last night, helping protect the Sporeggar young'uns from a slew of Bog Lords and the like. It was actually quite fun...the mobs were all 62-64 and dropped some nice loot. I picked up about 30 [Unidentified Plant Parts] to turn in for Cenarion Expedition rep as well as almost 20 [Mote of Life]. Not bad.

I've had a nice few days financially, too. I haven't had to spend a lot of money on repairs lately (/flex) and am almost to 400 gold. No, really almost. As of this morning I had something like 399 gold, 40 silver, and a few copper. Plus I'm not spending money much at all at the Auction House, so that helps. The gear from the quests has been nice (and useful!) enough that I don't feel like I could be doing significantly better in other threads. Hurray!

Now I just need to figure out where to spend that new talent point...

ding 62

At some point this weekend -- Saturday night, I think -- I hit 62! Woo! And actually, as of this writing, I'm about halfway to 63. Hurray!

I improved a couple of my professions, too, which is exciting. I'm now maxed out on herbalism (390/375, with the +15 cow bonus), so I can now pick epic flowers out of my nose, as one of my guildies put it. Heh. I also finally did the artisan fishing quest, so I can get that going up again. I'm jonesing for a [Mr. Pinchy]. I also broke the 300 gold mark, so I'm getting close to that epic mount. Then I can start saving for my flying mount! Yay!

crappy quest

Who designs this sort of quest? I mean, really. "So here's the idea: you have to walk around with this demonic dog, right. And then you have to kill these ubiquitous hellboars, okay? But here's the kicker...the dog *eats* the hellboar corpse, then takes a crap! And the player has to dig through it, to get an item! Hilarious!" Sheesh.

Nothing exciting to report from yesterday. I'm trying to make it a point to not log out without more money than I logged in with. If that makes sense. No net losses. Between the quests and the stuff I can vendor, I think I can do that daily.

Okay, off to lab meeting. More questing tonight!