Tuesday, September 30, 2008

The "more later"

Yes, Smoochie hit the big five eight last night and made her way through the Dark Portal. I still have some Oldlands stuff to do - namely First Aid (259) and Cooking (285), but after tonight, I should be in Outlands full time. I have the cloth to get to 300 First Aid and am poised to head to Silithus for those last 15 Cooking points.

An interesting side note is that I was able to level my Herbalism to 375 without picking a single herb in Outlands. That's right, I leveled Herbalism solely in Oldlands! Now, I didn't just grind the skill, but I did go out of my way a couple of times to pick some flowers. So, for the most part, I leveled it while I was attaining my character levels.

I also got my Alchemy up to around 310 or so. I can't wait to get some Felweed and make some cool pots! That Onslaught pot looks pretty sweet!

Picture = 1K words

More later.

Monday, September 29, 2008

Just for the record

I want to be the first one to go on record (that I know of) with my designations for each of the main areas in World of Warcraft. I have already used:

Azeroth (including Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor) lands: Oldlands.

Burning Crusade lands: Outlands.

And now, introducing:

Wrath of the Lich King Northend lands: Coldlands.

There you have it, dispense as needed.

Friday, September 26, 2008

Closer and closer

Last night Smoochie gained two levels to 48 and should hit that magical level 50 before Monday. This means I need to get my Alchemy up to at least 275 so I can train as soon as I hit 50.

It has been a nice thing to have my Herbalism cap raised to 375 as I've been getting skill points off some of the herbs I've been picking. It would be nice to have the same thing for Alchemy - getting skill points above 300 with Oldlands recipes.

Hmmm....That gets me thinking.....I could get some nice skill points above 375 by collecting the mats for a couple of Outlands items and waiting until WotLK to make them. (As an aside, I did read a good strat like this for leveling - complete 25 quests in Outlands, but don't turn them in until after installing WotLK)

So, I may have some gathering/hording to do before WotLK of other mats....

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

More prep work

So far, Smoochie is averaging a level a day, which is what I was hoping (yeppers, dinged 45 last night). I also engaged in some spoiler activity (WotLK spoiler alert for my faithful reader) in scoping out Inscription.

LEAVE NOW IF YOU DON'T WANT THE SPOILER INFO!!

Ok, now that I've chased away all of my readers, I'll jot down a note or two.

It turns out that Inscription will most likely pair with Herbalism, as it takes combinations of herbs to make the different inks (as of yesterday anyways). If nothing changes, it also looks like it will take combos of 4 or so different herbs, which means that the Herbalism market should get a significant bump due to Alchemists getting some demand competition.

I'm glad that I rolled an Herbalist now instead of later! Since I read that, I've started hording herbs (all of them) in anticipation of a bull market soon after WotLK is released. I don't think it will start the day that it is released, but certainly by that weekend, the market should show a significant upward trend as players flush with cash start leveling Inscription.

In order to store all of these Herbs, I finally created a guild for my bank toon. I've purchased one tab and will likely purchase one or two more before Nov. 13th.

I think that Inscription is going to do for Herbalism what Jewelcrafting did for Mining - namely, the market will see a big spike that will last for month or two and then settle down to a higher level than today. Yes, we will see a lot more Herbalists, but I don't think that they will provide an even counter to the demand.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

So, which one first?

Assuming that I get everything done before WotLK comes out, which 'toon am I going to level to 80 first? Each of my characters have compelling reasons....

Daxe, my Holy Priest, is going to be my inscriptionist. Assuming that tailoring will still be a must for clothies, I can probably level his Inscription to max without leveling him and level his tailoring by feeding him cloth from a hunter. Daxe will probably not be first.

Daxie, my other Holy Priest, is my jewelcrafter. Assuming the same stuff as Daxe, I can't see Daxie being the first to 80 either.

Rysteranch, my Hunter, is my leatherworker/skinner. This is the best geared hunter that I have and can easily blow through the first couple of levels. Unfortunately, leatherworking is not as useful as it was pre-BC, so I'm not sure if he should be first. On a side note, this is my favorite hunter, so I may pick him for sentimental reasons.

Dwarfvader, another Hunter, is my miner/engineer. The hunter has a very good reason for getting to 80 first - his professions. He is able to supply my other two hunters with ammo and possibly weapons.

Smoochie, another Hunter, is my herbalist/alchemist. This hunter also has a very good reason for getting to level 80 - HER professions. She would be able to provide elixers/potions/whatevers to ALL of my toons.

Of course....none of this factors in leveling another hunter for enchanting.....

Productive night

Nno, not provocative!....Productive!


Last night, Smoochie did well in her quest to catch up to my 70's.

She attained level 44.

She got her Herbalism to 300 and picked up the new cap to 375 at Honor Hold.

She killed not one, but TWO rare spawns in Swamp of Sorrows. And, yes, one of them was a level 45 elite that she took down at level 43 (have I mentioned that I love hunters?). One of the rares dropped a level 40 green quality plate "of the Bear" helm...oh yeah!

She opened up a chest and lo and behold, "Heaven's Light", a level 40 blue quality one hand mace was in it! I sold it for 160 gold!

Not bad....not bad!

Preparing

Ok, so the Blog Azeroth shared topic for "What are you doing to prepare for WotLK?" was a couple of months ago. I've never claimed to be on top of things.....or even current.....or not subject to massive amounts of procrastination (not that I ever intended to write about that topic anyways).

So, now that the ship has sailed...the train has left the station....and the horse is out of the barn, I'll write about what I'm doing, or want to do, before the XPac comes out.

Firstly, I have switched back my focus to my Alliance characters, so everything I'll be talking about is related to my toons on Kael'thas.

Currently, I'm leveling Smoochie, my Herbalist/Alchemist. I'd like to get her to the mid 60's before thinking about my other toons. At the very least, I'd like to get both of her professions up to the 375 cap. I do need to research which specialty I want her to be.

After I'm happy with Smoochie, I'd like to balance leveling her and DV to 70 by taking advantage of the built up rest XP. I'm pretty sure that I won't be able to get both of them to the cap before it moves up to 80, but I'd really like to give a good try.

While I'm leveling DV, I'd also like to max out his engineering (I believe mining is already maxed). And, if the next patch includes Inscription, then I'd like to drop Daxe's mining to pick that up and get it leveled.

So, there you have it. I seriously doubt whether or not I'll be able to accomplish all of that, but sure will keep me busy. I have given notice that I won't be raiding until after WotLK comes out, so that will free up Tue/Thu, but, of course, I'm sure that once I tell my wife, she'll find something for me to do on those nights....lol.

Monday, September 22, 2008

Smoochie is HOT!

I got Smoochie up to level 43 this past weekend, and I think that she might be my next 70. It'd be nice if I could get her there before the XPac discombobulates everything. Of course, I'm not planning on going to Northend the first couple of weeks just to let things settle out.....and, I do have 3 70's to level anyways!

And speaking of 70's, Daxie got out and healed the Brewfest seasonal boss. We summoned him 3 times but didn't see any loot we could use. Oh, an Epic mount dropped, but I lost the roll. After that, I went over to Dun Morogh and got wasted fighting the Dark Iron Dwarves. My screen was totally fuzzy when I was done. Good Times!!

Friday, September 19, 2008

Epic Kara

Last night was the fastest Kara run that I've ever been part of. Now, we skipped the two dragons, so I'm not bragging about a full clear, but, from the first horse to killing Prince, we spent 3 hours in there.

We cleared Lower Kara in 1 hour and 10 minutes and had Curator down by the 1.5 hour mark. No, Maiden did not drop Teurion's gauntlets...lol, but two bosses decided to drop some hunter loot! I got the Helm off Shade and a pair of (leather) shoulders off Chess.

RysteranchNE also hit Exalted with Violet Eye...finally!

Oh, and Smoochie, the Ally Alchy, is up to 38.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

The Monday Morning Hunter Update

...on Tuesday. Oh, yeah, I had yesterday off, so no update.

RysteranchNE got his first bit of T4 (as noted last Friday) and went to ZA as well as Gruul's. I didn't get much done in Gruul's except incur some wife aggro..whoops! And I had been doing so good as of late in that area.

RysteranchTR hit 65 some time last week...and remains there.

Daxen is now 33. Yeah, I guess I've been playing her a lot. Mining is up to 181 or so and Jewelcrafting is at 118. Man that JC leveling stinks.

Daxe has left Anvilmar and made her way to Ravencrest.

HEY, HOW'D THAT PRIEST GET IN HERE???? THIS IS A HUNTER UPDATE!!!! shesh, impertinent priests!

Friday, September 12, 2008

T4 Baby!!

Last night, RysteranchNE finally got his first piece of T4 gear - the gloves. I also collected my one hundreth Badge and picked up the 100 BoJ pants from the vendor. Luckily, I had the cash or mats to get them up to speed on enchants and gems, so I'm looking forward to testing them out.

On another note, even though I topped the damage meter last night, Murali gave me a run for my money...in his blues! I probably need to invest some time in actually paying attention to efficient shot rotations. My "if it isn't on cooldown, mash the icon" style just might not be the best DPS that I can be providing. Sure, my DPS might go up, but it probably won't be as much fun....

Steady...auto....steady....auto.....steady.....auto.....

vs.

ArcaneSteadyKillCommandMultiSteadyAutoSteadyArcaneKill... hey, how'd that auto get in there???

/shrug

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

On Raiding...again

First of all, let me apologize for misspeaking in my last post. It seems that although Daxe and Daxie have both been to ZA, Rysteranch had not...until last night that is.

So, last night, Rysteranch the NE became a ZA raider, and I got to see my first ZA boss go down. We had three tries on the boss before the timer expired, and unfortunately didn't get it done. We did eventually kill him even though we were tankless at 2%.

We went on to the eagle boss. The first time through the gauntlet (yeah, we did it later in the evening too...), we did a great job! We had no deaths! That gave us about three tries on the eagle dude, and we all learned a lot about the fight. After respawns, we cleared the gauntlet again and tried two more times before the raid was called. Our best attempt got him down to 37%, and next week, I think we're going to him first, so LOOK OUT!!

As far as my place on the damage meters, I thought our awesome Ret Pally was going to give me a run for my money for first place after the first couple of pulls. I settled into my button mashing routine, though, and soon I was topping the meter. I ended up providing 19% of the raid's damage and remained the number one damage dealer.

Thursday is Kara, so I'm hoping to get those last 6 badges that I need for the 100 badge legs. Of course it will suck gemming and armor kitting them, but they should be a significant upgrade to my D3 Beast Lord legs.

And, on a sad note, it appears that Deathrender has deleted his blog..../cry.

Monday, September 8, 2008

Hunters, hunters, hunters

I have come to the conclusion that I love playing hunters. Yes, I still enjoy healing, but I rarely do it any more. So, with that in mind, I am going to make a snapshot post about my hunters.

Rysteranch
Race: Night Elf
Spec: Beast Master
Level: 70
Profs: Skinning/Leatherworking
This is my highest level hunter and my raider. Currently, he is in Kara and ZA.

Dwarfvader
Race: Dwarf
Spec: Survival
Level: 66
Profs: Mining/Engineering
This is the odd uncle of my hunters. I enjoy the SV spec in that I have to play a different way than normal. While Super Traps is awesome, I really can't wait until I get some Beast Lord stuff to make it totally ridiculous! I can see him becoming my non-pally tank choice for instances.

Rysteranch
Race: Troll
Spec: Beast Master
Level: 64
Profs: Skinning/Leatherworking
Here is my very first toon, who has enjoyed a bit of a resurgence in attention and leveling. I had to do quite a bit of "fixing" my learning mistakes. The latest error that I had to correct was getting his PuddyTat leveled from 50 to 62; I had switched my poor kitty out for a pig, but have since had a change of heart and went back to my cat.

Smoochie
Race: Draenai
Spec: Beast Master
Level: 32
Profs: Herbalism/Alchemy
I rolled this hunter in order to have an herbalist/alchemist. What I have found so far is that Gift of the Naaru ROCKS! Her PuddyTat is REALLY a PuddyTank!

Daxen
Race: Blood Elf
Spec: Beast Master
Level: 27
Profs: Mining/Jewelcrafting
This is my first Blood Elf hunter. I really like the Mana Tap (not as much as Gift of the Naaru). I recently ran out of rest XP, so she's chillin' for a bit.

Daxynn
Race: Blood Elf
Spec: Beast Master
Level: 18
Profs: Herbalism/Alchemy
This character is tasked with leveling with Teurion's and VA's Blood Elves, as well as getting two profs covered for my Horde team. It's both fun and frustrating playing as a team - fun, in that we can do some interesting things as a trio. Frustrating in that I don't have all of my tools (*cough* Feign Death*cough* *cough*).

So, I have 5 leveling hunters, all of whom have their very own PuddyTat!

Friday, September 5, 2008

Ennui

Yep, I has it, and not in an "Ennui ole cuss" way either! I logged onto my Troll yesterday to wait for Teurion and VA to run our Hordies, but they didn't show. So, I did some quests, but just generally felt bored with the whole thing. I ended up turning it off and watching TV with my wife.

I really don't know if this is a result of WotLK or just boredom with the game. I reckon I'll find out sooner or later.

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

4 Day weekend!

Yep, just got back from a four day weekend. Got in some WoW, went to the Creation Museum down in Kentucky, and enjoyed the last concert of the summer at Conner Prairie, which featured the wonderful music of the River City Brass Band.

On the WoW front, I didn't do too much. I cleaned up my Horde list (which I'll be updating soon), leveled my hunters a bit, and tried three manning Wailing Caverns. The WC run didn't turn out so well; we ended up wiping a couple of times, but did manage to down three of the serpent lords before we had to call it. Of course, we were trying to do it at level 17/18, so we didn't have a number of the tools to play our toons like we've become accustomed to playing. We may try again at level 19 or 20.

The Creation Museum was pretty neat. Most of the museum is dedicated to comparing "big idea" or broad concept differenes between the theory of evolution and Biblical creation. I would have preferred to have more examples of specific designer lifeforms (things that could not have evolved to work the way they do), more emphasis on the dearth, nay, the absolute void, of transitory fossils, and more scientific hard data that supports creation over evolution.

One display did highlight the wealth of information that the eruption of Mount St. Helens provided to creation scientists in the formation of canyons, coal beds, and those mysterious upright fossilized trees. It also showed how fossils can be formed quite rapidly given the right circumstances.

On Sunday evening, we trekked up to Northern Indianapolis (Noblesville/Fishers area) to see the River City Brass Band. It was absolutely fabulous!!! The tuba solo was one of my favorites, as well as one of the 12th Street Rag, which featured the trumpet section. The thing I liked about the ragtime piece was the trombone section standing up and answering the trumpets during their little solo time. It gave the appearance that they were questioning the trumpets or trying to steal the spotlight. In the end, after their last interruption, the WHOLE REST OF THE BAND stood up, and turned to the trombone section to "answer" them! It was hilarious!!

The evening ended with fireworks and the band playing the best military service song ever! "Off we go, into the wild blue yonder!", yeppers, the Air Force theme song! My friend that had given us the tickets was perturbed....he's a Marine....heh heh.

So, there you have it. A very nice weekend, if I do say so myself!