Terrokar, PCT’s, and…Mentoring?

So, I wrapped up Zangarmarsh yesterday and headed off to Terrokar. I’m not as fond of Terrokar, but it’s still a heck of a lot better than Hellfire!

I had a not-so-fun time at Grangol’var Village last night. Multiple patrols are not cool! I only died once, but I lost track of how many times I had to turn and run. Bah.

On the plus side, I managed to fight my way through enough orcs, arrakoa, and miscellaneous beasts to get nearly halfway through 63, woohoo!

I also  PCT’d my 70 priest over to Drenden last night. My warlock will still be my main, but my guild is short-ish on healers and I figured I could help out with the occasional 5-man and whatnot. I was actually pretty surprised with how quick the PCT was…the site told me up to an hour, but it only actually took about 5 minutes. Of course, it also cost a ridiculous $25….

So I get my priest invited into the guild as soon as the PCT is done, and a guildie who has a 41 priest alt immediately /w’s me all excited about an experienced holy/disc priest being in the guild (I had only mentioned her to a few people previously, as I had been undecided about transferring). He asked me to be his mentor…I felt honored! I did warn him that I’m a little rusty from not having played the priest much in months, but I was still able to answer the questions he had, so…I guess I’m officially a mentor now. I am so going to start calling him “padawan”.

Look at all the Pretty Colors!

So I finished Hellfire…I could not get out of that place fast enough! Off to Zangarmarsh I rode. I absolutely love Zangarmarsh…it’s my second favorite Outlands zone, the only place I like better is Nagrand. a 70 ‘lock buddy of mine said he hated Zangarmarsh. He called it a “warlock death trap”. I haven’t found that to be the case, though. I’m dying WAY less than I did in Hellfire. In fact, the only times I’ve died (so far) have been in attempts to solo 2-man group quests.

Questing in Zangarmarsh is easier than Hellfire, too…I don’t know if it’s because of the fact that mobs are a little more spread out here, or because my gear is better, or a little bit of both, but I’m burning through quests much more quickly.

I only have two complaints about Zangarmarsh, really…one, gnomes end up swimming in water any other race would be wading in. Bah. Two, there is not much here in the way of mining. I’ve already made 520g in the last two levels, though, so I guess I shouldn’t complain about that too much.

And So On

Sorry for the lack of update yesterday, guys. I spent most of the morning at a funeral, and wasn’t in a terribly creative mood.

Guess it’s time to catch you guys up! I apologize in advance for the mishmash of stuff that shall be in this post.

Guess I’ll start with Monday…I spent most of my WoW-time getting 300 fishing (woohoo! no more fish farming!). I decided to make things a little more interesting, if a bit slower, by fishing pools of this and that along the coast of Tanaris. There are a lot of pool spawns there! It paid off, too, between 248-300 fishing I ended up with nearly 150g worth of auctionable fish and goodies from floating wreckage. ‘Twas a nice little boost to my nest egg, especially after having spent most of my cash on my mount.

Yesterday I went straight back to Hellfire. I headed to the fel orc camp south of Honor hold for a bit of questing, and met this guy. Apparently he doesn’t have much faith in his current riding worg, so he keeps a backup with him…

He was wandering around outside the camp both before and after my quest…luckily, I was able to avoid him and his canine buddies.

Shortly after this, I met some real jerks…I wandered over to the Pools of Aggonar to see if I could find a group for the Overlord quest, and lucky me, there was a group of 4 (all from the same guild) getting ready to do the quest! I politely asked if I could join them…to which I received zero response. They stood there for a few more seconds, then barreled in against Arazzius. I figured they just hadn’t noticed me before they started…no big deal. I hang out to watch, and when two of the group go down pretty quick I jump in and start laying down DoTs and shadowbolts to help the other two out.

Arazzius goes down, and I politely ask once again if I can join them if they need to kill him again for the two that died. “Sorry, we’re done.” Ok, maybe the two that died didn’t have the quest and were helping a guildie, that’s fine…so I mount up and ride off. About 5 seconds later, Arazzius yells his “someone is trying to fight me” line. There was nobody there but those four. Ugh.

Anyway, after a couple more quests, I was actually wearing the first unplanned pre-70 outfit I have ever had that matched!

Am I just the cutest or what? Unfortunately, this outfit was not to last long. I had cleaned out all of my yellow quests but the one for Ramparts, and was about a bubble and a half from dinging, so I decided to bite the bullet and PUG it. I ended up in…not the most diverse group I’ve ever been in, 2 shammies, 2 locks, and a warrior (and it took us forever to find the warrior…boo for tank shortages!)…but it actually worked pretty well. After we downed the first boss, though, our warrior told us he had to leave.

Nobody knew anybody in the right level range to replace him, so we ended up bringing in a 70 hunter from my guild to tank with his pet…not an ideal situation, and I really didn’t want a higher level hauling us through…I need 5-man practice, I haven’t been in enough of them with my lock…but it was bring him in or call it quits, so.

I got a nice little pants upgrade from the last boss. They’re hideous, though…all shiny and blue, it looks like I’m a wannabe mermaid or something. Bye-bye, matching outfit.

I dinged 61 while in Ramparts, so I once again had yellow quests…yay! Unfortunately, my goal of finishing Hellfire without getting squished by the Reaver was stomped flat, literally, when that big jerk managed to squish me in the middle of a hellboar fight. Boo!

*pant, wheeze* Ok, you’re all caught up now, I think. Time for me to go play and get some more material for you.

Heeeeere Fishy Fishy!

So, yesterday I hit 60…woo! After handing the warlock trainer a sizable chunk of gold, I headed for Dun Morogh to pick up my epic mount. After a few minutes of debating between the three available, I chose a swift yellow mechanostrider for myself, because it looked cool and it’s the color I see the least people with. It really is cool, too! I feel like I’m riding a rocket when I run around on it…I guess I sort of am, it does have rockets attached to it. This definitely ranks among the best mounts I’ve gotten my hands on…I like it at least as much as my talbuks.

Anyway, after spending the better part of my cash on the mount, I decided it was time to train…dun dun dun…fishing. I do. not. like. fishing. I’m not that far from heading to Zangarmarsh, though, and I didn’t want to miss out on all of the great fish pools that spawn there.

I hit the AH first, but to my dismay, nobody had a big iron fishing pole (+20 to fishing!) up for sale, so it was off to Desolace with me to spend nearly 45 minutes swimming around opening shellfish traps in an attempt to find one.  I am really, really, reeeeeeally grateful for underwater breathing.

So I finally get my big iron fishing pole, and I head off to Booty Bay to do some fishing! I wasn’t horribly worried about running around finding pools to fish from…I just wanted my fishing levels (and the resulting cooking levels) asap.

I was already 154 fishing to begin with, thanks to some work at my noobier levels, so with my spiffy new fishing pole and a few shiny baubles I was able to avoid those annoying “your fish got away!” messages. Nearly 300 fish (and 3 locked trunks) later, I had hit 225 fishing, and it was off to Nat Pagle near Menethil to get the fishing quest to allow me to advance.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the fishing quest, it involves catching 4 quest-only fish in various parts of Azeroth. This quest annoys me to no end, because it is ridiculously biased towards Horde. Allow me to explain.

• Fish #1:  Misty Reed Mahi Mahi. This fish is caught in the Swamp of Sorrows, less than a minute away from the Horde town here. Alliance doesn’t even HAVE a FP in this zone, we get to fly into Blasted Lands and walk the rest of the way.
• Fish #2: Sar’theris Striker.  This fish is caught off the bit of the coast in Desolace that is literally right where the Horde town for he zone sits. You can catch this fish off that town’s dock, for goodness’ sake. Alliance? Either we fly into Nijel’s Point, literally in the opposite corner of the zone, or we fly into Feathermoon in Feralas and run up to Desolace.
• Fish #3: Feralas Ahi. This fish is caught from the river right in the middle of Feralas…again, a minute or less from the Horde town in the zone. Alliance has 2 FPs in Feralas…one on the far east edge, and one on the far west edge, meaning no matter which you use, you’re as far from this river as it is possible to be and still be in Feralas.
• Fish #4: Savage Coast Blue Sailfin. Even this one is slightly biased towards Horde…they can walk out of their town in Stranglethorn and be right on the Savage Coast, while Alliance has to ride up the coast a bit from Booty Bay. Not nearly as much of an inbalance on this fish, but a slight one.

You would think that Bliz would be able to balance this quest out…maybe 2 fish easier for Alliance and 2 for Horde. Or just make all 4 fairly equal for both sides. This, however, would require Bliz not being biased towards the Horde.

Bah…anyway, after I did the annoying fishing quest, I hit Tanaris for some more fishing. I ended up making it to 248 before calling it a night. I shall be going for 300 either today or tomorrow, depending on whether or not I can bring myself to look at a fishing pole today or not.

Hellfire Hazing

Well, I did it! I made it to Outlands! My memory of Hellfire had faded somewhat, though….

Hellfire is a hazing ritual. Seriously. The rest of Outlands is awesome, but Hellfire…you can never keep your camera pointed at the same angle for more than 5 seconds because of the terrain,  which also makes it rather difficult to watch for nearby mobs. It wasn’t so bad on my hunter (though still quite the challenge), but I had forgotten how dangerous this place is when you’re squishy. On the plus side, my running skills have improved significantly…and did I mention that I love sacrifice? My poor voidwalker!

I sure do love Outlands gear, though. One level worth of questing (I hit 59 just before I logged), and I’ve replaced my hat, chest, wand and staff already. I’m hoping to replace the rest of my Azeroth gear before I hit 60.

Also, I have decided to go ahead and just buy a mount at 60, then go back and do the warlock epic mount chain later…yes, I realize this will  cost me significantly more to do, but I just do not have the patience to meander around on my level 40 mount for another 10 levels. Besides, with mining/skinning, money isn’t hard to come by.

I am also making it my goal to finish Hellfire without getting stomped by the Fel Reaver this time. We shall see if I can pull it off….

Ah, Mining.

Have I mentioned how ridiculously awful mining is? I’ve been trying to get to 300 before I hit outlands…so far 259-297 has taken me about 5 hours of nothing but doing laps of various zones. I swear, mining was designed by the same Bliz employee who came up with Gnomer.

I have, however, amused my guildies with a couple of “poems” while mining…presented here, for your enjoyment.

“Ode to Ore”

You spawn so slowly
And do not give me
The levels I need
You suck.

“Ode to Thorium”

You were all over
Until I could mine you
Now you are nowhere
You tease.

Sad what kind of idiocy becomes amusing when you’ve been staring at your minimap for long enough…

To Grind, or Not to Grind…

Not so insightful today, just a random thought-dump.

I am considering a rideable Hobbes (frostsaber mount for you non-BRK readers). Yes, I know, the grind is one of the most annoying in the game. This makes it one of the rarest mounts in the game, though. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone with one, other than in a handful of screenshots.

I would likely wait until 70 (or at least te high 60’s) to start the grind, just to make killing the mobs for the various rep quests that much easier. I plan on getting both the Kurenai rep and Halaa token talbuks as well, so I could always alternate between pounding on ogres and beating stuff up in Winterspring, to break up the monotony of two unpleasant rep grinds.

I’m thinking about getting really ambitious and going for all of the basic alliance faction mounts too, but that might be TOO much. We shall see.

WoW Extremes

WoW brings out extremes in people’s personalities. This isn’t an exclusive WoW phenomenon, the internet as a whole creates the same effect…but I find it to be even more true in MMOs, where it’s even easier to be anonymous.

The negative side of this tends to be more visible and more frequent. People who are normally merely impolite in person turn into total jerks on WoW. The anonymity, combined with how easy it is to ignore the fact that it’s a human being that you’re being rude to, makes this ridiculously easy for them. It’s not just limited to younger players, either, though they have more of a tendency towards this extreme. There are plenty of older players out there who unfortunately have little problem being a negative impact on someone else’s gaming experience.

The opposite is also out there, though…the fact that it is so easy to help someone out with things that will make their stay in Azeroth better means that people who are merely friendly in person will often turn into real sweethearts on WoW, running guildies through instances, giving someone a new piece of gear “just because”, and so on.

Not everyone falls to one of these extremes, of course, and not everyone that is prone to WoW extremism will be that way 100% of the time. In fact, most players sit somewhere in the middle of the scale…but it’s the extreme ones that people remember.

So, extreme or not, think about the players that stick in YOUR mind…which of them do you want to be remembered in the same way as? WoW could use a little more positive extremism to balance things out. Give it a shot.

Sooooo Close!

Levels 50-58 drive me nuts! So close to Outlands, yet unable to quest there…argh! I even had a quest right by the Dark Portal yesterday (and by the way, the unkillable mobs there? Right by the mobs warlocks have to kill for their Infernal quest? Reeeeeal funny, Bliz). I’m 52 now, so 6 more levels to go…I’m hoping to get 54 today, if I work hard.

On the bright side, I had a pretty good Sunken Temple run last night. Good luck finding a group for that place (or finding your way INTO that place), but a 70 lock from my guild was nice enough to offer to take a 55 pally and I to clear out some quests.  A 62 hunter from the guild also tagged along for part of the trip, but he had to scoot early. We didn’t have all of the quests for the instance (mistake on my part, now I’ll have to go back…argh!), but we finished what we did have quite smoothly. I was the only skinner there, too, so cha-ching! The instance can be a pain, but all those dragonkin are very, very nice cash.

I’m still debating whether or not to do the warlock epic mount chain at 60 or not. That mount is way awesome, but I’ve heard horror stories about the chain…I need to decide quick, though, I’ll be 60 by early next week at this rate. Any ‘locks out there who have done the quest? Would you say it was worth it?

I Confess….

I am more of a clicker than a button-masher. Yes, I know, this slows me down. I DO have a valid reason!

As I mentioned in a previous post, I have a genetic disorder that has left me with multiple disabilities. One of these disabilities is a severe loss of function in my left hand, due to nerve damage. I can still do some basic stuff with that hand, but my index finger is the only finger that handles key-pressing well at all, which is not conducive to button-mashing.

Thanks to both the programmers at Bliz and the awesome folks in the addon community, though, this isn’t as big of a handicap in Azeroth as it might have been. I have my keybindings set up where my most-used abilities are controlled by a few keys next to each other, which allows me to handle those abilities with my left hand, then arrange the rest (yay bartender3!) in such a way that I can click between them in the shortest amount of time possible. Yes, I’m not quite as quick as someone who mashes all their skills with their left hand while zooming around the area with their mouse, but I manage a lot better than many people would expect, through trial and error and much tweaking of my setup.

My biggest difficulty at this point is doing any significant moving around midfight. I can handle basic “back up/move forward” situations, by switching my left hand over to my up/down arrows temporarily and taking over those spells with the mouse, but more complicated maneuvers don’t work so well…which means right now, I suck at PvP. :p I’m working on figuring this one out, though, trying to find the right combination of keybindings that will let me keep some basic casting going while maneuvering with my mouse if the need arises.

When I finally get that one working…look out, horde!