What have I been up to?

Yes I know it's been a long time. I expect lots of the people who used to read this have since given up and moved on to blogs that actually update. I'm not sure if I'm coming back, but it's been a long time since the last update and I feel like I should get you up to speed with what I've been doing this whole time.

First and foremost, Vonari is level 80. Actually she's been there for a while now, and fully decked out in the crafted PvP set that she made for herself. I got a chance to run some BG's with her, and it was really fun. My friend brought his paladin and kept me alive while I burned down the bad guys. We got some really good teamwork going sometimes, making it almost seem easy.

Having said that, I haven't played her or Blackbare for quite a while. I tried tanking some instances with Blackbare, and it was fun (mostly due to the tips I got from reading the BBB), but it's just too time consuming for me. I can't dedicate that much time to the game. Don't get me wrong, sometimes I play for hours at a time, but it's never planned, I have the option of logging whenever I want.

I also started getting Keldreth on her way to 80. She's finished up Howling Fjord and is now on her way through Borean Tundra, but I'm putting her on hold for a while. Avialle is making her way through Outland; she and Deadbare both made the jump over to the new server as well, but they won't be joining the guild until they reach level 70.

Actually my most recent endeavor has been making some progress on my Horde characters. I'm finding it to be very fun making it through good old Azeroth as the opposing faction. Most of the quests are brand new to me, as well as the classes I'm using, so it's a completely different perspective from what I've known.

So far Kunzagah (mage) and Shanaera (warlock) have been the characters I play the most, trading off as each one gets through their well rested XP bonus.

I really like the damage the mage puts out, but I can see how just casting frostbolt over and over would get boring. I might have to think of a way to change things up later on.

The warlock is fun as well. It has the feel of a hunter with it's pet, but it also has the damage output of a mage, and those DoT's can really do some damage. One thing I didn't plan on but that works out really was having her take herbalism, which gives you Lifebloom, and in combination with Life Tap I never have downtime due to low mana. It's also great to use in combination with Health Funnel to keep your pet alive.

So if you haven't looked at the armory profiles in a while, you might be in for a big surprise, and I will try to get back in the groove of posting every so often, but I'm thinking it will only be when I have something more than just little updates to talk about.

Leave of absence

I know it's been a while since my last update, and that's because I always update from work. That being said, I got laid off last week and as such I haven't been at work to update. You'd think that means I would have more time to blog, but I guess I like to do other things online when I have full internet access.

Anyway, I probably won't be updating for a while, at least as long as I'm unemployed, so check out my blogroll for some other great blogs, assuming you don't read those ones already.

And if anybody lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and knows of any civil engineering jobs, feel free to let me know, any and all help is appreciated.

For now I have lots of time to play WoW, and once I start a new job I will be sure to update you on all of my escapades.

Slow week

It's not so much that I haven't had time to play this week, it's just that I've had other things to do with the free time I would normally use to play WoW. I don't think it's burnout, just different priorities at the moment, but this weekend might see a change in that.

I never realized how many different TV shows I watch during the week, and they aren't really shows I can just half pay attention to while playing WoW, I need to focused or I won't know what's going on. Part of it is that last year we had the writer's strike and lots of shows either had short seasons or didn't even air.

Luckily I'm almost fully caught up now, and I should be seeing more free time soon, which means I will be pushing my way to level 80.

I'm not only excited to get to 80 just so I can try my hand at some PvP. I also want to go back and run some of the old instances and raids. I want to do all the attunements from vanilla WoW, then fight through places like MC, BWL, and AQ.

I actually got asked to do BWL by a guildy, but at the time I was busy with other stuff and wasn't going to have time for it anyway. Now I'm hoping there will be some interest for some fun runs through old content that I was never able to experience but have heard a lot about.

Of course the fact that I can earn achievements by doing those instances is a plus, but I think the main reason is to see those places for myself. I know it won't be quite the same as a full blown 40-man raid at level 60, but just to be in those various fights that I've only seen screenshots of before would just be awesome.

Well it looks like I have even more to look forward to once I get to level 80, and I'm really starting to see the benefits of being in a guild with what I can do once I reach that point and start looking for fun activities to do.

Weekend Progress

I'm making my way further into the Howling Fjord, and so far I haven't had any trouble completing the quests there, even soloing some group quests. I'm now on the last quest hub, at least as far as I remember, and should be moving back to Borean Tundra very soon, where I'll hopefully blow through quickly and be able to move on to new places.

Somehow soloing has been really easy for me on Vonari, but it wasn't always that way. Up until Northrend I pretty much had to skip every group quest unless I had somebody to help me. There were a few I could solo, but mostly I got past those through luck more than anything else.

Now I'm going through the elite quests as if they're just tougher normal quests, instead of quests that are impossible without help. I was able to take out the pirate in the cave and the giant bear that eats him, even though the bear was immune to fear. Then I went after the ice dragon and got him on the first try as well.

I'm finding that most of the time my PW:Shield holds up until the debuff wears off, then I can re-apply immediately, and any health I lost is given back by VE. It's really very convenient, and it's fun getting the hang of all the skills I don't normally use against regular mobs that allow me to stay alive in a longer fight.

I'm hoping this practice at staying alive in longer fights will help me out in PvP as well. Sure it's not quite the same, but some of the tactics used to keep myself alive are similar, and the more precise reactions are something I need to work on as well.

For now it's just sticking with the leveling and making my way to 80, but once I get there I think things are going to start getting really interesting. I'm hoping this time around the end game will be a much better experience than it was in vanilla WoW, and with all the new stuff that has been implemented since then I think it will be.

Still fun the second time

I was a little worried that running through the Howling Fjord quests for the second time would get a little boring, but so far it's still almost as fun as it was the first time through here on my druid.

I'm getting close to hitting 71 on Vonari, and she has finished off the quests around Utgarde Keep and most of the stuff with the Vrykul towns up on the cliffs above. It's really helpful to have been through here before and I have a pretty good idea of what to do for the quests.

Obviously I have to use some different strategies to complete certain quests, and that's probably one of the reasons why it's not becoming monotonous. I really like the spirit world quests where you get to see the history of the Vrykul. The new quests are just so much better in comparison to anything pre-LK.

I also hope to level my professions while I level up to 80. That was the whole reason I made such a big deal about leveling them to that point. I don't want to have to do any profession grinds again.

I think up to this point I never really had the tools to level up a profession without outside help. Now with three characters at level 70 or above, I think I my characters will be able to provide each other with plenty of mats to keep from getting stuck, except for those few recipes that require atypical mats.

That's about all I have to update on at this point, plus it's Friday (Friday the 13th for that matter), and I'm ready for a good long weekend.

Still can't decide

So I'm leveling my priest, Vonari, through Northrend now. I finished up what I wanted in Borean Tundra, which got me about halfway to 71, then headed over to Howling Fjord to make my way through that zone.

I'm really starting to remember why I like playing my priest. Actually I think I say something like that every time I switch characters. I just like them all. They each have their own playstyles, and I find them all appealing, although each in it's own way.

At this point it's really looking like Vonari was the right choice to level alongside my friend as we make our way through Northrend and eventually start getting into some PvP action. Actually, I'm not sure how a priest/mage combo will hold up in 2v2, but we'll see how that goes when we get there.

I was actually asked recently by one of my guildies which character was my main. I had to tell them I'm really not sure. I have three characters at or above level 70, another two at level 60, and various lower levels on the Horde server. I just can't choose one to say it's my main.

Then they ask which is my favorite. Yet again I don't know. I just can't choose one. The only reason I'm leveling Vonari right now is to play alongside my friend, and the reason I chose her was because I thought she would make a good partner for his mage to do arenas with.

There were no favorites, just me trying to figure out the best way to do things. I could just as easily have said that Blackbare was a good choice because he was furthest along, and I'm sure he'd do just fine in arenas as well.

What it all comes down to is that I can't choose just one character and stick with it. I know lots of people can, and I used to, but when I started that first alt I just couldn't go back to playing just one, and it just escalated from there.

After thinking about how things will go when I actually get to 80 and start getting into PvP, I don't think it will stop me from leveling my alts. I won't be doing arenas or BGs every single time I'm on, which means I will be playing a different character.

I just have so many other things I want to do in the game with other classes to stick to just one, and in the impossible event that I am able to accomplish those goals, we have a ridiculous number of achievements that I can go after. I don't think I'll ever run out of stuff to do, even if I don't ever raid.

Grand Masta

It took forever and my funds are running dry, but I finally managed to get my priest up to grand master tailoring and enchanting, which means she's ready for Northrend. Had I known that leveling these two professions together would take such a toll on my gold I would never have chosen them, but too late now.

I think the worst recipe yet has to be the Runed Adamantite Bar. The mats are just ridiculous, and there's no way to get them without help from other professions.

Primal Might has to be made by and alchemist, and the transmute can only be performed once per day, so even if you manage to find someone to do it for you, and you have your own mats, you're still going to pay a lot for it.

Then the Adamantite bar requires a blacksmith, and those are way more expensive than the mats needed for it because they know enchanters need them.

The rest of the mats aren't quite so hard to come by...if you only needed one or two of them, but 8 Large Prismatic Shards is a lot, especially considering how infrequently you get them from disenchanting. Luckily one of my new guildmates had some extras he was willing to part with. What a nice guy.

Well at least that part is past me now, and tailoring wasn't nearly as bad as enchanting was, plus I could DE all the crafted cloth to get more mats.

I sent my priest to Northrend shortly after and made my way to the profession trainers to up my skills to Grand Master. Actually I only had enough money to be grand master in one profession when I got there, but after a few quests I went back and got the other one, although I don't have money to buy any of the recipes now.

I started out in Borean Tundra again, but I'm thinking I'll head over to Howling Fjord after finishing off a few more of the quests since I really liked that zone much better, and my friend is leveling over there right now anyway.

I'm finding a lot less stamina on the cloth drops in Northrend, but much more spell power and intellect. Luckily I don't get hit much because I am almost always shielded, so I'm wondering if this was done on purpose since clothies try not to get hit much anyway and would rather see bigger numbers. I sure don't mind.

For now I'll be pushing my priest as far as I can until I run out of rested XP bonus. I'm sure my friend will get to 80 way before I do, but I just can't stand leveling at the normal rate, so he'll have to wait around before we start our arena team.

I'm still undecided on a spec to go for arenas. I'll be pairing up with a mage, so I'm thinking shadow will be good if we focus fire and just burn down opponents really fast. I was thinking discipline for a while, but I think with two squishies we're just gonna need all the damage output we can get and hope it's enough to kill them before they get to us.

Well, with duel specs coming up I guess I can just try out both and see which works best. It's going to get interesting.