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.

Luck of the draw

I logged on yesterday for one purpose, and that was to farm some Fel Scales to level up Blackbare's leatherworking. I remembered them dropping fairly often from ravagers, so I made my way over to Hellfire Peninsula to grind them out.

Going by the guide I found, I would need enough to make 10 boots to get to 350, plus some extra since the recipe would go yellow at 345. This meant I would need over 20 Fel Scales, and I wasn't sure I would have enough leather to make them all either.

Well, it didn't go that quickly, but I did get 20 Fel Scales and also a good amount of leather, so I decided to try my luck and see if I could just get to 350 without more farming.

And guess what? It worked! I made 5 boots with the recipe in yellow and got a level each time. Not only that, but I still have some leather left over that I can send over to my priest to make some tailored boots.

I had actually expected that task to take a little longer, but now that it was done I still had time to play. I sent Blackbare to Stormwind, grabbed all the Borean Leather out of the bank that he had been collecting, then sent him to Northrend.

Once there I trained up my leatherworking some more and with all the Borean Leather I was able to get him up over 380. That's over 40 levels in one night, and probably a new record for me. I sent all the crafted stuff to the priest to disenchant.

Now it was time to get Keldreth's (that's the hunter's new name) herbalism up to Northrend level. Obviously this won't get done in one night, but I was surprised how fast it did go. She started off at 35 (pathetic for a 70, I know), and after running around Elwynn and Redridge she got a few levels past 100. It wasn't very eventful, just lots of running and one-shotting mobs that decided to pick a fight.

The interesting thing was, just about every time I picked something it gave me a level, even the yellows and greens. Actually I only remember one or two times when something didn't give me a level. Looks like last night was my lucky night for leveling up professions.

The next place I'm sending her is the Wetlands. I decided to do the traveling last night so I can go straight into gathering next time. I stopped off at Ironforge on the way and put up the herbs she had just picked for auctiong. May as well make some money since I don't really need them for anything. Then I sent her over to Menethil to log out.

I guess I was worried about this profession leveling for nothing. I really thought leatherworking would take much longer. Herbalism is going pretty quickly too, although I think once I get into the Outland stuff I will have a little tougher time of it, but at least it's not stressful like a crafting profession, and I'll actually be making money from it rather than spending.

Soon enough I'll be able to level the little hordies a bit more before I dive back into leveling my priest to keep up with my friend. I'm pretty sure I'll get left behind, but I'll at least try to stay close.

I'm actually really looking forward to trying out arenas, but I'm wondering if I should do some BGs first to gear up before I head in there. I'm thinking I'll probably just go straight to arenas, but when I'm not doing that I'll do BGs on the side to grab some PvP gear so we'll gradually become more competetive. I'll really need some practice figuring out how to play a priest in PvP.

Lost my name

I made the jump yesterday. Switched three of my characters over to the Eredar server to play alongside my friend. He's only level 60 right now so I still have a little time to play the hordies before he's caught up, but he plays a lot more than I do so it shouldn't take too long.

I have decided to use my priest to level with him. I'm not really sure about how that's going to end up in PvP later on (him being a mage), but if that doesn't work out I can always level somebody else up to 80.

Actually, the only thing I wasn't happy about was my hunter lost her name. I really liked Aluvia, but apparently somebody already has that name on the server. I checked Armory, but I didn't see the character on there, so either their account is closed or they aren't level 10 yet. Either way, I think I should get priority, being level 70, but whatever.

I can't even remember what I named her right now. I updated the Armory links on this page, but her's will have to stay unchanged until I get home and figure out what I named her. Not that it's a bad name, I actually like it, but I just can't remember it at the moment. I also had her name her core hound, Corey (get it?), because I felt bad he's been fighting for her all this time without his own name.

Besides that I didn't actually do much in the game. I decided to take this chance to level some more professions. Blackbare got his leatherworking a little higher, although he needs a bunch of Fel Scales to get anywhere, so I'll have to do a little farming. Vonari's tailoring and enchanting are both coming along, but she's out of money. She's just going to have to live with being poor until her professions are leveled all the way up.

I'm thinking I better head back with my hunter and level her herbalism. I'm running into some enchanting recipes that require different mats and I really don't want to pay AH prices for them if I don't have to. I'm hoping it will go quickly, I'll have to find some guides one where the best places to go are and then just gather, gather, gather. Hopefully I can also sell all that stuff as I go and maybe fund Vonari's profession leveling.

So with all that going on, I'll have to distribute my time better. I want to play the hordies, but I also want to get my professions up to Northrend level in time to play alongside my friend. That might mean making some sacrifices, I'm just not sure what those are going to be yet. Looks like I have some thinking to do.

#3

That's right, I got my third character to level 70 this weekend, and got to do some pretty cool quests in the process.

First I set out to help Oronok, gathering tubers and destroying slayer eggs, but then he asked me to find his sons and help them out. Those quests got very interesting, with different mechanics that we don't get to see very often in our questing.

The first was fairly straightforward. Kill nagas, find a key, and open a chest with it to get the item. Only thing is, the item doesn't have to be in the chest, it could just be a bunch of random items, so you have to keep doing this until you find the right chest. This one went pretty quickly and I got it on the second chest.

Next up sends you to the southwest camp of demons. This son is dead, but his spirit wants you to do something for him. You have to first free his soul, then find his bow so he can help you on the next step. Once he has his bow, he basically becomes a pet, except he has a mind of his own. This made things go pretty quickly, and we downed the required mob and completed the quest.

The last son had me ambush a courier and then disguise myself as a blood elf to deliver a note to the commander at Eclipsion Point. I actually liked the ambush part the best. You set a package in the road across the bridge and then hide until the courier is distracted by it, then you rush in and take him out. The rest was similar to any of the disguise quests, except all the dragonhawks can see through it so you have to stay out of range. Still very fun.

After finishing up those quests and a few more I hit level 70, immediately dropped everything else, and made my way back to Shatt, where I ported to Stormwind and learned all my new skills.

I'll be setting my hunter aside for a bit in order to level my mage. I also need to see how far my druid's leatherworking can get with what she provided to him. If it's not enough to get to the Borean Leather recipes I'll have to do some farming. The priest's enchanting I'm not too worried about though. I still have my shaman, and maybe my rogue, that need to get through Outlands, and they should give me plenty of items to disenchant for mats to get her through the levels.

I checked out my mage for a bit this weekend too, enough time to complete a quest and then fly around to wrap up a few loose ends so I can start in on finishing off Ashenvale and then probably move on to Thousand Needles. I'm hoping to get at least a couple levels before his rested XP bonus runs out and I have to switch off. Leveling goes so much faster at these lower levels.