Instances

Last week Kuan and Viljo went into Sethekk Halls with Rahlenti, and the other pair of trolls we've been running with, the resto shaman and hunter. Well, first we tried Mana tombs, but bear tanks have very little spell mitigation, and though we tried valiantly we just couldn't get past the first VW boss.

But Sethekk was fun. We tromped through the instance and handily took out the first boss and the summoned druid boss. Sadly, Anzu didn't drop the epic mount so we'll have to go back some other time. But at 4000 lower city rep per heroic clear I don't think any of us will mind, especially not Kuanchichi, who lusts after the Gavel of Unearthed Secrets.

However the tromping was reversed when we got to Ikiss. Ikiss is a bitch and a half on regular and his attacks are only worse on heroic. The only way I've reliably seen him taken down is to get him down to 20%, with only the (shaman) healer and tank left alive, then they take him out via the miracle of searing totems, sheeped mana regeneration, and the fact that he stops doing the AOE explode with only 2 people. So after several wipes we got that formation and took him down.

Teltanara cleared Sunken Temple. The group was interesting, we had a 69 rogue tanking, and Eeyan tanking as well? off-tanking? And a hunter and mage along as well. It was interesting to be the healer along on that run. Turns out that good rogues can be effective tanks when 10-15 levels up. They replace mitigation with dodge. :)

We had a slight escapade where we forgot to clear all of the green dragons before killing Eranikus. The rogues still managed to down him, but those of us who didn't have vanish were killed by the pat of 15-20 pissed off dragonkin. It was quite impressive to see them wandering around afterwards looking for the rogues.

And Teltanara got the first set of quests for BRD, including some of them inside the instance. Eeyan is quite the killing machine, especially with heals.

draNgNon progress 8/27

I played a lot of Wow this last weekend, let's see how what I did stacks up with last week's list.

Kuanchichi
• run Heroic Auchidoun-something... • 1 primal might • battlegrounds	• ran both Crypts and Sethekk • Earthstrom Diamond instead • ran 4 AB, won 3 more: cleared Nexus-King Saladbowl
Eeyan
• Onyxia key. • mats for next 0.5 quest • 330 blacksmithing • Hellfire Ramparts run	• nope • nope • got it • nope more: broke 500g on his own...!
Trismestigus
• examine talents for possible respec • sort through bag/bank space • quests in Silithus	• spec is OK • sorted enough • got twilight lexicons
Vhaas
• Fallen Hero of the Horde questline • clear Everlook quests • clear outdoor Plaguelands quests • 300 cooking • neutral with Timbermaw Hold • friendly with Thorium Brotherhood • run BRD again	• got the weaps • no progress • cleared WPL other than Hearthglen • stuck at 298 • 2000/3000 • did some turnins • ran it, no quests done

Here's next week's list.

Kuanchichi Lower City rep, mount money, primals, and practice w/heroics
• run Heroic Auchidoun-something...
• 1 primal might
• battlegrounds
• clear Dukes in Silithus

Eeyan Ony key, 0.5 quests, blacksmithing, questing with Teltanara
• Onyxia key.
• mats for next 0.5 quest
• Hellfire Ramparts run
• first run of BRD with Teltanara
• Teltanara Andorhal beacons

Trismestigus epic ground mount
• quests in Silithus
• Honor Hold for profession training
• herbing for dollars, er, gold

Vhaas mount money, and Dranei rep for Elekk:
• clear Fallen Hero of the Horde questline
• clear Everlook quests
• clear outdoor Eastern Plaguelands quests
• 300 cooking
• neutral with Timbermaw Hold
• friendly with Thorium Brotherhood
• run BRD again...!

BRD

Khyrie and Vhaas have 5 quests in Blackrock Depths. They are all in the harder part of the instance. We decided to try to get a group for them this evening. It ended up being the two of us (both 60), a 56 mage, a 52 feral cat druid, and a 52 arms warrior. This wasn't the ideal group, but with some discipline and teamwork it should be fine.

The warrior is a newb, not in the idiot sense (mostly), just in the new to the game sense. Vhaas almost lost it a couple of times when the warrior stood behind the ice trap to pull. So much for a trap on those pulls. :( The warrior is also not very good at noticing that Khyrie is getting hit. This results in the warriors death a couple of times as I can't get the heal off in time while being interrupted.

The mage is aggro happy. My main is a mage, I know how to play mage. You don't start firing off frostbolts before the warrior has done more than throw a knife. You also don't send your water elemental at the trap to "see if my ele could tank the mob". The ele lasted roughly 2 seconds, thus leaving a pissed of mob with no crowd control.

The other druid is group leader because the warrior didn't want to mark. This person was quite pompous. I felt like I was in MC or BWL again with all the raid warnings popping into the middle of the screen. When we finally made it to the Bar he was trying to explain everything to everyone and was actually getting bits wrong. So I asked who hadn't been to the bar. Turns out that everyone except the warrior is an alt! OMG WTF BBQ!! Who would have thought that this other druid wasn't the only one playing an alt. So after that he was much less wordy, and much less enthused about "running us through" BRD.

Anyway we made it to the bar. And 3 of us die trying to kill Ribbly. The people left don't get loot sparkles, and by the time the rest of us get there his corpse has despawned. So all that work and no quests done.

I would call this a comedy of errors but I just wasn't amused.

Edit: I forgot to mention that the other druid would just randomly mark stuff "so that we would know where it was". Only sometimes his marks didn't mean that but were kill order. So it was completely frustrating to try to guess what the marks meant.

No fear in Blood Furnace

Last night our schedule was odd. We got home from work early, and had to leave at midnight-thirty to get a friend from the airport. So, we decided that was enough time to get a heroic run in.

I logged in at the same time as Rahlenti, and he liked this idea too. So we pulled together Walkietalkie (who is spec'd resto right now) and Tingprodu, a rogue from Dark Revenant, and decided to hit Blood Furnace.

Now in the past, when we tried to run with Isd, he refused to run BF without a warlock. I couldn't remember the instance well enough to know why, and by now we had all clearly forgotten why. We got there and tore through the first part of the instance. First boss, kept going. We wiped when a pat added on in that hallway with the icky dripping green machines. Then we kept going...

...and got to the room with the caged fel orcs. With no fears! But with 2 shaman. We assembled a plan involving Frost Nova and 2 Earthbind totems, but lo, they were immune to Earthbind! But then someone came up with a clever plan. It turns out there is a bug that can get the orcs out of the cages without triggering the event. After some experimentation, we ascertained: if three people walk up to the cage, they will come out, kill Kuanchichi, and then go after everyone else.

:-(

That experimentation was 3 more wipes, and now people were getting cranky about repairs. So finally Viljo convinced everyone just to try the event, since we knew our limitations. Let the rogue mark, as the tank needs to tank and not be going "hm, you get a Star!" at the mobs. We trid it, and got all the way to the last group. Then Kuan went down, and I think we still could have made it if I popped, but by the time the melee moved away from Kuan's corpse and he could pop, the tank went down too.

At that point people were mad and called it. "We need fearz" was the consensus. But really, I don't think so. The second time actually trying the event we got almost all the way through it. I think if we had just approached it with some discipline, which we didn't have since it'd been so easy to that point, we could have done it. (I do admit I was mad too. "Not only did I have to suffer the indignity of dying, but I was stuck with nothing but Bear Ass on my screen!")

But ok, I remember now, "need a lock for BF!" Well, I got a badge and learned that while a lock would make it easier, we can probably handle that event with no fears.

reputation woes

I want Vhaas on an Elekk. She doesn't even have an epic ground mount! Nor will she have one anytime soon; 37G, is what she has.

Now, Zalona has an Elekk. Damn it! I am just behind with all my toons. I just lose at Wow.

Arathi Basin

Arathi Basin is a battle ground that makes a lot of sense to me. It is all about getting your side more resources, this just makes sense in a big picture sort of way. Control more bases, get more resources, your side can supply itself better, and then you win. It isn't quite as organic as Alterac Valley (Kill them all!), but it's much less contrived than Warsong Gulch.

Anyway last night was AB night. So, because it was Monday, Kuan and Viljo went to defend the Horde from those filthy Alliance. (Sorry alliance readers, your toons should bathe more or something. :-)

The first battle was close at some points. Horde had 3 bases at most times and trounced Alliance pretty handily. We almost had 4 bases a couple of times. Viljo was really excited about that thought of 4 bases held, because he *still* has that quest to hold 4 bases at the same time from the defilers. He has had that quest since just after he turned 60.

The second battle was just a steamrolling experience. Horde isn't good at defense. It's just not horde-like to sit back and wait for the enemy to come to you. So about 10 of the 15 member team went and crushed any Alliance resistance that popped up. This lead to a 5 cap! The battle lasted all of 9 minutes. It was just impressive to watch the map, with a mass of horde side players sweeping around and squashing everything in sight. And of course Viljo got his quest done. :)

Third battle was more of the same, though not quite as impressive. We had a 4 cap and again squashed most of what popped up. It was strange, Alliance got bogged down at the farm. They held it and a bunch of us kept most of them busy trying to get it back. Meanwhile most of the rest of the team took the other 4 bases.

After that Kuan and Viljo decided to do a couple of daily quests in Ogri'la. They wrangled Aether Rays and did the simon says game. I personally hate the simon says. It is so annoying. But that is why Viljo brings Kuan along: Kuan writes down the colors and Viljo hits the right ones. That simon says quest must be even more annoying on a PvP server.

After that Viljo and Kuan tried to do one more AB. This was a mistake. Did I mention that Horde isn't good at defense? Sadly, there was too much talking by someone who was all "We have 3 just hold these." But we couldn't hold onto those three. And there wasn't enough momentum from Horde to sweep around and slaughter everything. So it was a slow defeat. But at least Viljo and Kuan got a bunch of HKs out of it.

draNgNon progress 8/20

So, after Kuan ran Crypts last week I ended up too busy in real life to play for any length of time. Thus even though I seem to have made more progress on last week's list than I expected, I was feeling rather frustrated.

I wonder if I should stop keeping this list. I had it so that I wouldn't end up logging into Wow and just kicking around a capital city going gee, I wonder what I should do now and then remember something I wanted to get done later. It's not filling that purpose...

Kuanchichi
• 375 fishing • run Heroic Auchidoun-something... • get healy enchant on daggar • battlegrounds • deal with bagspace	• got it! • ran Crypts • enchanted • ran 1 WSG only. but we won • better now also: respec'd
Eeyan
• Onyxia key. • mats for next 0.5 quest • 330 blacksmithing • Hellfire Ramparts run • Teltanara through lower Felwood • Teltanara ST runups in Un'goro and Ashzara	• nope • nope • no progress • nope • done • done
Aurochh
• quests in Kneedles • Shadowprey Village FP	Aurochh is level 35 and has artisan enchanting. The End
Vhaas
• Fallen Hero of the Horde questline • clear Winterspring quests • clear outdoor Chillwind point quests • 300 cooking • neutral with Timbermaw Hold • friendly with Thorium Brotherhood • run BRD again • start on Silithus	• done with Aszhara part • Starfall cleared • just need lumbermill • stuck at 298 • no progress • no progress there either • nope • nope
other
• fix raid frames to get rid of CTRA • restart Ikoli generating Mooncloth	• still needs work • nope

This coming week, it goes without saying, skill up Aurochh enchanting. Other than that, he's parked, and drops off the list.

Kuanchichi Lower City rep, mount money, primals, and practice w/heroics
• run Heroic Auchidoun-something...
• 1 primal might
• battlegrounds

Eeyan Ony key, 0.5 quests, blacksmithing
• Onyxia key.
• mats for next 0.5 quest
• 330 blacksmithing
• Hellfire Ramparts run

Trismestigus epic ground mount
• examine talents for possible respec
• sort through bag/bank space
• quests in Silithus

Vhaas mount money, and Dranei rep for Elekk:
• Fallen Hero of the Horde questline
• clear Everlook quests
• clear outdoor Plaguelands quests
• 300 cooking
• neutral with Timbermaw Hold
• friendly with Thorium Brotherhood
• run BRD again

Kuanchichi and mana regen

Preamble: At about level 40, I realized that with the acquisition of a decent lesser heal, having points in a faster healing wave was a waste for the elemental-spec'd Kuanchichi. So I respec'd.

Kuan has only respec'd once since then, that I paid gold for. That was when I decided the proc rate on Lightning Overload was ass, and put the points in the resto tree.

...

Anyhow, last night Kuan got the spiffy epic belt of goodness. Now he had in his bags for use with healy gear, the Uvuros Hide Cinch, which has better +heals even than the Wave-song Girdle, and mp5 as well, but is inferior in all other aspects. This got me calculating, as Kuan's mana regen is very poor for his healy outfit, and actually not so great for his caster-dmg gear either. so, i'd lose +3 to heals but gain a little over 1% crit, which means over 100 casts i would have gained probably 350 points healed...

I talked to Wendy about this and Clara too, and they are all 'Screw that! Mana regen! Doesn't Shaman have a mana-regen-while-casting-talent? Why are you not using that!' So I looked, and it's 'Unrelenting Storm,' tier 5 in the ele tree! What a good thing for Kuan, although I bet all the resto-shamans out there hate the placement. Meanwhile... I'd put it out of my mind recently, but Kuan has the tier 4 talent 'Eye of the Storm', which triggers 6 seconds of Focused Casting on a not-spell crit. I've been thinking it was a waste of 3 points, as to get any use of the talent Kuan has to initiate immediately a Lightning Bolt cast after drawing aggro, which is just plain stupid. I'd just put them there to get lower in the tree, and was undecided on what to do to fix this stupidity. But now I shall move them to the mana regen talent. It will be Kuan's third paid-for respec; I guess it will cost 10g.

Meanwhile, looking at his healy gear, I will see if Teltanara can get a quick enchanting skillup by putting mp5 on his healy chest. Then it will be all around goodness as Kuan will be much more viable as a caster (his non-healy belt had very little spellpower) and a healer.

Good Deed for the Day + Auchenai Crypts

I logged on Viljo last night to deal with some Auction House and bag stuff. DraNgNon logged on her druid banker alt. As she was running around Thousand Needles she happened to buff a priest as she ran by. This priest then whispered her about Scarlet Monastery. After repeated pestering she finally gave in and convinced me to bring Viljo along as well.

So Viljo, Aurochh, and this priest went through the library and the cathedral. Whoever was playing this priest was either a really really good actor or a newb. While killing everything in the cathedral we explained about talents, stats that priests want, and types of gear that is good to get. We also pointed this guy towards some of the websites out there for helping to figure out what you're doing, as well as gave him the names of good priests we know to look up on Armory. It was really cute to see such a newbie first finding his way through the game. And he wasn't doing a bad job of healing.

As we were finishing up the cathedral Rahlenti logged on. Viljo whispered him to say hi, and there was a bit of chatting back and forth as Viljo exploded in the Cathedral. Then Rahlenti asks if Viljo and Kuan are interested in heroic Auchenai Crypts. A hunter that he, and now we, have been running with wants to do run it. So we rush to finish helping the newbie priest, and get ourselves to Shattrath.

It was the same group as for Heroic Hellfire Ramparts the other night. And I have to say that I'm very happy with that group. It turns out that the resto shaman and hunter are dating and live pretty close to us. We definitely drive by them on the way to work.

So anyway, four trolls and a bear walk into Auchenai Crypts. The ghosts in there are pretty brutal on Heroic. Especially since I'd only run it at most twice on non-Heroic, and never before on Heroic. But once we got things down it went reasonably smoothly, aside from random ghost adds.

The first boss was a pain in the butt. That casting speed debuff is just brutal. I really believe that most of Viljo's damage in that fight came from his lovely wand, the Black Stalk. It certainly wasn't from the 8 second scorch. >.<

The skellies that needed to be aoe'd just before the last boss reminded Viljo of the lesson he learned in Stratholme. As Viljo died almost every other pull, I reminded myself that aoe plus skeletons means that Viljo is most likely gonna die. he just needs to accept that fact and deal as much damage as possible before it happens.

The last boss was not all that different from what I remember of regular Auchenai Crypts. He went down pretty fast and dropped spiffy things. Specifially he dropped a nice gem that Viljo won the roll on and put into his gloves, and a staff that Rahlenti took for cat form. However, he also dropped the Wave-Song Girdle, which Kuan is now wearing! Yay purples!

Before we all logged off the hunter mentioned heroic Mana-Tombs for tonight. So maybe if we're lucky we'll get to run that tonight.

Tailoring Part 2

Well after the Adventures that Viljo and Kuan had last night I logged on Teltanara to mess about with her bags and bank. She started to get nekkid to ride to Falcons Watch and then Thrallmar, but just about that time Kuanchichi and Siertial saved the day! The two of them volunteered to escort her to where she needed to go in Hellfire Peninsula.

It was very scary for Teltanara to leave Shattrath. Everything was red and big. ?? big as well as much larger than it was for Viljo. She made it without incident to the Cenarion Expedition, though those wasps are scary! Then there were a few fights with the ravagers on the path to Hellfire, but Siertial and Kuan took them out easily. But then horror of Horrors, as Teltanara passes the Cenarion Outpost there was a Felreaver ahead of her. It was my first time in Hellfire all over again. And I'm not ashamed to say that Teltanara turned around and ran away from the Felreaver. Fortunately it didn't see her, so she continued on to Falcon's Watch and Thrallmar safely. Now she has the flight points and has spent some quality time making bolts of cloth. Her tailoring is at 340!

Black Morass Redux, and Ring of Blood!

Well, mentioning Eli in a comment in the last post invoked something, because I wasn't online more than half an hour, fishing in Nagrand, when he ping'd me, come heal for us in Black Morass. I was doubtful I could pull it off, Kuan is not spec'd deep in the resto tree, but he thought I would be fine.

I agreed, but told them they had to wait 3 mins becuase I was fishing. So they waited, albeit impatiently...



Black Morass was a pain, it always is, but with Rahlenti tanking I did manage to solo heal it up until the last boss. There was one close call in there where Rahlenti was below 1K hp but Nature's Swiftness to the rescue there. However the pain here was more from an impatient mage in our party who I didn't know, who thought he had better insight into how to manage the run, and the Chrono-beacons, than the rest of us. He soaked up a lot of mana from heals which was still ok, but then he had to go and pull the last boss. We couldn't recover from that and Medivh went down.

So, even though the run was not successful and Eli still has no key, I found myself bemused becuase Kuan can heal BM! SOLO heal. hmmm I thought. I have been talking about that healy enchant on daggar for weeks. I really ought to get it. I put that in the back of my mind, and while still in a group with Rahlenti I mentioned the Ring of Blood idea. He liked it, and we picked up a couple others who needed, and tore through the whole sequence. In the end Kuan got 132g or so, and quite a few pots. And then, we did it again, as some alliance shows up and begged for help, so we did. Flush with the notion of increasing our gold, we took Viljo and Kuan into Ogri'la to do a couple dailies.

Then it was midnight and one of my oldest Wow-friends, Siertial, logged in, and I remembered he enchants! He was just kickin' it tonight so he was more than happy to take all those motes of water Kuan had fished up and all the other mats I'd been banking to put the +81 healing power on Kuan's healy daggar, the Ceremonial Kris from downing Varedis.

So now, my little ele/resto hybrid shaman is +980 heals, unbuffed. But don't take my word for it.



Note both images in this post click through to a full screenshot with the UI on, for the curious. But don't laugh too hard as Kuan's healy outfit is a fashion violation even by Wow Outland standards.

Anyhow I think Kuan can now probably heal anything up to (normal mode) Shattered Halls, although it would take some patience on the part of party members in some parts. That's pretty neat and cool for a DPS/caster shaman.

Maybe I'll end up helping Eli tomorrow, if he still hasn't got his key.

Heroic Ramparts

Last night Kuan and Viljo logged on to do their usual Monday night battleground thing. It was Warsong weekend so despite the pointlessness of Warsong Gulch they were going to go in there and capture the flag. Just after we logged on our friend, and kickass tank, Patrick, logged on as Rahlenti. So the three of us cleared our bags and then I signed us up for Warsong. Horde handily won the match 3 to 0, even though Viljo didn't get a whole lot of HKs because he stayed on defense most of the time.

But before we could head into a second battle, Rahlenti asks if we are interested in Heroic Hellfire Ramparts. It's now 11 and the server will shut down at 1 for hours and hours of maintenance. We all agree that it is short and we can do it. So Rahlenti, (I did say kickass tank) Viljo, Kuanchichi, Jataka (resto shaman), and Fanxia (BM hunter), head to Hellfire. We swap the instance to heroic, there is some issue there where we all almost get auto-hearthed. Then we drop group, reform, and proceed to kick the instance's butt.

Considering that the last time I was in Hellfire ramparts was as an under geared level 60 it actually seemed easier on heroic. We had one wipe by lag and a couple of wipes by early breaking CC. But mostly after a bit of group breaking in we just pwned. We did have one wipe on each boss. The first boss was due to a bad pull, the second boss was not yet understanding everyone's job in the fight, and the third boss was Vazruden deciding when he landed that Kuan had to die first. Without the dps and off heals we just couldn't take out Nazan.

I was pretty pleased with the run. Thrallmar rep is good. Viljo got Mana Etched Gloves, which after the much much more garish Energis Armwraps, seem kind of plain. Rahlenti got an excellent bear tanking belt, which I cannot remember the name of. And, because Fanxia can Disenchant, we all got shards. Hopefully Kuan now has enough to get the healy enchant on that dagger.

Next time we run a heroic it really ought to be something in Auchindoun. Otherwise I think draNgNon will go crazy, not getting Lower City rep for Kuan.

Tailoring

So now that Teltanara is 50 and can, once I get her to Thrallmar, train tailoring, I'm looking at a Tailoring Leveling Guide. I've looked at a couple, but that is the one that seems most useful and adaptable.

I think I'll just do my best to get her up to 350 for the cloth creation. And of course see what I can make her to bank for when she is bigger. I fully intend to have her go Primal Mooncloth, for the healing set. And for ease of large bag creation. :)

Also I never knew about or noticed Josephine Lister. What is this shadoweave tailoring? And why are there lots of shadow sets, and only a few only fire or only frost sets? It's really not fair to mages who may want to, I don't know, use more than one school of magic?

Progress 8/13

so, here my progress on last week's list was less than I wanted... I focussed more on the alts I haven't been playing as much.

Kuanchichi
• 370 fishing • run Heroic Auchidoun-something... • get healy enchant on daggar • battlegrounds • honored with CC	• 368... • nope • still a shard short or so.... • ran 3 of AV... won one too • got it! also: put +20 FR on spare hat
Eeyan
• Onyxia key. • mats for next 0.5 quest • 330 blacksmithing • Hellfire Ramparts run • Teltanara through lower Felwood	• nope • nope • 328... • nope • got the Furblogs also: more than 400g
Aurochh
• quests in Arathi • quests in Shimmering Flats • Shadowprey Village FP	• everything left is red • nope • got as far as Sun Rock and logged
Vhaas
• Fallen Hero of the Horde questline • clear Winterspring quests • clear outdoor Chillwind point quests • 300 cooking • neutral with Timbermaw Hold • friendly with Thorium Brotherhood • clear ruins of Thaurassian, then run BRD • start on Silithus	• no progress • no progress • no progress • stuck at 298 • no progress • no progress there either • cleared that, and started on BRD • no progress
other
• fix raid frames to get rid of CTRA • restart Ikoli generating Mooncloth	• fixed for Kuan • nope

so this coming week. let's get some balance in here.

Kuanchichi Lower City rep, and practice w/heroics
• 375 fishing
• run Heroic Auchidoun-something...
• get healy enchant on daggar
• battlegrounds
• deal with bagspace

Eeyan Ony key, 0.5 quests, blacksmithing, and run with Teltanara:
• Onyxia key.
• mats for next 0.5 quest
• 330 blacksmithing
• Hellfire Ramparts run
• Teltanara through lower Felwood
• Teltanara ST runups in Un'goro and Ashzara mebbe

Aurochh level 35 and artisan enchanting:
• quests in Kneedles
• Shadowprey Village FP

Vhaas mount money, and Dranei rep for Elekk:
• Fallen Hero of the Horde questline
• clear Winterspring quests
• clear outdoor Chillwind point quests
• 300 cooking
• neutral with Timbermaw Hold
• friendly with Thorium Brotherhood
• run BRD again
• start on Silithus

Teltanara is 50!

Yesterday afternoon while running around in Swamp of Sorrows with Eeyan, doing the Fallen Hero of the Horde questline, Teltanara leveled. I believe it was on the death of Swamp Talker, who you have to kill for the Horde only part of the Fallen Hero quest line. The part that actually explains that the poor Fallen Hero's orders never made it to him, and if they had he wouldn't have gone into Blasted Lands.

Anyway, foolish orcs aside, Teltanara leveled! Yay level 50!! Especially wonderful because only at level 50 are you allowed to train the Master level of tailoring. Earlier in the weekend Teltanara had made it to 300 enchanting and 298 tailoring. (She will be at 300 tailoring the next time I log her in because Viljo sent her more runecloth.) So upon leveling Telanara hearthed to Shattrath and promptly got the enchanting training from the Scryers. Then she went to the lower city to where all the tailoring specialists are. But Noooo! there are no actual tailor trainers by all the Mooncloth/Spellcloth/Shadowcloth trainers. So at a later date, when I have time and patience she will ride naked to Thrallmar. Perhaps she will even not have gear in her bags for the more efficient spirit healer method of getting to where she needs to go.

Wow + Quicktime = happy

I swear, I cannot wait for the next patch to come out. I will own YouTube. I will make so many videos!

the first one, will be Eeyan dancing to "Who was in my room last night" by the Butthole Surfers.



well, we'll see. I bet I'm far too lazy to get the choreography just right. but the thought is so pleasing.

Alterac Valley!!

Viljo and Kuan were in three different AV battles last night.

The first one they joined midway through and Viljo got there just in time to exit the tunnel before Drek'thar was dead. :(

The second one Alliance zerged Drek again, while horde couldn't keep hold of the Stone hearth graveyeard. :(

The third one Horde was a bit better organized. We were holding all the graveyards up to StoneHearth, and about that time Lok'holar the Ice Lord was summoned. Lok!! It's been so long since I saw him last. Anyway, with him leading the vanguard, we pushed to the Stormpike graveyard and then on to kill Vanndar. Lok guarded the rear while just about everyone else killed Vanndar. It was pretty cool to see him go on a rampage and just destructivize everything in sight. I can only imagine the Alliance side of bg chat: "Shit they've got Lok!" "oh crap! what do we do" "oh I know assault him one at a time so he 3 shots everyone" Well perhaps that's just my dramatization of what they did. :)

Also I was more than happy to discover and subsequently announce that you can ignore people from other servers. Because as always there was some lame person who was all "why are we bothering? this is no honor, just lose faster." Gah! Those lame people annoy me so much! But now I can just ignore them all. :) Especially since they are completely wrong. The rep and honor from winning an AV battle are just insane. Viljo went up 1800 frostwolf rep yesterday evening.

draNgNon progress 8/6

I'm taking a break from running Kuan in AV to drink some delicious wine, and post progress on last week's list.

Kuanchichi
• 350 unarmed • 365 fishing • run Heroic Crypts • get healy enchant on daggar • battlegrounds • honored with CC	• got it! • got it • nope • nope • ran 3 EotS • 1 stack of texts away...
Eeyan
• Onyxia key. • mats for next 0.5 quest • 330 blacksmithing • Hellfire Ramparts run • Teltanara through Searing Gorge • Teltanara through Jintha'alor	• nope • nope • nope • picked up some Fel Iron... • done • done
Aurochh
• quests in Arathi • quests in Shimmering Flats • Shadowprey Village FP	no progress on any of this stuff
Vhaas
• level 60 • Fallen Hero of the Horde questline • clear Winterspring quests • clear outdoor Chillwind point quests • 300 cooking • neutral with Timbermaw Hold • friendly with Thorium Brotherhood • run BRD • start on Silithus	• got it! • no progress • cleared the Elune chain • still one in EPL • 297 • halfway • no progress • no progress there either • ran DM E instead and: exalted with Darnassus!
other
• sort out/sync macros for Kuan and Vhaas • restart Ikoli generating Mooncloth	• sorted • handed 12 felcloth to Teltanara...

so this coming week. last week's list really was more like 2 week's worth of stuff to do, so...

Kuanchichi Lower City rep, and practice w/heroics
• 370 fishing
• run Heroic Auchidoun-something...
• get healy enchant on daggar
• battlegrounds
• honored with CC

Eeyan Ony key, 0.5 quests, blacksmithing, and run with Teltanara:
• Onyxia key.
• mats for next 0.5 quest
• 330 blacksmithing
• Hellfire Ramparts run
• Teltanara through lower Felwood

Aurochh level 35 and artisan enchanting:
• quests in Arathi
• quests in Shimmering Flats
• Shadowprey Village FP

Vhaas mount money, and Dranei rep for Elekk:
• Fallen Hero of the Horde questline
• clear Winterspring quests
• clear outdoor Chillwind point quests
• 300 cooking
• neutral with Timbermaw Hold
• friendly with Thorium Brotherhood
• clear ruins of Thaurassian, then run BRD
• start on Silithus

other
• fix raid frames to get rid of CTRA
• restart Ikoli generating Mooncloth

Searing Gorge

Sunday afternoon Teltanara and Eeyan went through Searing Gorge. The quests are pretty much the same for horde or alliance. With the exception that Alliance has to deal with the dumb dwarf archaeologists who need rescuing. And of course they also have that quest to bring Margol the Rager's horn to Mountaineer Pebblebitty. (Such a bitch, she even responds if you make a /rude gesture at her.)

Anyway Eeyan guided Teltanara through all the Thorium point and Kalaran Windblade quest lines. It was, as usual, quite nice to have a big sneaky rogue along for the killing. Eeyan is quite good about killing anything in his path. We killed Maltorious, and despite the fact that a kindly Night Elf warrior came along and helped dps things down I know that Eeyan and Teltanara could have taken him ourselves.

In the process of doing all this Teltanara dinged level 49. She now has enough points that next chance I get for her I'll respec her and drop Spirit Tap from her build. She isn't solo questing anymore and so rarely gets the killing blow, especially when hanging out with Eeyan, that it makes more sense talent wise to just drop points into Disc until she gets Improved Divine Spirit.

exalted for the very first time

so Vhaas is my 4th lvl 60 character, now. I used to make fun of people with so many high level characters, but now I suppose it's par for the course what with leveling guides and the race to Outland and whatnot.

training for a lvl 60 hunter was always expensive. but now with Tranq Shot a trainable ability, instead of something one must down Luci to get, that was crazy! the gold meter I run tells me training Vhaas was roughly 53g. (roughly becuase, I had bought something or repaired as well) anyhow, that's 10% of the gold required to learn Journeyman Riding (i.e. get an epic ground mount).

Vhaas and Khyrie are thus sans mounts, and have quests queued up for 4 zones in Azeroth and I haven't even counted how many instances. BRD onward, really. so, they will not be going to Outland anytime soon; which is OK as we have the others to play, and I don't think we've really played Alliance past this point anyhow.

to continue. after training and taking care of in-town things, they headed to Winterspring to clear some of the quests there. one of the quests is an Alliance-only escort in Owl Wing Thicket that explains the relationship between Elune and the owlbeasts. what it doesn't explain, of course, is why one has to kill so damn many of them during the escort, but there it is. at the end of the quest they were sent back to Rutheran to turn in, and thus I now have a character with Exalted on a rep bar as Vhaas dinged Exalted with Darnassus.



that was pretty stunningly easy compared to poor Kuan, who despite my best efforts and running all of Zagarmarsh, remains far far away from exalted with his own faction. but still, exciting. what will happen to the Darn reputation Vhaas earns now? will it just be useless? I've heard it spills over to the other faction rep, but I've not seen any documentation to that effect.

I guess I will find out. too bad it isn't Dranei rep, though. I want Vhaas on an Elekk...

ding!

Vhaas and Khyrie are now Officially Undergeared level 60

one of these days, I'll level him

(but he holds his own as it is)



o yeh. got the URL from Graeth.

Jintha'Alor quests (Horde)

Here are the quests to gather before going to Jintha'Alor as Horde.

One of these has considerable runup:
The Ancient Egg - sequence from Steamwheedle in Tanaris

The rest you pick up in Revantusk:
Dark Vessels - from Primal Torntusk, upstairs in inn
Separation Anxiety - from the stable master
Kidnapped Elder Torntusk! - from Primal Torntusk, upstairs in inn
Wanted: Vile Priestess Hexx and Her Minions - starts at a sign near the steps to cooking supply dude
Job Opening: Guard Captain of Revantusk Village - starts at a sign near the steps to cooking supply dude

Also go to Altar of Zul, kill the 2 lvl 50 elites to get the Sacred Mallet, and right click it when you actually Find Elder Torntusk. Voila! You can now summon Ghaz'rilla in ZF.

Elder Torntusk will also give you two quests. Be Not Afraid. They are not escort quests. And you have to kill Hitah'ya the Keeper anyhow to get to the Ancient Egg.

Alliance has a couple of different quests, but the overlap is in the Mallet and the Ancient Egg.

Jintha'Alor and Teltanara

Last night Teltanara, my not-so-little-anymore Blood Elf priestess, hit level 48. Last week she had gotten Eeyan the undead rogue to take her around the Hinterlands and kill things for her. So, because she is Horde, Eeyan took her through Jintha'Alor.

Now Alliance, they don't really have anything do to with Jintha. Oh sure, they go up there and get the Ancient Egg and the Mallet of Zul'Farrak and free Sharpbeak. But their goal is really just to get in and get out. Horde on the other hand has an Agenda. The Revantusk trolls want all the Hakkar worshiping trolls in the Hinterlands dead, and chief among these are the Vilebranch. So Horde has quests to collect tainted blood and kill 120 elites for a couple of different quests. 120 elites! Not all of these are easy to find, but all of them are on the third tier or higher. There is also the remains of someone's twin brother to retrieve and you have to free the Revantusk leader's husband.

So Eeyan slaughtered trolls and Teltanara healed him. Both of them were quite happy about that. Teltanara because trolls are the ancient enemies of the elves, and forest trolls tried to wipe out the high elves and still give the Blood Elves trouble. She was also more than happy to kill things for money. Eeyan because he used to be a human of Lordaeron and they had an alliance against the forest trolls with the high elves, and of course because he is a thug and just likes killing things. (Eeyan is good like that.)

By they time Eeyan and Teltanara had gotten back to Revantusk Village, she had gone up half a level and the first quest she turned in leveled her to 48. After turning in the rest of the quests she got The Ugliest Cloak ever,Deep Woodlands Cloak, a nice offhand, and the rest of the rewards turned into enchanting mats. Teltanara now has show cloak OFF, but was very very pleased with the run. Especially since on going back to UC to train she was able to learn Prayer of Fortitude.

I should also be honest and note that Teltanara is completely stuck up. She has been healy the entirety of her leveling and is very much of the opinion that anyone who has her come along to heal should be grateful for that fact and *snaps fingers* go kill things. She is, however, smart enough not to say so usually. This attitude was imprinted at a pretty early age for her. The Blood Elf priest quest for Fortitude is all about how buffing other people makes them grateful to you and thus you are more powerful because they owe you. And the Blood Elf starting area in general is all about how good things come to those who take them.

the geekier side of life.

I've often wanted a Lightning Bolt macro for PvP, but have been far too lazy to figure out the best way to do it. finally, after Monday PvP and Tuesday "take care of the adds with chain so the boss gets some damage," I bothered to make one:

#showtooltip
/castsequence reset=6 Chain Lightning, Lightning Bolt, Lightning Bolt

I will probably put it in Kuan's UI in place of the Chain Lightning button.

I have wanted a totem timer for ages, and the addons all suck. I finally downloaded GotWood from the Ace2 site. it has the lamest large background image... of a piece of wood that for all the world looks like laminated pressboard furniture you'd buy from Target. so, I took that out. it also spawns a nasty modal dialog when dropping a Stoneclaw totem. so last night I ran Wow for a while in windowed mode, with a couple vi sessions open, and fixed that too.

these things are pleasing. wiping for 16g of repairs in Heroic Mech, however, was less so. the good thing: we downed the end boss with a team that had NO fears. the bad thing: I failed to loot the badge off the first miniboss, or notice until the corpse depawned.

but I bet the repairs would have been slightly less costly if I'd fixed my addon first. anyhow, there it is.

not a cakewalk...

so Viljo and Kuan are trying to assemble a team for running heroics. we have a warrior friend who is an awesome tank, but logs in late-evening. and he would probably love to have a regular set of peeps to back him up instead of pugging all the time. he knows a really good healer; we know Darsethra.

last night we tried heroic Bot with him and a couple pickups; Darse wasn't around and his healer friend spilled chinese food all over his computer, which was subsequently Displeased and ceased to work. so the healer went out drinking.

anyhow. the Bot run didn't go too well. we started with a hunter as the third DPS, but his computer kept D/C'ing and we got a feral druid to sub. so... we just didn't have enough DPS to down the second boss. well, of course we didn't... Kuan had to keep healing to prop up the pug'd priest, and Viljo kept dying.

(a dead mage + an ele shaman casting heals + a cat druid doing offtanking) = way not enough DPS.

but, we talked after. our warrior friend is a leatherworker, and will make Kuan a riding crop if I get him the mats! more importantly, he had fun, and really wants to have a 'lock to run heroics with. we did try to PUG one and it sounds hard to get! Darse isn't key'd for HFC but our warrior said SH was his bitch and he had no problems at all taking the time getting Darse rep'd up for Thrallmar.

tonight and tomorrow we are watching movies with friends won't be home til about 11. but if this setup works out, it'd be sweet.