I'm enjoying both the Throne of Thunder and the Darkspear Rebellion. But there is one issue. One huge issue.

I have been playing wow for almost eight years now. Most of that time has been spent as part of the Horde. I've been playing Mornara since Wrath, with her as my main and tanking roughly since the Argent Tournament came out. Before that I mostly played my Troll mage Viljo, but did a bunch of dabbling with my Belf priestess Teltanara from the time that Burning Crusade came out.

I've learned through many years of repetition that there certain sounds that mean I've failed. I strongly associate failure with the sound of any member of the Horde dying. But it is worst with Orcs, Trolls, Undead, and Blood Elf death cries. Since DraNgNon plays Kuan, the male Troll Shaman, as her main I'm really sensitized to look around and try to figure out what messed up whenever I hear a male troll die.

Back to Throne of Thunder and the Darkspear Rebellion. ToT has the first three bosses entirely Troll themed. Technically they are Zandalari Trolls, but I still remember raiding Zul'Gurub when it was a 20man. The Zandalari are supposed to be our friends! It hurts that after all the help I gave them destroying Hakkar they are now working with the Thunder King to kill me.

Meanwhile the Darkspear Rebellion is part rebellion but mostly civil war within the Horde. I'm out in the Northern Barrens cutting down Orcs and Goblins. I absolutely flinch every time an Orc dies by my hand.

Horridon Dead!

Almost two weeks ago Darkfall killed Horridon. I'm so pleased. He's such an annoying goddamn dino. Actually the most annoying part is the seemingly endless waves of trolls. Anyway, giant dino dead!

We started off the night by having a nice one-shot of Jin'rokh. He was dead before the 3rd lightning storm. Which was super fortunate, because someone had dropped a lightning fissure or two where the 4th puddle would have spawned.

Last night we also had our regular OT back. He dabbled with playing a lock and not tanking, but I think he's back to tanking. He's leveling up a druid to be his tank, but is currently playing his monk. It was great to have him back. Though I must say that the massive AoE threat the monks generate with their beer throwing is annoying.

Also, I was mean or lazy (take your pick) and made our returned OT gather the spirits on the windy bridges. This usually worked pretty well. The Monk Roll ability will get him safely through the floating punting spirits so he never got punted off the bridge and could speedily bring back the spirit we needed to kill. However, that same Roll did get him killed on three different times as he rolled his way off the edge of the bridge. The first time was funny, but by the third time he was doing this I needed a breather to catch my breath from laughing so hard I was crying.

Once we got through the trash and were at Horridon we had a relatively speedy kill. We had a couple of goofy wipes and then a wipe where both tanks died to heavy dino trampling. But once the healers had seen the whole fight we got it on the next try.

Jeweled Onyx Panther

When Mists of Pandaria came out I took a cursory look over the different professions. I looked a bit more closely at the ones that I have, and my eye was caught by Jewelcrafting. At various levels of rep with the Order of the Cloud Serpent you could buy recipes for different panther mounts. Jade and Sunstone panthers were available at Honored. Ruby and Sapphire panthers could be bought at revered. And once you were exalted with them you could make a Jeweled Onyx Panther.

Each of these colored panther mounts is a bunch of expensive materials, and the Onyx is all 4 of them combined. It's a ridiculously expensive mount. The vendor mats alone are 72k for the Onyx mount.

My main way of making gold with characters is to buy ghost iron ore. Mornara prospects the ore and turns the green quality ones into jewelry that Telt DEs. My banker sells the blue quality gems and enchanting mats. Once I saw the panther mounts, I changed that up a bit to save stacks of the necessary gems for the crafted mounts. DraNgNon and I also pool our skills and my other banker buys and sells herbs for flasks and glyphs that Kuan and Ikoli make. We've been accumulating gold on that banker and every time we have enough to buy an Orb of Mystery I've been having Mornara make a panther mount. And then I immediately have her mail it back to the banker so I don't accidentally learn the mount...

Anyway we finally got four of the colored mounts made. I tried to insist that DraNgNon get the first mount. But she pointed out that I'd been the one so excited about this. So here is Morn riding on an absolutely fabulous Jeweled Onyx Panther.



It really looks awesome. And it'll adjust to whatever speed you can fly or ride.

Gotta Catch'em all

I'm actually pretty close to catching all the various battle pets for the different continental capture acheevements. I've already captured (and gotten the achievements for) all the pets on Eastern Kingdoms, Outland, and Pandaria.

In Northrend I'm only missing the Arctic Fox Kit. And I currently have an alt parked in Storm Peaks waiting and waiting for the snow to blow in. I suspect that like the Baby Ape this will take months. There is no schedule that I've been able to find so it's all up to luck if I log in when there is snow falling.

I have two pets left to capture in Kalimdor for the Kalimdor continental catch'em all achieve. One of these pets is the Minfernal. The other is the Qiraji Guardling.

I had been missing the Giraffe Calf from Southern Barrens. However, a lucky capture just outside of Dominance Hold netted me one. It is grey quality, but I totally don't care. This is the exact situation that Battle Stones were invented for. Next Flawless Critter Stone I get it'll be upgraded.

I have an alt stationed in Felwood for the Minfernal. I check every so often to see if there is one up. Possibly I need to take drastic late night/early morning action there. But I do enjoy sleep and I'll catch it eventually.

The Qiraji Guardling however is a "summer pet". It spawns in Silithus, allegedly near the Scarab Wall in Southern Silithus, but it only does so during summer. Whenever that is. There has been massive speculation about when that is. After March 21st. After May 1st. After the summer solstice in June.

I checked last night, and regrettably it appears that it is likely after summer solstice. Or at least it wasn't after May 1st. And, yes, the various blue posts that I've looked up today have confirmed that it's not going to be around until late June at earliest.

Once I get the Continental achieves I'll go back and be super OCD about getting the newer capturable pets added after the achieves were in there. I just can't force myself to park an alt waiting for the Stunted Yeti or Infinite Whelp, for example, when the Minfernal is roaming free and taunting me.