Monday, April 28, 2014

RNG Gods & Nobelgarden - Part One


The RNG Gods were very kind to me yesterday and I participated in the World Event: Nobelgarden.  I don't know if that's one word or two, I've seen both equally, but, as my first world event solo, I had an absolute blast!

[RNG: random number generator aka luck!]

Before I could participate though, I had to get there.  I've recently made Shattrat City my home and I've never traveled from there to anywhere, it's always been about the getting to Outland, not getting back.  I'm sure there must be a portal in the city to take me to Stormwind, but damned if I could find it.  Before I got mad and gave up I decided to just backtrack the route that I use to get to Outland, to get out of Outland.  

Took a hippogryph to the Dark Portal.  As soon as I got on the other side, in the Blasted Lands, I remembered -- I have this dude's ashes I've been carrying around in my bags since we were last questing here. [Loramus' Ashes]  They are a quest item so I couldn't ditch them, I mean, physically I could, but I couldn't, ya know?  

These are someone's ashes and I have to take them to where they belong.  [Have a look at this comment if you want some of Loramus' story.  I wonder if we'll be seeing him in Draenor?]

It actually was easy to find the place, because the quest was still in my journal. I just turned the tracking on, which put the big yellow arrow on my mini map, fire up my Ebon Hippogryph and we're off.  Place the ashes on the platform, the dude will hover, keep him alive from the uglies that are trying to kill him, and you're done.  

I wish I wrote down the info on the guy that helped me, but I didn't.  He was in shadowform [so a priest, or do druids, mages or any other class have a shadow form too?  I don't know], I didn't write down his name, guild, ... nothing.  Shame on me.  I never would have finished it if it wasn't for him.  Thank You Random Shadowform Dude!

He showed me that instead of standing on the platform and healing the guy, [blush] I had to get down on the ground and kill the things that were beaming blasts of red ugly at him.  I don't know long he was killing them before I noticed, clued in, and did it myself. My helper even stood back and made sure I killed them all and accomplished the task.  

When I just stood there, dead bodies piled all around, he walked back towards the platform. Paying attention this time, I walked back up there, and a pale yellow question mark was floating in mid-air.  Great.  [no, not really, not great, not great at all, a sarcastic great]

This isn't done yet.  No, I have to go back to the Serpents Coil and find the dude who's ashes I brought, who I kept alive and who is now down in his winding labyrinth under ground waiting for me.  Sigh.  hmm, ashes = dead guy, but I "saved him" so he's alive? This was a bad idea.

Off I go, ... ... ya, ya, ya .... kill the uglies, walk down the twisty tunnel, high five the dude, done and done.  NO!  Not Done! We have to do the Amulet Ritual! 
right click to open in a new tab or new window to read the text

Of course the ritual takes place in the chat window, so I missed it the first time! An aside, Ancient, from Tome of the Ancient, asked me what WoW Quirks I had.  This is one.  I never remember to look at the chat window.  I don't remember a lot of things, but Vier will back me up, not looking at the chat window is the worst!  

OK, the ritual is done. All that's left now is to get me out of this damn twisty tunnel.  Oh, right!  The big pink crystal, that poofs me out the front door.  I remember! 

I actually remembered something!  

I didn't realize it at the time, but that was the beginning of an amazing streak of good luck for me.

Got airborne again, looked at the map ... Surwich!  I know where I am now!  I came here more than a few times to catch Greater Sagefish!  

Took a hippogryph from there to Stormwind, the boat to Rut'theran Village, 
Waiting for The Bravery in Stormwind Harbour
... and the other boat to the Exodar landing and ta da!  
I made it!  

Before nine in the morning too!  w00t!

The Great Egg Hunt can begin!   

But first, while I'm here, I want to ding my dual spec.  I'm still not sure what it means, and I probably don't have to come all the way here to my original trainer to do it, but it's done.  I'll figure it out later, or get Vier or someone to explain it to me.  
Dual Spec -- Check!
Right now, I have some eggs to find. Gee, look at the empty bags!  [above] They won't stay that way for long!



The only thing I really, really wanted was The Elegant Dress.  A very feminine, long sleeved, long dress in, wait for it ... [WoW readers, if you feel the earth tremble, no worries, it's just my daughter, my sister, and my best friend, all rolling their eyes simultaneously] ... peach.  Yes, ... the dress is actually, ... truly, the perfect tone, shade, ... of peach.  With an almost, but not too much, lacy collar.   sigh.  so pretty.
I didn't notice it 'til looking at the screenshots, but in the pic above, several of the Draenei gals are rockin' the orange spectrum.  

Yikes! Gathering eggs turns you into a pink bunny!  

A very speedy pink bunny! 

A little, speedy, pink bunny that poops little easter eggs!

So, with only gathering about 308 eggs, in addition to having enough chocolate to eat my way to the "Chocoholic" Achievement, and five left over for the Nobel Garden Achievement in Stormwind, inside my collected eggs I looted: 

  • 2 Spring Rabbits [a rare pet], 
  • 2 blossoming branches, 
  • 4 spring flowers, 
  • 2 Spring Tuxedos [and an odd assortment of pants], 
  • 2 spring robes, 


[the skirt of the spring robes, I should have taken my tabard and shoulders off, but the top is just a little halter/bra-let thing]

  • a spring circlet, and 
  • a Swift Springstrider [the rare mount].  

I forgot, ... there was a server re-start.  It appears that when I logged back in, I did indeed take a screen shot of the elegant robes and spring circlet without anything else on. [blush] If you're wondering, the Black Spring Circlet has black fur with pink insides and the Pink Spring Circlet has pink fur with blue insides.

Achievement: Sunday's Finest. "Loot the White Tuxedo Shirt and the Black Tuxedo Pants from Nobelgarden eggs."  If you look at the guide I linked to in the title, you'll see that there are two achievements that are strictly luck related.  
Here's the Spring Tuxedo and the Spring Circlet [the ears].

If you're a goal oriented person [uhem, Red Bear], and you were working on completing achievements.  You'd have to get lucky during an event that only runs for one week a year.  That's how you know that I'm never, ever gonna say "I want to get all the Achievements".  Seriously, look at some of them, Nobelgarden Achievements
Laying an egg in a volcanic crater as a rabbit, kissing people that are wearing a certain outfit while you're wearing a certain outfit, shaking flowers at females of each race, above level 18.  Ya, like that's gonna happen!  Not!
l-r: Spring Rabbit in my Pet Journal, my character screen while I'm a pink rabbit, full bags!
I could not believe it!  While researching the event this past week there is endless moaning about people not being able to find bits and pieces of what they needed to finish an Achievement or find the item they were really hankering for.  I convinced myself that I didn't need the mount, that she was ugly anyways.  That the rabbit was boring, just a plain dirty brown and white normal rabbit, nothing special.  And I certainly didn't want the rabbit ears on a head band that is the spring circlet.  

Just needed to get 50 chocolates to buy the dress.  That's all! 

In my first 100 eggs, after the second rabbit dropped, I caught a little "spring fever" and then the challenge was on, could I collect all the prizes before I got bored of collecting eggs? 

Around egg 200, the rest of the world woke up [I started very early in the morning] and all of the sudden there were little pink bunnies and toons everywhere.  The first time I was reaching for an egg that someone else wanted, I backed off.  Then, someone grabbed one out from underneath my nose and the WoW Lust filled my veins and the hunt was on!  

Those people still wandering around as their toons and not yet a little pink bunny, pfft!, they were easy to outsmart, and too slow to boot!  Because I had been there for a couple hours in the quiet, I already knew where the "sneaky" hides were.  

In a box on the top of a pile of boxes that you couldn't see easily as a bunny.  Behind both guys chopping wood were crevices that always had an egg in them.  On top of the curved wall behind an NPC at the entrance.  Tucked under the hippogryphs' butts at the flight master, inside the plants at all the entrances, ya, you late sleepers aren't gonna get one over on me!
At egg number 203 I couldn't believe it! 
You receive loot: [Swift Springstrider]

I waited to celebrate until I added it to my collection and then I gave out a cheer! 
You have added the mount Swift Springstrider to your collection.

I'm so glad I took the time to add /cheer to a macro and button LOL! 

Now, the icon for the Swift Springstrider would have you belive the Swift Springstrider is flamingo pink.  

Nope, I don't know what to call this washed out, sickly not quite yellow, not quite brown? 

End of part one.  I must call it a night, will be back on Tuesday or Wednesday.

... to be continued.

While you wait, check this out.  While we were talking about RP-ing [role playing, there are servers that are dedicated to role play toons, you must act with your character as if in real life.  No running everywhere, I don't know what all the rules are, but apparently they have a lot of sex!]  Anyway, Vier was telling me of this blog she reads.  The guy is a Tauren [ a very large bull] who wants to be a member of the Stormwind Guards.  [For Red Bear and Aunty Lurky: Taurens, in addition to being absolutely huge and, well, "different" and "special", they belong to the Horde faction.  The Stormwind Guards belong to the Alliance faction.  They are enemies. Think Churchill and Stalin on opposite sides of the Berlin Wall - really enemies.] So this picture blog is about a little boy Tauren who wants to grow up to be a Stormwind Guard.  Hi - lare - ee - ous!

Since it's hosted on Reddit [ I don't do Reddit] and it's an imagur blog [I don't do that either], Vier opened the pages for me, here's the first one: Honrar: A Day in Elwynn


Thursday, April 24, 2014

Lost in Space

Cyber-Space that is.  Ever since the Liebster Award I've been all over the internets, reading about Nobelgarden, spending way too much time on Wowhead, and jumping from WoW Blog to WoW Blog.  There are so many!

Every day when I wake up I tell myself just to log in to WoW and get on with it, and every day I don't.  See, I did something silly last login and I'm feeling a lot of trepidation about logging in again.  I've done all the Daily Fishing and Cooking Quests in Stormwind and I really have to summon the courage to get Noritam leveled out of Outland.  So, I went to Shattrat City, set my hearthstone there, and logged out.

Then, I read that the spring World Event, Nobelgarden is on and wouldn't you know it, happens in the starter zones.  Then I realized that every other time I've been in Outland, I've used my hearthstone to go back to Stormwind so I don't actually know how to get there now!  I need to get to Stormwind to catch a boat to Teldrassil, to catch a boat back to Azuremyst Isle.  So overwhelming!  Maybe I'll just check wowhead first.

That's always a mistake because I end up with three browser windows open, with twenty tabs open in each one as I right click on, "oh, I should learn more about that", and "hmm, ... maybe this guide will tell me how to get out of Outland", and "A Contest! .... yay!  I like to enter contests, oh, ... this one is different, I actually have to solve riddles and search for things on wowhead to enter".  That one took a couple days and I only solved two of the riddles!

Today I was bound and determined to log in and get straight to work, which somehow led to me checking this blog first, reading comments and opening other WoW Blogs to see what they're all about!  Who knew there were so many!  Though, it seems that the majority of WoW Bloggers are Horde!

I also started to craft a tutorial on how to make a blog post and got bogged down in details.  Today, I closed all of those windows and told myself to start over and adhere to the KISS principle. Keep It Simple Stupid!

Something caught my eye on one of the blogs, a blog post entitled Goldshire Inn on Moonguard.  Vier mentioned once that there is a place in WoW that is all about erotic role play.  I'm not a prude by any stretch, but it boggled my mind as to the hows and whys.  So, apparently more than one person has blogged about it and my curiosity has been satisfied.  Well, part of my curiosity.  I now know what it looks like via screenshots but I still don't understand why. 

I've now been awake for enough hours that it's time to eat and I've accomplished absolutely nothing!  Still haven't logged in to the game, and at this rate, Nobelgarden week will be over before I get there, and I won't have to worry about getting back to Azure Watch!  I still have fifteen wow blogs to check out and I suspect that will take me the rest of the day.

On one of the blogs I was reading, it talked about how long it has been since there was new content for level-capped players and it gave a list of different things to do while they wait for WoD to drop.  The first thing I thought of was Help Out a Low Level Player!  

I think something a 90 could do is go back to a favourite zone, or a zone they thought was difficult to level through, and help someone get through it.  One day Vier and I were playing through a zone she didn't care for, and a guildy came by and joined us.  He actually took over helping me out for a couple of hours and it was pretty neat.  She didn't have to babysit me through a zone she didn't like, he didn't mind helping 'cause it was a one off type deal for him, and I enjoyed having someone new to play with.  It made me try harder [so as not to embarrass Vier] on the one hand, and also, I felt freer to ask "dumb" questions. Which in itself spawned a great conversation with Vier afterwards and she told me to always ask, even if I thought it was a dumb question because she doesn't always remember what it was like to be a new player.

I think there should be an "adopt a newbie" roster equivalent to the queue for LFR or the "find a battle" button in Pet Battles.  Newbies and Oldies could enter what zone and level they're at, or are willing to help in, and the game would match us up.

Once I get finished looking at all the blogs I have opened, I'll probably watch some TV and promise myself that tomorrow for sure I'll log in and find enough chocolates to eat to get my Spring Rabbit.  Then, really, I have to get to work and get Noritam leveled up.  She's so close to dinging 65!  Then it's only 25 levels to 90!

I should really get back to a wow schedule with Vier and let her worry about the blog and concentrate on getting to 90.  

We'll see what happens!

Nor.

Saturday, April 19, 2014

We've been Liebstered - The Liebster Award

Ancient from Tome of the Ancient liebstered us!

I've linked to Tome of the Ancient before.  I liked her Death Scenes page, [keep forgetting to do the same!] and I like her attitude towards the game, however, she and her pals are far more proficient than I am.

I didn't discover the liebster event from her comment on our blog, as is the intended scenario.  Rather, I was reading up on dual spec which led me to another blog, which led me to Tome again.  I took a brain break from doing research and was enjoying reading her post when I discovered, much to my shock, our blog listed in her liebster post!

Convoluted and confused?  Welcome to the club!

First the Liebster Award and the rules:

If you have been nominated for The Liebster Award AND YOU CHOOSE TO ACCEPT IT, write a blog post about the Liebster award in which you:

1. thank the person who nominated you, and post a link to their blog on your blog.
By the way, if anyone is wondering, I don't have the power to initiate a blog roll on this blog.  That's not my department!  I don't think it was ever intended that I even make posts on this blog, but we're way beyond that now!

2. display the award on your blog — by including it in your post and/or displaying it using a “widget” or a “gadget”. (Note that the best way to do this is to save the image to your own computer and then upload it to your blog post.)

3. answer 11 questions about yourself, which will be provided to you by the person who nominated you.

4. provide 11 random facts about yourself.

5. nominate 5 – 11 blogs that you feel deserve the award, who have a less than 1000 followers. (Note that you can always ask the blog owner this since not all blogs display a widget that lets the readers know this information!) [Nor's note: some of the rules displayed on other blogs say less than 200 followers - perhaps a minor flaw in the process because someone who owns such a new blog may not have the requisite computing skills or technological knowledge to complete the required steps.]

6. create a new list of questions for the blogger to answer.

7. list these rules in your post (You can copy and paste from here.) Once you have written and published it, you then have to:

8. Inform the people/blogs that you nominated that they have been nominated for the Liebster award and provide a link for them to your post so that they can learn about it (they might not have ever heard of it!)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thank you Ancient for nominating us.  Here again is a link to Tome of the Ancient.  You really should check out her blog, she's hilarious!

I have uploaded the award to this blog and will now answer the 11 Questions Ancient posed to me:

1. How long had you been playing WoW when you realized it was not a passing fancy but true love?
Just this past month.  As I said in my last blog post, I always thought I could walk away from WoW until this past little while when I was physically restrained from doing so.  I honestly missed playing and realized that I am officially hooked.  Thus, we ordered a new gaming computer today!

2. Are you a screen shot taker and if so guesstimate how many you still have.
Yes, yes I am.  I have hundreds and hundreds.  Including the character shots I've been taking of Nor almost every log-in so I can keep track of her while she grows.  Sort of the electronic equivalent to marking the side of the bathroom door with a pencil as a growth chart!

3. What is your favorite zone and why?
Azuremyst Isle.  It will always feel like home and except for the Christmas Eve massacre, I've never seen a non-Draenei player there.  It is safe [most of the time] and quiet.

4. What are you most looking forward to or dreading about Warlords?
I am dreading it being a dark and depressing place but am very excited to learn more about my, ok, Nor',s racial ancestry.

5. Who is your favorite non-essential character in-game? A favorite repair guy or an auctioneer that you always must deal with.
Olivia Jayne and the Stormwind Fisherman that hangs out at Olivia's pond.  Olivia's pond was the second place I felt comfortable and safe visiting in the game and I love to go there to fish.  I've often sat beside that fisherman while Olivia swims in her pond and have always wanted to elbow him and say "pretty cute eh?" and then we could have a discussion about "kids these days" and what a good little swimmer Olivia is.  When I've had to do the fishing daily where you steal fish from the Stormwind fishermen, I'd never steal any of his!

6. When I started my blog I was too scared to comment on others. Blog Azeroth Thanksgiving Event 2011 changed that for me. Is there an event or blogger that made you feel comfortable commenting on blogs?
The very first WoW blog I ever commented on was Ancient's.  She seemed to have such an open attitude that I figured even my know-nothing nonsense wouldn't bring down a rain of abuse upon my head.  She actually commented back and I've been emboldened to comment on other WoW blogs since!

7. Do you have any strange WoW quirks? For example I seem to think the harder I hit the keys the more forceful my attacks are. I know … but it can’t hurt.
I don't really know, I think Vier should answer this question!

8. Do you have WoW themed things in real life? Example.
No.  Except for the first time in almost thirty years of marriage, Himself is left out of the conversation when Kidlet and I talk about WoW.  

Which is even funnier when you know that it was him playing the original Warcraft that brought WoW into our lives.  I hated the original game and decreed that "I don't ever want to see you playing that violent game in front of the baby again".  In the world of a double shift-worker family, and our tag-team parenting, the critical phrase "I don't want to see" was upheld to the letter.  I never saw him playing the game in front of the baby.  

What I also didn't see was Kidlet reading the manual to Warcraft II for her father and helping him set it up and then play.  What I also didn't see was her having the game memorized by the time she was about nine.  OH.  It just dawned on me that yes, yes we do have WoW themed things in real life, If you count Warcraft I and Warcraft II!

9. Are you lucky enough to have real life friends or a spouse who plays WoW too or are you bravely going it alone?
Kidlet has been asking me to play for quite a few years.  After I finally relented, she felt the amusement of me learning not only WoW, but computer gaming in general, was too rich to keep to herself, and thus, this blog was born.

10. Do you still find surprises in-game that you didn’t know were there? I recently saw someone selling a Wine Glass. How did I miss that! My bank alt needs one!
Everything in the game is new to me!  There have been a few things that Vier has said "I've never done this before".  Mostly when she had Molim out and we were leveling together while the RAF XP bonus was in effect.

11. Finally, do you think you’ll still be here when they pull the power and turn off the lights? I know I will.
I honestly don't know.  Up to now, I've thought that if Vier gets too sick to play, I wouldn't be able to go in-game.  The memory of her would be too painful, but .... .... we'll see.  I hope I never have to find out.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Provide eleven random facts about yourself:
1. I have two different coloured eyes.  It's really noticeable in photographs because one is dark brown and the other is light green.

2. My hair is down to my waist.  Mostly because MCB [My Craft Buddy aka Red Bear] moved half the country away and no one else is comfortable cutting it.  Fortunately I learned how to put it up with a stick and now don't get headaches from scraping it into a ponytail.  

3. I really do hate shopping.  Even though it seems the only time I get off the farm is for medical appointments or shopping trips.

4. I am an avid paper crafter.

5. I am a cat person.  We're down to a reasonable two cats now, from an all-time high of twelve, when we had nine outside cats [farm cats] and three inside cats.  Even though Himself made a rule when we were first married that we could only have two.

6. Himself and I spent a lot of time up north.  Fourteen years in the sub-Arctic, including two years in the High Arctic. Which is why I like ravens.

7. Vier was born up north.

8.  We live on a farm, growing wheat.

9. We have two fruit orchards, Saskatoon Berries and Evans Cherries.  5,500 trees Himself and I planted by hand.

10.  I had a 22-year non-traditional career in aviation.

11. I've been on disability retirement since I was 40.  Now that I'm over 50 all of my friends are finally catching up to me and starting to retire themselves.  A few of them are finding the transition a bit difficult.  I think they should all play WoW!

Now I am supposed to nominate 5 – 11 blogs that I feel deserve the award, who have a less than 1000 followers.  I don't think this blog deserves the award and I am certainly not qualified to nominate one blog over the other! I am going to cheat [because it would take me two to five calendar days to find that many blogs that meet the requirements and figure out how to do all the cross-posting etc.]  

Instead, I am going to list some WoW blogs that are a fun read for me.  That is, not overly technical with a down-to-earth readable style.

Tome of the Ancient: Red Bear and Lurky Aunt, I think you'd enjoy her blog.  She belongs to the Old Ladies Raid Guild and is WoW irreverent!

The Daily Frostwolf: I long for the day I get "Navi Spammedin game.  Though, I don't know how it could happen as she's Horde and I am Alliance, and I'm sure it would take me so long to figure out what's happening, that she'd leave in disgust before I could get my pic taken with her!

WoW Rare Spawns: The name says it all!  I particularly like her sub-title "... some of my own experience looking for them. I have screen shots, maps with locations and fraps videos of each rare"  If only I knew what a frap video was!

Plenty of Paladins: This blog is on my "to read" list.  From her description "...  this isn't a how-to blog, this is a place for a fairly casual player to post random adventures, ridiculous happiness, random rants and general thoughts."

Syrco Owl:  I found this blog when I was trying to figure out how some players got to look like the Owlkins that scared the crap outta me in Ammen Vale, but who I now think are super cool. Specially her post about The Whispering Forest, which I haven't been able to find yet! Maybe Ancient and Navi and I can meet there!

Alt:ernative:  is the other blog on my "To Read" list.  I found it while looking up how other players deal with their alts.  Although, most of what's written goes right over my head.  I'm not there yet, I still have a lot to learn!  Like what "faffing" means and why a lot of the blogs I've been to lately have the green "The year of FAFF 2014" badge on them. 

iRez: A Tourist Guide to Wow 

Bubbles of Mischief:   OMG - WoW and Game of Thrones!  WoW outfits replicating Khaleesi costumes!  swoon!

Done!  Both arms extended above my head and a little "w00t!" startled the cats.  I feel a small amount of guilt for breaking the chain [gawd how I hated chain mail, if I didn't perpetuate the chain, the guilt would get me, so I almost always participated], but, meh, with my memory I'll have forgotten about it soon enough, so the guilt won't keep me up at nights!

That's two posts in one day and the craft room calls.  

Later 'gators,

Nor

... aaaand we're back! ... Racial Battle Pets, Ravens, Worgens

OK, we've had our little intermission, now, where is everyone?

Where were we you ask?  Well, one of us had some surgery and a longer-than-expected recovery time and the other, well, ... ... [blushes beet red]  I had a WoW injury!

The arthritis, tendonitis and bursitis in my fighting hand had a little revolt.  I've re-arranged my Wow set-up and we'll see how that goes.  

I always thought that I could walk away from WoW and not miss it.  Wrong!  It seems I'm hooked.  When I was forbidden to use my left arm during recuperation I was chompin' at the bit to get back into the game.  Finally, the day came to log in.

Hmmmm, seems we've run out of play time!  
more money please!

Has it been four months already?  Gosh, time flies when you're havin' fun!

Got SideTracked for a few hours looking at Ravens and Crows, Hunter and Battle Pets.  I do love my pets!  

But, one must attempt to focus occasionally and ... viola! ... 90 days of game time has been added to your account. Your game time will expire July 11, 2014.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Now, where is everyone and what's next for them to do?

Noritam: is in Outland, looking for a rare Warpstalker Hatchling and leveling.

OK, a second Warpstalker Hatchling!  I seem to recall having found one and killing it instead of trapping it!  I was so excited to find it and so proud of my pets that day.  We were battling pets 3 and 4 levels above us and winning!  So it was a "Take that! you higher level wild beast you! Ha ha ha ha!"  ... ... "Crap!"  "Guys, that was the rare we've been looking for ALL day, we were supposed to trap it, not kill it!"  I seem to recall logging off in disgust and I think that's the last time I was in-game.

On one hand, I'd like to keep my head down and focus on leveling.  I am determined to get her to 90 the "real" way [more on that another time]. On the other hand, while we're here, there's a rare battle pet to find, and some recipes to gather.  One of the last times Nor was logged in she had to grind rep with some lost Draenei to get a certain recipe.  

Last night, in real time, in real life, Vier is out to visit on the farm, and I said that last sentence out loud to her.  She giggled and said "It's amusing to hear "grind rep" come out of your mouth and know that you know what it means!" Pfft!  Kids!

Sushel: is on the Timeless Isle looking for upgrade gear for raiding? 

She's never gonna raid, maybe she should work on her professions. Perhaps farming for the Sapphire Cub and Jade Owl Jewel-crafting Patterns will get me over my fear of Pandaria?  She also has to figure out how Stable Masters work and how to get a Raven Hunter Pet so she's ready when we acquire the raven battle pet.

Seriously, one of the last times we were on the Timeless Isle, Vier was coming shortly behind us, Sushi was supposed to go and get a head start on getting all the goodies that are apparently "everywhere".  When Vier, Heavy and Dahn arrived, Sushi was still at the kite off-load zone.  "Whatchya doin'?"  "Um, I'm a scared to tread outside of this protected area!"  Not something a hunter wants to admit to.

I have to admit, although I love the pets and agility of the hunter class, I'm slow to get into their rapid rotation style of play.  I have trouble setting the Hunter's Mark before doing anything else and by then, it's usually game over!  I admire Vier's agility and elegance with her bow, Sushi just seems a tad heavy and clumsy [sorry Sushe] with her big stomper boots and loud gun.

There is great angst and teeth gnashing in the WoW community over the boosted 90's. But that's a post for another day.  I feel a little rant coming on.

Sushe and I, [pronounced to rhyme with swoosh, Vier calls her sushi as in the food] spent four hours exploring Kalimdor one night.  We didn't intend to, we went looking for certain cooking recipes for Nor, got lost, and ended up exploring most of the Continent!  

We had a bit of excitement as the clock counted down for server maintenance and she had to find one last recipe in Booty Bay.  God I hate Booty Bay!

Saelybrooke: is about to go to Darnassus.  

Should we boost her to 90 so she can work on her professions, which is why we started her in the first place? Or should we level her up the old fashioned way?  Well, Nor first.  Once we get Nor to 90, we'll see what to do with Saely. [rhymes with really] I think a lot will depend on how fast Nor gets there and how close to WoD drop we are.  

For the non-WoW readers:  WoD is Warlords of Dreanor, the next game expansion, due to be released this fall.  When that happens, there will be 10 new levels, the level cap will be 100 not 90, and a whole new geographic area to explore for everyone.  The way I understand it, all the top level players with the best gear right now, will be at the same level as everyone else.  

This is when the hard-core "real" players rush to achieve "World First", "Server First" and other illustrious accomplishments.  And where the thought of boosted-90's "who don't know anything" will "get in the way and ruin our game". [rolls eyes]

The story line is that we're doing a prequel of sorts.  Going back to Draenor-that-was before the Orcs came and wrecked everything.  As this concerns Nor's ancestral lands, I feel pressure to get up to speed on my lore.  So much Warcraft, so little time!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When I first composed this blog post in notepad,  twelve hours had gone by and I hadn't even logged into the game yet and my hurt arm was saying "No more Keyboarding Today Thank You".  But, we're definitely back in WoW-mode.  We'll see how the shoulder feels tomorrow and take it from there.

Since then, I have logged into the game, top leveled Nor's fishing skill and been lieberized.  I still haven't posted about defeating Eric Davidson and his spiders, my adventures into add-ons, having completed all the Daily's in Stormwind and moving to Shattrath City.  So much blogging to do, so little time!

Right now I have to go, Kidlet is here and we're going to finalize the specs for my new gaming computer and then get to the crafting homework My Crafting Buddy aka Red Bear left me to do this week.  I'm going to post my notes that I made about Racial Battle Pets, Ravens and Gilneas here so I can find them online in the future.  I'm still not sure on the best way to go about getting a raven battle pet [I've got a thing for ravens].  

'Til next time, 
Nor
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Notes, for the record ... these are all quotes from various webpages, none of these notes are my own text.

Title:  Racial Battle Pets  
Pandaren have access to a Jade Crane Chick regardless of faction chosen, this pet is currently not available through any other means. Most of the other pets listed are available via vendors, i've marked the ones that are not.
Alliance:
Human - Orange Tabby Cat Draenei - Blue Moth
Night Elf - Great Horned Owl Worgen - Gilnean Raven (only on pet trainer)
Dwarf - Snowshoe Rabbit Gnome - Snowshoe Rabbit (same as dwarf)

Horde:
Undead - Undercity Cockroach Tauren - Brown Prairie Dog
Orc - Black Kingsnake Troll - Black Kingsnake (same as orc)
Blood Elf - Golden Dragonhawk Hatchling
Goblin - Shore Crawler (only on pet trainer)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Title:  Gilean Ravens and Worgens ...
Vendor: Will Larsons Zone: Darkshore   Vendor: Audrey Burnhep Zone: Stormwind
***   ***   ***   ***   ***   ***   ***   ***   ***   ***   ***   ***   ***   ***   ***   ***   
This is only available by creating a Worgen character and then training it at the pet battle trainers. 
Pets are shared account-wide, however, and (at least at the moment) there is no requirement to keep the character that acquired the pet. 
So, as long as you have a free character slot available, you may make the Worgen, buy the pet, and then delete the Worgen while retaining the pet. 
Several other trainer pets (but not all of them) are exclusive in this manner.
The trainer in Stormwind will have this available for Worgen. Specifically visiting the Darkshore trainer is not required. 
Note that this does require you to complete the Worgen introductory scenario. Last edited by Immoovable on 2012/09/26 (Patch 5.0.5)
Worgen, Goblin, and Pandaren are the three races where you have to have a character of that specific race by their pet from the pet trainer.
***   ***   ***   ***   ***   ***   ***   ***   ***   ***   ***   ***   ***   ***   ***   ***   
If you can, roll a Worgen DK rather than going through the entire baby worgen zone (Gilneas).
  MUCH easier and faster to get through the mandatory quests as you level (55-58 vs 1-13) and your last DK quest takes you straight to SW anyway, where the pet trainer with the raven is.
***   ***   ***   ***   ***   ***   ***   ***   ***   ***   ***   ***   ***   ***   ***   ***  
A hunter looking for a hunter pet to match, Upland Raven in Kun-Lai matches perfectly. Great for a worgen or undead theme team!
***   ***   ***   ***   ***   ***   ***   ***   ***   ***   ***   ***   ***   ***   ***   *** 
For the Horde: if your considering rolling a Worgen DK to acquire the raven but would like to know what that entails:

You have to to complete the starting quests for DK, which is roughly all the quests you encounter up to lvl 58. Around 58 you should get a quest from LK to use the portal to Stormwind (in Ebon Hold) and speak to the King of Stormwind. Once you speak to the King, you can then walk around the block and speak to the pet trainer and learn Gilnean Raven.

For me, from start to finish the process took roughly 2 hours. I imagine that's probably a decent guess for the average player.

That said, in my experience at least, you're looking at about 3 hours of grind time to acquire this pet and lvl it to 25 using the method described.

Hope this helps someone.


***   ***   ***   ***   ***   ***   ***   ***   ***   ***   ***   ***   ***   ***   ***   *** 
I spoke toAudrey Burnhep when I got mine, but even so, did you notice that when you talk to BP Trainer that there are two options? 
1 option is to trade stones, click the second option which says "Interested in catching some rare pets?" 
If you still dont see it, then you already have the pet or need to submit a ticket for help. Good luck! 
***   ***   ***   ***   ***   ***   ***   ***   ***   ***   ***   ***   ***   ***   ***   *** 

Friday, April 4, 2014

Sorry

I've only been out of the hospital a few days and Mom hasn't been feeling well, so no WoW updates from us.  Stay tuned though, we haven't given up yet!