Dis wasn’t quite what I meant!

Ya say to wan Blood Elf that "I’ve always wanted a raptor, ever since I was a little chil’”, an’ a few days latah, da courier shows up at Razor Hill wit a strange box, containin’ dis little fella!

He is kinda cute, though… I tink I’ll be keepin’ him!

Anyways, a few seasons latah, an’ here I be – now wit’ my own riding raptor! ‘E’s quite fond of de little wan – dey get on like a hut on fiah!*

-

When they added those Raptors in 3.2, I looked at them and thought about how much I’d like one… Well, I figured, what better character to get one for than my baby Shaman, to complement the riding raptor she’d get later? So, I looked into them all on WoWhead, and the Razormaw Hatchling looked easiest to get. I’d been in those caves a number of times whilst leveling mining on Faulsey, and I’d killed the Matriarch a few times. She’s apparently on a 5 hour or so respawn timer, but, well, when you go into a remote cave on a PvP realm at 3.30 AM, you’re quite likely to get lucky!

I immediately sent her off to Eisla, though the temptation to sell it on the AH for 750g was quite high. The Agamaggan incarnation of Faulsey is a Skinner/Leatherworker, and Eisla is a Herbalist/Alchemist, which means the only source of cash is Cloth and random Greens, so I’m much poorer on those characters than I would normally be.

However, I had a stroke of luck when the recipe for Savoury Deviate Delight dropped in the Barrens. I knew it was quite rare and popular, but I thought it would sell for about 200g. Wrong! A tasty 1k! Well, up to 1.5k, but I was in no mood for waiting ages for the other recipes to sell, and 1k is quite enough for little Eisla!

Whilst levelling, I also got a group for Ragefire Chasm, which I’d never been inside before. It was kinda fun doing a low level instance properly, but it wasn’t fun when, on both runs, people left before I was able to kill a final quest mob – he isn’t worth killing if you don’t have the quest, as he doesn’t drop a blue. Gah.

Now that she’s 20, it’s out into the wide PvP realm, though I won’t be playing her a huge amount now that I’ve reached my first goal of getting a Raptor. Maybe I’ll leave her till Cataclysm – who knows!

Uhm, Cataclysm. I said I’d probably not be playing, but, unless FFXIV is out, and is fantastic, I’ve decided I will be playing casually, to experience the new world. I have my level 10 Warrior to test the new Barrens with, Eisla for the rest of Horde-Azeroth, and my Mage and Paladin for Alliance-Azeroth.

* The big raptor totally kicks the small one in the face, actually.

Fun times, fun times indeed.

Firstly, I got Faulsey (Survival) the last 9 marks he needed for the necklace from WSG, got him the hell out of BGs, and got level 30.

Because everyone wants degenerate Chocobos, amirite?

To be frank, Hawkstriders kinda suck. Oh, what I would give for a Raptor.

-

Now, something entirely new: Death Knights on the same realm. This is a sort of “Guild Project” (Ok, so our lowbie Blood Elf one hasn’t actually started yet, shhh!) again. So far, we’ve been kinda bad and left Ramsus behind, but we’re waiting for him now.

Sorry, Kazura, redheads. (She's the only proper ginger, apparently.)

Oh yes, me and Kazura are incredibly creative when it comes to names. Bow before our creativity!

We blasted through the questline without issue, but there was one major difference from the first time through : I got to see the entire Battle at Light’s Hope. I arrived at the very end first time, so I missed the good part.

I basically spent the entire battle running around dropping Howling Blasts

Unfortunately, Tirion doesn't adhere to this school of military tactics.

We’ve mixed up our specs a bit. I’m Frost (from Unholy), Kaz is Unholy (From Blood), and Yuanjia is Blood (from Frost). I’m aiming for a kind of tanky spec, but it’s looking pretty miserable at the moment.

After we left the phased DK areas… we promptly went over to Southshore to wreck the joint. No Ally players there, but it made me feel better about the times I was ganked in Hillsbrad.

Finally, Ramsus’ DK is an Orc, and he had this to say about himself:

When Ramsus is out of the starting area, it’ll be off to Hellfire Peninsula, give that a try on PvP… Should be, eh, fun.

-

Brief main news. No lootz today, but I did run HC UP and UK with an awesome group, with almost no hitches – we had a couple of people die, but only one at a time, and we recovered quickly. Plus, I managed to keep Moko alive during the Skadi event and fight! You have no idea how bad I am at pet management at the moment.

I surprised myself with my DPS on the last boss of UK. I’d been extremely pleased with 2.5k DPS on earlier bosses, then managed to pull off 2.7k on Ingvar. Nerfed? ORLY?

Heh. I’m really enjoying this new, to me, shot weaving. I’m not perfect yet, but I’m getting better at timing it in my head so I’m not having to watch my action bars like a hawk, and miss everything else. It’s more fun than mashing Steady Shot all the time, anyway.

May try run a couple more HCs tomorrow after work – I’m 1k Rep from Exalted with Argent Crusade for my chest upgrade, and 13 Emblems from my neck upgrade. Skipping the neck piece from Xevozz in VH entirely, since VH only gives three emblems, and thats the only drop I’d like, which would be replaced quickly anyway. If I can get the belt from UP and the ring from CoS, that’ll be me set for Hit Rating, and I can finally get my respec. I might drop Aimed shot entirely, to open another point that I’ll probably put into Efficiency.

I should really get a name change for Faulsey (Survival), cause as a Blogger, that’s got to be confusing for you readers.

Anyway!

Faulsey (Survival):

Mostly just PvP for marks at the moment.

Had a fun moment in AB, where my 100th Honorable Kill was none other than Grahf, Ramsus’ Rogue. Fun times!

Can just see his ghost above the quote from him

Won the majority of the matches I had today, though there was an incredibly annoying twink Holy Paladin with like 2.5k Mana, and a penchant for spamming Flash of Light. Trying to down him solo was always a long grind that resulted in my eventual death if reinforcements didn’t show up.

Done with AB for now, as I’ve got my belt – just 9 more WSG Marks for a Necklace, and it’s onward to level 30 and my Chocobo Hawkstrider!

Oh, and I once again made the run up to the Draenei starting areas to tame a moth, and once again, was disappointed that I wasn’t ganked at all. Seriously, you guys can gank me when I’m leveling, but not when I’m in your territory? Disappointed!

Arisha, mark II!

That’s about it for Survival.

Faulsey: The main man!

Two quick “Yay items!” screenies:

I look so stupid...

Never again do I have to deal with these fishy freaks! (Ohwaitneedmoareggs...)

Oracle Talisman of Ablution is mine! 5% Mana after I kill something. Omnomnom!

Now, srs bizness! Heroics.

We need idiot proof heroics. Please, Blizzard, give them to us.

Today’s daily is HC UP, where I get a very nice belt, and thanks to some incredibly clever person, me and three other people got saved to an empty instance. Wonderful. You could say it was our own fault, but you don’t expect someone not to know you can only run an HC once a day, do you? -sigh-

Oh, and by the way, Highly Superior Paladin from one of the servers big raiding guilds, stop being such a douche. One of the party members made a mistake. One of them. There is no excuse to go off on one and accuse everyone else of being tards. Kay, thanks.

Anyway, idiot proof heroics : if you try to enter a heroic and one of your party members is saved, you should get a little confirmation message, like “One of your party members has saved progress for this instance. Do you still wish to enter? Y/N.” That would be handy.

On the bright side, I got an awesome party for Heroic VH not long after, and it was a pretty lucky run. First boss was the Voidwalker, who I’d never fought before, so that was interesting. Second boss was Erekem, who ever so kindly dropped this stylish red cloak for me, and the final boss, that crazy dragon lady Cyanigosa, had these awesome gloves stashed in her beard. Good times indeed. I’d still like the necklace from Xevozz, but it’s something that I’ll be replacing with Badge gear as soon as anyway, so it’s not needed.

I was also pleasantly surprised by my performance that run. It’s probably a pretty paltry sum, and it does make me worry that I am teh suck, but it was nowhere near as bad as I was expecting. My rotation wasn’t quite watertight, and I did muck it up a couple times (I’m new to this whole weaving thing, remember?), but I’m feeling pretty confident about this hand-weaving business.

Left: Overall Damage, Right, DPS on last boss.

Third on damage actually done, but second on DPS. Guy above me was tank, so those consecrates must have stacked up… -shifty-. Top DPS was a Retribution Paladin… Armory is down, so I can’t say for definate that he outgeared me, but I’m going to hope that was the case (:P). Didn’t take a snap of the rankings for the final boss, but I’d figure being second there too. Didn’t think to check last boss DPS till I’d left party. Not shown, but Moko was doing a nice 800 DPS too. Yay Blessings of Kings/Might, or alternately, bwahaha failtest on dummies.

I’m now down to a “mere” 7 items before I’ll consider myself done with Heroics, 6 of which come from Heroics them selves (all different ones, variation ftw.), and the final one is from Argent Crusade rep, who I should be exalted with 2 Heroics from now! -crosses fingers-

And to finish up, congratulations to Kazura:

Zomg 80! (I lol'd when I saw that message)

I wouldn’t post this sort of thing in it’s own post normally, but damnit, Horde tabards are awesome. Did some PvP tonight, got a guild, and came so close to getting the Ironman achievement – the rogue who had picked up the final flag said she’d drop it for me when she got to base… but the Allies had learned I was a threat, and ganged up on me. Ahaha! Seriously, lowbie Survival is pretty good in PvP. As is MM (Aimed shot is killer). BM, to be honest… not so much, nothing really to define them beyond irritating pets.

Ok, Klin, I'll give you a little bit of ground - Blood Elves do look kind of awesome.

I’m too cool. Only problem are those obnoxiously blue boots. I mean, really, who dyes leather Blue? But still… Tabard!

/flouri…

Oh god.

I’M TURNING INTO ONE OF THEM!

-drops to his knees-

Nooooooooooooooooooo!

In reverse order!

Heroic Failures:

I have no idea what the hell was up today, but heroics were just failfests. I suppose it had to happen eventually, since I’m PUGing them. First, ran VH. I managed to die on Lavanthor. That’s just embarrassing. Then we wiped on the Water Revenant boss – and wipes reset the entire instance. So we started again, managed to down it the second time, then the tank, who was lagging, died on trash, and we all followed suit, resetting the instance again, so we threw in the towl.

Then, in another group, tried the Nexus. It took us fifteen minutes to get into the damn place… Only for the tank to DC after the first boss. They came back, explained they had uber lag, and logged out. The rest of us thought it was pretty fishy, given they had mentioned earlier that some of us didn’t look geared enough. Me and the other Hunter were certainly fine, and the healer was managing perfectly well given it was his first heroic. I have no idea as to to his gear quality, as even if I had looked, I don’t know what I’d be looking for.

Fortunately, that was just enough emblems to get something tasty…

Mmm... awesome trinket is awesome. (Bad AP is bad - no Aspect on)

Not really that big a deal… but it’s my first piece of Badge gear ever, since I’m a Child of Wrath when it comes to endgame. So I’m really pleased with myself, hah. On the other hand, I’m also annoyed at myself for skipping the treasure hunting Oracles Daily so much. I did it today, and I worked out if I do all three for the next two days I’ll be… 300 rep from Exalted. Which is one treasure hunting daily. Bah.

-

Now, mildly amusing screenshots on Survival Faulsey.

Not really amusing - just the fun of Lock and Load.

When your turtle just misses the lift... those spikes come in handy.

The result of trying to be a Ninja. (A proper ninja - not a kill ninja!)

So yeah, I was in Ashenvale, just to do some quests to get me to 29. I did the two demon quests – which I make a point of doing on all my characters, as one has pretty nice Ring rewards.

And yes, I was pretending to be a ninja. Given it’s a PvP realm, and I didn’t want to aggro every beast from Splintertree to Night Run, I was running along the top of the hills, jumping about like an utter idiot, which resulted in an epic trap fail. Now, just waiting on a Deadly Blunderbuss to appear on AH so I can get some nice boots.

PvP plans are to get 23 Marks each in WSG and AB, for the Scout’s Tabard, and a belt from AB + neck from WSG. There’s a lot of other nice stuff, but I really don’t feel like grinding it up – even if I really need some better Melee weapons. I think there’s something wrong with PvP servers – I’ve seen absolutely no weapons, be they axe, sword, dagger, of one or two handed varieties, with Hunter stats, between 20-29 on the AH. In fact, at any one time, there’s been no more than 5 weapons of each type in that level range up. And most of them are Blues.

What’s up with that?

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Also, I seem to have slipped into doing daily updates. Never anything major, I guess, but it’s something I like doing before bed.

I have a level 28 Blood Elf Survival Hunter.

Beast Mastery is my one true love.

I swear it.

But… I’m level 28. Last level I put my final point into Lock and Load. Battles consist of me Marking and Stinging as I run up to trap, hopping back, and letting loose a barrage of Arcane Shots. The style of play is so totally different from what I am used to on BM… and this is only the 20s!

Survival is awesome. You can bet your ass that when dual spec hits, my second spec is going to be Survival. I’ll need a slight gear tweak (Haste, give it to me!), but it’ll be totally worth it. Plus, I’ll get to use Erethia in a raid environment!

Don’t get me wrong, I’m still gonna stay BM most of the time, but survival has totally enthralled me.

-

Anyway, as I’ve mentioned, my Survival Hunter is 28 now. I spent today in Thousand needles, where I got 60% of my level from 26 —> 27 killing Earth Elementals. Stupid things, stingy with their Elemental Earth drops. All for some shoulders with 7 stamina, when I could have made some with 5 stamina and 4 spirit for much less work… Pssh!

Lock and Load is so terribly broken at times. I can kind of see why they are changing it to 1 proc per 30 seconds – with a 6% proc rate off Serpent Sting, this is admittedly rare, but I had a couple of times tonight where I got three procs in a row – one from trap, and another two from ticks. Grimtotems and Cougars dropped like flies. It was glorious.

One particularly awesome moment tonight was when I ran into this thing whilst questing. After he destroyed me and Kresh once, I came back, grabbed the nearby escort quest for the support of the NPC, and managed to get him down with a combination of Shell Shield, Scare Beast, and panicked kiting when Kresh died. Dropped a decent caster cloth helmet, which, if it sells, will help out my very poor financial situation.

At 29, going to do the BG thing again. I haven’t even looked at upgrades. I did try on the Scout’s Tabard, and it is awesome. I must have it! Plus, Frost Trap + LnL = pewpewpew!

-

Todays daily HC, the Nexus, was made of win. We had this crazy DK tank who blasted us through the trash, and when it was only her and the healer left during Telestra’s second split (I’d managed to die in the first, and the other two DPS died in the second), managed to kill all three splits, and then kill the boss. It was insane.

DPS failfest - tank and healer win the Nexus!

I actually got loot this time! Two pieces! However awesome those are, they have no hit rating… going into two slots where I have hit rating. I grumbled for a bit in gchat, before Ramsus chimed in, noticing the gem slot on the Hauberk, “Why not gem for it?”

-sheepish- Ohyarrineverthoughtofthat.

I messed up the gems though – I forgot I had a yellow slot on my ring, so replaced the yellow on my neck and put a yellow in the Hauberks blue slot, when I could probably have tried to get a half decent Blue and stuck it in there. Will need to sort that in the morning, though, really, it’s a 4 agility slot bonus. Buying a recipe and a few fish has allowed me to make hit rating food, too, so I’m comfortably back at cap.

I’m now glad I didn’t get the Sphere from the Nexus last night – I made a list of the gear I’m aiming for from Heroics, and when I get it all, I’ll be at 7.46% hit rating (including my Draenei racial, and without Focused Aim), which is easily buffed up to the full 8% with Icewalker and a cheap gem. If I’d got the sphere, I’d be around 1.5% over cap, which is just a huge waste, obviously.

Much to my annoyance, three of the pieces I need come from VH, so that could take some time. Much to my relief, I don’t have to set foot inside Azjol-Nerub, Ahn’Kahet, Drak’Tharon (the latter two I still haven’t done on Normal) or, most importantly, Halls of Lightning. I think my next target will be Utgarde Pinnacle till I get the belt there, so that I’ve got a comfortable hit rating cushion if I get more crit gear before hit gear.

Then it’s time to start looking for a raid guild. Maybe. It’s a bit of a balancing act trying to keep hit rating and DPS stats balanced when I don’t know what’s gonna drop, and getting new gear from raids is going to put me through that act again.

-

Random finishing note, as I haven’t properly had one in a while… I got phantom mail from Ellaria. Yes, my own alt! I apparently sent myself the recipe for the Winter’s Might enchantment. But… I didn’t. And I know no one else has been on the account because I wasn’t booted at any point.

Creeeeepy stuff.

-froths at the mouth-

Wharr b mai heroic lewts?!

I’ve done the daily 4 times, which is 8 Emblems, out of 30, so I’ve fought 22 bosses.

Out of those bosses, I’ve seen 4 Hunter drops. One was the best pre raid ranged weapon, which I won. One was tonight running daily (CoS), and it was a relatively poor ranged weapon. Another was in VH, and it was a relatively poor Melee weapon. Final was tonight in The Nexus, and it was a great upgrade… and I lost the roll!

On the one hand, I’m miffed because: A. I lost the first decent drop in ages! and B. I lost it to a BM Hunter with lots of shiny level 80 epics.

On the other hand, Epics don’t equal skill. Firstly, he wasn’t hit capped (and as this is something I have had drummed into my skull, I view this as a cardinal sin), and second… I did a fair bit DPS more than him, which shocked me. So really, he could probably have done with it.

Recount blocked because I feel self concious about blowing my own trumpet

Actually, I blame the mage from CoS for all my troubles, as the same party was going to do Nexus, then he had to leave, and the only replacement we could get was a Hunter. Curse you, mage!

The runs were good fun though – I was teamed up with Tezcat, the recently 80 Elemental Shaman Alt of Normander (who was the DK who was mentioned a few times when I was running the normal level instances). Despite dinging 80 an hour before the runs (thus probably not hit capped! -shakes fist-), he seemed to me to be doing very well – plus totems rock. Partying with a Shaman is something I haven’t done much.

CoS was a near perfect clear (so close to getting the timed event… tank died a couple of times, which slowed us down a bit), and Nexus was fairly easy, though we wiped on last boss first try, somehow. I blame that on it being late, I was expressing extreme levels of Huntard tonight (though I feel the tank was partially to blame – I was just using my assist macro… not my fault you had a totally unengaged pack of mobs targeted!)

Only things worth noting are: The Horde (Alliance for Horde characters) general (or whatever) frozen in the ice room counts as a boss! Hello, extra emblem! That makes a tasty 5 emblems for a run of the Nexus (Plus, it’s todays Daily, so when I do it tonight, 7 emblems, nomnomnom! That’s 3 off my Mirror!)

The Mage boss splits twice on heroic mode, which I think the others knew about, but really threw me off.

Keristrasza’s frost nova type effect cannot be removed by Master’s Call, much to my annoyance – poor choice of a blog title, eh? -grin-

Decided I’m really going to embark on a Heroic grind now. Obviously, I really want shiny loots, but I’ve decided that I’d really like a pair of shoulders to make leveling on Ilthiran and Ellaria that little bit smoother. They’ll be a bit out of place on Ilthiran till Outlands, and they suffer from an irritating lack of Int as far as Ellaria’s concerned, but 10% bonus exp? Nomnomnom.

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Other random WoW things:

Still no Polar Bear mount! Deeply regretting neglecting my Oracles Daily quests, as I’d be exalted now, and never have to deal with them again except to get a new egg. Remaining grind is going to take me a while longer than it should, too, as the treasure finding quest is completely unbearable and I ignore it.

Beards!

All of my friends loved John Brown's Beard, since they usually saw him floating around on Study Periods.

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Lock and Load is ridiculous amounts of fun. That might sound a bit wierd – it’s only a proc – but I get a shiny notification, and I get to fire off a rapid barrage of Arcane shots, so things just DIE. Love it. I actually missed it when I was on my main Faulsey tonight.

I’ve decided people of the other faction on PvP servers are mostly pathetic. I was enjoying my Rallying Cry of the Dragonslayer (22% crit at level 25? Thank you kindly!) buff in what I perceived to be the safety of Thousand Needles, when, BAM, level 80 DK kills me.

Was I a threat? Was that necessary? Really? Come on man, I was level 25! Looting a Centaur! Was I a clear and present threat? No, I wasn’t! I was a poor newbie, trying to seek a better life in a mostly Horde territory! -grumbles-

Oh, you dirty Allies… there will be hell to pay if I ever get that character to a decent level – hell!

-

Most recent TNB had me in stitches, so I fully forgive Fim for posting it like 24 hours later than suggested!

Now scurrying about to try and find material for next weeks Quotes. Post me some funnies, people!

Ok, surely, I’m fighting bears right outside Tarren Mill for leather, that’s got to be safe…

GANK!

… Bugger. I’m really not cut out for PvP realms. I take ganking personally. The two gnome rogues who can’t have been higher than 40 (judging by 2k HP) I don’t really begrudge that much… The DK, who was clearly in such a rush to get somewhere that he had to Death Grip me, instead of being more intimidating and running me down with his charger, I was not impressed with. Look, if you’re going to gank me, how about some finesse? Seriously. I wasn’t going anywhere, why not kill me in style, rush over to me on your charger and drop a Death and Decay or something? I wasn’t getting anywhere fast with only aspect of the cheetah, you know.

Ow... My PvP innocence has been taken from me :'(

Despite my first taste of ganking, today was a good day for my little Survivalist. Firstly, thanks to Mania, I know that the awesome Blue Moths on Bloodmyst will be tamable next patch, which are so much better than the cream moths on Azuremyst. So I thought, I want a tenacity pet… and I’m too poor to be paying 5g for another stable slot – I’ll release her, and tame another pet to fill her slot!

So, I had a look around, and I decided on… drumroll please… A turtle! Yep. There aren’t many skins available to turtles, though. Of what there is, I liked the Blue skin the best. My options then were some level 15-16 Turtles in the barrens (which would go to 18 when I tamed it), or a level 20 elite in the Wailing Caverns. 2 extra, easy levels, or the challenge of taming one in an instance I barely outlevel? Hmm, decisions.

I went for the challenge.

Given Kresh is fairly close to the start of the instance, it wasn’t too hard to get to him if I was careful with my pulls. Most enemies I was able to pull by themself, but when I could see it was unavoidable, I’d place a frost trap, let it cooldown (since it only lasts for 10 seconds at rank 1, which I’m finding very uncomfortable), and then pull.

Kresh proved elusive though – showing up on the Minimap, then not being where it said he was. I eventually had to /target Kresh, and then send Arisha to attack him. The tame was a mess. I got a crockolisk add I had to take care of before I abandoned Arisha, then I accidentally broke my trap before I began taming.

Taking a serious beating here...

I survived with around 20 HP, and a tiny level 20 Turtle was mine!

He's kinda cute, in a squashed sort of way, don't you think?

Yes, I named him Kresh. I couldn’t think of anything better, and that was his name to begin with, so why not. He looks a lot smaller from behind – just this little yellow shell scurrying along the ground, which looks hilarious when Aspect of the Cheetah is up.

Plus, shell shield! It’s a pretty nice ability, that’s come in handy a couple of times. Not to mention it looks cool, too – big, glowing yellow dome over him. So far, I’m not having any issues with pets holding Aggro. Both Kresh, even with his relatively low DPS, and Karsha (standard Blood Elf Dragonhawk Pet) are holding aggro perfectly well. If they do lose it, Concussive and Scatter Shots are my friend.

Leatherworking is coming along nicely now. As I didn’t pick it up till level 10ish, it was lagging behind a bit. I spent the time leveling Kresh and Karsha (Maybe I should name the blue moth, when I tame it, Karisha? ) gathering Light Leather to get from 70 to 100 LW, and I’d gathered a lot of Medium Leather too, and was able to get to 125, which sent me over to Stonetalon Mountains, killing harpies for feathers to make Fletcher’s Gloves. I managed to run out of ammo there, and given the horror that is Charred Vale, I didn’t want to go out, have mobs respawn back into their huge clusters, and come back, so I just went Melee Huntard for about 10 minutes. Fun times.

Finished off tonight at level 25, having spent a first point in Lock and Load, which looks set to be a fun ability for BGs, or punishing any Allies close to me in level who are stupid enough to attack me.

-

Todays Heroic is the Culling, again, so another stab at finally getting another upgrade from Heroics should be in the works. Hell, might even get lucky and try for Bronze Drake.

I’m so impatient.

Once again, me and Kazura are leveling on our own. It’s been fun while it lasted, but I was really starting to itch to see more of Northrend, so, back to the solo grind. I still intend on dragging Kazura and Yuanjia/Ramsus (depending) along on every instance I can. Want to do the Azjol Nerub instances this week. If their luck continues to hold, they will get lots of lovely upgrades from bosses, while I will get none! XD

Got a fair amount done tonight, such as visiting Dalaran for the first time – it’s awesome – and doing the Wrath Gate questline – which was the most amazing thing I’ve done in WoW. The cutscene itself is awesome, and, maybe I’m just wierd, but I found the end of it both horrific and beautiful – probably the way the sun is. (Well, more than that, but can’t spoil it ) And, of course, the final quest in the chain after that is just so much fun. I think I used Volley more during that quest than I have used it the entire time I’ve had it. Aaaaand, one final bonus, it got me a couple of nice upgrades. Now I just need a Blue belt, and all my equipment on the right hand side of my character sheet will be Blue. ^.~;

Wrapped up all the Dragonshrine quests, so I’m slowly climbing up the Wyrmrest Rep ladder (though there’s nothing I really want apart from the mount.) I’m now about 5% from 75, and as much as I wanted to get it before bed, I was too tired to do so. But, since it’ll take half an hour at most tomorrow, for all intents and purposes… Ding 75!

Wandered into Grizzly Hills, and came across these guys…

… Yes, I know, I am a horrible, horrible person, and I’m going to hell. But I’m a Hunter. I felt compelled to do it! Anyway, don’t cry over poor Bambina’s mother – hang around just outside the Westfall camp, and see the scripted event. It’s hilarious. (Hope’s Kazura doesn’t see this post, or she’ll hurt me. Who am I kidding, she’s gonna see it and kill me /grin.)

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Some alt news: My PVP realm Hunter (confusingly also named Faulsey.) is now level 20, and exalted with Tranquillien (who are even more generous with their rep than the Kalu’ak are.), so I’m now sporting a snazzy +7 Stamina cape. Of course, the only way to get exalted is to finish off the final Ghostlands quest – one for which the game recommends five people. I remembered having trio’d it, with Kazura’s BE and some random waaay back, so I tried to find at least two other people. It didn’t happen. What’s a Hunter to do?

Kite his ass. Well, first try I was kind of banking on Freezing Trap and Scatter Shot working, which, surprise surprise, they didn’t. So I gave up on my “tank and spank but use CC to bandage/mend pet” strategy in favour of “run like a crazy fool dropping Immolation traps.” Mobs respawned and I died.

Ok, take two. Pile up some damage whilst Arisha has aggro at start, use the item that does 500 damage to him, then run around, using serpent sting and immolation traps, with Arisha on passive, so she didn’t take aggro and die. Mobs respawned and I died, with him at about 400/3700 HP.

Third times the charm… right? Started same as before, but when kiting, given the massive amount of threat doing 500 damage over 5 seconds at level 20 generates, get Arisha to smack his ass whilst he chased me about, dropping immolation traps and jump-shotting Serpent Sting and Arcane Shot. When she did take aggro, let her fight for a bit whilst I stood my ground and shot him, then mend pet, dive, and get her to follow. Ran out of ammo. Mobs respawned. Trap got him to 42 HP. Mongoose Bite! Meleeeeee! WIN! Somehow survive the respawn, collect head, gloat, then hearth.

Bwahahaha! Super fast bow and the aforementioned cloak, thank you so very much. Wandered along to Tarren Mill, seeing nary an Alliance soul on the way, though I’m sure when I get down to leveling him in Hillsbrad a good few will come out of the woodwork and destroy me.

Let me show you him!

Yes, after 6 days of grinding – I can has Netherwing Drake!

I ended up getting a boatload of eggs over the last 48 hours, so when the dailys reset, I only had to do the booterang, collect some extra ore, and hand in the crystals I already had. Then, it was turn in the four eggs I had and… BAM! Exalted! Cool scene, agonisingly long trip to Shattrath, more agonising over which colour to pick… I eventually picked Azure, which I’ve now decided looks a bit radioactive (though not quite as much as the Green one). Should have went with Onyx! I could just go buy an Onyx one too, but.. I have 600g to my name. I owe 500g to my alts (I like my characters to be self sufficient, but I just couldn’t wait, and had to send money from alts to fund my epic flying), and I still need to save up 1k for Cold Weather Flying.

I actually, in theory, took a LOT of screenshots (for myself, to be put in my ever more complex system of screenshot folders) – of me getting exalted, of the little cutscene, of me /thinking over which drake to get, but, for some reason, FRAPS has been playing up recently, and, guess what? None of those actually took. /angry. So, using built in screen capture now, which is slightly less convenient.

Minor annoyances aside… YAAAAAY DRAKE! I’ve wanted one of those since I was a little nublet, and when I first came to Outlands, every time someone flew by on a Nether Drake, I’d go green with envy, thinking “It’ll be me riding one of those awesome things, someday…” And someday is today!

Next on my rep hitlist are the Kalu’ak, who offer a nice level 76 Chest piece at Honoured, and a cool Polearm at Revered. There’s also the Penguin, at exalted, but he’s not a priority, though I will certainly get him. The idea of leaving a rep at Revered offends me! After that… Wyrmrest is looking tasty, if only for the Red Drake. And Kirin Tor – I’d like to cut a bit off the price of the Armoured Snowy Gryphon, which I.MUST.HAVE. and the Armoured Brown Bear. Of course, I’m also doing Skyguard dailys on the side, though only in Skettis. I now know what I’m doing to unlock the dailys in Blade’s Edge (Thanks, Zaea), but what I’m doing is… 5 man quests. So that can wait.

Some other minor notes:

Respecs all round!

Or near enough, anyway. On Faulsey, I did a minor rejig of my talents – dropping the 5th point I had in Frenzy, and one I had in Cobra Strikes, and placing them in Animal Handler. I now can’t max both Invigoration and Cobra Strikes though. I think they look like pretty good talents, and they are highly complementary… so not maxing one would kind of lessen the overall advantage, so I will probably just skip ‘em both. Thinking of putting the points that will leave into Focused Aim (depending on how my hit rating is looking at 80 – with Focused Aim and my Draenei Racial, I can get 4% of the 9% I need without any hit rating gear!), and the remaining point into Spirit Bond, or doing 2 into Focused and 2 in Bond. Bond is a talent I sniggered at pre 3.0.2 – seriously, 2 talent points to get 2% of your health every 10 seconds? Please. With the + healing though… could be handy.

Ella had a minor change as well – with Longevity, two points in Mobility was redundant – one would suffice to lower the cooldown below the duration. So I put the other point into Avoidance, and now that she is 72, she has Wolverine Bite! Woot.

And finally, Erethia. I have no idea what the hell I’d done with her talents. I had Lick Your Wounds, and with the way the rest of the talents were placed, as looking at level 76 before she got Rabid. Yeaahh… I respecced her to have Rabid, and at 72 she’ll pick Lick Your Wounds back up, so all is good.

Akshiran missed out on the respeccing love, cause I’m mostly happy with how he is at the moment. Though… Maybe I’ll dump Taunt in favour of Last Stand. Hmmm. Taunt has actually came in handy a few times, but on the other hand, 30% extra health for 20 seconds could save our bacon when doing Group quests without the recommended amount, especially when paired with Blood of the Rhino, and Mend Pet + Gift of the Naaru to bring him up to full health.

Speaking of pets, I’m already planning for my exotics. The Devilsaur will probably have an almost identical spec to Erethia, but the Rhino? I plan on using my Rhino for PvP. So I’m thinking of loading him up with all the Stamina and Armour talents, as well as Charge, Last Stand, Intervene and Roar of Sacrifice for active abilities, with the crit reduction talent to round it all out. Then, it’ll be time to set him loose in AV with Stampede. Hmm. I really want to try that out. Just the idea of the half the Horde Team being hurled into the air… Priceless.

Instancing:

Had a quasi-disastrous Utgarde Keep the other night – It was crazy. On DPS, there was Me, Kazura and Yuanjia, and we had a level 78 Bear tank and 70ish Priest. It should have been fine. We wiped on trash three times, after which the Priest and Bear disappeared. We managed to get a DK (73? I think?) and a different 70 Priest to replace them, and we had no further problems on trash, and the first boss dropped without any problems. Then we wiped three times on Skarvald and his friend. Err, huh? Took them down fourth try, and me and Kazura, I believe we were the only ones who had done the instance before, predicted some serious death on the last boss, who had been our only problem the first run. He went down in one try. Needless to say, a very confusing run.

We’re hopefully gonna run the Nexus at some point this week, too. I, personally, want to try out all the instances as I level up, so I don’t feel I’ve missed out on any of the fun!

Alt miscellania:

Dusted off the Druid, who is now at level 29, and should be 30 quite soon, though I’ll need to return some of the money I took from him to pay for his mount. Herbalism is still raking in a decent amount of cash, so I shouldn’t have too many problems paying to upgrade some of my seriously out dated gear. I went into BFD at about 27 and solo’d the first boss, who was incredibly gracious and dropped a (cloth) belt with +4 Intellect and Stamina and +8 Spellpower. Thank you kindly, Ghamoo-ra! With a quest reward ring that gave 7 Spellpower, and some Minor Wizard Oil (made by Ellaria, so at least some good has come of her dip into Enchanting.) on top of what I have already, I’m at 39 spellpower, which I feel isn’t too shabby for a lowbie Balance. Looking forward to next level for Insect Swarm, then it’s just ten levels till Boomkin!

Leveled my Survival Hunter to level 14, having fun shooting things from 41 yards away. Obviously, so far it’s not really any different to when my BM Hunter was 14, but I’m reliving my newbie days! Picked up Leatherworking, simply because I felt like it.

Work tomorrow, but after that, hopefully either Nexus or leveling time. I’m almost 80% into 72, so should get level 73 very soon. Pet situation still isn’t brilliant – Ella is 72, Erethia is 71, and Akshiran is halfway into 70. He MIGHT hit 71 before I get 73, but I’m not holding my breath. Used up all my rested EXP though, so I might start seeing an improvement now.