Better Than a Green Fire Quest Line!

I got up this morning and found this comment from Ishtla. Eventually I will get the tome; however I think Cat may need to check her mail. Cat wasted no time hurrying to the mailbox. OMG! The Sunreaver Micro-Sentry that Haywire drops! It’s just what she wanted! Thank you! Thank you Ishtla!

He needs a name! I will call him … wait. The mail came from Ravenpayne, the comment from Ishtla and I was going to name him after the person I know is Ishtla. How do I know this? Am I sure? I don’t remember why I’m sure Ishtla is that person. Maybe I’m wrong. I’ve always thought they were the same. I need to ask someone.

I’m not sure why the dog would have this information but hey, let’s assume Cat knows what she’s doing.

“Ishtla is Helke of JD’s LBR and Mogolympics fame isn’t she?”

I don’t know what the dog replied but Cat still seemed uncertain so she went to consult with another friend.

“Jogu! Jogu! Wake up! I need to talk!” Yeah, Jogu the Drunk sleeps in Cat’s pond. She couldn’t rouse him. He’s … ah … a heavy sleeper. He was no help.

Yeah. That’s the first thing she did. Farmer Nishi is Cat’s first stop for all her babies. With two good level 25′s she’s a great trainer to get off to a quick start. Cat seldom needs the second level 25 and there’s a lull in there with the  Singing Sunflower when it’s too distracted by all its healing that the baby can safely go in for a round.

Cat sent word to Sasche that she should be on the lookout for another Sealed Tome of the Lost Legion. Try for groups with no other Warlocks so you don’t have to worry about that first click thingy. Come on Sasche, we’ve got this cool pet! Let’s try to help get Ishtla her Tome! Thank you so much!

Tome of OMG! OMG!

Sasche had done her dailies and procured her dinosaur bone quota for the day so it was Cat’s turn. Cat wanted to replace some poor and common quality pets. She was cursing in a most unladylike fashion at the new 10% forfeit damage. In the wilds of Stranglethorn while hunting for a Crimson Moth of other than poor quality she noticed she had mail.

Cat was so intent on her search for the elusive Moth she didn’t remember her mail until returning home. What’s this! An email from The undisputed King of Gadgetry and Pets? Arvash of The Crimson Hammer? OMG! OMG! I won! I won a pet! A Gusting Grimoire! YAY! YAY! She was pretty excited! I don’t blame her!

Arvash had posted a contest, he said:

So, interested in owning your very own Grimoire? Well, I’m giving away two Grimoires to two lucky readers, all you have to do is leave a comment at the bottom of this post, telling me what your favorite or most memorable book or books are and why. I’ll go first.

One of the most memorable series I remember reading were the Anne McCaffery’s Dragonriders of Pern books.  During middle and high school, I spent a lot of time at the local library after school waiting for my ride home, immersing myself into the fantasy world of dragons.  McCaffery’s books immediately got me hooked on these mythical creatures; maybe that’s why it was so easy to pick up WoW, with all of the flying beasts it contains, lol.

I had loved the Dragonriders of Pern series. One of many worlds that I lived in before Azeroth. When I was twelve I lived in West Africa in a time before Kindle and suitable books weren’t that easy to come by. I raided my father’s library and I think that started my dual citizenship in real life and other worlds. The first I remember was Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy and the rest is history, lol.

I wasted no time getting him set up with coaches and off they went to the Heartland for training. He’s level thirteen now and taking to battling like he was born for it. Oh, and his name is Tome of Pern!

A really, really, big, Thank you Arvash!

What are the Tillers REALLY Growing and When Worlds Collide

In this shot it looks like he might be mid-jump but he floated like that all the way down the hill. You have to wonder just what kind of crops those guys are growing. Jade Squash, Striped Melon and maybe some Happy Time Weed. Well, whatever … I’m not ratting them out. I like these guys, it’s probably something medicinal.

Yeah … there he was this morning, I wanted to cry. People have said they never see him. I see him A LOT. I’ve concluded we keep the same awkward hours. 6:30am server and my time. He’s an early riser too. Sasche was first to see him but chat didn’t look promising. Horde side said it was too late to get a group together. Logged into Cat to check and an Alliance group was trying to form.

I think they had three people so far. I had fifteen minutes; my non-gaming husband is off until next Tuesday. Today is the day scheduled for car maintenance. I’m to take him to the repair shop to drop off his truck in 15 minutes … would a yell downstairs of:

“I will just be another half … or maybe whole hour while I wait for a Galleon group to form dearest,” work?

I think not. I think it might generate ire. Sigh … these mixed marriages can be difficult sometimes. He would never understand the importance of a Galleon group over a timely radiator flush.

In a RIDICULOUS show of optimism I logged in 3 hours later to see if he was still there … yeah … how stupid is that. Don’t you hate it when real non-game and real game-game worlds collide. But there it is, what are you going to do. Til we met again Galleon. Love you, man.

Since I’m here I gotta say, this is the ultimate slap in a pet battler’s face.

You stand there through three dodged spells … you’re down to your last courageous pet. Your team prevails! Your last pet wins with 6 health left! Yay! What a win!  Yes … WHAT … you’re giving me a damn worn out useless stuffed toy? I just won an epic battle and that’s what I get? You’re killing me here.

And while on the subject of pet battles I’ve noticed Cat has developed some … I don’t know … pet battle superstitions I guess. She HAS to battle from the left. To not do so would mean certain defeat. I’ll have to check her socks. Could be she even wears lucky battle pet ones, who knows.

Anyway, I’d better go. I hear footsteps. Might mean I have to do more rl stuff. Go out for breakfast or something. These non-gamers, there are perfectly good Taverns in Azeroth if ONLY he would try it.

Ironsally — The Quick OR the Dead

If you’ve never met her, Ironsally is my Ironman Competitor. She took part in the original, die as much as you want WoW Ironman not the subsequent no-death Ironman. She is sporting the very best in poor armor with a whopping iLevel of 107. She likes action, so to keep her from pestering me about getting to 90 I assigned her the important job of Minfernal Watch.

Yesterday I was whining to Navi while hovering over Shatter Scar Vale in Felwood about the lack of even rumors of a Minfernal sighting but no lack of campers. Navi said, “You should try a low population server. What’s that one Arvash is on, I think that’s pretty low population.” “But oh, it’s a PvP server.”

Well no character is up for a challenge more than Sally and she fussed until I agreed to transfer her to Drak’Tharon.

She said, “Where better to continue to 90 when the time’s right.”

“Leveling to 90 in poor gear and no talents while being killed repeatedly by other players!”

“What’s not to like there!”

Something’s not right with that Warlock, but hey, to each his own.

Hi you guys … it’s only me. Not really worth killing, I think you’d get honor subtracted for killing me … just saying. So yeah … now Blizzard has me spending $25.00 for the hope, only the hope of a Minfernal. Matty and I were discussing this. We really think the spawn rates on some of these pets are Blizzards way of getting back at people for being so nasty to them on the forums. But hey! It wasn’t me! I’ve never said anything negative about you guys. I might though if I don’t find a Minfernal soon. No, no. It’s not a threat, I just don’t know how much longer I can keep my composure about THE FREAKING SPAWN RATE!

Deep breaths … deep breaths. happy happy joy joy …

Whew, I’m okay now.

Anyway, the way I see this playing out is that she’ll actually find a Minfernal, be battling it and along will come a level 48 questing through and they’ll kill her right before it’s hers because I’m betting a 48 could SO kill her.

If this happens I swear I will get on a plane and show up in Blizzard’s lobby, menacing them with Robble’s Wobbly Staff until the time they drag me off to jail or they change THE STUPID MINFERNAL DROP RATE!

EFFING DEEP BREATH     EFFING HAPPY     EFFING JOY

What me? No I’m fine … really … really.

EDIT: 4:50 pm a little over 24 hours after transferring to  Drak’Tharon.

Logged in flew around and there one was on the southern edge of Shatter Scar Vale. At first I wasn’t going to check as I thought it was that toad that hangs out there. Was the 25.00 worth it to transfer. Oh yes. When Ironsally starts trying to level there she might feel differently but I’m thrilled with my common Minfernal. Now I’m off to the Argent Tournament to camp that Scourged Whelpling for Matty. YAY!

And the Winner Is …

Well you have to have a master of ceremonies don’t you? So Scotty it is! My dog was going to do the honors but he’s a little under the weather so he’s just spectating and letting Scotty handle the rest. Thanks to Navi for making me aware that Scotty existed!

So first I’d like to thank those of you who took pity on me and fed my desire for more battle pet stories! Thank you so much! We had three competitors and a winner will be selected by /roll because I sure can’t pick one. I decided to roll in alphabetical order so here they are:

Effy of Awaiting the Muse’s Tiny Dreamer

The tale of how Kamalia finally answered the siren’s call of Pet Battles

Saundin the Rescuer from Sohei of Non-Squishy Heals

Cat was on a taxi flying to a spirit tamer do dailies when she decided to roll. Oh Effy! A 65, that’s great! Oh no, Kam rolled a 35. And here’s Sohei’s roll, he’ll have to do well to beat Effy’s roll! Oh my! Sohei knocked it out of the RNG field with an 81! Congratulations Sohei! Saundin’s epic tale of tenacity prevailing won him a Pandaren Earth Spirit. I hope that he plays well with your other pets but tell them to watch out. He’s unfortunately fond of stunning everything he gets near.

I did a quick check and found Saudin on Shadow Council but want to double check before I send off the Earth Spirit, just let me know that’s the correct Saudin and I’ll have it in the mail.

EDIT: I checked your about page to make sure it was you and now Saudin should have a package! I ran all the way to Goldshire and was mauled by wolves before I remembered postage, lol.

Once again thank you so much! You can never be too rich, too thin or have too many battle pet stories!

I’m Just Not That Into You

There’s my poor Death Knight. She used to be human, well, she used to be REALLY human then she became a Death Knight. Now she’s a Worgen, talk about a hard life. I do not know why we can’t bond. I’m just not that into her, I don’t know why. I HATE, HATE, HATE, melee DPS but my absolute favorite character is Catwynn a Druid kitty so I endure it for her sake. My favorite is ranged DPS but I can’t get a Mage past level 60 even if you did literally pay me.

I find it interesting that the characters I like, don’t seem to be based on how much I like the play-style. What in the hell is going on here? In an effort to try to salvage my relationship with my Death Knight I race changed her to Worgen. What? Yes, that’s really why I did it, why? No, I did NOT just do it to get the Gilnean Raven that was just a wonderful bonus. I’m really trying to like her and thought this might help.

Time will tell if this works, she has been my miner for ages. I don’t even have the vaguest idea how to DK, a couple of expansions ago I made a spamable macro for a rotation that was acceptable back then and I’ve never changed it because she doesn’t seem to die overmuch. She runs around in clothes that are an expansion old. I really feel guilty about this kind of abuse but just not enough to do anything until now.

I’m really interested in this, is it the voice? I do know I can’t level a female Blood Elf because of the voice. She was always yelling at me about something, I couldn’t take it. How do these characters take on a personality while I’m not looking. I’m not consciously making one for them, but they have them. Is it just me?

I have a million Warlocks but three I actually level. Cimmeria, an Alliance Warlock who I enjoy playing but she has no personality that I’ve been able to detect. I’m still hoping. Ironsally, my Ironman competitor who has LOTS of personality. Cimmeria and Ironsally are also identical twins but not the least similar otherwise. Weird. Sasche’s my Frosaken Warlock who has a personality that could only be described as taciturn, but it does exist.

In order of their birth a few of my characters:

Zorakar

The first, a Night Elf Hunter … yeah … it’s kind of a rule isn’t it. She was happy to step down as the main. She found communicating exhausting and really is happier communing with her pets and skirting the fringes of populated areas, picking flowers as she goes.

Lokkan

A fiery Draenei Shaman who is definitely pissed off about something. She took over for Zor in BC. She’s the most likely to be rude to you, she seems to be seething with something. Anger? Disappointment? Because she was set aside when she stopped carrying a big two-handed weapon? Yeah, I don’t think she ever got over that, poor girl, she wants to be the main.

Sophina

Human Mage level 53 bank alt. She’s a little embarrassed at her failed attempt at surviving out in the world, but secretly she’s thankful that now all she has to do is stand at the AH dressed in a lovely tux. The world is not a safe place for a Mage played by me.

Jannina

Newly Worgen Death Knight, will this help develop a personality? I’m hopeful I’ll find out who Jannina really is but it’s early days.

Cimmeria

Human Warlock, I really think the lack of personality I detect may indeed BE part of her personality. She IS a Warlock, she knows this bothers me, I think she’s hiding it purposefully just to get under my skin … typical.

Sheesh, it’s early … enough with the deep thoughts on my characters.

I feel kind of bad. I think those guys in The Stockade thought we were there to help them with the rowdy prisoners. Because of the CRZ no more than 3 time zones thingy Navi and I had to resort to hiding in there to compare skins on our pets. WHAT! Well come on, you knew I had to go there at some point. Pet skins are very important. We compared our Tundra Penguins and found that mine has evil little red eyes and hers has lovely blue ones. We could only conclude that mine came a little too close to Arthas at some point, poor penguin. Dangerous place that Northrend.

So now, what to do. Snakes come in various colors, should I collect one of each? Bunnies? Rats? Decisions, decisions … where’s my Safari Hat?

Bugs and Disatisfaction

First, I TOLD Cat to be more specific when she sat on Greatfather’s lap and told him what she wanted. Saying I want that really cool Tol’vir rare archaeology item just didn’t do it. I mean he’s not a mind-reader Cat, he doesn’t know you’re a big battle pet fan. Be happy with your little bug mount, sheesh, it’s always something.

And then right after that, this … I detect a pattern, not sure where it will end.

Anyway, long, long, ago in the days of yore which would be sometime like about last October I remember Cat and I hunting down our battle pets. Oh! Look! I’ve found a Silky Moth! Isn’t he wonderful! OH! And he’s a common! How lucky are we!

Yeah, you get the picture. We were squeeing in delight over everything we found, didn’t matter what quality it was. YAY! YAY! We found one.

Yeah well that sure has changed. Today I spent … I don’t even want to admit how long … just a really long time trying to replace my rare Whelk with a BETTER RARE Whelk. It’s come to that. Not even satisfied now with a rare, it must be the BEST rare ever. It was a mistake to find out about all the breeds. LOOK! LOOK! Formulas! Computations to be made! Aaarrrggghhh! My rares must be the BEST.

Yes, I really have gone batshit crazy here. Those wonderful carefree days of skipping through Azeroth happy with whatever pets I found are over. History.

Cat and I are dissatisfied now if our rares are not best in slot breeds! I KNOW, it’s all kinds of craziness!

So we took some of our hand picked, really SPECIAL rares and did a few PvP battles and had our hat handed to us more often than not. Hmm … where did we go wrong. I must recalculate. We must look for EVEN BETTER RARES!

OMG! Where will this end?

Okay, got to go. Cat and I must find the VERY BEST Dung Beetle EVER!

EDIT: OMG! Navi just linked me an Emperor Crab with INSANE POWER! Forget bugs, I must own the crab of unending POWER!

Shocking Expose — Scourged Whelpling Cam

I have long had my suspicions. Then I’d tell myself … naw … you’re just being paranoid. But really, the evidence is mounting up to the point that it just can no longer be ignored. Look at the Scourged Whelpling footage taken by our intrepid reporter … yeah okay … it’s just Cat but work with me here. With the modern miracle of stop-action footage obtained at great cost, she’s captured the torment of flying a rental into the Argent Tournament.

Look at all those bloody Scourged Whelplings!!! Do you see how many there are? DO YOU SEE! Of course they aren’t really there once you land and return. You say, “Yeah, that’s just the CRZ craziness, get over it.” WELL I THINK NOT. I see a pattern emerging here. I think there’s something much more sinister going on here.

Navi had a post about WoW Lead Designers engaging in the community and of course I paid special attention to what Cory Stockton had to say. I carefully listened to his interview at Warcraft Pets. Oh yes, very clever. Talking about the elusive and (I think non-existent) very rare Minfernal. Making us want it even more. WHEN IT DOESN’T EXIST!

Oh yeah … people say they’ve captured it … sure. Navi says it’s real but I smell a rat. Look at her collection … she has a Mini Tyrael! That smells like a payoff to me! They roped her into their evil plan to perpetrate the myth of the Minfernal with payment of a Mini Tyrael. I’ll have to get my investigative reporter Ironsally looking into the collections of other defenders of the existence of Minfernal. I’m SURE we’ll see a pattern!

Why must they torment us so Mechanical Yeti, why? What is Blizzard’s evil scheme? Are they in league with the government to create nerdrage for some reason? Do you suppose there’s some possible weapons use for it? I was recently told my usual normal blood pressure was high. Go straight to your doctor. Huh? It wasn’t high before Minfernal, and Scourged Whelplings, and … in league with the drug companies? Could it be?

Ironsally will get to the bottom of their evil scheme! Mark my words! All will be revealed and …

Huh? What’s up you say?

In a further attempt to unhinge me, Blizzard didn’t take down the servers for maintenance today. Rolling restarts. I have work to do. I was depending on their help. I thought pet battles would be inaccessible to me for at least a few hours. Once again … they conspire.

But never fear, I fought the addiction. I have not logged back in to satisfy Cat’s never ending desire to battle, level and collect pets.

See, I resisted. Instead I’M JUST WRITING ABOUT THEM INSTEAD OF DOING WORK … NOOOOOooooooooo

A Cautionary Tale of Battle Pets

Yes, it’s come to this. Cat’s fields lay fallow. She told me it’s a glitch, it’s Blizzard’s fault … some kind of bug, yeah … right. You know I try to give her her space and not interfere but now she’s gone too far. I think she’s hit bottom. Maybe she’ll snap out of it now.

She has been doing nothing but battle tamers and level her pets. She occasionally goes looking for rares to replace poors and commons but that’s it. And I see evidence of the strain. She practically froths at the mouth in fury when she receives another Well-Loved Toy instead of a Battle-Stone. And oh my … the language!

Yes, Den Den took pity on her and gave her a job washing beer mugs. She couldn’t scrap up enough money to pay her bar tab because all she does is level pets. I’m not even hopeful she’ll keep that job long as she’s always late … just one more level … just one more tamer.

Her latest mission is to start leveling the level one greens that can’t be obtained in the wild. Just the special ones, it turns out she thinks they’re all special. I find her optimism that she’ll ever accumulate that many Battle-Stones to upgrade them all a little extreme but I didn’t say anything. Who am I to rain on her parade. But Cat, do something else for a change … something … ANYTHING … but no she doesn’t even hear me. She’s lost in her leveling frenzy.

So if you see someone hunched over the sink in ratty old clothes in the back of the Inn at Halfhill, it’s probably Cat. Learn from her mistake. Be cautious with battle pets, don’t take them lightly, they are DANGEROUS. Don’t let it happen to you.

How to Complete Eastern Kingdoms Safari

The last day of the year was filled with both joy and anguish. It finally rained on Jaguero Isle and the Baby Apes appeared! The final pet to complete Eastern Kingdoms Safari! Yay! Yay … um … it didn’t complete, what the heck?

I wasn’t getting credit for the Wharf Rat or the Crimson Moth. This morning I decided to go to Stranglethorn and try recapturing those two pets. Yay! It works! So if you find yourself in the same situation just try recapturing whatever pet you’re not getting credit for. I had captured those two pre-patch 5.1 so I’m guessing anything you capture after 5.1 won’t have that problem.

So on the first day of the new year Cat is ecstatic! Thank you Mimiyah for hanging out there for me! I hope all that leather you skinned while waiting sells and you make lot’s of money. Hopefully Mimiyah will buy a pet with all her proceeds.

Anyway, public service announcement number one of 2013, I hope it helps someone! Happy pet hunting!