Ironsally Considers Life on a PvP Server

While trying to level Sally, I keep getting an uneasy feeling. A scary, creepy, uneasy kind of feeling. A hairs-on-the-back-of-your-neck-raising feeling and I finally put my finger on what it was like. I am CONSTANTLY drifting through reaver space and reaver space is not as empty as I had hoped. Middle of the day, weekdays … there be reavers.

For those of you not familiar with the Firefly Series, reavers are … wait, here’s a description from someone with first-hand experience.

  “If they take the ship, they’ll rape us to death, eat our flesh, and sew our skins into their clothing. And, if we’re very, very lucky, they’ll do it in that order.”
    ― Zoë Washburne

But the thing is, sometimes they’re sated. Sometimes if you stay calm and hold your ground and don’t run … they’ll leave you alone. Every time Sally sees the opposite faction she feels like she’s passing a reaver ship in deep space. Sometimes they leave her alone … sometimes they don’t and sometimes she doesn’t even see them coming.

She generally sees Horde approaching and thinks, “Oh CRAP CRAP CRAP!” Okay … be calm, act cool. Yeah … I’m bad. I’m bad, don’t even think about going there … yeah, you don’t want to mix it up with me, move along. YOU DON’T WANT ANY PART OF ME BUDDY! Oh geez … whew … they’re gone. That was close.

Her other technique if she has time, is to fly straight up into the stratosphere and hope they leave. Geez, damn reavers.

It certainly adds some excitement to leveling Sally but I think this is going to be a long, long, trip. And sometimes the reavers strike from behind, you don’t even have warning.

I know I’m on a PvP server. I’m not complaining about being killed but really, the timing sucked. She was on the quest Colossal Guardians. To kill one of these bad boys is an enormous production of healing Void, bandaging, fearing, and it takes about five minutes at least. He came along and killed her at about 4:55. He killed her and then did the quest. Guess he couldn’t wait. That’s how those reavers roll.

Really reavers? Shouldn’t you be in school? At work? What is up here. But it’s all good, every time she gets killed I get to enjoy flying death again. I miss that. I think she has yet to be killed by a mob since starting to 90 … just reavers. Will she make it? I truly don’t know but I’m enjoying the trip so far … well, at least until one of those reavers use her skin for a pair of underoos.

Strange Compulsions and Dance Butt

I am so busted. Yep … it’s been revealed. I’m apparently the world’s foremost authority on dance butt. Those powerful, omniscient, search engines have determined I’m the go-to guy when you need your dance butt information. Really, I’m flattered but … um … what is dance butt? Anybody? Come on, someone has to know. You either? Yes, yes, the whole Raquel Welch thing is from a past indiscretion but I’ve learned my lesson, won’t happen again.

So anyway, I was overcome by this strange compulsion, I just couldn’t fight it anymore. I got it in my head that I shouldn’t have any level 1 battle pets. How unloved and neglected they must feel, I should get ALL the pets to at least level 5. OMG! Did that take forever, I didn’t know I had that many. Whew. I seem to be back to normal sort of, but I feel it won’t be long before I think they should all be at least level 10.

So I thought I’d get back to PvP pet battles. I had tried them when they came out, with low level teams. It’s interesting how things change. Pandaren Monk was all the rage back then. I tried them again after I had some level 25s. Lil’ Ragnaros seemed to dominate during this period and I must have missed the Fluxfire Feline stage. This time EVERY team I met had an Electrified Razortooth. I hadn’t even used mine yet.

I tried to come up with a suitable team but as always got distracted by things like an all rabbit team because I like to watch them jump around, not the best strategy if I ever want to get Experienced Pet Brawler.  So I figured I needed the help of someone who THINKS about pet battles and does not base their teams on cuteness or Ion Canons just because. I remembered a Ratshag post about a team Hydra used with great success. All but one of my wins were thanks to that team. Still have a ways to go though as I can’t seem to give up on my bunny team which is slowing things down.

So with all this pet battling I have accumulated gazillions of Lesser Charms of Good Fortune. I frequently get 5 or 6 for a battle. I really wish you could spend them on something battle pet related. I don’t know, maybe be able to buy a Flawless Battle-Stones for an exorbitant price.

Oh wait! I thought this was so interesting, a class on MMOs! I’m wondering if I should take it except then it would take time away from actually playing one, hard decision.

And I did something incredibly stupid, I just wasn’t thinking.  I deleted my Goblin healer as it was evident she wasn’t going anywhere. NO! NO! I love Goblins, just not the starting area, why didn’t I just respec her! Noooooo …

So ever since, this big comedian Nomi gives me spirit food every day. EVERY day. And what’s up with that kid anyway. What am I supposed to be? What are YOU supposed to be, that’s what I want to know. I thought you were a girl but you keep telling me you’re going to grow a beard. Who’s weird now Nomi? Anyway, the dailies had a few minutes before they reset so I took Nomi along to gather some leather. Hoping (yeah right) an unfortunate accident wouldn’t occur, like Nomi being crushed by falling Mushan or anything. No luck, Nomi made it and then gave me MORE spirit food. I’m not kidding kid, you’re days are numbered. Just giving you fair warning, this behavior must stop. Nobody buys this crap and I don’t need it.

It might be the stupidest reason ever for rolling another Priest Goblin … because I have all this spirit food … naw … makes sense to me!

Okay, this one’s for you Redbeard!

Tell Me of your Troubles …

Really? That’s so nice of you. I mean people say things like that all the time but they don’t REALLY mean it, that’s so kind of you to say Sharinga, well what happened was … WHAT … oh … TRAVELS! Oh, you want to know about my travels … oh … sorry. My mistake.

Well you know really, they’re the same thing. On my TRAVELS I encountered TROUBLES. Hellfire is part of my pet leveling circuit so I’m using the Dark Portal a lot lately and I’ve run into a problem I can’t remember having before. I fly through the portal and then instead of magically appearing in Hellfire, I smack into the mountain BEHIND the portal. Yeah, what’s that about? Is it the fault of the goaty little mount I’m riding or is something more sinister afoot here.

Possibly a Pandaren plot to have their way, oh I know they’re all fuzzy and cute but come on, they must have a dark side. I didn’t smack into the side of the mountain before they appeared, just saying. I’m just wondering if they are trying to enforce that “Slow down” they’re always saying in a sneaky, subtle, way … like making you run into a mountain if you don’t slow down. I am not paranoid! Seems mighty suspicious to me.

I got an urgent message from my bank alt. Cat was out of control at the AH. She was about to buy a Son of Animus for 16,000 gold. I had to go talk her down. Let’s wait a little while, see if they come down a bit. I KNOW you want one but patience. So I managed to convince her a Sen’jin Fetish and a Hyacinth Macaw for half the price was a wise decision.

Yeah … sorry, this is a reminder for me. I’m sticking this here to remind me that as soon as I login I need to go to the Darkmoon Faire and buy a Carousel Murloc. Really, no one should be without one of those. First stop I’ll go see Gelvas Grimegate about buying a supply. I don’t think being repeatedly smacked into that mountain addled my brain. I’m pretty sure I’d want some of these anyway.

Here. Just to keep things in perspective. Yes, I had my Dark Portal troubles but really, this screen shot illustrates what we all know. Things can get MUCH, MUCH, WORSE. It’s like a law. I guess they got stuck in a storm up there on that mountain in Kun-Lai Summit. Either that or some Pandaren made them smack into it.

Communique from the Front Lines

What? I meant MY front line of faffage, not the … you know … FRONT front lines, geez. I did however converse with one of Wrathion’s lackeys who was wandering around surveying. He was extremely interested in my furbolg disguise, he thought it might have military possibilities. I told him it could be his. Simply get to exalted with the Timbermaw Hold faction in Felwood and Meilosh would be happy to sell the Stave of Fur and Claw to him. See, I am helping the Black Prince.

So Cat heads over to Angler’s Wharf to turn in another book to Nat and then this. She kept trying to tame it. She thought it would make a great battle pet, really throw off the opponent … play head games with them … but no. Oh well, at least now she knows they’re out there, sneaky little Shore Crabs.

So Cat’s been trying to fish up more Tiny Carp. She only has the green one so far. She was moaning and groaning about how she’d been fishing for hours and hours and nothing. I called her attention to the time on the fishing lure. Oh. Fifteen minutes. Oh. Well it felt like hours and hours.

So anyway, while she was spending those hours and hours fishing she had a lot of time to think. She came up with an achievement for the guild. She thought getting Critter Kill Squad using ONLY the Hozen Idol would be fun. What is wrong with that Druid. Since this guild consists of me, me and me that’s so not happening. Forget it Cat.

Yeah … I’ve been stalling. I’ve needed to go to Tol Barad and do dailies to get another Fox Kit. And I don’t know why I’ve been putting it off because it’s not that hard. I have the magical tabard that sends me right where I need to be. And there’s no competition, no one’s there. The mobs are easy now, whole thing only takes a few minutes. Best of all though is now I can BUY that Fox Kit instead of the whole killing fox thing … ugh … I’ve had enough of that.

Oh … yeah … about the killing thing. Sorry my Tauren friends, really truly. But I need those fish. Only 129 commendations to go!

PSA: Where Can you Buy Disguise for Island of Giants

I frequently check to see what search terms bring visitors here. This morning I felt kind of guilty. I usually prattle on about stuff, yada, yada, yada, and rarely give any true facts. Yeah, no true facts here, just me going on and on about really, squat all.

where can you buy disguise for island of giants

Twice already this morning some poor person was deposited here, on my doorstep. Did they find the information they were seeking? NO. So Cat set out on a dangerous … yeah, okay a kite flight … mission to acquire the knowledge they desired at great personal risk … OKAY! ALMOST NO RISK AT ALL … there, you happy?

After mapping the Isle of Giants and knocking off a bunch of Dinomancers to try to get the last pet they drop, Cat returned from her mission. Success!

Agrant Sharpshot is The Alliance representative of the Jurasssic Expedition and will be happy to sell you your disguise, Arnold Raygun is the Horde vendor for disguises.

If you’re interesting in finding out what rewards Ku’ma the Bone Collector offers to those brave adventurers who have piles of dinosaur bones to trade, visit Ku’ma in his cozy cave.

Om Nom Nom Nom! Be sure to bring your Picnic Basket along and make a day of it! Yum, grilled dino!

There, I feel better now. Some ACTUAL information. I hope they come back. Hey! Hey! Come back, I made you a map and all!

Free Association Blogging

free association
n.
1. A spontaneous, logically unconstrained and undirected association of ideas, emotions, and feelings.

When I get up in the morning, check for new posts, I never know where it will lead. Matty’s a great one for sending me off on a journey that will end who knows where. It might be WoW related, it might not.

Yesterday Redbeard sent me on a audio journey of the 80′s. He and Navi were talking about Star Wars and Back to the Future and in the comments he said “brat pack flicks.” OMG!

This set off bells! The Breakfast Club! Why The Breakfast Club? My daughter is in London on business and was excited about seeing OMD perform. So after listening to that I noticed the suggestions. OMG … again. Taylor Dayne!

I’ll Be Your Shelter by Taylor Dayne I listened to I don’t know how many times. If I could sing, which I can’t, I would want to have that voice. Damn, that’s a voice. I’m listening again right now. Shoot. I wish I could sing.

This made me think of Khizz at Blog of the Treant who CAN sing, so jealous. I’ll see if she’s saying something. Nope, still cute little kittens.

Well seeing them I just had to go check Emergency Cute Stuff on Twitter. This made me think about pets I want.

Which probably caused this. Cat! Sasche was saving all those dinosaur bones for a mount! That’s mean! You made her spend 999 of her 9999 bones on a pet. You owe her big time Cat, really.

So yeah. Blogging, every day is a battle. I battle envy of blogger blogs with their updating blogroll. In fact there are a few blogs out there that I use to travel the WoW internet, hope they don’t mind. My biggest battle though is finding my way back to where I started. I had wanted to comment. Who sent me on this trip? Today I remembered, other days not so much.

This whole thing has been further complicated by my husband being on vacation this week. He doesn’t read fiction, he reads history almost exclusively. I am trying to find my way back to where I want to comment and he throws out an interesting fact.

“Did you know that in 1900 Minnesota’s grain production was larger than that of Great Britain and Ireland combined?”

Um … no … no I did not. Thanks.

Well, now I have to stop myself from going off on a google journey of the US in the 1900s. Wasn’t too hard but still.

WoW blogging … not for the faint of heart.

Lard’s Picnic Basket and Cheating

Over the weekend Liwu was enduring CRZ hell leveling in The Hinderlands. Jintha’Alor was crawling with characters and the respawn rate on the quest mobs could not keep up with the crowd. After getting frustrated, Liwu headed to the coast to look for ore which would at least salvage something from this mess. Off the coast was a little island, so she set off to investigate and found Lards’ Picnic Basket.

She looted it and was jumped by some ambushers, it’s apparently an item left over from an obsolete Horde quest. How had I never come across this before? Some Loremaster I am, sheesh. Liwu was pretty excited at being the first to discover the basket. I was excited to find that if you look, there are still mysteries in Azeroth to discover, I love that.

WoW Insider had a post on cheating on WoW. Yeah, looks like I’m not alone but I prefer to think of it as vacationing in a foreign land. Then I don’t have to be furtive about it, it’s all aboveboard and adult.

Um … yeah, I don’t know. It seems every time I visit my SWTOR characters they’re in some sort of sleazy dive. Here is my Jedi Counselor conversing with … ah … an interpretive dance troupe? Maybe? I’m in both WoW and SWTOR because my son-in-law is a committed Jedi Knight. He said he’s in a really great guild with nice people and I should join, so who would pass that up. I had been gone so long I just started over as I hadn’t a clue how to play my existing characters anymore.

I picked the Jedi Consular because it looked like I could spec her to come close to the play style of my Warlock. I could try to match up their keybindings and hopefully avoid the problems I have with playing multiple games at the same time. You know, the repeatedly hitting the wrong key and then the dying.

So here’s the thing. I’m playing along having a fine time when I get this feeling of deja vu. I don’t know, it seems like this Consular is familiar to me, like I’ve met her before. What’s that about? I just made her, don’t be ridiculous. I kept having this eerie feeling, so on logging off I took a look at the old characters still scattered around on different servers.

Hey there Cyborg Bounty Hunter! Wave! Wait … what? On close inspection she seems to be the clone of my Jedi Consular except for the hair and mechanical parts. Further research showed that I apparently, without knowing, had made almost the exact same character at least three times. What am I doing? Who is she? I mean the customization of characters is pretty broad in SWTOR, how did I manage that.

Thought that was pretty weird and I’m still suspicious of her and her motivation, how did she insinuate herself into my head and what does she want. I got spooked and headed back to WoW. I checked everyone out. Whew, she’s not here. I haven’t been followed. If I had found a Dwarf with her face I was going to swear off games. Honest … but no worries. The coast is clear.

Ironsally Takes a Dirt Nap

Yep. Ride, Sally ride. Way, way, back in the olden days of 2011 two wizards plotted a fiendish task. I now think of it as the Psyn-Vry Ironman to differentiate it from the later WoW Ironman which was more well known and included one thing the earlier WoW Ironman didn’t. A no-death requirement. Ironsally leveled to 85 dressed more or less in her undies and no talents … and gets to die as much as she so desires.

After completing her challenge she bummed around, had no direction. It was a bad time for her and she ended up in a back alley on a PvP server with little to do. But now the time has come. It’s time to push forward to 90. Yes, her idiot handler has made things more challenging by leaving her here, but no one is up for a challenge like Ironsally, Warlock extraordinaire! (Her words not mine, but I thought I’d humor her after the whole PvP server thingy.)

After a little research it became apparent those Pandaren don’t go in much for selling useless common weapons and gear. For heaven’s sake they sell legitimate gear. How unfortunate. It seems her next gear upgrade would have to come from the scruffy line of poor gear which is unattainable. That was one good thing about being on Zangarmarsh, people actually listed poor and common gear on the AH. Oh well, she’ll have to tough it out.

OMG! Sally, you did not just do that! You poser! You know you can’t help Nozdormu, why did you take that quest … ah … okay, I see. So she’s stuck here because her hearth’s on cooldown. Oh, wait. I’ll just enter The Caverns of Time, there’s a portal right here. Then I’ll check in on Uldum.

OMG, it was so good to finally get that over with. Sally takes a dirt nap at the hands of the Horde. I’ve got to wonder what he thought. There he is already for a big fight and bam. He one-shot her. Kind of wonder what was going through their mind. Damn, I am good, or what the hell is the matter with that Warlock. I’ll never know. I was afraid they might camp her poor little body but apparently they were looking for more of a challenge and soon departed so she moved on to Uldum.

Crumbling Defenses had somewhat soured her on Deepholm. Completing this quest spanned hours. She had to wait for the cooldown to Summon Doomguard to have any hope at all of killing these things.

Time to revisit Kavem the Callous. At 84 she couldn’t down him, let’s see if she can prevail and open up Uldum as an 85. Yay! Down he went. She’s very happy, now she’s free to spend some time in Uldum, a nice change from dreary, rocky Deepholm.

Don’t know if she’ll make it to 90 but we’ll have fun trying. I do think 85 to 90 might take as long as 1 to 85 did. Sally, you should never have left Outland incomplete. It’s going to come back and bite you. Just saying. Sigh … that girl just does not listen.

Alts Saved My Life

What? Too melodramatic? Okay then alts saved my WoW life. I mean look, even the Voidlord refuses to do dailies on Thunder Isle anymore. And by the way I’m fine with all the dailies, I appreciate that they’re available if you want them. It’s up to me to have the good sense to STOP doing them at some point before I burn myself out. So I’m reading a post at Reputation Grind and I think, “We’ll yeah you big dummy, that’s what you like to do so why aren’t you doing it? You’ve strayed too far from your roots! You’re an altoholic, act like one!”

I have little desire right now to level my 85-86 level characters but I love leveling low levels and seeing the world again through their eyes. So what to do? Eureka! Zounds! I have a plan!

JD at Amateur Azerothian had given out wonderful panther gifts to LBR participants and I was one of them. I started a Monk on Runetotem, I was welcomed to Claws of Nature, I started leveling her and got to level 22 or so. I got distracted, JD quit WoW and then she was abandoned. I would feel guilty about her but wouldn’t login because I was sad JD wasn’t around.

I know, I’ll transfer her to Fenris where she’ll have rich big sisters to help her and heirlooms and she won’t be sad cause JD’s not going to login. TA DA! I’m happy again, of course it was a little sad to have to give someone the boot to make room, but in the stoic way of Orcs, Darknell took it rather well especially considering Liwu is Alliance.

I love professions and they are fun again. Instead of Cat logging in and learning another pattern for PvP gear she doesn’t want and won’t sell or learning a lovely iLevel 522 piece she can’t get the Haunting Spirits for out of habit, Liwu is GOING to be an Engineer, and it’s FUN. I promise you Liwu I won’t delete you as I have every other Engineer. See, it’s in writing. You’re safe. We had a fine time yesterday running around in The Wetlands and gained 6 levels. She’ll be riding that panther in no time.

Everyone was happy about this, Scribe resumed scribing as she might learn something Liwu needs. Miner went out to mine copper to kick-start Liwu’s mining and engineering. Even my bank alt was excited. She hangs on to so much stuff that no one can use. Finally someone to send bags to!

I don’t know why I was so stupid I forgot what I enjoy. Even Ironsally is on the move again. In the same time it took Liwu to gain six levels Ironsally gained two bars into 85. Yeah … this is harder than I remembered. Can’t keep Void alive, each mob is the equivalent of soloing a Thunder Isle rare … but harder. Add to that the constant fear of being killed because she’s on a PvP server. We’re having fun again! Easy Liwu, hard Ironsally, professions! Ah, life is good again. I even wrote a note for me on my about page so that if I get lost again I’ll remember what is was I liked about WoW. Whew, I’m glad that’s over.

Half of a Solitary Cat and Orange Face

Cat is truly a Feral Cat. She makes her solitary way through the world and she’s pretty happy that way. I’ve met people who only play in groups; a woman I met once said she’d have to “practice” playing alone because she wasn’t good at it. It seemed strange at first but I think she’s right, if you play one way exclusively you DO play differently. If you’re always alone you don’t have to worry about pulling aggro, you’ve already got it all. Cat used to get in trouble that way back a few expansions. Not a nice feeling when a boss turns around from the tank and says, “Hey you! Druid, com’ere!” Oops.

Cat loves to find a group for Galleon, I don’t know why she has it in for him. They are pretty hard to come by anymore but the other day a group was forming so she set out for The Valley of the Four Winds. On reaching Galleon they had assembled quite a large group, they were full. I noticed plaintive requests for an invite … repeatedly. I whispered the few people asking, telling them it was all good, just help during the fight, you’ll get a roll.

I got whispers back, “That won’t work, no heals.” I didn’t know what to say to that. It hadn’t even occurred to me. Really? They weren’t even going to try without heals?

THE REST OF THIS POST HAS BEEN DELETED DUE TO BORING. Boring. boring … snore …

I know what’s going on, every time I try to play the game as intended this happens. I don’t know why I do it, it makes me unhappy and then I hate the blog too. And then I delete everything. This time I left half of the post so you’d see I WAS making an effort but just … you know, who gives a shit.

So … orange face. I’ve become one. Years ago I worked with a very pretty young lady. Really, the first thing you’d notice was that she was exceptionally pretty. The second thing you’d notice was her orange face. Why? Why would such a pretty girl put so much makeup on that it would turn her face orange?

One day we were having lunch and she started talking about how self-conscience she was about her face. I didn’t know if I should acknowledge the  excessive use of makeup. She went on, she was talking about her acne scars. Acne scars? Huh. I’d never noticed. I’d only noticed the orange face. BACK TO THE FUTURE.

I have every skin condition there is, I am allergic to everything including the dogs. I have now been gifted with rosacea. It makes your face red and if you’re really lucky puts pits and stuff on your face and you’ll eventually look like this.

You know how when you look in a mirror you see who you think you are rather than what people see? And then sometimes when walking past a mirror or a window you’ll accidentally see yourself the way you are, I guess you take your brain by surprise and it can’t filter fast enough so anyway I saw my face.

I HAVE BECOME THE ORANGE FACE. In an effort to obscure the red I am now orange.

Well yeah … not that interesting but believe me it’s WAY more interesting than the rest of the post was. Trust me.

Yours Truly,

Orange Face