Elemental Bonds and Free Balloons!

I felt a certain responsibility since in my last post I had a link to the new 4.2 quests. I’m sure for most my warning’s too late or in a lot of cases you already knew this  but I didn’t. It appears that disabling auto targeting doesn’t really work.

I wanted to do the Elemental Bonds quest chain immediately after the servers came up. I told myself it would be a bad idea but then I thought nah, my server is practically empty, it’s now displaying as “New Players” on the server list, it’ll be fine.

It was crowded but fine up until Elemental Bonds: Doubt. I’m on a PvE server so you guys on PvP servers have a good laugh, yes I’m a sissy, not used to being ganked. I was horrified to see nothing but a mass of flagged bodies and once in a while a glimpse of what I was supposed to be killing.

I thought, this can’t be good but I’m not leaving. I’ll just turn off auto targeting, be sure I don’t use Swipe and it’ll be fine. It was so NOT fine. I think I was flagged within a few seconds.

I was having bad lag spikes, I don’t know if that contributed in any way but I immediately had some hunters pet beating the crap out of me. I thought I’d ignore it as maybe it was accidental but hey there’s only so much crap-beating I can take so I killed his pet.

The hunter, apparently driven insane by the loss of his trusty companion who did manage a speedy recovery, proceeded to ignore the quest and hunt me down. Fine, I’m sorry, I REALLY didn’t want to kill your pet so if it makes you feel better kill me. Get it out of your system. There, all better?

Nooooo, he was not all better. Dude, seriously, just kill me once, that’s more than enough payback, really. Not so, I finally went and hid until my five minutes were up. Stop making chicken sounds at me. Look, if I were good at PvP, I’d be out there kicking all y’alls butts but in truth I really suck so I hid.

I continued to get flagged through the rest of the quests, patiently waiting for someone to kill me so I could get on with the quest, geez … so just wanted to give you a heads up, if you haven’t done it yet put your dancing shoes on.

Returning to Stormwind badly beaten BUT with a nice new cloak, I found something to cheer me up after my pathetic PvP showing, yeah, I only managed to kill … one pet. Nevermind, moving on, what did I find?

Yay!  A free pet quest! Just go to Cathedral Square and look for Vin, she’s kind of in the lower right corner and she’ll give you Blown Away. You’ll get a balloon pet on completion and you’ll up your companion pet count. It might even ease your bruised ego if like me you just got the crap beat out of you. Oh, and go buy yourself a Strawberry Ice Cream, it helps … a little, sniff.

Through Your Interface — Your WoW Crew

This is Day Ten of World of Saz 15 Days of Screen Shots challenge, Saz asks:

Who are the people you hang out with day in and day out? Do you only hang out with your raid mates? Do you have a small, tight knit group of friends that you hang out with? Or are you a strange loner who just hangs out with your pets?

Wait! What! That’s you? You mean you’re the strange lon … er … um.

Well yes, that would be me, oh go ahead and yell it, loser, loser loser!!!

I had considered using the screen shot below instead and trying to fake you out and pass them off as my friends but figured you’d catch on to the fact that they are mere peasants. They have no say in the matter, if called to do so they HAVE to stand around and pretend to be my friends whether they want to or not because they are required to come when I summon them.

After looking up the Peasant Caller I feel somewhat better, although I no longer have friends on this server I do, it appears have an item that is no longer available in the game.

Over the years the attrition from server changes, quitting WoW altogether, faction changes and other circumstances has whittled away my friends list to nothing. I made those friends for the most part back in BC doing the group quests. Considering the state of Cataclysm I’m not going to be getting any new ones that way.

Real life friends you ask? HaHaHaHaHa! I once mentioned to a rl friend that I spent a lot of time playing a game online. She replied, “Oh, yes, I can’t get enough of Solitaire.” If I tried to explain an mmo I know I would have received a polite blank stare. If I tried to explain WoW and any of them actually, finally got it they would schedule an intervention because they’d be sure I had finally gone completely starkers so that plan is not an option.

So as you travel the world and you get a glimpse of some weirdo in the middle of nowhere surrounded by her pets — /wave cause it’s me!

P.S. No, that’s not all of my pets but I just got tired of cutting out those tiny, wee, beasties to stick them in the screen shot!

Even as we speak or read rather, Patch 4.2 is probably being poured or getting close to be poured into our servers.  If you’re looking for serious information about it, well, you’d better just move along. On second thought, I’m feeling civic minded so as a good citizen of Azeroth here’s Wowheads guide on the quests.

Does your character have a Soundtrack?

Before I reveal who my in-game BFFs are for the next World of Saz 15 Days of Screen Shots challenge I thought I’d see if anyone else had a certain song that tends to run through your head every time you play one of your characters? My Druid was sitting in the Blue Recluse listening to whatever she listens to (perhaps she has a sound track for me) and I realized that I did for quite a few of my characters.

I managed to find YouTube links for most of them but warning, warning, some of these are not safe to view if your mother-in-law is visiting or you’re at work, really, you’ve been warned, take heed!

First, I have a terrible confession to make. After spending untold hours picking pockets for my Druid to turn in for Ravenholdt rep what did I do to my poor Rogue? I deleted her to make room for a Worgen. Yup, that’s the thanks she got, I’m ashamed. So this one’s for you Rogue, R.I.P. , Social Distortion – Bad Luck.

My Hunter was my first character, I still love her, I just never learned to play her, lol, yes I think I’m one of those hunters. Some day maybe I’ll learn how to play her well, this has always been her theme, The Last of the Mohicans, I’ll bet she’s not the only hunter with that sound track.

Now my Shaman was once my main back in BC and she was a badass, spells crackling, totems flaring, wolves howling, swinging that big bad two-hander. Her song back in the day was House Of Pain – Jump Around.

My Warlock likes to inflict pain but that’s not enough for her, she wants to scare you before she kills you, she’s really such a drama queen.  When I play her I hear this, but not the singing part just the first really great hollering part, the singing parts too pretty, ugh, my Warlock does not like pretty, Sarah Brightman – Fleurs du Mal.

Okay now for my Druid, um, first I want you to know she’s a really nice girl, I mean geez she’s a Druid, and a Guardian of Cenarius for heavens sake. The lyrics are not what reminds me of her but the music. When she has to fight something other than things involved in dailies, when she really has to try hard to be a good kitty and move around and stay on something’s butt, possibly shift to caster or bear and still keep up her dps and it works I hear Infernal – Banjo Thing. For those with pristine, unsullied ears you might want to skip this one. Most songs with explicit lyrics I can never hear them anyway but in this case he enunciates rather clearly.

Sooooo, I showed you mine what are yours?

Mysterious Camel Figurine or how I met Dormus

Since I noticed that the highest traffic posts I have are for the most part either mount or pet related I thought I’d post about that elusive Mysterious Camel Figurine. I started looking for the figurine as soon as I hit Uldum so I have probably been at it for over five months. I have a theory about how I finally found six of them, the last one didn’t crumble into dust!

For about four of those months I checked the map of spawn points at Wowhead and every time I logged in I would fly a route over most of the points waiting for NPCScan to alert. Nothing happened, ever. I finally got convinced that the Figurine would be like Deathwing, we’d never meet. So I got careless. I had never done the flight first thing in the morning as when I login at 5:30 or 6:00 a.m. I don’t have my contacts in and can’t see much of anything. Not a good condition to meet Dormus the Camel-Hoarder in but since I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to be meeting him I wasn’t worried.

Long story short, in the last month I’ve found six figurines, the one yesterday transported me to the Steam Pools in Feralas. I found every one of them between 5:30 – 6:30 in the morning. Blizzard rewards early risers? Dormus only entertains visitors in the morning?

As for the fight, my poor Druid had to rely on my myopic vision but Dormus is a big target and even I could see him. I just got all my bleeds up and then ran around, then repeat. Dormus is big but not too tough with or without being able to see.

So now I have a lovely camel to add to my collection. I received the title “the Camel Hoarder” and it came as a surprise to me that you also get a Feat of Strength, Scourer of the Eternal Sands. So just remember the early bird catches the worm, or rather the Dormus.

Through Your Interface — Your Character’s Hometown

This is Day Nine of World of Saz 15 Days of Screen Shots challenge. I grew up in beautiful Darnassus. My parents had a shop in Tradesmen’s Terrace.  They were trying to capitalize on a niche market and opened a shop called Pretty Pally carrying lovely pastel plate armor. I’m not sure where they came up with their business plan and really, it might have been successful had it been located somewhere other than Darnassus. The few female Paladins that came through town and were interested soon lost interest when they found out the exorbitant rates the Goblins charge for air freight to the Eastern Kingdoms. Luckily my father was quite a fisherman so he supplemented our income by selling his catch.

We didn’t have much but it was a happy childhood and I visit as often as I can and my father and I fish by the Temple of the Moon. They finally closed the Pretty Pally and the last time I visited, my father was working on a new business plan revolving around wolf-themed gear, this time I think he might be onto something.

Through Your Interface — Vacation Spot

This is Day Eight of World of Saz 15 Days of Screen Shots challenge, I’m skipping day seven for now. The floating islands in Nagrand, wow, they still blow me away. I go back to Nagrand every once in a while. I pick up my bag of jewels from those shady Consortium guys just to keep them on their toes. I fly up to an island and count ’em to make sure they didn’t short me and then I just enjoy the view. I doubt I’m the only vacationer here, if I do a /who there are usually a few 85s on that list, they probably bought one of those condos over by the elemental plateau.

Right now I practically live in Uldum hunting for Camel Figurines. I’ve found three now although just the kind that fall apart into 25 gold worth of dust so I’m still looking. I want to meet up with that camel hoarder.

Oh yeah and while you’re here did you see the post on how to reach the gold cap on WoW Insider this morning? I was so depressed, I am such an underachiever. I think, well, I know the most gold I ever had was 150,000 and once I hit that mark I immediately proceeded to spend 20,000 on just stuff.

So, feeling like a slacker I decided to head to Uldum and grind something sell-able. My Druid is a skinner/lw but oddly she really doesn’t like to go out and skin. So you have to bribe her. I just noticed that when something positive happens in-game like an achievement I refer to it as “I got the achievement” and when something negative happens like my Druid having to be bribed it’s suddenly my Druid’s fault. Anyway …

So my alchemist mixes her up a batch of Potion of Treasure Finding and off she goes to decimate the crocolisk population of Uldum. If I have to grind leather I like crocolisks because of this:

I love it when they fly up and flip over dead, makes me feel like a very powerful cat. I am going for a double but haven’t got one yet. Having two flip at the same time would be wonderful, kinda of like the Triple Axel of croc killing!

Okay, I kind of got off on a tangent there but what started it was Uldum.  I’m wondering if in an expansion or two when asked for my favorite vacation spot it just may have changed to Uldum, or maybe I’ll winter in Uldum and summer in Nagrand.

What keeps you coming back?

This week’s Shared Topic is from Ringo Flinthammer. What keeps you coming back?
Despite a well-publicized dip in subscriber numbers, most WoW players have stuck around. But those folks didn’t leave for no reason, so what keeps you coming back and still playing?

There sure are signs that all is not well in the World of Warcraft. For example, what’s wrong in the picture above? Yes, Whiptail, just sitting there up for grabs. I was mucking about there forever trying to get my pony in just the right position for the screen shot and nobody flew down to get it, need I say more?

I don’t really know if Cataclysm was the culprit or just 5+ years of playing WoW, whatever it is I was unhappy. Not unhappy enough to un-sub but unhappy enough to see if Rift might be a replacement. It wasn’t, I came back and I do know why. I like living here. I’ve read all the books, I keep up with the lore and I just want to keep living in Azeroth. This has happened before.

I read George R. R. Martin incredible novels when they came out. I wanted so badly to live in the Seven Kingdoms. I wanted a Dire Wolf at my side. I wanted to be crew on the Starship Enterprise, the list goes on. But no where but WoW have I been able to do this successfully.

I can’t give up Feralas, Tanaris, Nagrand, Darnassus, Ironforge, Uldum, I am just not ready to. So, I have to make my own fun. I grew up an only child so maybe it comes easy to me, that or it just doesn’t take much to entertain me.

I’ve rediscovered my Toggle Run/Walk key. I fly to out of the way places I like, use Iron Boot Flask and slowly parade around. I make money so I can see just how well dressed I can get my characters with only homemade clothes and BOEs. I took my pony to see Uldum, oh and I fish. Nothing terribly exciting but I’m just not done living here yet. And woe to anyone who pulls the plug before I’m ready to leave.

I want to thank Jaedia’s Menagerie for posting about the pony creator. I went straight over there to make my new mount and then took her to Uldum. There is some kind of a bug though, she’s not showing up in the companion pet count, I’ll have to put in a ticket about that.

Stupid Human Error

This post for the most part is rant, just warning you. I have put up my rant face. The rant face was inspired by a particularly bad day at work. It’s part of a series I did where I would take a part of my body and combine it with all manner of things, squirrel skulls, scans of crumpled aluminum foil, you name it. If memory serves, in this one the teeth are really mine with Photoshop’s “Release the Kraken” filter applied. I had to go out in the backyard and find wildlife to eat to get the appropriate blood-stained look.

So why am I so upset? Human error, mine. I was so going to go straight from day one all the way through on  World of Saz 15 Days of Screen Shots challenge. I knew what I wanted for about the first 11 days, then it gets a little tougher but I thought it would come to me.

So what happens? Typical disorganized me happens. I get to day 7, Best Screen Shot of the Year and go to my folder where I had saved all the screen shots I took before Cataclysm of places that I knew wouldn’t survive Deathwing. And it’s empty. Because I don’t learn lessons. I had two folders named “Screenshots” one on the desktop and the one in the World of Warcraft folder. The desktop one is where I keep a copy of a screen shot I’m fiddling with to post, periodically I empty it after I post things. This is a dangerous thing to do, I knew that, but did it stop me, oh hell no.

So I’ve apparently emptied the wrong folder, they are all gone. No more shots of Auberdine, Tanaris, and all those shots you take when you get your first flying mount, holidays, you know. I’ve been searching everywhere in the hope that maybe at some point I backed them up at a now undisclosed location. The past me sometimes did things that the present me knows nothing about so I haven’t lost hope yet. But geez, how stupid can you be. I shouldn’t ask that as I’m sure I’ll do something to show myself up.

Ahhhhh, well, moving on. Anyway, what I was going to say before the rant was how great this challenge has been because beside the fact that it’s fun I have found many new blogs to read, both the participants and from their blog rolls. It was like Christmas. I’ve noticed that there seem to be three different types of blogs I read.

First type are the ones you go to so that you won’t spec like a total idiot and your clothes won’t draw comments like “LOLNOOB”. The ones with the math wizards toiling away behind the curtain, working with, Oh God, numbers!! I don’t do numbers at all well. Thank you math wizards for sparing me the typed laughter of the crowds in town.

Second type is harder to define. I just really like that person. The way they write, what they choose to write about, it’s hard to put a finger on it but it’s the kind of thing that makes you think, aw, I wish they were on my server.  The second type can sometimes also be a first or third type too.

The third is easy, they make me laugh. A thing that I hold in high regard. Sometimes they can change types. I used to read Big Bear Butt because he told me what to do when a bear but now I read him because he frequently makes me laugh. Mortigan The Warlock and OddCraft are also in the laughing category.

After reading these blogs I wish I could be more like them. I should do something about my epic run-on sentences, I should really consider using punctuation occasionally. I wish I could promise to do that but I think It’d be like promising never to name two folders in different locations the same, I know I’m going to do it.

And one last thing, I feel kind of guilty, I read lots of WoW blogs and almost never comment, for the most part I just read voraciously, laugh, or learn and I don’t comment. I just lurk. This has got to stop, I’m going to try to be better … except … the math wizards … can’t go there, they are just too scary.

Through Your Interface — Favorite Line of Poetry/Lyric

Day Six of World of Saz 15 Days of Screen Shots challenge is about your favorite Line of Poetry/Lyric. My apologies, I seem to be saying this a lot, I’m kind of cheating. No lyrics or poetry jumped out when I read this one but a quote from my all-time favorite classic did immediately.

“I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.”

– Roy, The Movie Blade Runner

When BC came out my first character, my hunter, was somewhere around the low fifties level. I couldn’t go to Outland yet but nevertheless I bought and installed it, I guess as an incentive. I was so excited and this was back in the time I talked to my husband about all things WoW rather than you.

When the moment came and I was going to get my first glimpse of Outland he wanted to see what all the fuss had been about. Now I have no idea what this is about but whenever he walks by the computer when I’m in WoW he usually asks, “Hey, look up, what’s the sky look like there?” and this is what I saw.

So I have my non-gaming husband to thank for one of my best WoW moments, I felt like Roy, it was like seeing the attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion.

P.S. Thanks to smarty-pants Druid with insta-flight form for getting the shot. I don’t even think I knew how to take a screen shot back then.

Through Your Interface — Title of Choice

Day Five of World of Saz 15 Days of Screen Shots challenge is about your favorite title and why you like it. I wear  The Insane title because, well, it was a title I could conceivably, actually get.

As someone who plays off-peak hours without a guild (well, I’m in one but all my guildies are me), too shy, thin-skinned or whatever to pug anything but a holiday boss most challenges in the game are not designed for me. When I first heard about Insane in the Membrane I thought now here’s something I could actually do, but I didn’t. Having been in Booty Bay when others were wreaking destruction on the town I knew I couldn’t do that.

Someone told me that it was possible to just kill Booty Bay Bruisers without bothering the other inhabitants of the town, I tried, they were right and so began the grind for The Insane title.

I did nothing else for three months, nothing had been said about what would happen when Cataclysm came out but I didn’t want to take any chances, and since I didn’t know how long it would take it became my obsession.

My Rogue picked pockets, my Shaman made darkmoon cards while my Druid ran, and ran, and ran Dire Maul. By far the hardest part for me was procuring pristine black diamonds, they just did not drop and back then they weren’t up in the AH all that often so my bank alt haunted the AH, checking hourly.

When I finally got it I flew to Tanaris to sit on the beach and relax.  I have worn The Insane ever since, I’ll never be The Kingslayer or a Conqueror of Ulduar but I will, however, probably always be insane.