The WoW Reset Button and RepCheck

Yeah … I have the WoW doldrums. It happens, might be from too many dailies. In the past I usually play something else for a while but I don’t really have anywhere I want to go. I could show up in SWTOR where my son-in-law lives. Yeah … I can see it right now. “Oh, guys … hey guys … good news, my MOTHER-IN-LAW is here!” That’s not really fair though as I don’t think he’d actually mind.

I also usually start a new alt to cure this and that almost always works. I was in Hellfire the other day listening to the talk around Honor Hold. Scouts never making it to Nethergarde Keep, the only trace of them entrails by the side of the road. I remembered the fear I felt in Hellfire. I want that back.

So in an attempt to cheer Cat up I bought her a mount, a Swift Windsteed. I used real money as I’m concerned that she’ll do something silly. She’s been hanging around an awful lot gazing at the Grand Expedition Yak. She was going to buy some ridiculously priced gear on the Black Market too, but I wish they’d vary when they list those things because they always end in the middle of the night and she gets outbid because I have the nerve to leave her and go to bed.

I know, we’ll go fish. See if that helps. I had just read Navi’s post about Krakkanon so headed up there to fish out a big pool. Don’t bother, it’s just like she said. It takes forever and all I got was a Flying Tiger Gourami and I already had one. Stupidhead Krakkanon. A whole lot of fish but no pet carp. Well, that didn’t work.

Luckily at present I don’t have the irl doldrums. WoW is my cure for those. If the WoW ones and the irl ones ever aligned I’d be in big trouble. Maybe it’s time to get Ironsally ironmaning again. I must come up with a plan to reset my WoW enthusiasm. Sasche’s even fallen behind on her quest for A Mountain of Giant Dinosaur Bones I think she kinda stalled at around 2,000.

If you think of something let me know. Cat thought maybe finishing Legendary Pet Battler might help but no.

I did however get a nice email from the creator of RepCheck. It’s always nice to get wow-related email but in this case it was even better as I really love his website. Mr. Bear Butt had posted about it and I have to agree, it’s wonderful. There are rewards available from factions I didn’t even know had them, it’s really going to be helpful. Very great idea Namzad!

There are things I can buy that I didn’t even know about. Yay! Shopping road trip! Yay! I feel better already!

The Incredible Boomfowl of Death

Sasche was getting her daily quota of dinosaur bones the other day and saw a Boomkin fighting a large dino alone. Yeah … no, not that one. Did he pull it by accident? Sasche can manage the small dinos just fine. On occasion she’s accidentally pulled two, again fine. The big ones? No way, she can’t keep her Void alive AND damage it.

I watched the Boomfowl of Death quickly dispatching the large dinos with ease. I was impressed. I looked him up because I was just positive he must PvP. Yup, his gear was not vastly superior but he had lots of PvP experience. Ha! I thought so.

But then I started wondering about Balance. Cat was Balance once for about half an hour. Most of that half an hour was spent trying to unsuccessfully fight her way back to the trainer to change it back. She was awful. Okay, she was still wearing Feral gear but still. I mean she suffered from post traumatic spec disorder after that for I don’t know how long.

So this morning I’m drinking coffee and perusing The Godmother’s post on the iPad because I’m really lazy and she does all the hard work and finds out stuff. This means I can find everything out from her. Thank you Godmother!

So I see that we are getting Learn a Third Talent Specialization come 5.3.

Yeah … you see where this is going. Cat loves Feral when she’s alone. But fights, not so much. She doesn’t even mind the melee part so much, it’s the behind the boss part that puts her off. The bosses behind can move an awful lot depending on the Tank and she spends an inordinate amount of time trying to find his butt again. Can’t get rid of Bear spec either as she needs that for soloing old content.

Anyway, I’ve got to go study Boomkiness. I know zip about it. Cat is definitely going to give it a try … again. Maybe I should start making her clothes.

Great Dino Slaying Boomfowl of Fenris, I salute you! You are THE MAN … or THE WOMAN as the case may be.

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!

Stupidhead RNG and Conversations While Waiting for a Raid to Fall Apart

Yeah, how stupid is that. I was doing Haywire because I wanted THE PET! THE PET I SAID! Not the damn Sealed Tome of the Lost Legion stupidhead RNG! So there she is hanging out with Jubeka and Kanrethad. Every account of a successful end boss encounter that I’ve read or seen, the person was wearing gear close to iLevel 500 and oh … they were skilled. Sasche hasn’t even broken 480 yet so that’s as far as she’s going for now. She also is quite fond of her big purple demon form and really has no desire to change but feels at some point she must try it or forever be banned from the Warlock Union. Right before 5.2 I bought a Blood-Soaked Invitation and haven’t even gotten around to that yet. Too much to do.

Sasche’s quite the social butterfly now as the guild she’s in is now peopled by … well … people. Before long Gray Dawn might have enough leveled members to fill at least a five man group. There is the problem of the cheeky Mage though. She really needs to find The Tome of Mage Insults. I wonder who has that. Maybe Amijade, Sasche should try to remember to ask.

Sasche’s spent a lot of time lately waiting while trying to form raids for Sha or Galleon. She noticed that from watching the behavior and chat you could pretty much tell, first, could the group successfully down the boss. Second, was this attempt going to fall apart before even trying. Remarks like, ” He’s really hard, I think you need like maybe 10 people.” Probability of success not high.

Oddly in her unscientific study she found that the more strange vanity items brought out and the more Mammoth trains, the odds were a great deal better that the raid would form and actually down the boss. Weird, haven’t figured that one out yet. One more that doesn’t make sense. If Sasche prepares a banquet for everyone this raid will fall apart before the fight. Every time. Without fail.

I know! I have no idea! I can only guess that she’s a really, really, bad cook. Don’t mention I said that but what else could it be?

A Puerile Sense of Humor

Well, thanks a bunch buddy for the warning. That’s one title I won’t be coveting. The trouble is later that day Sasche was cursed with not the title but … well … the problem.

There she goes. If that doesn’t look like breaking wind I don’t know what does. She probably shouldn’t have snickered about Jinho’s title. He must have put a wind breaking spell on her. After suffering through dailies like this a kind priest came to her rescue and cast a Levitate so she could dispel it and have her life back. She’ll never giggle at Jinho again. Lesson learned.

Sasche finished Glorious a while ago and was really adrift. Luckily she cheered right up when she learned of A Mountain of Giant Dinosaur Bones, her new obsession. It will take a while, she’s taking it slow trying to get at least 100 giant bones a day. I think she’s around 1,400. I imagine she’ll go for the pet after that.

Cat is still all about the battle pets. She occasionally does some dailies on the Isle of Thunder but mostly she’s just looking for pets. About the only thing that will knock her out of pet mode is a group to kill Galleon. Don’t know why she has it in for him. Personally, I think it’s his extremely LARGE BUTT. You can’t miss it. Sasche can stand any which way but Cat needs to see which end she’s at, I’ll have to ask her. I’m pretty sure that’s it.

Yes, I’m rambling. It’s maintenance day. What to do. What to do. Well … yes … I could do work, but it’s easier to do it when I know I can login if I want. Five hours and 42 minutes and counting …

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!

Bad Decisions …

Decision 1. Thinking Sasche would look good in beachwear.

Sasche remembered Cymre posting about the Hozen Beach Ball dropped by Ik-Ik the Nimble. I think there was a lovely screen shot with Cymre at the beach having fun in the sun. When Ik-Ik was kind enough to drop it for her, Sasche was so excited about the new look she’d have!

Yeah … no … something lost in translation, somehow just doesn’t look the same on Sasche. I mean even the Voidlord is having a hard time not staring. I tried to console her by telling her that I thought her Golden Fleece from Omnis Grinlok was MUCH more impressive. She’s a little sensitive and I want to keep the peace.

Decision 2. Jury still out on the sanity of this guy.

Yeah. Wanchai met Garrosh. Can I get a do-over? Those Tauren on the Wandering Isle seemed so nice and he … maybe she shouldn’t jump to conclusions but she thought he might be one card short of a deck. Of course she’d didn’t SAY that. Oh well.

Decision 3. Talked into LFR.

That is my reminder. I was right. Don’t go in there again. I can see how raids might be enjoyable with people you knew and could communicate with, but this? This is repeatedly poking yourself in the eye … again and again. Why Mechanical Yeti, why?

A guildmate of Sasche’s wanted gear for an alt and said please won’t you go with me so against her better judgement she relented. Sasche had watched a video of Mogu’Shan Vaults but her memory is no better than mine. I was assured this was of no consequence at all …

My time was limited and waiting forever to get in chewed up a bunch but finally got in. To see I was alone. No guildmate. Gone. Same guildmate has repeatedly dropped Sasche on her head from her flying rocket ship. Now she lured her into a place she vowed never to enter and left her there. Sasche? See a trend here? Wise up. She’s a Blood Elf and I KNOW she’s just doing these things because she’s jealous of your ethereal Forsaken beauty. Harumph.

So as soon as we’re in there some lunatic races off. Oh, must be the tank, great. Could someone tell me what the hurry is? So the rest of us run after the guy and the Stone Guard thingy was kind of a chaotic mess but didn’t take too long. Then the lunatic rushes off again. Cries of “I need mana!” ignored. Sasche didn’t cause she’s a Warlock but it would have been nice to wait. If he’d waited maybe stupid Fend the Accursed wouldn’t have taken half an hour to kill.

True to form Mr. Pants On Fire raced off again, not a word. I do have to say whoever the healers were they must have been in there for penance for something they did, because the fact that they kept us alive that long was amazing.

So Gara’jal the Spiritbinder. Oh good, I don’t have much time left, this hell will soon be over. At least I’ll get an achievement. Oh, sadly no. The thingies to enter the spirit world appeared and my memory kicked in so I entered. I was there all alone. It’s possible that this was people’s first time. A little chat from the tank at the beginning might have been useful, but no, he’s too busy speed-tanking.

Sasche managed to kill maybe one and a half spirits while she was in there. Gara’jal had maybe 63hp left when we all died. THEN THE TANK SPEAKS! The running one at least.

A torrent of abuse was hurled at everyone for being too lazy to enter the spirit world and take care of the spirits. Sigh, at this point I was out of time and had to leave. I hope they managed the next time since they now knew what to do. I think taking the time to ask beforehand if people knew what to do would have saved EVEN MORE time Mr. Pants On Fire.

So I didn’t get an achievement, valor or anything useful. Just that necklace that I’m keeping to remind me to never do it again. You guys are made of sterner stuff than me. That was so not fun and I’m afraid I’m all about the fun. Look out dinosaurs! Sasche will be back!

Yeah … um Sasche? Many would say grinding 11,000 dinosaur bones is NOT FUN either. Whatever … to each his own.

Psst … Over here … It’s Me

Yeah, it’s me in disguise. I’m on the Isle of Giants. I can’t stay long as my Intact Direhorn Hide disguise is kind of wonky. It keeps going poof in the most dangerous places … like when I was passing under the tail of a giant Devilsaur, don’t know what’s up with that. Might be Blizzard’s sense of humor, I don’t know. I’m going to have to have a word with the vendor about this.

Anyway while Cat is doing this:

Yeah, I TOLD her they’re not battle pets but after getting her Crate of Kidnapped Puppies from Borginn Darkfist she didn’t care. She might have to take them to the vet though for a checkup, awful lot of butt scooting going on.

ANYWAY, back to dinosaurs. My new obsession. I need about 11,000 dinosaur bones for this A Mountain of Giant Dinosaur Bones and this A Large Pile of Giant Dinosaur Bones. I must have that mount and pet. This looked like something Cat the masochist would love but on taking her there I found the amount of time and effort it took for her to kill one small Dinosaur was not worth it.

Sasche to the rescue! Oh man, is that Warlock going to rub this in, poor Cat. Sasche has no problem with the small dinosaurs and the iLevel of her gear is about 10 or 12 under Cat’s. But if she shares what she gets I’m sure Cat will get over it.

Oh, and I want to ask you smarty pants who have been posting about fighting on the boat, how the hell did you get on that boat. I don’t mean getting past the giant dinosaur, I mean I can’t figure out how to board it, lol.

Okay, gotta go. This disguise could disappear any minute. Back to work, only 10,762 more bones to go!

Key to the Palace of Lei Shen

Sasche was the first to venture to the Isle of Thunder because Cat, well … see for yourself.

She was too interested in getting a cute little Red Panda so she did the Beasts of Fable rather than the whole saving the world thing. Hey Sasche? Can you handle that, I’m busy.

A killing spree? Of course! I am really not sure where she acquired her Key to the Palace of Lei Shen but I think it was looted from a Trove of the Thunder King. There was so much going on it was hard to keep track.

If you get a key you give it to Taoshi in the cave in Bleak Hallow to start Treasures of the Thunder King which is a whole lot of fun. She ran around in there looting all the things and having a great time. Although I was aware of this one-man scenario I hadn’t read much about it. Next time I will be sure to get some of the potions purchasable that would make avoiding traps and getting around faster.

I wanted her to stop and take pictures. I won’t even tell you what she said about that, it wasn’t polite. No way she was slowing down for screens shots!

She made a little over 300 gold and looted many Spirit of Harmony, Elder Charms of Good Fortune and Tattered Historical Parchments that can be used to purchase rep.

Apparently you can only loot a key once a week so she’s really looking forward to her next one. I told her to tell Cat. Maybe that will knock her out of her pet battle addiction … five minutes to loot all the gold you can … just think, you could buy more pets!

A Tale of Two Mains

Since I’m just sitting here waiting for Blizzard to get 5.2 applied and working and I have nothing to do … well … I do need groceries. We are out of milk and the media is full of dire predictions about the impending snow storm, so I should probably go get milk. Not that worried. What worries me is that we might lose power right after the patch is up. How mean would that be?

Anyway, I was thinking about how different my two mains are. Cat up there is all about the battle pets. Cat and Jeremy Feasel are now BFFs. Repeatedly slapping him didn’t seem to work so she flipped a table on him and YAY! Darkmoon Eye! She apologized and now they’re buddies. I tried to align the eyes but couldn’t get it and they look cross-eyed but doesn’t matter, she’s happy.

Another thing Cat cares about is who loves her. She’s always trying to gain rep with all the factions. Cat seems to play a game within the game. The Beloved title was painful to get as she doesn’t do groups. I’m beginning to think she has masochistic tendencies since she’s also the one who did the Insane back when those Shen’dralar were still hiding out in Dire Maul.

She’s not that interested in killing rares. I mean she has but if she’s flying to a pet tamer, you’re safe. She’s not going to stop to kill you. Must battle pets, no distractions allowed!  She would be horrified by Sasche’s behavior. She feels if you can’t kill the rare yourself it doesn’t count.

I realized she thought this way when Sasche and two friends went and dispatched the three Alliance Champions together for I’m In Your Base, Killing Your Dudes. She was appalled! Cheaters! The Brawler’s Guild seems made just for her if it didn’t have the whole “bunch of strangers watching you” thing. She doesn’t like that.

And then there’s Sasche.

All she wants to do is kill stuff. She doesn’t care about rep for rep’s sake. Doesn’t care who loves her. Doesn’t care about pet battles. She is so far ahead of Cat on the Glorious list because she flies around scouting for rares like a maniac. She’ll do them alone if no one’s around or beat them up with a group. Doesn’t matter. Kill. Kill. KILL! She’s also tried PvP briefly while Cat’s only done it by accident while completing The Love Fool.

They are as different as night and day. Cat’s the friendlier one but doesn’t group. Sasche’s less friendly and does. I find this interesting because they’re me. Why are they different. Does knowing their back story influence me in subtle ways I’m not even aware of? Does my sympathy for what Sasche went through help me overlook her bloodthirstiness?

Waiting for patches … deep thoughts. It gets even scarier if I think about that level 22 Goblin healer who doesn’t seem to give a rat’s ass if everyone lives or dies. What in the world is that about? I think it’s best I don’t delve too deeply there. I’m thinking she might be revenge for all Cat’s bad groups, she’s dangerous. I’d stay away. I’m not sure I want to know what she’s doing. I’d better go buy milk.