WoW Bucket List or the Dangers of Feralas

I’ve been feeling bad about not organizing a bucket list of things to do before Mists arrives. I thought I had one but after taking screen shots of Theramore I realized that’s really all I had on my bucket list.

What to do … what to do.

I have favorite locations in Azeroth. I’m a sightseer. I like to hang around in isolated spots waiting for the NPCs to go off script cause they know nobody else is around. I just KNOW they’re going to do it, I just need to be patient. It hasn’t happened yet, but I’m still hopeful. I thought I’d travel to Feralas and kind of commune with an Ancient about it, seemed appropriate. I love Feralas, I even still love Dire Maul after all the Insane grinding there. I spent some time with an Ancient at Feathermoon Stronghold in deep meditation and finally sorted things out.

My blog should really be called something like “Go Ahead, I’ll Catch Up, I’m an Expansion Behind You” because I haven’t seen most of the dungeons in Wrath, forget about Cata dungeons. I thought about getting to 50 exalted reps but just wasn’t feeling it. So I decided to try to see as many unseen dungeons as possible … before, you know … I start dying too much. And then I found this great guide for the Lunar Festival at Achievements Ahoy, so I can do Elders of the Dungeons at the same time. I had it almost finished but it was reset by Cata. So, Ta Da!

My Bucket List

See as many unseen dungeons as possible before Mists

That’s it! And I might try to pick up a few exalteds along the way.

Okay, mission accomplished. Thanks, Ancient One.

So I was there in Feralas and I thought, you know, you can’t really come here and not visit the Twin Colossals. Yeah, well nothing is ever easy is it?

The view from the top is incredible, well worth the trip. I was enjoying it, but Kalin Windflight kept pestering me about buying his parachute. Sometimes I think fishing all alone up there, all the time, is making him a little … you know, looney.

He hasn’t gotten the word yet about flying in Azeroth maybe. Anyway, I told him I didn’t need one, thanks, I’m a Druid, I can fly. I felt kind of bad. Maybe I should have just bought one. I don’t know what his financial situation is.

I jumped, and yeah. I forgot I’d rebound my flight key. Dead. I heard Kalin call down, “How’s that whole I don’t need a parachute I can fly, I’m a Druid, thing working out for you?” Now that I remember, he always was a Mr. Smarty Pants.

And things just got worse. I smacked into a ledge about half way down. I released and tried to fly up to my body in wisp form. Duh, can’t fly in wisp form here. I don’t know how long I tried to jump, hop and hop-jump up to my body, but I finally gave in and went back to the spirit healer and the whole thing cost me 34 gold. I should have bought his parachute.

Did I learn something? Yes, no more nostalgia tripping about how good everything was back in the day. Many things were great back in vanilla, but not being able to collect your corpse and having to use the spirit healer, ugh, not one of them.

And next time I visit Feralas, I’m getting Kalin back. I mean he could have thrown me a rope or something, geez.

Winter Veil, and I don’t feel so good …

Alright, first … I just had to bite my tongue. It must be the mother in me … but hon … really? Don’t you think you could put some tights on or something and a shirt for heaven sakes? Is that really appropriate … okay, tongue bitten. She’s a grown Druid, if she wants to parade across the country dressed as a holiday strumpet that’s not my business.

I read somewhere that the Red Winter Hat needed for the achievement ‘Tis the Season had a 100% drop rate off of Grand Magus Telestra if you did The Nexus on heroic. I don’t know if that’s true but she was wearing it the first time my Druid went in so that completed her Winter Garb Set.

I told her I’d meet her with a piece of Graccu’s Mince Meat Fruitcake I had so she could complete her achievement. There, another one done, what’s next?

Oh wow, I think this ship has sailed, at least on my server. She stood in Dalaran forever hoping another Snowman would show up to dance with her for A Frosty Shake but no luck. The only good thing was it got her to finally take off her Winter Garb, whew. She completed Bros. Before Ho Ho Ho’s, looks like the next step is to go warm the hearts of the horde with her caroling skills.

I told her I’d be back to help her with that. I had to walk the real life dogs first. She’s met them so she said fine, take your time. I didn’t really feel all that great but IRL there is no NOT WALKING THE DOGS ALLOWED, EVER. The dogs are strict taskmasters and I must obey or there will be consequences … the kind I won’t like.

Logically, I do know that the laws governing the universe do not suspend during holidays, I really do know that. Nonetheless, I continue to treat holidays like they come with a calorie amnesty. Last night we were in the mood to watch I Am Legend. During the viewing of the movie I ate two ham sandwiches with a side of Doritos then for dessert had a bowl of ice cream with the rest of the belgian chocolates kind of like a topping. All of this was washed down with red wine. I attribute it to my concern for Will Smith because I knew what was coming next in the movie, so I really wasn’t paying attention to what I was eating, that’s my story anyway.

So on the dog walk, universal law number 1176 kicked in. Said law states, “If you are going to feel sick, you will be at the maximum walking distance from your home.” It is somewhat comforting to know our lives are governed by laws you can count on however inconvenient they may be.

At maximum distance I felt a near uncontrollable urge to ralph the previous evening’s eating marathon results. We were at this point, in front of a lovely, well-maintained mail box in a manicured lawn. Not good. Luckily the way back is downhill and my dog thought it was great fun to run at breakneck speeds down the hill to the woods part of our walk, otherwise known as pooping station two. With glee he helped me clear a path through the bushes where I could ralph to my heart’s content out of the view of curious passers-by.

Yes, a cautionary tale isn’t it. Learn from my mistakes, there is no food amnesty on holidays. Repeat it, know it, learn it. Right … will do. Next year will be totally different. Ah, I feel so much better.Well enough to don a Gaudy Winter Veil Sweater and go impress the horde with my incredible singing prowess which is what I love about Azeroth. In Azeroth I have incredible singing prowess, IRL … um … not so much.

Noooo … She Stood in the Fire

Anyone suffering from altoholicism probably knows how this feels. You get a drop or achievement on the wrong character. For example my druid wanted the Great Brewfest Kodo, but didn’t want the The Horseman’s Reins, I wanted that for my warlock and shockingly enough they both got what they wanted.

My main is the only character I do achievements on. I do have two maxed fishermen and two maxed archeologists which is bad enough but any achievements the rest of my characters get are by accident. My main has been trying to get Stood in the Fire since it became available. She hung around in dangerous places, has been everywhere leveling archeology and nothing. The closest I came was flying into the Wetlands once and seeing the flames disappear.

As I was questing with my Horde warlock it did enter my mind what a horrible travesty it would be if this new wet-behind-the-ears character encountered Deathwing. I then got a grip back on reality and realized, hey, they’re all unlucky me, I haven’t seen him on any character so the odds of that happening are pretty unlikely.

Of course as you can see it did happen, questing in Blasted Lands, killing Ogres, the sky turned red, yada, yada, yada, you know the rest. I didn’t even see him a hill was blocking the view. Then to make matters worse she takes off for Silithus to get the dumpling recipe and sandworm meat to level cooking and almost immediately a Disgusting Oozeling drops for her. I am not bitter, my main however is furious. At this point she’s not even speaking to my priest because my  priest parked herself in Dalaran at level 77 and lent her heirlooms to my Horde warlock.

My warlock doesn’t care about achievements, she’s just excited to have reached 60 and is flying around Outland. It’s a very lucky thing that they’ll never meet, it could have gotten very ugly.

Cataclysm is here … for some

I am trying very hard to be responsible, I keep telling myself I still have presents to buy for the holidays, I have a great many bills coming soon for the gifts I’ve already bought. Do NOT buy the digital download, DO NOT click that button. You have ordered a copy and in a short (OMG) four hours you can get in your car and go pick it up. FOUR HOURS!!! And then I have to drive there, and then I have to drive home again. It’s not like I have any lofty ambitions, I’m not going to be in a hurry to actually do anything once I login, just wait for all that’s holy, geez, get a grip, sigh.

So while I wait, what did you do in the waning days and hours of WotLK? Something productive? Make money to buy Flight Master’s License’s for all your characters? I’m afraid I did what I promised myself I wouldn’t get caught up in. I wasted all my time standing around in the middle of nowhere hoping a certain Deathwing would come by and fry me. I can’t really say I camped him, it was more like obsessively checking. I parked my druid at the fabled Arathi (44,66) location and kept logging in and checking to see if everyone was still there, and they were … still there.

I know better than this, it took me from level 76 to well into 80 to finally tame Loque’nahak and I actually knew what zone Loque’nahak would spawn in, not like the gazillion different places Deathwing might show up. And it’s not like I didn’t get hints that this was not going to work. One of my fellow Arathi standees who had been seriously camping the spot logged in and whispered that she finally got Stood in the Fire. I said grats, when did he show up? The answer was that she finally gave up and went to Wetlands to quest and was killed by him there. That should have been a sign, give up, go about your business you silly cat. Hmmm, I have like four hours before I pick up Cataclysm, maybe I should hang around Arathi. Oh Deathwing, I wish I knew how to quit you.

Cataclysm-Stuff to do while you wait another Week

I while back I stumbled on the Darkmoon Faire site. It was a Friday afternoon and I had no more work. I saw the image contest so decided to do an ad for it to avoid organizing files on my computer, sending out invoices, straightening the room. So the above image is the ad, although I forgot to actually enter the contest.

So anyway, where is he? I admit that like a lot of others when I woke up to the new Azeroth I was a little disconcerted. I felt that I’d slept through something really momentous but then I was soon distracted by all the newness. My mission became to find Deathwing. I wanted to see the source of all the destruction and shake my fist at him at the very least. Sure, I want the achievement but I have a burning desire to just look at him, I wanted to see the one whose release from the earth was the catalyst that shattered my world of the last four years.

So I set forth on my journey of discovery and nope, not a peak or a sign of him yet. Can’t find him anywhere, I somehow didn’t think he’d be this shy. So while I travel Azeroth in search of Deathwing am I righting wrongs along the way, fighting dangerous beasts? Oh hell no, I’m searching for vanity pets, I’m kicking goats off the moutain, you know the important stuff. I’m still trying to get my Brazie’s Sunflower but I’m still stuck on the last quest Lawn of the Dead. I don’t mind too much as once I complete I won’t be able to play the game anymore.

I wish that Blizzard had left Deathwing ominously flying around menacing us for a while, not killing just menacing so we’d have more of a feeling of threat from him. Right now the tension I feel is between factions, boy, things between the Horde and Alliance really heated up during my long sleep.

Oh, and the other really noticeable change in the world (to me at least) is the light. I can’t get over the shadows and little pools of light. I don’t know what they’ve done but it’s really beautiful.

But I digress, I have really important news! With all this change it’s good to know you can still depend on some things to stick around.  The Ancona Chicken is still available, yay!

Plucky Johnson and Mad Magus Tirth didn’t drown when the Shimmering Flats was flooded but apparently made for high ground. If you swim to the pirate boats and go up to their camp and make a right you’ll find Magus Tirth shooting fireballs at some chickens. Chase down the largest chicken and click and Plucky Johnson will appear to sell you a chicken.

So in a time of epic upheaval and change (Noooo, The Keymaster gone!) it’s nice to know that Mad Magus Tirth and Plucky Johnson are still at it.

R.I.P. The Insane

I was surprised by Blizzard’s announcement yesterday that The Insane would be staying in Cataclysm without the exalted reputation with Shen’dralar requirement. To me that rep grind was the insane part, the rest were just well  tedious. I know that might not be the case for everyone. I imagine those that didn’t have a Rogue available to do the pick-pocketing for them might have felt that Ravenholdt was the worst and even with a scribe Darkmoon Faire took forever but Shen’dralar was OMG insane.

Okay, bring you a libram huh? Fine, is that it? No? You want a what? You know those Pristine Black Diamonds aren’t that easy to come by but okay, I’m on my way. What do you mean “Not so fast”. Frayed Abomination stitching!!!! Skin of Shadows!!! Freaking Blood of Heroes, you’ve got to be kidding me, you people are crazy … you’re … you’re … well … insane! Is that ALL, are we done here? Oh, you want all that with a side order of Large Brilliant Shards too, oh hey, no problem, geez.

For whatever reason Libram of Rapidity was the cheapest to buy on the AH on my server. I assumed it was because no one wanted to collect Blood of Heroes but I was trying to save the money to purchase the diamonds when one was available. Still, today, months later, whenever I go to Eastern Plaguelands I feel compelled to look for Blood of Heroes. If I do find one my heart leaps in my chest, my precious, oh my precious, Blood of Heroes. It takes all my self control to NOT pick it up. I can’t leave it there though. I announce the location and I’m only satisfied when some Insane Seeker comes to retrieve it.

I wish there was a way to keep those lunatic Shen’dralar in Cataclysm, you really don’t know crazy unless you had dealings with Lorekeeper Lydros.

Insane but yet Polite

As soon as I heard about the Insane in the Membrane feat I really wanted to do it. Here finally was something that would fit my bizarre play style. A great title and perfect for a solo player, nothing that required a raid group. I also had a rogue of appropriate level to do the pick-pocketing  for the heavy junk boxes and a scribe to make the dark moon cards. The only thing stopping me was the part that is probably the easiest to do, The Bloodsail Admiral title. I remembered being in Booty Bay trying to turn in quests with various characters and finding the turn-in NPC dead, one time Booty Bay was pretty much a ghost town. I definitely didn’t want to slaughter the inhabitants of Booty Bay and incur the ire of my fellow Alliance players or the Horde either for that matter so I sadly gave up on the idea until someone said you should be able to stealth to  areas where there are a lot of Booty Bay Bruisers and just kill them.

Okay I thought, I’ll give it a try and yes, it was more than doable. I found two places that worked great for me. Killing one bruiser would spawn a good group of bruisers that would keep coming directly to you. I didn’t have to go looking for them they just came straight to me.

The room above is on the bottom floor of Booty Bay. There’s an auctioneer in the left corner but he never got involved. Killing the bruisers by the door would bring a whole slew of their comrades. After they stopped coming I would go upstairs take care of any phone calls I needed to make and then come back down for the respawn. The other place I used is outside shown below. It wasn’t quite as reliable as the room with the auctioneer but worked pretty well most of the time.

So if the Bloodsail rep has been holding you back from completing The Insane grind before the expansion it doesn’t have to, you can easily get it without disturbing the peace in Booty Bay. There are many fine guides out there but the most helpful to me was Insane in the Membrane By Cogsworth of Ysera-US.