I had a really productive week with mounts. I had decided after finally attaining Ji-Kun, that I would work on the Hatchling mounts next [the questline you get from the little orphaned pets in the Warden quest Swarm areas. After a few days of completing the quests on Askevar, I discovered that I could do more quests if I accepted them on level 110 alts! So I pushed that for a few days and lo and behold, I now have four additional mounts
Category: Mists of Pandaria
RNG Treats Me Right
It’s been a good few days… I seem to have the luck this weekend!
Friday night we did a bunch of Molten Core runs to try and get me the Harbinger of Flame pet from the Sulfuron Harbinger. Venoym’s alt went in and got it, after about 10 of my toons had gone through with no luck.
Saturday morning, before leaving for the day, I finished the apprentice questline and got “I am the Master Now”. Saturday night we did LFR and I got the item I’ve been wanting for weeks… the sword off Elegon. I still need to get the Sha Touched Weapon, but that’ll come eventually [I hope].
Because I got the weapon, I got Mystically Epic
Now there are only a couple things I need in LFR.
On a whim, I got into the bidding war for the Blood Soaked Invitations and to my shock, won one. It’s going to put off getting my first JC mount for about a month [based on personal gold totals I want to maintain] but I felt like it was worth it and I joined BigBearButt in fighting and cheering on the competitiors. I made Rank 4 in the Brawler’s guild today :D. Rank 7 is going to take a LOT of work… and figuring out how to dps as a frost death knight.
Oh, as Bear says in his post, Venoym and I have joined his guild, along with a few friends of ours.
This afternoon, while Ven, LittleVen and a friend were grilling burgers and hot dogs, I saw an advertisement for a Darkmoon Rabbit raid, which I almost passed on as it was almost lunch time. I’m sure glad I didn’t.
State of Things
My main’s doing quite well at this point in the expansion. I’m exalted with all the reps except Shadopan [16k/21k] and August Celestials [9k/21k]. I’ve maxed out every profession at least once, so I have access to them all on my main server. I’ve gotten two alts to 90 – including my horde alt on another server [yay achievements!]
I’ve killed Heroic Nefarian, finished the “Glorious” achievement of killing the rares, managed Galleon kills two times [got nothing], am best friends with everyone on the farm and even have my second alt to 90 exalted with the tillers [and all I did on her was login, replant her farm and do the tiller dailies in 15 mins or so]. I’ve done a couple Firelands retro runs, and even killed the first boss of Mogushun Vaults with whomever we could pull together in guild and a couple out of guild friends. We also got the second boss to 26%.
Pet Battles have been what’s fallen to the wayside. I know they’ve captured most people’s attention instead of all the other but for me it’s been the reverse. I really want to do more for that in the coming few weeks as I’d like to get the upper level pets and I’d be ready for 5.1. It just… well the grind to get a level 25 pet seems so painful looking. My highest level pet is 10 right now.
I would post some screen shots, but at the moment I am without my computer 😦 The hard drive died and since I have the laptop [and access to Venoym’s computer during the day], we decided it would be easier just to wait till the weekend to swap some drives about. So, when he can move the data over, I will have some screenies, though I have posted a few things on twitpic.
National Novel Writing Month is this month and I have written a bit thus far… I’m still not sure I’m participating. I’ve already written 125k this year [my goal was 100k, but I revised that and raised it to 150k] so I’m not sure I want to push myself to cram another 50k in but I’m writing daily as is… I may just see what happens.
Mists of Pandaria
Askevar is 90… hit it Friday in fact [with Venoym]. This was the fastest and hardest we’ve ever pushed to level. I know a lot of people like to savor initially, but we both prefer to just get our main to 90 and worry about savoring later with alts. That’s why they exist after all? Anyway, Askevar’s main set is going along well. I do a couple scenarios a day as well as a heroic or two in the evening. All my pieces, save a 442 blue ring, are 450 or better, with several 463 items. I’m doing my daily rep grinds and I’ve maxed all my professions both primary [Inscription/Jewelcrafting] and Secondary [Archaeology, First Aid, Cooking, Fishing] and I got access to the end food for the Way of the Oven [aka the tank tree]. I also have all my on server alts parked at Halfhill to farm various veggies to max the other ways or to create the max Oven food. By the way, if you do this, the Outpost Zhu flightpoint in Krasanger is the one that connects the Jade Forest initial town to Halfhill.
For that matter, I’ve now maxed out every profession on my account except Blacksmithing and Skinning. Suffice to say, our guild has the heirloom legs already, and not just through my efforts either. Sadly they are only good through 85, which I think is a little silly, but I was able to buy a pair for my level 20 monk. Oh, we also have the guild shirts because a group running scenarios last night saw we were only two away and decided to finish. They’re kinda cute but you can’t see it with my armor on [as it should be for a tank].
My offset gear is crap [its unholy now, gave up frost] and a quarter to half the pieces are still level 85 stuff that I need to replace, but, on the flipside, I’m quite a hardy tank right now.
Honestly, I don’t see any of my alts getting to 90 very quickly. I’ve got 2 at 86 – my bank alt/gatherer and my horde pally [the horde pally would net me 2 account achievements]. With our guild not even discussing raiding for another two weeks, I might get one leveled but who knows? My main priority, as always, is going to be getting Askevar’s tank set raid ready – everything else is bonus.
Sundays have become achievement night and due to lack of interest from our guild [a lot of people are still busy leveling and that’s alright], we’ve been pulling from cross realm friends. We’ve gotten a lot done though and we’ve had a blast doing it. We even managed to 9 man Heroic Chimaeron just before MoP hit – with 3 healers, 2 tanks and the rest dps – and that’s what we managed to get… we had intended to 2 heal, but with everyone wanting to try out their mainspec, extra heals never hurt :D.
I will admit, at times the dailies feel almost endless, but once I get the reputations to max, I’ll be gold. I’m already revered with Order of the Cloud Serpent and well into honored with most of the rest so it’ll get there 🙂 And I’m not finding these dailies near as painful as some have been in the past either.
Goldwise – I’ve already spent a ton between buying the Grand Expedition Yak and speed leveling some professions. Despite that, I’ve actually managed to make money on Askevar and I’ll make back the rest and then some when I level the alts, so it’ll all work out. Hey, don’t look at me that way… I saved and ground for that Yak for several months before MoP dropped and I’m darn proud of it! There is nothing like achieving a goal you set out to complete.
Speaking of achievements, for the first time since I was maining a warlock, I have finally passed my husband in total achievement points. Now, so it’s said, that won’t last as he’ll do all those achievements and catch right back up… but for once it’s nice to be ahead!
Last Minute Prep for MoP:
1. Pull off all your mail [or at least anything you care about]. One expansion they lost all the mail. We got most of it back but were without it for a week or so before it was restored.
2. Make sure your quest log is in order. Some people are stocking up dailies and some are just clearing the log of clutter.
3. Check your bank and void storage – make sure you have space.
4. Be prepared just in case there are server restarts/downtime.
Preparing for Mists
Well as I sit here and write this, I’ve just finished the grind for all the Argent Tournament mounts. As of last night, my bank guild is sitting at level 5 and since my bank alt will be second leveled in MoP, that will be nice [may try for level 6 this week for the extra xp but it depends]. My bank alt is max herbalism and mining [was a few weeks ago] to supply ore and herbs for Askevar’s Inscription and Jewelcrafting.
I’ve got most of my goals completed – all my Azuremyst toons have done all the Cataclysm zones to max out their gold, I have professions situated, banks cleared, void storage packed up with what I want to keep in terms of gear and I’ve sold off a lot of materials and still working on that – probably right up till the expansion drops.
I haven’t done much questing on off server alts, but they’re going into hibernation for at least a few months other than checking mail. The horde paladin might get leveled sooner… just for the account wide achievement of having toons on both sides of the fence but we’ll have to see. All my current 85s will eventually hit 90 but that’s going to be a while.
And for now I’m excited about the new achievements and zones to explore on Askevar. I fully expect Venoym and I will hit 90 on our mains by the weekend, which is fine with us and then we’ll finish questing the new zones 🙂
Oh, don’t forget to log in all your toons intially. You had to do that last expansion to start the rested XP accumulating.
Wherein I Grade Patch 5.0
Account Wide Achievements – A minus
I like these and approve happily of them! I’ve done achievements on quite a few toons and I still can… but now I can ignore the ones I don’t care to do! The only drawback to this is that I wish reputation had been account-wide as well… or if not fully mimicking the reputation of your main toon, that you at least got SOME benefit from exalting with a faction once? There are some grinds I will never do again.
Account Wide Pets and Mounts – A minus
I’m okay with this change too. In fact, there’s been only one concern for me in regards to account wide pets. Why is the ceiling set at 500? I collected pets as I found them account wide. So much so that I ended up with a total of over 1260 pets in the book… meaning I’m going to have quite a few to go through when MoP finally hits. I also have 2 new pets sitting in my bags that I can’t learn right now because of the limit.
Cross Realm Zones – D minus overall now [F for implementation]
This feature was implemented in a way not advertised, is causing excessive lag and is just frustratingly random. Doing my Icecrown dailies, I have to log several times because if it reads that I’m supposed to cross realms and it doesn’t transfer my toon, rather than ending up on my own realm, I end up in a “dead” space with no N.PCs, no players, no mobs. It’s not a matter of anything other than the implementation and it’s frustrating as heck. Sometimes I can’t even log out and have to force quit and restart. This feature is also vulnerable to griefing and that just isn’t cool. Plus, doing the fishing tournaments, Wintergrasp and Tol Barad is basically out right now. I think a better alternative would have been to permit free transfers for a short time to certain realms or from certain realms. Star Wars had some success with allowing low pop servers to migrate to high population servers. The super low population left behind could become the “new” servers for new players. It has potential if they can work out the bugs, but I’m not as optimistic that they will quickly.
Guild Reputation – A
I like the higher rate of guild reputation. I think it needed to be easier to obtain… maybe not as easy as it is but it’s been nice to finish exalting the alts that have swapped guilds so they can have exalted reputation again with their guilds.
Druid Travel Form – A Plus
Okay I ADORE this. It’s wonderfully appropriate and much better than the cheetah in my opinion. And my druid healer can be a tree again yay!!!
Preparing for MoP as a Tank:
The key to surviving an expansion without completely going insane is to manage your expectations. Expect it to suck and you dread the drop date. Expect it to be the neatest thing since sliced bread and you’re bound to be disappointed.
For the tank, while the rules may change and your abilities may change your job stays the same. You are the one taking the hits so the rest of your team is able to do their job and take down the mobs. You are the protector, or in Leverage lingo – the hitter.
Now I’ll be honest right here and say that I have spent basically no time on the PTR. I have done very little in terms of actually getting ready to have Askevar be able to seamlessly do her job when the prepatch hits on the 28th. It sounds like we’re heading back to the Burning Crusade school of tanking – where the tank has to be hit to get threat and the more they get hit, the more threat they generate. What this likely means is that tanks are going to need a moment to wrangle aggro. [That conclusion is based completely on what LITTLE I have heard and read btw, so may not be accurate]. And this whole active mitigation thing? Sounds a lot like what I’m already doing.
Yes, I know things are going to change… but after surviving so many expansions hitting, it loses it’s upset factor in many ways. Just creates headaches.
I’ve proven to my guild that I’ll do what it takes to get my job done and then some. My guildies have proven that they’ll do the same and have my back. I feel like we’re in a good place 🙂
MoP is Imminent….
So we have a date and it’s 2 months out now… Knowing that we can count on probably a month and a half before pre-patch drops. This also throws my “Bucket List” into overdrive and prioritizing.
Tier 1: MUST get done.
– continue soloing old raids each week for transmog stuff/money
– Finish out the Cata zone questing on all my AZM toons [only 1 left to go]
– Keep pushing in the heroic modes department with the raid team – we’re 5/8H right now
– Level my MoP farm alt to 85 so I can funnel both herbs and ore to Askevar
– sort through bags and banks of all toons. Put what can be in void storage
– Clear out personal bank/sell off items.
Tier 2: If I have time
– Questing on off-server alts in Cata zones
Updated: Pre-Panda Goals
World of Warcraft:
*Ogrila Exalted [Askevar]
*Stormpike Exalted [Askevar]
*Avengers of Hyjal Exalted [Askevar]
*Get some of the PVP achieves done [Askevar]
*100k Gold Looted Achievement
*Get the Tol’vir mount and pet [Askevar]
*Finish Shadowmourne 22/50 [Askevar]
*Finish collecting the DMF pets and mounts [1 mount left]
*Max out Leatherworking and Herbalism on AZM [Qeziah]
*Salty [Askevar]
*Turtle Mount [Askevar]
*Fox Kit
*Polar bear
*Sewer Rat
*Cenarion Molten Core set [Aricaa]
*Level a mage on my battlenet to 85 so I have all classes
*Thorough cleaning of toons banks and bags
*Complete the Cata zones on my AZM toons for money/etc [if really bored]
Other Games:
SWTOR: Finish the class questline on Askevar before the sub runs out.
Diablo 3: Just see the rest of the game on the Barbarian
STO: Try Star Trek Online
Lotro: Play some Lotro with Endyme
Completed:
You Yank It, You Tank it: Blog of a Tanking Death Knight Lady 