Off Day Roundup

Ahhhh, maintenance day. It's just a good kind of day to round up all of Sol's recent activities the past week, and share some alt thoughts. According to Blizzard's loading screen tip about taking all things in moderation, including World of Warcraft, today can be that moderation day. Well, at least a fair part of it.


Having finally gained Therazanes' exaulted blessings, Sol spent most of the weekend as a worldly archaeologist. Traveling the globe searching for those wonderful rares finds, and being somewhat fanatical about getting the Uldum sites to open up. Tedious and often frustrating to say the least. With the rare count now at 8 (or 9?), and the elusive Sands recipe still not found, Sol is becoming obsessed with collecting all the rares. ALL of them! Once he saw that there were two pretty nice staffs on the list, that made all the tedious digging around slightly more bearable. Slightly. Along with the rares, which really are quite nice, there are the 80 something commons solved. Not counting the second or third solves. Sol thinks he just might have everything dug up, all the rares and achievements, before the sands recipe shows its' face. Oh well, he can always make himself slightly larger in form and turn to stone in mid-air jump. It does cause a bit of curiousity amoung the Stormwind crowd bounceing all over the place. :)

Before Cata's release, all the alts enjoyed some serious attention and time, for a change. Of coarse, since release, they've been snoozing away in the background. It's probably the same for many players these days. Resting, but not forgotton, there has been some thought concerning the kids. Which ones did I like playing the most? Which were more agreeable with playstyle? Can some of them suffer the d-e-l-e-t-e keys, so perhaps only a few others can be better off? These are some of the questions roaming about within the scattered fragments of mind. To experience many different classes has its' positive moments, but the urge to become good at playing them soon over-rides most everything else. And that is where Sol is at the moment.

During the Wrath times, Sol was geared the best he could be taking all things into consideration. His gear wound up being a mix of pve and pvp just to raise his gearscore, hoping the elitists on his server would finally let him try to raid in 10-mans. It never happened. His highest gs at the end was only 5100. This time around, I decided to quest to level cap and gear the best I could before even attempting the dungeon tool. Specifically watching for pve gear, avoiding the ease of battleground honor purchases. It has worked out fairly well, what with the new useable loot drops, quest rewards and rep items. A little auction house help along the way also. Right now, Sol sits at an average ilvl one point over minimum for entry into heriocs. I'm pretty happy with that. So, I'll most likely start with the norms this coming week. I've been reading about the long que times for dps, which will just have to be. And not being well known and such, it may take a while to reach some of my goals. Determination rules though.

Sol has even been spending some time at the training dummys trying to see how to get the most out of his spells and rotation. These are probably good for single target practice, but my concerns also lean towards knowing how to CC and possibly de-buff when I can. Then there is also the innervate thing to remember. Use on self, or on healer? Probably situational I would think. The dummys are going ok I think, at least for the gear I've got. In the neighborhood of 6k dps. From what I read and hear in game though, I need to be topping 10k. Hopefully, I'll get there, because I am really terribad at pvp! It's funny though, this time around Sol has been getting whispers asking if he's interested in joining some 2's or 3's pvp teams! Shock, just total shock.

Well, these are some of the things floating around in that nether space Sol thinks is his mind working. Now, where did he leave those lifegiving seeds? Time to go cause some more of those hyper nuts to stop and stare in bewilderment.
BTW: Tips appreciated! And yes, the blog is undergoing some facelift-ing of sorts.
Happy warcraft!

Archaeology: Love or Hate?

Sol enjoys doing a lot of different things in-game, after all, that's what it's all about anyway. He's pretty much always trying out something new on any given day, and seems to have developed a spotty love-hate relationship with the early stages of whatever he's trying to do.


The same holds true for the new secondary proffession of Archaeology. Taking on this endeavor when he first entered Cata at level 80, the early grind from skill 1-100 was tedious, to say the least. Lots of travel all over Azeroth, hundreds of red blinking directional pointers, and the occasional got-in-his-way mob. "Time consuming", only scratches the surface of his vocabulary starting out.

Strangely enough, or maybe not, Sol leveled to 85 faster and so much easier than bringing up his Archaeology skill level. This past week saw him digging through his first Northrend sites. Then it happened to break loose, finally. His first Cata zone site in Hyjal showed up! You can bet your favorite snack food on the fact that he's watching intently for that chance to dig through Uldum. He really didn't do much in Northrend. Two visits, three solves, one of which was rare and pushed him over the 450 mark. Now he's getting somewhere.

The reason Sol even took up archaeology in the first place was because of another "A" profession, alchemy. The lure of obtaining the highly sought after Vial of the Sands spell is so embedded in his blood stream, he just can't do without it.

Over-all though, archaeology has mellowed out for him, becoming an end of the game play day as sort of a wind-down time. The bits of lore behind each find are quite interesting, as are the various achievements that pop up along the way. Therein also lies the other little goodies he now possesses. Well, at least as much as virtual possession goes. So far, he has claimed the fossilized hatchling, the wonderful Kaldorei Wind Chimes, and the first rare armor gear piece, Headdress of the First Shaman. Okay, it's Mail gear and Sol uses leather. Although, the head piece is Bind to Account! So if his shaman alt ever makes it to level 70, he can probably use it. And yes, the head-dress is level specific.

Perhaps needless to say, Sol does carry "The Explorer" title, so it is not a far stretch of mind to know that archaeology would finally settle into it's place for him. Just as fishing did, herbing, and even cooking. Besides, there is a list of other rares he could spend time collecting. By the time he's done all that, I'm quite sure another "ooooh shiney!" will come along.

In retrospect, Sol started this profession with one specific goal/item in mind, the sandstone drake. It will turn out to be much more involved than that as most things for him do, but the drake was the hook that caught him.

Curiously wondering: Have you ever taken up a profession, primary or secondary, just because one single aspect was the bait worth taking? What was it that drew you into leveling/grinding out that profession?

Well, happy hunting everyone! Wheather you're fishing, mining, digging through ruins or treasure hunting; may you find what you seek.

Blog Direction?

The other day I had the opportunity to exchange emails with a well-known and respected druid blogger. During this brief exchange, he asked what Moonkin Journeys was, if it was a blog. My reply was rather simple for obvious reasons. Along the lines of, yes, it is a druid blog, with no real direction. This is actually a rather accurate description...unfortunately. And so, the subject of todays' post.