Flood Survival

Well, the *rains and flood* effects seem to have subsided around here for now. Yea! Comp issues have settled down to a workable state. Though, I might be looking for a new one this summer. Even those nasty virus bugs (the rl un-healthy kind) have decided to go on their way, finally.


Aygaren was getting frustrated with his adventureing interrupts and kept missing his Mt. Hyjal partner, Sasche. They finally did manage to meet up though, and finish off all the necessary shrine/ancient openings. They are quite the team in a way. Nothing stands a chance at survival when they drop in. I mean, really. If you're in some cultist encampment or holed up in some cave in force, and suddenly this Tauren prot pally and Undead demo lock w/void pet come calling....you may as well pack it in and go home. Death has come to clean house. The only real question is "Who's going to kill you first?" As you can expect, two short trips by this team and Hyjal was cleared for safe passage. At least for now.

Sad to say, but Birzak and Gizzel have departed from the great Horde project. They were replaced by Olmer, an Undead level 3 hunter camped out in Undercity waiting assignment. The two departees were not the only fatalities. Several servers also saw major clean-outs. I guess spring cleaning came a bit early to Azeroth.

Aygaren and Dufit still have their little contest going on with killing rares. Aygaren has taken a large lead though, ever since his tactical move to include the Northrend hunting grounds. The last I checked in on their progress, Ay had twice as many kills listed. By the way, their little contest is being screenshoted and collected in the Fenris Rares Picasa web album here, if you would like to take a peek. I try to keep them labeled as to who killed by. And the map in upper right will give you co-ords of where.


Old Crystalbark

The other day I found Aygaren cleaning up his bank mess, grumbling and still itching that pesky bug under his plate armor. So I took a quick peek over his shoulder to see what he was hiding out. Nothing too amazing in there. Some low level armor pieces he thought might look good for mogging later on. Several plain letters from who knows who. Let's see, a virtual ton of ore and bars to feed his blacksmithy habits. Bunches of motes and volitiles that might come in handy. Spare food stuffs to cook, maybe. Old Crafty. And what's that in the bottom corner hiding out? Hmmmm? Four (yes, 4) extra fishing poles. Now, why on Azeroth Ay decided to keep all these fishing poles is a mystery. Really. He can only use one at any given moment. His backpack isn't large enough to allow carrying an interchangeable set on the road. Oh, and he's not talking about all those tabards laying around here and there. I foresee an intervention coming on here. Aygaren is going to learn about Void Storage. Soon, very soon.

Aygaren rushed through Northrend, he wanted to be lvl 80. Then he wants to be 85 for Firelands. Then he wants to be geared for the coming Pandas. Then he wants to still master tanking. Then he wants....well, you get the picture. Like a little kid in the corner penny candy store, Ay just wants everything. I hate to burst his bubble, but the likelihood of everything coming about just isn't possible. Something will have to give. He keeps telling me all is good. I have my doubts though, as he was mumbleing something about Call to Arms weekend. Hurmph! He doesn't realize that he's got like zero (0) pvp gear.
 
Anyway, I'm off to see what the boys are up to today.  "Victory or Death", is the word of the day.
Happy days everyone!

Rumbles and Grumbles, w/pics

Like the post title says, this is a rumble, (it's very early morn here and my tummy hasn't had it's dose of coffee just yet), grumble, (ah-cause I just might grumble *rant* a bit), and in keeping with Blizzards move to balance everything, I'll supply some pics to balance out the aforementioned rumble-grumbles.


The eagerly awaited 4.3 patch is live. There's been a healthy dose of reactions over it around the community, mostly from the pve raiders perspective. Leading up to this, there's been plenty of amazing vids to watch as well. All well and good. I'm quite happy for everyone who's able to raid, and experience this portion of end-game. Okay, long time readers have already guessed the next part.



Khrox enjoying IF.

 I am both jealous and saddened that I have yet to raise up a viable raider. Sol never did quite make the cut and semi-retired himself to parts unknown. Khrox blasted his way to 85 through quests and late life bg's. He's fully pvp geared with no dungeon experience worth a hoot. He opened up his LFR toolbox. It told him he didn't have the qualifacations to use it. Kaimara is currently pvp geared with very little bg experience. She has some minor pve dungeon experience, but alas, no where near achieving entry raid level. Yet another end of expansion big baddie raid available, and here my alter-selves sit, twiddleing their thumbs. Tapping fingers on the desk asking me "WHY?" "Why haven't you got us THERE yet?" It's just like kids, always wanting more. And I haven't quite been able to give them the world, as much as I would like to.



Kaimara

 It is this part of end-game which constantly haunts me. It is also one of the several reasons for the birth of The Great Horde Project. This is an open-ended self project I started a few weeks ago. I may have mentioned it a time or two here. It began rather simplistically minded, experience the lore and story from the other side of the fence through the eyes of various races within the faction. It's been great. Each character thus far has provided experiences greatly appreciated by the button masher.

It was all good through level 12, then some difficulties started to rise. They suddenly became Hellscreams' minions, fighting his war, like it or not. Then there's the part where they're really all alone traveling through this new world. Traveling expenses became an issue, along with training fees to survive in Hellscreams' War. You get the picture. No sugar-daddys, no heirlooms, it's survival one day at a time. Can you remember those times from way back when? Although the project birthed itself on several likely servers, it is now apparently focused on one realm. I gather these kids, have decided to it home.





Level 11 Gizzel got excited during an Alliance raid on Hellscream,
yep, he died.

 It's AB battleground weekend. I love AB. Birzak was level 19, he que'd for AB. It told him he should probably expect to wait at least 10 minutes and probably more. Birzak dropped from que. Did I mention that the crew is on a PvE server? Obviously, bg's aren't going to be much help. /facepalm Well, I really need to concentrate on the main goal. Focus button-masher, FOCUS! There's two hunters, a mage, and a wanna-be tank pally. Get with the program kids. Dungeons. You want DUNGEONS! Jump in and go for it. Ignor the chat box and all the pve jerk-twads. Just get in now while you're still young enough to grow in these ways. Maybe by the time the Panda's arrive, you'll finally be ready. BTW- I'm lousy terri-bad at melee. Always been a ranged caster. The wanna-be pally tank is going to be a real challenge.


Gizzel-goblin hunter



Gandom-Orc mage

Have fun in game everyone! LOL, in spite of momentary doldrum attacks, I am. And beware Alliance! The goys are off to dungeons for now, but the day will come, your reckoning will be at hand. MAWHAHAHAHA!!!!

Thanksgiving Event at Blog Azeroth

There is this really good thing going on over at Blog Azeroth. It is a blogger's Thanksgiving Event. Now then, not only is this event filled with thoughtfulness and kindness, there is also a contest going on with it that bloggers can participate in as well.


So head on over to Blog Azeroth, ( like really quick ) and get all the details from Amerence' post at BA.

And btw, if you clicky on the turkey thing in the right hand column area, it goes to "Amerence Love WoW" blog post about this event. And if you don't already know about "Amerence Love WoW", then you're in for an extra little treat :)
 

Oh what a time it's been...

...with both the game and myself. I still play as much as always, albeit, in different ways...again. :)


I've noticed that I seem to have this hurdle in the game which I never quite get over. In a nutshell, I get one of my other selfs to level cap, set an end game coarse of expectations for them then run into this hurdle. Or more like stone wall. Everything seems to just stall out at that point and I then run through an array of alts trying to figure out how to get past that point. I've pretty much accepted that this is due to my own personal abilities more than anything else.

Then there's those times when I realize that from leveling different alt's professions along the way, I simply run clean out of any bag and bank space. An on-going problem that only gets solved one way, make another bank alt. It's a vicious circle my friends.

The problem with bank alts is that I love, REALLY LOVE, questing. Running through Azeroth, single-handedly setting the world right by killing all sorts of monsters and badies. Which means that they generally seem to grow up. Bank alts of mine generally take on nothing more than gathering professions to sort of help pay their way. If they do age to level 60, then they're allowed to accept a crafting profession. Hopefully at that point, one of their brothers, sisters or cousins has enough crafting mats stored up to give the new crafter a good hold on things.

Kaimara (human mage) is a pretty good example of this vicious circle. She started out as a bank alt back when, but did have two crafting professions, tailoring and enchanting. Enchanting mats became rather scarce and difficult to farm, so it got dropped. Then she got stuck in Dalaran, one bar into level 78, then proceeded to collect dust while brother Khrox stormed ahead.

Khrox (dwarf hunter) is actually "younger" than Kaimara in the timeline of things, but he forged ahead and proceeded to level cap. Here again, mining and skinning were his mainstays until level 61 when leather working came about. With what mats he had stored up, along with another cousins' gathering mats, leather working capped out rather quickly over his final push to 85.

Alisym (Nelf mage) is about (but not) the only one who still pretty much just banks regulary, holding all the extra cloths, bags and gems everyone else comes across. Then comes Cle (gnome spriest). His mining and skinning turned into mining and engineering, and he is coming up in the ranks rather quickly. His only problem lies in the mining though. He does come up with a lot of elemental stuff in the process. Motes of this, crystallized that and now volitiles. This is okay, but where to put them? They are needed by several family members. Sol with his alchemy, Kaimara uses them in tailoring, and Khrox in leather working. Even Cle has some use in his engineering. Back to the vicious circle, enter Ariannia (Nelf hunter), banker and level 20 atm. You see where this is going? There is one other banker sitting in the fold, a human priest. Everyone except the newly adopted Ariannia is over level 50 and playable if so chosen. And that's only on the Spinebreaker realm. ROFLMAO!!! Sol used to have his own personal guild bank, kinda sorry he gave it up now.

Well now, how's Azeroth treating you these days? Eleven or so million people might think it belongs to them, but when one of my family members pop in, it's all theirs. And, btw, in order to attempt to break the vicious circle thing, Ariannia is being limited to banking, skinning, and being the official achievement hound. Right now, she's 14/1352 (1%) LOL

What to craft next?

Khrox has been taking a bit of a break lately, he's been feeling a little battle-worn. As part of his R&R, he's tail-gateing little cousin Cle in Outland, making sure he is well and fully supplied. I don't, (probably could'nt anyway), duo-box. It's just a matter of logging in and out between them. Anyway.....Cle has entered Netherstorm now, making that final push towards Northrend.


I have this strange bug about professions. If I hang up for any reason skilling them up, I drop them and move on to something else. There are times to be stubborn, and other times when beating your head against the keyboard just isn't worth it. A recent example would be Kaimara, she had tailoring and enchanting. Enchanting mats in Northrend became a real grind to get hold of, so she dropped it and concentrated upon her tailoring. Doing soooo much better now!

Cle had two gathering professions up into level 60, then dropped one in favor of engineering. It worked out great. At 68, his mining is well above his level and his engineering can't really advance anymore until he's in Northrend. Since he really don't need anymore Outland ores, he's taken to just stockpileing them for possible AH sales. As with many servers, there are so few people leveling through Outland and Northrend that mats for any profession are at all time highs. On Spinebreaker in particular, the population seems to have taken a rather large dip. Not good for the economy, especially Ally side, but these things tend to ebb and flow over time. Consequently, banking extra mats is always a good thing.

On the other hand, Khrox is fully maxed on all his chosen professions, as is Sol. Although Kai is stuck in Northrend, she is able to tailor some level 80-85 outfits. So all the attention and pressure falls upon little Cle to make good with his engineering. But it's all fun. Nothing like a little shadow priest who can sneak about throwing bombs at mobs, and then letting out a psycic scream to send them all running while he's tormenting them to death. After all, there's always the fall-back of Power Word: Shield, and run like the wind if things get a little out of hand. :p It all comes down to this: Gnome Shadow Priest + Engineering = Devious Fun! Speaking of which....it's time to go sow havoc in some battlegrounds, again.

What professions are you finding fun these days, or annoying? Are they making you enough gold to get by on, or laying around stealthed? Do you find yourself changing professions to suit your characters' needs?

Screenies-or-another compulsive hoarding attraction

Screenies: On the brink of 'Hoarder Compulsion'

Hellfire Skies

Every so often one of my counter-parts will find themselves at a sudden stand still in mid-run or flight, just to take a few moments to enjoy or dive into the awe and splendor of the view before them. For a (ahem..../clears throat) slightly older player, Blizzards' artwork and graphics are amazing. Or perhaps another appropriate term would be "awesomesauce." Such as the above view one first encounters in Outland. I've just loved this since the first day of BC, and every time I'm there, I see it in a different light.

"Count" Ungula

I've collected a few screen-shots over time. Mostly things for memory sake, some little personal project like comparing dps numbers in battlegrounds, etc., etc. Although, I've noticed lately I've been recording something of a history. Re: Khrox's rare pet taming collection efforts. There's also a small collection of Sol's "rare" status kills. And then there's his occasional companion pet or mount he adopted. Little things really, but a noticeable trend none-the-less. Like when Sol first started collecting the Tourney heirlooms for the alt kids. Some of it looked awesome enough on them that they screamed "Screenshot!"

So I've come to the realization that I am teetering on the brink of becoming an official "Hoarder." To such an extent that I even research new possibilities for various collections and avidly read about other players experiences. Sometimes, I even to find myself sub-consiously watching/camping or searching for some elusive beast or pet, while traveling through quest lines. And I must admit that with the availability of Azeroth flight now, bouncing all over the world is so much easier.

Just what sparked this realization of being a "closet hoarder?" Surely it was a culmination of several things. But I would really have to tag Saz (World of Saz), for prompting this post. Her most recent and in-depth 5-part series on mini-pets, "Hoarders: Azeroth Edition", is likened to a virtual gold mine for me. Yes, another compulsion to add to my growing list. I'm compulsive about quest story-lines (the lore of it all), odd companion pets that do little more than look cute and adorable, somewhat un-usual mounts, rare pets, rare kills, alts, and those little personal accomplishments in game, achievements. Am I obsessing over this? Well, perhaps not too far from it :)

So really now. What's your little hidden "compulsive hoarder within" up to these days? I think that most everyone probably has at least one thing they hoard in game, even if it's reaching that astounding gold cap. Admit it. You've got something. It's okay. This 'ol Night Elf will pat you on the back and offer comfort.

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!

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.

First Impressions: Cataclysm

It was two days after release when Sol began his new journeys into the new old world. All the usual preperations took place. Visits to his class trainer; various trade skill trainers and the addition of archeology. Packed his bags with food and drink, a quick stop by the flight trainer, then off to Mt. Hyjal. (it's a druid thing).


His original plan to just fill up the quest log and perhaps gather a few new herbs kinda got tossed out of balance a bit. Seeing that he did have a small amount of rested xp, he started the first of the breadcrumb quests. Those initial kill the attackers and gathering things. Sol chalked up a third of his level to 81 before he realized he had long passed his rested zone. It was time to rest and reflect.

There is something about being at the base of Nordrasill, communing with dragons, crushing those who wish to corrupt our world and maintaining the balance of nature...that affects the heart and mind of a druid. Our beliefs and ways of doing things are often questioned, and mis-understood. Of coarse, our share of corrupted and tainted arch-druids along the way certainly were not of any help either. None-the-less, we strive to exist as a race and culture no less than any other.

Having gained enough rest to continue his journeys through Mt. Hyjal, Sol found a fair bit of lore intertwined with his quests, very much to his pleasure. Successfully completing a chain, seeing an area phase into a more friendly zone is gold to the druids spirit. Although, not all is as simple as it seems at first glance. Several quests did involve making choices according to your nature and beliefs as a druid. Remembering two in particular; in the first, his choice not to kill a pawn during a fact-finding quest chain led to praise and several more quests. In another, despite being warned in the opening quest about not releasing the demon you were supposed to seek help from, several quests later, Sol did in fact complete one which released the demon. Big mistake, not good. One very un-happy Druid was wandering about, unsure of where to go next or what to do. Time to retreat and regroup, commonly called "Hearth."

Day three. The cooking and fishing dailies seemed to be bugged. 15 minutes in the water and not a lobster trap to be found. Another 10 in the canals, and only 1 crab. Time to abandon and move on. This meant Hero's call, second choice. a mercenary boat ride to Vashj'ir. When Sol had hearthed the previous day, he was slightly over 81. Seemed like a good time to explore and experience another, very different world.

So how did your first few days go? Questing and soaking up the lore? Or did you jump into the opening instances? Did you rush to level cap or are you taking your time? Oh, and how did it feel giving up those hard-earned epic purps for the new improved Cata greens?!?

Speaking of "Shattering"...

Sol has been looking forward to The Shattering, and all those ramp up events leading to the arrival of Cataclysm. At this point the understanding is, that patch 4.0.3 will implement all the necessary changes, and patch 4.0.3a will be the actual events. The actual timeline is blurred somewhat, although that does not dampen the growing excitement. Some posts around the web have suggested that 4.0.3 will most likely come right after the Hallows End holiday, which seems plausable since that will only leave about a month until the actual xpac release. Yea!! I was actually tired of all the pumpkin heads running about anyway.


Apparently, a bunch of editors at WOWwiki jumped ship and went over to a new site called Wowpedia. It was here that I found a page discussing The Shattering events and the Elemental Invasions. The level of difficulty during these invasions sounds to be relatively high, but perhaps possible to attempt solo (not being in a raid group). There will be plenty of other players in the cities, and I'm sure some will be grouped up. So it won't be like you're taking on everything all by yourself. Now Sol can solo, with reasonable expectations of success, a level 80 elite between 150-200k life. During these particular invasions of elementals though, he will have to really think about what he's doing and manage his resources at optimum level. He does love to challenge himself in these ways though! That's the thing soloing so much has taught him though, how to plan out his attacks, keep his distance and survive the encounter. And since 4.0.1 landed, he's had to make some serious changes to maintain that surviveability. (that's another story all-together)

All in all though, the sounds of war and massive battles ahead ring out a bit louder each day. The earthquakes are lasting longer and becoming more violent. Kiamara was in Stormwind last week when the King and other leaders were discussing the events and possible reactions. It was quite a conversation to listen to and she dutifully passed it along to Sol. It's so nice when the kids (alts) share all these bits of info they come across. It's kind of like having spies all over the world! If you're a story-line and lore seeker, I would reccomend popping into the King's chamber and take the time to listen to (read) this conversation. I would think that there are some simular events going on with the Horde leaders as well.

Are you excited about all this?

Of bugs and patches...

Not a whole lot of things going on lately, mostly just leveling the kids here and there, Sol getting himself together for The Shattering.
Around here, the 'about' page never really set that well, so it has undergone a bug-fix and patch of it's own making it now readable. Been a bit more tired than my considered norm, don't even have a pretty screen-shot to toss out today. Looking forward to a better week ahead.
Kiamara had quest reason to go visit the Stormwind King this week, which was quite interesting. Has anyone ever really listened (read) through the conversation he's having with those leaders in attendance? Everyones' concerns over the earthquakes? 

OMG! - 17 hours of patch!!!

The wait wasn't all that bad until Blizz added that last 2 hr. extension, making it 8pm my local time. *grrrrr


Just like a gazillion other players I logged in the moment servers started to come up, anixous to see how much havoc was dumped on my main. Some of the usual sort of thing for this kind of patch, talents wiped out, another trip to the trainer for new and revised spells. Although, this time I had to spend some gold. Not all that much extra, but noticeable. Then there was the glyph issues and placements. *makes note to self to purchase more glyphs tomorrow* I breezed through the balance tree though. Being no stranger to re-speccing, I had earlier gone through my list of preferred theory-crafters to see who had the most recent and viable spec posted up. Yeah, sort of cookie cutter mode, but they have been great points to start out with when in doubt.

The new interfaces for character, spell book, professions and talents look really good. I like the way my alchemy can now be sorted to get through all the possibilities, going straight to the section I want to work with. I tried one of my gem transmutes just to see if the cd was gone yet. It wasn't, but only showed a little over 5 hours of cd instead of the 19hr+ norm. Maybe just because of patch day, but I hope it stays this short. I did return to default all my keybinds since I planned to refine them anyway. Ughhhh! Master Flight Training--5k gold!!! Oh well, back to gold grinding tomorrow. Maybe by weekend I'll be able to get it. I also tried out Reforgeing on one piece of gear since I found my new self comfortably over hit and haste cap. It works out pretty good I think, but it will cost you gold also. I paid 11.5g for the one I tried, exchanging out some massive crit stat for some mastery.

It was really funny though, to see the amount of alliance players on-line tonight. Very unusual. Someone in trade labeled this as 'The Day the Alliance returned to Spinebreaker.' I did notice some minor glitches so far, like not being able to de-select a NPC once you were done with them. I had to leave the area until distance finally de-selected by default. This did cause one unsuspecting NPC to gain a MotW he really didn't need.

All in all, it was an interesting and exciting 90 minutes for my main. Latency and fps were off, but workable. All my add-ons were listed as out of date, a simple check to load anyway fixed that for now. And enough done for tonight. Tomorrow will be the real test working with the new rotations and going through all my daily routines which I suspect will not be so routine.

How about you? What are your plans now that the patch is live? Did you notice the occassional shaking and rumbleing going on? I did, while I was in Ironforge. Hmmmmm?

Road Map(s)

I read a lot of different blogs and WOW websites for just about as many different reasons. I'm not a theory-crafter/numbers cruncher, so I read up on what I can from those who are, and not just from my own class specifically. Sol has developed and evolved into a better druid this way, not particulary good or great, but better.


Then there's the social and game news to follow up on. Plenty of blogs and websites to read here also. Some are quite well-known, some aren't, and some are really enjoyable and fun to read. Even with the 'fun' reads, I usually still come across something informative or note-worthy to meld into Sols' world.

I've noticed a bit of a trend lately in my reading list. Besides all the Cataclysm news which normally floods my google reader list, there's been more postings about personal player experiences and what people are doing to prepare their mains for the Xpac. Without actually being consious of all the possibilities, in these readings I've found that Sol seems to be following a sort of natural road map in this direction.

Over at  Druid Main: A Rep Grinding Masochist  I read about rep grinding. Sol has been into this since he dinged 80, I guess because it's easier to do now, or or more likely I probably just didn't see it as all that important at earlier levels of questing. Either way, taking several days to grind a particular rep for one reason or another is kind of like a personal quest for Sol.


Then there's the gold issues. A lot is being written about how important it will be to have a fair amount of gold on hand going into the expansion. How the cost of everything usually sky-rockets during the early months, etc. Gold has always been an issue for Sol. It comes and goes rather easily, usually sent off in lots to the 'children' for their training or profession leveling. Only on rare occasion will Sol buy something for himself that isn't on his need-this list. (like that 600g armored bear he got a month ago) Sol's gold mostly comes from quest rewards along with some minor AH sales, so he don't have a whole bunch of it. Right now, it's at it's highest amount ever, slightly over 7k. A comfortable amount for Sol, although probably not really enough to handle all the coming changes I've read about.

So now, the great quest for shiny gold is about to begin. Along with the stock-piling of mats, not only for himself and the children, but for the expected arrival of adopted worgens and goblins. Sol will also set aside some BoE gear from the dungeons and instances he solo's for the kids. Anything to make the leveling life a bit easier for them.

These are all things I've read about lately, and all are worthy of consideration and trial runs. Who knows what will come of it. I do know that there's no harm in giving everything a tryout now and then, and if it works for you, all the better.

One of those 'Rare' moments...

During the coarse of the day, I try to include a general flight pass over various spawn points of the Rare Elites needed to finish off the exploration achievement. (the "Explorer" title came some time back) Sometimes, the extra couple of minutes has it's rewards.

Darnassus: My Home

Darnassus is where I began this long strange journey, and to this day it remains my favorite 'home city'. I kept my hearthstone there, around the first 50 levels or so, before moving for sheer convience to Dalaran (by way of Stormwind and Shattrath). I've also held somethng of a grudge against Blizz for abandoning Darnassus. It is a capitol city, no less than SW or Ironforge, and even greater in my mind. It's history and lore are nothing less than awe-inspireing.


One can imagine my excitement when I began hearing news about the new worgen district coming to Darnassus! Finally, Blizz's forgotton capitol, my home, will once again become populated. And with the new leveling zones in the works for the main land, perhaps Darnassus will regain the status it so richly deserves.

I still come back to Darnassus quite often, 2-3 times a week. It's refreshing, peaceful, and inspirational to the Night Elf spirit. I make rounds between the city and Shadowglen, buffing up the young new night elves, or adding a little assist from the distance in a quiet way. One can only hope though, that Deathwing and the malestrom didn't quite reach in past the flight master and dock area. (we needed a better harbor area anyway) For the most part, I would love to see the great forests and mountains left un-touched.

Okay, here it is, my official shout-out to Night Elves world-wide. Make time to bring yourselves home, to your right-ful birthplace. Let's start showing Blizz we care about our capitol city and surrounding homeland. Bring your friends! It's a great place for guild meetings as well. Lots of quiet open lands, lakes and forests. Who knows, you just might even remember why you became a Night Elf.

 
 
 
you can find a little extra 'old world' reading here: 
Seven Wonders of Azeroth 
 
See you in Darnassus! ~Sol

Alliance-Horde Ratios...

I'm sure that by now, most readers know I play on the US-Spinebreaker PVP realm server. Amidst this particular community, there is a noteable sense of thoughts that this server is for the most part either dead or near death, in so far as a community is concerned. It is also known that at this point in time, the server has a rather Horde heavy population. It didn't always used to be this way and we can attribute much of the cause to the onslaught of server transfers and faction changes implemented by Blizz. Another line of growing thought is that this server will perhaps undergo another shift in faction ratios once Cataclysm is out. Many think that it will become more population balanced. We shall see when the time comes.


Being an Ally on Spinebreaker, I can personally attest to the realities of a horde heavy server. The exact ratios I believe though, are not really known. The experiences of many players live in-game place the ratio somewhere between 1:4 and 1:16, depending upon time of day and locations. Example being, WG would lend itself towards the latter mentioned ratio during my regular play time. Quite often, I myself have thought about server transfer, but then again I do enjoy the good challenge of playing the 'underdog'.

Any way, all these thoughts lead me to looking for actual stats on faction ratios across US servers. One website name came up more often than others in this area:  Warcraft Realms. I should make a DISCLAIMER note here though: even this website clearly states that it needs much more information from players in game, that many stats are out-dated and need revision. With that said, I did learn a few things worth mentioning.


My search was on US servers only: The greater majority of servers were horde heavy. Of these servers, all were PVP servers. The ratios ranged from 1:1.3--to--1:13.8. (my sympathy to Mal'ganis allys) Only one PVP server had an opposing ratio of 2.5:1. (Darrowmere, if interested) Just as I noticed that the PVP servers were mostly horde sided, it was the opposite truth for the PVE and RP servers, whereas the imbalance favored Alliance, as much as 3.5:1.

All this was an interesting little FYI journey for me, nothing more. My main managed to journey through 80 levels on Spinebreaker, and I still have 3 (down from 8) playable alts I'm nurturing along.(not counting the bank/ah alt) My 'kids', I call them. For better or worse, Spinebreaker is "home", and I take pride in my toons there.

Dueling...with the Horde?

Duels are one of the other areas I avoided during leveling, much to my regret now, but history none-the-less.


Today I learned something new down in the sewers of Dal. The horde players can challenge an ally to a duel, and vice-versa. This came about when the familar, but usually declined flag, popped up on me while I was passing through for the fishing daily. Since I'm on this mission to make my character abilities much better, I spun around and found the challenger. Turned out to be a horde DK something or other class. This would be my second duel ever, and I expected to lose, but accepted the challenge anyway. Live and learn, my new motto, or die and learn. Whichever the case may be.

Of coarse, it took this DK about a minute to defeat me although this was no real loss in my mind. I did the duel for the experience and practice in learning. I tried out some of the escape moves I learned last week. They helped...not much...but they did work. I just need to refine the techniques, and work on the counter moves. And so, looking into the crystal ball I can see me spendng more time in the sewers now, for more than just fishing. *still haven't caught that pet sewer rat!*

I also found out this week that I may be able to take advantage of some extra gold income, other than the AH postings I make with the raw gems I transmute and fish feasts I can make. Mostly, I just make things I use for myself. I don't usually bother with the trade chat on my server, it's worse than the sewer rats. But on rare moments, something good will pass through. This past week I answered two 'looking for' requests, both in relation to my alchemy skills. First, I transmuted some ore into Titanium Bars, and a day later I prepared some Wild Magic potions for a raiding guild. Both were kind enough to leave a tip which is appreciated.

A small moment of difficulty with the potions requester though, and I think only because she was extremely cautious from the beginning, This is understandable to me though as I've heard of people getting ripped this way. She thought I held out of some left over mats she gave me, although I didn't. In fact, I had used some of my own mats unknowingly. The 'create all' does not differentiate between bags when using the mats. Since the request was for 200 potions, and me being a potion master, the creations occasionally popped 2 in the making instead of just one. Then near the end, it procced a 5. Now, these are not freebies so to speak, just a time saver. It still uses available mats for the procs. Which is why there were no mats left over. I assured her I wasn't holding out, had no need to do such a thing, and even gave her the extra procced potions. This seemed to sooth things over, but I still had my doubts. Afterwards, I decided it best if perhaps I just build a back-up supply of certain potions and flasks for just such a moment, things I know raiding guilds look for. This will probably avert any future mis-understandings.

I am in and out of Dal quite regulary, so if you need some potions or flasks, grab the mats and look me up. I usually take several short breaks from dailys and stuff just to see what's going on in Dal. (or spend a little more time farming that darned sewer rat!) Then again, I might just be down in the sewers, living or near death. :)