Kaimara's Spree

Kiamara at level 85! Decked out in her newly crafted pvp gear.



Gotta love this hat!

After a long, uneventful time of sitting in Dalaran as a fresh 78, Kai got to spread her wings over the past week. Icecrown, for the most part, fell to her frost laden powers providing the push needed to start the Cataclysm zones. She hasn't fully completed any of them just yet. Mt. Hyjal has seen enough done though, to allow for the Firelands events. Deepholme and Uldum saw enough action to cover the mid-levels. Twilight Highlands has only just been opened. Kai opted though to begin her Molten Front assualt. She needs a truck load of embersilk cloth for her tailoring, so will be farming as much as possible along with the dailys. Kai had enough cloth saved up though, due to Sol and Khrox, that she was able to begin buying some of her patterns the moment she entered the Highlands.

Khrox and Cle have been on vacation during Kai's growth splurt. During that time, Ariannia had joined the family ranks, and Sol has been tip-toeing in and out of retirement. Sol is remaining true to his loner status, sporting only his Explorer title and related tabard. Up until the other day, the only sightings of him were fleeting, as he quickly did some transmute and mixed up batches of potions and flasks for the kids. But then he ventured out into Azeroth again, since Kilamdor is the zone location of his interests.

It started out quite innocently, with archaeology, and that long hunt for his Vial of the Sands receipe. But since Uldum holds rotation of dig sites with the whole of Kilamdor, it's a lot of traveling and time. He finally unearthed another common in Uldum, only to have his second rare search pop up, instead of the sought after canopic jar. /#$%^&!!! Oh well. There's still that thing about Loremaster to consider. Ugh!

Somewhere around the Shattering time, all of Sol's quests in Kilamdor got lost to the changes. Not a one to be found. The Eastern Kingdoms isn't much better off. The only things salvageable from those times were his various faction rep standings. All things considered, Loremaster is going to be one long haul, even with the newly designed quest lines. Even though he can fly through the zones and just drop in where needed. Even though he's level capped. The problem lies in me staying focused enough to travel with him. He did manage to get enough done in Darkshore to gain the companionship of Mr. Withers though. The archaeology dig sites still ring loud in his ears though. Oh, and he did send an order to Khrox for a beginning set of leather pvp gear, since his current pve set is sooooo outdated. Although he somehow managed to get himself phased out of some needed quests in Mt. Hyjal to open up the Molten Front, the Hero's Call board in SW was kind enough to offer him a Call of the Ancients quest. This would allow him to finish the two quest lines needed to open up the Firelands dailys. A stroke of luck(?), I would say.

"Go with honor, friend"

Game Plan?

Over the years of playing this game, I've never really had any sort of a 'game plan.' Unless of coarse, one could qualify solo questing to level cap as a game plan. ( I'm lookin at you, Sol ) Personally, I would call this questing your way up, as more of a playstyle.


To be honest here, Khrox and Kaimara pretty much followed in this play style. They had within them, that pre-determined dream of becoming PVE raid viable, which Sol never realized (for many reasons). Over the past month now, I've noticed a new wave of thoughts slowly being formed and nurtured. Some, not all, of Sol's failures to realize his dream stemmed from this playstyle and not having a more workable plan. Mind you now, although I'm sorta-kinda down on Sol at the moment, I really did enjoy the solo questing playstyle over the years and the personal satisfaction with each accomplishment was truly, satisfying. So much so, that it bled over into many, many alts along the way. Hehehe, kinda like a genetic thing.

Khrox and Kaimara though, are beginning to show the effects of "change." The changes brewed somewhat in the background with Khrox and he didn't really start busting out of form until he experienced Tol Barad. Sol had tried BG's several years back. At first they were fun diversions and he did manage to hold his own somewhat. During the early times of BC though, he became introduced to, and frustrated with trying to battle against twinks nearly ten levels higher, and just plain quit.

Now that Khrox has been fully submerged into TB, this lure of the BG's has spread through his blood like raging fire. He does not fear how big his enemy is, or what OP class they may be, or even how many there are. He fights to win, to shed as much enemy blood as possible. Lol, kinda like being a suicide bomber I guess. It's become fun to maim and kill horde. Khrox now looks towards expanding his brand of blood-letting on the random BG front.

Kaimara is still a bit younger than Khrox, at level 76. That BG fire raging in Khrox's blood though, has now spread to infect her blood. The question became such: Kai still gains XP. There can possibly be a lot of XP gained in BG's. A different form of leveling? Not really. Many bloggers have written about, and many players have talked about, how they leveled strictly through BG's or dungeons alone. Some even used a mix, rather than go the questing route. So this new plan to push Kai to level 80 in a rather quick fashion isn't really new, it's just new to her. And it just may be the spark needed to bring her up to level cap 85. She has been languishing in Northrend for some time, and needs the booster shot. Can she hold her own in such a volatile environment? I think she can. So the coming patch week will see her frostbolting and ice lancing horde. Along with other chilling effects.

End game PVE raiding is still very much a goal. We are simply approaching the attainment of that goal from a different point of view, a different 'battle plan,' as it is.

Isn't he just the awesome looking "Fear me" pet?

"Whitefyre", Khrox' newest addition of blood-letting pets.

"Go with honor, friend."

Times are Slow...

Sol got lazy, or tired perhaps. Lately he's only been showing up long enough to do a gem transmute, and maybe the two local dailys. Beyond that, he heads back to his perch at the inn and turns the reins over to the kids.


So for the past week or so, the kids have been enjoying their romp through the Eastern Kingdoms. All three have leveled several times and with the exception of the shaman, have brung their professons up to par for their level. Bubblegumtwo (ele shaman), is in that awkward period of mid-forties. Bouncing between the Hinterlands and Dustwallow Marsh while trying to decide where the next best zone of opportunity lies for him. His jewel crafting has also kind of stalled out, so he needs to make some serious decisions rather soon.

Netherone (aff lock), is fairing better. Having gained three levels (now 33), with his blacksmithing maxed untill he can reach 35 to go further. He only needs a handful of smithing points to also gain weapon-smith specialization. If he got off his butt and tried out the RDF, he could probably knock out those 2 levels fairly quickly. He should also be stocking up some honor points with BG's, but like most kids, he seldom listens to the voice of reasonable knowledge.

Kaimara (frost mage), has been surprizeingly nimble in her leveling, gaining four levels rather quickly and somewhat efficiently. Her enchanting is a little slow, although not seriously lacking, and her tailoring is up to level. Her sudden adeptness at taking out mobs is rather interesting and fun at the moment. She also recently learned how to escape from those ?? ganker/corpse-campers, a lesson which will be quite useful in her world. Kaimara did attempt her first battleground several weeks ago and should really spend a bit more time there. Like her brothers though, she has effectively avoided the RDF thus far, behaviour which could stand some correction. Her two older brothers haven't exactly been the best of role models in those two areas.

Then there's Oneshadow (the rogue child). Truely a rogue in every way, he does'nt follow in the footsteps of any of his elder siblings. Mostly just hangs out, supplying extra bank space and running auction house errands. Lately though, his boots have begun itching. He now travels about doing his gathering of ore, herbs and cloth. It's has not proven to be all that beneficial for his siblings though since he is so much younger, and he is happy with just gathering without the added stress of a crafting profession. So he's hit the questing trail and actually managed to grow a level or two of late. Daddy might just have to spot him some cash for AH ore stock so he can up his smelting and be a bit more useful. Having been so lazy and reluctant, he finds himself able to smelt ore a bit higher than he is able to gather at the moment. At level 14, he does need to grow up a bit. Even his cousins over on Mediev are older and more advanced.

Such is the way and goings on for Sol. He's just kinda kicked back and enjoying the sights of his kids romping about, leaving trails of death and destruction in their wake. He has found it quite interesting to re-visit many of those old world quests through the eyes of his kids, while the sudden memories of just how irritating those level grinds really were in his time give him heartburn. Just as in life though, his kids have things so much easier. They have his experience and knowledge to work with (along with his gold!), so getting around the zones and able to manuver the in's and out's more efficiently has greatly improved their quality of life.

How about your kids? Are they also enjoying the benefits of your labours? Or are they just collecting dust until their whole world erupts with change?