Nov 17, 2007

As some of you might know, I'm a completionist. I am trying my best to amass every enchanting recipe, every tailoring recipe, every cooking recipe, and lastly, become exalted with every faction. My exalted factions tally can be found over on the left there, and to that end, I did some more work today on it.

I took another quick journey out to Winterspring to see what was happening out there. I learned that the Wintersaber Trainer was awarding much more reputation per turn in of chillwind and sharptooth meat, so I did a few of those and then he started asking me to kill some Winterfall Shamans and Ursas. No problem I said! I need to kill a bunch of them to prove myself to the Timbermaw. When all was said and done, I gained about 2000 rep from the Timbermaw and 1500 from the Wintersaber Trainer.

I am now quite close to becoming Honored amongst the Timbermaw which will give me a new Enchant and a new Tailoring pattern. Speaking of them, the one lower level enchant I am looking for is Enchant Gloves: Herbalism. I have advanced herbalism, but would like this one to complete my enchants of skill 1-200 (I also need Enchant Shield: Lesser Block). While I have seen Lesser Block on the auction house, I haven't yet put down the cash needed to buy it. On the other hand, I have never seen the herbalism enchant on auction.

Next on my list is Enchant Gloves: Riding Skill. This world drop has been made somewhat obsolete by the Riding Crop, but I do believe there is still demand for it, and as such, I have not yet seen it on auction. There are quite a few level 300 enchanting recipes I may never see due to the fact that old world instances are not run, but if anyone would ever want to go to Ahn'Qiraj or Zul'Gurub, I would love to go!

As for tailoring recipes, I have not yet seen the Shadow Hood recipe on the auction and even though I have seen the Rich Purple Silk Shirt up there, it's an expensive and highly sought after item, so I have yet to purchase it. I am also looking for the Star Belt recipe and I am looking forward for the Lunar Festival to return. The last time the Lunar Festival occurred, I was just barely too young to purchase the Festive Red Dress and Festive Red Pant Suit patterns. The final pattern I am searching for is the Cloak of Fire. It drops from Overmaster Pyron (I should see if I can solo him). Other than those, there are the standard patterns that are level 300 and drop in the instances.

In future musings, I'll probably talk about those patterns past 300 I am searching for.

As for my reputations, the next exalted for me will probably be the Stormpike Guard (I do need to venture back into Alterac Valley as I hear it has changed). I am also close to being exalted with the Cenarion Expedition - just a few more Steamvaults runs and I should have it. Or I could run some Heroics...

My calculations put my total reputations gains throughout the world of Azeroth at just about 52%. So I'm over half way there to being exalted with everyone. Of course, it'll be tough to get the Hydraxian Waterlords and Zandalar Tribe to like me...

Nov 16, 2007

Tonight, after quickly cleaning up Attumen, we set off for the Ghostlands. Upon arriving there, I was greeted by a flight master who offered me an easier way to get there in the future (other than the summoning stone of course) and I saw before me a great structure. The temple in front of me was the great Zul'Aman! Before entering in with my group of faithful compatriots, I took a step back to admire this troll village. After surveying my surrioundings, I cautiously stepped up to the front door and stepped in.

To my surprise, I was not greeted by trolls, but rather, an eccentric fellow who offered to help us break the seal and truly enter into the temple. None other than Harrison Jones (not to be confused with Indiana Ford I guess). He told us that the only way to break the seal on the door was to gather ten people together and bang the gong at once. Of course, we happily obliged and the doors were slowly opened.

We were quickly greeted by some angry trolls which we dispatched with ease and we were then allowed to gaze down the steps of this magnificent temple which offers a fantastic view (even though the weather was a bit nasty). While the temple does look magnificent, you sometimes have to wonder how sturdy it really is (I have my doubts). After fighting through a few more trolls, we were rudely greeted by the bear lord Nalorakk. Apparently he didn't take too kindly to our presence there and he immediately sent his troll minions at us. We had no problems getting rid of them until we came upon his Amani'shi Warbringers. These two bear-mounted trolls gave us some problems, but we were able to figure them out and defeat them.

We were then standing face to face with Nalorakk. Unfortunately, my Super Snapper FX stopped working and I don't have any shots of the actual battle. The bear lord himself obviously transforms throughout the fight and does some big damage to both of our tanks. We were unable to defeat him in the three tries we were given, but did learn quite a bit about how to fight him and I am confident he will die the next time we face him. Taking him out within 20 minutes will prove to be a challenge, as we will do everything we can to save the prisoners he is holding, but again, it'll be quite difficult, but I think that once we can defeat him, 20 minutes is obtainable.

I look forward to our venture back into the temple. Hopefully we can get another shot at Nalorakk this within a day or two. Vengeance will be mine!
Tonight is the night! The Gold team ventures into Zul'Aman and we get to explore the temple and see what's going on in there. I have used all of my sources to try and learn everything I can about Zul'Aman. I have heard stories of the monsters that lie within, but without seeing them, I fear I am not adequately prepared. I am quite excited and look forward to peeking inside.

Also, there seems to be a new goblin that popped up inside Shattrath (or I just never paid him any attention before) and he has asked me to make some Roasted Clefthoof the past couple of days. It's easy enough, and for my troubles he gave me a few gold and even rewarded me with a recipe to make a Delicious Chocolate Cake. Kudos to him!

I was also tasked to win a Warsong Gulch battle, but unfortunately failed in my attempts on Wednesday night. I was unfortunately teamed up with people who decide that it's more fun to farm honor kills in the middle of the battleground rather than working together to capture the flag and prevent our flag from being captured. It's quite frustrating at times. Hopefully this weekend I can complete the quest I was tasked with.

Nov 14, 2007

Well, after some intensive note taking and ideating, I have come up with my wishlist for items from Zul'Aman, G'eras, and the battlegrounds.

My weapons both hopefully will be upgraded. The Amani Divining Staff and Carved Witch Doctor's Stick will net me an increase of 8 stamina, 2 intellect, 31 critical strike, and 61 damage at the cost of just 26 hit rating.

The next things I am considering replacing is the Spellstrike Set. The Hood of Hexxing is the main piece of the set with considerable stats and nice sockets. With that, the Pantaloons of Arcane Annihilation are available for 75 badges. The stats change with increases of stamina by 18, intellect by 48, haste by 45, and damage by 15. These upgrades come at a cost of hit rating decrease of 15, crit rating decrease of 30. I'd have to run the numbers to figure out if the intellect increase balances out the crit rating decrease, but the hit rating loss of 15 is miniscule in the grand scheme of things and can be made up elsewhere (different socketing or something similar). This upgrade would only come if the Hood drops.

With battleground honor, I would like to upgrade both of my Veteran's pieces to the Vindicator equivalents. The Pendant is a significant upgrade with an extra 4 stamina, 3 intellect, 3 crit, and 4 damage. The silk cuffs are about the same upgrade with an extra 4 stamina, 4 intellect, 3 crit and 5 damage (or an extra three stat points). However, as mentioned previously, the enchant on the silk cuffs was quite expensive and I might not replace it. However, if I do switch from Spellstrike to something else, I will lose hit and the +15 hit to bracers is cheap. I would lose the +15 damage enchant, but could easily get back to max hit that way.

And last, but not least are the Footpads of Madness. They are a significant upgrade with an additional 4 intellect, 19 damage, and 25 haste. At the cost of just 14 stamina and 3 hit rating. A huge gain at a minor cost. The other option are the Boots of Blasting - a recipe that drops in Black Temple. I have yet to see this recipe on the auction house, but figure it would go for about 2000g, a hefty price to pay for one pair of boots that will be obsolete in short time. I'd much rather put that 2000g towards my epic flying mount.

Speaking of the mount, I have taken considerable steps backwards in my purchase of this nice amenity. I lent out some gold which is not a big deal, but I have spent quite a bit of money on some items including my new runed enchanting rod. Also, I haven't been doing my dailies as much as I should, though the new daily quests should be nice.
It's been a while since I have written anything down, but there's been some big news. On Monday, we quickly downed Maulgar and he dropped the Brute Cloak of the Ogre Magi. It is quite a nice upgrade for me and even though I haven't had a chance to put the subtlety enchant on it, I have noticed an increase in damage done to enemies. The cloak, combined with the pauldrons I received the week prior have enabled me to put out upwards of 4400 damage on a fireball crit with raid buffs.

Yesterday, there were many changes afoot in the world of Azeroth. Word is G'eras has new rewards in exchange for Badges of Justice and we heard they were dropping in record numbers inside Karazhan. We ventured back to Karazhan last night and had our best night ever downing Moroes, Maiden, Opera, Illhoof, Aran, Netherspite, Cuator, Aran (all in one shot except for Prince - bad elemental drops). We then tried tried to down Nightbane, but it was getting late and we were unable to do it in two attempts.

Like I said though, I've been getting pretty good damage with the gear I currently have and put out upwards of 4.75 million damage over the course of the raid. However, with the start of Arena Season 3 next week, and the new badge rewards, I have some upgrades planned. Also, there is talk of a new threat from the trolls out in the Ghostlands. I do believe that heading out that way to seek new adventures will reward us nicely as a team.

Word from early excursions to the temple of Zul'Aman report a beautiful new Staff in exchange for freeing prisoners within a short time frame along with a new Hood of Hexxing which would be a nice upgrade. G'eras is also selling some new pants to go with that hood which would be able to decrease my casting time by almost 3%. He also is offering a new wand which I should be able to pick up soon, as we earned almost 20 badges last night alone (the Carved Witch Doctor's Stick is being offered for the low, low price of just 25 badges). Other than that, I shall need to find my way back into the battlegrounds to upgrade my pendant and bracers. The new Vindicator's Pendant of Conquest and Vindicator's Silk Cuffs are very nice upgrades. However, my current cuffs have an expensive enchant on them which I am hesitant to replace. I would need to spend almost 500g to re-enchant the cuffs and I would only gain 4 stamina, 4 intellect, 3 crit and 5 damage. Nice increases, but I wonder if it is worth the cost of enchanting and the cost of honor. To be certain, the pendant upgrade is the first I will seek out.

It is nice now that they will be awarding extra honor each day for completing battleground tasks which I look forward to trying out tonight. I also hear that some in the Lower City are offering rewards for certain foods which I most certainly could cook up for them with my maximum cooking skills.

With all of those upgrades talked about above, a few things I know for certain - my Spellfire set (gloves, robe, belt) will not be changing. Nor will my new pauldrons. My cloak should stay the same well into Zul'Aman and my trinkets and rings should remain.

The one thing I am still actively searching for is a nice pair of boots. The Maiden refused to drop them last night, and I still don't want to grind Eye of the Storm (plus, I need 10 Eye of the Storm marks for the new pendant). Sooner or later the Maiden should drop my boots - but if she doesn't, I heard of a nice pair of boots that Jan'Alai might drop in Zul'Aman. I won't be holding my breath though.