...of the Shattered Sun

Last night, I ran a few dailies, got my gold back up to a respectable amount and promptly proceeded to spend it all. I had under one gold to my name before I could convince my banker to send me a few more to get me by. But with that gold, I bought a shiny new tabard and my first and only title...

(2nd shot)

Badge Vendor, Come Out...

Sometime yesterday, the Badge Vendor was unlocked in Quel'danas. While I had enough badges saved up for my Scryer's Blade of Focus, I was 12 badges short of the Fused Nethergon Band. But luckily, when I awoke in the Scryer's Inn, I was invited to a Karazhan raid that had seen one of its members disappear without notice. It was a late start for the team as a whole, so we didn't get a full clear in, but I got exactly 12 badges as we breezed through 6 bosses. After disbanding, I ported to Stormwind to fish me up a baby crocolisk and then went back to Shattrath to turn in some quests I was just finishing up before I was summoned into Karazhan.

Then, off to Quel'danas. With 10 Large Prismatic Shards and 10 Greater Planar Essences in hand for Enchant Weapon: Spellpower (I have not saved up for Sunfire yet) and Enchant Ring: Spellpower, I was ready to find the vendor. Of course, there were many other people around me trying to do the same thing, but I managed to get his attention and purchase my items. I then went out on the island to do my daily quests with Mercreus. We breezed through everything except the Darkspine Myrmidion quest as they were refusing to drop keys for us, but when I returned to the questgivers, I hit exalted!

I immediately went and picked up a Shattered Sun Pendant of Acumen which replaces my Vindicator's Pendant of Conquest. But I think the Pendant of Acumen will be replaced with the Vindicator's Pendant of Subjugation once I have saved up enough honor points. With a Runed Crimson Spinel, damage is identical on the two, so it comes down to whether 21 haste is better than the proc on the neckpiece which theorycrafts into 25 damage or so (maybe less due to a hidden cooldown).

Scryer: [((333dmg + 367dmg) / 2) * (1 + 0.5 * 0.12)] / 50s = +7.42dps = 25.97 dmg

While out doing the dailies though, I definitely could see the boost in damage from the new dagger and ring. The nice thing about the ring is that it allows me to use the Icon of the Silver Cresent at all times and stay at the hit rating cap (with the Pendant of Conquest or Subjugation - I'm 8 under the cap with the Pendant of Acumen). However, if I find I like the Pendant of Acumen, two Great Lionseyes will get me to the hit cap rating exactly which I might do if I can find someone to purchase them from (I will certainly be watching the auction house for them this weekend).

Note: It has now been 2 weeks and 1 day since the patch - I have done the fishing daily quest every day and still nothing. No hat, no fishing line, and most importantly, no pets. And now that Nefernetcher has the Phoenix Hatchling, he's bringing it out whenever he can to rub it in my face...

Mr. Pinchy's Gift

After disappointing me with a lame gift, Mr. Pinchy rewarded me with a Magical Crawdad Box! I'm so happy and now have 62 pets!

On a side note, I am also now revered with the Shattered Sun Offensive, and I purchased a Hyacinth Macaw off the auction house (actually did it off the AH after the seller could not get rid of it after 4 listings.

A Day of Firsts

Wow! What a day. I awaken from my slumber to run daily quests and I get a whisper from Nefernetcher that he needs my Soulfrost Enchant as he is off to Mount Hyjal. Of course, having never seen the place, I express desire to go, and lo and behold, there's a spot for me! So off to Mount Hyjal we went. We battled valiantly against wave upon wave of mobs and we were able to reach Rage Winterchill. Even though it was the first time in Hyjal for almost all 25 of us, we took Winterchill down to 33%. After a few more attempts at the waves, we reached Winterchill a couple more times and almost defeated (it?), taking it down to 8%.

Here's some wonderful pictures I took inside Mt. Hyjal (Coming Soon...)

After Hyjal, I took off to do more dailies to raise my reputation with the Shattered Sun Offensive. While on Quel'Danas, the lovely Vetarra asked me if I would like to see inside the Magisters' Terrace. Of course I would! I replied. So off we went, Aracely, Nefernetcher, Mercreus, and Vetarra. We had a couple of interesting fights, but made it through without any major problems. Kael'thas refused to drop the pet I would love to have (the Phoenix Hatchling) and all the bosses refused to drop the enchant I am looking for (Steelweave). But it was fun in there and it gave me just enough reputation after I completed my quests to reach friendly! Hello Void Shatter and Enchant Chest: Defense.

But the best part of the night was the acquisition of my new shoulders. After contacting the guild leader of Fruit of Elune multiple times without a response, I gave up on trying to buy the Hearts of Darkness. But during the aforementioned Mt. Hyjal run, 7 or 8 hearts dropped from the trash we killed. It appeared that no one in the raid had a pattern that required them, so I was very kindly given two of the hearts and now I have my Mantle of Nimble Thought. Combined with my Shadowcaster's Drape, I have 63 haste which gives me 4% faster casts. My fireball already has dropped from 3.0 to 2.9 seconds (2.88 exactly), and my global cooldown is all that much shorter. So I'm quite happy with these two items and seriously considering picking up the Runed Spell-Cuffs.

So right now, I'm an extremely happy gnome. Though Kael'thas didn't drop his phoenix pet last night or this morning, I will get it at some point and my reputation with factions continues to rise - and my gear is even better than ever!

The Mini Hulk

Yesterday, it arrived. It came wrapped in the mail, but still oozing out of the package, yes...it's my very own Disgusting Oozeling. He turns me a shade of green not unlike the Incredible Hulk, just a very, very small one. Here he is at my side (bonus points if you can guess the instance - click on the image to see the full shot and reveal the instance):



So yes, I was late yesterday, but there was still room for me in the "instance" and we once again tore through the place, I earned 22 badges I wasn't expecting and now have 201 - yes, two stacks now.

After that, I hurried to do as many Shattered Sun Offensive quests as possible. I did the three now available in Shattrath - went from Nagrand to Blade's Edge to Netherstorm (stopping briefly in Nagrand to do the daily cooking quest). I ported back to Shatt, turned them in and then went over to Ironforge where I took the gryphon north and quickly completed three new quests in Quel'Danas. There was one quest I didn't complete which required bombing the Dead Scar - there were just too many people flying right in front of me or right behind me.

So I briefly considered going over to Hellfire Peninsula to complete the two dailies there, but time had run out on my stay in Azeroth, so I fell asleep inside a nice inn in Shattrath and tonight I shall reach friendly with the Offensive. And maybe I'll be able to see inside the Magisters' Terrace as well.

Once Again, Left in the Dust

Yesterday while completing the quests for the Shattered Sun Offensive, there was one quest I was not able to complete - Gaining the Advantage. Once again, similar to the Netherwing quests, there's a daily quest just for gatherers. So Tailor/Enchanters like myself get left out on a daily quest, left out on reputation gains, and just left out again. Why not have us turn in a special bolt of imbued netherweave that only tailors could create? Or enchant an item that the Offensive could use as they battle against Kael'thas?

Assuming all things equal, I'm sitting at 1,600/3,000 reputation on my way to friendly and someone who can mine/herb/skin is sitting at 1,850/3,000. I can only get 1,350 rep today, someone who can gather can get 1,600. They will be friendly and I'll be a day behind. Maybe two days behind when they get to Honored. So any enchanter/gatherers will be able to create Large Prismatic Shards from Void Crystals all that much sooner.

I guess it's just a minor gripe, but I don't see the point in having daily quests that can be completed by a minority of characters out there. Why not just add another one that can be completed by all?

20 Quests and Counting

After all was said and done tonight, I'm halfway towards friendly with the Shattered Sun Offensive, the Gold Team killed Gruul, and I completed 20 of the 25 daily quests.

Did the cooking quest, the fishing quest, the quests in Nagrand and Netherstorm, the Ogri'la quests, the Skettis quests, and a majority of the Netherwing quests. I did one PvP quest in Hellfire Peninsula and I also was able to turn in one of each of my PvP tokens for even more gold. After all the quests, minus the gold spent on large prismatic shards, I think I made over 200g tonight and it was all quite easy.

I should find out tomorrow if I won my Oozling and at this rate, I should be able to purchase a couple Hearts of Darkness for my Mantle of Nimble Thought sometime soon.

No New Dagger...

Well, I had forgotten that the new badge vendor isn't available during the first part of the siege on the Sunwell Terrace. So even after buying 5 prismatic shards for my enchant, I cannot buy my new dagger. But that's ok, I had fun over on the Terrace, did some extra daily quests, gained 1600 rep with the Shattered Sun Offensive (yay, already over halfway to friendly) and did even more daily quests.

I did the fishing quest, but did not receive a pet today - but I'm sure I will soon. I then did the Nagrand and Netherstorm dailies, did the cooking daily, went back to Shadowmoon to do more dailies there and as of right now, I have done 13 of 25 possible daily quests. We're getting ready for Gruul's now, so I probably won't do many more, but it sure is nice to be able to buy 5 large prismatic shards and make 60g on top of that with daily questing.