Today was fishing day. I finally had enough of that measly fishing skill of 17 showing up whenever I looked through my list. I started out in Stormwind fishing the canals and then moved on to Southshore once I had skilled up enough. There I traveled up and down the river fishing for sagefish. I fished a bit in the Arathi Highlands and finally moved on to the Hinterlands where I came across some electric eels in addition to all the other fish I was exposed to. When I hit 210, I traveled to see Nat Pagle in Dustwallow Marsh. He refused to give me the quest to advance until I hit 225, so I fished off his dock for a while.

He then had me search across both continents to find a Feralas Ahi, a Misty Reed Mahi Mahi, a Sar'theris Striker, and a Savage Coast Blue Fin. They were relatively easy to fish up and I returned to Nat Pagle ready to continue my fishing learning. I am now at 225, gaining over 200 skill points today and on my way to 375. Then I shall try my best to acquire Mr. Pinchy.

Happy Winter Veil!

Today was the first day of Winter Veil, and after seeing all the festivities going on in Ironforge, I was ready to spread the Winter Veil cheer!

After Greatfather Winter requested I make him some Gingerbread Cookies, I headed out to Darkshore and gathered 40 eggs. I quickly ported back to Ironforge, bought some Holiday Spices, and made over 3 dozen cookies! I gave them to Greatfather Winter and was rewarded with a Smokywood Pastures Gift Pack - how kind of him!

I then checked my mail, and waiting inside was a new tailoring pattern and a new cooking recipe! Just for me! I quickly tore into the tailoring pattern and learned how to create Red Winter Clothes! I whipped up a set for myself and also made another set which I traded to Vexxious for a pair of Winter Boots. Now, to complete the set, I have to hunt down a Red Winter Hat. I could spend a good amount of time tomorrow trying to acquire one.

The cooking recipe I received taught me how to craft Hot Apple Cider. I haven't had time to make any yet, but I will quite soon.

After being surprised with free patterns and recipes, I took some time to see what else was going on. Lo and behold, the Southsea Buccaneers had kidnapped Metzen the Reindeer! I quickly hearthed to Gadgetzan, went down to Lost Rigger Cove and recued Metzen. I returned to Ironforge and was rewarded with 5 Preserved Holly for rescuing the poor, helpless reindeer.

I was also told that if I put a pinch of Deeprock Salt in a Holly Preserver Machine along with 5g, I could get 5 more Preserved Holly. I will stockpile these rare gems for use throughout the year on special occasions. I also have stocked up a few snowballs because I have heard rumors that on December 25th, at the end of the Winter Veil holiday, you receive a Jingling Bell in the mail. I will need plenty of snowballs to summon my own little Winter Reindeer.

With all the Winter Veil quests completed, I will be able to enjoy the rest of the holiday season in style. I will hunt down that red hat and spread cheer throughout the land. Of course, my Brewfest Pony Keg will help me in the cause!

Well, we did it.

It took us a few weeks of learning and practicing, but we have now cleared Karazhan completely without a wipe - in just over 4 hours.

We had quite a bit of fun all the way through - I got to nuke the Curator while the sparks were quickly dealt with by our shaman and a couple of kitties and I was also able to break out my King's Defender on a couple of Arcane Sentries and get my sword skill up. We also perfected our line for loot after the Chess Event. Because if you hand out the items inside before everyone gets their badges, the badges disappear.

Overall, I just barely did the most damage as Nefernetcher was close on my tail. However, I did have to hold back quite a bit since I didn't have salvation. It was quite nice having three druids though - three combat rezzes helped us on a tricky Prince fight.

In the end, we completed every boss, sharded only a few items, and I now have 99 badges of justice that I really don't know how to use. I could buy some haste items. I could buy some PVP items. I just don't know.

This weekend, I spent most of my time helping my young pupil Barleybux as he is working towards a lot of horde killing in his 39th season. However, I did get my daily quests done each day, including the battleground quest today in Eye of the Storm and also the PvP quest in Hellfire Peninsula. I was quite proud of myself as I had earned almost 90g on the day. However, while organizing my bags, another friendly mage noted that I had mis-socketed my helm. I had a gem in the blue slot that gave extra crit rating - for melee. I quickly went to Ironforge and bought a new gem with extra damage and double checked all my other sockets. They were all good.

Just as I was about to leave Ironforge, I quickly scanned the auction house for patterns and recipes I have not yet learned. Usually I see the same things up there - all out of my price range, but this time, something new. I had seen it once before in my life. It was the Pattern: Rich Purple Silk Shirt. Since I know how rare the pattern is and how hard it is to obtain, I quickly bought out the pattern for an obscene amount of gold, quickly erasing a chunk of gold I have earmarked for an epic mount. But it's worth it. My new Rich Purple Silk Shirt looks much better than my old, cheap, Lavender Mageweave Shirt.

Today, after completing the daily cooking quest, I finally got the reward I've been after for awhile: Recipe: Stormchops. This is the last recipe I needed from the cooking quests and it's great to have it. The stormchops are fun to eat and now I can make them for myself rather than bumming them off Harkor.

Looking for possible upgrades now that I basically have everything I've been shooting for, I've found the one item that might make the biggest difference - the Merciless Gladiator's War Staff. This arena staff will provide an upgrade of 1 hit rating, 42 crit, 40 damage, and 29 resilience at the cost of just 6 stamina and 9 intellect. An amazing tradeoff and well worth it. However, it does cost 3,261 arena points. With my recent gains this past week, I am at about 1,750 points. Leaving me 1,500 short. If I get in my weekly 5v5 and 2v2 games, I can buy it in three weeks. However, last week I was unable to get in the 5v5 games due to scheduling conflicts, but I will try much harder over the coming weeks to get those matches in. Of course, the Vengeful Gladiator's Battle Staff would be an even better option adding 5 hit, 46 crit, 62 damage, 29 resilience, and 1 stamina, at the cost of just 5 intellect. But alas, this requires a personal arena rating of 1,850 - a mark I don't think I can reach. We'll see how it goes over the next few weeks, but as I'm currently sitting under 1,500, it's probably an unattainable goal.

For our Karazhan run last night, we had hoped to clear the place in about four hours, besting our previous time and also finishing within the time of our usual raid schedule. However, it was not meant to be. After quickly clearing through Attumen, Moroes and the Maiden, we ran into Romulo and Julianne at the Opera. After quickly downing each of them separately, we started in on them at the same time. After gaining a bit of aggro, I used invisibility, dumped all my aggro, and went all out on Romulo. But apparently he missed me go invisible and came after me. Since he is un-tauntable, Vetarra, our druid tank couldn't pick him up again quickly and he demolished me. An ice block would have been a lifesaver, and my mage trainer has told me that I will be able to learn it soon.

Back to the Maiden of Virtue for a second - last night, for the first time, she decided to drop my boots! The Boots of Fortelling are now mine. After we downed the Curator, we took our normal break, so I ported back to Shattrath (more on that later) and then used the free port to Ironforge. In Ironforge, I grossly overspent on a Runed Living Ruby and a Great Dawnstone. I also then paid way too much for a Large Prismatic Shard as I needed just one more to enchant the boots with Boar's Speed. So my new boots now offer an additional 3 stamina, 5 intellect, 2 critical strike, and 6 damage. A very nice upgrade all around - at the cost of no stats.

So when I said "more on that later" regarding the Curator, here's the "more." He finally dropped the Gloves of the Fallen Hero. This is another first time drop in Karazhan and I can't even count how many times we've been there and downed both the Maiden and the Curator. There were no hunters in our party at the time and Nefernetcher had already picked up the gloves on a PUG previous to our group formation (we were lucky enough to find Nefernetcher hanging out in the Looking For Group channel one night we were short a raider and he is now a member of Darklight Resolution and a permanent member of the Gold Team - a valued asset and all around great guy). So that left the gloves to me. Now, I'm in no position yet to break my Spellfire set bonus, but the complete Tier Four set would be amazing to have, and I now have the Gloves of the Aldor - the reason I originally ported to Shattrath instead of straight to Ironforge.

After the Curator, we plowed through Aran, Illhoof, and Netherspite and ended up back on the dreaded Prince. We failed in our first two attempts due to absolutely horrific elemental drops, but prevailed in our third attempt. With the Helm of the Fallen Hero being the only item left in Karazhan I really would like (well, I guess the Mindblade too), the Prince decided to drop neither. So I will return, continue to rack up badges with nothing to buy, and pray that the Prince will eventually drop my helm. Off to work out some calculations on how the Gloves could fit into my set. PvP gear perhaps?

Last night, the combined forces of Darklight Resolution and The Protectorate ventured back into Gruul's Lair. With a new strategy, we were ready to take down Gruul after we downed Maulgar on two attempts (somehow, as I was tanking Krosh, he hit me with a blast wave - didn't think I was close enough...).

So we went into Gruul's Lair and began our attempts. We got quite far in our first attempt of the night with our new strategy - just under 50%. Our second attempt didn't go well at all, but on our third and final attempt (we had a few people who had to leave early), we had a very good attempt - our best ever. We got him down to 27%, and even though I died early - I had a cave-in on my hiding spot and got flung next to a couple people who had more hit points than I - I still somehow managed to top the damage meters after the fight was over. I just wish I could have stayed up longer - or at least had another chance at Gruul.

We'll get him soon. Karazhan tonight I believe. See if we can beat our full clear in 4.5 hours.