Mar 9, 2008

375 Fishing

Today, after quickly running some Wintersaber and Timbermaw rep, I did my dailies and then went fishing. Did some quick fishing in Nagrand and got to 370 and then decided to test my luck fishing for Mr. Pinchy. I went over to Terokkar and started fishing the Highland Schools. After fishing up 60 Furious Crawdads, I called it a night and reveled in my full skills list.

Speaking of which, time for a look at a great add-on I use. It's a Fubar plugin and is available at WowAce.com - tcg TradeSkills. It tracks tradeskills across all characters and servers if you so choose and also, and most importantly, tracks my cooldowns related to tradeskills. So right now I have it set to remind me every 30 minutes that I need to go make my cloth. As you can see in the screenshot below, both Spellcloth and Primal Mooncloth still waiting on cooldowns, while my Shadowcloth cooldown is 12 days past.

Mar 7, 2008

Oh, Go Fly a Kite!

Yesterday, when Sir Tiddlywinks awoke, sitting in his bank was the Azure Whelpling, purchased off the auction house for the low, low price of just 600g! Ok, so maybe the price wasn't so low, but it was the best deal I'd seen in a while and, even though I promised myself I wouldn't spend any money until I hit 1,000g, I did. And the Whelpling is currently in the bank vaults.

What? The bank vaults? Surely you jest. Hey, don't call me Shirley.

OK, sorry about that. But the Azure Whelpling is in the vaults because I have a toy that is much more fun and exciting to play with. My very own...Dragon Kite!


Yes, I broke down even further and bought a Dragon Kite. But it's just so much fun to tow behind you. The first place I went to fly the kite was Stormwind Park. It just seemed to me to be the logical place to fly a kite. Here are some images of me with the kite.

Occasionally, the kite can pick up an electric charge from the air and shock me, but I love it nonetheless. Oh yeah, it apparently can't be used in tow from a mount. That's kind of disappointing, but I guess the materials used to craft such a fine piece of goblin engineering (ok, maybe not so much engineering), may break up at higher speeds.

Either way, I'm in love with my new dragon kite and I am now rocking 57 of 79 pets (nota bene: 6 of those pets are coming in 2.4, so until then, I have 57 of 73). One more should arrive this weekend and two more in May with Children's week. But until then, I shall continue my neverending farming quest for my very own Firefly this weekend. I am determined to find this one on my own.

Also, with just two more pets, I will break into the Top 50 pet collections held by a single character at WarcraftPets.com. That will be an exciting day!

Mar 6, 2008

Is It Getting Too Easy?

The most recent 2.4 patch notes disturb me a bit. Here is what I'm talking about:
  • Swipe: This ability will no longer strike any secondary targets which are under the effect of crowd-control spells that break on taking damage. i.e. Polymorph, Sap, etc.
  • Cleave: This ability will no longer strike any secondary target which is under the effect of crowd-control spells that break on taking damage. i.e. Polymorph, Sap, etc.
  • Multi-Shot: This ability will no longer strike any secondary targets which are under the effect of crowd-control spells that break on taking damage. i.e. Polymorph, Sap, etc.

Are we just trying to make it so anyone and everyone can sit there and mash a button without consequences? Why not allow me to AOE without worrying about breaking crowd control? Or how about we just make it so you just need to hit one button and the game will calculate what your best attack is based on health remaining on the mob, the amount of mana you have, all your spells available to you, and the best way to maximize threat or damage?

These three changes do nothing but remove skill from the game. I see no positives to them. There's skill involved with swiping to generate aggro. There's skill involved with using multi-shot when mobs are crowd controlled. You should need skill when using cleave and make sure you only hit mobs you want to. Why eliminate this game mechanic?

Pet Update

As most of you know, I collect pets. I try and farm them myself, but I've been getting quite upset with the drop rates so I gave in last week and purchased a Tiny Crimson Whelpling from the auction house for 200g. Seemed like a good deal to me, and he looks great as I run through Kara with him.

Last night, I saw an Azure Whelpling
up on auction for 600g with a 650g buyout. I didn't want to spend the money since I was low on funds already, so I compromised. I put in a bid for 600g, but didn't buy it out for 650g. If I win it, great, I saved 50g. If I don't, fine...600g back into my pockets.

Also last week, I received my Hippogryph Hatchling from the friendly vendor in Booty Bay. This pet wasn't cheap, but well worth it to me. Today or tomorrow, I should be getting my Rocket Chicken as well which will take me to 57 pets. In May, Children's week returns, allowing me to collect two more pets and then with 2.4, I'll be out fishing every day looking for the pet crocs.

Speaking of fishing, I'm almost at 375 and will be trying to fish up Mr. Pinchy this weekend.

My full collection list can be found here.

Three Hour Kara

Last night, the Gold Team ventured into Karazhan after the informative Darklight Resolution guild meeting in Stormwind Park and we completely tore the place up.

Our previous record was just under 4 hours for a full clear. First pull last night:
3/5 18:54:03.586 Aracely's Shoot hits Spectral Stallion for 113.
3/5 21:53:05.093 Prince Malchezaar dies.

We just made it in under 3 hours. It was close after a partial wipe and a full wipe on Prince due to some horrific infernal drops. But we did it. We were all awarded 22 badges for our time and effort, Dylana got some new gear. Hemnetcher also got a couple of pieces, and we got a lot of void crystals.

In the end, it just goes to show what some insane DPS will do for you when combined with teamwork and fun. Congrats Gold Team!

Brilliant Glass

Another nice new addition to 2.4 just surfaced. And I'm sure all the jewelcrafters out there will be quite happy. Now, all those green gems that are likely sitting in the bank can be turned into a blue gem.

Combine three of each green gem, and voila! a random blue gem. Hopefully this will bring prices of blue gems down a bit as well for us non-jewelcrafters/non-miners.

Speaking of blue gems, I need to go pick up my Consortium "bribe" later today. I could always go for some extra rare gems.

Mar 5, 2008

Massive DPS

This is what I love to see...


Just massive DPS by all involved. I took a couple cave-ins on me, but for the most part was able to stand and cast and do massive damage. It was amazing having Hemnetcher in the raid as I didn't have to use Mage Armor, but istead could use Molten Armor adding fire crit. I used all three of my mana emeralds and I think I had to evocate for a couple ticks towards the end, but in the end, having a shadow priest helps immensely. Not only did I have great mana regen, but I think I only bandaged once and even then it was a misclick. I was able to quickly regen all health after a cave in or shatter through the shadow priest.

In short, the 25 Man Gold Team Rocks!

Magister's Terrace Walkthrough

Curse-Gaming has a great walkthrough up of the new 5-man instance in the next patch. While there really aren't any gear items I'm looking for here, there is a new enchant I would love to get: Enchant Cloak: Steelweave. It drops in both normal and heroic modes (most likely a higher drop rate in heroic). I can also get a free Runed Crimson Spinel by clearing the Terrace once and completing a quest line. Click the image below to view their guide.
Magister's Terrace has become the residence of the Blood Elf Lord Kael’thas Sunstrider since his defeat in The Eye to the forces of Shattrath. His body has become twisted and deformed. He may be finally succumbing to his magical addictions and becoming one of the Wretched or it might be that he was resurrected by the Burning Legion using the power of the Sunwell.