Avast Ye Mateys!

So, should I do the Bloodsail grind? I figure on this special day I should at least consider it.

The upside - an extremely rare pet and awesome clothing.

The downside - I've spent hours methodically trying to track down every Steamwheedle quest and I'm revered with 3 of the factions and almost revered with Everlook. If I abandon those factions, I'll never get back to revered or exalted (which is my goal).

The question is - goblin towns in Northrend? Yes or No?

I think I just might want to grind this, but it'll be tough to lose all that time I spent grinding Steamwheedle Rep...

On Mounts...

Previously I talked about collecting mounts - I thought that maybe you'd need 50 or 60 mounts to get the special one, well...announced today - you need 75! We do know though that there will be plenty of new mounts with the expansion and I figured I personally get about 60 prior to the expansion, so 75 shouldn't be too tough. Here are some of the great new options available:

• Leading the Cavalry - Obtain 75 mounts. Reward - Albino Drake
  
• For The Alliance! - Slay the leaders of the Horde. Reward - Black War Bear
  
• For The Horde! - Slay the leaders of the Alliance. Reward - Black War Bear
  
• Glory of the Hero - Complete the Heroic Dungeon achievements Reward - Red Proto-Drake
  
• Glory of the Raider - Complete the Normal Difficulty raid achievements Reward - Plagued Proto-Drake
  
• Heroic: Glory of the Raider - Complete the Heroic Difficulty raid achievements Reward - Black Proto-Drake
  
• What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been - Complete the world events achievements. Reward - Violet Proto-Drake

So I hope to get the Albino Drake not too long after Wrath comes out - I think I just have to figure out how to get a few more mounts that I don't have already. I'll probably work on the Zhevra tonight and then see what all the battleground mounts require and start working on those. I'm pretty sure that the mounts I listed a couple days ago are all the mounts available to me at the current time and other than the gladiator mounts, I don't think there's any other ones possible in the current game - so getting to 75 I think is almost impossible until the expansion comes out.

However, it will be fun to start collecting these mounts alongside my pets and not have to worry about bag space!

Zul'Jin Down!

Last night, for the first time, we fully cleared Zul'Aman on one night. Last week, we cleared all but Zul'Jin on night one and on night two, while I was unable to make it, the Gold Team took Zul'Jin down. Last night, we powered through and completely destroyed dem trolls. We got three timed chests and had 5 minutes left on the timer - too little to try for the fourth, but there are ample places where we can pick up the pace and group adjustments that could be made for more DPS (though I love our group and don't want to see anyone go - we can just work on gear and specs though).

I certainly had a fun time blowing stuff up - putting out 22% of the damage - over 1,000 sustained DPS. On Nalorakk, even with the silences, I put out over 1,300 DPS - thank you madame shadow priest! It was great last night, not once did I have to worry about mana. Sure, I evocated 15 times, but I really don't think I absolutely had to any of those times. Gaining 135,000 mana back via Vampiric Touch is lovely and all I had to focus on was damage. It was wonderful - I did over 700,000 more damage than the next person (4% more) and was able to just have fun doing damage rather than chain chugging pots or wanding when I should be throwing fireballs.

Again, Hex Lord Malacrass decided to drop nothing for me and the third timed chest dropped a wonderful healing ring (so close to the DPS ring...). Zul'jin also dropped crap, and on the roll for Blood of Zul'Jin, I was stoked - I rolled a 94! I was going to have the blood to turn in for some gold and badges and I would have the achievement of downing Zul'Jin when the patch comes out, but no...the last person to roll decides to break out the magic dice and rolls 100. Congrats to you Matnocuido. Hopefully we can get Zul'Jin down every week now without issue and by default, I'll get the blood.

More on Achievements

As if you couldn't tell by now, I just cannot wait for the achievements to get here. It'll give me something to do every day to kill time until Wrath comes out. I already anticipating having a large lead over most other players due to my compulsiveness. But there's a lot of great achievements still to go. At last count, there's 850 achievements. I should probably re-install the beta to see how close I am now, but here are some that I hope to work on before Wrath is released:

• Cenarion War Hippogryph - Just 1600g and it's mine. Of course, I think it's less with my exalted status. But this will also help with my collecting of mounts in the expansion.
  
• Champion of the Naaru - This weekend I completed the Shattered Halls quest and I still have the Arcatraz quest to go. Hopefully I can bang that out and get Mag down before the patch hits to get the title.
  
• Did Somebody Order a Knuckle Sandwich? - Raise your unarmed skill to 400 - I can get started on this now. Just have to find some poor animals to beat on.
  
• Exploration Achievements - I've already tried to go back and explore most of the older areas, but I should just quickly browse through my map and have the world explored before the patch comes out.
  
• Gurubashi Arena Grand Master - probably need to do this early in the morning, but getting the Arena Grand Master trinket should be pretty fun.
  
• Master Angler of Stranglethorn - it's been a while since I tried to win the Booty Bay fishing quest, but I'll have to take it up again and see if I can win. I've been close a few times, but have never won.
  
• My Sack is "Gigantique" - Just 1200g for this achievement.
  
• Old Ironjaw - guess I need start fishng in Ironforge.
  
• Twenty-Five Tabards - Hmm, no space to start collecting these now, but once the patch hits, I can go grab these since my pets will free up bag space. Also, once you buy it, you get credit for it and can sell it back.
  
• The Burning Crusader - Raise Honor Hold, Sha'tar, Lower City, Cenarion Expedition and Keepers of Time to exalted. I'm close, but still have a ways to go. I just need to get some groups going for these.
  
• The Key Master - I probably have most, if not all of these keys, but might be missing one I can go back and obtain prior to the patch.

I'm sure there's others, but these are some I can focus on before the patch hits.

I Just Can't Wait

So the currently accepted timeline has the major patch coming out mid-October and Wrath is scheduled for November 13. This next major patch will introduce quite a few changes, including pet and mount "stables." And while browsing the new achievements and blue posts on the forums, I saw a post that references a unique mount if you have a certain number of mounts collected. At the current time, I don't have free bag space to go and start collecting these mounts - my pets take up that space. But with the patch, my pets will go away and mounts will be stabled. All I will have to do is go around finding them.

Since I'm already exalted with 22 factions, that means I can get the following mounts:

• Great Blue Elekk, Great Green Elekk, Great Purple Elekk, Brown Elekk, Gray Elekk, Purple Elekk
  
• Cobalt Riding and War Talbuk, Silver Riding and War Talbuk, Tan Riding and War Talbuk, White Riding and War Talbuk
  
• Swift Frostsaber, Swift Mistsaber, Swift Stormsaber, Spotted Frostsaber, Striped Frostaber, Striped Nightsaber
  
• Winterspring Frostsaber
  
• Swift Brewfest Ram, Brewfest Ram
  
• Swift Brown Ram, Swift Gray Ram, Swift White Ram, Brown Ram, Gray Ram, White Ram
  
• Swift Brown Steed, Swift Palomino, Swift White Steed, Brown Hose Bridle, Chestnut Mare Bridle, Pinto Bridle
  
• Swift Green Mechanostrider, Swift White Mechanostrider, Swift Yellow Mechanostrider, Blue Mechanostrider, Green Mechanostrider, Red Mechanostrider, Unpainted Mechanostrider
  
• Blue Riding Nether Ray, Green Riding Nether Ray, Purple Riding Nether Ray, Red Riding Nether Ray, Silver Riding Nether Ray
  
• Azure Netherwing Drake, Cobalt Netherwing Drake, Onyx Netherwing Drake, Purple Netherwing Drake, Veridian Netherwing Dake, Violet Netherwing Drake
  
• Swift Blue Gryphon, Swift Green Gryphon, Swift Purple Gryphon, Swift Red Gryphon, Ebon Gryphon, Golden Gryphon, Snowy Gryphon
  
• Plus any Battleground Mounts I might grind.
  
• Plus the Zhevra refer-a-friend mount I plan on getting soon.

So that's a total of 60 plus any battleground mounts and the zhevra. I wonder what the number of mounts will need to be for the special mount? 60? 70? It's a lot of money to go buy all those mounts up, but something I'd definitely love to do once I have the space.

Plus, being able to possibly create a macro to summon a random land or flying mount would be amazing.

The Return to Zul'Aman

Last night, the Gold Team assembled and led by Eleazarjr and Vetarra as our fearless tanks, we quickly took down two timed bosses and just barely missed the third. This time though, we went in the order you need to go in for four timed bosses so we're making progress. We took down Akil'zon easily then went and one-shot Nalorakk. After that we ran out of time on our way to Jan'Alai who we one shot as well. After switching out Eleazarjr for Aracely, we one shot Halazzi and proceeded to the Hex Lord. Unfortunately, we ran into some issues here - bad breaks of sheeps and banishes, poor timing of spells cast by the Hex Lord and just other little things that you just can't help (and many little things that need to be fixed as well).

But we did manage to get him down and he dropped two completely worthless items for our group. A plate healing item (our tank pally had left, and I doubt he'll ever go healing) and a druid staff (which neither druid really wanted, but it was forced upon Dylana). With such a great loot table and many great items that could be put to use - including the amazing Hood of Hexxing and Hex Shrunken Head.

We eventually moved on to Zul'jin and got to his last phase a couple of times, but once again, we had some people there who had not seen the fight and it took us a long time to get the eagle phase down. We made progress and hopefully we can get most of the group together tonight to take another shot at clearing Zul'Aman finally.

Other than that, Tockett ventured into Karazhan last week and has been doing Shattered Sun dailies every day when time permits. He's up to 25 badges and with another Karazhan run, he will be able to buy a new offhand weapon and then must start saving for a new main hand. Tiddlywinks created him an amazing cloak - Vengeance Wrap which received a Bright Crimson Spinel and Greater Agility. Tockett is now working on getting Leatherworking to 375 as he has two epic patterns to enjoy at that level and two Heart of Darkness ready to use in his bank.

And so it goes...

As mentioned earlier today, I wasn't a fan of the "Race to 80" achievements. And apparently Blizzard figured out it wasn't a good idea as well.

We've decided to remove the titles for the Realm First Feats of Strength that are associated with reaching level 80. We've also removed the titles associated with the Realm First Feats of Strength associated with gaining 450 skill in the professions and secondary skill. Lastly, we've removed the title associated with Realm First to accomplish the Northrend Vanguard achievement.

Realm First boss kill achievements will still grant a title.

As a side note, Beta characters will retain their titles or end up displaying a broken title. This won't carry over to the live realms but it is merely a symptom of removing these titles from the game. If we were to do another wipe of the achievement system, the Beta titles would go away.

Hex Lord Vanquished!

Last night, in a triumphant return to Zul'Aman, the Gold Team was able to obtain the third timed chest for the first time ever (with 2 minutes to spare) and we then went on to kill the dreaded Hex Lord Malacrass! Congratulations to my good friend Dylana who won the Tiny Voodoo Mask and Mercreus who got his Trollbane. I also obtained these Footpads of Madness which I'm still unsure about. I love my Boots of Blasting, but another 25 haste could get my Fireball down to 2.7 seconds potentially.

I also just discovered that last night I was running the whole night with the wrong pair of gloves on. My Spellfire Gloves were sitting in my bank the whole night, basically gimping my damage by 7% and also putting me under the hit cap, resulting in another damage loss. I did enjoy running last night with my two pieces of Tier 4. Sporting the Collar of the Aldor and Pauldrons of the Aldor allowed me to cast straight through any bird interruptions on Akil'zon and also during the spirit bolts on Malacrass. And while the tooltip mentions just uninterruptable fireballs, it seemed like my scorches were going off without interruptions as well. So next time in (a.k.a. tonight), I'll be going in with the correct gloves and my two pieces of Tier 4.

So we've finally got another boss off of our Gold Team list and Zul'jin is the last left. On our very first attempt, we got to the lynx stage - which I thought was quite good since 7 of us were seeing him for the first time. Our best attempt was our last (of probably 4 or 5) where we once again made it to the lynx stage with 7 or so people up, but we lost our priest early in the stage and without the group heals, we were done. But it was a great learning experience and I hope we can get him down soon.

I still a bit skeptical that we can get the bear mounts, but we are now able to get three timed chests which is a great advancement. We also are doing much better on Akil'zon which is great progress for us. We are able to hatch one whole side each time eggs are hatched which greatly cuts down on time required to kill him.

On a side note, I have added another pet to my collection, however, I think my screenshots were not properly kept over the past few sessions, so until I can get screenshots, I am not announcing him here.