Tuesday (30 Oct) - Done With Dalaran
Fist considered her plan to return to Northrend's Sholozar Basin to continue her leveling. Then she un-considered it. Fist ignored the cheap Wrath gear she was wearing and headed for the greener pastures of Cata's Mount Hyjal. Fist quickly proved to herself that she was a match for the new zone, and gathered up quests that were well known and dear to Wild. Fist picked up a shadow as she worked through a quest stream that had Fist going back to the quest givers again and again. Actually, Fist was probably the shadow. The only other quester Fist saw in the zone was one quest ahead of Fist. This early in the zone, there weren't any quests that warranted grouping up, so we killed and collected side by side much of the time.
Fist's xp came in big chunks, too. She still had the use of all her heirlooms, she had a big pocket full of rested xp, and she had two full hours of the monk buff. In a relatively short time Fist leveled to 81.
She had a decision to make. She was already collecting gear far better than what she had. That included a green chest piece with three times the stats as the heirloom chest. The heirloom chest still gives her the 10% xp buff, though.
Fist has been trying to keep all of her gear crammed into one 26 slot bag (the largest general purpose bag she can get). She has melee gear, and healing gear, and towny gear. And after doing well and having fun in Alterac Valley the other day, Fist may also be looking for pvp gear. It's reached the point, though, that she is out of carry around bag space for gear. Fist has enough trouble keeping her bags from filling to overflowing with quest junk, so it looks like Fist is going to have to put away her towny gear for now. That probably gives Naithipe one less thing to worry about her daughter, not to mention her prudish cousins fussing over revealing (Fist shakes her head) clothes (or lack thereof). All the boys of Orgrimmar are going to be sad, though. Fist is done with the boys, though, she decided. She would have to think up a new outfit - for the men.
For the most part the quests in Mount Hyjal appear to be the original quests without any nerfing. Fist has killed two elites solo. One of them, Sethria, Fist had to fight the first part alone, and then she got help for the rest. The other elite kill was fairly tough, and it, too, had a trick to make the fight easier. Fist ignored the trick, though, and took the elite down anyway.
The only nerfed quest Fist has run into involved an egg that Fist had to protect from incoming dragonkin. Wild's memory of that fight involved up to half a dozen near simultaneous attackers. Fist's battle involved just two, spaced out so that she could kill them individually. Ah well.
Fist gooned up one of the more fun quests, too. Everybody remembers the quest where baby bears are stuck in trees and have to captured, and then tossed from the tree to the trampoline on the ground. Fun and easy xp. Fist got stuck in the tree holding on to a baby bear. The quest was bugged, I guess, because nothing I did would clear it. I even tried abandoning the quest. Logging out and logging back in did free Fist, but the quest was no longer available. Another ah well.
Fist is used reporting each new level she reaches. With the longer and more extensive leveling needed in Cata, all Fist can report now is progress - Fist is 91% of the way to level 82.
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Monday (29 Oct) - Fist in Alterac Valley
Monday (29 Oct) - Fist in Alterac Valley
On Monday morning I got a nice surprise. My AMD brand video card got an installation upgrade, a rather significant one, that I am hopeful will take care of the screen locking problem. Time will tell, but the update has already improved refresh speed and a few other bothersome things. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
Fist is level 80 now, and feels she needs a plan to tackle the last ten levels. She will most likely spend more time in Sholazar Basin as there are a lot of quests that should go fairly fast. Fist hopes she can get to level 82 before leaving Wrath for Cata level zones, but if not she will likely jump to Cata anyway, as she's pretty ho hum about the other Wrath zones.
There are five Cata zones and five levels to achieve (81-85). Mount Hyjal is the obvious choice, as it's the starter zone for level 80s (I don't count Vashj'ir, as Wild never liked it much). The question is whether Fist can continue to pound out a couple of levels per zone, or if the new five level expansions (versus Burning Crusade and Wrath being ten levels) will force Fist to go zone to zone for each new level. Deepholm and Uldum are both fun to do, but I doubt I'll be able to skip the last/highest zone, Twilight Highlands, which has some good quests, but is not a favorite.
The jump from Wrath to Cata gear-wise is also a concern. At level 81 Fist will lose a lot of the heirloom experience boost, dropping from a 35% buff to just 15% (level 1-85 heirloom gear is only available on head and back). That 1-80 heirloom gear will no longer improve with level, either, so Fist will have to find gear to replace her shoulders, chest, trinkets, and weapon. That means major changes in how Fist collects her gear, which up to now has been updated almost entirely from quest rewards. The rest of her gear will also need a complete overhaul, since the gear stats of Cata level gear is much more powerful than Wrath level gear. Wild entered Cata with raid-level gear which helped him get through the early going. Fist is entering with quest level gear and that will be painful.
How painful? Consider her mistweaver healing staff: no +int, but a nice (I thought) 250 spell power. The AH has a level 77 mace that has +65int ... and 871 spell power. Gulp. Even her "best available" questing agi gear doesn't come close to measuring up: Her heirloom +68agi staff is laughingly bad against an AH level 80 one-hand axe with +233agi on it!
More pain from the AH is that pricing for Cata level gear is stupidly high. Fist has a green light to buy whatever she wants off the AH, but how much should be spent on gear that will too soon be replaced? How much gold is Happy willing to throw at Fist?
Fist could get royally murdered out there in Cata land.
Monday Night - Naithipe heard about Fist's mutterings and swung by to see how Fist was doing. Naithipe's advice (demand, more like) was that she stop wringing her hands and start practicing her healing if that's what silly girls do at level 80 these days. Naithipe, of course, would rather be cutting opponents down than healing, but if that's what Fist is interested in, she'd better work at being good at it.
Fist doesn't want or get much advice from her mother, but she took the blunt advice seriously. She got her healing spells in some semblance of order and put herself in the queue for a random battleground. She got Alterac Valley. AV is a large group BG and was ideal for Fist to blend in and see what she could do.
It turned out better than she expected. She barely knew her spells, and having to track two different kinds of heals (those that use mana and those that use chi) had Fist pulling her hair. She learned a bit at a time, but mostly just pounded keys hoping some actual healing was getting out there. There were many small group battles that Fist helped with, and her confidence grew.
Fist died only four times, which is fewer than usual for a Wild family pvper. It was just coincidence, though, that she didn't draw focus fire much, because she was certainly squishy and easy to kill, with her modest health and absolutely no pvp resilience to provide protection. She did DPS a little, too, but mostly she healed.
The horde team also won the fight! At least until the next BG, Fist can brag she's never lost a BG match.
Considering how randomly Fist was dropping spells, it's a wonder her numbers were as good as they were. Here is the BG Summary from the fight:
Not bad, if Fist does say so herself. She was third in horde healing, and fourth overall. Her DPS didn't amount to much, but at least she got some numbers on the board.
After the battle Wild helped Fist get macros set up (like his) so that next time she can mouseover heal instead of click targeting. Fist had a lot of fun.
On Monday morning I got a nice surprise. My AMD brand video card got an installation upgrade, a rather significant one, that I am hopeful will take care of the screen locking problem. Time will tell, but the update has already improved refresh speed and a few other bothersome things. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
Fist is level 80 now, and feels she needs a plan to tackle the last ten levels. She will most likely spend more time in Sholazar Basin as there are a lot of quests that should go fairly fast. Fist hopes she can get to level 82 before leaving Wrath for Cata level zones, but if not she will likely jump to Cata anyway, as she's pretty ho hum about the other Wrath zones.
There are five Cata zones and five levels to achieve (81-85). Mount Hyjal is the obvious choice, as it's the starter zone for level 80s (I don't count Vashj'ir, as Wild never liked it much). The question is whether Fist can continue to pound out a couple of levels per zone, or if the new five level expansions (versus Burning Crusade and Wrath being ten levels) will force Fist to go zone to zone for each new level. Deepholm and Uldum are both fun to do, but I doubt I'll be able to skip the last/highest zone, Twilight Highlands, which has some good quests, but is not a favorite.
The jump from Wrath to Cata gear-wise is also a concern. At level 81 Fist will lose a lot of the heirloom experience boost, dropping from a 35% buff to just 15% (level 1-85 heirloom gear is only available on head and back). That 1-80 heirloom gear will no longer improve with level, either, so Fist will have to find gear to replace her shoulders, chest, trinkets, and weapon. That means major changes in how Fist collects her gear, which up to now has been updated almost entirely from quest rewards. The rest of her gear will also need a complete overhaul, since the gear stats of Cata level gear is much more powerful than Wrath level gear. Wild entered Cata with raid-level gear which helped him get through the early going. Fist is entering with quest level gear and that will be painful.
How painful? Consider her mistweaver healing staff: no +int, but a nice (I thought) 250 spell power. The AH has a level 77 mace that has +65int ... and 871 spell power. Gulp. Even her "best available" questing agi gear doesn't come close to measuring up: Her heirloom +68agi staff is laughingly bad against an AH level 80 one-hand axe with +233agi on it!
More pain from the AH is that pricing for Cata level gear is stupidly high. Fist has a green light to buy whatever she wants off the AH, but how much should be spent on gear that will too soon be replaced? How much gold is Happy willing to throw at Fist?
Fist could get royally murdered out there in Cata land.
Monday Night - Naithipe heard about Fist's mutterings and swung by to see how Fist was doing. Naithipe's advice (demand, more like) was that she stop wringing her hands and start practicing her healing if that's what silly girls do at level 80 these days. Naithipe, of course, would rather be cutting opponents down than healing, but if that's what Fist is interested in, she'd better work at being good at it.
Fist doesn't want or get much advice from her mother, but she took the blunt advice seriously. She got her healing spells in some semblance of order and put herself in the queue for a random battleground. She got Alterac Valley. AV is a large group BG and was ideal for Fist to blend in and see what she could do.
It turned out better than she expected. She barely knew her spells, and having to track two different kinds of heals (those that use mana and those that use chi) had Fist pulling her hair. She learned a bit at a time, but mostly just pounded keys hoping some actual healing was getting out there. There were many small group battles that Fist helped with, and her confidence grew.
Fist died only four times, which is fewer than usual for a Wild family pvper. It was just coincidence, though, that she didn't draw focus fire much, because she was certainly squishy and easy to kill, with her modest health and absolutely no pvp resilience to provide protection. She did DPS a little, too, but mostly she healed.
The horde team also won the fight! At least until the next BG, Fist can brag she's never lost a BG match.
Considering how randomly Fist was dropping spells, it's a wonder her numbers were as good as they were. Here is the BG Summary from the fight:
Not bad, if Fist does say so herself. She was third in horde healing, and fourth overall. Her DPS didn't amount to much, but at least she got some numbers on the board.
After the battle Wild helped Fist get macros set up (like his) so that next time she can mouseover heal instead of click targeting. Fist had a lot of fun.
Monday, October 29, 2012
Weekend Part Two (28 Oct) - Waylaid By Minutiae
Weekend Part Two (28 Oct) - Waylaid By Minutiae
Saturday Morning - Fist encountered a few hiccups getting started on Saturday morning. She had hearthed back to the Filthy Animal Inn at Dalaran, and when she rose the next morning, the entrance to the inn seemed to have disappeared! Fist didn't think she'd had anything alcoholic to drink, but then, if she couldn't remember drinking, that could be one sign she'd really drunk herself silly.
After a little investigation, however, she discovered the truth. Someone thought that it would be hilarious to block the entrance to the inn with a giant. That giant was apparently kited into the city and killed at the entrance to the inn. The poor fellows name was Gymer, King of the Storm Giants. Further research unearthed more information, no kiting was involved. Gymer, apparently, has been known to wander away from wherever he is in Dalaran. There have been no eyewitness sightings of anyone killing him, but numerous sightings of Gymer dead at various places around Dalaran. Gymer was once also found in the inn, quite alive, but unable to find his way out. One wonders what that is all about.
After letting that puzzle go, Fist got ready to head back out to Grizzly Hills. She still had choked bags to clean up, but even after clean up she still had too much stuff. Fist plodded over to the bank to drop off the mostly leathers of various types she has been collecting - but the bank was full! Not a single spot left open. Gah, now what? Fist had already dumped a bunch of leathers on Mery, and Mery said No Mas! Mery was annoyed enough that she was doing crafting for Fist that she could get no skill credit for because she needed to be level 65 to go above the 375 skill that Mery had maxed out at. Fist was none too happy hearing that, worried that she might be sidelined so that Mery could level from 60 to 65. That wasn't going to happen, both JB and Philly told Mery. The leatherworker in this family is going to be Fist. Sorry, Mery.
Fist was having trouble skilling up her leatherworking do to severe shortages of heavy leather. Fist had already made a trip to Dustwallow Marsh to farm the dinosaur packs and den of dragons (favorite spots to get heavy leather), which helped, but that takes time, and she needed a LOT of heavy leather.
Another approach would be to get some high end leatherworking bags to store all that leather stuff, making room for non-leatherworking items. Mery was tapped to check it out. Mery could make a 20 slot bag, but there was also a 28 slot bag that a vendor in Nagrand had the recipe for. Hoping to settle an unhappy Mery down, Mery was given a chance to get out of Orgrimmar and show off her wonderful towny outfit (complete with matching mount and pet, she always added) in Nagrand's Garadar. Mery enjoyed the trip, but unfortunately came back empty-handed. The vendor who had the recipe was in the Mag'har faction. What has that got to do with anything? Mery has not done the quests in Nagrand where the Mag'har are rediscovered and friendships made. The vendor was hostile to Mery.
So, what should have happened, is that Fist should have gone herself and then sent the recipe over to Mery to make. Sigh, the day is getting away from Fist and she hasn't earned a single experience point yet. But if you have to get something done, Fist sighed again, it's best to just do it yourself.
Fist took the portal from Dalaran to Orgrimmar, then the portal from Org to the Blasted Lands, and then the portal from the Blasted Lands to Hellfire Peninsula. She then hopped on her mount and flew to Garadar, where she had spent a lot of time getting friendly with the Mag'har. Fist found Provisioner Nasela easily enough (since Mery had already located her for Fist). After an "oh no!" moment when it looked like the recipe wasn't there, Fist found it. She got not only that recipe, but four others as well.
Feeling she was getting back on track, Fist sent off the recipe to Mery so she could make the 28 slot bag. Well, she thought she would send off the recipe. It was soulbound. Fist wanted to scream. She had another conversation with Mery, who had already said she had a recipe for a 20 slot Leatherworker's Satchel. The mats for it, though, would cost Fist a 100g off the AH. Pay it, Fist said, gritting her teeth, I'm good for it. Fist got her bag, and managed to shoe horn all of her "stuff" into the bank.
Fist had one more bungle to confess. When she is finally able to make that 28 slot bag, it won't be for leatherworking stuff. What? She just assumed that a bag made by a leatherworker would be for leather stuff. She completely ignored the name on the bag: Reinforced MINING Bag. Fist should have gone to bed earlier Friday night.
There was yet another delay to follow. Fist knew that she would quickly be stuck with overloaded storage again, given the amount of skinning she was doing. She needed that skinning to skill up her leatherworking, so she couldn't not do it. It appeared that Fist would have to go back to Dustwallow Marsh. But Wild came to her rescue, sort of. Wild was at the AH on other business, but, knowing Fist's plight, he checked on the price of heavy leather. To his surprise a good bit of it had been posted at prices way below what the seller could easily have gotten. Wild quickly snapped it up, cheap even by Wild's stingy standards (or he wouldn't have spent his own gold on it).
That, most unfortunately, created yet a new challenge. Wild has not organized his bags, like JB and Philly had been pushing him to do. Wild could not retrieve the leather from the mail because he had absolutely no where to put it.
Fist, who was getting more and more frustrated and antsy, picked on poor dead Gymer, loudly complaining to anyone who would listen - Would SOMEONE find a way to get Gymer's corpse out of the doorway! Yes, the giant's corpse was still draped over the entrance to the inn. There was nothing to do but make Wild tidy up his bags enough to be able to send Fist the leather. The whole morning shot.
Wild figured he could blow the whole afternoon, too, re-organizing his bags, in between naps. Once he got started, though, he kept at it. The first things to go were things he could vendor or destroy immediately - essentially, any gear that was not part of the current MoP set or under consideration for transmogging. That opened up a few slots in Wild's bags, but not many, since Wild had way too many ideas on what he wanted to do with mog sets. Sure, Wild could have probably sent along that leather Fist wanted at that point, but then Fist would have run off to play. Wild had gotten interested, and now Fist had to wait. It was a bit astonishing just how much gear Wild had held on to! Some of it went all the way back to vanilla WoW, such as trinkets, rings, etc, that were special rewards with no sale value, but made for good memories. Of all of that stuff (unsuitable for mogging), Wild decided to keep only the Tier 1 Cenarion set along with the Staff of Dominance which goes with that set. Wild also likes the Cata Tier set called Deep Earth, and has full sets for both healer and moonkin. Those will be kept. After that, though, things got a lot messier. Wild finally decided that it was a good time for a nap, sent Fist her leather, and made for his hammock. A good thing, too, because Wild has two bags in his bank full of feral gear that he hasn't even gotten to yet.
Once Fist heard that Wild had started snoring, she and Mery emptied every bag they had and managed to get enough heavy leather. It didn't take long to run that down, though, and Fist started on the gear made with thick leather. With Mery's help that held out a long time, but there was still not enough thick leather, now, to keep skilling up. Even with Mery's bank bags starting to look unusually empty, Fist had to call a halt. Fist's leatherworking is at 240, still well behind Mery's 375. Given how much time has passed, Fist decided to take Sin's earlier advice to let rested xp grow, wipe it out right before the baseball game, and then farm thick leather during the game.
Fist went at her leatherworking again after a trip to Un'Goro Crater. Fist didn't think she had much of an AoE attack for farming mobs, but she came upon a method that worked extremely well. She used her Crackling Jade Lightning spell, which has a 50yd range, to tag mobs. The spell is channeled, so Fist would just break the channel right after tagging the mob. Fist could then run around, tagging mobs, until she had gathered a crowd. Since the mobs were pulled from every direction, Fist had to get them lined up facing her, so she would do a fast roll to get ahead of them, turn, and as soon as the they got to her, she slammed them with Fists of Fury. Those that survived that melee range AoE assault were treated to another one, Spinning Crane Kick (which, incidentally, heals Fist). None of the various level 50-55+ mobs survived that. Fist is up to 260 skill in leatherworking, but is again out of leather. Now it's rugged leather that she is short of. I know engineering is tough to level, but the leatherworking profession is a serious pain. Fist is starting to wonder if Mery set her up, letting Fist do all the hard work so Mery could find an easier profession.
Later - The fog of leveling seems to have settled around Fist and it is getting very tough to keep track of day, zone, and quest. The notes written to jog the memory don't seem to help much. So, the following covers what dim memory there is, and the few things that stood out.
Fist remembers it raining in Un'Goro Crater killing things while the Chargers plowed through the rain and mud in Cleveland in a more hopeless adventure (San Diego Chargers debacle - losing to a 1-4 team with a final score of 7-6).
Fist loudly proclaiming that Leatherworking SUCKS! when she ran out of rugged leather at skill 270.
A level 55 paladin in the Crater, visiting from another server, who asked Fist if she could help him with the Lar'korwi quest. Fist had recently done the quest, but it had already become just one more blur of hundreds. But, sure, what else did she have to do? The paladin not only needed help, he needed someone to hold his hand. He had apparently never heard of wowhead, and was completely clueless. But it was a sincere cluelessness. After letting the paladin lead Fist around in circles for a few minutes, Fist called a halt. She checked on where Lar'korwi could be located, and led him to it. Fist waited for the paladin to do the ritual that would invoke Lar'korwi, but nothing happened. Finally, Fist asked him if he had the ingredients required. More long pauses. Fist suggested that there was meat involved. The paladin must have had much larger bags than anyone in WoW, because it took an endless time for him to look. When he finally acknowledged that he didn't see anything that might be what was needed, he mumbled, "I must be really stupid." Fist sighed, but, she's been there before, baffled by what was supposed to a simple quest. Fist then remembered that the meat actually came in a pouch. She asked the paladin to look for that. Another long wait, and then the paladin exclaimed, "I found it!" Fist then had the paladin place the pouch on the handy rock there for that purpose, and low and behold, Lar'Korwi came. Fist waited for the paladin to tag the beast so that he would get credit for the kill. When he did get it tagged Fist was going to help kill it faster, but for some reason the beast did not grey out like it should have, and Fist did not want to mess up a proper kill - which would force the paladin to have to do the whole darn thing over again. Instead, Fist played healer from his limited arsenal of such, mostly popping a healing bulb on him when necessary. I don't know what gear he was wearing, but it took him a good while to finally finish off the level 52 non-elite and collect the head. The paladin was extremely grateful, and Fist rather enjoyed the break from killing endless dinosaurs and losing football.
Somewhere along the way Fist went back to the Grizzly Hills to continue questing. It's a big zone with several quest hubs. The one quest that stands out - due to Fist's fuzzy ineptitude - was the Ursoc quest. Usroc is a monstrous elite bear. The quest provides a bearish helper to aid in the fight, but unlike the modified quests that gutted every other elite quest Fist has tackled, this one appeared to be the original. The helper (yes, he has a name, but who ever remembers the "helper?") can be asked to help DPS or heal. Fist chose DPS, and the two other trotted down a mountain lane to the dead end where Ursoc appeared. Fist mangled up a first attempt, not fast enough or smart enough at using his limited healing abilities. Fist got Ursoc down to under 10%, but Fist died.
On the second attempt, Fist did great, and while it was a tough fight, it was Ursoc who died. Ecstatic, Fist automatically skinned him, like she does without a thought on every beast she kills. The problem was that Fist needed the carcass to complete the quest. Sigh.
For the third attempt, Fist opted to make the helper a healer, just for something different. That turned out to be easier, and Fist finally got both the kill and the quest completion. It was nice to find a quest that put up a bit of a fight.
Somewhere in there Fist reached level 79.
Sunday was bracketed by another sporting event - Game #4 of the World Series. At least the Tigers put up the semblance of a fight, taking the lead twice before eventually bowing out of the contest. The 4-3 loss completed a string of personal losses that may never be broken (but could be extended): over the past few weeks I have seen the San Diego Chargers put together a string of three straight losses. I saw the St Louis Cardinals lose three straight, ending my hoped for trip to see a World Series game, and then watched four straight losses by the Detroit Tigers. For those counting, that is TEN straight sporting event losses. Somehow, it's probably my fault that the National Hockey League is on strike from fear that no team could win a game with me alive to jinx them. At least I can't jinx the Chargers game at home on Thursday night - I'm sure that game will be blacked out due to lack of interest by San Diegans after that miserable Browns game.
Fist, meanwhile, had to put all that sports stuff behind her and keep working. Grizzly Hills kept her fully occupied a very long time, but the gold mine finally petered out with Fist still a little short of her goal.
It was a little serendipitous, then, that Fist found herself heading for the Nessingway Base Camp in Sholozar Basin for her next stop. The Nessingway Camp is where Wild made it to level 80.
Along about midnight on Sunday, Fist also made level 80.
PS - When Fist got back to Dalaran after reaching level 80 - Gymer was STILL stuffed in the doorway of the Filthy Animal Inn. Fist patted the fat giant on the rump and went to bed.
Saturday Morning - Fist encountered a few hiccups getting started on Saturday morning. She had hearthed back to the Filthy Animal Inn at Dalaran, and when she rose the next morning, the entrance to the inn seemed to have disappeared! Fist didn't think she'd had anything alcoholic to drink, but then, if she couldn't remember drinking, that could be one sign she'd really drunk herself silly.
After a little investigation, however, she discovered the truth. Someone thought that it would be hilarious to block the entrance to the inn with a giant. That giant was apparently kited into the city and killed at the entrance to the inn. The poor fellows name was Gymer, King of the Storm Giants. Further research unearthed more information, no kiting was involved. Gymer, apparently, has been known to wander away from wherever he is in Dalaran. There have been no eyewitness sightings of anyone killing him, but numerous sightings of Gymer dead at various places around Dalaran. Gymer was once also found in the inn, quite alive, but unable to find his way out. One wonders what that is all about.
After letting that puzzle go, Fist got ready to head back out to Grizzly Hills. She still had choked bags to clean up, but even after clean up she still had too much stuff. Fist plodded over to the bank to drop off the mostly leathers of various types she has been collecting - but the bank was full! Not a single spot left open. Gah, now what? Fist had already dumped a bunch of leathers on Mery, and Mery said No Mas! Mery was annoyed enough that she was doing crafting for Fist that she could get no skill credit for because she needed to be level 65 to go above the 375 skill that Mery had maxed out at. Fist was none too happy hearing that, worried that she might be sidelined so that Mery could level from 60 to 65. That wasn't going to happen, both JB and Philly told Mery. The leatherworker in this family is going to be Fist. Sorry, Mery.
Fist was having trouble skilling up her leatherworking do to severe shortages of heavy leather. Fist had already made a trip to Dustwallow Marsh to farm the dinosaur packs and den of dragons (favorite spots to get heavy leather), which helped, but that takes time, and she needed a LOT of heavy leather.
Another approach would be to get some high end leatherworking bags to store all that leather stuff, making room for non-leatherworking items. Mery was tapped to check it out. Mery could make a 20 slot bag, but there was also a 28 slot bag that a vendor in Nagrand had the recipe for. Hoping to settle an unhappy Mery down, Mery was given a chance to get out of Orgrimmar and show off her wonderful towny outfit (complete with matching mount and pet, she always added) in Nagrand's Garadar. Mery enjoyed the trip, but unfortunately came back empty-handed. The vendor who had the recipe was in the Mag'har faction. What has that got to do with anything? Mery has not done the quests in Nagrand where the Mag'har are rediscovered and friendships made. The vendor was hostile to Mery.
So, what should have happened, is that Fist should have gone herself and then sent the recipe over to Mery to make. Sigh, the day is getting away from Fist and she hasn't earned a single experience point yet. But if you have to get something done, Fist sighed again, it's best to just do it yourself.
Fist took the portal from Dalaran to Orgrimmar, then the portal from Org to the Blasted Lands, and then the portal from the Blasted Lands to Hellfire Peninsula. She then hopped on her mount and flew to Garadar, where she had spent a lot of time getting friendly with the Mag'har. Fist found Provisioner Nasela easily enough (since Mery had already located her for Fist). After an "oh no!" moment when it looked like the recipe wasn't there, Fist found it. She got not only that recipe, but four others as well.
Feeling she was getting back on track, Fist sent off the recipe to Mery so she could make the 28 slot bag. Well, she thought she would send off the recipe. It was soulbound. Fist wanted to scream. She had another conversation with Mery, who had already said she had a recipe for a 20 slot Leatherworker's Satchel. The mats for it, though, would cost Fist a 100g off the AH. Pay it, Fist said, gritting her teeth, I'm good for it. Fist got her bag, and managed to shoe horn all of her "stuff" into the bank.
Fist had one more bungle to confess. When she is finally able to make that 28 slot bag, it won't be for leatherworking stuff. What? She just assumed that a bag made by a leatherworker would be for leather stuff. She completely ignored the name on the bag: Reinforced MINING Bag. Fist should have gone to bed earlier Friday night.
There was yet another delay to follow. Fist knew that she would quickly be stuck with overloaded storage again, given the amount of skinning she was doing. She needed that skinning to skill up her leatherworking, so she couldn't not do it. It appeared that Fist would have to go back to Dustwallow Marsh. But Wild came to her rescue, sort of. Wild was at the AH on other business, but, knowing Fist's plight, he checked on the price of heavy leather. To his surprise a good bit of it had been posted at prices way below what the seller could easily have gotten. Wild quickly snapped it up, cheap even by Wild's stingy standards (or he wouldn't have spent his own gold on it).
That, most unfortunately, created yet a new challenge. Wild has not organized his bags, like JB and Philly had been pushing him to do. Wild could not retrieve the leather from the mail because he had absolutely no where to put it.
Fist, who was getting more and more frustrated and antsy, picked on poor dead Gymer, loudly complaining to anyone who would listen - Would SOMEONE find a way to get Gymer's corpse out of the doorway! Yes, the giant's corpse was still draped over the entrance to the inn. There was nothing to do but make Wild tidy up his bags enough to be able to send Fist the leather. The whole morning shot.
Wild figured he could blow the whole afternoon, too, re-organizing his bags, in between naps. Once he got started, though, he kept at it. The first things to go were things he could vendor or destroy immediately - essentially, any gear that was not part of the current MoP set or under consideration for transmogging. That opened up a few slots in Wild's bags, but not many, since Wild had way too many ideas on what he wanted to do with mog sets. Sure, Wild could have probably sent along that leather Fist wanted at that point, but then Fist would have run off to play. Wild had gotten interested, and now Fist had to wait. It was a bit astonishing just how much gear Wild had held on to! Some of it went all the way back to vanilla WoW, such as trinkets, rings, etc, that were special rewards with no sale value, but made for good memories. Of all of that stuff (unsuitable for mogging), Wild decided to keep only the Tier 1 Cenarion set along with the Staff of Dominance which goes with that set. Wild also likes the Cata Tier set called Deep Earth, and has full sets for both healer and moonkin. Those will be kept. After that, though, things got a lot messier. Wild finally decided that it was a good time for a nap, sent Fist her leather, and made for his hammock. A good thing, too, because Wild has two bags in his bank full of feral gear that he hasn't even gotten to yet.
Once Fist heard that Wild had started snoring, she and Mery emptied every bag they had and managed to get enough heavy leather. It didn't take long to run that down, though, and Fist started on the gear made with thick leather. With Mery's help that held out a long time, but there was still not enough thick leather, now, to keep skilling up. Even with Mery's bank bags starting to look unusually empty, Fist had to call a halt. Fist's leatherworking is at 240, still well behind Mery's 375. Given how much time has passed, Fist decided to take Sin's earlier advice to let rested xp grow, wipe it out right before the baseball game, and then farm thick leather during the game.
Fist went at her leatherworking again after a trip to Un'Goro Crater. Fist didn't think she had much of an AoE attack for farming mobs, but she came upon a method that worked extremely well. She used her Crackling Jade Lightning spell, which has a 50yd range, to tag mobs. The spell is channeled, so Fist would just break the channel right after tagging the mob. Fist could then run around, tagging mobs, until she had gathered a crowd. Since the mobs were pulled from every direction, Fist had to get them lined up facing her, so she would do a fast roll to get ahead of them, turn, and as soon as the they got to her, she slammed them with Fists of Fury. Those that survived that melee range AoE assault were treated to another one, Spinning Crane Kick (which, incidentally, heals Fist). None of the various level 50-55+ mobs survived that. Fist is up to 260 skill in leatherworking, but is again out of leather. Now it's rugged leather that she is short of. I know engineering is tough to level, but the leatherworking profession is a serious pain. Fist is starting to wonder if Mery set her up, letting Fist do all the hard work so Mery could find an easier profession.
Later - The fog of leveling seems to have settled around Fist and it is getting very tough to keep track of day, zone, and quest. The notes written to jog the memory don't seem to help much. So, the following covers what dim memory there is, and the few things that stood out.
Fist remembers it raining in Un'Goro Crater killing things while the Chargers plowed through the rain and mud in Cleveland in a more hopeless adventure (San Diego Chargers debacle - losing to a 1-4 team with a final score of 7-6).
Fist loudly proclaiming that Leatherworking SUCKS! when she ran out of rugged leather at skill 270.
A level 55 paladin in the Crater, visiting from another server, who asked Fist if she could help him with the Lar'korwi quest. Fist had recently done the quest, but it had already become just one more blur of hundreds. But, sure, what else did she have to do? The paladin not only needed help, he needed someone to hold his hand. He had apparently never heard of wowhead, and was completely clueless. But it was a sincere cluelessness. After letting the paladin lead Fist around in circles for a few minutes, Fist called a halt. She checked on where Lar'korwi could be located, and led him to it. Fist waited for the paladin to do the ritual that would invoke Lar'korwi, but nothing happened. Finally, Fist asked him if he had the ingredients required. More long pauses. Fist suggested that there was meat involved. The paladin must have had much larger bags than anyone in WoW, because it took an endless time for him to look. When he finally acknowledged that he didn't see anything that might be what was needed, he mumbled, "I must be really stupid." Fist sighed, but, she's been there before, baffled by what was supposed to a simple quest. Fist then remembered that the meat actually came in a pouch. She asked the paladin to look for that. Another long wait, and then the paladin exclaimed, "I found it!" Fist then had the paladin place the pouch on the handy rock there for that purpose, and low and behold, Lar'Korwi came. Fist waited for the paladin to tag the beast so that he would get credit for the kill. When he did get it tagged Fist was going to help kill it faster, but for some reason the beast did not grey out like it should have, and Fist did not want to mess up a proper kill - which would force the paladin to have to do the whole darn thing over again. Instead, Fist played healer from his limited arsenal of such, mostly popping a healing bulb on him when necessary. I don't know what gear he was wearing, but it took him a good while to finally finish off the level 52 non-elite and collect the head. The paladin was extremely grateful, and Fist rather enjoyed the break from killing endless dinosaurs and losing football.
Somewhere along the way Fist went back to the Grizzly Hills to continue questing. It's a big zone with several quest hubs. The one quest that stands out - due to Fist's fuzzy ineptitude - was the Ursoc quest. Usroc is a monstrous elite bear. The quest provides a bearish helper to aid in the fight, but unlike the modified quests that gutted every other elite quest Fist has tackled, this one appeared to be the original. The helper (yes, he has a name, but who ever remembers the "helper?") can be asked to help DPS or heal. Fist chose DPS, and the two other trotted down a mountain lane to the dead end where Ursoc appeared. Fist mangled up a first attempt, not fast enough or smart enough at using his limited healing abilities. Fist got Ursoc down to under 10%, but Fist died.
On the second attempt, Fist did great, and while it was a tough fight, it was Ursoc who died. Ecstatic, Fist automatically skinned him, like she does without a thought on every beast she kills. The problem was that Fist needed the carcass to complete the quest. Sigh.
For the third attempt, Fist opted to make the helper a healer, just for something different. That turned out to be easier, and Fist finally got both the kill and the quest completion. It was nice to find a quest that put up a bit of a fight.
Somewhere in there Fist reached level 79.
Sunday was bracketed by another sporting event - Game #4 of the World Series. At least the Tigers put up the semblance of a fight, taking the lead twice before eventually bowing out of the contest. The 4-3 loss completed a string of personal losses that may never be broken (but could be extended): over the past few weeks I have seen the San Diego Chargers put together a string of three straight losses. I saw the St Louis Cardinals lose three straight, ending my hoped for trip to see a World Series game, and then watched four straight losses by the Detroit Tigers. For those counting, that is TEN straight sporting event losses. Somehow, it's probably my fault that the National Hockey League is on strike from fear that no team could win a game with me alive to jinx them. At least I can't jinx the Chargers game at home on Thursday night - I'm sure that game will be blacked out due to lack of interest by San Diegans after that miserable Browns game.
Fist, meanwhile, had to put all that sports stuff behind her and keep working. Grizzly Hills kept her fully occupied a very long time, but the gold mine finally petered out with Fist still a little short of her goal.
It was a little serendipitous, then, that Fist found herself heading for the Nessingway Base Camp in Sholozar Basin for her next stop. The Nessingway Camp is where Wild made it to level 80.
Along about midnight on Sunday, Fist also made level 80.
PS - When Fist got back to Dalaran after reaching level 80 - Gymer was STILL stuffed in the doorway of the Filthy Animal Inn. Fist patted the fat giant on the rump and went to bed.
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Weekend Part One (26 Oct) - The Grizzly Hills
Weekend Part One (26 Oct) - The Grizzly Hills
Santa Anna winds came at us Thursday night and it was stifling hot. It will hopefully blow itself out in a few days. This tome will be getting rather long rather fast, so expect the weekend progress report to be in more than one piece.
Friday - Fist kept herself busy with quests in Grizzly Hills, and then got a chance at some dungeons with level 90 priest Lao. The two slaughtered their way through Gundrak and Drak'Theron Keep with no difficulties other than getting a little lost a couple of times. It had been a long time since the doors of those dungeons had been cracked open. Fist's bags were bulging by the time they were through. She picked up four pieces of gear upgrades.
Fist specced as mistweaver/healer for the run. She remembered to switch to her healing gear set ... but it took a few battles for a confused Fist to figure out why none of her healing spells worked. Monks have stances, and Fist was using the wrong stance. With that corrected, Fist could play around with her healing and DPSing against mobs that hardly lasted long enough for Fist to get in trouble with - Lao is a very efficient killer.
Fist first worked with the spells that provided dps healing: any dps other than auto-attacks generate healing for those nearby; using Blackout Kick every thirty seconds maintains a healing buff as well; and then there is Fist's statue which also generates healing, but which Fist didn't drop because they were never in one place long enough for it to have any effect. These are all relatively low level melee range AoE heals, taking care of low level incoming damage while allowing the monk to dps.
Fist also picked on mobs that weren't already quaking against Lao, and worked on spells to keep herself alive - which was immediate once they aggroed on her. Fist's main goal was just to start recognizing the spells and what they did. That's still a work in progress. Fist did teeter with death at least twice by taking chances in order to learn how things worked ... which wasn't so bad since both of them could rez if necessary - not that there was any chance of Lao dying.
Fist is hoping to have time to make a lot more progress over the weekend. Is level 80 a possibility? Maybe not, but it's a nice goal to go after. With Lao's help, Fist is now at level 76.
Friday Night - Fist had a big night prowling dungeons with level 90 druid Sin. Fist and Sin were up until the wee hours of the morning (after 1am), so Fist will have to be forgiven if she can't exactly recall where they went. As best as she can remember, though, the two took on the Halls of Origination (84-85 level), and two others, Halls of Lightning and Halls of Stone, I think. They did one of those dungeons three times and would have done more but Sin maxed out the number of dungeon runs he could do in a single day. If that restriction hadn't been placed on them, they might STILL be dungeon crawling.
It was crazy fun. Fist died a few times, but she happily whaled away, and even soloed a few elites that were too terrified of Sin to engage him. On the last run, Sin attempted, and perhaps achieved, a maniacal plan to aggro every single mob and boss in the entire dungeon. Fist stayed well out of the way of that, at least until the tsunami of hostiles followed Sin back to where Fist was hiding ... uh, waiting to engage. Engage Fist did, and it was blood and guts spilled all over the place.
Fist had a good head start on getting to level 77 when they started the dungeon runs, and by the end of the night Fist had reached level 78.
Santa Anna winds came at us Thursday night and it was stifling hot. It will hopefully blow itself out in a few days. This tome will be getting rather long rather fast, so expect the weekend progress report to be in more than one piece.
Friday - Fist kept herself busy with quests in Grizzly Hills, and then got a chance at some dungeons with level 90 priest Lao. The two slaughtered their way through Gundrak and Drak'Theron Keep with no difficulties other than getting a little lost a couple of times. It had been a long time since the doors of those dungeons had been cracked open. Fist's bags were bulging by the time they were through. She picked up four pieces of gear upgrades.
Fist specced as mistweaver/healer for the run. She remembered to switch to her healing gear set ... but it took a few battles for a confused Fist to figure out why none of her healing spells worked. Monks have stances, and Fist was using the wrong stance. With that corrected, Fist could play around with her healing and DPSing against mobs that hardly lasted long enough for Fist to get in trouble with - Lao is a very efficient killer.
Fist first worked with the spells that provided dps healing: any dps other than auto-attacks generate healing for those nearby; using Blackout Kick every thirty seconds maintains a healing buff as well; and then there is Fist's statue which also generates healing, but which Fist didn't drop because they were never in one place long enough for it to have any effect. These are all relatively low level melee range AoE heals, taking care of low level incoming damage while allowing the monk to dps.
Fist also picked on mobs that weren't already quaking against Lao, and worked on spells to keep herself alive - which was immediate once they aggroed on her. Fist's main goal was just to start recognizing the spells and what they did. That's still a work in progress. Fist did teeter with death at least twice by taking chances in order to learn how things worked ... which wasn't so bad since both of them could rez if necessary - not that there was any chance of Lao dying.
Fist is hoping to have time to make a lot more progress over the weekend. Is level 80 a possibility? Maybe not, but it's a nice goal to go after. With Lao's help, Fist is now at level 76.
Friday Night - Fist had a big night prowling dungeons with level 90 druid Sin. Fist and Sin were up until the wee hours of the morning (after 1am), so Fist will have to be forgiven if she can't exactly recall where they went. As best as she can remember, though, the two took on the Halls of Origination (84-85 level), and two others, Halls of Lightning and Halls of Stone, I think. They did one of those dungeons three times and would have done more but Sin maxed out the number of dungeon runs he could do in a single day. If that restriction hadn't been placed on them, they might STILL be dungeon crawling.
It was crazy fun. Fist died a few times, but she happily whaled away, and even soloed a few elites that were too terrified of Sin to engage him. On the last run, Sin attempted, and perhaps achieved, a maniacal plan to aggro every single mob and boss in the entire dungeon. Fist stayed well out of the way of that, at least until the tsunami of hostiles followed Sin back to where Fist was hiding ... uh, waiting to engage. Engage Fist did, and it was blood and guts spilled all over the place.
Fist had a good head start on getting to level 77 when they started the dungeon runs, and by the end of the night Fist had reached level 78.
Friday, October 26, 2012
Thursday (25 Oct) - A Look at Mistweaver
Thursday (25 Oct) - A Look at Mistweaver
Fist spent a little time cleaning up a few last quests in Borean Tundra. She had completed the Coldarra area earlier, and all she had left were the murlocs, which didn't take very long to wrap up. She had a few choices for her next target. Wild took the time to go to the other starter zone, Howling Fjord, in order to see the new zone. Fist had no interest in a zone that maxes out at level 72. Dragonblight would be the next zone in terms of level difficulty, and that is where the city of Dalaran is also located. Fist said "ehh" to that idea, too. Looking for something moderately more challenging, and a zone that was fun to do, Fist pointed to level 73-75 Grizzly Hills.
The main horde encampment in Grizzly Hills is Conquest Hold. Fist was able to fly directly from Dalaran to Conquest Hold. Fist is level 75.
Fist had every intention of banging out a bunch of quests after the baseball game (LOSERS! oops, did I say that out loud? Tigers lost 2-0). However, having mentioned that Fist was considering using the mistweaver healing spec the next time she could do a dungeon run, Fist figured she'd better at least get the basic UI, spells, glyphs, etc taken care of. Fist had this hope that the mistweaver spells could be compared to druid spells in order to help learn what they did faster. Ha. Mistweaver spec has TWELVE new spells related to healing that Fist had never seen when in windwalker spec. TWELVE. Oh my.
The Icy Veins website did a good job of breaking things down, but this is a really new way to heal. Unlike a druid, who uses mana in healing spec (like every other healing spec) and energy in feral spec (or whatever, Wild couldn't find his feral spec if it leaped from stealth and raked him). Monks have to use both mana and chi to heal. Monks also DPS to heal, which is truly novel, so not only does Fist's spell bar have to have room for all those healing spells, she still needs her main set of dps abilities in order to function correctly as a healer. No other class heals at melee range, and no other class is expected to DPS while performing the healing role.
This is pretty interesting. Complicated, weird, but enticing. Spell casting is very conditional and interlocking, involving heals, dps, and a number of buffs and cooldowns that interact. Fist spent the evening reading up on them and getting a logical user interface setup in place; ie, finding homes on her buttons and bars for all those spells in a way that made sense. And then playing with those spells.
I'm afraid to say, though, that Fist never managed to get out of Conquest Hold to do any questing. She'll be back at the grind tomorrow.
Fist spent a little time cleaning up a few last quests in Borean Tundra. She had completed the Coldarra area earlier, and all she had left were the murlocs, which didn't take very long to wrap up. She had a few choices for her next target. Wild took the time to go to the other starter zone, Howling Fjord, in order to see the new zone. Fist had no interest in a zone that maxes out at level 72. Dragonblight would be the next zone in terms of level difficulty, and that is where the city of Dalaran is also located. Fist said "ehh" to that idea, too. Looking for something moderately more challenging, and a zone that was fun to do, Fist pointed to level 73-75 Grizzly Hills.
The main horde encampment in Grizzly Hills is Conquest Hold. Fist was able to fly directly from Dalaran to Conquest Hold. Fist is level 75.
Fist had every intention of banging out a bunch of quests after the baseball game (LOSERS! oops, did I say that out loud? Tigers lost 2-0). However, having mentioned that Fist was considering using the mistweaver healing spec the next time she could do a dungeon run, Fist figured she'd better at least get the basic UI, spells, glyphs, etc taken care of. Fist had this hope that the mistweaver spells could be compared to druid spells in order to help learn what they did faster. Ha. Mistweaver spec has TWELVE new spells related to healing that Fist had never seen when in windwalker spec. TWELVE. Oh my.
The Icy Veins website did a good job of breaking things down, but this is a really new way to heal. Unlike a druid, who uses mana in healing spec (like every other healing spec) and energy in feral spec (or whatever, Wild couldn't find his feral spec if it leaped from stealth and raked him). Monks have to use both mana and chi to heal. Monks also DPS to heal, which is truly novel, so not only does Fist's spell bar have to have room for all those healing spells, she still needs her main set of dps abilities in order to function correctly as a healer. No other class heals at melee range, and no other class is expected to DPS while performing the healing role.
This is pretty interesting. Complicated, weird, but enticing. Spell casting is very conditional and interlocking, involving heals, dps, and a number of buffs and cooldowns that interact. Fist spent the evening reading up on them and getting a logical user interface setup in place; ie, finding homes on her buttons and bars for all those spells in a way that made sense. And then playing with those spells.
I'm afraid to say, though, that Fist never managed to get out of Conquest Hold to do any questing. She'll be back at the grind tomorrow.
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Tuesday (23 Oct) - Spiders!
Tuesday (23 Oct) - Spiders!
Fist enjoyed her Burning Crusade dungeon runs (up to level 70) with JB, and was eager for more opportunities. With Lao's assistance, Fist moved up to the dungeons of Wrath of the Lich (up to level 80). They chose the spider dungeon, Azjol-Nerub (level 74), in Dragonblight. Wild remembers this dungeon mainly for having to scramble about on large nets of spider webs, hunting for hard to see holes that pass for passageways to deeper levels.
Early in the run, Fist, at level 73, figured she could help by doing a little dps. Her healing abilities in windwalker spec were almost nil, made worst by the fact that one of her two healing spells required Chi, which could only be generated through combat. After getting swatted and bitten a few times, Fist decided her best approach was to stay out of the way as level 90 Lao cut a swath of death through the mobs and bosses.
No matter the level, some boss fights can be tricky. There was the bug boss, for example, that would burrow underground and then pop back up in random places. Fist had to stay on her toes to keep from finding a big bug bursting out of the ground under her feet. Lao wisely kept a shield up around Fist during that short battle.
The dungeon run did finish off the three bosses, but their plan to do more than one dungeon had to be curtailed due to real life intrusion, and Fist had to leave. Fist had started the dungeon 18% of the way to level 74, and the dungeon kills doubled that number, to 36%. Later on, Fist returned to the dungeon to turn in the three quests she had completed. With help from the monk buff, Fist's xp leaped from 36% to 65%. Fist also gained two fine pieces of gear.
Much later in the evening, Fist was able to return to Borean Tundra to hammer out a basketful of more quests. Like Outland, the Northrend questing seems to be unchanged from when Wild did them. It's still early, though, Borean Tundra being a "starter" zone for level 70s, and Fist has yet to encounter a quest with an elite to defeat (ie, to see if elite quests had been dumbed down to non-elite like the Nessingway quests in Outland).
Fist hearthed back to Dalaran, having reached level 74.
I think for future dungeon runs Fist will switch to healing spec (mistweaver) so that she can more easily take care of her own health and still do some DPS. That is one of the great advantages of being a monk, and Fist needs to spend more time working on that. Her mistweaver gear is not as good as her windwalker gear, but it's as good as the quest rewards she has gotten, which is not bad.
As Fist continues to pursue ever higher levels, the length of time to complete each level gets longer. Fist started with an average three levels a day, slid to two per day when she hit the 60s and has slowed to a single level per day now that she is in her 70s and in Northrend. Fist will try to at least maintain that, but even that pace is not likely possible once she transitions out of Wrath and into the Cataclysm expansion, levels 80-85. At least there are only five levels instead of ten.
Steady as she goes, as the Navy would say.
Fist enjoyed her Burning Crusade dungeon runs (up to level 70) with JB, and was eager for more opportunities. With Lao's assistance, Fist moved up to the dungeons of Wrath of the Lich (up to level 80). They chose the spider dungeon, Azjol-Nerub (level 74), in Dragonblight. Wild remembers this dungeon mainly for having to scramble about on large nets of spider webs, hunting for hard to see holes that pass for passageways to deeper levels.
Early in the run, Fist, at level 73, figured she could help by doing a little dps. Her healing abilities in windwalker spec were almost nil, made worst by the fact that one of her two healing spells required Chi, which could only be generated through combat. After getting swatted and bitten a few times, Fist decided her best approach was to stay out of the way as level 90 Lao cut a swath of death through the mobs and bosses.
No matter the level, some boss fights can be tricky. There was the bug boss, for example, that would burrow underground and then pop back up in random places. Fist had to stay on her toes to keep from finding a big bug bursting out of the ground under her feet. Lao wisely kept a shield up around Fist during that short battle.
The dungeon run did finish off the three bosses, but their plan to do more than one dungeon had to be curtailed due to real life intrusion, and Fist had to leave. Fist had started the dungeon 18% of the way to level 74, and the dungeon kills doubled that number, to 36%. Later on, Fist returned to the dungeon to turn in the three quests she had completed. With help from the monk buff, Fist's xp leaped from 36% to 65%. Fist also gained two fine pieces of gear.
Much later in the evening, Fist was able to return to Borean Tundra to hammer out a basketful of more quests. Like Outland, the Northrend questing seems to be unchanged from when Wild did them. It's still early, though, Borean Tundra being a "starter" zone for level 70s, and Fist has yet to encounter a quest with an elite to defeat (ie, to see if elite quests had been dumbed down to non-elite like the Nessingway quests in Outland).
Fist hearthed back to Dalaran, having reached level 74.
I think for future dungeon runs Fist will switch to healing spec (mistweaver) so that she can more easily take care of her own health and still do some DPS. That is one of the great advantages of being a monk, and Fist needs to spend more time working on that. Her mistweaver gear is not as good as her windwalker gear, but it's as good as the quest rewards she has gotten, which is not bad.
As Fist continues to pursue ever higher levels, the length of time to complete each level gets longer. Fist started with an average three levels a day, slid to two per day when she hit the 60s and has slowed to a single level per day now that she is in her 70s and in Northrend. Fist will try to at least maintain that, but even that pace is not likely possible once she transitions out of Wrath and into the Cataclysm expansion, levels 80-85. At least there are only five levels instead of ten.
Steady as she goes, as the Navy would say.
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Monday (22 Oct) - Another Milestone for Fist
Monday (22 Oct) - Another Milestone for Fist
First off, the St Louis Cardinals completed their self-dismemberment by losing a third straight game and failing to return to the World Series. I will not be watching the World Series from the stands in St Louis. I considered a trip to San Francisco, instead, but, honestly, the point was to see the game with my uncle, and he's not able to make it to either San Francisco or Detroit. I can't be too down, though, my Detroit Tigers are in the World Series!
Now, on the Warcraft front:
Fist didn't mean to drown. It was a simple quest to kill a beast named Leviroth. (1) Fly to the location of the sea monster, (2) take a quick swim, (3) stab the beast with the conveniently provided trident, and (4) kill it and return. Parts one, two, and three went swimmingly. Part four ... well, another computer lock left Fist still holding the trident jabbed into the beast, and Fist still underwater. Fist couldn't say for sure whether it was Leviroth that killed her, or she simply drowned, but dead she certainly was when I got the computer back up. Now it's happening in Northrend as well as in Outland. These lockups are getting worrisomely serious.
I switched to the backup computer and will stay with that one long enough to see if the problem crops up again. I kind of hope it does, which would tell me it's a WoW problem, and not a computer problem (ie, my problem).
Fist kept busy in Borean Tundra. There are a lot of separate quest hubs, which made for steady questing. They were all familiar and Fist felt right at home. Fist rolled over to level 72 during the evening. She was in a zone and barely paid it any attention.
Along about midnight she reached level 73.
Naithipe made a point to congratulate her daughter Fist. Naithipe doesn't generally talk about her own status or proficiencies, but this was a special case.
Fist has now passed her mother. There is no one left ahead of her other than Wild, JB, and Philly.
First off, the St Louis Cardinals completed their self-dismemberment by losing a third straight game and failing to return to the World Series. I will not be watching the World Series from the stands in St Louis. I considered a trip to San Francisco, instead, but, honestly, the point was to see the game with my uncle, and he's not able to make it to either San Francisco or Detroit. I can't be too down, though, my Detroit Tigers are in the World Series!
Now, on the Warcraft front:
Fist didn't mean to drown. It was a simple quest to kill a beast named Leviroth. (1) Fly to the location of the sea monster, (2) take a quick swim, (3) stab the beast with the conveniently provided trident, and (4) kill it and return. Parts one, two, and three went swimmingly. Part four ... well, another computer lock left Fist still holding the trident jabbed into the beast, and Fist still underwater. Fist couldn't say for sure whether it was Leviroth that killed her, or she simply drowned, but dead she certainly was when I got the computer back up. Now it's happening in Northrend as well as in Outland. These lockups are getting worrisomely serious.
I switched to the backup computer and will stay with that one long enough to see if the problem crops up again. I kind of hope it does, which would tell me it's a WoW problem, and not a computer problem (ie, my problem).
Fist kept busy in Borean Tundra. There are a lot of separate quest hubs, which made for steady questing. They were all familiar and Fist felt right at home. Fist rolled over to level 72 during the evening. She was in a zone and barely paid it any attention.
Along about midnight she reached level 73.
Naithipe made a point to congratulate her daughter Fist. Naithipe doesn't generally talk about her own status or proficiencies, but this was a special case.
Fist has now passed her mother. There is no one left ahead of her other than Wild, JB, and Philly.
Monday, October 22, 2012
Sunday (21 Oct) - Another Lost Baseball Game
Sunday (21 Oct) - Another Lost Baseball Game
Note: Since Friday's post was getting to be too long, I posted the first part on Saturday (called "Durn The Silly Hungerer"). This post is a follow-on to the Saturday post. The Cards are determined to sink all of my World Series plans. They lost again Sunday night. Tonight's game is game 7, their last chance.
Fist wanted another guided dungeon tour. I had the two computer setup ready, so JB agreed to give it another go. This time they went with the Auchindoun dungeons in Terokkar Forest, Outland. Fist and JB started with Auchindoun Crypts. This was only a two boss dungeon with a pretty straightforward path. It took them about thirty minutes to clear it. Having two computers greatly speeded things up, and gave time for Fist to pick up loot as well. There was a little left brain-right brain confusion going on. JB was on the main computer, which is the right hand monitor, using my left hand mouse. Fist was on the other computer, with the monitor on the left and using my right hand mouse. Try keeping that straight!
Since the Crypts were so easy, we decided to graduate to the level 65-70 Shadow Labyrinth. That took quite a bit more time, as there were many, many groups of mobs to wade through. In The Refectory, we came upon a cathedral like room with three large sections of pews. All three sections were filled with mobs. JB cleared a wide path down the middle. JB and Fist engaged the boss up on the dais, and he went down with no fuss. Then ... oh boy, some of you might have experienced this ... then everyone in the pews that they hadn't killed rose up and attacked both JB and Fist. There were a LOT of them, and JB could not keep Fist healed fast enough and still kill mobs. Fist died, and JB banged away until the last of them fell. That was an "oops, sorry Fist" moment.
All that work took about an hour and a half. Fist gained 40% of the way to level 71, which was a little disappointing. Fist picked up nine blue gear off of bosses. Fist won two very nice pieces of agi gear - [Raven-Heart Headdress] and [Auchenai Monk's Tunic] - but those are head and chest pieces, and Fist has heirloom gear in those slots. If only they had been +int pieces! Sigh. Fist will be able to wear [Spymistress's Boots], although it's base +agi is 21 agi less than what she's wearing now. The new boots have two sockets, though, which make them better overall.
The dungeon runs were fun, and Fist got a few achievements out of it. Unfortunately, it's hard to justify ninety minutes of effort for one piece of gear and a gain of less than half a level, particularly when questing rewards in a 70+ zone are better than the xp gained in a 70 and below dungeon.
The night wasn't over, though. Fist returned to Borean Tundra and Warsong Hold, and tore through the next set of quests. The one irritating quest was one where Fist had to rescue tainted kodos, riding them back to the quest giver. Ten kodo saves in ten minutes was the requirement. Fist delivered 12 within the ten minute timer, each one getting a notice that the kodo had been saved, but Fist did not get the completion. Sigh. Fist abandoned the quest and moved on.
Fist finished the evening at level 71.
Note: Since Friday's post was getting to be too long, I posted the first part on Saturday (called "Durn The Silly Hungerer"). This post is a follow-on to the Saturday post. The Cards are determined to sink all of my World Series plans. They lost again Sunday night. Tonight's game is game 7, their last chance.
Fist wanted another guided dungeon tour. I had the two computer setup ready, so JB agreed to give it another go. This time they went with the Auchindoun dungeons in Terokkar Forest, Outland. Fist and JB started with Auchindoun Crypts. This was only a two boss dungeon with a pretty straightforward path. It took them about thirty minutes to clear it. Having two computers greatly speeded things up, and gave time for Fist to pick up loot as well. There was a little left brain-right brain confusion going on. JB was on the main computer, which is the right hand monitor, using my left hand mouse. Fist was on the other computer, with the monitor on the left and using my right hand mouse. Try keeping that straight!
Since the Crypts were so easy, we decided to graduate to the level 65-70 Shadow Labyrinth. That took quite a bit more time, as there were many, many groups of mobs to wade through. In The Refectory, we came upon a cathedral like room with three large sections of pews. All three sections were filled with mobs. JB cleared a wide path down the middle. JB and Fist engaged the boss up on the dais, and he went down with no fuss. Then ... oh boy, some of you might have experienced this ... then everyone in the pews that they hadn't killed rose up and attacked both JB and Fist. There were a LOT of them, and JB could not keep Fist healed fast enough and still kill mobs. Fist died, and JB banged away until the last of them fell. That was an "oops, sorry Fist" moment.
All that work took about an hour and a half. Fist gained 40% of the way to level 71, which was a little disappointing. Fist picked up nine blue gear off of bosses. Fist won two very nice pieces of agi gear - [Raven-Heart Headdress] and [Auchenai Monk's Tunic] - but those are head and chest pieces, and Fist has heirloom gear in those slots. If only they had been +int pieces! Sigh. Fist will be able to wear [Spymistress's Boots], although it's base +agi is 21 agi less than what she's wearing now. The new boots have two sockets, though, which make them better overall.
The dungeon runs were fun, and Fist got a few achievements out of it. Unfortunately, it's hard to justify ninety minutes of effort for one piece of gear and a gain of less than half a level, particularly when questing rewards in a 70+ zone are better than the xp gained in a 70 and below dungeon.
The night wasn't over, though. Fist returned to Borean Tundra and Warsong Hold, and tore through the next set of quests. The one irritating quest was one where Fist had to rescue tainted kodos, riding them back to the quest giver. Ten kodo saves in ten minutes was the requirement. Fist delivered 12 within the ten minute timer, each one getting a notice that the kodo had been saved, but Fist did not get the completion. Sigh. Fist abandoned the quest and moved on.
Fist finished the evening at level 71.
Saturday, October 20, 2012
Friday Plus (20 Oct) - Durn The Silly Hungerer
Friday Plus (20 Oct) - Durn The Silly Hungerer
As much as Wild loves Nagrand, the only things that Fist are going to remember there were how bugged Outland was and the emasculation of the elite prey that was the cornerstone of the Nessingway safari. In Wild's day Durn the Hungerer was a very dangerous elite that strode a path through Nagrand, keeping everyone at bay. Durn had a train of other mobs with him, and killing him was truly a feat. Durn, like all the other elites of Outland it seems (outside of dungeons), has been neutered down to a normal level 67. It's actually pretty sad and pathetic.
The "bugs" in Outland are of the computer kind. Four times now, the game has frozen up while in Outland. A complete reboot is required to get it running again. This is very frustrating and time wasting. I don't know if this is a known issue, but it really needs to be fixed. Fist has reached level 68 and has access to Northrend. She's tempted to move on out of Outland. She's already done (or mostly done) her three favorite Outland zones: Hellfire Peninsula, Zangarmarsh, and Nagrand. I'd rather Fist already be level 70 before hitting Northrend, but ... we'll see what Fist wants to do.
Saturday Morning - Well, the Cardinals failed to clinch the National League title last night, throwing all of my World Series plans off kilter. The next game isn't until Sunday, just three days before the start of the Series. Hopefully, I can get a late flight at a good price; otherwise, I could be doing some very long driving.
Anyway, the good news is that Fist could now do some questing on Saturday, at least. Fist warily returned to Nagrand in Outland after getting her daily one hour monk buff. I think the Zen Masters are getting tired of losing to her ... Fist has started to hear murderous grumbling under their breath with each defeated bow.
Back in Nagrand, Fist had two last animal kill quests, which she completed. That set the stage for Emet Nessingway's big safari - four special beasts. It's the highlight of Nagrand. All four of those monster elites were dumbed down to normal, not elite, taking all the life out of the hunt.
That wrapped up the questing in Nagrand. Fist got through it without a computer crash, and turning in that last kill got her to level 69.
It's time for Fist to move on, leaving the Burning Crusade's Outland and pushing forward into the Wrath of the Lich King's Northrend. It should prove challenging.
But wait! Fist remembered a suggestion Sin had made to level through dungeon runs. One way would be for Fist to queue up for random dungeons. She probably wouldn't be too awfully bad, and it would be good practice. Another way would be get some help from the Wild family. JB volunteered. The two decided to start with something simple. Fist's first dungeon would be The Underbog, one of three dungeons in Coilfang Reservoir, Zangarmarsh. JB and Wild were both very familiar with that dungeon, and Wild had even made a video of him soloing it (a long time ago).
My first mistake was to use the same computer for both Fist and JB. That meant I had to do screen swapping, and could only operate one of them at a time. I didn't think that would be an issue, unless Fist got tangled up. Fist did just fine. However, screen swapping was pretty slow, and it made cutting through the dungeon a much longer slog than expected. The two cleared the Underbog easily, though. Fist, freshly minted as a level 69, padded her way behind JB to earn 24% progress toward level 70. Hmm, almost an hour for 24%. Hmm, again.
Fist said she was having fun, though, so they decided to delve into the second dungeon in Coilfang, The Steamvaults. I like the changes that have been made with the dungeon maps. The static, unchanging maps Wild was used to are gone, replaced with interactive maps that show player position, boss locations, and even quest points. Very nice. The Steamvaults have a little quirk that I'd forgotten. The first boss is behind a locked door. JB figured correctly that they would need to kill the other two bosses first, and they proceeded to do that. They even remembered to set the main switch (or something) on the Mechanar fight. JB and Fist trooped back to the first boss, but the door was still locked! Darn. Ok, now I remember, there is another switch behind the other boss we had already killed. JB told Fist to hang tight outside the locked door (we had cleared all the trash mobs and the patrols in the area). To speed things up, JB dropped into wolf form and trotted off.
That worked almost perfectly. Almost. When JB tripped the second switch, the locked door not only unlocked, it opened. That's good, right? Yea, except that four elites marched out that door, and JB was a long way from making it back to Fist. Fist didn't stand a chance. Fist had to run/swim back to Coilfang from the graveyard. JB met her at the door of the Steamvaults, and they went back and killed that third boss. Steamvaults got Fist 49% of the way to level 70.
Should we do another, Fist asked? Why the hell not, the last one is right next door. Fist and JB entered the Slave Pens. That one went slowly, too, but easily. There was one quest where we had to find two npcs, but they weren't hard to find.
Fist finished the Slave Pens 69% of the way to level 70.
The two could have gone back and done the dungeons again, but with all of the one time quests completed, the xp would have been less than the first runs. Both rested xp and the monk buff had expired as well.
Fist got to keep all of the quest rewards and boss drops, but the RNG didn't give her much. Ten bosses total, I think, and she got one usable piece for her healing gear, but nothing for her DPS gear. Mostly the gear was mail, which JB would have loved to have - 15 levels ago. Fist seemed happiest with the pretty blue cape she kept for her Towny garb.
The next time I try to two toon it, I'm going to use both computers and see if that speeds things up. Of course, I'll need to update the game on the second computer. Wonder how long that will take. After updating the launcher, it went into "reconfiguring game files . . . "
Maybe NOW Fist will make that trip to Northrend?
There was a little bit of work going on with other members of the Wild Family. JB and Philly both had to sort through a ton of old, really old, and soon to be old gear. Philly was the most practical. She made sure she had equipped the best pieces of gear, and vendored the rest. The only extra gear she kept was her pvp gear. However, since all of Philly's new MoP gear is much higher level than the pvp stuff, I imagine she will toss pvp stuff and use her regular gear for pvp, until she can get the MoP pvp stuff. Philly is not into transmogging, but she did hold on to three weapons she likes the look of, just in case.
With JB it was a whole 'nuther story. JB really likes the look of her Cata gear, and intends to use that gear for a transmog set. However, the Auction House has not been kind to JB, and she is still forced to use a lot of her Cata gear. JB had held on to a lot of other stuff, too, so it took considerable time to sort out what gear was for enhancement spec, what gear was for elemental spec, what gear was not being used but was needed for transmog, etc. JB's bags were a mess, too, since her mailbox was being constantly flooded. A flooded mailbox was a good thing! but JB struggled to process it all.
At the end of the day, though, both JB and Philly had well organized sets of gear and a cleaned out set of bags - should the impulse to pvp or pve suddenly overtake them.
Noticed that Wild wasn't mentioned? Wild's situation is even worse, since he started into MoP before doing any housekeeping. Wild was able to stave off the girls by declaring that they hadn't done any cleanup, either. Now that's not true anymore, and Wild is going to have to work harder - at finding places to stretch out his hammock away from meddling JB and Philly. Wild does want to get at that, and plans his own transmog set, but Wild knows he is going to have a heck of a time deciding what gear to give up. Of course, there is Void Storage. A hundred gold to open it, and 25g for each item placed in it. Imagine someone who filled all eighty slots - that's 2,100 gold to store useless items with "sentimental" value. Yea, Wild will probably open a void storage.
Late Saturday Night - Fist was too fidgety to call it a night, and groused at the wasted time JB and Philly spent. She pulled up stakes at Shattrath, took the portal back to Org, and grabbed the zep to Borean Tundra, Northrend. The fortress of Warsong Hold was under perpetual bug assault, and Fist was just another foot soldier (also known as cannon fodder) thrown at them. Fists first encounter with a level 70 bug took some extra shots to cut down, and Fist had a moment of worry that things had become a few notches tougher. Her second kill cleared Fist's head of such notions - that bug went down quickly, and soon Fist was stacking the oozing exoskeletons three and four carcasses as a time. Her health took a teeter downward on some of the more lively battles, but Fist didn't back down.
After turning in a bushel of quests, Fist DINGED! to level 70. Another milestone. Tired and gooey, Fist accepted a flight to Dalaran, the major city of Northrend. There she set her hearth at The Filthy Animal Inn (appropriate, given the state of her gear). Just outside the inn was a convenient portal to Orgrimmar. Same setup, just a new zone and a new city. The march to level 80 begins.
As much as Wild loves Nagrand, the only things that Fist are going to remember there were how bugged Outland was and the emasculation of the elite prey that was the cornerstone of the Nessingway safari. In Wild's day Durn the Hungerer was a very dangerous elite that strode a path through Nagrand, keeping everyone at bay. Durn had a train of other mobs with him, and killing him was truly a feat. Durn, like all the other elites of Outland it seems (outside of dungeons), has been neutered down to a normal level 67. It's actually pretty sad and pathetic.
The "bugs" in Outland are of the computer kind. Four times now, the game has frozen up while in Outland. A complete reboot is required to get it running again. This is very frustrating and time wasting. I don't know if this is a known issue, but it really needs to be fixed. Fist has reached level 68 and has access to Northrend. She's tempted to move on out of Outland. She's already done (or mostly done) her three favorite Outland zones: Hellfire Peninsula, Zangarmarsh, and Nagrand. I'd rather Fist already be level 70 before hitting Northrend, but ... we'll see what Fist wants to do.
Saturday Morning - Well, the Cardinals failed to clinch the National League title last night, throwing all of my World Series plans off kilter. The next game isn't until Sunday, just three days before the start of the Series. Hopefully, I can get a late flight at a good price; otherwise, I could be doing some very long driving.
Anyway, the good news is that Fist could now do some questing on Saturday, at least. Fist warily returned to Nagrand in Outland after getting her daily one hour monk buff. I think the Zen Masters are getting tired of losing to her ... Fist has started to hear murderous grumbling under their breath with each defeated bow.
Back in Nagrand, Fist had two last animal kill quests, which she completed. That set the stage for Emet Nessingway's big safari - four special beasts. It's the highlight of Nagrand. All four of those monster elites were dumbed down to normal, not elite, taking all the life out of the hunt.
That wrapped up the questing in Nagrand. Fist got through it without a computer crash, and turning in that last kill got her to level 69.
It's time for Fist to move on, leaving the Burning Crusade's Outland and pushing forward into the Wrath of the Lich King's Northrend. It should prove challenging.
But wait! Fist remembered a suggestion Sin had made to level through dungeon runs. One way would be for Fist to queue up for random dungeons. She probably wouldn't be too awfully bad, and it would be good practice. Another way would be get some help from the Wild family. JB volunteered. The two decided to start with something simple. Fist's first dungeon would be The Underbog, one of three dungeons in Coilfang Reservoir, Zangarmarsh. JB and Wild were both very familiar with that dungeon, and Wild had even made a video of him soloing it (a long time ago).
My first mistake was to use the same computer for both Fist and JB. That meant I had to do screen swapping, and could only operate one of them at a time. I didn't think that would be an issue, unless Fist got tangled up. Fist did just fine. However, screen swapping was pretty slow, and it made cutting through the dungeon a much longer slog than expected. The two cleared the Underbog easily, though. Fist, freshly minted as a level 69, padded her way behind JB to earn 24% progress toward level 70. Hmm, almost an hour for 24%. Hmm, again.
Fist said she was having fun, though, so they decided to delve into the second dungeon in Coilfang, The Steamvaults. I like the changes that have been made with the dungeon maps. The static, unchanging maps Wild was used to are gone, replaced with interactive maps that show player position, boss locations, and even quest points. Very nice. The Steamvaults have a little quirk that I'd forgotten. The first boss is behind a locked door. JB figured correctly that they would need to kill the other two bosses first, and they proceeded to do that. They even remembered to set the main switch (or something) on the Mechanar fight. JB and Fist trooped back to the first boss, but the door was still locked! Darn. Ok, now I remember, there is another switch behind the other boss we had already killed. JB told Fist to hang tight outside the locked door (we had cleared all the trash mobs and the patrols in the area). To speed things up, JB dropped into wolf form and trotted off.
That worked almost perfectly. Almost. When JB tripped the second switch, the locked door not only unlocked, it opened. That's good, right? Yea, except that four elites marched out that door, and JB was a long way from making it back to Fist. Fist didn't stand a chance. Fist had to run/swim back to Coilfang from the graveyard. JB met her at the door of the Steamvaults, and they went back and killed that third boss. Steamvaults got Fist 49% of the way to level 70.
Should we do another, Fist asked? Why the hell not, the last one is right next door. Fist and JB entered the Slave Pens. That one went slowly, too, but easily. There was one quest where we had to find two npcs, but they weren't hard to find.
Fist finished the Slave Pens 69% of the way to level 70.
The two could have gone back and done the dungeons again, but with all of the one time quests completed, the xp would have been less than the first runs. Both rested xp and the monk buff had expired as well.
Fist got to keep all of the quest rewards and boss drops, but the RNG didn't give her much. Ten bosses total, I think, and she got one usable piece for her healing gear, but nothing for her DPS gear. Mostly the gear was mail, which JB would have loved to have - 15 levels ago. Fist seemed happiest with the pretty blue cape she kept for her Towny garb.
The next time I try to two toon it, I'm going to use both computers and see if that speeds things up. Of course, I'll need to update the game on the second computer. Wonder how long that will take. After updating the launcher, it went into "reconfiguring game files . . . "
Maybe NOW Fist will make that trip to Northrend?
There was a little bit of work going on with other members of the Wild Family. JB and Philly both had to sort through a ton of old, really old, and soon to be old gear. Philly was the most practical. She made sure she had equipped the best pieces of gear, and vendored the rest. The only extra gear she kept was her pvp gear. However, since all of Philly's new MoP gear is much higher level than the pvp stuff, I imagine she will toss pvp stuff and use her regular gear for pvp, until she can get the MoP pvp stuff. Philly is not into transmogging, but she did hold on to three weapons she likes the look of, just in case.
With JB it was a whole 'nuther story. JB really likes the look of her Cata gear, and intends to use that gear for a transmog set. However, the Auction House has not been kind to JB, and she is still forced to use a lot of her Cata gear. JB had held on to a lot of other stuff, too, so it took considerable time to sort out what gear was for enhancement spec, what gear was for elemental spec, what gear was not being used but was needed for transmog, etc. JB's bags were a mess, too, since her mailbox was being constantly flooded. A flooded mailbox was a good thing! but JB struggled to process it all.
At the end of the day, though, both JB and Philly had well organized sets of gear and a cleaned out set of bags - should the impulse to pvp or pve suddenly overtake them.
Noticed that Wild wasn't mentioned? Wild's situation is even worse, since he started into MoP before doing any housekeeping. Wild was able to stave off the girls by declaring that they hadn't done any cleanup, either. Now that's not true anymore, and Wild is going to have to work harder - at finding places to stretch out his hammock away from meddling JB and Philly. Wild does want to get at that, and plans his own transmog set, but Wild knows he is going to have a heck of a time deciding what gear to give up. Of course, there is Void Storage. A hundred gold to open it, and 25g for each item placed in it. Imagine someone who filled all eighty slots - that's 2,100 gold to store useless items with "sentimental" value. Yea, Wild will probably open a void storage.
Late Saturday Night - Fist was too fidgety to call it a night, and groused at the wasted time JB and Philly spent. She pulled up stakes at Shattrath, took the portal back to Org, and grabbed the zep to Borean Tundra, Northrend. The fortress of Warsong Hold was under perpetual bug assault, and Fist was just another foot soldier (also known as cannon fodder) thrown at them. Fists first encounter with a level 70 bug took some extra shots to cut down, and Fist had a moment of worry that things had become a few notches tougher. Her second kill cleared Fist's head of such notions - that bug went down quickly, and soon Fist was stacking the oozing exoskeletons three and four carcasses as a time. Her health took a teeter downward on some of the more lively battles, but Fist didn't back down.
After turning in a bushel of quests, Fist DINGED! to level 70. Another milestone. Tired and gooey, Fist accepted a flight to Dalaran, the major city of Northrend. There she set her hearth at The Filthy Animal Inn (appropriate, given the state of her gear). Just outside the inn was a convenient portal to Orgrimmar. Same setup, just a new zone and a new city. The march to level 80 begins.
Friday, October 19, 2012
Thursday (18 Oct) - Fist Plays Air Guitar
Thursday (18 Oct) - Fist Plays Air Guitar
Fist's first order of business (after washing the rotten egg smell off of all of her gear) was to make her second trip to Shattrath. This time Fist was welcomed. It took a minute for Wild to recall and pass along to Fist just where the portal back to Org was. It's located in the central hub of the city. Fist had her choice of two Inns, and decided to set her hearth at the Scryer's. Fist can use the Shattrath portal to return to Org, and her hearthstone to return from Org to Shattrath. Most of Fist's time is going to be spent in the Outlands, probably until she reaches at least level 70.
There are eight zones in Outland (counting Shattrath, since there are many quests based there). Fist is finished with Hellfire Peninsula, and has already spent a good part of a day in Zangarmarsh at the three bases of Cenarion Refuge, Swamprat Post, and Zabra'jin. There have been no surprises and no changes to Zangarmarsh that Wild could tell. Fist did have a little bit of excitement when she received a gear quest reward that held two sockets. It was her first socketed gear.
The immediate area around Shattrath is Terokkar Forest. Wild never much liked Terokkar Forest. It was mostly small scale wars against many different humanoid races. I'm sure I'd run across a few quest jewels that I'd forgotten about, but Wild recommended that Fist pass it by, at least for now. On the other hand, Wild loved Nagrand, and that is where Fist headed next. Garadar is the principle horde base in Nagrand. Fist picked up a number of cooking recipes as there were lots of opportunities for both fishermen and hunters who liked to cook.
In the early going, ogres figured prominently, and Fist killed a lot of them. Then there were the murkbloods, and then demons, and then ... well, ok, Nagrand has a lot of humanoid races to commit genocide on as well as Terrokar Forest. Fist depleted Garadar's large stock of quests pretty rapidly, and had just picked up the quest that took her to the hunting camp (her favorite series of quests), when the computer locked up for the second time in thirty minutes. It seemed to be game related, not a computer or internet problem, so Fist was forced to call it a night.
Fist is level 67, about halfway to level 68.
Fist may be in for a much longer period of forced inactivity. The Detroit Tigers have made it to the World Series. The St Louis Cardinals are one game away from making it to the World Series. My uncle lives in Holly Springs MS, a five hour drive from St Louis, and is a huge Cardinals fan. Neither of us have ever been to a World Series game. As a once in a lifetime thing, I got us tickets for first game, to be held in St Louis on 24 Oct - if the Cardinals can win one more game. If they win today, I could be driving to Mississippi as early as Saturday.
PS - After all of the comments attempting to enforce a dress code on Fist, Fist listened - and then doubled down. She gave an impromptu concert atop a wall in the Valley of Honor, showing off her style, and a new outfit.
"What can I say?" Naithipe shrugged, pulled out her two-hander, and encouraged the crowd to be appreciative - and respectful. Fist may have been a little annoyed at having Mom as a chaperone, but she had a good time.
Fist's first order of business (after washing the rotten egg smell off of all of her gear) was to make her second trip to Shattrath. This time Fist was welcomed. It took a minute for Wild to recall and pass along to Fist just where the portal back to Org was. It's located in the central hub of the city. Fist had her choice of two Inns, and decided to set her hearth at the Scryer's. Fist can use the Shattrath portal to return to Org, and her hearthstone to return from Org to Shattrath. Most of Fist's time is going to be spent in the Outlands, probably until she reaches at least level 70.
There are eight zones in Outland (counting Shattrath, since there are many quests based there). Fist is finished with Hellfire Peninsula, and has already spent a good part of a day in Zangarmarsh at the three bases of Cenarion Refuge, Swamprat Post, and Zabra'jin. There have been no surprises and no changes to Zangarmarsh that Wild could tell. Fist did have a little bit of excitement when she received a gear quest reward that held two sockets. It was her first socketed gear.
The immediate area around Shattrath is Terokkar Forest. Wild never much liked Terokkar Forest. It was mostly small scale wars against many different humanoid races. I'm sure I'd run across a few quest jewels that I'd forgotten about, but Wild recommended that Fist pass it by, at least for now. On the other hand, Wild loved Nagrand, and that is where Fist headed next. Garadar is the principle horde base in Nagrand. Fist picked up a number of cooking recipes as there were lots of opportunities for both fishermen and hunters who liked to cook.
In the early going, ogres figured prominently, and Fist killed a lot of them. Then there were the murkbloods, and then demons, and then ... well, ok, Nagrand has a lot of humanoid races to commit genocide on as well as Terrokar Forest. Fist depleted Garadar's large stock of quests pretty rapidly, and had just picked up the quest that took her to the hunting camp (her favorite series of quests), when the computer locked up for the second time in thirty minutes. It seemed to be game related, not a computer or internet problem, so Fist was forced to call it a night.
Fist is level 67, about halfway to level 68.
Fist may be in for a much longer period of forced inactivity. The Detroit Tigers have made it to the World Series. The St Louis Cardinals are one game away from making it to the World Series. My uncle lives in Holly Springs MS, a five hour drive from St Louis, and is a huge Cardinals fan. Neither of us have ever been to a World Series game. As a once in a lifetime thing, I got us tickets for first game, to be held in St Louis on 24 Oct - if the Cardinals can win one more game. If they win today, I could be driving to Mississippi as early as Saturday.
PS - After all of the comments attempting to enforce a dress code on Fist, Fist listened - and then doubled down. She gave an impromptu concert atop a wall in the Valley of Honor, showing off her style, and a new outfit.
"What can I say?" Naithipe shrugged, pulled out her two-hander, and encouraged the crowd to be appreciative - and respectful. Fist may have been a little annoyed at having Mom as a chaperone, but she had a good time.
 | |
| Fist Does Air Guitar |
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Tuesday (16 Oct) - Out of Gas
Tuesday (16 Oct) - Out of Gas
Fist's patience started to fray with some of the quests in Hellfire Peninsula. It's a large zone, and even a 275% speed flying mount takes a good while to cross that mostly barren zone. At one point Fist tried to minimize the traveling by doing every quest she could without once going back to turn any of them in. She was able to complete thirteen quests before her quest log choked on all the open and completed quests. Far too many quests were strung out as singles - do quest A, come back and turn it in, do quest B - come back again - get quest C - over and over again.
Wild had also forgotten how, well, ordinary, many of those quests are in the Outlands. Fist has finished up with Hellfire Peninsula now, and hopes that her next zone, Zangarmarsh, will prove more interesting. She is now level 64, and couldn't bring herself to grind another level after turning in that last Hellfire Peninsula quest.
Fist began her pilgrimage on 27 Sep, which was just 19 days ago. Nineteen days of grinding more than sixty levels, or close to three and a half levels per day, and it's taking it's toll.
Fist isn't discouraged, though. Progress has been good, and she'll be ready to tackle Zangermarsh and focus on her current goal of getting access to Shattrath. She did take this pause as a chance to step back and re-examine her combat methods and priorities. She got lots of help from Sin and Lao, who suggested excellent sources of information. After 64 levels of brute force, it was time to learn a little finesse.
The monk Windwalker spec is most like that of a rogue. It's almost pure melee, with only limited ranged attacks. Monks use two resources, energy and Chi. Energy is capped at 100, with most spells that use energy consuming 40. Chi is accumulated by using certain spells, and is capped at 4. Fist has to be aware of both sources in order to be able to keep up a steady stream of attacks.
The priority scheme that Fist had been using up to her arrival at Hellfire Peninsula worked well enough, but against stronger foes Fist would burn up her Chi and energy too quickly, creating gaps in her attack. There was a better way, as her learned tutors would explain.
The first thing she had to do was stop doing some things she shouldn't have been doing. As one of her few ranged spells, Fist liked to use Spinning Fire Blossom to either pull a mob, or gun down a running mob. However, Blossom is one of the lesst efficient spells in her arsenal, and almost ANY spell would do more damage. Put it away, Fist was told, you don't need it. Second, Fist loved to gather multiple mobs and hammer them all at once with Fists of Fury. The experts pointed out to Fist that Fists of Fury was another inefficient spell because the damage it did was spread out among every attacker, instead of the full damage hitting every attacker. Fists of Fury was actually much, much better, when used against a single attacker.
After learning the things she shouldn't be doing, she now had to learn what she should be doing. First off, she had to learn to love Tiger Power. This is a buff that reduces the armor of attackers, and is one of those buffs that should always be kept active. Second, her most powerful attack had been relegated to like, her fifth choice, and was moved up to third. Rising Sun Kick is her most powerful attack, adding a mortal wound as well as doing increased damage to any other nearby attackers. It's her go to attack whenever it's available.
The new priority arrangement was immediately more comfortable - and powerful. Fist likes to think of it in two parts. The first part is the easy part, with four abilities spammed in a rhythm that allows for resources to constantly recharge.
In a typical fight, here is how it would go, and every one of these abilities does damage in addition to the other things they do:
Jab (creates Chi)
Tiger Palm (grants Tiger Power)
Jab again (more chi)
Rising Sun Kick (which uses the Chi gained from Jabs)
Blackout Kick (which uses energy, giving time to renew Chi)
Repeat. Or as one tutor noted: /flex, mob is dead.
With this new arrangement, most mobs were dead before the second round of attacks, and Fist usually had both Chi and energy available for the next fight.
The second part goes deeper, bringing in more abilities when the other spells are on cooldown. Fists of Fury is one (which uses energy), and Spinning Crane Kick is another (which uses Chi), giving Fist a choice depending on what resources she has available to her. For some healing support, Jab can be replaced with Expel Harm, which does less damage but adds a healing component. Finally, if Fist is totally out of options, she can always go to Flying Serpent Kick as filler. Maybe. So far it hasn't worked for Fist.
Flying Serpent Kick requires no resources, and is instant cast. It does have a 25 second cooldown. Casting it propels Fist forward rapidly. Casting it again stops her, doing AoE damage to any nearby enemies and slowing them. There is a glyph that can be used to have the Kick stop when it hits an enemy. In theory, Fist should be able to cast Kick and have it instantly stop and attack the mob directly in front of her. The problem, so far, is that it doesn't work. Fist flies right past the mob and has to stop herself with another cast. Fist will have to work on that part.
Overall, though, Fist is ecstatically happy with the results.
Fist's last task after arriving at Zangarmarsh was to hearth back to Org. Her bags were bulging, and the rotting meat was starting to smell a bit gamy.
PS - Fist has heard the comments about her choice of clothes while relaxing in town. Her response - Get over yourselves. You know I'm hot!
Naithipe has her own opinion - At level 64, Fist has proven she can take care of herself. Naithipe is confident that anyone challenging that will wind up at the morgue.
Fist's patience started to fray with some of the quests in Hellfire Peninsula. It's a large zone, and even a 275% speed flying mount takes a good while to cross that mostly barren zone. At one point Fist tried to minimize the traveling by doing every quest she could without once going back to turn any of them in. She was able to complete thirteen quests before her quest log choked on all the open and completed quests. Far too many quests were strung out as singles - do quest A, come back and turn it in, do quest B - come back again - get quest C - over and over again.
Wild had also forgotten how, well, ordinary, many of those quests are in the Outlands. Fist has finished up with Hellfire Peninsula now, and hopes that her next zone, Zangarmarsh, will prove more interesting. She is now level 64, and couldn't bring herself to grind another level after turning in that last Hellfire Peninsula quest.
Fist began her pilgrimage on 27 Sep, which was just 19 days ago. Nineteen days of grinding more than sixty levels, or close to three and a half levels per day, and it's taking it's toll.
Fist isn't discouraged, though. Progress has been good, and she'll be ready to tackle Zangermarsh and focus on her current goal of getting access to Shattrath. She did take this pause as a chance to step back and re-examine her combat methods and priorities. She got lots of help from Sin and Lao, who suggested excellent sources of information. After 64 levels of brute force, it was time to learn a little finesse.
The monk Windwalker spec is most like that of a rogue. It's almost pure melee, with only limited ranged attacks. Monks use two resources, energy and Chi. Energy is capped at 100, with most spells that use energy consuming 40. Chi is accumulated by using certain spells, and is capped at 4. Fist has to be aware of both sources in order to be able to keep up a steady stream of attacks.
The priority scheme that Fist had been using up to her arrival at Hellfire Peninsula worked well enough, but against stronger foes Fist would burn up her Chi and energy too quickly, creating gaps in her attack. There was a better way, as her learned tutors would explain.
The first thing she had to do was stop doing some things she shouldn't have been doing. As one of her few ranged spells, Fist liked to use Spinning Fire Blossom to either pull a mob, or gun down a running mob. However, Blossom is one of the lesst efficient spells in her arsenal, and almost ANY spell would do more damage. Put it away, Fist was told, you don't need it. Second, Fist loved to gather multiple mobs and hammer them all at once with Fists of Fury. The experts pointed out to Fist that Fists of Fury was another inefficient spell because the damage it did was spread out among every attacker, instead of the full damage hitting every attacker. Fists of Fury was actually much, much better, when used against a single attacker.
After learning the things she shouldn't be doing, she now had to learn what she should be doing. First off, she had to learn to love Tiger Power. This is a buff that reduces the armor of attackers, and is one of those buffs that should always be kept active. Second, her most powerful attack had been relegated to like, her fifth choice, and was moved up to third. Rising Sun Kick is her most powerful attack, adding a mortal wound as well as doing increased damage to any other nearby attackers. It's her go to attack whenever it's available.
The new priority arrangement was immediately more comfortable - and powerful. Fist likes to think of it in two parts. The first part is the easy part, with four abilities spammed in a rhythm that allows for resources to constantly recharge.
In a typical fight, here is how it would go, and every one of these abilities does damage in addition to the other things they do:
Jab (creates Chi)
Tiger Palm (grants Tiger Power)
Jab again (more chi)
Rising Sun Kick (which uses the Chi gained from Jabs)
Blackout Kick (which uses energy, giving time to renew Chi)
Repeat. Or as one tutor noted: /flex, mob is dead.
With this new arrangement, most mobs were dead before the second round of attacks, and Fist usually had both Chi and energy available for the next fight.
The second part goes deeper, bringing in more abilities when the other spells are on cooldown. Fists of Fury is one (which uses energy), and Spinning Crane Kick is another (which uses Chi), giving Fist a choice depending on what resources she has available to her. For some healing support, Jab can be replaced with Expel Harm, which does less damage but adds a healing component. Finally, if Fist is totally out of options, she can always go to Flying Serpent Kick as filler. Maybe. So far it hasn't worked for Fist.
Flying Serpent Kick requires no resources, and is instant cast. It does have a 25 second cooldown. Casting it propels Fist forward rapidly. Casting it again stops her, doing AoE damage to any nearby enemies and slowing them. There is a glyph that can be used to have the Kick stop when it hits an enemy. In theory, Fist should be able to cast Kick and have it instantly stop and attack the mob directly in front of her. The problem, so far, is that it doesn't work. Fist flies right past the mob and has to stop herself with another cast. Fist will have to work on that part.
Overall, though, Fist is ecstatically happy with the results.
Fist's last task after arriving at Zangarmarsh was to hearth back to Org. Her bags were bulging, and the rotting meat was starting to smell a bit gamy.
PS - Fist has heard the comments about her choice of clothes while relaxing in town. Her response - Get over yourselves. You know I'm hot!
Naithipe has her own opinion - At level 64, Fist has proven she can take care of herself. Naithipe is confident that anyone challenging that will wind up at the morgue.
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Monday (15 Oct) - Zen Pilgrimage
Monday (15 Oct) - Zen Pilgrimage
Fist is a monk, and as a monk she has access to a portal called Zen Pilgrimage. The portal can be used at any time, instantly teleporting Fist to the monk starting zone of Wandering Isle. There, at the top of a tall, sacred building, Zen masters give out sage words of advice. Fist listens attentively, but she is really after two things. First, each day Fist can come to Wandering Isle and challenge a Zen Master. Sometimes more than one Master is available. Should Fist defeat the Master, Fist is granted one hour of +50% experience to speed up the leveling process. What I like about it, though, is that there's more to it than simply beating the Zen Master and getting the xp boost.
(1) The Challenges are actually useful. Each Zen Master focuses on specific spells and uses them against Fist. This helps Fist learn the spells she uses, or encourages her to use spells she might not be using. For example, one Zen Master repeatedly used her whirling dragon kick on Fist until Fist figured out to use her paralyze spell to stop her from chasing Fist down. In the heat of leveling Fist tends to stick with a few key spells to get the job done, so the Challenges help reinforce all those other spells she has. Fist has 27 spells on her button bars she is supposed to know how to use.
(2) If you get more than one Zen Master on a day, you can Challenge them both and earn an hour of xp boost for each. So defeating two Zen Masters grants two hours of xp boost. You can also defeat one, leave and use up your hour, and then come back and defeat the other Zen Master and get another hour.
(3) I found out today that there is a glitch. It may be a one time thing, or it might be a bug, but when Fist's hour of xp expired ... it didn't. The telltale showed zero seconds left, but it did not expire. Fist tested the glitch by comparing the xp she received from a quest, with the xp that wowhead said I would receive - she was still getting that 50% increase. I tried to keep her in game because I figured I'd lose it if Fist logged out. That seemed to work, but I did let her go AFK - and that killed the bonus. Fist will test that glitch again tonight since she has one more Zen Master to defeat. Back to Fist's grinding.
Fist could have continued questing in Winterspring, and still had all of Silithus to explore if she wanted. But new horizons beckoned to her in the sky. On Monday morning she made her way through Orgrimmar to the portal to the Blasted Lands, located in the Valley of Spirits. The portal took Fist to the camp outside the towering Dark Portal that is the entrance to the Outlands.
Fist was so focused on getting to work, she immediately took the offered flight from the portal area to Thrallmar, the horde fortress in Hellfire Peninsula. On Wild's advice, she then took flight on her own flying mount (how cool is that?) to the central hub of all Outlands - the city of Shattrath. Fist intended to set up shop at the Inn where Wild once lived and would work out of Shattrath instead of Orgrimmar or the various flea bitten inns around Outlands. To her great surprise she found Shattrath in the hands of Humans! Hostile humans, at that! Fist barely escaped attack when she tried to sidle up to them to see if they were, indeed, hostile. What is going on here? I could not find any information about changes, so I have to assume that it's because Fist has not done the right quests yet to open up the city to her. Hmm, I think it's time for Naithipe to make a trip to Outlands and see what reaction she gets in the City of Light.
When the idea was suggested to her, Naithipe seemed almost eager to make the trip. Following Fist's earlier footsteps, Naithipe went through the Blasted Lands portal and then into the Dark Portal to Hellfire Peninsula. Naithipe took the flight master to Shattrath, just to see if it would work. It did, and Naithipe then had to wonder if she would arrive surrounded by hostiles. Naithipe looked forward to that.
Naithipe was mildly disappointed that the guards around the flight master in Shattrath were in neutral yellow and posed no threat. So, Fist would have to earn her way into Shattrath, beginning at Thrallmar. Since both Naithipe and Fist were in Outlands, Naithipe hopped on her flying mount and flew to Thrallmar. Uncomfortable with strangers around, the two met at the top of the highest tower, with a view of the swirling dark skies and orbiting planets. It's quite a view.
It was also the first time the two had ever met each other. Mother and daughter. Together. What was said on that tower remained between the two of them. Philly seemed to think it went well with them. After all, there was no report from the Thrallmar sentries of any fighting inside the fortress at the time. What the two did not pay any attention to were the guards on their flying mounts patrolling the skies. Someone in the air, whether a guard or another visitor to the fortress, saw them up in that tower. And took two pictures, which began circulating around Thrallmar. Neither Naithipe nor Fist will comment on the photos, but I'm sure the photographer has gone in deep hiding, fearing reprisal from them both.
The quests out of Thrallmar are all very familiar. Wild did not have the advantage of a flying mount that Fist has, but other than that things were very much like Wild remembered them. As usual, quests that once posed an incredible challenge have been watered down. The quest Cruel Intentions required killing an elite who was also surrounded by tough minions. Taking down that elite required help or excellent kiting skills - and patience - to take it down. Wild died many times before finally killing it. The elite is no longer elite. It was a level 63 vs Fist's level 60, but it was still no match. Fist was happy to get the xp, but was hoping for a tougher bout.
Despite the bonus xp, the grinding is going slower now since the xp pool is so much larger for each level. That was helped a little because Fist's guild reached level 4, which grants a 5% increase in xp. The bug in the Zen Pilgrimage did not happen with that second hour of xp boost, so that appears to have been a one time anomaly.
Fist is now level 63.
Fist is a monk, and as a monk she has access to a portal called Zen Pilgrimage. The portal can be used at any time, instantly teleporting Fist to the monk starting zone of Wandering Isle. There, at the top of a tall, sacred building, Zen masters give out sage words of advice. Fist listens attentively, but she is really after two things. First, each day Fist can come to Wandering Isle and challenge a Zen Master. Sometimes more than one Master is available. Should Fist defeat the Master, Fist is granted one hour of +50% experience to speed up the leveling process. What I like about it, though, is that there's more to it than simply beating the Zen Master and getting the xp boost.
(1) The Challenges are actually useful. Each Zen Master focuses on specific spells and uses them against Fist. This helps Fist learn the spells she uses, or encourages her to use spells she might not be using. For example, one Zen Master repeatedly used her whirling dragon kick on Fist until Fist figured out to use her paralyze spell to stop her from chasing Fist down. In the heat of leveling Fist tends to stick with a few key spells to get the job done, so the Challenges help reinforce all those other spells she has. Fist has 27 spells on her button bars she is supposed to know how to use.
(2) If you get more than one Zen Master on a day, you can Challenge them both and earn an hour of xp boost for each. So defeating two Zen Masters grants two hours of xp boost. You can also defeat one, leave and use up your hour, and then come back and defeat the other Zen Master and get another hour.
(3) I found out today that there is a glitch. It may be a one time thing, or it might be a bug, but when Fist's hour of xp expired ... it didn't. The telltale showed zero seconds left, but it did not expire. Fist tested the glitch by comparing the xp she received from a quest, with the xp that wowhead said I would receive - she was still getting that 50% increase. I tried to keep her in game because I figured I'd lose it if Fist logged out. That seemed to work, but I did let her go AFK - and that killed the bonus. Fist will test that glitch again tonight since she has one more Zen Master to defeat. Back to Fist's grinding.
Fist could have continued questing in Winterspring, and still had all of Silithus to explore if she wanted. But new horizons beckoned to her in the sky. On Monday morning she made her way through Orgrimmar to the portal to the Blasted Lands, located in the Valley of Spirits. The portal took Fist to the camp outside the towering Dark Portal that is the entrance to the Outlands.
Fist was so focused on getting to work, she immediately took the offered flight from the portal area to Thrallmar, the horde fortress in Hellfire Peninsula. On Wild's advice, she then took flight on her own flying mount (how cool is that?) to the central hub of all Outlands - the city of Shattrath. Fist intended to set up shop at the Inn where Wild once lived and would work out of Shattrath instead of Orgrimmar or the various flea bitten inns around Outlands. To her great surprise she found Shattrath in the hands of Humans! Hostile humans, at that! Fist barely escaped attack when she tried to sidle up to them to see if they were, indeed, hostile. What is going on here? I could not find any information about changes, so I have to assume that it's because Fist has not done the right quests yet to open up the city to her. Hmm, I think it's time for Naithipe to make a trip to Outlands and see what reaction she gets in the City of Light.
When the idea was suggested to her, Naithipe seemed almost eager to make the trip. Following Fist's earlier footsteps, Naithipe went through the Blasted Lands portal and then into the Dark Portal to Hellfire Peninsula. Naithipe took the flight master to Shattrath, just to see if it would work. It did, and Naithipe then had to wonder if she would arrive surrounded by hostiles. Naithipe looked forward to that.
Naithipe was mildly disappointed that the guards around the flight master in Shattrath were in neutral yellow and posed no threat. So, Fist would have to earn her way into Shattrath, beginning at Thrallmar. Since both Naithipe and Fist were in Outlands, Naithipe hopped on her flying mount and flew to Thrallmar. Uncomfortable with strangers around, the two met at the top of the highest tower, with a view of the swirling dark skies and orbiting planets. It's quite a view.
It was also the first time the two had ever met each other. Mother and daughter. Together. What was said on that tower remained between the two of them. Philly seemed to think it went well with them. After all, there was no report from the Thrallmar sentries of any fighting inside the fortress at the time. What the two did not pay any attention to were the guards on their flying mounts patrolling the skies. Someone in the air, whether a guard or another visitor to the fortress, saw them up in that tower. And took two pictures, which began circulating around Thrallmar. Neither Naithipe nor Fist will comment on the photos, but I'm sure the photographer has gone in deep hiding, fearing reprisal from them both.
 | ||
| Naithipe and Fist in Thrallmar |
 |
| Fist Models her Towny Clothes |
Despite the bonus xp, the grinding is going slower now since the xp pool is so much larger for each level. That was helped a little because Fist's guild reached level 4, which grants a 5% increase in xp. The bug in the Zen Pilgrimage did not happen with that second hour of xp boost, so that appears to have been a one time anomaly.
Fist is now level 63.
Monday, October 15, 2012
Friday (12 Oct) - Baseball Fantasy Camp
Friday (12 Oct) - Baseball Fantasy Camp
Note: Didn't get around to posting this until now.
My Friday was mostly taken up at Petco Field, the home of the San Diego Padres. I, along with about 50 or so other codgers who wanted to relive (or imagine) their baseball prowess were invited by the team to participate in a fantasy baseball camp. For about four hours we got to hit, pitch, and play infield and outfield on the major league team's field. We got to change in the player's locker room, and worked out of the home dugout.
We were separated into groups and rotated through each part of the camp. Our group started with pitching. As I told one of many new friends I met, there was a reason that my hands-on baseball experience was mostly as a slow pitch softball pitcher - I have no throwing arm. Pitching off a rubber in the bullpen ... well, that 60 feet, 6 inch distance seemed a lot farther than it was, and throwing off a mound took some getting used to. I bounced the first couple. I did get a few over the plate, but I think I could have walked it over to the catcher faster than the ball got there. Surprising fact: in the Padres bullpen they have a garden, growing mostly tomatoes and peppers. It seems that most team bullpens grow some kind of vegetable garden. Never knew that. They must get really bored out there during games. Randy Jones, who is one of the greatest pitchers ever to play for the Padres (he's retired now), visited us in the bullpen and gave pitching tips.
After pitching, we shagged fly balls in the outfield. I managed to catch all of the balls hit my way, even if I almost lost one which came in with a nasty backspin. I figured my outfield play made up for my poor showing on the mound.
After that we headed to the batting cages. I would have preferred hitting from home plate, but another group was taking infield practice at the same time. At the batting cages, one used an automated pitching machine, and the other was manned by a team staffer who pitched from behind a screen. I did well in both - they were certainly not pitching at major league speed, but it was plenty fast for me. I was jammed a couple of times, taking the ball on the narrow part of the barrel, and that HURT. Going to have some sore hands.
Our last task was infield practice. I played first base, and we took ground balls, worked on double plays, and tried to be serious while laughing at our own gaffs.
There were surprisingly few injuries. A couple of slip and falls, and one person got a chipped tooth from a misplayed catch. As for me, I took a lot of hard throws as the first baseman (the third base and shortstop players really wanted to show off their high velocity, but not always accurate, throws). Not only were my hands even more sore from catching those throws, the throws I didn't handle well ended up hitting bare hands, and sometimes the knees when I had to drop down to stop throws that ended up bouncing in front of me. One of the staff, seeing that I wasn't getting my glove on some of the throws, still laughingly congratulated me on taking those shots in the hands and knees - instead of the groin, since we were not wearing protective cups.
I got to meet Andy Parrino, who is one of the Padres second basemen. I heard that pitcher Corey Luebke, who missed most of the season with an arm injury, was on the field as well, but I never saw him.
After we were done on the field we went inside and had dinner. We watched the Yankee-Orioles game and no one tried to usher us out as the evening grew longer. Eventually, tired and full, I followed a growing line of folks headed for home. I had a new jersey, cap, and a baseball to remember the day by. The Padres staff also took a lot of pictures and video. I believe we are supposed to get a copy of that.
I'll sleep soundly tonight ... but, oh, I am not going to want to get up in the morning .... groan.
Note: Didn't get around to posting this until now.
My Friday was mostly taken up at Petco Field, the home of the San Diego Padres. I, along with about 50 or so other codgers who wanted to relive (or imagine) their baseball prowess were invited by the team to participate in a fantasy baseball camp. For about four hours we got to hit, pitch, and play infield and outfield on the major league team's field. We got to change in the player's locker room, and worked out of the home dugout.
We were separated into groups and rotated through each part of the camp. Our group started with pitching. As I told one of many new friends I met, there was a reason that my hands-on baseball experience was mostly as a slow pitch softball pitcher - I have no throwing arm. Pitching off a rubber in the bullpen ... well, that 60 feet, 6 inch distance seemed a lot farther than it was, and throwing off a mound took some getting used to. I bounced the first couple. I did get a few over the plate, but I think I could have walked it over to the catcher faster than the ball got there. Surprising fact: in the Padres bullpen they have a garden, growing mostly tomatoes and peppers. It seems that most team bullpens grow some kind of vegetable garden. Never knew that. They must get really bored out there during games. Randy Jones, who is one of the greatest pitchers ever to play for the Padres (he's retired now), visited us in the bullpen and gave pitching tips.
After pitching, we shagged fly balls in the outfield. I managed to catch all of the balls hit my way, even if I almost lost one which came in with a nasty backspin. I figured my outfield play made up for my poor showing on the mound.
After that we headed to the batting cages. I would have preferred hitting from home plate, but another group was taking infield practice at the same time. At the batting cages, one used an automated pitching machine, and the other was manned by a team staffer who pitched from behind a screen. I did well in both - they were certainly not pitching at major league speed, but it was plenty fast for me. I was jammed a couple of times, taking the ball on the narrow part of the barrel, and that HURT. Going to have some sore hands.
Our last task was infield practice. I played first base, and we took ground balls, worked on double plays, and tried to be serious while laughing at our own gaffs.
There were surprisingly few injuries. A couple of slip and falls, and one person got a chipped tooth from a misplayed catch. As for me, I took a lot of hard throws as the first baseman (the third base and shortstop players really wanted to show off their high velocity, but not always accurate, throws). Not only were my hands even more sore from catching those throws, the throws I didn't handle well ended up hitting bare hands, and sometimes the knees when I had to drop down to stop throws that ended up bouncing in front of me. One of the staff, seeing that I wasn't getting my glove on some of the throws, still laughingly congratulated me on taking those shots in the hands and knees - instead of the groin, since we were not wearing protective cups.
I got to meet Andy Parrino, who is one of the Padres second basemen. I heard that pitcher Corey Luebke, who missed most of the season with an arm injury, was on the field as well, but I never saw him.
After we were done on the field we went inside and had dinner. We watched the Yankee-Orioles game and no one tried to usher us out as the evening grew longer. Eventually, tired and full, I followed a growing line of folks headed for home. I had a new jersey, cap, and a baseball to remember the day by. The Padres staff also took a lot of pictures and video. I believe we are supposed to get a copy of that.
I'll sleep soundly tonight ... but, oh, I am not going to want to get up in the morning .... groan.
Thursday Plus (14 Oct) - Wee Hour Grinding
Thursday Plus (14 Oct) - Wee Hour Grinding
Note: This is quite long. I thought about cutting it up into separate posts ... but I decided it would be better to down it all in one big gulp.
It was a busy Thursday, and Fist got very little time. It was after midnight before Fist dragged herself back to Tanaris for more grinding. The questing at Bootlegger Outpost was a bit frustrating because the quest giver would offer only one quest at a time, so there was a lot of back and forth and lost time. Rested xp is completely shot, too. Fist had collected more than 20k in rested xp by being out of action most of the day, but that was wiped out after the first three quests. Might as well eliminate the bonus if that is all the benefit there is. Anyway, the quests themselves were pretty ho hum as well, but Fist finally made it to level 49.
With Tanaris exhausted of quests, Fist took a flight to Felwood. That is a rich zone for questing, and Fist will likely spend some time there. Her initial purpose, though, was go take the tunnel connecting Felwood to Winterspring. The flight path system seemingly arbitrarily decides what flight paths are available. In this case, the Winterspring Flight Master was not offered, and Fist needed to get to the town of Everlook to pick up a cooking recipe.
With that done, Fist angled back to Tanaris and headed into Un'Goro Crater. It was supposed to be just a stopover as I figured the Crater would be a bit of over-reach at level 49 ... but a couple of quests beckoned and Fist was soon fully engaged. Fist intends to stay with the Crater until/if the quests get too difficult, but she got a lot done and finished a very late evening at level 50.
Fist has been trying to get three levels per day, but this time got only the two. I want to make a push for level 58 over the weekend (a goal, not a necessity). I need to look this up to see if it still applies, but toons on the same account who had earned the flying mount ability were allowed to buy that ability and provide it to another toon at level 58, two levels before the normal level 60. Maybe that was for druids only, though, but I do think Wild did that for JB when she reached level 58. Anyway, if I can confirm that, then getting to level 58 is a priority. Level 58 also opens up the Outlands continent as well.
Fist would be grinding away already, but once again a cross realm restart is holding things up. Sigh.
Saturday - I was convalescing on Saturday. Why was I convalescing? That's a separate post, but the short answer is that I went to a fantasy baseball camp on Friday, which pretty much put the ka bosh to Fist for the day. The important point, though, is that I decided that the best place to convalesce on Saturday was at the computer.
Fist, woman that she is, changed her mind again about where she wanted to quest. Instead of going back to Un'Goro Crater, Fist went to Felwood instead. Fist was very much at home in Felwood. She started at the southern camp, where the furlbog grinding is done. Fist was not after reputation, though, just questing. One change from Wild's days was that there was a strange obelisk near the furlbog camp in which the final quest required Fist to dance and laugh maniacally. No, I don't really know what that was all about, but it was good for three easy quest completions. There was an addition to the furlbog quests - bees. Steal some honey, douse yourself in a pond to get rid of the bees. Fun. The rest went pretty routinely and was much as Wild remembered things. Fist worked her way north, but did not make it all the way to the tunnel going into Winterspring before taking a break.
When Fist returned, she made for Un'Goro. Un'Goro Crater questing wore Fist out. There seemed to be an endless stream of them. No matter how many Fist completed, more kept being offered. The main hub that Fist was getting quests from were at the Mossy Pile, which had a flight path. Wild had never heard of it, but it was a real hotbed, surrounded by wooden stakes and pits to capture dinosaurs that wandered too close. The base that Wild remembered was Marshall's Refuge. Fist kept trying to work her way to the Refuge but kept getting tangled in more and more quests.
One of the more clever quest strings was a new one where Fist had to swear allegiance to a paladin who wanted to slay dragons and rescue maidens. Actually, the paladin wanted to ride along and take credit for the dragon slaying and maiden saving while Fist did all the work. Finding the maidens was a bit of a pain, but the quest series was well worth it.
Finally ... Finally! Fist made it to Marshall's Refuge. The somewhat hidden entrance no longer had a quest giver at it's front. The path that led up into the hills was familiar, but the rock robots were new. Fist noticed that the flight path was gone! In fact, there was little left of the Refuge. Fist found a box of discarded supplies - ah, at least here was something for a quest she had. The rock robots had ignored Fist - until she picked up a box. Then they attacked. Ah well, things had changed. Fist cleared out the 'bots, completed the quest, and decided that she'd had a good day. It was time to relax for the evening.
Late Night Saturday - Mercurial Fist decided she was tired of the heat, mud, and humidity of Un'Goro Crater. She headed back to the northern end of Felwood at a base called Whisperwind Grove. Run by goblins, the quests were many and they went quickly since Fist was a couple levels above the hostiles she was killing. The XP wasn't as good, but then the Tigers-Yankees baseball game was taking up a lot of my attention.
When she finally called it (Tigers WIN! in 12 innings), Fist had improved from level 50 to level 55. Her chances of making it to level 58 over the weekend seemed a lot more likely ...
Sunday - Even Felwood was too hot for Fist as the day dawned on Sunday. She made her way to the town of Everlook in snowy, mountainous Winterspring. There were a lot of furlbog killing and riding back and forth between the two camps, while stealing kills from the other players out doing the same thing. The quests were familiar and straightforward as Fist battered through them. Her one true ranged spell, Crackling Jade Lightning (which she got at level 55, I think) was awesome! It has a forty yard range and a knockback if the mob reached Fist before the channeled spell ended. The lightning strike burned about 40% health from a 50+ mob before it even reached Fist. Fist's arsenal of abilities continue to grow.
Game 2 of the Tigers-Yankees playoffs was starting soon, and Fist pushed hard to wrap up the latest group of quests she was on. As the pre-game commentary was also wrapping up, Fist made it level 58. Go Tigers!
Sunday Later - Fist quickly learned that there was no longer a Tome of Flying available. Fist would not be able to acquire a flying license until she was level 60. So, it was back to the grind in Winterspring. There were dozens and dozens of quests, and they all started to become something of a blur. It was cold, everything was white with snow, and the only color seemed to be the gallons of blood Fist was spilling. I'm sure everyone would want to know that the Tigers beat the Yankees again, 3-0. Tigers are up 2-0 in the best of seven series.
Wild was in Winterspring the night he reached level 60. He had completed every quest he could find, and his last quest had been a kill quest of yetis. After turning that quest in, he still had a ways to go. Wild stayed in game way past midnight, killing yeti after yeti for the kill points, until level 60 finally came.
Fist had killed her fair share of yetis, but Winterspring held a lot more quests than in Wild's day. Fist was well out into the countryside, at a hunters camp, and it was birds and bears she slaughtered until she reached level 60. Fist smiled in satisfaction. She'd passed a major milestone.
Back in Org, Fist collected her flying licenses. She'd come a long way. However, the way forward would be even more difficult and treacherous. Fist had achieved completion of Vanilla WoW. Ahead of her was ten levels to climb in Burning Crusade in the sky continent of Outlands. The Wrath of the Lich King promised ten more levels of even grimmer glory in Northrend. The Cataclysm would squeeze Fist even harder with five more levels to scale. And if she survives all of that, Fist will enter where not even Wild has gone - Pandaria, and five more levels to 90. I'm tired already, just thinking about the THIRTY more levels Fist still has to go.
Note: This is quite long. I thought about cutting it up into separate posts ... but I decided it would be better to down it all in one big gulp.
It was a busy Thursday, and Fist got very little time. It was after midnight before Fist dragged herself back to Tanaris for more grinding. The questing at Bootlegger Outpost was a bit frustrating because the quest giver would offer only one quest at a time, so there was a lot of back and forth and lost time. Rested xp is completely shot, too. Fist had collected more than 20k in rested xp by being out of action most of the day, but that was wiped out after the first three quests. Might as well eliminate the bonus if that is all the benefit there is. Anyway, the quests themselves were pretty ho hum as well, but Fist finally made it to level 49.
With Tanaris exhausted of quests, Fist took a flight to Felwood. That is a rich zone for questing, and Fist will likely spend some time there. Her initial purpose, though, was go take the tunnel connecting Felwood to Winterspring. The flight path system seemingly arbitrarily decides what flight paths are available. In this case, the Winterspring Flight Master was not offered, and Fist needed to get to the town of Everlook to pick up a cooking recipe.
With that done, Fist angled back to Tanaris and headed into Un'Goro Crater. It was supposed to be just a stopover as I figured the Crater would be a bit of over-reach at level 49 ... but a couple of quests beckoned and Fist was soon fully engaged. Fist intends to stay with the Crater until/if the quests get too difficult, but she got a lot done and finished a very late evening at level 50.
Fist has been trying to get three levels per day, but this time got only the two. I want to make a push for level 58 over the weekend (a goal, not a necessity). I need to look this up to see if it still applies, but toons on the same account who had earned the flying mount ability were allowed to buy that ability and provide it to another toon at level 58, two levels before the normal level 60. Maybe that was for druids only, though, but I do think Wild did that for JB when she reached level 58. Anyway, if I can confirm that, then getting to level 58 is a priority. Level 58 also opens up the Outlands continent as well.
Fist would be grinding away already, but once again a cross realm restart is holding things up. Sigh.
Saturday - I was convalescing on Saturday. Why was I convalescing? That's a separate post, but the short answer is that I went to a fantasy baseball camp on Friday, which pretty much put the ka bosh to Fist for the day. The important point, though, is that I decided that the best place to convalesce on Saturday was at the computer.
Fist, woman that she is, changed her mind again about where she wanted to quest. Instead of going back to Un'Goro Crater, Fist went to Felwood instead. Fist was very much at home in Felwood. She started at the southern camp, where the furlbog grinding is done. Fist was not after reputation, though, just questing. One change from Wild's days was that there was a strange obelisk near the furlbog camp in which the final quest required Fist to dance and laugh maniacally. No, I don't really know what that was all about, but it was good for three easy quest completions. There was an addition to the furlbog quests - bees. Steal some honey, douse yourself in a pond to get rid of the bees. Fun. The rest went pretty routinely and was much as Wild remembered things. Fist worked her way north, but did not make it all the way to the tunnel going into Winterspring before taking a break.
When Fist returned, she made for Un'Goro. Un'Goro Crater questing wore Fist out. There seemed to be an endless stream of them. No matter how many Fist completed, more kept being offered. The main hub that Fist was getting quests from were at the Mossy Pile, which had a flight path. Wild had never heard of it, but it was a real hotbed, surrounded by wooden stakes and pits to capture dinosaurs that wandered too close. The base that Wild remembered was Marshall's Refuge. Fist kept trying to work her way to the Refuge but kept getting tangled in more and more quests.
One of the more clever quest strings was a new one where Fist had to swear allegiance to a paladin who wanted to slay dragons and rescue maidens. Actually, the paladin wanted to ride along and take credit for the dragon slaying and maiden saving while Fist did all the work. Finding the maidens was a bit of a pain, but the quest series was well worth it.
Finally ... Finally! Fist made it to Marshall's Refuge. The somewhat hidden entrance no longer had a quest giver at it's front. The path that led up into the hills was familiar, but the rock robots were new. Fist noticed that the flight path was gone! In fact, there was little left of the Refuge. Fist found a box of discarded supplies - ah, at least here was something for a quest she had. The rock robots had ignored Fist - until she picked up a box. Then they attacked. Ah well, things had changed. Fist cleared out the 'bots, completed the quest, and decided that she'd had a good day. It was time to relax for the evening.
Late Night Saturday - Mercurial Fist decided she was tired of the heat, mud, and humidity of Un'Goro Crater. She headed back to the northern end of Felwood at a base called Whisperwind Grove. Run by goblins, the quests were many and they went quickly since Fist was a couple levels above the hostiles she was killing. The XP wasn't as good, but then the Tigers-Yankees baseball game was taking up a lot of my attention.
When she finally called it (Tigers WIN! in 12 innings), Fist had improved from level 50 to level 55. Her chances of making it to level 58 over the weekend seemed a lot more likely ...
Sunday - Even Felwood was too hot for Fist as the day dawned on Sunday. She made her way to the town of Everlook in snowy, mountainous Winterspring. There were a lot of furlbog killing and riding back and forth between the two camps, while stealing kills from the other players out doing the same thing. The quests were familiar and straightforward as Fist battered through them. Her one true ranged spell, Crackling Jade Lightning (which she got at level 55, I think) was awesome! It has a forty yard range and a knockback if the mob reached Fist before the channeled spell ended. The lightning strike burned about 40% health from a 50+ mob before it even reached Fist. Fist's arsenal of abilities continue to grow.
Game 2 of the Tigers-Yankees playoffs was starting soon, and Fist pushed hard to wrap up the latest group of quests she was on. As the pre-game commentary was also wrapping up, Fist made it level 58. Go Tigers!
Sunday Later - Fist quickly learned that there was no longer a Tome of Flying available. Fist would not be able to acquire a flying license until she was level 60. So, it was back to the grind in Winterspring. There were dozens and dozens of quests, and they all started to become something of a blur. It was cold, everything was white with snow, and the only color seemed to be the gallons of blood Fist was spilling. I'm sure everyone would want to know that the Tigers beat the Yankees again, 3-0. Tigers are up 2-0 in the best of seven series.
Wild was in Winterspring the night he reached level 60. He had completed every quest he could find, and his last quest had been a kill quest of yetis. After turning that quest in, he still had a ways to go. Wild stayed in game way past midnight, killing yeti after yeti for the kill points, until level 60 finally came.
Fist had killed her fair share of yetis, but Winterspring held a lot more quests than in Wild's day. Fist was well out into the countryside, at a hunters camp, and it was birds and bears she slaughtered until she reached level 60. Fist smiled in satisfaction. She'd passed a major milestone.
Back in Org, Fist collected her flying licenses. She'd come a long way. However, the way forward would be even more difficult and treacherous. Fist had achieved completion of Vanilla WoW. Ahead of her was ten levels to climb in Burning Crusade in the sky continent of Outlands. The Wrath of the Lich King promised ten more levels of even grimmer glory in Northrend. The Cataclysm would squeeze Fist even harder with five more levels to scale. And if she survives all of that, Fist will enter where not even Wild has gone - Pandaria, and five more levels to 90. I'm tired already, just thinking about the THIRTY more levels Fist still has to go.
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Wednesday (10 Oct) - Waterworld Didn't Cut It
Wednesday (10 Oct) - Waterworld Didn't Cut It
Fist followed her plan as she went to work on Wednesday. She had exhausted all of the quests in Ferelas. The next stop was Thousand Needles. She took the flight path to the tall, thin spire where the horde were barely hanging on to one bit of dry land in a zone that had been flooded by the Cataclysm. When Fist had done all she could to help, they offered her a boat, which she took, having no other option available to her. That boat raced all over the entire zone, the driver apparently wanting to give her the full tour, and then dumped her on an anchored gambling boat. The first thing she did on arrival was get into a bar fight. It was quite a large bar, and there was a lot of fighting. Fist tiptoed out of there (having started the fight, she decided not to be in on the finish).
After that, though, things were pretty boring, and she kept having to get wet. Bad for her gear. Still, she did enough to fill up her bags and decided to hearth back to Org to empty them and dry out her gear. Later, Fist realized she didn't know how to get back to the boat in Thousand Needles. Rather than trying to figure that out, Fist changed direction. Instead of Thousand Needles, she headed to Tanaris.
Fist did remind me to mention one quick fact before she got started again. Fist reached the halfway mark toward her goal of level 90 when she achieved level 45. Of course, the first half is a whole lot easier than the second half will be.
Wild's two strongest memories of Tanaris are odd ones. For reasons that escape me now (and Wild won't stray from his hammock to check on it), Wild needed the herb Purple Lotus on a regular basis. There was a small camp of hostile mobs not far from the Tanaris town of Gadgetzan that dropped the herb. Every single day - sometimes several times a day - Wild would farm those mobs to get the purple lotus. Wild also spent many, many late nights out on the beach to the east of Gadgetzan. Wild was fishing for stonescale eels. On the weekends Wild would be out there until the wee hours of the morning. Stonescale eels were Wild's best selling item, and most of Wild's gold came from fishing those eels. There are days Wild felt he spent half his life there, hooves dug into the wet sand, watching the turtles wander by, talking with whoever was online, not a care in the world beyond the tug of the fishing line.
Fist doesn't mind fishing, knowing she can make useable stat food by cooking them, but really, Wild, that's the best you can do in the wide, diverse zone of Tanaris? Fist decided to visit that beach Wild spent so much time at, and check out those purple lotus loving mobs. Both are gone. A deep lagoon now laps almost to the walls of Gadgetzan. The purple lotus mobs moved on or drowned. The stonescale eels are still around, but Fist has no use for them.
The town of Gadgetzan seemed mostly the same from Wild's description. There is now a half built ship just outside the gates, but there was nothing going on there. The only oddity was that the local inn seemed to have lost it's walls and roof - ie, it was gone. The benches and tables are still there, now looking more like a picnic area, and the butcher that worked there was still about doing business. Well, Fist couldn't get any rested xp standing at a picnic table under an open sky. Where did the inn go? Fist eventually found it in the northeast corner of the town, two of its' sides sharing the outer wall.
Fist started off with a number of animal hunts and graduated to the trolls and their many small camps. There was a monster spider kill - not elite - and then a very nasty level 48 elite that Fist might not have been able to beat. Fist got lucky, though. When she arrived at the quest site, a level 49 player was already engaged with the elite and he was not winning that fight. Fist weighed in and helped the player kill the elite. Fist then had to wait for the elite to respawn, and the level 49 was very nice to stick around. The two of us killed the elite a second time, and we both got our quests done.
Then there were the Pirates! Lots and lots of pirates at Lost Rigger Cove. At level 47-49 they out leveled Fist, and for the first time she starting seeing her health bar start to drop against multi-mob fights. Fist has typically needed only her three main attack abilities for just about any fight of any number. Now, she has started extending herself, still pulling groups, but now using all those other protections that allowed her to keep up the assault. Fist had to storm three ships to locate ever more dangerous ship captains. The third captain was an elite rated so high Fist could not see his level. Really? Fist stormed the ship and engaged Captain Dreadbeard anyway. With Fist's first hit she revealed the deception - the Captain was not an elite at all, only pretending to be. He didn't last long one on one against Fist.
There was more to come. The bug zone, Noxious Lair, now has a horde base to work from, instead of that very long ride south and back to/from Gadgetzan. With all this activity and higher level mobs (not to mention dry sand instead of water), Fist is glad to have skipped the lower zoned Thousand Needles in favor of Tanaris.
After more animal and bug kills Fist called it an evening. She received two new abilities that she hadn't noticed getting before. One is called Spinning Fire Blossom. This spell shoots a ball of fire up to 50 yds. Most ranged weapons are good for at most 40 yds, so this is a really long range spell. The trick seems to be aiming it. It can't be aimed at a target, only in a direction, and it explodes on impact with the first enemy target it hits. I can see Fist now: "Dang it, I missed again! Wait, was that an elite I just clipped? Run!" Well, it's the only ranged DPS ability Fist has, so I guess she'd better figure out how to use it. It also expends a Chi, which means Fist has to prime the pump so to speak before it can be unleashed, so it seems to be most useful shooting at fleeing targets.
The other is Spinning Crane Kick, which is an AoE attack of up to three enemies within 8 yards, or something like that. This one Fist needs practice with, too.
Fist continues to make progress. She is now level 48.
Fist followed her plan as she went to work on Wednesday. She had exhausted all of the quests in Ferelas. The next stop was Thousand Needles. She took the flight path to the tall, thin spire where the horde were barely hanging on to one bit of dry land in a zone that had been flooded by the Cataclysm. When Fist had done all she could to help, they offered her a boat, which she took, having no other option available to her. That boat raced all over the entire zone, the driver apparently wanting to give her the full tour, and then dumped her on an anchored gambling boat. The first thing she did on arrival was get into a bar fight. It was quite a large bar, and there was a lot of fighting. Fist tiptoed out of there (having started the fight, she decided not to be in on the finish).
After that, though, things were pretty boring, and she kept having to get wet. Bad for her gear. Still, she did enough to fill up her bags and decided to hearth back to Org to empty them and dry out her gear. Later, Fist realized she didn't know how to get back to the boat in Thousand Needles. Rather than trying to figure that out, Fist changed direction. Instead of Thousand Needles, she headed to Tanaris.
Fist did remind me to mention one quick fact before she got started again. Fist reached the halfway mark toward her goal of level 90 when she achieved level 45. Of course, the first half is a whole lot easier than the second half will be.
Wild's two strongest memories of Tanaris are odd ones. For reasons that escape me now (and Wild won't stray from his hammock to check on it), Wild needed the herb Purple Lotus on a regular basis. There was a small camp of hostile mobs not far from the Tanaris town of Gadgetzan that dropped the herb. Every single day - sometimes several times a day - Wild would farm those mobs to get the purple lotus. Wild also spent many, many late nights out on the beach to the east of Gadgetzan. Wild was fishing for stonescale eels. On the weekends Wild would be out there until the wee hours of the morning. Stonescale eels were Wild's best selling item, and most of Wild's gold came from fishing those eels. There are days Wild felt he spent half his life there, hooves dug into the wet sand, watching the turtles wander by, talking with whoever was online, not a care in the world beyond the tug of the fishing line.
Fist doesn't mind fishing, knowing she can make useable stat food by cooking them, but really, Wild, that's the best you can do in the wide, diverse zone of Tanaris? Fist decided to visit that beach Wild spent so much time at, and check out those purple lotus loving mobs. Both are gone. A deep lagoon now laps almost to the walls of Gadgetzan. The purple lotus mobs moved on or drowned. The stonescale eels are still around, but Fist has no use for them.
The town of Gadgetzan seemed mostly the same from Wild's description. There is now a half built ship just outside the gates, but there was nothing going on there. The only oddity was that the local inn seemed to have lost it's walls and roof - ie, it was gone. The benches and tables are still there, now looking more like a picnic area, and the butcher that worked there was still about doing business. Well, Fist couldn't get any rested xp standing at a picnic table under an open sky. Where did the inn go? Fist eventually found it in the northeast corner of the town, two of its' sides sharing the outer wall.
Fist started off with a number of animal hunts and graduated to the trolls and their many small camps. There was a monster spider kill - not elite - and then a very nasty level 48 elite that Fist might not have been able to beat. Fist got lucky, though. When she arrived at the quest site, a level 49 player was already engaged with the elite and he was not winning that fight. Fist weighed in and helped the player kill the elite. Fist then had to wait for the elite to respawn, and the level 49 was very nice to stick around. The two of us killed the elite a second time, and we both got our quests done.
Then there were the Pirates! Lots and lots of pirates at Lost Rigger Cove. At level 47-49 they out leveled Fist, and for the first time she starting seeing her health bar start to drop against multi-mob fights. Fist has typically needed only her three main attack abilities for just about any fight of any number. Now, she has started extending herself, still pulling groups, but now using all those other protections that allowed her to keep up the assault. Fist had to storm three ships to locate ever more dangerous ship captains. The third captain was an elite rated so high Fist could not see his level. Really? Fist stormed the ship and engaged Captain Dreadbeard anyway. With Fist's first hit she revealed the deception - the Captain was not an elite at all, only pretending to be. He didn't last long one on one against Fist.
There was more to come. The bug zone, Noxious Lair, now has a horde base to work from, instead of that very long ride south and back to/from Gadgetzan. With all this activity and higher level mobs (not to mention dry sand instead of water), Fist is glad to have skipped the lower zoned Thousand Needles in favor of Tanaris.
After more animal and bug kills Fist called it an evening. She received two new abilities that she hadn't noticed getting before. One is called Spinning Fire Blossom. This spell shoots a ball of fire up to 50 yds. Most ranged weapons are good for at most 40 yds, so this is a really long range spell. The trick seems to be aiming it. It can't be aimed at a target, only in a direction, and it explodes on impact with the first enemy target it hits. I can see Fist now: "Dang it, I missed again! Wait, was that an elite I just clipped? Run!" Well, it's the only ranged DPS ability Fist has, so I guess she'd better figure out how to use it. It also expends a Chi, which means Fist has to prime the pump so to speak before it can be unleashed, so it seems to be most useful shooting at fleeing targets.
The other is Spinning Crane Kick, which is an AoE attack of up to three enemies within 8 yards, or something like that. This one Fist needs practice with, too.
Fist continues to make progress. She is now level 48.
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Tuesday (9 Oct) - Ferelas and Thousand Needles
Tuesday (9 Oct) - Ferelas and Thousand Needles
Wild interrupted Fist's leveling long enough to announce that he had finally ridded himself of all of his cata gear. Now in full MoP gear, Wild's gear score is a smugly satisfying i422. "Not that you've done anything with it," noted JB. "And endlessly rubbing neatsfoot oil into that leather is not going to make it look any less ugly." Philly then weighed in, mentioning that the raid LFR would open up next week - and that the minimum gear score required to queue up for it is i460. Wild made a face and went back to his hammock.
All three of the level 85s are going to have to make some decisions about all that old gear they've been replacing. JB really likes the look of her enhancement cata gear, and plans to finally get into the transmorg game. She needs to select what pieces to keep and what to give up. Wild wants to keep his cata tier gear, but still isn't sure he likes the look enough for mogging. Wild's bank is stuffed full of old gear, though (he even has Wrath feral gear tucked in a corner somewhere), and he does want to make a transmorg set out of what he has (mostly because the MoP gear is pug ugly). Philly's old gear is just tossed in a corner. What she'll want to do with it is anybodies guess.
In the meantime, Fist made it back to Ferelas. She has been working out of Camp Ataya in the north of the zone. That camp didn't exist back in Wild's day. Nor was Stonemaul Hole, another sizeable camp with numerous quests. In the "I'll never learn" category Wild confused Fist about the yetis. There are two areas that have yetis. Both are farmed for their pelts in separate quests that are not provided at the same time. Despite Wild's experience with those quests, he gave Fist the wrong guidance and she wasted time killing the wrong yetis. Eventually that got sorted out, to the chagrin of the yetis.
The most fun so far was the trip into Dire Maul. This is the second dungeon that quests have guided Fist into, and she is getting a kick out them. Fist was sent into the Dire Maul arena to take on several named mobs in one on one combat. The one elite was way over Fists head, but Fist got help when reinforcements arrived. Lots of fun.
Fist is not getting much rested XP anymore - even overnight in Org doesn't return back much. Fist did a lot of quests in Ferelas, cleaning out the two northern camps, but found herself heading to a third camp still short of level 43. At least things were much more familiar when Fist arrived at her third horde encampment in Ferelas. Camp Mojache looked exactly the same as always. It is also infested with quests. Fist picked up a dozen of them, and that should keep her busy for quite awhile.
The Camp Mojache quests did, indeed, keep Fist busy a long time. They were all very familiar and comfortable in Wild's memory, and Fist sliced through them without any problems. She has a couple she still needs to wrap up, and will then be on her way to Thousand Needles.
Fist is now level 45.
Wild interrupted Fist's leveling long enough to announce that he had finally ridded himself of all of his cata gear. Now in full MoP gear, Wild's gear score is a smugly satisfying i422. "Not that you've done anything with it," noted JB. "And endlessly rubbing neatsfoot oil into that leather is not going to make it look any less ugly." Philly then weighed in, mentioning that the raid LFR would open up next week - and that the minimum gear score required to queue up for it is i460. Wild made a face and went back to his hammock.
All three of the level 85s are going to have to make some decisions about all that old gear they've been replacing. JB really likes the look of her enhancement cata gear, and plans to finally get into the transmorg game. She needs to select what pieces to keep and what to give up. Wild wants to keep his cata tier gear, but still isn't sure he likes the look enough for mogging. Wild's bank is stuffed full of old gear, though (he even has Wrath feral gear tucked in a corner somewhere), and he does want to make a transmorg set out of what he has (mostly because the MoP gear is pug ugly). Philly's old gear is just tossed in a corner. What she'll want to do with it is anybodies guess.
In the meantime, Fist made it back to Ferelas. She has been working out of Camp Ataya in the north of the zone. That camp didn't exist back in Wild's day. Nor was Stonemaul Hole, another sizeable camp with numerous quests. In the "I'll never learn" category Wild confused Fist about the yetis. There are two areas that have yetis. Both are farmed for their pelts in separate quests that are not provided at the same time. Despite Wild's experience with those quests, he gave Fist the wrong guidance and she wasted time killing the wrong yetis. Eventually that got sorted out, to the chagrin of the yetis.
The most fun so far was the trip into Dire Maul. This is the second dungeon that quests have guided Fist into, and she is getting a kick out them. Fist was sent into the Dire Maul arena to take on several named mobs in one on one combat. The one elite was way over Fists head, but Fist got help when reinforcements arrived. Lots of fun.
Fist is not getting much rested XP anymore - even overnight in Org doesn't return back much. Fist did a lot of quests in Ferelas, cleaning out the two northern camps, but found herself heading to a third camp still short of level 43. At least things were much more familiar when Fist arrived at her third horde encampment in Ferelas. Camp Mojache looked exactly the same as always. It is also infested with quests. Fist picked up a dozen of them, and that should keep her busy for quite awhile.
The Camp Mojache quests did, indeed, keep Fist busy a long time. They were all very familiar and comfortable in Wild's memory, and Fist sliced through them without any problems. She has a couple she still needs to wrap up, and will then be on her way to Thousand Needles.
Fist is now level 45.
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Monday (8 Oct) - Exalted Rep Surprise
Monday (8 Oct) - Exalted Rep Surprise
Fist's leveling has slowed a bit. After finishing up with the Hinterlands, Fist had her choice of several next stops. She wanted to return to Kalimdor, though, where she felt more comfortable that the zones she would be looking at on the Eastern Continent. So, Fist packed up her things at the Undercity where she had been staying, and changed homes to the inn at the Valley of Honor in Orgrimmar. She did the fishing and cooking dailies (cool that she can do those at her level), and then had to make her decision. She decided on Desolace, a level 30-40 zone that looks much like it's name, as it is truly a desolate place. Wild remembered some fun times, though, and so Fist hopped a flight to Shadowprey Village on the coast.
Desolace proved to be not quite as barren as it used to be. The area where the horde had a foothold at the kodo burial grounds is now green with vegetation, and there is a new neutral area full of quest givers apparently responsible for the greening of this zone. That was a relatively small area, with most of the zone still rock and dust.
One matter was very different. The warring tribes of Magram and Gelkis were still spread out in their encampments, but Fist did not - in fact, could not - select which tribe to support. That faction choice and long string of battles were a major part of this zone. Instead, it became Fist's task to bring the two factions together through a series of quests that had Fist fighting through one group to deliver a quest to a non-hostile from the other group. That proved so popular Fist was sent to unite a third clan (whose name I can't recall), and that required entering the Maraudon dungeon. It was an interesting change, and required a lot fewer kills than the version Wild was familiar with. Overall, I think the change was a good one. A better storyline and less endless killing to earn faction rep.
Fist ran out of things to do in Desolace pretty quickly, though, and with many quests really strung out it took awhile to get through them. There are better places to spend her time, thought Fist, although she will remember it, since it was in Desolace that she reached level 40. She already had her mount, but now she had a swifter running mount after visiting the riding trainer.
Next stop, Ferelas. I've always liked Ferelas. The changes wrought in this zone since Wild's day seem to be mostly changes in the horde bases so far. The quests are slightly altered, but for the most part Fist was killing the same mobs that Wild did back in the day. And as Fist is coming to expect, the more dangerous areas have been turned into kindergarten. There is an area in Ferelas where elite cliff giants once wandered about as part of and as dangers to players working on several quests there. The cliff giants are no longer elite, and the elite giants that are there are tagged as yellow and do not attack. Fist has just barely gotten started here, I think, although she has done quite a few quests already.
Toward the end of the evening Fist also accomplished something that I would not have thought possible when guild reputation was first implemented. Fist reached Exalted rep with the guild. She's the first member of the guild ever to reach that status.
Fist is now level 42.
Fist's leveling has slowed a bit. After finishing up with the Hinterlands, Fist had her choice of several next stops. She wanted to return to Kalimdor, though, where she felt more comfortable that the zones she would be looking at on the Eastern Continent. So, Fist packed up her things at the Undercity where she had been staying, and changed homes to the inn at the Valley of Honor in Orgrimmar. She did the fishing and cooking dailies (cool that she can do those at her level), and then had to make her decision. She decided on Desolace, a level 30-40 zone that looks much like it's name, as it is truly a desolate place. Wild remembered some fun times, though, and so Fist hopped a flight to Shadowprey Village on the coast.
Desolace proved to be not quite as barren as it used to be. The area where the horde had a foothold at the kodo burial grounds is now green with vegetation, and there is a new neutral area full of quest givers apparently responsible for the greening of this zone. That was a relatively small area, with most of the zone still rock and dust.
One matter was very different. The warring tribes of Magram and Gelkis were still spread out in their encampments, but Fist did not - in fact, could not - select which tribe to support. That faction choice and long string of battles were a major part of this zone. Instead, it became Fist's task to bring the two factions together through a series of quests that had Fist fighting through one group to deliver a quest to a non-hostile from the other group. That proved so popular Fist was sent to unite a third clan (whose name I can't recall), and that required entering the Maraudon dungeon. It was an interesting change, and required a lot fewer kills than the version Wild was familiar with. Overall, I think the change was a good one. A better storyline and less endless killing to earn faction rep.
Fist ran out of things to do in Desolace pretty quickly, though, and with many quests really strung out it took awhile to get through them. There are better places to spend her time, thought Fist, although she will remember it, since it was in Desolace that she reached level 40. She already had her mount, but now she had a swifter running mount after visiting the riding trainer.
Next stop, Ferelas. I've always liked Ferelas. The changes wrought in this zone since Wild's day seem to be mostly changes in the horde bases so far. The quests are slightly altered, but for the most part Fist was killing the same mobs that Wild did back in the day. And as Fist is coming to expect, the more dangerous areas have been turned into kindergarten. There is an area in Ferelas where elite cliff giants once wandered about as part of and as dangers to players working on several quests there. The cliff giants are no longer elite, and the elite giants that are there are tagged as yellow and do not attack. Fist has just barely gotten started here, I think, although she has done quite a few quests already.
Toward the end of the evening Fist also accomplished something that I would not have thought possible when guild reputation was first implemented. Fist reached Exalted rep with the guild. She's the first member of the guild ever to reach that status.
Fist is now level 42.
Monday, October 8, 2012
Weekend (7 Oct) - Baseball, Football, and Fish
Weekend (7 Oct) - Baseball, Football, and Fish
Fist wrapped up her time in the Arathi Highlands still a little short of level 34. The sprawling zone seemed somehow smaller these days, the trolls less dangerous and the riot of highlands predators and prey, from raptors to buzzards to spiders to elementals, less plentiful.
For some reason, Fist's journey so far is wrapped in a wreath of nostalgia. Sure, it's been a very long time since anyone has begun a new life. Wild's many family members have gained stature and level in many different spurts of effort, but their earliest days are long, long past. Hapless, one of the more recent, has spent all of her young life in and around Durotar, and then settled down at level 16. Jocey is old for a level 27, and she is still not that far removed from life in the Ghostlands. Jocey is the family's only horde paladin, and still has a future, but even she wonders when/if she will ever get the chance. Fist has already eclipsed her.
The nostalgia must come from Wild. Fist is traveling through much the same zones as he did, far, far, far (careful, Wild admonished) back in time. Wild earned his first ground mount at level 40 in the Arathi Highlands (actually, he had to wait until level 43 to afford it). All those quests that Fist has done by getting around on her mount since level 20, Wild was doing on foot. Perhaps that is one reason the zone seems smaller - on foot, it takes a lot longer to get anywhere, even in travel form.
Wild had to smile, though, when Fist was caught dozing on her mount after a long night, on the way to Hammerfall. The various predators attempted to catch her, to no avail. But Fist was just plain lucky to survive when she very nearly rode directly into Refuge Point, the alliance base. It was no coincidence that Refuge Point lay directly in the path horde adventurers would automatically take when returning to turn in quest completions. Wild loves those little touches.
Who remembers The Traitor Orc, Marez Cowl? The orc was hiding in Stromgarde Keep, and frustrated many, many adventurers who couldn't for their life find him. Wild went through that frustration himself back when he was in constant fear of his life inside that keep. Fist tried to channel Wild when she took on that quest, but Wild was no better at remembering where to find Cowl now than then. Cowl was even tagged on the map (which Wild never had in HIS day), and Fist still took a long time to finally locate the right building, go down the right fork, where a narrow opening could be found between the corner of that building and the inside wall of the keep. Slip around the back, and there he was. Easy to kill, it was finding him that made the quest memorable.
Saturday - Fist got in some game time, but had to check out early because we went to a ballpark party for season ticket holders. The baseball season is over for the Padres, so we could go down on the field and play catch, and then watch a movie in the grass, "The Rookie," on the stadium screen. We had fun.
At level 35, Fist made her next stop the Hinterlands. Nostalgia abounds in this interesting zone featuring the trolls of the multi-level parapets of Jintha'Alor. Fist was sent into that fortress five separate times on various quests that took her ever deeper and higher. Wild won't reveal how many times he died, or how long it took for him to get those quests completed, but it was a serious trial. Fist thought it was great fun, and loved it because she could round up three or four mobs and then use her Fists of Fury to bring them all down at the same time. I just love the visual of that spell - picture a martial arts movie when the hero has a small army in front of him and starts pummeling them with both fists in a ferocious piston movement. Stunned and helpless, they all die.
If Fist had been a hunter, she'd have made the turtle Gammerita her personal pet out of pity. The great turtle that cycles around outside the gate of the horde base in the Hinterlands was a challenge for players who wanted to win one of the best fishing poles available. Gammerita was a level 50 in a zone that low 40-somethings started in and he was tough to kill. He also blended in with all the other turtles in the area that were killed for a quest, and the great turtle had this way of sneaking up on you. Gammerita has been given a new look, larger and more dangerous looking, but poor Gammerita is only a level 31 now, and easy prey.
Fist finished her Friday evening at level 37.
Sunday - Fist was again competing with baseball. My Detroit Tigers team has made the playoffs. They won yesterday, and are playing right now as I write this. Fist is in game, too, working on her fishing and cooking skills. Well, at the moment she is waiting on yet another cross realm restart. Seems like they are doing a restart every day now that is supposed to last no more than fifteen minutes, but typically lasts thirty plus minutes (about the length of two innings of play in baseball).
Tic tock. Ok, now I'm working on inning four and still no access to WoW. The screen hangs at "Connecting." Come on, those fish are waiting!
Tic tock. Six innings completed, Tigers tied with the Athletics at 1-1, and I still can't login more than an hour since the restart.
Tic tock. Eight innings gone. A check on wowhead and WoW websites reveal that there are lots and lots of servers down. Apparently they can't even get an update on the login screen, and the WoW website is silent. The Sunday IT team is not going to be getting any bonuses - three day weekend, and paying customers losing their Sunday game time.
Tic Tock. "We are continuing to work to resolve the connection issues that many players are experiencing while attempting to log in to the game. We do not have an ETA ... " Tigers win, 5-4, in the bottom of the ninth inning.
And then, well, there was this San Diego Chargers football game ... but that was painful and I don't want to talk about it.
Fist is still level 37.
Fist wrapped up her time in the Arathi Highlands still a little short of level 34. The sprawling zone seemed somehow smaller these days, the trolls less dangerous and the riot of highlands predators and prey, from raptors to buzzards to spiders to elementals, less plentiful.
For some reason, Fist's journey so far is wrapped in a wreath of nostalgia. Sure, it's been a very long time since anyone has begun a new life. Wild's many family members have gained stature and level in many different spurts of effort, but their earliest days are long, long past. Hapless, one of the more recent, has spent all of her young life in and around Durotar, and then settled down at level 16. Jocey is old for a level 27, and she is still not that far removed from life in the Ghostlands. Jocey is the family's only horde paladin, and still has a future, but even she wonders when/if she will ever get the chance. Fist has already eclipsed her.
The nostalgia must come from Wild. Fist is traveling through much the same zones as he did, far, far, far (careful, Wild admonished) back in time. Wild earned his first ground mount at level 40 in the Arathi Highlands (actually, he had to wait until level 43 to afford it). All those quests that Fist has done by getting around on her mount since level 20, Wild was doing on foot. Perhaps that is one reason the zone seems smaller - on foot, it takes a lot longer to get anywhere, even in travel form.
Wild had to smile, though, when Fist was caught dozing on her mount after a long night, on the way to Hammerfall. The various predators attempted to catch her, to no avail. But Fist was just plain lucky to survive when she very nearly rode directly into Refuge Point, the alliance base. It was no coincidence that Refuge Point lay directly in the path horde adventurers would automatically take when returning to turn in quest completions. Wild loves those little touches.
Who remembers The Traitor Orc, Marez Cowl? The orc was hiding in Stromgarde Keep, and frustrated many, many adventurers who couldn't for their life find him. Wild went through that frustration himself back when he was in constant fear of his life inside that keep. Fist tried to channel Wild when she took on that quest, but Wild was no better at remembering where to find Cowl now than then. Cowl was even tagged on the map (which Wild never had in HIS day), and Fist still took a long time to finally locate the right building, go down the right fork, where a narrow opening could be found between the corner of that building and the inside wall of the keep. Slip around the back, and there he was. Easy to kill, it was finding him that made the quest memorable.
Saturday - Fist got in some game time, but had to check out early because we went to a ballpark party for season ticket holders. The baseball season is over for the Padres, so we could go down on the field and play catch, and then watch a movie in the grass, "The Rookie," on the stadium screen. We had fun.
At level 35, Fist made her next stop the Hinterlands. Nostalgia abounds in this interesting zone featuring the trolls of the multi-level parapets of Jintha'Alor. Fist was sent into that fortress five separate times on various quests that took her ever deeper and higher. Wild won't reveal how many times he died, or how long it took for him to get those quests completed, but it was a serious trial. Fist thought it was great fun, and loved it because she could round up three or four mobs and then use her Fists of Fury to bring them all down at the same time. I just love the visual of that spell - picture a martial arts movie when the hero has a small army in front of him and starts pummeling them with both fists in a ferocious piston movement. Stunned and helpless, they all die.
If Fist had been a hunter, she'd have made the turtle Gammerita her personal pet out of pity. The great turtle that cycles around outside the gate of the horde base in the Hinterlands was a challenge for players who wanted to win one of the best fishing poles available. Gammerita was a level 50 in a zone that low 40-somethings started in and he was tough to kill. He also blended in with all the other turtles in the area that were killed for a quest, and the great turtle had this way of sneaking up on you. Gammerita has been given a new look, larger and more dangerous looking, but poor Gammerita is only a level 31 now, and easy prey.
Fist finished her Friday evening at level 37.
Sunday - Fist was again competing with baseball. My Detroit Tigers team has made the playoffs. They won yesterday, and are playing right now as I write this. Fist is in game, too, working on her fishing and cooking skills. Well, at the moment she is waiting on yet another cross realm restart. Seems like they are doing a restart every day now that is supposed to last no more than fifteen minutes, but typically lasts thirty plus minutes (about the length of two innings of play in baseball).
Tic tock. Ok, now I'm working on inning four and still no access to WoW. The screen hangs at "Connecting." Come on, those fish are waiting!
Tic tock. Six innings completed, Tigers tied with the Athletics at 1-1, and I still can't login more than an hour since the restart.
Tic tock. Eight innings gone. A check on wowhead and WoW websites reveal that there are lots and lots of servers down. Apparently they can't even get an update on the login screen, and the WoW website is silent. The Sunday IT team is not going to be getting any bonuses - three day weekend, and paying customers losing their Sunday game time.
Tic Tock. "We are continuing to work to resolve the connection issues that many players are experiencing while attempting to log in to the game. We do not have an ETA ... " Tigers win, 5-4, in the bottom of the ninth inning.
And then, well, there was this San Diego Chargers football game ... but that was painful and I don't want to talk about it.
Fist is still level 37.
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