Friday, April 29, 2016

Sistaphilia and the Ring of Trials

Sistaphilia and the Ring of Trials

The Trial of the Elements series of quests has always been buggy, but the many quests can deliver a lot of leveling experience. Sista took it on and was able to complete almost all of the quests. At the end, though, something triggered a crash, and when the game came back up the few quests still open before the crash were gone.

Sista wasn't about to stop. She was at 79% toward level 100 and moved on to tackle the five gladiators at the Ring of Trials. Most of the family has done these five one-on-one battles. Sista felt she was ready, and eagerly entered the ring against the first opponent. She won, but it was much harder than expected. There was a moment of doubt, but Sista grew a bit grimmer and waved the next opponent into the ring. That one went down a lot quicker, and as Sista's confidence grew, the longer faces she saw on those who had bet against her in the ring. She killed all five
.
Sista stood at 99%. There was this lone quest to kill some birds. She killed the required ten. The meter said 100%, but still short. Sista turned in the quest. BOOM! Level 100!

Sista went home to her garrison in a hurry. She now has a level 3 Town Hall, and begins the makeover to expand her garrison.

If things seem too quiet at the Auction House, well, Chaitee is maintaining a low profile. Gold is flowing out of the coffers for the garrison buildups but precious little is going back in. It's hard to point the finger at Chaitee - the market is at a lull, waiting on Legion, and every move is a risk. Even Happy feels it. Shipping half his gold to the other faction has ramifications neither Happy or Chaitee thought of. One can take greater risks if one is already rich. Now the two families are only half as rich between them. Autumn Tea Green has consumed 30k gold from their nest egg so far. And there is still much to be done.

Sista is the cause of much of the costs but that is expected to level off now. With most of her money making materials starting to roll out of the factories, the drain on the budget should start to ease. Sista also unlearned Skinning in order to pick up Enchanting. Wild's best money maker, Sista hopes she can help the family further once that profession is up and running. Tailoring will eventually be added, but there is still vaule in the flower picking business at present.

A late night poker game had me still awake after midnight, which led to Java getting some leveling time in Crystal Song Forest. An hour later Java reached Level 76.

Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Rakta on the Iron Docks . . . and More

Rakta on the Iron Docks . . . and More

It's hard to fathom the difference in perspective from the Horde foothold on the Iron Docks and the similar staging area from the Alliance perspective. As horde, I know exactly where to go and how to get there safely. As Alliance, poor Rakta is completely in the dark. She will be testing herself against multiple level 100 enemies, tracked and attacked by flying beasts, and keeping very aware of stalking, elite giants. Her only combat experience ended at level 20. And she is all alone.

Her first foray was pretty successful. Sort of. If being chased by three elite giants is considered a success. She managed to distract one of them with a spell that she randomly punched in desperation. The other two hung around a bit while Rakta gathered enemy fire and then the elites found something else to harrass. Rakta stumbled back into the not-so safe alliance area and killed at least six combatants before she was left alone.

She had to go back out to finish the second half of the quest she'd started, and that went much better. Quest completed. The run gave her a first look her DPS - 6995. Good or not, she didn't know, but that is the baseline she'll work from. Her other successful goal? She didn't die. She's going to need a lot more healing potions, though. It's hard not having a true healing spell.

Rakta returned from the Iron Docks, established her own shipyard, built her own ship, and joined the Alliance fleet in sailing to the Tanaan jungle. Here, at least, the scenario followed the same theme as the Horde. Rakta had a follower type helper that mitigated a lot of damage. Still she managed 7608 DPS on her own with spikes up to 9552 DPS with help. Rakta is still throwing everything including the kitchen sink at these battles without much thought. She has much yet to learn.

Her biggest fight dropped her and her companion at the main cannon we had to destroy. When Hordie Tiphaine did this one she carefully cleared out the many enemies first before attacking the cannon. Rakta took a different approach. Excited and full of blood lust, she leaped from her flying mount and right into a small army of enemies protecting the cannon. Holy Explosions! I thought Rakta was going to die, but she cast her way through every save me spell she had, one at a time, and still had 25% health when the cannon blew to bits and there were no more bad guys to kill. I think Rakta rather likes being a warrior.

With that success under her belt, she found her own way to the Alliance Lion's Den, her new home away from home in Taanan. For her next trip to Tanaan she'll pick up a Bodyguard, Delvar Ironfist. For once someone has a bodyguard who is shorter than the main character. Let's see if Delvar can stay out of the way a little better than the horde equivalents.

On the domestic front, Rakta decided (with help from Tiphaine) to take Alchemy and Jewelcrafting. And since many alchemy recipes require fish of varying sorts, learning to fish was also added her list. Tiphaine gave up her own fishing pole for Rakta to use.

All seemed well in hand. Until Java's email made it to Tiphaine. How about a little love for your Paladin? Yes, time needs to be carved out somehow for Java to keep moving forward, too.

Rakta Armored Up






Tuesday, April 26, 2016

Rakta's Big Boost

Rakta's Big Boost

Hold the presses! Rakta has taken the ride of her young life, taking the great Boost! from level 20 to level 100 in one great leap! Goodbye heirloom leveling gear, say Hello! to a suite of gear at ilevel 640. Fascinated by heavy plate armor, she accepted primary specialization as a Protection Warrior.
Accepting such honors got her a fast portal directly to the outskirts of her new garrison. Sista is jealous. She's still laboriously building her garrison, while Rakta's comes almost complete. See the comparison:

Sista's garrison at level 97: Level 2 Town Hall, Level 1 Trading Post, Level 2 Barracks, Level 1 Mine, Level 1 Herb Garden.

Rakta's garrison at 100 without lifting a finger: Level 3 Town Hall, Level 2 Barracks, Level 2 Forge, Level 2 Storehouse, Level 2 Lumber Mill, Level 1 mine, Level 1 Herb Garden. She still has one small, one medium, and one large plot to finish things up. I hadn't expected that Rakta would have a Forge, but for now she'll keep it. Tiphaine likes the idea of Rakta having a Forge (to suppliment Tiphaine's own).

She can still pick her professions as both were left blank for her own choosing.

Rakta starts with eight followers, two with three traits/abilities and the rest with only two. One of her early duties will be to find and collect more followers, which should be fun since she doesn't know the alliance followers at all. Tiphaine should be able to guide her, though.


Two quests awaited her at the garrison. The first is "To Tanaan!" Which is the welcome quest. Then comes "We Need a Shipwright." This one will launch the naval force and all the work that comes with it. I had hoped to bring a bodyguard, but the Barracks, though level 2, was not offering bodyguards. Yet.

Rakta, still feeling very much the level 20, stared about and had to ask, "Is this all mine?"

Sunday, April 24, 2016

Shock to the System

Shock to the System
Note - I added this post after already posting Chaitee Takes Stock

All this time I've been railing at the system that wouldn't let Rakta have a mount and I could have fixed it - or at least had the right information on what I could do - if I'd only taken a longer look at the Heirloom Hoarder achievement. This achievement grants the entire account to use the Chauffered Chopper that comes with the achievement, and can be ridden at level 1. Ground mount only, but still a mount. How hard is it to get the achievement? This is where I screwed up. Had I bothered to look earlier, I would have found out that all that's required is to have at least 35 heirlooms. When I checked, the account showed 32 heirlooms. It took five minutes and 1500 gold to reach the achievement. Of course, by that time Rakta had walked her shoes off and said F it and leveled to 20 so she could have her own ride. Lesson learned.

Just to be thorough, here is the official information from the GM:

Under level 20, the only mount available is the Chauffeured Chopper
Level 20, you can train to ride 60% speed increase mounts, but only on the ground.
Level 40, you can train to ride 100% speed increase mounts, but only on the ground.
Level 60, you can train to ride 150% speed increase mounts that fly in Outland.  You can also get the Flight Master's License to allow you to fly in Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms.
Level 68 , you can learn Cold Weather Flying to fly in Northrend.
Level 70, you can train to ride 280% speed increase mounts that fly.
Level 80, you can train to ride 310% speed increase mounts that fly.
Level 90, you can learn Wisdom of the Four Winds to fly in Pandaria.

There are 2-seater mounts available, that allow a higher-level player to carry a lower-level player, which may be where you see lower level players flying, but that's not the lower level players flying themselves, they're being carried by another player.  Otherwise, yes, characters that are under the levels listed above that are flying or riding on mounts they shouldn't be able to, are exploiting something in the game, or otherwise hacking.

Chaitee Takes Stock

Chaitee Takes Stock

Chaitee made her first major AH purchases on Friday, burning about 3k gold to buy up mats that Autumn Tea Green needs to grow. She also put out a number of items for sale to help defray the start up costs. In making the transfer of goods between the factions Happy made one significant mistake by failing to provide a stock of sorcerous mats required in the crafting of special weapons and gear. "Oops," was all Happy would say about it. These mats are typically cheap (1 gold or less each, although enormous amounts are required), but of course right now they are selling at twice that amount. Thanks, Happy. Tiphaine needs the mats NOW. One wonders what other "oops" Happy has up his larcenous sleeve.

Rakta News -

Rakta got bad news this early Saturday morning. A way too happy Game Master Ankunine responded to Rakta's complaint about riding training. The GM used the explanation point in every sentence. You'd think he was ready to hand the reins over to Rakta and let her fly to the Broken Isles. Unfortunately, the response was the exact opposite.

Quoting, "I understand you see others lower than level 20 riding on mounts and you're confused!"
Second sentence didn't even make sense: "So if anyone is below 60 and flying. There's an issue because there's no way to do that without hacking!"

Forget quoting, I need to summarize this gibberish. He says that the Chauffeured Chopper and Heirloom Hoarder achievement is the only way a player under level 20 can fly. Other than Rakta, Chaitee is the lowest level toon I have now, and she's level 21. She can use a ground mount but can't fly. So maybe I'm wrong about this. It's been too long. But I still don't mind tweaking the noses of the GMs.

Don't miss the pics of Rakta and "her boys" at the bottom of the post!

Sista News -

Sista has decided to spend more time working on her Moonkin skills for awhile. Cat form is fine but eventually starts getting boring. The Alliance Moonkin is also better looking than the Horde version (sorry, Wild). It took a little while to get the addons tweaked and Blizz didn't help by crashing a few times on Saturday. For an hour it appeared like the days of old, waiting around for a raid/dungeon/something else and hoping the game would stay stable.

So it was later in the evening when Sista, mostly on a whim, turned to her secondary spec, Balance, and went to work against all those flying things in Arak that Wild loved to shoot out of the sky. She just happened to be doing the quest where there is an attack that has to be defended. To Sista's horror, she failed the quest and died. Twice.

The reason was pretty obvious when Sista took a closer look. Most of her gear automatically changes from +agility based to +int when changing spec, but - duh - some don't. Like her weapon, rings, cloak, necklace, and trinkets. That's a lot of agility gear completely useless to Sista in moonkin form. Sigh.

Sista needs a real gear set for Moonkin if she wants to be taken seriously in that form. Back in feral cat form, Sista again ruled the roost in Arak, clearing out the Admiral Taylor quests and finding herself in Southport. Southport! Wild has memories of that place where a very difficult quest had to be done under the eyes of the Alliance. Now Sista is walking among them. Sista took advantage of a rest at the Stockron Brewery she helped build there. She recommends the place, particularly because it is here that she reached Level 97.

On Sunday morning Sista made a point to return to Stormwind and get a real moonkin gear set. Tiphaine helped by crafting an inscription two-handed staff and even tossed in one weapon crystal, putting the staff at 2 of 6 crafted. There was enough gold in Sista's pocket to make some modest purchases off the AH, and she now has a solid moonkin gear set. It's far below her feral set (feral is at i579, moonkin is at i561). Sista has yet to test the moonkin gear in actual combat, but she is anxious to give it a shot.







Heirloom Gear Twins

Boxing Match in Lakeshire

Rakta and "Her Boys"







Saturday, April 23, 2016

Apprentice Troubles

Apprentice Troubles

Tiphaine is not the patient type. Her new apprentice, Rakta, is expected to be a fast learner and quickly productive. So far things have not panned out that way.

Of course, Rakta had no problem playing in the level 1-10 kiddy pool for new recruits. She was outfitted with heirloom gear and could kill most anything with little more than a strong word. Once she was released from her training Rakta made her way to Goldshire, the nearest town to Stormwind. By the time she was level 10 she was starting to get a little peeved at all of the walking she had to do. Officially, new players must reach level 20 before getting their riding mount. But that rule is ancient, and Rakta saw many riders, both ground and airborne, with less than the twenty level requirement.

Tiphaine wan't very sympathetic. "Figure it out," she demanded. "Quit wasting time and fix it."

Rakta slogged her way from Goldshire back to Stormwind and visited Gryphon Master Dungar Longdrink. She had the money to buy a mount, but the Gryphon Master refused to sell her one. She pointed to her left. Flustered, Rakta followed Longdrink's pointing finger to Bralla Cloudwing, the flying trainer. Aha, now she was getting somewhere. However, all Bralla would say is that she needed to find a riding trainer. Where does she get a riding trainer? So she talks to the gryphon keeper, who sells the mounts. Rakta is told that she can't sell her a mount because she already purchased them, ie "already known." Rakta tries to take one of the mounts from her collections tabs and is gruffly told she "requires apprentice riding skills."

Tiphaine contains her fury, doing her best not to kill Rakta outright and find another apprentice.
Confused and desperate, Rakta is determined to kill her way to level twenty while keeping herself out of sight of Tiphaine.

Rakta retraced her steps back to the Eastvale Logging Company, where there is a riding trainer, Randal Hunter. Another fail, he gave Rakta the same runaround all of the others have given her.

Disgusted, Tiphaine put in a ticket to the Stormwind Mount Academy and verbally slayed them for a half hour for incompetance. Rakta got word of that second hand from Chaitee. Rakta is even more nervous, now, after watching a level 18 ride by on his motorcycle. Worse, following in the rider's wake is a level 7 on her wolf mount. Rakta thought about slinking into the Lion's Den (appropriate) and hiding. Instead, she resolutely headed out to kill things, hoping for a miracle.

There were no miracles. Rakta walked. And walked. And walked. It took time, but she killed things along the way and eventually entered the Redridge Mountains. Shortly after that she came upon Lake Everstill and the town of Lakeshire. Rakta picked up a flight path and started collecting quests. It was a busy little town, exactly what Rakta needed. When she was done, she still had plenty of daylight, but she wrapped up her business and took a flight back to Stormwind. Rakta was Level 20.

Rakta breathed a very large sigh. She paid the riding trainer the sum of four gold and change for the pleasure of earning her first riding lesson. Her red gryphon can cruise at 170% speed - on the ground only - and Rakta simply enjoyed the wonders of riding for awhile. She even tried to fly, and fell in the lake, and laughed the whole time.

Her pleasure was considerably blunted, however, when she learned that the next level doesn't come until level 40. This isn't right, but so far there has been no explanation.

It wasn't all about Rakta. Sista managed to get in some work, finally getting to the Iron Docks battle. With Talador wrapped up Sista made her way to the Spires of Arak. She is at level 96 +56% and with Rakta settled for the moment she should have more time.

Thursday, April 21, 2016

The Multiple Lives of Raktajina

The Multiple Lives of Raktajina

Note: Almond is right, both the Wild and Tiphaine families are relieved to have this faction transfer behind them. However, there was one loose end that had to be tied before the second account closed its doors for the foreseeable future. In doing some research I learned (remembered) that large scale moving of accounts for various reasons has been done at least twice, before this latest one. I was not so fond of my secondary characters back then, and more than a few no longer exist. Then there is one character that has been reincarnated/re-invented two times that I have found so far. Not even I can remember ten plus years of Warcraft, and I'm finding out interesting things about some past events that will likely extend into the present. Rakajina is one such anomaly.

Raktajina was born an Alliance Hunter in August 2010. She was hustled to Booty Bay, where she toiled at the neutral Auction House, a pawn of Happyface, who ran the clandestine black market between the factions of the Alliance and Horde. Her one claim to fame is that she once slipped from that unthankful task, escaping Booty Bay by sneaking onto the boat to Ratchet, a neutral town of brigands and worse. Not yet learned in the ways of factions, she attempted to enter the Horde City of Orgrimmar by it's back gate, getting herself killed.

Unsuited for book work, Rakta, as she came to be called, flourished in the battlegrounds and earned accolades for her prowess on the field of battle against the Horde, earning her way in with a rebel group of young and savage hooligans and gaining Level 13 in January 2011.

Rakta then disappeared, almost completely forgotten, until she suddenly popped up in Darnassus as a Level 10 Alliance Worgen in October 2013. Chaitee knew her, even so far changed. Such things have happened, in the ways of the mysterious Account Manipulations. Such work as she could do, Rakta did, and then turned all her worldly goods over to Chaitee. Poor Rakta was used and again forgotten.

Rumors flew during the period of Rakta's coming and goings. She was linked to the whole Naithipe nastiness, but a rigorous search could unearth no connection. It was thought she was murdered, but no firm evidence could be found. Some say there was a child come from the mists of Pandaria. Other deaths have been attributed to Naithipe/Tiphaine, but Tiphaine has owned up to her central part in the deaths that surrounded that period, or as much of it as has been uncovered.

Now the rumors fly again. Tiphaine is Alliance now, and she has taken an apprentice. By her side is a thick muscled Human Warrior raised in the farming and hunting lands around Stormwind. They say she is learning fast. And they say her name is Rakta.

Tiphaine is not only Alliance, she has shed her Troll racials and is now Night Elf, with a new appearance. Anything with the smallest touch of Naithipe raises questions, and sends seekers after secrets best left forgotten. But there are those who will dig them up, hoping for reward, or, perhaps, vengeance.

Java has been to Dalaran. Recently. It unnerved her, being in the places where the infamous Naithipe lived, and she resists setting her hearthstone there. But Java has a great deal still to do in Northrend. She may not have a choice.

Seemingly above it all, Tiphaine guides her new Autumn Tea Green guild toward the distant lands of the Broken Isles in Legion.

Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Putting The Pieces Together

Putting The Pieces Together

The faction transfer is done, but there are still a lot of loose ends. Tiphaine is the leader of the new Alliance guild, Autumn Tea Green. She is the only member. Before the second account closed, attempts were made to invite Java, Sista and Whisper into the guild. The invites did not go through. I thought that at least Whisper, on the second account, would be accepted, but no luck. Tiphaine is going to tweak another GM nose and see what they can do.

In the meantime Tiphaine has sent the family treasure to Chaitee and officially opened the guild auction house, despite not yet being in the guild. Chaitee's bank has only three tabs, but she can make do until she is folded into Autumn Tea Green. For the first time, Chaitee was given first crack at the Auction House this morning, a situation that Happy is definitely not happy with. Wild has committed to continuing that situation until Autumn Tea Green is able to maintain itself.

On Tuesday Tiphaine rounded up another GM, GM #12, to figure out why Tiphaine can't get anyone to join her guild. She even bathed today. Strange, but she didn't think much about hygiene when she was a Troll, but as a Night elf, well, somehow that's different. Don't mistake a little perfume for weakness, though. That could be fatal.

The plan was for Whisper, on the second account, to ask Tiphaine to join her guild. Tiphaine would give Whisper permission to accept others into the guild, and Sista, Java, and Chaitee would follow. It didn't work. The GM murmured and grumbled, but before he could come up with an answer I already had it. The problem, this time, wasn't Blizz's, but mine. In the game interface I had checked "Do not accept guild invites" back when every idiot in Stormwind wanted Whisper to join their guild. Unheck the box, and everything went smoothly from there.

Status of the various Guilds:

Tiphaine's Autumn Tea Green guild is now a functional Alliance guild.

Alwayslost inherited the guild leadership of Tea Green, but Neekia or a relative is welcome to take it over if desired. Note that Alwayslost is on the second account (as is Whispersoul) and will become inactive within the next 24 hours.

Teagreen is now guild leader of Nights Templarr, a "ghost" horde guild.

At last everyone can take a deep breath, and get back to work!

Monday, April 18, 2016

Thirteen Hours - Factions Change

Thirteen Hours - Factions Change

Thirteen hours - That's how little time is left before I again run out of game time on the second account. Every day I check to see if all of the conditions have been met to conduct the faction transfer. More than two weeks have passed since the transfer was first was attempted.

Today, as of this morning, all of the conditions were met. The Faction Transfer is a GO.
Tiphaine demanded that each step be confirmed before making the attempt:

(1) Tiphaine personally checked that she has no mail waiting in queue.
(2) One guild member, Teagreen, is present and accounted for.
(3) Java will turn over the original Tea Green guild to Alwayslost.
(4) Tiphaine remains GL of knights templarr, but the name will be changed.
(5) The transfer of gold and materials from Happy's coffers to Tiphaine is complete.
(6) Execute the transfer. If succesful, Tiphaine's guild will be become an Alliance guild. Tiphaine will still be a death knight and should have the opportunity to pick her race. Everything else should remain the same.
(7) Moving forward, Tiphaine will invite Javajoo, Sistaphilia, and Chaitee into the guild. Whispersoul will remain behind on the second account. Wish her well.

RESULTS - It started well. I clicked the boxes for the faction transfer and guild name change. Both were accepted. The next step failed. I reached a spot where it appeared that Tiphaine had to step down as GL as part of the process. Tiphaine balked and backed out. Time to find a GM.

Game Master #11 - First, there was a lengthy chat with my latest GM. I pointed out several points that were not well explained and recommended they be clarified to help this process work more smoothly. The first thing that you DON'T see in the process is that the transfer produces a "ghost guild." And that is the key to understanding how the transfer works.

How it works: At the pivotal point in the process, Tiphaine is asked to "assign a new guild leader." That is what got Tiphaine hot under the collar. However, the new guild leader being referred to is the original horde guild, which lacks a GL once Tiphaine is gone.

Hello, Teagreen? You are what was left behind when the guild transferred (ie, the "ghost guild"). It's a fully functional guild. Congratulations on becoming the horde guild leader of knights templarr! I think.

By the way, the guild name "Tea Green 2" was NOT available. I chose "Autumn Tea Green" as the new guild name.

The process is still pending. Still, I checked progress, and got "You (Tiphaine) cannot login until the character update process you recently initiated is complete."

Maybe today, maybe tomorrow. But it's done, and it can't be undone.

Another Draught of Java: Sorting Through the Mess

Another Draught of Java: Sorting Through the Mess

Java campaigned well past midnight on Saturday night. She was up before dawn on Sunday morning checking her bags for anything useful in the pile of quest junk dumped by her bed. Java has sixteen slots for gear, but nine slots are already fitted with heirlooms. That leaves seven slots to fill in: necklace, wrist, gloves, belt, shoes, and a pair of rings. Her "take" from the previous evening: 18 pieces of potentially useful gear. Eight pieces were discarded immediately as they fit slots with heirlooms, which leaves ten. There are two weapons in the pile - a one handed axe no better than what she has, and a two-handed greatsword. Java likes the greatsword for its greater damage dealing, but she would have to set aside her shield. Java decided to keep the greatsword and will give it a whirl. She also found a pretty Floodplain Vest she decided to keep just for the looks, storing it with what she calls her clotheshorse gear. The rest of the gear was worthless. Java needs to mention that she's not taking any healing gear, which also eliminates any need to maintain a healing gear set. At least not until the leveling grind is over.

Java had fun at the Fizzcrank Airstrip. It was a lot easier than the last time a Wild family member had to battle through all those robots. Here Java reached Level 73. By the way, Java went back to sword and board. At first it seemed the two hander would deliver greater damage, but over time the numbers slipped. Sword and Board it is.

The Borean Tundra has been plumbed. There is nothing left other than successfully hammering down Level 74. Java grabbed a boat to Stormwind. At the Auction House Java was able to purchase upgraded gear and enchants at reasonable prices for her bracers, gloves and shield. But she's still wielding that same ole' Champion's one-handed sword (i154). Given that she'll be carrying it awhile longer, she prettied it up with an enchant. The shield looks cool, too. Then she headed for Dalaran.




Jave didn't stop there. Twice Java has been turned toward Dalaran and she resisted. No more. Crystalsong Forest (with Dalaran brooding above it) is a wide land. The first quests dotted across the whole of it. She waded in and reached Level 75 before breakfast.

Saturday, April 16, 2016

The Charge of Javajoo


The Charge of Javajoo

Java spent an entire morning in the Outlands Netherstorm zone expecting to clean up and get some serious leveling with the new heirloom gear. She cleaned up all right, completing endless numbers of quests and following tons of lore threads. At the end, though, it was mostly dissapointment as quest rewards barely topped 5k each. Java managed to get only 38% toward level 71 for all that effort.

The Burning Crusade/Outlands are not worth rummaging around in anymore. Java is going to make the jump to the Wrath of the Lich King. After a short stop in the Outlands Shadowmoon Valley just to say she'd been there, Java hearthed back to Stormwind. Her first stop was at the Mount dealer. Java's mount has a max speed of 270% and that wasn't going to work. It took over half her gold, but she spent 4250 gold to upgrade her mount to 400% speed. Then she headed for the harbor.

At the harbor Java ran into a problem. She's never been to the Stormwind piers. Well, she might have, when she was much younger, but that was long ago. The problem is that there seems to be no way to tell where the ships are going. Java is bound for the Borean Tundra in Northrend, but she doesn't know what ship to board!

A passerby laughed at the question, but he pointed and told Java that the boat he was looking for was at the last pier to the right. That boat took her to the Borean Tundra and the town there. Java was then encouraged to take a flight to Dalaran, the floating city and main hub in Northrend.

Now she stood in front of "A Hero's Welcome," the local Alliance Inn at Dalaran. Inside, there were many travelers. Java was a bit self-conscious. Most of the visitors were level 100. But there was another strange sense about the place as well. Tiphaine lived here for a long time. She is Horde born, and knows this place intimately. Knows the horde areas, the horde hang outs. Java tried to see where Tiphaine once resided, but Horde guards warned her away. There is too much of Tiphaine here, in Dalaran. The old Tiphaine, the survivor of the Death Knight training, and the taint of murder. The very air feels haunted. Even her cat felt it, pressing against a piece of furniture and refusing to move.
And this is where Java proposes to spend considerable time? Not if she can help it.

Java didn't stay long at Dalaran. She returned to the seaside port where she first stepped onto Borean Tundra soil and went to work. She hunted and killed spies, went into underground digs to find lost family members, and killed dozens of wandering ghost warriors along the shore. Java's most frustrating challenge were the flying bats that wouldn't come within reach of Java's Shield strike. Taking flight, Java harassed the bats until she forced them down. It was touch and go for a bit, but Java eventually skewered them all. Somewhere along the way Java hit Level 71 without realizing it, but it took too long. Java needs to increase her quest completion rate. She was underwhelmed with the loot, too. Specifically, Java wanted a better blade, but the good ones were either two handers or made for casters, and the other quest rewards were generic. Not a single piece of gear was worthy of keeping.

As Java quested farther and farther from Valiance Keep (where she first landed in Northrend) she started seeing areas that she knew. Horde memories, for sure, but it helped her get her bearings. Java was having fun and stayed out until well past midnight. Her only frustration was a series of quests called Last Rites. That one stumped her, but a good night sleep was in order. She'll go back at it tomorrow. Oh, by the way, she reached level 72.


Java Relaxes with Friend



Java Nervous in Dalaran














Friday, April 15, 2016

Focusing on the Goal

Focusing on the Goal

Beginning today, the Wild and Java families have agreed to focus exclusively on preparations for Legion. Within that goal, an even narrower focus is to build up the Alliance team. The Wild family has six members at level 100 (five once Tiphaine leaves for the Alliance). The Java Family has ... umm let me take a count ... None.

Target: Javajoo and Sistaphilia must be level 100 before Legion strikes. Java bears the brunt of the task, as she has to scale thirty levels. Assuming a Legion release of 21 September, Java could take five days for each level and still have seven days left over. That looks good until Sista's needs are inserted. Folding in Sista's five levels will cut Java down to four days per level. I am hoping that Java will level faster than four days per level in the lower levels and that there will be some padding available when the upper levels are reached. Heirloom gear and spending some gold will also help. Being able to outfit multiple toons with heirloom gear from the Collections Tab is a huge plus.

Counting Tiphaine as Alliance, plus a free boosted member, the Alliance family should have four level 100s on Legion Day. Five, if the Demon Hunter is Level 100 at launch: Tiphaine, Java, Sista, New Member, Demon Hunter. And how many Horde Level 100 members will there be? Five, same as the Alliance.

NOTE: There will only be one account open when all this manuevering is done. The ten level 100s will, of course, be in that account. That leaves two spots open (in Legion the number of spots available in an account rises from 11 to 12). Our Auction House kids take up the other two slots (Happyface and Chaitee). There is still one caveat I have to check on. I don't know when that 12th spot will be available. If it opens with the pre-purchase, then everything is set. It's coming together.

Sista remains focused on her leveling, pressing through Talador and delivering a one-two punch by reaching Level 95 and Level 96. Her methods are consistent - cat form at all times in combat. There is no question that she can kill things, and its becoming clear that she can keep herself alive as well. Her garrison has slowly taken shape. Sista spends most of her time in the field, but she does have a Level 2 Barracks along with an Herb Garden and Mine. She already has twelve followers, although their traits are disappointingly few. Ten followers have the minimum two traits/abilities. The remaining two have just three. Sista will work with what she has. Delvar Ironfist is her one bodyguard and she has the Bone Shield ability (for protection) and Epic Mount (which just makes the missions go faster). Delvar is her first Alliance bodyguard. The next time Sista goes hunting, Delvar will be with her.

Thursday, April 14, 2016

Denial of Service

Denial of Service

On Wednesday Battle.net began announcing that a denial of service attack was in progress against internet providers that host World of Warcraft. Apparently WoW wasn't directly targeted. Blizzard advised players to check a twitter feed for additional information, but when I tried to access the feed it had disappeared, probably due to overwhelming response. The assault continued for most of the day. As of this morning, things are back to normal. No further mention of the attack, just the usual ongoing assault of pitching the Legion expansion.

The wait for the faction transfer has slowed both families down. I wish there was a way to check that the authenticator is functioning. The android app installed on the phone continues to display an ever changing string of codes, but that's what it was doing when I was told it wasn't active.

Blizzard keeps announcing that "you can begin preparations for the coming invasion now" for the Legion Expansion. Yes, Legion can be pre-purchased. But it doesn't get released any earlier or cost any less for subscriber's who buy early. The Illidari Stalker mount and Nibbles Pet in the deluxe version doesn't get released early, either. Plus, the mount is a ground mount only! Why pay for a hot mount when you can't show it off in the skies of the Broken Isles? Pre-purchasing will give players "early access" to the new Demon Hunter class before the start of the expansion. I wonder how early is early. A week? A day? Nobody is saying.

However, there are some tantilizing reasons to consider a pre-purchase:

(1) Access to the Demon Hunter early could mean that the training period for demon hunters might be completed and ready to go live when the full expansion goes live. The training period seems to be much like what the Death Knight training went through, which was a self-contained bubble independent of the rest of the world.

(2) Pre-purchasing gives IMMEDIATE access to Boost a player to Level 100. Not level 90, level 100. If I bought Legion now, Whisper (or someone else, such as Java, if I change my mind) could be a level 100 the same day.

 That decision rests on completing the faction transfer so that Whisper/other (and Sista for that matter) are properly geared to handle level 100 regions and challenges. I'm reminded of Wild (who should have known better) innocently entering a level 100 combat zone in his 90s and getting his face ripped off. But it's something to think about.

Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Faction Transfer Watch

Faction Transfer Watch

The big news so far this week is that Tiphaine's guild gained it's first new member, Level 10 Monk Teagreen (many thanks to Almond for the assistance). The guild now meets all of the requirements for a faction transfer except for one. The guild is on day three of a mandated seven day period of authenticator use.

With time on her hands, young Whisper decided to get out and see the world. Whisper, a Human warrior, is the newest arrival in an expanding Alliance family. Be certain that Java knows about her, but has taken a wait and see approach to determine her potential value.

Whisper spent an evening working her way through the farmlands surrounding Stormwind City. Aided by five ancient pieces of heirloom gear held in safe keeping with Java's family (slipped to Whisper by Chaitee from the guild armory), there was little that Whisper couldn't handle. Doing more running around than killing (no mount), she successfully reached level 12. Chaitee also sent her some bags and a very little money (25 gold) so she could live at the inn in Stormwind between adventures.

Her ultimate home is still uncertain. There has never been a human among any of the families that anyone can remember. Java is determined to build up the Alliance family in any way she can. Some way might be found to include Whisper, but that would require negotiation with the Wild Family, who owns the last unoccupied spot.

Behind the scenes Sista provided some additional help to Whisper with a larger sack of gold. Whisper is intensely interested in all aspects of being a warrior. With the help of Chaitee, she also learned the ins and outs of the Auction House. Chaitee showed her how to compare prices and the various types of gear. She's very sharp.

Her "stats" such as they are:
Level 12, gear level is i10, although the five heirloom pieces are officially level 17 gear.
Strength 55, Stamina 52.

She then did some shrewd bartering on the AH. The results: She picked up three pieces of gear, selecting a better weapon and shield, demonstrating she understood the key importance of her sword and board weapons.

Her new stats:
Level 12, i11, str 58, sta 55. For a level 12 that's a significant upgrade.

HEY! Well, look who has come back from vacation. Java (Level 70) had just gotten word that heirloom gear was being handed out. Time to stock up! Heirloom gear increased the amount of experience points earned (+45%), which in turn speeds leveling. Other stats could go down. In patch 6.1 all heirloom gear was bumped up to 1-90 level and the gear was added under the Collections Tab. Heirloom Gear can be made to order now. The family doesn't have every piece of gear. At some point a project may be started to finish the collection. That can be expensive, and figuring out where to buy them can also be a chore.

Here is Java's before and after stats:
Before  / After
gear i100 / i120
strength 497 / 496
stamina 491 / 525




Whisper Marching With the Troops

Tuesday, April 12, 2016

The Genealogy of the Three Clans - Revised

The Genealogy of the Three Clans - Revised

In January of 2011 Wildshard made an attempt to identify every character ever born to the family, including background information. Given the transition of the Wild Family to focus more on the Alliance Java Family, it seems this would be a good time to update that report and add, to the extent possible, the comings and goings of characters in the five years since. The listing is in chronological order in which they first appeared.

The Wildshard Clan (then and now)

Wildshard - Level 85 Horde Male Tauren Druid (Now Level 100)
Jezzibael - Level 80 Horde Female Troll Shaman (Now Level 100)
Rheebah - Level 6 Female Druid, Retired (Mrs Wildshard, for a short time)
Happyface - Level 22 Horde Male Troll Warrior (Level 24, still running the AH)
Merylitlbotm - Level 56 Horde Female Tauren Hunter (Level 60, renamed Merytophvy)
    Mery lost her full name in a recent account transfer - She is not too pleased with the new
    name Merytophvy. People giggle when they see the name. At least they don't talk about
    her caboose anymore. More giggles.
Dethsdoor - Level 11 Horde Female Undead Warlock (retired)
Jocelyne - Level 23 Horde Female Blood Elf Paladin (Now level 100)
Javajoo - Level 32 Alliance Male Draenei Paladin (Level 70, ahem, now Female)
Chaitee - Level 20 Alliance Female Draenei Hunter (Level 21)
    Recently took over AH duties for the Alliance in Stormwind
    Java and Chaitee were going to be the new Mr and Mrs Wildshard. Oh well.
Phillyperdue - Level 80 Horde Female Undead Priest (Now Level 100)
Melasahnd - Level 63 Horde Female Undead Death Knight (murdered)
Naithipe - Real name Tiphaine, Looong Story  (Level 100)
Alwayslost - Level 11 Alliance Female Draenei Paladin (was once GL of Tea Green)
Ezuh - Level 46 Horde Female Orc Shaman (murdered)
Slashedhand - Level 11 Horde Male Orc Hunter (retired, once served Naithipe)
Raktajina - Level 13 Alliance Female Night Elf Hunter (retired)
Hapless - Level 16 Horde Female Troll Druid (Hanging in there)
Sistaphilia - Level 19 Alliance Female Worgen Druid (Boosted, Now Level 94)
The Sis/Lao Clan and The DER Clan also made mention of many members from both Alliance and Horde.

To read the entire post of January 2011, look here:

http://wildfamilytales.blogspot.com/2011/01/special-report-18-jan-whats-in-name.html

Sunday, April 10, 2016

The "Soul" of Rock and Roll

The "Soul" of Rock and Roll

It was a rockin' weekend with the Padres winning 13-6 and 16-3 on Friday and Saturday nights. Those two lop-sided wins helped fans to forget the first three games of the season, all losses, and without scoring a single run. Thanks to the Colorado Rockies, the Padres are looking good again.

Also looking pretty good is Sista. After clearing the Shadowmoon Valley zone, she laid claim to Gorgrond at Wildwood Wash and set up her lumber mill. Much of the work mirrored the Horde questing, but she suspects there will be surprises ahead of her. Sista reached level 93 and flew back to Stormwind to check on gear upgrades. No chance. The good stuff was way too costly and the less expensive stuff - well, they pretty much sucked. The Alliance team is managing with the gold they began with and Sista reports she is still hammering the bad guys at a good pace.

Sista's big moment so far was her first real solo encounter with an elite. She was killing goons for a quest and wasn't paying particular attention to what she was engaging, believing them all to be similar types. Sista saw a big fellow standing by himself away from the others and pounced on him. Only then did she see he was a level 93 elite. It was a bit scary at the start but only a few seconds into the fight she knew she had him. The elite went down.

Sista added another elite, Lyu (level 94 elite) to her list of kills and located another stopover with a flight path in High Pass. Sista reached level 94 and got her notice to join in the battles at the Iron Docks. At present she is declining the offer until she cleans up a few quests. But that time is coming.

The faction transfer may require more time. As of Sunday morning I have only 11 hours left of my free game time and Blizzard is still telling me that I don't yet have a full seven days worth of authenticator use. Of course, there isn't anything to tell me how long the authenticator has been active. So I reopened my ticket to ask that question. This will be GM #9, I think. So far it's been a new GM every time. I use live chat for these tickets as they usually are very fast to come online. This morning, though, is different. Been waiting . . .  and waiting. Maybe Sunday is a bad day for these things . . .

At last, a GM! Took 45 minutes and two retries. The Bad News: the faction transfer is off for another week. The current GM (#10) working the issues told me that I had requested that the authenticator be turned off five days ago. Not true, and I proved it since I keep a record of these live chat sessions. So Blizz screwed up. So they can waive the 7 day authenticator process, right? Nope. The system is hard-wired, so they say. The authenticator was restarted and I will have to wait another seven days before I can do the faction transfer. What a goat rope! The GM did give me 8 more days of free game time, but that doesn't mean much since I'm not playing any of the characters on that account. BIG SIGH.

Tiphaine is half inclined to turn the whole thing off. Sista and Java are pleading with her to be patient. Patience is not one of Tiphaine's virtues. Maybe some other kind of bribe? Well . . .  The Java family doesn't have a Human representative. How would Tiphaine feel about adding to her guild?

Meet new recruit Whispersoul, Level 1 human warrior.











Thursday, April 7, 2016

Preparing for the Transition

Preparing for the Transition

Sista has reached level 91. Why is that significant? Because at level 91 she gains access to Warlord Crafted items. She can equip up to three total. She doesn't have a lot of gold, but level 1 crafted gear (which has 6 stages) can sometimes be purchased for a reasonable price. Even stage 1 crafted gear is far better than what Sista is wearing.

Her Curent stats: Upgraded (weapon, helm, and trinket)
Gear:        i498 ---------> i528
Agility:    1144 --------> 1629
Crit:          27.89% -----> 31.04%
Damage:   1467 - 1632 > 2380 - 2797

The total cost for the upgrade was 2,310 gold. That took over half of Sista's gold, but is well worth it.

Chaitee continues to work on preparations for the faction change. Tea Green assets are being gathered up and posted for sale on the Auction House. She's on her third run through and the pickings are getting slim. However, Happy has instituted his own plans for lightening the burden of less than new items that have cluttered his bags for . . . well, forever. All or nearly all of the outdated items are being sent to Tiphaine, property of the alliance guild once the transfer takes place. Chaitee will take those items under her care as well. She has shown an impressive ability to sell the outdated stuff and she's anxious to take on a larger role involving currently traded items.

That doesn't mean all is well on the AH front. There is no agreement as yet between Happy and Chaitee on how to fairly manage alliance and horde needs.

Sistaphilia's Garrison

Town Hall 2

 Okay, the Wild Family grudgingly admits that the alliance garrison is considerably more impressive than the horde garrison. A very fine job, if a bit fancy, even though it hasn't been completely built out yet. The Town Hall is Level 2 now and the Trading Post is under construction. Following an evening running quests Sista also gained Level 92.

Tiphaine is getting restless. Nearly all the work required is done, but she still has to wait two more days before the faction change can be attempted.

Wild, on the other hand, is feeling a bit morose over the changes. Tiphaine's transition to Night Elf means the Wild family will lose a troll representative while the alliance will gain not just one, but two night elves in Tiphaine and the future demon hunter.Wild did have some happy thoughts, too. He considers most of the alliance races as ugly as the back end of a mule, and laughingly short to boot. Fat pandas, dwarves, goblins, and gnomes seem more like dinner than functioning races. Humans are too full of themselves (and too ordinary). The night elves and demon hunters don't really count since the horde has blood elves. The only interesting alliance races left are the Draeni and Worgen. Pretty slim pickins, from Wild's point of view. Ok, so the goblins are actually horde. But who wants to be one? Tauren, Troll, Undead - now these are races of distinction.

Sista shows a matronly side while in Human Form. Laughing at her could be a fatal mistake.

Hmmmm 



Wednesday, April 6, 2016

Horde Family Questions Alliance Garrisons

Horde Family Questions Alliance Garrisons

While there are differences in construction and looks, the basics of a garrison should be pretty similar to both factions. Well, it didn't take long for there to be contention between Horde and Alliance family members on which side was better at it.

When the horde was on the quests for felling trees and preparing to build their garrison, they faced numerous large beasts that fought in groups and protected their little ones. It was truly dangerous work.
When Sista began building her garrison, she also felled trees and faced, well, birds. Little birds. A couple of rakes and a shred and they were pillow stuffing.

Sista then entered her garrison and literally picked up bags of garrison resources laying on the ground or on the pack animals conveniently standing around. The bags are called Pipper's Buried Supplies. Really?

The horde side did not get any "gimmes" when opening their garrison, and had to earn all resources via quests to get started. This is the vaunted alliance?

Maybe things are evening out. Sista did the few quests that were available around the garrison, but she was still at level 90 when she reached the point where she could erect her first building, the Barracks. However, she was denied it even though she had the resources for it. Here is the complaint: "More quest progress is required in Shadowmoon before using the architect table." It was also offered that Sista should level to 93 and complete the quest, Bigger is Better.

I don't recall having to be level 93 to put up the Barracks, but maybe I'm wrong. I think the short circuit to a Boosted level 90 has unwired a number of things. Normally, Sista would have leveled to 90 and there would be sets of quests waiting for her as she went along. She doesn't have that framework now. I did a Wowhead check and Sista has done all the required quests needed to build a Barracks. So she is missing something probably not related to the garrison.

Sista elected to learn all she could about the land of Shadowmoon, locate flight paths, and look for quest hubs. She even did some flower picking on the way (she's an herbalist). She can fly at 390% and if she could ever get enough gold she could better that. For now, though, she's happy exploring her new environment.

Before that, though, Sista decided to take a scenic tour of the Tanaan Jungle. After all, Tanaan is directly north of Shadowmoon. Sista couldn't help but notice how close Tanaan is to the Alliance garrison versus the Horde garrison, which Wild says is much further away. Java laughed at that, poo pooing the horde's insistence that the Alliance get preferential treatment. The same goes for the trip to Ashran, which is a relatively short flight compared to the alliance lane. At least Wild thinks so.

Sista was busy gawking at the Tanaan jungle from the air. She found where the Alliance base will be - although at this stage it hasn't been built yet. She flew to the ship anchored at the shoreline of Tanaan, but no quests were offered. In fact, Sista can't start the Tanaan Jungle piece until her garrison is built up enough to build a shipyard. However, when she returned to her garrison she was able to access the architect table and - Hurrah! - was able to build the Barracks. She quickly acquired three followers, one of which is a bodyguard who's name she promptly forgot. She won't forget him for long since she plans on bringing him with her wherever they go.

I also continue to learn new things about worgen. Sista went to the barbershop. She has a nice human form, but there is certainly room for improvement. Alas, human form is not natural to a worgen and the barber refused to seat her. In her natural worgen state the barber had plenty to offer, but Sista was no longer in the mood.

Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Hello? Anyone Remember Java and Sista?

Hello? Anyone Remember Java and Sista?

Too much talk about guilds, faction transfers and password resets makes for a dull post. Unfortunately that has been the news of late. Let's get the bad stuff out of the way first.

Spent an hour in live chat with a GM Monday night when suddenly I was unable to login to either of my accounts. I thought the mess was brought on by Blizz's insistence that I have an authenticator active. That turned out not to be the issue. The cause was confusion by the GM and myself on how mulitple accounts work before there was such a thing as battle.net and after. In the before my two accounts were separate, inedpendant entities which made two-boxing possible. Then Blizz changed things and folded my two separate accounts into one account with two character lists under Battle.net. I learned that I needed only one password (a battle.net password) to access both - they are essentially one account. If I want to separate them, I would need to establish a new battle.net account. These were things that came about while I was playing only the one account, so I didn't know things had changed. I think that has all been fixed. Both accounts are available to me. The good thing is that paying for the accounts is still separate, which means it will cost me less when I de-activate that second account. 'Nuff said.

Then there is Opening Day of the Baseball season. My beloved San Diego Padres set a record that hasn't been broken since 1911, and I was there to see it. Unfortunately. We lost 15-0, the largest loss on an Opening Day of any team in the history of major league baseball. We sure know how to make records! Sigh. My mantra - there are still 161 games to play. This was only one.

On to the good stuff. Java took a break while all this account talk was going on but will be back at work looking to improve on her march to level 100. Sista broke ground on her garrison in Shadowmoon. She is ready to take the plunge into Draenor and is quickly learning the art of cat form, which is her preferred method of attack at present and the form she uses for leveling.
In that vein the below are some pictures of Sista's infant garrison - It's the first Alliance garrison in the Horde-Alliance blended family.

Breaking Ground


Entering Her garrison





Enjoying Her New Home



Monday, April 4, 2016

Preparations For the Faction Change

Preparations For the Faction Change

The purpose of this post is to document the process. Some or all of the below is already known. I was going to list all of the rules governing character and guild faction changes. That was so boring I left it out, but I did leave in some of the crazier ones.

Let me try to condense the process using real characters. I should repeat WHY this makes sense. Which is - the alliance guild has very little gold to work with. How much does the alliance need? As much as Happy will give them. Specifics will be discussed offline.

(1) Tiphaine is guild leader of Knights Templarr. She currently has no members, and there has to be at least one member in the guild (not counting the GL) for the faction change to occur. I can't invite characters on the same account to join the guild, nor can they be in game at the same time. So I need outside help from a horde character I can invite into the guild. That will give me that one member in the guild.

(2) I'm now waiting for the 7 day authenticator period to end before I can actually do the faction change. During this time I will stuff Tiphaine and her guild with gold while she is still a horde guild.

(3) When I get the green light, I'll do the faction transfer. Oddly, only the guild leader and the guild changes faction (and with the transfer comes the framework of the guild, including the guild bank, perks, and completed achievements).

(4) Guild members DON'T transition. The one character in the guild is automatically kicked out of the guild. That is very stupid, but it certainly gets Blizz a lot of money if a large guild is involved (imagine every guildie paying that $25 faction change fee). But I digress. Our horde character isn't needed anymore anyway. Guild Leader Tiphaine (now alliance) now needs an alliance character outside my account to ask to join the guild. Tiphaine will give him/her power to add more guildies - Javajoo, Chaitee and Sistaphilia specifically.

(5) Then there is the question of the Tea Green guild. Note that there are eleven characters still listed as guild members. I will only have Alwayslost still in that guild, but he's on the account that will shut down. Tea Green will need a new guild leader if we want to keep it going. Another thought is that maybe we don't need two alliance guilds. We could shut down Tea Green before the faction transfer and I could then rename Knights Templarr to Tea Green using my free guild name change (assuming no one steals the name during the turnover).
I'm probably missing something, but this seems to be where we stand right now. Finally, if there are still questions or something isn't right please say so.

There is NO URGENCY, so I welcome other comments and ideas.

Friday, April 1, 2016

A Tale of Two Concurrent Paths

A Tale of Two Concurrent Paths

I am buried in a mess of my own making involving the arcane arts of Blizzard GMs while still trying to support Java and the daily work of many other hard working folks carrying on their daily lives. Within "A Tale of Two Concurrent Paths" are two story lines. The first is directly below. Look for the second story below the latest pic of Java's innkeeper friends.

Just Keep Pounding - Java's Journey Continues

There is something of a ruckus going on about the Alliance guild and the status of varying members of three guilds: Order of the Dragon, Knights Templarr, and Tea Green. Java is ignoring all of that, focusing on her mission. In that vein she collected and completed almost two dozen quests located all over Netherstorm. The mostly short flights did help speed things up. The fights themselves are taking a little longer. The kill rate is slowing down as the competition gets more dangerous.

Java also helped another alliance player for a while. Both were inside one of the Manastorm bubbles. Neither one of them really knew what they were supposed to be doing but while trying to figure it out things kept trying to kill them. Java grouped with the guy long enough to show him where he needed to be and then helped keep the numerous attackers at bay while waiting for the quest to complete. I don't think he would have survived without Java.

Java was supposed to destroy four Manastorms during that long set of quests, but didn't need to do the fourth one - she made level 70. The new level also pumped up her flying speed from 170% to 270%. She could have gotten another speed increase but it cost over 4k gold and she only has about 8k gold left. Better save that for when - hopefully - more funds come available. For now she has been keeping ahead of her enemies using quest gear drops. The gear isn't great, but its serviceable and she has to admit it's kept her alive.

Since there seems to be so much interest in the local innkeepers of late, Java shared a moment while talking privately with another little lass.





Account Shenanigans - Gold, Guilds, and Game Masters

As has been reported, the Horde Wild Family and the Java Alliance Family are going through a reorganization. The specifics of rearranging personnel on two accounts have been settled. All that is needed is to execute the plan.

And, of course, no plan survives the first hurdle. Mery was the first test case. She is slated to change accounts, but the attempt to do that failed. Three Game Masters (GM) tried to sort out what should have been an easy task. None succeeded.

I began to suspect that the problem could be the second account, which had been inactive literally for years. The latest GM (#4) gave me three days of free activation on the second account to help me sort out the problem. It didn't work. I think a couple of things have happened. First, that account has yet to be upgraded to Pandaria, much less Draenor. Maybe that is the issue. I honestly don't know.

So, the latest GM (#5) agreed that things were screwed up and it would take a live person to talk me through whatever needs to be done. They're on central time so I'm waiting for them to open the door for business. I've already decided that I will change passwords just to be sure there isn't some other kind of shenanigans going on.

I was impressed at how quickly a Blizz rep (call him GM #6) contacted me by phone when I sent a support request to talk a live person (15 minutes from request to receiving a call). He quickly confirmed that the problem was with the second, older account. The two versions of the game were no longer compatible with each other so any kind of transaction involving both accounts could not be done. Unless - I buy the Warlords of Draenor (WoD) upgrade for the second account.

I wanted to make sure the account was active, so I logged in to see how those toons were doing. That was a mistake. The minute I saw them it was like a family reunion. I confess that I still love them all! They were delighted to see me and hurt that most of them will have to be mothballed again. If only I could have like 24 slots in one account to keep them all safe. Sigh.

And yes, I paid the piper and purchased WoD for the second account so my new Alliance team can continue to progress and prosper.

Update #1 - The second account is up and current with Warlords of Draenor. As a bonus Alliance worgen Sistaphilia (on the second account) was given a Boost from level 60 to level 90. Welcome to the jungle!

Update #2 - Merylitlbotm (Mery) successfully transferred to the second account on her second attempt, and that move opens a spot in the first account for Sistaphilia. To her great surprise, Mery had to change her name. I couldn't imagine someone already having the name Merylitlbotm! Mery's new name is - wait for it - Merytophvy.

Update #3 - I goofed. I did the Boost for Sista before the transfer. Now I have to wait three days before she can change accounts - another arcane rule. I should have done the transfer first.

Update #4 - Tiphaine and her guild attempted the faction change. Here is what happened:

Guild Master Faction Change unavailable
    Please clear the mail from this character’s mailbox and try again. Fixed.
    You must have guild members to use this service. Fixed.
    Your Battle.net account needs to be protected by an authenticator for at least 7 days before you can initiate this service.

It's incredible the hoops I'm putting myself through for what should be a straightforward process given how long these options have been in place.

Take a deep breath. This is where things stand as of this moment at 10am on April Fool's Day. The joke is that all of the above is NOT a joke. There are still many moving parts and broken stuff that needs to be fixed, but that will have to wait until the next post.

Sorry, there aren't any pretty innkeepers available at the moment. Java needs to go kill some things first. Later.