Friday, April 27, 2018

Wildshard Sneaks off to Argus

Wildshard Sneaks off to Argus

Frustrated with the lack of quests and things to kill, Wild had a wild hair and impulsively hopped the portal to the Vindicar. No sooner had he reached the helm of the great ship, Wild was shuttled down to the surface of Argus and into the middle of a fierce battle.

Wild was momentarily stunned by the ferocity of the attacks. Wild tested his Moonfire on some of the raging mobs, and found good targets. Soon enough, though, he ran out of easy prey. Getting a bit more emboldened, he slapped around one of the elites. Wild wasn't important for the elite to notice Wild, but the pinpricks finally made the demon mad.

The battle between the two - and some other lower creatures also attacking Wild unfairly, the battle extended, and Wild wondered how long it would go on. Wild even had to manuever out of  the way of another elite. Wild persevered, and the elite died. After that Wild did his duty, saving many from death and destroying portals to stem the flow of legion soldiers.

Wild's combat role on Argus is his first ever. The impulsive act paid significant dividends. Wild's gear score went from i859 to i864. And guess what Sista's gear score currently is: Huh, huh!? It's i864! Wild has matched Sista's gear score.

PS - Wild's march continues, and he has now outpaced Sista, at least for the moment. Wildshard's gear score is i868.

Wildshard Forgets How To Fish

Wildshard started at 700/700 Fishing. But after talking to Marcia Chase at the pool in Dalaran, he was granted 700/800, which allows him to start reaching for level 800. Wild has always liked fishing - "like" being a rather wobbly word where fishing is concerned.

To be honest, the idea of fishing didn't start that way. Wild's immediate interest is in First Aid. Well, that sounds more complicated than it is . . .  anyway, Wild has some cockamammy idea in his head, and fishing is part of it.

A couple of things will have to be worked out, such as remembering how to fish. Just throwing a line into the water didn't really result in anything but a wet line. Wild is torn between sticking with the vanilla version or grabbing the Fishing Buddy addon Wild dearly loves.

Wild may need some re-training from Mahakeya. That could result in some interesting conversations. Keya is extremely proud of her fishing accomplishments and might frown - strongly - on someone other than her copying her work on earning the fabled pole.

There has been some changes from Legion on how fishing works that Wild still hasn't totally grasped. He is not using the Fishing Buddy addon, for now. Wild didn't know about the new WoW "fish without a pole" feature! No wonder Wild thought he was was seeing double - Wild's weapon and his fishing pole don't have to change places anymore. Attack or fish, makes no diff now. He's still not getting the hang of lures that don't work like they/Wild think they should.

Then there was more mayhem with Wild cherry picking elite legion goons during the assaults. At  the end, his bloody weapon will start the weekend with a gear score of i870.

Sunday, April 22, 2018

The Rest of the (inactive) Family

The Rest of the (inactive) Family

It's been a long time since the other side of the family as been spoken of. It has been, literally, years. Lately, there has been some discussion of establishing a window of opportunity. Not right away, but when time and circumstance might allow.

Should that opportunity arise, the possible candidates are listed here:

Bruiserbabe (Level 70 Blood Elf Death Knight) - The Order of the Dragon
Hapless (Level 16 Troll Druid) - Order of the Dragon
Beanoevil (Level 25 Blood Eld Hunter - Order of the Dragon
Alwayslost (Level 12 Draenei Paladin)  - Tea Green (listed as a guild master)
Whispersoul (Level 12 Human Warrior) - Autumn Tea Green
Mewgoogaipan (Level 12 Pandaren Mage) - Knights Templarr
Merytophvy (Level 60 Tauren Hunter) - no guild
Hearnoevils (Level 30 Goblin Hunter) - no guild

Just thought it would be nice to see that all of the above are still around. Waiting.

Meanwhile, Wild and Sista are still going at each other. Which of the two is the best looking?

Sista Gear i862

Wildshard Gear i850

Friday, April 20, 2018

Wild's Surprise Scenario Ride

Wild's Surprise Scenario Ride
Surprise Visit to the Vindicar and Argus

Wild was at the tail end of his burning through the Legion kill zones, but he was still moving fast. He had run out of the Val 'shara kill zones and instinctivly grabbed a quest for Black Rock Hold. Wild shied away from what looked like a dungeon run, but there was no dungeon stone. He waded in to take out the mobs that were around and found himself in a serious battle helping some other players bring down an elite. Wild followed along with the other two players and corpses began to mount. And then Wild realized that the scenery have changed.. Apparently the Black Rock Hold quest gave Wild a pat on the butt and sent him along and into a scenario.

Everyone knows Wild doesn't do raids. Wild doesn't do dungeons. Then there are scenarios. The scenario expert in the family is Keya. She has done many, too many to remember. Some of them are thrill rides and a lot of fun, and to some extent Keya enjoyed them.

How about Wild? Wild knew almost instantly that he was likely in trouble. The other two players were moving fast, killing as they went without stopping. Wild could barely keep up and was getting hit from all sides. Wild could kill them, but that meant switching to bear form, slowing down to a crawl, and watching the other two players speed away. This is why scenarios are particularly bad for guardian druids. Your pals of the moment don't wait up. In fact, getting behind, getting lost, or just asking a question is likely to get you booted from the scenario.

Wild did not get booted. Wild, by some miracle, even managed not to lose the other two players on a long twisting tower and arrived intact enough to tank the thing they were trying to kill. And got the kill. The scenario let Wild go and Wild got whatever it was he wanted from the scenario . . . whatever it was, being too flabbergasted to recall for the moment. No, Wild is going to try to avoid scenarios. Somehow, Wild doesn't think he will be able to avoid them.

Stunted Sales - Chaitee is battling an ongoing war at the auction house as fierce as the killing zones the rest of the family face in combat on the fields. She's connived and counter-attacked, out-witted and wrung the best deals available, and yet she is starting to fall behind. Huge conglomerates Suncow, Capidwarf, and Gloras are the dominant players, particularly in the bag market. There are others, but those three make up the bulk of Chaitee's competition. Materials and bags are selling sluggishly, stunted by an overload of goods as well as high pricing on materials. The market has entered a strange period where only the heavy farmers can wring a profit.
Chaitee isn't giving up. She is still stalking her goal of $1,000,000 gold. It's just taking longer than she figured. As of this morning she has $916,680 gold.
Excuse me, Chaitee has to get Wild, Sista, and Atkar out of bed and do some farming.

PS - Atkar is a terrible farmer. Even though she has Tailoring and Cloth Scavenging, a warrior is just way too slow for farming. In ten minutes Atkar gathered 10 cloth. That sucks. The chore goes back to Sista and Wild.


PS for Wildshard - While trying to do some other quest Wild found himslef on a ride to the Vindicar and the Legion world of Argus. Wild is too busy to do anything but enjoy the view, but he will have to make time to get a better look soon.

Tuesday, April 17, 2018

More Wildshard vs Sista

More Wildshard vs Sista

It took Sista two tries to complete the "Hand of Fate," a lengthy, mandatory scenario for the druid cause. It's now Wildshard's turn.

Wild couldn't help but get a dig in with Sista, telling her that HE would complete the task on the first try without a do over.

Tiphaine looked on and shook her head. She approved the little contest.
Sista shrugged. "We'll see, won't we?" 

Anxious to get started, Wild didn't bother checking gear scores. But Sista did.
Wildshard's i774 gear vs Sista's i859.

Wild may have missed the tip that dying during the event means doing it over from the beginning. Or maybe not. Wild watched both of Sista's attempts closely, and that might gain him an edge.

Wild is also trying to track down Lyndras, a fun game that Wild knows will take him into the Underbelly at Dalaran. Wildshard is cautious. His success on the Broken Shores has been more hazardous than expected. Despite using the vanilla actionbars, Wild has experienced breakdowns where spells would fail to load. It's not fun to land at the point of attack and see that key spells aren't available. The missing spell is often Thrash. It has a 6sec cooldown but it won't always  reset after the CD, forcing Wild to change form and even then it sometimes won't appear. Wild has to admit he has died a few times as a result.

Another admission is a mistake in picking up a level 850 trinket. After paying for it in nethershards he belatedly realized he was in human/balance form and the trinket he bought was an intellect trinket, not the agility one he wanted. Sigh.  Wild dug around for the piece of paper he'd tucked into his frayed belt. The scribble said something like "Don't forget your Loot specialization!" Sigh. Wild burned 400 shards for an intellect item he wouldn't use.

Wildshard was all over the map most of the late afternoon. Legion fires and battles were everywhere. When he dropped, exhausted, at Deliverance Point he had pulled in a LOT of nethershards. With those shards Wild was able to upgrade four of his gear slots. His gear level rose from i774 to i813.

Tiphaine has been looking on the sideline, giving the youngers additional time in the trenches. With 22 of 25 followers already on her side, she felt she had the time to do some more important tasks. One billion per per mission is near worthless now, when it takes tens of billions just to add another AP. She will focus mostly on earning veiled argunite which can be turned in for i910 gear. Her greatest frustration, though, is that Tiphaine has yet to earn the lottery of super weapons; ie, legendary weapons. Keya has two of them, the bastard, mumbling under her breath. It's random chance, and her chance hasn't come.

Then there is Mahakeya. Perhaps the only Demon Hunter ever to crack ilevel 922 overall despite never setting foot in a raid or dungeon (well, almost every dungeon). That is quite a feat.

Sista was still feeling good about her chances with the betting on "Hand of Fate." Then Wildshard came back from clearing an entire continent of legion monstrocities and handed in his take: Wild's gear level went from i774 to i813 and now? It's now i839! Still not as high as Sista's i859.

Sista admits to being impressed. But she will reserve her final say when Wild completes The Hand of Fate.

Thursday, April 12, 2018

Gathering of the Dreamweavers

Gathering of the Dreamweavers

A group/quest called The Protectors is communing with themselves (since all of those doing the communing is still Wildshard) and doing this dreamweaver gathering thing. There are five steps, and Wild doesn't much care about them as long as all five parts get done in the class hall missions. Wild is letting Sista take some of the credit for the progress while Wild fixes the things Sista broke. Wild has attained three of five required of the gathering.

That doesn't get him off the hook with the leveling, though. Wild is 69% toward Level 109. There is still much work to do. Assuming Wild can find some quests. Haustvauld, Runewood, and Valdisdall in Stormheim took up the reins. Tideskorn and other battles, killing the giant dragons, combat ashore and at sea, and then back to Valisdall. Wildshard is now is Level 109 plus 28%.

Narthalas Academy in Aszuna turned out to be the final leg of Wild's leveling journey. Wild even managed to get there around 10pm instead of Wild's usual "past midnight" ordeals. Wildshard reached Level 110 at the Academy.

A word about those "ordeals." Historically, whenever Wildshard reaches max level it is always past midnight. Call it coincidence, call it fate, but it always falls that way. Last night was the first exception. Usually Wild has someone to talk to while doing that midnight work, but this time Wild was alone. Wild also typically goes fishing on the nights that turn into leveling, and that didn't happen this time, either. Make of it what you will.

Chaitee wanted a word before closing the books for the night.

Leather Barding is dead
Leylight shards, dying
Stormscale and stonehide leather piling up and unused

The above are some of the items that have lost serious value in the past few days and weeks.
The bag market is in one of it's crazy periods where prices have little to do with value, with frostweave bags rising from 300g to 450g and now getting dumped down to 250g.

Silkweave satchels have been surprisingly sane, staying within 700-750 gold pretty consistently. Which is bad. Chaitee can't make money in a stable market.

On the positive side, Chaitee now has three sources to craft the high value hexweave bags, which have sold for as high as 2,000 gold each. That would be Sista, and Wildshard, and, yes Atkar, who has now learned enough Tailoring to be useful.

Coming Up - Armies of Legionfall.

Wednesday, April 11, 2018

The Grind Continues

The Grind Continues

Wildshard continues his grind despite a seeming lack of quests to complete. He did get a couple of the big ones done, including "The Falling Star" and the one where Wild battles demons in Exodar and he earns Light's Heart. Wild had to do Exodar twice. He got over excited during the burning run near the end and didn't stay in Velen's protection bubble. Wild died. And had to do the entire scenario a second time.

With quests in short supply, Wild has been chasing the many demon sightings. In the last post Wild had reached Level 104. Wild is now Level 108. His gear score is only i742, which is frustrating, but he refuses to buy his way in with gold. His goal is in sight and he will earn it on his own. He still hasn't quite gotten settled into his new skin, but overall he is very happy with the transition.

Chaitee has hit her stride at the Auction House. She was a little disappointed in the early slow accumulation of gold. Her goods were selling but she felt there should be more. However, she had gotten so busy she forgot to check her mailbox. It was maxed at 50 and overflowing. When Chaitee started clearing some of that out, she discovered a whole treasure room full of gold.

When she took over for Java and opened her doors for business, Chaitee was holding 585k  gold. As of this morning, Chaitee has 882,305 gold. She is starting to believe that the goal of a million gold might be within her reach.

A Final Word: There is one scenario that neither Wildshard or Sista may ever complete. That is "Cleansing the Mother Tree." This quest is required in order to get the Restoration Druid Artifact. The scenario is a five man dungeon and Wild/Sista has to heal the group.

Sista has attempted this many times, failing every time. Wildshard, who grew up as a healer, won't touch that quest. If he were still raiding and had his healing setup in place, maybe, but Wild knows it is useless. It's frustrating, too, because Wild has always shined solo, but in this he failed.

Sista, however, still thinks she might one day get it done. She tried again Sunday, with similar and disapointing results. Sooner than later one or the other will try again.

Saturday, April 7, 2018

Funny Ha Ha Wildshard has no Guild

Funny Ha Ha Wildshard has no Guild

Wild had a plan for after he changed faction from Horde to Alliance. He knew that he could no longer belong to the raiding guild, Meitha. Either Plumrosefist or Jocelyne would volunteer, or be bullied into leaving the Order of the Dragon Guild and applying for membership with Meitha. In that way Wild would still have a connection to the guild and the friends that he has there.

The Meitha guild is an old, venerable Horde guild that has seen it's better days. It's ranks still number in the hundreds, but the activity in the guild is mild. At least from what Wild can see. Wild has several friends on his friends list, but they never seem to be in game or online when Wild is around. And no one in Meitha knows who Plumrosefist or Jocelyne are.

I tried to figure out how to contact the guild outside the game, but Wild hasn't fereted out how to do that yet. He keeps an eye out for friends such as Talatiana, Porkkchopp, Grrbaby, Ristan, and Bloodknuckle. Ristan was last seen eighteen days ago but that has been the extent of the activity from the guild.

In the meantime, Wild ran rampant at Shackle's Den and earned Level 104, gear level i727. Slow but steady.

Wednesday, April 4, 2018

Wildshard and Sistaphilia

Wildshard and Sistaphilia

Two people could not be less like each other, despite their common roles as Gaurdian Druids. Sista's journey was fraught with problems, but she managed to battle her way to Level 110 despite the many mistakes, some of which still persist. She is proud of her pair of i840 Ursoc weapons and her i857 gear set. Only Keya and Tiphaine have better gear.

Wildshard, the goat, got lazy and fat in Orgrimmar. There are whispers that Wild was thrown out of every Horde joint of ill repute in Kalimdor. The arrival of Legion, though, got Wild's attention. Even so, he might still be stuffing his face and sucking down the brew if he hadn't observed how hard Sista was working to help the guild and improve herself.

Wild knew himself too well, though. The temptations were too great. He needed something big. Really big. Like changing his very being - from Horde to Alliance. The new skin still crawls with phantom fingers sometimes, and he isn't sure which knife to grab at the dinner table yet, or which faction to skewer with it, but he's learning.

The practical matter is that it all boils down to the fact that Wildshard is merely a Level 100. His new set of Ursoc weapons look cool, but  i750 weapons don't amount to much. Not yet. Nor are his soon to be forgetable i696 gear set. Wildshard has a very, very long road to travel.

There is another element to Wildshard. There are reminders every time he opens a bag and out spills things with intellect on them. Wild was a healer in his heyday. A good one. Dungeon and raid successes. The Glory days. Now he doesn't even have a Guild. His old guild, Meitha, certainly won't have him, now that he is no longer Horde. Wild hopes that a way might be found to get Wild into the Order of the Dragon Guild. He also hopes that Plumrosefist will get accepted into the Meitha guild so Wild can continue his attachment to the guild.

On the leveling front, Wildshard got off to a good start on a series of questlines that led him to Lorathil. And it was at Lorathil that Wild made it to Level 101. And quickly bumped her gear score up to i702.

Wild is re-learning about the Scouting Map. He made a decision to follow the normal steps instead of going off the reservation like Sista did. More about Sista's quandary at a later time. Wild has recruited the obvious Naralex and Zen' tabra. He also wonders if it is even worth the time. Wild will follow protocol for a while longer. He still has Highmountain and Stormheim areas to delve into.

Make that Level 102. In the Witchwood.
Make that Level 103. Shackles Den.