Quintessential Quintet

There, I did it! Last week, I finally finished leveling five of my characters to 90. I wanted to get as many toons to max level by the end of the third month into the expansion, which would be the 25th of december, so last week, I started getting busy. The shaman, hunter and mage were already max level, so I only needed two more for the achievement. The druid hit 90 Thursday night, and the Dk followed soon after, Friday night, scoring me the Quintessential Quintet.

The rest of my characters are not too far behind. The warrior is 88, while the paladin, priest and rogue are all at 87, gathering rested xp. The paladin should be a priority, considering I still need to get her to 89 so I can start working on Klaxxi reputation with her and buy the belt buckle recipe. But I suspect the warrior will be next, and then the rogue. The level 70 monk is still parked in Orgrimmar, along with the Bank Alt Warlock, which is still 85. I am in no worry to play the warlock though, as she's way too busy selling stuff on the AH and sorting through all the herbs and ores I've been farming and not using, trying to make it all fit in the guild bank.

There is such a thing as too much farming.

I also want to get my alliance shaman to 90 for the Double Agent achievement, but I still have so many horde character to level, I don't know when I'll get to that. It's a good thing I'm not raiding, or I wouldn't have time for none of that.

Scenario Night

Tonight was scenario night for me. When I read about Greater Cache of Treasures being awarded each time you complete a random scenario (and not just once per day), and that they could sometimes contain epic gear, I decided to give it another try. I say another try because the first time I tried scenarios, I didn't like it.  But this time around, I'm enjoying them quite a lot. They're pretty addictive, actually. I managed to get quite a few achievements in a couple hours, and it was a lot of fun. Next Saturday, I think the boyfriend and I will try to knock as many scenarios as possible, both for gear and more achievements. And maybe even a title!

I did score some useless blue items and even epic bracers! That gave my mage an item level of 467, one step closer to being able to queue for the Heart of Fear and Terrace of Endless Spring in the Raid Finder. I bought the serpent's deck for her for 8k the other day, which I thought was probably a bargain, considering buying the cards would have been more expensive, and I'm too lazy to farm mats/trade cards. Now I just need the Darkmoon Faire to get here so I can turn it into a nice trinket. With the neck I'll buy off the Klaxxi's next Tuesday, I think I'll be all set!

The Not Golden Hopling

A couple days ago, I read this post over at Big Bear Butt's blog. I always enjoy BBB's posts, but this one particularly intrigued me. I had no idea there were hidden things in the Stormstout Brewery. I guess that means I suck at exploring. That's ok, I'm good at other things. But after reading the post, I absolutely had to go in this particular dungeon and try it out for myself. I had to wait until just now for that to happen. I've been busy, what do you want from me.

As I zoned in the dungeon, I spoke to the lady standing right next to the portal and purchased five Ling-Ting's favourite tea. I waited until the dungeon was done, for all the bosses and trash packs to be cleared, and then I drank the tea and started looking.

I soon found my first of 30 Golden Hopling. It took me about 15-20 minutes to find them all. (Only reason I know is because the debuff granted by the tea only lasts 5 minutes and I had to use at least three teas. Maybe more.) I don't know what that says about me. The last one was cleverly hidden behind Uncle Gao's bar, or whatever that is he's standing behind in the last room. About midway through, it occurred to me that it might have been a good idea to count the Hoplings I found in order to know how much more I needed. Heh.

As soon as I got the achievement, I received some in-game mail!

BoP, of course.

 And I had a new companion pet to add to my collection!

How does searching for "hop" result in
Celestial Dragon and Stinker? /boggles

It's a blue quality humanoid pet, same model as the Feral Vermling, but in a different color. It was a very fun little "mini-game" and I wish Blizz put more of those things in game. Then again, maybe they do and I just don't know about them! This expansion is just full of surprises. 

Fun with the Anglers

This is so much cooler than water walking.

I've always been a big fan of fishing in WoW. Most of my characters have their fishing skill maxed out by the time they reach the level cap. I enjoyed it even back when your casts could miss 20 times in a row if your skill was too low for the zone you were in, and your fish could escape more often than realistically possible. That was also back when you needed to fish between 12 and 20 (if memory serves) to get one lousy skill point. Granted, I enjoyed it less than I do now.

Nowadays, fishing is easy and fun to level. One of the new Pandaria factions, the Anglers, offers three dailies  (from a larger pool of quests) that are quick and easy to complete. Once you do every quests at least once, you are granted an achievement.

The best part is that every daily gives a fishing skill point. If you aren't in a hurry to max out fishing, this seems like the perfect way to get more players to enjoy this profession. Once you are honored with the Anglers, you can buy a companion pet and a fishing pole. At revered, you get access to an even better fishing pole, as well as the raft shown above. For classes that don't have the luxury of a water walking ability, the raft really is an amazing item. Pools that were once out of reach from the shore suddenly become a lot less annoying. And at exalted, you get a nice tabard and a cool mount!

Those are all incentive to work on raising your reputation with this faction, if only to get the mount. Leveling fishing as never been so easy and fun, and I am grateful to Blizz for giving some love to this profession, it really needed it!

A month later

It's been a little more than a month now that the Pandas have arrived. I thought it was time for a little recap of what I've been up to and how my characters are doing.

Death Knight - 86  

After Motes of Harmony to finish maxing Engineering. Also farming raw meats for cooking. Lately, mostly Raw crocolisk meat and Raw crab meat. Does some fishing on the side when there are pools nearby.

Druid - 86 

Pet battles! Doing daily inscription research to get all the glyphs. 8 to go.

Hunter - 90 

Tillers dailies. Enchanting and JC is maxed. Doing daily JC research for gem cuts. Doing some heroics and Raid Finder from time to time, but not focused on any particular end game activities.

Mage - 87 

Dedicated cook. Maxed out all six ways so she can make all available foods for all the family. Also maxed archaeology, but I'm waiting to be able to fly to work on it more. Maxed alchemy and tailoring. Didn't even start her daily cd's like Living Steel or Imperial Silk. Does some fishing on the side when there are pools nearby.

Baby Mage (Alliance) and Monk (Horde) - Both 47

Dungeon Finder. 

Paladin - 87 

Recently maxed Blacksmithing. Needs to hit 89 to start rep with the Klaxxi so she can get the Belt Buckle recipe.

Priest - 85 

Still in Orgrimmar. Occasionally goes to Pandaria to mine and pick flowers.

Rogue - 86 

Currently in Krasarang Wilds to finish Loremaster of Pandaria. Herbing and stabbing people right in the face.

Shaman - 90 

Harvesting Motes of Harmony every day. (The DK secretly hates her.) Does some fishing on the side when there are pools nearby. Skins every corpse she can get her hands on. Working on getting all the farmers to be her best friends.

Warlock - 85 

Bank alt still in Orgrimmar. Has a bunch of old mats in her bags and bank which I'm too lazy to sort and put on the AH.

Warrior - 85

Still in Orgrimmar, looking pretty. Disenchants some greens from time to time, when it's convenient.

So I didn't get all that much done since the game was released. I've been mostly doing Tillers dailies, doing pet battles (and working on pet battle achivements. Gotta have them all!) and slowly leveling multiple characters instead of focusing on one at a time. I've rarely been this slow at getting my characters to max level. At the beginning of Cataclysm, it took me about two weeks to get five or six toons to 85. I'm really slacking off this time around. I'm also thinking about transferring a character over to Rexxar so my poor alliance mage can get some heirlooms, which will slow me down even more in the "get all the toons to 90" process, but that's fine. For the first time in years, I'm not rushing to be ready to raid, and it feels good. I can afford to slack off. I don't miss raiding all that much so far, and my trips in the Raid Finder haven't exactly been exciting. I'm not in love with the Mogu'shan Vaults, but I look forward to trying out other raids as they become available.

What I've been up to

I have a cold, so my thoughts might be just a tad incoherent. So please just bear with me. 

Alright, here goes.

The shaman has been diligently doing her dailies every day ever since she hit 90 over a week ago. Although, she's only been working on two factions so far. She's been working on the Tillers since day 1, and she is now almost exalted with the farmers. She's got 12 spots available, and she's been gathering motes of harmony in  the hopes of someday being able to craft some gear for the hunter and/or rogue. Which brings me to the second faction, the Golden Lotus. You only need to reach honored to buy the leatherworking recipes, which is only a week worth of dailies. I didn't start those dailies until last Sunday though, so by next weekend, I should be done with them. And it's been a bit painful. I love the Tillers and the cooking dailies. I really do. Even when there are no untapped mobs available and that other people steal quest items right from under me. It's still fun. But the Golden Lotus dailies very much feel like a chore. There's just too many people there, being rude, stealing from each other, shoving mobs your way on purpose to make you die. And for a miserable 110 rep per quest. I can't wait to be done with it, and am very happy that I'm not raiding, because I know it would be a lot worse. Then again, maybe I just suck that much at elemental shamy and that's why I have no fun doing those quests. I'm not even doing heroics or scenarios or any of that with her. I do dailies, I mess around at the farm, and then I log on alts.

The hunter has made good progress this week and is now level 89. She should hit 90 in a day or two, as I have almost a full level in rested XP. The dk is almost 86 just by farming motes of harmony for Engineering, as well as raw meats for my cooking needs. My mage is still sitting at 87 in Halfhill, only sometimes bothering to plant some seeds when needed for other characters' needs. I still want to get her to 90 at some point, if only to finish Archaeology and work on the Lorewalkers rep, but I just don't feel like playing her right now. I'm having way too much fun with the hunter finishing up the Pandaria Loremaster. I tamed a goat last night, and she is now my favourite pet of all.

I also bought a yak mount from Uncle Bigpocket in
Kun-Lai Summit. So adorable!

I've also spent way too much time indulging in pet battles. I didn't think I'd like it so much, but it's surprisingly addictive and fun. It took me a while to pick my three favourite pets, but I'm pretty happy with my team.

I'm terribad and haven't named them yet, but I find it hard to pick names. Chuck will remain Chuck, because he already has a name, duh, but the other two, I'm still trying to find the perfect name for them. Once I tried the pet battles, I looked up the achievements related to it, and decided that I must get them all! Yeah, that'll take a while. I've also made a list of all the pets I want to cage, and it's a pretty long list. But they're all so adorable. I don't think I'll ever get them all, or even reach 400 pets for the achievement, but I think I can make it to 250 easily.

I haven't had so much to do in game in ages, and I'm really trying to take it slow to make it last as long as possible. And with all the things I want to get done, making it last a long time won't be a problem!

The Mists of Pandaria Bucket List

In an effort to pass the time until next Tuesday, I've updated my bucket list with new in-game goals. The list is massive, and it's still missing some things I wish to do in the next, well, two years most likely. It's a work in progress.

I want of course to level all my characters on the main server to 90, but I am not necessarily in a hurry to do so. I've picked the order, more or less, in which my main characters will be leveled in the next couple of weeks/months.

First off is my mage. She will be the first to set foot on new territories, and explore Pandaland. Since she does not have any gathering professions, her alchemy will have to wait. Although, as far as I know, cloth is fairly easy to come by, so her tailoring will benefit from this early on. 

The hunter is next in line. I won't be able to work on her jewelcrafting for a while, but since she's an enchanter, she can disenchant gear she doesn't need. I have a list of pets I want to tame for her, and will be working on that as soon as possible.

The herbalist/scribe druid, miner/blacksmith pally and skinner/leatherworker shaman will follow soon after, in order to gather the necessary mats to work on most crafting professions. I will also have a dedicated gatherer character out there (with mining and herbalism) as soon as possible, but it is unclear at this time whether that will be my priest or my rogue.

I have several more characters that will require my attention, but they will have to wait. Oh and I have to fit "start a monk" somewhere in there as well.

In the bucket list there's also titles I want to get, rep I want to gain, professions I want to max and much much more. I feel it is still incomplete, so the page will most likely change throughout the expansion. There's just so much I want to do! It's all so exciting. I suspect the Tillers farm, the pet battles and the rep grinding with various factions will keep me busy for quite some time. And I can't wait!

Yes, more achievements. And some fishes too.

The weekend has been pretty busy and productive for my characters! 

The lock reached level 75 last night and finished leveling engineering! Next month's Darkmoon Faire will give her her last five alchemy points, and my paladin's last three blacksmithing points, as I'm too lazy to farm more mats. I've farmed enough in the last couple of weeks that I'd rather wait a whole month to check that off my bucket list rather than farm it myself. Lazy Lyr is lazy.

I also maxxed out fishing and cooking on three characters Saturday night, which was both painful and fun. I fished mats and then cooked them, and it was nice, but the sun had come up when I hit 525 on the last character, and I only then realized what time it was and went to bed. 

Today, the mage got some easy achievements (she hadn't finished Classic Dungeonmaster before tonight, how weird is that?) and then queued for a BG and got her first Arathi Basin victory. I know, it's sad. I did have this achievement on my hunter, but that just shows how much I don't PvP. Despite my mage being my oldest toon, she didn't even have that. Anyway, all those achievements scored her It's Over Nine Thousand which I should be excited about, but I'm not. And I find it sad. It's a big deal for me to reach that threshold, but I wasn't as excited about getting as I thought I would be. Anyway, I'm glad it's done. I wonder how many achievement points I'll have in total once Mists merges all my characters achievements together. Hopefully somewhere close to 10k. *fingers crossed*

I transferred my Death Knight over to the server and haven't done much with her since, except farm stuff, like crocs tails to level cooking, because Howling Blast all the things is amazing to kill mobs quickly. Plus, Death Grip really comes in handy when you're lazy and don't want to run aallll the way over there. I think my DK is as lazy as me.

So the plan for this week is to keep leveling the lock as much as possible while the Midsummer Festival's XP buff is still around. I'll also be hitting the Raid Finder with the hunter for a trinket, and the shaman to get her a new weapon, as she is still rocking a blue axe. After that, I'll be pretty much done with the bucket list, apart from the Loremaster stuff which I probably won't even touch before MoP. Unless I get really bored. Which will most probably happen if Blizz doesn't hurry up already and give us something. Anything really. Just something new to do. Soon. Please?

Until then I guess I'll read, watch TV shows and hope for the pandas to arrive. 

Quick Post : It's mine

I've been farming Sethekk Halls for a little less than two months, and today, I was rewarded with this beauty. I'm so glad I finally got it. It's absolutely gorgeous. 

This has been a productive week for my bucket list. I think this weekend I'll slow down and just level the warlock some more, grind heroics to try and gear the shaman, and run the LFR on a couple toons. Which is a terrible idea, because it seems all the bads come out during the weekend. What can I say, I guess I'm a sucker for punishment.

Achievements, a title, a mount, and more achievements.

The mage has finally finished What A Long Strange Trip It's Been last night!

Those stupid torches were a lot more easy than I thought. It does help that I wasn't lagging like there's no tomorrow. Empty Dalaran + lots and lots of RAM = lag free = easy achievement. Which scored me a new proto-drake!

I really love it. I won't use it on the mage because I love my Twilight Drake way too much, but once the mounts go account-wide, I'll be using it on one of my alts for sure.

I got a lot of achievement points while working on this, as well as lots and lots of cash, which takes me to 8940 points.

Now to find 61 "easy" points to get so I can get It's Over Nine Thousand!