That's a lot of... and Critter Kill

That's a Lot of Bait and Critter Kill Squad are two achievements I constantly have up tracking. I get rather excited to see the numbers go up, even in small increments.

Man, fishing is soooooo boring!

While everyone enjoys killing level 1 things, all I hear in gchat is how much fishing sucks.

I don't know who to be frustrated with more: the players or the design. We need 10,000 fish caught (only in pools, mind you) in order to get our upgraded feast. It seems the mentality is something like "My best food is caught in open water/made of meat/etc", so why bother sitting there fishing?

We thrived on feasts in Wrath, and I get why the design team would want to expand the options on food buffs. I just wonder what will happen a little bit down the road we start asking folks to have their food buff and they beg for a feast. Meh, maybe that won't happen.

To compensate, I have been fishing the heck out of eels and guppies in order to kill two birds with one stone- get mats for the feast while moving the counter towards the achievement. But then I see that the bank is pitifully low on Lavascale and just shake my head at the whole thing.

I also understand that not everyone thinks like myself. I am working on Limnologist which does not help getting our feast. So... I catch maybe 100 pools fish before spending an hour trying for a bloated freaking whatever (not that I am bitter about my luck on drop rate or anything). I was trolling some blogs and noticed one guild made a contest out of getting their fishing done. I read that and admired their ability to get the team together.

On to Critters

Thankfully, this is less ranty. Despite the attempts to nerf the ways to get these critters killed faster, R.I.P. instant sheep, our guild found another one and we are meandering our way there. As of writing, we have less than a thousand to go.

However, the pet takes exalted with the guild to purchase. This makes no sense to me. I don't care that the pet is epic quality. It's a freaking pet. It's not game breaking or providing one guild with an advantage over another. It looks badass, don't get me wrong, but to put that kind of roadblock to it seems unnecessary. OK, this was ranty, too.

Oh, if you were wondering what our secret is... groups are best. And Eastern Plaugelands. That's all I will say because I don't want to jinx us when we are so close.

Things to do after the Shattering

Now that the world has changed, there is certainly a fair number of things to work on before "Cattakissem", like getting pets, finishing up titles, etc.

Companion Pets

Warcraftpets.com has the latest on the pets they added with this patch, including one they squeeked in called Tiny Flamefly. Perks N Peeves has recent information on this pet. I will add that once I was done in the Thorium Bros area, I had to head to Flame Crest to pick up the rest of the chain. I didn't get a breadcrumb to go there, so it could easily be missed.

Somehow, this was a convincing disguise for the Blackrock folks.

Fans of Plants verses Zombies may already be prepared to get their Sunflower pet. Guildies who had never played the game before had a bit more of a learning curve for these quests, much to some frustration. Still, kinda neat and a chance to get "Zombies on your Lawn" song stuck in your head.

Fiona in Eastern Plaguelands has a few quests to offer as a set up to get her Lucky Charm buff from the Caravan. Your mileage may vary, as they say, but expect to take a bit of time to get Mr. Grubbs. Interesting sidenote: Slime covered bags from the grubs dropped a new plant: Dragon's Teeth. Well, really it's an old plant called Wintersbite. Not sure why the name change.

Finally, in Darkshore (which looks killer now!) there is a Forsaken in a cave which sells Withers. He shrinks then grows when near water. How cool is that?

Not just Stayin' Alive, but also causing havoc in Darkshore.

Fishing and Cooking

The dailies for these are open and so are the Cata cooking recipes bought with the daily rewards. What I didn't know before was that each daily also rewards skill ups on their corresponding profession. Very handy later.

Debated on working on Limnologist and Oceanographer. It's a lot of fish to catch, which could be be used toward the guild progress in Cata. However, I didn't want to be bogged down by having to back track to Northrend and Outlands. In addition, as a friend pointed out, I would kick myself for not getting Winter Squid now. Would be too easy to skip it until it is too late. Check out El's page for more information on where to catch your fish (link is on the right hand side of the page).

Quests and Loremaster

It is so much easier to see progress now. But oh my, I didn't realize how depressing it would be to see so many zones drop to zero. To start over seems like a drag but I was just too far away from completely finishing it before the patch.

Some of the quests are a bit of a pain to do at max level, like letting a level 6 hit you to poison you for example.

Other things

Don't forget to do take a Joy Ride in Azshera (it's recommended to go North to South) for an easy achievement.

You can't fly in Azeroth, but you can in Dalaran, now.

The new Trollish Cat forms look rather neat! I would seriously consider a race change if I wasn't broke.

The new tabards don't seem to be working properly, but you can get the new Goblin tabard in Org at the Darkspear area. Just look for Frizzo Villamar. (Sorry Alliance, not caught up on my info for you guys. It's exhausting enough to figure out the Horde!)

What are you working on as we head toward the 7th?

10 things I've learned while pet hunting.

1) If you don't have a T.V. or are too paranoid to let your eyes leave the screen for very long, play some music (Pandora in the background worked for me). This pet hunting gig is very tedious.

2) Remember that certain raptors are only available through nests. Don't be a goober and get excited to see the Ravasaur Matriarch when you need to be looking at the ground instead.

3) Watch for wrist or hand pain. Set the looting to auto so you don't have to Shift-Click for hours.

4) Set the stopwatch timer to keep track. Hours one and two mean you still have hope. Hour three is when the paranoia sets in. /who to see who else is around. You start wishing for a Jeeves. During the hours of four and five is when mental fatigue sets in. You start to back track to make sure you actually looted. You've given up on actually seeing anything close to a pet and just kill to kill.

5) The elemental invasion sucks. More than once I told my screen "I will save you, little whelp!" *MOONFIRE* Recall that paranoia sets in. I started to wonder if elementals took my spawn.

6) Having friends to pass the time helps but don't bitch to them. Remember that this is a self-imposed torture.

7) Setting out a pet that similar to the one you are looking for won't convince your new pet to join you. More often than not, they aren't friends in the wild.

8) Remind yourself that this is a sickness. You can't help yourself. (This holds back the self loathing)

9) If your friends also collect pets, don't tell them what you are doing. Case in point: Friend in gchat says "I owe you an inappropriate misdirect for reminding me that I don't have [xyz pet] on [his main]." Opps! But grats on Dark Whelping!

10) And the last thing I have learned while pet hunting... They are so cute and I must have more!

What I have been doing since the patch

After tweaking Kir's spec and feeling a little more comfortable during raids, I loaded up my other characters. I kind of think of it as a trial for who I wanted to delete after cata because I need to make room for a goblin, duh!

I have been having a blast on my hunter. While I see a lot of whining from the hunter boards, I myself am enjoying the class.

Pets

The expanded stable and new feature to call several pets kicked my "Gotta catch 'em all" mentality. See, Kir has roughly 109 companion pets and so the idea of collecting pets that actually do something rocks.

I decided to keep Beast Mastery for the very reason to have more pets. And since pets bring a host of buffs to a party as well, I am having a wonderful time switching pets to suit the group make up! I don't know who Zee is, but this flowchart is very handy for a new hunter. (Thanks, Aspect of the Hare, for the link)

My favorite huntery moment so far happened last night. I pulled out the corehound for the boss and promptly used Ancient Hysteria. Forgetting we had a shaman in the group, the question arose "Who has the offbrand bloodlust?"

Me:"I am sorry if I stepped on your toes. I don't normally run with a shaman."

Comments of LOL and "Yea, right" followed. Then I linked the flaming pup's ability to shut them up. I know it probably pisses off Shaman just like giving Replenishment to other classes pissed off Shadow Priests, but as a leveling hunter I can't rely on prime buffs to be had.

As an aside, I was happy to see Arikara still arrives in a puff of smoke. I was afraid that Blizz would have removed it somehow.

Wishing I could tame flaming horses

So what have my friends been doing since the patch? Well, my brother, despite having the HHM on 5 characters, still can't find a toothpick to complete his mount achievement. Other friends hate him for having his mounts when they don't have even one.

I don't care about the mount (though it does call to that collector in me) but here is something pretty and almost equally as cool:




Making the cut

So far, the hunter will still be around after Cata. My shaman, however, will probably die. I would rather delete one of my alliance characters, but sometimes it is nice to have a spy over there to pick up vendor items to be transfered over (tee hee). There is still my blood elf mage I may ditch... we shall see.

Good luck to all of you trying to complete your Halloween achievements!

Brewfest!

It's that time again and I hope everyone has a great time this year!

Also, pregrats to everyone who will be getting their holiday achievement mounts. Now, that is dedication!

100 tokens for the pink elephant, eh? /shakefist I was ready to take this holiday off this year, but I guess I will be doing a lot of ram riding.

Take care!

Overdue update

Ugh, it's been to long since I posted. Crap happened in game, Aion week-long beta came around, and projects at work/home all sucked up my time.

Drama Llama

The shake ups in the guild have been an interesting roller coaster. It seems like when one drama starts, everyone else feels like it's a good time to add to it. After the asshat move from some members mentioned previously, two other long time members left, which had us feeling disoriented and confused. Their reasons for leaving were mixed and not expressed well. In addition, they didn't say good bye to the guild, just a little note to the officers. It left us sad, but knowing a little bit about what is going on behind the screen, it is understandable to a point. We wish them well, and hope that things work out for them.


But we have some new folks who seem to be doing well and more on the way. I'd pimp my blog to say we are recruiting but then you would have to deal with me on a regular basis, and that will probably turn you off. :)

Around the Corner

So while poking around for some writing fodder this morning, I ran across a potentially new achievement: BB King. It says you have to pelt the enemy leaders, presumably with a BB gun.

This, made me laugh out loud for a good couple minutes. I'm sure the youngin's may not get the reference but I had flash backs of A Christmas Story. (Omg, it came out in 1983? I am getting old.)

And I am sure everyone has seen the Pandaren Video. A couple guildies are already rabid for it, and others guess it will be a Cataclysm CE pet. Not sure how it fits into Cataclysm, but since it's BoA it is the closest thing that makes sense since we will already be getting a broodling pet for the anniversary. If only the Kung Fu Fighting music plays a little when it's summoned...

And of course, let us not forget the Ony fight that is coming. From what I was able to see, via videos, not much about the mechanics were changed, which given that spells and abilities have changed drastically since she came out, I worry that it will be a snoozefest. But that's my limited armchair opinion which holds no weight.

And now, for something completely different

I have a scifi lit class this term and I got all giddy when I saw the booklist. Some I have already read which should make my work load a little easier, eh? Now, to pull a Hermione and crack open Snow Crash again. Should be able to get it read before the term starts.

Camping

I've been involved the last few days with Raptor Camp 2009. What is Raptor Camp? It is the hours I have been spending waiting for the rare spawns to emerge so I can have a tiny non combat pet, of course!

I wasn't really going to spend so much time on them, but I kinda got sucked into it. It started off with 20 runs of WC. Then, sitting in Dustwallow for a couple hours waiting for Dart but giving up because a guildie needed a healer for ToC.

It changed when another guildie cursed himself for missing the Takk spawn and watched another player grab him. I noted the time and through the course of the conversation, I thought he wasn't going to come back a few hours later for it and instead go to bed. I sat there, waited for Takk, killed him not 30 seconds before the guildie logs in. I felt like such a horse's ass. And I am to a degree because I didn't go back and try for another one on behalf of the guildie.

I tried again for Dart. I saw many people come and go as I sat there for a few hours. I realize now that my original camping spot was flawed because when I checked for him the second time around, I literally watched him spawn on top of me on the little mount next to the hill. I was shaking from excitement because I had just seen another horde player ride past me just a couple minutes before.

Now, I'm casually killing raptors in Zul'Drak. For some strange reason, sitting in one spot is easier than killing spread out monsters in a loop. At least during my Dart camp, I could watch a movie or read a book.

I tell ya, these pets are a sickness. But each new pet gives me a sense of glee and I start to squeal and talk in a high-pitched voice about how cute they are.

93 pets and counting...

In just seven days... I can make you a man!

Ok, it won't take seven days, and he won't be a man but a mount! I couldn't help the Rocky Horror reference.

I'm talking about the new Ravasaur mount offered by Mor'vek in U-crator.

Toxic Tolerance
First step is to get "splashed" by poison off Venomhide Ravasaurs. However, in order to get splashed you have to hit them melee style. Now, I recommend hitting them with fists. As a caster, this shouldn't be too difficult since our melee skills suck. My DK friend had to take off all his gear and switch to tank spec in order to do this effectively. On PTR, seems you had to be splashed 2,000 times, but in 3.2 it is only 20. The poison does hurt even at level 80, but as a druid, just cleanse and go about your business.


Venomhide Eggs
The next step asks you to gather 4 venomhide eggs which are found in the marshlands where you fought the bigger versions. As the quest text says, it will be lighter in color than the other eggs, and really they aren't too hard to find. Just mouse over the nests.

After you return the eggs to Mor'vek, he gives you a hatchling to care for as he is growing up. The Venomhide Hatchling is only usable in certain areas and he offers you a daily quest. I was given the quest to feed him Silithis Eggs, but others have had to collect Roc Feathers, or feed him silithid meat and raptor meat. He's a vicious little bugger, that one!

It will take 20 teeth, 20 Rugged Leather, 20 Runecloth, and 80g to make the saddle and allow time for your little guy to be a full grown mount.

Whistle of the Venomhide Ravasaur

Overall, I would have to say if I was alliance, I would be a bit miffed. No rep grind, and the "grind" of 2,000 poison hits was removed. Having not done the Wintersaber grind, I can only gather from some Ally rerollers how much of a pain it was and I will say we as horde have it easy. However, since it took several years to actually implement it, I am just happy to have the chance to actually get the mount.

3.2 is here!

After an awesome weekend on the Aion beta, filled with pizza rolls and coffee, it was time to jump into 3.2 on WoW.

Of course, it was laggy, I crashed a few times, and there were too many people on the JC vendor, but I managed to at least get my Orphan quest done and try for one of the pet raptors in WC. All this while others in my guild tried the new 10 man and 5 man versions of the instance.

New forms

Apparently, everyone was going to be a black bear/cat which disappointed me. Kir has been a black cow since the start of the game and I must admit I was little upset and sad to have to change her.



However, I like the white versions of the forms and I will be sticking with them for a while. MMO Champ has a good graphical layout of what you will look like with each color scheme.

Pets
I grabbed the raptor in Dalaran and finished up my orphan week quests to get my very own Wolvar.

See, I when the expansion first came out, I thought I would get one from doing their dailies, but I guess better late than never :)


He's so cute.

Only took me 20 runs or so to get the new Raptor from WC.



JCing

Now that everyone is off the freaking vendor, I can buy my patterns without too much pain. Our guild is separating out the patterns so some are taking tanking some are taking caster stuff, etc. in order to make sure the love is spread through the guild.

Nothing yet from the new instance, as our server practically died as folks were stuck in death and could not release. Hopefully tonight's run will be smoother.