Meeperies

As you can see, no gear is still not hampering me. Switched back to the Santa Slut outfit at 47 because the tux was boring me. I again pretty much tore through yellow and orange quests like they were green, and skipped a bunch of them. Didn't touch Feralas at all, it annoys me ally-side. At 44 I was soloing the elite dragons in the Badlands - which are level 43, 44, and 45 - without needing to heal my pet. God damn that bird is badass! I went afk to use the bathroom once at 45, down in Tanaris where the turtles are 48, 49, 50, and hostile. Came back to see that a level 50 turtle had wandered into me, but was down to 50% health because Sarok was attacking it. Sarok was still at 90% health. I love him.

At 47, me and a co-worker's level 43 warrior 2-manned Uldaman. We hit every boss, and he only died twice - and neither of those was the last boss. Sarok and I didn't die at all. We tried to 2-man ZF with him at 45 and me at 49, but the trash pulls in the beginning kinda ate him so he ran me through on his 80 female dwarf priest. Yes, they do exist! Female dwarves are not a myth!

My /played time after turning in all the ZF quests is about 5 days, 7 hours. The Naked Troll had a /played of 9 days, 13 hours when he hit 50. Things are definately easier then they were 3 years ago. By the way, anyone else remember way back when Rachet had no flight point? That's another thing to add to the mock-crotchety "when I was your /played" list.

Will probably update at 55 and then again at 60. Will wait until 60 to go to Outland - where I will promptly buy flying, because I have 1300+ gold. Broken economy is broken.

After tearing through half of Dustwallow like it was tissue paper and then laughing as Hillsbarad and Alteric's green and yellow quests fell before me like wheat, I hit up Arathi and dinged 40.




According to the Naked Troll blog, the original naked hunter had a /played time of six days. I've got about half that. Some of it, I attribute to Blizzard making leveling easier. Mounts at 20 REALLY helped out. Some of it I attribute to the fact that I did quests, where the Naked Troll leveled mostly on grinding mobs. And some of it, I have to say, is probably my skill and knowledge as a player. I know the hunter class inside and out, particularly Beast Master spec, and this would be a million times harder if my bird weren't such a beast.

At level 33, running from Theramore to the Shady Rest Inn, I stopped to pick some Liferoot. Being Dustwallow, naturally, a crocolisk decided I was tasty. It was level 38, so I kinda hit disengage and frantically hit the buttons to do just about everything available to me. It was halfway dead and Sarok was doing pretty good at not dying when two more level 38s showed up and started chomping my bird's tailfeathers. Then one of them came for me. We made it by the skin of or teeth, me and Sarok. We were both just a hit or two from death and I had long since turned Viper on and off again, but we defeated three mobs that were red to us. God, I love that bird.

In celebration of being 40 and having a pretty epic nelf mount - which, by the way, I've wanted one of since Blizz first put them in the game - I decided to deck te NNN out in a snazzy Bank Alt outfit. Hopefully this week she'll be able to run Uldaman and surpass my co-worker's warrior alt.

So apparently, you can level a hunter naked. I heard a while back about a guy who leveled his hunter to 60 while naked, so the last time the servers were down, I decided to take an alt on a friend's server and see how far I could go. Because the alt in question is a nelf female, I decided to just keep the level 1 gear rather than running around in my undies. The original naked hunter was a pre-BC troll, and a LOT has changed since then. Mounts at 20, for one, and just about everything about pets has changed as well. So it should be interesting comparing the NNN experience to the Naked Troll blog. Sadly, it looks like the Taked Troll never got past level 61.

http://ntproject.blogspot.com
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Mal%27Ganis&n=Juffowup
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Ysera&n=Ryxl

The alliance-side server on Ysera, by the way, is BRUTAL. It was cheaper for me to buy bags from the vendor than from the AH, and the gear prices made me glad I was going nearly naked. I chose skinning and herbalism for my professions just to make money....and boy, did I make money. The NNN now has full netherweave bags, the best weapons she can equip, and her level 20 mount. Seeing that I had 70 gold left over after that, I decided to spring for the 30g Red Winter Clothes and 25g Winter Boots. Nothing really says 'nearly naked' like winter clothes on a chick, and they go nicely with her light-blue skin tone and medium-green hair.

The ultimate fashion accessory for a hunter, however, is the pet. I didn't want just any old spider or cat. Two boats, a tram, a reverse deathrun and another boat later, the NNN rezzed at the graveyard outside of Utguard Keep and tamed a handy Daggercap Hawk that was perched conveniently close by. His name is Sarok, and he is an absolute BEAST. More HP than his master, holds agro like a champ, and dishes out plenty of pain. The best part, though, was the level 32 hunter who paid me 10g to escort her to where she could get a hawk of her own. What part of 'take the boat from Menethil to Howling Fjord, jump out as it passes UK, rez at the GY and there'll be one right behind you' is so hard to grasp? Ah well, easy 10g for me.

The NNN is currently level 24, and just like the Naked Troll, I'm not seeing much of a difference from wearing armor. I do eat stat food more often, and I drink like a fish because I'm constantly OOM, but I can also tear through orange quests and crowds of level 27s without Sarok going below half health. I'm not upgrading from the Santa Slut outfit. Ever. Jury's still out on if I'll use rings and necks...but I'll definately use glyphs. The Naked Troll apparently decided at higher levels that it was too easy with gloves, boots, and jewelry, so he took them off and just kept trinkets with no stats. I'll probably do that.

Zarko * < Elemental > * Anetheron

* 8. Re: If Thrall Hands the Horde over to Garrosh 08/17/2009 09:11:52 AM PDT

Nah, there would be some sort of conspiracy... Garrosh and Magatha see eye to eye, Magatha "arranges" for Cairn's death, Magatha can easily influence the younger and less experienced Baine, Thunder Bluff is swayed to the Orc's "new" milittaristic vision.

Or something like that. Garrosh isn't just going to take the evelvator up to TB and stab Cairn in the chest while he stands surrounded by his guards and what not.




Shimaala * Kirin Tor

* 10. Re: If Thrall Hands the Horde over to Garrosh 08/17/2009 09:13:07 AM PDT

Q u o t e:
"Nah, there would be some sort of conspiracy... Garrosh and Magatha see eye to eye, Magatha "arranges" for Cairn's death, Magatha can easily influence the younger and less experienced Baine, Thunder Bluff is swayed to the Orc's "new" milittaristic vision.
Or something like that. Garrosh isn't just going to take the evelvator up to TB and stab Cairn in the chest while he stands surrounded by his guards and what not."


Apparently you don't know Garrosh.



I am very proud that this comment came from my server....and amused as hell that Shim's a friend of mine. I didn't notice that it was Shim that said it until I'd pasted it here.

If Thrall hands the Horde over to Garrosh...and then Garrosh declares open war with the Alliance and has Cairne branded a traitor and murdered, and Saurfang DOESN'T cleave his face into his ass for it...on that day, I will uninstall WoW and nothing will bring me back. There will be nothing that Blizz could write into the game that would fix that, not even canon Thrall/Jaina action.

I doubt it will happen though. Someone out there is laughing hysterically at the stir they've made with this leaked crap.

Ryxl, Takk, and Takk Jr. ^_^ He's so adorable!

( Storing it here until it's ready to be posted in the right place. )

I love the Argent Tournament. I love it hardcore. For some reason, I seem to be better at the jousting than many two-handed people I know...or maybe my lack of sufficient working digits forced me to figure out a working strategy quicker. *shrugs* In any case, the three days of Argent Aspirant and five days of Orgrimmar Valiant are now over - I have bested an Argent Champion, yea, and the Black Knight as well - and now take my place among the ranks of Orgrimmar Champions.

Oh, and the kid is ADORABLE. I'm going to take him to Naxx next week.

This weekend was full of raiding fun. Saturday, I got tapped for my first visit to Naxx. We got Spider and Military wings down and killed Helgrim of the Glowing Green Acidfirelava, and only wiped on him once. I got to tank the back two of the Four Horsemen along with Liongale, our raid leader pally. That was remarkably fun. I mean, aside from avoiding the black circles of doom and spamming mend pet between steady shots, and occsionally rezzing my loyal raptor so he could soak bolts for me, it was fun. Aspect of the Viper meant I never ran out of mana, and it was easy enough to whip around and right-click the other horseman and hit pet attack when Lion called out for me to switch with him. Also, I got a nice 2h sword. I won't have to upgrade that bad boy unless I somehow manage to be part of a Malygos raid where Black Ice drops, and win the roll.

Friday, however, was equally fun. I ran Molten Core.

Three years ago, Molten Core was absolutely out of the question. Even if I got my hunter (I was playing a nelf hunter at the time) to 60, there's no way I'd have the time to go on a 6-8 hour raid even if I could find a raiding guild that would take me. Back then, it was just accepted that hunters didn't bring their pets out for raids - pathing issues, DPS issues, wasting mana to heal them, it just wasn't done. (Now, however, the exact opposite is true. Thank you Blizz!) Even if something dropped for a hunter, you'd be rolling against multiple other hunters for it since MC was a 40-man raid. And then there was Rhok'delar, Longbow of the Ancient Keepers.

This epic bow was only for hunters - and the item that started the quest for it dropped from Majordomo. In order to summon Majordomo, you had to have 7 people who were honored or better with the Hyxraxian Waterlords, and you got rep with them by killing things in Molten Core. The quest line for the epic bow required a hunter to kill four level 60 elite demons wandering in various corners of the world. Alone. If anyone or anything got on the demons' agro table - if a kind stranger healed you or a nasty stranger attacked the demon, or even if your pet took a swipe at it - the demon would despawn. Then, once you killed all four demons, you had to raid Onyxia. The attunement for Onyxia was long and annoying as hell, but I won't go into it. One of the things she has a chance to drop is a Mature Black Dragon Sinew, which becomes the string for the epic bow. And again, this was a 40-man raid, so even if she did drop the sinew...you're rolling against the other hunters in the raid for it.

That was three years ago. The amount of time and effort required to get this ultimate hunter weapon was just insane, and I never thought I'd ever have a chance to do any of it. Now, however, the level cap is 80, the attunement for MC can be soloed easily, and the attunement for Onyxia has been lifted entirely. Five people can kill her with a bit of coordination, the same as any five-man instance boss. Hunters are now mocked and shunned for NOT having their pets out, rather than for having the audacity to bring their pets with them to the fight. Next patch, the rep requirement for summoning Majordomo and Ragnaros is going to be lifted. And I have a Mature Black Dragon Sinew sitting in the bank. As for running Molten Core?



This is Takk, my loyal black raptor. He's tanking Garr, one of the bosses in Molten Core. As you can see from the bars on the left, there were a mere six other people in there with me. Molten Core has gone from a 40-man time sink for the hardcore elites to something bored people do on a Friday night for giggles. We didn't bother with the epics, really. They're sadly outdated and good only for RP outfits, or nostalgia. We had to remind the priest to loot them so he could shard them...but then never bothered distributing the shards. Me, I want the Ancient Petrified Leaf so I can go kill demons and own the bow that, three years ago, I never thought I would ever have the remotest chance at getting.

A friend once challenged me to get the epic hunter bow when he thought I was bragging about my first Kara run, saying that if I wanted to brag, I should go get that. But I'm not doing it for the bragging rights, since anyone will be able to get it come next patch. I'm doing it because it's spitting on the grave of old-world raiding and thumbing my nose at the raiders of three years ago who looked down their noses at anyone not willing to put in the insane amount of time and effort for the merest chance of reward. Petty? Maybe. But I can't think of a single better weapon to use as part of an RP outfit. Also, Ryxl hates the hell out of the Black Dragonflight. Take that, old-world raiders. I'm using the once-great epic hunter bow as an RP prop. ^_^

So for those of you who haven't been online for a while, or who don't have Horde characters in Outlands, or who just haven't been to Shattrath for this...the plague has ended, and this is part of how it did. Grand Apothecary Putress asks you to deliver a dual-plagued brain to his associate in [your race's capital here]. The brain whispers to you. This brain not only has the plague, but also an anti-plague, and they're fighting, and this is how the cure is supposed to come about.

If you've seen or read or heard spoiler-rific things, you know who Putress is by association.

If you've paid attention when questing Horde-side in Thousand Needles, you may have wondered about the coincidental nearness of Grimtotem to another group, and suspected an alliance.

If you've done both, then the fact that Putress's associate is standing next to Magatha Grimtotem will mean a lot to you...and if it doesn't, I won't spoil.

But seriously, though, this quest was creepy and...yeah. I'm not sure I really want to gain rep with this faction. The quest text just screams WARNING to me.

I know I'm a month early, but better early than late. I want Wrath to come out, I want those 5 days off of work I requested off in which to play, and I want to get Ryxl to 80. I also want the Albino Drake that's the reward for having 50 different mounts. Isn't it nifty? Sure, getting all 50 mounts costs a bit of gold, but what else do I have to spend it on? It turns out it cost lest than buying epic flying - only about 3,500 gold. The 4k Silvermoon rep and 10k Mag'har rep I needed was a snap to get. So this weekend I collected the mounts and made sure I had full stacks of everything I'd need: arrows, bandages, health+mana food, stat buff food, pet food for Arikara and Takk, Sporeling Snacks, water, and pots.

( Ryxl is prepared. )

As I said, I requested time off from work so I'll have 11/13 through 11/17 devoted to throwing Ryxl at Northrend. But there's this pesky thing called sleep...well, caffine and sugar will fix that.

( TPO Ryxl is also prepared. )

C'mon, November. Bring it. I'm ready for you.

So Mikanna hit 40 about 26 hours ago. It's amazing what a difference dual-wield and an entire wardrobe change to mail will make. I bashed things into little bitty pieces. But it only got better when I hit 41 and got Stormstrike. Mikanna's 43 now - I just kinda tore through my quest list like they were all green. There's a chance she'll actually be close to Outland by the time Wrath comes out....which is fine either way, because once Wrath comes out I'm pushing Ryxl to 80.

( Thrall's baby girl isn't a baby any more! )

Had a dream-fragment that there was a vendor who sold the Swift Zhevra mount for 999 gold. He also sold a copy of the letter you get with it for 340 silver (yes, I know that makes no sense) and I think he sold a 60% speed zhevra and something else, but I'm not sure what...there were 5 items, the letter was the second one down on the left, with the 100% speed mount below it. The second item down on the right was an artifact/heirloom class Zhevra mount called Even Faster Zhevra - the price was "Ask how much this is". Unfortunately, I was too lucid at that point to read the text on the item.

I'm not sure how I would feel about a vendor selling these tiems. It would be nifty if it was only available to accounts which had already earned it, but I would be selfishly unhappy if it were available to everyone. The idea of an artifact/heirloom (I can't be bothered to look up which it is right now) mount is interesting, and if it ever happens, I can say I predicted it. But I also wonder if there will ever be an even faster ground mount, because I'm pretty sure the Even Faster Zhevra scaled up past the 100% mounts - but I'm not sure if it could become a flying mount.

Finished the Onyxia chain the other night. Me, my roommate's 70 prot warrior, and two of her guildies - a 70 healypriest and a 62 shaman - ran UBRS all the way to Drak and killed him. Easily. So we not only got attuned to Onyxia, we also got the Blackwing Lair attunement. Next time I can drag myself away from my baby badass shammy, I'll head up to Winterspring to let Awbee's momma know what happened.

Mikanna is still chewing on my head. Like...seriously. She's almost 20, and I'm not quite done with Crossroads yet. She'll probably be 20 by the time I go to bed tonight. Wheeee...

Two nights back, in the midst of the rest of the sheer crack that is mydreams, I dreamed Azeroth 20 years in the future. Thrall had a daughter, a very feisty teenager with blonde hair. Scraggly orc-female hair, but definately blonde. When I woke up, I realized Jaina had to have been the mother, even though she was nowhere around in the dream. The girl's name was Mikanna in the dream.

Mikanna proceeded to chew on my head at work. I had her class and spec planned out by lunch, rolled her when I got home, and immediately leveled her to 7. Orc hair colors don't include blonde, so I gave her Thrall's blue-black hair. Yesterday, I got her to 12 and got the totem of fire before I went to bed...naturally, she's a shaman like her daddy, and is going enhancement. Doomhammer and all that. Today, I got her to 16 and she's done with Durotar and Mulgore, and she keeps dinging at appropriate parts. Like honored with Org when I turned in a 'prove your worth' quest, and honored with Darkspear when I turned in the 'oh hey, Echo Isles are free now' quest, and I think Thunder Bluff was when I turned in one of the 'Rites of the Earthmother' quests.

Most of today was spent with Ryxl running all over the freaking map getting most of the Onyxia atunement done...just need one last UBRS run. At 70, by the way, you can not only 5-man UBRS...you can FOUR MAN it. The actual running of UBRS wasn't as hard or annoying as flying hither and yon talking to this person or that or killing some random dragon. Freaking Black Dragonflight. I just want to finish so I can get the quests out of my log. Of course, everything I have on Ryxl is dungeon or raid anyway....I ran out of solo content.

At least I have Mikanna to keep me occupied for a while.

MOTHS ARE GOING TO BE TAMEABLE

I'm going to have a big pretty butterfly that EATS YOUR FACE.

That is all.

*explodes into bits of squee*

Zabutak
* Detheroc
* 15. Re: which fractions better horde or ally? 06/10/2008 09:03:41 AM PDT

Eh, Lore wise I would think that the Alliance could Fraction better. Gnomes, Draenie, etc. All pretty intelligent.

The Horde... well, the Tauren seem to have been einsteins in the disguise with developing guns within five years and their physics defying elevators. I bit Tauren could calculate pi to the last theorhetical digit if they could get their hands on an Etherean calculator.

You and Whose Army
A Horde Dazed Knight
Gnome Land Security
Fish Vendor
Laughing Skull Is Down
What The
Purchased on Ebay

...yeah, been reading the forums.

I've been playing my Alliance hunter recently, after getting my Netherdrake and tearing a good chunk of Netherstorm into itty bitty pieces. I'd rolled her on KT just before TBC came out and pushed her to 40 to get a nelf on a horse - which I accomplished - but then when the pets-go-poof patch came out, couldn't bear to play her and she collected dust until paid name changes. New name, new pet, new mount, new professions, new skills, new character. She's level 54 now with a level 53 Scarlet Tracking Hound, and has been my highest-level alliance character for the last 12 levels. I'll probably actually get her into Outland, and probably get her to 70. If Jan doesn't decide to level Arret, I'll manage to score the first in the house to have three 70s, and the first in the house to have an Alliance 70. It's so strange to be questing in the high-level zones as Alliance and not Horde.

( At least he's nice enough to yell it out... )

42 failed attempts.
13 deaths.
1 trinket that does exactly what my old trinket does.
BRAGGING RIGHTS!

...totally worth it.

Oh, and only about 6k more rep before I get my Netherdrake. I WILL have it before I go to sleep on Saturday! IT HAS BEEN DECIDED!

( I suppose you can see it, if you really want, but it's not done )

( Countless deaths. Furstration beyond measure. No regrets. )

...now to die repeatedly trying to beat Skyshatter. ^_^ \/,,