Meeperies

Well, that didn't take long.

2009-12-29T07:31:49Z

You'd think that with all the stamina the game throws at you when you hit Outland, that it would be more difficult to quest there when you're wearing a pretty dress and that's about it.

You'd be wrong.

As you can see from my Armory , the Nearly Naked former nelf is wearing a neck and a ring...but the ring is a Mood Ring and the amulet is guaranteed to win over her heart's desire. Her bow and axe are quest reward greens. The Naked Troll never got this far. He's wearing the amulet from the Onyxia attunement chain and using a blue bow that's far inferior to the quest-reward green bow. Furthermore, if you look at his achievements, the poor guy never even bought epic riding or all seven bank slots. My naked hunter is cruising in style with her tawny wind rider. The Naked Troll isn't exalted with a single faction. Everyone remember back when rep grinding meant farming runecloth until your eyes bled? Granted, my naked hunter is only exalted with her racial faction, but overall she's a lot more liked by the various old-world groups. Poor old Juffowump never even got to see the inside of Hellfire Ramparts. He never 'learned' a pet or his sad little 60% speed mount. In fact, it looks like his player didn't log in at all between before the achievement system went into place and July of this year. It's a shame he didn't decide to keep playing.

My played time to 62 is 8 days, 8 hours. The Naked Troll took 14 days to get to 60. Don't you love playing in the updated, streamlined present rather than the painful past?

I've already beaten my role model. Everything from here on out is bonus win and awesomeness. Let's see if I can get to 70!

NNN hits 60

2009-12-26T15:44:20Z

Well, she's still nearly-naked, but she's no longer a night elf. I transferred her from Ysera Alliance to Rexxar Horde to try out a co-worker's server. If I like it, when the name 'Ryxl' is available again I'll switch my main over. In the meantime, 50-60 wasn't hard at all considering I'm wearing a dress and some dress shoes and nothing else. Got plenty of quests begging to be done in Azeroth should I choose to wrap them up, which I probably will because they're from Tirion Fordring. Also made a change in my pet, as you can see...tamed me a venomhide ravasaur to go with my Venomhide Ravasaur mount. When I get flying in Outland I'll switch back to the bird.

Played time if 7 days 20 hours. Still beating out the Naked Troll by 2 days from when he hit 50, and almost twice his /played time to 60 which was 24 days and change.

Just two more levels and I will have defeated the Naked Troll. See you at 62?

50 down, 30 to go.

2009-10-17T12:12:02Z

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.

Nearly Naked Nelf hits 40

2009-09-28T12:03:45Z

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.

The Nearly Naked Nelf Experiment

2009-09-14T19:20:51Z

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.

Amusement from the forums

2009-08-17T18:45:22Z

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.

SO FREAKING CUTE

2009-08-05T04:15:49Z

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

A note atop a folded guild tabard

2009-05-12T22:45:31Z

I am leaving. Like Xhaana, I must follow my path. Unlike her, however, I knew what my path was before I joined Tiger Team One. The Team has left my path, therefore I must leave the Team. Call me a traitor if you wish, and curse my name like you do Xhaana's, I care not. I know what I am.

I am the instrument of my Warchief's desire.
I am a weapon of my Warchief's command.

I cannot believe that the Warchief would so willingly burn what remains of the bridge built by Highlord Bolvar Fordragon and Saurfang the Younger. Or, for that matter, that he would smile upon imprisonment and torture by way of saying thanks to the human who saved the life of a tauren. To hate all humans because of their king would mean I must hate my entire race because of the False Warchief. Yet the Argent Crusade and the Ebon Blade both have orcs and humans fighting side by side with trolls and night elves, dwarves and tauren. Both Horde and Alliance have bigger enemies than each other; if we cannot put aside our petty hatreds in the same of defeating a common enemy, then prehaps we deserve to become enslaved by the Lich King. Or better yet, the Burning Legion. Orcs were slaves to blind hatred and bloodlust once, why not a second time?

Spirits be with you; I know they're with me.

- Ryxl Ironheart

Not bad for a girl with a gimp hand

2009-04-20T18:01:30Z

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.

Oh, how the molten have fallen...

2009-01-05T03:01:02Z

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. ^_^

Ending the plague

2008-10-28T15:01:43Z

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.

Can it be next month please?

2008-10-13T18:25:34Z

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.

From left to right: Double-stuff Oreos (chocolate and peanut butter), Halloween marshmallows, 4 1/2 pounds of Tootie Roll mixed candy, Brach's harvest mix candy, Maraschino cherries, Charleston Chew minis, Caramel Cream Pepi Jazz, Mountain Dew Code Red, and the three new berry-and-ginseng Mountain Dew flavors.

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

I need a shaman icon

2008-10-06T05:56:18Z

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.

</lj0cut>

I'm not sure I would like this

2008-10-01T11:51:43Z

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.

I should check it out some time

2008-09-04T12:03:26Z

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...

New face on the character list

2008-09-02T04:18:30Z

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.

The squee goes beyond words

2008-07-02T15:25:55Z

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*

Amusement from the General forum

2008-06-10T17:05:09Z

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.

Amusing guilds, update

2008-06-05T16:38:07Z

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.

Guess who's the new top orc?

2008-05-15T03:37:42Z

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!

Worth it for the bragging rights

2008-05-13T00:32:09Z

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

Meeper's guide to raising dragons

2008-03-07T15:57:13Z

Okay, you may be familiar with my tendancy to find something new and do a mini-obsess over it until I'm an expert on the basics, even if I never continue on to master the expert stuff. The latest one, as you have likely seen, is the litle adoptable dragon eggs. I've had a lot of success with them, and picked up a few tricks, so I figured it's fair to share the wealth. Also, I'm getting bored with them so I'm putting this out before I fgorget.

How to get an egg

Go to the dragon cave. http://dragcave.ath.cx/ Start a "scroll" and then leave until about a minute before the hour. The eggs are released three at a time every hour on the hour, although lately there seems to have been a delat of a couple of minutes. During "peak" times, times when kids in school wouldn't be in school, they go FAST. Like, I've seen them all go by xx:01. I suggest going in the wee hours of the morning to have more time to look them over. If you see an egg you like, click on it. If you're the first one to click it, you'll get it and if not, you'll be told it's already taken. If you don't see one you want, just refresh the page. The eggs will change as people take them.

What kind of egg do I have?

The dragon cave forum won't tell you. It's against their rules. It's also a bit spoiler-ish. If you want to see all the types of dragons, here's the scroll for the guy who runs the dragon cave: http://dragcave.ath.cx/user/1 It's pretty easy to guess what dragon will hatch from which egg by reading the descriptions of the dragons and hatchlings. If you're still lost, just ask me. ^_^

Okay, I have an egg. How do I keep it healthy?

Your egg needs a certain, unspecified amount of hits, unique hits, and clicks in order to hatch. People on the forums had said that it won't start hatching until it has less than four days left, no matter what stats it has, but that's an outright lie. Better to say that if it doesn't start cracking by 3.5 days left, I'd start worrying, and it won't finish hatching until about 3.5 days left, no matter what. Too many hits on the first day - like a thousand or so - will likely kill it. If you have more clicks than you have unique hits, your egg will get an illness called "soft shell", but it's easy to fix that. Just correct the ratio. If your egg has a hit-to-unique ratio of more than 15 hits to 1 unique hit, your egg will also get soft shell. Ten to one is a good ratio to aim for. To define the terms, a "click" is when someone views the dragon's page - the dragon's page will have a URL that starts out http://dragcave.ath.cx/viewdragon/ and then has a unique 4-digit alphanumeric code at the end. A hit is any time the image of the egg (or hatchling, or dragon) is loaded in a browser, and a unique hit is the first time any given IP address loads the image. If you are viewing a scroll, and you hit refresh, each egg and hatchling and dragon will gain a hit. Refreshing a dragon's unique page will not give more hits. In my experience, it's easier to get a higher number of unique hits, and then spam refresh until your hits are where you want them.

Right, but what does my egg need to hatch?

I suggest a minimum of about 80 unique hits and 500+ hits. Although it seems like the uniques are the most important stat, as I had one hatch with 160 uniques and less than twice that in hits. For optimal hatching speed, I suggest 120+ uniques and 1,000+ hits. Clicks don't seem to matter much, as I've seen eggs with fewer than 15 clicks hatch without a problem. I'm still trying to figure out if there's a set number an egg needs to go through the five hatching stages and become a hatchling, or if it needs a certain number of hits/uniques to make it to each subsequent stage. It seems to be a combination of time landmarks and hit stats. There was a sky dragon who was rescued with a day and a half to go and managed to hatch in about 3 hours, starting at 0.98 days and finishing at about 0.86 days. I'm in awe at the little guy's will to live. But there's also a red egg who started hatching at about 4.8 days, and has been on the last hatching stage for more than 12 hours - long enough that his soon-to-be-brother has started hatching and gotten to that same stage and he's still sitting there. The people on the forums say it's slightly different for each breed. I say the eggs just like driving us nuts.

So how do I get hits, uniques, and clicks?

Just take your dragon's code, and put it where it will be seen. You can use the HTML code to post it in journals or web pages, and the BBCode for forum signatures. http://dragcave.ath.cx/account is the URL for managing your dragons. I'm not real active online, but I crosspost in all my journals and put the ones that need attention in forum signatures. Not the actual dragon cave forum; it's against their rules. There's a forum that will make a nifty incubator box thingy for you, and has a section for 'please click my eggs/hatchlings' - it's http://incubators.forumsvibe.com/ Personally, I'm using the SanDisk forums (forums.sandisk.com) for my own eggs. I just go to new threads and make vuagely helpful comments like 'that's weird, does it do that on another computer?'. That way, everyone who looks at that thread is an unwitting accomplice to my eggs hatching and my hatchlings maturing. I'm like some derranged cyber cuckoo.

Okay, my egg has a crack in it. Now what?

Yay, it's starting to hatch! There are five stages of hatching. First is the little V-shape crack. Next, you'll see the V become a Y, and there will be a wavelike crack at the bottom. Third, the stem of the Y will become a diagonal crack running the whole length of the egg. After that, a small hole will appear in the middle. The last stage is a bigger hole, and then your egg will hatch. The fastest I've seen an egg hatch is about three hours, but he was in his last day. The fastest I've seen a dragon hatch when it started at a normal time was about 10 hours - I saw that it had hatched 45-60 minutes ago, and it had ~990 hits, ~230 uniques, and 23 clicks. The last 300 hits and 100 uniques probably weren't needed, but likely sped the process up. Unique hits are probably the most important - I've had eggs that hatched with less than 700 hits, but more than 80 uniques, and I've seen eggs die with more than 700 hits but less than 80 uniques.

It hatched! Now what?

Great! You're not out of the woods yet. Your hatchling still needs love before it will grow into an adult. The first two adults I have each have 220+ unique hits, ~40 clicks, and over two thousand hits. The two hatchlings that hatched about the same time for someone else, but died, had about the same number of uniques but less than 1500 hits. Before a dragon grows up, it will grow wings. The exceptions to this are mint, vine, two-head, and blue, who won't grow wings. As with eggs, hatchlings won't start maturing until there's less than four days left. And as with eggs, the rate of maturation sometimes seems unrelated to anything but how much it's driving you nuts. I've sat there and manually refreshed four hatchlings to adults, and that seems to have been 'enough time, not enough hits'...but I also have a hatchling that has had plenty of time and plenty of hits, and just...refuses...to...mature. *shakes fist at it*

Whee, I have an adult!

^_^ Awesome! if it's pink, purple, or some of the silver ones, it's female and you can breed it to your male dragons. You can attempt a breeding once a week. If it produces an egg, it will be the color of one of its parents. If you don't want the egg, you can abandon it and someone else will give it a good home. So now that you have a full-grown dragon, why not give it a name?

I think that about covers it...let me know if I missed something. ^_^

RP story in progress

2008-03-06T16:43:54Z

Ryxl cantered easily through the dusky streets of Orgrimmar, the black raptor beneather her bouncing along happily in a show of how pleased he was with himself. The orc's thoughts were not so jubilant, however. A lot had happened in the course of one day - if half of what she'd gone through could still be considered the same day - and it weighed heavily on her. She glanced into various corners of the city, but the rest of her adoptive siblings were out elsewhere, doing... Ryxl paused in front of the bank, suddenly stricken with guilt over the fact that she had no idea what her little family was up to.

"I would being happy to having you joining me..."

The uniquely mangled orcish snapped Ryxl out of her thoughts, and she looked up to see Aelwenara seated on the roof of the bank, sewing something. She looked quite at home, as though she did that often. Well, maybe she does. Spirits know I haven't been around to see... With a shake of the reins, she directed Takk around the side to where the roof met the street, and hopped off his back. The raptor followed her, still radiating smugness, as she crossed the slanted surface to the half-elf. She took a seat next to the mage, and the raptor obediantly curled up behind her to serve as a backrest.

"You still be needin' to work on the verbs," The orc chided her adoptive sister with a teasing grin.

Aelwenara scrunched up her face and stuck out her tongue. "Orcish verbs are being strange to conjugate," she said, waving one hand in dismissal. "I am being working on the words not mangling. This being a good spot to being listening to people. Also, being a good spot for sewing." The mage held out her latest effort - a half-done robe of some kind made of runecloth. "I am getting quite good, if I am being saying so myself."

The orc's eyebrows raised a bit. "No, you're right - you are getting quite good. When the runecloth gets boring, let me know - the cloth of choice in Outland is called netherweave, and I've got more of the stuff than I can make bandages out of." She looked around, noting that a good number of her adoptive family's haunts could be seen from the roof of the bank. "This be a good spot, mon," she said, trollish accent slipping in as her thoughts started turning in other circles.

Aelwenara nodded. "I am being easy to find, if brothers or sisters are needing to find me." She stuck her needle into the half-finished robe and poked one slender finger at the ornate gloves on Ryxl's hands. "I am not seeing you around for a while. You are having being interesting places, and not being sharing the stories," she mock-accused.

Ryxl looked at her gloves in mild shock, then frowned at them when she remembered where they had come from. "There's so much to tell," she murmured, "and I haven't been around to tell it. I haven't been a very good sister, have I?"

"I am not meaning that," Aelwenara protested. "I am just worried being for your health. You are being family, and me being fussing like a mother hen for not being able to go the places you are going."

The moment stretched out, guilt and chagrin on one side and wistful envy on the other, before Ryxl sighed and rubbed her temples.

"There's so much to tell," she groaned. "I've learned so much about my people. I know this will sound silly, but it really is a whole other world, with its own history that intertwines with Azeroth's history. There's so much..." Ryxl trailed off and took a deep breath. "It's a war out there, so chaotic and deadly that it makes our conflict with the Alliance look like two mutts growling and snapping over a scrap of meat. There's so much more than I ever imagined could exist, and the actions of every man, woman, and child could change the fate of a tribe or the course of a battle. My people - what are left of them, the ones that escaped the taint of demon blood - are refugees, fighting to hold onto the scraps they still hold, with the broken draenei on one side and the Burning Legion on the other and Illidan at their backs. The things I have done for them help more than anything I ever did for the Horde."

Ryxl trailed off, staring into the sunset. The half-elf said nothing, letting her adoptive sister struggle with the dual loyalties of Horde and race that she herself still wrestled with.

"I met the son of Hellscream," the orc said at last. "Grom Hellscream, the one who freed us from the demon blood. I have spoken with the Greatmother, the mother of the father of our Warchief. I was there when the Warchief returned to his homeland - our homeland - and told Garrosh how his father died." Ryxl broke off and glanced at Aelwenara, who sat listening attentively. "He will make a great Warchief someday soon, and I am honored to have witnessed his rebirth. We are living in exciting times - I am seeing history being made. But more than that, it is my hand sometimes that shapes history."

"You are being needed," Aelwenara said simply.

"Yes," the hunter nodded. "I am needed. There is more - there is an offshoot of the Black Dragonflight whose eggs were altered when Draenor was ripped apart into Outland. They call themselves the Netherwing, and many of them have been enslaved by the Dragonmaw orcs. 'Any weapon in a fight' is what I say, and I am a weapon in their fight. Their enemy is my enemy; they hate the Black Dragonflight more than I do, and I help them fight their enslavement. It's almost like watching orcish history repeat itself with dragons."

The half-elf's lips quirked, and Ryxl got the feeling she was about to get zinged with mangled orcish.

"Making sure you are not being their Grom Hellscream," Aelwenara said, mischief in her eyes.

What the hell, Ryxl thought, and walked into it. "And why not?"

"Because Grom Hellscream not surviving his victory, and if you being dead, you being not able to telling the story."

The orc couldn't repress a grin. "You only want me alive to tell the tale, is that it?"

"Of course not!" Aelwenara protested, all wide-eyed innocence. "Am being also wanting a souveneir!"

Ryxl laughed, and after a moment Aelwen joined her. Takk looked up at the disturbance and snorted.

"All right, a souvenier from the Netherwing. I'll see what I can do." Ryxl took off one glove to ruffle the other girl's hair, but the half-elf froze as soon as the orc started reaching towards her.

"Where..." Aelwenara licked her lips, eyes focused on the ring adorning the orc's hand. "Where are you being getting that ring?"

Ryxl blinked, then looked at the ring to see what had disturbed her adoptive sister like that. "There be a good story behind this, mon," she said slowly, wondering where to start.

"There had better being," the mage said dryly. "That being the sigil of the Violet Eye. I am knowing this only because of where I was being raised."

"They be some group of powerful and secretive mages from Dalaran that stick their noses inta magic stuff, ya?" Aelwenara nodded slowly. "Then that explains why they be all clustered around that creepy haunted tower. That be the only part that makes sense, though. Did ya know there be a cave in Tanaris full o' dragons that watch portals to the past?"

The half-elf laughed. "You are being joking, right?"

"It be no joke." Ryxl grimaced, once more dropping her trollish accent. "Some crusty old mage named Khagdar or something told me I had to go back in time and have his dead master touch a key so I could get into his master's tower - I still don't know why he wanted me to get in - and he sent me to Tanaris to talk to the dragons in charge of the time-portal-things. But when I got there, they told me I had to go with these three tauren and a mage and help break the Warchief out of the place he was kept as a slave."

The orc broke off into gestures meant to convey innocent confusion, but she wasn't very good at subterfuge. The mage smiled to herself, noting how Ryxl's green skin got just a little deeper when she mentioned the Warchief. I feel bad for any orc interested in her, Aelwenara thought. They'll have a hard time competing with Thrall for her attention, even if Thrall isn't aware of it.

"After that, the dragons let us go talk to the mage's master." Ryxl sobered and looked off towards the sunset. "Turns out, his master was the one who opened the portal my demon-tainted people used to come here. And we helped him do it by protecting him." She glanced at Aelwenara, afraid of what she might see, but the half-elf merely looked contemplative. "We helped cause thousands of deaths," she continued slowly, "but if we had not, I would not have been born to help cause them. I'm not sure how I feel about it."

The mage nodded and laid one hand on the orc's arm. "We can not being changing the past - even if we are being acting in it. If these dragons are being protecting the portals, then we can being trusting them to tell us if something was being done wrong, right?"

Ryxl smiled softly. "You be right, mon. And it be too much for this simple orc to worry about. I be leaving it to them to worry about. The old mage touched the key, and that be all I care about."

Aelwenara didn't bother arguing the point. "So what were you doing after that?"

"Oh, those Violet Eye mages got themselves all in a tizzy when they found out I had the key," the orc said with a grin. "Begged me to go into the old guy's tower. The tauren and mage came with me, and the mage brought friends. Turns out they all had keys." Ryxl shook her head, lapsing into her accent briefly. "That be some strange tower, mon. It be full o' ghosts that don't know they be dead, like time stopped for them. Party guests an' servants an' actors. But that not be the strangest part - them Violet Eye guys acted like only I had a key, but some o' the mage's friends had been there thre, four, five times. It be like the Violet Eye be stuck in the same no-time the tower is, an' they keep forgetting what people tell them. They be real grateful for our help, though. That be where I got the ring."

"And the gloves?"

"Nah, got them off a ghost. A real angry ghost."

Aelwen blinked, trying to figure out how a ghost could be wearing something so physical, but didn't ask.

What I've been up to

2008-03-04T14:18:51Z

Meeper now has epic flying and an epic flying mount, and I just need a run through heroic Sethekk Halls to get epic flight form. After that, I'll be saving money and grinding CE rep for the war hippogriff, since Meeper considers her race to be "druid" rather than "tauren". But no rush, I'm having too much fun on Ryxl.

Aelwenara is lazing about in Orgrimmar, slowly gaining skill in tailoring and enchanting. I suppose I should leel her some, at least to 55 so I can get 300-375 on her professions.

Stomphoof has been stripped naked and is standing in Booty Bay waiting my her chance to ship some cheap runecloth (1 gold 25 silver a stack! Eleven stacks!) over to horde-side for Aelwenara. Since I didn't do much with her and Clay might want the name back at some point, I decided to strip her down.

Kivraealyn, the hunter formerly known as Tarrna, has gottn a complete makeover. New professions (although I may drop mining to take herbalism for her alchemy, which replaced engineering), new name, new skills (can you believe she had no traps?), new pet...new character. I may actually write a story explaining it. She went from a white worg to a red windserpent, but since Ryxl has Arikara, it's been done...so I grabbed a Scarlet Tracking Hound. When it hits her level, I'll abandon the windserpent.

So that's it for the alts...now on to my main.

Ryxl haz epix. On Sunday, I marathoned getting my Kara key fragments, running Old Hillsbrad, going through Black Morass (epiced-out tank and awesome mage on adds FTW! Medhiv was still at 100% at the end)....and then being invited to run Kara with the group the mage belongs to! Yes, I went to Kara,and it was Love The Hunter night! I got a hat, a pair of gloves, a pair of boots, and a ring because I was the only hunter. We had no rogues, no feral druids, and the only non-healy shaman was better-geared. We skipped Illhoof and Netherspite due to group makeup, but didn't have a wipe until we got to Prince, and his infernals spanked us thoroughly. So we went back tonight and pwned his face, then went and killed Netherspite. God, that fight is fun. Prince dropped his awesome bow, and I rolled 87......but the other hunter there rolled 99. So no bow for me, but it's okay. *grins* I'll be back. Ryxl has also gotten revered with Ogri-La and the Sha'tari Skyguard, and is a decent chunk of friendly with the Netherwing. I have so many daily quests available now I can afford to pick and choose them. And you better believe I'm going for that dragon! Ryxl's always been about proving her personal power by going against the best of the best, and about helping those who have no one else. Netherwing sorta combines those into one tasty package of win.

Oh, and if you've been clicking my eggs and hatchlings, you can see all my eggs, dragons, and hatchlings on my scroll here: http://dragcave.ath.cx/user/30969

Late-night egg thievery

2008-02-20T14:22:11Z

Right as I was going to bed, I saw that it was three minutes before 1am. So I put my glasses back on and refreshed the eggs until this one popped up...which was on my short list of 'eggs I'd like to snatch eventually'. So I snatched it. I think it's going to be a two-headed dragon, but I may be wrong. In any case, I'd only seen it once before. Midnight has a lot of rare-ish eggs, tho...saw two silvers, some mint, and a chicken. Anyway...

If it's a two-headed dragon, I'll name him (them?) Shen Ka.

Should hatch sometime today into a paper dragon. Now if I could figure out what to name it...