#137 Shared Topic: Confessions

This Blog Azeroth‘s topic comes from Wowsugar, with the question:

What is one thing, just one thing, you did that was pretty awful in Azeroth, that you wish you could get some kind of redemption or forgiveness for, or even just get off your chest?

I should preface this post with a picture of this bear.

 

 

Lets get the first one out of the way, It has been far too long since I did one of these Shared Topics, it was just that there was so much stuff to talk about the first month of the expansion.

As a raider, I have committed a bad stuff in my day. There was one run way back in the Ice Crown Citadel days, where I talked to King Varian Wrynn in the lobby at the beginning of the raid and I accidentally removed the Strength of Wrynn buff from the raid, leaving us to finish the raid without the 30% buff to our heath, healing, and damage.  It was amazing that I was able to stay in the raid.

Also whenever I gem my armor, I chose to buy the lesser gems instead of the epic gems. This was most dominant in the last raiding tier, unless I actually won the Queen’s Garnet from the RNG lotto that was the Crystalline Geode and Elementium-Coated Geode I would always buy the blue intellect gems, I could not justify paying more gold for the 10 extra points in intellect.

Although it was not because I had a lack of funds to afford those jewels, I just did not want to buy them and looking back on the recount charts, I don’t think many people noticed that I was using sub-par gems .

Those were my two biggest confessions because I did not wronged one person, but nine others people in the raid all trying to push the edge of raiding content. Hopefully I can repent for my mistakes in this expansion.

 

 

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#136 Teach a man to rant and you will find out why he won’t fish REDUX

One of the best things about having a blog that spent months talking about Mists of Pandaria before it was released, is that now I get to revisit those topics and talk about it from the other sides.

Today I get to revisit a topic of fishing and cooking dailies that I wrote in late May (Be MOP #71). Back then I wrote about how I did not like how the newest fishing and cooking quest giver was in the city and the rewards were not fit for the max level characters who were battling against the forces of Deathwing and his forces.

 

I just got back from killing ogres the Bastion of Twilight but I will gladly swim around the canals for crabs

 

After a month of playing the expansion, how does the new secondary profession  skills quests fair in the new expansion?

I like the new dailies in Mists of Pandaria, while there is not one fishing and cooking quest giver, instead the fishing and cooking has been spread out to act more of a faction grind. Those quests gave me two things that Catherine Leland and Robby Flay could not give me, importance and materials.

The Tiller quests gives me a quests to go out to the mountains and start killing Hozen to weed out the numbers and stealing back some stolen cooking tools, while the Anglers have you going out and grab some fish. These objectives may not seem that important to a champion of the Mantid and Sha, but at least it out us moving out of the city and fighting monsters that are our level.

 

So many farmed goats

 

These quests also gives you cooking and fishing materials as well.  The other major complaint that I had with the Cataclysm Dailies, is that the catch I would get when fishing were in the low-level waters and thus low-level fish were caught, it didn’t really help me when I needed fish from the new zones for the recipes.

In Mists not only is there the tiller’s farm that helps you gather cooking vegetables for the new cooking skill grind, but the Anglers have quests that will send you out to actually fish with dailies like Piranha! and Shocking! 

While I don’t mind fishing, I will not go out of my way to fish up anything for the cooking materials, I will always go the AH for that because I know there are people who actually go out and do that.

A good way around that is for the game developers to give me a quest, and in-game objective to get me to exercise the skill, give me the opportunity to level up and help me get some fish that I might use in raids, rep grinds, or reselling at the auction house.

Which they succeed in this expansion and I applaud them for these new dailies .

 

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#135 Mounts mounts mounts!

Oh boy, Oh Boy OH BOY! I may be a bit late to the party but I just got around to reading the 5.1 PTR Patch notes, and while I will save my thoughts on patch 5.1’s content once I am able to get my hands on it in the live servers, I do want to take some time to talk about an addition to the patch notes that caught my eye.

Blizzard has announced that they are adding another mount collecting achievement!

Previously I talked about one of the wish list in Mists of Pandaria was an extension of the Mountain of Mounts achievement, since we saw a new pet collecting achievement in Cataclysm and now my wish has been answered!

The next major patch, will introduce the achievement, We’re going to need More Saddles which will reward you the Jade Pandaren Kite mount if you collect 150 mounts.

 

I want it! I want it NOW!

Now I have a new goal of a hundred and fifty, and  with that comes the  itch for collecting mounts that I have not felt since Wrath of the Lich King. Now lets open up my mount journal to see what my mount number is.

 

Still no Headless Horseman mount

 

I have 132 mounts in my stable, with only 18 other mounts on my hunting list.

With only collecting two mounts so far in this expansion (Imperial Quilen Mount and the Ruby Panther mount) I am hoping that I can get the remaining mounts from this current expansion and the few that I missed in Cataclysm  without going back to the blasted Argent Tournament Grounds Dailies.

 

no, not again!

 

 

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#134 The Life Cycle of my Tailoring profession

I have two professions that I have kept on my mage ever since I started playing the game, Skinning and Tailoring.

While it may seem odd but I use skinning throughout the entire expansion to make a profit on the auction house, skinning is like my wing man helping me get gold and even giving me a nice critical chance boost in fights.

A fire mage’s best friend

For the tailoring profession, I have a bit of a different relationship. If skinning is my best friend that helps me throughout all of my life, Tailoring is my wife. With marriage it goes through some certain stages.

Tailoring and I first experience the Honeymoon phase, this happens at the beginning of the expansion with the added another level in all profession, I get to experience the journey of leveling to the max tailoring  all over again.

I would go out of my way to grind certain  reputations to get those really nice epic tailoring recipes.

And each day I would to go to the Valley of the Four Winds for our daily date in the Silk Fields.

We will always have that

Then we get to the next raiding tier, and then the relation reaches it’s next phase,  it’s not all lovey-dovey. The relationship starts to level out, becomes more routine.

I still give her Windwool cloth for the Imperial Silk cooldown, but the mystery of what’s the next thing to craft is gone.

It becomes increasingly difficult to get the most current recipes, going into the raids to kill a boss for the small chance to get a recipe and then fighting with the other tailors in the raid to win the loot.

Months of raiding and not ONE Lavaquake Legwraps!

Towards the last few months of the expansion I hardly visit tailoring anymore, aside from the leg enchants. Truth be told I start cheating on her with my cloth on her hot First Aid sister.

And I always feel guilty about it

Then the next expansion is announced and Tailoring and I go through marriage counselling and we patch everything up for the expansion swearing never to  that point again.

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#133 My History with Hallow’s End

Last week started my favorite holiday in World of Warcraft, the Hallow’s End holiday!

 

“Prepare yourselves, the bells have tolled! Shelter your weak, your young and your old! Each of you shall pay the final sum! CRY for mercy! THE RECKONING HAS COME!

 

The event holds a special place in my heart, it was the first world event that I properly experienced.

The first actual holiday was Brewfest but a the time, the computer I was playing it on was so terrible that it could not handle all the players in the one location outside of the city and I was too new to the game to understand what was happening.

When Hallow’s End event came around I was a bit more experienced in how WoW worked and I was able to utilized the game mechanics of tick or treating and the extinguishing of the town flames.

Every Hallow ends after that I made sure that I participated in Hallow’s End every way that I can, I visit every tick or treat pumpkin in every town , making sure that I got all of the achievements, and use the magic broom as my flying mount for the glorious two weeks.

 

I even partake in the cherish tradition of eating too much candy

 

It was the Headless horseman that was the first PvE boss I encountered at level 70.

I dinged 70 during the Hallow End event, I was able to buy 4 out of the 5 of the Epic PvP set (I played A LOT of Battlegrounds from 10-70) and I bought them for the sole purpose of being prepared for the fight.

 

 

I always make sure that I have the sound up so that I can listen to his wonderful rhythms in the dungeon AND when he attacks the towns

 

And starting in 2009, I also participated in another tradition, trying to get The Horseman’s Reins.

For everyone who were spoiled by Celestiral Steeds and the Big Love Rockets this was the first mount that could be used as BOTH a land mount and a flying mount.

This was during a time when flying mounts could only be used in areas that permitted in flying zones. This was an amazing mount and I set my eyes on it, and for the last four years I queued up for the Headless Horseman instance for every day for the off-chance to get that mount.

This is one of the few mounts that I want but don’t have, I don’t want much mounts…every since I collected most of them but I have a good feeling about finally getting the mount this year.

 

…I hope

 

 

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#132 Finally 90!

Last Wednesday night I finally reached level 90 on my mage. After four weeks of having the expansion being released I was able to level past the newest five levels.

hmmm…. writing it out makes it sound slightly less epic.

Finally I have the quests in The Shrine of Seven Stars!

I honestly thought that the city held no quests/adventures when I was there at level 89.

Finally I can open up the Tillers and Order of the Cloud Serpent reputations and set my sights on having getting the biggest farm in Pandaria and get my cloud serpent mount and all the other rewards from the reputation grinds.

Finally I will be able to partake in heroics and raids!

Oh wait….

And lastly, finally I am able to fly around Pandaria! Currently I am exploring the continent completing the Lore walker scroll Easter egg hunt AND fly around and complete the exploration achievement, because heaven knows I need more achievement points.

It’s not that I want to be the best, it’s making sure that nobody overthrows me

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#131 Shared Topic: The Rules of Me

This week Shared Topic comes from Mataoka with the question,

The Rules of Me: What are your personal rules you wish others would know about you?

I have always been a big follower of the rules, and throughout my adventures I have five major rules that I have developed in my adventures in Azeroth over the years.

I’ve waiting to use a Fairly Oddparents picture for quite a while now

• I will not gank

This rule comes from my early years on a PvP server, I will not attack a member of the Horde if they are in he middle of a fight of a NPC. If both of us are at full health and rested then it’s free game and if you are attacking another player of the Alliance then oh boy, the Time Lord’s Gloves are off!

• I will only skin animals that you killed only when it is clear you moved on.

This comes from my greed from the skinning profession and it stems from all the skinners stealing my monsters while I was busy with another beast. Once I know you looted the body and have no more interest in the corpse then I will steal the leather.

• I will be nice to you if you are nice to me

The classic Golden Rule this comes from the constant requests of Conjured Mana Cakes and portals, if you are nice in your request then there is a good chance that I will follow through.

But if you are rude to me in demanding a portal then I hold the right to create a portal to every city besides the one that you want.

• I will never buy weapons or gear on the Auction House

This is a from the knowledge that if I am patience enough in my raid group then the epic armor will be mine. It’s kind of like Field of Dreams

If you attend it, the epic loot will

• I value the journey over the destination

This one I follow when I go into a new zone, getting through all of the quests before getting completing the main story arc of the area and traveling to the next zone. I also use this rule to answer to all of my friends when they ask me why I am not level ninety yet.

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#130 Screenshots of Pandaria

My apologies to everyone today, this week’s work load decided to come out of the gate swinging  with the biggest requirements due this Monday and Tuesday.

So instead of a traditional blog post I am instead going to show some of my favorite screenshots I took while I was leveling in this expansion over the past three weeks.

I think Kun-Lai Summit takes the cake as my favorite zone int the expansion. The snow-covered mountains reminds me of the White Mountains in my home state

 

Another beautiful shot of the mountains in that zone

 

One of the best little things in this expansion is the random weather effects that moves around the continent

 

It’s not as beautiful as my other screenshots but I just wanted to point out that this was a nod to the Emerald City in the Wizard of Oz

 

I was really hoping to complete some quests in the Shado-Pan Monastery like we did in the Jade Temple.  I wanted to see more of the inside the buildings pre-sha.

 

I don’t if this was an accident or not, but this map looks like the monster “ALOT”

 

The comic about this monster can be found here.

 

See you guys next time

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#129 The Depressing Tone of Mists’ Dungeons

In my, still on going, quest to get to level 90 I decided to queue up for some dungeons to be a bit more efficient in getting EXP.

After completing the Jade Forest and the Shado-Pan Monastery instances I was starting to feel really sad, I was not getting the victorious feeling I was used to after each run.

These places in Pandaria use to be peaceful and then we caused the reawakening of the Sha with our war and here we are going back to these places to clean up our mess.

As a Political Science major I could draw so many similarities to the real world

But it was not why we were there that got to me, it was what the two major Shas said after we defeated them in the Jade Temple and in the Shado-Pan Monastery.

You cannot escape me. I am… in… every… breath… -Sha of Doubt

So long has violence lurks in your heart…I will return… -Sha of Violence

Those were the big bosses of the dungeons which we had to kill many of the civilians that were possessed by those negative emotions, not defeat with 1 hp, kill.

R.I.P Wise MariThanks to Wowpedia for the screenshot 

After all of that we do not get to kill the Sha they just retreat back where ever they came from. In fact they taunted us, saying that they would return from our future actions (actions like patch 5.1 for example).

I think that this is Blizzard’s answer to the player’s demand of having a dungeon or raid encounter where the player loses at the end of the encounter. If it is I hope they continue the theme of us ‘losing’ against the Sha throughout the rest of the expansion.

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#128 Who’s going to PAX East?

Monday afternoon I felt a great disturbance in the force as if thousands of geeks all reached into their wallets and suddenly threw their money towards Boston.

A quick check on my Twitter feed confirmed that the people at Penny Arcade have started selling tickets for their PAX East 2013 convention!

 

Within the hour I was able to snagged a three-day pass to the event.

 

For those who don’t know, PAX East is a three-day convention that takes place in Boston and is dedicated to video games, the production of a game, the ideas of video game play, and everything you could possibly think of.

 

Quick to the PAXmobile!

 

I know it’s a bit early but I’m wondering who else is going to PAX EAST 2013, leave a comment and we could start a blogger meetup. Until then I’ll be counting down the days till March 22.

 

Dressing up as Link and rocking out is not normal, but on PAX it is.

 If you want to grab your tickets you can buy them at http://east.paxsite.com/

 

 

In other non-WoW news, the people at Humble Bundle are selling a Science Fiction eBook humble that can be easily ported to many eReader, as usual you can send your money to charity or to the authors.

 

 

The link to site is: http://www.humblebundle.com/

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Be MOP focuses on the Mists of Pandaria expansion of World of Warcraft with my own reflections about the current news and developments that happens throughout the game’s life cycle. Updates Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays