Feels good, man!

Now I need to figure out what to do next!

In other news, I did Vortex Pinnacle. Guess what? I got to TRAP. My only issue is that I’m still sort of trying to figure out Trap Launcher. I seem to I run into weird LOS issues when I least expect it, thus, I fail at it more than I figured I would. You see, I come from the old school of chain trapping and I’m used to, you know, pulling the mob to me. Which I actually had to do a few times when improvising in Vortex Pinnacle today, which sort of made me feel all warm and fuzzy all over. Still, “Figure out Trap Launcher” is at the top of my To Do List.

That’s Magmadar. Yes, as in that Magmadar.

Solo-tamed him. And yes, I know, he turns into just your average core hound pet once the tame is complete, but there’s something awesome about knowing what he used to be:

A 40-man raid boss.

Can you get much cooler?

…what’s that you say? Taming druids would be cooler?

Way ahead of ya:

Did I mention I’m running Karazhan once a week now? The necklace I’ve wanted from Attumen since Burning Crusade has yet to drop. This and other earth-shattering announcements at eleven.

Cataclysm is really shaping up to be exceeding my expectations. Just playing alts is keeping me more than occupied. I haven’t felt this way since I started playing in ’07. It’s really great.

Both of my high-level hunters are now 81. One is in Hyjal and one is in Vash’jir. I’m keeping them fairly even level-wise and having a lot of fun with it. I did… Blackrock Caverns, I think it’s called? Man. I’m still not sure if I hated or loved that dungeon. It’s sort of a weird mix of both. I hated it because it took about two hours in my PuG group and we wiped more than I have wiped in months. I loved it because the boss mechanics and strats were actually interesting. One of them had beams that you’re supposed to stand in. “Oh, like Netherspite in Kara?” I asked. “Yep,” was the reply. It made me happy. Someone else who had done Kara. Because everyone should do Kara. <3

Speaking of Kara, did you know that Attumen is solo'able by a level 80 resto druid, if you have twenty minutes and a lot of patience?

Now you know!

You can boomkin through the trash with ease, but when you’re tanking both Attumen and Midnight separately at the beginning of the encounter you just end up taking too much damage. Never fear, Tree Tank is here! Waiting around for Innervates was the most time-consuming part.

As always, he failed to drop my necklace, which I will never ever see.

Afterward I switched back to boomkin, charged into that room full of trash and popped Barkskin, Starfall, and Hurricane, and died in a beautiful blaze of glory.

…and speaking of boomkins…

A few months back when I mentioned that I didn’t think I would have money for Cataclysm, you guys really responded. So much, in fact, that not only could I afford Cataclysm, but I could also afford to buy WoW cards for my younger sisters (their accounts were long since canceled due to lack of funds) and also get them Wrath of the Lich King (they were still back in BC-land) and Moonkin Hatchlings. They’re really excited to be back, and the first thing we did was organize a Moonkin Family Reunion, complete with pet biscuits.

The second thing we did was get onto the boat to go to Borean Tundra. Or, we would have, if the boat didn’t glitch and strand a poor level 70, without Cataclysm, in Vashj’ir. Yeah I can’t put my finger on that one either…

Fortunately I went and rescued her. She promptly set her hearthstone to that boat as a joke, which made me panic until she pointed out that she can teleport to Moonglade. Ohhh yeah, I forgot druids could do that.

tl;dr: Alts are fun, dungeons are fun-strating (my new portmanteau of fun and frustrating), Karazhan is still the best raid and boats are glitchy.

(Photo courtesy http://vladislausdantes.deviantart.com/ )

And this is why we should be able to wear both at the same time.

Sincerely, Pike

As usual I have the best readers. I mention offhandedly in a post that I can’t afford Cataclysm and the next thing I know I have enough money to cover it a few times over. So at this point, not only can I snag Cata and some WoW cards, but I can buy WoW time for my younger siblings, too, as their Christmas present. Awesome! <3

So the world went kablooey the other day, as I'm sure we're all aware. I haven't had much of a chance to survey all the damage yet but I did run around and snag a bunch of new pets in an effort to stave off my gnawing desire to roll and level a gnome priest as my way to see the world (I want to give it a few days until the starting areas are a little less congested).

But hey, Fox Mulder is already level 80!

Now taking suggestions on what I should tame for a Scully.

So I was feeling pretty happy about hitting 20k words (exactly!) in my NaNoWriMo today so I decided to dink around in WoW for an hour or two.

The first cool thing that happened was getting WSG for my random battleground, seeing that our ragtag group of team members was up against a pre-made, deciding to stick around anyway… aaaand then notching up a win. Against the pre-made. I giggled.

The second cool thing that happened was that I decided to clear out my quest log before Cataclysm so I was doing this random quest down in Howling Fjord and I happened to stumble upon this huge gigantic elite polar bear as part of the quest. So obviously I tamed him.

So there I was, doing pretty good for a random WoW break, so I hopped onto my Netherdrake and sort of aimlessly started to fly around in a general Northerly direction. I had the music on (which is rare) and it was nice and calm and atmospheric and I was kind of thinking about the good times I’d enjoyed with this expansion and how it was almost over.

And this is when the third cool thing happened. See, I somehow wound up in Zul’drak during this little jaunt, and a little voice popped into my brain. The little voice said, “Hey, isn’t there a spirit beast around here or something?”

And I said, “Hey, I think there is! Let’s turn on Track Beasts for the heck of it.”

So I turned on Track Beasts.

And the second I did, this little yellow dot appeared on my minimap.

I moused over it and it said “Gondria”.

>.>

…

This is, believe it or not, my very first Spirit Beast. I know Gondria is sort of seen as the Poor Man’s Loque, but I’m already in love with my Shiny Ghost Kitty who, because of his heal, has already proven himself to live through things that would have killed any of my other pets. (Read: the last boss in Gundrak who does that thing, I’m not sure what it is, that KILLS PETS DEAD.)

I had to release my newly-tamed polar bear to get Gondria. But don’t worry. I went back and got the same bear again afterwards. :3

Over the last three and a half years I have sent three hunters and two druids through this portal but this is my first warlock.

Obviously the ceremonial screenshot had to happen.

I love how Tawbree is as big as Lil’ XT.

Now my favorite part about going through the Dark Portal is the hugely scary Pit Commander on the other side, because it makes me stop and go “whoa” every time. So I charged in, eager to be reunited with my big scary friend again, aaaaand he was dead. Guess that says something about the state of the Outlands these days. Good times…

As we are all aware, the best part of the new patch for hunters is being able to tame about a million more pets. Hunters have collectively been dreaming of this day since the stable could only hold three pets, and now it is finally ours.

…granted, even though I have multiple hunters, two of which are at max level and one of which is relatively close to it, I’ve only tamed three new pets so far. Hey, you’ve gotta spread out the goodness.

Tawyn went out and tamed the devilsaur in Netherstorm and named him Roxton (Cookie Points– much better than Brownie Points– for anyone who gets the name before seeing this link.)

Meanwhile, Lunapike went and got herself a corehound. Specifically, the one from the draenei starting area. I heard some rumor somewhere that Horde wouldn’t be able to tame it anymore once the world changes due to the boat being replaced with an Alliance-only flight point or something, and while I don’t know if the rumor is true (you’d think that would throw a wrench in the Explorer achievement, afterall), I wanted to cover all my bases just in case.

So this is Tock. He is a Watch Dog. (Raise your hand if you read The Phantom Tollbooth when you were a kid.)

Finally, Lunapike’s also tamed a raptor. For starters, raptors are basically my favorite pet family EVAR. Secondly, it had to be done in response to Krizzly’s Mudkip:

u mad?

I was really casual about it. Did the easy quests when I remembered and didn’t stress if I skipped a day or two. (Or three, or four.)

But it turned out to be a really enjoyable little grind. I would not have wished doing it at 70 upon anyone, though. I mean, all those elites running around and everything, yipes.

But yeah, logged on every morning (I’ve been working evenings), did a few quests, and here we are less than a month later.

Shiny!

Hey guys remember the Netherwing questline and how it was super hardcore back in the day to have one of those netherdrakes?

…so yeah, I never did it. I dunno, just wasn’t my style. I know it was the hip thing to do back in Burning Crusade, but I just never got around to it.

So anyway, the other week I randomly decided, you know what, let’s do that Netherwing quest chain. I mean, at the end you get what I like to call an aetherdragon mount. (Fact: Attaching the word “aether” to any other word as a prefix instantly makes said word several more levels of awesome than it already is.)

Furthermore, I’ve decided to do it on my Hordie rather than on my main. I’m not exactly sure why. Maybe it’s because I hate myself, because it’s on a PvP server and all. Or maybe it’s because I already like my mounts on Tawyn. Who knows. Sometimes I just get the urge to do things on a different character. My Hordie is, after all, also the only one of my toons with the talbuk mounts and the Diplomat title, and I have no intention of ever repeating either of those feats on my main (partially because I think it’s out of character and partially because the grinds suck).

Anyways, I’m at the point now where I’m logging on, doing a few quick Netherwing dailies while in queue for a random, doing the random, and then calling it good for the day. I’m taking it nice and easy and I’m not spending hours hunting around for eggs or anything, so this will probably take a while. Honestly, if I have the drake by the time Cataclysm comes out, I will be utterly shocked.

Oh well! I’m in no rush.

In related news, doing the Netherwing dailies gives you a spiffy male Fel Orc costume, even if you are a female, and I have discovered that using the Darkspear Pride item here will turn you into a male troll. I love crazy gender-bending tricks like that.

Speaking of Cataclysm, I’m rather apathetic about it. Not in a emo/ragequit/etc. way, but more in a “Well Cataclysm probably isn’t gonna affect my silly Netherwing grind or my newfound addiction to battlegrounds as a gnome rogue, so I’ll take it or leave it” way. That’s not to say I won’t go nuts rolling ten thousand goblins when the game comes out, but you know.

Though now that I mention it, reserving a copy would probably be a smart idea…

(Edit: Just occurred to me: flying around Orgrimmar on a netherdrake is gonna be boss)