Project Infiltration: Elwynn Forest

Note on June 29: I wrote this over a month ago, and kept forgetting to send myself the screenshots for it. THAT is how bad my memory is. /shame

Hunter: Kresha
Level: 10
Destination: Elwynn Forest
Route Taken: The zepplin outside Orgrimmar to Grom'gol Base Camp in Stranglethorn Vale, north into Duskwood, then ran north across the river to the Spirit Healer at Eastvale Mining Camp. I did this as a ghost (see below).
Alternative Route: From Grom'gol Base Camp, head to the coast and swim north to Westfall. Come on shore then and run north along the edges of the zone. Where the two rivers meet, cross into Elwynn Forest. This is the easier route.
Dangers: If you're doing it the old-fashioned way, expect to die a lot by mobs and Alliance NPCs in both Stranglethorn Vale and Duskwood. The zones are crawling with them, and both are high enough level that sticking to the roads won't help (especially with pats in Duskwood). Also, without Track Undead, it'd be pretty hard to avoid the mobs in Duskwood anyway.
Difficulty level: Medium. You'll probably die in Strangethorn Vale and Duskwood, but you can make it through Westfall pretty easily at this level, if you run like heck.

Testing out a tip from a nice person in the trade chat (this tip is also confirmed at Mania's Arcania), I didn't bother rezzing after getting rapidly murdered by a raptor right outside Grom'gol. Instead, I ran straight through to Eastvale Mining Camp, logged out, logged back in, and rezzed. The bug still works! It felt a bit like cheating though.

The Eastvale NPCs are mostly level 10 or lower, and the area is a very long run from Stormwind and is thus not very heavily populated with any high-level players (at least, not on the four servers I've visited Eastvale on). You might run into a few lowbie players — Kresha got her very first honor point after a level 8 priest tried to take her on — but unless they call for backup, you should be fine. Just make sure your Track Humanoids is on, and you can avoid both NPCs and players fairly easily.

You don't get resurrection sickness at this low of a level, so you'll be fine if you want to die in STV and rez in Elwynn.



If you choose not to ghost run the shortest route, then for a much easier time you could try swimming from outside of Grom'gol Base Camp up to Westfall, then heading through that zone to Elwynn. If you avoid the roads, you'll be fine. You may still aggro some murlocs or crocolisks offshore in Stranglethorn, but you can outrun most of the mobs in Westfall before they kill you. Just bring bandages or health potions.

Eastvale's still a good bet, though. Most of the mobs and other players are lower level than you and it's a ways from Stormwind, so once you've tamed your pet, what better way to try him out than to kill Eastvale mobs until some level ?? Alliance folks come and camp you for 30 minutes, until you have to hide behind a tree and pray they don't find you before you hearth?



This hunter was pretty cool; after I died a couple of times, I emoted my defeat and was left alone. A night elf warrior came around a little later, though, and did a lot of /spitting and "teabagging" and chasing me until I finally managed to hide'n'hearth.

Blogroll

I have a blogroll now. 'Bout time.

Those are the blogs I regularly or occasionally read at work, and thus have subscribed to in my Google Reader or bookmarked (a couple are on hiatus right now, but I'm hoping they will start not being on hiatus soon). I have others bookmarked at home, but I'm a loser and have not matched them up. There wasn't a sentence here.

I debated a "Resources" list. There are a lot of sites I spend hours on regularly (from Petopia and WoWWiki to the cesspit that is the official forums — just kidding, forums, I love you!), but everyone pretty much knows where they are and it's not like this is a blog like BRK or Hunter's Mark that focuses a lot on class mechanics and theorycrafting and stuff. So for now, no resources.

Do I really need to explain a blogroll? Geez, I'll talk needlessly about anything. *wanders off*

Captured Spirit of Summer: 350 Burning Blossoms

Embarrassing whispers from random players: Priceless.

Ahami got her Spirit of Summer last night, finally. And I was so excited, I took this screenshot to share, after several tries getting the thing positioned so it wasn't floating right where she was standing:



In fact, I was a little annoyed that it kept standing where Ahami was, but I was excited. I had a Spirit of Summer! At level 18! (And, subsequently, almost every Horde flightpath in all of Azeroth.)

Until I got a whisper from someone: "Um... did you know your privates are glowing?"

It doesn't look like it in the screenshot, because it was actually a little downhill from her there, but the thing floats just barely under crotch level and has a tendency to do this right between Ahami's legs. Which means I cannot have it out without embarrassing myself. Should have taken the fancy duds instead.

Oh well. Once I get my talbuk (taaaaaalllllbuuuuuk ... I seriously cannot see that word without saying it like that anymore, which means my roommates are giving me odd looks every time I log onto Ideale and run around Nagrand), I'll head back to Zangarmarsh and kill Bogflare Needlers for 298739 years until I get a firefly. That'll probably be crotch-level for Ahami also, but at least she won't look like she has magical lady bits.

EDIT: This seems, at least for Ahami, to be a sometimes issue. Occasionally I'll pull it out and it's knee-level, and occasionally it's a bit higher. :-/ Not sure I want to be checking every time I take it out, though.

I ramble a LOT

Not that everyone isn't already talking about this, but pets may be getting talent trees in Wrath of the Lich King!

Now PUGs won't act like I'm weird when I'm all, "Hang on, I have to switch cats." TAKE THAT, PUGS!

(Seriously, the way I have them trained, Cinnamon is very good for leveling and some instances and Saffron is very good for PVP and Hellfire Ramparts 'cause of the dragon fire, and every time I go to switch out cats, if there are people in the group who I have not grouped with before, party chat is all full of "Wait, you have two cats? LOLOLOL.")

In other news, I wrote an in-game message to a recruiter for a guild I applied to and never heard back from, asking for advice on how to improve. And then I freaked out and logged off the second after I sent it and have nothing to do, because I'm ignoring a guy on Ahami who was nice at first and then got all creepy and ERP-y but he helped me get some Burning Blossoms so I feel obligated to say hi. So now whenever I log on, if he's on, I log off really fast.

Yes, I am a total chicken.

And I want a cobalt talbuk, but don't know the names of any blue spices. Yarrow is kind of a silvery blue-green color. Do you think that's stretching it, or do I need to look at other talbuk colors? It's definitely not cobalt. Google claims Vervain is a "blue spice" but I don't know if I like that.

SO BORED. I could probably play on another alt, but I'm waiting on a ride to a barbecue, so I wanted to just go kill ogres for rep or get situated for my next Blossom run or something quick that I won't mind abandoning in the middle.

EDIT: Basil maybe. There's blue basil! I like Basil for a talbuk name, I think. Although how funny would it be to name a pet Salvia? Do you think that would get a tell from a GM, or would no one even notice because it's so obscure/still legal in many states? And is it really blue, or was it just in a blue jar!? I need to go think about this now.

EDIT II: Rogues will be able to sap beasts!? NOOOOO. Seriously, my only pleasure when a rogue stunlocks me is watching my pet bring their health down quite a bit before they kill me. Ha, made you waste a bandage, rogue!

EDIT III: "Will pet skill points disappear with pet talent trees? It's a total rewrite of the Hunter pet system. No more skill points, only pet talents now."

But... but... prowl! No! I'm all for doing away with training crap like stamina — let hunters train pets in trees for DPS and stuff — but it sounds like this will do away completely with family-specific abilities. While it'd make some pets (spiders, sporebats, etc.) work better, it would also make things kind of boring, I think. Hmm. Maybe I'm misreading this. *will wait for Mania to talk about changes before assuming*

Okay, I'm going to go water my plants or something before this becomes a really badly written novel.

Taaaaaallllllbuuuuuuuk

I am now honored with the Mag'har, and I have only just started doing quests for them — aside from the wanted posters and two other quests (because they were finished in the process of doing the wanted posters), all I've been doing is killing ogres and stealing their beads.

Taaaaaallllllbuuuuuuuk, I am coming for yooooooooooooouuuuuuu! (I am such a dork. But I am not leaving Nagrand without a talbuk, even if I have to grind my way to 70 doing it. I'm already halfway through 66.)

This is my way of hiding the fact that I have nothing else of substance to post about this game. *gasp*

Almost there!

Twenty-five blossoms to go and then Ahami gets her summer blob thing.

The Eastern Kingdoms are much more difficult than Kalimdor. Many of the graveyards are quite far from the bonfires and many of the zones have only one, meaning that strategy has gone from "Ghost run to spirit healer, log, log back in, rez, douse flame, let someone kill me, ghost run to next target ..." to "Ghost run to spirit healer, log, log back in, rez, die, run two feet closer to flame, rez, die, repeat 798368057328 times."

BUT! If I can get the Blasted Lands and the Hinterlands taken care of, I will have my blob at level 18. And, aside from two green quests completed in the Barrens at 15 or 16, Ahami has gone from level 14 to level 18 entirely on discovery and the Festival. And might get very close to 19 in the process of getting my last 25 blossoms.

The key, if you are doing this on a low-level character, is patience and persistence. Face the fact that you're going to spend 90 percent of the time dead or running away going, "No, no, no, no, I don't wanna die, no!" Face the fact that in Desolace, that stupid scorpid is going to kill you three times just half a second before you click "Complete Quest" and you are going to have to run from the kodo graveyard again (did you know that there are spirit kodos that roam the graveyard?). Face the fact that in the Burning Steppes, you are going to think you're clear, then get totally swarmed by dragonkin five feet from the Alliance fire. Face the fact that in Booty Bay, you are going to get killed 37983 by Alliance folks and Bloodsail Buccaneers. It's just going to happen.

But it's kind of fun anyway. And totally doable.

EDIT: And this page is the most helpful thing EVER.

Whoa

What's with the Official Web Site splash page? I really hope it's not a hint that the expansion is coming soon. I want one 70 before the expansion. Just one, Blizz!

But it is really cool looking, whatever it means.

I am so evil

Random guy in Crossroads runs up to me and says "u! u! hey u!"

So I say, "Yes?"

"should i be a rogue or a hunter? which ones cooler?"

Um, okay. So I inspect the current toon, a level 18 rogue, who is geared almost entirely in greys or inappropriate gear, some of it cloth.

Now, I could have been nice. Usually, in cases like this, I am. I point people to blogs and to WoWWiki and Curse and all kinds of other handy sites. I mean, I'm not an expert in the game at all, but I read a LOT and figure I can pass that on. And I do know the basic stats to be looked at for most of the classes I've tried, so I could have at least suggested leather gear and some +agi stuff to this guy.

However, I have had a horrible week. I live in a valley that is smack dab in between something like hundreds of grass fires and wild fires right now (I'm not exaggerating, I'm in California), so I have not seen the sun for a week through all of the smoke, and going outside makes my throat and eyes hurt horribly. To make matters worse, our air conditioner went out on Saturday and was not fixed until about 7 hours ago, meaning that we had to choose between letting the smoke into the apartment, or dying of suffocation in 100-105 degree heat. Since we chose smokey oxygen over death, my little cat, who has asthma, has had several attacks, including one of the worst ones she's ever had about 15 minutes ago (note to myself to call the vet tomorrow about this).

In short, I was not in the mood to play guide. I also hate people who cannot use punctuation or who refuse to type out "you" instead of "u."

So what did I do?

"You should totally be a rogue. They're way cooler. Stealth! Hunters can't stealth!"

"there stronger right?"

"Yep, totally. Definitely go with rogue."

"okay i will thx"

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

I'm kind of a bad person today. :-(

If I were a warrior, my rage bar would be full right now

You want to know something I really, really hate?

Girls who roll on a PVP server and then cry that they're delicate flowers and why would you gank them, boohoo, when they get ganked.

Seriously, I get ganked CONSTANTLY. But do I go on the forums and get all weepy, "Oh Alliance, I am just a poor, pathetic girl who can't play games and please don't hurt me! My low self-esteem caused by society's view of women makes me think you hate me!"?

No.

I remind myself that: a.) OMG, PVP happened on a PVP server! and b.) I have successfully defended myself against Alliance in the past, and I have, in fact, ganked Alliance in the past. What goes around comes around. And I happen to know that this person does gank Horde, having been on the receiving end of her daggers two or three times myself. If you can't take it, don't dish it out.

So if you are a girl on a PVP server and you don't like getting ganked? Switch to PVE and stop whining in the forums and making the rest of us look bad. All you are doing is reinforcing stereotypes.

And seriously, if you think getting ganked by someone in a game means that everyone hates you, you have bigger issues.

EDIT: And yes, I'm pretty sure ganking was what caused this forum post, since I heard rumors that she was a "bounty target" recently for ganking and camping Horde. This almost makes me want to throw up some gold and make her a "bounty target" for embarrassing all women everywhere. But I'm too big a cheapskate. Maybe.

My cat is weird

My cat (the real one, not the virtual one) really likes wet cat food gravy poured over dry cat food. She licks the gravy off the wet food and leaves it, but eats the dry food underneath. And then there are these gross wet food chunks that I eventually have to throw out, because if I don't, my other cat comes in and tries to bury them even though there is absolutely no dirt in my bathroom (where their food is, so that they don't get gravy on the carpet and so I don't step in their food and/or water and slip and fall and have horrible bruises from hitting the counter while trying to make toast in the kitchen).

I thought maybe Ideale's cats were like that too. I finally learned that there is actual FOOD FOR PETS (!) and made a bunch of Sporeling Snacks, and then Cinnamon wouldn't eat them. So I tried with Saff, and no dice. I kept trying to feed them the snacks, and they were like, "No, we don't like that food" (but in cat).

So I hit up Google to see if there were other foods and then went to the Auction House and got some Kibler's Bits, and they didn't like THAT, either. And there isn't any virtual gravy to pour over them, so I was kind of pissed off that I'd wasted time and money learning the Sporeling Snack recipe and making food and buying food that my cats didn't even like when I could have been getting ganked by random Alliance rogues who suddenly feel the need to gank me now that I'm high enough in level that they get honor from it.

Then I figured it out by accident. Turns out, you just right-click the snacks, you don't actually use the "Feed Pet" skill. That's kind of confusing and stupid, Blizz. My cats DO like Sporeling Snacks and WoW is a big fat liar.

Still so bored. Three minutes of work to go.

Someday

I will finish the remaining PI drafts and maybe even get a page together with links to all of them and to other relevant resources like Mania's starter pet reviews. And also learn how to spell "relevant" — thank you, Safari's built-in spellcheck.

However, because I keep forgetting to e-mail myself screenshots (and at least one of the remaining write-ups actually needs it), I can't.

So instead, I'm playing "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" in my head. Oh god I'm so bored.

A note for those new to rep grinding

As I am.

Check WoWWiki for tips when starting a reputation grind. For example, when grinding rep for the Cenarion Expedition or Sporregor, there are a handful of turn-in quests that only last until Friendly or Honored Status. The quests that grant reputation should be saved for after reaching Honored. I did not know this because I did not check WoWWiki, which means that I am going to have a long grind of running instances later on to reach Exalted.

Also, sometimes there are quests outside a zone that grant rep. There is a questline in Hellfire Peninsula that grants Mag'har rep, for example. I found this out through WoWWiki and went back and did it (it was one of the two I'd skipped to get out of HP), and it took me from Unfriendly to something like halfway through Neutral in about 15 minutes.

So now I will be checking every time.

The real reason I don't play Alliance

1. I do not want to play a human in a game. I am a human in real life. This is not FANTASTICAL enough.

2. I do not want to be short in a game. I am short in real life. This, also, is not FANTASTICAL enough. This is also, sadly, why my dwarf hunter has made it to level two. I ran into a female dwarf on Tshaya and was like, "OMG, they're really that short!?" So now she sits at level two, all sad and lonely and catless.

3. I've only twice ever managed to create a night elf whose hair did not clash horribly with her skin (Dihas and Dayea ... and I deleted and rerolled both several times when they looked different in game than on the log-in screen). I am obsessive compulsive about colors not clashing. They must be either complimentary, or be so wildly different that they work (i.e., hot pink hair and blue skin, a la Daj), dammit. Thus, no night elves.

4. Thus, I have four draenei alts, and they are the only Alliance characters I play. But I cannot make any new draenei, because I have completely exhausted all of the non-ridiculous hairstyles and I cannot repeat previously used hairstyles.

There are other reasons I don't care much for Alliance-side, too, but it's mostly visual. If I'm going to spend hours of my life looking at a toon, I'm going to be superficial.

I overuse the word "thus" sometimes.

On tipping

Okay, I have a question. As I start collecting actual PVP gear, I have a list of what I need to do, enchant/armor kit/gem/etc.-wise. There are plenty of guide for this out there, so I've got that covered, I think.

My question is, if I get all the mats together and find an enchanter or whoever to do the work, what is an appropriate tip? I don't want to undertip someone, but I don't want to grossly overtip, either — at least, not until I've had the chance to build up my bank account.

So what's an appropriate tip for Boar's Speed or for a gem cut or etc. at level 70?

I'll probably post this in the forums, too, but they're down right now.

My middle name is "Danger"

I hit the battlegrounds with Ideale yesterday, for the first time since 60, and had a bizarre moment.

I entered Arathi Basin about a quarter of the way into a match, and since the Alliance was bumrushing each of the four nodes we held, I ended up (with two other late-starts) running around to boost defense, and ended up topping the damage charts and NOT DYING for much of the next two quarters (up 'til we had about 1500 resources). This was odd enough, since I'm lower level and my team was, frankly, awesome, particularly the healers. The mine got hit by 6-7 Alliance at one point with two defenders, and they defended and recapped before the runners even got there.

But apparently, this fluke-by-role (because someone running about pewpewing is obviously going to be higher than a stationary defender) marked me as enemy number one to the Alliance side, because from that point on, the second I got within range of the Alliance, I had at least four people on me. I got sheeped, sapped, and firebombed and stabbed to death more times than I can count in the last few minutes of that match. And then the next round, where many of the people were the same, the same thing happened.

It was kind of a nice feeling: "The Alliance thinks I'm dangerous? SWEET."

And then I switched to Eye of the Storm and went back to being just another Hordie.

(Of course, there's always the chance that the Alliance realized I was only level 64 and decided I was an easy target, too, but I like feeling dangerous, so I'm going to assume the other one.)

Happy Midsummer!

It is entirely possible for a level 15 shaman to honor all of the Horde flames and desecrate all of the Alliance flames on Kalimdor, and to ding 16 while doing so.

Ahami is taking her shamanism quite seriously. And is now halfway to a Captured Spirit of Summer.

EDIT: So far, the only place I had trouble was Feathermoon Stronghold, where the graveyard is across town from the bonfire. I haven't done the Eastern Kingdoms yet, though. It did involve quite a lot of corpse-running and the logout graveyard trick, too.

Ahami also now has flight paths for places Ideale's never been.

Hunter vs. Shaman side note

I actually found the Game Dame blog with this entry, because I was searching for other hunter vs. shaman comparisons. I haven't played anywhere near two years yet (barely six months, in fact — I just read a LOT of blogs in my work downtime), and I'm looking from the other side, but I think I agree with most of her assessments here (although I do think that shamans are fairly complicated, too, until you get the hang of all the totems — did you know that earthbind totem can aggro the Moongraze Stags and Bucks on Azuremyst?).

I'm curious to see what the comparisons are as Ahami gets to the 20s and 30s, though.

WOW and player gender

I'm always a little surprised when I see marketing analyses or research studies about girls and gaming. I know intellectually that most MMO players tend to be male (and, in fact, have been on the receiving end of both "Girls don't play WoW" and homophobic name calling, both in game and actually on this blog — which shocked me because you'd think those kind of people wouldn't have found it yet, being new and all — presumably because I said something girly?). But I tend to assume that most people play toons who reflect their genders, and thus assume also that WOW is split about 50-50. And, since the vast majority of the gamers I know, both casual and hardcore, are female ... well, it's easy to assume, I guess.

This isn't helped by the fact that many of the bloggers I read are also female, thus reinforcing that assumption.

But I was cruising about on the Internet looking for info, and did my link-hopping thing, and got to this entry on the Game Dame: What's the Real Life Gender Breakdown on WoW?

So now I'm curious. Based on studies and stuff, I think the estimates in the comments of around 20-25 percent are probably pretty accurate. I assume that many girls on more hardcore servers keep their mouths shut about it (while I'm quite open about being female on VeCo when the topic comes up over and over and over and over in Barrens chat, I would never have admitted it on Laughing Skull). After reading stuff like this, I wouldn't blame them.

Is there anything out there that has a more accurate breakdown of the gender gap on WoW? I'd be curious to know if the 5 percent figure Blizzard allegedly accepts is accurate or not.

Nagrand and talbuks

I've read on several blogs that Nagrand is one of the prettiest places in WOW, so since I was just a hop up the road in Zangarmarsh last night and didn't have time to get another quest in before bed, I figured I'd run over, look around, and pick up the flight path.

It really is gorgeous. Not the stark beauty of Thousand Needles or Winterspring, but it is a soft, peaceful kind of place. And talbuks are absolutely adorable. I made a (thankfully unwatched) fool of myself running and spinning around with a little herd right after I got into the zone (and didn't aggro anything in the process!). For, like, 20 minutes. (I did this with the turtles in Hillsbrad, too, and would have with the moths in Azuremyst if draenei spun around when they jumped. I like cute animals way too much.)

It was a bit of a scare when everyone in the Horde outpost was an almost-red, until I figured out they were Unfriendly, not Hostile.

Before I flew back, though, I saw that the Horde controlled Halaa, so I thought I'd better run in and check it out while I could — I don't know how often it's under Alliance control or when. I peeked around, looked in the buildings, checked out the stuff at the quartermaster, and — wait, dark riding talbuk? Those cute things I was squeeing over!? I CAN RIDE ONE!?

So now I can keep my battleground marks (and my gold) a little longer, because I am holding out for a talbuk. WANT.

Shamans vs. hunters

Among my alt army, I have three itty shamans, my second favorite class despite the fact that my highest shaman ever reached 21 before the Great PVP Reroll of late March/early April. Ahami, my troll, is slowly working her way back up there, but I got distracted by leveling jewelcrafting on Kresha when I logged onto her to get Ahami something (can't even remember what now), so she's sitting a bar or two from 14.

But having leveled three (almost four) shamans to 10 (I have a retired shaman sitting on Laughing Skull still) and two higher, I've got the early levels down.

Honestly, hunters are very uneven pre-10. Depending on your kiting skills, they can be downright hard, at least until you get concussive shot. You don't have traps, you don't have wingclip, all you have is the ability to run away or do a quick back-out-of-range-arcane-shot. Some levels are easy; some are not. Levels 1-3 and 8-10 are a breeze, but the levels in between, at least for me, are full of frantic prayers that I just don't die for one more Raptor Strike. (I hardly ever die before level 10 anymore, but my health does get dangerously low quite often as a hunter).

Having visited each starting area but Dun Morogh and Elwynn Forest an average of 4-5 times now, there are certain quests I simply will not try as a pre-pet hunter. The quest in Teldrassil where you head into a cave full of sprites, for example? That's out, as is Zalazane in Durotar (those voodoo trolls just repop too fast and get behind you, then mob you ... maybe I just really suck at lowbie hunters).

After 10, playing a hunter is a breeze, at least for a few levels. I won't say it's "easy mode" at all; one of the reason the class holds my interest while many others do not is that it is a complicated class to play well. But leveling does seem to go quicker and fights do seem much less like nail-biting, edge of my seat experiences.

Shamans are much more even. As a hunter, sometimes you can solo a red mob and sometimes it kills you and your pet deader than dead. As a shaman (and this might be different for more skilled shamans than I am, and is almost certainly different for higher-level shamans with chain spells), being able to handle two mobs your level, but no more, or a mob two or maybe three levels higher, but no more, is pretty consistent through the early levels. There aren't level ranges that are way easier or way harder than others.

Playing a shaman appeals to me for many of the same reasons playing a hunter does. It can be a ranged class as well as a melee class; I grouped with two other players for the Durotar harpy quest and ended up buffing with totems, healing, and hitting Earth Shock and Lightning Bolt for two-thirds of the time (and meleeing for the rest). I like range.

Totems are a little like pets — at least, the fire totems are. They help you fight! I like help.

It's easier to stay alive — if I get in a tight spot I drop an Earthbind totem, run away a few yards, and have time to heal before reengaging.

Oh, and I love healing and being able to resurrect people other than my cat (this is why shamans beat out rogues for me; shooting lightning and healing people trumps being practically invisible and picking locks). If hunters could heal, I'd never bother with another class, but my little future resto shamans are the next best thing.

The only thing I dislike about shamans is that they are not nearly so fun to solo. With hunters, you have your pet running alongside you, keeping you company, so you don't ever really feel like you're alone, even when you're soloing and none of your friends are on. Your pet is your partner and the buddy you can always count on getting a group with. All you have to do is feed him and keep him from dying.

Shamans are lonely to play. All of my buddies on The Venture Co. have either mains or alts in the same level range as Ide' (60-70) and, as far as I know, aren't real interested in seriously leveling another toon yet, or aren't on much in the early afternoon when I'm working on Ahami (I usually put in an hour or so before I go to work). I don't know anyone on Ravenholdt well enough yet — I mostly play over there when I'm feeling anti-social, since I'm actually kind of shy and I'm still feeling out the realm. And this makes me sad, because I want a buddy to run around with when I'm in shaman mode. I want someone to tank the mobs so I can shoot lightning from afar. I want someone to heal and to rez when they die. I WANT TO BE A HEALER. YOU CANNOT BE A HEALER WITHOUT A HEALEE!

I wonder if it would be worth shelling out gold on the neutral AH for a little catling. (Random tip, since I stopped doing this after getting my level 40 mount: Make a bank alt and run them to Booty Bay. Buy non-combat pets in all of your factions cities for 50s each. Sell them on the neutral AH for 3-4g each. Horde-side, the dragonhawks and prairie dogs go over much better than the roaches; snakes have their ups and downs. Alliance-side, the black owls and cats seem to go for the most gold, particularly the coveted white kitten sold by Little Timmy — I think that's his name — in Stormwind; I got 20g for that one once. I don't know why I quit doing this; it brought in decent gold for a tiny investment.)

Best quote ever

On why guys play female toons:

"I [play] a female dranei because the hit rating is the only way to improve the hit rating for my pet and also male draneis look ridiculous they are like Hi I am from a High mountain climate where giant chests are useful!" — Veldieran, Ravenholdt — U.S.

That cracked me right up.

(Though everyone knows guys play lady toons for the virtual butt. I demand cute male toons so I can look at virtual butt. None of the male toons are hot. Except orcs, but that's to be expected, as they're orcs. ... I actually do have a male orc that I haven't played yet because I can't bear to be one of Those People.)

Things that make me happy

I took Ideale over to Westfall to "farm" the Deadmines (mostly for fun — in the past few days I've taken Ideale through all of the Scarlet Monastery, all but the final boss in Uldaman, and enough of Maraudon to know that I'd have been bored silly grouping through the instance) for wool and low-grade ore.

While that was fun, though, that wasn't what made me happy.

See, in battlegrounds and in world PVP, I tend to get targeted by rogues a LOT. And they stunlock me and it's over. I've been stunlocked and killed by rogues 3-4 levels below me.

So on the way to Westfall, in Duskwood, I run across an Alliance rogue just one level below me. She looks like she's AFK and I'm on my way somewhere, so I just keep on, but a second later her dot on the minimap blinks out and I think to myself, "Well, crap." So I dismount, drop a trap while running, and hope to get out of range quickly, but she must have disarmed my trap because not three seconds later, I get backstabbed.

Luckily, though, I put Cinnamon on aggressive while running away, and he went for her face right before I got backstabbed, so I managed to hit Bestial Wrath before I went useless. And I also have The Beast Within. Which meant no stunlock and I got to kite a rogue around and kill her, my very first successful PVP kiting experience (and, probably, my first successful kiting experience, period — yay adrenaline?).

That rogue went DOWN. Also a first.

So putting your pet on aggressive can be occasionally useful!

(This is also a great way to protect the flag in Warsong Gulch or Arathi Basin; put a cat on prowl and aggressive at the base of the flag, and they will attack a rogue or druid who tries to cap, stealthed or not. When in WSG, I leave Saffron in prowl by the flag and retreat up to the roof with Aspect of the Beast so the trackers don't spot me. In AB, I just pretend I don't have a pet out or my pet died and I'm too cheap to revive, and mostly they still go for it, but this would probably be more awesome if you were a night elf in Shadowmeld at range ... and dammit, now I'm going to have to get Dayea up to the 30s so I can try it.)

Favorite zones

Yesterday, I was on my mage (who is also my cloth collecting alt, since I only play her until she gets killed and then get frustrated, meaning she's been level 10 for, like, three weeks now) in Undercity, and someone asked what a good zone was for the 30s. Someone suggested Stranglethorn Vale, and I suggested Thousand Needles. And then four or five different people on Trade started complaining about how awful Thousand Needles is. Not one person defended the zone.

I was kind of surprised. I mean, when I'd been questing there on Ideale, and now when I return to mine occassionally, there were other people in the zone, there was some minor PVP when the Alliance attacked the Great Lift, but more importantly, it was absolutely beautiful. The sunset or sunrise from Freewind Post is gorgeous. And the Shimmering Flats is probably my favorite place in the entire game so far, and in my opinion, one of the most beautiful (although Zangarmarsh is kind of gorgeous, too).

Honestly, whenever I feel like just relaxing, I head over to Thousand Needles and mine a bit, or just cruise around exploring, or watching the races at the raceway. Until I hit Outland, I flew back to Freewind Post right before I went to bed every morning to watch the sunrise.

I don't get how anyone could hate the zone.

But then, others on the Trade channel didn't get why I hated Stranglethorn, so I guess we're even (I really dislike most of the marshy zones, though the Wetlands were fun and Un'Goro was my favorite zone after Thousand Needles and Winterspring).

I guess it's all a matter of personal preference. But Daj, Kresha, and Ahami, at least, will all be leveling through their late 20s and 30s in Thousand Needles.

How my brain works

I just spent the last 2-3 hours PVPing at the Overlook in Hellfire Peninsula. I got a grand total of three kills, and spent the majority of the time getting camped or acting as bait to draw out of of the five druids and rogues hanging out. At one point, it was me, a lone level 62 hunter, versus anywhere from 5 to 9 Alliance players from 60-70 (mostly over 65), depending on which rez I was on.

It was an unproductive waste of time and I went through a ton of arrows and food and spent probably all but 20 minutes as a ghost.

My participation was an accident; I came to help at first, and whenever I tried to leave, I got ganked. Half the time, I didn't even have time to summon my pet before I was dead again.

I LOVED IT. Maybe that makes me stupid, wasting hours when I could be leveling. About all I got out of it was learning why some people sit on corpses over and over (this is both ewdisgusting and really stupidly immature), and 8 honor points. But I loved it nonetheless, and cheered the few times I actually helped bring someone down, whether with shooting or by playing the bait. And a few times, our little group of four, three 70s and me, managed to take out their group of 8-9, mostly 70s. (I was usually dead by then, but still.)

And that's how much I love PVP.

EDIT: And now I'm going to defend Thrallmar. :-O

Choosing a realm

After that last post, I feel the need to write something more useful.

So, if you're anything like me and new to the World of Warcraft, you're about to make a character and you're sitting and looking at that list of realms, trying to decide which to choose — or how to choose.

It's a bit easier if you can whittle down your selection. If you want an RP-PVP realm, for example, there are only, like, 10 to choose from. Simple! But what if you want a normal PVE or PVP realm?

1. Decide what your goals in the game are. Do you want to roleplay or not? Do you enjoy player vs. player combat (and the gankings that go with it)? Do you prefer player vs. environment, where PVP is entirely optional and can be ignored completely? Do you want to test yourself against the hardest bosses or do you prefer to play mostly alone?

Once you have an idea of your answers, it'll be easier to narrow down your choices. If you're not sure, roll a "practice toon" on a random realm and play for a little bit to see what you like. Heck, maybe you'll get lucky on your first realm!

2. Turn to the Internets. There are a lot of resources out there to help you decide where to create a character. For example, if you are interested in PVE progression and getting into the hardest raids, you might want to check out the realm rankings on WowJutsu; they aren't perfect, but they'll give an idea of how far each realm has gotten and how many raiding guilds it has.

Another good place to do some research is on the official World of Warcraft forums, particularly the realm forums. Every realm forum generally has a PVE progression thread and most have threads listing some rare crafted gear and enchants and who in the game can make it; most of the RP realms also have character profile threads. While it's true that not everyone on the realm posts on the forums — many avoid them, in fact — you can still get something of a feel for the "personality" of a realm from their forum threads. After all, the folks in the forums are likely to be people you'll run into around Azeroth and later Outland.

The forums are also a good place to introduce yourself and ask about the realm, too. If you get honest answers along with the jokes, it's probably a decent start; if everyone's an asshole, cross that realm off your list and move on. If you're a roleplayer, be sure to check out the reviews on the roleplaying forum also.

The last places to check are WOWWiki and the Warcraft Census. WOWWiki has a page for every realm in the game. While many of the pages are not actively updated, quite a few are, and you can get an excellent idea of the realm's history and current environment from those pages. The Warcraft Census has basic realm information broken down by race and class; if you want to roll a Horde hunter, for example, you can check to see if the realm you are interested has a population imbalance — it won't be much fun if there are five Alliance players for every one Hordie, for example, or if half of the realm is hunters.

You can do some more searching, Googling guilds and stuff, but the above should about do it.

3. Create a test character. Or rather, create a character on each realm you've liked (or, you know, two or three of them if you have a list of 22 or something) and play for a little while. MOST IMPORTANTLY, go hang out in a few of the towns. If you're Alliance-side, try to go to Ironforge and Stormwind, as these seem to be the most populated. Horde-side, try Orgrimmar for the same reason.

While in town, listen to the Trade channel. If it's all trade, leave it be, but if there's other chatter, feel free to ask a few questions. If not, ask them in General. If you haven't asked on the forums already, ask simple things like how people like the realm, where good RP spots are, what the guilds are like, if it's easy to get groups for low-level instances. Or just sit back and read the chatter to see what people are talking about, how they get along, etc.

Other things to consider:
1. Population. If a server is "full," the economy is likely to be a bit better and you're more likely to be able to get groups for lowbie instances, but you'll also see more competition for quest objectives, resources (like mining nodes or herbs), and so on. If the population is heavily skewed toward the Alliance or the Horde, you might have a difficult time playing the "smaller" side, especially on a PVP server.
2. Realm age. If you want to see the opening of the gates of Ahn'Qiraj, for example, your best bet is to roll on a brand new realm, because most of the realms have completed the war effort. Older realms have more stable economies and populations, but newer realms have better openings for "server firsts" and more people running instances at the same level you are.
3. Battlegroup. If you are a PVPer and plan to hit the battlegrounds, what battlegroup a realm is in might be important. This takes a bit more searching, but you can get a general idea of what battlegroups have better reputations if you check the threads at places like arenajunkies.com and, of course, the official WOW forums.

And if you choose a realm and decide later on that you don't like it, you can always delete and re-roll or pay to transfer your characters.

I don't know if I covered everything — in fact, I probably didn't — but that's generally the stuff I check out when I feel the need to test the waters elsewhere.

Back to basics

Warning: Lots of rambling ahead.

I've been getting a bit alt-crazy. I'm concurrently leveling both Kresha and Daj in the Barrens, and no, it's not boring. In fact, the beast-hunting questline? The one with Echeyakee and the thunder lizards and all that? Officially my favorite questline EVER. In fact, I wrote a poem about it.

Not gonna post it, though, because I'm not that mean.

I missed this quest line the first time, since Ideale spent her 20s in the Ghostlands, and I'm pretty new to the game. There are many, many zones I have not fully explored, and several I've never even seen.

I'm also re-leveling a troll shaman and leveling a draenei shaman on Ravenholdt, my realm test alt. The original Daj was my very first Horde character and my very second character ever, and she had been been a level 22 shaman on Whisperwind when I decided to try an RP-PVP realm. She made it to back to level 11 when I decided to try her as a hunter, because I was so in love with the class. Now that my hunter-fervor has died down a tiny bit (oh, I'm still obsessed and loving it), and my OMG ALT FEVER has cooled, I'd like to return to my lightning-shooting roots.

So I have Ahami, a troll shaman, who may or may not be the character I level to 70 after Ideale. And I rolled a draenei shaman (with a mostly-random name and appearance, as she was supposed to just be a test toon), and am really enjoying playing her, too. Plus all of my other alts — I think I have about 12 low-level non-hunters I've been playing with, including a handful I rolled on Moon Guard, an RP-PVE realm that got great reviews on the forums, after Crypto said that there wasn't much difference between PVE and PVP servers. I figured I'd test that on an RP server. *grin* So I re-rolled my troll rogue there — she wasn't even 10 yet, so it was no hardship — re-rolled my test-dwarf hunter from Twisting Nether, and rolled a tauren shaman.

And I am really enjoying thoroughly exploring the starting areas. I've found quests in both Durotar and Mulgore that I didn't know existed, and tested the waters in Dun Morogh for the second time (first time where there were actually yellow exclamation points over people's heads).

And the Barrens, wow. With every other Horde character I leveled before my realm-switch, I leveled in the Barrens to about 20, then run straight into Ashenvale, a.k.a. the zone I can now fight my way through blindfolded because every character I've ever rolled, both Alliance and Horde, has spent 20-30 there except Tshaya. The lone exception was my undead priest, who I leveled in Silverpine and then Ashenvale. With Kresha and Daj, and eventually with Ahami because kodos > raptors/undead horsies/chickens, I have actually finished questlines in the Barrens.

Did you know that I had no idea there were actually quests at Camp Taurajo?

So while I finally hopped back on Ideale last night for the first time since Saturday — and discovered that with steady shot, I can fight for freaking ever without going out of mana, although I really suck at timing it — it was a really, really nice break to head back to "low-stakes" questing in the starting zones.

And I think I really learned from it, too — for example, I finally watched BRK's videos on kiting and tried it. I think it'd be easier with a mouse, but I'm getting the hang of it. I also came up with a pre-10 shot rotation that seems to work, once you have concussive shot: Step 1. stand at extreme range and fire arcane shot; Step 2. concussive shot; Step 3. serpent sting; Step 4. arcane shot again; Step 5. run away until serpent sting takes care of the last 2-3 HP, unless it died at Step 4.

And trying out other classes from the perspective of actually having leveled a character has been a completely different experience than my first time, when I just played everything to 10 and then kept playing what I liked. I can see what might work in later instances, which abilities could be hugely fun, and know where to find info if I have questions.

I should take these little breaks now and then. Especially to play with my shamans (shamani?) and rogues — in my hunter love, I forgot how much fun it is to try and choose the correct totems for each situation, time earth shock perfectly to interrupt a caster, and shoot lighting while cackling madly to myself, and how much fun it is to sneak around picking pockets and sapping other players randomly, just to put the fear of God into them.

Hunters are still my favorite, though, and I'm pretty sure they always will be.

Goals for the next few weeks: Get every member of my doubled-in-size alt army to a level-10 minimum, bank alts excluded; finish writing up Project: Infiltration AND FORMAT THE STUPID SCREEN SHOTS; get Ideale to 70, or at least 68; stop rolling hunter alts ... in fact, no more alts at all, period, until Ideale is 70 and someone else, anyone else, is 40.

PVP gear

According to The Hunter's Mark, Arena Season 4 gear will be released on June 24 — meaning that the Season 2 gear will be available via honor points, like S1 is right now.

I had planned to get the S1 chest and one other piece of gear with my honor points as soon as Ide hit 70, but I think I will just get the rep-grind gear for now and wait to see whether I can afford some S2 pieces when they come out. Provided, of course, that Ideale hits 70 before the end of June — doubtful, as I've been playing with my alts almost exclusively this week. I haven't had the time or concentration to get deep into Hellfire questing, but the starting zone quests are quick and easy (and I've missed playing my shamans, so that has been a lot of fun!).

The 30 minutes or so I've been spending on Ide each night has been mostly in Alterac Valley, although I did venture once into Eye of the Storm. The battle was over before I even figured out where anyone was. But we won, so yay! I guess. That has been helping her honor, though.

Soloing Shadowfang Keep

I went on Tshaya to check some auctions I'd put up last week and do a gear check — if I'm going to transfer her (and I am, probably to Ravenholdt), I want to make sure her gear isn't incredibly embarassing — and noticed she had on the grey Rawhide Shoulders. Ideale at that level had the Rugged Spaulders from Shadowfang Keep, and since I'd soloed the courtyard on my paladin at 27 to get Verigan's Fist, I knew I could get past Rethilgore as a level 30 hunter.

So I went off, with 8 bottles of nectar and half a quiver of arrows, to down Rethilgore quickly and return to Darkshire.

Only then, I got through Rethilgore and thought, "Well, I still have about 1000 arrows, if I go slow maybe I can make it to Fenrus. My cloak kind of sucks." And so I went slow and made it through Fenrus, and I still had a few hundred arrows, and figured, "What the hell, let's see how far I can get."

Tshaya downed Arugal with 30 arrows to spare. And she also managed to stumble across the rare Deathsworn Captain, and got a VERY nice two-handed sword. And only one wipe on a bad pull — we got mobbed by three haunted servitors and two tormented guards, and died on the last one.

Screenshots to follow — I really, really need to shell out for Photoshop Elements, at least.

But yes, as a level 30 hunter, Shadowfang Keep is entirely soloable. And the spaulders at least are better than what you can get elsewhere at this level. Oh, and for the enchanters? Plenty of green loot drops, and I made out with three large glimmering shards on cloth blues I couldn't use.

And since I skipped the Deadmines on Tshaya — I tried to go in a few times, but kept ending up in awful groups and never made it farther than Sneed — the leather drops were decent upgrades.

Loot bagged:
- Rugged Spaulders
- Haunting Blade
- Fenrus' Hide

Plus a bunch of cloth gear I sharded. This instance would be awesome for a clothie.

And the best part? It was incredibly fun. I'm kind of wondering what Ideale could solo at 62, now.

Ode to level 62

Thank you, 62,
For letting me get rid of those humiliating
Chainmail bikini bottoms
Hooray real pants!

But now I must learn macros
Because my toolbars are so full of huntery goodness
And explosive devices.

(I'm a horrible poet. But at least Ideale doesn't look like an Azerothian hooker anymore! I really need to combine some of my stuff into macros, though, because my screen is massively cluttered and full of woe, and I had to rearrange stuff since I got new Super Hunter Powers. It looks like my Spellbook vomited on my UI.)

EDIT: I'm quite serious about the Azerothian hooker comment. At one point, she actually looked like she was wearing a chainmail bikini and shoulderpads. That was when I finally bought a guild tabard.

One more thing

While I've gotten much better at avoiding the Fel Reaver — I'm halfway to 62 and haven't gotten stomped once this level — stuff like this still makes me happy:

I wish I'd played earlier

My friends tried for over a year to get me to play WoW, and it wasn't until I was out of grad school and laid up sick for a week that I finally gave in and gave it a shot. Now that I've hit 61 with Ideale, though, I really wish I'd played earlier, before the Burning Crusade expansion came out.

Why? Not because I'd be at the level cap by now, although it would have been really awesome to be one of the people going through the Dark Portal for the first time right after BC was released.

I've had Saffron since Ideale was level 37. I tamed her to get stealth and fell in love, and since the highest level cat to tame with her skin was level 41 anyway, I kept her. And even though I never set foot in an inn again except for when I hearthed, I had a hell of a time keeping both my kitties caught up. In fact, I switched to Cinnamon every time I dinged a new level, and by the time I got Saffron caught up, I'd be only a couple hundred XP from dinging the next. And the few times I wanted to keep going instead of finding a stable master or that I had a ton of quests to turn in, it'd take 3-4 levels to catch Saff up.

This is one of the main reasons I have considered releasing Tshaya's owl, Artemis, near the Felwood border and then "finding" her later, and why I have banned myself from any new pets before the late 50s on Kresha or Daj.

So, for the first time since 37, I can keep my kitties in step. And not only that, I can do it with RESTED BONUS. So I'm going out on Hellfire Peninsula and going, "OMG! OMG that boar just gave me over 1K XP! OMG! THIS IS SO COOL."

So yeah, it would have been nice to play before the 20-60 leveling nerf, just so that I could have had a pretty blue XP bar before now.

I have an alt problem

It's bad enough that I now have five (FIVE!) hunters, but in addition to those, I also have a pally, two shamans, a mage, a priest, a warlock, a druid and as of yesterday, two rogues. (This is not counting the priest, rogue and shaman I had on Whisperwind, all in their twenties, before I deleted and rerolled on The Venture Co. and Laughing Skull.)

Most of these alts will never hit 70. I can't seem to get into the druid or the warlock, for example. I keep rolling and deleting warlocks because I always think, "Hey, they have demons, that'd be fun. Oh wait, no, I don't like this." If I kept one and got past the mid-teens, maybe I'd like the class better, but I don't learn.

The highest alts I have are the pally and one of the rogues, both hovering in the high-20s, Alliance-side. I like them both, especially the rogue (I am also a big fan of my mage and my shaman Horde-side, though I can only play Branna for a little at a time before cloth armor makes me growl and switch to Ideale or Kresha.)

So what possessed me to roll another rogue last night, instead of simply leveling my night elf rogue? I love playing Dihas.

Well, I keep talking about how I dislike playing Alliance, but I don't really think that's true. And I keep thinking that maybe I just don't like playing anything but hunters, but I don't think that's true, either. I have been focusing a lot on Ideale, because the class is awesome fun and because I restarted most of my Horde non-hunters, but my little army of alts has an average level of 15 now.

I think the problem is that I just despite Laughing Skull. Sorry, RL friends who wanted me to roll there, but the realm? Is full of rude asshats with the maturity level of a 10-year-old, none of whom can spell. (Really, it's the spelling almost as much as the rudeness. I can ignore the occasional poor speller — I'm not a total snob, and I realize not everyone is an editor in meatspace — but when every single person on the server can only spell correctly when using 1337-speak, it pulls me out of game mode hard.)

You know that one person in the battleground who has crappy gear and keeps dying, but can't help but lecture everyone else on what horrible players they are instead of actually effing playing? Imagine a realm where two-thirds of the population is that guy. Yeah, that's the Alliance side of Laughing Skull.

And while the Horde side seems pretty cool in general, there're also a handful of those six-man death squads of players at level 50ish who think it's awesome to camp on top of the inn at Lakeshore and gank you 87 times.

So ...

LF new realm for one level 30 draenei hunter and one level 27 night elf rogue. We like RP, PVP, particularly of the world variety, and killing things really fast. We're not real fond of instances and have erratic play schedules because Horde is more fun. Any suggestions? If Blizz allowed it and I hadn't filled my 10 slots already (AAAAH ALTS), I'd move them to VeCo, but alas.

(Will also be asking about in the WOW forums, crazy as that might be.)

I will leave my night elf hunter and draenei pally behind to level with my real life friends. They don't play very much, anyway (well, T does, but he's always doing AV or arena with his 70s, so yeah), and now I won't have to worry about keeping my "faves" at an equivalent level.

And in the meantime, I will be stealthing about Horde-side on Magra whenever I feel like I need a hunter break, or maybe playing one of my casters.

At some point, I should really make up bios for my hunters and a couple of selected alts on here (i.e., the ones I actually play).

I am so tempted...

... to actually go find all of my old My Little Ponies and work out a game system. Except I'm lazy, and ten bucks says someone else will do it.

Also, I'm pretty sure my My Little Ponies were given to cousins or grand-cousins or second nephews twice removed or something when my sisters outgrew them. I seem to remember digging out my favorites before it was too late.

...

Of course, that would give me an excuse to eBay.

More instance fun!

That group for the Temple of Atal'Hakkar was such wonderful luck. It really was. I skipped most of the instances before the 40s, and to this day have not finished most of the ones after due to group dynamics (only left early once, but the group fizzled after the first boss in almost all of them). But, as I mentioned before, I got into a fantastic, fun group for ST, and apparently didn't suck too badly because I've been picked up for a couple of PUGs with various group members since.

Yesterday, I got to run Ramparts twice and Blood Furnace once. And Blood Furnace? IS SO FUN. Ramparts are fun too, except for that horrific dragon that wiped us about five times the first time through and left me the only one standing, with about 25 hp, the second time through (our wonderful mage hit the killing blow right as the dragon aggroed on him). For once, Saffron's PVP training actually paid off in a PVE situation; I couldn't keep Cinnamon alive with the fire, but Saffron lasted pretty well through it and even picked up aggro for a few seconds after our tank died.

It helped that we had an awesome tank and healer, though. (I think I lucked out; I have met a small handful of fantastic healers and one of them seems to always be on and up for instances, which means that as long as we can find a tank, we can get a group. And two of them know lots of tanks, so... yay!)

I still don't know that I'll ever be a raider, but I could see myself doing five-mans and heroics for fun, when I get bored with PVP.

I do need to find a decent threat meter, though. Until now, I've been able to judge my threat based on the combat text and haven't had a problem with it. Hitting feign death after I crit a couple of times has worked. But now that I am getting somewhat decent gear (for example, due to not running instances and being too cheap/poor for the AH, I am still rolling in level 36 legs — yeah, I know — but have a nice pair of pants when I hit 62) I've noticed I'm critting a lot more, and have even grabbed aggro from my pets when soloing with those damned Helboars.

I tried Omen, though, and I hate that it sits there taking up screen space even when I'm not using it, and that I can't close it or hide it (like Auctioneer). My screen is cluttered enough, I don't need something else there when I will really only be using it maybe once a week/every couple weeks. I like having my screen as free of clutter as possible when PVPing, and since that's still my main focus ... yeah.

I need to find out how to get on VeCo's world PVP alert system or something, though. I missed three — THREE — awesome events this weekend.

Project Infiltration: Eversong Woods

Hunter: Dayea
Level: 10
Destination: Eversong Woods
Route Taken: I took the same route as to Tirisfal Glades, then ran east through the Bulwark into the Western Plaguelands, ran straight through to the Eastern Plaguelands, then north into the Ghostlands and straight north into Eversong Woods. Note that if you do not have the Burning Crusade expansion, you will not be able to cross from Eastern Plaguelands into the Ghostlands.
Difficulty level: Close to impossible if you try to live-run it; the mobs in the Plaguelands are in the 40s to mid-50s. I watched three spiders come from the very edge of my zoomed-out mini-map to kill me. Gave up when I had died about six times and made it about ten yards. Medium with a ghost run; the graveyard in Eversong Woods is right in the middle of Fairbreeze Village and some level 65 guardians, so you have to corpse-hop out. Alternatively, you could rez at the graveyard outside of Tranquillien and run north, but there are some level 15ish mobs around if you stray from the road and if you run into Knucklerot, you're gonna die. This could be easier on a PVE server, unless they also flag you for PVP when you enter enemy territory. And it's still easier than Fairbreeze Village.

Tip: If you make it all the way to Tirisfal without dying, let the guards at the Bulwark nail you instead of frantically trying to run away, only to suffer horrific death by spider five seconds later.

Tip two: If you have Horde characters, you might know about the Orb of Translocution in the Ruins of Lordaeron. For those who don't ... there's an Orb of Translocution in the Ruins of Lordaeron. (More helpfully, it's up the stairs to the right of the courtyard when you first enter.) However, nice as it would be to be able to orb right into the middle of 8941634 Silvermoon soldiers and then rez at the graveyard, this orb does not work for Alliance characters, probably to prevent quick Silvermoon City leader takedowns. But it is kind of fun to hang out there in shadowmeld and pop out to scare people using the orb (well, before they realize you're only level 10).

Again, this was a really straightforward infiltration. Alliance side definitely has it easier getting to Horde territory. This was the most difficult, and it was still better than the deathboats. (Although it would have been much more difficult than the boats if I'd live-run it.) Tirisfal Glades, Durotar and Mulgore are, frankly, cake, even on a PVP server.

Hopefully I'll have time to do screenshots tonight or tomorrow for these last few.