I'm almost out of Horde-rep quests. If I want to get Ideale Exalted with the Darkspear, I'm going to have to either do runecloth turn-ins or ... quest is Azshara and Stranglethorn Vale. *shudder* I'll start with STV, I guess, and see what happens from there.
There are so many more useful things I could be doing.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
The prettiest places in Azeroth
Possibly my absolute favorite thing about World of Warcraft is the scenery. Large portions of the world are absolutely gorgeous — and even when they aren't, they manage to evoke the feelings that the developers obviously intended, such as the Plaguelands.
My very favorite place to watch the sun rise (or set) in Azeroth is Thousand Needles (and I really need to format those screenshots). After that, though, my favorite places to hang out and take in the beauty are Winterspring, Feralas, Zangarmarsh, and of course Nagrand. I always enjoyed the Wetlands when I was playing Alliance-side. And there are parts of the Barrens, Stranglethorn Vale, the Hinterlands, and most of the starting zones that range from pretty to breathtaking, too.
I haven't seen half of what Azeroth has to offer, though.
What are your favorite spots? (I like this ending an entry in a question thing too much, perhaps.)
My very favorite place to watch the sun rise (or set) in Azeroth is Thousand Needles (and I really need to format those screenshots). After that, though, my favorite places to hang out and take in the beauty are Winterspring, Feralas, Zangarmarsh, and of course Nagrand. I always enjoyed the Wetlands when I was playing Alliance-side. And there are parts of the Barrens, Stranglethorn Vale, the Hinterlands, and most of the starting zones that range from pretty to breathtaking, too.
I haven't seen half of what Azeroth has to offer, though.
What are your favorite spots? (I like this ending an entry in a question thing too much, perhaps.)
Saturday, August 30, 2008
I am disappointed
The Cold-Forged Hammer is not nearly as sick as the Ice-Barbed Spear, appearance-wise. The stats aren't quite as awesome, either. But hey, it's still pretty damn fancy.
I do think that Blizz needs to do something about battleground rep gains, though. It's really sad that Ahami can run Alterac Valley ONCE and be 2696 points into Neutral (i.e., almost Friendly), but she had to win — not just play, but WIN — Warsong Gulch and Arathi Basin about 10 times each for the Spirit of Competition pet and has 350 rep for each one. I've been playing Ide exclusively in WSG and AB since she hit Exalted with Frostwolf, and she's still Neutral with the Outriders. And she's only past that with the Defilers because of the quests.
I don't care if they make gaining Frostwolf rep harder in the process; it's seriously unbalanced.
I do think that Blizz needs to do something about battleground rep gains, though. It's really sad that Ahami can run Alterac Valley ONCE and be 2696 points into Neutral (i.e., almost Friendly), but she had to win — not just play, but WIN — Warsong Gulch and Arathi Basin about 10 times each for the Spirit of Competition pet and has 350 rep for each one. I've been playing Ide exclusively in WSG and AB since she hit Exalted with Frostwolf, and she's still Neutral with the Outriders. And she's only past that with the Defilers because of the quests.
I don't care if they make gaining Frostwolf rep harder in the process; it's seriously unbalanced.
Friday, August 29, 2008
On Death Knights
Am I going to roll one? Most likely, because I have tried out every other class in WoW (although I only ever got my warrior to level 3 and my mage to level 10), and why not? Am I going to like it enough to actually play past 58-ish? Probably not.
I've discovered that I really only like four things in WoW: Shooting things in the face with arrows, healing, shooting things in the face with lightning and, of course, kitties.
Okay, I also like crafting and mining and stuff, and flying around pointlessly on my flying thingy is fun, and I do enjoy PVP. But really, those are my favorite roles. Shooting things in the face and healing. From what I've read, Death Knights will be able to do neither. So I'll probably get bored within three levels.
What about you?
I've discovered that I really only like four things in WoW: Shooting things in the face with arrows, healing, shooting things in the face with lightning and, of course, kitties.
Okay, I also like crafting and mining and stuff, and flying around pointlessly on my flying thingy is fun, and I do enjoy PVP. But really, those are my favorite roles. Shooting things in the face and healing. From what I've read, Death Knights will be able to do neither. So I'll probably get bored within three levels.
What about you?
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Why Sparrow is adorable, reason No. 285613687 (not WoW)
Someday, I'll make Sparrow and Klio their own blog, but until then you all have to deal with it. :-P
Sparrow has asthma (technically called feline chronic bronchitis or something; my vet calls her a "snuffler kitty"). Usually, she's okay, especially now that she's on medication to control it, but for a month or two during the wildfires the smoke was setting her off daily, and she still has the occasional attack.
When she has an attack, she freaks out a little, so I drop whatever I'm doing, sit down next to her, pet her and talk to her to calm her down, and then I hold her for a few minutes once she's stopped coughing.
Well, a week or two ago, I was eating tortilla chips and swallowed wrong, and started coughing and wheezing (this is actually a very common occurrence since I am a huge klutz). She came running to the couch from the office and put one paw on my leg until I stopped choking.
One-time thing, right? I figured she probably just thought I was entertaining her or wanted a chip or something.
Only every time I cough or anything, she now comes running and puts a paw on my leg or shoulder and mews at me until I stop, then runs back to whatever she was doing. I'm pretty sure she is trying to comfort me like I comfort her when she coughs. It's really cute, right?
Sparrow has asthma (technically called feline chronic bronchitis or something; my vet calls her a "snuffler kitty"). Usually, she's okay, especially now that she's on medication to control it, but for a month or two during the wildfires the smoke was setting her off daily, and she still has the occasional attack.
When she has an attack, she freaks out a little, so I drop whatever I'm doing, sit down next to her, pet her and talk to her to calm her down, and then I hold her for a few minutes once she's stopped coughing.
Well, a week or two ago, I was eating tortilla chips and swallowed wrong, and started coughing and wheezing (this is actually a very common occurrence since I am a huge klutz). She came running to the couch from the office and put one paw on my leg until I stopped choking.
One-time thing, right? I figured she probably just thought I was entertaining her or wanted a chip or something.
Only every time I cough or anything, she now comes running and puts a paw on my leg or shoulder and mews at me until I stop, then runs back to whatever she was doing. I'm pretty sure she is trying to comfort me like I comfort her when she coughs. It's really cute, right?
Monday, August 25, 2008
Bear form!
The bear form quest for Horde druids is much easier than the night elf one — Lunaclaw's the same, but the night elf cave is surrounded by higher-level moonkin, whereas the Horde stone is free of enemies. Weird.
EDIT: AAAAAH GIANT BUTT IN MY FACE! I've never actually had to zoom out before. But I literally cannot see half of my tiny, tiny screen as a bear. Because of butt.
EDIT: AAAAAH GIANT BUTT IN MY FACE! I've never actually had to zoom out before. But I literally cannot see half of my tiny, tiny screen as a bear. Because of butt.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
I was SO SCARED
Some guildies were doing heroic ... Mechanar? I think? The one with that Calculon guy and that fire elemental lady, I dunno.
Anyway, they needed another person, and since I've done partial-guild, partial-PUG groups with Ahami, I was like, "I don't know if my gear works, but I can go if it does." So we went into regular, killed one so I could get the key, then came back and did it.
I'm not gonna lie, I was freaking terrified and shaking and stuff because the last instance I did on Ide was Blood Furnace on regular, and I was afraid I was gonna wipe the group and get gkicked or something. But we got through with two almost-wipes, I did a little trapping before it got all confusing with Calculon and the flamey chick and then I just shot at the tank's target and ran around, and Cinnamon only died, like, 17 times. I have to learn to pull him back when he's taking too much damage. :-(
And I got a trinket — the Abacus of Violent Odds, which all those blogs I read say is good, so yay? — and some Badges of Justice and actually had fun for, like, the second time in a week in an instance. Craziness.
I really need to PVP on Ideale and level Ahami instead of PVPing on Ahami, though. I want to replace my bracers and maybe my crossbow, if I can, before the Battle for Ashenvale (Sept. 8 at 6 p.m. server, VeCo people, be there or make me sad when my first planning attempt fails miserably.)
Anyway, they needed another person, and since I've done partial-guild, partial-PUG groups with Ahami, I was like, "I don't know if my gear works, but I can go if it does." So we went into regular, killed one so I could get the key, then came back and did it.
I'm not gonna lie, I was freaking terrified and shaking and stuff because the last instance I did on Ide was Blood Furnace on regular, and I was afraid I was gonna wipe the group and get gkicked or something. But we got through with two almost-wipes, I did a little trapping before it got all confusing with Calculon and the flamey chick and then I just shot at the tank's target and ran around, and Cinnamon only died, like, 17 times. I have to learn to pull him back when he's taking too much damage. :-(
And I got a trinket — the Abacus of Violent Odds, which all those blogs I read say is good, so yay? — and some Badges of Justice and actually had fun for, like, the second time in a week in an instance. Craziness.
I really need to PVP on Ideale and level Ahami instead of PVPing on Ahami, though. I want to replace my bracers and maybe my crossbow, if I can, before the Battle for Ashenvale (Sept. 8 at 6 p.m. server, VeCo people, be there or make me sad when my first planning attempt fails miserably.)
Friday, August 22, 2008
Sparrow is too smart (not WoW)
Sparrow is a very clingy cat. She doesn't care to be held, but she prefers to be in the same room as people (preferably me, but if I'm not home any people will do). More on this some other time, when I take pics of her "babies" (two stuffed cats that she carries around in her mouth, I kid you not).
Anyway, when I am getting ready for work in the afternoon or when I take my shower, if my roommates are home, I go into my bathroom and shut the door. Sparrow usually comes with me, because if she does not, then she sits outside the door crying until I come out and it's cute, but also very annoying.
However, Sparrow does not like to be closed in anywhere, particularly the bathroom (as this is where she goes for "time out" when I catch her doing things she ought not be doing, such as breaking into my closet — she figured out sliding doors quickly — or chewing on books or my toes at 6 a.m.). Her need to be with people outweighs her problem with doors, at first, but once I've been in there about five minutes, she wants to get out. It used to be that she would stand in front of the door and mew, or slide a paw underneath and grope around.
The past few days, though, have been different. The past few days, she has hopped onto the counter and perched on the edge so that she can reach the doorknob. And then she has very determinedly tried to turn it, using both paws. She almost managed to turn it yesterday — got it about halfway but lost her grip once she hit resistance.
Scary. Thank God our front doorknob is not within her reach.
This is, of course, only to be expected from the cat who figured out how to turn the light switch on and off and flickers the bathroom lights when I'm in the shower.
Anyway, when I am getting ready for work in the afternoon or when I take my shower, if my roommates are home, I go into my bathroom and shut the door. Sparrow usually comes with me, because if she does not, then she sits outside the door crying until I come out and it's cute, but also very annoying.
However, Sparrow does not like to be closed in anywhere, particularly the bathroom (as this is where she goes for "time out" when I catch her doing things she ought not be doing, such as breaking into my closet — she figured out sliding doors quickly — or chewing on books or my toes at 6 a.m.). Her need to be with people outweighs her problem with doors, at first, but once I've been in there about five minutes, she wants to get out. It used to be that she would stand in front of the door and mew, or slide a paw underneath and grope around.
The past few days, though, have been different. The past few days, she has hopped onto the counter and perched on the edge so that she can reach the doorknob. And then she has very determinedly tried to turn it, using both paws. She almost managed to turn it yesterday — got it about halfway but lost her grip once she hit resistance.
Scary. Thank God our front doorknob is not within her reach.
This is, of course, only to be expected from the cat who figured out how to turn the light switch on and off and flickers the bathroom lights when I'm in the shower.
I would name her ELEPHUNK
Beta-BRK has tamed a rhino. This is cool, but does not beat a kitty.
You know what would be worth giving up a kitty slot for? An elekk.
LESS RHINO MORE ELEKK PLZ
EDIT: ZOMG COOLER THAN ELEKK
I may ditch my Outland windserpent plan for Ideale and go with a firefly instead. The windserpent I want would look better with Kresha anyway, I think.
EDIT II: Please excuse the manic-ness of this entry. Friday nights are actually busy at work, and I had a weird day, so ... yeah.
You know what would be worth giving up a kitty slot for? An elekk.
LESS RHINO MORE ELEKK PLZ
EDIT: ZOMG COOLER THAN ELEKK
I may ditch my Outland windserpent plan for Ideale and go with a firefly instead. The windserpent I want would look better with Kresha anyway, I think.
EDIT II: Please excuse the manic-ness of this entry. Friday nights are actually busy at work, and I had a weird day, so ... yeah.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Something I've noticed
Among blogs, a good chunk of the shaman and hunter bloggers I read have an alt, usually a main alt, of the other class.
Is it just me? Or do I just notice this more because I have a hunter main toon and a main alt shaman?
Is it just me? Or do I just notice this more because I have a hunter main toon and a main alt shaman?
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
PVP tip
Picked this up from a warlock on the VeCo forums a few weeks ago. Finally tried it out earlier today, and it did seem to help.
When a melee class has you cornered, particularly a warrior, run THROUGH them instead of away from them. In a hunter's case, we can add wingclip and drop an appropriate trap as we go, too. It seems to work particularly well right after popping your trinket or BW/TBW. By the time they've turned around, hopefully your wingclip/snake trap/them having to turn around/whatever will have slowed them down enough that you can regain range, or at least kite them for a minute (or do what I do, which is hit Bestial Wrath and Mend Pet, then run in circles around them firing off Arcane Shot whenever the CD is up ... look, I never claimed to be GOOD at PVP, just that I liked it, okay?). If you time it right, you can get them to blow their own trinket on the wingclip before they run into your trap.
This seems a bit weird and breaks suspension of disbelief for me, but hey, I actually survived an encounter with a warrior for once, so whatever works.
When a melee class has you cornered, particularly a warrior, run THROUGH them instead of away from them. In a hunter's case, we can add wingclip and drop an appropriate trap as we go, too. It seems to work particularly well right after popping your trinket or BW/TBW. By the time they've turned around, hopefully your wingclip/snake trap/them having to turn around/whatever will have slowed them down enough that you can regain range, or at least kite them for a minute (or do what I do, which is hit Bestial Wrath and Mend Pet, then run in circles around them firing off Arcane Shot whenever the CD is up ... look, I never claimed to be GOOD at PVP, just that I liked it, okay?). If you time it right, you can get them to blow their own trinket on the wingclip before they run into your trap.
This seems a bit weird and breaks suspension of disbelief for me, but hey, I actually survived an encounter with a warrior for once, so whatever works.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
First impressions
It's kind of odd how first perceptions of a class can change pretty radically. For example:
Classes I hated at first and now love: Hunter, maaaaybe druid*
Classes I loved at first and completely lose interest in by the early-to-mid-20s: Rogue, paladin, priest**, warlock
Classes I loved at first and still love: Shaman
Classes I hated at first and still hate: Mage, warrior
The only class I have loved from the moment I rolled it to this day is shaman — I'm not quite as enthusiastic about playing Ahami as playing Ideale, except for the healing part, but I do love playing a shaman.
Am I the only one who does this? I dabbled a little with each class when I first downloaded the trial version and got most of them to the 20-30 range (not as impressive as it sounds — I was deliriously ill the week I downloaded it and unable to do anything else but watch TV, so I got my Whisperwind rogue, priest and shaman to 20 right quick, plus my paladin on Laughing Skull and a warlock on some other random server I don't remember, before I rerolled), but all of the classes I thought I would love, I didn't, except shaman, and two of the four classes I hated at first I'm now fond of (well, maaaaaybe, for the druid).
*It's too early to tell, at level 8, but I'm playing her exclusively with my roommate's priest and I'm finding the class is much more fun as a "team" class than a solo class — I always deleted around this level before, not counting my bank druid. I'm having almost as much fun with her as with Ahami! I'm going to try tanking once or twice (with both BFFs now leveling toons on VeCo, we have half an instance, and with a priest and pally between them, we can work it so we always have a tank and a healer), but I will probably switch to resto if I make it past the 20s.
**I am leveling this toon with a friend, also. I was having a lot of fun with her at first, but I am starting to get bored already. I like physical action or healing. I'm not real interested in playing a holy priest for the same reason I got bored with my holy paladin — the Light just seems bland and sterile compared to NATURE POWAHS! — and shadow is just not cutting it for me. I'm going to hold out for mana burn at 24, and if I'm still bored after that, I'm switching back to a hunter. Too many kitty-less classes makes MW something something. ... Like I didn't get a silver tabby off the neutral AH.
EDIT: I apologize for the blah blogging lately. I joined the Blog Azeroth forums in hopes of inspiration, but I'm too nervous to actually log in now.
Classes I hated at first and now love: Hunter, maaaaybe druid*
Classes I loved at first and completely lose interest in by the early-to-mid-20s: Rogue, paladin, priest**, warlock
Classes I loved at first and still love: Shaman
Classes I hated at first and still hate: Mage, warrior
The only class I have loved from the moment I rolled it to this day is shaman — I'm not quite as enthusiastic about playing Ahami as playing Ideale, except for the healing part, but I do love playing a shaman.
Am I the only one who does this? I dabbled a little with each class when I first downloaded the trial version and got most of them to the 20-30 range (not as impressive as it sounds — I was deliriously ill the week I downloaded it and unable to do anything else but watch TV, so I got my Whisperwind rogue, priest and shaman to 20 right quick, plus my paladin on Laughing Skull and a warlock on some other random server I don't remember, before I rerolled), but all of the classes I thought I would love, I didn't, except shaman, and two of the four classes I hated at first I'm now fond of (well, maaaaaybe, for the druid).
*It's too early to tell, at level 8, but I'm playing her exclusively with my roommate's priest and I'm finding the class is much more fun as a "team" class than a solo class — I always deleted around this level before, not counting my bank druid. I'm having almost as much fun with her as with Ahami! I'm going to try tanking once or twice (with both BFFs now leveling toons on VeCo, we have half an instance, and with a priest and pally between them, we can work it so we always have a tank and a healer), but I will probably switch to resto if I make it past the 20s.
**I am leveling this toon with a friend, also. I was having a lot of fun with her at first, but I am starting to get bored already. I like physical action or healing. I'm not real interested in playing a holy priest for the same reason I got bored with my holy paladin — the Light just seems bland and sterile compared to NATURE POWAHS! — and shadow is just not cutting it for me. I'm going to hold out for mana burn at 24, and if I'm still bored after that, I'm switching back to a hunter. Too many kitty-less classes makes MW something something. ... Like I didn't get a silver tabby off the neutral AH.
EDIT: I apologize for the blah blogging lately. I joined the Blog Azeroth forums in hopes of inspiration, but I'm too nervous to actually log in now.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Working with geeks is fun (not-WoW)
So we have this program at my job which holds essentially everything we do, ever. Built into the program is a chat program that is basically work-sanctioned IM. Sometimes, when we're bored, my co-workers and I chat about completely random stuff on it, sort of like this:
*random work crap that devolves into a "no u!" war*
Me: lies
Me: LYRE!
J: LIGER!
Me: ... Was it the stripey mane that gave it away?
J: SILENCE, FOUL LIGER!
Me: ROAR I EAT YOU
J: GO BACK FROM WHENCE YOU CAME‡
*after more random work crap*
Me: My grandma was Dutch-Irish and my grandpa was liger, so that makes me a quarter liger.‡*
J: my mama was a lion and my daddy was a tiger.€ what does that make me?
J: FULL LIGER, BIYOTCH!
Me: *cries*
‡ Yeah, we steal about half of what we say from television or movies; the amazing thing is that I get most of the references, as I pretty much only watch cartoons (like, "Avatar" or "Invader Zim" rather than, say, "Drawn Together"), superhero movies, and America's Best Dance Crew.
* Not actually true.
€ Possibly true. We don't do DNA tests before hiring people or anything, and I'm pretty sure a few people who work here are mutants. He looks pretty human, though.
*random work crap that devolves into a "no u!" war*
Me: lies
Me: LYRE!
J: LIGER!
Me: ... Was it the stripey mane that gave it away?
J: SILENCE, FOUL LIGER!
Me: ROAR I EAT YOU
J: GO BACK FROM WHENCE YOU CAME‡
*after more random work crap*
Me: My grandma was Dutch-Irish and my grandpa was liger, so that makes me a quarter liger.‡*
J: my mama was a lion and my daddy was a tiger.€ what does that make me?
J: FULL LIGER, BIYOTCH!
Me: *cries*
‡ Yeah, we steal about half of what we say from television or movies; the amazing thing is that I get most of the references, as I pretty much only watch cartoons (like, "Avatar" or "Invader Zim" rather than, say, "Drawn Together"), superhero movies, and America's Best Dance Crew.
* Not actually true.
€ Possibly true. We don't do DNA tests before hiring people or anything, and I'm pretty sure a few people who work here are mutants. He looks pretty human, though.
Completely random observations
1. Healing in instances is both easier and more difficult than in PVP. In PVP, for example, you often have many targets to heal, and once the other side realizes you're healing, then their strategy often becomes "Kill it with fire! And knives! And whatever other weapons and spells you have!" However, I only once pulled aggro in the Scarlet Monastery yesterday morning on my shaman, and except for two bad pulls, had to only focus on healing the tank and occasionally the mage.*
On the other hand, in PVP, no one cares if you go out of mana and can't heal so long as you start swinging your mace, and will often protect you from enemy players — I usually pick up a pocket rogue as soon as I throw a heal in the battlegrounds. Whereas, in an instance, you can announce you're out of mana and drinking, tell people to wait a minute, and then, after they pull anyway, you get the idiot hunter who makes you sad asking why you aren't healing his pet. Dude, I'm drinking and you have Mend Pet, use it and wait a damn minute.
2. Once people find out you are resto specced, they will not leave you the fuck alone. "Mara crashes my computer, I only group with guildies, and I am in an instance right now. Also, I hate you." "Come on, please heal us? You'll get better loot! We'll give you kittens!" "Well ... maybe ... HEY! STOP IT!" /ignore
3. I have been so lucky on the rare occasions I group with Ideale. When I have been grouped with another hunter, they have been damn good. And if they have sucked, they've been extremely willing to take advice and check out recommended sites; it's been ignorance, not deliberate stupidity. But today, I saw where the huntard stereotype comes from: This hunter named after a truck brand rolled need on tank boots because they were mail, tried to steal aggro from the tank with his pet, went off and did his own thing and nearly wiped us twice, insulted the mage (my guildmate and a damn good player), and generally acted a fool. I actually whispered the tank to explain that not all hunters were awful and please don't judge us all by that ass.
4. Speaking of hunting, I'm "adventuring" with Ideale again — I'm at an impasse in Outland (I've mostly been doing dailies) and much as I love the battlegrounds, I'm ready for a little battleground break. Usually this means hitting the Plaguelands, but with Ahami in Feralas, one of the greenest places in Azeroth, the idea of visiting the Plaguelands just depressed me. (And Ideale needs a vacation — she's been working hard for months.) So I took her to Durotar this morning and started doing the starter zone quests. I want to get her exalted with the Horde without wasting a ton of runecloth. And let me tell you, it's kind of FUN to ride around one-shotting mobs. I think I did most of the Valley of Trials quests in under five minutes. Once I knock out the starter quests I missed, I'm going to find all the lowbie dungeon quests and go do them all, just to see the content and for the rep.
5. I recruited a friend. She rolled a priest and I rolled a druid, the class I can never seem to get to 20 (and, like with my priesty, I figure if I hate it past 20, I will switch to a hunter and move on from there). The triple XP is INSANE. I am referring my friend to some priesty blogs and stuff so that this doesn't fully harm her ability to play the class well — and best friend and I will make sure that she gets into some instances. (Gah, more instances.) But I don't know who should get the zhevra mount! Ahami might be a little tall for it, and I really wanted to get her the black war kodo. But Kresha's still at level 22, and my casual alt time has now been split into thirds.
6. Baths are entirely awesome.
* I am currently playing around with an undead priest, playing with my best friend. I was never much interested in the priest class, but I really love the character and can't imagine her as anything else, so. Anyway, the point is that priests seem much more adept at yanking aggro than shamans, so far. I can whale away with offensive spells, but the second I put a heal on her voidwalker, everything we're fighting goes straight to me.
On the other hand, in PVP, no one cares if you go out of mana and can't heal so long as you start swinging your mace, and will often protect you from enemy players — I usually pick up a pocket rogue as soon as I throw a heal in the battlegrounds. Whereas, in an instance, you can announce you're out of mana and drinking, tell people to wait a minute, and then, after they pull anyway, you get the idiot hunter who makes you sad asking why you aren't healing his pet. Dude, I'm drinking and you have Mend Pet, use it and wait a damn minute.
2. Once people find out you are resto specced, they will not leave you the fuck alone. "Mara crashes my computer, I only group with guildies, and I am in an instance right now. Also, I hate you." "Come on, please heal us? You'll get better loot! We'll give you kittens!" "Well ... maybe ... HEY! STOP IT!" /ignore
3. I have been so lucky on the rare occasions I group with Ideale. When I have been grouped with another hunter, they have been damn good. And if they have sucked, they've been extremely willing to take advice and check out recommended sites; it's been ignorance, not deliberate stupidity. But today, I saw where the huntard stereotype comes from: This hunter named after a truck brand rolled need on tank boots because they were mail, tried to steal aggro from the tank with his pet, went off and did his own thing and nearly wiped us twice, insulted the mage (my guildmate and a damn good player), and generally acted a fool. I actually whispered the tank to explain that not all hunters were awful and please don't judge us all by that ass.
4. Speaking of hunting, I'm "adventuring" with Ideale again — I'm at an impasse in Outland (I've mostly been doing dailies) and much as I love the battlegrounds, I'm ready for a little battleground break. Usually this means hitting the Plaguelands, but with Ahami in Feralas, one of the greenest places in Azeroth, the idea of visiting the Plaguelands just depressed me. (And Ideale needs a vacation — she's been working hard for months.) So I took her to Durotar this morning and started doing the starter zone quests. I want to get her exalted with the Horde without wasting a ton of runecloth. And let me tell you, it's kind of FUN to ride around one-shotting mobs. I think I did most of the Valley of Trials quests in under five minutes. Once I knock out the starter quests I missed, I'm going to find all the lowbie dungeon quests and go do them all, just to see the content and for the rep.
5. I recruited a friend. She rolled a priest and I rolled a druid, the class I can never seem to get to 20 (and, like with my priesty, I figure if I hate it past 20, I will switch to a hunter and move on from there). The triple XP is INSANE. I am referring my friend to some priesty blogs and stuff so that this doesn't fully harm her ability to play the class well — and best friend and I will make sure that she gets into some instances. (Gah, more instances.) But I don't know who should get the zhevra mount! Ahami might be a little tall for it, and I really wanted to get her the black war kodo. But Kresha's still at level 22, and my casual alt time has now been split into thirds.
6. Baths are entirely awesome.
* I am currently playing around with an undead priest, playing with my best friend. I was never much interested in the priest class, but I really love the character and can't imagine her as anything else, so. Anyway, the point is that priests seem much more adept at yanking aggro than shamans, so far. I can whale away with offensive spells, but the second I put a heal on her voidwalker, everything we're fighting goes straight to me.
Saturday, August 16, 2008
n00b lessons
When I downloaded the trial version of WoW, I got to the character creation screen and had no idea what to do. At all. But, being a veteran of several text-based MUDs, I knew that I wanted to play a thief or assassin (I always, ALWAYS played a thief or assassin in almost every RPG I'd ever played), so I went to the official site and found the rogue class. I looked at the races who could play them, found myself completely out of my league lore-wise, and rolled a human. I could learn the races later, this was just a practice run.
So Angie the human rogue was born, and leveled to 22 before I found I was much more into my Horde characters. And oh, the mistakes I made. WoW moved so much faster than the MUDs I'd played. I didn't get the action bars, or why mine went away when I entered stealth (not that this was a problem at first, because I didn't find the stealth until level 8). I figured out the combo points pretty quick, but failed at aggro — if I came on a mob alone or a pack of yellow mobs, I did fine, but give me a vineyard full of Defias bandits and I was s.o.l. But eventually, I got the hang of that.
It was a lot of other stuff that made me a roguetard. Some examples:
- At level 10, I entered Redridge. After dying extensively, I gave up and wandered around boredly killing stuff in Elwynn until level 16.
- At level 16, I discovered Westfall. A noob warlock and I tried to take on Deadmines alone. We couldn't even find the instance entrance, though we ran into Marisa du'Paige about six times. It only took me two rolls to figure out that the little gold piece was greed and I shouldn't click the other thing for need. Unfortunately, I was unable to give back the BoP caster robes I'd nabbed. Fortunately, they dropped again the third or fourth time we downed Marisa.
- At 18, I discovered the Deepwater Tram. I thought I had discovered some completely awesome thing no one else knew about, because it was always empty when I got down there. I spent two levels wandering around Dun Morogh, wondering how to turn the quest exclamation marks back on and why I was leveling so slowly.
- Before I deleted Angie, after she'd sat idle for about six months and Ideale was in the mid-40s, I logged on to check out her gear. It was all white armor and weapons (daggers, no less!) purchased from a vendor in Stormwind. The same vendor, no doubt, that I'd sold all of the green drops and quest gear I got to, so that I could afford said white gear. Also, her talent points were quite evenly distributed between all three specs.
... But she did have a red Defias mask. :-D And at least I had her trained in skinning and leatherworking instead of, like, tailoring or something.
Fortunately, I eventually discovered guides and WoWWiki and, after I rerolled on my current home, blogs. And I have to say, quite honestly, reading hunter blogs — because they were the first I found and the most entertaining to me — taught me a lot about how to play a hunter, but also a lot about playing other classes. It was reading about gearing a hunter that I started to learn which stats did what and what to look for when choosing gear for ALL of my toons, not just the hunter. Every toon I played before I decided to give Ideale another try, with the exception of rogue #2, is wearing inappropriate gear, even the ones that are specced with some sort of logic. The rogue is only decently geared because I knew that rogues were supposed to be agile, so I obviously wanted +agi gear, right? *facepalm*
I bring this up mostly because I told Cryptography this story and he said I had to tell it here sometime, but also because there was a post on the forums a week or so ago from a n00b hunter complaining about people badmouthing him in-game. I looked at his armory page, and he was wearing no +agi gear (mostly +spirit and +strength), had a bizarre vaguely-MM, vaguely-hybrid spec, and had vendor white weapons and gun. And then I went back to his post, where he said that this was his main and first character, and where he'd gotten a few "Don't let people get you down" posts and a few jackasses mocking his gear, but absolutely nothing constructive. And I sat down and wrote a reply, drawing on what I'd learned from The Hunter's Mark and Aspect of the Hare and WoWWiki and everywhere else that helped me, giving a quick outline on what stats to look for in gear, linking a couple of quests of the appropriate level that would give him better weapons, and tipping him off to my favorite blogs and Petopia. Because honestly, I've been there, and I'd bet most players have.
And I don't know if he ever read my response (he's Alliance, so I couldn't mail or whisper him), but I hope he did, and I hope he was able to use it. And it felt really good to get an in-game whisper from another person who HAD read it and who thanked me for offering something helpful.
So two things:
1. I'm not saying that you have to go out of your way to do so, but if you have the time and run across a player who is lost, please help them, even if it's just to link them to Big Red Kitty (or some other class-appropriate source). Every time I feel like ignoring or even ridiculing an obviously-new player, I just reflect on Angie's shortcomings and all of the players who helped me get to the point where I don't totally suck at my class, and pay it forward. Okay, not every time — everyone's an asshole sometimes, and I'm an asshole a lot of times — but I try.
2. When you see someone being helpful, even if it's to someone else, say something. I'm generally helpful 'cause it makes me happy to help other people (well, I also enjoy being obnoxious, but I try to control myself), but it's always nice to hear it anyway. And it encourages people to be more helpful and friendly if they are being recognized for it.
And on VeCo, at least, the factions are still at war, and anything you can do to help your faction succeed makes all of you stronger.
EDIT: One other n00b mistake I made: My Forsaken priest was the first character I made after I figured out the concept of specs. I went Shadow with her. And, at about level 15, I decided to respec her as Holy because I thought that her being Shadow made Power Word: Fortitude hurt people, since every time I cast it, it looked like their health went down.
Yeah, I know.
So Angie the human rogue was born, and leveled to 22 before I found I was much more into my Horde characters. And oh, the mistakes I made. WoW moved so much faster than the MUDs I'd played. I didn't get the action bars, or why mine went away when I entered stealth (not that this was a problem at first, because I didn't find the stealth until level 8). I figured out the combo points pretty quick, but failed at aggro — if I came on a mob alone or a pack of yellow mobs, I did fine, but give me a vineyard full of Defias bandits and I was s.o.l. But eventually, I got the hang of that.
It was a lot of other stuff that made me a roguetard. Some examples:
- At level 10, I entered Redridge. After dying extensively, I gave up and wandered around boredly killing stuff in Elwynn until level 16.
- At level 16, I discovered Westfall. A noob warlock and I tried to take on Deadmines alone. We couldn't even find the instance entrance, though we ran into Marisa du'Paige about six times. It only took me two rolls to figure out that the little gold piece was greed and I shouldn't click the other thing for need. Unfortunately, I was unable to give back the BoP caster robes I'd nabbed. Fortunately, they dropped again the third or fourth time we downed Marisa.
- At 18, I discovered the Deepwater Tram. I thought I had discovered some completely awesome thing no one else knew about, because it was always empty when I got down there. I spent two levels wandering around Dun Morogh, wondering how to turn the quest exclamation marks back on and why I was leveling so slowly.
- Before I deleted Angie, after she'd sat idle for about six months and Ideale was in the mid-40s, I logged on to check out her gear. It was all white armor and weapons (daggers, no less!) purchased from a vendor in Stormwind. The same vendor, no doubt, that I'd sold all of the green drops and quest gear I got to, so that I could afford said white gear. Also, her talent points were quite evenly distributed between all three specs.
... But she did have a red Defias mask. :-D And at least I had her trained in skinning and leatherworking instead of, like, tailoring or something.
Fortunately, I eventually discovered guides and WoWWiki and, after I rerolled on my current home, blogs. And I have to say, quite honestly, reading hunter blogs — because they were the first I found and the most entertaining to me — taught me a lot about how to play a hunter, but also a lot about playing other classes. It was reading about gearing a hunter that I started to learn which stats did what and what to look for when choosing gear for ALL of my toons, not just the hunter. Every toon I played before I decided to give Ideale another try, with the exception of rogue #2, is wearing inappropriate gear, even the ones that are specced with some sort of logic. The rogue is only decently geared because I knew that rogues were supposed to be agile, so I obviously wanted +agi gear, right? *facepalm*
I bring this up mostly because I told Cryptography this story and he said I had to tell it here sometime, but also because there was a post on the forums a week or so ago from a n00b hunter complaining about people badmouthing him in-game. I looked at his armory page, and he was wearing no +agi gear (mostly +spirit and +strength), had a bizarre vaguely-MM, vaguely-hybrid spec, and had vendor white weapons and gun. And then I went back to his post, where he said that this was his main and first character, and where he'd gotten a few "Don't let people get you down" posts and a few jackasses mocking his gear, but absolutely nothing constructive. And I sat down and wrote a reply, drawing on what I'd learned from The Hunter's Mark and Aspect of the Hare and WoWWiki and everywhere else that helped me, giving a quick outline on what stats to look for in gear, linking a couple of quests of the appropriate level that would give him better weapons, and tipping him off to my favorite blogs and Petopia. Because honestly, I've been there, and I'd bet most players have.
And I don't know if he ever read my response (he's Alliance, so I couldn't mail or whisper him), but I hope he did, and I hope he was able to use it. And it felt really good to get an in-game whisper from another person who HAD read it and who thanked me for offering something helpful.
So two things:
1. I'm not saying that you have to go out of your way to do so, but if you have the time and run across a player who is lost, please help them, even if it's just to link them to Big Red Kitty (or some other class-appropriate source). Every time I feel like ignoring or even ridiculing an obviously-new player, I just reflect on Angie's shortcomings and all of the players who helped me get to the point where I don't totally suck at my class, and pay it forward. Okay, not every time — everyone's an asshole sometimes, and I'm an asshole a lot of times — but I try.
2. When you see someone being helpful, even if it's to someone else, say something. I'm generally helpful 'cause it makes me happy to help other people (well, I also enjoy being obnoxious, but I try to control myself), but it's always nice to hear it anyway. And it encourages people to be more helpful and friendly if they are being recognized for it.
And on VeCo, at least, the factions are still at war, and anything you can do to help your faction succeed makes all of you stronger.
EDIT: One other n00b mistake I made: My Forsaken priest was the first character I made after I figured out the concept of specs. I went Shadow with her. And, at about level 15, I decided to respec her as Holy because I thought that her being Shadow made Power Word: Fortitude hurt people, since every time I cast it, it looked like their health went down.
Yeah, I know.
Friday, August 15, 2008
Zoned out
My goal, when leveling Ahami, was to do so entirely in zones Ideale never stepped foot in (excluding Thousand Needles and Winterspring, my two favoritest zones along with Zangarmarsh) at least to 60.
I have made a few exceptions: 1. I did the Magram Clan Centaur quests — and only those quests — in Desolace, since I'd done Gelkis with Ide. 2. I did do four quests in Dustwallow Marsh with Ideale, but I spent less than one level in the zone, so I did not count it. 3. I did a few quests in Hillsbrad on Ahami, but did not do all of the quests in the zone on either character.
Aside from that, I've managed to level both characters in completely different zones, and neither of them has spent any time in Stranglethorn Vale. And Ahami is at level 43, halfway to 44, and still has Feralas, Tanaris, the Burning Steppes, the Searing Gorge and Silithus to visit (along with Winterspring, of course!). Well, and Azshara, but ew.
And you know what? I don't think I've even come close to seeing everything there is to see in old Azeroth at all. I'm pretty sure, as I level Kresha and Gabi (my best friend rolled on VeCo and since she was playing an undead warlock, I pulled my undead shadowpriest out of retirement — we play together once a week now), I will see even more new stuff I've never noticed before.
I really wish that Blizzard would expand some of the pre-Outland zones as they did with Dustwallow Marsh — I never saw the old Dustwallow, but several people I've spoken to who have say the new one is very much expanded. Blizzard could easily expand zones like Silithus or throw in new zones like between Felwood and Azshara or where Gilneas is supposed to be. I'm hoping that they will do so — otherwise, with the expansion, I have the feeling that pre-expansion Azeroth is going to become very empty, especially with all the level 55 death knights who will be running around. And I actually prefer Azeroth to Outland (not sure where I will stand on Northrend — I've been avoiding everything but the new pets page).
I have made a few exceptions: 1. I did the Magram Clan Centaur quests — and only those quests — in Desolace, since I'd done Gelkis with Ide. 2. I did do four quests in Dustwallow Marsh with Ideale, but I spent less than one level in the zone, so I did not count it. 3. I did a few quests in Hillsbrad on Ahami, but did not do all of the quests in the zone on either character.
Aside from that, I've managed to level both characters in completely different zones, and neither of them has spent any time in Stranglethorn Vale. And Ahami is at level 43, halfway to 44, and still has Feralas, Tanaris, the Burning Steppes, the Searing Gorge and Silithus to visit (along with Winterspring, of course!). Well, and Azshara, but ew.
And you know what? I don't think I've even come close to seeing everything there is to see in old Azeroth at all. I'm pretty sure, as I level Kresha and Gabi (my best friend rolled on VeCo and since she was playing an undead warlock, I pulled my undead shadowpriest out of retirement — we play together once a week now), I will see even more new stuff I've never noticed before.
I really wish that Blizzard would expand some of the pre-Outland zones as they did with Dustwallow Marsh — I never saw the old Dustwallow, but several people I've spoken to who have say the new one is very much expanded. Blizzard could easily expand zones like Silithus or throw in new zones like between Felwood and Azshara or where Gilneas is supposed to be. I'm hoping that they will do so — otherwise, with the expansion, I have the feeling that pre-expansion Azeroth is going to become very empty, especially with all the level 55 death knights who will be running around. And I actually prefer Azeroth to Outland (not sure where I will stand on Northrend — I've been avoiding everything but the new pets page).
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Exotic pets I would like to tame
None, so far. Not even a Devilsaur. MORE KITTIES!
I would so tame Tusker though.
EDIT: This was going to be another pet planning entry where I decided what would go in the extra slots in the expansion, but I'm hesitant to choose until I find out if there will be new cat skins. WTB a black lynx (see: night elf druid cat form).
I would so tame Tusker though.
EDIT: This was going to be another pet planning entry where I decided what would go in the extra slots in the expansion, but I'm hesitant to choose until I find out if there will be new cat skins. WTB a black lynx (see: night elf druid cat form).
Monday, August 11, 2008
Sunday, August 10, 2008
How to be a PVP asshole outside the battlegrounds
Oh, sure, it's easy to be a total ass in the battlegrounds. Call people n00bs, try to cap towers or flags by yourself, blame whatever group you're not in if you're doing poorly, cast Misdirect on the clothies and shoot Vann (I swear this wasn't me; some troll hunter from Kel'Thuzad lost us an AV match by doing this repeatedly once).
But it's more of a challenge to be a total jerk outside of the battlegrounds. Aside from riding through Stranglethorn Vale at 70 ganking lowbies, what is there to do?
A lot, it turns out.
1. Don't underestimate the Isle of Gank'Danas. Look beyond the simple art of forming six-man death squads and ganking around the Wretched. There is so much more you can do. Do you have a ranged weapon? Try standing at the edge of the guards' range, attacking a hunter or warlock in hopes that they have their pet/minion on defensive, then run like hell (or hit Vanish). No range? Try standing inside a quest giver. Or have your guildies port your level one alt to the Isle and run around attacking people in town, in hopes that they will respond out of habit.
2. Lose with style at Halaa. You know those huge cliffs that really suck when you get feared off the edge? Why wait to get feared? When your health is at 5 percent or so and there are no heals coming, jump off the cliffs. You still die, but you rob your opponent of that Halaa battle token. Sweet! (To the Alliance warrior I was fighting at Halaa earlier today, should you ever read this: I actually did back off the cliff accidentally, and was trying to fly back up when you dropped on my head and killed me. Sorry!)
3. Use contested territory to your advantage. This one also requires range; hang out near some mobs that are friendly to you in a contested zone. The Theramore sentries in Dustwallow Marsh, for example, are a good choice. When you see an enemy player coming, attack them. When they retaliate, the guards will aggro and you can sit back and laugh. Another good choice is hanging out among the farmers in Hillsbrad; wait until that poor lowbie has four farmers on him, then take him out.
4. Attack the NPCs, not the lowbies. This drives people insane. Take your level 70 druid to, say, the Crossroads or Tarren Mill and wipe out every single quest giver you can find. Only attack lowbies who attack you first. When called on it, claim you were only trying to get a response from the other side; if they do the same thing to Astranaar or Southshore, complain about it on the forums. This also works well with the Defias messenger in Westfall.
5. Hang out at instance meeting stones. Good choices: Blackfathom Deeps, Uldaman, Maraudon. This would be best for a stealth class. Wait until people show up and start summoning a friend, then kill them.
I'm sure there are more, and I'm sorry that this is skewed more toward Alliance; unfortunately, I've gathered all of these ideas from observations and, having never been on an asshole run, have had little chance to observe the Horde jerks on my realm (though from what I hear, stealthing into Ironforge and killing bankers and auctioneers is apparently the preferred method of annoying people Horde-side).
Seriously, though, don't do that shit. It's annoying and it makes you look like an honorless coward. (Unless you're a rogue on an RP server; then it's kind of expected that you'll be underhanded sneaks.)
But it's more of a challenge to be a total jerk outside of the battlegrounds. Aside from riding through Stranglethorn Vale at 70 ganking lowbies, what is there to do?
A lot, it turns out.
1. Don't underestimate the Isle of Gank'Danas. Look beyond the simple art of forming six-man death squads and ganking around the Wretched. There is so much more you can do. Do you have a ranged weapon? Try standing at the edge of the guards' range, attacking a hunter or warlock in hopes that they have their pet/minion on defensive, then run like hell (or hit Vanish). No range? Try standing inside a quest giver. Or have your guildies port your level one alt to the Isle and run around attacking people in town, in hopes that they will respond out of habit.
2. Lose with style at Halaa. You know those huge cliffs that really suck when you get feared off the edge? Why wait to get feared? When your health is at 5 percent or so and there are no heals coming, jump off the cliffs. You still die, but you rob your opponent of that Halaa battle token. Sweet! (To the Alliance warrior I was fighting at Halaa earlier today, should you ever read this: I actually did back off the cliff accidentally, and was trying to fly back up when you dropped on my head and killed me. Sorry!)
3. Use contested territory to your advantage. This one also requires range; hang out near some mobs that are friendly to you in a contested zone. The Theramore sentries in Dustwallow Marsh, for example, are a good choice. When you see an enemy player coming, attack them. When they retaliate, the guards will aggro and you can sit back and laugh. Another good choice is hanging out among the farmers in Hillsbrad; wait until that poor lowbie has four farmers on him, then take him out.
4. Attack the NPCs, not the lowbies. This drives people insane. Take your level 70 druid to, say, the Crossroads or Tarren Mill and wipe out every single quest giver you can find. Only attack lowbies who attack you first. When called on it, claim you were only trying to get a response from the other side; if they do the same thing to Astranaar or Southshore, complain about it on the forums. This also works well with the Defias messenger in Westfall.
5. Hang out at instance meeting stones. Good choices: Blackfathom Deeps, Uldaman, Maraudon. This would be best for a stealth class. Wait until people show up and start summoning a friend, then kill them.
I'm sure there are more, and I'm sorry that this is skewed more toward Alliance; unfortunately, I've gathered all of these ideas from observations and, having never been on an asshole run, have had little chance to observe the Horde jerks on my realm (though from what I hear, stealthing into Ironforge and killing bankers and auctioneers is apparently the preferred method of annoying people Horde-side).
Seriously, though, don't do that shit. It's annoying and it makes you look like an honorless coward. (Unless you're a rogue on an RP server; then it's kind of expected that you'll be underhanded sneaks.)
Friday, August 8, 2008
ATTN: Tabard and mini-pet collectors!
In celebration of the Summer Olympics, Blizzard has created the Spirit of Competition event. If you compete in the battlegrounds, you win a Competitor's Tabard, and if you win in a battleground, you win a Gold Medallion that summons a Spirit of Competition. I didn't have a chance to check mine out yet, but I saw someone else's, and he appears to be a tiny Chinese dragon. TINY = CUTE, in case you were wondering.
Guildie: The tabard's ugly and everyone will have one.
Me: You fail at fashion.
Guildie: I'm covered in metal ...
Seriously, the tabard's not THAT bad, and it'll be cool to have, at least! So that's one more for Ide's collection, and in a few days, I'll have another pet for Ahami. Because OMGCUTE.
The event goes on through Aug. 24, though, so there's no rush.
Guildie: The tabard's ugly and everyone will have one.
Me: You fail at fashion.
Guildie: I'm covered in metal ...
Seriously, the tabard's not THAT bad, and it'll be cool to have, at least! So that's one more for Ide's collection, and in a few days, I'll have another pet for Ahami. Because OMGCUTE.
The event goes on through Aug. 24, though, so there's no rush.
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Revered with the SSO
Ideale is now revered with the Shattered Sun Offensive, meaning she has a spiffy new blue bow. Since I was tired of standing around holding a pike menacingly for 3.2 seconds whenever a warrior got in melee range in PVP, I also picked up the sword and dagger and have been working on catching up those skills (meaning that, when mining in Hellfire Peninsula, I have been a melee hunter). When I hit exalted with Scryers, I'll grab that dagger and ditch one of these stabbers. The combined stats are better than my polearm, AND they're prettier. I think, once my skill gets closer to 375 with both, I'll be more effective in PVP, too — I'm already seeing a difference. Yeah, two-hand weapons can do more damage, but only if you can survive long enough to use them.
My next immediate goals are mining to 375 (I'm at 314 right now), exalted with Frostwolf (less than 1400 rep away), and get new boots (I have the honor but need Eye of the Storm marks ... EDIT: Or I could just get the bracers, since mine are horrible and I DO have the marks for these ... but my boots are hideous).
Questions for you (yes, you!):
1. Now that I don't ever have to go to the Isle of Gank'danas again (at least with Ide), what are some fun dailies? I'm still doing the Isle-free SSO ones for moneys/supply packages, but instead of having to keep my log open for the 15 a day I was doing, I only do, like, four. I picked up the Hellfire Peninsula and battleground PVP dailies yesterday and today, but I'm at a loss as to what else to do. I don't even know where to find the cooking daily. (Note: I cannot do the fishing daily because I am lame and my fishing skill is 130 or something ridiculous.) I suppose I could finish up the quests in Netherstorm and Shadowmoon Valley.
2. Should I work on Sha'tari Skyguard or Netherwing rep next? I hear the Netherwing quests are excruciating and everyone seems to have a Netherdrake, but ... they're so cool! Or should I work on the battlegrounds for my gear and Conqueror title first? Probably that last one. It's not like I have the money for an epic flyer yet anyway.
2a. Is there any real benefit to Ogri'la rep if all I do is wander around the world and PVP? I'm not seeing any jewelcrafting recipes.
3. Where should I be questing/rep grinding with Ahami in Azeroth if I want her to pick up alchemy at 70? I know Plaguelands/Argent Dawn has some transmute stuff, but I didn't pay much attention to the other "old world" factions with Ideale. Timbermaw? Cenarion Circle? She's almost to 39 and I will probably start focusing on her a bit more now, so I need to start thinking about this stuff. I can research which faction has what recipe, but what seems to get the most use?
3a. I'm thinking about specializing in transmutation when I make the switch. (I know, I know, but planning is half the fun for me!) Is this a silly idea?
4. Is there some sort of exchange where I can refer someone else's friend and get a zhevra mount? I don't care about the XP and summoning and junk, but all of my friends who are interested in WoW already play, and I want a zhevra mount for Ahami SO BAD. (What's creepy is, I've been in the Barrens for 20-minute spurts with Daj and Kresha trying to get them out of there, and I was thinking of hitting the suggestions forum and begging Blizz to make a zhevra mount not 24 hours before the promo was announced.)
5. What are some pretty outfits? As I'm leveling jewelcrafting, all the mats I've been saving in Ide's bank are leaving, meaning I now have space for RP clothing. I have the Fire Festival dress and a nice shirt, but that's it. I don't need much, but a couple of casual outfits would be fun. And is there some sort of quick-change addon I can download so if I'm chilling in Orgrimmar and it gets attacked, I don't have to change each item individually?
My next immediate goals are mining to 375 (I'm at 314 right now), exalted with Frostwolf (less than 1400 rep away), and get new boots (I have the honor but need Eye of the Storm marks ... EDIT: Or I could just get the bracers, since mine are horrible and I DO have the marks for these ... but my boots are hideous).
Questions for you (yes, you!):
1. Now that I don't ever have to go to the Isle of Gank'danas again (at least with Ide), what are some fun dailies? I'm still doing the Isle-free SSO ones for moneys/supply packages, but instead of having to keep my log open for the 15 a day I was doing, I only do, like, four. I picked up the Hellfire Peninsula and battleground PVP dailies yesterday and today, but I'm at a loss as to what else to do. I don't even know where to find the cooking daily. (Note: I cannot do the fishing daily because I am lame and my fishing skill is 130 or something ridiculous.) I suppose I could finish up the quests in Netherstorm and Shadowmoon Valley.
2. Should I work on Sha'tari Skyguard or Netherwing rep next? I hear the Netherwing quests are excruciating and everyone seems to have a Netherdrake, but ... they're so cool! Or should I work on the battlegrounds for my gear and Conqueror title first? Probably that last one. It's not like I have the money for an epic flyer yet anyway.
2a. Is there any real benefit to Ogri'la rep if all I do is wander around the world and PVP? I'm not seeing any jewelcrafting recipes.
3. Where should I be questing/rep grinding with Ahami in Azeroth if I want her to pick up alchemy at 70? I know Plaguelands/Argent Dawn has some transmute stuff, but I didn't pay much attention to the other "old world" factions with Ideale. Timbermaw? Cenarion Circle? She's almost to 39 and I will probably start focusing on her a bit more now, so I need to start thinking about this stuff. I can research which faction has what recipe, but what seems to get the most use?
3a. I'm thinking about specializing in transmutation when I make the switch. (I know, I know, but planning is half the fun for me!) Is this a silly idea?
4. Is there some sort of exchange where I can refer someone else's friend and get a zhevra mount? I don't care about the XP and summoning and junk, but all of my friends who are interested in WoW already play, and I want a zhevra mount for Ahami SO BAD. (What's creepy is, I've been in the Barrens for 20-minute spurts with Daj and Kresha trying to get them out of there, and I was thinking of hitting the suggestions forum and begging Blizz to make a zhevra mount not 24 hours before the promo was announced.)
5. What are some pretty outfits? As I'm leveling jewelcrafting, all the mats I've been saving in Ide's bank are leaving, meaning I now have space for RP clothing. I have the Fire Festival dress and a nice shirt, but that's it. I don't need much, but a couple of casual outfits would be fun. And is there some sort of quick-change addon I can download so if I'm chilling in Orgrimmar and it gets attacked, I don't have to change each item individually?
The end times
I can tell they're near. You know why?
Roleplayers have taken over VeCo's Barrens chat. Troll accents, "Blood and thunder!" and similar phrases, talk of plagues ... and not a single mention of Chuck Norris. It's amazing.
Roleplayers have taken over VeCo's Barrens chat. Troll accents, "Blood and thunder!" and similar phrases, talk of plagues ... and not a single mention of Chuck Norris. It's amazing.
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Another weird conversation, and another cat story
For lo, I am bored, and have been doing nothing new in game, just rep grinding (although I now have a Frostwolf tabard because apparently you can only have 100 AV marks at any one time and I didn't want to waste them; I'm starting a tabard collection).
Anyway, while waiting in queue in Orgrimmar this morning, a troll pats Gutripper and then cheers me. So I salute in reply.
Then I get this whisper (paraphrased from memory): "sorry, i was just excited to see a blood elf female actually wearing a shirt and tabard"
How do you respond to that!? I just smiled at him and then my battleground came up and off I went. I haven't seen many shirtless blood elves running around, aside from an occasional bank alt.
***
Okay, so Klio does absolutely nothing but play and sleep — she will even come out of a dead sleep if she hears playing, and join in, even when she's not quite awake yet and runs all blinkily into things.
She also has a tendency to see non-toy items as toys the second they hit the ground (except purses — those she claims by laying on or inside them and play-attacking the hands of anyone who tries to take them back).
The other day, I was changing the toilet paper in the bathroom and dropped the empty cardboard tube on the ground by accident, and this black-and-white streak comes barreling into the bathroom and dives on the tube. Much rolling around and rabbit-kicking commenced, and then she picked it up and ran all over the apartment with it while I tried (and failed) to chase her.
I still can't find that toilet paper tube. And I've vacuumed and dusted since then.
Anyway, while waiting in queue in Orgrimmar this morning, a troll pats Gutripper and then cheers me. So I salute in reply.
Then I get this whisper (paraphrased from memory): "sorry, i was just excited to see a blood elf female actually wearing a shirt and tabard"
How do you respond to that!? I just smiled at him and then my battleground came up and off I went. I haven't seen many shirtless blood elves running around, aside from an occasional bank alt.
***
Okay, so Klio does absolutely nothing but play and sleep — she will even come out of a dead sleep if she hears playing, and join in, even when she's not quite awake yet and runs all blinkily into things.
She also has a tendency to see non-toy items as toys the second they hit the ground (except purses — those she claims by laying on or inside them and play-attacking the hands of anyone who tries to take them back).
The other day, I was changing the toilet paper in the bathroom and dropped the empty cardboard tube on the ground by accident, and this black-and-white streak comes barreling into the bathroom and dives on the tube. Much rolling around and rabbit-kicking commenced, and then she picked it up and ran all over the apartment with it while I tried (and failed) to chase her.
I still can't find that toilet paper tube. And I've vacuumed and dusted since then.
Sunday, August 3, 2008
I stole BRK's idea
A mage just asked me for gold. I told him to bring me 99 Light Feathers and I'd pay him 40g. He already has four.
I should have asked for something more useful. I already have 99 Light Feathers in the bank. :-/
I should have asked for something more useful. I already have 99 Light Feathers in the bank. :-/
Tips for leveling a resto shaman
I am still leveling Ahami as resto (I am the crazy) and I am still liking it a lot, even though the lack of DPS is starting to really suck. Right now I have some sort of crazy person build because, as I did with Ideale, I'm going to get her to 41 points in what I think a resto shaman should have, then go look at standard builds and adapt as needed.
Anyway, 38 levels as resto (well, 28), and I've learned a few things that have actually let me kill larger groups of mobs at higher levels than I did even as a hunter! See, resto shamans are like cockroaches. We're nearly impossible to kill (except by rogues when we haven't hit the battlegrounds yet and thus have no trinket).
First tip: If you are going to level resto and you know someone who wants to level a tank, team up as much as possible (and try to stay around the same level, so you can find PuGs easily). Barring that, find similarly-leveled rogues, warriors, or mages and go through as much of a zone as possible with them. They kill things for you, you heal them so they have less down time, and you both go through the quests a bajillion times faster. Unless you hate instances like me, a good method would be to do all of the instance quests available — any time you aren't soloing, you will be leveling faster than if you are soloing.
That said, here are tips for soloing:
1. Don't waste your mana! No mana = dead shaman. As resto, you do not have the DPS to take out higher-level mobs or a group of mobs quickly. So you need to outlast them. If you can't heal, you die. And shamans go out of mana really fast. So seriously, do not use your mana for anything you're not sure you need.
2. Put talent points into Healing Focus. I skipped this at first, then went back — I wish I'd caught it the first time around. It's really nice to be able to heal without getting interrupted to death (literally).
3. Put talent points into Nature's Swiftness. It can be used for heals, which means when you don't have the 2.5 seconds for Healing Wave, hit Nature's Swiftness and boom, instant, every three minutes.
4. When against multiple mobs, same-level elites, or orange mobs, keep Lightning Shield up, keep Flame Shock up, whack at them with your weapon, and that's it. Do not use your mana for anything else but healing. I have survived fights with elite mobs two levels up on me, barely, by doing this. I have lost those same fights trying to out DPS them and not having the mana for heals. Remember that you are a resto shaman, not a mage, and heal thyself.
5. I know it seems like a wasted talent, but improved reincarnation is very handy when you're learning exactly how much damage you can take at a time. A 40-minute timer instead of an hour has saved me a few corpse runs. However, wait until after you've put points in more useful talents to take this; I wish I had two more points in Healing Focus or a few points in Tidal Mastery instead. Oh well, 13 levels and then I can redo my spec.
6. Stack +int gear, even if you have to take a few cloth pieces to do so. More intellect means more mana, and more mana means more healing. You can be a cockroach almost as well in cloth as in leather — my personal (and incredibly silly) rule is that chest, feet and shoulders are leather, and I mix and match the rest.
7. Carry a one-hand mace and a shield if at all possible. The shield adds survivability, and thanks to paladins, you can find good shields with +int and +stam on them. And thanks to paladins and priests, there are plenty of one-hand maces that easily rival a staff or two-hand weapon for stats (at least that I've seen so far, at level 38). It's like the resto version of dual-wield. Plus, if you plan to stay resto at end game, 90 percent of the good healing weapons that I've looked at are one-hand maces, so hey, your skill will be all nice and maxed and ready to go.
8. Remember what class you are playing. You cannot Feign Death, no matter how many times you hit the keybind for it. All you are doing is wasting mana by casting Lightning Shield seven times in a row. (This tip's mostly for me.)
Some of the above? Could be wrong. I don't know, because I cannot find guides for leveling anything but elemental or enhancement. All of the resto leveling guides I've seen have just been: "Don't."
Most of what I can find are end-game tips, so these are cobbled together from my adaptations of that, my own playing experience, and looking at the pretty end-game armor and weapons and their stats. (I did this to learn which stats were important for a hunter, too, before I found the WoW blogosphere. It's pretty handy.)
Anyway, 38 levels as resto (well, 28), and I've learned a few things that have actually let me kill larger groups of mobs at higher levels than I did even as a hunter! See, resto shamans are like cockroaches. We're nearly impossible to kill (except by rogues when we haven't hit the battlegrounds yet and thus have no trinket).
First tip: If you are going to level resto and you know someone who wants to level a tank, team up as much as possible (and try to stay around the same level, so you can find PuGs easily). Barring that, find similarly-leveled rogues, warriors, or mages and go through as much of a zone as possible with them. They kill things for you, you heal them so they have less down time, and you both go through the quests a bajillion times faster. Unless you hate instances like me, a good method would be to do all of the instance quests available — any time you aren't soloing, you will be leveling faster than if you are soloing.
That said, here are tips for soloing:
1. Don't waste your mana! No mana = dead shaman. As resto, you do not have the DPS to take out higher-level mobs or a group of mobs quickly. So you need to outlast them. If you can't heal, you die. And shamans go out of mana really fast. So seriously, do not use your mana for anything you're not sure you need.
2. Put talent points into Healing Focus. I skipped this at first, then went back — I wish I'd caught it the first time around. It's really nice to be able to heal without getting interrupted to death (literally).
3. Put talent points into Nature's Swiftness. It can be used for heals, which means when you don't have the 2.5 seconds for Healing Wave, hit Nature's Swiftness and boom, instant, every three minutes.
4. When against multiple mobs, same-level elites, or orange mobs, keep Lightning Shield up, keep Flame Shock up, whack at them with your weapon, and that's it. Do not use your mana for anything else but healing. I have survived fights with elite mobs two levels up on me, barely, by doing this. I have lost those same fights trying to out DPS them and not having the mana for heals. Remember that you are a resto shaman, not a mage, and heal thyself.
5. I know it seems like a wasted talent, but improved reincarnation is very handy when you're learning exactly how much damage you can take at a time. A 40-minute timer instead of an hour has saved me a few corpse runs. However, wait until after you've put points in more useful talents to take this; I wish I had two more points in Healing Focus or a few points in Tidal Mastery instead. Oh well, 13 levels and then I can redo my spec.
6. Stack +int gear, even if you have to take a few cloth pieces to do so. More intellect means more mana, and more mana means more healing. You can be a cockroach almost as well in cloth as in leather — my personal (and incredibly silly) rule is that chest, feet and shoulders are leather, and I mix and match the rest.
7. Carry a one-hand mace and a shield if at all possible. The shield adds survivability, and thanks to paladins, you can find good shields with +int and +stam on them. And thanks to paladins and priests, there are plenty of one-hand maces that easily rival a staff or two-hand weapon for stats (at least that I've seen so far, at level 38). It's like the resto version of dual-wield. Plus, if you plan to stay resto at end game, 90 percent of the good healing weapons that I've looked at are one-hand maces, so hey, your skill will be all nice and maxed and ready to go.
8. Remember what class you are playing. You cannot Feign Death, no matter how many times you hit the keybind for it. All you are doing is wasting mana by casting Lightning Shield seven times in a row. (This tip's mostly for me.)
Some of the above? Could be wrong. I don't know, because I cannot find guides for leveling anything but elemental or enhancement. All of the resto leveling guides I've seen have just been: "Don't."
Most of what I can find are end-game tips, so these are cobbled together from my adaptations of that, my own playing experience, and looking at the pretty end-game armor and weapons and their stats. (I did this to learn which stats were important for a hunter, too, before I found the WoW blogosphere. It's pretty handy.)
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Roleplaying is for girls?
So there's this really pathetic Alliance rogue who hangs out on the Isle of Quel'Danas for days at a time, literally without ever sleeping I swear to God. I say pathetic because of that (seriously, dude never sleeps, ever) and because, in full S2 gear, he will jump me when I'm alone and at half health, kill Cinn first, and I can still get him down to about a quarter health before he offs me. A BM hunter with two pieces of S2 and random blues and greens (well, three pieces of S2, but those shoulders are fugly and I never remember to change into them), petless, who sucks against rogues.
My favorite part is waiting for his CDs to be up and getting him with Serpent Sting, then watching mobs kill him after I die and he can't vanish. He either doesn't have CoS or always has it on cooldown, because I've never seen him use it. Second favorite thing is dropping snake trap just before I die, because he also never has trap detecting on. I'm pretty sure he eBayed his account.
Anyway, a mage was looking for him, and since he had just ganked me, I told the mage where he was and /pointed. And then the mage whispers me. This is copied verbatim from my chat log.
Mage: r u a guy or a chick??
Me: Why?
Mage: ur emoteing
Me: Yeah. It's an RP server.
Mage: since when
Me: Since Blizz made the server and labeled it one?
Mage: u always believe what blizz says? lol
Me: *shrug*
Mage: i'd just feel better about it if u were a chick ((WTF? Why should it matter to this dude if some random player he's never met is roleplaying on a roleplaying server?))
Me: *shrug*
Mage then invites me to a group. I decline. Mage gets all butthurt and starts sending emoticons at me. 'Cause, you know, little :( sadfaces are totally macho. So I made something up about having to log and switched to an alt. I was done with my dailies anyway. (And really, I only did this because I don't want my guild to get a name for being home to assholes. Were I unguilded, I'd have told him to shove it, because I am not very nice and that bullshit annoys me like what.)
Seriously, what the hell is that? Roleplaying on a roleplaying server!? Must be someone with boobs, because guys TOTALLY never roleplay. I guess all the alleged males in my guild and half the over top RP guilds on the server are secretly female ... and since women don't play WoW, then the server is full of imaginary people. :-O
My favorite part is waiting for his CDs to be up and getting him with Serpent Sting, then watching mobs kill him after I die and he can't vanish. He either doesn't have CoS or always has it on cooldown, because I've never seen him use it. Second favorite thing is dropping snake trap just before I die, because he also never has trap detecting on. I'm pretty sure he eBayed his account.
Anyway, a mage was looking for him, and since he had just ganked me, I told the mage where he was and /pointed. And then the mage whispers me. This is copied verbatim from my chat log.
Mage: r u a guy or a chick??
Me: Why?
Mage: ur emoteing
Me: Yeah. It's an RP server.
Mage: since when
Me: Since Blizz made the server and labeled it one?
Mage: u always believe what blizz says? lol
Me: *shrug*
Mage: i'd just feel better about it if u were a chick ((WTF? Why should it matter to this dude if some random player he's never met is roleplaying on a roleplaying server?))
Me: *shrug*
Mage then invites me to a group. I decline. Mage gets all butthurt and starts sending emoticons at me. 'Cause, you know, little :( sadfaces are totally macho. So I made something up about having to log and switched to an alt. I was done with my dailies anyway. (And really, I only did this because I don't want my guild to get a name for being home to assholes. Were I unguilded, I'd have told him to shove it, because I am not very nice and that bullshit annoys me like what.)
Seriously, what the hell is that? Roleplaying on a roleplaying server!? Must be someone with boobs, because guys TOTALLY never roleplay. I guess all the alleged males in my guild and half the over top RP guilds on the server are secretly female ... and since women don't play WoW, then the server is full of imaginary people. :-O
Friday, August 1, 2008
Random n00bness
Apparently, you can get Badges of Justice from the SSO care package thingies. I didn't know that.
149 more until I can get that fancy, high-falutin' bow all them heroic-runnin' and raidin' types done got! At this rate, it'll only take me, oh, three years...
149 more until I can get that fancy, high-falutin' bow all them heroic-runnin' and raidin' types done got! At this rate, it'll only take me, oh, three years...
Don't knock my Spirit Bond!
I see a lot of people disparaging Spirit Bond. And really, I can kind of understand why, because it doesn't seem like a very useful talent.
But if you PVP, it definitely can be. See, Feign Death sometimes works against other players (sometimes, in the heat of a large battle), but usually it doesn't. Traps sometimes work on other players, if they've used their trinket and cooldowns already. Sometimes. But usually they don't.
So for hunters who raid, where even if Feign Death resists, you have a tank trying to retake aggro, traps which will usually work, etc., Spirit Bond really is pretty useless. But for PVP hunters, it can actually save your ass.
I grabbed it when I did a respec somewhere in the 40s or 50s (I forget where), just to see what the problem was with it. People kept saying it sucked, it was a useless talent, etc.
But I cannot count the number of times when I've been in a battle and gotten down to the barest sliver of health, and the 150 or so health that this returns to me every ten seconds has saved me long enough to get a heal, drink a health potion, or bandage. I cannot count the number of times that this has returned my health right before that last tick on the DoT a warlock dropped on me would have finished me off.
Maybe, when I get a bit better gear, things will be different and I'll drop Spirit Bond. But right now, my unbuffed health is at about 9500 when I'm in my best PVP gear, and most other people in the battlegrounds or on the Isle are starting off with at least a thousand more health, usually 1500 or more. When you're starting off that far behind, an extra 150 health at an opportune moment can mean the difference between surviving a skirmish or waiting out the next 30 seconds at the Spirit Healer (and I always seem to get there right after the rez wave hits). That's 30 seconds you're not helping your team.
So let me have my Spirit Bond. (Plus, the name is just cool.)
But if you PVP, it definitely can be. See, Feign Death sometimes works against other players (sometimes, in the heat of a large battle), but usually it doesn't. Traps sometimes work on other players, if they've used their trinket and cooldowns already. Sometimes. But usually they don't.
So for hunters who raid, where even if Feign Death resists, you have a tank trying to retake aggro, traps which will usually work, etc., Spirit Bond really is pretty useless. But for PVP hunters, it can actually save your ass.
I grabbed it when I did a respec somewhere in the 40s or 50s (I forget where), just to see what the problem was with it. People kept saying it sucked, it was a useless talent, etc.
But I cannot count the number of times when I've been in a battle and gotten down to the barest sliver of health, and the 150 or so health that this returns to me every ten seconds has saved me long enough to get a heal, drink a health potion, or bandage. I cannot count the number of times that this has returned my health right before that last tick on the DoT a warlock dropped on me would have finished me off.
Maybe, when I get a bit better gear, things will be different and I'll drop Spirit Bond. But right now, my unbuffed health is at about 9500 when I'm in my best PVP gear, and most other people in the battlegrounds or on the Isle are starting off with at least a thousand more health, usually 1500 or more. When you're starting off that far behind, an extra 150 health at an opportune moment can mean the difference between surviving a skirmish or waiting out the next 30 seconds at the Spirit Healer (and I always seem to get there right after the rez wave hits). That's 30 seconds you're not helping your team.
So let me have my Spirit Bond. (Plus, the name is just cool.)
Tips for powerleveling professions
So with Ideale's mining just short of 300, I figured it was time to get her jewelcrafting past 80. This is not the first time I've power-leveled a profession — I had some interesting adventures with blacksmithing and leatherworking with two of my now-deleted Whisperwind toons — so I knew a few things ahead of time.
1. Save the mats. Lootables and the Noob School both have guides for several professions that list exactly what you will need and when. Run a lowbie alt or new bank alt to a capital, and hoard those mats as you level your complimentary gathering profession (or farm them on your gathering toon, or whatever). This will save you a crap-ton of gold. In fact, reading the powerleveling guides are a good idea in the first place.
2. Have an alt or a friend with at least mid-level enchanting. The higher-level stuff you make might sell decently, but the stuff you make in any profession from about 1-200 will sell on the Auction House for far less than the cost of materials — and for less than the materials from disenchanting will sell for.
With jewelcrafting, for example, I made 10 Amulets of the Moon yesterday. Now, these sell for a little over a gold on my realm, but the jewels and bronze required to make them cost about 8g an amulet. I had a ton of the moonstones saved up, so this wasn't a big deal, but still, not very cost-effective. However, the Greater Astral Essence, Soul Dust, and Large Glimmering Shards I got from disenchanting them will bring in about 25g after selling it all, or a little over 2.5g per amulet. Still less than the cost to make them (had I bought the mats), but more than selling the amulets themselves — and since the AH is somewhat flooded with them, they might not have even sold.
3. Spend as much of your skill-ups on things you will need for later skill-ups as possible. So if, say, you're doing leatherworking and making medium leather or curing light hide is orange, that's an almost guaranteed skill-up. And you will use that medium leather or light hide later on. So make that until that skill goes green! That way, you're making more materials instead of wasting them. I had an overabundance of bronze settings sitting in my bank because I made them until I stopped leveling at all. I'm about to have the same problem with mithril filigree. Don't worry about making too much of this stuff — anything over-make use can go on the Auction House or in the guild bank when you can't use it anymore. To quote my ex-boss who was quoting some other dude, "Work smarter, not harder."
4. If you can hold off until 70, do it. Because no matter how much you prepare, unless you have a lot of time to farm materials, a ton of bank space, and/or a great support network of high-level alts or rich guild members, you're going to have to spend some money. Not much if you plan well, but enough to hit your pocketbook ... unless you can do quests for gold, whether it's dailies or the quest chains in Outland/the Plaguelands/whatever that you never got to before hitting 70. So do those quests, get your rep and cash, and then you don't have to worry about losing too much money if you need to buy something (and you don't need to sell those mats quite as desperately).
That's about all I have right now.
1. Save the mats. Lootables and the Noob School both have guides for several professions that list exactly what you will need and when. Run a lowbie alt or new bank alt to a capital, and hoard those mats as you level your complimentary gathering profession (or farm them on your gathering toon, or whatever). This will save you a crap-ton of gold. In fact, reading the powerleveling guides are a good idea in the first place.
2. Have an alt or a friend with at least mid-level enchanting. The higher-level stuff you make might sell decently, but the stuff you make in any profession from about 1-200 will sell on the Auction House for far less than the cost of materials — and for less than the materials from disenchanting will sell for.
With jewelcrafting, for example, I made 10 Amulets of the Moon yesterday. Now, these sell for a little over a gold on my realm, but the jewels and bronze required to make them cost about 8g an amulet. I had a ton of the moonstones saved up, so this wasn't a big deal, but still, not very cost-effective. However, the Greater Astral Essence, Soul Dust, and Large Glimmering Shards I got from disenchanting them will bring in about 25g after selling it all, or a little over 2.5g per amulet. Still less than the cost to make them (had I bought the mats), but more than selling the amulets themselves — and since the AH is somewhat flooded with them, they might not have even sold.
3. Spend as much of your skill-ups on things you will need for later skill-ups as possible. So if, say, you're doing leatherworking and making medium leather or curing light hide is orange, that's an almost guaranteed skill-up. And you will use that medium leather or light hide later on. So make that until that skill goes green! That way, you're making more materials instead of wasting them. I had an overabundance of bronze settings sitting in my bank because I made them until I stopped leveling at all. I'm about to have the same problem with mithril filigree. Don't worry about making too much of this stuff — anything over-make use can go on the Auction House or in the guild bank when you can't use it anymore. To quote my ex-boss who was quoting some other dude, "Work smarter, not harder."
4. If you can hold off until 70, do it. Because no matter how much you prepare, unless you have a lot of time to farm materials, a ton of bank space, and/or a great support network of high-level alts or rich guild members, you're going to have to spend some money. Not much if you plan well, but enough to hit your pocketbook ... unless you can do quests for gold, whether it's dailies or the quest chains in Outland/the Plaguelands/whatever that you never got to before hitting 70. So do those quests, get your rep and cash, and then you don't have to worry about losing too much money if you need to buy something (and you don't need to sell those mats quite as desperately).
That's about all I have right now.
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