Fishing For Volatiles

After spending a ridiculous amount of gold this week thanks to Mr Robot, I really need to farm like a little demon to make the spend up. Not all Mr Robot's fault though. Those darned Mulgore Hatchlings made me buy them! Anyway, back to the farm.

A great way to make money for a tailor is selling those Illusionary bags (2.5k up on AH). Now, they take approximately 2 weeks to farm for the Dreamcloth required, so it gives you plenty of time to farm the Volatiles to make the cloths. Also, they sell for a pretty penny on AH, so why not farm those extra to maximise profit?

My first spot to hit is always Stonehearth in Deepholm (as mentioned in my prior post), armed with a Potion of Treasure Finding. In 1 hour today I farmed 75 bolts of Embersilk (on AH for 499g, which is far more effective than making Embersilk bags to sell, as they sell for less and slower and use a hypnotic dusts too). I also got 7 green drops (I'm also an enchanter, so this was great for disenchants), 5 Pyrium Ore, 6 Elementium Ore and lots of vendor trash. In addition, I got 17 tiny treasure chests, which each contained a good amount of mixed Volatiles. Now this wasn't a great farm today. Sometimes I get up to 25 tiny treasure chest and they have green items in and a lot more Volatiles. Or blue item drops. But hey, maybe I over farm there ;). Sometimes it's fantastic, sometimes not so much, but ALWAYS better than farming other areas. My little magelet's AoE means I can farm mobs fast to maximise loot!

Another thing I tried this week (mainly through boredom!) was fishing. I had read that Volatiles could be farmed this way and decided to give it a try. Initially I didn't catch much other than junk but I decided to go farm the lava pools in Cannon's Inferno. If you fish directly into the little fire pools, it's a 100% chance of Volatile Fire. Each pool yields about 5 before it disappears but that is still a great rate if you're the only one there! I read that the fire pools in Hyjal are a great place to fish too. I haven't been yet but I will update when I have!

The great thing about fishing in Cannon's Inferno is that you can do it as soon as you get a fishing rod. You don't have to be high level in your fishing to do this, just so long as you can handle your business with the elementals that surround the pools!

Now, onto Volatile Air...

Penguins All Around!

We took our daughter on holiday this weekend and had a fabulous time! Though, when we arrived at our destination I couldn't help but think that the penguins were following us! We went to a theme park and a sealife center (we have a marine biologist to be) and my little friends were there at both. Here a few pics of the little cuties!

I am penguin, hear me RAWR!!

My dream view from Warsong Gulch graveyard ;)

Angry penguin will stare you to death!





Enjoy!

Tales from the Dark Side: My First Guild Experience

"I didn't make him for you!" - Dr Frank 'N' Furter, Rocky Horror Picture Show

When I first started to play this game over 5 years ago I joined a guild with my partner. He was always the bigger player than me and I was a bit hesitant to join an established guild because I'm a little shy and sometimes very unsociable. But he spoke well of this guild, so I thought, why not? I was a Horde back then. A really pretty Blood Elf Hunter. Now I know what people think of the Blood Elves and people who play them but as if I want an ugly Orc, or Undead, or any Horde race for that matter. I want pretty or cute. End of!

So, back to my point...

I joined the guild, who shall remain nameless, and to start with it was great. They were fun, helpful and a nice group of people. They were into raiding, which at the time I wasn't. And they seemed fine with that. We got on well and had some fun. And then it began.

I seemed to be somewhat lacking in dungeons. I wasn't great at it I'll admit. Also, I lose any sort of function as soon as I get raged at. Which happened a lot. So I asked for some help in guild as the leader had a hunter too. At first the help was good. Not too invasive, mainly tips and hints. I was thankful for those, as my gameplay improved. Then he asked to meet up to have a look at my kit. I agreed and we met up. All of a sudden my Belf turned into something I didn't recognise. My kit was changed, I had to change my bow to a gun and I was told my pet had to go. This was before the days of transmogs etc, so my character looked terrible (a big thing for me) and I didn't want a bloody warthog running behind me. It seems petty but I felt like my character wasn't mine anymore but if I was to participate in the guild then I would have to keep these changes. And to do all this took until 5am!! Even though I kept trying to politely leave without causing offence.

After that, more orders were given and I didn't like it one bit. A game I enjoyed as some time away from the stresses of work and home turned into another job. And really crappy job, where the boss shouts at you constantly. Around this time, my partner became a 'serious' raider. The raid time were specific and not always in keeping with our RL plans. I started finding that things we had planned were cancelled so that the guild was kept happy. This made me a grumpy bear. I'm all for playing a game in your free time but when it starts to affect your RL it's just not cool. Cue, lots of arguments. This killed the game for me completely. I stopped playing immediately. It wasn't fun but yet it had taken over our lives. So, for me it had to go. Unfortunately this was not the same for my partner. Though after a few months of getting the same treatment he left too.

How I see it (and it may be a selfish view), I don't pay my subscription for someone else to play my game. I don't go on the game to get shouted at for wearing less than desirable kit. It's a learning curve, and I like to actually learn. Rather than just having kit thrown at me and told from now on I have to wear it, I want to earn it or make the decision to buy the best I can to progress. I want to make my own mistakes. While help is nice, sometimes it's too much.

Having come back to the game and changing factions I vowed to join no other guild. Again, this soon changed. My partner had joined a guild and I thought it would be nice to try again. Fortunately, this guild is fantastic. A great mix of people, who are kind, fun, helpful (in a constructive way), encouraging and not too stressed if you make mistakes. We have lots of laughs (Flowers for Morchok anyone? Or guild birthday parties!). They have enabled me to grow as a player and want to try raids, which is something I would never have done before. They have helped me to grow in confidence so I now feel that I can hold my own in a raid or dungeon and this has made me dedicated to progression in my game. I now check guides and try to build the best character I possibly can, so that I will one day be a good addition to any guild raids. I still have a long way to go but without their presence I wouldn't have even begun. I have a place now and it's firmly with this guild.

So, a huggggee thank you to the Stone Dragons of Argent Dawn. For making the game fun again!

Hagara Screenshot: DS 10 Man Edition

This is becoming a tradition now. I have to mount my Battlecat next to Hagara after defeat or I'm not happy...

Flowers For Morchok: How Not To Raid Sucessfully

Tonight I did my first ever real raid. A few guildies and I got together and did a DS 10man run. I have done Raid Finder weekly but was secretly hankering for the dizzying heights of a normal DS run. As I was running late from work, my lovely partner helped pug a group that I could join in with. I dashed in and jumped straight in his seat to start my grand adventure. Got my Draconic on, ate some yummy buff foods, cooked a table full of food for the party and waited to start. I realised I was wearing bunny ears from my NobleGarden exploits and quickly changed into my Hood of Hidden Flesh (mogged to be a halo for my little angel!). I was ready! Ready to show these bosses how much this little mage has changed, since she dropped 6k DPS in Raid Finder 4 weeks ago...(another story, yet to come).

My DPS has steadily been getting better since my first Raid Finder experience. I changed spec to Arcane and started gathering good PvE gear. My item lvl is 387 and my DPS in raid had grown to about 25k. So, I made the decision to try.

We cleared the first few trash mobs easily, but I had notice my DPS had dropped to about 10k. I had a moment where I was puzzled but decided to just go with it and see if it improved. We looked Morchok in the eye and started to fight. Still my DPS was low...but it always is when I have to keep running into that bloody red ball (which I always have to do). Then another mob got pulled from the side. We wiped.

And then it started. The pugs started putting up recount and raging on the little gnome's terrible DPS. One healer just left. After one wipe?? So, I started going through my kit to see what was wrong. I never did this badly with worse kit. And there it was...

I was wielding a bunch of Spring Flowers...

Not my Ti'Tahk, The Steps of Time or my Rathrak. A bunch of effing Spring Flowers!!!

"Oh hai Morchok! You wan pwetty flowers?" Facepalms ensued. Big facepalms and epic cursing. I had just lost half the group because they wouldn't stay where the DPS was so low. I apologised and said I had the wrong staff on, but that was a lie. I had no staff on...

How did I manage this?? Last time I checked, my staff was on!! Fortunately for me someone else joined the group and saw another player in our group that had left their raid and started ragging them instead. I was off the hook, temporarily. They too left after a huge arguement and it looked like the raid was over. My secret was safe.

After about 30 mins we managed to gather enough to start. We cleared 4 bosses with no more wipes, which was not bad to say some of us were undergeared. We had a fun run. Without any more noob shouting (which I hate), and the little gnome did good DPS and looted some uber pretties!

Afterwards I made the decision to tell our guild what I had equipped. I was worried people would be mad because I had effectively lost the first group. But I was greeted with laughs! And that's one of the greatest things about our guild. None of the elitist crap exists. We have fun, if we don't win we try again and no one is made to feel bad for the mistakes they make. Which is more than can be said for a lot of players...

So, feel free to take Morchok flowers. He loves them...he really does.

Favourite Screen Shots So Far

Here is a few of my favourite screen shots so far...

Rocking out on my hardcore Darkmoon Battle Cat mount next to Hagara's corpse

Nude dancing in front of Deathwing. Because we want to! Thank god the light is protecting my modesty! Fun Fact: We were almost all nude while we waited for some tanks to join. One tank joined, pulled boss, chaos ensued. Although, I have never seen as funny a sight as a raid group running round in the nude trying to fight Deathwing. Recommended!

One of my favourite parts of WoW is the farming. I live to farm. Honestly, no one farms harder than me! I find it therapeutic. Especially when I have a neat little Potion of Treasure Finding. My heart skips a beat every time a tiny chest drops. And when those tiny, cute treasure chests contain green drops and volatiles, the Enchanter/Tailor in me goes crazy! Added bonus of extra cloth drops and I'm the happiest little mage evah!


Lets get one thing straight. Annoying though the mage may be sometimes, my little gnome is made to harvest gold. With my pocket portals I can get myself to the neatest farming spots. My favourite at the moment is Stonehearth in Deepholm. Mobs close together + AoE = GOLD WIN! I can farm, on an average run, 75 bolts of embersilk, plus plenty of green drops, gold, ores and volatiles. All from those teeny, tiny treasure chests! My guild gets a share and I get the rest. To make shit and sell for a pretty penny. I do at least three runs per week here, mainly for the gold but also to go an hour without getting raged in dungeons. Though this may be counter productive as my DPS drops somewhat after being able to mindlessly create carnage for an hour...

I am a Secret World of Warcraft Player

Ok, it's time to admit it. I play World of Warcraft. I play it hard. So, you might be thinking, "what's the big deal?". For me it is a huge deal. World of Warcraft broke up my partner and I approximately 2 years ago. After 9 years together, a f*****g computer game broke up our relationship. Not through me playing (and I did, but not a lot). But through my partner's devotion to the game. He was obsessed! To the point where the raid came before everything except work. It was not the only thing, but it certainly played a big part in the breakup. We were apart for 18 months. And somehow we ended up back together. With terms and conditions. No Warcraft under any circumstance! But this was not to be...

Our daughter is now of an age where she no longer wants our company. She's old enough to play out with friends, chat on FaceTime, play her own computer games. So, after long and lengthy chats about acceptable usage, I caved. The poor guy was bored out of his wits! I read, sew, piss about with my PiePhone etc. all of which he does not do. He's a gamer, as was I when we first met. So, I gave in, but I had a sly plan. If I went on and had my own WoW account, then he would happily come off the PC to let me play. My intention was to limit times, without making a big deal about it. And thus, my own addiction began.

I created a Gnome.

A badass Gnome Frost Mage. It had been a long time since I had played and Azeroth has changed a lot. Also, my previous Toon was a Horde Blood Elf, so I was changing faction too. I didn't like Alliance initially (and secretly I do still favour horde, though my guild would disown me for saying it!). What I didn't realise was that I had gone from the most hated Horde race to the most hated Alliance race. But fuck the haters. My gnome is awesome and the Frost Mage spec suits me down to the ground. Especially in PvP. Where I know I am potentially the most annoying character on the field. And I live for that shit. I started gently and vowed to join no guild (I'll get to the reason why in another blog post), that I was only playing to keep my significant other from becoming an unsociable addict again.

Then I PvP'ed. Instantly I was hooked. Where else could I go to get raged at by someone on my own side, rocking a huntard? Also, I found that my spec did indeed allow me to be annoying. Make them stand still while I laced them with some Ice Lance spam (which I did not know was bad at first. It has taken me a long time to improve my game).

Then came the polymorph. The sheep, which has since become a penguin. Which has given me so much joy! Can't get out of the graveyard because the other side are camping shitheads? Fuck it, penguin them one by one for shiggles. They deserve it. And also, they look like they're wearing tuxedos. So it's win win. My partner is often amused by my Tourette's like rants at the PC while PvP'ing, but his favourite by far was my "hah! Big Tauren *insert custom curse* now teeny tiny little penguin", to myself. I might add that my rants are nerfed to ones without Tourette's whilst the little one is in the house! When only adults are present, my sweary rants are legendary. I can't help it. Rogues illicit a similar sweary rant, even now I'm a big Lvl85, with pretty good kit. They are just annoying little wankers aren't they?

So, I'll go into more detail about my Wow based exploits in my next posts. My main decision to make this blog is to meet other players. I have no one other than my partner or my guild to share amusing Wow tales with. So, it would be nice to share with like minded people. Beware though, if you are of a sensitive nature, I rant and curse quite a lot. Especially when referred to as a pink goblin...