Mend Pet

This is my druid, Ayrshire.  Like so many druid alts out there, I’m raising her as my  “Brajana-can’t-afford-to-buy-flasks” herbalist/alchemist!  I also rolled her because I wanted a Tauren, and Twitter voted Druid over Shaman when I polled.  The highest I’ve gotten a druid is mid-20s, but hopefully this one will make it all the way, like my paladin before her!

Walk with the Earthmother!

Notice her attractive shoulders and chest piece? Yep, they’re heirlooms.  I ran some heroics over the weekend and realized I had exactly 200 Stonekeepers Shards, and over 80 Conquest/Valor/Heroism badges.  So I rolled out the Wintergrasp to grab her Exceptional Stormshroud Shoulders, and plopped down 40 Heroism tokens for her Stained Shadowcraft Tunic.  I originally thought the chest would only be available through the Argent Tournament, but I was pleasantly surprised to learn otherwise!

I’m really happy with the heirloom system.  I think it’s a great compromise between the extremists who say “All characters should start at level 55!” and the others who say “Leveling too fast is CHEATING!”

Where do I stand?  Well, I like leveling.  But sometimes it is just too time consuming.  I don’t feel like it’s a waste of time… and while you don’t exactly learn how to play your character as you would in a level 80 raid setting, you learn invaluable lessons and know the mechanics of your abilities front-to-back, so that when you do begin to change to the raid playstyle, it’s just the way you use the abilities that you have to learn, not what each ability is for.

A 20% increase to my experience gain does give me a noticeable boost, but it’s not as extreme as just jumping straight to 80 – I still have to learn to play.

Quite a long time ago, I wrote a post for Hunters similar to this.  Well, I find myself in a similar situation once again:  Hoping to upgrade my gear, but not always able to run heroics, and certainly not a big fan of relying on random drops.

So here’s a list for fledgling Retribution Paladins who would like to upgrade their quested greenies without having to depend on groups or the dreaded RNG!

Note: This list doesn’t include any items that require a specific profession to be equipped, such as Engineering helms, Jewelcrafting trinkets or Blacksmith weapons.  If you have a crafting profession, be sure to check your profession trainer to see what you can make!

(See the list after the break!)
Read the rest of this entry �

In case you haven’t yet heard, they’re buffing up Fishing, and even a little bit of Cooking as well with Patch 3.1.

• NEW FISHING BOBBERS!! OMG, these are SOOOO cute!!  We’re uncertain how they’re obtained right now but… I MUST HAVE THE MURLOC!!!
• Dalaran Fishing Dailies!  It’s about time.  You can check out the guide to the dailies on El’s Extreme Anglin’.  Some of them sound pretty interesting!
• New Rewards!  With daily quests come rewards, of course.  Some of the rewards found so far include a new non-combat pet, a couple of new fishing poles, and the hat that was available from the Shattrath dailies.
• Fishing in Lake Wintergrasp!  Woohoo, now I can choose to get ganked while fishing!  But seriously, Wintergrasp Fishing seems to be full of valuable fish, including all the fish for creating a Fish Feast.
• Borean Man O’War recipe!  This fish is no longer useless.  Plus, another recipe towards [Chef de Cuisine]!
• Nat’s Lucky Fishing Pole is now a reward from the Artisan Fishing quest – now the Alliance can have one as well.

Of course most of this is coming directly from the great fishing resource at El’s Extreme Anglin’.  Check it out for more updates and info!

Looking through the google search terms that brought people my way, I found a few interesting ones, and a few that I thought I might as well answer, in case someone finds Mend Pet with the same question again!

“where to farm borean leather”

Personally, I love to farm the gorillas in the south/south-east part of Sholazar Basin.  Apparently, BigRedKitty has a secret farming spot that he won’t tell anyone about… but I find these Gorillas are good because they are only level 76ish, they are grouped up (ideal for Gorilladin farming), they drop Chilled Meat, and I can keep an eye open for Loque’nahak the Spirit Beast there.

“antisocial hunter blog”

Should I be worried that so many people have been pointed my way using this search term?  Ah well.  Guess that’s what I get for writing my Upgrades for Anti-social Hunters guide!

“hunter mend pet addon” / “wow addon keep track of mend pet”

One big problem I have with the default UI is that it doesn’t let you keep pet buffs showing all the time – you have to mouse over.  So to keep track of Mend Pet, I use unit frames (Xperl for me).  You can also get a mod like KHT (Kharthus’s Hunter Timers)

“no money”

Yeah, don’t rub it in.  I’m poor.

“ice strikers cloak average cost”

This will of course vary on different servers and at different times, but to buy an [Ice Striker's Cloak] pre-made on the AH right now in Hydraxis, it’ll cost about 600 g.

To buy the mats, it will cost:

• [Arctic Fur]x2: 108 g
• [Eternal Fire]x6: 132 g
• [Eternal Shadow]x4: 92 g
• [Frozen Orb]x1: 120 g
• Total:  452 g

Personally, I chose to farm all the mats except for the Eternal Shadow.  You can get Eternal Fire pretty easily in Icecrown or Wintergrasp, and if you are a skinner, you may or may not have some Arctic Fur on hand.

“how to mend a giraffe’s back?”

o_O

Dude, this is not something to be googling.  If you have a giraffe with a broken back, please do not use the Internet to solve the problem.

“swiftarrow set has no gems”

This is a fact.  It as no gems.  You can see this as a good thing, if you don’t want to spend the extra gold on gemming.  However, it makes the gear less customizable.

“were is the entrance to the oculus”

Did you mean: whereis the entrance to the oculus?

Anyway… first time (and only time, so far) that I ran Oculus, I got really darn lost.  So here’s a guide.  While on your flying mount, get to the summoning stone, and face toward the instance structure.  Go inside.  If you’ve been to the Nexus, you’ll know where the entrance to that is, it’s slightly below ground level.  Now look up – there is a sort of bridge thingy with a gate and a portal directly above.  That is the Oculus!

“fun guild events wow”

What an excellent query.  In fact, I just so happen to have an entire series of posts ready to be published on the subject!  Just wait for it!

“ice barbed spear vs whale-stick harpoon”

The [Whale-Stick Harpoon] is much better, if you can get your hands on it.  Agility, Attack Power, Hit Rating… yep, the Harpoon is pretty nice.  But the [Ice-Barbed Spear] is nothing to scoff at until you can get your reputation up to the right level.  If you’d like to see a direct comparison, have a look here.

“band of kirin’tor hunter”

Depending on your level of play, I would say the [Band of the Kirin Tor] probably a good investment – however while the price tag may seem to be a intimation that this is the best ring you can find, it’s not.  It is only a level 200 ring, so there are a few that are better out there.  Here is a quick comparison with some other 200 and 213 level items.  Of course, if you are willing to pay extra just for the extra Hearth, then by all means, go ahead!

Sorry for the slight lack of posts this week! Here’s the deal.

Today, I’ve got one of the scariest final exams I’ve ever had. So the last two days have been exclusively study time (except my dailies of course!) I also have a second final tomorrow, so once I get home from this one, it’s straight back to studying. Boo.

And here’s where I go all non-WoW and ranty. The transit service in my city has decided to go on strike today. Which means students like me have to find alternate means for getting to their exams, people have to take time off work, spend money on taxis, try desperately to find people with cars willing to take time out of their day to drive them around in the middle of a winter storm. They claim of course this strike isn’t about money. It’s about respect, they want more sick days and better scheduling (although they ALSO want a 10.5% pay increase). What I’d like to know, is how they expect respect when they disrupt an entire city, and hold the city as a hostage? I don’t respect that. They won’t be receiving any additional respect from me.  It’s not as if their quondam service has improved in the last several years, so why should their pay?  We have an economic crisis on our hands, and they expect to get more money.  All the while, punishing those who have nothing to do with their pay, who depend daily on them to keep their lives running.  I would like to know why transit service is not considered an essential service yet.

Anyway…

After I’m done finals on Thursday, I’ve got a full day of Heroics scheduled for Friday!  I’m going to try out some new macros and new rotations and try to post some results.

I’m also going to work on crafting some more of the Swiftarrow Set and other leatherworking pieces to replace a few more of my BC level stuffs!  Brajana wants loots!