Mend Pet

Well, I’m almost recovered from my wisdom tooth extraction!  It’s been five days, but I learned this morning that it’s still not safe to eat mini-wheats.  So I continue on my pudding and mashed potatoes diet until further notice!

I spent the last 4 days at home sitting around… playing my paladin.  Almost exclusively.  Boy oh boy, do I love playing retribution! <3

Ghugh got to run half a dozen or so Heroics, and even managed to get in on a PUG OS10 run.  He started off Thursday morning with mostly quest blues and greens, and now he’s only 1 item away from his [Superior] achievement – his Libram, which probably won’t be replaced til Naxx.

"So... what're you in for?"

I’ve also decided to spoil this kid rotten with BoE epics when I get the chance.  He’s already sporting [Spiked Titansteel Helm], [Ice Striker's Cloak], [Titansteel Destroyer] and I even spent a solid 1.5k gold on [Wristbands of the Sentinel Huntress].

Between PUGs, he’s been finishing up some questing… and I have learned how much I hate Icecrown quests.  HATE.  Some of them sound neat in concept, but they fail to mention if you don’t do it just right, YOU’RE GONNA DIE! Grrr.  And all those group quests?  Yeah, screw that.

I must admit I haven’t even logged onto Hydraxis since Tuesday’s raid… it’s been a nice break.  It’s also been interesting to see the differences in each class.  It’s great to be able to heal myself, and I feel more valuable to be able to cure diseases or whatever (you know, click the little decursive buttons when it yells at me!)  But I have yet to master the art of GTFO of Whirlwind.  Sigh.

Did he ever lose it?  I’m not sure.  But when I initially hit 80, I was a bit lost about what to do.

But now I’ve realized my mistakes:

1. Just because I’m 80 doesn’t mean I’m ready to run Heroics.
2. No one runs regular 78-80 dungeons.
3. I don’t need to gear for both of my specs at once.

So I’ve decided to focus on rep grinds and getting some Titansteel gear together.  I’ve already replaced his Ingvar’s Monolithic Cleaver with a Titansteel Destroyer, and after tonight, I’ll also have a Spiked Titansteel Helm to replace his Helm of Brutal Slaughter.  My goal is to get Ghugh’s retribution set (his main spec) Heroic-worthy, and then start running Heroics as DPS (hopefully with a bear-tank so I can steal all the plate tanking gear that drops!)

So for now, Ghugh has made his home in Icecrown.  It’s not a very pretty place to hang out, but it’s got everything I need:

If I’m not questing in Icecrown, I’m doing my Argent Tournament & Knights of the Ebon Blade dailies.  If I’m not doing dailies in Icecrown, I’m mining a buttload of Saronite and hoping to pick up some Titanium.  If I’m not mining in Icecrown, I’m at the closest mailbox/forge making Titansteel and taking advantage of my mage’s Transmute: Titanium skill!

It’s going to be pretty slow going, but I don’t mind.  If Ghugh has to wait til 3.2 to start running Heroics… well, that’s ok!  Better gear then, anyway!

I just have one thing to say - HOW do people do it? Maintain multiple 80s?  I’ve got just two now, and it’s difficult to keep up!  Sheesh.

Spent some more time with the Paladin this weekend!  I didn’t get the 4 levels in 1 day I got last week, but I did managed to get him to nearly 69.  Woo, almost to Northrend!

I decided not to head out right at 68 because that’s when I had just started Nagrand.  Nagrand is my favourite Outlands zone – I’m not going to skip it!

I discovered something though:  They made the Nagrand quests shorter in 3.1! Remember the Mastery quests from Nesingwary?  You had to kill 30 of every beast in the zone?  No longer!  They’ve all been knocked down to 12!  Does this mean the DEHTA has finally gotten to Nesingwary?  I think so!

In fact, this holds true for several other quests in the zone that I’ve noticed so far – the poo quest is down to 8 poo instead of 15 poo, you only have to kill 8 water elementals and 8 shadow elementals instead of 12 each… they have just made it all a bit quicker.

Even more reason to continue leveling in Outlands before hoping on a boat!

In other Paladin news, I ran a Blood Furnace PUG on the weekend.  We started with 2 Death Knights, 2 Paladins and a Rogue.  If you haven’t already, you can read my theory on Death Knights and PUGs.  I got shoved into the role of healer, which was fine.  We had no tank specified – it was a Free For All between the other Paladin and DKs.  That was fun to heal.

Well, we made it past the first boss, and then we wiped because someone pulled 2 groups full of silencers and I couldn’t ret heal our way through it.

DK #2 has gone offline.

/facepalm.

But for once, the rest of the PUG wanted to keep going.  So we did.  And we 4-manned the rest of Blood Furnace with two half-tanks and a ret paladin healer, with not a single wipe.    Too bad for the guy who ‘disconnected’, just gave us more loots!  So my theory holds true: our PUG was actually more successful after we lost the second DK!

After this, I decided to respec my secondary talents for Holy rather than Protection.  There are two reasons for this:

1. I don’t want to learn how to tank for the first time with a PUG.  I would rather wait til 80 when I can go with people who will be patient with me and help me out.
2. There is always a huge shortage of healers while leveling and PUGing. If I can fill that hole, I will be much more likely to finish instances.

So, while I really don’t enjoy paladin healing compared to priest healing or paladin DPS, I can deal with it.

Ghugh finally pushed through the last 15% and hit level 60 last night!  I’m so proud of him… *tear*!

I am determined to do the epic mount quest.  Why?  Because it’s EPIC!  Yes, I know I can just buy the darn thing at 61.  But I had most of the mats I needed to get for the quest on me already from mining, and the boyfriend needs to run the instances on his 80 anyway, so it’s really no big deal.  The only big deal is trying to find time to run them

Ghugh has developed a nemesis though – a creature known as the Nerubian Overseer.  Nasty little bug, he is!  I was determined to kill this rare and take his pretty loots… but he does this horrible web that prevents you from attacking, moving or casting spells for 8 seconds, and he casts it over and over again.  He killed me no less than 3 times while I was on my way to work on my Paladin quest.  What a jerk.

Once I finish up my mount quest, it’s off to Outlands!  I was going to head out right when I hit 58, but I figured, I need some Argent rep for my paladin quest anyway, and I was moving along very quickly with the quests I had, so I just hung around in Winterspring and Western Plaguelands.

I’m thinking of buying dual specs for Ghugh.  I want to try my hand at tanking.  As you can see from the screenshot… my Mining/Skinning combo and my not having to pay a lot for mounts has put me in quite the advantageous position, as far as gold goes… so I can certainly afford it. But I really don’t know anything about tanking!  HALP!

NOTE: This post was written May 7, 2009, before the announcement and subsequent release of the Northrend Children’s Week Quests for patch 3.2.  This is not a guide, but my own version (and Blizzard totally stole my ideas, btw.)

… There isn’t one.

But if there was, this is how I imagine it:

It would begin with a quest from a Tuskarr in Dalaran.

Savior of the Tuskarr

“As the Kvaldir continue to plague our shores, the Tuskarr continue to suffer heavy losses.  It has left many families broken, and we have far too few to look after all the parentless children we’ve come to care for.

If you are willing to help look after just one pup during Children’s Week, your help would be greatly appreciated!

Use this whistle to summon your charge.  Take good care of him while you can!”

Use your whistle to summon your Tuskarr Orphan.

Can you imagine how cute a baby Tuskarr would look?  Golly!

You’d then be asked by your little buddy to visit a few key locations.

It’s difficult to come up with good locations when there is so much phasing in Northrend… but here’s what I’ve got.

I’m Not Afraid of Heights!

“From Moa’ki Harbor we can see a really high tower shooting up in the sky.  The Matron tells us that it’s the home of dragons!  Can you believe it?  Dragons!  I’ve always wanted to see one, and I bet you can see all of Dragonblight from up in that tower!”

Introduce your Orphan to Chromie at Wyrmrest Temple.

Chromie would call upon a dragon and let you and the orphan ride around the tower on its back.  Cool!

Mrrrgggllrlrgghh!

“They always tell us scary stories about the Gorlocs in Borean Tundra… but I’ve also heard they have cousins called Murlocs.  Someone from the D.E.H.T.A. came to Unu’pe one day and told us they were going to the Northwestern Coast to try to make friends with them.  Do you think they did it?”

Visit King Mrgl-Mrgl at Winterfin Retreat with your Orphan.

The Orphan would have to make friends with a little Murloc Tadpole so we can all overdose on cute, I think.

Baby, it’s Cold Outside!

“I’ve heard of a paradise – a warm, colourful place where the rivers run freely, the flowers grow all year round and you don’t even need to wear furs!  But how could such a place exist so close to all this ice and snow?  It must be some sort of magic.”

Ask the Avatar of Freya to explain the secrets of Sholazar Basin to your Orphan.

This could be a good opportunity to get into some more lore about why and how Sholazar came to exist, and the dangers the Scourge are posing to the area.

Return to the Orphanage

“Murlocs, Dragons, Giants… it’s been such a great day!  I can’t wait til I get back so I can tell the other kids all about it.”

Return your Orphan to the Orphan Master in Dalaran.

Reward Pets

Now here’s the tough part.  What pets could you get from this quest line?  There weren’t that many new animals introduced in Wrath, and they weren’t very cute, to be honest.

Shoveltusk Calf: You could certainly cutify these guys. If you and someone else had two calves out, they would butt each other with their horns, like they do in the wild! Cute!

Baby Seal: After all that mating work we did in Dragonblight, certainly they can spare a baby for you! And there would finally be a good use for that baby seal icon.

Rhino Calf: This is the only thing I could think of for a third. It's pretty similar to the Shoveltusk, but it was either a Rhino or a Jormunger!

So there you have it, my rendition of the Northrend version of Children’s Week.  Got any other ideas?