Re-Gearing Up at 70

Well not sure how to explain been at the level cap quite frankly. Been on a younger server, doing Group Quests are looking hard to do in Outland at 70. No one is around and if they are you can't get anyone to help you do 3 & 5 people group quest. No one from my guild at 70 is really ever on only a few at 70 so no help there either if that was possible. Looking for group request for quest go unanswered for quite a long time its frustrating. So I'm not even close to being able to daily quests earn that daily gold. Hell I can't even seem to get a group to start the Ogril'la quest chain in Blades Edge Mountain that require groups to do. Seem like I can get a nice shield from that quest chain also but for now its going nowhere. On the bright side have 2 good pieces of Pre-Kara Tanking gear. For the most part I just do some quests I need to do to clear my log and earn gold that way.

Took me days to get this done or let alone find a Blacksmith on server that can make Felsteel gear on my server. Personally I don't know if and when I will ever get to Kara and its not on top priority on my list either, but I'm using Kaziel's Pre-Kara Tanking Gear list as a very good reference as its a really good list of gear to aim for. Plus he spent all that time making the list so why not use it as reference anyway. A few other gear list I'm using as gear reference choice to get up till then some being quest or faction reward items to get. However eventually found on AH the Felsteel Helm for 40g. This morning after asking in trade forever found a Blacksmith (BS) that can make me the Felsteel Gloves so I now have 2 pieces of gear from the list and my 1 Epic Trinket in the Darkmoon Card Vengeance. So 3 items so far gearing up wise. Added that BS as a friend for when I need to get other stuff made (Shield Spikes), hell hard enough to find one. Last time took a week to find one that made Thorium Shield Spikes.

Gearing up Cost
The other day I had a level 70 asking me for gold in Org? Wonder why when you can obtain it more easily in Outland. However its not the first time its happened. Gearing Up does seem to have a astronomical cost! And at 70 I'm finding out if you want it you sometime have to pay and pay heavily or do faction reps or instances to get it or even to just get a little bit better stats. Slowly I'm replacing my gear though.

This morning finding the high level Blacksmith was a relief and allowed me to get the Felsteel Gloves. The guy would make me the gloves for free if I had mats, cool. I was right there in AH, was already studying over the price of Felsteel (coughs) and 6 Felsteel bar cost me 110g. That bit my ass to spend gold like that. Alchemy is not this great a money maker I can tell you these days. I needed the glove so I paid up on AH! Paid the Blacksmith 5g for his skill to make them even though he said would do it for free. Personally even if someone of high skill decides to do something for free I always pay them a fee for service rendered. You win friends that way for future reference.

Well having 2 good piece of gear the Felsteel Gloves and the Felsteel Helm for upping my Defense Rating and will need to gem socket these baby for more stamina. So back to AH to find some Solid Star of Elune and Glowing Nightseye. Nope, can't find. Did a Wowhead search and found can get a Jewelcrafter (JC) to from the raw gem. So saw some Star of Elune up 32-36g. Gee I'm about to go BROKE! I'm never going to get that damn epic mount at this rate. So bought all 5 gems at a cost of 168g. Next saw 2 Nightseye gem on AH only ones listed average price by auctioneer running at 40g average. Bought both at 72g. All this gold spending is quickly getting hard to swallow and I'm going broke quick I can tell just to gear up as a Tankadin and improve my armor. Back to trade to find a JC. Found one and go all 7 gems cut into Solid Star of Elune and Glowing Nightseye to socket both Felsteel armor piece. Paid the JC 10g for his time and service. I believe in paying people well for their hard to find service.

All in all spend about 410g on 2 Felsteel Armor pieces & all the Jem socketing piece for upping my stamina and defense to work way up to uncrushable at 490 Defense. A trade off there as a Paladin, had to give up loads of Intelligence and Spell Damage to get more Defense in stats (From 393 to 418 Defense), but need the defense though. Seems JC rake in some money but I'm not quiting alchemy to find green pastures in another profession. I fought hard to up Alchemy and get all the rare recipe and Flasks I have. But I'm quickly realize Gearing Up is a new game and in this game its not taking me long to realize that its EXPENSIVE and you will often be BROKE! I'm now back down to 200g flat!

If I'm going to be this broke just to gear up and get to Kara, then the next expansion be here before I get Epic Flying Mount, both of them. That I can see ahead. Now I realize why people have to go grinding to grind the dirt out in Outland for gold. Plus being a Tanking class is already Mucho Expensive to just being on that wears plate and taking loads of hits let alone instance wiping wearing plate and having high repair cost. Looking ahead I see broke days ahead on this path Gearing Up. Hell I haven't started to get mats to enchant my gear yet and you know how expensive enchanting mats are. Also seem I'm going to have to get good with the Keepers of Time for the defense enchants I need also for my gear. Tough Choices.

Playing WoW Blogs

As a WoW player and a person that blogs on life as a Paladin I play much of WoW not even logged in. What I mean is that the amount of time I spend reading other good WoW blogs surpass the amount of time spent actually playing WoW logged in. Imagine that. Its often class research, perspective or keeping up on what's going on withing the classes or in game. I think if you blog enough you really need to spend time reading other WoW blogs. You can't know everything all the time. And maybe that's just me that reads that much, but be nice to know how that is with all the other WoW bloggers out there?

Lately there are WoW blogs everywhere, like lots of them. I have many other blog links other than the one I read on my Blog listed in my Safari and Firefox browser that I read occasionally when I ran out of stuff to read (Or at work) or when some good blogs started go dead for whatever reason. Always unfortunate to see that when it happens but I guess such is the nature of things. Most the blogs I tend to read are Paladin & Warrior blogs or those that tank so often read those for different angles of perspective when I can. Overtime seem most good WoW blogs have "Six Degree of Separation". We're all separated by knowing one other blog in common, at least for the ones that reads blogs other than their own.

Added these new blogs to Blog List. Being reading these a while both Holy Paladin Blog:

Blood Paladin

Bubble Hearth

Just Not Enough Time

Haven't done a post in a few days so I'm going to blame it on having all last week off to level to 70 and then having to go back to work working everyday up to today. Its been a drag the last several days at work to say the least. Think I do more blog reading at work than actual work most days. So compare to your normal week, today for me is Friday. The job is a grind (Sounds familiar), I do the same things over and over everyday with repetition except in those time when some systems there throw you for a curve and in those days I wish I was anywhere but work. But I really do enjoy my Job.

For the most part, if we all only had more Time. If you had more time you maybe get to 70, level that alt up, have more time to raid, have more time to grind those primals or faction reps. If had more time I could play more WoW and maybe not have a life. If we only had more time.

If I had more time, I would get off my tired ass and go cut my overgrown grass in my back yard I been meaning to cut it for a while. If only we all didn't have a real life maybe we could all just live in WoW and all raids will be always full.

Thanks for Stopping By & Reading Here

Thanks to you all you commenter's that stop here to read for enjoyment, fun, research or bored at work because you enjoy Ardent Defender (AD). You've made getting to 70 easier and Fun.

Blogging is not easy. Its neither easy to do daily, nor is it easy to do often. It takes up allot of WoW time among other things. At most it is a bit consuming to do. Often you have to remember lots of things that happen hours ago. However no one really knows it all in WoW, some people may I'm sure. But you readers that stop here adds to that and enhance it or adds your bit of knowledge to events that happen or things one ask questions about. Those things make me better at WoW and somehow also better at blogging here. Often I learn much from all of you that comment here. For some of you I back track and find your blog and I too become a secret reader and comment when I can. I read every single blog thats listed on my site because they are good or interesting. I learn stuff there too.

Just want to say Thanks To All Of You that stop here for whatever reason you do and add your good comments here. I've become much better at WoW because of your comments here and other readers that stops here to read learn just as much from your positive comments.

Training & Respec

After getting to 70 and all the playing to get there I was so tired I slept for almost all day thursday; Luckly I've been off all week from work on my Shift rotation schedule. So back to work this weekend . Logged in visited the trainer today and while doing that decided to do a respec for now to 0/44/17. Removed Guardian Favor in Protection I never seem to use it much these days. Dropped Seal of Command in Ret as just prefer to use Seal of Crusader with the 2H and better consistent damage to me, plus I'm not stacking crit gear for that anyway.

Did put 1 more point in Vindication to be 3/3 and dropped 1 new point in Eye for an Eye. I hear Vindication don't work on bosses but thats ok, I'm still working on PVE stuff so it will work there as I do see it up often in melee on mob. Picked up allot of new rank spells and seem to be a big increase in damage in all the final spell ranks I've noticed. The respec cost me 15g and with getting the new talents spent 97g at the trainer Ouch!

Turned in my Firewing Signets with Scryer's up to Honored had just enough and then turn in all my Sunfury Signets for the rest of the reps. Turned in Crystal Fragment for Consortium reps in Nagrand though I have nothing to gain with the consortium ever. However will still do some of the reps and all the quests for Fun. Kinda work out since need to get Motes from the Void Walkers there anyway to make Primal Shadows for alchemy so it works out at same time. A free bag of gem is better than no bag of gems. Plus those gems do come in handy in Alchemy Transmutations.

Faction Reps

Alchemy
While doing the run to 70 in Shadowmoon Valley. I picked up 2 Blue Alchemy drops, first time ever was so lucky to get a alchemy drop and both I didn't have and can actually use. Killed one the Deathforge Guardian's just outside Horde camp there in Shadowmoon by the fort for Fel Regeneration Potion. The other was a Fel Mana Potion dropped from one the Eclipsion Broodwarders storming the Evil BloodElf camp. Both were bind on pickup and though when I got the second drop it was the same drop as the first as both being Fel potions. Was a bit surprised. Both adds nicely to my Rare Potions List.

Mission Accomplished! - Galo Level 70

Newly Minted Level 70 - Galoheart. Brave, persistent, courageous and daring Knight . If you met a Knight named Galoheart's that what he would be. In the WoW Armory the name is still unique I'm the only one with it at 70, I just checked. Started Galo 3 days after TBC released, I was new to WoW.

In the beginning I thought I would never ever get to level 70 and thought the people at level 60 were gods among mortals. Good things that's not true. I made one goal and it was not to get to 70. Made a simple goal to start, keep going and not quit just playing daily. That's simple how I got Galo to 70. /played 43 days. I can say I really love Playing Galo and being a Paladin vs any other class in WoW. Many other classes are much easier to play than playing a Paladin in WoW. I can say playing a Paladin is complicated. As Honors Code says on his blog playing a Paladin is like been Batman you got a lot of tricks in and on your suit and you get to do cool stuff. Kinda like that.

Leveled entirely as a Protection Paladin and my final spec is 0/45/16 I may tweak that some but that's my spec by choice. Still need to pay a visit to the trainer to pick up all the new training. It was not slow leveling either. I spent over 1/3 that time in AH working my Alchemy Profession supplying the entire serve pumping out potions day and night and making gold vs questing most the time. Other time Galo just spend time exploring around WoW.

The Journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step so does the journey of one Paladin begins with the drop of Seal. Well done young Blood Knight! You started a Tale of a Epic Journey and through diligence, self discipline and patience you have completed your Crusade to Level 70.

Galo's New Mount. First thing Galo did after hitting 70 in Shadowmoon Valley Zone was to turn in the quest that dinged me to 70 then get the new Flying Mount. Cost was 800g for the riding skills and 100g for the mount. Was very excited to get the new mount. Took the trip back to Shattrath City on the mount and flying over head well initiated Galo in Airborne Herb Farming. This mount is very slow. I just got the mount and the novelty of getting it is already wearing off, its slow. Honestly, I think I'll spend most my time mounted on my Paladin Epic Warhorse Mount, with Crusader Aura its 20% faster and I really don't mind stopping to whack a mob if I feel the need. I'll need the mob looted money anyway. I NEED A FASTER MOUNT. So new mission get or make 5000g to get the Epic Fast Flying Mount whatever it takes!

Its almost 5 am and done a all nighter leveling. Really need allot of sleep and need a vacation too.

Thou Shalt Not be Stupid! - Amen!!

Agree, some people are Stupid! BRK (Big Red Kitty) has a post today that's worthy of a Amen and then some. So direct link to a post there because to me its a subject often Asked By many and often Asked Of many people also. So many kudos and pet snacks to BRK for setting it straight. Amen Brother!

Edit: Fixed the broken link.

Which is better Spell Critical or Hit Rating?

People sometime wonder why don't you write about good WoW stuff like raiders write about or stats or tactical stuff. Well obviously I'm not in the raiding game or yet. The Blog is about life as a Protection Paladin, the stuff or crap that happens, the choices I have to make and often its been about leveling because that what I've being doing since starting this blog way back in the 30's or so.

Questing I've picked up lots of gear with all different kinds of stats and most I can understand. Picked lots of spell dmg gear to know how just how tasty that is on a mob for increase spell damage and more is better than less. However I'm also seeing lots of Armor gear with "Spell Critical Strike Rating" & "Hit Rating" and since I do both cast spells and melee and I'm just wondering for Prot Paladin gear choice which one is better and how does picking either affects me offensively?

Raid Consumables - Know your Calories & Medication

I'm all about Alchemy and being a Paladin Alchemist. So always like to keep on the up and up researching on things or find good to know info for competitive reasons. Sometimes you can find a profitable niche with good info on the AH market with some good info. So cruising the WoW Forums came across this guide to "Raid Consumables". Hopefully the thread gets stickied. I'm sure a lot of people will find this very useful as a lot of work went into that guide.

69 and Countdown to 70!

A Summary Post.

I've been a bit busy on the Safari Hunts in Nagrand and all the other quests so in between I've leveled from 67 to 69 and with 75% more XP to go to 70. Its too bad I've finally used up all my usual rest bonus as I often had over 100-150% rest bonus and made leveling much faster.

A Ramparts PUG.
Bad news first! Answered a call to tank a weekend PUG for a group that need a tank for Ramparts Me (Protec Paladin) a Mage, Warlock, Priest and a Rogue. The Rogue loved to sneak up and start fights before anyone was ready and often when I was drinking for mana. The Priest was getting mad because I was AoEing some of the Mobs and and kept going "OMG we gona die Noo he's consecrating" and I'm having to keep aggro from the Rogue and everyone else. A blue sword dropped, everyone passed on it except the Warlock which got the sword and someone cried ninja on the Warlock, the priest immediately quit over it being mad and everyone else quit the group over the ninja thing. So I was like What the Hell!


I can tell I also need more tanking practice to refine my skill in a Instance which comes with lots of practice, been more focusing on leveling to 70 primarily. Soloing I'm fine and damn good at it. I always solo everything and can solo to no end and pick fight with Elites and win. But in a group setting as a Paladin there is a lot of situational dynamics that I'm not all too good at yet. If I take things slow in such cases I'm fine. What's tough is for me I find is this: Managing my mana to generate and keep threat and tanking mob while watching and managing my Judgement & Blessing cool down, Seal cooldown, Holy Shield and its cool down, while eyeing my health. All while tanking mob and having to watch out for anything strange that happens like loosing agro or stray mob. Barely have time to even eye what's happening in Combat log as things happen. Tanking is Fun, but it aren't easy. Its damn Multi-tasking as a tank and as a Paladin to me its even more Multi-tasking with our Seals and cooldowns. Will get better in time with practice.

Nagrand
Its a lot of fun to questing in this zone. So far I can tell only have 3 group quest remaining unless they have a chain quest to them and maybe another quest in the Blood Ring which was fun first time there.

The Nesingwary Safari quests were fun all Hunter Quests involving hunting wild beasts all over the zones and a Elite quest on each at the end. AoE all those when I could to speed up those quests except the large woolly beasts. All the Elites you really need a group for as they have lots of HP and do hit very hard. All quests were fun and lasted a while. Often I just explored the zones (love to do) while doing those quests to find other things of interests and herb farmed all the way. Lots of Felweed, Dreaming Glory picked up.

Rest of Quests from the Horde camp and Elemental Throne involve storming camps, downing, freeing captives in camps, killing raiders in camps, swimming underwater to collect quest items, storming camps and burning down camps, killing bosses in a camp, collecting X number of Y from a mob. Rest was killing elites at end of chain quests. Storming a Mountain camp to kill a King Ogres (fun). Bombing Missions in PVP zone. Regaining control of PVP town (Halaa). Other things I did in between all those was indiscriminate killing of any random mob or elite if I could to find out what would drop and see what loot they had. Picked fights with Elites that had more HP than I think I could win, was still fun to test skill limits. Also Stormed every cave I came across usually was a Orge infested cave of some kind. All in all was all fun!

Made 2 new friends on quests a Hunter and a Warlock while storming a western zone Ogre camp to kill the King Ogres. They were good to group with. A Stonescale Potion I had came in handy tanking that ogre as our group completed all the quest including a round in the Blood Ring. A Devine Shield Bandage macro came in handy here.

Deadly Mobs!
Most mobs in Nagrand are pretty much ok to fight. Only mob I found really rough to fight and not the usual enemy caster like usual is the water elemental in the lake around Halaa. Can't remember their names but they drop a poison of some kind on you constantly that's really tough on your health. I had to constantly cleanse all the time to fight those things for quest items worst mobs I fought here in zone or for a while also. Have to watch out for those mobs.

Other Stuff
Picked up lots of Felweed/Motes of Life/Fel Lotus all together & Dreaming glory all over the zone where ever I spotted them. Picked up a nice Alchemy Potion in Halaa with my reward token, Elixir of Ironskin nice potion. Figured out where Primals now come from, motes of whatever elements you collect in batched of ten and transform to a Primal of that element. So not I got lots of Primals from all the motes I collected. Some the elemental mobs drop their corresponding mote also and figured out which one does which. So lots of motes and Primals in the bank, so much I had to send to one of my alts with a empty bank reserve. I feel like I'm in the big time now with primals. Just no primal fire yet.

Often collected lots of green gear, got a few blue drops however most the time looking at the green gear some not that great in stats often resist gear of some kind dropping from mobs or with spirit stats and so just straight vendor all those. I can sometime see what some gear is hard to find from things sold straight to vendor. Collected drops on lots of nice green weapons and AH all those. So far i've over 1100g on Galo now as reserve so that fix my gold problem for getting the flying mount at 70. Having a damn hard time finding someone to make me a Thorium Shield Spike on this server and been trying for days to no end for my shield.

Life on a young server needless to say selling for Alchemy is not all that great either and its been taking a lot of work. As a Alchemist I haven't made high end potions in some time, I do find some markets in low to mid level areas and tap those for side change. One of the things I've been working on on a young server is slowly average leveling out and raising the prices of certain potions to what my experience have shown me in over the thousands of potions I've made to a good average price. Doing it by slowly putting stuff on AH at what I know is fine and if it does not sell, rinse and repeat it over and over as the cost to list it is not that great. I can soak up the minor loss in order to raise the server prices of certain goods.

With just a few group quests left in Nagrand I headed back to work on some green quests in my log I had back in Terokkar Forest. Collecting lots of Signets and other rep items and saving them up for turning in for Scryer reps. Trying to get the reps from item turn in first. Now Honored with Mag'har, no reason really to go beyond that as nothing to gain for reps so saving rep items to use for Consortium reps though nothing to gain from them either. Not a single thing to gain from doing Consortium rep grind. However will do them for the fun and see what becomes for it. As a Alchemist don't seem like a lot of faction that friendly to me for reps. So far I've avoided directly doing most of the reps for Shattrath and others until I can turn in the items for free reps first then do the quests later to make it a bit easier

Trash Collection
Funny thing about trash, I see a lot of people leave stuff and only pick up white or better item. I'm always on auto loot to make picking up thing efficient. If my bag gets full or when I look as I often do will know bag inventory state. However always seem to find if grinding on a specific mob a while a lot of that trash item adds up to a whole bunch of gold when turn in to vendor. All that gold add up to pay for my repair bill. Good money in Trash Collection.

Screenshots - Central & Southern Nagrand

Central Nagrand. Smack in the middle of this zone is a PVP Zone and a Neutral town called Halaa which is heavily guarded and can not so easily be captured by either Horde or Alliance. Sometimes have to turn in Quest items here when its in your faction control for NPC items. Saving up to redeem to get my 18 slots bags here. Somehow Halaa always seen to be in Alliance control. This one of those moments its actually in Horde control as you can see the flag. So I had to snap a pic of it too. Nice shot I think too.


Southern Nagrand. Overall Nagrand is really beautiful for the scenery as its a really nice zone to quest in one of the best one so far that I have enjoyed questing in. Took this screenshot among the many that I always take while just sitting on the mount looking around and at that humongous rock when a Elite came into view passing by. That rock I found out is Oshu'gun and is one Epic large diamond I would have to say. Made a nice photo shot. Hmm, I have a group quest still to down that guy right there too. I have to say Nagrand to me is probably the Best Outland zone in scenery and Questing. Blizzard did a really nice job on this zone.

An Epic Tankadin Blade?

I saw this Sword just browsing through the WoW Armory, couldn't grab a image of it. It a drop from Archimonde at Mt Hyjal. Its also listed as the T5 Warlocks Weapon Sword. Its funny the crap you can read over at Thottbot sometimes in comments. The Spell Damage alone and threat you can generate from this sword at 1.8sec speed/ Reckoning and SOR would send you off the charts with Holy damage and threat. How can you tell me that this is not a Epic Phat Sword for a Tanking Protection Paladin IF one of us could get our hands on it?

Tempest of Chaos
Binds when picked up
Unique
Main HandSword
16-132 DmgSpeed 1.80
(41.0 damage per second)
+30 Stamina
+22 Intellect
Durability: 105 / 105
Requires Level 70
Equip: Improves spell hit rating by 17.
Equip: Improves spell critical strike rating by 24.
Equip: Increases damage and healing done by magical spells and effects by up to 259.


It might take the next expansion for me to even get a skin of a chance to get a hand grip on this sword in some kind of raid at lvl 80 maybe. Dreaming maybe.

Guild Fun: Azeroth Running of the Bulls

ForTheHerd.wmv

Yes if your wondering this was actually hosted by my Guild: It came from the Blog the official WoW Insider Horde Guild on Zangarmarsh on Tuesday night but with a lot more people involved. Yes its a official guild also. Unfortunately I missed it due to the Job thing. Working nights all this week. However It was so much FUN on FUN that the sounds of running Hoofs had the Zangarmash server reved up in FUN and laughing their asses off to no end. The rest of the server came out to kill Tauren Cows in Masses at Stormwind. Cows got Slaughtered, Grade A Beef was been made and someone forgot to set up the BBQ stand in Stormwind because it was a Slaughter house there if there was ever one at all. Send the sanitation patrol to Stormwind please!

Since I missed it all I could do was laugh my ass off at all the FUN I missed because it was just too much FUNNY FUN. Hey WoW is suppose to be FUN, hang up the raid for a night and have some FUN. Its the only reason I play WoW, for the FUN. Check out the Write up over at WoW Insider linked above because that is even better over there.

Edit: Add link to the Photo Gallery.

Some New Blue Weapon Gear

Picked up some new gear along the way on AH while just browsing. Sometime you get lucky so it seems I did in the things I invest in most. Things I invest in: A good 1H and Shield & Rare Alchemy Recipes. Seems I've picked up several Blue gear at least most my green gear still sucks at least in the Stamina department.

Picked up Shield of the Wayward Footman for 50g and Crystalblade of the Draenei for 70g. Both was way much better than what I had before and will last me all the way to 70 at least. I hate to blow money (gold) on anything else that are a waste usually. Saving up for my Flying Mount as I get to 70 my next Investment. At least better than investing in Weapon Enchants. I call those the leveling a gold sink until 70.

Well Bed time. Zzzz

Netherstorm - A View from my UI Window

Should have made this post yesterday, was too busy. The thing about playing WoW is that you still have to live and work in real life, well for some people that is in WoW. Life still goes on though your spending time playing WoW.

Been working all night, a day at work for me is 12 hours long with a 2.5 hrs commute total. So after a long night at work I'm all pumped up with coffee that's so I can do my commute home and only reason I'm still awake writing this entry.

Pic above is my UI, somewhat what I settled on yet tinkering with it at times its mostly all Ace Addons. Removed some addons also. Was just slowing down things too much. I have a wide screen Mac so its roomy on screen plus I can even enlarge it more since it dosen't take up the full screen either which allows me to have safari pages open to look things up. Screen even looks better when I maximize it. Using Omen threat meter and most the other on screen bars are hidden and show on mouse over. My bags are at the top of screen but they are hidden too.

Well I'm 67 now and inching closer to Kindergarden. Life at 70 where your real education begins. Dinged over the weekend on Sunday. Feels good to just make progress even if its baby steps. So knocked out 2 levels over the weekend and did some exploring in between to new zones and decided to go and pickup some new Flight Paths to Blade's Edge Mountain (3), Shadowmoon Valley (1) and (2) in Netherstorm. Then went looking for some herb Netherbloom only found 1 herb and had 2 snatched from right in front of me while fighting higher level mobs some of those stone Elites actually. Yeah Airborne Herb Farmers.

Explored Netherstorm just for fun. Found Area 51 and Stormspire where the Consortium city is. Seem the Consortium favors Enchanters and Jewelcrafters in their goods. Headed off and tried my steel at killing lvl 69 demons. Was fun for a while, lots of greens dropped but no plate. Demons fell easily and was nice XP considering I'm running on max double XP the whole way.

Got Honored with Sporeggar. Killed enough Naga's in a few hours to last a lifetime and picked up the faction rewards for the effort. Explored Blade's Edge Mountain a bit and found the eastern horde camp at Mok'Nathal Village to the far east of the zone. Picked up a quest at the Inn keeper for 2 new cooking recipes. So had to go and AoE kill some raptors and flying serpents which took a while to gather meat from both. Raptors drop seem much better for their meat vs the flying serpents. The recipes are nothing new if you picked up the 4 new ones at the vendor at Stonebreaker Hold (Horde) in Terokkar Forest. However the new recipes will bump your cooking up from green at 359 to yellow and it got me to 371. A few more meat and I guess I can squeeze out 375 on cooking since no one ever sells Furious Crawdads on AH to make Spicy Crawdads. Might be a moneymaker to fill that void on AH since I'm sure I'm not the only one looking for those things on AH.


Flew off to Nagrand after picking up those new recipes, at least had lots of new food buffs. Did some Hunter kill quest killing Talbucks, Clefhoofs, Owls and various others at the Elemental Throne. Storm a Orge camp for reps with the Mag'harAoE for a while. Lots more to work on there. Somehow through all that I dinged 67 as a result of the rest bonus XP.

Alchemy
Discovered 2 new Flasks also. Discovered Flask of Relentless Assault while making several Elixir of Major Agility. Then also Discovered Flask of Mighty Restoration while making a few Volatile Healing Potions. Not sure what the secret is to discovering new Alchemy Flasks, but maybe just making high end potions or elixirs in enough quantity may be the secret I guess.

Screenshots - Netherstorm

Part of my fun and enjoyment of playing WoW is always taking lots of screenshots of my adventure, things I do to capture the moments, places I visit or things that capture the imagination. A beautiful screenshot of one of my very first view of the zone "Netherstorm". Simple things in WoW can just amaze you sometime.

Screenshots - Blade's Edge Mountains

View of Blade's Edge Mountain on the way to Horde camp at Thunderlord Stronghold. Its always funny the name Blizzard gives to places or zones. When you think about it they seem to have fitting names for the places they seem to describe.

Paladins Survey Blue Post

Was reading over at Wulfblood's Writings one of the many blogs I read and Ulushnar had a link to a Blue Paladin thread for a Paladin Survey on the EU Forum for possible feedback for improvements in the future by Blizzard. Thanks to Ulushnar for posting the thread on his Blog and so far the EU Forum thread has lots of feedback by lvl 70's as its Paladins only. Was a interesting read. It also has a followup Blue Paladin discussion thread also.

Posting the thread main link Here also for anyone that wants to link to it to read it. If your a Paladin in the EU then you can maybe add to the thread over there to help it along. Does seem a consensus that Redoubt is a hot one that needs to be improved for endgame among other talents.

Yaah, My Very First Wearable Epic: Epic Trinket!

Started 6 weeks ago and after that time I finally acquired my Very First Wearable Epic piece the Darkmoon Card: Vengeance. Located the Darkmoon Faerie just outside of Shattrath City and got my Trinket. Yeah I'm still 65 and I have to wait for 5 long levels to finally wear it after 6 weeks of trying to acquire it. I'm still not really playing WoW much right now, just logging in 30 min here and there. I first read about the Trinket over on Kaziel's Blog when he acquired his that's how I learned about it. Good to read other people's blog, you can learn stuff. Now I got mines and didn't do a single instance run for it, however I worked every bit to acquire it just as hard. Yeap I bought every single card one card at a time at a what I think was a good deal based on trended average price. And it was.

Cost me between 500-525g all in total due to my conservative spending habits buying the Furies Card on AH. I even traded a a few Furies card along the way buying and reselling cards on AH for profit. There is all kind of ways to make money in WoW. I made back over half the cost of what I spent to acquire the Darkmoon Card Furies set reselling them on AH when I say a fantastic deal to bid on. In such cases its good to be sitting on gold to make a worthwhile investment. Money well spent!

Kaziel's Blog on Darkmoon Card: Vengeance.
More analysis on Darkmoon Card: Vengeance over at Zen Tanking.

Acquiring the Furies Cards.
First time I ever saw one of these cards I missed acquiring on AH the Ace at 75g at a deal. Acquired the Ace first at 16og to start the deck a good deal to me and in time I found. Often its double that and its not all that rare either. The 2, 3, 4 Furies Card seem quite common in AH over time. I acquired them all for between 25-50g. Cards 5 & 6 was very hard to find and seem rare to spot in AH and based on my Auctioneer Scan just checking for whatever reason. Got the 5 for about 55g the hardest to find of all the cards on AH. Acquired the very rare 6 for 10g sell/buyout can you believe it! Immediately bought it on sight before I even finished thinking about it.

Card 7 cost me about 75g and though not rare to spot, seems as common as Card 8 which cost me about 90g the 2nd card I acquired. Took a lot of looking on AH often to spot all the cards. A worthwhile investment in Galo. Sometimes it just good to just be sitting on a bit of gold. Well I will get to wear it in 5 more levels, for now it sitting in the bank. In the end I never bought the cards just seeing them listed in AH. Thought about the prices of the cards in AH and said "No" to buying cards I saw listed many times at a high price in hope of a better price deal. Afterall I'm not in a hurry, can't wear it till 70 anyway. You may already be decked out in your Epics, for me its my very first wearable one and a worthwhile Trinket for a Protection Paladin and pre Kara.

Profession Changes in the Next Expansion

Profession Alchemy & Herbalism - My Professions.

• Alchemy Discoveries will be easier to obtain as Discoveries.

• Random Recipes at Vendors instead of camping a vendor to get a specific Recipe.

• Changes to reduce Alchemy Transmute cooldown time. Yeahhhh.

Cooking

• A few New Recipes in patch 2.3.

More on Inscription

• Inscribe Spells and Abilities with power (Modifier) onto Character Weapons/Armor.

• Ability to craft completely new items.

Alchemy & Herbalism changes I like to see in a Future Expansion

• Alchemist should be able to craft more BOP Alchemist Items for Alchemist. We can make potions and elixirs and transmutes to no end but we can barely craft anything worth while with all that power that we can Actually use our self as a usable item. Just one Epic Alchemist Stone that's all.

• Need more Debuf potions. There is only one that I know off currently (Gift of Arthas).

• Some Potions, Elixirs & Transmutes are almost useless, should be revamped for more interesting and usable items.
  

• Alchemy have a Elixir for every spell class except Holy Spells. Why not? Should have one for Holy damage increase just to be even with the other Elixir spell classes.

• Herbalism is totally passive. Herbalist through their abilities should be able to discover new herb plant properties or evaluate new herb properties over time as a true Herbalist. A Alchemist should then be able to mix or test brew the new crafted item possibly into a newly crafted & usable potion or elixir of some kind through some dynamic and random fashion. A new item.

Fishing

• Need more new kinds of Fishes to catch in the Ocean, Sharks too and Epic Fishes of some use.

• Fish should give new Buffs when cooked, eaten or health effects & oils if refined into Alchemy or Enchanting Oils of some grand use in crafting professions.
  

• The ocean should be littered with random treasure boxes that can spawn nice lootable items guarded by Sea Mobs.
  

Death Knights & Wrath of the Lich King

Been reading all the tidbits ALL Day and then some about the new WoW Expansion and it seem its going to be awesome. Hope they don't make it a big grind to get to lvl 80 though. Professions will be raised to a level cap of 450 and the new profession Inscriptions seem to be interesting. I wonder if we will still be stuck with two professions or three maybe?

Also seems that there will be new gear you can get when the expansions opens up so all that raid gear will eventually be replaced in a few levels or soon. But I guess for now until the expansion arrives getting all the Kara gear and beyond is more about character accomplishment and progress until the world indeed does change. And it will indeed. People will whine about their new dungeon gear getting replaced. Ohh well.

What I'm totally interested in is the Death Knights. They sounds awesome... so far, need more info though. I just like the idea of a Spell caster that can truly tank and DPS or bring death. But don't you like wielding the Light? Well I'm a Horde a Evil Blood Elf a Blood Knight, we're in it for the melee and spell magic we need it. I love my Paladin, be interesting to see just what Blizzard changes in the Paladin Class though. But it will be missed if I have to unlock to be a Death Knight. Seem so far it will be open to all classes. Be nice if it was a Paladin Hero Class. Paladins already melee and cast spells in plate. Mean damm, Death Knights is a plate wearing class that cast spells. How do you go from being squishy to wearing plate armor and tough as nails?

Ahh well at least my Paladin is almost 70 so I'll be ready for the sprint from 70-80. What seem odd though is if you become a Death Knight and have to redo level 60-80 all over again that may no be as ideal. I'm liking the idea of been a Death Knight though. Who doesn't want to be a Hero! I'm sure to be a Death Knight. Yes Evil Blood Elf who loves Arcane magic gets twisted and become Death Knight. Can't wait.

To live life is to constantly progress and advance ourselves daily until we eventually meet our end or destroy or self prematurely. So too Blizzard shall constantly add fresh new content and advance the world of Azeroth. I too look forward to the next expansion: Wrath of the Lich King.

Edited

World of Warcraft Next Expansion Confirmed

Its been confirmed over at WoW Insider and for all you folks at work that have those sites blocked by your IT department that the next expansion from Blizzard will indeed be: Wrath of the Lich King

Confirmed we will indeed be heading to Northrend to face Arthas the Lich King himself and the undead Armies of the Nerubian Empire the next expansion. Until that expansion finally arrives speculations will be all over the place as to new classes, levels, zones and all the hoopla about who gets to be a Death Knight or other Hero classes or whether its fair or not some classes get to be one. Get ready for all the whining and all the hoopla on the WoW forums.

Edit:
Official new level cap will be 80.
New Powers & New Talents will be added.
Dark, necromantic Dark Knights will be a new character class.
Some where in the Q & A session it seems Blizzard may be looking at revamping old world dungeons for a upgrade, thats interesting.

Read it all here.
And here.

Realm Transfered

Did a Realm Transfer for Galoheart, relocated to Zangarmarsh server. Had given up my Guild back on Rexxar before going on a break to someone else in the guild. Having a Guild I've come to realize is just too much work for me at this point. Its just too time consuming and distracting when I just want to play the game and quest, blog and level up let alone having to deal with all the drama of people and headache recruiting new people. Feels good to not have responsibilities.

Its good to be on another server. However, I already did have a young lvl 23 Hunter "Aetius" here on Zangarmarsh that plays with the WoW Insider guild "It came from the Blog" since day one it was created here a few months ago. Mostly a fun and laid back guild. So Galo is now in the guild also.

Transfering Server
Transfering server took about 10 min after you decide to do so as had been thinking about it. You get everything transfered on character you own, Must have nothing on AH and your Mail box must be empty before you can transfer. Galo was Transfered and left my Alt Priest "Eternallord" who was my Banker Alt on Rexxar. Some time after the transfer I came to realize that I had forget to do one important thing. It just looks ovious, dosen't it.

My Alt Banker Priest on Rexxar always did all the Buying, Selling, Trading of my non crafted items and AH items so I forgot to think of him having all the Funds. So if I really want to get all that gold from my Priest I have 2 options. Level Priest to 51 and Transfer or level both Priest lvl 18 and my other Hunter "Krovon"(Was going to delete) lvl 24 both to 31. Then Split the gold equally between both so under 1000g limit by Blizzard rules to allow transfer. I know I'm not planning to level the Priest to lvl 51. Talk about one BIG oversight. Ahhh