Our Warcraft Family

I have a new GARDENING Blog

2009-04-21T11:01:00.001-07:00

My new Gardening Blog is at the Centre Daily Times, our local newspaper.

Great new raiding site

2009-04-04T08:04:00.000-07:00

Everything I ever wanted to know about raiding and was afraid to ask. Woo Hoo!

The Raiding Wiki

Bye Bye BRK

2009-03-31T07:08:00.000-07:00

It was with great sadness that I read Bid Red Kitty's announcement that he is leaving the World of Warcraft. It is wonderful for his family, but sad for those of us who have come to rely on his wit and wisdom. Even my kids loved his hunter guide movies. Noob or raider, there was something for everyone at BigRedKitty.net.

As sad as it to lose yet another top notch player who is willing to share his/her knowledge with the rest of us, it is sadder still to think that a really great writer/blogger is giving up the medium. I sincerely hope and pray that Big Red Kitty as Daniel Howell will find another outlet for his wonderful writing. Both my parents are writers. My mom's book Women of the West, is still in print and is a recognized classic in its field. My husband has a wall full of journalism awards. And I write. For years I had a monthly gardening column. I blog here and other places on various topics. And I'm hard at work on my book (it's for kids). So Daniel, if you read this, Please Please keep writing. If not about Wow, then about something. Your military stories are wonderful and deserve their own book.

Of small pets and guilds and gold.

2009-03-10T08:57:00.000-07:00

It has been a while and there is much to report.

Guild news first. Our leader has tackled his RL challenges and is back in the game, although it has been a few days since he's been on. We are rebuilding. And I am now number two. Just call me the "The New Number Two." (Any one remember The Prisoner?

Anyway, I am the New Number Two, able to do anything that needs doing while the GM is away tackling RL issues. And Let me be the first to say that RL is more important.

I have found my old guildies in a new guild and have join them with my own number two, Sampeaire the Shaman. Who is really my/our first toon. She a few levels away from the Outland and leveling inscriptions.

Small Pets
Since Theo hasn't been doing anything other than a few dailies and trying to salvage the remains of the guild, we're going for the pet achievement reward: Shop Smart, Shop Pet...Smart. And we now have 47 little pets.

I got the Alliance chicken quest pet last night. And a new guild made me the Yeti. I farmed him a White Kitten. He needs five more pets. I grinding on fireflies, and working on my rep for Sporeggar for the Tiny Sporebat, and also on my rep with the Sha'tari Skyguard for Nether Ray Fry. And checking the daily fishing quest for the the Crocolisks in the City quest for one of the rare baby croc pets. But true be told, I will probably have to wait to get the Children's week pets to get this achievement and the skunk pet.

And now for Gold

People on the Auction House are STUPID!

Don't flood the market. Put up 1 to 3 items, not 24.
Don't undercut the competition.
Playing the AH is perfect for someone who can only be on for a little bit here and there. So I buy a bit and sell a bit. Nothing is sadder than watching players cut into their own profits.

So how can you make money if you don't flood the market and don't undercut the competition?
For trade goods, just remember they will sell...eventually. And people ALWAYS need them. So instead of putting up your lots of Goldclover or Wool Cloth or Nether Essence at a lower buyout price than the lowest buyout price listed, put yours up a bit higher. The lower ones will sell, and then yours will. It might take an hour longer to find a buyer but you will make more gold instead of less. Setting odd and lower bid prices and a shorter auction time along with just a few stacks works, especially if there are relatively few items posted.

When happy guilds die

2009-02-17T06:50:00.000-08:00

Sigh!

It's been a long winter.

We hit 80! Hurray.
We joined a really nice guild with two great guys running it! Hurray!
We became an officer in the guild. The guild had a 4-tab guild bank, a website and Vent and great people. We were running instances together and talking and laughing and helping each other. I was able to complete the meta-achievement for Winter Veil with their help.

The holidays came and everyone had a lovely Christmas. My son got Spore, which had to be played at the expense of WoW, but that's okay. And then we left for a long, internet-less, visit with the in-laws.

When we got back, everything had fallen apart.

My character was still at level 80, but the guild was dying.

Today I am the only officer. One leader quit playing altogether. The GM has been AWOL for weeks. All my favorite people /gquit. Our tank is gone. Our awesome mage is done. Druid gone. All gone. There are a handful of people still in the guild with a couple of 80s, but most left for raiding guilds or just to get away from whatever bad vibes were happening while I was away.

So here I am with a guild and a 4-tab guild bank and a handful of players to take care of.

I love a good challenge.

Level 75 here we come...sort of.

2008-12-02T08:32:00.000-08:00

The first round of holidays are over. But we are firmly in the holiday season.
Dec. 1 we had a birthday party.
Dec. 6 is St. NIcholas Day, and free cartoon day at the local theater.
Then there is a play the boys are in, and then a Christmas pagent. And then the in-laws are back for the weekend before Christmas. And we have to go get our tree and then put it up. And mom has to shop for stuff.

Busy busy busy.

Meanwhile, I've been able to get our main character, Theothana of Kilrogg, up to almost 75. No else is doing anything these days and I feel bad for them. But that's the way it is.

Loved just about everything in Howling Fjord.
And we're now working our way through Borean Tundra. I don't care that most of the quests in our log are green. It's too fun. The story line is great. Best quests so far were the Murloc quests. Loved the baby murlocs and the Night elf in the murloc suit.

Mom can't play much, but the boys sure can!

2008-11-25T09:57:00.001-08:00

Goodness, my little Jem likes playing warlocks. He's got his main lock almost to 10. And has started a second one, a human female this time. Like any "good" mom I try to restrict his play time. 20-30 minutes after school, or maybe after dinner. His brother's mage is doing well also.

And the brothers together the other day completed their first quests ever solo. Which means they did them together, but without mom's help. Both quests seemed to involve killing Boars in near the village of the dwarves near Ironforge. Mostly they run around following each other, killing yeti things, and screeching at each other from across the room. And then they go outside and play in the snow. Life is good.

Taking a Holiday break

2008-11-23T06:35:00.000-08:00

I am Thankful at this Thankful time of year, for a wonderful family. And wonderful in-laws. Who are coming on Wednesday to spend the holiday weekend with us. The guest room hasn't been used since their last visit, a year ago, as a guest room. It's a storage room. So I've been working on changing it back into a guest room. Likewise the dining room hasn't been used as a dining room for a year. Instead it's been sort of an office/homework room. So next up is that room. And then my husband REALLY wants to paint the sun room, which has been used as a playroom, before his parents come. So....

No soup for me...until next week!

I love you all.

Have a happy Turkeyday.

Theo and the gang.

Sure is pretty here

2008-11-18T07:25:00.000-08:00

I'm not even sure where this is, some town on the way to Venomspire. But it sure is pretty.

I love the north. I love the look and feel and quests and story. I love how leatherworking has been simplified. Most things just need leather. Lots of it, but no more running around looking for a vendor selling thread. I adore my new guild. The leaders are just delightful.

The only thing I don't like are the crowds and the queues.

So when it's crowded I have to play elsewhere. On our new realm of Grizzly Hills.

But it's so full of real actual noobs. I try to help people, these new and young players. Like the 11 year old Tauren warrior, who at level 6, didn't know how to charge or even how to train up his new abilities. Or the 17 year old Tauren hunter, who at level 6, politely asked me, at level 10, to escort him all the way to Orgrimmar. At level 6? Or the teenager playing another level 6 Tauren who wanted to know if I was really "a girl". So no more Grizzly Hills for me until after these children are in bed.

Grizzly Hills

2008-11-16T10:43:00.000-08:00

No, not the area, but the brand new PvE server. Yesterday afternoon I was questing along in Howling Fjord, just hit lvl 72, and had joined a group to do a group quest when the lights flickered and then everything went dark. A power outage had swept our neighborhood. For the next few hours we huddled around candles and then went out to dinner.

When we returned, the power was back on and Kilrogg had a Queue of almost 900. Darn. Darn. Darn.

And every server where we have made alts had a Queue as well. Darn. Darn. Darn.

But here was a realm that was "recommended": Grizzly Hills. Nice name.

So mom and her little guy rolled a Tauren Druid and named her Thanahoof (Thanatos is greek for death, so this means — what? Hoof of Death?)

Wonder of wonders, the Tauren starting area was packed. Lot of trial accounts. And folks questing together (Recruit a Friend?). I just had to play. And this morning I got back on our newest addition to level up fishing. What a kick to have fishing buddies.

The Queue

2008-11-14T18:10:00.000-08:00

What a great word: Queue. Good word for Scrabble.

Anyway, we're in one this evening at 9 p.m. est (6pm pst).

It was at 600 and now it's only at 337 with an estimated 31 minutes to go. /sigh

The mother in me thinks I should get out of line and either go play with a character on a low population server or jsut go to bed and then play early in the morning. All those kids who had to wait until the weekend to play their new expansion weighing on my mind.

Okay, how would this be... what if I just did a lower level character so as not to add to the insanity in Northrend. I do hate crowds.

update: I got in, finally, but went to the Outlands to avoid the crowds in Northrend. How pleasant to farm those last few motes of air in the Throne of elements with no stupid Night Elves around. I hate Night Elves, even though I have a few.

Enjoying the ride

2008-11-14T04:42:00.000-08:00

We had some technical difficulties yesterday. The new iMac, the machine that gives us Northrend is glorious color and scope and dimension, refused the launch the game. Somehow the file for the the game had been corrupted. So we had to delete and reload everything. And I mean EVERYTHING. That took most of the morning. The afternoon was spent being the "soccer mom" chauffer, except in our case it's piano and acting, plus groceries and a trip to the bank. Then time to make dinner. Somehow I found time to reload the addons I can't live without.

But by this time, given how little sleep I had the night before (none), I went to bed. I did try to log on, but there was a queue of almost 400.

Sleep is good.

But I was awake at 3:30 a.m. And there was no queue. I hopped right on and did a few more quests while baking some muffins for the family. The boys got up and watch as Theothana avoided some orcas, caught a few manta rays, snuck onto a pirate ship and grabbed some treasure. I've got a pilates class this morning, and then I'm going to try to get to level 71.

I want to stay up with the pack so there will be lots of chance to run instances and see end game stuff. But I really don't ever want to level the coastal area of Howling Fjord. It is so lovely.

North, Miss Tessmocker...

2008-11-13T10:33:00.000-08:00

Last night I was feeling crappy — sore throat coming on, aches and chills. So I went to bed early. Then I was wide awake at about 20 minutes to 12...midnight. Oh No. What should I do?

Well, this mom quietly got dressed so as not to wake the sleeping husband and kids, and slipped out of the house and into the car. Thirty minutes later I was back, sipping hot tea, and upgrading one of our accounts to Wrath of the Lich King.

WooHoo. Then I stayed up all night playing. I love, love, love it. I started Theothana in Howling Fjord because she could pick up skinning and leatherworking there. I think she was pretty close to getting a server first in skinning. And she got invited to run Utgarde Keep. Very nice. Not much loot in there if you have stuff from Kara and so on.

The place is beautiful.

And not too crowded.

The only issues came when a bunch of folks were all waiting around for the same NPC to spawn. But we formed groups so it wasn't too bad.

People came in waves as midnight hit each time zone. Kilrogg is a west coast server and I'm on the east coast. So it was really uncrowded at first. Although I guess people could all start playing at the same time (12 a.m. e.s.t), stores on the west coast weren't going to sell the game until midnight. Or at least most of them weren't.

Anyway, mom had fun, but I'm a little beat now. I'm going to need some time to recover before I plunge back in. But it is just lovely.

Two 70s and an 8!

2008-11-11T12:16:00.000-08:00

By working nights into the wee hours Mom has managed to get finally hit 70 on our second Hunter, Danishu the troll hunter. And by playing a 20-30 minutes after dinner, our little guy (age 6) has leveled his male Gnome warlock, Bobositous, all the way up to level 7, and getting close to level 8. His side-kick, Weslinn, the female gnome mage, is at level 6. Weslinn is played by the big brother (age 8). Watch out for this killer combo on Cenarion Circle. In the middle of the push to get to 70 before WotLK, Mom made and level a dwarf priest named Thrayan up to about level 10. She took up mining to earn a few gold to buy her kids some bags and a couple of wands. See Dad's off in the war, so she had to go off to work to support two adopted gnomelings in their magical undertakings. Hmm, think I could get into this Role Playing thing.

The Moms who love BRK fan club (TMWLBRKFC ?)

2008-11-11T07:53:00.000-08:00

After reading about Unsafeturtle's Mom on BigRedKitty's blog and reading comments from other moms who love this guy I got to thinking about why.

Well first of all moms who play Warcraft are special. I remember when we first started playing our first toon, we teamed up with another toon right outside the Valley of Trials in Durotar. An orc and a troll, who were both moms. We made our toons wave to each others young kids who were watching. The squeals of delight had me hooked.

Moms have limited time play what with all the mom stuff we have to do. For example with the expansion coming out, I'm not going to get to play much at all because Thanksgiving is coming too. This year we are having the whole family here for the holiday. So instead of playing, I get to clean out the guest room, shampoo the carpets, scrub down the kitchen, and then get to baking. After that I really need to clean out the boys' playroom so they have some place to put their phat loot from Christmas. Every day it seems that my 6-year-old adds a new item to his list: Webkinz, Bakugons, Star Wars lego set video game.

In a game dominated by young men, being a married lady with kids is a challenge. At certain times of the day the trade challenge is just disgusting. Are these guys even conscious that their MOM might be reading? Apparently not.

Or would you ninja loot from your own mother, or anyone's mother? Especially considering that if you asked really nicely and said how much you needed it, she'd pass on it and give you a nice stack of Fisherman's Feast to boot because, after all she was in labor for 23 hours with you, then changed your stinky diapers and bandaged your scraped knees and all the sleepless nights when you were sick and intervened with dad when you wrecked the car. So if your rogue needs the epic bow, then take it honey. I'll make do with this old green thing a while longer.

So why do we love BRK? Because he makes us feel like we aren't idiots for trying to play this game dominated by the testosterone-and-stinky-socks crowd who grew up playing Atari or Xbox or whatever. Anyone else remember brothers hogging the Atari or the computer when a new game came out?

So thanks BRK for everything from the lowbie movies to the analysis of the new talents to the server crashing fun runs for charity.

Now does anyone know of a nice guild for moms?

Waiting for the new talents

2008-09-27T07:51:00.000-07:00

We've taken a bit of a break. The boys have discovered Webkinz. All their friend play Webkinz online so, of course that's what they want to do. None of their friends play WoW. Webkinz is basically old Atari games meets cuddly stuffed animals.

Mom did get on to the PTR and copied our 70 hunter to check out the new pets and talents and everything. After messing around for a bit, I decided that there is absolutely no point to doing anything other than occasionally check the AH until the new talents come out. Oh Boy! It's going to be a whole new game. I am looking everywhere to read up on everything I can about every talent and every build for everything. Plus inscription.

I'm spending today doing laundry and updating addons. We have tap dancing and acting after school. But as soon as I can, I'm off to Un'Goro Crater to tame a Devilsaur. I may not keep the Devilsaur, but I want one. And then a Gorillidan. And maybe a Worm or a Wasp or a Moth. I'll keep my old kitty because she's been with my since STV. And I love my two headed black and white bird. But I get three new pets. Yippee!

Racing Rams and other things

2008-09-25T11:26:00.000-07:00

Theothana has a nice new guild, The Knights of Gilead. They seem very laid back and casual, but plan on raiding once we get enough members. Nice. And right now they're all doing Brewfest, so I guess I should do it, too. I don't care much about getting nifty mounts, but it would be nice to give it a shot.

And the other race, the race of characters, is off to a good start I think. Here are the standings:

Orc Warrior Tedaloo is still parked in Thunder Bluff at 29.

Troll Shaman Sampeaire just picked up her level 42 training in Orgrimmar after finishing Scarlet Monastery and Razorfen Downs.

Troll Arcane Mage Sheeshuu is a couple bars away from 34 and finishing up quests in Thousand Needles.

Undead Affliction 'Lock Rosishu is rocking along in Desolace at 38.

And I haven't even looked at Troll Rogue Terishu.

So when Next I check in, I plan to have both Ted and Teri up to 30 at least so they can get their first mounts. And maybe a new mount for Theo as well.

BRK Podcast: Gorillas!

2008-09-23T09:22:00.000-07:00

I just listened to the Big Red Kitty podcast for this week. And watched his gorilla movie. It's not "Gorillas in the Mist," but no one has to tell me about how nice an AoE pet is for certain things. Our number two hunter at 62 has a gorilla at 62. We send Fosse, the ape, into a big ole pack of mobs. Then wait for the Thunderstomp and unload everything we've got, including multishot. Never pull aggro.

So a slight change of plan. Hunter number two is going to 70 with her gorilla in time for the expansion.

Here's the issue. I love playing Beast Master. But I did level our Theothana part way as MM. I think I switched her to BM at about lvl 45. And it's been BM all the way to 70. But I'm thinking that I'm going to respec Hunter 2 (Danishu) to MM for the final push to 70. So I can get a feeling for it. But how different is it going to be once Wrath comes out? Need to think.

On Seeing Old Content in a new way

2008-09-23T05:26:00.000-07:00

My newest "old" friend was telling me that he has four level 70 characters and is working on number five. We have one at 70, one at 62, and then 42, a couple in the 30s, several in the 20s and that's enough.

I need a plan.

One thing I have realized is that doing the same content we've done before, but with a completely different character is, well, fun. I love our hunters, but I just can't face going back to 62 and redoing everything.

So here's the plan. We're going to cycle through five characters: Warrior, Mage, Rogue, Shaman and Warlock this week, using up their rested experience, and focus on content we either skipped last time, or did at a ridiculously high level. And see how we like it. For example doing Swamp of Sorrows green quests and mobs with a hunter is a radically different experience than doing them with a warlock when they are all yellow/orange.

Each one will have their day, and then we will decide which one to focus on.

Here they are:
Tedaloo, the 29ish orc Arms/Fury warrior.
Sheeshuu, the 32ish troll Arcane mage.
Terishu, the 28ish troll Subtley rogue.
Sampeaire, the 42ish Enhancement Shammy.
And Rosishu, the 38ish Affliction 'lock.

May the best toon win!

Senior Citizens

2008-09-22T15:57:00.000-07:00

I met another "old" person today. An Aussie dad playing a lvl 65 druid. Someone else who remembers 33rpm records, dialing a phone, and a time when a computer filled the entire basement of a university building. Ah, those were the days.

I wish there was a guild for us senior citizens. When I see a guild recruiting "mature" members it means they don't want eight year olds.

The bad mage and the bad hunter

2008-09-22T15:25:00.000-07:00

I had our mage out yesterday. I am a bad mage. I'd love to be able to AoE, but I can't get the hang of it.

Anyway, I had the mage out, and we were out in that south east part of Ashenvale not dying while killing demons, when we saw a hunter who was even worse than my mage. Mid-30s, snake pet, meleeing. He'd shoot, then wait for the demon and start hitting it with his axe while the snake sort of helped by spitting at it.

Arggh! So still remembering the last hunter I helped, I whisper that I could give some hunter pointer since "main is a level 70 hunter."

The player was receptive.

Step one, send in the pet. Then wait a few seconds. Then shoot.

He does it, but the snake isn't holding aggro. Hmmm? "Do you have 'growl' trained up?"

"No, it's a snake."

"Doesn't matter. All pets can learn growl. It's how they hold aggro."

"I just tamed it."

"Doesn't matter. Growl is free. All pets can learn it right away."

Bam. Bam. Bam. I guess that was Growl being trained.

So we try again. And again. And again. Stupid snake couldn't hold aggro if it's life depended on it. Which it didn't because Mr. Huntard kept meleeing.

He was trying, though. He even dropped a trap, stepped back and broke the trap with an auto shot. I'm sitting there banging my head on the keyboard.

Being a mage sucks when you are trying to help someone learn how to play a hunter.

I think the snake was from Wailing Caverns and was probably about 12-15 levels lower the hunter. So he was trying to level it up, which didn't help.

In the end I gave up. I told him he was doing much better and that he should go to ... wait for it ... http://www.bigredkitty.net/ and watch his movies.

Now if only there was a BRK for mages.

Loving 70, neglecting everyone else.

2008-09-21T13:21:00.000-07:00

70 rocks. Theothana just joined a nice new guild, so hopefully we'll get enough folks in to start raiding soon. Do dailies is so fun. I've even done a bit of PvP, which is still stressful and challenging, but I can see how much fun it can be it you know what you are doing.

Meanwhile, we have a bunch of characters waiting to go, all between 31 and 40. But it's just too much fun flying around the outland. /sigh.

Flying is way cool

2008-09-09T09:17:00.001-07:00

It took me a while to be able to play again without worrying about being hacked again. But I'm getting over it. Flying helps—a lot.

Theothana finally hit 70. It took a while, like almost 18 months, but we made it. Hurray. First thing we did was hustle over to SMV and learn to fly. We didn't have enough gold for the epic training (after the hack), but we got a green wervyn and took off. And promptly died flying over the Ally town. Okay, don't fly near the other team's cities.

Then we spent a couple of days finishing up quests in Nagrand and started doing the first dailies, especially cooking and fishing. We sold some stuff in the Auction House, too. We watched as our gold slowly started increasing, and then my dear brother sent us the rest that we needed. And we rushed back to SMV to get the epic flying mount and training. My husband selected the lovely purple one.

I love it. HIt run and jump at the same time and it's just like a superhero leaping into the air. We did the Skettis egg bombing daily straight a way. Who knew a game could be so fun. I have no gold any more, but I can fly.

Getting back in the saddle

2008-08-15T07:36:00.000-07:00

We're going to try again.

I'm only using the brand new iMac. I've changed the passwords. And then changed them again. I'm going to get an authenticator once they come back in stock. I've installed anti-everything software.

Let me repeat.

I am a "mature" grown-up. If you are an "average" WoW player, then I am old enough to be your mom.
I love leveling and so would never have a reason to even look at power leveling.
I know how to make gold, even at low levels, so no reason to ever visit a gold selling site.
The only WoW sites I visit are the regular ones like wowinsider, wowhead, and of course, Big Red Kitty, and his friends.
No one else in the world, not even my husband, knew the password. Certainly not my children. No else uses our computers.
All the scans for keyloggers, etc, on all the computers came up negative. All of our computers are Macs.
I honestly don't know how else to do to protect our account.

If this happens again, I am canceling our accounts.

Hacking recovery update

2008-08-14T08:44:00.000-07:00

UPDATE:
We got everything back, except the gold. 1200 gold from the main. 100-200 gold from nine alts. And about 2800 from the guild bank. Having no gold at level 67 makes life really hard. I can't buy ammo.

This really takes the wind out of my sails.

I scanned all of our computers. All are Macs. And they are all clean.

I'm the only one who knows any passwords. And I've never shared that info. I would no more give out my WoW password than I would give out the password to our bank account or investment accounts.

No one else has access to my computers.

So how does this happen?

I talked to my brother who plays and knows something about computer security. He suspects may have been just brute force. He thinks a lot of hacking WoW accounts is brute force. Apparently it's not hard to write a program that just tries millions of combinations for passwords. As for getting the account name, with so many people playing, someone somewhere is going to have any random account name. Sign up for a trial account and enter random account names. If the system says that one is taken—try again, you know you've got a live one.

I've changed all of our passwords to much harder ones. Not just WoW, but everything.

For now, until this is all resolved, I've locked up all of our wow accounts. When and if new authenticators are available, maybe I'll unlock them. To tell the truth, I'm afraid to play now. It's just not fun any more.

Hacked

2008-08-13T12:16:00.000-07:00

Yup, we were hacked. This morning at about 4:30 a.m. local time. Stripped Theothana of almost everything, and then went to work on the guild bank. Then they went through all of the alts and took their gold, but only one other toon's inventory. It was our bank alt. Only mom's account and only on one server. For some reason they didn't go through anyone's mail and so we were left with some stuff.

How did this happen?

I have no idea. The only thing could be I downloaded something with an addon, but since I only use addons from Curse or Ace, that seems unlikely. I've been through all of our computers scanning for anything that doesn't belong and nothing came up.

The GM said they'd be able to get almost everything back.

In the meantime, I guess were playing with low level alts.

Almost to 70 at last

2008-08-11T17:35:00.000-07:00

I can hardly believe it. Theothana is half way to 68. From 63 to 67.5 in what seems like no time at all. No more leveling alts for a while. I think we can make it to 70 this week, just in time for us to go on vacation.

Hunter Macros

2008-08-11T09:11:00.000-07:00

Here's our new pet somewhere in that mass of feathers. Yes, we tamed a lovely white and black striped two-headed carrion bird.

We're using macros more and more. Our favorite is the follow macro which allows my kids to follow me or each other around.

/follow Mom

Next is the pet feeding macro.

/cast Feed Pet
/use 0 16

I just have to make sure that there is always appropriate pet food in the last slot of our backpack.

But my two favorite hunter macros are a bit more complicated.

First is the steady shot/kill shot macro. I've messing around with this since we first got steady shot. But once we got the Kill Command, I had to get it right. I was doing okay manually weaving the in the steady shots, but I knew I was missing some. However reading endless blog and forum posts on the mechanics of different versions of this macro was making my eyes bleed. So once again I went to my favorite hunter to see what he recommended. Thanks again Big Red Kitty.

After reading pages and pages on this topic, it is once again driven home to me that no one explains WoW hunter stuff as clearly as the mighty BRK. Good writing is rare on the internet, and Big Red Kitty is one of the best. Even my husband, the professional juournalist with a wall full of writing awards, like his posts, especially the military ones.

But back to macros.

My life-saving utility do-it-all-for-you-dolly macro is number 5 on the main action bar
# showtooltip
/target [target=pettarget,exists]
/petattack [harm,nomodifier]
/cast Hunter's Mark
/cast Auto Shot

I use this when we get an add or three. Or when I send the pet into a group. This lets me shift from one mob to the next without having to try to tab through them or manually pick out my next target from a group. Drop a freezing trap, throw off a pet mend, a sting, move around a bit. Next thing I know there are a whole bunch of corpses waiting to be looted. It might not be AOE, but it sure is fun.

Fishing: How, where and why to begin

2008-08-07T14:09:00.000-07:00

I level every character in fishing. Why do I do this? It actually occurred to me with our latest toon that it's sort of redundant. We got all the way to level 26, without picking up the old fishing pole.

But then we tamed Washe Pawne, the most lovely red wind serpent ever, with level 3 lightning breath. And wind serpents eat fish, as well as bread and cheese.

But fishing is where it's at. It's free. It can make money.

My brother, who in real life owned a fishing shop for a few years, leveled fishing all the way, but never cooking. I have both maxed out on our main. So he sends me the fish to cook up for him for raids and such. When Golden Fish Sticks go for up to 2 gold or more apiece on the AH, it's so helpful to be able to do it yourself, not to mention a nifty money maker.

And it can be efficient, at least for me. Today, my kids had their piano lessons. The music store has free WiFi. Now 25 minutes is not really enough time to go do a quest or something, especially when it can be interrupted by one of the kids, the teacher, a store employee, or a chatty parent who is also waiting for their kid to finish a lesson. But Fishing is perfect. I can start and stop and start again. While waiting for the boat from Rachet to Booty Bay, I could check our quest log, or dance, or make bandages, or fish. Plenty of time to get a skill point or two before the boat sails in.

So that's the why.

Now the how and where.

Well how is easy. Buy a fishing pole, a shiny bauble and get training.

Where? Horde side I find Bloodhoof Village is best. You'll get both level 1 brilliant smallfish, as well as the next level of lake fish which is the longjaw mudsnapper. And everything you need is right there. The trainer. The guy selling the fishing pole and the cooking recipes for the fish if you need to level up cooking at the same time. There's a big fire for cooking fish. Plus there is a cooking trainer is just across the camp in the big tent. No running from one side of a city to the other and back again. Or from the lake or sea shore into a city and back again. It's just all so convenient.

I don't play enough Alliance to know the best place.

I fish here until I'm up to about 75, or else have about 55 smallfish which is enough to level up cooking to be able to cook the mudsnappers. Raw Mudsnappers also sell well on the AH. Their vendor price is only 1 copper, but on the AH they go for between 1-3 silver each.

Before leaving, don't forget to train up to the next level of fishing. And cooking if you need to.

Then it's off to the Barrens. Pick a pool. Any pool. They yield about one deviate fish for every 3-4 raw bristle whisker catfish (between 5-10 silver each on the AH, or 1-2 gold per stack). Deviate fish, however, are the main ingredient in Savory Deviate Delight, the coveted and highly priced treat that will turn the diner into a priate or ninja. The deviate fish themselves can go for almost as much as the finished product. You don't need the recipe to make money off deviate fish.

Savory Deviate Delight

I have to admit that I have the recipe on four servers. Just lucky, I guess. Or else it could have something to do with leveling dozens and dozens of alts. And had one drop for me the other day. So if you have horde toon on Kilrogg and send Theothana a stack of deviate fish along with a mild spice for each fish, I'd be happy to cook 'em up and send 'em back. Just for reading my blog. The other servers where I have the the recipe are Caelestrasz, Drenden, and Velen. I'm happy to do it on these realms, too. But you'll need to send me an email in real life because I don't usually check those regularly.

Back to fishing. Between 125 and 150, you'll need to find Old Man Heming in the lowest level of Booty Bay. He sells a book for 1 gold which teaches fishing to 225. You can actually use the book at any level. I have. Where to fish. Well, since fishing skills up at the same rate no matter where you are, you could go back to the Barrens for more Deviate Fish. I level one toon all the way to 300 there. Or just fish where ever you happen to be questing or grinding. Bring along a lure or two, just in case.

At exactly 225, you need to go find Nat Pagle who gives you a quest to catch a four different fish all over creation, or at least Azeroth. Bring a couple of lures. Make that 4 lures. After that it's smooth sailing until you hit the Outlands. Then find Juno Dufrain in Zangarmarsh for another fishing book.

Happy fishing.

I'm writing a book

2008-08-06T06:56:00.000-07:00

Forty some years ago my mother wrote scripts for a variety of early TV shows. And then she wrote a "treatment" for a movie for Disney. The folks at Disney loved the story, but thought it would be too expensive to produce in 1964. So they suggested she do it as a book first.

But she didn't.

Instead she gave birth her fourth child, and then her fifth and then her sixth. And then she wrote a different book called Women of the West. which is still in print to this day. Turns out that my mom's book was an important book. It was the first to argue that the western frontier experience liberated woman from the repressive norms of Victorian society. After the book, she went to work for the Governor of California as an advisor on historic resources. After that she went to law school and became a law professor. The manuscript gathered dust in the attic.

Well the manuscript has been found. I'm going to take a shot at it. I've got kids who love to read so I have a pretty good idea what they like.

Leveling

2008-08-05T07:14:00.000-07:00

I love leveling, which is a good thing since it's what I mainly get to do.

The boys create a new character. They play for a while. Then mom either levels said character if it is well loved. Or deletes to make room for another.

And mostly I love leveling hunters. Our latest is an Orc Hunter, Larashu on Kilrogg, and she's already at 24.

I've streamlined our leveling quite a bit. The levels fly by so fast I have to be careful to finish up the lowest ones before they turn grey.
For the horde, levels 1-5 in the starting zone.

5-10 is the next zone of quests, plus whatever professions.

At 10, I pick up all the quests for Ragefire Chasm, which in and of itself will bring the character up to lvl 11-12 just by discovering new zones, and doing the short quest chain to get the Hidden Enemies quest from Thrall, which give a nice choice of weapons at the end.

Then we run Ragefire Chasm. Sometimes twice. There's not a lot that drops in there, though. So for cloth wearers I try to make sure they get The Robe of Evocation and/or the Crystalline Cuffs. For almost everyone else the Subterranean Cape will take them all the way to about level 20 or even beyond, with stats almost as great as those on the coveted twink cape, Sentry Cloak. The experience from RFC and then turning in all the RFC quests will get the character to somewhere in mid lvl 13-14.

On the way to turn in the RFC quests at Thunder Bluff, though we stop off at the crossroads and pick up the following:
Fungal Spores and The Forgotten Pools.
And then we do them quick and easy. Then off to Thunder Bluff and turn everything in.

Ding 15.

And back to "home" — being Brill or the Crossroads or Tranquilien — to finish up a few now green quests and get to about 16 and a half, grab some training, and back to the Crossroads to finish up the quest chain for the big horde quest for Wailing Caverns, Leaders of the Fang, dodging and then killing snapjaws for The Stagnant Oasis.

We pick up all the Wailing Caverns quests in Rachet and in the cave over the Caverns, themselves.

We do all the quests that we can outside the instance: Serpentbloom, Trouble at the Docks, Deviate Hides and maybe Smart Drinks, if we've done the Raptor Horns prerequisite. Turn those puppies in and Ding, Ding we are on our way to 17 or more.

Next up is Wailing Caverns. Nice loot in there but if something doesn't drop, I don't worry about it because in a couple more levels we're going to do SFK, and then BFD, and then RFK, while doing whatever quests in between that we need to in order to get the quests for the next instance.

And these will take us to the Scarlet Monastery and RFD.

Except for this new hunter. It's so much more fun to just level by questing on through the Stonetalon Mtns, Ashenvale and Thousand Needles.

"A whole new world..."

2008-08-04T18:11:00.000-07:00

We got a new computer, a new iMac fully loaded with a gia-normous 12" screen. An Azeroth is a whole new world. After playing for a year and a half on a tiny iBook and then an only slightly bigger MacBook, this is incredible. The colors and the details. The wider screen. Last night the moon was rising over the Barrens, turning the cliffs to silver. I am seeing things I never saw before like secret mountain passes. It's like seeing the whole game again for the first time

Tale of three Shaman

2008-07-23T08:36:00.000-07:00

We have a lot of Shaman. Our first ever toon was a Shaman. I don't know how many other shaman we have floating around on various servers. Right now, though, we've been concentrating on our three Shaman on Kilrogg.
Pamishu, Tauren at lvl 27, elemental;
Hannahshu, Tauren at lvl 21, enhancement but thinking of respeccing to restro to heal in low level instances because everyone is always looking for healz.
And Sampeaire, Troll at lvl 37, enhancement which goes very fast. She's our gatherer of herbs and ores. My youngest son wants everyone to know that he's the genius behind all of these creative names.

Figuring out how to gear these lovely ladies is giving me a headache.

Right now I'm going with "of the tiger" for Sampeaire. "Of the gorilla" and "of the eagle" for Pamishu. And Hanna is in almost entirely blues from Wailing Caverns, which fit well with her current enhancement talents. But if I respec her, I'll have to change all this.

Bad loot day

2008-07-21T16:00:00.000-07:00

Why does this always happen? Our warrior runs Shadowfang keep and nothing drops that we can use. All cloth and leather. So then our fire mage runs it. And all kinds of weapons and mail drop along with leather, but the only cloth piece is the Bloody Apron, a great piece for a warlock, but not what we wanted. And, of course, every time we've been through here, Arugal has dropped either the robe or the belt. Then time, however, all we got was the dagger. /sigh.

Attack of the Stupids?

2008-07-18T09:43:00.000-07:00

After my lovely experience with the Hunter (who is doing very well now), we've bumped into some very odd people in the game.

A level 18 Belf paladin with 9 points in Holy, wearing
Armor of the Fang and a couple of other LEATHER piece from Wailing Caverns. Yes, they are blue. But he was getting chewed up alive. Of course he was level 18 and the mobs he was fighting were 22-25. And he was trying to tank. So maybe he's just trying to figure out his class. Still, it makes me wonder.

Then there was the Level 40 warlock in Org, wearing a lovely Aurora Robe with +4 stam and +15 SPIRIT. Spirit on a Warlock?

In which I rescue a huntard

2008-07-16T19:07:00.000-07:00

So there we were, me on my mighty level 63 troll hunter, with my son on our lvl 28 rogue in tow. We were running down through the Southern Barrens to go through Razorfen Kraul for a nice blue dagger, when I spy a level 20 hunter with a raptor. I watched as she shot a zebra and then sent in her raptor. The raptor (named Meatball) never had a chance to get aggro. Then I watched as she ran off to start the Gathering of Eggs quests, fighting the nasty bugs.

I couldn't stand it. So I whispered to send in her pet first and then wait for it to get aggro before shooting. I was ready to move on, assuming I'd be ignored. But then she whispered back, "How long should I wait." "Here, watch me," I replied. And in I jumped. Explaining as I went, I walked her through hunter 101, a la Big Red Kitty. I even told her to visit his website and watch the movies. She kept asking questions and I kept answering, and keeping her alive while she learned. I explained about what stats she should look for and which are useless.

And a bit later after I'd finished with RFK, I got a whisper from the former huntard thanking me again and saying that things were going so much better. Ha ha. I feel good even though we didn't get the dagger to drop.

My nights underground

2008-07-13T07:19:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I took the plunge. After soloing all the way to 63, I clicked on "looking for group". I signed Theothana up for the only Outland instance I had quests for — Hellfire Ramparts. And immediately got invited into a group. Which didn't end up happening. But I re-enlisted. And got called up again pretty quick. And that time it did happen. And it was great. And I was good.

I can actually chain trap in an instance.

The rogue's saps were being resisted so they asked the Hunter to trap. And trap she did. Chain trapping, baby. The first pull where I broke out my chain trapping went smooooth as silk. After the mobs were all down, my fellow adventures let loose with a hearty chorus of "Wow, that went well!"

I got some new pants, my first socketed piece of gear. I got some agility, AP and crit gems from the auction house,. Nothing fancy but at least nothing with spell power. I did actually go for many levels because a quest reward with intelligence was so much better than what I had before.

Well my adventure when so well, that last night I signed up again. This time for Ramps again and Blood Furnace — for which I now had two quests. Once again the first group ended up not happening. Mainly because the tank was too low a level for BF. So the warlock asked me for some help with The Demonic Scryer. Which I did. I soloed the quest at his level, but what the heck. I know Hunters should never put their pets on aggressive, but I find it works really well for these kind of quests where things spawn to attack an NPC.

My next invite was from a group finishing up The Auchenai Crypts. I didn't have any idea where or what it was, but said yes. They were clearing up to the last boss, four blood elves and now me. Everything in there was still orange to me, but I must have done a good job because one of them said after we were done that she'd get back to me about joining their guild. I got a sweet ring out of the deal, too, which I can probably equip after tonight.

And finally came the invite for Blood Furnace. Nothing good dropped for a hunter, not even the greens. But I finished my quests. And the group said that the whole thing went very smooth. I didn't get to do much trapping since we had a good rogue and it was mostly two and three pulls. No wipes. I did save the priest once when a mob when straight for her.

In other news, my 8-year-old son has his directorial debut on Friday with a number from his acting camp, "The Wells Fargo Wagon", from "The Music Man." You know how you always think you're kid is great? But then very occasionally they surprise you, as in, "my kid did that? OMG!" Well that's how it was. No wonder his teacher was so excited.

Kids

2008-07-07T11:32:00.001-07:00

So much has happened, but that's for another time. Today is what I want to talk about is kids.

I was checking in with the number two Hunter in our Warcraft Family, Danishu the troll at lvl 62, when I get a tell, "Nice Lady, can I ask you for help." Well, how could I say no to that. There standing before me at the base of the tower in Thunder Bluff is a bear, a druid, lvl 11, all in crappy greys. Turns out he wants some help leveling. His spelling and grammar were dreadful. I start to tell him the quests he has left in his log are pretty easy, but then I have an idea.

Ragefire Chasm.

I've been running my kids' various alts through. In fact, I'd say I've been through there about twenty times in the last few weeks. So I thought I'd take him over to pick up the Thunder Bluff quests for RFC and then run him through. I mean he's was wearing mostly greys and he's only at 11.

Well as we were running along to the X-roads, and then to Org, I mention my kids, and he tells me he's a kid. He asks if my kids play WOW. I tell him sort of, but since they are only 6 and 8, mostly they just mess around. Then he tells me he's 9 and going into the 4th grade. Now I'm hooked. So we go pick up the RFC quest chain from Thrall and then go all the way to the Undercity to get that quest, too.

He dinged once from all the new areas and will probably ding again when he turns in all the quests, plus he'll have some decent gear, including the Subterranean Cape. His first blue, and an excellent piece of gear for his level. Heck the 100 plus gold Sentry Cloak has the same agility and 5 stamina instead of 4 strength. `

I also clean out our family guild bank of any green leather he could use (lvl 13 "of the monkey" gloves and some boots).

Sigh! What's a mother to do.

The Hunter or the Lock

2008-05-27T08:30:00.000-07:00

We took Danishu down to Silithus, and now she's about a bar away from 59. I think we'll head back up to Winterspring and get a bit more Timbermaw rep. But I miss playing the Lock. Never ever running out of Mana is great. Sooo...we'll do both for a bit. Cuz it's supposed to be fun.

We made it to the Outland

2008-05-18T09:02:00.001-07:00

Danishu dinged 58 this morning, early, while turning in
the quest that first sends one to Silithus, after finishing up a couple of quests in Winterspring. And immediately we headed off to the Dark Portal, my six-year-old actually doing the honors of entering portal. Then we took the first quests and got to Thrallmar. And then flew back and back through the Portal. My son ran upstairs to wake his brother and we did the whole thing again.

Then we did got our first piece of Outland gear, while my older son explained to his younger brother that the Outland was the original home of the Orcs and even his new Draenai character. We started in on the next quest, when I decided that I'd rather wait until we're at 60 or even 61 before we do these quests. There's plenty still to do in Azeroth. And with rested experience the levels should go pretty fast. We've got a bit more rep to grind with the Timbermaw until we can get Formula: Enchant Weapon - Agility. So we're gonna rest Dani for a few days.

Let's see...who can we work on Leveling up next? We've got a 26 feral druid and 13 paladin who've been waiting around forever.

A rainy day

2008-05-16T08:51:00.000-07:00

It's raining here. Which isn't a bad thing, even though everyone was complaining about it this morning at the bus stop. I love listening to the rain. The boys and I planted out all of their vegetable seedlings we started last month in peat pots. So the rain is watering them in better than we could have done with the watering can.

Tonight we have company coming for dinner, so I've got a lot to do, and not much time to play. But Danishu has only a few more bars to go to level 57. I think that's doable.

I was talking to my brother the other day who confessed to me that his clan never bothers to level up in cooking or first aid. And only their first character ever fished. This from my brother who used to run a tackle shop and organized fishing tours from Montana to New Zealand.

Right on time and really reliable

2008-05-15T10:54:00.000-07:00

We did it. Our lock hit 35 a bit ahead of schedule. I spend a day or two getting everyone's inventory straightened out. And now we are back on our Troll Hunter racing along to 70. Currently at 56. I'm hoping for a level a day. But as a busy mom, that may not happen. I'll be happy if we make it to 70 before school is out for the summer.

Danishu, the troll hunter is question, does mining and enchanting. Mining pays for enchanting so to speak. So I'm gonna spend some time while I can grinding up old world rep to get her hands on the 2H weapon Agility enchant.

Loving our Lock

2008-05-12T09:08:00.000-07:00

I get sidetracked rather easily. My priority had been to get old Danishu, the hunter to 70. My brother's hunter is at 60 now. Dani is at 54. Another few levels, and she's ready for the Outlands and can level up with my brother's hunter. But I got a little sidetracked.

See I have this lock. She a lovely Forsaken Affliction lock, with tailoring and enchanting both at 225. She's been sitting around the Undercity for almost a year, making bags and disenchanting stuff. She has tons and tons of runecloth sitting around. Her bank is full of runecloth. And even some felcloth. And the recipe for mooncloth bags. But she can't go any higher in her tailoring until she's at level 35, sooo....

She been at level 20 for almost a year. And last week Danishu ran her through SFK twice, then BFD, and then RFK twice. She's in virtually all blues, and leveling her is a dream. She's now after four days at 34.34 and will be at 35 by tonight.

I am loving this lock. Drain Tanking rocks. Never running out of mana. It took me a while to figure some stuff out, like the difference between the Voidwalker and the Succubus, but we're coming along. I might have to start another lock and try leveling up Demonology.

Cooking in Rachet: You DON'T need a campfire

2008-05-11T15:19:00.000-07:00

I keep seeing campfires in Rachet. It took me a while — more than a year of playing — but I found that you don't need to make a campfire to cook in Rachet. Go to the Inn. There are two nice potbelly stoves sitting against the wall right next to the inn keeper. Same in Booty Bay.

It was so frustrating to day, while on a horde alt mailing off some items, a gnome started cooking at a campfire right outside the inn. I tried and tried to show him the stoves, but he just kept saying, "I LO ve Y O U." Which was very impressive to figure out. I wonder it he thought my female Tauren wanted to get a room and kept beckoning him into the inn. I just wanted to show him the stoves. /Sigh.

The Naked Tauren Shaman

2008-05-05T18:37:00.000-07:00

The day I was going to clean the house and then start organizing the kitchen cupboards, and then I was planning to bring Danishu up another level or two before the kids got off the bus. None of that happened. Instead I had to check on my naked lvl 3 tauren shaman who died after the Hogger raid at the end of the Running of Da Bulls (Thanks again BRK). I rezzed her in the Eastvale lumber camp, and then hearthstoned back to Mulgore. She had nothing. No weapon. No armor. No matter, she just accepted the first quests and started killing things with her lightning bolts and her fists. And by the time she got to Bloodhoof Village, she had a mace and a shield, with the basic armor in lovely quests whites and a couple of greys. And a few silvers in her pocket. I am very excited about her because she in Moo, the guild that did the run. And the folks that were on were absolutely super. Most of our shamans have been enhancement with one elemental. But I'm going to try something new with her.

In other news. Danishu did get a bit of attention later in the day. We spent some time in Felwood, killing Deadwood Furbys and leveling up our new pet, Fosse. Fosse is a Thunderer from the O'goro crater. And we are loving her. Thunderstomp is way cool. We can send Fosse into a crowd, wait 'til we see the stomp, and then hit multishot. And Fosse never loses aggro.

Running of Da Bulls, postscript.

2008-05-05T06:42:00.000-07:00

Last night we showed Dad the movie we made of our Run with Da Bulls, the version with extra commentary. I'm going to try changing the compression rate on it to get more detail. Some of the comments are quite funny. The biggest thrill for me and boys was when BigRedKitty himself invited us into his raid. Probably the first and last time that will happen. But we're keeping our Tauren Shaman and, once we get Danishu up to 70, we're playing Theothana. Heck, it's just a matter of hearthstoning back to Mulgore. And we're already at level 2. Of course we have no gear, no weapon, nothing. On the other hand, I know Mulgore really really well, so it should go fast.

We've been playing, just not writing about our adventures much. The big news is that the kitchen remodel is almost finished. It looks fabulous. Tile is the way to go, at least in our kitchen. The whole house feels nicer. Next up is the master bathroom. It needs to be competely gutted and redone. Nothing is worth saving. Not the gold-flecked counter circa 1964. Not the sink which is starting to rust through the enamel. Not the floor which is starting to rot.

But life is returning to normal after a couple months of crazy. In the meantime, we've been concentrating on levelling up one character, Danishu, our troll hunter on Kilrogg. And we're going fast. The first time through we tried to do every quest. We missed some, especially the instances. This time, I'm dumping green quests and have bypassed whole zones. Level 53 now. We're pausing here for a day or two to run some of the kids' alts through SFK and BFD. Then it's on to 58 and the Outlands.

We ran with Da Bulls

2008-05-04T09:30:00.000-07:00

Here's our little movie with commentary from the boys. Thanks BRK and Ratshag. This was much more fun than going with Dad to his awards dinner.

At the Auction House Cuz My House is a MESS

2008-03-01T05:33:00.000-08:00

We were planning to just replace the hideous vinyl in the kitchen with tile. And that morphed into a complete kitchen "facelift" plus tile in the front hall and downstair bathroom — which is getting all new fixtures. And everything is getting painted. Plus we had the annual science fair on Friday. And in my precious free minutes I check the various newsblogs for the latest on the slow motion train wreck that has been Hillary Clinton's campaign. My apologies to anyone reading this who is a big fan of hers. She's not my candidate, but I mean no disrespect. But still, she was supposed to be unstoppable and it's just been one story after another of mismanagement of funds and campaign blunders. I don't want to read about it but can't help myself. It's like picking at a scab. So to keep my mind focused on something nice, I check the Auction House.

My favorite things to find on the Auction House are the works of Leather Workers working their way up. I find that I can sell Deviate Scale Gloves for about 2g40s if I put them up one at a time. Every couple of weeks I'll find a dozen of them on the AH for less than 50s each, sometimes as low as 10-15s. Snap them up and then sell them off slowly. Other items that I can buy dirt cheap and sell for a couple of gold one at a time:
Patterned Bronze Bracers (needed for a quest)
Dark Leather Belts and Pants.

The other exciting thing is that I flipped by first epic. I was just browsing and saw an epic mace with a buyout of 15g. All the other epic were selling for 175g and up. So I bit my lip and bought it. I put it up for 150g and it sold. WooHoo!

The remodeling should be done by Friday. And then we leave for spring break. So I'll be back in a couple of weeks.

Inspired by the Ironforge floor

2008-02-19T06:15:00.000-08:00

We are getting a new kitchen floor. Hurray. After trying to find someone to redo our kitchen since last summer, we finally have someone. He's the son of my son's godfather's glass blowing partner. A very nice young man who is really into his work. I am so happy. He starts Thursday. We're going to replace the old floor in the kitchen and front hall with tile, replace the kitchen counters, reface the kitchen cabinets, and redo the powder room.

What all this means is the for the next two days all my time is going to be getting rid of all of our junk in these rooms. Then we're going away for Spring break. And then it's time to do our taxes. This is all going to cut into our levelling, big time. Sigh.

Call me Michael Jordan

2008-02-19T06:11:00.001-08:00

I haven't master the jump shot quite yet, but I can sure run, jump and twist back, and then land and keep running in the direction I started. At least I can do it in IF. I can do it going upstairs. I can do it going into the AH. I can do running back to check the mailbox. Thanks BRK!

Workin' on the Jump Shot

2008-02-16T17:19:00.000-08:00

Here's the scene. I'm sitting at the dining room table with dad's laptop and the wireless-mouse-from-hell in front of me. I'm sure I still don't have this stupid thing configured right. Anyway, there I am. I've got my eight-year-old son standing on my right and my six-year-old son standing on my left. I've logged onto our dwarf hunter, Nikibrik, and we're all set up to start practicing our jumping and turning. And jumping and turning. And jumping and turning. We picked a spot away from the action by the AH and bank, near where the Lunar Festival display is set up.

Run toward tunnel, jump-turn-look-at-the-light-turn-back-to-the-tunnel, keeping running, jump-turn-look-at-the-light-turn-back-to-the-tunnel, keeping running.
.
At least that was the plan.

With the boys cheering me on, I kept trying. Then there came a point where suddenly I felt like Michael Jordan in his prime. I was up in the air and had all the time in the world to twist and twist back. It was so cool. It also didn't last. Little hands can't help wanting to help by moving the mouse around. Actually, they'd probably be great at this since they use the mouse all the time at school as well as on our old computer. Anyway, despite my helpers, I was getting better. At the very least, I don't feel completely disoriented anymore.

Well, the last time I took Nikibrik out to practice in the "Real World" it didn't work out so good. So we created yet another new character: Jumpshooter, the dwarf hunter.

I think it might be impossible to jump shot without an instance cast shot. Auto Shot didn't seem to go off while we were in the air. Also we ran into a lot of trees. And sometimes found ourselves jumping up, twisting and running straight into the wolf. Or else losing it because we couldn't get a shot off. But we kept at it and slowly. painfully, got up to level four and our first instance shot: serpent sting.

It was bad. Sometimes I'd hit the little run button in the middle of the mouse and nothing would happen. Other times. It would work perfect, but then for some reason as I'd jump and turn, the attack would turn off, so no shooting. Just shoot me now. Or else shoot the mouse.

Then my helpers and I had to quit. The fire we had built needed more wood. And popcorn was required for movie night.

I am going to master this, stupid evil mouse-from-hell and all.

Mom's to do list for the weekend

2008-02-15T20:26:00.000-08:00

Work on the Jump Shot. With BRK's second movie, how could I not. Thanks BRk. You're the best!!!

Respec one of our warlocks from Affliction to Demonology.

Right now they're both Affliction. One has been sitting in the Undercity since last spring at lvl 20. The other has been in SW for about a month, also at 20. Our undead warlock Rosishu, which we started over a year ago, had an "experimental" talent build going. In other words, a few points here and a few points there. We got her out this week, emptied her bags of crafting mats, finished up the secubus quest, killed a bunch of bears and spiders around Tauren Mills, and then did a couple horde quests in Durnholde. And dinged 21 and 22. And discovered I had never trained her in First Aid. D'oh. Back to the UC. Train. Train up in first aid. And respecc pure Affliciton. D'oh again, because our lvl 20 human warlock is also Affliction. I should've gone Demonology. So instead of respeccing again, I'll just spend another gold and respec the human. I don't want to do two the same. I just don't.

Get our lvl 43 troll hunter Danishu up to at least 46.

We have a bunch of character with the -ishu ending. The boys invented it. My youngest thinks it sounds pretty for a girl's name.

I ran into my brother's hunter in the Western Plague lands the other night. His main is a 70 tauren shaman, but he started a hunter after the tauren hit 70. Elmor, the Belf was at 49. I was on our Tauren hunter, lvl 60. We had fun killing undead for a while. I was hoping with my help, ding 50, but not quite. He wanted to run ZF, but there neither of us had time to wait while we pulled together a group.

Could a 60 BM hunter and a 49-almost 50 BM hunter manage ZF alone? Hmmm.

Jumps Shots

2008-02-15T07:14:00.000-08:00

Thank you BRK for the latest Movie on the "Jump Shot". I can't do it. It's a great awesome movie which explains the mechanics quite clearly. I just can't do it. I've been playing on a laptop with a trackpad since I started over a year ago. We didn't even own a mouse until I got one for my husband last month. Using the mouse is so weird. I get completely disoriented.

But heck, I wanted to be able to do this. I just need to practice.

So I longed into my hunter who's been hanging out in Ironforge. Since it was morning, IF wasn't all that crowded. I just ran around with the mouse for a while, crashing into walls, getting stuck under stairways, running into fires and getting burned. I was trying to get used to moving with that stupid mouse. I'm sure people thought that some parent had let their 5 year old play with a toon while home from school on a snow day.

Finally I started to get control of the camera angle — most of the time — and stopped crashing into things — most of the time.

Time to start running, jumping and spinning.

So I did that for awhile. Start running, jump and twist and landed looking straight up and crashed into a staircase. I swear it felt like landing flat on my back. "It's okay...I meant to do that." But I stuck with it. Gradually, I started to get control. I discovered that I need a focal point, something to focus on in the distance to keep from getting disoriented. Then it happened. I started running, eyes fixed on the Lunar Festival glowing light thingy. Hit space bar, twist-twist, and I AM STILL GOING TOWARD THE LIGHT. Wow this is so neat. Over and over. Into the light. Into the light.

Then I'm taking the show outside to see if I can shoot anything. Run down the hill. Target a wolf. Turn the camera angle so I'm looking at the little dwarf. Fire and run. And jump and twist and the wolf is out of range. Stand there and shoot again, and the wolf is dead. /sigh.

Back to Winter

2008-02-12T12:02:00.000-08:00

We were away for the weekend visiting family and friends in Charlottesville, VA. I swear it was 60 degrees on Saturday. No WoW for me, but I got to see some old friends. We all went to see Arlo Guthrie in his Solo Reunion Tour: The original band together again at last. Arlo is an extremely funny story teller. If he's coming to your town, go see him, just to see a part of American History.

Anyway, yesterday we had wind chill in the below zero range. Today is no school because of snow. And the furnace isn't working.

But I did get my Drenden dwarf hunter up to lvl 32 and a half. Feign Death is the best ability ever. I am really enjoying leveling and questing in totally new areas. There is a lot of running around for the Alliance, but there is also more of a storyline. Duskwood, Wetlands, Stormwind, back to Duskwood, then Redridge, and back to Stormwind and then to Ironforge, and then the Wetlands again, and back to Duskwood. I finally just got on a boat to Kalimdor to do get to Thousand Needles and all the racing flat quests, which lead back to Stranglethorn — my next stop!

When Real Lfe comes knocking

2008-02-08T10:05:00.000-08:00

We haven't been able to do much these days. Mom and Dad have managed to get their druid couple up to level 7. That's big. Dad likes thorns. In other news, by playing 30 mintues here and 20 minutes there, our dwarf hunter on Drenden, Nikibrik, dinged 30 and ogt Fiegn Death. Love Feign Death.

We're going out of town this weekend and will be away from the computer until Monday. So we'll see ya then.

Leatherworking is Lame, except when it's not.

2008-02-03T06:59:00.000-08:00

Not happening this weekend. Yesterday, Dad spent stripping wallpaper. Then the boys had their acting/singing lessons and the family went to a late lunch. We got home. Dad went back to work on the walls while mom checked the AH, did a bit of mat farming and levelled up my sencondary leatherworker a bit. Now I just have to level him up. After that we all watched an old favorite: The Music Man, with Robert Preston, John Ford, Shirley Jones, Buddy Hackett, and a very young Ron Howard. We chose this movie because the boys are learning the song, "Gary, Indiana". Besides, it's one of my favorites.

Before I get into the leatherworking part of this post, a bit more about the boys. They started taking tap dancing last year after watching "Singing In The Rain". After knocking the crowd dead at their recital last spring, they wanted to try being in play. So I signed them up for a children's production of "The Aristocats". In the fall, instead of doing soccer, they chose to continue with the tap lessons and do another play, "The Jungle Book." This winter, in addition to tap, they are working privately with the acting teacher to work on their singing. Plus they've started piano. My husband and I joke that we are doing everything we can to prepare our children for a career in Vaudeville.

Now on to the awful profession of Leatherworking.

Actually it's fine at beginning. The stuff you can make for yourself, assuming you're playing a class that wears leather, is better than anything of the early quest rewards. And the light leather armor kits are nice, too. This is doubly nice for us since we typically run a bunch of low level characters. They can all start off with a Handstitched Leather Vest at 45 armor, plus a +8 light armor kit. With two or three low level skinners feeding our low level LW, everyone gets decent armor and the LW is able to progress fast enough to make decent stuff for everyone's level. Until you get to the items requiring tough mats. But this is universally true in the crafting professions. You drool over the propect of making those sweet Toughened Leather Gloves, only to find that by the time you can either farm the mats or have the gold to buy them, you're sporting better gloves. But this isn't unique to LWing.

No the real problem with LW is twofold. First is that Leatherworkers-in-a-hurry to skill up, following a guide or something, will make about 30 of some decent but piece that doesn't require anything but leather and thread. And then dump them all the AH. Items like the Dark Leather Belt, which has decent stats for it's level, same than an "of the Monkey" piece of the same level. So forget about making and selling nice belts and pants at around level 20. This also goes for any selling any drops. Or bracers in the 30s. Or head gear in the mid 30s. I have seen 20 or more Nightscape Headbands priced at less 60 silver. Actually I like this situation. I buy them all up and DE them for Vision Dust and Lesser Nether Essence.

My main grumble with LW is at the upper levels around 250-300. My lvl 60 LW can make all these blue items with mats that she can easily farm, that no one wants because the only stats they have are resistances. I know these were for pre-BC content that hardly anyone ever does anymore, so of course no one want to buy them. Frostsaber and Chimeric and Living. Make 'em and DE 'em, I guess.

Mages

2008-02-01T17:03:00.000-08:00

I like blasting things from range, hence hunters. But I have also enjoyed mages, until it comes to the first talent point. And then I can't decide what to do next. Frost is supposed to be better for leveling, unless fire is better. And what about arcane?

We have about five or six baby mages scattered across the Realms Where We Roam. Three of them are at about level 10 and that first talent point. Another one, the original mage — Sheeshuu — was actually doing fine up until level 25. She had a kind of a random Arcane build with a bit of fire and a hint of frost (10/3/3), but she also had the Phoenix pants (+4 int, +10 fire) and Phoenix Gloves (+9 fire). Add the Dwarven Magestaff of Fiery Wrath with +13 fire damage. And an elixir of fire power (+10 fire), Minor Wizard Oil (+ 8 all spells) and the Bronze Band of Force, we're getting a +58 spell bonus to fire spells. Add some Frozen Wrath Booth with +11, and we're looking at +38ish to frost spells, as well. With this get up we have 1686 mana.

Okay, then we also have Azure Pants with +6 int, and +10 frost, along with the Spidersilk Boots (+4 int) and the Cresent Staff (+ 7 int). When we change into this gear, mana increases by almost 100, but fire spell bonus plummets, although frost goes up a bit.

She sits in Orgrimmar, buying and selling herbs and potions. So I don't know what to do with her. And I don't know what to do with the rest of our herd of mages. /Sigh

Making Gold on the AH

2008-01-30T08:48:00.000-08:00

No this isn't the post where I reveal my way to make tons of gold. Actually, my way insures that I always have enough for training and for upgrading my gear when I need to. I don't have "tons" but I do okay.

But I have been following a couple of guys as they play the AH in real time. One is trying to go from Rags to Riches and the other to 1000 gold without addons or extra characters. They are each starting off with a new character on a new server just to show how eas it is. They are both so easily going to make their goals. Honestly, making money in this game is pretty easy.

Here are a few of my tips.
1. Don't flood the market!
2. You don't need to undercut the market everytime. With herbs or cloth, for example, people will buy a bunch, either for leveling up first aid or alchemy or whatever. So if most of the stacks are at around 23s but a few are lower, maybe even much lower, go ahead a post yours closer to 23s. The someone is going to come along and buy all the lower priced, plus yours. Why cut your profit margin. If you can afford it, buy up the cheap stacks and repost them.
3. "Agility" leather gear. Or "of the monkey". And it seems that enough people know this because it is rare to see anything "of Agility" or "of the Monkey" that is reasonable anymore, let alone a bargin. But there is other nice +Agility geat out there that isn't called "of Agility" or "of the Monkey". If you know what to look for you can pick up some great deals.
4. Research what twinks want. Twinks will pay whatever. 100gold for a lvl 19 blue cloak (Sentry Cloak). 20gold or more for a pair of green gloves (Scouting Gloves of the Monkey with the right stats, although there are a couple of very sweet alternatives)

That's it for today.

I gotta go do laundry and clean off the desk. Tax time is coming up here. And that's the time that I look at rebalancing our investment portfolio. If you think playing the AH is fun, try it with real money.

The Lost Hunter

2008-01-28T07:09:00.000-08:00

So there I was the other evening in Auberdine with my Nelf Hunter, Warrstand. I was on my own that night with kids in bed and Dad working on a project (involving boxes in the garage).

I was checking the quest log and planning the night's foray, when a little box pops up inviting me to join a group. I decline. Then a whisper comes, begging for help. It was from a lvl 11 hunter standing there with a very hungry and unhappy nightsaber standing next to him.

"I need help. I don't know how to feed my pet."
I replied, "Do the Training quest."
"What?"
"Go to the hunter trainer in Darnassus and turn in the quest."
"Show me."
/Sigh.
/Roll Eyes.
But I remember what it's like to be completely clueless and lost.
"Okay."
So I invite him.
And we go back to Darnassus. I lead him to the hunter trainers. I gave him a small stack of fish to feed his cat. Then he tells me he has no money. So I give him a gold. Not that he needs it for this, since it's a quest turn in. But I remember being broke, too. He turns in his quest, thanks me profusely, and starts to leave. I whisper him: "Have you heard of Big Red Kitty." "Sort of." I think, "Sort of? How do you sort of hear about BRK?" I whisper back: "Go to bigredkitty.net and check out his lowbie hunter movies. They will really help you a lot."

He logged off a few minutes later. Maybe it was to go an actually watch the BRK hunter movies. I hope.

The Further Adventures of Otis and Aretha, Druids

2008-01-28T06:56:00.000-08:00

Mom (Arethadruid) and Dad (Otisdruid) finally had an opportunity to return to Night Elf starting area of Shadowglen. We looked so good together in our matching purple hair and green shorts. Anyway, we checked our quest logs, and decided to go kill some spiders. Otis is getting much better at figuring out where he is and moving around. We actually split up to find mushrooms on our own. And he killed a spider by himself. Aretha showed him how to heal himself or someone else, but he seems to prefer zapping and hitting. Which is good, since I think he's going to want to go feral. We finished up the quests in Shadowglen. I suggested we stay a bit longer to practice basic skills, but Otis wanted to see what we next, so off we went to seek our fame and fortune and find Dolanaar.

Missed my play time last night

2008-01-26T08:43:00.000-08:00

Kids were asleep. Husband was working on some project so I settled in to get in a few hours of leveling on my little Drenden tauren hunter, Nellesgirl. She was created by my niece about a year ago and sat around at level 4 until about a week ago. I can do a tauren from 1 to 25 in a day or two. Anyway, I was taking care of AH stuff and training, and then I heard a sound from downstairs —oiy oiy oiy waaa Waaa waaa. Hubby had put 'The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" in and was watching it WITHOUT ME!. Can't have that. So I shut down the computer. I think we got to bed around 3:30. But it's was worth it.

Oh where, oh where has my Guild gone

2008-01-24T06:20:00.000-08:00

We don't have very good luck with guilds. Granted we haven't been looking very hard since it is relatively easy to solo most everything except instances.

My best experience thus far has been on Dath'Remar with the Eagle Eye Warriors. I did Wailing Caverns with Cow, the GM, and Hillaj. Very nice guys and good players. Quite a contrast from a much earlier guild run of WC. That group spent all their time arguing about who was going to DE what loot. It took forever. And then came the taming of big snake for a pet. That took forever. Once we were finished, I /gquit.

The main thing that cause me to type /gquit, however, is the guild chat. I realize that it's mostly teenagers. Now they can be good players, I'm sure. I know my nephews are certainly very good. But I'm 40-something years old. I don't want to have a bunch of juvenile blather scrolling along in green at the corner of my screen. Plus, I have small children looking over my shoulder. The older one is a very good reader. In fact he taught himself to read at 22 months old, and is perfectly comfortable reading the Sunday New York Times or the latest issue of National Geographic. I do my best to make sure that what he reads is appropriate. And some of the stuff in some guild chats just isn't. /gquit

And then there is spelling. I'm not the world's greatest speller. I admit it. But I know that it's spelled "Corporal", not "Coperal". And it's "Sergeant", not "Sargent" unless you're talking about the painter. The "alternate" spellings just look wrong. But so far the bad spelling guild's chat isn't too bad. We'll see how they do on a trip to WC.

I had high hopes for Warrstand's guild on Drenden. A lot of chatting, but it seemed that it was mostly people being helpful to each other. A good range of levels, so there'd be people around I could group up with for instances. The bank was nice, and I even planned to donate a couple stack of leather in the next time in logged on. Then I logged on this morning to do just that, and I am guildless, sans guild. I sent a short polite note to the GM inquiring what happened. But whatever happened, to find oneself our of a guild without any warning or anything seems to indicate that the leadership of said guild needs to take a remedial course in management, or at the very least, review the rules of politeness. Saved the trouble of /gquit.

So if you happen to belong to a guild of helpful and mature folks who'd like a helpful and mature addition, let me know.

Hey Mikey, He Likes It!

2008-01-23T06:51:00.000-08:00

Dad is liking it. He's liking it. Last night after the kids were finally asleep, he came upstairs with his laptop to play for a bit. Mom knows better. I knew that we are getting to the point where we can't just stop where we are after fifteen minutes. We're getting ready to go into the CAVE OF SPIDERS. If we stop in there, when we long back in, we're dead. So we're waiting until we have a bit more time. But the important thing is that he's wanting to play.

Realms Where We Roam

2008-01-20T06:50:00.000-08:00

We started out in Fenris because the game assigned us there. But it was too crowded. We haven't been back since the beginning. Our highest character there is a lvl14 orc shaman.

Then we started a new gang on an Oceanic server, Dath'Remar. It's loads of fun playing with Aussies.

Then we discovered an Uncle and Cousins on Kilrogg, so we started a family there.

But my little guys kept wanting to start new characters. So we randomly picked Drenden next. The Drenden family tended to be mostly Alliance, while the other servers were where we'd play the Horde. When my niece came for a visit, though, she stared her Tauren Hunter, Nellesgirl, on Drenden. It was the only place we had room.

Kilrogg's population: a huge number of lvl 70s and a very even, but low distribution of everyone else. Mostly alts and friends and twinks of the 70s, I assume. I think the economy, at least on the horde side, reflects this. Anything leather with + agility below level 40 is very pricey, especially "of the Monkey." Mageroyal, Peacebloom, and linen cloth are dirt cheap.

After studying the Auction House for a few month last summer, I wanted to see how the economy worked on a lower population server. Enter our group on Velen. The last time I checked, and it has been a while, Velen had a lump of 70's but also a nice curve of 1-20s, which trailed off into the 30s and 40s. I'm sure it's changed now. But I did learn what I wanted to learn about different server economies and how much it depends on the distribution of levels.

If I can generalize, based on my own observation on four different servers: On a server with mostly 70s and a low but even distribution of everything else, prices for low and medium leather gear is very high. Imagine paying 2-3 gold for a level 7 green with +1 agility? And replacing it again in two levels? Savory Deviate Delight runs 15-18 gold a stack. On the other hand, the same piece of gear on the server where the bulk of players are under level 30 or over 60 is only going to be 10 or 15 silvers or less. And SDD is only 3-4 gold per stack.

On the other hand, low end raw materials such as copper ore, silverleaf, or light leather are less expensive on the former server and more on the latter. Which means that for someone just starting out, it is going to much easier to make money gathering and gear will be much less expensive and a low population server. But it will be take longer to save up a big wad of cash for the mount at 40. On the high population server, gathering is not going to be as lucrative, but leather greens with "of the monkey" or "of agility" will bring a pretty penny at the auction house. It is much easier to make a 100 gold on one of these servers, I find.

Next time, I'll post my surefire method for getting to the level 12-13 with a few gold in your pocket and a steady income. No grinding or gathering. You won't be rich, but you'll be able to afford all of your training, plus a decent weapon and a few reasonably priced greens.

And how to make decent money as a low level enchanter. No kidding.

The Weather Outside is Frightful

2008-01-20T06:11:00.000-08:00

It is bitter cold here today. It's about 9 degrees, with a high of 15 expected. The windows are all frosted, and the rhododendrons in front of the porch have all rolled up their leaves against the cold. We all snuggled up on the bed this morning while my youngest recount the "Story of Martin Luther King" as taught to Kindergarteners in 2008. Then Dad made coffee and pancakes. After we get cleaned up from breakfast, there's nothing for it but to continue the adventures of two Druids. The best part of playing with Dad is how funny his character is. His toon says the funniest things for all to see.

Blogs, Bloggers and Blogging

2008-01-19T21:30:00.000-08:00

Visited an awesome blog today from the editor of Petopia. Everything anyone could ever want to know about pets, plus how to do a ghost run at low levels to tame that impossible pet. Way Cool.

Sadly, one of my favorites posted a GBCWoW. Someone is leaving. While I understand the reasons, I'm sad that so much great information is going away. I especially liked the tips on soloing instances while they are still green. Or even yellow.

My son has started his own blog. So for Something Complete Different, go check out what a second grader thinks about the game.

And My Hero, the Big Red Kitty Himself, stopped by to cheer me on with Chain Trapping.

Finally, I'd like to report that Hubby and I are now at level 3. He actually wanted to play a bit more after the kids were asleep. He's still figuring out how to move and shoot and attack and loot. But for one sweet moment, we were killing grelkins together, and had one caught between our "wraths". He seems to do best tanking. Whereas the hunter in me prefers to stay and range. I can see where this is going.

Dad had started his character!!!

2008-01-19T18:36:00.000-08:00

Tonight we all piled onto the bed — Mom, Dad, the boys and two Mac laptops. We're on Drenden, a pair of Druids named Otisdruid and Arethadruid. I had forgotten how utterly confusing everything can be at first. While I was helping dad with figure out targetting and looting, our youngest would "jump" my character. But we got through our first quest together. Now it's storytime. We're reading the "Silver Chair" by C.S.Lewis. One of the best characters in all literature, Puddleglum the Marshwiggle.

I'm a happy Mom!

I'm back. Puddleglum, Scrubb and Pole are have set off to find Prince Rilian. The boys are asleep. Dad is feeding the critters and reading before bed. So I'll go play with one of my hunters.

Chain Trapping ROCKS

2008-01-18T06:31:00.000-08:00

I wish I had taken a screen shot. There I was in Redridge, killing gnolls. All yellow to me. I see a group of four. Why not?

First I hit the one furthest out with my BRK approved pullshot. He came running alone. Set the pig on him and he's down.

Drop a trap. Then target a melee gnoll in the group. Slap a heal on the pig and send it in with charge to build a aggro. Switch the pig to the caster in the group. Mark the caster and open up with Serpent sting, concussive, arcane, auto, and down. Meanwhile the third gnoll runs right into my trap. I move over and keep shooting. As soon as my nifty addon says I can drop a new trap, I do. Pig is now chewing on the first target. Everything is going like clockwork.

Suddenly, two more mobs spawn right on top of me. One runs right into my new trap. The other starts banging on me. Target it, and call in the pig who charges in to take it off me, while I finish up pig's other target in the camp as it waddles after the pig. Switch back to pig's new target for a serpent sting, and then start kiting the orginial frozen mob while throwing another heal at the pig. Drop another trap, and after that I don't know what happened.

But in the end there were six dead sparkling mobs, all yellow to me, all waiting to be looted. Me and my pig are still standing.

Skining, Leatherworking and the Tauren

2008-01-16T10:39:00.000-08:00

If you are a starting a Tauren, I highly recommend picking up skinning and leatherworking, at least at first, even though there's that "Cultivation" herbalism bonus.

Here's why:

Taurens get a choice of four classes, three of which wear leather, one mail
Orcs get five classes, 3 leather, 1 cloth (warlock), and one mail
Trolls 6 classes, 3 leather, 2 cloth, 1 mail,
Undead 5 classes: 1 leather, 1 mail and 3 cloth
Bloodelf, 6 classes: 1 mail, 2 leather, 3 cloth

Human: 6 classes, 2 mail, 1 leather, 3 cloth
Dwarf: 5 classes, 2 mail, 2 leather, 1 cloth
Night Elf: 5 classes, 1 mail, 3 leather, 1 cloth
Gnome 4 classes, 1 mail, 1 leather, 2 cloth
Draenei: 6 classes, 2 mail, 2 leather, 2 cloth

I haven't actually done much with the Draenei, so I'll leave them out.

So of all the possible combinations, Taurens have the highest percentage of leatherwearers. So it makes sense in terms of a world story line that there would be some incentives for Taurens to pick up skinning and leathercrafting.

Next consider the fact that the skinning and leatherworking trainers are right there in the very first place you come to as you leave the baby area — Bloodhoof Village. There's also a cooking trainer, but no herbalism trainer until you get to Thunder Bluff. Everyone else, expect Night Elves and Humans, has to travel to the main city to visit the skinning and leather trainers for the first time.

Many of the early quests for the Tauren involve killing animals. If you pick up skinning and leatherworking at level 5-6, you'll be making your own armor and armor kits almost immediately. Plus you'll have several stacks to put on the AH when you get to Thunder Bluff during your questing, rather than making a special trip.

And once in Thunder Bluff, run upstairs to the middle rise to pick up and turn in a skinning quest and a leatherworking quest. The leatherworking quest reward is a pattern for a 6 slot Kodo Skin bag. Wow. Bags at low levels make life so much easier. Even tailors can't make bags at this early. Kill kodos while running around Mulgore, make your own bags, then sell them when you can afford bigger bags. OR don't read the recipe. Instead buy your bags off the AH (3-5s for 6 slots), and keep the recipe in the bank. When you get to Booty Bay in the mid-20s for the Warsong supplies in Ashenvale, put the Kodo skin bag recipe on the neutral AH. This is a horde only recipe and it's a quest reward. You should be able to sell it for several gold.

Once you've done the recipe thing, you can drop leatherworking if you choose and switch to herbalism. With a +15 bonus, you won't lose much and should hit The Barrens at 50 or so, enough to gather mageroyal.

Other races:
Dwarves (or Dwarfs) also kill a lot of animals in Dun Morogh and Loch Moden. So skinning is a good choice for them, too. Humans get a lot of cooking quests in Westfall. Night Elves have a Skinning trainer along the road to the main city, but since they aren't killing as many skinnable beasts, they reach Darkshore with a lower level skinning, unless they want to spend some time grinding.

Any class and race will be fine. It's just there are these bonuses with Taurens. A couple of quests, a horde only recipe to use or sell, and the option to switch to herbalism and not lose much. If you do switch to herbalism, be sure to visit the herbalism trainer in Orgrimmar when you're there on other business to pick up an herb bag. None for sale in Thunder Bluff.

Westfall, Loch Modan, Darkshore, or The Barrens?

2008-01-14T10:02:00.001-08:00

Nikabrik is at lvl 16, a dwarf hunter. He was in Loch Modan, but has hopped over to Westfall to get another level or two before finishing up the Loch Modan quests. And to get into Redridge. Unless someone asks him to group, I think we'll skip Deadmines for now.

Mrs Rosen, our lvl 21 human warlock, has a full quest log for Redridge and Duskwood, plus a few in the Wetlands. She's done everything in the Westfall and Loch Modan, except Deadmines.

Warrstand is at lvl 14 in Darkshore. We've only just started there.

But our fastest moving new character is Naattuu. She's flying along through the Barrens.

Ah, the Barrens.

As Horde, I typically get to the Barrens at about level 13 1/2 with 3-4 gold in my pocket, an adequate weapon and a mix of quest reward whites and cheap AH greens. Do the delivery to Orgrimmar or Thunder Bluff, run a quick errand down to Rachet, killing a few striders on the way, and ding — the character hits 14. While in Rachet, pick up more quests. There always plenty of quests at level or just below. I have yet to finish all the Barrens quests before they start going green on me. I could write my own Barrens guide. Maybe not the fastest, but certainly fun, easy, and efficient.

Newest Hunter

2008-01-13T07:58:00.000-08:00

Our newest Hunter just hit 12 and is getting ready to leave Teldrassil. She a Night Elf, of course, but she actually not so new. My son started her almost a year ago, and gave her the unusually name of "Warrstand" with a double "rr". As we played her up to level two, he turned to me and said, "Oh Mommy, I've always wanted a character named Warrstand." Well, Warrstand is finally coming into her. And my son has started his own Warcraft blog, A Kid in the World of Warcraft. It's a bit different.

Warrstand is finally getting some attention because of MissusRosen, aka Mrs. R, our human warlock. She finally got to The Barrens and picked up her warlock quests. But passing through Darkshore were tons of quests. Her quest log is full, though, of Redridge and Duskwood quests. But a Night Elf could go and do these. Plus as a hunter, there's the option of taming a ghostsaber. And here's Warrstand just waiting around. So off we go. I expect to get some character up a few levels today since my youngest is sick and needs to sleep next to Mommy all day.

Flying around Thunder Bluff?

2008-01-12T07:14:00.001-08:00

Not something you see everyday

Hackett and I, by T. age 8

2008-01-11T16:08:00.000-08:00

After I started off killing young boars, I got to the Hunter trainer, Jen'Shan, and learned how to track beast. I also got a quest for scorpids and some nasty imp-like creatures called Vile Familiars, which are out of the baby area near a big cave with scaled buffalolike creatures. I haven't done the quest yet, but the imps (colored blue) with purple eyes and shoot fire balls, are not at all like the imps of undead warlock which are purple with green eyes. And I'm not talking about water elementals.

By T. Age 8

Wailing Caverns

2008-01-11T12:36:00.000-08:00

Naattuu had a good day. A very good day. She's joined a promising guild and ran Wailing Caverns with them.

We were checking on her mail before moving on to our level 41 hunter, when someone asked us if we wanted to WC. Well, Naattuu had just gotten all the quests there, and even finished up the outer ones on her own. It took a bit to get a group together. We had a level 19 shaman, a level 18 rogue, and then a level 48 Shaman joined us. It was a pretty good group, but I was especially impressed with the both of the shaman. The 48 Shaman by the name of "Cow" is GM of a small guild and invited us to join. Hillja, the other Shaman, and I did.

The run went as well as it ever has. We're all in the same guild now, so we could do this regularly. At the end the Hillja and Naattuu reset the instance to try Lady Anacondra again. Naattuu had gotten the new Serpent's Shoulders with +9 agility the first time through. He wanted the Belt of the Fang. So the two of us had a go at it. The pig tanked. Naattuu pulled. Hillja healed and off tanked. The pig died at the end, but I killed Lady A and the belt dropped. Hurray for us! Piece of cake.

Naattuu also got the Armor of the Fang and the Vemonstrike Bow. The Leggings of the Fang also dropped for Hill, who now sports the whole Fang set.

So new bow, dinged 20, and a promising new guild. Plus knocked off all the WC quests at the right level, including the escort one at the end.

Good times.

Hunters and the EPIC journey.

2008-01-10T09:42:00.000-08:00

Love my hunters.

Theothana is the lead hunter at 60 on Kilrogg. Beastmaster Tauren who works with cats. She's got King Bangalash from Stranglethorn, and a beautiful white Frostsaber Stalker from Winterspring. Why two cats? Cuz I love 'em both.

Danishu got some love today and is now at 41. She's also BM, a troll on Kilrogg. She finished up quests in the Alterac Mountains and Arathi HIghlands while leveling up a Mistvale Gorilla from Stranglethorn. The boys named him "CrazyWildApe". It's from a song they made up about King Kong. He's up to 36, but I don't think we'll keep him. Her other pets are a cool boar from Razorfen Kraul, and Washte Pawne, the lovely red windserpent from the southern barrens.

Naattuu is an orc hunter on Dath Remar, zipping along through the Barrens. She's a level 18, soon to hit 19. At 16 she made an epic journey. After checking on the progress of Big Red Kitty's new hunter, BRKTestBed I decided that she should trade in her old Durotar boar with Charge 1 and Gore 2, for a newer model with Charge 2. So I checked on Petopia. Nothing in the Horde lands until Razorfen Kraul.

But I want it NOW. More checking and I found the perfect piggy — in Westfall. Great Goretusk, with Charge 2 and Gore 3. Had to have it.

Decision made, I ran Naattuu down to Rachet and caught the boat to Booty Bay.

Naattu picks up the story: "While in BB, I grabbed the flight plan, then headed out into the jungle. My little Durotar pig was amazing. Anything that aggroed me, she'd attack and hold while I ran out of combat. She's almost always died, but sometimes I get out of range before she expired. The thing is though, that she'd last long enough for me to get to safety against mobs twenty levels and more above her. I died once in Duskwood while being attacked while I was reviving her. And once crossing into Westfall. I had been flagged PvP at some point in Duskwood, probably when I sent the pig to attack and distract a NPC (no idea who or what level) while I ran by. I was on the bridge into Westfall, again rezzing the pig, when an Alliance mage or something took me down in two shots. I waited for said character to go on his merry way before picking up my corpse. Then I scouted around for the Great Goretusk. I needed a 16, but they were all 17s. I stayed by the farms along the river. Finally I found what I was looking for. I said farewell to the brave and selfless Durotar boar, who had given his life for mine so many times. Then I tamed the lovely new boar. "

Naattuu and her new best friend have moved into Stonetalon after a trip to Wailing Caverns. This was my first trip to WC since 2.3 when they downgraded all the mobs outside the instances from elites. What a difference.

My last two Hunter are a Blood Elf called Pennishu on Kilrogg. She's waiting in Silvermoon at level 13, and a male dwarf on Drenden called Nikabrik. He's at level 12 and just made it to Thelsamar.

Alliance or Horde?

2008-01-09T06:07:00.000-08:00

I’ve played a lot of “toons”, or “alts”, or what the boys call “Characters”. Most of them don’t get out of the starting areas. But a few do. Both Horde and Alliance.

For the Horde, I’ve probably taken at least twenty characters into the Barrens, two into the Ghostlands, and one undead warlock up to twenty just in Silverpine. She’s been sitting in the Undercity for at least six months now, waiting to move on into Hillsbrand.

For the Alliance, I’ve played a Human rogue into Westfall and a Human warlock up to 20. She’s been everywhere from Loch Moden to the Wetlands. I’m trying to figure out how to get her to the Barrens for her warlock quest. Do I run from Westfall through Duskwood and Stranglethorn to Booty Bay and take the boat to Rachet, or do I fly into Menethil and try that way? I know exactly where the guy is, too. I've run by him while doing quests in the Southern Barrens dozens of time. Heading south on the Southern Gold road, at the turn for Camp T, there is a ruined building on your left. Usually with some big old Thunderlizards wandering arounding. Turn off the road there heading east and a bit north. In the distance is a small clump of trees with a couple of tents. There he is. Now if I can only get to him.

Once, I got a Night Elf up to level 10 and then ran her all the way from Darnassus to Darkshore, Ashenvale, The Barrens to Rachet and on to Booty Bay. Only died once. I don’t even remember her name or class, though.

And I’ve got literally dozens of lowbies scattered through all the starting zones except Azuremyst. For some reason, the boys have no interest in the Draenei.

So for starting off, which is the easiest? Well, the real starting areas are all pretty easy. I do like Mulgore the best, and then Durotar. The Barrens is great for questing and grinding. There is always the chance for the recipe for Savory Deviate Delight to drop. And the Sentry Cloak has dropped twice for me there, too.

That said, I have real been enjoying Dun Morogh and Loch Moden.

The Early Days

2008-01-08T08:55:00.000-08:00

We started out playing Horde because the boys really liked Thrall in Warcraft III. Our first character was a female orc shaman on Fenris. We started her in Dec of 2006. My youngest named her Sampeaire (pronounced Sam-pee-AIR). We killed pigs for a while, when we could find them. It was really crowded. Eventually we got our first quest and killed more pigs.

Actually Mommy killed pigs while the boys cheered her on. When we got to the scorpids, the kids were a little scared. After all giant scorpions are much scarier than pigs. But then we figured out that they weren't much tougher than the pigs. Jim thought that the sticky ochre loot was hilarious. Tad was more interested in how the battles were going. Mom kept trying to figure out how to equip the little bits of gray armor that dropped.

Then came the vile familiars. We never died fighting them, but came close a few times. Tad still talks about the vile familiars. Eventually we got out of the starting zone, although we neglected to get our first totem and had to go back later for it. Our first discovery was that monsters in the "real world" hit much harder than in the starting zone. The first level 6 clattering scorpid almost killed us. Anyway we tottered along like that for a while, picking up quests, narrowly avoiding dying, killing things, exploring.

Sadly, the Fenris was really crowded then, and we'd have to wait and wait to play. So the boys and I started another character on the lowest population server we could find — Dath'Remar. We decided to start a Tauren Shaman. Tad named her Theothana. And things when much better this time. We knew how to equip stuff. We knew we should choose leather over cloth, although we didn't figure out about stats for a long time, but that's another story.

We got to Thunder Bluff and got completely lost. Today we love TB because it's so compact, and relatively uncrowded. We never get any lag there.

We made the long run to the crossroads. It took us forever to find Kranal Fiss. We ended up in Ashenvale the first time. But eventually we found him and started the quest chain to get our fire totem.

We ran our first instance, RFC, and picked need for everything, because "greed" is bad and "need" is good. Right? Tad was extremely excited as we went through RFC. Today when we run a instance, we almost always pick "pass".

We thought carefully about our talent points, read all the description thoughtfully, and then picked a few here and a few there.

We got all our totems.
We made a friend, an Aussie Tauren Druid.
We took up skinning and leatherworking.
We tried to spend no money, but to make everything.
We got up to level 36.

And then came the phone call.

I was finishing up some quests on my own while the boys were in school. I think in 1,000 Needles. The phone rings. I check the caller ID. Oh, it's my brother out in sunny California. So I answer it. And keep playing. Eventually I realize that I haven't been following what he's saying. So I apologize and explain that I've been playing a computer game called Warcraft. It's really fun, but kind of addicting.

My brother laughs. And laughs. And laughs. Then he tells me that while we've been talking, he's also been playing Warcraft. He and his boys (older than mine), have a level 50 something Tauren Shaman on Kilrogg.

Well I did the only sensible thing. I started a new character on Kilrogg. Another Tauren, this time a hunter. And I've never looked back. We called her Theothana, too.

Right away, my brother's character sent her a nice set of silk bags and a bit of cash. When our new hunter was ready, he ran her threw Wailing Caverns and all the good loot dropped for us on the first run, including the Vemonstrike bow and the Leggings of the Fang. I skinned up a bunch of perfect deviate scales and made a several deviate scale belts. These I gave to my brother. His boys wanted them to give to some twink friends. He also got ran Theothana through SFK and SM (Graveyard and Library).

So we kept going along. I discovered Thottbot and Allakhazam. I bought Joana's Horde levelling guide.

And then I discovered Big Red Kitty. Thank you, BRK, for finally showing me how to play a hunter. Theo repecced as BM. I'm going to do another post about playing a MM Hunter in the pre-BRK days.

Our Warcraft Family says "Welcome"

2008-01-08T06:00:00.000-08:00

We are a World of Warcraft Family. The whole family plays, or will be playing soon. I'm a fortysomething mom with two boys, ages 8 (Tad) and 6 (Jim), and the main player in the family. Daddy has promised us that he will be joining us soon. It's his big Christmas present to Mom and the kids. But more on that later.

We mostly play solo, the boys and I, except when we bump into my brother and his boys. We recently ran their new hunter through SM. Playing solo as a group, or at least with a cheering section, gives the game an entirely different flavor.

As I said earlier, Mom is the main player.

But not the only one.

The boys LOVE starting new characters, especially hunters. At bedtime, instead of a story, sometimes they'll ask to "Start a new character." Tad starts mostly Horde, but Jim like starting Alliance, epecially girls. And they actually play them up to about level 3, when Mom takes over. Then it's bedtime. Of course, most of these alts never get out of the starting areas. We have low level characters on Kilrogg, Velen, Misha, Drenden, Fenris, and Caelestrasz.

Occasionally, though, Mom will keep playing a new character after the boys are asleep.

Our characters:
Kilrogg:
Today our main Theothana is at level 60. We have Burning Crusade installed on my husband's computer, but not on mine. My hard drive is really full. Eventually I'll load it up and get her to the Outlands. But for now she just grinding rep with various factions and making gold.
We have another BM hunter, Danishu. She just hit 40 and got her mount.
A female enhancement troll shaman (36), Sampeaire.
A female elemental Tauren shaman (26), Pamishu.

On Drenden:
A female human affliction warlock (20), Missusrosen.
There is also a Dwarf priest on Drenden who has left the starting zone as well as a pair of Dwarf mages. We'll see what happens with them.

Dath Remar:
A female orc BM Hunter (16), Naattuu on Dath Remar. Naattuu is zipping along by following BRK new hunter guide movies.

On Caelestrasz:
The original Theothana was transferred to Caelestrasz.

My fortysomething husband has promised to join the rest of us soon. He actually started a character a while back, a goofy looking troll hunter. The troll had a definite personality of his own. Since we will be adventuring together, I thought we might try a role playing server. He'll likely be a hunter, and I guess I'd be a priest, but we'll see. Stay tuned.

And if you bump in one of our characters, please say hi. Give a wave to the boys.