Wednesday, June 29, 2011

4.2: The Aftermath

I found myself to be both pleased and disappointed with the patch 4.2 release. On the upside, it was one of the smoothest patch releases I've participated in. Maybe I'm misremembering the past, but I don't recall a single major content patch going as well as this one did. I was in the game right at 11 am pacific and I didn't have a single problem. I was immediately able to go to the Auction House and begin making money. This went exceedingly well.

Another thing I really enjoyed was the quest chain regarding Aggra and Thrall. It was new, exciting and fun, but once I'd finished it and the few dailies available to me... I was suddenly right where I was pre 4.2. Sure, now I have a fancy new cloak and I was able to buy my tier 11 gloves with justice points, but why? To go and run the same 5-man dungeons I've been running all expansion?

This is a new feeling for me. Due to my recent wrist issues, I've not been raiding the way I normally would. I may get back in to it now, but I suspect I may have trouble trying to break into the raiding scene part way through. I suddenly understand what all of the non-raiders have been complaining about all of these years. It sucks to feel left out. I hope the daily quest hub proves as "epic" as Blizzard's said it is, but I won't know until I get there. I do hope it's fun, I've heard the scope I want to get the pattern for can take a month.

One thing I really did like ( I did a happy dance when I saw it) was the ability to change my characters' positions on my character screen. I've been playing for years, and at one point Gossamer changed from a Night Elf to a Troll and moved servers. She's since switched and moved back, and I've always been a little irritated that she's no longer the top of my list. She's been my main character since release day! My boyfriend was highly amused at my excitement over the feature. He said "If I were single and didn't know you I'd wonder what kind of narcissistic, obsessive, weirdo would care what order her characters were in. I look at you... it's not so bad." I love you too, honey.

Oh, and I now have 154 pets. Wee!

Monday, June 27, 2011

4.2 Goals... Complete!

That's right ladies and gentlemen. When I log in after patch 4.2 completes I will be the proud owner of Nuts the nut throwing squirrel. After the 4th day of killing Ahune I finally acquired my Frigged Frostling! That bringds me right to 150 pets, so when 4.2 arrives I should have a grand total of 153! But will that stop me from furthering my collection? Of course not!

I've also got quite a decent amount of things stockpiled that I will begin to trickle onto the auction house. I think the hardest thing I'll face with this is fighting my urge to post all of it at once, rather than waiting for the market to spike. Go, go gadget willpower!

Sunday, June 26, 2011

The Days Before Patch 4.2

This has been a slooooow week for WoW. With everyone waiting in anticipation of patch 4.2 it seems a lot of things have come to a standstill. I did little on my hunter this weekend, mostly daily quests and archeology. Oh, and Auction Housing. I'm hoping to make some big bucks when this patch drops and most of my current cash is being stored as goods. Here's what I'm stockpiling:

Inferno Rubies

One of the things I am counting on the most is the boredom of raiders. From what I've been reading/listening to, raiders have completed this tier of content more quickly than ever and are slavering over the chance to get into the new content. New content means new gear, and new gear means new gems.

There are definitely other cuts and colors, and I will be selling some of these in addition to the Inferno Ruby cuts, but most folks will be clamoring for the reds. We hunter's prefer the Delicate Inferno Rubies to be sure, but I also make a killing on the Bold and Brilliant cuts.

Also the green level gems' vendor price will be dropping drastically. I suspect this will mean we will also see a drop in the Auction House prices. Anything I'm not able to sell for more than 5 gold before Tuesday is going to the vendor, save for the gems that can be used for the Jewelcrafting daily and the carnelians.

iLevel 358 PvP Gear

I'm not stockpiling the gear itself, but the materials to make the gear. Because Blizzard has decided to upgrade the current ilevel 339 patterns I've simply bought the PvP gear patterns currently on the vendors. As far as I know the materials required aren't even changing. With the new arena season starting soon this should be a big seller. Unfortunately I did betray my hunter brethren this time. I've most purchased the Rogue, Druid and Shaman gear, as these classes seem to represent a larger portion of the PvP population. Sorry guys.

Bars

The bars I'm stockpiling mostly consist of Hardened Elementium Bars, but I am storing some regular Elementium bars as well. These bars make me some decent money on a normal day, and with all the new crafting patterns coming out I expect to make money hand over fist with these. Especially at the prices I'm currently acquiring the ore.

Volatiles

All of them. Again, due to the number of new crafting patterns each type of volatile should see a price increase. I'll likely use most of these when crafting the PvP gear I intend to craft and sell, but if it turns out I can make more selling the volatiles themselves I will do so.

Enchanting Materials

I say Enchating materials, plural, but what I actually mean is Greater Celestial Essences. I fully expect these to shoot though the roof on a similar scale to the Inferno Rubies, and for the same reason; new LOOTZ! Maelstrom Crystals will likely experience a similar leap with raids moving away from farmed bosses and toward raid progression. However, I wonder if it will jump as much as some suspect. I foresee a lot of raiders flooding 5-man dungeons to farm for Valor points at the beginning of the patch to get the new ilevel of gear for their progression runs. Also, these are a little harder for the average crafter to get simply from crafting. I simply made a bunch of Carnelian Spikes and disenchanted them.

Scope and Gun

I've listed this last because as much as my hunter is excited for the Flintlock's Woodchucker scope and as well received a gun might be received by some hunters (even if it's not raid tier) the demand for these is limited to (mostly) one class. Add that to the fact that I'm going to have to spend a bunch of time unlocking the two patterns and it just doesn't seem a smart move to put a lot of effort into crafting these right away. But never you fear, fellow hunters. I will be happily selling all of the materials to craft both these, at exorbitant prices of course. *grins*

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Midsummer Festival

I must admit, I'm a bit of a completionist. In my console gaming I'm inclined to not only complete the game itself, but I also track down every item, secret and dodad. In WoW I have had to pull this back a little, but with 149 non-combat pets, 88 mounts and a slew of achievements I haven't reigned it in much.

This is why I like the holidays in WoW. I can get pets, mounts and achievements, and all with a shiny new feel to them... at least that's how I used to feel. While I am still striving to get the Frigid Frostling to round out my collection at an even 150 before patch 4.2, this is quite literally all Gossamer can do, as she completed the What a Long Strange Trip it's Been achievement some time ago. This disappoints me, because I've always gotten a kick out of the holidays, but Gossamer has been around for so long, she's a little left out of all the fun.

Ah well, I'm off to smack Ahune again. Wish me luck for the Frostling!

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Jadefang

Today in huntering news, I've tamed Jadefang! Wahoo! Jadefang is a rare spawn Shale Spider from Deepholm. Shale Spiders are a must have for any hunter who's goal is a stable full of raid buffs. With your rocky buddy at your side there's no need for Mark of the Wild (druid) or Blessing of Kings (paladin) because your pet get give an equivilent buff called Embrace of the Shale Spider. He can also web, much like the regular spiders, so he's neat for PvP as well as PvE.

Jadefang is tough to find in part because hunters and non-combat pet collectors want him (killing him always drops the companion, the Tiny Shale Spider) and in part because he's a little tough to get to. The only way I've found to actually get up to him is with the daily quest Underground Economy. This is a Therazane reputation daily, so for the most part you will need to complete Deepholm up to these dailies. I've heard engineers can get up there without it, but if you're not an engineer you'll need the daily. Disengage doesn't go far enough, I've tried.

Once you have Underground Economy run though the tunnels and two the main room with the white blocks. In this room take the right tunnel, then hug left. If you've done the Therazane dailies before you're heading for the ledge Pebble is on. Once you're at the ledge, look to the right and you'll see another ledge with no other access points. Once you see this, turn around so your back is facing this ledge, place the bomb you were given by the quest, Ricket's Tickers and wait. When the bomb goes off you should be thrown to the otherwise inaccessible ledge. From here simply run to the back of the short tunnel. If Jadefang is not there he simply has not spawned yet. You can either wait (I did this myself and got him after about 6 hours. I killed him for the non-combat pet) or you can check back each time you do this daily (I also did this to tame him).


Happy huntering!

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Late posting

I don't have anything hunterly today and it's my own fault. I've recently decided to level some alts for fun and have been completely ignoring Gossamer. On top of this I've decided to write a "The Raven" parody called "The Dire Raven". Unfortunately I'd forgotten just how lengthy the poem is. I am having fun writing it though, and I'll post it here soon™.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Hunter Nerd

Another quick one today, but I just wanted to share my amusement with my hunter's current... look. The other day I won a pair of "pants" that were an upgrade from my previous pair. I use the term pants very loosely here, as these are nothing more than long shorts. These silly things are cut off just above the knee, and with my boots coming to just below the knee my knobby purple knees are out for all to see.


Next I decided to level my professions, engineering and leatherworking, with the purpose of crafting myself the Engineering goggles for myself. They're an awesome piece of gear, but with one downfall...

I'm just a bow tie away from this guy:

 Of course, bow ties are cool...

Monday, June 13, 2011

Gear and Hero Worship

My hunter is slowly but surely building a nice set of gear from Zul'Gurub and Zul'Aman as well as improving her pet collection. My favorite piece of loot so far is The Recovered Cloak of Frostheim. I did a full double take when I first saw it. "Oooo, pretty cloak." *closes tooltip* "...wait, WHAT?!?" Now while I am neither a gun lover (I can't BAM remember BAM why BAM) nor a dwarf, I do love me some Frostheim. I've been following his blog and podcast since he became the hunter writer for WoW Insider. It's nice to see one of the greatest contributors to the hunter community get some much deserved recognition in game. Way to go, Frostheim!

Friday, June 10, 2011

Our Hero

Just a quick one today, but I just had to share.

So there we were, in Zul'Gurub. The group asks if there is an archeologist in the group. I respond positively. We head up the hill and the tank lets us know he's never been there. Fair enough, everyone's had a first time. I find each of the artifacts and the fight starts.

Unfortunately the tank and one of the DPS died about half way into the fight. It's not unexpected, and our healer even says as much. But as I turned my wolf, Timbre's growl and cower on something slightly shocking happened. We didn't die. Not only didn't we die, but our wonderful priest healer and I managed to keep my wolf pet up and tanking and we completed the fight quite handily. Emergency pet tanking FTW!

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Gossy's Obsession

Last night I did many things. I went to Zul'Aman for the first time since it was re-released, but I found I was much less nostalgic toward this Troll stronghold. I had a lot of fun, despite a few hiccups, but I just didn't have the same fond memories I had of Zul'Gurub. It did, however, re-ignite something that's been smoldering since my injury. It's my passion... my passion for PETS!

I absolutely adore the non-combat pets, or companions, that you can acquire throughout the game. I've been collecting for a long time, and being in ZA reminded me of the one thing I never did but always meant to do in this dungeon... get Mojo.

If you weren't around during the original release of Mojo, or if you perhaps just never heard the news, there was a little mistake made in how a player could obtain this cute little frog. Once upon a Burning Crusade I had a pet collector friend; a cute little dwarf priest. Her passion for pet collecting was equal to mine, and she and I helped each other with our collections. She excitedly let me know that if you ran to the outside of ZA and blew Budd a kiss you would get this frog. We were raiding at the time so I didn't get to check right away and by the time I got out there they'd hotfixed it. That coupled with my horrid luck with the hex sticks meant I never got Mojo before the content because obsolete and I never went back.

Sadly last night did not alter my luck wit the hex sticks; my collection is still missing Mojo. I did get three new pets to add to my growing collection, which now sits at a whopping 145 pets. So far I have gotten each pet achievement the day it went live, and I hope the one coming up in 4.2 will be no different. My current plan is to finish the quests to receive the Tiny Flamefly and Lashtail Hatchling, and then either buy the Magic Lamp, Enchanted Lantern and Darting Hatchling, or depending how long until 4.2 hits I may farm a few of the others I don't have. Any either case, I will have that dragon on the very first day!

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

....And I'm Baaaaaack

After some wrist problems which are on the mend, but not completely healed, I am back and hoo boy did I miss my hunter! Unfortunately I've missed nearly all of the current raid content. Worse, my baby hunter has been removed from the WHU guild on Icecrown! Sadface. I don't blame them, I was gone for quite some time.

Since I've been out of the loop in the ways of huntering lately (though I've heard we're getting an eye patch with our next tier?) I'd like to share the only huntering I've done since my injury, Zul'Gurub. I'll catch up on my hunter news soon and will hopefully have more thoughts to share another time.

ZG, the return of the Trolls

I've been a hunter since the beginning (we're talking day one WoW here), so Cataclysm has been interesting for me. I have enjoyed what I've seen so far of the re-vamp, which has mostly been the 1-55 zones and dungeons, but when I heard they were re-releasing ZG after doing away with the dungeon at the start of the expansion I was a little skeptical. I'd killed Hakkar and his brood years ago, after all. How did they all return?

Stepping into the instance for the first time changed my mind almost at once. The quest NPCs immediately inside the instance is a nice quality of life change; the green, foamy cauldron showed me that this is not the ZG I was remembering so nostalgically. I decided to forget everything I knew about the dungeon and just plow ahead and enjoy myself, as the cauldron seemed to be prompting me to do. We were off!

High Priest Venoxis

As I crosses the bridge I was amused to see a giant mask kicking the snot out of our over zealous melee dps who were too excited to wait for the tank. As I chuckled I pulled out my own, slightly less impressive mask, just to show off. No one noticed. In the midst of my showing off I didn't notice the deathly poison of the next mobs, or the savior-cauldron and died shamefully in green goo. Whoops.

After my shaman friend scraped me off the ground we entered Venoxis's little alcove. "Hey, I know you" I thought to myself. "Maybe this dungeon isn't any different... say, didn't you have adds? Ack! Green!" as the tank pulled. My boyfriend, who had done the dungeon dozens of times at that point and was looking over my shoulder, began coaching me on the fight, though staying out of the things on the floor is second nature and I really didn't need much in the way of an explanation. It turned out to be pretty simple, though it can look quite hectic, and I am please to say I creamed the other dps on Recount.

Bloodlord Mandokir

After handily defeating the High Priest we moved on and eventually arrived at the Bloodlord. (The new "frogger" rocks you have to dodge are hilarious.) I didn't immediately recognize his area, it's changed quite a bit for it being in the same location, but as soon as I caught sight of the Bloodlord himself I remembered him. I was amused to see that while he was seemingly able to resurrect himself his raptor, Oghan, was now a boney shadow of his former self.

I was glad to see they left the flavor text for this fight, if slightly altered from the original. Unfortunately I was so busy giggling I failed to notice Oghan now makes up for his new less-than-fleshy form by killing the NPCs that rez us. Needless to say the first attempt didn't turn out so well. The second attempt went just fine and we proceeded.

The Cache of Madness

As a person who spent a lot of time leveling Archeology (for pets of course!) I was very pleased to find out there is a random boss that can only be summoned using this profession. I happily clicked away until a fellow Archeologist and I found all of the objects needed to begin the fight. The boss was pretty simple and we had an absolute blast.
High Priestess Kilnara

I thought I recognized this as the "panther boss" from the original ZG, but in looking her up I now see she's the replacement of High Priestess Arlokk. I died very early into the fight so I really didn't get a very good idea of the fight, but my group finished her off and we trudged on. It was beginning to get late and we'd already lost one healer, who left all of a sudden and without a word.

Zanzil

This was another new one for me. I thought at the time that he might have been in the same place Jin'do the Hexxer (or in my mind, Jin'do the Dancer) but I'm not completely sure. We did die on our first attempt, but I think this may have been because I and one other person has not yet done that fight. Once we all understood when and why to click the cauldron the fight went smoothly.

Jin'do the Godbreaker

Ah, here's our old buddy Jin'do. And he's even gotten a promotion, how nice! This fight tripped me up a little until my boyfriend realized that because the group had instructed me to stand on the chains that I hadn't noticed the puffy death clouds on the ground and was being destroyed. I then stood next to the chains and completed the fight. After we'd finished and I decided to go back to turn quests in I ran the wrong way, pulled the only brute troll guy left on Jin'do's little tower and died. Whoops again.

After running back I turned some quests in and made a nice chunk of gold. Unfortunately while three pieces of Mail dropped all three pieces had intellect on it. Even more unfortunately our Shaman only needed the one piece. *le sigh* I did win nearly every bag, box or barrel we rolled on, so I did get some nice things.