Who's that Pet Break

Lately I've been advoiding looking at my blog. I know that I haven't posted the answer to the mystery pet from two weeks ago and it's been eating away at me. It's not that they are particularly difficult to make and if I wasn't such an awful procrastinator I could finish several at a time... I just don't want to. It makes me feel a little awful inside because I was pretty excited about the idea but I'm not enjoying it as much as I used to. So I'm stopping. No more. I'm not sure if it's a perment break or not but I'm not planning to make anymore anytime soon. I'm not done with blogging and I hope that I'll be doing more writing now instead of just posting the mystery pet and the answer. If anyone else wants to create their own or their own version I'd say to go right away and let me know so I can try and guess as well. I do have one last answer to post although it's a week late. But I will definitely feel better knowing that it's at least complete.

Who's that pet?

5.3 Pet Hunt

When 5.3 came out I had only a few thoughts in my mind.

1. Death knight needs gear

2. Level all the ways of cooking

3. Get all the new raid pets!

So here's the additions to my pet stable these past two weeks:

From Raids

I knew I would be able to get all the Kara pets the first week. There has to be one benefit of having a ton of alts! Then I went on a pet giving spree and needed to collect several of them all over again. XD

Lil' Bad Wolf was one of the pets I was most looking forward to getting. So I was pretty excited to get him right away. 

I love how the fiendish imp comes out of a portal. I wasn't too impressed with him until I saw from Cyrme that you can sometimes summon Kil'rek instead. Now he's pretty cool.

I was pretty excited to see the menagerie custodian because of the Blog Azeroth sharetopic back in December that asked what pets would we like to see. This was one of the items on my list and it was pretty awesome to see a pet that I really wanted.

And the last Kara pet is the Netherspace Abyssal. I'm really glad to have this pet because I haven't yet tracked down a minfernal. And the abyssal does a really cool looking hellfire! It's a pretty tall pet. When it's fed a biscuit it ends up being bigger than my little goblin warlock!

The Lesser Voidcaller is the only pet I currenlty have from Tempest Keep although I haven't been farming the eye or SCC with all my alts, just my death knights. I don't think I'll have much luck with killing Kael on any of my other toons and I can't bear to run the raid without killing him because he might, just possibly might, have a phoenix mount. It could happen.

I really dislike SCC for one reason and one reason only. The first time I entered on my human death knight I thought I'd be able to quickly get though the place in my dps spec. Until I reached Hydros and he kept resisting everything. Well, almost everything. I eventually managed to kill it by using death and decay, plague strike, and death strike along with a few choice cuss words. After that my death knights just run the place in blood spec. I wasn't certain I could kill Lady Vashj at first but quickly realized I could live though whatever she dished out.

From Fishing

After I got my blood elf leveled I really wanted to get her professions leveled and I couldn't consider cooking leveled until I had managed to master all the ways of cooking. I determined that the best way for me to level all that cooking was to go where the fish of the day were at and fish up large quantities of fish to trade for cooking tokens to then purchase the materials needed to level a way of cooking. It's taken several days but I eventually managed to level all my ways of cooking. Now I just need to fish up more tokens to buy a bell and some recipes.

I didn't get my first carp until my second day of fishing. I was pretty shocked and excited to get a carp. But I also remembered that Navi had been looking for carps for quite awhile so I decided it would make a perfect surprise for her. I switched over to Navi's realm and tossed it in the mail and then returned to Tyle to continue her fishing. Less than five casts later and she's got another green carp! I really couldn't believe it! How lucky was that? The Ferengi are definitely wrong when they say "No good deed goes unpunished."

On the third day of fishing the location of the fish of the day changed and I was pretty excited because I got some new scenery. I was also pretty excited because I caught my blue carp.

The next location was the alchemy fish one so I took a bit of a fishing break. When I next resumed my fishing it was in a little coastal town and just when I was getting ready to call it a night I found my tiny white carp.

Gear

I was pretty excited because last week I got to run with Shadow Rising as a tank on my death knight. I was also incredibly nervous because she was terribly ungeared. I really expected her to go splat far more than she did. But that week after finishing up MSV, HoF, and Terrace I was finally able to get Tyledres into her first ToT LFR and that very first section didn't get her any gear but it did give Tyledres a few surprises.

Pygmy Direhorn! I hadn't realized that you could get pets from LFR so I was pretty excited to get this pet from Horridan. Although I was a little bummed not to get any more gear for my death knight.

I was very shocked when Council gave me a living sandling! One pet I figured was pretty awesome but two pets from the same LFR? That's pretty darn lucky. Although what I really wanted was a sword... Ah well, there's always next time.

Gift

I seem to have misplaced my screenshot of this pet.
So I'm leaving this as a temporary placeholder

I was pretty surprised the other day when I logged on and saw that I had some mail. A check of the mailbox and I saw that Navi had left me a Sunfur Panda! It's adorable! And I just want to say thanks again Navi.

Minfernal

These ill-tempered constructs of flame and rage sometimes rise from the remains of larger infernals who fall in battle.

The Minfernal can be caught in Felwood.

Who's That Pet?

It's nice to be nice

The past month or so have been a bit dull in real life for me. It's mostly consisted of nagging and waiting. But I won't get into that. Instead I'll just say that right now I have way too much free time on my hands and not much to do to fill that time. So I've been playing WoW and watching Star Trek. Two really awesome activities but having finished up all the seasons of Deep Space Nine and completed almost the entirety of Voyager I can't help but think I have way too much time on my hands and not enough to do. 

But a comment from Nelix last night really got my brain spinning. He said his Grandmother told him "It's nice to be nice." True, at the time he was working with Tom Paris to con a con man but that statement struck me.

I'll try and explain.

I haven't always had very good luck with guilds. To tell the truth when I read that WoW players feel there is less of a community now than there used to be I found myself agreeing. It's been a very long time since I've been in a group that's left a lasting impression on me. Back at the beginning of Wrath I had been in a guild with a great group of people that managed to form a bond that had us sticking together though pugs, bad guilds, and eventually into a new guild of our own. We ran raids together and attempted progression but eventually the guild was disbanded and our group finally went in separate directions. I think I've been a drifter ever since. I've been in some awesome guilds, don't get me wrong, but there didn't seem to be that sense of community anymore. Maybe it was just me. I thought maybe I was holding on to something that wasn't really what I was remembering it to be. The rose-colored glasses kind of thing.

I never intended to stay on Drak'Tharon. Honestly. It just sort of happened. I just wanted to say thanks for a pet. But I was there so I leveled. And the warlock was fun. But Shadow Rising was even more awesome. Even just sitting back and watching I could tell that these people truly cared about each other. I didn't really want to leave. Before I knew it my warlock was 90 and I was getting help and offers of help for gearing her up from what felt like everyone. It left me stunned. How long has it been since I've had help from someone and even more important how long has it been since I've helped someone the way they were helping me? It's humbling. I was very tempted that week to server and faction transfer my death knight. But after inventorying my Christmas money I realized I had a choice between the soda machine or a horde death knight. The soda machine won but only after I decided it isn't that difficult to level another death knight. And I still feel a bit awkward about being in the guild. Do I really fit or are they just being nice to me? My self-worth and insecurity issues aside I figured I really couldn't justify spending the real world money when a bit of time would have another death knight leveled.

Raiding with Shadow Rising was an experience in itself. The first time I was caught off-guard and really surprised to find myself in Throne of Thunders. I didn't expect to be raiding with them. Especially not there! I didn't have any flasks or food. I even had to double-check to make sure I had everything gemed and enchanted. But rather than receive flack for being unprepared they let me get flasks from the guild bank and they dropped a feast before each boss. I've been in a few guilds where they dropped feasts before boss fights but getting flasks blew my mind. These people looked out for each other. It seems like such a little thing but it's really not. I couldn't quite figure it out. Why would all these people do so much to help each other?

I've been thinking maybe it's because they are on a smaller server then I've become used to. I've looked but I haven't yet found flasks for my warlock on the auction house. On Korgath it was usually so much easier to just find something on the auction house than to make it myself. I think it really became the answer. Buy it on the auction house. When you go to a raid you better have flasks, food, gems, enchants, and the recommendation of the raid leaders ex-girlfriend's sister's cousin's best friends' uncle otherwise you'll never be invited along. Korgath is a big server and they have a large pool of people to choose from. If one person leaves they can find another. Guilds are similar. There are lots of guilds to choose from. If you don't like the one you're in than a bit of searching and you can find another. Drak'Tharon has to be different because the server is so much smaller. Less people, less guilds, less junk on the auction house.

But that reasoning felt cold. It didn't really feel right. But then I heard Nelix say "It's nice to be nice." Because it is. I'm not saying I won't do all so that I don't feel so unprepared for raids. I have no intention of being a leech. But it was like a curtain being lifted. It's nice to be nice.

It also helped me understand something else. Since patch 5.3 hit I've given away quite a few pets. I won't lie. The first one was very difficult to do. But each time it got easier. I even began to look forward to it. I started thinking about not which ones I wanted to keep but about who would like these pets more than me. I thought it was some weird sort of madness. The first I could excuse as extras I was handing out. The next were ones I could get again next week. But after awhile I figured I'd just call it patch 5.3 madness. But then it hit me. It wasn't a madness. It was just nice. I enjoyed doing something nice for others. I do have some idea of a few others I'd like to get some pets. But that'll have to wait until at least Tuesday. But then I think my frenzy of pet giving will be close to an end. But I don't think it's a permanent end. Nope. It might be some time before I go though an obsessive spat again but I don't think I'll forget the most important lesson. It's nice to be nice.

And before I go I do have one more thing to say. Not so much about what I learned. Instead I have a thanks to give. I'm sorry to say I'm not always prompt but I need to give a big digital hug to Tome and a thanks as well for my new pet. I love the Water Spirit! Thank you so much!

The new me

Lately I've been a little obsessed with a project of mine. Well... ok, majorly obsessed with this project. And what was this project? Leveling another death knight! 

And last week my newest lady managed to hit level 90!

And I quickly qued for a dungeon run. I was a bit nervous because I choose to tank. I worried about how well I'd be able to survive and hold aggro.

It turns out that my fears couldn't even begin to touch the reality. I entered my first dungeon to find it almost to the second boss. One of the dps had switched to their tank spec to continue. Sounds like a decent start right? I asked the dps if they wanted to continue tanking or if they would like to switch back to dps. And the monk responded that he'd be happy to go back to dps if I would get into my tank spec. Or was I just undergeared? Then the pulled the boss along with two groups of adds and promptly died. I managed to scoop up aggro. Blew though cooldowns and somehow got everything under control. The monk began demanding a rez because we were taking too long to kill everything. I had the runic power so I decided to rez. The monk then said that he liked fast dungeons and if I didn't pull fast enough for him, he'd start pulling. So when the boss died he ran into the Cathedral and began pulling scarlet mobs and the boss. Unfortuantely he died again where he joked that he should have stayed tank spec. He also began demanding a rez again. I was never so happy when a dungeon was finished as I was to have that one done.

While that first dungeon was a nightmare the rest have been much better. I did worry a bit about being a squishy tank until I had another interesting dungeon run. The healer in the group had zoned in but then disconnected. I had started pulling the first group and I didn't realize I didn't have a healer until we reached the first boss. We stopped for a bit to try and kick the healer but none of us were able to do so. So I decided to go ahead and pull the boss. And then we made our way to the second boss where the healer was finally removed from the group and we got a new one. But that dungeon run made me stop worrying about being a squishy little blood tank. I was well able to handle anything in the heroic dungeons. And even better I would be able to handle the raid finder raids as well. 

Raid Finder Raid

After running heroics and even raids all that was left was to level professions.

Although I'm still working on leveling up my professions. Actually, I always forget just how painful profession leveling can be. And how much time. And did I mention pain?

And now it's a whole new week. I'll have to see if my little Tyle can get herself the gear to move to another raid finder.