When lore isn't covered in game.

I have made no bones about my love of reading. It has gotten to the point that the Platewarer has decided I need a Kindle. The hope is that it will some how limit the number of physical books that enter our home so we can get rid of a few of the book cases...he is rather optimistic in my opinion.  That being the case it never fails to shock me how LITTLE reading goes on within the Wow community.  This past week when the Hour of Twilight patch dropped I was provided with endless hours of entertainment by nothing more than fellow players who had no clue what was going on because they could not be bothered to read any of the information provided OUTSIDE of the immediate game.

Here are some examples, all of which are completely serious and true. One individual could not understand why Blizzard named the patch in honor of the Twilight movies, that was "just taking the whole Pop Culture thing to far".  Another told us all that at the end of the Raid Thrall was going to turn into the new Aspect of Earth because "secretly he had always wanted to be a dragon".  Finally we have the individual who must be related to Wowcendor's Gogo guy, because he just couldn't understand why all the rogues in his raid wanted the chance to reset Hagara rather than just killing her outright. "It is all about the loot right?"

As one of my guild mates stated "I don't even read the quests, you expect me to read a short story to know what is going on?"  Short stories, patch notes, novels, Magna, even cinematics, Blizzard has come up with a plethora of ways to extend their story lines and expand their character development. However the vast majority of them happen outside of the game itself. What this means is that the majority of players really don't know what is going or why. Even when things happen IN game, it doesn't necessarily help.

Take Thrall's personal motivations. Patch 4.2 started out with an extensive quest chain that did nothing more than look at Thrall's deepest desires. There is a belief that the most excruciating torture a person could ever endure is to have their deepest secrets expose to the world and that is what Thrall had happen. Yet the vast majority TOTALLY missed the significance of that.  In the words of our friend the "GOgo guy" it was "all about the loot" and the rush to the end. Thrall's personal desire for peace, a family, a NORMAL life were lost as individual players imposed THEIR interpretation of his ambitions on to him.  This frequently obliterates the actual story Blizzard is attempting to create.

Varian, Gorrosh, and  Sylvanas are others that have under gone major lore changes outside of the game or at the very least have had the changes in their attitudes explained. Not to mention the alterations to the world itself in the precursor to the Cataclysm. Next year we will have Christie Golden's Jaina Proudmoore: Tides of War Novel which will explain all about the destruction of Theramore and the discovery of Pandaria, something that has already been hinted at again outside the game in Charge of the Aspects by Matt Burns, Blizzards most recent official short story.

So does this really impact the average persons enjoyment of the game? That is open to discussion. Those of us who want to know will take the time to look for the actual information and I truly believe benefit from it. Our friend the Gogo guy, couldn't care less. Blizzard could name the final boss of the Mist of Pandaria "George the Bounce" and he wouldn't even notice unless said boss fails to drop his Tier helm. Now this isn't to say that there would not be a general out cry all over the forums, oh no, trolls spew forth much venom all the time. As to the knowledge it is based on being real or imaged? That is open to debate. 

Blizzard has done what they can to at least get the information out there. Sometimes I wish all of it WAS found at least SOMEWHERE in the game. Something like expanding on the Higher Learning and Well Read Achievements with a "Modern History" or "Post Cataclysm Writings" that has books that gave a brief over view of what all had happened for those who may not have gone back and done the new quests or read the outside of game materials. Oh well, not everyone can be a bibliophile.

Finding the Fires

Due to the reintroduction of a bad tempered Dragon, the tectonic plates of Azeroth have shifted, bulged and in some cases split. The ensuing disaster means that things are not what they use to be and this can result in much confusion. Unfortunately some didn't take this into consideration when discussing the Midsummer Holiday Fires. Many of the previously well known locations are now lost beneath water, fortifications or controlled by the opposing faction.  What follows is (to the best of my knowledge) an updated list of the locations of ALL of the fires now available.  Happy hunting!

Kalimdor

Teldrassil (Darnassus)
A: Darnassus-Warriors Terrace (64,47)
A: Dolanaar (55,60)

Darkshore
A: Lor'danel (49,23)

Azuremyst Isle
A: The Exodar-The Crystal Hall (41,41)
A: Azure Watch (44,53)

Bloodmyst Isle
A: Blood Watch (55,69)

Winterspring
A: Everlook (62,35)
H: Everlook (59,35)

Mount Hyjal
N: Nordrassil (63,23)

Ashenvale
A: Forestsong (87, 42)
H: Silverwing Refuge (52,67)

Stonetalon Mountains
A: Mirkfallon Lake (49,31)
H: Sun Rock Retreat (50,60)

Desolace
A: Nijel's Point (65,17)
H: Shadowprey Village (28,76)

Northern Barrens
H: Crossroads (52,28)

Southern Barrens
A: Fort Trumph (48,72)
H: Desolation Hold (41, 67)

Durotar
H: Orgrimmar-Valley of Wisdom (47,38)
H: Razor Hill (52,47)

Mulgore
H: Thunder Bluff-Spirit Rise (21,26)
H: Bloodhoof Village (51,60)

Feralas
A: Feathermoon Stronghold (47,44)
H: Camp Mojache (72,47)

Silithus
A: Cenarion Hold (57,34)
H: Cenarion Hold (46,44)

Tanaris
A: Gadgetzan (52,29)
H: Gadgetzan (49,27)

Uldum
A: Vir'naal (54,32)
H: Vir'naal Oasis (53,34)

Duskwallow Marsh
A: Theramore Isle (62,40)
H: Brakenwall Village (33,30)

Azshara, Moonglade, Thousand Needles, and Un'Goro Crater, do not have any bonfires.

Eastern Kingdoms
Northern Stranglethorn Vale
A: Fort Livingston (52,63)
H: Grom'gol Base Camp (41,52)

Southern Stranglethorn Vale
A: Beach East of Booty Bay (33,73)
H: Beach East of Booty Bay (32,75)

Blasted Lands
A: Nethergrade Keep (58,17)
H: Dreadmaul Hold (46,14)

Swamp of Sorrows
A: Bogpaddle (70,15)
H: Bogpaddle (76,15)

Redridge Mountains
A: Lakeshire (24,59)

Duskwood
A: Darkshire (74,51)

Westfall
A: Moonbrook (45,62)

Elywnn Forest
A: Stormwind-The Canals (49,72)
A: Goldshire (43,65)

Vashj'ir
N: Silver Tide Hollow (49,42)

Deepholm
N: Temple of Earth (49,51)

Twilight Highlands
A: Thundermar (47,29)
H: Bloodgulch (43,47)

Dun Morogh
A: Ironforge-Hall of Explorers (64,25)
A: Kharanos (46,46)

Burning Stepps
A: Morgan's Vigil (80,62)
H: Flame Crest (62,29)

Loch Modan
A: Thelsamar (32,40)

Badlands
A: Dragon's Mouth (19,56)
H: New Kargath (24,37)

Wetlands
A: Menethil Harbor (13, 47)

Arathi Highlands
A: Refuge Point (50,44)
H: Hammerfall (74,41)

Hinterlands
A: Aerie Peak (14,50)
H: Revantusk Village (76,74)

Western Plaguelands
A: Chillwind Camp (43,82)
H: The Bulwark (29,57)

Hillsbrad Foothills
H: Tarren Hill (58,25)

Silverpine Forest
H: The Sepulcher (49,38)

Tirisfal Glades
H: Undercity-Ruins of Lordaeron (68,9)
H: Brill (57,52)

Ghostlands
H: Tranquillien (46,26)

Eversong Woods
H: Silvermoon City-Court of the Sun (70,43)
H: North Sanctum (46,50)

There are no bone fires in Deadman's Pass, Eastern Plaquelands, the Ruins of Gilneas and Tol Barad.

Outland

Nagrand
A: Telaar (50,70)
H: Garadar (51,34)

Terokkar Forest
A: Allerian Stronghold (55,55)
H: Stonebreaker Hold (52,43)

Shadowmoon Valley
A: Wildhammer Stronghold (40,55)
H: Shadowmoon Village (33,30)

Hellfire Peninsula
A: Honor Hold (62,58)
H: Thrallmar (55,40)

Zangermarsh
A: Telredor (69,52)
H: Zabra'Jin (36,52)

Blade's Edge Mountains
A: Sylvanaar (42,66)
H: Thunderlord Stronghold (33,30)

Netherstorm
A: Area 52 (31,63)
H: Area 52 (32,68)

No while there is no achievement for them, there are indeed fires in Northrend. Individuals after blossoms and cash will not want to miss them.

Northrend

Howling Fjord
A: Fort Wildervar (58,16)
H: Camp Winterhoof (48,13)

Dragonblight
A: Wintergard Keep (75,44)
H: Agmar's Hammer (39,48)

Grizzly Hills
A: Amberpine Lodge (34,61)
H: Conquest Hold (19,61)

Zul'Drak
A: Argent Stand (41,61)
H: Argent Stand (43,71)

Stormpeaks
A: K3 (42,87)
H: K3 (40,86)

Sholazar Basin
A: River's Heart (47,66)
H: River's Heart (47,62)

Borean Tundra:
A: Fizzcrank Airstrip (55,20)
H: Bor'Gorok Hold (51,12)

Crystalsong Forest
A: Windrunner's Overlook (78,75)
H: Sunreaver's Command (80,53)

There are no bonfires in either Icecrown or Wintergrasp.

I hope this is helpful.

United Nations

No I am not referring to the international organization run out of New York but rather the guild achievement which has become a thorn in my side. Why do you ask? Because of a tiny little bug.

Originally the achievement was designed to look at every member in your guild who has earned revered reputation or "Veteran" rank. It would then take all their combined unique exalted reputations and count them towards the achievement. However at the moment it is only counting the the one member with the MOST exalted reputations.

Why is this a problem? Well the reward for this particular achievement is a non combat pet. The Dark Phoneix Hatchling. Personally I am not that much of a pet collector despite that fact that I have well over 100 of the little guys. HOWEVER, there are other members of my guild who are more, shall we say...dedicated? borderline obsessive? down right fanatical? when it comes to non combat pets. One of them just happens to be my fellow officer and mount farming partner.

With 85 different reputations in this game this achievement seems deceptively simple until you break it down into what ones you can actually obtain. First of all you have to subtract the ones that are only available to your faction.

That means if you are Alliance you have Stormwind, Ironforge, Gnomergan, Darnassus, Exodar, and Gilneas as your racial cities. These also affect your battle ground alliances in that with Warsong Gulch you fight for the Silverwing Sentinels of Darnassus, the League of Arathor in Arathi Basin, the Stormpike Guard in Alterac Valley and provide support to  Baradins' Wardens in Tol Barad. The Wintersaber Trainers trust only those special few alliance to aid them in the snows of Winterspring. While in Outland both Honor Hold and the Kurenai receive exclusively Alliance support. Then in Northrend we have the Alliance Vanguard  which is made up for four sub factions, the Explorers' League, the Frostborn, The Silver Covenant, and the Valiance Expedition. Even in Cataclysm our faction divides continue with the Wildhammer Clan fighting for land against a group of  orcs in the Twilight Highlands.

Don't fret Horde. You have an equal number of individuals you are just as dedicated to. Orgrimmar, Undercity, Silvermoon City, Thunder Bluff, the Darkspear Trolls and the Bridgewater Cartel are all your founding homes. There is a little village of Fosaken and Blood Elves in the Ghostlands called Tranquilien where you offer your assistance in cleansing those lands of the scourge. In battle the  Warsong Outriders',  The Defilers', the Frostwolf Clan and Hellscreams' Reach all cry "For the Horde!" Thrallmar and the Mag'har bring honor to a lost son and  former Warchief. In Northrend your new war chief got his first taste of battle while leading the combined forces of the Horde Expedition, specifically the Warsong Offensive, while working with the Hand of Vengeance, the Taunka and the Sunreavers.  This experience helped him to forge new alliances with the Dragonmaw Clan.

So that means that each faction has nineteen reputations specific to them. So scratch them out of your 85. From there you can further remove the Bloodsail Buccaneers, the Syndicate, as well as the Magram and Gelkis Centaur clans. Why? Because these four only reach honored or just over in their reputations. Meaning they can never count toward the exalted.

Then you have the factions where you have to chose sides. The Aldor or the Scryers? The Oracles or the Frenzyheart Tribe? Sure you can reach exalted rep with them both at separate times but all that counts is the reputations you happen to have AT THAT TIME. Two more off the list.

Well Dar that still has us at 60. That is STILL plenty of wiggle room. Right? Well not quite, you see some on that list are old. Like Zul' Gurub, which doesn't exist anymore. So you can also subtract the Zandalar Tribe unless you happened to have gotten that reputation before hand. The same goes for the Shen'dralar in Dire Maul. While the quest books still drop, some of the items needed to complete those quests like the Blood of Heroes are no longer in the game, leaving you rather stuck since they were all Bop items you can't buy on the auction house.

From there you have the reputations which can only be gained INSIDE raids. The Hydraxian Waterlords for example is a complete nightmare as once you get past a certain point you only get few hundred points of reputation for each boss kill. This means it will take MONTHS of FULL CLEARS of Molton Core to reach exalted.  Then there is the Brood of Nozdormu out of the Temple of Ahn'Qiraj (AQ 40).  These guys you start out at Hated so it takes quite a while to do a complete reversal, again many full clears as killing trash will only get you to neutral, after that it takes boss kills and quests.

Thankfully by the time we went through the Dark Portal we were able to start earning reputation by killing just about anything in a raid. So the Ashtonque Deathsworn of Black Temple, The Scales of Sands of Mt Hyjal, The Violet Eye of Karazhan and the more recent Ashen Verdict of Ice Crown Citadel just required hours of time spent killing monsters along with bosses. If you aren't a raider however that means you could be missing six reputations, a hefty chunk.

There was a dark cloud to this as well. There are also some factions who you can only get reputations with INSIDE a dungeon. This was an idea that was played around with by the now basically defunct Argent Dawn. Lower City, the Keepers of Time, Cenarion Expedition and the Sha'tar in Outland all require you to crawl around in SPECIFIC dungeons if you wanted to build reputation with them.  In Northrend and now back in the old world they have loosed things so that if you just wear a tabard showing who you support while in dungeons of specific levels you can gain reputations with the faction of your choice. At this point both Ramkahem and the Guardians of Hyjal force you to do this to get to exalted with them.

Other factions believe in giving you a little more variety. For them you can choose to either do repetitive daily quests OR run around wearing their tabard while you dungeon crawl.  The Wrymrest Accord, Argent Crusade, Kirin Tor, Knights of the Ebon Blade, and Therazane all fall into this category.

This leaves us with the neutral factions who think we have nothing better to do than either grind for repeatable turn in quests or keep coming back day after day for tortuous daily quests.  Of the turn in variety we have the Cenarion Circle in Silithus,  the Timbermaw in Winterspring, and the Consortium in Outland.  Then you have the Sporeggar of Zangarmarsh who either have you kill the same mobs over and over again or do endless turn ins. Take your pick. The torturous daily quests were first introduced by the Sha'tari Skyguard and Ogri'la. It was perfected by the Shattered Sun Offensive, who then passed all their knowledge on to the Kalu'ak and the Sons of Hodir. That knowledge seems to only grow as the years go on.

This leaves us with just a few stragglers. The Thorium Brotherhood, who now have a slightly more pronounced presence this expansion but you can still only find the higher reputation items inside Molton Core or via mining the few Dark Iron nodes found outside.  Unless your a Rogue or manage to sweet talk one, your going to have a hard time getting past honored with Ravenholdt as it requires pick pocketed Locked Boxes.  Darkmoon Faire is only in select locations once a month and unless you are a Scribe getting the Darkmoon Faire Decks you need to gain favor with them will cost you a pretty penny.

Finally we have the Steamwheedle Cartle.  Now before Cataclysm there was a fairly easy way to gain reputation with these guys inside Dire Maul, as part of the tribute run. As they are still part of the Insane in the Membrane achievement I will assume you can still do it but I haven't been able to verify that yet. Booty Bay, Everlook, Gadgetzan, and Ratchet are all part of this goblin cartel (not to be confused with the group that joined with the Horde). Their reputations are unique even though they all work for the same trade prince. Think of it as getting in good with each separate store manager for the chain. The others might put in a good word for you but each of them would like to see for themselves what you have to offer. (Typical goblins.)

So where does that leave us? If you happen to have some of the old reputations like Argent Dawn, Zandalar Tribe and Shen'dralar as well as having the benefit of being a Rogue so you have Ravenholdt, you would have the nice amount of Fifty eight reputations available to you to do this achievement. That is right, fifty eight out of fifty five.  In other words if you DO NOT happen to have ANY of the old reputations, you will not be able to get this achievement until one of two things happens. Either Blizzard fixes the bug or they add additional factions. Either way, all you non combat fanatics are going to have to do the one thing you hate, which is wait.

Thankfully for my peace of mined I have all of them, I am actually sitting at fifty three exalted reputations at the moment with my guild anxiously awaiting me to get my last two.  The question is just what I will hit exalted with first.  I just pray I can get it done within the next day or two so I can have some peace. I have been slacking on my dungeon crawls to focus on some other things much to their great frustration.

Fishing for Rogues

I do A LOT of fishing. Not because I find it relaxing or am an avid angler. Rather it is because, as I have stated over and over again, I am cheap and fishing generally provides me with buff food for little more than time. (Beyond that I hear the Omega 3's are great for you.) When I was a skinner, my diet tended more towards the red meats (Ravager Dog or Warp Burger anyone?)  Even after that I wouldn't turn my nose up at a good Mega Mammoth Meal, but I hated leaving behind the evidence of my presence. Fishing doesn't do that.

The irony of this expansion is that very few of our best foods do not come from water sources. Even those you have to hunt down (Baked Turtle, Seasoned Crab, Salted Eye from sea eels and Crocolisk Au Gratin) live in or near the water. Yeah, you could have a Basilisk Liverdog or the Grilled Dragon, but sadly the Dragons mostly give you scales when you skin them and really who wants to eat LIVER? You can make it look like a hot dog all you want but it is STILL liver.

Now beyond all the foods already named there are others we can specifically fish up. The fresh water Boiled Mountain Trout from Mt Hyjal's streams and lakes. Lavascale Fillet and Lavascale Minestrone both come from fishing the lava pools in Deepholm. Skewered Eel is made using Fathom Eels which can be found along the coast of Uldum or Tol Barad making it one of the more plentiful sources out there for us.

There is one difficulty with all these, they do require you to also know how to COOK. However if you have never managed to learn this basic skill you may still be in luck. Many guilds are pursuing their guild achievements Set the Oven to "Cataclysmic" and Time to Open a Restaurant. So you might be able to persuade another guild member to cook them all up for you, since unlike the Wrath recipes they don't require any special spices.  Even better if you state you are working on the That's A Lot of Bait achievement. (Of course this only works if your guild actually CARES about the achievements and the feasts they unlock.) Unlike the Fish Feasts of Wrath these new feasts cater to our most desired stat, like the Fortune Cookies.

For some of you even all of this is not enough persuasion to consider taking up fishing. There have to be additional perks like Non Combat pets or mounts. Well, if you haven't learned by now they already have those in game and have had them for years. There is one overwhelming problem however. The fish all seem to know that when I catch them I plan on eating them. So when it comes to the more "vanity" items you get from fishing, I can't seem to catch any of them to save my life. Now this is only true for Daraia, none of my alts seem to have this curse, but Giant Sewer Rat?, Mr Pinchy? and the very bane of my mount collection the Sea Turtle? They all have played least in site for YEARS while my alts somehow manged to pick them up not even trying. I have some information for you all though, I do know for a fact that you can at least get the Sea Turtle from fishing the high end fishing pools. Tol Barad Eel pools. I love you.

Ding Dong the King is Dead

While many guilds are taking a break from raiding all together, EM has SLOWLY been plucking away at the Lich King. I say SLOWLY because we seem to have this curse. (Not that I really believe in those but it is the best way to describe it.) It befalls us every time we reach the final boss in a raid. Suddenly our healers begin to lose their internet connections, our dps to have hardware issues and our tank's work schedules become such that they have NO idea if they will be able to log on or not. To say that it severely hampers our progression would be an understatement. Many guilds our size have chosen to send members to other guilds to get themselves a "King Slayer" and start doing the lower spire heroic fights for loot. That just isn't our style.

Over the years we have had many (those who value the kill more than the fellowship) who reach that point in the progression, leave us for other guilds so they can get that final boss DEAD sooner. I don't hold that against them. As I tell my children, "patience is a virtue which must be LEARNED." Yet a core of us persevere. To us, it is WHO we defeat the final baddy with that matters, more than WHEN he goes down.

Many of us started out gaming with more "Hard Core" time abilities, but as age and responsibilities have caught up to us, we have had to adopt a more "casual" approach. That doesn't mean that our persistent dedication has died. It just means that having a consistent raiding group is often little more than a dream. We have many individuals in our guild whose abilities FAR outweigh their gear scores.  Yeah, loot is great, but if you haven't figured out by now that those pixels have a VERY short shelf life, there is little anyone can do to help you.

Last night when we finally downed Arthas it was despite one of our healers AGAIN losing her internet connection (What is UP with Comcast in Florida?) and us having to bring in someone who had NEVER seen the fight before, talking him through as we did it. We also did it while consuming WAY to much caffeine to counteract Daylight Savings. Two of the members were unable to cheer for fear of waking the newborn sleeping in his bassinet between them. Many of us had to keep our own celebrations muted to not disturb our own sleeping children. I was so proud of them I thought my chest would explode.

To be honest, I have been feeling somewhat ambivalent about killing Arthas. I can't really express WHY I have felt that way, but I really had no motivation to kill him personally. However to take him down with that group of people was fulfilling. Next week we will be back at it. Now the focus will be working on heroics and to get those who have yet to get him down a chance at him. We still have two healers who desperately wish to see him DEAD. (The one who lost her connection last night and another who has been with out HIS internet for over a MONTH as a result of the summers hurricanes). There are of course others. 

Many seem to feel that when you take all the buffs now available the final fights in ICC only require you to walk in and breath for the bosses to go down.  Sadly, while they are MUCH easier than they were originally, they are by no means EASY. You can not do ANY of the upper spire fights by standing in one place and Pew Pewing at the boss.  We had one of our EXTREMELY casual members with us the other day while we were working on LK. Part of me could only laugh and the other part wanted to bang my head against my desk as she went on about how she wanted to get the Lich King down for her achievement and she couldn't understand "Why we hadn't done it yet." She then proceeded to die within the first 30 seconds of every attempt and kept asking "What killed me?" The concept of Infest was to much for her, let alone the Necrotic plague.

I LIKE final boss fights where the mechanics are part of what make a fight difficult.  Even now if you are level 80 and go back to Serpentshrine Cavern and try to go after Lady Vashj you still have to deal with the Tainted Core mechanic which means you can't just run in there and zerg her.  Cata is rapidly approaching and with the new guild achievements many will be revisiting those old raids including good ole Arthas at level 85. It will be interesting to see how well people handle those mechanics because while it WILL be easier to burn through the various phases, will people be able to zerg him or will they all get blown off the frozen throne? It will be interesting to find out.

Of Cultists and Elementals

The next phase of the Pre-Cata event has occurred now in Wow and for those of you who have been hiding under a rock time line wise this is Post Stormrage Novel and Pre Shattering. (You would be surprised how many individuals I ran into yesterday that were COMPLETELY lost as to what was going on.) In their defense since the vast majority of us have been hanging out in Northrend on our level capped characters. It is fairly easy to remain obliviously isolated unless you happened to return to the Old World for trick or treating at Hallows End and there by encountered the fact that Azeroth is heaving about like a woman about to give birth. For those who only queued up for the Headless Horseman, the vast majority never noticed when an earthquake was taking place right around them, they just attributed it to the quick fight in which they were a part, and popped right back out after receiving their pumpkin.

Now however things have gotten a little more obvious and there are actually QUESTS you can do even at LOW levels so individuals attention are starting to return to the Old World. One of the things I LIKE about these events is that really all they are doing is introducing you to the major players of Cata. Unlike in Wrath in which you arrived and BOOM here is King Varian back on his throne and BAM here is Garrosh being hot headed at every turn. So even if you are one of those individuals like I have been running into on line who have NEVER heard of places like Wowhead or MMOChampion you will enter THIS expansion have SOME clue what is going on and WHO these individuals are that you are interacting with. Even better WHY you should care.

This review and Guide will all be done from the Alliance perspective. (Sorry Horde.)

If you return to Ironforge, Darnassus or Exodar from Northrend first you will find a small contingent of Earthen Ring members near the banks (Remember those guys from the Summer Fire Festival?) They will send you straight over to Stormwind because THIS is where all the action really takes place at this phase. The Earthen Ring Representative located near the Stormwind bank is a Broken by the name of  Erunak Stonespeaker.  Erunak sends you off to Stormwind Keep to check in with a Wildhammer Shaman there by the name of Gavan Grayfeather. Now this introduction is really nothing more than a "get you into the right place so you can observe some things" as well as "meet someone who is important" type of quest.

On the way to Gavan you will cross paths with Captain Anton, the individual in charge of investigating all the cultists who seem to have sprung up around Stormwind. Captain Anton you may notice is surrounded by a rather large group of women. These aren't his adoring fans, but rather a group of concerned relatives with missing family members. Your going to want to make sure to come back to him later. Continue on to Gavan and you will find something that is every Hordies dream, though conducting such a raid with every single Alliance player hanging out in Stormwind at this time WOULD be the stuff of legends...

There in the throne room of Stormwind is EVERY CURRENT ALLIANCE LEADER under one roof. King Varian, King Magni Bronzebeard, Lady Jania Proudmoore, Tyrande Whisperwind, High Tinker Mekkatorque, and Prophet Velen. What is interesting if you stop to listen to the discussion is that King Varian is NOT the one who called the meeting, he is simply HOSTING it as the most central location. Magni is the one who called them all together. Gavan is observing the conversation with great interest ALSO at the invitation of Magni, though he is NOT a part of the major circle. Even if you never read Christie Golden's Best selling book the Shattering Blizzard has made certain that you won't be completely lost this time around as to what is going on IN GAME.  After you speak with Gavan, and if you take the time to listen to the conversation between the leaders, it shows a great deal about each individual's mind set. Velen (who has gone through something like this before) wants to run away, Varian wants to exhaust whatever options are available before fleeing is even considered, Mekkatorque is trying to find a mechanical solution, Jania is questioning living arrangements (ok, this remark by Jania just made me laugh because it is just such a MOM type of concern...), etc.

The majority of the quests for this portion of the Pre-Cata event stem from Captain Anton and his dealings with the Twilight's Hammer Cultists. When you first speak to him Anton will request that you go to Old Town and listen to the Cultist's Doomsayer speeches then report back. This quest is deceptively simple but some people have a problem with it because they just rush around picking UP the speeches and never stay in place long enough to actually HEAR one of the Doomsayers TALK. You have to do BOTH. After you report back Anton will send you back out to post warning signs around town about the cultists. Next comes two other quests which can be done at the same time. The first is to pick up a set of Twilight Cultist robes and infiltrate the cult (they will take just anyone) all you have to do is say "yep I want to join" or just grab a set from the box next to a Doomspeaker if you don't like lying to the nut jobs.

Head off to the Twilight Cult's "oh so secret camp" next to Mirror Lake. Make sure to put on your robes before hand, they won't attack you, but they won't talk to you either otherwise. Overseer Sylandra will send you off to do your duty as a "Recruit" to the cult. You may wish to wander around the camp first to find the four "Missing persons" Anton sent you to locate before starting off on her quests. The first is located in a pup tend right across from the Overseer. Cultist Wyman is quite happy where he is and has no desire to leave. Cultist Kaima is located at the back of the wagon on the edge of the orchard. She is also feeling enlightened and has no desire to return. Cultist Orlunn is at the table behind the house feeling quite justified in his choice of joining the cult, so has no plans to leave either. Finally you have Cultist Lethelyn, who apparently left after a huge fight with her family and feels that returning is just not an option, she can be found INSIDE the house at the camp.

The quests you are asked to do for the cult are simple. First you just need to run around wearing their "Doomsday Message" placard. Run up to the gates of the Westbrook Garrison, through Goldshire and by General Marcus Jonathan in the Valley of Heroes and you've done your "duty". Then head back to Overseer Sylandra. She will send you to the far side of the camp where you will find a rather creepy looking alter. There you will witness another "lore moment" and the reintroduction of  Cho'Gall. Many Lore junkies are going to know who this is but for everyone else, this is going to be a "AH HA" moment of "so the leader of the Twilight Hammer is a Ogre", it is also the introduction of one of our future raid bosses. Race back to Sylandra and she stupidly hands you a stack of devices and sends you into the city to plant them. Now you can go turn them over to Captain Anton.  (These Cultists are not the sharpest tools in the shed that is for sure.)

Once you get back to Anton he of course sends you out to find more of those devices and neutralize them. What is rather nice about this is the air Elementals that emerge are level appropriate to what ever character happens to be doing the quest. Once you have managed to destroy a few of the devices and report back to Anton he sends you back up the corridor to King Varian to report your findings. This results in the typical screamed out speech praising your work. (I personally HATE those but I know some people love them.) At this point the quests end but don't worry, things will pick up again soon.

One other thing that has happened is that Elementals are starting to show up in scattered places across the country side. The quest associated with THESE at this point you have to go looking for. Once you have defeated a rift a "Mysterious Device" will drop that you need to take back to your local Earthen Ring Representative (anyone of them will do, they can be found at any of the faction capitals) this counts as a daily quest.  You can also get an achievement (as well as a nice little buff) for defeating the Elementals.  There are four different types of Elementals out there Wind, Fire, Earth and Water. One thing that I did find interesting is that the spawn points are NOT limited to just the Old World, you can find the Elementals in both Outland and Northrend as well. This means you can continue about your normal routine near those zones if they are level appropriate for you. The Elementals appear about every hour.

Wind Elementals:
Darkshore
Hillsbrad
Duskwood
Arathi Highlands
Eastern Plaguelands
Terokkar Forrest
Netherstorm
Boren Tundra
Sholazar Basin

Earth Elementals:
Loch Moden
Redridge Mountains
Desolace
Western Plaguelands
Burning Steppes
Silithus
Nagrand
Blade's Edge Mountains
Howling Fjord
Grizzly Hills
The Storm Peaks

Fire Elementals:
Ashenvale
Westfall
The Barrens
Duskwallow
The Hinterlands
Searing Gorge
Blasted Lands
Winterspring
Hellfire Peninsula
Zul'Drak

Water Elementals:
Silverpine Forest
Ghostlands
Wetlands
Thousand Needles
Stranglethorn Vale
Swamp of Sorrows
Un'Goro Crater
Zangarmarsh
Shadowmoon Valley
Dragonblight
Icecrown

So enjoy the event, I know I am going to. While some have already started complaining that this one doesn't have the "epic feel" that the Lich King's Scourge invasion did, I think people are forgetting that we still have a month to go...remember, that started out slow too, I think this is going to turn out to be just as epic and enjoyable as the Lich King's Zombie invasion.

Feat of Strength: Avast Ye, Admiral!

Avast Ye, Admiral is one of the better known Feats of Strength though it is sometimes called "Bloodsail Buccaneers". One of the nice things about it is that it DOESN'T require you to get all the way to exalted with the faction. The other is that you actually get quite a bit of fun "Role Play" or "Costume" gear out of it. The largest PROBLEM is that it is VERY easy to lose reputation with the faction and this prohibits you from using numerous flight paths which can become troublesome. Now come Cataclysm this hardship will not be as much of an issue.

The only way to GAIN reputation is to kill Booty Bay Faction members but you get the greatest return by killing the Booty Bay Bruisers, all other members will only net you 5 rep each where the Bruisers grant you 25. While you can solo grind, the quickest way to do this is achievement is to get a group together by spamming trade. What I like to do is get a group, inform them to focus on the Bruisers and try to leave the quest givers, Auction house, flight masters and Inn Keepers alone if they want to remain a part of the raid group and get easy rep. I will then announce in General that a raid is going to be farming Bloodsail Rep for the next few hours. While people may not like it I have found it greatly reduces the harsh feelings and general discontent that can happen as a result of this type of thing. Especially if you get some idiots that insist on killing inn keepers, flight masters and quest givers just to be jerks. Remove them from the group and suddenly the rules seem more reasonable when they are no longer able to find any mobs.

By doing this you can obtain the achievement in a matter of hours rather than WEEKS of solo grinding with out all the harsh feelings. Once you reach just over Neutral with the Bloodsail Pretty Boy Duncan will send you to Fleet Master Firallon to pick up a bag full of goodies. This includes a Shirt, Belt, Pants, and Boots. Just a little more grinding will get you to Friendly and the real quest that gives the achievement its name. Avast Ye, Admiral. Now for this you WILL want to announce you are going to be doing the quest because it REQUIRES you to kill quest givers, which annoys lowbies. Kill the Baron and his right hand Tauren and you get yourself a Title and a fancy hat.

Now if you are NOT planning on working on the Insane in the Membrane Achievement and would like to make use of all those convenient Goblin flight paths there IS a way you can quickly get back all that goblin reputation you lost with out losing your new title, though you WILL lose your hard won Bloodsail reputation.

Just outside Bootbay on a nearby hill is the Bloodsail Traitor. He has a quest for you called "Traitor to the Bloodsail" which has you turn in two stacks of Silk cloth and 4 Red dye to deceive the Baron into thinking you have been killing Bloodsail pirates. Another option is to head over to Rachet and speak with Mupsi Shacklefridd, she has a similar quest called "Mending Old Wounds" which only requires two stacks of linen cloth and 4 empty vials. Many prefer this since it is often cheaper and easier to farm. The other options are Rumsen Fizzlebrack in Tanaris with "War at Sea" who wants Mageweave cloth and Strong Flux. As well as Bronn Fitzwrench in Winterspring who is after Runecloth and Coal with "Making Amends". Each of these deal with the specific factions of the zone they are located in. And will take about 168 linen and 336 empty vials, 84 silk and 168 Red Dye, 42 Mageweave and Strong Flux, and 22 Runecloth and 44 Coal to get you back to Neutral with the Steamwheedle Cartel. Or 34 turn ins for each faction if you do them equally.  Just check the cost and  ease of farming for you then calculate accordingly.

The other option is to head over to Dire Maul North and do Free Knot which grants 350 reputation for ALL of the Steamwheedle Factions EQUALLY without hurting your Bloodsail reputation. I could usually do five clears an hour before I had to sit around and wait due to the "to many instances" debuff. If you focus only on the guards you have a high chance of getting a key almost every run. Take the time to do some full clears and you may also pick up some other goodies like Librams or Pristine Black Diamonds which can be sold to those crazy people going after the Insane in the Membrane achievement.

Good luck to all you future Admirals!

Blue Dragonhawk

So last night I bit the bullet and finally did it. My last mount for the Mountain o' Mounts achievement was the Cenarion War Hippogryph. It took having two guild mates threatening to buy it for me to get me to cough up the dough. I can't help it I am CHEAP. (Can't you hear the little birdies singing?) Wait, lets just go with "Thrifty" it sounds better. Sad thing is I STILL have mounts I want to get. This is quite the change from the individual in Burning Crusade who was always saying "Why do you need another mount? Your butt can only sit on one at a time ANYWAY."

This whole journey started when I was attacked by the Time Lost Protodrake while out picking herbs during the first few weeks of Wrath. It spawned right on top of me and all I saw was the silver dragon as it swooped down. My first thought was "Oh crap a rare, I am going to die" since my last experience with a rare dragon was during Burning Crusade when it took 5 people to take one down. Surprisingly the thing had hardly ANY health and was dead at my feet in a matter of moments. Even more shocking it had a MOUNT on it. Nowhere is there a warning label which states "Caution, this creature's venom will infect you with an itch to collect MORE mounts to keep him company". Before this time, if it wasn't BLACK I wasn't the least bit interested in acquiring it.

I find it ironic that almost exactly one year ago I discussed this achievement and stated that there was NO WAY you could do it without spending a GREAT DEAL of money.  Let me just share that the ONLY expensive mount I own is the Traveler's Tundra Mammoth and THAT was only purchased at the request of my guild for raids. While I was EXTREMELY reluctant to make the 16k plunge the convenience is well worth it. The largest chunk of my collection is made up of reputation based mounts that I seldom use because they are land based. Only one of them is a "real money" mount and I got THAT as a gift. Of the mounts I DO use they are almost exclusively drop or achievement based.

My rare mount farming partner is thrilled I have hit this milestone because he figures any mounts that drop will go to him. (He still has about 25 left to go on his achievement.) My problem is that the itch I got from my Time Lost hasn't lessened in severity. So I will still be hitting up Utgarde Pinnacle for the Blue Protodrake. Rivendare will fall at my hands yet again until I get his Deathcharger, and even after my partner gets his Feather duster I will be doing stealth runs of Sethekk Halls. Most likely I will work on getting the Turkey but I have given up on the Sea Turtle, unless he is kind and comes up while I am fishing for fish feasts.

For those of you still working on collecting, don't give up. From what Bornakk has stated the number of mounts we will have available to us is only going to increase as time goes on. Also the addon Livestock is great for giving you variety. What I most enjoy about it is the fact I can chose which mounts I want included in my random selection.

So happy hunting and Good Luck!

Rep: Knights of the Ebon Blade

I'm not sure where I want to start with the story of The Knights of the Ebon Blade, a faction that some feel is truly the heart of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion. Not since Vanilla and the Cenarion Circle have we seen a group in which the CLASS you are can effect your reputation gaining abilities. There is no way you can discuss these guys without looking at Death Knights in general so lets begin there and move forward until we get ourselves to present day.

The Death Knights for Blizzard have undergone several reworkings. When they were first introduced in Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness they were really little more than mounted Liches. At that point in time Death Knights were the souls of fallen orc warlocks residing in the claimed bodies of Alliance Knights. With Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos they decided to get rid of the middle man and just go about corrupting former Paladins turning them into puppets of the Lich King. Unlike the original Death Knights this new incarnation were apt at both close quarter combat as well as ranged increasing their ability for terror on the field.

This brings us to their PRESENT incarnation. Now the ranks of the Death Knights are filled with both the fallen as well as the willing and deceived from various disciplines. Gifted fighters, their present abilities reflecting the previous two incarnations with a new twist. Their ability to control their own actions have been greatly increased, to the point that some of them have managed to escape the grasp of the Lich King and now work independently.



After the Battle of Light's Hope Darion Mograine gathered those willing to defect with him and took the floating necropolis Acherus over the Scarlet Enclave in the Easter Plaguelands as their new home. Once that base was established as a neutral ground for ALL Death Knights he sent representatives back to their original factions with letters from Tirion. With the former heroes once again welcomed amongst the Alliance and the Horde the Death Knights of the newly formed Ebon Blade fixed their eyes on Icecrown and gaining retribution for all that they have endured.

If you play a Death Knight you will reach friendly with the faction shortly after you gain your freedom from the Lich King, all other classes begin at neutral and really won't encounter the Knights of the Ebon Blade until Northrend. Most players will first begin gaining reputation with this faction at their quest hub in Zul'Drak. Here the Knights of the Ebon Blade are working in conjunction with the Argent Crusade but it is still VERY early in their relationship so distrust and disdain between the two factions is evident.

By the time you get to Icecrown and encounter the Knights of the Ebon Blade again Darion Mograin and Tirion Fordring are BOTH present so the everyday troopers are on their best behavior. However if you manage to take the time to listen to Darion (disguised as the Ebon Watcher) and Tirion discussing tactics at the Argent Vanguard you will quickly realize that the two have VERY different ideas about what it will take to win against Arthas. This divide is further demonstrated at the Argent Tournament where Death Knights have their own SEPARATE quest givers from those of other players. (Though the quests given are exactly the same.)

Aboard the flying ships the Skybreaker and Orgrim's Hammer players will encounter representatives of the Ebon Blade working with the Alliance and Horde military. Again the basic troopers express their discomfort with working with the Death Knights but by this time the specific representatives have earned their grudging respect. Thassarian and his friend Koltira Deathweaver start players on the quest chain to create a Ebon Blade stronghold, this time in the recently purged Shadow Vault. Once players complete the "Its all fun and games" quest line you gain access to both the Ebon Blade quartermaster and a wide range quests which will quickly get you to exalted reputation.

In total the Knights of the Ebon Blade offer 112 quests. Of those only seven are Death Knight specific. Eleven are daily quests all located in Icecrown. What this means is that while you won't really be able to work on gaining reputation with this faction until about level 77, it is VERY easy to get after that point. Once you have access to the quartermaster in the Shadow Vault you can also obtain a tabard and gain reputation while running dungeons as well.

Why is gaining reputation with these guys even important? Because at Revered you can purchase the helm enchant Arcanum of Torment which for the vast majority of dps classes is the enchant of choice. When Wrath was first released they also sold some of the best introductory epics available, however with the introduction of the tier gear for badges system this isn't as much the case any longer.

Happy Grinding!

Rep: The Oracles

The wolvar have an arch enemy, those they call the "Big Tongues" or The Oracles. These strange little reptilian people are actually gorlocs or the next evolution of the more common murloc. The reason that the wolvar have such issues with them is that the Oracle tribes actually inhabited the Sholazar basin FIRST so when the Frenzyheart tribe was displaced and chose it as their new home they were not to pleased to discover it already occupied.

The Oracles are made up of several different tribes of gorlocs with the main village being located at Rainspeaker Canopy. It is here you will end up after completing "Just following Orders" for the Frenzyheart. What makes this faction so interesting is their perceived PURPOSE in the area. When the gorlocs discovered this oasis in the arctic north they interpreted it to be a gift from the "gods" and all the artifacts left behind which keep the zone topical "shrines". So while they in fact know little to nothing about the Titans themselves, they have set themselves up as guardians for all of the relics they left behind.

Since the Oracles see themselves as having a purpose they view the intrusion of the Wolvar as more of a annoyance than anything else. The "puppy-men" as they call them keep wanting to fight over the territory while they would rather just focus on collecting "shinies" for their shrines. Any attempts to compromise with the Frenzyheart have been rebuffed because the wolvar just can not comprehend SHARING period.

So where does that leave the Oracles? Looking for helpful "Dry Skins" to provide a buffer. Unlike the wolvar the Oracles have a concrete grasp on the value of a good "Treasure" motivator to get individuals to help them out and thin out the Wolvar ranks FOR them. They offer four different non combat companion pets and even better a MOUNT to keep people coming back even AFTER they reach exalted reputation with them.

So how do you build that reputation? As with the Frenzyheart once you have completed the "Hero's Burden" chain you will be given a choice as to WHO you wish to support. The nice thing about choosing Oracles at that point is that you are already honored with them so reaching exalted and it's promised prizes is that much closer. Each day you will be offered three daily quests at Rainspeaker Canopy.

Appeasing the Great Rain Stone will always be available. Make sure you have your Oracle companion to help you gather the "shinies". If you happen to loose your companion's summoning item just speak to High-Oracle Soo-say who gives out the quest and you can get another one. Now there is some debate as to which of the three is best for this quest, Lafoo, Jaloot or Moodle. My personal favorite is Jaloot as I find Moodle's constant complaining irritating and Lafoo is easily distracted by bugs, Jaloot seems to REALLY enjoy doing this quest however.

Oracle Soo-nee will send you out each day to do "routine maintenance" for all the shrines by dealing with the various spirits in the area. He has four different quests he offers at random. A Cleansing Song, Song of Fecundity, Song of Reflection, and Song of Wind and Water.

Oracle Soo-dow will offer three quests which deal with the Wolvar annoyance. Mastery of the Crystals, Power of the Great Ones, or Will of the Titans. Each of these quests is actually turned in not back at Rainspeaker Canopy but at another Oracle village called Sparkedtouched Haven to Lightningcaller Soo-met. While each of the quests DOES give you some device to help, you don't have to use it to get credit, so for those classes who can AOE it is often easier to just do it yourself rather than use them.

Completing all eight quests will gain you the achievement Savior of the Oracles. Reaching exalted reputation with them grants The Oracles achievement.

Rep: Silver Covenant

The Silver Covenant is the last of the four members of the Alliance Vanguard we will be covering in our reputation series. When Wrath was first released this faction caused reputation buffs untold nightmares. The reason was that they were tired to an achievement requiring you to have exalted reputation with all four of the Alliance Vanguard factions but at that time there was absolutely NO WAY to gain reputation with Silver Covenant. Like vultures, players circled the small base in Crystalsong Forest (complete with flight path) attempting to discover the secret to gaining favor with these elusive guardians. Eventually the achievement was changed but the question still remained as to why we had a reputation bar for them to begin with.

That question was finally answered with Patch 3.1 and the introduction of the Argent Tournament. The Silver Covenant serves as a martial force within the Kirin Tor, lead by Veressa Windrunner, (wife of the Kirin Tor's Leader Rhonin and Sister to Lady Sylvanas.) Veressa and her followers look upon the blood elves as sick individuals so consumed by their desire for magic that they should not be trusted. (I am sure she was not pleased when Rhonin considered them as members of the Kirin Tor.) As a result they offer their services and support to the Alliance Vanguard, granting protection while in Dalaran as well as hosting the Alliance forces for the Tournament.

It is through the tournament that players can now gain not only reputation with this faction but fun toys as well.  There are no specific quests that will give you Silver Covenant reputation, rather you can get it either as "spill over" reputation from doing the daily argent tournament quests or as of patch 3.3 by running level 80 dungeons with out wearing a reputation granting tabard. Once you have reached exalted there are four items you can purchase from them. A land mount, a flying mount, a pet, and a tabard. In addition to that, if you have also reached Champion status with one of the racial faction cities you will also notice 3 additional daily quests available to you. You've Really Done It This Time, Kul will show up EVERY day (the dwarf never learns it seems), but the other two will vary options offered will vary. Narasi Snowdawn has four others that she cycles through besides the Kul one, A Leg Up, Rescue at Sea, Stop the Aggressors, and Light's Mercy. Savinia Loresong only offers three, Breakfast of Champions, Gormok Wants His Snobolds, and What Do You Feed a Yeti, Anyway?

Patch 3.3 brought another interesting tidbit to this faction. The introduction of the Quel'Delar quest chain. If SOMEHOW you managed to miss this, in side the Icecrown Citadel five man instances drops a BoE quest item the Battered Hilt. The story behind it is that when Kael went north after Arthas, with him went a warrior by the name of Lana'thel who was welding one of the legendary Quel'Serrar blades, gifted to the elves by the dragon aspects. When she fell no one knew what became of it. Now players will get to "repair" the weapon and carry it as their own. Of course the Silver Covenant will have a vested interest and assist you by telling you where to go and what to do along your journey.

While I have yet to be fortunate enough to see the silly thing drop even ONCE on ANY of my toons I have been able to help several guild mates complete the chain and it is well worth it. At the moment the Hilts are still commanding astronomical prices on the Auction houses but if you happen to come into possession of one the quest chain is well worth it.

Happy questing!

The Hour of our Discontent

If you have played World of Warcraft for any length of time you may have noticed there are cycles. An ebb and flow if you will to individuals reaction to the game. We are now at the point I call the Ebb. Conversations abound about how "Bored" individuals are with the game, how it is not longer "filling the need", long dissertations are given on all that is WRONG or "broken", hope expressed that PERHAPS the NEXT expansion will FIX it all so all eyes now focus on THAT.

When this starts to happen attendance begins to drop off. Individuals begin to come up with other ways to spend their time. Once vibrant guilds can find themselves struggling for survival or in places they have not seen in months like pugging to fill spots or canceling raids all together. Those that DO stick around and continue to participate can come to resent those that only show up for the progression runs and then disappear. The feeling  they are being taking advantage of by those who no longer participate in the larger scope of the game or show little desire to build comradarie, spewing forth in snide comments or cold shoulders.

So what can you as a guild leader do about it? Well first you need to realize that while you can provide opportunities you can NOT force people to participate or do as you wish. (No matter how much you want to.) Second you need to listen to the people that are STILL there. Find out what THEY are looking for and what keeps them coming back. Third, focus on the POSITIVES not the NEGATIVES. (For some of you the rest of this post may seem like a Pollyanna outlook but after almost four years of guild leading it has worked so far.)

One of the things I appreciate most about my guild is that chat is a POSITIVE place. Even when people are complaining about the "bad pug" they are in SOMEONE will help them turn in around and refocus it or try to brighten the moment. We have had some petitioners complain about our "rated E" language but you know what? You can still have a TON of fun without getting into language that small children shouldn't be reading over your shoulder, let alone be able to understand.

So right now we are facing these things I mentioned. We had to cancel our Dragon run due to not enough people showing up and last night for 25 ToC we had to pug as well as off spec in order to fill the roster. This means that rather than using our loot system and gearing up guild members we are free rolling. Tonight we have ICC and last I looked we were still short even for that. So we talked amongst those who WERE there and asked what were some things THEY wanted to do.

Big thing that came up was several of them hated the fact that we had never finished Ulduar. When ToC came out Ulduar kinda got pushed to the way side because it was just SO much easier and the gear was better. So that is what we are looking at next week. Finishing up Ulduar, getting some achievements done maybe even getting our healing lead her mace.

We also discussed how burned out we all were on the Looking for Group system so it was declared that now, when you log on ask in Guild Chat FIRST and try to get a random together before you automatically que up. Last night we had three random groups going after ToC and EVERYONE was enjoying it again.

While some people are not motivated by achievements, others DO enjoy getting them so that is another thing we have been doing. Encouraging people to set up runs to just farm achievements. We did that last week so that several of us could FINALLY finish up our Glory of the Hero and walk away with our Red Protodrake. Those that know how to do the achievements are now happily lending our expertise to those who are attempting to get it.

The final thing we are doing is preparing for our four year anniversary in March. We have a big event planned which we hope will encourage a lot to participate even if only for that night. It is like nothing we have ever done before and I think it will be a blast!


Times of transition, those times of waiting for the NEXT big change can bring out the worst. The hording or whining, the griping, it is easy to see all the FLAWS in the game when we have been playing it so long and can compare it to new toys that are out there to grab our attention. Try first to change your OWN perspective and look at what it was that FIRST got you excited about the game. I STILL remember the jaw dropping feeling I got when I came over that hill in Storms Peaks and saw Ulduar for the first time. Learning that the Argent Tournament was originally suppose to be taking place in Crystal Song Forest but was moved to Ice Crown as a result of to much strain in one area with Dalaran over head made me reconsider my complaints about Dalaran Lag. (Could you IMAGINE what it COULD have been like? *Shutters*)

Yes, World of Warcraft is showing its age, no denying it. Yes, I am excited to see what is in store with the next expansion, but that is still months off and I have YET to finish things in THIS expansion, heck I still have Sunwell sitting there mocking me. It really is not a case of there NOT being things to do, it is a case of are they things you are INTERESTED in doing or not? If you take just a LITTLE bit of time you can find OTHERS that share those interests and want to do them to. Start in your guild and work from there.

What I did for Christmas

So yesterday was Christmas and from a WoW stand point you really can't do much because you SHOULD be focusing on your family. With four children that is most certainly the case so the majority of the day was spent with them running around seeing relatives, opening gifts and over all just getting stressed out.

Coming home with a mountain of new distractions for them was a WONDERFUL thing. (Legos and Matchbox are God's gift to parents if you didn't know better, providing you don't get anything TO huge and complicated.) By 6:30 two of them were so worn out they put THEMSELVES to bed and the other two popped in one of the new movies they had gotten to watch while they had a lego war in the Rec. Room.

This left the Hubby and I the WHOLE EVENING to just play. Now my Christmas gift from my hubby this year was a new Keyboard. Finally something more advanced than my usual $10 logitic that does the job but has to be replaced every year. I got a Merc and I LOVE IT!!

 Yeah, it isn't the latest and greatest as it was first introduced three years ago. Sure it isn't illuminated like it's upgraded stealth version. But it is the first actually GAMING keyboard I have ever owned and I am amazed at how quickly I have adapted to it. Now I should clarify that a bit. I have adapted on Daraia. With her this keyboard just SINGS. My fingers can reach each of the key bindings easily with few miss strokes even from the beginning. My priest and hunter on the other hand...yeah not so much but I know it will come with time and practice.

 So we popped on line and picked up our Winter Veil Gifts from under the Christmas Tree. The long awaited Red Rider Air Riffle had arrived and now we could all do the long anticipated achievement BBKing. For Rogues this achievement is pretty easy. Stealth in, take your shot, sprint and vanish but for the vast majority not so much. Thus began my frustration. I got my first two off with out a hitch but I figured I would save Orgimmar for last as I knew that would be the most difficult.

The problem is that large groups of people had decided if you all just group up into a raid and GO to the city you should be able to do BOTH the BB King achievement AND the For the Alliance one. The result? A free for all BRAWL at Thunder Bluff. Now I don't know how long of a respawn timer they have on the faction leaders but after 45 minutes of waiting for Cairne to respawn I gave up in frustration for the night.

Since I hadn't done my daily Heroic yet I checked within guild to see if there was any interest and proceeded to get those out of the way for both Daraia and my Hunter. It was only 8, a whole night ahead of us. Our tank Enok had to call it to go do more family things so I pleaded with the plate wearer of the family to come tank for us. Reason being I had noticed the quality of pug tanks had drastically reduced over the holidays and since I was now running on my PRIEST I really would prefer a more relaxed run.

He agreed to ONE run with myself and two other guild mates but then he was DONE he said. Well we qued in and picked up Whiskerfree from Nathrezim. One quick Heroic Halls of Lightning later Whisker asked if we were going to be doing anymore and would mind if he tagged along. He had no IDEA what he would set in motion.

One of the reasons my hubby hates to run heroics is that he is ALWAYS OOM due to being so over geared. Well He agreed to do another but THIS time he wanted to try to do it wearing his Santa hat and suit. Since he was STILL over defense cap and almost 40k health even in THIS get up we all agreed. We popped back into the que and headed into Heroic Utgarde Keep. Again a nice smooth run, but by this time Hubby was in the mood. He asked for a quick break before we headed back in and when we next qued up and headed into Heroic Old Kingdom we were greeted with such pulling macros as:

"Santa knows that you've been naughty"

"Here is some coal in your stocking"

"What?!? No Milk and Cookies?"

"Santa is coming to YOUR town"

Since Old Kingdom has one of the Winter Hat drops the mage in the group Kena got into the act as well. Soon we were seeing "Let it snow, let is snow, let it snow" whenever she cast blizzard.

Therigwin decided that the Santa suit wasn't offering enough of a challenge. So his NEXT idea was to do the run COMPLETELY SMASHED. Off we went and thankfully ended up in Heroic Violet Hold as we had to direct him with "Center Top" or "Bottom Left" so he knew where the portals spawned as he could see absolutely NOTHING on his screen but blur.

Needless to say it was one of the most enjoyable chain heroic runs I have participated in for a VERY long time. Wither we will make it a holiday tradition or not we will have to see. I hope you all had an enjoyable Christmas!

What a long, strange trip it's been

Since this was requested:

I finally got this done. I was 4 horde shy for With a Little Help from My Friends last year. (Trying to pvp and handle all the Holiday stuff just didn't work well for me and I kept forgetting I needed to sit back and get kills not KILL.) So I finally got it finished in Wintergrasp. Have to say that is the BEST place EVER to work on this achievement. Reason being is rather than just sitting on your duff milking Honor kills (something I just can't STAND) you can man a gun and pew pew to your hearts content as a melee. I am even considering doing this achievement on my Priest and Hunter who I NEVER pvp with.

As the comments stated in Guild chat now I can match our Holiday Tabard with its purple background and green Christmas tree. *shutters*

Just need a few more and I will have my Hundred mounts. All without breaking down and buying any of the really expensive ones....though...yeah I may get myself a chopper as a Christmas present.

Those Turkeys are a Lurking

This past week has certainly been a busy one for us all hasn't it? Between the usually holiday stuff we had this new IN GAME holiday. Now it is almost over what do I think of it? Frankly I think it was one of the best holidays Blizzard has come up with yet (even with it containing a couple of achievements that are CERTAINLY not rogue friendly.)

For the first time, without any effort on my part, the majority of the guild is almost maxed out on their cooking skill due to just attempting to complete a good number of the achievements this week. My only frustration with this personally is that lvl 300-375 cooking training still requires you to go to Zangarmarsh so I was unable to get it on my lowbies and take full advantage.

While the quest pay outs for level 80's were not THAT great the experience pay out was enough to level each of my lowbie characters at least two levels which was also nice. For really a minimum of effort you could easily turn in each daily within 20 minutes, quicker if you don't use "public transportation" and have a mount.

Since I play one of the more common races for rogues Turkey Lurkey was not quite the pain for me that it was for others I know. For Orc and Dwarf Rogues especially, this week involved large mobs of people following you around in hopes of getting their achievement. The announcement of their location in trade chat on our server was often greeted by other rogues yelling "RUN!!" My friend Boinc finally just ended up parking herself outside of Stormwind to save herself the headache.

The bane of my existence however was The Turkinator. While there are several nice macros out there for people to use. Along with things like Tracker Snacks, turning on NPC Names, floating health bars, etc which all HELP. When it all comes down to it there is an aspect of luck involved. Numerous times I would get SO close only to have another person either working on the same achievement or farming turkeys to cook cross my path resulting in the buff wearing off before I could find a LIVE turkey.

While everyone struggled with this achievement Rogues had a distinct disadvantage as we have NO ranged instant cast moves. This meant that you had to drag out the FASTEST throwing weapon you could find (1.7 was all I could scrounge up) and go looking for a thinly populated area with LARGE numbers of  Wild Turkeys.  I attempted both Tirisfal Glades and Elwynn Forest.

Tirisfal has a couple of advantages, one (at least on our server) it is less populated, two it has larger areas devoid of trees, and three it has a lower population of "beasts" to contend with when tracking. However I was FINALLY able to get this achievement in Elwynn early in the morning so TIME is another key factor when attempting it. IF you can do it at low population times you had the best success.

So now we can dust off our feathers, (I will admit getting turned into a Turkey during Battlegrounds WAS pretty funny....DEATH BY TURKEY!) and prepare for the NEXT big holiday. Winter Veil. Thankfully I only have a couple to do for this one as I did the majority of them last year.