Sundries

With all the holidays in WOW I’ve been keeping busy lately.  We are still in the middle of Hollow’s End now and I’ve completed everything I need or wanted except for getting the Headless Horseman’s Reins. I got to each a bunch of candy and throw up:

I also managed to complete the last of my Dalaran cooking quests and got the final piece, my chefs hat and title:

It’s a silly looking hat, one of the reasons I love it, but it was a pain to collect the 100 cooking awards to get it.  It’s only real use, aside from being a vanity item, is that it makes you cook faster.  I’m guessing it’s at least twice or three times as fast.  It’s pretty amazing but it’s not often that I need to cook up enough items where it’s worth taking out and equipping the hat to save time.

I did get to see the Headless Horseman’s Reins drop once while grouping with some guildies, two of them even had the mount already so didn’t need it.  That gave me a 33.3% chance to get the mount but I lost it.   (sniff):

It’s not that I need another mount, I think I have 63 mounts now.  I’ve been keeping myself busy getting my argent tournament mounts and also decided to drop mining and pick up tailoring finally:

I’ve also been keeping myself very busy doing battlegrounds whenever I can.  To be more specific I’m doing Wintergrasp all the time.  I’ve managed to put together a complete PVP set of gear (all purples) from the tokens and honor points in about two or three weeks.  I also was able to buy my first Mammouth mount with the Stone Keeper’s Shards:

It’s strange how I’ve never been a fan of PVP before.  In fact, I’ve always hated it.  There is just something different about Wintergrasp though, I really enjoy it.  Sure, I die from time to time but I’ve found I’m actually a pretty good PVP’er in WG.  I don’t go one on one with people, I do what people should do and stay with groups.  I try to add as much DPS to each target as I can and when the time calls for it use the mage’s great AOE abilities when called for.  I don’t have the best DPS in the raid but I’m almost always in the top 3 of damage done, here are some of my damage readouts after WG:

You can click them to make them larger.  I’ve blurred out the other names as I’m not trying to say they weren’t doing their part but just that I’m feeling good about the amount of damage I’m adding to the battle.

When I was out at the Argent Tournament grounds I saw that Jaina Proudmoore was there with some others doing a scripted NPC thing.  I haven’t seen her since I did the faction change to horde but I don’t remember her being a giant?

Sure, as Undead my posture isn’t as good as it used to be but still!!!  She must be about 10 feet tall!!!

I’ve also started dusting off Konata, my L70 hunter.  I’ve done her talent spec and got her setup to go out and start leveling when I’m ready for her.  I’ve even went out and got a new pet for leveling, a good old tanking bear.

I felt bad about putting PeterFile in the stables but I’ve really heard that Gorillas aren’t the tanking pet there were when I last played my hunter.  I remember PeterFile could take 4 or 5 L70 mobs on at a time with not much trouble and I’d just AOE them down.  I guess I’ll take some time out and see how my new bear works out.  I’ve named him Fumoffu after the bear mascot from the anime Full Metal Panic – Fumoffu:

Ok, yes.  he’s not a polar bear but I couldn’t find a name for a polar bear that I’d like.  Snuggles?  sounds too easy.  I think I’ll try him out and see how I like him.  The only problem is that he’s only L65 now and I’d really like a L70 pet when I head to Northrend so I may just drop him and get a pet from there.  Maybe a rhino?

**James.

I’ve had a huge stroke of luck recently and managed to fish myself up a new mount.  Yes, I said “fish” up.  There is a very rare mount you can fish up in Northrend which is a sea turtle:

As you can see above, I got the “Turtles All the Way Down” achievement for this.  What I really loved was the huge wall of green guild text giving me “grats” from my guild mates.

This is a very rare mount but what made it even more unusual is how I caught it.  I was looking through my achievements and realized that I had a few more in fishing to do and thought I’d check out how “rare” the turtle mount is.

I found a nice safe spot in Bourean Tundra to land and then went to the web to try to find out just how rare it was.   I didn’t have much luck on finding any percentages but deiced I should just start finishing in any Northrend fishing pools I spot till I get lucky.  I’d at least catch some good fish to use or sell.

I got back into the game and in about 20 seconds I found my first pool.  Got my fishing rod out and then, believe it or not – on my first cast, DING – I got the turtle mount.  I was almost in shock.   I thought I may be confused at first since I had just been reading about it but nope, I got it.

What’s funny is that he’s only a 60% speed increase mount in water.  While that’s damn slow on land it feels like he just flys in the water.  I also had my Mastercraft Kalu’ak Fishing Pole from my Kalu’ak reputation grind on my so I could breath underwater and ride.

I also managed to do all the Brewfest holiday things I wanted and got my new title of Brewmaster:

I’ve done the L80 party to kill Coren Direbrew about 5 or 6 times but haven’t even seen his mount drop.   I’ve received the Mithril Pocketwatch and the Bubbling Brightbrew Charm but that’s it.  The only thing I wanted but haven’t received yet is Direbrew’s Remote.

I did have great time spent grouping with my guild and thanks to some new gear and PVP gear rewards from doing WinterGrasp I’ve seen my DPS go from 1400 up to about 2200 now.    I’ve only recently discovered how fun WinterGrasp is so I’m working on getting some PVP gear.

**James.