Day Ninety - 7 Aug 2011

Finally I got to spend a significant time on Kallixta again, so off she went to Uldum. It had been long enough since Martuska ran the zone that I really was surprised at the number of cinematics. The pace was fast yet fun. I enjoyed the zone much more than the first time and more than Mount Hyjal. The atmosphere is just more fun for me. I was pleased with the significant number of quest rewards that were good for Holy Paladins, but many weren't real improvements. I did grab the Eye of the Stars.

Kallixta dinged 84!

There's one quest where one reward gave a choice and Kallixta selected the increased Ramakahen reputation. This meant she could visit Blacksmith Abasi and pick up the honored rewards: Shroud of the Dead, Ammunae's Blessing, Drystone Greaves. This was so nice!

I know that the Midfletcher's Talisman is my weakest link, but Talisman of Sinister Order is just a few more Uldum quests away.

Kallixta stopped at 62/105 of the Uldum quests, which means there's plenty more to do, however what I'm hoping is to earn her final level by some dungeons. Unfortunately this will have to occur after family vacations and other distractions for the next couple weeks.

Day Eighty Nine - 4 August 2011

While reviewing Kallixta's equipment, I discovered a couple slots I could improve. Kallixta crafted and equipped a Lifeforce Hammer. I also made a trip back to Mount Hyjal and picked up the Cloak of the Dryads.

Day Eighty Eight - 27 July 2011

It was my birthday and I got to spend some midweek time on Kallixta. I dinged level 83, which was the point. I had been close for a while and ran a few fishing and cooking dailies in Stormwind for a while. Right after this happened, I ended up spending a long time upgrading things. I could craft many Stormforge pieces myself. Looking at my equipment now, EIGHT of my items say "Stormforged"!

I had been hestating to jump on the boat to Vashj'r for some reason and knew that now at 83, I could head for Uldum.

Day Eighty Seven - 26 July 2011

Kallixta spent time raising her Archeaology. I was surprised at how much XP this earned, but also surprised at how SLOW it is to level. While she could fly very quickly and many of the sites were close, watching the skill level climb is painful.

In a surprise, I spotted this on the Auction House and quickly snatched it up: Fetish of the Fiery Sands. It was a huge improvement over the Venture Co. Libram of Most Holy Deeds I had picked up in Northrend.

Day Eighty Six - 14 July 2011

A guildmate was wearing a wonderful outfit and inspired me to looking for something myself. Of course, looking at their eyepatch made me want one of my own and I discovered how easy it was. I had no trouble soloing Stockades and ran it three times. The silver was trivial and the greens were sent off to be D/E'd, but the blues I picked up included 2 Wicked Daggers and a Rifle Commander's Eyepatch. I tucked away the eyepatch for future Role-play.

It was also interesting to see the changes in the Stockades with Cataclysm. Have you revisited since the change?

Low level dailies experiment

Back in early March, I decided I wanted raise my bank mule to level 20 so that I could develop a couple professions to Expert and make a bit more gold. I often find myself with a few minutes sufficient to craft items and play the auction house, but not enough time to run a dungeon. Also, if a distraction arises, I don't fear to leave my character as I would if she were mid-adventuring. This means I've more time to play the Auction House Game than other aspects of WoW.
From Aldonza's Activity Log:

• Earned the achievement Giddy Up! for 10 points. 5/7/2011
• Earned the achievement Level 20 for 10 points. 5/7/2011
• Earned the achievement Cooking Award for 10 points.  5/7/2011

Yes, even on the day I dinged Level 20 and grabbed the Riding skill, she did a cooking daily quest.

• Earned the achievement 5 Daily Quests Complete for 10 points. 5/13/2011

So, subtracting days we can see Aldonza managed 5 dailies in the next week. It was likely six because I almost always did both Fishing and Cooking. Well, I always at least checked the daily, but some of those quests might take a bit longer than others and I'd skip. It wasn't important to me at the time.

• Earned the achievement Professional Expert for 10 points. 5/14/2011

I was more diligent about doing Minor Inscription Research every day and adding to my possible Glyphs and max'ed my skill in one week. I wanted to make gold, so I raised my skill inexpensively and that meant slow and steady, not ASAP. But I continued the occasional Cooking and Fishing daily.

• Earned the achievement 250 Fish for 10 points. 5/22/2011
• Earned the achievement 10 Cooking Awards for 10 points. 5/30/2011
• Obtained Weather-Beaten Fishing Hat. 6/5/2011
• Earned the achievement Fish Don't Leave Footprints for 10 points. 6/5/2011

Aldonza wasn't trying for any particular achievements at this point. They just dropped as she did enough of these dailies in the normal course of life. The hat was in the fishing reward sack as was the journal that granted fish tracking. Around this time Aldonza dinged level 21 and I noticed just how much XP those dailies were granting. So I started being a bit more diligent at doing them. My schedule also meant it was easier for me to perform them in the mornings before heading to work. That meant the next achievement to pop shouldn't be a surprise:

• Earned the achievement A Simple Re-Quest for 10 points. 6/7/2011

This regular pursuit of two dailies showed results:

I belatedly realized that I could improve this rate. Kallixta didn't have access to heirlooms while levelling, but she was high enough now to pass something over to Aldonza of the guild "Sages of Tabasco".

• Obtained Renowned Guild Tabard. 7/1/2011
• Obtained Tattered Dreadmist Mask. 7/1/2011
• Obtained Ancient Bloodmoon Cloak. 7/1/2011
• Earned the achievement Represent  for 10 points. 7/1/2011

I would still occasionally forget to switch from my fishing outfit to the heirlooms for the XP bonus when turning in the quest. In this case, style was more important than a few XP. If Aldonza is fishing, she's damn well going to wear her fishing hat, not some ugly Mask!

Continuing with this pattern had regular consequences:

• Earned the achievement 25 Cooking Awards for 10 points. 7/8/2011
• Obtained Jeweled Fishing Pole. 7/9/2011

This fishing pole requires skill level 300, which won't happen until after Aldonza trains as Artisan at level 35.

• Earned the achievement Fish or Cut Bait: Ironforge for 10 points. 7/20/2011
• Earned the achievement 50 Daily Quests Complete for 10 points. 7/21/2011
• Earned the achievement 50 Cooking Awards for 10 points. 8/3/2011
• Earned the achievement Let's Do Lunch: Ironforge  for 10 points. 8/7/2011
• Earned the achievement Expert Fisherman  for 10 points. 8/10/2011

So, Fishing finally max'ed, but only from the skill granted by the quest and the required fishing the quests asks for. The cooking dailies don't get this secondary side effect. No skill bump from Spice Bread! So cooking lags behind. Note that she's actually earning gold in cooking without purchasing any new recipes. With the accumulated Cooking Awards, she purchased Imported Supplies and sent the Cocoa Beans to Kallixta, who made the Chocolate Cookies, posted stacks on the Auction House and mentioned on /trade how You'll Feel Right As Rain.

That is nice extra income. Aldonza is not a philanthropist.

Aldonza had been avoiding the I Need to Cask a Favor until she learned the trick of switching to walk speed to negotiate the steps and doorway at the end. The achievement reminded me that Aldonza can Teleport easily enough to any capital as needed, so expect the other similar achievements to fall soon.

Life as a Bank Alt at the various capitals has its differences. The mailbox in Darnassus and Stormwind is a bit more convenient than in Ironforge, but the combination of Auction House, Mailbox and Guild Bank is best in Ironforge. And I'm happy to avoid Stormwind. Aldonza likes being a Stormwind ex-pat. Another big advantage of Ironforge is its Limited Supply Recipe circuit as I learned from The Consortium. It's a great Gold/minute rate for a low level character.

By the way, the dailies have a Reputation consequence, too. Besides the capital city reputations, Aldonza is also earning tiny amounts of Guild Reputation, about 3 points each quest! Bank Guilds like mine typically stay level 1 for a long time. With Aldonza slowly leveling, some Guild XP is coming in and Sages of Tabasco is about halfway to level 2. Guild Achievements are also slow in coming, but because of her business, the first to actually pop is likely The Pen is Mightier, which is at 65% already.

Seeing other bloggers experiment with alts, such as Eccentria Jones's Mad Murray, inspired me to post this story now. I'll provide an update after Aldonza dings 35 and trains up her profession to the next stage.

Ba Shared Topic: Identity

The Shared Topic this week at Blog Azeroth was suggested by Akabeko:

How does your character define themself? What part of their identity is most important to their personality and self-presentation?
In meatspace, we have so many affiliations, it’s anyone’s guess whether we consider ourselves a tuba player first, or a student, a Gators fan, a New Yorker, a mother, a nerd, a liberal. Our identities are comprised of so many different aspects of life that it’s hard to tell which parts different people will choose to define themselves.
In game, there are less game-related ways to identify.
You can identify as:
your class – your spec
your race – a particular subgroup (Mag’har, Wildhammer)
your faction – a faction other than Horde/Alliance

I confess to having read other posts while working on mine. Several had good additions to identity, including:
your look (From Hairstyles to Outfits)

your tabard
your title

Several posts demonstrated how a person's real-life identity influences their character's. What struck me most was how Warcraft is an escape for me, allowing me to wear a personality very different from IRL. I can be an Extrovert. I can be brave and charge into a fight. I can wear my heart on my sleeve in stark contrast to what I would do IRL. In fact, I *love* using in-game features to better let others know what my character is like.

At level 46 in Platemail

In Fel Iron Plate in Outland

Kallixta is a Paladin. Whether a Tank or Healer, she's still almost always in armor. She just isn't comfortable in casual wear. Instead when she is relaxing, I have outfits in white, grey or low-level greens that are still plate like armor. I recently started collecting the Soldier's set because despite being mail, it's still obviously something to fight in.

Kallixta frequently wears her Guild's Tabard, a proud statement of her identity that I didn't see many mention. The Guild reflects her choice of association. She's a member of a circle that RP together, fight in Dungeons together and try to Raid together.

That Kallixta is a dwarf was never her selection. It's something she doesn't think about. It just is. It influences her thinking, but her class is far more important to her identity. Her Alliance identity has waxed and waned at times, being more important in the Outland where zone PvP was something I enjoyed and less important in Northrend where in character she felt the threat of the Lich King overrode partisan faction feelings. I suspect such changes will occur again in future, especially as I hope to participate in more battlegrounds soon.

I'm going to mention Aldonza, as I often do. She was intended to be a bank alt and still is. However, Kallixta's RP storytelling has frequently used Aldonza as a device which as a side effect has inspired me to develop an identity beyond a mule. The personality that appeared in my mind explains why she spends her time at the auction house and the like. An original Bank Alt on a different server wore things that proclaimed her banker identity, but that just isn't Aldonza. She spends most of her time in Ironforge despite being a human. Being a human living in the dwarf capital resonates with my time as an American living in England. She's aware of her differences. She's evolving and I'm curious just what might become important to her.

I've rambled much longer than I expected!