Kallixta's Notes: 80-84

Showing posts with label 80-84. Show all posts

Day One Hundred and Four - 1 Oct 2011

My enjoyment with Kallixta running the Coren Direbrew event inspired me to finish levelling her and get on with it! I have stopped for vacation most of the way through Uldum and so I picked up where I had left off.

Actually, while I ran the Brewfest Dungeon about every day over the last week, I also ran the Plucky Thieves daily. I'd log on, queue for Coren until I deemed myself done then ran the daily. I left Kallixta zoned in Uldum or maybe I'd hearth back to Stormwind, do the Auction House or whatever, then portal back to Uldum.

But this day I looked at the Uldum quests I had and figured out where to pick up (around Schnottz's Landing) and away I went. I still was surprised at the frequency with which cinematics would pop up. I had far less trouble with quests as a Protection Paladin than I did as a squishy Mage. I could just wade in swinging. I spent some time dithering over quest rewards, but there were really few that were upgrades. According to the Activity Log, there were three Superior items while any greens were quickly selected for their trash resale value. I didn't bother including any of the new blues into my item sets while questing. I just accumulated them for decision making later.

One of my guildmates was excited, only three bubbles away from level 85. I started the day with only a couple bubbles total, but was pleased with the speed I picked up experience. When I finished the zone, I headed back to Stormwind, knowing I'd be heading for the Twilight Highlands and I was over half-way to Max Level!

Day Ninety Nine to One Hundred Three - 21-30 Sep 2011

Something really fascinating happened over these days. I know it messes up my Centennial, but there wasn't anything special to differentiate between these days exactly. I only played a few minutes each morning, running the Coren Direbrew dungeon group. I'd log on, run at least one and maybe a few more if nothing interesting dropped, and I've had a few interesting things drop:

I ran at least one other day in there without winning a greed roll. Besides my Justice Points and some gold, I found Great Brewfest Kodo in my Keg one day, which added to the achievements and feats of strength this holiday:

Now about the fascinating bit. I ran Holy and queued as the Healer.

Now I've run dungeons as the Healer, but never a random. It was always with friends teaching me what to do. This time my inexperience was inflicted on unsuspecting randoms, but the Coren Direbrew event was perfect for learning. It's short. If I was horrible, folks weren't going to be around long. It gave me a simple environment to experiment with known issues.

I loved it. If anything, I'd have been happy queuing up far more often, just for the experience. However, after running a few times I wanted a break to think and research changes for next time. What did I learn? I learned what I needed to cast before the pull: Beacon on the Tank and either Blessing of Might or Kings, depending if a Druid was in the party. I learned that I could ignore adds on myself. I was plate and rarely did I need to cast a heal on myself. I learned that if I was messing up and letting the tank drop too low, a quick Lay on Hands fixed that. I really didn't need to worry about saving any of my cooldowns.

Another thing learned was my healbot set up. I was switching between our main computer and the laptop, and would forget to change my settings. I found DBM could pop a warning thing right on top of my healbot frame and intercept my mouse clicks! I was casting, but the tanks health kept dropping!

Finally, I concluded the exercise wasn't a great test of my use of cooldowns, but it was better than nothing. If the tank was well geared, I had plenty of time to cast my judgements and even holy wrath or a crusader strike or two, although my DPS was always miniscule. However, I've become comfortable with my role as a healer.

I hope this means I'll be running LFD again soon. The big reason I haven't has been confidence that I'll have an hour or more uninterrupted, which just hasn't been the case. Now the family schedule has settled down, maybe that will change.

Day Ninety Eight - 17 Sep 2011

I've slowly started finding time to try and level Kallixta, even if it was a short amount of time. So I had her answer the Hero's Call for Twilight Highlands. Kallixta ran around Stormwind with her buddy, Prince Anduin, and saved civilization, or at least Stormwind, from a explosive end. Her reward was the Truthbreaker Shield

Kallixta stopped before boarding the flight to Twilight Highlands. She needs to finish up in Uldum first.
One discovery from the research in equipment and upgrades was that Kallixta can do the initial Molten Front quests for some excellent upgrades. I only discovered this after making some of those purchases.

Oh well. It's only gold.

Day Ninety Seven - 15 Sep 2011

Aldonza has been earning loads of gold at the Auction House (see more about Aldonza's gold lust) and she passed on much of the excess gold to Kallixta. Certainly she could find something to spend it on? Kallixta has been upgrading her equipment in preparation for the End Game. What's the fun in accumulating 100,000g if you never spend any of it? First, some items Kallixta could upgrade via Blacksmithing for both her Holy and Tank specs (plus adding sockets to her bracers and gloves and things like Ebonsteel Belt Buckle):

Second, Kallixta had made some progress on reputations that provided rewards worthwhile upgrading from either Guardians of Hyjal and Ramakahen:

Next, I found several items that were major upgrades for Kallixta on teh Auction House. Since there wasn't a rush, Aldonza could shop carefully. For the more expensive items, she could bid instead of buy-out and save a few hundred. In all, she paid just over 5000 gold for these:

That leaves a few quest rewards that I haven't upgraded, including one obsolete trinket!:

The results are that her Tank Spec Equipment Item Level averages 326 while Holy lags to 320. Moving these upgrades into place and shifting things around a bit for specs, I managed an achievement:

Superior

That's right. I hadn't managed a blue in all slots above 187 item level until now. Some of those Cataclysm greens where way too attractive.

Day Ninety Six - 14 Sep 2011

Kallixta's guild has recently talked about running Old World Raids during the week. Wednesday night saw someone ask, "Anyone up for Black Temple?" Kallixta joined in.

Now Martuska has actually run the Black Temple once, so this wasn't very new ground, but it was a wonderful opportunity to work with my guild mates and prepare for more old raids in the future. I also remember from our run of Ahn'Qiraj that Kallixta was unlikely to be needed as a tank or healer, but she doesn't have a Retribution spec. She ran as a tank and occasionally pulled a few mobs off the "real tank", but I felt like I contributed more.

We only had five, so this wasn't going to be a Guild Run. We had three paladins and two hunters, but at level 84, Kallixta was the lowest level and little in the run was a challenge. Well, little meaning only one spot was a challenge, the Den of Mortal Delights. It wasn't any boss. We just didn't take those scantily dressed ladies seriously enough and suddenly our entire party was charmed. We gathered way too many of the mind-controlling lasses and laughed at ourselves, helplessly watching our health wither. The hunters managed to feign death and one Mass Resurrection later, we had our chance to retry the encounter. This time we were careful to gather in small groups and we puzzled over why we had any trouble!

We took Illidan down quickly and before he changed form, and two of us got our Black Temple achievement. Ironically, Got My Mind On My Money popped, despite my mind being elsewhere.

Our group was happy with the result and someone asked if we wanted to try Gruul's Lair. I was willing and we even managed to recruit another guild mate to join. I had done zero preparation, but in the few minutes granted to bio-breaks and for repairs and junk selling, I read enough to know we would have even less trouble.

We spent way more time on trying to decide on a kill order than needed. We joked the proper kill order should just be "Them before Us" and leave it at that. the sub-bosses died quickly and Gruul soon joined them. Again Kallixta was not the only one to gain Gruul's Lair. Someone else thought this was the last raid they needed for Outland Raider, but when it didn't pop for them, realized there must be another. The group decided this was sufficient for a mid-week run and stopped there.

While it was wonderfully fun to accomplish and I got to bond with my guild mates, it wasn't a real opportunity to learn anything about future raiding. Nothing was sufficiently challenging enough to provoke us to real effort beyond "don't aggro the entire room of mind-controlling mobs". It did give me confidence that raiding with these folk will be enjoyable.

Day Ninety Five - 11 Sep 2011

Kallixta enjoyed revisited Blackrock Depths so much, and that long list of dungeons yet to be achieved was attracting her attention. I'm not sure how it was sorted, but Zul'Farrak was at the top of the list. It was the old dungeon I probably enjoyed the most on Martuska. There really wasn't a need to revisit on Kallixta, but I knew I could run through it quickly for a Sunday evening.

And it did go quickly. I discovered how small Kallixta aggro circle was and could avoid large numbers of mobs on horseback and ride to bosses in little time. I got a bit bored at the main pyramid event and ran around gathering up a huge crowd to take down quickly. I belatedly discovered there were spawn points that I was missing and a large number had gone up the steps and were working over the NPCs on my side. Luckily I discovered the oversight before any died. Soon the achievement dinged and I realized that Kallixta didn't have the hammer to ring Godzilla's gong. Actually that hammer might not be required any more, but I'd accomplished my night's mission and picked up a lovely item for future RP potential: Bad Mojo Mask.

Day Ninety Four - 10 Sep 2011

Actually, there were a few more days of Kallixta playing "Whack a Plucker" for Ramakahen reputation, but nothing else until she got to missing life in a capital. She had been stuck in Uldum with her hearthstone set to Gadgetzhan when I finally decided to make a change. Aldonza has been enjoying Darnassus for a long time and both were perfectly happy with Ironforge, but Kallixta was going to need regular access back to Uldum, so that meant Stormwind.

After briefly settling in, and with Transmogrification potential in mind, Kallixta flew to western Darkshire for a short quest chain that yielded the Shield of Darkshire, which with Imperial Plate makes a character look like a Stormwind Guard. That's one of my RP plans for the future and it was easy enough to grab now.

Reviewing old sets, I was reminded that Kallixta was missing many Dark Iron Blacksmithing patterns. This was the reason for venturing into Blackrock Mountain. I missed out on Vanilla, joining just after Burning Crusade launched, and have been inside only a few times, such as chasing down an Elder at Lunar Festival time. This time I had four purposes:

Blackrock Depths dungeon achievement
Attunement to the Core quest for future Molten Core potential
Visit Lokhtos Darkbargainer for turn-ins for Thorium Brotherhood reputation
Grab the Smelt Dark Iron and other Dark Iron Blacksmithing recipes

In the back of my mind was laying the ground work for solo Molten Core runs for Sulfuras, but that wasn't for this weekend.

I used a wowhead guide to find my way around the huge BRD instance, which I found wonderfully confusing! There has been nothing like it since. It's huge. It has multiple paths, puzzles, goals and a mid-instance bar. It has atmosphere and useful shortcuts. I know the Mole machine teleport wasn't original, but a useful thing for keeping something like this from being too annoying.

The guide was excellent for finding the Core Fragment, but not so great at explaining the Grim Guzzler, which thus allowed me to solve some of the puzzle on how to exit by myself.

I mismanaged my exit and fell to the Black Anvil, necessitating the death of two more bosses before getting back on track, but I did pick up a cool Monocle I'd otherwise have missed. I picked up sufficient vendor trash with all those BOE greens that I returned to the Grim Guzzler just to clear my bags a bit.

I also had my daughter's boyfriend looking over my shoulder a few times, but mostly to help me peek inside Molten Core itself. He was the one that explained what I was doing wrong with the Core Hound packs! While inside, I tested the difficulty of soloing Lucifron. As might be expected, a level 84 Paladin can solo him easily enough. The trick is killing those damn Core Hound packs all together. I have no experience with managing my outgoing damage.

Back tracking a little, I returned to finish off Dagran Thaurissan.

Earned the achievement Blackrock Depths for 10 points.
Earned the achievement Somebody Likes Me for 10 points.

Huh. While Kallixta is Revered on some reputations, this was the first faction she actually earned Exalted with! Martuska doesn't have this yet and she's my achievement whore. Kallixta needed this to buy some of the recipes. There isn't much for a Tailor.

I had a moment to reflect on Achievements. Martuska has already accumulated many, especially some Feats that Kallixta could never accomplish and she already has a huge number of pets, mounts, tabards and holiday things that I have no interest in repeating for Kallixta. However, Kallixta is already more complete on dungeons. If I'm serious about using Kallixta to explore things I missed with Martuska, I shouldn't mind the split in achievements, but there's an ache seeing Blackrock Depths and other dungeons on Kallixta and not on Martuska. How do I get over that?

Day Ninety One to Ninety Three - 14-16 Aug 2011

I did some more review of equipment, this time for her Protection spec, and found Kallixta's reputation with the Guardians of Hyjal was sufficient to provide a few upgrades:

I had also found a Relic upgrade on the Auction House:

Ashes of Youth

Kallixta has been running the Pluckers daily to raise her Ramakahen reputation. Log on, whack the moles, and turn in. I had her hearthstone set to Gadgetzhan, but I realize that's a mistake. I should stay in Stormwind, take the portal to Uldum and hearth back. I don't know why I didn't.

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?

Days Eighty Two to Eighty Five - 2-5 July 2011

I had a lot of free time available over the long holiday weekend and I was able to devote a substantial amount of time to Kallixta. Beyond this, I managed to spend a lot of time on Martuska, too. As my Achievement Whore, I managed to complete The Flame Warden, leaving only Children's Week for Strange Trip. I also managed to join my guild in bringing down the Whale Shark!

As for Kallixta, I spent some time just questing in Hyjal and dinging 82 while Beating Pterodactyls and picking up Plenty of Pets. I also did some ore farming and with only half hearted trying, picked up Explore Uldum and Deepholm. I did not neglect the Auction House games I've been working on and to better play, I completed leveling my blacksmithing skill, earning Working Around the Clock. Another money making opportunity was picking up the Chocolate Cookie recipe, which sells well with a bit of You'll Feel Right as Rain promotion. I helped at least three guildmates earn that achievement. Sous Chef has another of those accidental things.

The crowning event of the weekend was my finally running a Cataclysm dungeon as a Healer, Throne of the Tides! We were a bit overgeared and I didn't use my cooldowns much. No one was ever in real danger, I don't think. It was awesome! Still, despite my preparation and warning, my kids STILL tried to interrupt me! I don't think I've ever growled that loud.

Day Eighty One - 30 June 2011

Kallixta dropped heavily into the seat across from her friend.

"Now there's a picture of happy exhaustion!" Aldonza smiled with her pen stabbing into the air, gesturing to the paladin. "Fighting the good fight, making progress and pleased with yourself?"

Kallixta adjusts in her seat, the better to start unbuckling some of the armor. "Yes, yes and I'm not saying." She yields a wry smile before glancing back down to her fingers, pulling off some leg armor. "But there is SO much to do and I fear even this short break can make a difference. I mean, the Infernals seem to be passing from the Elemental Plane so easily! There are so many!" A short pause allows the paladin to plunk down the heavy plate piece onto the table top with a sigh. "I saw them, you know."

"Them?" Aldonza had just started to return her attention to the parchment before her, but some emphasis in the subject word brings her eyes back up.

Quieter now, Kallixta explains with a tremor in her tone. "Deathwing himself. And he had Ragnaros returned. I was dragonback, but I could see both clearly. It seems the breach to Fire must be huge. We're entirely on the defensive right now, trying to slow the invasion. My proudest moment was merely preventing plans from falling into enemy hands, but that shows what I mean. Defense. Strategically we need to find allies. The leadership seems to have ideas, but they all involve ancient allies and none are devotees of the Light."

Releasing the pen and some tension in her hands, Aldonza stares across the table. "It sounds so desperate, yet you had time to bring back another stack of ores?"

With a snort, Kallixta's face transforms from worried to familiar tolerance. "Yes. It's just the ones I trip over. I'm not actively seeking it now, like I had been. This is just what I stumble across. It's very useful stuff, you know." Her features start to harden again as her gaze drops to the armor on the table. "I suspect I'll be making an entire new set of armor in a short while. My current set is useful fighting the cold of Northrend, but I need the heat resistance this stuff offers."

"It's not just the armor, is it girl?" Aldonza points to the new necklace the paladin now wears.

A quick move confirms to Kallixta the necklace still hangs about her neck. "I got this from one of my Explorer League friends. I suspect there will be plenty of changes to my gear. Why I even changed my weapon!" With a face showing surprise that the weapon wasn't already in her hand, her hand smoothly finds the handle in a well-practiced motion. "A Mace, obviously. And again." Her nose wrinkles, demonstrating her reluctance. "Something the Druid Channelers seem enthused about. It does help in all the new healing duties I seem assigned." She pauses, glancing at the Human. "As you thought, there's demand and I seem to be picking up the knack."

The Human Mage gives a shrug, "We each do our part. I'm sorry yours seems so much more dangerous." With an embarrassed motion to the scroll before her, Aldonza continues, "I fear paper cuts from my glyph business. It could get infected and all those thousands of gold pieces would stop flowing our direction."

Day Eighty - 26 June 2011

This was the day. Fascinating that it occurred on Day Eighty of the journal. Kallixta was just short of 50% of the way to level 80 and I knew I had the time to get there. What I couldn't decide was how I was going to get there. I wasn't interested in Sholozar Basin any more and I couldn't get excited about starting in Storm Peaks or anywhere else in Northrend. I wanted to get going on the Cataclysm stuff, so I decided I'd have another run around Hyjal, mining Obsidium. If gathering wasn't quick enough, I could also kill a few mobs while the rested bonus lasted.

I found Kallixta was now plenty strong enough to handle the mobs and my flight path around the zone was much more familiar now, so I found myself making better progress than expected.

I hadn't seen many others in the zone, so I was surprised and annoyed when a troll ninja'd a node while I was fighting off some mob that was adjacent. I had time to tell him "Yer Welcome" before moving on. I was later pleasantly surprised to get a letter from the troll's Alliance side toon apologizing and sending me a recompense. I discovered I really wasn't that annoyed. I sent back a little present of my own as thanks for the apology. Have any of y'all gotten such apologies? Have any of you sent one? I know if it was a PvP realm, he could probably have killed me as well as taken the node and no apology would have been expected. I think this is why some has disdain for a carebear realm.

I had completed another circuit of the realm and was extremely close to finishing my level. I knew it would take only another mob or two, so I made sure I'd be quicker to grab the screenshot.