Low level dailies, part 3

You might want to read Part 1 and Part 2

When last I updated news of my test subject, Aldonza was level 34 and I'd found a comfortable groove popping between capitals, running the cooking and fishing dailies and making gold from the Auction House. My time on WoW can be haphazard. I was only visiting Aldonza a couple times each week, typically, but she was making steady progress.

Regular progress yielded some achievements just due to their accumulative nature:

• Professional Artisan 9/17/2011
• Artisan Fisherman  9/30/2011
• 100 Cooking Awards  10/22/2011
• Lunch Lady  11/20/2011
• Artisan Cook  11/22/2011
• Level 40  11/25/2011
• Master Cook  11/25/2011
• 1000 Fish  11/26/2011
• 200 Daily Quests Complete  12/4/2011
• Journeyman in First Aid  12/4/2011
• Grand Master Cook  12/4/2011
• One That Didn't Get Away  12/4/2011

Y'all know that there have been a couple holidays and these had an impact on Aldonza's journey. In particular, as many folks know Pilgrim's Bounty is an excellent time to level up one's cooking skill. It's also easy for a Mage with Teleports to run the dailies between the capitals.

• Now We're Cookin'  11/20/2011
• Pilgrim's Paunch  11/20/2011
• Pilgrim's Progress  11/22/2011

With 4.3 out, the new Darkmoon Faire has some quests perfect for my experiment, profession quests that yield some easy XP and cheaply raise my professions. Of course, beyond Aldonza's miserly ways, her cooking got high enough that new avenues for revenue generation has her reaching for the top. All those Cooking Dailies mean a clutch of Cooking Awards asking to be turned into profit. Crates yielded some meat that both levelled her skill and became something to sell. The Baked Tender Turtle was a big surprise seller whereas I already knew how to profit from Chocolate Cookies.

• Come One, Come All!  12/4/2011
• Quick Shot  12/4/2011
• I Was Promised a Pony  12/4/2011
• Taking the Show on the Road  12/4/2011
• Step Right Up  12/4/2011

And now Aldonza has reached level 42, which is an answer to life, the universe and profit from Mage Portals!

Day Thirty One - 16 Sept 2010

Now that Kallixta has actually earned Scarlet Monastery, did I want to re-run just to complete the quest? Without a better plan, I thought I'd give it a try. The undead in Desolace fall much quicker at level 38 than at 33! Especially as I was now taking full advantage of Exorcism. With a few more quests in that zone, I had my level 39 before heading to Southshore and the SM quest.

Without a preference, I selected the 3 SM instances on LFD and jumped in the queue. Bam: Cathedral. I found out the others had been in the queue for around an hour. Everyone want the XP, so we worked through all the mobs possible. We lost a DPS just after opening doors to the cathedral itself, a pet chased a runner and suddenly we had 3 more patrols added to a fight. By the time we had run back from the graveyard, the DPS had reconnected. Being more careful, we cleared the cathedral floor and were just flushing out the corner rooms when we lost the healer. There was no warning and we weren't sure what to do. The druid agreed to try to keep an eye on healing while we waited. The rooms provided easy fights without too much worry. A healer joined just in time for the miniboss. I don't know what opens the door to the miniboss's cell, but that was a very easy fight. We provided a summary of the final battle to at least one party member that didn't know the script and the battle was so smooth, I'll never worry about it again.

I won a Nice Mace if I dual spec to Holy next level and I won a great Tanking Shield. The experience was so nice, I think I will return to the Armory and Library to improve my tanking weapon with the quest reward.

Day Thirty - 12 Sept 2010

I managed to take some decent screenshots! I'm certain I can improve, but that I managed these was a small victory.

I participated in Operation Gnomeregan as much as a thirty-something can. I really enjoyed it. It was fun, funny and simple. It was simply enjoyable.

Kallixta Roars!

I roared. I cheered. I did my part.

Kallixta Cheers!

I was energized and dinged level 37 quickly. Fast money and XP was wonderful! I ran around Dustwallow Marsh, completing up a few easy quests, and exploring to completion my first zone in Kalimdor. I also had been accumulating the cards for the Mages Deck. This yielded Darkmoon Pendant which would have been great a week ago, before a satchel dropped a better necklace. Without difficulty, I dinged level 38.

I went to my trainer and felt ready for the SM Cathedral. But just before I selected it, I decided to try a random first. Where did the Random LFD send me? Cathedral!

Another one bites the dust!

I didn't win anything great from the run, except from the satchel itself, with a Monkey's Ring and I immediately equipped. Shifting into a quieter mode, I did some fishing outside Stormgarde Keep in Arathi until my skill was something over 200 and I had sufficient Mithril Head Trout to level my cooking to artisan level as well.

Day Twenty Nine - 6 Sept 2010

Kallixta run through Scarlet Monastery - Armory again, determined to reach level 36. I love how simple and straight forward the dungeon is, reminding me strongly of how Northrend Dungeons operate, straight through to one boss. Despite needing, I missed the Scarlet Leggings.

With the new level, I hurried to my trainer. Actually, since the Paladin trainer is inside the Stormwind Cathedral and the Cathedral is often the home to RP, I've made it a habit that as I'm entering the Cathedral, I toggle my walk/run key and saunter through the Cathedral to my trainer. I also strolled across to the First Aid trainer. I'd been neglecting it a little and had the silk to spare.

When the Artisan in First Aid popped, I got a few gz from my guild and one humorous groan about Tailors weeping. Having been a tailor before, I knew exactly how that felt. I had happy to discover I reached Mageweave Bandages and could sell my spare Silk back for a profit.

It still being early on a holiday, I decided to run a random. I had time if the LFD tool gave me something horribly long or difficult, but it gave me yet another Armory run. I was very pleased. I apparently greeded and won Herod's Shoulders again. I had forgotten I'd already won it and couldn't wear it yet. The Satchel gave me a Ring with stats that just aren't good enough to replace what I'm already using. Oh well.

And I still failed to get a good snapshot!

Day Twenty Eight - 5 Sept 2010

Kallixta worked through her accumulated resources to level her skill in Blacksmithing and Mining. In particular, she pushed past level 200, allowing her to train as Artisan. With the new threshold, she grabbed a bunch of new recipes and created a few Steel Plate Helm, which will hopefully sell for a profit. Kallixta can't wear one herself until level 40.

Since the SM Library was so short and sweet now, hardly taking half an hour, I decided I'd try SM Armory. If anything, it was even easier than the library! Before tackling Herod, I checked that my party knew the script. I didn't even need to worry about the whirlwind much and those non-elites died very, very quick.

I won Dog Training Gloves on greed. I usually pass on things like that, but without thinking too much about it, selected greed and won. With much more deliberation, I hit need after Herod fell and won Herod's Shoulders. I was surprised to discover I'll need to wait before equipping them, too.

Activity for 5 Sep

I'm still horrible at grabbing a screen image when an achievement pops up. Instead I decided to wait for the smoke to clear and got this:

Day Twenty Seven - 4 Sept 2010

The Darkmoon Faire is one of those things I've never explored, despite it being around for years. I had done some research and knew this weekend was my opportunity to experiment. Aldonza had been buying pieces on the cheap for over a month now, things like small furry paws and vibrant plumes. So Saturday morning found Kallixta gathering up her materials and running to Goldshire. There were some surprises as I turned in items for tickets. At least one tier closed early, opening another tier for an extra turn in. Luckily I had far more vibrant plumes than I needed (and planned to sell for a profit now that this week means they're in demand).

So now I'm sitting at 2575/3000 Neutral with the Darkmoon Faire, but still less than 100 tickets. Grinding for reputation or tickets doesn't seem like much fun. The most obvious thing to follow up on would be cards for decks. One in particular appeals to me, the Mages Deck and the Darkmoon Pendant it yields. I'll just shop the Auction House for a bit. If I get stuck, then I'll ask around for an Inscriptionist and provide the materials.

Later in the afternoon, I decided I was ready to tackle a dungeon and selected random. I got the Scarlet Monastery Library. I was nervous about runners and holding aggro. The group was very good and when I hit "share" on the book quest, I was surprised how many didn't have it! They were appreciative and someone else knew exactly where we needed to go. I guess I was a bit cautious in my pulls, but received encouragement for it. I spent time reading every book we passed for the Well Read achievement.

Arcanist Doan fell soon enough.

The satchel provided a necklace with an uninspiring bonus. Turning in the quest gave me level 35, and then I decided to queue up again. I deliberately selected Library this time and had a rare bad pug. When the queue pops, I start typing a Welcome message in the party chat. I often have it ready before everybody zones in. It's usually "Welcome! Let's take a moment to buff and let me know when you're ready". I don't want to sound dictatorial, but it also reminds folks why I'm not running after the first mob. Not this time. I hadn't buffed ANYBODY yet when someone had already dashed into the hall and started combat.

I carefully said something about waiting for the healer to mana up before moving on. I had handled large pulls in the prior run, but I also knew runners meant adds would arrive while Consecration was on cool down, yet the DPS were demanding "BIGGER PULLZ" in lawl speak. After they pulled deliberately again, I had enough. "Then you can tank. Goodbye." And I left the party.

I felt bad about leaving the healer, but there was no way I'd enjoy finishing that pug. It wasn't worthwhile. I refuse to feel guilty. I requeued soon enough and had a thoroughly enjoyable experience. I experimented with bigger and bigger pulls while checking with the party if that was okay. The communication was supportive and I was happy with the result.

With the bad taste diluted after that, I felt I could end the night in good conscience.

I worry about the state of Azeroth Library Science though

Day Twenty Six - 3 Sept 2010

I knew I had to deal with some of those little frustrations right off, and I did. None were difficult and soon I was ready to try Razerfen Downs. I pushed the LFD and we were off. Well, it popped up in two seconds, but the healer declined. The second time in the queue took over 7 minutes.

I had a couple DPS that kept pulling before the priest and I were ready. The Mage would die from the mob, but the warlock managed fine. I would also lose threat to them quickly and asked for a wait to allow me to build threat. After I asked, they did fine.

I accidentally rang the gong before we were ready, but we managed fine. We even 4 manned it as the mage went AFK. We couldn't kick him while there was a loot roll.

Things moved on okay until trying the escort quest. Somebody started the thing before everybody got the quest and it wouldn't allow us to share once he started running, and boy did he run back! We did fine until the final wave with the boss. I got silenced and never managed to reacquire aggro. Somehow we all lived, but it was the scariest fight of the instance.

The rest of the dungeon went better. They'd allow me to acquire the mobs and I didn't lose aggro very often. It all went quick and soon Razorfen Downs popped up.

I traveled to Ironforge before I realized I needed to return to the Stormwind Cathedral to turn in the RFD complete quest. i didn't need the necklace, but I'm very happy with the Vanquisher's Sword,

I went to Desolace for the SM quest chain, but discovered the intermediate chain was asking me to soloing undead that were 3 or 4 levels higher and the fights took way too long for my patience. It would be fine if I could find another to duo with, but that sort of thing just doesn't happen anymore. At least the run to southern Desolace allowed me to mine a bunch of iron and mithril.

I went to Refuge Point and spent 300 Honor for much better boots, I could afford the trinket. but I fear I'd never remember to use the thing.

I did a bit of skill leveling, smelting and smithing. I managed to score a bunch of inexpensive citrines which allowed for me to make some Green Iron Helms that I hope to actually profit on. I managed to dump a bunch more stuff to Aldonza.

Stupid Level 33

There's something strange about my current state. At level 33, the LFD tool offers 3/4 of Scarlet Monastery, yet the In the Name of the Light Quest requires level 34, so I would need to rekill any bosses accomplished on this level. It's a relic of the old instance grouping days and I'm happy there aren't more of these annoyances, but this one is a pain.

Gnomeregan is green and long and confusing, so I've little interest in returning. So that leaves Razerfen Downs. However, both RFD and SM Armory are red. I've noticed that when I run those, I tend to be the lowest level party member and those DPS are much more likely to pull threat. I'm much, much happier at yellow. Oh well.

So far, I've run all these instances available at level (that is, not soloing when my level is twice the appropriate level or something), but I'm not really trying to level with the LFD tool exclusively, like the Pugging Paladin. I want to run the dungeons with most if not all the quests, which means running about gathering them, which often leads to some PvE XP, and that's fine.

But some of these quests are very hard to gather. One of the RFK quests requires a run to Thalanaar in Feralas, but by the time I'm close to level appropriate for that, RFK has dropped off my LFD tool.

Before this rant starts repeating, I'll try to switch gears and talk about gearing.

While being methodical in running dungeons, I don't select them randomly very often. I've gotten lucky on my satchel drops and I'm not hurting for good gear. I've nothing against running things repeatedly for a purpose, but while levelling that conflicts with my interest in trying lots of different things. Therefore I expect I won't be running SM many, many times. Maybe I should because I think the Scarlet Crusade set looks really cool. Of course, everything looks better than my current metal bikini.

Day Twenty Five - 1 Sept 2010

It was a short, somewhat frustrating time last night. I ran through the Scarlet Monastery Graveyard again and with rested XP gained about 1/2 a level.

The frustrations came from several small things. I still haven't gotten ThreatPlates reconfigured correctly, so when I lost threat, it was harder to grab back than it should have been. I also haven't finished writing some macros, remapping some keys or fixing my camera settings.

I really need to include "/script SetCVar("cameraDistanceMax",50)" somewhere. I mapped the camera toggle view, but I'm trying to improve my situational awareness and feel I'm learning too slow.

I was thinking of writing a "/target *RAREBOSS*" kind of macro. The final graveyard boss doesn't give me much loot compared to those rares. Have you got a better method for finding those rare bosses in the graveyard?

Day Twenty Four - 30 August 2010

I spent some time reconfiguring my addons on the laptop. Something wasn't right and I eventually fixed it, but it meant reloading Threat plates and I lost my prior settings. I'll need to fix that soon.

I flew down to Booty Bay and picked up some recipes for Aldonza, took the boat to Ratchet and headed south. I took the Great Lift down, ran to the Feralas flight path then back through the canyons to the Shimmering Flats. I did a bit of grinding on Turtles, Scorpions and Basilisk before I turned in quests. i was close, but not quite level 33. I headed over the hills to get the Gadgetzan flight path, flew back up to Ratchet, sailed to Booty Bay and by the time I'd turned in those quests, I'd dinged.

I queued for another run in Gnomeregan. Things went well until Emi Shortfuse did her thing. Suddenly  folks started running into the cave and killing the troggs there. I tried calling them back, assuring them they'd come to us, but they ended up abandoning unlooted corpses to escape before Emi brought down the house.

I failed to win Grubbis Paws and then the healer and the warlock left!

We three manned the trash until the dormitory. I washed the grime encrusted ring and a bunch of other grimy things, but we eventually gave up. I left the group to finish the ring quest chain. A couple reagent arrangements and a trip to Ironforge got me a new ring!

Day Twenty Three - 29 August 2010

I've discovered that taking screen shots isn't easy. At first. I just was forgetting. then I discovered that each of my computers uses a slightly different key sequence. I'd need to double check what I was doing, adding a delay and resulting in lousy shots. When I get the desktop stable, I'm sure it'll improve.

So I knew I had some comfortable time today. I could run a random LFD. If I got Stocks, at least it would be quick. I wanted to run any of the others. It gave me the Scarlet Monastery Graveyard. We went straight to the final boss and nothing dropped for me:

I lost the greed roll on the Headguard

So that was nice and fast. The Tumultuous Necklace of the Bear dropped from the satchel of goodies. Just the enchantment I wanted!

With that done, I decided I'd like to select Razerfen Kraul. I had to wait a few minutes, but then we got going. Things were going smoothly. The first three bosses succumbed to our might. Overlord Ramtusk dropped just what I wanted: Tusken Helm!We moved on and were getting close to the next boss when my laptop went dark. It's a strange problem and only rebooting seemed to fix it.I'm sorry I left my group in the lurch like that, but I suppose they got another tank before too long. By this time I was just short of level 31 and I had my interest soured by the cranky laptop, so I took a break.

Later I got set up on the good laptop and got threat-plates and some other addons all set up. It was time to run Gnomeregan. The party was looking for XP and was perfectly happy to hunt down every boss. We shared quests and took off. I felt we did fine. The instance isn't easy to navigate through, but we found Grubbis easily enough and nobody got trapped in the explosions. We got to the room we knew had a boss, but couldn't spot him, "Vicious Fallout" just doesn't look like a boss, but we figured it out when the blue dagger popped up. Time to move on.

I didn't have problems with threat or runners, but I was burning through the mana. I had to drink twice and uses a mana potion twice to keep things going. After the third boss, we knew finding the fourth would be tricky, but one party member volunteered and led us down with some fancy jumping. No one misjumped and we got to the Crowd Pummeler. We knew exactly where to go next. Stopping just short of the final boss, his trash defenders line up in a very different way. These guys didn't look like they were wandering around, but instead were resting until released. One party member thought it looked scary and I agreed. They were rather intimidating, but fell quickly enough. Actually, so did Thermaplug. He dropped his shield and I won that. I also got the grime encrusted ring, but folks left before I could convince anyone to run back to the Sparklematic with me. Oh well, I can use another run.

I turned in my completed quests, including the one that gave me Dual Reinforced Leggings. I like upgrades, but I am not a fan of the metal bikini look. I cry!

The Metal Bikini

I realized two other quests required me to return to the part just outside of the Instance to finish (Techbot's brain and the Phial thing) They were surprisingly easy. Still, I will need to return inside to clean the ring.

I celebrated by running Arathi Basin twice, but Alliance still failed to win! Grumble, grumble.

All those quest turn ins and the PvP gave me the XP boost I needed to ding level 32. It was a busy day.

Day Twenty Two - 28 August 2010

I had a plan, really.

The plan was to run Arathi Basin on this Call to Arms weekend. And I did. Three games, all lost to the Horde. One game I only joined for the last 3 minutes or so. What I didn't anticipate was that I'd ding level 30 after the third one!

And I have diminished interest in being at the bottom of a bracket.

I considered how to spend some of my 800 honor points, but nothing struck me as critical, so I'll wait a bit.

I took the opportunity to do some travelling and pick up some more flight paths. I grabbed the green bang in Duskwood, the Rebel Camp and then switched to Theramore. I entered the Barrens and remembered that I had the shard from Wailing Caverns. So I rode to Ratchet and picked up that flight path, rode the boat to Booty Bay and grabbed that one. I remembered to pick up a few recipes and parrots for Aldonza to sell before riding the boat back to Ratchet and do the next step in the sharding quest chain. The final step required a flight to Darnassus, so first I rode through the Stonetalon Mountains and picked up the flight path at Stonetalon Peak. That's when I flew to Darnassus to turn in the final quest.

My travel through the Barrens provided an opportunity for a couple nice screen shots, one above the Crossroads and the other just a bit lower down that peak to the Shrine of the Fallen Warrior.

Above the Crossroads

Shrine of the Fallen Warrior

I had some trouble with the laptop and a few other distractions, so I hesitated running an instance. I knew something would pop up. Hopefully tomorrow!

Entering the 30-39 bracket

Razorfen Kraul
I was sketching out a plan for my next few sessions with Kallixta. On the list included upgrading her equipment, either through quests or dungeons. Despite already running RFK once, I noticed on Cassandri's Razorfen Kraul guide that I had missed optional bosses, quests, and loots. I'll need to go back.

• There is a quest chain that starts at the Thousand Needles great lift and requires a run to Feralas, kill the final boss of RFK and yields a nice blue.
• There is a quest from Ratchet, but it's probably not worth a special run for itself. I may want to go to Ratchet anyway, but not just for this quest.
• There are a pair of quests that start inside the instance, but after the final boss. One is an escort quest back to the beginning. The other just requires a item return, but it's easy to overlook.
• Possibly drops include a mail head piece (Tusken Helm), a necklace, a ring and bracers.

Leveling
Besides RFK, I'll be visiting Gnomer and its tasty rewards. I don't yet know if I want to repeat visits to these two dungeons or instead just level with quests until SM opens up to me. According to the strategy I've been following, I'll respec at level 30 to full protection.

PvP
My earlier visit to the AB Quartermaster got me thinking a bit deeper about how to spend some honor points. In particular, I think the Caretaker's Cloak might be a good investment since any such blue drop in an instance would have way too much competition. The Arathi Basin trinket would be good if I includes its usage in a macro. Otherwise I'll forget it too often, probably.