Picking up after 100

There have been interruptions. Despite the distraction of my daughter's wedding, I'm reporting a better than average participation in a new expansion.

1. I hit 100 on 12/14, one month after the Expansion Release. As I was only playing on weekends, and not for long stretches even then, I was happy with my progress. I was not the quickest in my Guild, but I managed it before anybody dinged an Alt.
   

   

   Ding with Yrel

   
   
2. I managed my Minions well enough that I had a good selection of Munificent items ready when I dinged and Turbulent soon after. 
3. I max'd my Mining and Blacksmithing quickly and smoothly with a iLevel 630 Steelforged Greataxe ready by 11/29, when I dinged 98. I've since improved to Stage 3, iLevel 660. I've been prepared to craft other items, but haven't needed it so much yet. 
4. Despite dinging, I returned to Nagrand for the Plainsthunder gear I could pick up. My rings were dragging my iLevel down, so I went after a treasure ring that needed a little special jumping.

Treasure location

This allowed me to have an iLevel 620 average right away. Again, this might not impress anybody except me. Kallixta was ready for Heroics sooner than I've ever had before.

It was at this point that even my weekends were no longer available for more than an occasional visit to managed missions. Actually, while this was all I could manage, I felt more engaged for the pittance of time allowed. I did manage to help my Guildies, typically when someone wanted assistance in tackling a tough rare.

The Saturday after Christmas, Matty sent out her OLRG notice and I looked over at my family, all taking a break from frenetic activity. I asked and received indulgent smiles. Yes, I could take the evening off to Raid the new Molten Core! I explained my excitement to my son-in-law. He was a Vanilla Raider (and BC and WotLK) and had helped me through MC my first time. I think a few others can understand my excitement and pleasure this achievement gave me. It was a real raid and it took us hours and more than a few wipes. My family was helpful and I only needed to run and let the dogs inside once. I EARNED that Crown. My DPS wasn't near or below the tank except on the fight I died early. I might not have been in the Top Ten, but I wasn't embarrassed

OLRG in the Molten Core

Note: In general, Disco gets a bad reputation, but on the plus side the times allowed for Rock and Pop fans to discover Jazz! Let's hear a bunch of Scots teach us a thing or two with 'Pick Up the Pieces' from 1977

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?