Casual Legion Time

When Legion launched, I was excited and participated more than my usual. In particular, I actually joined a couple dungeon queues until one horrible Maw of Souls run where I couldn't figure out where I needed to stand without dying instantly. Dying, being Combat Rezzed and dying immediately again before I could move must be counted horrible.

I continued to play, just avoiding dungeons, yet again. Things went well until the holidays arrived. My son returned for a visit from Korea and we had plenty of other things to do than play Warcraft, including helping my daughter move apartments and go to movies. Guess which movie has this for a sign:

It was actually Hidden Figures. Their spelling is as bad as by dungeon experience.

Sometime in January, my daughter and her husband were waxing excitedly about how their Guild was doing and I realized I had effectively stopped playing. It was on their encouragement that I started back up. We had long talks about what we each enjoyed in Warcraft. I pointed out that I still didn't enjoy dungeon groups.

Of course, you can't complete the Order Hall Campaign without killing Dungeon Bosses. So, my daughter goaded me into agreeing to be carried by her and her friends so I could get through it.

And it was clearly a Carry. On my first run I did about half the damage of the TANK!

Yes, I got a Legendary on my return to dungeons. Shouldn't I be happier?

Of course, the tank was my son-in-law doing mad damage as a Bear and the pair helped me with reviewing my equipment, rotation and some other tips. The next week when we ran a few more dungeons, I was relieved to discover I was only doing about 3/4th the damage of another kitty. It was substantially better.

I also subsequently realized they had me doing these dungeons at Mythic. Oh. Non-observant much?

With the breakthrough they allowed me, I managed to finish up my Campaign and reexamined where I am. I just need to spend more time in Suramar and make the Nightfallen happier to finish Pathfinder Part One. Okay, I can deal with that.

I have not been keeping up with the World Bosses. Ok, you dang fool. Pay more attention.

The other thing I've at least managed has been Pet Battles. I just need to be more organized about it.

Yes, I enjoy my time in the World of Warcraft.
It's just that I'm a casual.
It's not like Nothing Else Matters.

Aldonza refreshens her To-Do list

Some times things build and the pile gets so big, it's easier to ignore and let it fester.

Time to pull the band-aid off.

To Do List

1. Make a To Do List (X)
2. Check off the first thing on the To Do list (X)
3. Realise you've already accomplished two items on your To Do list! (X)
4. Reward yourself with a nap (In Progress)

Kallixta has been happy in Draenor, running around and doing things, some new some old.

But once Aldonza got her Garrison up, she wouldn't leave it. She's sent her four followers out, but her cowardice had returned and she wouldn't budge.

Aldonza'd log in, clear some old missions and start new ones with her four followers, but now they're all Level 100, but only with only four it goes slow.

Under Kallixta anything-but-subtle coaching, the Mage returned to her roots and is leveling via Pet Battles. She can teleport to the Shrine, run the circuit of top Trainers, and level at least one pet to 25. She can port to Kalimdor and excavate a few Archaeology sites. She can port to Dalaran or old Shattrath or any number of places at the twitch of her fingers. I forgot how fun and easy Mages have it.

We have 67 pets at level 25. There are a bunch of rares waiting their turn and a handful of hopeful non-rares. Actually, I still have 4 level 25s in need of stoning, but I keep forgetting. I see the Molten Corgi, Frostwolf Ghostpup and Soul of the Forge in my queue, which also remind me I haven't been collecting the newest pets.

Obviously I have some decent teams for all the current Trainers in her circuit, but I think I'll solicit suggestions on folks favorites among the newest pets. Have you a Draenor Pet that you think should be a regular?

I was looking for a response video for Matty about the thug raccoon problem I have and found this. Don't be put off by the Hangul! These 3 boys are Americans (The Raccoon Boys!) that were competing in a Korean "Idol" contest and sing in English. My son was disappointed they didn't win.

A Horse of a Different Color

A desire to develop an improved Pet Battle Team for my daughter was the primary instigation for my return to WoW. Pet Battling with Martuska reminded me of the fun I had with my little Gnome, but I wasn't yet doing anything different with her than I was with Aldonza.

In one week, Martuska earned:

• Rookie Pet Group 
• Grand Master Pet Battler 
• 9/10s of All Pets Allowed

So this was the reason I was playing Warcraft? Pet Battles? That was my only competency?


It didn't used to be. I once ran dungeons. I ran dungeons after dungeon in Northrend. I had run one Pandarian dungeon, Stormstout Brewery with Kallixta, and hated it. This was mostly because I was still learning the Retribution spec, but also the Brewery had some boss battles with fiddly mouse clicking required to hop on soap bubbles or whatever. My eyesight and a different mouse have made this troublesome and I need to get back on the horse.

Well, a mount of some kind. I have non-horse choices.

Martuska reminded me that I enjoyed my zippy little Gnome. She was fearless. Aldonza was supposed to have left her fears behind, but hadn't, really. Aldonza already had level 90 and was fully equipped. So one night when my guildies were asking who wanted to run some heroic dungeons... I squeaked.

(I imagine an adolescent boy's voice cracking here.)

Of course, I had read the Dungeons Guides.

(I had read them back when Mists first come out.)

I ran two dungeons.

(I was the only one to die and I died twice, once in each.)

So, I'm back on a mount of some sort.

(It's not like any I've been on before. I'm looking at changing it.)

Who are you, little Gnome?

The family was back from Gencon and I was busy with new books and games and organizing them into the older books and games. There were new autographed books and nearby were all those Mercedes Lackey books still sitting on a shelf that I didn't take to Indianapolis because I didn't know she was going to be there!

The time came that I once would get online and play WoW and it occurred to me that I didn't mind being offline. For certain I missed the people, but not necessarily the game. I decided I might try turning off one subscription, but didn't get around to it yet. Still, there had been a tentative decision made.

Then my daughter proudly showed me her pet team she had leveled to 25. It was apparent she'd paid some attention to my suggestions months earlier, but it also was more revealing about what she liked when playing Pokémon! She and her brothers and, well the whole family really, started playing on a pre-color Gameboy. Her team consisted of:

Do you remember how hard it was to level up your first team to 25? She wasn't discouraged, exactly, but certainly wasn't enjoying it like I had. As I tried to explain how it would get better and what her next pets should be... She challenged me to use Martuska, my character on her account, and we would share the team.

Now I still felt guilty about abandoning Martuska for Kallixta and Aldonza. She was my first to level 85, but she was still sitting at 85! When I played Warcraft with my son, Kallixta and Aldonza were on the same account as his favorite character, so he could play with his sister. He would prefer if I could brush the dust off Marty so we'd have a better match.

Martuska and Aldonza are both Mages. Aldonza had overcome much of her cowardice, but I was the one avoiding Marty. Hm.

I concluded that before I stopped entirely, I owed Martuska some attention. With that miniscule commitment, I decided to send Martuska to Pandaria. Someone had mentioned levelling a low level in Pandaria, battling those wild pets. I could at least do that for Syylia's team. Martuska ran like a little child, or more accurately a small gnome, all the way to Half-Hill, set her hearthstone and started battling.

And I've been playing World of Warcraft ever since. I remembered the fun I had with my little gnome!

Marty needed to discard those Cataclysm blues and purples and her shiny new Zen Tailoring gave her a set of Windwool greens. That led to visits of the Silk Fields and confirming that playing a level 85 Gnome Mage really isn't that different from a level 90 Human Mage, provided you bother to set up the GUI! And the Macros! Oh, and choose your talents and glyphs. Good grief!

Marty's first new level since a month after Cataclysm came out!

Martuska is already level 87, almost all from Pet Battles, but she's reminded me of things that should have been apparent on Aldonza. Can you guess what I learned?

How often do you apply lessons learned on one character to another? Apparently I haven't been liberal enough in that reapplication!

Pet Genders

Do you know your pet's gender? Blizzard gives all pets a gender, even if there is nothing that uses it yet. In fact, while I knew it was there, it wasn't until working with Warla's Pet Search  that I noticed the disconnect between my pet's genders and their names.

I wanted to sort my accumulated pets by things like Breed, so I downloaded my pets and start noticing how many of my pets had female names yet blue, not pink, breed ids. I hate renaming pets because my mind doesn't remember the new names.

Somethings are just hard to remember, like the name of instrumental songs.

Well, I've still got plenty of work to do, renaming pets instead of something important. It's not like I don't have plenty of items on my to do list. At least I've a few things checked off recently.

Ultimate Pets
My "Go To" pets change far more frequently than their names. These aren't the pets I use for capturing new pets or battling easy trainers. These are for the tougher battles. When fighting an Undead pet, I've an Aquatic pet, that means all their undead attacks do weak damage, and it is one that has a good critter attack, that does strong damage against them.

It's only how it goes that all three ultimates have incorrect gender names, so I'll want to do that before they'll be ready to rumble

Poor Esmi is male?

Who else remembers the name of the Sea Lion in Disney's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea? Probably showing my age.

Saint Damien was my first level 25 when I discovered that fun of webbing before leeching life. This trick is especially powerful on Humanoids. This was one of the few pets I gave a male name, and still I got the gender wrong. She's from Duskwood and I wanted to evoke something dark and threatening. The "Saint" was intended to be ironic.

Juanita was one of my most recently elevated pets, for my entry in my Guild's "Best Theme" pet team. I had three spiders, but each was from a different Pet Family. (The third member is an Undead Giant Bone Spider). It'll be no trouble renaming him to Juan. Most Elementals would have an advantage against Mechanicals, but some Mechs have powerful attacks and between Stoneskin and H/H, we'll see how Juan fares.

Do you have any Themed Pet Teams?