Aldonza needs a new goal

You can lose the habit of writing on your blog. As time grows, it can become increasingly difficult to write that next post. There's too many things to mention and they get all tangled. To break the jumble, where do you start? Even if you want to focus on one small piece, it can be hard to pull it apart from other things you want to mention.

Where to start?

I also lost the habit of questing and running dungeons. All I've really been doing for the past few months has been playing with Aldonza The Coward. All she has been doing has been crafting and selling on the Auction House and a few dailies. While this is all she's ever really done, there has been a big difference because of recent progress.

Somewhere along the way, Aldonza leveled high enough to start the Dalaran fishing and cooking dailies. There were a few fishing dailies that scared the coward off, especially fishing in Wintergrasp! Still, having a third and sometimes fourth daily quest meant her progress was accelerating.

A side effect of her leveling progress was access to higher level, and more profitable, crafts. Although my total time spent in Azeroth has decreased, the new items brought in greater profits. Aldonza was thrilled.

And then last week, she reached her goal. She dinged level 80!

 There may have been two expansions since this was the top level, but it was key to unlocking the final tier in her professions. It only took another day or so to hit 600 in Inscription! This has always been the end goal for my experiment. There isn't much else she can do that will improve her profit-making. Her next opportunity comes from earning motes of harmony via farming in Half-Hill or fishing in Pandarian pools, neither of which will happen with Aldonza until she hits level 90. Actually, if you have suggestions, feel free to let me know.

Allow me to back up and provide some history. Years ago, and also a different server ago, I learned about Bank Mules. I created Rocinante to receive various goods for listing on the Auction House. I thought I was being original in my naming my mule after Don Quijote's horse, but I merely got lucky as there are 152 other servers with a character named "Rocinante"! When I moved to my current server, another RP server, I wanted a name less animal and more personal, thus choosing a different character from that inspiring novel. With my interest in role-play, Aldonza was never just a simple bank mule, but started to acquire a personality. Don Quijote saw her as Dulcinea and imagines her to be beautiful and noble while Sancho Panza explains that the real woman, Aldonza, is far more mundane. Unlike the novel, this character actually appears in the musical Man of La Mancha and Quijote inspires her to change.

My character reflects on her possible greediness. Her whole purpose is to make money, but she wants to be something more noble and heroic than just a copper-pinching merchant. I was used to Mages so I could level her up a few levels quickly, but anything more was tedious, so she was supposed to be stuck around level 10. Yet that limit also meant there was a limit to her crafting. She could earn money disenchanting and supplying the Auction House with low level dusts, but most other crafting professions wouldn't earn gold at the lower levels. Except, as she discovered, for Inscription!

What happened was that Cataclysm came out with a daily fishing and cooking quest in the capital cities. I was logging onto Aldonza frequently at the start and close of playing on my main for the purpose of posting, cancelling undercut items and reposting. It was a simple matter to also run the two dailies. It earned enough gold and XP to be worth the experiment. Thus I conceived the goal of seeing how fast and high she might level with only this method. Her In-Character justification for this activity was fear, thus "The Coward" was born.

The experiment didn't have rules as strict as Iron Man, rather it was character driven. Aldonza wasn't about to risk her neck when there were perfectly good profits to be made. As a Mage, Aldonza had the advantage of teleporting herself to any city, including Shattrath and Dalaran when she reached certain levelling milestones. She discovered true advantage of this arrangement are Pilgrim's Bounty. These holiday quests weren't dangerous and were still quick to perform, allowing me to spend maximum time with my main yet seeing progress on the coward.

I think I've managed to write enough to break whatever mental barrier was preventing me from posting. I have more to say, but maybe it's best if I keep that as incentive for writing more!

Shared Topic: Aldonza cooks up a profit

The Blog Azeroth shared topic for July 30 - August 5 was suggested by Effraeti  from Effraeti's RP:

Some of us have farming professions. Some of us have crafting professions. Some of us have a little bit of everything! Professions are leveled because they fit our style of play, help us in raiding, allow us to outfit our alts, and make us money.

What professions do you have on your main? Do his/her professions fit their personality? Why did you choose them? If you chose professions based on your character and not on gaming needs, would that change some of their professions they use?

[Note: Over the summer my two sons decided to start two new characters and level together. The older boy bought our first account years ago but hasn't played recently. This is also the Part 5 update on my Low Level Dailies experiment. For more, see Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4]

Aldonza hurried into the back room of the Stonefire Tavern, brushing past Gwenna while juggling a stack of papers. She starts for an empty table before the sight of two familiar faces remind her why she's here. Aldonza sits by herself here so often the pull of the empty table had to be consciously fought. She drops tiredly into a chair and smiles at the two Gilneans. Belatedly she thinks to straighten her hat, "I hope I didn't keep you waiting too long?"

Grimsbie politely brushes it off, "Not long at all." Furoci sits far less patiently and merely shakes his head.

Aldonza sighs and pushes her papers to the side. She then brushes crumbs off the table and with a frown checks the bottom of her stack for damage. "The use of the Guild Bank is clearly spelled out in the contract. You both can deposit whatever you'd like in the last vault. There's no gold for repairs and I'm charging for all this convenience. I'm afraid I'm a bit strict about all this. When you're on your feet and with a bit more experience under your belt, I expect you each to find your own home Guilds and I can have my vault back. I'm trying to make a profit here, not practice my philanthropy."

The Worgen look at each other, but have no questions. Aldonza ploughs on, "I've far better contacts and knowledge of the market, so come to me for your purchasing needs and I'll ensure you get the best price. Likewise the 'Consignment Agreement' contract spells out how what you deposit will be sold and profits returned." Aldonza stops talking abruptly, shuffles through the papers quickly sorting them into two new stacks in front of the men. "Finally, there's the standard terms and conditions for your starter loan... Netherweave Bags not included. Have you decided how much you need?"

Each adventurer pulls their stack closer. Grimsbie starts to carefully read through while the younger man barely glances at his. He also responds dismissively, "No loan needed for me. I've another friend what's already in your network of clients."

Aldonza gives a gracious smile, "Of course. One less issue then. We can talk later about your glyphing needs when that issue comes up. I'm a full service Scribe, of course. I can also craft some enchantments, but I understand neither of you expect to twink. I mean..."

Grimsbie shakes his head. "Not for me. Been there. Done that ages ago, you know."

Aldonza nods in agreement, "I remember. I'm afraid I'm hurrying through all this. Stop me if you've questions. Next topic will be professions..." She looks at Grimsbie first, still showing polite interest. She gets a shrug in return. "No preferences? Really?"

In response, Grimsbie shrugs again. "Things are different than when I... I mean when my old friend was active. All I'm sure of is I'm not going for Engineering. Things haven't changed that much, have they?"

Taking a moment to remove her hat, Aldonza brushes her hair with her hands and otherwise straightens up. "I could use a good Engineer, but you're right. It still takes a huge investment before seeing much profit. No, for an inexperienced adventurer like yourself, I suggest sticking to one of the three gathering professions."

"Mining and Skinning then," Grimsbie quickly supplies. "I fancy both would be useful supplies for my line of work."

Without asking, Aldonza nods. She is already aware the rogue prefers not to be more explicit. She turns to Furoci.

"Skinning, sure. As a druid, I think I'd like that. In addition, I'd like to be a Leather crafter." The youth explains excitedly. "There is this really neat set of armor and you can make these cloaks and stuff..." Aldonza can't seem to stem the enthusiasm that erupts from Furoci, now that he assumes it's his turn to talk. Aldonza fails to dissuade him and explanations of existing leatherworkers in her network don't diminish his interest. She sighs at the inevitable inefficiency.

The trio take a little break, fetching drinks and exchanging more pleasantries now that papers are signed and exchanged. Gwenna smirks at the Gilneans embarrassed order for milk, as neither is ready for much else she sells. The human mage declines to get anything fancier and orders the same. Before long, the three are feeling more comfortable and the topic has shifted to Aldonza's history.

"I've never been an Adventurer, really. I was practically raised for the consignment business, hauling things off to sell for others and occasionally purchasing something special for someone and mailing it off to a convenient location. It's actually a life that suits me well. I'm not greedy by nature, you know. It's just a useful measure for how well I'm doing. Things had been going along alright when I decided I'd try branching out. The Disenchanting business seemed simple to enter. I was already spending time at the Auction House. It was no trouble to keep an eye out on cheap items that could be quickly turned into dust and resold. It was that first step that awakened me to the larger possibilities."

"You see, only knowing disenchantment doesn't get you past the apprenticeship stage. Investment in some enchanting recipes would still only get me to journeyman, at least at my then level of experience, and it wasn't clear the investment would provide much of a return. That's where things stood until I picked up Inscription. As a scribe, I found even the lowest level glyphs can be profitable. There was a clear potential where the return on investment made the effort worthwhile. It wasn't long before..."

Aldonza stops, blushing. "I'm afraid I'm self-conscious about this. I pursue profit, and fear I'm greedy. I don't believe I really am, but when talking about these things, I know it'll sound like it."

Showing he's been paying attention, Grimsbie nods. "You don't adventure, so you've less to brag about."

Considering this viewpoint, Aldonza slowly nods. She's still blushing a bit as she prepares for more confession. "I'm a coward. It has taken a while to admit it, but I especially after the shocking invasion by those elementals set free during the Shattering... I prefer to stay safe. I had always thought that meant I'd never have the experience to be more."

Puzzled, the rogue twists his head, giving the Stormwind refugee a careful look. "What changed?"

Aldonza smiles brilliantly know as she reveals a secret. "The capital cities started calling attention to their daily fishing and cooking needs."

Furoci finds the topic boring. He gruffly notes, "I already know about that. I'm going to find something else to do." Grimsbie frowns at the rudeness, but declines to make the impatient druid stay. Returning his attention to the woman he asks, "Tell me more. I've never been that interested. It doesn't sound like there'd be much profit in such mundane matters."

Aldonza smirks a bit as she watches the younger man leave. "It isn't obvious at first. First, however, you need to understand how it fits my lifestyle. I spend much of my time checking the Auction House, running between the bank and the mailbox, and not anything else. Here is another activity that costs only a little time each day, and provides a reward for consistently checking in for a short time. It is an extremely efficient use of my time."

There is a recognizable dawning of recognition in Grimsbie's face. "Just a few minutes in the morning, for example. Clear your mailbox, check for undercuts, repost then fish and cook?"

Nodding in agreement, Aldonza adds, "Yes. And in a couple weeks, the work provides a nice handful of gold, experience, and an increase in skill. The fishing isn't particularly profitable, but the Chef's Awards provided an extra incentive right away. I'll get back to that later. Like any regular exercise, once you see tangible benefits, it's much easier to stay on track. It really didn't take long before I was eligible to train as an Expert Scribe. Research showed quick profit with new glyphs. It was a much longer hike to Artisanship, but I had a regular habit and ways to measure my progress."

Grimsbie sees where this is going, "And then Master and very soon, Grand Master. All only from fishing and cooking?"

Aldonza sporting her colors!

Aldonza admits, "Almost all, but not exclusively and certainly nothing dangerous. Early on I found I could inscribe Darkmoon cards for a profit and minor experience bumps. There are the occasional holiday event that grants experience without adventuring. That was especially true at Pilgrim's Bounty. That event also allowed me to rapidly raise my cooking skill. Basically, as long as I didn't have to adventure outside the cities, I did it. The only exception was when I accidental took a wrong turn in Stormwind and ended up inside the Stockades! I didn't need any reminders that I didn't like danger!"

A frown grows on the Gilnean's face, "But what about the Outland?"

A sigh escapes as Aldonza confesses, "What I did wasn't dangerous at all. When ready, I took that portal in the tower to the Dark Portal and immediately on the other side I stayed on the established flight paths. The journey allowed me to take advantage of my recently earned experience to learn flying, allowing me to make my runs much quicker. It also meant I could gather certain limited quantity items from Outland vendors and still never aggravate an enemy. Soon enough I'll be able to learn the Shattrath portal spell myself. In theory, I could fly all over the place and let the discovery safely gain me experience, but that isn't my style. No, I'll stick to flight paths in Outland and flying around a capital city, but no exploration. I did subsequently take a boat to Northrend and fly to Dalaran. That trip proved the profit in importing doublets and the like. It was a business trip, not an adventure."

Acknowledging the explanation, Grimsbie nods and gestures, "I noticed the Kirin Tor Tabard which goes with your outfit. It all has a Darkmoon Faire look."

In Guild Tabard now, not Kirin Tor

Sharing another brilliant smile, Aldonza agrees. "I have so few ways to improve reputations. The Kirin Tor were happy to recognize my early life and the profitable Portal business keeps those skills well polished, but the Darkmoon Faire is something I really earned. I crafted enough decks, strictly for the profit you know, that I was exalted even before they opened their island for fun and games. Of course, the Faire is a beautiful method of raising a profession like my enchanting without worrying about some of those difficult points in the process. No recipes worries. No crafted item floods. Very efficient, if slow. It got me to the Fiery Weapon profit point." She winks as if he'd understand which maybe he does.

Sitting up straighter, the rogue considers. "Well, I expect it'll be a long time before I'm ready for a different profession. You've already got a stable network of crafters, right?"

Aldonza smiles and nods. "Yes, my friend Kallixta is especially good while her old friend Martuska is more retired. I can get epic Tailoring or Enchantment done through her, but I usually don't bother her. Now Syylia..." She gets a nod from Grimsbie, who knows Syylia well. "I'd love her to be more involved than the occasional shipment of Truegold, but it just isn't her thing. No. Kallixta is the only active crafter with epic results in current demand by the most skilled raiders."

Grimsbie takes a guess, "And with big profits."

Aldonza nods, "That and cookies."

A grunt of shock escapes the Worgen, "Eh?"

Aldonza preens, "I had a plan for all the Chef's Awards. I think I hinted about it earlier. Well, answering 266 daily cooking needs yielded all those useful tokens just itching to be spent. My plan required maximizing my cooking skill to qualify for the Chocolate Cookie recipe. Every 2 or 3 award yields enough Imported Supplies than soon becomes stacks of cookies that, I don't care who you are, by the time you're done eating You'll Feel Right As Rain. Takes a bit of advertising, but it's all profit!

Low level dailies, part 4

Low level dailies experiment

You can read Part 1,  Part 2, and Part 3 of the Low level dailies experiment.

Around 6 weeks ago, Aldonza was level 42. She has been travelling between the Alliance capitals, cooking and fishing the dailies and gloating over how much gold she squeezes from the Auction House. Her progress has slowed down as these quests make a smaller contribution to the XP she needs for a new level. She is now level 46. Achievements are not being directly pursued, but rather signposts of her journey.

Winter Veil arrived in a cacophany of a crowd in Ironforge. They spilled forth, surrounding Grandfather Winter and otherwise providing an obstacle course, occluding her path between the bank and the auction house. As happened the year before, a frown donned Aldonza's face for the season, "Bah! What are they expecting? Something different?"

As she shuffled through her mail, sorting and comparing to her notes, her own words echoed in her head: something different, something different. She looked up from her work, preparing to return to the auction house, and felt her frustration fire up again. -It isn't going to be different. And they don't want anything different. They'd pay good gold to keep it the same.- Her jog falters as she negotiates the bridge. Thoughts of gold and how to gather more always burn brighter in her mind. "Bah! I blame the noise for forgetting this is another good opportunity for profit."

Aldonza's notes remindes her that eggs for cookies were especially good last year. Her instincts also lead her to check for new opportunities. What might have changed? Well, she was an improved cook this year. In fact, there were some other cookies that had excellent potential. And she had working diligently developing a perfect source for the cocoa beans!

• Illustrious Grand Master Cook  12/26/2011

Aldonza felt great satisfaction with her improved cooking skills, not so much because there weren't plenty of other good cooks, but rather how inexpensively she acquired those skills, mostly during that profitable Pilgrim's Bounty time. Now she had new recipes at hand and a plan for generating foodstuffs in demand by folks with plenty of gold that she would be happy to take.

There was another skill that had recently been showing slow yet steady improvement. Her fishing hadn't had any easy boosts, but had been rising frequently as she found opportunity fulfilling the daily needs of one or another capital.

• Master Fisherman 12/27/2011

Back at her table in the Stonefire Tavern, Aldonza smiled in satisfaction at the improvements to her bottom line. Her visits to the Darkmoon Faire had not shown much new earning potential, but it did exercise some skills. Far better news were how many folks wanted Chocolate Cookies  to make themselves Feel Right As Rain. In her notes was an instruction to review the calendar more often. There must be more profit in the Lunar Festival...

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 One Hundred and Eleven - 15 Oct 2011

Into Deepholm

First, Kallixta ran through her dailies as a Retribution Paladin for the first time. It was a little uncomfortable, but it also isn't difficult. After her work on the Molten Front and Uldum, she was ready for something else. She wasn't ready to jump into a dungeon, so what could she do?

Having depleted some funds to buy her new gear, she made some effort to rebuild her funds. One reliable action was to sell Belt Buckles, but another idea was to convert Aldonza's accumulated cooking awards into Cocoa Beans and post a hundred cookies.

While on the Auction House, she realized there was some cloth going cheap. In short order she quickly popped:

• Master in First Aid
• Grand Master in First Aid
• Illustrious Grand Master in First Aid

Kallixta needed her tool bars and macros updated and her bags cleared. Besides updating her bandages to Heavy Embersilk, she built up her stock of some other goodies, including a stack of Highland Spring Water.
I had reached the point where I wanted to do something else with Kallixta, but wasn't comfortable with her new spec.

I finally decided to bite the bullet and journey to Deepholm

I followed Ding 85 as a guide, which was helpful for efficiency purposes. It ensured I gathered the right set of quests at a hub. There was only one quest it had me ignore. I didn't bother finding out why. The process definitely helped me get more comfortable with the Retribution priorities and cool downs. I needed to rearrange things a couple things and made a couple new macro, but the whole experience was much more enjoyable than it had been on Martuska.

She had been making excellent progress when I noticed she had made Honored with the Earthen Ring. According to my notes, there were useful rewards for that, but I hadn't a clue where the vendor was. A quick check showed I'd need to explore Vashj'r, but it was doable. It sounded like a nice break from Deepholm for a little while. It involved a lot of slow swimming and keeping an eye on my breath bar (since I didn't have my Sea Legs!), but Kallixta knows her way around the zone's flight paths now.

With the end in sight, Kallixta finished Deep into Deepholm and did some Therazane dailies. She finished Honored with Therazane and should break to Revered in another day or so. I find the RepCalc at Wowjuju to be incredibly useful. It showed what was in reach and just how long the Ramakahen grind is without championing.

I would use the next few days to research my complete gearing needs, especially seeing what reputation rewards were close.

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 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.

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.

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 Seventy Three - 15 June 2011

My fishing daily in Dalaran earned me a Weather-Beaten Fishing Hat, which was greatly appreciated. I noticed how behind my fishing skill on the Northrend Dailies. I managed 275, but I've a bit more to go before I can equip my Bone Fishing Pole.

With the recent professions upgrade, I decided to take advantage of the Mining XP and do a bit of gathering. I sailed to Darnassus and then flew from there to Hyjal. One circuit of this zone brought in stacks of Obsidium Ore, earned Explore Hyjal and got Kallixta most of the way to her next level. I aggroed a few Level 81 mobs when mining nodes and with concentration and judicious use of heals, I really had no trouble. The only death occurred when I tried to click my macro for displaying current coordinates and hit my mount macro instead, thus making my gryphon go away while I was high above the Rim of the World. That's when I discovered the closest graveyard was in Felwood!

Deciding to get serious and finish the level, I returned to Grizzly Hills and zipped through a few more quests. Most of the quest rewards seemed to only upgrade my Healing spec, such as Chestguard of Expressed Fury. I managed to complete Explore Grizzly Hills just before dinging 76.

This level opens up more glyphs and I haven't really looked into that. I also need to go back and pick up the Ivory-Reinforced Chestguard from the Kalu'ak and many of the Brilliant and Tempered Saronite items are upgrades I can craft myself. With all of these upgrades, I'll probably need to redo the gems, too.

I've been procrastinating in running dungeons with my Holy spec. I doubt I'll get to it this weekend, but by the next one I should have the time to do it.

Day Seventy Two - 5 June 2011

Earned Revered with Kalu'ak, but only then discovered the Honored rewards need level 76 and the Revered Mace good for the Holy spec needs level 78.

Glancing at the other Wrath Reputations, Kallixta has Friendly with Kirin Tor (thanks to the dailies), but there's no Kirin Tor reward she really needs until the Arcanum at Revered. However the Argent Crusade is Honored and has great leg armor, again once she's level 78. It all left me a bit puzzled as to what, if anything, I might work on instead of just forging ahead through Northrend.

However, after doing Wrathgate yesterday, I managed half of Grizzly Hills and dinged level 75. This qualified me to train up on my professions, earning Professional Grand Master with Mining and when I repeated it for Blacksmithing, picked up Working Day and Night.

I spent a bit of time setting up my Tradeskills addon for improved crafting for sale at the Auction House. I even made a Icebane Girdle for sale.

Day Seventy - 3 June 2011

25 Cooking Awards
Our Daily Bread
50 Daily Quests Complete
Fish or Cut Bait

For some time I've had a routine of checking in with Aldonza and the Auction House. I'd empty the mailbox, cancel and repost glyphs and others spend 15 minutes making gold. This week I didn't need to leave as early in the morning, instead spending a few minutes more doing dailies on my characters. At the least, I could manage the Stormwind fishing and cooking dailies, but for Kallixta, I could hearth to Dalaran and do the dailies there, too.

These achievements weren't pursued for their own right, but were a side effect of earning some gold and xp for a short time investment. It's also true that having picked up the Bone Fishing Pole, I realised Kallixta's fishing hadn't been keeping up. With Fish Don't Leave Footprints as earned from doing the fishing dailies, I had been seeing the Northrend Pools and wanting to farm them for money and cooking purposes. So a daily pump to fishing from the daily is a nice bonus for the 15 minutes I can spare.

Days Sixty Two to Sixty Seven - 15 - 22 May 2011

Aldonza shakes her head in amused disbelief even as she takes a seat beside her friend. "It has been wonderful having you here so long and seeing you so often, but I will miss you."

With a grim face showing her determination, Kallixta stares at the top of the tavern's table. "It was a distraction, but I have made a resolution. I have much to accomplish."

A snort marks the human's disagreement. "As if you having been making accomplishments all during this time?" Aldonza grants a quick smile before she, too, regards the table's surface. "I think you're overlooking a few things."

Face unchanged, the dwarf paladin looks up. "Trivial things."

A shrug, a quick smile, and Aldonza makes her gentle correction, "Maybe some things, like your fishing and cooking work. But your dedication to daily work was acknowledged by the town fathers. I know they merely were a test of your self-sufficiency. I'm glad you got out of the effort what you wanted. And a nice fishing pole, too."

As Kallixta makes no verbal response, Aldonza mischeviously dips two fingers in her beer and flicks droplets for attention.

"What?" Blinking, Kallixta looks up. "Oh, yes. Nice pole even if I haven't got the hang of it yet. Should be strong enough for some of those Northrend monster fish I found along the southern coast."

"But you won't be spending time on the coast now, right?"

Shaking her head in agreement, her friend responds. "No. I'm done with the Fjord. The Tundra doesn't appeal to me. I did some scouting around, but there's something about the Dragonblight that I think will keep my attention for now."

• Master Cook
• 10 Cooking Awards
• Fish Don't Leave Footprints
• A Simple Re-Quest
• 500 Fish

• I've Toured the Fjord
• Explore Borean Tundra
• Explore Sholazar Basin

Day Fifty Nine - 31 Mar 2011

Kallixta stays quiet, unfidgeting, as she stares at Brom Brewbaster , who avoids her eyes. She clears her throat, "No. My Mum isn't much of one for the cooking. I did learn to like hitting red-hot metal from her though."

Brom stays silent, shifting about to now look at his table. He looks like he might be considering cleaning it some. That would give him something else to do.

Kallixta concludes the cooking trainer isn't going to continue the chat, but she knows that her Dad would want her to continue to be polite. "I learned the most about cooking last Pilgrim's Bounty. It's amazing what you can learn at that time. Everybody seems to be in a right proper mood about food. All the cities were wanting to show off their specialties and the like. It was easy for a curious girl to improve her cooking skills and ever so many folks willing to teach. That's where I learned my cooking, so I did."

Brom makes some instinctual sounds that the paladin must assume are meant to be encouraging, yet he still avoids looking at the young dwarf lass. Maybe he's just embarrassed to have been caught without a shirt and looking like he slept the night under his table.

Kallixta decides she can wrap up the conversation, "So not having been given to think much about it, I haven't been improving and I thank you for your tutorial. I will take care with your family's recipes. I do appreciate your generosity. What was that, almost two dozen I'd never seen or heard before? Thanks. I especially appreciate the recipes for Rhino Dog, Roasted Worg and Shoveltusk Steak as I actually have accumulated the meat for those this day on my adventures about the Fjord. With your teaching, I feel myself something of a Chef de Partie!" Kallixta gives the older dwarf a salute as she's now happier with things on a more formal level. "Sorry I couldn't indulge in your offer. Aye?" She retreats, feeling much better that the uncomfortable moment has passed.

Day Fifty Seven - 26 Mar 2011

Kallixta is impatient with Outland. She's already looking forward to carrying the fight to Northrend and Outland feels like a forgotten backwater in the war Azeroth is fighting against its enemies. Nagrand is like a safari vacation and she'll return home with some nice trophies, but trophies themselves aren't important to her.

Before she can leave Outland, there was one profession that had been neglected that shouldn't. She can get fishing caught up anywhere, but her cooking was only 305 and it needed attention before leaving. One side effect of all that work for Hemet was a stack of Clefthoof and Talbuk meats. It turns out that just cooking what she'd already accumulated continued offering skillups, although things turned green before she was done. Still, now her cooking is 355 and she's ready to try  Northern Cooking.

There were plenty of quests available in Nagrand as mentioned before when Kallixta needed to drop some Zangarmarsh and Hellfire quests to make room, but she carefully worked her way through. She wasn't necessarily the most efficient, but nothing in Nagrand was really that far away. One by one the quest hubs went silent and the rewards started turning blue. Taken individually, those rewards all looked good, but it was easy to postponed a decision about swapping something in and breaking up her Fel Iron Plate set. She had her head down and her goal was in sight, knocking off quests and rescuing Corki.

Kallixta was bumped off before finishing level 68 as my boys had scheduled Starcraft time on the computer Saturday night. But I'd scheduled more time for myself on Sunday.

Day Fifty Six - 20 March 2011

I sat down with Kallixta on Sunday morning with a plan, and like all best laid plans, things went agley mighty quick! I flew to Telaar in Nagrand, but only half the quests I expected to available. Slowly it dawned on my that I was still unfriendly with Kurenai! I had some ground work to lay and it needed to be done back in Zangarmarsh.

I returned to do a bit of questing around Orebor Harbor. It didn't take as long as I feared, although I was getting interrupted by "family aggro". I made Neutral with the Kurenai and broke off for a bit.

Before I could restart my questing, I did my Auction House clean up. The rare recipes I'd picked up were selling, as were the accumulated enchanting rods. I did a bit of judicious purchasing to keep those coming when I found an excellent deal on Cobalt Ore. It was incredible and I bought all I could and forwarded it to Kallixta.

So, of course, the next thing I did was level my professions on My Pretty Paladin. Smelting 303 Cobalt Ores took a bit of time, but I did some multi-tasking. Mining is at 375, the highest I can get without flying to Northrend and start my mining there.

Next I zipped through a bunch of blacksmithing recipes with Cobalt requirements: Boots, Shields, Legplates, Gauntlets, Shuriken, Axes. At level 395, the guide I was following suggested Brilliant Saronite Belt as economical plus they can be disenchanted for Dream Shards. Thus reminded, I confirmed that all my recent product would be better disenchanted than sold on the Auction House. So I emptied my groaning bags into Martuska's direction.

By the way, Kallixta stopped at BS level 405, where the next step requires lots of Saronite and more. I decided all that can wait until I get to Northrend, too. It really shouldn't be long and then I can make my own Eternal Belt Buckles! I will also be able to make Titanium Rods about then, too.

A few hops on alts later and it was Sunday evening and I could get back into leveling Kallixta again. One thing I noticed in this day was a bunch of stupid deaths. I got to thinking of myself as very tough and able to survive most anything, but it was still possible to get myself killed. I was trying to follow the stupid bounce from the trampoline to the egg nest quest when I clicked the levitation buff off and missed the nest. Doh! I also hunted down the King Antelope after handily dispatching the Queen Bantha and Gutripper, but I failed to notice how I aggro'ed the entire herd of antelope plus a few wandering elementals.

One interesting thing is I completely filled my Quest Log with Nagrand quests. It didn't take long to tidy, but it has been a while since I did that and usually because I was doing too many dailies. To better clear my log, I decided I'd just finish off those safari quests and I did. This meant a few new pieces of equipment, including finally an upgrade to the miner's helmet I've enjoyed since arriving in Hellfire. This thing does NOT go nicely with my Fel Iron Plate set, but at least it isn't totally stupid. I got a bit confused over the rewards for the final piece in the Hills Like White Elekk achievement as they all seem too similar. I finally selected Harold's Rejuvenating Broach, but I don't know if it matters.

There is real irony is earning Got My Mind On My Money when I really hadn't been expecting it. I was minding my gold from the Auction House and from Questing, but I hadn't given looting much thought!

I didn't finish to level 67 last night, but I'm not really too far away and I won't have blacksmithing distractions next time.

Day Fifty Five - 13 March 2011

This was another short visit on Kallixta. We spent the weekend spending money, including a new dishwasher which took three visits to the hardware store before I got in hooked up correctly. Another big purchase was a new computer. As a reminder of our situation, see Martuska, Laptops and Foolish Love

The new computer has great visuals and we made sure I could play WoW on it, but I still only one of three common users. This meant I only got online Sunday night and couldn't stay as long as I wanted.
I made another visit to Hellfire to fight for the PvP fortifications and pick up a few more Marks. I now had sufficient marks to buy something interesting. Despite having recently gotten my first relic, Libram of Wracking, I concluded that the best thing to purchase was Totem of Impact, in theory for my Healing spec. I've been giving serious consideration to exploring the spec sometime soon and that seemed to be at least something different to buy. With my happiness over the Fel Iron Plate and the frequency of other quest green rewards getting sold, I think it shouldn't be too difficult for me to build up my Holy Paladin gear.

Another thing I tried was AoE Grinding. This is something I'd done as a Frost Mage leveling years ago, and I have the tools. A quick check implied the Ancesteral Grounds in Nagrand would be a suitable location to experiment. Sure enough, I had little trouble handling 5 or 6 spectral orcs, as long as I spent my Holy Power on Word of Glory. My health dips a lot more than under my usual pattern, but never a worry. While all those dying mobs had Rested XP bonus, I didn't feel like I was necessarily leveling quicker nor was the loot all that great.

My not very scientific conclusion was to return to my questing guide, but when I see opportunities for a bigger AoE pull, to go for it. I'm just not going out of my way and only grinding that way.

Has somebody done the math on the difference?

Having good returns on my rare recipe posts at the Auction House (and reminders from Mhorgrim, thanks!), I decided to push my professions, yet again. My Bank Alt had been grabbing good deals on the Ore needed and I've gotten Blacksmithing to 351, opening up Cobalt and a few other fun things. The cloth purchased also saw me making bandages and First Aid is now 339.  Only my fishing is behind now and I don't see that improving anytime soon.

Day Fifty Four - 10 March 2011

Usually when I have a very limited time to get on WoW, it's spent doing a bit of Auction House. I thought this night would be a chance to see what I could do with Kallixta. I still have difficulty balancing my race to top-level with a desire to see different things on the way.

So what would I do with a few minutes on Kallixta? Well, I had stopped abruptly last time and there were a few things I wished I had completed but hadn't. Level 65, for example! I was close enough to taste, so it shouldn't take long. I had also been farming ore nodes to level my mining and blacksmithing, so another circuit around Zangarmarsh made some sense.

I had once had a plan to work on my BC reputations, but I've had second thoughts. The rewards aren't needed for leveling and they're too grindy otherwise. So despite a desire for that lichen shield, it's more like a distraction. There are more important things to see on this journey. The grind for exalteds belongs with my achievement-seeking character.

After logging in, I noticed I had one quest 6/8 completed and 5 minutes later I was ready to turn it in. Sadly, that wasn't sufficient to ding, but I spotted a Fel Iron node on my mini-map and after taking my pick axe to it, I saw while not increasing my Mining skill, I still got XP for it. So I felt like another round of ore node farming would probably be appropriate. Sure enough, after a few more nodes I got my level and some ore to work on my Blacksmithing. I happened to be in southern Zangarmarsh, so it seemed like a good time to visit Shattrath.

I had accumulated a lot of junk in my bags, so I sold a bunch of stuff, mailed some things to my bank alt, and found the BS Trainer. I did some smelting and then concentrated on my Blacksmith leveling. I completed my complete Fel Iron Plate set and managed to level BS to 335. I'll need to pick up the Adamantite Cleaver plans next. I've been making a bit of profit from the rare recipes I've been picking up in Outland, including things sold in Telredor.

I should fold up my tabard to better display my complete Fel Iron set with the Jade shoulders. She looks spiffy!


All 5 pieces of Fel Iron Plate



Martuska, Laptops and Foolish Love

I've mentioned my family computer situation before in Communal Laptops. At that time, we had 3 laptops and 2 desktops. 5 computers? We didn't know how good we had it. Now I dream of 5 computers in the house. Luxury!

The newest laptop went with Syylia to Korea. My older boy's laptop died. It was only a couple years old, but a bad video card burned out the motherboard and the thing is totaled. The remaining laptop is ancient and decrepid, but it's the only thing running WOW right now! Actually, I could probably installed WOW on my older boy's desktop, but he needs that for his college classes and it's inconvenient. The other desktop is even older and needs a video card upgrade to run WOW. It ran fine before 4.0.1, but won't now.
Meanwhile, the hinge on the remaining laptop is broken and the battery won't hold a charge. It also has a hard drive with a loud and annoying whine, but it works. I haven't installed all the addons I had before, but (and this is the important part) it works.

Obviously I should just get a new laptop, but we've a few other expenses with higher priority. I can live with it. All this has resulted in my neglect in playing and I was resigning myself to failing to finish the Fool For Love holiday achievements on Martuska and thus flunking Strange Trip completely this year. I know Syylia was resigned to that. Mentally I knew it would happen, but then this weekend arrived and I had some time. Could I do it? Let's see what I had left... I only needed two achievements: Red, Red Rose and Pity the Fool. How hard can that be? That's one dungeon run and some dips into PvP, right?

Saturday morning I ran some quests and realized the critical path was collecting enough Love Tokens to purchase the Love Fools. Granted, if I ran short, I might be able to find someone else with one, but that's where I started. A few quick dailies and I had the Love Tokens to buy two and a half Love Fools. Good enough. I could finish it tomorrow. I went ahead and pitied my two purchased in Wintergrasp and Gurubashi Arena. Nobody was around for these, but that wouldn't be the case for Arathi Basin. I needed to check out my PvP set.

I only dabble in PvP. I've more experience with it on Kallixta, but I was doing this on my mage. I'm still horrible, but I wanted to contribute, not just join the BG, run my pity macro and get out and to do that, I wanted something other than my PVE gear. Luckily for me, Psynister and Cynwise recently wrote pieces on Planning for PvP. Cynwise's Gearing Strategy outline was perfectly applicable for any class and for my purposes, I only needed to look at step one "Get the crafted pieces made as soon as you can"
Well, I'm a tailor and I already had most of the Frostsavage Battlegear and could craft a few Fireweave/Emberfire pieces, too. One visit to the Auction House later and I had over 400 resilience without hurting my other stats too much. This should mean that I could NOT excuse excretable performance on my gear.

At this point it was Saturday evening and the guild was running a Black Temple raid. This would be a low pressure raid and something I missed during Burning Crusade as I hadn't gotten to level 50, nevermind a raid-worthy 70. I had one disconnect, which punted me back to the beginning and I had to navigate my way back to the group, but we managed to Kill Illidan without much trouble. The whole run reminded me of my real goal, getting Kallixta up and raiding. But this weekend was still keeping an eye on the short-term goal of making a fool of myself for love.

Day Fifty - 5 Feb 2011

There was one priority that competed against Kallixta's attention. Martuska needed to complete the Lunar Elder title before Syylia left with the good laptop. Only after that was done did I get to dust off Kallixta for what Psynister calls the Outland gear reset.

Level 61

I did manage a bunch of Hellfire questing and ding another level. There is a lot of boring travel back and forth between quest givers and the quest's target locations, but none of it was difficult. I did run into another leveler waiting for a miniboss to respawn, so I grouped with a Drainei mage. It was so strange to have that water elemental next to me while not on Martuska! Working as a pair helped tremendously on those Kill X worms quests, so we didn't need to compete. I wish I could continue the cooperation.

Skill Leveling

I knew I was going to upgrade some gear with crafted items, so I first did some skilling up on my smelting and blacksmiting. I also wanted to knock out a few more of the profitable items, like enchanting rods. This meant a quick trip to Shattrath, which really wasn't that long compared to many Northrend taxi rides.

Mining: 325
Blacksmithing: 316

Gearing

I know there's still some good upgrades to come from Hellfire questing, but I'd replaced a bunch of old Azeroth equipment already and had the Fel Iron itching to be put to use. Kallixta is still wearing old world shoulders, cloak, bracers, boots, one ring and two trinkets. Oh, and my shield. The shield will get upgraded by the beautiful Sporeggar reward. One trinket will be upgraded by an upcoming quest. The boots might get replaced if I run Ramparts. I fixed the gloves and belt with my own craft results, two pieces of Fel Iron Plate. I crafted the boots to go with them, but need level 62 to wear. Just wearing these two pieces though provides another 15 to hit. I'm thinking I'll enjoy the green look much better with more of the items. In fact, there are many future items that could look nice with these.

From my Excel Spreadsheet