Day Twenty - 26 August 2010

My decision to title posts by day wasn't fully thought out, but I still like it. At the time I started, Kallixta was an idea and I had an experimental mindset. Now my mind has a much crisper philosophy around her and for all intents, she is my "Main". However, if I plan to only be online for less than an hour, I wouldn't log onto her. Instead I'd log into Aldonza and play with the Auction House. In theory, the time logged onto Kallixta would all be "active", not idle, but I'm not perfect. I've idled Kallixta more than once. Still, I hadn't logged onto her for a short half hour session until last night.

By intention, I logged in, travelled to the WSG Quartermaster, bought my cloak and equipped it, switched to my one-hander and logged off. I considered a quick run into a battleground, but I wasn't on the good laptop and I was tired.

I don't think I've mentioned before. The original main computer with WOW has problems and won't allow me to re-install. Therefore I can only play on either my son's nice laptop or my daughter's older laptop. I can't remap keys without negotiating with them. Martuska is on the original account. This was originally my son's account, but is now my daughter's and I've got my own Vanilla WOW account. I could still play Martuska, and I will on occasion, but only if my daughter isn't on. I also can only play when one of the laptops is free, at least until I can get WOW re-installed on the good desktop machine. Oh yes, there is another desktop that we use to run WOW on, but that has less memory. Still, if I get desperate, maybe...

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.

Day Twelve - 7 Aug 2010

I applied to guild Saga. I was contacted while at the Auction House and introduced to their OOC channel. It was a funny and diverse group.

I ran two more Warsong Gulch runs. The first was a Call to Arms and with the win awarded 500 Honor Points! The second run was a loss. With my new HP and traveled to the vendor and bought the Trinket and Necklace.

I ended the night skilling up Blacksmithing to Expert and sLvl 148.

Day Eleven - 6 Aug 2010

Busy evening!

Although the travel time was long, Kallixta rode through Darkshore and Ashenvale (making some exploration discoveries on the way) to the Silverwing Outpost outside Warsong Gulch. Martuska had never had to find a PvP Vendor and I needed to lookup where the hell to go! She spent 100 Honor Points for the Protector's Band ring, but should have just run a couple games and bought the Trinket, especially as this was a "Call to Arms: Warsong Gulch" weekend, but felt uncomfortably low at 21 in the 20-29 range.

The queue for Wailing Caverns ran over 8 minutes even as Tank. It was an excellent group from my perspective. We had a rogue that knew the route and a warrior that made an effective off-tank. Kallixta never saw a health problem except for the first Boss pull when I didn't get to Lady Anaconda before she hit a squishy too much. The two squishies included one warlock and it's clear I don't understand how they work.

Kallixta got the blue tank shield from the neutral Turtle boss and then the Boots off one of the penultimate bosses. Somewhere along the way she dinged 22 and earned more than one level of XP. At least one other party member dinged, too. One squishy left after the last boss, but before the event. We had a perfectly fine substitute for the last piece.

Folks left, but Kallixta did some fishing in the cavern and caught about 5 Deviate Fish. The drop rate seemed like it was around 12% and they showed a value of over 1 gold each. We'll see how well they auction.

Hearthing back to Ironforge, she organized her loot, sending much to Aldonza. She equipped the new boots with a medium armor kit and swapped the shields. She then tackled the accumulated stone and ores to skill up Blacksmithing to 102. She really should make a couple more Silver Rods for enchanters before the next batch of items.

This comes from Wow Head.

Day Seven - 28 July 2010

So I started out with two more runs of Warsong Gulch. Allies won both. I managed to play offense, flag carrier support and wasn't awful, I don't think.

I remembered to hug for [Make Love, Not Warcraft], picked up my [100 Honorable Kills] and the second game went 3-0, earning [Warsong Gulch Perfection]!

After that, I hunted down a few more Defias to reach level 20. I learned my new spells and remapped my keys. I've only made one macro so far, the one for taunting. Oh, my mount triggered [Giddy Up]!

I feel I should manage DM or WC when I've time next.

Day Three - 13 July 2010

I worked late on Monday.

I put my talents into Deflection, which while in the Retribution tree, was recommended by (Honor's Code) .

I had notes to allow me to try out Warsong Gulch and maybe Ragefire Chasm. I first revisited the Auction House, buying a better Shield and found a few cheap Enchantments. Of course, they weren't free, but I didn't want to go overboard. I also bought enough linen to level First Aid to allow me to use Silk Bandages. I bought a stack of better healing potions, too.

Thus prepared, I visited WSG for the first time. I was in an excellent party for a noob. I hung around the Flag Room and played defense. When someone captured the Horde flag, I ran down the tunnel to meet him half way and escort him home. The game ended on time with just the one flag capture. I was very happy with the experience and jumped right back in.

From great to horrible that quick. The horde knew what they were doing while we had too many at the low end of the range. They walloped us in the flag room and even camped the graveyard for a while. The game ended when they got their third stolen flag home.

I noticed the XP wasn't significant from just the two short games. I'll be back, but only when I'm closer to 19 than 11!

Meantime, I had some quests to complete in Loch Modan. Things went amazingly fast and I finished level 15 just by some quick grinding of Boars for XP and Skins. The bump on this road was when I tried Ol' Sooty, without realizing it. Pay Attention!

Now the LFD tool works, although I'll wait for Level 16 and Righteous Fury. I found myself picking up the Dead Mines quests, although I expected to wait a bit longer. No harm yet.