Mists of Pandaria

Savage (now named Tempest) versus Raticate!

I've been roleplaying and questing since I began way back during February of 2006. One thing I noticed about the quests is that only a handful of them ever actually disturbed me, excited me, or moved me. In general, I was too busy trying to survive each experience to pay much attention to what was going on with the story line. The only one that ever stuck out for me was Westfall, because of the oddities of pigs without livers, the back story of the Masons being screwed over by Stormwind for their pay and making plans for revenge. That, and my friend always commenting on how sexy VanCleef's voice is.

Burning Crusade's quest lines didn't offer a whole lot. It was a bit more involved, but I was generally far more interested in other things. Nagrand was a very fun grind the first three times around, but soon, even that zone, captivating in its beauty, faded into another mindless grind fest in which I always had to remember to attune myself so that I could later quest in Nagrand by doing the first quests in Hellfire Peninsula, which was always such a blindingly annoying shade of red that all I could think about was escaping to the tranquil blue of Zangarmarsh, then to the adventurous outdoors and alien safari of Nagrand. On the occasion I would visit the extremely dry Blade's Edge Mountains to recapture some memories, as it was the first place I had hit max level on a toon, but generally I would fly to the purple-dyed zone of the far north to round off my last level or two. The one far to the south always remained untouched unless I felt like playing Netherwing savior again.

Northrend. I hate Northrend. One time I managed to push a grind through it in two days. No heirlooms. I wanted to gnaw my hands off afterward. If there was any expansion I could skip when playing alts, it would always and forever be Northrend. Neither of the starting zones capture more than a grind-y feeling. The only two zones I enjoy are Zul'Drak for the amazing line beginning with a cursed choker from an old friend and the sheer beauty of the jungle in Sholazar Basin, complete with a ship that spilled over into the rivers from the sea being barely held back.

The Cataclysm held very little in the way of new quests which inspired me. Vash'jir is a waking nightmare for me. I hate deep water. I cannot stand it in real life, and I cannot stand it in World of Warcraft. If I cling to the bottom, I feel a bit better, but watching a fast tide ripping about, even though it won't bother my toon, sets me on edge. Certain bits and pieces stood out, but apart from the revamped lower level zones, such as the end of the Eastern Plaguelands chain, the entire experience was unforgettable with a very painful introduction into heroic dungeons due to people not knowing what Crowd Control is.

All in all, I quest through things without feeling a whole lot. My mind shuts off while I quest, resulting in a drooling, questing zombie with a rotting brain and little sense as to what is going on. I've tried to get involved in the quests, but reading the flavor text of every one just makes my thoughts decay faster, my attention span flickers, and I go back into my old habit of going through the motion.

But even I'm drawn into the Mists of Pandaria quests.

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From the vivid scenery to the content of the quests all linking together and drawing one in... yeah, here and there it's slow, and one start off feeling the grind of getting that first level in after feeling as if you've done so many quests, but soon enough one forgets that and can't help at enjoy the incredible voice acting, amusing nods to everything from Skyrim to Battletoads, the delightfully scripted cut scenes, and feeling that moment where it feels as if everything you've done, rather than feeling repeated, has all been leading up to one amazing moment.

I reached level 86 and acquired my Savage (temporarily named Snowblind and renamed Tempest courtesy of my boyfriend) on the first day. At the end of my second day, I'm level 88. In another day or two I should be max level, then on the fast curve to gearing up, depending on how many tanks and healers have also reached maximum level. In the meanwhile, I've finished up Valley of the Four Winds, almost wrapped up the Jade Forest (I fell off of a cliff of a certain place you cannot get back up without the right Flight Path... which I didn't get, so I have to wait til 90 to finish that one up), and am one part off of finishing up the Krasarang Wilds. For once, I'm actually motivated to finish up and do everything in a continent... Not because I want the achievements, but because I want to see everything the developers have given me to explore!

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Including the nasty water stuff!

Savage

So, to expand on what happened earlier, after the hour spent trying to do the first Alliance quest (not even kidding, it took an hour of sitting in the copters before people figured out how to do the quest with the limit exceeded on how many engines could be in the air), I managed to catch sight of Bloody Tracks. My heart crawled into my throat as I noticed them and began to follow them backwards. Across the zone I went, using Camouflage to stay safe. I kept losing sight of the next track, however. Even when I cast a flare to see if I was at the end of the line, I got nothing. Confused, I kept roaming, eyeing the maps to make certain I was on course.

A Draenei hunter appeared ahead of me, telling me she hadn't been hunting as long as I had. But, unfortunately, she seemed to be hunting Savage, too, for she knew to follow the tracks backwards. Along we went, and I ran ahead up the correct path, and she followed me. I dropped my Camouflage early and a tiger began to attack me. Even with poor level 85 gear, he didn't hit me for a lot, so I ignored him. I found the edge of the tracks and backed up to wait for the next one to be placed. She dropped one early. No Savage. I dropped one, Savage came up... I hit tame! It wouldn't go off because of the other cat getting in my way somehow... Not sure why, but I had him targeted, and it wouldn't go off. She hit tame... Angry over her trying to steal a mob off of my flare, I shot him, but he wasn't aggroing her, so I couldn't take back my discovery. Not even an apology was uttered on her behalf. I went and quested to get it out of my system.

Earlier today, I came back around and sought out the tracks again. And, again, I found them! Savage was around! But, again, I couldn't continue the trail through the halfway point. I couldn't find any other tracks, and the ones that I had found faded. My heart sank, for surely Savage had been tamed again. I had lost again. But at least it wasn't a painful act, and just the challenge of the hunt. Others want him. Not just me. I went back to questing again, feeling better than my reaction before. I can be happy for someone who deserved it.

Later, I came and sought. No tracks. And again, even later still into the evening, I sought. And I found tracks. My impression was that they were facing the same way as they had the last two times, but upon closer inspection, they were tracking back the other way (heading to the western end of the zone instead of east). Surprise caught me as I saw, right before my eyes, another track dropped. I fumbled, realized I had my Water Strider out, and seeing other hunters around, dismissed it. I stood on the latest track and kept looking... There, a track! I flared... too close to the foot print as Savage winked into existence, his name grayed out from a previously failed attempt at a tame, then faded. Readiness and Flare again, and I hit tame!

And my Savage has come home to me. I dont' know who failed to tame this beautiful creature earlier. I don't know what his/her name will be yet, I've been insisting that my boyfriend name the kitty. He's not so good with names, of course... But I don't mind. Good names take time to think over. For now, I'm just admiring this glorious creature at my side. A set of stripes around his neck look like a collar. :3

Twilight Drake!

No new news on TLPD, I've given up that front for now. On Loque's behalf, I feel horrible because he's now been killed twice in a row :/ Thank you CRZs. But in better news, my Ally huntard got high roll on a Twilight Drake, the one I've been trying to get for so long! Thank you lucky 95 and welcome mount number 120!

Transmog, Dragons, and Uldum

Less than two days til the launch of Mists of Pandaria, and I've decided to main my little Alliance hunter for the expansion. I'll be taking her to Pandaria first thing of the launch... not to quest, no, but to try to obtain the elusive Savage! Then Savage and I will level steadily through Pandaria. It should take about a week to max out our level and gear up, plenty of time to head back to pick up her little friend, Kal the druid, and go back to leveling with him. Well, really, what we've been doing is I've been using Vial of the Sands to carry Kal around as I work leisurely on my Loremastery as Kal soaks experience for levels.

But today is the day to get back to work on leveling. And, also the day to finish my transmog. But first, I wanted to hit up Uldum. I realized, after starting up the quest, that I was still in Vials mode, so figured that the quest wouldn't start with me shapeshifted. I went to right click it off after handing it in, but it had already started. What resulted is this:

Was pretty amusing. I would imagine that people wouldn't dare capture a dragon >.> If they bothered to notice her!

I Found Loque!

But I was too slow to save him :/ Some paladin got to him first. Truly depressing, how ignorant people can be. I'm also sick of the lies people throw up to cover up their kills. After some research, I discovered that, not only was I 100% lied to about the TLPD Ulduar spawn by reviewing the pathing maps, but that the liar was the one who got the drake. But, there's a lighter air around this sad tale.

This is the third Loque I've seen in as many days. Two tamed and one dead isn't too bad. Maybe sometime this week I'll get one. If not, my bf has offered to help me camp a Loque for my Ally hunter. In the meanwhile, all I have to do is remain patient, hopeful, and think of a name for the second Loque. Karma doesn't suit him, I'm thinking something darker like Hex or Crux. Gonna have to see what my hunter thinks.

Vial and Gifts!

So! Due to a recent high profile sale, I came into a lot of gold. For myself, I bought a Vial of the Sands finally...

And had enough left over to spoil my soul mate a little with things he's been wanting. His first reaction was "Jeeze babe!"

I then took him out for flying lessons. First off: Hold your lunch and hold on tight, because I learned how to fly upside down. Not that you can tell very easily at first glance. It's hard to screenshot and fly.

So, of course, after he taught himself his own Vials, he had to practice, too!

:3 I have such warm fuzzies right now.

Loque Hunting

Well. I'm just sitting here, shooting the breeze with lots of people. I like cross realm zones for the open communication it brings between servers. Rarely is this a good thing, except for when you bring together a very relaxed community (and roleplayers tend to be very relaxed... usually. Sometimes). They're going back and forth over the nodes and flying around as I pick and camp a spot for Loque'nahak on my lowbie Shade. Of course, I pick the wrong spot. Congrats to the belf from... Wyrmrest I think who got him!

PuGs and Hearts

I don't know why I'm so sensitive to criticism. But I am. When people comment or compliment, I get red in the face and nervous. When they say they want to tell me something without wanting to sound mean, even a pug whose company I appreciate, I wonder what could be so bad. What could I have done?

It's not always about me. It's also about them. And usually, I'm very cruel to pugs because they mean so little to me. If someone doesn't listen the first few times I say don't stand in the fire, I stop trying to heal them. It usually words. Once they die a few times, they don't stand in the fire. So that's how I've learned how to treat them. But today, something new happened.

I was working on Ally Shade and found a tank from my server who was amusing enough to be around. We'll talk later, not sure about her yet. And this couple, a warlock and a paladin who were a couple. Which I thought was cute. It reminded me of myself and my boyfriend, when we play. The four of us ran a couple of dungeons and did more than a few fights without a healer (those like to ditch for some reason) until the tank had to go.

The three of us DPS sat in queue for a time before the warlock silently volunteered to her fiance to get on a healer for a faster queue. Not knowing what was up, I suggested to him, once she was gone, that I could get his BattleTag for a moment, and we could regroup. It worked, of course, I even got to float around on their PvP phase for a bit in my search for my Alliance's Loque'nahak. I then got a whisper from the woman. Apparently this wasn't such the case. What she said to me, though disturbing in nature, didn't make me upset. She even confessed to feeling bad for it and inviting me to stay with her, but I'd rather not become some nagging whisper in the back of her mind. Games of jealousy and betrayal had been played before, and I am all too familiar with these games.

I've been cheated on before. I've been emotionally and mentally abused. It's a wonder to me when I come across other sentient beings in PuGs, not because I intentionally forget that they're people, but because most of them have no personality, or such a negative one, that I choose to forget that they're no more than pixils. It reminded me of myself and the things I've been through, those moments where I've freaked out on my poor boyfriend for things that weren't his fault. I couldn't even take a harmless white lie from him without losing composure. I felt sorry for her and I wish her and her fiance the best of luck.

Also, as of this post, some nice level 77 hunter got herself a Loque'nahak 2 hours ago. :3 Congrats to her, I'll check again tomorrow.

Alliance

As I've said numerous times on numerous occasions, the hunter I've raided with this expansion is a new hunter, not the one I started out with way back. To be completely honest, the hunter I raided with in BC was hunter number five or something. As a new player, I managed to fill my roster up with every class/race combination except for something for shamans. Because, back then, shamans only existed for the Horde. And the Horde were ugly. I rolled a Tauren here or a Forsaken there, but I couldn't attach myself to such creatures.

Then the Burning Crusade hit. And boy was I mad. My highest level character was a level 50-something rogue, a night elf named Mideve. Of course, I didn't know jack shit about lore, so I was roleplaying a character who phonetically sounds like a certain character from lore. Most people called her Eve, though. And all was good, until that expansion hit. I was so down because I had wanted to try raiding. And let me tell you. It wouldn't have happened.

For one thing, I didn't get my first gaming PC until the BC hit, and even that PC didn't like 40 man anything. Second of all, the majority of the raid leaders back then sounded like the Onyxia Wipe guy. And, being a perfectionist, I don't like being yelled at for anything. Most of the time, I'm already berating myself in my mind to do better. That's why I mastered the art of chain trapping behind the arena in Stranglethorn over night. If someone's talking down to me while I'm working on bettering myself, I just crash. That's why I don't tank raids. The one time I did, someone promised me they wouldn't. My first time tanking through ICC 10 normals, I ask how many stacks to taunt at. The MOMENT that those stacks hit, when I had my finger on the taunt button while building passive threat, the raid leader screams over vent "TAUNT TAUNT". I vanished the next day.

Then I warmed up to the Burning Crusade. It was decently fun, the armor was pretty (even though the game designers for the leveling don't know what an armor set is and I ended up looking like a clown puked rainbows on me). I think, as memory serves, I hit 70 on Eve first, before... panicking. What do I do now? How do I get into a raiding guild? Who do I talk to? Are they going to talk down to me because I didn't raid before? Am I going to be in trouble? How much harder are raids than instances? What if I fail at them? I managed to get into a friend's raid guild, where the rogue class master redesigned my entire talent set up (good-bye Riposte) and told me to get 100 hit rating before I even think about going into Karazhan. I bolted.

I ran off to a nice little server called Ravenholdt and began to level a hunter instead of gearing up for raiding. In the Ghostlands, I met a new friend named Bel (well he had a longer name than that...), who was a protection Paladin. We leveled at about the same, relaxed but progressive pace and talked often, so I latched onto him for instancing and we had a swell time. Goofy, sarcastic, and set on getting it done one way or another would sum up our time together. An example would be in Blackrock Depths where he wanted to skip some trash. He said "Cling to the wall!". As I ran by, I pointed my character's face into the wall and hit auto run so I could creep forward at the slowest pace possible and said "Am I doin it rite, Bel?". And, with one of his friends being a bit... dyslexic, said friend read my name as Reks instead of Resk. So he called me Rex. Bel picked up on this, so we were Bel and Rex.

He found a nice raiding guild and dragged me along. There, I did Karazhan for the first time. Plenty under-geared, but that came with time. Since I was gearing up with Bel, I got plenty of good drops from 5 man heroics, and he told me I was good enough at trapping (assuming I managed to pull the mob before he got threat. Once Bel had threat on something, it was his, until death did the part. I swear, once he had a Consecration down, if my CC target ran over it, I could just forget about trapping it).

I was given prime hunter spots in numerous 10 man groups which either suited or didn't suit Bel. Wherever he wanted to go, I followed, and anyone who wanted a good Prot Paladin would make room for his nervous, shy hunter friend. But I became bolder as he showed me it's alright to do what works best for me, making numerous excuses on my behalf whenever we left a guild to head to greener pastures. Eventually, we moved from Ravenholdt to Moon Guard, where Bel began to sniff around for another guild. I moved my rogue along as well, a nice little Night Elf to go with my Blood Elf and began to gear her as well. I came across an Alliance guild who was looking for a rogue. Oh hey, I have one. I offered up my rogue, with PvP swords and half geared. I think I was pulling about 800 DPS, which was good enough to guarantee me a spot in any heroic group, but... The guild leader just sorta sniffed at me, told me to keep working on it, and they'll see.

About the same time, Bel found a guild called Sancum Patria on Horde side, a guild far more progressed than the one who sneered at my rogue and my gearing attempts. We got into Black Temple before WotLK hit, it was all pretty fun. I abandoned my attempts on my rogue and kept to Horde side, except for the occasional pug Karazhan raid on my rogue, as I had managed to make friends on Alliance side too and they started up a small group for going to Karazhan. I absolutely LOVE Nightbane on my rogue.

But. That came with an issue, too. The guild leader was very yelly. He threatened to sit Bel a few times, as Bel had swapped to his shaman for DPS and would keep up his sarcastic remarks... You got yelled at if you talked in vent, you got yelled at if you died (except for his pet fury warrior who died to EVERY fight but NEVER got replaced... -.-). In my Kara gear on my hunter, I was beating the other hunters in damage done by the end of it, and they had SSC gear. Even the raid leader, cranky as he was, was warming up to my attempts to stay alive and do my best and asked if I really wanted to ditch my hunter because I was so good at the class. And... seeing as I had more fun in melee range with my rogue on fights than at range with my hunter, I said yeah. I want to roll a Death Knight.

So I was a Death Knight. The Death Knight. Sanctum Patria's ONLY qualified Death Knight. In fact, I became something of the class leader in Death Knights, even though the only two others that I was teaching about the class had no qualifications to raid with their toons... One of them was just... urgh. She got all upset and offended because I have a gutter brain and would make innuendo remarks. Then after I promised to cut it down around her, I made a harmless remark that SHE took as perverted and got all upset. xD Everyone who liked me in the guild (most of the raid team by that point I think...) got upset at her and numerous complains were filed. Beyond that, she had no sense of how to gear... anything... she would pick quest rewards for their armor value rather than stat value... Yeah. I wouldn't have recommended her to the raid leader if she begged me :/ Not when I'm explaining to her why to pick x stat over y stat and she shrugs me off... After ASKING me what upgrade to get.

But. All in all. I was the only raiding Death Knight in the guild. The pet Death Knight. I would go in the 10 mans. And the 25 mans. Every week. 5 days a week... I burned out by the time we had Naxx on farm in both groups. Don't get me wrong, I loved my Death Knight. I was mostly a Blood DPS girl, but I would spec whatever would give me the best DPS for my armor at the time. Including the amazing dual wield tri-spec. And I mean it. It was a tri-spec. I had at least 10 points in every tree and it was AMAZING DPS and a lot of fun! But when you raid that hard and that often, and your raid leader won't even do achievement runs... Yeah.

He also kept yelling. All the time. He promised to cut down on the yelling. But he didn't. So when Wyrmrest Accord opened... I bailed. Bel bailed. A large number of his other raiders had already bailed and made a 10 man guild. I pretty much was done with raiding for all of WotLK, until I decided to move my hunter, again. Alliance side, this time... Where she would retire, only to pug ICC and run a nearly full clear on normal mode... the only time I'd ever been past the Plague Wing, and winged the entire rest of the raid based on what was said in vent. The only time I died was in a wipe, and I was the last down. I even got the ball bouncing achievement in that one run...

And now she's coming out of retirement. I give you the toon that I've had all of these experiences and memories on... Shade of Moon Guard.

TLPD 3

Watchin Star Wars with the boyfriend. Hey! A TLPD!

And it isn't mine :/

I really, really want to stop camping this stupid drake. Really. A lot.

So. Yeah. Some guy on Wyrmrest Accord got it. -.- He even said in General that TLPD spawned and he killed it in Ulduar's Ravine... then nevermind, he fell to his death. Then 10 minutes later said he killed it in the river. That's where I found the corpse. If I had stayed in a cross paths, I would have gotten it first (Angel is on a 150% flying mount, I can't move as well as on Shade who has 310%...). But I can say with 100% certainty that, without Cross Realms, that was my TLPD spawn. No one else was there, not even Alliance.

Even worse, that area of the river was my boyfriend's camping spot (he joined me the past two days) and he closed out for the movie because his laptop is like... dying. And I'm sitting here going "Man, I x-fered my second hunter too, I should have taken two spawn points. I could have group invited myself, attacked it, let it kill me til my paladerp got there, then tagged and killed it properly". So he's facepalming because he wants my camp to end, and I'm face palming because I want my camp to end and because he feels guilty. But apart from being a little cranky, I just wanted extra cuddles and played with my kitty to make things better.

All the what ifs in the world won't change it, though :3 I lost it.

Bloodbathed Frostbrood Vanquisher

I hope this camp ends soon. xD I really do. I am done with it. It's getting harder and harder for me to stay focused on it.

Once upon a time, I had one WoW account. That's the account I play on right now with the first payment being made in Febuary of '06. I'm an old, old player. Then, a couple of years later, I met someone who RAFed me up a new account. I moved a lot of my old toons onto it, including an 80 druid, 80 hunter, 80 shaman, and some other random toons (I tried to clean the account out, I really don't know who all lives there anymore...). With Scroll of Resurrection, I took my 80 shaman back and got myself an 80 mage, but that was before the Account Wide stuff was around.

Funny thing about this. My first and only time getting into Blood Council back during WotLK was on my hunter... and we got the ball bouncing achievement in 10 man, the only one that was needed. So, I decided to hop onto all of my old toons, link up what they own, then take my first hunter back with me to my primary account. I also just realized that because of all of my old accounts and reviving them for this and that, I have 3 active WoW accounts right now o.e I should use them to all camp TLPD...

Anyway. I took that toon back, put her on Jessibelle's server (Alliance for an Alliance :D), and might try to fix her gear a bit and get into a Herald of the Titans run for Alliance. She's got some decent items. Though I might have to downgrade some...

Anyway. Because of all of that, I got the last achievement I need for my ICC 10 drake!

Lord save me, I need to camp a second Loque, now...

Vyragosa 17

One ~14+ hour camp later...

Right on my head! So close, yet to far...

Fossilized Raptor

In other news.

I've been working on Archeology. It's easier to do on my hunter than my paladin for me. I guess it's because I'm bringing Karma with me. And, for some reason, Karma really likes to play with the bones I find. It seems like, most of the time when the fossils get unearthed close to me, Karma's on top of them, making them even harder to find than usual. More than once I've dug something up and thought to myself "That's funny, there should be a fossil somewhere..." only to realize my bratty Loque is on top of it!

But in the past three days, I'm very close to my 10 rares find. I've gotten two Fossil rares (but no mount yet. Sniffle) including a hatchling... it's my second hatchling because my paladin, Fate, dug one up when I tried to level Archy on her. I'm going to cage one and give it to my boyfriend with MoP hits. But, for now, with only about 5 or 6 hour's work and this being my third day, I've already got five rares solved and a sixth on the way. I can only hope that I get a mount soon!

It's supposed to be rare. To get a rare. I'm getting a lot of rares, I think xD Who knows... but OMG!

omg omg omg :3 My first Archy mount! Eeee~

Whoot! Got a shot with Karma and some random dinosaur in the background. Seems awesome that the last fossils needed came from Un'Goro.

Vyragosa 16

Wake up. Log in. Dead Vyra. Go do something else with my day.

In other news, and I've mentioned this before but not here, I'm going to be moving realms sometime in the new future. I'm going to change my name, change the blog's url, and continue to report from a completely differnt server. And once I learn how to spell Tich... Tichu... Tiche... The Tich server's name, I'll post it fully here, too! :D

Glitch Day

Theoretical misses today: 1 Vyragosa, 1 TLPD.

I'm hearing the ghost of the drums in my head again. That means something might spawn soon. It first happened to me when I was camping Ankha/Magria. I developed a sense of time for these things :/ Psychic connection to server times. Or I'm just going crazy.

Anyway, I decided to go on good faith and spend the day with my boyfriend. We played our lowbies!

But then my horse lost his legs.

And then going cross realms, my boyfriend DCed in the air going over a border. I wish they'd fix the dismount glitch. But he got stuck in the air.

Silver: ... Uh. Shadow? Love? You're kinda...
Shadow: ...

Shadow: OH SHIT! OH SHIT! CATCH ME, SILVER!
Silver: I'm trying! Dx Hold on!

Totally wasn't in character (Yeah I have some RP toons on Cenarion Circle. Angel and Silver :3). But I managed to snap some good screenshots and that's what the captions scream to me.

TLPD Camp Off

Hello? Vyragosa? TLPD? Someone, come out and play with me? No? Okay, good night.

Vyragosa 15

o.e... 15

Yeah, you better sparkle for me Dx You...

How did you spawn so damn fast? o.O That's way under the 5 hour timer.

Vyragosa 14

DUM DA DA DUM DA DA DUM DA DA Wooooo TLPD for me? :D? Finally? I've been sitting at my spot for all of 40 minutes, maybe it's my turn to get lu-- YOU... YOOOOOOU... *seethe* o.e DIE! DIE LIKE YOU RIGHTFULLY DESERVE! WRITHE IN THE POWER OF MY HOLY SHOCK! I then proceed to wander intelligently because I can't see where Vyra is... But no matter, I still get her before a warrior does. Rare hoarding, I know, but I'm just so... pissed. /pant, eye twitching I hate yoooou.... At least I've learned that, with a bit of gear (I got my paladin from unable to do heroics to HoT ready in one day, like I usually do...), I've learned that my Holy Shock one hit kills Vyra. TLPD stands no chance. I shall shock, bubble, and shock again if I must! But once I find him, he is mine... *facedesk and just stays with her head down... chuckles* ... I just imagined myself eradicating all little bats like I do Vyragosa now. And that's quite the hilarious image xD Oddly enough, I love bats irl, but I think WoW bats are... uh... uuugly. Ah well. Time to clean my cache and try again :3

TLPD: More Nothing

Sigh. Yet another night of no TLPD, not even a Vyragosa sighting. Though, while browsing the forums, I did see something interesting. A theory about how often people see Aeonaxx, TLPD, and other rares just before the servers go down. I'll have to look into this. If it's true and servers going down does force a rare to spawn, I'll have to up my camping efforts during Mondays...

In other news, I saw a hunter talking to himself. Maybe he was talking to someone who was whispering/saying things back to him... since he was broadcasting in general and wouldn't answer me, I haven't the slightest what he was on about. But either way... today wasn't a waste at all. I got my Archeology from non-existent to over 125 on Shade, and got some good camping hours in on Angel, my paladin. I'm not going to be camping TLPD on Shade anymore. My PvP server is flooded with Alliance, and even my peaceful Waterfall spot is being hoarded by some self-righteous asshole. I don't feel sorry at all for making certain he died at least 10 times for the things he made an alt to say to me... Tempted to go back now that I don't have latency issues just to drop his shaman ass a few more times, personally.

Vendettas aside, I also heard that TLPDs like Blue Protdrakes.

TLPD Camp Journal

August 25th, 2012

In recent TLPD news, I've now killed Vyragosa 11 times and seen her 12. A shadow priest (a very rude one if I might add. Same one who once stacked on me when I was in that spot first, whining about how she had been camping for 3 months - and I've been camping on and off for years, thank you very much - so she should be entitled to her spot) tagged and killed one of the recent ones. The other one I wanted to test how well I could disengage to safety after shooting. Only I two shot Vyragosa in the air and fell a very long way. Somehow, I lived with a good 5% health upon landing, but at least I learned two things. One: If I shoot I won't survive a fall if I get a critical hit. Two: It's perfectly fine for me to drop down anywhere once TLPD is in range, I will get tag, kill, die, and can drift back to my body on a ghost gryphon. I'm perfectly fine with paying a repair bill for a non-stolen TLPD kill.

Another interesting thing happened. I met a rogue. A very odd rogue. We started talking while he flitted around me, trying to help me find Skoll (after I insisted that I had no interest in Skoll). We talked about how to get the Tol Barad mounts and he brought up that he had gotten TLPD on his hunter! What a silly rogue, camping TLPD twice. I got to share account-wide mounts with him, saving him time and myself the grief of loosing a TLPD to someone who would get one on all of his toons next week. He still comes around now and then, not sure why.

People still stack a lot on my server. But luckily camping on the waterfall spawn point is still as quiet as ever. For as long as the zones remain unshared, I feel safe to afk from my computer without getting ganked. And maybe one of these times I go to make dinner or watch something with my bf, I'll come back to TLPD eating my face.

August 25th, 2012

Update! Another Vyragosa spawned! And... I didn't even see it at my waterfall camp site. :/ Great. Apparently the last TLPD was killed 4 days ago, so... Anytime now, it should spawn again. Sigh.

August 28th, 2012

Okay. Another update. I've decided to STOP farming TLPD >_> I've now had the thing in my dreams two days in a row. The one last night was just ungodly strange. First I found TLPD flying around. So I realized 'Cool, I can go kill it and ride it'. So I flew up on my TB drake and jumped on top of the TLPD and realized it basically turned into a Harry Potter-esque going-to-kill-you-with-fire-and-death dragon. So we flew around and I had a wand instead of a bow, so I was trying to cast spells at it. It doesn't give a shit about spells, thought. But I manage to make it crash into one of the snowy mountains and it's... tamed after that.

Then there was... something in Deepholm. Something about an Aeonaxx camper who got seriously injured and needed help getting back to Orgrimmar, so I flew out there on my new TLPD and there was someone else there trying to help, so I loaned the pair my Ironbound and Rusted Protodrakes and we flew away...

... I'm just going to go grind Nether Rays for a while. o.e

August 28th, 2012

So I decided to work on my PvP mounts (complete), my red proto (complete), and then I get the hunch to head back to Storm Peaks and fly around a bit.

Wasn't even me. But I'm glad it wasn't TLPD either. That's 13 Vyragosas, 2 TLPDs.

September 8th, 2012

I just realized fire birds don't like the snow :/ Hawky looks mad.

I'm back to trying to camp. Of course, I decided to do so when Vyragosa and TLPD are pulling another vanishing act and aren't showing up at all. I don't think I can even count on people's last sightings anymore, since the rares (should?) spawn independently depending on phase. I could be in PvP-Phase-21 or something and someone else saw it yesterday in -Phase-15. Arthas has been merged (Yay I get to have Brazillian chatter in my general. T.T), but the number of Arthas campers seems to have declined severely. What is this? 2-5 people on all day?

Aurgh.

At least some little hunter got himself Skoll while I was camping. Best of luck to him getting his next target: Loque'nahak. :3



...I'm just glad I'm not clocking my time lost.

Glacier and Depth

Gondria was always my favorite of the spirit beasts before Cataclysm came out. Something about the transparent, whispy nature of a feline over my favorite build, the large, mount-style cats. And because of that, I think the recolors, Ankha and Magria are gorgeous. Blue is one of my favorite colors, so I might favor Magria a bit more, but Ankha was the common one for me.

I had a day to myself that day. Nothing was going on. No one wanted my hunter for raiding. I was uninspired to raid as anything else, so I wandered around. And who happened to be up? Ban'thalos! But that is a story for another time. Disturbed because of those events, I sit quietly over Ankha's spawn point. Naked hunters come and go... night falls. Nothing. I start working on a Naked Set for myself so I can just click it, drop down, and go. Paranoia knows that if a Survival spec hunter mounts up, flies up a little, and loads me with dots, I'm dead without my gear. Or a lock. Or a shadow priest. Or... well. You get the picture. Naked camping is not safe.

At the time, I didn't know I could mute my volume and get the alarm to go off. So, the wing flapping got annoying rather quickly. Picking out a tree, I start spinning and circling over it until I can land... dismount on the top, then mount up again. Perfect! Now I can fly away if someone starts trying to kill me. Thus, Naked Cat Tree Camping was born. Whenever anyone asked what I was doing, that would be my answer. But only when I explained it did they understand. I like making sense out of things which honestly make no sense. My flawed, flawless logic.

I almost died when Ankha spawned the first time. Damn alarm gave me a heart attack. I dropped down, hit my naked set, Deter/Tame... and got a kitty! Happy day! But what to name this new kitty? Glacier... Because the white/green coloration of the two cats reminds me of the arctic sea. A large white glacier atop of a rich blue ocean. I check the time. It's been quite a few hours since the Ban'thalos incident, so I decide it will spawn soon enough and leave my spot. I think it was four days before I finally found Magria...

***

Ankha. Ankha. Ankha. I cleared my cache every time and saw every gorgeous white saber a home, but it was getting tiresome. How long until Magria? How long until I finish my Hyjal spirit collection and head to the dreaded Vash'jir to face down the Nerfbat master himself, Ghostcrawler? By then, I wasn't even camping properly. I had just gotten into a raiding guild who wants me (thanks to my obsessive camping) and couldn't commit to all day/all night camping like I did with Ankha.

There was one other camper out most of the time, about then. This troll hunter who sat naked in the middle of the kite path. He never answered when I talked to him... one of those people who couldn't figure out I don't have to whisper him to talk to him... I don't get it. Anyway, I was actually just doing a fly-by to see if Ankha was up again... but no! There was a yellow dot down there, alright, but it was a big, blue, gorgeous kitty who looked oh so confused, sad, and lost. About halfway down her path, I found a good spot, hit my Naked Set, then proceeded to reunite Magria with my Ankha. Because, sometime between the third and fourth Ankha spawn, I had made up a little story in my head as to why these cats share the same spawn timer and location. Maybe they're siblings and haunt the world like lost spirits, trying to unite with each other!

And as for the name? Depth... Because Ocean would have been a bit odd. A beautiful name, but having Glacier and Ocean is a bit too obvious of a name pairing for me. The ocean depths, though... where you look around and the world is tainted in this brilliant blue color... yeah, that's a good reference to waters without being obvious. Maybe I just like to make people think... or at least ask me what's up with the insanity of my naming. About then, I was also dreading going to find Ghostcrawler.

... About then, that troll came up to me and asked if I had just tamed her. I said yes while fixing up Magria's talents. Of course, it took him a few minutes to realize I was talking in say and not whispering him. Though I had to whisper him to point it out to him... *facepalm* I gave him the time of tame... and he said he had been camping Magria for a long while now. In the wrong spot... I dragged him over to the spawn point and showed him how to camp the cats properly.

I was rewarded a week later with him trying to give me Ankha after I said I already had her. I said I had when we met... and I said so then... "Ankha's up. Do you have her?" "Yes." Fighting a boss in Firelands, Deadly Boss Mods tells him my progress. I miss my crystal time because of that -.- Damn it Baleroc and damn my habit of reading whispers. "Are you coming?" ... Really? "I just said I already have her. And please don't whisper me in the middle of a raid."

At least I later on learned that he's been helping people tame spirit beasts after I taught him about Magria, Ankha, and Ban'thalos that night. And he did try to help me get one... xD Oh well.

Let the spirit of the hunt live on in all of us! Don't shoot your fellow hunters!

The Reaper

So, I just came away with Mercy and headed up the path once again. I had been trying to get back, somehow failed and went to repair my gear. Still rez sick, I dodged fire as best as I could and saw some Alliance paladin running up towards me. Knowing I didn't stand a chance, I just wanted for him to start killing me. Protection Paladins are mean suckers to fight... Just then, I notice a certain mean green heading over towards us. I gesture towards it because... well. Skarr isn't up, and this is another challenge tame! And I wanted to complete each of them at least once. The paladin pauses, gestures at the spider, then drops a stun on me. Then throws his shield at me. Smacking me around on my ram until I'm about to die... then stops and apologizes. I've got no idea what's going on, but apparently I'm not going to get ganked. So I ask him to wait and get back on the alliance toon I made to thank the other Ally.

I ask him what's up and if I'll be allowed to tame the green spider. He said he wanted to help me! We got to talking, he said that whenever he was out there, Skarr usually was. I said that I hadn't seen Skarr yet, and he wasn't up yet. Oh well, the paladin says. Maybe later. I tell him I'd like to try the tame on my own and he finally agrees, though he still seems eager on assisting me. I swap back over and begin trying to hop over rocks to the taming rock. Thing. Place. Two out of three times, I just fail and fall to my death. A few times I get onto the rock I think I'm supposed to get on, but I get killed anyway.

Up and up goes my repair bill again, but at least I waited for my rez sickness to go away first. I've got a nice fat two minute rez timer by now and this spider is still kicking my ass left and right. Again I get on the rock and try once again... and then the paladin comes up and tries to tank him. Alrighty, then. I try taming with the paladin dying. Just... spamming my Tame button. Nope, I'm dead again. Feeling bad that the paladin got himself killed, I rez on the island once again. And who just so happens to be up? A certain kitty who smacked me around just as hard as a certain spider.

With yet another new companion, I drop down to the Shade Fail Rock, die, and start looking at alternative methods, because those rocks aren't working out for me. An Alliance hunter comes up. I gesture for him to go ahead, I'm not gonna bother if I don't know what the hell I'm doin. He wanders off. Alright. Another Alliance hunter comes by... tries. Gets killed. Tries again. Gets killed. I'm just reading and letting them be... And he doesn't give lucky number three a try, he just runs off. Smart hunters don't have massive repair bills. The paladin comes up and seems confused as to where I went (remember, between rez timers and dying to Skarr, I had been gone about five minutes all told). I bring out Skarr and get an emoted grats. :3 But back to the problem at hand. Learning about the Disengage method, I situate myself, get out my Corehound, pop my lust and try again.

And with all of my latency issues, I get thrown up, toss myself back, hit Deter/Tame... He comes up to me, starts eating my face... and then decides to not kill me after all. I think that spider was up for about two hours before I figured things out.

I think my favorite part is that he is a green spider who destroys everyone around him. And my boyfriend and a group of other friends of ours have a fantasy roleplay going on. His character is a grim reaper with toxic green eyes and has power over poisons and acids. Reaper spider! He definitely got a kick out of hearing about a spider who destroyed anyone who gets near it. But I don't know if I want to name the greenie Reaper or after the character himself, Noudai. So, he remains The Reaper Spider for now. And will always be The Reaper Spider in my mind when I run across him in the wild with skeletons lining his path.

Mercy

If you've read this far, you might recall I mentioned Deth'tilac in Crisis' story. As well as many repair bills and a rez timer. You can thank my stubborn insistence on solo taming Deth. I had none of the areas unlocked at this point, so no NPCs showed up and since it was off-peak hours, I was rather alone. At least. I thought I was.

Dead. Dead. Dead. Damn it spider rez, go off! Nope, dead. Time and time again, I tried, but being extremely rusty, I'm far from the best kiter. Also being BM spec, I don't have improved traps to try out or anything like that. So I'm stuck rezzing and kiting as best as I can.

At some point, I realized that pulling him by the invisible NPCs still sets them off, and one of them drops a root. That's useful! So back and forth I kite him, patiently waiting between 2 minute rez timers and feeling rather safe that I had time. And, that time did pay off. Eventually, I get him to 18% health... all on my own. Success! Happily, I throw down another trap between us and proceed to rez and dismiss my pet... wait, where are you going Deth? Get back here! Why are you running back to your spawn point!? In aggravation, I just shoot and watch him skitter-vade back to his spawn point... and his health shoot up to full. Great. Just great.

Again, I set everything up as normal. It can't get any worse than tasting success just to realize it's just like those sugar coated candies that are sour beneath. Or is it the other way around? I'm not a fan of sweets so either way, it's unpleasant. Resigned but confident that I -can- do this, I just need to shoot him a bit more often, I try again. Around I go to the front... and what's that? An Alliance hunter? Oh no... I'm going to die. I'm just going to die. Still, I keep kiting. Maybe he ran up here to go afk. Maybe he'll just run off. But I'm expecting, completely, to die. PvP servers sure can be annoying sometimes.

Lo and behold... he summons a mini Deth'tilac and sends it after the mob I'm taming. And it dies. And again he sends and throws a concussive shot while I'm rounding another corner. Round and round we go, two spiders, two hunters, and one big angry killing machine. Again Deth falls to 18% and he stops and wishes me luck through emote. Awesome! A bit of awkward trap juggling later and I land my tame. Merrily, I ask him to /wait and go make an Alliance alt, just to thank him.

Once I was back on my hunter, I had to think about a name. Mercy. True because that was what was shown to me and ironic because I intended and still intend to use this spider for PvP encounters. Unable to believe my sheer luck, I head back to my camping point. I have Deth, what else could get in my way? Turns out my night between finding Crisis and befriending Mercy and my enemies isn't just filler, but a taming tale of its own. Involving an Alliance paladin which saw my rez sick nature and opened up... just as I saw a green spider of death barreling at me.... And not only that, but I ended up with a new name (Shade). Will my one-time sponsor of Mercy end up betraying me on accident in the future? To be continued, maybe.

Solo

Anyone know where I got the idea for his name?

Anyone?

No one? Solo the lion?

Watch more Big Cat Diary!

Notice how he's not as cuddly to me as Crisis is. Probably because he's a newer addition to my obsess-- ... Pack? Herd... Pride... Group... Collective. Yes. There we go. Solo plays a rather cruel part of my life sometimes. He will prowl next to me when I fish for Highland Guppies and scare the crap out of Alliance who try to gank me by setting off their own alarms. It actually stunned a shaman enough that he stopped attacking me in raw confusion. But it's his idea, not mine, I swear!

His story ties into Wish's story a little. Not my first selection for a feline, but certainly one I had shown ambition in taming one day. I have a tendency to cycle through my pets and always did like lions. The larger the pet appears next to me, the happier I feel, somehow. And the mane helps with that, added with the rolling gait, does make him appealing. That, paired with my insatiable desire to make friends with unique rare pets left me with the decision to acquire this pet. However, I was not first on my own list. Unfortunately, the person I promised to call in case I ran across Sambas was offline. So, when I saw him down below me, I ended up dropping down and everything went wrong.

Due to paranoia about losing a pet due to being attacked/helped, I start off with an attack to gain some threat... go to tame... five pets on me. And Sambas is tearing into me when I figure that little glitch out. Thankfully, I never had a reason or need to keep a Corehound after I had finished my challenge tames, or most of them that might require a lust, so one Feign Death later, I fixed that issue. Well, I had about 60-70% health left and never really read much into taming this cat. So why not drop a trap and try again?

Set up a trap, Deter/Tame macro... What's this? Not trapped? What witchcraft is this!? Confused, I nervously watch my health with Feign Death on cooldown... luckily, the Deterrence helps just enough that I manage to get Sambas with... oh... a sliver of health left.

And, after telling the tale of my cat tames, my friends now question just how much I enjoy keeping cats who have been known to absolutely thrash me.