Non-WoW Entrecard

OK, so the latest Entrecard is not wow based. It's parent based. I'm a parent. I care about bringing my kids up properly so they don't turn into asbo brats. Deal with it. It's my blog after all.

Coming next on Entrecard? Making money on the Internet? WoW Gold farming? Who knows? :P

Goddam Computer

Yet again I find myself totally pissed off with my new PC. I got an invite to go to Naxx-25 again with the guild but I was disconnecting and lagging all over the place.

Vent is coolio
I was frequently at 9K latency but still with a frame rate in the 30s and then I'd freeze and crash out, but with no interruption to vent. Oh yeah, I forgot, we moved to vent from TS, it is soooo much better.

It was usually a boss fight that I'd crash out of in the middle of, but I'd usually manage to get back on-line to get some loots.

Thaddius
I managed not to crash out of the Thaddius fight, because I hadn't actually got to him when I DC'd!! When I got back on I managed to join with the right polarity and moved a few times with the pack but on about the third movement I was with the pack but still blew up the polarity bomb. So the lag screwed our achievement attempt :( thankfully a couple of others did it too!!

Looty Mc'Loot
So, after having to reconnect every couple of minutes it was a very tedious evening, made worse because I use an authenticator :P BUt anyway, I came out of there with 5 brand new shiny epics, all for minimum bid because I am still a non-raider - WTF???? Whose to complain? Lots of free/cheap epix:

Libram of Tolerance
Legplates of Double Strikes
Abetment Bracers
Waistguard of Divine Grace

I'm sure I got one other thing but cannot find it.

Bitter Sweet
So 5 phat epix lootz but a very frustrating evening of constantly having to logon again. With a bit of luck now that I have a good selection of Naxx-25 healing pieces and have shown up for a good few raids I will be able to get my raider rank back.

Achievements Update

So, when not moping around, dealing with insane amounts of personal crap or stowing away on heroic raids totally undergeared I have been working on some achievements.

Raids.
I have now got heroic Naxx and Maly :)

Exploration.
Cleared up another couple of Northrend zones. Only took, HF, BT, Dragonblight and half of Grizzly Hills to ding

Pest Control and Squirrel Loving.
Got the 1st half of the squirrel loving achievement done, just the Northrend half to finish now, and also the pest control.

Loremaster.
Way behind but, did put a few more Kalimdor quests behind me. Only a few hundred to go!!

Well Read.
Toured Azeroth and Kalimdor and read all the books while doing the above.

Dungeons.
Knocked Dire Maul and Scholo off the list of dungeons required while doing Well read and Loremaster. I also got invited to a guild/pug and downed Raggy, then helped some of the puggers get LBRS and UBRS then popped into the Depths to get my achievement ticked off

Fishing.
Getting there, Fishing skill hit 446 when I yanked up Old Crafty from behind a big rock in the Valley of Spirits - YAY. 375-446 fishing skill just trying to get one fish. Got the wreckage pools done at the same time as pest control and loremaster stuff done and dinged 450 fishing; then toured Northrend to get the northrend pools done and catch all the little fishies I'd need for cooking.

Cooking.
Got all the cooking achievements done for the meta achievement apart from Northrend cooking and Captain Rumsey's Lager. Turns out you get the recipe for this from the Shattrath fishing daily. So doing that whenever possible, but it never drops :( Cooking is floating somewhere between 425 and 450, I may even have hit 450. I just have to get the ingredients for those last 3 recipes and cook them and then go over to see Nesingwary's mate and do the quest chain for Kungaloosh and then I will be Chef.

Higher Learning.
Just need the Transmutation (or whatever book from downstairs in the Ledgermain Lounge and then I have my pet and achievement. Joining our /higherlearning channel was such a great help for that, but that last bloody book refuses to spawn!!

Pets.
Went and bought Pengu for the 10 pets achievement from the Kal'uak and got myself the epic fishing rod and the blue healing mace whilst I was there!!!

That's all I can think of for now. How are you guys doing?

Tagged

Thanks Alex :P

Well, on this machine my old WoW screenshots folder has all the images I have used for the blog, and the 6th image in the 6th folder was totally not WoW related and has appeared on this blog before. But in the spirit of not cheating and making up something interesting here goes:



So there you have it.

Anyway, tagged back is Random Ravings, Euripedes, TJ and Doofy. I couldn't tag anyone else cos I am work and all the other blogs I read without fail have already been tagged :P

Malygos 25 Down

Not been on Wow much and not blogged much in the last couple of weeks, family disaster :(

Naxx-25 Finish Up
So, anyway, logged on tonight and asked the raid leader if they needed a noobadin. Yes I am still retribution and sporting quite a few level 70 epics :P

I get invited along to the last 3 bosses in Naxx-25 and we clear them out with ease, netting me some level 80 replacements for my Crystalfoge (T5) shoulders and trousers as well as a very nice healing shield. Woot!!

Onto Malygos
So off we pop to Malygos. The guild has taken him down once before on 25 man, admittedly by the skin of their teeth and by the dots finishing him off, so this isn't a guaranteed kill. We wipe and wipe.

Jumpatron 3000
Several times I managed to get into the anti-arcane shieldy things but went from 100%-0% health anyway :S Turns out Euripedes may have an answer to that. I must try that!!

Crappy Macaroon Buttons
Most attempts got as far as phase 3 but I was usually dead by then!! By the time I survived into phase 3 I was worried that the pet control bar wouldn't come up. You see I have Macaroon as my button mob and it had created problems while questing before. Namely the exit vehicle button, but also the controls sometimes failed to appear.

I used to be able to click into macaroon config mode via the mini-map button and it would toggle the pet bar on, but I must have installed an update and the button was no-where to be seen. So no pet bar.

I managed to stay with the pack for most of the fight, even though I was useless and only died towards the end, at least I wasn't the first to die!!

Vanilla
Before the next attempt I did a quick relog and disabled Macaroon and also managed to survive to phase 3. This time I managed to get about 2 attacks off before I died!!! But we downed Malygos anyway!! Achievement: Heroic Malygos - WOOT!!!

WoW Fail Blog

I'll be sporting an Entrecard advert for WoW Fail Blog in a few days, but I just had to share this that I found over there...

First Naxx-25 Part II

I got into the second half of the Naxx 25 run last night. 22 of us though, so no more under-21 achievements.

We finished the "Construct" ?? Quarter and then did the Military quarter. As we headed into the military area I was dieing almost immediately on every pack pull - OUCH!! SO much so that my gear all went red!!

At this point I switched into all my healer gear and healed the rest of the instance.

I'm Positively Positive that I am in the right place
The encounter where you get positive and negative charges was clear in my mind, but the first attempt I died as soon as I got to the boss and on the second attempt I missed the jump onto the platform ... twice ... and by the time I got to the boss the fight was in full swing. I checked my polarity and headed to the correct group and the polarity switched, I head the correct way but died. I think it was down to the other group being too slow to move and I ran into them ... is that going to kill me? I don't know, but it did.

Key?
Anyway, some key dropped off of Saf and I won the roll, but was told I wasn't a raider so it would go to the next highest roll, I don't care; I only rolled for a laugh knowing it would be discounted, I don't even know what it was for, but I bet I'll be pissed when I find out!!

We had a vote on whether to finish or go after Kel. We went for Kel. Kel died, but not before I did. I think I watched more bosses die while in a pile on the floor than on my own two feet.

Stupid Boss Loot
So anyway, we cleared the place in 2 nights, with a maximum of 22 players at any one time, on my first visit. I got some ret gloves and a healer hat this time; unfortunately it was the same hat I got on Sunday night!!! W.T.F?? Boss loot tables borked? Different bosses can have the same loot, that confused me and disappointed me as well because I thought I got another upgrade. /sadpanda

Next? I have to finish my list of pre-Naxx25 upgrades and go get them so that I am officially a raider again. Apparently running Naxx25 in mostly T4/T5 ret gear or T5/T6 Holy gear is frowned on :P

Oh, and of course got my Heroic Naxx achievement!!

Children's Week Preparation

OK, so the next world event achievement is Children's Week and it starts on May 1st and runs for a week. With that in mind I have started to look into what will be required.

Updated 01/05/2009 for live 2009 event.

Before you even start you can stockpile the following.

• Tigole and Foror's Strawberrry Ice Cream - available beforehand from Caregiver Isel in the Inn in Telaar. Get 2. One for the achievement and one for a quest.
• Tasty Cupcake - made by cooking.
• Delicious Chocolate Cake - made by cooking.
• Lovely Cake Slice - buy a lovely cake from Aimee near the horde-side bank in Dalaran and use it, you should get a slice from it.
• Red Velvet Cupcake - buy from Aimee.
• Dalaran Brownie - buy from Aimee.
• Dalaran Doughnut - buy from Aimee.

1. Go to Stormwind Cathedral and pick up your orphan.
2. Eat all the things you have already collected in front of your orphan for Bad Example.
3. He'll give you quests to go round the world showing you things. Go to Westfall lighthouse then Stonewraught Dam in Loch Modan.
4. Hearthstone with your orphan out - this will give you achievement - Home Alone.
5. Portal to Darnassus and do the travelling quest with your orphan at the bank.
6. Go to Theramore and speak to Jaina at the top of the tower to get her autograph for the next quest.
7. Give your orphan the ice cream and you can now get the Warden of the Alliance quest which will get you a pet for Aw, Isn't it Cute?.
8. Maybe best not to do the Aw, Isn't It Cute? until later in case you lose the orphan. But there also might be follow up quests leading to a new pet in Shatrath, I can't remember!! Breaking News: You get a Draneii Orphan Whistle and new quests in Shatrath- just checking if you can get achievements with the Draniee Orphan. Next Update: You get PvP credits when you have Draneii Orphan out, so you're probably OK!
9. Do a daily quest with your orphan out (you will need to do 1 a day for 5 days).
10. Now it's PvP time: ((While doing the next one make sure to kill 10 enemy players who have an orphan. - looks like this has gone.))
11. Return a flag in Warsong Gulch, Assault a flag in Arathi Basin, Assault a tower in Alterac Valley and Capture a flag in EOTS; all with your orphan out. This should give you School of Hard Knocks.
12. If you haven't killed 10 enemy players yet then finish this off to get you Once an Orphan.... Looks like this one has been removed.
13. Pop along to Utgarde Pinnacle and kill King Ymiron for Hail to the King. Easy :P Make sure you have your orphan out though!
14. Day 5 - Do your last daily quest with your orphan out - you have been doing them every day haven't you? This will give you Daily Chores and give you the meta-achievement Matron or Patron.

Remember, all of the achievements require you to have your orphan out.

The only other achievement is Veteran Nanny which is not required for the meta-achievement and probably requires you to have completed the quest chain for the previous 2 years.

I was sure I had; but I only had one pet, meaning I only completed it last year - Grrrr!

Heigan Dance...

Forgot to mention in last night's post, the one thing I was particularly worried about was the Heigan dance, I've never been that good at moving out of the fire etc, a few Stella's slow your reaction time considerably.

So we're moving through Naxx and get to the next boss and I spot it's Heigan. Uh-Oh!!

/raid [me] Err, guys, I know there is some sort of dance we have to do here, but WTF is it?
/raid [RL] Phase 1 stand right on top of the boss, not behind him, literally right on top of him. Phase 2 we have shammie totems on the floor, follow everyone between the totems. Repeat.
/raid [me] OK, sounds easy.

Phase 1. OK
Phase 2. Slightly too slow. Dead.
Ressed into a DPS phase. OK.
Survived running phase.
Right on top of Heigan in DPS phase and still died :(

Wasn't sooooo bad :P

First Naxx-25

Well Nearly. I was logging on every hour today trying to get the Perma-Peddle achievement on HolyWarrior and get the last goddam candy on EvilBastard to get the "Love Fool" achievement and it was coming up to raid time. When the raid was created I was not level 80 so it did not appear on my calendar so I /w the raid leader and asked if he was likely to need a noobadin; he said probably, ask my class leader.

So I did and I got a raid invite as Ret!! I haven't really upgraded my Ret gear since TBC even though I have been levelling as Ret. I hit 80 in Grizzly Hills just starting the Dark Iron Dwarves quests so the upgrades were not coming yet!!

My Ret gear, was the worst of my 3 specs in TBC, mostly Kara purples and a few T6 level items I managed to pick up for minimum DKP bids. I'd upgraded the trinkets to level 75 greens and I had a green Chest piece and some blue boots from a Nexus quest, I think :S

So, into Naxx-25 with 20 people!! We're doing the under-21 achievement.

We blasted through 2 whole wings. We did the spiders, but may have had 21 in the raid during one boss, and then the plague wing? I don't know but it had Noth the Plaguebringer in it; so assume that's what it was. And we finished up with Patchwerk.

Gear wise I picked up an epic Ret chest piece to replace my green WotLK one and maybe a couple of Holy epics and some mail healer boots. All for minimum bid because I have no DKP and I'm not a raider at the moment. I would have got another couple of pieces but we had a guildie alt who beat me on a couple of rolls.

Bit peeved at that cos surely it would be better for the guild gearing up someone who will be a main raider again, rather than an alt, but I can't really expect loads of free epics when it's taken me 3 months to get to level 80!!

After the raid EvilBastard had one last attempt to get a candy bag and he did; on the 8th candy out of it he got the achievment. HW did not get his perma-peddle :(