More Dungeons

I have been doing a lot of Dungeons on Breeonna, as a matter of fact that is about all I have been doing. I have been exploring what is left of Azeroth between dungeons.

I did find something amusing in Lakeshire last night. Apparently they have bare knuckle fights in the basement of the Inn there. Last night was a dwarf against a human. There were a lot of people there just watching the fight and cheering on their favorite.

I had one Halls of Reflection last night that I didn't finish. That was the first one in a long time that I didn't finish. It was a Heroic and we died 4 times before everyone bailed. The problem seemed to be the healer not being able to keep up. But then again the whole group had some problems. We wiped for the first time on the second boss, Marwyn, in the first part. When we came back from that the tank ran to the other side as soon as the spirits came out. I thought that was a little weird but I thought maybe he had a plan. He didn't. He thought we would only have to fight the last boss and not the waves of mobs. That cost us another wipe.
Finally we got everyone on the same page but still couldn't bring down the boss in 2 more tries, that is when everyone bailed.

I had a few more dungeons that were pretty interesting. I do a lot of random dungeons because the normal randoms queue in half the time a heroic does. That way I have less wait and more play. In normal randoms you get a lot of people that are under geared and inexperienced. I learned my lesson on healing, it is usually easier to heal a heroic that it is a normal because the people in the heroic are usually more experienced. Another problem with the normals is I end up queuing into Oculus, Culling of Stratholme and Trial of the Champion a lot because a lot of the players are under 80 and those are the only ones they can get into.

Redridge Fox

I got a Redridge Fox for Brieanna yesterday. I saw someone else with one and figured, why not? The Foxes, tamable as hunter pets, are new with patch 4.0.3. I am not sure if I will use it, but it only took me a minute to run over to Lakeshire and tame one.

**I mistakenly called this the Redwood Fox in the original post, it is a Redridge Fox.

The Shattering - 11/23/10

It took some time to get logged in today between maintenance running over then the problems people had logging in but I finally got in. Of course there were the mandatory disconnects following that but after an hour or so it stabilized and I was able to take a look around.

The first thing I went to see was the Park in Stormwind. That was a total wash, gone. It looked like it got blown off the face of the world. I also noticed that Stormwind got a face lift. The cobblestones in the street were much more defined and had a pattern to them. The outsides of the buildings were crisper and cleaner. The colors were more vibrant. Then I got to the center of town, the Trade District. There were some more changes there too. The fountain outside the bank has water in it now. The auction house moved to a new location, across from the bank. It is now bigger and less crowded.

When I went outside Stormwind to the Valley of Hero's I saw where one of the statues got knocked down (into the water I assume) and now is on a sled to be brought back up. You can see the feet still standing on the pedestal where it once stood. Looking back at Stormwind from the main gates you can see damage to the towers. There is already scaffolding up so I assume they are already fixing it?

I didn't notice any real changes in Ironforge.

From there I headed to Westfall. I got a surprise when I got there. Sentinel Hill is now a fortress. It has walls around most of it and a lot more buildings. They moved the flight point up next to the original tower now. All of the original buildings are still there, they just added a lot more to it. There was really a lot of content in this patch even though the expansion is not out yet. I noticed a lot of homeless people around Westfall and other areas as I explored them, I guess some of the ones in Westfall used to live in the park in Stormwind as they are labeled as Stormwind refugees.

From Sentinel Hill I noticed a vortex of some kind throwing trees and rocks up into the air. I decided to go over and see what that was all about. What I found there was a glowing hole in the ground. It is called the Raging Chasm. I didn't spend too much more there and these were the only 2 things I found.

I headed to Blasted lands from there as I heard there were going to be some changes there too. I found Nethergarde Keep to be pretty much the same as it was although I ran into some mobs by the mine. I headed south east from Nethergarde Keep and eventually ran into Shattershore. This is all new territory in Blasted Lands. I headed west along the shore and found the Red Reaches. There I found the Bloodwatch Shrine. Continuing west I ended up in the Tainted Forest. As soon as you enter the Tainted Forest from the Red Reaches there is a tiny village called Surwich right on the shoreline. There is a dock there that looks like it is set up to receive a boat, another sailing point? Surwich had an Inn and a couple houses and is dark like Duskwood. From there I headed deeper into the Tainted Forest which eventually lead me back to the Blasted lands I knew. I headed back to the flight point and took a flight to Arathi Highlands.

When I got to Arathi Highlands everything seemed to be the same. My real destination was Southshore as I noticed there was no longer a flightpoint there. While heading to Southshore on the road I noticed a new road (31,54), right across from Stormgarde Keep, with a sign that said Hinterlands. I followed that and found they had put in a tunnel from Arathi Highlands to Hinterlands. I think this is a great idea. When I was leveling up my first toon, Gomorra, I looked all through Arathi Highlands to find a way into Hinterlands from there, there is none. I went through the tunnel to Hinterlands and found that there is a road right from the tunnel to Aerie Peak making that a lot easier to get to.

Continuing on my way to Southshore I noticed a lot of Horde (PvP) mobs everywhere. I even got flagged when I stopped to help out a Rogue that was fighting some. When I got to Southshore I found total devastation. The place was taken over by someone (Forsaken?) and was deserted of Alliance life. I went into the Inn and it was deserted. It looked like they had just packed up and left a few minutes before I got there. There were still fires going in all the fire places but there were no people or furniture. It reminded me of the abandoned Inns you find in places like Moonbrook in Westfall and Raven Hill in Duskwood except this place was still clean and not falling apart.

I headed up to Chillwind Point to catch a flight to the Wetlands to see if anything happened there.

When I got to Wetlands I couldn't believe it. Menethil Harbor was flooded, the docks were all warped and busted up and houses on one side of the keep were under water. The whole place had 1-3 feet of water in it. They had sandbagged to keep the water out of a lot of the buildings. I took a quick ride around outside of the keep but didn't notice anything straight off. It was getting late so I decided to call it a night. I will do some more exploring tomorrow and see what I find.

Black Temple

I had the opportunity to run the Black Temple the other night. It is a level 70, 25 man raid located in Shadowmoon Valley, that I had never done before. We had a group of 21 players with about 35% level 75+. There is a lot of nice scenery in Black Temple as in most the dungeons/raids. From what I understand a lot of the older dungeons/raids are going to be changing in Cataclysm.

Here's a little history on the Black Temple:

The Black Temple is the fortress of Illidan Stormrage, the lord of the Outlands. It was once known as the Temple of Karabor and has changed hands many times over the years. This raid drops Teir 6 and also drops the legendary Twin Blades of Azzinoth. The entrance to Black Temple is not at the gates but through a breech in the southern wall.

You used to have to be attuned to run this raid but attunement is no longer required.

Before the shattering of Draenor the Black Temple was once called the Temple of Karabor which was a sacred site of the Draenei. Shortly after the formation of the Horde, Gul'dan ordered the temple to be taken and made it into the headquarters for the Shadow Council. They also named it the Black Temple in the process.

Following his defeat to Arthas Menethil, Illidan returned to the Black Temple where he resides today. Neither his activities or mental state are known at this time. While Malfurion has stated that Illidan has become mad and delusional, believing that he killed Arthas and accomplished the mission Kil'jaeden had sent him on. If Illidan has descended into madness and believes he accomplished his mission it would make no sense for him to worry about Arthas or Kil'jaeden coming after him; he would believe the former dead, and the latter appeased. But then again, those afflicted by madness rarely make sense.
**Source: WoWWiki

So that is what we walked into. Overall we didn't really have a problem and moved through it quickly and smoothly. A few of the lower level players died a couple times but we really didn't have that many deaths and no wipes. Due to the higher levels present we were able to pull whole rooms at a time. I can see how this would be a pretty tough raid if everyone was level 70, it sure wouldn't have went as fast and smooth as it did I am sure. Unfortunately the Twin Blades of Azzinoth did not drop. I have been playing WoW for 4 years (December 1st) and have yet to see a legendary drop. Here are some screen shots I took during the Campaign.

Random Dungeons 11/22/10

I have been pretty busy lately. I gave up doing my daily's because they nerfed the gold payout, and started doing dungeons instead.

I have done most of the dungeons on Breeonna and have been getting her some better gear with Justice Points in the process.

When I first enter a dungeon, first and second fights, my DPS is really poor. Usually less than 3k. Then I find my groove and it starts climbing, up to as high as 6k. That is about as high as I ever get on Breeonna but she is slowly creeping up as I get better gear on her.

In the past few days I have done every heroic dungeon at least twice, some a lot more. I just got out of a heroic Halls of Reflection that went really well. I remember when a chill would go down my spine when I would queue into it. Now I look forward to it. If you have a good group it is a cakewalk like it was today. If you have a poor group, and I have been in many, it can be pretty rough. I remember starting a lot of them I never got to finish because people bailed. I got a couple achievements on Breeonna who apparently didn't have them.

I was in a pretty funny Trial of the Champion yesterday. The Tank was a Paladin in blues and greens and had 20k HP. Did I mention it was heroic ToC? That was interesting, there were a couple wipes, and a lot of the Tank dying which would leave the tanking to me and a Rouge. But we got through it. Normally I would have bailed but the Tank and Rogue informed us at the start that the tank was a fresh 80 looking to get geared so I figured I would stick around and help out. The Priest that was healing ninja'd the Tank neck piece that dropped for some reason. It was STR and STA, not usually what a Priest is looking for in a neck. I think he did it just to be a jerk.

I stayed with them for another random which turned out to be Violet Hold. He had a lot better time in there and got a nice set of leggings. I have been seeing some new drops from these old bosses lately, ever since the last big patch as a matter of fact. I got a new shield for Breeonna the other day in Pit of Saron that I had never seen drop before. It is a pretty nice caster shield.

The bottom line is I make more gold doing random heroics than I do with my daily's now that they nerfed the payout.

Stratholme - Mount & Rep Runs 11/19/10

I did some mount and rep runs in Stratholme on Breeonna and Brieanna tonight. I didn't expect the mount to drop and it didn't in the 5 runs we did. I did get some rep tho. There were 3 of us that were doing these runs, me and 2 people from the guild. We had no problem at all because it is a level 60 dungeon and one 80 could solo it, never mind 3.

What we were after, besides rep, was the Deathcharger's Reins that drop off Baron Rivendare. It has a .02% drop rate, not that great. I have done runs for this mount before but have never seen it drop. I know it does drop because I see people riding it, but not a lot of people riding one.

I did manage to get the Key to the City, which drops off Magistrate Barthilas, for Bireanna and Breeonna, which allows you to enter through the servants entrance and open gates inside so you can do quick mount runs. I now have this key on Brieanna, Breeonna, Wranngar and Gomorra.

The reason I was trying this again was someone said they are revamping the classic dungeons and this mount, along with others is going away. I have not verified that but I am going to look into it.

Random Dungeons 11/18/10

I did some dungeons today for the first time in quite awhile. Seeing that the daily quest gold got nerfed already, I decided I could make more gold doing dungeons.

I did Nexus as my random daily heroic on Brieanna and then got Gundrak for my next random heroic. Both of them went really smooth. We had a good group in Nexus and tore through there without any problem. Being the Hunter I made sure I dismissed my pet before jumping off anything. I have been in more bad situations in Nexus, and other dungeons, because the Hunter doesn't dismiss their pet before jumping and the pet takes the long way around, aggroing everything along the way. We had no problem at all with the Bosses but I couldn't skin Keristrasza at then end. It said it required 455 skinning skill, I have 450. I am pretty sure I have skinned that Boss many times before but, oh well, times are changing.

Gundrak went smooth too. When we went to kill Eck the Ferocious I couldn't get through the entrance for some reason, I don't know why. After everyone else came back from that we finished up the rest with no problems.

I didn't do any heroics on Brieonna because it has been so long since I did any healing. That, the fact that they took away some of my stuff, and just being out of practice had me doing normal dungeons on her. My random daily dungeon on her was Utgarde Pinnacle. This was actually the first dungeon I did today which got me going on them. I didn't do too bad considering. I lost one person by the time it was over. That was a combination of line of sight, lag and being out of practice. Usually when I am healing I try to keep an eye on everyone and not let anyone get out of my sight. Well, I let someone get out of my sight and by the time I could get them back in sight and get a cast off it was too late for them. We finished up though without any more problems after that, I paid a little more attention.

My next random daily on Brieonna was Trial of the Champion which I got into already in progress. I lost one in there too. It was phase 3 of the Black Knight and too many people were taking damage at once. That's where being out of practice really hurt, normally I have no problem in there. This is why I decided to do normal dungeons on her instead of jumping right back into heroics.

My last random daily dungeon on Brieonna was The Forge of Souls. I almost bailed as soon as I queued in, I didn't think I was up to that one yet. If it was Halls of Reflection or the Pit of Saron I would have bailed, but I decided to stick it out and see what happened. We had no problem at all. It was a smooth textbook run. We had a good tank and a good group, not that there was anything wrong with the other groups. That was about all the stress I could take on Brieonna for one day so I switched over to Breeonna to do a few.

I only did randoms on Breeonna and my random daily was Forge of Souls again. We had another good group and tore through there pretty smoothly. I then proceeded to do the Pit of Saron, Halls of Reflection and Utgarde Pinnacle. We had no problems in any of those although one person died in UP. At least I wasn't healing it :). I noticed it takes about twice as long, twice as many harpoon shots, to get Skadi the Ruthless down in UP than it did the last time I was in there. The first time around I thought he was bugged but them second time took just as long.

The nice thing about Brieonna is she queues in a minute or less usually. There is no waiting for queues on her. On Brieanna and Breeonna it took about 10-12 minutes to queue in. I want to get back in Dungeon shape so I won't be lost when Cata gets here as I am going to have to regear everyone.

Daily Quest Gold

Today when I was doing my daily quests I noticed they weren't paying out what they used to. Where I was getting around 200 gold a day from the The Sons of Hodir and Knights of the Ebon Blade daily's I was doing, including drops, I now get around 100 gold. They payment for the quests dropped from 13g23s each to 7g40s each. And some of them even dropped as low as 3g70s.

This is because of the upcoming expansion. 80 will no longer be the top level so the payment for the level 80 daily's goes down. That is what happened to Burning Crusades when Wrath of the Lich King came out, the level 70 daily's dropped to about half what they were paying. The problem I have with that is Cataclysm isn't here yet! I am trying to make gold so I will be able to afford to operate in Cata and they reduced the payouts for the daily's by half already...

Personally I think they should have waited and incorporated that when they expansion goes live on the servers. 80 is still the cap and will be for another 3 weeks. This had to have happened with the patch Tuesday or the restart today because it was fine before that.

Infused Mushroom Meatloaf - Daily Cooking Quest 11/17/10

Today when I went and picked up the daily cooking quest from Katherine Lee (41,65), the Grand Master Cooking Trainer in the kitchen of A Hero's Welcome, I got Infused Mushroom Meatloaf again. Two days in a row isn't bad for a "random" daily but I have had the same "random" daily for a week before. At least this is a quick easy one. I did it on Gomorra and Brieanna.

This had me heading down into the sewers below Dalaran to pick Infused Mushrooms. Once again there didn't seem to be anyone doing it today and I got my 4 fast. Once I had the Infused Mushrooms I headed over to the bank and grabbed a couple pieces of chilled meat for the rest of the ingredients for my Meatloaf. I built a fire and cooked it up right in the bank, it takes 2 seconds over a fire. Once I had my Infused Mushroom Meatloaf I delivered it to Orton Bennet, upstairs at Curiosities and Moore in exchange for 9g93s, a Dalaran Cooking Award and a Small Spice Bag.

Gomorra's Small Spice Bag had 3 Northern Spices and 3 Old Spices in it.

Brieanna's also had 3 Northern Spices and 3 Old Spices in it.

Not a bad return on this daily, there is really not much more to be had from it.

Disarmed - Daily Fishing Quest 11/17/10

Today when I went to see Marcia Chase (53,65), by the fountain in Dalaran, she had Disarmed for me. This is one of the better ones, right up there with Jewel Of The Sewers because you don't have to leave Dalaran to do it, no travel time :). I did it on Brieonna, Gomorra and Brieanna.

This had me heading over to the pool right outside the entrance to Violet Hold. As usual this one took a lot of casts on all my toons to complete. I don't know what it is about this one but it is never quick. The story is that one of the prisoners in Violet Hold tore the arm off a jailer and threw it in the pool outside the prison. It was eaten by a Eel which made it become bloated. Went I finally caught a Bloated Eel I opened it up and got the severed arm out from inside it. From there it is off to Olisarra the Kind, (36,37) the Grand Master First Aid Trainer in the Magus Commerce Exchange in Dalaran, where she is going to attempt to reattach it to the jailer. Good luck with that. She gave me 13g23s and a Bag of Fishing Treasures for my trouble.

Brieonna's Bag of Fishing Treasures had 9g46s88c, 5 Pygmy Oil, 2 Crafted Stars and 3 Deviate Fish.

Gomorra's Bag of Fishing Treasures had 10g10s52c, a Glow Worm and 2 Crafted Stars in it.

Brieanna's Bag of Fishing Treasures had 10g25s13c, 4 Pygmy Oil, 2 Crafted Stars and 4 Deviate Fish in it.

Not really a great day of fishing for anyone. I am really after the Jeweled Fishing Pole for Brieonna. She is around 284 fishing skill now so she can almost use it.

Sons of Hodir & Knights of the Ebon Blade - Daily's 11/16/10

I did my daily's for The Sons of Hodir and the Knights of the Ebon Blade on Gomorra and Brieanna today.

The Sons of Hodir had me heading to Dun Niffelem in the Storm Peaks. For them I do Blowing Hodir's Horn, Hot and Cold, Polishing the Helm, Spy Hunter and Feeding Arngrim. The only one I don't do for them is Thrusting Hodir's Spear which I determined isn't worth the gold it pays. These take me about 25 minutes and make me 66g15s plus whatever I get from drops. I also get Herbs, on Brieanna, and leather on both Brieanna and Gomorra.

From there is was off to Icecrown to see the Knights of the Ebon Blade. I used to fly right into the Shadow Vault but ever since the last patch I don't have the flight point on my map anymore. I can fly there on my flying mount and then fly out of there from the flight point, it is still there, but I can't fly into the flight point there. Now I fly into Deaths Rise using public transportation then fly over to the Shadow Vault on my own mount.

Anyway I picked up Leave Our Mark, Vile Like Fire! and Shoot 'Em Up from the Shadow Vault then flew back over to Deaths Rise and picked up From Their Corpses, Rise!, No Fly Zone and Intelligence Gathering. For awhile there it looked like they fixed Intelligence Gathering but it now seems to be back to the way it was before. By that I mean it takes forever to get the 5 documents you need. Altogether these take me about 45 minutes including getting the documents for Intellegence Gathering. These 6 daily's make me 79g38s plus whatever I get from drops. I also get Herbs, on Brieanna, and leather on both Brieanna and Gomorra.

I stopped by K3 in the Storm Peaks on Brieanna and did Overstock while I was in the area earlier. This one literally takes a couple minutes, no effort, and makes 12g96s.

310% Flight Speed

I have been looking into this 310% flight speed you can now purchase. Previously the only way to get 310% flight speed was to have a 310% mount. Now anyone can purchase 310% for a mere 5,000 gold. Yeah.... It just keeps getting better.

According to MMO-Champion, people that already have a 310% flying mount will not be required to pay for this new skill. So if you don’t have a 310% mount, there's still time to get one. Here are some of the mounts available:

• Reins of the Violet Proto-Drake — If you didn’t finish What a Long, Strange Trip it’s Been for the achievement points, then you can do it for the guaranteed mount. Big time investment, but big reward.

• Reins of the Rusted Proto-Drake — Your reward for completing Glory of the Ulduar Raider (10-man). Still in-game, but may eventually be removed like the original Glory of the Raider mounts. Blue Posts indicate that if it is removed, players will be given a 1-month notice.

• Reins of the Ironbound Proto-Drake — Same as above, but for the 25-man version of Glory of the Ulduar Raider.

• Reins of the Onyxian Drake — About a 1% drop rate off 10/25 man Onyxia – if you can get the groups together, that means you have two shots per week. It’s the rarest item yours truly has ever won in a roll, and I can testify to her beauty.

• Ashes of Al’ar — Another rare mount, but perhaps THE coolest looking one currently in-game. About a 1.7% drop rate of Kael’thas Sunstrider in The Eye of Tempest Keep, and you can only farm once per week. Good luck on this one, it’ll be a tough ride.

• Invincible’s Reins — For the hardcore raiders, get your 25M heroic Lich King on. Defeat him, and get a guaranteed mount drop per week.

• Mimiron’s Head — Not quite up for LK? Go for Yogg-Saron on 25M, with no keepers, for a shot at a flying head, instead.

• Reins of the Bloodbathed Frostbrood Vanquisher — Your reward for completing Glory of the Icecrown Raider (10-man).

• Reins of the Icebound Frostbrood Vanquisher — Same as above, but for the 25-man version of Glory of the Icecrown Raider.

This list doesn’t include mounts that scale to 310% — since you already have to have a 310% mount for it to scale that high. If you already have a 310% mount that isn’t listed, you’re still ok.

There is still time, about 3 weeks, to get out there and get a 310% mount and save yourself 5,000 gold. Another option is to just stay with the 280% flight speed that already cost you 5,000 gold. I think that is what I am going to do, the extra 30% speed while flying just doesn't mean that much to me, certainly not enough to pay 5,000 gold for it.

I have a poll going in the right hand column of this blog where you can vote on whether or not you will be anteing up 5,000 gold to fly at 310% speed. I know I won't, at least not now. Maybe in the future if I have a lot of gold lying around I might think about it, but how often does that happen?

I will be coughing up the 250 gold for a Flight Masters License so I can fly in Azeroth. I have been waiting a long time to be able to fly in Azeroth and there are a lot of places I want to check out that you can only get to with a flying mount.

Infused Mushroom Meatloaf - Daily Cooking Quest 11/16/10

Today when I went to see what Katherine Lee (41,65), the Grand Master Cooking Trainer in the kitchen of A Hero's Welcome, had for me I ended up with Infused Mushroom Meatloaf. I did this one on Gomorra and Brieanna today.

This had me heading down into the Underbelly to pick some Infused Mushrooms. There didn't seem to be anyone doing it today so it went pretty quick, the mushrooms were everywhere. After I gathered up the 4 I needed I headed up to the bank to get some Chilled Meat, this recipe calls for 2. When I had all the ingredients I cooked them up in the Meatloaf Pan, I was given when I got the quest, and delivered it to Orton Bennet, upstairs at Curiosities and Moore. He gave me 9g93s, a Dalaran Cooking Award and a Small Spice Bag.

Today Gomorra's Small Spice Bag had 5 Northern Spices in it. Not a bad haul for him.

Brieanna's Small Spice Bag had 3 Northern Spices in it. An ok haul for her too.

Jewel of the Sewers - Daily Fishing Quest 11/16/10

Today Marcia Chase (53,65), by the fountain in Dalaran had Jewel Of The Sewers for my daily fishing quest. I did this one on Brieonna, Gomorra and Brieanna.

This one had me heading down into the sewers below Dalaran to fish up a piece of Corroded Jewelry. I have my spot I go to in the Black Market where there is hardly ever anyone else fishing. I usually get my piece of Corroded Jewelry in 10 casts or less and today was no exception. When this quest first came out I tried fishing all over the place down there but only had luck in the Black Market. I know people catch it elsewhere down there but the Black Market works for me.

Once I had my piece of Corroded Jewelry in hand I headed back up top to see Marcia. I traded her the Corroded Jewelry for a Bag of Fishing Treasures.

Today Brieanna's Bag of Fishing Treasures had 10g70s67c, 3 Pygmy Oil and a piece of Worthless Red Glass. Not a great haul for Brieanna today.

Brieonna's Bag of Fishing Treasures had 6g60s68c, a Glow Worm, a piece of Worthless Green Glass and 3 Deviate Fish. Nothing worth writing home about there either.

Gomorra's Bag of Fishing Treasures had 10g41s57c, 2 Elixirs of Water Walking, 2 Solid Gold Coins and 4 Deviate Fish. Not a great day for Gom either.