Cataclysm Dungeon Hero

I got the Cataclysm Dungeon Hero achievement on my Hunter Brieanna yesterday after completing heroic Stonecore. You earn this achievement for completing all the Cataclysm dungeons at the heroic level.

Recently I replaced my item level 352 PvP bracers with a pair of item level 333 PvE bracers because PvP gear is just no good in dungeons. In doing that I lost a point off my item level but my dungeon score on WoW Heroes went up. Now I am running heroic Deadmines and heroic Stonecore every day, as well as my random daily heroic, to try and get the 346 bracers that drop in there. That will bring my minimum item level back up to 346.

I ran each one yesterday but had no luck, I will try again today when I get on later. I have around a 30 minute queue time with my DPS toons compared to a up to 2 minute wait on my healer. That gives me time to get my Tol Barad daily's done on my DPS toons while I am waiting for the queue to pop.

Heroic: Halls of Origination

I healed Heroic Halls of Origination on my Priest, Brieonna, last night for the first time. I was after one of two particular items. I was after the heroic version of either Soul Releaser or Scepter of Power. I currently have the normal version of Scepter of Power.

The run went very well, better than I could have hoped. The group I got in with knew what they were doing, used a lot of CC, and went at a normal pace. I have found, from experience, that it is usually the poorly geared, inexperienced, tanks that will not use CC and like to move along at a breakneck pace. They think running from one fight to the next before the last mob has even dropped makes it look like they know what they are doing. All it does is scream inexperience and usually doesn't end well.

Unfortunately neither of the items I was after dropped so it looks like I will be queuing into H HoO every day until one of them does. I went through that on my Hunter, Brieanna, in The Lost City of the Tol'vir, trying to get the heroic version of Seliza's Spear to drop. It took me about a week of running it every day before I got it. I guess I will have to settle in and run HoO every day until one of them drops for Brieonna too.

Wranngar - Level 83 Feral Druid

I worked on Wranngar for a little while today and got him to level 83. Wranngar is the last of my 80's I need to get to 85.

I was questing in Deepholm when I hit 83 and headed right over to Uldum to start questing there. I am more interested in getting to 85 than I am with rep or achievements at this time, I can always go back later and finish up all the quests to get the achievements later. I will get more XP per quest in Uldum and get to 84 quicker there which will then allow me to start questing in Twilight Highlands which will get me to 85 pretty quick.

After Wranngar is to 85 I will have to start working on getting them all geared. Right now my Hunter, Brieanna, is the best geared with an item level of 344. My Shaman, Breeonna, is the next best geared with an item level of 336 and my Priest, Brieonna, is next with an item level of 330. My Warlock, Gomorra, is coming in last with an item level of 320. It is gonna take awhile to get them all geared and I was more interested in getting them to 85 than getting them geared right away. Once they are all 85 there will be time for that.

Since they changed the armory around none of my character links were working. The ones in this post are updated and I will work on getting all the other links on this blog updated in the next couple days.

Blizzard In Game Support

Has anyone had to use Blizzard's in game support to get a problem resolved? Sometimes, most the time, it is not too bad, but other times...

I had to put in a ticket because I could not fly in Azeroth after buying the pilots license on my Hunter Brieanna.

While I was waiting for a response, I hit the forums and found one other person that could not fly anywhere. I immediately headed to Northrend to see if I could fly there. Guess what? I couldn't fly in Northrend or Outlands either.

Three days after I put in the ticket I finally received a response. I was told that I would be unable to fly in the starting area's of Azeroth as they are no fly zones... My problem was, as stated in my ticket, that I could not fly anywhere in Azeroth. They went on to say that they hoped they answered my question, but if not, feel free to put in a ticket...

A ticket is a maximum of 500 words. I could not express what I was feeling at that point in 500 words or less. I tried though. I really didn't want to wait another 3 days for more "advice" so I sent an e-mail directly to Blizzard. For those of you who do not know how to do this, the e-mail address is: wowgm@blizzard.com. That would be used for technical support only I would think. I received an answer in less than 3 hours telling me that they had fixed my character and I was all set. Sure enough, I logged onto Brieanna and could fly in Azeroth. I should have done that in the first place.

Anyway, because Brieanna could not quest in Deepholm, I switched over to Gomorra and he is now 83. I got Brieanna to 82 before I could not go on anymore due to not being able to fly. I will get Gomorra to 85 then go back and finish off Brieanna.

I also dual spec'd my Priest Brieonna to be Holy/Shadow. I have been wanting to try Shadow for awhile now and, with what I have seen of the Cata dungeons and how hard they are to heal, I figured now was as good a time as any.

Gatekeeper

Brieanna got her red core hound from The Molten Core the other day. She named him Gatekeeper. That was the last one she needed to complete the set. She now has the red, white and green core hounds. I really like them as hunter pets. You have to be spec'd full Beast Master with the point in exotic pets to tame one as your pet. I had a couple friends help me get this one. Molten Core is an instance/dungeon which makes this one the hardest one to get.

The first one I got was The Kurken. He is found in Stillpine Hold in the Draenei starting area. He is a level 12 when you tame him but then he jumps to 5 levels below you. She named this one Nightmare. I loved it in the battlegrounds with this one when I was in the 71-79 slot. I would just send it after someone and it would kill them. I don't use the core hounds in the battlegrounds much anymore, I usually fight in Survival spec and lose my exotic pets so I use my wolf I have had since level 18 or so. He does well.

Uvuros was the second one she tamed. She named this one Labyrinth. This one is found in Shadowmoon Valley. He was a level 70 elite before taming. I wish I had a picture of this one before it was tamed, core hounds are HUGE before they are tamed, then they shrink. I had a friend, Leonvx, help me get this one. He bubbled and healed me while I tamed it. It takes 20 seconds to tame a pet and one like this can easily kill you in that amount of time.

Brieanna Update 2/12/10

Brieanna is moving right along. She is level 75 now, less than 3 bars from 76, and has her Herbalism and Skinning, her primary professions, maxed out at 450. She also has her cooking maxed at 450, her First Aid at 436 and her fishing at 351. She recently got her 300 riding skill.

She has gotten almost all of level 75 in Alterac Valley fighting Horde. She has 14,151 kills now and is getting more every day. I love fighting on her in there, I love the range she has with a gun and bow. I would like to level her to 80 in the battlegrounds and get her PvP gear so she has most of it when she turns 80 but the queue's are so long for AV I don't see that happening. There were 3 days where I spent over 4 hours a day in queue and never got in. Just yesterday I started being able to get into AV again.

Recently she got her 300 riding skill. That cost me 5,000 gold plus another 95 gold for a swift flying mount for her to ride. I didn't have enough left over at the time to get her an Armored Snowy Gryphon, but I got her one today. That was another 1,900 gold. She is pretty much all set for mounts now.

If you would like to read about her exploits in AV and other battlegrounds, check out her blog Aspect of the Beast.

Shattrath Daily Cooking - Super Hot Stew 2/6/10

Today when I went to see The Rokk, (61,15) in Shattrath, he had Super Hot Stew for Brieanna.

I grabbed the 2 Mok'Nathal Shortribs and 1 Crunchy Serpent I needed out of the guild bank so all I had to do was fly over to Blades Edge and kill a Abyssal so I could cook it over it's corpse. That was pretty easy and when I had my Demon Broiled Surprise I flew back to Shattrath and handed it over to The Rokk.

Today I picked Barrel of Fish for my reward and got 4 Zangarian Sporefish, 6 Figluster's Mudfish, a Fishbone Toothpick and Recipe: Skullfish Soup. That made it a good haul, the recipes are what I am after from this daily. I have them all on Wranngar and Gomorra.

Shattrath Daily Fishing - Crocolisks in the City 2/4/10

I did the daily fishing quest in Outlands today for the first time on Brieanna. I have been working on her fishing lately and finally got it up to 250. I say I am going to get 25 points a day until it is maxed but I will probably only get 10 a day because leveling fishing is so boring, especially at this level when all you are catching is garbage fish.

When I went to see Old Man Barlo, (40,59) at Silmyr Lake in Terokkar Forest, he had Crocolisks in the City for me which is the one I was hoping it was, it is the only one I can do at my level of fishing. This one had me taking the portal to Stormwind where I fished at my spot in the canals. It took me about 14 casts to get my Baby Crocolisk. I took the portal from Stormwind to The Blasted Lands, then went through the Dark Portal and took the flight path to Shattrath. I flew over and gave Old Man Barlo the Baby Crocolisk in exchange for a Bag of Fishing Treasures.

When I opened my Bag of Fishing Treasures it had 6g73s52c, 2 Elixirs of Water Walking, a Broken Spyglass, which I sold to a vendor for 2 gold, and Toothy's Bucket. I was pretty excited to get Toothy's Bucket. That is a pretty rare pet you can only get through the Shattrath daily fishing quest and I got it on my first daily fishing quest ever on Brieanna. Wranngar did this daily for months and never got it, Gomorra has it.

Brieanna - Northrend 2/2/10

I got Brieanna to level 68 and hit Northrend today. I am on the final leg of my journey to 80. I have since leveled her to 69.

When I got into Northrend I picked up all the quests I could find then got to work. I got some nice gear as rewards and her gear score has jumped about 500 points. I am having no problem picking any of the herbs I am finding and that is a relief, I will be able to continue leveling my herbalism as I go along. I still remember all the quests from when I took Gomorra through there not too long ago and that saves me time.

One thing I am pretty happy about is being able to learn to fly there at level 68 instead of 77. That is going to save me a lot of time. Right after I got there Wranngar purchased a Tome of Cold Weather Flight for 1,000 gold and sent it to Brieanna so she could learn to fly in cold weather. If you already have a level 80 in Northernd you are able to do this and as I have 2 there it was no problem. Tome of Cold Weather Flight is BoA (Bind on Account) and requires level 68 to learn so I was able to mail it to her. It is consumed when you use it so you still pay the 1,000 gold for each character to learn it.

I also worked on my fishing skill and got that up to 232. I did a quest for Nat Pagle which got me a new fishing pole, Nat's Lucky Fishing Pole. Almost as nice as the Mastercraft Kalu'ak Fishing Pole, with the +25 to fishing skill opposed to the Mastercraft Kalu'ak Fishing Pole with +30, but no where near as nice looking. It will do until I can get my Mastercraft Kalu'ak Fishing Pole.

Brieanna - Shadowmoon Valley

Brieanna is level 67 now and questing in Shadowmoon Valley. That is probably where I will finish up Outlands because I can head to Northrend at level 68 which I am about 6 bars away from.

I got Bireanna a new Hunter's pet today, The Kurken, which is a core hound, from Stillpine Hold (49,13) in Exodar. I have been thinking about getting her a new pet for awhile now. This one is an "exotic" pet meaning you have to have a point in the Beast Master (exotic pet) talent in your talent tree to tame it. It was level 12 when I found it but jumped to level 62 as soon as it was tamed. It is now level 64. I am pretty happy with it's performance so far. It would be higher but I spent most the time since I got it in the battlegrounds and it doesn't get XP from that. It is a really cool looking pet and I have had a couple people comment on it already. I have only seen one other one and that belonged to a Horde player in the battlegrounds. The only problem with it is I can not switch to Marksman spec in the battlegrounds with it because I have to be in Beast Master spec to summon it. I might still use my wolf in the battlegrounds so I can go Marksman, I am not sure, I will have to see how I do in Beast Master Spec.

Brieanna - Grand Master Herbalism

I have been working on Brieanna the last couple days and she is moving right along. She is level 66 now. She got a couple of her levels in the battlegrounds as I have been doing a lot of battlegrounds on her.

She is currently questing in Nagrand and that is going well, a lot of XP and the quests are easy for her to solo. She got her Herbalism up to 375 and had to go to Northrend to train for Grand Master Herbalism. This is great because it means I can pick anything I find in Outlands. I am finally ahead of the game on that one. Her Skinning is moving right along too, she is up over 400 on that. Needless to say I have no problem skinning anything I kill in Outlands.

I will be spending a lot of time on her going forward as I am looking forward to getting her to 80 and really hitting the battlegrounds and getting her geared. I love fighting in the battlegrounds on her.

Brieanna Level 62 - 1/28/10

I worked on Brieanna some more today and got her to level 62. Mostly I worked on her skills. I got a few of them leveled up pretty well. I got her Herbalism up to 331, I can now pick anything I come across where I am questing. Her skinning is coming along well too, it is up to 403 now and I don't have any problem skinning anything I come across and I shouldn't, the cap for skinning in Burning Crusades was 375. Her cooking is moving right along, it is up to 386 and is probably as high as I can get it until I am in Northrend and able to get more recipes. The only two skills I can work on are first aid, I can get that up to 400 before I hit Northrend, and fishing. Her fishing needs work and I am not looking forward to that. Leveling fishing is probably one of the most boring skills to level. Her fishing is at 151 so she has a long way to go, she is about 200 points off where she should be.

Brieanna - Level 61 - Flying in Outlands

I got Brieanna to level 61 tonight. I did that in Alterac Valley. This was the first time I ever fought in a battleground on her and didn't do too bad. She came out in the top 5, for Alliance, for damage and kills in most the battles and in the top 10 in all the battles. She now has a total of 699 lifetime honorable kills and some marks and honor. I dual spec'd her before I went in because I wanted to be Marksman in the battlegrounds instead of Beast Master, that is working out well too.

I also did some questing in Outlands and found out, when she hit 60, that you can buy your expert riding skill (225) at 60 and get a flying mount. I got that at Honor Hold in Hellfire Peninsula. Now that she can fly the questing should go a lot faster and will certainly be easier. I will have to get it on Wrangar, my Deathknight, too.

I am going to stay out of the battlegrounds now until she is level 65, then I will be back in there and do nothing but battlegrounds until she is level 70.

Brieanna Level 59 - Outlands 1/26/10

I got Brieanna to level 58 tonight while questing in Silithus. That was all I needed, I dropped all the quests I had and headed for the Dark Portal, the entrance to Outlands.

You level pretty fast in Outlands once you hit Hellfire Peninsula, you have no choice. The main reason for that is you are under non-stop attack form everything there from almost the second you arrive. I did a few quests and leveled to 59. I will need to head back to Azeroth and get my Herbalism up to level 300 so I can pick herbs in Outlands, the lowest level herb there is 300. I think I have around 14 points to go.

Brieanna - Level 57 and Grand Master Skinning 1/25/10

Brieanna got her Grand Master Skinning training today when she reached 375 skinning. That means, before ever questing in Outlands, she will be able to skin anything in Outlands. I am sure she will be able to skin everything in Northrend long before she gets there. I had to take the boat from Stormwind to Northrend to get my training, it cost me 35 gold.

I also got her Herbalism up to 238 tonight. I ran all over the place and had to train at 225 to go to 300. I am at the point where I can pick a lot of the Herbs in the area's where I am questing again, but I want to get it up to 250-275 so I don't run into the problem of not being able to pick something. I am going to have to really keep on top of it this time because I hate having to go back and level up a profession. The only plus side to it I can see is the mobs don't even see me when I am there as long as I don't bump into them.

I also got her to level 57 tonight. I did that before I worked on her Herbalism and after I got my Grand Master Skinning training. I was in Western Plaguelands when she leveled. One more level until I am in Outlands, 3 more levels before she is fighting in Alterac Valley. Before she leveled I was questing in Winterspring. I had one quest there where I was killing level 59 and 60 elites. It was close but I did it, they were 3 and 4 levels above me at the time and elite.

Brieanna - Level 56 1/19/10

I played Brieanna for awhile tonight and got her to level 56. She has a lot of rested XP as I haven't played her in awhile so the bars go by pretty quick. I was questing in Western Plaguelands on her. I didn't really do much after she leveled, I went to Ironforge and trained, that was about it. She will probably sit for awhile now until I get bored again. She is only 2 levels away from Outlands now.

Daily's 1/13/10

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

The ones I do for Knights of the Ebon Blade are Leave Our Mark, Vile Like Fire!, Shoot 'Em Up, From Their Corpses, Rise!, No Fly Zone and Intelligence Gathering. I don't waste a lot of time on Intelligence Gathering because there is a very poor drop rate so I hand that one in once a week or so. If I get one I get one, but I don't waste time hunting for them. These don't take me long at all, about 20 minutes or so. If I complete 5, like I did today, that gets me 66g15s. If I do all 6 it gets me 79g38s.

The ones I do for The Sons of Hodir are Blowing Hodir's Horn, Hot and Cold, Polishing the Helm, Spy Hunter and Feeding Arngrim. These also take me about 20 minutes to complete and I make 66g15s off them.

So on an average day I make 132g30s per character, if I do them all on both, plus what I get from drops which is usually another 15-20 gold per character. Not bad for 40 minutes each.

Brieanna - Level 55 1/1/10

Brieanna hit level 55 today. I was questing in Winterspring at the time. I could head back to the Plaguelands now and quest but I think I am going to finish up some more quests here first, I would rather quest here than there anyway.

Her skinning is up to 373 now, only 2 more points before I can head to Northrend and train for Grand Master Skinning. She will be able to skin anything she comes across in Outlands as the skinning cap for there (Burning Crusades) is 375. Her Herbalism still needs some work, I think that is stalled at 176. I will work on that too.

When she hit 55 I headed to Ironforge to put all the leather I had on the Auction house. I had 3 stacks of Thick Leather and 4 Stacks of Rugged leather. I put the Thick Leather up for a buyout of 6g50s a stack and the Rugged Leather for a buyout of 20g a stack. That will bring in around 100g for her.

I only have 3 more levels until she is in Outlands and 25 more levels to 80. It seems like a lot but it won't take too long.

Brieanna - Level 54 12/29/09

I worked on Brieanna some more today and got her to level 54. She is moving along well.

I leveled in Winterspring, I did a bunch of quests there and probably have a couple more days there before I am done. This is a pretty nice area to level/quest in. The quests aren't too hard to solo and the mobs are spread out so you don't aggro 4 or 5 trying to kill 1. That only happened once tonight, I was killing a Chillwind Ravager when two more came over to help. The one I was killing was level 58, 5 levels higher than me, and the 2 that joined in were 57 and 58. I got 2 of them down before the last one got me. If I had popped a health pot instead of mana I might have made it, but I was out of mana at the time and it seemed like the thing to do. If I could have gotten it off me for a few seconds I could have used a bandage, I have Heavy Netherweave bandages that heal 3400 health over 8 seconds, but damage taken breaks the channel.

I went to Ironforge after I leveled so I could train and see if there were any equipment upgrades in the auction house I could use. There was only a pair of boots which I got. There are 2 nice epic daggers in there but they are 190 and 200 gold each. I can't see spending 400 gold on something I will throw away in another 8-10 levels. The ones I have now are level 39 but are doing me well enough as I try not to let anything get close enough to me that I have to use them. Brieanna dual wields daggers and they are pretty fast, their speed is 1.40.

Brieanna - Level 53 12/28/09

I worked on Brieanna some more today and got her to level 53.

Everything I had in Western Plaguelands was red and too hard for me to solo so I headed over to Felwood, in Kalimdor, to see if there was anything there for me. I hit the jackpot there, there were a lot of quests for me to do there giving a lot of good XP. I did everything I could get in Felwood and worked my way into Winterspring. I am currently questing there and had to drop a few older quests to take new ones because my quest log was full. I will be there for a day or two before heading back to the Plaguelands for the final run until I am 58 and can head to Outlands. At that time I will drop all the quests I have and start fresh in Outlands.