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Sunday, February 24, 2013

20 Days of Blogging - Day 5

Day 05 – Favorite item(s) in game

Nope! I haven't forgotten, nor have I given up on getting the 20 Days of Blogging done.  I've just been distracted with little things like homework and hunter pets.  And this one was strangely difficult to do.  Narrowing down my favorite items was hard to do.  My death knight wanted to show off all her cool weapons, the druid has her transformation items, then there's all the mounts and pets, there's a lot of items in this game that are just really cool.  I finally decided I wasn't going to even look at the pets and I finally managed to narrow my items down to five.  Oddly enough most of those choices are mounts.

5.
It took me a few years to get all the achievements for this mount because I'd become very interested complete a holiday or two and then feel burned out of the holidays.  But I still managed to complete it soon enough that my druid was able to get the fastest flying along with this mount.

4.
I still feel pretty darn lucky to have this drake.  I was bored so ran a random and got Stonecore and this drake happened to drop.  I still feel pretty giddy that I had the winning roll.

3.
I was originally pretty bummed that my paladin got this mount instead of my druid.  Hortis, my paladin, originally only used this mount as her flying one since I love the Paladin horse chargers.  I was pretty upset that Draeni now have different mounts.  I think I would have race-changed her if she hadn't had this mount, which became her always mount.

2.
Arita had just hit level 40 when Blizzard announced the first Brewfest.  They had mentioned that a player could collect tickets to get prizes and there would be Brewfest Rams that a player would have to collect tickets before they could get them.  For some reason I thought that meant free mount which had me excited because my druid didn't have much gold.  So when Brewfest came along I headed off to Ironforge and learned the only way to get tickets was to run barrels around.  And you could do it multiple times.  So I spent all day running barrels around and trying to get as many tickets as possible.  Eventually she saved up enough tickets and rushed to buy the Ram Stamp and to turn it in to the mount breeders.  That's where I learned it wasn't a free mount.  Getting the stamp only allowed you the ability to purchase the mounts.  After a few choice curses I began running around killing stuff because after all that work I was buying a damn mount!  I actually managed to scrape enough gold together to buy the mount and then realized I still couldn't use it.  I needed something called riding training.  So I stuffed the ram in my bank and made a new toon with the goal of earning a set amount of gold each level so I could buy a mount and riding when I reached level 40.  I almost deleted Arita but I'm glad I didn't and eventually I was able to buy the riding skill for her and she was finally able to use her ram.  I'm really glad I went to get this ram though because it's not possible to get anymore.  And since Arita is still able to interact with the vendors so I bought the other Brewfest Ram later on since none of my toons have seen it in the holiday bag.

1.
I can't for the life of my figure out what made me keep this item but I'm really glad I did.  As Arita was my first toon, she didn't really know what she was doing so she did quests and followed where they sent her.  Since she is a Night Elf they eventually sent her to Ashenvale and she got started on a really cool quest chain.  It required finding and then putting together a rod that would turn her into a furbolg.  I think I had a lot of help from Thottbot while completing this quest and somewhere I read that if you didn't turn in the last quest you could hold onto the item and use it anywhere.  I'm not very good at thinking ahead but for some reason I decided to follow that advice.  I just wish I had thought to drag some of my other Alliance toons out to Ashenvale to work on that quest.  The quest chain has been revamped for Cata and this item can no longer be gotten.

Hunter Pet Addiction

All I wanted was a green grub. Now I have a list. A list that includes all the pets hunters can use to provide buffs and which pets I want from in that range.  And then comes collecting all those pets.  My hunter has gone from having six pets to having a stable of thirteen.  I'm going to need more hunters now.

Original Stable

The Ghost Saber is my main pet.  Immediately after Sitroh hit level 20 she was in Darkshore trying to hunt up her ghostie.  I really have to change my pet's name though. I think because this was a brand-new hunter I wanted to try a different naming scheme instead of what I usually did which was naming them after  M.A.S.H. characters.  So I tried to be clever and name them after book characters.  And I choose to be clever with Prince Caspian from the Narnia series.  Now I'm definitely rethinking that name.

I'm not sure why I have this wolf but I'm guessing I got him soon after Catspian because the name is WhiteFang.  The wolf I really want is the Thundermaw one from Vale of Eternal Spring but this one makes a decent placeholder.

Vogel was tamed in Stonetalen Peaks and his name means bird in German.  He doesn't have a buff but he's a pretty nice looking pet.

The Nether Ray was an addition from leveling in Zangermarsh and long before I made my list of pets.  I remember reading about sporebats being the only pet with a haste buff.  So I went to catch a sporebat.  I thought this was a pretty nice looking sporebat.  Only to realize after I had tamed it that it was something entirely different.  I still think it's a nice looking pet and I think his ability to interrupt could be pretty useful.

After catching a Nether Ray I immediately went to catch a sporebat.  I didn't really pay much attention to what it looked like but I did make sure it was the correct pet. After looking at Petopia I realized there's not much choice of Sporebat.  That's really disappointing when you realize that it's the only pet to cover that buff.

The last pet already in my stables was this wasp pet.  It's from Zangermarsh as well.  My reasons for catching it is because I thought it was cool the way it's butt glows and glitters.  It was sparkly and shiny and I was having a pet-catching frenzy.

Newest Additions
The Green Grub. I've already said more then enough about this pet.

SunWing! I'm in love with this Dragonhawk.  Which is a good thing because I actually had to camp for him but at least I didn't have a very long wait.  I'm not sure if that's because he's got a short respawn timer or if I got lucky.  Either way I think he's the coolest looking Dragonhawk ever.

My first Corehound catch.  The Kurken is a quest npc on Azuremyst and I know it respawns really fast.  He just looks so adorable.  Maybe he'd like some pink ribbons for in his fur?

I had intended to just catch one of the Silithid roaming around Tanaris but I quickly found Haarka the Ravenous inside the cave system.  Since he was the perfect color and model I quickly tamed him.


I want all the Ravagers.  They have such awesome colors.  I told myself I could only pick one. Maybe two.  Possibly three.  But only one at this time.  I picked this green and purple pretty from Hellfire Pennisula.


My second core hound.  I really don't need two core hounds.  But the Spawn of Ururos gives me nasty looks when I even think about letting him loose.  I think it's because he's now scared of that lava.  When I found him he was playing in it happily but after I caught him standing in the lava was now deadly.  I was lucky my new buddy stayed alive long enough for this screenshot.

Image from Petopia
I forgot to take a screenshot of the last pet I caught tonight.  A felboar.  A green and purple felboar.  Hmmm... I think I have an awful lot of green pets.

Wish List
Because I want to be complete I'll post my wish list here as well.

The Black Fen Strider.  I'm going to be about level 80 before I can feel confident enough to take my hunter into the Underbog to tame the last boss.

Purple Arcane Wyrm.  I really like all four colors but this is the one I really want the most.  I also think it's one of the easier ones to track down.  I'll need to be level 72 before I can tame this one.

Even after all this time Loque'nahak is my favorite Spirit Beast.  The idea of trying to find him makes me feel a little sick inside and I'm only hunting down one spirit beast. And this is going to be it hands down.  I think I'll have to be level 76 but I should double-check.

I really like this raptor.  Maybe I just like neon colors. But it's the only raptor I really want. I want to be level 75 to go hunting this pet.

I really like cats.  And I already have a ghost saber.  But I decided I could allow myself to have another one and this is the one I would most like.  And I predict Skarr will be as much of a pain to find as a spirit beast since it's a Molten Front pet.  I'll need to get to level 85 to snare this one.

I want the purple shale spider.  It's found in deepholm so I'm going to have to level the hunter to 83 to get this one.

If I have to have a Quillen then this is the one I want.  The listing says level 87 but I figure it'll closer to 90 before I can catch this pet.

Lightening Worg is found in the Vale of Eternal Spring so I'll have to hit 90 before I can catch it.

I'm don't know if or when or ever I'll complete this list but I thought it would be a good idea to have it written down somewhere.  Plus it was fun showing off the start of my collection :)

Saturday, February 23, 2013

Leveling the Hunter before it's too late

Something all the bloggers keep mentioning is the Green grub pet that will be going away in patch 5.2 and how they're all heading out to capture it.  My first thought was as cool as it sounded it was something I wasn't going to be able to get.  But I read up on it and realized that since it was in Un'goro Crater I actually did have a hunter with a high enough level.  Then I realized I needed Exotic Beast Mastery Training which requires level 69.  My highest level hunter was only at level 56.  But after some thought I figured those levels might be doable.  So off I went to run dungeons and quest.

Questing with the Ghost Saber

Dungeons with Wolves
And eventually the little hunter hit 69 at around 2 am Saturday morning.

And no time was wasted heading off to Un'goro Crater to wait for the rare.  She even had some company.
I'm the human.  The sniffing noise would have drove me insane.
At about 4 am the the spawns and the hunter is now the proud owner of a giant green slug.
Why did I want this thing again?
And rather then call it a night and go to sleep like a sane person the hunter instead decided to test the worm out by running one more dungeon.
Seriously, this thing is freaking huge.  And a little creepy.


Kirin Tor Familiar!



To prevent apprentices from secretly using the familiar to complete their chores, the archmagi placed the ritual required to summon the creature across the pages of several spellbooks hidden throughout Dalaran.

The Kirin Tor Familiar can be obtained by completing the achievement Higher Learning which requires the player to read 8 different books about arcane magic that spawn in different locations in Dalarn.

Saturday, February 16, 2013

20 Days of Blogging - Day 4

Day 04 – Your best WoW memory

This was a rather difficult topic for me.  When I think about specific events all I seem to remember is what a total newb I was and some amazement that I'm still playing this game.  So I decided to think about what it is that keeps drawing me back and has me excited to play.  My answer: The people I meet and the crazy things that we would do.

I have a sad lack of screenshots from before Mop
So I present a photo of new guildies instead of old ones
One of the first guild I was in had a group that got along very well together and we attempted quite a bit. We did dungeons, heroics, pugged raids, and I even got my first taste of arenas with two of those members.  I argued that I didn't know how to pvp and didn't have any pvp gear and they told me I was a druid so run around like a demented monkey and heal while they did the rest. Funny how well that worked. But there's one thing I remember best about this group is the times we spent in Orgrimmar.  If that doesn't sound so exciting I should like to remind you right here that I was an Alliance toon.  The idea first got started during a holiday event and I had to take myself to Org to get something. I snuck in on my druid and then decided to see if I could catch some fish. The hunter logged on and wanted to know why I was in Org. After explaining he decided to come join me.  Being a hunter he didn't have stealth but he was really good at pvp and managed to make his way to me. Which brought me to everyone's attention. I think this was before duel spec so I was in a resto spec and did what I did best, healed. Which the hunter thought was hilarious. So he ran around killing people while I healed and he eventually invited our warlock friend to come join in. I'm guessing she must have been bored because she came too. She really enjoyed pvp so those two did some massive damage against all comers. It then became a regular event. No raids, all three of us on, then off to Orgrimmar to tease the Horde. We'd also invite others to come too but we were the most consistent attendees. 

A lot of the people have quit the game but I'm still read ID friends with some of them and when I find myself without a group the game seems so dull and boring and I even think about quitting myself.  But usually some guild hunting finds me some more great people to hang out and do crazy stuff with. And I still find myself in Org with a group of people seeing how long before they kill all of us. XD

Peddlefeet!


The power of love can be a dangerous thing, especially when wielded by an airborne, ill-tempered goblin.

Peedlefeet can be obtained during the Love is in the Air event for 40 Love Tokens.

And a hug for Navi!

Friday, February 15, 2013

Thursday, February 14, 2013

20 Days of Blogging - Day 3

Day 03 – Your first day playing WoW

Before I start talking about my first day playing Wow I think I should first explain how I first got started with playing Wow.  I didn't do much gaming before getting into Wow.  My parents refused to allow my siblings and me to get a game system growing up and internet was as much of a dream as satellite tv, which pretty much meant never going to happen. So video games where these things other people got to have while I merely got ponies and bunny rabbits.

Far more awesome and pretty horse then I ever owned
I became interested in Wow because one of my friends was playing it.  I had seen her running around on her hunter and giant push-over that I am, I allowed her to convince me to give it a try. So we took the bus to Wal-mart and on the way back to the dorms I read the little video game guide book to try and figure out what this game was about.

We got back to my room and I began installing it.  That took some time and we began watching movies.  And once it was installed I then had to start installing all the patches.  There seemed to be an endless amount of patches.  One of the last movies we watched before all the patches finished installing was Ella Enchanted

Areida! Poor, poor Areida
With all the patching finally done it was time to create my first toon.  I had decided to be a druid because they could turn into cats.  I like cats. So I was going to be a cat.  Because I wanted to play with my friend that meant my druid would have to be a night elf.  I spent forever making sure all the details where absolutely perfect.  I had just finished reading a series where the people with magic had white hair and I really liked that idea and I thought turning into a cat was definitely magic so my druid had white hair.  She had the claw tattoos because she would be turning into a cat.  And she was purple because that was my favorite color.  Then I had to pick a name.  Naming stuff is not my strong point.  I once had a fish named Mr. Beta since he was a beta fish and I had a goat named Goat-Goat.  But since we had just finished watching Ella I felt inspired to draw my name from that movie.  I didn't want Ella but Ella's friend was Areida.  But I thought they were calling her Arita, which is what I named my druid. Both names sound pretty much the same anyway although I've been told it's because I don't enunciate my t's properly, an Iowan or Midwestern thing. I'm not too sure which.

Recreation of the Character Creation Process
Although the screens have since changed...
Anyway, I was finally done messing with my druid's looks and ready to actually get playing. So I logged in and watched the cinematic in awe.  And I then saw my screen. What the heck was I supposed to do?  My friend immediately made sure that I wasn't using the arrow keys to control Arita but asd and w.  Hey, to be fair she was still pretty new to the game herself. I think she was a level 20 hunter.  She taught me to click the yellow exclamation mark and pick up my first quest.  And then she taught me about my skills.  I had something called "wrath."  I wanted to know when I could turn into a cat.  She told me it probably came later since she hadn't had an animal at first. Hmm... ok.  So then she wanted me to kill stuff.  The conversation went something like this:
Me: "How do I kill stuff?"
Her: "Stand a distance from your target and then right-click it."
Me: "Ok!" click, click, click..., "Uh, it keeps saying that I'm too far away."
Her: "Then get closer!"
Me: Get closer until I can finally began whacking the mob with my druid's stick.
Her: "What are you doing? Why are you standing on top of the mob?"
Me: "That's how close it says I need to be!"
Her: rolls eyes. "Whatever, try using your abilities."
Me: Begins casting wrath with mob whacking at me. Watches as it finally gets cast and it doesn't do much damage. "That didn't really do anything."
Her: "Well, I don't really know much about druids."
Me. "...Ohhhh Kaaaaay...."
Her: "Just let me know when you finally kill it."

...Much later
Me: "I killed it!"
Her: "Ok, time to loot it"
Me: actually managed to figure out how to loot
Her: "Oh! You got some pants. See if they're better than what you've got."
Me: "Huh?"

She eventually gets me to understand bags, character screen, and gear.
Her: "Ok, hmm... your toon doesn't have any pants. Or gloves. Or shoes. Why are you barefoot? What did you do with your shoes?
Me: "I don't think I did anything with them."
Her: "You must have done something! You need boots! Go get boots!"
Me: "....Ohhhh Kaaaay...."

My druid. Still engaged in the fine art of Bare-foot Melee

I'm pretty sure the rest of the day went something like that.  It's kinda funny now because neither of us really knew what we were doing although she was at least able to read the map.  South is damn difficult to find.

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

20 Days of Blogging - Day 2

Day 02 – Why you decided to start a blog

My shaman, still wearing her Mogolympics outfit
I wasn't going to start a blog.  The idea of trying to write and come up with stuff consistently was a terrifying idea.  If I was going to share anything online it was going to be a web comic. And I even had a vague idea for a story to tell.  But I never started it. It was more of a someday idea then anything I was going to do right away.  After all, I had school to get though.

About that time I began lurking though other Warcraft blogs looking for more stuff to read.  I didn't comment since I was terrified of saying something but I started going back to some sites again and again.  I finally said something when JD announced his Mogolympics contest.  I really wanted to be a part of it.  And that introduced me to the Amateur and his Missus and eventually to Shoryl for her Laid Back Dungeons and other bloggers though the Laid Back Raids.  I found that I really wanted a voice.  I wasn't sure what I would write about but I wanted to be a part of that community.  And I quickly realized that I had the perfect thing to start posting with, my entries to the Mogolympics!

I thought I'd post more mogging stuff and while I've done a bit it's been pretty sporadic.  I've found that my thoughts about what I'd blog about have changed a bit and I feel like I'm still finding my way.  At times I feel like the blog is merely a brain dump for me but it's been a lot of fun and I enjoy having taken part in the different contests and events that other bloggers have put on.  I'm also always so happy when someone decides to play my Warcraft pet game.  It's nice to have something that I feel is unique to me. And I hope to evolve my game into something more.  I'm going to have to take some time and see what cool stuff I can do to make my game even better. (That's my not so subtle way of asking for suggestions).


Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Going to the Oscars

Matty from Sugar & Blood has a birthday coming up on the Oscars and has even put together a mog contest.  Basically it's recreating three characters from any movie.  We're even allowed to mix and match armor types to get the look we want.

The movie I choose was Disney's Beauty and the Beast, mostly because I really wanted to make a Beast :)

The Beast




And my attempt to replicate his fancy dress. I choose a Worgen because the physical features seemed to match the closest. The way the legs bend and end in claws, the pointy teeth, pointy fingernails, fluffy head. I just wish they had a brown Worgen male color. This greyish color was the closest I could get.  And the big winner for choosing a Worgen for the beast is Two Forms. After all the Beast is really human.  I thought I would have to find a blue shirt and then add a white shirt underneath but this vest already had the look but it didn't have sleeves.  But the blue shirt matched fairly well and added some fancy gold to make the outfit look more rich.  I was really happy when the belt matched the design on the sleeves and helped tie the pieces together even more.


Belle 



Belle I wanted as human and I was really torn about trying to make her fancy dress because it would be really difficult to try and replicate.  I thought about using a yellow robe but I didn't feel any of them where really quite right. I like the chestpiece but think there needs to be a decent yellow kilt in the game somewhere. So I went with a yellowish sort of kilt and used the belt to hide some of the purple and add some more of the really bright yellow. I think it's an ok idea but I'm not as happy with this look as I was with the Beasts.


Gaston



Gaston is a blood elf. While Gaston has a more angular face and more chest hair then a blood elf I felt the most important thing for choosing a model for Gaston was his character.  Gaston was considered the most handsome man in town and he was very arrogant about it.  And what could be more handsome and arrogant then a blood elf? I was really happy with how well this outfit came together from the open-necked shirt to the hunting boots all the pieces just seemed to fall into place.  If you wanted to use the outfit for a mog there's even a decent set of red shoulders that you can use that won't detract from the overall look.


20 Days of Blogging - Day 1

It's been awhile since I've even attempted to write anything but my Who's that Warcraft Pet and my last one was late and I didn't even write anything on the reveal which I should fix. Anyway, I thought doing the 20 days of blogging from Spellbound would help me get back into the habit of typing and posting stuff.

So without further ado:

Day 01 – Introduce yourself

Hi! I'm Mel, although most people in Wow know me either as Arita or Tyledres depending on when I met them. If they call me Rita then I knew them back in Wrath and Cata and if they call me Tyledres or Tyle then I met them toward the end of Cata.

I'm grew up on a diary farm and my family allowed my siblings and me to have lots of pets.  Horses, goats, chickens, geese, rabbits, hamsters, dogs, cats, and fish are just some of the critters we've taken care of over the years.  I used to be able to tell my high school friend that I had a kid and his name was Goat-Goat.

I'm currently a college student and on my third major.  I originally started in horticulture, changed colleges and changed my major to Graphic Design, got a two year, and began attending another college.  I recently changed my major once again, this time to education although I'm not certain what my specialties are yet.  I'm currently considering art and English.  I've been told to take this semester and see if this is a field I want to be in and then decide.  I've recently begun observation hours at a local Middle School and it's a blast so far.  Those kids are all so adorable and it feels really good to be in the school.

So that's me in a quick little nutshell.

Monday, February 11, 2013

Voodoo Figurine!


Voodoo figurines were often empowered by flasks of mojo, troll sweat, and the flesh of tribal enemies.

The Voodoo Figurine can be found by solving troll archaeology.

Grats to Askevar for getting the right answer.

Saturday, February 9, 2013

Who's That Warcraft Pet?


Who doesn't love archaeology XD

Sorry for being late in getting this up.