Mounts 100 and 101

Mount #100 - Swift Burgundy Wolf

(along with my new Tirisfal Batling)

Mount #101 - Red Dragonhawk

(with my Dragonhawk pet, Ruin, and my Golden Dragonhawk Hatchling)

Where's Anzu?

So tonight i received a bit of a shock.  I used The Last Relic of Argus and was teleported to Hellfire Peninsula.  So i thought "might as well kill Anzu."  So i flew over to Sethekk Halls and pwned nearly everything in sight, dinging exalted with Lower City in the process...my 35th exalted reputation incidentally.  What i found perplexing was the fact that Anzu was nowhere to be found.

Here Iorek and i are, hoping to see the Reins of the Raven Lord drop, but the old trash is there instead of Anzu.  What the Frak?

ETA:  Some other people have mentioned the same issue on WoWhead.  Their fix was to switch to Normal mode, then back to Heroic.  This worked for me.

No mount drop, grr.  I'm a gonna kill him...

Nearly there...

Mount #99 - Silvermoon Hawkstrider

back to Argent Tournament dailies...

 Mount #98, Great Golden Kodo

I've been doing a lot of archaeology lately but with no luck at getting mounts to proc.  In Kalimdor i usually have 4 night elf digs up (this is where i hang out usually because i want the Tol'vir mount, if not the fossil mount as well).  In the Eastern Kingdom all the digs are usually Troll, sometimes Dwarf.  The other night i was having a good run with Tol'vir digs showing up 2-3 times in a row, but my luck didn't hold and i'm currently working on the non-combat pet (Thing-like hand).  That's all well and good i suppose, but 150 pieces before i can get another project which, statistically speaking, is most likely to be that silly mosaic again.  For the record i have completed at least eight of those nelf music boxes.

I'll probably have another Argent Tournie mount tomorrow...the dailies are finally somewhat doable, but those commanders still give me trouble.  Still, i'm not pulling my hair out over the dueling, it's been long enough for me to stomach it again, so we'll see if i can stomach it long enough to get all of the mounts out of there...or at least some non-combat pets.  My friends did the bat-run in Kara without me so i never got that pet, and i really, really wanted it at the time.  I have no idea why.  But i could afford to do it right now, it's just that i really want that Violet Proto-Drake to be my hundredth mount.  I think i want that mount more than i want the dragonhawk.

Violet proto-drake, here I come

First off, I decided against collecting 500 eggs for a white plainstrider. After finishing the holiday's other achievements it simply felt too horrific to imagine.

Secondly, I have been having a horrible time getting the mop or d3 betas to download. Hopefully I have finally managed it with mop (it's downloading right now). I started a thread on the beta forum which really seems to be a glorified blog post at this point.

Thirdly, I am very eager for children's week. Can anyone guess why?

Beta invites!

Last night I was happy to discover that I had finally received a MoP beta invite. I downloaded Mists while working on my taxes (which normally would have been done a month or two ago) and watching some movies I rented from Red Box. Over the next few hours I was disappointed to run into numerous crashes.  So far as I can tell, I was never able to download more than the first 3%. There are similar reports of dls crashing at 10% at the forums so I'm pretty sure it's not just me and hopefully it will be resolved soon.

Last night I also received a D3 beta invite. I'm not sure why I was so surprised about this...there was never any guarantee of it, for one, and I was never invited to the wrath or cat invites...which was part of the reason it took me a while to come to cat, I think. I haven't tried installing D3 yet but from what I understand there are issues there right now, too.

I'll try to post some updates as soon as possible...assuming I can actually get the game to patch, of course.

ETA: After doing some research on the forums I have discovered in a blue post that "The Launcher is closely tied to Internet Explorer settings." Why??? Who uses IE in the 21st century? It's crap. No wonder the stupid Launcher doesn't work, I haven't updated IE in forever because it's optional and I don't use it. So guess what I'm downloading right now? An update for crap.

ETA2:My Launcher is currently at 5%!  I deleted everything again and tried a couple of different directories with a result of no download at all (0% for an extended period of time).  I have no idea whatsoever why it's working now.  I haven't restarted my computer to complete the crap update and i turned my Firewall and Anti-Virus off after my first attempt last night, so that isn't the issue (no matter what the blue post says).  It's inexplicable.  However, if i do run into the same issues as last night i am going to try to delete the "corrupted" file from now on instead of deleting everything and starting from scratch all over again.  I'm not sure i'm willing to edit .dll files in notepad but i do want to get this downloaded tonight...even if i won't have a chance to play it until tomorrow night because i'm opening at work in the morning.

Still waiting for a Mists beta invite

I was rather annoyed that i hadn't gotten an invite and then i realized that i hadn't set up my beta profile up.  Last xpac the stinking program never worked (it always had an error message and didn't sent my info to Blizz) but now my profile is up to date and maybe i can get an invite soon.  I can hope, right?  I hear that the monk lvling experience isn't polished yet but the Pandaren lvling zone is.  I can hardly wait to test some stuff out, whether it be rolling a panda or testing the new hunter skills.

Off to find some eggs...my strange trip is pretty close to the end i think.  Come children's holiday...

A Rose by any other name...

So i like to have character or pet names that say something about me.  I don't really roleplay but i do see my characters as a sort of extension of myself, perhaps upping a part of my personality that i don't really allow myself to fully display or explore.  Of course it's not really that deep but yeah, i put some thought into names when rolling a new character.  This often involves nonsense spelling variations or foreign words.  Sometimes  it's just a pop-culture reference (with my pets moreso than my toons). 

MoP and mount #97

Okay, so i've been reading the info on WoW Insider and i must admit that i'm pretty psyched about the new xpac.  I've been reading articles lately about how people generally play the race and class that fit their personality.  Well i really don't feel like i'm a blood elf.  I'm not a drug addict and i'm not model-thin and addicted to pretty things like pink.  In a way my personality probably fits better with the Alliance...only i totally can not bring myself to play Alliance.  I finally leveled two characters to 65ish (partially with the help of a friend and because he wanted to do it) but it just felt so wrong.

But reading about the Pandaren...they sound like oriental/asian Hobbits, and that sounds very much me.  I think i may be in love.  I cannot wait to roll a monk and may just have to roll other classes, too.  I wish i could play Horde and be friends with Koi-people, too.  But stampede sounds awesome, like the most exciting thing to happen for hunters in a long time.

In other news i used Raid Finder for the first time today (at the urging of an old guildee) and my net connection still cannot handle 25 man raids.  My graphic card didn't crash or anything, but i kept getting dced.  What bothers me is that this card can obviously handle good without overheating but the framerate is horrible.  I am not sure if this is because of my connection or addons, i really need to experiment more.  But it stinks to have a new card that still can't handle the content and let me see the vistas this game has to offer.

And now announcing the acquisition of mount #97...Drake of the West Wind.  I can't take a screenshot of it where i bought it because there are no flying mounts allowed anywhere in Tol Barad.  So i took some screenshots by the portal to TB in Org instead...graphics still turned down from trying to raid.

Three more to go.  I keep trying the usual places, have been fishing up a storm, but no luck so far.  I really want the arc Battle Tank and fishing Sea Turtle but at this point i just want the achievement to be done.  I don't think i'm going to be too picky about these last three mounts.  Well....picky enough to not go grind some more Argent Tournament rep. /shudder

soloing setbacks

Tried to solo Mag and Maly (same night as last post) but I barely made a dent. Kept getting heal aggro on Mag from fire mobs. I couldn't focus fire a caster down or Mag.  Maybe there's a mechanic that I'm missing? With Maly I would be doing fine (albeit very verrry slowly, hit it like you mean it) only to get hit by his breath or pull aggro with disengage and fd on cd. Considering an attempt at Naxx next.

easy peasy soloing

Soloed Problim earlier this week and Attumen was easier than ever.  My next soloing challenge, however slight, was to solo Ossirian.  This wasn't too bad, there really wasn't any point other than i saw that the Armory said that i had never killed him.  The irony?  He drops a head that starts a quest; as it turned out, i couldn't accept that quest because i had already completed it.

eta: It's been five days and the armory still says I've never downed Oss. I have no idea what is causing the error.

Extreme soloing...Vortex Pinnacle

As you may have noticed, my main goal on WoW right now is probably getting that 100th mount.  With four to go, the pickings are getting a little slim.  So today after i helped obtain a victory in Tol Barad and did those dailies i bought myself some new PvP boots and decided to try my hand at normal Vortex Pinnacle again.

I will never get a world first solo kill.  At the same time, i'm no stranger to running content alone.  I will try anything at least a couple of times (case in point, that annoying demon in HFP that and Colossi chain that require/d a group).  I have tried one manning and two manning both of those with varying results (depending on what class i'm playing).  I finished the Champion of the Naaru quest chain mostly alone (the bits that didn't require a group, and i think i 2-manned the last part with an acquaintance).  I have ground a lot of rep alone (or in PUGs).  I used to solo Strat for the mount run back in Wrath and have been soloing old raids more and more.

But solo a dungeon that is part of the current xpac?  That isn't possible, is it?  Well, as it turns out, maybe it is to a point.  My first attempt at soloing VP, i failed miserably.  Trying to down Grand Vizier Ertan was not working, let alone even getting to Altairus, which was my main goal.  I want that mount!  So i gave up, discouraged, but something in me just kept niggling.  I know that i'm rusty, haven't been playing every day for the past year, have taken breaks, etc., but surely i'm not that fail as a hunter?  This is my main we're talking about, the character that i've been playing for the better part of four (five?) years.  So i started doing some more research.  How can i down this drake without hacks?

Which is when i realized that i had made a very lame mistake.  See, i have a soloing/PvP build, but i was trying to solo Ertan in my PvE gear.  I think i only read this on one website out of about ten that Resilience (paired with Stamina) is the stat that makes or breaks your attempt to solo most instances.  In other words, wear PvP gear.  If there's no enrage timer then you're set, and enrage is usually not an issue at all when soloing old content as much as survival (when that's an issue xD).  It's easy to kill these bosses, but can you survive long enough to do it?  Luckily, i just so happened to have five pieces of PvP gear that i upgraded most of in anticipation of doing lots of Tol Barad...and because i just happened to be a little bored.  (In case you're curious, that's three pieces season 10, one piece season 9, and one piece season 11).  So today i grabbed some stuff off my alchemist alt and headed back into Vortex Pinnacle.

What i packed:
Mythical Healing Potion x7
Elixir of Mighty Fortitude x5
Dense Embersilk Bandages
Skewered Eel
one battle elixir that was a seasonal reward as i recall...it gave me attack power and growth?

Trash
Just ignore them.   Camouflage will get you past everything except those two Howling Gale orbs that you have to shoot at a couple of time...lest they throw you off the ledge.  You don't die, but you do get sent back to the beginning.  Which is an important time saver to be aware of when you're ready to reset the instance and go again.

Grand Viz
Truly is easy once you get the hang of it.  Keep your pet healed, stay away from tornadoes, use maybe one bandage, Chimera Shot whenever it's up.  I've read that you don't need a tank for this, i felt that i was taking too much damage if i held aggro.  Basically manage your aggro and watch where you're standing and be patient.  If you get hit by a lot of lightning, this is tough.  Downed three times today.

Altairus
So much going on here.  First off, this guide helped me so much, but it leaves a little out.  As you probably realize, you want to stay upwind as much as possible.  Disengage can help, but not as often as you'd like.  However, even more importantly, you have to deal with Chilling Breath.  This is one of those mechanics that is pretty much a non-issue if you can self heal or are in a group.  Why?  Because he randomly targets someone with it once every... 30s?...only, because you are alone, you get targeted every time.  (Note:  I cannot find any confirmation about how long you have between each Chilling Breath.)  So he will hit you with ~25k damage (in my gear) upwards of twice a minute.  With ~140k health i can only get hit 5.5 times unmitigated/unhealed before i will die.

Fortunately, Chilling Breath has a 2s cast time and there are three tactics you can use to survive it.  If you feign death soon enough (after he has started casting, before the cast is halfway through), he will hit your pet or give up instead (i'm not sure which, but it didn't hit me).  If you feign death too late, it will hit you for the full amount.  If you are glyphed for Raptor Strike and can dance in, hit him, dance back out (all while being mindful of which direction the wind has just turned or is about to turn), then you can negate 20% of that damage.  I tried using Aspect of the Wild on one of my attempts, but i couldn't tell that it helped appreciably.  Disengage does not help with this, he turns as you fly across the screen, his maw following your fleeing leap (not to mention this skill is better used to get upwind).

The only skill that makes you completely immune to Chilling Breath is a well timed Deterrence.  If it's up, he gives up until next time his cooldown is up.  Now, the aforementioned guide says you can use Deterrence twice... that's not strictly true if you are MM (which is the spec i based my solo/PvP spec off of courtesy of Warcraft Hunters Union).  A well placed Readiness will give you two Deterrences in a row and you will probably get a third when you need it most.  I would not want to do this fight without a health pot.  Chimera Shot and don't forget to use Rapid Fire.

Other than that, remember to heal your pet, try to get upwind as quickly as possible, but Chilling Breath is going to be the thing that hits you hardest.  If your pet dies or you want to reset... stay where you are.  Running away is not going to help, as if you run off the platform then he will hit you with lightning that's worth 2/3 of your health to begin with.  Feign death where you are (assuming that it's not on CD!) and he will despawn.  Then run off the platform and rez your baby.  I managed to get to him for the first time and after about 5-6 attempts i had gotten him down twice and used up my health pots so i decided to call it a day.

 As you can see, i'm using a bear for his damage reduction.  It's not a reduction of damage taken, rather of damage caused by all nearby enemies, not just what's done to the pet itself or by one enemy.  It has a short cooldown so it can always be up (assuming the focus is available).  It's 10% rather than 50%, but it's more consistent.  (Petopia ftw)  I may try a different pet in the future, but i anticipate this fight becoming much easier for me after a few more kills are under my belt.

Happy hunting!  And may the odd be...no wait.

not pink!

mount #96...Swift Lovebird
a perfect way to end Valentine's Day

BRAINS

SMC really gets decked out for LiitA. No, wait... SMC always looks like that.

FINALLY!!!

Gretta finally saw fit to put me out of my misery and bequeathed me my 95th mount... the White Polar Bear

I kid you not, i have been doing this daily ever since Wrath was a brand new xpac.  As soon as i got the cold flight training i attuned myself and set myself to the task.  I wanted to be able to ride Iorek.

is this cheating?

 #94 Tyrael's Charger...which looks absolutely awesome in shadow form.