Grinding, Questing and Laughing

Durhamm and "No Name"

Well, Level 43 was reached last night. I am hoping to reach level 44 today, though with limited play time availible I doubt I will make it.

Sunday we have a guild event going that should be really helpful for me, assuming of course I can stay alive. LOL More on that once it is finished.

Awhile back I trained a Bear to learn a few pet skills. I was shocked to discover that the bear is REALLY a good PvE pet for me. Having respec'ed Beast Master, the Bear is a powerhouse of a tank, with an armor rating higher then most warrior I meet. The Bear has been ALOT of fun, even without Dash, Prowl, or any special abilities and has done an excellent job of keeping me alive. At this point, I have been running with the bear near exclusively, and I feel almost guilty that I have yet to name him.

So I am still working on finding a good "Beefy" name for the bear. This bear is a pet I plan on keeping around long term, which has caused me to rethink what other pets I will own (damn Blizzard and their small stables). I am thinking that the Bear will end up being my PvE pet, though who knows what other pets I will find along the way. On thing that might cause this to change is when I reach level 50 or so. I happen to really like Boars. Unfortunately, there are no boars to train in my level range. Once I have some in range again, my bear my find himself facing retirement. But, until then he has worked so well that my Cat, Feline Mignon has been severely under-used.

So, off I go to see what I can accomplish online today before real-life steals me away. Hope to see you there.

Level 40 and Beyond!

Durhamm, Grinding in Tanaris

Well, it turned out not to be such a hard decision anyway. Being stuck home, sick as a dog for two days and bored out of my mind helped of course. But in the end, I really, REALLY wanted a mount.

So, yesterday, with some grinding help from Jaketartaren (a 60 Shaman in my guild), I made level 40. After a quick thank you, I stoned back to ThunderBluff (my hometown) and went to work.

First, it was a visit to the hunter trainer and the pet trainer to gain all those wonderful new skills. The most interesting being Volley a true AoE attack for hunters, that deals 50 arcane damage to all enemy units in the target area, repeatedly. It is an interesting ability, and I am sure it has it's uses, but you have to make sure (unless it is a PvP fight) that your pet (or tank) has aggro on all those enemy units. Otherwise, as the Volley starts all of those mobs who are not aggro'ed on your pet will rush you before it's full effect has been felt.

After that, I did the math, realized I had enough gold and dug deep to part with ALOT of gold to retrain my talents. Marksmanship is nice, and I will be putting points into that later, but for now, BeastMaster seems like the best approach to me. It will make me somewhat less effective in PvP but my focus right now is leveling, and BeastMaster seems like the best approach for that.

Then it was off to my bank where I had accumulated some mail armor in preparation for level 40. A nice armor rating boost, along with a completely different look. Best part is that now I can make armor for myself (to a limited degree). I had some REALLY good leather armor, so I lost a bit on stats, especially Agility, but we have an Artisan Leather Worker in my guild and it is my hope that he will be able to make me some combination of Dragonscale, Turtle Scale, and Heavy Scorpid armor to make up for it.

Dragonscale Breastplate (46?) and Gauntlets (40) as well as Turtle Scale Leggings (42) and Helm (41) and of course Tough Scorpid Boots (42) (will need a new set of spurs) and Bracers (39) should be a nice combination of buffs for a hunter as this combo will boost Agility, Intelligence and several resistances, as well as a few other stats. With the help of one of our guild enchanters I hope to push Agility and Intelligence even higher. I thought the Dragonscale Breastplate was a lower level then that, if I am wrong the I will ask for a Tough Scorpid Breastplate (39) to hold me over. I will do what I can to help with the mats for these, but being that I am not a skinner my options are limited. Of course there is always the Auction House. Gold has gotten a bit tight now as level 40 costs more then probably any other level. I may not be broke, but I can see it from here.

Once I had my new look, I ran off to the Tauren Camp south of ThunderBluff and trained in Kudo riding. Then I stepped to the right and parted with a ton of gold to buy myself a mount! A Brown Kudo I have named (unofficially) Fluffy. As a hunter, with Aspect of the Cheetah, the speed of the mount was somewhat disappointing but it was a definite improvement for travel. So off to ThunderBuff I rode. I took the materials needed from my bank and ran over to the anvil to craft myself a set of Mithril Spurs. Not a huge speed jump, but I noticed the difference.

With that out of the way I considered riding, then thought better of it, and took a flight to Orgimmar, where I ran a few Blacksmithing quests. Thanks to some helpful information from some of my Guildmates in Dire Beef ( Moo Baby! ), I obtained the very desireable (though not all that difficult to get) WeaponMaster specialization!

Then I started the quest for The Mithril Order (I really should have looked it up first because once I found the guy on the eastern edge of "Ganklethorn" I had to stone back, gather materials, and meet him again (ugh)). This step in the quest required ALOT of materials. However, due to a failed attempt to corner the Mithril Bar market at the Auction House during the war preparations (war profiteering is bad, I know, I know (it also failed miserably)), I had a ton of mithril at my disposal. Also, because of my use of Iron Bombs as a Engineer, I had been accumulating Iron bars. A few other odds and ends were needed, all of which happened to be mats I needed for my plans and formulas, so they happened to be handy in my bank. With my bank nearly cleared of mats I set off for Stanglethorn again, and completed that part of the quest.

Of course, I failed to look up the next step as well, so Once I used my Ultrasafe Transporter to get to Gadgetzan ("UltraSafe", sure it is, it killed me and dropped me in the middle of the Tanaris Desert), I learned I needed more materials to produce a host of items for 3 separate quests. I flew back to ThunderBluff and gathered the mats from what was left my bank and purchased the rest from AH. After making everything, I flew back to Gadgetzan and turned them in. Now I am a member of the Mithril Order and have the fancy Mithril Order Pin to prove it.

So, with new talents, and new abilities, and several quests out of the way I decided to head off and grind a bit to try everything out. Back to "Ganklethorn" I went to work on the Raptor Mastery Quest tree. I was already halfway to level 41 because of the Blacksmithing quests so I figured I would go for it.

When I got to the last level of the Raptor Quest Tree I realized I was not ready to take on Tethis (an elite level 43 Raptor) solo. My cat 'Feline Mignon' had leveled to 40, and I knew I had several new pet skill levels that would be available, so I stoned back to ThunderBluff.

Stabling 'Feline Mignon' I found I could learn Claw 6 from the Scorpid Hunters which are found in the Tanaris Desert. I traveled there, found one quickly enough and successfully trained it. I was ganked shortly there after but I didn't care, I had my bug! A little grinding later I dinged 41 and I learned Claw 6, then sent the little bugger back to his family.

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Scorpid Hunter

Next I needed Bite 6. Since I also needed Dash 2 and Furious Howl 3, I did some research and discovered an "all-in-one" beast, the Longtooth Runner, a wolf in Feralas. Off I flew to Feralas, where I quickly found and trained one. However, I ran out of time before I learned anything from him (was falling asleep at the keyboard). So we stoned to ThunderBuff for some much needed rest. I had gathered all the quests I could while I was in Feralas (completing the one that required a delivery too and from Orgimmar), but they are all red to me so I think I will be needing some help with them.

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Longtooth Runner

When I am on next, I will have to grind a bit with the Wolf to learn from him. Then I need to find a Ridge Stalker Patriarch in the Badlands to learn Prowl 2, and at that point I think I will be caught up on my pet skills. That is assuming I can learn Furious Howl 3, without having learned Furious Howl 2 (or possibly FH 1 because I am not sure if I had a wolf at all since that patch). If I do need to learn those first I will need to head out to Ashenvale to find and train a Mist Howler to learn the first level with a bit of grinding somewhere, and then send that wolf on it's way and find a Ghostpaw Alpha, also found in Ashenvale, to learn the second level. Then it will be back to Feralas to train another Longtooth to gain level 3 (if I do not already have it).

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Ridge Stalker Patriarch

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Where can you find a Ridge Stalker Patriarch

Once the pet skills are done I will be targeting level 44. My goal, is to train King Bangalash an elite level 43 white tiger in "Ganglethorn". I also want to train Bhag'thera an elite Level 41 Black Panther also found in Stanglethorn. I will likely need the help of a guildmate or two on these. However, I would like to have them for a long time (possibly even making them my end game pets). My goal is to train them both of PvE for now and keep them leveled up with me, however, I eventually want to retrain one specifically for PvP in the BattleGrounds by dropping Growl, in favor of the combination of Dash AND Prowl.

My target level after that is 46-49. I want to run a fair amount of BGs before I advance out of the 40-49 level range. Mounts will dramatically change the strategy and I want to have a system of my own worked out before I move forward.

If you are reading this, are a member of the horde on the DarkIron (US) Server, and want to help out with any of the above, PLEASE keep and eye out for Durhamm in game and just send me a /whisper.

King Bangalash


Where can you find King Bangalash


Bhag'thera


Where can you find Bhag'thera

Still Here? OK, well I got the specifics on a wonderfully useful engineering toy today. It's a Field Repair Bot 74A. This can only be learned if you have 300+ engineering and can only be learned at the location it is found (though all 300+ engineers in the group can learn it at the sae time). Unfortunately, that place is behind Golem Lord Argelmach in Blackrock Depths, which is a level 52+ instance in the Burning Steppes which requires a special key of some sort to get in. Also, this is the place where Dark Iron Smelting can be learned. I believe it is also where you need to go to forge items from Dark Iron, but I am not certain of this. Anyway. That little device is one use only and would cost about 10-15 gold in materials to make. However, in long instances it would be a Raid saver for sure. Likely, if your Guild is running raids where this would be needed, they could come up with the materials / funds to make a few. That is of course if you are a high enough level to go along. So, you might be wondering, "what does it do?". Well, it appears and acts like a vendor. You can buy engineering parts, REPAIR WEAPONS & ARMOR, and even sell off any useless items you found recently. I would imagine that this would be a VERY useful tool on long instances. Too bad the engineer who makes it does not get any of the repair money. This was pretty much a note to myself, but since you read all the way down to here (why I do not know) it is an added bonus for you! And One more Value added bonus, "What does it look like?" Well here it is:

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Field Repair Bot 74A

Moving forward

Short rest on the way to "Ganklethorn"

Level 39 came a day or so ago. Faced with some really solid arguments from several in my guild I have come to the conclusion that leveling is the way to go. So I am on my way to 40. I have accumulated enough gold for my mount, and I know my daughter (5 yrs old) would love to see that (my game play is like a TV show to her at times) so I am running through "Ganklethorn" in a race for level 40.

Thanks to level 39 I can use my Blue Glittering Axe made by my own hands. With the help of a friendly enchanter I was able to get Icy Chill added to it which should help a great deal if things turn bad and I find myself in melee.

I have a new pet. No name yet, as I have not decided if I will be replacing my existing cat with this one. It is a Ridge Stalker a cat with a very nice skin that looks something like a cross between a cheetah and a lynx.

So, I will run quests in Stanglehorn until school lets out and it becomes Ganklethorn again. If you are online, on the DarkIron server, and have nothing to do, feel free to join me.

Temptation

Durhamm and Feline Mignon

Well I reached level 38 yesterday. Last week I made the rank or sergeant on the Horde side as well. My plan to achieve officer rank (Stone Guard) before moving onto level 40 gets harder and harder as level 40 gets closer.

So many things change at level 40.

To start with. I can finally gain a mount! In my case a Kudo, my personal choice being the Brown Kudo Mount as seen here to the right.
(isn't he cute! lol).

I can start using a Thick Leather Ammo Pouch - a 16 slot bag for my bullets (a hunter without bullets, is no better then a hungover warrior with Asthma).

Then of course there are all the new skills and the skill Improvements Hunters have access to at level 40:

Aspect of the Pack - allows you to extend Aspect of the Cheetah to your entire party.
Volley - an area effect attack for hunters, especially potent considering my talent build (see below).

Also, my Freeze traps hold the enemy for an additional 5 seconds, I gain track giants, and I also gain improvements to my Raptor Strike, Distract shot and hunter's mark.

At level 40 my personal talent build is complete on the Marksmanship Side and starting to build nicely on the Beast master side as can be seen here (My Talent plan for level 60 can be found here).

Of course there is the HUGE survivability jump of being able to wear MAIL ARMOR at level 40! And as a blacksmith, I can already make a fair amount of mail that might be useful. However, our guilds leatherworker can make some really nice mail as well, like Tough Scorpid and Dragon scale armors. Some of which are available for use at level 40!

There is there Blacksmithing. With level 40 comes the ability to gain and complete the Way of the Weaponsmith quest. This will give me immediate access (assuming I have the gold to buy them) to formulas for:

The Phantom Blade - - 1 handed sword (Chance on hit: Decrease the armor of the target by 100 for 20 sec. While affected, the target cannot stealth or turn invisible) Min. Level = 44 (this one REALLY looks wild! (see below)).
The TrueSilver Champion - 2 handed sword (Chance on hit: Protects the caster with a holy shield) Min Level = 47
The Shatterer - 1 handed mace (Chance on hit: Disarm target's weapon for 10 sec) Min Level = 42
Blight - polearm (Chance on hit: Diseases a target for 50 Nature damage and an additional 180 damage over 1 min) Min Level = 45

Not to mention all the formulas that might be available on AH and throughout the Realm. This would be a great benefit to me as I level up, a possible good source of income from the AH and a solid benefit to my fellow guildmembers.

Another Great benefit is the ability to use higher level foods and drinks, something I find myself truly in need of currently. Also, I can already make many of these thanks to my cooking skill so they would not be as expensive, assuming I could farm the components. This is better for me out in the PvE field, as well as my pet.

Also, there are various things I can make already, like mail armors, rifle scopes, weapons, etc that I would be able to use at level 40.

But the strongest motivator, is that it will put me in level range for the Battlegrounds, with a number of great players within my guild, Dire Beef. Though right now, in the 30-39 range I find the BGs to be extremely easy, there is little to no team work as it is quite rare for people to communicate with each other. With so many members of my guild being in this level range, I think it would be much easier to get a guild group together, using teamspeak to coordinate efforts in the BGs. And I can only imagine how the use of mounts might change the strategy of these battles. Of course, as level 40 I would be of limited value to my side and would have to work on leveling up ASAP.

It would also put me in the level range of these great players for questing, exploring, raiding, etc. Though I find that I prefer soloing most of the time, playing WoW is far better with friends if you have those friends on TeamSpeak. It is much more fun (certainly funnier) and for those like me who find it impossible to keep track of the game and the chat window, team speak makes such group efforts functional.

Well, I still have time to figure out which way to go. I want to train Broken Tooth, and I need to make level 39 and get close to level 40 before this issue becomes an immediate concern. As I read over what I wrote, it seems to be a slam dunk to just keep going to 40. But the 30-39 BGs are sooooooooo easy right now, that I am sure I could make Stone Guard in a week or two if I focus on them rather then gaining XP.

What makes it even harder is that my recent crafting efforts on AH have resulted in me having enough gold to pay for my mount, the riding training, all the new hunter and pet skills, as well as those weaponsmith formulas, and leave me with enough left over to likely be able to buy any available weaponsmith formulas on the auction house. On the other hand, I did some buying and trading for gear, specifically designed to twink me for the 30-39 BGs. Moving to 40 will likely mean I will need to look into other gear.

It is a tough choice. And it comes down to what my primary focus is. Is it the good of myself? Or the good of my friends? We'll see how this turns out in the end. At level 38, I can still avoid the issue for a bit.

The Phantom Blade!

Working on Honor and Rank

Today I made level 36 and added over 150 kills to my total, thanks to several WG and AB runs (bringing my lifetime total over 400). The Gnome Death Ray is a nasty little surprise when in PvP. Turned out to be just short of 9000 contribution points for one day!

Not much else to report. I had hoped to make it to Everlook this weekend, but unlike many high level areas I've snuck my way through this one appears to be impossible without being near the proper level and without investing the time to build your reputation with the Timbermaw tribe.

I won't get time to play tomarrow and I doubt I will have time to play on Monday so hopefully todays PvP efforts will be enough to allow me to gain Grunt level, and if I am really lucky, Sergent.

For now it is all about the BatleGrounds. I want to build my reputation and rank now as I am sure it will be easier now then at higher levels and maintaining that rank will only require a few runs through the BGs each week.

However, level 40, with access to mail armor, a mount and a host of new hunter and pet abilities is VERY tempting. We'll see how long I hold out before I start grinding and questing again.

I do want to work on my rank and honor now. I will likely be working on a combination of fishing and battleground next week. This should allow me to get my fishing maxed out before the weekend. It should also help cover the honor loss and perhaps help me move up a rank or two thew following week. At least, that is the plan.

Mission Accomplished!

With the help of friends and guildmates I managed to accomplish my goal. I have completed my trades skills for the most part. Engineering, Blacksmithing, First-Aid and Cooking are all at 300 now. Fishing will take a bit more time to raise, but that will happen in the near future.

There are still some trade skill goals to be met. One in recipes. It is my intent to have every single recipe availible. That will take time, effort, questing and of course gold, but I will have them. Also, once I reach level 40, I can specialize blacksmithing as a weaponsmith. After that, it is level 50-something before I can specialize as an axe-smith. So it is not over yet.

Now, I have two immediate focuses. One is gold. Due to the war preparations effort, I believe there is profit to be made. Many are paying steep prices to rune cloth to be able to turn in rune cloth bandages. Yet, the majority of players cannot make runecloth bandages. So it stands to reason (in my opinion) that many will pay a bit more for runecloth bandages to turn in. I purchased 6 stacks of runecloth (average price 3 gold), made bandages and put them on the auction house. It is my hope to realize an average of 4 gold per stack of bandages (though 3.5 would be good enough). If this pans out, I should be able to generate a significant amount of wealth though war profiteering. Not the most noble of enterprizes, but quite possibly a financially benificial one.

Secondly is level. My immediate target is level 39. I want to raise my rank in the Horde, to do so will require alot of successes in the battlegrounds. I want to get to level 39 ASAP, "twink-out" as best as I am able and then run the BGs until I can not longer stand the wait for mail armor, weaponsmith recipes, and a mount.

Hopefully, in the next week or so, I will be posting a list of what I feel will be the most desireable items I can create and what mats are required. My guild is my primary focus here, and I do not charge guild members (Dire Beef Rocks!). Give me the mats, you get the goods. However, once the list is posted, I imagine I will occassionally hear from people outside my guild, who play on DarkIron - Horde (US) server. In that case, I will still require the mats to produce anything, but I will also require a reasonable fee. So contact me with a payment offer, and we can negotiate.

My current plan for leveling, as well as just having fun is to take on the Scarlett Monestary. So, anyone looking to do this one as well, give me a yell and maybe we can work out a schedule.

Trade skills and a question about pets

I found that advancement is definately easier now that I have all of the hunter skills I should have. :-)

One disappointment was with my pets. I trained a Henya from Desolace, just to learn Dash. When my cat leveled I was looking forward to training her in Dash, only to discover that she cannot learn it because the WoW says she has too many skills. I never use cower, ever, and would like to drop it in favor of dash, but there does not seem to be a way to do that. Anyone have any ideas on this?

Last night went well. Surprizingly I managed to log on and stay on the DarkIron - Horde, US server on a Monday. Better yet, the server did not go down even though it was Monday!

I made level 35 as a result! A big level for me as it allows me to begin training my trade and secondary skills past 225! I found the Master Engineer in Gadgetzan and I found the Master Blacksmith in Booty Bay. I was also able to gain the starting quests for Fishing, Cooking, and First aid that, once completed will allow me to advance as well (though I am not sure if they can be successfully "soloed" at level 35).

My goal at this point is to max my trade skills so that I can be a real asset to my guild. After that, I'll be back on that long haul to 40 to finally have access to mail armor!

If anyone has any info or advice in regard to the secondary skill quests, PLEASE pass it along!

Thanks to Allakhazam I have learned that the Clamlette Surprise Quest will get me started on the way to Artisan level in Cooking, the Nat Pagle, Angler Extreme Quest will allow me to get the artisan level in Fishing, and the Triage Quest will allow me to get the artisan level in First Aid.

There also seems to be alot of Blacksmith Quests and Engineering Quests though I am not sure if they are required for advancement to skill level 300. I am also not sure if specialization is required. I hope not, as I think I can do more for my guild without restricting what I make. But, I really do not know much about it so more info would defiantly be appreciated.

Anyone with information or experience in regard to any of these quests, please feel free to pass on any helpful hints you might have.