Author: Miss Anexxia

Patch Day Respecs

I’ve spent a lot of time over the past month thinking about how I wanted to spec my toons once this patch went live. Overall, I’m not making radical changes…except for my main’s build.

For the past 2.5 years she’s been a raid healing druid, tho she had an unconventional spec (officially hybrid, a modified dreamstate build heavy on the mana regen.) She had a one week flirtation with Balance when we had a week off raiding…and I used that time to grind up Kurenai faction to give her a space goat.  I vowed then that I would eventually let her go BOOMkin fulltime. And that time is now.

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Packrats of the World of Warcraft Rejoice!

My druid’s bank is full. It’s always been full. There are her 35 vanity pets, the miscellaneous quest items…the full sets of Tier 1 and Tier 2 gear she can’t bear to part with, the boomkin set she totes around with her…

I’ve gotten a lot of grief from guildies and friends over my packrattyness. “You’re never going to want to wear any of that again”, they say. “That crap is taking up all your bank slots”, etc.  But truth be told, I didn’t just keep the clothes around to play dress up — I also kept them as mementos from my early days raiding. I mean, after all the bad luck I had pursuing [Will of Arlokk], I just can’t shard it now can I?

As it turns out, Blizzard is rewarding packrats like me in two ways when the patch lands today:

  1. My plentiful mounts and vanity pets will become spells, freeing up 2 bags
  2. All the “crap” in my bank that dropped off final raid bosses will be proof of my killing them for their associated achievements

Unfortunately, I didn’t save much that dropped for my main in heroic dungeons– she usually had better gear from raiding than anything that could drop for her in them. I have a feeling though that after the patch we will see some renewed interest in heroics, for the achievement factor.

Today’s post-work WoW agenda: Level inscription. Learn all mounts/vanity pets as spells. Reorganize contents of newly thinned-out banks. Retrain everyone.

WotLK: Factions to Grind

When it comes to picking factions to grind, I keep in mind a few variables: gear I can use for a specific character, supporting recipes for their professions, and vanity pets. I mean, would I have ground out Sporeggar rep to Exalted had there not been a [Tiny Sporebat]? No way!

With that criteria in mind, I made a list of the Wrath of the Lich King factions known to have reputation-based rewards.

Neutral

The above factions with a * allow you to purchase a tabard at Friendly. When worn in a dungeon, that tabard allows you to earn rep with that faction, regardless of the reputation associated with the dungeon in which you are fighting. A nice way to encourage folks to branch out into a variety of dungeons, rather than living for a month in one just for grinding rep.

In addition to the above factions, if you are an engineer interested in acquiring the plans to make a [Mekgineer's Chopper]/[Mechano-hog], you will have to grind 4 factions you might otherwise skip maxing out: Horde Expedition Exalted (The Hand of Vengeance, The Sunreavers, The Taunka, and Warsong Offensive) or Alliance Vanguard Exalted (Explorers' League, The Frostborn, The Silver Covenant and Valiance Expedition). As of right now, I haven't seen any details on faction-specific rewards for these individual factions. There is a quartermaster for the combined grouping, however, the rewards are not that interesting other than the motorcycle. But as with anything not yet live, that remains to be seen.

The biggest surprise to me after reviewing all the reputation rewards was the lack of Blacksmithing, Alchemy, and Enchanting recipes from faction grinds. I'd gotten quite used to making my druid enchanter chase after a variety of factions to round out her enchanting repertoire.

Details on specific faction rewards after the cut.

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My First Raptor

This morning, my troll shaman dinged 30, and hurried off to Sen’jin Village to pick out her raptor. She is both my first troll and the first character I have leveled to 30 since the entry-level riding skill was brought down from 40 to 30 (the others were already 40+ at that time.) I can only imagine how much less painful her mount will make the STV and Desolace quests.

Of course, as a shaman, she had ghost wolf with its 40% increase at her disposal already. But there is something special about your first mount regardless.

Next tasks: go grab flight paths in Arathi, Desolace, then head to STV to start the wild animal eradication project for good ole Nessingwary.

List of Lists: WotLK Info

Too Many Annas has put together a great compendium of WotLK information resources.

Be sure to check out the Banana Shoulders-produced "Siha’s Inscription Guide" linked to therein and go cry. I am not sure where I can stuff any more herbs before my Scribe-to-be’s bank explodes. Her recommended shopping list is a little more than what I have on hand right now:

  • 150x Earthroot, Peacebloom, or Silverleaf
    (DONE)
  • 100x Briarthorn, Bruiseweed, Mageroyal, Stranglekelp, or Swiftthistle
    (DONE)
  • 285x Grave Moss, Kingsblood, Liferoot, or Wild Steelbloom
    (NEED 40)
  • 270x Fadeleaf, Goldthorn, Khadgar’s Whisker, or Wintersbite
    (NEED 50)
  • 270x Arthas’ Tears, Blindweed, Firebloom, Ghost Mushroom, Gromsblood, Purple Lotus, or Sungrass
    (NEED 50)
  • 235x Dreamfoil, Golden Sansam, Icecap, Mountain Silversage, Plaguebloom
    (DONE)
  • 490x Any Outland herbs
    (DONE)

Guess my day’s WoW plans are now clear to me…

Cooking Achievements in Wrath

Although it's not as awesome as "Iron Chef" you can earn a "Chef" title from achievements after Wrath of the Lich King launches. To earn the title, you need to complete all of the following cooking achievements:

  • Grand Master cook
  • The Cake Is Not A Lie
  • Kickin' It Up a Notch
  • The Northrend Gourmet
  • Second That Emotion
  • Critter Glitter
  • Our Daily Bread (differs for horde and alliance)
  • Dinner Impossible
  • Captain Rumsey's Lager
  • Sous Chef
  • The Outland Gourmet

Read on for details on each achievement's criteria.

P.S. Collecting all the recipes in game is not required for the Chef title, but it is a related achievement. I've compiled a guide to all the recipes currently available in game and how to obtain them.

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Welcome

This is a blog dedicated to chronicling my day-to-day adventures in the World of Warcraft. I’ve been playing for three years, and raiding since my first character hit 58 and we needed another healer for Molten Core.

My first character and main is a druid with a hybrid spec who raid heals. But come Lich King, I am speccing her BOOMkin and making my shaman my primary healer. Other alts at level cap are a frosty mage and two shadow priests (1 horde, 1 alliance. shhh.). Other areas of interest/obsession include working on maximizing my professions…and hoarding vanity pets.

Happy adventuring!