Category: Cataclysm

My First Week of Cataclysm

baby gryphon daycare facility, Twilight Highlands

I haven’t actually had the game for a full week yet, since my Amazon game day pre-order didn’t arrive until 5 p.m. last Tuesday. But today is, nonetheless, the week marker since Cataclysm became available for us to play. How are you liking it so far? I’m having a great time overall, tho some things are driving me crazy. So let’s start with that…

Things That Drive Me Crazy About Cataclysm

  • Broken quests that impede your ability to progress through the zone thanks to the funneled nature of the questing. Vash’jir, I am looking at you. I keep seeing people happily earning achievements in that zone while I remain in eternal wait for an NPC who never spawns, thus unable to complete half the quests in the zone. I also had this happen in Mount Hyjal, but it was after I got the quest achievement for the zone so I was less bitter about it. The good news is the bugged quests are known issues and they are working on them. The bad news is I know of several such quests in BC that stayed that way for most of the expansion.
  • Portals that don’t spawn making it hard to get back to the new areas. Mount Hyjal portal, I’m calling you out on this one. It has not spawned for the character who got the achievement for doing all the quests there. Or for the SO’s toon who did half of them. At least it is a short flight for the hordies. Alliance toons can go talk to the Cenarion Emissary in the keep to port to moonglade again then fly from there. But it is still a PITA.
  • Stupidly low drop rate for cloth. I quested for about 2 hours on my tailor, in Mount Hyjal, yesterday and she picked up 6 pieces of cloth. I shouldn’t have to farm the AH for working on my tailoring, but that has been my primary source of it. Disappointing.
  • Having to shift in and out of Boomkin form constantly to be able to do things like mount up. Please fix this bug. It’s incredibly annoying and lame to have to do this every time I want to pop on to a mount. Please put it back to where we automatically shift out of form when we click on the mount. Pretty please.

Things That I am Loving About Cataclysm

  • The amazing scenery. Plenty to screenshot everywhere I go. Lots of funny quest-related things I’ve screenshotted that will turn up here on future posts.
  • The move towards more immersive, focused storytelling. Although when you hit a bugged quest it can be annoying, overall the immersion for the new way of questing through the Cataclysm areas has been great. Instead of walking into town and having 12 quests all over the map, you get a quest or two, all together, that you can work on. And so many more cut scenes! It’s a nice freshener for the game.
  • Fishing in Uldum. I absolutely love the Uldum scenery. And it feels like everywhere I fly there, I see a sparkly little fishing pool that needs my attention. Having these marshy areas be surrounded by crocs is a nice touch.
  • Pets pets everywhere! I have new vanity pets coming out of my ears, and without too much mindless farming (other than Mr. Grubs.)

So far, I have the druid to 84, and questing in Uldum. The shadow priest is 82, and questing in Vash’jir, having just finished up Mount Hyjal, other than her bugged quest.  I’ve spent a good portion of my auction house earnings working on my professions, but only have cooking and skinning maxed out thus far. Overall, it feels like good progress for a busy week that saw me have at most 3 hours of playtime a day. I hope by this time next week to have both these ladies to 85 and working on heroics.

What have you been up to this week?

Friday Five: Five Primary Things I’ve Done Since Cataclysm Hit

boomkin on a seahorse...wut?

Now that December 7th has come and gone, and level 85s are already complaining about how bored they are and my what long dungeon queues they have, I bring you this Friday Five, covering how I have spent the last 3 Cataclysmic days…

  1. Wading knee deep in professions. When I log in a new character, the first to-do is to visit all their profession trainers and train so I can start getting those professions skill-ups rolling. Of course I forgot to do that for my Alliance druid’s skinning (that trainer is all the way out in Old Town SW, and thus was forgotten), so although she skinned plenty in Vashj’ir, you didn’t gain any points for it, alas. So far, have been pushing the levers on working on my horde-side tailoring, fishing and cooking, and herbing; alliance side the most headway was made with alchemy and inscription, but tailoring and enchanting are moving along as well.
  2. Checking out the new starter instances. Given that we need to up our ilvls in order to use LFD for the later instances, I’ve been making sure I do the starter instances as soon as I can find a group of friends or guildies interested in doing so. And yes, I have been equipping dungeon blues to replace my ilvl 251 pieces on the druid. The SP has built a set of crafted gear to meet the new ilvl requirements as well, but is still hanging on to some 264/277 pieces.
  3. Questing and dungeoning with guildies. I easily maxed out my guild reputation from the week over the course of each toon’s one evening of playtime, thanks in large part to questing with my SO (which kept me focused and moving forward through the story lines) and dungeoning with guildies and friends which kept us out of what I’ve heard has been a 40-minute LFD queue for DPS.
  4. Leveling slowly but surely. I’ve only had a few hours each evening to play, as I’ve had a full plate at work this week. But even with the limitation of just 3 or so hours per night to play, my druid and my shadow priest are each halfway through 81.
  5. Sightseeing. I’ve yet to do an aerial tour of Azeroth, or even get started on my archaeology, but when I am out in the new areas, I am making sure I stop to smell the Cinderblooms, and to take plenty of screenies. That can backfire sometimes though, mind you. Such as the case with the screenshot you see on this page. Wouldn’t you agree that is is terribly unfair that I was able to ride this adorable seahorse whilst in boomkin form in performance of the quest? But that once I received my very own seahorse to have and to hold, I was unable to ride him except in caster form? I’m being opressed!.

How have you been spending your first few days in Azeroth? Speed leveling one toon to 85? Making a killing in the AH? Or taking your time and rolling new alts?

Cataclysm FAQs

gnome shadow priest gains cooking tips from Robby Flay and Barrio Matalli in Stormwind

Ah, another expansion is upon us. Which means…Gchat full of people repeatedly asking the same questions over and over. Admittedly, when WotLK dropped, I made a few macros to quickly and accurately reply to some of the questions that kept popping up in guild chat. And thus, the inspiration for this list.

Some of these questions will be old hat for those players who have been online daily since the Shattering hit us. But rest assured most guilds will see an influx of  folks who will, undoubtedly, start asking these questions straight away…

🙂

OMG! Where did the portals in Dalaran go?

Deathwing ate them.

Are the ones in Shatt still there?

No.

How the hell am I supposed to get back to Azeroth now?

The same way you did before you got to Dalaran: take the boat/zeppelin.

Boat? What boat? / Zeppelin? Which Zeppelin?

Alliance: Valiance Keep, Borean Tundra –to– Stormwind Harbor

Horde: Warsong Hold, Borean Tundra –to– Orgrimmar

How am I supposed to get around from continent to continent now?

Boats go many wonderful places.

  • Ratchet, The Barrens –to– Booty Bay
  • Menethil Harbor, Wetlands –to– Theramore Isle
  • Menethil Harbor, Wetlands –to– Valgarde, Howling Fjord 
  •  Stormwind Harbor, Elwynn Forest –to– Rut’theran Village, Teldrassil 
  •  Rut’theran Village, Teldrassil –to– Valaar’s Berth, Azuremyst Isle

Zeppelins also go many wonderful places.

  •  Orgrimmar, Durotar –to– Grom’Gol, Stranglethorn Vale  
  •  Orgrimmar, Durotar –to– Undercity, Tirisfal Glades  
  •  Orgrimmar, Durotar –to– Thunder Bluff, Mulgore  
  •  Undercity, Tirisfal Glades –to– Grom’Gol, Stranglethorn Vale  
  •  Undercity, Tirisfal Glades –to– Vengeance Landing, Howling Fjord

And druids may teleport to Moonglade, which is your fastest route to Kalimdor.

But there isn’t a boat to Darkshore from Darnassus now. Help!

The flightmaster will happily fly you there.

 Why can’t I fly now? I thought we could fly in Cataclysm?

Did you buy your Flight Master’s License yet? It will allow you to ride your flying mount in Kalimdor, Esastern Kingdoms and Deepholm. It will cost you $250G.

I don’t have my flying license. Where can I buy it?

Visit your favorite flight trainer. I suggest the new trainers located next to the flight paths in Stormwind and Orgrimmar.

I can’t buy the flying license. Why?

Did you install Cataclysm yet? You can’t fly in Azeroth without it. Cataclysm is also needed to visit the new areas and roll goblins or worgen, level your characters to 85, and to level your professions past 450.

Where do I learn Archaeology?

Talk to a guard in any major city.

OK, I learned Archaeology. What do I do with it now?

Check out the Wowpedia archaeology guide for details on where to go and how it all works.

Where do I train up my professions?

Talk to a guard in any major city; they’ll put an icon on your map where your trainer can be found. Progressing past 500 on some professions may require that you level your character and then visit a specialty vendor in a higher level area, such as Twilight Highlands.

Twilight Highlands…? Where’s that?

MMO Champion has a map of that area and tons of details.

What are all the new areas?

I went to Gilneas. Why isn’t anything there?

It’s a phased area for new players of that race only. If you want to see it, go roll a worgen.

Do I have to fly all the way back to the new areas?

Not after your first time visiting them. World of Raids has maps showing where the portals are located in Sotrmwind and Orgrimmar that can return you to those areas after your initial visit..

Can anyone in the guild link me their <profession name>?

We sure can! But did you know that you can see all the recipes everyone knows on all their characters for yourself? Go to the guild menu. In the view pulldown menu, select professions. That shows you a list of everyone who is on now, and their professions.

Why can’t I see anyone for <profession name>?

Try checking the “show offline members” box in the lower left part of the window. That way you can see recipes for alts of players who are on now, and items for everyone else in the guild.

Where are the new cooking/fishing dailies?

They are given out in Stormwind and Orgrimmar now. Here’s a guide to the new fishing and cooking quests and achievements for more details:

Hey! Can you bump up my guild reputation. It says I am just neutral. But I’ve been in this guild for years.

No can do. Everyone — including the guild leader– starts at neutral.

So, how do I raise my reputation in the guild?

There are many ways you can do this, just by playing the game as you would normally. Reputation is awarded for attaining guild achievements, completing instances with guildies, and many other things. There’s a helpful guide to guild achievements on Wowpedia.

If I /gquit will I start at my current guild reputation level in my new guild?

Nope. You’ll start back at neutral, so you will want to stop and consider the consequences before jumping to a new guild. And those with /gkick powers will want to stop doing joke kicks as those will also wipe guild reputation.

Why can’t I see my friends list?

Hit your “o” key, or click on the little person icon in the top left of your chat window.

What else happened during the Shattering, other than Deathwing eating all our portals?

I was asleep when it happened so I really can’t say. But Anne Stickley over at WoW Insider wrote a great piece on everything that happened in the Shattering. Note that if you plan to read The Shattering book, you may not want to read the post. Oh yeah — there are new racial videos that also tell part of the story too, so don’t hit the ESC key next time you roll an alt.

Where are the new Justice/Valor point vendors?

Horde has Jamus’Vaz <Valorous Quartermaster> and Gunra <Justice Quartermaster> in Orgrimmar’s Valley of Strength. Alliance has Faldren Tillsdale <Valorous Quartermaster> and Magatha Silverton <Justice Quartermaster> in Stormwind in the Old Town area.

I thought there were supposed to be new heirlooms?

There sure are. But your guild needs to attain guild level 10 before you can purchase them. See the WoWhead Guild Advancement guide for more information.

Are there any FAQs I’ve missed? Let me know in the comments!

What to Wear: a Shadow Priest’s Guide to 5-man Cataclysm Heroic Dungeon Gear

This is a companion piece to the 5-man Cataclysm Dungeon Gear guide. All items are ilvl 346 rare quality. What you will immediately notice is the item names are the same as their regular dungeon counterparts (with the exception of SFK and Deadmines which both have a number of uniquely named items), with a boost of stats from the regular version, and often the addition of one or more gem slots.

Please note: if you are wondering why I have included items with spirit in this list, please go read The Changing Face of Spirit. If you have taken the Twisted Faith talent, you will want to use spirit items to help reach your hit cap as needed.

Details after the jump.

Continue reading “What to Wear: a Shadow Priest’s Guide to 5-man Cataclysm Heroic Dungeon Gear”

What to Wear: a Shadow Priest’s Guide to 5-man Cataclysm Dungeon Gear

Before you dive into Heroics, you'll need to get yourself a solid set of dungeon blues to get started.

Now I do need to warn you of one thing: don't be fooled by the level requirements on the items. That blue that only requires level 78 to wear? Don't turn your nose up at it if it's ilvl 279 and you are sporting ilvl 200 level 80 WotLK epics. If you're in ICC25 gear, you're probably not going to be taking any of the 279 ilvl pieces, but will want to start looking at the 300+ pieces to see if the piece better meets your itemization needs.

Note: if you plan on using the LFD finder, you'll need an average ilvl of over 279 to use it after the two introductory instances, so it is best to make your peace now about ditching your beautiful Icecrown epics for questing greens..

Also note:

  • ilvl 279 requires level 78 to wear.
  • ilvl 316 requires level 81 to wear.
  • ilvl 333 requires level 83 to wear.
  • ilvl 346  requires level 85 to wear.

And finally, if you are wondering why I have included items with spirit in this list, please go read The Changing Face of Spirit. If you have taken the Twisted Faith talent, you will want to use spirit items to help reach your hit cap as needed.

Details after the jump.

Continue reading “What to Wear: a Shadow Priest’s Guide to 5-man Cataclysm Dungeon Gear”

Friday Five: Five Ways to Get in a Cataclysm State of Mind Now

We’re in that last tiny pre-Cataclysm stretch. Are you excited yet? I know I’m already having a blast even without having all the Cataclysm goodies unlocked yet. But in case you’re still “Bah Humbug!” about all this, here are some ways to get into the Cataclysm spirit now.

  1. Head to Hillsbrad, going to its mid-Western Border and seek out Brazie the Botanist and the “Basic Botany” quest. It’s the start of a small Plants versus Ghouls quest chain, with each level increasing in difficulty, and culminating in a pitched battle that rewards victors with the Singing Sunflower pet.
  2. Head to the Eastern Plaguelands, to the far South West where the low road meets the border with the Western Plaguelands at the river. You are looking for a worgen named Fiona, standing next to her gypsy caravan. She will send you off to do some quests that will eventually lead you back to her, and allow you to check out her caravan. Once you get to that point, choose to have Fiona’s Lucky Charm buff cast upon you. And now, the real time sink begins. With that buff active, you may kill mobs throughout the Eastern Plaguelands and have a chance at them dropping a Hidden Stash bag. that bag has a small chance to contain the BoP vanity pet Mr. Grubs.
  3. Head to Stormwind or Orgrimmar and get cracking on doing your new cooking dailies. If you do them Friday, Saturday and Sunday, you’ll earn yourself the ability to purchase a new recipe, which will allow you to get cracking with your cooking leveling on Tuesday, first thing.
  4. Mosey yourself over to Deadmines and Shadowfang Keep. These are not your old favorites, they’re your Extreme Makeover Dungeon Edition old friends.
  5. If somehow you are still not feeling it, and you happen to be a fisherperson, get started on your saltwater or freshwater new fishing achievements. To get started, walk outside of whatever city you are in and head to the closest body of water, and fish. Look for shimmering pools of special fish. Then hop on your favorite mount and head out in search of more special pools of fish, exploring all these somewhat familiar, but not quite the same places that you’ve previously explored. If going out into New Azeroth and seeing the sites doesn’t do it for you, I’m not sure if anything else can or will.

UPDATED: Cataclysm Fishing Achievements and Quests

UPDATED 4/25/11 with new dailies added in Patch 4.1

The patch brings us new fishing dailies in some of our other capital cities, so we can add some variety to our daily routine. I know I’ve grown tired of doing the same old quests, and quite honestly, I miss the Undercity. I’ll be decamping for there after the patch lands.

New Alliance Fishing Dailies in Darnassus
Quests come from Astaia.

  • A Slippery Snack. Gather 6 Baby Octopi from the shallow water near Rut’theran Village.
  • An Old Favorite. Catch 8 Kaldorei Herring by fishing in Rut’theran Village.
  • Happy as a Clam Digger. Gather 10 Teldrassil Clams from the shores near Rut’theran Village.
  • Stocking Up. Catch 5 Lake Whitefish by fishing in Darnassus.
  • The Sister’s Pendant. Retrieve Aquinne’s Moon Pendant from the belly of a Giant Catfish. You should be able to catch them anywhere you can fish in Darnassus.

New Alliance Fishing Dailies in Ironforge
Quests come from Grimnur Stonebrand.

  • Cold Water Fishing. Catch 5 Arctic Char by fishing in Helm’s Bed Lake in Dun Morogh.
  • Fish fer Squirky. Catch 3 Blind Minnows in the pool in the Forlorn Cavern and feed them to Squirky.
  • Live Bait. Use Grimnur’s Bait on yourself, then jump into Helm’s Bed Lake in Dun Morogh.
  • One fer the Ages. Catch a Young Ironjaw in Ironforge’s Forlorn Cavern and display it in the Library near the Empty Plaque.
  • The Gnomish Bait-o-Matic. Use the Bait-o-Matic Blueprint with 5 Shiny Baubles, a Hair Trigger, and 3 Rat Traps to create the Gnomish Bait-o-Matic.

New Horde Fishing Dailies in The Undercity
Quests come from Armand Cromwell.

  • Fish Head. Fish up a Severed Abomination Head in Undercity
  • Like Pike? Dig up a Corpse Worm in the Ruins of Lordaeron courtyard and use it as bait to catch a Corpse-Fed Pike. Corpse-Fed Pike can be fished up in Brightwater Lake, northeast of Undercity.
  • Moat Monster! Use the Alliance Decoy Kit to summon the Moat Monster in the Ruins of Lordaeron. Then use the Bloated Frogs to feed the monster.
  • Tadpole Terror. Fish up 8 Giant Flesh-Eating Tadpoles.
  • Time for Slime. Collect 10 Squirming Slime Molds.

New Horde Fishing Dailies in Thunder Bluff
Quests come from Kah Mistrunner.

  • Craving Crayfish. Gather 10 Stonebull Crayfish from Stonebull Lake in Mulgore. You can fish them up dive in and grab them by hand.
  • Pond Predators. Catch 8 Azshara Snakehead fish from the Thunder Bluff pond.
  • Shiny Baubles. Collect 20 Shiny Stones from around the central rise’s base.
  • The Race to Restock. Gather 2 Randy Smallfish and 2 Amorous Mud Snappers from Stonebull Lake in Mulgore.
  • The Ring’s the Thing. Fish up Blind Cavefish from the Pools of Vision in Thunder Bluff and fillet them until you find the ring.

 

Original Post from December 2, 2010

I’d planned to hold off on this post until I’d actually gone through all 5 of the quests both Horde and Alliance side, but after a week-and-a-half, I’ve still only had the same 3 each side, and have been receiving prods about writing this post, so here you have it.

New Fishing Achievements

  • Illustrious Grand Master Fisherman. Obtain 525 skill points in fishing. The previous fishing skill achievements were earned upon training the ability to earn another 75 skill points. I like this change to getting the recognition once you finally get that last available skill point.
  • Fish or Cut Bait (A) or Fish and Cut Bait (H). Achievements for completing each of the 5 fishing daily quests.
  • The Limnologist. Catch 48 different fresh water fish. This big list of fish includes fish from Azeroth, Outlands, and Northrend. Despite my many fishing dailies, and my having fished up all of the previously existing fish on the list many times in the past, my achievement in progress for this is a big wall of gray. Blergh. I would mind redoing this less if it were only the new Azeroth fishies, as I want to explore all the new content anyhow.
  • The Oceanographer. Catch 33 different saltwater fish. Like Limnologist, these fish can be found in Azeroth, Northrend or Outlands (Jaggal Clams for the latter in case you were thinking to yourself what on earth could have been in saltwater in Outlands.)

New Alliance Fishing Dailies in Stormwind

  • Hitting a Walleye. Catch 8 Hardened Walleye. A very straightforward, fast daily. Make sure you are at the correct lake — you should see an on screen indication that you are at Stormwind Lake. At 450 fishing, I caught one of these fish each cast.
  • Rock Lobster. Collect 6 rock lobsters. This quest is completed under the Stormwind docks, and is a collection quest (checking the crab traps) not actually a fishing chore. There is a level 85 shark patrolling those waters, noted by the quest to be viscous (sic), so watch out.
  • Thunder Falls. Catch 4 violet perch. Head out of Storwind’s city gates, and head immediately to the right, and look for a steep but accessible path up the cliffs. You’ll come to a small house with a smidge of water and a dock near the water falls. At 450 fishing I typically caught my four fish within 10 casts at worst.
  • Diggin’ for Worms. Find an Overgrown Earthworm near Lake Olivia and use it as bait to catch a Crystal Bass. Look for cogwheels over hard to see mounds of dirt around Lake Olivia to grab your earthworm. After applying the worm to your hook, it’s buff will last 10 minutes which should be more than long enough to catch your fish at Olivia’s Pond. This one also happens to reward 2 fishing skill points instead of the usual 1. This body of water is near the Pumpkin Patch for the cooking daily, accessed through an exit from the Dwarven District.
  • Big Gulp. Catch Royal Monkfish and fillet them until you find the Precious Locket. So far, this is my least favorite of the fishing dailies due to its randomness. One day I fished up 26 monkfish, over the span of 11 or 12 minutes before I got a locket.

New Horde Fishing Dailies in Orgrimmar

  • Clammy Hands. Collect 10 Monstrous clam meat. The clams are collected (not fished) from the sea floor under the docks in Bladefist Bay, outside of Orgrimmar.
  • A Staggering Effort. Head out the North exit of Orgrimmar to kill a stag and collect its eye to use as bait to catch a Sandy Carp in the Valley of Wisdom.
  • A  Golden Opportunity. Cut off a thunder Lizard’s tail with the quest item knife, then click on its tail to kill Golden Stonefish, retrieving 3 Golden Stonefish from their electrocuted bodies. You should be able to use that one lizard tail to easily kill all three of your fish.
  • No Dumping Allowed. Fish up 6 toxic puddlefish. A very quick and straightforward daily.
  • A Furious Catch. Catch a Giant Furious Pike in the Southfury River right outside Orgrimmar. Be sure to head South, not North, as you exit Orgrimmar through the Valley of the Spirits, as you want to remain in Durotar for this quest.

Other New Fishing Miscellanea

The new dailies reward you with a Bag of Shiny Things. Overall, the rewards bag has been disappointing. No cool grey or white items that serve as bank alt bling. No vendor trash that earns you a great sell price. No adorable pets. OK, I take back the latter — if you don’t already have a Strand Crawler from your Dalaran fishing bags, you have a chance at that.

I would guess that the overall cheap quality of these rewards is due to the fact that your level 10 characters can pick up these quests, and no one wants a filthy rich level 10 just from doing the fishing dailies. It would be nice though if there was a new pole, or a pet, or lures, or even unique bobber icons that could be either earned over time or randomly awarded through these new dailies. Oh well. they promised to make fishing more fun in Cataclysm, but so far I am not sure what it is they have in mind exactly. We shall see.

Are you going to grab a tackle box? It’s a new profession bag, fashioned by engineers. I am not seeing that for me it would be worth it over all. I typically send all my fish to a bank alt, and at any given time have a solid tab full of fish and meat. I am much more likely to go out into the world with regular bags and fill them up. But then again it might come in handy when roaming the world working on one of those new “catch one of every fish” achievements.

I do like the change of our mouse-over for the bobber now being a fishy. It’s very cute. Now if only they’d give us a way to earn ourselves one of these cute goblin fishing chairs…

UPDATED: Cataclysm Cooking Achievements and Daily Quests

UPDATED 4/29 with the new cooking dailies added with Patch 4.1

Alliance Cooking Dailies in Darnassus

Alliance Cooking Dailies in Ironforge
Quests come from Daryl Riknussun.

Horde Cooking Dailies in The Undercity
Quests come from Eunice Burch.

Horde Cooking Dailies in Thunder Bluff
Quests come from Aska Mistrunner.

  • Corn Mash. Pound 6 bowls of corn kernels into cornmeal.
  • "Magic" Mushrooms. Gather 6 "Magic" Mushrooms from the Pools of Vision.
  • Mulgore Spice Bread. Use Mulgore Spices with Spice Bread to create 5 Fresh Mulgore Spice Bread, or obtain them from someone else.
  • Perfectly Picked Portions. Obtain four "perfect portions" from merchants stalls around Thunder Bluff. You will obtain one each of Succulent Sweet Potatoes, Savory Spices, Fresh-Caught Fish, and Fresh-Hunted Fowl from Thunder Bluff merchant stalls.
  • Pining for Nuts. Obtain 30 Pine Nuts by toasting Mulgore Pine Cones.

Original Post

I've slowly but surely started working on my Cataclysm cooking achievements and cooking quests, thanks to all being activated with patch 4.0.3a. I've already achieved the Let's Do Lunch achievement on my Alliance characters after only a week of dailies.

Achievements: Alliance

  • Let's Do Lunch: Complete each of the Stormwind cooking dailies listed below.
  • The Cataclysmic Gourmet: Cook 15 then 30 of the new recipes.
  • Iron Chef: Learn 200 cooking recipes.

Achievements: Horde

  • Let's Do Lunch: Complete each of the Orgrimmar cooking dailies listed below.
  • The Cataclysmic Gourmet: Cook 15 then 30 of the new recipes.
  • Iron Chef: Learn 200 cooking recipes.

Alliance Cooking Dailies in Stormwind

  •  A Fisherman's Feast. Obtain 5 gigantic catfish, via fishing or stealing barrels of fish from beleagured Stormwind fishermen.
  • Orphans Like Cookies Too. Steal bags of confectioners' Sugar (or buy them from NPCs in the Inns around SW).
  • The King's Cider. Obtain 12 juicy apples that have fallen from the trees around Stormwind. Herbalists have a leg up on this as the locations of fallen apples will show on your mini map like herb nodes do.
  • Feeling Crabby? Collect 10 canal crabs. You'll want to get a warlock's underwater breathing buff or be a druid in seal form to swiftly swim through the canals in search of the crabs.
  • Penny's Pumpkin Pancakes. Obtain 6 Stormwind Pumpkins. Gathered from a pumpkin patch North of Stormwind. The hardest part of this quest is finding the tiny pathway out to the pumpkin patch from the far reaches of the Dwarven District.

Horde Cooking Dailies in Orgirmmar

So far of these, all are pretty fast and easy to complete other than Feeling Crabby, which is likely to flare tempers the same way the Dalaran mushrooms did in the early days of WotLK. 3 completed quests earns you enough Chef's Award tokens to purchase a recipe. Or 2 tokens can be turned in for a Crate of Tasty Meat that can be used to create some of the new recipes.

There are 11 recipes that may be learned with 450 cooking skill; 3 with 475 cooking skill; 11 with 500 cooking skill; 1 with 505 cooking skill; and 2 learned with 525 cooking skill. NOTE: the two 525 recipes will require a spend of 5 tokens instead of the 3 needed for the lower level recipes. Alliance recipes are purchased from Bario Matalli, while Horde recipes are purchased from Shazdar.

Friday Five: My Five Favorite Post-Shattering Things (so far)

Forsaken shadow priest Anexxia walks into the beautifully redesigned Brill.

It feels as though my exploration of Azeroth has barely begun. There is so much I have yet to see and do. It’s a welcome change of pace. In these past few days, I have come across many changes that have made me very happy:

  1. Gnome priests. Is there much that is cuter than a gnome shadow priest? No, there really isn’t.I never really clicked with my Draenei shadow priest. In large part because she never had the same compelling back story, for me, that mu Forsaken shadow priest had. But that’s all changed now. Snake is a happy bouncing gnome lady. And I am utterly charmed.
  2. The new Silverpine Forest. Although I really only did a tourist look-see through this zone, even a cursory visit shows it has been utterly, magnificently changed. For the better. I can’t wait to play my future goblin and take them through Silverpine.What exactly *are* those Valkyrie ladies up to?
  3. Dwarf Shaman. I faction changed my Draenei shaman some time ago, and was getting the urge to play a shaman Alliance side again, but am glad I waited to reroll until this week so I could make my dwarf shaman lady.
  4. The new Deadmines. I had so much fun running through there yesterday that I totally forgot to take any screenies. And that’s pretty much unheard of for me, yes? The entrance area is that same old tunnel, but not the same inhabitants (the same goes for the entire Moonbrook area– it reminds me of our old bus terminal downtown.) Once you get into the actual entrance, the loot is the same but most of the bosses are completely different. Many little touches that make it a much more fun place to explore and fight in. Lots of things to pick up, explode, or hop onto. And portals conveniently scattered around so you don’t have to run run run back if you die in a PUG on your lowbies. I don’t want to spoil the fun for you, so the only thing I will give away right now is: mining monkeys you can set free. Mwahahaha.
  5. Many new pets! So far, no new pet achievement for having 100 pets, but we do have a whole slew of new pets to pursue. I’d suggest you first head to Hillsbrad to find the goblin botanist who can give you the Plants Versus Ghouls questline starter, Basic Botany. At the end you’ll be rewarded with the adorable singing sunflower. And a plea for courtesy: level 80 pet collectors, don’t follow around lowbies questing in the same areas you are in for pursuing your pet. It’s really incredibly lame of you to 1-shot mobs they’ve DoTd or are casting at. There are plenty of quest mobs for everyone so DBAD.

BONUS: A big THANK YOU to Blizz for the many improved textures that help make the redesigned Orgrimmar and Stormwind cities truly magnificent. You’ve outdone yourself guys.