Ding 100!

100!

How I got there,  ... from 98 to 100.

I made a lot of leveling progress by running a current content dungeon.  A first!

How did it happen that I am running "current content dungeons", you might ask? [typing those words still kinda freaks me out.  I cannot believe that I have progressed far enough in the game to be running current content dungeons!]

Vier called one evening as asked if I wanted to run High Maul with her.  "um, ... OK."  [thinking to self, this ought to be interesting!]  By the time I got online and in-game, the adrenaline was running high.

"Crap!", said Vier, "um, ... sorry, ... I forgot you weren't at max level yet."

Taking pity on me, and because she had roused me from reading my book into an adrenaline rush - she offered to run a "my level" dungeon with me.

Already at the "OK, why the hell not!" mind set, I agreed.

"Crap!", [again!] " ... your gear isn't a high enough ilvl to join in the lowest current content dungeon."  

No problem, I know exactly what the next level weapon is that I want, now to find the quest string that rewards it.  I thought I found it. After doing a dizzying couple of quests in what I thought was the right area, realized, ... it wasn't the right place.  The rewards I was getting were way too lo level.

Just think about that for a second ...  ... I found a quest chain to do that was was too LOW a level for me.  ME!

As I was Alt-Tabbing in and out of wowhead/the game, trying to find the quest chain for my next big-ass-purple-sword [Restalaan's Great Sword], Vier disappeared for a bit.

"Come to my garrison" she says.

"but I think I found the right quest hub, it's right close by here, and, ...  the garrisons are way over there [remember, no flying in Draenor] ... ", I whined.

"just come to my garrison, I have a sword for you.  I just bought it at the AH."

"You are so like your father.  No problem too great, or too small, that throwing a little money at it won't solve".

I'm not even going to think about, or ask about, how much gold she threw away on my new sword.  It was JUST enough to get my ilvl at exactly the minimum to enter the dungeon.

As I was to learn later, Skyreach is the first dungeon in WoD. Remember way back, when I was given a week-long homework assignment to learn about the bosses in Throne of Thunder?  Red Bear does!  She helped me study over two weeks, even though she had absolutely no interest or knowledge of the game!  Imagine the thrill of helping someone study for something you don't know anything about, or could care less about!  That is friendship!

Now, Vier and I are sitting in a queue for a dungeon that I not only don't know the name of, I don't have a hairy-rat's-ass clue what it's about!

While we wait, Vier's giving me some pointers.

"Just attack what the tank does, but don't attack anything until the tank starts."

"Don't run ahead."

"Just follow the group."

And a summary of the encounter, which I vaguely remember was a lot of typing about ... not falling off ledges,... lots of birds, ... and many "up the stairs" references.

"Watch the chat window!"

My head spinning, I asked some important questions.  "How can I tell who the tank is?"  "How do I know what the tank is attacking?"

To her credit, Vier did not feign an internet outage and disappear offline!   She didn't even make the most horrible sound in the game, by using her "feign death" ability!  Such a loving daughter. [It's at times like these that I'm sure she questions herself about why she was ever so hot and bothered to get me into the game - lol - ]

Something I had long wanted to know, has such a simple solution it makes me slightly crazy.

• The tank has the Shield-symbol by their name in the group list on the left. 
• The Healer symbol is the + cross sign.   

Have a look in the upper-left of the screenshot all you non-WoW readers.  See the list of character portraits up there?  The top one has a white + sign, the second one has a shield and the other two have sword.  At least I think that's supposed to be a sword - even viewing it at 100% magnification, I have a hard time telling exactly what it is, but the red background behind the sword stands out.  Red for Danger!  That's us Damage Dealing [DPS] guys 'n gals, danger on the run! lol

Doh!

And we're in!

My first current content dungeon.

The good, the bad, and the ugly, of World of Warcraft.

The Bad.  

The first tank we had in our group was an ass-hat.  Plain and simple.  During our first run, I got swept off the ledge by the Jet Steam imitation "wind river".

C'mon, we all knew THAT was going to happen.  

I got healed right away and all I had to do was run up to where I left the group.  Around the ledge, up the stairs, .. uh oh, two stairs to choose from ... choose left?  choose right?  Of course I chose wrong and ended up in the middle of a fight with the mobs on the side we didn't clear ... Of course I died again.

So instead of just sitting there feeling stupid and not playing, I typed in chat ... "Sorry, I'm lost".

Ass-hat:  "what?  she doesn't remember the route we took?"  No, ass-hat she doesn't.

Vier: "Her first dungeon".

While the group waited for Vier to come escort me back to where everyone else was [dammit, choose the --clear-- stair case Nor, not the one with mobs on it!] Ass-hat is querying Vier's spec and wondering why her DPS is so high.

"I've never ran with anyone that has twice the DPS as I have" ponders Ass-Hat.

Being a terrible person and a bitch, and feeling stupid for not remembering the route we took, I typed

" ... 'cause she's awesome" [but didn't type "ass hat"].  

The Good.  

Ass-hat left our group.  While we were waiting for a new tank, I asked the healer and Vier some questions.

I felt like maybe I was doing something wrong 'cause I was the only player getting up close and personal with the Boss and adds, was I doing something wrong?  Nope, just happened that I was the only melee DPS in the group.  OH!, OK, that's cool.  I forget now what other lame questions I asked but the explanations made sense and cleared things up for me.

Our new tank, our healer and the rest of the group, were awesome ... The second run went so well.  I kept up.  I didn't fall off the ledge.  The other DPS, the healer, and Vier, all cheered when I made it!  We had, I don't remember how many, great runs.  I actually felt like I was getting the hang of it.  Other people were making mistakes too, not just me.  I fell off the ledge again, got rezzed and found my way back all by myself.

I had a lot of fun!  

The Ugly.

The only ugly part would be my DPS statistics.  But, ... being a smart cookie, I didn't even bother to look at the numbers.  Not that I would remember how to do that anyway, but knowing the numbers would just depress me.  I decided that I didn't need to know.  They'll only get better anyway! lol  Living by the River De'Nile is a blissful place.

Besides looting some great tokens for gear that "requires level 100", [wow, 3 good pieces to start off when I finally get there], "Holy Crap!" Sometime during the dungeon runs, ... I dinged 99 and was well on my way to 100!

I did most of my levelling from 99 to 100 by doing the Bonus Quests [which grant a lot of gold that I'd need to upgrade my Garrison] and, of all things, hunting a Snowy Owl [Battle Pet for the non-WoW readers] in Winterspring.

The Snowy Owls only spawn during real-life Northern Hemisphere winter, Dec. 21 - Mar. 20.  In addition to being a time-limited pet to collect, it is also a less-than-plentiful spawn, and a bit of a PITA to:

1. find a Snowy Owl Battle Pet, 
2. have a rare quality show up and, 
3. successfully trap it!  

The very first one I found spawned was a rare and I was so excited I killed it!

Also in Winterspring, I discovered, are quite a few mechanical pets [mechanicals being some of my faves], a "free" Frostsaber Mount, and a couple of other easy achievements that I forget, y'know, it being a whole 10 days or so later as I type this!

Which brings us to March 18, 2015.

I was out and about, mining, and collecting cooking meat, when I noticed I was about to hit 100.

I very carefully ran back to my garrison.  Carefully, as in taking care not to aggro some random mob and hit 100 by killing a wolf, or worse, one of those annoying little flower dudes.  Just for the eye-roll inducing pleasure of it all, I wanted to ding 100 as I handed in a Daily at my Fishing Shack.  Just because ... reasons.

W00t!

 I DID IT!
It only took sixteen months to reach max level!

Woo Hoo!
 --two arms raised in joy--

Yippee!

I reached 100 and I'm finished the game!

ROLFLMAO
Just kidding!

Playing WoW is like "reading the internets", ...you never finish!  There is always something interesting, cool, or confounding, at the next mouse click.

So what now? ... ... In no particular order:

• finish my Crazy Cat Lady title.
• finish the Darnassus and Ironforge Lunch Lady achievements.
• gather the pieces for my Lightsworn Garb (Recolor) set.
• Sushel - change profession to engineer, level into WoD, and get her garrison going.
• Saelybrooke - get her to level 60 so I can boost her and her professions of Alchemy and Herbalism, level her into WoD, and get her Garrison going.
• Soozuu - figure out how to level, gear for, and play PvP. Also, level her Tailoring to make many big bags.
• Gnome Death Knight - start an alt, just because I want a teeny "cute" gnome playing the bad-ass-est spec in the game!
• Bank Alt with a Guild Bank - I need to start a bank alt that I won't be tempted to play and level, who will stay just a bank alt.  So I'm thinking a human, male, something.  Probably a Ret. Pally just because it will be my third and I won't be tempted to level that!  I also have to learn how to set up a one-person guild to get a guild bank to store my crap.  I wonder if that is "legal"? Research Required.
• level fifteen pets to pet level twenty-five so I can take on all the Pet Tamers, the August Celestials, and get my damn Safari Hat.So I can open the Pet Menagerie in my garrison, to have all my cat pets running around the ol' castle. To go with my Crazy Cat Lady Title. [I was confused about how to open the Pet Menagerie, I've since discovered how easy it is and mine has been opened]  
• finish my Crazy Cat Lady mini-scrapbook that Red Bear made for me.  ah ... the collision of my life in WoW and IRL activities! [in real life, Red Bear made me a Scrapbook for my Crazy Cat Lady status irl and, hopefully, in WoW]
• run all the dungeons with Mr. Kitty. [my new WoW friend whom I've dubbed Mr. Kitty because of his battle tag I.D.]
• get Vier to update my Profile Pic! [as soon as I take a good screenshot for it!]

That's all for now!  Ciao!  Nor.