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.

Perfectly Pretty Purple Plate [100th post]

Of course! The most gorgeous plate set I've ever seen comes from an old 25H [twenty-five player heroic] raid.

First, it doesn't have huge sticky-outy shoulder crap.  It is a SKIRT!  A plate skirt!  It is Purple. with bits of orangy-amber shiny. The boobs aren't weirdly accented, lightly colored or encircled with metal. The helmet isn't the most hideous I've seen.  Which doesn't matter as I never show my helmet anyway.  sigh.  it is perfect.

First, you must obtain the 10N [ten player normal] mode items to use as "tokens" to get the 25N [twenty five player normal] mode items to use as "tokens" to get the set I want.

Assuming we have the people to do the runs and all the runs go perfectly and we get the items required in the first attempt, {HA!}, IT STILL MEANS A MINIMUM OF THREE RUNS through the Ice Crown Citadel.

ICC-Lightsworn Garb Recolor

On the one hand, I feel slightly hopeful, it was a run through ICC that I first met Mr. Kitty, the night Vier got her [ugly] Dragon mount.

But, ... still ... that's a lot of running old content to get a transmog set.

Assuming, of course, that I ever get to max level and a decent ilvl set to transmog from in the first place!

And then, I'm still a bit confused about the whole transmog thing.  I know Vier has been consistently wearing her brown horny dinosaur look-a-like set for a bit now.  But, the gear we get through questing, dungeons and raiding is always improving.  In this game, you're always, always looking for better gear.  Does this mean every time you get a new piece you have to re-do the whole transmog?

That's not cheap!

And what if you want to keep a lower level piece for one reason or another?

I have a 400 something level trinket that I am loathe to give up.  It's a Bag of Bombs.  Being a melee fighter, I don't have a plethora of ranged attacks at my disposal and that trinket has saved my butt on more than one occasion.  Either when a mob is at range or when I get into a hairy scary scenario, having an extra bomb or two can be the difference between life and death.  I don't know if I'll ever want to give up my bag of bombs.

Is there such a creature as a serious raider who is also into transmog? Seems to me you can be one or the other.  Either care about your character's looks or be a serious fighter.

In other news ...

I'm spending some serious time in Hillsbrad Foothills trying to snag a Black Tabby pet. [A 0.01 to 0.03% drop rate]  I've managed a couple of uncommon infested bear cubs and a rare spider.  Haven't seen a Lofty Libram yet, nor the cat carrier.

I've also been spending a lot of time ranging far and wide in Shadowmoon Valley looking for True Iron Ore.  In an attempt to reduce the number of times I get lost, I'm trying something new, I've set my mini-map to be rotating not stationary.  It's weird, but at least it's labeled with N for north now and I can always use that as an orienting function.

Being so heavily involved with maps in my old real life, I think one of the reasons I'm always so lost and confused, [besides the no-brain-function] is that unconsciously looking at the mini-map I equate top with north.  Which I have discovered is very rarely the case.

Very strange set-up these computer games.  Why would you have a map not oriented to north?

Spent several hours fishing this past Wednesday night.  On a lark, I put on my glow worm lure [which lasts for an hour], sitting in my own fishing pond, turned the sound way up and wore my head set as a necklace but could still hear the splash mechanic indicating a hooked fish. ... while Himself and I watched Survivor! 300 fish caught, one a Lunker, and completed the Fire Ammonite daily quest without having to go to Frostfire Ridge and watched Survivor.  win-win.

Later that gaming session I had discovered that the Draenor food that gives me the most stat enhancement beneficial to my character requires a fish from Nagrand.  YaY! Vier!!  She helped me snag that one flight path in Nagrand that makes it super-simple and safe to bop over and grab some fish!  w00t!

I did venture out and about close to the safe station, but was ever mindful of getting stuck in places I might not be able to get out of.  damn I miss being able to fly.  If I get down someplace, I have to be able to get back out again!

Right by two spawn points of Fat Sleeper Fish Schools is a True Iron Vein that is guarded by a very large 101 Elite Eel.  If I could fly-hop over the river to a rock on the other side, I could reach the ore.  But, even with water-walking that damn eel would eat me before I could get there.  So I have to sit so I can't see the ore vein taunting me while I fish and ignore the bright gold pulsating dot on my mini-map.  DO. NOT. TAKE. ON. THE. EEL!  It would cost me 30+ gold to repair my equipment after dying from the eel and probably still no ore.  Better off to tackle the annoying podlings in Shadowmoon Valley!  grrr.

So that's where our WoW mind is at.  Contemplating Plate Beauty, snagging the elusive Black Tabby, fishing and amassing quantities of True Iron Ore.

Back at the Garrison, I've assigned a follower to my Forge, upgraded my Storehouse with my bank and now, access to the guild bank, tore down my Inn and put up a Trading Post in its stead.  Upgraded my fishing shack to level 2.

Still sitting myself at level 97.  No questing lately.

Nor.

OMG - The L00tz!

Gotta learn about Garrisons A.S.A.P.!

Look at the loot these guys drop!

Lunarfall Cavedweller  [scroll down to read the "Drops (76) list - for the non-WoW readers, these are super awesome things I've been looking for for a long, long time!]  I caught my Sea Turtle in Panda Land, but the bone fishing pole and the fishing hat ... Must. Get. Them. ! 

Not to mention the Noble's Monocle, Diamond-Tipped Cane, and Battered Jungle Hat to "Dress my Bank Alt for Luxurious Success"!  Doesn't every Banker need a Black Cheetah print hat?

I just did the quest chain to open my level 1 Fishing Shack last night, [THANK YOU FREYAK!] so there's lots of work to do but ... look at the l00tz!

I'm officially back in WoW-mode.  Thanks to Red Bear and her suggestion of wrist braces for sleeping, I almost have full use of my hands again.

After "Love is in the Air" I'm feeling WoW-able again.  Not surprising to those who know me and my cognitive difficulties, but turning on the WoW machine after a six-week absence is almost like starting over.

A few circuits of Ironforge, Stormwind, Uldum, Exodar, Darnassus - for the event dailies helped to get back into the swing of things.

I even braved the Faire again.  I've decided to stick with the easy profession quests per Faire event and eventually I'll be able to get the Tallstrider mount and pet.

I obtained the pink tallstrider pet from Love is in the Air and knocked off a few of the easier achievements.  Now I'm waiting to see if my Love Tokens and Lucky Charms persist in the bank after the event is over or if I have to start from scratch again next year.  Crossing my fingers they stay.  I've decided that I need all of the Tallstrider Mounts.  [Don't know why, can only ride one at a time!  But Vier's Mount-a-holic ways must be rubbing off on me!]

Speaking of Vier, she found me an achievement buddy! w00t w00t!

Kitty and I met in Vier's Castle last night and got to know each other a bit. After Kitty and Vier showed off all their amazing toys, Kitty and I sat in front of her roaring fire and chatted.  Eventually Vier came and joined us and it was very sweet.  Vier says, and Kitty confirms, that Kitty likes to do achievement stuff too.  She insists that he's been duly warned of my lack of cognitive function, ... ... we'll see!

Vier says I should work on my Garrison more, Kitty says, "Forget the Garrison, must do Questing to level first" ... and the argument was on.

Kitty's one of the few people that I've met that can go toe-to-toe with Vier in her voluble sardonic demeanor in chat and even "own" her occasionally to boot!  It's fun to watch!

So there's that.

And, again, WoW proves to be a friendly, helpful environment to play and have fun in.  I was trying to do the quest chain to open my level one fishing shack [I dinged 94 while doing Love is in the Air stuff!] and, as usual, got hopelessly lost.

I ended up in a friendly Alliance outpost in a zone I've never been in before and was totally lost and confused.  I asked in General chat if anyone knew how to get to Frostfire Ridge to fish Fire Ammonite. [As luck would have it, the first daily quest I got to open my shack required that I go into Horde Territory to find some fish eggs to salt my fishing pond!]

Freyak was there and attempted to explain where I needed to go.  Apparently I had the right idea and was in the right place, just couldn't find the hard to see tunnel I needed to take into the scary place.

Freyak ended up meeting me with her/his motorcycle with sidecar to take me through the tunnel and to the Alliance flight master.  I felt better when Freyak took a couple of wrong turns before locating the tunnel and getting us into the right place, all the while being chased by mobs.

Once I had learned the flight path, Freyak took me to the tar ponds to fish for my eggs and even killed the bad, scary, uglies so I could fish in peace.  Once Freyak saw I was fishing contentedly, he/she went back to doing whatever she/he was doing before I stumbled into the outpost.

I would never have gotten my Fishing Shack up and running without Freyak's help.  So, whoever you are, random WoW player Freyak, I am forever indebted to you.

I only hope I can eventually get a passenger mount of my own and start paying forward the kindness I've encountered in this online computer game.

Nor