Transmog Woes

I'm in a guild run for some titles and achieves in MoP raids when I get a whisper from Nor. "Are you busy, I have some questions about transmog?"

This is gonna be good. 

First question: "Do my items need to be in bag or void storage?"

This seems like a question with a straightforward answer. BUT, I know my mother. 'The item you want to change has to be equipped, the one you want to change it TO can be in your bag, bank, or void storage.'

We went over that a couple more times before she was ready to move on.

Second question: "when it's done, what will I see on my character screen and what will be in my bags,"

This, I didn't understand. Before I could get clarification, she had another question. "Before I close my Void Storage to go to the Transmog Guy, will I have to type out the names exactly or will there be something to click on?"

You don't have to type anything in, Mom. You're good. Just try it and you'll see how easy it is.

Then came the waiting.

and some more waiting.

Then, finally:

"I did it! And to answer my question, my Axe is still in my Character screen thingy though it looks like my pretty purple Sword!"

That was Noritam's Transmog Adventure.

Nor Edit to Add: 2018 and what a long way Transmog has come and also my ability [some might say ... obsession] to do it! Legion has brought a lot of "ease of access" to things, I'm so sad Vier isn't here to see it, she loved her a great 'mog! Today I have to mog out of my Midsummer Fire Festival gear as the event ends.

An Achieve for a Pet, for an Achieve, for a Title. (for a real life craft. Phew!)

Title: Crazy Cat Lady

Achievement: Crazy For Cats

Pet: Mr. Bigglesworth

Achievement: Raiding with Leashes.

I'm still working on my Achievement "Crazy for Cats", to get the title "Crazy Cat Lady".  Today I am making a list of what I need to do to obtain my title.

For the Crazy for Cats achievement and title "Crazy Cat Lady" I need to obtain 20 of 25 specific cats on a list.

• I have 14 of the cats. 
• I need six more cat pets.
• Four on the list are either unavailable or require hundreds of dollars.  Real life American Dollars.  That is not happening.
• One is a World Drop that is proving to be very elusive.  
• One is bought with a currency that you earn from Completing the Celestial Tournament. 
• One is from the achievement "Raiding with Leashes".  I hope Mr. Kitty will help me with this, thus the list here.  Also, a lot of the pets in the Raiding with Leashes list are ones that are mentioned many times in guides for the Celestial Tournament. Specially Chrominius and Anubisath Idol, very powerful battle pets.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mr. Bigglesworth - Raiding with Leashes

Mr. Bigglesworth, the reward for "Raiding With Leashes", requires you to collect twelve specific pets, from four classic raids.

Question:  I have had some of the pets on this list given to me.  Will they count for the achievement or do I have to collect them all again from the raid?  Anyone know?  Please leave a comment if you know.  Thanks :)

The old world Raids and the pets needed for the Raiding with Leashes achievement are:

Blackwing Lair: 

1. Chrominius, drops from Chromaggus in Nefarian's Lair.
2. Death Talon Whelpguard, drops from Broodlord Lashlayer in the Crimson Laboratories, and, 
3. Untamed Hatchling, I have one, drops from Razorgore the Untamed in the Dragonmaw Garrison.

Molten Core:

1. Corefire Imp drops from Magmadar.
2. Harbinger of Flame drops from Sulfuron Harbinger.
3. Ashstone Core, I have one, drops from Golemagg the Incinerator.

Temple of Ahn'Qiraj

1. Anubisath Idol drops from Emperor Vek'lor in The Hive Undergrounds.
2. Viscidus Globule drops from Viscidus in The Hive Undergrounds.
3. Mini Mindslayer, I have one, drops from The Prophet Skeram at The Temple Gates.

Naxxramas

1. Fungal Abomination drops from Loatheb in The Plague Quarter.
2. Stitched Pup drops from Gluth in The Construct Quarter.
3. Giant Bone Spider, I have one, drops from Maexxna [crap ~ A Giant Red Spider!] in The Arachnid Quarter.  Yum!  Spiders! 

Okay, if I get Mr. Bigglesworth that means I need five more:

- one is no longer available. [Guardian Cub] I wish I had overcome my aversion to purchasing pets in the Blizzard Shop before they discontinued it! :(

- one [Spectral Cub] was from a Shanghai promotion in 2012.  Nope, not gonna get that one!

- two [Nightsaber Cub, Spectral Tiger Cub] are TCG, Trading Card Game, pets.  I do NOT understand the Trading Card Game, it doesn't seem like much of a "game" to me.  You buy cards, [in real life with real money!] hope to get the one you need with a code, to enter into the WoW game, to get the pet.  If the card/code you need isn't in the package, you buy another one.  And another, and another, and another ... hmmm, ... ... money much?

- one, Xu-Fu, Cub of Xuen, you buy with 3 Celestial Coins.  To get a Celestial Coin, you must win the Celestial Tournament and it's associated quest, The Rainy Day is Here.  To ENTER the Tournament, you need 15 level 25 pets.  You can only enter the tournament once per week, per account[not even per character, per account!].  You must complete the tournament in one go.  You may not use your "revive pets" function. This is a Guide [Celestial Tournament with 18 pets] with all the hoary details!

- one is a Profession Crafted Pet, [Sapphire Cub] which means, usually, lots of in-game Gold!

- one, Panther Cub, is a Quest Reward.  Easy, peasy, go do a quest, get a cat pet.  Ha!  The quest "Some Good Will Come", is the thirteenth quest in a nineteen quest chain! This comment lists the quest chain with links to them all. (Hold the Phone!  The wowhead page for the reward item "Panther Cub", also lists three vendors under the "sold by" tab!  As soon as I get this post published, I'll hop in game and after I do my chores, head off to check out those vendors and see if I can just buy one for 50 silver! will edit with what I discover.)

- Cheetah Cub is a pet battle in the Northern Barrens, which I'm off to shortly!.

- Siamese Cat, is sold by the Exotic Creatures Vendor Dealer Rashaad, located in Netherstorm, Outland.  Who I had been avoiding because I loathe that zone.  Then I was avoiding it because since WoD dropped, I don't know how to get to Outland.  So, I guess I will go figure it out once I have my Cheetah Cub in my Journal and I've wasted time on grinding for the Black Tabby!

That should about do it.  I've made a lot of progress since I last looked all this up.  With this linked list now, I should never have to re-do this research again!  If I am very lucky and Blessed by the RNG Gods, I may be able to get 3 or 4 of the last six I need tonight.  That would just leave Mr. Bigglesworth and Xu-Fu!

Wish Me Luck, Nor

[an aside: Red Bear, in real life, crafted me a "Crazy Cat Lady" journal/mini-album because, in real life, I AM a Crazy Cat Lady and I think I may natter on occasionally about working for the achievement in WoW. ...   Me? ...  Natter?  ...  Maybe just a bit! ... ...  Plus ~ I made a rule for myself that I can't craft the album up with pictures and stuff until I get the title. Because ... ... reasons.]

Garrison Invasions and a Dragon Mount

Garrison Invasions: Not my favourite thing.  Early on in Draenor somehow or the other I got this "invasion quest thingy".  I clicked on it/activated it somehow and holy crap! Bad Guys Invading My Garrison From Everywhere!

It was a bloodbath.  I got creamed.  Many of my garrison inhabitants, workers, guards, visitors, -- were killed. My buildings got burned to the ground.  It was an unmitigated disaster.  I failed miserably.

You Would Think, BY NOW ... I would really read the instructions and/or look things up before blindly clicking on them.  but NO!   That is not my style! I decided I didn't like invasions and ignored them ever since.

Later on, Vier and I were milling around her garrison one day and she asked me if I wanted to do an invasion with her.  "Sure!", I replied.  Thinking, she has done so much for me in WoW, I owe her.  Plus, how bad can it be?

"Do you want Front, Back or Middle?", she asked.

I'm thinking -- huh? --, "Middle", always go for the middle, how bad can it be?  Plenty bad!  Being in the middle means that you get baddies coming from all directions.  Vier had put up a marker for me and I thought I literally, had to stay by, on, under the marker ... so I didn't move much and there were many times when I was just standing there waiting for the baddies to come to me. -- rolls eyes --

I've since learned to pick the Back Door, where usually the bad guys only come in the back gate of the garrison, occasionally a few will sneak in from the garden.  I've also learned that the marker is a GUIDELINE ONLY, and yes, I can move around to go get the bad guys!  --doh!--

We did one other invasion with Mier and I remember him saying something to the effect of "We would have had Gold, but Nori's DPS was very low".  Hanging my head in shame.  I really have to work on passing my Proving Grounds and learning to be more effective with my DPS.  --sigh--  

I need a coach!  Any volunteers?  I need someone to voice-coach me through improving my DPS.  Which would include, you know, setting up a voice chat instructions!  Apparently our guild Vent channel is no longer supported.  But I digress ...  Seriously though, any coach volunteers can mail me in-game, Noritam, on Undermine realm.

So, on June 21st, I was hanging around, not doing much, reading my book and maybe eating supper?  Or perhaps just waking up and having my "morning" coffee.  I passed through the office and Himself says "Phone your daughter".  Huh?  "You were in the bathroom, she called, she wants you to call her back".

"Oh, OK"  "Mom, do you want to come online and do an invasion in my garrison?"  "Of course!" --crap!--

So I jump in game, grab my green balloon and head off to Vier's Garrison.

Everyone needs a green balloon to do invasions!

So we did a couple of invasions.

Invasions we've done so far.

After the "Iron Horde Invasion" this is what I got in my l00t bags.

3 bags of l00tz

Invader's Abandoned Sack

Invader's Damaged Cache

Invader's Forgotten Treasure

After doing a couple of invasions in Vier's Garrison, I asked if now would be a good time to do the "Oak" thingy that I got from a previous invasion?

Heart of Oak

Everyone was up for it so Vier decided that she would create the pre-made group, recruit players, and then hand it all over to me so I could be the leader that everyone else would "visit group leader's garrison" and activate my "Heart of Oak" card.

Boom!  In what seemed like absolutely no time at all we had 6 groups of 5 players, Vier coached me through purchasing a speed boost crystal, a freezing crystal, taking leadership and activating the card.  "Click on your oak card, then go activate the crystals, and we'll all kill the Boss".

Literally all hell broke loose!  There were a million people in my garrison and the chat log was full of "Random Visitor receives item -really cool something-".

Where are all these people getting stuff from?  We haven't even started yet.  I forgot to ask Vier --Where-- I should place these crystals.  Oh well, we'll put them here, and here. -- ?? idk! -- Click the card. A VERY BIG DUDE arrives in the middle of my garrison.  Everyone starts shooting/axing/slicing him.  He Dies.  It's over.

No pictures 'cause I was too busy just trying to figure out what the heck was going on!  If I got one or two licks in, that was it. If anyone else has the "Heart of Oak" thingy, it's no big deal.  Just the one dude shows up, you kill him, that's it. I don't remember what I received by the way of loot, so it wasn't memorable

BUT ...  Nin, one of Mier's friends, got a mount!  ... A mount!

So then it was a round of mount displaying!  Here are the four of us with our wolf mounts, Nin's brand new wolf mount!

Wolf Brigade

It looks like Nin's mount is the same as mine but they have different eye colors and at the back end the accoutrements are different colors.  I mentioned my lack of spectacular mounts.  I may have said something about wanting a Dragon Mount.

Nin and Mier got excited talking about old world raids and dungeons that drop dragon mounts.  Vier, not interested in running old content decided it was past her bedtime and disappeared.

and off we went ...

I have no idea where we were or what we did but here are some screenshots.


This one, you can see me saying "ack" in the chat log, you walk over a glass/ice floor that is totally transparent and over a very, very deep hole.

scary non-floor floor!

Then, in another section/place, all of the sudden Mier gets stuck running into a column.  So I went back to him ... "You OK?" ... "You still with us?" ... Nin and I waited around for a bit, figuring internet problems.  Then Mier's toon just faded away.

Nin had had a long day and asked if it would be ok to finish this another day.  OK? Hell yes!  I'm just thrilled to be along for the ride and I HAVE A DRAGON MOUNT!

My Dragon!  What should I name her?

And that is the story of the last time I was online playing WoW!

~Nor~

p.s. a few posts back I mentioned Queen Vier had a new title.  Here's a pic of her harassing me while I am seriously doing some fishing in my garrison!

Queen Vier - Extra Large and Intimidating!

OH THANK GOODNESS! – Flying in Draenor

Dev Watercooler – Flying in Draenor - Wowhead News: "a new meta-achievement called Draenor Pathfinder. You’ll earn this achievement in Patch 6.2 by mastering the outdoor environment of Draenor—exploring Draenor’s zones, collecting 100 treasures in Draenor, completing the Draenor Loremaster and Securing Draenor achievements, and raising the three new Tanaan Jungle reputations to Revered. Initially, this achievement will award a rylak mount: the Soaring Skyterror, one of the native beasts that roam Draenor’s skies. Players will remain ground-bound on Draenor until a small follow-up patch (6.2.x), when all players who have earned Draenor Pathfinder on at least one character will unlock the ability to fly in Draenor on all their level 90 characters."

'via Blog this'

How to tame Gara the Spirit Beast - Eyes of the Beast

A Purple Spirit Beast!

How to tame Gara the Spirit Beast - Eyes of the Beast:

'via Blog this'

Lavender Mail for Soozuu -- Sentry's Mail (Recolor)

Sentry's Mail (Recolor) - Transmog Set - World of Warcraft:

'via Blog this'

Guide to Melee DPS - Pity Party Week

Noritam is a sad space goat these days.  Between spring weather IRL creating havoc with my health, broken game installation, and attempting Proving Grounds.  It's Pity Party week.

This is where the rubber meets the road.  I've done my questing, participated in current content dungeons and raids and now it's time to improve my skills.

The next steps in the Legendary Ring Quest involve Heroic Raids, which means Proving Grounds Silver, minimum.

All of the available quests in the garrison these days are Hard and Scary.  Invasions, Treasure Hunting, Apexis Crystal Dailies.  ugh, it's either that or fishing and frankly, after fishing my way to a level 3 Fishing Shack, I've about had it up to here --slashes at chin level-- with the fishing.

On a brighter note ...

Vier did some awesome achievements in Spires of Arak and has a beautiful purple outfit, cool tabard and a new Title.  Queen Vier!

I can hardly wait to finish getting my purple outfit and the new purple mount!

Back to my reading and learning ...

Guide to Melee DPS - Guides - Wowhead: "Being in the melee cluster sometimes means it is hard to see important harmful visuals due to clutter."

'via Blog this'

Perfect Purple Plate - Part 2

Lightsworn Garb (Lookalike)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Faceplate of the Forgotten - Festergut
 Rusted Bonespike Pauldrons - Lord Marrowgar
 Rot-Resistant Breastplate - Rotface
 Waistband of Righteous Fury - Gunship Armoury (Icecrown Gunship Battle)
 Leggings of Dying Candles - Cache of the Dreamwalker (Valithria Dreamwalker)
 Boots of the Funeral March - Cache of the Dreamwalker (Valithria Dreamwalker)
 Crypt Keeper's Bracers - Prince Valanar (Blood Council)
 Fallen Lord's Handguards - Lady Deathwhisper
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Head - Faceplate of the Forgotten Dropped by: Festergut The Plagueworks

Shoulder - Rusted Bonespike Pauldrons Dropped by: Lord Marrowgar The Lower Spire

Chest - Rot-Resistant Breastplate Dropped by: Rotface The Plagueworks   Rotface also drops the cloak intended for this set.

Waist - Waistband of Righteous Fury Dropped by: Gunship Armoury (Icecrown Gunship Battle) The Lower Spire    **see note below

Legs - Leggings of Dying Candles  Dropped by: Cache of the Dreamwalker (Valithria Dreamwalker)
 
Feet - Boots of the Funeral March Dropped by: Cache of the Dreamwalker (Valithria Dreamwalker)  

Wrist - Crypt Keeper's Bracers Dropped by: Prince Valanar (Blood Council)

Hands - Fallen Lord's Handguards Dropped by: Lady Deathwhisper The Lower Spire
 
**Note: other things in the Gunship Armory -

• Primordial Saronite useful for Blacksmithing
• Shield:  Neverending Winter

This is the cloak that is intended to "go with" this set.
Cloak: Winding Sheet  Dropped by: Rotface The Plagueworks

My two favourite cloaks however are:

Used Bar Rag  and Cloak of Cleansing Flame.  I don't think either will go well with the dark purple plate, so the search is on for a dark purple cloak similar to the Used Bar Rag and the Cloak of Cleansing Flame!  It's hard to find a long purple cloak with dark blue on it instead of red.

Transmogrification Guide: All Cloak Styles
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Two weeks ago [mid-Apr/2015], Mr. Kitty and I did our first run of ICC [Icecrown Citadel] in my quest for my Purple Plate Transmog set.

While we were figuring out the where-tos and why-fors, we both found this "Look-a-like" set that drastically reduced the number of runs of the raid required!  YaY!

Mr. Kitty also expressed delight that the pieces come from the Heroic version.  I'm not so sure about that but .... .... I had been in ICC
once before but of course retained zero knowledge of it, Mr. Kitty said, "No problem, just follow me and kill stuff when you can, if you like".

Really, he's far too easy-going!  So the next amount of time passed by in a delightful blur of me concentrating very hard on keeping up, not doing stupid stuff [not being completely successful at that! lol], and having fun.

I did have an enormous amount of fun.  Truly, the pressure is off being that it is "old content", and we're at level 100 and the raid is set at level 80.

Plus, Mr. Kitty is too polite and kind, and reassures me that he's having fun too and isn't bored to tears.  So, for now, I'm taking him at his word and just doing my best to keep up and have fun.

It kind of reminded me of learning how to drive a snowmobile as a young teenager.  I was always afraid to drive one and one evening I confessed as much to a friend.  He suggested that the two of us should go out alone, and he'd teach me how, in private.

His "method" of teaching was, "Follow my lights, don't fall behind, don't get lost", and off he went.  In the dark, after we'd done a couple of on-the-river off-the-river turns and twists, I was completely lost and my only salvation and "survival" was to keep up to his tail light.  I was terrified, horrified that I'd lose him and be lost forever, but, man, did I ever learn quick how to drive!

Mr. Kitty was, of course, way more patient and forgiving.  He came back for me when I had trouble with an elevator!  I didn't know you had to jump onto the platform to activate it.  I'm still not 100% sure if I'm to jump onto it, as in stand aside and literally "jump onto" it as it arrives, or, if I can walk onto it and "jump" to activate it.  I'm sure I'll learn it and be bored by it by the time we've run the raid enough times to aquire all my stuff!

I hadn't read about the fight so was blissfully unaware of any scary bits coming up.  I just cringed my way through the icky spider part.  blech.

Near the end, of course, there's a bit where "don't stand [somewhere] because you'll get knocked off the ledge", and just as I'm reading that typed warning from Mr. Kitty in the chat log, and processing it, OF COURSE I got knocked off the ledge!

But now I'm completely comfortable rezzing and corpse-running back into the instance, and finding my way to where I left off!

Mr. Kitty has also perfected the timing of telling me where I need to get off the elevator just as I'm approaching it!

I'd also forgotten about the heart-wrenching end cinematic to this raid.  --sniff--

After we were done, we agreed that I'd make a list of who drops what piece of gear I'm looking for, and next time, Mr. Kitty will set the loot-
gathering specifics so he controls the loot and hands it out accordingly.

I was slowing us down considerably having to read all the loot descriptions on the loot rolls.  Plus I passed on a lot of things that weren't necessarily stuff I needed or wanted but that I could have vendored for a pretty chunk of gold.  But, not being sure what, if anything, he wanted/needed I figured it best to be safe and not sorry/greedy!

I successfully got one piece of the 8 pieces I need for my set.  As soon as I log in again I'll check my bank to confirm it but I'm pretty sure I have the Bracers.  One down, seven to go!

I have this sword in my bank, if I can find a high ilvl two-handed sword, I'd love to transmog it into this look:
Karabor Greatsword

I am currently working on collecting the Savage Bloods I need to upgrade my crafted Warlords Axe to the second level.  Then it will begin all over again to collect the crap needed to upgrade it tot he 3rd and 4th levels.  Once there, I need to decide if I like the look and if it goes with my Perfect Purple Plate.

I may decide to transmog it with this Axe: Stormedge comes from Ulduar Cache of Winter
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The spring weather in my part of the world has interfered for a bit.  I was down sick for the past week and am only now starting to feel well enough to get back in the game!

This post is the promised list for Mr. Kitty and a bit of a commentary on where we are, what we're doing!

Maybe Vier will blog about the lengths she had to go through helping me "Wrangle a Wolf" in Nagrand.  What a day that was, but I got it!  Thanks to Vier, there is no way on earth I would have wrangled that wolf without her!

Raiding with Leashes - Achievement - World of Warcraft

Raiding with Leashes - Achievement - World of Warcraft

Questing in Telaar

Hey folks! The other day, Noritam mentioned to me and Kitty that she had some quests to do in Nagrand that she was having a hard time with. I had about an hour and a half before I needed to get to sleep, so naturally I volunteered to help her with a few. I also volunteered Kitty to come along and assist.

We all headed over to Telaari Station - Nor as herself, Kitty on his monk tank, and myself on my second hunter, who also had to complete the quests. Nor was already a few quests into the chain, so I left here in Telaari Station with Kitty and told them to wait there while I got to the same point in the quest chain. I said not to go anywhere, and that I would come back in a few minutes to show her where to go.

This conversation with another friend of mine should illustrate exactly how that went down:

i had to quest with my mother again last night
IT IS SO PAINFUL
ahahahaha
oh dear
we had to do the same quest hub right
but she was like 2 quests ahead of me
no problem, i know where to go to catch up
and i can do it in like 5 mins
so i tell her to sit tight while i go do that, then we will finish them together
as i'm off doing that, i see her dot on the map move
....
"where are you going"
lmao
oh no
"I think i figured out where i need to go, i finally figured this map out!"
loooooooool
keep in mind that i am standing where she needs to go
and she is running in the OPPOSITE DIRECTION
did her quest also tell her where to go anyway
ahahahahahah
oh god
which also happens to be into a huge pack of things that will kill her
 LMAO
also keep in mind that i'm locked to wehre i am
so i can't go get her
ALSO KEEP IN MIND that she doesn't always read her chat
 and she doesn't answer her phone when it rings
 i'm imagining this like a pleasant cartoon
and then WOLVES EVERWHERE
or some wow enemy equivalent
that is exactly what it was
it was wolves
oh man
well orcs riding wolves
same thing
 if she had STAYED WHERE I LEFT HER
 i was gonna say how did i know that but you said pack
in the SAFE PLACE
so that must be why
lololol
she would have been PERFECTLY FIND
*FINE
enemies literally are not able to get there
but no
she went running off by herself
DUM DE DUM DE~
AAAAAAAAAAAAH
so i'm typing at her in capslock
while finishing these few quests faster than ithink i've ever quested in my life
lmfaoooo
how colourful can your language get with your mom
 "STOP. STOP MOVING. STOP. YOU ARE GOING TO DIE."
"TURN AROUND. DO NOT GO THERE. YOU ARE GOING THE WRONG WAY"
"MOTHER."
"MOTHER STOP!!!!!!!"
oh my god

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.

Transmog Question

If I've completed a quest and either didn't pick or didn't keep a piece I now want for transmog, is there any way to get it?

For example, according to my wowhead profiles, both Nor and Sushel have completed the quest to choose Ringmail Armor of Eminent Domain as a reward.

Now, I want to use that piece for a transmog set for Sushel.

Do I have to now go back and run the raids and/or dungeons for the piece?

Lunar Festival 2015 - Achievements, new WoW Friend, ditching Red Bear

TL;DR - logged into WoW - Stuff happened.

Saturday, 2015 Feb 28

So, it's Lunar Festival time again.  Last year Vier flew me all over the place and I put 49 Coins of Ancestry in the Bank.  This year, I get to fly myself!  So, let's start with the Elders of Kalimdor.

Begin this year's Lunar Festival with 50 Coins of Ancestry at 3:26pm.

Knock off the Firecracker Achievement.

Off to get the Elders of Kalimdor.  Of course, dead in Thunder Bluff again!

Over seven hours later --- Achieved!

AND - Elders of the Alliance!

No wonder I didn't get the Rocket Cluster Achievement before - it has to be the RED ones! grrr!

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Sunday, 2015 Mar 01

Afternoon: After a long day doing Elders of Kalimdor, I slept in on Sunday, but I was bound and determined to knock off Brill and get the Elders of Eastern Kingdoms done during this year's Lunar Festival.

Red Bear and I had a bit of a mis-communication over our weekly Skype Craft and by the time we touched base I was so anxious to finish Brill that I ditched my friend for WoW.

I am a terrible person.

I told Red Bear that it would probably take me an hour and a half to do Brill, knowing there was no way I could log in and ignore my garrison chores. Then, get to Stormwind, fly up north to Brill and get 'er done.

She had exactly and hour and a half before she had to go play hockey, so it looked like any visiting/crafting we were to do this weekend was doomed.

Now, ... take a minute and just ponder this.  

Here we are, two "old ladies" with grey hair, empty nesters, her husband recently retired, mine just about to retire, and we are running into scheduling conflicts with playing WoW and playing hockey.  How many young adults can say their mothers are too busy playing WoW and playing hockey to be sitting around knitting, waiting for their kids to call?  Are we too cool for school or what?

Even with a few minor distractions, I managed to do my garrison chores, knock off Elder Graveborn in Brill, with thirty minutes to spare!

So a quick hour in Wow went something like this:

Clear completed follower missions.

I do like the animations that come with the follower missions!

Send my followers off on new missions. I need to learn more about these. More reading to do!

Which to choose?  or Just go from the bottom up?

Look at my pretty garrison!

My Fort!

Pick up completed mine work orders.

Good thing they're highlighted so I don't forget to grab 'em!

Quaff some Miner's Coffee and clear my mine. Red Bear - note on the bottom-right tool tip "Miner's Coffee - Use: Increases run speed for a few minutes.  Only works in your garrison mine."  So I can move a little quicker to travel to all the gold dots you see on the mini-map up in the right corner.  It's a bit sneaky though, the miner's carts that hold extra goodies are not marked on the mini-map.  If I just look at the mini-map and navigate to the dots, I'd miss the carts, so I have to pay attention!

Then there's the rats.  None of them have pet battler green paw designations, so I don't know why they're in here.  Just on principle, I kill every one that I see.  Maybe there's a hidden achievement?  Or maybe, you know, just to keep my miners safe, kill the rats.  Rats are not badder than bears, but, they're pretty bad.

Dead Rat

Here's what an ore node looks like.  And the "sneaky carts".  Next time I log in I'll have to pay attention to what comes out of the carts.

Ore veins and Carts of Stuff

Then there's this banner and half built something at the far end of the mine.  I wonder what this will be when I get my garrison to level three?

Mystery Banner Place

After clearing the mine, I get to start new mine work orders.  I guess I'm lucky.  Because I have Mining as one of my professions, I can gather more Draenic Stone while I'm out and about in Draenor levelling and generate extra mine work orders.  As opposed to all the people who don't have mining and can only generate work orders from the stone they collect in their mines.  YaY.  Unless, the stone drops from mobs too?

Generate Work Orders.

Now it's over to my fishing shack to collect today's fishing daily quest.

Path from my Garrison Mine to my Garrison Fishing Shack.

Scrap Sparkfuse.  I keep running into this guy.  What the heck is he talking about?  I should look him up on wowhead and find out what this is all about.  But, no time for that now, keep focused.  We're on a schedule.

Scrap Sparkfuse

YaY! Today's fishing daily is in Nagrand!  w00t!  Vier took me on a Nagrand tour one night and helped me grab some flight paths over there!  This will be an easy fishing daily.  Not like the first one that had me trying to find a way into Frostfire Ridge and fish out of lava!

My Nagrand Elekk I got when Vier and I were playing over there! We have matching Mother-Daughter Mounts! I don't know if it's because it is a Draenor mount or what, but it feels like it moves faster than my other mounts.  I don't normally like riding big, bulky Elekks but it feels faster!

Pick up my completed Forge work orders.

Visit my banker to offload the ore, primal spirits and other loot collected in the mine. I'm so glad Vier told me which building to build to have a banker handy in my garrison.  It was such a pain taking a flight path over to Ashran a couple of times a day just to do my banking, not to mention the gold required to pay for the rides!

Using my spiffy new transportation cape to go to Stormwind.  I figure it's worth the gold to buy the cape instead of, again, paying the Flight Master for a ride to Ashran to stumble around for an hour to find the portal to Stormwind.  Now I just put on my special cape [Cape of Coordination maybe?  I forget the name], and poof!, I'm there!  Yippee!

Super Cape - love how it flaps in the wind while the cast is performing!

Get to Stormwind. Load up my Ebon Gryphon.  Gawd, I love being able to fly!  and ...Off to Brill.  [Red Bear - in the following screenshot the Larger Red Circle in the south around silver arrowhead - is me leaving Stormwind, Smaller Red Circle up north in Tirisfal Glades - that's where Brill is.] Seems to me I had some fatigue problems before going straight over the ocean in a direct line.  So I'll have to angle to the northeast and then turn to the northwest to get to Brill without dying.

Up, up and Away!

Oh!  While I'm here, I may as well stop in Twilight Highlands and pick up two more Cata Elders!  Elder Firebeard in the Dunwald Ruins, check.  I didn't spend a lot of time questing here, but I seem to recall enjoying it.  I should come back one day and spend some more time here.

Elder Firebeard - check

OK, Elder Darkfeather in the Thundermar Ruins ... where is he?

It seemed to take forever to find Elder Darkfeather, but according to the clock in the screenshots - less than 4 minutes.

Elder Darkfeather - check!

OK - Now on to Brill.

The flashing Garrison Crossed Swords can be irritating.  May as well check in on what's happening there while I'm flying along.

Do I really need to know when each mission is done?

OMG! I almost flew into a Horde Zeppelin while I was looking at other stuff!  Crap!  I start to feel anxious but remind myself that I did the Elder in Orgrimmar yesterday, so how hard can Brill be?

OK, here we are.  He's down there somewhere.  Beside a building ... oh I don't like this!

W00t!

Done!  Elders of the Eastern Kingdoms - complete!

woo hoo!

And look at the time, I can catch Red Bear before she has leave for hockey!

Land on a hill.  Use my Garrison Hearthstone.  Log out.  Done like dinner!

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Sunday, 2015 Mar 01

Evening: After a chat with Red Bear and a snack I decided maybe I can finish off the Cata Elders this year as well, I only have two in Deepholm and one in the Shimmering Depths to finish.  Ugh.  I hated, hated, hated questing underwater, but if I get them done this year I won't have to worry about them next year.  I can do it!

First though, I'll have to clear and start the follower missions.  No wonder Vier is spending so much time in her garrison!  Wowhead even developed an app for smart phones to keep track of missions.  You could spend all your time bopping in and out of your garrison four times a day just to keep on top of them all.

Here we go.

Huh. I hadn't noticed before ... even though a mission fails, the follower still gets the experience.  That's not so bad.  It just cost me the garrison resources to send her on the mission in the first place.  I'm probably doing these all wrong.  I really should read up on them some more.

Fail

Crap!  Not doing so good this time 'round.  I wonder if the missions get recycled when they fail or if they're gone for good?

Fail

Great. 100% chance of success!  I like those odds lol.

Wow.  This hasn't happened before!  I'm all caught up on missions!

Now there's a time lapse in my screenshots. I don't know what I was doing, maybe eating?  Maybe researching the Deepholm Elders? Definitely doing some procrastinating, ... 'cause this happened ...

Vier is gonna freak!

Vier is going to be DISGUSTED that I reached level 96 while doing a Stormwind Fishing Daily!  Specially since I've already received the achievement for doing all five Stormwind fishing dailies.  Vier might roll her eyes so hard they get stuck backwards or pop out of her head!

Eventually I took the portal to Deepholm.

Finished the CATACLYSM Elders!

Well, looking at the Lunar Festival Achievements, I see I only need one more Elder to get the Horde Elder Achievements.  Of course, it's the one in Undercity.  The one Horde Leader our group couldn't kill the night we were working on that armored bear mount that Vier won.  The one Horde Leader I have left to get my armored bear.  All the more reason to be brave and practice getting in and out of Undercity.  I think this time I'll just take a flight path up north, then I can go get a drink and do some other little chores away from the computer while I'm being flown up there.

Oh, wait a minute, [ I clicked on the wrong NPC] I thought I already had my Master Riding skill!  I knew I had a goal of saving 5,000 gold for something.  Might as well do this.  Yay!  Now I can fly super fast!

5,000 Gold for Master Riding

OMG!  I DID IT!

Elders of the Horde - check!

I am on a roll tonight.  May as well head over to the mushroom ring in the Whispering Forest and see if the Fey-Drunk Darters are up!

What are the odds?  There's two here already!

Now there's five!

Everyone is here and we're about to begin.  [How is it that some Guild Members don't know about the Whispering Forest?]

The Fey-Drunk Darters shoot out their golden beams and the music starts.

The Forest Critters start to arrive.

So peaceful.

So pretty.

All done.  The critters leave.  Time to go back to my garrison!

Hey! My Herb Garden is activated!

Exploring Shadowmoon Valley.  It's so pretty!

Shadowmoon Valley

My new buddy Kitty came online.  [Vier set me up with one of her friends that also likes to do achievements.  We think she's just trying to get out of doing stuff with us!]  So, we're chatting away, while I'm wandering around and poof!  There I am.  DEAD!

Type in chat while fighting an Elite Mob?  Nope!

So, Mr. Kitty and I goofed around for a couple of hours.  Mostly killing the big fat frogs that jump on you out of nowhere, scare the crap out of you, and sometimes kill you.  Also, me mining ore, Mr. Kitty skinning stuff we kill.  We had a lot of fun and there are no screenshots!

Between concentrating to keep up, and typing in chat, there is no time to think about collecting screenshots!  Once we both had our Grisly Trophies done for the month for the Faire, we called it a night.

Just as I was going to the garrison, who should pop on line but Vier!  She came to visit my garrison and coached me through the motions to get Pepe on my head.  " W - Space Bar - Backspace"

She had me practice jumping from the bricks lining the path in the garrison, from one side to the other, then sent me back up onto the rock and YaY!  Pepe on my head!

PePe!

Then Vier switched toons to Halirran to take some Selfies with her new S.E.L.F.I.E. camera and, having her Twitter account connected in game, tweeted our pic!

meet Halirran

Twit Pic 1  Twit Pic 2 I don't know if those links will work.  If not, we'll have to get Vier to re-post the pics for us.

Then I went to visit Vier's Garrison and wandered around her stable admiring all of her mounts!

Wow!

Aw!  Here's her mount that matches mine!

Nagrand Mother-Daughter Mounts

These poor guys don't even get unsaddled while they're waiting to be called up for duty!

Yikes!  This guy doesn't look too friendly.  I petted him anyway!

oh!  She even has a baby gryphon!

Sky'reen

Something else to look up on wowhead, who or what is a Sky'reen?

Well, it's been a long, but highly satisfying weekend in WoW!  Now we're only four short levels away from 100!

'til next time ... G'Night All.

Nor.

p.s. why I don't post so often ... I started writing this post 13 hours ago ... between sorting the screenshots and editing my writing ... y'know, the name of the blog is "My Mom Plays WoW", shouldn't it be Vier doing the majority of the posts?  I believe she started this 'cause my foibles were too funny to keep to herself.  that the greater WoW community had to know just how much of a n00b I was.  hmmm...