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...

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

2015 - Happy New Year

Yup, I'm still here!

Shortly after WoD dropped I lost function in my mousing arm.  I think it was a combination of questing through Panda Land on foot, then more non-flying questing in Draenor, in addition to an arthritis flare and a tendonitis flare ... and one day I woke up and my right arm ceased to work.

Even a couple days of rest and reading didn't "cure" it.  So, OK, let's rest it for a few weeks!  Then Red Bear was coming to visit so I didn't dare mess it up again.  [Might interfere with my IRL crafting and art work]

Red Bear went home a few days ago, I've had my two-day sleep, and today I'm reading up on Love is in the Air world event.

Hopefully I'll get back into WoW in the next day or two, get my pink Tallstrider mount and pet and then get back to questing.

Can't remember where Nor was left.  Level 92?  Maybe 94?  We'll see.

Vier found me an Achievement Buddy to play with!  So there's that to look forward to.  Plus, time to get serious about leveling my pets.

My arm is sore from this little bit of typing so, that's all for today.

Talk or See ya soon.

Nor

Pepe the Bird goes POP! - YouTube

Pepe the Bird goes POP! - YouTube:

'via Blog this'

“Pepe” ... • Jordan Powers

I originally created “Pepe” to help breathe some... • Jordan Powers:

'via Blog this'

For The Alliance

For the record, this is the Achievement Vier was working on the night she invited me along.  In this particular case, ignorance was bliss!  If I had known what was up, I'd have been even more scared than I already was!

For The Alliance!
Slay the leaders of the Horde.

No biggie really.  Just Kill All The Masters of the Horde!

The only one I'm missing is: Downing the Dark Lady
Kill Lady Sylvanas Windrunner.

Why? you ask?

The Prize: Reins of the Black War Bear  Which lets you ride this Bad Boy!

I'm not much into mounts, my black and orange flying lion-eagle gets me wherever I need to go.

I'm not much into bears.  Bears Are Bad.

BUT

Now that I'm 3/4 of the way there --- I want this puppy!

just sayin'

Dungeons -- Brewfest -- Ret. Pally -- Flyin' High

In August, I took a week off from WoW to have company, Red Bear came to visit irl!  Then I took a couple of weeks off to recover from Red Bear's visit!  And then I got back to Wow realizing ... OMG only two months til WoD drops!

ACK!

OK, we're up to mid-September in the screenshots and level 74.

Vier was getting bored with my questing so for a few days she ran me through some dungeons.  Which was "Holy Crap" Scary at first.  Though, I was getting some sweet gear - like my glowy, shiny, big axe!  And rackin' up the gold ... gotta get to 5,000 gold so I can get Northrend flying and mount!

Here we are in one of my first dungeon runs.

In the Titan Place - very cool.  Very Mines-of-Moria.

At the same time, I was studying to take my Dual Spec live, something I was very nervous about.  Several times I had the thought "just sign in, and Do It!"  But, I'd chicken out.

When I started my Bank Alt, Soozuu, I even made her a Ret. Pally to see what that was like from the ground up.

[for the non-WoW readers: Retribution Paladin.  The damage-dealing specialization of the Paladins.

In Wow, whenever you get into a group, you can play one of three roles:

• a Tank [which I have no earthly idea what they do or how they do it], 
• a Healer [which I told Vier I wanted to be 'cause I had the naive notion I wouldn't be killing things, or killing a lesser number of things -- rolls eyes--], or, 
• a Damage Dealer.  

What I didn't know, and I don't think I would have listened if Vier told me, was that every group has at least One Tank, One Healer and Many Damage-Dealers [DPS].  When you're starting out, it's easier to hide your ineptness if you're one of many v.s. the One Healer - who, if she screws up - wipes or wrecks the whole group.]

So yes, I was makin' a bank alt and I figured I'd get some "sneak" WoW time.  Time when Vier wouldn't be looking over my shoulder and chiding me for not concentrating on questing and wasting my time fishing.  I even joined a different guild on a whim!

I didn't recognize Vier in this spiffy get-up!

Busted!

Might as well get back into my "real" guild!  And of course, do some fishin'!

Soozuu in Fists with her White Kitten Gift.

Holy Crap!  I caught Old Ironjaw!

Old Ironjaw is mine!  

"The legendary uncatchable fish of Ironforge"   According to El's Angling, catching him is a less than one percent chance! Wow!

Now apparently I have to sneak into Orgrimmar to fish up Ol' Crafty!  Not looking forward to that, go to the link and read the first comment by Dsc666.

I got my Holy Paladin up to the low-70s, healing all the way but during my reading on Ret. Pallies, I've been learning that questing as a healer is not as easy as questing as a DPS [damage dealer].  The tipping point came when I had done so much Ret. Pally studying, that it was interfering with my actions as a Holy Pally.  That was when I knew it was definitely time to switch.

So, there was a day lost trying to figure out how to switch back and forth between the two specs and setting up my action bars for the Ret. Pally spec.

I took a day to re-visit some low level areas and get used to being a Ret. Pally.

Nether Faerie Dragon

woo hoo!  I caught me a Sprite Darter thingy in Feralas!  Drat.  Nope.  I caught a Nether Faerie Dragon  in Feralas, which is cool enough.  But it's the Sprite Darter Hatchling I really want.  Next time.

Got some Explorer Achievements.

Cape of Stranglethorn fully explored!

Got my Brewfest Wolpertinger.

It's a Rabbit with Antlers!

Defeated the Dark Iron Dwarves.

No, my new computer isn't crapping out.  The screenshots are blurry 'cauze I bin drinkin' ... hic!

Drank a Lot!

that's a lotta brewskies

 
Ate my way through the Brewfest Diet!

and a lotta sausages!

Can't help but think of my Papa and the rest of my family out at the lake, eatin' sausages and drinkin' beer!

And saw some cool mounts and pets with other 'toons at Brewfest.

sobering up!

I was feeling pretty confident with my Ret. Pally skills after Brewfest, but just to be sure, I went over to Borean Tundra to do the Airport Quests that I missed the first time I was there.

Now I'm REALLY flying!

Fizzcrank Fullthrottle at the Fizzcrank Airstrip

Fizzcrank Fullthrottle started three sets of four or five quests that had me flyin' to Dalaran in a Gnome Aircraft!

Though why they're equipped with floats for a frozen northern zone is beyond me!

That was a LOT of fun!

Great STOL characteristics on this plane!

Vier dropped by on her fancy flyin' disc and ran me through the spider dungeons.

That was NOT fun.

 O.M.G.  

ugh  HUGE spiders and webs everywhere!

shudder

but ...  Ding 76!  YaY!

Now, I've been a Ret. Pally for a few weeks and I ain't lookin' back!