Crossing to the Dark Side, or Morrighan goes all PvP

So its a new year.  I got my state of the blog report and realized I have slacked majorly in the posting department.  I’m not going to make any promises here, because I have other plans this year, but I will try to post more.

Which raises the question of what I will post about.  I’ve tried a few things with the blog recently in terms of guides and a direction for the content.  I might have another idea up my sleeve that I will try to get working, but for now I’m going to focus on just talking about what I am doing in the games I play.  Mostly I play World of Warcraft, but I may occasionally blog about other games.

My quest for PvP success
I’m really starting from the beginning here.  I’ve toyed with PvP before.  In TBC I did a lot of AV to get PvP gear for use in PvE.  I’ve done a little bit of arena almost every expansion, but not every season.  So I do mean a little bit.  I’ve done a few rated battlegrounds.  But this time I’ve decided to stop raiding and try a different part of the game.  And its great.  I find myself enjoying arena in particular.  The change has refreshed WoW for me again.

This season I’ve just taken as a getting started season.  I’ve tried to cap each week.  I’m focusing on my hunter as my main.  She was my main for PvE at the end of Cataclysm and the first toon I levelled.  I’m also very attached to the appearance of the hunter PvP set this season.  I’m mostly trying to learn different ideas and approaches to different combinations.

The problems along the way
My main two problems at the moment are finding a stable team and finding someone who likes PvP enough to do more than just cap.  I prefer 3s, but I don’t seem to be having a lot of luck there.  I do have an awesome 2s partner right now but he can’t talk on raidcall which hampers us a bit.  I really lack experience in RBGs which is a problem only in that at one I point I seemed to be landed with target calling.  I don’t know how to target call.  I’ve read some, but I need to see it in action really.

I am also finding that apart from arena junkies, hunter PvP information is a bit thin on the ground apart from communities that require you to pay to get in.  This sort of makes sense, because PvP is competitive in a way that raid progression is not once you step back from the cutting edge.  But there are some good resources out there for other classes, so I will keep looking. If anyone could recommend any good BM PvP hunters who stream/post videos, I would be grateful.

The other content

As I said, I’m not raiding.  I tend to do LFR, so I can be geared enough to help the guild if needed.  I am still looking for achievements, though I have little time to focus on these.  I am doing some pet battles, though I have largely stopped there until 5.2 arrives.  I do quite a few dailies and am looking to get Exalted with all the factions and get the next 50 mounts.  I will update the mount guide at some point.  I quite like the dailies and the scenarios as sources of Valor and charms.  I have invested in a Brawler’s Guild pass and have been doing a bit of that too when the queues aren’t too long.

Very little content outside of rated PvP actually helps with PvP progress.  You can do normal battlegrounds and these will help somewhat.  I say somewhat because unless you go with some friends, you won’t learn a huge amount about coordinating a battleground without a lot of luck.  The only gameplay aspect I would recommend is Brawler’s Guild, but again there is a limit.  Brawler’s Guild is not easy and will teach you a great deal about survivability and control.  You can’t just stand there as a hunter and hit the target.  You need to move, to kite, to control and these skills will server you in PvP too.  I don’t know if PvP gear will prove to be limiting as I progress up the ranks yet.

Things to do before the Mists part

If you’ve been hiding under a rock, Mists of Pandaria will launch on 25 September.  Cheer.  With a deadline now set I find I have a renewed enthusiasm for the game.  This is my to do list for the next two months.

1. Get an transmogrification set for Brynna, Morrighan and Akandra.  I have sets in mind now.
2. Get Brynna’s secondary professions to max level.
3. Get as close to 150 pets on Akandra as I can (when the pets merge I will currently be one pet short of 150).
4. Finish off some achievements so I can focus on new and exciting things in Pandaria (I’m going to be using different characters for these, depending on current progress):
   1. Master of Tol Barad (Morrighan)
   2. My Sack is “Gigantique” (Brynna)
   3. Higher Learning (Akandra)
   4. Get to the Choppa! (Brynna)
   5. Ashenvale Quests (Brynna)
   6. Bloodmyst Isle Quests (Brynna)
   7. Felwood Quests (Brynna)
   8. Ferelas Quests (Brynna)
   9. Stonetalon Mountain Quests (Brynna)
   10. Southern Barrens Quests (Brynna)
   11. Thousand Needles Quests (Brynna)
   12. The Oceanographer (Akandra)
   13. Glory of the Raider (10 player) (Akandra)
   14. Get a Black/Twilight Drake (any)
   15. Glory of the Cataclysm Hero (Akandra)
   16. Glory of the Cataclysm Raider (Akandra)
   17. Glory of the Firelands Raider (Brynna)
   18. Any Archaeology or PvP achievements I can get.
5. See if I can get some more cool hunter pets for Brynna (she only has a few and if I can play BM, I will play BM).

So, just a few things!  Some of these will likely carry into Mists of Pandaria I know.

The Cutting Edge

Did anyone else spot it?  In the latest patch were a couple of new Feats of Strength, all with the name ‘Cutting Edge: XXX’:

• Cutting Edge: Grand Empress Shek’zeer (New) Defeat Grand Empress Shek’zeer in Heart of Fear on Heroic difficulty, with Klaxxi Resonance inactive or disabled.
• Cutting Edge: Sha of Fear (New) Defeat the Sha of Fear in Terrace of Endless Spring on Heroic difficulty, with the Ritual of Purification inactive or disabled.
• Cutting Edge: Will of the Emperor (New) Defeat the Will of the Emperor in Mogu’shan Vaults on Heroic difficulty, with the Dampening Field either inactive or disabled.

What I suspect these are are an indication that the Dragon Soul stacking buff/debuff is here to stay, but that you will recieve recognition if you choose to turn it off.  Albeit in the form of a Feat of Strength, rather than an Achievement.

Can we just hope this stops the endless whining?

What seems to always get lost in the casual/hardcore debate is the time issue.  People aren’t always behind the progress curve in Dragon Soul because they lack skill.  They can be behind the curve because they lack time.  A stacking buff/debuff (however they choose to make it work) makes killing bosses quicker.  It not only makes killing the bosses that are progress for you quicker, it also makes killing bosses that are not progress quicker, giving you more time to spend on the progress bosses.  I don’t raid heroic generally, because I am not willing to put in the time it would take.  I’ve been there, done that.  Instead I would rather spend my time taking part in the other activities the game has to offer.  Thats my choice.

If the haters had their way, I’d be excluded from raiding normal, because why raid normal other than to go on to heroic?  And I wouldn’t get any gear at all from Raid Finder because why do I need it if not to get to heroic?  And, in fact, Raid Finder wouldn’t exist because its too easy anyway and if I can’t kill it on heroic I don’t deserve the chance to see it at all.  Whats important is that some players can prance around the active city in prettier items than anyone else and go ‘haha noob’.  According to the haters.

Prestige
Just yesterday my other half was in a part guild, part pug Hard Mode Flashpoint in SWTOR.  It was one of the more challenging ones.  The healer was a random.  He zoned in.  They inspected him.  His gear was good; better than theirs in fact.  That didn’t stop him being a complete Asshat.  He pulled stuff.  He ran off in the opposite direction to the tank.  He caused wipe after wipe.  He could prance around Fleet in his fancy gear and go ‘haha noob’.  His uber items didn’t make him any less of an Asshat and the butt of numerous jokes as the run went on.  He may have thought he was the best around, but behind the polite words in group chat, people thought he was scum.  So all that cool gear?  It doesn’t give you prestige.  It means nothing.  To anyone who has been playing an MMO for a while, top geared players, just like undergeared players, should be judged on their actions.

Who deserves prestige?  I personally value the theorycrafters, who help us all to be better.  The bloggers and vloggers who help us to think about our games.  The people who spend time posting those tactics we all use.  The people who help others in the game.  If we’re giving respect only to people with the biggest, shiniest shoulderpads, we’re measuring it wrong.

These new Feats fill in the gap perfectly.  If you want a way to measure the very best raiders, it needs to be something that is not exclusive. Like Challenge Mode mogging armor, a Feat of Strength has no value in the game.  Achievement points and gear you use for stats – limiting those is stopping people from being able to play the game to the point of completion (which is the point in playing, no matter how you choose to measure it ).  If people want to epeen, let it be with things that only have epeen value.

Moar Achievements: Midsummer 2012

The Midsummer Festival is one of the easiest of the holiday achievements, but one of the most time consuming.  As a bonus though, you will make at least 500 gold at level 85 doing this achievement.  Its largely unchanged from 2011 other than the fact that Cataclysm Fires and Desecration achievements have been added to the metas.

To get The Flame Keeper/The Flame Warden achievement you need to get the following:

• Ice the Frost Lord – kill Frost Lord Ahune
• Burning Hot Pole Dance – dance around a pole for 60 seconds wearing the completed Midsummer set
• Torch Juggler – Juggle 40 torches in 15 seconds in Dalaran
• King of the Fire Festival – Complete a quest chain that ends with you stealing fires from the opposite faction’s capital cities
• The Fires of Azeroth – Honor all the fires of your own faction in Eastern Kingdoms, Kalimdor and Outland
• Desecration of the Horde/Alliance – Desecrate all the fires of the opposite faction in Eastern Kingdomes, Kalimdor and Outland

There are no achievements that are not part of the meta, but you can also obtain two pets:

• Ice Chip drops from the bag you get for killing Ahune.
• Midsummer Flame can be brought for 350 Burning Blossoms.  Since you need 415 for the meta, thats a lot of blossoms.  You can get these by completing the daily quests each day and visiting all the Northrend and Cataclysm fires that aren’t a part of the meta.

You will also get bonus achievement points for the achievements that make up The Fires of Azeroth and Desecration of the Horde/Alliance.  They are not listed on the meta but you can’t do the meta without them.

How you do it
Start with these things, which you will do each day:

1. Queue for Frost Lord Ahune from the dungeon finder.  As with all holiday events the queue does not take long and you will get a few bonus Justice Points for your time.  Do this every day until you get the pet and any of the cloaks, or the caster staff if you want them (ilevel 353). [Completed: Ice the Frost Lord]
2. While you wait go to the fire in one of your capital cities.  I would suggest not Stormwind or Orgrimmar.  Pick up all the quests and complete the torch catching and brazier hitting ones so you have access to the daily quests.  Torch catching is much easier in some clear space (you have to follow the shadow on the floor).  Do both dailies every day.

The rest of the achievement is a once only thing:

1. Start with the quest chain.  Go to the Zoram Strand and do the quests and you will be sent back to a capital city.  You can then steal flames from the opposite faction’s capital cities.  Don’t make a special trip – just pick them up as you go around.
   1. Of the Horde cities, I managed to do Undercity (in the courtyard in the Ruins of Lordaeron) and Orgrimmar (in the Valley of Wisdom up high) without even aggroing a guard.  I aggro’d a guard in Thunder Bluff after grabbing the flame, but jumped off the edge (on my Levitating priest).  In Silvermoon you can’t fly so just run.  I ran through to the Court of the Sun and then managed to get out of combat to go and steal the flame.
   2. Of the Alliance cities, Darnassus is the easiest (in the courtyard just inside the entrance from Teldrassil) and you will just be able to swoop in and out.  Exodar is in the Crystal Hall.  You will likely have to run to the fire, die, corpse run and then steal it and stone.  You can stand by the fire without pulling aggro but you have no chance of getting there without doing so. Stormwind is quite hard and you will want to do at a quiet time.  The fire is just outside the entrance to the Stockades in the canals and is right next to several profession trainers and the fishing and cooking daily quest givers.  The Alliance are busy there, but not so busy they won’t stop to kill you.  The Ironforge flame is at the back in the Hall of Explorers.  You should be able to fly to this without aggro if you stay up high and use the flight path slits in the walls. [Completed: King of the Fire Festival]
2. Then visit all the flames and honoring or desecrating them (you do this by completing a quest at the fire). It doesn’t matter when you do Outland or Northrend, but remember that both have a portal to your capital city or to Tanaris so when you are planning a path keep this in mind.  Also remember you can jump around using the portals to the Cataclysm areas and flying from there. I’m not going to write an order up because you might tie it in with other dailies, grinding – I tied it in with doing some Archaeology on one character and farming random herbs on another.  Northrend  and Cataclysm do not count towards the meta and is only required if you want the extra Blossoms for the pet.  You can fly in Azeroth, but you can also make use of flight paths still while you go and do something else. [Completed: The Fires of Azeroth & Desecration of the Horde/Alliance]
3. You’ll need to farm 400 Burning Blossoms and buy the Midsummer clothes set from the vendor (shoulders, chest, feet).  Then put them on and dance at a pole until you get the achievement. [Completed: Burning Hot Pole Dance]
4. Torch Juggler needs to be completed in Dalaran so you need to go there either during your tour around the flames or at the end.  Buy some torches , preferably with some to spare (I managed with 20 which cost 15 Burning Blossoms since I had 5 from the quest) and put them on a hot-key.  Unlike the other torches you can target these.  Target them at your feet and start spamming the key and then your mouse to place the targeting circle.  If you have lag try and face a wall to reduce it some (don’t know if that trick is still needed but it was helpful back when Dalaran was highly populated).  You will probably not manage it at first – keep spamming.  You will start your second 15 second counter with torches in the air this way and then get the achievement.  You can send these torches between characters if you are doing more than one round of this achievement.

Flames it might be hard to find
Most of the flames are fairly obvious when you look at a map.  Remember this achievement has been around for a while so flames tend to be at the older settlements and main settlements.  Just look at your map and you can see where the Alliance and Horde flight points are for a rough guide.  Where theres a goblin town, both flames tend to be there.  The following are those that aren’t as obvious:

• Cape of Strangelthorn – both flames are on the pirate beach just east of Booty Bay
• Westfall – this flame is at Moonbrook
• Burning Steppes – the Horde flame is at Flame Crest
• Eversong Woods – the flame is outside of Falconwing Square
• Northern Stranglethorn – the Alliance flame is at Fort Livingstone
• Swamp of Sorrows – Bogpaddle! Just … don’t …
• Ashenvale – the Alliance flame is now at Forest Song and the Horde flame at Silverwind Refuge
• Darkshore – the Alliance flame is now at Lor’danel
• Southern Barrens – the Alliance flame is at Fort Triumph and the Horde flame at Desolation Hold
• Stonetalon Mountains – Sun Rock Retreat (I think it always has been but there are a lot of Horde flight points here)
• Twilight Highlands – these are at the daily quest hubs of Bloodgulch and Thundermar, not the entry towns.
• Vashj’ir – the flame is at Silver Tide Hollow.

Newbie Blogger Initiative – WoW blogging guide and how to reuse old posts

For those of you who haven’t spotted it, theres a thing going on on the internets called the Newbie Blogger Initiative and I’ve decided to take part, but in the slackiest way EVER.  A long time ago I wrote these two guides.  I think a third part is still bumping around my draft list somewhere.  But what I’m doing is linking them here so new bloggers can see and read them.  This is a great type of posting – reusing old posts

WoW Blogging Part 1: Getting Started

WoW Blogging Part 2: The Early Days

Account wide achievements are finally here

In the last beta patch Blizzard finally implemented account wide achievements and I was very happy to see they were completely account wide.  So all the achievements I’ve gathered while my priest and my paladin were my mains will soon be found on my hunter, Brynna.  This makes me happy.

Why account wide achievements are a good thing

• If you have changed mains since the achievement system was implemented, you will be able to share all your achievements and (hopefully – GC has said this is the intention but is not guarenteed) their rewards across all of your toons.
• Those achievement mounts that you don’t use on your main because you have something a bit cooler? You will be using them on your alts.
• The guy who says ‘oh I cleared it on heroic on my other toon’ is now going to have to prove that.
• You won’t feel you have to stick with one toon just because they have an insane number of achievement points and you don’t have time to do those again.

Achievements are no guarentee of a good player
There seem to be two main arguements against this change.  The first, seen a lot early on, but less often now, is that you wanted to know what toon a character used for raid achievements.

At first glance this seems valid, but actually, its not.  What the achievement system cannot do is assure you that the player behind the computer got that achievement in the role you want them to fulfil.  If that mage is being played by his little brother today, neither the old nor the new system will tell you that.  If that paladin got the achievement as retribution rather than protection, neither system will tell you that.  This system actually makes no difference whatsoever here.

How account wide achievements might offer us more to do
The second one seems to be that this will result in less to do for people who really like achievements and do them on each alt.  Some people like collecting achievements on multiple toons.  However, I think Ghostcrawler has already mentioned the solution to this very briefly.  Its implied in the name of the feature – ‘account wide achievements’.

For example – you currently have an achievement to level a toon to 85.  Each toon has that achievement and each time you level a toon to 85.  What if, instead, you had an achievement that counted the number of toons leveled to 85?  It might go up to 20 (one of each class on each faction) or just 10 (one of each class) and you get an achievement for every toon, like you do for levels of professions.  Or there might be a set of different achievements – level one toon to 85, level one of each faction to 85, level one of each class to 85, level one of each class to 85 as Alliance, level one of each class to 85 as Horde.  So each time you get an alt to 85 you get an achievement or part of an achievement.  And each time it contributes to the overall score, rather than just being yet another repeat of the same thing.

This opens up a world of possibilities.  There have never been any achievements for primary professions, but in this system you could have those, because everyone could have access to them.  And those people who love achievements and have over 12000 already one one toon and so are stuck to gain more points without significant investment of time and help, they will have a whole new set of achievements they can work on.

What current achievements would you like to see an Account Wide Edition of?

Moar Achievements: Children’s Week 2012

This is a re-write of the previous year’s guide.  There are no changes to the holiday from last year, but I’ve updated the format of the post.  There is only one new thing to consider: account wide pets. I highly recommend checking your toons to see which characters have which pets and targeting any pets you don’t already have.  You can also get different pets on different toons to try and collect all of them.

To get For the Children you need to get the following achievements:

• Home Alone – Hearthstone with your Orphan out
• Daily Chores – Do 5 daily quests with your Orphan out
• School of Hard Knocks – complete four specicific BG goals with your Orphan out
• Bad Example – Eat 7 specific types of nice stuff with your Orphan out
• Aw, Isn’t it Cute? – Obtain a Children’s Week pet
• Hail to the King, Baby – Kill King Ymiron in Utgarde Pinnacle with your Orphan out

You need to be at least level 78 to complete this meta achievement.

There are a few bonus achievements and items:

• Veteran Nanny – Acquire Egbert’s Egg, Sleepy Willy and Elekk Training Collar on one character. This will take 3 years.  I suspect this will vanish in MoP, but there is no way you can speed this up so unless you already have two of the pets on one toon, you’ll just have to lose this one.
• There are quite a few pets available.  You can get a maximum of three within one Children’s Week.  Each year you can work on another pet, apart from the Northrend pets – you can only ever get one of these.
  • One from the Stormwind/Orgrimmar orphan quests. (Whiskers the Rat, Mr Wiggles, Speedy, Scooter the Snail)
  • One from the Shattrath orphan quests. (Peanut, Egbert, Willy, Legs)
  • One from the Northrend orphan quests. (Curious Oracle Hatchling/Curious Wolvar Hatchling)

Don’t forget to have your Orphan out when you do ALL of these achievements. 

Now one of these achievements is a nightmare.  I would recommend doing these achievements as follows.

1. Follow the Children’s Week questline to obtain a pet.  Use your Hearthstone while travelling about. Buy some of Tigule and Foror’s Strawberry Flavoured Ice Cream while you are in Stormwind or Orgrimmar. It can be found on the Candy Vendor near the Cooking daily in Stormwind and from the Snack-O-Matic in Horde Zepplins.  [Completed: Aw, Isn't it Cute? and Home Alone, plus 1/7 Bad Example]  You also now have a pet out of this holiday, if nothing else.
2. Time to bite the bullet and go for the hard one.    I could describe it all but I think that Cynwise has already done so far better than I could so check out his guide.  Console yourself with the thought that even if you NEVER PvP you can turn the Honor points you will earn into Justice Points, or use them towards the Honor mounts if you’re a mount collector.  It won’t be enough consolation for the hell that is this achievement, but there you go.  If you are aiming for the meta this is the one you need to focus on because its by far the hardest to get. [Completed: School of Hard Knocks]
3. Once back in town do any five daily quests during the week.  The Fishing/Cooking ones are ridiculously easy and will count. [Completed: Daily Chores]
4. Now its off to Northrend.  Travel to Howling Fjord with a friend or two to complete Utgarde Pinnacle.  You may well be able to solo this.  If not, you should only need one friend.  [Completed: Hail to the King, Baby]
5. Carry on to Dalaran where you can buy a Red Velvet Cupcake, Dalaran Brownie, Dalaran Donut and Lovely Cake from Aimee outside of one of the banks.  Eat them all. [5/7 Bad Example]
6. You now need to either do some cooking or visit the AH for Tasty Cupcake and Delicious Chocolate Cake.  There is an achievement to make the Delicious Chocolate Cake so bake it if you can.  The recipe comes from the rewards for the Outland or Dalaran Cooking dailies.  The Tasty Cupcake recipe is a random Northrend drop.  Both can be found on the AH. [Completed: Bad Example]

If you think Ji Firepaw didn’t need to be changed, you are the problem

This is a very angry post.  It is not a rant, because rant implies that you are angry about nothing.  I am angry about something very important.

For this history behind this take a look at the WoW Insider article.  I’m going to start assuming you’ve read it or the original complaint thread.

My own reaction
I played a panda through the section in question on the beta realms.  I’m just going to document my reaction here.  Very simply I thought: OMG what a creep, never rolling a Horde panda ever.

Now that was my reaction as a long term WoW player.   I immediately decided not to play any part of the game that would bring me into contact with Ji Firepaw.  Imagine if I was a new player? I would have stopped playing right there and then.  No, thats not an exaggeration.

Why games should not reflect real life
Back when I was at University I used to go to this club (this was while I was studying in the US and hence it was NOT a reflection on the University itself at all).  The club had what I called the ‘creepy guys’.  There was one guy who would sidle up behind women, grab them from behind, and start dancing with them.  For some reason I can never fathom, most of those women didn’t respond with an elbow to the stomach.  I sure as hell responded that way.  Despite that, he came back and tried again later!  I wasn’t targeted due to any stunning good looks – I was targeted because I was seemingly unattached.  I went to the club with friends, and not a partner.  Ji Firepaw went straight into the category with the creepy guys.

Now in real life I had two choices.  I could stop going to the club, stop having fun with friends.  It was the only club in town.  Or I could deal with the creepy guys as and when needed.  They eventually got the message.  But WoW is not real life.  I could never ‘deal with’ Ji Firepaw.  A sexist NPC is always a sexist NPC.  I can’t do the in game equivalent of chasing him off.  I am forced to be a passive recipient of his sexism if I want to play the game.

Other reasons the line needed to go
There are a dozen other reasons for this change quite aside from those I’ve already discussed:

• That kind of comment is against Blizzard’s own Terms and Conditions.  If a player made that comment to another player and a complaint was raised, it would be dealt with as a harassment complaint.  And Ji is making this comment to EVERY SINGLE FEMALE TOON HE ENCOUNTERS.  It makes it very hard for Blizzard to police its playerbase if its doing something it tries to police in the game itself.
• Discrimination against women is illegal in many countries.  No matter how small the chance, one lawsuit would do irreparable damage to Blizzard’s reputation and would be seized on by the kind of right wing anti-gaming facists who would ban Harry Potter and the Teletubbies.  Unfortunately, that faction is well represented in US politics (which is where it would hit Blizzard hardest).
• The line was particularly ill thought out because it comes from a faction leader in the first few minutes of playing.  New players may well see this as part of their very first encounter with WoW.  It doesn’t really make a great impression.

What this ‘debate’ has taught me
Another argument against the change is that this is making ‘a mountain out of a mole-hill’.  However, if its so insignificant why do players feel the need to argue so strongly against the change?  The feminists who asked for the change do NOT feel its insignificant.  But the defenders will claim it is insignificant in one breath, before writing an epic about why it NEEDS to stay the same.  The only reason I can think of for this is that somehow having Blizzard’s NPCs espouse their own ideals gave them some feeling of validation.  Some game developers, instead of attempting to be inclusive, actively rejected female gamers for a very long time.  In a capitalist society you would think that attempts would have been made earlier to tap the market that female gamers represented – it wasn’t.  So gaming remained a place where sexism could thrive.  Now Blizzard has rejected sexism and that means it is rejecting these people.

Eight years ago I wrote my MA thesis about sexism and gaming.  The fact that this line even made it as far as the beta just goes to show very little has changed.  I was extremely disappointed in Blizzard when they wrote that.  They should be having a serious think about how that line was ever allowed to appear.

And the biggest reason of all why feminism is still relevant and why gaming is a battleground
Just as this ‘debate’ was calming down I read this post detailing the double standards for women who post controversial material on the internet.  And as I read it I got mad.  Because I don’t want my daughter to grow up in this world.  She is going to grow up in a time when the internet is a part of her everyday life.  Why should she have to be exposed to this kind of rubbish?

If you don’t think the Ji Firepaw line should have been changed, I don’t give a damn what you think.  Because you are the problem.  Because every little bit of sexist crap should be stamped out.  It doesn’t enhance the game by making it more immersive.  It only serves to validate your own vile attitudes and they is why you are defending it.  Think carefully about your daughters or your sisters.  Would you want some random stranger to say that to them? Someone who might be in a position of power over them?  Would you like guys to sleaze over them and have no recourse to defend themselves?  If you think thats fine, then you are the problem.  If you don’t then why do you think thats okay in a computer game?

Moar Achievements: Noblegarden 2012

Welcome to Noblegarden.  This is one of the easier achievements and you can farm the lot in a morning.  Well you could if the Springstrider didn’t need 500!!! chocolates.  Farming that many in one go will drive you mad.  Make sure you have some chocolate handy while doing this as the constant references to chocolate will make you crave chocolate.  Just sayin’.

To get the Noble Gardener achievement you need to get the following:

• I Found One! – Find a Brightly Coloured Egg
• Desert Rose – Use Spring Robes to plant a flower in the listed places
• Hard Boiled – Lay an egg in Un’Goro Crater’s Golakka Hot Springs
• Noble Garden – Hide a Noblegarden Egg in Stormwind/Silvermoon
• Chocoholic – Eat 100 Noblegarden Chocolates
• Blushing Bride – Kiss someone wearing an Elegant Dress while wearing a White Tuxedo Shirt and Black Tuxedo Pants
• Spring Fling – Matchmake your Spring Rabbit in the four starter towns
• Shake Your Bunny Maker – Put rabbit ears on female toons of each race.

There are a few bonus achievements and items:

• Chocolate Lover – Eat 25 Chocolates
• Sunday’s Finest – Discover the White Tuxedo Shirt and Black Tuxedo Pants by opening Brighly Coloured Eggs.
• Dressed for the Occasion -  Discover the Elegant Dress by opening Brighly Coloured Eggs.
• Spring Rabbit – this drops from eggs or costs 100 chocolates and is needed for the meta
• Springstrider – this costs 500 chocolates and is Bind on Pickup (and so not for farming and selling as per recent holidays)

How you do it

1. Head off to the faction specific starter town of your choice and start the grand egg hunt.  On Alliance I always go to Azure Watch and on Horde I prefer Falconwing Square.  I know where the eggs are in these towns.  But any of these towns will do.  Start collecting eggs.  Lots and lots of eggs.  You need at least 115 and up to 915 chocolates to complete these achievements and get the mount.  You should get I Found One! at the first egg.  You should complete the quest to get the Noblegarden Basket (10 chocolates).  Equip this so you can collect eggs faster as it will give you a movement speed boost. [Cost so far: 10 chocolates]
2. Keep collecting eggs until you have 100 chocolates.   Now eat them. Mmmm tasty.  You should get Chocolate Lover and Chocoholic.  [Cost so far: 110 chocolates)]
3. You will need some items for some of the above achievements.  Below is a list of the items and how much they cost.  Most, if not all of these items also have a chance of dropping randomly from an egg.  This is why you do Chocoholic first.  Keep collecting eggs until you can afford all of the items.  If you get any drops, collect less chocolates.
   1. Spring Robes (50 chocolates)
   2. Spring Rabbit (100 chocolates)
   3. White Tuxedo Shirt (25 chocolates – you need these to drop to get Sunday’s Finest, they are NOT soulbound)
   4. Black Tuxedo Pants (25 chocolates – you need these to drop to get Sunday’s Finest , they are NOT soulbound)
   5. Spring Flowers (50 chocolates)
   6. Elegant Dress (50 chocolates – optional as you don’t need it yourself and you need this to drop for Dressed for the Occasion) [Cost so far: 110 chocolates + up to 250 for required drops + 50 for an optional drop = 110-410]
4. You will need to buy a Noblegarden Egg and place it in Stormwind/Silvermoon for 5 chocolates to get Noble Garden as this item does not drop. [Cost so far 115-415 chocolates]
5. Remember I mentioned you don’t need the Elegant Dress yourself? You need to find someone else who has it.  If you have one and you are going AFK its a nice thing to put this on.  For your own achievement you need to wear the White Tuxedo Shirt and the Black Tuxedo Pants and /kiss someone wearing an Elegant Dress to get Blushing Bride.
6. You now need to do some travelling.  Hit all the places listed in Desert Rose and use your robes.  Also visit the remaining faction specific starter towns to matchmake your Spring Rabbit for Spring Fling.  This second part does need other people to be around which is fairly easy early in the festival.  Later on you may need to find a friend to help you with this.
7. There are two ways of doing Hard Boiled.  The easiest is to travel to Golakka Hot Springs in Un’Goro with a friend and turn each other into rabbits once you get there.  You can get the Blossoming Branch item for this from the daily quest available in the egg collecting towns and it only uses broken shells so no extra chocolates.  The achievement can take a while to activate sometimes, I seem to recall.  The solo version takes some planning:
   1. Put your hearthstone in Silithus (you can stone and keep the costume – you cannot fly, mount or use a portal)
   2. Make your way to an egg collection location and keep collecting eggs until you get randomly turned into a rabbit.
   3. Stone to Silithus.
   4. Run to Golakka Hot Springs in Un’goro without fighting anything.
8. Spring Flowers puts bunny ears on another character for Shake Your Bunny Maker.  Finding a female of each race isn’t too hard, though there are inevitably a couple of challenges in the other faction.  Unlike other achievements in this vein, you can’t get a friend to make a level 1 toon.  A few tips for this one are:
   1. Visit Cataclysm base areas via the portals.  The Temple of Earth and the entry point to Mount Hyjal are good as you can take a portal back.
   2. There are still people in Dalaran.  So a trip there is worth it.
   3. PvP.  Tol Barad and Battlegrounds might have what you need.
   4. Sit outside Orgrimmar/Stormwind and watch for the PvPers.
   5. Roll one of those free accounts and create an opposite faction toon.  Type /who RACE and see who is around and where they are.  Stalk them.
9. Finally, you can farm the chocolates for the Swift Springstrider – all 500 of them! [Cost so far: 115-915 chocolates]

Moar Achievements: Mountain O’ Mounts Action Plan 58-100 (the harder part)

So now you’re sitting on 57 mounts and maybe a few more. Heres where it starts to get a little tricker. I’m going to suggest some further mounts, and then a pool of mounts from which you can draw your final selection.

Things to know about Mountain O’ Mounts

• Class mounts don’t count
• Profession mounts do count
• You don’t need to be Exalted with your own faction
• This is an Alliance list – but all mounts have a Horde equivalent

What you are going to need

• Cash! At least 16829 gold according to the list I chose, though you could replace some of these mounts with cheaper options if you were willing to farm for longer/can do more achievements/have rare mounts. This assumes no discounts so you will spend less with faction discounts and the guild saving.
• Time – you will need to farm reputations at some point, and there are quite a few mounts to be had from dailies too. You also can’t do all the dailies every day.
• A level 85 toon (I include Tol Barad mounts here, hence the requirement – you could do this achievement at a lower level, but you would need more of the alternative mounts).
• 2175 Justice Points
• 14000 Honor Points
• At least Artisan Riding. You can gain Master Riding by doing the holiday meta if you wish. None of these mounts require Master Riding to use.

The mounts

The following mount groupings aren’t an order in which to do them – you will want to run several of these in parallel.

58. Silver Riding Talbuk – 70 gold + Exalted with the Kurenai
59. Cobalt Riding Talbuk – 70 gold + Exalted with the Kurenai
60. Tan Riding Talbuk – 70 gold + Exalted with the Kurenai
61. White Riding Talbuk – 70 gold + Exalted with the Kurenai
62. Silver War Talbuk – 100 gold + Exalted with the Kurenai
63. Cobalt War Talbuk – 100 gold + Exalted with the Kurenai
64. Tan War Talbuk – 100 gold + Exalted with the Kurenai
65. White War Talbuk – 100 gold + Exalted with the Kurenai

The gold cost here is relatively small, but farming Kurenai rep will take a while. The best way to do this is to complete all the quests in Nagrand and then kill ogres/cultists in Nagrand. Lots of them. Keep killing them until you hit Exalted. You can hand in the warbeads that drop from ogres for Kurenai rep too, or you can keep them for Consortium rep if you are achievement hunting in general.
Cost so far: 1609 gold + 2175 Justice Points + 12000 Honor Points

66. Azure Netherwing Drake – 200 gold + Exalted with the Netherwing
67. Cobalt Netherwing Drake – 200 gold + Exalted with the Netherwing
68. Onyx Netherwing Drake – 200 gold + Exalted with the Netherwing
69. Purple Netherwing Drake – 200 gold + Exalted with the Netherwing
70. Veridian Netherwing Drake – 200 gold + Exalted with the Netherwing
71. Violet Netherwing Drake – 200 gold + Exalted with the Netherwing

Netherwing rep is somewhat time consuming to get. First you need to complete all the quests in Shadowmoon Valley that relate to the Netherwing. Then there are dailies. The number of dailies you can do increases as your reputation increases. Finally, you can farm the rare spawn eggs and hand in as many of these as you can find a day. They are located all over the Netherwing daily area and in the fortress to the north. Once you are Exalted you will be given a quest to go to Shattrath where you can select one of the drakes. You then go back to Shadowmoon Valley where you can buy the rest.
Cost so far: 2809 gold + 2175 Justice Points + 12000 Honor Points

72. Blue Riding Nether Ray – 200 gold + Exalted with the Sha’tari Skyguard
73. Green Riding Nether Ray – 200 gold + Exalted with the Sha’tari Skyguard
74. Purple Riding Nether Ray – 200 gold + Exalted with the Sha’tari Skyguard
75. Red Riding Nether Ray – 200 gold + Exalted with the Sha’tari Skyguard
76. Silver Riding Nether Ray – 200 gold + Exalted with the Sha’tari Skyguard

Skyguard rep comes from dailies and other actions in the Skettis area, plus a daily in the Ogri’la area. You can also kill Skettis Arakkoa. I’d recommend just focusing on the Skettis area in Terokkar Forest. Do the dailies there and collect Shadow Dust, which you can hand in to get an Elixir of Shadows. This allows you to see undead arakkoa too. Kill these and get 10 scrolls of ressurection, which you can use to summon named arakkoa. Four of these drop unique items which you can hand in to get an item to summon Terokk, who you kill. Each of these gives reputation and it gives a little structure to what is basically kill all the things rep grind.
Cost so far: 3609 gold + 2175 Justice Points + 12000 Honor Points

77. Winterspring Frostsaber – complete 20 dailies

Visit Frostsaber Rock in Winterspring to start these quests. You will get a baby frostsaber to care for and have to feed and play with him via 20 daily quests. When you have 20 whiskers, hand them in and he’ll be all grown up.
Cost so far: 3609 gold + 2175 Justice Points + 12000 Honor Points

Choices, or the REALLY HARD part
Now we start to get into optional mounts. You need to pick 23 mounts from those below. It comes down to cash versus time spent and your own preference about which to go with.

Swift Grey Steed – 500 gold + 5 Champion’s Seals
Swift Moonsaber – 500 gold + 5 Champion’s Seals
Swift Violet Ram – 500 gold + 5 Champion’s Seals
Turbostrider – 500 gold + 5 Champion’s Seals
Great Read Elekk – 500 gold + 5 Champion’s Seals
Argent Warhorse – 100 Champion’s Seals
Darnassian Nightsaber – 100 Champion’s Seals
Exodar Elekk – 100 Champion’s Seals
Gnomeregon Mechanostrider – 100 Champion’s Seals
Ironforge Ram – 100 Champion’s Seals
Quel’dorai Steed – 100 Champion’s Seals
Stormwind Steed – 100 Champion’s Seals
Silver Covenant Hippogryph – 150 Champion’s Seals
Argent Hippogryph – 150 Champion’s Seals

These come from the Argent Tournament dailies area. It will take a while to get to the point where you can collect and purchase these, but you will get a lot of achievements along the way and you can also access more mounts and some pets. If you are starting from scratch there are also a lot of achievements to be had by doing these dailies. These are a classic example of time versus cash. It will only take a couple of days to farm the seals for those needing only 5 and some cash, or you can save money by farming a lot more. I intend to use these to fill out the last mounts I need.

Drake of the West Wind – 200 Tol Barad Commendations
Spectral Steed – 165 Tol Barad Commendations

You get these by doing Tol Barad dailies. You need to be Exalted with Baradin’s Wardens too, but by the time you have that many commendations you will be close if not already there. You can do the base camp dailies once a day, plus the dailies in Tol Barad itself while your faction holds it. You also get three for the weekly Tol Barad win quest. There are three sets of rotating dailies which will be different every time you win Tol Barad so in theory you can do all three sets in a day. You also get commendations for the weekly win Tol Barad quest. I intend to farm one of these.

Darkmoon Dancing Bear – 180 Darkmoon Tokens
Swift Forest Strider – 180 Darkmoon Tokens

Collect tokens by doing the quests at the Darkmoon Faire. You can get up to 145 tokens per Darkmoon Faire so you could do it in three Faire’s but most likely it will take 4. I intend to farm one of these.

Cenarion War Hippogryph – 2000 gold + Exalted with Cenarion Expedition

CE rep isn’t too bad to get. Complete quests in Zangamarsh and Borean Tundra, and run lots of Steamvaults. You can get Coilfang Armament drops to speed it up.

Flameward Hippogryph – The Molton Front Offensive completed

This will take doing dailies for a few weeks, but you will make quite a bit of cash doing these as they are current and the mount is particularly nice looking. You can also get access to some pets and lots of achievements.

Stormpike Battle Charger – 2000 Honor Points + Exalted with Stormpike

Best option for your Honor mounts is to wait for Alterac Valley weekend and farm the lot. You get far more HP for AV than any other weekend. Also do the quests from the AV entrance area to get further Stormpike reputation. Its not too bad and you can farm gear and mounts while you do it. I might skip this. I depends if an AV weekend comes up before I get 100 mounts and what else I am doing that weekend.

Ice Mammoth – 1000 gold + Exalted with Sons of Hodir

Sons of Hodir rep comes from quests and dailies in Storm Peaks. You can also hand in Relics of Ulduar from killing mobs in the Storm Peaks. Finally, and best of all, you can get Sons of Hodir Commendations which give 500 rep for just 16 Justice Points! There are two mounts, but the other one costs 10000 gold! You get an achievement for each mount.

Armored Brown Bear – 750 gold
Golden King – 1500 gold + Guild level 25
Armored Snowy Gryphon – 2000 gold
Red Drake – 2000 gold

These are splash the cash mounts. You could replace these with other mounts and save some gold. There are other more expensive mounts available if you have LOTS of cash. I have the bear and will likely buy the guild mount at least.

Fossilized Raptor – Archaology
Ultramarine Qiraji Battle Tank – Archaeology

The Raptor isn’t that rare. The Battle Tank is very rare. It all depends on how much Archaeology you are willing to do!

Tyrael’s Charger – Annual Pass
Celestial Steed – Blizzard Store
Winged Guardian – Blizzard Store

If you want to part with some cash, these mounts can be yours. The Annual Pass mount actually won’t cost you any extra if you intend to play for the next year anyway.

Swift Lovebird – Love is in the Air (holiday tokens)
Swift Springstrider – Noblegarden (holiday tokens)
Big Love Rocket – Love is in the Air (drop – very rare)
Swift Brewfest Ram – Brewfest (drop – rare)
Great Brewfest Kodo – Brewfest (drop – rare)
Headless Horseman’s Mount – Hallow’s End (drop – very rare)
Violet Proto-Drake – What a Long Strange Trip its Been

These can be used to supplement other mounts if the holiday itself is on. The token based mounts are not hard to get and are very efficient forms of mount collection. The Violet Proto-Drake takes a whole year, but does give you Master riding for free. And a LOT of achievement points.

Red Proto Drake – Glory of the Hero
Ironbound Proto-Drake – Glory of the Ulduar Hero 10
Bloodbathed Frostbrood Vanquisher – Glory of the ICC Hero 10
Icebound Frostbrood Vanquisher – Glory of the ICC Hero 25
Rusted Proto-Drake – Glory of the Uldaur Hero 25
Amani Battle Bear – ZA Timed Run
Black War Bear – For the Alliance!
Corrupted Firehawk – Glory of the Firelands Raider
Drake of the East Wind – Glory of the Cataclysm Raider
Twilight Harbinger – Glory of the Dragon Soul Raider
Volcanic Stone Drake – Glory of the Cataclysm Hero
Dark Phoenix – 3000 gold + Guild Glory of the Cataclysm Raider
Vicious War Steed – Veteran of the Alliance

These mounts come from achievements. Its possible you may have some of these already.

I’m not going to list them all, but there are also the rare mounts. I don’t believe any of these are worth actively farming. With one exception. If you are exalted with The Oracles you may as well farm the Green Proto-Drake which comes from the egg. I say this because even if you never get it, you should get the pets and you can sell duplicate pets to pay for other mounts. Its never going to be a waste of time.

From this list I intend to use:

78. Red Proto-Drake
79. Ironbound Proto-Drake
80. Bloodbathed Frostbrood Vanquisher
81. Green Proto-Drake
82. Violet Proto-Drake
83. Swift Lovebird
84. Swift Springstrider (I will farm this next week)
85. Tyrael’s Charger (I was going to play WoW for a year and pay for D3 so this is a bonus)
86. Fossilised Raptor
87. Armored Brown Bear
88. Flameward Hippogryph
89. Cenarion War Hippogryph
90. Swift Violet Ram
91. Ironforge Ram
92. Darkmoon Dancing Bear
93. Ice Mammoth
94. Drake of the West Wind
95. Swift Moonsaber
96. Swift Grey Steed
97. Turbostrider
98. Great Red Elekk
99. Golden King
100. ???

I haven’t decided what the last mount will be. It depends on how long other things take and what opportunities are available. I might treat myself to a Mekgineer’s Chopper …