An awesome WoW-filled week!

My week of unemployment has suited me well! I have found a new job and start hopefully next week, I have received my study enrolment forms and things are really looking up. I can now relax and enjoy my "unemployment" as a mere two week holiday in between jobs, and make the most of my free time by playing Warcraft with my friends and enjoying the great weather in our pool!

After missing the chance to join our last run of ICC, the lovely Caterpillar over at <Is Out of Mana>  organised a second run. And you know I would never say no to a run through my favourite place in all of Azeroth! And boy am I glad that I did! I've never seen this baby drop, let alone be lucky enough to win it!

Punchdance is very proud to wear such a special ribbon!

Of course, I took my standard bunch of screenshots with Arthas. This one sitting on his lap is my favourite because it is the most creepy

Punchy and Uncle Arthas, happy days.

I still had a level 80 Druid (a second Casadella the Resto-kin) in <Is Out of Mana> from long ago, so I decided to dust her off. I had forgotten how nice it was to be in a social guild! She made it to level 84 before the Alt Bug bit me hard. 

Meet Casadella the II

After always hearing about Neri's love for the Pandaren race, I realised I didn't have a single Panda in my entourage!  I also don't have a Mage so I decided it was finally time to level one. Honestly, I haven't loved the Mage class for levelling. I'm sure it will get much better once I hit the level cap, but for now I am pushing through as Frost. It definitely feels weird not focusing on dot uptime and multi-dotting!

I was very happy to discover that a Pandaren Mage is the last class that <Is Out of Mana> needs to earn the Stay Classy - Classy Pandaren achievement. Neri and I had been levelling together, having a blast and now that we have finally caught up to Disconcur's Warlock, we can now smash through some dungeons as a trio. Boyfriend was interested in reactivating his account for about a half a second, and then went back to "Final No-Pants" Fantasy. Sigh. Can't win 'em all! It's been great to level as a cloth wearer too; so many amazing low level greens for transmog!

Mmmmm transmogged Heirlooms!

Whilst in a dungeon, I was lead by a fantastic Monk Tank and with a combination of that awe (as well as a burning desire for instant queue pops) I also rolled a Monk. I made sure to check the Classy Achievements and the guild was still in need of a Dwarf Monk, for which I was happy to choose. It was my first time in the Dwarf starting area which I highly enjoyed. And besides the trolls that can cross your path within Dungeon Finder, I am loving Monk tanking. Who wouldn't enjoy hurling a keg of beer at an enemy?

It's a tough life being level 21.

Today also marked the start of the Love is in the Air World Event. One of the many I need to finally finish What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been. Can't wait to get my Love Fool title this week!

Awwwww! Warlock true love! Boyfriend and Casa

I normally don't like to be all over the place, and more enjoy focusing in on one character and truly having a main. I seem to have thrown that all out the window this week.

How do you prefer to play? Do you have an Alt Addiction? Or do you stay true to your one and only?

I choose you, Pika- I mean Zhevra!

I was quite happy to log in to this today.

Yay!

But then for the hard part, deciding which reward to choose for participating in the Recruit a Friend program. I knew I definitely wanted a mount and not a pet. But other than that, the next half an hour was spent on Wowhead comparing the mounts and staring at my screen.

I love this change to the Recruit a Friend program. 

I eventually decided to go ahead with the Zhevra. So cool! I am now 59/100 for the Mountain o' Mounts achievement too!

I'll never complain about queue times again!

My priest Casarah on Blackrock finally hit 90 today. She was my PVP God in Cata and had barely been touched, so I figured it was her turn to join the big kids. My other level 90s had been working hard to collect Timeless Isle Cloth Gear for her, so I was happy to finally be able to put them to use!

DING!

Decked out in almost a full set, I was brave and flew over to the Timeless Isle. And then proceeded to get camped by a rogue. I had forgotten how different it was to play on a PVP server! I know getting smushed by the rival faction is all a part of the game, but boy does it frustrate me now after being spoilt on safe old Saurfang.

Thanks, Captain Obvious.

After getting cranky, I flicked over to Runetotem and logged on to level 80 Casadella. Trying to be a multitasking genius, I planned to do the following. Level and farm herbs and level Alchemy at the same time, both from zero. Fight Pet Battles in each herb farming zone. All whilst being queued for level-appropriate dungeons that I still needed achievements for. Pretty good idea, right? Plenty of fun whilst waiting for the queue to pop! The queue will pop in no time with me having so much other stuff going on, right?

Right?!?

RIGHT?!?!

Two hours and 40 minutes later I had only acquired a single DPS. 

Now in fairness, I am queuing on a low population server. And not only am I queuing for a level 80 Wrath dungeon (which you still get XP for, but when you can queue for Cata instances at the same level for far better gear?...) I am queueing for the most widely hated Wrath instance. You know the one. The one where you would see the load screen and you wouldn't even wait for it to finish loading to leave group. You would just ALT+F4 on WoW and walk away.

Remember me? My name is Oculus and I am a jerk!

It was a smart idea in theory, my multi-tasking plan. I just didn't think everything through first.

How do you beat the boredom of waiting in queues?

Jumping Jellybeans, it's already January!

I haven't had much game time at all due to an interstate Christmas holiday and being bedridden with the latest virus going around. I have, however managed to make some progress on my Warcraft goals.

- Save up 50k Timeless Coins to purchase Yu'lon's Bite (or score an upgrade in LFR) Currently at 20,210. 23,052 Still haven't spent much effort on this one
- Explore Pandaria - A nice easy one... that's now done!
- Zen Master Archaeologist - One profession I just haven't ever levelled...  until now 600/600
- Finally finish What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been this forthcoming year. Fool For Love is next up, so I have until February to prepare myself.
Newly added...
- Get Enchanting (currently 105/600) and tailoring (currently 186/600) to max by farming all the mats I need. No AH shortcuts
- Gear my druid up in a full resto set
- Experience Brawlers and see if I want to stick with it I finally decided to give Brawler's Guild a try, and it's quite fun! I have defeated the first four bosses, meaning I am now a fresh Brawlers: Rank 2

I do love the sound of the crowd chanting my name ;)

Thanks, Huolon!

I hadn't been purposely camping Huolon for the mount. But I would try to catch him when I could. One morning before work, I snuck in a quick 15 minutes of wow. Imagine how happy I was when this happened?!

And then how I felt when this happened...

So I put my hatred of dailies aside and began my quest to be exalted with the Order of the Cloud Serpent. And found they were actually quite enjoyable.

Thanks to the Celebration Package, and the Grand Commendation, I hit Exalted in a mere 7 days.

Now don't get me wrong, I am stoked I can ride around on my giant electrified dragon, but I remember the times when grinding a reputation took weeks that seemed to never end.

Rawr! 

It felt great to have another goal to work towards, and I feel a little empty now that its completed already. So I took the advice of my trusty friend, Disconcur and am starting a new goal list.

- Upgrade Cloudscorcher Greatstaff through running Siege of Orgrimmar LFR each week

- Save up 50k Timeless Coins to purchase Yu'lon's Bite (or score an upgrade in LFR)

- Finally finish What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been this forthcoming year. Fool for Love is next up, so I have until February to prepare myself. 

- Explore Pandaria - A nice easy one

- Max Level Archeology - One profession I just haven't ever levelled

And more to come soon! 

What's this? TRAITOR!!

I have done the unthinkable...

Counterspy Casadella, and a trip down memory lane

After playing World of Warcraft for over four years, sometimes it can be hard to remember to enjoy the game and not get caught up in the grind. It's also hard to stay interested with large gaps in between expansions.You could dabble in a different spec on your main character? This can be a great change especially if you've been playing a hybrid DPS for a few patches. Why not try out healing? Need a change of scenery from the same annoying people on your realm, try rolling on a new server? You could even use the Character Transfer Service if you wanted to avoid the level grind in your new home.  Roll a new class altogether and even choose a race different to what you normally pick?

If you are like me though, and have the attention span of a toddler, your log in screens can start to look like this!

These are just my two main servers, and not counting how many characters have been deleted over the years

My very first wow experience was back in Vanilla where I rolled a Human Warrior that I called Aprista. I got her to level 20 and decided all I wanted was a pony mount. After finding out that my dreams of riding with the wind in my hair were another huge 20 levels away, and also having no other real life gaming friends in the city I lived in, I gave up.

And then in August 2009, Neri along with some other friends convinced me to reinstall with a 10 day free game card and I was hooked. My character was a Draenei Hunter named Lluviana and her cat Tonka (along with a spirit polearm because I honestly thought that because I had Arcane Shot, I needed it...). It took me a few months to get to 80, and it was then that my friends decided that we would all leave underpopulated Runetotem and move over to Blackrock to have a decent chance at raiding. This meant also becoming traitorous Horde. 

Goodbye, Lluviana the Draenei

And I have been a Blackrock Horde Hero ever since. Until now... 

I'm on YOUR side, I swear

The change has been a great breath of life into my gameplay. How exciting to get to learn a new capital city layout! New races to play! And more importantly, so many new hairstyles to choose from! 

My second character ever was a Warlock named Ameliana. She was level 11 when our guild made the decision to move over to Blackrock. My friends thought I was crazy to pay for a server AND faction change on a level 11, but as I had limited play time due to my demanding job and Ameliana had the biggest bags available, I felt it was well worth the money. Imagine my sadness when the name was already taken on the new server. That was the day Ameliana became Punchdance. 

The only screen cap I have of my her, trading items with my fellow guildie, right before the big move!

The highest my warlock ever got was level 40. And that's where she stayed while my alts levelled to 80 and 85 all around her. Earlier this year, I decided to dust her off and get her to 90. It was a long, intermittent process, and by the time she was 5 bars off 90 I had lost interest again. It was one drunken evening with my bestie Neri, that we decided that going back to Alliance roots on a new server might be the spark we were missing. 

And so the original Ameliana, now Punchdance, is back where she started as an Alliance Gnome, this time on Saurfang.  

It's been fun gearing up, and running around Timeless Isle killing things with my friends. Far more enjoyable than the dailies grind that was the beginning of this expansion. Along with FlexiRaiding, returning to the raiding scene has never been easier or more tempting! For the time being, my closest friends and I are in our own guild we created called Merciless Murlocs. Who knows what the future holds? Will we see the return of a Neri and Casa Guild Master combo for a raiding guild? 

Will we be recruiting in the future? Watch this space!

So with my passion for the game back, how perfect that this weekend was Blizzcon. I'm not even going to begin listing the super excitingly awesome things Blizzard have in store for us over the next couple of years. I cannot wait for Warlords of Draenor to hit!.. And Hearthstone... And Heroes of the Storm... And the Warcraft Movie

Moving House!

Havent had much time for anything this past week, however we did secure our new house! Huzzah!
I have also made huge progress on the Crazy for Cats Achieve :D

Cat, Silver Tabby Cat, Bombay Cat, Cornish Cat, Siamese Cat, Sapphire Cub, Snow Cub, Winterspring Cub, Cheetah Cub, Darkmoon Cub, Nightsabre Cub, Panther Cub, Black Tabby Cat, Fluxfire Feline and White Kitten were all acquired today :) A great effort!!

Crazy For Cats (PTR, hopefully coming in 5.4!)

• Feline Familiar - Bring on Hallow's End!
• Guardian Cub - Petstore has been crashing, will have to wait for this guy
• Mr. Bigglesworth - Raiding with Leashes is over halfway done!
• Sand Kitten - Can burn in a fire, still trying to track this badboy down in Tanaris

• Xu-Fu, Cub of Xuen - 30x level 25 pets? Not happening...
• Spectral Tiger Cub - Not happening, for a casual $900 for the TGC card off eBay!!
• Spectral Cub - Battle.net championships 2012, again, this one isn't happening

WoW Achievements in Progress - Maintenance Edition

Boyfie (whom shall be referred to by his original main Saeka) has been lovely and rolled a new shaman on my new server so that we can level together (and he is too cheap to pay for a server transfer) I wonder if this shaman will grow up to be a loot money like his old one! 

The past two days of work have been a blur; incredibly busy and overwhelming. Not to mention we're in the process of trying to secure a new house to rent on a very strict schedule! So after finally eating my first meal of the day at 7.30pm, Saeka soothes and suggests playing some WoW together to cheer me up. 

And then....

Queue nervous breakdown. Do you ever have those days where just a few 'Pewpews!' would give you a release? 

I decided to instead list out the achieves I have been lazily working on. If I write out my goals, I am more likely to achieve them, yes?

Raiding with Leashes

• Giant Bone Spider - Naxxramas (from Maexxna)
• Harbinger of Flame - Molten Core (from Sulfuron Harbinger)
• Death Talon Whelpguard - Blackwing Lair (from Broodlord Lashlayer)
• Chrominius - Blackwing Lair (from Chromaggus)
• Viscidus Globule - Temple of Ahn'Qiraj (from Viscidus)

Raiding with Leashes II

• Lil' Bad Wolf - Karazhan (from Big Bad Wolf)
• Menagerie Custodian - Karazhan (from The Curator)
• Fiendish Imp - Karazhan (from Terestian Illhoof)
• Netherspace Abyssal - Karazhan (from Prince Malchezaar)
• Tideskipper - Serpentshrine Cavern (from Morogrim Tidewalker)
• Coilfang Stalker - Serpentshrine Cavern (from Lady Vashj)
• Phoenix Hawk Hatchling - Tempest Keep:The Eye (from Al'ar)
• Lesser Voidcaller - Tempest Keep:The Eye (from High Astromancer Solarian)

Crazy For Cats (PTR, hopefully coming in 5.4!)

• Black Tabby Cat
• Cheetah Cub
• Cornish Rex Cat
• Feline Familiar
• Guardian Cub
• Nightsaber Cub
• Panther Cub
• Sapphire Cub
• Silver Tabby Cat
• Spectral Cub
• White Kitten
• Xu-Fu, Cub of Xuen
• Bombay Cat
• Cat
• Darkmoon Cub
• Fluxfire Feline 
• Mr. Bigglesworth
• Sand Kitten
• Siamese Cat
• Snow Cub
• Spectral Tiger Cub 
• Winterspring Cub

Giving Pandaria a second (third?) chance

After swearing I had retired for life, Casadella looks to once again be heading back in the raiding ring. 

Having barely done a dungeon, let alone a Heroic or LFR in Mists of Pandaria, this might seem like I am biting off more than I can chew. However with the introduction of Flexible Raids coming in patch 5.4, combined with a fresh start on a new server in a wonderful new guild and my now stable NBN internet connection, I have the World (of Warcraft) at my feet!

Issue one: I have an incredibly low tolerance to rude and inconsiderate keyboard warriors. They do as they please in a dungeon run and thanks to the server pools, have no consequence for being a jerk and then can just queue up for another random. Solution: Harden up and /ignore!

Even the NPCs can get cranky!

Issue two: Raiding four times a week used to be no issue with my previous job IRL. As a manager of a small business, I had complete control of my own roster and could simply call in another employee if I had a big night of raiding and needed to catch up on sleep. Now that I have embarked in a new direction in the travel industry, I have to quite often travel to destinations with limited Internet access. Sometimes for extended periods of time with little notice. Solution: Flexible Raiding in 5.4. Why did you not do this years ago, Blizz? Loving it!

This boat looks about as safe as the one I was on last week in Bangkok.

Issue three: Being an indecisive person with the attention span of a small child, a Hybrid has always been the perfect class for me-I can change roles whenever I want. And the worst-I can change roles wheneverrrr I want... I have always raided and done PVP as a Moonkin, and even after dabbling in Kitty and Bear, in the end it's always back to the Owlchicken. This week however, has seen me complete my first Pandaria LFR bosses (12 in a row!) as a Resto Druid. This was my first time healing as a Druid and even without knowing the boss strategies, I lived to tell the tale. And I enjoyed myself. To Resto or to Moonkin? Solution: I don't have the answer to this one. I don't think I ever will. 

#HybridClassFirstWorldProblems