One Head, Two Heads, Red Heads, Dead Heads

The original title of this post was supposed to reference head banging, but more like banging our heads against the brick wall that was Megaera for the past couple weeks, but Lyss offered a different title and I went with a variation of that, lol. More importantly, last night, the hydra finally went down!  Good job SR!

We had to do a bit of shuffling with our raid composition lately, as some guildies had to step out for various reasons.  And with summer already here and peeps wanting to take vacations, I think our raiding and progression might stall a bit.  But we’ve managed to still do well with other guildies filling in.

The raid week started off real good, with a one-shot of all the bosses, including Tortos, Tuesday night.  That gave us plenty of time to work on Megaera on Wednesday.  We tried several different strats and combinations of the fight, each one presenting a different issue.  We used the LFR strat of Green-Red-Green-Red-Green-Red-Green and another variation where we threw a Blue head in at the end, but the damage was too much for our healers and we would only manage to get to the fifth head before wiping.  We then tried a Green-Blue-Red-Green-Blue-Red-Green, but having too many Acid Rains from the Green Heads was blowing us up.

The combination that eventually worked for us was Blue-Red-Green-Blue-Red-Green-Blue.  We found it easier to deal with two of each damage type (Cinders, Torrent of Ice and Acid Rain) and minimizing the amount of Green heads we got, popping lust on the final head for the kill.

We then headed off to play with Ji-Kun for a little bit and surprisingly did quite well.  Our best attempt got the birdie down to 36% before the pools and quills killed us off.  Hopefully we can get her down next week, then we’ll finally be halfway through Throne of Thunder, lol.

Takin’ it to the X-TREME

Last week was a pretty exciting week for the Drak BMAH, as another X-51 Nether-Rocket X-TREME went up for sale.  This is the third time that I’ve seen it up there; the first one Sorak bought and the second I misjudged the time on, forgot to rebid and lost it last minute.  As the auction was nearing its close, the bids starting coming in quick, going from 60K to 90K in a matter of minutes.  I was determined not to lose for a third time and dropped 120K on it, the most I’ve ever spent on any item on the BMAH.  The bids pretty much stopped there, as people started to leave Madame Goya’s little hut.  I even stayed up late to see the auction to its end just to make sure it was mine, lol.

The X-51 Nether-Rocket is the first flying mount ever offered by the WoW TCG.  It comes from the rare loot card of the same name from the fifth set of the TCG, Servants of the Betrayer.  It is one of three loot cards from the set, with the cosmetic items Papa Hummel’s Old-Fashioned Pet Biscuit (which is similar to the Pet Biscuits you can get from the various supply bags from winning pet trainer battles) and Goblin Weather Machine – Prototype 01-B being the other two.

Owning a rocket mount was something I’ve wanted to add to my collection for while now.  I was a little too late on creating a second account to get the X-53 Touring Rocket and the Big Love Rocket is a myth, with its crazy drop rate during the Love is in the Air event.  My Death Knight is still trying to farm motes of harmony to convert to spirits to create the Depleted-Kyparium Rocket and I might have to bribe Lyss to farm for mats on her Rogue so that she could make me the Geosynchronous World Spinner, lol.

I think I’ll stick with this for a while, my gold wallet needs a break. =)

I can fly too, I think….

Five Point Three Pets

Keeping pet collectors/battlers busy, Patch 5.3 introduced 20 new pets into the mix.  These pets can be acquired from old/new raids, pet battles, zone drops or can be bought with in-game/RL currency.  Here are the available pets and some that I have acquired already.

Karazhan

One of my favorite old raids to run, I ran this the first week of patch 5.3 with six different toons and didn’t manage a single pet drop, lol.  I didn’t even get the Big Bad Wolf as the Opera event once.  But I had some generous friends that helped me with a couple of them.

Tyledres, the Lil’ Bad Wolf – from the Big Bad Wolf from the Opera Event.  A surprise gift from Tyledres, I received this pet on the first day of 5.3.  Thanks Ty!

Stormer, the Menagerie Custodian – from the Curator.  I’m a big fan of mechs and was really excited when they made the Sunreaver Micro-Sentry a pet, which Luxy had given to me as a gift back in 5.2.  This pet shares the same color, just a different color scheme.  I named this pet after a Lego Hero Factory toy that I have that looks pretty close to it.

Ermyc, the Netherspace Abyssal - from Prince Malchezaar.  Cymre has been trying to get me a pet that I didn’t have for a long time now, so she finally managed to do that, lol.  The best part of this pet other than the awesome model?  I don’t have to do the Chess Event anymore! Woohoo!  Thanks Cym!

Fiendish Imp - from Terestian Illhoof.  The last pet I need from Kara and I’ll be done with farming for pets in Kara.

Tempest Keep

I’m glad that a pet doesn’t drop from Kael’thas Sunstrider; I haven’t figured out how to solo him on my pally yet and I’m not sure if it’s possible with the stupid mind-controlling that goes on in that fight.  The rest of the bosses aren’t too bad, though.

Meggatron, the Pocket Reaver - from the Void Reaver.  I originally tried to name my Personal World Destroyer Megatron, but Blizz won’t accept that name for a pet, so I named it Galvatron, which is probably better cause he’s more purplish in color.  After acquiring the Pocket Reaver, I still wanted to give him the Decepticon’s leader’s name, so I settled for a different spelling instead.

Phoenix Hawk Hatchling – from Al’ar and Lesser Voidcaller - from High Astromancer Solarian.  Two more pets to go and farming for Tempest Keep pets will be complete.

Serpentshrine Cavern

I’ve only run this raid twice before patch 5.3, once to get the achievement for completing it and the other to fish up The Lurker Below for The Lurker Above achievement.  Now I have a reason to come back, lol.  Soloing Lady Vashj took me long to do, but it definitely can be done, just make sure to kill the Coilfang Elites before they can fear you and kill the Tainted Elementals quick to get their cores to push the Lady into Phase 3.

Andre Teh Giant, the Tideskipper - from Morogrim Tidewalker.  An homage to the late wrestler of WWF (it will always be this acronym to me, it’s what I grew up with and WWE has never sounded right) and the movie The Princess Bride fame.  His epic fights with Hulk Hogan were always the best.

Tainted Waveling - from Hydross the Unstable , Coilfang Stalker - from Lady Vashj.  Just need these two and the Serpentshrine Cavern will be done.

Collecting all the pets from Karazhan, Tempest Keep and Serpentshrine Cavern earns you the achievement, Raiding with Leashes II: Attunement Edition and rewards you another pet, Tito.

Isle of Thunder/Giants

The Isles of Pandaria have two pet drops that can be farmed off certain mobs.  I was lucky enough to find them cheap on the auction house, which saved me from having to make trips out to the Isles.

Cera, the Direhorn Runt - can drop from the Direhorns on the Isle of Giants.  Cera from The Land Before Time movie was the only baby triceratops name I could think of.

Col Mustard, the Filthling -  can drop from the Quivering Filths on the Isle of Thunder.  I honestly don’t know why named the Filthling that, maybe it was the only yellow thing I could think of or I just had the game Clue on the mind, lol.

Throne of Thunder

To keep your Living Sandling, Ji-Kun Hatchling and Son of Animus company, there are more pets to collect from the current raid of MoP, Throne of Thunder.  I haven’t gotten my hands on any of these yet, nor seen them on the auction house, but Zari did get a Pygmy Direhorn on a LFR he recently did.  That would go perfect with the Horridon mount I got, so I could finally reunite the family together, lol.

Pygmy Direhorn – drops from Horridon LFR/Normal/Heroic

Living Fluid - drops from Primordius LFR

Viscous Horror - drops from Primordius Normal/Heroic

Other 5.3 Pets

Stunted Direhorn -  awarded from the Brutal Pet Brawler achievement, which involved winning 250 PvP pet battles through the Find Battle system using a full team of level 25 pets.  I’ve maybe done one battle and didn’t bother with it again.  Looks like this will be a project to work on for another time, lol.

Trizilla, the Gahz’rooki - sold by Ravika, the Darkspear Rebellion Quartermaster, for one Radical Mojo.  I’ve always thought that Gahz’rilla from Zul’Farrak was a cool-looking boss and this pet is a nice memento to have of that instance.  I could have picked one of Godzilla’s enemies, King Ghidorah, to name my ‘rooki, but it has no wings, so I decided on a three-headed name for the rampaging monster.

Blossoming Ancient – a pet soon to be available for purchase from the Blizzard Store.

And last, but definitely not the least, Lenneth, the Unborn Val’kyr – a rare drop that could spawn in different spots all around Northrend.  Probably the most coveted pet among all pet collectors out there, I know it was definitely mine.  It’s the closest thing to getting the winged humanoid, Mini Tyrael, without having to drop some serious cash money, unlike a certain ballin’ Tauren Druid I know =P.  There was a mystery in the beginning in how collectors were going to be able to get their hands on one of these Val’ks, but it turned out to be not so difficult to capture one, unlike the Minfernal.  Many of blogging friends can attest to this, as they were capturing it within the first week of the new patch.

It took me a few days of searching around Northrend, but I finally found her all by her lonesome, in the northwestern edge of Sholozar Basin.  She was of Poor quality, but I had a Battlestone ready to instantly fix that.  The battle almost went horribly wrong when I used my Dancing Water Skimmer to battle her first.  I used Water Jet with the intentions of slowly getting the Val’k's health down low enough for capture when the ability suddenly crit for big damage and almost one-shotted her, lol.  It took two Pristine Traps to capture her and she was finally mine, barely averting disaster.

The name Lenneth comes from one of my favorite games to come out of the original Playstation console, Valkyrie Profile.  Next to Final Fantasy VII, this was one of the best RPGs from beginning to end, imo.

from fanpop.com

I think that last image fits the pet perfectly, don’t you think? =)

So how’s your 5.3 pet collection coming along?  Got any interesting names for any of your pets?

¡Viva la Darkspear Revolución!

***SPOILER ALERT!!!  The following post contains events from Patch 5.3, so read at your own risk!***

“Da Darkspear never gonna give up.”

- Vol’jin

Patch 5.3 hit last week and the time to end Garrosh’s reign as the leader of the Horde and take back Orgrimmar has begun!  The first thing I did Tuesday was to start the new questline, which involved the new scenarios.  With these new scenarios came Heroic versions as well and weren’t too difficult to complete.  Completing your first Heroic scenario of the day can reward you with a ilevel 516 item, which is a nice upgrade from your standard ilevel 502 drops from LFR Throne of Thunder.

The first scenario you’re given by Lorewalker Cho is Blood in the Snow, which is a story told from the Alliance side, so Hordies get to be transformed into the Alliance, similar to the Culling of Stratholme instance.  This scenario was pretty quick, just be careful of the patrolling mobs, they could make your Heroic run messy.

The next scenario you’re given is the Dark Heart of Pandaria, which involves investigating the hole that the Horde dug up in the Vale of the Eternal Blossoms.  The only tricky parts I found here were pulling too many of the Elementals at the beginning and make sure to keep moving on the last boss.

I also noticed this giant Mogu NPC named Norushen at the end of the scenario.  I wonder what role he has in all of this..

Afterwards, Cho sends you to Sen’jin Village to meet with Vol’jin, Chen and Thrall.  Vol’jin plans on taking over Razor Hill, which will act as his staging grounds for the upcoming assault on Orgrimmar.

Once Razor Hill is under control, Cho will send you on a quest in Kun-Lai to help Seer Hao Pham Roo get to the top of Mount Neverest where he gives you information on the final Sha and rewards you with ilevel 502 boots.

Back in Razor Hill, you’re given a weekly quest to gather supplies from certain mobs in the Northern Barrens to assist in the siege of Orgrimmar efforts.  You need to collect 150 supplies of wood, meat, stone and oil and you’re rewarded with 200 Valor points and a Radical Mojo.  The Radical Mojo can be used to purchase a mini hydra pet, Gahz’rooki, a Brawler’s Guild quest or to convert any of the Kor’kron vestments you find in the Barrens to a ilevel 489 armor piece for your spec.  Kinda pointless for your main toon since they should have better, but would definitely help out any alts that might need it.

After completing the weekly quest, you’re rewarded with an achievement.  If you are Horde, you are also granted the title, “Darkspear Revolutionary”.

Sadly, it’s not a sharable title that you can have on your other Horde toons, so you’ll have to complete the questline again if you want it.  I think the title goes great with any Troll, but my hunter is only 86, so he’s got a long way to go, lol.

Completing the questline on the Alliance side grants you the “Hordebreaker” title, which sounds sooo much cooler.  I’ll have to get working on Val so that she can sport that title in true Alliance fashion.

I thought the story progression for 5.3 was done well, albeit short, but it definitely sets us up for what’s to come in the 5.4 raid.  Look out Garrosh, your time as ruler of the Horde is about to come to an end!

Collecting rocks and picking flowers just got easier

I pity the Fool’s Gold!

Sometime soon, the latest 5.3 patch will bring a change to all profession gathers of the rock and flower variety.

From MMO-Champion:

• Miners can now level mining from a low skill level completely in Pandaria. Nodes will yield Ghost Iron Nuggets with the amount being determined by your skill level. You can combine ten nuggets to make one ore.
• Herbalists can now level herbalism from a low skill level completely in Pandaria. Nodes will yield a partial herb with the amount being determined by your skill level. You can combine 10 of the partial herbs to form a complete herb.
• Currently on the PTR, you will sometimes get fragments and the actual herb or ore when gathering near the minimum level for that node type.

This is one change I’m looking forward to.  I have all the professions covered and maxed across my alts on Drak, so any new characters I make, I usually make them Miners/Herbalists.  This also goes for new toons I make on new servers.

My little gobby Warrior, Dizzee, is at level 85, waiting for her turn to experience Pandaria.  She is one of my dual gatherers, with her Herbalism skill at 40 and Mining at 46.  Because I’m spoiled with tank insta-queues, I leveled her as Prot mainly through LFD, so her professions suffered as a result.

The same goes for my pandaren Monk, Siopao.  She’s at 53 Herbalism and 42 Mining and is only level 50,  but with full Heirlooms, the Enlightenment buff and the insta-queues as a Brewmaster tank, she’ll be in Outland and Northrend before I know it, not being able to farm at the appropriate level without having to go back to Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms.

The only downside I see to this change is the supply of the lower level ore and herbs and the Auction House economy.  My toons off Drak that have Mining and Herbalism rely on selling these low-level materials on the AH to provide them cash flow for riding, flying, etc.  The lack of these mats will hurt those leveling Alchemy, Engineering, Blacksmithing, Inscription and Jewelcrafting, especially if they can’t farm for themselves.

We’ll see what happens when the patch comes out.  But for now, I’m excited to catch up on my gathering professions for my alts on Pandaria.