Seriously – this pilgrim holiday thing is the fastest and cheapest you’ll ever get a toon’s cooking to 300+.  Even if you hate cooking – you should seriously give it a try.  In about a half an hour I put 2-3 of my best loved alts up to 300+ cooking for negligible cost and minimal effort.

There’s a part of me that is kinda burnt up about all the time and effort that went into getting Rain’s cooking to max – but that burn is being overwhelmed by the smell of all the great things my alts are cooking up.

A guide?  Seriously?  Just go buy the cookbook from the pilgrim vendor and start making stuff.  That’s all there is to it!

I took a level 26 alt with a “1″ in cooking to 300+ in no time.  The longest part of the entire process was traveling to the different cities to pick up up the location specfic mats from the pilgrim vendors.  If you have a mage friend – you can even avoid that!

So get to cooking!

Caught this this the other day from a Russian gaming site (don’t ask) – surprised the daylights out of me.  Not sure how Stone Guard Tigerclaw feels about it:

If you have Arena points, you should spend them on something epic! Among the possible rewards, the most exciting will be the return of the classic honor titles like Grand Marshal or Knight Lieutenant. Players will also be able to earn epic ground mounts and vanity items such astabards and pets in addition to helping their guild acquire levels and achievements.

I have to say – using your arena points for in game goodies isn’t a bad thing.  What gets me is that the titles are part of it.  There’s a great deal of good sense in this when I think about it – but the old school WoW guy in me cringed….

Just a little…

The guys over at OutDPS have a pretty great interview of Kripparrian on their latest podcast.  I recommend anyone that is of a hunterly mindset to take a listen.

Kripparrian for those of you that don’t know (as I surely didn’t) – puts out more dps than any two hunters you know.  He’s scored the arena gladiator title multiple times and he has more money than all of  your toons combined have ever even dreamed of.  In short – as Euripides claims during the interview – Kripparrian has “won wow”.

But once you get over his ridonkulous dps (in the high 9k territory in many fights) and his incredible cosmic wealth – there’s a great deal to learn and potentially apply to your own game play.

I’m not going to retell a good story so I’ll just send you off to OutDPS for the podcast.  Once you’re done there – take a look at Kripparrian’s YouTube channel.  He’s posted high quality videos of everything from his guilds 25 man heroic take downs of different bosses to how to succeed in the jewelcrafting market of your server.  The videos are well done – very clear – and very useful.  I’m a visual guy – I learn best through a combination of doing and watching others – so these videos are excellent.

Just by following how Kripp’ manages his shot cool downs – when he uses volley and some of his very smooth – very accurate uses of disengage have me looking forward to the next time I’m able to raid.  I can’t wait to take what I’ve learned and start applying it.

Ran across this on the official forums in a QQ thread about how bad the random loot is in 5 man Heroic ToC.  I made a couple of slight adjustments to reflect reality as I know it:

Krym’s Rules of Loot Droppage

Rule 1:

If you need it, it won’t drop.

Rule 2:

When it drops, you won’t need it.

Rule 3:

If it drops, and you need it, you won’t win it.

Rule 4:

If it drops, and you need it, some Death Knight will need it too and win it…

Rule 5:

If it drops, and you need it, and you win it, and you get it, then please see rule Rule 1 for whatever else you need.

—

Rain’ had terrible luck in the 5 man trial.  In all the runs she’s made – not one time did Marrowstrike (or anything else vaguely useful) ever drop.  Thank goodness for a good guild and ToC-10.  That place has been a blessing.  It’s not that hard – the loot is excellent and best of all?

No jousting.

This is a service announcement more than anything else – as I just don’t have time to write more.

The subject: Faction Changing – then Faction Changing *back* to where you started.

Just what happens?

First off – you’re out $30 – again.

Second – things look pretty much like they did before the change – only better.

I fully expected – nay – had *resigned* myself to having to grind my Crusader title back for the 3rd time.  But upon “waking up” in Thunderbluff and taking a quick assessment of things…it was all there.  My Crusader title – all of my previous achievements from the trial of the champions – all of it.

Whew.

I’d even broken the 1500 quest achievement thanks to the fact that it appears that when they faction changed me back – they simply rolled me back to where I was – and added in everything non faction specific I had completed while exploring the lands of Azeroth on the “pretty” side.

So wow – yeah.  What a relief.

Why did I change back?  Did I come to my senses and realize the Alliance were a bunch of noob-kids?  Hardly.  As usual – I found the folks I met to be pretty much just like the ones on the Horde side.  The crew at Veritas are some of the best I’ve met in game and remind me a lot of the folks I know on Twisting Nether in the guild Forge.  All good people – great players – regardless of faction.

No in this case – I have multiple jobs (civilian and military) – and one of them is getting ready to start taking up a bit more of my time.  Nothing dramatic – no year long vacation to the sand or anything.  Just busy.   I let my guild leader know that I was probably not going to be about a great deal and that I was going to pull Rain’ out until things settled down.  Being a former Infantry guy himself – he understood and sent me on my way with a dwarven blessing and a fine mug of seasonal ale.

Rain’ going back to the Horde side was simply an act of comfort.  I’m comfortable there – I miss it – and with me in and out of the game I want my kids to be able to play on my account.  What I don’t need is one of them doing something unintentionally bone headed and having the guild take the heat for it.  Plus – Rain’ can give them money and heirloom items for their army of alts and my evil spawn prefer the horde for whatever it’s worth.

Anyway – back to the grindstone here – safe travels!

Well – Blizzard has a Real Money Transaction (RMT) Pet Store.  So we all know where we’re getting our Pandaren Monks now.  Personally, I think this is harmless, though to hear some forum goers and WoW.com responders you’d think Blizzard had sent thugs to their homes who are going to force them to buy these pets.

Worse – there are an unrealistic and ridiculous group that are even bashing Blizzards choice to send 50% of the purchase price of a Pandaren Monk (through December 31st)  to the Make a Wish Foundation.  Some seem to think 50% isn’t enough – others think that the December 31st caveat is misleading and evil.

People – there are 11 million odd players of this game.  If only 4-5% of them shell out $10 for a silly non-combat pet – do you have any idea how much money is headed to that charity?  It’s hefty and it can only help.  Now reality says that actual buy in may be smaller – but we’re still talking about a phenomenal donation.

There’s another piece to this as well.  That money Blizzard is making – it goes to keep the infrastructure up – the utility bills paid – and real life people paid – people who have families and bills and mortgages and WoW subscriptions.

It’s not like Blizzard just piles all this cash up and swims in it or something.

…

Okay – maybe they do – but that’s beyond the point  The *point* in my mind is that Blizzard is a business – not a charity – and they have a great game that a lot of us really enjoy.  I personally don’t feel like I’m being taken advantage of.  The amount of money I’ve spent on WoW and my subscription is constantly paid back in terms of the fun I have – the people I meet – and the rather frequent moments of wonder that I still experience in game.

So $10 for a mini-version of Kel’Thuzad?  I can take that or leave it.  No one’s forcing me to buy these things – no one is going to close my account and ban my access for not jumping on the RMT wagon.  So what’s the harm?

Race Change is available and that’s cool.  It’s a teensy bit cheaper than Faction Change and the cool down is an incredibly reasonable three days.

Neat.

Oh…what’s this?  They dropped the faction change cool down to three days as well…

Three days.

I’d expected Rainchaser to give up her night elf trappings once the original 60 day cool down was complete – wrapping her cross faction adventures up with a relieved sigh and quick trip to Thunderbluff to sit and stare across the grand mesas that have been her home for so long.

Yet here I sit – credit card in hand and my heart torn by indecision.

Let’s get this first part straight – I’m not comfortable in Night Elf skin.  I’m just not.  While my very first toon on my very first server on the very first day I logged in to WoW was a male night elf hunter, I have spent so much time wrapped in that body and immersed in that lore that I’m just not happy with it anymore.  As strange as it may sound, the whole problem of not liking who I’m looking at is making it more difficult for me to commit to some of my long term goals for Rain’ such as knocking out her Seeker title or chasing down some of the good old-world achievements before they go away.

So – based on that – it should be easy for me to swipe the credit card and spend a happy afternoon on wolf back enjoying the sunset over Ratchet and an evening of watching the lightning bugs as they dance over the pond in Thunderbluff – right?

Not so much.

Why?

Because I really, really like my Alliance guild.  A lot.  They’re a great group of folks – predominately my age and blessed with a reasonable and successful raid schedule.  I’ve seen a ton of content with them in the past 60 days and can only expect things to get better.

So, how can I leave that?  While I love my Horde friends and my old Horde guild (and still hang with them frequently) we all come from completely different worlds and a reasonable raid schedule just doesn’t seem to exist.  I’m sure there are Horde guilds that mirror what I’ve found on the Alliance side – I just haven’t come across them yet – and honestly don’t know if I want to try looking again.  Stumbling across <Veritas> was a happy accident that has brought me only good things.  Why jack with that?

So – I’ve decided that I’m not going to.  Jack with a good thing that is.  At least not for now.  I expected to be in place at least through the regular cooldown (up for Rain’ in early November) and I’m going to commit to that.  What I *might* do though – is try on a different skin.

With a measly three day cool down you can truly swap faces/races and names until your bank account cries for mercy.  What might life be like for Rainchaser in the body of a crusty, black bearded, red blooded dwarf?

Some of this is probably moot.  There’s nothing saying I can’t simply send Rain’ back to the Horde and bring one of my alts over to the Alliance side to spend time with with <Veritas>.  The swap would be incidental to the guild as a whole as they’re well balanced (though somewhat melee heavy – a normal state of affairs for most guilds it seems).  The only thing it would impact is my raiding and my pocket book.

Which might be enough in and of itself.

Like a lot of folks I’ve been feeling a little beat up in WoW lately.  I don’t get to raid much and my PvP outings (since the faction change) have been less than stellar.  A combination of crappy teammates and an overall dissatisfaction with seeing my lovely Tauren huntress wrapped up in Night Elf skin has just exacerbated everything to the point that I can’t stand entering Arathi Basin without AFKing out after 5 minutes or so.

It’s obvious that burn out is starting to set in.  It was likely burnout that lead me to faction change in the first place.  So with no raids on the schedule for a bit and Marrowstrike still refusing to drop for me in h-ToC ,I took some time out from Rainchaser and contemplated how to spend the evening without disengages and explosive shots to fill the quiet.

On a whim – I rolled an Alliance Death Knight over on Twisting Nether – my old RP-PvP server.  Now, I’ve never managed to do much with a DK – never could finish the starting area quests – they were just – distasteful to me.  When I play the game – I play to be a “good guy” – I want to help people – save people – not slaughter the innocent.  You can laugh – but that’s how I play the game.   Anyway – that all said, I didn’t expect much when I rolled him up.  I figured I’d lose an hour or less and be back to the fishing daily on Rainchaser.

It didn’t work out quite like that though.

First off – I made a dwarven DK – mainly because I’ve never seen a dwarven DK before.  Human, Tauren, Belf and Night Elf aplenty – but never a dwarf.  There’s probably some min-maxer reason for this that I don’t care about – but there you go.

Anyway – so dwarf – black skin, bald head, blood red beard.  Cool.  I worked my way through the starting area quests trying to pay attention to how the class played.  After some trial and error I figured out the rune system (mostly) and have a basic handle on runic power.  Pissed off and burnt out as a hunter it was a novel experience to run around killing Scarlet Crusade folk as the weird hybrid melee / caster that is the Death Knight class.

It wasn’t bad.  I enjoyed the play and after figuring out the rotations and getting into the story line I burnt through the quests and found myself in the big mash up battle between the death knights and Lights Hope Chapel.

Once it was all said and done I entered Stormwind with a completely different kind of respect for fellow DK’s like Koltira Deathweaver and Thassarian.  They weren’t just adhoc death knight NPC’s anymore but allies with a story and some serious resonance.

But what to do next?  Well, what does any brand new level 58 DK with a load of best in slot gear and no real desire to hit Outlands do?  He hits the battlegrounds.

What came next was probably the most satisfying PvP experience I’ve had in a really long time.  Now granted – the 50-59 PvP bracket is just a tad…silly…it tends to be full of first time death knights and a mix of players trying to BG level.  While DK’s aren’t the face roller class they started out as – they’re still extremely powerful.  Higher level characters with good gear and enchants can go toe to toe with a fresh DK – but unless they’re rogues or ret-Pallies it can be a hard fight.

It’s amazing what a perfect storm of abilities death knights bring to the table. Snares, an incredible gap closer, dots, last stand like abilities, pets.  It’s as if Blizzard decided to take every good idea they had in mind for *other* core classes and packed them all inside the death knight.

After 10 games of Warsong Gulch (all wins I might add) I finally logged off (smiling) with that same glutted, satisfied feeling that my blood worms must have after feasting on a level 52 rogue.

Without realizing it I had already written some simple in game backstory for my dark little face melter and thought about keeping him around for PvP leveling and maybe some rep and trade skill farming.

That surprised me.

I didn’t expect this guy to make it out of the starting area – and now I’m entertaining the thought of having him level in the battlegrounds while completing all the low level quests in Eastern Kingdom so that he can level his mining and work toward the Loremaster achievements?

Really?

While I doubt this will gain any long term traction for me I have to say that I can see why many players simply shelved their long time mains.  Death Knights are fun.  Serious fun.  I wish like hell that my hunter was still this fun.

And that’s probably what bugs me the most.

For those of you that weren’t there…

High Overlord Saurfang yells: I am Saurfang. Brother of Broxigar. You know me to be the Supreme Commander of the Might of Kalimdor. An orc – a true orc warrior – wishes for one thing: To die in the glory of battle against a hated enemy. Some of you have fought in battles. Peace has been with us for many years. Many years we sat idle but many years we battled. In those years – where strife, the land and Legion and Scourge, sacked our homes, killed our families — these insects dwelled beneath us. Beneath our homes — waiting. Waiting to crush the life from our little ones. To slay all in their path. This they do for their god. And for our gods? We defend. We stand. We show that as one. United. We destroy. Their god will fall. To die today, on this field of battle, is to die an orcish death. To die today is to die for our little ones. Our old ones. Our… loved ones. Would any of you deny yourselves such a death? Such an honor?

Saw this in a thread on the forums and remembered hearing it for the first time a long time ago on a server far, far away…(not long before it fell over…..)  Thought I’d share.

Okay – Blizzard released some info on the Icecrown Raid.  It sounds *awesome* – everything that is – but this:

As they continue their ascent, the Alliance and Horde heroes ultimately end up outside of the citadel where their hatred for one another erupts into a battle for dominance over the Rampart of Skulls. Players will join in battle alongside High Overlord Saurfang on the Orgrim’s Hammer gunship or Muradin Bronzebeard on The Skybreaker in a unique encounter. Each faction will protect its gunship and try to destroy the other one in a back-and-forth battle to see who is truly worthy of facing the Lich King.

Really?

While I’m sure the fight will be epic and I’ll enjoy it when I get to do it – from a story point of view I can’t think of anything stupider than two factions that have aligned in the past to try and tear one another apart when they’re at the Lich King’s doorstep.

Seriously – any leader that allows this to happen deserves to die in a fire and *not* be mourned.  Piss – poor – pathetic – pandering bullshit.

Muradin and Saurfang aren’t idiots – why would they let something like this happen?  What value does it provide?  Personally I figure someone just wanted an excuse to do an airship battle (which is cool!) – but not like this.

Maybe there’s a reason buried deeper in the instance but at the moment it just smells bad.