Archive for the ‘Events’ Category

Today I got my first holiday meta-achievement, Noble Gardener. I finally found someone in the Elegant Dress and got my last achievement I needed. While I’ll never come close to getting a Violet Proto-Drake for the year-long meta, this was fun.

I just spent three and half hours playing WoW, and still didn’t accomplish what I set out to do. My goal was to complete the Noblegarden meta, but I came up one Blushing Bride short. I thought that Dressed for the Occasion was needed for the meta, so I spent two-plus hours farming eggs around Kharanos, outside Ironforge. When I finally figured out it wasn’t needed, I’d gotten 275 chocolates, two white tux shirts, a pair of black tux pants, three spring circlets, four spring flowers, three blossoming branches and five spring robes, but zero elegant dresses. I had found my spring rabbit’s foot earlier, so I got that achievement, and I met some random dwarf priest out in Un’Goro Crater and we helped each other get hard boiled.

I then wandered back into Dalaran, and opted to go to Wintergrasp and see about maybe joining a Vault of Archavon raid. I didn’t, but while I was sitting peacefully in Wintergrasp Fortress’ inner sanctum, I was jumped by an Orc warrior. He got me pretty beat up, but I got to the transporter and  escaped outside the inner room to heal. I buffed myself up and then headed back in to face him one-on-one in a fair match. He was pounding on an AFK dwarven hunter, so I hit him with Hammer of Justice and promptly beat him down. Yes! The dwarf gave me a high five as he got back to his keys while I was finishing the Orc. With healing spells, a good stun, and strong melee powers (plus the ever-popular bubble), some days it’s good to be a paladin.

The Fourth of July may have already passed, but I took time out tonight to go see fireworks. At four in the morning. lol Of course, I was playing WoW, and the show I saw was in Stormwind.

It was a nice show. Lots of color, flash and noise.  Oh, and people. Lots of people. People from all walks of WoW were there. Alliance folk, anyway. One interesting sight was Cheradora and her little pet paladin.

Yup, that’s me. She hit me with Baby Spice, and poof – I’m a mini-pally. She then petted me. Let me repeat that: she… petted… me! Oh well. I took out my Toasting Goblet and toasted to her. Her buddy, Thezrah, cheered for both me and my cat I had out, so I toasted to her, too. Why not? It was a holiday.

I was actually in Dalaran until about a minute to the hour, fishing in Dalaran’s fountain. I fished up Aduin Wrynn’s gold coin, of all things while there. I want to know what happens if I throw it back into the fountain. I know I lose it, but is there a buff for that, or is it just a sentimental thing? I’ll have to try it and find out.

Anyway, happy late Fourth of July, everyone.

It’s Midsummer Festival time, and I’m downtrodden. I loved this festival last year, but I’m just not getting up for it again this year for whatever reason. I – as Gav, of course – have however had a couple of interesting events occur in correlation with the occasion.

One quest, Unusual Activity, took me to Zoram Stand in Ashenvale, near Blackfathom Deeps. I’d never run the dungeon before, so I saw no reason not to run in and kill Aku’mai while I was there. No problems encountered, and I completed that particular Midsummer Festival mini-questline to boot.

I also hung around in Stormwind for about an hour last night, protecting our fire. I helped kill an Orc death knight, a Tauren warrior, and – most interestingly – a Blood Elf paladin. This paladin was being chased through the canals by a Dwarven hunter, but the hunter couldn’t finish him, mostly because of us pally’s legendary survivability. I joined in and chased him through the canals until he hit a dead end between the trade district and Old Town, where I cornered him and killed him. I got some congrats for my perseverance, and another human paladin and I grouped to hunt down hordies in the city. We found none, but it was good to make a sweep in case.

Am I being corrupted by PvP, or was this just an act of justice, with me doing my duty as part of the Alliance? I’m not sure. Maybe both.

It’s time for the Noblegarden holiday in WoW, and I was going to pass it up. After all, I’d toyed with it on the PTR, so why rehash my work? Well, one of my guildies was doing the egg hunt and listening to him on guild chat got me started on it again. I got the first quests done in a heartbeat, and I’m now a Chocolate Lover and halfway to being a Chocoholic, and I got part of the Shake Your Bunny-Maker achievement by hitting the alliance race chicks in Kharonos. Well, all but the human chick but I figured I could get that one at any time. lol I guess I got lured back into the holiday, huh?

Oh, BTW… anyone want roast rabbit? I cooked some myself.

Burn, bunny, burn!

On the PTR, Blizzard has taken two of the more rare engineering schematics, Li’l Smokey and Pet Bombling, and made them drops in Gnomeregan. I recently did a quick back-door run via the workshop door and nabbed both, proving they’re easy grabs. They are Bind on Pickup, though, so you can’t sell ‘em at the Auction House. In other PTR news, Blizzard is testing the Noblegarden event, so I took some time to hunt eggs. Can you guess what happened?

Yeah, I got bunny-ized. One of the eggs hit me with a spell, turning me into a little pink and blue bunny. It makes me think that Fargo (formerly of Gamespy) missed the boat on Rok’tar’s pet ‘warrior bunny,’ Bun’kar. Imagine Cherri if Bun’kar had looked like this! lol

Anyway, I completed the two quests I was handed, and ran laps around some level two gnome warrior chick, likely dazzling her with my brilliant display of color. All in all, it wasn’t a bad thing, turning into a bunny. It was kind of cute and gave me a unique perspective on the world.

Just don’t ask the the whole ‘egg laying’ issue… I don’t want to talk about it.

WTF, indeed.

Winter’s Vale is here, and it’s a pain in the you-know-what (almost as much as the real holiday). I couldn’t even see the goblin merchant in Ironforge due to the crowd of people around him, and I came by at four different times today.Hopefully it’ll die down soon, but knowing how the real holiday season works, I don’t have my hopes up.

In other Winter’s Vale news, I saved Metzen in Tanaris and killed the Greench. Yay. Big whoop. Metzen was no problem, but the damned Greench was a PITA to slay, mostly because of the two dozen players in the area who wanted a piece of him. It took me half an hour or more to kill this sissy because of his random spawn locations, other players and my dire lack of projectile attacks to tag him with. Gav finally got lucky and killed the coot, and y’know what I got? A crappy tailoring pattern, that’s what. I wanted the engineering schematics, but nooo. Figures.

I also did the quest to get cookies and milk for Greatfather Christmas, but whereas the quest tips I got said to go to Redridge for the small eggs, I skipped that and went to Westfall instead. I much prefer Westfall, and with most players following tips online (many of which point to Redridge), I got almost free reign over the Fleshrippers and their eggs, enabling me to complete the quest in around ten minutes, flight time included . A word to the stupid (I would say wise, but this is common sense): don’t buy your small eggs on the auction house. The prices are freaking outrageous. 3-5 gold per egg, when you can slay the birds and get them for free? Please. It costs a fraction of the price of one egg to fly to Westfall from Ironforge and back. Just do everyone a favor and don’t feed the auction house vultures.

Leaving Winter’s Vale aside, Gav got his first socketed piece of equipment, which I’ve packed with a Bold Bloodstone, an Etched Huge Citrine, and a Jagged Dark Jade. I’ve also picked up the Expedition Flare, in case of an emergency in Zangarmarsh.  So far I’ve not needed it, and I hope not to need it, but it was a cheap safety precaution.

That’s all for now, but not likely the last you’ll hear from me on the holiday season.

I personally had been chased out of WoW for a couple days by the Scourge Invasion that took place over the last week. Thankfully that’s over, so I can get back to business as usual. In this case, it involved completing a few more Hallows End achievements. What transpired has me in a fairly good mood.

I finished up the Tricks and Treats of the Eastern Kingdoms before the invasion started, and had a leg up on it’s western equivalent, Tricks and Treats of Kalimdor before I took the time off. During my tricking and treating across Kalimdor, I got the female Troll mask and the female Undead mask, which satisfied me more then a penny pouch. When I hit up the last candy bucket on my itinerary, on Bloodmyst Isle, I stopped by the innkeeper to trick-or-treat, and what do you think I got? If you voted ‘penny pouch,’ you’re thankfully wrong. No, I got the Sinister Squashling! I actually got something nice out of this whole ordeal, which makes me very, very happy. It sits right next to my Mechanical Squirrel and Wolpertinger in my inventory now. I figured I’d never see one, but I scored for once.

Hallows End isn’t that bad, after all.

It’s Hallows End in World of Warcraft now, and I’ve been taking in what I can. Here’s my take so far.

• The Shade of the Headless Horseman who attacks low-level villages isn’t particularly tough to deal with, if you’ve got a dedicated group of players. I’ve passed through Kharnos in Dun Morogh three times during his attacks, and not once have I seen him beaten back. However, I’ve helped hold him off four times in Goldshire. I must say though, that whoever does his voice needs commended. He’s spot-on perfect and great fun to listen to. Listen to THIS CLIP to see what I mean.
• I must, however, complain about the rewards for the Shade of the Horseman event. As I said, I’ve done it three times and I’ve gotten candy, Weighted Jack-o-Lanterns, and – the stupidest thing I’ve yet seen in WoW – a Penny Pouch. Yes, that’s a 1-slot bag. I wanted a flimsy mask or maybe even one of those cheesy broom mounts, but no, I get this stupid sack. Rip off!
• So far, I’ve nabbed possibly the three easiest achievements available: Trick or Treat, Savior of Hallow’s End and That Sparkling Smile. I’ve also completed the Hallow’s End Treats for Jesper quest, which involved clucking, flexing, dancing and impersonating a train for various people around Azeroth for candy.
• Hallow’s End Pumpkin Treats are fun, what with their random shape changing effects. I’ve gotten the pirate appearance, the big-and-orange one, the skeleton one, and the floating ghost one. The ghost one looks cool, but ultimately has it’s drawbacks. I got stuck in the Stormwind Auction House because of it! Seriously, I couldn’t fit back out the door, so eat Pumpkin Treats with care.

In less Hallow’s End related news, my goal of getting Gavelier to level 55 prior to Wrath of the Lich King has been reached: I dinged 55 last night. Death Knight, here I come!