Pre-Legion Bucket List: Update

I forgot to post this back in February.

A Shot in the Arm

As I mentioned in the mount post, chasing mounts is a pretty big motivator for me in terms of content; heck, I did Long Strange Trip on three characters for faster flying prior to the achievement (and mounts) becoming account-wide.  So flying in Draenor?  Well, I just needed to finish three of the apexis areas for Securing Draenor for existing requirements.  But the carrot of flying is going to have me in Tanaan working on the new reputations, for sure.

So what am I looking forward to with flying?

• Leveling my druid.  I love flying on my druid, and taking her to Spires of Arak, after all the druid flight quests in Outland?  That's going to be pretty cool.  Anzu used to be part of the quest to get epic flying on druids.
• Flying around in my Sky Golem.  Maybe I'll farm herbs on my death knight; maybe I'll just track down all the followers she missed while leveling.  I don't know, but I'm gonna enjoy flying around in my green goblin iron man suit doing it.
• Archaeology!  It's going to be so much less painful to farm for unfinished rare relics.
• Pet battle dailies!  There are a few pets I only have lower quality ones too.
• Maybe farming?  I used to swap over to farming ore, or fishing, when I had bad brain days and wanted something mindless today.  In Burning Crusade it was Nagrand; Sholazar in Northrend; Uldum or Deepholm in Cataclysm;  Vale of Eternal Blossoms in Pandaria.  I need a lot of lunkers for Nat Pagle still...

In the meantime?  I finished Grand Treasure Hunter back in November, but I'm going to try to get them all before the patch drops.

Favorite mounts

I just did favorite followers, and I think I ended up with seven out of seventy-three.  When I was drafting  posts I apparently thought limiting myself to five mounts was a good idea.

Five was not a good idea.  I have two hundred sixty-two mounts in my log, not including warlock, paladin, or death knight mounts.  But I think I've got it down to seven, including only mounts I actually have.  (One day, Emerald Drake.  One day.)

#7 - Dark Riding Talbuk

Way back in the Burning Crusade, when mounts we no longer items you had to keep in your inventory, I started... acquiring.  Mounts drove my reputation grinds - Netherwing, Sha'tari Skyguard, the Mag'har.

And then there was Halaa.  I was one of those people who got the first mount, and then... sat on languishing research tokens while vainly trying to acquire battle tokens in later expansions.  But I had the first one!

#6 - Azure Drake

So when the Emerald Drake was announced, I started farming Malygos for the two blue ones he drops.  The Blue Drake isn't anything terribly special, but the Azure Drake?  The Azure Drake is covered in arcane symbols and a variety of blues.  This is a mage's mount, for sure.

 #5 - Sea Turtle

This is the mount you get from fishing, originally in Northrend, but over time it got added to the new waters, as well.

I got it in Pandaria.  I wasn't even trying for the turtle - I had gone on dedicated turtle-farming fishing binges in the past.  No, I was trying to get a Flying Tiger Gourami for the Nat Pagle daily quest.

Bam, turtle.

#4 - Black War Raptor

Once upon a time, Tauren could only ride kodos.  Then Tauren could only ride kodos and wolves.  Then they added PVP mounts, and they decided that the raptor would be Tauren-tough.

I did a lot more PVP back in Vanilla, but it was still a bit of work to have the honor banked to purchase the raptor the day it went live - not to mention grinding out the gold for fast riding.  I did it primarily via Felcloth.  In the old Azshara.

This raptor is made of blood, sweat, and tears, for sure.

#3 - Sky Golem

I built the Sky Golem myself, because, you know, mount count.  I didn't think I was actually going to use it... until I leveled my death knight, an herbalist.

This was shortly after I leveled my druid, also an herbalist, and druid flight-form herbing is hard to beat.  Sky golem Tauren death knight comes pretty close.  And it matched her 'mog.  And her hair.

Sky golem for my death knight is one of the things I miss about level-cap flying.  I loved flying around in it on her.

#2 - Enchanted Fey Dragon

Back in Vanilla, I did the sprite darter hatchling pet quest chain on my original Night Elf; it was one of the handful of pets I had on her (along with the white kitten, which was my husband & I's introduction to limited-stock vendors).  Since then, I've been pretty sprite darter/fey dragon gung-ho; I have this in plush, as well.  This may have been my first mount-store purchase.

#1 - Swift Shorestrider

This is the mount Duskhawk is running around Draenor with; it was a birthday present, and I love it.  I like the striders the best of the ostrich-type mounts; they feel sturdy enough for a Tauren, and they aren't too flashy.

What I'm Riding

And by I, of course, I mean they, my 12 13 characters that are 90+.  I've got a lot of mounts, so I try not to use the same one on two different characters.  I'll do these in the order I opened their garrisons (or plan to).

Duskhawk: Swift Shorestrider - It was a birthday present, and I still love it.

Priest: I use different mounts for different specs on the priest.  For Disc, I'm using the Imperial Quilen.  For Shadow I'm using the Spectral Wind Rider - because it's practically invisible in shadow form, and I find that amusing.

There's a wind rider there, I promise.

Death Knight: My death knight was the first toon I started using the Sky Golem on, since I was leveling her with herbalism.  I didn't realize just how much I would love its flight animation, or how much I miss it.

Warrior:  I'm still using the Sapphire Panther on my warrior; when I first made all the gem cats, I was like, dammit, they're expensive, I'm using them.  She got the blue one.  (Also I was a huge Voltron fan when I was like, 8.)

Hunter 2:  Expensive cats?  This is the jewelcrafter, so she got the black one.

Shaman:  My shaman had the yellow cat for a long time, but I switched her back to a wolf for Warlords.  I tend to prefer unarmored mounts when I have the option, so I went with the Old Cliff Jumper model, the Dire Wolf.

Warlock:  My warlock is still using the yellow cat.  I might switch her up if I find something else I like her on, but the cat turns more golden when she's got full embers, so...

Hunter 3:  This is what happens when I can't decide what mount to use: a boring old Swift Green Wind Rider.

Rogue:  I've been using the Sandstone Drake on her, because 21 canopic jars, but I'm not sure I want to keep using big giant dragon on the ground. 

Druid:  This is where I sigh about flight form and stuff.  At least the updated Astral form makes the Forest Strider look even cooler.

Mage:  This is another character using a drake mount, this time the Azure Drake from Malygos; it seemed appropriate for a mage.  I may just go back to her Burgundy Wolf due to huge drakeness on the ground.  (It matches her hair.  Ahem.)

Paladin:  My pally used to be my bank toon, so I gave her Tyrael's Charger for running back and forth between the auction house and the mailbox.  It was paladin-y, and it wasn't a huge kodo that I couldn't find the mailbox under.  It's also one of the mounts that goes seamlessly between flight and no-flight, which is a plus as you level.

Mabs:  When I first made a character, part of the reason she ended up like she did was because her hair could be green.  So she's got the green cat (after years of default nightsaber that matched her Kitty).

I was promised a pony!

... and I got like 36 gazillion.  My tauren (not the paladin, and obviously not the warlock) now has access to:

• Argent Warhorse
• Black Skeletal Horse
• Blue Skeletal Horse
• Brown Skeletal Horse
• Celestial Steed
• Fiery Warhorse
• Forsaken Warhorse
• Green Skeletal Warhorse
• Headless Horseman's Mount
• Hearthsteed
• Ochre Skeletal Warhorse
• Purple Skeletal Warhorse
• Red Skeletal Horse
• Red Skeletal Warhorse
• Swift Zhevra
• Tyrael's Charger
• White Skeletal Warhorse

Yes, ten of those are technically undead forsaken ponies, but they're still ponies.  That still leaves me seven pony models on a tauren.  Back when WoW first launched, all she could use was kodos and wolves, and for the PVP mounts she could also use the raptor (which I ground for for ages so I could buy it the day it went live).

Not counted:

• Camels
• Hippogryphs ("hippo" being for horse... even if they gave them deer features)
• Talbuks (their horns and skeletal warhorses' horns were confusing me)
• Windsteed (because... um... I'm really not sure what it is, taxonomically)
• All the Alliance pony mounts my night elf has access too

There are still ponies I don't have - Invincible, Rivendare's - but I don't think I'm hurting too badly for pony options.

Still waiting for...

There's a lot of cool stuff coming in the expansion, which I'm guessing is 6-8 months off.  Some of the things I've wanted for a while now don't seem to be included, which isn't surprising, since it's just random stuff.  This is some of it, though.

Emerald drake mounts.  You get to sample them in Oculus, but there's no option to commit.

Such a lovely green.

Built-in UI customization, a la SWotR.  I'll admit I was a bit surprised the first time I flipped that toggle over there.  Still not really playing because of the zoom distance and such, but being able to move your stuff around out of the box is nice.

Only Tol'vir sites.  Seriously, I'm still farming this stupid drake recipe.  Okay, okay, I finally got the Sandstone drake recipe, but 21 canopic jars.  That's like, five complete mummies.  Being able to focus on one kind of archaeology would be much less TINY OASIS MOSAIC frustration inducing.  If my rogue could tile the bathroom in her garrison, she's already acquired enough to do it.

You can totally tell I only leveled archaeology on Kalimdor.

Gnome hunters.  Based on the recent racial changes for Warlords of Draenor excluding focus from the list of what Expansive Mind will affect, gnomes are still not hunters.

A Burning Crusade-era transporter malfunction... as close as we get.

11 to go

9999 bones down, 11 mounts to go.  Bear & I are taking a break for today, I think.

Not dead!

Just, you know, busy.  With this:

And this:

181 and counting.

Actually I got Attumen's pony on my priest; I've been running ten characters through a week for about six weeks.  It apparently worked.

In three colors!

You (probably) won't see it anywhere else, so here's my tallstrider family:

The mount is from the Darkmoon Faire, the hunter pet is the Clutchmother, and the pet-pet is the Mulgore Hatchling.  I've gotten as many questions about where to get the mount as I got when I first tamed the identical strider back during the Burning Crusade.  I named mine Violet way before the Faire did, though:

Tracking and aspects on the toolbars, Mongoose Bite, Viper Sting, Scorpid Sting, mana potions, quiver...  Yeah, that was Burning Crusade.  Also, I appear to be on fire in that particular screenshot.  Ahem.  I don't even remember the name of the DPS addon I'm using there.  Something pre-Recount.

4.3

I really did intend to do the new 5-mans yesterday, but I came home and ended up sleeping for two hours.  So while there were no new dungeons run, I did get the formerly Valor Point/now Justice Point neck and ring, then bought bracers for my shaman and warrior.

And of course, I got a boatload of new ponies.

New ponies whose wings flap when they walk, not when they fly.

But anywho!  There were several quality-of-life squee moments yesterday:

• Putting my trinket collection into void storage.  I had two and a half bags of trinkets in Dusk's bank, and I pushed them all into void storage, along with some older "I got it when it was still in the game" stuff.  I had 47 inventory slots free when I got done!  That means I have 33 slots free in my bank now!
• Archaeology site tracking!  I initially noticed the sub-menus in the tracking menu, then noticed the archaeology and quest area tracking, and I may have made stupid noises of joy in guild chat for several minutes.  (I get to uninstall an addon because of this addition.)
• Transmogrification!  Actually, T12 hunter gear isn't too bad, and I'm not going to bother transmogrifying most of it.  T13, on the other hand... (How could they name such an ugly hat after Zeherah?!)  I have both the hunter tier .5 and tier 1 sets in the bank for options, though, along with the Wolfslayer Sniper Rifle, also known as the coolest looking ranged weapon in the game.  For now, though, I've just turned my hat into a better hat.
• Unbound Squashlings!  I had six I didn't vendor before the patch, and now they're going to go away through the auction house.  Hopefully.  I spent two thousand gold pushing stuff into void storage, and I could use a little cash.

I'll get home late enough tonight that I'm probably still not going to get a chance to run the new dungeons, but I may do some more rare hunting and farming now that I have more than 2 slots free.

#104

Because my husband is awesome.


A guildie ran 1.5 Shattered Halls/Heroic Shattered Halls with me to get Thrallmar exalted, and then we went and hit up Old Hillsbrad for a hat (we couldn't find him o.O) and Keepers of Time rep.

My husband went along for OHB just to help, and when I asked him to make me some arrows, he traded this back with it.

I have a lovely husband.

Proof:



He went into AQ40 with me tonight so we could take out the 4-packs and get me the last 3 bug mounts. The green one was #100. :)

Thanks to Sawyer for pointing out to me last night that the trash is soloable. (Though I needed a second person to do the multi-pulls.)

For the complete collection, check me out at Warcraft Mounts.

Ahem, #94

Totally unexpected.


Monday night I came home from gaming (D&D) and logged in to see inquiries about whether anyone else wanted in on a Darnassus raid. I had planned to just do Brewfest dailies on my alts and go to bed, but I decided to go. So! We one-shot Velen and Tyrande with 21 people with no problems, and get on the boat to Stormwind. Varian was at 9% when too many of the PVPers by the battlemasters came over and said hi.

So tonight, when we didn't have enough for an Onyxia-25 raid, we headed back to Stormwind. Varian went down this time with a raid of about 24 people.

Then we logged off in the tram.

For twenty minutes.

A few of us have Alliance toons, so we logged over to watch /trade and /localdefense. Eventually the Alliance got bored and stopped watching the tram.

So everyone logged back on after we lost Wintergrasp, and we hit Magni Bronzebeard with about 26 people. For the Horde!



Then hearthed, flew back to the Zoram Strand, went back up to Exodar and Darnassus and wiped out those bosses again.

Bears for everyone!

#93

I think he looks rather sassy at that angle, don't you?

Yes, he's 310%, and I owe my guildies lots of props for the help over the past year - especially with Halloween and Brewfest; I can't remember at the moment whether the others required groups.

I also picked up the pink baby elekk this morning (#92 for small pets).

And, ahem, I was made guild master last night. Our GM of almost five years is crazy busy with school, and won't be able to play for much of the next... 6 months? year? Sad to see him go, even temporarily. We gave him a send-off in Booty Bay with Pirate Day going.

Second time I've inherited an online group - I got made leader of my clan on the MUD I used to play on after the previous leader quit playing. Hopefully I don't screw this up.

Post-3.0.9

Okay, after having several weeks of weaker Steady Shots, things have somewhat normalized. I'm not pushing quite the same numbers I had been, but I made some adjustments.

I had switched over to the Whale-stick Harpoon, for the +hit, so that I could re-gem for AP/crit. That served me pretty well for a while, but then I got the Lightning Giant Staff, which was, overall, an AP/crit boost, so I've re-gemmed yet again, back to +hit gems.

I picked up the PVP boots initially, but then the Dragon Slayer's Sabatons dropped, and they are, overall, a PVE boost over the epics.

I got the heroic badge neck, which was an upgrade. Getting revered with the Ebon Blade netted me new shoulders. Heroic Azjol-Nerub got me pants and a ring. Grobbulus had another ring. I also have the Bands of Anxiety off Grobbulus, but with my current gear set-up, I don't know that I want to swap out from my Eaglebane Bracers. I get AP from Int, so the Eaglebane have more AP for me, and I would drop under hit-cap with the Bands. That would mean re-gemming something again.

Basically, between re-enchanting, re-gemming, and the new gear, I've added about 700 RAP since pre-3.8. I'm still hit-capped, and still over 30% crit. It's amazing how many people I talk to who are good hunters (seriously, better DPS than I am) who have trouble buffing their crit - I think it's just because I prioritize it until about 30% over AP.

It wasn't cheap, but I'm cleared for all wings of Naxx under our raid guidelines. I'm hoping we hit Malygos this week. >.> Granted, I found Aces High! to be kind of meh, and finding out that phase 3 is basically that quest... well, I want to at least do the fight once, and then I'm okay with never going back.

The macro has ended up mostly unchanged, just shuffled - the cast sequence is now Chimera, Aimed, Arcane, Steady, Steady, Steady. When Hawk procs, I can probably get in another Steady, but that only matters on fights where I can just stand and shoot.

Oh, and I'm now riding an orange raptor full-time for my ground mount. Mmm, raptor.