K's update

Hope everyone has been having a good holidays! I've been doing a bunch of things lately in game with some of this extra time I've had lately. Some updates.

1. Rep
I hit revered with the Oracles, which I wanted to do to get Mysterious Egg. I am hoping it hatches into a pet later this week. I also hit exalted with the Kaluak, so I have my own Pengu! Currently, I am at 44 pets, and am quickly approaching the 50 needed to get the little skunk. Issues I tell ya, issues.

While it doesn't give you a pet, I also hit honored with the dirty minded Sons of Hodir folks (come on, quests like Thrusting the Spear? Blowing the Horn? Polishing the Helm?). So now I have their honored shoulder enchant, which is good enough for now.

Anyways, here's me and Pengu in quiet contemplation. Actually I am bemoaning how difficult it is to find those books in Dalaran for the Higher Learning achievement. Pengu is lending a sympathetic ear.

2. PVP
Now that I'm doing less dailies, I have more time to PVP! Jess says PVP K scares her, to which I can only say, "Rawr!". I've been doing a number of Wintergrasps and have recently become a huge fan of Strand of the Ancients. I guess Strand is the alliance's new AV. While I am sad to see that every AV I've been in lately has been a lopsided mess (about 15 ally to 35+ horde), I am enjoying our new AV, Strand of the Ancients.

My first pvp gear reward of this expansion is Hateful Gladiator's Pendant of Salvation. I am next going for Hateful Gladiator's Cloak of Salvation or Hateful Gladiator's Cloak of Deliverance. I am so overloaded with spirit lately (my spirit to intellect ratio is out of whack), that I am starting to look at mp5. Plus these pieces have such high mp5 stats, with more mp5 than its equivalent spirit amount. Anyways, I believe I will be using both pieces for pve for a while.

3. Gear/instances
We've been running tons of heroics. I picked up a very nice but sad sounding mace, War Mace of Unrequited Love. To go with this, I turned in some emblems of heroism for Handbook of Obscure Remedies and Idol of Lush Moss.

Here's how K is looking now (updated pic to the right). I also had the chance to heal a 10 man Archavon and Obsidian Sanctum. We are planning on doing our first guild Naxx very soon.

4. Random other stuff
I'm still working on getting the fishing achievement and salty title. Getting that rare fish for The One That Didn't Get Away is driving me up the wall. I'm also on track to getting the cooking achievement and chef title, though I still have a bit to go to learn the 45 Northrend recipes. But here is K after having done the Critter Bites achievement with her posse of turkeys.

In running around Dal for the Higher Learning achievement (read 8 books you find in Dalaran which will give you a pet), I came across the City Historian. Seriously... this is how the City Historian dresses?

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My version of The Twelve Days of Christmas

Here's my version of the The Twelve Days of Christmas:

During the months after Lich King, 
Wish Blizz would give to meeee....
More frequent alchemy research,
Bunches of northern spices,
Higher stack sized potions, 
Pools of crystallized water,
Better ally battlegrounds,
A Bigger questing log size,
Shorter transit flight times,
NOOOO WILD GROWTH NEEERRFFFF!
Larger sized bags,
More bank slots,
Fewer mail drops,
And less lag in Daaalaaraaan!

Why do I have the feeling that all I'm getting is the equivalent of a lump of coal? /sigh. Anyways, Happy Holidays everyone!

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My first commenters, a lippy warrior, and sad sad AV

Nasirah over at Alts Ahoy tagged me for something that has been going around your first commenters on your blog. Well, looking back at my first post, my first ever commenter was the original GM of The Left Claw, Daihiro. I remember when I was thinking about starting this blog, wanting to make sure that D was ok with it since I knew I'd be including stories and shots of guildies. He was very supportive and thought it was a great idea. We haven't seen much of D lately, I believe due to computer issues with running the new expansion. But here's to hoping we see our favorite rogue who falls asleep in instances/raids soon!

My second and third commenters were Phaelia and Kestrel, seasoned blogger extraordinaires. Getting their support and advice was really helpful. My next commenter was our favorite white ponytailed warrior tank Jess, who eventually decided to copy me by starting her own blog.

Speaking of Jess, this warrior has become quite lippy lately:

Finally, I ran AV for the first time since the expansion the other day. I tend to go a long time without doing any, then kind of get into this mood and run a bunch at one time. It may also be affected by what kind of mood I'm in in real life... whether I am feeling stressed and need to get some stress released. As Jess noted:

Long story short, every AV I ran this day was a painful painful butt whooping by the horde. What has happened? Can alliance no longer count on AV like we used to? In one AV I was pleased to see that I probably did more healing than I've ever done in a bg before, but just look at the difference in honor gained. Sad... so sad.

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Better late than never, right?

I was going to post this earlier this week, but I've had the work week from hell this week. So as promised, here is my latest interaction with "that guy". From what I hear, "that guy" is quite a hussy... he sure gets around a lot!

So I know I maybe shouldn't have told him to screw off... and I know many others say they don't even bother engaging with these folks. But yeah, I was in quite a mood when this occurred. Well, ok honestly, no one talks to me like this and gets away with it. But I love how he's the one "thanking me for nothing" to begin with, then tries to turn it around by saying he was just joking around. Dude, I don't know you. You don't know me. Why do people not realize that what you could say to a friend in game is going to be interpreted differently and is perhaps inappropriate when you say it to a stranger?

Anyways, here's what went down, and what I was thinking at the time. My reactions probably give you all a little more insight into how I am in real life... yikes maybe in a not so positive way. But hey, what can I say, this is me... I'm a feisty gal.

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Yep, I'm back

Everyone, put away your pruners, saws, axes, and other such items scary to us trees, because this tree is back! I ended up taking a week off from the game. When I did come back, I tried to do so in moderation, which was in part forced due to my new crazy work schedule during the week. So I've been back playing about a week and quickly dinged 80. I didn't expect to ding on the quest turn in, which was done in flight form.

It was nice to be back. It seems though that there is a slight healer shortage of sorts. Did they all go off to some healer conference that I didn't get invited to? Or have they been swayed to the dark side of dps? To which I would say, "Turn away! Come back to the green light of goodness!" Anyways, my friend Paradamarico (my combination of Paradise + Adamas + Ricochet) sent me a cute and funny note while I was still leveling.

It was also nice to come back to giving my tank Jess some good old fashioned healer to tank grief, though I'm sure Vel did just fine in my absence (tag team FTW). But here's what went down in one of my first instances back. Just to set the stage here, Jess had been fury for a while and had just respecced to tank this instance run.

Thus Vel, Dest, and Terrondis were thinking:

Finally, it must have been the first hour or so that I was back and I was questing out in Zul'drak. I had the unfortunate pleasure of coming across a guy who was also trying to get a quest done. Long story short, words were exchanged and threats like "Do you want to take this outside?" were leveled. I'm sure everyone has the story of coming across "that guy" while leveling. I probably didn't handle it the best way (trust me, I could have been a good warrior... rage generation is a breeze sometimes), but what did I do? Well I screenshotted all of his insane, ridiculous, and inappropriate comments, and said "I'll see ya on my blog jackass".

Mature? No. Funny? Kinda. I'm considering posting it on here not necessarily to call him out, but because parts of what he said were so ridiculous, they actually cracked me up. So what do you think? Do I do it?

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Yep, I'm still here...

The reason for the lack of posts lately? Well I had a pretty crazy couple of days at work, then headed home for the turkey eating holidays. I've also had some computer issues lately as well. I swear... computers hate me.

But I think another reason may be the fact that I have felt a little meh about WOW lately. I know what in the world right? Tons of bloggers are writing about all this cool new Lich King stuff, and I'm feeling meh? I definitely agree that its a great expansion with tons of new stuff. I don't know if my meh comes from overdoing it when it first came out, or if its just too overwhelming with seemingly endless things to get done. But lately it has felt in a way like work for me.... is leveling to 80 like work so you can raid at level 80?

Who knows... maybe I've had too much turkey and its affected my judgment.

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Tons of screenshots, a staff decision, and welcome back Healing Touch

Well we went back to Ahn'kahet with everyone one level higher than the first time. I think the first time we were 71s and 72s, this last time we were 72s and 73s. So taking down Jedoga's minions before they hit the circle was very easy.

A screenshot with the our elephant/squid friend Herald Volazj

Now that we finished the two Dragonblight instances, we decided to try Drak'Tharon Keep, an instance rated 74-76. Our group was level 73 and 74, but it was again not too bad at all. The only group wipe we had was on the second boss Novos the Summoner. We went in blind again, and didn't realize that you have to wait for the adds and take them down first to break down his shield. All the other bosses were one shot.

Now I picked up two pieces in Drak'Tharon, Scytheclaw Boots and Staff of the Great Reptile. Now the 81 spirit on this new staff just makes me drool. But let's look at what I picked up in Azjol-Nerub, Life-Staff of the Web Lair. Hmmm, decisions, decisions. 75 intellect is nothing to sneeze at... and while I typically don't care about haste too much, I find that my healing style has changed. I'm still just doing 5 mans, so maybe it'll be different in raids, but I find that I am using Healing Touch a lot more than I used to. I guess the right answer would be to keep both for different purposes, but if you had to pick one staff, which would you go with?

Anyways, more screenshots from Drak'Tharon.

The pretty view up on the last boss Prophet Tharon'ja's terrace.

After we were done, Atania insisted that we needed to do some more bonding by doing the hilarious outhouse quest together in Grizzly Hills. It was kind of creepy that the rest of us were sitting outside while each of us went in. I mean we're close, but this was just a little too close maybe? Here's Vel getting ready to step in.

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Signs you have a WOW spouse

Last week I saw this article online about having a work spouse. Inspired from this list, here are some signs that you might have a WOW spouse.

1. You and your WOW spouse regularly share mats or food buffs.

2. There are inside jokes that you and your WOW spouse share. You and your WOW spouse may also joke and kid around by giving each other a hard time about certain things.

3. You can be bluntly honest with each other about raid performance, gear choice, or whatever. You're comfortable enough to point things out and ask what the heck they think they're doing.

4. When something eventful happens in an raid, your WOW spouse is the first person you start whispering frantically. Or over vent in a raid, one WOW spouse may yell to the other to do something, to which the other responds, "Geez, I'm doing it already!".

5. Your WOW spouse knows exactly what type of elixirs, potions, or flasks you consume.

6. You can finish each other's sentences over vent or find that you are thinking the same things at the same time.

7. Your WOW spouse knows almost as much or more about your real life as your best friend or real life spouse does.

8. You and your WOW spouse may have disagreements or minor spats. But you know these spats aren't the end of the relationship, spouses are bound to disagree at times! The WOW wife then waits for the WOW husband to come back with flowers and apologies. :)

9. No one else knows how to push your buttons or guilt trip you as well as your WOW spouse.

10. Your friends and your real life spouse know about your WOW spouse.

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Those two A instances in Dragonsblight

Anyone else having a hard time remembering what the heck those two instances in Dragonsblight are called? I'm having a hard time remembering Azjol-Nerub and Ahn'kahet. I wonder what acronym will be established for these two? AN and AK? AZ and AH?

Anyways, we decided to take a peek into these two instances. Blizz did a great job with them! Design wise, it is very impressive. Also nice to see some bosses do some other things.

Azjol-Nerub is rated 72-74, but was pretty easy for us, and that was with 5 level 71s. We were a little concerned whether we'd have nightmares about all the creepy bugs in the place. We only wiped on the trash leading up to the first boss. I picked up Life-Staff of the Web Lair Some pics.

Now Ahn'kahet was a bit more difficult, rated at 73-75. However we were able to one shot all of the bosses, except for the third one, Jedoga Shadowseeker. We just were not able to get down the minions before they walked into the circle of light. Thus, Jedoga would be buffed and we'd wipe when she came back down. Because the minions pop out of their bubbles randomly, it was almost luck whether a dps would be near them. It was probably a bit more difficult because we ran with two melee dps. It did seem like everyone's favorite boss in Ahn'kahet was the last one, Herald Volazj who does this funny cloning thing to the party. Anyways, Jedoga, we are coming back for you!

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Getting my mammoth in Dalaran

Over the weekend, we were able to port a bunch of us to Dalaran by having our mage Vel queue us into AV from Dalaran, then all leaving the battleground. It was Jessika's idea. I thought warriors had no intellect? However warriors do get rage, as does happen when guildies level faster than them. And this is what happens when said warriors are also guild leaders.

Anyways, so once we got to Dalaran I was finally presented with the issue of whether or not to get the mammoth. I stewed over it a day or so, then finally got it with Vel. Here is the two of us causing havoc in the streets of Dalaran.

Quick thoughts on the mammoth. #1: Having paid as much as we did for the mount, my own repair guy should repair me at a discount. #2: The repair guy and vendor should buy back more than just one page of stuff. When you're out questing, and wanting to do long runs, one page of stuff to sell back fills up quickly. #3: The mammoth is not a smooth ride. Its kinda too jumpy and jostly for my taste. I will probably only call him up when I need him, and stick to my swift kitty to get around smoothly.

Back to Dalaran thoughts... what a neat city! I love the new additions such as the toymaker and the stable where you can buy fun things for your vanity pets. Let me just also say that Dalaran is a dangerous dangerous place for those who fish. Exhibit A: The fountain.

Dalaran is apparently also a dangerous place for mages. Watch out Vel.

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My gaming bananas

Let's take a break from all the Wrath talk for a bit. Check out what I got from my most recent trip to the grocery store! I have gaming bananas! And they are LOLing at me!

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Wrath pics

So what does everyone think about Wrath? I think they did a great job with not only having two starting zones, but having the quests in the two starting zones spread out within the zone. So yeah, there was competition for quests, but it wasn't too terrible. A lot of what I needed had fast respawn rates. I was also very impressed with the fact that the server did not crash and that the lag wasn't bad. However apparently Drenden had queues of 400+ folks for a wait of 20+ minutes each during peak times last night. Yuck.

I was doing some questing when BRK and his Gorilladin showed up right next to me and I think his Gorilla tried to steal some of my mobs. I really should have taken a screenshot. So I was doing those quests just west of the boat drop off in the Fjord where you have to defend the town from the invaders. It gets a little crazy there. So with the waves and waves of mobs, I can see how you could accidently tag mobs. Maybe I will forgive his Gorilla. Maybe.

I decided to start in the Howling Fjord. Why? Well, I think its prettier than the tundra, has awesome music, seemed less crowded than Borean Tundra, and most importantly, actually had herbs. Some pics. Here's K watching in horror at a forest fire.

My favorite race of people? The walrus people on the coasts of Dragonblight, Howling Fjord, and Borean Tundra! Seriously... how cute are they?!?! At exalted rep with them you can get a penguin pet named Pengu!

We did both of the beginning instances, Utgarde Keep and The Nexus last night. It was interesting doing the instances blindly, not knowing exactly what the bosses do, but saying "Eh, let's just wing it and figure it out". Our first wipe was on the last boss of the Nexus, the dragon Keristrasza. Everyone has to keep moving just a little bit during this flight so a dot doesn't stack up. Anyways, it was nice to actually finally wipe because all of Utgarde Keep and the rest of The Nexus was incredibly easy. In terms of drops, all of the drops were pretty good, but the gear our group had from badge rewards and ZA were a couple of ticks better. It was kind of nice to know that all of our hard work wouldn't be so quickly replaced with quest reward greens or regular instance blues.

Here we are at the last boss of Utgarde Keep... our first Wrath instance!

I fell in love with the frozen tree wing in the Nexus. Sooo pretty!

Finally, I didn't spend too much time questing on the first day. Why? Because there's work to do, that's why! I am big into professions. Check out where I was in my skills at the end of day one. Issues, I tell ya... issues.

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Don't be messing with Cenarius... cuz I am guarding it

I hit exalted with Cenarion Circle the other day, thus finally receiving this all too druidy title. It was a painful couple of days, especially since I completely forgot that between friendly and revered comes honored. I started at friendly rep and thought to myself, "Oh, self! You are close to revered already!". /sigh

Jess said I was crazy and had serious issues for doing the long grind in such a short timeframe. Whereas I liked to refer to it as determination and perseverance, with just a little side of crazy. I had to explain that my druid card would be revoked if I didn't get the title. But yeah, if I never ever go to Silithus again, it would be too soon. To commemorate the new title, K spent the night for the first time in a really really long time in good old Darnassus.

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Wrath Cooking and Fishing preview

Here are some of my quick thoughts around cooking and fishing in the expansion.

1. It seems to me that they are trying to make comparable food buffs with both fish and meat, which is great. So you wouldn't have to fish in order to make some of these food buffs for yourself. But I will of course still level fishing, because I mean let's just get real here... this is K speaking.

2. I'm glad food buffs last an hour instead of 30 minutes. K was getting a little thick around the middle from eating so often.

3. A couple of new food buffs.

4. A new very interesting raid wide buff. So everyone in a raid can partake in this feast and get this buff. Yum yum!

5. Nearly all of these recipes above are for end or near end game cooking. The recipes and the Northern Spices required to cook these up can only be bought with Dalaran cooking awards, received by doing daily cooking quests. You can pick these up once you get yourself to Dalaran. The one exception to this is the Great Feast. (see next paragraph)

6. As for what we can immediately expect to cookup in Northrend, Brom Brewbaster for Alliance in Howling Fjord (one of the two starting zones) teaches 15 recipes. Orn Tenderhoof in Borean Tundra (the other starting zone) teaches the same recipes for Horde. Fourteen require a cooking skill of 350 and one requires 375 (the feast). Both trainers will teach you how to make the Great Feast, as well as Clam Chowder. The chowda will also give you all three buffs, but it is not something you can set up for your entire party.

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Stack sizes and Vel, you can haz fish sticks now

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IF bank - Circus time! SW bank - Time to get physical?

So sometimes I notice random things. Here's is my latest.

Apparently the IF bank is just a huge circus. Why do I say this? Well look at the names of the three bankers.

• Bailey Stonemantle
• Barnum Stonemantle
• Soleil Stonemantle

Makes me think of Barnum & Bailey as well as Cirque du Soleil.

Now is there a theme in SW? Well let's look at the three bankers in SW.

• Olivia Burnside
• Newton Burnside
• John Burnside

Anyone else think its time to get physical in SW? Im ready with my legwarmers, are you?

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Weekend screenshots

1. We did a combined SSC run with our friends from Captains Crew. I couldn't get over the fact that fishing plays such a big role in this place! Here I am with Seb just mesmerized by this huge pool.

2. As we count down the days to next Thursday, its sort of sad to realize that we may not come back to some of these places again. Heroic Slave Pens has become a classic instance for us, as its a super fast and easy couple of badges. As it was the heroic daily yesterday, we decided to run it. It was a bit sad to realize that it may have been our last time doing Heroic SP. We decided it was worthy of a screenshot. Ah Heroic Slave Pens... good times, good times.

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"No, please"

Are any of you fully specced resto druids ever asked to hibernate or root anything in a raid or instance? If its an instance that is much below our level, than maybe. Otherwise I find it very difficult to keep something hibernated while still trying to heal. As a toon in the raid to heal, when I can't heal, peeps die (simple math!) Plus with my spell hit at a whopping zero, hibernating hardly ever sticks anyways. Maybe some of you can keep stuff hibernated and heal and I am being uber noobish.

Last week Jess asked me to hibernate one of the bosses at that Moroes like ZA boss. Anyways, my reaction to Jess' request? "No, please". I explained why it wouldn't work and reminded everyone why it turned into a mess last time. Hey, at least I was polite instead of saying "Hell, no". So if a raid leader asks you to do something that you know won't work? Speak up.... but be polite and explain why. Say "No, please!" or I guess "Please, no!" would work too. :)

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Election Day (in WOW speak)

Today is a big day here in the USofA... finally Election Day is here! In doing some searching, the current US election and our shared pastime have already crossed paths. Why am I not surprised?

Check out this site that says that Obama polled 62% across all of Azeroth population, with McCain favored by Alliance and Obama favored by the Horde. Interesting...

This site has a hilarous comment. Commenter Nessaja refers to this duel as a Level 46 Tauren Druid vs a Level 73 Dwarf Warrior. LOL! I think McCain could also be a Pally. I like Obama as a Druid.

Here is the Youtube video link 'Election Duel! Obama V. McCain - Who Get's Pwned?' which includes such epic quotes as 'Excuse me while I go all Palin on this Wolf'. Double LOL!

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Two random questions

1. What's the deal with damage/healing meters? How can Recount and Damage Meters be so different? Even more odd, if two people start recording stats at the same time, both using Damage Meters, how can the stats at the end of the raid be different?

2. Secondly, a lot of people commented last week about the zombie madness. But could the zombie walk have been for a good purpose? Omaha's zombie walk raised money for the muscular dystrophy association. Some other large walks this year was Detroit's and Seattle's. Apparently 10/26 was World Zombie Day.

Quoted from the Omaha Zombie walk site:

What is a ZOMBIE WALK?
A zombie walk (also known as a zombie mob, zombie march, zombie horde, zombie lurch, zombie shuffle or zombie pub crawl) is an organized public gathering of two or more people who dress up in zombie costumes and make up. Usually taking place in an urban centre, the participants make their way around the city streets in a somewhat orderly fashion limping and gnawing their way as they go. During the event participants are encouraged to remain in character as zombies and to communicate only in a manner consistent with zombies (such as grunts, groans and slurred moans calling for “brains”.)

Can you believe people really do these real life zombie walks? Check out how many cities in which these walks were held this year! I wonder if anyone who came across these walks started screaming, "Where's that Argent Dawn healer?" or "Damn you zombies... you killed the flight master!"

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What you can learn from these real trees

One interesting thing that playing a resto druid in this game has given me is a greater appreciation for all things arboreal. During my cross country drive a couple months ago, somehow the most amazing trees would catch my eye wherever we went. It was like I had this "track cool trees" ability turned on. I would definitely say that us resto druids have a great pride and love for our tree form. So with this is mind, I present to you some amazing real life trees and what we can learn from them.

1. Tree of Life, Bahrain

This 400 year old mesquite tree stands out in the middle of a desert in Bahrain in a place completely free of water. The mystery of the survival of the tree has made it a legend, and many come to visit what they call a representation of the magic of life. A local legend says that the site where the tree is located was the actual location of the Garden of Eden.

I especially love this tree. In one way it looks kind of lonely and sad to me, though in another it just seems so mythical... so magical... so inspiring. What can we learn from it? Well if this tree can somehow survive without a known water source, we can certainly learn how to not run out of mana, can't we?

2. Chêne-Chapelle of Allouville-Bellefosse

This amazing oak tree is known as the most famous tree in France. It is actually a tree and a religious chapel in one! In 1669, two priests decided to build a chapel in what was at the time a 500 years old or so oak tree that had been made hollow by a lightning bolt. The priests built a small altar to the Virgin Mary and later on, a second chapel and a staircase were added.

Let's say a raid is going poorly. What to do, what to do? Well if you are lucky enough to have a resto druid with you, obviously the tree can not only heal, but can do double duty as your own personal traveling chapel. Have all raid members kneel in prayer before the tree.

3. Old Tjikko, Sweden

Old Tjikko has been determined as the world's oldest individual clone-tree at 9,550 years old. The tree has survived this long due to a cloning process that many trees are able to take advantage of. Parts of the tree may die and regrow multiple times, while the tree's root system remains intact. For example a trunk may only live for about 600 years, but when one trunk dies another eventually grows back in its place.

I think Old Tjikko gives us a couple lessons to think about. First of all, us trees are resilient. Cut us down? We'll just clone ourselves. We aint going anywhere. Deal with it. (Heh) Secondly, I think this tree reminds us that looks are deceiving. You look at the picture of this tree and maybe think "What? That's the oldest tree in the world?" So maybe you encounter someone in a raid or an instance and at first glance they may not be as well geared. Well, as has often been mentioned elsewhere, gear doesn't tell the entire story. This person's skill may outplay their gear. Just remember Old Tjikko. :)

4. Pando, Utah

Aspen trees form large stands of genetically identical trees. These trees are almost like stems connected by a single underground root system. The largest known fully-connected Aspen is a grove in Utah called Pando. It is claimed by some to be the largest organism in the world, by mass or volume, with an estimated weight of 6,600 tons. The name Pando comes from the Latin for 'I spread'. It has also been nicknamed the Trembling Giant, after the aspen's rattling leaves.

I think Pando teaches us that you mess with one of us resto druids, you're messing with all of us trees. We may not all be genetically identical, but we're a tight knit bunch. Its sort of like there is this tree sisterhood/brotherhood that doesn't need to be said or defined... it just is.

5. Kite Eating Tree, Peanuts

And finally, what does the kite eating tree from the Peanuts teach us all? Do not fly kites around us trees. To us, they are nom noms. Ok? Ok.

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This zombie craziness and using it for another purpose

I am sure most of you have seen this zombie craziness going on right now. There I am in Nagrand the other day and this is what I come across:

Well when I realized that in zombie form, you can port from Shatt to the Horde capital cities, the little wheels in my head quickly started turning. The first thought in my head was, "Oh, could be an easy way to get to Orgrimmar to do the achievements related to fishing there!" So I tried that last night.

I went to Shatt, became infected, then waited to turn into a zombie. Then I ported from Shatt to Org. Now as soon as I ported, I was booted out and it took me a bit to log back on. When I was able to log back on, I had died! But the good thing is that the place where you port into in Org is a little hut area on top of water. Right below it there are a bunch of rocks and stuff where you can rez and easily hide. So that is what I did. From there I just cast a line and fished up one fish, getting the achievement to fish something in Stormwind and Org.

Well then I decided to try to stealth around in kitty form and check out the city and see what else I could do. I ended up going into Ragefire Chasm and killed the main boss in there. I was going to try to fish for Old Crafty inside the waterfall in the Valley of Honor, but I had died so much finding my way and getting into Ragefire Chasm (being detected by guards) that I left it for another time. I wonder if Elixirs of Camouflage or anything could help being detected by the guards so much...

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Post Patch 3.0

A number of things to talk about post patch:

1. New talents:
Well originally I had picked up the Living Seed talent, but after one night of raiding with it, I found that it didn't proc enough at this point to justify those points. Maybe I'll pick it back up later on, but for now I dropped it. I do really like the new Wild Growth spell however! I am using it a lot. From a night in ZA, my top healing spell was still Lifebloom (34.2%) followed by Rejuvenation (32.3%) and Wild Growth (22.8%). Oh and the honor of my first ever Revive went to Atania. :)

2. Group buffs:
A big yay for buffs being shared raid wide now! Now I don't have to bring as many Wild Quilvines as before. Plus its nice that we don't have to configure raid groups to make the best use of group makeups, but that the buffs just count for all 10 members now.

3. Where is my mana?:
A big boo to the stupid rule where you can only take one mana pot during a boss fight. I had become accustomed to timing out the use of pots plus my innervate very precisely so as to never really run out of mana. Now even without the stupid mana pot rule, I feel like I'm burning through my mana much faster than pre patch 3.0. I spoke to another healing priest and pally who observed the same thing.

4. Ridiculous nerf part 1:
So Kara post patch.... it was pretty ridiculous. However we were able to finally do a full Kara clear and take down Netherspite. It had been a long time since we even tried Netherspite since we took some breaks from raiding and then started ZA. Anyways, here we are with Netherspite after we told him where to shove his crazy beams.

5. Ridiculous nerf part 2:
Ok, so ZA post patch? Ridiculous x 2. Our first night we did our first clear of ZA ever with not a single wipe during any of the bosses (we had one silly wipe on trash). This was particularly crazy considering that we had never even seen bosses 4-6 before. We did the last boss Zul'jin without our top dpser who got stuck outside the flame wall (oops). What was particularly nice about this night was that every single drop was a useable drop or upgrade for someone in the group. Nothing was disenchanted!

Because it was such a profitable night this first time, we went back to ZA for a second clear. This time we wanted to make sure we made the entire timed event (first night we only got the first two timed chest rewards). This time we got the first three timed chest rewards, but failed to make the fourth. Though I guess it doesn't really matter now since the fourth timed chest reward is the same as the third since they got rid of the Amani War Bear mounts.

Anyways, some pics... hopefully my instance screenshoting skills are increasing...

Apparently patch 3.0 did not fix the crooked shield issue...

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