A Loss For Words

I feel...abused...

In other news, Anguish hit 70 recently. I happened to have enough cash to go all out with his flying skill and got him a nifty ride.

Some may say it looks kinda goofy, I personally like it a lot, but you should appreciate that this was the first model...

Perhaps you've heard of the undead chicken?

Leaders

Mmm... a few posts ago I said how I didn't like Varian Wrynn because he was such a hothead and quick to pick fights... Garrosh isn't much better. He's come a long way from whining about the Greatmother dieing back in Nagrand. What happened to wise leaders? Thrall's hanging back in Orgrimmar, but he and Garrosh already had a little scuffle before the offensive against the Lich King began. I guess nobody, neither Horde nor Alliance, have much patience these days. At least Garrosh is focusing on the enemy at hand and not spitting on Alliance shoes like Wrynn's doing to the Horde.

As I begin to do Horde Northrend quests, I'm seeing a lot of similarities to the Alliance quests. When you start off, you are sent as a lone reinforcement to losing battles and are pretty much dismissed as a scrub who is a waste of space. I remember on Koji, it was probably in Dragonblight when they began calling me a hero instead. Will that be the same for Anguish? Probably. I guess single-handedly fighting off legions of Scourge (and other mean things) deserve some recognition.

By the way, Saurfang is badass, he's a real hero yet he just plays to the tune of whoever is in charge. Watching him run headlong into a field of undead and whirlwind them all down is rather entertaining though.

He's also full of worldly advice for those young hero wannabes.

By the way, I know most of my posts lately have been just random stuff... I'm going to try to start doing more informative posts soon. I've got a few ideas, I'm just lazy since those well... take actual effort =) I'm going to finish up the Ol' Salty line then go into some Shaman mechanics, addons, etc. I'm still quite a DK newb so don't expect much informative for that yet. Skeleton Jack is an excellent DK blog that I read, and Matticus recently posted links to several others as well. I haven't looked at them yet but if they get into Matticus' post, they must be good.

The Quest for Revenge

A Hero. That's what I once was. In another lifetime... another existence.

My life has been nothing but a quest for revenge. Since given...new "life" by the Lich King, my mind has been a sea of fog. What atrocities I have committed as a pawn, I do not know. Only vague shreds of memory from my past life are surfacing. I drank the blood of Mannoroth along with Grom Hellscream and the Warsong Clan, to seek revenge against the Humans for what they did to my people following the Second War. I revelled in the bloodlust, I enjoyed the hunt and the kill, but this was so much worse. It was as if I were a puppet, strings being pulled by a master, that dark king. That time came to an end, however by the blessing and will of Lord Fordring at Light's Hope.

I was given a second chance. I was weak, a shadow of the hero I once was, but I returned to the battlefield to train my new abilities as a Death Knight. Slowly I regained my strength, until I finally knew that it was time... time to see a new revenge. I still had much training to do to but the call could not be ignored. I left the gates of Orgrimmar and boarded the zeppelin for the icy wastes... for a new kind of revenge. I was shunned and hated by my brethren for what I had become, but I would redeem myself. My hatred towards the Humans and all Alliance would never end, but there were now more pressing matters. I would exact my new revenge against He who made me this cursed being, who took advantage of my mind and will when it was weak and failing. It was my duty, my quest, the meaning of my second existence to destroy him... Arthas Menethil, the Lich King.

I set off into Northrend intending to march alone towards Icecrown and get the job done as quickly as possible. Would I succeed? Not likely. But it was what I had to do. Cursed by this undeath, I was no member of the Horde. However... as I landed in Warsong Hold, I was stopped short. Leading this seemingly doomed group of Horde was an Orc... Garrosh, the son of the great hero Grom Hellscream. Perhaps it was not yet my time to die again. I kneeled before young Garrosh and swore my allegiance to his Warsong Clan... a new generation of my former brothers. Perhaps my life was not mine to just throw away. Perhaps it had a greater meaning. Perhaps my axe would have the opportunity to strike home, rather than shatter against the walls of Icecrown. Despite what I was, I was accepted into their ranks. Perhaps one day I can be a hero once again...

My Kind of Mount

So since I hit 80, pretty much all the time I've had to play has gone to heroics and dailies, with a couple little raids in there too. I have done some general questing, but not much, and that was pretty much only quests that offered reputation.

I'm now pretty well geared up. Not where I want to be before starting Naxxramas in January, but I'm doing well. I have all of the emblem gear I want save Mirror of Truth and my reputations are coming along nicely. I'm not terribly focused on any of them since none of them offer exalted rewards I'm interested in. The Kirin Tor are the only ones who I may want, with their boots but I'd rather get the ones off Lavanthor who seems to hardly ever come up and when he does never drops the boots, so these have eluded me despite running VH every day.

Regardless, I'm pretty happy where I stand now so I'm lightening up a bit on running instances and stuff like that. I'm closed to exalted with Sons of Hodir and the Kalu'ak, and I still do Frenzyheart/Oracle dailies but that's it. I'm going back now and doing all those quests that I skipped since I got 80, those in Sholazar, Zul'Drak, Icecrown, and Storm Peaks. Also some randomness for fun, such as getting that snazzy hat seen above. I also found a mount (or vehicle to be technical) that easily tops that Black Bear I got. I keep it!

No Joy for Anguish

I did a little more digging on the Horde versions of the Winter Veil achievements and I hit the snag in Bros. Before Ho Ho Ho's. I had previously assumed that Brother Keltan wouldn't be that hard to get, like he was in the Argent Crusade camp or something. Unfortunately, he is on the airship which can only be reliably accessed at level 77 once you get cold weather flying. Yes people have found ways around this, involving dozens of corpse runs up the cliff until you can try to levitate jump and land on the airship but that's pretty ridiculous. It is possible to do the Alliance version at level one, and pretty easy by 30. I know Horde always get the short end but this is a little rough. It bugs me but that's how it goes. I guess Anguish will have to wait until next December to get his Violet Proto-Drake instead of October. Ah well.

Joy For All

War, plague, anguish, and all that nasty stuff still can't put a damper on festivities. The Feast of Winter Veil is upon us, bringing Horde and Alliance together to throw snowballs, sprinkle snowflakes, and dance as snowmen.

I had hoped that a seasonal boss would be added like the Headless Horseman last year and Ahune this summer, what with us fighting in Northrend, which is all cold and icy, but no. The achievements are making it pretty entertaining though; I'm certainly doing a lot more holiday stuff this year than I have in years past.

Koji's been living it up with the best of them and only needs his present and Racer to be an official Merrymaker. Anguish, not so much. He's only 65 and still whiny over that whole ado with the Lich King and Ebon Blade so he's not having any fun. Hopefully he'll make it to 70 and can get a hat from Nexus and his Ogri'la attunement before the Feast ends so that he can be merry too. It's time he shook off the past and enjoyed his new life.

Cute and Cuddly

So there's this little graphical bug. Sometimes when you complete the Sons of Hodir daily "Thrusting Thodir's Spear", you are, well, smaller than usual when you pop out of the dead wyrm. Toss some Baby Spice on top of that and you can see the results to the left. And that's for a size 54 Draenei. What if a Gnome did it? Why not throw in a Small Feast too, and can't Noggenfogger Elixir make you smaller as well? Think of the possibilities!

Bear Goggles

It's somewhat belated but I'm sporting a new ride around Northrend. On Sunday my new buddies in Aetherial Circle along with many others teamed up to bring the war back home. Yes, our goal was to kill the leaders of the Horde, and we did so with gusto. BRK posted a video of the light show on Lor'themar which can give you a little idea of it. Our rewards are these pretty black bears complete with armor and glowing goggles. My stormsaber has served me well. She has bared my burden over the lands of Lordaeron, through the wastes of Outland, and a good deal of Northrend's tundra. Now she is free of her Battle Cat armor and lounges lazily in the sunlight in Dalaran.

It was a lot of fun storming through the cities with 39 other people. There was surprisingly little resistance, for a Sunday I thought we'd get a lot. We started off with Cairne who was quite easy, strolled up to Ogrimmar to take out Thrall (and Vol'jin), then moseyed over to Undercity for Sylvanas and finishing with Lor'themar in Silvermoon. I'll be honest though, it was kinda bittersweet for me. Even though Koji is my main, I feel like I'm a Hordie at heart. The majority of my characters have been Horde, it wasn't even until well into BC before I even started my first Alliance character. I didn't like killing Thrall. He's the coolest leader there is by far. But it had to be done.

I personally hope that I do the same to the Alliance leaders one day on Anguish. Tyrande's cool and Velen's alright, but Magni is kinda just there and I just purely dislike Varian Wrynn. He's a hothead and quite simply, a jerk. He's picking fights with the Horde when the Scourge is attacking them where they live. Yeah so he had to be a gladiator for the Horde's entertainment. Thrall was raised a slave to humans in an internment camp yet he still seeks peace. Besides, do you really want to be led by someone with grammar like this?

Hmm... this seems ripe for political allegory.

Ol' Salty Part III

Having finally completed my mission, I'm feeling revitalized and again up to the task of aiding all you fisherpeople with the daunting task of being called Salty. Today will still be fairly simple tasks, but they are getting more time consuming (and mind numbing). So let's begin, shall we?

The Coin Master
First up on our plate is an achievement that is simple to do but will take a long time to get done. To complete The Coin Master, you need to complete three other interrelated fishing achievements: A Penny for your Thoughts, Silver in the City, and There's Gold in That There Fountain. All three of these achievements have basically the same goal and are done in the same place so will be treated as one.

These nifty little coins are fished up in only one place, the Eventide Fountain in Dalaran. Getting to Dalaran isn't all that easy. If you are level 74+ you just talk to a person in Crystalsong Forest. Mages can learn to port there at 71, but I'm not a mage so can't go in-depth in that. I think the quest is in Dragonblight. However, you can get a port from a mage at any level, a much easier path. However, it isn't quite that easy. Dalaran requires one of the highest fishing skills, a minimum of 430 to cast and 525 to stop getaways. This will probably be one of the last achievements you'll be doing unless you've already leveled up your fishing extensively.

But back to the coins. The Eventide fountain is located in southern end of Dalaran, in the Eventide district, between the southern bank and Violet Hold. It isn't the easiest to fish in the fountain, it is very small. Expect to get a line of sight error not too infrequently. Also there is an issue if your bobber lands on the far edge where it looks like it is actually inside the stone of the fountain. You'll instead catch from the sewers loot table as opposed to the fountain. Once you are able to get to Dalaran and high enough to fish there, it is pretty simple enough. Just keep at it in the fountain. You'll catch random coins, copper, silver, and gold, previously owned by well known (or sometimes not so much) players in the history of Warcraft.

One more thing to note is that gold coins are special. Copper and silver coins are essentially junk, they can sell for somewhere in the range of 60 copper but that pretty much equates to worthless. However, if you 'use' a gold coin, you throw it back in the fountain and get a 'lucky' buff, which increases your chances of catching coins for two minutes. Again, there isn't really any skill for this or advice that I can give, just persevere. It took me a long time to finish, I needed just one of each copper, silver, and gold for a long time, but eventually you'll catch em' all!

Old Man Barlowned
This achievement requires you to complete all of the fishing quests given by Old Man Barlo, who is beside the pond east of Shattrath City. I am pretty sure that you are required to be level 70 to get these quests. Every day, Barlo will randomly give one of five fishing quests. A couple patches ago, the quests were changed so that you get the drop you need almost always, if not always on the first cast if you are in the right place, making these much quicker to do.
Bait Bandits: This one requires you to catch a Blackfin Darter in Terokkar. You can fish in any of the lowland waters (meaning not the ones only reachable by flying mount) excepting Slimyr Lake, the lake that Barlo is at. The closest places are two small pools just east and west of Cenarion Thicket.
Felblood Fillet:Next we go off to either Hellfire Peninsula or Shadowmoon Valley. The fillet can be caught in either. In SMV, you can catch it in any of the icky green lava throughout the zone, it's all over the place. In Hellfire, the only place to fish is in the Pools of Aggonar, to the north. It is tougher to catch here since the areas are small.
Shrimpin' Ain't Easy:This one will take a little longer, but it's still simple. Head over to Zangarmarsh. While you have this quest, instead of catching Barbed Gill Trout, you will catch Bloated Barbed Gill Trout. These act like clams or any other "treasure item" in that you open it. Inside will be 1-2 shrimp and sometimes some junk seaweed. Keep at it till you get 10 shrimp.
The One That Got AwayNext we're off to Nagrand to catch the World's Largest Mudfish. This can only be caught in two bodies of water: Skysong Lake to the northeast, between Garadar and the Throne of the Ancients, and Lake Sunspring, to the west, east of Sunspring Village.
Crocolisks in the City: This one actually takes you to Stormwind, where you need to fish up a crocolisk in any of the canals. This is technically the "easiest" as it can be done with 1 skill, but this quest is exceptionally rare. I've only gotten it a few times. Also note however that the rewards for this one are slightly different than the others in that you have a very small chance of getting one in four baby crocolisk pets. However this will be very rare as they are quite a rare drop themselves, and getting the quest to begin with is very rare.
The skill needed to complete these quests vary a good amount. You can do Crocolisks with any skill. Felblood Fillet is next which is pretty low, followed by Shrimpin' if you fish out of the far eastern bodies of water. The Darter in Terokkar is higher still while you need pretty high skill (by BC standards, mid 300s+lures/rod) to catch in Nagrand.

While we're on the subject of Outland, let's take a look at Mr. Pinchy's Magical Crawdad Box. This is a difficult (as in time-consuming) achievement that has caused a good deal of grief. You need level 70 and a flying mount to do this (you can get summoned to the pools by a warlock but that's kinda unrealistic). In Terokkar, there are raised bodies of water only reachable by a flying mount. Those are Lake Jorune, just NW of Stonebreaker Hold, Lake Ere'Noru, SE of Allerian Stronghold, and Blackwind Lake, the big lake in Skettis. In these bodies of water, certain pools, Highland Mixed Schools, spawn. These require high fishing, 500 to stop getaways. In these pools there is a very rare chance of catching a bind on pickup blue item called "Mr. Pinchy". Note that since it is bind on pickup you will be queried if you want to pick it up or not should you catch it. If you aren't paying attention and cast again before saying yes, you will lose it so be sure to be paying attention so that you don't waste your catch. Lake Jorune and Ere'Noru are uninhabited, so are the safest places to fish, but there aren't many pools that can spawn in either location. Skettis has the most pools but you will likely have to deal with Skettis Surgers, perhaps some arrak'oa and Kaliri, but since you're already 70 they won't be problematic.

Now even when you finally catch Mr. Pinchy, you aren't home free yet. When you 'use' Mr. Pinchy, he grants you a wish. One of several things can happen. A level 70 aggressive mob, Furious Mr. Pinchy will spawn that you must dispatch (or I guess run away from). Benevolent Mr. Pinchy may spawn, which is a 10 minute guardian (he helps you in battle). You may receive an item, Mr. Pinchy's Gift, which contains up to 5 Super Healing and Super Mana potions. Mr. Pinchy's Blessing is a 2 hour buff of 500 health, persisting through death. Lastly you may get a Magical Crawdad Box, which lets you summon a crawdad companion. This is our goal, what completes the achievement.

This, like many fishing achievements, can be very time consuming. Catching Mr. Pinchy in the first place is quite rare. When you do, you have only a chance of getting the pet. Also an important thing to note is that Mr. Pinchy has a 2 day cooldown between wishes, so it can take a while to even make your wishes. It took me I believe 4 Mr. Pinchy's and 10+ wishes before I got my pet. So good luck!

That's all for today. Sorry My posting is so sporadic, hopefully it will be more frequent soon.

Fear My... um... Glowing Wooden Lion's...Wolf's Head?

Well I can't tell you what it is other than that it's dang goofy but I gots it. I saved up enough to get my first Emblem loot today, Pride. I'm not sure if it's supposed to be a lion, or a wolf, maybe a bear, maybe it's just better to classify it as "misc". Regardless, I feel proud(no pun, evil puns!) to have whatever it is on my left arm. In BC I hadn't run heroics until they were nerfed with the coming of WotLK. Given many heroics so far are pretty easy, it still takes more than five random people to get the job done. Yes most of those badges have come from Violet Hold and Nexus, but I'm not complaining. I guess however when I'm walking over Lokien's corpse and scaring Mal'Ganis away in heroic, then I'll know I'm getting somewhere.

Respecs

So does this happen to anyone else? You just level and you aren't really paying much attention and you click the wrong talent, forcing you to go respec? If that happens you may be lucky and hit something you had planned to take eventually anyway. But hitting something pointless (Blood Aura for leveling) pretty much demands it. So I feel pretty stupid.

That said, I am beset by indecision. Anguish is now 63 and I've been leveling him as Blood. I'm a quester, not a grinder, and so I felt that Blood would be preferred because questing has you doing more fighting versus single mobs and also versus elites. Since I don't grind, I didn't really think the AE'ability of Unholy was really what I'd want.

However, as I have been doing some of those quests where you need X amount of drops, or kill X amount of mobs, I've found that I'm able do AE okay. Even as blood, DnD, Pestilence, Blood Boil along with Blood's self-healability has let me do it fairly decently. Of course Unholy would be a lot better. So I'm not sure if I should respec back to my original Blood path or go Unholy. AEing with unholy and a permanent pet have their allures. Though as said, I am a quester and will probably be doing a lot more one on one fighting than AE, and also blood gives more survivability and soloability with superior self healing. Can't decide.

MRMRFRMRFRMRRRR!

While some of the creative design of Northrend is excellent (see Wrath Gate) or clever and funny (see Chromie), there is also some that I don't care for. I have already mentioned my distaste of such blatant use of Norse lore in that they barely change the names (or don't at all).

I have just started questing in Icecrown to get my Ebon Blade reputation up. I think that it has the potential to be really a piece of art if it follows up on the Dragonblight's excellence. However, my first step in the zone has put a sour taste in my mouth. It is such a copy of Lord of the Rings that I don't care for it. I usually enjoy their homages such those to Link and Mario in Un'Goro but I think it's going too far here. The first area that I noticed was called Mord'rethar (Mordor) and the first quest has me destroying the Eye of Sauron, err Arthas. The zone is a beauty but it feels taken right out of Jackson's films. I think this goes a little too far beyond homages in my opinion.

I'm still enjoying everything I do in Northrend. I just wish that they used their originality a little more than taking so much from existing culture and lore.

Though some of their scripting truly is inspired.


Edit: Okay they got me. Good show!

Does It Sound Strange to Anyone Else?

So after thousands of casts and lots of irritation, I finally got the title Salty today! I followed both paths of my past post, having given up in Howling Fjord but instead trying for the rare fish in the starting zones. I'll go more in-depth when I pick up the Old Salty line of posts, but needless to say, I finally got it! Hurrah!

I still just think it sounds weird. Maybe that is its fatal attraction.

There and Back Again

So I've been chugging along the level 80 antics. I haven't had a lot of time to do much questing. Since I don't need the experience, I'm taking a rest from the generic quests. I did the quest chain to get in good with the Oracles. I'm almost revered and can start hatching my pets! I also have been doing the Sons of Hodir quest chain. I'm not finished but I'm far enough along that I'm friendly and have at least a couple of their dailies available. Next will be Knights of the Ebon Blade.

I've also been doing instances, including heroics. I never really got a taste of the real BC heroics, only the easy post nerf ones. While most aren't terribly hard provided you have a competent group, they are a good challenge. I'm learning more about my personal playing skills. I can churn out some pretty good dps and enhance my group members (get it? Enhancement!) but I do have agro issues. I can keep it mostly in check but I'm sometimes trigger happy and agro too early. Wind Shock helps nicely but if it's on cooldown I can get in trouble. I need to improve so that it isn't even necessary. Oh I can also CC too, sorta. Hex is a nifty little wannabe Polymorph. 30 seconds of a frog on humanoids and beasts, but 45 second recast so it's more of a one shot thing like sap, no chaining.

By the way, Culling of Stratholme is fun. Normal is pretty easy but the heroic version is a pain, my group got waxed pretty bad before throwing in the towel. And it was a solid group too. Nostalgia of WC3 is awesome. I've said it (at least to myself) many times that every WoW player should have played Reign of Chaos and the Frozen Throne. Ideally they shoulda been played before BC but it's not too late. They're awesome RTS games, loads of fun, and explains a lot of what's going on both in BC and WotLK. You can see snippets of it though in WoW. Stratholme obviously has a slightly warped retelling of it (no Infinite Dragonflight in WC3, duh) as well as other places, such as Dragonblight quests showing where Arthas ordered his fleet burned and when he found Frostmourne.

Finally though, what inspired this post. I really have to hand it to the quest developers. Sure a lot of quests are the same as they were in vanilla, kill X mobs for instance, but some are downright clever.

Case in point: the Dragonblight quest "Mystery of the Infinite". Our old pal Chromie is done hanging around in Western Plaguelands and is now the Ambassador of the Bronze Dragonflight in Wyrmrest Temple. She gives you a quest to fight off some Infinite Dragonflight at the Bronze Dragonshrine. Sounds plain enough, but remember that Bronze dragons are always busy warping time and whatnot. You get some help from a good friend, your future self.

Now I thought that was kinda cute when I did it, didn't think much of it. However, now at 80, I'm flying by and noticed Chromie's offering a new quest. Hmm, "Mystery of the Infinite, Redux". You go back to the Dragonshrine and fight off some Infinite Dragonflight. Sound familiar? Yep, you get some help from an old pal, your past self. I just thought this was thoroughly clever and entertaining.

Maybe I'm just too much of a nerd.

Tacking onto that...

In regards to my mini-rant about Fangtooth Herring:

The fishing achievement "One That Got Away" is the only roadblock between me and becoming an Accomplished Angler and earning the Salty title. I'll go into this in-depth in a future post but the gist of it is that you need to catch one of various "rare fish" that can have a rarity that they can't be accurately calculated. Most only drop from open water. The Dark Herring however can drop from Fangtooth schools, which I would believe makes the chances much more better (since a Dark Herring drop would replace a Fangtooth Herring drop). Well... I've done thousands of casts for this dang fish. I don't have a fish counter but I've seen how many stacks have gone through my trader to the AH... it is ridiculous and I've really lost heart. It is such a shame that this achievement is so unfairly random and based on pure dumb luck. I am almost at the point of giving in since the reward is nothing but a pointless title, but it is hard. The other achievements represent the culmination of so much time and effort that I would hate to give up now but I am really considering it...

Ol' Salty Part II

Okay so the first part didn't really explain anything that wasn't blatantly obvious. If "1000 Fish" is too cryptic for you, well I commend you on being able to play at all. The posts will get progressively more in-depth, culminating with the ones that require the most explanation. Today's achievements are pretty obvious too but at least require a little guidance.

Today's posts are all about pools. Yea later posts will be about pools too but this is about the basic pool achievements.

The Old Gnome and the Sea
Successfully fish from a pool. Simple enough. I'm sure pretty much anyone who's picked up a fishing pole in WoW has done this. They are all over the place. Though even this can use some tips. First off, go your Video then Effects menu. My computer is pretty poor so I have pretty much all of my graphics at the minimum. If you plan to fish from pools however, you should raise your Spell Detail a bit. I find that raising it three "clicks" from the minimum so that the slide is under the e (at least for me, I'm not sure if this can vary for others). This will make pools easily visible. Raising it higher can add even more effects to them but I find it unnecessary. After this is done, just practice with pools a little. It really surprises me how often I see people fishing at pools (the Extravaganza for example) and their lure isn't in the pool. It doesn't have to be dead center, it usually won't be. But it is easy enough to tell if it is on the edge of the circle or just outside of it. Once you fish a lot you'll be able to tell easily. If you are ever unsure, I say just recast it until you are. You could be wasting upwards of 20 seconds to catch something you don't want, and in a situation like the Extravaganza that could be critical, and in any other situation it's still a waste of time. Okay, moving on.

The Scavenger
These are junk nodes. They generally contain a box or some other randomness like Stranglekelp or various potencies of Rumsey Rum. They can actually be quite profitable, though come BC regular fish became much more worthwhile.
Steam Pump Flotsam: This is the only one of these junk nodes found outside of the Old World. To be specific, they are found in Zangarmarsh. This pool can appear really anywhere in the zone on coastal waters. Note that the water has to be deep enough to swim in, not the rivulets that cover the area. Just scan the coasts, you'll find it soon.

Floating Wreckage: This can come from higher level Old World zones, specifically Feralas, Tanaris, and Azshara, either inland or on the coast. The best spot that I have found by far is in Feralas on the coast and the connecting river.There are a ton of pools down this area and chances are good that one of them will be a floating wreckage. If not, you were just unlucky and can come back later or you can fish out the snapper, blackmouth, or eel pools and wait for a respawn.

Schooner Wreckage:This one is fairly difficult to find. It only spawns in Ashenvale, Wetlands, or Stonetalon Mountains. If you are Alliance, I would recommend Wetlands since fishing waters are right outside of Menethil and it is an easy, open coast. Ashenvale I wouldn't recommend. They may spawn there, but I don't remember ever noticing pools on the coast, so you would have to look for them in the rivers which isn't so easy. I believe I got mine in Stonetalon, which isn't that bad. There is Mirkfallon Lake in the center of the zone as well as the rivers in Windshear Crag. Both are fairly easy to navigate and pools seem fairly common.

Waterlogged Wreckage and Bloodsail Wreckage: I stuck these together because they are both found in Stranglethorn Vale. Well waterlogged wreckage can also be found in Desolace, Dustwallow, Alterac, and Arathi, but I think STV is easiest and it is near the bloodsail wreckage too. It is easy enough. Waterlogged wreckage is found in waters north of Grom'Gol, and bloodsail wreckage is found in waters south of Grom'gol. Red is bloodsail, blue is waterlogged.

Fish Don't Leave Footprints
Learn to track fish. This is done by reading a Weather-Beaten Journal which has a chance to drop, as it so happens, from the chests found in the aforementioned junk pools. Getting this prior to The Scavenger would have made it easier, but it isn't always the simplest to get. The chance of it coming out of one of the chests is reasonably low. However, it has been reported that it has about a 50% drop rate from Curious Crates. These are fished in Outland, but are a random drop from any pool-they don't drop from a specific pool like the other chests. Even if the drop rate is low, I think that it is easier going for the junk nodes in the Old World, I recommend the coast of Feralas for floating wreckage. There are just so many pools there that your chances aren't that bad. Also if you've managed to raise your fishing high enough to fish in Outland, are 70+, and still haven't gotten this, it can also be found in the bag of fishing treasures from Old Man Barlo's fishing dailies (but that's for another day).

Okay that has been a lot of explaining. The next ones have a lot more requirements but are also a lot simpler.

Outland Angler
Bluefish School and Mudfish School are both found in Nagrand. I recommend searching Lake Sunspring, south of Sunspring Post, or Skysong Lake, north of Garadar. They can also spawn in rivers and the waters surrounding Halaa, but they seem much more random compared to the simple coasts of the two lakes.
Sporefish Schools are found in any waters in Zangarmarsh
Brackish Mixed Schools are found in the waters of Zangarmarsh or Terokkar.
Schools of Darter and Highland Mixed Schools are both found in Terokkar. Darter schools are found in the lowland waters, reachable by anyone. Highland mixed schools are only accessible with a flying mount. They can be found in Lake Jorune, on the cliffs west of Stonebreaker Hold, Lake Ere'Noru, on the cliffs southeast of Allerian Stronghold, and in Blackwind Lake, the waters in the heart of Skettis. It is in these pools that Mr. Pinchy is found, but that's for another day.

Northrend Angler
Borean Man O' War Schools are found in the coastal waters of Borean Tundra.
Dragonfin Angelfish Pools are in the inland waters of Dragonblight.
Fangtooth Herring Schools are found in the inland waters of Howling Fjord and I hate them so, so much (stay tuned for my rants and whines regarding One that Didn't Get Away)
Glacial Salmon Schools can be found in Grizzly Hills' inland waters.
Glassfin Minnow Schools are found along the river of Crystalsong Forest.
Imperial Manta Ray Schools are in the coastal waters of Howling Fjord, Borean Tundra, Dragonblight, and Grizzly Hills.
Musselback Sculpin Schools reside in the inland waters of Borean Tundra.
Nettlefish Schools are in Sholazar Basin inland waters.
Deep Sea Monsterbelly and Moonglow Cuttlefish Schools are interesting because they technically aren't in any area, but rather in the Frozen Sea, the waters surrounding Northrend. The pools surround glaciers off the coast of Unu'pe in Borean Tundra, or on the southeast edge of Howling Fjord, near the river's mouth. These are most easily reached with a flying mount but lower levels can swim out to the glaciers and jump on them as well, but it can be difficult to do. There aren't many spots that are low enough to jump onto.
Edit: To tack onto that, even though these two pools are in the Frozen Sea, they are located in areas where you are not getting timed on fatigue. If you see the fatigue timer pop up, you're in the correct area (and you should probably move... or you'll die)

Well that's that... wow that went on way longer than I expected. Wonder if all posts are going to be like this. I was hoping it could be more short and sweet but so it goes.

Not Quite the Realm First

So I hit level 80 today. It is nice but doesn't really feel like an achievement to be honest. For a while, not much is going to change. I'll be seeing new areas and doing new dungeons (including heroics) and starting rep grinds, but there is still so much more to do. I feel like I've really barely touched Northrend or its quests.

I arrived on the shores of the Howling Fjord and did all of the quests there, then moseyed cross country to do all of Borean Tundra. Both zones were nice, pretty graphics, something new after having seen Outland for so long. Neither however interested me all that much. Most quests were like oldies with different mobs and items. Kill 10 X, gather 15 Y, etc. The Vrykul don't interest me terribly. I think Blizzard could have been a lot more creative making them based on Norse mythology without pretty much copying names and tweaking them somewhat so they aren't exactly the same. Borean Tundra was a little more interesting. At least the Scourge parts were. I guess that is what I see in Northrend, Scourge. That's our enemy and our target.

On another note... anyone find it unusual and terribly lazy that so many mobs exist in two places at once? Blizzard didn't even replace Hemet and Harold in Nagrand like they did with Junior in Stranglethorn. The same happens in many places.

Okay so after those places I came to the Dragonblight. Now this zone is an absolute beauty. Maybe not as much aesthetically, it's a lot of ice. But here is where the lore and storyline is wonderful. I love quests and lore so this zone had a lot for me. Even if you aren't much of a quester, you really need to do the Wrath Gate quest line. I really regret having watched the video of it's culmination during Beta, it would have been so much more powerful seeing it the first time when you are supposed to. It was still great though.

After Dragonblight I headed over to Grizzly Hills. This zone was also kinda boring for me. It was fun seeing old Arugal again, though I wish he got an instance instead of just a quest objective. It was just his shade though, maybe his rotting corpse is somewhere making mischief yet to be revealed.

And that is all I've done really. I have run most of the lower instances along the way and just a couple quests in Zul'Drak to get that last bit to 80 but that still leaves so much to be explored. I haven't even touched Sholazar Basin, Storm Peaks, Icecrown, Crystalsong (are there quests here or just a way to get into Dalaran?) or Wintergrasp, excepting that one time I was AFK flying and forcefully ejected into unknown territory. It took me quite a while to figure out how to get out.

So as I said, it doesn't feel like I've achieved much in reaching 80. There is still so much to do, and I look forward to it... especially Icecrown.

So what's next? Do I keep doing what I'm doing, burning through every quest on Northrend with some instance runs peppered in? Do I go right to a reputation to work on? I have my eye on Knights of the Ebon Blade for their head enchant and a nice new weapon. There is also the Oracles. I don't like Murlocs and the Frenzyheart exalted trinket looks quite nice, but the Oracles can sell you this curious curio. Now that interested me at first because there is a chance you can get four pets (have I mentioned yet that I like non-combat pets?) but now apparently you can get a Green Proto-Drake from it. It's 280% speed but it's still a beauty, especially when your choices are the old gryphon or a dime a dozen Netherwing drake.

Oh what to do, what to do... I'm also getting into playing Anguish. He's finally at 300 skinning, mining, and cooking, and ready to lay waste to Outland. I'm loving playing a Death Knight but Koji's my pride and my main, he'll always come first.

Decisions, Decisions

So I haven't really started playing Anguish. Yes, I've done all of Acherus, but haven't done any actual leveling since the Battle of Thermopylae(10,000 vs. 300, they didn't pick those numbers out of a hat). I've been leveling his mining, skinning, fishing, cooking, all that random goodness... and a lot of research.

As I said, I like achievements and so I'm sure eventually I'll be coming back to the shores of Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms. That probably won't be for a long while however. Maybe not till Anguish is 80, though I'll probably do some here and there when I get bored. There is one particular faction however that I must consider that is oh so often ignored. That is the group of savage seadogs known as the Bloodsail Buccaneers. Getting exhalted with the Buccaneers is just one more of those timesinks with no real benefit. However you get a rare title, Bloodsail Admiral, and a nifty hat with a blood red bird that looks fantastic. You basically kill Booty Bay guards. Then you kill some more. And you do that over and over again for a really long time. And then, if you ever wanna get your Steamwheedle Cartel rep back up again(which I would... need those quests!), you gotta kill a lotta pirates, or throw stacks and stacks of cloth at various goblins.

Now I waste a lot of time in WoW doing pointless things with no real benefit (see fishing) but one thing I don't like doing is grinding. Killing mobs over and over again is mind numbing to me. I have never grinded (ground?) rep in the past and really don't think I would have the patience to do this. However it is not out of the question... it'll be a long time before Anguish is 80. Something to mull over.

Don't Leave Home Without It

Over my course of playing WoW, I have discovered that blogs tend to be some of the best sources of information that isn't always easy to find. The bloggers tend to go to lengths doing research and tests in order to educate and help readers maximize their potential. I'm not there yet, but someday hopefully.

One of the reasons that I wanted to start a blog about Enhancement Shamans is because as I leveled up this character, I often found it hard to find good information sites. Browsing forums can sometimes get you a good gem but it is frustrating fighting your way through the mire of trolls, flames, and inaccurate information.

It isn't much but here's a start. It is often difficult to compare marginally different pieces of equipment and decide which is better. When I used to play a hunter, I often used Cheeky's Spreadsheet because you just needed to stick equipment X into your profile and see if it increased your DPS. Shamans aren't as easy. I don't know the numbers game very well, I'm not a theorycrafter. However I suppose it is related to the abilities we have available to us, rotations, and all that good stuff. Whatever the reason, there isn't an easy spreadsheet out there. But do not fret, there are options. Instead of just going to one of your capital cities and beating on a training dummy, there is a useful simulator that I often use: EnhSim. This is a very nifty toy that you plug your info such as stats, spec, etc. (I will go there in a second) and it runs a combat simulation and spits out the important info, namely your DPS. You can customize it a lot, even changing boss stats such as resists, etc. in order to estimate how it will affect your DPS. When I first started using it, I found that the configuration could be a little confusing so here's a little step by step for the first time user. Note that this is with version 1.4.6. It may differ slightly for a newer version.

After unzipping, go into "config". The first thing I change is simulation_time, which I put to 10000. A longer simulation will improve the accuracy. There are some options to change in "Rotations and Misc" but I leave them as is. Next is your rotation, which you would put based on how you play. I use a simple five spell rotation:

SR (Shamanistic Rage)
MW5_LB (Lightning Bolt at 5 charges of Maelstrom Weapon)
SS (Stormstrike)
ES (Earth Shock)
LL (Lava Lash)

Based on your situation, I'm sure it will differ. I don't raid yet so I rely on Water Shield whereas a raider will probably be using Lightning Shield for maximum DPS since more mana sources are available. The same goes for Lightning Bolt. Unless it is going to hit multiple mobs, Chain Lightning is too expensive to always use. Prior to patch 3.0, my rotation would include Flame Shock then Earth Shock, but that is no longer the case. Enhancement now dips into Elemental instead of Restoration. The changes to caster stats have given Enhancement Shamans lots of spellpower and spell crit now too. Add in the damage bonus from Stormstrike and ES is much better DPS. But back on topic.

Next are boss stats that you can modify to analyze specific fights. Again I don't raid yet so I haven't done anything with that. Buffs too you can modify based on your common situation. For instance if you are a raider, you will probably enjoy most, if not all of those benefits. If you are a soloist, you can at least get totem and self buffs. Consumables too you can alter based on what you generally have running.

Now into stats. It is pretty self-explanatory. You just copy the stats off your character sheet. Just make a note of some things that may not be obvious if you aren't reading the notes. The hit you enter is the percent, given when you hover over hit rating. Same goes for haste rating, and armor penetration. Also expertise is the rating itself that you get from hovering over it. Here is the one spot however that I am unsure, spell bonus damage and mana regen. I would assume that when entering your stats that need to be unbuffed. Flametongue weapon and Water Shield will boost these stats and they are entered elsewhere. However I do not know if those entries account for these stats or are only there for their procs. If anyone knows one way or the other please let me know.

Next are some more entries: weapon imbues, enchants, weapon type (only matters for Orcs), trinkets, etc. etc. Enter what you have. If you don't have one (enchant or an unlisted trinket for instance), just make it a -. Finally plug in your spec. Yes it doesn't have all talents, namely resto, but those won't be affecting your DPS so that's moot.

Yay, we're all done. Save that up and then run start_simulation. That will run for a minute or so then print out a nice list of anything you wanna know.

I primarily use this to compare different items by plugging the stats wearing one versus the other. Yes it is tedious to reenter all the modified stats but it is the best that I have found to definitively show which piece is better. Still easier than calculating EP (Enhancement Points) also.

Now that that's all said in done, EnhSim does have limitations. The most glaring of which is that you need to be able to equip both pieces to really compare them. Therefore it doesn't help that much if you are contemplating whether or not to roll or spend your DKP on a new piece of equipment. I suppose it is possible if you are a number cruncher but I for one don't know things like how much crit you'll get from X agi. Even if you do, that seems like way too much of a pain. One other limitation is that some item entries do not have all possible options. You may not have the trinket or totem on the list for example. The last update however added several. Perhaps more will be in the future.

Despite those setbacks I think that it is a great tool. It isn't something you can really use to accurately predict your DPS, but it shows an ideal situation where you don't have to move, don't have to toss any heals, and are free from human error. Still, I think it's pretty cool and I have found it useful in comparing equipment. I've recently learned about an addon called Pawn which is supposed to help you make loot decisions based on point systems like Tank Points. I'll try to play with this and talk about it in the near future.

Ol' Salty

Yes, my first real post on my Shaman/Death Knight blog is unrelated to either. As we progress through the lives of Koji and Anguish, you will see that WoW has hooked me in a lot more aspects than just killing things. Two in particular are fishing and achievements.

I can't really explain my interest in either. Fishing I don't find particularly entertaining. It is sometimes boring, and recently (which I will get to momentarily) can be extremely tedious. It does have financial benefits; you can get pretty good money from fishing; but I have lots of money and have nothing to spend it on. Regardless, I am hooked on it (no pun intended... I hate puns). I can't explain it, but I keep on doing it, on both characters.

Achievements are another interesting subject matter. Aside from a few achievements, like the ones that offer titles, mounts, companions, or other little nifty toys, they are just for show, there is really no utile benefit (excepting the black, plagued, and violet proto-drakes, they are 310% speed). I have never really compared mine to other people, though I'm sure there are many who have friendly competitions with them. Regardless, I like aiming for achievements. When they were implemented, I went back and did all the old world dungeons, I did the exploration, and have done a lot of the old world quests for Loremaster, though that's on hiatus for the time being. Regardless, they too have a hook that I can't really explain. Good job Bliz on a creative concept.

Getting back to what this is all about, fishing and achievements. Specifically, the fishing achievement: Accomplished Angler. Reward: just the silly title "Salty". No pretty rod, nothing else. Yet this is an achievement that I have worked a lot on. It isn't an achievement that requires skill at your class, though you do need to know a fair deal of tricks to get some of the more difficult requirements. The biggest thing it requires is patience. You will be doing a whole lot of fishing, a lot just sitting in the same place, perhaps for hours on end, until you get that one rare catch. Worth it? I sure don't think so, but I'm going after it anyway.

I only started really working on this achievement when I won the Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza a few weeks ago. I had won it on 2 or 3 old characters but Koji is fairly fresh, I started him only a few months before WotLK (though I already had a shaman in the past). But I digress. I only started then because that is probably the hardest part of the achievement. There is one winner a week, 52 winners a year. That makes it pretty rare. Maybe that is some of the allure of the Salty title.

Just to get our feet wet today I'll be focusing on the few simpler requirements that don't really need a guide. Over the next few days I'll go over them all in depth. Here is what we're looking at.

Let's just go down the line of easy ones.

Grand Master Fisherman: As it says, become a Grand Master Fisherman. You'll be attaining this eventually no matter what, you need that skill for Northrend. Nothing to worry about.

The Old Gnome and the Sea: Successfully fish in a pool. You'll be fishing in pools, most likely a lot of them. Nothing to worry about.

1000 Fish: Hmm, I wonder what you need for this one. If you are starting fishing fresh, you'll definitely get this along the way. If you already had max skill going into WotLK, you'll still definitly get this along the way. I don't think it's possible to have such good luck that you can finish all the achievements without thousands of casts.

Okay yea, that was all blatantly obvious, sorry. I thought I would be able to cover a few more than that without any real thought, but I'm sure you all want a break, this got a lot longer than I expected. No worries, I'll be going into the other ones soon.

Beginnings

So here it goes. Welcome to Ghouls and Ghosts, a World of Warcraft blog focusing on the lives of my two characters, a Draenei Shaman on the Drenden server named Koji and my new Orc Death Knight on the Terokkar server named Anguish.

WoW blogs seem to come in many different flavors. Some are strictly gameplay related, becoming knowledge bases on their particular subject. Some are focused on the roleplaying aspect of the game, personifying their avatar and giving them life. Some are made to bring out the fun of the game and their character and give their readers a laugh. Some may not even be game related at all and focus on the real lives of the players behind the screen. Of course most fall somewhere in between. In this blog I hope to be informative on my subjects to best help out my readers become better players themselves. When I first started reading WoW blogs, it was because I found a particular blog that had volumes of information and guides on the class I was playing at the time (a hunter) and I got hooked. I started reading other blogs of all varieties, as seen from that nifty list to my right. I'll of course be peppering my blog however with some comedy and fun, every blog needs that, and maybe I will occasionally delve into my personal life if I find it relevent or entertaining.

I am certainly not a pro on any subject. I have played WoW since shortly after it's release, and about 8 years of Everquest prior to that, so I've been playing MMO's for a good half my life. I was a hardcore raider in EQ but that hasn't been the case in WoW. I have hardly raided in WoW, but I hope that with WotLK that will change, I've gotten the raiding itch again. Even if I am not the most experienced, I feel that I play my classes well and strive to be the best player that I can be. I do a lot of research on my classes and I'll do my best to pass on this knowledge to my readers. As I become a better player, I will strive to focus on my original work in order to aid my readers.

So readers, thanks for giving my little blog a glimpse. This is my first blog as you may be able to guess. It is currently very rough and so over time I'll try to improve it. Any feedback, suggestions, criticisms, whatever are always appreciated so that I can improve the blog and in turn provide better information and entertainment to you, my valued readers.