Reviving LBT

Hi guys!

It's been a really long time since I even stopped by LBT to check things out and even longer since I last updated.  This post is going to be pretty short because, unfortunately, RL is preventing me from dedicating any decent amount of time to writing here today.

But I really wanted to stop in and post an update.

For starters, I'm back in game.  I took about a month and a half off where I only logged in if my mom desperately needed me for help, and then, as soon as we were done I logged back out and went back to dealing with the craziness of real life.  The few times I did log in, I was bombarded by tells from friends and guild mates that I hadn't seen in almost two months.  It made me miss everyone that much more and ultimately brought me back into the game.

So here I am.  And that's update number one.

Update number two:  The guild that my druid calls home downed the Lich King while I was away!  Congratulations to everyone who participated in that run!  It's quite a feat and I'm very proud of everyone!

Update number three:  I will be reviving LBT again.  As it turns out, I missed sharing my game experiences with you.  I know it's not the most interesting of blogs, but since it came into existence, I've always been really attached to LBT.  So, I will be trying to get some other updates in here as much as I can.  I think it will be a little slow at first, at least until I start finding trouble to get into, but I will be updating as much as I can.  Maybe a little later today I'll share my first real "I'm Back" adventures if I find some extra time here or there.

At any rate, I'm back and couldn't be more excited to be here!

Alright, I have a lot of RL stuff to do today.  I'm hoping for a lull in the action so that I can come back and update again soon!

With great, great love and bear hugs!

Des

Legends and Lore: Quel'Delar, The Sister Blade

 Quel'Delar, The Sister Blade

Long ago, the night elves and the five Dragonflights worked together to forge a set of incredibly powerful prismatic swords: Quel'serrar, the High Blade, and Quel'delar, the Sister Blade.  The forging of these blades was a special ceremony.  Not only did the dragons have to use their breath to heat and shape the blades, but also needed to use their blood as a temper.  These powerful swords were intended to be the first line of defense against any evil that would challenge peace on Azeroth. 

Quel'serrar was gifted to the night elves, but nearly destroyed.  It remained partially intact for thousands of years with the Shen'dralar of Eldre'thalas.  The Shen'dralar hoped that the blade would someday be restored.  It wasn't until recently that heroes reforged Quel'Serrar in the flames and blackened heart of Onyxia, Broodmother of the Black Dragonflight.  The restoration of the sword brought joy to the night elves who feared it had been lost forever.

Quel'Delar, on the other hand, had a much different story...
 

Quel'Delar was reverently carried by the night elves, the same elves that eventually became the first High Elves.  The blade was passed down from father to son as an heirloom amongst their people until it came into the hands of who would be the last warrior to hold the weapon, Thalorien Dawnseeker.  He valiantly used the weapon to defend Silvermoon against any who dared try to attack his beloved city.  He was able to defend his city until the Third War.  It was during the Third War that Arthas and his Scourge forces marched on Silvermoon.  Thalorien fought bravely and valiantly but the scourge forces proved to be too much for him.  Eventually he was overcome and slain.  Quel'Delar was lost in the aftermath.

The High Elves eventually overcame the devastation and started reconstruction on Silvermoon under the reign of Kael'Thas Sunstrider.  During this period of rebuilding, they renamed themselves Blood Elves, in honor of their fallen brothers and sisters.  It was in the midst of reconstruction that a veteran warrior named Lana'thel found Quel'Delar burried in the rubble.  Now back in the hands of an elven warrior, Quel'Delar was returning to its former glory.

To avenged the death of her people, Lana'Thel accompanied Kael'thas as he made his way to Northrend to defeat the Lich King.  Things didn't exactly work out in their favor, however, and Arthas defeated both Illidan and Kael'Thas, leaving Lana'Thel to face the Lich King alone.  She fought honorably, but was no match for Arthas and was slain.  He then raised Lana'Thel as Blood Queen Lana'Thel with Frostmourne's powers, making her the first of his San'layn Darkfallen.


Though she was almost completely under the Lich King's control, Lana'Thel was reminded of her life in Silvermoon each time she saw Quel'Delar.  In a moment of insurmountable grief, she shattered the blade into pieces, spreading them across the frozen lands.  These pieces of the sword were never to be recovered.

Amongst the armaments of the Icecrown Citadel, the hilt remained and it was eventually discovered by heroes who were attempting to fight their way through the stronghold to face and hopefully defeat the Lich King.  The heroes took the hilt to the elves of Northrend in hopes of discovering the origin of the spectacular hilt.  The Sunreavers and Silver Covenant helped to reveal the origins of the blade through recovered ancient texts. 

With the history of the blade now revealed, Krasus of the Wyrmrest Temple confirmed that the hilt was indeed the hilt of The Sister Blade, Quel'Delar.  Kalecgos argued that this blade was too powerful to be left in the hands of mere mortals, but Alexstrasza convince him, eventually, that there were no better hands than those of mortals for the blade to be in.  It was then decided that the blade was to be restored through whatever means necessary.  Upon hearing this news, Blood Queen Lana'Thel disgraced the blade at Quel'Delar Rest and vowed that i twould never serve another.

The elves would not give up on restoring Quel'Delar and reforged the blade with infused Saronite from Arthas' Pit of Saron and after defeating Forgemaster Garfrost, used his hammer to shape the blade.  The blade was tempered in the Crucible of Souls but this did not bring it's ancient powers back.  The blade did, however, show sparks of life, leading the heroes into Arthas' private chamber, The Halls of Reflection.  Upon entering these frozen halls, Quel'Delar began feeding off of Frostmourne's evil energy.

Uther the Lightbringer's soul appeared before the heroes, scolding them for their foolishness.  He stated that forging the blade of saronite, an evil ore - blood of Yogg-Saron, was a dangerous thing to have done.  He explained that now that Quel'Delar had been exposed to Frostmourne's evil, the only way to purify the blade was to take it to the Sunwell within Silvermoon City.  The heroes did exactly this.

They were initially denied entrance to the Sunwell by Halduron Brightwing.  He eventually realized the importance of restoring Quel'Delar and asked the heroes to seek the blessing of the last true owner of Quel'Delar, Thalorien Dawnseeker.  Upon visiting his remains, the heroes were thrust into a vision of Thalorien's last stand against the scourge invasion and they fought at his side against the waves of scourge.  With his spirit finally at rest, Thalorien gave his blessing to Quel'Delar, allowing it into the Sunwell and to gain a new owner.

As the heroes purified the blade in the light of the Sunwell, Regent-Lord Lor'Themar and Grand Magister Rommath watched, awe-stricken.  The blade was finally restored to its former glory and ancient power.  Theron tried to wield the sword, but it struck him and sent him flying across the room.  The captain of the guard explained that Quel'Delar chooses it's own master and it had chosen the hero that reclaimed it.

At long last, Quel'Delar was resurrected and ready to avenge Quel'Thalas one last time!

(Adapted from "Know Your Lore" at wow.com)

Congrats Khel!

Congrats Khel on getting your mage to 80!!!  May your adventures be wild and fun - 

with no evil puggies to ruin them for you!

Dessyre, Queen of Demons: Episode 5 - DING!

At long last...my beloved warlock has dinged level 80!  I managed to hit 80 Friday evening while running a random dungeon with my husband's death knight tank.  Who knew that level 80 would be so much fun on a warlock?  I sure didn't.  But she's a beast in dungeons...

I spent the weekend in heroics grinding badges and getting her geared.  So far, I've managed to get 4 out of 5 tier9 pieces - Chest, Legs, Gloves, and shoulders.  She's looking really cool right now, if I don't say so myself.  Every slot on her has an epic quality piece of gear with the exception of her two trinkets, one ring and her wand...and I've only been level 80 for two full days.  It's been a grind, but it's been fun!

Thanks to my husband and a friend, I managed to see the first few fights in Trial of the Crusader (both 10 man and 25 man) - but neither group could get past Faction Champions.  I ended up getting a necklace from Jaraxxus from one of the runs.  I also managed to get into a Vault of Archavon 25 man - again, thanks to my husband.  

Even with the few blues she still has, she was rocking 5.2k dps on the VoA bosses.  Now, that's fully raid buffed and flasked with fish feast...but still.  I can only imagine how much better her dps is going to get once we're hit capped and in full purples.

Oh god it makes me giddy!

While I'd never want to give up my druid as my main, I do wonder why I didn't level her as my second level 80.  She's so much fun!

At any rate, back to work I guess.  Just wanted to post a quick update.  Thanks for reading!

*squeals with glee as she bounces back to work*

With great love and giddiness, 

Des - Level 80 Queen of Demons!

Dessyre, Queen of Demons: Episode 4 - Take It For Granted

I've come to realize that there's an awful lot that most of us "experienced players" take for granted in World of Warcraft.  I assume that any of you reading this are probably pretty seasoned players.  Wait a second here...let me define "seasoned" or "experienced" players.

When I use the term seasoned or experienced, I mean people who have a level 80 that they play fairly consistently, have maybe raided a time or two and are pretty familiar with the current expansion dungeons.  I assume you have a basic, but pretty solid understanding of game mechanics and how to play your class well enough to carry your weight.  I'm not referring to people who have been playing since Vanilla, have a level 80 of every class, have played every spec known to man, and have defeated every raid boss ever released multiple times.  I mean, they'd definitely be seasoned veterans and my definition would include them, but I'm talking about the average joe...sort of like myself.

Now, the key phrase I'm going to focus on from that definition is:  "pretty familiar with the current expansion's dungeons."

Why?

Because, for the first time last night I got into a group full of people who had absolutely no knowledge about the dungeon we were in.  Yeah...

Have I mentioned yet that it was The Oculus?

Well, it was The Oculus.  You know, Eregos in all his azure glory, floating around overhead as you fight your way to him while riding around on rented drakes...yeah.  That Oculus.

Anyway, after the second boss killed 2 of the party members (for failing to move out of his AoE damage and the Ring Captain's beams...) I asked if any had been there before.  I got a resounding, "No..." from them all.


I'm not even going to lie to you...I had honestly assumed they'd all been through it at some point.  I was shocked to find that I was the only one that had been through on previous characters.  After a few moments of stunned silence, I took lead for the group and helped set up our team for the final two fights - explaining each fight and what to watch for as well as reassigning the drakes for the final fight.


All things considered, the group did pretty well.  Only two died on the Eregos fight - myself included as I was on the red drake and we missed a time stop for Eregos' enraged assault at the end.  I congratulated them on a job well done and went back to questing once we'd downed him.


But take a moment and really think about it...How many times do you just get into groups that plow through dungeons without even paying it a second thought?  It was a pretty new experience to go through a dungeon with a group that had never been there before.  It made me think more about my friend Phae, who has just come back to the game after almost 6 months off.  He doesn't yet have a level 80, but it had never occurred to me until now that there are a small handful of instances he's probably never seen before. I guess I just never really thought about it before...

Oh, and a quick update on my little Demonic Dancing Queen...As of logout time last night she was at 79% of level 79.  We're only 21% away from level 80!  I can't wait!  Tonight's the night she joins the army of level 80's out there!  Well, unless of course something crazy happens...

So I'm very excited and I can't wait to start getting some really great gear for my little lock!  I will update soon and let you know when I've finished the climb and how the gear situation's looking!

With great love,
Des

Dessyre, Queen of Demons: Episode 3 - Free Fallin'

I thought I should update on my warlock today, since I spent my game time last night working with her again.  Earlier this week she hit level 78, which meant that she was able to pick up all of the quests needed in order to begin the lengthy chains to unlock the Sons of Hodir and the Shadow Vault.  I abandoned all of my other quests and immediately started working on the Sons of Hodir quest chain.  

Apparently I had forgotten just how LONG the quest chain is that you must do in order to unlock the Sons of Hodir.  Jeepers...I'll post the chain here.  It starts with Gretchen Fizzlespark in K3 in the Storm Peaks.

1.      They Took Our Men!

2.      Leave No Goblin Behind

3.      The Crone's Bargain

4.      Mildred the Cruel

5.      Discipline

6.      Examples to be Made

7.      A Certain Prisoner

8.      A Change of Scenery

9.      Is That Your Goblin?

10.  The Hyldsmeet

11.  Taking on All Challengers

12.  You'll Need a Bear

13.  Going Bearback

14.  Cold Hearted

15.  Deemed Worthy

16.  Making a Harness

17.  The Last of Her Kind / The Slithering Darkness

18.  The Warm-Up

19.  Into the Pit

20.  Prepare for Glory

21.  Lok'lira's Paring Gift

22.  The Drakkensryd

23.  Sibling Rivalry

24.  Mending Fences

25.  The Refiner's Fire (Drop)

26.  A Spark of Hope

27.  Forging an Alliance

28.  A New Beginning

29.  Veranus

30.  Territorial Trespass

31.  In Memoriam / Jormuttar is Soo Fat...

32.  Krolmir, Hammer of Storms

33.  The Terrace of the Makers

It's an incredibly long quest chain, but absolutely worth it and incredibly fun!  There are a couple other quests you can pick up in K3 that you can do while you're working on the Hodir chain, like Equipment Recovery, another quest you pick up from Gretchen.  The gear you have to pick up is in the exact same little area as the goblins you're supposed to set free, and you're going to have to kill the Hyldnir anyway...so may as well snag the extra experience while you're at it, eh?

At any rate...if you're fairly focused, this quest chain won't take too long and, like I said, it's fun!

For the portion of this chain where you are working with the Hyldnir "ladies", you get to ride blue proto drakes and polar bears for a few of the quests.  Great fun!  You even get to blow up giant Hodir guys and their wolves!  

My absolute favorite of all of these quests is The Drakkensryd.  This has got to be one of the coolest quests in the game, at least in my humble opinion.  You get a harpoon and Gretta tosses you on the back of a big blue proto drake.  You use the harpoon to swing from dragon to dragon and kill the Hyldnir rider on it's back.  Once you've killed 10 of them, you shoot the harpoon at one of the orbs on Thorim's tower and go talk to him.  It's a great quest and a LOT of fun!  Admittedly, it was a little difficult as a warlock, considering the fact that my minion couldn't be out while I was on the back of the drakes, but it was still so much fun!

Once I had finished with that, I moved on to Icecrown to start the journey to unlock the Shadow Vault.  This quest chain is not NEARLY as lengthy, but it's still quite a bit of fun. 

1. [80] It's All Fun and Games

2. [80] I Have an Idea, But First

3. [80] Free Your Mind

4. [80] If He Cannot Be Turned

5. [80] The Shadow Vault

6. [80] The Duke

7. [80] Honor Challenge

8. [80] Shadow Vault Decree

9. [80] Get the Key

10. [80] Let the Baron Know

For both factions, these quests start on the faction's airship that is flying high over Icecrown.  For me, I had to speak with Thassarian.  I'm not quite sure who Hordies have to speak to but I know he's a blood elf death knight on their airship - if that helps.


This quest chain wasn't quite as much fun for me as the Hodir chain, but it's still pretty interesting.  The first quest is the best of them all, imho.  You fly up to the tip-top of one of the spires in Icecrown and start blowing up this giant eyeball while you're on your flying mount.  I mean, come on...that's pretty freakin' fun!


If you're wanting to know more about the quests or what's involved, leave a comment and I can post a bit more with tips and whatnot for completing these quickly.  This is my third run at both chains, so I'm getting pretty efficient at it.


One rather annoying thing that happened though...as I was soaring high over Icecrown on my Celestial Steed to turn in one of the quests to Thassarian on the airship...Spontaneous DOOM happened!

There I am, flying along, excited about completing another step on my way to 80 and POOF!  My celestial steed disappeared from beneath me!  o.o   I was so high up that even slowfall wouldn't have helped...I fell for an eternity.  Literally 5-10 seconds of FREE FALLING...then splat!  Spontaneous doom!  


I wasn't even touching my keyboard at the time...so I'm not sure what did it.  It made me kind of sad really.  The worst part was that I had fallen down into a pit where there were patrolling elites and a ton of other random mobs all grouped up.  Resurrecting was fun...So, if you're wondering why my song choice of the day is "Free Fallin'" by Tom Petty...now you know! LOL


Much love to everyone!

Des

Credit for the quest lists and links go to Wowhead.com.  Without them, WoW would be hard work!  

Shamanism: Chapter 1

I don't think I've ever dedicated an entire post to my shaman.  This will be the first.  Actually, I may have already dedicated one to her...but if I did it was awhile ago so...we'll just pretend I never did...otherwise I'll have to go change the title of the post and, well, I'm feeling really lazy today.

A week or so ago, I got my shaman to level 58.  She was ready to go explore The Outlands, but I never really got around to starting any quests on her.  I worked a little on her inscription, but it's about as high as it can get until she hits level 65.  Speaking of which, I should probably go back and level her herbalism.  I think that's still a little on the low side, and now that she's in outlands, well, it would be nice to level her herbalism as I quest.

Anyway, enough babbling about nonsense.  My little baby shaman hit level 60 yesterday!  It was very exciting!  She got two brand new spells that I'm really excited about!  For her resto spec, she finally...FINALLY...got Riptide!  Very exciting!  It has a small splash heal followed by a heal over time, which, combined with earth shield will make healing a little easier for her.

For her Elemental spec she got Thunderstorm.  I haven't had a chance to try that out just yet, but I'm REALLY excited about it, either way.  She's all trained up and ready to start her journey through Outland!  I can't wait.  She's easily one of my favorite classes.  I'm hoping to get into some groups where I can dps with her a bit more, but I'm happy enough healing on her.  

Oh!  During her first run of Hellfire Ramparts (at level 57, no less), she got the Kilt of Rolling Thunder.  I slapped some gems in that and I'm pretty sure it will last her through most, if not all, of her adventures in Outlands.  

My husband also got his paladin to level 60 last night, which is really awesome!  His paladin is a tank, so it works out well for my shaman, as she can queue with him as dps or dps/heals and will not have to sit in the dungeon queue for eternities at a time.  Very exciting!  

Dessyre, Queen of Demons: Episode 2

I am loooooooong overdue for an update.  I apologize.  Work and RL has been...well...chaotic, to put it nicely.  I haven't had much of a chance to update lately so I'm forcing the opportunity right now.  

I've been working a lot with my Warlock recently.  Now, I have a bunch of alts that are a lot of fun but, for some reason, I find myself drifting more and more toward my warlock.  I can't help it.  She's just so awesome!

Dessyre, my demonic little space cadet, recently dinged level 76.  The finish line is so very close.  I can see level 80 on the horizon for her!  I'm really excited.  

She's been affliction since her first talent point, but now that she's nearing level 80, I'm thinking of switching to a more Dungeon friendly spec - Destruction.  I'm sure Affliction can be pretty solid dps.  Right now, I can usually get myself within the top 2 dps for the group, but I'll have to wait and see.  I may stay Affliction until level 80 and run a few heroics with that spec, then switch to Destruction just to see what happens.  


At any rate, there haven't been too many dungeon failures, surprisingly enough.  Occasionally, I pull aggro off of the tank and then have to try and figure out how to survive until the tank gets the thing off of me...but for the most part, I behave as well as I can and have really enjoyed running dungeons with her.


The only recent failure was in Violet Hold with Zurramat the Obliterator.  That boss is junk, imho.  He's incredibly easy if folks know what they need to do.  When you get folks that really haven't got a clue about what they need to do...well then it turns into a clusterfudge for sure.  Last night's group met it's demise at the hands of Zurramat and it was tragic.  He was the second of the two random bosses to be summoned for us to face...meaning we were more than halfway through the instance.  The puggled mage didn't kill any of the mini-void guys during his two void-shifts and so...we wiped.  And then the group broke up.  It's really quite sad.  He's not a difficult boss by any means provided you use the strategy that was meant for that fight.  Ah well...I managed to get into Gundrak a bit later with a friend who's got a ridiculously well geared Pally tank, and I ended up getting a new cloak for Dessyre.  I guess that's really all there is to update here.  Unfortunately, I've been busy with other things lately and my WoW time is spent mostly AFK dealing with housework and other RL things...you know...work...and all that.  


And not to say that the Warlock class is OP...but she's been able to solo quite a few group quests out in Dragonblight so far.  hehe 


That's about all I've got for now.  I have a couple screenshots I want to post here but I've failed to edit them so that they fit into the post area.


I'll work on it though.  Eventually.


With much love,


Des

Temperamental Tanks!

This is going to be a quick post, but I couldn't not share this story with you guys....

Since I spent the weekend leveling my mage's jewel crafting (which was horrifically painful, mind you), I thought I'd try and queue in for a quick dungeon before bed.

Well, after waiting in the queue for nearly 20 minutes I finally got into a group for Maraudon:  Purple Crystals.

It's a really quick run, not a whole lot of trash to deal with.  I was pretty excited.

I should have known that my happiness would be short lived, however.

After our paladin tank made the first pull...

[Party] [Priesthealer]:  Can I please have Wisdom?
[Party] [Priesthealer]:  NEED WIS
The tank, myself, the warlock and the hunter are trying desperately at this point to make sure the mobs die without the tank dying, since the healer was standing there refusing to heal. 
[Party] [Priesthealer]:  This tank is going to learn to listen one way or the other...
Paladintank is nearly dead.  I throw gift of the Naaru on him and freeze the mobs in place so that he can get a holy light off on himself...
[Party] [Priesthealer]:  Failtank needs to learn to give his healer wisdom...
The mobs are all dead.  Paladin tank runs up and throws Blessing of Wisdom on the priest healer.
[Party] [Paladintank]:  Here!  HERE is your f*cking WISDOM!!! Happy now?!  Happy?! 
Paladintank leaves the party. 

As soon as he left, the priest went off in party chat about him being a failure of a tank, to which I responded with:  "You, sir, are a complete and utter jackass.  Good luck guys." 

I ended up leaving the party...but I wished I had caught the paladin's name and server in retrospect.  I'd give him a high five!  

Not sure if any of you have been subjected to the "Dungeon Finder" grade moron yet...if you haven't then you are blessed.  It seems like these folks assume that just because we're not all from the same server then they get to just be complete tools in group and there are no consequences.  It reminds me of another Dungeon Finder story...

While I was on my warlock, I got queued into Utgarde Keep.  The group was made up of a paladin tank, myself, a mage, a druid healer and an enhancement shaman.

Note that I am telling you that this shaman was enhancement.  Keep this in mind.


Now, we got to the second bosses and a fist weapon dropped.  Obviously, the shaman rolled need because it had agility and stam or some such thing on it and it was an instant upgrade for him.  Well, our healer got all enraged over it and for the entire rest of the instance bitched and complained about wanting the shaman to trade it to him.  I even told him that my MAIN is a feral/resto druid and that we never, ever use fist weapons.  It isn't that we "can't", it's just that it makes absolutely zero sense since there are no feral off-hands and we can't dual-wield. 

Anyway, when we got to the final boss, the healer warned the shaman one last time that this was his last chance to trade it or we wouldn't like the consequences.


Well, right as we pulled, the healer left group and hit his hearthstone - wiping the group.

Nice...


A few days later, I had queued in again on my warlock and ended up in The Nexxus.  Lo and behold - Idiot Tree was there.  I "graciously" bowed out of the group - saying that I had zero intention of running with this healer because of what he did in the last run I had been in with him...I was asked what he did and informed the group.

I have no idea if they kept him or not.  But I won't run with him anymore.  Anyone who would wipe a group for such a stupid reason isn't worth the frustration.  I'd rather spend another hour in the queue than to run with an idiot like that...

Anyway, I guess the moral of the story is that, while the cross-server dungeon finder does allow for a little bit of anonymity,  people DO remember you if you've done something exceptionally rude or dumb or have screwed an entire group.  A little courtesy goes a long way.  Odds are low that you'll ever run into the same players again - but why risk it?  Just play your role as well as you can and be nice to everyone.  That way you don't have people calling you out every time they run into you in a group over one stupid thing you did. 

TIPS FOR SUCCESSFUL CROSS SERVER

DUNGEON FINDER GROUPING (5 Mans)

(Things your mom should have taught you...)
1.  BE NICE
2.  Do your best - play your role as intended.  If you're not a tank, don't pull.  
3.  For the sake of everyone's sanity - Don't go afk a million times in the run.
4.  BE POLITE.  Ask before rolling need, ESPECIALLY if it's for an off-spec.  Say please, thank you, and congratulate people on achievements, leveling, or loot wins.  
5.  Don't purposely screw your group over.
6.  Don't be a douchebag.  Constructive criticism is fine when presented politely.  Being a douchebag is totally unnecessary.  
7.  Exercise good manners overall and life with your puggle will be so much better.  I promise.

Mount Farming Update

Well, I suppose this update is a little overdue.  I haven't had the time to post recently which has been bugging me quite a bit, so I decided I'd post today come hell or high water.

If you're wondering, both hell and high water are currently trying to prevent me from posting today.  *digs herself out of a mountain of paperwork*  Just thought I'd share...

Anyway...

I have a riddle for you.  

"I'm Swift.  I'm Zulian.  I'm a tiger.  What else am I?"

DES'S NEW MOUNT!  WAAHOOOOOOO!

Sunday was the strangest day I've had in a long time.  I woke up with this nagging feeling that I wanted to run Zul'Gurub.  I wanted to run it ALL day long.  I wandered around the house, did a little laundry, worked on some music stuff with my husband and still wanted to run it really, really bad!  Finally, around 8pm I convinced him to join a group with me so we could at least try to get one of the mounts.

Out of habit, we took on Bloodlord Mandokir first.  No raptor.  I was a little bummed because I know my husband would like to get the two mounts from ZG also and I had seriously hoped it would drop for him.  No such luck though...

After that we made our way over to High Priest Thekal.  With my husband's kitty dps, the fight was pretty quick...and then...

I think I might have actually shed a tear of joy when this popped up...I kid you not.  Obviously I rolled need on it, and really expected my husband to do the same.  Unfortunately...or well...fortunately I guess for me...he passed on it.  He said that it was the least he could do considering how obsessively I've been farming mounts for the past few months.  He's so sweet.  If you're wondering, yes, I would have passed for him too.  I asked him about 300 times if he wanted to change his mind before I learned the mount - to the point where he got really annoyed at me asking and told me to shush up and learn the damn thing already.  So I did.

It will forever be one of my favorite mounts - not only because of the fact that it's a rare drop and a much coveted mount...but because my husband was so sweet and gave it to me.  I'm sure it killed him a little inside.  It made me a little sad that we didn't just roll for it like we're supposed to.  I don't have a problem farming for mounts and it's nice to be able to go tank stuff and have him get nifty things too.  I'll have to start badgering him about going on mount runs with me.

At any rate, the only "old world" mount I have left to snag from a raid or instance is the one from Karazhan.  That's going to go much more slowly on account of only being able to go in there once a week.  I'm hoping that it drops before the expansion hits.

As far as my Mountain O' Mounts achievement, I'm currently at 90/100.  I need to farm up some gold to start making more mount purchases.  There are few I could get soon, but I need to first get my tier 10 upgrades and gem and enchant those - and that's not gonna be cheap, unfortunately.  Speaking of which, I need to go update my mount tracker list.  

*  Here's the link to the mount tracker I posted earlier:  ALLIANCE MOUNT LIST (that doesn't require ridiculously amazing raid groups/raid achieves)

I will post some screen shots when I get home hopefully of the tiger and that sexy little achievement flash :)

With love, 

Des

58 Runs Later...

It may have taken me 58 runs, but it paid off.  That's right!  Kael'thas finally dropped his Swift White Hawkstrider for me last Thursday!  YAY!

It's very reminiscent of the Chocobo from Final Fantasy...but I digress.  I'm so excited that it FINALLY dropped.  I'll post some screen shots here in a few minutes.  

You know, if he wouldn't have dropped it during that run, I would have been frustrated.  It wasn't a normal run for me.  I had just updated my spec for feral tanking and I didn't have the AoE damage reduction in kitty form that I normally had.  I was taking damage from his stupid phoenix like you can't even believe!  I switched to bear in time to hit frenzied regen and pop a few other cooldowns to stay alive, but I never did manage to kill his phoenix before the Anti-Gravity phase...

The damage that bird dishes out isn't fun.  I found myself spam healing myself til I was oom during the first anti-gravity phase, so I never got a chance to take out his phoenix until after the second liftoff.  Once I landed I killed the phoenix egg and then after the third round I managed to take out Kael'thas.  Phew!  I was pretty close to dying, as you'll see in the screenshots.  

The fight didn't go as smooth as it normally does, so...being the superstitious bear I am I had a feeling he was going to drop something cool.  I just didn't expect it to be the mount.  Anyway, enough blah blah about the fight.  Here are the screenies: