Transmog Post: Hunters and Dragons

I've been working on some outfits for my hunter. Since my old guildmates came back, we've been running the hell out of old content. It's been a lot of fun, and these runs, along with some Auction House hunting has produced a variety of nice outfits. It's unfortunate I can't just wear them all. 
The outfits reflect the blog name and my obsession with House Targaryen (for Daenerys!). Prepare for some dragons (and fire. and blood. and no caps.) 
Silver and Gold Dragon
And red, but that would make the title super long. I like the T1 pants from Molten Core, but not a big fan of the chest piece. A little ingenuity and some nice shoulders from Karazhan and wahhlahhh, an outfit to match the Magnetized Projectile Emitter.

Helm: Steamworker's Goggles - Ulduar 25 man (Flame Leviathan)
Shoulders: Dragon-Quake Shoulderguards -Karazhan (The Curator)
Chest: Wrathfin Armor -Random Drop Level 61
Hands: Marauder's Gauntlets -Random Drop Level 31
Waist: Tracker's Belt- The Slave Pens (Mennu the Betrayer)
Legs: Giantstalker's Leggings - Molten Core (Magmadar)
Feet: Giantstalker's Boots - Molten Core (Gehennas)
Weapon: Magnetized Projectile Emitter -Ulduar 10 man (XT Hard Mode)

Fire and Blood
I mentioned back on a warrior/dk transmog post, that I thought it would be neat to make Fire and Blood outfits. For those non- A Song of Fire and Ice fans, "Fire and Blood" is the motto for House Targaryen. After finally getting the Crown of Destruction from Molten Core, I now had the biggest fuel to my fire...or something... lol puns. I wanted to keep the outfit black and red, but that is, of course, easier said then done. I was lucky to scrounge up some rare green legs, Ebonhold Leggings, from the AH for a really low price. Along with my Drakescale Hauberk, a rare blue drop from Hemathion, I was able to complete the two biggest pieces of the Ebonhold set. To show the fire into cool molten rock, I looked at the T9 offset mail piece, similar to the shaman T9.

Head: Crown of Destruction
Shoulders: Shoulders of the Ground Breaker -WotLK Legacy Vendor in Dalaran (T9)
Chest:Drakescale Hauberk -Hemathion (Rare in Blade's Edge Mountains)/ Ebonhold Armor
Hands: Gloves of Taut Grip -Ulduar 10 man (XT)
Waist: Valestalker Girdle- Mount Hyjal (Kaz'rogal)
Legs:Ebonhold Leggings -Random Drop Level 51
Feet: Boots of Unsettled Prey -Ulduar 10 man drop (other version's as well)
Weapon: Wrathful Gladiator's Rifle - WotLK Legacy PvP Vendor (Stormwind/Orgrimmar/Tanaris)

Post Patch 5.04: The Little Things

So. The other behemoth in the room. The contender to face off against new release MMOs...Patch 5.04! YAY!!!!!
Kinda....I personally hate giant patch releases. Especially pre-expansion ones. It's cool when new things get added, but usually they break the game, addons, other things...my class sometimes. They involve lengthy maintenance and sometimes, lengthy downloading. Or in this case, optimization... I didn't mind the optimization, but the time left indicator was really odd. It sat at 0% for about 30 minutes, then creeped to about 4%...then shot to 100%....very accurate.
I also don't like patches because they break addons. I really like my UI, and am pretty reliant on things like Adibags to not make myself go nuts. I also feel uncomfortable without my Vuhdo, even though I've successfully healed without it. Just not the same.
Despite all this stress, I'm still incredibly pleased with the new patch. It brings about a ton of changes, but they are all, in my opinion, good, and I feel that there is something exciting for every class.Whether it be cosmetic glyphs, quality of life changes, or just new abilities, Mists of Pandaria is starting to look good.

Guild Rep and Experience Cap Gone!
You can also earn the same amount of rep and exp at all levels, so I've been seeing level 40s with exalted guild status...cool but crazy!

After nearly a month of grinding dailies for rep, I finish off two weeks worth in 10 quests...

Four days of dailies later...

Hunters are cool! :D
Between our new talents, (A Murder of Crows, Blink Strike!) to glyphs (Fetch!) and quality of life improvements (bai bai range), I've been absolutely in love with my hunter. Beast Mastery got a lovely boost, and pets got a great revamp. We have some new and unique utility and I can't wait to go tame some more pets in MoP.

One of the new families: Water Striders.

  My biggest applause goes to the revamp of hunter pets. Being able to instantly switch from Tenacity to Cunning to Ferocity outside of combat, and with whichever pet you want, is a great change. It allows for people to use the pet they love, only having to consider abilities, and only really, at certain times. So outside of dungeons/raiding/bgs, you can use whatever you want, which is nice if you're leveling/questing. For those more important PvE endeavors, pets still offer different buffs, but some are changed and some are new.
Cats and Spirit Beasts now offer a boost to Mastery. (This replaces the Agility/Strength buff.)
Hyenas and Serpents increase Melee and Range speed by 10%. 
Water Striders offer casters a 5% increase to Spell Power and Crit.
Water Striders are a cool addition to the pet family. Not only do they offer a buff to add to our utility arsenal, but they also give us Water Trot, our version of Water Walking. Love it! Been easily getting around Tol Barad using this pet when I do dailies. :) The other addition in patch 5.04 (excluding the MoP families) is Basilisks, who have a stone CC ability.
I also like how our ranged weapons now appear on our backs. Makes me feel very Katniss. I recently got the beautiful Golden Bow of Quel'Thalas and it looks amazing and uncomfortable on my hunter's back. :)

Still tryng to figure out a transmog outfit to match. It's a lot harder than it looks :(.
Account-wide Pets and Mounts

You've been far to unused for far too long.

So, a long time ago, I was running my bf through Stratholme on my paladin. And guess what dropped...Rivendare's Mount! I don't play my paladin...ever, but it all paid off in the end. Account-wide mounts are an amazing thing to behold. Now I get to enjoy my Rivendare's Mount, Ultramarine Qiraji Battle Tank (arch mount), and Phosphorus Stone Drake on all my toons. Love it! :D

Druid Stuff
Tree form's back

  While my days as a druid have been numbered thanks to recent events, I still have a lowbie I've been leveling for fun. Once I hit level 25, I grabbed my glyph and went for it. Gotta love those shaking roots. :)
Boomkin on mounts.

Enough said.
No more fishing poles.
I suddenly had this crazy idea that I wanted to level fishing on my hunter, since I've only ever leveled it on my druid. I forgot to put a fishing pole on, so I was surprised when I looked and I didn't need it.

I think it's kind of clever they just made it a stick with a string. It reminds me of my days as a kid at the park lake. :)
Until then, just enjoy the view. 
These are just the little things; mostly nonessential or cosmetic. The big changes, such as the leveling experience, the LFR loot system, Talents/Glyphs changes and of course, Healing Mushrooms are for another post. I'm still finding new things every day.  

Character Post: Marpessa

So I thought I'd do a new thing and focus on my individual character's stories. The great thing about WoW (and what I thought was missing in SWTOR) is that I have much more freedom to create the background for my character. I'm not going into full blown storytelling mode here, just a little bit of background. This is actually a Transmog project for me, because I want to create outfits for each part of their storyline. There will most likely be 3-4 outfits, depending on their adventures in each expansion. I'm excited to do this project, because transmog is a passion of mine, and this is a good exercise for me to try and be more creative. However, have to admit, farming for these outfits is a pain in the ass.

Marpessa Duskbreaker
Blood Elf Hunter
(all my information is from wowpedia.org. If I have a canon error, I'm sorry and I'll try and correct it.)

Transmog Post: Hunter T13 Look

Been really loving the current tier look for hunters. The helm and shoulders combo is a nice tribute to the WotLK dragons, Frost Wyrms. Because I'm only doing LFR, I made a set for that version.

Frost Wyrm (Blues, LFR)

Helm: Wyrmstalker's Headguard- Dragon Soul-Raid Finder (Token from Warmaster Blackhorn)
Shoulders: Wyrmstalker's Spaulders -Dragon Soul-Raid Finder (Token from Hagara the Stormbinder)
Chest: Mail of the Geyser -Legacy Justice Point Vendor in Dalaran (iLevel 264)
Hands: Spiritwalker's Gauntlets - Black Temple (Shade of Akama)
Belt: Naturalist's Preserving Cinch - Black Temple (Supremus)
Legs: Frozen Forest Kilt - Heroic Nexus (Ormorok the Tree-Shaper)
Feet: Boots of Oceanic Fury - Black Temple (High Warlord Naj'entus)
Ranged: Felglacier Bolter - Heroic Pit of Saron (Krick & Ick)

Things to do before Pandas

Been out and about in the lands of Warcraft, preparing for a new adventure. I'm pretty excited about the new expansion, and most of my activities preparing for it. I'm in the MoP beta, part of my annual pass, but I haven't been doing much. I have horrible lag in Pandaria, so I usually just mess with talents and glyphs and punch dummies in the face.
So we got about 60 days until release dayyy... what do I need to accomplish.

150 Pets
This might not happen before the release of 5.0, which will of course happen before MoP, and includes, if I'm not mistaken, the account wide companions. So by the time 5.0 comes out, if my luck doesn't take a nose dive turn for the better, I won't get this. But I'm trying, mainly for my own satisfaction. With out a doubt I will hit 150 when the account wide stuff hits, so it's not like it's impossible or a huge struggle. Just seeing how lazy I am.   

Warlock to 85/ Inscription to 525
My warlock has been at 72 for a while now. I am planning to play a Warlock in MoP, especially with all the changes that have been made to them. They will probably be my choice caster dps since I am going to focus on Feral in MoP on my druid. So far, leveling my warlock has been the victim of drastic laziness- honestly, warlocks feel like they're at an odd state; noone seems to play them, and blogs I read about the class seem to proclaim them dead. However, MoP is offerring some great new additions and I think they will make a nice difference. 
My warlock's profession is Inscription, and to be honest, it's probably more important than leveling the warlock herself. I've been regularly doing research so hopefully, I'll have a decent set of glyphs to offer when the new 5.0 comes out. Hope it works. >.<

Learning all the glyphs
Speaking of, it's going to be important to learn as many as you can before 5.0 hits. I would see what new glyphs are being kept and which are being deleted to know what your class needs. I'll be doing that for the druid and hunter soon, and may work on other alts if I feel they are worthy.

Get to exalted in my new guild on Aenerys
It looks like I will be able to accomplish this by the end of August, which is perfect timing in my books. I freaking hate the guild reputation system, not because its rep but because of the cap.
Anyways, I really would like to do this to obtain the pets and mounts...I know that sounds bad, but I am not sure if the guild I'm currently in will change their rules once expansion comes out (I'm currently running around with a skeleton crew), so I want those before I might be forced to leave.

Get Magria
Stupid pet is totally being elusive and hiding from me...I haven't seen Ankha either, but man Ban'thalos....best friend's he and I.

Complete Transmogs for toons. 
Been checking the AH daily for assorted gear for Transmog. I've been lucky enough to find some nice pieces (Ulduar gems) and other things. Also running certain raids when I can. Sometimes, I can't wait to be 90 so I can have an easier time in places like BT and SSC. But again, I like the satisfaction of feeling that I did something special.   

Looks like that's about it...Seems like there's a lot to do, as long as I keep my ass going. I'm very excited for MoP though, so even if I don't finish the list, I'll still be happy. September 25th! Can't wait.

Class Specific Outfits (minus druids)

Hunter

Alliance Hunter

Helm: Helm of Soothing Currents : Black Temple (High Warlord Naj'entus)
Shoulders: Rift Stalker Mantle : Tier 5 Token from Tempest Keep (Void Reaver)
Chest: Lord's Breastplate : Random drop; level 48
Hands: Rift Stalker Gauntlets : Tier 5 Token from Serpentshrine Caverns (Leotheras the Blind)
Belt: Tol'vir Hereditary Girdle: Drops from Cyrus the Black, rare in Uldum.
Legs: Frozen Forest Kilt : Ormorok the Tree-Shaper, in The Nexus
Feet: Savage Gladiator Greaves :  Drops from Anub'Shiah in Blackrock Depths (honestly, any black toed boots will do.)
Weapon: Brutal Gladiator's Longbow : Legacy PvP Weapon vendor in Stormwind/Orgrimmar.

Helm: Wyrmstalker's Headguard- Dragon Soul-Raid Finder (Token from Warmaster Blackhorn)
Shoulders: Wyrmstalker's Spaulders -Dragon Soul-Raid Finder (Token from Hagara the Stormbinder)
Chest: Mail of the Geyser -Legacy Justice Point Vendor in Dalaran (iLevel 264)
Hands: Spiritwalker's Gauntlets - Black Temple (Shade of Akama)
Belt: Naturalist's Preserving Cinch - Black Temple (Supremus)
Legs: Frozen Forest Kilt - Heroic Nexus (Ormorok the Tree-Shaper)
Feet: Boots of Oceanic Fury - Black Temple (High Warlord Naj'entus)
Ranged: Felglacier Bolter - Heroic Pit of Saron (Krick & Ick)

Warrior

The Unburnt

 
Helm: Jaw of Repudiation - Valor Point Vendor
Shoulders: Destroyer Shoulderguards - Tier 5 Token from Tempest Keep (Void Reaver)
Chest: Lifeforge Breastplate - BoE drop from Ulduar (Ignis the Furnace Master)
Gloves: Gauntlets of the Molten Giant - Tier 12 Cataclysm Justice Point Vendor
Belt: Girdle of Unyielding Trust - WotLK 226 ilevel Justice Point Vendor in Dalaran.
Pants: Legguards of the Molten Giant - Tier 12 Cataclysm Justice Point Vendor
Feet: Hellfrozen Bonegrinders - Blacksmithing Crafting 264 ilevel (Recipe from ICC Vendor)

Transmog Post: Blues and Purples

I have two new outfits to share, one druid and one hunter. I've been working on the hunter outfit for some time.
Hunter's got the blues (and golds)
The cool thing about wearing mail is that hunters can use some shaman looking pieces, so instead of being confined to scaley looking pants, I was able to create a very girly look with a long mail skirt. The main piece this outfit is centered on is the Frozen Forest Kilt, along with the Helm of Soothing Currents, which is based off the shaman tier 6 helm. While I hoped to get the matching recolored shoulders, The Wavemender's Mantle, I haven't had any luck yet. Luckily the T5 Hunter shoulders are a perfect match in terms of color and style. Don't ask how that weapon fits with the outfit...I just like it. >.<

Helm: Helm of Soothing Currents : Black Temple (High Warlord Naj'entus)
Shoulders: Rift Stalker Mantle : Tier 5 Token from Tempest Keep (Void Reaver)
Chest: Lord's Breastplate : Random drop; level 48
Hands: Rift Stalker Gauntlets : Tier 5 Token from Serpentshrine Caverns (Leotheras the Blind)
Belt: Tol'vir Hereditary Girdle: Drops from Cyrus the Black, rare in Uldum.
Legs: Frozen Forest Kilt : Ormorok the Tree-Shaper, in The Nexus
Feet: Savage Gladiator Greaves :  Drops from Anub'Shiah in Blackrock Depths (honestly, any black toed boots will do.)
Weapon: Brutal Gladiator's Longbow : Legacy PvP Weapon vendor in Stormwind/Orgrimmar.

The Dark Druid
So, as mentioned before, I was able to snag a beautiful Phosphorus Stone Drake on my beloved druid. It's my favorite of all the stone drakes, with its perfect shades of purple and grey. So, in honor of my new favorite mount, I pulled together a nice purple/black rogue-ish outfit.
There's a pretty long history behind this outfit. It's basically been in the making since I was able to snag my own Cursed Vision of Sargeras. I was going for a black, ninja/rogue like outfit during most of my efforts, but usually settled with just wearing it with some of my druid outfits simply because it's cool. I've always been partial to Mantle of Shadowy Embrace, because I like its mixture of black and dark purple, but the piece itself isn't part of a set, so I had to come up with that on my own. The only other full purple set is a recolor of the Shadowcraft armor (heirloom/replica), and I didn't like the legs of it. I was soon able to find a Proto-Hide Leggings off the AH, an Ulduar BoE drop, and was delighted that it fight in perfectly with what I was looking for. I'm very happy with the final product, although I would like to eventually find a more suitable staff.  

Helm: Cursed Vision of Sargeras : Black Temple (Illidan)
Shoulders: Mantle of Shadowy Embrace : Keli'dan the Breaker, H Blood Furnace
Chest: Vest of Vengeance : Keli'dan the Breaker, Normal Blood Furnace
Hands: Deft Handguards : Quagmirran, Normal Slave Pens
Waist: Shifting Sash of Midnight : Reinforced Fel Iron Chest: Normal Hellfire Ramparts
Legs: Proto-Hide Leggings : Ulduar Trash Drop
Feet: Rapscallion Boots : Karazhan (Shade of Aran)
Weapon: Halion, Staff of Forgotten Love: Icecrown Citadel 10 man (The Lich King)
Here's a shot of this outfit with my new drake :D

(I still need the feet :( )

Class Feedback: Hunters

From the Hunter perspective:

What type of content do you focus on? [PvE/PvP/Both]
Both, mostly PvE, but with my recent move to PvP realm, I am being forced to PvP more.

If PvE, what type of PvE? [Heroics/Raids/Other]
Dailies, Raids, Questing and Leveling.

If PvP, what type of PvP? [Arenas, BGs, Rated BGs]
Strictly regular BGs. I would like to join Rated BGs with some guildies, but my gearing process has been rough because of my short fuse in regular BGs.

What are your biggest quality-of-life issues? For instance, no longer requiring ammo could be considered a quality-of-life improvement for hunters.

•  My stable is too small. 
• Why does my pet get resummoned after dismounting with very little HP. This does create a bit of the problem, especially as a BM.

What makes playing your class more fun?

• Collecting rare pets. 
• Pew pew pew
• Being able to solo certain content that other classes can't.

What makes playing your class less fun?

•  Melee
• Being called a huntard. I do take offense to that. 
• BM isn't really wanted in Raids (at least in my guild).

How do you feel about your “rotation”? (Rotation is the accepted order in which abilities are used to maximum efficiency.)
I mostly play Marksman, especially in raids. The rotation is pretty basic, has enough situational change to make it interesting enough and not a one button mashing fest. I don't find Aspect switching all that easy, but it might just be me.
The BM rotation starts out kind of funny, especially since your pet isn't chilling right up near your target all the time.

What’s on your wish list for your class?

• More stable slots
• More pets to tame
• Pets!
• A third spec. I wish I could have 
• This is random, but I find that Racials are very oddly unbalanced; they shouldn't be that way.

What spells do you use the least?
The one's I can't of. Never use Beast Lore.

edit: I HATE TRAP LAUNCHER, TRAPS, and all TRAP ReLATED THIngs. ESPECIALLY MOVING TRAP TARGETS!

I got the blues

Trapmaster 
I've been feeling pretty down on myself lately. The other night in Firelands, I really struggled with trapping moving mobs that are walking in a square formation. Mainly it's the one in the back corner. When I wasn't failing at that, I accidentally used the wrong trap. Then my trap launcher expired just as I pressed the trap, so it didn't launch. Basically full of fail. I wish I could say that my guild was patient and understanding, but that would be a lie. I'm sure with some practice I can do this better, but people, including myself, have taken for granted targeting. It's a different story when you're trying to line up moving mobs, the arc of the trap, and where and when it will land. Then some smartass had to put on my note The Trapmaster, which I'm not sure was meant in fun or just being a plain jackhole. It's sad that I can't even tell. (I nicely changed my note to F*ck off :)) The whole ordeal has made me really heartsick for my old guild, for many reasons outside this incident. I just miss them all; their personalities, our inside jokes. I hope they are all doing well.
I miss you druid Covington!
Besides feeling sorry for myself, I'm kind of getting sick of this DPS thing. I would really like to try and heal raids again, but we have a pretty full roster, and it's well balanced as far as classes go. I don't know who I'd heal on or who I'd force to dps. I'm thinking of talking to my GM to see if there is anyway or anyone who wanted to start dpsing or something. I'm already kind of the "backup" healer in case someone falls into a ditch, but I'd like to be more than that. I would really like to get back into healing.
Shaman Blankets
I'm kinda freaked out. I've been leveling my Shaman and running instances on her, healing. Man, do I never go oom. This must be some kind of imbalance between my level, my mana pool, and the costs of spells. I did not go to 50% once. I probably didn't even hit 75%. But from what I have seen and what I can tell, I have a feeling this won't be the case at level 85, so I'm trying to be really cautious about this security blanket that's forming around me. Man the mastery is kind of cool though. With the points I have, my heals will do up to 47% more depending on how low my target's health. Talk about one cast healing. My Greater Healing Wave crit for 50k and brought our tank full up. Man my jaw dropped. To the floor. All the way down.  I'm really liking Shaman heals.
Oh oh! I tamed something!
I FINALLY tamed Solix. It took me two attempts and some dying. And some of him dying. But I finally got him! I'm really excited. But now I need more slots. I let go of Aotona because I think he will be easiest to get back. I do have some normal pets, such as a Seagull and the ghost saber from Darkshore, but they have some sentimental value. My boyfriend is attached to the Seagull which he named Mine (Finding Nemo reference). And my ghost saber was a product of me, my old friends Naee and Abarai, journeying to Darkshore at low levels and getting in a duel fight with some Alliance paladin. It was good times.
Anyways, Solix involves kiting him until his energy bar is around 30 ish or so. If it reaches zero, he will die. The best thing to do, is drop a Frost Trap, Concussive Shot him every cd, and just run. When he is tameable, just drop another Frost Trap, Concussive Shot and tame.

He's really pretty, and besides the red lava spider, he is my favorite look for the lava spider. I think Orange is a very good color for one. The Green one, Kirix, who I also have, is a weird color for one, if you ask me. Because you know. lava is orange. I'm thinking I would like Dethalic, blue lava spider, but he is the hardest to come by. I have yet to see him (and I've now seen them all). We'll see. I really can't do much with no slots left :(
Brewfest!
First one of the night, after the whole raid trap debauchery, and I received, in my keg, a nice shiny Brewfest Kodo. Karma? I hope so. Maybe it's Blizzard trying to make me not quit.
I hope I feel better
To be honest, most of these bad feelings may stem from being REALLY tired. I am still working 30 hours a week and on my off time, heading to class. I've had tests, assignments, photo shoots and the like to do.
Garrosh Hellscream
I have been working on blog about Garrosh Hellscream. He's quite the interesting character, and from my perspective, extremely misunderstood. A lot of it has to do with Blizzard and what they want you to see,  and what they end up showing you. Most people dislike him, but I think people dislike him for the wrong reasons. There are a lot of misconceptions about his role in the current Horde, which can be easily dispelled by a simple lore lesson. Anyways, I hope this explains my current obsession with him. In my best scenario, I would hope that Blizzard would give him a book, the way they did Varian, and build his character, humble him a little and make him the leader he has the potential to be. Of course, he won't be. He'll probably die some death that Blizzard will hope we will see as heroic, but most people will be excited he's dead. Blizz is too busy building Thrall up.
Anyways, I hope I can get the entry up soon. It will take a while because I really want it to be well written.

Updates and Ranting

Hello
Yeah, it's been a while. I have actually had a lot of updates, both within game and outside, but there have been so many things going on I haven't had the time to blog. In fact, all free time goes to sleeping.

Otacon Report: New Realm, New Look, New Pets, New Mounts, ZOMG NEW PATCH

Screenshots will be coming soon. I am on my little netbook so I don't have my screenies here :(

To say I have been busy in the last few days is an understatement. Not only do I stand here (sit) with an entirenew look and name to replace Otacon, but I also have new pets and a new mount. I am also FREAKING EXCITED about Transmogrification! I cannot wait!

But first, the stable
I finally deleted one of my Devilsaurs because I rarely take them out as it is. I have been rocking my Spirit Owl (Ban'thalos) now properly named Barasou, everywhere I go. Absolutely gorgeous! I use him for doing dailies and also whip him out every now and then in PvP. It's funny when I heal myself using my awesome owl, much to the chagrin of that warrior over there. In your face! 
Asides from him, I added ANOTHER Spirit Beast to my collection. Anhka, the green spectral saber that wonders around The Regrowth has recently allowed me to tame it. I was kind of excited to grab him, despite the fact that it now pushes my total Spirit Beast collection to 8. Do I need this many Spirit Beasts? No...no I don't. But I can't bare to let any of them go, even as I find myself running out of stable slots. I almost let go one of my Birds of Prey (Aotona, a Seagull, and Olm the Wise), but opted not to.
I had one slot left, and eventually decided to fill it. I was determined to be intelligent about this, so I did some research and decided on a Worm to help round out my PvP squad. I went down (up) to Northrend and found Rattlebore, a giant jormunger type worm whose black. Easy tame, no real special needs. He's a hearty worm and I still need a name for him.
BTW I am no longer Otacon
I recently transferred and race changed my hunter to join some friends on Deathwing. Since that one week, we downed Cho'gall and all of BoT in one night, about 2 hours. I am not joking. It was so speedy I felt like I had blinked and it was gone. Otacon is now Covington (yes, like my druid. I had a hard time with names) and is a pretty Night Elf. She's really pretty! At first I kind of regretted not making her a worgen, simply for min/max purposes, but to be honest, I like her feel. I am happy with my decision. It's hard to believe she has down Cho'gall before my druid (who probably will never raid again), but it's part of life and a lot of fun. I have also been PvPing a lot, considering Deathwing is a PvP realm. I really enjoy PvP on a hunter, and find that I have the tools for survivability, as well as the strength to easily knock off a few enemies.
It still amazes me, Battlegrounds do. Some people get so upset when things are not going well, and instead of trying to fix a problem, they just turtle, or do something stupid trying to rack up honor, and complain the whole time. They don't offer anything constructive nor do they try and create a strategy to help us win. I admit I am still fairly new in PvP. I don't know the best strategies for winning each of the different games. But if you tell me what to do, hey I'll listen. In fact, I'm really good at listening. I also follow orders pretty good if they don't include, "Go jump off said cliff." Bgs cannot be won by one person; they are won by a group. Sitting around complaining and freaking out at people will not help anyone in the long run.  
KWEEEEHHHHHH?!?!?!?!?!?!?
Did you know that the best part of FFIX was the Chocobo Hot and Cold mini game. Well now you do!
I don't like the mounts I have on my hunter. There's nothing special about them and none of them look really nice. So I sucked it up and ran out to Magister's Terrace and Setthek Halls, hoping for a BC mount to drop. After about a week of Mag T, the white hawkstrider graced me with his presence. I love that these mounts are all based on Horde models, and now that I am Alliance, it makes me feel even more special riding one. :)
Transmofigration. 
I am one of the few people who are SO EXCITED for this part of the Patch. I loved Wardrobe options in Rift, and I will love them EVEN more in WoW. While I may not change my armor too much, the ability to change my weapons is pretty freaking exciting. I am excited to wield a beautiful bow and a kick ass staff or polearm. Can't wait!
I am bummed it got rid of my T7.5 on my druid. That was by far my favorite outfit and I would've loved to see it on my druid again. But alas. I did save my Mag'hari Chieftain's Staff though :)
That's all for now. Hopefully pictures will be up by Sunday night!

Otacon Report: Shiny Birdie of Awesome

Guess whose back with a vengeance. 
Unfortunately for me, work has been overtaking my life. That coupled with my adventures on a new realm with some friends has put my blogging back on hold. I've pretty much leveled a druid on a PvP server (he's sitting at 70% to 85), but I've recently decided, also to help with our raid composition, to transfer my hunter. I'd like to shift my focus to being a hunter, to trying to be the best dps. I'll always have my druid, but for now looks like I'm on my way to being a meter whore.
Neways, that isn't what I wanted to say.
One month later
It took me a few weeks to level but as I rounded the bend on 85, I made the decision to transfer Otacon. I logged on, and LOW and BEHOLD! new NPC Scan freaked out! Ban'thalos!
I had given up on pets for a while because of the headache it was giving me, but I thought I'd give it a shot. I was already sitting on a tree, so I dropped a trap and waited for the bird to round the bend. As I flew up another hunter grabbed him, but he did not trap him so he died from Harsh Moonlight. As I headed up to shoot him, another hunter flew next to me, causing me to twitch and move my hunter from his tree spot. I sighed and went over to the other tree, the one that he wasn't sitting on.
I waited for the bird to make his round, but noticed two druids buzzing around him. I prayed to God that they weren't trying to pull and kill him. I dropped my trap, headed up and Arcane Shot him down. He hit my trap perfectly and my tame began. I could feel my hands shaking as I stared at my screen. One of the druids was fluttering near me and I began to feel sick, like he was gonna interrupt my tame. But he did not. I must really think poorly of people. When my tame ended, I saw Ban'thalos shrink down, then disappear. I panicked. Where'd he go! Ha! being on a tree caused him to move down down below me. The little fluttering druid cheered for me. We both moved down to the ground and danced away with my new spirit beast!

I used the techniques described on this blog . Thanks to Nesrin for the strategy. Worked like a charm.
Transferring decisions
Unfortunately, transferring means I need to choose a new name and race. I can't seem to figure out what to do. Am I going to Min/Max my dps and be a Worgen, or go with how I feel and be a Nelf. To be honest, I want to be a male Nelf because it's most similar in terms of animations to my troll (the way they shoot). But we will see. I am still having a problem. 

Rare Pet Break Time

Tonight
I dealt with some disheartening things, so it's time for another break from rares and hunting rares. I have a very nice stable, and many rares to be proud of. I do not need to nearly kill myself over this.
Mean people
I've only dealt with mean hunter "griefers" once, when I watched a DK and a Druid kill Karkin, the molten crab in front of me and two other hunters. It's an unfortunate thing because hunters cannot tame unless they have aggro, basically the complete attention of the pet they wish to tame. So it's really easy to mess the tame up if you distract them in any form. I guess taming aggro is very minimum. You can basically take advantage real fast.
I attempted to capture two rares that I really had been wanting to add to my collection tonight. And both ended in tragedy.
Bantha'los
What a terrible place for a rare to appear. Bantha'los, the spirit owl, spawns RIGHT in the Sanctuary of Marlone, a basic quest hub for the Molten Front. I've seen him a few times, but finally got a strategy together thanks to a blog I read.
When I logged on, I was able to grab his attention and try out my strategy. However, my frost trap did not work and I was subjected to an unfortunate Harsh Moonlight spam. As I sped back, hoping to get back into position for attempt two, I noticed a ton of people vying for Bantha'los's attention. The main culprit was not a hunter, who I would've been okay with taking the tame, but a mage, who used Slow Fall to survive the fall. He then proceeded to kill the owl in front of 7 other hunters. Sad!
Solix
Feeling discouraged, I headed out to check out another rare spawn, Solix. And of course, he was there!
He has to be kited while his energy bar becomes depleted. As it finally hits around 30 energy, you can then tame him.
I attempted to kite him, with frost trap and Concussive shot, but i didn't get enough space between him the first go so I died. Hey man , these "taming challenges" require some strategy. I headed back and then saw a night elf hunter standing there. He just stood there. And stood there. I emoted him, telling him to go, because rightfully, it was his turn. I thought maybe being a polite person might pay off. Boy was a wrong. He shook his head at me, then pointed at me to go. So I dropped my trap and began a more successful kiting. Just as I round the bend, watching his energy bar inch closer and closer, I realized that I had lost aggro to the other hunter, who had then begun to tame him. He basically let me do the brunt work and then attempted to steal the tame. I was mad! I remembered Distracting Shot had lost it's power, so I tried grabbing aggro back with an Arcane Shot. Just as Solix turned to me, and I began my tame, a DK came out of nowhere and killed him.
I quietly looted my Crystallized Tear, and walked out of the cave crushed.
Basically
I'm done with this. I was looking up threads about Rare Pet "Griefers" (I quote because I couldn't tell you if this is really griefing or not. Apparently though, it's pretty bad for many hunters), and boy were there a lot. People are really having a hardtime with these. Is this normal? I never experienced WotLK rare hunters during it's peak but I can imagine it was just as tough. It's horribly disheartening. I never had any problems with the other Cataclysm rares, but many of those rares weren't in central daily quest areas. Maybe Sambas, but I've seen him around a lot, and had a fairly easy (although long) time getting him.
So for now, and I mean really now, I'm done with this. I can't handle the stress, the disheartening. It's actually making me hate the game and I feel like quitting as we speak. (Yes I am a drama queen)
I currently have an open spot in my Stable, so I might go find something else to add there, or just leave it open. But for now, and my sanity, I need to stop. There is more to life then collecting digital pets right? Right!
Although, speaking of rare pets
I'm currently working on a Stable page for my blog, with pictures and some descriptions on why I keep these beauties in my Stable. I hope you like it (when it's up.)  

Otacon Report: SKARR

OMG!
So excited. Out of all the new pets from 4.2 THIS WAS THE ONE!
A simple, logged on in a camping spot for Skarr, and there it was. A tiny red dot on my screen. Rushed over, excitedly. He sat there, so cute, just staring at me.
Similar to Karkin
Tame, Silent Shot the Fire Explosion, Tame.
Win!
A great tame before I have to rush off to work :)

I want to tame more, but my Stable is full. I'm not sure what I'll do. I got one more slot, so either the blue or orange lava spider, and the spirit owl.

Otacon Report: Karkin

Metal crab o doom
I'm not sure what hunter taming etiquette is. I'm definitely not up for causing more problems in a situation, but to be honest, I felt this guy had plenty of time.
The story
I was doing Molten Front dailies on Covington, when I saw him. Karkin, the metal crab. He was just chilling on a rock, waiting for someone to tame him. An undead hunter, who had begun climbing through the stones when I did, to begin two dailies in the Molten Front, tried taming him. I watched, but then realized Karkin's fireball attack is an AOE and backed off. I went about doing my dailies, getting thermostat readings and saving flight formed druids. I came back down and Karkin was still there. I took a deep breathe and forced myself to walk away, turning in my quests and returning to the front of Malfurion's Breach.

I tried resisting, but curiosity overcame the best of me, and I switched to Otacon. He was resting in a large cave, where Solix spawns, the orange lava spider I kind of want. I moved out and worked my way through The Furnace to Fireplume Peaks. There he was, STILL there; so was the undead hunter, but he wasn't moving. I poked him, but got no response. Conflicted, I decided to just go with it, and tried taming him. Well, it didn't work the first time. The undead hunter ended up dead because he was just chilling next to me, and was aoe'd fireball'd to death. I survived by Feigning Death, and took a moment to look up some strats from wowhead.
A simple, Tame, Silent Shot the lava aoe thing, Tame again worked like a charm. (The first time I autoshot, then Silent Shot, then Deterrence, then Tame, but it didn't work for some reason.)

I like his look in person then the screenshots I had seen previously. He also does these amusing animations, pointing in either direction and wiggling his lower jaw. It's too bad that he is a tenacity pet. I was hoping I could use him in PvP or PvE, but his special ability, Pinch, has a fairly long CD, and obviously, his damage wouldn't be that high compared to my Chimera or Ferocity pets. Still, an awesome addition to my collection. I still hope to eventually snag Skarr and Solix, but it seems like instead I'll have to settle for second best. XD

Hunter Etiquette?
The undead hunter who had been "trying" to get the Karkin, didn't say anything to me. He just mounted and hopped away. I was confused at what he was doing. Obviously he was trying to tame him at one point, but I was gone for a good 5-10 minutes before I wandered over on my hunter and looked to see what was going on. Not only that, but I wasn't the only hunter around. There was also a Night Elf hunter who seemed to just be watching the shenanigans.
I'm a pretty polite person. I watched Karkin get killed by an Alliance duo one night, but made it clear to the other hunters watching that I wasn't after it, I just wanted to see how to tame it (which was true). Another time, I even gave advice to a hunter trying to tame Bantha'los, but he just gave me very clipped responses or ignored me, and I watched him fail to capture him multiple times. I wonder if he ever did catch him.
I would whisper someone if I saw a rare I already had to try and get another hunter the tame. It's just nice.

So was it right of me to grab Karkin from the undead hunter? Honestly, he had his shot. I did not interrupt his tame and he even had a good amount of time before I meandered over on my hunter. I died twice getting over there.
But I might just be incredibly ignorant. 
So what do you think?

Otacon Report: For Keep's Mom!

Kirix
A quick pet report. With 4.2 came tons of new rare pets to try and tame. Unfortunately, EVERY hunter and his friend are trying to get them. Eventually it became somewhat of a problem for me. I had several dreams that I caught Skarr and I knew right then I had to refocus what I was playing for. This was becoming too stressful!
So since then, I've been checking once in a while, but not camping, and focusing on other things (like getting my pally to 85).
Last night, while doing my regular check, I came across Kirix, a green lava spider. The tactics for him involve a debuff that stuns you, knocks you back and poisons you horrendously. After a couple strategy tries and subsequent deaths, I discovered the best tactic is to:
1. Have Aspect of the Wild on.
2. As soon as you get tossed into the air Disengage.
3. Pop a Potion of Haste then Deterrence.
4. Tame him!
Success! And just as I finished, an Ally hunter, who I saw with Solix, the orange lava spider I was originally camping, rounded the corner. Ha! In your face :D

Yeah. I'm PvP'ing
Keep's Mom is a reference to two old buddies who PvP'd together back in the day. One of them was named Keep, the other was a hunter whose pet was named Keepsmom. 
My guildies recently decided PvP was fun and want me to join. They're talking about 5's, which I hear are bad, but who knows. For now, we've been running Random BGs.
I've always hated PvP. I can take pressure, but being killed at other's expense is no fun. To be honest, I can't handle giving other people, namely Alliance, the satisfaction of killing me.
But to be honest, wanting to raid again has been on the back of my mind, not so much because I want loots and stuff, but I guess I miss that kind of social activity. Namely, I miss my guild.
Well, PvP seems to be the best way to achieve this without ACTUALLY have to raid.
So I sucked it up, had my BF make me a few pieces, read up as much as I could find that was nearly updated, and went in there. On my hunter. No healing, just pew pew pew.
Hunters are op. 
Omg, this is fun. IDK. I die a lot, and get my ass handed to me quite a bit. But I'm having a blast. I'm doing well to. With the spec I chose and the pet I picked up, I'm doing well, gaining quite a bit of killing blows, and able to hold my own. Now, skill level of the other players I've faced might just be low, but HEY, I'm gonna enjoy how I do ok! OK!
I chose Beast Master spec after reading about PvP from huntsmanlodge.com. Garwulf, the writer over there, has some great tips and indepth explanations. I'm always weary of trying BM in PvE simply because my pet tends to eat it, basically making BM less effective. But it seems like in PvP people tend to ignore your pet and focus on you, thus allowing my beast and I to reign havoc on the field. Kind of.
Bestial Wrath is a great cooldown, not that long, but allowing me to burn through an enemy's HP with high focus regen and a big red, scary chimera. Yep. Chimera. Thanks to Garwulf, I choose a Chimera as my pet and I do not regret it. It's been an awesome experience.
My Chimera has a slow that lasts 5 seconds, on a 10 second cooldown, or something ridiculous like that, allowing for a decent up time. He has a range attack and an aoe.

yes his name is forkeepsmom :)

Some things never change though
Random BGs are still full of morons, elitist jerks and elitist jerk morons. I don't understand how yelling at each other and calling each other names will make us win the BG faster, but I guess that's how it is.
Overall though, I think the biggest change has been choosing hunter as my choice. It's fun being able to blow stuff up. I'm still tweaking things, like remembering to use Deterrence and Disengage and my traps. I love that I can be difficult to kill, dropping a Frost trap, then Concussive Shot in the face, Disengage! and melee are far behind me. Fun stuff. :)
I rack up the Killing Blows with my Kill Shot.

mwahaha i can pretend i'm awesome

4.2: The good and the bad so far

The Good:
Hunter
-Assist and Defensive stances for pets. Assist makes your pet attack whoever you are attacking, and Defensive makes your pet attack whoever is attacking you or your pet. Very useful and much more easier to manage.
-CC does not pull. No more waiting around, you and the mage both shuffling forward like you're about to CC. :D
Druid
-Not sure yet how the new Mastery will play out, but after hitting the 2005 haste breakpoint, Mastery is your number one priority. I'm assuming that means its pretty nice.
-All healing crits affect have been increased by 200%. WTF. Where did that come from. 75k heals from a paladin O.o Kthxbai
Other 
-Being able to move characters on your list. I love that Covington is now numero uno. Thank you!
-Reading mail does the /map animation. Awww the little details.
-Molton Front Dailies: Yay!...That is all.

The Bad
Thrall, Aggra, and that stupid Questline
I'm sorry. I am not a fan of Thrall anymore. I'm very heavily Team Garrosh, namely because I'm realizing how cliche'd and convenient Thrall's life is. Aggra is very annoying. She comes out of nowhere and is now Thrall's lifemate. O..k....
The animation and cutscenes were impressive. I give them that. And Thrall's new model is super duper shiny. Almost too shiny. Talk about making everyone else look outdated. But hey, I guess he's special. Honestly, I preferred his old model simply because he was an Orc, just like Malfurion is a nelf. I always thought the two were similar, just one for each faction/class, but I suppose I was wrong. Thrall should stand up right. Yah!
Also, all his animations are WAYYYYYYYYYYYYY melodramatic. I kinda talk that way all the time, so I should know...
Aggra's voice went from really annoying orc grunt ish, to husky womanly. Nice touch there.I always thought she had a strange man steroids voice when I would fly down to the Maelstrom. But hey, she talks a lot, probably not a bad idea to make the voice not so horrible sounding. She is Thrall's wifey now.
The questline was okay. Lore wise, its interesting. But the actual tasks are mundane and the same in each plane. Somehow I also kept getting flagged and kept dying from stupid Allies so I'm not sure.
By the time I was in the Firelands doing the last part of Thrall's spirit or whatever, protecting Aggra's totems (apparently she's not the only one whose doing steroids) I was pretty much over it. I only did it on my hunter because the epic cloak rewarded at the end was a decent upgrade, but the thought of running on other toons just makes my sanity ache.
Oh hai Nozdormu
He's been missing for two expansions, but Nozdormu just suddenly APPEARS, given a new model and standing around during Thrall's wedding/super plan. Yeah...fuck this shit...
That's all for now. We'll see as time goes on. I was able to buy a ton of old VP gear to gather into a haste set and grab that 2005 breakpoint. I'll see how healing goes now. :)
In general though, this Patch's release has gone VERY smoothly. No long maintenance times or blowing up servers. Nice job Blizz.

Mobus!

While preparing to do a Heroic Lost City run, my boyfriend's NPC Scan freaked out while he was floating in Vash'jir. Sure enough, there he was, in all his glory. Mobus, The Crushing Tide. Quickly, we assembled our team, me hopping on my druid to heal and my friends on their mages. Our group ended up being two mages, a druid, and a prot pally. Just as we were about to pull, two sea horses rush by. A dwarf warrior and his dranei priest friend steal Mobus right from under our noses! We watched sadly, as the two began dwindling his hp. Slowly, steady. It was taking forever.
Then, my game screen shook. I had aggro! For some reason, one tiny Rejuvenation on a friend had given me aggro. Well. It wasn't that surprising. haha. Anyways, I try swimming around, to drop aggro, when I realize I have threat! Then, I notice Evade! Evade! appear on my SUF. He reset!
My bf did that shieldie shiny thing prot pallies do, and he was ours!
Healing, this fight was an interesting one. There were times I was sweating, but not because of the healing itself.
Moves/Strategy: Water fighting sucks. You have to kite the guy during the move, Ram, a powerful cleave move. Wake is a aoe type move that hits everyone within his melee range. Finally, Algae is a little green range move he shoots at ppl. Once it hits, it leaves a green goop in the water. Just swim away.
The fight takes a good 10 mins with 4 people. He has 12.5million health.
For a healer, the hardest part is keeping in range of everyone. If everyone is doing what they re supposed to, there shouldn't be too much damage. However, avoiding everything does end up splitting the group apart. Its important to keep near the tank, however, if he dies, someone else can plausibly kite him. This is assuming you don't have Allies breathing down your neck like we did.
The best way to avoid him resetting is to tank him back and forth, NOT up and down. That is how the last group reset him. My bf also tried and only moved him back and forth, not too far from his spawn point.
The other thing you don't need to worry about is mana issues. I had none, but made sure to pop my trinket and Innervate at proper times. I never dropped below 70% mana.

Towards the end of the fight, the warrior began trying to reset Mobus from us. I wasn't about to let that happen. Between moonfires and Rejuvenations, I switched to bear form and taunted Mobus from the warrior, afraid that my bf's taunts might not be up.
In a very anti-climatic moment, Mobus turned around and floated dead as we finally killed him. IN YOUR FACE ALLIES!

Not only did we win! But we won good! I was excited because we basically took him from some dumbass allies who stole him from us in the first place. It was even more exciting that they tried, in vain to steal him back. Naee would be so proud. :)
So now, my hunter has a kick-ass spear, my bf has a nice cape, and we finally have the bracer mighty intel enchant in our guild. Was an epic fight.
Otacon Report: Jadefang + baby
Quick report. I finally got Jadefang, the final rare in my endeavor. I might try for a couple more Madexx, but my stables are pretty stuffed.
I also was able to grab Jadefang again, this time as a kill to grab the pet. Now I have mama and baby together. :)

That reminds me. I hate Ahune. He can suck it. What a terrible fight!

Otacon Report: Sambas & Deathwing

Forgive my typing today. You may notice some of my words don't hve "A's" on it. My keyboard is acting weird and the "A" isn't going through all the time. I have to see what I can do about it. Apparently, "A" is important. It's funny though; as I type this, the "A" is working fine, but in WoW and all last night, my sentences were confusing looking.
Sambas!
Sambas was the next on my list. I was super excited and anxious to get him because he is a non-exotic pet. I will be using him as my main pet for my marksman/survival builds if I ever have them. The cat family have the Agility/Strength buff, so I needed a nice one for my non-exotic builds.
Sambas is tough because he has multiple spawn locations, all near prime hub areas in Twilight Highlands. I spent a better portion of last night and this morning camping these locations, fearful of someone swooping in and stealing my kitty before I could get there. After 8 hours of sitting around wanting to die, I finally called it a night and went to bed. I woke up a couple hours later, and just hopped on to check his spawn locations. Low and behold, the last one I checked, there he was waiting for me.
It was kind of funny, because I couldn't find him. I had him targeted and marked from NPC Scan, and yet I couldn't see him among the trees. He was a lot smaller then other past pets I have tamed before.

I can't think of  name for him. Simba, Mufasa, and Scar all don't work because Blizzard is (righfully) afraid of copyright infringement from Disney I am sure. We'll see what I come up with for him and Karoma.

Yeh, I feel tht wy too Mr. Cat. Unless you are wanting to eat baby moonkin. Then no. -_- zzz
Deathwing!
I also got the Standing in Fire achievement last night. I kinda like the way the whole lands burn up, even though getting interrupted and having to fly to your corpse is no fun. But hey, at least I got an achievement right.
FEED MY ACHIVEMENT WHORE ADDICTION!

No taming for you!

Otacon Report: Ding! Karoma and Ghostcrawler!

Karoma
I was 80% into level 84, just chugging along at a regular pace. Then, while just outside a Dragonmaw camp, BOOM! NPC Scan goes off. I begin to panic! Karoma is so close to me, and I am so close to 85 but not close enough! I checked /Hunters 85, and realized that no hunters were in Twilight Highlands, atleast on the Horde side. There was a spark of hope. In record time, 30 mins at the most, I burned my way through level 84, 88%, 92%, 97%! At 99% I began just shooting stuff, killing as much as possible as fast as possible. Finally, I dinged! In what seemed like forever.
I rushed off to the spot I saw Karoma and...

Winner! Still no name. I'm thinking of it.
Ghostcrawler
After successfully grabbing Karoma, I decided to try my luck at Sambas and Ghostcrawler. No Sambas, but while lurking around the Abyssal Maw, my NPC Scan rang out, claiming Ghostcrawler was nearby. Yet. Nothing. Apparently, he fades in and out, so I desperately searched for him. There he was! Waiting for me to strike. I had heard some stories about him. Being unkillable and strong, so I popped a haste pot and began taming. Man it was close. I was still in my questing gear so my health was scary low. But just as I dropped to 10k health, my tame finished!

  Was a good hunter day for me. Not only did I finally ding! (god I hate Cataclysm leveling), but I got some more pets. I can't wait to get the last two, Sambas and Jadefang.