Baby Shaman On The Move!

If you visit my main blog about gold making in WoW, Auction House Addict, you'll have seen that I have been working on a little project for the month of December. I called it my 30 Minutes a Day project and it involves spending just 15 minutes a day leveling one alt and 15 minutes a day in the Auction House on another. As I promised myself a baby Shaman for Alt Appreciation Week and never got around to it at the time, I chose a Dwarf Shaman to be my leveling alt.

Anyway, it turned out that the best laid plans of mice and men didn't take into account how hard it is to make any progress with questing for just 15 minutes a day so I changed it up a bit & decided to make it more flexible - basically a maximum of 2 hours leveling per week. I haven't reported on my leveling progress over on the other blog so I thought I'd put it here - it makes sense as my gold making readers probably aren't that interested in my leveling adventures after all!

So with a slow start and no heirlooms, no friends and no back up from other alts, my baby Shammy, Lyssara was born in Coldridge Valley. The first few days were very slow - 15 minutes really isn't very long at all to be honest and it quickly started getting boring before I even left the Valley to head to Kharanos.

Once the latest patch update hit and we could send heirlooms to other servers, I decided to see what I had available on my main server and send them over. It turns out, I didn't have any intellect leather/mail gear - I have the agility leather from leveling my Rogue and the agility leather/mail from leveling my Hunter. Luckily though, my main is in a level 25 guild with access to the guild heirlooms so I bought those and sent them over.

I looked up Icy Veins and various other sites to see what an Enhancement Shaman needed and saw that the cloth heirlooms weren't too bad for low levels so I nipped back to my main server and sent some cloth heirlooms over too, as well as the staff.

What a difference heirlooms make! I guess I've used heirlooms since my second alt four years ago so it was a rude awakening indeed. So relieved to have them available cross server now too. A lot has changed since I last leveled through Dun Morogh too - Steelgrill's Depot was always the place to find a Bronze Tube to sell for a bit of gold but now it has a fancy Ultrasafe Personnel Launcher which comes fully equipped with a VLD Parachute (Very Late Deployment). I was lucky enough to not get splatted and made it over to the next area for questing but the best bit is that I got the Going Down achievement & some great screenshots too!

I hit level 13 last night and arrived in Loch Modan ready to start my next zone but not before noticing these guys. I'm not sure I ever noticed them before but it's been so long, I may have just forgotten them! Blogger is messing with the picture colors but the night sky was super dark & the stars and clouds really stood out. I murdered my way through a whole valley of troggs before finally getting enough teeth to complete the quest and headed back to Captain Rugelfuss.

I'm enjoying her so far but then I enjoyed my Elemental Shaman who got to 50-something before being unceremoniously deleted. I can't even remember why I deleted her now but I hope I'm not tempted to delete this one after this project is over!

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Say Hello to Fyzz - My New Mage

Fyzz!

Yup, after all my expressed dislike of playing a Mage, I felt that it was time to give them another try thanks to Laeleiweyn's Alt Appreciation project! To be honest, Fyzz has been around a while but with 3 days played, she was still only level 2 - shows how much time I spend in the Auction House though! So late on Friday, I made a last minute decision to send all my cloth heirlooms to her & give this whole Mage thing another try.

As of this morning, she is now level 10 and I have no idea what spec to choose! I've always gone Frost in previous incarnations so perhaps I should try one of the other specs but which one? She does look pretty in her heirlooms though and as I haven't played a Mage at all since Mists arrived with all the changes that brought plus I'm now using keybinds more, I'll probably keep her going for now.

I think the highest I've got a Mage to previously was mid level 20's but as my character slots fill up on my main server, I tend to delete them to make space for new alts. I've leveled a Priest to max level before & my Warlock is in her 50's but for some reason, I've always found the Mage to be particularly squishy. One incarnation died about 6 times in 20 minutes over near Thelsamar and needless to say, she got deleted rapidly that evening!

This time though, I have about 6 or 7 heirloom pieces for Fyzz so I'm hoping she won't be quite so squishy! With all the blogging & playing of other alts though, I don't think she'll be leveling very quickly unless something magical happens and I fall in love with her!

So why Fyzz for a name? Well, she's a gnome & she's a Mage - she needed something expressive to go with all the whizzbangs & flashy spell effects of a Mage so I thought Fyzz was appropriate especially as I'm such a bad Mage, most of my spells fizzle out before reaching their target!. If I had to give her a family name it would be something like Flashmaker or Fireblaster but as I don't Roleplay at all, that's just a bit of fancy.

Next week is Monk Week and so far my female Pandaren Monk has only made it to level 5 in the first week of Mists, I don't think I've even logged her since! I'm planning on leveling her a bit for Monk Week though so it gives me yet another excuse to send Fyzz back to the Auction House for a while longer!

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Post Patch Blues? Fight It Before They Start!

With patch 5.4 landing next week, I'm really spending a lot of time in game right now but it's almost all focused on gold-making, crafting & being ready for the endless possibilities that a new patch brings. I've posted my to-do lists here before - usually just a few things I want to achieve that week and sometimes I actually manage to cross a few things off those lists!

Patch 5.4 is also bringing a whole new island for us to play in but from what I've been reading, you really need to be fairly well geared to survive there. As my Paladin is my only alt even vaguely geared enough for the first level of LFR, I'm guessing I have a lot of work to do before I can even set foot on this new Timeless Isle so I was thinking what else I could be doing once the Auction House patch furor has died down.

That's when my mega long to-do list was born! Towards the end of Wrath, so much had changed in game for me, I could happily have waited another 6 months for Cataclysm to arrive, I was that busy adapting & still learning the game. I had only been playing for about a year at that point though so much was still fresh & shiny new to me.

In the last months of Cataclysm, more changes were happening for me and again, I could happily have waited a few more months for Mists to arrive. See, that's what happens when you don't raid every week - you have time to do all the other stuff in game and you don't have to see the same boss every week for hours on end until you beat him! Of course, I do actually miss the old raid group even though things went nasty towards the end. We had some really good times as a group and I still wonder if they are ok or are they even still playing.

So where I am now in Mists is a kind of limbo - most of my guildies have wandered off and the rate that new content has been released has me beat! There is just so much stuff I haven't done yet, I kind of don't know where to start so I don't do any of it - I just fall back into crafting, farming & auction house lurking! Getting a proper job for the first time since I started playing has also cut down my play time & between adapting my sleeping patterns back to 'normal' hours & doing everything in the now limited spare time, I find myself faffing around even more!

I've decided to make myself a long, long to-do list for the rest of this expansion - the buzz is that this will be the last patch so we could have a whole year before the new expansion which hasn't even been officially announced yet! I'm going to make my to-do list a separate page & put a tab up the top there - I'll be adding to it as I see or think of things I want to achieve or as people suggest things too. That way, I'll have a kind of suggestion list for what to do when I'm a bit bored - nibble away at this achievement or that Reputation grind. I find lists very motivating as long as most of the items don't have a deadline - even at work, I make lists all the time - something my new boss appreciates as she is a list maker too!

How do you keep yourself interested in playing? Do you have lists of things you want to do? Let us know in the comments :)

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Yet Another To Do List!

It's been a while since I did a to-do list post & actually, it shows in my in-game progress! I'm not sure I've achieved anything worthwhile since I stopped doing these list posts except for the pet battle achievements maybe. There's something about making it public that kind of obligates me to get some of it done at least and of course, gives me something to write about here & over at AH Addict!

I even gave myself a public to do list over there today - I've been slacking off that much lately. It's not that I don't enjoy the game once I'm logged in, it's more that I get so occupied doing other stuff that I don't make the effort to log in very often. Which is kind of silly really as I'm paying my subscription after all & let's face it, Facebook & Mahjong solitaire aren't exactly stimulating now, are they?

So, this week I'm determined to get something at least started if not completed!

• Warrior/Blacksmith - get her out of the city & go do some stuff - preferably get the Lightning Steel Ingot thingy & start learning some of the Plate PvP crafted items - this one crosses with my gold based list so will be able to cross off 2 things if I get this done!
• Warlock/Engineer - she's also been abandoned in Ironforge for months! She's mid 50's level (I think!) so I should try to get her to Outland at least
• Rogue & Hunter are both level 86 (via pet battles & cooking) so I'll probably use both of them to pet battle some more & add some XP to their bars
• Take my Paladin main over to the Barrens & at least have a look at all that stuff before it disappears!

There's loads of stuff I could add but I'm trying to make it a manageable list not a pipe dream! There's loads of achieves I don't have yet, mounts & reputations to work towards, dungeons, scenarios & raids I've never even seen & that's just from earlier expansions! I think I've just about given up trying to do everything that's available in Mists - I shouldn't complain but there's just too much stuff to do now! It makes my head spin & I know I'm not the only one who just doesn't quite know which bits to do first!

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This Week So Far - Patch 5.2 & Stuff

In my last post I said I'd be concentrating on my Warrior this week which I did & I actually got my Shado-Pan & August Celestials reputation grinds started too. Then Patch 5.2 hit on Wednesday & I seem to have lost 2 days!

So I finally made level 90 on my Warrior & basically swore that she was never seeing the light of day again. But I need Spirits of Harmony for blacksmith crafting so I have actually done some Tillers dailies on her. I'm hoping to get to a full farm in the next few days so she can grow her own Motes of Harmony. With the new Work Orders on the farm, I'll probably grind some reputations that way for her too as I really didn't enjoy playing her at all!

I also dug out my recently dinged DK to get the Tillers dailies done for the farm too. I'm not planning on abandoning her though but I do need to find some nerves of steel from somewhere & attempt to tank a dungeon or two! Once I've done a few, I'll decide whether to flip her back to Frost spec or stay as Blood.

And then there's my poor Retribution Paladin - oh my gosh, she still feels a bit squishy & when I finally got over to the new Thunder Isle dailies, I was back to ghost running regularly. I did enjoy running around as a Saurok & the jump is fun too but it did get me in trouble once or twice! So between the Shado-Pan, August Celestials, 2 lots of Tillers dailies & the new Thunder Isle dailies, I've not been doing much else in game!

I didn't even get all the dailies finished as I was sidetracked by the pet battle XP discussion on Twitter. I jumped over to my Rogue & managed to get almost to level 86 on her just by pet battling in Stormwind before I had to give up & actually sleep! By the time I logged in the next morning, a hotfix had been applied so I guess she's off back to her farm until I get bored enough to level her to 90!

My To-Do list for this week is very short again - do more dailies! I figure that if I can get all the factions upto Exalted on my Paladin, it will be easier to get any reputations for crafting recipes on my other alts but also, I'll be able to stop worrying about doing the dailies & focus better on any other stuff I want to do later.

I may have to do some more Pet Battles though - I quite enjoyed them again the other night & there are more & more discussions going on about how to level them quickly & efficiently. The lure of all those achievement points may prove great enough to distract me from Dailies but we'll have to see how that goes!

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Update 28th Feb : Achievements, Dailies & Leveling

So it's been over 2 weeks since I last wrote here but I've got a fair bit done in that time. I've been focusing on my Squidoo account, trying to increase my presence there & get some real cash flowing! If you've not come across Squidoo before, it's basically a platform for writers to make a lens (a page, if you like) about anything they want to within reason and make a bit of cash at the same time. I'm writing about photography & travel mainly so pop over if you want to take a peek at yet another of my random online activities!

Anyway, so what have I been upto in WoW? well, I did eventually get my DK to level 90 & promptly abandoned her at Halfhill. I keep meaning to log her & do the Tillers dailies to get my farm going but I've only done that a few days in the last 10 so I guess that will take a while yet!

I also remembered that there is a Scorpion mount from Exalted reputation with the Klaxxi so I logged my Paladin again to complete those. I'd just about had enough of the Klaxxi dailies to be honest & having been questing through Dread Wastes on my DK too, I just felt like the whole world was dark, grey & filled with menacing insectoids! But I struggled on (wo)manfully & was rewarded with a gorgeous Scorpion mount which I promptly mounted, took a screenshot & then haven't logged Paladin again since! She's probably still sitting on that half dead tree trunk in Klaxxi Vess!

Since then, I've been trudging through Kun-Lai & Townlong Steppes on my Warrior. She's my Blacksmith & I really want to get her to 90 before patch 5.2 hits, if only for the Living Steel Belt Buckle pattern from the Klaxxi. I hit 89 last night so today I move her to the Dread Wastes & start getting all dark & depressed again!

I really struggled with the Paladin leveling through first, I loved the DK, leveling in Blood spec for the first time ever & now, the Warrior. Why I've taken my 3 plate wearers through first I have no idea! I hated my Warrior most of the way through to about 75 - how she ever got to 85 is still a mystery & getting to 90 is just my stubborn streak showing through. Her DPS is better than the Paladin's was though but it feels slower somehow & I am chewing through Bandages like they are going out of fashion! I still have 3 level 85's to move along - a Priest (shadow/holy), a Rogue (arrgghh!) & a Hunter but I think I might take a break from top level stuff & either move my 50 something warlock along or even, maybe, perhaps start a monk!

I did actually take the DK into the Chemical Brothers holiday dungeon & I was brave enough to tank too! I figured I couldn't do much wrong with everyone just blowing shit up so easily and I think I did ok although I'm not jumping up & down to get my first proper dungeon done just yet!

So that's been the last couple of weeks in WoW. I don't really have a to-do list for now - I'm just focusing on that damned Warrior!

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This Week's To Do List - Pre Xmas Panic!

Last week's To Do List was a bit of a hit here at Casa Nev so I'm going to make another for this week. I do spend a lot of time in game just mooching around from one alt to another, doing stuff as it strikes me. This means that things do get done - eventually but by making a list last week, I found that I really focused on those things more than all the other stuff I usually do.

I think that having written it down in a public place made me want to get that stuff done & not let my readers think badly of me. I know no-one really cares if I get it done or not, it just feels more important in my head so I knuckled down & did it - well most of it anyway.

The only thing that didn't get done was leveling my DK a bit more. I did get my warrior to 87 & with a big Thank You to Soco for giving me a lift to the Shrine of Seven Stars to get my Blacksmith recipe, I managed to max my Blacksmithing too.

I was pretty good at getting my Golden Lotus dailies done & finally hit Revered with them on Sunday evening. I bought the Grand Commendation straight away and last night I got to around 6k/21k so just another 3 or 4 days to get to Exalted I reckon.

My biggest time sink this week has been pet collecting though - not only did I get to the 200 unique pets target I set myself, I actually made it to 206. I think I have most of the wild pets below level 12 now so I need to level up my team a bit more before I tackle the next zones & the next Pet Trainer Battle. I'm going to add that to this week's list I think!

One thing I did do this week that wasn't on my list was to take my US Hunter into a Heroic dungeon - we actually did a couple although that last boss in Shado-Pan Monastery kicked my butt at 2am! Cold popped his Blingtron 4000 to cheer me up - I didn't know I could party with it & I didn't know it would transform me into a human either. I did a couple of screenshots just for fun & managed to catch Cold in his John Travolta impersonation! He's gonna kill me for this one I think!

Cold Goes Disco!

The one thing I didn't put on the list was Winter Veil - I'd forgotten that it was starting so I added that in to my list. I only needed 5 of the smaller achievements to get the title, Merrymaker & so far I think I've managed to get 2 of them. I'm still kissing Revellers to get a Handful of Snowflakes, I need to make the Winter Clothes for myself (or find them in my alts banks of course!) & the dreaded PvP one - 50 honorable kills doesn't sound too bad but I have no PvP gear & I don't want to spend out on a set. I can see a frustrating evening in my near future!

So the list for this week isn't that long, just a few bits left over from last week & a couple of new bits.

• Level the DK to 89 (I will get this one done this week, I am determined!)
• Raise Unique Pet count to 225 or more
• Get Exalted with Golden Lotus on Paladin (will give me 40 Exalted reps & a title too!)
• Finish the Winter Veil achievements on Paladin
• Finish the Dread Wastes quests - not only reputation points but I want to get my Pandarian Loremaster finished too. That will be my 1 year anniversary since I completed the old Loremaster title.
• Take Paladin into a Heroic dungeon - I must do this one - It's bugging me now.

Can I do all this by Xmas Eve? Maybe! I hope so anyway because I'm off on my travels again just after Xmas & I possibly won't have access to my EU account although I'm working on that. I miss my girls and all my professions, gold & heirlooms when I'm on my US account but my Hunter there is coming along nicely so that will keep me busy if I can't access my EU account.

My other big thing this week is my 2nd birthday on my goldmaking blog. If you haven't popped over, I'm running a little giveaway to celebrate & it's really easy to enter. All the details are in my Happy Birthday AH Addict post over there so if you'd like a Blizzard Store pet, go have a look & leave a comment to enter. I look forward to seeing you there.