Pet Battle Addons - Warcraft Pet Foundry Carnival

Thanks to Rez for organising another carnival I just have to join in with! The very first Warcraft Pet Foundry Blogging Carnival topic is Pet Battle Addons. Now I'm still very much a newbie when it comes to pet battles & at the last count, I have only 2 pet battle addons. I have however, just read Rez's post for the carnival & I have a feeling I may have a few more addons to manage once this carnival goes live! lol

I initially downloaded PetBattleMaster and I still use it all the time. It tells me which pets I haven't collected yet & how many of each I have already. When I enter a battle in the wild, it colors the border around the enemy pets so I know if one of them is rare quality. It gives me a little summary box of all 6 pets although I still don't recognise most of the icons instantly!

Here's the description from Curse

• Team view with quick selector and portraits of your mighty teams

• Team manager docked to the pet journal showing all pets of all your teams

• Tabbed view with details about the pets in a duel

• Colored border according to the rarity of a pet

• Information about the damage modifiers of the pets

• Notifies to catch a pet, if it's missing in the player's journal

• Notifies to catch a pet, if it's quality is higher

• Tooltip information whether a pet is missing (incl. Minimap)

• Many other features following 

The second addon I have is courtesy of Rez again! He spent so much time talking about pet breed ID's that I knew nothing about, I had to go with his suggestion for the Battle Pet Breed ID add-on. I'm still learning which breeds are best in what form but once I know what I'm looking for or at, it has come in very useful - especially at the Auction House! When I'm buying pets and there is more than 1 for sale, I can buy the one with the best breed rather than just buying the cheapest & hoping!

I think once I get all the Tamers finished and start doing some PvP then I'll need Pet Battle Teams too! At the moment, I only have 3 level 25's so they are usually on duty to help boost my lowbies. I've been focusing on getting my gold machine ready for patch 5.4 though so none of them have had much use lately. But Pet Battles and all those lovely achievements to work towards are on my latest big To Do List so once the patch chaos dies down, I'll be settling down to some serious battling!

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WoW TCG Ceasing?

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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Secret Projects, New Tech & More!

I Love Cuddles!

It's been a strange week here at Casa Nev - full of ups & downs as the 1 year anniversary of my breast cancer looms ever closer with my hospital check-up next week. I thought I was ok with it all but that appointment is definitely looming ever larger in my random thoughts. Not that I think there's anything to worry about but I guess I won't rest easy until I get a definite all clear again.

Been busy at work in my new job - week 3 and we had the annual auditors visit - interesting when they are asking me stuff like 'where's this invoice' and all I can say is 'see that cupboard over there?' because I have no idea yet where anything is or how things were done in the last financial year!

I started the week in WoW with more pet battles but I finally caved in and treated myself to an iPad which arrived on Wednesday. I spent most of that evening downloading new apps and logging in to my regular ones like Twitter. It was most peculiar to be sitting at my computer & responding to tweets via iPad even though I had Twitter open on my PC!

I treated myself to Netflix too so Thursday evening was the first evening since last August that I spent away from my computer desk. I actually sat on the sofa and watched some tv & played some silly games. That may sound strange but as I didn't even have a sofa until about 3 months ago & I still have no television, I haven't had many options for getting away from the PC other than to lie in bed & read or sit on the floor or something! Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining at all - I made my choices & I'm pretty happy with them so far.

I've also started my own improvement project - joining a gym, eating sensibly & trying to shape up a bit. Eventually I'll add giving up smoking to that list but with everything going on, I don't think right now is the best time to add nicotine withdrawal to my list! There's something else on my self-improvement list but I don't think I'm ready to share that yet - it will be the biggest step though and probably another life-changer for me.

As for my secret project, that started a couple of weeks ago & this morning was almost finalised. The end results will be made public in the next few days & I am mega-stoked to share it with you. It's been really hard keeping it to myself but I think & I hope it will be a popular move with my friends & my readers.

I'll be back to pet battling posts next time though - I'm heading in now to finish of Northrend & maybe the Cataclysm zones too before bedtime tonight! 

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Pet Battle Addict? Just Maybe!

In my previous post, I explained how Rez has been almost solely responsible for getting me addicted to pet battles! Yes, I'd already had a dabble before but I found the long slow way to level pets kind of boring so had walked away from it. When he talked about the speed leveling post, I just had to give it another try didn't I?

So here's a summary of my game time this last week!

Monday - not shown as a screenshot is the achievement for Zen Pet Hunter which is for capturing 200 pets in battles. I finally managed to finish the speed leveling method and got a level 25 Dragonbone Hatching. It took me ages until I finally realised that I didn't have to keep my pets alive as the trainer was nearby. I'd been playing tactically - swapping them in & out depending on their health so the XP was being spread between all three pets & slowing me down! But in the slow process, I did manage to pick up some rare quality pets of level 22 so I have a fair few high level rares to play with now.

After a random comment from Cold on Twitter, I also realised I didn't have to level specific pets to beat the final Pet Tamer - just use my high level ones & blast her down! I tend to get a bit too focused sometimes & miss the obvious shortcuts!

Tuesday - I decided I only needed a few more pets to capture in various zones across Eastern Kingdoms to finish the Eastern Kingdom Tamer achievement - to capture a pet in every zone. In doing so, I finally hit the magical total of 250 unique pets so I got my Feral Vermling pet too!

Wednesday - I woke up about 40 mins before my alarm went off and as I had so much time & it was so early, I thought I'd try my luck with the seasonal Qiraji Guardling. I'd left my hunter in Uldum the night before so it was just a short flight across to An'Qiraj & there they were! I was surprised to be the only player there too but it worked out well & I got my Guardling really easily - just a grey but I can fix that later! 

What I hadn't realised though is that I only needed to capture a humanoid pet to get my Family Reunion achievement and of course, the Qiraji Guardling is humanoid! It was so early, I was slow & didn't get a screenshot for that achievement though!

Thursday - I set out to complete my Kalimdor Tamer - I only needed to capture a pet in about 5 different zones so that was easy but slow - I used my hearthstone & portals in Stormwind to move across the continent but it was still slow!

Friday - I spent a little while flying around Kalimdor again - I'd forgotten to battle the 5 pet tamers for the quest so that was frustrating but I did it eventually and got my final achievement for this week!

To Do List - So now I have to capture pets in every zone in Outland, Northrend & Pandaria and fight the pet tamers there too. I'll undoubtedly be adding more pets to my collection towards the 400 pets achievement and each unique pet I capture will also count towards the Safari achievements. Each rare I manage to capture will count towards the 50 rares achievement too.

Now that I have a better understanding of the speed leveling process, I might try it again with a fresh set of pets & time myself this time - the claim for a level 25 in one hour seems impossible to me but I'll let you know how that goes!

Also this week, Liopleurodon wrote a great post about Pet Battle PvP 101 - I'm resisting so far but as my stable of level 25 pets increases, I'm sure I'll get sucked in there too!

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Level a Pet to 25 Quickly? Yes Please!

Pet Dragon? Yes please!

Hmmm so I promised myself more WoW time & somehow I managed to spend about 4 hours in game yesterday & lost most of this morning there too! Yesterday was spent sorting out banks and crafting lots of things to sell after I bought a whole bunch of stuff of the Auction House but that's a story for my other blog AH Addict!

Today I popped in to just do my auctions & use my cooldowns on my various alts. I had no intention of really playing anything as I have a long list of stuff I should be doing. But when I logged my Hunter to make my living steel for today, she was over in Deadwind Pass & there was an Arcane Eye pet just in front of me so I just had to try to get it!

I was a guest on EGP about 3 weeks ago but it seems like much longer (sad face here) and Rez is just a wee bit addicted to pet battles. One of the subjects he talked about in that episode is how to level a pet to 25 quickly. By capturing level 16-18 Arcane Eyes with lowish level mechanical team then jumping to Dragonblight with the Arcane Eyes team to get the level 21-22 Condors, you can skip a lot of the in-between leveling. The forum post that explains it in more detail reckons you can do it in an hour but it's taken me much longer just to get 2 uncommon (green) quality Arcane Eyes and just as I was getting fed up & had promised myself just one more, I snagged a rare (blue) quality one too!

So that kind of got me buzzing again but I couldn't be bothered to drag an alt all the way over to Dragonblight. I had my DK over there just 3 days ago but had decided I wasn't going to need her for a while so hearthed her back to Half Hill just yesterday! I decided to try for the Eastern Kingdom Trainers quest - the one where you have to beat 5 trainers? Yeah that one! My Clockwork Robot is level 16 now because it took me so long to get those Arcance Eyes & I have a level 17 rare Arcane Eye and my Mr Grubbs is level 14ish and I thought I could do it. I did manage to get the first 4 done but that nasty dwarf Durin Darkhammer has some horrible tricks up his sleeve!

I've found a helpful bit on Wowhead in the comments though and apparently I need a level 17 magic/aquatic/beast combo so I guess I need to do some more leveling before I can tackle him & his pets! I think I'll focus on getting at least one to level 25 first though - that will let me capture some higher level wild pets & hopefully that will make fighting him easier! Guess I'm off to Dragonblight after all then!

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