Merry Xmas! Oh What A Busy Week!

Christmas Dragon Baby

I hope everyone had a lovely Xmas & I hope you have lots of parties arranged for New Years Eve too. I had a very quiet Xmas so I've had a lot more playtime than usual and how did I do with my To Do list from last week? Not so good actually but only because I got sidetracked into stuff I wanted to do but hadn't put on the list! I didn't move the DK along at all & only did a few pet battles although I did manage to get the Big City Brawlin' achievement once I noticed that I was only missing Ironforge & Father Winter was there anyway!

The Winter Veil achieves for my Paladin still elude me. I was kissing revellers to get a Handful of Snowflakes but the RNG was against me. I have holly & mistletoe in abundance but no snowflakes for her until I read somewhere that I could trade them. Luckily my banker had been kissing revellers too so I roped in my ever patient & helpful guildie Setesh to hold my snowflakes whilst I logged my Paladin. It still took me until late last night to get the last class/race combo I needed though.

So off I went to my void storage, convinced I already had the winter hat & clothes but no - so today's task is to get those sorted out  for the eating achieve & hit up the battlegrounds dressed as a helper to get the last 2 parts I need for the Winter Veil achievement.

Two great achievements did come my way this week though - I finally hit Exalted with the Golden Lotus & that gave me my 40 Exalted Reputations achieve & I did manage to finish off the Dread Wastes quests which gave me my Pandaren Loremaster achieve! Yay, go me :P

So did I get my Paladin into a Heroic dungeon? Nope! I chickened out again this week but I did take her into some scenarios & wasn't too disappointed with her progress. I picked up a couple of Epic gear items this week - there's an Epic necklace for finishing the final Golden Lotus quests & all those dailies gave me enough Valor Points to finally get the Dawnblade's Chestguard from the Golden Lotus Quartermaster. With a couple of Rare quality items from the scenarios my ilevel is upto 453 now so that has helped her DPS a great deal. I still need to gem & enchant her though but that can wait a while.

Now my Hunter has been going great and this week she has just continued being lucky with gear drops! Two Blues & a Purple piece of gear from running scenarios on Saturday as well a whole bunch of achieves but not the Scenaturday one unfortunately. I've been doing dailies for Golden Lotus, Klaxxi & Tillers on her as well as a few heroics here & there.

Yesterday, Cold persuaded me to join a Sha of Anger group & talked me through the basic strategy. Unfortunately neither of us had taken into account how rubbish my PC is when it comes to a 40-man raid! I think I died within 30 seconds as I couldn't see the black stuff until I was already dead! damned lag! After a few more deaths, mainly from lag, it has to be said, they finally got the Sha down (without much help from me at all!) & I got my Epic boots from the quest item he drops. I used one of my Elder Charms for a bonus roll & guess what? Yup, my first attempt at any sort of 'raid' & I got lucky again - the Yaungol Slayer's Legguards dropped for me - ilevel 496 no less!

So all in all, I think this has been a great week for me in game. I'm definitely gaining some of my confidence back, getting used to using keyboard for spells rather than mouseclicking them & trying stuff I never would have just 3 months ago. I'm off on my travels again in a couple of days so my Paladin & DK will have to wait for my return but my Hunter will get a lot of playtime over the next few weeks. I may even resurrect my level 40 priest project I started earlier this year too.

Getting Braver! Dungeons & Scenarios - Oh My!

A couple of days ago, I finally dinged level 90 on my US Hunter. With rested XP all the way & starting the session with about 15% done, it took just 4.5 hours to hit the max but I have to say, I wouldn't have got there so quickly without help from my friend Cold (from Cold's Gold Factory, in case you don't know his blog). He was kind about my lack of DPS & very patient as I swore & cursed my way through the quests & a couple of dungeons using my still very new keyboard skills!

Not only that, as soon as I dinged, he made me a nice new shiny gun, a scope to go with it & the correct gem too and then he logged his main & we hit up a couple of scenarios! I managed to get myself killed in the first pull of the Greenstone Village one & couldn't resurrect. I had the little window pop up on my screen but the button was greyed out. I tried reloading my UI but all that did was to lose the greyed out button. Eventually, I thought about him ressing me as a ghoul & hey! I managed to carry on then but I have no idea what happened. Luckily the other player in our group had the same problem so he was patient & eventually we got him ressed too.

It was hectic but fun - very different feel than a dungeon for some reason but once it was over & I looted the treasure bag thingy at the end, I was super happy - 1 Stormbrew Bracers of the Zephyr ilevel 463 - thank you very much!

I decided I had time for just one more scenario & this time we ended up with Dagger in the Dark - I really felt like I messed up this one - but we got through & after opening the treasure bag thingy at the end - I was even happier than before! Stormbrew Spaulders of the Windstorm - also ilevel 463 meant that my hunt for gear upgrades had started really well.

After Thursday's success, I decided it was time to stop faffing about with my Paladin & actually get her moving again. I checked Ask Mr Robot for reforging help as my hit & expertise were both pretty low then I got really brave & queued up for a dungeon. Not a heroic one though - just a normal level as I've been struggling to stay alive just doing dailies! I guess I should have looked at Ask Mr Robot earlier though - my item level on my Paladin is awful! After buying a new weapon earlier in the week & nabbing 2 pieces of new gear off the Auction House this week, she's just about at 440. My US Hunter - ilevel 441 already! Yeah, no wonder I've been struggling!

Anyway, with 40 minute plus queue times, I only managed to get three normal dungeons done. But I did start the Klaxxi quests as the Dread Wastes is the only zone I didn't get to with my Paladin. So my task this week is to get the Dread Wastes quests completed which will give me the Pandaren Loremaster achievement & possibly will give me some better gear too! I may even be brave again & actually try a heroic dungeon but don't go holding your breath on that one, will you?

Unlearning My Playstyle - Part Two

So it's been an interesting week in game. I've been doing dungeons without keyboard turning or mouseclicking my spells (well, mostly not clicking!) & it's beginning to feel a little easier. I'm using my friends old keyboard though & it is horrible! I'm used to the basic Dell keyboard with some separation between the cursor keys, number pad & main keys. The keys on my own keyboard are also smaller at the surface than the base so the gaps between the keys feel bigger. This horrible keyboard has very flat keys, rather like a laptop keyboard but because I have long nails, I keep catching more than one at a time! Trying to run in a straight line when my nails keep catching the strafe keys is interesting to say the least! I'm sure it will all be much easier once I get back to my own well worn & familiar keyboard!

I've also bound 3 spells to my mousewheel which is a first for me. On my hunter, I have Scattershot on mousewheel forward, Disengage on mousewheel back & Kill Shot on mousewheel click. I only have a very basic Dell mouse so that will be about my limit on there but I do love having Disengage so easy to find - I always used to struggle to find it in my spell clicking days!

My next task is to convert all my alts to this kind of toolbar layout & mousewheel binds - I'm even thinking of uninstalling Bartender to stop me going back to my old ways! After I get used to this layout, it will be time to bind a few more keys & apparently I'm told that some macros will help too - for now though, I just need to get used to moving without the cursor keys. When I panic in a fight, I'm straight back to them, just to get me out of trouble quickly & I find I am looking at the keyboard way more than I used to. Hopefully it's just time & practise I need now.

Have you unlearned something in game like this? How did you re-train yourself, I'd love to know :)

Unlearning My Playstyle

I mentioned in my last post that I was hoping to visit a friend who doesn't mouseclick spells or keyboard turn & this weekend I finally made the trip! Playing on someone else's computer, with a strange mouse & keyboard and almost no addons is interesting to say the least & when we added in the whole 'don't use the mouse to click spells' thing, I almost lost it!

It turns out that in my previous attempts to unlearn my bad habits, I wasn't so far off a correct method - I just didn't give it long enough to feel normal. It really does feel absolutely cack handed way of playing but that's to be expected after 3 years of bad habits! To make matters even more interesting, I was persuaded (hah!) to try a dungeon within about 10 mins of the new set-up - bearing in mind that I've only just respecced to beast mastery & you can imagine how bad my DPS must have been! Oh yes, and my friend wouldn't let me download Recount as I didn't need to see the numbers that bad!

Well, I only died a few times - it didn't help that it was a dungeon I'd not been in yet so didn't know any of the boss fights. The thing I found hardest was moving - I could do my rotation pretty much ok (yeah a few hiccups here & there) but finding the WASD keys quickly enough whilst still trying to do some damage & get out of the crap on the floor was extremely frustrating. I also found my lower arm & wrist were feeling the new moves too so I didn't brave another dungeon straight away.

Not sure I'm going to have much option today though, my friend is already saying we should dungeon all day, get my Hunter to 90 at least - I think I may volunteer to do a full Sunday Roast dinner - that will keep me too busy for dungeons for a while at least! lol

Dungeons, Toolbars & Cooking

It's been a weird kind of week here at Casa Nev - I've been meaning to do so much but never actually got very far! I have managed to run about 6 dungeons though so my promise to myself for this expac is still intact!

I did most of those dungeons on my newly respecced Beast Mastery Hunter. I mentioned in my last post what a mess I made of that first dungeon but things have definitely improved although I'm still not quite sure if my DPS is up to standard. She dinged 88 late last night & could finally use the chest armor she picked up 2 dungeons earlier! I've moved my toolbars around a bit too - after reading the Godmother's post over at Alternative Chat, I realised I've been whinging about my DPS forever but never got to grips with actually making any decent changes.

I'm hoping to get a visit to one of my RL WoW friends who uses keybinds & doesn't click spells - maybe by actually seeing the hand positions & physically being shown how it works, I might finally get my head around the basics! I've had it explained to me multiple times in messages & on skype but it's one of those blind spots that we all have sometimes. I need to see it to work it out I think.

I have changed my toolbars around on my Paladin to reflect the Hunters too. Over time, I'll change all my toons to the same basic layout to improve consistency especially as I don't tend to have a main & just play which one I feel like playing.

This evening, I pulled my level 86 Warrior out & did a dungeon without any friends - Go Me! With the Pilgrims Bounty buff & the 8th Anniversary buff, I got some nice reputation towards my Tushui Pandaren rep so I can get access to those gorgeous turtle mounts. I was quite pleased with my DPS on some fights but as soon as I have to move around much, it all goes down the sink. I'm sure I'll get there eventually - just got to learn to 'play right' as one or two of my friends tell me! lol

I've also managed to finish another 2 of the Ways in Cooking, leaving me just 2 more to go so my farms are in full production for the veggies I need & hopefully I should finish those this week. I still have a few Best Friends to get though so no let up on the dailies there.

And that's about it for this week - the few times I've remembered to check Tol Barad, horde have been in control so no progress there & I don't think I even managed any pet battles either! Next week isn't looking any better but I'll just keep nibbling away at various bits - they all add up over time, don't they?

Cloud Serpents, Dungeons & Reputations

Now that's how plate bikini's should look!

 A day later than originally planned, I finally managed to get the last 90 points to reach Exalted status with the order of the Cloud Serpents - yes, I was just 90 points short when I ran out of quests to do & it was so late, I just couldn't keep going to find another Onyx Egg. The next day, I was faffing about on my farm & an archaeology site wasn't too far away so I popped over the get the bits for the Cloud Serpent archaeology quest & hey presto! I am now the proud owner of all 3 colours of Cloud Serpent. Somehow though, I've missed something because I still can't actually do the Sky Race yet lol

Order of the Cloud Serpent - At last!

In amongst all my rep grinding, I've been persuaded to restart my US account so Thursday was spent respeccing my Marksman Hunter to Beast Mastery. I'd been struggling with focus regeneration & producing adequate DPS so having read up a bit on Icy Veins, I went ahead and respecced. I don't know that my DPS is that much better but it feels as if things have improved & I didn't feel like my leveling buddy was doing 99% of the work! We dinged 86 & I foolishly suggested we try a dungeon. I have promised myself that I am going to do dungeons this expansion so in we dived.

Well I won't say it was my most successful dungeon ever - I'd picked up a worm as my pet for the AoE ability but somewhere along the way of playing a Hunter, I never knew that my pets' Growl was turned on, even though it wasn't even on my toolbar! After a bit of help on Skype & desperately trying not to get lost & to actually do some DPS, I finally managed to get Growl turned off - much to the relief of the tank!

Once I stopped messing with my toolbars, I did manage to output some DPS although I still wasn't that happy with it. For once though, the RNG was on my side & I got 2 new pieces of armour which were massive upgrades for me. I know it's kinda silly but I felt bad taking them - my DPS had been so low, I didn't feel I deserved them but there were no other hunters or agility mail users in the group so of course, I did take them. Whoa! What a difference they made immediately - my DPS shot up by about 3k, putting me at least within range of the others.

First Pandaren Dungeon Done

I still have a lot of work to do to get her up to scratch but now that I've broken the ice on dungeons, I'm sure I'll be doing more soon. I still haven't braved a dungeon on my Paladin (90) or my DK (88). My Paladin feels really slow & cumbersome & really quite squishy so I have to try & work out what's wrong there. My DK is my freshly specced tank & to be honest, I really am shit scared about trying to tank a dungeon for the first time, let alone a dungeon I've never seen before! I'm thinking I should pop back into Frost spec & try some runs like that first & maybe my next post will be 'arrgghh dungeons!' or 'yay! dungeons' - who knows!

But in the meantime, I need to get one more reputation to Exalted to get my 40 Exalted Reps achievement - the closest to that is Baradin's Wardens so if I remember or stop faffing about long enough, I may try & get a few of those dailies done this weekend. The added bonus there of course, is that there are two mounts & a pet available so I just have to keep reminding myself - more mounts, more mounts!