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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Still Here, Still Talking!

oh to fly away again!

Last time I posted, I was deep into Neverwinter & enjoying my holiday. Now I've been back a couple of weeks & it honestly feels like I've never been away - work was kind of backed up when I returned & this week I moved desks to start my new position. I've just signed a 12 month contract to cover maternity & sick leave for the Accounts Assistant.

Timing wasn't the best though - the boss lady is on vacation herself this week so I had 2-3 days with her last week & spent most of this week pretty much trying to work out how to do stuff from what they did last time! It's nice to be using my brain again, that's for sure!

As far as Neverwinter goes - I'm still playing although not so much. I was playing my Cleric with Cold of Cold's Gold Factory and as he is on massive overtime at the moment, we've not been able to match up our schedules! So that's left me with WoW again - I actually did a dungeon this week - Heroic Scholomance with my favorite guildie. He was surprised I didn't know my way around until I told him I'd only been through there 1 or 2 times ages & ages ago!

I'd prepared him for my rubbish DPS but he'd made a couple of suggestions before the queue popped & I think it helped because my DPS wasn't anywhere near as bad as I thought it was! After we got out of there, he joined a group for Nalak & dragged me along there too - I got the ilevel 522 legs from the boss loot & got them again on my bonus roll - how frustrating! So now my item level is 467 and I'm running out of excuses to not do LFR!

I also reached exalted with Shado-Pan at last so now I'm doing the August Celestials & Shieldwall Offensive work orders on my Tillers farm. I will get all the reputations eventually - I only need 3 more for the 45 reps achievement & I have 5 Cataclysm factions at revered so I should probably go back & sort those out too!

I also guested on not one but two podcasts this week! On Monday evening, I joined Phatlewts, Goblin Raset, Manthieus & Novitsh for the Happy Hour Roundtable podcast to discuss the upcoming patch 5.4 and some of the PTR notes. It was great fun and nice to hear some non-US accents for a change.

Then this morning, I joined my fellow Brit goldmaker extraordinaire Marcus Ty for episode 7 of his podcast - The Journal of Marcus Ty. When I tell you the skype call was 3 hours long, don't worry, we didn't record the whole time & Marcus is great at editing! It was great fun & I hope you can hear how much we enjoyed putting the show together for you - it's not published yet but if you're feeling curious, I was also a guest on episode 3 so you can hear my crazy Brit accent!

So I have promised myself to get more time in WoW next week - I have pets to collect & battle, gold to make & achievements to work on even if I don't really play any alts! With the Midsummer Festival XP bonus though - now might be a good time to push my 3 level 85/86's towards 90 - at least that will give me more choices of what not to play at end game!

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Neverwinter - My Latest Distraction

It's been over a month since I posted on AH Addict & almost as long for this blog but now you get 2 posts in one day!  I'm away on my travels again so I've hardly been online at all even though I have access on an old PC, it drives me crazy because it's so old & slow & prone to blue screens! My friend has gone back to work after almost a full week off & I thought I'd better get my brain going again!

A few weeks ago, my Twitter feed was alight with talk of a new free to play MMO called Neverwinter. I wouldn't call myself a gamer girl by any means, I don't think playing WoW for 3 years really qualifies me for that. I've never played any other MMO unless you count about 3 hours in Rift on a PC that could barely run it so Neverwinter has been quite an eye opener for me.

For starters, the whole movement thing had me confused, press w & use the mouse to steer? I've been a keyboard mover in WoW for years so that was a bit weird & when I did briefly log into WoW, I struggled to move there - kept moving my mouse & wondering why I wasn't changing direction! lol

What I haven't done in Neverwinter is play the Auction House there - I find the interface very limited & the volume & sheer amount of unknown stuff is daunting. I thought I'd whizz through on one character to get a feel for professions & what loot drops might be like but it turns out, I'm not just slow leveler in WoW, I'm slow in Neverwinter too! It's not too difficult to make Astral Diamonds in Neverwinter though, I'm just being very lazy!

I've been playing a Devoted Cleric (heals/damage/ranged) & a Control Wizard (damage/ranged) - I tried the Guardian Fighter to tank with Cold running a Cleric to heal - thinking we could blast through but I hated the Guardian Fighter! I've also started a Great Weapon Fighter & although she's only level 5-6 right now, so far, I quite like it.

When I get home again though, I have to decide whether to halt my WoW subscription or play properly & put Neverwinter on a back burner. I want to keep my AH Addict blog going & if I can find a nice project to work on, Neverwinter will be an occasional thing but I am enjoying it. I'd definitely recommend giving it a try even if I have no other game experience to compare it too. It's definitely not like WoW though so don't expect a WoW-clone. I'm on the Mindflayer Shard if you want to add me - set up your character there & poke me here or on Twitter & I'll give you my details then :)

I'll probably put a few Neverwinter posts here when I gather my thoughts more, I'm sure there is all sorts of stuff that could be talked about, especially as it's so new there are very few blogs or fansites out there yet!

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School of Hard Knocks - Oh Yeah, Well-named!

So I took a week or so off Wow, not realising it was Children's Week - which is a bit of a nuisance as the Children's Week achievement is the last one I need for the meta-achievement & more importantly, the Violet Proto Drake. So yesterday morning, I woke up promising myself a day of PvP if it killed me!

That was at about 8am but by 11am I still hadn't logged in to game - I actually did some long-overdue housework as a way to delay the PvP experience! Now I know you guys don't know me very well but let's just say, housework is really not high on my list of priorities in life so I was grasping at straws by using it as a delaying tactic!

Eventually though, everything was shiny & clean & I couldn't find anything else to distract me so I logged in & went & found my Orphan. I've done a bit of PvP over the last few years but usually on a lowbie or on my Hunter. This time around, my hunter is still sitting in Halfhill in level 85 Cataclysm leveling gear so I figured my Paladin was probably my only option for this attempt.

The annoying thing is when everyone says PvP is easy or just got to keep trying - believe me, I have tried, many times but the four objectives required for the achievement have never happened in any PvP battleground for me, let alone when I really need to do them for the achieve!

I eventually managed to assault a flag in Arathi Basin - I thought I had it on the 4th battleground but it seems I clicked a little prematurely & merely defended the base instead of assaulting it! In the 5th AB, I just missed the Gold Mine flag as some nice person used a speed boost/sprint gizmo & beat me to it. That battleground was a whitewash almost - the Horde team had us hemmed in at the stables & were camping the graveyard. It felt totally useless to keep trying but I managed to slip away & raced to the Lumbermill, around a big fight at the edge of the road there. I was super lucky & all the Horde had gone to join in the huge gankfest happening below so I just sauntered up to the flag & finally, after so much annoyance & fruitless efforts earlier, I clicked the flag & the cast time happened without getting sapped or dazed or insta-killed!

I think I'd have kept this orphan!

So next I thought I'd try Warsong Gulch - I love WSG as a lowbie but although I have managed to carry the flag there a few times, I usually either heal or protect our flag carrier from range. I was advised to camp the flagroom & hope I could return a dropped flag but it seems the Horde had their strongest PvP teams out yesterday - our flag carrier never even got to their base & their flag carrier arrived with about 3 healers & 2 rogues as his escort. I did manage to slow him down but I'm no match for 2 rogues - ever! Even bad rogues have fun with me, I'm that bad at pvp!

So three attempts at Warsong Gulch & no glimmer of returning a flag, I thought I'd try Eye of the Storm - it's about the only place I have ever managed to cap a flag previously so I was a little hopeful. I had three more attempts there before realising that Sunday afternoon at the end of Children's Week, is probably not the best time to try. I didn't even queue for Alterac Valley - I usually just follow the masses there & if I die, I get lost. I hate that place so after all my failed attempts, I just couldn't face it.

I did manage to pick up 2 more of the Children's Week pets though - I was hoping to take more than one alt around the quests to get the remaining 3 that I don't have but I got sidetracked (which is another post) again & never logged back in last night!

Not the best of my weeks in WoW but I've needed this achievement for 3 years straight now & honestly, this is the first time I've even tried it! As one of my favourite podcasts have a habit of saying - I guess I should put it on the board - under long term goals & take steps to practice a lot harder before this time next year!

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Fighting the Black Dog of Depression

Just 18 months ago, in the Autumn of 2011, I was waking up from my latest bout of depression. A summer of misunderstandings, emotional rollercoasters & a slowly dawning realisation that something was wrong had made me reach out to a guildie. Not my family or my husband but a guildie. Yeah, that didn't turn out so well either but we managed to get back to being friends later.

In my darkest depths that Autumn, I also mentioned depression on Twitter & that was possibly the best thing I did that whole year! That single random tweet resulted in a bunch of supportive DM's including one from a most surprising source, a relative stranger to me although we inhabited much the same world. That support gave me the lift I needed to climb out of the pit and start changing my life. When I was hit with breast cancer last summer, that support from my blog & twitter friends was still there & helped me through another troubled time. Through it all, that stranger (no longer unknown of course) has been holding my hand extra tight & I'm almost certain I'd be a quivering wreck now if it weren't for him.

But why do I bring all this old history up now? Well, the subject of depression has been raised on my Twitter feed a bit lately and I wanted to share a little bit of light from this side of that long dark tunnel. I know of at least 8-10 fellow bloggers/tweeters who have suffered & if some tweets are honest, I reckon there's a lot more of you out there!

Outside looking in

I've been fighting some form of depression since my early teens - initially triggered by a family relocation from a very quiet, rural backwater to a streetwise, suburban nightmare. I was the original country mouse dropped into a life I wasn't ready to deal with. My accent was totally different to the new local kids & being physically mature at 11 whilst my few friends were still 'little girls' began my own fight with body image too. Feelings of being an outsider, not fitting in, they all hate me were common cries in my teenage angst & fair play to my parents, they did their best to reassure me although none of us recognised the beginnings of depression.

I spent a fair bit of my 20's & early 30's on various anti-depressant medications - not all the time, just extended periods waiting for them to work, waiting for the sun to come out again, for life to not suck for once. It wasn't all bad though - I met a lovely stable man, we got married, travelled the world when we could, had friends, bought a house, settled down and lastly, found WoW but lost each other.

I found WoW about 5 months after quitting my last job. I'd woken up one morning & basically had a meltdown. I just couldn't face going back into that place again so I quit. WoW was good for me initially - I lucked out and found a very social & active guild. Skype chats all day and late into the night weren't uncommon & helped me to start feeling normal again. The problem with social guilds is that eventually, there will be drama and I managed to get right in the middle of it! That's the problem with sitting on the fence & trying to help both sides - you make a perfect target too.

That's the point at which I started gold making - it needed focus & concentration, I could hide on a new, unknown alt & to be honest, I found it fascinating! It also started my drift back down into the pit though. This time I was so pre-occupied with blogging & goldmaking, I didn't spot the signs. Playing so much time solo, I let friendships drift, in game & out until one day I woke up wondering where everyone was. Some of you will read this & realise that's where I disappeared to that summer - I was drowning again & didn't notice. I'm sorry. But that's when I reached out on Twitter & found so much support. Just people taking time to send a DM means the world when you feel totally alone even with people around you. A cyber hug, a twitter good morning - it's contact, it says you are alive even if you feel dead inside.

I still have bad days but they are fewer & much less severe than they were. I found this poem way back when & hunted for it for hours this morning. It says so much that so many of us will recognise (and not just depression sufferers - everyone has insecurities after all) and I think as dark as it is, it still has inspiration for us too. I'm one of the luckier ones though - my depression doesn't endanger me, I just close down, become a self hating, feeling worthless hermit.

When I started this blog, the 'She Rides Dragons' was inspired by the Dragon Riders of Pern series & by WoW but I've comes to realise that if I ride my dragon & soar into the sky - whether just in my mind or dreams or metaphorically in real life, then that Black Dog of depression is going to have a hard time catching me next time.

I've beaten it before, I've beaten cancer (for now anyways) & I'm flying solo for the first time in my adult life - it's all up to me now. I may have a strong hand to hold on to as well but that is now my desire to hold onto, no longer a necessity. I'm beginning to learn about myself too - from the inside, not just the distorted mirror view I've had for so long. Serious stuff like cancer helps you focus on the important things in life & I no longer care if other people think my ass looks fat or my hair doesn't suit me etc!

I guess I'm trying to say hold on, there is life after depression or even with depression, you just have to take that next breath, take that next baby step & keep on doing that. Next time you look up, you'll be amazed how far those baby steps have brought you & if it's still too scary out there, look down again & focus on those baby steps. I still carry my paintbrush but I don't need it quite so much these days.

I wish you Peace my friends

Paint brush (Anon)

I keep my paint brush with me
wherever I may go,
in case I need to cover up,
so the real me doesn’t show.

I’m so afraid to show you me,
afraid of what you’ll do,
that you may laugh or say mean things,
I’m afraid I might lose you.

I’d like to remove all my paint coats
to show you the real, true me,
But I want you to try and understand,
I need you to accept what you see.

So if you’ll be patient and close your eyes,
I’ll strip off all my coats real slow.
Please understand how much it hurts
to let the real me show.

Now my coats are all stripped off,
I feel naked, bare and cold.
And if you still love me with all that you see,
you are my friend, pure as gold.

I need to save my paint brush, though,
and hold it in my hand.
I want to keep it handy
in case somebody doesn’t understand.

So please protect me, my dear friend
and thanks for loving me true.
But please let me keep my paint brush with me
Until I love me, too.

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Real Life Catch Up

I can't believe it's been almost 3 weeks already since my last post! But to give you an idea of how things are going - it's 8am on a Saturday morning & I've already caught up on my Twitter feed from overnight (about an hour), have made a to-do list for the weekend & I'm about to start sipping my 3rd cup of coffee! Yup - my body clock has readjusted to working hours & didn't believe me when I told it to go back to sleep, it's the weekend. Grrrrr.

I can't say work has been interesting, it's just a data entry type job but having been off for 4 years, I've got to start at the bottom again. The people are nice & as it's a charity working for & with disabled people, it's actually quite an interesting place to work. Many of the desks are taller than normal to accommodate wheelchair users, the spaces between the desk areas are much wider too for the same reason & the bathrooms are huge with all sorts of special equipment. We also have quite a few volunteers working a day here & there - it gives them a little experience in an office/work environment & for some, it can lead to a proper job to give them some independence.

I do find it a bit difficult sometimes - I've never had much interaction with any kind of disability before & I'm meeting all kinds now - I'm kind of nervous of putting my foot in it by saying the wrong thing or being over helpful. I don't want to be 'that person' who raises their voice when speaking to a blind person or overly solicitous just because a guy walks a bit wonky, you know? It's also really hard not to stare sometimes - I'm not being rude to them (not intentionally at least), I'm just in awe of their ability to keep going even though just getting to the office is a monumental task and to be honest, I'm curious.

At least Spring has arrived!

I've only got a few more weeks there by the sounds of things. They are interviewing for the position I'm covering but I haven't applied as I know it is too junior for me & I won't last. Yes, I know a job is a job but you have to be realistic too - I know myself pretty well & I know that within a month or two, I'll be bored to literal tears & will probably leave anyway. I just can't handle it.

But on the upside, I'm planning a trip to USA when this position finishes so woo hooo! It's only been 4 months since I saw my friend & I'm really in need of some cuddles! That's probably the hardest thing about running solo these days - almost no physical interaction - it's surprising how much of a difference a hug can make but as much as I love my Mum, her hugs don't quite cut it! She's of a generation or an upbringing where hugs just aren't the done thing so she always feels awkward. I still hug her though - she's alone too so I'm guessing she misses hugs as much as I do.

As for WoW, well, I've not been very active at all in game - I'm just about managing to log in & relist my auctions most evenings, hence the lack of posts on my main blog, AH Addict. My guild is dying but as the only original member & currently the GM, I don't want to let it just die & fade away or let it go to someone else - crazy I know! I'm planning on finally getting my Shado-Pan reputation to exalted this weekend - just a few more dailies & farm work orders should do it.

With the just announced drop in XP required for leveling 85-90, I don't feel the urge to continue leveling my priest either so I guess this weekend will be a few scenarios on my Paladin - I still don't have the Scenaturdist achievement & it's almost Children's Week too which is the last Holiday achievement I need for the Violet Drake meta-achievement. Damn that PvP element though!

So there we go, that's where I am right now. I have no real direction so I'm just poodling along. I hope I can knuckle down & find something productive or fun (or both!) to do soon. I have no idea where this blog is going but in the meantime, it's great just to write it all out. I just hope you're nosy enough to enjoy my blatherings and bear with me whilst I get back on track!

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