The Wrathsome Project

“I resolved to stop accumulating and begin the infinitely more serious and difficult task of wise distribution.”
Andrew Carnegie



The Wrathsome Project

I’ve worked with many established choreographers over the years and then hundreds of new or student choreographers. Creating new work is very fun and challenging. Sometimes, I’ve learned, that the biggest challenge can be to name the piece! I can see that now when I try to name these darn blogs of mine.


I made a comment on Deez Wurds blog and realized that I had been either inspired or had thinking solidified by Kamalia Et Alia. To which, I realize that I am a Projects kind of guy. Not on the level of Gnomecore who is methodically getting all the class mounts and so much more. My Projects tend to be side-tasks that I work on while playing WoW.

The Narcissa’s Mirror Project
My latest “research” has been at the Summoning Stone for Nighthold. Since I am in my masquerade, I am tall. If I use the toy on a battle pet and then use a biscuit, my pet is now looking like me and almost twice as tall as me!

The Blossoming Ancient pet won’t do much except spawn this huge pool of leaves at the pet’s feet. Boneshard is fantastic, the “bone storm” animation on a giant spinning around all those waiting for the raid to start is great. The Suramar area is fun for the toy.

My Lavish Feast Project
This is a massive project in that I am trying to fill one column of our raid tab with these buff foods. While, of course, raiding and using them.

My five 110s have either the Harvester or Butcher shoulders which keeps me from farming much at all. To make Lavish Suramar Feast you must have made five other foods (which require multiple mats) and you need bacon. To work in volume, which is my desire, it can be brutal on the bag space.

The best way to do this is to cook them up near Nomi. This is for the fire but also the vendor, you’ll run out of butter, snails and olives. Big Gamy Ribs are my challenge and I hate farming them near Nesingwary’s Camp!

Tome of the Tranquil Mind Project
This one was and is easy. I discovered that my Inscriptionist had hundreds of Sallow Pigment. Since the new raid is coming, I loaded up stacks of 5 in our Raid Tab. Plus I sent stacks of 20 to my “favorites” on the raid team. The guess is that many raiders will want to change talents as we discover the challenges of each new boss in Tomb.

The Spirit Cauldron Project
My main has a minimum stack of ten of these beauties. Again, with the Harvester enchant, I rarely have to do much farming. It is a sad thing that these are account-bound. I’d love to not be the guy putting out feasts and cauldrons during a raid. I feel a bit ostentatious doing it and I don’t like it.

The Paragon Rep Mount Project
I am not nearly as organized as Gnomecore but I am playing with an eye on the rep mounts. I have the one from Stormheim, so I am encouraged. This means that at least my Main does an emissary cache run each day, often other 110s as they get exalted in the zones. I also do one turn-in of Legionfall Armies resources a day, if I can AND always choose the 500 resources three-day quest which more and more of my Alts can do now that they have “geared up” their followers.

The Artifact Power Project
I expect some push-back on this one but since I like to raid, I want more Concordance — when it is reasonable to farm AP!

This only means that when the Mage Tower has the Knowledgeable buff up (like right now) that I’ll join the ToV and EN normal and heroic speed runs. This buff rarely lines up with my Nighthold raiding but c’est la guerre!


Looking over my Projects list, it can appear that I am over-playing WoW but many are from passive gains while simply playing as a typical player with an eye on certain focused results.

I’ve considered a Gold Project. I’m selling Tomes right now and could sell Lavish Feasts. I’m selling Raiding with Leashes pets when I run Ulduar for the (really rare) mount. But, in all, I feel I have plenty of gold to splurge when tempted.

How about you, what is keeping you busy?

Don’t Stop, Its Too Good

“All the odds are in my favor
Something’s bound to begin,
It’s got to happen, happen sometime
Maybe this time I’ll win.”

Cabaret


Don’t Stop, It’s Too Good

So much to do in this World of Warcraft! Sometimes I feel like holding on to a few things and not completing them. I don’t want the game to be over.

The Daily Frostwolf is on the verge of downing Heroic Gul’dan — what does one do after that? And … I do want to down Heroic Gul’dan; my raid team must be at least a month away. I hope it never ends.

Hearthcast is my favorite podcast. I love listening to them and the feel like friends though we’ve never met. This podcast is perfect for farming Starlight Rose; it lasts one hour. No one should farm longer that that; even though it was one of their strategies this week!

I am very happy with the game right now. I often raid on two teams, we have Time Walking this week which I’ll do with my friends, I finished the Heroes of the Storm mount for WoW a few days ago (at the welcome encouragement of my best friends) and our guild seems to be flourishing. Deez Wurds offers up a stark contrast with some past postings back during Burning Crusade which was a cool thing to read. His point is The Song Remains the Same but I take it very differently. The game is so much better now … and we did have a Cataclysm to re-vamp all of the early zones.

I’ve been thinking hard about Z and Cinder’s Challenge for this week. I have to say, after reading Story Island, I’ll have to work hard to come up with something as compelling!

When gearing up, I don’t bother too much with transmog; things are changing too fast. But, when things settle down, I like to visit Kamalia Et Alia for some inspiration. I really enjoy the weekly posting Sunday on the Promenade. I have to look good as a Man About Dalaran!

Genius Blogger, Gnomecore, posted a song a while ago that fit perfectly his character. I’ve been trying to find something similiar as it’s a fun idea. Not too many Tree Healing songs but I don’t listen to Enya much. So far … I’ve only found one song that fits my hopes when I am mount farming. Maybe This Time; from Cabaret. The song probably won Liza the Oscar.




Happy Hunting and may all your hits …. be crits!

Kara, We Hardly Knew Ye

“I don’t consider myself a pessimist. I think of a pessimist as someone who is waiting for it to rain. And I feel soaked to the skin.”
Leonard Cohen


Kara, We Hardly Knew Ye

Kara, a big honking 9 boss mythic dungeon, was described as an experience that you might do with friends divided over two nights. We heard that in a Dev Chat. And they lied. Lied. Kara is a speed run or you won’t see the final boss.

So, what is it? And, I ask you, why would I let myself get involved in that kind of experience? Either the intention was for us to have a nostalgic and also a marvelicious lore-laden experience with unique boss mechanics or it was meant to be a power-driven exciting (stressful) run with no time to stand in awe. Or it was meant to be ran over and over and over again until we are sick of it. So, what is it, Blizzard?


Since I only play WoW, I don’t think Blizzcon will have anything for me to watch for this year.


Z is for Zeirah was a guest on the Battletagged podcast discussing online personalities. I enjoyed it a lot and laughed along with them. They also talked about the Running of the Gnomes charity event which they participated in, 7.1 patch notes and a lot more. Settle in to some Starlight Rose farming and give it a listen.


I completed Battle on the Broken Isles which was a solid goal of mine! Now to do it all over again with a Dragon team, Aquatic team, Beast team — oh, dear Elune!


Having my old level 100 Alts around is great for multiple runs for Raiding with Leashes. Putting those old dusty Alts to use feels pretty good though (I’m embarrassed to say) I don’t know my way around ICC hardly at all. I’ll need to get a friend to give me a tour to learn the true path.
Still, I have six of sixteen right now — so I’m on my way!


I wrote a long post last night while watching football. Windows 10 updated over-night and I lost my post. Don’t you hate that?


Kamalia asks the question has Legion effectively broken my Altholism? This is a response to a post by Bio Break and helps me see the player perspective.

And, then I wonder, do I really love my Main? Because, I want to do it all! I want more than Altism, I want a freaking Alt Factory serving my needs and roles and fulfillment.

The crux is: I love my Druid Healer — but I don’t love my Druid-as-Balance or Kitty or Bear. But … I HAVE to DPS, quest, fight, crawl and cry my way through this content to be a part of the game.

Taking it to another step — this I wonder. If you have a small game with little content then you make that content hard and challenging. If you have a huge game riding on top of many expansions with a freight train full of content then that content should not be crazy hard. But, the path to professions or gearing or mythic plus IS hard and time consuming and, frankly, frustrating.

Maybe it is time for a “catch up” patch with a flood of gear to make the content a little more trivial to complete or dial down the phasing or spread out the mobs. Or put Starlight Rose nodes every three feet so picking them is a joy for twenty minutes to get what you want and then you can move on.

One doesn’t want to get to the point of choosing IF I want to play at all.

Trivia

“Why is it trivia? People call it trivia because they know nothing and they are embarrassed about it.”
Robbie Coltrane


Trivia

Borrowing (with full respect, not stealing!) a concept from Gnomecore, today’s post is a sort of Notes from the Field post. Bits and pieces.

  • Today’s Rep Bonus Event starts today. Just how much will it bump up?
  • Raid Advice offers a handy Innervate Weak Aura which I grabbed immediately. This, in an article about treating it as a raid cooldown, is very good … raid advice!
  • I am one bar from filling my second major artifact trait. That kind of progress can consume/obsess your play-time, be careful!
  • I was lucky last week and got 860 hands. Since I’ll be wearing them awhile, I invested 900g on the Legion Herbalism enchant. It’s nice, very nice.
  • Kamalia Et Alia has a new Sunday on the Promenade post. I will announce that it must be “working as intended” since I end up singing bit by bit, putting it together from Sunday in the Park with George. Every time.
  • I am missing the postings from Bodhi Rana. He is not happy with Legion and I assume gave up blogging. Pity, I liked his style but … WoW and life moves on.

Okay, lets get some breakfast and go play WoW.

Happy Hunting!

Legion: One Week and Counting

“They can’t censor the gleam in my eye.”
Charles Laughton


Legion: One Week And Counting

Legion will drop in one week. I’ll be one of those guys who will stay up late to see it flip over and head to Dalaran.

I’ve been keeping an eye on The Transmog Queue and Kamalia et alia for some good ideas for building a set. I need and want to look my best in Dalaran! Seriously, look at some of these design ideas. Good stuff, good inspiration.

I am very excited to be around players again in a Sanctuary. Especially after the lonely isolation of my Garrison. I’ll doctor my mount up with a macro to show off but I don’t want to be too obnoxious! I’ll let the other kids get big and /yell and be annoying.

We ran heroic HFC last night up to Manny. My Druid healer held his own against our Shammy healer, the Holy Pally is still gearing up big time. On fights like Manny or a stack-up phase like Feast of Souls, Druids really shine and glow with pride. When players are scattered about, we are merely even. The good news is that we feel like we can do the job.

I have some unfinished business still, though the list is small. Like Alternative Chat and Gnomecore, I invested heavily in the Invasions. Well designed, good rewards; very much everything that I’d expect in a pre-expansion launch. Well done, Blizzard. I look good in my Invasion tmog set.

I want to run the ulduar/kara/dalaran quest line again (not for the gloves, though I think they might rock in HFC) but to explore! I apologize to the blogger who suggested taking a stroll around because I can’t remember where I read it. My first run, I was absorbed in the “reading of the text” and following my leader. My next run, I’ll take a look around a lot more.

Finally, this week, I plan on finishing Feltaco of the Burning Region. He is still puttering about (sorry) in the opening quest zone. I’d guess I’m about half-way done.

I have a tab in my (new) personal guild vault just for leveling my characters in Legion. I have stacks of Versatility food*, Drums of Fury, Augment Runes, Bandages and Goblin Gliders. I doubt I’ll make a dent as much of it will be replaced by better stuff; but I hope these things will ease my characters through the level-up zones.

One week! Come on Legion!

*Jumbo Sea Dog

Garrisons: See You At Home

“First he wrought, and afterward he taught.”
Geoffrey Chaucer


Garrisons: See You At Home

I had to chuckle when Bodhi Rana posted his Busy Work through the Lull. For me, eight runs through Ulduar 25, three through Firelands, two through MSV, two through the Throne of the Four Winds this week. Because that is what it has come to; it has been a very long expansion, this Warlords of Draenor.

Yesterday, I finally got Mr. Grubbs by following this guide written in 2010! The guide is by Perks N Peeves. As with any grind, this time I chose Love Actually to watch as a movie. Eventually I ended up running through the graveyards in northern Eastern Plaguelands. And, I got two! This little pet will do a flip up over your head every now and then.

Gnomecore has some final tips in this long titled post to do the final days of 6.4 and leading into the pre-patch. Check it out.

I took a peek at Kamalie et alia’s post on some transmog looks; Rulers of the Warchief’s Navy. It made me think about what I’ll want to look like whilst running about (new) Dalaran on Tuesday. I think I’ll go for the “I did WotLK” look with this macro on my action bar:

#showtooltip Quel’dorei Steed
/summonpet Argent Squire
/use Bubble Wand
/use Pretty Draenor Pearl
/use Everlasting Alliance Firework
/use Quel’dorei Steed

Since I have the Pony Up achievement, the Squire will be mounted on his little pony. Not a bad look to show off now that we’ll finally see other players … in Dalaran!

The question that I don’t have an answer for come Tuesday (or Wednesday) is if the profession trainers in (new) Dalaran will let me up my professions to 800. I’d love to finish off some mats in my bags and use them for profession points.

We should get the Dalaran Hearthstone (20 minute cool down) on Pre-Patch Day. This will mean that for the first time in three or four expansions (years!) there will not be an optimal place to set our hearthstone! Imagine that. I might fly out to Gadgetzan to set it there for the Invasions.

Today I finally released Delvar Ironfist from service and his long-time bodyguard duties. After a long run of talking smack, drinking, fighting and offering a hearth; he simply said, “See you at home.”

xo

The High Cost of Transmog

“Big girls need big diamonds.”
Elizabeth Taylor


The High Cost of Transmog

When the news came out of last year’s Blizzcon, I was (somehow) under the impression that we’d be able to change our sets or looks “on the fly” with a named set on our action bar.

Dreams of Tmog Battles in Dalaran, it made me dizzy!

It is not the case, t’was a fantasy of mine, I suppose.

The cost of making a set is 330 gold, way too expensive to do on the fly.

However, it occurs to me that I have THREE specs! Specs cost nothing to change back and forth and you can set a set to a spec, so to speak!

So, my Survival Spec as a Hunter, which I have no intention of playing can be my Man About Town look — perhaps a tuxedo or something as elegant. And, think of all those unused action bar slots that can be filled with toys and fancy mounts and battle pets! I fair to swoon.

I’m pretty sure that for my Marksman; who I think I’m committing to, will want an all black, lethal as an arrow look. I don’t know. I’ll have to rely on the experts like
Transmog Queue and Kamalia et alia who know how to put together cool looking sets. They have good taste, style and panache!

I’ve found one youtube resource, Jessie Healz. It’s like going shopping on Rodeo Drive.

I’m trusting these guys to keep up-to-date as we learn the play-style of Transmogging in Legion.

This will be a big project (egads, my Druid has four specs). I will have to research the bloggers, find a set I like for each of my multiple specs. Probably in the first few weeks of the pre-patch.

Let’s get going!