I also feel like I’ve done it all. All of the starter areas have been done several times, and I’ve seen all of the areas on at least 2 characters. Raiding has even lost its appeal as we keep trying to progress in Ulduar (aka seeing the same 4 bosses over and over again to get to the one we really want, only to spend an hour on him before needing to head off to bed). I like Ulduar, I really do. But I wish it was split up into several wings, each with its own lockout. We just don’t have the time to kill the same 4 bosses every night and still attempt at progressing. And don’t even talk about ICC…we can only get down Marrowgar. It doesn’t help that we’ve lost 3 of our members to an upcoming move so our attendance is low to begin with. So yeah…I haven’t even felt compelled to log in for that.

Then there’s Cataclysm coming. I’m excited for a lot of the new features they’re going to implement, including the redesigned leveling zones. Alts have been my normal time-killing activity but what’s the point when the content is going to change soon? It also doesn’t help that my home server is completely full, including slots saved for Cata characters. I’m always reluctant to delete a character and I don’t think I could ever delete an 80.

I’ve also been putting a lot of work into web hosting and designing lately (there’s more about that on my non-WoW blog), as well as making the completely new Bloodriver site. My renewed interest in this has also left me feeling a little blah about WoW.

So all of this resulted in Kazi and I not really touching WoW at all for a couple days. We watching some Mystery Science Theater and played some other games. Warcraft 3 proved to be cool but I can only play the same RTS for so long. We could not for the life of us get Age of Mythology to connect using GameRanger so that was quickly abandoned. Dungeon Siege 2 was going great until two crashes left my character far behind Kazi’s (WTB autosaves) and combined with the frustration of high level mobs in the worst places, it’s been pushed to the side. We started playing Neverwinter Nights together, which Kazi has never played and I’ve always enjoyed playing. The pace is a little slower than what we’re used to but hey, at least it has a great story line and autosaves!

I think we’re slowly starting to get back into things now. With the upcoming announcement of Real ID being implemented with the next patch, we saw an opportunity…the chance to play more not just cross-faction but also cross-realm while still being able to stay in contact with our friends. This is just about as good as more character slots per server would be. So in a sort of impromptu preparation for that…we rolled a couple of Alliance on the Farstriders server. We chose Farstriders because a) it’s an RP realm and we like those and b) that’s where Fhionn is located and guess who had enough money to buy us bags?

Well, at least buy bags for Kazi’s dwarf paladin. I, on the other hand, rolled a death knight, a class I hadn’t touched since I had my troll DK Githinji commit suicide. And because I wanted to boost their numbers…I made her a female dwarf. I think this character will last longer than poor depressed Githinji. I was already joking about calling her undead mount Sparkles or Rainbow, and how my corehound minipet was feasting on the bones of my enemies. I’m still fleshing out her character concept but I think it’s safe to say that she will not be the depressed sort.

However, if you don’t see me post for a while, that’s probably because Kazi and I are kicking it in another game or watching some movies or something.

But if you already think that this blog has some sort of time schedule, you are sorely mistaken, dear readers.

Niqora

Has reached level 65. At level 64, she tamed a Warp Hunter who she named Grakoth. I just took a screenshot of them in Elwynn Forest (because it’s funny to bug the Alliance). Unfortunately it’s night now so the lighting is horrible.

Here’s a better picture taken from the character chooser screen.

I am loving the Warp ability. Only a 15 second cooldown and it instantly takes Grakoth to the mob…it’s really great for grinding or farming. He’s already up to Loyalty 5 because I’ve quested with him all through level 64. Luckily he likes his fish so it gave me an excuse to work on Niqora’s fishing skill, which is now over 300. And I think he’s just the cutest thing when he tilts his head up and sniffs at the air. It reminds me so much of a dog’s behaviour. Grakoth won’t replace Blacky but he is definitely going to be staying around.

Brighit

Brighit is level 24 as of today. A while ago, she moved to the Moon Guard server to join Wolfrider’s Alliance warlock. He also created a baby NE druid and she’s been waiting for him to catch up so they can level together.

Khaja

Quite a while ago, Khaja tamed a Ravager Specimen from Azuremyst Isle. You might remember that Khaja has gone through quite a few pets so I was hesistant to mention the ravager in case I got rid of him. But I think (don’t quote me on this)…I think this companion might be sticking around the little troll. I’ve named him Xiuhcoatl, which is an Aztec name meaning “weapon of destruction”. Quite an appropriate name for a ravager, wouldn’t you say? Definitely a tongue twister…I’m not even sure how to pronounce it so his nickname is going to be Xi.

Machalor

Yay! Machalor is level 40 and now my second character to get her mount. Of course, this happens just shortly before the announcement that we might be getting mounts at level 30…*grumble grumble*. Oh well, it will make it easier for my other 7 hunters.

After running around all of Azeroth during the Midsummer Festival, she got the 350 flowers she needed to trade them in for a Spirit of Summer, which can be seen next to her in the screenie below. It was quite an adventure that involved a fair bit of dying and dashing through areas that she really shouldn’t have been in. I did try to capture the flame in an Alliance city (Exodar in particular) but it was just too much work so I decided to stick with the little towns instead.

Fhionn

Not much has happened with Fhionn, except that I was bored one day and went around killing the Blood Elf Bandit again until he dropped his wonderful mask. I may or may not be moving her to Moon Guard (she and Brighit are a bit of a team, it doesn’t seem right to separate them like this).

Tkasha

What is it with my troll characters and constantly switching between pets? Tkasha was going to have a crab as her pet…but then I had to go to Petopia and browse through all the pets. I kept going back to the golden maned lion one, which is very strange because that model had never appealed to me before. So I tamed one and named him Rajesh, which is East Indian for “king of kings”. Then…I saw Humar. Of course I had seen and heard much about him before and I had never really paid much attention to him. But at that moment, I realized that Tkasha had to tame him. If you were to look at it RP-wise, Khaja began to notice that Rajesh’s coat was growing darker with each passing season, until his 23rd season where his fur was as black as night. I’d say that taming Humar was difficult but that part wasn’t. It was waiting for him to spawn. After spending about 2 days logging in and having no luck at him spawning, I woke myself up at about 5 am to tame him and sure enough, there he was. I was even going to have a little fun and make a movie out of the taming but alas, in my sleepiness I somehow managed to shut off FRAPs right before I tamed him. *sigh*

I do think that he is just gorgeous and I’m pretty sure he will be at Tkasha’s side for a long time (again, don’t quote me >.>)

Here’s some pictures of Rajesh when his coat was still golden. In these screenies, he’s with Tkasha in the old Lordaeron throne room above Undercity.

The first kitty she tamed was  Irusan the Durotar tiger. Durotar tigers are the only orange tigers available below level 30 so his taming involved a very long walk from Darkshore to Ratchet, then a swim out to the Echo Isles. It was well worth it as he has a beautiful firey glow about him in any well-lit area. His name is Irusan is the name of the King of Cats from Celtic mythology.

Her main pet  Neala was orginally Dishu. Her name means “Ruler”, which seems quite appropriate for his leopard matron that roamed the Barrens. Irusan may be the King of Cats but we all know that it’s the queen that’s really in charge.

Nicora has Blacky, who was originally Snarler. I tamed him because he’s black (one of my favorite colors) and he’s a wolf (one of my favorite animals) and because he reminded me of my RL dog, who passed away in May. Nicora also has a ghost sabre (just like everyone and their mother) who’s named Tonrar, which means “ghost” in Inuit. I tamed him because…well…he looked cool

Machalor has a thing for hyenas. They didn’t really appeal to me at first and I had tamed her first one, Chuckles the bluish-purple hyena mostly for the novelty. But then he stuck to the orc hunter like glue. And his strange aura of fierceness bordering on hysterical laughter really drew me in. And his bouncy run! And how could I forget the way his tiny tail swings around as he lopes along. This led to the taming of Machalor’s second hyena, Snickers the Scarlet Tracking Hound. Chuckles is enjoying his retirement in the stables (he might come back out again one day) while Snickers bounces along side Machalor wherever she goes.

Jorthwyn likes anything to do with Norse mythology, especially Odin. She has two pets right now, Freki the prairie wolf and Muninn the red and black carrion bird. Freki was named after one of Odin’s wolf companions and Muninn after one of his ravens. I know a carrion bird isn’t exactly a raven but it was the closest thing in the game. Freki is really neat because he’s one of those that barks every time you click on him but since Nicora already has a wolf, Jorthwyn needed something different. Which is where Muninn came in. I don’t really like the look of the carrion birds or flying pets in general but for some reason, ol’ Muninn is growing on me. His beautifully colored feathers sure help.

Aithne has gone through a lot of pets, including a ravager, a dragonhawk, and a pink tallstrider. Only two pets have stuck to her: a blue crab named Lapis and a dark blue raptor named Rath. Strange pets for a blood elf, I know, but they fit with her. I love Lapis for her shiny blue shell that just gleams in the sunlight and her name. Her name fits her beautifully. Unfortunately I know crabs don’t get much love in the skills department so I decided to get Aithne something else. A few tames later, I settled on Rath, who was a pain to tame but is too handsome and powerful to turn away. His name just popped into my mind at random but I love it and it suits him.

Brighit’s pretty much a one-pet Draenei. There was a brief time when she was going to tame cats exclusively but then I decided to create my night elf and make her my cat lady. Now Brighit is named after Brigid, a Celtic goddess of fire, who had a boar named Triath as her companion. This made my choice pretty obvious…Brighit was to tame a boar! I had shied away from boars before because it seemed like everyone had one. But then I decided that you can’t knock it until you try it and tamed a black one from around Ironforge and called him Triath (how imaginative). And he is awesome! He holds aggro better than any pet I’ve seen and his Charge and Gore skills makes killing things so much faster. Also, I will admit that he is cute and has lots of personality.

Fhionn is my cat lady. Cats are so popular in the game because they come in such a variety of skins that are all beautiful and they’re also known for some of the best damage. I too like the cats so it only made sense to have a character who had them as pets. Fhionn currently have two brightly coloured cats, Irusan and Neala. Irusan is an orange Durotar tiger that she traveled all the way to the Echo Isles for. He’s named after the Celtic king of cats. Neala, whose name is Gaelic for “queen” or “champion”, is the first yellow-leopard-skinned cat that you can tame in the game, a rare spawn called Dishu who, might I add, was a challenge to tame.  Why did I choose orange and yellow cats when they’re such a great amount of equally beautiful whitish or purplish cats? Because it seems that everything having to do with night elves is either white or purple and I was getting sick of it. When Fhionn runs around with her cats, they seem to glow brilliantly in the low light of Teldrassil.

Last but not least is Khaja, my newly created troll hunter. I’ve decided to have her tame some of the “colder” beasts, like scorpids and windserpents. She tried playing with a very cool-looking black-and-red scorpid but it just didn’t work out. Now she has one of the yellow serpents from Wailing Caverns and as soon as she’s high enough level, she’s going to tame one of the red-coloured ones. I haven’t decided which one exactly yet. Her current windserpent is named Blit (I don’t know why) and he’s beginning to grow on me. He’s quite graceful, except when he’s “running”. In addition, his ranged Lightning Breath attack seem to grab aggro fairly well.

…Wow, good thing that I didn’t actually post that in the comments of Mania’s article. It was long enough as it is!

Other than that, I’m pleased to say that Fhionn has finally reached level 20 and so now all of my characters have made it to that all important benchmark. (Aspect of the Cheetah FTW!)

Except that…not all of my hunters have really reached level 20. Because I created a new one. *grin* I’ll introduce her later.

I’m greatly enjoying the new patch, with the dead zone being gone, the awesome new tracking, and the streamlined leveling from level 20-60. A lot of other hunters are complaining about the double trapping gone and the no-FD on dungeon bosses. But none of that affects me because a) I barely use traps and if I do, it’s for one target and b) I avoid dungeons like the plague. Unless Tty and I run through an instance that’s all grey to Nicora (like Scarlet Monastery), in which case I can smash everything into the ground with ease.

If you haven’t already played your hunter on the new patch, do it now! I command you!

It seemed it would be fairly simple. Fhionn was level 13, Dishu was level 13. She’s just a rare, not an elite so how hard could she be?

The trip back to the Barrens was easy this time for Fhionn, now that I had the flight point to Ratchet from taming Irusan. Then it was a bit of a walk past Crossroads to the place where Dishu spawns. And there I found her, dozing in the shade of a tree as if she didn’t have a care in the world. I click on Tame Beast, she comes galloping towards me and starts attacking me but I can easily handle her. Oh…what’s this? Suddenly three level 9 cubs appear beside her and start attacking me as well. Hopefully a fragile night elf can handle this much abuse. But apparently, she can’t. Fhionn was down on the ground just before the taming finished. A second try got the same result. Fhionn in the form of a pretty little wisp floating before the spirit healer. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

Specifically, magic dust. Not drugs, this Magic Dust. Of course, the only mob is really drops from is the dust devil in Westfall, something too high a level for Fhionn. But lo and behold, Brighit is on the same server and she can kill them. Cue a couple hours of Brighit farming dust devils over a few days.

Brighit only gets 1 magic dust out of who-knows-how-many dust devils and she sends it off to Fhionn who’s waiting in Ratchet. Fhionn gets it, runs to the spawn area…and finds Dishu’s corpse. That’s right, some random player was killing mobs in the area and had just killed Dishu along with them.

I felt like killing the bloody bugger that killed Dishu, especially since her respawn time is about 8-12 hours.

I log on again the next day, determined to make this cat mine. She was of course lounging in the shade again. Throw magic dust, Dishu falls asleep, start tame…and this is the result this time:

Magic dust…it works miracles

Machalor went from level 29 to level 31.5 (so she now has the incredibly useful Feign Death) so she’s only 2 levels away from taming a scarlet tracking hound.

Aithne is now level 20! That’s one down, 3 to go to cross that off on my to-do list.

Jorthwyn is on her way to level 20, not with the help of quests in Loch Modan however. Has anyone else had problems finding quests in this dwarven area? Doesn’t really matter because now Jorthwyn and Freki are enjoying Darkshore, where there are lots of quests.

Brighit and Nicora…sorry, haven’t done anything with them.

As for character progress, I’m just trying to level everyone except for Nicora and Machalor up to level 20. I will post about Aithne’s tame of Rath, and I’m in the process of writing a beginner’s guide to the hunter class based on my experiences. So more to come soon!