I made another Druid.

And this time I am determined to make it to level 20 so I can get Cat Form.   Prior to this, my Druid Level Record was 17.   Actually, I guess it still is 17.   BUT I SHALL PERSEVERE.


Also, I figured out why Davin never responds when I say hi to him.

How Ryan Lum shows his love.

Those who know my ex-roomie will understand the strange love affair that goes on.   Click to enlarge, btw.

Tamastara to 80!

It's been fun questing, even questing alone. A lot of the group & most of the dungeon quests had to be dropped, but frankly there were so many quests period it really didn't matter. I ended up pugging more group quests than I expected to.

I spent a bunch of time in Dragonblight, which is more fun for Horde than it is for Alliance (on Minionette, Dragonblight was like torture!), & I did the Cooking Daily... daily. Every day. One day the Mustard Dogs quest led me to an NPC who sent me off into Sholazar Basin.

This place looked like it might take me awhile to level.


I fished- I mean, took a look around Sholazar for a bit, then returned to Dragonblight to finish up green quests. I already knew that Sholazar Basin was going to be my Stranglethorn Vale, my Oasis of Marr. Somehow I always felt, in STV & Oasis, like I was on vacation. It didn't matter how much I died (As in the fucking difference between "orc warrior" & "A orc warrior!"), the surroundings were just relaxing.

In EQ Fishing was the only thing you could gain skillups in & obtain loot by while you were medding. In the old days meditating involved your nose in your spellbook, which took up your entire screen, so you couldn't see anything else. You also had to be seated, so you couldn't even autorun yourself along the hillside in Kithicor Forest.

Yeah, all this solitary play has made me nostalgic. Krissy knows what I'm talking about.


I finished up in Dragonblight, then headed back to Grizzly Hills to finish up green quests there. Sholazar Basin haunted the back of my mind; it was like a ghost calling out to me. Waving at me with a tackle box.

Grizzly Hills are another great fishing zone. Glacial Salmon, my friends. The lake just below Camp Oneqwah has 3 Glacial Salmon schools that continually repop. And Firecracker Salmon is 46 spell power. Speaking of repopping schools, Keith woke me up one afternoon telling me about a certain spot in Borean Tundra where multiple schools of Musselback Sculpin simply litter the perimeter of the lake. Naturally I had to go check this out.

And then I hit 77. Over a pool game (Which he was winning. With ease. I need to practice.) Phil informed me that I could now get a flying mount. I had thought it was 78.

OMG A FLYING MOUNT MAKES EVERYTHING SO MUCH EASIER. Questing, herbing, discovering, moving to a new fishing spot --- it's all so much easier.

Feeling rather chipper, I bought myself a stack of pet treats & the leash. The leash was boring but the pet snacks became addictive. No, I wasn't eating them. The "happy" effect only lasts 5 minutes... so you have 5 minutes of imagining your pet is fawning, smiling up at you with approval... & then that little heart disappears. And then you get this weird feeling like your little cat or your shiny firefly is looking at you... with reproach. Or with sad, hurt eyes. Howcome you won't give me another treat? I follow you everywhere. Don't you love me any more? It's ok; I'll still follow you... sniff.

The pet snacks thing is really fucked up.

I continued questing in Grizzly Hills, which is really a very beautiful zone. It was like Canada. When I grow up, I'd like to live some place like Grizzly Hills, although with running water & broadband. I'd fish my supper. Well, with running water, broadband, & a Costco. Yeah.

One day I was doing some pvp daily, & the Alliance NPCs kinda kick my ass. They're archers - & I can't deal with 2 of them shooting me; I always have to sheep 1. I've died over there. It's embarrassing. Anyway, there I was, nuking my single "Alliance unit," & this NE rogue comes swooping down on me from above & starts hitting me.

I ran, of course. I also aggroed another Alliance NPC with my panicked strafing. I used a potion, my mana gem, & my Lifebloom & by the time I Blinked across the river I was like 10% & kissing the ground. The Rogue had vanished, at about 30%, & I didn't think he would follow that low. I bandaged, ate, turned in my daily, then mounted up & went back.

There was a happy ending. This wasn't due to my mad skills. This was because that guy was silly. ROGUES STEALTH, YA DUMBASS. Even I know that.

Ah, the joy of flying mounts. Instead of heading back to Sholazar Basin when I finished up in Grizzly Hills, I ended up in Zul'Drak. What a gloomy, sad place. Fortunately it was a relatively compact, easily navigated place, & to be honest I find that Apothecary daily quest to be really fun. I don't know why. It's just really fun to get shit off that dude's shelves. Maybe I have issues. I don't know.

There ended up being a fuckton of quests in Zul'Drak. Keith told me that the factions I should be concerned about are The Knights of the Ebon Blade, Kirin Tor, &... something else, I forget. I have notes. Anyway, I did all the Ebon Blade quests I could get in Zul'Drak & then spent what seemed like an eternity doing shit for the dancing trolls & the cat goddess.

Meh, it was fun.



And, I spent some time fishing. Having used up all the Outland recipe caster stat food in our gbank, I could finally start using food my own level. Ryan1 never used any of the food I sent him, because either he never remembered, he wanted to save it for a rainy day, or he was simply too leet. I don't know. But I'm not leet. I'm also alone here. I eat that shit every chance I get.


And then finally I was back in Sholazar Basin, where I am now.

There's a fair amount of pvp there. Earlier tonight I was AFK up on my nether ray, alt-tabbed watching an episode of House. I heard someone Moonfire me & alt-tabbed back so I could fly away from the asshole druid who was trying to kill me. WTF, can they hit you from midair? I guess that shithead was perching in trees & shooting at me. Name was Saba. Yeah, a fricking druid named after a mackerel.

Then later, while I was doing Oracles quests (green drake!!), I was joined by a pally/druid couple. I think only the druid killed me. The pally stunned me & that was about it.

I hate pallies.

Anyway, earlier this evening I hit 80.

I texted a bunch of FTMers & was answered with various congratulations, some of them enthusiastic, some of them bored-sounding. I like to think that Bryan's typo in "finallb" was a mark of excitedness. No? Oh well.

I think I'm going to be in Sholazar Basin for awhile. Between the fishing & the Oracles rep, it looks like I'll have a lot to do. What I need to know now is... should I respec? No, not Frostfire. I'm ready to deal out a little payback.

After dinging 80, I went to Orgrimmar to train.

Oh, Tamastara.

There's a lot of fishing in Northrend.

I don't know why it is I gotta play Tamastara. It's not that I want to play a mage, because I have a mage on Uldum & it's just not the same feeling. It's not that I want to be 70+, as we saw with poor Minionette. I don't know what it is. It's not just the evil laugh or the bony elbows.

Every other toon I have is just a character that I have. For whatever reason all the things Tamastara does matter more to me than any of my other characters.

Maybe I need professional help.

Being all alone at odd hours, I get a decent amount of pvp. Leveling my mage on Uldum has kind of screwed me a little, because when push comes to shove I can't always remember that I'M FROST, HELLO. So here I am hitting Blast Wave- oh wait.

I think if I only played Tamastara all the time, it would all come back to me. But even now I get stuck. By 70 I've got so much shit I can use but I can't remember where the hell I put it & the OCD part of my psyche freaks out even more because I'm fairly certain I'm not using it in the most efficient order & then I can't think because it's making so much noise. My therapist says it comes from not feeling safe as a child. Well, fuck.

While questing by the murlocs in Borean Tundra, I made friends with a sweet warrior/pally couple who basically followed me everywhere & ganked me probably about 6-7 times.

The first time it was because they were beating on a nearby warlock so I joined in. Naturally by the time I realized that Corruption & Curse of Agony will make it difficult to sheep & so I finally got a Frostbolt off, the lock was dead & I was alone with a warrior & a pally.

Not one of my more popular fantasies.

Needless to say, I got dursted & I'd probably spent most of the engaged time (like, 3 seconds out of 5) trying to remember where the hell I'd bound everything.

The 2nd & 3rd time I was glad they'd come back because it was painfully obvious I needed the practice. Adrenaline has historically gotten me into a lot of trouble & so from childhood - 4th grade, to be specific - I trained myself to kind of shut down when the adrenaline levels surged. Instead, everything slows down & I think to myself, "Is that numpad 3 over there, or is it numpad -? Gosh darn, I wish these buttons would show more than the 1st character of the binding." And by then I'm dead.

The last few times my newfound friends got me I realized that they were anticipating my location by the questline I was on, & that pissed me off. I mean, it wasn't like we were doing the same quests; they were deliberately lying in wait for me. I put up some decent fight at the end but I can't kill a warrior with a pally healing him. And I can't sheep a pally with DoTs on her. And that warlock was on the same questline.

And then there was the pally/DK team. Actually, initially it was just a DK that jumped me while I was pulling a mob. I rezzed, medded, went & found her, & waited until she was done with her mob so that we could go again & she could kick my ass.

I don't know anything about DKs, which explains why I was willing to stand inside her anti-magic thingy & wonder why she wasn't getting hurt. Frankly, the fact that there are so many damn DKs running around is probably good reason to roll one myself so I can learn what those 5 million direct damage, instant cast, self healing spells they have are. Fuckers. I hate DKs.

NERF DEATH KNIGHTS.



I figure I'll level a DK after I get Tamastara to 80. I can only do so many different things at once. I have the mage & priest on Uldum, & Tamastara here. And all this fishing.


There are some very cool quests on Northrend. I've been enjoying them. When I was in 9th grade, my favorite band was Ratt. I also had a succession of pet rats that one of the senior guys would get for me. Two of them ran away into the wild, 1 ("Rook") ate wolmanized wood & died, & my last one, a gentle, affectionate Rowan I named Rue, lived a few years before developing cancer (Rowans do that) & growing tumors all over her body.

I buried her at one of my favorite hiking spots.


I made Channon log on to make me a 2nd bank tab because all the herbs & fish wouldn't fit in my own bank & I didn't want to make a mule. Because when I make mules I forget what they have on them.


One of the guys at the bar, who plays FFxi, asked me how the new WoW expansion was. I said it was great. He then asked me if it made WoW a better game. When I didn't understand the question, he explained that the latest FFxi expansion had made FFxi a better game.

"That's because FFxi needed to become better," I said. "WoW is already a great game & the expansion doesn't change the game, only adds more content, making it the same game, with more stuff." I had probably imbibed a significant amount of tequila that night (probably; I'm just guessing, randomly). And that guy still comes in & sits on my bar. He must be really understanding.







I joined a PUG for Azjol Nerub. I did the same for Nexus too. I've had pretty good luck with PUGs; maybe I just bachi'd myself by saying that.








And then there's pvp with level 80 OP classes, who seem to like to hang out at Emerald Dragonshrine. First there was the DK, & then there was the Hunter. I can't learn very much from this. But that DK must have sucked because I got him under 60% before I died. I was 75.



And then it was Christmas.


I have more screenshots, but I think that's enough for now. Tamastara is currently 77 in the Grizzly Hills, enjoying the clean air & good fishing. It may be awhile before I hit 80. But I'm having fun.