Practice makes perfect December 13, 2010
Posted by D in WoW.add a comment
I never really have any foreknowledge of expansions (see recent Runecloth debacle) because I don’t do alpha/beta/ptr stuff — aside from that one stupid time I tried it and people were camping the spawn points and slaughtering you as you logged in…have I mentioned how much I hate PvP? I feel like I have the right to hate PvP based on my time in EQ1 on a Free-for-all PvP server. Anyhoo. So I go into these expansions mostly blind, because I want to be dazzled by the shiny new content. The only problem is, I don’t know what’s important ahead of time, so I make decisions that I kind of regret four alts later.
With TBC, I rushed my main druid through Hellfire and Zangarmarsh not knowing who or what was going on, or which dungeons I could or should do. So I didn’t do the little things, like saving up those uncatalogued plant species until after the normal repeatable quests end. I suppose that in the end it all worked out and I got Cenarion Expedition up to exalted, but it could’ve been a lot easier if only I’d known.
With WotLK, I had more alts ready to start the new content, so I spread them out between the starting zones and worked my way through more slowly and deliberately. But then I ran into another problem — I didn’t know who I wanted them to be. I’m sure there are therapists who specialize in this (“So what I’m hearing you say is that you don’t want the responsibility of tanking, but you feel obligated to do it just because you can?”). So my druid maintained 4 sets of PvE outfits at all times — boomkin, healy, bear, cat. My paladin was like, “Imma be a healadin all the way to 80!” My rogue was all, “Swords…no, fists! No wait, maces! Aaaagh!” So I spent a lot of time (and bankspace) changing things and planning for future changes. Hence the 18 stacks of dense stone. You know, just in case, cuz that shit’s rare!
Anyway, for Cataclysm I hoped to start anew. I sent my shaman into Vashj’ir to scout it out, and then I sent my warlock (gimpiest of my 80s) into Hyjal. My shaman really really struggled to get to the Shimmering Expanse. It seemed to take forever and I’m pretty sure I swam in a lot of circles. But my warlock blew through Hyjal and I really really enjoyed it. Then for good measure, he went and caught up with my shaman, and it didn’t even seem like it took all that long. So I think that’s going to be my itinerary for the alt crew. Hyjal first, then we’ll take it from there.
I think one reason I liked Hyjal was that it wasn’t just continually getting your ass handed to you and retreating, with people dying all around. My favorite NPC has been that Druid of the Talon who’s sitting on the fountain. You know the one with the leafy shoulders that say BADASS MOTHERFUCKER. Finally, someone who’s striking back and getting dirrty.
We’ve also started a worgen pair and a goblin pair. Naturally, I prefer the worgen and Mr. Hubby prefers the goblins. It’s like clockwork. Admittedly, the goblins are goofy and fun, but the storyline of the worgen really sold me. Still, I’m wondering if I missed the part that explains why the night elves decided, “hay gusy, lez go 2 gilneas kklol. i kno they haf a big wall and don wanna takl 2 ne1, but why not lol?” Seriously, if the Alliance was so strapped for allies, why didn’t they just sail to Gilneas to ask Genn “wtf dude?” Or have Jaina open up a portal, since apparently she can even port into Orgrimmar itself. So why, all the sudden, did the night elves decide to intervene? I mean, it’s not like the night elves have a great record about intervening and making world-altering decisions. Maybe I just haven’t gotten to the questline that explains that, I don’t know.
Speaking of sad storylines, how horrible was the Grimclaw quest? I’m not sure why I have such contempt for the Anaya quest (that guy needs to just get over it already, how did he make it into this xpac anyway?) but yet I find the Grimclaw quest so sad. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, start the Alliance Darkshore quests.
FNCCC9: From the archives December 7, 2010
Posted by D in Random.1 comment so far
So apparently I never actually published the last FNCCC that I did: Sunny Anderson. I cooked three Giada recipes and three Sunny recipes and had a bunch of people over for lunch. It was…a lot of dirty dishes.
Wait a sec, I didn’t upload pictures of all this? Oh hell. The Ginger Pear Tea was pretty good, though I don’t know why it was called a tea, since there was no tea in it. Oh, and grating the pears was bullshit. It was very flavorful, and perfect for a summer day (when we actually did this). I’d make it again if I could just puree the damned pears.
Due to the vegetarian-ness of some of my friends, I used tofu and tempeh in this instead of meat. Again, it was good. I think I overcooked the tempeh a little, or maybe it’s always that tough. But the veggieheads actually preferred the tempeh to the tofu. Weirdos. I’d definitely do this again. Just not when it’s only me and Mr. Hubby though. He tends to prefer foods that don’t require a lot of fuss. He’d probably be a good sport and make one lettuce wrap, and then just scoop a bunch of the filling onto his plate and eat it that way. And I would wince. So…for company I’d do it.
THIS. SERIOUSLY.
This was the best recipe of the day. It was so easy (hurray for Costco finally stocking pie crust!) and SO GOOD. I AM USING ALL CAPS TO DENOTE FOOD-MOANING. I would’ve never thought to give fig preserves a second look at the grocery store, but WOW. Pair it with a scoop of quality vanilla ice cream and ZOMG. DO IT. I’ve since made it again, and once again it elicited mass food-moanage. DELICIOUS. So when plums come in season again, stock up on pie crusts, fig preserves, and vanilla ice cream!
Sunny Anderson was a big hit, and while scanning through her recipes I found a bunch that I really would make. Unfortunately, this was the last hurrah for my FNCCC, because right after this our Burning Man preparation kicked into high gear, and then Deathwing done lost his damn mind.
Hoarders: WoW December 6, 2010
Posted by D in Uncategorized.2 comments
If/when A&E decides to order a WoW episode for Hoarders, I hope to not be ambushed by a camera crew at my computer desk. I save everything, just in case, because apparently I don’t have the confidence in myself to be able to gather 60 Elemental Fires ever again. sigh. And I might need that Tin Ore in case I decide to plunge another alt into blacksmithing! And all of this stat food I made in the push to 450, surely I have an alt that can use it (even though I have the Well Fed buff maybe 10% of my playing time).
With Cataclysm set to launch tomorrow, I figured that it was a good/necessary opportunity to clear out the guild bank a bit. My shaman regularly has a total of 4-7 open slots. With the gems (what the hell am I going to do with a frickin Living Ruby nowadays?), the inks (by the way, thanks for nothing Miss “I don’t take Snowfall Inks Anymore” Ink Trader), and the three sets of gear (I can’t even imagine the clusterfuck my bags would be if I PvP’d too)…it doesn’t take long before I’m destroying grays and wishing Jeeves would follow me around all the time. That’s not really a great situation to take to a new expansion (with all new crap to collect!), so I set about consolidating and vendoring.
Now that the Cloth Quartermasters have been removed from the game, I guess we won’t need all of this Runecloth we’ve been stockpiling. It’s really too bad I never saw that the cloth-for-rep thing would be ending, because (1) we had a LOT of cloth for future characters, and (2) I still had characters who needed the rep. Oh well, the tabard thing is ok…now we just need a special keychain-like garment bag for tabards and it’ll be all good.
So I cleaned out our guild bank a bit. I even splurged and bought another tab. I decided we only needed one stack of such vanilla items as Core of Earth and Ichor of Undeath. Actually, we could probably just toss those stupid Ichors, but I like the idea of convenience should the outlandish need ever arise for 10 Ichors of Undeath.
I have a whole tab of enchanting mats. I’m thinking of transferring a character and taking those mats over to fuel another enchanter. I don’t really want more than one on Silver Hand. I’m not positive I want even that one, but I feel like I can’t really turn back at this point. I know, I know. People do it all the time and powerskill professions from 1 to max in a weekend, but that’s just not going to happen with me. Too many alt mouths to feed to concentrate resources like that.
Tonight I still have a little more work to do. I kind of wish I had all of my characters in one guild, instead of spread across four. Especially with Guild Advancement. In the coming days, I’ll probably consolidate to one guild + the bank mule guild…but with all of this decluttering I think I’ve had enough trauma for one week.
