Calling In A Favour

You know why I like Tauren so much?  Well, yes, they are the wisest race by far and think things through and…well, no.  It’s because I’m a Taurus actually.  Taurus folk have this pretty dominant trait, too.  It’s called being stubborn.  Take me for instance.  While the Mrs. nods vehemently with the last bit of info, my stubborn nature results in me often times doing things myself.  That strategy is often met with mixed results, I won’t lie.  Sure, I’ll help anyone…I’m terrible for asking for help though.  So this is kind of awkward.

See that spiffy Rogue up there?  Yeah, I love her outfit too.  By all means, take a moment to admire it.  It really is a thing of beauty.  Done?  Ok.  Well, for as awesome as that outfit is, the daggers are lacking.  Her Lhakaz’s Swiftblade daggers are nice.  These are the ones she needs to have.  It’ll take an eternity to get them on a good day, but the fact is I can’t even get going by myself.

This brings me to this coming Friday evening.  I am done work relatively earlier than usual, and within a short time will be able to put the Junior Amateur to bed.  Then, I envision taking Siori to Wyrmrest and visiting a certain Hag(ara).  I don’t even need to kill her…but I mean, while we’re there if something unfortunate should occur after she’s been sapped, who am I to argue.  Wait…I so did not mean that the way it came out.  Damn it.  Ok, so before this gets horribly out of hand…can I get some help getting a step further on my Legendary Daggers quest chain Friday night?

edit: I work until 8pm EST and probably won’t get the boy down until about 9 EST.

That Poor Belf

Shhhh….pretend we’re Avon calling.

For this week’s Laid Back Raid, we had a solid turnout, including at least four new players with us -which was awesome in itself.  Don’t know if it was timing or if people just really don’t like Kael’thas all that much as I had scheduled Tempest Keep for the night.  We just blew through the place, not surprisingly.  I believe Liouxpold got a Leatherworking recipe out of it, but can’t recall for certain.  I know I saw a few need rolls for Mog items, so that always makes me happy.

With such a large group to tear through the place it was evident from the get go we would be hitting more than one raid on this night and my first suggestion was well received and we headed off to a certain Temple in Shadowmoon Valley.

Honestly, there were a fair number of achievements that went off at the end of that raid, which again made me happy.  Always nice to see people hit a raid for the first time.  I joked when we got to Illidan that he needed to drop a glaive, the bow, and his shield (hey, we got a glaive and shield one night, why not be a bit greedier?).  Well, he did drop one of those items, and I was quite happy.

Unfortunately now is the matter of building an outfit for him.  My first two designs involved Yogg-Saron (10N) or Freya (25N).  Barring some pug somewhere, Lioux’s not hitting Ulduar any time soon.  I have other toons that will go first.  Then again, should I really be working on Mog outfits when I’m in the middle of a Mog contest?

Transmogging 101: Crystalforged War-Axe

One of my absolute favourite weapons in the game, the War-Axe is the embodiment of the great hues used in the Burning Crusade expansion.  I often comment on how good it looks and flip the weapon quite regularly on the Auction House.  Having said that, it’s an incredibly unique looking item.  So, today I finally took the time to make an outfit to go with it.

• Cheerful Shoulders
• Breasplate of Avenging Flame
• Jouster’s Gauntlets
• Blinding Girdle of Truth
• Replica Legplates of Heroism
• Replica Boots of Heroism
• Crystalforged War Axe

 

Days Go By

It was a long weekend here, and I was enjoying the weather and the family yesterday and even some WoW.  So things here were quiet, though I did stay on top of the Transmogolympics.  The contest was only announced a couple days ago and we’re already up to twenty participants.  In case you missed it, there is no limit on how many people take part.  However, if we manage to have more participants than factions, then some factions will merely have more than one representative; much like the real Olympic Games. Also, I wanted to take a moment to once again thank Tome of the Ancient for the logo.  I told her what I wanted and she delivered beautifully.  I’m also happy to have her, Matty, and Khizzara as fellow judges for the event.

We had another successful Laid Back Raids on Saturday night.  The only place scheduled this week was Trial of the Crusader, but that didn’t stop us from also kicking down the doors to Ruby Sanctum and Obsidian Sanctum. We had a solid turnout including, for the first time, both Repgrind and Ratters (and his daughter as well)!  It was great timing as Rep knew TotC and was able to provide some guidance, though we did zerg the sucker down pretty fast.  For the Sanctums, I filled out the group with my friend Valanyr and a couple of his buds.  Oh, and Tum even got himself a new set of wings.

In Azeroth over the weekend, there was a great deal of puttering about, or “faffing” as Godmother and Kamalia have come to tell me.  Fireflint is finally 75, and that means time to boost his Blacksmithing.  I’ll obviously have to gain a few levels before I can max him out on it, fortunately I’ll be able to hit the Darkmoon Faire before the week is out.  I also snagged a few levels for Carrera and Estheriot.  Plus, three new faces are showing up around here now.

I have no clue as to why internet demons have taken the Gnome’s face.  Fortunately she sent me a postcard of her hanging with faction leader of epic epicness,

Zero Zero One One One Zero One Zero!

She joined the ranks for a few reasons.  The first, is admittedly, I had a sudden fetish to have a character with the Very Light Sabre.  As I pointed out to Mrs. Amateur, it’s a coincidence I gave her the Leia hair buns.  Also, I rolled her on Fenris (US).  I’ve heard horror stories about the economy and thought I would check it out for myself.  I farmed up some quick Peacebloom and Silverleaf, and threw that on the Auction House.  Neither was a full stack and it resulted in about 10 gold in her pocket.  That allowed me to grab a couple of items off the Auction House to sell, as well as purchase some of the rabbits from Amberstill Ranch and see if I can get a few coin for those as well.  So, so far things don’t seem too strange.  Hopefully the Schematic: Mechanical Mithril Dragonling sold at the behest of my advice.  I managed to sell one with Tumunzahar yesterday on Runetotem for 85g.  I still think that’s absurd, but if folks aren’t going to go get it out in the Hinterlands I may as well.  It didn’t hurt I was getting a couple points in Archaeology at the time either.

In closing, let me just tell you how strange it is to see “Semblance” in Trade chat.  Even merely as a name, it seems to look out of place.  Funny that.

Mog My Toon: Wife Edition

Ok, now do Naeda or Claragh.

That was the comment from Mrs. Amateur after I spiced up Cheetahdave’s Hunter the other day.  So, this morning while she was downstairs with the wee one, I’ve taken the time to do just that. Of course, me being me I couldn’t really do one or the other.  So let’s see what we were starting off with this time.

So we have a Gnome Warlock and a Night Elf Hunter.  Truth be told, I’ve been teasing the Mrs. for a little while now regarding her Hunter, but was happy that she asked me to do Claragh (the Warlock) as well.  I decided to start with the Gnome and the only suggestion I was given was she needed to look all innocent.  The kind that would walk right up to you and then melt your face off.  I believe that was a near spot on quote of what I was told.

So I set out for something very non-Warlock.  I snagged a few ideas beginning with the chestpiece, but wanted a helm that matched as well.  It actually didn’t take long before I had put together Robes of the Exalted from Stratholme and the Augural Shroud.

I was really pleased when Frozen Shadoweave Shoulders were a good fit, but the hand slot irked me.  Unless there is a set that’s restricted to Mage or Priest, there are no Cloth gloves that are white.  Some are nearly white with coloured tips, but that’s as close as you get.  After a bit of toying around I put together Belly Rubbers and Wristguards of Tranquil Thought.  I capped things off with Gnomish Rocket Boots (she is an Engineer).

But then I realized she had no belt on.  Gnome’s in a dress do not have a great belt location, let me tell you.  Getting this far, I was frustrated I might have to scrap the works, because of the belt and how out of place it was.  Then I came across the Ruthless Gladiator’s Cord of Accuracy, which made it look like something hemmed right into the dress and life was good again.

To complete the outfit, I realized in this case a staff wouldn’t look right.  So it was going to be dagger and off-hand.  Right away I decided on the Star-Heart Lamp, and then thought Fang of Oblivion offset it incredibly well and the look was complete.  What do you think?  Innocent?  Success?

Now when it came to Naeda, I didn’t even ask her what she wanted done.  For starters, my wife has had the bow from Prince Malchezaar for…well, a very very very long time.  So I was damn sure putting that to use.  I wanted something that also made the bow stand out (as it should).  When I came across Mail of Crimson Coins, I knew just how the whole outfit needed to look.

I added in the Pauldrons of the Deafening Gale but wasn’t completely happy with how they looked with the chest, but the Amber Filigreed Shirt fills in those concerns perfectly (and is better than the Ironforge Shirt because this one leaves the chest open).  Khan’s Gloves were also made for this build.

I had a number of options for the legs, actually.  But I went with Leggings of the Bloodless Knight, and added the very simplistic Talhide Lined-Boots for the feet, and then Fiery Chain Girdle for the waist.

Now the last couple outfits haven’t called for a cape, but for this I most assuredly wanted one.  I began to scroll through and see what would fit, and again I found the cape that belongs.  I couldn’t remember if Naeda had done the Thrall quest chain (and her armory cloak suggests that’s not the case), so Mantle of Fury is available for her to get and completes the look perfectly.

Here’s a shot of her from the back, showing off the Mantle of Fury properly.

So there you have it.  Two more toons “pimped out” as my generation might say.   I say might, because I’ve lost track of whether it came before, during, or after my generation.  It’s not too terribly important.  What is, is that hopefully Mrs. Amateur is pleased with at least one of the two outfits (and truth be told I’m incredibly happy with the Hunter).

Shared Topic: Wanting What You Can’t Have

As I mentioned, dragonray had this week’s Shared Topic over at Blog Azeroth.

What is in game that you want, but you can’t have? Is there an animal you want to tame, a critter you want to collect, a tabard that has the perfect design for a transmog set etc etc.

What is it you want, but know you can’t get your hands on and have to stare at longingly whenever you log in?

I’d love to say I contemplated this for a lengthy period of time because I’m not greedy or anything like that and couldn’t decide.  However, it was actually a no-brainer.  Two things, and both are for Siori.  The first, is to continue the Fangs of the Father chain.  I still need to pickpocket Hagara and my schedule hasn’t allowed for that.  I love my rogue.  We now have a legendary that’s relatively easy to obtain and yet I can’t manage to make it happen.

The bigger one, I honestly believe doesn’t even exist on her server.  I think the programmer’s overlooked some weird glitch that removed it from the game.  I’ve spent nearly three full days in Deepholm and I have never seen Aeonaxx.  Haven’t even talked to someone who’s taken down the rare…or, again, even seen it.

I’ll see this out my front window before Aeonaxx exists on my server.

Despite my clear-cut bitterness, I really enjoyed this topic.  It’s interesting to see what folks have on their mind when it comes to the idea.  Some are quite simple, some are much more elaborate or difficult.  Heck, I debated the idea of a harmonious player base, but I didn’t want to be completely unrealistic in my answer.

Shared Topic: Three Items

At Blog Azeroth this week, Cymre asked the question of what three items, for whatever reason fancies you, you would hate to lose on your main.  Now, as I don’t collect everything on one toon I’m going to cheat a little bit.  I’m simply going to share my top three items, period.

Is there a place where this mount doesn’t look majestic?

1. Liouxpold’s Frostsaber
I started doing the quests for this back when the rep was still absurd for the quests. Also before it was a daily. However, I will openly admit that once I found out the daily was coming I just waited and then did it that way. Recently, I paused to consider faction/realm transferring him until I realized I would lose the Frostsaber. As that immediately put an end to that idea, it made me realize how important the mount is to me.

2. Siori’s Quel’Dalar
I maintain to this day everyone should try to snag a Battered Hilt and do the quest chain to obtain the weapon. It’s a great piece of Lore for certain.  From start to finish it is just an incredible chain of quests that sends you around Dalaran and Icecrown, as well as a phased version of the Sunwell Plateau ( which is one of the most beautiful raids in the game). I still have all of my screenshots from doing the chain and love to go back and look at them.  Not all of the “end-result” weapons look as nice as Cunning of the Shadows (made more badass by the Berseking Enchant), but as I say it’s worth having just to experience it all.  I would be incredibly disappointed to have that “undone” on me.

3. Horrux’s Skulflame Shield
My only epic world drop in over six years. Back when Liouxpold was grinding Frostsaber rep this dropped off either a bear or Chimera. I was in awe, and as Cataclysm had been announced I had planned on making a Worgen Warrior. So I hung on to it until I had created Horrux and the rest is history.

I would be incredibly disappointed to lose any of these items and I’m sure I could think of one or two more. What brought up the question, was Cymre was recently hacked and so it had spurred the thought process while waiting for the items to return. I wrote a post earlier this year about not having been hacked myself and I would be frustrated if I was…to say nothing about how I’d feel if these three were gone.