The Weekend That Was

It was the final weekend before Mists of Pandaria launches, and I certainly managed to make the most of it.  Saturday I puttered around with some dailies until it was time to go take care of Arthas.  After last week’s fiasco, it was nice to be able to go back.  I hopped on Saintvache and then sent out the call.  Wow, was it answered.  We had 24/25 after all the folks who wanted to come, including Myth guildies Yuush and Hadleigh (the latter formerly of Heal-Alt-Delete).

Yuush warms up

Yuush was pretty excited to be able to go back and get his 25-man kill. His pre-battle warmup involved riding a Spectral Tiger and grooving under the disco ball.  He wasn’t alone, as Laid Back Raids was living up to its name.

Cuppy and Moi, pre-raid

Once we were all together, Arvash took care of the details of the fight and we got the fight going.  It went fairly smoothly and the moment the raid “wiped,” there were digital smiles to be had.  A number of people got their Kingslayer achievements, including Cuppy who had contacted me Friday about coming.  I had sent her a Real ID invite but didn’t hear back so just before the raid I sent her an e-mail.  Turns out she was at the taco bell drive thru at the time so it was good that I did it as she made it.  Saintvache was most happy to see fellow Tauren Treetopsy as a result.

As it was relatively early after Arthas fell, I decided to work on my Archaeology with Tumunzahar for a little while.  While it’s still not perfect, the digging has been improved.  So I knocked off a few minor artifacts, and then my fossil dig showed “Fossilized Raptor.”  As I already had the pet, Healblade confirmed for me that meant a guaranteed mount drop.  Well, I knew what I was doing before bed.  I set out and gathered up my fossils.  Well crap.

I know, I know.  No big deal.  However, I literally had no fossil locations anywhere on Azeroth.  So, that meant knocking off various other dig sites…which continued to reveal various other dig sites which were conveniently not fossils.  Eventually one opened up in the Eastern Plaguelands and off I went to get my boney little Dino ride.  At that point I called it a night.

Sunday was time once again for Laid Back Raids, Alliance side this time.  I scheduled Seperentshrine Cavern and Tempest Keep.  I was surprised when we could basically go straight to the organ and open up the path straight to Lady Vashj.  Siori and company wasted no time paying her a visit.  Of course, being Transmog and recipe hunters we didn’t just walk back out the cavern door.  No, we went back and killed every boss first.  The most pleasant surprise for me, was getting Formula: Enchant Weapon – Potency.  That was one Siori still needed.

As we switched gears to go visit Blood Elves in space, Tome had to part with us for the evening.  At the same time Repgrind had arrived on the scene, so off we went.  The Keep zerg’d about as fast as the Naga did.  Some nice gear dropped, but no Ashes for anyone to get truly excited about.  However, it was once again an evening where folks got to see some older content for the first time and get the achievements for each.  That’s always exciting.

The last LBR before Pandaria was as enjoyable as the first (which was incidentally discussed again during our Lich King battle Saturday night.  I believe the term was “retirement is overrated).  It will be interesting, to me, to see how turnout is during the first few weeks of the expansion as everyone is no doubt excited about, and enjoying, the new content.  I also wonder how long before LBR has its first Panda participant.  Who knows, both might be answered when the Horde visit Ahn’Qiraj Saturday night.