Revealing My Privates: Part One

Once upon a time I mentioned that I would share the members of the Private (server) Army. The problem for me and my stickler for things, is that I refused to do so until they were at a point where I was happy with them…Transmogrificantly speaking anyway. Yes, I’m choosing to make up the word Transmogrificantly. It’s gotta catch on better than “dab.” So while this is the first character I’m posting, none of the others are quite ready to make an appearance for one reason or another. But they’ll get there and I will post as they do.

When I rolled on the server I decided I wanted one of each class and no repeat races. Being as there are only 12 classes that meant one race was left out. Sorry Night Elf lovers. It came down to Trolls, Night Elf, and Humans and only Warlocks and Shaman left to assign. For today, though, we’ll focus on the Worgen, who takes up the Hunter slot.

Soundwaive and his loyal companion, Tone’loque.

Soundwaive started out Marksman. However, I was doing some questing in Sholazar Basin when I hit level 80. I decided to leave the zone, but because I was close enough I decided to check the spot I had always seen Loque’nahar before (east of the Savage Thicket, up on a hill). Sure enough, there she was and that meant a change in spec. Absolutely worth it. Despite what Mrs. Amateur says, Tone’loque is clever.

Then I got the idea to put together an outfit that complimented the pet and I think it came together really well. The only thing missing is the Mechanized Snow Goggles, because I can’t find Borean Leather for the life of me…and my Skinner isn’t high enough to go get me some.

I made this outfit pre-100, so I found it convenient that the Titanstrike artifact for Beast Mastery is pretty much a perfect fit with the look. Here’s the rest of the components you see:

Head: None, but again will be Mechanized Snow Goggles
Shoulder: Mountainscaler Chain Spaulders
Cloak: Wyrmcultist’s Cloak
Chest: Kurken Padded Chainmail
Hands: Brazen Gauntlets
Waist: Padded Chain Belt
Legs: Bramblescar Legguards
Feet: Mountainscaler Chain Sabatons

Soundwaive is the third private to arrive in New Dalaran. With 100 levels under his belt he’ll be deployed to Aszuna soon enough. But first he’s going to spend some more time in his lab, further developing his Engineering and Alchemy.

Ahead By A Century

After a few delays and time away from Azeroth, Zarahi became the first of the Amateur Army to hit the new cap of 100.  With much rejoicing I stopped to consider things thus far.  As such, here’s 100 random thoughts about the new expansion:

A Random Transmog Adventure

Having decided Liouxpold needed a new look, I began puttering around with MogIt to see what I could come up with.  Unfortunately I wasn’t having much luck, so I went off in search of some new Hunter pets for him which I found in the form of Vexxus, Gabriel, and Yrra.  I then focused back on a transmog outfit and decided to start with a bow.  Yes he has Black Bow of the Betrayer, but I was looking for something different.  I settled on the Skyfire Hawk-Bow, figuring I could work on the rest as I go.  I headed off to Shattered Halls and it actually dropped on the first run.  A nice white cloak, Mantle of Vivification, also dropped so I decided these two pieces would be my starting point.

Thanks muchly. You shall only perish once this day.

When I previewed the two pieces in MogIt I accidentally had “current gear” in the view and realized the Barrel Stacker’s Mitts that he was wearing fit as well.  Now it was a matter of off-setting all the vibrancy with a core that was darker.  Initially I wanted blue, but that was before deciding on the gloves.  So I just started previewing shirts to see what would come up within my current means.  Shirts that required honor were most certainly out for now, as was anything 85 or 90 level raids.  What can I say, I’m impatient and don’t like chance.  I’d prefer to be able to build the outfit in the moment.  I settled in on Savage Gladiator’s Chain Armor.  I looked through the leg slot, but admittedly ended up cheating and going with the matching Chain Leggings.

Most of the time I don’t use existing set combinations, but once in a while it’s ok.  Plus, in this build I stopped at two pieces.  The shoulders and feet are both crafted, Vicious Dragonscale Shoulders and Tsunami Boots (yes, I could’ve cheated a second time and used the boots from the shoulder set but I specifically avoided doing that). All that was left was the belt.  The one I ended up choosing had four versions and all of them were quest rewards in Twilight Highlands.  I chose the Waistguard of Salvaged Happiness because it was a quest you could just fly into the zone and do.  You need not have completed anything else first…and as an added bonus, it’s dirt simple to do.

At the start, I wanted the bow to be the focal point of the outfit.  Having the gold in the gloves helps pull it in, and the cloak completes the accent pretty well.  The core green managed to achieve the contrast I was looking for.  Though I just realized the colour scheme is not that far off from Siori, I’m still happy with the end result.

Old Ladies And Gaudy Sweaters

The weekend that was ended up being a weekend of raiding -casually, of course.  The Mrs. and I were faffing about on the TImeless Isle (man is that place easier for a Priest when you have someone with you).  I managed to figure out the pillar Treasure Chest and get to it before a Troll Priest.  We also chased  Evermaw half way around the island…in the water, and to no avail.  But Tome came on and in striking up a conversation with her she wondered why I wasn’t there with them.  Well, I didn’t really know where “there” was and who “them” referred to.  Turns out it was Old Ladies’ raid night.  Moments later, the Amateurs were in Dragon Soul.

OIASUDOIU

This was my first Laid Back Raid since I stopped doing Laid Back Raids when I stopped playing last winter.  More than anything, it was nice to see some old friends (many of which were there with new faces to play with).  We enjoyed ourselves collectively and got as far as Ultraxion before it was called off. I believe that to be the case as we weren’t in vent and the group disbanded rather suddenly.

Last night was Gaudy Sweater night and with many people prepping for New Year’s or still catching up with family over the holidays (or perhaps last night’s football game too), it ended up being a quiet run of myself, the Mrs; and Helke.  The latter had her Mage, Mrs. her Druid, and me my Hunter.  With three of us, that meant Karazhan was our destination and we tore through the place with the greatest of ease.  Tome, be happy to know Cat’s not the only Druid thinking “animal form means they won’t notice I have no sweater.”

If you’ve read the blog for any length of time you know Kara remains my favourite instances in the game.  It was great to go through it again (no mount) and remember why.  It’s also like the dungeon itself missed me.  I out-rolled the Mrs. and snagged the Fiendish Imp (it ended up being the lone pet to drop), and that was after The Curator finally dropped the Dragon-Quake Shoulderpads.  I farmed those for the longest time after Transmogrification was introduced as I had designed an outfit around them for Liouxpold.  Of course, I’ve long since moved on but will have to go back and put something together for him.

Between the two nights it was great to lean back with some friends and bounce through the two raids.  When you leave the game for any length of time and try other MMO’s the first thing you tend to notice is things are drastically different if you lose the social aspect of it.  Yes, there are thousands or millions of other players, but it can take you a millennium to build up a circle and odds are you’re not going to know them as well as your WoW “crew.”  Plus for some, randomly becoming buddy-buddy with people just isn’t going to happen.  Being gone I missed the folks I knew and this weekend was a lovely reminder about part of the reason for that.

Saturday Night’s Alright For Yoggin…

I won’t lie.  For selfish reasons, this weekend and next I scheduled Laid Back Raids for Saturday night and I never know how that is going to turn out.  Some folks have plans and some simply don’t notice.  With Algalon on the schedule for the Alliance last night, I knew for sure that Healblade was out. After that was a crap shoot

We ended up with about seven of us, eight when Zwingli was able to join us early on and then again for the final two bosses.  In 10-man, that was serious zerg.  Well, except for the fact that I wanted an awesome screenshot of Algalon, but instead targeted him and interrupted his little constellation speech.  We wiped when I think he removed the entire floor.  No fight, just more of a “how dare you” as we all died.  So we regrouped and hoped that didn’t happen again.  Well, us Claws of Nature folk…despite “thinking” we were within the platform for the fight, were in fact not.  But at least I got to watch them whoop the star-crossed boss.

I think if you look close you can see Repgrind’s Mage getting off a spell.  I can’t remember if we still had two alive at that point…I know Magik was dead beside me.  I was fine with dying, but disappointed I didn’t get the shoulders to complete Liouxpold’s current transmog.  However, I did win the roll for Avalanche when it dropped from Hodir. It would seem after years of being a crossbow only guy, Liouxpold is turning into quite the bow collector.  Which is probably good.  Man did I get heckled on his behalf last night.  No Guild Page, not Exalted with my own guild, no Cold Weather Flying, “Turn off aspect of the pack,””turn it off again please”…yeesh, it was never ending!

The good news was that we rolled on and I had forgotten Magik had never finished Ulduar, in fact Cat Lady was as far as he had gotten (back when it was current).  So to be able to show him the whole place was great.  To be able to down Yogg-Saron at the end was perfect as well.

Also during the raid, Magik, Mrs, and myself got a pleasant surprise as one of our other guildies (Grexinimi) was on and kinda doing his own thing…

So, needless to say when the raid was over…Magik went straight to Stormwind, while Mrs. and I switched to toons that were Exalted with the guild and we were all proud owners of Dark Phoenix pets.  Magik and I captured the moment…that prissy Hunter Naeda was too good for us, I guess.

Blogger By Passion, Huntard By Huntard

Gotta love the unexpected.  I’m traveling through Felwood with Siori, just upping a few pets and picking  a few herbs when I see a Tiger.  I notice it’s kind of cool looking and it turns around with flaming eyes.

Courtesy of Petopia…does not properly capture the eye flame animation.

Holy shit.  I have to have this cat.  How have I never seen this cat before?  It’s a fairly low rare…screw it.  Go get Liouxpold.  Oh goodie.  He’s hearthed in Pandaria…well, quick Darnassus port, hop the ocean via bird and then fly from Darkshore into Felwood where (Illidan bless TitanPanel and coords) I find the cat again easy.

Land.

Begin taming.

Duskcoat drops dead.

NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

Oh you stupid cat!  How did I forget to dismiss you?

Well, since he’s now gone, let’s look up the details on Duskcoat.  Oh, look at that…I’ve never heard of him because he was only added in 5.1 and speculation is a 28-hr respnawn timer.

edit: Wake up, log on…bam.

Somewhere Over The (Ported) Rainbow

What will he see when this spell finishes later today?

Here we are, at the dawn of another major patch in World of Warcraft.  The servers will go down within the hour and when they come up, we’ll be in for some heavy duty changes – the biggest of which will no doubt be the Talent Trees.  I haven’t decided who I’ll spec first to take part in the Theramore event though I’m leading towards Tumunzahar.  Of course, I’m also considering just logging onto my Scribe and crafting more Glyphs like a madman.  I hear there’s money to be made in that.

I’m hoping the servers are back up when I get home from work, which would be about an hour and a half after Blizzard is planning on having them up.  With a patch like this, though, it’s hard to say.  Either way, Mrs. Amateur and myself are headed to a concert not too long after that so hence my selfish optimism.  If they’re not, I’ll probably check things out when we get home -as it’ll be after midnight and I’m up by 4:30 anyway.  It’ll be an efficient way to cut out the middle man.

There’s also the excitement of what will come of Theramore.  I’ve avoided the spoilers that have surfaced in the last week just to experience it fresh for myself (much like the talents).  I can’t wait to see what that will involve, on both sides.

And yes, I’m looking forward to taking one of my Hunters and blowing someone’s head off at point blank range.  I’m simple like that.