Tinkering in the Firelands

First of all, I love this patch. So much new stuff to do. Kel got to run through everything first, of course, and I have been trying to keep Bearkat up with her, even though the chances of him doing anything like raiding are next-to-zero. He loves Tol Barad, though. The Horde winning 9/10 battles isn't nearly as annoying now.

So, today I was doing Kel's dailies, after missing Ankha spawning (no big deal, I want Magria anyways). (And thank you, Novikova, for being awesome and telling me so that I have the spawn timer. :D) Running around exploring afterwards, I discovered three things. One, the lava spiders in Fire lands are skinnable (yay new farming spot?). Two, surprise achievement-



And three, Deth'tilac had spawned, and was being kited by a human hunter, with a couple friends-



After making sure the other hunter had things under control, I happily watched them whittle Deth's health down to the tamable point. And I may have cleared a couple spiders out of their kiting path. >.> I was too afraid of screwing something up to help with the kiting, and it was the only other thing I could think of to help.

I didn't get a screenshot of Deth and it's proud new owner, but it was pretty awesome to see that huge angry spider suddenly turn friendly. And shrink. A LOT. The other hunter was happy and grateful to me for staying out of the way and clearing the extra mobs. She even tried to give me some gold, but I refused. Getting to see the most epic rare spawn of the patch being tamed was more than good enough for me.

And speaking of achievements-




The Fire Festival is almost over, but I managed to beat down my procrastination and get the one single achievement that Kel needed for the meta. I haven't taken advantage of the free xp/gold from the bonfires nearly as much as I wanted to, but all the new patch stuff kept me too busy. That, and work. Darn my job anyways...

Between Tol Barad dailies, rewards from the beginning Firelands quests, and finding a couple decent deals in the AH, Bear's gear is ready for heroics. Windstar is about the same gear-wise, and the difference is pretty amazing. Star is killing her mobs in about half the time it used to take, and no longer has to heal herself after every single fight. She even managed to solo Tank the shark with her bear spec. Bearkat is beginning to collect some tanking gear, and I might even try to tank a normal instance sometime, just for practice. He's got a long way to go before I'll be comfortable tanking heroics, though.

And I think that's enough rambling for me. Must go get some sleep before the next Magria (or Ankha) spawns. /Waves

And another...

I've been a busy leveler lately, it seems.



I may make myself stop leveling for a bit, to try to get my current maxed characters some gear. *Eyes Rajji* Uh, maybe...

Speaking of gear, a random blue trinket dropped for Kel when she was doing Tol Barad dailies, which she passed along to Windstar. It got her gear ilevel up enough so she can finally run heroics. The only problem is, she really hasn't been doing very well, even in normal dungeons.

It's kind of odd, comparing my two 'main' druids. Windstar actually didn't get much questing, after she finished Hyjal. Most of her xp came from farming herbs, for both her own inscription and my warlock's alchemy. (Both of which are maxed, even though my 'lock is still only level 82. /flex) She did do quests, but I hopped around the zones a lot, so she hasn't gotten many of the good rewards from the finishing quest lines. That trinket actually replaced a ilevel 272 quest reward from Hyjal. :\

Bearkat, on the other hand, has finished Hyjal and the main quest chain (the World Pillar) in Deepholm. He's also run more instances than Star. It's been easier to make myself quest on him, mostly because of all the unneeded rewards that he gets to disenchant. (Much more reliable supply of mats than getting random green drops from grinding or instances.) Also, I've noticed something that honestly confuses me a little. Everything just seems easier on Bear. He rips through quests and mobs that Star struggles with. Some of it might be that his gear is a little better, not to mention that he keeps all of his gear enchanted. But still, the difference is a little boggling. Poor Star struggles with dps in instances, seems to take longer to kill mobs, and dies at least once every time I do her Tol Barad dailies. Now, I haven't taken Bear to Tol Barad yet, but I'm not expecting any trouble for him when I do. He was also doing higher dps in instances at 82-83 than Star does at 85. I just can't figure it out. /scratch head

Well, at least part of the problem will be taken care of (hopefully) soon. Kel has been trying to collect the chaos orbs to make Star the epic leatherworking pieces. The only problem is the RNG hates me, but I figure if I run enough heroics, my luck has got to work out eventually. Of course, then other only problem is, that means I have to play Kel, when I really want to be doing things on my other characters. Thus, it has been going very slowly. So far, Kel has one orb, out of the 5 or 6 (can't remember >.<) that she needs for both belt and chestpiece. Argh.

Anyways, enough with the rambling/ranting. Time to do Bear's dailies, and maybe get a random dungeon or two. And wait for my latest attempt to download the PTR to finish. Hopefully it won't constantly crash this time.
/Waves