It Is Done

It took me quite a long time, but finally, I'm there. Aoifen is a Loremaster at last. I know it's nowhere near as much of a pain as it would have been do to it when achievements were new, but for a super-casual player, it sure feels like an achievement!

The Lich King doesn't agree with me...

Actually, Arthas, I beg to differ.

Apart from The Loremaster and all that it entails, there was a bunch of other fun stuff I picked up along the way...

• To All The Squirrels I've Loved Before and To All The Squirrels Who Shared My Life were tidied away last night after Icecrown was done. I've got one annoying Larva to get to finished off Pest Control too.
• You can't go past Howling Fjord without picking up Friend or Fowl?
• I put several species of game animal on the endangered list for members of the Nesingwary clan for Hemet Nesingwary: The Collected Quests
• I defeated all manner of Champions for The First Rule of Ring of Blood is You Don't Talk About Ring of Blood.
• Got Surveying the Damage completely unintentionally. 
• I swear that I've never done Uldaman or Maraudon at the right level, but I did them for Classic Dungeonmaster. Also, the Blackrock Mountain 5-mans get me soooo lost.
• Picked up the 3000 Quests Completed one a while ago which brings the title "The Seeker". Current Quests completed statistic: 4282 (I assume this includes dailies).

I also have an absolute LOAD of gear in my bags because my bank and void storage is full... I only kept the pretty stuff, honest! 

I'm planning on doing a few posts about my favourite zones and some moggy type posts too, but that might have to wait until I've organised my bags a little *wince*.

Anyway, I'm happy that's finished! :)

And yes. the last mob I killed dropped the recipe for Bad Clams!

Eastern Kingdoms Down

Moonlight over the Hinterlands.

Did you know Aerie Peak had an Eagle on it?

Onwards to Kalimdor!

Bucket List update - May

Hello! I'm not sure if anyone's still reading but... I'm still here, still playing here and there. I've mostly been working very hard on a certain other project, but that's another story.

I was reminded recently that with the Pandaria beta stepping up, time is running out to get Aoifen's Loremaster done before the release. This post is to take stock of my Bucket List and see how I'm progressing.

1. Loremaster Aoifen

This layout is looking a little less daunting than it was at the start of the year!

I have to say I'm really enjoying completing some of the zones I hadn't quested in or only partially quested in before. The epic feel of the whole Alliance-versus-Horde battlezone of Ashenvale-Stonetalon-Southern Barrens is very well put together. I haven't done much of these zones from the Horde side, but the Alliance quests are quite good fun in an "I'm-a go kill me some ORCS" way.

The other zone I particularly liked was Felwood. The quests are so completely different than they were before the Shattering, and many of them are very funny. I won't spoil any but if you get a chance, go have some fun!

2. Fix Aoifen's mog set
This is still a work in progress, but the image below is what Aoifen's current out-and-about set looks like. I mostly picked up these bits and pieces from quests around the place. I'm not sure about the legs and I still haven't found a mace that I like, but it's better than it was.

3. Gear up Aefa and do some Magey LFR
I haven't really made a lot of progress here - Aefa's still stuck in base-heroic-level gear and I have trouble convincing myself to go do them on her. I'll get there... hopefully before Pandaria time.

4. Guardian of Cenarius
Aoifen now has the Guardian of Cenarius title, and it was much easier than I had anticipated. Here's my post on the subject.

So there you have it, an update of sorts. I hope you're all progressing well on your various goal lists! Do say hi in a comment if you're still reading <3

Travel Snaps: Desolace and Un'goro

I've been back in Azeroth lately - gradually making progress on my Loremaster project. I thought I'd share a few snaps that Aoifen has collected on her travels.

Shadowprey Village

WoW's Bucket List

There's been a plague of Bucket Lists for Cataclysm going around recently. I've had a project list in my head for a while, but it's all been put on hold because I cancelled my Wow subscription during last week.

I'm not dissatisfied or bored with the game by any means. Like Big Bear Butt, I have too many fun things to do each time I log on and have to prioritize my limited play time. I still love the look, the feel, the music and the comfortable familiarity of Azeroth, and I doubt that will ever change.

My horde guild, however, all moved away from the game during the last year and have started playing together again in SW:TOR. With the few hours I've had available to play lately, there's no way I have time for two MMOs, so I'm having a bit of a Wow holiday while I play with the lightsabers. That said, I do intend to return to Wow at some point - if not before Mists of Pandaria then when it is released.

I've written this bucket list anyway to remind myself of the things I still have planned to do in Wow.

1. Loremaster Aoifen

I've been working on this one for a while now here and there. I started with the Cataclysm zones back in October and moved on through Northrend. I decided to leave Icecrown to last - I thought The Final Goal always sounded like a nice way to finish.

It was while I was trudging through Outland for the millionth time when it occurred to me that there might be a deadline approaching - by this time my old guildies had talked about their intentions to play SWTOR and I had decided to join them.  I decided to leave Outland and make sure I did the zones that I hadn't yet seen in post-Cataclysm Azeroth, including places like Western and Eastern Plaguelands, Duskwood and Stranglethorn.

I hadn't really anticipated how long it would take me to get it all done! I'm more than halfway through Eastern Kingdoms zones but have barely touched Kalimdor, and then I've got to go back and finish Outlands! It's a big job, but I have really enjoyed exploring the new quests and finishing off some of the chains I left while leveling Aoifen.

While travelling around I've also picked up some very nice pieces of moggable gear, but that's for another post.

2. Fix Aoifen's mog set

I do so love Transmogrification! It's fantastic to see all the different armour sets around the cities, from the very formal to the ridiculous. I did a smattering of old-school raids before 4.3 was released, but never really picked up a whole set of anything for Aoifen, so when the patch arrived I took Phaelia's Vestments and tried to match whatever I had in the bank to it. The set looks pretty bonkers at the moment, but so far I haven't picked up anything to make it better.

When I come back to the game I plan to sit down with model viewer and design myself a set. I'd love a set of Tier 5. There are other combinations that I've toyed with while working on my mogging posts... but it will take some time to get a look I'm happy with. The antlers will be staying though.



3. Gear up Aefa and do some Magey LFR

My poor neglected Frost Mage has been cooling her heels (so to speak) while I dally with my Alliance toons. Her gear level isn't even up to Trollroics yet, but I'd love to get her into some LFR. If I can remember how to play a Mage again I might even not be at the bottom of the meters!

Aefa could also do with a visit from the mogging fairies. She doesn't even have nice-looking gear in her bank, but at least now that her Engineering is maxed she can wear goggles as is right and proper for one of her profession. A wardrobe planning session is in order I'd say!



4. Guardian of Cenarius for one or other of my Druids
This project has been on my list for a long time but I haven't been interested in grinding it out. I feel it's a title that a Druid should really have, don't you think? The Wowhead pages and comments for each of Cenarion Expedition and Cenarion Circle will help with reputation gathering for the title.

5. A Horde Loremaster
For completeness' sake, if I'm not completely done with questing, I require a Loremaster on the Horde side. When that will be, I have no idea.

6. Level up a Paladin/Rogue/Warrior/Warlock
I have this bad habit of rolling Paladins on various servers I'm visiting, then never getting them past level 20. I also have never levelled a Warlock past level 30-ish, or a Rogue or Warrior at all. And I call myself an altaholic? I do have a neglected Shaman, but while I enjoyed levelling her as Enhancement, I never really got on with melee in dungeons or raids. I don't think that bodes well for my Rogue/Warrior aspirations.

Phew, all that should keep me busy for a long time to come!

Can anyone offer me any advice on getting any of these items done?

Small Projects

Is your playtime limited? Are you a parent whose gaming time is precious? Or are you super busy at work and/or raiding and only have snatches of time to play other parts of the game?

My blogging colleague Gameldar used to write a blog called Wow in an Hour, in which he wrote about playing different aspects of the game when play time is limited. I, like Gameldar, have found recently that I've really had to think carefully about how I want to use the snatches of time I have available to play.

At the moment when I sit down to play for a short time, I have a number of small projects that I work on depending on what takes my fancy. There are plenty of things out there to fill up a little time!

Loremasters
The idea of Loremaster sounded so daunting back during Wrath, so I never ended up with one. These days it's a lot easier with addons like QuestHubber that help you to find quests you haven't done. Because I am a sucker for punishment, I decided that I should have both an Alliance and a Horde Loremaster, since the quests are different for many zones. I started a few weeks ago from the top down with Aoifen, starting with the Cataclysm zones since they are likely to take the longest. I finally finished up Vashj'ir yesterday - my goodness that place is beautiful, but it just goes on forever!

It may sound a bit ambitious but if I just do a few quests each time I log on, I'll get there eventually. Off to Northrend I go!

Altitis
Navimie of The Daily Frostwolf wrote the other day about being the trials of levelling alts. The whole idea behind alts is to have a go at a different class to experience a different aspect of the game. There's no rush to maximum level - take your time, do a bit at a time. You'll never really forget how to play your main, it's like riding a bike, you just slip back into the groove!

I have a small stable of alts that I play when they take my fancy. My Horde Shadow Priest, Angelya, is just starting out in Northrend but since I'm planning making her my Horde Loremaster, it's taking a while to do zone achievements as I go. Leveling all the way to 85 then going back seems like cheating somehow, but it took me from level 65 to 70 to do Nagrand and I still don't have all the quests done for it. I really need to take off those heirlooms.

I have been trying to level baby paladins on various servers for a while now, but I'm determined to make headway into learning to tank again after hearing about a new site - Maps For Tanks. Not knowing where to go in some mid-range dungeons (Mauraudon, for example) was a major turn-off for tanking for me. The Maps For Tanks site looks so well-written I think I might just get somewhere with Eléanor.

My third alt on the current list was created for the Ironman challenge - the brainchild of Psynister and Vrykerion back in July. The idea behind the challenge is quite simple: challenge yourself by making the levelling process more difficult, since it's way too easy these days. No guild, no instances, no talents, no professions apart from first aid, no heirlooms or green or blue gear, only grey or white. I'll make a separate post about how I'm going with my Warlock, Emylia, but for now she's level 20 and starting to run into some trickier areas.

Festivals
Hallow's End starts today - my favourite festival of the year! It's a great time to get your alts out and about trick-or-treating for some candy and a nice bit of experience. My candy bucket tour posts from last year (Horde/Alliance) won't be quite right any more, as some locations have changed hands or ceased to exist thanks to a certain ugly dragon, but I'll see if I can update them soon.

Edit: Now that high-level chars are able to fly between locations in the old world, it's pretty easy to get around to all the candy buckets. I recommend Wowhead's comprehensive guide to help you find them all. For low-level alts, my guides will still work, give or take a few locations in Kalimdor that have moved due to the Cataclysm. Happy bucket hunting!

Of course there are so many other things that can be done in a small portion of time - levelling professions, exploration, achievement hunting. Each of these projects can be done in pieces, whenever I find myself with some time to spare. I'm not expecting any of them to be completed very quickly but I'm enjoying each one of them in different ways.

Have you got a small project that you work on when time is limited?

What the...?