A Post of Whine and Two Qs

Today is Saint Patrick's Day, on which lots of people use the Irish Patron Saint's day as an excuse to paint themselves green and go out on the town to get completely trashed.  I happen to have met a few Irish people along my way and I can tell you that in most cases, this is exactly the thing that they most like to do in the world! So have at it, and enjoy!

Today is also, according to Klepsacovic, Whiny Post Day - the one day a year when bloggers can whine all they like, because we hold it all inside the rest of the time.  He also says to not actually post this today in case it interferes with your St Pat's celebrations, but I will post because I've been home sick and that means I'm not going anywhere to get trashed.

Which brings me to my first item of whine:
1. I am not going anywhere for St Pat's day to get trashed. I got sick, on my birthday, and I still am. I have spent two days in bed but thankfully, my body has allowed me to actually sit at the computer today.  This brings me to my second item.

2. I have been raiding recently and doing a lot of heroics. This means I have been getting quite a few gear upgrades.  You may say, "But Ang, this is no reason to whine!"  I'm afraid it is. Gems, my friends, are FREAKING EXPENSIVE. And the enchants that go on your head and legs?  At least 100g a pop! I may be a tree, but I am certainly (and most unfortunately) not a Money Tree (see below)!  I have spent my whole day today chaining heroics and doing the whole Hodir chain in the Storm Peaks to get enough money to buy three, yes THREE measly gems, one of which wasn't even epic.  And I need seven. I've really got to get my little miner up to Northrend, or l2play the AH properly.

3.  My third point of whine is that after work, there are just not enough hours in the day to play all my characters, raid, level up several alts, make a bit of spare cash so that poor Aefa can l2fly, level up fishing and cooking, and sleep. The good thing is that all that stuff is really good fun ;)

Whew! With all that whining out of the way I can now return you to your usual cheerful Ang!  Happy Saint Pat's!

PS. Since I'm jumping on the whine bandwagon I might as well jump on the mspaint one also. May I present, the Money Tree.

Garrosh's Landing

Aefa grumbled as she crunched across the gravelly beach. She'd only been in Northrend for a few hours and already the cold had seeped into her bones. The cold didn't seem to bother the Orcs who called Warsong Hold, well, their base - she doubted whether anyone called Warsong Hold home.  It was a cold, soulless place in the middle of a war zone.  The people there did what they had to and prayed to go home to their families. 

Aefa didn't hold any particular allegiance to the Horde or their Warchief, but she had joined the fight for the North because she had a bone to pick with the Lich King. Her father, along with other sin'dorei, had followed Prince Kael'thas and Illidan to Northrend many years ago. They had been defeated by the then Prince Arthas Menethil and forced to retreat. Aefa's father never survived that battle. When her magical studies had required her to visit the city of Dalaran in order to progress, she had jumped at the chance to see the place where her father had died and perhaps take part in another successful attempt at the Lich King's life.

The reality of the trip to Northrend hadn't been so glamorous. She had been told on arrival at Warsong that she was required to help the war effort in Borean Tundra for a while first before continuing her journey to Dalaran. Now she had been sent down to the icy beach near the Hold and ordered to fetch some goblin's toolkit and a few shiny trinkets for one of those strange walrus-people. As if the task couldn't get any more distasteful, a cold, damp mist was covering the beach and it was hiding all sorts of creepy Kvaldir spirits, who weren't hesitating to let Aefa know that she was certainly not welcome there. At least her Molten Armour was keeping the chill away a little. 

Aefa fired another frostbolt at an angry spirit and turned away as it froze in place, letting her water elemental finish it off. She looked up the beach at a damaged building.

What a forsaken place, she thought as she called the elemental over. "This must be the shack the goblin was talking about. Let's go check it out. " 

The elemental muttered something and followed after Aefa obediently. The elemental didn't say much and Aefa didn't speak Kalimag, but Aefa found it was as good a companion as any after she had parted ways with Mengfu back in Draenor.

She poked around in the hut but the thingummy-jig the goblin was after was nowhere to be seen. She was just about to head out the door again when she heard a faint whimpering noise from somewhere above.

Aefa crept up the rickety stairs, trying to be quiet in case it was another spirit up there, but instead she saw a young Tauren girl huddled in a corner, wide-eyed and whining slightly.

"Are.. are you here to... rescue me?" she asked pitifully. "Please don't let the bad things hurt me!"

Aefa sighed. She hated escorting pitiful souls out of their predicaments but there was usually something in it for her at the end. Plus, this Tauren girl looked like she could use the help more than some others she had helped recently.

"Alright, " she said, helping the Tauren to her feet. "Have you a name?"

"It's Mootoo. My fathers name is also Mootoo, Elder Mootoo. Oh, will you help me find him? I think I know the way out of this mist!" She set off down the stairs with a clatter.

Aefa and the water elemental shared a withering look, and then hurried after the Tauren.

By the time they got downstairs, Mootoo had already wandered out of the hut door. She announced, "I think it's this way!" and headed off straight towards a group of Kvaldir ghosts.

Aefa saw where she was headed and said in a loud stage whisper, "Don't you think it would be better to go this way?"

Mootoo shook her head. "It's definitely this way. I can feel my father's aura!"

The ghosts fell upon her in a few seconds and Aefa and the elemental dove into the fray, throwing water and ice at the attackers. Once the ghosts were reduced to piles of seaweed on the beach, Aefa stood panting. "I'm sorry, I don't know any healing magic to tend to your wounds but..."

"No matter," said Mootoo, "this way!"

Aefa hurried after the girl as she wandered into another pack of Kvaldir. The girl has a death wish, she thought as she wound up another frostbolt. She was sure the muttering she heard from the elemental was a few choice elemental oaths.

Eventually, the mist thinned. Mootoo shouted "Father!" and ran into the enormous embrace of a large Tauren standing on the edge of the camp.

"Daughter! You've returned!" He turned to Aefa with a look of joy. "Thank you so much, blood elf! Please accept these gloves as a token of my thanks. "

"Well, you're welcome," Aefa smiled at the happy reunion, even as she wondered what kind of father would bring their daughter to such a dreadful war-torn place as the frozen North.  Her own father certainly would never have allowed such a thing.

She turned to the Goblin, who was looking hopefully at her from a short distance away.  "I'm sorry, but you can go find your own thingummy-whatsit," she said, shuddering.  "I am NOT going back into that mist again.  I wonder if there's anywhere in Warsong Hold a girl could get a hot bath..."

~o~

This story sums up my feelings about escort quests.

It also raised a couple of questions:

• When you summon a Water Elemental, is it the same one each time? Warlock demons have names so you know you have summoned your old mate Flaadhun or whatever, but elementals all look alike. We should be able to name them.  Aefa usually refers to hers as "Welly", which she suspects it hates.
• There are a distinct lack of bathrooms in Azeroth! The occasional dip in a stream or the ocean is all very well, but sometimes a girl just needs a hot bath, y'know?

Storming the Citadel and Making a Mess

So after dinging yesterday I have ended up flat on my back ill.  Nice birthday present, eh?

After sleeping most of the day I had enough energy to go into Icecream Citadel tonight and get Saurfang down, to end up with the first achievement.  After that we went and got Mr Festergut as well, so it was a good night all round.

I've also created an About page for this blog, so please go and have a look at it and let me know if you think I've missed anything in my painkiller-addled state.  I need all the help I can get today, to be honest :)

Reader Roundup: March 12

Most of what has been going on around the blogosphere in the last couple of weeks has been related to SAN, and thanks to all the new blogs I've discovered through the guild, my reader is overflowing with blogginess! I've picked a few gems to share.

First things first, speaking of gems, I've made a couple of changes to my mining charts here and the gems from mining and prospecting chart here, so go check them out.

A Druidy post first. Lissanna at Restokin wrote about Moonkin DoTs after patch 3.3.3 hits.  Looks like we'll be getting more dps increase by replacing Glyph of Insect Swarm with the Starfall glyph, and dropping IS refreshes to a low priority.

Another Moonkin post today - Graylo from Gray Matter has completed his update to the Moonkin ICC Raiding Gear List.  This list includes hard mode ICC and crafted items for Moonkin, but Graylo asks us to keep in mind that the list is a guide only and should not be used as a strict how-to-gear bible.  It is up to each player to keep our hit, crit and haste caps in mind while juggling gear.

Some healy goodness from Zahia from One More Alt, who posted a great beginner's guide to setting up Grid. The step-by-step instructions might help you overcome your fear of the configuration menu!

For those who use Wordpress, here's some security advice from Problogger.

The Lunar Festival finished last weekend and with it, the Elder blogging event, organised by Khi.  You can see the full list of blog entries written for the event over at Tree Burglar.  And stay tuned for the next event - Noblegarden starts in a few weeks and there's a blog event in the works for that as well!

The Daily Blink came up with a real gem this week - Yes, Arthas Really Is That Evil.

Finally, this post made me giggle - it's about the Sydney City Train system and you'll find it on Pugnacious Priest.

Progress Post: Dinging 30

This post is inspired by one on Pugnacious Priest, in which she considers that she could be wasting her childbearing years on WoW, and gets a little bit Bridget Jones-y.

In a few days time, I will ding 30 in that other game known as "Real Life".

It's easy to get depressed about it, considering I am still pretty much doing the same job that I'm not that passionate about 6 years after I finished uni, and have been spending my evenings for much of the last three years playing a computer game.

But it's that computer game that has given me a lot over the last three years.  It has taught me so much about people, about teamwork, basic management skills and improved my reflexes.  The people in the game were my family during the time when my real family was a world away, it's given us cheap entertainment when we could be spending a lot more money on other stuff and has also inspired me with a new outlet for creativity in the form of this blog.  Not to mention being such brilliant fun that we are still playing it three years later!

While we lived overseas, we had less family commitments so our nights could be taken up with raiding several times a week.  Now that we're at home, I don't have the luxury of being able to commit to four nights a week, 90% attendence.  I wanted to join a casual guild who wasn't necessarily focused on the latest raid progression, but rather raiding a few times a week and enjoying simply seeing the content. I've been fortunate enough to find that now, and so far, things are good.

I want to be able to ease out of the game when the time comes to start a family.  I couldn't hack going cold turkey again.  The first time was bad enough.

When I consider the real life depressing side of turning 30, I just have to remember that we spent 5 years living in a foreign country (which I loved), traveled across the world to get home (uktooz.com if you're interested) and my wonderful husband and I now live in our own home and both have jobs.

So what am I getting at here? Although I'm about to officially stop being "young", sometimes you have to look at things another way to see the positive side.  It's still only six months since we got home.  It's just the start of a new chapter. 

Count your blessings and be happy how you are.  Then everything else is a bonus.

Shinies part 2: Mining and Prospecting for Gems

** Now updated for Cataclysm **

Leveling up Jewelcrafting can get very expensive, very quickly if you are buying materials from the Auction House.

If you don't need the income from selling metals, Mining is a great way to get the mats you need. If you're trying to level Jewelcrafting along with Mining, these charts may help with collecting gems through prospecting.

My Mining charts might also help you locate the ores you need.

Early and Outlands gems:

Wrath of the Lich King and Cataclysm gems:

How the charts work
Each gem has a chance to be mined from a node or prospected from ore. These values are gathered from wowhead.com and represent the percentage drop rate.

I've separated the mining and prospecting values for each gem, from each type of ore. This means you can see for example that you are more likely to get Star Rubies from prospecting Mithril than you are from Iron or Thorium.

Cataclysm gem drop rates are still only a few weeks old and therefore possibly not accurate due to the small sample size.  I'll try to revisit the numbers in a few weeks to update them.

I hope you find these charts useful!

Leveling Mining in Cataclysm - Where are the shinies?

Last updated: 21 Dec 2010 - This is a work in progress!

When Deathwing roasted Azeroth, he left fiery destruction in his wake. The volcanoes, tidal waves and rents in the crust thrust different metals to the surface, while melting others clean away.

I have now updated my Mining charts, showing the post-Shattering zones where ores can now be mined.  The current version was created using current spawn count stats from Wowhead. It will be updated again in a couple of weeks once the stats get a little more mature. 

Mining 1 - 300 & Outland:

Click the chart to make it bigger

Mining in Northrend and Cataclysm zones:

How to use the charts
The number in each box is the number of nodes of metal that spawn in in each zone, based on data from wowhead.com. I have put an asterisk in the starter area boxes because there are a LOT of nodes in each of these zones.

Look at the metals that you are able to mine at your current level of mining. Where do those veins spawn the most? Where does the next level of ore spawn, and what level do you need before you can mine it?

For example, if your mining is currently at 79, you can currently mine Tin, and combine it with Copper to make Bronze.  Smelting Tin goes grey at 75 so you won't get more levels from smelting Tin, but Bronze isn't gray until 115, so you could mine more Copper and Tin and make Bronze out of it. Iron isn't available until 125, so you're either going to have to hang around in Ashenvale or other areas spawning Tin until you get up to 125, or come back and do it later.

Once you get to Outlands, keep in mind that you need to have at least 350 mining to start your Northrend gathering, so pick up any Fel Iron you see.

Cataclysmic Metals
Mining Obsidian starts at 425. On Wowhead at present no counts are showing for Mount Hyjal, but commenters report that there are indeed plenty of nodes there. There seems to be an issue with phasing, similar to that experienced in Icecrown, where you can see nodes on your map but they are not in your phase so unable to be gathered. I'll try to update this in a few weeks if the issues have been worked out.

Note that Dark Iron is now only available within Molten Core and Blackrock Depths.

There is one last thing that I can't help you with, and that's that you must remember to train the next level of Mining before levels 75, 150, 225, 300, 375 and 450!

Please feel free to comment with any suggestions for improvements for the charts, or to tell me if you found it useful!

EDIT: I have created another chart showing the gems that can be mined and prospected from ore.  You can find it here. It is not yet updated for Cataclysmic ores.