Power Torrent and Landslide, like other weapon enchants, put an aura of sorts on your weapons. For Power Torrent, it’s rather glowy and fiery and, to an extent, resembles the flaming aura on the Cataclysm logo. Landslide, as you can guess, looks like rocks and dirt breaking off. Makes sense, right?

Now, keep that in mind when you get on your flying mount and put on auto-run.

….

YEEEEAH. See what I did there?

It’s a little offputting (especially after you just ate), but after mentioning this in guild chat, one of our infrequent guildies pitched an idea for a new daily: one could use gryphon poop as fertilizer for that plot of farmland in northern Stormwind. You know, the one everyone loots for that one cooking daily where you get sent to get pumpkins for pancakes? (side note: I am sorely tempted to try pumpkin pancakes… I think IHOP serves those in late fall)

Alternatively, there’s always Goldshire, where lots of lowbies and PVP pranksters are likely to congregate. Just saying.

Leslie dinged 85. (Guild first FTW!) Sadly, it was about an hour after my brother left for work, so he didn’t get to see. Booooo!

I dunno if I’ma finish clearing Twilight Highlands and Uldum before I throw in Yoshi. I do need to max Leslie’s Blacksmithing, if only so she can make that badass sword… and shove all the excess craftables onto Phil for DE fodder. ;P

Levelling order for my remaining 80s is as follows unless something compels me otherwise: Yoshi -> Rei -> Dinah -> Phil*

Chances are, old man Phil may end up stalking someone else in the guild to heal them (or sitting in LFD, ew) because I sure as hell am not putting his shadow spec back on. Phil and DPS builds don’t exactly get along. :( Also holy crap Dinah is going to be so freaking spoiled, she’ll have awesome craftables available to her off the bat because of those who came before her. :D All part of the master plan~

I’d left Dinah to charge for awhile so after I’d finished my randomsauce (and even got in on my first raid since 4.0.1 hit), it became NINJA HAPPY HOUR. She went from 47 to 50 (mostly in Searing Gorge) and, more importantly, I binge-leveled her jewelcrafting and engineering. Oh sweet mother of SMOO I always forget why I should never do that… I was supposed to go to bed around, what, 2am and now it’s almost 7. Ouch.

I’d a huge pile of adamantium ore piled up on Leslie from when she was doing Netherwing dailies, so I dumped it all onto Dinah for prospecting so now she has a happy little stack of lesser BC jewels to play with and turn around for a tiny profit. Wee~

Really, though, what I should be doing during the day is drawing (or better yet, cleaning my room in preparation to move my bed so I don’t tweak my neck to use Yggdrasil the Media Server… who himself is more than a decent WoW box). Otherwise I idle in trade waiting for raids that don’t happen and I end up falling asleep at the keyboard. That’s not good on several levels. I leave Painter open on Blastoise as a sort of ribbon-on-finger but then when I come back later, I forget why I had Painter open to begin with, click out and log into WoW anyway. Boo this Yoshi! :P

My brother finally wandered back ingame. I thought it would make me happy… now I don’t know. He had oral surgery and didn’t tell me, and probably would have canned his account without as much as saying goodbye if it weren’t for the surgery (which will have him off work for awhile) and impending Cataclysm. I should really cut him a break because oral surgery is a bitch, but at the same time, I have very, very serious issues with people who cut and run without a word. Yes, even if you’re family, going perma-AWOL gets you on my bad list VERY QUICKLY. If you can’t even be arsed to say farewell, did you even care in the first place? How little are we worth to you if that’s the case…? And this on top of finding out my brother more or less foisted me on Boss so he could go raid with some other guild… It’s so depressing…

(Hi, I’m Yoshi and I have abandonment issues.)

Hallow’s End starts up this week, though! I can get that item that Boss likes to fling about, the one that gives people pumpkin heads. Man, he must have a ton of those piled up, given how casually he throws ‘em around. XD

If you’ll indulge me a bit of absolutely nonsensical tinfoil hat-ness (and Metroid geekery) here…

I know I’ve mused on this before, but it must be said again: Sindragosa is the Ridley of WoW.

Think: big freaking bony dragon, penultimate boss, encounter is a great deal about crazy ranged DPS. Even her entrance into battle reeks of Ridley!

True, Sindy is significantly chattier than Ridley. But she’s got that same sadist streak (understandable considering she got shafted hardcore as Malygos’ former consort). Of course, if you want to split hairs, I’d say she’s more like the X-Ridley in Metroid Fusion, since both are more or less zombies~

Yoshi and Leslie have thus far been the only ones to take her on (and only Leslie has been able to footstomp her). I was kinda hoping Rei would be the first to kill her, since Rei is a hunter and, well, some in Across would claim her root character draws a touch of inspiration from Samus. Oh well. All the same, I gotta rock some flavor of the Ridley fight theme (either the original Meta Ridley from Metroid Prime, or the Brawl remix of it).

You know what would be stupidly funny, though? Rei ought to bust out some crazy, presumably-Goblin Engineering-made oversized rocket and fire it right into Sindragosa’s mouth as the killshot. I’m totally serious— it’d be her freaking Super Missile. :D And if you’ve played Metroid: Zero Mission, you would know that Super Missiles were ridiculously overpowered (perhaps intentionally so). This almost makes me wish Blizzard wasn’t axing ammunition with 4.0.1. Of course, this doesn’t rule out adding some kind of “super rocket” item (perhaps as a new ICC craftable for Engineers to replace the removal of their ammo?). That would be fun, too— an Engineer-only crazy missile, and a second, less-powerful version that could be used by anyone.

…the “Sindragosa = Ridley” thing brings up another question: who would be considered the Kraid of WoW? I almost want to say Rotface and Festergut fill that role.

Ah, extended maintenance. Usually the signal of OMG PATCH, and in this case, it’s the one that literally sets up for the END OF THE WORLD.

Cataclysm? Do want. Screw coordinating with my brother, if I can just buy the upgrade code at launch. I bought the activation codes for vanilla, BC and Wrath, so why change? Less waste of having all that packaging that I’ll never touch, either. :P

Anywho, while the masses cry about nerfs and talent overhauls and what-have-you, I’ll tell you what I’m reeeeeeally looking forward to: Flexible Raid Lock. HELL YEAH. No more being SOL for the week when my raids bleed out after some fool ragequits after Marrowgar, or during the mass bleed-outs in 25-man after freaking Saurfang. (Well, 10-man bleed-outs have been less of an issue for Leslie and Yoshi as of late, those two have been pretty good about getting into raids that can clear up to Sindragosa.) If they bleed out, it’s just a matter of flashing my golden ticket and transmigrating into a less fail group later on in the week.

Because, you know, I reeeeeeally want Kingslayer. Bwahahaha~

Also? Scaled mount speeds. Now, I’m probably in a minority, but I like the looks of the basic ground mounts (especially the horses and hawkstriders) FAR more than the “epic” ground mounts. Since when does “armored horse” = “faster horse?” If anything, armor should make you slower! Nice to know that I can break out my AMAZING HORSE that isn’t encumbered with all that ugly armor and looks all evil, but not be slower than mud. This applies particularly to Yoshi and Phil. Something about cloth-users… they just look better on basic mounts. :P Same goes for their original flying mounts; the base gryphons look so much cuter!

Finally… really? Dual Monitor Support? It’s mentioned in the patch notes. I AM INTRIGUED. I’ll have to investigate further when the servers come up.

Phil is a Holy/Shadow Priest. I’m not too fond of the Shadow part; I only specced into it so he could DPS (and thus level). It’s not that I don’t want old man to DPS— though I GREATLY prefer healing since that’s his day job— but… does he have to do it with shadow? That just doesn’t suit him at all.

Yeah, priests can DPS with holy… they get, what, 3 Holy spells that do damage? Smite, Holy Fire and Holy Nova. Weaksauce! And before anyone trots out “lol paladins,” I’m aware of that but they’re melee. I want more DPS spells for Holy Priests! Caster damage! Gimme! :( Besides, Paladins don’t exactly get much more in terms of Holy DPS magic, either— Exorcism, Holy Wrath and Holy Shock… oh, and Consecration, I guess.

What I would like to see is Blizzard try and pull something similar to Feral Combat druids (since they can be either tanky bears or DPS kitties). Surely there would be a way to jam some more DPS oriented-options into the Holy tree for Priests, right? And, of course, adding new spells to be learned for them. How awesome would it be, if they could get a Holy-looking version of Arcane Missiles, thus a Holy DPS Priest could have a single-target rotation (not unlike, say, an Arcane Mage’s 3x Blast + Missiles + Barrage)? Or pull some Grand Theft Everything as Blizzard loves to do, and lift either Judgment or Grand Cross from the more recent Tales games (Abyss and Symphonia come to mind… I like the version in Abyss more) for some real AoE action. Take THAT, Paladins, with your Holy Kaboom— I mean Holy Wrath!

Of course, I can’t say that Undead Priests would be too happy about the Light crawling further up their asses… but that’s why there’s a Shadow spec. I want more shiny on my priest (especially with these icky t10 Priest armor pieces that don’t look awesome at all… I’m a priest, not a wannabe-Warlock!). Why should Paladins have all the fun there? :P

Speaking of Paladins…

I GOT YOU, WHITE CHOCOBO!

…ahem…

Dude. Swift White Hawkstrider. Also something I blame my brother for, since he got one first on his shammy (who will be SPECIAL SNOWFLAKE NO MORE once I footstomp that Lich King) and thus set off CHOCOBO FEVER. Hawkstriders are so freaking awesome and I hate how they’re Horde-only… except for this one. And then, of course, Chocobo Fever spread to Boss, so now we’re farming Heroic MGT until we get it on everyone who wants one. (Leslie was just the first. Yoshi wants one too! And maybe Phil…)

You can solo MGT on Heroic… if you’re a class that can heal itself. Paladins tend to have a greater success rate on that front (usually as Prot… but if you’re Ret, just switch on Concentration Aura). In addition to this badass mount, there’s also the Phoenix hatchling pet, and, my second-favorite, the Orb of the Sin’dorei, which will let you turn into a Blood Elf for a few minutes. And I gotta say, Leslie doesn’t look bad at all that way. ;D

Leslie is also to be the final recipient of my ICC craftables… at least, among my characters. There are, of course, guildies who need stuff, but for my set, I just need to make Leslie’s DPS pants. Getting stupidly lucky in VoA25 took care of her healer pants— er, skirt— so I just need to pile up the 8 saronites needed for the DPS pants.

You know how I said I tend to favor guild-dominated runs? I still do, but tonight was a reminder that they, too, are imperfect.

The team I was with was pretty close to ironing out the last burps and kinks in stomping Sindragosa in her not-Ridley face (no, really, she’s pretty much Ridley with a Rita Repulsa-like voice) and someone in the guild’s group ragequits so hard he also gquit ALL of his other alts… or so that’s what I heard over Vent from everyone else. While this spelled an obvious end to this ICC10, at least it didn’t implode because of something I did.

Sindragosa… really isn’t that hard compared to the other not-LK ICC bosses, really. If anything, each phase just adds something extra onto the previous, in a way that’s quite manageable. Unchained Magic is easily dealt with, by just slowing down a bit (in Yoshi’s case, it was simply a matter of bringing her spell rotation down to 3 Arcane Blasts + Arcane Missiles as opposed to the usual 5x Blasts + Missiles + Barrage). At least, that’s what it seems for me. If anyone’s a pain to deal with, it’s probably Rotface because of HOLY SMOO SLIME ALL OVER; it and slime spray make finding the goo-kiting tank a little hard to find at times, but even that becomes second nature after a few encounters.

This, of course, is speaking for 10-man normal… and 25-man isn’t that much of a stretch, either (aside from, you know, the logistical mess of herding 25 doods around)… Being able to do Heroic modes would be nice but not essential.

There is still Leslie, who hasn’t used up either her 10 or 25-man slots, and surely there will be plenty of last-minute ICC teams tomorrow. Maybe I’ll get lucky and she’ll get a shot at mr. Lich King. And, worst case… everything resets on Tuesday anyway.

I WILL have Kingslayer so I can taunt my brother with it before Cataclysm (“You are special snowflake NO MORE!” Bonus win if I send it as an audio message in a Magica DeSpell voice XD). That much is for sure. Bwahahaha. Really, this isn’t meant to be jerky at all, more of a bop on the nose for pooh-poohing me early on but not doing much to help. :P That, and bro gets the added bonus of me finally being able to raid alongside him consistently when the expansion hits. It will have taken 2 years, but gear and raid knowledge disparity shall separate us no more!

This time it was Leslie’s turn to get thrown into ICC 10-man and this time she not only got stupidly lucky but also scored HUGE— new DPS bracers/gloves, healer sword and shield, and a crapload of rep/Frost cookies. She landed in a group of mostly people who had high gearscores (a rather failtastic means of measurement but one we must make do with since nobody can settle on an alternative) and were otherwise not stupid. We burned the ever-loving smoo through, well, EVERYONE but Mr. Lich King (who we managed to get to… what, 60%?) and then we had to stop since people had to go to bed for work in the morning and such.

Pretty good chance of a continuation tomorrow though… and I hope there is, because I want that Kingslayer title. A new weapon that could potentially transplant Lesalia’s Quel’Delar would be nice, but I want that title so I can send it to my brother and gloat. It’d make me the second person and character in the guild to have it— my brother is currently the sole titleholder and it’s on his shammy! (Boo that man. I kid. This pally isn’t my main, either.)

Frostwing Halls achievement will do, though, as my new golden ticket for future ICC10 teams.

I can’t leave well enough alone. I was going to let Dinah charge to maximum rested EXP before I trot her out for levelling, but I had this ridiculous compulsion to crank up her Engineering and Jewelcrafting… which are REDONKULOUSLY expensive to level. :| Not only that, it’s also soooo time-consuming when you factor in having to log other alts to pass materials and such around. Ah…

And what do I have? A crapload of Elemental Fires. This is where I go all Beavis and Butthead and… yeah. (I’m trying to imagine a Night Elf chick doing the whole “Fire! Fire! Fire!” chant… I can’t. XD)

Welp, she’s at 300 on both and therefore sitting pretty until I ding 50 and can unlock the Outland recipes… that will actually be somewhat useful to me and other guildies around that level.

As for my 80s, I’ve been lazy in raiding this week, mostly so I could pile up monies and make ICC shoes for guildies. There is talk of trying to, at long last, put together something resembling an ICC guild run— yes, Shattered Knights, which has issues filling 5-mans, doing ICC 10 guild runs! Hah! (Well, guild runs as in “still half-PuG but at least the other half will be us!”) Leslie did, however, get a new hat… which of course you can’t see because I turn off helmets for everyone but Dinah, but that’s pretty much it… Hm. Maybe this week will be more productive on that end.