Mounts and Pets, or "Build: Codename Ninja"

Guild achievements are up, though they are not live on the beta.  Some archaeology and class info, too.

New mount: Goblin Mini Hotrod
New pets: Rustberg Seagull, Armadillo

PuG Feature Idea, or "I Don't Want to Group with Death Knights Anymore"

I'm at that stage in Windwhistler's instancing where she runs into a lot of freshly made Death Knights.  This wouldn't be so bad if:

a) Their starting gear wasn't better than hers, thus making them pull aggro.
b) Every piece of gear I need out of instances wasn't a slight upgrade for them.

On the other hand, instancing as a tank nets me more chances at gear per hour, which is a definite upside.

Still, when talking to husband and HBF (husband's best friend), they agreed that they'd trade a longer wait for a group for the ability to select which other classes they're willing to group with.

It could potentially be hard for a certain class to find a group, but it would also be easier for individuals to farm specific much-sought-after items.  Don't you love being the only plate-wearer in an all-cloth group?  I know I do!

What do you think?  Would the world (of Warcraft) begin to shun certain other classes to the point of madness, or would people as a whole choose faster queues?

Pug Matching, or "What If Blizz Had Us Fill Out Pug Personality Forms?"

This is just for fun.  It's not an actual feature Blizz is implementing or considering, though it might be a good idea someday if they throw all realms into the same pug system (instead of doing it by battlegroup).

Annoying Pugs, or "Tales of a Little Tank"

I won't toy with your patience and list the entire conversation from the run.  Suffice to say, I had some people who seemed to be pretty young who got into my group and started chattering.  Nothing useful or interesting, just chatter.  One of them had ganked another of them on an alt, the mage Zord kept linking dps meters after every other pull, just really really pointless crap and confusion and malarkey.

I went into my Real ID whisper window, told a friend that "My group is full of morons.  Except the healer."   I could still more or less see party chat -- I have it set up to pop up a chat dialogue box like for Say chat.

Eventually, though, their pointless chatter that I was happy to ignore turned on me:

Pet Wish, or "When Pigs Fly"

After mounting my happy little flying gryphon on my 61 warrior and leaving Mr. Wiggles waaaay down below, I whispered a friend: "Wish my pig could fly.  /grumpyface"

I thought about it, and I do seriously wish Mr. Wiggles could sprout wings when I use my flying mount.  Not only because he'd be the WoW version of "When pigs fly," but because it's so sad when I lose him!

Deathy, or "Blizzcon's Weird-Looking Deathwing Murloc"

Go to Blizzcon or get their Virtual Feed and you get this guy.

Fishing Derby, or "5% Experience Heirloom Ring!"

I've been trying to hit the Northrend Derby every Saturday.  I decided to start hanging out at the lake in Borean Tundra.  It's a chancy spot -- it can support up to 2 players during the Derby without running out of pools.  If you're lucky, you'll get it all to yourself.  If you're not, four other people had the same idea and you have to fly for 5 minutes to get another spot.

Today, it was me and a random guy at the Tundra lake, and I tried to keep my heartbeat down and normal and tell myself it was all chance and I shouldn't expect to win.  I'd prepared by putting all my video settings to Low except for "Particle Density," which I turned as high as it would go (that's the one that affects the pools you're fishing from).

After about 6 or 7 minutes of nervous casting, I kept thinking "Someone's going to get it soon, someone's going to get it soon . . ."

And then someone did.

Twilight Phoenix, or "Different From Dark Phoenix?"

It has (NYI) attached to the name, which means Not Yet Implemented.  The item itself is labeled a "mount" but the name is [Essence of the Underworld] and the use effect is not your normal mount info:

Teaches you how to transform into the Twilight Phoenix, allowing you to fly and carry an ally with you. This is a very fast mount.

If I'm reading this correctly, this mount transforms the user into a Twilight Phoenix and allows someone else to ride on your back.  Considering that the Dark Phoenix is already implemented, could this be another phoenix model?  There's also the possibility that it's only an item that you use for a quest line and that it is not an actual mount.

Tired, or "Choosing Chores Over WoW?"

I've needed to clean our office for a while.  I started throwing random papers down beside my desk to "deal with later" about six months ago, and the pile has only grown.  From pay stubs to receipts to the half-finished revisions on my second book, the pile had become a living entity, fed and maintained by my overwhelming laziness.

I stayed up all night a few days ago in order to outbid some random schmuck for a Hyacinth Macaw.  I thought of it this way: one ruined night in return for countless days of Not Farming That Stupid Bird Anymore.  Plus, I got a great deal: 4,621g.

I did force husband to keep an eye on the auction after I succumbed to the lure of bed at 5am.  He had strict orders to wake me up when it hit Short.  He did, and I won it without any real competition.

I Was Right, or "Dark Phoenix Unlocked By Guild Achievement"

I like being right.

A blue posted about how the Dark Phoenix and other guild vendor items will be locked until your guild gets a certain achievement.

He said "Let's just say, that for example, you need to complete the new guild achievement 'We are Legendary' in order to unlock the Dark Phoenix. That achievement requires the guild to gain access to all 6 legendary weapons currently available in the game."

He went on to say you'd need a certain guild reputation to then buy the item.

Please note, and I'll put this in bold to emphasize: he gave this as an example.  We do not yet know what achievement will unlock the Dark Phoenix.  I like that it has to be unlocked, though I do hope it's not connected to Legendary.

Another item of note that I think everyone should pay attention to:

(note that all guild achievements start on Cataclysm launch, so anything you have now will not matter, it must be done with your guild after launch)

That means that guilds with all the legendary weapons have to grind them again.  This makes me wince, but if you were planning on grinding the legendaries, or have started already, you might want to put it on hold until Cataclysm. Never mind, they'll count.

New Red Drake, or "Glory of the Cataclysm Hero (and Raider, and Collector's Pet)"

Collector's Edition pet is the mini Deathwing.  No big surprise there.

Raider mount is a "Storm Drake" (photo).  Not all-inspiring, but decent enough.

I think I prefer the 5-man mount: "Volcanic Stone Drake."

Aw, who am I kidding?  They're both great and good luck to everyone who wants one!  I'm quite happy that the raids will be shorter in Cata.  I might actually complete them all on Dusty and have a shot at that raider thing.  Not that I'll use the mount.  But it's nice to have the chance to achieve something.

Outfit of the Month, or "Mix It Up With Alchemy"

Head

• Goggles - Any
• Vile Fumigator's Mask

Potion Offhands

• Flask of Forest Mojo (Horde Only)
• Nightglow Concoction (Horde Only)
• Tears of Heaven (25 Badge of Justice)
• Tear of Grief (Alliance Only)

Flavor Mainhand

• Spare Hand
• Bone
• Flowers - Any

Outdated, or "Should the Power to Disband Be in One Person's Hands?"

Currently, guilds do not have much intrinsic value beyond the guild bank.  Achievements and rewards go to individuals, and those individuals can get those achievements and rewards anywhere.  Once that changes, players must level guild rep and put time and effort into their guild.  Guilds become valued commodities that players must invest themselves in.

This begs the question -- should all the power be in one person's hands?  One person who might get ticked off at his or her guild and /disband to teach everyone a lesson?  One person who may take a leave of absence and put the guild in the hands of a trusted friend who turns into a dictator?

Does the power to remove a guild from existence truly belong in the hands of one person, or does that choice belong to the whole guild?

Guild Rewards, or "Unexpected Reactions, Benefits, and Drawbacks"

This is going to be a ramble.  Just a ramble.  Feel free to disagree, but it's just thoughts that are currently running around in my brain.

The Dark Phoenix is a guild reward mount.  Buyable.  The cost is 2s, which implies that they don't have a real price for it yet in the beta (since everything else is also 2s).

Husband's best friend thinks the Dark Phoenix will be a reward for your guild achieving something super-hard in a raid.  I'm of the opinion that it will be hard to get, perhaps even very expensive, but that it will indeed be a guild and not a raid reward.  Why do I think this?  Because it's already in the guild reward panel, and we haven't seen any raid achievements mentioning it.  Because I hope that raid rewards and guild rewards won't be the exact same thing.

Super Awesome Guild Rewards, or "Dark Phoenix is a Guild Mount!"

Perks must be unlocked by your guild, and your character must have an epic reputation with your guild to buy the best things.

Guild Buyable Mounts and Pets

• Dark Phoenix
• Baby Dark Phoenix
• Snail Pet
• Guild Mount (Alliance: Lion | Horde: Thunder Lizard)

Guild Buyable Heirlooms

• Helms
• Cloaks

Guild Buyable Extras

• Guild Bank Tab Claim Sheets
• 2 Cooking Recipes (compare to Fish Feast)
• Battle Standard - Common, Superior, Epic
• Guild Herald - Common, Superior, Epic

310% Flying

• 5,000g
• Free if you already have a 310 mount.

(source)

Blue Proto-Drake, or "You Can Totally 2-Man It"

Today I decided to random on Dusty to get her Perky Pug.  She doesn't have one yet because she geared out in heroics and raids before the random system went live and is more likely to get a guild group than a pug.

The Blue Proto-Drake dropped in Heroic Utgarde Pinnacle.  This is something I want on Birdfall, but I smiled with an indulgent fondness when I saw it and happily clicked the "pass" button because, seriously, a girl with a phoenix does not need a blue drake.

One of my groupmates said "Every day. Every %#@!in day."  And dropped group.

I winced but felt sympathetic.  I would have had heart palpitations if I'd seen it on Birdfall, and it would have hurt to lose the roll.  That's why I'm not farming it on her until I can go with husband and maybe my brother at 85.

So, in sympathy for all those frustrating Blue Proto-Drake grinds, I'm going to go ahead and post a 2-man strat.  I prefer to post strats after I myself have tested them, but husband has done this already and I want to send a little encouragement to that poor farmer.

Cata Mounts Update, or "Lazy Lazy Me Didn't Check WarcraftMounts"

WarcraftMounts has been requesting new mount info from the beta and has screenshots of several different items.

• Camel, Dark Phoenix, 2 New Dragons
• Seahorse (in several colors)
• Thunder Lizard (placeholder model, potential guild reward)

Also, visit the Cataclysm Mounts section for new paladin mounts.  To see the freshest Cataclysm mounts, keep up with the news section.

Engineering Pets, or "MechanoBunny, Woo!"

A bunny and a World Destroyer, both BOP engineering pets.

Also a skeletal raptor pet (Fossilized Hatchling), which I suspect will be an Archaeology drop.

(source)

Talking Down Tempers, or "When You're Faced With Frustration"

In TOC (which I run almost every day), a DK dps (in blues and greens and maybe 3 purples) rolled on a tanking ring against the Paladin tank, who stopped just short of throwing a fit.  When the DK wouldn't hand over the ring and I tried to whisper the Paladin into a better frame of mind, the Paladin left the group.

In the randoms I've run, I've supported the policy that if you can and will use something, you can roll on it.  Tanking classes can roll against the group's tank if they're building a tanking set.  My underlying philosophy is that people need to gear up to perform their rolls and everyone has the right to gear up.

Now, is it frustrating to lose a roll on something you've been farming forever?

OhmyGod, yes.

Can you whisper others to make an agreement on a specific item or to request that they let you have the item after they win it?

Sure.

Can you demand that others pass on an item for you or give it to you or get in a huff if they won't?

No.

You can ask nicely, but you can't insist.  You can give people the opportunity to be generous, you can lay your plight at their feet and request that they take pity on you, but you have no right to demand what they've won just because you've failed at it longer or you're the "right" spec for it.

It comes down to this: basic manners dictate that even though you may be gnashing your teeth with frustration over a lost roll, you don't get to take that frustration out on your group.  Lose gracefully or don't do randoms.

Crawling Hand Pet, or "Rock, Paper, Scissors"

(source)

Mini Deathwing, or "CE Pet?"

Potentially the collector's edition pet.  Not confirmed.



(source)

Withers, or "Squee! Little Old Man Tree!"

New confirmed pet in Cataclysm!  Right now, he's a prize for a long Alliance quest chain (it's likely that Horde will just have an equivalent quest and pet, though there's no news on that front).  Withers is an angry old man Treant who starts out large and shrinks over time.  When you get him near water, he emotes "Withers absorbs the water, growing back to full size!"

Photo after break.