Lawn of the Dead Strat, or "Cute Singing Sunflower!"

I did the final wave of zombies two or three times before I found a great strat on Wowhead.

Early on, keep the plant Sunflowers on cooldown till you have about 3 made. By then you should be dealing with about 3 Zombies. Rocknuts are your friend, build a few to hold them off.

Next is planting Spitters to kill off those 3 Zombies once you have enough Sunpower.

Start planting more Sunflowers, the key to winning is making two full rows of Sunflowers. Balance making those with a full row of Spitters and one row of Freezya's. You can even toss in a row of Rocknuts to be safe. Then try and stockpile Sunpower for Pumpkin Bombs.

4-5 Pumpkin bombs should win the game

My board looked like this:

Sunflower : Sunflower : Spitter : Freeza : Rocknot : Rocknot  :  :
Sunflower : Sunflower : Spitter : Freeza : Rocknot : Rocknot  :  :
Sunflower : Sunflower : Spitter : Freeza : Rocknot : Rocknot  :  : Pumpkin Bombs | Badguy
Sunflower : Sunflower : Spitter : Freeza : Rocknot : Rocknot  :  :
Sunflower : Sunflower : Spitter : Freeza : Rocknot : Rocknot  :  :

And if anything died, I'd replace it.  I got a double row of Rocknots because the Pumpkin Bombs have a long cooldown so why not, right?

Because I used the Pumpkin Bombs near the badguy, he died pretty fast.  :)

Horde Travel, or "Can Finish Holiday?"

There's one itty bitty issue with the new world -- Horde can't get to Darnassus or The Exodar without massive effort.  This interferes with Pilgrim's Peril.

First, there are no boats from Darkshore (Auberdine was destroyed).  So I corpse-hopped through Stormwind for an hour to get on the boat to Darnassus, arrived, and their level 85 guards, always on watch, killed me and sent me to a graveyard in...

...Darkshore.

Since there's no boat in Darkshore, and since I found the hard way that fatigue does kill ghosts running on foot, you almost make it but not quite when you run as a ghost across the ocean.

But it's possible, according to an extremely dedicated person on Wowhead:

i ran up the Darkshore coastline till i was as close as possible to Rutheran Village. Popped my elixir, jumped on my 100% mount and ran across water. You will fatigue but the bar begins to replenish as you get close to Rutheran. Once you hit land you can either take the boat to Exo or run like heck for the portal into Darnassus. You will more than likely die entering the portal or coming out the other side. No worries you will be at the gy in Teldrassil, not back on darkshore. Rez and hit the table in Darn. I then swam via the water channels in Darn to the portal and then jumped on boat and headed to Exo. The tables here are very easy to get to as i did not aggro any guards at any point.

As God is my witness, I am going to earn this freakin' turkey pet.

Up for Grabs, or "Stuff You Can Do"

I've seen engineering flying machines running around in cities but not flying.  Bug or working as intended?

Saw a person in a hardcore guild on a Goblin mount.

Available Pets:

• Singing Sunflower: Quest in Hillsbrad Foothills just south of where Dalaran used to be.
• Mr. Grubbs: Drops from bags from grubs in Eastern Plaguelands just like the Oozeling dropped off oozes.  Pre-req quest chain.
• Withers: Alliance quest and Horde vendor (BOP).
• [edit] Flamefly (Thanks Sarayana!)

Cities:

• Visit Gnomeregan
• Visit Echo Isles

They're not full cities yet, but they're visitable.

Reputation:

Quartermasters for the new races are available in Darnassus and Orgrimmar.  Get their tabards to nom some rep pre-Cata.

Tuesdays Schmoozdays, or "Why's the Cataclysm Gotta Mess with My Cooking?"

Logged in to do more Pilgrim's Bounty before work (omg, leveling cooking is so easy and fun!) because like all holidays it's a thousand times more addictive than I thought it would be.  (Guide is up, btw.)

But I couldn't level my cooking on Windwhistler because dumb old Deathwing is busy bursting from the ground and destroying the world.

*eye roll*  It must be Tuesday.

Cracked World, or "Tomorrow We Get a Whole New World"

Mount Changes

Zul'Gurub will be removed, taking the tiger and raptor mounts.  Considering they quickly found a new home for the rare drop pet and already have a new home for Polymorph: Turtle, I still have hope for these mounts coming back.

The Green Proto-Drake that drops out of the Oracle's revered-required Cracked Egg is now easier to get.  The egg cracks after 3 days (down from 7) and the droprate for the mount has increased.  ^_^

Mounts you got by beating super-hard-mode bosses are now a rare drop on their 25-mans.

Cute and Functional

New race/class combos such as night elf mage, tauren paladin, etc.

Time to go to work.

Pilgrim's Bounty, or "Oh Hey, Another Holiday I Forgot"

Husband: "I've been messing with [Husband's Best Friend] all day.  I'm 1 bubble from 80 on my mage but I keep going around doing all the Pilgrim's Bounty cooking and stuff instead of dinging.  It's driving him crazy.  I think I'll stay 79 for as long as possible."

Me: "Oh hey, it's Pilgrim's Bounty!  O.O"

So, considering that I'm going to see the new Harry Potter in 2 hours and don't have time to investigate the holiday properly (I have never ever done PB before), just be aware that it's Pilgrim's Bounty this week and you can level cooking for cheap on your characters.

And there's a turkey pet if you get the holiday achievement.

I'll write something guide-ish up later.  Guide after break.

Elemental Invasion Phase 4, or "Get a Feat of Strength"

Every 2-3 hours, all over the city.  The elementals invade the cities only every 2-3 hours and when they arrive (after a 5 minute warning) they're everywhere.  No way to miss them.

• Orgrimmar & Ironforge: Earth and Fire rifts
• Thunder Bluff & Stormwind: Water and Wind rifts

By defending your faction's cities and getting the buffs for closing all the types of rifts, you earn Tripping the Rifts, a once-in-a-lifetime pre-expansion Feat of Strength.  While waiting, you can do the quest chains if you haven't yet, or do some of the new quests.

I may have time later this week to map those quests out, but not tonight, alas.

Things I wasn't sure about until I did it:

1. You do not need to be in a raid to get the buff.
2. You get the buff when the elementals stop spawning (i.e. when the rift closes).
3. The buff hits an area of people, so you need to be nearby when the rift closes.
4. You can (and probably will) get both buffs in one city defense event.

Therefore, you only need to do your (two) available cities once each.

And then after the event you can queue for the specially available bosses.  (LFD or the portals in the city.)

Razzashi Hatchling Saved, or "I Knew They'd Never Get Rid of Him for Good!"

Blue poster Lylirra said:

I can confirm that the Razzashi Hatchling, being a clever and resilient little reptile, has already found a new home, and will be migrating there shortly after the shattering.

[...] When we made the original announcement last month that certain pets and mounts would be removed, it was to inform players of changes that could potentially impact their gameplay. We know that there are many avid collectors out there and, whenever possible, we want to give players notice when a favorite item might be removed. In that same announcement, we also clarified that, while we didn't have any current plans to re-introduce the specified pets and mounts, if we happened to find a suitable location to add them back in, we would certainly consider it.

Totally reasonable, right?

Since then, we found an appropriate place for the Razzashi Hatchling, and it felt like a good opportunity to restore a pet beloved by so many. Naturally, we were excited to share this information with all of you, as we knew a lot of players were saddened to hear about the little guy's initial departure. There was no malicious intent, no crazy conspiracy behind this decision. We saw an opportunity to make the game more enjoyable that meshed with our design goals, and we went with it. Simple as that.

In the end, the worth of the Razzashi Hatchling isn't solely measured in gold, and it would be a fallacy to think that we create non-combat pets simply to provide players with something to sell on the Auction House for profit. To many, pets like the Razzashi Hatchling represent something fun and exciting, and that's just as valid a currency as any in World of Warcraft.

While I'm sorry you're at a financial disadvantage now, I'm hoping you're still be able to enjoy the pet for what it is (re: an adorable, head-bobbing reptilian sidekick) -- or, given that it will still be a rare pet, perhaps even find someone who will adopt it for a reasonable price. Good luck.

(source)

Moonkin Photos, or "They're All Flappy!"

• Alliance Moonkin Hatchling
• Horde Moonkin Hatchling
• Lil Ragnaros

Do those Moonkins and their goggly eyes remind anyone else of Daily Squee?  Teehee!

Enchanting Pets, or "Faction Lamps"

Here's the skinny on enchanting pets: horde gets the blue lantern, alliance gets the pink lamp.

Lantern requires enchanting 525, 8 Heavenly Shards, 1 Maelstrom Crystal, 8 Hypnotic Dust.

Lamp requires enchanting 525, 8 Heavenly Shards, 1 Maelstrom Crystal, 4 Greater Celestial Essence.

The lamps are NOT bind-on-pickup.  They're currently tradable, which means you can sell them on the Neutral AH.

I'm not sure whether selling enchanting mats or manufacturing endgame enchants (+ these pets) will make you more money at the start of Cata.  I suppose it depends on your access to materials.  If you can get massive amounts of enchanting mats quickly and regularly, including the materials for these pets, you'll probably make more gold by getting to the end of your enchanting and selling products.  But if you're limited on time and resources, it would probably be best to sell enchanting mats at exorbitant prices for power-levelers and then level your own skill when prices go down.

Twilight Infiltration, or "More Cataclysm Pre-Events"

I'm home from work sick.  *cough/sneeze*  So let's do this in as efficient a way as possible. (Alliance will be up when I get to it.)

Outfit of the Month, or "Fists of the Phoenix"