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

Cost, or "Drawbacks to Owning Something Cool"

• The ribbons fly in my face when I turn the camera (due to my settings).
• I'm hesitant to mount in front of large groups when I'm busy.
  
• Mounting in front of my friends feels a bit like bragging.
• I shift out of shadowform every time I mount, so I never have mana.
  
• I get focus-fired by gankers.

Selfless, or "Can I Come With You To Kael'thas?"

While hovering on my phoenix in a public spot today, I got a lot of whispers, a few of which got excited when I mentioned my friends would probably go back to TK for more phoenixes. One asked if he could come with us, and I said I'd pass his name to my friends (I will and they'll say no). Another seemed like he wanted to ask to be included, but I "had to" log to get lunch.

Why would they want to be part of my group instead of forming their own? Because the hardest part of the phoenix farming isn't the fight itself, and it isn't the gear. It is finding others willing to go when the possibility of reward grows exponentially smaller with each group member. (And also because letting someone else do all the work is nice.)

My group was unique in several ways, the biggest being that my guildmates went in knowing they wouldn't get anything out of it besides a TK achievement -- they went in specifically to get me the first phoenix.

Competitive groups will have to weigh the pro of possibly winning a phoenix mount vs the con of probably grinding for an epic amount of time just to see the roll go to someone else (and perhaps see that person leave the farming group so that you have to find someone to fill their spot -- and thus keep the odds of winning it very low).

So why has my guild been successful, and why are we likely to see another phoenix eventually?

Kael'thas Strat, or "How To Farm Your Phoenixes"

Where: The Eye of Tempest Keep (Netherstorm, Outlands)
What: Kael'thas Sunstrider, 2% Drop Rate for Ashes of Al'ar
When: Once a Week

You can skip all the other bosses and go straight to him. The trash is annoying and dangerous, with knockbacks and whirlwinds, but you can handle it if you can handle the boss.

Recommended Level 80 Team Requirements:

• 3 Melee
• 2 Heals
• 1 Ranged
• 1 Tank
  

^ This requirement list is for level 80 if your gear is post-Ulduar and pre-Icecrown. If it's below Uld, get one more of everything.

When starting out at 85, I recommend using 5-7 players. You shouldn't try with less than 5 because of mind control (he controls 3 players at a time, and your teammates will try to kill you) and the fact that mind control won't break until a non-mind-controlled player breaks it.  Using 4 players is theoretically possible, but I imagine more complications.

Phoenix Mount, or "OMGOMGOMGOMGOMG"

A friend recorded the whole fight, and I'll get you a link when he has it available. (Here's a link of me flying.)

This was our third run. Third. I'm absurdly lucky and don't deserve it, but I needed a pick-me-up after lunch today. We went out with a family I really like and my only female friend in town, and I started sniffling about moving away (2.5 weeks, and then we'll live by my brother and his wife).

So then we got home and ran TK and... um... it dropped.

Scaling Back, or "Advantages of the Casual Mindset"

Two weeks ago, I emailed my family with this note:

I was thinking we might, after we have all the heroic achievements and gear we want, start farming mounts. I know T___ is going for the 100 Mount Achievement and I'm not indifferent to a little collecting (I've given up on phoenix unless someone else wants to spearhead TK runs -- I'm just NOT pushy enough). And others in the guild would go with us to ZG and we could leave Ravenlord last so I could just switch to Plum.

So. Help T___ hit 100 mounts GO?

The next day, a few hours before our traditional Sunday family run, my sister-in-law emailed me a 6-man Kael'thas strat. According to my husband, everyone but me was in on the surprise.

WoW Tattoos, or "What Would You Do?"

I found a WoW Tattoos blog called Warcraft-Ink. Hasn't been updated in a year, but it got me thinking.

A tattoo is a big commitment. If you were forced to get a Warcraft tattoo, and you could choose among any art (or request your own), what would you get and where would you put it?

I'd probably do something with Dustfire and the phoenix mount, or with Dustfire and Birdfall fighting. Maybe both. It would be nice to incorporate the characters and their mounts, but that might be too busy. I'm a big fan of clean lines and simplicity.

Moral Mount Farm, or "When Do You Give Up On a Dream?"

If you don't like to talk about *cough* that time of the month, skip down to the break.

I told my husband yesterday that I don't think men understand PMS. He agreed, and I told him that I think this is because it's different for every woman. Some women have to take medication to even out the wild flux of hormones. Some women barely notice a blip on their emotional radar.

For me, my most hormonal times are just before and just after the . . . icky part. Just before and after, I'm likely to have stronger reactions to just about everything -- but they're reactions I would have had, just amplified. It doesn't make me feel anything I wouldn't have, though it does make me post frustrated rants on my guild forum about stuff I usually overlook. >_> (Sorry guys.)

Most of the time, if I'm in an unreasonable mood, my husband (has permission to do this) asks me if it's that time of the month, and I stop and tilt my head and say "Oh yeah." And I can consciously rein it in.

Because there's nothing I hate more than being cranky. Except being cranky in public.

Kael'thas at 80, or "Farming for Phoenixes"

[This strat has been OUTDATED.]

Mount Excavation, or "How I Farm for Dreams and Status"

As you should know by now, my main motivation in the game is to look pretty. For this, I need a gorgeous mount that matches my character's "theme" (I've been wanting a phoenix for Dusty since level 20, when the details came out), but amazing mounts often require a team willing to put in the time. Which is where most people get tripped up.

Although I'm a lucky girl and have wonderful family willing to farm Kael'thas once a week with me at 80, I realized the potential for my guild if everyone got that one mount they've been dreaming of since they first heard of it. For one thing, we're a family raid guild on a small server, fighting to be taken seriously as raiders (from Kara to Hyjal in a year). Having lots of gorgeous rare mounts would seriously amp up our "rep" on Zuluhed.

So I'm going to tell you how I set things up and let you see if you want to do something similar with your guild.

Perfect Mounts, or "I Never Said I Was Realistic"

Last post, I mentioned the epic flying phoenix mount as the best-themed mount for Dustfire, taking into consideration her name and personality. (Dust and fire are both aspects of the phoenix, which is a fiery beast that burns itself out and is born again from its own ashes.)

This mount is a rare drop (estimated 3-8% drop) off of Kael'thas Sunstrider in the 25-man/level 70 raid instance, The Eye. I expect I'll have to run The Eye multiple times at level 80 with a group of friends before this mount actually drops. That means . . . Christmas 2008?



This is the Raven Lord, a rare epic land mount (NOT flying) also only available in a level 70 instance. Though the instance is the Heroic Mode Sethekk Halls, the boss who drops this mount (Anzu) can only be summoned by a druid who is performing or has finished his/her epic flight form quest. Therefore, only a party that contains a druid, and only if that druid has or is currently getting epic flight form, can summon the boss to drop this mount.

I have decided that I only want Birdfall to get this. Eventually. (Three years? I'm sure it will take that long. Maybe four, since I'm not currently leveling her.) Like with Dustfire and the phoenix, I think that the connection with the character's name is too good to overlook. A bird that cannot fly. Bird. Fall.

It makes me warm and fuzzy inside.