Level 70, or "Dustfire Beat the Game! ... Right? Right?!"

Unfortunately, no. You can't even begin striving for end-game content until 70. So really... Dustfire has just leveled into the role of a Warcraft "adult." She gets to play with the big kids... and probably get squashed by them.

Guild notice: (Manasseh wrote it. I thought it was funny/clever. ^_^)

The biggest perk of hitting 70 is access to a flying mount. If you have 900g. Luckily, I had 1407g because mining rocks (actually, a lot of it was from quests and passing over cheap cloth quest rewards to get the plate, which vendors for several gold more on average).


Also, about the awesome and incredible horde flying mount... well, it's the ugliest thing I've ever seen. I'm not shy about admitting this. I swore I wouldn't get a single flying mount until I could get inside The Eye, but I was being impractical. It's much easier to do things with a flying mount. I just swear off of epic flying mounts until I can get to The Eye. B/c there's no sense spending 1000g and hours and hours of rep grinding on a mount that will just get replaced sometime next year (I hope). The phoenix will be my epic, even if I have to get every damn person on my server one before I get one. I will persevere.

Like I said on my guild forum: "For me, getting a phoenix is winning the game."

Heroics, or "Managing Your Reputation Pre-70"

Non-Gamer's Guide to This Post

Reputation is how the factions around you feel about you. When you do Stranglethorn Vale quests, for example, your rep with Booty Bay goes up and your reputation with Bloodsail Buccaneers goes down. You can, of course, reverse this by killing lots of bruisers in Booty Bay (high rep with the Buccaneers and hated with Booty Bay is how you get an admiral's hat).

You get reputation with factions by doing quests, instances, and repeatable turn-ins.

The largest rep grind you'll see before Outlands will be around level 45-50, trying to get in good with the Timbermaw so you can pass unmolested through their home to get to Winterspring (and to get a few extra quests off them). You must be sure never to kill a Timbermaw, or your rep will plummet, and kill lots of their enemies, who drop feathers you can turn in for extra pops of reputation.

Reputation moves thusly: Hated, Hostile, Unfriendly, Neutral, Friendly, Honored, Revered, Exalted

Exalted with any same side (Alliance v. Horde) faction allows you to purchase that faction's mount (Alliance: Ironforge-Ram, Stormwind-Horse; Horde: Undercity-Skeletal Warhorse, Darkspear Trolls-Raptor).

Minimalist Addon List, or "Don't Clutter My Interface"

I admit it. I'm a minimalist. My side of the freshman dorm room had bare walls, one table lamp, and a cluttered computer desk. My roommate's side had curtains, throw pillows, massive posters of Vin Diesel, rugs, and photographs of herself and friends framed by artistically cut construction paper.

So I'm gonna give you the three addons I can't live without, and that's it. These are all the addons you actually need. (These are popular enough to receive upgrades soon after every new patch.) Can you (and do I?) use others? Yes, of course. But you can survive without others.

Auctioneer: If you plan to ever buy or sell things in the Auction House, you'll need to get auctioneer and run some scans so you'll know what you should charge/pay.

Gatherer: If any of your characters has a gathering profession (mining makes big bucks), gatherer marks the herbs/mines so you can go back to the same spots later and try and get more (nodes respawn in the same area, not necessarily the same node, about every 20-30 minutes). Recently updated with a downloadable database of nodes, so you can have all nodes immediately at your fingertips.

Titan Panel: More than anything else, Titan Panel is necessary for coordinates. Coordinates on the map make it easy for players to tell each other where to find quest goals. (Ie, on Wowhead.)

------------------------

Installing Addons

They ought to have directions, but in case they don't, or the directions are confusing:

1. Download .zip file to desktop.
2. Open My Computer from your Start menu.
3. Go to Local Disk (C:)
4. Go to Program Files (Ignore any warnings about changing/modifying contents -- that's just there to keep people from deleting the whole thing on a confused cleaning binge.)
5. Find World of Warcraft folder, and enter it.
6. Enter the Interface folder. You ought to see an Addons folder inside this one.
   
7. Enter the Addons folder.
8. Drag and drop the .zip files on your desktop into the Addons folder.
9. Right-click on each .zip file and select "Extract here." This ought to place a new folder in your Addons folder. (If you cannot extract or "Unzip," you should download WinRAR.)
   
10. Delete the .zip folders after you have extracted from them.
11. Close and enjoy!
    

Role-Playing Mods, or "I Don't Role-Play, But I Still Want One"

The new, girl-written comic lauded on popular WoWInsider, Hammer of Grammar, used Role-Playing mods in a recent comic. (My favorite comic: Penis Envy.)

I had no idea Role-Playing mods existed. I mean, I don't really want to Role-Play. But I like giving my characters backgrounds and personalities, as evidenced by a previous post, and I think it would be really fun to download one of these.

The comic cites the following three addons:

• FlagRSP (Burning Crusade Version)
• ImmersionRP
• MyRolePlay

I'm going to conduct an experiment where friends and I try these addons and rate them by the following criteria:

Attractiveness
Ease of Use
Shows Info of Other 2 Addons?

We will include screenshots.

---------------------------------------------

FlagRSP BC
tested by Dustfire and Shenoah

Broken, and not in the "this is so awesome, it's broken" way. In the "oops, I stepped on your glasses" way. Nothing shows up when you input info, error messages abound, and the friendslist panel that Shenoah acknowledges might have been cool does not actually allow you to enter friends into it. This is obviously the fault of not being up-to-date and may be corrected some day, but shows an obvious laziness on the part of the creator to keep up with major patches, so it would probably break again as soon as the newest update comes out.

Attractiveness: 7/10
Ease of Use: 5/10
Shows: (coming)

As for the write-a-background feature, which is what I wanted a RP addon for, it doesn't have one. It allows you to enter a last name and nickname and a physical description. There is even a tip pop-up that specifies "This physical description panel is not for background information" and gives examples on what that means. So I thought "okay, the background panel is elsewhere." No, it isn't. Even when I got excited by finding the almost-hidden "Turn Over" button at the top, thinking there were more forms to fill out, I only found "I am/am not roleplaying at the moment" checkboxes.

Honestly, people know what my character looks like. They can see her. She's pretty. Whatever. What they can't see is her backstory, and I wanted to write one. So I'm disappointed.

---------------------------------------------

MyRolePlay
tested by Nevari and Manasseh

Already, this addon seems infinitely easy to navigate. With unobtrusive toggling and simple text boxes, Nevari tells me that it's what I was looking for. In fact, she's going to keep it after the trial run, she likes it so much.

Manasseh, of course, called me a bother and will probably get rid of his asap.

Attractiveness: 9/10
Ease of Use: 9/10
Shows: (coming)

Nevari got screenshots of all of the features. ^_^ Click the images to see full size.


Looking at another's profile:

Mouse-over player:

Edit: Manasseh kept it and changed his profile (what you see in pictures is just what he put in to test it), but I haven't been able to see that new profile, though he swears he changed it. That would be a bug with the system, I guess.

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.

Dance Party, or "Aaron is the Sweetest Boy in My Guild, and You Can Quote Me"

Aaron is one of the youngest members in our horde guild, and I am among the older set (22 and up). In various outside-the-game Warcraft conversations, if someone mentions Aaron, the phrase "sweet kid" usually comes up, because it's impossible not to like Aaron. He's just a ... well, a sweet kid. ^_^

So I'm puttering around last night and Nevari calls me. "Can you get on for about five minutes?" she says.

I say, "Um, I guess," because it's not like her to be so mysterious. And in a few minutes, I'm in the middle of Undercity, checking my mail.

"Hey," says Aaron in guild chat. "I have something for you."

I smile and make a joke: "Is it a flying phoenix mount?" Because those are bind-on-pickup, and nobody could just hand me one. And they're in an instance we aren't ready for yet. And, oh yeah, they're a rare drop.

But everyone got the joke because I've been going on and on (annoying, maybe?) about how I really want one for Dustfire. I mean, look at her name. It just screams "I ride a phoenix." Dust. Fire. Yo.

I've been going on and on about something else, too. First, a related story.

Screenshots of Dumbness, or "Why'd They Have to Change Screenshots to JPEG..."

.... when I don't know how to change them back to the way they were? I had a system going. The ones I couldn't see thumbnails of were the working copies, and the PNG versions were the edited copies. *sigh* Now my screenshots folder is just a mess.

Anyway, on with the show!

Clothing

Nevari made me a White Wedding Dress! Yay!!!

Our resident paladin has the gayest belt ever. Bloodscale Belt. I want one! It has a pink heart, see?!

The 80's Expansion, or "What Nevari and I REALLY Care About"

You have to understand -- Nevari and I play The Sims. We loved Barbies as kids. (Heck, Nev still does.) I have 864 MB of downloaded Sims hairstyles and 468 MB of clothing, and I know Nev likes downloading hair and clothes as much as I do, if not more.

So while we like pwning faces as much as the next player, it should be obvious that character designs are also very important to us.

Now, the Lich King expansion is coming out probably next year. It has level 80 (cap right now is 70), and a new class and profession and all that fun good stuff. It also claims to have new, changeable hairstyles (people have always complained that they can't change their character when they start hating the hair) and brand new dances (girls who play Night Elf Females can now look like non-strippers).

Here's the conversation Nev and I recently had about the expansion, as well as girl vs. boy players in general.

Nevari: Mostly excited for the hair, but dancing is super important too!
Dustfire: Oh yes, the proper hair makes or breaks a character.
Manasseh: (talking to the only other guy in the party) My spell damage goes up based on my pet's stamina/intellect and his stats go up based on my stats... so buffs are the good.
Nevari: (answering me, because who cares about buffs?) Exactly.
Dustfire: And being able to customize dancing makes the player and the character that much more unique.
Dustfire: "I can express myself" will be the new Warcraft battle cry!
Nevari: Yays! :D
Nevari: You know how you can tell that we're real girls? XD
Dustfire: How?
Manasseh: Neither of you are named "Onehotchic"?
Manasseh: Or something similar.
Shenoah: (only other guy in the party) lol
Dustfire: *laugh*
Manasseh: Case in point... Demonlicious right behind me... totally a guy.
Nevari: Our names, pets and sometimes our gear... (we're more likely to hide unsightly cloaks).
Nevari: Shall I ask?
Manasseh: *heh*
Nevari: (after she goes over to whisper Demonlicious) Yep, her cloak doesn't match either. A guy.

Playing Made Easy, or "Finding Other People You Can Stand"

I had a guy ask me the other day, "How did you get the money for your mount? I've been grinding for days and still don't have half enough."

I recommended the auctioning post, told him to take up mining, then said he should try to keep leveling because that was the most important thing.

He replied that his mount was the most important thing and thanked me for my advice.

What I guess I didn't get across was that leveling is important to your money, too. The higher level you are, the better drops you get, and better drops sell for more. It's also the easiest way to train any skill, such as mining. He had a head-start, being 40, but I've learned that it's very easy to go back to a level 12 area to grab all the copper you can when you're level 20 and nothing aggros on you. Faster, too.

But another great way to make money, I think, is to do instancing as you go along. Drops in instances tend to sell well.

But, you say, I'd have to take a pug! I hate pugs!

So do I. This is where a decent guild becomes invaluable. It's best when you play with a few people you already know, but if you're playing alone, it can be hard to find a proper guild.

The most important mark of any good guild is respect. Generally, I would lean toward the guilds of people who are nice to me, but you should really do your research before leaping into any guild. Ask a few pertinent questions.

• What is your guild about?
• How would you describe your guild?
• How many members do you have?
• What classes do you have too many/few of?
  
• How active are your members? (Are half taking a break?)
  
• Do you have a guild website?
  
• How do your members treat each other?
• How do you help lower levels in your guild?
• Do you have a set of guild rules?
  
• What are your level 70 goals?

Obviously, the easiest solution would be to roll horde on Zuluhed and join my guild. As guilds go, we're pretty awesome. Not because we're l33t pwners (several are; not me, obviously), but because we get along. We like each other. Of course, we plan to do some serious level 70 raiding, but it's mostly about having fun as a group. The main problems thus far have been kind of small:

1. I won't play without my husband.
2. My brother's wife won't play without my brother.
3. I won't play without my brother and his wife.
4. None of us are tanks. (This means we can't instance with anyone non-tank. Poor rogue.)

That will be fixed once we can do 10-mans.

1. Everyone is trying to hit 70 to play with the 5 (now 9?) level 70s.
2. Everyone is leveling at different speeds.
3. We like grouping together anyway.
4. It's hard to gain experience when grouped with someone higher level than you.

This will be moot once we're 70.

Etc. So.... I'm sleepy. The point of all this is "You can do it! Try hard and find nice people to ally yourself with. Don't worry too much about money except when you need it for training talents. Walking won't kill you, but staying at a low level on a PVP server will."

Oh, and maim all the gnomes you can. That too. (Our guild has a thing against enemy gnomes, rogues, and hunters.)

60, or "Dustfire's Bird Got an Upgrade"

Ding 60.

Nell, my mount (named after my grandmother), got an upgrade. To me, she's the same bird with better gear.

I can now run into things with 40% greater efficiency. (To folk who don't play -- the lower level mount gives you 60% speed increase, and this one gives you 100% speed increase.)

Beauty, or "Having Fun with Screenshots"

Here she is, folks, the sexiest girl in Warcraft. PRINCESS! (Boss in Maraudon.) Seriously, though, someone gave me the impression she was supposed to be really pretty. Imagine my confusion...


In other news, I made it through the Dark Portal with Dustfire (level 58 required). Now we're waiting for Manasseh and Nevari to catch up. There was some awesomeness going on the other side, too.

Prairie Dog, or "The Hardest Thing to Find Ever"

Well, the prairie dog vendor is hidden behind another hut, facing the cliff you don't want to jump off of. Or, rather, the cliff you may want to jump off of after all the searching you've done.

Prairie dogs are 45s each.

Netherwelp Sighting, or "I'm Going to Lie Down and Die Now"

Netherwhelps are, as we have learned in the past, a Collectors' Edition pet and therefore highly unreachable by anyone without massive amounts of cash.

I saw one. On Zuluhed. And was the character with the precious Netherwhelp a high-standing member of society with an awesome guild and terrific gear?

HE HAD A MISSPELLED NAME!!!!

You wanna have a misspelled name, fine. You wanna have a dumb name, calling yourself something like Dungpoop or Boomshakalaka, whatever. None of my business. But when you have the rare privilege of a hard-to-acquire pet that everyone else wants, please, for the love of God, give it to a character worthy of the honor. NOT something named Dethwish in a guild called "Orcs are teh overpower." It's not even CAPITALIZED correctly!

If I were Blizzard, I would confiscate his Netherwhelp until he got his name and guild situation under control. Honestly.

More Names, or "What is a Kitty Butt For?"

Yeah, I know. Level 62, too. But what do you expect from a hunter?

General Death and Destruction

My husband deleted all of his Anvilmar characters. It's only a matter of time before Birdfall goes the same way. Even though I fully plan to remake her wherever my peeps set up Alliance camp, it may be a year or two before that happens.

In the meantime, Dustfire is rocketing toward 70. Or, at least, she's 4 levels from 60. Which is pretty dang good.