Lunar Festival 2011, or "Where are the Elders!"

A few elders have moved around, such as Stormwind's Elder being placed out front of the city (the game tells you to go to the destroyed park, but it's wrong).

Lunar Festival 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007.

Pick up the Lunar Festival quest.  Head to your Alliance or Horde Harbinger.  Pick up the quest to shoot off rockets.  Get 8 rockets (any color), 10 [Red Rocket Clusters], and 10 [Firecrackers].  Keybind the [Red Rocket Cluster] and shoot off all 10 as fast as you can to get an achievement.  Repeat with [Firecracker] for another achievement.

Grab your invitation, use it in the column of moonlight, go here and get the Omen quest.  Head for this spot and look for a group killing Omen (if you do this in the first day, he is always being downed -- later in the week is much harder).  Help if you can.  You want to stand in him while he's dead, it doesn't matter if you helped kill him.  Turning in the quest with the buff on you from his corpse (dying removes it) gets another achievement.

Elder Time

There's a list here, but it's not 100% accurate for Cataclysm yet.  I'm sure it will be fixed by the end of the week, but here's a good rule of thumb: if you can't find an elder where it's supposed to be, go to wowhead and search for the elder's name (given in the wowwiki listing).  Under the Comments tab, go to the most recent comments and glance over them for the elder's new position.  You will always find the answer there.

If only coordinates are given and you don't use coordinates, go to Tools > Maps and select the area you're in.  As you hover over the map, it will give you coordinates and you'll be able to see where on the map your elder is.  :)

After Getting All Elders

Buy clothes with your tokens.

You're an elder now!

Mediocre, or "Do We Need a Player Reputation System?"

I'm of two minds about reputation systems that let players rank other players.  On the one hand, it would be nice to downrate jerks and uprate awesome people.  On the other, it would add an aspect to the game that I'm not convinced would be beneficial to players.

Today on Birdfall, I had a mediocre group in Throne of the Tides that lost 3 healers.  The first healer left after three wipes on the same boss.  The second helped us through that boss but chewed us out for being terribad and left.  The third stayed until the last boss when the tank had to leave and the group fell apart.

Personally, I would have liked to give props to my group even if we were pretty mediocre.  The tank and other dps were new to the instance and perfectly willing to admit when they didn't know what they were doing.  But they were also willing to keep trying.  They kept a quiet, honest respectability around them that the second healer didn't possess in his littlest finger.  He might have been "pro," but his social skills were terribad and got a /ignore from me.

There's something to be said for a group that rolls with its faults and doesn't implode.  I might not have rated us very high in skill for that run, but I would have given my group mad rep bumps for tenacity and patience.

I think I'd like to leave a group or finish a dungeon and get a popup for "Did you enjoy this group?  Yes/No" and yes gives a rep bump to everyone and you can also choose to rate each player individually:

Skill: Terribad -- Poor -- Mediocre -- Fair -- Good -- Outstanding -- Don't Know

Attitude: Terribad -- Poor -- Mediocre -- Fair -- Good -- Outstanding -- Don't Know

See also: Pug Matching

Busy Birdfall is Busy, or "News on Why I've Been MIA"

Plum is 85
Dustfire is 83
Windwhistler is 82
Birdfall is 81

I work a day job, do rated bg's on Wednesday, do RL family stuff on Friday, and have been recuperating from Christmas, then my anniversary, then brother-in-law-in-law's 21st birthday, and this next weekend is the first I've had to really chillax in several weeks but I'm also pressing for 85 on my alliance so I can try for the Pink Love Rocket starting Feb 6th.

/exhausted

TL;DR - I'm super busy but should be back soon.

Fox Pet, or "Just In Case You Missed It"

Fox Kit is a BOP drop from foxes in the normal daily questing zone of Tol Barad Peninsula.  This is not the "join for battle" zone, but it is contested which means players on PVP servers will be flagged for PVP combat.

The droprate of this pet is currently unknown, so if you plan to farm it please download the Wowhead Client to help them get accurate droprate numbers.  I'm going to guess it's a 1/1000 pet.

Oh, and it DANCES.

Blue Poster on Penalties, or "Understanding of Your Rights as a Player"

Blue poster Nevalistis wrote a very good post about player rights, Blizzard on player infractions, and basically pwning whiners.

Paraphrase:

Players: WHINE WHINE YOU DON'T DO ANYTHING ABOUT JERKS!!
Nev: If you don't report them, that's true.
Players: WHINE WHINE YOU DON'T CARE ABOUT US, YOU ONLY LIKE MONEY!
Nev: Then why do we spend so much to employ GMs?


Know your in-game rights.

Outfit of the Month, or "Dress Right, Cook Well"

Winter Veil 2010, or "Srs Post for Srs Holiday"

Ironforge/Orgrimmar
a short list of supplies

• /kiss a Winter Reveler every hour (found at Inns)
• Buy and learn all 3 holiday recipes from a Smokeywood Pastures vendor.
• Buy a snowball from a Smokeywood Pastures vendor.
• Do the Greench quest chain.
• Do the Metzen quest chain.
• Get attuned to Ogri'la.
• Set aside a Fruitcake and a Holly from doing Metzen.
• Get a hat from dungeon bosses.
• Get clothes from a tailor.
• Get boots from a leatherworker.
• Save all snowflakes.
• Find your local Wondervolt Machine.
• Keep your Winter Veil Disguise Kit.

Dec 25th: Get your presents at the Ironforge/Orgrimmar trees.

For details on how to use these items, see my 2008 post.

Winter Veil Hats, or "Still Available in Northrend"

Winter Veil Bosses
The denizens of the dungeons of Northrend are also getting into the holiday spirit, and some dungeon bosses even wear festive Winter Hats just like Greatfather Winter's. Defeat a Winter Veil boss, and the boss' hat is yours!

Winter Veil bosses of Northrend:
Grand Magus Telestra (The Nexus) - Red Winter Hat
Jedoga Shadowseeker (Ahn'Kahet: The Old Kingdom) - Red Winter Hat
Mage-Lord Urom (The Oculus) - Green Winter Hat

Cataclysm Winter Veil bosses
Deadmines (Heroic) - Admiral Ripsnarl
The Stone Core (Normal + Heroic) - High Priestess Azil
Blackrock Caverns (Normal + Heroic) - Corla, Herald of Twilight
Shadowfang Keep (Heroic) - Lord Godfrey
Grim Batol (Normal + Heroic) - Drahga Shadowburner

(source)

More Winter Veil details this weekend, maybe, I think. I need to do it on 2 characters, and that usually prompts posts.

Anywho, feel free to check out the previous years: 2008, 2007, and Ogri'la tutorial.

Looks like I didn't do 2009. Would make sense, since we'd just moved and there was a blizzard and we were holed up at my brother's house with our cats.

Rainbow Generator, or "I Can Be Really Creepy When I Want To Be"

I looked at MMO Champion on getting home from work today.  I read some comics, scrolled down a bit, saw some new pictures, and went to the kitchen with a maniacal grin on my face until my husband saw me and stopped what he was doing.

"That's creepy," he said, looking alarmed.

Husband's Best Friend turned to glance at me.  "That is creepy."

I clung to a stair railing nearby and leaned over it to grin down at them.  "Did you see MMO Champion today?"

"No," said husband, still alarmed.

But HBF nodded in sudden understanding.  "The rainbow generator."

"Yes," I agreed in a voice that would fit well into an Exorcist movie.

HBF pointed at me.  "You're overreacting.  Am I going to go get nine of them?  Yes.  But you're [with an emphatic jab of his finger in my direction] overreacting."

Squee Mylune, or "Fun Times With Cata"

Husband's Best Friend posted on our forums about a quest that looked like I'd created it.  It's from Mylune, and she definitely says "Squeeeeee!" when you turn it in.

/happy

In other news, there doesn't seem to be a lot of fighting on my server while folks quest.  Husband had some trouble with a rogue at one point, and there's been a few 85's coming back to gank (a guildmate set his 85 up in the area to even things out just before I got into the zone), but for the most part things are peaceful.  Alliance and Horde seem to be focused more on leveling, and starting a fight means retaliation when you want to get back to questing.

My brother admitted that he thinks he accidentally ganked some Alliance while on his warlock.  His questing technique is Tab+Curse, and he doesn't look too closely at what he attacks.  Especially since the underwater zone makes him a bit woozy.

For myself, I've been killed once, but I rezzed and kept questing and no one bothered me again.  And I was attacked once as retaliation for a guy in my quest group who started (he said "continued") a fight with a druid -- the same druid later emoted "truce" at me and I emoted "pet" at him (he was in kitty form).

So, all in all, it's been pretty friendly on Zuluhed.  I imagine that once people hit 85, more will come back to starting zones to grief levelers, but for now it's really quite pleasant.

Outfit of the Month, or "Cataclysm or Not, I Like the Lot"

Level 10 Worgen quest, Top Hat reward.

Embroidered Shirt, no idea how to get it.

No idea how to get Old Spectacles (shown above), but they're awesome-looking.

Jewelcrafting 510 for Rhinestone Sunglasses.  The sparkles on them are animated.

Tailoring cloth sets look like Final Fantasy white/red/black mage outfits.

Super Girly Shirt shown above.

Goblin __ Pants shown above.

Knitted Sandals shown above.

Yes, it's the first day of Cata and I'm posting clothes.  I was looking for a rose for my character's hair, because I saw it on a Gilneas NPC.  Closest is the Valentines rose in your character's teeth that shows in the hair of women and between the teeth of men.

Last Minute Cata, or "Knowing How to Start Saves Time"

To get Azeroth flying, you need to visit a flying trainer anywhere.  Cost is 250g.

You'll want to start your 80s in either Mt Hyjal or Vashj'ir.  I think you can get to either by flying, but you will have portals to either available in Org & Stormwind.  Though you may have to do pre-quests to use the portals.  If so, I don't currently know what they are.

For Orgrimmar, your flight trainer is by the flight master -- take an elevator up in any corner of the Valley of Strength and it'll dump you near the flight master.  Run to him and the trainer is beside him.  Once you have flying, go north across the bridges until you get to the portals in the Valley of Wisdom (the platform is shown on your map and looks like a small grey Fortress of Solitude).

For Stormwind, your flight trainer is also by the flight master.  The portals to Mt Hyjal and Vashj'ir are northwest of Stormwind Keep.

Remember to empty your bags, get your potions and buff food in hand, recheck your talents, repair your gear, make sure you've learned all your skills, and sit on a flying trainer so you can start a new zone with no (okay, less) poking around in confusion once Cata's out.

And remember: rested is better than any other leveling buff.  It quite literally doubles experience gained.  For those of us who have fulltime jobs (woo, money!), rested is a big deal.  If you do nothing else tonight, get yourself to an inn.

Good luck, and have fun everyone!  Europeans who already have Cata, it's cool, we hate you.  Enjoy Blizz loving you more than us today.

Ripping People Off, or "Finding Really Great Deals That You'd Feel Bad About If You Weren't Profiting"

I essentially just ripped a guy off on my Alliance AH today.  I got a Hyacinth Macaw for 3,000g.

On Horde side, it sells for ~20,000g.

In fact, a friend of mine begged a seller once to take a 25,000g Hyacinth Macaw down and let her save the cash to buy it off him.  She couldn't because he'd already agreed to do that for someone else who wasn't going to be in game until the weekend but had the cash on hand.

And I have a macaw for both Bird and Dust, and all my friends have at least one by now, so I don't feel bad about using this one for profit.

:D  Silly seller -- putting a bid-only price of 3k and thinking anyone on the poor half of the server would start a bidding war.

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.