1 Month of Blogging & My 3rd Level 85!

So today (well technically yesterday now) marked a month of me blogging. As this was my first blog I wasn't sure how well I'd take to it or if I'd even manage more than a couple of posts. So far I've really enjoyed it and will be sticking around - for a bit longer atleast.

I think the IntPiPoMo event has helped me to continue posting as it's given me a daily target of a post including ~5 screenshots. It has also introduced me to geotagging and I now have my own WyriMap. Even though I have now completed my IntPiPoMo 2012 challenge I am going to continue to take screenshots and posting them.



Twilight Highlands.

IntPiPoMo 2012 #9: Uldum

Here we are, at my last installment of IntPiPoMo 2012! I've really enjoyed it and it's inspired me to keep taking and posting screenshots - especially now I have my own WyriMaps map complete with geotagged images (link). Again, I'd like to thank Angelya at Revive & Rejuvenate for organising this event.

Yet again I've been leveling my mage - just for a change. I've been through Uldum and have now entered the Twilight Highlands. Personally I think Uldum is a brilliant zone. I enjoy the quests and its Egypt-esque feel. I've attempted to take a variety of pictures from the zone, encompassing water features, sand, plants and of course pyramids...

Vir'naal Oasis mini-waterfalls.

   

IntPiPoMo 2012 #8: Deepholm

Today has yet again be all about leveling my mage. Shes now level 83 and half way to level 84. Spent most of it questing in Deepholm and dungeoning. Today I got into the Stonecore and The Vortex Pinnacle. A while ago I was lucky enough to get Reins of the Drake of the North Wind which I still use regularly on my hunter.

Inside the Temple of Earth.

MoP 10-day trial: Take 2!

Yesterday I received an email from Blizzard informing me that I was eligible for the Mists of Pandaria 10-day free trial. Having already experienced the trial (link to previous blog) I didn't think I could get it again. This morning I activated the trial on battle.net and attempted to take my hunter through the portal at Stormwind. Unfortunately it didn't work and thinking nothing of it I got back to leveling my mage.

For some reason I again attempted to use the portal on my DK, about an hour ago. To my surprise it worked! It seems you can experience the MoP 10-day free trial atleast twice. Whether or not this is meant to be the case or it's a glitch I don't know.

Unfortunately, my two level 85s have reached the experience cap so I'm just going to use them to farm up some more fruit and veg until my actual copy of MoP arrives in the week.

Below are some screenshots...

Shrine of Remembrance.

IntPiPoMo #7: Mount Hyjal

This afternoon I've been leveling my mage from level 80 to 82 in Mount Hyjal. Mount Hyjal has some amazing scenery - from lush forests to burnt out areas. It's also been a great opportunity for me to level some battle pets and to collect a new one. I already had the Gold Mini Jouster and took it as an opportunity to get the Blue Mini Jouster aswell. In addition to questing I've also been doing dungeons (namely Throne of the Tides and Blackrock Cavern). Unfortunately, the dungeon queue's have been rather long despite there being a large number of people leveling around me.



Arrival at Nordrassil.

  

IntPiPoMo #6: Goblin Starting Area

Today I have been leveling a goblin rogue to help my boyfriend complete Turkey Lurkey. I have previously leveled a goblin rogue but on a different server. I really enjoyed the goblin starting area - Kezan and the Lost Isles and the second time around was just as good!

I've taken a lot of screenshots on my travels as I'm not sure how likely I am to return there - it certainly won't be any time soon. My main priority at the minute is leveling my mage to 85 (she is now level 80). Oh, and I've got MoP on order now (as it was cheap on Amazon) so when that arrives early to mid-next week I will be delving into Pandaria!!!

After much deliberation I've picked out ten of my screenshots...



Riding in my hot rod!

 

IntPiPoMo 2012 #5: Thanksgiving Edition

Today is thanksgiving in America and Canada so for this edition of IntPiPoMo I'm covering some content from the in-game Pilgrim's Bounty world event. This was my first experience of the Pilgrim's Bounty event and I really enjoyed it. Turkey Lurkey was probably the hardest of the individual achievements but I got there in the end with the help of some guildies. The reward for completing this world event is the title 'the Pilgrim' and a Turkey Cage (Plump Turkey).




My new plump turkey pet!

IntPiPoMo 2012 #4: Eastern Kingdoms

Firstly, I would like to thank Cees-Jan aka WyriHaximus, the developer of WyriMaps, for making it so that when I geotag my screenshots they now appear on the map. You can view my screenshots at http://wyrimaps.net/wow#m:admiring-azeroth.

Today, I've taken a few pictures from around the Eastern Kingdoms. Most of these screenshots were taken whilst leveling my pet battle team. Obviously the Eastern Kingdoms is quite a vast area so I've barely covered some of the amazing places there.




Harvesters and stormy weather in Westfall.

Second-Hand Pet Prices

When Pet Battles first went live I was curious how this would impact upon the prices of pets on the auction house. I noticed that there seemed to be a 'second-hand pet prices'. So, what exactly do I mean by this???

Just to recap a few points regardign battle pets. All wild pets can be captured via pet battles. These wild caught pets can not be caged and sold/swapped etc. However, pets that have been purchased from vendors, given as quest rewards etc can be.

On the auction house, pets for sale are now listed under two categories. The first is listed under 'Miscellaneous - Companion Pets' (see pic, blue highlight). Pets listed under here are new and unused. The second set of listings are under 'Battle Pets' (see pic, red circle) and these pets are those that have been used and later caged for resale. Quite simply, these are second-hand pets.

Earlier today, whilst browsing the AH, I noticed some good examples of what I mean by 'second-hand pet prices' and these finds have inspired this blog.

IntPiPoMo 2012 #3: Stranglethorn Vale

Today I've been working on leveling my pet battle team. In particular I've been working on my, as of yet unnamed, Terrible Turnip and Viv (Voodoo Figurine). Both of these pets started at level 1 and I've got them to around level 9/10. When leveling my pets I following a set route through the Eastern Kingdoms that I've found works very well. This route includes both Northern Stranglethorn and the Cape of Stranglethorn.

Generally, I really enjoy questing, pet battling and spending time in Stranglethorn Vale. There's some amazing scenery from waterfalls to ancient ruins. I've also spent many a Sunday afternoon there in an attempt to win the Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza and get the Accomplished Angler achievement. Unfortunately, the fishing competition has been suspended for some time now, as a result of CRZ, but hopefully not for much longer.

Anyway, on with the screenshots...

Entrance to Zul'Gurub.

   

IntPiPoMo 2012 #2: Outland

For my second installment of IntPiPoMo 2012 I have decided to feature Outland. I flew through Outland last night in order to complete Terokkar Turkey Time (part of Pilgrim's Bounty) and made a few detour's to take these screenshots.

I've always liked Outlands particularly because it's so different to the rest of WoW. Whilst I view much of Azeroth to be old aged (from a time of magic, swords and dragons) for me Outlands represents a more extra-terrestrial world. Aside from this, I think the zones themselves and the quests are rather unique within Azeroth and no where looks quite like it!

Looking back at the Dark Portal. Hellfire Peninsula.

IntPiPoMo 2012 #1: Northrend

As mentioned in my post earlier today, I have decided to take part in IntPiPoMo 2012. In brief this event involves taking 50 screenshots throughout November and was set up by Angelya of Revive & Rejuvenate.

I'm a little late starting as were already half way through the month but my aim is to take 5 screenshots a day from now on. I have also decided that each set of 5 pictures will follow some sort of theme - whether it be a particular continent, event, or even just one specific location.

Also, as previously mentioned, I will be attempting to use WyriMaps to enable you to see roughly where the screenshot was taken from etc.

So here goes...

Happy Return!

On Thursday I had the final part of my masters course, my viva voce - an oral exam. Thankfully it went well and the questions about my thesis were fairly simple compared to the more complex ones I had prepared for.

Last night (Saturday) as a little reward the boyf bought me some game time, wooo! So, finally after several weeks of not playing I am back in the game - which should help me to blog more.

The first thing I did was log my banker and check out the auction house. After a quick browse I found that the Terrible Turnip had dropped down to just under 500G. Just 5 days before (last Monday) my boyf had purchased one for around 900G. I decided to buy one, primarily for their weakening blow ability which is ideal for collecting other low level pets. I know that they can be farmed via the ominous seed but as I no longer have access to MoP content this isn't an option for me. In fact, later in the evening a guildie was lucky enough to farm one up.

Mysterious Minfernal

On my quest to achieve That's a Lot of Pet Food and various other battle pet related achievements, a number of pets have eluded me. This list includes the Scourged Whelpling, Nordrassil Wisp and of course Minfernal. Until this morning I was yet to see any of these in the wild or even one that another player had tamed.

I use two key sites when I'm looking for battle pets in order to find the spawn spots and additional information about timers etc. These sites are Wowhead and Warcraft Pets. Warcraft Pets has an additional feature that makes it especially useful - you can track your pet collection. My collection is available on there via the community tab and collectors by realm (just search for Jojo or Oogleme).

Blog Azeroth: Thanksgiving Event 2012

I joined Blog Azeroth a few days after starting up this blog. I joined to meet some fellow bloggers and specifically to get involved in community events. And here it is, my first shared topic blog.

This shared topic is the month-long Thanksgiving Event 2012 and there's still time to write your own blog if you haven't already! For my thanksgiving post I am going to thank those who have helped me along my way through Azeroth.

The Virtual Me

It's been a few days since my last post and I've mostly been busy and played a little SWTOR. Hopefully, I'll be back playing WoW by the end of this week and can get back into the game and writing some more relevant blogs.

For today I thought I'd follow on from my first blog and talk about my in-game characters as I haven't really introduced them. Personally I have a number of characters (alliance & horde) of varying levels spread across several servers. Despite this I mostly play my alliance characters on Dragonblight-EU. I have 7 characters (including a monk that I made during my MoP trial) all within the same guild and a banker within my own guild. I won't be talking about my banker as he (yes, he's male) is purely in existence for storage and AH purposes.
 

Why WoW?

Having no game time and no money for any I've re-download Star Wars: The Old Republic to play the free trial to level 15. I initially played SWTOR back in 2011 when there was a free weekend. Being back on SWTOR has got me thinking - what is it about WoW that I enjoy and that makes it the MMORPG for me.

I was very happy to see they'd kept with
already established species.
This is a female Cathar called Yael.

Being an avid Star Wars fan I was extremely excited when SWTOR was announced. I signed up to their emails and followed the games development. When the game came out I didn't buy it and decided to wait for a trial and try it out first. I remember the day I received an email saying I was invited to a free weekend. Once the game client was downloaded I got straight online. It's probably worth pointing out that at this point I did not have my own WoW account. I had however experienced the game so had some idea about MMORPGs etc.

Into Pandaria: 10-day free trial

I had two days of game time left and was once again preparing for a mini 'break' from the game (albeit a non voluntary one). These breaks are almost part of my WoW routine happening pretty much every month or so when my game time ends. But not this time! A guildie messaged me to tell me that the Mists of Pandaria trial was now available giving me a handy 10 days free game play etc. So I waited it out and finally got to Pandaria.

I had a quick look online to find the trial restrictions (Source). The only real limitation was the experience capping to 1pt below hitting level 86. But this then essentially locked out half of Pandaria. Nonetheless I was able to roll a monk, start a farm, level some professions, tame some pets and generally make a bit of money. Not a bad 10 days!