Raiding is a fun and interesting part of World of Warcraft.

Not only is it more chaotically challenging than regular leveling content or 5-player dungeon content, but it more solidly introduces the concept of teamwork within the game setting.

Self-Defense In Raiding, Defined

When I first think about self-defense in a raiding context, "staying alive" is what comes to mind.

Raiders Gather for their ToTC Raids

Those are dynamics that are also in play in Regular and Heroic 5-player dungeons as well, so there's a lot of practice available for any given raider in terms of that type of self defense.

Second up, I think of self-defense in a "something is on you, and you're not a tank" kind of way.

If that something doesn't one-shot you, or you have a chance to react to their making a bee-line towards you, self-defense tactics are the ones you use to keep yourself alive long enough for that mob to be downed or taken back by a tank (or by another less squishy raid member).

But ultimately, neither of these types of self-defense are what inspired this entry.

The one that inspired it is a third type of self-defense - that of defending yourself against your own raid members' and their (sometimes warped) senses of humor.

Someone Always Thinks It's Funny

Unless you're in a raid team with zero roster movement, you're always bringing in new blood to your guild raids, and if you PUG raid at all, generally over 50% of the raid tends to be "new blood", at least when it comes to your familiarity with them.

And when there's new blood, there's always someone who gets a kick out of using a skill or object that negatively impacts others.

For example, for the first time since January someone put down a Toy Train Set in our official raid last week. Of course it was destroyed immediately, and it was put down by someone brand new to the guild (not a veteran by any stretch), but part of me was deeply saddened.

Thankfully, our guild isn't filled with people whose humor is triggered at the expense of others, and has officership that is respected enough that when they say stop, folks stop.

Slow Falling To The Anub'arak Fight

Mages, Priests in ToTC: Slowfall/Levitate Your Friends FTW

In closing I'd like to say that the one thing I've learned about this phase of WoTLK raiding, especially in PUG groups with a bunch of strangers, is the one place I can defend my friends and stymy the guy who is trying to find laughter by laughing at them.

Slowfall and Levitate are your friends, Mages and Priests (just happen to be my two raiding toons). Cast them on your friends just before the fall to take on Anub'arak, and cast them on yourself.

Let someone else die if there's an annoying DK in the group, but above all else, defend yourself and your friends with just a few clicks.

That's my 2c on the topic anyway!

Related posts:

1. Looking Back: From Social Guild To Raiding Guild
2. Why My Raiding Guild Rocks, Part II
3. Helping A Warrior Tank Guildmate Exceed 490 Defense

My Resto/Elemental (dual spec) Shaman has been lounging around in Dalaran in the low 70s for far too long, I've decided.

Not that I want to raid with her or anything much (although I have some friends brand new to raiding that I could join on this toon with, for sure), but just that I want to get her to 80 and have that part be done with.

I want to have her be one of the ones ready at the gate for the release of Cataclysm and its new 80-85 instances.

And who knows, she could be my next "main" raiding toon - depending on what the team I'm in currently values the most at the time.

Bear Won't Drop His Fish!

I know that sounds like I'm letting others decide what toon to play, but that's only partially true - if a toon makes it to 80, that means I have gotten significant joy out of playing it, and not just for a short period of time, either. When WoTLK was rolling in, I made a similar decision between my Mage and Priest and it was largely influenced by the fact that the guild I was aiming to get into for WoTLK (the one I'm in now) had lots of Mages and very few Priests.

Burning Off Rest Bonus

Since my toon has been largely only doing occasional dungeon PUGs (and none in the past 3 weeks at all), she hasn't advanced very quickly from level 70 when I first started into the Northrend PUGs. And of course, she's fully rested, and has a couple pieces of Bind On Account gear as well.

All this adds together to the fact that she has a billion quests that she can do - and many of them that are so fast to whip through because they're a level or so below her - and a lot of rest bonus to burn up.

I spent a couple of hours recently just questing with her, flitting from place to place, delighting in the fact that the last 3 toons that went through these quest series did it when flying could only be obtained in Northrend at level 77.

But then again, with all the flitting around, I'm not getting the incidental experience the others got just by having to battle their way through to the quest object, and then battle their way back out. Thank goodness for lots of quests, and rest bonus ;)

Right now she's at 74, soon to be 75. I only play her once or at most twice a week, however, so it'll take a while to get to that 80 point.

But she's on her way, instead of sitting around in Dalaran twiddling her Troll Toes.

What Toon Will You Play In Cataclysm?

Are you someone who's called the same toon "your main" since you started playing the game, or have you swapped around between characters?

Do you see yourself keeping your current "main" for Cataclysm, or do you think you might take the opportunity to switch to something new?

Related posts:

1. Advancing The Lowbie Shaman
2. Flying Through The Lowbie Levels With BoA Gear
3. Awesome Melee Shaman Consumables Guide

My guild is one of those 25 player raid guilds who are still working on our first boss kill in Heroic Trial of the Grand Crusader.

It's a BIG leap to go from "Normal" 25-player ToTC to "Heroic 25-player ToTC, and we've steadily been chipping away at the gearing requirements and raid attendance requirements, getting closer and closer to victory.

We've gotten to phase three of Heroic Northrend Beasts (25) quite a few times, but with our limited raiding schedule (three nights per week) and some troubles with Farm night vs Progression night attendance, we've done a bunch of recruiting over the past month, and the result is a much stronger team ... that needs a bit more time to "gel".

It won't take long, we're back up to having a solid enough group of attendees on Progression nights that we don't have to break into 10s. It's all good.

Sometimes, tho, it's a lot of fun to take a step back from the Trial of the Crusader raid and head back into Ulduar - even though most loot is disenchanted because everyone's primary and secondary specs are pretty well set.

Guildmates Cheering On Guildmates

One of the best things about being in a Guild Raid vs running with a PUG is that there's a "team feel" to the environment, instead of the feeling of a bunch of individuals coming together to accomplish a task and then go about their own business afterwards.

Going back into Ulduar was not only a fun adventure because we hadn't really been there for a couple of months, but also because we had picked up a sizable number of new recruits to our guild over the past two months and as a result, Achievements that the core raid team had gotten long ago were ones that still brought advancement to the newer folk.

So, we trounced through the raid up to Kologarn doing Achievement after Achievement for our newer guildmates, and then were stopped cold by Auriaya in our attempts to do the Crazy Cat Lady achievement.

Before being stopped by Auriaya (and we progressed quite well during our attempts, the achieve will come soon if we keep at it), however, one of the most fun achievements we got - and one that took a few deaths to get there - was the Razorscale achieve Iron Dwarf, Medium Rare. That's where this entry's picture is from.

Trying New Things When Wiping A Raid

An Odd View of Razorscale

She's still firing on people (in fact, the previous entry in this blog has one where I'm watching as she's firing on me in a previous attempt).

Well, one of our guildmates decided when a wipe was called (en route to our Iron Dwarf, Medium Rare achieve which required that we not actually kill Razorscale until we got the achieve) to test whether one could actually jump off of the edge of the cliffs that surrounded the area.

One guy went, and at least 7 of us followed, me included. Sounded like a good idea to me!

You know, like the whole "If your friend jumped off a cliff, would you do it too?" question that parents used to give to us as kids - turned on its ear like gets done in fantasy games with unlimited lives. ;)

And do you know, it took a LONG time for us to fall far enough to be jettisoned down into the abyss to our official deaths? I mean, I used to jump off of the Netherwing Ledge for a quick ride back to Shadowmoon Valley's Scryer Inn, and I swear it didn't take that long to die.

Laughter Bonds The Team

I think it was a great idea for us to have headed into Ulduar the other night, when our raid team was full but not quite the right configuration for progress on Heroic Northrend Beasts.

It gave a chance for the team to romp and play together - for us to pair up to take on Flame Leviathan (and it's odd how that teaming up in that fight helps new guildmates connect with their new raid buddies), for us to cheer each other and pat the new folk on the back for achievements they've picked up, and for us to all get a chance to laugh at death, knowing it won't make or break the attempt for one person to die early in a fight.

I don't think it's a good idea to put Ulduar onto our schedule every week, however - this bonding agent works partially based on novelty, and novelty is easily worn off by repetition.

But for a growing, morphing, advancing progression raid team, I think it went a long way to refresh the team :)

Related posts:

1. Why Do You Raid (or not)?
2. How To Destroy Koralon The Flame Watcher
3. Summertime's Effect On Your Raid Team

I haven't written for a while, I apologize! The Muse went on vacation and instead the Work-a-holic moved in for a while and I've been cranking out behind-the-scenes work.

I'm always on Twitter, tho, so if you want to follow my adventures there or send me a message, that's the best place :)

Now, on to the show!

I was inspired by Divine Aegis, who in turn was inspired by World of Matticus and Miss Medicina.

Flaming Toilet Seat heads towards Priest

What is your primary group healing environment? (i.e. raids, pvp, 5 mans)
25 player PvE raid healing.

What is your favorite healing spell for your class and why?
Power Word: Shield! It's part of the concept of why I originally switched to Discipline after having leveled from 28-80 as Holy - the shield is a fun and challenging defensive maneuver to put into place strategically to stop damage from happening in the first place (and as Disc it's a better shield).

What healing spell do you use least for your class and why?
Holy Nova. I probably could have made some good use of it during leveling up but I just never thought about it, and it's never become part of any of my rotations anywhere, ever.

What do you feel is the biggest strength of your healing class and why?
We can be any race we want to be! Seriously... Shaman, Druid and Paladin are all otherwise restricted, at least until the xPac changes come into play.

What do you feel is the biggest weakness of your healing class and why?
Raid healing. I agree with Divine Aegis that we're horrible for the whack-a-mole game and our Prayer of Healing is completely slow and dumb compared to Circle of Healing.

In a 25 man raiding environment, what do you feel, in general, is the best healing assignment for you?
Healing the tank who is taking the most damage, whether that be the MT or the OT in this case. Alternatively, I'm an excellent Dispeller on all of my toons that can do so, and I love the challenge of being a fast dispeller under pressure.

What healing class do you enjoy healing with most and why?
Difficult to say because I've had limited healing experience on everything else but Priest. But truthfully, I enjoy healing on my Shaman as well and would probably like healing on my Paladin too - I like discovering and exploring contrasts in life, so the contrasts between the different "types" of healing would rank right up there.

What healing class do you enjoy healing with least and why?
Druid, because I'm forced to be a big fat Tauren that takes up way too much screen space. WTB Goblin Druid!

What is your worst habit as a healer?
Again, I'll go with Divine Aegis and agree that Tunnel Vision is sometimes a problem with all I have going on in my Interface. WTB a bigger monitor?

What is your biggest pet peeve in a group environment while healing?
Floor priority.

In fights where being spread out is of utmost importance yet the raid needs to still be fluid and move around from the things we're spread out FOR: DPS who won't stop DPSing for a second to re-locate themselves after they've piled on top of a healer, or Healers who won't stop healing for a second to re-locate after piling onto a DPS.

Which peeves me the most at the time depends on whether we're battling against keeping the tanks up (a la Heroic Northrend Beasts and Thorim when we were first taking him down) or whether healing is more slack and it's a DPS race.

Do you feel that your class/spec is well balanced with other healers for PvE healing?
Disc is an odd beast. I don't think you'd really want to carry 2+ of them in your 25 player raid - at least I've generally only seen one Disc Priest per raid, whereas bringing multiple Holy Priests/Paladin or Resto Druids/Shaman seems to work out fine. I guess the raid only really needs one damage mitigator.

What tools do you use to evaluate your own performance as a healer?
Recount, Wow Meter Online uploads and World of Log uploads, and just by running PUGs on a semi-regular basis, to get a feel of how I stack against the general population and not just within our tiny little raid group.

What do you think is the biggest misconception people have about your healing class?
That just because we suck on the meters, we suck period. But hey, their loss.

What do you feel is the most difficult thing for new healers of your class to learn?
As for all healers: When to get into the battle yourself. When is "too soon" to start healing, especially when a pull is a little bit chaotic or a DPS pulls aggro early in the fight. Many healer deaths result from "too soon healing aggro".

If someone were to try to evaluate your performance as a healer via recount, what sort of patterns would they see (i.e. lots of overhealing, low healing output, etc)?
Low overhealing, as I've always used recount to evaluate my performance there, even when I was holy healing in BC. Lots of dispelling. Most of my healing on one or two targets, and a very very slim percentage on the rest of the group. Low number of deaths in comparison to my peer group.

Haste or Crit and why?
Haste to 10% and Crit to the roof. Crit is where all of our great stuff lies in Discipline, but a bit of haste is required so the casts aren't all uber-slow.

What healing class do you feel you understand least?
Druid, because our raid is notoriously short on Tree Druids.

What add-ons or macros do you use, if any, to aid you in healing?
Healbot is my primary healing addon, and I run it on DPS toons as well, to keep a quick eye on raid status. Obituary is an addon I use to report death blows to me so I know "what killed X". Trinket and Power Infusion macro that boosts a nearby caster guildmate and then activates my trinks for more throughput.

Do you strive primarily for balance between your healing stats, or do you stack some much higher than others, and why?
Keeping haste at around 10%, the rest of everything goes to Intellect which translates into a bigger mana pool, plus increased mana regeneration rate and Critical strike.

Tag, you’re it!

Related posts:

1. It's Fun Being Top Healer
2. Sharing Healing Responsibilities in Karazhan and beyond
3. For DPS Specs: How To Drive Away Healers And Tanks

My DK By The Darkmoon Faire Flag

The Darkmoon Faire was recently in town, and I took solid advantage of its presence for the first time in many months.

I parked a toon by my favorite vendors and periodically checked their wares, purchasing various things as they became available.

Over the week that the Faire was up in Mulgore, I noticed there were a few other "vendor campers" that returned on a regular basis - but only three or four of us at the most. Everyone sat there quietly, some marked as AFK and some not. I waved at one guy once but didn't get a response, so I didn't wave again the next time.

It was obvious we were all doing the same thing - something else, while our characters sat there at the vendor, and every once in a while we'd come back to our computers and check to see if the vendor had any goodies up.

This is another one of those times where having two WoW accounts and two computers is hugely beneficial - you know those bits and pieces of down time during raid groups, even in the fastest-moving and most efficient? Well, they go by a lot faster when you're thinking about all the profits you're making DURING the raid, while most others are just making repair bills ;)

Profit Isn't Always About Money Coming In

Everyone wants to have a huge glut of World of Warcraft gold at their fingertips so that whenever they want to buy something or tune up a raiding character they don't have to worry about getting the gold FIRST.

Unfortunately, as is apparent with the rampant existence of gold sellers, many players haven't figured out how to hold on to enough of their gold without putting in a lot of effort, and therefore have decided it's better to spend Real Life cash to get more fake, game cash. (aka: Monopoly money)

Unfortunate for those players who spend the RL money on in-game gold, I guess, but not unfortunate for me, because I SWEAR it's the economically-challenged players that I make the bulk of my own profits off of on an every day basis. (So, instead of the gold farmers selling you the cash that you use to spend on the items they've listed for sale, thereby giving them both your RL cash + in-game cash, you buy the gold from them and I leech out a percentage of the WoW gold before it goes right back to the gold farmers and they don't get the full amount back. Works for me!)

Anyway... one of the main things that I'm doing with the uber-cheap materials I'm picking up is going to strongly affect my Private Bank's gold stocks, but not in the way many players think about: I'm getting materials that allow my leveling characters to level faster without having to purchase materials at Realm Average rates in the Auction House, and therefore are saving time AND money.

(Plus, there are left-overs that I sell for straight cash, or processed materials that I sell because I have no personal use for them on any of my own toons, but I know are valuable to someone - I'll talk about those in future entries)

But - Does It Count As Savings?

Truthfully tho, I guess I should ask your opinion, dear reader:

If I'm making savings on items I wouldn't have bought in the first place, am I truly saving money?

But wait! That's not the only consideration! What if I added in that because of the items I'm able to create at this reduced rate, my lowbies are able to advance more quickly, with less down time?

So, without the cheap access to materials, I wouldn't have turned to the expensive Auction House ones to ensure I was as stocked as I am now. I wouldn't have collected the mats by farming, either, because I only believe in "incidental farming". And the result would have been more down time, more bandaging, more sitting and drinking, more running back after death - and definitely more expense when I finally broke down to buy the materials required to make things super easy.

So, what do you think, folks - does it count as savings, or not?

Related posts:

1. How To Profit From The Darkmoon Faire
2. The Darkmoon Faire Is Coming To Town
3. WoW Addon Review: Reagent Restocker

I have no fear of falling - it's the sudden stop at the end that worries me.

I'm sure I'm not the first person to make this statement, so if you'd like, you can associate the above quote to "Unknown", or "Anonymous". Whatever happens, it's the truth, no matter who first assembled the words in that particular order.

Falling In Game? Commonplace

One thing that is markedly different in how I operate In Real Life and how I operate In-Game comes in the form of how I travel from place to place.

In Real Life, I'm no longer light and nimble like the 10 year old who loved to climb stacks of 2-by-4s and 2-by-6s in the lumber yard while waiting for Dad to finish pushing the loads in and out of the dry kiln on the weekend.

Achievement: Going Down?

And I'm not really sure that I'm all that interested in jumping off of the high dive at the Olympic-class pools I go to on occasion anymore, either. (Doing it in Grade 6/age 10 earned me huge respect of a few bullies for years, it was worth it back then)

But in game, I'm constantly jumping or running off of cliffs and roads and buildings and whatever else is in front of me. For the most part, I don't die.

Sometimes, I even get an Achievement for my boldness!

About The "Going Down?" Achivement

The "Going Down?" Achievement requires a player to fall 65 yards without dying.

If you're a Mage or a Priest you might immediately think about Slow Fall or Levitate as your "secret weapon" to getting the achievement without the worry of death, but unfortunately - that doesn't work.

If you're a Paladin, however, you'll find that your Pally Bubble DOES indeed work with this achievement. I found it out by mistake when I jumped off at Thunder Bluff heading towards the Darkmoon Faire grounds in Mulgore - I bubbled right before I landed and got the achievement. I'm pretty sure I would have died had I not bubbled in time.

Where To Safely Do The "Going Down?" Achievement

Isle of Quel'Danas Inn Rooftop

I personally was on the Isle of Quel'Danas at the very top of the building that the Innkeeper resides in, and i jumped off of the roof to get to the ground (and flight path) quickly. I'd now recommend people run off the edge while mounted instead of just on foot, because the extra speed will help put you past the spiral ramp that brings you to the top of the building originally.

Others have recommended the Scryer's Tier in Shattrath City - but I'm not sure if they meant at the elevator or not, as I haven't tested that spot myself (can anyone confirm?)

I'd imagine there are some great places for this achievement in the battlegrounds - with my love for Levitating or Slow Falling from the Lumber Mill to the Blacksmith and from the BS road to the Mines I'm sure there's got to be a spot or two I don't know about.

Where's Your Favorite Spot For Jumping But Not Dying?

The key to this achievement is to jump a long way down, but not die.

But nearly die (unless pally bubbled). Just not die.

Where's your favorite place to take a big long jump yet survive at the end?

Related posts:

1. Achievement: For The Horde! Off Night Raids
2. How To Get Into PUG Raids Without An Achievement
3. Suicide from Netherwing Ledge

I have to say, I'm loving this Bind on Account gear that has been released into the game with this expansion pack.

Not only is it ugly as anything I've ever seen before in some cases (and yes, that's of value to me), but it goes a long, long way towards reducing the pain of hunting out gear upgrades every 10 levels like I used to do.

I know it's been out a while, but the fact that the weapon, both trinkets, plus the chest and shoulder pieces that I slapped on this character before she hit level 20 will last me all the way to level 80, and possibly even 85 when Cataclysm comes out.

That's a huge load off of an alt-o-holic leveler's mind. There are, after all, at least six other children in this online toon family I'm maintaining, and therefore anything that can cut out a lot of worry for a lot of levels is deemed "good" - nay, "Excellent".

Lowbie Locklier Looking Lovely

Orc Warlock Mid Cast

I mean, they all look so alluringly innocent and pure! And their dance is so delicate and again - alluringly innocent! (*wipes sarcasm from chin*)

I've got two Orc toons now, but this one is the only one I'm actively playing. The other one is currently Guildmaster of my Guild of One and I only log into her to perform gem transmutes and to move large quantities of money around (ie: anything over 1000g or so).

Since I played my Orc Rogue up to the level 65 that she's at, not much has changed about Orcs - other than the fact that the racial ability is much more use-friendly in group situations. Didn't the old ability increase damage taken and dealt but then reduce healing taken? Now the racial increases my spellpower by a certain degree for 15 seconds instead.

And yes, I use my racial ability all the time on this toon - in fact, on my Trolls and on this Orc I have the racial ability stacked with one of my commonly-cast spells so I'm using the racial whenever it comes off of cooldown.

A 30 Warlock's Dream Of Summoning...er, Raiding

My Wee Warlock recently hit level 30, thanks to some renewed vigor towards getting a Warlock up to raiding levels.

You see, I'm not sure what your realm is like, but our realm's raid PUGs (and even our own guild group) face a pretty regular lack of two classes: Warlocks and Shaman. I don't know why, but if there's a Warlock or Shaman available in a 25 player PUG raid, there's usually only one or at the most two, and a lot of time the Raid Leader has to search specifically for those classes in order to get them in-raid.

Druids and Mages seem pretty scarce as well, but not to the same degree. (Good, because I'm waiting until I can be a Goblin Druid, nice and small)

Of course, with my Warlock only at level 30, I know there's a long ways to go before I could ever think about raiding with her. In fact, with the way I level characters (mostly using rest bonus) it's unlikely she'll even raid during this expansion at all.

Yet I still look forward to the future of being a big strong Warlock able to solo things 15 times my size just like some of the other Warlock WoW Bloggers out there :)

Feeling The 30s Crunch

Right now I'm kind of struggling in my advancement, however - the quests I pick up tend to be 5 levels lower than I am, or to spread out way beyond belief, or 4-5 levels above where I am.

Locklier And Her Blueberry

I'm thinking it might be time to trade some dungeon run-through favors with my friends... so I paid it forward the other day by helping out one of my regular dungeon-trade friends with his 36 Warlock - running him through Razorfen Downs and then all four wings of the Scarlet Monestary using my 70 Death Knight.

I might also jump into some regular dungeon PUGs soon with this character - I did a few at the RFC/Wailing Caverns level but then have been just questing since then.

My Warlock Leveling Spec Questions

Right now I'm stacking my points seriously into Demonology to support my Voidwalker's uberness as a blueberry tank, and that works great for solo questing, but my actual DPS when I don't have my Voidwalker doing damage is quite pathetic.

At what point should I think about switching some of my points more towards a different spec?

And if I were to dual spec at 40 (which is the earliest level one can dual spec I believe) to have a solo spec and a dungeoning spec, would I be better to go with Affliction or Destruction at a low level?

Related posts:

1. Cranking The Shaman Up To 80
2. WoW Warlock Tips: Soulstone Etiquette – Who, When, Why
3. Leveling The Frost Mage To 80, AOE Farming

The Darkmoon Faire is currently in Thunder Bluff, and I don't know about you, but I'm taking advantage of its vendors to gather some pretty serious stocks of various things that are going to either save me a bunch of gold, or earn me a bunch!

About The Darkmoon Faire

The Darkmoon Faire is a carnival that tours around the lands of World of Warcraft. It's set up for one week at a time, and rotates around between consistent spots in Elwynn Forest, Terrokar Forest, and Mulgore.

Blue by the Darkmoon Cannoneer

Like regular carnivals, this Faire isn't always going on - sometimes they're dismantling after having been there for a week, sometimes they're just getting set up. Other times they're mysteriously absent from the lands and one can only assume they're slowly making their way to the next Faire ground.

You can find out whether the Faire is in town by looking at your in-game Calendar. It tends to start on a Sunday and end on a Saturday, and runs about once a month.

What Good Is The Darkmoon Faire?

To me, the only remaining use of the Darkmoon Faire is its profit potential.

It used to be that you had to wait for the Darkmoon Faire to come to town in order to turn in your various "trinket decks" like the one I hunted down for my Priest when she was level 70, but with the change from BoP to BoE of those trinkets, most players can turn to the Auction House to get what they need.

Of course, if you're one of those Achievement buffs who is looking for another faction to advance to Exalted, Darkmoon Faire is a great outlet - lots of turn-ins you can do for reputation, and even some valuable tie-ins for Inscriptionists who love reputation, or just those who love money.

Profit Potentials Disclaimer

Of course, before I tell you my deepest, darkest Darkmoon Faire secrets, I have to give a bit of a disclaimer:

Profits that you make based upon Darkmoon Faire items, or any other items with profit potential, are dependent almost completely upon the market forces in play at the time you try to make your profits.

That is, it takes a bit of time and experience and the application of common sense to make the most profit out of anything that you buy/farm and resell, and the more experience you gather and common sense facts you come to understand, the more profit you'll be able to make.

Darkmoon Faire Vendors To Profit From

Flik the Darkmoon Faire Vendor

The first one is a slick little guy by the name of Flik who looks like a little orc orphan running around after his pet frog.

He's a little difficult to stop from running around, but once that click lands and the vendor window opens for just a second, you're good to go.

The vendor window always closes for me because Flik runs out of range initially, but it's not long before he's stopped running.

He doesn't stay stopped for long, however, so when he stops, be sure to open the vendor window again right away, and do your business quickly.

Flik sells:

• Tree Frog Box

• Wood Frog Box
• Heavy Leather Ball

All three can be sold for profit on the Auction House. Even the stupid useless ball tends to sell for quite a profit with its low 20c per ball purchase price.

The second and third vendor are standing side by side - Lhara and Professor Thaddeus Paleo.

These vendors sell various items like herbs, scrolls, motes, crystallized eternals, leathers and more. While not everything they sell is profitable, most of it certainly is if you sell when the market supply is already low.

What Ways Does The Darkmoon Faire Save/Earn You Money?

I'd love to hear from you about your experiences with the Darkmoon Faire and its various festivities and items available for purchase.

Have you found ways to make profit that I haven't mentioned above?

Have you found ways to save money you'd spend elsewhere that you'd like to share?

I'd love to hear from you!

Related posts:

1. One Key Way I’m Profiting From The Darkmoon Faire
2. The Darkmoon Faire Is Coming To Town
3. When To Buy Equipment From Vendors

Shrimp's Personal Mole Machine

Admittedly, I don't love it enough to get the cards from the WoW card game, nor do I love them enough to actually venture over to eBay to purchase the specific cards needed to get the specific pets, but that's because of my general philosophy of "beyond buying the game and renting the server usage each month, games shouldn't cost real life money".

And I also don't love the pets enough to buy Collector's Editions of the various expansion packs of WoW as they come out.

And I certainly didn't love to collect them when they took up precious bank space! But now that they and Mounts are stored differently, I'm just a plain ol' available-to-common-players pet and mount collector in World of Warcraft, and that suits me just fine.

Getting Pets For The Entire Family

Some pets are easy to get for your entire toon family.

If they're sold by a vendor and aren't items with a limited supply, then it's easy - with enough cash - to buy as many pets as required for every toon you have:

• Prairie Dog Whistle

• Ancona Chicken
• Brown Snake

And of course ones that are dropped but are Bind on Equip and therefore sell for a pretty penny in the Auction House:

• Captured Firefly

• Cat Carrier: Black Tabby
• Dark Whelpling

Some pets require a certain level of reputation or the completion of a quest, and therefore, not easy to collect on every toon that you currently have, unless they're all the same level, and that level is high:

• Miniwing

• [Tiny Sporebat]
• [Nether Ray Fry]

And then there are pets that come from quests but are super easy to do on any toon of any level, once you have the components required to do the turn-in for completing the quest.

This post is about how your Direbrew's Remote from Brewfest is the key to getting the components required for a unique frog pet that is only something you can pick up when the Darkmoon Faire is in town.

About The Direbrew's Remote

The Direbrew's Remote is a Bind on Pickup device that players were able to pick up during the Brewfest celebrations both this recent year, and the year before. It was a rare drop from the "Brewboss", Coren Direbrew, just like the [Great Brewfest Kodo] and [Swift Brewfest Ram] have been for the past couple of seasons.

As I noted in a previous entry about the social dynamics in play during the Brewfest Brewboss event, if you were below level 75 and didn't have some good friends to help out, you probably don't have the Remote yourself, but ask around - there are a lot floating out there now.

I was lucky enough to get the Direbrew's Remote on my Priest this year after picking it up on my Mage last year, and when the Darkmoon Faire came to town this time, I made use of my new contraption!

Shrimpy and Plugger Spazzrig

Direbrew Destinations

For those unfamiliar, the Direbrew's Remote is what summons those strange Personal Mole Machines (like at the top of this entry) that you saw in strange places during the Brewfest event.

The machines allow anyone in the same party as the owner of the Remote to hitch a ride via this Iron Dwarven invention, and it takes you straight into the Grim Guzzler (aka "The Bar") in Blackrock Depths.

Once you're in the bar, you can venture out of the alcove you land in (Coren Direbrew is in that alcove with you during the Brewfest celebrations) and up the stairs to your left at the end of the room. At the top of the stairs head to your left again, and walk nearly to the end of the room.

Outside of the alcove in front of you, to your left, is where the bartender for this alcohol establishment is pacing around. He's actually walking around on top of his own bar, and his name is Plugger Spazzring.

What To Buy, Where To Turn It In

Plugger is a vendor with food and drink stocks for sale. You want to buy his Dark Iron Ale Mugs - two for every character that wants the companion pet. He only sells 10, so that means per trip, you can get pets for 5 of your toons.

Extra Achievements Tip: If you haven't completed the Tastes Like Chicken and It's Happy Hour Somewhere achievements, this is a great place to get some new foods and drinks to get your numbers up!

Levitating Into Darkmoon Faire

Now you need to go to the Darkmoon Faire grounds, where ever they may be at the current time. Check the in-game calendar to find out when it's on next, and what zone you need to search in order to find it.

Once you're at the Darkmoon Faire grounds, look for an NPC by the name of Morja.

She's an Orc that can be found where I've X'd and Circled on the picture nearby - note that she's in an area that's away from the crowd, away from any type of vendors. If you're having troubles finding her, go where the vendors aren't ;)

Once you're beside her, take your first Dark Iron Ale Mug and set it on the ground by right clicking the mug and then left clicking the ground nearby (you should have a green circle if you do it right). Then, wait.

Who Knew Frogs Liked Beer??!

Apparently, Morja has lost her darling pet Jubjub, and her darling Jubjub is a boozer who absolutely adores Dark Iron Ale.

Adores it so much in fact that once you put that mug of Ale down on the ground, Jubjub smelled it from however far away it was, and if you wait long enough (sometimes about 45 seconds) that little thing will hop its way to wherever you put the Ale down.

If you're close enough to Morja, she'll activate with a blue quest question mark, where she'll ask you for another mug of ale for keeping her Jubjub happy.

You give her the second mug of ale, and to thank you, she hands you an Unhatched Jubling Egg.

In seven days time, the egg will hatch, leaving you with a special pet and memory of your Darkmoon Faire adventures!

Related posts:

1. Under 77? Number One Thing To Avoid in Brewfest 2009
2. Brewfest 2009: Top 5 Things For Players Under 77
3. Bugged "Chug And Chuck" Allows Iron Dwarves To Run Rampant

As of the time of this posting, my main character - an Undead Discipline Priest - has 4695 achievement points.

Shrimproll's Achievement Summary

Personally, I think it's a pretty decent number of achievement points, but I know if I reviewed the folks in my raid team I'd find that I've only got an average number of points.

Who's got the most in our guild? I think it's the Pally Tank with 7780 achievement points as of today's posting, but I didn't go through every guildmate to be sure.

Shrimproll's Current Achievement Goals

These days I'm working on the Classic Dungeonmaster achievement, with a side of Lil' Game Hunter.

Classic Dungeonmaster has me going through all of the Azeroth 5-man dungeons and defeating the final bosses, whereas the Lil' Game Hunter achievement has me collecting 75 non-combat companion pets.

To note, both my other 80s have already gotten the Classic Dungeonmaster achievements - being DPS it was easy for me to solo all of the bosses and instances required for the task. But until recently, I hadn't done much as a DPS spec on my Priest, and therefore had avoided many of the dungeon achievements I hadn't gotten through normal play.

But recently I decided to drop my Holy off-spec (Disc being my main spec) and pick up Shadow. And what better place to practice the absolute basics of Shadow Priesty spells and abilities than low level dungeons where nothing could hurt me?!

Classic Dungeonmaster Progress

Partway through September 2009, I decided to nail down all the Classic Dungeonmaster achievements because it seems to me that those dungeons are going to change come the Cataclysm expansion, and it's probably a good idea to get the achievements done now.

Plus, this toon has a decent number of Raid achievements but isn't terribly well-rounded when it comes to the rest of the Achievements available to do out there. (I blame it on the alt-o-holism)

So I looked at my list, and started from the easiest that was undone - Wailing Caverns - and worked up from there.

Travelling Vendors Rock!

I still made hundreds of gold with very little effort, and even got a few Bind on Equip blue/rare drops that earned 50-100g just by themselves!!

Wailing Caverns, Shadowfang Keep, Deadmines, Blackfathom Deeps, Scarlet Monestary, Blackrock Depths, Gnomeregon, and the Stormwind Stockades I did by myself over the period of three different days when time allowed.

Then, I started to turn to my friends to see who else needed these achievements. This resulted in me running one of my friends' alts through Zul'Farrak to get us both the achievement, and then later that same friend joined me on his level 80 to make quick work of nailing down the three wings of Dire Maul.

Now, the only ones left to do are Lower Blackrock Spire, Scholomance and Stratholme.

I finished up the Scholomance key (Skeleton Key) quest chain after we finished up Dire Maul, and as a bonus got The Keymaster achievement, too!

Lil' Game Hunter Progress

I love pets. Pets are a lot of fun. Pets entertain me when I am bored. In game, and out.

Shrimproll currently has 65 unique companion pets, plus an Unhatched Jubling Egg which I got from the Darkmoon Faire carnie and is due to hatch in just over 6 days into another pet to add to my collection.

Enchanted Broom Companion Pet

If you're still approaching the 50 pet marker, you'll be looking forward to a [Reeking Pet Carrier] which of course encases Stinky the skunk pet who has a special relationship with black and bombay cats.

It looks like it'll be quite a bit of luck in farming, money to pay others who have had luck in farming, and time in order to get to the 75 pet marker. All of the pets I can buy from vendors are purchased, and I'm not a big fan of the Tournament dailies... so that leaves watching the Auction House and trying to farm for occasional pets on my own.

That is, once I get the Worg and Spider pets from Lower Blackrock Spire.

When's Children's Week again?? :) :)

What Achievements Are You Working On?

I'd love to hear from you, especially if you're a fellow WoW blogger - I'm looking for new links to populate my Links page!

What achievements are you working on, and how many points do you have on your highest-achieved toon?

Related posts:

1. How To Use Your Direbrew’s Remote To Get A Companion Pet
2. How Children's Week Can Help Get You A Stinker
3. Farming Wailing Caverns, Flailing Around in Blackrock Depths