I’ll have to take a look after work, Quasi. They block game sites here.
I saw it last night 
Excellent recap!
I think the only quest item I am currently wearing on my ret pally is Thrall’s Gratitude…the rest are mostly from the new 5mans and a couple from DS, plus other purchased items with valor points. We should do more guild 5mans on Mondays so you can catch up on the Ret Gear (although we really do need a Holy Pally since Keyne is gone), but I wouldn’t compete with you on any strength plate or dps sword since I have all the items already (except for the Rosary of Light trinket which we will both Need on). Not sure what Kal needs though if he is in the 5man.
Cool! You namechecked Jaejae on WoW Insider! 
I don’t know what that means (“namechecked”), but of course I would name your toon correctly, jayjay! You two have been just terrific, and I still think y’all held back so Wolkie could make Champion!
You both are just too great a player to have done otherwise, and it sure gives me a boost when I see Wolkie’s name above his head with “Champion” added!
Thanks for everything you help us with!
Quasi
“Namechecked” just means you mentioned us by name in public conversation. Though it usually means mentioning somebody famous/important in order to make yourself look more impressive, like so:
“So I was at this great party last weekend at Chuck Norris’s house, when …”
I just discovered a neat trick for characters leveling in Northrend, if you’ve managed to get to level 76 (I think) without questing in Sholazar Basin (like my nelf priest, who went from 68-79 by going Howling Fjord -> Grizzly Hills -> Icecrown). So let’s say you get the Ghostfish fishing daily or you need some Rhino Meat for the Mustard Dogs cooking daily:
-
Speak with Archmage Pentarus at Krasus’ Landing
-
Accept his quest, “Where in the World is Hemet Nesingwary?”
-
Speak to him again and he will put you on a flying machine and send you through a portal directly to Sholazar
-
Wait through the short “cinematic” after you arrive
-
After your plane crashes, abandon the quest
Do this each time you need to get from Dalaran to Sholazar. Sure, you have to sit through the little “cinematic”, and you still have to fly back, but it’s still quicker than flying both directions
And they have seriously reduced the XP requirements (or boosted the rewards) to speed up NR leveling. This priest dinged level 79 while collecting the materials to build the tower at Crusader’s Pinnacle in Icecrown, then got 51% of the way to 80 by turning in those quests, defending the Argent Crusade banner at the Pinnacle, and then completing the Crusader Bridenbrand quest chain.
OTOH, I had to deal with a major bug that was preventing me from getting out of combat, and it was really starting to tick me off. While doing that “The Air Stands Still” quest (where you have to kill the three elite undead bosses at Scourgeholme), I’d kill each boss and then would still be “in combat”. The only way to get out of combat was to go through the portal left behind by the DK’s you can summon to help you with the bosses. So it was kill the boss, go through the portal back to the Argent Vanguard, eat and drink, fly back to Scourgeholme, kill the next boss, repeat.
Then I accepted the quests to gather the building materials from the Unbound Thicket in Crystalsong, and once again I simply would not come out of combat between fights, despite there being no mobs anywhere near me. This wouldn’t have been too much of a problem on a melee toon or a hunter, but on a caster, it was ridiculous. Health doesn’t regenerate while “in combat”, and mana regeneration is slower “in combat”. The only reason I got through it without punching my screen was that I leveled up while doing it, which topped off my health and mana. Of course, I still needed to turn the quests in, and I didn’t want to run all the way back to the questgivers in a whole different zone, so I hearthed … back to Amberpine Lodge in Grizzly Hills, then took a taxi all the way back to the Argent Vanguard in Icecrown. It was ridiculous.
I’m pretty much all at level 378 or higher for both my Retribution and Protection specs at this point. Archbishop Benedictus in the Hour of Twilight drops a level 378 sword that would be an upgrade for my tanking spec (I lost the Need roll the one time it dropped for my group), but other than that I don’t think there are any upgrades I need from the new 5-mans.
I do have Alchemist stones equipped in one of my Trinket slots for each spec, I haven’t decided if I want to replace them with a higher-level trinket or not (they’re level 359). I also am ‘only’ wearing level 365 boots in my Protection spec, so if something better dropped I’d probably Need on that as well.
Will anyone be on tomorrow night for our guild 5-mans? I know it’s a holiday and all, but I plan to be on.
Well, it was Kal, Makig and Yeti, and we decided to do a Dragon Soul LFR with all the left-over scrubs who didn’t do it for the week until last night. We struggled against Ultraxion 4 or 5 times (Kal had to leave before we took that Dragon down), where I won the roll for the Breathstealer Band. Then I picked up the Backbreaker Spaulders from the Deathwing’s Spine fight…very nice shoulders for a Ret Pally. And on the final Deathwing fight, TWO Gurthalak, Voice of the Deeps came up in the loot, but alas, I lost both rolls on those tasty morsels. Still happy that I got two nice upgrades…three would have been scandelous…but, I think I would have managed…
Makig won a roll on something, but I don’t see it on his toon yet…
Found it… Wrath of Unchaining.
I’ll be on tonight, guildies if you have time. Almost got all my First Aid done…
Q
PS: Quick question: Transmogrification of armor. Is there a strength benefit, or just for looks?
Never done Transmog before, but I think it’s just for looks, with the same stats as your best piece of armor used in the process.
Are you going to be on Cairne, or on Alexstraza?
No effect on stats. It just copies the appearance of one piece of armor onto another piece of armor.
Transmog is purely cosmetic. Of course, “cosmetic” includes such things as sound effects. I know a lot of hunters who transmog guns into bows because bows are quiet.
I go the other way. I have a Lava Bolt Crossbow, but I transmogged it to look and sound like a Nesingwary 4000*, because my roleplaying conceit is that my Orc hunter grew up among Dwarves for part of his callow youth and and prefers firearms.
*for now. I will win a Wolfslayer Sniper Rifle some day, and that’s what I’ll ultimately transmog my ranged weapon into. Always.
For the time being, my nelf hunter is transmogging the ranged weapons he gets into Sporeshot, a cool-looking bow you get as a quest reward in Deepholm. My troll hunter will probably do the same. My dwarf hunter, meanwhile, transmogs to guns, and my rarely-played human hunter will 'mog to crossbows.
Yeti, I’ll start in Alex till about 9 ET, then move to Cairne, afterward.
Thanks for transmog info, guys. Too bad I can’t put it on Silka! 
Q
PS: Rik, you have 20 fathom eels waitin’
Ah, that dreaded 3 hour time zone difference…I won’t be getting home until after 7pm tonight (Pacific), eat dinner, dishes, fix the printer installation on the wife’s new computer and may get on by 9 or 10pm…Pacific.
I did make a new character on Alex with my namesake…I’ll whisper when I’m in there…
New post-it on my screen: NO EATING DURING FLIGHT!!!
smack:
Q
If you can’t find Wolkenlaufre on, you can try me (Nouveus) or jayjay (Jaejae). We can shoot you an invite as well.
On Cairne, because the Quasimodem Belf was created a ways back (when they didn’t get pets right away) and because all the writing on my screen runs together. I rolled a new Quasi, so he’s going to be just out of the gate again).
Yeti, thanks for rolling a new toon and yeah, please give us a yell when you can spare some time, and meanwhile I’ll holler when I’m working with Quasi on Cairne.
I just hate that he’s gonna be riding that mechano strider. (ouch-ouch-ouch-ouch-ouch!) I’d sooner he rode a cow. I hate those things! 
Thanks
Q
“Vrykul Bones”: I have 133. Do I need the fate runes that the witch gives me. I haven’t tried it yet, because I thought it was a Halloween thing, but I’m still getting them.
What should I do, y’all?
Thanks
Q