Last post....of 2009!

With my posting frequency this year I this will be my last post for the year. Not going to be too much different from the others. Unlike Pike, went had a very neat end of the year post reviewing highlights from each month. It was a very fun read and you should check it out if you haven't already.

A lot has happened since I last posted, were I touched on some of my preparations for 3.3. I'm happy to say that my investment in the Borean Leathers was a very nice one. Between the borean leathers, transmutes, and herbs I was able to pad my bank with plenty of gold. I think I made about 9k gold in the two days after the patch. That has been a nice boost to helping my gear out my shaman for running some heroics.

For some reason after the patch I started messing with my dwarf hunter again. Well this really excited me and made me realize how much I liked playing on the Alliance side. One thing lead to another and getting ganked a few times in Wintergrasp by them Horde dogs, lead me to switching my loyalties. The only issue was that I really liked playing my shaman. So it happened. I treated myself to a race change on my troll shaman to becoming a BIG BLUE BAD ARSE DRAENEI! His new name is Boozjha. I must say that the draenei aliens have never really appealed to me because the are a large race. However the big lugs have started to grow on me. I'm very much enjoying playing it, so much that I may not even race change him to a dwarf when Cataclysm comes out.

I've been having loads of fun with the LFG tool. This is by far the greatest thing that Blizzard has introduced to the game. It has opened up a whole new part of the game that for some reason I have always seemed to avoid. I'm wish now that I would have pursued grouping more intensely all these years. I use to love grouping in Everquest and this patch makes me remember the days of grinding out the LDoNs. Only thing is this is easy. No work required to searching for the group.

I was able to pick up my "the Patient" title and got my Perky Pug as well. Butt rub on the floor FTW! Then sniff it? Blizzard does have a good since of humor. Opening up to this new aspect of the game has also made more aware of some many other things. Mainly GEAR! I really have not paid that much attention to gear over the past years. Sure I realized there was a difference, but I didn't actively go after that gear like I am now. Gear score? Really? Seriously? I was a little offended. Thinking you freaking elitist jerk! I really didn't realize there was that much difference from a heroic and a regular dungeon. I didn't want to run those regulars, they didn't give the emblems each time. The I loaded the Recount addon and saw that I was doing less damage than the tank.

The first thing I did was get over to MMO champion Shaman forums stickies. I also perused the Elitist Jerks class/spec pages. I have them all saved now so I can quickly pull them up when I alt tab. Next thing I did was used some of that gold I made and bought some better gear, enchants, and gems. I even spent some of those long saved pvp honor points and bough a three pieces of the Dreadful Gladiator Gear. Which I was laughed out very quickly, but in my defense it was way better than wearing a green quest item. As of right now I'm still wearing the chest, but I haven't gotten anything to replace it yet in the dungeons. As of now I'm going in the right direction and starting to wrap my mind around this aspect of the game. I still have a ways to go, but I'm getting there. I'd like to get comfortable enough to try a pick up raid, but I'm not going to even try till I have some more pieces upgraded. Namely the blue head piece and pvp chest. I'll be getting the T9 head piece soon as it will be the biggest upgrade.

This biggest thing is learning all the dungeons and different fights. Being that I have a very bad memory (this has really become an issue this year) it is sometimes hard to keep the different encounters straight. I think I'm going to need to pick up a recorder so I can speak and take notes while I'm playing. I simply can't remember all the details once the dungeon is done. Repetition is helping though.

So yeah, the year is almost over with. Where did 2009 go? 2010 will be here soon and gone as well. 8-p

My very thoughtful wife got me a well thought out gift this Christmas. TWO....Count'em....TWO Tankards O Terror. They are freaking huge. I don't look as good as my Draenei weilding these things, but if some one every tries breaking into the house. You can betcha that I'll be grabbing these suckers if the guns are not very close. Yeah, i know there ceramic, but they will still knock you a good one.

She also got me the Horde Stein. I kept wondering why she was asking a week before Christmas "I thought you played FOR the HORDE!" She is awesome and I couldn't ask for anyone better. I hope the rest of you out there had a great holiday this year and please be very safe this weekend. Whatever you do make sure you do it safely. You have all of next year to look forward.

My 3.3 Preparations

I've been reading what lot of others have been doing to get prepared for the 3.3 patch. Compared to some of you my preparations would look like nothing. More of what I've been doing is mostly saving for the Auction House price increases. At least I'm hoping there will be a increase prices where I have made preparations.

Them Thar Hides

About a month ago I started buying up borean leathers and heavy borean leathers for exptremely low prices. When I saw them at 6 gold per stack and lower, I snatched them up. I have one private guild bank tab filled with full stacks of borean leathers. My reasoning for this is that when 3.3 hits Braeg Stoutbeard is supposed to be selling Arctic Furs for 60 Borean Leathers or 10 of the heavy. One of two things will happen. Either borean leathers will jump in price or arctic furs will plummet. Either way I wouldn't be stock piling arctic furs if you have them. Being that I bought my hides at 50 and 60 percent of the market price I'm confident that I can make my coin back. I'm hoping to make a few coins here though.

A herb by any other name is still a herb.

Unless it is a freaking FROST LOTUS! This has been the best reasons for picking up herbalism. I've made more coin on selling these in singles. The past few weeks I've been holding my findings and saving these to post after 3.3. Not just frost lotus though. Any of the herbs needed to make flask and potions. I've aloud myself to sell off 10 percent of my holdings and this week because it is the Darkmoon Fair, but other than that I've been stock piling. With new content coming out people will be needing the mats to make all their consumables.

Daily transmute....what proc?

I wish I could say I've been saving these for the past few weeks, but I haven't. I have been saving them though, but only for about a week now. This character is transmute mastery, but the extra proc hasn't really come through for me in some time. Being that I wasn't selling flask on a massive level, I picked up the transmute spec. It seems to work better for me since most of what I was doing was selling my transmutes. Plus when I can sell the herbs I gather for more than I can sell the flask, it only made since to do so.

There you have it, the meager preparations of lazy gnome/dwarf/troll. After reading about some of your ant-ish labors, I feel like a grasshopper in my endeavors.

On a Pale Horse

So I've reached 80 on my shaman, started messing around more with the battlegrounds, and I'm getting rolled. I thought as soon as I got to 80 I would start doing some more instances, but I haven't had the time to give my undivided attention to a group. It seems I'm constantly having to go afk while online. My last ToC experience really opened my eyes to how poorly geared my character is at this time.

I've been mainly farming wintergrasp for frost lotus and herbs selling those on the AH along with my daily transmute. I did splurge and threw down the coin for two Tankards O' Terror. I got them for 800 gold a piece. This got me to thinking how cool it would be to have a dwarf shaman wielding two of these.

So in steps the newest Boozsha Project. He comes riding in on a pale horse. This beast of a terror rips through mobs like no ones bees wax. He is a unholy terror and strikes fear into the heart of his opponent by his shear size? He is a gnome death knight. This little unholy yoda in plate has a wonderful two hander sword play. I have been cracking up at this little guy, and haven't had this much fun from just watching a characters animation in a long time.

Utimately his main purpose will be my little DK farmer. He has mining and herbalism as his skills, which took pretty much all week and the majority of that time sink was leveling through thorium ore. Oh how I loathe thorium ore. I farmed for it in Tanaris, Un'Goro, and Silithus. Even at 4am those nodes where very scanty. But that is over with and I won't worry about thorium till I need thorium for the dwarf hunter's jewelcraft. Which will be much later.

The focus for now is to get this DK farmer to 80 with his Artisan flying skill and cold weather flying. That way I can farm herbs and ore as quickly as possible. I want to get some gold saved up for the expansion next year and be ready to either level a dwarf shaman or I might spend the money to faction change him over. I haven't decided and it really depends on the activity of my guild on the horde side at the time of expansion.

Once I have him to 80 I'll start working on the dwarf hunters professions, he will be an alchemist/jeweler. I'll start gearing them to do some instances, which I will try out more when 3.3 comes out. In fact I have plans to try and level a gnome or dwarf class in nothing but instances. We will see if getting a lower level instance will be much easier to pick up with the addition servers.

I haven't really decided on a final spec for this little guy, but it really doesn't matter. The main thing he has to have is the On a Pale Horse talent. That 20 percent mount speed is huge right now. I'll most likely do some searches for a pvp oriented specs and try out some battle grounds with him and the Wintergrasp fights. I'll save up the honor and get him some gear that way.