Farewell, Azeroth!

Finally, after 9 days /played and a gruesome battle against Altaholism, Shorsha hit 60 in Hellfire. Yeap, she finally got to Outland, and thankfully, still prot specced. After going through Azeroth contents god knows how many times, it's wonderfully refreshing to see a new one, and yesterday I demonstrated it by running around doing quests with much enthusiasm, something I hardly ever did while leveling 1-58. Thanks to the awesome green quest rewards. I just can't wait to see more plates! It's astounding, 2 levels after going through the portal, and my hp jumped from 4.3k to 5k, and mana from 2.6k to 3.3k. Plus, Shorsha gets to look A LOT better in her matching grey set, as opposed to the stupid blue leggings (no, not blue as in rare item, but blue as in blindingly sparkly blue color) she'd been sporting around Azeroth for quite a while with much shame.

Not all my Azeroth items went to the vendor, though. As my best friend through thick and thin, death and near deaths for 14 levels, I have proudly retired my Wall of the Dead into my bank. It did cost 150g after all - an amazing amount for a level 45 that I was. Now I proudly sport a landslide buckler to aid me in leveling.

On the other hand, I took a break from questing and began raising my first aid skill. It took around 2 hours to raise it from 60ish to 290. It freed a lot of bank space, and I get to sell all the left over cloth after that (20 stacks of silk? Ergh). Now I won't have any problem bubbling when my mana runs low.

Short-term goals:
- Get to 70.
- Do the epic charger quest. (200g to go.)
- Be proficient in one-hand mace.
- Stop hitting myself for not rolling a male BE.
- Stop littering my account with countless level 1 alts just because I like creating characters.
- Stop ogling over any male BE I come across.
- Just... stop this obsession for male BEs.

P.S Happy new year and (late) Christmas, and thanks to Slash for his one-man welcoming party to outland. I get to see how ugly your mount is :P

Starting the AoE Grind

I've been referring to this post on the basics on how to AoE grind. I've actually tried it as soon as I ding'ed 35, but without reckoning at that level, my health was quite insufficient against more than 3 mobs, so I forgot about that for a while. After instancing and thinking, "Okay. drinking after every pull is ghei. Time to manage mana," I suddenly remembered my seal of light and seal of wisdom, so there I was, in my 3-man RFD (see previous post), juggling between Judgements, SoL, SoW, consecration, holy shield, and trying darn hard to hold threat with the goal of finishing the fight with full mana. If I consetrated enough, I could tank with no downtime, but I've learned that in order to achieve that, I had to pay with occasionally straying mobs. Having a warrior dual wielding fiery weapons didn't help at all. I'll try more of that later in a non-twink group.

In order to practice management of mana and health, I began trying to quest while AoE grinding in STV. So I would except a quest, get to the area, and immediately run around to collect mobs. I'm listing all the steps I go through while AoE grinding:

1. Prop SoL.


2. If mobs are spaced out, run around and hope they won't lose aggro while you collect 'em. 3+ preferred.


3. Judge SoL on one, prop it back up.


4. Consecration. I find that I can't do this more than once and going out of the fight with satisfying amount of mana.


5. I usually holy shield once or twice; low amount of mana required, good if you're taking extra damage or like to see the yellows flying up. I know I do. I take screenies just because of yellows sometimes. Oh hell yea, baby.


6. Wait... wait... till SoL runs out. If mana is running low, I judge SoL and prop SoW up.


7. Repeat.

Killing was painfully, painfully slow, and I was actually thinking of getting a book to read, but y'know, surviving is 1/3 of the challenge (oh we will survive). The other 2/3 is ending the fight with full mana and health. First few times I had 'FAILZ' on my mind, as I was in a constant near death, or survived with full health but low mana, or vice versa. As lately I've been getting better and better, and unless I get really lazy and just want to kill things fast, I end up with zero to no grinding time. Except rounding up all those mobs together. Right now I can survive on up to 8, guts too small to try more.

I told my guildie how much I enjoyed AoE grinding, and he said that his pally survived a fight with King Bangalash and 2 adds with 75% mana. So I thought that maybe I could do it, and decided to do it. And oh hey, I survived with almost full health and certainly full mana, with healings from SoL only. I would've never dreamt of doing this with my rogue or druid (latter due to laaaag). But then again, I was always a crap dpser anyways (or if they can, maybe I'm just a crap leatherwearer in general). Took me around 2 minutes to kill King B, but in the end I was a happy pally who has shed that lie down and die motto.

I want a prettier UI. Funny how I can take so much, but then immediately hit bubble when ganked by 2 casters.

Edit: I don't know why Shor's pic on the left looks awfully pixelated and stretched out, but eh, too lazy to correct. You can marvel at her matching set anyhow.