Mister Smith

Our primary goal now is to get enough cash together so that we can get our epic flying mounts and have a decent pile of cash left over. In aiming for that we've been running quests, including the Dalaran daily cooking and fishing quests (although the fishing doesn't actually pay any money, as I noticed the other day) and spending time running around various areas mining and skinning (me) and gathering herbs (Kate) to have stuff to put on auction.

A couple of days ago I decided on a new course; I dumped the skinning profession completely and started learning blacksmithing instead. Since there's nowhere in the world we can't go, and my mining skill is maxed so there's nothing I can't mine, learning smithing shouldn't really be a problem.

I started at level 1 two days ago and on the first day I was able to push the skill all the way through to 261. Great going, I thought. Things slowed down toward the end because I needed a lot of mithril, so I had to spend long periods out in the field mining. At the end I got my first thorium-based patterns, which I thought would help because in general I've found it easier to find thorium in relatively large quantities.

So yesterday I went out with a goal of gathering one hundred and eleven thorium bars (I needed fourteen points to push from 261 to Master level at 275; eight bars per point assuming I can make thorium belts and bracers all the way to that point; less one because I had one bar in stock). It didn't work out and I suspect other players were out in the same areas grabbing all the thorium. I did two passes of the Eastern Plaguelands - one of the best areas for thorium - as well as one of the eastern end of the Western Plaguelands and one of Winterspring, and only found enough to make forty-nine bars, less than half my target. Which meant that I was only able to add six points, bringing me to 267. I have two smithing plans that I can learn at 270, which should help, but I'm going to need another twenty-four bars to reach that point.

So I guess the plan for today is the same; I need those twenty-four to start with then probably another forty to get me to Master level. Winterspring was disappointing and I probably won't waste my time there this go around; I'll stick with the Eastern Plaguelands.

LEVEL 80!

It happened a few days ago, but I haven't had time to write about it here, and even now I only have a few minutes.

One night, when it was almost time to pack in, Kate hit level 80 after a fairly long session questing in the area around K3 (I was in Zul'Drak, doing quest after quest there). I was just about 20,000 points behind - just one quest would be enough to tip it over.

The first thing we did next day was the Dalaran cooking and fishing dailies. The cooking quest got me around 16,000 XP; the fishing quest was the one that tipped it over, so I hit level 80 while standing next to the Dalaran fishing trainer.

We immediately went back to Ironforge for training. Since then, for the last few days, we've been pushing to make as much money as possible. We both want epic flying mounts and it's going to cost us 5000+ gold; at the moment we both have something over 4000. I've been mining saronite and (when I can find it) titanium all around the Sholazar Basin; the saronite's been going for auction and the titanium is making titansteel bars - I can only make one every twenty hours but they sell for around 70 gold each. So far I've built up a stack of six and I'm not planning on selling them off until I have a full twenty, which should be worth something over 1,300 gold and will give me enough to be able to get that epic flyer and have some cash left over.

Sick Time

We didn't play at all for a few days because Kate wasn't feeling well, and in any case I had a few rough days at work and really wasn't up to staying up late.

We just got back into things yesterday and hammered a stack of quests. We started off by doing the cooking and fishing dailies in Dalaran - the cooking quest meant taking the crystal portal down to Crystalsong Forest and finding a few wild carrots, then back to Dalaran to cook them with some chilled meat to make stew. Easy. The fishing quest involved a quick trip out to Unu'pe to fish for Monsterbelly, in particular a bloated monsterbelly that had swallowed someone's arm, then take said arm back to Dalaran.

With those done we decided to have a bash at the Reclamation quest in Sholazar - the one that my work colleague said he couldn't solo. He was probably right. Taking control of the Etymidian (a huge robot-like thing) you have to dispose of 200 undead enemies, which is actually much easier than it sounds. That done there are then three level 80 elites to take down. Two of them are tough, but not impossible. The third is a sod. I think we got wiped twice, maybe three times, before we got the timing right and Kate was able to take him down.

That was the last of the quests in Sholazar and we headed east, finishing off one very easy level 71 quest. It gave us so few points that we decided to move on to better things; we went to Wintergarde Keep, where there were at least eight or ten quests to take care of - some in the mine nearby and some in the town downhill below the keep.

The mine quests involved locating someone, mining Strange Ore and knocking down baddies to find some kind of cards they were carrying. The ones in the town meant flying down to the Carrion Fields and rescuing the villagers, taking them back to the flight point in the keep; knocking down ghouls, freeing villagers and more.

The quests gave us enough XP to push us to level 79 and a little way toward level 80, and there are still more quests out there for us to clear up. In addition a couple of the quests will take us out to Stars' Rest, so I think the plan will be to finish up the Wintergarde quests then head out to Stars' Rest and take care of those. After that we have some outstanding quests in the Storm Hills; between all those I expect we should get enough XP to get most of the way to level 80.