I want to tame one. I don’t know how I missed this… I must have been too focused on playing not to notice these tall slim beauties.
Hey Everyone,
I wonder if anyone still reads this blog? Anyway here is a quick post I made a few months after I became a dad. It was sitting in my recent drafts since October 2012. I did fix it up some.
Here is a short list of what I was able to do when my son was a newborn and some of the things I get to do now, next month he will be 1 years old. Being a dad, working full time, and taking care of my son have deeply cut in to my World of Warcraft time, but playing WoW does not beat hearing my son laugh and watching him learn new things like kissing girls romantically, crawling or learning to stand while holding on to something. I do wish the reputation grinds were a little faster.
I do 5 mans when baby and mommy are sleeping. The new 5 mans take about 30 mins to complete and also give reputation with a faction you choose. You will need a good chunk of uninterrupted time to complete them.Weekday nights after I bathe baby and eat dinner. My cut off time is usually 8:30 pm but some nights I stay up later and get 6 hours of sleep. Remember sometimes your wife will want you to wake up at 2 am and change a diaper or help baby go back to sleep.
Questing and farming when they are awake. That way you can be interrupted without leaving stranded four other players. More importantly you don’t leave your baby’s mom stranded when she calls for help. I usually do this on the weekends.
Auctioneering you can do pretty much in between feedings. Doesn’t take too much time.
When baby naps. Take turns with your baby’s mother. Let mom do something fun while you watch baby, especially if you are the type of parents that don’t want to leave baby alone. It’s your turn to rest, or watch Netflix on your phone, or read digital comics, or read books, you know all that quiet stuff you can do in front of a sleeping baby.
At 90 there is a lot of stuff to do. I recommend leveling alts to 89 if you want them holiday mounts.
If you are having trouble keeping up to date with gearing methods here are a couple of guides that I use:
WoW Insider’s Guide to gearing up alts in MoP
Blizzard’s take on Catching up to 5.3 and 5.3 Escalation Round-up
Reputation grinds are still slow for a guy like me who does not get to play much. Even Ghostcrawler mentioned that MoP was an expansion not meant for alts. I do recommend sticking to one character(your main) for gearing and experiencing new content. For alts I recommend only leveling reputations that are needed for professions. Patch 5.3 does introduce a new title that will only be available for a short time. The title only gets unlocked on that toon so if you want them on your alts please do so.
While I still do enjoy the game, and value all the friendships and relations this WoW community has provided me, I have learned that priorities have shifted and somethings can be put off for a little while… except them holiday mounts.
‘Til next time…
! Guntitan
I came home one day and my brother shows me his new iPod nano. I was totally focused on doing dailies or something and didn’t pay much attention. The next day I was like, “wait Corey how did you get that?” He said, “There’s a defect in the battery and it explodes. Apple is switching them out for free.” I was like what? Then he remembers, “Don’t you have a iPod nano first generation?” I was like, “I do.”
Searched thru my bag and pulled it out. My first iPod ever with a black face and silver back. My only iPod, unless you count an iPhone. It was the first flash drive nano with a color LCD screen. I remember it being small. I remembered what I engraved it with, which is too embarrassing to tell. I charged it up for the first time in years. I knew I had to back it up but was no longer sure what was inside.
I recovered some old work stuff, I looked at all the songs (there were a ton of them), then I discovered some pictures.
The pictures were from my first trip to California back in June 2006. It was first trip ever to Disneyland and I put those pictures there so I would be encouraged to go again. We did. 2 more times after that.
The nano was so innovative when it came out. I remember browsing the web in my friends Chemistry lab at UH Manoa. I remember telling my friend Jhonsen about the nano. Minutes later I applied for the credit card thru Apple. I got approved. I ordered it.
Jhonsen was like, “What? You ordered it? You got approved for your first credit card.” I was like, “Yeah.”
I remember when it came in the mail and how neat the packaging was and how it came with earbuds. I was so happy. It became my study companion during college, my public transportation commute companion when I worked 2 jobs and traveled 4 hours a day, the fricken Nano moved out of my mom’s house with me. I got married and brought it with me to my honey moon. Didn’t have much time to use it though, “cough!”
Then sometime after that, I kept it tucked away in my bag or somewhere near my desktop. It collected dusk. Right before I moved out of my apartment this past year, I remember dusting it off and removing the case. I tucked it in my computer bag and sat in there until about a week ago.
That’s when the memories flooded in…
Thank you Apple you really do care,
Bryan Shon
BTW there are no 4 GB iPod nano’s anymore. I got a capacity upgrade for free. The one pictured above is 8 GB.
I also geeked out and ordered a Lunatik Lynk watch band. These are 50% off from what they used to be priced. Go check it out.
29Jan
You do?
Well here are some secret mystical items that will get your mage up to par with Jaina herself.
During the Cataclysm my world shattered when I created my mage with a Scroll of Resurrection. I did it so I could play with my Horde playing coworkers from my old job. I have recently discovered some of these mystical items and figured I should share these secrets thru my blog.
Here is the list:
Polymorphs
- Turtle – Fished from the fishing pools in the Cataclysm Zones. It’s BOE so you buy it off the AH if you are lazy or already have the Sea Turtle mount. Prices vary by abundance.
- Pig – The Amazing Zanzo a rare NPC who travels around Dalaran can teach you this spell. Now just where did he go?
- Rabbit - During Noblegarden you can purchase this tome from the chocolate vendors for 100 Noblegarden Chocolate. ”That’s candy gone to waste,” says Guntitan. That’s coming from the guy who sleeps with his pets in a crowded stable.
- Black Cat - You would think somewhere somehow this would come from the Hallow’s End world event. It doesn’t. You can buy it from Endora Moorehead in Dalaran. Her shop is called Sisters Sorcerous.
Teleports and Portals
Ancient Tome of Teleport – Dalaran - This ports you to the old location of Dalaran in Hillsbrad. You want it? What are you waiting for? Head to Scarlet Halls. What you can’t solo that on heroic? Run back out and set it to normal. Now go one shot everything. Kill the last boss, loot everything off the boss, yes his Underwear too, then loot the tome off the bookshelf on the right side of the room. Keep in mind that the Teleport is only learnable at level 90. After you learn the spell you will then be able to purchase Ancient Tome of Portal – Dalaran from Endora Moorehead in Dalaran. Yes a Portal to the same location in Hillsbrad. Now go trick some noobs after they tip you and accidentally enter the wrong portal.
Buffs
Tome of Dalaran Brilliance is also purchasable from Endora Moorehead in Dalaran. Requires level 80 to learn and teaches you Dalaran Brilliance which gives you the same buff as Arcane Brilliance. The spell effect is a Kirin Tor Eye above your head.
Battle Pet
Kirin Tor Familiar – Obtained from finishing the achievement Higher Learning. This takes some time. I haven’t even done it and it’s been around since Wrath of the Lich King.
That’s it. I hope you learned something about mages and their secret mystical items.
“Til next time…
>_< Frostweave!
30Nov
My rogue hit level 85 the other night and she wasn’t at the right item level to que up for the Mist of Pandaria dungeons. Sound familiar?
It was time go get them BOEs. Some of the ones I obtained at level 80 were still on my toon. I really didn’t replace gear until I hit level 84 and started to quest in Twilight Highlands.
The quest rewards from Twilight Highlands are no where near the item level required to play in the Mists.
The BOE armor was too expensive on the AH(200+G). I logged on to my leather working Druid and looked at what I could craft, which was almost every slot. My Druid did have a ton of mats so I crafted a Misthide set and a Cloak of the Mists.
The Cloak stats are random so I actually don’t recommend crafting it. They do sell well on the AH, if you don’t mind farming the mats and taking a gamble. I crafted about 9 of them until I got the one I could use.
I was still short 1 point so I ended up buying a BOE necklace, Shadowfire Necklace of the Galeburst. Then headed through the mists. When I did que up the quest rewards from Jade Temple replaced my legs and bracers. I made the gear to que, don’t expect the gear to last you long.
‘Til next time…
! Guntitan
A list of quality of life improvements for your engineer. These are the items I miss when I am on my non-engineering toons.
Ghost Iron Dragonling
BOE trinket that has 3 cogwheel slots. Must have trinket for leveling level 87 alt.
Moll-E
Portable mail box good for farming engineers. Farm mats, then when bags get full mail it to alt.
Jeeves
Vendor, repairs, and a bank
Scrapbot Construction Kit
Summon when Jeeves is on cool down. Sell vendor greys and armor repair.
Teleporters
For traveling convenience.
Kalimdor
Dimensional Ripper – Everlook (Goblin Engineering)
Ultrasafe Transporter – Gadgetzan (Gnomish Engineering)Outland
Dimensional Ripper – Area 52 (Goblin Engineering)
Ultrasafe Transporter – Toshley’s Station (Gnomish Engineering)Northend
Wormhole Generator: NorthrendPandaria
Wormhole Generator: Pandaria
Motorcycles
The first 2 person mount. Good for Battlegrounds and questing in Pandaria.
Alliance
Mekgineer’s ChopperHorde
Mechano-Hog
Mist-Piercing Goggles
Good for the herbalist and miner for them extra minerals and herbs.
Electrostatic Condenser
For the mining, skinning, or herbalist engineer. This item allows you to collect extra Volatile Air while farming.
Zapthrottle Mote Extractor
The gas cloud sucker for them Outland and Northend Gas Clouds that produce extra mats for extra gold or crafting.
Thermal Anvil
The perfect item for the Blacksmiths, Engineers, and Miners. It basically lets you craft and smelt anywhere. There is no level requirement so anyone can use it. Especially good for your low level alts while you are leveling their professions.
Loot-a-Rang
Let’s you loot from a distance. A good time saver, you don’t have to run up to the corpse to loot. Especially useful for range dps or packs of mobs. Loot and mount then move on.
Blingtron 4000
You don’t really need to have this item as a Engineer. In fact, he is a little useless because the drop rate for the good stuff is so low. I do recommend seeking him out, don’t go out of your way, just check Stormwind or that City in Pandaria depending on your level, and do the daily.
The Blingtron 4000 Quest Package has a chance to drop a Fire Spirit that increases your skill of your primary professions by 4 points. Over the corse of leveling to 85, my rogue I got 8 free skill points in Blacksmithing and Engineering.
Well this should complete the list. Good luck farming the mats to craft these useful items.
‘Til next time…
! Guntitan
20Nov
While leveling my rogue I instinctively placed a Gnomish Army Knife in her bag. At the time I was going to make her a herbalist/alchemist.
I later decided to make her a Blacksmith/Engineer. Boy did the Gnomish Army Knife come in handy.
Besides having a nose picker, back scratcher, and whirly thing. The knife carried my necessary tools to level Engineering and Blacksmithing. I did not have to buy or create any of the following: Gyromatic Micro-Adjuster, Arclight Spanner, and Blacksmithing Hammer.
It also saved me the much needed bag space so I could hold the mats I needed to craft my junk.
This is a must have item for any alt who may be leveling a Blacksmith, Engineer, Skinner, Herbalist, or Miner.
It even acts as a Jeweler’s Kit for the leveling Jewelcrafter.
If you don’t have one, go get one now.
‘Til next time…
! Guntitan
#xperiaion Micro blogging ftw.
15Nov
I’ve been leveling a rogue with the same heirlooms(plus Stained Shadowcraft Pants) I used for Scythebitten(my feral druid) and just recently hit 80. The exception are the heirloom daggers. This means that when I hit 80, I had a few 174s and my item level wasn’t sufficient enough to run through the Cataclysm dungeons.
Quick Tip:
Obtain the BOEs
Drops
If you are leveling with the heirloom daggers Sharpened Scarlet Kris and Balanced Heartseeker you can easily upgrade them with the regular version of the Toxidunk Dagger which you can obtain from Blackrock Caverns. You could try to get them with your Main or buy them off the AH. I purchased a pair for about 250 G.
Crafted
Then you could always check the AH for Darkbrand gear to replace your belt and bracers. Then pick up the chest and shoulders to replace your Stained Shadowcraft Tunic and Stained Shadowcraft Spaulders. A pair of Darkbrand Gloves and a pair of Darkbrand Boots will help with item level too. If you already have a leather worker and a miner like me. Then it shouldn’t take long to farm the mats and craft a pair for your Rogue alt. The Volatile Fire for the gloves can still be fished.
After a few quests in Mount Hyjal. I had the right item level to que for the first set of Cataclysm dungeons.
So why a post about my Rogue?
These same tips can be applied to your leveling Feral Druid, Monk, or even your Hunter alt.
‘Til next time..
! Guntitan
18Sep
37 new looks according to Petopia. I already tamed me one. I am going to be needing more stable slots.
This raptor is the one I’ve always wanted since WotLK.
‘Til next time…
! Guntitan
28Aug
The new talent system link was a dead link. I fixed it in this copy.
World of Warcraft Patch 5.0.4
The latest patch notes can always be found at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/
General
- Account-wide Achievements, pets, and mounts
- In Patch 5.0.4 and beyond, the majority of your character’s Achievements, pets, and mounts will be shared with your other characters.
- Please read: Bringing Achievements to the Account Level, by Greg “Ghostcrawler” Street
- World Event: Attack on Theramore Isle
- Warchief Garrosh, obsessed with assuring the Horde’s supremacy over Kalimdor, launches an all-out attack against Jaina’s island home of Theramore. Though valiant Alliance defenders rush to repel the sudden onslaught, they’ll soon find themselves unprepared for the terrible scope of Garrosh’s true plans…
- This Scenario will become available in the weeks leading up to the launch of Mists of Pandaria on September 25.
- AOE Looting
- Area of effect looting comes to World of Warcraft with this patch. After killing a group of enemies in close proximity, when you loot one of their corpses, the loot window will include items from all of the nearby corpses for which you have loot rights.
- BattleTag support in World of Warcraft
- Players who have enabled their BattleTag will now be able to:
- See BattleTag friends in your friends list.
- Add and remove BattleTag friends.
- Send BattleTag invites to other players via right-click.
- Players who have enabled their BattleTag will now be able to:
- Cross-Realm Zones
- In some zones, players are now able to form a group with other players from a select pool of realms.
- When a player is in a zone that is set as a “cross-realm zone”, in addition to seeing other players from their native realm, they’ll also seamlessly see (and be able to play with) players from other realms.
- Players will always be able to group and quest as they normally would with players from their native realm.
- This functionality will be enabled for a limited number of realms at first, and will be granted to additional realms as we near the release of Mists of Pandaria.
Classes: General
- All classes have been updated with a new talent system, improved abilities, and spells (accessible throughout levels 1-85). Your character’s talents have been reset.
- Many old talents have been converted to specialization abilities.
- Druids now have access to a fourth class specialization: Guardian.
- New spells are now learned automatically. Class trainers are only needed to change talents, glyphs, class specialization, or to utilize the dual specialization feature.
- All characters now take 40% less damage from other players.
Currency Conversion
- Valor points have been converted to Justice points, and Conquest points have been converted to Honor points.
- Neither of the resultant currencies (Justice and Honor) have an enforced hard-cap at this time.
- Players are no longer able to earn Valor or Conquest points (bosses drop Justice, and arenas are closed).
- Items formerly purchasable for Valor/Conquest are available for Justice/Honor.
Items
- Spell Penetration has been replaced by PvP Power on existing items.
- Head enchants removed
- Enchants that modify the gear in your head slot have been removed from the game. This includes older head enchants of every type.
- Relics, ranged, and thrown items
- The slot in which ranged, relics, and thrown items were previously equipped has been removed. All weapons should now be equipped in the weapon slot.
- Ranged weapons, including wands, have been adjusted to be more powerful.
- Ranged weapons no longer have a minimum range.
Professions
- The glyph system has been updated. Many class glyphs have been added, altered, or moved to different glyph types.
- Prime glyphs have been removed.
- Chef’s Award and Dalaran Cooking Award have been removed. Existing awards have been converted to Epicurean’s Award.
Quests
- The cap for daily quests has been removed.
- There is no longer a displayed count of daily quests completed.
User Interface
- There is a new user interface for your mounts and pets.
- Character creation screens have been updated.
- Buffs have been consolidated in the UI.
- New roll results frame added. This new feature can be accessed by clicking the word “[Loot]” in chat, or by typing “/loot”.
- The PvE queue frames have been unified. You can now queue for dungeons, raids, and other queue-able content in one handy place.
- Vendors now offer item filtering.
- Spellbooks have been updated to reflect changes to core abilities, and now include a brief overview of specializations.
- The Dungeon Journal has been expanded with information on all pre-Cataclysm encounters.
- A new help system has been added to many frames. You can toggle this on and off by clicking the “i” button in the upper left corner of the frame.
Mac
- Mac OS X 10.5 is no longer supported.
- Added full support for Retina displays.
- Added support for game resolutions that match Mac screen aspect ratios.
- Switching between Windowed and Fullscreen display modes should be faster.
- A “Help” menu has been added, so that players can quickly navigate to support pages.
- A menu item that allows players to copy system information to the Clipboard has been added.
- A menu item that reveals various game files and folders in Finder has been added.
‘Til next time…
! Guntitan