scottsblog

Finally

I've been dragging my feet on the Argent Tournament dailies.  The quests are not that bad, but day after day of doing the same quests is bound to get old eventually.  With 3.2 coming out soon, and having taken a week off of the game all together I was able to motivate myself to knock out the last faction.

Sunday Afternoon

One thing that is different in Europe than at home, at least compared to Metro Detroit, is the way people use public spaces.  After going to a museum for most of the day we walked back through the Tuilliere, and to the courtyard for the Louvre.  There were all kinds of people in the park, and at the Louvre just hanging out.  It is just something I am not used to.

Click to Make Bigger

There are lots of pigeons too.  We have pigeons at home at our feeder, but our suburban pigeons are not nearly as bold as the city pigeons.

 

Click to Make Bigger


Click to Make Bigger

Skiffens' New Gear

Skiffens has not seen as much play time as I would like.  Lots of traveling for work, etc.  Still though, Skiffens is making his way toward 80 and picking up some new gear along the way.

First of all, are pants.

The kilt has served him well for a long time, but Skiffens has pants compliments of people dumping crafted items on the auction house.

Next up is a new fishing pole, and a new fishing hat.

The pole is from the walruses, and the hat is from the Outlands fishing daily.  The hat stores all kinds of lures, and will allow Skiffens to fish in areas he normally would not have the skill for.

Skiffens has also obtained a penguin upgrade, also compliments of the Walruses.

Also, the ear jabbing shoulder pads are gone.  Gnomes have big ears, and now Skiffens can be less cautious when moving his arms and head.

Last, but not least, is a new mount.

Skiffens did not get any flying skill until level 77, when he could also fly in Northrend.  There has been much pinching of gold, but it was worth it.

Be Wary

Watch out for potions you find in the sewer.  You never know what may happen if you drink them.

New Hat

Skiffens tries to do the fishing tournament every Sunday.  It is a good time to raise some fishing skill.  I have not some close to winning yet, but 40 tastyfish are about 12 gold and it only takes half an hour or so to catch 40 tasty fish.  Plus, it is fun racing up and down the coast looking for the schools of fish, even if his cast seem to go in a circle around the school sometimes.

This week had an added bonus though.

An extra five fishing will come in handy, even if the 15 stamina isn't much at his level.

Traveling Around the Fjord

Not much time to play WoW lately, but Skiffens has been making the most of it by using some different forms of transportation.

The flying spear has already been mentioned here..

There is also flying around as a bird.  Probably old hat for droods, but not for a rogue.

There are also flying robot suits.

Last, but not least, airplanes.

There is a lot of neat stuff in Northrend.

Skiffens is as Ready as he is Going to Get

It has taken a while to get Skiffens to 70.  Work, Warhammer, and discovering Final Fantasy Tactics for PSP have all contributed delays in varying degrees.  This weekend I decided to make a push to get Skiffens to 70 and get him to Northrend.

I was concerned about gear.  Farfrae had a tough time in Hellfire.  Some of that was my inexperience, and a lot of it was because he was wearing blues and greens from Winterspring when he got to Outlands.  Skiffens had a much better time of it because I had picked up Outland gear on the auction house, and ground out a good sword for him in Alterac Valley.  Unfortunately, Skiffens was still wearing some of that gear as he approached 70.

I had planned on saving up honor and marks to buy S2 swords when Skiffens got to 70.  With Farfrae I had enough honor and marks saved to buy two pieces of S1 gear when he turned 70 and it helped a lot.

It was really slow going with Skiffens.  The swords take Eye of the Storm (EOTS) marks, and for a while after 3.0 characters level 60-69 got put in with 70's in EOTS.  I didn't cue for EOTS much during that time, because I felt I would not be able to contribute to the team.  There were not a lot of people in the cues for the other battlegrounds in 60-69.  That meant the cues were long, and a lot of times the games were really lopsided because one side outnumbered the other by a lot.  It was getting frustrating, and it only got worse as Wrath got closer.

I took a look at Wowhead, and some of the quest rewards available early in Northrend, and some of the craftable gear that Farfrae would be able to make.  I cherry picked quests all over Outlands, and focused on quests that would give really good upgrades.  I started picking up gear on the Auction house to replace the rest of the really dated pieces.  This seemed like a better use of time than the battlegrounds.

Then Skiffens got on a bird to Menethil, and got on the boat to Howling Fjord.


So far so good.


It takes him longer to kill things than it did in Outlands, but he is killing things.  Farfrae sent him two new pieces of gear, and almost right away he got two new swords as quest rewards.  The swords are not as good as S2 swords, but they are still very good.

New Skirt

Skiffens is apparently not long on fashion sense.

Flying Around Zangar

Skiffens in bird form, courtesy of some druid in the Cenarion Expedition.  You can fly around more than once if you do not turn in the quest.

Kinda makes me want to level my druid.

Fun in AV

Skiffens started working on his sword this weekend.  It was frustrating at first.  The Alterac Valley games were pretty buggy, and the cues were long.  One game had no NPC's or reinforcement count.  Any other game I tried the Alliance were heavily outnumbered, and didn't really have a chance to win.

Eventually though, I found out that playing a rogue in Alterac Valley can be a lot of fun.  There is a lot of sneaking around and ninja'ing stuff involved.  A couple of stealthers working together can really make a difference.  It is probably more fun in 51-60 than it will be in the 70 bracket.  At 70 the games are so much shorter that there probably won't be enough time to really sneak in and disrupt tthings.

Skiffens is about two thirds of the way to his new sword.