My eleventh alchemy discovery

This is the last transmute discovery. Transmute primal mana into primal fire.
Now it's only Flask of Might Restoration left. Gogo!

Dailies Quest Tracker

With the increase of 10 dailies per day to 25 in patch 2.4, this addon becomes so so handy.
The name of the SSO quests may be different from the ones you are doing. It is because this addon uses the quest name of the completed phase.
You can download Dailies Quest Tracker here. Enjoy!

Shattered Sun Offensive daily quests: you love and hate them

The new faction Shatter Sun Offensive brought a lot of daily quests with them. All players participate in the capture of the Isle dynamically. Wowwiki and Wowhead forum has more information.

After my vacation, the sanctum and portal were completed on my server. I did all the dailies available and realized that some of them are very annoying. For example the high possibility of ganking ground in Hellfire and the presence of a raid boss. Here I ranked the difficulty of all the SSO dailies. Some are not available yet so it's an estimation from the quest description.

It takes around 30min to complete all * quests and around 1 hour to complete in addition a few ** quests on the Isle.

Name before slash is the permanent quest name after the completion.
Difficulty is ranked in five grade.
Number indicates amount of reputation gained upon completion.
Location and other information are in parentheses.

Phase 1
Gaining the Advantage ** 250 (Outland or TBC area)
Sunfury Attack Plans *** 250 (Netherstorm)
The Multiphase Survey * 250 (Nagrand)
Blood for Blood ** 250 (Hellfire)
Blast the Gateway ** 250 (Hellfire)

Further Conversions/Erratic Behavior ** 150
The Sanctum Wards ** 150

Phase 2
The Battle Must Go On/The Battle for the Sun's Reach Armory ** 250
The Air Strikes Must Continue/Distraction at the Dead Scar * 150

Maintaining the Sunwell Portal/Intercepting the Mana Cells **** 250 (low drop rate of the device and unconvenient location)
Know Your Ley lies * 250

Phase 3
Keeping the Enemy at Bay/Intercept the Reinforcements * 250
Crush the Dawnblade/Taking the Harbor ** 250

Don't Stop Now/Making Ready *** 250 (High ganking activity and low drop rate)
Ata'mal Armaments *** 350 (Shadowmoon Valley. Available after the completion of anvil and watch out the patrolling elite)

Phase 4
Rediscovering Your Roots/Discovering Your Roots * 350
Open for Business * 250

Your Continued Support/A Charitable Donation * 150
Disrupt the Green Coast ** 250
A Magnanimous Benefactor * 500

PvP rare set available again

The PvP rare set was removed from battlemaster vendor when season 3 rolled out. Now they are renamed and back. These five pieces are available at the quartermaster when you reach honored reputation in five TBC faction, Honor Hold/Thramall, Cenarion Expedition, Lower City, Sha'tar and Keepers of Time.

If Season 4 didn't come out together with Wrath of the Lich King, would season 2 arena gear be available like the PvP rare set?

Everyone would be honored or close to honored when they ding 70, so this is another fast gear-up, mostly for PvP players. Since the cost for the whole set costs around 20g, I guess every fresh level 70 would be running in them.

Tier tokens can be used to purchase PvP arena gear
It is getting clear that, patch 2.4 will be a PvP crosses with PvE and a give-loot patch.

Is the Badge of justice reward system broken?

Badge of justice was introduced in the expansion last year. During the year, Blizzard staff repeatedly said that they are satisfied with the system and will expand it.

They originally drop from bosses in Outland instance with heroic difficulty.
In order to enter heroic instances, individual player requires heroic key available at revered reputation for a certain faction.
In patch 2.3, the heroic key requirement is lowered to honored reputation. In addition, all bosses in Karazhan and Zul'Amen also drop them (two badges each). Daily quests in heroic instances also give two badges as reward.
As of patch 2.4, all raid bosses drops badge of justice also.
Total number of badges dropped per instance

For a certain number of badges, one can trade in for level 70 epic items. It works like a PvE equivalent to honor points and battleground marks. Or even some kind of in-game DKP.
Before patch 2.3, one can buy weapons, shields, offhands, rings, trinkets, cloaks, relics, and Fire Resistance gear. They are item level 110/115, which are similar to heroics and tier-4 instances.
Wrist, head, foot and hand slot items, as well as additional rings, cloaks and relics are added in patch 2.3. They are item level 128/133, which are superior to tier-4 but marginally inferior to tier-5.
In patch 2.4, they can also be used to purchase new equipment similar to tier-6 levels as well as epic gems. They are item level 141/146, which are basically on a par with tier-6 items.

Is the system broken?
When Maiden drop as many badges as Vashj or Illidan, I don't know what other word is better than "broken". Insane? Crazy? Or someone in Blizzard failed to do the math?

Comparing it with the PvP system, you get a static +10 in rating for every win in arena, regardless of the opponent team's rating. Does it sound fair?

When patch 2.4 hits, it won't surprise me to see players with heroic/Karazhan gear running with their new epic weapon, which is on a par with BT/MH drops.
If the season 3 arena weapon are so good that it requires personal rating to acquire, I don't think it makes sense to let a heroic and Karazhan player get a BT-level staff.

Can that be fixed?
Talking to (ranting with) a guildmate last night, we both think that some limitations have to be there in order to stop this madness.

One suggestion is to have different types of badges. Heroic and T4 instances would be one type. T5 instance can be another type and T6 instance is the third type. Then one can buy gear of the same level as where the badges are obtained.

Another suggestion is to link them with reputation. For example, Violet Eye revered to unlock the patch 2.3 items and Ashtongue Deathsworn revered for patch 2.4 items.

Third suggestion is to simply increase the number of badges drop in tier-5 and tier-6 instances. For example, TK and SSC will be 4 badges each boss whereas MH and BT bosses will drop 6 badges each. Last bosses in raid instances will always drop 1.5 times more badges, i.e. 6 badges from Kael'thas and Vashj whereas 9 badges from Achimonde and Illidan. (Meaning that a full TK will give 18 badges, full SSC 26 badges, full MH 33 badges and full BT 57 badges.)

I love badges and I'm not against making it easier for causal players to upgrade their gear. But seriously, Illidan drops as many badges as Maiden, seriously!

My tenth alchemy discovery

Finally, after brewing 300+ potions and elixirs, it's turn for a discovery. I'm so happy. ^o^
One more off the list. Only Flask of Mighty Restoration and Transmute Mana to Fire left.

How to find a (new) raiding guild

Recently, Aethel switched to another guild on another server. Here I would like to share some of my experience. It is not much different than job hunting to me. It's about matching your expectation and expertise to their need. If they have no obvious need, then it's your call to make them think they need you.

Do you want to raid? What contents do you want to see?
If you want to go raiding but you don't know about how guilds are progressing in the end-game content in your server, Wowjutsu is your answer. It records the loots from different boss kills and are rather updated.

What guild are you looking for?
Hopefully you have identified a few guilds, then you can start googling. Simply search with realm name and guild name. Most guilds have a forum or a webpage, and there you will find out approximately who they are.

Native language?
If they are written in a language you cannot understand, then that guild is off your list. If the guild speaks the same language as you, it might be good. There shouldn't be excuses of communication problem due to differences in English understanding. And people will have similar culture and values. However, the language can also be a limiting factor for progress and future recruitment.

Age limit?
The age limit can usually be found in the recruitment related threads.
There are both advantages and disadvantages.
Younger people would progress faster, raid more often but might also risk more drama and sudden quit.
Older people is more or less the opposite. However, age and maturity do not have direct relation. Read on the forum, talk to some people in that guild and go instances with them usually tells you more.

Causal or hardcore?
If you can find any links for DKP site or raiding schedule, you can see if they are active. Else Wowjutsu's loot-date would also give a hint.

Are they recruiting?
Looking further in the recruitment thread (most have), you will find the recruitment requirement and status.
If there is a vacancy for your class and your spec, that's a good news.
Most guilds accept unsolicited application, meaning that if your application is exceptional, they will consider it even they are full on that spot.

Do a brief check on Wowarmoy page and see if they have more than enough of your class. Some classes such as warlocks are extremely good grinding alts. If a guild has 10 warlocks, it doesn't directly translate to 10 warlock raiders. You will need to check/guess the ranks. The lowest rank is usually alts or new recruits. But which ranks are the active raiders? It's a guess. Most guilds have a rank for alts, so look for the highest rank with non-70s and then all the rank upward can be counted as active members.

Apply?
If you want to apply, always use their application template (if there's any). It will give a bad impression if they suspect you copy-and-paste another application. Also, some people (like me) consider it impolite and non-dedicated if one applys to many guilds at the same time.
If you have questions about anything about the guild, don't be shy and PM the officers. They are usually happy to help and answer. And you can get to feel how the guild is as well.

An extra point about finding a new realm, Wowjutsu is also a good place to start. I also recommend check it on Warcraft Census. It has some quite good statistics about the realms such as population, activity and alliance-to-horde ratio. Since I'm not a fan of ganking, I'd like a realm with more alliance than horde so I will be less-likely ganked (theorectically).

New badges items

New Badge of Justice reward has been revealed on Wowhead. More badge farming is needed.

Let's compared them with the tier-6 sets:

Balance
Barbed Gloves of the Sage (75 BoJ) VS Thunderheart Handsguards
-2 spell damage, -21 spell crit, +3 spell hit, -2 stamina, same intellect, +3 spirit, -35 armor, same socket. Recommended.

Crystalwind Leggings (100 BoJ) VS Thunderheart Pants
-1 spell damage (or +1 incl. socket bonus), +7 spell crit, -20 spell hit, -3 stamina, -8 intellect, +5 spirit, +13 armor, +1 yellow socket. Highly recommended.

Embrace of Starlight (100 BoJ) VS Thunderheart Vest
-2 spell damage (or -7 incl. socket bonus), +11 spell crit, -17 spell hit, -8 stamina, -2 intellect, -1 spirit, same armor, 1 red vs 1 yellow & 2 blue sockets. Highly recommended, considering the difficulty to get a token.

Fused Nethergon Band (60 BoJ) is a nice upgrade for Ashyen's Gift. For 3 stamina, you get 7 more spell hit rating, 12 spell damage and 19 intellect. Highly recommended.

To be continued.

Patch 2.4: Instance

The breaking news:

- The Sunwell Isle is now available for play. This area includes a new quest hub and 5-player and 25-player instances.
New instances are always exciting. My friend has tried out in the 5-man Magister's Terrace and it wasn't that hard, except for last boss aka Prince Kael'thas.

Other breaking news:

- Free entry to Mount Hyjal and Black Temple.
- Players can fight Lady Vashj and Prince Kael'thas now.
- A new title "Hand of A'dal" will be given to players who have completed the attunement quests for MH and BT.
This is a nerf on the raiding and it will encourage more causal raiding. It will help a lot of SSC/TK guilds to move on to MH and BT. Since majority of WoW subscribers are not hardcore raiders, this will probably keep many players happy and so are Blizzards' accountants.

Now the quests are just for the faction ring and/or the title.

I'm not excited of the above changes but these two are my favorites:

- Added Shattrath Flask of Pure Death and Shattrath Flask of Blinding Light to the reputation flask vendors in Shattrath.
Nice nice nice, but why does it take so long time for the alchemist in Shattrah to discover the recipe of these two flasks?

- Gems obtained through Heroic difficulty instances are no longer Unique-equipped.
This one I love. I no longer need to let the gem take a bag slot and wait for an upgrade to socket it. ^o^

- All 25- player raid bosses that drop set tokens will now drop an additional token!
So instead of 2x Hero, it will drop 3x Hero? I'm just kidding. It would be even better if they set it to drop one of each every time. The randomness of the game sometimes are just too buggy.

- Badges of Justice have been added to all raid bosses who did not previously have them!
Sweet, this can be a good motivation for farm raids. I can't wait for new badges reward items.

- Loot dropped by Doomlord Kazzak and Doomwalker has been changed to Bind on Equip.
I guess these items will be very expensive on AH, if I would be lucky enough to spot them on AH.

- Nether Vortex are no longer Bind on Pickup and can now be purchased from G’eras for 15 Badges of Justice!
- Primal Nether are no longer Bind on Pickup!
15 badges for vortex and 10 badges for nether, this will make it easier to let people get the BoE crafted gear. They only need to find a crafter. Will we see vortexs or nethers on AH? I think so, and I guess Primal Nether will cost around 80g, similar to what crafters are usually charging now. Since Nether Vortex costs 0.5 times more badges than nether, I guess it would be around 120g each.

Public Test Realm for patch 2.4

Last week, I have been trying to copy my character to the public test realm (PTR). However the queue was long and full. Early on a morning, I finally managed to copy my characters to the PTR.

When I have downloaded and installed another patch update, it showed "Invalid Username or Password". I was using the same password for character copy and the password worked on live realm. Here's the explanation from Vaneras.

You may not be able to get onto the PTR if you have changed your password in the last 3 weeks. You can try to use an old password but there's no guarantee this will work.

It seems that I have bad luck. I changed my password few weeks ago and I cannot remember my old password. I change my password regularly in order to increase secruity. And part of the secruity is to protect or destroy any trace of your password. Now I can't login to PTR, because I am too cautious. It is just strange and bad luck. But I guess many other people are having the same problem. >:(

Nevertheless, my friend had his characters copied and been to Magister's Terrace a few times. Oh, I'm jealous but at least I could see it on his computer, or maybe even play his character a bit. ^^

I've moved.

I've moved Aethel through paid character transfer. The move was smoother than I thought.
The whole process took less than an hour, which some friends warned it could take a few days. The approval process was estimated to take an hour but it actually took 5 min.
It raises my awareness as it is so easy and fast one can lose characters if the account was hecked.

I left an RP-PvP realm (Defias Brotherhood) to a PvP realm (Ravencrest).

Patch 2.4: The funky news

- Monstrous Kaliri have learned how to chase players going straight up.
>> Skettis visitors, watch out!
- Female Draenei can no longer become stuck under a root in the tunnels leading to Blackfathom Deeps, Ashenvale.
>> Is that a horn problem?
- Saber/Tiger Mounts will now make footprints when walking backwards in snow.
>> I never noticed that, I'm probably quite blind or never walk backwards in AV.
- The Ratchet bank now has access to the Guild Vault.
>> Goblin-ran bank, they are just as reliable as their invention. Let's check Booty Bay.
- A mailbox has been added to the inn in Darnassus.
>> I hope this will increase the visitor count of the inn in Darnassus, though I doubt.
- There is no longer an area in Serpentine Cavern where using Field Repair Bot 74A will cause it to fall through the ground.
>> Is that like the little hole to reach the "smiley foundation" of Karazhan?

Lunar New Years 2008

Happy Lunar New Year!
Lunar Festival is good time to collect reputation as well as the fancy items.
I have missed to get the crafting recipes last year, but this year I got all BoE recipes.

Now my engineer alt can learn to make Firework Launcher and Cluster Launcher and my tailoring friend (who didn't bother about those coins) can make the festival dress and festival suits. One can probably make a fortune with these BoE recipes a few months after the festival.

Also my shaman got a Festive Pink Dress, my paladin a Festive Black Pant Suit and my engineer warlock a Festive Blue Pant Suit. ^o^

Wowwiki has a walkthrough for how to visit all 50 Elders for horde and alliance. I didn't need so many coins, so I shortened it 20 and respective 10 coins.

My 20-Elder path:
Stormwind - The Park [21, 54]
Elwynn Forest - In Goldshire, behind blacksmith: [39, 63]
Westfall - Atop the Sentinel Hill tower: [56, 47]
> Fly gryphon to Nethergarde Keep (via Sentinel Hill)
Blasted Lands - Just North of the Dark Portal: [57, 54]
> Fly (via Nethergarde) or ride to Rebel Camp
Stranglethorn Vale - Outside Zul'Gurub zone-in: [53, 18]
Stranglethorn Vale - Above the bank in Booty Bay: [26, 76]
> Take the boat to Ratchet
The Barrens - In Ratchet, behind the bank: [62, 36]
The Barrens - Crossroads: [51, 30]
The Barrens - Camp Taurajo: [45, 57]
Mulgore - North end of Bloodhoof Village by bridge: [48, 53]
Thousand Needles - In Freewind Post: [45, 50]
Thousand Needles - In Shimmering Flats by Mirage Raceway: [79, 77]
Tanaris - In Gadgetzan: [51, 27]
Tanaris - Outside Uldum, far south Tanaris: [36, 80]
Un'goro Crater - By Slithering Scar, above ground: [50, 76]
Silithus - In Cenarion Hold: [50, 36]
> Hearth back to Shattrath and take the portal to Darnassuss.
Darnassus - in Cenarion Enclave: [33, 14]
Darkshore, Auberdine - East of the Hippogryph Master: [35, 48]
Ashenvale, Astranaar - in the gazebo near the hippogryph: [35, 49]
Felwood - North of Jaedenar: [37, 53]
> Teleport to Moonglade (Druid)

My 10-coin path:
Ironforge - Mystic Ward
Dun Morogh - In Kharanos by the inn: [46, 51]
Loch Modan - In Thelsamar: [33, 46]
> Fly to Stormwind
Stormwind - The Park [21, 54]
Elwynn Forest - In Goldshire, behind blacksmith: [39, 63]
Westfall - Atop the Sentinel Hill tower: [56, 47]
> Hearth back to Shattrath and take the portal to Darnassuss.
Darnassus - in Cenarion Enclave: [33, 14]
Darkshore, Auberdine - East of the Hippogryph Master: [35, 48]
Ashenvale, Astranaar - in the gazebo near the hippogryph: [35, 49]
Winterspring - In Everlook: [61, 37]
> Fly to Moonglade

Useful macros in SSC and TK

After clearing both The Serpentshrine Cavern and The Eye in Tempest Keep, here is my little collection of useful macro for some bosses.

Leotheras the Blind
As a healer, the inner demon isn't really easy to kill. With the 30% damage on all healing items, it does help a bit. However, it is useful to let your healing squad knows that you are taken out of the fight and you plus your target needs some help. Channel 6 is my raiding healing channel and I usually heal the warlock tank. On one click, I send the message to the channel, get Barkskin up and equip my pew-pew weapon in order to nuke the demon faster. Barkskin is useful since the demon does mostly melee damage and no spell interruption means the demon dies faster.

#showtooltip
/6 ='.'= Aethel has inner demon. ='.'= Assist on warlock.
/cast barkskin
/equip Merciless Gladiator's War Staff
/equip Idol of the Avenger
/cancelform
/stopcasting

Lady Vashj
To fight her highness, the macros are mostly about the tainted cores. When I was moonkin and need to take care of tainted cores, I use the first macro to help me to save time in targeting and get full out asap, plus a fast whisper to the runner for grabbing a core or assist killing the water elementals at my location. The second one is a standard one for the core throwing, with a little touch of roleplaying.

#showtooltip
/tar tainted
/cast Moonfire
/w _____ Tainted one at NE.

#showtooltip
/use Tainted Core
/s %t, catch the tainted core!
/script SendChatMessage("!!! YOU HAVE THE CORE !!!", "WHISPER", "Common", UnitName("target"))

High Astromancer Solarian
Another standard macro for healers, but this time is mostly for paladins. I found that druids' HoT are great to top up the fall damage of the bomb carriers. Catch them before they go out of range and throw a lifebloom and a rejuvenation, then they will be in full health when they get back.

/tar High Astromancer Solarian
/assist
/cast Flash of Light

Kael'thas Sunstrider
The legendary weapon are very attractive, yet camouflage. Cosmic infuser, the healing mace, is tiny and very difficult to spot. Tanks use target macro to grab their weapon fast to tank it. Healer can use the macro to find and loot it. And even better, EQUIP it. It saves you time opening your inventory and locating it. Sometimes, I also pick up a staff and use the aura, so it is embedded in the macro too. Ideally, one could bind a spell in a macro with /use 16, which 16 is the main hand slot.

/tar cosmic
/equip [button:2] Cosmic Infuser
/equip Staff of Disintegration
/use Staff of Disintegration

My ninth alchemy discovery

I made a lot of elixirs and potions, but the daily transmute keep ninja-ing the discovery chance, or it seems the transmute discovery has higher chance than flask ones. Not a very useful transmute discovery, but let's hope for better next time.

Thanks to Wowhead's new profession database, let's have a check list of my discoveries. One transmute, one flask and super rejuvenation potion to go. :D

7- Transmute: Primal Earth to Life
3- Transmute: Primal Fire to Mana
8- Transmute: Primal Life to Earth
__ Transmute: Primal Mana to Fire
5- Transmute: Primal Shadow to Water
9- Transmute: Primal Water to Shadow
6- Flask of Blinding Light
1- Flask of Fortification
__ Flask of Mighty Restoration
4- Flask of Pure Death
2- Flask of Relentless Assault
__ Super Rejuvenation Potion

Kael'thas Sunstrider no longer lives

Yes! Finally after a few months of striving back in shape. Genesis has finally managed to kill Kael'thas Sunstrider!! "Say cheezz!"

Of course, we have to tell A'dal. Our own little gnome mage was the honorary messager.

And then a "shadow" of Kael'thas appeared and continued the lengthy talking before he was dead. (The blood elves are really a chatty race. 5% of the phase 1 is Kael'thas talking.)

And then it's party party dancing around the big flame in Shattrath!!

Handy resto druid macros

I have macro on all the most used spells. Here is a few which have helped me in healing a lot.

First up, this one (1) links the trinket use to the spells and (2) saves your target finding.

#showtooltip Lifebloom
/use 13
/use 14
/cast [modifier:alt, target=player] Lifebloom; [help] Lifebloom; [target=targettarget] Lifebloom

(1) Change Lifebloom into Wrath, Tiger Fury or other spells. It saves the time to click two button at once. Slot 13 is the upper trinket, slot 14 is the lower one. The main advantage is that it saves time to change name of the trinkets when you have an upgrade or when you change trinkets for different encounters. If the trinket effects do not share the same cooldown, it will automatically use both. If it doesn't matter which one to use, then change /use to /userandom for randomly using one of them; else remove one of the lines and keep your favorite trinket use.
(2) The second part /cast line allow you to heal the target's target, which is very useful in battleground and the boss' current target. Else it works like a normal non-macro spell button; when you press Alt-button, you heal yourself.

Druids' combat ress are valuable. So every druid should have some sort macro or addon so that no two druids are combat ressing the same player. It will automatically say it in bubble and in raid chat who you are resurrecting and also a whisper to your ress target. However, the resurrection will not work if the target has released to graveyard.

#showtooltip
/stopmacro [harm]
/stopmacro [nodead]
/cast [help,dead] Rebirth
/s Resurrecting %t.
/ra Resurrecting %t.
/script SendChatMessage(" = Aethel is resurrecting you = but it won't work if you've released.", "WHISPER", "Common", UnitName("target"));

Druids are rather weak in fast heals but Nature's Swiftness is our friend. Basically, right-click it for instant big Healing Touch (you'll be shift out of tree automatically) or left-click it for instant Regrowth. Similar to the first macro; when you press Alt-button, you heal yourself.
When my shammy is going resto, I can just add "Healing Wave" to the end of this macro and then it will also work for her since the spell name is the same.

#showtooltip Nature's Swiftness
/cast Nature's Swiftness
/stopcasting
/cast [modifier:alt, button:2, target=player] Healing Touch; [button:2, help] Healing Touch; [modifier:alt, target=player] Regrowth; [help] Regrowth;

Tranquility is great when you are grouped with tanks and during big AoE damage. To make sure you get most out of it, right-click it for Barkskin, and then left-click for Tranquility. If you're sure you won't be interrupted, then simply left-click to save a global cooldown.

#showtooltip Tranquility
/cast [button:2] Barkskin; Tranquility

The last macro has been mentioned in a previous post. In short, get a staff with a lot of spirit, make a spirit enchant on it, and then right-click when you want to innervate yourself (auto switch staff) and left-click after your innervate or when you innervate someone else.

#showtooltip Innervate
/equip [button:2] Staff of Divine Infusion
/cast [button:2, target=player] Innervate; Innervate
/equip [nostance; button 1] Merciless Gladiator's War Staff
/equip [button:1] Light's Justice
/equip [button:1] Talisman of the Sun King

Must read: Simplified WoW Lore

Dawnbow on US-Runetotem wrote a simplified WoW Lore on WoW forum.
This is a very comprehensive and read-friendly summary over the history of Warcraft.
Some people replied that not all the point were acurrate. But com'on, at least this guy tried to explain to newbies about the lore.
WoW is the only warcraft game I have ever played. I have tried to read through WoWwiki about the lores, but this really give me a general concept about how things are linked together. So to speak, the red thread along all the stories.
You might find out why gnomes are not smarter than they should, why trolls get so much love in their story and why the blood elves are so mean.
Thumbs up to Dawnbow!

The Legion will fall!

My eighth alchemy discovery

Ten days after my transmute discovery of earth to life, I discovered the vice versa.
Anyway, it's a discovery. Cheers!

WTB Dual Wield for The Maelstrom's Fury

The Maelstrom's Fury Binds when picked up One-Hand Dagger 37 - 111 Damage Speed 1.80 (41.3 damage per second) +33 Stamina +21 Intellect Durability 75 / 75 Requires Level 70 Equip: Improves spell critical strike rating by 22 (1% @ L70). Equip: Increases damage and healing done by magical spells and effects by up to 236.

It's one-hand and it's not unique. A shadow priest in my guild said he wanted to learn dual-wield in order to have it in both main hand and off-hand. ^o^
Dual-wielding with this might not give the best melee dps. But if I have a enchancement shaman raiding Black Temple, I will want it just for the look and because I can have it. Main hand Hammer of Judgement and off-hand this sword would work too.
Probably Blizzard will change that to main hand soon, since it's probably a mistake or a typo or to spoil the fun.

SmartBuff

Randy Deluxe on The Instance, my favorite WoW-podcast, asked for a good buffing addon. Within one week he received lots of tips and a segment reply from Patrik. He recommended SmartBuffand I downloaded it immediately to try.
With PallyPower, Ise the tankadin can "bless" the entire battleground players. And now with SmartBuff, Aethel can also buff the entire battleground players with Mark of the wild. Before that, some random lucky players can get the buff, but now everyone in range can have that.
Also for raiding, I can buff the recently ressed players without scratching my head to remember who was dead.
There is some delay in detecting group buff, however I hope I can work around it when I'm more familiar with it.
PallyPower is still better in quick managing blessings since it shows time-left and who miss my blessings.
Except for paladins, this is a great mod!

My seventh alchemy discovery

After a month of quietness, Bauhinia finally discovered Transmute Primal Earth to Primal Life. And I failed to take a screenshot.
I have been using transmute primal shadow to primal water when there isn't enough mats for transmute primal might. Since primal shadow is not fun to farm, I was very excited to discovery this transmute.
Though these two primals can be easily farmed through mining or herbalism, the value-added for this transmute is quite high.



[Edited: I managed to find the screenshot in a strangely sorted folder ^^ ]

Ghost wolf pet, no more.

After patch 2.3 went live, ghost wolf was a hot hunter rare pet and it would be more rare now. Many hunters have tamed this almost-mission-impossible Grimtotem Spirit Guide (aka ghostwolf). Until recently CM Drysc announced that Blizzard has finally put a stop on it almost two months after the patch. Luckily, for those who has tamed one, they will not disappear.
The taming process was challenging since the ghost wolf will despawn in exactly 8 seconds. With taming beast spell lasts 20 sec. to cast, a hunter would need to increase spell haste through Mystic Skyfire Diamond proc and Drum of Battle or Shaman's Bloodlust.
I don't understand why Blizzard took away this challenging and fun taming possibility.
Luckily one of my guildmate has tamed one so I had a chance to adore its beauty.

(Picture courtesy via Mania's Arcania)

Patch 2.3.2: semi QQ post

The patch 2.3.2 went live on January 8.
The good news are
- /timetest command can be used to test your computer performance
- Ravage will deal 35% more damage

The bad news are
- Lifebloom will no longer maintain the existing strength
- And all the Hallow End items were gone! Duration will be 14 days according to the calendar instead of game time.

I found my flying broom gone and the Tricky Treat on my mule gone too. But I manage to save some candies in the mailbox of my mule. Not all over yet. Yohoo!

Happy Holidays!

Feast of Winter Viel was great fun as usual. I kept some Hot Apple Cider on a mule since it has a duration timer. However the mats for making them does not.
I had no luck in getting the Schematic: Snowmaster 9000 for my engineer alt, so I decided to buy one from AH for 30g.

Greatfather winter gave usa lot of non-combat pet: Red helper and Green helper, Snowman Kit, Jingling Bell Reindeer and the new Clockwork Rocket Bot.

One winter veil mystery, why poor Metzen is kidnapped every single year? There is some serious security issue. ^^