Hunting ... fish

My hunter's fishing skill is slightly lagging behind at a whooping 258. It is not sufficient for any outlands fishing at all. So I took this morning to try to get it up to par... 1 hour later and my hunter's fishing skill reached 280... it is slow and boring. You better have a good podcast to listen. Personally I go with Analogue Gaming Hole.

Now I probably need at least 1 more hour to get it to 300 and be able to do some serious fishing in Zangarmarsh without getting the "Fish got away" message.

Alterac Valley at level 64

Needing a break from regular questing I queued up for Alterac Valley yesterday. My hunter is only 64 but I figured it wouldn't do that much of a difference. Boy was I wrong. Most players were level 70... and as you all know the difference between pre 70 and and 70 is gigantic. Luckily as a hunter I don't have to be in the frontlines against those resilient 70ies.. I picked out a healer group and made sure they had all the flares and traps they needed. Whenever someone singled them out me and my pet did the best we could to help them out. It worked out ok in the end but it was kind of a painful time. I'll wait a few levels before venturing into AV again.

My hunter has now left Zangarmarsh behind him and is grinding away in Terrokar Forest at 40% into 65. Can't wait for Nagrand, I am sure it is an awesome place for hunters.

My pet's first Sporeling Snack

Earlier today my trusty pet - a Frostsaber named  Lovelace - got her first Sporeling Snack boosting her stamina and spirit with a whopping 20 points. I was kind of surprised that the snacks aren't fed the same way regular pet food is. Instead of selecting Feed Pet and then click on the food stack, you just use the snack.

Slugging it out in the swamp

For the last couple of days my brave hunter has been slugging it out in the swamp. Everytime I come to Zangarmarsh with a character I am amazed of the beauty of that area. I just love it. It seems that everything you kill in the marsh is used for some sort of quest or reputation.

I've just dinged 63 and gotten my hands on the Survivalist Pike. A very yummy hunter weapon. It is super easy to get quickly.

1. Get over to the little Sporregar quest dude - Gzhun'tt -  in the Spawning Glen to the very south east.

2. Go collect enough of the little Mature Spore Sac to get to friendly status - I think 40 or 50 is sufficient depending on how many giants you've killed so far.

3. Go back up to the Sporeggar village and get the quest "Now that we are friends". The quest is about killing 12 Bloodcrest Slavedrivers and 6 Bloodcrest Enchantresses...

4. Get back to Sporregar and get your polearm. It will last you a long time.

My biggest question is... what to enchant it with.. Intellect or Agility? I am leaning towards agility...

I've realized that I need to grind Thrallmar honor tokens for the Mark of Conquest. Seems like I am getting back to Hellfire for some PVP. I remember that type of world PVP to be boring at best. Running back and forth to the various points and getting slaughtered by level 70 druids in between. Lots of corpse running.

Ding 62, bye bye Hellfire

So I squared my bloodelf shoulders and grinded onward... almost all Hellfire quests done as well as quite a few in the neighbouring Zangarmarsh. It took me quite awhile though... and altism caught me a few times. I have a little rogue that is helping me through tough times. It possibly my 5th or 6th rogue...

Somewhere around the end of the quests in Hellfire I also managed to get honored with Thrallmar. That allowed me to pick up two Grunt's Waraxe for some dual wielding fun. Unfortunately my Axes skill was at an amazing zero. A scroll of intellect and an hour in SM later my axe skill was up to par... One thing that I thought of while levelling is that the gear I've gotten from quests boost agility or AP but generally lack stamina. Most of my 58 gear was really stamina and agility balanced.. I started level 60 at above 5k hp and its been declining since. Now I've gotten back up above 5k again. I really need to start focusing a bit more on stamina or I'll have a hard time in PVP situations.

Stamina is king... agility is a mere prince in my humble opinion.

Hellfire Peninsula - a major drag?

My God, the Hellfire Peninsula is boring. I made up my mind to skip the Thrallmar repgrinding via instances before taking on the quests. Instead I would blast past the area much faster. But there is something very boring with the area in general. Now I love Zangarmarsh and the other Outlands zones but Hellfire just kills me.

I've cleared the initial Thrallmar quests and are now busy with the ones you get from the southern outpost. Its back and forth into Zeth'Gor, killing undead spectres and gathering various herbs. Bleh. These quests are not radically different from those you get from other zones but the mobs are quite densely packed in a very open landscape. Add the roaming 70ies that can't resist the urge of swooping down on an unsuspecting victim... Actually I am usually not bitter about high-level ganking because it adds a certain spice to the gameplay experience. A bit of random difficultness. And there is nothing like actually beating or at least escaping the bullies.

I guess I just need to square my shoulders and grind on. I do send loving peeks at Alterac Valley... PVP is what I play for these days.

The Little Big Ding!

My hunter hit the little big ding - 60 last week. Awesome. With my hard earned honor I went ahead and bough the level 60 PVP gun - [Warlord's Street Sweeper]- and went through the portal. I am in no big hurry to level all the way to 70 at once.

Just a few hours into the Outlands grinding (I need 350 [Unidentified Plant Parts] for the Cenarion rep) I decided to go back to Azeroth to get the last few skill points in fishing & cooking. Man, fishing is boring. I did get it from 240 all the way to 260 before I lost patience.

Oh, and I got a new pet. I finally got rid of the Winterspring Owl I had. While it looked great and all I f ound it very annoying in combat. Always in the way for targeting (re-targeting). I now have a Frostsaber... its a real beauty and I've named it: Lovelace.

I'll see if I can manage an hour of fishing before returning back to the Outlands now that I have a fish eating pet...