I’ve set the old address, and all the old links to redirect to the new address, so those should all still work, but the new posts will all only appear on the new domain.

I’m using the same theme as before for now, however it’s a much older version of it, so I’ve got some fixin’ up to do.  Soon enough I’ll start using a shiny new theme, but that’ll come later!

Make sure you update your links and bookmarks to the new Mend Pet and your RSS feed to the new RSS Feed!

And nooooww… I am powered by Wowhead!  Look!  [22 Pound Catfish]

I’ve gotten several of the achievements done already, and I figured I could try to write a handy guide for anyone trying for the Merrymaker title.

[Merrymaker] requires 12 other achievements to be completed.  Below, I have a list of these achievements and how to go about completing them.

[On Metzen!] Save Metzen the Reindeer.

You can pick up the quest for this from Kaymard Copperpinch outside of the Auction House in Orgrimmar, or Wulmort Jinglepocket outside the bank in Ironforge.  You’ll receive some ransom letters about Metzen, and the two locations you can find him.  One location is in Tanaris, in Lost Rigger Cove guarded by Southsea pirates (68, 41).  The other location is in Searing Gorge (70, 34).  In both locations, he is guarded by 4 mobs, with levels ranging from 44-47, so if you’re at a low level, you’ll probably want to bring help.  You just need to talk to Metzen and use the reindeer dust on him to save him.

[Scrooge] Throw a snowball at Cairne Bloodhoof during the Feast of Winter Veil. OR Throw a snowball at King Magni Bronzebeard during the Feast of Winter Veil.

If you’re looking for snowballs, there are a fewways to get them this time of year.  They can be purchased from Smokeywood Pastures vendors, engineers can craft a Snowmaster 9000, which turns water into snowballs.  You can also get free snowballs from the ground in Alterac Mountains, where you will have to spend some time looking for The Abominable Greench.  Be sure to pick up the quest [The Reason for the Season] from your Smokywood Pasture friends, which will lead you to talk to Cairne or Bronzebeard anyway.

['Tis the Season] During the Feast of Winter Veil, wear 3 pieces of winter clothing and eat Graccu’s Mince Meat Fruitcake.

This is probably one of the harder ones to complete, or at least the most expensive.  You’re going to need 3 pieces of winter clothing:

• [Red Winter Hat] / [Green Winter Hat]: These drop from bosses in some regular (or heroic) WotLK instances.  The Red one is available from Grand Magus Telestra in The Nexus, and the Green one is available from Mage-Lord Urom in The Occulus.
• [Red Winter Clothes] (Alliance) / [Green Winter Clothes] (Horde): Tailoring 250. This pattern can be picked up from the Smokywood Pastures vendors in Orgrimmar or Ironforge, but you may also receive it in the mail from completing the Metzen or Greench quests.  You may want to wait til after you’ve done those, so you can save yourself a bit of cash!  I recommend farming the mats rather than buying them in the Auction House, because prices will be very elevated right now.
• [Winter Boots] : Leatherworking 250. Similar to the Clothes, these can be bought or received in the mail after doing the quests.

[Simply Abominable] Complete the quest to retrieve the stolen Smokywood Pastures’ stolen treats and receive a Smokywood Pastures’ Thank You.

You can pick up the quest for this from Kaymard Copperpinch outside of the Auction House in Orgrimmar, or Wulmort Jinglepocket outside the bank in Ironforge.  This sends you to Alterac Mountains, north of Hillsbrad Foothills, to locate a snowman (35, 72).  He’ll give you a quest to kill The Abominable Greench, which spawns every few minutes in the nearby area.  Unfortunately, you will probably not be the only one looking for him.  So here are some tips:
Check around the three spawn points: (30, 52), (29, 61) and (40, 73).  Which ever is least populated is probably the best place to wait.  He’ll spawn randomly at any of these locations.
Make a macro, and bind it to an easily spammable button.  Here is the one I used, and you can simply replace Arcane Shot with your own instant cast.

/target The Abominable Greench
/cast [exists] Arcane Shot

It’s good to team up with a few people, but keep in mind that if you are each waiting at different spawn points, it’s unlikely you will share the kill and all get the loot.  And don’t think you’ll be able to kite him to your friends, because everyone will attack him and kill him almost instantly.  In this case, it may be better to keep all your eggs in one basket.

[Bros. Before Ho Ho Ho's] Use Mistletoe on the Horde “Brothers” during the Feast of Winter Veil. OR Use Mistletoe on the Alliance “Brothers” during the Feast of Winter Veil.

To get mistletoe, you need to /kiss at the Winter Revelers inside any of the inns in the major cities.  You can only do this once an hour, and they will give you Mistletoe, Handful of Snowflakes (needed for another achievement) or Fresh Holly.  This achievement is quite different for Alliance and Horde, so I’ll break it down.
Horde:  There are 3 brothers to find.  Unfortunately, it looks like you’ll have to have Cold Weather Flying to finish it.   Brother Malach can be found around (51,22) in Undercity, Durkot Wolfbrother can be found at (40,54) in Borean Tundra, and Brother Keltan is found on the floating ship in Icecrown.  The only way to get to this is by using your flying mount or taking the flight path that comes from a quest in Dalaran (which you can’t do until you’ve purchased Cold Weather Flying).  So here’s hoping you’re 77 before the end of the festival!
Alliance:   There are quite a few more people to visit, but getting to them is easier at least.  Here’s a list of locations, in an order recommended by someone on WoWhead:

1. Brother Wilhelm – Goldshire near blacksmith (40.5, 65.2)
2. Brother Kristoff – Stormwind Cathedral Square (45.8, 38.7)
3. Brother Benjamin – Stormwind Cathedral, near pillars (41.1, 28.6)
4. Brother Joshua – Stormwind Cathedral, end of corridor (38.7, 26.8)
5. Brother Cassius – Stormwind Cathedral, inside the right room (43.3, 26.8)
6. Brother Crowley – Stormwind Cathedral, entrance to right catacombs (41.0, 26.1)
7. Brother Nimetz – Stranglethorn Vale, Rebel Camp (37.9, 3.6)
8. Brother Karman – Theramore, with the practise dummies (67.3, 47.4)
9. Brother Anton – Nijel’s Point, Desolace on the balcony of the inn(66.5, 7.8)

[He Knows If You've Been Naughty] Open one of the presents underneath the Winter Veil tree once they are available.

The presents aren’t available until the morning of December 25th, however, they will continue to be available until the end of the festival, January 2nd.  So you don’t have to log in Christmas day to get this.  If you still have a present from the previous year, I’ve heard you can open that and get the achievement.

[With a Little Helper from My Friends] Earn 50 honorable kills as a Little Helper from the Winter Wondervolt machine.

The Winter Wondervolt machines can be found outside of Ogrimmar and Ironforge, as well as in the centre of Dalaran.  The costume doesn’t persist through death, and bad news for Feral Druids:  It is canceled when you shape shift.  But 50 honorable kills are pretty easy to come by over 2 weeks if you just put on the costume and hop in an AV queue.  Be sure to keep an eye out for any of the race/class combinations for Let it Snow!

[Fa-la-la-la-Ogri'la] Complete the Bomb Them Again! quest while mounted on a flying reindeer during the Feast of Winter Veil.

Pretty simple if you’ve done the [Bomb Them Again!] from Ogri’la.  You’ll need to get your hands on some Preserved Holly which can be obtained from the quest to save Metzen the Reindeer, and afterward can be bought from the quest giver for 5 gold and 1 deeprock salt.  These also are not Bind on Pickup, so you can trade them.  If you haven’t done the pre-Ogri’la quests, you’ll have to do those first, they start at Mog’dorg the Wizened.  Note:  You will also need to have a real flying mount to turn this in.  Sorry again, druids!  However, you do NOT have to be on a reindeer when you actually do the quest – you just need to be on a flying reindeer when you turn it in.

[Crashin' & Thrashin'] Gain 25 crashes with your Crashin’ Thrashin’ Racer during the Feast of Winter Veil.

When the presents under the Christmas tree are unlocked on the 25th of December, you’ll have a chance to get one of these from the gifts.  Like the Clockwork Robot of last year.  However, it’s got a very familiar look to it…

[Let It Snow] During the Feast of Winter Veil, use a Handful of Snowflakes on each of the race/class combinations listed below.

You can get Handfuls of Snowflakes by doing a /kiss to a Winter Reveler in any major inn.  There is a chance at getting Mistletoe or Fresh Holly as well, which will be useful anyway.  You can only do this once an hour, so be sure to hit the inn as often as you can to get enough!  This achievement can be completed in towns, including sanctuaries, so hang around the other faction’s side of the city if you want to watch out for some of those combinations.  You can also do this in arenas and battlegrounds, which is a bit more of a challenge!  Speaking as a Troll Hunter, I’m looking forward to having snowflakes constantly floating over my head!

[The Winter Veil Gourmet] During the Feast of Winter Veil, use your culinary expertise to produce a Gingerbread Cookie, Egg Nog and Hot Apple Cider.

This will require you to have at least a 325 cooking skill.  The three recipes are available, like any of the other holiday patterns, either by purchasing them from the Smokywood vendors or as a random quest reward in the mail.  The only mat for these that you cannot buy in your home city is Small Eggs.  For Horde, I recommend taking a quick trip to Thunder Bluff and searching around Mulgore for Swoops and Plainstriders, or to Eversong Woods to kill Dragonhawks.  You can pick up a few pretty quickly.  For Alliance, head to Darkshore where you can find a camp of Owlkin as well as Plainstriders who will drop these for you.  Please do not buy them on the Auction House.  Price gouging is not cool.  Also, note that you can’t get the achievement by just having these items or by eating/drinking them.  You need to actually craft them!  If you would like to finish the Treats for Greatfather Winter quest at the same time, you’ll need to pick up at least 6 eggs.

[A Frosty Shake] During the Feast of Winter Veil, use your Winter Veil Disguise kit to become a snowman and then dance with another snowman in Dalaran.

The Winter Veil Disguise Kit is a reward from completing the Stolen Treats quest, to kill the Abominable Greench (this will also get an achievement in itself).  It’s not a direct reward, but you will receive it in the mail shortly after completing the quest.  I’m sure there will be congregations of dancing snowmen in the Dalaran bank, that’s probably your best chance of finding another one.  You can get to Dalaran by mage portal or warlock summon if you are below level 74.

Hope this could help you on your way to becoming a Merrymaker!  Happy Winter Veil to all!

Friday, which was supposed to be a day full of heroics, didn’t end up being what I expected.  In the morning, I ran Heroic Utgarde Pinnacle, which of course (like everything else) I’d never been to before.  We made it through fine, but with no thanks to me.

I was a mess!  I don’t know what was wrong with me, but my DPS sucked, I kept face-pulling, and it’s probably a good thing they never asked me to trap.  Seriously, it was a mess.  By the end of the run, I was only about 4% ahead of THE TANK on the damage meters.  Ouch.

I felt like after they’d explained a boss fight to me, I’d immediately forget what they said.  I just was not focused.  I don’t think it helped that I’d never been there before and everyone else had, and I also had three cats vying for my attention, as well as my brother trying to have a conversation with me via text messages (I hate writing text messages!).

I picked up a pair of [Gilt-Edged Leather Gauntlets] in the end, but I actually felt guilty taking them – I didn’t contribute to the run, and didn’t feel like I deserved anything.

It’s probably good I didn’t end up running heroics all day with that group.  It probably would have just been more of the same!

After that, I continued to have more troubles with my computer, and wasn’t able to play most of the afternoon… but after I rebooted and let my video card take a nap, I managed to convince it to stay awake for a couple runs in the evening while  I helped Tigerfeet search for a new tanking staff.

We started in Heroic Black Morass Violet Hold.  It was lots of fun, and I love having Tiger as my tank, she’s a very good tank and more importantly, she is always very constructive and forgiving of silly little mistakes that we all make.  And for some reason, my complete lack of focus was gone!  Huzzah!  Misdirects for everyone!

We had a little trouble learning the second boss, which was Zuramat the Obliterator, the big Voidwalker type guy.  Apparently he is hailed as one of the most difficult heroic bosses around right now.  But after a couple of wipes and researching the exact mechanics, we had no problems… our Shaman healer got to purgin’ and we killed his little minions and all was well.

When we were done, while I walked away with [Twin-Headed Boots] but the staff didn’t drop, so we took our party to Heroic Utgarde Keep to have of either the staff or the crossbow dropping!

Finally, a heroic I’ve done before!  It went pretty smoothly, I can’t say we had any real troubles.  And congrats to Tigerfeet on her new [Enraged Feral Staff]!

I think I’m comfortable with running heroics now.  Which puts me a little more at ease about possibly jumping straight into 25-man raiding next week.  I’d rather get some practice in 10-mans first, but it seems the guild’s priority is to jump right past that.

It went decently, but I’ll go into more detail about that tomorrow on this week’s edition of This Week in Raiding!

Unfortunately, it seems I’ve been hit with the “ur graphix sux” bug.  My video card is lasting less and less time whenever I log in – I believe it’s overheating.  My game graphics freeze up: it’s like looking at a screenshot.  Only it tortures me by still playing the sounds fine.  I can hear myself getting attacked, but I’ve no way to defend myself.

So with that, it looks like I won’t be playing at all this weekend.  If I can conjure up some transportation, I will probably head out and try to find some upgrades for my hunk-o-junk PC.

In other news,  I spent yesterday catching up on watching some of my lectures before my exam.  And I’ve found that I can quite easily fish and pay attention to the Prof at the same time.

So yesterday was Achievement day!

I started off by finishing of my [Northrend Angler] achievement.  Then I went to the old world, and picked up [The Scavenger] and [The Fishing Diplomat].  Here’s a quick tip on that one if you’re Horde – you can just swim around to where the Stormwind Harbour is and get the achievement without ever passing the gates!  Sneaky!

Then I thought to myself… “Brajana the Salty”. Okay, it doesn’t sound good.  But at least it’s different!  So I ventured off to finish the rest of the required achievements.

Unfortunately, there’s a lot of luck involved in those.  I’ve never been able to pick up Mr. Pinchy, and I have no idea how long I’d have to sit in front of that fountain to catch all those coins…

So then I thought to myself… “Chef Brajana”.  Hm.  That sounds better!  And there is a lot less luck involved in those babies.  I finished up the 1st level of [Northerend Gourmet] and in the process, got [Second that Emotion].  With my quondam luck in BC, I already had the rare recipes from the dailies, so that helped with [Outland Gourmet].

Also I did one of the most fun achievements in the game, [Critter Gitter].  Wow.  I love those Critter Bites!

My Eeevil Penguin Army!

Anyway, while I was well on my way to finishing off the whole thing for the title, I happened accross an interesting fact on Wowhead.  This title is NOT possible to complete at this time.

Grrr.  4 recipes are missing from the game, and you need to know 3/4 of them to get the final achievement for 45 recipes in Northrend.

I was very disappointed.  But it’s not going to stop me – they’ll fix it someday, and I want to be ready to get it when they do!

All in all, it was a productive Achievement day.  Now if only I could get in the game now to do some REAL playing…

Today, I’ve got one of the scariest final exams I’ve ever had. So the last two days have been exclusively study time (except my dailies of course!) I also have a second final tomorrow, so once I get home from this one, it’s straight back to studying. Boo.

And here’s where I go all non-WoW and ranty. The transit service in my city has decided to go on strike today. Which means students like me have to find alternate means for getting to their exams, people have to take time off work, spend money on taxis, try desperately to find people with cars willing to take time out of their day to drive them around in the middle of a winter storm. They claim of course this strike isn’t about money. It’s about respect, they want more sick days and better scheduling (although they ALSO want a 10.5% pay increase). What I’d like to know, is how they expect respect when they disrupt an entire city, and hold the city as a hostage? I don’t respect that. They won’t be receiving any additional respect from me.  It’s not as if their quondam service has improved in the last several years, so why should their pay?  We have an economic crisis on our hands, and they expect to get more money.  All the while, punishing those who have nothing to do with their pay, who depend daily on them to keep their lives running.  I would like to know why transit service is not considered an essential service yet.

Anyway…

After I’m done finals on Thursday, I’ve got a full day of Heroics scheduled for Friday!  I’m going to try out some new macros and new rotations and try to post some results.

I’m also going to work on crafting some more of the Swiftarrow Set and other leatherworking pieces to replace a few more of my BC level stuffs!  Brajana wants loots!

\KWAHN-duhm; KWAHN-dam\, adjective:
Having been formerly; former; sometime.

Example:  My quondam ability to post on schedule is sure to return once exams and the holidays are over!

Nope.  Instead of skipping right to raiding and heroics, I took a trip to regular Oculus with a couple other newly 80 guildies, and a couple not so newly 80.  And it turns out running something on regular was a really good idea.  It turns out I haven’t run any instances since around 72-73… and other than those 4 times I ran instances then, I haven’t run a 5-man instance in many a month.  I was rusty, it was pretty clear.  I was running around all flummoxed, not used to it being more than just Hanno and me.

No sending my gorilla in and rounding things up, then volleying.  No, now I have to pay attention to which target I and my pet are on!  And I have to pay attention to when my cooldowns are up!  I admit I forgot to use kill shot about half the run… even though it gives me a little notice when I can use it, I’m so used to ignoring the notice that I just seemed to skip it.

But in the end, I started to get back into the swing of things.  I am glad I had guildies there to not think I was a total noob.

You shoulda seen me running around trying to find the entrance to the instance.  I’ve decided the minimap should be 3 dimensional.

If I’d PUG’d myself, I’d have kicked myself before the run even started!

Anyway, it was hunter night in Oculus apparently, and I could have picked up 3 upgrades.  I grabbed the [Wyrmclaw Battleaxe], the [Centrifuge Core Cloak] and passed on the [Spaulders of Skillful Maneuvers] since I’m going to be making new shoulders soon anyway (but I won the roll for the shard!)

All in all, it was nice to be back to running things and being part of a group.

While I didn’t get to go to Naxxramas, <Unemployed> had quite a successful week.  The got quite a few bosses down.  I just hope I get a chance to get in there before they clear it all!

Brajana – Level 80 Troll Hunter

• Skinning: 450
• Leatherworking: 424
• First Aid: 450
• Fishing: 392
• Cooking: 400

There were about 16-17 level 80 characters signed up with hopes of raiding with the guild last night.  This is understandable, since just a couple of months ago, we were having 25+ people sign up for raiding regularly, and we’ve gotten several new recruits since our BC raiding days.

But Naxx is only a 10 man raid.  Which means once our 25 raiders get to 80, only 10 of them will be getting to raid each night.  We could possibly build a second group if we have proper class balance, but even then, that means at least 5 people are being left out each raid night.  And I think there is a limit to how often people would like to be told to go run heroics instead, since eventually that’s not what they’ll be wanting to sign up for.

One of the things I have been most excited about is getting into the new raids and being present for some more guild first, feeling like I’m part of a team who works together 3 days a week.  Although I’m not a raid leader and I don’t really get to hear about the decisions the leaders make about who gets to go, these are the only possibilities I can see coming to pass:

1. We run 2 groups, 1 of the ‘top geared heavy hitters’ and 1 of the people who took too long to get to 80.
2. We swap around groups, alternating which people are in which group, thus causing problems coordinating people and strategies since there are no solid teams, and leaving people disappointed for being benched at the last minute.
3. Raid nights get split up, and we have two groups running different days, so those with multiple 80s can get in on the action every day of the week, and people don’t have to deal with being benched when they are sitting there waiting for invites at raid time.

I can’t really say which option I think is the best.  They all have pretty big downsides, and I do not look forward to any drama to come.

I understand that the guild wants to do what’s best for the guild as a whole, and that a lot of people are focused on progressing as quickly as possible.  Which means, since it is taking me a couple more weeks than everyone else to get to 80, I may not get much chance of raiding with the people I want to, or with the frequency I’d like.  It’s likely I’ll be the 5th hunter in <Unemployed> to reach level 80, which makes my prospects of getting into a 10 man raid pretty grim.  But my concern is not just for myself, I don’t want any of our raiders feeling left out.

I’d like to say, I do not regret my decision to take things slow in Wrath.  I’m really enjoying each level and the experiences I’m gaining through them.  I’m glad I focused on school when it was necessary, and spending my weekends with my dear Dwarf Hunter are much more important than rushing to 80.  I just hope my decision doesn’t cost me in the end.

I can’t be the only person who is flummoxed by the math here.  I’m sure there are other guilds who had 25 raiders who are returning and looking for more of the same intense progression and action.  It’s a tough decision, and I do not envy any raid leaders who have to make it.  How do you take 25+ people and stick them into a raid that only fits 10 (or possibly 20)?

Brajana – Level 78 Troll Hunter

• Skinning: 450
• Leatherworking: 424
• First Aid: 418
• Fishing: 392
• Cooking: 400

Boy was it fun!  We headed out to the Basin and we’d get on our mounts, we’d each head in a different direction, meet in the middle and AoE down 6 or 7 mobs at once.  Even got him some herbs from the flower mob thingies!

I picked up about 120 [Borean Leather], which isn’t that much when you make it heavy, but with the leather I’d already picked up from questing in Sholazar, it was enough to get me from 413 to 421!  I made a couple [Bag of Endless Pockets] for Raks and another guildy, and went and picked up a couple new patterns.

I put my giant list to use and figured out what upgrades I wanted to have ready for when I hit 78.

I spent another hour farming [Icy Dragonscales].  They drop more than I was expecting, and I had 40 pretty quickly.  I decided to make [Dragonstompers] now, since they only require level 77, and then once the servers are back up after today’s extended maintenance I’ll farm some more so I can craft up my [Eaglebane Bracers].

Oh, and I need to figure out where to farm [Eternal Fire] for my [Virulent Spaulders], no way I’m paying 120 gold for 2 of ‘em!  I was a little flummoxed about whether the upgrade was worth it, because new shoulders will break my T5 healy pet bonus, which I love to bits and pieces… but I figure I can always keep my [Rift Stalker Mantle] on hand for when my pet might be taking serious damage.

Brajana – Level 77 Troll Hunter

• Skinning: 450
• Leatherworking: 422
• First Aid: 413
• Fishing: 392
• Cooking: 400