Blazewing's Furious Kilt and the AH

There are two items on the Shifting Perspectives gear list that are BoE, and both come from rare spawns. The first is Blazewing's Furious Kilt and the second is Tarvus's Poison-Scarred Boots. I've flown through the cave for Tarvus four or five times (seen Lucy on Proudmoore there twice, camping), but no boots yet. Blazewing is in Mount Hyjal, and since that's not part of my circuit, I haven't tried to find him.

I've also been keeping an eye for Blaze's Kilt on the AH. It typically goes for 4-5k asking price for buy out on Proudmoore in the last week or so. I've bid once for 2000g and was outbid. (I've yet to see the boots, fwiw.)

Well, today I'm on for a few minutes, and catch it for 1056g buyout. Stupidly, I waited a few seconds before buying to make sure it wasn't the wrong thing, and luckily it was still there when I recovered. Mine. All mine!

But, um, now what? The next Kilt is up for 3400g buyout. Do I try to make cash or wear the kilt? 2000g is a lot of LW mats.

I listed it. And an hour later, it's gone. For 3142g. /jawDrop Nice. I cleared over 2000g in an hour. I'm still stunned, and stunned worse than the free leather in Tol Barad.

I'm not sure if I made the right decision. I mean, making Pristine Hides might be a better way to make cash, and I may never get better pants with the limited gaming I've been doing. I'll see how close 2000g gets me to the Chestguard and get back to you.

Ah, and I should add, I've found the Mobile Armory to be a painfully addictive timesink while looking for these two items on the AH.

Finkle's skinner in the bag

If you were wondering about soloing Upper Blackrock Spire (UBRS) at 85, it's straightforward and easy. You can honestly DPS (lots of Starfall and Hurricane) your way through the whole thing like a demigod, no problem. Lots of runecloth and rugged leather if you've got too much time on your hands.

The only pain is the amount of time it takes to beat the Rend Blackhand waves in the Coliseum or whatever. Hint: Don't walk through the big gate. It makes it easier to kill all the mobs quickly (they spawn immediately), but if you watch some of the dopes walk into the coliseum proper, the gate eventually closes back on you. Rend declares victory, and you have to hearth out.

I remember trying to sneak in via the balcony with a guildie back when we weren't quite level appropriate and waxing a few orcs before deciding to sneak on back out.

If you're not familiar with BRS, there's a good YouTube video that WoWwiki links.



In any event, after two tries on The Beast, that's a good +10 skinning now. The bad is that it's another spot in the bag even though it's a skinning knife; I still need the Gnomish Army Knife for its flint & tender. The good is that it'll live in the leatherworking bag... as will the army knife, it turns out. If that's not a change, I've been a dope for years.

And, of course, going to UBRS has some fringe benefits.

Gear from PUGging > Gear from rep?

Honestly, I feel the same way as I did in Wrath. I'm just barely strong enough to PUG now, and I've run Grim Batol and Halls of Origination down. And, of course, I'm also starting to get gear I feel I don't deserve (I'm maxing out at about 30% DPS on bosses; much less on trash) that ruins any gear chasing guide.

So the TL:DR version of this post is: Run instances for gear until you're done! The Aessina-Blessed Gloves are really the only no-brainer so far of gear to get via rep. Level 346 for rep I've already got...

I bagged Anhurr's Hymnal from Halls, level 333.

From Grim Batol, I just Needed the Staff of Siphoned Essences, level 333 (see a pattern?) and bagged the Helm of Secret Knowledge from Kill the Courier.

The helm really isn't worth much, though it was the best of the quest reward choices for Jal. Without INT and SPI, it's not really going to make the gear rotation. I looked, and I can only get 63 spirit on there by reforging. What's the point? I hadn't really read up on reforging, but had hoped to get lots more out of it. The helm's art even looks a little, well, odd. I'll also admit I thought spell crit and physical crit had been rolled into one like spellpower did with damage and healing. They haven't. /sigh

(I also didn't know Wild Quilvine is toast now. Well, duh. There's no more MotW, dude.)


Regardless, the Helm, too, is 333.

If I keep bagging a 333 every normal dungeon run, my long, slow march through Wildhammer rep might not be as useful as I'd thought. It's really more fun to PUG than grind, though, again, I'm not DPSing as well as I'd like yet and feel a little like I'm mooching. That doesn't happen when I'm making a a Beer Run.


My equally slow march through Leatherworking to make the Chestguard of Nature's Fury might not be as pertinent either, but since the Chestguard is level 359, I'm guessing I'll still be glad I did. And they sell for megabucks.

In other news, I'm upset I so quickly grabbed a staff with so little DPS. The days of the Panzerkin are over, though I do keep a melee DPS staff in my bag. And, finally, I need that Skinner, well, thirty minutes ago.

OMGWTFBBQ!! UNLIMTED FREE SAVAGE LEATHER IN TOL BARAD!!shift-1!

I promise not to make another post title like that again. At least any time soon. BUT OMGWTFBBQ!!!! This, my friends, is why soloers/PvErs run druids.

Travel Form + Hibernate == Unlimited, pain-free savage leather.

Ding! 85

And it's happened. I'm finally 85. And it seems appropriate I dinged while turning in Wildhammer reputation quests, as I'll be running that for quite a while.

Continuing the thread from my last few posts, I quickly picked up Aessina-Blessed Gloves (actually did that at 84; they req 85 to equip) and the Mantle of Wild Feathers, which is the Alliance version of Spaulders of the Endless Plains.

Though that bags me the steps Completed step [Shoulder] of achievement [Cataclysmically Superior]. - Tuesday, February 15, 2011 and Completed step [Hands] of achievement [Cataclysmically Superior]. - Tuesday, February 15, 2011, the bonuses are really pretty minor.



Once socketed, it'll be a little better, but still, minor gains. This ain't no tiered armor. ;^D

I started looking at Leatherworking guides like this one to see what it'd take to get to get to the Chestguard of Nature's Fury. I've been vulturing leather like crazy. There have been a few spots where, especially closer to Cat's release, people were smacking mobs and leaving corpses to skin like mad. But even then I've only got about 180 savage leathers and 21 dragonscales. I hate to cheap out, but with 5k gold in the bank, I'll at least take a glance at the AH today.

Also worth noting:
Oasis Bracers BoE drop, Lost City of the Tol'Vir

Shifting Perspectives at WoW Insider said these are BoE. WoWhead lists these as BoP and the comments seem to support that. Shifting seems to have gotten that wrong, so I'll need to 1.) Check the AH to double-check and 2.) Start looking for new bracers.

I think I'll keep running Wildhammer and start checking out Tol Barad. There are apparently a few good places to skin there as part of dailies.

And finally, of all the things I did during 84...

BEST! WEDDING! EVAR! *Hic*

Gear hunting

Okay, I took a look through Shifting Perspective's gear list, which nostalgeek suggested last time. It's a good list, though much is from heroic dungeons, which is probably beyond my part-time gatherer status.

There are many things that are easy enough to grab, though. I'm going to cut and paste a hacked version of the Shifting Perspectives list here which includes helm, neck, shoulders, chest, wrists, hands, and belt. I figured that was enough to start.

Much of the commentary is Caraway's (the post's author). I mark mine with -P. I've cut tons, though, so go "RTFA" (where F=Fabulous, I guess) for the rest of the info.

Tyler Caraway
http://wow.joystiq.com/2010/12/17/shifting-perspectives-balance-druid-pre-raid-gear-guide/#continued

Helms

• Cluster of Stars 2,200 justice points
• Helm of Reorigination Doing it the Hard Way, Halls of Origination

For your helm, the best choice to go for is honestly the Cluster of Stars. .... If you don't have enough to get it quite yet, then I would at least queue up to run normal Halls of Reorigination at least once so you can get the helm from a quest you'll find there.

Necks

• Yellow Smoke Pendant Dragonmaw / Wildhammer Exalted
• Eye of Many Deaths Jewelcrafting

Shoulders

• Spaulders of the Endless Plains Dragonmaw / Wildhammer Honored

Chests

• Wrap of the Fallen City The Fall of Neferset City, Uldum
• (There's some debate on wowhead on if the Chestguard of Nature's Fury is worth a rip or not. -P)

The quest reward from Uldum (note: This is apparently a really easy quest - P) is going to be the best chest that you can really get until you start heroics or purchase the JP one.

Wrists

• Oasis Bracers BoE drop, Lost City of the Tol'Vir

(Note that these are BoE and can be purchased on the Auction House! -P EDIT: WoWhead lists these as BoP and the comments seem to support that. Shifting Perspectives seems to have gotten that wrong. -P)

Hands

• Aessina-Blessed Gloves Guardians of Hyjal revered

To be perfectly honest, there isn't much reason to not go for the rep reward gloves, especially considering that you can reach revered merely by completing all of the quests in Hyjal. ...

Belts

• Withered Dream Belt Dragonmaw / Wildhammer exalted
• (The Lightning Lash is apparently about equal to the Wildhammer rep item, with some arguing its gem slot makes it BiS pre-raid. -P)

I'm honestly not even going to bother listing any other belts out there, because nothing compares to this belt at all. ...

Two things jump out.
1.) I should've already gotten the Aessina-Blessed Gloves but I haven't. I've finished HyJal, so I should be revered, it appears (green, above).

2.) Three of these items (and four on the whole list) are based on Wildhammer rep (yellow, above). Guess where I'm farming next?

3.) Okay, three. Wrap of the Fallen City seems easy to get iff you've done Uldum. I started there, but quickly went Highlands. I can't tell how many of these questlines you need to do, but it appears to require a few. I might not be pulling in the Wrap.

I'll admit that I'm miffed that none of this is Leatherworking craftable. /sigh There's some debate on wowhead on if the Chestguard of Nature's Fury is worth a rip or not. The Lightning Lash is apparently about equal to the Wildhammer rep item, with some arguing its gem slot makes it BiS pre-raid.

I'll add some of that and do more research.

One final bit: It looks like you might need a Finkle's Skinner to skin some bosses. It looks like The Beast is soloable now. Here's one guide. I really shoulda gotten this years ago. I'm also going to need some Pristine Hide if I'm going to craft the chestpiece instead of going to Uldum.

WoW Rookie: How to get up to speed for heroics

Wish they could name it something other than WoW Rookie, but that's the sort of guide I'd hoped to find for gearing. Not quite as detailed as I'd like, but a good start. Example...

Reputations

As we talked about a few weeks ago, Cataclysm reputations can provide significantly useful gear. There are 20 epic items available for purchase with reputations, all at item level 359. There are dozens of item level 346 items available.

This also gives decent starts to wowhead searches for, say, craftables. Here's the list narrowed to items that are Druid useable. Next, picking out what's good for Balance. Nothing gives spellpower, so it'll take a little bit of thinking.

I'd really have preferred to see a list of items by dungeon, but obviously it'd be a lot of work listing everything for each class and talent spec. I'll dig around some more and get balance specific.

Ding! 2 (for the guild!)

It finally happened. We really only have one active guild member at this point, and that's not me. I think I'm the second most active. The guild is sort of the end of a spinoff from my original guild, which split after getting serious, over-recruiting, and having the proverbial Guild Implosion (c) 2005.

It'll be nice to have a bonus 5% experience for the last half of 84, but the guild leader has already hit 85 (twice?!) so it's a little too late for him to get too excited. I feel kinda badly I put us over the edge into 2 while he wasn't on. I wonder if we all would see the Ding! on our screen. I'd imagine so... that'd be neat.

If I get geared enough to raid, I'll probably take my main to a new guild (the guild leader already did the same, so I'm not too worried that'll be a problem!). The folks in the guild are good, fun folk, but I don't see more than two on regularly any more.

Still, level 2! Woohoo!

I might also mention, since the pic is of the fishing daily in SW, that I finally bagged a Weather-beaten fishing hat, which Jal is wearing in the pic. Guess I won't feel badly about not making it to STV on Sundays any more.

And yes, I still need to clean my bags.