And we're back...

Lessons for those starting back up their main after a year or more away.

Lesson 1: Remember when you had a hard time getting the first move from Valor to Justice points straight? It happened again. Now there's there's some new schmoe selling your Stormrider Leggings as a novelty item for transmogs. And yes, for Justice Points.

Lesson 2: No, you don't have any Valor Points any more. They've all converted.

Lesson 3: Yes, there's a brand new set of Justice Point tiered gear.

Lesson 4: ALL THE DAGGUM WIKI SITES ARE OUT OF DATE. It's like 4.3 hasn't happened on wowwiki or wowpedia minus a few notes about 4.3 at the bottom of pages. Obviously there's some new great place to learn about armor sets, but I don't know what it is. ARGH. Okay. Calmer now.

Lesson 5: This will make getting Flaming Treants lots easier. That's really the take-home, and makes Jal very happy. You can see him smilin'. @ As I mentioned the last time currency swapped, my Justice Points essentially just became Valor Points. I've already got enough for the chestpiece. Wow. Sometimes, deflation is a good thing.


Seriously, I'm much happier that I've only got to run dailies to get my irrational prize. When Mists comes out, you'll be replacing all your purples with greens anyway. I'm kinda happy I didn't spend my time grabbing Valors, but then I haven't gotten a year's use out of them either.

And a very special thank you to the readers that offered to send me a scroll, and an especially big thanks to the two who did -- I'm afraid I caused a mix-up on the email (sent from the "blog" email, but needed the scroll at the account email), so I ended up with two. I haven't claimed an 80 yet. That's proving a tougher decision than I thought. It will be Horde, just so I can play over there a bit. It won't be a Death Knight. I can level from 55-80, but there's almost zero chance outside of Sandy of me going from 1-80. But I can't tell if it should be another druid -- let's face it, Sandy's taught me I really can't play another class without serious study -- or not. Maybe I could spec resto? Out of the box, indeed. You know, I like that idea.

Thanks again, readers, and it's fun to have Jal back, even though I just jumped in for a few minutes this evening.

So much for more emblems primer

Well, I"ve run a few more runs, and am up to 43 Emblems of Triumph, with two more pretty easily within reach after a run today. It's pretty much time to buy.

Here's my only question: Without WoWHead, WoW Wiki, or Thottbot, how was I supposed to figure out all the different choices for the emblems? That is, where is the in-game primer on emblems and gear? Because boy, I missed with my first swipe. Now that everyone's getting emblems thrown at them for logging on, it might be useful to include some info on them.

First, there's not just one person selling gear for emblems, there are, count 'em, at least three, and at least two are selling completely different stuff.

Two are at the tournament grounds.
Magistrix Iruvia (horde only? Didn't think to look)
Aspirant Forudir

And one in Dalaran (the only one I'd found previously):
Arcanist Miluria

And then some of these are Horde folk, and some are Alliance. Some items require battleground ratings. Some don't. Some are part of T9 and others are more expensive (and more powerful, if you don't plan to hit tier bonuses).

In any event, the state of things for n00bs like me sux0rz. I really don't have the time to sort through all this crap, and my social guild doesn't have another boomkin to give me their quick recommendation. I mean, heck, after looking through last night, my best bet appears to be to bag a ring or two. My current ring gear stinks too. But then I'll never grab even a 2t9 bonus.

Lets just say that there are options for gear upgrades that are much cheaper than I thought before, and there's no place that I've stumbled over yet that clearly explains the druid options for those who are only planning to earn enough EoTs to grab one or two pieces. /sigh



In other news, I've upgraded a few Cloth purples for Leather, got a Core Hound Pup in the mail, though I'm not sure why, ran Grundak (Heroic), and become Exalted with Sons of Hodir -- first exalted rep for Jal. Time to find another grind for my spare time.