Calico Cloth "set"

Another "junk" outfit, collected while farming near Ratchet.

Farming with Fflur

Haven't played "Heledd" for a week or so, since I transferred her to my main's server (and had to change her name in the process, making this blog's title a bit irrelevant). Once her rested bonus was used up I switched back to my main, Fflur, a level 80 rogue that I've been playing, on and off, for nearly two years. During those two years, with the exception of some boosts with a friend and a couple of runs through the Nexus, Fflur has been played pretty much solo. That may change some time in the future -- if I get sick of looking at her gear, for instance -- but since I've recently decided to go for the Insane in the Membrane Feat of Strength, she's going to be a lonely rogue for at least a little while longer.

I've already got most of the required reputations into "revered", and am currently working on pushing the four goblin reps up to exalted, by farming pirates near Ratchet initially. No, I haven't done the Bloodsail grind yet, and I realise there's no official consensus on whether you need to be Honored with them at the same time as being Revered with the various goblin towns, but from what I've been able to stitch together, it seems more likely than not that doing things this way around (i.e. getting exalted with goblins first, then trashing that rep to work on Bloodsail, and finally repairing goblin rep by handing in cloth) should work.

If it doesn't, and I have to grind goblin rep all the way from Hated back to Exalted, I won't be very happy, but it's worth the gamble. Since I've already got Loremaster and Seeker titles, I've obviously completed just about every quest the goblins can throw at me - it'd be a shame to waste all that good rep. I reckon I'm about 75% certain that this is going to work.

The other (relatively minor) controversy around grinding Insane goblin rep, is whether doing the Dire Maul quest Free Knot! is more effective than simply farming the pirates in the Barrens, Tanaris and/or STV. The main argument seems to be that since you're going to need to farm Libra in DM anyway, for the Shen'dralar hand-ins, you might as well pick up the "free" goblin rep while you're there. Having done a few DM runs yesterday, I've decided to go for the pirates instead. The drop-rate for the Libra is tiny (I've had 1 drop in four complete clears of DM North), and DM is such a slow instance in terms of downtime and running between mobs, that I reckon I can make more money running Stratholme (for the Baron's mount), and just buy the Libra on the AH. One bonus of farming in the Barrens, is the (admitedly tiny) possibility of finding Recipe: Savory Deviate Delight - I've had one drop so far, and with a selling price of over 2k on my server, that's worth between 6 and 8 of the various Libra I've been buying. If it sells, of course.

To break the monotony of farming trivial mobs, I've taken to collecting "junk" armor sets. The Warped Leather "set" I'm wearing in the screenshot is such a nice looking collection that I might keep it for fishin' purposes.

Named Pet #2 - Ol' Sooty

Probably won't keep this one, but just tamed Ol' Sooty, just minutes after killing another version of him for a quest. I'm so fickle.

Bow #27 - Quillshooter

Just remembered to check the Auction House again before going back to Loch Modan to finish up the lowbie quests, and there was Quillshooter, a full +5DPS on the Harpyclaw Short Bow, which I spent 85g on without even getting a chance to use it.

According to the notes at WowHead, this one can be troublesome, as its special attack can pull aggro away from the pet. Best stick with tanking pets, once I get back to fighting things that can fight back.

Bow #26 - Taut Compound Bow

The Taut Compound Bow is a vendortrash world drop, that I happened to find in the AH for a few silver.

Bow #25 - Harpyclaw Short Bow

Another blue bow from the Auction House, and my most expensive bow so far, the Harpyclaw Short Bow cost me 85g. It's a fast weapon, but I can't find any reason (other than wasting ammo) to prefer a slow bow to a fast one, so I'm not too worried about that. Besides, soloing a hunter is a piece of cake compared to my previous experience of levelling.

Rare Spawn #17 - Boss Galgosh

Galgosh, the Stonesplinter Chieftain, hangs out in Ironband's Excavation. He dropped the Block Mallet.

Bow #24 - Daryl's Hunting Bow

Daryl's Hunting Bow is the first quest reward from the series of timed quests at Farstrider Lodge. As far as I can remember, this is the first bow I've had as a quest reward.

Rare Spawn #16 - Grizlak

Found this rare kobold in the Silver Stream mine. He dropped his cloak.

Bow #23 - Feeble Shortbow

Found the Feeble Shortbow in a chest in Stonesplinter Valley, doing the trogg quests for Ironforge rep. Grey bows might be the trickiest to find, since they're unlikely to crop up in the Auction House, unless there's more saddoes like me on the server.

Named Pet #1 - Mangeclaw

Because collecting bows isn't enough pointlessness for one toon, I'm going to try to tame as many "named" beasts as possible, as well. Already missed a few, I expect, although my stabled cat, Rhithwen, almost qualifies, as she's a Ghost Saber.

This little beaty, my first bear, is Mangeclaw, and she's part of a little quest chain chain at South Gate, Dun Moragh. She's the lowest level white bear in the game. Maybe she'll replace my old faithful crab as tanking pet of choice.

Rare Spawn #15 - Edan the Howler

Mopping up the lowbie quests in dwarfland, came across this fellah in the back of the wendigo cave. He dropped a Bloodstained Knife.

Rare Spawn #14 - Lord Malathrom

Found Lord Malathrom lurking in one of the side-crypts in the Duskwood catacombs, and he very kindly dropped the Spiked Collar (Use: Summons a guardian felhunter that will protect you for 1 hour). Looking forward to playing with that, possibly when I go and mop up lowbie Qs later on, since it apparently is more trouble than it's worth around "real" mobs.

Bow #22 - Reinforced Bow

The Reinforced Bow, also from Lina in Stormwind.

Bow #21 - Polished Shortbow

Bought a couple of simple bows from Lina Stover, in Stormwind. The Polished Shortbow cost me 60c, which makes a pleasant change.

Bow #20 - Ranger Bow

This is where my collecting fetish starts getting silly. This Ranger Bow is the first blue quality weapon I've seen in the AH, it cost just under 50g, and it's not quite as good as the green bow I already had. But since I've started collecting, and since it's not enough to simply buy the thing but I have to equip it and take a screenshot from the log-in screen, that's an instant 50g down the drain.

I will have to transfer this toon to my main's server, or I'll run out of gold.

Still, it's a pretty bow. Maybe I'll use it anyway. The +1 Agility makes up for some of the DPS loss.

Bow #19 - Precision Bow

Picked up a cheapish Precision Bow from the AH while visting SW to buy herbs for Seasoned Wolf Kabobs.

Found the next bow, my first blue, at the same time.

Leatherworking update

While I'm in town, working on my Leatherworking to get it up to 150, by making Dark Leather Belts. I'm following the Economical leatherworking training guide on WowWiki, which seems pretty straightforward.

Bow #18 - Long Redwood Bow

The Long Redwood is a level 30 bow, and does a little bit more DPS than anything else I've found so far, so I'm going with this for now. It's also the prettiest bow so far, with metallic detailing around the grip and at the tips of the bow.

Bow #17 - Whipwood Recurve Bow

The Whipwood Recurve Bow is a little bit faster than the Ravenwood, has the same model (but without the silverwork around the grip), and may be my bow of choice for a while. I'm such a newbie huntard that I'm not really sure if I do more damage with a faster bow or not. I'll probably get around to looking it up one of these days.

Bow #16 - Ravenwood Bow

Passing through Stormwind on my way to STV, and there are three new bows in the Auction House to add to my collection. The first is a Ravenwood Bow, which I probably won't use at all, since it's neither the fastest or the hardest hitting of the 3. It is the first bow to have any significant detailing on the model, though, so for that I salute you, otherwise useless bow.

Bow #15 - Reinforced Bow

The Reinforced Bow is another vendor bought item, again from the bowyer in Booty Bay.

Bow #14 - Heavy Recurve Bow

Picked up a Heavy Recurve Bow from the bowyer in Booty Bay, while picking up the FP there.

Bow #13 - Archer's Longbow

Picked up an Archer's Lowbow in the AH for a few G, a slight improvement over my previous bow. Almost all the rest of my kit is lowbie stuff that needs replacing, but there's very little available in the AH. I picked up some Dusky Leather Leggings as well, so Heledd is still looking pretty gothed up. The new gloves are Wolfclaws, a slight improvement over the previous quest reward ones, but a bit pricy too.

Rare Spawn #13 - Prince Raze

Back again after a bit of a break, and lots of lovely rest bonus to use up. I'm probably going to transfer Heledd onto a different server once she reaches level 30 - I can't bring myself to transfer before then, because I'd have to leave a good chunk of gold behind.

Working my way through the Qs in Ashenvale, came across this guy in Xavian. Easy enough, despite the 4 levels difference, and the add. He dropped a Durable Hat of the Whale, which was a stroke of luck, as I'd completely forgotten about hats being available at this level, and was bare-headed.

Back to Darnassus to train level 28 and level up Leatherworking a bit more. Getting behind with that, since I didn't want to waste gold on powerlevelling. The beasts at my level are now dropping Medium Leather, which I can't use yet, so I might pop over to the Wetlands to farm dinosaurs for a bit.