The Routine

No matter what “the plan” is for the evening — whether it’s a raid night or not — my routine is similar:

1)  Log into Khiiya

The Death Knight is my scribe.  She’s yet to learn all the glyphs so she does the major and minor inscription research religiously.  She’s also the toon with Auctioneer enabled, so I funnel everything to sell from all my characters to her.

2)  Log into Khrii

The Druid is my chef, fisherman, and alchemist.  Khrii has been very lazy about the alchemy research, as she already knows the recipes for the two flasks Kaleyen and Khaeli need:  Flask of the Frost Wyrm and Flask of Endless Rage.  If she has the materials, she’ll do the research, but that’s a rarer occurrence than a transmutation proc.  Her primary duty is to do the cooking daily every day.  She knows all the recipes, save the Fish Feast, and has over 30 Dalaran Cooking Awards stockpiled, but Khrii does the daily nonetheless.

3)  Log into Khaeli

The Priest is my jewelcrafter.  She picks up the JC daily and hopes that Kaleyen hasn’t done it yet as it’s ever so much easier to just autofollow him while he one shots Scourge/Shoveltusks/Vyrkul/etc.  Kaleyen also buys her the gems needed for the quest — extra bonus.  She should probably make an Icy Prism every day, but as she hasn’t been too diligent lately about running heroics, so she has neither the Frozen Orbs nor the badges to buy them.  Khaeli used to sell the Dragon’s Eye gems, but the market has collapsed for those; now she saves the tokens, much like Khrii does with the cooking rewards.  Once 3.1 hits, she’ll probably buy some more recipes and/or try selling the gems again.

Khaeli is exalted with all the Northrend factions, so other than the JC daily, the only quest she bothers with is the “Hyldnir Spoils” one in Storm Peaks.

Once a week, she returns to the Oracles to buy a new egg.  (Yesterday, she received the proto-drake whelp, which she sent to promptly sent to Khiiya to sell.)

4)  The Main Event

Once all my characters have completed their tasks, K- and I determine what we’re working on for the evening:  raiding, leveling alts, instances, BGs, etc.  Sometimes we have particular “projects” that we focus on:  making the Nobles Deck, for example, or working on the Kara key questline or “the Explorer” achievement.

What do you make sure your characters accomplish every day?  What’s your routine?

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Beward the Ides of March!

Much like Caesar, some Death Knights feel they’re invulnerable and supreme, arguing that as the first “hero class” they deserve never to be nerfed or tweaked or removed from 2200+ arena teams.  I’d argue that “hero class” means merely that Death Knights start at level 55 rather than level 1, and as characters who already have a history (pardon the RP here) — even if it’s in the service of Arthas — they (re)join the Alliance or the Horde with some very nice gear.

As such, Death Knights enter the Outlands at level 58 in all blues, gear that will tie them over for many, many levels.  Unlike other characters who (sadly) walk around in hideous mismatched armor and who find upgrades on the first greens that drop from the boars outside of Honor Hold, DKs needn’t feel any pressure to run the Outland instances or complete most Outlands questlines for anything other than XP.

That being said, there are three questlines that DKs shouldn’t miss while leveling.  The final reward for each of these is a weapon, a nice item for any class as weapons contain the most bang-for-the-buck stats (triple digit spellpower, for example) and sexiest enchants (such as Mongoose); but for a DK, it’s an essential.  By completing these quests, a DK will have a solid weapon that will take them from their starting weapon, through Outlands and Northrend leveling to (likely) the Blacksmith crafted mace upon hitting level 80.

1)  The Ring of Blood
Required Level:  65
This six quest series can be picked up from Gurgthock in Nagrand, in the Ring of Blood (duh) just west of the Laughing Skull ruins.   The quests will net you over 80,000 XP and 80 gold (plus some potions and bandages).   While the quest recommends five players, it can easily be accomplished with fewer, even if you’re doing this with level-appropriate characters.
Final Reward:  Honed Voidaxe

2) The Last Rites
Required Level:  68
This four quest series starts in the Borean Tundra, near The Death’s Stand.  This quest will net you about 60,000 XP and about 20 gold.  (There’s also a nice trinket reward along the way, Death Knight’s Anguish).  The first three parts are soloable; the last boss Prince Valanar, can be duoed with another player your level, as long as you watch out for his Soul Deflection damage-reflect.
Final Reward:  Axe of Frozen Death

3) The Amphitheater of Anguish
Required Level:  75
This six quest series starts with our buddy from Nagrand, Gurgthock, and completion of this and the Ring of Agony quests will give you the Of Blood and Anguish achievement.  This time, Gurgthock is in Zul’Drak.  As with the earlier quest series, completion gets you well over 100g and 150,000 XP (along with some potions and bandages).  The quest recommends five players, and if you are completing this with a level-appropriate group, you’ll definitely want a tank and a healer and dps.
Final Reward:  De-Raged Waraxe

With all these quests, it is worth asking in General chat if anyone else wants to join you.  Give first priority, naturally, to a healer as their weapon reward is very nice as well and as one of a thousand DKs out leveling, you’ll want to woo healers.  After all, there’s only so much Blood Aura can heal.  With the Ring and Amphitheater quests, assign one person in your group the task of starting the quests each time around, so that you’re certain everyone is ready and on the same fight.

Congrats on your new weapons.  (Don’t forget to runeforge!)

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Alchemist Finklestein Can Kiss My Ass

Hooray for the wonders of PVE servers, where a clothy can go out and solo without her pocket-plate-wearer.

Hooray for being able to do dailies and earn faction and coin.

And a big "fuck you, Alchemist Finklestein" for making me repeat your damn quest at least half a dozen times. 

But hooray for this addon that whispers you the room and shelf location for the damn ingredients.

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In the Olden Days, They’d Just Make Us Kill 10 Wolves

What an, um, interesting assortment of quests we completed in the Borean Tundra this evening.

1)  We had to kill Clam Master K.

2)  The infamous "torture quest" (frankly, I was more offended that Jam Master Jay was memorialized as a gnome)

3)  Lupus Pupus — digging through shit, for which Khæli earned a whopping 4 gold.

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Taking a Deathcharger Out for a Test Drive…

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