A Hunter's Story

Ok, so on the right is an image of the Blood of Heroes. Now that you know what it looks like, what is it for and how do you find them? Well, as it is not surprising, it’s one of the many things needed for my favorite achievement. Or, well, the one we’ve been working on for ages…

Anyway, how to find it? Run in circles in EPL. How to find it in a decent amount of time?

1. Get an addon such as Cartographer which allows you to use waypoints.
2. Create 5 macros and insert the text below. I recommend labeling them One, Two, Three, Four and Five.
3. Fly to EPL, specifically Light’s Hope Chapel.
4. Mount up and punch all 5 of the macros, in order from 1 through 5.
5. Follow the arrows. When you come upon a blood, open it, kill the 1-2 leets that spawn
6. Continue following the arrows. Clean, rinse, repeat.

Expect to pick up roughly 4 in a run, and expect a full run to take somewhere in the neighborhood of 30-45 minutes. The macros below I have put the waypoints in what I’ve found to be as efficient as possible, and it hits all the spawn points. It’s pretty darn accurate too, so if you get to the waypoint and nothing is there, then just go to the next one. You don’t have to look in a 30′ circle or anything – it’d be right there. Oh, and as an fyi, when you get to the western edge (and the arrow says you have something like 2500′ to go to the next waypoint), just continue up that path, and go through the tunnel. The waypoint is pointing to the next spot, but it’s through the mountains. So go through the tunnel, and then follow the arrow. When you’ve hit all the waypoints, you’ll end up right back at Light’s Hope Chapel. If you have time, punch the macros & do it again. And if you try it, and appreciate the work I’ve done in writing out the waypoints, in order, and grouping them in the right length for macros… Then post a comment that says thank you. It will let me know there’s actually a reason to do posts like this, lol. So anyway, here they are:

ONE
/way 72.8 51.7
/way 70.2 49.6
/way 70.6 45.1
/way 68.3 45.5
/way 60.9 47.5
/way 48.8 45.2
/way 45.8 40.1
/way 43.1 35.6
/way 44.6 30.4
/way 40.6 28.2
/way 34.7 22.2
/way 34.5 26.5
/way 34.9 31.0
/way 32.7 32.8
/way 29.8 27.8
/way 30.6 21.5
/way 4.3 45.2

TWO
/way 11.1 58.7
/way 16.7 55.0
/way 17.1 60.6
/way 23.7 58.0
/way 27.1 59.5
/way 23.1 63.3
/way 22.8 63.9
/way 18.1 67.5
/way 23.3 69.0
/way 23.6 68.9
/way 25.5 72.1
/way 18.7 78.1
/way 20.8 81.2
/way 25.1 78.9
/way 30.2 73.6
/way 37.3 73.0
/way 43.6 73.2

THREE
/way 42.1 68.3
/way 41.9 64.2
/way 38.1 69.1
/way 37.3 73.0
/way 30.2 73.6
/way 30.7 70.2
/way 31.6 66.8
/way 32.8 64.5
/way 30.4 61.6
/way 33.1 59.6
/way 37.2 59.7
/way 41.9 57.9
/way 44.4 61.0
/way 50.7 52.9
/way 51.5 57.6
/way 53.6 58.9
/way 54.5 56.2

FOUR
/way 58.6 61.3
/way 55.1 61.4
/way 56.6 63.8
/way 52.7 65.6
/way 54.6 69.5
/way 52.9 69.5
/way 51.8 69.8
/way 52.3 75.0
/way 53.6 72.7
/way 54.5 74.0
/way 59.7 74.3
/way 63.3 71.7
/way 63.5 73.9
/way 63.7 76.7
/way 65.2 74.2
/way 68.0 75.5
/way 68.5 76.8

FIVE
/way 70.6 71.7
/way 68.2 70.2
/way 66.9 71.7
/way 65.8 68.8
/way 63.0 67.9
/way 63.0 64.1
/way 62.5 60.8
/way 65.3 63.1
/way 67.8 63.7
/way 71.1 66.0
/way 73.0 61.2
/way 73.3 57.5
/way 74.7 53.8

Ok, I know it’s The Insane for a reason, but man is it time consuming. Each time we spend an hour or two working on it we get closer, but we’ve been doing it so long that it’s getting really boring. And it’s probably partially our own fault for doing it together. I mean, 1,400 Junkboxes is bad enough, but 2800? I have made so many loops around that stupid place… And yet we’re only about 400 away from being done. It’s like, I want to finish, but I’m so tired of that place. I’ll bet the mobs will be happy when we go away though… I’m surprised they still carry any coins or boxes anymore just because they know we’ll be back! Gah. Oh well. We’ll finish it up soon. And then we’ll be on the next stage of pain… Shen’dralar & their Librams. Not to mention a ridiculous number of diamonds and shards… Of course, there’s also that faire. Our personal GB is half full of cards alone and we keep turning them in, but you want to talk about hours of farming herbs?!?! I swear, we will actually have gone insane by the time we’re done! At least it keeps us occupied through Cataclysm, right?

Yeup, I’m back. Well, back at work. Physically, not mentally though. Hope everyone enjoyed the 3-day weekend! We got a lot done around the house and all, but we also spent a lot of time on WoW. Been working on some rep, mostly. I’ll tell you… Insane in the Membrane is well named. Seriously going insane here. We’ve got Bloodsail, Booty Bay, Gadgetzan, Everlook, and Ratchet. Heck, Ravenholdt is 2/3 of the way through Revered, so we’re well on the way there. Darkmoon and Shen’dralar are taking forever though. Granted, we haven’t really farmed them up too terribly much yet. At least, not in comparison yet. May as well dispatch some tips though, in case anyone considers driving themselves insane too…….

First, don’t do any Steamwheedle Cartel quests prior to starting. Second, get your Bloodsail up to honored (or exalted if you’re super-insane). Then start in on the process.

But I’ve already told you that bit. Next helpful tip? Dualbox. Since Lady X and I both have two accounts, we’ve recently been leaving our mains @ Jazzrik. That way we continue to grind up our rep w/ Bloodsail, since we’re only 1/3 of the way to exalted (did I mention we’re insane?). 5 rep per kill per 7 minutes… Yeah, insane… Anyway, that means we both have rogues on our other accounts. One of us herbalizes for Darkmoon Faire, the other collects Junk Boxes. 1,400 boxes. For each of us. 2,800 total. Zomg, I have run so many circles in Tyr’s Hand it’s not funny. Speaking of which, that’s the perfect place to pick pocket them because you can literally just go in circles. By the time you’re done with the loop, the pick pocket timer is up on the mobs, so you can keep going. Add in a couple Sprints for speed and you’re good to go. But the other tip? Do it in batches of 60. Why? Divisible by both 5 and 12. 5 for the quest turn-in’s. 12 for mailing. In fact, we’ve gotten to the point of being able to do 180 boxes before Jeeves and Moll-E despawn. Which, by the way, they are the key. Postal helps, to collect the boxes from the mail easier, and (new fav addon) Reagent Restocker to expedite sales. You see, when you turn in the rep quest you receive a unique item. So basically to do these turn-in’s, you turn in 5 boxes, sell the dagger, turn in 5 boxes, etc. Then when you run out of boxes, you collect more boxes from the mail, clean, rinse, repeat. 180 at a time. 1,400 total. 2,800 for those doing it together.

You know, as much as I’d say to do it alone, because you’ll have less turn-ins and all, whether boxes or librams… Yeah, going insane is easier with someone else. In fact, we wound up with a pair of new friends. They were farming Jazzrik at the same time. We ended up doing a raid group so that whenever one of us logged on/off we’d be in the same group. That way we could all get the rep at the same time. Plus, whoever was quickest would kill him and get everyone the rep – even if you were at the fridge getting a drink. Except they had a little more dedication at the time, so they hit Exalted and we’re still working on it. Oh well. But anyway, ran into them in Tyr’s Hand. Had some fun discussing the Mason-Dixon Line, RC Cola, and Northern Comfort, lol. In short, if you divide the place in half, North & South, two people can farm pretty well. The half-loop respawns basically in time. Might have to wait a minute, but it’s doable. And anyway, it’s nice to know that even though you’re going insane, there are others as crazy as you.

And if going for this title isn’t driving me insane enough? They’re redoing the roof on my office building. And I live on the top floor. I was fine when it was just loud noises. Even doing ok when they were (literally) right above my head, because I have headphones and Pandora. But now that I can hear dust & pieces and things falling on the ceiling tiles? Getting nervous that at any minute I might have a ceiling guy fall through… Yeah, kinda going insane right now!

Ok, sidetracks over. Back on topic. Even though we killed all the pirates to get steamwheedle up (pirates south of Ratchet are the fastest), if you do it right you won’t have to do that. Seems it’s faster to just do the Gordok Key quest. Right now we dip our rep by killing Jazzrik, then go into Dire Maul. Hoping for librams, but it also gets rep back up by those turn-ins. Plus, we drag one of our lowbie alts and level them at the same time, lol.

I think, though, the most daunting part of the whole thing is going to be the Pristine Black Diamonds. So far we have like 6. Going to have to buy them probably, but they seriously don’t drop enough. Oh well, we’ll get there at some point and I’m sure I’ll come up with a tip or two at that point.

In any event, the biggest hint I can give, so you go insane, but not too insane, is multi-task. Doing it with multiple accounts makes it easier, but wherever possible try to do many things at once. Like getting rep with Steamwheedle and looking for Librams at the same time. It saves you time, and helps feel like you’re accomplishing more. I’ll tell you though – can’t wait for the day I get to post a screenie with my new title!

Vaca week. Should have more time starting next week. Final paper for MBA due this week, we’re starting our garden (now that the chance of frost or snow is finally nil) which means I spent like 4 hrs on a rototiller yesterday, and we’re doing like a million other things around the house. Whoever knew that vacation would be so tiring! And to think, I was hoping to have loads of time to work on the Insane! So anyway, maybe I’ll have more time next week and can get back into blogging more regularly. Or maybe I’ll take a break. I dunno. Stay tuned and find out? Hands too tired to type more cuz of the garden at this point…

Is it me, or does it seem like Bliz is trying to remove some of the differentiation between ‘things’? By ‘things’ I mean most things. The gear, for example. I mean, my tanking shoulders and my DPS shoulders look… the same… I mean, how many gear combos are there now that the only difference is a slight color change? Maybe it’s because everyone is running around in tier gear, but it seems like there’s about 4 different outfits for characters these days. But then if you look at talents, abilities, and spells, it seems they’re all changing to be the same too. I was looking at the Paladin changes and thinking it seems they’re trying to make all tanks tank alike. And thinking of Druid’s, they’re trying to make healers heal alike. Paladins are going to get an AoE heal that reminds me of Wild Growth. Or a new Tree form that is going to be a different form of heroism almost. I mean, these things are not all exactly the same, there are some differences (like how the new tree form won’t affect all members as heroism does, for example). But it seems as though they’re slowly aligning the classes to each other. I wonder if it’s a conscious attempt, or if it’s that they don’t have time for differentiation. Is it that they’re running out of ideas? Think about it. If they don’t have a lot of time, then they can make one set of plate gear, and then color it differently based on if it’s healing, tanking or dpsing gear. Much faster and easier than creating 3 different pieces. Certainly not as cool though. Also makes me laugh that the gear is all becoming the same look – and yet they want to make it so druids can show off their gear… Almost seems like there’s no point! Lol. But I think it mostly just stems from Bliz trying to put out new content continuously and quickly. They’ve hit the level where they need to bring out new stuff, or people start leaving because they’re bored. And it’s the same as back when Wrath came out too. Starting in the spring, people get bored with the content. They also stop doing progression raiding and such nearly as much since they know that in the Fall the expansion will hit and then their gear will be changed out in just a few levels. Wouldn’t surprise me if sometime soon the raiding guilds start merging again, as fewer players are around. But oh well. Certainly keeping busy ourselves w/ The Insane, leveling some alts, and so on. And that’s what I recommend you do. Take the time to explore WoW. There’s a lot more in there than people even realize. Heck, take 15 minutes one day when sitting in a dungeon queue and explore the various shops. You’d be surprised what you can find. Look in the glass box counter tops. Look at the ceiling in the Dalaran Visitors Center. Explore!

Wow. Can’t believe it’s Friday already. Been a crazy week, but since I say that pretty much every week, maybe I should say it was a normal week… Only difference was that I held a 2-day event with 15 different departments that we had about 400 people go through. So yeah, just a little crazy… Thus I think this is a perfect time to do a “What do you do when you’re bored?” type of post, since I’m so busy with everything else, lol. So here it is, in no particular order:

• Level an Alt – Not a top priority for me, since I have three 80′s all geared for ICC. And between the 3, I can do each role (DPS/Tank/Heals). But we are working on The Insane, so we need to get our rogues a couple levels higher.
• Level fishing – Already have Salty on 2 characters, but why not go for a third at some point, right? Besides, this past weekend Lady X randomly said “I want to try the Booty Bay fishing contest on an alt” since she only has the Salty title on one character. So we teamed up & she won it. Now all she needs is the right daily in Outlands to come up and she’ll have the title on 2 chars too!
• Do a random achievement – Did this one not too long ago. But seriously, just flip through. There are so many out there that it’s fun to take your main and go do something random, literally just for the achievement.
• Farm – If I’m bored already, I might just put on a movie and farm. I’m still looking for Loque, but farm ore, plants, etc. Good way to make money, though it might make you even more bored…
• Read a book – Pick a good path and run in circles. Might make you dizzy, but might keep you entertained. See how fast you can make the circuit. ‘Sides, you might end up with a pet out of it! Warcraft Pets has a good article on it.
• Tank/Heal – Sometimes I’ll just hop on my tank or healer and do randoms. It helps 4 other people, gets some extra badges. Nothing really special, but maybe it’ll make you feel good that you helped decrease queue time for someone else.
• Think up random GMOTD’s – Heh, don’t need to do this in our guild. We just need to have more than 1 person on vent and this one happens pretty naturally, lol.
• Do something else – get up from the computer and go do something else. Clean the house, watch a movie, play outside, get some extra sleep… The list truly is endless, lol.

So anyway, there’s your Friday post. A list of things to do when you’re bored, or when you should be working instead of writing a post like this because you have lots to do but are avoiding it for a few minutes, lol.