Emblems of Conquest

Broach of the Wailing Night
16 emblems, (If you got the Favor of the Dragon Queen, you can skip this one)
Belt of the Twilight Assassin
22 emblems, pretty much best in slot, if you’re maxed in experise you might wanna go for the leatherworking Death-warmed Belt
Leggings of Wavering Shadow
32 emblems, there are better legs in Ulduar, and be careful with loosing your T7-bonus, personally, only buy when you’re really unlucky with drops
Gloves of the Blind Stalker
23 emblems, the Frosted Adroit Gauntlets are better, and there is that bonus again. Think carefully!

Leatherworking

Death-warmed Belt
A bind on equip (boe) recipe and belt, so with luck its available quite soon. Drops from Kologarn in Ulduar, could be it drops from more bosses. The not soulbound 6 Runed Orbs will be expensive! You can get a Runed Orb for 15 Emblems of Conquest, but it’s gonna be a while before you get those together. If you’re expertise capped, this belt is better than Belt of the Twilight Assassin
Footpads of Silence
Best in slot and boe. Just gotta wait for the recipe to drop on the server. And those Runed Orbs of course.

Ring

You can buy the Inscribed Band of the Kirin Tor on patch day. It is better than the Ring of Invincibility. Stil, the Surge Needle Ring and Strong-handed Ring are better than this one.

Gems

If you haven’t maxed fishing yet, you better start now. Delicate Stormjewel and Rigid Stormjewel is a reward for the new fishing dailies in Dalaran. The gem is unique equipped and bind on pickup (bop), so you gotta do the fishing yourself. The new dailies seem like fun though and there are plenty more rewards. Not to mention fishing your own food saves a lot of money! More information on El’s Professions.

Enchantment

No new enchantments, but Unholy Aura is changed to a personal buff. The 15% movement speed will be missed. It might be better to use the Cat’s Swiftness enchant instead of Icewalker.

Glyphs for mutilate spec

For mutilate there some good new glyphs, Glyph of Hunger for Blood and Glyph of Mutilate. Sofar it seems these two glyphs together with Glyph of Rupture are the best. Optionally a talent point can go from Precision the Improved Slice and Dice, to keep snd from dropping.

Talent spec for mutilate

Master of Poisoner is reworked, making it an interesting option for mutilate: increases the bonus chance to apply Deadly Poison when Envenom is used by an additional 45%. It’s a replacement of sorts for the short lived Glyph of Envenom. Optimum muti build seems to be 51/13/7, moving from Turn the Tables t Master Poisoner and 1 point from Precision to Improved Slice and Dice.

Assassination (51 points)
5/5 Malice
3/3 Ruthlessness
2/2 Blood Spatter
3/3 Puncturing Wounds
5/5 Lethality
3/3 Vile Poisons
5/5 Improved Poisons
1/1 Cold Blood
5/5 Seal Fate
2/2 Murder
1/1 Overkill
3/3 Focused Attacks
3/3 Find Weakness
3/3 Master Poisoner
1/1 Mutilate
5/5 Cut to the Chase
1/1 Hunger For Blood

Combat (13 points)
5/5 Dual Wield Specialization
1/2 Improved Slice and Dice
4/5 Precision
3/5 Close Quarters Combat

Subtlety (7 points)
5/5 Relentless Strikes
2/2 Opportunity

I didn’t even know about new achievements in the game after patch 3.0.8. I scrolled through the list and saw a version of one of my favourite ones: To All The Squirrels Who Shared My Life. As far as i can see all Northrend critters.. to love and cherish! [Edit: turns out not all critters are on Northrend, two are in the old world of Azeroth, the Lava Crab and the Huge Toad]

I was waiting outside Naxx for a bit and decided to fly around, without peeking into tips and such and see if i could find some critters all on my own. Some were a dead give away, Borean Marmot.. kinda says it all.

I flew from Dragonblight to Borean Tundra, found a marmot there. Then on my way to Sholazar for the Tickbird. Through desolate Icecrown, not sure if there were any critters there to be honest. Only saw some cockroaches crawling around. Passing through Crystalsong Forest to Storm Peaks. I wasn’t sure there was anything there, just hoping to find an Arctic Hare or Mountain Skunk.

A short hop back to Dalaran to get my new Dawnwalkers enchanted and then of to Grizzly Hills. It seemed in the frozen and barren areas hardly any critters were alive. Byt that time i heard from an informed guildy some of the critter in the achievement were in Outlands or even the old world! This was getting a bit more than i expected. But patiently moving on. I was lucky in the Grizzly Hills, a Mountain Skunk close to the Westfall Brigade. I was going on the hunch the Grizzly Squirrel was somewhere around as well. Finally, close to Conquest Hord i found one.

On my way to the Howling Fjords. Close to the Kaluak i knew there was a colony of penguins, and yes! a bunch of Fjord Penguins were all standing on a icemountain close to Kamagua. The Fjord Turkey was easy, close to the Explorer’s League Outpost.

Fjord Penguin: Howling Fjords
Mountain Skunk: Grizzly Hills
Sholazar Tickbird: Sholazar Basin, the birds that sit on the horn of the Rhino’s close to Nesingwary’s camp (use /tar Sholazar Tickbird if you cant select them)
Borean Marmot: Borean Tundra (duh)
Fjord Turkey: Howling Fjords
Grizzly Squirrel: Grizzly Hills
Tundra Penguin: Borean Tundra (duh)

Only a couple more critters left, searching in wowhead.com now. So now back to Dalaran and Ironforge and Searing Gorge (look out for a Fire Beetle there – its for the achievement Pest Control). The Lava Crab was hard to find. Look int he Searing Gorge at the lava spots. For me it was the sounds it make which pointed me to them.

Arctic Hare: Dragonblight
Glacier Penguin: Icecrown (northeast on the coast)
Lava Crab: Searing Gorge
Huge Toad: Swamp of Sorrows – kill a Moccasin while you’re there, those are snakes close towater.
Scalawag Frog: In Howling Fjord on th island Scalawag Point, south of Kamagua

The one and only one reason you need exalted reputation for the Sons of Hodir sold by the quartermaster Lillehof, and that is the shoulder enchant. To unlock these daily quests you need to do a long quest chain in Storm Peaks. You do start out hostile with the Sons of Hodir and it does take a while before you can actually start on the dailies for the Hodir. The first quest starts in K3: They Took Our Men!

Most dailies for Hodir are easy kill or gather quest. Easy when the area isn’t farmed to death of course. Try and find a quiet time to do these, its a real popular area.

Hot and Cold – 250 rep, available after completing Forging an Alliance
Blowing Hodir’s Horn – 250 rep, available after completing In Memoriam
Polishing the Helm – 250 rep, available after completing Forging a Head
Spy Hunter – 350 rep, available after Honored
Thrusting Hodir’s Spear – 500 rep, available after Honored and completing Raising Hodir’s Spear
Feeding Arngrim – 350 rep, available after Revered

Thrusting Hodir’s Spear takes a bit of practice. Strategy depends on what class your are. For me, as dps with reasonable hp, i use dodge (2) and grip (1) as much as possible – i fell out of his claws too many times in the beginning! Main attack is the mighty thrust (4) and a occasional normal thrust. Min point is to keep health reasonable, because in phase 2 it drops really quickly. Phase 2 is just spamming pry jaws open (1) till you can use Fatal Strike (3), which has a 4 second cooldown.

While you do the dailies, be on the lookout for Everfrost Chips. They spawn randomly in the quest areas, and even in Dun Niffelem itself.

While you’re in Storm Peaks, be sure to check out the daily in Brunnhildar Village. The Hydnir Spoils can get you the White Polar Bear. It’s also a good place to get some Worg Haunches and Worm Meat in the cave east of Temple of Storms and Rhino in the outside the cave.

And yay! Tonight all the hard work paid off and i got exalted with Sons of Hodir. With an achievement 20 exalted reputations to go with it!

Nearly two months into Wrath of the Lich King i fell into a steady rhythm of daily quests to do. It did take me a little time to get there, in the beginning there was so much new, it was disorienting a bit. Couple with raiding in Naxxramas the very day i hit 80 and the completely overhaul of my gear in two weeks time, it was fun, but also a bit unsettling.

On a non-raiding night i’ve settled on the following quests and factions for now, some for fun, others because they sell good enchants at exalted reputaion.

The daily cooking quest in Dalaran usually takes a couple of minutes, especially when i do it in the early morning. On a bank alt i got Chilled Meats and Rhino Dogs saved, so its just a matter of getting the glasses, mushrooms, mustard or roots from down below and i’m done. A little bit of Kirin Tor rep and of course the Northern Spices i’m saving up as well. Today i got the last recipe i could buy from the cooking salesman. Now i only need to wait for the patch with the Fish Feast and i’m a proper Chef!

Only last week i added the Kalu’ak dailies to my schedule. No, it’s not about the fishing pole, i got the reward from the Stranglethorn fishing competition already. No, its the cute little penguin i would love to have, the Nurtured Penguin Egg. So i head of to Unu’pe in the Borean Tundra and collect some boxes for Preparing for the Worst. Then quickly to Moa’ki Harbor in the Dragonblight to pick some evil puppies for Planning for the Future. Than to Kamagua in the Howling Fjords to make a lovematch. I do some extra sharks and orcas while i’m there to supplement my stash of chilled meats. All in all it takes half an hour with all three done and 1650 rep (nice bonus of Diplomacy) more!

Remaining factions are the Sons of Hodir and the Hyldnir in Storm Peaks and the Ebon Hold in Icecrown. More on that later this week.

Last week i got a nice new crossbow Final Voyage to replace my ranged slot, replacing the last Sunwell item item i had (Blade of Life’s Inevitability). One minor issue, i don’t have any skill in crossbows whatsoever! And i do mean 1 point out of 400 yeah. Time to train!

First tip was going for the training dummies in Ironforge, but that didn’t work, no skill ups at all. I decided to go for a quick run outside in Dun Morogh and chase rabbits and cragboars for 10 minutes or so. It’s fun running around as a christmas gnome anyway!

After i hit 100 skill i decided to go to Outland. I used the Blessed Medallion of Karabor to get there and first checked the banished demon Azaloth in the Black Temple (tip from Calathiel!). Standing outside of any agro i could fire and get skill ups easily. The only bother was the cooldown on the shooting. I stayed there until i had to get more arrows, around 160.

The mobs at the entrance of Shadow Labyrinth i went to next were ok, but switching targets made it a bit of a bother. I only stayed there till 227 when i decided to go back to Azaloth and just use up all the arrows i had bought for leveling.

Sidenote: it is really strange to go back to Outland, it is so quiet now. I do feel a little pang of remembrance. It was the area i started raiding, and it is still is so vivid in my memories. Of course i love Northrend, but it saddens me a bit to see Outland so deserted.

Anyway, conclusion on the leveling of weaponskill, Azaloth (Shadowmoon Valley 69,50) highly recommended!

Its the third year i go through the Winter Veil’s questing once more. This year i’m going for the whole achievement! The first bit is getting the cookie’s for the Treats for Greatfather Winter quest. I simply refuse to buy the Small Eggs at the auction house, so its off to Eversong Woods and hunt down some Dragonhawks. They do drop one or two egg’s for the recipe. A year ago i was prepaired for this and farmed some beforehand, selling eggs with a little profit on the auction house.

Another Winter Veil’s quest is Hero of the day. You need one Deeprock Salt and some gold for this. When i checked on the auction house, there were only four salts for 100g each. It’s not a hard thing to farm really, it drops from elementals level 40 and up. As i was in Ironforge, i flew to Thelsamar in Loch Modan i took a short ride to the Badlands. In the mountains on the edges there are plenty of rock elementals which have a decent droprate. One round and 15 minutes later i had 15 salts in the bag. One for personal use, the other i put on the ah for 80g. I noticed one salt was already sold, so someone actually did pay 100g for it!

I’m not sure i will be able to sell all the salts, i;m bound to be undercut by someone soon. There is a really short opening for doing something like this. Still, any salt sold is good for me!

Starting out in Howling Fjords i had loads and loads of Chilled Meat drops. Back then i made Northern Stew and simply used the food to sustain me during leveling. Stupid!

These days Chilled Meat is required for quite some Dalaran dailies and my stacks are diminishing fast. So what is the best place to farm this?

I’m looking for an easy area, fast respawn and reasonable droprate. Checking the wowhead-page is the first thing i do. Reading the comments, i decide to see check out the Baby Seals and Frosthorn Ram in Howling Fjords first. Sholazar is mentioned a lot, but i did skip this area when i leveled, leaving this for my alt to explore.

So, on my way to Valgarde to find these Baby Seals. Gotta suppress a little guilt here! Results form the area with the Seals, 45 Chilled Meats, no downtime, cleared the area from south to north and then flew back to Dalaran. Probably will be a lot faster for aoe-classes.

The very first character i made on a server was a human paladin. Think i got her to level 8, which seemed like really far at the time. After that i made a gnome mage, which i even got to level 19. I started to think on what type of server i wanted to play on. At the time i simply picked the first recommended server Eonar. I decided to go for a roleplaying server next, with the vague idea people might take the world seriously and not simply run around through everybody. So i made a character on Steamwheedle Cartel, a rogue.

First record in the warcraftrealms character history of Rada is on July 2: a level 11 in the guild The Ace Lords II Chapter. A typical starter guild with all the drama, guildleader shifting and people coming and going all the time.

The Malvalon Gang was a real roleplaying guild, set to steal from citizens of Stormwind. It was my first introduction with rp in World of Warcraft. As a rogue i could sneak around and eavesdrop on conversations an see what other people were up to. It was kinda fun, but i wanted to level my character to, learn the game and go into instances, which the gang didn’t do at all.

The leader of the Malvalon Gang knew about this other guild which was more focused on leveling and doing other things, the Sisterhood. One morning i was in Stormwind City and saw a woman standing besides the auction house selling flowers and asking for people to join the Sisterhood. I talked to her, we had a short interview and she invited me then into the Sisterhood.

The wedding between Dynahir and LittleKrissy in Darnassus was a big event. I had to find a nice new dress – not the strongest point of a scruffy rogue – and a present for the newlyweds. After the wedding we went back to the Darkmoon Fair in Goldshire and drank beer and danced away on the stage. We also did some roleplaying adventures.

I stayed in the Sisterhood untill i was level 60, only a month before the Burning Crusade was released. I decided to start looking for a raiding guild seriously when i was level 70. This was another game! I joined Gryphon, where i worked on my Karazhan attunement and heroics to get starting gear for doing real runs.

This was so much fun! It was hard work, but the raids were challenging (yes, Kara in the beginning was hard if you had just blues and maybe one or two purples from heroics). Sadly, it didn’t last long. It’s hard to keep a raiding guild together, to build a team and find responsible, dependable people. So one morning when i logged in, i found out the guild disbanded. I joined the follow up, but nothing much came of that.

Around that time 25 man raids started to become an issue. he jump from 10 to 25 was a real struggle. When i joined Divinity i became part of the second team to go through Kara, with the intention to gear everyone up and go for Gruul first. This did take some time, people started to get impoatient and joined a further advanced guild. In the end i did the same and joined Solitude.

Solitude was serious raiding. I mean real serious raiding. We were expected to be in on time, to be prepared and fully committed. It was tough, the fights were tough. We worked on Kealthas for weeks, a phase at a time. We couldn’t run into Black Temple like you can now, you needed the attunement done, Lady Vashj and Kealthas, then Rage in Mount Hyjal. That time still is one of my favourite times from wow, it felt like such an achievement to get all this done (and a server first on Kealthas too!).

Good things don’t last though… but it’s been a good time and happy memories!

I joined the Ascended after Solitude. More on that later. I’ll leave you with my armory link, just to show of some epics and achievements: Armory Rada.