As much as I hate making obligatory “still alive” posts, I probably should since I haven’t posted in a while. I’ve been jotting down random stuff but not posting it.

My main job has been to stock Jasra with enchantment materials. As of yesterday, she officially broke 350, so my services in this capacity are no longer required. I managed to even solo a few Outland instances with my trusty Gorilladin. Ramps and BF both fell before me. Underbog fell other than the final boss, and I probably just need to tweak my strategy for him. Slave Pens, no problem. Steam Vaults … maybe later.

Of all the Classic instances, Strat and Scholo seem to be the best sources of items that DE to Eternal Essences. I decided to camp out at Light’s Hope Chapel and do the Dead side of strat over and over again in the hopes of also getting Rivendare’s mount. Alas, it was not to be. After ten tries, it didn’t drop. I did get the Dwarven Hand Cannon, and passed it on to my sweetie.

One thing that is important to remember on Baroness Anastari is that she will Mind Control you and heal back up if you are in a group, but will not if you are solo. What this means to Huntards, Dork Kinnigets, and Locks is: put yer pet away and pew pew.

I also managed to pop Exalted with the Argent Dawn. Yay.

I would be more effective on these solo expeditions if Saiph, my Gorilladin, was higher level (currently 76, but was 75 for the bulk of this adventure).  At the same time, I need to gather Northsea Pearls for Jasra’s tailoring. Unfortunately, I only have two choices: go after the murlocs and gorlocs in The starter areas, which give Saiph no XP, or go after the gorlocs in Sholazar, which are, you know, Oracles. Unfortunately, since I am of Oracle faction, option #2 is out of the question. So I’ve been also going after Jormungar Tunnelers in Dragonblight, which is good for my leather skilling too.

In the process of getting Jas some more Arcane Dust, I managed to ding Exalted with Cenarion Expedition, and am now the proud owner of a Cenarion War Hippogryph. Jas is not amused since the 1600 gp required came out of her Epic Mount fund. Sorry, Jas. I’m pulling rank.

Aside from that, it’s been quiet. Jas has been hogging the limelight and may have big news soon. I’ll give you a hint: she’s 79 now.

Our guild has pretty much fallen apart. We had a couple of high-end defections, including one officer’s alt, to the usual suspect’s guild, and I think that broke the GM, or initiated events behind the scenes that accomplished that – though the ennui itself is cleverly disguised as “burnout”.  But one can draw lines between cause and effect pretty easily if one keeps one’s eyes open.

So – we are back to pure casual, not “casual raiding” as we were before. Things have panned out pretty much in a predictable fashion. We’re right back where we were when Grimmtooth Mk I quit the game in disgust. I think I might “heal through” the drama right now to see what is on the other side. I suspect, however, that there are at least five other people that will leave before it is all over.

This weekend I have been enlisted in the cause of getting greens for Jasra so she can DE them for eternal essences or something like that. Also: lots of runecloth. So I broke out Saiph, my Gorilladin, and started at Zul’Farrak.

I want to be very clear on this: BRK is right. The Gorilladin is a magical being. With him leading the way, ZF fell inside of an hour.

Sunken Temple took longer to figure out than complete.

Scholo was almost doable at 70 with a cat pet. At 80 with a 75 gorilladin, it was cake.

Tonight, Strat. Live side completed, but I couldn’t get a crack at Rivendare. Finally our GM pointed out that I needed to clear all ziggurats as well as kill the bosses.  So, tommorrow: Rivendare. “Launch all zigs! For great justice!”

Jasra’s annoyed – she’s supposed to be the center of attention now. But I want Rivendare!!!

If I need to farm more, I’ll hit DM, BRD, and LBRS in that order. Or if I need higher mats, then I’ll give Ramps a try.  BRK says it’s so, so we’ll give it a shot.

Flora was gathering supplies in the Plaguelands this weekend and got all nostalgic for the days of old of Lorderan. That got me thinking about my visit to Grim Batol, but also game me an idea for another tour of another abandoned place: The Scholomance.

Now while it is true that Scholo is not actually abandoned like Grim Batol is, it’s pretty much unattended except for the occasional warlock wanting to get special supplies for the Dreadsteed quest.

But here’s the thing. Before the events that took place at Scholo, the Kingdom of Lorderan covered this half of the continent, from Stratholm to the north to the great bridge going into Kaz Modan to the south, and from sea to sea. And yet, all of that has fallen, the humans are scattered south of Kaz Modan now, or on another continent, and nothing will ever be the same, all because some mad alchemist invented the Scourge in this very spot.

So I set off for Caer Darrow to see if a L70 Hunter could run the instance.

Truth be told, I was able to manage all of it except for Dr. Rostov or whatever his name is. He doesn’t have an aggro table, so all my normal tricks don’t work. And I have a suspicion that if I really, really tried, I could take him down as well. but it didn’t seem to really be worth the effort to figure that out. Perhaps another time.

I do have to ask: why’s the “Headmaster’s Study” appear to be a giant tomb?

To finish off the night I took out Alexi Borov in Horde territory. There were a dozen hordies awaiting Allies coming in to off him; see, to off Barov you have to flag PvP; but I outsmarted them and pulled him in an unexpected direction. I was able to kill him and get back into friendly territory before they closed in and finished me off.

Yay me.