pets and raids

Olla folks,

Yes, I'm back from the holidays with news from WoW.

PETS
I've got back into Pets in a big way - I always had a thing for pets but still am surprised to tell you that I now have over 400 pets and have just steamed past 400 achievement points in pets (ahh tentacle, now you are mine... ) What can I say - Blizz got this right. I'm working on some dailies for items atm and on the way from here to there I'm levelling up a few pets as I go. It's fun, easy, and interesting and only very rarely feels like a grind, which is saying something in this game.

OLD RAIDS

I've been moving on with my soloing of old world raids having recently got Vashj down in order to complete one of the best gnome warlock tier sets imo. You can see locks and other classes bringing her down on youtube and it does look a little tricky. In actuality I have to say I found it near impossible. Call it tenacity, call it RNG rage, call it sheer bloody mindedness but after getting to 1% somewhere around wipe seven or eight I finally screen shotted my warlock standing over a crumpled thing that smelt of old fish after 27 wipes. 27! After a wipe in the early 20s I crumpled myself and flew off to Area 52 to "buy" the honour helm only to find that it's colour was subtly different. Back to the grindstone. I am most pleased with the result though and now have a story to tell my grandchildren (who will likely assume it's the drugs talking).

NEW RAIDS
Not too worried about these but I've had a few tries and it was enjoyable after a fashion; locks are well set-up for self preservation. Which is to say that I can mitigate PUG healers and know not stand in fire which equals surviving to the end of the fight. On the loot side though I think something is wrong. I recieved no loot after about 16 boss kills and 6 extra rolls... nada... niente! Forums suggest I'm not alone. I've heard that in 5.2 drops will be increased in order to get people ready for the newer raids. Maybe I'll have another look then.

GOLD
Ha haa. What can I say spending comfortably and am still up around the 870K mark. Towards the end of this expansion I may have toons at cap with sufficiently levelled reps to get at some of the gated recipes. For now though I'm making a few things but mostly buy what I need. A part of me misses the thrill of opening a mailbox bulging with gold but the reward for effort is no longer sufficient to hold me to it... perhaps when I'm a little poorer. ; )

ALTS
No thanks. I definitely have a 'main' this expansion and that's my lock. I'll get to the other classes eventually but at this stage over three months' since launch I can advise that I still haven't levelled a panda monk or that shammy or pally that I thought I'd be working my way through.

PVP
A slow down here. I know the next season is coming out and felt I'd gotten as far as I could without changing the way I played. I find it hard to schedule regular time so RBGs are out and am not interested in arena for any other reason apart from gear (which means I should steer clear). Also 1500 honour for a very minor upgrade to my existing pieces really annoyed me.  The next season should be up soon - when it arrives I'll likely BG until I have a full kit of gear then go back to soloing raids with my stat increase.

That's it for the moment folks. I'm still enjoying the game for the mindless challenges it provides me (= Mogul downtime after a day at work) and hope you are too.

: )

M.