promoted

I got made an officer of the Knights today. Hooray! Now to empty the GB :) j/k

Shirt?

I've been obsessing over what shirt best matches my Kara gear. So far I've gone from the Stylish Black Shirt to the Rich Purple Silk Shirt, but now I'm wondering about the Master Builder's Shirt...

gear

Going by my previous list, I have about half the gear now. Those I don't have are:

- MH/OH weapons - on the questlines (though I picked up Ced's Carver today at the AH for 40g, a nice intermediate)
- the Slayer's ring (though I have the almost-equivalent Overseer's Signet) - on the questline
- The Primal Intent set (chest/bracers/belt) - needs 375 LW and Primal Nethers
- The Fel Leather Leggings - grinding Revered with The Consortium (now Honoured)

So my current activity surrounds grinding Lower City and Consortium rep, and trying to get Bot/Mech/Arc/Slabs/heroics runs for the other bits. Joy! LW is now up to 355 and climbing slowly.

seventy

Yes folks, it's all over. I hit 70 tonight.

This was the moment it happened - the last XP I will get until the new expansion.
Following shortly after the ding (and many thanks to Temp who quested the last 100k XP with me) two others demonstrated the legendary generosity of the guild. Firstly, Crissie slipped me 500G to make up the difference for my flying mount, and Electricmonk slipped me 100G for my lv70 training. To say that I was grateful is a gross understatement. Anyone in any doubt about the values of TKT should know that it is alive and well.

To anyone that's ever helped me with a quest, thank you!

Now... to grind that Consortium rep...

The Night Watchman

Yes that's right, it dropped off a trash mob in Netherstorm. Yes, I am a lucky git. Here's my Kara gear with the fancy new helm (though for PvE my original blue choice actually rates higher).

the family that WoW's together...

The relationship between Catheryna, a smokin' hot human female rogue, and Electricmonk, a sturdy human male rogue, was always going to be a little weird. After all, I'm married to Monk's sister IRL, whose name is Catherine, and who Catheryna was modelled on. Hence...

Herding Cats

kara gear preview

So here's my planned gear courtesy of WoW Model Viewer. Neato!

Kara Gear

Here is my preliminary gear list. Note that this is not my be-all and end-all, but is intended to be a target gear set that is reasonably easy to achieve without spending weeks grinding random boss drops and rep.

- Stealther's Helmet of Second Sight (I know Helm of the Claw is better for raw DPS, but see below about my bandanna/hood commitment)
- Earthen Mark of Razing
- Expedition Scout's Epaulets
- Primal Intent
- Fel Skin
- Kaylaan's Signet
- Slayer's Mark of the Redemption
- Bladefist's Breadth
- Insignia of the Alliance or Core of Ar'kelos
- Delicate Green Poncho
- Mama's Insurance
- Illidari-Bane Broadsword
- Ashtongue Blade

Most things, especially the weapons, are up for replacement if something better drops. I'll be running heroics to get the nethers for the Primal Intent, so there's every chance something nice will weasel its way into the list. However, this does give me a target to aim for!

gearing up for Kara

I'm now spittin' distance from 69 and starting to think about gearing up for Kara. I found an absolutely tremendous guide at ShadowPanther.net for getting geared up without depending on boss drops - I'm aiming to have every slot at or near the top of that list. As a bonus, the gear I've chosen all looks pretty good in blacks, greys and purple. However, I did have to take a small hit on the headgear to keep my bandanna commitment. Such is the fate of a casual RP'er.

I've also started looking at weapons - initially both the Illidari-Bane Broadsword and Ashtongue Blade are available from SV quests, and that puts me solidly into a competitive DPS range. Better blades will follow, but these are decent places to start aiming for.

The hard part will be levelling Leatherworking to 375 and getting 30 Badges of Justice for the Primal Intent set! The rest is all quests (which I need to do for XP anyway) and grinding motes.

I have my plan... now to execute!

a little bit of build tweaking

So, this is what I'm going to try...

builds

OK, I'm going to experiment with a new build. Here's what I've currently got:
(I know this is showing as requiring lv61 and I'm currently 63, I don't know what went wrong with the exporter). This is my evolved levelling build which is neat and I'm used to it, but isn't great for DPS.

Here was my first thought: a hybrid combat daggers/assassination build with MoD for solo PvE.

Craig from the guild offered this as a lv70 suggestion: pure combat DPS.

Modified for lv63 and daggers gives this :

... but I lose the improved Backstab. So... this?

Well? Hmm....

The Blood Furnace

A fun guild run through The Blood Furnace last night with Wev, Bel, Tan and Electricmonk. It included the world's biggest bad pull, resulting in a pile of bodies that reached the ceiling :) Great healing though from the pallies made it pretty much a breeze. Thanks guys!

Outland

What a difference the new patch made. After a break of some 6 weeks, I jumped back into WoW and made 10 levels in about 3 weeks - quest XP is just insane now! Currently at 58 and have just seen Outland for the first time. Laaaaag....
Have taken Elemental Leatherworking and am grinding for the materials. Will work my way up to the Epic 70 set over time.
Next: finish off some BRD/BRS quests for the massive XP, get the final mats for Elemental LW, and get back to Outland to explore some.
The guild has a new tabard, which I'm not sure I like as much as the old one, but it certainly suits the guild name better.

I would so do me

Ninja Halloween costumes rock very hard.

Got my Ebon Mask (thanks to Del and Cop for their kind assistance in ST) and may I say: w00t. It's a nice bit of kit.

Also picked up some Stormshroud Duds at the AH. I think I'll go for the set, they look kinda cool, all orange and black and wavy.

contemplation

Don't sneak up on skeletons with swords. ESPECIALLY if you're a defenseless bunny rabbit.

Hanzo

I have been wanting a Hanzo Sword almost ever since I started playing WoW. Last night I got one - a bargain at 46g on the AH.
The whole reason I started a rogue was the ninja / samurai thing - you know, sneaking around, garotting people from behind, dual-wielding the long-short. Of course, the codes of ethics of your stereotypical ninja are very different from your garden-variety samurai, but I take what I like from both. The ninja's dress sense and morals, with the samurai's achingly cool weapons.
Now the circle is complete - apart from the Ebon Mask (and that's next).

laaaaaaaaaaaaag

OK, my WiBb card (Wireless Broadband for the uninitiated) sucks. My latency tonight hovered between 1300ms and 3000ms. That's 3 seconds for something that should take less than 1/10th of a second.

Needless to say, I didn't run Sunken Temple. Instead, I did a grindy rogue quest chain that, conveniently, ends in a boss in ST. The big reward is the Ebon Mask which, apart from being a neat bit of kit, allows me to keep up my bandanna commitment.

What is my bandanna commitment? Well, back when I was a wee nipper rogue, I got a red silk mask and thought it was the best thing since sliced murlocs. I committed at that point that I would always have a mask, not a helmet. It just felt more roguely.

It became Catheryna's thing and I now always wear one unless I am fully specced for an instance or soloing/raiding in the world. I do carry a helmet (currently my Spooky Dog Hat which I picked up in ZF) but I always switch back to the mask in towns and for social occasions.

So I'm looking forward to the black mask - I can ditch the rather silly dog hat and have one ninja looking mask for all occasions. Sweet.

The Blasted Lands

" ... and she gazed upon the Dark Portal for the first time, her eyes drawn to the shimmering magics within. She approached it, feeling the inexorable pull of the promise of limitless power, and reached out tentatively towards the crackling surface.

A dark, hollow voice spoke in her mind, mocking and cruel. She recoiled in anger and frustration at the cold words...

You must be at least level 58 to enter Outland."

Bugger.

Tarren Mill and Swamp of Sorrows

The Knights Templar had a guild raid on Tarren Mill on Friday night which was a bit of a hoot.

Still, as a 49 I got pwned good and proper most of the time. I found my best success rate came from sneaky cheapshots on otherwise-engaged 70's. A 4-second stun really gives our guys a chance to wail on the person unopposed - and if it's resisted, well I just stay in stealth and try again. I actually sort of ganked a Horde 70 doing this - he had run away from Southshore chased by one of the (pretty tough) human guards, and he got proper beat up once I stuck him in the goolies. I actually got the killing blow on him too while he was occupied with the guard - a 5-dot eviscerate. Noice.

The highlight for me though was almost pwning a level 70 rogue. Key term: almost. Humankiller had been annoying us all evening and I finally chanced upon him fighting one of our 70's. As is my wont, I I cheapshotted and backstabbed a couple of times while he was tied up and between us we got him down to about 1/4 health - at which point he ran like a little girl! Big bad 70 running from a tiny 49 (and a 70 of course, but that's by the by).

So of course I threw all caution to the wind, thumbed sprint and chased him while my guildies cackled uproariously at the sight :) We got past the SS graveyard before he stood to fight. My vanish was on cooldown but unfortunately his wasn’t - he vanished and circled around for a sap. If I had been just a fraction quicker on my trinket I would have broken out in time to hit him with the 5-dot eviscerate I’d saved specially, but it wasn’t to be - he ambushed me for 2900-ish in one hit - and I went down like Paris Hilton after a bacardi breezer.

The Nostromo really is the shiz for PVP though. If I was a little higher up the learning curve I would have hit that trinket in time and it would have been something to crow about indeed had I chanced a decent crit.

In other news, I had a solo venture into the non-instance part of the Sunken Temple for the first time last night. Very atmospheric, can't wait for the full instance run on Tuesday night.