Cute Fuzzy Meow

Welcome to the weekly update. You would think that with all that’s going on, I would be updating less, but this is a nice thing I can spend a few minutes on between studying for midterms. I have a full semesters and a ton of work to do in the next two weeks. Some of it is midterms, some of it is catching up on work from being sick and missing class. All-in-all, though, I’m loving all of my classes still — even Calculus. But you’re not here to hear about Calculus, French irregular verbs, or the Bhagava-Gita — let’s talk about WoW.

I have up two new articles this week. I probably should have spread them out, but I didn’t want to get busy and forget! The most recent article is Heirlooms Continued: Enchants. I’ve had a lot of people messaging me about Heirlooms, which led to the write the initial article. I’ve had a blast with heirlooms in game, though in a slightly odd fashion — I do the fishing daily on each of my alts, and a full set of heirlooms adds +25% xp from that fishing daily. Most of my alts, after a year and a half of fishing dailies, have nearly hit 80. The next question I anticipated being asked, however, is what you can enchant on an heirloom. A lot of people had incorrect ideas — Sons of Hodir enchants are Bind on Account, so surely they work on heirlooms from the get-go, right? — and I thought it was time for a companion article to help straighten everyone out. I think that the Zandalar Signets of Might/Mojo/Serenity are some of the best investments if you’re serious about heirlooms, but I’ve got a full list of what works when, how, and alternative choices for the harder-to-find enchants. Speaking of Sons of Hodir, don’t miss the guide that’s up from months back on how to get started — just keep in mind that reputation values have skyrocketed in recent patches.

Preceding that is another article entitled Where is Wrath of the Lich King Going? which I’ve been working on in chunks ever since my raiding guild killed Arthas on 25 man two weeks back (Hard Modes time!), dealing with the future of the Scourge and where I see them going from here. It’s pretty difficult to talk about without getting into spoilers, but if nothing else it’s amusing, well, musings. Hopefully some of you out there are interested in more than the guides!

The PTR has been quite exciting with the things the data miners have found. Mounts are one of my favorite aspects of the game, and there’s a celestial version of Invincible that’s made of stars. Of stars! Who needs nasty spaceships when you can have a magical flying pony made of stars?! I’m interested in finding out where this is from, though I need to go pad my mount totals with the pvp mount I’m missing and a few Argent Tournament Mounts.

Do you have an authenticator? It seems like lately more and more people have been hacked, and while Blizzard is being pretty good about restoring accounts, it takes a long period of time. After a friend of ours watched her little brother’s account get hacked and him sit in Storm Peaks for a few days, Sare and I bit the bullet and picked up authenticators. Word on the street is that the battery lasts 5-7 years, which is good enough for me. I thought it would be a hassle since we have two computers and we don’t always use the same one for WoW, but by keeping them nearby it’s been extremely easy to log in and I feel safer. Plus, the Core Hound Pup is adorable on our weekly Molten Core runs. Two years and counting and no Biznik’s Accurascope pattern. Next week is the week!

After Hard Modes and Mounts, do you know what I love? Small pets! And Gryphons! I’ve spent a long time looking for a gryphon stuffed animal for Sare, with many failures. I found one semi-puppet, and that’s the best I could do. Well, it looks like Blizzard has finally given into my demands, and they’ve released a gryphlet plushie that comes with a gryphlet small pet. How cute! The only thing I can’t understand is why my friends haven’t gotten me one yet? My old main from Burning Crusade was actually named Gryphlet, for crying out loud! Harrumph. Well, my only gripe with the gryphlet is the unusually large head. Is that normal? There’s a horde counterpart, the Wind Rider Cub, and except for his cowlick hair he’s adorable, too! It’s funny how the wyvern models are some of the most complained-about in the entire game, but this little Wind Rider is just plain adorable. Gryphlets and winged-kittens, who could appeal to me more?

Speaking of kittens, I do casually read a few comics some days. I’m not a big fan of most of the WoW-related comics, but the one that has kept me coming back is NPC Comic. Hopefully the artist, Mary Varn, won’t be too upset if I tell her that the reason I read the comic is for the two cats, Chloe and Bink. The druid-cat necklace is just too adorable, and I love blue cats! For the curious, I also read XKCD (it’s geeky, but sometimes I can’t help myself) and Exploding Dog (My computer background is often one of these).

Finally, I’m excited about the things on the horizon for World of Warcraft. Gnomeregan reclaimed, Echo Isles, Ruby Sanctum — bring it on! In the mean time, we’re working on Lich King 25 hard modes. We have a handful of them down with another two nearly complete. My gear is finally starting to shape up a bit so I don’t feel under dressed for the Lich King Ball. All-in-all, good times. Except for my Calculus Midterm coming up. Or the French Writing Assignments (Quelle Dommage!). Or the Gilgamesh, Book of Job, Bhagava-Gita writings coming up. Ick. Pray for me!

I suppose since the last paragraph began with “Finally” this is actually a post script, but now that the heirloom questions should be handled, what do you want to hear about next? I keep getting demands for the Ultimate Gnome article, but I need to load up WoW Model Viewer to get a good picture since I don’t actually have a Gnome with most of the items it would require. Would you like to hear about the Argent Tournament? I’ve had a few friends start it up, and someone close to me just found out you can get Champion Seals from heroic Trial of the Champion. An achievement guide? Let me know what you need, and I’ll provide it!