Project Lore

If you are a regular to the Project Lore Blog then you probably already know my in-game addiction, non-combat pets.  The cute designs and animations of most of the vanity pets have allowed my love of animals IRL (I've owned or own ferrets, various aquatic beings, cats, dogs, turtles, and so on) to easily segway into the digital realm.  I was so bad in the early days of WoW that I had two bags dedicated to the useless little critters.  Image explaining my lack of fire pots to my hardcore raiding buddies because I grabbed my bag of cockroaches, cats and parrots (my first in-game pet) instead.  Woops. With the Midsummer Fire Festival back in action I've once again trudged off to Slave Pens to melt Ahune.  All in an attempt to score a Scorched Stone, that, according to WoWHead, has <2% chance of dropping.  I began my audacious task this morning with a bunch of guildies, and if the pet dropped our first round of attempts you better believe this post would have a much different tone.  Obviously, the mini MC mob continues to elude me.  And my attempts are already done for the day on Solidsamm. Here's the issue with Ahune, and the only piece of loot that keeps him interesting, people lie to get to him.  Don't believe me?  Just spam "LFG Ahune Must Have Summon" and see how many people will @ you who either A) have used their daily summon or B) haven't done the quick quests to get the summon yet.  The rule that I have always gone by, and been asked to comply with, is that if you don't have the summon (or can't provide one on an alt) then you aren't allowed in the group.  The last thing pet collectors would want is to lose the Scorched Stone roll, probably the only one they will see in the short time span, to a random unappreciative player who didn't even contribute an attempt.  But it's difficult to tell who actually has a summon left and who doesn't.  The only trick I've seen is to make sure that your quest log says everyone else in the party is on the same quest.  Not a flawless system, as they may not have picked it up yet.  Anyone have any other ideas? The moral of the story is that if you can't contribute a summon, then DO NOT GO TO AHUNE.  I am even referring to guildies.  If you aren't absolutely 100% positive that you can pass such a sought after item, then don't go under any circumstance.  At level 80, with a crappy non-80 healer, the encounter is ezmode (Ahune didn't scale up for Wrath), so they don't need your "help." Outside of the pet and the achievement, there is no reason to go to the Ice Lord.  Save yourself the drama and just sit it out. This has been a Public Service Announcement by Pet Lovers Everywhere (TM). Titles (Alliance/Horde) are not for me, but I am sure there are many of you out there already hard at work on your respected recognition.  Outside of Ahune's sacred gift I am working on a Captured Flame for the priest and enjoying the fire works, juggling and general summery fun that the Festival brings to Azeroth.  Perhaps I should work on my thievery...What are you goals? The Midsummer Fire Festival ends July 5.

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While love might be a little bit of a strong word, I can at least say that I heartily embrace the achievement system that was introduced to World of Warcraft back in patch 3.0. My enjoyment of what amounts to a small pop up and a few more points is probably evident by anyone who has looked at my WoW Armory Page or had a glimpse of Executus' page on WoW-Achievements (where, btw, I am in the top 20 on the server... no biggie, I'm just sayin'). Contrary to what many people will tell you, I don't complete achievements to inflate my online ego (that's what WoW-Heroes is for). A lot of the rewards I've been granted by achievements are sitting in my bank, and many of the titles have graced the space above my character's head for just a few seconds before they were replaced with my old favorites - namely Loremaster, the Seeker, or, most recently, the Undying. No, I complete the achievements for completion's sake. WoW has a lot to offer players, and I want to see as much of it as I can. I've completed nearly every quest in the game on the Alliance side (and a bunch on the Horde side, too). I know the monotony of grinding Timbermaw Hold rep. I know the exhilaration of the last 30% of Kel'Thuzad on an Undying run. I know where to find all of the Elders for the Lunar Festival, and I've opened every single red envelope that they sent me. With Love is in the Air coming up this week, I have a short window to get a little closer to that 310% speed Violet Proto Drake. I don't know about you, but I'll be following WoW Insider's Fool for Love Guide until that golden window comes up. Maybe longer. I didn't used to be like this before the achievements were introduced, so part of it might be an obsessive compulsion in me to see those pop ups and hear the distinct sound they make. I know plenty of people who don't want to go around /loving and killing critters, people who only like achievements that take "skill," and people who will only do the achievements that have rewards. I can see where all of them are coming from. People play WoW for a million different reasons. I'm not an AH junkie or an arena fiend, I'm an achievement whore. It's just what I do. Do you complete achievments, or do you just not care?

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After some of the dust from patch day, extended maintenence, and rolling restarts settled, I was browsing my Achievements pane (default key is Y to bring that up). The first thing I noticed was that I had achieved a couple of things when I logged on for the first time after 3.0.8 was implemented. One was The Winds of the North, for being exalted with the Alliance Vanguard and the other was Vampire Hunter, a feat of strength for having a Vampiric Batling from Prince Tenris Mirkblood. Intrigued, I looked around a little more to see if I could find any other new achievements. Now, I had heard about the 75 companion pet achievment with a tiny deer as a reward, but I don't even have the 50 pet achievement yet. Apparently there is also a new 100 mount achievement with a blue dragonhawk as a reward. Those ones are so far out of my reach that I tend to ignore them. That and the mount achievement is going to be very very expensive when I go for it. There were two achievements that I found that would be well within my reach, though. Both of them have to do with my favorite targets for undeserved violence - critters. Pest Control asks you to slay some critters while To All The Squirrels Who Shared My Life is predictably a follow up to another achievement which has you loving more creatures. To those of you interested, I managed to do a little research and I can tell you exactly where to go to find the critters you'll need. I found all except for one of the targets of To All The Squirrels Who Shared My Life in Northrend:

• Arctic Hare: These are all over, most easily found in Dragonblight
• Borean Marmot: Borean Tundra, all over. Mostly the orange sections of the map
• Tundra Penguin: Borean Tundra on the icebergs
• Sholazar Tickbird: When you see a Rhino, look for the bird on its horn.
• Glacier Penguins: Icecrown, in the far north, a bit east of the islands on the map.
• Huge Toad: Zul'Drak, in the Drak'Sorta Fields. Most people tell you to go to Swamp of Sorrows, but don't listen!
• Grizzly Squirrel: Grizzly Hills, all over
• Mountain Skunk: Grizzly Hills, all over
• Fjord Penguin: Howling Fjord, on the coast/icebergs
• Scalawag Frog: Howling Fjord, Scalawag Isle in the Southwest
• Fjord Turkey: West of Expedition League Outpost in Howling Fjord
• Lava Crab: Searing Gorge, all over the place. If you know of a place in Northrend where these guys hang out, let me know. I looked in a couple of firey places that I could think of but to no avail.

For Pest Control, you'll have to do a lot more running around:

• Underbelly Rat: Dalaran sewers
• Rat: Dalaran near Violet Hold or Naxxramas, also in many other zones.
• Maggot: Naxxramas or Ghostlands
• Larva: Naxxramas or Ghostlands
• Spider: Howling Fjord, Ghostlands, or many instances such as Naxxramas and Azjol Nerub
• Crystal Spider: The Nexus - run straight in and immediately in the final boss's room will be a spider
• Gold Beetle: Halls of Stone/Halls of Lightning - both should have a beetle at the entrance
• Zul'Drak Rat: Zul'Drak, lots of them east of the Argent Stand
• Roach: Howling Fjord in Gjalerbron
• Fjord Rat: Howling Fjord
• Devouring Maggot: In the crypts near Utgarde Keep at the very bottom.
• Adder: Hellfire Peninsula
• Scorpion: Hellfire Peninsula
• Moccasin: Swamps of Sorrow
• Snake: Westfall
• Mouse: Westfall
• Fire Beetle: Burning Steppes/Searing Gorge

Hope that helps any of you achievement lovers out there get a few more points!

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