Category Archives: World of Warcraft

Random Hints for Pet Battles

Tanyanka vs. Flowing Pandaren Spirit

I wrote a quick and dirty Pet Battle guide for my guildies. They were wondering how I managed to level such a huge army of Battle Pets in such a short time. (I made it to server rank 5 according to WoWProgress, but my pursuers are hot on my heels.)

The answer is simple: Preparation, research, trial and error.  🙂

The guide for my guildies is in German, I will have to translate it first in order to share it with you guys. It’s not a from-scratch-guide, but explains which Teams I use to defeat the daily quests for the Pandaria Tamers in order to power level my other pets.

But let’s start with some random hints and tips:

  • The hardest part is to level your first team of three to level 25. This step needs some persistence. Start to battle all Mastertamers as they come along, it will give your team an EP boost and is an important step on the way to receive your Safari Hat.
  • Talking about the Safari Hat: You want it. Really. It gives your Pets 10% more EP as you level them. You get the hat for the achievement …. Stuck on 39 Tamers? No worries – log onto your Other-Faction-Alt, pick up the Tamer Quest in either Stormwind or Ogrimmar, log back to your Main and complete the quest. Done and all your characters will receive the Safari Hat in the mail.
  • As you roam the various zones, catch every blue quality pet that crosses your way. Only use blue quality pets in your team and don’t bother to level anything below blue quality.
  • Use your battle stones to upgrade either extremely rare pets (like Minfernal or as it’s called in german: Höllchen; which is usually heavily camped. Catch any quality you can get if the pet is rare, you can always upgrade it) or pets that only come in green quality (like the JC pets, Jade Owl or Sapphire Cub).
  • Add-Ons: Pet Battle Teams is extremely useful. Not only does it let you save your teams, but also the skills that are needed for the respective fight. Battle Pet Count is nice to have, too.
  • Go farm the old Raid Pets in Molten Core, Blackwing Lair, AQ 40 and Naxramas. MC can easily be done alone, for the others it’s good to have a friend helping. And you definitely want a Frost DK to help you with Viscidus in AQ. Really. The raid pets are tradeable, so you could also buy them at the Auction House or trade with your guildies.
  • Once your first team has reached level 25, build a leveling team. Mine currently consists of Chrominius, Effervescent Glowfly and whichever pet I choose to level. If you are doing Pet Battles in Pandaria, it can get a bit tricky. Your low level pet will have to execute one action. This also means, that it will have to survive the first action of your opponent. This might require some luck and some tries, but it does work. One Pet Battle in Pandaria will catapult a level 1 pet to level 5 or 6.
  • I don’t recommend to bring a level 1 pet to power level with a daily quest. It can die too easily from attacks that hit the whole team.
  • I also don’t recommend to bring a level 24 pet to a daily quest. Personally, I think those EP are wasted and could be used better to level a lower pet.

Details to each Pandaria Tamer will follow. Until then, have fun leveling your team!

quick update

My computer died. It went out with a Bang. Well, more or less – it was coughing and ailing for a while and we decided to bite and order a new one. That was on Wednesday. On Friday, my old computer bit the dust and I was all weekend long stuck on my REALLY ancient laptop. Good thing at least the Pet Battles worked on it, everything else wasn’t possible.

We’re not yet sure if we can save the data from the old hard disk. It would be a shame, really, since all my screenshots and photos and a couple of documents are on it, but oh well. I’ll have to set up all my add-ons and interface new anyways. Which isn’t really such a bad thing, because it makes you re-think your set up.

Speaking about Pet Battles. I was seriously bitten by the Pet Battle bug. I made it my goal to climb up to the top of my server. I’m first Hordie at the moment on Kil’Jaeden – EU according to WoW Progress and I’m clawing my way further up the ladder through those Alliance Players. Mwahaha!

Real Life has been – well, trialing, to say the least – thus my absence in blogging.

Our raiding team is coming along nicely – we’ve cleared Heart of Fear (though I’m personally still missing the Endboss Kill) and we’ve started on the Terrace. Can I just say here that hunters are awesome? We’re three (!) hunters on the team, which means we’re rotating most of the time, but we’re the bomb whenever all three of us are in the raid.

I’m still Beast Master and loving it. I used to be SV in Cataclysm, but ever since the changes I’m not really satisfied with it. I’m getting along better with BM. My fellow hunter Haerry is still playing SV and at trash and whenever bombing is required he totally beats me (of course…). But at Boss fights I’m getting closer to him. He’s an exceptional good player and he really understands what he’s doing and likes to crunch numbers. (whereas I just go “Huh?!” when he’s trying to explain all those mathematics to me). I certainly hope that I’ll get a liiiiittle bit better with my new and shiny computer.

The woes of not blogging…

So I meant to blog about a gazillion of topics for the longest time. I took loads of fantastic screenshots in WoW and pictures of yummy food, I made notes in my head and still… I never got around to actually really write about any of those topics I came up with! And this since October and it’s the 31st December today! Woah… Ok, so here’s a mumble-jumble list of random thoughts:

In Cooking and Food News:

I made some awesome Pumpkin Soup; I even took pictures and wrote up the recipe. I only have to bring the two together and post them! Will definitely do so, Pumpkin Soup is just too good not to share.

I totally have to FINALLY share the recipe for mustard chicken. It quickly became a standard meal in our house because it’s pretty easy and quick to prepare and tastes fantastic!

I also wanted to introduce you to a traditional festive meal in Switzerland called Fondue Chinoise. We’ll have it for New Year’s Eve and I will totally try and take some pictures!

Tea. Tea is awesome. I love Tea. And we’ve indulged in a Special-T Tea machine from Nestlé. It’s pure luxury and probably a bit decadent – but OMG we love it!

In WoW News:

I’m raiding regularily and hey, we’re pretty good at it! I do hate the Heart of Fear with a passion, though. I really do. I even had some crying and swearing fits because of those pixels. Silly bugs in there…

I just recently got my fifth character to level 90 and also got the Double Agent achievement. That’s Tanyankâ (Huntress), Seely (Shadow Priestess), Blackmorgana (Rogue) and Credendo (Druid) on Horde Side and Kytara (Mage) on Alliance side.

I love Blizzards’ Story Telling. It’s so beautiful. I even came to like Anduin. He ain’t dead, right? He will come back and help us kick Garrosh’s behind?

I started to play a little Panda Monk named Shuilong. That means Water Dragon. I got the name from a list of possible Baby Panda names at the San Diego Zoo. 🙂

I love looking for treasures in Pandaria. It helps with the levelling, too!

There are incredible fun items in Pandaria to be found. For example mermaid shells.

Catching every single pet available in all of Azeroth will be a real challenge and I’m sure I’ll need a LOT of patience for it. It helps though to have both Horde and Alliance characters at my fingertips – makes taming some of the pets so much easier. 🙂

The guys at the Ogrimmar Fight Club pack a real punch. Ouch!

And just to give you a pretty picture as well:

Loh-Ki tells you the story of Alani

Loh-Ki tells you the story of Alani

This is Loh-Ki. He may be found a bit hidden up in the walls that surround the Valley of the Eternal Blossom. He tells you the story of Alani, the Dragon that flies around the Valley, where you need the sky shards to attack in order to get Alani as a mount. I love those loving details, those hidden treasures in the game.

Everyone – Happy New Year 2013. Let there be more interesting Blog entries more regularily. 🙂

Still alive and kickin’!

I didn’t fall off the edge of the world, but I was busy juggling real life and the exciting new world of Pandaria. Time for a little update of my impressions and what I’ve been up to so far. 

Thankfully, I was able to take time off work for the Release of Mists of Pandaria. I was one of those people who was online at Midnight and got in a frenzy to go explore the new World. The Mister and I were up for a 24 hours gaming marathon before we went to bed and caught a couple of hours sleep. 

Eventhough it might sound that way, my intention wasn’t to be the first Hunter to hit Level 90. My thrill was to do every single quest on the way, I fished in pools of fish I didn’t know and dug up archaeology bits and pieces on the way. I just love to discover new areas. And I found the Yaks pretty soon. The Mister and I both had our gold saved up for these and went and bought them immediately. They are simply awesome!!!

 

Continue reading →

Mists of Pandaria Marathon – Foods: Raspberry Yoghurt

This snack is really simple… Maybe even too simple to grant it a full recipe post, but I’ll do it anyways. 😀 So, you’ve just fullfilled another quest, reached another level and you get the munchies for something sweet. How about a fruit yoghurt with whole raspberries in there? Real quick, real easy, prepareable in advance:

You’ll need this:

  • plain yoghurt
  • frozen berries of your liking
  • liquid honey

You may use frozen berries for this or berries that are lightly thawed, this is entirely up to. Maybe you want this frozen yoghurt style or simply fruit yoghurt style. (It’s always a good idea to keep a packet of frozen fruit in the freezer, you can easily prepare something delicious with it.)

Mix the berries into the yoghurt, stir in one tsp of liquid honey and drizzle another tsp on top of it. Serve and enjoy!

Mists of Pandaria Marathon – Foods: Salmon Bites

Here’s another idea for a very tasty, yet quick snack that only requires a handful of ingredients. (And did you notice that I finally have new plates? 🙂 The Mr. said that I really needed some pretty plates to present my foods. See? We has now pretty plates. 🙂 )

Here’s what you’ll need:

  • smoked salmon
  • flour tortilla
  • cream cheese (plain or with herbs)
  • lemon juice
  • freshly ground black pepper

Continue reading →

Mists of Pandaria Marathon – Foods: Tuna Dip with Veggie Sticks

This one is a snack that may be prepared in advance and it doesn’t take long to prepare. It’s a great snack to satisfy those munchies for something crunchy when you’re on a gaming marathon. 🙂

There are very little ingredients needed for the dip itself:

  •  1 can of tuna (I always use the one in saltwater, not the oily one)
  • 1 onion
  • either of these: plain yoghurt, cream cheese, creme fraîche, sour cream
  • spices – dried herbs, freshly ground pepper, some salt, paprika

Continue reading →

Mists of Pandaria Marathon: Choice of Drinks

As promised, I’m going to talk about food and drink during a gaming marathon as it will come up very soon. In fact, next week! Pandaria, here we come! Woohoo!

The Non-Gamers amongst you might think that during a gaming marathon we live off Energy Drinks, Coffee, Soft Drinks, Beer, Wine…

Sorry to disappoint you, but no. While there will be the occassional Energy Drink or Coffee, I refrain from alcohol and Soft Drinks. We will be going through a rather unhealthy gaming marathon with little sleep, therefore it’s even more important to drink enough and drink the right things. Water would obviously be the best choice, but sometimes it’s just too bland and I need something with a taste to it that keeps me drinking enough.

One thing that I will prepare for sure by the buckets is this Ginger-Lemon Drink that I’ve introduced before. Another is tea. When I was little, my Mom would always brew a mix of lime-tree blossom and peppermint, add some lemon juice and a bit of sugar, let it cool and that was that. That was way cheaper than buying soft drinks. And that’s something I keep doing to-date, though I vary the teas a lot – I have quite the collection in my cupboard.

In fact, I need to go buy some more teas, the cupboard ain’t as full as it used to be. 🙂

One of my favourite teas is Mexican Spiced Rooibos. I knew the previous owner of SBS Teas and that’s how I know about this awesome online tea shop. They are based in the US, but ship internationally and I really recommend these ladies if you’re looking for something special. But I’m also lucky enough to have a good Tea House here in town, the London Tea Company,  that carry great teas. And I don’t mind at all drinking tea brewed from inexpensive grocery store tea bags. I usually sweeten my drinks with honey, sometimes I use sugar. But the great thing about brewing your own drink is that it’s entirely up to you how much sugar you add or if you substitute with something else.

And that’s my alternative to soft drinks. 🙂

I’m still here! *waves*

Sorry for the lack in posting, but work was really crazy those past two weeks. Then there was of course the MoP Pre-Patch that kept me busy and blogging was kind of forgotten for a while. 🙂

Lots of people are talking about Mists of Pandaria right now, but I won’t go into detail myself. Let’s just say I’m thrilled! I was really looking forward to the Pre-Patch and you know what the best thing is in my opinion? Not the account wide achievements, though they are cool. Not the the sharing of mounts and pets across all characters, though this is nifty, too. But what really thrilled me was the AoE looting. I LOVE it! I sometimes go on this farming sprees where I just like to bomb stuff away and the AoE looting is simply AWESOME! And yeah, that way I ended up getting the Black Tabby in about 20.000 kills…. teehee…

I was also lucky enough to kill the Darkmoon Rabbit last week (this screenshot was made with the add-on Multishot. Isn’t that nifty? It even gives a timestamp!):

It was really tough but lots of fun also. Basically it’s a DPS race and running a lot from the Ghosthealer to the battle site and keep on fighting. As a hunter, it’s a bit easier. I love my feign death button… teehee. I didn’t get the bunny pet, but that’s ok. It was all about the experience and the fun of it.

After there was a tiny bit of guild drama a couple of weeks ago, all is well now. We’re doing a lot of achievement runs together and we’re wiping lots trying our hands on Heroic modes in Bastion of Twilight or Blackwing Descent. But it’s ok and we have lots of fun doing so.

I’m very giddy for Mists of Pandaria to finally hit. A couple of years ago Buffed , which is like WoWhead, but in German, did a special about gaming and food and that there are other alternatives than just pizza and coke.

This blog ain’t called Panem et Circenses for nothing. 🙂 I plan to share our Mists of Pandaria foods during the next  couple of days. I won’t kid you, the MoP release week won’t be the healthiest food-wise; but we can throw in some veggies and even remotely healthy choices.

So stay tuned! 🙂

A girl can never have enough dragons

Last Weekend was a good one in WoW. I got two new Mounts, yippie!!! 

But from the beginning. On Saturday we started out with ICC 10 achievement run for the dragon. In fact, I was only missing 3 (!) achievements. We did most of it on heroic and thus I got one of the three missing cheesemints – Sindragosa on heroic. We were in there with only 6 peeps and it was not easy! We died a lot, but still it was extremely satisfying to re-visit the old content and working together on the achievements. 

Unfortunately, one player had to leave and so we ended up 5-manning the Lich King and didn’t get the last achievement. But then, we somehow understood it wrong and gave the Lich King 30 stacks of the buff and not ourselves. 8) Ah well, we’ll be back… 

After ICC we went for Sartharion 3D 25. What can I say – I got the dragon!!! Wheeeeee!!!! Pretty blue dragon that matches my outfit! (good gracious – Mogging makes me a fashion victim! *gasp*)

 

On Sunday we worked on the Cataclysm Dungeon Achievements. Again, I was only missing three or four achievements and we did it! I think three of us were able to finish it up and got a new dragon with pink spikes. I think it looks pink. Aidan contradicts that and says it’s red. I still think it’s pink. It’s a girly dragon. (That reminds me… need to get a pink outfit to match that dragon… mwhahaha).

 

Mounts and Dragons really are the handbags of WoW, aren’t they? A girl can never have enough! (oh gosh – I should’ve never started to work for a fashion company… *grins*)