Swords and Ploughshares

Thunder Bluff Warrior of the Insurrection

Vicious Pyrium Shoulders, any sleeveless chestpiece, Shattered Hand belt, Imperial Plate Leggings, Jade Tiger Gauntlets, Grim Sabatons, Thunder Bluff cloak & tabard, Ymiron’s Blade
The Thunder Bluff Warriors who are occupying Razor Hill during the Siege of Orgrimmar wear neither gloves nor boots. If you have invisiboots, such as Griftah’s Authentic Troll Shoes or Ancient Skeletal Boots, by all means use them! Keija does not yet have any invisiboots, not having obtained any either by raiding or by grinding the necessary Kor’kron supplies during patch 5.3, but the Grim Sabatons blend in with the pants well enough to produce almost the same effect.
The NPC belt is the same style as the golden-brown Shattered Hand or blue-grey Grimscale belt, but in a warm grey color that is not available to players. I chose to use the Shattered Hand belt because I felt like the warm tones harmonized better with the tabard & cloak. The Jade Tiger gloves contain both silvery tones to coordinate with the pants and golden tones to coordinate with the belt and tabard, making them the best choice of Keija’s readily-available gloves.
The NPCs carry Ymiron’s Blade + Saltstone Shield, a brighter recolor of the Angerfang/Splinterspear/Bladestaff Hammer that is not available to players, a unique and unobtainable 2H axe, or sometimes even the giant totem that every Tauren player character dearly wishes she or he could wield.

Chocolate-Covered Strawberry


Wyrmslayer Spaulders, Bloodscale chestpiece & belt, Brutish pants gloves & boots, Dire Maul, Shield of Maraudon
Oh oh oh! Oh no! I totally forgot that I had wanted to make this outfit for my secondary Warrior for Love is in the Air this year until after the holiday had come and gone. Fortunately, I had some screenshots of the holiday decor from previous years that were suitable for compositing.

Tiller with Shovel





Straw Hat, Ramshorn-Inlaid Shoulders, Armored Chestpiece of Eminient Domain, Field Plate Girdle, Antique Reinforced Legguards, Crystalvein gloves, Subservient Greatboots, Green Lumberjack Shirt, Tillers Tabard, The Shoveler
This outfit owes a great debt to Freyana’s fantastic entry for the final round of The Amazing Transmog Survivor Contest.

Tiller with Shovel and Torch

Straw Hat, Pauldrons of the Deafening Gale, Kargal’s Breastplate, Marauder’s Belt, Togrik’s Legguards, Talhide Lined-Gloves & Boots, Wikket Wrap, Yellow Lumberjack Shirt, Shovel of Mercy, Grayson’s Torch
As it happened, it was more convenient for Kamalia to collect the low-level quest rewards than to watch for the identical Veteran’s armor to appear on the AH.
Fortunately, the Pauldrons of the Deafening Gale dropped for me on my first Trial of the Champions run. The first boss encounter is incredibly, exceedingly obnoxious to solo because the NPCs get to chain stunlock with no diminishing returns.
When I “Do the Right Thing” to get the shovel, I always rescue the humans and wish I could save the whole field of them. Poor things, they will need a lifetime of therapy to overcome the PTSD from that horrific experience.
Prior to Cataclysm, Captain Grayson offered his quests to Horde as well as Alliance, and I ran multiple characters up the coast from Grom’gol to his lighthouse in Westfall to get the torch. Nowadays, alas, though he remains neutral, Captain Grayson only offers his quests to Alliance characters. Horde characters should watch the AH for the Mistyreed Torch.

Tiller with Pitchfork

Straw Hat, Murkblood shoulders & chest, Brown Belt of Humbling Gravity, Expedition Pants, Silentleaf Gloves, Swift Cenarion Footwear, Blue Lumberjack Shirt, Nether Trident
At its core, this outfit is the same as my “Newsie” set. I’ve just switched out a few of the accessories.
Kate always wears one of her Monk class quest belts. Other characters should look for a relatively plain brown belt, such as the Belt of the Raptor.
One of the reasons why I picked this trident for Kate’s earlier Fisherman set is that it also makes a halfway-decent pitchfork for a Farmer set. The War Scythe or Grim Scythe would also be suitable weapons for a polearm-wielding class to use in a Farmer outfit.

Tiller with Staff

Straw Hat, Outlander’s Pauldrons, Blue Overalls, Willow Belt, Tangled Thread Gloves, Apprentice Boots, Red Lumberjack Shirt, Rosethorn Staff
I’ve seen several variations on the classic cloth “Farmer” look that use the Skein Woven Mantle. Indeed, I had one squirrelled away in my Transmogrification vault guild bank for Kaohana to use in a Farmer outfit. When I finally got around to making her one, however, I decided to do something a little different and use this set of shoulders that she already had soulbound, rather than adding yet another item to her overflowing wardrobe.
I thought about using a really plain “walking stick”-type staff model, such as Umbranse’s Staff, with this kit. The fancier Rosethorn Staff appealed to me more, though I’m not quite sure why it felt so appropriate for a Farmer. Warlock Farmers should of course use their Staff of the Left Hand Path/Staff of Justified Sins. WTB a Transmogrifiable Broom!

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the Underpowered Death Knight blows her horn

Thanks in large part to the sample-giving and crown-crushing Love is in the Air dailies, the Pet Battling Monk and the Underpowered Death Knight both dinged 80 this week.

I thought the Pet Battling Monk would bypass questing in Northrend by doing Archaeology in Eastern Kingdoms. As it happened, she didn’t do any more Archaeology — she ran LFD instead. I feel like I’m getting a much better understanding of the “spend mana, spend chi, drink tea” Mistweaver routine with this character than I did with my first Monk.

The Pet Battling Monk also finally chose some primary professions. She took Tailoring because making one Imperial Silk per day just isn’t going to get all my characters’ inventories upgraded to Royal Satchels fast enough. Having two Tailors on my main server will keep poor Kaohana from being chained to Sunsong Ranch and the Silken Fields until Warlords is almost over. She took Leatherworking because I want to have a character who can wear the leather version of the Black Temple BoP crafted shoulders. Though she has trained those two professions, I haven’t put any time into collecting mats and actually skilling them up yet.

The Underpowered Death Knight did some Argent Tournament dailies and quite a bit of Northrend Archaeology to get to her ding. Though it may look, in that picture above, like she dinged from killing those two Gjalerbron vrykul, she actually dinged from picking up the Archaeology find that she was just about to survey for when the big dudes attacked her.

The Underpowered Death Knight celebrated reaching level 80 by doing a tour of all the Unborn Val’kyr spawn sites and digging up all the digsites along the way. Although she didn’t see an Unborn Val’kyr anywhere, she captured a few other nice pets, and she collected enough Vrykul relic fragments to piece together the Vrykul Drinking Horn. I’ve macroed the Vrykul Drinking Horn together with her Horn of Winter, so it should always be up when she’s in combat, at least. It makes her as tall as a Camp Winterhoof taunka, though not quite as tall as a Skorn vrykul.


This is better than the Crown of Eternal Winter!
Although obtaining the Vrykul Drinking Horn has satisfied her original reason for wanting to take up Archaeology, the Underpowered Death Knight will most likely continue to do Northrend and Eastern Kingdoms Archaeology all the way from level 80 to level 90 — I don’t have any great desire to take her through either the Cataclysm zones or Pandaria. And as long as she’s in Northrend, she might as well keep looking for an Unborn Val’kyr.

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sweets and stars

A few outfits for this year’s Love is in the Air season…

Very Berry Cream

Alabaster Plate Pauldrons, Bloodscale chest belt gloves & boots, Commander’s Leggings, War Paint Cloak, Wound Dressing, Hammer of Destiny
This outfit just wasn’t complete without this specific weapon. Fortunately, one showed up on the AH at a not-too-outrageous price just when I wanted it. I keep wanting to call it the Hammer of Density, though…

Adorable Aborigine

Forever-Lovely Rose, Feline Mantle, Aboriginal Robe, Ambermist belt & gloves, Cerulean Filigreed Shirt, Sealing Heartstaff
I wasn’t completely happy with the lower-level version of this outfit that I posted last year. This new version, with the shoulders I wanted to use then but hadn’t yet been able to acquire, is much more pleasing.
Yes, I know that the Forever-Lovely Rose is not Transmogrification-friendly. It would be awesome if it was, though — Forever-Lovely Silk Rose, Forever-Lovely Patent Leather Rose, Forever-Lovely Mithril Filigree Rose, Forever-Lovely Eternium Rose… sigh.

Falling Petals


Seaspeaker Mantle, Wrathfin chestpiece & pants, Brigade belt gloves & boots, Snowfall Shawl, Felstone Reaver
Although Kamalia Prime hasn’t managed to come up with any outfits to wear the lovely Snowfall Shawl with, I knew right away that mini-Kam would need to get it so that she could wear it with her Wrathfin & Brigade set when Love is in the Air came around again. This outfit is just that earlier set updated with the cloak and new weapons — but what a difference they make!

Fuschia Fantasy


Junior Technician 3rd Grade Goggles, Gossamer Shoulderpads, Vestments of the Shifting Sands, Arcanist Belt, Astralaan Pants, Widow’s Clutches + Silkwood Cuffs, Ruby Slippers , Cloak of Azure Lights, Formal White Shirt, Staff of Twin Worlds
After having gone to rather a great deal of effort to acquire the Ruby Slippers and matching Widow’s Clutches, Kaelinda knew exactly which robe she wanted to wear with them first. Fortunately, it only took her two resets of AQ20 to get it. This robe reads as purple to my color-sense, but I know plenty of people who consider it to be pink.
I prefer to wear a white bodysuit underneath this style of robe because I am uncomfortable with showing this much skin — feel free to leave off the shirt and use more revealing pants if you so desire.

… plus a few more recent creations that I’m rather pleased with.

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a time for focus and a time for faffing

The beginning of an expansion is time for focus; time to focus on the character you want to be your “main” for the new content, whether that character is long-established or freshly-created; time to focus on getting that character leveled and well-reputed and well-geared.

The ending of an expansion is time for faffing; time to level alts, to catch up on things you’ve always wanted to do but didn’t quite manage to get done before, perhaps even to try some new things.

Tome reminded me that the Godmother has declared 2014 to be the Year of FAFF.

So far, mini-Kam has only done the one session of farming mogu in the Vale, looking for Skyshards. She got distracted by doing dailies for the Order of the Cloud Serpents, the August Celestials, the Shado-Pan (only when the August Celestials send her to Niuzao Temple), and yes, even the Tillers. I’ve deliberately been taking the Cloud Serpents and the Tillers slowly. I only do the full set of Cloud Serpent dailies when they’re on Windward Isle. I don’t feel like going into the hozen cave or the spider cave again, so on those days I just fish for sugar minnows and cook fish cakes. Likewise, I’m only doing the Tillers dailies that don’t go up onto the Skyrange or Springtail Crag — catching chickens, watering crops, pulling weeds, stomping marmots. Sometime around my sixth or seventh alt through the Tillers routine, I began to have an exceedingly uncomfortable feeling that the packs of small, weak Kunzen Rockflingers and Springtail Littlewhiskers are the children of their communities, and it’s hard to do those dailies without ending up killing at least one group of them.

The Pet Battling Monk found that the levels started to come a lot slower after she reached 40.

Thanks to the Lunar Festival and all that lovely XP from visiting Elders, she managed to make it to level 60 this week. Soon, she’ll head out to Shadowmoon Valley to test my lead team of level 25 Pandaren Air Spirit Ariel, level 24 Brilliant Kaliri Kiamore, and level 24 Pandaren Monk Navie Chan against Blood Knight Antari and attempt to open up the Outland pet trainer dailies.

Speaking of the Lunar Festival, the Underpowered Death Knight of course went out to visit all the Elders she could reach — though she skipped the ones in Alliance primary/secondary zones and the ones in Twilight Highlands. This tour naturally brought her to Northrend; while she was there, she convinced me to let her at least get started on the Argent Tournament.


She can do the jousting and the sword quests easily enough, but she had enough trouble with the mobs in a Borean Tundra archaeology digsite that I don’t want to let her even try the kill quests!

The very day that I posted about having captured Ghostcrawler, saying that the Hunter would be content with her thirty-six pets until she goes to Draenor, Mumper tweeted that the stable in the Garrison will allow pets to be displayed in groups of five. The Hunter began to think that perhaps she should tame four more pets to bring her total up to a nice round total of eight groups of five. That would still leave her plenty of room for creatures from Draenor. She knew right away which pet she wanted to seek out first. She’s spent the last couple of days in Sholazar Basin, patiently stalking Loque’nahak. After she catches him, her next destination will be the Molten Front because Cymre reminded me about Skarr and Karkin. The Hunter has not yet recruited the Druids of the Talon, so several days of Molten Front dailies will be a prerequisite to catching those handsome beasts.

The Paladin ran Heart of Fear and Terrace of Endless Spring LFR this week. She picked up enough T14 pieces to give her some fun Transmogrification ideas. She’s also been farming Heroic Hellfire Ramparts for the purple Judgment shoulders (I know, I know).

The Warrior, who hasn’t been to LFR in ages, queued up for Pinnacle of Storms this afternoon just so that she could pose with Lei Shen to show off her new Transmogrification kit.

Resounding Doom


Doomed Crown of Lei Shen, Pauldrons & Battleplate of Resounding Rings, Crafted Malevolent Gladiator’s Girdle of Prowess, Legguards of Lost Hope, Taldaram’s Plated Fists, Impaling Treads, Uroe, Harbinger of Terror, Cryptmaker

She then went through a certain amount of agony concerning a set that I will probably never make for her, even though it would look simply fantastic with her LFR Starshatter.

Iceguard helm chestpiece & leggings, Imperial Plate shoulders & boots, Swordhook Slingbelt, Flash Freeze Gauntlets/World Keeper’s Gauntlets, Starshatter (LFR)

I ground the Violet Eye rep to purchase the Iceguard patterns so that I could make them for the Underpowered Death Knight. They are terribly expensive, requiring large amounts of both khorium and primals, so I don’t want to make them twice! Then there’s the problem that those gloves are either a Blackwing Descent boss drop or require Exalted rep with the Earthen Ring — and the Warrior hasn’t even been to Vashj’ir!
I suppose I can dream that someday some kind of Transmogrification Wardrobe feature will allow the Warrior to wear this set even though she will have the belt and the sword, the Underpowered Death Knight will have the helm, chestpiece, and leggings, and if anyone has the gloves, it will probably be the Paladin.
ETA: The Warrior decided to go to Vashj’ir anyway because how can she farm for the Whitefin Axe if she can’t even get to the dungeon entrance?

The Warrior also discovered that the Thunder Bluff cloak, which she wants for another planned Transmogrification kit, requires Exalted reputation. Alas, she is only midway through Revered. I’ve already discovered that a level 90 character wearing a city tabard will get city rep in Old Hillsbrad — I wonder if that trick will work in Northrend and Cataclysm dungeons, too? (Tried it out in normal Stonecore — Yes, it does!)

I used to think I was a “casual” WoW player. Lately, however, I’ve come to believe that it would be more accurate to describe my WoW playstyle as “faffer”.

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the Earthmother and her children (#FFW from Erinys!)

Hi Kamalia,

It’s Erinys from the Harpy’s Nest here.

Sorry for this being slightly late but I couldn’t decide what to do. Spending hours poring over your blog changing my mind every few minutes, I finally came down to the two Ts of Transmogrification and Taurens but how to combine them? Carolling in Thunder Bluff, the answer, it turned out was right in front of me… creation myths!

There is one outfit for each gear specialization in-game. I know that transmogrification is subjective and most definitely in the eye of the beholder but I hope you like these.

~*~*~

“Before the Age of Memory, the gentle Earthmother breathed upon the golden mists of dawn. Where the amber clouds came to rest, there were endless fields of flowing wheat and barley. This was the basin of her works – the great basket of life and hope.”

Endless fields of flowing wheat and barley
This is built around one of my favourite items in-game, the conifer cone staff. In my head, the Greatmother is a Shaman so this outfit had to be mail.

Crown of Flame (H)
Mantle of the Golden Forest
Khan’s chestpiece
Amber Filigreed Doublet
Bloodlust Gauntlets
Engraved Girdle
Valorous Earthshatter Kilt
De’rizu Greaves
Conifer Cone Staff

“The Earthmother, her heart heavy with her children’s plight, could not bear to watch them fall from grace. In her grief, she tore out her eyes and set them spinning across the endless, starry skies. An’she and Mu’sha, seeking to ease the other’s sorrow, could only chase each other’s faint glow across the sky. The twins still chase one another with every turning of the world.”

The Twins: An’she
I decided against going for the obvious golds and yellows, choosing to focus more on the dawning and setting sun, those delicate shades which paint the whole sky with just some subtle hints of gold to suggest the sun at its midday peak. The Sun had to be plate, whether I was influenced by those lines from Shakespeare’s Richard III,

Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this sun of York;

or perhaps I’ve just pvped too much but it makes me think of arrogant warriors and paladins charging into battle.

Crown of Empowered Fate
Pauldrons of the Souleater
Commander’s Armour
Amber Filigreed Doublet
Gauntlets of the Righteous Champion
Belt of the Seven Seals
Triton Legplates
Gothic Sabatons
Ashkandi, Greatsword of the Brotherhood

The Twins: Mu’sha
This could only be a cloth transmogrification with the mooncloth robe at its heart.

Moonsoul Crown
Aurora Mantle
Mooncloth Robe
White Tuxedo Shirt
Safeguard Gloves
Relentless Gladiator’s Cord of Salvation
Redemption

“This tale speaks of how the Earthmother gave the Shu’halo the love of the hunt. The Tauren became great hunters, but one spirit eluded them, Apa’ro, the white stag (called Malorne by the Night Elves.) The Tauren hunted Apa’ro to the ends of Azeroth, and finally the stag fled into the heavens. where his great antlers became tangled in the starts. As the moon, (Mu’sha) chased her brother across the skies, she saw the helpless stag, and immediately fell in love with him.”

The White Stag
The fact that Malorne’s a Druidic icon, so to speak, meant that this set had to be leather. We know that he is a pure white stag so the Boneshredder set seemed like the perfect starting point for this.

Crown of the Forest Lord
Boneshredder Shoulderguards
Boneshredder Jerkin
Jinxed Hoodoo Kilt
Heraldic Belt
Boneshredder Gloves
Dreamer’s Dragonstaff

The observant amongst you might notice that neither of the latter two are illustrated, that’s because I’m bad.

The full lore behind the Tauren creation myths can be found in the scrolls hanging on the walls of the Archdruid’s tent in Thunder Bluff, and it’s well worth taking the trip to read if you haven’t already. All of the quotes to illustrate my outfits are taken from there — but that’s a tiny portion of the full tale.

Happy Winter Veil

~*~*~

I love this concept of making costumes for a theatrical telling of the Tauren creation myths. All these outfits are so wonderful — the rich autumnal tones of the Greatmother herself, the rosy light of An’she peeking over the horizon at sunrise or sunset, the cool clear brilliance of Mu’sha in the night sky, the sleek elegance of Malorne! Thank you so much, Erinys!

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one week left to sign up for #FFW!

It’s that time of year again — time for the #FFW Furtive Father Winter blog post exchange!

There’s one week left — until 15 December — to sign up for the exchange at red cow rise. Then Akabeko will put everyone’s names into the Father Winter hat and send out recipients on 16 December.

I’ve really enjoyed participating in this event the past two years. For me, the most fun thing is figuring out what kind of post to make for my recipient and putting it together. Then, I love seeing what everyone else has come up with. The gifts I’ve received have been wonderful, too!

I had to think a bit before I decided to sign up this year; BTH and I are starting our Christmas vacation a little earlier this year than we have for the past couple of years and will be at relatives’ houses for the whole #FFW timeperiod. Still, I think I’ll have enough “downtime” to do my own thing that I’ll be able to make an #FFW post for someone — and I can’t wait to find out who that person will be!

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thanksblogging, 2013 edition

I’ve been waiting all year for Pilgrim’s Bounty to come around again so that I could make this outfit for Kaohana:

Bountiful Nomad

Outlander’s Pauldrons/Stonecloth Epaulets, Greenweave Robe, Wise Man’s Belt, Heavy Linen Gloves + Seer’s Cuffs, Umbranse’s Staff
The accessories in this set would look equally good with the Native Robe worn by the Bountiful Feast Hostess. Using the white Stonecloth Epaulets, this set can be worn by a character in the low 30s. I think the brown Outlander’s Pauldrons coordinate with the robe better, but they require a level in the low 60s. The staff I am using is a Winterspring quest reward, but any plain staff will do. I’d love to use Nimar’s Tribal Headdress with this set, but it is no longer obtainable and thus awfully hard to find.

Tome has reminded me that Amerence is once again hosting the Blog Azeroth Thanksgiving Event.

Since last year’s BATE, I’ve discovered, enjoyed, and added to my blogroll Repgrind, Mr and Mrs WoW, Plaid Elf, Luxy, Umlaut Paradots, and Contested Territory.

During the past year, several of you have done wonderful things for me. Repgrind helped me add Al’ar to my mounts list, when I felt like we’d just barely met. To this day, I often think of and am thankful for her generosity when Kaelinda’s favorite flying mounts macro brings up that gorgeous pink phoenix. Umlaut gave me some timely inspiration and encouragement to get my Warrior leveled and into Throne of Thunder LFR for the amazing Warrior T15 set. Just recently, Matty‘s ignition of the Old Ladies Raiding Guild has filled the void left after JD’s Laid Back Raid programme petered out.

When I saw the Firelands on the Old Ladies Raiding Guild schedule, I considered temporarily faction-swapping Kaelinda so that she could (hopefully) pick up the Mantle of Closed Doors. A little later, it occurred to me that if Transmogrification really will be getting upgraded (I’m guessing patch 6.1 or 6.2), it shouldn’t really matter which character collects all the spiffy-looking stuff I want to make Transmogrification kits with. So I’ve been taking Kinevra, who is still level 85, to OLRG instead.

This weekend, the OLRG graciously carried Kinevra through the Firelands. I beg to differ with Matty’s report that, other than a Spire of Scarlet Pain, nothing particularly interesting dropped. Although the Mantle of Closed Doors didn’t drop, the next best thing — the T12 Mage shoulder token — did, and I won it!

Of course, I had to make an outfit with it right away!

Hot Stuff!

Jewel of the Firelord, Firehawk Mantle, Death Speaker Robes, Sash of the Burning Heart, Enumerated Gloves, Extravagant Boots of Malice, Archmage’s Staff*

Thank you, Matty, for letting me tag along with the OLRG!

Through participating in the OLRG, I’ve added some new people to my battletag friends list. One of those new battletag friends was Prinnie, and this week, she invited me to run some Siege of Orgrimmar LFR with her. I hadn’t run any LFR for about a month; I’d felt more like faffing around with alts than pushing Kam’s progression. An invitation to run with a friend made a world of difference — LFR really is so much more enjoyable in a group of friends than on my own.

How thankful I am for my blogging friends!

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Dress Up! #13: Hallow’s End

I have multiple outfits to share for the thirteenth Batinna’s Dress Up theme today!

This spooky ensemble combines ideas from two outfits I originally designed for the fourth round of Mog Madness.

Ata’mal Spectre

Horseman’s Horrific Helm, Crystalvein Pauldrons, Chromite chestpiece & leggings, Symbolic belt gloves & boots, Sword of Nefarian’s Hand, Purple Trophy Tabard of the Illidari

These two cloth outfits are iterations of Hallow’s End outfits I posted in previous years.

Mistress of Flame and Shadow

Jewel of the Firelord, Silver-Thread shoulders gloves & boots, Chan’s Imperial Robes, Durable Belt, Staff of the Left-Hand Path, Stylish Black Shirt
When I saw this robe on the AH for a real steal of a price, I snapped it up and stashed it away for when my Warlock would be able to wear it.
A Mantle of Closed Doors would be the perfect finishing touch for this outfit at higher levels.

Hallowed Watcher

Jewel of the Firelord, Duskhallow Mantle, Watcher’s Tunic, Astralaan belt pants & boots, Black Mageweave Gloves + Bracers of the Black Dream, Torch of Austen, Grayson’s Torch, Orange Mageweave Shirt
I love the lacy sleeves and shaded stripes on the skirt of Chan’s Imperial Robes and the more easily obtained Hibernal/Venomshroud and Arachnidian Robes, but I’m not so fond of the giant spider motif. That imagery is fine for my Warlock or my Troll Mage, but it doesn’t really suit my Tauren Priestess. Fortunately, the Watcher’s Tunic has the lacy sleeves and fancy stripes without being so obviously spidery — and its colors are perfect for Hallow’s End!
I wanted to use the Circle of Flame with this outfit, but for all my lofty words about it being easily farmable, the drop rate is low enough and I waited long enough to start trying for it that it didn’t drop in a timely fashion. And I’d already purchased the Jewel of the Firelord for my Warlock…

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pandaren promises kept

Brewfest, 2012

Brewfest, 2013

I would have been quite disappointed if there had been no Pandaren Brewmasters at Brewfest this year. But Blizzard remembered, and, even more delightful, their stock of small-batch Pandaren specialties is a complete cellar list of brews that can otherwise only be obtained from the brewmasters at the Celestial Court on the Timeless Isle.

This year, Kaoling insisted that as a Pandaren from the Wandering Isle, she must have a Pandaren Brewpack to tote around as she explores the rest of Azeroth. A hundred Brewfest Tokens are quite easy to obtain, so I obliged her.

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the Underpowered Death Knight quests for platekini

The Underpowered Death Knight quietly dinged 70 at the beginning of this month while digging up Night Elf relics in Feralas, hoping to open up a Fossil site so that she could find some suitable bits of bone and stone for Professor Paleo at the Darkmoon Faire. She’s gotten most of the XP for those last ten levels from sources other than regular questing — holiday tours, archaeology, Darkmoon Faire first aid & archaeology work, even a little bit of pet battling.

While I was touring the Midsummer bonfires in Outland with Kaumalea earlier this week, she reminded me that she wanted some platekini:
“It’s summer, it’s hot, I want to go to the beach!”

Although I’ve done a couple of platekini-type outfits before — my Paladin’s “Brightly Colored Shell” set and my Warrior’s “Silver Morning” set — I am not much interested in that genre of Transmogrification. Platekini is outside my usual standards of modesty, and my Tauren women definitely don’t need to wear platekini to be beautiful. The first paragraph of Prinnie’s “Thoughts” regarding her “Project Platekini” sums up my opinions on the matter pretty well, too. Still, I’ve seen enough outfits using the classic comic book superheroine metal bra look of the Glorious Breastplate that I wanted to try my hand at making a set with it myself. Kaumalea volunteered to be the model because she loves all things blue and the blue version of this chestpiece style is readily available as an Outland quest reward.

Although her log was still full of Hellfire Peninsula quests when she reached level 70, she felt that she could now skip straight to Mok’Nathal Village in Blade’s Edge Mountains to obtain the Nether Protector’s Chest. And, indeed, she was able to do the necessary quests with surprising ease. A quick search of Outland quest rewards in MogIt turned up some other items that combined to make a really quite pretty ensemble with the chestpiece, so off she merrily went to acquire them.

After experimenting with wearing “pretty clothes” while still using only the DK’s starter five abilities during Love is in the Air, I decided instead to expand Kaumalea’s ability/spell list to everything she can learn without choosing a talent specialization, but keep her gear restrictions. Between that change and reaching level 70, questing in Outland has gotten much less painful. She can now handle green and even some yellow Outland quests without too much difficulty. She still has to stop and eat frequently, and she’ll still die if she accidentally pulls more than one or two mobs at a time or neglects to account for a patrol. Howling Fjord/Borean Tundra mobs remain a significant challenge, however, so she will need to stay in Outland probably at least until she reaches level 75.

Soak Up the Sun


Salvaged Ango’rosh Pauldrons, Nether Protector’s Chest, Stalwart Girdle, Lofty pants, Whiteknuckle Gauntlets, Bloodguard’s Greaves
I’d thought perhaps to use this chestpiece with the Symbolic or Imbued Plate pants that she already had, but in searching the AH for other coordinating items (before I decided to use quest rewards), lo and behold there were the Lofty pants for only 25 gold — a deal that was way too good to pass up!

Taunka Warrior Ice Princess




Circle’s Stalwart Helmet, Talonguard Epaulets, Nether Protector’s Chest, Stalwart Girdle, Lofty pants, Symbolic gloves & boots, Amber Filigreed Shirt
These blue items that Kaumalea already had on-hand also made a very nice set with the platekini chestpiece and pants.

One of my greatest difficulties with this particular alternative leveling project is not being able to use Transmogrifiable gear. I want to make Transmogrification kits for Kaumalea that synergize with her blue-and-white coloration. So I make the pretty outfits and do screenshot sessions with them, then switch back to her common and poor quality gear set for questing.

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