fooling Chester

A couple of months ago, I was excited to learn that there would be a new vendor at the Darkmoon Faire selling RP-quality Gilnean garb. I, along with others, was disappointed to find out that purchasing the new clothing is gender-restricted — female characters can only buy the “Noblewoman’s” clothing, whereas male characters can only buy the “Nobleman’s” clothing.

When I saw the Transmorphic Tincture in the list of potions my Alchemist could learn from her Garrison Profession hut, I wondered if perhaps Chester could be fooled…

female-to-male Transmorphic Tincture

male-to-female Transmorphic Tincture

Yep, Chester can be fooled, alright.

I discovered, alas, that the coloration of the Nobleperson’s clothing is gender-specific.

Nobleman’s Coat & Pantaloons

Noblewoman’s Finery & Skirt

But what if that fancy black coat is what I want a female banker to be able to wear? Argh!

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Gaudy (Winter Veil Sweater) Night

Earlier this evening, JD Kenada & his Missus and I put on our Gaudy Winter Veil Sweaters and went caroling to some old bosses.

First, we burned up the Sunwell with some Alliance characters:

Next, we blew out the Four Winds with some Horde characters:

Thinking about what to do next, as the night was still young, I suggested that we try Dragon Soul for a chance at the Blazing Drake for Awake the Drakes. Everything fell right over until we got to Spine… and then we were the ones falling over! We wiped and wiped and wiped — making incremental progress each time — just like it was current content progression raiding. Eventually, though, we hit the wall of one wipe too many and called it a night. Ah well, maybe some other day.

Thanks for a fun evening, JD!

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Dude, I love your mog!

BTH and I sat down to play together yesterday evening and only got a few quests into the Tanaan Jungle sequence before he lagged out and could neither properly log out nor do anything. My screen soon showed him as disconnected, whereas on his screen, he could still run all around — he just couldn’t interact with anything. While we were waiting for this situation to resolve, I looked around and noticed that a nearby NPC had the sort of funny name that I would normally associate with a player character. When I looked at the NPC, he had funny armor, too — it was a male Tauren Warrior named “Etubrute” decked out in the full Amani kit. So I had a look all around the steps of the Dark Portal, and everywhere I found pseudo-player character NPCs.

When I saw this guy, I just had to chuckle!

BTH did eventually get back into the game, and we were able to finish Tanaan, establish our Garrisons, take Bladespire Hold for the Frostwolves, and ding 91 before we logged off at about half-past midnight.

Here are all the pseudo-player NPCs I found in the battle at the Dark Portal:

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pre-Warlords TO DO List: 13 weeks until November 13th

As it happens, I am giving exams — in both of my courses — on the weekend that Warlords of Draenor releases. The exams will be in the Testing Center, however, so I won’t pick them up to begin grading them until Monday or Tuesday. Of course, I will still have quizzes & lab reports to grade and lecture notes & handouts for the next unit to prepare…

I’m glad that I pushed myself to get the Warlock and the Rogue leveled to 90 during June and the first part of July, before I moved. I’ve been so busy these past few weeks with househunting and unpacking and trying to get ready for the semester to start —

Yup, Illidan, you got that right, buddy.
— anyhow, as I was saying — that I have barely had any time for WoW.

Thus, I’ve cut my “to do list” down to just these few objectives that I think are still achievable within the next thirteen weeks, even with my severely limited playtime:

Get shinies for Transmogrification from Mists LFR with each of the healing classes: Shaman, Paladin, Priest, Druid (in progress), Monk (in progress)
Get Shado-Pan Helmets and make Shado-Pan Transmogrification kits for Warlock and Rogue (currently 6K/21K Revered)
Farm Skyshards and capture Alani (7/10)

This week, I have been drowning in faculty meetings… must… not… install… Hearthstone… on… department… iPad-mini…

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an ancestral predilection for Tauren?

BTH and I are in Switzerland now. There are not words for how utterly gorgeous it is; every way you turn to look there are mountains rising up steep and high and green and rocky, or lakes shimmering the most wonderful shades of turquoise, with towns crammed into the spaces between. We are staying in a B&B in a little town north of Luzern, in central Switzerland. On our way there, we stopped at the Chateau de Chillon —

–this is the most postcard-worthy of the pictures I took there. The herds of cows everywhere actually started in south-eastern France, as we drove through the Charolais region, which is famous for its white cattle. We have seen white cows and brown cows and red cows and black cows and red-and-white cows and black-and-white cows. We have driven through many tunnels — the longest one was 9.25 km. I saw a herd of cows grazing on the greensward just above the entrance to one tunnel. The weather has been sporadically showery and sunny, giving us moments like yesterday evening when we were driving at just the right angle relative to the sun to see a double rainbow!

Presently, the angle of the road changed just enough for us to be able to see both sides of the arc of the rainbow at once! That was simply magical!
This afternoon, we visited Altdorf in the canton of Uri. Some of BTH’s ancestors lived there, as well as this guy whom you may have heard of named William Tell.

The symbol of Uri has been a bull’s head for hundreds of years. The town hall at Altdorf has a display of Uri war banners from the 14th and 15th centuries.

Modern Uri flags have the bull’s head in either black or red on the golden ground:

Perhaps this explains part of BTH’s love for Tauren (that I soon came to share)?

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mini-mog post: Garden of Eden

This is all PlaidElf’s fault. Her ROYGBiV-Green set got me thinking about bare chests and how the green LFR version of the T16 Druid belt looks so very much like the proverbial fig leaf, and this happened:

Shoulders of the Roiling Inferno, Sandrene’s Invisible Vest, Dragonmaw Emergency Strap, Ceremonial Leather Loincloth, Cenarion Gloves, Darkbrand Boots
Of course, Sandrene’s Invisible Vest isn’t actually moggable for the very good reason that if it was, no leather wearers would use any other chestpiece (to be a bit hyperbolic).
Something like this would still make a pretty good “Garden of Eden” outfit —

Grizzly Jerkin, Marshseeker Gloves, Cenarion Spaulders, Staff of the Verdant Circle
— and now my Feral Druid is begging to be boosted so she can do it >.<

My Balance/Resto Druid would prefer to be a little more well-clothed —

Wall-Breaker Legguards; Nimbletoe Chestguard, Harness of Carnal Instinct, Shy Breastplate, Vest of Welcome
— though she will probably end up just wearing the Ymirjar Physician’s Robe that she already owns:

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the Underpowered Death Knight and the Perils of Childcare

(for reference: The Underpowered Death Knight and the Orphans, Matron Kaumaleia)

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