Leafshine: Lust for Flower

I Love Accidental Achievements

I've just had one of those evenings where the achievements keep coming. Some of them I expected, some of them, well, I didn't.

It all started gently with a little bit of nannying:

That's all six pets squirrelled away (that pun was just for you, Stop). I hope they add some more next year. Anyway, next on the agenda was being a bad example, and that meant a Flask of Port. Nipped to Stormwind and bagged a couple of flasks, on the "one for me, one for the pot" principle.

It appears that was my first flask of port…

Leafy, Leafy How Does Your (Noble) Garden Grow?

My first world event meta. Boo-yah.

But then, a love of nature and druids go so very well together:

Leafy's Love Is In The Air Hint

Look, I hate to break the habit of a lifetime, and actually post useful content, but this came up on Twitter this morning (see here and here and here), so, I can't be the only one who took an age to figure this out...

• If you're trying to put together a city gift package, the "consumable" type items (beer in Ironforge, etc) don't come from guards, they come from vendors, 'cos vendors need love, too.

Well, that was my one useful tip from me this year. Hope you enjoyed it...

Now be careful out there. And don't be a whore. :-)

The Lovin' Kind of Lucky Leafy*

Love is in the air
Do-do-do-do-do
Love is in the air...

Yes, it's that time of the year again. It's time for the blink-and-you-miss-it world event. It's time for Love is in the Air. I always miss this Event. I've never, ever done the quest chain that's associated with it, not actually figured out how the event works enough to start getting pretty dresses and vanity pets and the like. So, this year, I'm throwing myself into it with some gusto, where gusto seems to mean "standing around in Ironforge, begging people to remove my broken heart". And that's uncomfortably like my life was before I met Mrs Leafy...

Still, I think my bad luck in normally being away or very, very busy during this event had finally switched around, as my very first Pledge of Adoration contained a Lovely Black Dress, which has a rather startling drop rate of about 1%. I might even shoot a pic of Leafy in it, should I clear enough bag space for her to take the rest of her gear off...

However, this event rather nicely illustrates my love/hate relationship with world events right now.

The Battle of Stormwind Harbour

For a Horde's eye view of the Invasion, check out /hug.

UPDATE: You can see the video in higher resolution over on WeGame. 

Braaaaaaaaains

Looks like the Zombie Invasion has beeen the most controversial world event yet. I intend to write more about it when I have a wee bit of time, but in the meantime, here's a short reminder of those chaotic days:

Good News & Bad News in Leafy Land

It's been a bit of a bad news / good news 48 hours here in Leafy towers. Let's handle the bad bit first.

Bad News

We raided Zul'Aman on Thursday night. And we did Eagle and Bear bosses on the timer. I was excited, because all the decent resto loot comes from the chests on those bosses. We pushed onwards to the Dragonhawk boss, without opening the crates…

…and my screen froze. I had to force a reboot of the iMac, and it wouldn't restart. The hard drive had died mid-game. It took me 20 minutes to establish that the iMac wasn't coming back, switch over to my MacBook, find the external HD I use for WoW on that, and get logged back in. By which time, they'd gone back and looted the chests, including Elunite Imbued Leggings which went to a paladin.

Now, you can read the other side of the story on Andro's blog, but I think we both screwed up here. Sure, it wasn't a great call to open those chests without being sure I wasn't coming back. But it wasn't a great call of mine to bail from the raid when I discovered what they'd done. And the irony is, of course, that I listened without really reading, which was stupid of me. Because the drop is much more Boomkin gear than druid gear, and wouldn't really have been an upgrade anyway. Useful for caster soloing, but not really for my primary healing role. The combination of losing an expensive computer and then having the apparent loot loss adding insult to injury was a bit much for me - which suggests to me that, emotionally, I've got a long way to go before I regain my emotional equilibrium after the loss of my Mum and all the stress that goes with house clearance and funerals. Grief really works its way into every aspect of your life, and you always underestimate how profound an effect it has. 

Good News

The following afternoon, before I took my iMac in for repair, I had a chance to do some invasion-clearing with Glaive the super-pally and some other guildies, including an alt of Psia's. And I managed to complete my leather invasion set, for kitty-cat soloing and levelling! Hurrah!

I'd been lucky to pick up some leather from Karazhan which our rogues didn't need, but adding Blessed Tunic of Undead Slaying and Blessed Leggings of Undead Slaying to the gloves and shoulders I bought with Necrotic Runes from the last invasion has given me a robust set going into Wrath, which is pleasing. And I do like the look. Very druidy.

Oh, and we went into Kara again last night, and gave Tenris Mirkblood a good kicking, albeit one delivered on the run. So, I have my lovely little vampire bat now.

The PackRat Invasion

What's that, Leafy? A packrat invasion? Surely you mean a Scourge Invasion.

Well, sorta. You see, those of us who have been around since pre-Burning Crusade days will remember that there was a previous Scourge Invasion, one which heralded the arrival of Naxxramas. And guess what the scourge from those invasions dropped?

Ah, Necrotic Runes. And I had 88 of them safely banked as Blizzard assured us that they'd be of use at some point in the future. Oh, I came close to tossing them out a few times, as the years passed and no way of spending them was forthcoming.

And so, when the Invasion re-started and the Argent Quartermasters returned, I was able to go on a wee spending spree almost immediately. 10 of them were needed to finish Under the Shadow, and then, hmmm. Well, the Blessed Grips and Blessed Shoulders of Undead Slaying looked too good to miss, as they'd boost my kitty-cat set. And an Argent Dawn banner would go so nicely with the tabard I picked up in the last invasion.

Now, my biggest concern is getting a group together to do Kara before the new boss disappears. Some of the guild have already done it, and response to getting a second run together has been lacklustre. I'm a little worried at this point...