For Love and Hate of the Hot Fix

Warcraft is always evolving, adjusting, making changes as needed to try and keep thing working as intended.  Sometimes that means hot fixing a talent, a mechanic, an achievement, what have you.  This is all done with us, the players, in mind.

Sometimes you love a hot fix.  Say your raid group is having issues with a boss because it was harder than intended and suddenly they reduce the health of the adds, like what they did on horridon on 10 man which helped out many guilds.  It is one of those things where if you beat the fight already it doesn't matter to you, you are already past it and can pass it again easily but if you were one of those guilds stuck behind the wall it is a welcome fix that helps you move along.

That is what hot fixes are for.  To try to keep things moving along, to let players feel as if they are progressing.  After all we all need to keep moving forward or the game becomes stagnant and that is when people start to give up, lose interest, or just flat out quit.  Hot fixing is usually in the best interest of the game.

How we as players react to the hot fixes however is basically what our personal opinions are.  As with the example I gave above.  There were some people that did not like the fix to the horridon fight.  They called it a nerf.  The difference is a hot fix is to fix something that was harder or easier than intended and a nerf is just to make things easier over all.  The dragon soul or icecrown citadel  5% buff/debuff was a nerf, the scaling of adds on horridon in 10 man was a hot fix.  But that would not change the minds of some people who would think otherwise.

Bottom line is with each hot fix you will either love it or hate it.

I've been hating on most of the achievement hot fixes this expansion thus far personally.  I hate them because of when they came mostly, not because they happened.  I can understand why they happened, well, some of them at least.

So that all brings me to the hot fix that is coming that made me think to write about them.  There is going to be a hot fix coming for getting the Harrison Jones follower that I am hating on right now.  Why you might ask?  Glad you did because I was planning on telling you even if you didn't.

To get the follower you had needed to do the 6 new relic hunter quests that come to a garrison near you on a daily basis as well as do all the follower missions associated with them.  The fix is that you no longer need to do the missions, you only need to do the 6 quests to get him now.

While this means it will be easier and faster to get him for many it also means yesterday I wasted a ton of time and resources.  As you might know, I am not a fan of wasting my time.  That means, I hate this hot fix.  See, for me, I only hate hot fixes that make me feel as if I wasted my time.  Things that if I knew they were coming I would have done things differently.  That is why I hate this hot fix.  If I knew it was coming, even more so coming this quickly, I would have done things differently.

What I did was take advantage of the fact you could speed along the missions by buying something from the archeology vendor which would give you a relic hunter mission for 5 restored artifacts.  I used all my stashed restored artifacts for them.  I did not stop there either, I also went through my collection of characters on my server that had motes of harmony and spirits of harmony and sent them all to my hunter.  I had 16 characters on that server that had some, so needless to say I had a lot.

I then went to the shrine and at a rate of 3 spirits of harmony per restored artifact I spent every one I had to get a nice stash of restored artifacts.  I then went back and bought more things to start the missions.  In the end I spent a lot of time, all my spirits, sacrificed turning the crates in for tol'vir fragments which is what I had been doing to try to get the damn mount and pet that still elude me, all in an effort to speed up getting Harrison Jones as a follower.

It required a lot from me to try to get the follower, hopefully, by the 6th day when I do the 6th daily, baring no repeats.  And now I don't need to do the missions!!!

Can you see why I am pissed?  I can somewhat under stand hot fixing some achievements because they need it.  I was upset with the change to the draenor money one going down from 10,000 to 2,500 because I had already done the 10,000 version, but I can deal with it.  I was actually happy with the change to savage friends to only needing 1 exalted reputation instead of 3 because it made more sense even if I already had the 3 at exalted.  I even support the change to the engineer building only needing to test some of the toys and not all even if it does annoy me that they made that change the day after I finally had used all of them and got the achievement, but it was a needed one as I see it.

But this change?  It just came out.  What is it, 2 days old in the UK and 3 days old in the US.  Was it really needed to fix it that quickly?  It did not even have any time to see if it was indeed broken. 

In time everyone would have managed getting all the missions without even trying, the missions would come to them in their garrison.  If they really wanted it they could rush it the way I did.  It was not a hard achievement to get or a big deal to begin with.  You still needed to wait 6 days no matter what because you had to do the six dailies and in those six days you could have easily gotten enough restored artifacts, like I did, to get all the missions you needed if you wanted to speed it up.  Why change it?  There was no need for this, even more so that there was a way already built in game to speed it up and make it even easier than it already is.

That is really a hot fix I am feeling the hate for. 

Do you want to know which achievement I would love to see fixed and made easier like that?  The bigger bags one.  I spent so much time on 20+ characters on the timeless island.  I killed every rare there at least 100 times and most likely much more and the process is account wide and I still do not have that achievement.  Why don't they change that one to only needing 80% of the items collected?  That one makes sense to fix.  Harrison Jones does not.  Bigger bag was hard because it involves RNG, Harrison Jones is not because all it requires is time.  Yet they fix the one that doesn't need it and leave the one that does need it alone.   For the love and hate of hot fixes indeed.

Have there been any hot fixes you hated?

Have there been any hot fixes you loved?

How has blizzards hot fix crazy ways of this expansion been treating you?

Garrison Achievements: Yes, These are Required

In what many can only call an odd move, blizzard has done something they have never done before in a sense by requiring an achievement to open up things.  It is not really the first time for this but it is the first time it is explicitly stated.  Many times we needed an achievement before we could do something like when we needed to clear a raid on normal before we could clear it on heroic.  But the normal achievement never said "unlocks heroic" so it never felt like it was required even if it was.

In warlords the achievements specifically say they reward you with the level three blueprints which effectively makes them required.  It seems worse than it is however as all the achievements are things you probably would accomplish anyway during the daily operations of your garrison to begin with.  And do not worry about these achievements being required for anything additional.  If you are not going to be taking advantage of garrisons, not getting these achievements will not hurt you in any way.

The awards in italics are the ones that offer blueprints.

Garrison Achievements:

Garrison Buddies (A) / Garrison Buddies (H):  Visit a friends garrison.
Staying Regular: Relieve yourself in the garrison outhouse.
More Plots (A) / More Plots (H): Upgrade your garrison to tier 2.
Even More Plots (A) / Even More Plots (H): Upgrade your garrison to tier 3.

Buildings:

Builder: Upgrade all the building plots on your garrison to level 2.
Master Builder: Upgrade all the building plots on your garrison to level 3.
Time for an Upgrade: Upgrade any garrison building to level 2.
Movin' On Up: Upgrade any garrison building to level 3.
Keepin' Busy:  Construct all the preset buildings listed.
Draftsman: Learn 20 garrison blueprints.
Master Draftsman: Learn 40 garrison blueprints.
Garrison Architect: Complete the listed achievements.  Awards: Architect title.
Working Some Orders: Complete 125 work orders at your garrison.
Working More Orders: Complete 250 work orders at your garrison.  Awards: Unlocks all level 3 profession building blueprints.
Working Many Orders: Complete 750 work orders at your garrison.

Barracks:

Wingman: Become a personal wingman with one of your barracks bodyguards.
Wingmen: Become a personal wingman with all (5) of your barracks bodyguards.

Barn:

The Trap Game: Place 50 work order by capturing creatures in the world.
Master Trapper: Place 125 work orders by capturing creatures in the world. Awards: Unlocks level 3 blueprint.
Trapper's Delight: Place 250 work orders by capturing creatures out in the world.
Trap Superstar: Place 500 work orders by capturing creatures out in the world.

Gladiator's Sanctum:

Fight, Kill, Salute!: Complete the quest Fight, Kill, Salute at Highmaul Coliseum.
Nemesis: Death Stalker (A): Complete this nemesis quest line. Awards: the Death Stalker title.
Nemesis:  Draenei Destroyer (H):Complete this nemesis quest line. Awards: Draenei Destroyer title.
Nemesis: Dwarfstalker (H):Complete this nemesis quest line. Awards: the Dwarfstalker title.
Nemesis: Gnomebane (H):Complete this nemesis quest line. Awards: Gnomebane title.
Nemesis: Huojin's Fall (A):Complete this nemesis quest line. Awards: Huojin's Fall title.
Nemesis: Killer of Kezan (A):Complete this nemesis quest line. Awards: Killer of Kezan title.
Nemesis: Manslayer (H):Complete this nemesis quest line. Awards: the Manslayer title.
Nemesis: Orcslayer (A):Complete this nemesis quest line. Awards: Orcslayer title.
Nemesis: Scourge of the Kaldorei (H):Complete this nemesis quest line. Awards: Scourge of the Kaldorei title.
Nemesis: Slayer of Sin'dorei (A):Complete this nemesis quest line. Awards: Slayer of Sin'dorei title.
Nemesis: Terror of Tushui (H):Complete this nemesis quest line. Awards: Terror of Tushui title.
Nemesis: The Butcher (A):Complete this nemesis quest line. Awards: the Butcher title.
Nemesis: Troll Hunter (A):Complete this nemesis quest line. Awards: Troll Hunter title.
Nemesis: Worgen Hunter (H):Complete this nemesis quest line. Awards: Worgen Hunter title.
Warlord of Draenor (A) / Warlord or Draenor (H):  Complete all nemesis and the fight kill salute quests.  Awards: Warlord of Draenor title.
The Bone Collector: Collect 5000 broken bones on draenor. Awards: Unlocks level 3 blueprint.

Gnomish Gearworks / Goblin Workshop:

Terrific Technology: Use all the inventions available at the workshop. Awards: Unlocks level 3 blueprint.

Lumber Mill:

Choppin' Some Logs: Place 10 work orders at the lumber mill.
Choppin' Some More Logs: Place 50 work orders at the lumber mill. Awards: Lumberjack title.
Upgrading the Mill: Place 75 work orders at the lumber mill and complete the quest lines.  Awards: Unlocks level 4 blueprint.
Choppin' Even More Logs (A): Place 100 work orders at the lumber mill. Awards: the Commandojack title.
Choppin' Even More Logs (H): Place 100 work orders at the lumber mill. Awards: Timber Lord title.

Lunarfall Inn / Frostwall Tavern:

Stay Awhile and Listen: Complete all the Inn quests listed. Awards: Unlocks level 3 blueprint.

Mage Tower / Spirit Lodge:

Finding Your Waystones: Loot 500 Orge Waystones. Awards: Unlocks level 3 blueprint.

Salvage Yard:

Salvaging Pays Off: Open 100 pieces of salvage from missons.  Awards: Unlocks level 3 blueprint.

Stables:

Intro to Husbandry:  Complete all the capture quests at the stables.
Master of Mounts: Fully train 6 mounts at your stables. Awards: Unlocks level 3 blueprint.
Advanced Husbandry (A) / Advanced Husbandry (H): Defeat all mount-in-training targets in nagrand while carrying the Black Claw of Sethe. Awards: Armored Frostboar.
The Stable Master (A) / The Stable Master (H): Defeat all mount-in-training targets in nagrand while carrying the Garn Tooth Necklace.  Awards: Armored Frostwolf and The Stable Master title.

Followers:

A Rare Friend: Recruit a rare follower.
An Epic Buddy: Recruit an epic follower.

Follow the Leader: Recruit 5 followers.
Where You Go, They Will Follow: Recruit 10 followers.
Fearless Leader: Recruit 25 followers.
Commander: Recruit 40 followers.

Following Up: Raise a follower to level 100.
Raising the Bar: Raise 10 followers to level 100.
Filling the Ranks: Raise 20 followers to level 100.  Awards: Unlocks level 3 dwarven bunker / war mill blueprint.

My Item Level Is Higher Than Yours: Raise a followers item level to 625.
My Item Level is Way Higher Than Yours: Raise a followers item level to 650.
Item Level Army:  Raise 10 followers' item level to 650.
Item Level Force: Raise 20 followers' item level 650.

Invasions:

Bronze Defender: Successfully complete a garrison invasion with a bronze rating or better.
Silver Defender: Successfully complete a garrison invasion with a silver rating or better.
Golden Defender: Successfully complete a garrison invasion with a gold rating.

Master Defender: Earn a gold in each max level invasion.
Save Those Buildings: Complete the invasions listed below without letting any buildings get destroyed.

It's an Invasion!: Successfully complete a garrison invasion.
Invasion Specialist: Successfully complete 10 garrison invasions.
Invasion?  What Invasion?: Successfully complete 50 garrison invasions.

Invasions Are Better With Friends: Successfully complete a garrison invasion in a party of 3.

Botani Invasion: Successfully complete a Botani garrison invasion.
Goren Invasion: Successfully complete a Goren garrison invasion.
Iron Horde Invasion: Successfully complete an Iron Horde invasion.
Orge Invasion: Successfully complete an Ogre invasion.
Shadow Council Invasion: Successfully complete a Shadow Council invasion.
Shadowmoon Clan Invasion: Successfully complete a Shadowmoon Clan invasion.

Missions:

On a Mission: Complete 10 missions.
On a Few Missions: Complete 50 missions.
On a Lot of Missions: Complete 100 missions.
On a Massive Number of Missions: Complete 500 missions.
On a Metric Ton of Missions: Complete 1000 missions.

A Rare Mission: Complete a rare mission.
Keeping It Rare: Complete 50 rare missions.
The Rarer the Better: Complete 300 rare missions.

Patrol Mission Specialist: Complete a patrol mission.
Patrolling Draenor: Complete 50 patrol missions: Awards: Unlocks level 3 barracks blueprint.

Treasure Mission Specialist: Complete a treasure mission.
Treasure Master: Complete 50 treasure missions.

Exploration Mission Specialist: Complete an exploration mission.

Mission Specialist:  Complete the mission specialists achievements listed below.

Monuments:
All award a garrison monument.

Defender of Draenor (A): Get 5000 honorable kills on draenor.
Defender of Draenor (H): Get 5000 honorable kills on draenor.
Draenor Pet Brawler: Win 2000 pet battles on draenor.
Master Draenor Crafter: Craft 50 epic items of at least 600.
Master of Apexis: Collect 100,000 apexis crystals.
Mythic Draenor Raider (A): Complete the mythic raiding achievements listed below.
Mythic Draenor Raider (H): Complete the mythic raiding achievements listed below.

Other Achievements:
These are achievements not listed under the garrison sub header but are required for the level 3 blueprints for garrisons and as such I consider them garrison achievements.

Draenic Pet Battler: Win 500 pet battles on draenor. Awards: Unlocks level 3 pet menagerie blueprint.
Draenic Seed Collector: Loot 500 draenic seeds. Awards: Unlocks level 3 herb garden blueprint.
Draenic Stone Collector: Loot 500 draenic stones.  Awards: Unlocks level 3 blueprint for lunarfall excavation / frostwall mines.
Draenor Angler: Complete the angler achievements listed below. Awards: Unlocks level 3 fishing shack blueprint.
Got My Mind On My Draenor Money: Loot 10,000 gold in draenor. Awards: Unlocks level 3 storehouse blueprint.
Savage Friends (A) / Savage Friends (H): Earn exalted with 3 draenor factions. Awards: Unlocks level 3 trading post.

Good luck with your achievement hunting.

Garrisons: How to Get Nat Pagle as a Follower?

This post in one in a series of posts that will be in regards to garrisons and professions in Warlords of Draenor and how they interact with each other, and on their own.  Of all the followers you can get to work with and for you in your garrison only one follower in particular would be considered beneficial to get more than the others and that is Nat Pagle, famous angler, because he is more than just a follower.

Each profession building can have a follower with the profession skill work there to give you some sort of added bonus from the building itself but Nat Pagle is a unique follower in the fact that when he is assigned to work at the fishing shack, he does not give the fishing shack an added bonus, he himself becomes the added bonus.

So while I will not be doing any other singular spotlights on followers for these guides this one follower, thanks to him being unique in the sense that is he is the bonus instead of activating the bonus, is well deserving of a post all on its own.  Not to mention, unlike all other followers, this follower requires a lot of work to get and a guide might really help some.

Note:  As warlords is still in beta, it is possible some of this information might change before the expansion is released.

How to get Nat Pagle as a Follower?

Requirements to start the recruitment process:

A fishing skill of 700.
A level 3 fishing shack.
The [Draenor Angler] achievement.
Completing a quest line.

The first three things should be easy enough to attain as completing the draenor angler achievement will not only grant you the achievement, but the ability to open the level 3 fishing shack and you will easily be a fishing skill level of 700 by the time you complete it.  The forth thing will be easy enough to complete and will be given to you once the other three are completed.

So lets start at the beginning, getting the achievement for Draenor Angler.

Draenor Angler is a meta achievement that requires you to complete 7 other achievements to attain.  I have done this whole process on the beta and while it does seem daunting reading the description of the achievements involved, it really is not half as bad as it seems to be.  Even less so if you actually enjoy fishing, achievement hunting or really want the worlds greatest angler as a follower.

All achievements needed for the draenor angler meta require you to catch 100 enormous versions of the fish in question, so a quick over view of how fishing works this expansion would be beneficial.

Each type of fish has multiple catches related to it, for this example I will use the sea scorpion.  You will come across sea scorpion bait, small sea scorpion, sea scorpion, and enormous sea scorpion.  The bait will help you with catches in open water and can be fished up in the zones where those fish are found, as well as in your garrison waters.  The enormous versions are the ones we are interested in mostly for this achievement however.

How to Catch Enormous Fish:

The chances to catch an enormous fish are based off of your fishing level.

Fishing skill under 650 = 0% chance of catch
Fishing skill 651 - 700 = between 0% - 50% chance of catch
Fishing skill 701 - 950 = between 50% - 100% chance of catch
Fishing skill 951 or higher = 100% chance to catch

Be aware that even if you have a 100% chance to catch an enormous fish if you are not using the appropriate bait the enormous catch you will end up with will be crescent saberfish, which is not part of the achievement.  Even if you are using bait there is still a chance you will catch crescent saberfish if you are not fishing from a pool.  But do not worry too much, the crescent saberfish is needed for many things and can be used and / or sold as you wish later on.

To reach those required fishing skill numbers you should consider using what ever fishing boosts you can manage to get your hands on.  I had a stack of glow worms sitting in my bank from back in wrath when doing the dalaran fishing daily and they came in handy.  Those, along with my mastercraft kalu'ak fishing pole along with my 700 skill level was enough to get my to an 830 fishing skill which did manage to move along with the achievement decently as it allowed me to catch some other things that made it capable for me to get over that 950 mark we were looking for without even putting much work or effort into it.

While fishing I managed to fish up some items that increased my fishing even higher.

The Ephemeral Fishing Pole increases fishing by 100.  It has a 1 day limit to use, which will be more than ample to finish all these achievements if you have the time to spend that day.  The pole alone, with some worm supreme with its +200 fishing for 10 minutes, which you will fish up as you are doing this, will get you to 1000 fishing skill easily which is more than ample or guarantee enormous catches 100% of the time.

Do not worry if you do not fish up the pole, there is also a hat you can fish up that will increase your fishing by 100 as well, and many other items you can pick up, or already have, that can increase your fishing.  So even if you do not snag the hat or the pole, using what you do have with the worm supreme will make even the most unprepared fisherman burn through the achievements in short time.

This is a case of once you start, it will only become better.  Just remember to use bait, and to fish in the correct places to fish up the fish you are looking for.

Tip:  Start off in pools.  From my personal experience getting the appropriate bait seems easier from a pool.  Once you have the bait and use it, it will provide you with a 5 minute buff to catch the fish you are looking for.  You will usually catch another bait during that five minutes.  You can only hold one of each type of bait at a time, so you can not stock up on it.  During the course of the entire achievement hunting only once did I not catch the bait I needed again while fishing in open waters and not pools once I had the bait in those 5 minutes.

Where to Catch Enormous Fish?

While trying to get this achievement I looked around for the best places to fish.  Requirements for me were that my fishing would remain mostly uninterrupted.  I will share those spots were I was able to fish without interruption with you.

[Abyssal Gulper Eel Angler]

The enormous abyssal gulper eel can only be caught in the spires of arak.  Of all the areas this was the hardest one to find a good place for, as there are few inland places to fish in the spires of arak.  However, as it turned out, this is the place I found the best spot to fish in.

Best Abyssal Gulper Eel Fishing Spot

There is a small spot, marked on the map, where you will need to jump down to get to.  There are no mobs there, there are no quests there, there is not much of anything at all there around this fishing area and pools do spawn in it as well.  This makes it the perfect fishing spot.  No foot traffic and no mobs makes for a peaceful fishing place.

[Blackwater Whiptail Angler]

The enormous blackwater whiptail can only be caught in talador.  There are many places in talador where you can safely fish, some with minimal interference, some with none.  You can feel free to find your own place here as there are many good fishing places.

Best Blackwater Whiptail Fishing Spot

While there are many places you can fish here for blackwater whiptail the above marked place is where I decided to fish because it is near a flight point where I landed when doing these achievements at level 100.  There are some hostile frogs there, but based on your level, they will never bother you if you do not get close to them around the fishing hole.  No other mobs are near the area and nothing patrols there to bother you as you reach your fishing zen place.


[Blind Lake Sturgeon Angler]

The enormous blind lake sturgeon can only be caught in shadowmoon valley.  This is alliance territory and as such limits the number of pure safe spots for horde as the best spot for alliance is close to where they originally zone into the zone, marked at the top, the best space for the horde is a little more central to the zone.  However, horde can still use the one at the top marker, they just need to be careful where they step unless they want to get into a fight.  Don't be fooled with the top area either.  Some might look inland but are actually open water.  So maybe for both alliance and horde using the middle spot might be easier.

Best Blind Lake Sturgeon Fishing Spot

The top marker is the best place for alliance, the bottom marker is the best place for horde.  Warning about the bottom marker.  There are mobs around that immediate area.  My maker might not be perfectly exact as to where the safe spot is.  Just walk along the water there, you will know it when you see it.  It will be when the quest mobs from one area are to the left of you and the quest mobs from the other quest area are to the right of you, and you are alone without any mobs near you, which is exactly what we look for in a good fishing spot.

[Fat Sleeper Angler]

The enormous fat sleeper can only be caught in nagrand.  While there are many places where you can fish for fat sleeper I found what worked as the best place for me when going back to do this achievement was right were a fight path left me off.  You might find a place you like better but this one worked well for me.

Best Fat Sleeper Fishing Spot

So what makes this the best spot in my opinion?  The fact it is exactly is where a flight path is.  In a world without flying the less you need to run around the better.  Being able to land right here and start fishing instantly made for a very easy achievement.  Also, as it is near a flight point and between quest hubs, there are no roaming mobs to worry about.  Perhaps the only issue you might run into is clicking on one of the fish that swim around there, but otherwise, this is a great place for fat sleeper.

[Fire Ammonite Angler]

The enormous fire ammonite can only be caught in frost fire ridge.  As this is the horde starting area any alliance anglers need to take caution heading over to it.  It is not very far from one of only two flight points alliance has there.  If you have the flight point as alliance, head to it and walk down, if you don't, while you are there, head north some to pick it up.  You will be coming back here for fishing dailies.

Best Fire Ammonite Fishing Spot

Unlike its alliance counter part where the horde and alliance have different places to fish for the blind lake sturgeon, in frostfire ridge the best spot happens to be the same for both horde and alliance.  You will see the rather large skeleton on the map.  In the water, right where the arrow is pointing, is a little bit of the skeleton poking out of the water.  Standing on that means none of the mobs in the area will aggro on you and you can fish, peacefully, until your hearts content.

[Jawless Skulker Angler]

The enormous jawless skulker can only be caught in gorgrond.  As of this writing, this is the only zone in which I could not find a completely peaceful place to fish.  There are a couple of decent places however where you will face minimal interruption.

Best Jawless Skulker Fishing Spot

The area I pointed out, like many others, is near a flight point.  Between both a horde and an alliance fight point, and in the heart of a questing area for both, this will not be a very peaceful place if you do not like crowds.  But it is easy to get to, has a few areas in the immediate vicinity to choose from, and even the occasional mob that does spawn will likely be killed quickly by people questing and if not, they are extremely low health mobs that serve as nothing more than a minor distraction.  While fishing up my 100 I only got interrupted by a mob 4 times, which when you think about it, is not so bad.  Perhaps with some positioning, you could do even better thanks to the level of the mobs compared to yourself when you are level 100.

[Sea Scorpion Angler]

The enormous sea scorpion can be caught in any zone with open water.  Unlike all the other fish that need to be caught in inland waters thus restricted to a singular zone this one is not.  You can find many places were you can peacefully fish up the enormous sea scorpion and any one will do just fine, but like anything else, I have my favorite place to do so.

Best Sea Scorpion Fishing Spot

While there might be many places you can fish for sea scorpion and many places which would be more peaceful, as this area does have the occasional mob you will need to kill, this place or these places as it may be, seem to be the best in my opinion.

I found that sea scorpion, probably by process of their location in open sea, have a worse capture rate in open water as you will end up getting enormous crescent saberfish instead of enormous sea scorpion, even with bait active.  This area, all along the water, usually will have many sea scorpion pools which will make sure you get the right catch.  Having to kill a few mobs here and there while walking between pools makes it worthwhile in my opinion because you will spend less time catching the wrong fish, as could happen in open waters.

Achievement earned [Draenor Angler]

Once you earn this achievement you will need to upgrade your fishing shack to level three before you can continue on your quest to recruit Nat Pagle.  It takes one hour to build, so while it is doing so, maybe you can level up your cooking with all those fish you caught, level your first aid with all those sea scorpion, visit the auction house to sell fish off, or find something else to do.  Whatever you do, don't vendor the fish, that is just plain silly.

After one hour, when you return to your now level 3 fishing shack, a new quest will appear for you which will start your adventure on getting Nat Pagle as a follower.

The Quest for Nat Pagle:

Luring Nat (H) / Luring Nat (A) is the quest that will start your adventure to get Nat Pagle as a follower.  You will be asked by Rak'jin to catch a molten catfish if you are horde.  This fish can be caught right outside your garrison in the lava pools.  If you are alliance you will be asked by Segumi to catch an arcane trout in the inland waters just south outside of your garrison

The idea is that if you are capable of catching a really rare catch that perhaps you can convince Nat to come to draenor and work with you while you fish for these rare catches.  Nat has always been known as a sucker for rare catches, but as Nat is a hunter, does it surprise anyone?

Once you complete the quest you will receive a follow up quest called Finding Nat Pagle which will send you back to the shores of Pandaria where you will need to go to travel to the Anglers Wharf in the Krasarang Wilds to speak with Nat.  Did you manage to become best friends with him while we were in mists?  I sure hope you did, because we will need that reputation soon.  But if you did not, do not worry, you will be able to get reputation this expansion as well.  If you did become best friends with him in mists, that reputation does carry over.

Once you show Nat the molten catfish / arcane trout, you will have gotten his attention and he will accompany you back to draenor, but do not get too excited yet, he is not accompanying you as your follower, he is just coming to see what the fishing is like on draenor.

The Great Angler Returns is the follow up quest that has you returning to your garrison with a page from Nat's very own fishing book.  Once you turn this in Nat will arrive at your garrison and ask you to head out into the world and catch some really rare catches for him.

Nat will ask you to go back to all the fishing spots you went before when gaining the draenor angler achievement and get him something even bigger, a better catch.  He wants a type of fish called a lunker.  Each type of fish you have previously caught has an even larger version than the enormous version you have already been catching, in great quantities.

Nat will ask you to return to him with an Abyssal Gulper Lunker, a Blackwater Whiptail Lunker, a Blind Lake Sturgeon Lunker, a Fat Sleeper Slunker, a Fire Ammonite Lunker and a Jawless Skulker Lunker.  Apparently there are no Crescent Saberfish Lunkers or Sea Scorpion Lunkers.  You can fish these lunkers in the same exact places I suggested you fish the enormous versions up.  Or any place you decided on to get your enormous fish from.  As I recall it took me no more than 5 casts to fish any of them up.  It was quite quick and painless.

Once you return to Nat with the 6 lunkers you can complete the final step to getting Nat Pagle as a follower by turning in the quest An Angler On Our Team.  This will award you with Nat Pagle as a follower.  Being Nat is already level 100 when you get him, you can put him right to work.

So what is the big deal with getting Nat Pagle as a follower?

When Nat is placed as a follower at your garrison he also becomes a vendor which allows you to buy things from him.  Having him as a follower also grants you the ability to catch lunkers on draenor.  Without him as a follower working at the fishing shack you can not catch lunkers.  Lunkers are good for one thing and one things only, giving them to Nat.  Each lunker you give to Nat will grant you 350 reputation with Nat, if you are not already his best friend like you should be, and he will give you one of Nat's Lucky Coins.

Nat's lucky coins are used as currency to purchase things from nat, which include a BoA skill boost you can send to other characters, a pet that can be caged and sold, and a water walking mount among other things.

Nat's Draenic Fishing Journal:  BoA, increases fishing skill by 50 up to 700.
25 - Nat's Lucky Coin
Nat's Drinking Hat:  BoP, Head, increases fishing by 10, attach a lore of +150 for 10 minutes.
25 - Nat's Lucky Coin
Draenic Fishing Pole (A): BoP, increases fishing by 30, attach a lore of +200 for 10 minutes, 20 minute cooldown.
25 - Nat's Lucky Coin
Savage Fishing Pole (H): BoP, increases fishing by 30, attach a lore of +200 for 10 minutes, 20 minute cooldown.
25 - Nat's Lucky Coin
Land Shark: Battle pet.
50 - Nat's Lucky Coin
Reins of the Crimson Water Strider: Mount, walks on water.
100 - Nat's Lucky Coin

How long will this take?

Depends on the luck of the catch.  It took me around 6 hours of total play time to do everything, catch all fish and do all quests, including upgrading the fishing shack time.  Be mindful that I was already fishing skill 700 when I started however and had some limited progress on catching some of the enormous fish as I managed to snag a few while leveling fishing.  If you are a lower fishing level, or have less luck with catches, it could take a little bit longer.

Is it worth it?

That is entirely up to you.  I sure think so and I am looking forward to getting both the mount and the pet on live when warlords comes out.

Good luck, and may the fish keep biting for you.

Timeless Island Achievements

I am currently working on getting all the timeless island achievements and figured I would make a list to help myself, and others.  While I am still missing a few these achievements all seem easy enough to attain.  Some with luck, some without even trying, and some with a little time investment, but nothing here should be challenging.

[X] Extreme Treasure Hunter

- Visit the link to see where the treasure chests are.  As I am sure we are all doing, we loot all treasure chests we are able to.  So this achievement will not ask us to do anything we wouldn't do anyway. 

- The gleaming treasure chest is on the top of a pillar.  You will have to go around to the high point and jump to the first pillar and then across the four of them.  The first jump is not as long as it seems.  So do not jump full force.  The rest, just jump like normal to go from one to the next.

- The rope-bound treasure chest can be a little tricky.  Even more so if there are a lot of those elite mobs where you start your journey of tight rope walking.  It is just before the double bridges on the way to ordos.  There is a small pillar, jump on it and start walking the ropes.  Using a over head camera angle works best because you need to jump from one rope to the next and then that on to one more after that.  Jump right on the first rope down to the second and left on the second rope down to the third(if I remember correctly). When you do finally find your way to the end hit jump and tap forward.  Do not just jump down from the rope or you will miss your landing.  You want to land just a step forward.  So jump then tap forward, and it will keep you from jumping to far.

- The mist covered chest can not be found until you have found the other two.  Back to those double bridges on the way to ordos.  Between the two where you make the right to get from one to the next an event can appear if you found the other two chests.  Beware as some elite mobs that spawn there can really put a beating on you. A couple of rares appear right there as well.  When the event appears there will be a tiny pillar looking thing that appears, click on it and get wings, then fly around and try to land on one of the floating discs that appear.  Once you land and grab the chest this achievement will pop up.   You have some time, so if you can get more chests, go for it.  This achievement will be a little tricky for some but fun none the less.

[X] Eyes on the Ground

-  I would hope you are looting everything that can be looted on the island because if you are not you are doing it wrong.  All over the island there are things, clams, dirt piles, supply crates, you name it, that can be looted and they can give you timeless coins and possibly items.  If you loot all 7 types of these items you get the above mentioned achievement.  Most you will just run around getting without even noticing you are doing it but one, at least for me, I actually needed to seek out.  The firestorm egg tends to be in higher places.  The best way I have found to get to these is to go up to the bridge and find a place where one is and fall down to it.  Or you could always get an albatross to give you a hand getting to them.

[ ] Going to Need a Bigger Bag

- I do not think there has ever been a better named achievement in the game.  You will need to collect 57 items.  I don't have that much space, but the good thing is once you get them you can throw them away or use them, for the one use items that is, and it still counts.  There are some ones that are older ones from the main land rares, you can go get them from those which might be a little easier.  Most however you need to get from the timeless island and it is going to take a lot of killing, looting, picking, and opening to do so.  You will get some from normal mobs, rare mobs, elite mobs, picking up things on the ground, opening chests, you name it.  There is a lot of collecting to be done and you might find there are a lot of toys you are going to decide to keep.  I like being a hozen that swims fast and a ghost pirate and making it rain and having a little brewmaster, windwalker or mistweaver helper, you might too.  So even if not going after the achievement you might still want to find some of the goodies in it for fun sake.

[ ] Legend of the Past

- This is one of the ones I have not completed yet, but if you click the link you can see where they all spawn.  Just a matter of looking for them and hoping to be lucky enough to be there when they spawn, which seems to be rare based on some comments.  Perhaps as the island dies down some they will be easier to find.  Not so much a hard achievement as a lucky one here.  Hope you are lucky enough to find one when you begin looking, I might take a peak for one tonight.  I have not even looked yet.  See timeless legends for part 2 of this achievement.

[X] Killing Time

- For this achievement you will need to kill 32 different creatures around the island.  Some are elite but there are none that should cause a problem for anyone currently geared.  If you are not up to date with gear, as in at least ToT normal as of release, some of the elites could tend to be a problem.  If you do have decent gear click the link of the achievement and check out each mobs link to see where they spawn.  This should be an easy one for anyone.

[X] Pilgrimage

- This is an easy enough achievement to get.  Oddly, I still need it.  You will get a quest to get the blessing of a celestial.  These stone pillars are all over the place, if one is glowing, click it.  We do a lot of clicking stuff on this island don't we?  The only reason I do not have this achievement yet is that the island is packed.  I've only seen three of them glowing, and it seems all three were the same celestial.  Just keep clicking when you see them, sooner or later you will get all four.

[X] Rolo's Riddle

- This is an achievement I will never get done on my main at the rate I am going because you need to get a quest item drop to start the quest.  You get the quest item from picking up glinting sand.  I've had no luck, perhaps you will have better.  As I have not done it because I can get get the item I defer to the link to give you the information you might need.  Edit: Got it done.

[ ] Timeless Champion

- As of this writing I am still working on this.  You need to kill 31 rare mobs to get this achievement.  Some have conditionals that are needed for them, like the pirate ship that needs to be summoned, but it can only be summoned when the alter is there and the alter is not always there.  Oh, and you need an item to summon it and that item drops off a fast moving whale that is also one of the rares you need to kill.  But you can not keep up with this whale.  It will outpace you making it really hard to kill unless there are enough people to keep hitting him so he stays tapped.   Over all, not many of the rares are that complicated however and lots of them are so easy to kill that it might become insanely hard to catch them while the island is still popular.  I can kill most of the low land rares in less than 15 seconds.  Just to show you how fast they die.  This will take you a while depending on luck, when you get close, I suggest you start camping them because as I said, they go down so fast you will never make it to it if someone calls it is up.  They do not have enough life.

[ ] Timeless Legends

- This is part two of the legends of the past achievement which you find all four of the lost treasures.  Being finding one of the rare spawns is going to take some luck you can imagine finding all four while the island is still popular might take a while.

[X] Timeless Nutriment

- You will get a bit of a head start on this one because of a quest of the same name telling you to pick up some food.  Well, the achievement is for picking up all the types of food.  If you are grabbing everything that you can click on you will most likely have this in no time at all.  The only one I noticed might trick some people is the huge yak roast.  You need to jump and click it for most characters it seems.  Not hard, but easily over looked as it is up a little and not on the ground like everything else.

[X] Treasure, Treasure Everywhere

- For this achievement you will need to open1 blazing chest, 1 skull covered chest, 2 smoldering chests, 4 sturdy chests and 17 moss covered chests.  You can view the achievement linked for the map.  I just noticed I only need one sturdy chest to finish off mine so I will use that map and grab the last one when I am next on.  Just following it will make this achievement easy.  And you might not even need to do that because we will be clicking on and opening everything we can, you might get this one without even trying.  Heck, I got within one without even trying yet.  Note, the blazing chest is a once a week thing and will give you the piece to upgrade an item to 535, so you might want to open this one on a character that can use 535 gear every week.

[X] Where There's Pirates, There's Booty

- And who doesn't like booty? The sunken treasure is where you might expect it to be, in a sunken pirate ship. See the map in the link for where you can find it.  It will be surrounded by elite hozen.  Kill the pirate hozen until one of them drops a key, loot the chest.  When you kill a hozen there will be a helm you can click on that will give you underwater breathing for a minute, so no need to worry about breath.

- Blackguards jetsam is in an underwater cave.  If you look at the west side map you will see a little indent where the water goes inward a little.  Swim out as if that inlet was not there, swim straight down and into the cave, get your pirate booty after killing a bunch of spirit pirates.

- The Gleaming treasure satchel is one of a few rope climbing adventures you will have.  In the southeast of the map, by where the frogs are, there is a ship at sea.  Go to the back of the ship, climb along the ropes, jump to the mast and walk across to the dangling loot.  Congrats on your booty filled achievement.

[X] Zarhym Altogether

- You need to find Zarhym's floating skull near the start of the cave of lost spirits.  It might be busy now but it will be slowing down soon, don't worry.  The little event marker will appear when he is there so just talk to him and enter the spirit world.  Your journey will lead you to the back of the cave in a spirit walk,  There are spirits with circles around them.  Avoid them.  If you fight them you get thrown from the spirit world and have to wait for Zarhym to spawn again to start it over.  There are many spirit chests you can loot, feel free to get the easy ones, but do not waste too much time because you only have 5 minutes to complete this.  Sometimes you will need to wait a long time for the spirit to pass to get to it and it is just not worth it for a few coins.  Pet classes fear not. Your pets do not seem to draw aggro when entering a beam, just make sure you do not.  Use some creative movement and some jumping on angles, and you can get from skull to body in less than 1 minute.

There are also added achievements for PvP and PvE that can be attained on the island.  They are as follows.

PvP

[ ] Emissary of Ordos

- You only need to buy the Censer of Eternal Agony from Speaker Gulan for 2500 timeless coins and use it to get this achievement.  Using it will make you sacrifice 90% of your health and make you hostile to all other players, horde and alliance alike.  Each time you kill someone in this state you will be granted 1 bloody coin, which leads to the follow up achievements titled [ ] Candlekeepr for collecting 10 bloody coins, [ ] Oathguard for collecting 100 bloody coins, [ ] Kilnmaster for collecting 1000 bloody coins and Fire-Watcher when you collect 10000 coins along with the title of Fire-Watcher.

Additional PvE achievements

[X] Celestial Challenge

-  This achievement is part of the legendary quest line that requires you to beat all of the four celestial world bosses.  It is reported that you can get this achievement even if you are not currently on the quest line for the black price.  I can neither confirm nor deny that but I can tell you that you can get the achievement if you are on the quest because I did.

[ ] Emperor Shaohao

- You will need to earn exalted status with Emperor Shaohao.  This will be a long drawn out task but not something that should be unattainable or require an old school grind.  The yaungol mobs on the island all offer reputation, the stronger the yaungol the more the reputation you get.  There is also one daily quest from Shaohao that gives you 250 (275 with guild or human and 300 with guild and human) reputation as well.  Expect to spend a fair bit of time at it but nothing vanilla type of grind time.  One good thing is that the mount you can get at exalted with 100,000 coins should not be a problem once you are there.  I am barely friendly and well over 30K coins already.  So at least you will not have to grind for rep and coins.  Just grind the rep and the coins will come.  Not to mention, those elite yaungol love to drop fun goodies you will need for the other achievements.

[X] Ordos

- Defeat Ordos, the legendary only world boss on the timeless island.  It is not a very difficult fight for a geared group, when I did it we only had 24 people and we had no problem.  Not really all that hard for a "legendary" boss but I can see why it was not open to the world.  If you had a group of 40 all doing less than 100K you would probably wipe due to running out of space or the enrage timer.

Happy achievement hunting everyone.

What Would You Do Just For Achievements?

Someone made a comment in a post about achievements being a motivator for some of the things he does in game and it got me to thinking how much of what I do would I do if there were no achievements tied to it.

Archaeology is the one thing that really made me think about it.  I have it on only one character and it really is boring.  Sometimes I did while waiting in queue for my dungeon when it first came out, as a timer waster sort of thing, but still not something I would ever do on another character.  Once skilling one character up I see no reason to get another up.

As a secondary profession it fits neatly where it should I guess.  You can live without it.  I personally did it for the goodies but this expansion I did it for the achievements more so.  I was lucky and got the goodies in the first few finds, even before I managed to get to max level.  Even when they added the klaxxi ones I got the goodies there really quick. But I still kept at it.  Why?  Achievements.

The 20 of each achievements, the one of each pristine achievement and of course the seeker of knowledge title.  If it where not for the achievements once I maxed archaeology and got my goodies I would have never done it again.  Achievements drove me to do it.

It got me thinking about some of the other things I do.  Like right now I still solo old dungeons and raids trying to get mounts.  I have the mount I use and I like it.  Been using the same mount for years and even if I got other nice ones and checked them out, like ashes, I still went back to my mount.  Sure, I collect mounts, but it is sort of something of a byproduct.

When I go back and solo this old stuff looking for mounts it is because I need 5 more for the 200 achievement.  I could easily live without the mounts and there is so much to do in the game as is so it is not like I am bored and looking for something to do, which is how I got into collecting them to begin with.  So each time I step into stonecore to do my 5 before I am locked I am doing it for the 200 mount achievement, not for the mount itself.

I don't PvP really but when I do it is always in the back of my head that I can get achievements at it.  When I enter a battle ground the first thing that pops into my mind is what achievements should  I work toward while I am here, not about winning the battle.  The battle is secondary.  I am going to end up with my 100 wins anyway sooner or later just doing them, might as well get the achievements like capping a node, returning a flag, getting honor kills, etc.

I think the first bullshit achievement, and by that I mean something I did just to get an achievement, was shave and a haircut.  I did it not because I wanted to change my hair, I don't give a crap about my hair, but I wanted to get the achievement.

I went around the world to read books for an achievement, I loved squirrels to get an achievement, I did a ton of things that I would have never done most likely if it were not for the sake of getting achievements.  It is not so much that I am an achievement whore, it is just that when I see something there on the achievement list it becomes a todo list.  I need to go read these books, I need to love these squirrels, I need to get a haircut.

I wonder if there are certain aspects of the game you would never have done if it were not for the achievements associated to them.  I know there are some things I never would have done and the archaeology thing is first and foremost.  I would never have went on to find 20 of each thing and one of each pristine thing after I reached max level and got my goodies I wanted.  There really is no motivation to do it when you have everything.  And that is where achievements come in.  They are the added motivation to keep us doing something that we would never do otherwise.

I do find some achievements to be quite odd.  I mean do we really need an achievement for level 10?  It is something you just bump into.  You were leveling anyway.  It was bound to happen if you kept leveling.  But other things that add up numbers do seem to make sense.  To some extent.  Looting 1000 gold, while just like reaching level 10 is something that will happen sooner or later anyway, makes sense to keep track of.  Maybe because it is not a number we see on the screen all the time.

Then they have all those new achievements they added being they tied achievements together.  Makes me wonder, why stop?  We have an achievement for having 2 90s, 3 90s, 5 90s, one 90 on each side, but why not have one for have 1 90 of each class, or 2 90s on each side, or, well, you get the idea.

Sometimes, even for the achievement hunter that I have become, it seems like it is really getting out of hand.  They are adding so many achievement to hunt, so much so that it almost seems like it eats a lot of time for a limit period of excitement for achieving it.   When on the other hand, there are achievement they could have added and they didn't.  We have an achievement for killing all the rares on the island or killing a certain amount of warbringers and warscouts but why not have one for killing all the commanders in the barrens?

While I am asking the players what do you do just for achievements I could ask blizzard what is the reasoning behind some achievements? 

Or what are the reasonings why some other things that scream achievement don't have one?  With the achievement happy blizzard lately, one that wants you to grind (20 of each artifact) and ones that want you to camp (kill all the rares) why are some things that seem perfect for achievements absent.  Like killing all the commanders or killing all the named hozen in the valley.  Those would both fit neatly into the kill all the rares sort of thing.

More importantly, for this post at least, is if they did add those achievements, would you go and slaughter all those named hozen to get it?  Would you make groups to hunt down commanders to do it?

I know I would, because I do a lot of things in game I would never do, or want to do, if it were not for the achievements associated with it.  What would you do just for the achievements?

I Hate the Shado-Pan, Death Threats and A Toy

I've only been doing shado-pan dailies for four days but I have already grown to hate them with a passion.  It has nothing to do with the quest themselves, they are simple enough, it is the helpers they offer you.  Needless to say I can do the quests without the helpers but I want to get the Shado-Master achievement which means I have to do all the quest related achievements, but even without the meta, I would want to do all the quest related achievements anyway.

It is the one achievement that is part of the meta that is going to kill me, figuratively speaking.  Getting around with the Shado-Pan.  After my four days of quests and trying to run around with various helpers I have come to the conclusion that blizzard followed the profile of the worst players in the game and made NPCs act like them, but worse.

The helpers are horrible.  My first helper was Protector Yi and if there were ever someone I wanted to push off a cliff this is him.  I've never even run into a pug with a player as bad as Protector Yi.  I pull two mobs and Yi sees that there are another 16 in the area that I seem to be neglecting so he is not content just easily blowing away the two mobs I pulled and moves on to the others.  He has to make sure to go round up the other 16 and bring them to me, perhaps because he thinks I would not get around to them on my own.  Gee, thanks.

Every single pull I made, no matter what efforts I made to not turn each fight into a mosh pit of dozens of people he found a way to pull extra mobs.  Neutral mobs?  No problem, I'll drag them into the battle for you.  Flying mobs that just pass over head?  No problem, I'll drag them into the battle for you.  Mobs you were not even going to go after at all because they are not part of your quest?  No problem, I'll drag them into the battle for you.  Protector Yi should be called Caretaker Yi because he just wants to fill plot holes in a cemetery and he doesn't care if you go into one of those plots.

On a few occasions he even figured out how to pull mobs that were no where to be found.  I wouldn't be surprised if some of the mobs he pulled were from the dread wastes or kun-lai, he pulls anything from anywhere it seems.

I use the tidy plates addon so I can see anything that in within range and some.  Even if they are in a building or behind a mountain their plates will show for me.  There would be no one, not a single mob, outside of the ones I was fighting on the screen and off goes Protector Yi, excuse me, Caretaker Yi, to somehow find more mobs to pull.  If I were not sure he couldn't, as he is not a warlock or anything, I would think he was conjuring up more mobs to fight himself.  The guy is a freaking aggro magnet.

On more than one occasion I had to say screw it and just leave him to die and run off to a safe place to regroup because he would not stop pulling mobs.  Even when I was handling them and getting them down it seemed that he would look at it and say, down to only 5 mobs, need more mobs, and run off to get more.  It was one constant massive pack of mobs.

I had to kill 16 of something I believe it was, I landed where 2 were standing and engaged them, by the time the fight was done with those 2 mobs I had all 16 I needed for the quest, which is a good thing, but I also had another dozen as well and some.  I finally gave up when I was still fighting and the original 2 mobs I landed to kill respawned.   I had a pile of 30+ mobs there.  If you ever want to farm gold or something Caretaker Yi is your man because he will pull the whole zone for you but if you want to complete quests in a timely manner, no freaking way.

As bad as he is he can not claim the spot as the most annoying helper I've run across yet.  He was a warrior and I guess that fits him, pulling mobs.  He also did play the role of the tank, so that is good for those cloth type people I guess.  He was bad, even annoying with over pulling for no reason but he was not the worst, close, but not.

The most annoying helper is a huntard in every sense of the word.  Hawkmaster Nurong is every thing you heard bad about hunters and 10 times worse.  I am surprised that they did not code something in the game that if a green melee weapon dropped he would roll need on it.  That is about the only stereotype of a huntard that Hawkmaster did not emulate.  Every single fight he runs up to melee and stands there looking at the mob and occasionally dropped traps.

He should be called Trapmaster Wrong because that is all he does, lay traps and do everything wrong.  He has no pet, he puts traps all over the freaking place and on the rare occasion when he does attack he does so in melee.  I do not care if hunters do not have minimum range any more, you do not attack in melee range, even more so when all the mobs do AoE damage in melee range.  Maybe it is a good thing he did not try to get at range, he might have found a way to pull even more mobs.

The worst part is he puts the traps in the middle of freaking nowhere.  If I am fighting a mob in one place he will litter the area around the mob with traps.  Will he put them under the feet of the mob?  Nope, but he will put them all around him.

That is not all either, he pulls more mobs while he runs around placing traps in areas they are not needed.  And if someone comes near one of his oddly placed traps it pulls them.  Add to that, his timing is horrible for everything he does.

I made this one pull with one elite mob and 5 normal mobs, lets forget for a moment that these bugs hit like a jackhammer to begin with, but I can handle it.  Multi to keep them all on my pet and take out the non elites one at a time while keeping mend pet rolling and even the brutal beating my pet is taking I can handle it.

That is until Trapmaster Wrong decides to put two frost traps to the left and right of the battle, I guess to slow down anyone that might come close that is not even involved in the battle, which I really question, and ends up pulling two more roving packs with it.  Each of those two packs had 1 elite and two normal mobs, not to mention one of those two packs was close enough to another pack when it aggroed because of his traps that it pulled another pack of four normal mobs.  So my nice controlled pull of one elite and 5 normal mobs was now a pull of 3 elites and 13 normal mobs.

My poor pet had its fate decided instantly.  Sorry scruffy but you have to die.  I started to do my little retreat with a multi misdirect to make sure none tried to follow me while I made a calculated retreat.  Trapmaster Wrong kept laying down frost traps and snake traps and explosive traps like crazy, the guy apparently is not limited by the cooldowns I am and can have multiple traps of the same type out at the same time.  My pet died a noble death and I feigned death just far enough away that I knew I could pop up safely after battle and the pat walked away.

One problem, after they killed the greatest huntard in the history of huntards he reappears a few seconds later.  Right on top of where I was hiding in my feigned death state.

I was laying there in my feign death waiting for the pat to walk away when battle ended but no, he would have none of that, he reappeared standing next to my body laying there and the pats came flying at him.  He couldn't wait 5 seconds for them to walk away before reappearing?  He couldn't wait until I got up before coming to rejoin me?  Freaking jerk.  They started beating on him and doing their AoE stuff, hitting my hiding body in the process and I was yelling at the screen, die already you idiot.  But he just kept taking the hit and laying trap after trap after trap moving backwards.

At least that moved them away from me some so when they were just out of range enough I hit camo causing me to pop up and took off like a bat out of hell to a safer place so when the wrongly named hawkmaster joined me again he would not pull mobs again.

He ended up doing that to me a total of three times.  Huntard is a perfect way to describe him.

The last of the dailies was of course one of those ones to kill some bigger boss at the end of them and I landed and started to lay the smackdown on him.  Hawkmaster did not cause any problems this time because there were no adds for him to pull but when the fight was over there had to be a dozen traps all over the place around the mob I was fighting.  My pet was tanking him so he was in one place and never moved.  What was the reasoning of placing all these traps all around him?  He could have placed even one under the mobs feet, but no, that would make way to much sense.  Lets place them everywhere in the area he is not.  Yes, that makes sense.

I said to my screen, talking to him of course, I am a hunter, if I wanted traps I would lay them.  Just attack the freaking target that I am attacking you moron.

All their helpers are like Yi and Nurong, they are all completely useless and are all more trouble then they are worth.  If I did not know better I think their secret agenda was to try and get me killed.  The pandas do not really want outsiders around so they make me travel with these people so they can kill me.  I swear that is it.  I swear they are there to kill me and not help me.

If it is not their secret agenda to kill me off and these really are the elite strike force for the pandaren people then I really question how they survived, how they evolved.  Survival of the fittest and all, they should have been wiped out a long time ago, their own ineptitude and stupidity should have done them in.

If these are the best of the best I wonder how the hell they escaped being slaves of the Mogu.  These are the worst fighters I have ever seen in game, worse than the worst pug I was ever in.  If anything it made me wish I were in a looking for dungeon pug instead of doing these quests.  These helpers made me understand how good even the bad players in randoms are because I don't think any player could ever be as bad as the shado-pan helpers.

Speaking off odd occurrences while doing dailies I have to make mention of one of the dailies I did a few days ago for the august celestials where I had to kill Ellia Ravenmane, the end quest of the quest line.  Nothing special, challenge a person to a battle at the end of a daily quest line.  We have all done it a dozen times right?  But have you ever received death threats in the mail after you did one?  I don't recall ever getting a death threat from a quest mob, nevertheless I got a few of them from her.  She did not take losing to me very well it seems.  Ellia likes to tell me it isn't over and I will meet her again and she will get her revenge.

I must say, between death threats in the mail and NPC helpers that make me think of bad pugs as good ones, the game sure has developed a real sense of life to it.  Like a real RPG should have.  Nice touch blizzard.  But damn you, I have to do 15 dailies with each of those NPCs?  You bastards.

As for toys, I found a new toy the other day too, thanks to my tidy plates showing me things that hide behind walls.  When doing one of the quest I saw an NPC named scotty, being a star trek fan I said to myself, self, I need to find him and kill him, a named mob that doesn't have a quest marker on it has to have something cool right?  After some stumbling around I found a way to get to him and he dropped a coin that turns you into him but it only has three charges.  Either way, it is another nice little toy in game and don't let his elite tag fool you, he is a push over.

If it were not for my plate addon I would have never noticed he was there.  Love tidy plates.  If you need a plate addon take a look at it.

I wonder what hell the shado-pan will subject me to today or if I will come home to another mail from Ellia telling me she is going to get me some day.  Either way, the game sure has a life to it now, even if it is a funny one.

Will Shared Achievements Change How You Play?

The addition of shared achievements come mists can be both a good and a bad thing in my opinion but that is not going to be what this is about even if I mention the good and bad of it.  This is about how we play the game and how shared achievements might change that.

One of the biggest reasons I liked the concept of shared achievements is something like the holiday events.  I know a few people that have done them all on multiple characters but personally I do not have the time nor the desire to do that.  Some of the things for the holiday events I hated doing, some were downright brutal like school of hard knocks when it first came out, it is easier now, but it is still not even close to anything anyone could call fun from a PvP or a PvE standpoint.  So why would I ever want to do that on more than one character?

But even if I like that the achievement is being shared for this, the shared achievements are not going to change the way I play in cases like this because I had absolutely zero intention of ever doing it on any other character again after I finished off my main.  If I did do any of it, it would just be for something to do.

One of the biggest drawbacks to the shared achievements is the fact that is removes a butt load of content from the game.  We are not just talking a little bit here of there, we are talking 100s of hours of play time is being removed from the game.  No longer will I need to go get the achievements from old raids, which is something I love to do, with a new max level character.  What is worse is not the fact that I no longer need to do it, I am no longer capable of doing it because I already have the achievement even if I wanted to do it to get the achievements.  Boo hiss hiss boo.  Taking away things I did for fun like that is not nice blizzard.

I can see me playing the game a lot less because of shared achievements.  Many of the times I go help people with raids or achievements it is on a character that needs the achievements.  Not sure why, but I love seeing the achievements pop up, it is part of the fun for me. 

If none of them need the achievements my desire to go along will be greatly decreased.  Sure, I will still help someone if they need the help, but I will never tag along just for fun so I can get the achievement on an alt.  My alt won't need it.  That means, unless I am actually needed, I won't go.  So it will surely change the amount I play the game, lowering is significantly in the achievement hunting department because once you get it, everyone has it.

Some of that once you get it everyone has it stuff works well for me in places however.  So it is a double edged sword.  My rogue and druid do flag returns, my main, a hunter, does not.  So now I can get those PvP type achievements on my main while not doing them on my main.  For someone like me that likes to hunt achievements this can help my main get something he has not been able to before.  There are some achievements that are just easier to get on some classes.

For a few examples my priest has the moonguard achievement and I have healed that achievement for so many others because doing it because as a disc priest is insanely easy, while my main still does not have it.  My priest was a kingslayer a good three months before my main was.  My shaman healed tunnel vision every time I was in that dungeon with her but on my main I have never been lucky enough to get a healer capable of healing it so my main does not have it.  Those are just a few achievements my hunter will pick up.

How about doing those runs I was talking about.  The old raids for fun.  If I need any achievements on my main I want to run on my main.  Which means if we are short a healer or a tank I get put in the position of taking one for the team and running on a tank or healer and not getting the achievement on my hunter or saying I want to get the achievement so someone else has to switch. 

Neither one of those is fun really.  I am either forced to play something I would rather not or I have to force someone else to play something they would rather not.  I don't know about you, but I think being in that situation sucks.  Now with shared achievements it is no big deal.

It also means when I decide to go achievement hunting I can stack the odds in my favor being I have every class in the game maxed.  I can use the perfect class for getting the achievement.  A worgen feral druid or worgen rogue, lots of speed boosts there, for flag returns in PvP.  My engineer to get ravenholdt exalted because lets face it having that mailbox will make things a lot easier.  My healers to get achievements like tunnel vision or moonguard that depends on healers that I usually have bad luck getting good ones that are good on my hunter.  Or how about a tank based achievement like faster than the speed of light, my tank had it way before anyone else.  Now I just use the character / class / profession that is needed to get the achievement done easier.

So while the achievements being shared did decrease the replayability of the game a great deal as I mentioned before, it does bring a chance to get more achievements for my main.  Both a good and bad thing.  Like I mentioned.

So how will achievement sharing change how I play?

I will raid on multiple characters a lot less because there is no need to get the achievements on each one.  I will no longer do something I've already done, just for something to do.  I will still be a hunter main but will no longer feel tied to it as much as I used to.  No longer will I ever have to face the feeling that it is either help my guild and tank or get the achievements on my main.  I can do both at once basically.

It will also breath some life into my PvP desire.  I like to heal PvP but my hunter can not heal.  So I don't do it at all.  I always hated getting the achievements on my priest when my hunter did not have them so I just didn't do it at all.

Over all I think I will find myself playing a lot less with the loss of achievement hunting on alts but it might see me playing PvP a little more.  Maybe it will even out, maybe it won't.  Only time will tell.

One side effect of this achievement sharing that I am looking forward to seeing is more account wide achievements.  Stuff like class specific achievements.  Defeat this dungeon as a tank, healer and DPS.  Catch 5 enemies in one ring of frost.  Get the killing blow on 5 enemies at the same time with one multi shot.  All things like that.  I am looking forward to the possibility that there could be a lot of new achievements for me to chase on all my characters being I lost the replayability of a lot of my previous achievement hunting.  This is, if they add stuff like that.  I sure hope they do.  I think that would be awesome if they did.

What Type of Achievement Hunter Are You?

Achievements are going account bound with mists and there are many reasons to like or dislike it depending on what your personal views on achievements are.

Achievements mean different things to different people.  To some it is an e-peen thing.  To others it is something they feel validates their time wasted playing a game because they earned something.  For others it is just there but not something they actively think about. And yet for others it is a form of content itself just like a raid would be content, something to do.

Something as simple as the achievement system has become a huge part of the game even if it sometimes goes by without even thinking about it. 

There are people like me that look at the list of new achievements and immediately starts to think about which ones I can do solo and which ones I will need groups for.  I actively seek the solo ones as something to do when not doing anything else.  Other people come across an achievement and go, wow, I didn't even know that was an achievement.  There are all different types..

Which type of achievement hunter are you?

E-Peen Achievement Hunter:
This is the type of person that goes out of their way to try and be the first to do anything and everything.  They are the ones that have to have realm firsts and will gladly show everyone that asks, and doesn't ask, how great they are by posting their achievements and immediately shooting down anyone as a "bad" that doesn't have the same date on their achievement. 

They only go for the achievements worthy of bragging about.  Realm first mage is important to them.  Realm first raid is important to them.  The salty title is a waste of time to them because anyone can get it.  It only means something to them if they did it before the other person.

There is also the wanna be e-peen hunter that would fit in the same category even when not talking about firsts.  They might have a fall of deathwing achievement dated May 10th, which most would not be impressed by, but if you do not have it, they will brag on and on about how they have it and you don't, just to extend their e-peen.  This version of e-peen hunter would think salty is important however because if they have it and you don't they can use it to stroke their e-peen.

Completest Achievement Hunter:
They take achievements serious, but not to the point where they go crazy about it.  If getting a raid achievement would be easier to get next patch, they do not mind waiting, but they have to do it because they need it.  Seeing 54/56 in an achievement category bothers them because it is not complete.  They want to have everything because they believe the only true achievement is completing all the achievements.  Each one of those 54 achievements are nice, but until they have all 56 in that category they have not really achieved anything.

A completest will raid even if they are not a raider, because they have to have them all.  A completest will PvP even if they do not PvP, because they have to have them all.  A completest sees each achievement as part of a bigger achievement, the achievement of getting them all.  It is the over all number and getting as many as they can that matters to them, even if they take their time doing it.

Content Achievement Hunter:
This is the type of player that uses achievements as a form of content.  To them, like the completest, when they see 54/56 they want to get the other two but unlike the completest that looks at it as the real achievement isn't done until all 56 are the content achievement hunter looks at it like they have two other things to do for content.

Where the content and completest differ is the content hunter does not stress over having it all.  54/56 is fine with them.  They will do only the ones they want to do and use the achievements list as a form of tracking to see what they have and have not done.  They are the type of person we have all seen and quite possibly the most common achievement person.  Hey, I just noticed I never did black temple on this character, who wants to go?  Is something a content achievement hunter would say.  They use achievements as a way of giving them something to do when they do not have anything else to do.

Dedicated Achievement Hunter:
These are the people dedicated to having to get it done.  Kind of like the e-peen one that has to be first this one has to be done as soon as possible but they will not be as up front about it as the e-peen hunter.  They will also not rub it in your face.  They will just be happy to have done it.

This category of hunter usually comes from the dedicated raider or dedicated PvPer.  They focus one thing and that one thing is not done until they can do it all.  They are dedicated to that single focus.  To them, nothing says you are a real raider like having all the raid achievement.  Nothing says you are a real PvPer like having all the PvP achievements.  They do not seek the achievements to rub it in someones face, they do it to show people who they are.  I am raider.  I am a PvPer.  My achievements show that.  That is what they would say and they are really dedicated to getting those achievements, none of the others really matter at all to them.

Incidental Achievement Hunter:
This is the type of person that usually only gets the achievements that come without much, or any, effort.  25 fish, level 10, things that happen just because they do are the achievements this person will have.  So why are they still classified as an achievement hunter?  Because if you tell them that they can get an achievement for doing something without actually changing what they are doing already by much, they will do it.

They are the type of person that if you ask them why they are fishing and they say it is because they are waiting in queue and only doing it because they are bored you can tell them they can get achievements from fishing in the dalaran fountain they will move there.  Being they are only fishing to pass the time where they fish does not matter to them but if they can fish to pass the time and get an achievement at the same time, they will do it.  They won't go out of their way for an achievement, but they will take all the ones that will come to them on their own without any concentrated effort.

Closeted Achievement Hunter:
Oddly enough this type of achievement hunter will usually have a fair deal of achievements but if you ever ask them about achievements they might say something like they are not a loser that wastes their time on useless achievements or I'm not really into achievements.  They will be the ones that will come along to help out on things only if they do not have the achievement for it but will never say that.  Doing a run of black temple and they do not have the achievement, they will gladly tell you they will help you out.  Doing a run of tempest keep but they already have the achievement, they are busy at the moment or they would have helped.

The closeted hunter is an achievement hunter in denial. They want the achievements, they want as many as they can get, you can tell that from their usually high number of achievement points, even if they always say they do not care about achievements.  You can pick them out easily when running old content because they will always be happy to help other people get achievements but never ask for help in getting any themselves.  They are a closeted achievement hunter.

Bonus Achievement Hunter:
This is an achievement hunter with an agenda.  Does it offer a pet?  Does it offer a mount?  Does it offer a title?  If so they are all over it like white on rice otherwise they don't care about it.  Achievements matter to them only when there is something else that comes along with the achievement.  They want the bonus goodies only, that is all that matters.  The achievement pop up means absolutely nothing to them unless it comes with something else.  A new title, a mount or pet in their mail box, or anything else they can show off.  A tabard, the dalaran coin, things like that.

Indifferent Achievement Hunter:
This person does not care about achievements in any way.  If they get one, cool, if not, that is cool too.  If they get a bonus out of something, cool, if not, that is cool too.  The word achievement is not even in their gaming vocabulary.  They play because they enjoy playing.  They do what aspects of the game they like because they like doing it.  The thought they will get an achievement for something never enters their mind.  They might get the destroyers end title or many others but they will usually be the ones that wear none.  None of that matters to them.  They are only here to play the game.

With the shared achievements coming out in mists you have to look at all the types of achievement hunters out there and see how this changes the game for them in one way or another.  It will have a fair deal of impact on nearly all types of achievement hunters out there in some why, even the ones that do not care about achievements at all.

I fit into the content achievement hunter category myself.  When I am bored and looking for something to do I go to my achievement list and think, what can I aim for now.  Shared achievements will impact me and people like me the most of all the types of achievement hunters out there I think.  We lose the most when this comes out.

If all my characters already have all the dungeon achievements what need would I have to go back and do all the BC stuff on a new character when I am bored, they will already have the achievement.  Achievements worked as a form of content for me.  It gave me something to do when I was bored.

What type of achievement hunter are you and how will shared achievements effect you?