Prot Warrior Deck

So the caveat with anything Hearthstone is that I'm not that good - the best I've done is rank 15, once, and I did that on the back of Oil Rogue and Mech Mage decks.  That said, I do enjoy playing around with random decks.

This warrior deck is okay - it works well enough for quests, but you're unlikely to get anywhere on the ladder with it.  It's all weapons and armor for the most part, with some warrior spells thrown in to flesh it out.

The problems I've run into most frequently with this deck is the card draw hitting a patch of all weapons, or getting stuck with a freezing minion in a mage deck with no removal or minions.  When it works out, though, it can be quite fun - build up armor, smash things with axes.

Card list:

• Inner Rage x1
• Execute x2
• Shield Slam x1
• Upgrade! x1
• Whirlwind x1
• Fiery War Axe x2
• Cleave x1
• Slam  x2
• Armorsmith x1
• Ogre Warmaul x2
• Bouncing Blade x1
• Shield Block x2
• Death's Bite x2
• Mortal Strike x1
• Arathi Weaponsmith x2
• Defender of Argus x1
• Arcanite Reaper x2
• Brawl x1
• Siege Engine x1
• Shieldmaiden x2
• Gorehowl x1

A Shot in the Arm

As I mentioned in the mount post, chasing mounts is a pretty big motivator for me in terms of content; heck, I did Long Strange Trip on three characters for faster flying prior to the achievement (and mounts) becoming account-wide.  So flying in Draenor?  Well, I just needed to finish three of the apexis areas for Securing Draenor for existing requirements.  But the carrot of flying is going to have me in Tanaan working on the new reputations, for sure.

So what am I looking forward to with flying?

• Leveling my druid.  I love flying on my druid, and taking her to Spires of Arak, after all the druid flight quests in Outland?  That's going to be pretty cool.  Anzu used to be part of the quest to get epic flying on druids.
• Flying around in my Sky Golem.  Maybe I'll farm herbs on my death knight; maybe I'll just track down all the followers she missed while leveling.  I don't know, but I'm gonna enjoy flying around in my green goblin iron man suit doing it.
• Archaeology!  It's going to be so much less painful to farm for unfinished rare relics.
• Pet battle dailies!  There are a few pets I only have lower quality ones too.
• Maybe farming?  I used to swap over to farming ore, or fishing, when I had bad brain days and wanted something mindless today.  In Burning Crusade it was Nagrand; Sholazar in Northrend; Uldum or Deepholm in Cataclysm;  Vale of Eternal Blossoms in Pandaria.  I need a lot of lunkers for Nat Pagle still...

In the meantime?  I finished Grand Treasure Hunter back in November, but I'm going to try to get them all before the patch drops.

Favorite mounts

I just did favorite followers, and I think I ended up with seven out of seventy-three.  When I was drafting  posts I apparently thought limiting myself to five mounts was a good idea.

Five was not a good idea.  I have two hundred sixty-two mounts in my log, not including warlock, paladin, or death knight mounts.  But I think I've got it down to seven, including only mounts I actually have.  (One day, Emerald Drake.  One day.)

#7 - Dark Riding Talbuk

Way back in the Burning Crusade, when mounts we no longer items you had to keep in your inventory, I started... acquiring.  Mounts drove my reputation grinds - Netherwing, Sha'tari Skyguard, the Mag'har.

And then there was Halaa.  I was one of those people who got the first mount, and then... sat on languishing research tokens while vainly trying to acquire battle tokens in later expansions.  But I had the first one!

#6 - Azure Drake

So when the Emerald Drake was announced, I started farming Malygos for the two blue ones he drops.  The Blue Drake isn't anything terribly special, but the Azure Drake?  The Azure Drake is covered in arcane symbols and a variety of blues.  This is a mage's mount, for sure.

 #5 - Sea Turtle

This is the mount you get from fishing, originally in Northrend, but over time it got added to the new waters, as well.

I got it in Pandaria.  I wasn't even trying for the turtle - I had gone on dedicated turtle-farming fishing binges in the past.  No, I was trying to get a Flying Tiger Gourami for the Nat Pagle daily quest.

Bam, turtle.

#4 - Black War Raptor

Once upon a time, Tauren could only ride kodos.  Then Tauren could only ride kodos and wolves.  Then they added PVP mounts, and they decided that the raptor would be Tauren-tough.

I did a lot more PVP back in Vanilla, but it was still a bit of work to have the honor banked to purchase the raptor the day it went live - not to mention grinding out the gold for fast riding.  I did it primarily via Felcloth.  In the old Azshara.

This raptor is made of blood, sweat, and tears, for sure.

#3 - Sky Golem

I built the Sky Golem myself, because, you know, mount count.  I didn't think I was actually going to use it... until I leveled my death knight, an herbalist.

This was shortly after I leveled my druid, also an herbalist, and druid flight-form herbing is hard to beat.  Sky golem Tauren death knight comes pretty close.  And it matched her 'mog.  And her hair.

Sky golem for my death knight is one of the things I miss about level-cap flying.  I loved flying around in it on her.

#2 - Enchanted Fey Dragon

Back in Vanilla, I did the sprite darter hatchling pet quest chain on my original Night Elf; it was one of the handful of pets I had on her (along with the white kitten, which was my husband & I's introduction to limited-stock vendors).  Since then, I've been pretty sprite darter/fey dragon gung-ho; I have this in plush, as well.  This may have been my first mount-store purchase.

#1 - Swift Shorestrider

This is the mount Duskhawk is running around Draenor with; it was a birthday present, and I love it.  I like the striders the best of the ostrich-type mounts; they feel sturdy enough for a Tauren, and they aren't too flashy.

Spires of Arak

I love Spires of Arak.  It is far and away my favorite thing zone-wise of all of Draenor: the ambiance, the story lines, the puzzles.

You get introduced to the stories in Spires through two routes: aiding the Arakkoa, and helping out at Pinchwhistle Gearworks, where attempts to start an outpost have gone awry.  Along the way you meet various members of the Arakkoa Outcasts, find out what Wrathion has been up to in Draenor up to this point (not-spoiler spoiler: no good), and fight more plant zombies like you ran into in Gorgrond.

Into the woods to help my bird buddies...

I like the Arakkoa story here the best, but the two kind of side-plots with Pinchwhistle and Admiral Taylor's garrison are both engaging as well (and the former will land you the Salvage Yard plans).  Ultimately this is where my alts have been hitting 100, working towards getting Talonpriest Ishaal, their Salvage Yards, and Admiral Taylor's sword (where applicable).

The Arakkoa Outcasts have had a difficult time, basically on the losing side of an Arakkoa civil war.  They've fled from the spires in the sun down into the shadows, and you both help them against the Laughing Skull, who are hunting them, and against the Arakkoa who still live in the glory of the sun above, following Terokk's story as you do.  Depending on how well this Draenor's Arakkoa parallel our own, this story line helps flesh out the bits we got in Terokkar Forest in our broken Draenor.

Spires in the sun...

... banished to the shadows.

I vastly prefer getting around this zone grounded compared to Nagrand, and despite the rope puzzles making my palms sweat, I also appreciate most of the puzzle rewards here more - the archaeology fragments, the various items at Terokk's shrines.

Bear-okay puzzles

Bear-not-okay puzzles

Arakkoa are interesting; those following Rukhmar have sun and air magic, and they also make much use of wing-blades.  The Arakkoa Outcasts make heavy use of shadow and illusion magic - sort of the flipside of Rukhmar's followers.  They are closer to Anzu, the raven god, and Terokk, their former king.  Prior to Spires I didn't understand why people wanted to play Arakkoa, but now that I've got Ishaal and Kurekk hanging out in my garrison, and Reshad and Percy visiting?

I don't know that I want to play one myself, but I wish they were a bigger faction back in our home timeline.

In the meantime, I've retired Bloodsail Admiral for awhile.

Garrison pet battles

After a couple times through the Menagerie's pet rotation, I realized I wasn't going to remember what had worked if I didn't start keeping notes.  So now I have a spreadsheet for what teams worked for what; here's a visual version of the spreadsheet if any of them are giving you trouble.

Some of these pets are harder to find (Unborn Val'kyr in particular), and some of them (I'm thinking of the Crimson Geode) are perhaps not as commonly leveled; I did that one in particular for the tamer in Spires of Arak.

Archimedes, Samm, Jahan; The Beakinator
The team:  Disgusting Oozeling, Crimson Geode, Chrominius
Both these fights are flyer heavy; Chip (my Disgusting Oozeling) can take the Beakinator by himself, but if he gets knocked out in the three bird fight, the other two can finish them off.

Brutus and Rukus
The team: Pandaren Water Spirit, Fox Kit, Alpine Foxling Kit
This is the two boar team.  Make sure both foxes are set up with Bite; I've got flurry on the Fox Kit from the Floret team fight and forgot to swap it for the picture.  Any two foxes will work here; these are my two rare quality ones.

Deebs, Tyri, Puzzle
The team: Scourged Whelpling, Crawling Claw, Ghostly Skull
Deebs is a magic pet, so you'll want to start out with the Scourged Whelpling in this line-up.  The Crawling Claw and Bob... er, the Ghostly Skull can handle the other two.  Make sure you set them up for some healing before the whelpling dies.  Tyri is going to pop Darkness, so you can set up the skull with either of his hard hitting abilities.

Eleanor
The team:  Any three rabbits (shown here: Tolai Hare, Tolai Hare Pup, Elfin Rabbit)
Slot three rabbits, pop dodge, stampede until it's dead, rinse and repeat.

Grubbles, Scrags, Stings
The team: Elder Python, Mechanical Squirrel, Chrominius
This is a basic critter/beast/flying team, so counter with a beast/mechanical/magic team.  Chrominius gets thrown in for the magic here because Howl/Surge of Power is going to do 2000+ damage.

Hanos, Manos, Fatos
The team: Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling, Lil' Deathwing, Chrominius

This is the fight that finally made me level the Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling.  Manos, the Hand of Fate, is probably best known as a MST3K episode.  You can probably substitute the Scourged Whelpling or another mechanical in if you don't have Lil' Deathwing, since he's a CE pet.

King Floret and Queen Floret
The team: Pandaren Water Spirit, Fox Kit, Eternal Strider
This is similar to a "Howl Bomb" set up, except that you don't start with the Unborn Val'kyr - Geyser, Whirlpool, swap to the fox, Howl, Dazzling Dance, Flurry and Howl till the fox is dead, and then swap to the strider to finish things off.  You can buy the Fox Kit now, but I got it back when it was a drop in Tol Barad.  Apaprently "Reynard" is a restricted name, so I went with the alternate spelling.

Mr. Terrible, Carroteye, Sloppus
The team: Two frogs (here, Jungle Darter and Garden Frog) and the Emerald Proto-Whelp
Set up your frogs with Frog Kiss and go to town.  When the frogs are down, finish off Sloppus with the proto-whelp.  Apparently frogs don't blink for pictures; they just hop out of the frame.

Protectron 011803, Protectron 022481, Blingtron 4999b
The team: Terrible Turnip, Tiny Shale Spider, Mr. Grubbs
This is a team that gave me fits, and the use of the shale spider came from reading the comments in WoWhead.  I got the shale spider on Super Bowl Sunday - it was the first day the population was low enough to snag the rare.  You can throw any pet in the third slot, really - the shale spider will close out the fight.

Quintessence of Light
The team: Unborn Val'kyr, Pandaren Water Spirit, Chrominius
This is the classic "Howl Bomb" configuration; you can probably substitute the Ghostly Skull for the Val'kyr (I haven't tested it, but it also gives you the Unholy Ascension option).  You want to close with Chrominius if possible for that Howl/Surge of Power combo.

Rockbiter, Stonechewer, Acidtooth; Kromli and Gromli
The team: Crawling Claw, Scourged Whelpling, Ghostly Skull
This is basically the same team you use for Deebs/Tyri/Puzzle, but you can start with the Crawling Claw.  Try to line up the Ghostly Skull's stun from bite with the gronnling's haymaker - it's got a pretty good chance of stunning him.

Stitches Jr.
The team: Unborn Val'kyr, Sprite Darter Hatchling, Chrominius
Stitches Jr. has that annoying trait that he only takes damage if the attack deals at least 500, so you're going to want to debuff him for Doom, ascend so he takes more damage, swap to the Sprite Darter, Life Exchange, Moonfire so magic abilities deal more damage, and then swap to Chrominius for Howl and Surge of Power.  You may want to throw in a Bite before Surge.

Tirs & Fiero
The team: Unborn Val'kyr, Disgusting Oozeling, Silkbead Snail
I haven't got a max level crab, so this is the team I ended up using for this pair.  The snail works fairly well.

Post-Blackrock Foundry

Yeah, yeah, 6.2 hasn't dropped yet.  But Blackhand's dead, and my guild is taking an unofficial raiding break.

So what am I doing in WoW right now?

Leveling alts.  I had done my warrior and priest with the intention of having tank and heal alts available for fives, alt raids, LFR, etc., but realized that with treasure hunters I might be able to get the yak.  So my death knight got bumped up when it got slow, and my rogue is a fresh 100.  The weird thing is that I'm doing the melee first.  They aggravate the arthritis in my hand with their keybind-heavy set-ups, but the DK just kind of mowed through stuff, and my rogue, with stealth, can skip a lot of stuff (I've been doing this with her since Vanilla, really).  I really like Spires of Arak and have been basically heirloom and potioning my way to it and then more or less doing the quest achievement for the zone.  You get your salvage yards done like that.  I've hardly touched Nagrand other than on Duskhawk and some barn farming.

Missions.  I love the missions, although I kind of wish our mission table were in Warspear, so I spent more time around people I'm not in charge of.  I also wish Nazgrim were running it.  Siege of Orgrimmar left some holes in our NPC ranks. :(  But yeah, the  missions are edging me closer to a yak.

Crafting.  I realized I had over a thousand hexweave bolts; I upgraded my main's bags and kind of have some space again.  I feel bad when I load up my barn on my priest because I always feel kind of useless in a group farming wolves, but she's disc/holy.

Occasionally - apexis dailies when they align with the two reputations I still need to finish.  I'm nowhere near done with the Frostwolf and Laughing Skull reputations, so when those dailies come up, I buy the extra apexis dailies from my sergeant and hit them up with my bird-buddy Ishaal.

Even more occasionally - hitting up old dungeons or raids where I need mounts.  I still need the mount off Deathwing to finish out the drake achievement.

All in all I'm still playing, and enjoying, the game, but I'm not doing some of the things I did previously; I haven't farmed out the archaeology items yet, and I haven't been regularly hitting up the pet tamers.  Both of those feel too time consuming on ground mounts.  We'll see how Tanaan is for non-raid content once 6.2 drops.

Favorite Garrison Followers

I have 73 followers on Duskhawk.  Every week I go to the inn and get a new one, currently favoring Treasure Hunter followers because I'm still working towards that yak.  Having as many as I do, I definitely have some favorites.  Here's my top seven:

Talonpriest Ishaal:  Ishaal is my best bird buddy, currently assigned to the barracks.  I really wish he could go everywhere with me, not just in Draenor.  I loved the Spires of Arak storyline for the Arakkoa, and I'm really glad I've got a couple of them hanging out with me now.

Lin Tenderpaw:  Lin was the first follower I got that was a pre-existing NPC back in our timeline.  I was so excited when she showed up!  I think I have rerolled her stats, since I don't recall her having come with mining.

Matoclaw:  I was even more excited to get Matoclaw than I was when Lin showed up.  Matoclaw is the druid who coordinated all the Azerothian side of the Molten Front!  She's pretty awesome, and I wish I could get her Warmaster Zog's job.

Aila Dourblade:  You're probably thinking, "Who is Aila Dourblade?"  I don't know, but she's a blood elf rogue with death knight hair, which is entirely the reason I picked her at the inn that week.  And she's subtlety, the best rogue spec!  Aila has helped bring in a crazy amount of resources for me with Scavenger.

Bim'ini:  Bim'ini is another Inn follower you've probably never heard of, but she's got an awesome transmog, Emerald Plate.  This transmog and Epic Mount have kept her in my active lineup of followers.

Soulbinder Tuulani:  I like having Tuulani around since she's a draenei and I'm playing Horde.  She's one of my active healers, ironically, since she's a shadow priest.  I'm still trying to get Treasure Hunter or Scavenger on her.

Talon Guard Kurekk:  Kurekk hangs out with me since I'm, you know, the Talon Queen.  Also he's an engineer, likes fast horses, and works well with orcs.  I think I probably rerolled him trying for Treasure Hunter, but Epic Mount was good enough.