The Final Tickbird

I stopped off yesterday with me going through the Dark Portal. Today we'll finish up the trek through these achievements.

- After you've made it through the Dark Portal you find yourself in Hellfire Penninsula. Breathe in the air that you haven't had a wiff of in 5 months and proceed to kill an Adder and a Scorpion.
- Head over to Zangarmarsh for Snake and Frog
- Then to Terokkar Forest for Skunk
- Finally Shattrah City for Ewe (he's in Lower City).
- You're done once again with visiting Outlands, back to Azeroth and Ironforge where you will find 6 Books (All in the Hall of Explorers). This is where you will get your Well Read achievement finished.
- Now fly over to Loch Moda for the Ram.
- Then to Searing Gorge for Lava Crab and Fire Beetle. This is where you complete Pest Control.
- Back to our favorite city, Stormwind so you can take the boat to Borean Tundra.
- Remember those ponds with Gurlocs in them to the East in Borean? Yeah that's where you find the Steam Frog and Borean Frog.
- Venture into the Rhino herds for Borean Marmot.
- Go into the Nexus for Crystal Spider.
- Near the Murlocs for Crab and Tundra Penguin. This is where you finish up the first Squirrel's Achievement.
- Finally, head on up to Nessingwary's Camp in Sholazar Basin for the Sholazar Tickbird and your final achievement. Fitting place to end the /love quests eh?


The last section was indeed short but the first part took so much time that I just wasn't able to make it in time. Hope that you enjoyed this foray into achievements, as unrelated as it may be.

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Trucking Through Those Achievements.

Yesterday I showed you my crazy achievement map for my trek through 4 fairly easy achievements. Today I'll give you my step by step track through those achievements which I followed to get them done as fast as possible. If you enjoyed this please pass this around to your achievement minded friends or just point them my way! Remember, I did this on my Ally toon, so sorry for those Horde that wanted a trek. You could adapt mine to fit horde though. I don't think I will do it because I don't care to get achievements on my horde guy. One toon is enough.

I plan on at least color coding this post but may not get to it in time for todays post so check back if you want to see it that way instead. As a note, I did NOT include all specific locations of the books for Well Read. I have used this message under the WoWHead entry for reference as I went along.


- Start in Dalaran (This is where my hearth is set and is of course a really great central starting place. You essentially need to be high enough to start here anyways as one Pest Control critter is here and another Pest is only in a 78+ dungeon[and a critter for TATSWSML is in a fly only area]). Of course if you have a high level warlock then this is no problem for you but lets assume you are an human warrior flying solo.

- Port to Caverns of Time, go to Gadgetzan Inn for 1 book.
- To Un'goro Crater for Parrot.
- Hearth
- Dalaran Sewers for Underbelly Rat
- Mount up on your flying mount in the tube and fly North into Ice Crown for Glacier Penguin.
- Head East to Ulduar for Gold Beetle (In Halls of Stone or Halls of Lightning)
- South to Zul'drak for Zul'drak Rat
- To Dragonblight for Arctic Hare (Also a few spawns in Zul'drak as well as other various Northrend zones [I had previously got mine while heading to a Naxxramas Raid])
- Grizzly Hills for Mountain Skunk and Grizzly Squirrel
- Howling Fjord for Roach, Fjord Rat, Devouring Maggot (in the catacombs in the area with the mass of undead), Spider (around the lake to the northeast of Utgarde Keep), Fjord Turkey, Scalawag Frog, Fjord Penguin.
- Take the boat to Wetlands.
- Fly to Chillwind Camp, Western Plaguelands then head on up to Scarlet Monestary for 2 Books.
- Head back to Western Plaguelands and go to Scholomance for 3 Books.
- Fly off to Zul Aman in the Ghostlands for Larva and Maggot.
 - Back to Wetlands and take the boat to Theramore.
- Barrens for Gazelle, Prairie Dog and 2 Books in the Ratchet Inn.
- Durotar for Hare and Swine.
- Either run back to Ratchet and take the boat over or try to sneak on a blimp outside of Ogrimmar to Stranglethorn Valley.
- Head up to Westfall for 1 Book, Mouse, Snake, and Chicken.
- Elwynn Forest for Cow, Cat, Deer, Fawn, Rabbit, Sheep, and 1 Book.
- Off to Stormwind for 12 Books!
- Take the Boat to Darkshore (it's on the far left of the harbor) and then the Boat to Darnassus.
- Darnassus for Squirrel, Toad, and 4 Books.
- Back to Stormwind.
- Fly to Duskwood for 3 Books.
- Off to Swamp of Sorrows for Huge Toad and Moccasin.
- Through the Dark Portal.

Unfortunately, this is taking longer than I expected and I won't have time to finish before this post is scheduled to come out so I will have to finish up the rest for tomorrow.

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Squirrels aren't pests?

Last weekend I got bored and decided to go and do some achievements. I'm by no means crazy about getting all the achievements in the game but I enjoy doing them in my spare time. I tend to focus on specific sections at a time and go for them.

I put off some really easy achievements sometimes until i finally see them and get annoyed that I haven't finished something easy yet (and usually because the achievement hunters in the guild ridicule me enough to do them).

I'm getting pretty close to 5,000 achievement points so last weekend I decided that I would finally get "To All The Squirrels I've Loved Before", it's follow-up "To All The Squirrels Who Shared My Life", "Pest Control", and "Well Read".  Instead of doing these seperate I've decided to do them in one fell swoop. So I made up a map and put pin points on it to show me where everything was then I created an "Achievement Trek" to list which order I was going to do things and where I should go. I'm not usually this crazy when it comes to achievements so I decided that I would digitalize it and share it for others to make the most out of it.

I am sure most people already have all four of these achievements and get them all before Lich King came out but if you are any sort of lazy like I am then maybe this will help you out some.

Starting out, here's the link to the high resolution large version of the map I made for this.

Since I haven't actually finished going through my trek from beginning to end I won't post that part until tomorrow (that and it gets you coming back for more :) ). I'll try to post my approximate beginning to end time and any special notes that I may have found to make things easier or troubles I had on certain sections.

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Christmas in Six?

Well the show is up and running and everything is looking good. I came back on Monday to a lot of heartening comments on my last blog post and I'd like to say thank you to all of you who did comment. On Monday night we raided and halfway through I got up to get some more tea (I got a cold because of that stupid sleet nonsense) and I came back and the whole guild keyed up in Vent and sang Happy Birthday to me. It was a cacophony of sound but it was really kind of cool, definitely one of the best things that happened this weekend in relation to my birthday.

We got some new members over the weekend too which filled some major holes (like Death Knight of which we had none) so that was great. We're still looking for a good priest or two to heal for our Obsidian Sanctum extra drake attempts. We finally realized last night that the lack of just that one healer is causing us to not get the second drake down even after we smoke Tenebron and his whelps.

So apparently there is some new blog chain letter type thing going on which I think started on this post at Voodoo Adventures. I got tagged by Stompalina over at the Rawrcast website. So I don't have a 6th folder in my screenshots file. I do have multiple computers running Warcraft but I decided to just stick with my primary one because the others have no real collection of screenshots.

Here you see a Christmas card which I started to create. I think this was 2007's Christmas but it could have been 2008 (doubtful because I haven't cleaned out my screenshot folder in a very very long time). The druid (on the right) is myself. On the left is Huo, which is the main on my second account (which has since been deactivated). The cat is a representation of my own cat, Cooper. So Merry Christmas everyone!

Now I am supposed to pick 6 other bloggers to continue this challenge. As this went around this past weekend I fear that of all the blogs that i actively follow most of them have already been tagged. So if you already got this "chain" post then oh well. My 6 people are as follows:

Anea at Holy Discipline (Bah, too late)
Kathoid at Druid Kitty (Oh yeah! Zero for two)
Everyone at WoW Insider (doesn't look like they posted one yet)
My Mom at Sweetie Sweeps (Well she doesn't play WoW but I bet she could post a picture from her picture folders instead [much like the original poster])
Matticus from World of Matticus (Because he hasn't done it yet, although his fellow bloggers have)
If you blog, then I pick you! (Because I wimped out and couldn't find any other that haven't already done it)

I need to run to raid now but tomorrow I'll mention a little about my presence on the PTR and invite you all to come join us, as well as some info on ideas for the next "Fun Run" coming up soon.

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At 30 you don't get a mount. QQ

I will warn you, this post may not be as Warcraft related as you may want, although I am sure you can garner something out of it. It is long (which is not unusual) and a little less positive than most (which is unusual).

So yesterday was my birthday, the big three oh. I mentioned the other day that I was avoiding it sort of because well it's one of those important days in one's life where you cross over into a new segment. You are officially out of your 30's, never again to be called a 20 something. I guess it really isn't as important as it feels (I mean it's only another year) but society sort of makes it more important and I think because of the even number it really makes it even more emphasized.

Anyways, leading up to yesterday I was sorta bummed about the whole number change into a new decade. But yesterday the whole number change wasn't the issue at all. Those of you who have been following me know that I have been working for the last week and yesterday was no exception. In fact, yesterday was my big day for work. My boss had to leave for Denver to work on another show Sunday morning so I was put in charge of the whole design. Now this was what I was hired for so it wasn't just something dumped on my lap but this is the first time in the history of working as this designers assistant that I have had a whole show to finish up. I've done some of the other important segments of other designs solo but not this one. This is a significantly larger task than running a focus or a notes session without him. With 4 days left before opening, this could mean having to make some serious changes to the design.

Fortunately (or unfortunately depending on how you look at it) this show is all wrapped up. The whole show is days ahead of schedule and all but done. If it were say a musical yesterdays rehearsal would have been the first dress rehearsal (and more than likely the first full run with tech) and there would have been tons and tons of notes. Instead, it was the 5th run of the show. I had like one note and that was just a reminder to have a major piece of equipment struck before the run because it was an eyesore. Something that would have happened before opening regardless but I noted it so it would happen sooner rather than later.

Ok that was quite a long back story and I guess maybe it wasn't a big deal for you to know any of it (but too bad, I'm in a let it all out type of mood tonight). Because this show is so far ahead of schedule our rehearsal got out 2 hours early with a return for our first preview (pay what you can audience). I live almost 90 minutes away by mass transit (I choose to not have a car in Boston because I live near the subway, usually this is ok) so going home and coming back is out of the picture because it would be tons of travel for like 15 minutes of home time. But everyone else in the theatre takes off. So I'm sitting in the theatre with a half dead Ipod and nothing else to do for 3.5 hours on my birthday. BLEH! On top of that it's raining so taking a walk to the mall or some farther away restaurant would have been more hassle than it was worth it (oh yeah and it turned into sleet on the way home and the bus took forever so I was waiting in the sleet for like 30 minutes at the end of the night.. AWESOME!)

The show goes well and gets out early. During my long break I asked people on twitter if anyone wanted to join me for a drink in Boston after my preview that evening. I didn't get any responses. I didn't really expect much because well not that many people are from Boston on my Twitter. But this is where it all set in and what caused this lengthy and pointless-to-WoW blog.

So I realized yesterday that I am now 30 and I have NO FRIENDS that live near me. Sure, I have a ton of Twitter friends and some in-game friends but I have zero friends from the Boston area that I can call up and be like "Hey, whatchu doin?" and they be like "Watching the game, having a Bud" and I'm like "Dude, lets go grab a pint; or how about I crash your place and veg and kick your butt at solitaire!" As much as I was trying to avoid my 30th birthday I think I really wanted secretly for someone to throw me some "You're an old fart" birthday bash

So of course this makes me evaluate my life and wonder if maybe being a GM is what is effecting this. We only raid 4 days a week and I do the 10 mans after that. I try to keep myself off the game on weekends but I tend to have nothing to do so I end up there anyways.

So here is the negative side to being a GM.. Life. In the game I am a decent leader. I have many people following me and letting me lead them into "battle" and I deal with the drama and the ups and downs. But it doesn't really do anything for me in the outside world. No one in my guild is from near me and those whom I have met have left the guild for one reason or another. Most people want to stay behind their screens and be anonymous anyways and since I'm GM people wouldn't want to hang out with me. Because leaders, of course, are evil people that will eat your children and hanging out with them will cause you to die of fermentation.

So anyways, after all that typing I have no clue where I was going and I sort of stopped in the middle of a thought and lost it all. All I know is I need to figure something out because this is not where I should be in my life. Sure, I love my job and I love being a GM in a video game but aside from that I do not have love and I don't even have any nearby palpable friends. I thought I had it figured out but how do I manage my want to lead a guild into end-game content, dealing with the day to day operations of the guild, while still having a social life? I know officers is part of the answer but frankly mine aren't very good at some of that stuff and I have yet to find a good fill in (for instance, recruiting). There are times I want to pack it up on Drenden and go somewhere else but i know that 1)no one will follow me, 2)I have to start from scratch which is just as tough as it is now, 3)it won't solve any problems and perhaps will make more, and 4)it will take up more of my time than an established guild does now. Unlike in the business world I can't look for another "CEO" elsewhere. No other guild on any server is going to promote a leader outside of their own group. How do I solve my issues? How do I grow up without quitting the game?

I don't expect you to answer my questions and really I should just delete this post because it's just a frustrated steam blowing bunch of words but I dunno at least I get it out there and I know at least one person will read it and it's out of my head for now. Thanks for reading it and I promise I'll get back to a more coherant and positive World of Warcraft Guild Leader blog post tomorrow (or as I mentioned, possibly not until Wednesday or Thursday).

PS - Sunday was not all bad. I got a surprise birthday card from the cast and crew wishing me a Happy Birthday which I thought was super great (Often times, as the assistant I am especially hidden, I'm not even in the program this time around). Will Lyman (lead actor in this show but better known as the voice of PBS's Frontline) personally came up to me to wish me well and shook my hand (I am past the celebrity swooning after the many years of working with "famous" people but when a well respected person takes the time to wish you well it is really kind of extra-special). At least one person genuinely remembered my birthday on Twitter which gave me a torrent of Happy Birthdays and the same happened on my ill-used Facebook account. And my mom sent me new slippers!

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Reflecting On An Era

Well today is the final day of Burning Crusade with the release of Wrath of the Lich King at midnight tonight so I figured it only fair to blog about it.

I can't compare BC to the original WoW as I came into the game just after BC came out. I did come from being a GM in Everquest so I could compare to that but EQ was a first generation MMORPG so it's just not like comparing apples to apples.

Anyways I am happy that I decided to try WoW after retiring from Everquest. It didn't take long until i was hooked on it. I knew from the start that I wanted to tank(because i was a caster in EQ) and after talking with friends that played I knew that a druid was the way I wanted to go(of course at the time BC was new so they didn't know how tough it would be on me to tank as a druid but hey). It took me a little while to level to 70 simply because I was working out of town for the whole of the summer I was trying to level. Once I hit 70 though I knew I wanted to raid(well I knew I wanted to raid when I started).

Because of the nature of EQ(a new expansion every 6 months and 72 man raids) I was in a guild that was always behind the 8 ball as far as progression goes. I decided that this time around I just wanted to be a follower and get into those guilds that were on the cusp of progression. Boy did that not happen. Drenden, my server, didn't even have a guild at that level. Our highest guild killed Illidan around 2.4 and killed KJ after 3.0. Sure, I was able to raid but things weren't happening at the pace I had hoped for.

So I ended up(through a random sequence of events) taking matters into my own hands and against my previous wishes I ended up being GM of a guild. At the time we were all noobs who had done some Kara and started Gruuls. Once No Vacancy turned into a raiding guild we got Gruul down within a week and moved on from there. Sure, we were a guild that was behind the 8 ball but our hopes were to catch up to everyone as fast as possible and we set a goal of killing Illidan before the expansion. That was January, meaning we had a lot of work ahead of us.

Fast forward to today. Illidan did not die. We came close. So close in fact that last night we planned for an extended raid in BT to clear everything so tonight we could work on him. Blizzard killed our last chance. Am I unhappy, sure. But it's not at my guild. I am proud of No Vacancy for sticking it through to get to this point. We had a very uphill battle to get to this point in progression and at least we can say we got to this point. In the end we got ourselves up to top 10 guild on the server and a pretty good reputation. And we did it without the help of others. We had a policy to not bring in pugs and we learned each and every fight as it came to us. No one ran us through the fights or did it for us. We did it the (albeit nerfed) hard way and succeeded.

Now we are starting anew. The only time we'll be behind is because of ourselves. We can finally be right up there competing with the top guilds on the server. I am looking forward to being the GM of a guild that is not behind everyone else but is leading the way in stride with everyone else.

So BC taught me how to raid and how to lead a guild better. Lich King will do more of the same but BC gave me the basis for which to build on. I love being a GM and from the looks of it I am going to love being it even more in the future.

What were your memories from The Burning Crusade? Name your three best and three worst memories from it. Mine are:

Best:

1)Taking NV from Kara noobs to end-game raiders
2)Gaining a ton of friends in the process(and even meeting up with them at various events)
3)Learning how to be a better leader through my guild and my officers

Worst:

1)Coming up just short of our goals
2)Letting myself get burnt out from time to time
3)Zombies! I hated those fracking zombies! I actually had to use my Teleport:Moonglade most of the time.

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A quick respite

Well after my lengthy posts on addons I decided to give everyone a break today and keep it light.  As you have figured out when I start writing I tend to just write until I am done.  Large posts are typical for me although that Class addon one was a bit larger than I thought it was going to be.  The two things that I am known for well in my guild forum postings are 1) I like to type detailed messages about my topics and 2) I really really cheezy things.  When I post our boss kill images I try to come up with punny sayings about the boss and its demise.

So you may from time to time see some cheeziness come from my end and you will definately see some long posts(although I will try to break them up through different days from now on).

Thanks for taking the time out of your day to read my posts.  I have gotten a bunch of feedback that what I've posted has been pretty helpful so that will fuel me to keep on for at least a few more days.  I have a bunch of ideas on topics now but could always use more.  What do you want me to talk about?

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A little about me

So after some debating and some feedback from my guild members I've decided to let my readers know more about me and my guild.  The focus will not be on the guild itself in this blog but at least you know a little more about my successes and failures with a little more detail.

So hi!  I am Kreeoni, a Night Elf Feral Druid on the Drenden server.

I am the guild leader of the guild .  No Vacancy was originally formed to house a few of mine and my friends alts because we were tired of getting random invites to guilds we didn't want to be on every time we entered a major city.  However, after a lot of bad mergers with other guilds on my main I ended up inviting people to join NV as a temporary guild.  I figured we already had a bank tab and such so while we figured out what we were going to do we wouldn't be bothered and we could stick together.  Within a few days that turned out to be that we were going to keep what we were and raid.  So we rapidly went down the way of a progression guild and somehow I ended up being the one that led us.  It really wasn't what was planned but in the end it worked out for us.  We climbed to be ranked 12 server wide and 8th Ally at the end of BC. In LK we decided to not participate in the ranking system on our server because they were maintaining it poorly (Full pug credit for boss kills, 10 man credit for 25's, etc).

I didn't start playing WoW until after the server was up but Drenden went live in early January 2007, the day before the Burning Crusade was released.  At the beginning a majority of the server was transfers from other servers, meaning most guilds at the top have gotten the benefit of a head start in the progression.  90% of my guild consists of people who started after the expansion or who were not serious raiders before the expansion. 95% of my guild, including myself, has not seen any of the content that we are currently working on.  We are the only top 10 guild on the server that does not have leaders who have done the content leading them through it.

Any other info about No Vacancy can be found here.

Any other Drenden info can be found on the WoW Drenden forums here.

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