I do like the general concept better than the daily heroic.  After all…  if things go wrong with your random, you just random again.  If things went wrong with the old daily, you were probably locked to a half finished heroic and left badgeless for the day.  

And (although its not necessary to PuG) it seems natural to at least fill a slot or two this way, to keep working towards the little PUG pet.  Which brings me to my second topic PUGging.  

Pugging brings you an achievement for the first 10 people you PUG with, a second achievement when you reach 50 people (along with the title “the patient”) and a third achievement at 100 that scores you the PUG pet pictured here.  

There has been a lot of chatter in guild about wether or not the PUG groups are random, or if they purposely pair really high gear score people with really low gear score people.  I’d love to hear your take on this, so please leave some comments!  I can tell you that the quickest way to a group…. a tank!  When I join with my friend Devin’s tank, we have a group in literally seconds.  When I join with his lock… well sometimes we are waiting quite some time.  

I do like that you can vote to kick a member!  *evil laugh*  I have no problem with someone with sucky gear doing less damage, but when people start going AFK for long periods of the heroic, its good we can purge them!  

I’m defiantly NOT digging the loot system.  Now, as an end game resto druid, I’m not going into heroics looking for gear.  But I know some people are, and are getting screwed.  And I defiantly am looking for gear on my lowbie cow’s PUG games.  What am I talking about?  I’m talking about us not being able to need on cloth!!!  

Having recently just leveled up a second druid, I can tell you that almost all of my gear from level 1-55ish was cloth.  There was just a huge shortage of good caster leather.  Sure I’d have the occasional piece here and there, but the majority of it was cloth.  So now, if I use their dungeon finding tool, I wont be able to get any of that?  /StartRant Thats… um… BS.  Even on my TOC 25 Heroic geared main, I had cloth boots for several months that I only replaced a week ago when the leather ones finally dropped.  I understand that you don’t want a warrior need rolling on cloth caster gear… BUT there has to be a better way to do it than to disallow people (resto druids for example) from rolling on clear upgrades that aren’t their highest armor class.  /EndRant

I also kind of feel sorry for enchanters.  We basically all get to freely abuse their skill in a PUG.  I’m not an enchanter, and clearly being able to roll for shards benefits me… but still.  As if enchanting wasn’t enough of a money sink, let’s give away part of their skill without asking them.  Poor enchanters

Next, talk to the vendor next to her. You can buy a recipe for Bread of the Dead, do that and make one (using the fire behind the vendor). Also buy either the bouquet of marigolds, or a single one. Use the flower to see the friendly spirits, one is a quest giver. He asks for a piece of the bread you just baked. Completing the quest gives you the pet…. BUT this is the lame part… the pet isn’t a real pet. It takes up a bag slot (not learnable) and is only summonable during day of the dead.

Fire Festival Flame Dance

Ah, the fire festival.  I remember this event back in the day… back when the horde and alliance celebrated together, and didn’t put out each other’s fires.  Back when the spirit of summer pet was a quest, and not bought with flowers, and when all my alts had burning shoulders because I only had to run them each to four fires (mind you that often meant 20 deaths each!)  

Well… having touched all the fires last year and bought my entire set & pet I didn’t have a lot to do this year.  I touched a few more fires (once they fixed it!) so I could buy a brazier of dancing flames, and some buff food.  I also did a little Ahune farming for the fire elemental pet.  They really upped the drop rate on him… in just 2 days of farming him (all of us summoning, and all of our 70+ alts summoning) all five people in my group had the pet.  
What I would suggest… is that even if you don’t care about pets or achievements, you should touch a few fires for the buff food you can buy.   This buff food stacks with your normal buff food.  If your guild is at all interested in progression, 25 people getting this extra edge might be the difference between getting down that next boss or next hard mode and not.  It all adds up!

First I’ll start with the news… The benefits that someone receives form their professions are changing.  Here is a quick rundown of the changes:

Alchemy 
* The Mixology benefits from Northrend elixirs and flasks have been increased 
* Added a new pattern for Flask of the North, usable by players with a high alchemy skill. The recipe is purchased from the honor potion vendor. The Flask of the North increases your spell power, attack power, or Strength for 1 hour, and is usable in arenas. It is not consumed when used. 
* Endless Healing Potion and Endless Mana Potion no longer usable in arenas. Amount of health and mana has been increased, and the cooldown reduced. They are still usable everywhere else. 

Blacksmithing 
* No changes will be made to this profession; it will continue to have the 2 additional prismatic sockets (which can hold the new epic gems) 

Enchanting 
* Values on Northrend ring enchants increased 

Engineering 
* Increased benefits from Hyperspeed Accelerators, Hand-Mounted Pyro Rocket, and Reticulated Armor Webbing glove modifications 

Herbalism 
* Increased healing from Lifeblood (Rank 6) 
* Lifeblood now scales slightly with maximum health 
* Lifeblood no longer affected by global cooldown 

Inscription 
* Master’s Inscriptions increased 

Jewelcrafting 
* Dragon’s Eye gems stat bonuses increased 

Leatherworking 
* Fur Lining values increased 

Mining 
* Toughness (Rank 6) provides more Stamina 

Skinning 
* Master of Anatomy (Rank 6) provides more critical strike rating 

Tailoring 
* Embroideries improved 

Heirloom Chests?

Next, if you’re thinking about leveling an alt, you may have considered getting the heirloom shoulders that give you an extra 10% XP.  I know when I leveled my shammy up I got a pair.  Well they will in introducing heirloom chests with offer 10% to XP as well, and these two item DO stack.  Between this and getting your mount at 20 leveling should be a breeze!   

Finally, I got my Teldrassil Sproutling!  

Every tree needs a mini-me  He occasionally falls asleep when I’m standing around in Dalaran, I guess he craves action!  Poor little guy!  The next challenge is deciding what I want to buy next.  I guess I better keep doing those dailies!