The Accomplished Angler

This screenshot was taken yesterday as Atoz was fishing in Valgarde, Howling Fjord. As you can see, I have all but one of the Fishing achievements done for the "Salty" title. Left to finish is One That Didn't Get Away, an extremely difficult acheivement in which you have to catch one of a list of rare fish that are scattered around the zones of Azeroth and Outland. I have had more than 2000 catches since the beginning of Wrath alone and have not landed the rare fish. Yesterday I tried moving to various spots where others have had success in landing the rare fish (including Teldrassil and Dun Morogh, without success. I'm regrouping now and reconsidering my strategy on the achievement. I have not seen another Salty on Khadgar yet. What would a rare title be without a challenge? I'm not giving up until is Atoz is Salty! Click on the picture for a closer look!

The Fishing Diplomat

A gnome in Orgrimmar? Yes! As part of the new World of Warcraft phasing technology, it is possible to to "instance" quests. When doing the quest Fate, Up Against Your Will, Alliance players journey to Orgrimmar, one of the main Horde cities, with Jaina Proudmore on a diplomatic mission to meet and talk with Thrall, the Orc leader. At the start of the quest, Jaina opens a portal in Stormwind which you and Jaina pass through, depositing you into Thrall's chamber in Orgrimmar. From there, you complete the quest and port back to Stormwind. However, while there you are neither attacked nor do go PvP, as you would normally do when entering another faction's city. I am taking advantage of this undisturbed presence in Orgimmar to finish a couple of achievements, The Fishing Diplomat and Old Crafty. These achievements would be extremely difficult to accomplish otherwise. Click on the picture for a closer look!

Mr. Pinchy At Last!

Mr. Pinchy, fished up at last after literally years of trying. I was passing by Lake Ere'Noru and decided to fish a node or two on a whim. I got the Magical Crawdad companion on the first wish and, thus, the achievement. One step closer to Salty. Click on the picture for a closer look.

Powered by Wowhead!

I am happy to say that my blog is now powered by the best World of Warcraft database out there, Wowhead.com! I have added script to the blog which enables you to search the database from anywhere there is a link! Anytime I list a link to Wowhead.com, the links will pop up with a preview of the entry. You can then click through to the entry on Wowhead. Here are a couple of sample entries: Mastercraft Kalu'ak Fishing Pole and Mr. Pinchy. Enjoy!

Of Wrath and Achievements

So, how are you doing in Wrath of the Lich King? Did you level your main character to 80 yet? Maybe you created a Death Knight? I had every intention of power-leveling my gnome mage Atoz to 80 right when the expansion came out, but it's been 17 days since Wrath was released and I'm only to level 73. Why? In a word: Achievements. One of the newest additions to World of Warcraft is the Achievements feature and it adds a whole new flavor to WoW. Some achievements are easy, like completing a specific number of quests or getting to a certain level. Some are extremely difficult to attain, like exploring all possible areas in the World of Warcraft or getting a rare pet. The Achievements system seems custom-made for obsessive types like..uh...me! Holding me back from leveling has been the ever-present, nagging urge to explore continents that I haven't gotten to yet and past areas that I somehow missed fully exploring. Or how about the Achievements involved with the professions? My god, don't get me started! I already fish more than most people would even care to think about doing. I spent almost an entire day fishing at a fountain (!?) in Dalaran just to complete four Achievements out of the twenty something that I need to get the rare "Salty" fishing title. So, this is another sign of how brilliant the designers at Blizzard are. They have created an expansion pack to an extremely popular game, and one that contains content that might even prevent you from accomplishing one of the main goals of the game! How amazing is that? Now excuse me, I'm going back to exploring an out of the way corner of the Eastern Kingdoms that is still fogged out. Did I say that I was going to get to level 74 today?