Regardless, here’s my profile, which consists of me doing things with my shadow priest and a few duplicate posts as I eventually figure out that a /reload and re-upload won’t work because it doesn’t clear uploaded data.

C’est la vie.

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Experiment in progress

1. What is your name and where did it come from?
• Zulfon’s name is fairly adequately explained in this earlier post.
• Queklain’s name… well, there you go.
• I’m feeling generous, so here’s some more alt names. Valmafra, my blood elf hunter, is from the same source material. She used to be called Eladhon, which was generated by the random name generator in WoW and had the unfortunate side effect of my guildmates referring to him as ‘Aladdin.’
• Xajek, my troll priest, is another random name. In this case the generator generated ‘Xaj’ and I added ‘ek’ pretty much by tapping a random vowel and a random consonant.
• Galehorn and Whitebough, tauren shaman and tauren druid respectively, got their names by being modeled vaguely after existing tauren names.
2. How old are you and what is your birthday?
• Queklain: “Time is meaningless to the dead. My birthday is every day, as far as I’m concerned, since I’m still alive. Undead. Whatever. Flee, mortal, you’re beginning to bother me…”
• Zulfon: “I was mebbe 20, 21 years old. Jus’ a few years as an adult. Now dat I’m like dis, though… I’m as ageless as he is.” She jerks a thumb to indicate Queklain, who is nodding off in a chair. “Birthday, though, is August sevent’. And don’ you forget!” She grins a little bit, exposing her small tusks.
3. Are you in love and with whom?
• Queklain and Zulfon (in unison): “Hah!”
4. What is your favorite mount and why?
• Queklain: “My Frostwolf Howler. It was truly an honor,” he says, his voice dry, “to help our Horde brethren in Alterac Valley, for which they bestowed upon me this wolf.” Under his breath, he mutters, “They sure as hell wouldn’t have made it on their own.”
• Zulfon: “Malfas, mah purple nethawing drake. ‘S a sign of my pact with de Nether Flight, and mah work underminin’ Illidan. And a far deal comfier than dem bony birds mah brethren ride.”
5. Do you prefer a certain type of Azerothian meal and where do you get it from?
• Queklain: “Gnome.”
• Zulfon: “Dat’s disgustin’.”
• Queklain: “Don’t knock it till you’ve feasted upon its freshly-slain corpse.”
• Zulfon gags a little. “Food don’ quite taste like it used ta, so I go for de more exotic flavahs. Spiced wyrm burgers, that kin’ of ting.”
• Queklain: “Gnome’s kind of exotic.”
6. You know those giant mushrooms in Zangarmarsh? What is your theory on how they came to be and why are they so huge?
• Queklain: “You know how mushrooms grow on dead things, right? Well, look at Draenor. I rest my case.”
• Zulfon: “Ain’t nothin’ right about Outland. I worry less ‘bout de giant mushrooms and more ‘bout de ones walkin’ about.”
7. If you saw the Lich King walking towards you, what would you do?
• Queklain: “Oh, doubtlessly flee in abject terror. I’m surely no match for a man who – oh, wait, who can be wounded by a single apothecary with a batch of blight. Bah.” Queklain waves his hand dismissively. “Lich King, Bitch King.”
• Zulfon: “Well, it’s not like it’d be de first time, now is it?” She grins again, this one a bit more predatory. “Dere’s always a price to pay for betrayal, and we bot’ done betrayed each otha, so dere’d be hell to pay all around.”

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Fine, fine, since you asked

My blacksmithing lags behind, at 277. Oh, sure, I could go pick up Master Blacksmithing too, but there’s really no point: none of the Outland blacksmithing plans are available until 300, so it’s a few more hours of running around Silithus. Silithus really is my new favorite place, especially when compared to my old favorite (Winterspring, which was remarkably devoid of nodes the last two nights) and my old old favorite (Burning Steppes). Three major “sets” of locations, usually 2-3 nodes per location, 4-5 ores per node? Yes, please! Sign me up. And if it means slaughtering the occasional bug, so much the better.

It’s been a thoroughly un-WoW weekend. Yes, I ran in circles mining and making blacksmithing stuff. I also stopped at one point to run Blackrock Depths by myself, which was quite a feat on my netbook (I was playing on my Acer Aspire One while watching the Colts game). For bonus points, if you’re soloing BRD: don’t kill anything in the room with Emperor Thaurissan before attacking him. It’s fun, I promise! And hey, I came out of it with a piece of gear I can actually use. Shut up, shirts are gear.

Sadly, I have no new information for aspiring Death Knights today. I did do one bit of experimenting lately: I tried out Skeleton Jack’s dual-wield build. For the first few minutes, it was mostly me bringing up my sword skill, and after that… well, I wasn’t terribly impressed. Me plus a ghoul with that build, puts out less than me by myself in my currently 17/54/0 build. I changed back after an instance run or two. #1? I don’t think so. Maybe once Howling Blast comes off cooldown and is truly spammable when you have the ability to use it. Of course, there’s rumors Blizz might nerf the thing anyway, as they don’t want dual wield to dominate for Death Knights; part of me wonders if they’re regretting making that an option now. One benefit of dual-wielding, though: if both weapons have Rune of the Fallen Crusader on them, the effect of it is up all the time. Of course, it feels like it’s up on every fight now, so who knows.

I did log on several of my alts, fix their UIs, and mess with their spec a bit, then I played them to make sure they’re playable. Valmafra (née Eladhon) is now Survival-spec, which I’m not sure is ideal for leveling but is definitely where I want to take her eventually… so far, it works exactly like a BM Hunter without Bestial Wrath, which honestly I never used all that much anyway. Thunderfist the Gorilla still holds aggro while I shoot things, so that’s that. I do feel a touch more mana-efficient. I suspect things’ll speed up a bit once I get Steady Shot.

Xajek went Disc/Holy to Shadow, which I figured was appropriate since he was no longer following a hunter around, and… holy crap. I do not have the first clue how to play a shadow priest. I just kind of flail mindlessly at the Mind Flay, Vampiric Embrace, Shadow Word: Pain, and Mind Blast buttons until things die. Occasionally I remember that I can cast Power Word: Shield in Shadowform and do that too. My mana constantly hovers at about 50%, and my health… well, my health constantly hovers at about 100%. I need to find some good guides on shadowpriesting, if only so I can get Xajek some more levels. Eventually he’ll be healy!

I have this sneaking suspicion that part of my wants to heal: I’ve now started (and gotten to the mid-40s, at highest) a priest, a shaman, and a druid all with the intention to make them resto or holy, as appropriate, at the highest level. If I find myself starting a paladin too, then I’ll just conclude that apparently I’d like to make the health bars go right, too.

Happy new year to you all. What’ve you been up to lately?

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Running in circles, banging on rocks

1. Dailies, religiously
2. Scourge Invasion epics for Eladhon and Xajek
3. Grind Horde city rep with Queklain (no way I’ll hit exalted with all 5 by the 13th, but I can at least get Orgrimmar)
4. Level Eladhon and Xajek
5. Nail down a name for my DK and reserve it for good
6. PVP for any of the following: Merciless Gladiator’s Spellblade, Horn of the Frostwolf Howler, PVP mount (any) (edit: got my howler!)

Things to do before Wrath, in real life:

1. Pack
2. Move at least a couple loads of stuff to the new apartment per night
3. Get an oil change that morning, since I have the day off

I’m not the only one making to-do lists, but mine seems to be shortest. For people with far more drive than me, check out what Anna and Chris are doing, and as long as you’re absorbing things in list form, check out BRK’s Alliance-based top ten reasons for starting in each half of Northrend!

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Wrath: The To-Do List

1) Slaag, Son of Gruul,
2) Maggoc, Son of Gruul, and
3) Grulloc, Son of Gruul.

Not to mention that groups for Botanica, Mechanar, and Blood Furnace (the three instances I happen to need to run) were completely in absentia. I didn’t even dare try to find a group for Divination: Gorefiend’s Armor.

Why does Feathermoon even have a Looking For Group channel, when apparently no one can find what they need on it?

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An exercise in frustration

• Friday I did a little farming with Queklain, starting with netherweb spider silk. I managed to find a good place to hunt down Primal Water, a primary ingredient of the Shadow’s Embrace set. While I have had a set of Frozen Shadoweave Shoulders for some time now, last night I added Frozen Shadoweave Boots as well. Now I just need to push tailoring from 366 to 375, create the robe, gem out the boots, enchant the boots, gem out the robe, and enchant the robe. Phew! It feels like I’ve been working on this thing forever.
• Played the AH a little bit, made a couple hundred gold. Also sold off some Spellcloth, and had a decent world drop while farming those primal waters. Actually momentarily considered using it myself, until I remembered I’d be replacing it anyway.
• Ran heroic Ramps. This was actually my first heroic! No luck on the drop I wanted, though.
• Saturday, I took the Wonder Twins (as Vandersloot has nicknamed Eladhon & Xajek) along with Van’s paladin Zaxx and our friend Cochlaeus, and the four of us (five if you count Leatherneck) blew through Shadowfang Keep. It was overall pretty effortless, other than the fact that we wiped the first time on Arugal because – of course – he werewolf’d Zaxx, who – along with Arugal’s Void Bolts – made short work of us. The next time, I used a Freezing Trap on the steps right behind Zaxx, and proceeded to put arrows into Arugal (and Mind Flays and Mind Blasts) from across the room. That worked out much better, as Werewolf Zaxx got stopped in his tracks and Arugal quickly ate a face full of DPS. Win!
• And, finally, I started the Ritual of Doom quests, The Prison’s Bindings and The Prison’s Casing. Had a small giggle when I accepted the second quest and Daio the Decrepit, the clearly warlock-y human hanging out in the Blasted Lands, told me “Light bless you” when I accepted the second quest.

That’s really all. — Oh, and I ran a couple AVs with Vandersloot, as well as our friends Mishkar and Barna of Warsong Aces. It went pretty well, though as usual I added little to the AV (except, for a few minutes, tanking the Alliance onslaught with my face); however, I am now halfway to a Frostwolf Howler, so I guess that’s something to work on in my off-time.

We’re going to form the most gimped arena team ever! It’ll be great! Phat epix, here we come!

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A productive weekend

1. Death Knight! deathknightdeathknightdeathknight.
2. Leveling Queklain to 80. I predict this to be a slow and painful process. I don’t intend to respec out of destro to do it, either.
3. Taking a stab at leveling any of the others to 80. Since 3.0.2 is going to include the xp drops to get from 60-70 as well, I fully expect to have at least a second 70 by the time Wrath drops. Best case scenario, all 4 of my current alts hit 70.
4. Seeing what kind of new tailoring recipes await me in Northrend.
5. Taking Eladhon to tame a silithid and a devilsaur, assuming they allow us to have more than one ‘exotic’ pet. (In all likelihood I will be doing this when 3.0.2 drops, not necessarily when Wrath is released.)

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Blog Azeroth Shared Topic: What will I be doing…

I’m one of those people. I recruited myself. Eladhon and Xajek receive the 300% xp bonus when grouped together (granted, in a level or two, so would Eladhon and Galehorn), and I can attest to the fact that it is freaking amazing. Here’s the guidelines I set out for myself so that I wouldn’t be that complete gimp when I get to Outland.

Keep in mind these guidelines mostly apply to dualboxers who already have an account at 70, since that’s my personal experience, but if you’ve got an actual friend (or S.O., or roommate, or sibling, or parent, or mailman, or whatever) to recruit, you may want to help them out with these guidelines as you speed them along towards Outland.

1. Carefully – CAREFULLY – pick and choose your quests. Part of the disconcerting effect of the experience bonus of the Recruit-a-Friend is how quickly quests go from yellow to green to grey. For those of you who’ve leveled to 70 already, at least once, you may find that you’re skipping quests instead of slogging through all of them like you did the first time. Obviously, you’ll want to prioritize the ways you do these quests, so here’s a few suggestions.

• Prioritize quests that provide equipment over those that don’t. As you fly from 1-60, you’ll find that you quickly outstrip most greens you find as drops. You’ll also find that quest rewards may last you just a bit longer. Try to take quests that give you new gear, so you can keep your gear constantly upgraded instead of it lagging several levels behind.
• Do those dungeon quests. You may not be able to find a group for many low level instances, as even with the recent nerfs to many “old world” dungeons (what do you mean, Theradras doesn’t summon adds anymore?!), there just aren’t as many people doing them. That’s fine. You’ve probably got a friend at 70. Whether you run them appropriately or get yourself run through, do dungeon quests. The gear you find in instances is better than quest rewards, 9 times out of 10, and will last you longer. There are pieces in ZF and SM that you can wear clear up until you pass the Dark Portal, even! Plus, well, dungeon quests grant large XP bonuses anyway – and 300% of that is better. Not to mention you seem to get the 300% xp bonus on elites, as well. I had my buddy Vandersloot pull Eladhon and Xajek through Deadmines last night twice and SFK once, and they were getting around 150xp a kill, plus boatloads of gear that’ll be good for a while.
• Prioritize “kill X of Y” quests over “bring me X of Y” quests. There’s really no reason for this other than efficiency. While many quests allow you to share goals, even for things like deactivating spires, ground spawn or item drop quests do not. First off, think of your second character as an extension of your first. Ready? Well, if you’re collecting souvenirs, you have to effectively complete the quest twice over. For some quests, that can be ridiculous (why do those poor farmers in Hillsbrad not have skulls?!). Ground spawn quests aren’t nearly as bad, assuming it’s an easily visible ground spawn. But Kill X of Y quests, or Kill X, Y, and Z, or Kill X And Bring Me His Token Body Part quests, are your bread and butter.

2. Be smart with the Auction House. While you might be tempted to go to the AH and pick up a new load of greens every few levels, unless you’re virtually brimming with gold this could eventually get expensive for two new alts. My suggestions is to ask yourself, “will this still be usable in (3/5/10) levels?” Be smart – use the resources available to you, such as Wowhead or its ilk, to plan what it is you’d like to have, and work towards specific pieces of long-term-use gear instead of whatever crap happens to be for sale at the auction house.

3, which is really the corollary to 2: Feel free to pick up greens and blues from the AH or world drops for the character to be granted several levels. Part of the inspiration for many people to pick up Recruit-a-Friend is that if you manage to get your alts from 1-60 (keep in mind I did 1-20 with virtually no effort, and have three months to get to 60 at this rate, so you can gauge how doable it is), you get to grant 30 levels to an alt on the main account. If you do it twice? You get to grant 60 levels. While running a lot of instances and choosing relevant quests is all well and good for the alts you’re leveling up, the toons you’re about to unleash on an unsuspecting Outland may not (more likely will not) have the gear to even do the simplest of quests in Outland. So while you probably shouldn’t be hitting the AH to gear up the ones you’re leveling (at least not all the time), you should probably get your level-granted character a set of stuff to wear so he or she doesn’t die to the first helboar in Hellfire Peninsula.

4. Understand the fiscal responsibility. And I don’t just mean the cost of a second account. Part of the tradeoff for prioritizing gear over money is that, well, you may not have much money. And if you’re flying through zones at top speed to get to 60, your tradeskills – even double gathering skills – will more than likely not keep up. You’re probably going to be funding mounts and more from your main character’s pocketbook. So, make sure you’ve got at least enough to pay for 2 sets of regular mount training, 2 sets of epic land mount training, 2 regular mounts, and 2 epic mounts (note: does not apply so much if one or both of your alts are a pally or a lock, though those quests – especially the warlock one – are costly in their own right). Not to mention training – when you’re earning 2 or 3 levels per instance, training can get expensive. Once they’re in Outland, of course, those slackers can earn their own keep.

5. Learn your class. Granted, you may not get many opportunities to learn your class in Azeroth, not only because you’re rushing from 1-60 but because you’re not going to be using your eventual endgame spec because it sucks for leveling. That’s fine. Lots of classes fall into that rut, like prot warriors or resto anything. But if you have the chance, and you’re running those instances like I told you to do so above, learn your role! Priests – learn to heal and support! Hunters – learn to CC properly and work on those shot rotations! Tanks – learn to tank! DPSers – learn to control your threat while maximizing output! These are the kinds of things people already assume you don’t know when you get to Outland, but if you get there and don’t know your stuff and are a Recruit-a-Friend baby? Don’t expect any favors. Be willing to learn from those who know better than you, and read as many tactics guides as you can sneak in at work fit in your spare time, but at the same time, be sure and put it into practice. You need to know what you’re doing, and reading is a great start, but real world experience dovetails nicely with that and makes you even better at the class you just rushed up to 60 with.

6. Have fun. Seriously, have fun. You’re about to get a new endgame alt to play with, and who knows? Maybe you’ll like it better than your main! But do some fun stuff with it. Run an instance you skipped last time, or level in new zones (there’s equivalents to pretty much everything; no one ever has to go to STV). Enjoy yourself. And follow these guidelines above; in my opinion, they’ll maximize your fun!

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Recruit-a-Friend; or, How To Use 300% XP Without Really @#$!ing Yourself

In all seriousness, though, it’s a blog. One person, Queklain (H, Feathermoon-US) who decided to finally start blogging about World of Warcraft. I used to blog about FFXI too, before I quit playing it. I have a few alts, because I have altitis: Galehorn, my shaman, and the 300% XP Twins, Eladhon (with faithful crocolisk companion Leatherneck) and Xajek. I dualbox those two, because I’m abusing the recruit-a-friend program to get them leveled quickly, but they are the only ones I dualbox, and I’m not particularly good at it. It’s pretty easy to overlap two DPS characters, at least (and yes, a shadow priest counts as DPS, in my book).

Feathermoon is an RP server, true, but the closest I’ve gotten to RP was the time Eladhon got an in-game mail from the brother of a gay troll (with 20 flowers attached). As they say on trade, there is no RP on Feathermoon.

None of my alts belong to a guild yet. I have a few friends in Warsong Aces, and a couple more in Adepts of Ouroboros, but I remain guildless as of the time I write this. I want to raid but I’m not at that level yet. Back on Korialstrasz I used to be GM of Legion of Zod; that position is now held by Volcana.

You can also find me on Wowhead, frequently commenting on WoW Insider, on Blog Azeroth as StoppableForce, on my collection on Warcraft Pets (small pets are the one thing I collect besides tabards), and a few other places.

As for the name: The Stoppable Force drops for me so often that I used to joke about making a guild named after it.

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What is The Stoppable Force?

Queklain: Voltaire – “When You’re Evil”

The others took a little thought.

Eladhon: Duran Duran – “Hungry Like The Wolf”

Xajek: Well, he is a shadow priest. Sorry about the Halo video: Graveyard BBQ – “Cheat on the Church”

Galehorn: Even though technically it’s from that other MMO, the one I quit, I chose Naoshi Mizuta – “Sanctuary of Zi’tah”

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Blog Azeroth Shared Topic: What is your character’s theme song?