D'oh! What a sap!

Argh! While helping a level 10 get through the Wetlands to reach Ironforge, I was so used to using Sap in battlegrounds now that I actually sapped one of the orcs while going through Dun Algaz, so now my dagger skill is 2!

Foo(d) Fighter

Well, after thinking it over, and a suggestion from Hel that a Sharpened Letter Opener would be more acceptable than using a Worn Dagger, that gave me the idea to use the food weapons...

First, when the next Darkmoon Faire comes, I'll get Last Month's Mutton, which should last me until I'm able to get the rarer, sillier (and less damaging) Steelscale Crushfish. At level 41, I can use Mug O' Hurt, which can proc a nice slowing effect, so I'll mostly use it in WSG. I can also enchant them with Icy Chill, and use slowing poisons and mind-numbing poisons, none of which cause damage.

Sap!

In reading Gweryc's interview, I discovered that weapon skills are handled differently in PvP and duels -- in particular, I can use Sap in battlegrounds without having my weapon skill go up! I still can't use it in quests, but that's ok. I created a temporary alt to mail me the "worn dagger" that a rogue starts with.

I'm still undecided about using my worn dagger apart from sap; it actually has less DPS than my lowly fishing pole, but the fishing pole seems more pacifistic as a weapon. I could also hit multiple targets faster with the dagger (1.60 speed vs. 3.00 for the pole) and enchant it with Icy Chill, to sometimes slow opponents. But it still seems wrong to use a dagger...

Noor in Arathi Basin

Since some people have been skeptical of Noor's value in battlegrounds, here are some snippets from a recent Arathi Basin match, which Alliance won 2000 to 1730 (or so). Alliance players assaulted a total of 14 flags in the match, with three players assaulting 1 each, one player assaulting 2, and Noor assaulting 9 flags. Yes, I'm usually first in flag assaults.

This video doesn't even show some of my typical techniques; I can usually take a flag guarded by a single player using Blind, unless they're a pet class. If they have a pet, I can usually take it if I toss out a Target Dummy first for the pet to chew on. This also works if a pet is left on "aggressive" by a flag while the hunter moves a few yards out, as the last part of the second scene illustrates (but I use a Love Fool work-alike from Valentine's Day). There are 5 horde players fighting a few yards away while I take the Blacksmith's flag in the second clip. That snoring sound you hear is my Green Whelp Armor putting players and pets to sleep. And yes, after I died, the Farm was Alliance for a short time.

Gweryc on WoW's nonconformity backlash

Here is an interview with melee hunter Gweryc Halfhand, where he speculates on why some people really like players who try levelling in a bizarre fashion, and why some really hate it.

Quest: Sunken Treasure (part 1)

I was afraid Noor at level 36 would never be able to do the first part of Sunken Treasure, because when my paladin did it a few months ago at level 41, I had to fight off about 5 waves made up of two level 40 elementals.

As it turns out, the fight is really about keeping the two level 40 elementals off Professor Phizzlethorpe (the gnome NPC), and more are spawned only if you kill them and are still in the cave. Pulling them out allows the gnome to finish with only the two original elementals.

However, grabbing aggro proved to be a problem; they appear and head right for Phizzlethorpe, and he starts fighting back, so I kept failing. I tried using a compact harvest reaper, and even tried my own 5-man group (reaper, exploding sheep, battle chicken, and mechanical dragonling), but that failed, too. I eventually decided to try a Goblin Sapper Charge, because that's an instant bomb effect (even though it also damages me).

That grabbed the aggro, and it turned out to be very easy after that.

35 and 315 engineering max

Well, Noor made it to level 35 in a very strange way; by dropping engineering and doing the wild leatherworking quest sequence. Of course, that takes a bunch of turtle scales, and some higher-level leather items that she didn't want to skill up to get before dropping leatherworking and going back to engineering, so she offered to pay people for turtle scales instead of waiting for them to appear on the auction house. I did this over the weekend, and saved about two and a half weeks of battleground quests to make it to 35. Thanks to Cooliyo, Ratchetx, and Ving for help with the scales and LW items.

Unfortunately, that means she doesn't know how to make Flash Bombs anymore, and the goblin in Badlands won't tell her again, so she'll have to rely on friends like Wildbill until the schematic shows up in the auction house someday. Plus, of course, she'll need to jump into Gnomeregan again to re-re-learn how to make a Discombobulator Ray.

She also unintentionally killed a few murlocs by Menethil Harbor by trying to use her Battle Chicken to distract them so she could skill up her lockpicking. Turns out the chicken (level 48 with Noor's 240 engineering) can take out a lot of level 20ish murlocs, and the chicken doesn't have an off switch...

Plus, as already noted, Noor accidentally punched a basilisk in Terrokar while on a naked mining run, so her unarmed skill is now 2. From now on, she keeps her fishing rod equipped, even when naked mining.

Level 35 allows Noor to get 315 engineering (level 63 combat pets) and first aid up to 300 to use netherweave bandages (if I can buy them or get someone to make them). She can make some good money by fishing for Skullfish in Deadwind Pass, and she won't miss 75% of casts the way she did when her fishing was capped at 225 (+132 with fishing gear)

She has Rocket Boots Xtreme in the bank, waiting for level 50, and once I grind her engineering to 315 and get a Zapthrottle Mote Extractor made for her, I'm seriously thinking about dropping mining and switching to tailoring so I can get 300 tailoring and use netherweave nets in BGs...

Here are the quests Noor did to get from level 30 to 35:
Gnome Engineering
The Pledge of Secrecy
Show Your Work
(respecced to get Preparation)
Ironband Wants You!
(Went Gnomish, made battle chicken, death ray)
Find Agmond
Green Hills of Stranglethorn (all)
Bad Medicine
(JC for solid statues, black pearl panther trink, golden hare trinket)
(drop JC for engineering)
Reclaimers' Business in Desolace.
Vahlarriel's Search (#1 & #2)
Pearl Diving
This Old Lighthouse
James Hyal (missed SW cook and smilin jim's part)
Supplies to Private Thorsen
Malin's Request
Arathor's Basic Care Package
Encrypted Letter (31)
Hints of a new Plague? #1
Letter to Stormpike
Further Mysteries
Wharfmaster Dizzywig
Parts for Kravel
Delivery to the Gnomes
Inspecting the Ruins
The Orc Report
Captain Vimes
The Black Shield #1
Suspicious Hoofprints
Reethe's Badge
Lt. Paval Reethe
Daelin's Men
The Black Shield #2,#3
The Rumormonger
Help Watcher Biggs
The Lost Supplies
Draenethyst Crystals
Vahlarriel's Search
The Karnitol Shipwreck #1
Kodo Roundup
The Karnitol Shipwreck #2 (32)
Krazek's Cookery
The Haunted Isle
Favor for Krazek
Return to Corporal Kaleb
Stormwind Library
Stone of the Tides
Traitors Among Us
Propaganda War
Discrediting the Deserters
The End of the Deserters (dummy, dragonling and chicken w/my big iron fishing rod easily defeated Greyshield, who is lvl 38 to my 32 (but my pets are level 48)
A Disturbing Development
The Ensorcelled Parchment
Stormpike's Deciphering
Jungle Secrets
Bookie Herod
The Hidden Key
The Spy Revealed!
Patrol Schedules
Report to Doren
(explored Desolace, some of Feralas, and a bit more of Arathi Highlands) (33)
Barbecued Buzzard Wings
Reclaimed Treasures
Morgan Stern
Raptor Captor
Unleash the Raptors
The Deserters #1 and #2
A Grim Connection
Tabetha's Assistance
Raze Direhorn Post!
Justice for the Hyals
Peace At Last
Bone Collector (34)
(almost no quests; need 17 BG dailies for level 35, about 34 days)
AB (5 losses, 1 win) 3100 XP
WSG (5 losses, 1 win) 3100 XP
Brother Anton
(accidentally hit a basilisk while mining naked in Terrokar, unarmed skill went to 2)
WSG (6 losses)
Mythology of the Titans
(got Discombobulator Ray schematic in Gnomer again)
WSG (3 losses, 1 win) 3100 XP
(12 more BG dailies)
AB (1 win) 3100 XP
Bodyguard for Hire
AB (5 losses)
AB (1 win) 3100 XP
WSG (1 loss, 1 win) 3100 XP
The Hermit of Swamplight Manor
(dropped engineering, took up skinning (only skinning what I found), farmed some leather, dropped skinning for LW, got up to 200 LW)
Wild Leather Armor
Wild Leather Shoulders
Wild Leather Helmet
Wild Leather Vest
Wild Leather Boots
Wild Leather Leggings (35) thanks to cooliyo and ratchetx and ving

Peacewalker

Peacewalker has reached level 10 and is now listed on the armory. As a druid, he can't complete the druid quest sequence to learn bear form (Body and Heart) without killing Lunaclaw unless he happens to find the spirit of Lunaclaw after another druid has recently completed the quest, as the real goal of the quest is to talk to the spirit.