Through the Grinder – a Blog Azeroth shared topic

The shared topic over at Blog Azeroth this week is a bit of an oxymoron, Kallixta of Kallixta’s Notes asked:

“Normally the words “Best” and “Grind” are not found this close together and there are plenty of grinds to hate. However, I’m interested in the flip side: 

Was there something that required sustained and prolonged effort that you found interesting or rewarding? Was there something that was not just a chore to work on?

I’m assuming most grinds are for Reputation, but maybe you have a novel definition?“

Now I’m not really a grindy person, in fact I’m more likely to run in the opposite direction. Take the Fireland dailies for example, despite not being particularly rich I keep making excuses as to why I shouldn’t do them on any given day. Then of course there is the fact that it’s taken me six years to finally get a Winterspring Frostsaber and I only managed that in the end because Blizzard nerfed the grind.

However that said, on each of my Priests, I’ve grinded my way to something that I’m fairly proud of.

Erinys finished her Loremaster in the dying days of Wrath. I loved getting a good look at the world and the lore it supports before everything got thrown upside down. Running around zones, hunting down my few missing quests was amazing fun and despite being frustrating at times, I really enjoyed doing it. Remembering some of those quests and then seeing the world as Deathwing reshaped it is quite sad. Take the Dam at Loch Modan, I foiled a dastardly plot to blow it up, got proclaimed a hero and then some huge dragon came along and squashed it anyway. It’s definitely one of the things I’m glad I did.

Dornröschen, Priest number 2 ground her way to rank 12 during Vanilla. Unlike many people I can honestly that I played each and every game. I never jumped in a corner or sat afk at the entrance. I fought my way there and met a lot of interesting people en route. I also got exalted with each of the three original battlegrounds, something which is now an exceedingly painful grind in itself.  She wears her General’s title and her Arathi Basin tabard with pride.

Sproutling is obviously a fairly new character but I already have the Alterac Valley Tower Defence achievement. Perhaps compared to the other two, it’s nothing significant but those dirty stinking Horde aren’t getting my bunkers! (I also have 100 AV victories which at lv 83 isn’t too bad either but bunkers > all).

Transmogrification picks – Caster one handers (Part 1: Maces)

For the times when you can’t help but use a one hander plus off-hand combination, here are my favourite maces.

Maces

First up, the awesome, glittery, amazing and totally tasteless Hammers of Judgement and Atonement.

Atonement is dropped by Kaz’rogal in Hyjal Summit, he who also drops my all time favourite shield. A shield which would I think go rather nicely with the pink version of this mace (maybe). It would also look good accompanying the paladin tier 5 or the recolour of tier 2 found in the TBC dungeons. Another possibility would be the Hallowed set as you can’t go wrong with purple.

Judgement is a trash drop from Hyjal Summit.

Both of them could potentially accompany the recolour of the Priest/Mage tier 2 as well, assuming that in the case of the Mage “set”, non Mages can transmogrify. I’m hoping there won’t be any restrictions since it’s basically a bunch of cloth items which happen to look like a Mage set rather than a set.

Mallet of the Tides

Dropped by the Lurker Below in Serpentshrine Cavern, I love the curves and lines on this. The colour is a plus too as is the fact that it doesn’t look like a giant hammer.

For the Alliance

An Alliance combo would be the Hand of Righteousness or the Sporeggar Smasher teamed with the lv 60 Alliance PvP offhand (if you reached rank 8 or higher in Classic), which would work great with a Stormwind tabard and a matching title.

Or you could just go for the lv 60 PvP mace and off-hand combination.

You can get this version with a pink lion as well, which given my hair colour would be my personal choice.

Amani Scepter of Rites

Hitting people over the head with snakes, yes please. This drops in ZA from Daakara. Another snake option would be the Venomspitter from LBRS or the Stinging  Viper from Wailing Caverns, although these two only offer one snake rather than two.

Stinger of Ayamiss

Drops off Ayamiss in AQ20 and looks fabulous.

For me, it’s an easy choice, the Stinger of Ayamiss or the Hammer of Atonement.

Then just in case you can transmogrify main hands into one hands and vice versa, here are a couple of my favourite one hands.

Spiky Skulls

If I ever end up as a Shadow Priest, I definitely want one of these, Discipline Rod, The Cruel Hand of Timmy, Hungering Bone Cudgel, Retro-Spike Club. The easiest to obtain is probably the Cruel Hand as the rest are either world drops or quest rewards and that drops as the name implies from Timmy in Stratholme. Teamed with a body part off-hand, it would look great not only at Hallows End but all year around.

Sin’dall’s Femur, Oggleflint’s Inspirer, Petrified Shinbone. These would team up perfectly with a matching offhand (beauty’s bone) for a dual wielding caveman look. You could even throw in the Warbear harness and woolies for a complete look.

The former is a quest reward in STV, the second drops in Ragefire Chasm and the third is a drop in the Deadmines.