WoW update: Swimming the Coast
The servers went down last night, and then Teri called me, so I didn't get to do any party questing. But I badly wanted some stranglekelp herb for my mage - many of his potions use it, and I've never seen it before - so I spent the late evening swimming the coast of Westfall.
It was kind of interesting. I gathered about 40 stanglekelps, perhaps a few more. They were virtually all out at sea, some in deep water. But it wasn't hard to reach them. Most were unguarded, and for those that were, it was only a murloc or two; nothing I couldn't handle.
My herbalism and alchemy skills went up a lot. Didn't get much experience, though.
Next, I'll collect bruiseweed. I've picked up a bit here and there over the last couple of weeks, but never very much. I printed out a map showing bruiseweed locations, though, so I should be able to collect quite a bit; it's a necessary ingredient for some of the higher-level potions I've learned. I also need swiftthistle, which means I need to collect more briarthorn and mageroyal (it piggybacks on those, rather than growing by itself); both of those herbs are useful to me anyway, though, and I'm short on both of them, so there's no problem there.
Beyond that, I need wild steelbloom and (I think) kingsblood. Those are mostly in more dangerous areas (Darkshire and Duskwood), so I'll have to be careful about getting them.
I've also printed out maps for tin and silver ore for my fighter (Lukemac, a miner/blacksmith). Again, those are in areas which are rather dangerous for him (he's 16th level now), so I'll have to be careful. There are some mountains near the Loch in Thelsamar that have decent concentrations of tin, and a few deposits of silver; I went through there the day before yesterday, and did pretty well.
On a completely different note, I recently made an interesting discovery. I'd noticed some time ago that some of the spells on my right-side toolbar would sometimes have a red dot in the upper right-hand corner of the icon. But the dot wasn't always there. Eventually I noticed that sometimes the dot was gray. Eventually, I figured something out.
Perhaps everyone else in the world knows this, but the dot indicates targeting status. If you've targeted anyone (an enemy, a shopkeeper, a friend, etc.) but are too far away to be in range to cast a particular spell, the dot turns red. When you get IN range, the dot turns gray. Likewise, the little numbers in the upper right-hand corner of the spell and effect icons in the main toolbar also change from red to gray when you're within range. They go by the correct distances, too; for example, if one spell has a greater range than another, it will turn gray first as you approach the target.
This is a very good thing to know. Up until now, I'd been targeting by moving towards an enemy, trying to shoot/cast, being told that I was out of range, nudging a little closer and trying again, etc. etc. etc. Now I can just watch the little red dots and numbers!
It was kind of interesting. I gathered about 40 stanglekelps, perhaps a few more. They were virtually all out at sea, some in deep water. But it wasn't hard to reach them. Most were unguarded, and for those that were, it was only a murloc or two; nothing I couldn't handle.
My herbalism and alchemy skills went up a lot. Didn't get much experience, though.
Next, I'll collect bruiseweed. I've picked up a bit here and there over the last couple of weeks, but never very much. I printed out a map showing bruiseweed locations, though, so I should be able to collect quite a bit; it's a necessary ingredient for some of the higher-level potions I've learned. I also need swiftthistle, which means I need to collect more briarthorn and mageroyal (it piggybacks on those, rather than growing by itself); both of those herbs are useful to me anyway, though, and I'm short on both of them, so there's no problem there.
Beyond that, I need wild steelbloom and (I think) kingsblood. Those are mostly in more dangerous areas (Darkshire and Duskwood), so I'll have to be careful about getting them.
I've also printed out maps for tin and silver ore for my fighter (Lukemac, a miner/blacksmith). Again, those are in areas which are rather dangerous for him (he's 16th level now), so I'll have to be careful. There are some mountains near the Loch in Thelsamar that have decent concentrations of tin, and a few deposits of silver; I went through there the day before yesterday, and did pretty well.
On a completely different note, I recently made an interesting discovery. I'd noticed some time ago that some of the spells on my right-side toolbar would sometimes have a red dot in the upper right-hand corner of the icon. But the dot wasn't always there. Eventually I noticed that sometimes the dot was gray. Eventually, I figured something out.
Perhaps everyone else in the world knows this, but the dot indicates targeting status. If you've targeted anyone (an enemy, a shopkeeper, a friend, etc.) but are too far away to be in range to cast a particular spell, the dot turns red. When you get IN range, the dot turns gray. Likewise, the little numbers in the upper right-hand corner of the spell and effect icons in the main toolbar also change from red to gray when you're within range. They go by the correct distances, too; for example, if one spell has a greater range than another, it will turn gray first as you approach the target.
This is a very good thing to know. Up until now, I'd been targeting by moving towards an enemy, trying to shoot/cast, being told that I was out of range, nudging a little closer and trying again, etc. etc. etc. Now I can just watch the little red dots and numbers!